Obama's Immigration Legacy

The centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s immigration legacy heads to the Supreme Court on Monday, where a short-staffed court bench will decide the fate of his controversial programs to grant work permits to millions of immigrants in the United States illegally.

Whichever way the high court ultimately rules, its decision will again inject the volatile issue of immigration into an explosive presidential campaign. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have pledged to push the bounds of executive power and expand Obama’s immigration actions. Meanwhile, the top two GOP hopefuls — Donald Trump and Ted Cruz — have promised to rescind the programs immediately and have taken particularly hard-line stances against undocumented immigrants.

But Obama’s immigration legacy is also on the line in United States v. Texas. He was not successful in signing comprehensive immigration reform into law during his two terms, and Obama has come under fire from advocates for deporting more than 2 million immigrants during his tenure. Meanwhile, his sweeping executive actions have been blocked for more than a year, and even if the Supreme Court rules in his favor, the administration will have just seven months to jump-start the programs before Obama leaves the White House.

“I think the president’s legacy is intact” on immigration, said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a longtime proponent of immigration reform who will attend Monday’s oral arguments. “The Supreme Court, I hope, will sustain his good judgment on this issue.”

Other congressional Democrats closely involved in immigration will watch the arguments, including Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Reps. Joaquin Castro of Texas and Luis Gutiérrez of Illinois, who said Democrats believe the highly charged immigration case will be a political boon in 2016 regardless of how the court decides. A ruling is expected in June.

Gutiérrez reasons that if the court rules in favor of the administration, Latino voters and others motivated by immigration will come out in droves to protect the programs from a potential GOP president who would move to kill it. And if the administration loses, the same group will vote with similar intensity to punish Republicans, who spearheaded the legal case against Obama at the state level.

“Politically, it’s a win-win,” said Gutiérrez, adding that he is confident the court will allow the immigration programs, called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, to proceed.

As with other high-profile Supreme Court cases, the scene outside 1 First St. NE on Monday morning is sure to be a circus. Immigration advocates from across the country will descend on the court’s front steps with lawmakers, civil rights activists and labor officials for a major rally. Organizers said they are expecting thousands.

Conservative activists will counter those efforts with a protest of their own that touches not just on immigration but on the ongoing contentious battle over the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. Groups including the Tea Party Patriots, Judicial Crisis Network, FreedomWorks and Heritage Action will join conservative Reps. Steve King of Iowa, Louie Gohmert of Texas and Ted Yoho of Florida.

“We will be there to protest Barack Obama’s attempt to stack the high court with a liberal crony who will sign off on his unconstitutional power grabs,” said Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder and CEO of Tea Party Patriots.

The pro-reform side is making a particularly aggressive public-relations effort in the run-up to the high-stakes court case. On Friday, the immigration advocacy group America’s Voice released results of a poll from Latino Decisions that found 74 percent of Latino voters are less likely to support a Republican presidential candidate who opposes the deferred action program.

Latino Decisions does polling for Clinton, who is a vigorous backer of Obama’s executive actions and announced last week that she would establish a national Office of Immigrant Affairs if she is elected in November. Similarly, Sanders backs the executive actions and, like Clinton, has pledged to expand them to a larger pool of undocumented immigrants, despite the legal challenges Obama has faced doing so.

But Obama’s executive actions have united an otherwise splintered Republican presidential field in opposition to the programs. Trump has vowed to undo the programs on his first day of office if he’s elected president, as has Cruz, who has repeatedly derided the actions as “executive amnesty.”

Republicans have also long emphasized that Obama — who was under pressure from impatient immigration advocates to halt deportations — himself said multiple times that he didn’t have the executive powers to do what he ultimately did in November 2014.

“Let’s remember it was President Obama who said time and again that he did not have the authority to bypass Congress to impose new immigration laws,” said Ruth Guerra, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee. “His executive action was contrary to his words, poisoned the well for a legislative effort and blatantly ignored the Constitution.”

Inside the courtroom, lawyers for the House of Representatives will be making their own case against Obama’s executive actions to provide deportation protections and work permits to more than 4 million immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally but are parents of U.S. citizens or green-card holders. Obama’s actions also expanded a 2012 initiative granting those benefits to immigrants who came here illegally as children.

The GOP-controlled chamber was granted 15 minutes before the court to back up arguments made by Texas and the 25 other states that have sued the Obama administration to stop the programs. House lawmakers also voted along near-party lines last month to submit an amicus brief in the case. Senate Republicans also filed a brief defending the conservative coalition opposing the immigration actions.

Obama’s executive actions are “an unprecedented effort, as the President acknowledged, to ‘change’ the immigration laws by executive fiat,” the House brief says. “Whether couched as a statutory power, a constitutional power, or an implicit component of ‘enforcement discretion,’ that is not a power the Executive possesses.”

On the opposing side, lawyers representing three undocumented mothers from South Texas will have 10 minutes to make an emotional appeal on behalf of the immigrant women. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which, along with law firms O’Melveny & Myers and DLA Piper, is aiding the women, said the mothers would qualify for DAPA and plan to apply if the programs get the green light from the court to proceed.          Politico

World Methodist Council opens new ecumenical office in Rome

Charles and John Wesley, founders of the Methodist movement in 18th century England

06/04/2016 16:32

(Vatican Radio) Representatives of the many different Christian communities here in Rome gathered at the Methodist Church at Ponte Sant’Angelo on Wednesday for the dedication of a new Methodist Ecumenical Office. The initiative is aimed at promoting greater understanding of the worldwide communion through education programmes and the welcome it can offer from its location just across the Tiber from St Peter’s Basilica.
Leaders of the World Methodist Council have gathered for the dedication and are scheduled to meet with Pope Francis on Thursday. Among them is Irish lay leader Gillian Kingston, vice-president of the World Methodist Council.
She talked to Philippa Hitchen about the importance of ecumenical relations at international level, as well as the challenges facing the Methodist Church in Ireland..
Listen: 
Gillian speaks about ecumenical relations that work on a number of levels and she uses the image of the milking stool - where each of the three legs must function in order for the stood to stand.
Firstly she speaks of the theological dialogue which exists between Methodists and many of the Christian world communities, "but the longest standing is the dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church".
She also believes the ecumenical project must work at the level of Church leadership and structures and, thirdly, she says, it must work at grass roots level among the people of God.
Gillian goes on to speak of the book of Methodist hymns that will be presented to Pope Francis as a gift from the World Methodist Council and explains why the words of the hymns are so central to Methodist theology and practice.               Radiovaticana

Sunday as a Mark of Christian Unity

Rev. Dr. Demetrios Tonias

“Sunday as a Mark of Christian Unity”
by Rev. Dr. Demetrios E. Tonias – Dean, Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral of New England

The Christian Church, from its very beginning, has struggled with the concept of unity. Indeed, within the Pauline corpus we see the many ways in which the Apostle to the Gentiles struggled to keep together his young and fragile network of communities. As the church grew, there arose a variety of challenges, large and small, to threaten its unity. The Orthodox Christian Divine Liturgy bears witness to these challenges in the petitions and prayers, which are offered in the Eucharistic rite. We pray for “the unity of all,” “the unity of the faith,” for Christ to “reunite those separated” and to “unite us all to one another who become partakers of the one Bread and the Cup in the communion of the one Holy Spirit.”  We recite the Nicene Creed with its portentous closing phrases stating belief in “One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church,” its sacred claim to “confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins”, and its exultation of Sunday as the Lord’s Day and the gift of resurrection with the statement “I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the ages to come.”

The Divine Liturgy is, most certainly, a fitting place to offer such prayers and confessions of faith, for the preeminent celebration of the Liturgy takes place on Sunday. From the moment the myrrh bearers found Christ’s empty tomb, Sunday was known as ἡ Κυριακή ἡμέρα—the Lord’s Day. By definition, each and every Sunday is a call to Christian unity since it is on this day that we are called to communion with the Lord, by the Lord. In spite of all of the challenges that have tugged at the threads of Christian unity, the Lord’s Day remains the one, unassailable marker of Christian unity since it is on this day that all of us, despite our many differences, gather together as believers in Christ.

There were always differences about days and dates in the Christian world. There were divisions surrounding the dating of Pascha from the earliest years of Christianity. The Puritans rejected the commemoration of the birth of Christ on December 25 as unscriptural. The Lord’s Day, however, as a time of communal, Christian gathering has never been in question. The commemoration of the Lord’s Day is an historical reality that bears witness to the centrality of the Resurrection and all that this event meant and signifies for the cosmos. Therefore, what better marker of Christian unity can we have? Indeed, what stronger case can one make for the significance of Sunday as a hallmark of Christian unity than the understanding that Christians throughout the centuries have conceived of this day as a day of new creation, an eighth day set apart from all others.

For the Orthodox Christian mind, this historical relationship is critical to our understanding of Christian unity. For the Orthodox Christian, unity implies a transcendent ecumenicity—an ecumenicity that exists throughout time and space. It is a communion of all believers, at all times. Put simply, nothing in the calendar unites us like Sunday. It is a day that changed the world on the very first Sunday and, I would argue, every Sunday after the first. The world was transfigured through a myriad of Sunday’s when Christians gathered in communion and heard the Gospel message. It was on Sunday when Christians learned to love their enemies and care for those in need. It was on Sunday when Christians first met to share a meal of love they called by the Greek word ἀγάπη. It was, is, and shall always be on Sunday when the best hope for humanity shines forth from churches large and small and the “Eucharist after the Eucharist” travels forth from the four walls of the church and into the home and homeless shelter, the playground and the hospital, the wedding feast and the wake.

It is human nature to think parochially—in terms of our own family, our own exclusive church, our own unique religious entity. In this historical light, however, Sunday takes on a new meaning. Sunday worship is something more than simply what our parents and grandparents did. Sunday worship is even more than what our local faith community has done. Sunday worship is something that all Christians, at all times have celebrated. When we gather on Sunday the unity we achieve takes us back in time, across the ages to the earliest believer; it also moves us forward in time to embrace generations not yet born. In this way, the spiritual unity we have thus achieved possesses an eschatological character. The unity to which we bear witness and which we embody is a manifestation of the kingdom to which we all aspire.

In order to fully appreciate Sunday as a mark of Christian unity we must expand our definition of unity. We must all strive for a Christian community—one throughout the ages—for such a transcendent unity yields many fruits. If we are in union with the earliest Christians then we will share in their zeal. If we are in unity with the martyrs then we partake of their devotion. If we are in unity with those compassionate Christians then we feel and can bestow their healing touch. When we assemble in faith on Sundays, we gather not simply with other parishioners in a local place of worship, but with Christians throughout every land and all the ages—and there is no greater evidence of unity than this. In our century, as with its predecessors, challenges large and small threaten Sunday. However, when we stand in faith, as members of a Church beyond all churches, we reclaim Sunday for the God who gave it to us.     LDAUSA

The Subliminal Deception Of The Teachings Of Jesuit Theology

Submitted by Terence Blackett

By 1540, the Society of Jesus or the Jesuits as they are called were established with the principal function to win back the Protestant countries of Europe by any religio-political means necessary and to bring the World Order under the aegis of Vatican rule.

The underhanded working of the “Black Prince” became diabolically subterranean and sinister. In its ethos, where its reach has now been felt for the last 460 years the “dark forces” of the underworld planned, schemed, concocted and spun a web of lying intrigue and subterfuge to mask their evil deeds of deception. We know however that these malignant powers have been at work for thousands of years, mangling the world in its tentacles even long before this Order came of age.

The sinister timeline of Jesuit theology and its influence has been such that it has infected every nation, kindred, tongue and people. It has created storm clouds of the magnitude that 2 major world wars have been fought in its name resulting in what Edmond Paris describes as:

“A great accumulation of clouds, where lightning is powerful and the storm is bound to break out… Between 1939 and 1945, the storm killed 57 million souls ravaging and ruining Europe. We must be on our guard; another and even worse catastrophe may lie hidden in these same clouds; lighting may strike again, throwing the world into “abysses human wisdom can foresee”, but out of which, if it had the misfortune to let itself be thrown into, no power (on earth) could rescue it.” [Emphasis supplied is mine].

Modern Christianity has largely forgotten the importance of the Protestant Reformation of the 1500’s. Moreover, its resemblance to the church set up by Christ at His ascension pales in comparison today for what passes off as the Christian faith.

After 1260 years of papal oppression, the church awoke after a deep, dense, dark night of sleep to realize that superstition was rife and the witness for Biblical truth that was slain and martyred was left for dead, lying in the streets in an age of reason – a Renaissance bolstered by a move away from feudalism to modernity. But the dawn of the light of the Reformation meant that the opening of prophetic revelation (once sealed up) had finally been opened.

On the scene of action came Martin Luther. It has been said that the Reformation first discovered Jesus Christ, and then, in the blazing light of Christ, it discovered the Antichrist. This mighty, Spirit-filled movement, for Christ and against the Antichrist, shook the world.

H. Grattan Guinness wrote these memorable words: “From the first, and throughout, that movement [the Reformation] was energized and guided by the prophetic word. Luther never felt strong and free to war against the Papal apostasy till he recognized the pope as Antichrist. It was then that he burned the Papal bull (shit*) [Emphasis supplied is mine].

But the Jesuits answered!

“In the reaction that followed, all the powers of hell seemed to be let loose upon the adherents of the Reformation. War followed war: tortures, burnings, and massacres were multiplied.”

So in 1545 the Council of Trent was set up to counter the Reformation and ending its 3^rd session in 1563 where the Catholic Church hierarchy gave the Jesuits the specific assignment of destroying Protestantism and bringing people back to the Mother Church. This was to be done not only through the Inquisition and through torture, but also through insidious and pervasive theology.

At the Council of Trent, the Jesuits were commissioned by the Pope to develop a new interpretation of Scripture that would counteract the Protestant application of the Bible’s Antichrist prophecies to the Roman Catholic Church. Francisco Ribera (1537-1591), a brilliant Jesuit priest and doctor of theology from Spain published a commentary on Revelation as a counter-interpretation to the prevailing view among Protestants which identified the Papacy with the Antichrist. Ribera applied all of Revelation but the earliest chapters to the end time rather than to the history of the Church. According to concocted Jesuit theology – The Antichrist would be a single evil person who would be received by the Jews and would rebuild Jerusalem at the end of time.

Ribera’s antithesis on the Protestant Scriptural Antichrist (2 Thessalonians 2) as seated in the church of God —asserted by Augustine, Jerome, Luther and many reformers was now dispelled and they set up an infidel Antichrist, outside the church of God. “The result of his work [Ribera’s] was a twisting and maligning of prophetic truth.”

On the heels of Ribera was Jesuit scholar, Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621). The (Futurism) teachings of these Jesuits has paved the way for much of present day Christian eschatology especially of the role that the Antichrist will play in world events in the Last Days – a damnable “LIE” perpetrated against the Holy Writ – Scriptures which clearly states that the “spirit” of Antichrist has always been in the world and Paul acknowledges that the “man of sin” would be revealed in the Apocalyptic discourse.

So Jesuit Futurism swept 1,500 years of prophetic history under the proverbial carpet by inserting its infamous “GAP” theory – a heresy which teaches that when Rome fell, prophecy stopped, only to continue again right around the time of the Rapture, thus the “gap” was created. The ten horns, the little horn, the Beast, and the Antichrist have nothing to do with Christians until this “last-day Antichrist” should appear. According to this viewpoint, there were no prophecies being fulfilled during the 1260 years of the Dark Ages!

However, it was during the 19^th century that this Jesuit form of theology took on a spurious global dimension where the likes of Dr. Samuel Roffey Maitland (1792-1866), a lawyer and Bible scholar, became a librarian to the Archbishop of Canterbury and found Ribera doctrines and began to widely publish and advocate these deceptive teachings.

After Dr. Maitland came James H. Todd, a professor of Hebrew at the University of Dublin. Todd accepted the futuristic ideas of Maitland, publishing his own supportive pamphlets and books. Then came John Henry Newman (1801-1890), a member of the Church of England and a leader of the famous Oxford Movement (1833-1845). Newman soon became a full Roman Catholic, and later even a highly honored Cardinal. Then came the much-respected Scottish Presbyterian minister, Edward Irving (1792-1834), the acknowledged forerunner of both the Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements. When Irving turned to the prophecies, he eventually accepted the one-man Antichrist idea of Todd, Maitland, Bellarmine, and Ribera, yet he went a step further. Somewhere around 1830, Edward Irving began to teach the unique idea of a two-phase return of Christ, the first phase being a “SECRET RAPTURE” prior to the rise of the Antichrist.

Then came John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) – a brilliant lawyer, pastor, and theologian, who wrote more than 53 books on Bible subjects and is credited as the father of Dispensationalism. Dispensationalism is the theory that God deals with mankind in major dispensations or periods. Darby’s contribution to the development of evangelical theology has been so great that he like Edward Irving also became a strong promoter of a Pre-Tribulation Rapture followed by a one-man Antichrist. In fact, this teaching has become a hallmark of Dispensationalism. John Nelson Darby laid much of the foundation for the present popular removal of Daniel’s 70th week away from history and from Jesus Christ in favor of applying it to a future Tribulation after the Rapture.

The greatest of all these Jesuits subliminal adherents was Cyrus Ingerson Scofield (1843-1921), a Kansas lawyer who was greatly influenced by the writings of Darby. In 1909, Scofield published the first edition of his famous Scofield Reference Bible. In the early 1900s, this Bible became so popular in American Protestant Bible schools that it was necessary to print literally millions of copies. This was the beginning of the end of American Protestant Christianity and a proper exegetical understanding of prophecy and the Scripture.

The Moody Bible Institute and the Dallas Theological Seminary have strongly supported the teachings of John Nelson Darby, and this has continued to fuel Futurism’s growth. Then in the 1970s, Pastor Hal Lindsey, a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary, released his blockbuster book The Late Great Planet Earth. This 177-page, easy-to-read volume brought Futurism to the masses of American Christianity, and beyond. 30 million copies later and in over 30 languages. Through The Late Great Planet Earth, Jesuit Futurism took a strong hold over the Protestant Christian world.

So in the 1990s, Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins took the future one-man Antichrist idea of Scofield, Darby, Irving, Newman, Todd, Maitland, Bellarmine, and Ribera, and turned it into Blockbuster books and movies like Left Behind produced by Jack Van Impe, Peter and Paul Lalonde, and John Hagee. This has been the direction of American Protestant theology which has been pervasive across the globe for the last 30 years.

“The proper eschatological term for the view most widely taught today is futurism which fuels the confusion of Dispensationalism. The futuristic school of Bible prophecy came from the Roman Catholic Church, specifically her Jesuit theologians.”

Who has the right theology—those who were burned at the stake for Jesus Christ, or those who lit the fires? Who has the true Bible doctrine—the martyrs or their persecutors? Who has the correct interpretation of the Antichrist—those who died trusting in the blood of Christ, or those who shed the blood of God’s dear saints? This is the real issue today in Christianity…

You be the judge!        Source

Joe Biden will visit the Vatican to discuss his fight to cure cancer

Vice President Joe Biden, shown at a Washington forum in March, has visited some of America's top medical centers as part of his "moonshot" to cure cancer.
(Drew Angerer / Getty Images)

Michael A. MemoliContact Reporter

Vice President Joe Biden, who has traveled to some America's leading medical centers in recent weeks as part of what he has called his moonshot to cure cancer, will soon take his quest to the Vatican.
Biden will address a major conference on the progress of regenerative medicine in Vatican City on April 29, the vice president's office said Wednesday.
The gathering, hosted by the Stem for Life Foundation and the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Culture, will also draw leading physicians, ethicists and philanthropists to discuss the potential of emerging research to treat cancer and other diseases. The initiative has been championed by Pope Francis, who worked as a chemist before he entered the priesthood and has written in support of scientific progress.
Biden will be the latest leading U.S. political figure to attend a major gathering at the Vatican. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, will travel there this week to address a separate summit on social, economic and environmental issues.

Other details on the vice president's three-day trip to Rome and the Vatican, including a possible meeting with Francis, had not yet been determined, his office said.
Biden, the nation's first Catholic vice president, attended Francis' papal inauguration in 2013 and attended multiple events during the Catholic leader's visit to the U.S. last fall, including his address to Congress and departure from Philadelphia after the World Meeting of Families there.
Biden has praised Francis' message of inclusion, writing in Time magazine that the pope "put a welcome sign on the front door of the Church." Biden has also spoken of Francis' personal empathy toward him and his family since the death last May of Biden’s eldest son, Beau, and the role of his faith in coping with personal tragedy.
The vice president's effort to cure cancer, first announced by Biden as he said last fall that he would not run for president, was formally launched this year in President Obama's State of the Union address. Biden has since traveled to Duke University, the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University and other research centers as part of his effort to bring stakeholders together in search of a cure.          LATimes

Does the Bible Support A Flat or Round Earth?

June 19, 2009 by B. Page

The Bible is often criticized as being “unscientific, outdated, and contradictory.” One of the arguments used is that the Bible states the Earth is flat. Is this true? Absolutely not.

If you ever talk to a skeptic, you will likely hear them rattle off arguments about why they don’t believe in God, and why they think the Bible is non-sense.

One of the arguments that often top the list is the good old argument, “The Bible says the Earth is flat, yet we now know it is spherical. Therefore, the Bible is non-sense written by a bunch of uneducated men.”

If you want a brief answer, it would be this: While the Bible authors make occasional poetic references which suggests a “flat Earth”, these instances are clearly written in a poetic or observational point of view. However, the Bible does quite clearly show a spherical Earth in many verses, as I will show below.

First, I just want to make a brief comment as to how ridiculous this claim is. What if the Bible said this: “Thus saith the Lord God: The Earth is flat. I created a flat Earth on a Turtles Back. I also made the sun rotate around the Earth. This is how I did it, and this is how it works.”

Then, we can all agree that the Bible was making a science statement, and we could easily disprove it, right? But is that what happens in the Bible? Nope. Instead the nit-pick verses out of context which are mostly poetic or metaphorical in nature to try and claim the authors thought the Earth was flat, therefore the Bible is bogus.

Not so, as I will show. Once again, the Bible proves untouchable by skeptics. Everything can be logically, rationally, and reasonably explained.

Does the Bible Really Say the Earth is Flat? What Are the Verses?

While I will try to address almost every verse which may be taken as saying the Earth is flat, this article is in no way meant to be exhaustive. However, it should suffice that I will cover all the main scriptures touted as suggesting the Earth is flat.

Scripture #1: Genesis 1:9– In this scripture, the creation is being explained. It then says this concerning the Earth:

Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.

Some skeptics try to assert that this is suggesting the Earth is flat. Really? Where do they get that? In fact, I would say this fits perfectly with what modern science knows about the world.

Most people are familiar with the super-continent that is widely theorized and accepted by scientists to have been the large unified land mass in earlier history. Here is a picture of Pangaea below.

Pangaea

So what does that look like to you? I don’t know about you, but it sure looks like all of the water is gathered together in one place, with dry land appearing together. Yet, astonishingly, the Earth is still round! So what we have is a section of land gathered, and water is surrounding all of the “visible” or “dry” land in a spherical dimension.

Our own science textbooks finally teach us what the Bible has taught for centuries. In the beginning, the waters were gathered into one place, and dry land appeared. It doesn’t matter which way you slice it, the Bible is perfectly accurate on this one, and nothing about that verse implies the Earth was flat.  In fact, no maps would have existed in Moses’ time of the entire world so that Moses could have “guessed” it right either while he penned Genesis.

Scripture # 2-Job 37:3 and 38:12-13 use a very poetic device to describe the Earth. Here are the two verses. The skeptics try to “trick” people into thinking this suggests the Earth is flat, when it clearly does not. The trick is that the whole chapter is using very dramatized expressions and metaphors which are clearly not to be taken literally. But they don’t want you to realize that now do they? So they assert that the Bible is making a scientific claim, when it is clearly making a poetic expression.

He flashes his lightning everywhere under heaven. His light flashes to the ends of the earth. (Job 37:3)
Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place; That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it? (Job 38:12-13)

First, just let me say that anyone who tries to take these verses literally after reading the other poetic expressions all around this passage in Job is a complete and utter fool. Anyone with eyes and a brain should be able to intellectually discern that this is meant as a poetic expression. Those who suggest otherwise or either fools or liars (or both).

How do I know that all of this is poetic, and Job didn’t literally think the Earth had four corners? Easy. I actually read the chapter (something most skeptics don’t want you to do). If anyone reads it, they will immediately realize the whole chapter is speaking in a strong poetic expression, using phrases and words that are poetic.

In just a few verses before in Job 37:1, we see Job referring to his heart, “trembling and leaping out of it’s place.” Does this mean we are to literally believe Job’s poor heart leaped out of his chest and flopped on the ground for a minute? No, of course not.

Or when someone says, “the sunset is beautiful tonight,” do you actually believe this person thinks the Earth is flat? Or are they simply using an expression which accurately describes what we see in the sky (the sun moving)?

We obviously know it is an expression or exaggeration, right? Then why believe the other non-sense as proposed by the skeptic. They operate on the same premise. Take a poetic expression out of context, hope that you won’t examine the context, and then scream “Flat Earth.”

The Book of Job continues with poetic expressions and here are just a few in chapter 37,

• “the thunder of God’s voice”
• “on the face of the habitable world”
• “Spread out the skies hard as a cast metal mirror”
• “his voice roars”
• “Out of the north comes golden splendor”

If anyone even reads a few sentences it becomes quite clear that Job is heavily using metaphors, expressions, and exaggerations. The writer is trying to really dramatize his words. This is the style of his entire book.

So when it says, “Shake the ends of the Earth.” Obviously it is referring to God’s great power. It is not implying the Earth is flat, any more than saying “my heart leaped out of it’s place” implies that his heart literally jumped out of his chest. There will be violent earthquakes in the end times, in which there have never been. The earth with shake and tremble, but this has nothing to do with its shape.

So both of these are clearly metaphorical and simply expressions to show God’s sovereign power and glory, as the WHOLE ENTIRE CHAPTERS follow the same literary premise.

There are also a couple of other verses in Job where God asks, “Where you there when I laid the foundation of the Earth?” Again, same premise. Obviously God didn’t use a “foundation” (like the foundation your house is on). Job knows this, and I know this. How? Well in the first chapter of Genesis, it says how God created Earth, and it mentions nothing of a “flat Earth.” Nor does it say, “I laid a foundation.” In fact, God just speaks it. He doesn’t drop a plumb bob, get some chalk line, and then back up a cement truck and pour the foundation. God is so powerful that He merely says it, and it happens.

Scriptures # 3–In Ecclesiastes, King Solomon writes the following:

“The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. (Ecclesiastes 1:5)”

Once again, what do we see here? The same trick of trying to take something out of context This verse is even more problematic for skeptics. This is easily explained for 2 reasons: 1 is the context of the passage, the other  is that it is an accurate observational statement.

Go outside right now, and tell me what you see the sun doing. The sun “rises” and the sun “sets” in the sky we see. This is a fact. From our point of view, this is exactly what happens, even today. You cannot deny that fact, and it is 100% accurate to say what you observe with your own eyes. We see the sun set, and therefore that is an accurate statement observationally speaking.

Now, if we want to get technical, is the sun really setting? Does it really rise? To answer that, I would need to know your relative position. If you are looking into the sky from Earth, of course the sun is “setting” or “rising” in the sky. If you are asking from space, obviously we would see the Earth slowly moving around the sun as it rotates on its axis. It all depends on your point of reference.

Or if two boys are throwing a football to each other. One boy throws the ball to the other. One boy says the ball is coming towards him, the other says the ball is moving away. Which one is right? Both. The sun both “sets and rises” and also the Earth rotates on its axis. It just depends on your point of observation. It is all relative to that point. So this statement is not faulty in the least.

Secondly, what is the context of the passage? Solomon is talking about the regularity of life. The sun rises daily, the sun sets daily. Seasons come, seasons go. People are born, people die. The whole context is that it is providing a point to show that there is regularity to life. Nothing new happens. It all just keeps going in a rhythmic fashion.

Solomon surely isn’t trying to establish or teach a scientific principle is he? Obviously not. But do skeptics want you to realize this, nah. They want you to think the Bible really says the Earth is flat so they can scam you into their secular religion.

Scripture # 4–In 1 Samuel 2:8, it mentions pillars of the Earth:

“He raises the poor from the dust, He lifts the needy from the ash heap To make them sit with nobles, And inherit a seat of honor; For the pillars of the earth are the LORD’S, And He set the world on them.”

Once again, if anyone takes a second to flip open to this book, they can once again see it is poetic.

Just read it folks! It is a poetic prayer from Hannah. The whole thing is a poetic prayer. Of course, the skeptics don’t want you to flip open the Bible and read this. The same prayer also uses metaphors and exaggerations such as:

• There is no rock like our God
• the feeble bind on strength
• he lifts the needy from an ash heap
• He will guard the feet of his faithful ones
• the adversaries will be broken to pieces

So should we take the whole thing literally too? Does the writer really think no other rocks are like God? Do they think God is a rock? Not at all. These are poetic expressions. It is the same situation like in the book of Job.

I would be embarrassed to even use this verse if I was a skeptic. I would be ashamed of myself for intellectually trying to deceive people.

Scripture #5–In the book of Daniel, he describes a tree in his dream. This is the actual verse:

The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth; and its height was great. The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. (Daniel 4:10-11)

Skeptics suggest that since the tree was visible from the “end of the whole earth,” that suggests a flat Earth. But once again, what do we see here? We see the skeptics trying to trick people into thinking this is a science statement. But what is it? A DREAM!

What happened in this book is that Daniel has a symbolic dream. The dream meant something. It was only a symbol, and the Bible goes on to tell us the meaning.

The actual tree represented the King. His power was over all other kingdoms of the Earth. That is why it used the symbolism to suggest the tree was “seen by the ends of the earth.” It simply means the King’s power was a great influence that affected the whole Earth at the time, which historically was accurate.

And then the tree is “cut down.” But the stump is left. In other words, the King will lose his authority and power, but not permanently. He will be left with roots, and have a chance to regain his power.

So you see, the whole thing is a symbolic vision. The real “tree” didn’t even exist. It was a symbolic representation to the King’s power, and Daniel received the vision and interpreted its meaning. There is certainly no flat Earth concepts here!

Scripture # 6–In Joshua 10:13, the Israelites are engaging in battle. Joshua prays for the “sun to stand still” so they can continue the battle, and God does this. Here is the verse:

So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. Joshua 10:13

So what do we have here, a flat Earth? Of course not. Once again, we see Joshua asking for the sun to stop in the sky. Was the sun moving in the sky. Of course it was from his point of view, just like it does in your eyes if you go outside right now.

Educated doctors still use this phrase. In fact, I read an article just yesterday on skin cancer. What did it say? It said this:

Dermatologists recommend staying out of the sun when it is “highest in the sky to avoid skin cancer risks.”

Do these educated doctors really think the Earth is flat too, or that the sun circles the Earth? No, it is an expression. They are accurately telling us an observational truth. We cannot discern the exact specs of Earth’s spin by looking up, but we can discern the visible point of reference of the sun in relation to the sky. That is all Joshua is conveying in this passage.

So Joshua prays for the sun to stop in its path in the sky above, and behold, it does. Again, this is not inaccurate. If the Earth’s rotation and spin slowed, the Sun would have “stopped moving in the sky.” This is an accurate observation from a humans point of view.

Joshua wasn’t standing on Mars and watching the Earth spin. If that were the case, perhaps Joshua would have said, “and the Earth slowed in its spin, and it remained daylight longer.” But that would have been silly to say from his point of view on Earth, and I don’t know anyone who says, “meet me when the Earth spins to the point the sun is visible.” Instead, we say, “meet me at sunrise.”

Once again, this is not a SCIENTIFIC STATEMENT. It is an observational statement, and it is 100% accurate from our viewpoint. The Bible is not making a case that the Earth is flat or the sun revolves around the Earth. It is only illustrating what happened from Joshua’s point of reference.

Scripture # 7–There are also quotes from Psalm that skeptics often accuse of earth being “flat” and immovable. Here are some verses:

The LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed in majesty and is armed with strength. The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved. (Psalm 93:1)
Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns.” The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity. (Psalm 96:10)
He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved. (Psalm 104:5)

First, you have to love the irony of the skeptics here. They pick a few verses from a book in the Bible titles “Psalms.” Never mind the fact that “Psalms” are nothing more than heavily poetic religious songs and sayings!

Anyway, each of these verses do nothing to suggest the Earth is flat at all. The only thing they are saying is that God’s creation is established and untouchable. No one can interfere or “move” what God has firmly established. If David really doesn’t think the “Earth” moves, then it is quite silly that he (in the very next verses) goes on to suggest that mountains (part of Earth) move at God’s commands, along with everything else.

In Psalms 104:5 as quoted above, just read the whole chapter. David also says things such as “He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters” and “he makes the clouds his chariots.”

Does that sound like poetry or literal scientific statements to you? So is it appropriate to cite a book of poetry which is obviously using deep exaggerations, metaphors, and imagery and accuse that of scientific inaccuracy? Of course not. Not unless you also think David literally thinks clouds are really secretly chariots for God.

Nothing about any of the verses in Psalms suggests the Earth is flat or immovable. It is poetry. Not a scientific principle. Anyone who reads even one line of the book of Psalms would realize that fact. In poetry you write expression such as “my heart raced,” “my stomach had butterflies,” and things like that. They are expressions based on “feelings or observations.”

I would be ashamed to even cite a book of poetry in an attempt to condemn it scientifically.

Scripture # 8–In the Gospels, a story is told of Satan taking Jesus to a very high mountain and showing him the kingdoms of the world. Here is the verse in Luke:

 And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. (Luke 4:5)

Skeptics take this to mean that Jesus could see all of the world from this mountain, therefore, they thought the Earth was flat. This is an erroneous assumption for a couple of reasons.

1. The Bible uses the added phrase “in a moment of time” or “in an instant.” This phrasing suggests that it could have been a mental vision, not a literal vision. Being able to see all of the kingdoms concurrently would not have been possible in a literal sense, for Jesus would have had to turn in each direction in the very least. He could have only seen them all “in an instant” if there was some vision or representative projection or model. So this phrasing suggests not a literal view of the kingdoms, but rather a vision, projection, or model of the kingdoms.
2. Second, this is considered the “political” temptation of Jesus. Satan offered him political power now (rather than having to suffer and die and claim it later). Yet Jesus rejected this temptation. That is what this is illustrating. Jesus has a vision or model of all of the Earth’s kingdoms presented, and is offered authority over them all. All Jesus has to do is worship Satan. Jesus rejects it! That is the point.

So this verse does nothing to prove the Earth is flat from the biblical perspective at all.

Scripture # 9–Jesus says in the New Testament that people shall see the son of man “coming in the clouds.” Here is the actual scripture:

“At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. (Matthew 24:30)

So because all nations can see Jesus coming, skeptics assume the worldview is that of a flat Earth. Is this true?  Nope. Once again, it is an erroneous assumption of the skeptics.

Jesus traveled a great deal over his lifetime. The gospels are full of accounts of him traveling to other lands. Jesus also commands the apostles to preach to “all nations.”

So it is quite clear from a study of the scriptures that Jesus himself realizes there are tons of other places on Earth he has not yet preached, and commands his disciples to go and preach there.

So if Jesus himself didn’t actually visit these places, he knew they were far off. How then, could all nations that are scattered so far apart all see the same image in the sky? There are several ways this can happen:

1. Turn on your local  news station and you will likely see fighting scenes from the middle east. This is rather shocking, as you are not in the middle east, yet you can “see it in your own house.” It is due to the technological advances of our society that allows us to see images from cameras across the world. Therefore, it is rather silly to assume that the news stations would not report and broadcast something as monumental as Jesus coming from the “skies.” We can all see Jesus coming, and the Earth is still round! So that verse does nothing to prove the Earth is flat, as the same thing can happen today and everyone would surely see it.
2. Since Jesus’ body is rather small, it would be a speck in the sky. That would be difficult for someone even directly under him to see as he is coming. Therefore, it is not irrational to assume that there will be some sort of great “sign” of his coming, that everyone will be able to see and identify. What kind of sign? I have no idea. But anything such as a grand comet, or anything else would be enough for each of the major nations of the world to witness within a 24 hour time period.

So once again, the skeptics only assume that Jesus can’t be seen by all nations if the Earth is round. In fact, the Earth is spherical, and yet all of the major nations could still easily see Jesus’ return. It is as simple as that.

Scripture # 10— Last but not least, the skeptics try to point to revelation and the angels on the corner of the earth (and the 4 winds) as trying to say the Earth is flat. Here is the scripture in Revelation:

After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. (Revelation 7:1)

So is the Earth flat according to John? Nope. Once again, we find a verse stripped out of context, and manipulated to seem as if the Earth is flat. So what is meant by the angels and the 4 corners of the earth? There is a very logical explanation here, and it does not include a flat Earth.

What Do the Angels is the 4 Corners of the Earth Mean?

First of all, we must consider what Revelation means. Next, we must examine what takes place before this verse. After that, we must examine the original Greek to see what “earth” and “corners” may mean in this reference. Then, lastly, we must see what transpires after this text.

This entire book of Revelation is speaking of future events, so we must keep in mind this is all in the future. That gives us a big clue. The next big clue is what takes place right before this passage. We find in the previous chapter that 1/4 of the Earth’s entire population is destroyed. That could be in the billions!

Not only that, but we see significant geological destruction and alterations happening, which one would logically conclude are drastically changing the earth’s landscape. Stars (meteors/asteroids) are falling on the Earth. There are severe earthquakes like there have never been in history. Every mountain is moved from its place (which indicates a very rapid and severe tectonic plate movement, which no doubt could significantly alter the earth’s land pattern as it has in history with Pangaea). We must not ignore the clear scientific hints of seismic activity that would no doubt change landscapes.

So if we take a step back and see what is going on, this is what takes place before the angels are at the “4 corners.”

1. Major death of 1/4 of all humans and animals
2. Severe tecctonic plate movement, asteroids/meteors striking earth, and other abnormally strong natural disasters.
3. These things would alter the Earth’s landscape, possibly changing the size, shapes, and relative positions of continents. Some may be combined, some may be broken.

So right off the bat we know the Earth would not look the same as it does today. The continents could be in a different relative position (and must be doing something for the severe earthquake activity to transpire).

So we know the landmasses are going to appear differently than what the appear today. We don’t know what they may look like, and we can only speculate. Of course, the Earth will still most likely be spherical, but the actual continents could be combined, altered, and so forth.

Okay, now let us examine the original Greek words used for “earth” and “corners.” Let’s first examine “corner”:

γωνιας  noun – accusative plural feminine
gonia  go-nee’-ah:  an angle — corner, quarter

The Greek word  used here indicates that it is a corner or 1/4 of a region. Seems simple enough. So it is a corner or 1/4 of a region. Now, let us examine the word translated as “earth”:

γης  noun – genitive singular feminine
ge  ghay:  soil; by extension a region, or the solid part or the whole of the terrene globe (including the occupants in each application) — country, earth(-ly), ground, land, world.

The word used for earth here can mean “ground, land, world, country, region, etc.” In other words, it does not necessarily mean the “entire earth.” It could mean any specific land region. In fact, we know it isn’t talking about the whole entire world, because it differentiates “earth” from “sea.” So this particular verse is obviously speaking of an isolated region of land, or an entire land mass.

Now, who doesn’t realize at this point that angels could absolutely stand at 4 “quarters” of a land mass? I know they could! Let us see a simple drawing to help us see what John may have seen.

4 Angels

Now, in the picture to the left, we can see a land mass. The green dots represent the location of the angels. As we can see, they are located on the 4 “corners or quarters” of the “earth” or “land.” Yet, at the same time the Earth is still spherical.

I am not suggesting Earth will become like Pangea again. All I am doing is illustrating what the Bible says: John describes 4 angels at 4 corners (or quadrants) of a land (earth) mass. The reference is likely referring to the cardinal directions: north, south, east, and west.

A careful examination of the scripture, the original Greek should clear this up. John is seeing visions of future events. He obviously somehow seen 4 angels on 4 quadrants/corners or areas of a land mass. This can all take place on a spherical earth. There is no “flat earth” implied or intended here. It is a faulty assumption to assume John believes the Earth is flat.

Furthermore, the text goes on to describe a large gathering of the original tribes, so this land mass is probably the  continent of Asia (or some remnant of a large land mass in the middle eastern region).

Conclusion of Bible “Flat Earth” Claims

It is quite clear that anyone who takes the time to examine the alleged “flat earth” verses will quite clearly see that they are either poetic, describing an observation from a human/earthly perspective, or some other logical explanation.

No verse exists that attempts to make a scientific statement regarding the definite shape of the Earth.  I have taken the time to exhaustively answer most all of the alleged scriptures which are taken out of context to support the “flat earth” notion. This should cover most all of the scriptures found in any place of the Bible which are suggested to mean the entire earth is flat.

Does the Bible Suggest a Spherical or Round Earth?

While the Bible never makes a direct statement regarding the shape of the Earth, there are some astonishing statements which reveal that the Earth is spherical in nature. Here are some scriptures below:

Scripture #1: Isaiah Says Earth is Circular

In Isaiah, he says this scripture:

Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. (Isaiah 40:21-22)

So Isaiah clearly calls the Earth a “circle.”  This clearly shows that he had a round idea of the Earth. This is interesting for a couple of reasons.

1. First of all, he says God sits above the “circle” of the Earth. Circle can mean “spherical, round, etc.” So he is clearly calling it something round.
2. Secondly, this blows away the arguments by the skeptics that the Prophets thought the Earth has “corners.” Hint: A circle doesn’t have a corner. Therefore, why would a man well versed in the scriptures of God call the Earth a circle if he believed it to be a flat cornered piece of land? He wouldn’t! So obviously he believed the Earth was circular in nature.

Isaiah oddly uses the term circle, and it is odd that anyone would describe the earth that way unless they actually supposed it was circular in nature.

Scripture # 2: Job Says the Earth is Hung on Nothing

Job writes in a heavily poetic style, yet something incredibly shocking comes out of his writing:

He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.(Job 26:7)

Even though Job is accused of suggesting a “flat earth,” it is rather shocking that he makes this statement, which even in a poetic context, leaves little to interpretation. Here, he clearly says the Earth “hangs on  nothing.” That is exactly what earth does! It hangs on nothing. It is sustained by the gravitational force, and nothing more!

This is pretty significant considering at this point in time they didn’t have the luxury of satellite imagery, or modern science. I find it hard to believe that Job merely “guessed it.”

This also contradicts the idea that Job believed the Earth had a “foundation.” In Genesis, nothing of a foundation, or flat area is mentioned in the scriptures. The Bible is extraordinarily accurate in the description of the Earth (the one land mass, hanging on nothing, being spherical, etc.).

Scripture # 3- Proverbs Describes a Circular Earth

Proverbs says this interesting scripture:

When he established the heavens, I was there: When he set a circle upon the face of the deep. (Proverbs 8:27)

Once again, we see a reference to the Earth being ‘circular’ in nature. Not only does this contradict the claim of “4 corners” (which was obviously symbolic), but it also proves the consistent thinking of a spherical earth.

Scripture # 4- Jesus Talks of Both Night and Day within the Same Period

Jesus says this concerning the “coming:”

On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything.Remember Lot’s wife!Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. (Luke 17:31-34)

This verse is interesting because Jesus begins this with a very specific time frame: 1 day. He also says this all takes place in an instant. So it occurs in 1 day, and in an instant. Yet, Jesus’ description is of both day and night.

Therefore, it is clear to see from the context and phrasing that Jesus is suggesting that in one instant it can be both light and dark on the Earth. This is absolutely true. This is due to Earth spherical shape and rotation.

So this verse is very interesting as the phrasing implies it can be both day and night within 1 period of time on Earth, and it is true.

Conclusion: The Bible Never Says the Earth is Flat, and Makes Many References to it Being Spherical

Never does the Bible come out and say, “The earth is flat, and the sun revolves around it.” However, there are various scripture which do indicate a spherical Earth.

While some verses are ripped out of context (mostly poems), and touted to show that the Bible says the Earth is flat, those individuals are either liars, or fools (take your pick). They are fools if they honestly believe the Bible is making that claim after examining the scriptural context, and they are liars if they already know it and claim a flat Earth any way.

On the contrary, what we see is a circular or spherical description of the Earth (even by many of the same authors that are alleged to suggest a flat 4-cornered Earth). There is no reason at all to discount the Bible.

There is no reason at all to suggest the Bible is scientifically inaccurate. There is no reason at all to suggest the Bible indicates a flat earth. There is no reason at all to scoff at the Bible. You don’t have to follow the Bible, but you certainly cannot disprove it. It has already been tried for centuries, and cannot (and will not) be shaken.

The Bible stands just as strong today as it did thousands of years ago. You cannot disprove its authority, and you cannot deny its words of wisdom.       Revelation

Hollywood Star Mel Gibson Helps Rescue ADRA Staff

The ADRA workers wound up stuck on a remote Fiji island.

Posted April 14, 2016 By Josh Dye, South Pacific Adventist Record, with Adventist Review staff

Hollywood actor and director Mel Gibson played an unlikely role in rescuing three female staff members from the Adventist Development and Relief Agency after they found themselves stranded in Fiji.

The women had distributed humanitarian aid in Vanua Balavu, Fiji’s eastern-most island and one of the areas hardest hit by Cyclone Winston, when their flight to Suva, the capital, was abruptly canceled.

It was unclear when the next flight would leave from the devastated island, which is suffering severe water and food shortages after the storm destroyed about 70 percent of all homes in February.

So a local government official hatched an unusual rescue plan. The official arranged for the three ADRA workers to be taken to nearby Mago Island, which is owned by Gibson, and then flown on his private plane to Suva.

The ADRA workers spent the night at Gibson’s home and flew to the capital in the morning.

Gibson was not home at the time of the visit.

Gibson’s U.S.-based publicist said the director had no comment about the rescue.

 The incident was not Gibson’s first brush with Seventh-day Adventists. The Oscar-winning director’s newest movie, “Hacksaw Ridge,” will tell the story of Desmond T. Doss, the Adventist believer who became the first conscientious objector to win the U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor. The movie, starring Andrew Garfield as Doss, is expected to be released later this year.

Read: Mel Gibson Considers Movie About Adventist War Hero

The three ADRA workers were determined to fly to Suva after making a harrowing, 30-hour trip on an overcrowded boat to Vanua Balavu. One of the relief workers, Anna Krikun from Germany, said she had feared for her life.

“The boat was so overcrowded and unsafe,” she said. “I was just afraid we were going to sink.”

She and the other ADRA workers delivered about 6,000 packs of Weet-Bix breakfast cereal and So Good soy milk to remote communities that had missed out on earlier food assistance following Cyclone Winston. The food was donated by Adventist Church-owned company Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing.

More than 10,000 people in remote Fiji communities have now received food and personal hygiene kits from ADRA thanks to donations exceeding US$155,000.

Further assistance is being prepared for the South Pacific after ADRA secured funding through the United Nations Flash Appeal ($110,000) and the European Union (€300,000) to provide shelter and hygiene aid.

ADRA and the Adventist Church’s Fiji Mission have been working closely together, with many church volunteers assisting ADRA in distributing aid to remote communities.      AR

The centralization of the bank system and the NWO

Submitted by IWB, on April 13th, 2016

by FRA

FRA Co-founder Gordon T. Long is joined by Jeff Berwick in discussing the article Central banks beat Bitcoin at own game with rival supercurrency, the central banking system, and blockchain technology.

Jeff Berwick is the founder of The Dollar Vigilante, CEO of TDV Media & Services and host of the popular video podcast,Anarchast.  Jeff is a prominent speaker at many of the world’s freedom, investment and gold conferences including his own,Anarchapulco, as well as regularly in the media including CNBC, Bloomberg and Fox Business.
Jeff’s background in the financial markets dates back to his founding of Canada’s largest financial website, Stockhouse.com, in 1994. In the late ‘90s the company expanded worldwide into 8 different countries and had 250 employees and a market capitalization of $240 million USD at the peak of the “tech bubble”.  To this day more than a million investors use Stockhouse.com for investment information every month.  He has since started numerous businesses including TDV Offshore and TDV Wealth Management to help others internationalize their assets.

FIAT CURRENCIES AND BITCOIN

There’s going to be a lot of chaos this year, beginning in January with the worst first month of the world stock market in history. A lot of financial leads have been warning about it, even saying this is a debt jubilee and will end up in utter collapse if people aren’t careful.

“I think by 2018 they’ll be bringing in a one world currency… All Fiat currencies, including the US Dollar, are going to collapse sometime between 2015-2020.”

The market came up with a solution. Launched in 2009, Bitcoin is a free market currency, and one of the ways that we can avoid this total collapse.

RESPONSE TO AMBROSE-EVANS PRITCHARD

“It looked like a propaganda piece, like it was written by the Bank of England as a press release.”

In no way does this new central bank crypto-currency compete or defeat Bitcoin in any way. In fact, central banks are extremely worried about Bitcoin. They’re trying to bring everyone into the banking system so they can establish a one-world central bank and taxation system. They planned to create a system that impoverishes people to get the wealth into the hands of the 0.0001%.

They want to collapse the entire system so they can bring in a new system. We’re reaching the end of that plan, when every government is insolvent with debt. The US Federal Reserve has essential kept interest rates at zero for eight years, because if interest rates rise the US government would quickly be insolvent.

“With $19T worth of debt, if the interest rate rose to 10%, a very low level, that’d be almost $2T a year in interest payments alone.”

They’re trying to delay that and get everyone into the banking system first. If you try to open a new bank account, it’s very difficult and they want to know every detail because it’s going into a central database so no one can evade taxes. Then they’re going to go even further with negative interest rates and really impoverish people.

If people start getting into Bitcoin, they can’t control it. The only way would be to turn off the internet or the power.

BITCOIN

Bitcoin is an internet-based currency that’s completely decentralized. To get rid of it, they’d have to remove it from the millions of computers around the world, and that’s almost impossible. If you control the money supply, you control the governments. That’s what the Federal Reserve and all central banks do.

“The governments do not control the big decisions. It’s the people behind the scenes who control the money, who tell the government what they want done, and that’s been going on for decades.”

Bitcoin cannot be fraudulent because it’s open-source software. Anyone who wants to can look at the code. There’s no CEO, there’s no central office, and it’s on so many computers they can’t stop it. Central banks want to tax everything and control the economy.

“I don’t call things like Bitcoin a revolution so much as an evolution. It’s creating something that circumvents the entire system completely.”

BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY

Blockchain type technology could change everything, and goes beyond just money. This could be where everything is based. This technology is also starting to being used be for governance, starting in Africa, as a system of private property. Eventually it could be used to replace the government.

“Your average person still doesn’t know what a big deal is going on behind the scenes, but this is going to revolutionize the world… There’s going to be so many things built on top of this technology that it’s going to change the world.”

BACK TO THE ARTICLE – RSCOIN

Central banks will get rid of fiat currency and use RSCoin instead, but since it’s a crypto-currency it can be tracked even more. The population will likely use it, but it does not “beat Bitcoin at its own game”.

RSCoin will supposedly be good as it gives the government and central bank more control over the money system, and this will apparently make us less prone to boom-bust cycles. However, the central bank’s control over interest rates is what creates boom-bust cycles in the first place.

THOUGHTS FOR THE FUTURE

You want to get your assets out of the banking system, especially anti-system sorts of investments and trades and speculations, ad moving assets out of your own country.

“You want to get assets internationalized. That’s the new diversification in my opinion: not stocks, bonds, or cash, it’s where your assets are, in what countries are they, and under what structures are they.”

We’re headed for a collapse, and how it plays out is anyone’s guess. This is going to be a time talked about in history for centuries, after the collapse happens. We have a global fiat currency that is just computer bits controlled by central bankers with no intrinsic value, and they will return to that.

“Do your own research. There’ a lot more going on out there than most people know.”     Source

Harvard Study Ranks America Worst in the West for Fair Elections

As if further proof could possibly be needed of the sorry state of the American electoral process, a new study just ranked the United States dead last in electoral integrity among established Western democracies.
The Electoral Integrity Project (EIP)’s 2015 Year in Elections report is an independent research project by 2,000 elections experts from Harvard University and the University of Sydney in Australia assembled to examine the world’s elections.
The EIP states that “the core notion of ‘electoral integrity’ refers to agreed international principles and standards of elections, applying universally to all countries worldwide throughout the electoral cycle, including during the pre-electoral period, the campaign, and on polling day and its aftermath. Conversely, ‘electoral malpractice’ refers to violations of electoral integrity.”
“The report gathers assessments from over 2,000 experts to evaluate the perceived integrity of all 180 national parliamentary and presidential contests held between July 1, 2012 to December 31, 2015 in 139 countries worldwide. These include 54 national elections held last year.
“Forty experts were asked to assess each election by answering 49 questions. The overall 100-point Perceptions of Electoral Integrity (PEI) index is constructed by summing up the responses,” Salon explained.
According to the EIP, U.S. elections scored lower than Argentina, South Africa, Tunisia, and Rwanda — and strikingly lower than even Brazil. Specifically compared to Western democracies, U.S. elections scored the lowest, slightly worse than the U.K., while Denmark and Finland topped the list.
But, while certainly revealing, the U.S.’ low ranking — which places the nation in the second, or “good,” tier and perilously close to the “moderate” third tier of five possible — could hardly come as a shock to Americans.
Indeed, the 2016 elections have proven the system so rigged, even those who’d previously still harbored illusions our democracy is fair, have begun to come to terms with the truth: the political establishment’s corporatist plutocrats choose their own to install in the White House every four years.  

Hillary Clinton ‘winning’ Wyoming’s primary despite being summarily trounced by Bernie Sanders in the popular vote — with her 44 percent to his 56 percent — simply evidence the latest example of the farcical illusion of choice revealed by EIP. Superdelegates — who aren’t beholden to vote for a candidate according to the popular choice and could potentially sway the nomination — are causing an even greater uproar among Democrats fed up with the establishment’s obvious favorite candidate, Hillary.
On the other side of the political spectrum, Trump’s challenge to the status quo has incited a furious scramble by the GOP establishment intent to thwart his nomination — no matter his sizable popular support. With rumors flying of a contested or brokered Republican National Convention, it’s possible the establishment will succeed — despite Trump’s own prediction the move will incite riots. To wit, Trump called out the delegate system as “rigged” on Thursday, following Colorado’s lack of primary and subsequent choice to award all of its delegates to Ted Cruz.
Though voting ostensibly remains a right instead of a privilege, as highlighted by John Oliver recently, voter ID laws have drastically curtailed people’s ability to simply vote for the leader of their choosing under the guise of fighting (effectively nonexistent) voter fraud. Even further to the point, many states requiring IDs to vote have such wildly inaccurate voter records that many people end up turned away at the polls — in some cases, when their information hadn’t changed since the previous election.
Though reasons why the United States has reached this new low in fair elections are complex, critics often point to the tidal wave of corporate cash after the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United. But this may be somewhat misguided. Would removing cash automatically bring some voting power back to the public? Perhaps to an extent. But it also ignores the will of the establishment to ensure its rulers always win — in other words, where there’s a will there’s a way.
Perhaps the EIP’s revealing report can convince people that participating in the illusion isn’t solving anything — and that ruling ourselves through the creation of such workable systems through agorism, among other ideas, are ultimately the most favorable for us all.    Source

Moments of Peace

David Gates