Scholars echoing the great allegorizer Origen

“Is it not quite apparent that the problem texts  become problems only when one assumes an  exclusively literalistic interpretation of such expression as ‘Father,’  ‘Son,’ ‘Firstborn,’ ‘Only Begotten,’  and so forth?  Does  not such  literalism  go against the mainly  figurative or metaphorical meaning that the Bible writers use when referring   to the persons of the Godhead?”    Whidden, Moon, Reeve,  The Trinity, p. 106, Review and Herald, Hagerstown, MD. 2002

According to these scholars there is no such thing as literalism in the bible. The Bible must be interpreted in a metaphorical sense. This echos Origen: "The Scriptures are of little use to those who understand them  as they are written.” 

But what does the spirit of prophecy say regarding Jesus? Was He only pretending to be the Son of God?

“Christ, at an infinite cost, by a painful  process, mysterious to angels as well as to men,  assumed humanity. Hiding His divinity, laying aside  His glory, He was born a babe in Bethlehem. In human flesh He lived the law of God, that He might condemn  sin   in   the   flesh,    and   bear   witness   to heavenly intelligences that the law was ordained to life and to  ensure the happiness, peace, and eternal good of all  who obey. But the same infinite sacrifice that is life to  those who believe is a testimony of condemnation to  the disobedient, speaking death and not life.” Bible Commentary Vol. 7 p. 915
 

“Was the human nature of the Son of Mary  changed into the divine nature of the Son of God? No;  the two natures were mysteriously blended in one  person—the man Christ Jesus. In Him dwelt all the  fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Bible Commentary Vol. 7 p. 926
 

“Only humanity could reach humanity. He  lived out the character of God through the human  body which God had prepared for Him. He blessed the  world by living out in human flesh the life of God,  thus showing that He had the power to unite humanity to  divinity (RH June 25, 1895)” Bible Commentary Vol. 7 p. 924
 

“This was not done by going out of Himself  to another, but by taking humanity into Himself. Thus  Christ gave to humanity an existence out of Himself.  To bring humanity into Christ, to bring the fallen race  into oneness with divinity, is the work of redemption.” Bible Commentary Vol. 7 p. 927
 

“How wide is the contrast between the  divinity of Christ and the helpless infant in  Bethlehem's manger! How can we span the distance  between the mighty God and a helpless child? And yet  the Creator of worlds, He in whom was the fullness of  the Godhead bodily, was manifest in the helpless babe  in the manger. Far higher than any of the angels,  equal with the Father in dignity and glory, and yet  wearing the garb of humanity! Divinity and humanity  were mysteriously combined, and man and God  became one.” Bible Commentary Vol. 5 p. 1130
 

“Satan in heaven had hated Christ for His  position in the courts of God. He hated Him the more  when he himself was dethroned. He hated Him who  pledged Himself to redeem a race of sinners. Yet into  the world where Satan claimed dominion God  permitted His Son to come, a helpless babe, subject to  the weakness of humanity. He permitted Him to meet  life's peril in common with every human soul, to fight  the battle as every child of humanity must fight it, at  the risk of failure and eternal loss.” Desire of Ages p. 49
 

“In Christ were united the divine and the  human—the Creator and the creature. The nature of  God, whose law had been transgressed, and the  nature of Adam, the transgressor, meet in Jesus—the  Son of God, and the Son of man.” Bible Commentary Vol 7 p. 926
 

“Christ lived and died as a man, that He  might be God both of the living and of the dead. It was  to make it impossible for men to lose eternal life if  they believe on Him.” Bible Commentary Vol. 7 p. 926
 

“He became subject to temptation,  endangering as it were, His divine attributes. Satan  sought, by the constant and curious devices of his  cunning, to make Christ yield to temptation.”  Bible Commentary Vol 7 p. 926
 

“Jesus Christ laid off His royal robe, His  kingly crown, and clothed His divinity with humanity,  in order to become a substitute and surety for  humanity, that dying in humanity He might by His  death destroy him who had the power of death. He  could not have done this as God, but by coming as  man Christ could die.” Bible Commentary Vol. 7 p. 925
 

“The Captain of our salvation was perfected  through suffering. His soul was made an offering for  sin. It was necessary for the awful darkness to gather  about  His  soul  because   of  the   withdrawal of the Father's love and favor; for He was standing in the  sinner's place, and this darkness every sinner must  experience. The righteous One must suffer the  condemnation and wrath of God, not in  vindictiveness; for the heart of God yearned with  greatest sorrow when His Son, the guiltless, was  suffering the penalty of sin. This sundering of the  divine powers will never again occur throughout the  eternal ages (MS 93, 1899).” Bible Commentary Vol 7 p. 924

In these statements we can clearly see that there is nothing about pretending or role playing idea.  Christ together with His Father really suffered for our salvation. Unfortunately, we have allowed men to tell us what to believe. My prayer is that we allow Jesus and His word speak to our hearts and not men so He can direct us to the Father.  L.

God could not express greater love than he has expressed in giving the Son of his bosom to this world

“Nature and revelation alike testify of God's love. Our  Father in heaven is the source of life, of wisdom, and  of joy.”  Steps to Christ p. 9

“The Lord God of heaven collected all the riches of the  universe, and laid them down in order to purchase the  pearl of lost humanity. The Father gave all his divine  resources into the hands of Christ in order that the  richest blessings of heaven might be poured out upon  a fallen race. God could not express greater love than  he has expressed in giving the Son of his bosom to  this world. This gift was given to man to convince him that  God had left nothing undone that he could do, that  there is nothing held in reserve, but that all heaven  has been poured out in one vast gift.” Youth’s  Instructor, October 17, 1895.

And that greatest gift is the Son of His bosom,  Jesus.

Lift up the trumpet

The healing power of nature

By Rebecca Lawton

The longer the trip, the more healing occurs,’ says the geologist Peter Winn, who has been leading expeditions down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon since the 1960s. ‘Healing happens for people almost without exception.’

The most dramatic transformations that he’s observed have been in disabled military veterans on 16-day kayaking trips organised by a group called Team River Runner. ‘One army communications expert came home from Iraq so full of shrapnel, he’d lost his ability to do even simple math, and would only say “ !@#$%^&* you.”’ By the end of the trip, he spoke eloquently and at length, in appreciation of both the Canyon and his fellow boaters. ‘Later his wife wrote to thank the crew and the river for getting her husband back.’

Another Team River Runner veteran, a helicopter mechanic and co-pilot in Iraq with shrapnel in her brain that couldn’t be removed, came to the river with suicidal tendencies. ‘She’d been in and out of hospitals and therapy for three years,’ Winn says. ‘She didn’t want to kayak, so I taught her to row my raft. She ran all the rapids without flipping, then went home and got into competitive road bicycling. She just won a major women’s race in Europe.’

I too was a Grand Canyon river guide in the 1970s and ’80s; I saw the universal changes on the 14-day trips we led. Passengers made the trek to our rafts at Lees Ferry in Arizona, escaping deadlines, responsibilities and overflowing voice- and (back then) paper-filled inboxes at home. In a matter of days, they forgot about life above the rim while they plunged through legendary whitewater and hiked to hidden grottoes and waterfalls.

‘After three days, the passengers and the crew could really be on the river,’ recalls Louise Teal, an author and Colorado River guide. ‘People not only heal physically down there, they sometimes change their lives. They get or quit jobs, marry or divorce, become river guides themselves.’

Teal and I were both passengers before we took up guiding – as she says, because we found the river ‘beautiful and intense, a completely fulfilling place to be’. With its soul-stirring sunsets, hypnotic rock walls, and endlessly flowing river, the Canyon provides the backdrop for restoration. Guides know that they only have to get passengers to the river, earn their trust, and take them deep into what Teal calls the ‘zillion-year-old rocks’ where, as she says, ‘the rest is cake’.       More

Ten shocking facts about the vaccine industry that the mainstream media refuses to report

By Mike Adams

The mainstream media is largely funded by drug companies and vaccine manufacturers, exhibiting extreme conflicts of interest in their reporting. Perhaps that's why they refuse to report the following ten shocking facts about the vaccine industry that are all provably true.

FACT #1) Mercury is still used in vaccines, and the CDC openly admits it. There is NO safe level of mercury for injecting into a human child. Not even "trace" levels. There is NO evidence of safety for mercury at any dose whatsoever. Any doctor who says the level of mercury in a vaccine is "safe" to inject into a child is only demonstrating their outrageous ignorance of scientific facts.

Mercury is arguably the most neurotoxic element on the entire Table of Elements. It is used in vaccines for the convenience of the vaccine manufacturer at the expense of the safety of the child. Any doctor who injects mercury into a child -- at any dose! -- should be immediately stripped of their medical license.

See the list of studies on the neurotoxicity of mercury at SCIENCE.naturalnews.com, now the largest relational research resource for chemicals, health, nutrients and drugs:

http://science.naturalnews.com/M/Mercury_and...

Those study titles include:

Lactational exposure to inorganic mercury: evidence of Neurotoxic effects.

Neurotoxic action of inorganic Mercury injected in the intraventricular space of mouse cerebrum.

Neurotoxic effects in workers of the clinical thermometer manufacture plant.

Neurotoxic risk caused by stable and variable exposure to methylmercury from seafood.

Additional FACT: There is no "safe" form of mercury as is often ridiculously claimed by vaccine pushers. Both ethyl and methyl mercury are extremely toxic to the human nervous system. Neither should, under ANY circumstances, be deliberately injected into a human child at any dose whatsoever.

FACT #2) Injecting any substance into the human body makes it orders of magnitude more potentially toxic because it bypasses the protections of the digestive tract or the respiratory system. Injecting mercury into a human being -- at any dose -- should be globally condemned as a criminal act. That it is currently considered an acceptable act in the field of medicine only condemns the true destructive nature of modern medicine. Under the vaccine doctrine, "First do no harm" has become "Poison children for profit."

FACT #3) For decades, polio vaccines injected into tens of millions of people actually contained hidden cancer viruses (SV40 and others). This was openly admitted by a top Merck vaccine scientist named Hilleman. The CDC recently scrubbed its website of this information in a "revisionist history" purge. Up to 98 million Americans were exposed to hidden cancer viruses in polio vaccines. This is an historical fact. Read more at www.sv40foundation.org

FACT #4) Top virologists working for Merck have blown the whistle and gone public with shocking revelations that claim the company routinely fabricated lab results to claim a 95% efficacy rate of its mumps vaccine in order to continue receiving government contracts on a vaccine that didn't work.

See the False Claims document these scientists filed with the U.S. government here:
https://www.naturalnews.com/gallery/documents...

FACT #5) In nearly every outbreak you hear about these days, the majority of the children affected by the outbreak have already been vaccinated against the virus! For example, outbreaks of whooping cough routinely involve children who have already been vaccinated against whooping cough. This is yet more proof that vaccines do not confer real-world functional immunity.

FACT #6) The claimed history of vaccine "successes" against polio and other diseases is a pure fabrication. This is discussed and exposed in great detail in the powerful book, "Dissolving Illusions" by Dr. Suzanne Humphries. Click here to see the book at Amazon.com, or click here to visit the website (and view the charts).

As these charts show, measles was almost completely eradicated before the arrival of the measles vaccine. Why the decline? Mostly due to improvements in public hygiene and sanitation. It's no exaggeration to say that good plumbing saves more lives than vaccines ever did.

FACT #7) The vaccine industry refuses to conduct scientific tests on the health outcomes of vaccinated children vs. unvaccinated children. Why? Because these test would no doubt show unvaccinated children to be healthier, smarter and far better off than vaccinated children in terms of behavioral disorders, allergies and even autoimmune disorders. Check the people you know: Don't you routinely find that the most heavily-vaccinated kids are the ones who get sick all the time? Meanwhile, groups like the Amish who largely refuse to vaccinate their children have near-zero rates of autism.

FACT #8) The U.S. Supreme Court has already declared that the secret "vaccine court" is a higher power than the Supreme Court. The so-called "vaccine court" is granted extraordinary powers to operate utterly outside the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and completely outside the rules of due process and law.

The vaccine court itself -- which isn't even a court of law -- is a violation of law and a violation of basic human rights. It must be abolished like Apartheid.

FACT #9) The mainstream media receives a significant portion of its revenues from the very same drug companies selling vaccines. This financial influence results in the media refusing to cover stories about vaccine-damaged children for fear of losing advertising revenues.

This is why the mainstream media frequently features guests and authors who ridiculously claim that all the vaccine damaged children across America do not exist or are "mere delusions" of their parents. These despicable vaccine apologists are intellectual bullies who, like Hitler's minions, relish in aiding and abetting a real-life holocaust that's harming millions of children around the globe.

FACT #10) The CDC openly admits that vaccines contain additives which are known to be potent neurotoxic chemicals. Those additives include:

• Mercury (still used as a preservative)
• Aluminum (used as an inflammatory adjuvant)
• Formaldehyde (used to "deactivate" live viruses)
• MSG / Monosodium Glutamate (used to caused immune system inflammation)

All of these substances are toxic to human biology when injected. All of them are still listed on the CDC website as vaccine additives. There is no rational doctor or scientist in the world who can say they believe injecting infants and children with mercury, formaldehyde, MSG and aluminum is somehow "safe," yet doctors inject children with these substances every single day in the form of vaccines.

Doctors who inject children with vaccines are delusional. They are practicing a medical holocaust against humanity while fraudulently calling it "immunization." For the record, vaccination does not equal immunization. Click here to see the book of the same title.        Natural News

UN: conflicts, violence, and persecution have forced over two million people to flee as refugees this year.

Oct 2, 2017 

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi says conflicts, violence, and persecution across the world, including in Myanmar, South Sudan and Syria, have forced over two million people to flee as refugees this year.

Speaking at the UNHCR’s annual Executive Committee meeting in the Swiss city of Geneva on Monday, Grandi called for more international cooperation and support to address the crisis.

“The despair of millions of men, women, and children driven from their homes, cast adrift into a life of uncertainty, is a stain on our collective conscience,” he said.

The UN refugee chief also pointed to the dire needs of more than half a million persecuted Rohingya Muslims who have fled into Bangladesh from Myanmar’s Rakhine state since August 25.

During the same period, 50,000 refugees had flooded out of South Sudan and another 18,000 had fled clashes in the Central African Republic, the UN official pointed out.  

The ongoing foreign-backed militancy across Syria also continues to account for the world's largest number of forcibly displaced people.

The head of the UN refugee agency went on to say that resettlement was vital to addressing the growing refugee problem.

"Close to 1.2 million refugees need resettling globally," he said, voicing "major concern that fewer than 100,000 resettlement places are expected to be available this year, a drop of 43 percent from 2016."     Press Tv

The Globalists Are Systematically Destroying America’s Middle Class

By Michael Snyder, on October 1st, 2017 

When people are dependent on the government they are much easier to control.  We are often told that we are not “compassionate” when we object to the endless expansion of government social programs, but that is not how the debate should be framed.  In America today, well over 100 million people receive money from the federal government each month, and the number of Americans that are truly financially independent is continually shrinking.  In fact, only 25 percent of all Americans have more than $10,000 in savings right now according to one survey.  If we eventually get to the point where virtually all of us are dependent on the government for our continued existence, that would give the globalists a very powerful tool of control.  In the end, they want as many of us dependent on the government as possible, because those that are dependent on the government are a lot less likely to fight against their agenda.

Back in 1992, the bottom 90 percent of American income earners brought in more than 60 percent of the country’s income.  But last year that figure slipped to just 49.7 percent.  The wealth of our society is increasingly being concentrated at the very top, and the middle class is steadily being eroded.  Surveys have found that somewhere around two-thirds of the country is living paycheck to paycheck at least part of the time, and so living on the edge has become a way of life for most Americans.

Earlier today, I came across a Business Insider article that was bemoaning the fact that the U.S. economy seems to be rather directionless at this point…

• We do not have a real plan for health care, and costs continue to gobble up American wages.
• We do not have a plan for dealing with globalization and economic change, but that change continues to shape our economy.
• We don’t have a plan to update our decrepit infrastructure.
• The one plan we did have — the Federal Reserve’s post-financial crisis program — is about to be unwound, marking the end of the last clear, executable plan to bolster America’s economy.

Ultimately, the truth is that we don’t actually need some sort of “central plan” for our economy.  We are supposed to be a free market system that is not guided and directed by central planners, but many Americans don’t even understand the benefits of free market capitalism anymore.

However, that Business Insider article did make a great point about globalization.   Most people don’t realize that our economy is slowly but surely being integrated into a global economic system.   This is really bad for American workers, because now they are being merged into a global labor pool in which they must compete directly for jobs with workers in other countries where it is legal to pay slave labor wages.

Even down in Mexico, many autoworkers are only making $2.25 an hour…

Most of the workers at the new Audi factory in the state of Puebla, inaugurated in 2016 and assembling the Audi Q4 SUV, which carries a sticker price in the US of over $40,000 for base versions, make $2.25 an hour, according to the Union.
Volkswagen, which owns Audi, started building Beetles in Puebla in 1967 and has since created a vast manufacturing empire in Mexico, with vehicles built for consumers in Mexico, the US, Canada, and Latin American markets.
Volkswagen, Ford, GM, or any of the global automakers, which can manufacture just about anywhere in the world, always search for cheap labor to maximize the bottom line.

Would you want to work for $2.25 an hour?

Over time, millions of good paying jobs have been leaving high wage countries and have been going to low wage countries.  The United States has lost more than 70,000 manufacturing facilities since China joined the WTO, and this is one of the biggest factors that has eroded the middle class.

In a desperate attempt to maintain our standard of living, we have gone into increasing amounts of debt.  Of course our federal government is now 20 trillion dollars in debt, but on an individual level we are doing the same thing.  Today, American consumers are over 12 trillion dollars in debt, and it gets worse with each passing day.

The borrower is the servant of the lender, and most Americans have become debt slaves at this point.  This is something that Paul Craig Roberts commented on recently…

Americans carry on by accumulating debt and becoming debt slaves. Many can only make the minimum payment on their credit card and thus accumulate debt. The Federal Reserve’s policy has exploded the prices of financial assets. The result is that the bulk of the population lacks discretionary income, and those with financial assets are wealthy until values adjust to reality.
As an economist I cannot identify in history any economy whose affairs have been so badly managed and prospects so severely damaged as the economy of the United States of America. In the short/intermediate run policies that damage the prospects for the American work force benefit what is called the One Percent as jobs offshoring reduces corporate costs and financialization transfers remaining discretionary income in interest and fees to the financial sector. But as consumer discretionary incomes disappear and debt burdens rise, aggregate demand falters, and there is nothing left to drive the economy.

This debt-based system continuously funnels wealth toward the very top of the pyramid, because it is the people at the very top that hold all of the debts.

Each year it gets worse, and most Americans would be absolutely stunned to hear that the top one percent now control 38.6 percent of all wealth in the United States…

The richest 1% of families controlled a record-high 38.6% of the country’s wealth in 2016, according to a Federal Reserve report published on Wednesday.
That’s nearly twice as much as the bottom 90%, which has seen its slice of the pie continue to shrink.
The bottom 90% of families now hold just 22.8% of the wealth, down from about one-third in 1989 when the Fed started tracking this measure.

So how do we fix this?

Well, the truth is that we need to go back to a non-debt based system that does not funnel all of the wealth to the very top of the pyramid.  Unfortunately, most Americans don’t even realize that our current debt-based system is fundamentally flawed, and it will probably take an unprecedented crisis in order to wake people up enough to take action.         Economic Collapse

Goldman Sachs considers trading bitcoin & other cryptocurrencies

RT, 3 Oct, 2017
A new trading operation dedicated to digital currencies is being explored by Goldman Sachs, sources told the Wall Street Journal. It could be the first blue-chip Wall Street firm to deal directly in the growing yet controversial cryptocurrency market. 
“In response to client interest in digital currencies, we are exploring how best to serve them in this space,” said an unnamed Goldman spokeswoman.
According to people familiar with the matter, Goldman’s effort involves both its currency trading division and the bank’s strategic investment group. The firm sees bitcoin’s future more as a payment method rather than a store of value.

Sources also said Goldman’s effort is in its early stages and may not proceed. The firm’s interest, however, could strengthen bitcoin’s position as digital currencies were initially viewed as havens for illicit activity.
Big banks such as UBS, Barclays, ING, Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon have recently announced ventures into the blockchain technology that allows digital currencies to function and be transferred safely.
BNP Paribas has said it is looking to add bitcoin to one of its currency funds and has been doing "beta testing" involving the cryptocurrency.
Societe Generale and JPMorgan even published job offers for an IT developer and technician on bitcoin, blockchains, and cryptocurrencies.

Morgan Stanley Chief Executive James Gorman said bitcoin is “obviously highly speculative, but it’s not inherently bad.”
According to research firm Autonomous NEXT, around 70 hedge funds are currently investing in cryptocurrencies.
Control over virtual currencies’ trading platforms has been tightened recently to prevent them from becoming money laundering sites.
Last month, Chinese authorities cracked down on cryptocurrencies, ordering the country’s exchanges to suspend operations. Beijing banned initial coin offerings (ICOs), referring to them as an unauthorized fundraising tool that may involve financial scams.
The move was followed by South Korea, with the country’s financial regulator saying it will ban money raising through all forms of virtual currencies.
In July, the US Securities and Exchange Commission warned that some ICOs should be regulated like other securities. Authorities in Singapore and Canada have issued similar warnings.        RT

Mass Shootings: The Military-Entertainment Complex’s Culture of Violence Turns Deadly

By John W. Whitehead, October 03, 2017

“Mass shootings have become routine in the United States and speak to a society that relies on violence to feed the coffers of the merchants of death. Given the profits made by arms manufacturers, the defense industry, gun dealers and the lobbyists who represent them in Congress, it comes as no surprise that the culture of violence cannot be abstracted from either the culture of business or the corruption of politics. Violence runs through US society like an electric current offering instant pleasure from all cultural sources, whether it be the nightly news or a television series that glorifies serial killers.”—Professor Henry A. Giroux

This latest mass shooting in Las Vegas that left more than 50 people dead and more than 500 injured is as obscure as they come: a 64-year-old retiree with no apparent criminal history, no military training, and no obvious axe to grind opens fire on a country music concert crowd from a hotel room 32 floors up using a semi-automatic gun that may have been rigged to fire up to 700 rounds a minute, then kills himself.

We’re left with more questions than answers, none of them a flattering reflection of the nation’s values, political priorities, or the manner in which the military-industrial complex continues to dominate, dictate and shape almost every aspect of our lives.

For starters, why do these mass shootings keep happening? Mass shootings have taken place at churches, in nightclubs, on college campuses, on military bases, in elementary schools, in government offices, and at concerts. This shooting is the deadliest to date.

What is it about America that makes violence our nation’s calling card?

Is it because America is a gun culture (what professor Henry Giroux describes as “a culture soaked in blood – a culture that threatens everyone and extends from accidental deaths, suicides and domestic violence to mass shootings“)?

Is it because guns are so readily available? After all, the U.S. is home to more firearms than adults. As The Atlantic reports, gun fetishism has become mainstream in recent decades due in large part to “gun porn in music, movies, and TV, [and] the combination of weapons marketing and violent videogames.” (Curiously enough, the majority of gun-related deaths in the U.S. are suicides, not homicides.)

Is it because entertainment violence is the hottest selling ticket at the box office? As Giroux points out, “Popular culture not only trades in violence as entertainment, but also it delivers violence to a society addicted to a pleasure principle steeped in graphic and extreme images of human suffering, mayhem and torture.”

Is it because the government continues to whet the nation’s appetite for violence and war through paid propaganda programs (seeded throughout sports entertainment, Hollywood blockbusters and video games)—what professor Roger Stahl refers to as “militainment“—that glorify the military and serve as recruiting tools for America’s expanding military empire?

Is it because Americans from a very young age are being groomed to enlist as foot soldiers—even virtual ones—in America’s Army (coincidentally, that’s also the name of a first person shooter video game produced by the military)? Explorer scouts are one of the most popular recruiting tools for the military and its civilian counterparts (law enforcement, Border Patrol, and the FBI).

Writing for The Atlantic, a former Explorer scout described the highlight of the program: monthly weekend maneuvers with the National Guard where scouts “got to fire live rounds from M16s, M60 machine guns, and M203 grenade launchers… we would have urban firefights (shooting blanks, of course) in Combat Town, a warren of concrete buildings designed for just that purpose. The exercise always devolved into a free-for-all, with all of us weekend warriors emptying clip after clip of blanks until we couldn’t see past the end of our rifles for all the smoke in the air.”

Is it because the United States is the number one consumer, exporter and perpetrator of violence and violent weapons in the world? Seriously, America spends more money on war than the combined military budgets of China, Russia, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Saudi Arabia, India, Germany, Italy and Brazil. America polices the globe, with 800 military bases and troops stationed in 160 countries. Moreover, the war hawks have turned the American homeland into a quasi-battlefield with military gear, weapons and tactics. In turn, domestic police forces have become roving extensions of the military—a standing army.

Or is the Second Amendment to blame, as many continue to suggest? Would there be fewer mass shootings if tighter gun control laws were enacted? Or would the violence simply take a different form: homemade bombs, cars driven into crowds, and knives (remember the knife assailant in Japan who stabbed 19 people to death at a care home for the disabled)?

Then again, could it be, as some have speculated, that these shootings are all part of an elaborate plan to incite fear and chaos, heighten national tensions and shift us that much closer to a complete lockdown? After all, the military and our militarized police forces have been predicting and preparing for exactly this kind of scenario for years now.

So who’s to blame for the violence?

This time, in Las Vegas, it was a seemingly nondescript American citizen pulling the trigger.

At other times, it’s organized crime syndicates or petty criminals or so-called terrorists/extremists.

Still other times, it’s the police with their shoot first, ask questions later mindset (more than 900,000 law enforcement officers are armed).

In certain parts of the Middle East, it’s the U.S. government and the military carrying out drone strikes and bombing campaigns that leave innocent civilians dead and their communities torn apart.

Are you starting to get the picture yet?

We’re caught in a vicious cycle with no end in sight.

Perhaps there’s no single one factor to blame for this gun violence. However, there is a common denominator, and that is a war-drenched, violence-imbued, profit-driven military industrial complex that has invaded almost every aspect of our lives.

Ask yourself: Who are these shooters modelling themselves after? Where are they finding the inspiration for their weaponry and tactics? Whose stance and techniques are they mirroring?

In almost every instance, you can connect the dots back to the military.

We are a military culture.

We have been a nation at war for most of our existence.

We are a nation that makes a living from killing through defense contracts, weapons manufacturing and endless wars.

In order to sustain the nation’s appetite for war over the long haul in spite of the costs of war in lives lost and dollars spent—and little else to show for it—the military has had to work overtime to churn out pro-war, pro-military propaganda. It’s exactly what President Eisenhower warned against (“the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex”) in his 1961 farewell address.

We didn’t listen then and we’re still not listening now.

All the while, the government’s war propaganda machine has grown more sophisticated and entrenched in American culture.

Back when I was a boy growing up in the 1950s, almost every classic sci fi movie ended with the heroic American military saving the day, whether it was battle tanks in Invaders from Mars (1953) or military roadblocks in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). What I didn’t know then as a schoolboy was the extent to which the Pentagon was paying to be cast as America’s savior.

By the time my own kids were growing up, it was Jerry Bruckheimer’s blockbuster film Top Gun—created with Pentagon assistance and equipment—that boosted civic pride in the military.

Now it’s my grandkids’ turn to be awed and overwhelmed by child-focused military propaganda in the X-Men movies. Same goes for The Avengers and Superman and the Transformers. (Don’t even get me started on the war propaganda churned out by the toymakers.)

All of the military equipment featured in blockbuster movies is provided—at taxpayer expense—in exchange for carefully placed promotional spots aimed at indoctrinating the American populace into believing that patriotism means throwing their support behind the military wholeheartedly and unquestioningly.

Even reality TV shows have gotten in on the gig, with the Pentagon’s entertainment office influencing “American Idol,” “The X-Factor,” “Masterchef,” “Cupcake Wars,” numerous Oprah Winfrey shows, “Ice Road Truckers,” “Battlefield Priests,” “America’s Got Talent,” “Hawaii Five-O,” lots of BBC, History Channel and National Geographic documentaries, “War Dogs,” and “Big Kitchens.” And that’s just a sampling.

It’s estimated that U.S. military intelligence agencies (including the NSA) have influenced over 1,800 movies and TV shows.

And then there are the growing number of video games, a number of which are engineered by or created for the military, which have accustomed players to interactive war play through military simulations and first-person shooter scenarios.

This is how you acclimate a population to war.

This is how you cultivate loyalty to a war machine.

This is how, to borrow from the subtitle to the 1964 film Dr. Strangelove, you teach a nation to “stop worrying and love the bomb.”

As journalist David Sirota writes for Salon, “[C]ollusion between the military and Hollywood - including allowing Pentagon officials to line edit scripts - is once again on the rise, with new television programs and movies slated to celebrate the Navy SEALs….major Hollywood directors remain more than happy to ideologically slant their films in precisely the pro-war, pro-militarist direction that the Pentagon demands in exchange for taxpayer-subsidized access to military hardware.”

Why is the Pentagon (and the CIA and the government at large) so focused on using Hollywood as a propaganda machine?

To those who profit from war, it is—as Sirota recognizes—”a ‘product’ to be sold via pop culture products that sanitize war and, in the process, boost recruitment numbers….At a time when more and more Americans are questioning the fundamental tenets of militarism (i.e., budget-busting defense expenditures, never-ending wars/occupations, etc.), military officials are desperate to turn the public opinion tide back in a pro-militarist direction — and they know pop culture is the most effective tool to achieve that goal.”

The media, eager to score higher ratings, has been equally complicit in making (real) war more palatable to the public by packaging it as TV friendly.

This is what Dr. Stahl refers to as the representation of a “clean war“: a war “without victims, without bodies, and without suffering”:

‘Dehumanize destruction’ by extracting all human imagery from target areas … The language used to describe the clean war is as antiseptic as the pictures. Bombings are ‘air strikes.’ A future bombsite is a ‘target of opportunity.’ Unarmed areas are ‘soft targets.’ Civilians are ‘collateral damage.’ Destruction is always ‘surgical.’ By and large, the clean war wiped the humanity of civilians from the screen … Create conditions by which war appears short, abstract, sanitized and even aesthetically beautiful. Minimize any sense of death: of soldiers or civilians.”

This is how you sell war to a populace that may have grown weary of endless wars: sanitize the war coverage of anything graphic or discomfiting (present a clean war), gloss over the actual numbers of soldiers and civilians killed (human cost), cast the business of killing humans in a more abstract, palatable fashion (such as a hunt), demonize one’s opponents, and make the weapons of war a source of wonder and delight.

“This obsession with weapons of war has a name: technofetishism,” explains Stahl. “Weapons appear to take on a magical aura. They become centerpieces in a cult of worship.”

“Apart from gazing at the majesty of these bombs, we were also invited to step inside these high-tech machines and take them for a spin,” said Stahl. “Or if we have the means, we can purchase one of the military vehicles on the consumer market. Not only are we invited to fantasize about being in the driver’s seat, we are routinely invited to peer through the crosshairs too. These repeated modes of imaging war cultivate new modes of perception, new relationships to the tools of state violence. In other words, we become accustomed to ‘seeing’ through the machines of war.”

In order to sell war, you have to feed the public’s appetite for entertainment.

Not satisfied with peddling its war propaganda through Hollywood, reality TV shows and embedded journalists whose reports came across as glorified promotional ads for the military, the Pentagon turned to sports to further advance its agenda, “tying the symbols of sports with the symbols of war.”

The military has been firmly entrenched in the nation’s sports spectacles ever since, having co-opted football, basketball, even NASCAR.

Remember, just before this Vegas shooting gave the media, the politicians and the easily distracted public something new to obsess over, the headlines were dominated by President Trump’s feud with the NFL over players kneeling during the national anthem.

That, too, was yet another example of how much the military entertainment complex—which paid $53 million of taxpayer money between 2012 and 2015 to pro sports teams for military tributes (on-field events recognizing military service members, including ceremonial first pitches, honor guards and Jumbotron tributes)—has infiltrated American culture.

This Trump-NFL feud is also a classic example of how to squash dissent—whether it’s dissent over police brutality or America’s killing fields abroad. As Stahl explains, “Supporting the troops is made synonymous with supporting the war. Those who disagree with the decision to send soldiers to war are thus identified with the enemy. This is done through a variety of associations… Dissent becomes synonymous with criminal activity.”

When you talk about the Las Vegas mass shooting, you’re not dealing with a single shooter scenario. Rather, you’re dealing with a sophisticated, far-reaching war machine that has woven itself into the very fabric of this nation.

As Stahl concludes, “War has come to look very much like a video game. As viewers of the TV war, we are treated to endless flyovers. We are immersed in a general spirit of play. We are shown countless computer animations that contribute a sense of virtuality. We play alongside news anchors who watch on their monitors. We sit in front of the crosshairs directing missiles with a sense of interactivity. The destruction, if shown at all, seems unreal, distant. These repeated images foster habitual fantasies of crossing over.”

You want to stop the gun violence?

Stop the worship of violence that permeates our culture.

Stop glorifying the military industrial complex with flyovers and salutes during sports spectacles.

Stop acting as if there is anything patriotic about military exercises and occupations that bomb hospitals and schools.

Stop treating guns and war as entertainment fodder in movies, music, video games, toys, amusement parks, reality TV and more.

Stop distribution weapons of war to the local police and turning them into extensions of the military—weapons that have no business being anywhere but on a battlefield.

Most of all, as I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, stop falling for the military industrial complex’s psychological war games.           Rutherford

An End Times Ambiance

"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. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."

Luke 21:25-28

"And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows."

Mark 13:7-8

In this issue of the Last Trumpet Newsletter, we will examine the events of recent weeks which have left a foreboding impression that the world we live in is facing great peril in the days ahead. It is truly remarkable how much has happened in just the short time since I wrote the September issue of this newsletter. Against the backdrop of devastating hurricanes, heatwaves, massive wildfires, powerful earthquakes, and a growing possibility of war between the United States and North Korea, many people are starting to wonder if we could be living in the end times. In fact, even the New York Times published an article on September 8, 2017, with the headline, "Apocalyptic Thoughts Amid Nature's Chaos? You Could Be Forgiven." (1) The article cites science fiction writer John Scalzi who recently wrote that it "feels like the end times are getting a few dress rehearsals right about now." (2) Richard Hecht, a professor specializing in religious studies at the University of California in Santa Barbara was also quoted by the Times. "End of times fantasies have been a central part of American religiosity since the beginning, so it shouldn't be any surprise," Hecht stated. He further goes on to say, "It's one thing to believe the ministers' or preachers' calculations of the end of days. But now you have objective truths: Charlottesville, the solar eclipse, Hurricane Harvey, the earthquake in Mexico, Hurricane Irma. These are events no one can dispute. It's not the same order of a preacher saying that on September 8, at 10 o'clock, the world will end." (3) While the point of the article is to reassure the reader that the world is not really ending soon, the fact that it was written at all is indicative of the end time ambiance that many people are feeling today.

In Luke 21:25-28 we are warned by our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, "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. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." We are also told in Mark 13:7-8, "And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows." Jesus specifically told us to watch for "the sea and the waves roaring," "men's hearts failing them for fear," nations rising against nations, and earthquakes in divers or various places in the days leading up to His return. All of these things are happening now, and while we cannot say with any certainty that the world as we know it will end in the next five, ten, or even twenty years, it certainly feels like it could. In Matthew 24:35-36 we are told by Jesus, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." Therefore we continue to watch, pray, and wait for the great and notable day of our Lord's coming.

The Sea And The Waves Roaring

The rapid succession of tropical storms and hurricanes forming in the Atlantic Ocean over the last four weeks is a cause of great concern to scientists. While such storms are a normal fact of life and regularly appear each year during hurricane season, news outlets are reporting that these storms appear to be intensifying. First there was Hurricane Harvey, which became especially active in late August 2017, followed by Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Jose, Hurricane Katia, and Hurricane Maria, all within the month of September 2017. (4) In fact, the month of September was so active for hurricanes that Irma, Jose, and Katia were all churning at the same time. (5) Regarding the recent spate of hurricanes, meteorologist Bob Henson was quoted as saying, "The season has been an overachiever by almost every index. We've had more than a year's worth of named storms when you look at the long-term average, and that's being just past the midpoint of the season." Mr. Henson then warned that there will probably be more storms. "I would be shocked if we didn't get at least two more," he said. (6)

Hurricane Harvey, which first made landfall in Texas on August 25, 2017, as a Category 4 hurricane with 130 miles-per-hour winds, (7) was truly a storm of Biblical proportions. In fact, the storm dumped a trillion gallons of water on the state of Texas with Cedar Bayou, a city about 30 miles from Houston, receiving a record-breaking 51.88 inches of rain. (8) At least 82 people were killed in the storm (9) and between 30,000 and 40,000 homes in the Houston area were completely destroyed. (10) In total about 100,000 homes were damaged by the storm, which prompted Brock Long, the administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, to say "The state of Texas is about to undergo one of the largest housing recovery missions the nation has ever seen." (11) The damage in economic terms is also mind-boggling. According to Accuweather founder Dr. Joel N. Myers, the losses caused by Harvey could reach a whopping 190 billion dollars. "This is the costliest and worst natural disaster in American history," Dr. Myers opined. (12)

On September 10, 2017, Hurricane Irma made landfall in the state of Florida. This storm is notable for many reasons. With Hurricane Harvey previously hitting Texas, the arrival of Irma marked the first time since records have been kept that two Category 4 Atlantic hurricanes have hit the United States mainland in the same hurricane season. (13) Prior to hitting the United States, Hurricane Irma gained force and became a Category 5 hurricane after reaching a sustained wind speed of 185 miles-per-hour. This wind speed was the second highest ever recorded for an Atlantic hurricane, trailing only behind Hurricane Allen of 1980. (14) Not only did Irma have a wind speed of 185 miles-per-hour, but this speed was constant for 37 consecutive hours, which is another record. (15) Irma was enormous too. At its peak, the storm covered a distance of 800 miles. Irma made its way through ten different Caribbean countries and caused great devastation. According to the Prime Minister of Barbuda, Irma left the island "barely habitable" with 95 percent of its buildings suffering damage. (16) The island has been completely evacuated in the wake of the storm's destruction. "The damage is complete. For the first time in 300 years, there's not a single living person on the island of Barbuda - a civilization that has existed on that island for over 300 years has now been extinguished," the island's Ambassador to the United States Ronald Sanders lamented. (17)

In total, this brutal storm caused the death of 73 people in the Caribbean and the American states of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. (18) Amazingly enough, Hurricane Irma weakened significantly after making landfall in Florida. Although the state still suffered significant damage, the storm was diminished to a Category 1 hurricane by the time it reached the city of Tampa. (19) It could have been a lot worse, and I know that many of God's people were praying.

On September 18, 2017, Maria, another Category 5 hurricane, made landfall at the Caribbean island of Dominica. (20) The devastation was swift and severe. "The country is in a daze - no electricity, no running water - as a result of uprooted pipes in most communities and definitely no landline or cellphone services on island, and that will be for quite a while," said Hartley Henry, who is principal advisor to the island's prime minister. Henry then went on to say, "In summary, the island has been devastated." (21) Maria became the third hurricane to wreak havoc on the United States this year when it made landfall at the American territory of Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017. (22) So widespread was the damage that the entire island lost access to electricity. (23) In the aftermath of Maria's destruction, Puerto Rico's Resident Commissioner, Jennifer Gonzalez, was quoted as saying, "The devastation in Puerto Rico has set us back nearly 20 to 30 years. I can't deny that the Puerto Rico of now is different from that of a week ago. The destruction of properties, of flattened structures, of families without homes, of debris everywhere. The island's greenery is gone." (24) The hurricane season of 2017 will be remembered for quite some time. Without a doubt, the sea and the waves have been roaring.

A Scorched Earth

For those who live in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, the wildfires of this year have been unrelenting. In early September 2017, it was reported that 137 significant wildfires, covering an area of 7.8 million acres, were burning out west. (25) These fires covered the entire state of Washington in smoke, while residents in Portland, Oregon, reported that it was "snowing ash." Emergencies were declared in California and Washington due to the hazardous air quality imposed by these cruel blazes. (26) To further worsen matters, there were 153 active wildfires in British Columbia, Canada, as of September 2017. Incredibly, smoke from the fires in the United States and Canada has even reached Europe in recent weeks according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA. (27)

Europe has been contending with devastating wildfires too. These fires have thrived because of a scorching heatwave that Europeans have nicknamed "Lucifer." In an article published in August 2017 by Popular Science Magazine, we are told, "If you load up the European Commission's fire map, it looks like the end of the world, especially in Italy and Romania." (28) This same article states that wildfires have also afflicted the Siberian region of Russia. (29) It is interesting that Popular Science would mention "the end of the world" in their report. In Revelation 16, we are told that one of the end times' punishments of God upon mankind will be a scorching heat. Revelation 16:8-7 declares, "And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory." While the current wildfires and heatwaves now happening may not be precisely what these verses are speaking of, the present affliction of fire and heat are a preview of things to come. When that vial of judgment is poured out, I do not believe that mankind will even recognize it as judgment. Rather, the great heat by which men are scorched will be blamed on climate change and global warming. Perhaps the people of earth should ask themselves: What if the coming disasters attributed to climate change are in reality the fulfillment of Bible prophecy?

Planet Earth Is Rumbling

Students of the Bible have always taken a keen interest in earthquakes. It is a sign that Jesus Christ specifically told us to watch for, warning His people that there would be "earthquakes in divers places." Earthquakes have become so common in this modern age that few people even take notice of them anymore. News reports will cover significant earthquakes, but the vast majority of seismic events that happen every day are never mentioned. According to the US Geological Survey, there have been 1,764 earthquakes in the last thirty days as of September 25, 2017. This amounts to nearly sixty quakes per day! (30) Some areas of the world are especially prone to seismic shakings. For example, New Zealand suffered a record-breaking 32,828 earthquakes in 2016. (31) Unless you happen to live in New Zealand, you probably did not hear about most of them.

Unfortunately, human civilizations have a propensity to build large cities in areas that are prone to earthquakes. This holds true of Mexico City in Mexico, which was originally called Tenochtitlan by the Aztecs upon its founding in 1325. The site was chosen based on a superstitious Aztec prophecy which asserted that the location of their new city would be marked by an eagle aloft a cactus eating a snake. (32) As it turns out, this is a dangerous location for a large city. On September 19, 1985, a powerful earthquake measuring 8.1 in magnitude, shook Mexico City and killed thousands of people. Oddly enough, exactly thirty-two years later, Mexico City suffered another devastating earthquake on September 19, 2017. (33) The powerful temblor, which measured 7.1 in magnitude, has claimed the lives of at least 320 individuals in Mexico City and the surrounding areas as of this writing, while leaving thousands upon thousands of people homeless. (34) The Mexico City quake came just days after an 8.2 magnitude earthquake shook the southern region of Mexico on September 7, 2017. The quake in southern Mexico was said to be the most powerful earthquake to strike the country in 100 years. (35) According to the National Seismological Service in Mexico, there have been an astonishing 4846 aftershocks in the region as of September 25, 2017. (36) At least 96 people died and 16,000 homes were destroyed in the Mexican states of Chiapas and Oaxaca. (37)

How Technology Will Induce Subservience

In recent issues of this newsletter, we have covered the topic of microchip implants in-depth. I still find it an amazing thing that American citizens are being microchipped today, and it is even more incredible that it is happening in my home state of Wisconsin. The announcement made in July 2017 that a company from River Falls, Wisconsin, known as Three Square Market, would begin microchipping its employees in August of this year was big news, making headlines all over our state and sending shockwaves throughout the nation. On August 23, 2017, I was stunned to find that our local newspaper, the Daily Citizen, had republished an article originally from the Chicago Tribune which extolled the so-called virtues of these new microchip implants. "Imagine walking into the bank and not wracking your brain for your ATM pin code. Or never wondering where you left your credit card, transit pass, or ID. Imagine sailing through airport security without producing a driver's license or passport. Or through your security gate at work without fumbling for an ID card that you left in your other jacket," wrote the article's author, James Brooks. He later went on to write, "No more wallets, keys, credit cards? Everything available with a flick of the wrist? Sounds great." (38) The author also claimed that these chips would be a wonderful safety device for young children and people with memory issues, (39) which is something I predicted would be said when I wrote about this topic in the August 2017 issue of the Last Trumpet. Sadly, if this article is any indicator, there are many men and women in this country who will not only accept these microchip implants, but are eager to do so.

In the future, microchips may not only be used to implement a global cashless society, but they may also be used to control the population of the world. In 2014 it was announced that Microsoft founder Bill Gates was funding the research of a contraceptive microchip. When implanted in women, this chip would have the capability to deliver birth control to their bloodstreams every day for up to sixteen years. A wireless remote control would allow for the microchip to be turned on or off at will, (40) although there is no guarantee that women who have these chips would have access to the remote control. Such technology could easily become a nightmare with Big Brother deciding who can have children and when they can have them.

Even as microchip implants are being given to American citizens, recent news reports indicate that there is a renewed interest in establishing universal basic incomes for the American people. In other words, every American would be given money each month simply for existing with no requirement for employment. We are told this will be necessary because so many jobs are being lost to automation and people in the coming decades will be left with no work to perform. For this reason, it was announced in September 2017 that lawmakers in the state of Hawaii have voted to research the concept of a basic income for their citizens. "Our economy is changing far more rapidly than anybody expected," said Representative Chris Lee of Hawaii. Lee further stated that it is important "to be sure that everybody will benefit from the technological revolution that we're seeing to make sure that no one's left behind." (41) An article published by CNBC on August 31, 2017, also promoted the universal basic income concept. Citing a report from the Roosevelt Institute, the article asserts that giving every adult in the United States a thousand dollars each month would grow the American economy by 2.5 trillion dollars by the year 2025. (42) While the idea of receiving free money likely sounds fantastic to a majority of the population, I cannot help but wonder if those who receive this monetary benefit will be required to receive a microchip implant first. It is an easy way to implement this invasive technology, and I am sure that many people would gladly accept it!

Meanwhile, the United States government seems determined to get driverless cars on American roads. In September 2017, the United States House of Representatives unanimously approved a new initiative that will allow up to 25,000 autonomous vehicles to be deployed all over the country without meeting existing safety requirem"The autonomous vehicle bill just passed by the House leaves a wild west without adequate safety protections for consumers. It pre-empts any state safety standards, but there are none at the naents. The plan calls for another 100,000 of these vehicles to be deployed on American roads each year for the next three years. (43) This new law, which must still pass in the Senate, was quickly panned by a group known as Consumer Watchdog. tional level," the group said in a statement. (44) Why the sudden rush to bring driverless cars to American roadways? Autonomous vehicles will be yet another way that the American people are forced to cede their independence. It is a technology, which along with microchips, would induce subservience to a global one world government.

Is The United States Dangerously Close To War?

In recent weeks, the rhetoric between the United States and North Korea has intensified. North Korea has continued to test ballistic missiles while threatening to develop nuclear weapons and attack the United States. American President Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un have insulted and threatened each other repeatedly. Could we be close to war? Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov seems to think so. Speaking of the bad blood between the United States and North Korea, Lavrov was quoted as saying in August 2017, "The risks are very high, especially regarding the rhetoric [between the two countries]. We hear direct threats to use force. At the same time, US Secretary of Defense Mattis stated once again, Yes, this will involve a huge number of human casualties, and yet talks about a pre-emptive strike on North Korea, talks in Pyongyang [North Korea], that it is necessary to strike the Island of Guam, where several US military bases are located, do not stop." (45) China, which is North Korea's strongest ally, also weighed in on the controversy. In August 2017, a Chinese newspaper known as The Global Times, which serves as a state-run mouthpiece for the Chinese communist government, indicated that China would stand by North Korea in the event of a pre-emptive strike by the United States on North Korean territory. "China should make clear that if North Korea launches missiles that threaten U.S. soil first and the U.S. retaliates, China will stay neutral," the newspaper said. It then went on to say, "If the U.S. and South Korea carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so." (46) Simply put, the article indicates that if North Korea attacks the United States, China will stay out of it. However, the warning indicates that if the United States or its allies attack North Korea, then China will intervene. In which case, a war with North Korea could also mean a war with China.

In September 2017, Donald Trump's administration implemented new economic sanctions against North Korea. The two leaders then traded insults with each other. "Kim Jong Un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before," Trump wrote. (47) In response to a speech given at the United Nations wherein Trump heavily criticized North Korea, Kim Jong Un issued a statement calling Trump a "mentally deranged dotard." He then went on to say, "I will make the man holding the prerogative of the supreme command in the U.S. pay dearly for his speech. I am now thinking hard about what response he could have expected when he allowed such eccentric words to trip off his tongue. Whatever Trump might have expected, he will face results beyond his expectations." (48) I cannot help but imagine the North Korean dictator furiously studying a thesaurus before issuing his threat.

As a further escalation of tension between the United States and North Korea, the North Korean government has asserted that the United States has declared war, and as such, they claim a right to shoot down American planes. "The whole world should clearly remember it was the U.S. who first declared war on our country. Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to make countermeasures, including the right to shoot down United States strategic bombers even when they are not inside the airspace border of our country." (49)

If a war with North Korea should break out, those who suffer the most will likely be poor North Korean citizens who will die as military offensives are carried out. This is truly sad, for if we believe the reports we have seen of the brutal North Korean regime, most North Korean people are hostages in their own country suffering through a meager existence with little hope for a better future. I feel compelled to pray for the North Korean people who are trapped in this mess. Perhaps God will intervene and topple the regime of Kim Jong Un in another way.

In closing, the world we live in today has become a messy place. We are feeling the pressure of the times we live in, and there truly is an end times ambiance right now. Yet, Isaiah the Prophet tells us of our God in Isaiah 25:4, "For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall." The best thing we can do right now is put our hope and our trust in God. If you have not yet repented of your sins and dedicated your life to God, I urge you to do so now.

As always, we are grateful to our readers and supporters. Thank you for your kindness which enables us to operate this ministry. If you have any prayer requests, great or small, please do not hesitate to send them our way. We give each prayer request individual attention. Grace and peace be unto you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Samuel Meyer - Last Trumpet

Acknowledgements
01. The New York Times, September 8, 2017, By Henry Fountain, http://nytimes.com.
02. Ibid.
03. Ibid.
04. Wikipedia, 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season, http://wikipedia.org.
05. The Daily Caller, September 6, 2017, By Michael Bastasch, http://dailycaller.com.
06. The New York Times, September 19, 2017, By Maggie Astor, http://nytimes.com.
07. Chicago Tribune, September 3, 2017, By Tom Skilling, http://chicagotribune.com.
08. ABC News, August 30, 2017, By Michael Edison Hayden, http://abcnews.go.com.
09. The Washington Post, September 14, 2017, By Eva Ruth Moravec, http://washingtonpost.com.
10. The New York Post, August 30, 2017, By Lia Eustachewich, http://nypost.com.
11. National Public Radio, September 1, 2017, By Pam Fessler, http://npr.org.
12. Accuweather, September 1, 2017, By Accuweather, http://accuweather.com.
13. The Weather Channel, September 10, 2017, By Chris Dolce, http://weather.com.
14. NJ Advance Media, September 7, 2017, By Len Melisurgo, http://nj.com.
15. Wired UK, September 11, 2017, By Matt Burgess, http://wired.co.uk.
16. Ibid.
17. Public Radio International, September 14, 2017, By TJ Raphael, http://pri.org.
18. The Weather Channel, September 21, 2017, By Sean Breslin, http://weather.com.
19. Slate, September 11, 2017, By Daniel Politi, http://slate.com.
20. The New York Times, September 18, 2017, By Azam Ahmed and Kirk Semple, http://nytimes.com.
21. USA Today, September 20, 2017, By Trevor Hughes, http://usatoday.com.
22. Fox 6 Now, September 20, 2017, By Tribune Media Wire Service, http://fox6now.com.
23. National Public Radio, September 20, 2017, By Doreen McCallister and Amy Held, http://npr.org.
24. Associated Press, September 24, 2017, By Danica Coto, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
25. Futurism, September 21, 2017, By Claudia Geib, http://futurism.com.
26. The New York Times, September 16, 2017, By Troy Griggs, K.K. Rebecca Lai, Jeremy Ashkenas, and Jugal K. Patel, http://nytimes.com.
27. Atlas Obscura, September 15, 2017, By Atlas Obscura, http://atlasobscura.com.
28. Popular Science Magazine, August 4, 2017, By Kendra Pierre-Louis, http://popsci.com.
29. Ibid.
30. US Geological Survey, September 25, 2017, http://earthquakes.usgs.gov.
31. Stuff News, January 2, 2017, By John Kirk-Anderson, http://stuff.co.nz.
32. The New Yorker, September 22, 2017, By Marcia Bjornerud, http://newyorker.com.
33. Ibid.
34. New York Daily News, September 25, 2017, By Reuven Blau, http://nydailynews.com.
35. The New York Times, September 8, 2017, By Paulina Villegas, Elisabeth Malkin and Kirk Semple, http://nytimes.com.
36. National Seismological Service, September 25, 2017, http://twitter.com/SismologicoMX.
37. Insurance Journal, September 12, 2017, By Christopher Sherman, http://insurancejournal.com.
38. The Daily Citizen, August 23, 2017, By James Brooks, http://wiscnews.com/bdc.
39. Ibid.
40. The Washington Post, July 17, 2017, By Dominic Basulto, http://washingtonpost.com.
41. Associated Press, September 4, 2017, By Cathy Bussewitz, http://hosted.ap.org.
42. CNBC, August 31, 2017, By Catherine Clifford, http://cnbc.com.
43. Reuters News Service, September 6, 2017, By David Shepardson, http://reuters.com.
44. Ibid.
45. Sputnik International, August 11, 2017, By Sputnik International, http://sputniknews.com.
46. Reuters News Service, August 10, 2017, By Reuters Staff, http://reuters.com.
47. The Washington Post, September 22, 2017, By David Nakamura and Anne Gearan, http://washingtonpost.com.
48. Ibid.
49. The Washington Post, September 25, 2017, By Carol Morello, http://washingtonpost.com.

Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?

1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
7 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.
8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.
9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.
10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.
12 I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.
13 I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.
14 I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.
15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
21 I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.
22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.
23 Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.
24 Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
25 And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.
26 These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.
27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
29 If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.          1 John 2