Prophe-Zine Issue # 10 Credits.......... Statement of Faith......... & Other stuff......... Raymond Gano............Welcome to Issue # 10 Dave Breese .......Questions & Answers Regarding Bible Prophecy Ron Rhodes........ "Millennial Madness" Jack Van Impe......The Coming World Government Dave Hunt........."Pre-Wrath" Or "Pre-Trib" Rapture? Alan Yusko.......The Coming Mark Of The Beast & Rise Of Antichrist Todd Strandberg.....The Hot Zone, Current events that are fast moving and supportive of Bible prophecy. Prophe-Zine News Bites..... Assorted Authors and News Services Prophe-Zine's Cool World Wide Web Sites Special Thanks to: To you my reader. It is because of your letters that I am taking this great step in faith in putting out a bi-weekly newsletter. Without you and your hunger for more news, Prophe-Zine would have never come about. Publication Cycle Notice: Prophe-Zine will be published (up loaded), on the 1st and the15th of each month. (bi-weelkly) Prophe-Zine is freely distributed to the major on-line services, BBSs, and to the Internet. The Editor of Prophe-Zine can be reached by sending e-mail to: ray673@best.com. Please write the Editor if you are interested in receiving guidelines for submission to Prophe-Zine Statement of Faith THE PURPOSE of Prophe-Zine is to carry out the command of the Lord Christ Jesus, recorded in Matthew 28:19: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations" Prophe-Zine is a Christian publication grounded in the deity of Christ and the inerrancy of Scripture. The major intent of the editors is first, the giving out the message of the Gospel, "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures," 1 Cor. 15:3-4. The Editor of Prophe-Zine holds to a strictly literal and inerrant Bible interpretation, salvation through Christ alone, a soon pre-tribulation Rapture of all believers and the establishment of a thousand-year kingdom on earth. The evangelism of the unbelievers and the exhortation of the believers take precedence over all other activities of this ministry. Prophe-Zine may not agree with some of the authors and their beliefs, but Prophe-Zine believes that we must endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit (In other words agree to disagree), so Prophe-Zine feels that it must give equal time to other biblically based doctrines in all fairness. Eph 4:3 Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. In His service, Ray Gano The Legal Stuff About Prophe-Zine Prophe-Zine Copyright © 1995 Raymond B Gano All rights reserved. Please ask for permission before reproducing or reprinting specific articles and/or graphics, since some of the individual works appearing in Prophe-Zine are copyrighted works belonging to their respective authors or artists and are used here with their permission. Prophe-Zine may be freely distributed under the following conditions: It may not be included in a software package without prior consent from the author. It may not be distributed or reproduced for commercial purposes. Prophe-Zine's editor uses a Quadra 840 AV Macintosh computer. Programs include: MacWrite, MacDraw Pro, Color-It, JPEGview, Popcorn, OnLine Bible KJV 2.1, plus any other freeware that I can get my hands on to fill up the hard drive and use up even MORE RAM (needs 8 more megs, those graphics are killing me) The Editor is currently looking for submissions, artists, writers, fiction, reviews, columnists and other help for Prophe-Zine articles. If interested, please write the Editor to receive a guideline for submissions. Feedback and suggestions from the Prophe-Zine readers are ALWAYS WELCOME! Don't just tell me that you actually liked reading Prophe-Zine, tell me what YOU would like to see in future issues! ******************************************************** Welcome to Issue # 9 Hi ya all, Thank you for downloading the newest issue of Prophe-Zine. This is a special issue. From this issue on, Prophe-Zine is going Bi-weekly ( that's every 2 weeks ) So you will be getting even MORE news now. I am really going to need your help now. What Prophe-Zine needs: 1. Prayer, Prayer, Prayer... 2. I need writers and articles. I am putting out twice a month, that means I need double the articles. OK all you closet authors, here is your chance. 3. Even more readers. 4. More ways to get Prophe-Zine out to the rest of the world. I will be putting up a WWW site here in the near future. SO I am really trusting you all and taking a step in faith. I know that with the Lord's help and a little help from you, my readers, I will put out an even better newsletter. I would like to share a letter from a new reader. This person was SO encouraging and I was so blessed by his letter I just had to share it with all the rest of you. I receive alot of "Flames" because I am a Christian and because I publish Prophe-Zine. It is letters like Locke Curfman's that re-energizes me and confirms that this is what the Lord wants. I hope you enjoy what Locke wrote to me as much as I did. Also I would really love to hear from more of you. In fact please give me ANY testimonies that involve Prophe-Zine so that I can publish that also and encourage all of us. Ray, I would be most honored and thrilled to continue receiving your newsletter. I have received it today and read the entire newsletter and I LOVE IT!!!! - I too feel strongly that your push to publish a bi-weekly letter would be very well received. With events moving as quickly as they are in the world, the faster we (Christians) can receive accurate up-to-date, Christian world view articles and information, the better. I especially enjoy the wide variety of authors that you showcase and the breadth of information on all the topics of interest (the Rapture, Israel, the Third Temple, the PLO) - your doctrinal statement is right in line with my beliefs, thank you for stating that while you hold firmly to your stated doctrine, you are committed to bringing about the unity of believers by including articles and comments by those with whom you may agree to disagree - that is a most Christ-like attitude to have! Please add me to your mailing list - I look forward to reading my next issue of Prophe-Zine! I thank and praise God daily for people like yourself and like Rob Smith (MrnMrsRob@aol.com) who are steadfast in making Christians aware of the Great Commandment and the Great Commission and the fact that the time is at hand. May God continue to bless your work! And May God receive the glory! Locke Curfman Thank You Locke again for that encourageing letter. Please pray for the Peace of Jerusalem and for Israel (Ps 122). 1996 will be a very special year for Israel. Jerusalem has a chance of being split and given to the PLO. The PLO would receive East Jerusalem (The old city). Keep your eyes on the Peace treaties, the PLO, Russia, and all the elections. "We will carry our struggle to Jerusalem," -- Yasser Arafat, the PLO chairman, addressing the crowd in Tulkarm by phone. London Telegraph. 12/11/95 --- I echo Locke's words and wish you a very Happy New Year. I pray that all your loved ones, friends, family who do not know the Lord, come to know Him in this new year. I pray that the Lord continues blessing you and your loved ones in this new year. I pray that you remember that we are living during a time of great urgency. So make every minute count in serving the Lord. Go out and boldly proclaim the Gospel, the more you use those evangelistic muscles the stronger they become. Eph. 6:10-13 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggles are not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. In His service, Ray ray673@best.com Raymond673@aol.com ********************************************** Questions And Answers Regarding Bible Prophecy By Dave Breese Host of the television show "The King Is Coming" Question: In the Parable of the fig tree ( Mt. 24: 32-35), Jesus was saying that when the fig tree blossomed, that generation would not pass away until He returned. Does the fig tree refer to Israel? And how long is a generation? Shouldn't Jesus have returned by now? Answer: Although many theologians use the fig tree to illustrate Israel, there is no iron-clad scripture we can point to that says that is what it symbolizes here. Regarding the length of a generation, this is something about which theologians differ. Some say it is 20 years, some say 30, some say 40 and some say it is a lifetime, approximately 70 years. Some people have put together date theories that since the nation of Israel was born (the fig tree "putteth forth leaves) in 1948, Christ was to have returned by 1978 or 1988, or which ever. It is far more enriching to explore the context in which Jesus put forth this parable. The parable is found in the middle of the "Olivet Discourse" a message He gave to the Jews telling them of the terrible experiences they would have during the tribulation. He is telling them that "This Generation" - the generation that experiences all the things that He has been talking about - will not pass before He returns in power and great glory ant the Battle of Armageddon. Regarding the exact time of His return, Jesus addressed this issue in the Olivet Discourses as well: " But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no not the angels of heaven, but my Father only" Mt 24:36 So, it is not open to our conjecture to set a date for His return. We are, however, told to be watchful, because is will be rather unexpected: "Therefore be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh," Mt 24:44 Question: What is Humanism? Our pastor has mentioned this in his sermons, and I see this word in Christian literature, but I do not understand what it is. Answer: In brief, humanism is a philosophy touching virtually every aspect of life, and has been declared by the United States Supreme Court to be a religion. it is referred to by it advocates as a "faith" and a "religion." Humanists reject the Deity of God, the inspiration of the Bible, and the Deity of Jesus Christ. It scoffs at the idea that men need to be saved, and that they have a soul which is eternal. Humanism rejects the doctrines of the Bible such as life after death, judgment, Heaven, and Hell. It scoffs at the Biblical account of creation. It believes that there are no absolutes - that is, no right and wrong- and holds that all moral values are self-determined and situational. Each person, therefore, is allowed to do their own thing, "as long as it does not harm anyone else." Humanism is working towards the removal of distinctive roles of males and females in society, and advocates sexual freedom between consenting individuals regardless of their age. Premarital sex, homosexuality, and incest are approved. It upholds the right to abortion, euthanasia (mercy killing), and suicide. It is pushing for the equal distribution of America's wealth in order to reduce poverty and bring about equality; and believes in control of the environment and control and limitation of energy. It plays down American patriotism and seeks to undermine the free enterprise system while all the time urging the creation of a one-world socialist government. Humanism has very cleverly taken over the public school system. Teachers, who have been and are now being educated in colleges supported by public tax money, have sneaked humanism into the classroom in a very subtle manner. Concerning all of this, the Bible makes several declarations which are pertinent: "O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps," Jer 10:23 " Man's goings are of the Lord; how can a man, then , understand his own way?" Prv 20:24 Every interested citizen , and especially every parent, ought to be aware if what is going on in the classroom, and one way to find out is to examine the textbooks and the materials used by the students. A generation raised on such philosophy as that outlined here is having a devastating effect upon America and its way of life. This is but one more evidence hat we are indeed living in the Last Days Question: When I try to tell my friends about Bible Prophecy, they say that people have been talking about these events that are going to happen for hundreds of years. How should I reply? Answer: First of all, what your friends have been telling you is, in and of itself, one more prophecy being fulfilled! Listen to what the Apostle Peter says: " Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation" 2 Peter 3:3-4 The fact of their unbelief being a fulfilled prophecy might be a good starting-off point for your discussion. From there, you might look at the many signs of the last days given us by Jesus in Matthew Chapter 24, and by Paul in 2 Timothy chapter 3. For example: "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines, and pestilence, and earthquakes, in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows," Mt 24: 7-8 "This know, also that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affections, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, high-minded, loves of pleasures more than lovers of God," 2 Tim 3:1-4 "But evil men as seducers shall become worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived, " 2 Tim 3:13 The situations described in these and other Scriptures are all dovetailing together to indicate to us that indeed the time is getting short. It is true that no one knows exactly when Christ will return, but we must be individually ready for His coming by accepting Him as our personal Savior before He returns or before we die: "Therefore be ya also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh," Mt 24: 44 One helpful way of looking at Bible Prophecy with those not versed with it is to compare the prophecies in the Bible with the news items presented in the newspapers or the television news broadcast. This can be very enlightening! We would encourage you not to be weary in well-doing , but continue to lovingly discuss these matters with those close to you. Also, remember to pray for them on a regular basis. About Dave Breese: Dave Breese is the Bible Teacher on The King Is Coming telecast. Each week, he speaks to the nation, expounding God's plan for the future from the prophetic scriptures. World Prophetic Ministry teaches Bible Prophecy in these End-Times days.Through our outreach of books,audio and video cassettes, and our highly acclaimed telecast The King Is Coming, we proclaim the Good News: Christ died for our sins and is coming again soon. Please Write Dave and tell him that you saw his article here in Prophe-Zine. He has a free catalog of books and newsletters that you can order from him. They are an excellent resource for the study of Prophecy and World events. Write to : World Prophetic Ministry P.O Box 907 Colton, CA 92324 ******************************************* "Millennial Madness" by Ron Rhodes. "Book your mountain top while there's still time," the soothsayer says. "You may find them in increasingly short supply as we draw near A.D. 2000." Millennial madness. It swept across the world at near-epidemic levels just prior to A.D. 1000, and we will no doubt witness much of the same as we approach the turn of the second millennium. Some are predicting imminent doom, others a glorious utopia. Either way, millennial madness is on the rise and will almost certainly afflict a significant share of humanity over the next decade. Millennial Madness: Act 1._ Just before A.D. 1000, many believed the end was near. To prepare for the end, "men forgave their neighbors' debts, people confessed their infidelities and wrongdoings....The churches were besieged by crowds demanding confession and absolution....Prisoners were freed yet manyremained wishing to expiate their sins before the end."[1] As Christmas (A.D. 999) arrived, there was an outpouring of love. Stores gave away food; merchants refused payment. On December 31 the frenzy reached new heights. Pope Sylvester II held a midnight mass in the Basilica of St. Peter's in Rome. There was a standing-room-only audience -- but the people weren't standing; they were on their knees. After the mass had been said, a deathly silence fell over the congregation. Finally, as the clock uneventfully ticked past 12, church bells began ringing. Amid weeping and laughing, husbands and wives embraced. Friends exchanged "the kiss of peace." Enemies were reconciled. But life soon resumed its normal rhythm. "Merchants ceased giving away their goods. Prisoners were captured to be placed back in the slammer. Debts were remembered. And life went on as if nothing happened."[2] Millennial Madness: Act 2._ Now it's our turn. There are growing signs that we are in for a similar outbreak of mass hysteria as we approach A.D. 2000. New Agers are representative of those who look for a utopia. Ken Carey, author of several New Age handbooks, envisions A.D. 2000 as a kind of psychic watershed, beyond which lies "a realizable utopian society."[3] David Spangler agrees, noting that the Mayan and Aztec civilizations believed that a "cycle of dark ages" would end before A.D. 2000; following this, a New Age of harmony and wholeness will emerge.[4] Other soothsayers have predicted doom. Shortly before his death in 1961, Carl G. Jung had a series of visions and saw worldwide catastrophe prior to A.D. 2010. In recent months, Elizabeth Clare Prophet of the Church Universal and Triumphant has been saying that an "Ascended Master" has informed her that catastrophe awaits the world. She says Russia is about to invade the U.S. and thus has directed her followers to build large bomb shelters to house the faithful. Millennial madness has grievously afflicted some who write about the Rapture and/or second coming of Christ. Prophecy teacher Mary Stewart Relfe claimed she received revelations indicating the Second Coming will occur in 1997.[5] Lester Sumrall said in his book, _I Predict 2000 A.D._: "I predict the absolute fulness of man's operation on planet Earth by the year 2000 A.D. Then Jesus Christ shall reign from Jerusalem for 1000 years."[6] We have witnessed only the beginning of millennial madness for the coming decade. As one observer has commented, the approach of the year 2000 will undoubtedly bring "a synergistic climb toward panic" that will produce social effects that are both "substantial" and "potentially dangerous."[7] I can think of eight reasons Christians should maintain millennial sanity in the coming years. First, over the past 2,000 years, the track record of those who have predicted and/or expected "the end" has been _100 percent wrong._ The history of doomsday predictions is little more than a history of dashed expectations. Though it is _possible_ we are living in the last days, it is also possible that Christ's second coming is a long way off. Second, those who succumb to millennial madness may end up making harmful decisions for their lives. Selling one's possessions and heading for the mountains, purchasing bomb shelters, stopping education, leaving family and friends -- these aredestructive actions that can _ruin_ one's life. Third, Christians who succumb to millennial madness (for example, by expecting the rapture to occur by a specific date) may end up damaging their faith in the Bible (especially prophecy) when their expectations fail. Fourth, if one loses confidence in the prophetic portions of Scripture, biblical prophecy ceases to be a motivation to purity and holiness in daily life (_see,_ e.g., Titus 2:12-14). Fifth, Christians who succumb to millennial madness may damage the faith of _new_ and/or _immature_ believers when predicted events fail to materialize. Sixth, millennial soothsayers tend to be sensationalistic, and sensationalism is unbefitting to a Christian. Christ calls His followers to live _soberly_ and _alertly_ as they await His coming (Mark 13:32-37). Seventh, Christians who get caught up in millennial madness can do damage to the cause of Christ. Humanists enjoy scorning Christians who have put stock in end-time predictions (especially when specific dates have been attached to specific events). Why give "ammo" to the enemies of Christianity? Eighth, the timing of end-time events is in God's hands, and we haven't been given the details (Acts 1:7). As far as the Second Coming is concerned, I close with the sound advice of David Lewis: "It is better to live as if Jesus were coming today and yet prepare for the future as if He were not coming for a long time. Then you are ready for time and eternity."[8] ------------- 1 Frederick Marten, _The Story of Human Life and Doomsday,_ summarized in _Critique,_ June-September 1989, 65. 2 _Ibid._ 3 Bill Lawren, "Are You Ready for Millennial Fever?" _Utne Reader,_ March/April 1990, 96. 4 _Emergence,_ Dell, 1984, 19. 5 _Economic Advisor,_ 28 Feb. 1983. 6 LeSEA, 1987, 74. 7 James Oberg, quoted by Lawren, 97. 8 _Prophecy Intelligence Digest_ 6, no. 3, 3. ------------- End of document, CRJ0043A.TXT (original CRI file name), (an article from the Viewpoint column of the Christian Research Journal, Fall 1990, page 39) The Editor-in-Chief of the Christian Research Journal is Elliot Miller. (A special note of thanks to Bob and Pat Hunter for their help in the preparation of this ASCII file for BBS circulation.) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1994 by the Christian Research Institute. ---------------------------------------------------------------- COPYRIGHT/REPRODUCTION LIMITATIONS: This data file is the sole property of the Christian Research Institute. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may be reproduced only in its entirety for circulation as "freeware," without charge. All reproductions of this data file must contain the copyright notice (i.e., "Copyright 1994 by the Christian Research Institute"). This data file may not be used without the permission of the Christian Research Institute for resale or the enhancement of any other product sold. This includes all of its content with the exception of a few brief quotations not to exceed more than 500 words. If you desire to reproduce less than 500 words of this data file for resale or the enhancement of any other product for resale, please give the following source credit: Copyright 1994 by the Christian Research Institute, P.O. Box 500-TC, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92693. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Christian Research Journal is published quarterly by the Christian Research Institute (CRI) -- founded in 1960 by the late Dr. Walter R. Martin. While CRI is concerned with and involved in the general defense of the faith, our area of research specialization is limited to elements within the modern religious scene that compete with, assault, or undermine biblical Christianity. These include cults (that is, groups which deny essential Christian doctrines such as the deity of Christ and the Trinity); the occult, much of which has become focused in the contemporary New Age movement; the major world religions; and aberrant Christian teachings (that is, teachings which compromise or confuse essential biblical truth). Regular features of the Journal include "Newswatch," witnessing tips and book reviews. YOURS FOR THE ASKING Did you know that CRI has a wealth of information on various topics that is yours for the asking? In fact, a free subscription to the Christian Research Newsletter is yours if you contact CRI and ask for one saying that you found out about the offer from this computer text file. We offer a wide variety of articles and fact sheets free of charge. Write us today for information on these or other topics. Our first-rate research staff will do everything possible to help you. Christian Research Institute P.O. Box 500-TC San Juan Capistrano, CA 92693 (714) 855-9926 ******************************************** The Coming World Government By Dr. Jack Van Impe The United Nations' growing army Since Boutros Boutros-Ghali became United Nations secretary-general in 1992, the military forces of the world organization have expanded exponentially. "Then there were 4,000 peacekeepers worldwide," writes Michael Ignatieff in a New Yorker profile of Boutros-Ghali. "Now, a mere three years later, there are more than 70,000. Wherever the secretary-general goes, he commands assets on the ground which most heads of state would envy: tanks, troops, helicopters, Landcruisers, satellite dishes, convoys of trucks. Twenty years ago, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees consisted of some lawyers in Geneva revising and amending the international conventions concerning refugees. Now it is a global rapid-reaction force capable of putting 50,000 tents into an airfield anywhere within 24 hours." The August article continues: "The United Nations once oversaw discrete development projects. Now it takes over the political and administrative infrastructure of entire nations.... Well-paid civil servants from a dozen countries rush from meeting to meeting in white Landcruisers. These lords of poverty do not see themselves as the new imperialists of the post-Cold War era. They talk the jargon of development: building 'local capacity,' strengthening 'indigenous initiative.' But there is an imperial premise at work here: wealthy strangers are taking upon themselves the right to rule over those too poor, too conflict-ridden, to rule themselves." Globalists using environmental issues A study of little-known official U.S. and United Nations documents reveals the alarming pace of plans to use environmental concerns to promote world government. Take, for example, the Global Biodiversity Assessment, mandated by the U.N.'s Convention on Biological Diversity treaty. Here are some highlights from the GBA's many thousands of pages: * "Societies dominated by Islam, and especially Christianity have gone farthest in setting humans apart from nature.... In the process ... nature (has) lost its sacred qualities." (Section 8.3.5) * "... Population growth has exceeded the capacity of the biosphere ... to sustain it.... An 'agricultural world' in which most human beings are peasants, should be able to support 5 to 7 billion people. A reasonable estimate for an industrialized world society at the present North American material standard of living would be 1 billion." (Section 9.2.3.2) * "Representative areas of all major ecosystems in a region need to be reserved, that blocks should be as large as possible (up to 25 million acres each), that buffer zones should be established around core areas, and that corridors should connect these areas. This basic design is central to the recently proposed 'Wildlands Project' in the United States." Clearly, this document is laying the groundwork for a secular world authority that will control the population by any means necessary. It is worth noting that the "Wildlands Project" referred to recommends "that at least half of the land area of the 48 conterminous states ... be encompassed in core reserves and inner corridor zones ... within the next few decades. During the initial stages of park and reserve establishment, there may be a transition phase while local inhabitants are provided with options for relocation outside of the area." In other words, what this plan calls for is conservation of natural resources. The U.S. plan, meanwhile, would serve as a model for a worldwide population control effort. (Daniel 7:23 and Revelation 13:7, 16-18) Progress of European Union According to estimates by a British think tank, two Europeans in three will be participating in complete monetary union by 1999 - only four short years from now. Projections by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research show that by the end of 1997, six countries will meet the four main convergence criteria set out in the Maastricht treaty. That core group consists of France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and Denmark - which accounts for 56 percent of the European Union's population (370 million) and slightly more than 60 percent of its gross domestic product ($7,400 billion). (Daniel 7:20) Word for word Is world government being actively promoted by powerful people in the West? Strobe Talbott is deputy U.S. secretary of state and a good friend of President Bill Clinton. Here's what he said in 1992 about the need for a New World Order: "Within the next hundred years nationhood as we know it will be obsolete; all states will recognize a single global authority. A phrase briefly fashionable in the mid-20th century - citizen of the world - will have assumed real meaning. All countries are basically social arrangements. No matter how permanent and even sacred they may seem at any one time, in fact they are all artificial and temporary." (Revelation 13:7) Jack Van Impe Ministries If you have a internet account, check out JVI's web site.... hhtp://twibp.com/~jvim ******************************************** "Pre-Wrath" Or "Pre-Trib" Rapture? By Dave Hunt This is the time of year when the world publicizes the birth of our Lord - but mostly in order to make merchandise of Him. Christmas is big business, generally promoted by godless merchants whose only interest is in using the occasion to make a profit. One day they will stand before the Christ of Christmas as their Judge. Rather than pointing the finger at others, however, each of us ought to examine carefully his own heart. Are we, too, attempting to use Christ for our own ends? Do we embrace Him merely as an escape from hell to heaven while basically living for self? Or are we truly eager for His will to be "done on earth as in heaven," beginning with complete submission of ourselves to Him in everything? Let this Christmas season be a solemn reminder that the One Who was born in Bethlehem is soon to return to this earth in power and great glory to execute judgment. First, however, He will take His own to His Father's house of "many mansions," where "we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ" (2 Cor. 5:10). Then will come that heavenly marriage and honeymoon. We could be caught up at any moment to meet Him in the air. That "blessed hope" causes this earth to lose its attraction, purifies our lives and motivates us to win the lost because we believe the time is short. Our removal from earth to heaven will allow the Antichrist to be revealed to rule over the revived Roman Empire. It has been exciting to see the worldwide dimensions of that "last days" kingdom begin to take shape. We have noted that the collapse of communism opened the door for the fulfillment of a dream first voiced by Gorbachev and the Pope: a United Europe extending "from the Atlantic to the Urals." From that base of power a "new world order" will emerge - a concept long ridiculed as Utopian nonsense but now accepted and even taken for granted. Talk of a new world order now falls naturally from the lips of President Bush and other world leaders, who seem unaware that their brave new world will be ruled by the Antichrist. Plans call for earth's division into ten regions (the "ten toes" of Nebuchadnezzar's image signifying the revived Roman Empire?), each with its own security council and a strategic strike force for maintaining peace and preventing a recurrence of events similar to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. Thus the stage is being set for the fulfillment of an amazing prophecy: "And in the days of these kings (represented by the ten toes) shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed... it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms" (Dan 2:44). Christ's birth in Bethlehem came at the precise time God had planned (Gal. 4:4) and, like His death, was intimately related to the Roman Empire. Likewise the revelation of the Antichrist will be at a pre-ordained time (2 Thess. 2:6) and will require the presence of the revived Roman Empire. It is only fitting that the evil Empire which crucified Christ should be revived so that He can destroy it at His Second Coming. We have previously given numerous reasons why the church must be raptured at the beginning of the seven year tribulation period. Once the dominant believe among evangelicals, the pre-trib rapture is falling increasingly into disfavor. The latest attack upon this belief is found in Marvin Rosenthal's "The Pre-Wrath Rapture of the Church: A New Understanding of the Rapture, the Tribulation and the Second Coming. " This book's novel ideas cannot be supported by Scripture, and Rosenthal's attempts to do so create numerous contradictions. Nevertheless, we have received so many letters asking about the book from people who were swayed by it that a brief critique seems necessary. Rosenthal, long a confirmed pretribulationalist, has abandoned that position and "now believes that the Church will have to endure the persecution of the Antichrist." His basic thesis is that the church will "not escaape all of the oppression of the 'Tribulation' period, "but" will escape the wrath of God, which will be poured our...during the second half of the 'Tribulation' period." Numerous problems immediately arise. Since the Antichrist, according to Rosenthal, must appear first, the church is no longer watching and waiting for Christ but for Antichrist. Moreover, even after the Antichrist takes control of the earth the church cannot look for Christ until she has suffered considerably under that "Wicked" one. If Rosenthal is correct, then one can no longer expect Christ at any moment. Imminency has been lost, and with it the "blessed hope" that sustained believers for centuries. If the church must remain on earth to face Antichrist, then Christians would refuse to take his mark or to worship his image. As a result, they would all be put to death. We are told: "And it was given unto him (Antichrist) to make war with the saints and to overcome them...and he(the false prophet) had power to...cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed...and that no man might buy or sell, save (except) he that had the mark...of the beast...(Rev. 13:7, 15-18) Clearly the church, Christ's bride, must have been removed, for the Antichrist could not make war with and overcome her against whom our Lord said, "the gates of hell shall not prevail" (Matt 16:18). Then who are these "saints?" They can only be those who have not come under the strong delusion (2 Thess 2:10-12) because they previously never heard and rejected the Gospel. Millions will believe in Christ during the Great Tribulation - and they will pay for their new-found faith with their lives. John tells us: "After this I beheld...(in heaven) a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues...before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes...These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." (Rev. 7:9-14) A "pre-wrath rapture" would hardly be a "blessed hope." In fact, it would be a non-event, for there would be few if any Christians left alive to rapture at that time. Could any Christian take Antichrist's mark and thus survive to be raptured? Indeed not! Revelation 14:9-10 makes it clear that those who "worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark" will be consiged to hell. In building his unbiblical thesis, Rosenthal falls into a number of other errors. He insists that 2 Peter 3:10-11 "is not talking of total annihilation of the earth" because Peter earlier said that the world of Noah's day "perished," yet it was not totally annihilated. The analogy fails, for Peter includes in the future judgment the heavens, which he specifically says "shall pass away with a great noise" while the very elements of which all is composed "shall melt with the fervent heat." It certainly sounds like the destruction of the entire universe, during which "the earth also and the works therein shall be burned up." In its place, God will create a "new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" (v13). It is gross error to interpret specific language calling for the complete consumption by fire of the entire universe as merely a surface cleansing of the earth because that was what happened at the flood. He also suggests that this "cleansing of the earth" will take place before the Millenium whereas Revelation 21 clearly places it at the end of the Millenium. Rosenthal goes to the non-canonical book of Maccabees to try to prove that the "falling away" that Paul refers to in 2 Thess 2:3 is a Jewish apostasy and has nothing to do with the church. Yet Paul is writing to Christians, not to Jews. He has already given warning many times about the coming "falling away," as have Peter and Jude. They repeatedly refer to apostasy among professing Christians. The writer to Hebrews deals with the same theme in chapter 6. To suggest that because the book of Maccabees refers to a Jewish apostasy, this is then what Paul is talking about, is insupportable. Most of those whom Paul was addressing at Thessalonica were converted Greeks who would have no reason to associate "apostasy" with an incident in Jewish history involving Antiochus Epiphanes, a story they probably didn't even know. Moreover, Israel was already in apostasy when Paul was writing: she had rejected and crucified her Messiah and was persecuting Christians. So to suggest that Paul is declaring that some future apostasy is coming to an already apostate and unbelieving Israel is illogical. One error leads to another. The author asserts that signing the pact with the Antichrist "will be Israel's great apostasy" (pp. 205-207). That an already spiritually apostate Israel would be going into apostasy by signing a political/military pact with the world ruler again makes no sense. Moreover, Paul says that the apostasy precedes the revelation of the Antichrist (2 Thess 2:3). To avoid the obvious contradiction of having Israel sign a pact with Antichrist before he's been revealed, Rosenthal proposes a new meaning for "revealed." He says that it doesn't mean when Antichrist steps from obscurity into power, but when he puts his image in the temple and Israel recognizes that he is the Antichrist. Yet Paul says that the Antichrist will be revealed not through the placing of his image in the temple, but when "He who now hinders (i.e. the Holy Spirit in Christians)...is taken out of the way..." (2 Thess 2:7,8). How could apostate Jews who have rejected Christ be hated of all nations for Christ's names sake?! It is one thing to recognize that the Antichrist is evil, and something else entirely to believe that Jesus is the Christ. That will only happen to Israel when He appears to rescue her at Armageddon (Zech. 12:10). Rosenthal suggests that "the Antichrist is a man who lived before...He will literally be raised from the dead: (p.208). In fact, he suggests that this man ruled an ancient kingdom that impacted Israel, so he has been dead for at least 2,500 years. Marvin tries to proves this "resurrection" from the Scripture which says "I saw one of his heads a though it were wounded to death" (Rev 13:3. Not to recover from what seemed to John "as though it were" a mortal wound is a far cry from bringing back to life a totally decomposed 2,500-year-old corpse! He then uses the same scripture to say that this man will suffer a mortal head wound in the middle of the 7-year pact with Israel and be raised from the dead. By what rule of exegesis does one prove two contradictory theories from the same scripture? Lack of space prevents dealing with the many other errors in "The Pre-wrath Rapture." Christ's repeated warnings that He would come at a time when one would least expect Him (Matt. 24:44; Luke 12:40, 21:34-36) cannot be reconciled with Rosenthal's thesis. Surely as Antichrist's persecution and slaughter of the church proceeded, the dwindling number of surviving Christians would long for and expect the rapture. Yet Christ depicted conditions upon earth during the last moments before His catching away of His bride as a time of such ease and boredom that: "While the bridegroom tarried they all (even the five 'wise' virgins) slumbered and slept" (Matt 25:5). Either Christ was mistaken or Rosenthal is. Even though God's wrath had not yet been poured out, a church that was enduring Antichrist's wrath, involving the most vicious persecution and slaughter of Christians in history, would not be sleeping any more than a church that found itself in the midst of Armageddon! Rosenthal's "Pre-wrath" theory thus suffers from the same contradictions as a "post-trib" rapture. Much of the Christmas scene promotes false concepts that will help Antichrist pretend to be "Christ." The promise of "Peace on earth" announced by the angels at the birth of Christ will not be realized until He personally reigns from David's throne in Jerusalem as the prophets foretold. Be not deceived by any call for a "new world order" that promises peace without the presence of the Prince of Peace. May His joy be your strength as you seek to glorify Him in your body and spirit, which are His (1 Cor. 6:20). Let us maintain a pure witness until His return. He's coming soon! The Berean Call is a free newsletter sent out to anyone who requests it. Just write to: The Berean Call P.O. Box 7019 Bend Oregon 97708 ******************************************* The Coming Mark Of The Beast & Rise Of Antichrist by Alan Yusko We are living in days when the antichrist is about to come upon the world scene. After the rapture of the Church the restrainer will be removed and the antichrist will be able to rise to power. He will come to power and make a 7 year covenant with Israel. (note 1 week is 7 years in the below verse) Daniel 9:27 27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make [it] desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. In the 'midst of the week' (after 3 1/2 years of the total 7 year period) the antichrist will commit the abomination of desolation in the rebuilt temple in Israel. Right now Israel has plans to rebuild the temple but due to political pressures they are held back. The day is coming when Israel will have the chance to rebuild and they will quickly seize it. Plans are in the works to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and restore the daily sacrifice. Right now in Israel the temple priests are being trained in all aspects of temple ceremony and sacrifices. When they are able the daily sacrifice will be resumed. While the temple is being rebuilt the sacrifices can be performed. All this can begin quickly. After the rapture of the Church, the antichrist will come to power and he will confirm a 7 year covenant with Israel. He will break that covenant by entering the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem and stop the daily sacrifice. At this point he will sit down in the temple and claim to be god anddemand that worship from all men. The Bible says: 2 Thessalonians 2:3 3. Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. The antichrist will claim to be God and try to exalt himself above everything that is worshipped while he seeks worship from men. Notice that the antichrist will oppose God and try to exalt himself above God. He will be sitting in the temple of God and claim to the world that he is God. There will be all kinds of satanic miracles to confirm these things. All who have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ will accept the antichrist and will bend the knee and worship him. Daniel 8:25 25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify [himself] in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand. During the days of the antichrist the occult will be everywhere. Today we are seeing a rise in the occult with the New Age Movement. There is really nothing 'new' about the New Age. It is just old fashioned occultism. In the days of the antichrist the godless, the vile, and evil will be greatly exalted. The antichrist will not have to wage war to conquer the world. He will do it through PEACE. He will be a master deceiver and negotiator and he: 'by peace shall destroy many'. At the end of his reign when the Lord Jesus Christ returns, the antichrist will stand up against the Lord. He will be quickly destroyed. Matthew 24 21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. God will not be silent when all these evil things are happening during the time of the antichrist. The abomination of desolation committed by the antichrist will cause the wrath of God to be poured out on the world. The next 3 1/2 years will be a time of 'great tribulation' on the world. Through history men have come to power and claimed to be God. The Lord Jesus warned that men would make that claim. The goal is deception and many men have gathered followers unto themselves while they made crazy claims. Matthew 24:4 4. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. 5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. When the antichrist claims to be God, he is the climax of the above prophecy. All others who made that claim were only shadows or forerunners of the antichrist. Many men have gathered a following and made claims to be Christ. They are only antichrists. However the antichrist will make that claim one day and demand that men worship him or die. At this point the antichrist will demand worship and begin a massive killing holocaust to anyone who refuses worship. All men will be required to give their allegiance/worship to the antichrist by receiving the mark of the beast. To receive the mark of the beast a person must 'willingly' worship the beast. At that point he is lost forever and can never be saved. The antichrist, the false prophet, and the governments of the world will kill all those who refuse the mark of the beast. Those who refuse the mark of the beast will have their heads cut off. Notice the group below who are before God and they died by being beheaded. If someone does not worship the antichrist and take the mark of the beast, the penalty will be death. Revelation 20:4 4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and [I saw] the souls of them that were BEHEADED for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had NOT WORSHIPPED THE BEAST, NEITHER HIS IMAGE, NEITHER HAD RECEIVED [his] MARK UPON THEIR FOREHEADS, OR IN THEIR HANDS; and theylived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. Revelation 12 17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Many have died for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They faceddeath knowing that the evil people can only kill the body and thenthey can do no more. Those who do the killing face a far worse fate.They will not only have their body destroyed but they will die spiritually being cut off from God for all eternity. Matthew 10:28 28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. So far we have seen how the antichrist will rise to power afterthe rapture and confirm a 7 year covenant with Israel. In themiddle of that covenant he will break it. He will enter the rebuilttemple in Jerusalem and claim to be God and demand all men toworship or die. This is the abomination of desolation and willtrigger the 'great tribulation' when the final judgments will be poured out on the earth by God. Next lets look at at the rise of the antichrist as shown in the Bible in Revelation chapter 13. Revelation 13:1 1. And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. 2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as [the feet] of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. After the rapture the antichrist will rise from the 'sea' ofnations and come to power. The characteristic of his kingdom will beone of blasphemy. He will blaspheme God and those in heaven andthose who belong to God. The beast will come to power very quickly.Look at verse 2. He is like unto a leopard which means that he willmove very quickly and deadly. His feet were like a bear and willdestroy any that stand in his rapid rise to power. He has a mouthlike a lion and will have a 'roar'. "Be sober, be vigilant; becauseyour adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seekingwhom he may devour:" (1 Peter 5:8) Finally who will give the antichrist his power, his seat (to rulethe kingdoms of the world), and his great authority ----> the devilhimself. The antichrist will be possessed by Satan and directlycontrolled during these closing days before the Second Coming of theLord Jesus Christ. 3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. 4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who [is] like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? 5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty [and] two months. The antichrist will be assassinated after 3 1/2 years of the 7 yearcovenant he confirms with the nation of Israel. It will be asatatanic miracle and he will come back to life. This 'resurrection'will cause the world to 'wonder' and be amazed at the beast. He willbe like a superman to the world and will be loved and worshipped.Those who reject Jesus will be amazed by this man and think he isinvincible. They will say 'who is able to make war with him?' He will speak 'proud' things and he will blaspheme God and everythingthat is sacred. He will have permission to continue his reign for 42 months (that is 3 1/2 years before Jesus returns). 6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. His blasphemies are repeated again and again in Scripture. Whatwe see today with the rock groups blaspheming God in their lyrics isonly a forerunner of the soon day when the antichrist will reign.Those days will be great days of blasphemy against God and hispeople. Not only will the antichrist blaspheme but also will thoseof his kingdom. Blasphemy will be transmitted over the airwaves byTV, radio, news shows etc.. Again the mockery of God we see todayin music, TV, movies etc is only a forerunner of the day when theantichrist will rule. At that time there will be no restraint andgodless filth direct from hell will be readily available for all. 7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. The antichrist will start a killing campaign and kill as many ofGod's people as he can. He will literally rule the world and imposehis laws and morality throughout the world...killing all he can whobelong to the Lord Jesus Christ. 8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. ALL, ALL, ALL, I repeat, ALL who reject the Lord Jesus will openlyembrace the antichrist. There is no middle ground. A person eitheraccepts the Lord Jesus Christ OR he will accept the devil and his antichrist. 9 If any man have an ear, let him hear. This is a direct warning from God. Listen and be saved or faceperdition in the lake of fire. Hear what God is saying or be lost and spend your eternity in hell. 10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. Many will die during the 7 year reign of the antichrist. Theworld population which is currently at about 6 billion will bereduced to only a few million (if that) when the Lord Jesus Christreturns to earth. During those days it will be a literal holocauston believers. They will be 'open season' for killing in those daysby those who willingly accept the mark of the beast. 11. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. 12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, 14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by [the means of] those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. Above we have the introduction to the companion to theantichrist. He is known as the false prophet. He is sort of asatanic John the Baptist who will perform miracles and cause men toworship the beast. He will not seek his own worship but rather willforce men to receive the mark of the beast and worship theantichrist. Those days will be days of great deception. In fact if anyonerejects the Lord Jesus then he is already deceived. The devil wantsto take people to hell and he does that be deceiving them to rejectthe free salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. 15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. An image of the beast will be setup and it will have supernaturalpower to speak. Again the goal is to get people to worship thebeast. If a person refuses to worship the image of the beast theywill be killed. 16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here we have the fulfillment of the one world government and theone world economic system. It will be a cashless system driven bycomputers. Today the world is rapidly putting in place all the tools needed to implement the mark of the beast, one worldgovernment, and cashless society. A person without the mark of the beast will not be able to transactany business transaction. He will not be able to work, to buy goods(food, rent etc), or sell goods without the mark of the beast. Theonly catch is to get that mark a person must worship the beast. Matthew 16:26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Many will exchange their eternal soul for the mark of the beast. By taking the mark people will have their physical needs TEMPORARILYsatisfied...but they will be lost eternally. What will happen to those who receive the mark of the beast by worshipping the devil's antichrist? Once they have received the mark they have sealed their eternity. They are lost and cannot ever be saved. They will burn forever in the lake of fire. Keep in mind that in order to receive the mark of the beast a person must willingly worship the beast. No one will be tricked into secretly accepting the mark. They will have to make a open, willing decision to bend the knee and worship the beast. See the verses below: Revelation 16:2 2 And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth;and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which HAD THE MARK OF THE BEAST, and [upon] them which worshipped his image. Revelation 14:9 9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If ANY man WORSHIP THE BEAST and his image, AND RECEIVE [his] MARK IN HIS FOREHEAD, OR IN HIS HAND, 10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. The above verses are pretty clear as to what will happen to all who receive the mark of the beast and worship him. They are forever LOST and have nothing to look forward to except judgment! What will be the end of the antichrist, his kingdom, and his mark? Look what happens when the Lord Jesus returns: Revelation 19 19 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. 20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. 21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which [sword] proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. 2 Thessalonians 2:8 8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: When the Lord Jesus returns the antichrist and false prophet willbe thrown into the lake of fire. His kingdom will be destroyed andthe Lord Jesus will setup His millennial Kingdom bringing in a timeof great peace and prosperity to the earth. What will happen to the devil, Satan when the Lord Jesus returns? Revelation 20:1 1. And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which isthe Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. The devil will be bound and thrown into the pit for the duration of the 1000 yearKingdom that the Lord Jesus will setup. He will be allowed out of the pit at the end of the 1000 year millennium to deceive those on earth who have rejected the Lord Jesus. Even though the Lord Jesus will be physically present on earth for all to see, many will still reject Him. The devil will deceive those people and the rebellion will be quickly destroyed and Satan will then be thrown forever into the lake of fire. What about those who refuse the mark of the beast during the 7 year reign of antichrist? Most will be killed for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God encourages them with the following promise: Revelation 20:4 4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and [I saw] the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had NOT worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received [his] mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. When the Lord Jesus returns to earth He will setup His earthly Kingdom and reign for 1000 years. Those few believers who survive will go into the millennium and repopulate the earth. God will lift the curse and people will again live for 1000 years during the Kingdom. The millennium and will be a great time of blessing on the earth. However before the blessings of the millennium, the world has to go through the 7 year reign of the antichrist. These will be the darkest days in human history. These days will begin sometime after the rapture of the church, when Jesus removes the Church from earth and takes her home to heaven. Luke 21 28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. Be encouraged...as we can see the coming 'shadow' of these days coming we should be encouraged. Soon and very soon the Lord Jesus will rapture His Church from earth to be with Him in heaven. What a blessed hope for the Spirit-reborn Christian! 1 Thessalonians 4 15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive [and] remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words. This tract may be freely copied and posted on BBS's or printed. The Seed Sowers BBS (416) 498-5259/5962 ******************************************* The Hot Zone By: Todd Strandberg The Rapture Index.. http://www.novia.net/~todd/ Current events that are fast moving and supportive of Bible prophecy. * Vladimir Zhironovsky is planning on a last minute barrage of campaigning right up to Sunday's elections. He blames any projections of his party not doing as well, as his 1993 showing, on a "Jewish mentality." He also told reporters that he sleeps in the nude, probable to add to his shock value. It would in one way be a funny thing, if he did well in this election and then won the Presidential election in June. To see how poor Clinton and the rest of the world would react truly would be memorable, if it wasn't for the fact that Russia is a heavily armed country and Vladimir is a little off balance. The connection between Gog and Mr. Zhironovsky is what we're really looking for here. Time will only tell. * ABC has decided to move Roseanne back an hour, one night, so it won't be so much into the family hours. Why, because the show plans on airing a gay marriage. * The race is on for Sunday's Russian parliamentary elections. The candidates are flooding the airways with campaign messages. The Russian voters, what little voting they ever get do, are very unpredictable. The communists are projected to walk away with the election, but we can only wait and see. * The Earthquake that shook southern Israel Nov 22, has been reported as the strongest one to hit area in more than 100 years. Monday, another less powerful one hit the same region. * Israel and Syria may have an agreement, over the Golan Heights, in the making. Peres of Israel, could be ready to give into Syria's demands. If Israel moves forward and signs a peace agreement with its northern neighbor, a setup for the Gog war may be in full play. * A new outbreak of the deadly virus Ebola has occurred in the African country of Ivory Coast. * Vladimir Zhirinovsky of Russia, promised he would napalm rebellious villages if he was to gain power, in the up come elections. Zhirinovsky has made statements like this for the past two years now. It will be interest to see how he does in the Dec 17 election. Because he so closely matches the Gog of Ezk 38 and 39, a close eye needs to be kept on him. * World wheat prices have reached a 21 year high. The supply remain very tight but no real shortage are evident. If shortages do a arise, especially in Russia, civil and political unrest could be a result. * Our buddies the Russians, lately, have been shadowing our submarine base and carriers with their own subs. This type of sneaking around activity is more in line with Cold War tactics. Several men who claim to have visions from God, foresee Russia, someday attacking the US with nuclear submarines. * A small bomb has gone off in the Russian Duma, another Russian Government official has been killed, and terrorism is reported all throughout the country. All this unrest is playing into the hand of the Nationalists and Communists. These two groups, are looked on as law and order choices. The vast number of choices, in the Russian election, may end up working against the parties that support democracy. In order to win a seat in the Duma, every party needs to get at least 5 percent of the vote. Only a few parties will reach this goal. There is now some 50 parties in the mix. The Communists may capture 45 percent of the seats and they can do this with just 18 percent of the popular vote. * The Russian Defense Minister on a trip to Israel flew over the Golan Heights. This is where the Russian forces will likely invade Israel. It may be he wanted to checkout his invasiion route. I'm sure, the real reason has to do with the conflict between Israel and Syria over the Golan. * The Stock Market has shot up all year. Right now it's at very dangerous levels. With P/E ratings at record lows, any bad news could send the markets crashing. * Israel faced a vote in the UN and lost. The vote was about who controls the city of Jerusalem. Israel was the only country voting against the measure. Someday the nations of the world will invade Israel. The reason for this invasion will have something to do with the control of God's city, Jerusalem. * The number of people who are in jail is at a record high. The number stands at 1.1 million inmates. The yearly numbers show a 9 percent increase, over 1994's figures. * A very powerful 8.0 earthquake rocks the Kuril islands. The quake occurred in a sparsely populated area. * Washington state has experienced record floods in the in Seattle area. * The Church of England has proposed the sanctioning of people living together. The idea is to let people see if they are compatible, before they marry. It's bad enough when the world looses its moral compass but when the church follows suit, then we're really in trouble. * Queen Elizabeth has become the first British monarch in 400 years to attend a Catholic service in her own country. This helps move forward, the push toward a one world religion. * Vladimar Zhirnovsky "the bad boy of Russian politics," said he's going to run for president. If he was to win next June he would be the Gog of Ezk 38 and 39. As it stands now, the Russian people would have to declared insane before this would happen. * A volcano named Cerro Negro erupted in Nicaragua. The later quarter of this years is getting heavy with volcanic activity. * Ireland joins the rest of the pack and legalized divorce. If we are to have a continual decline in morality up to the return of Jesus. It would seem a must that Ireland move this way. Someday the scenario may have Ireland, as one of the last to legalize prostitution. * With the Bosnian situation at a resolution, the focus will turn back toward the Middle East peace plan. Peres, the leader of Israel, is flying to Washington in Dec. to talk to Clinton, about the peace plan. * Ukraine is turning over SS-19 missiles to Russia. If the Communism make a come back in Russia, a nation that does not have nuclear weapons, will be a whole lot easier to reclaim, than one with nukes. * Iran and Iraq are drawing closer together year by year. The two have been bitter enemies ever since the early 1980's. having Iran and Iraq on good terms with each other, will be a must for the future battle known as the Gog War. * Right now, everything seem to be on hold, ahead of the elections in Russia next month. The outcome will set the tone for the June Presidential election and may show that Eastern Europe is trending back towards Communism. * A strong earthquake strikes the Gulf of Aqaba, just south of Israel. It is a rare thing to have strong quakes in this region. * Lech Walesa looses to a to a former Communist leader. Walesa started the movement that brought down the Communist Government of Poland. He ironically has been beaten, by the forces,, he once triumphed over. The trend is not isolated to Poland. Russia next Dec 17 may do the same thing by electing communist, to a majority of the seats, in the Russian Duma. * Syria has said it is ready to proceed with peace negotiations. This is a positive sign but Syria is a tough nation to negotiate with. If a final agreement is made this would complete the circle and set the stage for the several other prophecies to be manifested. * Russia's gain harvest remains at a 30 years low. Reserves in the many areas are at an all time low. The issue has become so important, that the military has sent troops in, to help with the harvest. If food shortages arise, they could complicate the Dec and June elections. * Procter & Gamble and two other companies have pulled ad money from a number of trash talk shows. There hasn't been any reaction from the shows themselves. Also there doesn't appear to be any financial problems for the shows, because several other advertisers may fill-in the void. * The situation in Israel is primed for end time activity now. 70 percent of the people are for the peace plan. The labor party is now far ahead of the opposition, where as before it was behind. The Government is now blocking right wing Jews for entering the country. All this is fallout from the Rabin assassination last week. Peres, the acting Prime Minister, could have giving prophecy watchers a heart attack today, if the 5 year peace time table he proposed included 2 more years to it. (The antichrist will offer a 7 year peace agreement.) * A volcano with the name Rincon de la Vieja, erupts in Costa Rica. 95 has already been a banner year for the natural disaster categories. * The Jehovah's Witnesses have stated they are ending their forecasts of Armageddon. They see this event as being no longer nigh. After 3 major wrong predictions this century, the watchtower has decided to call it quits. This organization, which is highly misguided by the forces of darkness, ends the very speculation that it was founded on. It is possible that the demonic angels at work here, are changing the mission of the Jehovah's witnesses because they realize that the actual date of Armageddon is soon to come. * Bill Clinton would beat Bob Dole in a Presidential race if held today. Clinton makes a better player in the end time events then Dole, Powell, or any other Republican as it stands now. * It would appears that Yeltsin will not be able to campaign for his party in the upcoming Dec 17 elections. Not having your leader to rally the forces can put your side at a disadvantage. In Russia's case it may be the difference between a free society and ones that's totalitarian. * The assassination of Prime Minister Rabin of Israel Will likely give the peace plan a big push forward. Because the perpetrator was a right-wing Jew who is against the peace plan. This action will discredit the opposition and motivate those for peace to go forward. The scripture "saying peace, peace when there is no peace" Jer. 6:14, comes to mind when you think of what is really transpiring in Israel. With Rabin as the movements martyr, all major sticking point should be overcome. A peace plan with Syria right now is the most difficult obstacle. With ever major power's leader or representative at the funeral. The prophecy " I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone" Zec 12:3 also comes into one's memory. It is amazing that a nation the size of New Jersey could be constantly in the news. That is until you realize that God has his hand and name on this tiny country. ***************************************** Prophe-Zine News Bites The United Nations -- An Enemy In Our Midst By: Phyllis Schlafly The 50th Anniversary of the United Nations should be a cause for mourning not celebration. It is a monument to foolish hopes, embarrassing compromises, betrayal of our servicemen, and a steady stream of insults to our nation. It is a Trojan Horse that carries the enemy into our midst and lures Americans to ride under alien insignia to fight and die in faraway lands. How could anything good be expected of an organization whose organizing Secretary General, presiding at the San Francisco conference in 1945, was the convicted spy-perjurer Alger Hiss? He wasalso the principal author of the UN Charter, which was drafted at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference. How could anything good be expected after a deal between Roosevelt and Stalin at the 1945 Yalta Conference gave three votes to the Soviet Union and only one to every other country? The UN was marketed to Americans as the vehicle to keep world peace. Funny thing, the admission ticket to UN membership was having declared war against Germany and Japan. The Great United Nations War, a.k.a. the Korean police action of 1950-53, taught Americans the tragic meaning of the phrase "no-win war." It's no wonder we couldn't win it (despite the brilliance of General Douglas MacArthur and the courage of 54,246 U.S. soldiers who paid with their lives) when the number-two UN official, the Secretary of Political and Security Council Affairs, was one Soviet Communist after another. The secret deal that a Communist would always hold this UN position with authority over all UN military, political and nuclear questions had been made between Secretary of State Edward Stettinius (when Alger Hiss was his adviser) and Molotov in London in 1945, and was revealed in the book In the Cause of Peace, written by the second UN Secretary General, Trygve Lie (pp. 45-46). As the years went on, the UN continued as a headquarters for Soviet espionage and a platform from which the U.S.S.R. could spread its subversive propaganda. UN credentials were the convenient "cover" for traveling back and forth between the United States and the Soviet Union. The extravagant lifestyle of UN bureaucrats and employees and their tax-free salaries and benefits were, of course, mostly funded by the U.S. taxpayers. The conniving politicians from tiny countries used the UN as a conduit to bleed the U.S. taxpayers for money sent, not to their poverty-stricken populations, but to the ruling clique of cutthroats who had killed off their opposition. The UN spawned a score of auxiliary agencies run by devious demagogues who dreamed up ever more exotic ways of spending U.S. dollars. UNESCO, which even had the effrontery to write curricula for U.S. schools, finally achieved a level of official corruption so egregious that the Reagan Administration pulled the United States out of it altogether. The United Nations is constantly demanding that the United States sign and ratify more international treaties. Every one is a dagger pointed at our American Bill of Rights, our unique concept of federalism, and our national sovereignty. For example, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child would authorize a UN bureaucracy to supervise the relationship between parents and children under the excuse of protecting the rights of the child. Signed this year by the Clinton Administration and aggressively lobbied by the tax-exempt Children's Defense Fund (formerly chaired by Hillary Rodham Clinton), this treaty is a broadside attack on the rights of all Americans and should be rejected by the U.S. Senate. By 1990, the UN had become a laughing-stock, a sideshow where anti-American autocrats from around the world were paid plush salaries to insult the United States. Unfortunately, President George Bush rehabilitated the UN's reputation with his Gulf War and his rhetoric about the "New World Order." Now the UN and the Clinton Administration have been trying hard to get us into several foreign wars as a means of turning the UN into an international establishment that will field its own military forces. The UN and the Clinton Administration are using international women's conferences (e.g., Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, and next year's in Istanbul) to give the UN its separate power to tax and thereby assure its separate flow of revenues. Clinton talks glibly about UN "peacekeeping" operations, but he deploys our troops to foreign lands where there is no peace to keep and "peacekeepers" are used to fight wars. The United States has no business engaging our military forces in the fights in Bosnia, Somalia, Rwanda or Haiti. UN "peacekeeping" operations now cost over $3 billion a year, while our U.S. armed forces are subordinated to foreign commanders and foreign rules of engagement. That's obviously a Bill Clinton goal, which he set forth in his still-secret Presidential Decision Directive 25. That's obviously a UN goal, whose overpaid bureaucrats seek to set up the United Nations as a world government with its own police force and its own taxing authority. But that's not what Americans want. Fifty years is plenty of time to experiment with the UN charade. It's time to cut our losses and pull out before the UN does anymore damage to America. The Phyllis Schlafly Report Vol. 29, No. 4 * Box 618, Alton, Illinois 62002 * November 1995 Eagle Forum's Home Page: http://www.basenet.net/~eagle/eagle.html +++++++++++++++++++++++++ Patriotism Against the Law. By: Ray Gano According to short wave this bill by Conyers and Schumer must be stopped in its tracks. Basically, it says that patriots are a threat to unconstitutional government! This bill could also be used agianst Christains. It is interesting that the "Americans Eyes" have been diverted from this bill and other things that have happened because people were watching Newt and Bill argue over the budget. H. R. 2580 To guarantee a republican form of government to the States by preventing paramilitary violence. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES November 2, 1995 Mr. Schumer (for himself and Mr. Conyers) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To guarantee a republican form of government to the States by preventing paramilitary violence. ============================== Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the "Republican Form of Government Guarantee Act". SEC. 2. FINDINGS. Congress finds that-- (1) section 4 of article IV of the Constitution provides that the United States shall guarantee a republican form of government to the States; (2) organized criminal actions are an increasing threat to the republican form of government in some States; (3) people who are responsible for upholding the laws of the United States and the several States, or people who assist them, have been threatened, harassed, and assaulted because of these activities; (4) this violence is having a chilling effect on the democratic process because Americans are afraid to participate in town hall meetings, express their views publicly, or take part in the political process; (5) most victims are targeted solely because of their views or activism on controversial political issues such as gun control, abortion, environmental matters, or the role of government in society; (6) this violence is causing a breakdown of law and order in many parts of the United States; (7) this violence has increased in part because of unfounded exaggerations about the impact of recent firearms laws such as th Brady Law and the ban on assault weapons, as well as baseless conspiracy theories regarding the government; and (8) the climate of violence created by these criminals threatens to undermine republican government in some States. SEC. 3. PROTECTION AGAINST ASSAULT. Section 111(a) of title 18, United States Code, is amended-- (1) in paragraph (1), by inserting "who is an officer or employee of any State or local government, is assisting such an officer or employee in the performance of official duty, or is" after "any person"; and (2) in paragraph (2), by striking "designated in section 1114" and inserting "described in paragraph (1)". SEC. 4. INCREASED PENALTIES. (a) Assault.--Section 111 of title 18, United States Code, is amended (1) in subsection (a), by striking "shall, where" and all that follows through the end of the subsection and inserting "shall be punished as is provided in subsection (b)"; and (2) so that subsection (b) reads as follows: "(b) Penalties.--Whoever is convicted of an offense under this section shall be fined under this title and imprisoned not less than 2 nor more than 3 years, except that-- "(1) in the case of a second or subsequent offense the maximum term or imprisonment shall be not more than 5 years; and "(2) in the case of an offense committed with a deadly weapon, the offender shall be imprisoned not less than 8 nor more than 10 years.". (b) Extortion and Threats.-- (1) Interstate communications.--Section 875 of title 18, United States Code, is amended in subsection (c), by striking "not more than five years, or both" and inserting "not less than 2 nor more than 5 years". (2) Mailing threatening communications.--Section 876 of title 18, United States Code, is amended in the third undesignated paragraph, by striking "not more than five years, or both" and inserting "not less than 2 nor more than 5 years". SEC. 5. RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN A REPUBLICAN FORM OF GOVERNMENT; ENFORCEMENT. (a) Reaffirmation of Right.--Each person not otherwise disqualified, barred, or disabled by State or Federal law shall have the right to participate in a republican form of State government free from interference from unlawful violence and the reasonably perceived threat of unlawful violence. (b) Right To Participate Defined.--As used in subsection (a), the term "right to participate in a republican form of State government" means the right to-- (1) carry out the duties of a State, county, or local office to which the person has been duly elected or appointed; (2) lawfully assist any duly elected or appointed person described in paragraph (1) in carrying out such duties; (3) run for elective office, campaign for such office on one's own behalf, or campaign on behalf of another's candidacy, in accordance with applicable State and local laws; (4) initiate and campaign for any initiative, referendum, petition, or similar political exercise, in accordance with applicable State and local laws; (5) assemble peaceably to petition the Federal, State, or local government, or to attend any public forum concerning such Federal, State, or local government; and (6) exercise the rights guaranteed under article IV of the Constitution of the United States, and the 1st and 14th amendments thereto. (c) Enforcement.-- (1) In general.--A person whose right under subsection (a) is violated by any person or organization may bring an action in any United States district court against such other person or organization for damages, injunctive relief, and such other relief as the court deems appropriate. (2) Government remedy.--The chief executive officer of any State may bring an action in any United States district court located within that State for damages, injunctive relief, and such other relief as the court deems appropriate against any organization wherever located which unlawfully violates or which conspires, attempts, aids, or abets another person or organization to unlawfully violate the right under subsection (a) of any resident of that State. (3) Authority to award a reasonable attorney's fee.--In an action brought under paragraph (1) or (2), the court, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing plaintiff a reasonable attorney's fee as part of the costs. (4) Statute of limitations.--An action may not be brought under paragraph (1) or (2) after the 5-year period that begins with the date that the violation described in paragraph (1) is discovered. SEC. 6. LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINING. The Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretaries of Treasury, Agriculture, and the Interior, shall develop and implement a training program for Federal law enforcement personnel to enable such personnel to deal more effectively with politically motivated violence. SEC. 7. FEDERAL PAYMENTS WITHHELD. (a) Complaint.--If an agency determines that in any county any of that agency's employees or agents is being unlawfully physically prevented or impeded, by employees or agents of a State, county, or local government, from carrying out lawful duties, the agency may file a complaint with the Attorney General. (b) Escrow.--The Attorney General shall investigate the complaint, and if the Attorney General finds the complaint is meritorious, the Attorney General may place in escrow any payments that otherwise would be made to that county under the Payments in Lieu of Taxes Act of 1976 (31 U.S.C. 6901 et seq.), until such time as the Attorney General is satisfied that such interference has ceased. (c) Rules.--The Attorney General shall make rules governing the procedures used to carry out this section. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Poland dump Walesa, and elects another Communist Monday November 20 1995 In Warsaw, communist Aleksander Kwasniewski has been elected president of Poland, beating incumbent Lech Walesa, according to official results announced Monday. The head of the electoral commission told a news conference Kwasniewski won 51.7 percent of the vote, while Walesa received 48.3 percent. This is very interesting because we are seeing the Warsaw Pact come back together. This also gives Russia a stop off point and allies when the time comes to invade Israel. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Police Militarization Continues Message traffic originating from Combined Joint Task Force - Six J3, dated 141631Z JUL 95 (message ID 1951846), destined for all active duty Army Special Forces Groups, Navy and Air Force Special Operations units and support units, described unresourced counterdrug Mobile Training Team missions for Fiscal year 96. Information copies were sent to, among others, Operation Alliance (Ft. Bliss, TX), (a farce, since the unresourced requirements were forwarded through them to JTF-Six to begin with), Project Northstar (Buffalo, NY), and Office of the Secretary of Defense, OCDEP-S/OSD-ISA. An information copy to this last office is not necessarily ominous, but it is...interesting. The message also announced the JTF - Six Semiannual Planning Conference. The JTF - Six Semiannual Planning Conference was held at JTF - Six Headquarters on Biggs Army Airfield, Ft. Bliss, TX, and the Ft. Bliss NCO Club between 19 - 21 September 1995. During this conference, unit participation in FY 96 missions was solicited. Missions specifically directed to United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) continue the progressive militarization of local police departments. The missions designated for USASOC include fourteen Close Quarter Battle (CQB) and Advanced Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain (AMOUT) missions at the following locations: Burlington, VT Sheriff Patrol (09 Oct - 13 Oct 95) Niagara Falls, NY Sheriff Office (16 Oct - 20 Oct 95) Columbus, OH Police Department (16 Oct - 20 Oct 95) Atlantic City, NJ Police Department (23 Oct - 27 Oct 95) Rochester, NY Police Department (23 Oct - 27 Oct 95) N. Franklin Township, PA Police Department (30 Oct - 03 Nov 95) Philadelphia, PA (29 Jan - 02 Feb 96) Seattle, WA (11 Mar - 15 Mar 96) Steamwood, IL (18 Mar - 22 Mar 96) Montreal, QE (22 Apr - 26 Apr 96) Cambridge, OH Sheriff Patrol (06 May - 10 May 96) Keyes, ME (20 May - 24 May 96) Camp Ripley, MN (03 Jun - 07 Jun 96) Idaho (loc unspecified) (03 Jun - 07 Jun 96) The Rochester, NY Police Department also requested a "Tactical Commander's Course" to better learn how to use their newly militarized cops (13 Nov - 17 Nov 95). Yet more chilling, is a request by an anonymous entity referred to only as "REG CD TNG" in Mississippi, for a Special Forces MTT to integrate Close Quarter Battle (CQB) techniques onto "an existing school curriculum." (04 Nov - 09 Nov 95). Since there are no CQB teams in CONUS this mission will likely be picked up by SFOD-D. (SFOD-D's mission is no longer limited to counterterrorism--just thought you'd like to know that. Editor). Here is a curious one. The Newark, NJ FBI office requested an MTT for "ship boarding and searching techniques...tactical movement, basic map and compass techniques and day/night movements." (16 Oct - 20 Oct 95). During this same time period, the Forsyth County, NC Sheriff Office requested, "...patrolling, land navigation, booby trap recognition and weapons training. Eight sniper MTTs were designated for USASOC. US Attorney, Houston, TX (12 Feb - 17 Feb 96) FBI, Kansas, (loc unspecified), (09 Oct - 14 Oct 95) Portland , OR (27 Nov - 01 Dec 95) Idaho (loc unspecified) (29 Jan - 02 Feb 96) Streamwood, IL (05 Aug - 09 Aug 96) Franklin, PA (19 Aug - 23 Aug 96) Atlantic City, NJ (26 Feb - 01 Mar 96) Camp Perry, OH (02 Oct - 06 Oct 96) There are dozens more, ranging from Field Tactical Police Operations, to intelligence operations and Russian (!) and Spanish language training. Since all these missions are "legal," and "within the bounds of the Constitution"--the Department of the Army said so, so it must be true--and since you are annually extorted at gun-point to pay for all this, the public and press are cordially invited to be present and observe training on the dates and at the locations cited above. Please contact your local police or sheriff department for details. The Point of Contact at JTF - Six for these, and other missions, is Major Deverill, at (915) 586-9083. or MSG Batta, at (915) 586-8497. Defense attorneys who wish to be proactive should prepare their lawsuits in advance, based on the rulings of Popow v. City of Margate, 476 Federal Supplement, 127 (D.N.J., 1979), in the event these public defenders decide to actually use the training they are given by their legally unqualified, and therefore incompetent, military trainers. SFU can provide expert defense witnesses for AMOUT, CQB, and sniper related law suits. They are expensive, but they are good. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ NATO: Expansion and Appeasement In late September, NATO ambassadors met in Brussels to create a blueprint for extension of NATO membership to include former Warsaw Pact nations. All 25 members of the "Partnership for Peace" framework, including Russia and the Baltic nations, will be offered membership in the expanded alliance, pending compliance with the standards for entrance contained in the Brussels framework. However, the Yeltsin regime is posturing as an offended "great power," complaining that the expansion of NATO is a "strategic insult." This, of course, has offered the Clinton Administration's foreign policy mandarins, beginning with "Russia First" cheerleader Strobe Talbott (CFR), an opportunity to plump for more concessions to placate Yeltsin. One prime concession offered by NATO was a revision in a 1990 treaty with Russia, which would allow Russia to keep more tanks, artillery, and armored vehicles in the Caucasus region. These military assets have been used most recently by Moscow to crush Chechnya's bid for independence. Thus, once more the famed "anti-Communist" alliance has contributed to the stability and security of Moscow's regime. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Russia And The Trilateral Commission The recently published report of last spring's annual Trilateral Commission meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark illustrates that the Russian foreign policy establishment is firmly committed to "convergence." Among the speeches published in the report is that of Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Andrei Kozyrev, who -- while not a TC member -- displays a fluent grasp of the language of "interdependence." Kozyrev praises the Trilateral Commission for making "a major contribution to the development of strategy" and urges that "it is important to take into account both long-term strategic interests in creating an interdependent world, and the subtle fabric of the philosophy of international policy." [Emphasis added.] Kozyrev solicits TC help in creating a "period of partnership" between Russia and predicts: "During this period, we could overcome completely mutual alienation and, most importantly, we could jointly determine the shape of a new security system in Europe, with NATO and existing institutions." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The UN Ignores Communist Atrocities But Targets Non-Communist Nations And Leaders. When Soviet tanks rolled into Hungary in the 1950s, when the Chinese Communists were murdering Tibetans in the 1960s, when the Soviets were butchering civilians in Afghanistan in the 1970s and 1980s, when Chechnya was brutalized by the Russians in the 1990s, the UN did nothing! But the UN declared tiny Rhodesia "a threat to international peace" in the 1960s, enabling procommunist terrorist Robert Mugabe to seize power. And it was a UN-led campaign that brought selfdescribed Communist and convicted terrorist Nelson Mandela to power in South Africa in the 1990s.. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Global Taxes For Global Entitlements? By: Phyllis Schlafly "It's not sustainable for member states to enjoy representation without taxation," Prime Minister John Major told the United Nations at its 50th birthday celebration. He thought he was demonstrating British wit in making a play on the great slogan of the American Revolution. We are not amused. The United Nations has a big problem: the tax-cutting Republican Congress is disinclined to continue financing those overpaid foreign bureaucrats in the lavish style to which they have become accustomed. So their solution is to impose a global tax that would produce billions or even trillions of dollars without any Congressional action. The so-called Independent Commission on Population and Quality of Life has issued a report listing dozens of innovative global devices to tax people, corporations, and international business activities. These include taxes on aviation traffic and freight, ocean freight and cruises, aviation fuel, telecommunications frequencies, communications satellites, international postal items, and trade in goods and services. The global tax idea was first publicly launched at the UN World Summit for Social Development, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in March 1995. James G. Speth, the Clinton-appointed head of the UN Development Program, called for a global tax on speculative movements of international funds, the consumption of non-renewable energy, environmental permits, and the arms trade. James Tobin, 1981 Nobel Prize winner in Economics, has called for a tax on spot transactions in foreign exchange. The UN bureaucrats are licking their chops at Tobin's prediction that "the revenue potential is immense, over $1.5 trillion a year." They are now enthusiastically using Tobin's prestige to advocate what they call the "Tobin tax." The Commission on Global Governance, a "private" group with government and foundation funding, published a volume this year entitled "Our Global Neighborhood." Stating that "it is time for a consensus on global taxation for servicing the needs of the global neighborhood," this report calls for taxes on flight-lanes, sea lanes, and ocean fishing areas. The report also brags that "the idea of safeguarding and managing the global commons, particularly those related to the physical environment, is now widely accepted. And the notion of expanding the role of the United Nations is now accepted in relation to military security." Another model for a global tax is hidden in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a UN treaty the Clinton Administration is trying to get the Senate to ratify. This treaty sets up a global taxing authority called the International Seabed Authority to collect fees and royalties imposed on American mining firms. An outfit called Worldwatch Institute issued a report this year called "Partnership for the Planet." It calls for a global tax to finance "the transition to a sustainable society -- including environmental programs, social initiatives, and peacekeeping efforts." At the same time that the new Republican Congress is trying to put a lid on welfare and Medicare entitlements, the UN is planning to saddle U.S. taxpayers with global entitlements. The Oxfam Poverty Report proclaims that "international aid should be seen as a financial entitlement, and as part of a compact between citizens in the industrial and developing worlds." UN bureaucrats and advocates must be having lots of fun dreaming up ways to tax Americans to support their notions of "global neighborhood" and "sustainable human development." The Ford Foundation produced a study last year called "Renewing the United NationsSystem," which advocates an annual "United Nations lottery, administered by a special authority under the Secretary-General." The Ford Foundation also financed a report called "The United Nations in Its Second Half-Century," which calls for allowing the UN to have Special Drawing Rights from the International Monetary Fund. Rationalized as a "levy on the utilization of the global commons," this proposal would enable the UN to bypass Congress in accessing U.S. taxpayers' money. Other wealthy liberal foundations that have helped orchestrate the demand for a global tax include the MacArthur and Carnegie Foundations. The World Federalist Association, now headed by former presidential candidate John B. Anderson, weighs in with a recommendation for UN taxes on international travel and postal service. Bella Abzug, who was so visible in the recent UN Women's Conference in Beijing, also serves as a member of the advisory council of the Global Commission to Fund the United Nations. It comes as no surprise that she endorses global taxes as a way to finance and enforce the radical feminist agenda that she presented at the UN conferences on population and women's issues. Americans had better wake up and expel the UN before it succeeds in any of its arrogant global taxing plans. The United Nations has absolutely no right or authority to tax people or businesses or transactions. Congress should conduct an investigation of all plans for a UN global tax, making use of the excellent materials on this subject uncovered by researcher Cliff Kincaid. The Phyllis Schlafly Report Vol. 29, No. 4 * Box 618, Alton, Illinois 62002 * November 1995 Eagle Forum's Home Page: http://www.basenet.net/~eagle/eagle.html +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ****************************************** Cool Web Sites on the Internet Christain and Bible Prophecy hhtp://twibp.com/~jvim Jack Van Impe Ministries hhtp://twibp.com/~twibp http://www.niagara.com:80/~twibp/ This Week In Bible Prophecy http://www.infi.net/~stegner/ Maranatha (Prophecy Pages) http://ionet.net/~wes Wes Peters web site..COOL prophecy stuff http://www.infi.net/~stegner Prophecy & World events web http://www.novia.net/~todd/ The Rapture Index http://www.io.org/~sower the Rapture Report http://www.jews-for-jesus.org Jews for jesus http://www.einet.net/galaxy/Arts-and-Humanities/Religion.html Christian web site http://www.freenet.ufl.edu/~leo/ Berean Bible Studies http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-home.html Chrisatian Reaseach Institute http://www.agape.com/laughter.htm Decieving the Elect http://www.sky.net/~rmk/PKdates.html PromiseKeepers 1995 Meeting Dates http://www.sky.net/~rmk/sevenpromises.html Seven Promises of a Promise Keeper One World Sites http://www.un.org/ United Nations http://www.hooked.net/users/aquarian/ Maitreya (this is who many think might be the Anti-christ) http://www.hooked.net:80/shareint/ Share International This is the group who is behind Maitreya They also have a office at the U.N. http://www.together.org/orgs/wcw/ World Citizen Home page http://www.worldbank.org/ the World Bank http://www.eur.nl/iacl/const.html world wide constitutions this site also has the proposed world costitution http://www.webcom.com/~worldgov/ Grassroot world government http://www.fairfield.com:80/nlp/ the Natural Law Party (Transindental Meditation Political Party (New Age) http://www.io.com/sjgames/inwo/ Illuminati New World Order card game http://www.visa.co. Visa Credit Card (One World One Currency) Some of my favorite places http://www.buchanan.org/ Pat Buchanan For President http://www.jpost.co.il/ The Jerusalem Post http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ The London Telegraph http://www.townhall.com/ Town hall (your one stop conservative site) http://haven.ios.com/~likud/ Likud USA site Eagle Forum's Home Page: http://www.basenet.net/~eagle/eagle.html http://l0pht.com/~oblivion/patriot.html Patriots against New World Order http://www.lookup.com/Homepages/60166/other.html Other good Patriot sites http://www.strategicsw.com/ Strategic Solutions West (where I work) http://akebono.stanford.edu/yahoo Yahoo Directory 11