KING JESUS IS COMING FOR US ANY TIME NOW. THE RAPTURE. BE PREPARED TO GO.
ISRAEL SATAN COMES AGAINST
1 CHRONICLES 21:1
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
ISRAELS TROUBLE
JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.
DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
LUKE 17:34-37
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other shall be left.
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES.BECAUSE NOT HALF OF PEOPLE ON EARTH ARE CHRISTIANS.AND THE CONTEXT IN LUKE 17 IS THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION OR 7 YR TREATY PERIOD.WHICH IS JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH.NOT 50% RAPTURED TO HEAVEN.
Washington (AFP) - An Israeli minister insisted Thursday that
now was not the time to gamble with the Jewish nation's security amid
moves to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians, and renewed warnings
against lifting sanctions on Iran.Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, in the US
amid an Israeli campaign against a nascent deal being negotiated by
Western powers with Iran, spoke out against moves that in a first phase
would apparently allow Tehran to halt but not dismantle its nuclear
program.The tough sanctions now in place against Iran must not
falter, Bennett insisted in a speech to the Brookings Saban Center for
Middle East Policy.And on the dragging negotiations with the
Palestinians, Bennett said: "While I yearn for peace I do not believe
that now, is the right time to gamble with our security" pointing to the
regional chaos unleashed by the Arab spring.With the Iranian
economy squeezed "now is the precise time to tell them, 'either or.'
Either you have a nuclear weapon program, or you have an economy, but
you can't have both," said Bennett, the leader of the far right Jewish
Home party."It's like a boxing match where the other guy's on the
floor and the referee's counting six, seven, eight, nine and at this
very last moment we go and pick him up and let off the pressure. Now's
not the time to let up."
He insisted the goal of the negotiations being led by six powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- should not be just pausing Iran's suspect nuclear program but dismantling it completely."I'm convinced that if we ratchet up the pressure we'll get the right deal," he said.Bennett alleged that with 18,500 centrifuges already, Tehran could potentially make seven-and-a-half bombs a year, estimating that would give it a breakout capacity to nuclear weapons capability of only six weeks.
"Israel will never outsource its security. And our track record speaks for itself," Bennett said.In 1981 Israeli bombs had destroyed a reactor being built by late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and "in 2007 we allegedly did the same in Syria.""Twice we saved the world from mad men with nuclear weapons. We did so because we understood our place in history. We did so because we understood our responsibility."Israel has never publicly acknowledged the September 2007 strike on a mystery target in the Syrian desert, believed to have been a nuclear plant.Bennett accused Iran of planning just to sit back and "slow down the production right now and wait for an opportune moment right now when the West is busy with some crisis" and then turn it back on."We cannot sit quietly as the West rushes into a deal with Iran that could be catastrophic. A deal that does not dismantle Iran's nuclear program will enable the Islamic republic to become a nuclear state. That's what we call a bad deal."
DISEASES
REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).
DRUG PUSHERS AND ADDICTS
1 PET 5:8
8 Be sober,(NOT DRUGED UP OR ALCOHOLICED) be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
REVELATION 18:23
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries (DRUGS) were all nations deceived.
REVELATION 9:21
21 Neither repented they of their murders,(KILLING) nor of their sorceries (DRUG ADDICTS AND DRUG PUSHERS), nor of their fornication,(SEX OUTSIDE MARRIAGE OR PROSTITUTION FOR MONEY) nor of their thefts.(STEALING)
(Reuters) - A woman in Taiwan has become the first person in the world
with a confirmed case of a new strain of bird flu, adding to a growing
body of evidence of the potential threat from animal viruses that mutate
to be able to infect people.Scientists from Taiwan said the
infection - with a bird flu strain called H6N1 - appeared to be one
isolated human case and probably posed little threat for the moment. But
it showed how this virus, like others in the past, had been able to
acquire genetic changes allowing it to jump across species.Another new strain of bird flu, called H7N9, is continuing to infect and kill people in China after it first emerged in humans there earlier this year.Infectious
diseases that pass from animals into humans are known as zoonoses and
have kept scientists on the alert for decades. Several major human
epidemics, including the worldwide outbreak of Human Immunodeficiency
Virus (HIV) that causes AIDS and the 2009/2010 H1N1 flu pandemic, began
as zoonotic events. Many diseases also make the jump and then just peter
out.
"This again underscores that there are so many viruses out there and we just don't really know which pose the greatest threats to us," Wendy Barclay, a flu virologist at Imperial College London, told Reuters when asked about the H6N1 case.She called for more vigilance, surveillance and research into animal diseases with the potential to jump to humans.In study in journal Lancet Respiratory Medicine on Thursday, scientists said the H6N1 case was found in a 20-year-old woman from central Taiwan who went into hospital in May with flu-like symptoms and shortness of breath.Initial tests on throat-swab samples taken from the patient indicated an unclassified subtype of a flu virus, the researchers said, and further genetic analysis showed it was a new H6N1 bird flu virus very similar to chicken H6N1 viruses that have been circulating in Taiwan since 1972.The woman responded to treatment with Roche's flu medicine Tamiflu and has since fully recovered, they added.Ho-Sheng Wu, who led the case study from the Centres for Disease Control in Taipei, said the important feature of the genetic analysis was that it showed the virus had a mutation in the haemagglutinin - a binding protein on the virus' surface - that enables it to get into human cells and cause infection.Further investigations into the patient found that she worked in a delicatessen, had not been abroad for three months prior to her infection, and had not been in close proximity to poultry or wild birds.
"The source of infection remains unknown," Ho-Sheng wrote in the study.Barclay agreed that the woman's case appeared to be "for now an isolated case", adding: "It is possible that in these days of increased vigilance we are picking up the occasional zoonosis that we previously missed."Ho-Sheng cautioned, however, that "as these viruses continue to evolve and accumulate changes, they increase the potential risk of human infection".(Editing by Ben Hirschler and Angus MacSwan)
JEREMEIAH 49:35-37 (IN IRAN AT THE BUSHEHR NUKE SITE SOME BELIEVE)
35 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam,(IRAN/BUSHEHR NUCLEAR SITE) the chief of their might.(MOST DANGEROUS NUKE SITE IN IRAN)
36 And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven,(IRANIANS SCATTERED OR MASS IMIGARATION) and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.(WORLD IMMIGRATION)
37 For I will cause Elam (IRAN-BUSHEHR NUKE SITE) to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger,(ISRAELS NUKES POSSIBLY) saith the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them:(IRAN AND ITS NUKE SITES DESTROYED)
EZEKIEL 35:3-6,11-15
3 And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O mount Seir,(ARABS) I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate.
4 I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.
5 Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred,(AGAINST ISRAEL) and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end:
6 Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee.
11 Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will even do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I have judged thee.
12 And thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume.
13 Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them.
14 Thus saith the Lord GOD; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate.(ARAB,MUSLIMS)
15 As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir,(ARABS) and all Idumea,(ARAB,MUSLIMS) even all of it: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
ISAIAH 17:1,11-14
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
11 In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
12 Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations,(USELESS U.N) that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13 The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14 And behold at evening tide trouble; and before the morning he is not.(ASSAD KILLED IN OVERNIGHT RAID) This is the portion of them that spoil us,(ISRAEL) and the lot of them that rob us.
AMOS 1:5
5 I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden:(IRAQ) and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir,(JORDAN) saith the LORD.
JEREMEIAH 49:23-27
23 Concerning Damascus.(SYRIA) Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea;(WAR SHIPS WITH NUKES COMING ON SYRIA) it cannot be quiet.
24 Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27 And I will kindle a fire (NUKES OR BOMBS) in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.(ASSADS PALACES POSSIBLY IN DAMASCUS)
PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
The story commences with a map of modern Egypt
and its neighboring countries. While Sudan, Libya and Saudi Arabia
appear clearly on the map, the territory of Israel is completely covered
by Jordan, painted red. A line indicating the Israeli border with the
Sinai Peninsula does appear in the book.Adina Golombek, a Jerusalem resident who
emigrated to Israel from Canada last year, said she was shocked to
discover Israel’s absence while reading the book with her 7-year-old
son.“I wanted to show my son where we lived in the
Middle East, but it didn’t say Israel on the map; instead it said
Jordan,” Golombek told The Times of Israel. “I showed him the problem
and drew in the border of where Israel is today.”Founded in Pennsylvania in 1920, Scholastic
has grown to become the world’s largest publisher and distributor of
children’s books through its book clubs, teaching resources and popular
book fairs held inside many North American schools. The company has
exclusive publishing rights for the Harry Potter series in the United
States.Kyle Good, a senior vice president for
corporate communications at Scholastic, told The Times of Israel in an
email that her company would stop selling the book until the error was
amended in the book’s next edition.“The President of Trade Publishing who was on a
plane yesterday returning from Europe has confirmed for me this morning
that we are stopping shipments on this title, making the correction and
going to reprint. We regret the error,” Good wrote.A recent study
carried out by Israeli and Palestinian researchers found that 96
percent of Palestinian school textbooks did not mention Israel by name
in their maps. Similarly, 87 percent of Israeli school textbooks did not
designate the Palestinian Territories by name.
The United States and other countries are "getting close" to an
interim deal with Iran that would prevent its nuclear program "from
advancing, and roll it back" in key areas, a senior administration
official said Friday, according to CNN.The official was quoted as having told reporters that such a
deal would "extend the breakout time" that Iran would need to achieve a
nuclear weapon and "shorten the time to notice if they tried.”The proposed deal covers every aspect of Iran's nuclear
program, including uranium enrichment, uranium stockpiles and all
nuclear facilities including military ones, the official added.The United States, along with the four other permanent members
of the UN Security Council and Germany, came close to a deal during
talks with Iran in Geneva last week.The talks ended with both sides blaming each other for the lack of an agreement, but another round is set for November 20.Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman is scheduled to lead the
American delegation at the next round of talks next week in Geneva,
reported CNN.
Senators have been pushing for a speedy escalation of sanctions against the Islamic Republic, while the Obama administration has been placing heavy pressure on Congress not to slap new sanctions on Iran.
On Thursday, President Obama warned Congress that military action, if diplomacy fails, would have dangerous effects and only fuel an Iranian desire for nuclear weapons."What we have done is seen the possibility of an agreement in which Iran would halt advances on its program," Obama told a news conference."We can buy some additional months in terms of their breakout capacity. Let's test how willing they are to actually resolve this diplomatically and peacefully," he added.The president noted that his intention "always was to bring the Iranians to the table so we could resolve this issue peacefully."The comments came as another report indicated that Obama has been easing sanctions on Iran for the past five months without Congressional approval.Sources in Congress revealed that Obama's administration has been suspending or lifting many sanctions without informing Congress since Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was elected in June, reports the World Tribune.Israel has repeatedly warned that the deal being offered to Iran is a dangerous one and would allow it to continue its nuclear program.On Thursday, Economics Minister Naftali Bennett delivered a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington in which he warned against lifting the sanctions on Iran.In his speech, Bennett said no country wants a deal with Iran that would end its nuclear weapons program more than Israel, and added that "if Iran achieves a nuclear weapon we will be their first target, but make no mistake, we will not be their last target."He stressed that Israel opposes any deal that does not dismantle Iran's nuclear program.Sanctions have made a great impact, said Bennett, and they must continue until Iran is forced to choose between having a nuclear weapon or having an economy.(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday urged France to
stand firm in international negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, AFP reports."We hope France will not yield," Netanyahu said in an interview to the Le Figaro newspaper due out on Saturday."For us, the United States remains an important ally, the most
important ally. But our relationship with France is also very special,"
he added.The interview comes after France took a tougher line than its
Western partners last week in Geneva talks aimed at resolving the
impasse over Iran's nuclear program.During the talks, France’s Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, warned
his colleagues not to be fooled by Iran’s proposals saying that while
“the initial text [of the proposal] made progress,” there were still a
couple of unsatisfying points.Those comments, which are similar to concerns Israel has expressed over the agreement, caused Iranian officials to slam Fabius, claiming his views "express the positions of the Zionist regime.”In fact, France's Ambassador to Israel, Patrick Maisonnave, said Wednesday
that it was thanks to his country’s tough stance that a deal was not
signed over the weekend that would have eased sanctions on Tehran in
exchange for a promise to limit uranium enrichment."On the Iran issue, our countries have defended common stances
for years, regardless of the party in power, and we are maintaining this
vital partnership with President [Francois] Hollande," Netanyahu told
the French newspaper.
"We welcome his coherent and resolute stance on the Iranian issue," he said."I strongly believe we should not lower our defenses," Netanyahu said, calling the Iranian regime "aggressive, violent, messianic and apocalyptic.""This country is in the process of acquiring intercontinental ballistic missiles, of which the Geneva draft accord says nothing," he added, repeating his warning that the proposals made to Iran are dangerous.
"And what are they for? Not for striking Israel, which they can already do, but for extending their reach to Paris, London, Washington or New York... When dealing with Iran, being weak or naive is not an option," declared Netanyahu.The Prime Minister’s comments were made ahead of Hollande’s first visit to Israel as France’s president.Hollande, who arrives Sunday, will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Fabius and an entourage of more than 200 people.Hollande is to visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum on Sunday.
That evening bilateral cooperation agreements are to be signed at a meeting between the French president and Netanyahu to further cooperation on areas of strategic importance and to strengthen economic, scientific and cultural ties.Then on Monday, after visiting members of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Hollande is to address a special session of the Knesset.The decision to talk at the Knesset comes after initial reports that Hollande intended to snub the Israeli parliament and talk in front of students instead. The initial intention caused a minor falling out at the time.(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)
Beijing (AFP) - China's clumsy response to the typhoon in the
neighbouring Philippines shows that the Asian giant is still struggling
to find its role on the world stage, analysts say, burdened by history
and its own self-image.Initially
the Chinese government offered only $100,000, and while later donations
have swelled Beijing's aid to $1.8 million that falls far short of
Japan's $30 million, $20 million from the US, and even Swedish furniture
group Ikea, which gave $2.7 million through its charitable foundation
to the UN children's agency Unicef for relief efforts in the storm-hit
area.Beijing is embroiled in a diplomatic row with Manila over
disputed islands in the South China Sea, and the weight of history bears
heavy on the region.A tiny piece of the havoc wreaked by the
typhoon was a fallen statue at the Leyte Landing Memorial close to
Tacloban, where American general Douglas MacArthur strode ashore in 1944
on his mission to liberate the Philippines from Japanese occupation.The
island was one of the biggest battlegrounds of World War II and the
naval battle of Leyte Gulf one of the largest sea engagements in
history, with dozens of ships lost and Japan using kamikaze suicide
pilots for the first time.US forces suffered 15,584 killed and wounded, with Japanese casualties estimated at 49,000.A plaque at the tribute site displays MacArthur's proclamation urging Filipinos to "rise and strike" against the Japanese.But
almost seven decades later, Tokyo is preparing to send as many as 1,000
members of its Self-Defense Forces, Japan's de facto military, to the
disaster zone, their first active return to Leyte, where they will work
hand-in-hand with the US military presence.In contrast, China
refers constantly to its past as a victim of Japanese aggression in its
row with Tokyo over another set of disputed islands.At the same
time the 19th-century colonisation of parts of China by foreign powers
looms large in its history, despite its rise to become the world's
second-largest economy.Jim Schoff, senior associate at the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and an expert on disaster
relief in Asia, explained there was sometimes still a mindset in China
that "'We're a developing country, too, and we have natural disasters,
too.'""There's
a little bit of tight-fistedness that remains from that," he said.
"It's the nexus of humanitarian relief and self-interest, and I think
it's taking China a while to figure out where that point is."Nonetheless,
he pointed out: "The Chinese like to complain about US Cold War
thinking when we reach out to allies to build these alliances."If
they want to talk about a new great power relationship or a new great
nation relationship, it assumes they're a great nation and they have
this relationship with the US as a peer," he said."They are definitely not demonstrating that, to be a pillar of support in the region. So, that's a failure on their part."
Beijing's foreign ministry has said that its offer could change, and will depend on "the development of the situation".But the missed opportunity could have broader diplomatic repercussions, experts say."I think this is a real test of their humanitarian principles, and also of the foreign-policy-making establishment in China," said Mark Beeson, professor of international politics at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia.Beijing's original response "can be viewed as quite stingy as compared to everybody else", he said, adding there was "no doubt" some in China were "not terribly disposed to the Philippines because of these territorial disputes".
China has denied any link between its contribution and the long-simmering row over the South China Sea.
But comments by users of China's popular online social networks underscored the lingering raw feelings between them."The Philippines is a country that's hostile to China; we shouldn't give them even a cent of aid," one Sino Weibo user wrote. "We shouldn't give our benevolence for dogs to eat."Others have been more measured. "The (Philippine) president is a little bit stupid, but we should help the Philippine people," another user opined.Using financial pressure for diplomatic purposes could be useful in some cases, but risked backfiring with humanitarian responses to disaster, Beeson noted."In these kinds of catastrophes, one would expect that there would be a different type of calculus -- or no calculus at all -- with trying to relieve an acute humanitarian problem," he said."I think that's why quite a few people have been taken aback by this," he added.Bo Zhiyue, a senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore's East Asian Institute, said Beijing had missed a chance to wield soft power and potentially improve relations with Manila."This is actually a great opportunity to play so-called dollar diplomacy: you provide a little more, and you have a much easier time later on," Bo said."We're all humanity in these disasters," he added. "The US even shut down their government for a few days because of money issues, but apparently they're very generous -- and they came very quickly."
FALSE POPE FROM THE VATICAN
REVELATION 13:11-13
11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth;(FALSE VATICAN POPE) and he had two horns like a lamb,(JESUS IS THE LAMB OF GOD) and he spake as a dragon.(HES SATANICALLY INSPIRED,HES A CHRISTIAN DEFECTOR FROM THE FAITH)
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him,(WORLD DICTATOR) and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.(THE WORLD DICTATOR CREATES A FALSE RESURRECTION AND IS CROWNED LEADER OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER).
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
REVELATION 17:1-5,9,15-18
1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication,(VATICAN IN POLITICS) and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
4 And the woman (FALSE CHURCH) was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour,(VATICAN COLOURS)(ANOTHER REASON WE KNOW THE FALSE POPE COMES FROM THE VATICAN) and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.(THE VATICAN IS BUILT ON 7 HILLS OR MOUNTAINS)
15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.(VATICAN-CATHOLICS ALL AROUND THE WORLD OVER 1 BILLION)
16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast,(WORLD DICTATOR) these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
Sixty-eight-year old Fernando Vergez Alzaga hails from Spain (he was born on 1 March 1945) and was ordained priest on 26 November 1969: a member of the congregation of the Legion of Christ, he has a licence, or degree, in Philosophy and Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University and a diploma from the Vatican Secret Archive’s archivist school. In 1972 he began serving the Holy See through the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Twelve years later he was transferred to the Pontifical Council for the Laity ; in 1994 he became head of the Holy See’s Internet Office. In 2008 he was put in charge of Vatican State telecommunications. Last 30 August the Pope nominated him secretary General of the Governorate. He was elected titular bishop of Villamagna di Proconsolare on 15 October.Upon calling the newly ordained bishop to take on this role of great responsibility within the Church, in his homily, Francis said: “Reflect on the fact that you have been chosen from among men for men and that a bishop is called to serve rather than to rule.” “By service I mean that great service of love and charity that you offered Cardinal Pironio,” Francis said. Eduardo Francisco Pironio is an Argentinean cardinal and a friend of Bergoglio’s. Vergez Alzaga served him as secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity in the 80s; “I am sure he is here with us at this very moment – he said sounding moved – uniting us in the Church. I thank you once again for your humble and silent service. You served as a son and as a brother.”Francis joyfully recalled Vergez Alzaga’s friendship with Cardinal Quarracino who loved the newly ordained bishop very much. Antonio Quarracino was the future Pope’s predecessor in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires. “Hearing these beautiful canticles, I must confess that I cannot but think of the singing of the Benedictine nuns who are here at this ceremony today. You are well accompanied!” Francis concluded.
In response to journalists’ questions about the reason for this decision, the Holy See’s spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi replied: “The information in the interview is reliable on a general level but not on the level of each individual point analysed: this is why it was decided the text should not be available for consultation on the Holy See website. Its removal is a final update on the nature of this text. Some mistakes were made regarding its value, which was questioned. The Secretariat of State took the decision.”Ever since the interview was published, Fr. Lombardi declared that the Pope had not looked over the text personally. Scalfari had sent the text to the Vatican. The article did in fact contain expressions that did not seem like typical expressions Francis would have used. There was also a mistake regarding what had gone on in the Sistine chapel. According to one of the answers, after obtaining the minimum number of votes required to be elected to the pontificate the Pope apparently went away to pray before accepting. This piece of information was false, as confirmed by a number of cardinals, including the Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan.A statement – completely compatible with the Catechism of the Catholic Church - regarding the importance of conscience issue gave rise to many debates and discussions. Lombardi denied that the decision to remove the interview from the Vatican website was taken at the request of the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Gerhard Ludwig Müller.
* * *
Dear Doctor Scalfari,
It is with great cordiality, although only in broad lines, that with this letter I would like to respond to your letter, addressed to me on July 7 in the pages of La Reppublica, with a series of your personal reflections , which you then enriched on the pages of the same daily on August 7.I thank you, first of all, for the attention with which you read the encyclical Lumen fidei. The intention of my beloved Predecessor, Benedict XVI, who conceived it and to a great extent wrote it, and which I inherited with gratitude, is directed not only to confirm in the faith in Jesus Christ those who recognize themselves in it, but also to arouse a sincere and rigorous dialogue with those whom, like you, describe themselves “a non-believer for many years interested and fascinated by the preaching of Jesus of Nazareth.”Therefore, it seems to me that it is nothing other than positive, not only for us individually but also for the society in which we live, to pause to dialogue on a reality as important as the faith is, which calls to preaching and to the figure of Jesus. I think there are, in particular, two circumstances that today render this dialogue right and proper and precious. Moreover, as noted, it constitutes one of the principal objectives of Vatican Council II, desired by John XXIII and the ministry of Popes that, each one with his sensibility and contribution, from then to today has followed in the track traced by the Council.The first circumstance – as recalled in the initial pages of the encyclical – stems from the fact that, in the course of the centuries of modernity, we have witnessed a paradox: the Christian faith, whose novelty and incidence on the life of man since the beginning were expressed in fact through the symbol of light, was often referred to as the darkness of superstition that is opposed to the light of reason. Thus between the Church and the culture of Christian inspiration, on one hand, and the modern culture of Enlightenment stamp, on the other, there has been incommunicability. Moreover the time has come, and the Vatican in fact inaugurated the season, of an open dialogue without preconceptions, which opens the doors for a serious and fecund meeting.
The second circumstance, for one who seeks to be faithful to the gift of following Jesus in the light of faith, stems from the fact that this dialogue is not a secondary accessory of the existence of the believer: it is, instead, a profound and indispensable expression. In this connection, allow me to quote an affirmation of the encyclical, which in my opinion is very important: because the truth witnessed by faith is that of love – it is underlined -- “it is clear that the faith is not intransigent, but grows in coexistence that respects the other. The believer isn’t arrogant; on the contrary, truth makes him humble, knowing that, more than our possessing it, it is truth that embraces and possesses us. Far from stiffening us, the certainty of the faith puts us on the way, and makes possible witness and dialogue with everyone” (n. 34). This is the spirit that animates the words that I write to you.For me, faith is born from the encounter with Jesus. A personal encounter, which has touched my heart and given direction and new meaning to my existence. But at the same time an encounter that was made possible by the community of faith in which I have lived and thanks to which I found access to the intelligence of Sacred Scripture, to new life that, as gushing water, flows from Jesus through the Sacraments, to fraternity with everyone and at the service of the poor, true image of the Lord. Believe me, without the Church I would not have been able to encounter Christ, also in the awareness that the immense gift that faith is is kept in the fragile earthen vessels of our humanity.Now, it is precisely beginning from here, from this personal experience of faith lived in the Church, that I feel at ease in listening to your questions and in seeking, together with you, the ways through which we might, perhaps, begin a segment of the way together.Forgive me if I do not follow step by step the arguments you propose in the editorial of July 7. It seems to me more fruitful, if not more congenial, to go in a certain sense to the heart of your considerations. I won’t even enter into the explanatory way followed by the encyclical, in which you perceive the lack of a section dedicated specifically to the historical experience of Jesus of Nazareth.To begin, I observe only that an analysis of this kind isn’t secondary. It is, in fact, by following the logic that guides the unfolding of the encyclical, pausing our attention on the meaning of what Jesus said and did and thus, in a word, on what Jesus was and is for us. The Letters of Paul and the Gospel of John, of which particular reference is made in the encyclical, are constructed, in fact, on the solid foundation of the messianic ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, which reached its decisive culmination in the Pasch of Death and Resurrection.Therefore, one must be confronted with Jesus, I would say, in the concreteness and roughness of his event, as is narrated especially by the oldest of the Gospels, that of Mark. One sees then that the “scandal” that the word and practice of Jesus caused around him stem from his extraordinary “authority”: a word, this is, that attests from the Gospel of Mark, but which isn’t easy to render in Italian. The Greek word is “exousia,” which literally refers to that which“comes from being,” which is. It’s not about something exterior or forced, therefore, but of something that emanates from within and that imposes itself. Jesus, in fact, strikes, breaks, innovates beginning with – He himself says so – from his relationship with God, called familiarly Abba, who gives Him this “authority” so that he will exercise it in favor of men.So Jesus preaches “as one who has authority,” heals, calls the disciples to follow him, forgives … all things that, in the Old Testament, are of God and only of God. The question that return most in Mark’s Gospel is: “Who is he who …?” and which refers to Jesus’ identity, is born from witnessing an authority that is different from that of the world, an authority that is not aimed at exercising power over others, but of serving them, of giving them liberty and the fullness of life. And this to the point of putting at stake one’s own life, to the point of experiencing incomprehension, betrayal, rejection, to the point of being condemned to death, of sealing the state of abandonment on the cross. But Jesus remains faithful to God, to the end.
And it is precisely then – as the Roman centurion exclaimed at the foot of the cross in Mark’s Gospel – that Jesus shows himself paradoxically as the Son of God! Son of a God that is love and that wishes with all His being that man, every man, discover himself and also live as His true son. This is, for the Christian faith, the certificate of the fact that Jesus is risen: not to triumph over those who rejected him, but to attest that the love of God is stronger than death, the forgiveness of God is stronger than any sin, and that it is worthwhile to spend one’s life, to the end, witnessing this immense gift.The Christian faith believes this: that Jesus is the Son of God who came to give his life to open to all the way of love. Because of this you are right, egregious Doctor Scalfari, when you see in the Incarnation of the Son of God the foundation of the Christian faith. Tertullian already wrote “caro cardo salutis,” the flesh (of Christ) is the foundation of salvation. Because the Incarnation, namely, the fact that the Son of God came in our flesh and shared our joys and sorrows, the victories and defeats of our existence, to the cry of the cross, living everything in love and fidelity to Abba, attests to the incredible love that God has for every man, the inestimable value that he gives him. Because of this, each one of us is called to make his own the look and the choice of love of Jesus, to enter into his way of being, of thinking and acting. This is the faith, with all the expressions that are described unfailingly in the encyclical.Always in the editorial of July 7, you ask me in addition how to understand the originality of the Christian faith in as much as it is founded on the Incarnation of the Son of God, in regard to other faiths that gravitate instead around the absolute transcendence of God.The originality, I would say, lies precisely in the fact that the faith makes us participate , in Jesus, in the relationship that He has with God who is Abba and, in this light, the relationship that He has with all other men, including enemies, in the sign of love. In other words, Jesus’ offspring, as presented by the Christian faith, is not revealed to mark an insurmountable separation between Jesus and all others: but to tell us that, in Him, we are all called to be children of the one Father and brothers among ourselves. The singularity of Jesus is for communication, not for exclusion.Of course from this also follows – and it isn’t something small – the distinction between the religious sphere and the political sphere which is sanctioned in “giving to God what is God’s and to Caesar what is Caesar’s,” affirmed clearly by Jesus and on which, laboriously, the history of the West was built. In fact, the Church is called to sow the leaven and the salt of the Gospel, and this is the love and mercy of God that reaches all men, pointing out the celestial and definitive goal of our destiny, whereas civil and political society has the arduous task of articulating and embodying in justice and solidarity, in law and in peace, an ever more human life. For one who lives the Christian faith, this does not mean fleeing the world or seeking hegemony, but service to man, to the whole of man and to all men, beginning from the fringes of history and keeping awake the sense of hope that drives one to do good despite everything and always looking to the beyond.You also ask me, in conclusion of your first article, what we should say to our Jewish brothers about the promise made to them by God: has it all come to nothing? Believe me, this is a question that challenges us radically as Christians, because, with the help of God, especially since Vatican Council II, we have rediscovered that the Jewish people are still for us the holy root from which Jesus germinated. In the friendship I cultivated in the course of all these years with Jewish brothers in Argentina, often in prayer I also questioned God, especially when my mind went to the memory of the terrible experience of the Shoa. What I can say to you, with the Apostle Paul, is that God’s fidelity to the close covenant with Israel never failed and that, through the terrible trials of these centuries, the Jews have kept their faith in God. And for this, we shall never be sufficiently grateful to them as Church, but also as humanity. They, then, precisely by persevering in the faith of the God of the Covenant, called all, also us Christians, to the fact that we are always waiting, as pilgrims, for the Lord’s return and, therefore, that we must always be open to Him and never take refuge in what we have already attained.So I come to the three questions you put to me in the article of August 7. It seems to me that, in the first two, what is in your heart is to understand the attitude of the Church to those who don’t share faith in Jesus. First of all, you ask me if the God of Christians forgives one who doesn’t believe and doesn’t seek the faith. Premise that – and it’s the fundamental thing – the mercy of God has no limits if one turns to him with a sincere and contrite heart; the question for one who doesn’t believe in God lies in obeying one’s conscience. Sin, also for those who don’t have faith, exists when one goes against one’s conscience. To listen to and to obey it means, in fact, to decide in face of what is perceived as good or evil. And on this decision pivots the goodness or malice of our action.In the second place, you ask me if the thought, according to which no absolute exists and therefore not even an absolute truth but only a series of relative or subjective truths, is an error or a sin. To begin with, I will not speak, not even to one who believes, of “absolute” truth, in the sense that absolute is what is inconsistent, what is deprived of any relationship. Now truth, according to the Christian faith, is the love of God for us in Jesus Christ. Therefore, truth is a relationship! So true is it that each one of us also takes up the truth and expresses it from him/herself: from his/her history and culture, from the situation in which he/she lives, etc. This doesn’t mean that truth is variable or subjective, quite the opposite. But is means that it is given to us always and only as a way and a life. Did not Jesus himself say: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”? In other words, truth being altogether one with love, requires humility and openness to be sought, received and expressed. Therefore, it’s necessary to understand one another well on the terms and, perhaps, to come out of the tight spots of opposition … absolute, to pose the question again in depth. I think that this is today absolutely necessary to initiate that serene and constructive dialogue that I hoped for at the beginning of this my response. In the last question you ask me if, with the disappearance of man on earth, the thought will also disappear that is able to think of God. Certainly, man’s greatness lies in his being able to think of God. And that is in being able to live a conscious and responsible relationship with Him. However, the relationship is between two realities. God – this is my thought and this is my experience, but how many, yesterday and today, share it! – is not an idea, even though very lofty, fruit of man’s thought. God is reality with a capital “R.” Jesus reveals it – and lives the relationship with him – as a Father of goodness and infinite mercy. Hence, God doesn’t depend on our thought. Moreover, even when the life of man on earth should finish – and for the Christian faith, in any case, this world as we know it is destined to fail --, man won’t stop existing and, in a way that we don’t know, also the universe created with him. Scripture speaks of “new heavens and a new earth” and affirms that, in the end, in the where and when that is beyond us, but towards which, in faith, we tend with desire and expectation, God will be “all in all.” Egregious Doctor Scalfari, I thus conclude my reflections, aroused by what you wished to communicate to me and ask me. Receive it as the tentative and provisional but sincere and confident answer to the invitation to escort you in a segment of the road together. Believe me, the Church despite all the slowness, the infidelities, the errors and sins she could have committed and can still commit in those that accompany her, has no other sense or end but that of living and witnessing Jesus: He who was sent by Abba “to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19).With fraternal closeness,Francis-[Translation by ZENIT]
DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS-10 WORLD REGIONS/TRADE BLOCS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS-10 WORLD DIVISION WORLD GOVERNMENT) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(TAKE OVER 3 WORLD REGIONS)
REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(THE FALSE POPE WHO DEFECTED FROM THE CHRISTIAN FAITH) causeth all,(IN THE WORLD ) both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(MICROCHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark,(MICROCHIP IMPLANT) or the name of the beast,(WORLD DICTATORS NAME INGRAVED ON YOUR SKIN OR TATTOOED ON YOU OR IN THE MICROCHIP IMPLANT) or the number of his name.(THE NUMBERS OF HIS NAME INGRAVED IN THE MICROCHIP IMLPLANT)-(ALL THESE WILL TELL THE WORLD DICTATOR THAT YOUR WITH HIM AND AGAINST KING JESUS-GOD)
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast:(WORLD LEADER) for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM (6006006)OR(60020202006)(SOME KIND OF NUMBER IMPLANTED IN THE MICROCHIP THAT TELLS THE WORLD DICTATOR AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER THAT YOU GIVE YOUR TOTAL ALLIGIENCE TO HIM AND NOT JESUS)(ITS AN ETERNAL DECISION YOU MAKE)(YOU CHOOSE YOUR OWN DESTINY)(YOU TAKE THE DICTATORS NAME OR NUMBER UNDER YOUR SKIN,YOUR DOOMED TO THE LAKE OF FIRE AND TORMENTS FOREVER,NEVER ENDING MEANT ONLY FOR SATAN AND HIS ANGELS,NOT HUMAN BEINGS).OR YOU REFUSE THE MICROCHIP IMPLANT AND GO ON THE SIDE OF KING JESUS AND RULE FOREVER WITH HIM ON EARTH.YOU CHOOSE,ITS YOUR DECISION.
EARTHQUAKES
ISAIAH 42:15
15 I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places,(DIFFERNT PLACES AT THE SAME TIME) and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
WE HAVE HAD A PILE OF BIG QUACKS TODAY. INCLUDING A 6.8 IN THE SCOTIA SEA.
ISRAEL SATAN COMES AGAINST
1 CHRONICLES 21:1
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
ISRAELS TROUBLE
JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.
DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
LUKE 17:34-37
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other shall be left.
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES.BECAUSE NOT HALF OF PEOPLE ON EARTH ARE CHRISTIANS.AND THE CONTEXT IN LUKE 17 IS THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION OR 7 YR TREATY PERIOD.WHICH IS JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH.NOT 50% RAPTURED TO HEAVEN.
Israel must not gamble with its security, warns minister
22 hours ago-NOV 16,13-Yahoonews
He insisted the goal of the negotiations being led by six powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- should not be just pausing Iran's suspect nuclear program but dismantling it completely."I'm convinced that if we ratchet up the pressure we'll get the right deal," he said.Bennett alleged that with 18,500 centrifuges already, Tehran could potentially make seven-and-a-half bombs a year, estimating that would give it a breakout capacity to nuclear weapons capability of only six weeks.
"Israel will never outsource its security. And our track record speaks for itself," Bennett said.In 1981 Israeli bombs had destroyed a reactor being built by late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and "in 2007 we allegedly did the same in Syria.""Twice we saved the world from mad men with nuclear weapons. We did so because we understood our place in history. We did so because we understood our responsibility."Israel has never publicly acknowledged the September 2007 strike on a mystery target in the Syrian desert, believed to have been a nuclear plant.Bennett accused Iran of planning just to sit back and "slow down the production right now and wait for an opportune moment right now when the West is busy with some crisis" and then turn it back on."We cannot sit quietly as the West rushes into a deal with Iran that could be catastrophic. A deal that does not dismantle Iran's nuclear program will enable the Islamic republic to become a nuclear state. That's what we call a bad deal."
DISEASES
REVELATION 6:7-8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).
DRUG PUSHERS AND ADDICTS
1 PET 5:8
8 Be sober,(NOT DRUGED UP OR ALCOHOLICED) be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
REVELATION 18:23
23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries (DRUGS) were all nations deceived.
REVELATION 9:21
21 Neither repented they of their murders,(KILLING) nor of their sorceries (DRUG ADDICTS AND DRUG PUSHERS), nor of their fornication,(SEX OUTSIDE MARRIAGE OR PROSTITUTION FOR MONEY) nor of their thefts.(STEALING)
New Taiwan bird flu shows animal virus risk to humans
NEW DELHI
"This again underscores that there are so many viruses out there and we just don't really know which pose the greatest threats to us," Wendy Barclay, a flu virologist at Imperial College London, told Reuters when asked about the H6N1 case.She called for more vigilance, surveillance and research into animal diseases with the potential to jump to humans.In study in journal Lancet Respiratory Medicine on Thursday, scientists said the H6N1 case was found in a 20-year-old woman from central Taiwan who went into hospital in May with flu-like symptoms and shortness of breath.Initial tests on throat-swab samples taken from the patient indicated an unclassified subtype of a flu virus, the researchers said, and further genetic analysis showed it was a new H6N1 bird flu virus very similar to chicken H6N1 viruses that have been circulating in Taiwan since 1972.The woman responded to treatment with Roche's flu medicine Tamiflu and has since fully recovered, they added.Ho-Sheng Wu, who led the case study from the Centres for Disease Control in Taipei, said the important feature of the genetic analysis was that it showed the virus had a mutation in the haemagglutinin - a binding protein on the virus' surface - that enables it to get into human cells and cause infection.Further investigations into the patient found that she worked in a delicatessen, had not been abroad for three months prior to her infection, and had not been in close proximity to poultry or wild birds.
"The source of infection remains unknown," Ho-Sheng wrote in the study.Barclay agreed that the woman's case appeared to be "for now an isolated case", adding: "It is possible that in these days of increased vigilance we are picking up the occasional zoonosis that we previously missed."Ho-Sheng cautioned, however, that "as these viruses continue to evolve and accumulate changes, they increase the potential risk of human infection".(Editing by Ben Hirschler and Angus MacSwan)
JEREMEIAH 49:35-37 (IN IRAN AT THE BUSHEHR NUKE SITE SOME BELIEVE)
35 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam,(IRAN/BUSHEHR NUCLEAR SITE) the chief of their might.(MOST DANGEROUS NUKE SITE IN IRAN)
36 And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven,(IRANIANS SCATTERED OR MASS IMIGARATION) and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.(WORLD IMMIGRATION)
37 For I will cause Elam (IRAN-BUSHEHR NUKE SITE) to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger,(ISRAELS NUKES POSSIBLY) saith the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them:(IRAN AND ITS NUKE SITES DESTROYED)
EZEKIEL 35:3-6,11-15
3 And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O mount Seir,(ARABS) I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate.
4 I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.
5 Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred,(AGAINST ISRAEL) and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end:
6 Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee.
11 Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will even do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I have judged thee.
12 And thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume.
13 Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them.
14 Thus saith the Lord GOD; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate.(ARAB,MUSLIMS)
15 As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir,(ARABS) and all Idumea,(ARAB,MUSLIMS) even all of it: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
ISAIAH 17:1,11-14
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
11 In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
12 Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations,(USELESS U.N) that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13 The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14 And behold at evening tide trouble; and before the morning he is not.(ASSAD KILLED IN OVERNIGHT RAID) This is the portion of them that spoil us,(ISRAEL) and the lot of them that rob us.
AMOS 1:5
5 I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden:(IRAQ) and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir,(JORDAN) saith the LORD.
JEREMEIAH 49:23-27
23 Concerning Damascus.(SYRIA) Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea;(WAR SHIPS WITH NUKES COMING ON SYRIA) it cannot be quiet.
24 Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27 And I will kindle a fire (NUKES OR BOMBS) in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.(ASSADS PALACES POSSIBLY IN DAMASCUS)
PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
Islamists protest military coup in Egypt
16-year-old killed by bullet to the chest during clashes in Alexandria
November 15, 2013, 11:43 pm
0-The Times of Israel
CAIRO (AP) — Several thousand
supporters of Egypt’s ousted president rallied Friday as security forces
deployed extra police officers and soldiers for the first weekend since
a curfew across much of the country ended.Clashes
between supporters of toppled leader Mohammed Morsi and residents in
the Mediterranean city of Alexandria killed a 16-year-old boy, the
Interior Ministry said in a statement. It said Ihab Selim suffered a
gunshot wound to the chest in the fighting and it was unclear who fired
the shot.The statement said police arrested seven Morsi supporters over the clashes.Morsi supporters also protested at the
presidential palace in Cairo. Protesters shot off fireworks and chanted
slogans against the military. At one point, the crowd shouted: “This
time is for real, we are not going to leave it for anybody.”“We are protesting every day and our demands are the same,” protester Sayed Mohammed said.The military overthrew Morsi and his Muslim
Brotherhood-backed government in a popularly supported coup on July 3.
Supporters held near-daily protests since, with some demonstrations
ending in bloody clashes with security forces or opponents.Friday’s planned protests largely fizzled out
with fewer participants. In the recent weeks, the numbers of protesters
have fallen sharply as authorities have arrested hundreds of Brotherhood
leaders and rank-and-file members.This Friday marked the first weekend since the
end of emergency rule in the country, following an Aug. 14 security
force crackdown on camps of Morsi supporters in Cairo that killed more
than 600 people and sparked days of unrest. A curfew over much of the
country ended with it.Worried about potential unrest from the curfew
ending, authorities deployed extra police officers and soldiers to the
streets. They also positioned armored personnel carriers at some major
squares.
Biggest children’s book publisher erases Israel from map
Jewish state absent from map in Egypt-based adventure book for kids published by Scholastic Inc., which promises to stop book’s shipment
November 13, 2013, 2:08 pm
469-The Times of Israel
A
detail from a map of the Middle East that appears in the book 'Thea
Stilton and the Blue Scarab Hunt,' published by Scholastic.
Arab textbooks are not the only
ones erasing Israel from their maps. Scholastic, the world’s largest
publisher of children’s books, has also eliminated the Jewish state in a
book.“Thea Stilton and the Blue Scarab Hunt,” part
of the popular Geronimo Stilton children’s series translated from
Italian and published by Scholastic in 2012, tells the story of a group
of investigative journalists involved in a treasure hunt in Egypt.
U.S. Official: Deal with Iran is 'Close'
The United States and other countries are "getting close" to an interim deal with Iran, says senior administration official.-By Elad Benari, Canada-First Publish: 11/15/2013, 8:20 PM-Israelnationalnews
Iranian, P5 1 delegations in Geneva October 15, 2013-Reuters
Senators have been pushing for a speedy escalation of sanctions against the Islamic Republic, while the Obama administration has been placing heavy pressure on Congress not to slap new sanctions on Iran.
On Thursday, President Obama warned Congress that military action, if diplomacy fails, would have dangerous effects and only fuel an Iranian desire for nuclear weapons."What we have done is seen the possibility of an agreement in which Iran would halt advances on its program," Obama told a news conference."We can buy some additional months in terms of their breakout capacity. Let's test how willing they are to actually resolve this diplomatically and peacefully," he added.The president noted that his intention "always was to bring the Iranians to the table so we could resolve this issue peacefully."The comments came as another report indicated that Obama has been easing sanctions on Iran for the past five months without Congressional approval.Sources in Congress revealed that Obama's administration has been suspending or lifting many sanctions without informing Congress since Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was elected in June, reports the World Tribune.Israel has repeatedly warned that the deal being offered to Iran is a dangerous one and would allow it to continue its nuclear program.On Thursday, Economics Minister Naftali Bennett delivered a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington in which he warned against lifting the sanctions on Iran.In his speech, Bennett said no country wants a deal with Iran that would end its nuclear weapons program more than Israel, and added that "if Iran achieves a nuclear weapon we will be their first target, but make no mistake, we will not be their last target."He stressed that Israel opposes any deal that does not dismantle Iran's nuclear program.Sanctions have made a great impact, said Bennett, and they must continue until Iran is forced to choose between having a nuclear weapon or having an economy.(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)
Netanyahu Urges France to Maintain Tough Stance on Iran
"We hope France will not yield" on its firm stance during talks with Iran, says Netanyahu ahead of visit by Hollande.-By Elad Benari, Canada-First Publish: 11/15/2013, 10:38 PM-Israelnationalnews
Netanyahu and Hollande (file)-Flash 90
"We welcome his coherent and resolute stance on the Iranian issue," he said."I strongly believe we should not lower our defenses," Netanyahu said, calling the Iranian regime "aggressive, violent, messianic and apocalyptic.""This country is in the process of acquiring intercontinental ballistic missiles, of which the Geneva draft accord says nothing," he added, repeating his warning that the proposals made to Iran are dangerous.
"And what are they for? Not for striking Israel, which they can already do, but for extending their reach to Paris, London, Washington or New York... When dealing with Iran, being weak or naive is not an option," declared Netanyahu.The Prime Minister’s comments were made ahead of Hollande’s first visit to Israel as France’s president.Hollande, who arrives Sunday, will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Fabius and an entourage of more than 200 people.Hollande is to visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum on Sunday.
That evening bilateral cooperation agreements are to be signed at a meeting between the French president and Netanyahu to further cooperation on areas of strategic importance and to strengthen economic, scientific and cultural ties.Then on Monday, after visiting members of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Hollande is to address a special session of the Knesset.The decision to talk at the Knesset comes after initial reports that Hollande intended to snub the Israeli parliament and talk in front of students instead. The initial intention caused a minor falling out at the time.(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)
Beijing's meagre typhoon aid is diplomatic misstep: experts
By Felicia Sonmez
6 hours ago-NOV 16,13-Yahoonews
Beijing's foreign ministry has said that its offer could change, and will depend on "the development of the situation".But the missed opportunity could have broader diplomatic repercussions, experts say."I think this is a real test of their humanitarian principles, and also of the foreign-policy-making establishment in China," said Mark Beeson, professor of international politics at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia.Beijing's original response "can be viewed as quite stingy as compared to everybody else", he said, adding there was "no doubt" some in China were "not terribly disposed to the Philippines because of these territorial disputes".
China has denied any link between its contribution and the long-simmering row over the South China Sea.
But comments by users of China's popular online social networks underscored the lingering raw feelings between them."The Philippines is a country that's hostile to China; we shouldn't give them even a cent of aid," one Sino Weibo user wrote. "We shouldn't give our benevolence for dogs to eat."Others have been more measured. "The (Philippine) president is a little bit stupid, but we should help the Philippine people," another user opined.Using financial pressure for diplomatic purposes could be useful in some cases, but risked backfiring with humanitarian responses to disaster, Beeson noted."In these kinds of catastrophes, one would expect that there would be a different type of calculus -- or no calculus at all -- with trying to relieve an acute humanitarian problem," he said."I think that's why quite a few people have been taken aback by this," he added.Bo Zhiyue, a senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore's East Asian Institute, said Beijing had missed a chance to wield soft power and potentially improve relations with Manila."This is actually a great opportunity to play so-called dollar diplomacy: you provide a little more, and you have a much easier time later on," Bo said."We're all humanity in these disasters," he added. "The US even shut down their government for a few days because of money issues, but apparently they're very generous -- and they came very quickly."
FALSE POPE FROM THE VATICAN
REVELATION 13:11-13
11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth;(FALSE VATICAN POPE) and he had two horns like a lamb,(JESUS IS THE LAMB OF GOD) and he spake as a dragon.(HES SATANICALLY INSPIRED,HES A CHRISTIAN DEFECTOR FROM THE FAITH)
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him,(WORLD DICTATOR) and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.(THE WORLD DICTATOR CREATES A FALSE RESURRECTION AND IS CROWNED LEADER OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER).
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
REVELATION 17:1-5,9,15-18
1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication,(VATICAN IN POLITICS) and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
4 And the woman (FALSE CHURCH) was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour,(VATICAN COLOURS)(ANOTHER REASON WE KNOW THE FALSE POPE COMES FROM THE VATICAN) and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.(THE VATICAN IS BUILT ON 7 HILLS OR MOUNTAINS)
15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.(VATICAN-CATHOLICS ALL AROUND THE WORLD OVER 1 BILLION)
16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast,(WORLD DICTATOR) these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
11/15/2013 VATICAN INSIDER
Francis entrusts Fernando Vergez Alzaga with the spiritual care of Vatican employees
Francis with Vergez Alzaga
Francis presided this afternoon’s mass for the Episcopal ordination of Fernando Vergez Alzaga despite coming down with a cold which drove him to cancel today’s morning audiences
Domenico Agasso jr Rome “You are specially entrusted with the spiritual care of Vatican employees, but you are their father and brother, with great love: always follow the example of the Good Shepherd,” Pope Francis told the Secretary General of the Vatican Governorate, Mgr. Fernando Vergez Alzaga, during this Episcopal ordination mass he celebrated this afternoon in St. Peter’s Basilica.The Pope presided the mass for Vergez Alzaga’s Episcopal ordination despite coming down with a cold which led him to cancel some audiences he had scheduled for this morning.Sixty-eight-year old Fernando Vergez Alzaga hails from Spain (he was born on 1 March 1945) and was ordained priest on 26 November 1969: a member of the congregation of the Legion of Christ, he has a licence, or degree, in Philosophy and Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University and a diploma from the Vatican Secret Archive’s archivist school. In 1972 he began serving the Holy See through the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Twelve years later he was transferred to the Pontifical Council for the Laity ; in 1994 he became head of the Holy See’s Internet Office. In 2008 he was put in charge of Vatican State telecommunications. Last 30 August the Pope nominated him secretary General of the Governorate. He was elected titular bishop of Villamagna di Proconsolare on 15 October.Upon calling the newly ordained bishop to take on this role of great responsibility within the Church, in his homily, Francis said: “Reflect on the fact that you have been chosen from among men for men and that a bishop is called to serve rather than to rule.” “By service I mean that great service of love and charity that you offered Cardinal Pironio,” Francis said. Eduardo Francisco Pironio is an Argentinean cardinal and a friend of Bergoglio’s. Vergez Alzaga served him as secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity in the 80s; “I am sure he is here with us at this very moment – he said sounding moved – uniting us in the Church. I thank you once again for your humble and silent service. You served as a son and as a brother.”Francis joyfully recalled Vergez Alzaga’s friendship with Cardinal Quarracino who loved the newly ordained bishop very much. Antonio Quarracino was the future Pope’s predecessor in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires. “Hearing these beautiful canticles, I must confess that I cannot but think of the singing of the Benedictine nuns who are here at this ceremony today. You are well accompanied!” Francis concluded.
11/15/2013 VATICAN INSIDER
Vatican website removes Pope’s interview with founder of "La Repubblica" newspaper
Eugenio Scalfari
“The text had not been carefully reviewed,” the director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi
VATICAN INSIDER STAFF RomE The Holy See has decided to delete the interview between Pope Francis and Eugenio Scalfari, the founder of Italian newspaper La Repubblica from the Vatican’s main portal (www.vatican.va). Scalfari had met with Francis to thank him for the open letter received and published by the newspaper.In response to journalists’ questions about the reason for this decision, the Holy See’s spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi replied: “The information in the interview is reliable on a general level but not on the level of each individual point analysed: this is why it was decided the text should not be available for consultation on the Holy See website. Its removal is a final update on the nature of this text. Some mistakes were made regarding its value, which was questioned. The Secretariat of State took the decision.”Ever since the interview was published, Fr. Lombardi declared that the Pope had not looked over the text personally. Scalfari had sent the text to the Vatican. The article did in fact contain expressions that did not seem like typical expressions Francis would have used. There was also a mistake regarding what had gone on in the Sistine chapel. According to one of the answers, after obtaining the minimum number of votes required to be elected to the pontificate the Pope apparently went away to pray before accepting. This piece of information was false, as confirmed by a number of cardinals, including the Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan.A statement – completely compatible with the Catechism of the Catholic Church - regarding the importance of conscience issue gave rise to many debates and discussions. Lombardi denied that the decision to remove the interview from the Vatican website was taken at the request of the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Gerhard Ludwig Müller.
The CWR Blog
“We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future, spread love. Be poor among the poor.”=October 01, 2013 09:05 EST
COMPLETE INTERVIEW HERE
Pope
Francis greets the crowd after celebrating a Mass for catechists in St.
Peter's Square at the Vatican Sept. 29. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
Less than two weeks after the release
of a headline-grabbing interview in Civilta Cattolica and other Jesuit
publications around the world, yet another interview with Pope Francis was
published today, this time in the Italian daily La Repubblica. Last week the Holy Father sat down with the
newspaper’s atheist founder, Eugenio Scalfari, after the two publically exchanged letters, which were also published in La
Repubblica. Francis and Scalfari discussed faith, reforms within the Vatican,
and the role of the Church in the modern world, among other topics. Pope
Francis also indicates that he will meet again with Scalfari for another, similar
meeting, making one wonder if the papal interview will become a fixture in Francis’ pontificate.My guess is this interview will
receive considerably less media attention than the previous one, partly because
the novelty of the pope sitting down and talking to a journalist may have worn
off for some, but mostly because the subjects Francis discusses with Scalfari are
not the ones that drove headlines for days following the first interview: there
aren’t any references here to abortion, contraception, or homosexuality. The Repubblica interview does, however,
offer insights into the problems Pope Francis believes the Church faces today,
as well as provide a template of sorts for the kind of dialogue with unbelievers
that he sees as critical to the Church’s mission in the modern world.
The full interview can be read in
English here; some excerpts:
“The most serious of the
evils that afflict the world these days are youth unemployment and the
loneliness of the old. The old need care and companionship; the young need work
and hope but have neither one nor the other, and the problem is they don’t even
look for them any more. They have been crushed by the present. You tell me: can
you live crashed under the weight of the present? Without a memory of the past
and without the desire to look ahead to the future by building something, a
future, a family? Can you go on like this? This, to me, is the most urgent
problem that the Church is facing.”
Your Holiness, I say, it is a largely a political and economic problem for states, governments, political parties, trade unions.
“Yes, you are right, but it also concerns the Church, in fact, particularly the Church because this situation does not hurt only bodies but also souls. The Church must feel responsible for both souls and bodies.”Discussing the “narcissism” of some leaders, including Church leaders, Francis states, “The court is the leprosy of the papacy.” Scalfari asks if this is a reference to the Curia:No, there are sometimes courtiers in the curia, but the curia as a whole is another thing. It is what in an army is called the quartermaster’s office, it manages the services that serve the Holy See. But it has one defect: it is Vatican-centric. It sees and looks after the interests of the Vatican, which are still, for the most part, temporal interests. This Vatican-centric view neglects the world around us. I do not share this view and I’ll do everything I can to change it. The Church is or should go back to being a community of God’s people, and priests, pastors and bishops who have the care of souls, are at the service of the people of God. The Church is this, a word not surprisingly different from the Holy See, which has its own function, important but at the service of the Church. I would not have been able to have complete faith in God and in his Son if I had not been trained in the Church, and if I had not had the good fortune of being in Argentina, in a community without which I would not have become aware myself and my faith.”
Your Holiness, I say, it is a largely a political and economic problem for states, governments, political parties, trade unions.
“Yes, you are right, but it also concerns the Church, in fact, particularly the Church because this situation does not hurt only bodies but also souls. The Church must feel responsible for both souls and bodies.”Discussing the “narcissism” of some leaders, including Church leaders, Francis states, “The court is the leprosy of the papacy.” Scalfari asks if this is a reference to the Curia:No, there are sometimes courtiers in the curia, but the curia as a whole is another thing. It is what in an army is called the quartermaster’s office, it manages the services that serve the Holy See. But it has one defect: it is Vatican-centric. It sees and looks after the interests of the Vatican, which are still, for the most part, temporal interests. This Vatican-centric view neglects the world around us. I do not share this view and I’ll do everything I can to change it. The Church is or should go back to being a community of God’s people, and priests, pastors and bishops who have the care of souls, are at the service of the people of God. The Church is this, a word not surprisingly different from the Holy See, which has its own function, important but at the service of the Church. I would not have been able to have complete faith in God and in his Son if I had not been trained in the Church, and if I had not had the good fortune of being in Argentina, in a community without which I would not have become aware myself and my faith.”
On Christians living as a minority in today’s world:“We always have been [a
minority] but the issue today is not that. Personally I think that being a
minority is actually a strength. We have to be a leavening of life and love and
the leavening is infinitely smaller than the mass of fruits, flowers and trees
that are born out of it. I believe I have already said that our goal is not to
proselytize but to listen to needs, desires and disappointments, despair, hope.
We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future,
spread love. Be poor among the poor. We need to include the excluded and preach
peace. Vatican II, inspired by Pope Paul VI and John, decided to look to the
future with a modern spirit and to be open to modern culture. The Council
Fathers knew that being open to modern culture meant religious ecumenism and
dialogue with non-believers. But afterwards very little was done in that
direction. I have the humility and ambition to want to do something.”
On the temporal power of the Church:
I think love
for temporal power is still very strong within the Vatican Walls and in the
institutional structure of the whole Church. I think that the institution
dominates the poor, missionary Church that you would like.
“In fact, that is the way it is, and in this area you cannot perform miracles. Let me remind you that even Francis in his time held long negotiations with the Roman hierarchy and the Pope to have the rules of his order recognized. Eventually he got the approval but with profound changes and compromises.”
Will you have to follow the same path?
“I’m not Francis of Assisi and I do not have his strength and his holiness. But I am the Bishop of Rome and Pope of the Catholic world. The first thing I decided was to appoint a group of eight cardinals to be my advisers. Not courtiers but wise people who share my own feelings. This is the beginning of a Church with an organization that is not just top-down but also horizontal. When Cardinal Martini talked about focusing on the councils and synods he knew how long and difficult it would be to go in that direction. Gently, but firmly and tenaciously.”On Catholics and politics:
“In fact, that is the way it is, and in this area you cannot perform miracles. Let me remind you that even Francis in his time held long negotiations with the Roman hierarchy and the Pope to have the rules of his order recognized. Eventually he got the approval but with profound changes and compromises.”
Will you have to follow the same path?
“I’m not Francis of Assisi and I do not have his strength and his holiness. But I am the Bishop of Rome and Pope of the Catholic world. The first thing I decided was to appoint a group of eight cardinals to be my advisers. Not courtiers but wise people who share my own feelings. This is the beginning of a Church with an organization that is not just top-down but also horizontal. When Cardinal Martini talked about focusing on the councils and synods he knew how long and difficult it would be to go in that direction. Gently, but firmly and tenaciously.”On Catholics and politics:
And politics?
“Why do you ask? I have already said that the Church will not deal with politics.”
But just a few days ago you appealed to Catholics to engage civilly and politically.
“I was not addressing only Catholics but all men of good will. I say that politics is the most important of the civil activities and has its own field of action, which is not that of religion. Political institutions are secular by definition and operate in independent spheres. All my predecessors have said the same thing, for many years at least, albeit with different accents. I believe that Catholics involved in politics carry the values of their religion within them, but have the mature awareness and expertise to implement them. The Church will never go beyond its task of expressing and disseminating its values, at least as long as I’m here.”At the end of the interview, it is clear both Pope Francis and Scalfari expect another meeting to take place at some point in the future. “We will also discuss the role of women in the Church. Remember you that the Church (la chiesa) is feminine,” Pope Francis told him. “And if you like, we can also to talk about Pascal. I’d like to know what you think of that great soul.”
“Why do you ask? I have already said that the Church will not deal with politics.”
But just a few days ago you appealed to Catholics to engage civilly and politically.
“I was not addressing only Catholics but all men of good will. I say that politics is the most important of the civil activities and has its own field of action, which is not that of religion. Political institutions are secular by definition and operate in independent spheres. All my predecessors have said the same thing, for many years at least, albeit with different accents. I believe that Catholics involved in politics carry the values of their religion within them, but have the mature awareness and expertise to implement them. The Church will never go beyond its task of expressing and disseminating its values, at least as long as I’m here.”At the end of the interview, it is clear both Pope Francis and Scalfari expect another meeting to take place at some point in the future. “We will also discuss the role of women in the Church. Remember you that the Church (la chiesa) is feminine,” Pope Francis told him. “And if you like, we can also to talk about Pascal. I’d like to know what you think of that great soul.”
Pope Francis' Letter to the Founder of "La Repubblica" Italian Newspaper
Vatican City, (Zenit.org) | 38396 hits
Here is the translation of the letter sent by Pope Francis to the founder of “La Repubblica” Italian newspaper Eugenio Scalfari in response to several questions made by him in various articles. The Holy Father addresses both Mr. Scalfari and non-believers.Dear Doctor Scalfari,
It is with great cordiality, although only in broad lines, that with this letter I would like to respond to your letter, addressed to me on July 7 in the pages of La Reppublica, with a series of your personal reflections , which you then enriched on the pages of the same daily on August 7.I thank you, first of all, for the attention with which you read the encyclical Lumen fidei. The intention of my beloved Predecessor, Benedict XVI, who conceived it and to a great extent wrote it, and which I inherited with gratitude, is directed not only to confirm in the faith in Jesus Christ those who recognize themselves in it, but also to arouse a sincere and rigorous dialogue with those whom, like you, describe themselves “a non-believer for many years interested and fascinated by the preaching of Jesus of Nazareth.”Therefore, it seems to me that it is nothing other than positive, not only for us individually but also for the society in which we live, to pause to dialogue on a reality as important as the faith is, which calls to preaching and to the figure of Jesus. I think there are, in particular, two circumstances that today render this dialogue right and proper and precious. Moreover, as noted, it constitutes one of the principal objectives of Vatican Council II, desired by John XXIII and the ministry of Popes that, each one with his sensibility and contribution, from then to today has followed in the track traced by the Council.The first circumstance – as recalled in the initial pages of the encyclical – stems from the fact that, in the course of the centuries of modernity, we have witnessed a paradox: the Christian faith, whose novelty and incidence on the life of man since the beginning were expressed in fact through the symbol of light, was often referred to as the darkness of superstition that is opposed to the light of reason. Thus between the Church and the culture of Christian inspiration, on one hand, and the modern culture of Enlightenment stamp, on the other, there has been incommunicability. Moreover the time has come, and the Vatican in fact inaugurated the season, of an open dialogue without preconceptions, which opens the doors for a serious and fecund meeting.
The second circumstance, for one who seeks to be faithful to the gift of following Jesus in the light of faith, stems from the fact that this dialogue is not a secondary accessory of the existence of the believer: it is, instead, a profound and indispensable expression. In this connection, allow me to quote an affirmation of the encyclical, which in my opinion is very important: because the truth witnessed by faith is that of love – it is underlined -- “it is clear that the faith is not intransigent, but grows in coexistence that respects the other. The believer isn’t arrogant; on the contrary, truth makes him humble, knowing that, more than our possessing it, it is truth that embraces and possesses us. Far from stiffening us, the certainty of the faith puts us on the way, and makes possible witness and dialogue with everyone” (n. 34). This is the spirit that animates the words that I write to you.For me, faith is born from the encounter with Jesus. A personal encounter, which has touched my heart and given direction and new meaning to my existence. But at the same time an encounter that was made possible by the community of faith in which I have lived and thanks to which I found access to the intelligence of Sacred Scripture, to new life that, as gushing water, flows from Jesus through the Sacraments, to fraternity with everyone and at the service of the poor, true image of the Lord. Believe me, without the Church I would not have been able to encounter Christ, also in the awareness that the immense gift that faith is is kept in the fragile earthen vessels of our humanity.Now, it is precisely beginning from here, from this personal experience of faith lived in the Church, that I feel at ease in listening to your questions and in seeking, together with you, the ways through which we might, perhaps, begin a segment of the way together.Forgive me if I do not follow step by step the arguments you propose in the editorial of July 7. It seems to me more fruitful, if not more congenial, to go in a certain sense to the heart of your considerations. I won’t even enter into the explanatory way followed by the encyclical, in which you perceive the lack of a section dedicated specifically to the historical experience of Jesus of Nazareth.To begin, I observe only that an analysis of this kind isn’t secondary. It is, in fact, by following the logic that guides the unfolding of the encyclical, pausing our attention on the meaning of what Jesus said and did and thus, in a word, on what Jesus was and is for us. The Letters of Paul and the Gospel of John, of which particular reference is made in the encyclical, are constructed, in fact, on the solid foundation of the messianic ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, which reached its decisive culmination in the Pasch of Death and Resurrection.Therefore, one must be confronted with Jesus, I would say, in the concreteness and roughness of his event, as is narrated especially by the oldest of the Gospels, that of Mark. One sees then that the “scandal” that the word and practice of Jesus caused around him stem from his extraordinary “authority”: a word, this is, that attests from the Gospel of Mark, but which isn’t easy to render in Italian. The Greek word is “exousia,” which literally refers to that which“comes from being,” which is. It’s not about something exterior or forced, therefore, but of something that emanates from within and that imposes itself. Jesus, in fact, strikes, breaks, innovates beginning with – He himself says so – from his relationship with God, called familiarly Abba, who gives Him this “authority” so that he will exercise it in favor of men.So Jesus preaches “as one who has authority,” heals, calls the disciples to follow him, forgives … all things that, in the Old Testament, are of God and only of God. The question that return most in Mark’s Gospel is: “Who is he who …?” and which refers to Jesus’ identity, is born from witnessing an authority that is different from that of the world, an authority that is not aimed at exercising power over others, but of serving them, of giving them liberty and the fullness of life. And this to the point of putting at stake one’s own life, to the point of experiencing incomprehension, betrayal, rejection, to the point of being condemned to death, of sealing the state of abandonment on the cross. But Jesus remains faithful to God, to the end.
And it is precisely then – as the Roman centurion exclaimed at the foot of the cross in Mark’s Gospel – that Jesus shows himself paradoxically as the Son of God! Son of a God that is love and that wishes with all His being that man, every man, discover himself and also live as His true son. This is, for the Christian faith, the certificate of the fact that Jesus is risen: not to triumph over those who rejected him, but to attest that the love of God is stronger than death, the forgiveness of God is stronger than any sin, and that it is worthwhile to spend one’s life, to the end, witnessing this immense gift.The Christian faith believes this: that Jesus is the Son of God who came to give his life to open to all the way of love. Because of this you are right, egregious Doctor Scalfari, when you see in the Incarnation of the Son of God the foundation of the Christian faith. Tertullian already wrote “caro cardo salutis,” the flesh (of Christ) is the foundation of salvation. Because the Incarnation, namely, the fact that the Son of God came in our flesh and shared our joys and sorrows, the victories and defeats of our existence, to the cry of the cross, living everything in love and fidelity to Abba, attests to the incredible love that God has for every man, the inestimable value that he gives him. Because of this, each one of us is called to make his own the look and the choice of love of Jesus, to enter into his way of being, of thinking and acting. This is the faith, with all the expressions that are described unfailingly in the encyclical.Always in the editorial of July 7, you ask me in addition how to understand the originality of the Christian faith in as much as it is founded on the Incarnation of the Son of God, in regard to other faiths that gravitate instead around the absolute transcendence of God.The originality, I would say, lies precisely in the fact that the faith makes us participate , in Jesus, in the relationship that He has with God who is Abba and, in this light, the relationship that He has with all other men, including enemies, in the sign of love. In other words, Jesus’ offspring, as presented by the Christian faith, is not revealed to mark an insurmountable separation between Jesus and all others: but to tell us that, in Him, we are all called to be children of the one Father and brothers among ourselves. The singularity of Jesus is for communication, not for exclusion.Of course from this also follows – and it isn’t something small – the distinction between the religious sphere and the political sphere which is sanctioned in “giving to God what is God’s and to Caesar what is Caesar’s,” affirmed clearly by Jesus and on which, laboriously, the history of the West was built. In fact, the Church is called to sow the leaven and the salt of the Gospel, and this is the love and mercy of God that reaches all men, pointing out the celestial and definitive goal of our destiny, whereas civil and political society has the arduous task of articulating and embodying in justice and solidarity, in law and in peace, an ever more human life. For one who lives the Christian faith, this does not mean fleeing the world or seeking hegemony, but service to man, to the whole of man and to all men, beginning from the fringes of history and keeping awake the sense of hope that drives one to do good despite everything and always looking to the beyond.You also ask me, in conclusion of your first article, what we should say to our Jewish brothers about the promise made to them by God: has it all come to nothing? Believe me, this is a question that challenges us radically as Christians, because, with the help of God, especially since Vatican Council II, we have rediscovered that the Jewish people are still for us the holy root from which Jesus germinated. In the friendship I cultivated in the course of all these years with Jewish brothers in Argentina, often in prayer I also questioned God, especially when my mind went to the memory of the terrible experience of the Shoa. What I can say to you, with the Apostle Paul, is that God’s fidelity to the close covenant with Israel never failed and that, through the terrible trials of these centuries, the Jews have kept their faith in God. And for this, we shall never be sufficiently grateful to them as Church, but also as humanity. They, then, precisely by persevering in the faith of the God of the Covenant, called all, also us Christians, to the fact that we are always waiting, as pilgrims, for the Lord’s return and, therefore, that we must always be open to Him and never take refuge in what we have already attained.So I come to the three questions you put to me in the article of August 7. It seems to me that, in the first two, what is in your heart is to understand the attitude of the Church to those who don’t share faith in Jesus. First of all, you ask me if the God of Christians forgives one who doesn’t believe and doesn’t seek the faith. Premise that – and it’s the fundamental thing – the mercy of God has no limits if one turns to him with a sincere and contrite heart; the question for one who doesn’t believe in God lies in obeying one’s conscience. Sin, also for those who don’t have faith, exists when one goes against one’s conscience. To listen to and to obey it means, in fact, to decide in face of what is perceived as good or evil. And on this decision pivots the goodness or malice of our action.In the second place, you ask me if the thought, according to which no absolute exists and therefore not even an absolute truth but only a series of relative or subjective truths, is an error or a sin. To begin with, I will not speak, not even to one who believes, of “absolute” truth, in the sense that absolute is what is inconsistent, what is deprived of any relationship. Now truth, according to the Christian faith, is the love of God for us in Jesus Christ. Therefore, truth is a relationship! So true is it that each one of us also takes up the truth and expresses it from him/herself: from his/her history and culture, from the situation in which he/she lives, etc. This doesn’t mean that truth is variable or subjective, quite the opposite. But is means that it is given to us always and only as a way and a life. Did not Jesus himself say: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”? In other words, truth being altogether one with love, requires humility and openness to be sought, received and expressed. Therefore, it’s necessary to understand one another well on the terms and, perhaps, to come out of the tight spots of opposition … absolute, to pose the question again in depth. I think that this is today absolutely necessary to initiate that serene and constructive dialogue that I hoped for at the beginning of this my response. In the last question you ask me if, with the disappearance of man on earth, the thought will also disappear that is able to think of God. Certainly, man’s greatness lies in his being able to think of God. And that is in being able to live a conscious and responsible relationship with Him. However, the relationship is between two realities. God – this is my thought and this is my experience, but how many, yesterday and today, share it! – is not an idea, even though very lofty, fruit of man’s thought. God is reality with a capital “R.” Jesus reveals it – and lives the relationship with him – as a Father of goodness and infinite mercy. Hence, God doesn’t depend on our thought. Moreover, even when the life of man on earth should finish – and for the Christian faith, in any case, this world as we know it is destined to fail --, man won’t stop existing and, in a way that we don’t know, also the universe created with him. Scripture speaks of “new heavens and a new earth” and affirms that, in the end, in the where and when that is beyond us, but towards which, in faith, we tend with desire and expectation, God will be “all in all.” Egregious Doctor Scalfari, I thus conclude my reflections, aroused by what you wished to communicate to me and ask me. Receive it as the tentative and provisional but sincere and confident answer to the invitation to escort you in a segment of the road together. Believe me, the Church despite all the slowness, the infidelities, the errors and sins she could have committed and can still commit in those that accompany her, has no other sense or end but that of living and witnessing Jesus: He who was sent by Abba “to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19).With fraternal closeness,Francis-[Translation by ZENIT]
DANIEL 7:23-25
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS-10 WORLD REGIONS/TRADE BLOCS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS-10 WORLD DIVISION WORLD GOVERNMENT) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(TAKE OVER 3 WORLD REGIONS)
REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(THE FALSE POPE WHO DEFECTED FROM THE CHRISTIAN FAITH) causeth all,(IN THE WORLD ) both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(MICROCHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark,(MICROCHIP IMPLANT) or the name of the beast,(WORLD DICTATORS NAME INGRAVED ON YOUR SKIN OR TATTOOED ON YOU OR IN THE MICROCHIP IMPLANT) or the number of his name.(THE NUMBERS OF HIS NAME INGRAVED IN THE MICROCHIP IMLPLANT)-(ALL THESE WILL TELL THE WORLD DICTATOR THAT YOUR WITH HIM AND AGAINST KING JESUS-GOD)
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast:(WORLD LEADER) for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM (6006006)OR(60020202006)(SOME KIND OF NUMBER IMPLANTED IN THE MICROCHIP THAT TELLS THE WORLD DICTATOR AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER THAT YOU GIVE YOUR TOTAL ALLIGIENCE TO HIM AND NOT JESUS)(ITS AN ETERNAL DECISION YOU MAKE)(YOU CHOOSE YOUR OWN DESTINY)(YOU TAKE THE DICTATORS NAME OR NUMBER UNDER YOUR SKIN,YOUR DOOMED TO THE LAKE OF FIRE AND TORMENTS FOREVER,NEVER ENDING MEANT ONLY FOR SATAN AND HIS ANGELS,NOT HUMAN BEINGS).OR YOU REFUSE THE MICROCHIP IMPLANT AND GO ON THE SIDE OF KING JESUS AND RULE FOREVER WITH HIM ON EARTH.YOU CHOOSE,ITS YOUR DECISION.
EU bank transparency rules delayed
Today @ 09:55-NOV 16,13-EUOBSERVER
BRUSSELS - Finance ministers on Friday (15 November) failed to reach a political agreement to impose greater bank transparency rules.Both Luxembourg and Austria opposed the measure, which would allow
governments to collect information on income from foreign accounts.The political agreement on the draft proposal on taxation on savings income requires the full backing of all 28 ministers.Luxembourg’s Luc Frieden defended his country position not to put a rapid end to bank secrecy.“For some, they simply say that Luxembourg is a place where you can
hide your money, undeclared money, and that was and is wrong,” he told
reporters in Brussels.Luxembourg wants greater bank account transparency rules but not
until Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Andorra, and San Marino also
sign up.EU leaders at a summit in May agreed to reach a political decision before 2014.But Frieden, who is in his final days as finance minister, said
“rules that have to be adopted, have to be international. The same is
true if we want to make the fight against tax fraud efficient.”All other member states want to impose an automatic exchange of
information on personal savings accounts, under the European Commission
revised taxation savings directive, before the end of the year.Frieden said the next government in Luxembourg would instead apply the rules in the beginning of 2015.
EU taxation commissioner Algirdas Semeta, for his part, said Luxembourg and Austria need to recognise the global trend towards the automatic exchange of tax information.The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Paris-based economic club, and the G20 declared the system as the future international standard.“The era of banking secrecy is coming to an end,” said Semeta.
He noted that Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Singapore have signed agreements with the US. Switzerland also agreed to standards laid out by the OECD.“The EU is no longer making the first move, the world is already moving and the EU must not be left behind,” said Semeta.
Anonymous shell companies are legal entities set up to hide the owner’s identities.Also known as “phantom firms”, they are the most widely used method for laundering the proceeds of crime, corruption, and tax evasion.But the UK, with the backing of France and Italy, want to stamp out the practice by disclosing the “beneficial owner” of a company when it is formed.UK prime minister David Cameron announced in October that the UK would set up a central public registry of corporate beneficial ownership information, possibly next year.Cameron, in a letter sent to EU council chief Herman Van Rompuy last night, said the new EU anti-money laundering directive should include rules that would require member states to do the same.
“I believe this will prove a significant step towards breaking through the walls of corporate secrecy,” noted the letter.Financial Transparency Coalition, a group of six pro-transparency NGOs, said such registries would “make it much harder for Europe's financial system to be abused.”However, member states remain divided on the issue.
EU taxation commissioner Algirdas Semeta, for his part, said Luxembourg and Austria need to recognise the global trend towards the automatic exchange of tax information.The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Paris-based economic club, and the G20 declared the system as the future international standard.“The era of banking secrecy is coming to an end,” said Semeta.
He noted that Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Singapore have signed agreements with the US. Switzerland also agreed to standards laid out by the OECD.“The EU is no longer making the first move, the world is already moving and the EU must not be left behind,” said Semeta.
UK leads transparency campaign
Ministers also discussed ways to tackle fraud and money laundering.Drug lords and other criminal gangs are taking advantage of murky ownership rules that allow them to “clean” dirty money in shell companies.Anonymous shell companies are legal entities set up to hide the owner’s identities.Also known as “phantom firms”, they are the most widely used method for laundering the proceeds of crime, corruption, and tax evasion.But the UK, with the backing of France and Italy, want to stamp out the practice by disclosing the “beneficial owner” of a company when it is formed.UK prime minister David Cameron announced in October that the UK would set up a central public registry of corporate beneficial ownership information, possibly next year.Cameron, in a letter sent to EU council chief Herman Van Rompuy last night, said the new EU anti-money laundering directive should include rules that would require member states to do the same.
“I believe this will prove a significant step towards breaking through the walls of corporate secrecy,” noted the letter.Financial Transparency Coalition, a group of six pro-transparency NGOs, said such registries would “make it much harder for Europe's financial system to be abused.”However, member states remain divided on the issue.
Gazprom warns EU of winter 'catastrophe'
15.11.13 @ 09:28-EUOBSERVER
BRUSSELS - Gazprom has warned that Ukraine might not have enough gas to feed EU transit customers in the coming winter.The deputy chairman of the Russian firm, Vitaly Markelov, told press
in an emailed statement on Thursday (14 November) that Ukraine should
have stored 21.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas in its underground
vats, but that it is likely to have just 14 bcm by the time winter
bites.“It’s a catastrophe … in these conditions, the winter transit of
Russian gas won’t be possible because storage won’t be enough to
compensate for Ukrainian consumer drawdowns," he said.Referring to the danger of a 2009-type crisis, which saw power cuts
in some eastern EU states, he added: "Everyone knows the risk … it's a
serious situation."The EU gets about 25 percent of its total gas imports from Russia via Ukraine.But Russia-Ukraine gas relations are in jeopardy on two fronts.On one hand, Ukraine has been complaining for three years that Gazprom is charging it too much.On the other hand, Moscow has indicated it will drop the price only
if Kiev ditches plans to sign a strategic EU treaty and joins a Russian
Customs Union instead.The two problems are intimately linked.Ukraine's high price - about $400 per thousand cubic metres (tcm),
almost twice what EU customers pay Russia - was fixed in a 2009 contract
by the then Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko.The contract includes a "take or pay" clause, meaning that Ukraine has to buy a fixed amount or pay for the shortfall anyway.Ukraine has jailed Tymoshenko for signing the deal, in a move which might well scupper the EU treaty.At the same time, Ukraine stopped buying from Gazprom last week, amid
Russian complaints that it is owed almost $1 billion for 2013.For its part, the European Commission is being kept in the dark.An EU official told EUobserver on Thursday that it has no more information than what it reads in Russian and Ukrainian media.Ukraine's EU embassy and its state-owned gas distributor, Naftogaz, declined to comment.
But Alexander Morozov, HSBC bank's chief economist on Russia and Ukraine, indicated the fate of EU winter supplies rests in the hands of one man: Ukrainian tycoon Dmitry Firtash.Firtash - who has self-confessed ties to the Russian mafia and who is described by EU diplomats in Kiev as a Kremlin stooge - bought 5 bcm of Russian gas at a discounted price of around $250/tcm.Morozov said Ukraine is now hoping to fill any EU transit shortfall by buying 3 bcm from Firtash's firm, Ostchem.He also warned the plan might not work, however."There is a dispute on who has the right to Ostchem's gas," he told this website on Thursday from Moscow."Reports indicate that Ostchem got the discount on condition that Gazprom can buy back the gas if European demand is higher than expected. But it is unclear how this arrangement would work if he has sold the gas to Naftogaz," the analyst said.Morozov noted that secrecy on details of the 2009 Russia-Ukraine contract and political factors make the situation unpredictable."The mood [in the Kremlin] changes every day," he noted."I think there will be more clarity after the EU summit in Vilnius, when we know which way Ukraine is going," he said, referring to an EU meeting with former Soviet countries in Lithuania on 27 November, at which Kiev might ink the EU treaty.He added that his "best guess" is "there won't be a problem" on EU gas because "neither Russia or Ukraine is interested in this kind of development."
His "guess" was borne out by Gazprom's financial statement on this year's quarter two earnings.It said on Thursday that its gas deliveries to Europe went up 15.6 percent in 2013 so far."Gazprom’s European gas export data reaffirms good prospects for the entire year," it noted, describing itself as "the only reliable external supplier able to increase supplies to European markets."
But Alexander Morozov, HSBC bank's chief economist on Russia and Ukraine, indicated the fate of EU winter supplies rests in the hands of one man: Ukrainian tycoon Dmitry Firtash.Firtash - who has self-confessed ties to the Russian mafia and who is described by EU diplomats in Kiev as a Kremlin stooge - bought 5 bcm of Russian gas at a discounted price of around $250/tcm.Morozov said Ukraine is now hoping to fill any EU transit shortfall by buying 3 bcm from Firtash's firm, Ostchem.He also warned the plan might not work, however."There is a dispute on who has the right to Ostchem's gas," he told this website on Thursday from Moscow."Reports indicate that Ostchem got the discount on condition that Gazprom can buy back the gas if European demand is higher than expected. But it is unclear how this arrangement would work if he has sold the gas to Naftogaz," the analyst said.Morozov noted that secrecy on details of the 2009 Russia-Ukraine contract and political factors make the situation unpredictable."The mood [in the Kremlin] changes every day," he noted."I think there will be more clarity after the EU summit in Vilnius, when we know which way Ukraine is going," he said, referring to an EU meeting with former Soviet countries in Lithuania on 27 November, at which Kiev might ink the EU treaty.He added that his "best guess" is "there won't be a problem" on EU gas because "neither Russia or Ukraine is interested in this kind of development."
His "guess" was borne out by Gazprom's financial statement on this year's quarter two earnings.It said on Thursday that its gas deliveries to Europe went up 15.6 percent in 2013 so far."Gazprom’s European gas export data reaffirms good prospects for the entire year," it noted, describing itself as "the only reliable external supplier able to increase supplies to European markets."
EARTHQUAKES
ISAIAH 42:15
15 I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.
MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places,(DIFFERNT PLACES AT THE SAME TIME) and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
WE HAVE HAD A PILE OF BIG QUACKS TODAY. INCLUDING A 6.8 IN THE SCOTIA SEA.
1 Day, Magnitude 2.5+ Worldwide
33 earthquakes - DownloadUpdated: 2013-11-16 07:58:23 UTC-05:00Showing event times using Local System Time (UTC-05:00)33 earthquakes in map area- 2.5 22km N of Shandon, California 2013-11-16 07:08:06 UTC-05:00 5.3 km
- 5.5 5km SE of Yotsukaido, Japan 2013-11-16 06:44:41 UTC-05:00 63.9 km
- 4.8 107km S of False Pass, Alaska 2013-11-16 05:35:05 UTC-05:00 9.3 km
- 5.3 232km SE of Iwo Jima, Japan 2013-11-16 05:31:27 UTC-05:00 38.5 km
- 5.4 Off the west coast of northern Sumatra 2013-11-16 05:26:43 UTC-05:00 10.0 km
- 4.7 Scotia Sea 2013-11-16 04:51:25 UTC-05:00 10.0 km
- 5.2 Scotia Sea 2013-11-16 04:35:46 UTC-05:00 10.0 km
- 5.4 Scotia Sea 2013-11-16 03:35:06 UTC-05:00 10.0 km
- 5.1 Scotia Sea 2013-11-16 03:18:11 UTC-05:00 10.0 km
- 4.8 67km ENE of Namie, Japan 2013-11-16 03:14:54 UTC-05:00 51.5 km
- 2.7 11km NNW of Podujeva, Kosovo 2013-11-16 02:42:31 UTC-05:00 10.0 km
- 4.1 60km W of Kot Malik, Pakistan 2013-11-16 02:19:56 UTC-05:00 24.2 km
- 4.8 150km E of Namie, Japan 2013-11-16 01:05:24 UTC-05:00 24.6 km
- 5.0 10km E of Otsuchi, Japan 2013-11-16 00:54:38 UTC-05:00 57.0 km
- 4.7 203km ESE of Kamaishi, Japan 2013-11-16 00:42:18 UTC-05:00 27.6 km
- 5.3 Scotia Sea 2013-11-15 23:45:33 UTC-05:00 10.0 km
- 4.8 Scotia Sea 2013-11-15 23:16:04 UTC-05:00 10.2 km
- 4.9 Scotia Sea 2013-11-15 23:01:18 UTC-05:00 10.3 km
- 6.8 Scotia Sea 2013-11-15 22:34:31 UTC-05:00 10.0 km
- 2.6 26km NNE of Isabela, Puerto Rico 2013-11-15 21:02:24 UTC-05:00 62.0 km
- 4.7 155km E of Melekeok Village, Palau 2013-11-15 20:54:56 UTC-05:00 35.0 km
- 5.1 108km SW of Acari, Peru 2013-11-15 20:28:26 UTC-05:00 19.7 km
- 3.5 73km E of Old Iliamna, Alaska 2013-11-15 20:11:33 UTC-05:00 100.0 km
- 4.0 43km N of Leh, India 2013-11-15 17:21:09 UTC-05:00 28.9 km
- 5.0 74km SW of Yonakuni, Japan 2013-11-15 14:39:18 UTC-05:00 26.1 km
- 5.3 64km NNE of Naze, Japan 2013-11-15 13:57:54 UTC-05:00 53.3 km
- 4.1 126km S of False Pass, Alaska 2013-11-15 13:55:05 UTC-05:00 49.0 km
- 4.2 50km WNW of Semirom, Iran 2013-11-15 13:50:47 UTC-05:00 43.2 km
- 4.4 27km SE of Bobon, Philippines 2013-11-15 12:44:07 UTC-05:00 77.0 km
- 4.9 94km WSW of Banda Aceh, Indonesia 2013-11-15 10:43:09 UTC-05:00 61.6 km
- 2.7 27km SE of Culebra, Puerto Rico 2013-11-15 09:14:33 UTC-05:00 10.0 km
- 3.3 127km ENE of Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska 2013-11-15 08:39:52 UTC-05:00 22.1 km
- 2.6 91km S of Nikolski, Alaska 2013-11-15 07:58:26 UTC-05:00 4
