Church of God News

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COGwriter

World Net Daily posted the following:

WOKEISM: America’s official state religion

February 14, 2023

Mind you, this new faith is not like a religion, nor is it cult-like. It is a complete and total life religion, influencing every aspect of the believer’s existence. And it is, right now, being forcibly imposed on the entire American populace by virtually every major societal institution, from government, media and big tech; to academia (from preschool to grad school); to entertainment and sports; and perhaps most surprisingly of all, by most of the nation’s biggest and wealthiest businesses.

This new state religion overtaking the United States of America – and, increasingly, much of the Western … world – is Wokeism.

To most outsiders, the expression “being woke,” or “going woke,” conjures up visions of a person or entity that claims to be acutely sensitive (“awake”) to “systemic social and political injustice” in every form. Of course, the “injustice” being condemned by Wokeism is not simply the alleged “systemic” bigotry against “black and brown people,” but against every other “minority,” “underrepresented group” and “underserved community” in the American family. That means everything LGBT, including child-grooming “trans” school teachers and TikTok stars, drag queens and “nonbinary” folk, as well as all other “marginalized” groups, from “homeless people” to “undocumented immigrants” – all of them, being victims, intrinsically more virtuous than the shameful oppressor class: primarily, heterosexual white males.

And this new “woke” consciousness is manifesting in very dramatic ways – from the nationwide Antifa and Black Lives Matter race riots that decimated countless major U.S. cities during the summer of 2020, to the tearing down of historic monuments, not just of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson because they owned slaves, but of Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves. From insisting on multi-million-dollar reparation payments to every black person in America, to appointing men who claim they’re actually women as top officials in the U.S. government. From rampant reverse discrimination in employment, college admissions and every other area of life, to Disney producers gleefully boasting on camera how they’re secretly “injecting queerness” into children’s programming, to the U.S. military imposing mandatory “diversity training” and transgender pronoun use on all personnel, causing recruitment to disastrously plummet. From top college and professional athletic organizations permitting and encouraging biological men to compete in women’s athletics, essentially destroying women’s sports, to incarcerating men (who claim they’re women) in women’s prisons, resulting unsurprisingly in a rape epidemic in those correctional facilities. …

Being “saved” – which in Wokeism is called being “woke” – is largely a matter of worshipping victimhood by becoming an “ally” and “defender” of all the many victim classes, and of course a determined enemy of the straight white male oppressor class. Thus, “joining the righteous” as an ally – even if one is cursed to be a straight white male – opens the door mercifully for salvation, even to the most wretched.

That is the power of the religion of Wokeism. https://www.wnd.com/2023/02/wokeism-americas-official-state-religion/

Yes, we have a type of secular religion which is getting more and more dominant in the U.S.A. It is not new in the sense that belief in the disprovable explanation of evolution as the origin of life (see Is God’s Existence Logical?) is one of its unscientific foundations.

Why do we see wokeism and the suppression of truth gaining ground?

Because less and less people in the Western world respect biblical teachings related to sexual morality.

Notice what the Apostle Paul was inspired to write:

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man — and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them. (Romans 1:18-32)

As secular wokeism has been absorbed by most of the media, academia, and government leaders, it is more dominant than before. And the goal for many is for it to take over more:

“The Secular Democrats of America PAC prepared a report for Joe Biden and his transition team that outlines a roadmap to “boldly restore a vision of constitutional secularism and respect in the land for religious and intellectual pluralism.”

Sound harmless? No. They aim to make it illegal for businesses such as a baker that refuses to make a cake for a homosexual wedding. Calling it a hate crime. From now on it will be illegal if they have their way.

“In the document, the group argues that Trump has “empowered the religious right in ways no other administration has before, making significant advances in enacting their Christian nationalist agenda.” (More) I encourage you to read the whole report.

They even say the rise of Christian Nationalism is a national security risk. They want to de-radicalize us. It’s this that troubles me and should trouble everyone especially Christians. We have watched the watering down secularization of many churches in recent years.

The takeover of America this year by socialist /communists is the last straw in the brick for the great reset. https://iamnotashamedofthegospelofchrist.com/2020/12/20/democrats-draft-proposal-to-strip-religious-liberty/

Having read, as well as heard, Joe Biden’s words since his inauguration as President of the United States, sadly he seems to be pushing for many aspects that the secularists have pushed on racial and religious matters. He has also made comments that look to be supportive of squelching free speech and truth telling. He has also stated that ‘rights’ are not absolute–which means that the head of the US federal government feels the government is above religious and other rights.

As Christians, we realize it is recorded that the Apostle Peter told government officials, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29, NKJV). Related to COVID steps and LGBTQ+ matters, we have seen more government pressures reducing religious freedom in favor of a type of ‘group-think’ secularism. But we still must live as Christians.

Related to secularism, the Continuing Church of God (CCOG) produced the following video on our Bible News Prophecy YouTube channel:

The following looks like prophetic biblical commentary on what we are now witnessing:

4 No one calls for justice,
Nor does any plead for truth.
They trust in empty words and speak lies;
They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch vipers’ eggs and weave the spider’s web;
He who eats of their eggs dies,
And from that which is crushed a viper breaks out.

6 Their webs will not become garments,
Nor will they cover themselves with their works;
Their works are works of iniquity,
And the act of violence is in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil,
And they make haste to shed innocent blood;
Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
Wasting and destruction are in their paths.
8 The way of peace they have not known,
And there is no justice in their ways;
They have made themselves crooked paths;
Whoever takes that way shall not know peace. (Isaiah 59:4-8)

Yes, what is happening in the USA will lead to war–and ultimately the end of the USA (cf. Daniel 11:39; see also USA in Prophecy: The Strongest Fortresses).

Many on the left and right do not put a high enough priority on truth.

Notice also the following woke stupidity:

Science needs to stop using terms like male, female, mother and father, researchers say

February 14, 2023

Alternatives to terms like “male” and “female” and “mother” and “father” should be sought in science because they assume that sex is binary and heterosexuality is the norm, a group of researchers from the US and Canada suggests.

Male and female should instead be referred to as “sperm-producing” and “egg-producing,” the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) Language Project said, according to the Times of London.

Meanwhile, father and mother should be labeled “parent,” “egg donor” and “sperm donor” in the scientific field. …

The group has called on the scientific field to use words that are more “inclusive and precise,” according to a press release from the University of British Columbia, which has three researchers part of the initiative.

“Much of western science is rooted in colonialism, white supremacy and patriarchy, and these power structures continue to permeate our scientific culture,” some project members wrote in the Trends in Ecology and Evolution journal. https://nypost.com/2023/02/14/science-needs-to-stop-using-male-female-mother-father-researchers/amp/

So, if a woman has passed into menopause is she supposed to be called a ‘former egg-producer’? Of course, if heterosexuality is not the norm, humans would not have reproduced as they had throughout history. In general, homosexuality (including lesbianism) attempts to somewhat falsely mimic heterosexual intercourse–yet homosexuality seems to forget that sperm and egg production for reproduction requires a male and female. REAL scientists, as opposed to the many frauds claiming science, realize that humans are “binary” as men and boys have xy chromosomes and women and girls have xx.

In general, the ‘woke’ crowd, which normally includes most of the Western media, asserts the following positions are misinformation or otherwise wrong:

1. Life begins at conception.
2. LGBTQ people can change their sexual orientation, and should be helped if they want it to change.
3. People of all ethnic backgrounds can be hateful racists.
4. Spontaneous generation of life is impossible.
5. XX chromosomes make one a woman, whereas XY chromosomes make one a man.
6. Heterosexual intercourse is normal.
7. Acquired immunity to COVID is not inferior to vaccine immunity.
8. If masks are required for citizens, then protesters and those who wish to enter the USA illegally should also wear them.
9. Pornography harms society.

Yet, every statement above is true and ‘follows the science.’ Big Tech will banish/cancel people who make several of those statements.

YouTube has removed/cancelled two of our videos related to items 2 and 7 on the above list. Vimeo removed one related to item 2 and YouTube removed a third somewhat related to item 7.

Related to the woke cancelling crowd, the Continuing Church of God (CCOG) put out the following video on our Bible News Prophecy YouTube channel:

16:26

Woke: Follow the True Science

What is being ‘woke’ supposed to mean? Do the woke have ”an active awareness of systemic injustices and prejudices, especially those related to civil and human rights” or are they perhaps hypocrites as an article in Newsweek suggested? What about religious rights? What about science? Are the following, which are held by much of the non-woke, scientifically/factually true: 1. Life begins at conception. 2. LGBTQ people can change their sexual orientation, and should be helped if they want it to change. 3. People of all ethnic backgrounds can be hateful racists. 4. Spontaneous generation of life is impossible. 5. XX chromosomes make one a woman, whereas XY chromosomes make one a man. 6. Heterosexual intercourse is normal. 7. Acquired immunity to COVID is not inferior to vaccine immunity. 8. If masks are required for citizens, than protesters and those who wish to enter the USA illegally should also wear them. 9. Pornography harms society. Is the Bible true? Could the woke generation been warned about in scripture? Should you join a crowd in evil? Dr. Thiel addresses these issues and more in this video.

Here is a link to our video: Woke: Follow the True Science. Wokeism often uses fear and is based on deceit. It persecutes in direct as well as many subtle ways.

Perhaps I should also add that political views are also subject to cancellation. It used to be that media companies in the USA (like radio and television stations) had to have some type of balance in showing various views. That seems to have gone out the window.

As far as truth goes, Jesus taught:

Treasury building in Petra

COGwriter

Back in April 1962, the old Radio Church of God published the following from the late Dr. Herman Hoeh:

Let’s open our Bibles to see why Petra has puzzled scholars and Bible students for centuries.

The true Church of God is pictured in Revelation 12. It is symbolized by a woman-the bride of Christ. But it is a persecuted woman-a Church hated by the world. According to verse 6 the Church fled the first time from her persecutors for 1260 years – during the Middle Ages. But verse 14 unveils another flight of the Church-in the very last days. This time the duration is only 3 1/2 years! “And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle”-supernatural deliverance-“that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time”–3 1/2 years.

This prophecy has never been understood by the world because the world cannot understand to whom this prophecy refers. It does not recognize who are the true Church. It sees only the false churches, described in Revelation 17.

But consider now the special time of this prophecy about protection in a mysterious wilderness. Notice exactly which period in the history of God’s Church the escape shall occur. Turn to Revelation 3:7-13. This is addressed to the Philadelphia Era of God’s Church -the Church before whom Christ opens the door to preach His gospel around the world (verse 8). Because this Church has kept Gods word, Jesus promises: “I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation”-the time of trial–“which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth’ (verse 10). Here is a world-wide terror to come upon all nations. This is not for the slow-moving past. It is a prophecy for the pulsating present the last days of human history–just before God intervenes to set up His Kingdom to bring peace at last.

Here is a prophecy for this generation- at the very time God’s Church is preaching and publishing the Gospel of the Kingdom of God world-wide. This prophecy is about us!

But how will Jesus keep us from the coming trial and persecution? We just read the answer from Revelation 12! There is a place of safety, in a wilderness, for the people of God.

But where is that wilderness?

That is the mystery that has puzzled so many for so long! God has kept it a mystery so the world would not know. He has even kept it hidden from God’s Church in the past so His people would have their minds on their work! It is only those who are having a part in the work of God-who have their minds on the Kingdom of God, not some physical place of protection–who will escape. That escape cannot be planned for in advance. It is a supernatural escape!

Remember, if the Christians in Jerusalem in apostolic days had quit their work and prematurely escaped to Pella before A.D. 69, they would have been destroyed by the Roman armies who devastated the city. It was only those who completed the work of God who reached safety in A.D. 69 after the Romans destroyed Pella!

That is why God has veiled the exact place of escape from human eyes all these years. But as the days draw closer to the time of the end, the light of prophecy shines ever more clearly! When the moment comes that we need to know where that place of safety is, Christ will make it known. Meanwhile we need to keep our eyes open and our minds yielded-drinking in the implications of prophecy for this Church today! But where does Petra fit in all this?

An Old Testament Prophecy

Turn to Isaiah 42:l0-13. Here is a prophecy for today-a time of divine intervention, verse 14. Now read verse 11 from the Jewish Publication Society translation according to the original inspired Hebrew:

“Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit”–the descendants of Kedar are the Bedouin Arabs who dwell throughout the Middle East in black tents. Here we have a wilderness located in the Arab world! But continue reading: “Let the inhabitants of Sela exult. Let them shout from the top of the mountains.” The inhabitants of Sela? Who are they? And where is Sela? (In the King James Version the word for Sela is translated “rock.”)

Any Bible student knows that Sela is the Hebrew name of Petra! Sela means Rock–in Hebrew; Petra means Rock in Greek! But Sela or Petra is fundamentally uninhabited today, save for a few dozen wandering Bedouin. These are not the inhabitants in this verse, for notice verse 12: “Let them’’–the inhabitants of Petra or Sela–“give glory unto the Lord”–the Bedouin do not know God, they are Mohammedan–“and declare His praise in the islands.”

Which islands? The islands which Israel inhabits–Isaiah 41:1 and 8. God is certainly not going to use a few uneducated, ignorant Mohammedan Bedouin to declare His glory in the islands and coastlands of Northwestern Europe -where Israel is today! This prophecy resurrection and the return of Christ in power and glory. Christ is going to use His servants–now immortal in the Kingdom of God–to proclaim His intervention and the establishment of His Kingdom over all the earth. He is going to use the very ones whom He is now using to proclaim His message. Then they will finally heed!

Isn’t this prophecy a clear indication that the place of safety for the people of God who are now doing the work of God–and broadcasting to the islands and coastlands of Northwestern Europe–is in an Arabian wilderness, where the Bedouin dwell and is probably at Sela, or Petra?

Supernatural Protection

Turn now to another parallel passage, this time Isaiah 33. Read especially verses 13-17. Notice the time setting. It is when the worlds ambassadors, who seek to make peace, suddenly find the world caught up in frightful destruction (verses 7-8).

Beginning with verse 13 God warns the House of Israel-the “sinners in Zion”-of their sins (verse 14). “Who will be able to live through the endtime fiery atomic and hydrogen warfare?” God asks (verse 14). Those who obey Him, declares verse 15. But where will they go?

Verses 16 and 17 answer! “He shall dwell on high: his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks.. .” This verse is poorly translated in most versions because the translators did not understand the prophecy. The true meaning has been hidden. The place of protection shall be, not munitions of rocks, but the “strongholds of Sela!” The original, inspired Hebrew, mistranslated “munitions,” is metsad, and means a stronghold or a castle or a fort. And the word for “rock” in this verse is Sela, the name of Petra in the Hebrew language!

Petra is a dry, barren area. It hardly provides a few dozen Bedouin sufficient sustenance. How are all of the faithful people of God to be provided for? Continue with the end of verse 16: “…his bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.” Here also is supernatural provision! Remember what happened to the children of Israel in the Sinai wilderness? God supernaturally provided them food and water nearly 40 long years! God can do the same today! It is not those who heap up provisions that shall escape! It is those who obey God, who do His work, and who trust Him to provide the necessities and the divine protection when that time arrives!

Verse 17 completes the picture: “Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off’-or “they shall behold a land stretching afar,” according to the Jewish translation. We shall see Him as He is (I John 3:2). Notice also that those in safety see “the land”-Palestine, the promised land stretching into the distance. Surely here is another indication of the high rocky crags of Petra from which one may look northwest to the promised land.

Place of Safety

Perhaps the most commonly quoted verses about Petra are found in Isaiah 16. The prophecy is found in verses 1 to 5. It is a message to Moab-modern Jordan, in whose territory Petra or Sela is presently located. Verse 1 should read: “Send ye the lambs for the Ruler of the land from Sela that is toward the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion” (compare the KJV with the JPS translation).

The time setting of this prophecy is the return of Christ to rule the nations. He is the King of the land. The Moabites are commanded to seek Him, to send Him an offering as a token of their submission. The offering comes from Sela. But why are the Moabites found in Sela, when only Bedouin dwell there today? The succeeding verses answer: “For it shall be, that, as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters”– and‘ descendants–“of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon.” Other prophecies picture hordes from the east capturing the land east of the Jordan. (See Ezekiel 25:l0.) As these Communist hordes plunge toward Palestine, slaughtering as they go, a pitiful remnant–described in Jeremiah 48:1-25–escapes at the Arnon (a stream running into the Dead Sea). The Moabite refugees flee southward for protection. Why? Is it perhaps because they have known of others already there in a place of safety? Now look at verse 4. God is addressing Moab: “Let Mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler.”

So there are others there already. “Mine outcasts,” God calls them. God’s people, who flee from the world, refugees or outcasts!

The fleeing Moabites are not to betray where they are. This makes verse 3 much clearer. The Moabites are commanded to “Give counsel, execute justice; make thy shadow as night in the midst of the noon day; hide the outcasts; betray not the fugitive” (JPS trans.). Their flight is not to reveal where God’s own outcasts are. Their movements are to be as invisible as if it were in black night!

Now compare this prophecy with Jeremiah 48:28, “O ye that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock”–Sela, in Hebrew–“and be like the dove that makes her nest in the sides of the holes mouth”! A perfecr description of Petra, with its caves!

Isaiah 16:5 then reveals the very next prophetic event to occur: “And a throne is established through mercy, and there sitteth thereon in truth, in the tent of David, One that judgeth, and seeketh justice, and is ready in righteousness” (JPS trans.). Christ is now pictured as seated on the throne of David! Surely this indicates that God‘s outcasts in Isaiah 16 are the same as those mentioned in Revelation 12 who escape to the wilderness-shortly before the return of Christ!

In the New Testament, while not all Christians are promised physical protection, the Philadelphian Christians are promised to be protected from the Great Tribulation and this place of protection is in the wilderness according to the Book of Revelation:

7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, ‘These things says He who is holy, He who is true, “He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens”: 8 “I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name. 9 Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie — indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. 10 Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. (Revelation 3:7-10)

13 Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. 14 But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. 15 So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. 16 But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. (Revelation 12:13-17)

Notice that Revelation 12:17 shows that there are two groups of Christians, and only one group is protected in the wilderness.

While Petra may not be the place, it is in an area to be considered.

I should probably mention that some have alleged that the idea of Petra and the ‘place of safety’ were non-biblical inventions of Loma and/or Herbert W. Armstrong. This is not the case. The idea of the biblical cave-containing area of Sela (the area currently known as Petra) being a place of protection during the tribulation predates the Armstrongs mentioning it (probably by at least a century).

It should also be understood that Catholic writers such as Irenaeus and Hippolytus also believed that there was a physical place to flee to (see Is There A Secret Rapture for the Church? When and Where is the Church Protected?). Also, later Catholic writers have confirmed this. Notice the following from a 20th century priest commenting on Revelation 12:14:

Verse 14…

She is given “two wings” of a Great Eagle. This intimates a rescue by airplane. …

The “Great Eagle” may send or have present a powerful airplane to bring its citizens home … God promises that those who trust in Him shall take “wings as eagles”. The “wings” of the great eagle will enable the woman to fly into the wilderness. This wilderness is a heathen nation …

The great eagle therefore, as a nation, has never been Catholic. The word “eagle” suggests that the nation may have become great by conquest. This eagle will protect and shelter the Church during the reign of the Beast. The place of safety for the woman … will refuse to join Antichrist and will protect the Church during his domination of the world…

The time is stated in three different ways, in years, months and days to make the literal meaning unmistakably certain. Evidently it is three and a half years actual time. The time given in verse 14 is indefinite, similar to that of Daniel (XII. 7); But since in Daniel (XII. 11) it seems to mean 1290 days, so here it evidently synchronizes with the 1260 days of verse 6 and the same period in chapter eleven. (Kramer H.B. L. The Book of Destiny. Nihil Obstat: J.S. Considine, O.P., Censor Deputatus. Imprimatur: +Joseph M. Mueller, Bishop of Sioux City, Iowa, January 26, 1956. Reprint TAN Books, Rockford (IL),pp. 296-297)

Thus, the idea of a physical place of safety was not a new invention of one of the Armstrongs. Additionally, even the Rheims New Testament commentary admits that the Bible teaches that there is a place in the desert for the true church to flee:

The Church shall flee as to a desert in Antichrist’s time, but not decay or be unknown, no not for so short a time. (p. 556).

Furthermore, it is my opinion that the demons themselves know about this place (recall that even Satan quoted scripture to Christ, see Matthew 4).

Notice that the power behind the “secret society” is expected to be hidden in a cave:

Anne Catherine Emmerich (October 1820): I saw the secret society undermining the great church and near them a horrible beast … concealing itself in a cave (Emmerich AC. The Life and Revelations of Anne Catherine Emmerich, Volume 2, p.290).

I also believe that somehow demons influenced a mystic Catholic saint and prophetess named Hildegard to warn that those in a place with caves worked for the devil and were an advanced group that support the Antichrist. Notice what she wrote in the 12th century:

And fly from those who linger in caves and are cloistered supporters of the Devil. Woe to them, woe to them who remain thus! They are the Devil’s very viscera, and the advance guard of the son of perdition.

Therefore, O you My beloved children, avoid them with all devotion and with all the strength of your souls and bodies. For the ancient serpent feeds and clothes them by his arts, and they worship him as God and trust in his false deceptions…Because they are afraid of My people, they do not openly resist these institutions of Mine, but in their hearts and their deeds they hold them as nothing. By devilish illusion, they pretend to have sanctity; but they are deceived by the Devil, for if he were to show himself to them openly they would understand him and flee him. By his arts he shows them things he pretends are good and holy, and thus deludes them. O woe to those who persevere in this death!

But because the Devil knows he has only a short time for his error, he is not hastening to perfect infidelity in his members; you, you evil deceivers, who labor to subvert the Catholic faith. (Hildegard of Bingen. Scivias. Paulist Press, Mahwah (NJ), pp. 301-302).

Since I believe that the mystic was demonically-influenced, she is actually warning against supporting the true Christians who will be protected who she is claiming are the “supporters of the Devil” (probably because they will oppose the Catholic Church). Since she calls them the advanced guard “of the son of perdition,” she seems to be referring to a group of people who will be protected in caves just before Christ returns (I stated that because certain Catholic prophecies seem to refer to the returning Christ as the “antichrist”, who is also sometimes referred to as “the son of perdition”—for more on this, please read the article Do Certain Catholic Prophecies About Antichrist Warn Against Jesus?).

Hence, I believe that the above demonically-inspired vision will be used to try to persuade people to be against those that are in caves (Jeremiah 48:28), who seem religious (Revelation 14:12), and are apparently miraculously fed (Isaiah 33:15-16). Those being protected will be teaching that Jesus is about to return (who certain Catholic prophecies call Antichrist)–this would be expected to result in persecution of those with similar beliefs. Yet notice that the above vision does indicate that even the demons have known about a place of protection where some people will be miraculously fed, for quite some time.

Some items of possibly related interest may include:

This is PETRA! This is a 1962 Good News article by the late Dr. Hoeh.
There is a Place of Safety for the Philadelphians. Why it May Be Near Petra This article discusses a biblical ‘place of safety,’ Zephaniah 2 to ‘gather together,’ and includes quotes from the Bible and Herbert W. Armstrong on fleeing to a place–thus, there is a biblically supported alternative to the rapture theory. Two sermon-length videos of related interest are available Physical Protection During the Great Tribulation and Might Petra be the Place of Safety?  Here is something related in the Spanish language: Hay un lugar de seguridad para los Filadelfinos. ¿Puede ser Petra?
Did The Early Church Teach Millenarianism? Was the millennium (sometimes called chiliasm) taught by early Christians? Who condemned it? Will Jesus literally reign for 1000 years on the earth? Is this time near? Two related sermons are available Millennial Utopia and The Millennium.
Does God Have a 6,000 Year Plan? What Year Does the 6,000 Years End? Was a 6000 year time allowed for humans to rule followed by a literal thousand year reign of Christ on Earth taught by the early Christians? Does God have 7,000 year plan? What year may the six thousand years of human rule end? When will Jesus return? 2031 or 20xx? There is also a video titled 6000 Years: When will God’s Kingdom Come? Here is a link to the article in Spanish: ¿Tiene Dios un plan de 6,000 años?
Might the U.S.A. Be Gone by 2028? Could the USA be gone by the end of 2028 or earlier? There is a tradition attributed to the Hebrew prophet Elijah that humanity had 6,000 years to live before being replaced by God’s Kingdom. There are scriptures, writings in the Talmud, early Christian teachings that support this. Also, even certain Hindu writings support it. Here is a link to a related video: Is the USA prophesied to be destroyed by 2028? In Spanish: Seran los Estados Unidos Destruidos en el 2028?
When Will the Great Tribulation Begin? 2023, 2024, or 2025? Can the Great Tribulation begin today? What happens before the Great Tribulation in the “beginning of sorrows”? What happens in the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord? Is this the time of the Gentiles? When is the earliest that the Great Tribulation can begin? What is the Day of the Lord? Who are the 144,000? Here is a version of the article in the Spanish language: ¿Puede la Gran Tribulación comenzar en el 2020 o 2021? ¿Es el Tiempo de los Gentiles? A related video is: Great Tribulation: 2026 or 2027? A shorter video is: Can the Great Tribulation start in 2022 or 2023? Notice also: Can Jesus return in 2023 or 2024? Here is a video in the Spanish language: Es El 2021 el año  de La Gran Tribulación o el Grande Reseteo Financiero.
Armageddon Who is involved and when will this gathering happen? Here is also a video from Dr. Thiel, from Tel Megiddo in Israel: Armageddon. Other videos include: Armageddon Will it come on Trump’s watch?, Iraq, Armageddon, & Prophecy, Freemasonry, Armageddon, and Rome, Is China paving roads to Armageddon?, and Jordan, Petra, and Armageddon.
Christ or Antichrist? 1961 article by David Jon Hill, originally published in the old Good News magazine.
Will You Be Deceived by Antichrist? 1964 article by David Jon Hill, originally published in the old Good News magazine.
Satan’s Plan Does Satan have a plan? What is it? Has it already been successful? Will it be successful in the future? Here are links to a two-part sermon series: What are Some of the Parts of Satan’s Plan? and Satan’s Plan is More Dramatic than Many Realize.
Do Certain Greco-Roman Catholic Prophecies About Antichrist Warn Against Jesus? Will the final “Anti-Christ” be Jewish, insist on Saturday, be opposed to the trinity, and bring in the millennium? Certain Catholic writings indicate this, while others take a different view, but what does the Bible show? A related sermon is Will Jesus Christ be called the Antichrist?
Greco-Roman Catholic Prophecies: Do They Mirror, Highlight, or Contradict Biblical Prophecies? People of all faiths may be surprised to see what various Roman and Orthodox Catholic prophets have been predicting as many of their predictions will be looked to in the 21st century.
6. The Philadelphia Church Era was predominant circa 1933 A.D. to 1986 A.D. The old Radio Church of God and old Worldwide Church of God, now the remnant of that era is basically the most faithful in the Church of God, like who hold to the beliefs and practices of the Continuing Church of God.
7. The Laodicean Church Era has been predominant circa 1986 A.D. to present. The Laodiceans are non-Philadelphians who mainly descended from the old WCG or its offshoots.  They do not properly understand the work or biblical prophecies and will face the Great Tribulation if they do not repent. One video of related interest is 50+ Laodicean Prophetic Errors. See also Do You Hold to Any of These Laodicean Prophetic Errors?

1887 depiction of the ‘Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’

COGwriter

Are we in a time of endless war? At least one French historian seems to think so:

February 14, 2023

The {following} comments were made by Emmanuel Todd, one of France’s leading intellectuals, during an interview with the Le Figaro newspaper.

“It is evident that the conflict, initially a limited territorial war, has evolved into a global economic confrontation between the whole West on one side, and Russia, backed by China, on the other. It has become a world war,” Todd said.

Todd added that “the resistance of the Russian economy is pushing the U.S. imperial system toward the abyss” and that Biden must “hurry” to rescue a “fragile” America.

According to the historian, U.S. control of the world financial system is at risk because the Russian economy’s resistance to sanctions is pushing “the American imperial system” toward the precipice,” with Russia still able to rely on China for monetary backing.

Todd says America “cannot withdraw from the conflict, they cannot let go,” because it has no exit strategy and the stakes are too high.

“This is why we are now in an endless war, in a confrontation whose outcome must be the collapse of one or the other,” said the intellectual.

Todd is a widely respected figure, having accurately predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union 14 years before it happened. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/french-historian-world-war-iii-has-already-begun

The financial and military costs for the USA supporting Ukraine may well be a factor in weakening the USA.

Jesus predicted:

6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows. (Matthew 24:6-8)

While the end is not yet, we are seeing a lot of violence. In the USA itself, so far, we have had 25 mass shootings in 2023, including yesterday’s shooting at Michigan State University.

But it is not just Ukraine and the USA that have issues.

As reported here yesterday, Moldova has concerns about Russia (see Moldova concerned about Russian plans, while Ukraine admits Russia is making gains in Bakhmut).

Now, here is a report related to Ethiopia:

February 13, 2023

Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki has accused the US of supporting Tigrayan rebels during the recently concluded civil war in northern Ethiopia. President Afwerki was speaking during a Sunday interview with local media where he claimed that the peace deal signed between Ethiopia and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) was rushed by the US to prevent the rebels from losing in the battlefield.

In the interview, he also admitted for the first time that hundreds of thousands of people died in the conflict, though he did not elaborate on Eritrean casualties. https://www.africanews.com/2023/02/13/eritrean-leader-accuses-us-of-supporting-rebels-in-tigray-conflict/

Notice also the following related to Haiti:

February 13, 2023

As Haiti’s toxic slate of gangs continue to plunder the crisis-stricken Caribbean nation, kidnapping, displacing and extorting civilians with nothing left to give …

Helen La Lime, U.N. special envoy in Haiti, told the Security Council in late January that the gangs employ sexual violence to “destroy the social fabric of communities,” particularly in zones controlled by rival gangs.

They rape girls and boys as young as 10, she said. https://apnews.com/article/crime-violence-kidnapping-caribbean-haiti-89757f336975cb28283025e65446affb

Gangs take away peace and are making the horrible situation in Haiti worse.

Notice also the following:

1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; (2 Timothy 3:1-4, KJV)

The gangs, and many others, are fierce and covetous.

Here is something about the situation in Yemen:

February 14, 2023

Instead of being involved in promoting de-escalation efforts, the Houthi militia continues to adopt the language of escalation on both the political and military fronts. …

Earlier in January 2023, the US Navy said it had seized more than 2,000 rifles destined for the Houthis, and on December 1, 2022, intercepted a fishing vessel smuggling more than 50 tons of ammunition, fuses, and rocket fuel, and seized 1,400 rifles and more than 226,000 rounds of ammunition from a ship coming from Iran, and confiscated more than 1.1 million rounds from a fishing boat operating between Iran and Yemen. https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-731509

Then there’s the Congo:

February 14, 2023

More than 20 civilians were killed Sunday in new attacks by militiamen in Ituri, a gold-rich province in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to preliminary information gathered Monday by the UN and civil society.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said in New York that the Codeco militia had, according to these preliminary reports, “killed at least 20 civilians and burned several houses.

The same militiamen also “damaged medical facilities in a series of attacks on villages in Djugu territory,” he added.

Codeco (Cooperative for the Development of Congo) is a militia of several thousand men who claim to protect the Lendu tribe from the Hema tribe and the national army in Ituri. https://www.africanews.com/2023/02/14/more-than-20-killed-in-militia-attack-in-northeast-dr-congo-un/

Here is something about Somalia:

February 12, 2023

The United States military reported Sunday that 12 al-Shabab militants were killed in a new airstrike in central Somalia.

The U.S. Africa Command known as AFRICOM said in a statement that the “collective self-defense” strike occurred February 10 “at the request of the Federal Government of Somalia.” https://www.voanews.com/a/al-shabab-fighters-killed-in-airstrike-us-military-says/6960217.html

There are also conflicts currently between Turkey and Greece, Hamas and Israel and the Palestinians, Syria, Libya, etc.

In terms of rumors of war, consider the following two items:

February 13, 2023

Taiwan has accused China of making “dozens” of incursions into its airspace with spy balloons similar to the one shot down over the U.S. last week, further contributing to rising tensions as China surrounds Taiwan with military drills.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense stated this weekend that China has sent surveillance balloons into its airspace at a rate of roughly one per month for years. Taiwanese officials believe the balloons serve to measure atmospheric data that can help improve the accuracy of China’s radar and missile systems, according to Taiwan News.

Both China and the U.S. conducted extensive military drills in the Indo-Pacific region this weekend. The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps held joint exercises, and China is now surrounding Taiwan for another series of military exercises that echoes its unprecedented buildup from the fall. https://www.foxnews.com/world/taiwan-says-dozens-chinese-spy-craft-cross-airspace-tensions-flare-us

25 January 2023

India and Pakistan came “close” to a “nuclear conflagration” in February 2019, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said in his new memoir.

This happened after Delhi launched strikes against militants in Pakistani territory following an attack on Indian troops in Kashmir.

Pakistan had then said it had shot down two Indian military jets and captured a fighter pilot.

India and Pakistan claim all of Kashmir, but control only parts of it. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-64396138

Both COVID-19 and what we are seeing associated with battles throughout the world, plus protests and rumors of war could be a factor in ‘apocalyptic’ matters such as the following:

3 When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come and see.” 4 Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword. (Revelation 6:3-4)

The literal Greek here for “peace” (εἰρήνην transliterated as eirēnēn) in Revelation 6 can be interpreted to mean taking away prosperity as well (see BibleHub.com). COVID-19 has, to a degree, done that. People are afraid or at least uneasy to a degree we have not seen around the world anytime in the 21st century. Plus there are a lot of protests and then there are the actual conflicts, such as Ethiopia, Iran, Libya, etc.

Barnes Notes on the Bible states:

The power given to him that sat on the horse: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another. This would seem to indicate that the condition immediately preceding this was a condition of tranquility, and that this was now disturbed by some cause producing discord and bloodshed. This idea is confirmed by the original words – τὴν εἰρήνην tēn eirēnēn – “the peace”; that is, the previously existing peace. When peace in general is referred to, the word is used without the article: Matthew 10:34, “Think not that I am come to send peace – βαλεῖν εἰρήνην balein eirēnēn – upon the earth.”

So, this rider is not just a rider of war, but taking away THE peace.

It is NOT constant physical warfare everywhere, though physical violence and warfare (consistent with Jesus’ words in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21) will also occur.

But things will get worse.

The old WCG also put out the following:

Where is it all going to end? That was the question the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ posed in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew. Christ’s answer, known as the Olivet Prophecy, is quite revealing. “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars,” Christ said, referring to one of the prophetic signals that would herald the end of an age (verse 6).

Certainly there have always been wars. And certainly Christ’s words had particular meaning for that day and age. Within a few short decades Roman legions under the command of Titus sacked, burned and pillaged the city of Jerusalem.

But Jesus’ warning about war was also applicable to another period in history. In the book of Revelation, Christ, speaking through the apostle John, amplified some of His previous prophetic statements. In the sixth chapter, John writes: “And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword” (Rev. 6:4).

John was not speaking about the fall of Jerusalem. That war was already some twenty years behind him. John was referring to future events that would bring 6000 years of human history crashing to a cataclysmic close. … John is referring to a time yet ahead of us when “peaceful coexistence” will be a thing of the past. …

It’s no wonder that Jeremiah, in referring to these tumultuous times, stated: “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble …” (Jer. 30:7). (Ritter G. 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse – The Red Horse – War, pp. 48, 52; see also Ritter R. The War that could end it all. Good News, December 1975)

There may also be wars in parts of the world that have rarely had them (perhaps, for example, even between some South American nations), as well as wars in areas that have long been especially tense (like Korea, possibly involving other Asian nations). Damascus (capital of Syria) ultimately will be destroyed and could be a signal for destruction to come for Jacob (Isaiah 17:1-4). There will likely be civil unrest and perhaps rioting in scales not seen before, including within some Western nations (such as in Europe and North America). This will lead to military leaders rising up in various parts of the world. And one European (the final King of the North) will, after making one or more false peace deals/pronouncements (e.g. Daniel 9:26-27; 11:27; 1 Thessalonians 5:3), become the final Beast leader (Revelation 13:4) and he will take over many nations (Daniel 11:39-43).

We are getting closer to the start of the Great Tribulation than most people realize.

Related to some of this, the Continuing Church of God put out the following sermon on its ContinuingCOG channel:

1:15

Sorrows and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Revelation 6:1-8 shows the opening of four seals and discusses the rides of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Each of which appears to be associated with aspects of the “beginning of sorrows” that Jesus mentions in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. What do each of the horsemen represent? Did the old Worldwide Church of God teach that these rides were still in the future in the late 21st century? Could any have began in the 21st century? Does the rider of the white horse represent Jesus or false religion? Are there ties to the interfaith and ecumenical movements? What might the bow the horseman has represent? Could this be a tie to Satan the Devil? What about the Beast and False Prophet? Has the “beginning of sorrows” started? Could the first seal be opened? Could COVID-19 have anything to do with the second seal? Has “the peace” been taken from the earth? Could the rider of the red horse have begun with an opening of the second seal? What about riots, looting wars, and rumors of war? Are food inflation, food shortages, and famines associated with the opening of the third seal and rider of the black horse of famine? Could human actions such as evolution teachings, genetically-modified crops, and viral research be factors in the rides of the four horsemen? Is more than death related to pestilences associated with the rider of the pale horse, the fourth seal? Why might this be a factor in 666? Will most people fail to recognize the rides of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse until it is too late to take action? What about the fifth seal and the start of the Great Tribulation? Are there problems with Roman and Eastern Orthodox prophecies concerning the end and the Great Monarch? What about prophecies related to Noah, the King of the North, Armageddon, and Antichrist? Dr. Thiel covers these issues and also includes some speculation and analysis.

Here is a link to the sermon video: Sorrows and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Pray, as Jesus said, for God’s kingdom to come (Matthew 6:10).

Some items of possibly related interest include the following:

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse What do each of the four horseman of the Apocalypse represent? Have they began their ride? Did Jesus discuss the any of this? Might their rides coincide with the “beginning of sorrows? Do they start their ride prior to the Great Tribulation? Did Nostradamus or any other ‘private prophets’ write predictions that may mislead people so that they may not understand the truth of one or more of the four horseman? There is also a related YouTube video titled Sorrows and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
23 items to prophetically watch in 2023 Much is happening. Dr. Thiel points to 23 items to watch (cf. Mark 13:37) in this article. Here is a link to a related sermon:  23 things to prophetically watch in 2023. Here is a related sermon in the Spanish language: 23 Temas para observar proféticamente en 2023.
Lost Tribes and Prophecies: What will happen to Australia, the British Isles, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and the United States of America? Where did those people come from? Can you totally rely on DNA? What about other peoples? Do you really know what will happen to Europe and the English-speaking peoples? What about Africa, Asia, South America, and the Islands? This free online book provides scriptural, scientific, historical references, and commentary to address those matters. Here are links to related sermons: Lost tribes, the Bible, and DNA; Lost tribes, prophecies, and identifications; 11 Tribes, 144,000, and Multitudes; Israel, Jeremiah, Tea Tephi, and British Royalty; Gentile European Beast; Royal Succession, Samaria, and Prophecies; Asia, Islands, Latin America, Africa, and Armageddon;  When Will the End of the Age Come?;  Rise of the Prophesied King of the North; Christian Persecution from the Beast; WWIII and the Coming New World Order; and Woes, WWIV, and the Good News of the Kingdom of God.
Does God Have a 6,000 Year Plan? What Year Does the 6,000 Years End? Was a 6000 year time allowed for humans to rule followed by a literal thousand year reign of Christ on Earth taught by the early Christians? Does God have 7,000 year plan? What year may the six thousand years of human rule end? When will Jesus return? 2031 or ? There is also a video titled 6000 Years: When will God’s Kingdom Come? Here is a link to the article in Spanish: ¿Tiene Dios un plan de 6,000 años?
When Will the Great Tribulation Begin? 2023, 2024, or 2025? Can the Great Tribulation begin today? What happens before the Great Tribulation in the “beginning of sorrows”? What happens in the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord? Is this the time of the Gentiles? When is the earliest that the Great Tribulation can begin? What is the Day of the Lord? Who are the 144,000? Here is a version of the article in the Spanish language: ¿Puede la Gran Tribulación comenzar en el 2020 o 2021? ¿Es el Tiempo de los Gentiles? A related video is: Great Tribulation: 2026 or 2027? A shorter video is: Can the Great Tribulation start in 2022 or 2023? Notice also: Can Jesus return in 2023 or 2024? Here is a video in the Spanish language: Es El 2021 el año  de La Gran Tribulación o el Grande Reseteo Financiero.
The Gospel of the Kingdom of God This free online pdf booklet has answers many questions people have about the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and explains why it is the solution to the issues the world is facing. It is available in hundreds of languages at ccog.org. Here are links to four kingdom-related sermons:  The Fantastic Gospel of the Kingdom of God!, The World’s False Gospel, The Gospel of the Kingdom: From the New and Old Testaments, and The Kingdom of God is the Solution.

Get excited! Time for a new generation.

Let’s do this! 👊 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/BD5k4WY1CP

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) February 14, 2023

COGwriter

February 14, 2023

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, announced her candidacy for president on Tuesday, becoming the first major challenger to former President Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination.

The announcement, delivered in a video, marks an about-face for the ex-Trump Cabinet official, who said two years ago that she wouldn’t challenge her former boss for the White House in 2024. But she changed her mind in recent months, citing, among other things, the country’s economic troubles and the need for “generational change,” a nod to the 76-year-old Trump’s age.

“You should know this about me. I don’t put up with bullies. And when you kick back, it hurts them more if you’re wearing heels,” Haley said. “I’m Nikki Haley and I’m running for president.” …

If elected, Haley would be the nation’s first female president and the first U.S. president of Indian descent.

The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley grew up enduring racist taunts in a small South Carolina town and has long referenced that impact on her personal and political arc. https://apnews.com/article/nikki-haley-running-for-president-f28052019e8ac3846cd125b3d9614d4f?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_04

February 14, 2023

Former South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley announced Tuesday in a video that she will run for president in 2024. Haley is expected to deliver remarks Wednesday in Charleston at a campaign launch event.

“The Washington establishment has failed us over and over and over again. It’s time for a new generation of leadership to rediscover fiscal responsibility, secure our border and strengthen our country, our pride and our purpose,” Haley said in the video.

Haley served as US ambassador to the United Nations under former President Donald Trump. Trump, who announced his bid last year, recently appeared to bless her entrance into the race, telling reporters that she had called to tell him she was considering a campaign launch and that he had said, “You should do it.”

So, it looks like Nikki Haley has already broken a promise (though perhaps Donald Trump is not seeing it that way). Presuming she did break her public promise, while that makes her like other politicians, that is not something she should have done.

Now, ever since Margaret Thatcher was prime minister of the United Kingdom, I have felt that it is likely that the USA would end up with a female president or at least a highly influential woman in a top level federal government job. As it turns out, the four remaining predominantly British-descended nations (the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) all have had not only queens (they shared the same ones), but all have already had a woman in the office of prime minister. And the USA does have a female vice president (Kamala Harris).

The prime minister is the chief executive official in a parliamentary system of governance. As far as the USA goes, the announcement by Nikki Haley brings the following scripture to mind:

12 As for My people, children are their oppressors, And women rule over them. O My people! Those who lead you cause you to err, And destroy the way of your paths. (Isaiah 3:12)

Notice that the above verse is pointing towards disaster. Of course, it is not that males leaders cannot lead to disaster–for they can. Notice also the following, which do not mention gender:

43 The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower (Deuteronomy 28:43).

16 For the leaders of this people cause them to err, And those who are led by them are destroyed (Isaiah 9:16).

As one of Indian heritage, Nikki Haley would be a Gentile and not a descendant of the tribes of Israel.

As far as women ruling goes, the old Plain Truth magazine had the following back in 1969:

The Bible foretold, in advance, the exact overall conditions that would confront the nations of the English-speaking world today — the end-time descendants of the ancient House of Israel. . . In this advance warning to our nations we read: “As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee” — including sociologists and others who condone sexual freedom, espouse a “never punish” philosophy for child rearing — “cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths” (Isaiah 3:12). Whether you believe this prophecy was directed toward our people or not — you have to admit it describes our day and age! …

Utter Confusion

In the Western, “progressive” world; the sexes already are beginning to dress alike and wear their hair alike — or, in some cases, switch styles. “Unisex” fashions are becoming the “in thing” in some circles. Even leading department stores are featuring “unisex” lines in special boutique booths. Leading magazines point up the growth of “hippy communes.” “Unisex,” “free sex,” “swinging singles,” “wife swapping,” “the Pill,” “sexual revolution” — these are the phrases newspaper headlines are made of today. Utter confusion about sex, marriage and the family is rampant. But where are all these changes leading us? Many leading specialists who study family life admit that the family is changing profoundly. But they do not agree on what it is becoming or where it ought to go from here.(Armstrong GT. Modern Romans, Part 1, Plain Truth, August 1969)

The ‘utter confusion’ that began in the late 1960s has worsened in the 21st century. It is now to the point that the ‘liberal elite’ say you cannot tell a male from a female by their anatomy, but need to accept whatever ‘gender’ someone wishes to identify themselves by. That being said, it is not that a woman in necessarily a worse leader than a man, but there are warnings in scripture. Nor, to her credit, has Nikki Haley been holding to some of the absurd positions of the LGBTQ+ crowd. She is also anti-abortion.

That said, notice now the following about the prophetess Deborah:

4 Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time. 5 And she would sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the mountains of Ephraim. And the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. 6 Then she sent and called for Barak the son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, “Has not the Lord God of Israel commanded, ‘Go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor; take with you ten thousand men of the sons of Naphtali and of the sons of Zebulun; 7 and against you I will deploy Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with his chariots and his multitude at the River Kishon; and I will deliver him into your hand’?” 8 And Barak said to her, “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go!” 9 So she said, “I will surely go with you; nevertheless there will be no glory for you in the journey you are taking, for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman.” (Judges 4:4-9)

Deborah held a leadership position, but even she indicated that it was to a male leader’s shame. But most in the USA overlook what the Bible teaches.

If the following biblical prophecy has an end-time fulfillment, it seems to suggest that a male leader will be in charge when the U.S.A. falls:

⁷ As for Samaria, her king is cut off Like a twig on the water. ⁸ Also the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, Shall be destroyed. The thorn and thistle shall grow on their altars; They shall say to the mountains, “Cover us!” And to the hills, “Fall on us!” … ¹⁰ When it is My desire, I will chasten them. Peoples shall be gathered against them When I bind them for their two transgressions. (Hosea 10:7,8,10)

If Hosea 10:7-10 has end time connotations (and part of it seems to, cf. Revelation 6:16), AND presuming that the Hebrew word translated as “king” literally means a male, then it might be possible that if there becomes a female President of the United States, that somehow she would not be in office at the end. That said, I do not believe that an end-time fulfillment of Hosea 10:7,8,10 could be fulfilled prior to 2026.

While the Bible lists many roles for women (cf. Proverbs 31), there are some roles that are discouraged and some that are prohibited (see Women and the New Testament Church). Beyond that, though, the Bible lists standards for leaders, that neither the Democratic nor Republican nominees possess:

19 Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you: Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God. 20 And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. 21 Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. (Exodus 18:19-21)

2 “The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me,
And His word was on my tongue.
3 The God of Israel said,
The Rock of Israel spoke to me:
‘He who rules over men must be just,
Ruling in the fear of God. (2 Samuel 23:2-3)

None of the current major candidates for the USA presidency (like Donald Trump and apparently Joe Biden–though Biden may not run) hate covetousness, have the proper fear of God, nor proper respect for His laws and statutes.

Notice something else related to women in Isaiah 3:

16 Moreover the Lord says:

“Because the daughters of Zion are haughty,
And walk with outstretched necks
And wanton eyes,
Walking and mincing as they go,
Making a jingling with their feet,
17 Therefore the Lord will strike with a scab
The crown of the head of the daughters of Zion,
And the Lord will uncover their secret parts.”

18 In that day the Lord will take away the finery:
The jingling anklets, the scarves, and the crescents;
19 The pendants, the bracelets, and the veils;
20 The headdresses, the leg ornaments, and the headbands;
The perfume boxes, the charms, 21 and the rings;
The nose jewels, 22 the festal apparel, and the mantles;
The outer garments, the purses, 23 and the mirrors;
The fine linen, the turbans, and the robes.

24 And so it shall be:

Instead of a sweet smell there will be a stench;
Instead of a sash, a rope;
Instead of well-set hair, baldness;
Instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth;
And branding instead of beauty.
25 Your men shall fall by the sword,
And your mighty in the war.

26 Her gates shall lament and mourn,
And she being desolate shall sit on the ground. (Isaiah 3:16-26)

Irrespective of which of who gets elected in the USA, expect that in time, there will be problems and that whoever gets in will do things to the shame of the USA.

The USA does not have long to last, irrespective of who becomes its next president (e.g. see Might the U.S.A. Be Gone by 2028?).

Pray for leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-3). Pray for God’s Kingdom to come (Matthew 6:10).

Some items of possibly related interest may include:

COGwriter

February 14th is known to many as Valentine’s Day.

The ‘heart’ is a common symbol related to Valentine’s Day, as is the pagan deity Cupid. Back in the 1800s, Alexander Hislop wrote:

In the Church of Rome a new kind of devotion has of late been largely introduced, in which the beads play an important part, and which shows what new and additional strides in the direction of the old Babylonian Paganism the Papacy every day is steadily making. I refer to the “Rosary of the Sacred Heart.” It is not very long since the worship of the “Sacred Heart” was first introduced; and now, everywhere it is the favourite worship. It was so in ancient Babylon, as is evident from the Babylonian system as it appeared in Egypt. There also a “Sacred Heart” was venerated. The “Heart” was one of the sacred symbols of Osiris when he was born again, and appeared as Harpocrates, or the infant divinity, * borne in the arms of his mother Isis.

Therefore, the fruit of the Egyptian Persea was peculiarly sacred to him, from its resemblance to the “HUMAN HEART.” Hence this infant divinity was frequently represented with a heart, or the heart-shaped fruit of the Persea, in one of his hands. The following extract, from John Bell’s criticism on the antiques in the Picture Gallery of Florence, will show that the boyish divinity had been represented elsewhere also in ancient times in the same manner. Speaking of a statue of Cupid, he says it is “a fair, full, fleshy, round boy, in fine and sportive action, tossing back a heart.” Thus the boy-god came to be regarded as the “god of the heart,” in other words, as Cupid, or the god of love. To identify this infant divinity, with his father “the mighty hunter,” he was equipped with “bow and arrows”; and in the hands of the poets, for the amusement of the profane vulgar, this sportive boy-god was celebrated as taking aim with his gold-tipped shafts at the hearts of mankind. His real character, however, as the above statement shows, and as we have seen reason already to conclude, was far higher and of a very different kind. He was the woman’s seed. Venus and her son Cupid, then, were none other than the Madonna and the child. Looking at the subject in this light, the real force and meaning of the language will appear, which Virgil puts into the mouth of Venus, when addressing the youthful Cupid:–

“My son, my strength, whose mighty power alone
Controls the thunderer on his awful throne,
To thee thy much afflicted mother flies,
And on thy succour and thy faith relies.”.From what we have seen already as to the power and glory of the Goddess Mother being entirely built on the divine character attributed to her Son, the reader must see how exactly this is brought out, when the Son is called “THE STRENGTH” of his Mother. As the boy-god, whose symbol was the heart, was recognised as the god of childhood, this very satisfactorily accounts for one of the peculiar customs of the Romans. Kennett tells us, in his Antiquities, that the Roman youths, in their tender years, used to wear a golden ornament suspended from their necks, called bulla, which was hollow, and heart-shaped. Barker, in his work on Cilicia, while admitting that the Roman bulla was heart-shaped, further states, that “it was usual at the birth of a child to name it after some divine personage, who was supposed to receive it under his care”; but that the “name was not retained beyond infancy, when the bulla was given up.” Who so likely to be the god under whose guardianship the Roman children were put, as the god under one or other of his many names whose express symbol they wore, and who, while he was recognised as the great and mighty war-god, who also exhibited himself in his favourite form as a little child?

The veneration of the “sacred heart” seems also to have extended to India, for there Vishnu, the Mediatorial god, in one of his forms, with the mark of the wound in his foot, in consequence of which he died, and for which such lamentation is annually made, is represented as wearing a heart suspended on his breast. It is asked, How came it that the “Heart” became the recognised symbol of the Child of the great Mother? The answer is, “The Heart” in Chaldee is “BEL”; and as, at first, after the check given to idolatry, almost all the most important elements of the Chaldean system were introduced under a veil, so under that veil they continued to be shrouded from the gaze of the uninitiated, after the first reason–the reason of fear–had long ceased to operate. Now, the worship of the “Sacred Heart” was just, under a symbol, the worship of the “Sacred Bel,” that mighty one of Babylon, who had died a martyr for idolatry; for Harpocrates, or Horus, the infant god, was regarded as Bel, born again. That this was in very deed the case, the following extract from Taylor, in one of his notes to his translation of the Orphic Hymns, will show. “While Bacchus,” says he, was “beholding himself” with admiration “in a mirror, he was miserably torn to pieces by the Titans, who, not content with this cruelty, first boiled his members in water, and afterwards roasted them in the fire; but while they were tasting his flesh thus dressed, Jupiter, excited by the steam, and perceiving the cruelty of the deed, hurled his thunder at the Titans, but committed his members to Apollo, the brother of Bacchus, that they might be properly interred. And this being performed, Dionysius [i.e., Bacchus], (whose HEART, during his laceration, was snatched away by Minerva and preserved) by a new REGENERATION, again emerged, and he being restored to his pristine life and integrity, afterwards filled up the number of the gods.” This surely shows, in a striking light, the peculiar sacredness of the heart of Bacchus; and that the regeneration of his heart has the very meaning I have attached to it–viz., the new birth or new incarnation of Nimrod or Bel. When Bel, however was born again as a child, he was, as we have seen, represented as an incarnation of the sun. Therefore, to indicate his connection with the fiery and burning sun, the “sacred heart” was frequently represented as a “heart of flame.” So the “Sacred Heart” of Rome is actually worshipped as a flaming heart, as may be seen on the rosaries devoted to that worship. Of what use, then, is it to say that the “Sacred Heart” which Rome worships is called by the name of “Jesus,” when not only is the devotion given to a material image borrowed from the worship of the Babylonian Antichrist, but when the attributes ascribed to that “Jesus” are not the attributes of the living and loving Saviour, but the genuine attributes of the ancient Moloch or Bel? (Hislop A. The Two Babylons, pp. 188-191)

One thing that Alexander Hislop failed to mention was that although the ‘sacred heart,’ Cupid, and certain other symbols associated with Valentine’s Day came from paganism, they are also the reason why the Church of Rome became more focused on the ‘immaculate heart of Mary’ when it did.

The basic reason was because of testimonies of various ones who claimed to see apparitions of Mary. For example, after claiming to see an apparition in Rue du Bac, Paris in 1830, the Catholic Saint Catherine Labouré claimed Mary “was conceived without sin” (Apostoli A. Fatima for Today. Ignatius Press, 2010, p. 7). (More on the apparitions like this, Lourdes, Medjugorje, and Fatima, can be found in the article Mary, the Mother of Jesus and the Apparitions.) In the 19th century, there was a female apparition in France, known as the Lady of Lourdes. One of the statements she reportedly stated in 1858 was, “I am the Immaculate Conception!”

The ‘sacred heart’ of Mary is tied in with a variety of Catholic prophecies which are mainly tied in with messages that Marian apparitions allegedly gave. Basically, they teach that ‘Mary’ will help turn the world into a ‘Catholic’ faith in the end time and if not, destruction will come.

The apparition known as the ‘Lady of Fatima’ allegedly made the following claim on July 13, 1917:

…the souls of poor sinners…To save them God wants to establish throughout the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If people will do what I tell you, many souls will be saved…(Flynn, Ted & Flynn, Maureen, p. 136).

Now believers of the Bible should be shocked by the above as there is nothing in the Bible that hints that the above could possibly be true. People are saved only through Jesus (Acts 4:12). “Nor is there salvation in any other” (Acts 4:12; 16:30-31), including “the Lady of Fatima”. Hence, the Fatima apparition should not be considered as sent by God as at least that part of the message contradicts scripture (even if parts of what were claimed did come to pass).

Notice what Bishop Kennedy of the Celtic Orthodox Church wrote:

The great deceiver of Fatima promises salvation to those who embrace devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary… We can be very certain that God did not send Mary to earth to change God’s eternal plan of salvation. It is just this kind of deceit that leads to other false statements about Mary; Mediatrix of all graces etc. The devil’s deceit is felt far and wide within the Church as is evidenced in the number of well meaning but deceived souls proclaiming Mary is Mediatrix of all graces. How would have such a statement sounded to the Apostles? This salvation we enjoy is from God in Christ; “The man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as ransom for all”. (1 Timothy 2:1, 3-6 NAB)… We should STOP THE DEVIL in his tracks and proclaim the vision of Fatima to be a fraud, a work of the devil and an abomination to God, Mary and to the Church. (Kennedy BJ, Bishop. The Fatima Affair. HOLY TRINITY CELTIC ORTHODOX CHURCH / MONASTERY. Toledo, Ohio. http:// www.celticorthodoxchurch.com/fatima.html viewed 05/17/12)

Sadly, on October 13, 2013 Pope Francis consecrated the world to this so-called immaculate heart of Mary (see Francis consecrated world to the ‘immaculate heart’ of an alleged ‘Fatima’ statue).

As it turns out, Pope Francis has shown he is highly Marian-focused and speaks of his version of her regularly (see Pope Francis: Could this Marian Focused Pontiff be Fulfilling Prophecy?). He also has made various pronouncements related to Valentine’s Day.

While that may not seem to be unusual, notice what the Roman Catholics have taught:

The roots of St. Valentine’s Day lie in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, which was celebrated on Feb. 15. For 800 years the Romans had dedicated this day to the god Lupercus. On Lupercalia, a young man would draw the name of a young woman in a lottery and would then keep the woman as a sexual companion for the year…

The Catholic Church no longer officially honors St. Valentine, but the holiday has both Roman and Catholic roots. (The Origins of St. Valentine’s Day. http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/ValentinesDay/, January 31, 2004).

Pagan symbols and pagan holidays are not God’s tools to reach people. True Christians need to avoid participating in pagan holidays, such as Valentine’s Day. Turning towards Cupid’s or Mary’s heart is not what the world needs. Valentine’s Day is not a biblical holiday nor did early Christians observe it.

The world needs the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of God. Valentine’s observances and other distractions turn people away from the true Jesus and more towards a faith that is against what Jesus stood for.

For more information, please consider studying the following:

Valentine’s Day: Its Real Origins Christianity Today suggests that Valentine’s Day is good for Christians to observe. Is this true? There is also a YouTube titled Should Christians Observe Valentine’s Day? A more detailed sermon is available and titled Valentine’s Day, Christianity, and Islam.
Mardi Gras: The Devil’s Carnival? Is Mardi Gras Christian? Do you know that in Bolivia the carnival/Mardi Gras time is part of a celebration known as the Devil’s Carnival? Where did it come from? There is also a related YouTube video Mardi Gras & Carnaval: Are they for Christians?
Jesus: The Son of God and Saviour Who was Jesus? Why did He come to earth? What message did He bring? Is there evidence outside the Bible that He existed? Here is a YouTube sermon titled Jesus: Son of God and Saviour.
Beliefs of the Original Catholic Church: Could a remnant group have continuing apostolic succession? Did the original “catholic church” have doctrines held by the Continuing Church of God? Did Church of God leaders uses the term “catholic church” to ever describe the church they were part of? Here are links to related sermons: Original Catholic Church of God?, Original Catholic Doctrine: Creed, Liturgy, Baptism, Passover, What Type of Catholic was Polycarp of Smyrna?, Tradition, Holy Days, Salvation, Dress, & Celibacy, Early Heresies and Heretics, Doctrines: 3 Days, Abortion, Ecumenism, Meats, Tithes, Crosses, Destiny, and more, Saturday or Sunday?, The Godhead, Apostolic Laying on of Hands Succession, Church in the Wilderness Apostolic Succession List, Holy Mother Church and Heresies, and Lying Wonders and Original Beliefs. Here is a link to that book in the Spanish language: Creencias de la iglesia Católica original.
Should You Observe God’s Holy Days or Demonic Holidays? This is a free pdf booklet explaining what the Bible and history shows about God’s Holy Days and popular holidays.
The Gospel of the Kingdom of God This free online pdf booklet has answers many questions people have about the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and explains why it is the solution to the issues the world is facing. Here are links to four related sermons:  The Fantastic Gospel of the Kingdom of God!, The World’s False Gospel, The Gospel of the Kingdom: From the New and Old Testaments, and The Kingdom of God is the Solution.
Greco-Roman Catholic Prophecies: Do They Mirror, Highlight, or Contradict Biblical Prophecies? People of all faiths may be surprised to see what various Roman and Orthodox Catholic prophets have been predicting as many of their predictions will be looked to in the 21st century.
Mary, the Mother of Jesus and the Apparitions Do you know much about Mary? Are the apparitions real? What happened at Fatima? What might they mean for the rise of the ecumenical religion of Antichrist? Are Protestants moving towards Mary? How do the Eastern/Greek Orthodox view Mary? How might Mary view her adorers? Here is a link to a YouTube video Marian Apparitions May Fulfill Prophecy.
Do you understand the ramifications of the ‘Lady of Guadalupe’? It is claimed that a female apparition appeared near Mexico City on December 12, 1531. How has it affected the world? What might it suggest about the future?
Pope Francis: Could this Marian Focused Pontiff be Fulfilling Prophecy? Pope Francis has taken many steps to turn people more towards his version of ‘Mary.’ Could this be consistent with biblical and Catholic prophecies? This article documents what has been happening. There is also a video version titled Pope Francis: Could this Marian Focused Pontiff be Fulfilling Prophecy?
Feast of the Immaculate Conception? Did early Christians teach Mary had an immaculate conception and led a sinless life?
Origin of the Marian Dogmas: Where Do Catholic Scholars Say The Four Dogmas of Mary Came From?
Assumption of Mary Did Mary die? Was she taken to heaven on August 15th? What is known? What does the Bible show?
Fatima Shock! What the Vatican Does Not Want You to Know About Fatima, Dogmas of Mary, and Future Apparitions. Whether or not you believe anything happened at Fatima, if you live long enough, you will be affected by its ramifications (cf. Isaiah 47; Revelation 17). Fatima Shock! provides concerned Christians with enough Catholic-documented facts to effectively counter every false Marian argument. In addition to the print version, there is a Kindle version of Fatima Shock! which you can acquire in seconds.
The History of Early Christianity Are you aware that what most people believe is not what truly happened to the true Christian church? Do you know where the early church was based? Do you know what were the doctrines of the early church? Is your faith really based upon the truth or compromise?
Where is the True Christian Church Today? This free online pdf booklet answers that question and includes 18 proofs, clues, and signs to identify the true vs. false Christian church. Plus 7 proofs, clues, and signs to help identify Laodicean churches. A related sermon is also available: Where is the True Christian Church? Here is a link to the booklet in the Spanish language: ¿Dónde está la verdadera Iglesia cristiana de hoy? Here is a link in the German language: WO IST DIE WAHRE CHRISTLICHE KIRCHE HEUTE? Here is a link in the French language: Où est la vraie Église Chrétienne aujourd’hui?
Continuing History of the Church of God This pdf booklet is a historical overview of the true Church of God and some of its main opponents from Acts 2 to the 21st century. Related sermon links include Continuing History of the Church of God: c. 31 to c. 300 A.D. and Continuing History of the Church of God: 4th-16th Centuries and Continuing History of the Church of God: 17th-20th Centuries. The booklet is available in Spanish: Continuación de la Historia de la Iglesia de Dios, German: Kontinuierliche Geschichte der Kirche Gottes, French: L’Histoire Continue de l’Église de Dieu and Ekegusii Omogano Bw’ekanisa Ya Nyasae Egendererete.

COGwriter

Use of “artificial intelligence’ looks to be growing:

February 13, 2023

ChatGPT, a fast-growing artificial intelligence program, has drawn praise for its ability to write answers quickly to a wide range of queries, and attracted U.S. lawmakers’ attention with questions about its impact on national security and education.

ChatGPT was estimated to have reached 100 million monthly active users just two months after launch, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history, and a growing target for regulation. https://www.newsmax.com/finance/streettalk/chatgpt-ai-disinformation/2023/02/13/id/1108384/

Regulations are not going to stop one of the most dangerous uses of so-called artificial intelligence programs. A reader first tipped me off to the following:

Artificial intelligence could be misused to design biological weapons, warn scientists …

Artificial intelligence could be misused to design highly toxic chemical and biological weapons, warn scientists. … four researchers involved in AI-based drug discovery have now found that the technology could easily be manipulated to search for toxic nerve agents.

The four were asked by the Swiss Federal Institute for Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection to look at whether AI could be used by those with ulterior motives – and their AI came up with 40,000 potentially toxic drugs in six hours.

Their AI started ‘producing all of these [toxic] molecules, a lot of which look like chemical warfare agents’. 02/11/23 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11741077/Artificial-intelligence-misused-design-biological-weapons-warn-scientists.html

Consider COVID, even Dr. Anthony Fauci knows that COVID-19 could have originated in a lab (see ‘There’s No Doubt There Will Be More Pandemics Because They’re Intentionally Creating Them’).

The fact is that there is NO known evidence that COVID-19 naturally came from the wild. No one has proven that nor even shown where in ‘nature’ it came from, etc. As a reminder, Dr. Fauci was involved in research that could lead to more dangerous viruses–including with China–and that is a fact–not a wild conspiracy theory.

Human activities, likely involving scientists, were what led to COVID-19.

The Exposé posted the following:

There’s No Doubt There Will Be More Pandemics Because They’re Intentionally Creating Them

No biodefense research is purely defensive – to do the work, you’re automatically engaged in the creation of biological weapons.

Early on in the Covid pandemic, Francis Boyle, PhD., was sure it was the result of a lab leak. He believes monkeypox is another lab creation, as it now suddenly has 30 mutations from the wild monkeypox found in Africa.

President Biden recently signed the ‘Executive Order on Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe and Secure American Bioeconomy’, and this order basically promises we’ll see additional manmade pandemics.

Section 12, paragraph VII in Biden’s executive order states that the purpose of the order is to “develop and work and promote and implement … dual-use research of concern, and research involving potentially pandemic and other high-consequence pathogens.”

That means they intend to perform gain-of-function research on deadly pathogens, any one of which could be released to create a global pandemic when a scare event is necessary to trick populations into choosing a false sense of safety over freedom. https://expose-news.com/2022/10/04/there-will-be-more-pandemics-theyre-creating-them/

As far as scientists creating diseases, over 50 years ago the old Worldwide Church of God published the following by the late Raymond McNair:

THE DOOMSDAY BUG

There is — this very instant — a feverish international search for the ultimate “dooms-day bug.” The purpose? — to wipe out whole nations overnight by disease germs and chemicals. Will man’s unrestrained scientific search for more horrifying weapons of mass destruction prove to be his undoing?

WHAT I have seen here at Porton Down has convinced me of the awful potential of modern Chemical and Biological Warfare (called CBW for short). Few realize its frightening possibilities! Sensational news headlines from time to time reveal details of CBW development world-wide. …

History of CBW

Chemical and Biological Warfare is not new to mankind. For thousands of years man has used various CBW agents to overcome his enemies. But… it is only recently that he has seriously considered the idea of using CBW on a grand scale — to erase whole populations! Thousands of years ago man discovered the diabolical use of poison. He learned to use poison to dispose of rulers, dignitaries, or large numbers of his enemies by poisoning their food or water supply. Poisoned arrows were also used in warfare. Millenniums ago man learned that he could throw the corpses of plague-infected humans over the walls of besieged cities which he sought to overthrow — thereby causing terrible plague to ravage the entire city. Early American settlers traded plague-infected blankets to American Indians in times of frontier hostilities. There have been virtually no limits to man’s diabolical, inventive genius in the realm of destructive weapons of war. CBW’s

Awful Potential

We can see the awful potential of rampant disease organisms by observing what did happen during the Dark Ages. The BLACK DEATH of 1348-50 was the worst natural disaster to befall man in the last 4000 years. This terrible plague swept over all Europe — killing at least one third of the population! In certain areas nearly three fourths of the population was killed by plague! Three fifths of all Britons succumbed to the Black Death — reducing Britain’s population from 5.1 million in 1348 to 2.1 million in 1374.

Many, believing they would certainly fall victims of the Black Death, gave themselves over to reckless abandon — drunkenness, sexual orgies, violence, crime and general lawlessness. “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die of plague,” they reasoned. But biological warfare is potentially much worse than plague.

Colonel Adam Mikovich of Moscow Institute understands the full potential of Biological Warfare. He said: “It is believed today that Biological War would have the greatest effect of all” (Post, Jan. 30, 1965). …

An Ounce of Doom!

Many scientists right now are searching for new plagues with which to decimate the human population. And they are diligently seeking deadlier strains of old viruses with which to destroy whole populations. Of course, these scientists justify their CBW research by saying it is done for defensive reasons. Just how lethal are these viruses? Do you grasp the deadly potential? “In theory one gram of chicken embryo tissue inoculated with the Q-fever organism would be sufficient to infect more than one million people” (We All Fall Down, Robin Clarke). It has been estimated that one fourth of an ounce would be sufficient to infect every man, woman and child living in the British Isles! That’s about 55 million! Britain is especially vulnerable to chemical or germ warfare. She is thickly crowded and normal weather conditions in Britain are favorable to that type of warfare!

Botulinus, which was developed during World War II, is so deadly that it could wipe out all human life in a given area within six hours — yet leaving the target area habitable immediately after the attack. But some diseases would have a more lingering effect. …

Few realize that far more people have died from pestilence — from sickness and various plagues — through the course of human history, than have died in actual warfare.

It has been estimated that over 20,000,000 perished from influenza in just a few months at the close of World War I — and 50 times that number became ill. In the autumn of 1918, over 12,500,000 died in the flu epidemic which swept the undernourished nation of India. And over one-half million died in the United States. …

Destroying the Economy

Another terrifying aspect of CBW is that an enemy nation could destroy the economy of a nation — before actually attacking its civilians. This could be done by first attacking some of the main crops of the intended victim nation.
In 1942, 90 percent of India’s rice crop was destroyed by a natural strain of rice fungus.

And the highest award ever given to a U.S. civilian was awarded to a woman for developing another very deadly type of rice-blast fungus — which could, of course, be used against rice-eating nations like China or North Vietnam.

A Russian scientist has reportedly discovered a very deadly wheat rust — a type to which America’s wheat would be especially susceptible.

Thus, one can see how an enemy could greatly undermine the economy of a nation by first destroying the main crops through bacteriological warfare.

As a further example of the effects of this type of warfare, consider the terrible economic effects which the Irish potato famine of the mid-1800’s had on Ireland. That particular potato famine was caused by a peculiar potato blight or fungus which completely wiped out Ireland’s potato crop!

Previous to the famine, Ireland was one of the most densely populated countries in Europe. Yet it was a country stricken with the most unbelievable poverty. “There never was,” said the Duke of Wellington, a native of County Meath, “a country in which poverty existed to the extent that exists in Ireland.” “Nearly half of the families of the rural population,” reported the 1841 census, “are living in houses of the lowest state” — windowless mud cabins of a single room. …

CBW weapons are cheap to manufacture, and are comparatively inexpensive to deliver to enemy targets. A small nation could develop a whole arsenal of CBW agents and deliver them with very little strain on its budget. …

Scientists must bear their full share of responsibility for their part in developing more deadly and virulent microbes which could unleash horrifying disease epidemics upon this world.

But where does this leave us? Will scientists cease their horrifying work? Hardly.

It leaves us precisely where the world’s most noted newscaster — Jesus Christ — said it would leave us! Speaking of our very day, he warned: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved [alive]: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matt. 24:21, 22).

But how?

The Only Solution

Make no mistake about it — man does not have the solution to his ever-accelerating arms-race problem. But God does!

We can be very thankful that the God of the universe is about to put an end to man’s hellish insanity toward his fellowman. His government will “rebuke strong nations afar off: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they LEARN WAR any more” (Micah 4:3).

Mercifully, God Almighty will not let man destroy himself! If God didn’t keep His hand firmly on the controls, man would annihilate himself.

We can rejoice that total disarmament is very near. The day is soon coming when the nations will close down all of their chemical and biological establishments — and their munitions factories!

Then all of man’s scientific efforts will be directed toward construction — not Destruction. Toward saving lives — not destroying them! (McNair R. The Doomsday Bug. Plain Truth, August 1969)

So, yes, the old WCG was right that humans would continue to look into developing pestilences. And yes, the solution will be God’s intervention, and the establishment of the coming Kingdom of God.

That is good news.

However, before then, more pestilences are coming (Revelation 6:7-8).

I warned about that over the years.

The coronavirus that was renamed COVID-19 has had a major impact on the world.

Should it have been warned about at the COGwriter Church of God News site?

Notice something that an accuser of the brethren, who calls himself “Tonto” posted yesterday related to me and the coronavirus at the anti-COG site Banned by HWA in early 2020:

Tonto said…

If Thiel was such a great prophet, then why didn’t he specifically and directly warn the world about this coronavirus several weeks ago?

Actually, I specifically warned about risks associated with the coronavirus in 2013 (see Coronavirus: A new risk for humans? and Saudi Arabia warning visitors to Mecca about coronavirus risk) and 2014 (see Saudi Arabia, MERS, and Missiles and Infection-gate: A dangerous scandal hitting the USA?). Additionally, I have also warned also about human engineered pathogens without mentioning the coronavirus in 2018 (see DARPA to weaponize insects to spread viruses across the population… sinister plans exposed by team of scientists) and 2019 (see DARPA: ‘Militarized Microbes’ To Spread GMO Bacteria). Humans messing around with viruses, like what was being officially done in Wuhan, poses risks. And I have warned about those risks, including research involving the coronavirus for years.

Pretty much every day, I pray and ask God to assist me choosing topics to write about. And a few times in the past, that has specifically included the coronavirus and other matters that have come to pass (e.g. see Does the CCOG have the confirmed signs of Acts 2:17-18?).

Furthermore, on November 16, 2019, I recorded a message warning that pestilences were coming and that antibiotics and vaccines would not stop it. This past October, I noticed that YouTube censored it, even though it was accurate.

Since we have not trusted YouTube’s improper enforcement of its changing standards, we already had that video up on other platforms, so it is still available. Here is a link to it from our BitChute platform: Superbugs, antibiotics, and vaccines.

That said, related to scientists producing diseases, the Continuing Church of God (CCOG) put together the following video for our Bible News Prophecy program shortly before the “novel coronavirus” was renamed to be called COVID-19:

17:01

Biological Warfare and Prophecy

Is biological warfare possible? Was it prophesied? Scientists have long warned that pathogenic organisms like the coronavirus could be weaponized. Furthermore, back in 2017, there were concerns that the biological research facility being constructed in Wuhan, China was risky and that a coronavirus from it could be released. On January 25, 2020, China’s President Xi Jinping publicly stated that the situation with the Wuhan-related strain of the coronavirus was grave. Did Church of God writers like the late evangelist Raymond McNair warn that engineered viruses (the “Doomsday bug”) were consistent with prophecies from Jesus? Did a warning from CCOG leader Bob Thiel warn about risks of genetically-modified (GMO) mosquitoes come to pass? Could human research and/or the consumption of biblically-unclean animals such as bats and snakes be a factor in current outbreaks or coming future pestilences? What about famines? How devastating have pestilences been? How devastating are the prophesied ones going to be? Dr. Thiel addresses these issues and more.

Here is a link to our video: Biological Warfare and Prophecy.

Now, let’s look at the opening of the fourth seal, the ride of the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse:

Vasnetsov’s 1884 impression of the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse

7 When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see.” 8 So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth. (Revelation 6:7-8)

The ride of the fourth horseman will result in the death of 1/4 of humanity!

That is much worse than what we have seen with COVID-19. And the reality is that scientists using artificial intelligence are likely to be involved in creating one or more the the pestilences that will kill multiple millions of people!

Remember that Jesus said:

34 “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. 35 For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:34-36)

Some items of possibly related interest may include:

Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse What is the pale horse of death and pestilences? What will it bring and when? Here is a link to a related sermon: Fourth Horseman, COVID, and the Rise of the Beast of Revelation. Some shorter related videos may include Amphibian Apocalypse: Threat to Humans? and Zombie Deer Disease is Here! Are the 10 Plagues on Egypt Coming? Here is a version of the article in Spanish: El cuarto jinete de Apocalipsis, el caballo pálido de muerte y pestilencia.
COVID 19 is NOT the End, but could it be TEOTWAWKI? The novel coronavirus called COVID-19 is wreaking havoc around the world. Many states of the USA as well as countries in Europe are on lockdown with shelter in place /shelter in residence requirements. In France, a form is required when you are not at your house. In Spain, drones are being used to warn people who are outside to got back to their homes–does that bring up feelings of ‘Big Brother’? Italy, France, and other areas are using police and/or military force to encourage people to stay inside. According to the Bible could this be the end? If not, what has to happen first? Have the second and third of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse started their ride? Could COVID-19 be the fourth horseman? Why or why not? Could we be seeing The End of the World as We Know It (TEOTWAWKI) like the R.E.M.’s 1987 single song discussed? Do Christians need to fear? What did Jesus teach? What did the Psalmist teach? This is a video. Here is a link to a version in the Spanish language: Corona 19 no es el final PERO es el TEOTWAWKI.
COVID-19 Leading to 666? The novel coronavirus of Wuhan, China fame, is now called COVID-19. It has also been called the ‘Coronapocalypse.’ Does COVID-19 have any prophetic ramifications? What did Jesus teach about pestilences and sorrows in the Olivet prophecy in Matthew 24? Could COVID-19 be the ride of the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse? Why was this type of disease expected according to the O. Here is a link to a version in the Spanish language: ld Testament prophecies in Deuteronomy and Leviticus? What has the US Centers for Disease Control warned about? What has the CDC reported about the flu? Were there lessons about fear and infections in the 2011 movie ‘Contagion’? Because of COVID-19, the World Health Organization (WHO), nation of Iran, and certain French locations are telling people not to use cash, but instead electronic forms of payment. The US Federal Reserve is now quarantining money repatriated from Asia to reduce the potential spread of the coronavirus on US currency bills. Is COVID-19 worse than we have been told or could this all be a ‘false flag’ event to encourage people to move towards a cashless society? If the thousands of deaths associated with COVID-19 are pushing parts of the world towards cashlessness, how much more likely will the ride of the fourth horseman and over a billion human deaths motivate people to move to making electronic payments that can be monitored? The Bible tells of a soon coming society that controls buying and selling to force allegiance to a coming European Beast power, known as 666 (Revelation 13:16-18). Does the ‘great tribulation’ begin before ride of the fourth horseman or with the opening of the fifth seal of Revelation 6? Do the words of Jesus helps us better understand the sequence of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse and the start of the Great Tribulation? Will the ride of the fourth horseman help lead to the rise of 666? Is that ride very close? Dr. Thiel addresses these issues and more in this video. Here is a link to a version in the Spanish language: El COVID-19 ¿Conduce al 666?
Does God Have a 6,000 Year Plan? What Year Does the 6,000 Years End? Was a 6000 year time allowed for humans to rule followed by a literal thousand year reign of Christ on Earth taught by the early Christians? Does God have 7,000 year plan? What year may the six thousand years of human rule end? When will Jesus return? 2031 or 20xx? There is also a video titled 6000 Years: When will God’s Kingdom Come? Here is a link to the article in Spanish: ¿Tiene Dios un plan de 6,000 años?
Does the CCOG have the confirmed signs of Acts 2:17-18? Does any church have the confirmed dream and prophetic signs of Acts 2:17-18? Should one? Here is a link in the Spanish language: ¿Tiene la CCOG confirmadas las señales de Hechos 2: 17-18? Here is a link in the French language: Est-ce que l’Église Continue de Dieu confirme les signes d’Actes 2:17-18? A related sermon in the English language is also available: 17 Last Days’ Signs of the Holy Spirit.
When Will the Great Tribulation Begin? 2023, 2024, or 2025? Can the Great Tribulation begin today? What happens before the Great Tribulation in the “beginning of sorrows”? What happens in the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord? Is this the time of the Gentiles? When is the earliest that the Great Tribulation can begin? What is the Day of the Lord? Who are the 144,000? Here is a version of the article in the Spanish language: ¿Puede la Gran Tribulación comenzar en el 2020 o 2021? ¿Es el Tiempo de los Gentiles? A related video is: Great Tribulation: 2026 or 2027? A shorter video is: Can the Great Tribulation start in 2022 or 2023? Notice also: Can Jesus return in 2023 or 2024? Here is a video in the Spanish language: Es El 2021 el año  de La Gran Tribulación o el Grande Reseteo Financiero.
There is a Place of Safety for the Philadelphians. Why it May Be Near Petra This article discusses a biblical ‘place of safety,’ Zephaniah 2 to ‘gather together,’ and includes quotes from the Bible and Herbert W. Armstrong on fleeing to a place–thus, there is a biblically supported alternative to the rapture theory. Two sermon-length videos of related interest are available Physical Protection During the Great Tribulation and Might Petra be the Place of Safety?  Here is something related in the Spanish language: Hay un lugar de seguridad para los Filadelfinos. ¿Puede ser Petra?

Moldovan Parliament

COGwriter

Political leaders in Moldova continue to have concerns about Russia:

February 13, 2023

CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) — Moldova’s President outlined Monday what she described as a plot by Moscow to use external saboteurs to overthrow her country’s government, put the nation “at the disposal of Russia” and derail its aspirations to one day join the European Union.

President Maia Sandu’s briefing comes a week after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country had intercepted plans by Russian secret services to destroy Moldova, claims that were later confirmed by Moldovan intelligence officials.

“The plan for the next period involves actions with the involvement of diversionists with military training, camouflaged in civilian clothes, who will undertake violent actions, attack some state buildings, and even take hostages,” Sandu told reporters at a briefing.

“The purpose of these actions is to overthrow the constitutional order, to change the legitimate power from Chisinau to an illegitimate one,” Sandu said, “which would put our country at the disposal of Russia, in order to stop the European integration process.” …

Since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly a year ago, Moldova, a former Soviet republic of about 2.6 million people, has sought to forge closer ties with its Western partners. Last June, it was granted European Union candidate status, the same day as Ukraine. …

Sandu said that Russia wants to use Moldova in the war against Ukraine, without providing more details, and that information obtained by intelligence services contained what she described as instructions on rules of entry to Moldova for citizens from Russia, Belarus, Serbia, and Montenegro. …

The President added that the plan would “rely on several internal forces, but especially on criminal groups” and went on to name two Moldovan oligarchs, Ilan Shor and Vladimir Plahotniuc, both of whom are currently in exile. Both men last year were sanctioned by the U.S. and the U.K.

Last fall, a series of mass anti-government protests organized by Shor’s populist, Russia-friendly Shor Party, also rocked Moldova amid the energy crunch. https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-zelenskyy-politics-government-maia-sandu-152d2353f4c18bb84348f5d1656edb98?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_04

There are some similarities between Ukraine and Moldova–both nations have a lot of Russian speakers, have had pro-Russian governments, and have territory in the east that prefers closer ties with Russia.

Last May, Voice of America had the following about Moldova:

How Russia Tries to Counter Moldova Separatist Region’s Westward Drift

May 7, 2022

WASHINGTON/CHISINAU, MOLDOVA — Russia’s desire to create a land corridor to Moldova’s separatist region of Transnistria is drawing attention to Moscow’s efforts to prevent the pro-Russian enclave from deepening ties to the West and undermining the decadeslong Russian grip over part of Moldova, some analysts say.

Russian General Rustam Minnekaev endorsed the idea of a land corridor on April 22, saying: “Control over the south of Ukraine is another way to [reach] Transnistria,” according to Russian news agency Interfax. He said Transnistria’s Russian-speaking population suffers “oppression,” implying that it needs Russia’s protection from Romanian-speakers in the rest of Moldova.

Moscow has made similar assertions about Russian speakers in Ukraine to justify its invasions of Ukrainian territory since 2014.

Transnistria is a majority Russian-speaking territory that broke away from Moldova in 1990, a year before the majority Romanian-speaking Soviet republic declared independence from the Soviet Union. A 1992 war between Moldovan forces and Transnistrian separatists backed by Russian troops ended with a cease-fire that has remained in effect for 30 years, leaving Transnistria to run its own affairs as a de facto state but without international recognition.

Russia has not recognized the region as a state. But it has helped the separatists for decades to administer a sliver of land on Moldova’s eastern edge, between the east bank of the Dniester River and the Ukrainian border. Transnistria has a population of 300,000 to 400,000 according to Moldovan and separatist estimates, respectively.

Russia’s support for the separatist region has prolonged what some observers call a “frozen conflict” that has kept Moldova too weak to join major Western institutions. Moscow has long regarded the expansion of the NATO alliance and European Union into post-Soviet states such as Moldova as a threat to its security.

Moscow’s main support for Transnistria has taken the form of providing it with free Russian natural gas, a presence of about 1,500 Russian troops and bank transfers of Russian funds.https://www.voanews.com/a/how-russia-tries-to-keep-moldova-separatist-region-from-drifting-toward-west/6561813.html

Moldova is probably still the poorest nation in Europe. Both Russia and the European Union want it. Moldova has applied to be part of the EU, but Russia does not like that.

The European Union wants nearly all of continental Europe to be part of it, and that includes Moldova. Moldova is a land, which like Ukraine, some in the West see as a ‘buffer’ against Russia because of geographic proximity.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, wants all the former Soviet states, including Moldova and Ukraine, to become part of Russia or at least part of his Eurasian Economic Union.

Moldovans took some steps towards the European Union several years ago, which made them poorer as this displeased Russia, which restricted aspects of trade. But with a major part of its workforce actually out of the country but working within the European Union, this has greatly increased its support for the EU. Many in Moldova do not trust Russia and believe that they will be freer and wealthier as part of the European Union. Others have been disappointed with the Europeans and have serious doubts that the Europeans can improve their lives for some time.

As far as the situation in Ukraine goes, notice the following:

Russians slowly take ground around Bakhmut

13 February 2023

Russian forces have spent the past six months trying to capture Bakhmut. Now they have intensified their onslaught – Ukraine believes – to tear it down ahead of the anniversary of the invasion.

We follow orders, darting down an icy rubble-strewn street, with a clear blue sky overhead – ideal for Russian drones. …

There is street fighting in some areas, but Ukrainian forces still hold the city – despite sub-zero temperatures and dwindling ammunition.

“We have some shortages of ammunition of all kinds, especially artillery rounds,” says Capt Mykhailo from the 93rd Mechanised Brigade, whose call sign is ‘Polyglot’. “We also need encrypted communication devices from our Western allies, and some armoured personnel carriers to move troops around. But we still manage. One of the main lessons of this war is how to fight with limited resources.” …

Moscow now has effective control of both main roads into the city, leaving just one back route left – a slender supply line.

“They have been trying to take the city since July,” says Iryna, press officer of the 93rd Brigade. “Little by little they are winning now. They have more resources, so if they play the long game they will win. I can’t say how long it will take.

“Maybe they will run out of resources. I really hope so.” …

And if the defenders of Bakhmut were to withdraw, it would pave the way for Russia to push towards bigger cities in eastern Ukraine like Kramatorsk and Slovyansk.

Moscow has stepped up its attacks in other front-line areas in the Donbas region in the east, and in the south. Ukrainian officials say a new Russian offensive is already under way.

The Kremlin is on a clock, as it counts down to the anniversary on 24 February. “They are mad about dates and so-called ‘victory days’,” says Capt Mykhailo. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64596363

February 13, 2023

Ukraine said Monday that Russian forces were hitting the area north of Bakhmut with “intense shelling and storming actions.”

Bakhmut, located in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, has been the site of months of heavy fighting with Russia pushing to capture the area.

Ukraine’s presidential office said in its daily report that the situation in the village of Paraskoviivka, just north of Bakhmut, was “difficult.”

The Ukrainian military reported Russian artillery and tank attacks against 16 settlements in the Bakhmut area.

The head of the Russian Wagner paramilitary group claimed Sunday to have taken control of one such village, Krasna Hora. https://www.voanews.com/a/ukraine-reports-difficult-situation-near-bakhmut-/6960583.html

So what will happen?

Some areas will, ultimately according to scripture, align with Russia.

Yet, the Bible also teaches that the European Beast power will expand to the south and the east.

Notice that, in Daniel 8, the Bible prophesied that a little horn would mainly expand south and east:

9 And out of one of them came a little horn which grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Glorious Land. 10 And it grew up to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the ground, and trampled them. 11 He even exalted himself as high as the Prince of the host; and by him the daily sacrifices were taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down. 12 Because of transgression, an army was given over to the horn to oppose the daily sacrifices; and he cast truth down to the ground. He did all this and prospered. (Daniel 8:9-12).

And while the above has had a past fulfillment, this prophecy seems to be dual (compare with Daniel 11:27-39). The European Union has mainly expanded south and east of the Benelux nations (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg)–which is where it initially formed. Now, approximately 500 million people are now under a new, single (though not completed united) government, called the European Union, headquartered in Brussels. Ukraine is mainly east of much of the EU–thus its geography is consistent with at least some of it being part of the EU. And Moldova and Georgia are south and east, which is also consistent.

In the old Radio Church of God, the late evangelist Dr. Hoeh taught that this little horn of Daniel 8 was the power that would become the final King of the North:

Turn in your Bible to verse 9: “And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.” …

The King of the North

The little horn in Daniel 8 is none other than the LAST KING of one of the four divisions of Alexander’s Empire. He is, in fact, the final “King of the North” described in Daniel 11. (Hoeh H. The 2300 Days. Plain Truth, August 1965)

Again, it looks like at least part of Moldova will support the Europeans for a time. The same is the case for Ukraine.

Consider also the following:

27 Behold, the name of the Lord comes from afar,
Burning with His anger,
And His burden is heavy;
His lips are full of indignation,
And His tongue like a devouring fire.
28 His breath is like an overflowing stream,
Which reaches up to the neck,
To sift the nations … (Isaiah 30:27-28)

From a prophetic perspective, we appear to be seeing some sifting/separation between some of the peoples that live within the borders of Ukraine as well as Georgia and Moldova. According to Bible prophecy, those that appear to have descended from the ancient Medes will mainly ultimately align with Russia. We have seen some separations in Moldova and Ukraine for several years.

This does not mean that some or all of Ukraine, Moldova, etc. will not be part of the European Union, at least for a time.

As I have long asserted, I expect at least parts of Ukraine to support Russia, and that has happened with Crimea and at least parts of the Donbas.

That being said, the European Union has demonstrated a history and willingness to enlarge–and it is interested in Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia. The USA keeps encouraging all of this, but this will not end well for the USA (cf. Daniel 11:39; Isaiah 10:5-11).

Of course, even now, not all in Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia want to be part of the European Union, some prefer to be in Russia’s upcoming Eurasian Union (though this has been diminishing because of Russia’s ‘special military operation’ into Ukraine).

That being said, those that become disillusioned/disappointed by the EU may ultimately back out of it.

Notice also the following:

1 The burden against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw…

17 “Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them,
Who will not regard silver;
And as for gold, they will not delight in it.
18 Also their bows will dash the young men to pieces,
And they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb;
Their eye will not spare children.
19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms,
The beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride,
Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. (Isaiah 13:1, 17-19)

11 Make the arrows bright!
Gather the shields!
The Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes.
For His plan is against Babylon to destroy it,
Because it is the vengeance of the Lord,
The vengeance for His temple. (Jeremiah 51:11)

Biblically (because of prophecies involving the Medes, some of which are in Ukraine, and some in the “north and east” in Daniel 11:44), it would seem that Russia (a power of the “far north” Ezekiel 38:3,6) would be closer to at least parts of Ukraine (like some of the eastern portions of it) and possibly at least parts of Moldova and Georgia in the end, than many realize. (There is also a YouTube video available titled Ukraine in Prophecy?)

This will ultimately not end well for Europe:

50:41 “Behold, a people shall come from the north,
And a great nation and many kings
Shall be raised up from the ends of the earth.
42 They shall hold the bow and the lance;
They are cruel and shall not show mercy.
Their voice shall roar like the sea;
They shall ride on horses,
Set in array, like a man for the battle,
Against you, O daughter of Babylon.

43 “The king of Babylon has heard the report about them,
And his hands grow feeble;
Anguish has taken hold of him,
Pangs as of a woman in childbirth…”(Jeremiah 50:41-43).

8 O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed,
Happy the one who repays you as you have served us!
9 Happy the one who takes and dashes
Your little ones against the rock! (Psalms 137:8-9)

That is some of the bad news. The above could be called World War IV (watch also Woes, WWIV, and the Good News of the Kingdom of God).

The good news is that Jesus will return after this and usher in the millennial Kingdom of God.

Until then, expect ups and downs and ups, and then ultimately major downs in Europe–including Moldova and Ukraine.

Some items of possibly related interest may include:

Russia and Ukraine: Their Origins and Prophesied Future Russia in prophecy. Where do the Russians come from? What about those in the Ukraine? What is prophesied for Russia and its allies? What will they do to the Europeans that supported the Beast in the end? There is also a video sermon available: Russia in the Bible and in Prophecy as are two video sermonettes Russia, Ukraine, Babylonian Europe, and Prophecy and Ukraine in Prophecy?
Is Russia the King of the North? Some claim it is. But what does the Bible teach? Here is a link to a video, also titled Is Russia the King of the North?
Ezekiel 38: For Russia & Iran in Our Day? Is Ezekiel 38 about to be fulfilled? Are we close to the battle with Gog and Magog? Four related videos are available: Ezekiel 38 Gog and Magog War: Is it Soon?, Ezekiel 38: For Russia, Ukraine, & Iran Now?, Russia, Iran, Syria, & the Bible (Code), and Gog, Magog, Vladimir Putin, and Ezekiel 38?
The Eurasian Union, the Kings of the East, and Bible Prophecy Is there a Eurasian union that will be formed? Is one being formed right now? Are any leaders working on that in the 21st century? Does the Bible teach that there will be a Eurasian union? If some type of Eurasian union is formed, who might it benefit and who will it destroy? A related video would be Is The Eurasian Union Rising?
Europa, the Beast, and Revelation Where did Europe get its name? What might Europe have to do with the Book of Revelation? What about “the Beast”? Is an emerging European power “the daughter of Babylon”? What is ahead for Europe? Here is a link to a video titled: Can You Prove that the Beast to Come is European?
Who is the King of the West? Why is there no Final End-Time King of the West in Bible Prophecy? Is the United States the King of the West? Here is a version in the Spanish language: ¿Quién es el Rey del Occidente? ¿Por qué no hay un Rey del Occidente en la profecía del tiempo del fin? A related sermon is also available: The Bible, the USA, and the King of the West.
Who is the King of the North? Is there one? Do biblical and Roman Catholic prophecies for the Great Monarch point to the same leader? Should he be followed? Who will be the King of the North discussed in Daniel 11? Is a nuclear attack prophesied to happen to the English-speaking peoples of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand? When do the 1335 days, 1290 days, and 1260 days (the time, times, and half a time) of Daniel 12 begin? When does the Bible show that economic collapse will affect the United States? In the Spanish language check out ¿Quién es el Rey del Norte? Here are links to three related videos: The King of the North is Alive: What to Look Out For. The Future King of the North, and Rise of the Prophesied King of the North.
The Gospel of the Kingdom of God This free online pdf booklet has answers many questions people have about the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and explains why it is the solution to the issues the world is facing. It is available in hundreds of languages at ccog.org. Here are links to four kingdom-related sermons:  The Fantastic Gospel of the Kingdom of God!, The World’s False Gospel, The Gospel of the Kingdom: From the New and Old Testaments, and The Kingdom of God is the Solution
Does God Have a 6,000 Year Plan? What Year Does the 6,000 Years End? Was a 6000 year time allowed for humans to rule followed by a literal thousand year reign of Christ on Earth taught by the early Christians? Does God have 7,000 year plan? What year may the six thousand years of human rule end? When will Jesus return? 2031 or 20xx? There is also a video titled 6000 Years: When will God’s Kingdom Come? Here is a link to the article in Spanish: ¿Tiene Dios un plan de 6,000 años?
The Times of the Gentiles Has there been more than one time of the Gentiles? Are we in it now or in the time of Anglo-America? What will the final time of the Gentiles be like? A related sermon is available and is titled: The Times of the Gentiles.
Lost Tribes and Prophecies: What will happen to Australia, the British Isles, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and the United States of America? Where did those people come from? Can you totally rely on DNA? What about other peoples? Do you really know what will happen to Europe and the English-speaking peoples? What about Africa, Asia, South America, and the Islands? This free online book provides scriptural, scientific, historical references, and commentary to address those matters. Here are links to related sermons: Lost tribes, the Bible, and DNA; Lost tribes, prophecies, and identifications; 11 Tribes, 144,000, and Multitudes; Israel, Jeremiah, Tea Tephi, and British Royalty; Gentile European Beast; Royal Succession, Samaria, and Prophecies; Asia, Islands, Latin America, Africa, and Armageddon;  When Will the End of the Age Come?;  Rise of the Prophesied King of the North; Christian Persecution from the Beast; WWIII and the Coming New World Order; and Woes, WWIV, and the Good News of the Kingdom of God.

COGwriter

A reader sent me a link to the following article related to “another Jesus” that was pushed with commercials at yesterday’s Superbowl;

Two religious ads during the Super Bowl on Sunday. … the “He Gets Us” campaign that spent around $20 million to place the ads. …

Unfortunately, this is not a win for the Christian faith.

The messages being promoted by the group are about diversity, equity, and inclusivity,  …  the Super Bowl, the messages promoted on the biggest commercial stage of the year … show the group’s flawed interpretation of Jesus Christ as nothing more than a good example of kindness.

In other words, the ads will focus on portraying a unifying political, cultural, and religious figure like the Dalai Lama or Gandhi and NOT as the Messiah. The group, which is led by Hobby Lobby and other “conservative” Evangelicals, seems to be trying to coax people into looking into Jesus. But in doing so, they present an inaccurate and at times anti-Biblical version. Their intentions may or may not be good, but the campaign does harm. 02/12/23 https://thelibertydaily.com/he-gets-us-super-bowl-ads-to-depict-social-justice-version-of-jesus/

Many who claim Christianity do not know the real Jesus. The Apostle Paul warned that this type of thing could happen:

2 For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted — you may well put up with it!  (2 Corinthians 11:2-4)

The world is happy with a false version of Jesus–but you should not be!

While Pastor General of the old Radio Church of God, Herbert W. Armstrong published the following in the November 1963 Plain Truth magazine:

By Herbert W. Armstrong

This article was originally published in the Plain Truth magazine in November 1963 by the old Radio Church of God.

God is about to intervene in world affairs and SAVE this world from itself!

Prophecy foretells it. World events show it is coming. Many of you will see it with your own eyes.

God Must Step In

Most people want to scoff at the idea that the Creator has power to intervene in human affairs. Yet man today is swiftly reaching the point where the world’s only hope will be the intervention of God to REDEEM misguided humanity from the horrible result of our wrong ways.

God alone has power to SAVE man from the inevitable result of competition, greed, selfishness, and resulting world war. God alone has made it possible for man to be saved from the results of SIN. “For God so LOVED the world, that he GAVE his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Do we realize what a tremendous sacrifice had to be made to redeem humanity from sin and give us eternal life? God so loved this world of sinning, wretched mortals that He gave His own Son to save us. God is love!

Collectively, man is about to reach the end of his rope. Man will finally come to realize God’s great LOVE when he is supernaturally saved from world suicide. And individually, we need to really understand just

HOW God has made it possible for us to be spared from the penalty of our wrong ways.

The problem of just how God ordained that the penalty of human sin be paid is one that has puzzled theologians for generations. In fact, it was the basis of the first heresies during the very lifetime of the apostles.

How Is It Possible?

The doctrine of Salvation requires clear thinking and a willingness to be corrected and reproved by the Word of God — our only infallible source of information. We must be careful to consider ALL the scriptures on this subject, and realize that one scripture cannot be used to contradict another — for God does not contradict Himself, and as Jesus said, “The scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35).

First of all, we need to understand what is the reward of sin. The penalty for SIN — for going the wrong way — is DEATH. God’s inspired Word says: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

When Jesus took our sins He paid the penalty we have incurred. What was that penalty? Not eternal life in hellfire, but DEATH. “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (I Cor. 15:3).

But if Jesus were only human, His life would pay the death penalty for only. ONE other person. No one human being could save mankind. The full penalty for everyone’s sins must be paid!

Yet God alone could not of Himself pay the penalty of man’s sins. The penalty is the forfeiting of human life — not animal or any other kind of life. And God, as the source of all life and the One who has life within himself, and is a spirit being, cannot die (John 5:26; II Cor. 4:18).   Therefore it was absolutely necessary that there be One — The Messiah — who was both human and divine.

Christ Was Divine

In order to pay the penalty for your sins and mine, it was necessary that Christ be Divine — that His life be worth all our human lives put together.

Man does not have life inherent within himself. He has only a chemical existence which soon ends. As God told Adam after his sin: “For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Gen. 3:19). Then God drove man out of the Garden of Eden “lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” (Verses 22-24). So we see that Adam had no eternal life whatsoever inherent within himself — and God did not permit him to attain it at that time.

The New Testament also dearly proves that man has no eternal life inherent within himself. “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him” (I John 3:15).

God alone has and can give eternal life. “For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself” (John 5:26). Again we read of Christ: “In Him was LIFE; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). Jesus told Martha, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:25). Paul described Christ as the One “Who only bath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto” (I Tim. 6:16).

If Christ were only human, He could have saved but one other human, and given eternal life to none. To do this required God — the life of the Creator.

Christ Is Creator

In John 1:1-2, we read that Christ — the Word or Spokesman — was with God the Father in the beginning. “All things were made by him (Christ)” (verse 3). Paul wrote of Christ: “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth” (Col. 1:16). Christ is also proved to be the One who did the creating in Hebrews 1:8-10. Christ, the Word, the Divine Spokesman, “spake and it was done.”

Therefore Christ’s life is the life of the Creator God. Paul called Him “God our Savior” (Titus 1:3). Yes, in the person of Jesus Christ, the very Creator became our Savior!

Christ is our Maker and a member of the Godhead — the God Family. Therefore, His life which He gave for us is of greater value than the total of all human beings.

In Hebrews 7:1-4, we find a description of One who “was made like unto the Son of God” and now “abideth a priest continually” (verse 3). The entire book of Hebrews reveals the present office of Christ as our High Priest. This description can fit none other than the One who came in the flesh as Jesus the Christ.

He is described as being, “Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life” (verse 3). Hence, we see that He was not the “Son” of God until He was born of the virgin Mary.

Then Jesus, the One through whom the Father had created the heavens and the earth, was translated into flesh and born of a human virgin. Matthew writes that Mary “was found with child of the Holy Spirit” (Mat. 1:18).   An angel spoke to Joseph telling him the child was conceived of the Holy Spirit and commanding him: “Thou shalt call his name Jesus (meaning Savior): for he shall save his people from their sins” (verse 21).

The narrative continues: “Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (verse 23).

Here we see that even Jesus Christ’s name revealed Him both as Savior, and God with us — a divine being with us, in the flesh — to SAVE us from our sins.

Only His life — that of the Creator — could pay the full penalty of sin for all mankind.

Jesus Was Also Human

In order to pay the penalty of human sin, it was not enough that Jesus was Divine. He must also have been human.

The Bible definition of sin is this: “Sin is the transgression of the law” (I John 3:4). God’s spiritual law was given to man — not the plants, nor the lower animals. The Ten Commandments govern the relationship between men, and between man and God. The transgression of this law constitutes sin. And the wages, or reward, of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). God exacts the forfeiture of human life as the penalty for sin.

“For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Heb. 10:4).

It required HUMAN BLOOD!

Christ, then, must have been human in order to pay this penalty.

Paul explains in I Cot. 15:21-22: “For since by man (Adam) came death, by man (Christ) came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” Since eternal LIFE is made possible only by MAN’S resurrection — and the resurrection to eternal life is made possible for all men only by the resurrection of the ONE MAN — CHRIST — and since He was resurrected from the dead — therefore the DEATH of the ONE MAN, Jesus Christ, was necessary to pay MAN’S penalty.

Adam, the father of the human race, introduced sin into the world. And all of us have succumbed to it. It is the human race that is under the death penalty for sin — and that penalty must be paid — BY HUMAN LIFE!

So since only God has power to save and give life — and since only man can pay the penalty of sin — the only possible way to save mankind was for Yahweh — the “Lord” or “Eternal” of the Old Testament, the One who executed the creation for God the Father — to come in the flesh as a HUMAN — GOD become MAN — and die for the sins of the world.

Only thus could the penalty of all human sin be paid by one man as Savior of the world. That life was the life of our MAKER, become HUMAN, for the very purpose of death — a life greater than the sum-total of all human lives! MARVELOUS MYSTERY!

Jesus Had HUMAN Nature

God came in the flesh as Jesus Christ, lived without sin, and thus was able to die and pay the full penalty of sin in our stead.

The Apostle Paul was inspired to write: “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To REDEEM them that were under the law,… that we might receive the sonship” (Gal. 4:4-5).

Jesus Christ was made of a woman — born of the Virgin Mary. He was made “under the law” — His very purpose in coming in the human flesh was to take our sins upon Himself, which would put Him “under the law” — under its penalty, death. He did this to redeem all humanity which is “under the law” — under the penalty of DEATH. Jesus was GOD made mortal human flesh, “for the suffering of death” (Heb. 2:9) — FOR THAT VERY PURPOSE!

So Jesus took human nature upon Himself and was made subject to death in order to be our Savior. “He also likewise (as the children are partakers of flesh and blood) took part of the same” — took on HUMAN NATURE — became flesh and blood — “that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14).

Jesus was really DEAD during the three days and nights His body was in the grave. He who had been one of the personalities in God — was changed into flesh so He could DIE for our sins.

Paul explains that Christ: “Being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be EQUAL with God: But made himself of no reputation” — EMPTIED Himself of His divine glory and power — “and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the LIKENESS of men… and became obedient unto DEATH” (Philip. 2:6-8).

When Christ was in the human flesh, He said: “I can of mine own self do NOTHING: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (John 5:30). Jesus had emptied Himself of His divine glory and power. He plainly said he could of Himself — in His own human strength — do NOTHING.

In John 14:12, Jesus said: “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” Here we see that any outside help and power that Jesus had — coming from God the Father — we may also have, and may accomplish greater works through the power of the Holy Spirit which He went to heaven to send.

In living a perfect life, in doing great miracles, Jesus did NOT have any special help from God the Father that we cannot also have.

Christ, one of the beings in the Godhead, had now been changed into flesh — still having the personality and will to do right which distinguished Him as an entity — yet now had become human, having HUMAN NATURE with all of its desires, weaknesses and lusts — and subject to death just like any other human.

This is a truth about which millions are DECEIVED!

Doctrine of Anti-Christ

The Satan-inspired doctrine that Jesus was not human, that He did not inherit the human nature of Adam, that He did not have all the normal human passions and weaknesses against which all of us have to struggle — in a word, that Jesus did not really come “in the flesh” as a normal human being — this is the doctrine of the Anti-Christ. Notice Romans 8:3: “God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.”

“Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is NOT of God: and this is that spirit of Anti-Christ, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even NOW already is it in the world” (I John 4:3).

Millions are being taught, in one form or another, this deception of Satan the Devil! Some believe that Jesus had a “special” kind of blood in His veins — not containing human nature with all its weaknesses. Then there is the belief that denies the fact that Jesus inherited human nature from His mother, Mary. This theory thwarts the meaning of the many scriptures showing that Christ Jesus came as the son of man — inheriting His human nature from a normal, human mother.

Yes, as the scriptures clearly state, this Satan-inspired doctrine of Anti-Christ is “even NOW” in the world — and some honest and sincere people are being deceived by it.

Doctrine Explained

Now, listen! The underlying PURPOSE of Satan — the Adversary — in formulating the doctrine of Anti-Christ is this: It is an attempt to deny the fact that a normal man — with HUMAN NATURE — could, with the help of God’s Holy Spirit which is now accessible to every man (Acts 10:34-45), live in perfect obedience to the LAW OF GOD as Jesus Christ did. Again notice WHY Christ came in the likeness of sinful flesh: “… and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” WHY — “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled IN US, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:3-4).

The idea Satan is trying to put across is that it is impossible for man to keep the spiritual law of God, and so Jesus came as our Savior — not “in the flesh” with normal human nature — but through some “special process” so that He could keep the law of God in our stead! And therefore we don’t have to keep the Spiritual Law. What Christ did in our stead was to die for us! But His obedience was our EXAMPLE!

Those who believe this doctrine seem to forget that Jesus obeyed God in every way, “Leaving us an EXAMPLE, that ye should follow his steps” (I Peter 2:21-22), that Jesus taught, “IF thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments” (Mat. 19:17), and that He said of all mankind: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God” (Luke 4:4). We are not only to keep the letter of the law, but to follow it as it is magnified throughout the Bible in “every word of God.”

As Jesus explained throughout Matthew 5, we are to DO and TEACH even the least of the commandments (verse 19), and should go far beyond the scribes and Pharisees by obeying even the spirit, and intent, of God’s great law of love as summed up in the Ten Commandments.

Satan the Devil, through His false ministers who appear as “ministers of righteousness” (II Cor. 11:13-15), is trying to deceive the world into believing in a FALSE CHRIST — a Christ who did away with the Father’s spiritual law and made it possible for us to inherit eternal life without having to build, with the help of God’s Spirit, the kind of holy, righteous CHARACTER which would enable us to obey God’s eternal, spiritual LAW both now and forever.

Truth Made Clear

Now that we understand the real motive behind the doctrine of Anti-Christ, let us consider a few final scriptures which will clear up the truth of this matter once and for all time.

In James 1:13-14, we read:

“Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for GOD CANNOT BE TEMPTED WITH EVIL, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.”

How plain! How abundantly clear! Not having human nature with its passions and lusts, God CANNOT be tempted with evil. And on the contrary, every man is tempted by his own lust — because every man does have human nature.

Now turn to Hebrews 2:17-18. Here God shows that Christ is qualified to be a merciful and faithful high priest —

“For in that he himself bath suffered being TEMPTED, he is able to succor them that are tempted.”

Again, in Hebrews 4:15 we read:

“For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but WAS IN ALL POINTS TEMPTED like as we are, yet without sin.”

Could anything be more CLEAR?

God CANNOT be tempted. Yet Jesus Christ WAS tempted in all points like we are. He was HUMAN. He was tempted through the lusts of His HUMAN NATURE.

He said:

“I can of mine own self do NOTHING” (John 5:30).

In the days of fleshly weakness, He cried out to God who was able to save Him from death (Heb. 5:7).

In spite of having human nature just as we do, with all of its passions and weaknesses, of being “tempted in all points like as we are,” He was “yet WITHOUT SIN.”

He willingly suffered every human trial, privation, and persecution, “Leaving us an EXAMPLE, that ye should follow his steps: Who DID NO SIN, neither was guile found in his mouth” (I Pet. 2:21-22).

Jesus Kept Commandments

Though having human nature, Jesus did not sin! And what is the Bible definition — God’s definition — of sin?

“Sin is the transgression of THE LAW” (I John 3:4).

Then Jesus, though having human nature, obeyed God’s LAW. He said, “I have kept my Father’s commandments” (John 15:10). He instructed: “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the COMMANDMENTS” (Mat. 19:17).

So it is not only possible — but obligatory — that we obey God’s spiritual law, the Ten Commandments, as they are magnified throughout the Bible. Keeping them in the spirit does NOT mean “spiritualizing” them away, but really obeying them as Jesus set us the example, thru the power of God’s Holy Spirit, which He gives to them that OBEY Him! (Acts 5:32)

By clearly twisting, distorting, and misapplying scattered scriptures, Satan — operating through his false ministers preaching the doctrine of Anti-Christians been able to deceive nearly all of professing Christianity on this subject.

Peter knew that men would especially try to twist and pervert the writings of Paul in regard to the law of God. He was inspired to write that Paul’s epistles contained “some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (II Peter 3:16).   God does not contradict himself, and literally hundreds of plain, clear scriptures teach us to OBEY the commandments of God, the holy, spiritual LAW of God. And your Bible clearly reveals that Jesus — born into the human flesh and having human nature even as you and I — kept His Father’s commandments and set us a perfect example.

Exercising Character

The … difference between Jesus and any other human is that He was conceived of the Holy Spirit. Therefore He obeyed God’s laws from birth — and never had to go through the process of repenting of going the wrong way, of unlearning wrong ideas and habits, and of gradually learning to exercise His will to do right continually.

He, who had been God, was now changed into human flesh with all its weaknesses and lusts. Nevertheless, He retained in His personality the determination, the WILL to obey God always.

The temptation to do wrong, the idea of sinning entered Jesus’ mind. Yes, it DID occur to Him to disobey God. He WAS tempted in all points like we are!

But from birth, Jesus would always reject these wrong ideas, these temptations. He said, “Get behind me, Satan!” He WILLED to do right. He went to God the Father for POWER to do always right. And, praying for the strength He needed through the Holy Spirit, He always did right.

But it WASN’T easy! Jesus had exactly the same day-to-day battle with sin that we do.

Jesus needed outside help sorely. And He knew where to get that help. “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there PRAYED” (Mark 1:35). When He needed strength to go through the terrible ordeal of the crucifixion,

“Being in an agony he prayed more EARNESTLY: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44).

Perhaps now we can better understand Paul’s inspired statement in Romans 8:3:

“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of SINFUL flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.”

Yes, Jesus had sinful flesh — human nature. But by exercising the WILL to always obey God, and by receiving the extra help He needed to master His fleshly desires, Jesus repudiated the sway of sin in the human flesh and showed that the law of God could be kept.

Right here let us understand the scriptures which show that Jesus was worshipped while He was yet in the human flesh. In Matthew 2:11; 8:2 and seven other places in the gospels, we find accounts of how men worshipped Jesus.

Yet we know that the Bible forbids us to worship another man.

To understand this, we must realize that in Jesus

“God was manifested in the flesh” (I Tim. 3:16).

Men were permitted to worship Jesus because He was the personality and perfect will of one who was God — and He exercised the character of God. They were not worshipping Jesus as just another man, but as the holy, righteous, perfect character of God manifested in the flesh.   He was God — in the human flesh!

God’s Great Purpose

And so by exercising the WILL to obey God, Jesus “condemned sin in the flesh” for what purpose?

Here is the real ANSWER to why God had to come in the human flesh! Here is the real PURPOSE for the great SACRIFICE Christ made in emptying Himself of His divine glory and power, and coming to strive with sin in the flesh and finally DIE the ignominious death of the cross!

The answer is given in the very next verse of Romans 8. Christ came to condemn sin in the flesh —

“That the righteousness of the LAW might be fulfilled in us, who walk NOT after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (verse 4).

Christ came in the flesh to set us a perfect example, then to DIE in payment for our sins and make it possible for us to be reconciled to a holy, righteous God and receive of His Spirit — His very life and character implanted within us.

Then He was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven, having now qualified through human experience to be our merciful and faithful high priest — now to guide us and strengthen us through the Holy Spirit so that we, too, can learn to OBEY God’s laws perfectly, can WILL to do right always, can develop the holy, spiritual CHARACTER of God — and finally be found worthy to inherit eternal life as the born sons of Almighty God.

How great is God’s love in coming into the human flesh to save us and make us His own!

How wonderful is His plan when we really understand it!

More about Jesus can also be found in our free book, online at ccog.org, Proof Jesus is the Messiah.

Some items of related interest may include:

Proof Jesus is the Messiah This free book has over 200 Hebrew prophecies were fulfilled by Jesus. Plus, His arrival was consistent with specific prophecies and even Jewish interpretations of prophecy. Here are links to seven related sermons: Proof Jesus is the Messiah, Prophecies of Jesus’ birth, timing, and death, Jesus’ prophesied divinity, 200+ OT prophecies Jesus filled; Plus prophecies He made, Why Don’t Jews Accept Jesus?, Daniel 9, Jews, and Jesus, and Facts and Atheists’ Delusions About Jesus. Plus the links to two sermonettes: Luke’s census: Any historical evidence? and Muslims believe Jesus is the Messiah, but … These videos cover nearly all of the book, plus have some information not in the book. We also have the book translated in the Spanish PRUEBA de que JESÚS es el MESÍAS and French PREUVES QUE JÉSUS EST LE MESSIE languages.
Is God Calling You? This booklet discusses topics including calling, election, and selection. If God is calling you, how will you respond? Here is are links to related sermons: Christian Election: Is God Calling YOU? and Predestination and Your Selection. A short animation is also available: Is God Calling You?
Binitarian View: One God, Two Beings Before the Beginning Is binitarianism the correct position? What about unitarianism or trinitarianism?
Is The Father God? What is the view of the Bible? What was the view of the early church?
Jesus: The Son of God and Saviour Who was Jesus? Why did He come to earth? What message did He bring? Is there evidence outside the Bible that He existed? Here is a YouTube sermon titled Jesus: Son of God and Saviour.
Jesus is God, But Became Flesh Was Jesus fully human and fully God or what? Here is information in the Spanish language¿Es Jesucristo Dios?.
Virgin Birth: Does the Bible Teach It? What does the Bible teach? What is claimed in The Da Vinci Code?
Why Does Jesus Have Two Different Genealogies listed in Matthew 1 and Luke 3? Matthew 1:1-16 and Luke 3:23-38 seemingly list two different genealogies for Jesus. Why? Here is a version in the Spanish language: ¿Por qué Jesús tiene dos genealogías diferentes las cuales aparecen en Mateo 1 y Lucas 3?
Did Early Christians Think the Holy Spirit Was A Separate Person in a Trinity? Or did they have a different view? A related sermon is available: Truth about the Holy Spirit: What THEY do not want you to know!
Did the True Church Ever Teach a Trinity? Most act like this is so, but is it? Here is an old, by somewhat related, article in the Spanish language LA DOCTRINA DE LA TRINIDAD. Two related sermons are available: Trinity: Fundamental to Christianity or Something Else? and The Godhead and the Trinity. A brief video is also available: Three trinitarian scriptures?
Was Unitarianism the Teaching of the Bible or Early Church? Many, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, claim it was, but was it? Here is a link to a related sermon: Unitarianism? How is God One?
Did the Archangel Michael become Jesus? The Jehovah’s Witnesses teach this, and SDA Ellen White did, but does the Bible allow for this? Here is a link to a related video message: Is Jesus the Archangel Michael? Here is a related article in the Spanish language: ¿Se convirtió el Arcángel Miguel en Jesús?
How Many Creators? Did the ancient Mayans know the truth about the Godhead at creation?
Binitarianism: One God, Two Beings Before the Beginning This is a longer article than the Binitarian View article, and has a little more information on binitarianism, and less about unitarianism. A related sermon is also available: Binitarian view of the Godhead.

COGwriter

The UK Guardian has the following on the British exist from the European Union, commonly called Brexit:

‘Disaster’ is right: Brexit is a self-inflicted wound that cuts dangerously deep

12 February 2023

Business leaders, initially reluctant to criticise the Tory decision to quit the EU, have begun to find their voice. Most recently, leading City figure Guy Hands called Brexit a “complete disaster” and a “bunch of total lies” that has harmed large parts of the economy.

Maybe, given the mounting evidence, it is unsurprising that business leaders, ministers and the shadow Labour team are meeting in secret to discuss how they can turn the situation around. …

The shortage of workers in the UK is cited by the central bank as the main reason for rising wages and the potential for inflation to stay high for longer than it would otherwise.

This threat of a long inflationary period is the main justification for interest-rate increases – and high interest rates are one of the main reasons the UK is likely to experience a recession this year.

Investment should make the workplace more productive, making firms more profitable and bigger, better taxpayers. Brexit has chased away many of the big foreign firms that once used the UK as a base inside the single market and discouraged domestic firms from expanding EU trade. As self-inflicted disasters go, it ranks as one of the worst in modern economic history. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/12/disaster-is-right-brexit-is-a-self-inflicted-wound-that-cuts-dangerously-deep

The Guardian was always against Brexit, so this is not a surprise. There are several reasons for the economic situation in the UK, and Brexit is only one of them. A worse “disaster” will come to the UK than a recession.

That said, the situation in Northern Ireland is still precarious and has not been properly resolved.

Furthermore, it has long been the position of various ones in the European Union that the UK should be punished for Brexit as the BBC’s Kevin Connolly reported back in April 2017 (see EU states that UK must pay a price for Brexit and be worse off than EU member states):

The 27 EU Remainer states are adamant that Britain will pay a price for leaving and will be worse off outside than the union than it is on the inside.

The EU does not want other nations thinking that they can, should, or might leave.

The EU wants the UK to interpret the Brexit agreements its way (see, for example, ‘EU says Britain must respect Brexit deal down to the letter’) and EU taking legal steps as UK pushing to scrap Northern Ireland protocol). The EU has increased bureaucracy, and the UK is looking to do the same.

Massive damage of the “trust” between the UK and EU has occurred.

The EU wants to dominate world trade. It also wants the world to adopt its standards, and that includes the UK. That is part of why it has not conceded on certain trade points (plus, it wants to be seen as punishing the UK as it wants to discourage other nations from leaving the EU).

Ultimately Brexit will result in a deadly disaster for the UK, beyond economic matters.

Prophetically, that is not unexpected.

Since last century, Church of God (COG) writers have long taught that the UK would not be part of the final Beast power that will arise in Europe. Notice some statements put out by the writers once part of the old Radio Church of God, old Worldwide Church of God, and/or the current Continuing Church of God years before the Brexit vote:

Here is Britain trying to GET IN on this uniting of Europe! … It is this same daughter of ancient Babylon who is to lay the YOKE of captivity and slavery on America and Britain. …

Britain is allowing itself to get mixed in with European foreigners … When God brings Britain DOWN-the time of JACOBS’ S TROUBLE -the only time when the DAUGHTER of Babylon will be sitting astride a united MILITARY EUROPE. … in prophecy, the NAME Jacob or the name Israel, often refers to the two great nations descended from Ephraim and Manasseh. These are Great Britain and the United States. (Armstrong HW. BRITAIN’S DOOM Prophesied for Common Market Seeking Membership! Plain Truth, July 1962)

The soon-coming resurrected “Holy Roman Empire” – a sort of soon-coming “United States of Europe” – a union of ten nations to rise up out of or following the Common Market of today. Britain will NOT be in that empire soon to come. (Armstrong HW. Incredible Human Potential, Chapter 1. Everest House, 1978)

Perhaps it should be mentioned that the general position within the Churches of God is that Britain will not remain in the EU and will pull out at some point. (Thiel B. Tony Blair a Catholic EU Leader? Church of God News, June 26, 2007. http://www.cogwriter.com/news/prophecy/tony-blair-a-catholic-eu-leader/)

It should be understood that ultimately, Britain will NOT thrive as part of the EU but will be taken over by the final European Beast power–yet its former Prime Minister is promoting something that will not help the peoples of the UK. (Thiel B. Tony Blair Calls for a Strong, Elected, EU President Church of God News, June 9, 2007. http://www.cogwriter.com/news/prophecy/tony-blair-calls-for-a-strong-elected-eu-president/)

Ephraim (modern Great Britain) will not be part of the “Beast” power, so we can expect some significant change that will push the British out of the EU. (Davis. D. Ireland says “No!” to EU power grab. Commentary, July, 1 2008)

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland will not be an equal part of the European Union. Britain will either pull out or be forced out or at least truly lose its sovereignty. Many of the Anglo-peoples of the UK, USA, etc. that are not killed will to be scattered and many will be made slaves (Will the Anglo-Nations be Divided and Have People Taken as Slaves?). That is what the Bible shows will happen during the Great Tribulation.

As far as this “Beast King” goes, he could possibly be the next EU president, but a restructure ultimately will be needed in Europe for the King of the North to have the type of power that the Bible indicate he will have (Revelation 17:12-13). The EU is not ready for that yet.

However, Tony Blair’s statements today are pointing to one more step towards certain biblical prophesies being fulfilled as he is realizing that the UK wants to pull out of the UK–and that is something will happen (directly or indirectly).

The final King of the North (Daniel 11:27-40) will take over the UK, USA, and their Anglo-allies according to Bible prophecy (cf. Daniel 11:39). While more people in the UK are starting to realize that the EU poses dangers to it, most have no idea how dangerous the rising Beast power in Europe will become (cf. Revelation 13:1-4; Daniel 11:39). Britain will ultimately NOT thrive as part of the EU but will be taken over by the final European Beast power. (Thiel B. Tony Blair ‘Deeply Worried’ that UK May Leave EU. Church of God News, August 18, 2012)

Notice also the following:

EU … Britain … if she does enter the European Economic Community (EEC), will she remain in this union? … Bible prophecy clearly shows that Britain will not be one of the … NATIONS comprising the final United States of Europe (McNair R. A Strong United Europe. Tomorrow’s World, February 1970, p. 17).

Back in the early 1990s, when I was vice president of an irrigation equipment manufacturer and the EU was still called the European Economic Community, I told our British sales representative, who was visiting the factory in California, that one day the UK would separate from Europe. He flat out told me that could not possibly happen. And he gave his reasons, but they were not biblical ones–I told him he was in error. The departure of the UK from the EU shows that those of us who understood biblical prophecies were correct on this.

Many critics have claimed that there is no truth to the COG position that the Anglo-Americans (see our free online book: Lost Tribes and Prophecies: What will happen to Australia, the British Isles, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and the United States of America?) are descended from Israel’s son Joseph (through his sons Ephraim and Manasseh).

Yet, it is because of our understanding of that, COG writers have long taught that the UK would not be part of the final Beast power. Essentially, COG writers predicted Brexit decades before the Brexit vote, including myself about 30 years ago and Raymond McNair over 50 years ago.

Notice something posted here the end of 2021;

What about Europe?

The EU will have ups and downs.

It will have financial strains because of Brexit.

Yet, it will build its military. (Thiel B. ‘One year on, what’s next for Brexit?’ COGwriter, December 31, 2021)

And Europe is now in the process of spending a lot of money to build its military (e.g. watch Is the European Beast Growing Horns?).

Additionally, after all four horsemen of the Apocalypse begin their rides, those will help trigger a financial crisis and civil unrest. Then, the Bible shows that Europe will reorganize and lose all pretenses of being democratic:

12 “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. 13 These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. 14 These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.” (Revelation 17:12-14)

Notice that Europe will fight against true Christians, but that Jesus will have Europe defeated.

Jesus will return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Revelation 19:16) and establish the millennial Kingdom of God.

Here is a list of some things that the Bible shows will happen (several of which are already in progress):

• Europe will end up with a great army (Daniel 11:25).
• Europe will end up with many ships (Daniel 11:40).
• Europe will have problems with unity (Daniel 2:41-43).
• Europe will reorganize (Revelation 17:12-13).
• Europe will become a successful warring power (Revelation 13:4; Daniel 11:39-43) and conquer the UK (Daniel 8:24-25; cf. Isaiah 17:3).
• The UK will regret Brexit (cf. Hosea 8:8-9).
• But Jesus will have the European Beast power defeated (Daniel 2:44; Revelation 17:14).
• Jesus will return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Revelation 17:14, 19:16-20) and establish the Kingdom of God.

Brexit will not end well for the UK nor ultimately Europe.

The Continuing Church of God (CCOG) put together the following video for our Bible News Prophecy program:

18:31

Brexit Happened: Now What?

At 11:00 pm January 31, 2020, the United Kingdom formally left the European Union. Many celebrated, while many mourned. Nigel Farage stated, “This is the greatest moment in modern British history.” What will happen to the United Kingdom? Will the UK be involved in trade deals with the United States of America and the Europeans? Will the UK regret the BRitish Exit (Brexit) from the EU?What will happen with the European Union? Is Europe prophesied to have a great army and many ships? Does the Bible prophesy a reorganization of Europe? Does it prophesy that the Europeans will become a conquering military power? Is the United Kingdom prophesied to be conquered? How does the Bible name the British-descended peoples? Was the British Empire the largest in world history? Was Brexit predicted by Church of God leaders in 1970 and the early 1990s? Will the European Union be negatively affected financially by the departure of the UK? Will this turn out well for the UK or the Europeans? Dr. Thiel addresses these issues and more in this video.

Here is a link to our video: Brexit Happened: Now What?

Some items of possibly related interest may include:

Post Brexit Prophecy On June 23, 2016, the voters of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) chose to leave the European Union. Now with this BRitish EXIT (Brexit) vote, what is prophesied to happen to the UK? Will the UK do well or be taken over and made slaves? Dr. Thiel explains from biblical prophecies what is ahead for the UK, Europe, and even the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. This is a video.
Why Prophecy? Why is so much of the Bible devoted to prophecy? Some question or downplay the role of prophecy. This article gives some of the biblical reasons why prophecy should be important to Christians. Here is a link to a related video: Christians, Why Prophecy?
Germany’s Assyrian Roots Throughout History Are the Germanic peoples descended from Asshur of the Bible? Have there been real Christians in Germanic history? What about the “Holy Roman Empire”? There is also a You-Tube video sermon on this titled Germany’s Biblical Origins.
Germany in Biblical and Catholic Prophecy Does Assyria in the Bible equate to an end time power inhabiting the area of the old Roman Empire? What does prophecy say Germany will do and what does it say will happen to most of the German people? Here is a version of the article in the Spanish language: Alemania en la profecía bíblic. Here are links to two English language sermon videos Germany in Bible Prophecy and The Rise of the Germanic Beast Power of Prophecy.
Trade Disputes: CCOG Warnings Are Coming to Pass Trade tensions and talks of trade wars have escalated. US President Donald Trump has put Europe, China, Mexico, and other lands on notice that he wants to change how international trade with the USA has been going. Tariffs, retaliatory tariffs, and even more tariffs are being implemented. Is this all just happenstance? Are we yet in a trade war? What will Europe do? Has the Church of God been warning about trade disputes and a coming trade war for decades? What about the Continuing Church of God (CCOG)? What has been warned, what has been happening, and what will happen? Will trade disputes be a factor in World War III (WW3)? Dr. Thiel explains what has been taught and what to expect.
Trade Wars: Are COG warnings coming to pass? Trade issues, tariffs, and talk of trade wars are in the news. Can trade wars lead to World War III like they did to World War II? Are the events going on with the USA, UK, Asia, and Europe consistent with warnings published by the true Church of God (COG) over the past several years and decades? Do Germany and China hope to take advantage of trade frictions involving the Trump Administration and the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement? What about Mexico and South America? Does the Bible teach that Europe
Lost Tribes and Prophecies: What will happen to Australia, the British Isles, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and the United States of America? Where did those people come from? Can you totally rely on DNA? What about other peoples? Do you really know what will happen to Europe and the English-speaking peoples? What about Africa, Asia, South America, and the Islands? This free online book provides scriptural, scientific, historical references, and commentary to address those matters. Here are links to related sermons: Lost tribes, the Bible, and DNA; Lost tribes, prophecies, and identifications; 11 Tribes, 144,000, and Multitudes; Israel, Jeremiah, Tea Tephi, and British Royalty; Gentile European Beast; Royal Succession, Samaria, and Prophecies; Asia, Islands, Latin America, Africa, and Armageddon;  When Will the End of the Age Come?;  Rise of the Prophesied King of the North; Christian Persecution from the Beast; WWIII and the Coming New World Order; and Woes, WWIV, and the Good News of the Kingdom of God.will become a major trading power? Will the final European Babylonian trading power be destroyed? Dr. Thiel addresses these issues and more in this video.
Anglo – America in Prophecy & the Lost Tribes of Israel Are the Americans, Canadians, English, Scottish, Welsh, Australians, Anglo-Saxon (non-Dutch) Southern Africans, and New Zealanders descendants of Joseph? Where are the lost ten-tribes of Israel? Who are the lost tribes of Israel? What will happen to Jerusalem and the Jews in Israel? Will God punish the U.S.A., Canada, United Kingdom, and other Anglo-Saxon nations? Why might God allow them to be punished first? Here is a link to the Spanish version of this article: Anglo-América & las Tribus Perdidas de Israel. Information is also in the YouTube sermons titled Where are the Ten Lost Tribes? Why does it matter? and British are the Covenant People. A short YouTube of prophetic interest may be: Are Chinese threats against Australia for real?
Will the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic Nations be Divided and Have People Taken as Slaves? Will the lands of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand be divided? What about Jerusalem? What does Bible prophecy teach? Are there non-biblical prophecies that support this idea? Who will divide those lands? Who will end up with the lands and the people? Here is a link to a video titled Will the USA and other Anglo-nations be Divided and Their People Made Slaves? Here is a related item in the Spanish language ¿Serán divididas las naciones anglosajonas?
British are the Covenant People What do ‘British’ and ‘Britain’ mean in Hebrew? Are the descendants of the Anglo-Saxons people of the covenant? Does the British royal family connect to the throne of David? What does the Bible teach? What does history show us? Is there any DNA evidence related to British-Israelism? When did Christianity make it to the British Isles? Could Jeremiah have made it to the British Isles? What type of Christians made it to the British Isles? Did the last King of England believe in British Israelism?
Canada in Prophecy: What Does Bible Prophecy, Catholic Prophecy, and other Predictions Suggest About the Future of Canada? There are prophecies that suggest involvement with Canada. And many are not positive about its future. A sermon of related interest is also available: Canada in Prophecy.
Australia and New Zealand in Prophecy Do biblical prophecies help explain the wealth blessings for Australia and New Zealand? Might cursings from disobedience come in the 21st century? Here is a link to a related sermon: Australia and New Zealand: Origins and Prophecy.
Who is the King of the West? Why is there no Final End-Time King of the West in Bible Prophecy? Is the United States the King of the West? Here is a version in the Spanish language: ¿Quién es el Rey del Occidente? ¿Por qué no hay un Rey del Occidente en la profecía del tiempo del fin? A related sermon is also available: The Bible, the USA, and the King of the West.
World War III: Steps in Progress Are there surprising actions going on now that are leading to WWIII? Might a nuclear attack be expected? Does the Bible promise protection to all or only some Christians? How can you be part of those that will be protected? A related video would be Is World War III About to Begin? Can You Escape?
Who is the King of the North? Is there one? Do biblical and Roman Catholic prophecies for the Great Monarch point to the same leader? Should he be followed? Who will be the King of the North discussed in Daniel 11? Is a nuclear attack prophesied to happen to the English-speaking peoples of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand? When do the 1335 days, 1290 days, and 1260 days (the time, times, and half a time) of Daniel 12 begin? When does the Bible show that economic collapse will affect the United States? In the Spanish language check out ¿Quién es el Rey del Norte? Here are links to two related videos: The King of the North is Alive: What to Look Out For and The Future King of the North.
The Great Monarch: Biblical and Catholic Prophecies Is the ‘Great Monarch’ of Catholic prophecies endorsed or condemned by the Bible? Two sermons of related interest are also available: Great Monarch: Messiah or False Christ? and Great Monarch in 50+ Beast Prophecies.
Does God Have a 6,000 Year Plan? What Year Does the 6,000 Years End? Was a 6000 year time allowed for humans to rule followed by a literal thousand year reign of Christ on Earth taught by the early Christians? Does God have 7,000 year plan? What year may the six thousand years of human rule end? When will Jesus return? 2031 or 20xx? There is also a video titled 6000 Years: When will God’s Kingdom Come? Here is a link to the article in Spanish: ¿Tiene Dios un plan de 6,000 años?
Might the U.S.A. Be Gone by 2028? Could the USA be gone by the end of 2028 or earlier? There is a tradition attributed to the Hebrew prophet Elijah that humanity had 6,000 years to live before being replaced by God’s Kingdom. There are scriptures, writings in the Talmud, early Christian teachings that support this. Also, even certain Hindu writings support it. Here is a link to a related video: Is the USA prophesied to be destroyed by 2028? In Spanish: Seran los Estados Unidos Destruidos en el 2028?
When Will the Great Tribulation Begin? 2023, 2024, or 2025? Can the Great Tribulation begin today? What happens before the Great Tribulation in the “beginning of sorrows”? What happens in the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord? Is this the time of the Gentiles? When is the earliest that the Great Tribulation can begin? What is the Day of the Lord? Who are the 144,000? Here is a version of the article in the Spanish language: ¿Puede la Gran Tribulación comenzar en el 2020 o 2021? ¿Es el Tiempo de los Gentiles? A related video is: Great Tribulation: 2026 or 2027? A shorter video is: Can the Great Tribulation start in 2022 or 2023? Notice also: Can Jesus return in 2023 or 2024? Here is a video in the Spanish language: Es El 2021 el año  de La Gran Tribulación o el Grande Reseteo Financiero.
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The ‘Peace Deal’ of Daniel 9:27 This prophecy could give up to 3 1/2 years advance notice of the coming Great Tribulation. Will most ignore or misunderstand its fulfillment? Here is a link to a related sermon video Daniel 9:27 and the Start of the Great Tribulation.
Europa, the Beast, and Revelation Where did Europe get its name? What might Europe have to do with the Book of Revelation? What about “the Beast”? Is an emerging European power “the daughter of Babylon”? What is ahead for Europe? Here is a link to a video titled: Can You Prove that the Beast to Come is European?
European Technology and the Beast of Revelation Will the coming European Beast power would use and develop technology that will result in the taking over of the USA and its Anglo-Saxon allies? Is this possible? What does the Bible teach? Here is a related YouTube video: Military Technology and the Beast of Revelation.
Must the Ten Kings of Revelation 17:12 Rule over Ten Currently Existing Nations? Some claim that these passages refer to a gathering of 10 currently existing nations together, while one group teaches that this is referring to 11 nations getting together. Is that what Revelation 17:12-13 refers to? The ramifications of misunderstanding this are enormous. A related sermon is titled Ten Kings of Revelation and the Great Tribulation.
WTO/TTIP and the Babylonian Beast Will international trade agreements like WTO/TTIP/CETA lead to the fulfillment of end time prophecies concerning the Babylonian Beast power that the Book of Revelation warns against? What does the Bible teach? A related video would be WTO Trade Deal and the Rise of the European Beast Power.
The Gospel of the Kingdom of God This free online pdf booklet has answers many questions people have about the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and explains why it is the solution to the issues the world is facing. Here are links to four related sermons:  The Fantastic Gospel of the Kingdom of God!, The World’s False Gospel, The Gospel of the Kingdom: From the New and Old Testaments, and The Kingdom of God is the Solution.

BRICS header photo https://twitter.com/brics_cci/header_photo

COGwriter

The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries have been considering expansion and are also taking financial steps.

Notice a financial step related to China:

February 12, 2023

China is accelerating its selling of United States Treasury securities and replacing its holdings with more gold.

Since 2008, the communist nation has been one of the largest foreign holders of U.S. Treasuries. It started selling off its U.S. Treasuries slowly in 2018, right around

According to King World News, it is estimated that China has sold off around $310 billion worth of U.S. Treasuries holdings since 2018, with more than half of this – $199 billion – being sold in 2022 alone. https://www.sgtreport.com/2023/02/china-is-replacing-its-us-treasury-holdings-with-gold/

Related to expansion, notice the following:

Following the decision by the BRICS countries to consider new members, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed that “more than a dozen” countries have expressed interest in joining the economic group comprising Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa.

Although the foreign minister did not name the interested countries, it may be noted that Algeria, Argentina, and Iran have applied to join BRICS. They are not the only potential new BRICS members as Afghanistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are also interested in becoming members.

In a further demonstration of growing interest in joining BRICS, the finance ministers of a number of countries – Kazakhstan, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Senegal, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates – attended last year’s BRICS expansion dialogue.

At present, the five members are home to almost 30 per cent of the world’s total land surface and 41 per cent of its population. They contribute 16 per cent to world trade and around 24 per cent to global GDP. …

The five current BRICS members are considering a single common BRICS reserve currency, a potential rival to the US dollar and the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights currency. This could enable BRICS members to expand their influence in the global financial system by offering an alternative global payment system.

For China and Russia in particular, the inclusion of new BRICS members supports their shared ambitions for a multipolar world and de-dollarisation. 02/10/23 https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3209345/brics-expanding-saudi-arabia-indonesia-and-beyond-holds-promise-challenges-remain

Let me add that, despite trying to act nice in his meeting with US President Biden last week, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wants to bypass the USA dollar.

As far as BRICS goes, notice the following which is in my book Lost Tribes and Prophecies: What will happen to Australia, the British Isles, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and the United States of America?:

Those in Iran and some of the Arab lands, along with nations such as Brazil, China, and India have discussed plans for the removal of the dominance of the U.S.A. in global trade as well. The former (again current) President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, even claimed that eliminating the U.S. dollar’s reserve currency status was one of the reasons that the BRICS alliance (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) was formed in the first place. [i] Others have  noted that bypassing the USA dollar is still an object of BRICS—and officially BRICS nations “are currently working on setting up a new global reserve currency,”[ii] which may have gold-backing.[iii] The expansion of BRICS (which is in progress) may ultimately even hurt Australian trade as well as “severely weaken primacy of the US Dollar as an international currency.”[iv]

The Bible clearly warns against cheapening the money supply and encourages having money hold its value (Proverbs 25:4 Isaiah 1:25, Ezekiel 22:18-22). Debt is also warned against (Habakkuk 2:6-8). Yet policies enacted under the Obama, Trump, and Biden Administrations, following certain other administrations, have ignored these warnings.

[i] Escobar P. BRICS was created as a tool of attack: Lula. Asia Times, August 28, 2019

[ii] BRICS developing new global reserve currency – Putin. RT, June 22, 2022

[iii] Helms K. Economists Discuss Russia, China Potentially Developing Gold-Backed Currency. BRICS Information Portal, November 11, 2022

[iv]Hunter M. BRICS Is Becoming The Big Kid On The Block: Implications For Australia – Analysis. Eurasia Review, November 1, 2022

BRICS does face challenges. Notice the following from the Financial Times:

Within the Brics countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, there is a growing clamour to challenge the dollar’s hegemony. Russian leader Vladimir Putin said last June that the Brics were working on developing a new reserve currency based on a basket of currencies for its member countries. Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said in January the issue would be discussed at the Brics summit in South Africa at the end of August. The statement from Russia is probably best interpreted as a gesture of Russian obeisance to China and a desire to undermine the US. But Brazil president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also has expressed vague support for the possibility of common currency for the Brics over time, as his country starts preparatory work on a similar project with neighbour Argentina. Some have suggested Brics could develop something akin to the IMF’s special drawing rights, a reserve currency based on a basket of leading currencies. But SDRs are far more diversified with an underlying basket of around 40 per cent dollar, 30 per cent euro, than any Brics equivalent could expect to be. …

The relative performances are stark. Real GDP per capita at constant prices between 2008-2021 rose 138 per cent for China … The most recent IMF data puts China’s share at 73 per cent (72 per cent if South Africa is wedged in). …

China’s dominance is underlined further by the fact that it is a key trade partner for the commodity exporters, which have industrial cycles that clearly track the ebb and flow of the Chinese credit cycle. And after the attack on Ukraine, China’s financial influence over isolated Russia has risen further. It is obvious but Chinese strategic interests are not especially aligned with those of the other countries.  …

So not only are there practical challenges in a common Brics currency. In seeking one to challenge US hegemony in foreign exchange, the non-Chinese members of countries of the group may just increase their dependence on Beijing. 02/09/23 https://www.ft.com/content/02d6ab99-ea36-41c4-9ad3-9658bb1894a7

Yes, China is the big economic power in BRICS, though India is rising.

Biblically, it should be noted, is that the role for at least a few of the BRICS nations seems to be related to a coming military alliance. Here is something else which is in our free online book Lost Tribes and Prophecies: What will happen to Australia, the British Isles, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and the United States of America?:

Despite some erroneous claims, Russia, itself, is NOT the prophesied “King of the North,” but it is prophetically pointed to as the power of “the far north” (cf. Ezekiel 38:6, 39:1-2).

Going on from first woe comes the second woe:

¹² One woe is past. Behold, still two more woes are coming after these things.

¹³ Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, ¹⁴ saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” ¹⁵ So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. ¹⁶ Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. ¹⁷ And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. ¹⁸ By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed — by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. ¹⁹ For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.

²⁰ But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. ²¹ And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. (Revelation 9:12-21)

Such a massively large army was not possible to put together when Jesus had John pen the Book of Revelation in the 1^st century. In the 21^st century, however, it is possible, and that army would be expected to include Chinese, Indian, Russian, and other Asian peoples.

The European Beast empire will not last, but will fear what is coming.

Notice also the following from the Hebrew scriptures:

² … A people come, great and strong, The like of whom has never been; Nor will there ever be any such after them, Even for many successive generations.

³ A fire devours before them, And behind them a flame burns; The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, And behind them a desolate wilderness; Surely nothing shall escape them. ⁴ Their appearance is like the appearance of horses; And like swift steeds, so they run. ⁵ With a noise like chariots Over mountaintops they leap, Like the noise of a flaming fire that devours the stubble, Like a strong people set in battle array.

⁶ Before them the people writhe in pain; All faces are drained of color. (Joel 2:2-6)

During the second woe, the 200,000,000 man army looks to tie in with Joel 2:2 which discusses some of that army’s expected actions.

Before going further, understand that current projects like China’s Belt and Road Initiative and Europe’s Global Gateway are looking to connect Asia, Europe, and the Middle East in ways that look to be building infrastructure that a 200 million man army would use in order to get to Europe and the Middle East.

Peoples prophetically called Medes are also shown to destroy the final Babylon according to both Isaiah and Jeremiah:

¹ The burden against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw…

¹⁷ “Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them,
Who will not regard silver; And as for gold, they will not delight in it. ¹⁸ Also their bows will dash the young men to pieces, And they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb; Their eye will not spare children. ¹⁹ And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, The beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. (Isaiah 13:1, 17-19)

¹¹ Make the arrows bright! Gather the shields! The Lord has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. For His plan is against Babylon to destroy it, Because it is the vengeance of the Lord, The vengeance for His temple. (Jeremiah 51:11)

The fact that there are multiple kings of the Medes indicates that powers involved in this end time confederation represent multiple governments. This would seem to include Russia, Belarus, and likely Crimea, Donbas, and some others in Ukraine, some in Moldova, some in Iran, etc.

The following passages seem also to apply:

⁸ “Move from the midst of Babylon, Go out of the land of the Chaldeans; And be like the rams before the flocks. ⁹ For behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon An assembly of great nations from the north country, And they shall array themselves against her; From there she shall be captured. Their arrows shall be like those of an expert warrior; None shall return in vain. (Jeremiah 50:8-9)

Those who believe the Bible should leave the midst of end-time Babylon by then. Certainly, the above “north country” includes Russia, but other passages clearly point to others from Asia being involved (Jeremiah 51:27-29).

Notice some of what will happen to the coming European Babylonian Beast power led by a power from the farthest parts of the earth (Russia is the nation that is the farthest east and close to being the farthest north nation):

22 Thus says the Lord: “Behold, a people comes from the north country, And a great nation will be raised from the farthest parts of the earth.

23 They will lay hold on bow and spear; They are cruel and have no mercy; Their voice roars like the sea; And they ride on horses, As men of war set in array against you, O daughter of Zion.”

24 We have heard the report of it; Our hands grow feeble. Anguish has taken hold of us, Pain as of a woman in labor. 25 Do not go out into the field, Nor walk by the way. Because of the sword of the enemy, Fear is on every side. 26 O daughter of my people, Dress in sackcloth And roll about in ashes! Make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; For the plunderer will suddenly come upon us. (Jeremiah 6:22-26)

41 “Behold, a people shall come from the north, And a great nation and many kings Shall be raised up from the ends of the earth. 42 They shall hold the bow and the lance; They are cruel and shall not show mercy. Their voice shall roar like the sea; They shall ride on horses, Set in array, like a man for the battle, Against you, O daughter of Babylon.

43 “The king of Babylon has heard the report about them, And his hands grow feeble; Anguish has taken hold of him, Pangs as of a woman in childbirth.  (Jeremiah 50:41-43)

The “great nation” from the “farthest parts of the earth” includes Russia. There are also nations that will be confederate with it. Those would also include China and other nations in Asia, and particularly in the Far East. The “Daughter of Babylon” Jeremiah referred to is not ancient Babylon, but the end-time European power. The “kings … from the ends of the earth” may also include South Africa, which is a BRICS nation that has also conducted military drills with Russia and China.[i] Some nations in South America may also be involved as they seem to be part of the “ends of the earth.” When the “daughter of Babylon” is in the process of falling, many will abandon supporting it. Jeremiah 50 is part of the second woe.[ii]

[i] Maromo J. SA-China-Russia military exercise … IOL, January 22, 2023

[ii] Lesson 36 – Feast of Trumpets – Why Christ Must Come Again! 58 Lesson Ambassador College Correspondence Course, 1969 revision

Much of the world is moving towards a type of integration that will result in the final time of the Gentiles (Luke 21:24; see also The Times of the Gentiles) and the end of Anglo-American dominance.

While the European Union is not part of Asia, China’s One Belt, One Road Initiative (also called the Silk Road project) it also connects Europe to more locations in Asia–and Europe itself has pledged to make more connections to Asia (see ‘Will the United States and Europe Break Up Over China?’)–and has pledged money to do so (see ‘The European Union has unveiled its €300 billion ($340 billion) alternative to China’s Belt and Road initiative’). Such European involvement may not be so much as an alternative, but intercomplementary as roads normally run in two directions.

Based upon several biblical prophecies, I have long written that the Asians and Europeans will cooperate, for a time, and eliminate the USA and its Anglo-Saxon descended allies. They will divide their lands among them per Daniel 11:39, and many of the survivors will be made slaves (for more details check out the article Will the Anglo-Saxon Nations be Divided and Have People Taken as Slaves?).

It should be added that part of the purpose of the Euro was to bypass the USA dollar for international trade. And, that has happened completely within the Eurzone block in the EU. Plus, the Europeans are also increasing their military spending.

Steps towards pushing away the Anglo-American dominance of the world for the past couple of centuries is happening.

UPDATE 02/22/23: We just uploaded the following related video:

15:09

BRICS and the Woes of Revelation

The BRICS nations consist of Brazil, Russia, China, India, and South Africa. In February of 2023, Russia, China, and South Africa held joint naval drills. In the Fall of 2022, India, Russia, and China held joint military exercises. Brazil also has a military cooperation agreement with Russia. The Book of Revelation uses the term woe three in chapter 8 verse 13–those woes are then discussed in later chapters. Could the BRICS nations, along with the coming Babylonian European Beast power be involved in all three of the woes? Do the BRICS nations want to push aside the USA dollar? Is one of the woes tied to the rise of a 200,000,000 man army? Is there any connection to the second woe and the two witnesses? Do the woes correspond with the last of the seven trumpets in the Book of Revelation? Is one of the woes tied to Armageddon? Does Jesus return with the seventh trumpet? Will nations not be pleased when Jesus returns? Dr. Thiel and Steve Dupuie go over these matters.

Here is a link to our video: BRICS and the Woes of Revelation.

Although BRICS will not dominate the world economically like the coming European Beast power will, the BRICS nations and their decisions will have major impacts on the world.

As Jesus said: “And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!” (Mark 13:37).

Some items of possibly related interest may include:

Lost Tribes and Prophecies: What will happen to Australia, the British Isles, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and the United States of America? Where did those people come from? Can you totally rely on DNA? What about other peoples? Do you really know what will happen to Europe and the English-speaking peoples? What about Africa, Asia, South America, and the Islands? This free online book provides scriptural, scientific, historical references, and commentary to address those matters. Here are links to related sermons: Lost tribes, the Bible, and DNA; Lost tribes, prophecies, and identifications; 11 Tribes, 144,000, and Multitudes; Israel, Jeremiah, Tea Tephi, and British Royalty; Gentile European Beast; Royal Succession, Samaria, and Prophecies; Asia, Islands, Latin America, Africa, and Armageddon;  When Will the End of the Age Come?;  Rise of the Prophesied King of the North; Christian Persecution from the Beast; WWIII and the Coming New World Order; and Woes, WWIV, and the Good News of the Kingdom of God.
The Eurasian Union, the Kings of the East, and Bible Prophecy Is there a Eurasian union that will be formed? Is one being formed right now? Are any leaders working on that in the 21st century? Does the Bible teach that there will be a Eurasian union? If some type of Eurasian union is formed, who might it benefit and who will it destroy? A related video would be Is The Eurasian Union Rising?
Russia and Ukraine: Their Origins and Prophesied Future Russia in prophecy. Where do the Russians come from? What about those in the Ukraine? What is prophesied for Russia and its allies? What will they do to the Europeans that supported the Beast in the end? There is also a video sermon available: Russia in the Bible and in Prophecy and a video sermonette available: Ukraine in Prophecy?
Is Russia the King of the North? Some claim it is. But what does the Bible teach? Here is a link to a video, also titled Is Russia the King of the North?
Ezekiel 38: For Russia & Iran in Our Day? Is Ezekiel 38 about to be fulfilled? A related video is available titled Ezekiel 38: For Russia, Ukraine, & Iran Now? Another could be Russia, Iran, Syria, & the Bible (Code).
Europa, the Beast, and the Book of Revelation discusses the largest church since the second/third century, which in a real sense is the eighth church mentioned in the Book of Revelation (it also endorses “eighth day” worship). What church would support the Beast? Here is a link to a video titled: Europe and the ‘Holy Roman Empire’.
Iran in Prophecy Is Iran in Bible prophecy? If so, what does the Bible teach? What names, other than Persia, may be used to describe Iran? There is also a related YouTube video titled Iran In Prophecy. Armageddon Who is involved and when will this gathering happen? Here is also a video from Dr. Thiel, from Tel Megiddo in Israel: Armageddon. Other videos include: Armageddon Will it come on Trump’s watch?, Iraq, Armageddon, & Prophecy, Freemasonry, Armageddon, and Rome, Is China paving roads to Armageddon?, and Jordan, Petra, and Armageddon.
China, Its Biblical Past and Future, Part 1: Genesis and Chinese Characters Where did the Chinese people come from? Japeth, Javan, Magog? Is there evidence that the Chinese peoples must have known about various accounts in the Book of Genesis up until their dispersion after the Tower of Babel? What do Chinese writings and characters help show? What about the Garden of Eden, Noah’s Flood, and the Tower of Babel? Here is a link to a version of this article in Spanish: ¿Prueban los caracteres chinos la exactitud de la Biblia? A related sermon is also available: China’s biblical past and prophetic actions.
China, Its Biblical Past and Future, Part 2: The Sabbath and Some of God’s Witness in China When did Christianity first come to China? What about the Apostle Thomas? Did Confucius say anything to get the Chinese to possibly consider Christianity? Is there early evidence that they observed the seventh day sabbath? What about the Ten Commandments? What type of Church of God witness has there been to China? What has been happening with China that ties it together with prophecies in Revelation? What about the 200 million man army and Armageddon? What about the Belt and Road Initiative and end time Babylon the Great? A related sermon is also available: China’s biblical past and prophetic actions. Watch also China’s Silk Road and Babylon the Great.
Asia in Prophecy What is Ahead for Asia? Who are the “Kings of the East”? What will happen to nearly all the Chinese, Russians, Indians, and others of Asia? China in prophecy, where? Who has the 200,000,000 man army related to Armageddon? Here is a link to a related sermon: Asia in Prophecy. Two YouTube video are Is China THE Threat to the United States of America? and China: A King of the East.
The Times of the Gentiles Has there been more than one time of the Gentiles? Are we in it now or in the time of Anglo-America? What will the final time of the Gentiles be like? A related sermon is available and is titled: The Times of the Gentiles.
Biden-Harris: Prophecies and Destruction Can the USA survive two full presidential terms? In what ways are Joe Biden and Kamala Harris apocalyptic? This book has hundreds of prophecies and scriptures to provide details. A Kindle version is also available and you do not need an actual Kindle device to read it. Why? Amazon will allow you to download it to almost any device: Please click HERE to download one of Amazon s Free Reader Apps. After you go to your free Kindle reader app (or if you already have one or a Kindle), you can go to: Biden-Harris: Prophecies and Destruction (Kindle) to get the book in seconds.