OUR "STRONG ECONOMY:" A POWDER KEG WAITING TO BLOW

OUR "STRONG ECONOMY:" A POWDER KEG WAITING TO BLOW

By: Devvy
April 2, 2007
© 2007 - NewsWithViews.com

"You know, if you let me write $200 billion worth of hot checks every year, I could give you an illusion of prosperity, too." Senator Lloyd Bensten, presidential debates 1988
The audience laughed and thought Bensten's statement was funny. There's nothing funny about what Bensten said. Fast forward nineteen years and now Congress wants to write $2 TRILLION "dollars" in hot checks. There's no money in the treasury. As I write this column, the people's purse is $8,842,131,926,483.53 in the hole. That's close to nine TRILLION "dollars." Two days ago it was $8,836,852,277,711.67 - a 48-hour increase of over $5 BILLION dollars that doesn't even exist! Those who rely on the nightly "news" ("mainstream and cable) don't have a clue about what's coming and the inescapable fact that all the components are now firmly in place for a complete and total systemic financial breakdown. The financial policies coming out of Washington, DC since LBJ have not only been reckless, unless Americans begin immediately to protect what they have left, the middle class will retire in poverty while trying to keep their heads above bankruptcy along the way.
Michael Panzner is author of a book titled Financial Armageddon, which has a clear message no one wants to hear: "Unable to cope with the harsh new economic environment, growing numbers of Americans will end up on the streets - confused, homeless and hungry. With that, begging will increase to previously unseen levels. So too will a range of other social ills, especially when those who have lost hope seek solace in drugs or alcohol…Even once-model citizens will have little choice but to break the law to take care of themselves and their families." Panzner isn't blowing smoke, he's trying to warn unsuspecting Americans poised to lose everything. While Mr. Bush and his underlings attempt to sell you a bill of goods about how our economy is strong and growing, the reality is a far cry from such lies:
US mortgage crisis forces homeowners to take refuge in their cars (March 24, 2007) "They are victims of the United States' growing mortgage crisis - low-paid workers whose homes have been repossessed amid rising interest rates, a stagnant property market and a lax lending regime."
Is America Headed for a Depression? (March 13, 2007) "Yes, I believe there will be a U.S. economic recession, but the elements are now in place for the first time in 80 years for America to sink into a depression. Should a depression unfold, there will be big name financial houses that will fail."
Derivative Fears Rise -Under The Surface (March 18, 2007) "The current selling on Wall Street is not so much about subprime home loans going bad, but about the sudden realization that bad loans are everywhere and that they are linked through derivative networks. According to Tod Harrison, founder of Mynyanville and who writes a nifty column for Marketwatch.com, the subprime problem "only scratches the surface of the structural risks in the system," as there may be as much as "$370 trillion in outstanding derivative contracts," out there waiting to do something." (You should check out the 'Ugly Charts' section in this column.)
Foreclosure activity rises (3.26.07) "Foreclosure filings jumped 79 percent last month in California, with some of the highest rates in local counties, according to a report released Monday by RealtyTrac."
Next Domino To Fall - The Hedge Funds (3.27.07) "WASHINGTON DC -- "There are two deadly financial scandals that will break or which are in the process of breaking. One is the so-called "sub prime mortgage" swindle and the other is the coming collapse of the hedge funds."
Crisis looms for entire economy (March 20, 2007). Congress must focus on rising mortgage defaults to prevent a slip in confidence leading to collapse By Peter Morris, chairman of the PRM Realty Group, with offices in New York and Chicago. March 20, 2007
"If Washington doesn't address the rapidly building multi-trillion-dollar crisis in residential mortgage defaults, its paralysis will help trigger a national economic recession that could touch every homeowner. The crisis has been building for months - if not years. Experts agree it is a result of banks and other lenders' granting home loans to people who were not truly able to afford the payments. Now, with the national economy in a slide, the number of mortgage defaults is rising at an alarming rate."
Congress address this monster? The so-called "war bill" for Iraq passed by the Democrats is filled with TENS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS in unconstitutional "pork," further looting an already empty treasury; 95% of it unconstitutional. This is just a continuation of the irresponsible fiscal policies of a GOP controlled Congress, signed off on by Bush to provide jobs so the American people don't catch on to just how bad things are out there. I covered this in my August 2005, column, 'Transportation bill: More financial bondage.' Borrowing to create jobs is such monstrous financial mismanagement, the average American really has no idea what the end game must be, but they will. According to a recent report, one out of every six Americans now depend on some sort of state/federal welfare just to put food on the table. Continuing to loot the public treasury to fund MASSIVE unconstitutional spending is simply tossing a lit match to prairie grass. Everything you've ever worked for is in dire jeopardy because the point of no return was passed when the first of the crippling trade agreements, i.e., NAFTA, was unconstitutionally signed into law by Bill Clinton. (I am aware of the NAFTA bill now in Congress.)
While Bush and Bernake sell their "strong economy" spin, this is the reality. The slow burn is now beginning to flame.
Henry Paulson’s Delusional View of the U.S. Economy (March 14, 2007) "Henry Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, may have outdone even his own boss, George W. Bush, for sheer oracular idiocy. Bush, of course, set the standard with his laughable “Mission Accomplished” stunt concerning Iraq in May 2003. That one's right up there with Dick Cheney’s fatuous claim in May 2005 that the Iraqi insurgency was “in its last throes.”
"But Paulson is clearly angling to get into the game. His entry was filed just over a week ago when he proclaimed, “The economy is as strong as I have seen it at any time in my 32 year business career.” This was uttered two days after a 500+ point plunge in the stock market. The market's slide appears to be only beginning.
"It is the sheer incongruity of Paulson’s comment that is so breathtaking. "The economy lost 3 million manufacturing jobs during the first six years of Bush's parlous tenure. The housing market is in full-scale meltdown, with prices falling at the fastest rate in 35 years. There is no bottom in sight. Bush's tax cuts have forced the government to borrow more money than any in history: more than $3 trillion since he took office. And with the nation's savings rate below zero — the first time since the Great Depression — he's had to borrow more from foreigners than all previous presidents combined.
"Is this what Paulson means by “the strongest economy in 32 years”? Borrowing almost $3 billion every day from the likes of Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and China, our biggest industrial competitors, might be called the Blanche Dubois method of economics: throwing ourselves on the mercy of strangers. It may seem like good policy to Paulson but it undermines the U.S.'s own financial sovereignty.
"Those competitors can decide at any minute to shut off the financial oxygen at which time our economy will utterly collapse. That's what happened in October 1987 when the Japanese closed the spigot on Reagan’s damaging debt parade, causing the greatest single-day drop in the stock market since 1929. It's not an accident that the 500+ point meltdown on Wall Street followed a 9% plunge in the Shanghai stock market the day before."
Fed warned of foreclosure crisis as loan growth slows (3.8.07) "We have found neighborhoods with abandoned homes, 200 at a shot," said Louise Gissendaner, senior vice president and director of community development in Cleveland at Fifth Third Bancorp, the 10th-biggest U.S. bank by assets. She said abandoned housing has "devastated our city to a great degree."
The "Fed" is giving the warning? The very institution responsible for our debauched currency, inflation and of course, Congress' blank check with we the people as the cash cows.
Did Goldman Get the Call from the Plunge Protection Team? (3.14.07) "Is Goldman Sachs planning to eat off the carcass of the foreclosed, or are they just following orders to put out a little spin?"
Did you get the memo? Is anyone giving a single thought to the TRILLION dollars in pension funds sitting in that stock market? You think your 401(k) is "safe"? Where do you think those funds are sitting? There can be no "safe" unless the Federal Reserve is shut down (along with the unnecessary federal income tax and the scam called withholding). Only a fool or someone in denial can't see how dire the situation is and that all economic indicators clearly show the worst is yet to come. The American people need to get busy doing several things:
(1) We must get a sound money bill passed in one state to create the domino effect. Dr. Edwin Vieira has worked very hard with a contingency of Americans in the State of New Hampshire over the years to get this done, but defeat has been the only result; there are many reasons why and all of them are despicable. I encourage you to read this explanation on the money bill by James Turk, March 27, 2007. Time is running short because a huge number of our state legislatures are only in session a few months a year. This financial meltdown will begin running like molten lava in the streets because at some point, the bubble will burst from so much pressure; there can be no other outcome. For those who think it won't happen in their lifetime, stay glued to the boob tube and fun times, but don't expect Barak Obama, Hillary, McCain, Kennedy, Lott, Pelosi, Feinstein or Susan Collins to bail your bacon when it hits.
(2) Get Congressman Ron Paul elected in 2008. I am not a Republican and vote for Constitution Party candidates every election, but if Ron Paul can win the GOP nomination next year, he is the only choice in my humble opinion. Ron Paul is an expert on our monetary system. He introduced legislation in 2001 to get rid of the withholding scam. This man knows what constitutional government is all about. He also understands that the stock market isn't responsible for the housing conflagration happening right now - it's the privately owned Federal Reserve; see his column here. Certainly, people have made mistakes in judgment regarding how big a mortgage to take on, but they have been lied to and mislead by these jackals in Congress and the compromised media who never utter a shred of truth about the "FED." Whoever takes the presidency in 2008 will inherit all that's coming down between now and then and it isn't going to be pretty. Ron Paul is the ONLY candidate who will know what must be done at that point and one would pray he makes Dr. Edwin Vieira his Secretary of the Treasury.
If Ron Paul doesn't win the nomination at the GOP convention next year, it's over. Ron Paul can't get elected unless enough of the delegates nominate him; I have already covered this here. (The links at the bottom of that column tell you how to do this.) Unless Ron Paul gets the nomination, you won't be able to vote for him in 2008 and believe me, those who will work the hardest to kill his run will be the Republican power brokers who dance to the tune of the banking cartel. In other words, the Republican Party leadership will do everything in their power to see that Ron Paul doesn't get the nomination and the only way to stop this putrid, rancid process is to become a delegate or get in touch with your convention delegate and hammer on him/her. Take your choice, but the clock is ticking.

(3) Congressman Paul can't get elected if electronic ballot machines are used in 2008. I urge all Americans: Attend every city council and county board of supervisors meeting. Get in the fact of your state rep and senator and demand paper ballots, hand counted in front of the general public and get rid of these easily rigged machines. If your elected officials refuse, tell them they will be the target of a recall, and if you don't have recall, make it clear to them they're gone in '08.

(4) Protect your assets by diversifying some of them into gold. I don't say this just to hear myself type. If you have family or elderly parents, please take the time to help them understand why it's important to review their financial situation and take the appropriate steps to protect what they have left. The financial picture is extremely volatile and will only get worse as the Democrats continue with their old ways of spending you into poverty. How much money do you have saved for your "old age?" Think social "security" will save you? There is no "security," it's a taxing scheme that has robbed Americans of the fruits of their labor to further breed Americans to government dependence, beat down self-reliance and independence. As this old/new Congress picks up where the Republicans left off after 12 years of free spending your children and grand babies into massive unpayable deb), the situation will only continue to burn like a dry forest as we get closer to 2008 when that first wave of baby boomers begin to retire. Factor in the gargantuan rape of the American people from this illegals invasion (feeding, clothing, educating and incarcerating ILLEGAL aliens) and the "American dream" will be a nightmare few will be able to handle. Gold doesn't lie, but politicians do. The name of the game now is survival.
Reference material:
1. Conservative Exodus Project2. Top investor sees U.S. property crash (3.14.07)3. The Coming Entitlement Meltdown4. ‘Going up and up’: Expert: No clear end to wave of foreclosures
5. Financial Train Wreck6, Subprime Defaults May Spread to Auto Bonds, S&P Says7, Housing Slump Erodes Budget Gains From Florida to California 8, U.S. Foreclosure Filings Rise 12 Percent in February9, Housing Bubble Crash - Anecdotes From Around The Country Subprime Defaults To Soar, Hurt Lenders, Funds Say10, Mortgage crisis hits million-dollar homes11, Freddie Reports Fourth Quarter Loss of $480 Million12, Must watch free video on what passes as news (2 min 11 seconds) 13, Why an Income Tax is Not Necessary to Fund the U.S. Government
© 2007 - NewsWithViews.com - All Rights Reserved
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Devvy Kidd authored the booklets, Why A Bankrupt America and Blind Loyalty; 2,000,000 copies. Devvy appears on radio shows all over the country, ran for Congress and is a highly sought after public speaker. Devvy belongs to no organization.
She left the Republican Party in 1996 and has been an independent voter ever since. Devvy isn't left, right or in the middle; she is a constitutionalist who believes in the supreme law of the land, not some political party. Her web site (www.devvy.com) contains a tremendous amount of information, solutions and a vast Reading Room.
Devvy's website: www.devvy.com

THE LOSING OF THE WAR FOR THE SOUL OF THE NATION

THE LOSING OF THE WAR FOR THE SOUL OF THE NATION

By Jim R. Schwiesow
April 2, 2007
NewsWithViews.com

A MORAL Principle met a Material Interest on a bridge wide enough for but one. "Down, you base thing!" thundered the Moral Principle, "and let me pass over you!" The Material Interest merely looked in the other's eyes without saying anything. "Ah," said the Moral Principle, hesitatingly, "let us draw lots to see which shall retire till the other has crossed." The Material Interest maintained an unbroken silence and an unwavering stare. "In order to avoid a conflict," the Moral Principle resumed, somewhat uneasily, "I shall myself lie down and let you walk over me." Then the Material Interest found a tongue, and by a strange coincidence it was its own tongue. "I don't think you are very good walking," it said. "I am a little particular about what I have underfoot. Suppose you get off into the water."
The battle for the Republic has been lost. Further efforts to breath life back into a system, which has been forever adulterated and transfigured is a losing cause. In order to believe that our system can be re-claimed in the name of the people and rehabilitated one must have faith that there is an underlying healthy core or structure, one that has not been made too weak to sustain the painful sacrifices of the rehabilitation process. More than that it would be necessary that a majority of our people would resolve to support such a rehabilitation, which is not even within the realm of possibility given the collective mindset in the country today. Our structure is mealy and moth-eaten and wholly unable to withstand the pressures, which by necessity must be placed upon it to resurrect it to its once splendid condition. To put it in other terms the cancers that have infected our institutions, both governmental and social, have metastasized and have insidiously eaten away the very foundation upon which a formally healthy system once rested. The system is sick and entirely dysfunctional.
We are facing two choices. We can either bite the bullet, finish off the tottering and rotted system we now have and start anew, or we can continue to live within the corrupted remains of a reprobate system brought about by our own indifference and inaction. How did we arrive at this point?
The answer is that we have arrived by design. The global elites of a patient and dedicated demeanor have instituted a master plan, by which they have surreptitiously and systematically degraded the morals of the people. And the morals of the people, good or bad, establish the character of a nation, and always have. If the collective morals of the people are righteous and strong the nation will likewise be moral and sturdy. If the collective conscience of the people has been seared and moral degeneracy prevails, the system will reflect these traits.
One has only to look to history to identify the nations that have followed national immorality to ruin and oblivion. The elites, though degenerate, are not stupid. They can read history also. They have stealthily engineered the circumstances, which have instituted a change of from good to bad in regard to the belief systems of the people in this nation. They do however believe that they have found a way to avoid the complete obliteration and disintegration of the nation, and are confident that they can subdue the freedoms of the people and convert them into indentured slaves. Their goal is to maintain a counterfeit national identity while establishing a ruling class, which will amalgamate the nation into a new world order.
People of discernment are forced to admit that these agents for global control have been highly effective with their campaign to destroy the sovereignty of the people and to ensure that the nation will exist only as a cog in the machinery of a new world order, an order that will have the power to nullify the prerogatives of a once sovereign people. We have nearly arrived in regard to a total domination by these internationalists. Our remaining freedoms hang by a tenuous thread.
Much as one may loathe and despise these agents for the subjugation of the people, we have to admit that they have been masterful in converting the nations, ours included, into heathen citadels for satanic principles. It seems that they know intimately the hedonistic hearts of men and women, and they have tapped into these primal urges with great success. With guile and oily sneakiness they have immersed large numbers of our people in causes, which are rapidly bringing about our demise. The deluded among us slog along to their own eventual end, all the while congratulating themselves on their brilliance and basking in the illusion that they are making society a better place, a place that reflects their subjective beliefs and which they believe will bring about utopian conditions. Because they are guided by sinister forces of cunning intelligence they will most likely succeed with their misguided crusade, but they will live to regret their own stupidity. They will have been instrumental in bringing about a society that is devoid of the very freedoms, which allowed them to maneuver the nation into such a sorry and devastating state of affairs. But, it will be too late; their destiny will have been handed over to an evil clique.
We can only wonder if the brief and illusory feeling of euphoria that these people experience from their sell out of our rights will be any consolation to them when they are suffering from the abject miseries that they will have brought upon the country. I can work up no feelings of sympathy for these dimwits; my compassion is reserved for the solid-thinking citizens who they are dragging down with their selfish need and desire for an inflated feeling of pride and power.
One has to acknowledge the efficacy of the internationalists in their use of our own system in bringing together their control over the nation. They have used the freedoms wrought by the Constitution to secure control of the government and they have used the machinery treacherously provided to them by that subverted government to bring the people to a reprobate state of mind. And they have masterfully used our capitalistic system to move the people to a capitulation to the global agenda. Greed and an uncontrollable desire for material possessions is driving the people to unwise choices in regard to the surrender of their sovereignty and the control over their own destiny.
As a people Americans pay homage to consumerism. They have been enticed to a slavish pursuit for an accumulation of wealth and material possessions. Money is their god they bow down to it, and if they cannot acquire enough of it by their labors, they will mortgage their souls to possess it. By doing so they play into the hands of the internationalists who encourage this pathological pursuit of material treasure. They know that avaricious hearts will lead people to give up their freedoms in exchange for temporal possessions. They know also that if a lusting people lack the wherewithal to possess that which they desire they will go deeply into debt to satiate this lust. Since a huge collective debt of the people and the government enables the internationalists to create piles of money they are in the catbird’s seat. They control the supply of capital, and they are more than willing to use the monetary assets that they have created out of debt and thin air to perpetuate their control and enslavement of middle-class Americans. When the people are in deep enough their souls belong to these global Svengalis’
Once the people are fully hooked, they are reeled in and forced to work six to eight days per week in terms of hours just to stay even. Both spouses of the family are forced into the job market so that they can meet their obligations and pay the interest on their loans. The fact that their time is now committed almost entirely to their work forces them into an abdication of family responsibilities. This fits neatly into the plan of the social engineers who are enabled in the furtherance of their agenda when the parents default on their responsibilities to their children and allow government schools to be surrogate parents who inculcate their children with false values and indoctrinate them with the one world agenda. The destruction of the family is commensurate with the destruction of the Republic, and that is the ultimate goal of the internationalists.

Indeed capitalism is almost entirely the invention of the internationalists. It has greatly enabled them in their pursuit of a new world order. And they have had great success in making it the religion of the masses that strive for a piece of the pie. They may strive, but the great majority will never make it in terms of fame and fortune. The system was not created for their benefit anyway; it was created as a way for the globalists to create wealth for themselves, a wealth that provides the means to acquire absolute power and a worldwide system of governance.

There can be no argument that capitalism has not been responsible for the rapid transference of wealth from the people to the ruling elite. The top ten percent of the adults in the world own eighty-five percent of the global wealth. The rich are becoming progressively richer and the poor are becoming progressively poorer. This is a necessary part of the program by the internationalists if they are to enable their rule over all mankind. They will succeed for a time and then the judgment.
© 2007 - Jim R. Schwiesow - All Rights Reserved
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Jim Schwiesow is a retired sheriff with 46 years of law enforcement service. He served with the Unites States Army with the occupation forces in post war Berlin, Germany, and has a total of nine years of military service, which includes six years in the U.S. Army Reserve.
His law enforcement service includes: three years in the military police, fifteen years as an Iowa municipal police officer, and twenty-eight years as the duly elected sheriff of Sioux County, Iowa.
Jim has written a number of articles, which have been published in various professional law enforcement journals.
E-Mail: jimr@orangecitycomm.net
Web-Site: www.sheriffjimonline.com

"Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become...too proud to pray to the God that made us!"

American Minute with Bill Federer Friday, March 30, 2007

American MinuteDuring the Civil War, on this day, March 30, 1863, just three months after his Emancipation Proclamation, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer. He stated: "We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God...we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own." President Lincoln concluded: "Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become...too proud to pray to the God that made us!"

Without God there is no virtue because there is no prompting of the conscience,...without God democracy will not and cannot long endure."

American Minute with Bill Federer Thursday, March 15, 2007

American Minute On this day, March 15, 1984, the Senate voted down voluntary silent prayer in public schools. President Ronald Reagan responded: "I am deeply disappointed that, although a majority of the Senate voted for it, the school prayer amendment fell short." President Reagan later remarked: "In 1962, the Supreme Court...banned the...saying of prayers. In 1963, the Court banned the reading of the Bible in our public schools,...a series of assaults were made in one court after another... Without God there is no virtue because there is no prompting of the conscience,...without God democracy will not and cannot long endure."

THE OLD RUGGED CROSS

THE OLD RUGGED CROSS

By Berit Kjos
April 1, 2007
NewsWithViews.com

O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world, Has a wondrous attraction for me; For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above To bear it to dark Calvary.[2]
“O most merciful Christ,” wrote the faithful reformer John Hus as he waited for his execution in 1415 AD, “give us a courageous spirit, so that it may be ready. And if the flesh is weak, may your grace go before it, for without you we can do nothing.”
In the eyes of the church establishment, Hus had committed heresy. He believed that everyone should be allowed to read the Bible in their own language -- an unthinkable notion in a culture that reserved God's Word for elite students of Latin. He also opposed the church's money-raising efforts to sell indulgences (the false assurance that people could buy pardon for sin instead of trusting in Christ's redemption through the cross).
Hus was "tried" and found guilty. When asked to recant, he refused. Instead he knelt and prayed that God would forgive his accusers. Mocked and humiliated, he was led naked to the stake, where executioners covered him with wood and straw for the torturous fire.
Given a last chance to recant, he answered, "In the truth of the Gospel which I have written, taught, and preached I will die today with gladness." Then the fire was lit using pages from the Bible printed by John Wycliffe as kindling. Enveloped in flames, Hus kept singing an old hymn, "Christ, thou Son of the living God, have mercy upon me." He died praising the Lord He loved!
DESPISING THE CROSS
To a world bent on social unity and moral laxity, the cross stands as a divisive and humiliating obstacle. Attempts to minimize its offense through laws and intimidation have bullied both secular and church leaders into continual compromise. Public crosses are demolished or hidden. Bibles are forbidden in schools, the traditional days for celebrating the resurrection have been renamed "spring break," and countless corporations and government agencies ban cross-shaped pins or jewelry.
Results-driven churches and Christian colleges are marketing new, more inclusive forms of Christianity. Afraid to offend unbelievers, they present a watered-down version of the gospel that veils the significance of the cross.
Back in 1963, Martyn LLoyd-Jones, then pastor of London's Westminster Chapel, preached a series of sermons on this issue. Reminding us that human nature hasn't changed in the last forty years, he asked some probing questions:
"There are contradictory voices going out in the name of the Christian church.... So the first thing we have to do is to discover which is the true message.... What is the Christian gospel? What does it proclaim? What [must I do] which --
will render me immune to what may happen round and about me...
would enable me to smile in the face of death...
assures me that I have nothing to fear when I come to the judgment of God...
guarantees me everlasting and eternal bliss in the glory indescribable? ...
"The central thing, the thing that matters above everything else... is the cross -- the death on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.... The preaching of the cross has never been popular."[3]
It's true. That's why Jesus warned us long ago that "they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold." --Matthew 24:9-12
THE HEART OF THE GOSPEL
Some years ago, Graham and Gladys Staines left the comforts of Australia to serve lepers in India. Because of their loving encouragement, many Hindus believed in Jesus and burned their idols. One day, Graham and their two young sons traveled to a distant church to share God's encouraging message. While they slept in their car, a crowd of angry Hindus surrounded the car, doused it with gasoline and set it aflame. Imprisoned inside, the father and two children were burned alive. At their memorial service, the grieving mother and daughter (who would stay in India and continue their ministry) sang these words:
Because he lives, I can face tomorrow, Because he lives, all fear is gone, Because I know he holds the future, And life is worth the living just because he lives.
Why is this wonderful old Gospel so offensive to the world? Why does it stir such murderous responses? Or more important, what is it?
The apostle Paul summarized it for us almost 2000 years ago:
"I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you -- unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS according to the Scriptures, and that HE WAS BURIED, and that HE ROSE AGAIN the third day.... He was seen by over five hundred brethren...." --1 Corinthians 15:1-10
In short, the gospel is the "good news" of the historical event of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection -- all for our salvation. But in today's market-driven churches, this gospel is overshadowed by an enticing counterfeit gospel. In the place of the cross, many of today's most popular churches are celebrating their visible "good deeds" -- the kind of "works" and ethical living that draw man's applause, not God's approval. As in the days of John Hus, people are fooled into thinking they can earn their pardon from sin and their place in heaven. Rick Warren summarized it well:
"The first Reformation was about belief; this one's going to be about behavior.... The first one was about creeds; this one's going to be about our deeds. The first one divided the church; this time it will unify the church."[4]
This new "reformation" focuses on human goodness and ignores human depravity. It leads to pride and blindness, not humility and repentance. It assures sinners that their good deeds merit God's approving smile, while it hides their actual need for the cross.
Such self-justification sounds good to the masses. When led by our human nature, we all would "desire to make a good showing in the flesh," not "suffer persecution for the cross of Christ." [Galatians 6:14] So, to maintain a Christian identity while avoiding "the offence of the cross," many adapt their message to politically correct standards for tolerance. Thus they please the world, but not God.
None of the Bible's ethical lessons can make us holy or acceptable to Him. Neither the Ten Commandments nor the Sermon on the Mount can save us from our sin and prepare us to follow our Lord. They were given to show us God's high and holy standard (a criterion we can't possibly reach by human will or strength) and then to draw us to the cross.
I'm not saying God doesn't value "good works." But until He changes our hearts, our deeds are worthless as a means to salvation.
However, when we are "born again" everything changes. The result of the cross in our lives will be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness... -- manifestations of the "fruit" of His Spirit at work in our hearts. (Galatians 5:22) But such "good works" can neither replace nor precede the cross. His fruit can only come after our hearts are rooted in Christ.
In other words, our primary need is for a new life through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Having "put to death" our old sinful nature on the cross, Christ fills us with His own victorious Life! "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." --2 Corinthians 5:21
This wonderful "exchanged life" was prophesied and promised centuries before the cross became a physical reality for us:
"He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows... He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed." --Isaiah 53:4-6
All is from Him, through the cross, and by His Spirit: our salvation, our new Life, our changed hearts, and our Spirit-led service and sharing. And all bear witness to His sovereign love and grace.
SPIRITUAL BATTLES AHEAD
But such a distinctly Christian witness may soon be banned. Spirit-led kindness and service will continue to offend the world as long as we keep sharing the cross of Christ. Since the world's religious leaders have little appreciation for that divisive message, they have been negotiating an "international code of conduct" with regard to conversions -- a code that would place the world's authorities above God's commands.
Back in 2000 AD, the United Nations provided a platform where religious leaders from around the world could express their intolerance for cross-centered missions. Meeting in the UN General Assembly Hall, the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders discussed the problem of unwanted conversions. In his article, "U.N. religious summit speakers decry efforts at conversion," Tom Strode explained that the Peace Summit --
"...evidenced widespread opposition to efforts at religious conversion....
"...pronouncements were voiced by speakers from different religious traditions against attempts to convert people to other religions, and they met with strong affirmation.... Evangelicals especially would be targets for such sentiments....
"...there were 'very negative comments regarding proselytization'.... Such declarations were met by 'vigorous applause...."[5]
Last year, the World Council of Churches joined hands with the Vatican "to seek a common code for religious conversions" and "explore 'the dos and don'ts' of trying to spread Christianity among other faiths." Notice their hostility toward Biblical evangelism:
"Religious freedom and missionary outreach by Christian groups have become increasingly sensitive topics as many Muslims perceive their faith as under threat by the West and nations such as China struggle to maintain state controls on churches.
"'How can we - anxious to maintain, develop and nurture good relations with people of other faiths - deal with this highly complex issue that sometimes threatens the fiber of living together?' said the Rev. Hans Ucko, head of the interreligious relations office for the World Council of Churches....
"The biggest challenges to the project will be highlighted by who will be absent: Pentecostal and evangelical-style congregations that often lead the drive for conversions."[6]
Since "living together" has become a common purpose, this conversion code implies that mission groups from America will be welcomed as humanitarian servers, but despised as God's ambassadors.
Lutheran bishop Mark Hanson exemplified this attitude at an interfaith meeting in Indonesia. He "assured the Muslim participants that the Lutheran World Federation did not try to convert disaster victims from Islam to Christianity in exchange for its help."[7]
Actually, if he had tried to convert, he would have violated UNESCO's Declaration on Tolerance. This "soft" international law tells us that
"Tolerance involves the rejection of dogmatism and absolutism...." [especially Biblical truth]
"Tolerance... means that one's views are not to be imposed on others." [Especially religious views]
"Intolerance... is a global threat."

But Jesus told His followers that "repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name 'to all nations'" (Luke 24:47) Are we ready to "obey God rather than man"? --Acts 5:29
Only because He took my sins to the cross and joined me to Himself could I ever be such a witness. Only because my life is forever "hidden in Him" can I face each future challenge with confidence in His triumph!

To the old rugged cross I will ever be true; Its shame and reproach gladly bear; Then He’ll call me some day to my home far away,Where His glory forever I’ll share.
Footnotes:
1, Englis Bible history and John Hus The Pre-Reformer2, Hear the melody3, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Cross (Good News Publishers, 1986), pages 18, 20.4, Ken Camp, "Second Reformation' will unify church, Warren tells Dallas GDOP,"5, Tom Strode, "U.N. religious summit speakers decry efforts at conversion," Baptist Press, September 2000.6, Brian Murphy, "Vatican, Churches Work on Conversion Plan," AP, May 11, 2006.7, At the World Council of Churches
© 2007 Berit Kjos - All Rights Reserved

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Berit Kjos is a widely respected researcher, writer and conference speaker. A frequent guest on national radio and television programs, Kjos has been interviewed on Point of View (Marlin Maddoux), The 700 Club, Bible Answer Man, Beverly LaHaye Live, Crosstalk and Family Radio Network. She has also been a guest on "Talk Back Live" (CNN) and other secular radio and TV networks. Her last two books are A Twist of Faith and Brave New Schools. Kjos Ministries Web Site: http://www.crossroad.to/index.html

Iran Mends Fences with Arabs – Starting with Saudis

Iran Mends Fences with Arabs – Starting with Saudis
April 1, 2007, 7:44 PM (GMT+02:00)

The live wire at last week’s Arab League summit in Riyadh was undoubtedly the non-Arab guest of honor, Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki.
He breezed around the Arab delegations hard-selling the notion of a mutual defense treaty between Iran and the Arabs on the lines of the Tehran-Damascus pact. Mottaki argued that a treaty of this kind would allay Arab fears of an Iranian nuclear threat, put a stop to a Middle East nuclear arms race, provide the Arabs with a protective umbrella against Israeli aggression and set up an Arab-Islamic front against US and other foreign intervention in the region.
The Iranian diplomat’s proposition fell on willing ears.
DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources report that he had a long conversation in Riyadh with Saudi foreign minister Prince Saudi al-Faisal, at which they looked the treaty plan in some detail and agreed that their defense ministries would assign special teams to explore it further. The Iranian minister argued that the joint effort of Riyadh and Tehran to pacify Lebanon and reconcile the internal differences among its rival factions could work as well for the Palestinian Authority. He said increasing Saudi-Iranian cooperation in joint diplomatic-strategic projects across the Middle East ought to extend to the military sphere.
Our source also reported exchanges between the Iranian and Egyptian delegations to the Arab summit last week on the resumption of diplomatic ties.
Saturday, March 31, Iran’s chief of staff Gen. Hassan Fayrouz Abadi, prodded the Arabs again; he urged them to hurry up and join Iran in a defense treaty because, he claimed, Israel threatened a war offensive in summer, two months hence. According to the Iranian general, Israel was bent on a “suicide assault” against a number of Arab states to save the Americans from having to pull their troops out of Iraq.
Before the conference ended, the Saudi foreign minister arranged a four-way meeting between King Abdullah, Mottaki, and the two Palestinian leaders, Mahmoud Abbas and Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. Together they discussed how Iran and Saudi Arabia could work together to apply the Mecca reconciliation accords which established a unity government between Fatah and Hamas. This was taken by Iran as Riyadh’s approval of the military assistance Tehran gives the Palestinians and a formal, collective Arab endorsement.
DEBKAfile’s political analysts take this step as a mark of Saudi contempt for Israel, and further, the collapse of the Saudi initiative led by national security adviser Prince Bandar bin-Sultan for direct Saudi-Israeli talks. Instead, the Saudi-Iranian rapprochement led by Saudi al-Faisal has prevailed. The Israel-Palestinian issue has been shifted to the Saudi-Iranian ken by the Faisal faction which has attained ascendancy in Riyadh and argues that the time has come for the Arabs to take their fate in their own hands and drop their dependence on foreign powers, namely the Americans.
DEBKAfile’s sources have learned that talks for the resumption of Egyptian-Iranian diplomatic relations have already begun. Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak entertained for breakfast in Cairo last week Iranian ex-president Muhammad Hatami, who now heads the Institute for Dialogue among Cultures. Present too was Egyptian prime minister Ahmed Natif. Relations were broken off in 1979, the first year of the Islamic revolution, after Ayatollah Khomeini praised the murderers of President Anwar Sadat and a Tehran thoroughfares for one of the assassins, Muhammad Islambouly.
Hatami pressed his host to seriously consider resuming diplomatic relations, maintaining that the Muslim world is beset by a crisis caused by Western domination. Muslim powers must therefore work together to recover control of their own countries. He spoke highly of Egypt’s importance in the Arab and Muslim worlds. By working together, the two governments could make a difference, he said.
After the meal, Hatami and Natif put their heads together and agreed that a high-ranking Iranian delegation would visit Cairo in April to set up arrangements for the two embassies to re-open. The Iranian leader made a similar attempt to restore relations in 2001 when he was president. It broke down when Iranian extremists refused to take down Islambouli’s street name as demanded by Cairo.

Israeli military intelligence chief predicts Iran-Hizballah-Syria attack on Israel in summer

Israeli military intelligence chief predicts Iran-Hizballah-Syria attack on Israel in summer
April 1, 2007, 9:50 PM (GMT+02:00)
In his briefing to the Israeli cabinet Sunday, April 1, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, AMAN chief, reported that Iran, Syria, Hizballah and Hamas expect the United States to attack Iran in the summer and they are preparing to retaliate by going to war with Israel. In Yadlin’s view, a proliferation of players and a many imponderables could ignite a conflict, which none of the parties wants – as happened in the Six Day War of 1967.
DEBKAfile analysts note five salient points in Gen. Yadlin’s briefing:
1. His comments came one day after Iran’s chief of staff, Gen. Hassan Fayrouz Abadi, urged the Arabs to hurry up and join Iran in a defense treaty because, he claimed, Israel threatened a war offensive in summer, two months hence. According to the Iranian general, Israel was bent on a “suicide assault” against a number of Arab states to save the Americans from having to pull their troops out of Iraq (sic).
1. Iran, Syria, Hizballah and Hamas may be presumed to be acting on some piece of intelligence that point to a forthcoming US attack some time between April and early September 2007. Therefore, the Middle East faces at least five months of incendiary military instability during with everyone braced for an axe to fall.
2. A coordinated Iranian-Syrian-Hizballah-Hamas attack would lay Israel open to four warfronts and the common weapon to them all: missiles - anti-tank, short-range surface, medium range ballistic and surface-to-air.
3. Hamas threatens to launch the third Palestinian uprising (intifada) against Israel within three months unless the international blockade is lifted and funds are released to the Palestinian Authority.
The cabinet was informed that the IDF would start operating behind Gazan lines against the massive Palestinian military build-up.
For five months, the Olmert government’s policy was one of military restraint at the behest of US and European governments. This week, Israel’s leaders watched British discomfiture as the United States, the UN and the Europeans turned aside when asked for help to free 15 sailors seized by Iran in the Persian Gulf. It is obvious that Israel must be ready to stand alone and defend itself if attacked on four fronts.
4. Neither the chief of AMAN nor the ministers discussed the state of Israel’s armed forces’ preparedness. Asked about this, DEBKAfile’s military sources said their readiness was only partial as yet: The air force, some of the combat divisions are ready; other parts of the military, such as some reservist brigades, the Navy and the home front are not.