A Sleeping Giant Awakes

The Roman Catholic Church has designated "Fortnight for Freedom" in America from June 21st to July 4th. What's Fortnight for Freedom all about? It's about the Church's protest against the U.S. Government's encroachment on religious freedom in America, specifically the Obamacare mandate that will force religious institutions to violate their principles by funding contraception and abortion.

Some Roman Catholic archbishops claim that the upcoming protest may eventually become the equivalent of the bloody civil rights protests of the 1960's that eventually brought down segregation and Jim Crow laws in the South. The Catholic Church is warning that if peaceful protests don't bring a halt to the U.S. Government's encroachment into religious freedom, then civil disobedience may be next.

A bulletin that will be distributed by the Catholic Church throughout America beginning in June reveals the Church's game-plan and strategy for resisting Obamacare: "Some unjust laws impose such injustices on individuals and organizations that disobeying the laws may be justified. Every effort must be made to repeal them. When fundamental human goods, such as the right of conscience, are at stake, we may need to witness to the truth by resisting the law and incurring its penalties. This is a matter of whether religious people and institutions may be forced by the government to provide (certain medical services) even when it violates our consciences."

We haven't heard this sort of rhetoric from the Catholic Church for a long time. You can bet that the order and blessing for this protest came right from Rome. Though the Catholic Church has long been considered a washed-up has-been, biblical prophecy reveals that this church is going to become extremely powerful again throughout the world in the last days. (Revelation 17) In fact, prophecy reveals that the dreaded Antichrist will eventually come from Rome and will rule a global government as both a political and a religious figure.

Will the upcoming protest succeed? Many American Roman Catholics are lapsed and couldn't care less whether their church or any religious institution has to foot the bill for contraception and abortion. But the upcoming protest isn't about how much power and influence the Roman Catholic Church still retains in America; it's a test of how much power the Vatican still wields over the entire world. Remember that just over 30 years ago, a young Pope John Paul II inspired Eastern Europe to rise up and throw off the chains of communism. Does Rome still possess that kind of power? We'll soon find out with Fortnight for Freedom.

The End of an Ancient Curse

Why have the Jews arguably been the most despised and hated people on earth for centuries? The answer is found in the Old Testament Book of Jeremiah that contains the recordings of one of Israel's ancient major prophets who lived during the Sixth Century B.C. Jeremiah recorded these words of an angry God who had finally had enough of Israel's chronic rebellion against Him that traced back to the time of Moses: "I will send the sword, famine and plague against them and I will make them like poor figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten. I will pursue them with the sword, famine and plague and will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth and an object of cursing and horror, of scorn and reproach, among all the nations where I drive them." (Jeremiah 29:17-18)

Indeed, the Lord's curse against the Jews took effect almost immediately after that pronouncement. In 586 B.C., Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar invaded Jerusalem and ransacked the city, taking thousands of Jews captive. Though the Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem 140 years later by the Persians who had succeeded the Babylonians, the Jews have continued to suffer intense persecution and hostility even since God pronounced His curse against them through Jeremiah. From Nebuchadnezzar to Seleucid King Antiochus Epiphanes (175-164 B.C.) who defiled the Temple sanctuary by sacrificing a pig on its altar to the Roman invasions of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and 130 A.D. to Muslim persecution during the time of the Ottoman Empire to the Crusades to the Inquisitions to Hitler's Holocaust to Iran's threat to destroy Israel via nuclear weapons, the Jews have suffered God's wrath for their ancient disobedience. And with Anti-Semitism spreading like a malignancy once again throughout the world, the ancient curse seems endless.

However, biblical prophecy reveals that the curse is going to come to an end. Despite God's punishment against the Jews that has manifested worldwide, he has spared a remnant of His people throughout the centuries. In fact, He promised this through the same prophet Jeremiah: "The people who survive the sword will find favor in the desert; I will come to give rest to Israel" (Jeremiah 31:1-2) And the Lord proclaimed this: "Hear the word of the Lord, O nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands: 'He who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over his flock like a shepherd. For the Lord will ransom Jacob and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they. They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will rejoice in the bounty of the Lord.'" (Jeremiah 31:10-12)

Jeremiah's prophecy began to be fulfilled in 1948 when, against seemingly incredible odds, Israel was reestablished as a sovereign nation once again after 1800 years. God fulfilled His promise to restore the Jews to their ancient homeland despite the world's attempts to prevent that from happening. And despite the numerous wars launched against Israel by her hostile Islamic neighbors, the Jewish nation has prevailed each time, proving that God favors and protects His people.

But Jeremiah's prophecy hasn't been completely fulfilled. That will happen when the Jews corporately embrace Jesus Christ as their Messiah. And that will occur when Christ returns to rescue Israel from the armies of a world government that will attempt to destroy the Jewish nation at an event called Armageddon. Then Christ will return to destroy those armies and establish his millennial kingdom on earth in Jerusalem. The prophet Zechariah (Sixth Century B.C.) wrote: "They (Jews) will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son." (Zechariah 12:10) When Christ returns, the Jews will recognize him by the distinctive nail marks on his hands from his crucifixion (Zechariah 13:6) and they will mourn because they will finally realize who Christ is--the Jewish Messiah rather than someone their spiritually blind ancestors rejected. And then the ancient curse will finally be over.

Origin of a Curse

Why have the Jews historically been the most hated people on the earth? It simply defies any rational explanation. Where ever they have gone in the world for the past 2,000 years, they have been despised and scorned. And they have been blamed for everything from spreading deadly plagues to causing calamities in financial markets to fomenting wars and installing political puppets and sham governments. When he was reportedly asked why he singled out the Jews for persecution and extermination, Adolf Hitler allegedly claimed that he was merely completing the work that the Roman Catholic Church had begun against the Jews in the Fourth Century A.D.

Certainly, the Roman Catholic Church has been one of the worst enemies of the Jews for nearly 17 centuries, calling them Christ-killers and claiming that God rejected them for rejecting Jesus Christ as their messiah. For example, the Council of Nicaea, (325 A.D.) which became the moral and spiritual foundation for the Roman Catholic Church, declared that the religious holidays of Christians and Jews should be completely separate: "For it is unbecoming beyond measure that on this holiest of festivals (Easter) we should follow the customs of the Jews. Henceforth let us have nothing in common with this odious people...we ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews...our worship follows a more convenient course...we desire dearest brethren to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews...how then, could we follow these Jews who are most certainly blinded?"

Why do the Jews continue to be so despised throughout the world? They were placed under a curse by God for their chronic rebellion against Him during the time of the ancient prophet Jeremiah. (Sixth Century B.C.) Despite the Lord's repeated warnings to them that he had issued through his prophets, the Jews continued to pervert his laws, violate his commandments and worship pagan gods that were merely fronts for Satan and his demons. The ancient Jews not only scorned and rejected the Lord's prophets, they persecuted and killed many of them. Finally, after centuries of rebellion, the Lord spoke these words to Jeremiah concerning the Jews: "I will make them abhorrent and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, an object of ridicule and cursing, wherever I banish them. I will send the sword, famine and plague against them until they are destroyed from the land I gave them and their fathers." (Jeremiah 24:9-10)

Finally, after centuries of rebellion that also included the rejection of their Messiah Jesus Christ, the Jews were finally banished from their homeland Israel in 130 A.D. by Roman Emperor Hadrian after he quashed the Bar Kochba rebellion. Hadrian then renamed the land of Israel Syria Philistinia or "Palestine" and he rededicated the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to the Roman god Jupiter. And despite the Lord's judgment against the Jews in the form of that ancient curse, he promised to restore his people back into the land of Israel which he fulfilled in 1948 when Israel was declared a sovereign world nation once again after 1,800 years. And he promised to restore them spiritually back to Him through Christ at a future date in time. The Apostle Paul declared this a mystery. Next up, we'll solve this mystery and explain when the Jews will corporately embrace Christ as their messiah, and when the ageless curse will finally end.

From Never Again to Once Again

Nearly 70 years ago with the end of World War II, the world pledged that never again would a Jew-hating mass murderer such as Adolf Hitler be allowed to rise up and systematically commit genocide against an ethnic group such as the Jews in the name of racial and religious superiority. Hitler murdered six million Jews during his reign of terror that began in 1933 when he was elected as Germany's Chancellor by a narrow margin. And while Hitler committed mass murder against the Jews, the world looked the other way. It wasn't until the Fuhrer's death camps were liberated near the end of World War II that the scope of Hitler's crimes were finally exposed and the world had to admit that it had failed to prevent one of the worst atrocities in human history.

Unfortunately, Never Again has now become Once Again as much of the world has forgotten the nightmarish hell that Hitler unleashed upon the Jews and much of Europe. Despite the overwhelming evidence, a growing segment of the world now denies the Holocaust from colleges and universities throughout the west to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who eagerly plans a second Holocaust while denying the first one. In fact, the Iranians now possess three missiles that are capable of reaching Israel. If the Iranians succeed in developing nuclear weapons, the reality of a second Holocaust becomes very real possibility indeed.

What motivates anti-Semitism? And why are the Jews historically singled out by many as Christ-killers and global financial conspirators? In France, the Jews have been encouraged to leave that nation for "a more hospitable environment" after an Islamist murdered a rabbi and three young children in front of a Jewish school in March. In America, many colleges and universities embrace Islamic terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the PLO and the Muslim Brotherhood while scorning the Jews and charging Israel with the murder of innocent Palestinians. Across the world, Jewish businesses are boycotted; schools are firebombed, cemeteries vandalized and religious Jews are mocked and attacked in the streets because of the clothing that identifies them. And dying Protestant churches call for boycotts against Israeli products and economic divestment from companies that do business with the tiny Jewish nation.

Is there a rational answer to the timeless hatred against the Jews? Yes there is. In our next installment, we'll give you the prophetic biblical evidence for the curse that has followed the Jews around the world for over 2,000 years, and we'll tell you when it's going to end.

Murderers of Souls

                                     Michael Pfleger and Louis Farrakhan

The late John Wesley considered false religious teachers more dangerous than murderers because, according to the founder of the Methodist movement, false religious teachers "murder the souls of which Jesus Christ died for." During Wesley's time in the Eighteenth Century, false religious teachers who masqueraded as apostles of Christ generally denied that Christ was the Son of God; denied his virgin birth and they denied his resurrection.

Today's false religious teachers not only deny the essentials of the historical biblical gospel such as the Trinity, Christ's deity, virgin birth and resurrection, but they often use Christ as a political and religious weapon to promote anything from the powerless social gospel to unbiblical gospels that foment hatred and divide people by ethnicity and race. For example, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the infamous, fire-breathing pastor of Chicago's Trinity United Church preaches the Black Liberation Gospel that calls for African-Americans to disassociate themselves from whites that Wright's gospel calls blue-eyed, blond-haired devils. Sound familiar? That's the core theology of Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam that chiefly blames whites and Jews for the social problems that plague many blacks in America today.

It was Christ himself who revealed that one of the signs that his return was near would be the appearance of many false prophets in the last days. (Matthew 24:11) A false prophet isn't merely someone who predicts a future event that fails to occur--he is also someone who claims secret heavenly knowledge that contradicts the Bible. Christ entered a fallen world 2,000 years ago to lead men out of sin and cancel the eternal death sentence that their sins earned them by His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. He didn't come into the world to start a new religion or to launch a political crusade against "social injustice."

The true gospel of Jesus Christ unites all men in love through God's grace--the free gift of salvation. Be on alert for those who use the name of Jesus Christ to divide men and promote evil. And be aware that the Third Commandment warns: "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name." (Exodus 20:7) Anyone who uses Christ's name to either promote evil or to lead them to a false Christ who can't save anyone has misused His name. God help them.

The Greatest Jew in History

How ironic that the greatest Jew in human history isn't even the greatest Jew among his own people. In fact, circa 2012, Jesus Christ remains a pariah among his own people, the victim of a vicious smear campaign that originated 2,000 years ago with a group of corrupt Jewish religious leaders who feared his authority; despised his popularity and were extremely jealous of his power.

Those religious leaders, who were known as the Pharisees, Sadducees and the Teachers of the Law, hated Christ because he was everything they weren't; dynamic, charismatic, genuine, powerful and versed in the Mosaic Law. Despite Christ's well-documented miracles and his flawless application of the Law, the religious leaders continually plotted to have him murdered. For example, after he restored the life of a man named Lazarus who had been dead for four days, the Pharisees were so filled with envy that they were determined to murder Christ. (John 11:45-57) And after Christ gave sight to a man who had been blind since birth, the Pharisees ridiculed the man for following Christ and they expelled him from his synagogue.

Thus, the Jews rejected Christ not because he failed to fulfill the writings of Israel's ancient prophets that foretold of the coming of the Jewish Messiah hundreds and thousands of years before Christ appeared, but rather because he didn't fit the mythologized image of a messiah that they had created in their own imaginations. In fact, Christ often predicted his death at the hands of Israel's religious leaders, and he frequently revealed their true motives for their rejection of him through many parables that he spoke during his three-year ministry in ancient Israel. But even more tragically, Israel's religious leaders have murdered the souls of millions of Jews throughout the centuries through their rejection of Christ and their blasphemy of his life, ministry, death and resurrection from the dead that was revealed in over 300 specific prophecies recorded by the ancient Jewish prophets.

The evidence for Jesus Christ as the Jewish Messiah is irrefutable. Consider these prophecies that were written long before he appeared on earth; his virgin birth, (Isaiah 7:14) the location of Bethlehem as his birthplace, (Micah 5:2) his sacrifice for the sins of his people (Isaiah 53:5) and the rejection of him by his own people. (Isaiah 53:3) And consider that the prophet Daniel, who lived over five centuries before Christ appeared on earth, revealed the exact time of Christ's appearance in Israel as the Jewish Messiah. (Daniel 9)

Jesus Christ is indeed the Jewish Messiah. In fact, a great Jewish revival for Christ as the Jewish Messiah has already broken out across the world as many Jews are finally beginning to recognize who Jesus Christ really is. God's truth cannot be ignored or smothered. At long last, a long lost people are finally coming home to the God who chose them.

The Overpopulation Hoax

What do environmentalism, radical feminism, Global Warming, abortion, euthanasia and the militant homosexual  movement have in common? The common denominator in all these movements is global population reduction and control.

Back in the 1960s, an author named Paul Ehrlich wrote a book titled; The Population Bomb in which he predicted that the world would experience massive starvation and death in the 1970s unless the leaders of world nations agreed to institute radical laws that would slow and restrict population growth. Ehrlich recommended that nations develop chemicals that could be added to drinking water supplies to sterilize their citizens and he suggested that the U.S. government create a new federal agency that would have the authority to implement restrictions on family size. Of course, China allows only one child per family and that nation severely punishes women who violate that policy.

Though Ehrlich's doomsday prophecies never materialized, the United Nations embraced his philosophy that the world was severely overpopulated and subsequently devised an agenda to radically reduce the earth's population to 2.5 billion by the year 2100. Dubbed Agenda 21, the UN plan proposes reducing world population by increasing abortion and birth control to "developing nations"; funding organizations that promote homosexuality, rationing health care through socialized medicine and punishing large families with punitive taxes on children. But what does "Global Warming" or "Climate Change" have to do with overpopulation? According to Global Warming doomsayers, the earth's atmosphere is allegedly heating up because of too much carbon dioxide. And what is the single greatest source of carbon dioxide? Human beings who emit carbon dioxide every time they exhale. Hence, the only way to reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere is to reduce global population.

In his second letter to fellow apostle Timothy, the apostle Paul warned that the last days on earth preceding the return of Jesus Christ would be exceedingly violent and wicked. (2Timothy 3) Christ himself warned that the last days would bring "great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now--and never to be equaled again." (Matthew 24:21) And the ancient Hebrew prophet Daniel, who lived 2,600 years ago, revealed that a powerful end-time world leader (Antichrist) would cause "astounding devastation." (Daniel 8:24) Indeed, when men turn away from God, they have no respect for life and they impose tyranny and murder on mankind. Pray for the Lord Jesus Christ to come quickly and soon. 

An Islamic Antichrist?

An author named Joel Richardson has written a provocative book (The Islamic Antichrist) where he argues that the dreaded Antichrist is going to come from the Islamic world. And considering that Islam has all but conquered the eastern world and seems destined to overtake the west, it's understandable that Richardson would expect the Antichrist to be Islamic.

However, Richardson's theories, though well-intentioned, simply don't line up with the Bible. The Bible clearly reveals that the coming Antichrist will enter a rebuilt Jewish temple in Jerusalem to defile it. (Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:15, 2Thessalonians 2:4) No powerful Islamic world religious leader would ever enter a Jewish temple, either in Jerusalem or anywhere on earth. In fact, if there's an Islamic Antichrist, there won't be any Jewish temple in Jerusalem for him to defile because Israel, and very likely world Jewry, won't exist. Islam's Hadith (the teachings of Muhammad) states that all Jews must be eliminated from the earth before the Imam Mahdi (Islam's messiah) can appear and establish his global caliphate. So it's extremely unlikely that the coming Antichrist will be Islamic.

Then who will he be and where will he come from? According to the Bible, he will likely come from Russia (Daniel 11, Ezekiel 38-39) and he will be both a political and a religious figure. In fact, the Book of Revelation even tells us that he will likely come from the Roman Catholic Church (Revelation 17) and be a modern day Constantine who ruled in the Fourth Century A.D. as both the Emperor of Rome and the head of the Roman Church that later became the Roman Catholic Church. When is this going to take place? Stay tuned.

Is Barack Obama a Christian?

Barack Obama likes to refer to himself as a Christian. After all, he attended Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church on Chicago's Southside for 20 years. And yet a true Christian isn't defined by the church he attends, or how often he attends a church, but rather by his true faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who came into the world 2,000 years ago to die for the sins of mankind on Calvary's cross.

And a true Christian completely obeys the teachings of Jesus Christ instead of using Christ as a cover for a social, cultural or political agenda. It was Christ himself who stated: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 7:21) That statement eliminates a lot of people who identify themselves as Christians because they certainly don't do the will of the Heavenly Father. The will of God the Heavenly Father is to preach and uphold his commandments and laws, even in the midst of a hostile world that increasingly mocks those laws and commandments.

Obama has repeatedly proved that he's not a genuine Christian with his contempt for the nation of Israel and with his support for same-sex marriage that God's law condemns. Christ gave us this litmus test to determine a true Christian from a phony one: " A good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot beat good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them." (Matthew 7:18-20) Obama's fruit is that of an atheist who masquerades as a Christian for political purposes. It's time for true Christians to realize that Obama is nothing more than a proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing. And those are the most dangerous kind of false Christians.