“For
I delight in the law of God after the inward man.”
(Romans
7:22)
After The Inward Man
THE BIBLE Genesis & Geology
The Relationship of Flesh and Spirit Physical Things vs. Spiritual Things
"Ye MUST be born again" (John 3:7 KJV)
"Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and [of] the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (John 3:5-6 KJV)
Each man and woman born into this world is a being made of three (3) distinct components:
"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and [I pray God] your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thessalonians 5:23 KJV)
1: The BODY. This is your PHYSICAL component of being. It is flesh made from a collection of unremarkable mineral elements (but is mostly water) and is in harmony with the nature and spirit of this world. It grows, matures, begins to deteriorate, eventually dies, and then decomposes back into its constituent elements and remains a part of the dust of the world. The body is a part of you but is NOT ALL of what defines who YOU are.
"And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,"(Proverbs 5:11 KJV)
2: The SOUL. This is who YOU are; it is a part of your SPIRITUAL component. This is your
individuality, your "I AM" so to speak (made in God's image), your "heart." Although your individual soul did not exist before your mother and father procreated you, it will exist forever. It cannot be killed by man:
"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matt. 10:28 KJV)
When your body dies your soul (YOU) will leave the body of flesh:
"And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin." (Genesis 35:18 KJV)
3: The SPIRIT. This is the source of power and control for both your body and soul; it is either evil or good, darkness or light, unholy or Holy, unclean or clean, of Satan or of God:
"But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." (Luke 9:55 KJV)
Where your soul spends eternity after it departs is determined by your personal relationship to God (saved or unsaved). You are an eternal being. You determine your own destiny. In fact, the Bible says that you are a "god" (small "g"):
"Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?(John 10:34 KJV)
"So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." (Gen 1:27 KJV)
The unsaved man or women who have only the first birth are in eternal danger. Since the body and soul of the unsaved man or woman are bonded to the dead spirit of this present world, when this world's physical elements and spiritual components (including "Death") are cast into the lake of fire (see Rev 20:13-15), those eternal souls, living or already dead, will perish with them. So, what exactly is the difference between the relationship of the unsaved soul and the saved soul? What does being "Born Again" actually mean? The answer is something that God does for you at the moment you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior: An OPERATION.
Have you ever been operated on by a doctor? The doctor uses a knife to cut away something that is diseased. Well, God's "operation" is similar. Using the Sword of the Lord instead of a scalpel, the Great Physician (Luke 5:31) severs the direct (but unseen) connection between your soul and your flesh:
"For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
(Heb. 4:12 KJV)
"Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with [him] through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." (Col. 2:12 KJV)
This "operation" is a spiritual circumcision. Your flesh is cut away from your soul and you are given God's Spirit:
"But he [is] a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision [is that] of the heart, in the spirit, [and] not in the letter; whose praise [is] not of men, but of God.(Romans 2:29 KJV)
After you have accepted the free gift of salvation through faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as you grow and mature in the Lord (your continuing sanctification), you will begin to notice some changes in how you think. You will find that your heart (soul) grows more and more in agreement with God and His law (which is spiritual), but your flesh will still want to go the way of the world. All true born-again Christians have a split personality, so to speak. And even when you work not to sin (you don't work to stay saved), sin still happens along your path of Christian growth. Paul sums it up quite well in the book of Romans:
"I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." (Romans 7:21-25 KJV)
Your soul is saved, but your flesh, your present physical body, is still dead and cannot be salvaged. It will perish and return to the Earth. (You get a new body later.) Your present flesh will still lust to do those things that are unlawful, while at the same time your heart and the Spirit will condemn those thoughts and feelings and empower you to avoid the temptation. But no Christian is perfect in the flesh, and as you go through this life you will sometimes give in to those feelings and will sin in the flesh (but not in your heart).
FACT: The flesh of Christian people still wants to sin after they are saved:
"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.(1 John 1:8 KJV)
"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:(1 John 2:1 KJV)
When this happens, and the guilt begins to set in, the Christian starts worrying about losing his/her salvation or committing the unpardonable sin. Well, it can't happen. FACT: It is NOT POSSIBLE for a Christian's SOUL to sin, because that soul has been born again by His (God's) seed into God's family:
"Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." (1 John 3:9 KJV)
As your heart knowledge about God's love grows in your Christian walk, you will begin understanding FROM THE HEART the effects of sin and lawlessness on yourself and others. And as you begin to love others as you love yourself, and strive to do unto others as you would have others do unto you, you will find that you are changing and that change comes from the heart by the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Physical circumcision is permanent and cannot be reversed; once that flesh is cut away it is gone forever. The same metaphor applies to circumcision of the heart; once that body of flesh is cut away your soul can't be reattached to it. And Praise God for that!
Salvation is the FREE GIFT of God and eternal; it is not earned (or retained) by good works:
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" (Romans 3:23 KJV)
"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." (Gal 2:16 KJV)
If you are not good enough to earn it, why do so many Christian people think that they can un-earn it?
Once you have given your soul to God it is His forever! If you have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, then you are loved of God and don't have to worry about holding onto God because HE WILL HOLD ONTO YOU.
"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39 KJV)
***
End Of The American Dream
Victory! The Arch From The Temple Of Baal Planned For New York City Has Been CANCELED
By Michael Snyder, on April 10th, 2016
The Temple of Baal is NOT coming to Times Square in New York City next month.
This is great news, and it represents an incredible victory for Christians in the United States. As you will see below, the New York Times, Snopes and a whole host of other mainstream news sources reported last month that everything was on track for reproductions of the giant 48-foot-tall arch that stood in front of the Temple of Baal in Palmyra, Syria to be put up simultaneously in Times Square in New York City and Trafalgar Square in London during the month of April. But now that will not be happening. The only arch that will be going up will be in Trafalgar Square, and it won’t be the one from the Temple of Baal. Instead, the Institute for Digital Archaeology has changed plans and will be putting up a reproduction of the Arch of Triumph which the Romans originally built in Palmyra and that has nothing to do with Baal. So why has there been such a dramatic change in plans?
On Friday, I received an urgent message from a contact that has been investigating this, and she told me that she had talked directly to someone from the Institute for Digital Archaeology and that she had been informed that no arch was going up in New York during the month of April.
I pressed her for confirmation, because every mainstream source that I could find said that the arch from the Temple of Baal was indeed going up next month. So her information would definitely change everything, but I needed to be able to confirm this.
Well, confirmation came in the form of an article from the Telegraph, which is one of the most important news sources in the United Kingdom. On Friday, they reported that the original plan to put up the arch from the Temple of Baal in New York and London simultaneously had been scrapped…
When the IDA revealed last December that it was intending to use its data and expertise to build not one but two replica Palmyra arches – to be unveiled simultaneously in Trafalgar Square in London and Times Square in New York – it generated headlines across the world.
Since then there has been some backtracking on the original idea. There will be no simultaneous unveiling in New York – they may transport the London arch there later, or build another one – and the Palmyra arch that is being reconstructed is no longer the entrance to the Temple of Bel (which survived an attempt to blow it up in August 2015) but the Arch of Triumph (partially destroyed in October) formerly located at one end of the Great Colonnade.
As you can see, this report confirms what they were originally planning to do, and this represents a massive change of direction.
Just a few weeks ago, everything appeared to be all set for this arch from the Temple of Baal to go up in Times Square in April. For example, the following is what the New York Times reported on March 19th…
NEXT month, the Temple of Baal will come to Times Square. Reproductions of the 50-foot arch that formed the temple’s entrance are to be installed in New York and in London, a tribute to the 2,000-year-old structure that the Islamic State destroyed last year in the Syrian town of Palmyra. The group’s rampage through Palmyra, a city that reached its peak in the second and third century A.D., enraged the world, spurring scholars and conservationists into action.
Of course the New York Times was far from alone in reporting about this. The New York Post had also reported that this was a done deal…
A towering arch of an ancient temple in Palmyra, Syria, that has been mostly destroyed by ISIS terrorists will be recreated by a huge 3-D printer and put on display in New York City this spring, officials said on Monday.
The life-size model of the original 2,000-year-old structure, known as the Arch of the Temple of Bel, will stand approximately 48 feet high and 23 feet wide.
And as I write this article, Snopes is still reporting that the arch from the Temple of Baal is going to go up in New York and London…
While it is true replicas of Palmyra’s Temple of Baal arch are being constructed for temporary display in New York and London, the project solely involves reproducing the structure’s arch and not creating a functional building. Moreover, interest in reproducing the demolished antiquity is archeological in nature, not religious.
The big question is this…
Why has there been such a sudden change in plans?
First of all, why is no arch going up in New York next month at all?
Secondly, why has the arch in London been switched to an entirely different arch?
Could it be possible that the alternative media has played a role? Since the original New York Times story last month, a massive firestorm has erupted in the alternative media and this story has gone megaviral all over the Internet.
Could it be possible that they have backtracked because of how much negative attention this story has been receiving?
Of course let us not underestimate the prayers of God’s people. Once this story went viral, Christians all over America started praying against this arch. From personal experience, I know that the prayers of righteous men and women are extremely powerful, and we may never know how much of an impact they had on this situation.
So let us celebrate this victory, but let us also understand that what this country is facing is not going to fundamentally change unless there is true repentance. Because even though a monument to Baal is not going up in New York City next month, we continue to embrace the ways of Baal as a nation.
Since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, more than 58 million babies have been murdered in America, and of course this was a key feature of Baal worship in the ancient Middle East. One place where we find this in the Bible is in Jeremiah 10:4-6…
4 Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;
5 They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:
6 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.
Another key feature of Baal worship that we see reflected in modern society that I discussed in a previous article is the public exhibition of sexual acts. In ancient times, there would be crazed bisexual orgies around the altars of Baal, and large crowds would gather around to watch. And of course today we are a nation that is absolutely addicted to watching other people have sex. In fact, it has been estimated that 68 percent of all Christian men watch pornography on a regular basis.
Unless we change our ways, it is inevitable that the judgement of God is going to hit America extremely hard.
God keep calling us to repent, but we keep shaking our fists at Him as a nation.
At some point, time will run out.
For the moment, let us celebrate this victory over the Temple of Baal.
But let us not relax one bit, because there is an enormous amount of work that needs to be done to try to wake this country up while we still can.
***
WND
THIS GROUP HELPS THE POOR, HUNGRY, WRETCHED, OUTCAST
Bill Federer recounts remarkable history of Salvation Army
Published: April 9, 2017
BILL FEDERET
Millions of people in 118 countries are helped by the Salvation Army, founded by William Booth, who was born April 10, 1829.
At the age of 13, Booth was sent to apprentice as a pawnbroker. His job made him aware of poverty, and the humiliation and degradation poor people suffered. Becoming a Christian as a teenager, Booth studied American preacher Charles G. Finney’s writings on revival and witnessed his faith to others.
At age 26, William married Catherine Mumford and together they founded the Christian Mission to minister to the poor, drunk, outcast and wretched on the dirty and dangerous streets of London’s East End slums. They fought to end sex-trafficking and teenage prostitution in England.
Catherine Booth said: “I felt as though I must go and walk the streets and besiege the dens where these hellish iniquities are going on. To keep quiet seemed like being a traitor to humanity.”
The Booths helped expose a child prostitution ring that took advantage of poor families by buying their young girls with the false promise of a giving them a better future, but instead sold them to brothels throughout Europe. The Booths arranged to buy a girl out of this trade, but those profiting from the prostitution entangled the Booths in a much publicized trial. The Booths were absolved of any charges and the publicity increased their support to end this evil.
With the help of Josephine Butler, the Salvation Army worked to pass England’s Criminal Law Amendment Act in 1885, raising the age of consent, which before was only 13 years of age. In 1884, the Salvation Army established the first rescue home for women and girls escaping sex trafficking and prostitution in London, England.
In 30 years, the number of the Salvation Army rescue homes grew from one in Whitechapel to 117 homes around the world. Adopting uniforms and a semi-military system of leadership, the Salvation Army ministered to the poor, drunk and outcast, while fighting sex-trafficking and teenage prostitution.
William Booth wrote:
While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight;
while little children go hungry, I’ll fight;
while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight-
while there is a drunkard left,
while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets,
where there remains one dark soul without the light of God – I’ll fight! I’ll fight to the very end!
Beginning in 1880, Catherine Booth grew concerned over “sweat labor” shops where women and children worked long hours in very poor conditions, particularly in match-making factories where white phosphorous was used. Exposure to white phosphorus caused one’s skin to yellow, hair to fall out, and phossy jaw, where the jaw glowed a greenish-white color, then turned black and rotted away, leading to death. The Booths’ efforts led to the adoption of safer matches which were struck on sandpaper.
William Booth said: “We must wake ourselves up! Or somebody else will take our place, and bear our cross, and thereby rob us of our crown.”
Discover more of Bill Federer’s eye-opening books and videos in the WND Superstore!
By 1879, the Salvation Army had grown to 81 mission stations staffed by 127 full-time evangelists with over 1,900 voluntary speakers holding 75,000 meetings a year. William Booth was awarded an honorary degree from Oxford. Booth met King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace, Winston Churchill, and was awarded the Badge of Honor on behalf of the city of London.
In 1880, the Salvation Army opened work in the United States, followed by missions in over 100 countries, including: France, Australia, India, Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Jamaica, Hong Kong and mainland China.
On March 28, 1885, the Salvation Army was organized in the United States. William Booth traveled to America where he met President Theodore Roosevelt, and later sent him a telegram, March 7, 1903: “I am more than impressed with the greatness of the nation at whose head you have been placed by the Providence of God. I pray that He may spare you all the wisdom needed. … These kindly feelings which you are known to entertain towards those who grow in misery and helplessness even in this greatly favored country. … May the blessing of Him that maketh rich and addeth no sorrow be on the White House and the Nation it represents.”
William Booth opened a session of the United States Senate with prayer.
The editor of the Salvation Army’s Conqueror magazine, Major T.C. Marshall, sent a letter to Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute, thanking him for his favorable comments regarding the Salvation Army’s effort to minister to African-Americans in the South.
Booker T. Washington replied, July 28, 1896: “I am very glad to hear that the Salvation Army is going to undertake work among my people in the southern states. I have always had the greatest respect for the work of the Salvation Army especially because I have noted that it draws no color line in religion. … In reaching the neglected and, I might say, outcasts of our people, I feel that your methods and work have peculiar value. … God bless you in all your unselfish Christian work for our country.”
Growing blind, William Booth finally died in 1912. Over 150,000 people viewed his casket with 40,000 attending his funeral, including the Queen of England.
William Booth stated: “The chief danger of the 20th century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and Heaven without Hell.”
In 1904, William Booth’s daughter, Evangeline, became the commander of the Salvation Army’s United States forces. Under her leadership, the Salvation Army not only evangelized, but organized programs for unwed mothers, the homeless and disaster relief, especially after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and in U.S. Army canteens during World War I. For the Salvation Army’s work during the war, Evangeline Booth was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919.
The New York Times published an article on Aug. 7, 1927, titled: “Far-flung activity of Salvation Army; Wherever One Goes in New York It Is to Be Found ‘Just Around the Corner.’ It has 47 institutions; These Range Through Training Schools to Hospitals, Nurseries, Refuges and Homes.”
When Evangeline became the Salvation Army’s international commander-in-chief, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent her a telegram, Sept. 4, 1934, saying: “Please accept my sincere congratulations on your election as General of the Salvation Army throughout the world. In these troubled times it is particularly important that the leadership of all good forces shall work for the amelioration of human suffering and for the preservation of the highest spiritual ideals.”
FDR concluded: “Your efforts as Commander-in-Chief of the Salvation Army … have earned the gratitude and admiration of millions of your countrymen.”
On Dec. 1, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson remarked to the Salvation Army in New York: “For a century now, the Salvation Army has offered food to the hungry and shelter to the homeless – in clinics and children’s homes, through disaster relief, in prison and welfare work, and a thousand other endeavors. In that century you have proved time and again the power of a handshake, a meal, and a song. But you have not stopped there. You have demonstrated also the power of a great idea.”
President Lyndon Johnson continued: “The voice of the Salvation Army has reminded men that physical well-being is just not enough; that spiritual rebirth is the most pressing need of our time and of every time; that the world cannot be changed unless men change. That voice has been clear and courageous – and it has been heard. Even when other armies have disbanded, I hope that this one will still be on the firing line.”
Ronald Reagan stated: “The Salvation Army embodies compassion and Christian love in feeding the hungry, caring for the homeless, and attending to the afflicted and downtrodden.”
William Booth wrote: “What are you living for? What is the deep secret purpose that controls and fashions your existence? What do you eat and drink for? What is the end of your marrying and giving in marriage-your money-making and toilings and plannings? Is it the Salvation of souls, the overthrow of the kingdom of evil, and the setting up of the Kingdom of God? If not, you may be religious … but I don’t see how you can be a Christian.”
Brought to you by AmericanMinute.com.
***
CRUX
Maybe it’s time American Christians head for the hills
Father Dwight Longenecker reflects on whether American Christianity should embrace the ‘Benedict option’ of withdrawal.
By The Rev. Dwight Longenecker
April 11, 2016
Is it time to head for the hills? That’s what St Benedict did. By the end of the fifth century the great Roman Empire had completely collapsed. The center of government had moved to Constantinople. The Vandals and Goths had sacked Rome, and the church and people had drifted into decadence and despair.
As a young man Benedict went to study in Rome, but soon gave up and retreated to Subiaco to live as a hermit.
Conservative writer Rod Dreher thinks it is time for American Christians to consider what he calls the “Benedict Option”. He contends that Christians have lost the culture wars, predicts that persecution of Christians is right around the corner, and recommends heading for the hills.
Dreher has a wetted finger in the air, and he doesn’t like the way the wind is blowing. While the Little Sisters of the Poor and other religious organizations are awaiting a Supreme Court decision on religious liberty, Dreher cites last year’s battle in Indiana over the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
In the face of legislation promoting same sex marriage, Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed legislation that protected the religious freedoms of businesses and individuals. There was a widespread backlash—most importantly from business giants like Apple, GenCon and Subaru.
Dreher sees the Supreme Court decision last summer to allow same sex marriage as another major setback for historic Christianity, and he’s ready to throw in the towel.
In the face of increasing secularization, Islamic extremism, urban violence and economic uncertainty, many Christians are feeling nervous and threatened. Furthermore, they not only feel that they are on divergent paths with the culture, but they increasingly feel that discussion is pointless because discussion is impossible.
It’s impossible, according to this line of thinking, because the powers within academia, the media, big business and government have been caught up by what Pope Benedict XVI called “the dictatorship of relativism.” At its most fundamental, relativism rejects the idea of objective truth, thereby making any real debate impossible. If there is no truth, there is nothing but an exchange of opinions.
Abetting the decline of a Christian culture in America is the simultaneous decline of historic Christianity into what Christian Smith calls “Moralistic, Therapeutic Deism.”
Instead of Christianity being understood as a transaction with the supernatural through inspired Scriptures and effective sacraments, mainstream American Christianity (both Protestant and Catholic) has become a bland weekend activity for respectable suburbanites to encourage one another to be nice and overcome their problems. God is reduced to the Deistic version of a celestial Colonel Sanders who, if he exists at all, is having a nap.
American Christianity is therefore indistinguishable from American culture. Both accept mindless materialism as the default setting, and encourage a cheerful hedonism tempered by a self-help mentality in which nobody is really very bad, but neither is anyone really very good.
The result is a cultural collapse into mediocrity and mendacity: a whole population of the bland leading the bland.
Dreher defines the “Benedict Option” as “Christians in the contemporary West who cease to identify the continuation of civility and moral community with the maintenance of American empire, and who therefore are keen to construct local forms of community as loci of Christian resistance against what the empire represents.”
These communities keep alive classical education, nurture reverent worship and cultivate lasting and stable relationships with God and one another. The “Benedict Option” is therefore not so much a resignation in recognition of defeat as it is a retreat to a field of endeavor where something positive can be achieved.
Dreher’s dream has its critics, of course.
“Are we all supposed to become monks?” they ask. Others see the “Benedict Option” as a cowardly cop out or a romantic Utopian dream.
Others are more practical in their critique. “Isn’t the Benedict Option what the church should be doing anyway? Why the need to head for the hills?”
Dreher addresses frequently asked questions and gives examples of parishes, schools, religious communities and families who are consciously and quietly attempting a rejuvenation of Christianity and culture from within their own circumstances.
While one’s decision to take the “Benedict Option” may not be explicit and formal, Dreher’s idea can certainly be the spark for parish and personal renewal. We may not be able to head for the hills, but we can reassess the priorities of our communities and commit ourselves to local social action, renewal of classical education, reverent liturgy and deeper lives of prayer.
This is the step St Benedict took at the end of the fifth century. He established small communities of men and women whose lives were dedicated to worship, scholarship and work.
At Europe’s turning point from the classical age to the age of Christendom, Benedict did what he could, and the seeds he planted grew into a Christian civilization that lasted for a thousand years. Because of his simple faithfulness Benedict is acknowledged as the patron of Europe, and if they are faithful, his followers today might plant the seeds of a New Christendom.
***
EXPRESS
Horror as China tears down THOUSANDS of crucifixes in crude bid to eradicate Christianity
CHRISTIAN communities in China have been left horrified after the government started tearing down THOUSANDS of crucifixes in a crude bid to eradicate the faith in the country.
By LIZZIE STROMME
PUBLISHED: 12:00, Sat, Apr 9, 2016 | UPDATED: 14:24, Sat, Apr 9, 2016
More than two thousand crosses have now been forcefully removed from churches
More than two thousand crosses have now been forcefully removed from churches as part of a government campaign to regulate “excessive religious sites”.
The nation’s leadership launched the crusade to eradicate Christianity in the coastal province of Zhejiang almost two years ago.
Several members of the public have since been arrested for attempting to halt the government's crude attempt to suppress the Christian faith.
Among the arrested was prominent human rights lawyer Zhang Kai, who was detained after he mounted a legal campaign to challenge the removal of the crosses.
Mr Kai was detained for six months before he was "forced" to appear on the State channel to "confess" his crimes against the Chinese governement by supporting the anti-establishment protest of the demolition of crucifixes.
Local Christian leaders condemned the forced confession from the lawyer, who also represented a group Christians who were detained for suspected financial crimes last year after they protested at the demolation of crosses, in a public letter.
The nation’s leadership launched the crusade to eradicate Christianity almost two years ago
There are concerns that this campain to curtail the visable Christian precens in the province could gather momentum
Chief executive of Release international, Paul Robinson
Christian charity China Aid confirmed just before Easter that more than 2000 crosses had now been demolished by the government as part of their “Three Rectifications and One Demolition” campaign.
It also claimed that since the beginnning of 2016 to early March, 49 Churches had been destroyed in the rampage to abolish Christianity.
Restriction in the country make it difficult to provide an accurate estimate of how many Christians live in China, but Government figures suggest there are more than 28 million people, both Protestant and Catholic, practising the faith to date.
Last year it was revealed that China is on track to have the world’s largest population of Christians with the figure surging to more than 247 million by 2030.
At the time Release international, which aids prosecuted Christians across the globe, expressed concerns over the Chinese Government's merciless approach to remove the religious symbol from the city of Wenzhou, which is known as the Chinese Jerusalem for its strong Christian presence.
Chief executive of Release international, Paul Robinson, said: "There are concerns that this campain to curtail the visable Christian precens in the province could gather momentum and spread across China."
After a series of appeals, the Mr Kai was realeased by Zhejiang authorities.
'Something Wicked This Way Comes'
By Jim Kirwan 4-11-16
The events of this morning saw three-thousand people marching from Philadelphia to Washington D.C., to demonstrate in front of Congress, the People's House demanding free and fair elections. “One Person One Vote”: And they were arrested for their efforts. They have promised to continue doing this day after day, all this week, we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
This was the largest March on Washington, that has been seen in modern times, yet this government's response had never been envisioned before.
This week will be a benchmark in global history as well - because of what will be coming, throughout this 'Wicked Week'.
“RUMORS swirling say "Martial Law discussions over a banking system failure" are the reasons President Obama and Vice President Biden are to meet with Fed. Chair Janet Yellen today after the Federal Reserve's Emergency Meeting this morning. In the history of the United States, it has never before taken place that both the President AND Vice President meet "unexpectedly" with the Federal Reserve. Speculation is already flowing all over Washington, DC that it may have something to do with "the survival of the government."
Members of the House and Senate are said to have been "up all night" in discussions and meetings; with floods of phone calls back and forth.
More: Tuesday and Wednesday the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meet in DC and on Thursday the IMF and World Bank meet in DC as well.
All the leading bankers in the world will be in DC this week. Something wicked this way comes and it is coming very, very soon; within days we suspect.
Next Tuesday: The Chinese are scheduled to announce their switch from dollar to yuan on Tuesday, April 19th; which will send about two TRILLION in cash back to the US and send inflation skyrocketing overnight....”
It appears an actual worldwide banking crisis is literally within view on the horizon and this week seems to be when all of it may come to a head. Perhaps that's why the Finance Ministers of the G-20 nations will meet in Washington Tuesday and Wednesday, and then on Thursday, the World Bank and IMF will meet in Washington.
With every major banker in the world meeting in Washington this week, something is surely "up," and many people are starting to think the general public is about to get "hosed." .
“... UPDATE 1:35 PM EDT APRIL 11, 2016
While today's Expedited meeting of the federal reserve was called last Thursday, over the weekend astonishing banking developments took place in Europe.
Austria became the first European nation to utilize the new "Bail-in" regulations, seizing 54% of Senior Bondholders stock value to pay the bad debts ~ While senior bond holders were considered "preferred" creditors and got 46% of their investment covered, Depositors were considered "subordinated" creditors and got: NOTHING! Citizens were left broke.
Five hours later, the Finance Minister of Italy called an Emergency Meeting of Italian Bankers in Rome to engage what he called a "last resort" to deal with 360 Billion in bad loans against banks with only 50 Billion in Capital.
ENENEWS
Top Official: Over 60 million Japanese irradiated by Fukushima — Nuclear Expert: 50,000 sq. miles of Japan highly contaminated… Many millions need to be evacuated… Gov’t has decided to sacrifice them, it’s a serious crime — TV: More than 70% of country contaminated by radiation
Published: April 12th, 2016 at 3:31 pm ET
Interview with nuclear engineer Hiroaki Koide (translation by Prof. Robert Stolz, transcription by Akiko Anson), published Mar 8, 2016 (emphasis added): [Radioactive] material has been dispersed, contaminating Tohoku, Kanto [Tokyo area], and western Japan… [The law says] that absolutely nothing may be removed from a radioactive management area in which the levels exceed 40,000 Becquerels per square meter… [H]ow much area has been contaminated beyond 40,000 Bq/m2… that answer is 140,000 km^2 [54,054 square miles]… Indeed, while centered on Fukushima, parts of Chiba and Tokyo have also been contaminated. The number of people living in what must be called a radiation-controlled area is in the millions, and could exceed ten million… I believe the government has the responsibility to evacuate these entire communities… the government decided to leave them exposed to the real danger of radiation. In my view, Fukushima should be declared inhabitable… but if that were to be done, it would likely bankrupt the country… They’ve decided to sacrifice people… In my view, this is a serious crime committed by Japan’s ruling elite… [F]undamentally, people must not be forced to live in contaminated areas… First must come complete evacuation… [W]hen it comes to radiation… “removal of contaminants” is impossible… This stuff contaminates everything.
Naoto Kan, former Prime Minister of Japan, Apr 11, 2016 (at 2:15 in): The molten material broke through the pressure vessel and accumulated low down in the containment. Now what would have happened if this molten material had escaped from the containment?… A radius of 250 kilometers — which includes the city of Tokyo — anyone living in this area, if you count them up it comes to 50 million or 40% of the Japanese population, and they would all have had to be evacuated. As we know from Chernobyl, not just a couple of weeks, but 30 years or 40 years — it would have virtually meant the end of Japan. [Note: Many nuclear experts believe the molten fuel did in fact escape from the containment] Half the population was subject to radiation [Japan Population: 127 million]. That’s something that could just be imagined, for instance the event of losing a major war.
Arirang (Gov’t-funded Korean TV network), ‘Fukushima and Its Aftermath’, Mar 16, 2016 (at 6:45 in) — Prof. Kim Ik-Jung, Medical College at Dongguk Univ.: “When you look at the contamination map, about 70% of Japan is contaminated by radiation. That means that 70% of Japan’s agricultural and marine products are contaminated.”… According to PNAS, one of the five major scientific journals, over 70% of the land in Japan is contaminated by radiation.
ENENEWS
Nuclear Expert in Fukushima: People’s feet turned black for years because radiation so high — Every time I turned around I saw someone who had radiation damage — Hair falling out, caughing up blood, bodies covered with boils… Officials keeping doctors from telling truth… Public being brainwashed
CCTV, Apr 5, 2016 (emphasis added) — Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen: [During my recent trip to Japan] I met in one of the resettlement areas… The unofficial mayor of this group – a real dynamo of a woman – she experienced hair loss, bloody nose, speckles on her skin and the doctors told her it was stress and not to worry about it. That’s not stress. It was radiation damage. But again, that’s this inhumanity that I was experiencing… Every time I turned around, I saw people that definitely experienced radiation damage. We had one woman who ran from her house to evacuate carrying her dog. About a day after the accident, they realized that she needed to be evacuated. And so she runs barefoot to her car, gets in her car, drives to the resettlement community. She’s highly radioactive. They make her – especially her feet – they make her take her socks off and take showers, wash her down before they let her in. And her feet were black for three years from radiation damage. And that’s not being spoken about in any of the medical journals… [The government wants] to get these other nuclear plants up and running. And if the population is getting ill from radiation effects, it’s a lot harder. So they have… banded together with the medical community. We had numerous doctors say that they were going to lose hospital privileges and things like that. And the people that are keeping track of deaths in Fukushima Prefecture aren’t publishing the data. So the entire government infrastructure, from the people in Tokyo to the underlings in the Prefecture, are all singing the same song: that this is stress, there’s no radiation. And it sure isn’t what I found, I’ll tell you… Were it not for the internet, they would have won. And I think the difference between the disaster at Fukushima and the disaster at Chernobyl and TMI is that now we have the internet. It still is an unlevel playing field. There’s still so much money on the other side of it that people are being brainwashed. Oh, that bloody nose you’ve had for the last 3 weeks is stress. So they are being brainwashed.
REUTERS
World War Three may have already begun in Iraq and Syria
By Peter Van Buren April 7, 2016
Soldiers take pictures as flame and smoke are seen following air bombardments during the Northern Thunder exercises, in Hafr Al-Batin, near Saudi Arabia’s border with Iraq, March 10, 2016. REUTERS/Abedullah al-Desori
The recent death of a Marine in Iraq exposed the fact the United States set up a firebase there, which in turn exposed the fact the Pentagon misrepresented the number of American personnel in Iraq by as many as 2,000. It appears a second firebase exists, set up on the grounds of one of America’s largest installations in the last Iraq war. Special operations forces range across the landscape. The Pentagon is planning for even more troops. There can be no more wordplay: America now has boots on the ground in Iraq.
The regional picture is dismal. In Syria, militias backed by the Central Intelligence Agency are fighting those backed by the Pentagon. British, Jordanian and American special forces are fighting various enemies in Libya, which, as a failed state, is little more than a nascent Iraq likely to metastasize in its neighbors.
But Iraq remains the center of what Jordanian King Abdullah now refers to as the Third World War. It is where Islamic State was birthed, and where the United States seems to be digging in for the long haul.
Though arguably the story of Islamic State, Iraq and the United States can be traced to the lazy division of the Ottoman Empire after World War One, things truly popped out of place in 2003, when the U.S. invasion of Iraq unleashed the forces now playing out across the Middle East. The garbled post-invasion strategy installed a Shi’ite-dominated, Iranian-supported government in Baghdad, with limited Sunni buy-in.
Sectarian fighting and central-government corruption favoring the Shi’ites drove non-ideologues without jobs, and religious zealots with an agenda, together. Clumsy policy cemented the relationship. A senior Islamic State commander explained that the prison at Camp Bucca, operated by the United States, was directly responsible for the rise of the violent, theocratic state inside the divided, but then still largely secular Iraq. “It made it all; it built our ideology,” he said. “We could never have all got together like this in Baghdad, or anywhere else.” So, first came al Qaeda in Iraq, followed by its successor, Islamic State.
Fast-forward through about a year and half of Washington fear-mongering (that caliphate, those lone wolves), as well as the terror attacks in Paris and Brussels, and America’s re-entry into Iraq moved quickly from a Yazidi rescue mission to advisors to air power to commandos to today’s boots on the ground.
Even if Islamic State is destroyed (as every American leader or potential leader has promised), the problems in Iraq, Syria and virtually everywhere else in the Middle East would still plague the rest of the world. Islamic State is a response, and its absence would only leave a void to be filled by something else. The root problem is the disruption of the balance of power in the Middle East, brought on by a couple of regime changes too many.
The primary forces that the United States are supporting to attack Islamic State in Iraq’s Sunni territories are Shi’ite militias. Though they have been given a new name — Popular Mobilization Units — that does not change who they are. One particularly horrifying example: A Shi’ite fighter asked his Instagram viewers to vote on whether or not he should execute a Sunni prisoner.
Washington clings to the hope that the militias and the U.S. administration are united against a common foe – the bad Sunnis in Islamic State. The Iranians and their allies in Baghdad, who are also supporting many of the same militias, are more likely to see this is as a war against the Sunnis in general.
As for any sort of brokered settlement among the non-Islamic State actors in Iraq, if 170,000 American troops could not accomplish that in almost nine years of trying, retrying it on a tighter timetable with fewer resources is highly unlikely to work. It is unclear what solutions the United States has left to peddle anyway, or with what credibility it would sell them, but many groups will play along to gain access to American military power for their own ends.
With no change on the horizon, it seems likely that President Barack Obama’s successor will be inheriting, in the words of one commentator, a “bold new decade-old strategy” that relies on enormous expenditures for minimal gains. The question that needs to be asked is: If war in Iraq didn’t work last time, why will it work this time?
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BREITBART
Swiss Magazine: Europe Is Abolishing Itself Through Mass Immigration
by VIRGINIA HALE8 Apr 20161,025
Europe is abolishing itself and “it is an illusion” to think the continent can cope with the recent wave of mass migration, the editor of a Swiss magazine has warned.
In an editorial in Die Weltwoche, Roger Köppel argues that the terrorist attacks in France and Brussels are “acute symptoms” of Europe’s ill-conceived immigration policies and “just a taste” of things to come.
Many of the observations by the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) MP will shock liberals, as Köppel condemns the mass movement of people entering Europe “under the guise of asylum” as “shock therapy” and “a human experiment” on European societies by politicians with no mandate.
He also points out that attempts by European countries to integrate Muslim populations have failed and cautions that the more “refugees” Europe accepts the more likely terrorist attacks on the continent become.
Köppel warns that terrorists hide among the people arriving in Greece and Italy to seek asylum, echoing Europol’s warning in February that as many as 5,000 Islamic State-trained jihadis could have entered the continent in this way.
The editorial outlines Islam as a danger to European nations cautioning that, as an ideology, this religion is “particularly at risk of being abused by death-seeking fanatics and madmen.”
Köppel’s warning is in stark contrast to comments by European Commission Vice-President Federica Mogherini — who last year raised eyebrows upon declaring in a speech that “Islam belongs in Europe. It holds a place in Europe’s history, in our culture, in our food and – what matters most – in Europe’s present and future.”
Köppel posits that the vast majority of migrants are from areas where “tribal feuds and vendettas” are commonplace and where “Medieval concepts of male honour” are lived with “holy, even fatal zeal.”
Due to this he is pessimistic about their prospects of successfully integrating to European society, believing it likely they will instead import their “pre modern notions of politics, law, women and religion” becoming “hordes of malcontents” whose disaffection with life in Europe will be in danger of becoming explosive.
Köppel’s prognosis for the outcome of the European political establishment’s “refugees welcome” attitude is antithetical to that of Ms Mogherini who, in the wake of the terrorist attacks that last month rocked Brussels stated that “It is not diversity that is destroying our society but the fear of diversity.”
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PRESSTV
Syrian forces to launch operation to retake Aleppo: Premier
Sun Apr 10, 2016 5:52PM
Syria Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi (File photo)
The Syrian prime minister says government forces are preparing an operation to retake control of the northwestern city of Aleppo.
"With our Russian partners we are preparing an operation to free Aleppo and block all illegal armed groups that have not joined or have broken the ceasefire deal," Wael al-Halqi said on Sunday after a meeting with Russian lawmakers in the Syrian capital Damascus.
The premier noted that capturing Aleppo would allow the government forces to advance toward Deir Ezzor, which is held by Takfiri militants including Daesh.
Also on Sunday, army soldiers took control of Barneh and Zaytan villages, which lie south of Aleppo.
Reports said on Saturday that a leader of Takfiri Ahrar al-Sham group, Abdullah Mohamed al-Hassam, was killed in clashes with Syrian army soldiers in Aleppo.
Backed by the Russian air cover, the Syrian army has vowed to press ahead with its counter-terror military operations and drive Daesh elements out of their major strongholds in the war-wracked country.
In yet another major blow to Daesh Takfiris, Syrian armed units regained control of the historic city of Palmyra in Homs Province late last month following weeks of heavy clashes with the militants.
The Syrian government is also involved in indirect negotiations with opposition groups on a political settlement of the crisis in the Arab state. A new round of discussions is to resume between the two sides in Geneva later this month.
The UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, who mediates the negotiations, arrived in Damascus on Sunday to hold talks with senior Syrian officials.
A ceasefire brokered by the US and Russia went into effect on February 27 across Syria. The truce agreement does not apply to Daesh and al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front.Syria has been grappling with a deadly conflict it blames on some foreign states for more than five years. The militancy has left over 470,000 people dead so far, according to a February report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research.
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AS UKRAINE COLLAPSES, EUROPEANS TIRE OF US INTERVENTIONS
Corruption is the stock-in-trade of governments.
Ron Paul
APRIL 11, 2016
On Sunday Ukrainian prime minister Yatsenyuk resigned, just four days after the Dutch voted against Ukraine joining the European Union. Taken together, these two events are clear signals that the US-backed coup in Ukraine has not given that country freedom and democracy. They also suggest a deeper dissatisfaction among Europeans over Washington’s addiction to interventionism.
According to US and EU governments – and repeated without question by the mainstream media – the Ukrainian people stood up on their own in 2014 to throw off the chains of a corrupt government in the back pocket of Moscow and finally plant themselves in the pro-west camp. According to these people, US government personnel who handed out cookies and even took the stage in Kiev to urge the people to overthrow their government had nothing at all to do with the coup.
When Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland was videotaped bragging about how the US government spent $5 billion to “promote democracy” in Ukraine, it had nothing to do with the overthrow of the Yanukovich government. When Nuland was recorded telling the US Ambassador in Kiev that Yatsenyuk is the US choice for prime minister, it was not US interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine. In fact, the neocons still consider it a “conspiracy theory” to suggest the US had anything to do with the overthrow.
I have no doubt that the previous government was corrupt. Corruption is the stock-in-trade of governments. But according to Transparency International, corruption in the Ukrainian government is about the same after the US-backed coup as it was before. So the intervention failed to improve anything, and now the US-installed government is falling apart. Is a Ukraine in chaos to be considered a Washington success story?
This brings us back to the Dutch vote. The overwhelming rejection of the EU plan for Ukrainian membership demonstrates the deep level of frustration and anger in Europe over EU leadership following Washington’s interventionist foreign policy at the expense of European security and prosperity. The other EU member countries did not even dare hold popular referenda on the matter – their parliaments rubber-stamped the agreement.
Brussels backs US bombing in the Middle East and hundreds of thousands of refugees produced by the bombing overwhelm Europe. The people are told they must be taxed even more to pay for the victims of Washington’s foreign policy.
Brussels backs US regime change plans for Ukraine and EU citizens are told they must bear the burden of bringing an economic basket case up to European standards. How much would it cost EU citizens to bring in Ukraine as a member? No one dares mention it. But Europeans are rightly angry with their leaders blindly following Washington and then leaving them holding the bag.
The anger is rising and there is no telling where it will end. In June, the United Kingdom will vote on whether to exit the European Union. The campaign for an exit is broad-based, bringing in conservatives, populists, and progressives. Regardless of the outcome, the vote should be considered very important. Europeans are tired of their unelected leaders in Brussels pushing them around and destroying their financial and personal security by following Washington’s foolish interventionism. No one can call any of these recent interventions a success and the Europeans know it.
One way or the other, the US empire is coming to an end. Either the money will go or the allies will go, but it cannot be sustained. The sooner the American people demand an end to these foolish policies the better.
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RT
Putin dazzles with German skills as he unexpectedly steps in as translator at forum (VIDEO)
Published time: 8 Apr, 2016 15:47
Edited time: 8 Apr, 2016 21:01
The Russian president has surprised the audience at a forum in St. Petersburg, by allowing his German language skills to shine. He stepped in as translator for the former State Secretary of the German Defense Ministry Willy Wimmer.
Wimmer had something to say on the topic of the national idea and value system that identifies Russia.
Putin was enthusiastic enough to ensure Wimmer’s translator was not needed, and the president had no trouble whatsoever in translating the former defense secretary as he spoke.
The German guest later wondered in an interview with RIA news agency if the episode qualified for the Guinness Book of World Records, as it’s not so often that a president acts as a translator at a public event.
Wimmer later told RT that he couldn’t ever expect the Russian president to become his interpreter.
“My wonderful translator was a surprise. I was surprised and I think the whole audience was surprised that the President made use of this opportunity and showed us his excellent knowledge of German language,” he said.
The former State Secretary of the German Defense Ministry stressed that it was pure improvisation on the part of Putin as “there was no chance to prepare” for him.
The amusing moment was provoked by a Russian journalist’s question at the very end of the President’s meeting with the press, and it referred to a discussion held on the previous day of the forum.
Following the event, Wimmer was invited for a one-on-one one chat with the Russian, calling it an indication of “how relaxed and how friendly the whole atmosphere in Saint Petersburg has been.”
“I told [Putin] that this is a unique opportunity that the president of such an important country translates in a public audience something, which is addressed by a guest. I think this never happened before,” he said.
According to the politician, he and the Russian president mainly talked about Wimmer’s native Dusseldorf area in Western Germany during their meeting.
The 3rd Truth and Justice Media Forum of Independent Regional and Local Media took place in Saint Petersburg from April 4 to April 7, gathering over 500 journalists, bloggers, officials and foreign guests.
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THE LOCAL dk
Is it really so strange that Danish kids use nature to learn? Many from abroad apparently think so. Photo: Colourbox
What's the deal with those 'wild' Danish kids?
Published: 31 Mar 2016 10:38 GMT+02:00
Updated: 31 Mar 2016 10:38 GMT+02:00
An Australian TV programme that highlighted Denmark's "kids gone wild" at a forest kindergarten struck a nerve internationally. Parenting expert Jessica Alexander explains why.
A few weeks ago, a video came out from a programme in Australia about a day in the life of a forest kindergarten in Skive in northern Denmark (see it below). It was so shocking for so many around the world that the story went viral.
In the video, children can be seen playing outside in freezing and raining weather, climbing extremely tall trees with no safety net and wading through mud puddles near open water. They are seen rolling down steep, wet, tree dotted hills and whittling sticks with real knives.
For a foreign onlooker, these scenes can conjure up the urge to dial child services. To a Dane, however, this is a rather normal setting for the stage of life growing up in Denmark.
The video made so much global noise, in fact, that it ended up on Danish national broadcaster DR’s Aftenshowet, where the commentators talked about our book ‘The Danish Way of Parenting’ and expressed their surprise that Denmark’s style of parenting could be seen as different to the rest of the world. But indeed, in many ways, it is. And one of the main ways it is different is in the way Danish parents trust their kids.
Teaching children how to do things for themselves and explaining what can be dangerous and why they need to be careful is laying the groundwork for trust. The key, however, is then to stand back and let them respect the boundaries for themselves. This is extremely powerful because children are amazing at following rules when they really understand their purpose and internalize them.
There are over 500 forest kindergartens in Denmark and they are not seen as radicalized baby boot camps. The thought of hovering over children to protect them, as we do in other cultures, or correcting every move they make would seem very strange indeed for a Dane.
Children are natural explorers so the overcorrecting, protecting, taking over a task or barricading any possible danger areas instead of explaining what they are and how to be careful are all contrary to instilling trust and building confidence in kids.
Our inability as parents to just stand back and let our kids hurt themselves is also a fundamental learning curve. Life is about getting skinned knees. It’s about falling down and getting back up. That is resilience. And resilience has been proven to be one of the greatest factors in cultivating happiness.
Seeing that Denmark has once again topped the world happiness charts for 2016, I can’t help but wonder if this instillation of resilience and trust in the young has something to do with those results.
As someone who grew up being told “no, don’t do that” often and currently living in a culture where parents tend to hover over their kids and worry a lot, it’s definitely not always easy to stand back and trust my kids knowing that they can hurt themselves.
But I have so much faith in the Danish way of parenting that I take a breath, close my eyes, and stand back. I really believe that trusting them to trust in themselves will protect them much better than I can in the long run.
So far, (knock on wood) no one has been hurt and no one has called child services on me. I haven’t started my knife whittling class for three to five-year-olds yet though.
In one scene in the Danish forest kindergarten video the interviewer asks in a clearly concerned voice if the teacher is worried about the boys hurting themselves with the huge sticks they are wielding around each other.
The teacher replies very nonchalantly.
“Sometimes they hit, yes, and they get a little accident but that’s the way to learn. Only once I had to drive to the hospital with a boy with a big injury in 17 years. So I am not worried”
The interviewer pauses and asks nervously.
Story continues below…
“And what was the injury?”
“It was a parent who drove over a foot.”
In 17 years of an outrageously dangerous looking kindergarten where children are trusted to follow rules themselves, the biggest injury came from an adult driving over a child’s foot.
They say the truth hurts sometimes and here it really does. If adults could just stand back a little more, we would marvel at how capable kids are with a little trust
Denmark wikipedia
The spread of Christianity in Denmark occurred intermittently. Danes encountered Christians when they participated in Viking raids from the 9th century to the 1060s. Danes were still tribal in the sense that local chiefs determined attitudes towards Christianity and Christians for their clan and kinsmen. Bringing Christian slaves or future wives back from a Viking raid brought large numbers of ordinary Danes into close contact with Christians for perhaps the first time.
As the chiefs and kings of Denmark became involved in the politics of Normandy, England, Ireland, France, and Germany, they adopted a kinder attitude toward their Christian subjects. In some cases the conversion of the chief or king appears to be purely political to assure an alliance or prevent powerful Christian neighbours from attacking. There were instances when the conversion of a powerful chief (Danish: jarl) or one of the kings was followed by wholesale conversions among their followers. In a few instances conversion was brought about by trial by ordeal miracles wrought by saintly Christians in the presence of the king or other great men of the time.
Christian missionaries recognized early on that the Danes did not worship stone or wooden idols as the north Germans or some Swedes did. They could not simply destroy an image to prove that Christ was a superior god. The great religious sites at Viborg, Leira, Lund, and Odense were also the location of Denmark's great assembly places (Danish: landsting). Religious sites in Denmark were often located at sacred springs, magnificent beech groves, or isolated hilltops. Missionaries simply asked to build chapels in those places. Over time the religious significance of the place transferred itself to the chapel.
Even after becoming Christian, Danes blended the two belief systems together. Families who lived close to the earth did not want to offend the local spirits (Danish: landvætter), so offerings were left just as they had been in pre-Christian days. Sacred springs (Danish: kilder) were simply consecrated to one of the local saints associated with the spring and life went on much as it had before. Christian missionaries were able to help the process along by locating churches on or near sacred places, in some cases actually using wood from the sacred groves for church construction. Thor's hammer sign was easily absorbed by the cross.
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***
Natural News
MMR vaccines called one of the 'greatest scandals in medical history' by former Chief Scientific Officer of the UK's Department of Health
Friday, April 08, 2016 by: J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) The former chief scientific officer for Britain's Department of Health who was responsible for deciding if medicines and vaccines were safe for use among the general public says his former employer is guilty of "utterly inexplicable complacency" regarding the mumps, measles and rubella shot.
The UK's Daily Mail Online reports that Dr. Peter Fletcher, who was his country's chief scientific officer in the late 1970s, said if it is ultimately proven that the MMR vaccine is linked to autism, "the refusal by governments to evaluate the risks properly will make this one of the greatest scandals in medical history."
He also said that, after he agreed to become an expert witness in court cases – mostly lawsuits – involving drug safety on behalf of parents with vaccine-injured children, he receive a wealth of information contained in thousands of documents relating to cases he believed the public had a right to see.
Data are steadily accumulating
Fletcher, the Daily Mail Online noted, has borne witness to a "steady accumulation of evidence" from scientists around the world that the MMR vaccine is indeed linked to brain injury in some children.
However, "there are very powerful people in positions of great authority in Britain and elsewhere who have staked their reputations and careers on the safety of MMR and they are willing to do almost anything to protect themselves," he said.
The MMR vaccine-autism link was first discovered by Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a former gastroenterologist and medical researcher, in 1998. His research findings have been savagely attacked by all the usual suspects – governments, Big Pharma, traditional medicine and science – though he maintains today that his findings were sound and that more research is needed to document the effects of the vaccine.
Fletcher's warning come amid reports that the British government was planning to introduce an additional vaccine for pneumococcal meningitis for babies, with vaccination to begin next April. Also, the government is considering recommending the vaccine for children under two years of age – not to protect them but to protect parents and other adults they may come into contact with.
Fletcher first expressed concern about the MMR vaccine in 2001, the Daily Mail Online reported. He said at the time that safety trials before the vaccine was introduced in his country were not adequate. And now he says he is afraid that what he suspected is becoming more apparent, given the rising number of autism cases around the work and a growing understanding, scientifically, of autism-related bowel disease, which ultimately convinced Fletcher the vaccine was to blame.
"Clinical and scientific data is steadily accumulating that the live measles virus in MMR can cause brain, gut and immune system damage in a subset of vulnerable children," he said.
'Why doesn't the government take this seriously?'
"There's no one conclusive piece of scientific evidence, no 'smoking gun', because there very rarely is when adverse drug reactions are first suspected," Fletcher continued, as reported by the Daily Mail. "When vaccine damage in very young children is involved, it is harder to prove the links.
"But it is the steady accumulation of evidence, from a number of respected universities, teaching hospitals and laboratories around the world, that matters here. There's far too much to ignore. Yet government health authorities are, it seems, more than happy to do so," Fletcher added, saying he found "this official complacency utterly inexplicable" in light of the global explosion in autism cases.
"When scientists first raised fears of a possible link between mad cow disease and an apparently new, variant form of CJD they had detected in just 20 or 30 patients, everybody panicked and millions of cows were slaughtered," said Fletcher.
"Yet there has been a tenfold increase in autism and related forms of brain damage over the past 15 years, roughly coinciding with MMR's introduction, and an extremely worrying increase in childhood inflammatory bowel diseases and immune disorders such as diabetes, and no one in authority will even admit it's happening, let alone try to investigate the causes."
He added there just was "no way" a tenfold increase in autism cases could be the result of doctors better recognizing the condition.
"It is highly likely that at least part of this increase is a [vaccine-related] problem." he said. "But whatever it is, why isn't the Government taking this massive public health problem more seriously?"
Sources:
DailyMail.co.uk
NaturalNews.com
OrganicLifestyleMagazine.com
Science.NaturalNews.com
NewsTarget.com
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Until
next week...keep on believing.
Almondtree Productions
“The
eyes of the Lord behold both the evil and the good in every place.”
(Proverbs 15:3)