“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”
(Titus 2:13)
Glorious Appearing

Dear Friends,

Greetings! With this weeks blog People of the Keys enters its tenth year of publication on the Internet.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have helped us both with spiritual and physical support. It is very much appreciated.

We would once again ask for your continued help in whatever way you may be able to do so.

We are very pleased to inform you that the video, “The Coming Temple”, in which we were very much involved has now gone over one million five hundred thousand (1,500,000) views in its various locations on Youtube. This has far exceeded what were our initial expectations. We have also heard from one of the participants in the video, David Sielaff, that it has caused a upsurge in the book “The Temples that Jerusalem Forgot”.

The web site continues to have hits from over one hundred and fifty countries on a monthly basis.

As we travel further into the End Time we will do our best to continue to keep you updated on world and current events as they relate to our understanding of Bible prophecy.

God bless and keep us all as continue at an unprecedented quickening pace towards the hope that is within us, the return of Jesus Christ our Savior.

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GOD REPORTS

In his encounters with heaven, he found relentless joy

By Mark Ellis

He doesn’t fit the mold of some who have had near-death experiences. As a trusted financial advisor and founder of Destiny Capital, he manages over $325 million for his clients.

He’s also had two trips to heaven that left him profoundly changed.

“My calling is to bring people to the reality that the Kingdom of Heaven is closer than we think and we can appropriate it,” says Steven Musick, the author of Life After Heaven. “Heaven exists and we can experience the Kingdom of Heaven in the here and now,” he says.

Born in Denver, Musick grew up attending Christ the King Episcopal Church, where he accepted Christ at seven-years-old. “I didn’t understand the depth of what that commitment meant,” he recounts in his book. “I went through catechism, was an altar boy, and always loved being in church.”

After his first year at college he ran out of money, so he enrolled in the navy’s scholarship-at-sea program, thinking it would be an adroit trade-off to have the government pay for his education while he served.

At a strapping 195 pounds, no one was able to knock him off his feet during basic training. He decided to try out for the SEALS, and was one of only three who made it through the initial selection process. But then the Navy dangled an offer before him he couldn’t refuse: a scholarship to the Naval Academy at Annapolis.

A week after he received the news, he and other sailors received inoculations using a new swine flu vaccine. “The serum (with live virus) was much too strong,” Musick recounts. “Lots of soldiers at Fort Sheridan and the sailors at Great Lakes had a very severe reaction.”

Musick came down with a wicked case of the swine flu that lingered for months. Finally he checked himself into emergency room at Great Lakes Naval Regional Medical Center.

“I had an IV in my arm and a navy nurse walks in and she had a syringe fully loaded with what they thought was the antidote to the swine flu vaccine. It turns out I was allergic to the antidote. They introduced a lethal dose directly into my system. My right arm got really hot. That heat got all the way to my armpit and then the lights went out.”

For the next five weeks Musick was in a coma in ICU. During the time in the coma, Musick had his first encounter with heaven.

Like others who have had near-death experiences, he was transported through a white tunnel. He flew through the tunnel weightless – at incredible speed – and landed at the other end in a beautiful rolling green meadow.

“There was a big wheat field to my right,” he recalls. “There was a gigantic oak tree in front of me and rolling hills and forests to the left. It’s the most vibrant place you can imagine. Nothing compares to it on earth. It’s a real place with geography, real gravity,” he says.

In the book he describes the vibrancy of heaven like “super high-definition television on steroids.” He could hear worshipful music in the background that infused everything, like it was part of the fabric of the place.

Musick was overwhelmed by joy. “Part of the stark contrast (with earth) is that heaven is pure joy and there is no ebb and flow to it. It just comes after you and it’s relentless. It’s the best thing you can imagine,” he says.

God’s peace also erupted within him. He felt like he had arrived at his true home, a place more real and more physical than this world.

Then a strong arm grabbed him around the shoulders in a tight hug and said, “Welcome…walk with me.”

It was Jesus. He describes Jesus as about 35-years-old, with shoulder length brown hair, and a muscular, “working-man’s body.” Musick says he was wearing a white robe, with simple brown sandals on his feet.

For all His strength, he was also gentle, radiant, glowing. “There is a certain light about his countenance,” Musick notes in the book.

A month ago, Musick went to a conference that included a presentation by the photojournalist Michael Belk, who has recreated some of the Gospel stories in artful photographs. “The guy he chose to play Jesus in those photos is a spot-on image of who I saw. When he put the picture of Christ on the screen it took my breath away,” he notes.

In his heavenly encounter with Jesus, the Lord reviewed Musick’s life, providing an eternal perspective on some of the wounds he suffered in his past. “His words were like oil or salve, healing a place where I had been hurt or broken.”

He began to see his parents in a new light. Even a wound he suffered in his junior year of high school with a cheerleader was explained to him.

Like many others who have had such experiences, Musick did not want to leave heaven, but Jesus told him he couldn’t stay. Immediately he was flying through the white tunnel, and in a brief moment opened his eyes in ICU to see a nurse leaning over his bed.

Musick returned to a body devastated by swine flu and his allergic reaction. When he left the hospital his weight had dropped from 195 to 126 and two-thirds of his lung capacity was damaged beyond repair. He had to relearn how to walk.

Unfit for SEALS or Annapolis or military service of any kind, he was discharged as “disabled.”

He had never studied the Bible before, but bought a study Bible and began to dig into it with a hunger for the first time in his life.

Growing up, he knew who Jesus was, knew he was saved, but for the first time he began to grow in his knowledge and love for God and His Word.

Another miracle in his life was that the young woman he met in his freshman year of college, Elaine, stuck with him through his illness and they were married in a small chapel on the University of Denver campus when he was 20-years-old.

It took Musick 10 years before he told Elaine about his experience in heaven. They had two boys together, but because of his physical limitations, he couldn’t do all the things with his boys he wanted to do.

Later, working as a financial advisor, he typically missed several day of work each month due to his compromised immune system.

In 1984, Musick and his wife began attending the Denver Vineyard. “This was a church that prayed for miracles,” he recounts. Surprisingly, Musick never thought to ask for prayer for his lung condition, which his doctor considered permanent.

“I was told to get used to prednisone, hydrochlorothiazide, and my general rotating cocktail of meds to try to keep fluid out of and air getting in and out of my lungs,” he explains in the book. Meanwhile, his heart had enlarged by 50 percent.

On a Sunday in June, 1986, Musick felt himself getting sick. The next day he had fluid in his lungs. By the following Thursday, he could barely get out of bed to dress himself. He told his wife he wanted to go to the Thursday evening prayer service.

“Are you kidding?” she asked. “You ought to be going to the hospital.”

But Musick knew he needed to be at the service that night. He says the worship was powerful and at the end, Pastor Tom led an altar call for repentance, salvation, and healing.

Musick didn’t go forward, but watched a stream of people go up to receive prayer. As things were about to wrap up, Pastor Tom said, “Someone here has been dealing with a malady for years – a decade. You’ve been sick all week…I think you have a respiratory thing.”

No one in the church knew about his history of sickness and disability, other than Elaine. Musick got up from his seat and slowly began to walk forward. An associate pastor, Randy Phillips, met him in front, and reached out to pray for him, putting his hand on Musick’s chest.

He felt a jolt of electricity go through his body and fell to the floor, completely out.

Amazingly, Musick’s book records the details of a second encounter with heaven during the 20 minutes he was on the floor. It also recounts the miraculous healing he received when he awakened!

Life changed after this second visit. “The most important thing is that I could play with my kids,” he says. “I could be a full vital romantic partner to my wife. That’s a pure gift. I was prepared to live a life as a disabled person. But God in his sovereignty said that’s enough.”

His relationship with God also deepened. “Suddenly the communication lines got blown right open,” he says. “Prayer became conversational instead of a one-way road where prayers go up to the ceiling. It became a dialog.”

This was augmented by his personal devotional times and journaling. “I’m a regular guy and I think everybody could have that,” he notes. “I still have that unobstructed flow of communication. The Father is omnipresent. He says He is closer than you think. The Kingdom of Heaven is closer than we think.”

“The thing about Jesus is that he forces you to be present in the moment. You don’t think about the past or future. He commands full presence in the moment. Now 41 years later I still have the residue of that. Once you’ve had that kind of experience you want more.

***

WND

FULFILLED BY FAITH: STEVE MCQUEEN

Friend said he would sooner have believed 'that my hammer and saw would have gotten converted'

by Diane Howard

Published 09.27.2107

Steve McQueen was a man of paradox. He displayed humility and defiance, stinginess and generosity, gentleness and violence, self-assurance and insecurity.

Director Norman Jewison said, “He was a loner, and he was troubled, and he was looking for a father.”

Author Esther O’Reilly observed: “They said that he could act with the back of his head! No fancy dialogue or frills required – his mere presence loomed larger than life in every shot. Put him next to some of the finest actors in the business, and he would undercut every one of them simply by being in the frame. His piercingly distinctive blue eyes were set in a rough-hewn, unconventionally handsome face that rarely betrayed strong emotion. His smallest physical gesture was precisely calculated and gracefully executed. You couldn’t best him, you couldn’t buy him, you couldn’t touch him. He was the King of Cool. He was Steve McQueen.”

Now, as WND reported, “Steve McQueen: American Icon” comes to theaters for a special one-time, Fathom Event, Sept. 28.

The documentary is a redemption story that chronicles McQueen’s retreat from the world of fame and fortune, as he searched for meaning, truth and significance. It recounts how McQueen experienced a transforming, fulfilling faith at the end of his life.

The film is hosted by Greg Laurie, one of America’s leading pastors, who is not only an avid McQueen fan but who also experienced a similar childhood. In his mint replica “Bullitt” mustang, Laurie traveled the country in search of McQueen’s final untold chapter.

The primary interview for the documentary is with McQueen’s third wife, Barbra Minty McQueen. She was a New York model and amateur photographer and took hundreds of never-before-seen candid photographs of McQueen in his last years. Other interviews include Academy Award-winning actor Mel Gibson, renowned stuntman Stan Barrett, celebrated McQueen biographer Marshall Terrill, and actors Barbra Leigh and Mel Novak.

Laurie says McQueen was a product of the loss of his parents. His father, a wandering stunt pilot, left when Steve was a baby. His mother, an alcoholic involved with many men, gave him to grandparents to rear. It was on his grandparents’ farm that McQueen developed his love for racing and stunts.

He was arrested several times as a teen and sent to truancy homes for rebellious kids. He served in the Marine Corps, where he both demonstrated valor and rebellion.

He decided to become an actor, studying with Lee Strasberg. He went into movies, displaying skill at reacting to scenes and performing action roles. He became the highest-paid star in Hollywood.

Many who knew McQueen have fascinating stories about him. These include fellow Marines; young men from the Boys’ Republic, where he had spent some of his teenage years; and fellow movie stars.

His superior Marine officers tell how he spent 41 days in the brig for resisting arrest after going AWOL. The young men from the Boys’ Republic tell how he regularly came back and visited the school after becoming famous, personally responded to every boy’s letter and financially supporting the school until his death.

“Magnificent Seven” co-star Yul Brynner could tell how McQueen stole scenes with distracting bits of business to grab attention. Bruce Lee could tell of a frightening ride in McQueen’s Porsche with Lee cowering in the footwell and threatening to kill McQueen when they stopped. McQueen hit the gas again, refusing to slow down until Lee promised not to hurt him.

McQueen once declared he lived for himself and answered to no one. He said: “I believe in me. God will be number one as long as I’m number one.”

That philosophy guided him as he burned through drugs, marriage and affairs.

In the late 1970s, when his career was fading, he felt empty, unsatisfied and unfulfilled. He began to retreat and developed lung problems.

He followed the advice of doctors and moved in 1979 to the small, quiet town of Santa Paula, northwest of Los Angeles, where he eventually married Minty. They lived in an airport hangar filled with his motorcycle collection. He bought a yellow Stearman bi-plane and learned to fly it. He was quick to master flying as he had done earlier with car racing.

Sammy Mason was McQueen’s flight instructor. In their long hours in the air, they talked about the meaning of life. McQueen asked Mason what made him different. Mason told him it was Jesus Christ.

McQueen respected Mason so much that he began regularly attending Mason’s church. The pastor was Leonard Dewitt, who later recalled that the icon had sat quietly in the balcony without even introducing himself for several months. McQueen requested a meeting with the pastor and fired off questions about life and faith.

At the end of their time, Dewitt said, “Steve, I just have one question for you.”

McQueen, with his signature grin, said, “You want to know if I’ve become a born-again Christian.”

Then, still smiling but serious, he told DeWitt: “When you invited people to pray with you to receive Christ, I prayed. So yes, I’m a born-again Christian.”

Mason said the difference in McQueen was “dramatic.” He also said, “I doubt that I have ever seen a man flourish with more spiritual reality in such a short time.”

Another close Christian friend, John Daly, said: “I think I had more faith that my hammer and saw would have gotten converted before Steve, but I was hearing it from the horse’s mouth. I was blown away.”

Under the discipleship of Mason and DeWitt, McQueen would often pray and read the Bible. He shared his faith with others, including his former assistant, Mario Iscovich.

Iscovich said McQueen “felt he had hurt a lot of people” but had finally “made peace with God.”

McQueen was finally fulfilled by faith.

At the end of his life, McQueen was generous. For example, he became the legal guardian of young girl, whom he sent to school.

He was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, a fast-spreading and incurable form of cancer. In an audio recording from that time, McQueen talked about his illness, his faith and the change in his life.

“My body is gone … broken, but my heart is not broken, and my spirit is not broken. … It is part of the plan … to keep me hanging on,” he said.

McQueen shared dreams of “changing some people’s lives with what I know of the Lord, and what I have to offer with what’s happened to me.”

One of the last people he talked to was famed evangelist Billy Graham, whom McQueen had wanted to meet.

Graham met with McQueen a second time on an airport tarmac just before McQueen was flown to a hospital for surgery to remove his tumors. Graham said McQueen, though bed-ridden and on oxygen, was still “a fighter … under that oxygen, he would talk. His eyes were just as bright, but he looked emaciated and old.”

McQueen told Graham how God had made him a new man. Because McQueen had misplaced his Bible, Graham personally inscribed his own Bible and gave it to the dying actor. He stayed by McQueen’s side and prayed with him.

Four days after meeting with Graham, at age 50, McQueen died of a heart attack with Graham’s Bible resting on his chest, opened to his favorite verse, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

Franklin Graham, chief of Samaritan’s Purse, took to social media to recommend the movie.

“My wife Jane and I are going to the movies tomorrow night to see ‘Steve McQueen: American Icon.’ I’m really looking forward to it! Everything Hollywood had to offer wasn’t enough for this huge star. My father Billy Graham had an impact on him later in his life, and Steve found the only One who could satisfy his soul – the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s a fascinating true story developed into a movie by my friend Greg Laurie. I hope you’ll go see it too – and take a friend.”

***

Contacts and sources:

Birgittte Svennevig

University of Southern Denmark
700-Year-Old Myth about Saint Francis of Assisi Has Been Proven (Almost) True

Scientists confirm that the age and content of an old sack is in accordance with a medieval myth about Saint Francis of Assisi.
For more than 700 years the Friary of Folloni near Montella in Italy has protected and guarded some small fragments of textile.
According to the legend the textile fragments originate from a sack that appeared on the doorstep of the friary in the winter of 1224 containing bread sent from Saint Francis of Assisi, who at that time was in France. The bread was allegedly brought to the friary by an angel.

Saint Francis of Assisi: The oldest surviving depiction of Saint Francis is a fresco near the entrance of the Benedictine abbey of Subiaco, painted between March 1228 and March 1229. He is depicted without the stigmata, but the image is a religious image and not a portrait.

Credit: Wikipedia/Free Art License 1.3
Ever since that cold winter's night the sack has been guarded by the friary, and today the last few remaining fragments are kept as a relic in a well protected shrine.
In line with the legend
A Danish/Italian/Dutch team of researchers led by Associate Professor Kaare Lund Rasmussen from University of Southern Denmark has had the opportunity to conduct scientific studies of the alleged bread sack fragments. Their study is published in the journal Radiocarbon.
C-14 analysis revealed that the textile can be dated to 1220-1295.
The age is in line with the legend, says Kaare Lund Rasmussen, a chemist, and specialized in archaeo-chemical analyses.
There was probably bread in the sack
The researchers also looked for traces of bread in the textile. They did this by looking for ergosterol, a sterol for the fungal kingdom and encountered in several types of mold. Ergosterol can be a potential biomarker for brewing, baking or agriculture.

Our studies show that there was probably bread in the sack. We don't know when, but it seems unlikely that it was after 1732, where the sack fragments were inmured in order to protect them. It is more likely that bread was in contact with the textile in the 300 years before 1732; a period, where the textile was used as altar cloth -- or maybe it was indeed on the cold winter's night in 1224 -- it is possible, says Rasmussen.
Scientific measurements cannot prove a legend or belief. What they can do, is either to de-authenticiate the object or show accordance between the physical/chemical evidence and the legend, say the researchers in their paper, published in the journal Radiocarbon.
Belief versus science
The researchers have not addressed the issue of how the bread sack ended up on the doorstep of the friary.
This is maybe more a question of belief than science, says Rasmussen.
The bread sack: According to legend the bread sack miraculously appeared on the doorstep of the friary in 1224. For 300 years it was used as an altar cloth. During this time pieces were cut off and given to other religious institutions in Italy. After an earthquake in 1732 a new friary was built and the remaining sack fragments were inmured. In 1807 the fragments were moved to the main church, Santa Maria del piano. In 1817 half of the textile was returned to the friary. In 1999 the remaining half returned. Today the fragments of the textile are kept in a reliquary.

In their paper, the researchers have further substantiated the validity of ergosterol as a biomarker for the past presence of bread. It appears that there is a fine correspondence between the Franciscan legend and the two most decisive scientific methods relevant for analyzing the sack. Although it is not proof, our analysis shows that the sack indeed could be authentic.

Kaare Lund Rasmussen is a chemist. He often uses his expertise for solving archaeological mysteries. He has been involved in investigating the dead sea scrolls, the death of Renaissance astronomer and alchemist Tycho Brahe and skeletons from cemeteries in Denmark, Germany and Italy.

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SABOTEURS PART 16: The Magical Agent For Isis Impregnation

September 28, 2017 by SkyWatch Editor

We left off in the last entry saying “to direct the forces of the Great Magical Agent to their proper location, one would need to place a design over the receiving end to establish occult connection.” What better design to choose than the “time-honored [pentagram] symbol” Hall spoke of, which “signifies the five properties of the Great Magical Agent”? But wait… We already have that very symbol, stationed in Washington, DC, as a receptacle. And it’s left open on Rhode Island Avenue, just as Hall discussed, for the “footprint of the Devil.”

Let’s see what else Waite has to say about the Great Magical Agent:

This force was known to the ancients; it consists of a universal agent having equilibrium for its supreme law, while its direction depends immediately on the Great Arcanum of transcendent magic. By the direction of this agent we can change the very order of the seasons, produce in the night the phenomena of day, correspond instantaneously from one end of the earth to the other, discern, like Apollonius, what is taking place at the Antipodes, heal or hurt at a distance, and endow human speech with a universal reverberation and success. The Gnostics represented it as the burning body of the Holy Ghost, and this it was which was adored in the secret rites of the Sabbath or the Temple under the symbolic figure of Baphomet [the pentagram], or of the Androgyne Goat of Mendes [again, the pentagram].

This ambient and all-penetrating fluid, this ray detached from the sun’s splendour, and fixed by the weight of the atmosphere and by the power of central attraction, this body of the Holy Ghost, which we call the Astral Light and the Universal Agent, this electro-magnetic ether, this vital and illuminous caloric, is represented on ancient monuments by the girdle of Isis.[i]

Wait, what? Isis? There are ancient monuments of Isis that represent the power of this Great Magical Agent? The same Isis who impregnated herself upon her dead husband’s corpse through sex magic?

Oh, but that it would stop at only “ancient” monuments and memorials… Regrettably, however, there is more to Isis than her commemoration through archaic Egyptian effigies. I’m sure by now that many readers have heard about the obelisk/dome alignment just outside the Whitehouse… But again, for those of you who are just joining the discussion, let us consider Isis/Osiris/Horus and the magnetic pull of the Great Magical Agent toward our capital’s “footprint of the Devil” pentagram.

The Great Magical Agent as a Means of Impregnation

When touring Washington, DC, or the Vatican, visitors are generally unaware of what it is they’re looking at. Right there, displayed in front of any and all, is an ancient, talismanic diagram revolving around Isis, Osiris, and Horus, and this diagram includes the “magical” functions to bring these deities out from where they currently reside.

Similarly, in St. Peter’s Square, the Vatican’s esteemed courtyard, there is an oval-shaped ground design with lines tracing a cross with an obelisk at the center. The red granite obelisk, which stands forty meters tall, was carved by the Egyptians in the thirteenth century BC. In AD 37—only a few years after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ—Roman Emperor Caligula had the structure moved to the central spina of the Circus Gai et Neronis (“Circus of Nero” and frequently now “Circus of Caligula”). In 1586, Pope Sixtus V ordered the engineer and architect Domenico Fontana to once again uproot and transport the obelisk to its current location at the Vatican. The task took over four months, and utilized nine hundred laborers, one hundred forty horses, and seventy winches.

An aerial shot of this attraction shows what is known as a “Sun Wheel,” with the varying lines forming “rays” that travel out from the center, wherein lies the obelisk—the placement of which in relation to the sun design is no accident. And note that although the line patterns are different, there is a similar design around the Washington Monument. It’s clearly a sun-shaped layout, but instead of that “power-going-out” style, it has a “power-going-in” archetypal eclipse or lens-flare style. Due to the intentional similarity of these structured arrangements, the US has been referred to as the “Mirror Vatican.” Our forefathers initially named our capital city “Rome.”

The word “obelisk,” when researched, typically leads to dead ends, save for a description of what it looks like and how it’s built. In fact, it wasn’t until the early 1900s that the symbolism behind the obelisk was more accessible to the modern, public world thanks to the exposure by the Encyclopedia Americana Corporation (and others). According to their findings (written in 1919):

The Obelisk represents the Sun. The ancient Egyptians were sun-worshippers: they regarded the great luminary as the creator of the universe, the maker of all gods above and below, and even as the author of himself. The sun as Ra, the great god of the Egyptians, was represented upon monuments by the solar disc. In time several other names and attributes were applied to him. The rising sun was called Har-em-khu, “Horus on the horizon.” During his daily course he was Ra, “the life-giver,” representing day, light, etc. The setting sun, the symbol of night, darkness, and death, was worshipped as Tum or Temu. When the number of deities in the Egyptian pantheon multiplied, Ra appeared upon the monuments and in the papyri under different forms and names, and is represented alike by animate and inanimate objects. The two most striking and characteristic monuments which represented him on earth were the obelisk and the pyramid. The obelisk, symbolical of light and life, represented his daily course; the pyramid, symbolical of darkness and death, the setting sun.

Ra was praised as “the Double Obelisk” and the “Double Sphinx” deity…. The double sphinx is the symbol of his early rising, and is called Har-em-khu, and according to the “Book of Dead” (q.v.) is the symbol of resurrection. The obelisk is the technical figure of one ray or pencil of light emanating from the sun.

The material chosen for the obelisk was generally red granite, or syenite—a few, however, being of hard sandstone. The former was procured from the granite quarries at Syene (the modern Assouan). Red granite, some Egyptologists think, was chosen for two reasons: First, as being the most durable material, fitly representing the eternal sun. Secondly, on account of its red hue, suggesting the color of the solar disc at his rising and setting.

There were many obelisks throughout Egypt, but An, the city of the Sun (Heb., On; Greek, Heliopolis, the Beth-shemcsh of the Bible), was the centre of sun worship and undoubtedly contained several obelisks [including the one now standing in the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square].[ii]

In addition to the obelisk’s association with being at the center of sun worship is the direct correlation of its shape to that of the male reproductive organ. The origin of the word “obelisk,” as far back as most etymology dictionaries can trace, is the Greek obelischos, “small spit, obelisk, leg of a compass,” which is diminutive of obelos, “pointed pillar, needle.”[iii] This explanation, however, is limited by a modernized description of its shape alone, and only dates back to (at the very earliest) the first Greeks circa 1900–1600 BC. The Greeks who assigned the sound of o-bel-isk to their developing language would have had a reason to name this pillar by the meaning the early inhabitants of that culture had assigned to it.

It is a well-known fact that “the original Egyptian obelisks were quite seriously conceived as phalli.”[iv] In fact, occult researcher/writer Charles Berger takes it one step further when he states, “All pillars or columns [in ancient cultures] originally had a phallic significance, and were therefore considered sacred.”[v]

For some, the following explanation of etymology will be obvious, but I have observed in my experience that many readers don’t truly consider etymology, and many others don’t even know what it is. For this reason, I will explain the process.

Etymology is the study of how a word was originally formed. The word “Internet,” as one example, is a modern word. There is no ancient word belonging to what we today know as the World Wide Web because it didn’t exist in the ancient world. When we say “Internet,” people know we are describing “a vast computer network linking smaller computer networks worldwide…[through the use of] the same set of communications protocols,”[vi] or more simply, that thing we log on to over the computer at night to check e-mail. So, when we say “Internet,” everyone knows what we’re describing and what the word means in the same way many know that an obelisk is a “pointed pillar.” However, the word “Internet” is a compound word made up of: 1) the prefix “inter-,” meaning “‘between,’ ‘among,’ ‘in the midst of,’ ‘mutually,’ ‘reciprocally,’ ‘together,’ [and] ‘during,’”[vii]and 2) “net(work),” meaning “a netlike combination of filaments, lines, veins, passages, or the like.”[viii] Our culture has taken one prefix that means mutual, active cooperation between two or more sources and combined it with a word that describes a linking-up of pathways. This is how etymology works.

Fortunately, “Internet” is such a young word that we have no problem locating the etymological origins of it; unfortunately, “obelisk” is such an ancient word that many have a hard time locating the etymological origins of it. By the time “Internet” was a word, we had established worldwide communication, so the word is the same in many foreign languages, despite slight variations of accent marks, dialect, pronunciation, and so on, and generally everyone is capable of understanding the prefix “inter-” alongside the noun “net” because they are words our modern world is familiar with. When “obelisk” was formed as a word, there was limited communication between one region and another, so one has to look back to that one specific region of the earliest of languages to figure out what “o” and “bel” and “isk” would mean to them when put together.

Herodotus, the Greek traveler, is largely attributed as the writer who named the object as he documented the cultures he visited and the structures he observed. As such, he would have had the opportunity to look up at an edifice and call it by what it meant to the people of those lands but within his own language. In Greek, o is a prefix that frequently associates with “seed,” bel means “lord” or “master,” and isk is a suffix meaning “small.” So the story goes that Herodotus was wandering about the civilizations of the ancient world, had prior familiarity with the concept that the structure was phallic to the original Egyptian carvers, and called it, essentially, “a smaller representation of the master’s.” If the o did mean to Herodotus (if he is, in fact, the coiner of the word) what it meant in other words with o as a prefix associating with “seed,” then we arrive at: “a smaller representation of the master’s seed [and by extension, his male reproductive organ].”

Which “master” would this refer to? That’s where we get into the simpler etymology of the word bel to the first Greeks. “Belzebub” is Old English, based on Greek, which came from the original Hebrew for the Philistine god worshipped at Ekron, “ba’al-z’bub” (Hebrew; 2 Kings 1:2) and the Babylonian “sun god” or Baal, the “lord of the flies” when used by itself. Today, Christians have heard the name “Baalzebub” (more often “Beelzebub”) and hear it as another name for Satan, but they very rarely understand that, to the ancients, “Baal” was a prefix/title the Hebrews assigned to the foreign little-g “gods” that were worshipped by neighboring territories. (Consider as examples Baal-berith, who was the “the covenant lord” of the Shechemites and Baal-peor, who was the “lord of the opening” over the Moabites and Midianites.) This renders our previous conclusion to read “a smaller representation of Baal’s seed,” or, more truncated, “the shaft of Baal.”

From Cathy Burns’ Masonic and Occult Symbols Illustrated, we read:

The obelisk is a long pointed four-sided shaft, the uppermost portion of which forms a pyramid. The word “obelisk” literally means “Baal’s Shaft” or Baal’s organ of reproduction. This should be especially shocking when we realize that we have a gigantic obelisk in our nation’s capital known as the Washington Monument.[ix]

(To remind the reader of at least one thing Baal meant to the Egyptians, as well as to earlier chapters in this book, where cannibalism was connected to the arrival of giants and/or those cultures that worshipped the demon gods of the giants that migrated across the ancient world including the Americas: Cahna-Bal means “priest of Baal.” It is from this that we derive the English word “cannibal,” a person who consumes the flesh and blood of another human, based on the same rituals the priests of Baal carried out in honor of their god. Baal was highly associated with cannibalism in Jeremiah 19. Note that through the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist, it is believed that consumption of bread and wine at communion is to partake of the actual, literal flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. I direct no personal attack upon those who are sincerely visiting the Lord’s Table to draw closer to Him within the Catholic faith. However, many reputable Christian scholars have pointed out that the Catholic Eucharist is a reenactment of the ritualistic flesh-eating by the Baal priests, and I doubt many sincere Catholics are aware of this.)

So far, we have the Sun Wheel at the Vatican and the “eclipse” or “lens flare” sun pattern at the Washington Monument to signify sun worship—both with a structure that meant “Baal’s phallus” at the center. Now let’s consider the shape and location of the domes.

Ancient pagan religions viewed an altar as symbolic of the female body. The Egyptian and Babylonian temples were built with strategic placement so that the shrine and the entrance of the temple faced in the same direction of the sun’s rising in summer. On one day per year, the sun would hover directly above the erect obelisk (“charging it,” so to speak), and as the sun went down, the shadow of the obelisk stretched along the courtyard and into the entrance of the temple and forward into the “dome.” If the place of worship was designed as symbolic of the female body, and the dome is built in the shape of a pregnant belly, then it doesn’t take rocket science to see that this was a representative “impregnating” of Baal’s seed directly into the temple of the people.

The primeval concept, then, was designed in antiquity for the express purpose of regeneration, resurrection, and apotheosis, for deity incarnation from the underworld to earth’s surface through union of the respective figures—the dome (ancient structural representation of the womb of Isis) and the obelisk (ancient representation of the erect male phallus of Baal—and Osiris—which we will discuss shortly).

The question should then be asked: Why do the world’s most powerful government on earth (the US) and the world’s most politically influential Church on earth (with headquarters at the Vatican) have these symbolic impregnation schematics built upon their ground, and what are they expecting this to accomplish?

Digging a little deeper into the theology behind all of this, one should remember that both the apostle Paul’s writings and the book of Revelation pointed to the eschatological marriage between the political and religious authorities (the Antichrist and the False Prophet) at the return of Osiris/Apollo.

According to the official building records of both locations, the dome/obelisk design was adapted from the Roman Pantheon, which was the circular, domed rotunda “dedicated to all gods,” and directed by Thomas Jefferson. The US Capitol building is also historically based on pagan Masonic temple themes. Jefferson wrote a letter to the architect behind the project, Benjamin LaTrobe, referring to the design as “the first temple dedicated to…embellishing with Athenian taste the course of a nation looking far beyond the range of Athenian destinies.”[x] The “Athenian” empire was first known as “Osiria,” the kingdom of Osiris. In 1833, Massachusetts Representative Rufus Choate agreed with Jefferson’s esoteric affiliation, writing, “We have built no national temples but the Capitol.”[xi] William Henry and Mark Gray, in their book, Freedom’s Gate: Lost Symbols in the U.S. Capitol, add that, “The U.S. Capitol has numerous architectural and other features that unquestionably identify it with ancient temples.”[xii] After listing various features to make their case that the US Capitol building is a “religious temple”—including housing the image of a deified being, heavenly beings, gods, symbols, inscriptions, sacred geometry, columns, prayers, and orientation to the sun—they conclude:

The designers of the city of Washington DC oriented it to the Sun—especially the rising Sun on June 21 and December 21. The measurements for this orientation were made from the location of the center of the Dome of the U.S. Capitol, rendering it a “solar temple.” Its alignment and encoded numerology point to the Sun as well as the stars. A golden circle on the Rotunda story and a white star in the Crypt marks this spot.… It is clear that the builders viewed the Capitol as America’s sole temple: a solemn…Solar Temple to be exact.[xiii]

Prophetic and supernatural alchemy. Again, this notion sounds sensational. However, the rabbit trail of proofs continues. Inasmuch as the obelisk was seen as the “shaft of Baal,” it was also the “shaft of Osiris.”

The legendary ritual for reincarnating Osiris (which, as we have discussed, is the ritual performed by Freemasons at each Master Mason ceremony) formed the core of Egyptian cosmology and was fantastically venerated on the most imposing scale throughout all of Egypt by towering obelisks (representing the phallus of Osiris) and domes (representing the pregnant belly of Isis) including at Karnak where the upright obelisks were “vitalized” or “stimulated” from the energy of the masturbatory sun-god Ra (mentioned prior) shining down upon them.

There is historical evidence that this elaborate myth and its rituals may have been based originally on real characters and events. We’ll get into that and why it is very important in the next entry…

[I] Ibid., 69; emphasis added.
[ii] The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge in Thirty Volumes:Volume 20, “Obelisk,” (Albany, NY: J. B. Lyon Company, 1919), 536–537.
[iii] “Obelisk,” Online Etymology Dictionary, last accessed April 27, 2017, http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=obelisk.
[iv] Barbara G. Walker, The Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects (San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row Publishers, 1988), 469.
[v] Charles G. Berger, Our Phallic Heritage (New York: Greenwich Book Publishers, 1966), 60; emphasis added.
[vi] “Internet,” Dictionary.com, last accessed November 3, 2016, http://www.dictionary.com/browse/internet?s=t.
[vii] “Inter-,” Dictionary.com, last accessed November 3, 2016, http://www.dictionary.com/browse/inter-.
[viii] “Network,” Dictionary.com, last accessed November 3, 2016, http://www.dictionary.com/browse/network.
[ix] Cathy Burns, Masonic and Occult Symbols Illustrated (Mt. Carmel, PA: Sharing Publishers, 1998), 341.
[x]“Growth of a Young Nation,” U.S. House of Representatives: Office of the Clerk, last accessed November 4, 2016, http://artandhistory.house.gov/art_artifacts/virtual_tours/splendid_hall/young_nation.aspx.
[xi]“1964–Present: September 11, 2001, The Capitol Building as a Target,” United States Senate, last accessed November 4, 2016, http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Attack.htm.
[xii] William Henry and Mark Gray, Freedom’s Gate: Lost Symbols in the U.S. (Hendersonville, TN: Scala Dei, 2009) 3.
[xiii] Ibid., 4.

***

LIFE SITE

62 scholars correct Pope Francis for ‘propagating heresies’

Pete Baklinski

September 23, 2017

ROME, September 23, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – Expressing “profound grief” and “filial devotion,” Catholic clergy and lay scholars from around the world have issued what they are calling a “Filial Correction” to Pope Francis for “propagating heresy.”

The Filial Correction, in the form of a 25-page letter, bears the signatures of sixty-two Catholic academics, researchers, and scholars in various fields from twenty countries. They assert that Pope Francis has supported heretical positions about marriage, the moral life, and the Eucharist that are causing a host of “heresies and other errors” to spread throughout the Catholic Church.

The correction was delivered to the Pope at his Santa Marta residence on August 11, 2017. No similar action has taken place within the Catholic Church since the Middle Ages, when Pope John XXII was admonished for errors which he later recanted on his deathbed.

“With profound grief, but moved by fidelity to our Lord Jesus Christ, by love for the Church and for the papacy, and by filial devotion toward yourself, we are compelled to address a correction to Your Holiness on account of the propagation of heresies effected by the apostolic exhortation Amoris laetitia and by other words, deeds and omissions of Your Holiness,” the signers write in the letter.

“As subjects, we do not have the right to issue to Your Holiness that form of correction by which a superior coerces those subject to him with the threat or administration of punishment,” they state.

“We issue this correction, rather, to protect our fellow Catholics — and those outside the Church, from whom the key of knowledge must not be taken away — hoping to prevent the further spread of doctrines which tend of themselves to the profaning of all the sacraments and the subversion of the Law of God,” they add.

The signers respectfully insist that Pope Francis condemn the heresies that he has “directly or indirectly upheld,” and that he teach the truth of the Catholic faith in its integrity.

They say that they make “no judgment” about the Pope’s culpability in propagating the seven heresies they list. They add that it is not their task to “judge whether the sin of heresy has been committed” whereby a person “departs from the faith by doubting or denying some revealed truth with a full choice of the will.”

The letter was made public today, six weeks after the signers received no response from the Pope.

Duty to correct

The 62 clergy and lay scholars explain that, as believing and practicing Catholics, they have the right and duty to issue such a correction to the Pope “by natural law, by the law of Christ, and by the law of the Church” and that the correction in no way undermines Catholic teaching on papal infallibility.

The Catholic Church teaches that the Pope is infallible (incapable of error by a special gift of the Holy Spirit) when certain conditions are met. He teaches infallibly in his ordinary capacity when a doctrine is consistent, constant, and universal in relation to what the Church and other popes have always taught. Or in an extraordinary capacity, he teaches infallibly when he speaks “ex cathedra,” that is, when he speaks in the capacity of his office as Apostolic pastor and teacher for the purpose of defining a “doctrine of faith or morals to be held by the whole Church.” The Pope is not infallible in other matters, such as when he gives an off-the-cuff interview or presents his personal reflection on a given topic.

“We adhere wholeheartedly to the doctrine of papal infallibility,” the signers state, adding that in their opinion “neither Amoris Laetitia nor any of the statements which have served to propagate the heresies which this exhortation insinuates are protected by that divine guarantee of truth.” The signers’ opinion that the exhortation is not infallible magisterial teaching is backed by leading churchmen, such as Cardinal Raymond Burke.

The signers list a dozen passages from Amoris Laetitia that they say “serve to propagate seven heretical propositions.”

Included in the list is the “smoking” footnote 351 where the Pope writes that those living in an objective situation of sin can receive the “help of the sacraments” to grow in the life of grace and charity. Many have interpreted this to mean that civilly-divorced-and-remarried Catholics living in adultery can receive Holy Communion, and the Pope has endorsed guidelines allowing this. Also included in the list is the text pertaining to couples living in adultery who, the Pope writes, see their situation as “what God himself is asking” of them, despite falling short of the “objective ideal.”

The scholars say that these passages along with a number of “words, deeds and omissions” of the Pope are “serving to propagate heresies within the Church.”

According to the signers, the “words, deeds and omissions” of Pope Francis that promote heresy include:

• Refusing to answer the dubia (five yes-or-no questions) submitted by the four cardinals (two of whom are now deceased) asking him to confirm that Amoris Laetitia does not abolish five teachings of the Catholic faith.

• Forcibly intervening at the 2015 Synod of the Family where he insisted on inserting into a midterm report a proposal (that did not receive sufficient votes) to allow communion for adulterers and a proposal that pastors should emphasize the “positive aspects” of lifestyles the Church considers gravely sinful, including civil remarriage after divorce and premarital cohabitation.

• Endorsing an interpretation of the exhortation by Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schönborn that allows for Holy Communion to be given to adulterers.

• Affirming the statement of the bishops of the Buenos Aires region that allowed Communion to be given to adulterers, stating that “there are no other interpretations.”

• Appointing to positions of influence within the Church men who publicly dissent from Catholic teaching on the sacraments, including Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia and Cardinal Kevin Farrell.

• Allowing guidelines for the diocese of Rome to be issued under his authority that permit adulterers to receive communion under certain circumstances.

• Leaving uncorrected the publication in L’Osservatore Romano, the official journal of the Holy See, the Maltese bishops’ interpretation of Amoris Laetitia that allows communion for adulterers.

Seven heresies

The Catholic clergy and lay scholars go on to list seven “false and heretical propositions” which they say Pope Francis “directly or indirectly” upholds through his “words, deeds, and omissions.” These seven propositions, listed below, are summaries of the positions which they attribute to Pope Francis and deem to be heretical.

1. A justified person has not the strength with God’s grace to carry out the objective demands of the divine law, as though any of the commandments of God are impossible for the justified; or as meaning that God’s grace, when it produces justification in an individual, does not invariably and of its nature produce conversion from all serious sin, or is not sufficient for conversion from all serious sin.

2. Christians who have obtained a civil divorce from the spouse to whom they are validly married and have contracted a civil marriage with some other person during the lifetime of their spouse, who live more uxorio [as husband and wife] with their civil partner, and who choose to remain in this state with full knowledge of the nature of their act and full consent of the will to that act, are not necessarily in a state of mortal sin, and can receive sanctifying grace and grow in charity.

3. A Christian believer can have full knowledge of a divine law and voluntarily choose to break it in a serious matter, but not be in a state of mortal sin as a result of this action.

4. A person is able, while he obeys a divine prohibition, to sin against God by that very act of obedience.

5. Conscience can truly and rightly judge that sexual acts between persons who have contracted a civil marriage with each other, although one or both of them is sacramentally married to another person, can sometimes be morally right or requested or even commanded by God.

6. Moral principles and moral truths contained in divine revelation and in the natural law do not include negative prohibitions that absolutely forbid particular kinds of action, inasmuch as these are always gravely unlawful on account of their object.

7. Our Lord Jesus Christ wills that the Church abandon her perennial discipline of refusing the Eucharist to the divorced and remarried and of refusing absolution to the divorced and remarried who do not express contrition for their state of life and a firm purpose of amendment with regard to it.

The clergy and scholars state that these “propositions all contradict truths that are divinely revealed, and that Catholics must believe with the assent of divine faith.”

They add that it is “necessary” that such heresies be “condemned by the authority of the Church,” on account of the “great and imminent danger” they cause to souls.

As one of the signers explained to LifeSiteNews, St. Thomas Aquinas taught that faithful Catholics have a duty to correct an erring prelate. He quoted the following passage from the saint’s famous theological work Summa Theologiae:

If the faith were endangered, a subject ought to rebuke his prelate even publicly. Hence Paul, who was Peter’s subject, rebuked him in public, on account of the imminent danger of scandal concerning the faith, and, as the gloss of Augustine says on Gal. 2:11, Peter gave an example to superiors, that if at any time they should happen to stray from the straight path, they should not disdain to be reproved by their subjects.

The signers conclude the letter, writing: “At this critical hour, therefore, we turn to the cathedra veritatis [seat of truth], the Roman Church, which has by divine law pre-eminence over all the churches, and of which we are and intend always to remain loyal children, and we respectfully insist that Your Holiness publicly reject these propositions, thus accomplishing the mandate of our Lord Jesus Christ given to St Peter and through him to all his successors until the end of the world: ‘I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren.’"

One significant name in the list of signers is that of Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX). He signed the letter after it had already been submitted to the Pope. It remains to be seen how Fellay’s agreement with the content of the filial correction will affect Pope Francis’ recent efforts to integrate the SSPX legally into the Catholic Church.

Signs of the times

The filial correction comes after more than a year of the Pope not dialoguing or engaging with faithful Catholics who have approached him directly with serious concerns about how he is steering the Barque of Peter, the Church. The Pope has been sent letters, petitions, video messages, and official questions (the dubia), but all to no avail. Significant dates of attempts to dialogue with the Pope include:

• September 29, 2015 – 791,000 Catholics (including 8 cardinals, over 200 bishops, and numerous priests, religious, and lay faithful representing 62 pro-family organizations) petition Pope Francisto end the “widespread confusion arising from the possibility that a breach has been opened within the Church that would accept adultery... and would virtually even accept homosexual unions.”

• July 13, 2016 – 16 international life-and-family advocates plead with the Pope to “unambiguously speak the truth of the Catholic faith, to end doctrinal confusion, to restore clarity, and to be the Holy Father that Catholics need.”

• July 11, 2016 – 45 Catholic scholars submit a letter to the cardinals and Eastern patriarchs of the Church asking them to petition the Pope to “repudiate a list of erroneous propositions” that can be drawn from Amoris Laetitia.

• September 19, 2016 – Four cardinals (two of whom are now deceased) submit to the Pope five yes-or-no questions (dubia) asking if the exhortation conforms to perennial Catholic teaching on the moral life. The questions were never answered.

• January 18, 2017 – Three Eastern European bishops launch a “spiritual crusade” urging the Pope to “revoke in an unequivocal manner” pastoral guidelines stemming from Amoris Laetitia that allow adulterers to receive Holy Communion.

• April 25, 2017 – The four dubia cardinals unsuccessfully ask the Pope for a private audience to discuss “confusion and disorientation” within the Church after the publication of Amoris Laetitia.

The filial correction comes as a "formal correction" of the Pope from cardinals may be imminent.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the dubia Cardinals, told The Wanderer last month that this "formal correction" would involve a clear presentation of the Church's teaching on the points at issue, alongside what the Pope is actually saying on those points. "If there is a contradiction, the Roman Pontiff is called to conform his own teaching in obedience to Christ and the Magisterium of the Church,” he said.

"It is done very simply by a formal declaration to which the Holy Father would be obliged to respond," he said.

Burke said he and the other three cardinals – Walter Brandmuller, Joachim Meisner, and Carlo Caffarra (the latter two now deceased) – issued the dubia "in order to give [Pope Francis] the occasion to set forth the Church’s unchanging teaching."

"Pope Francis has chosen not to respond to the five dubia, so it is now necessary simply to state what the Church teaches about marriage, the family, acts that are intrinsically evil, and so forth," he explained. "These are the points that are not clear in the current teachings of the Roman Pontiff; therefore, this situation must be corrected. The correction would then direct itself principally to those doctrinal points."

In an interview this week with Australia's Catholic Outlook, Burke said the need for a response to the dubia is urgent because of the "harm done to souls by the confusion and error."

"The urgency weighs very heavily on my heart,” he said.

The Filial Correction and its signatories, along with a summary statement and press release, can be viewed at www.correctiofilialis.org.

Editor's note: Diane Montagna contributed to this report.

Signatories of the Filial Correction
Note: The letter delivered to Pope Francis on August 11 contained 40 names. 22 more names have been added since that date.
Dr. Gerard J. M. van den Aardweg
European editor, Empirical Journal of Same-Sex Sexual Behavior
Prof. Jean Barbey
Historian and Jurist, former Professor at the University of Maine
Fr Claude Barthe
Diocesan Priest
Philip M. Beattie BA (Leeds), MBA (Glasgow), MSc (Warwick), Dip.Stats (Dublin)
Associate Lecturer, University of Malta (Malta)
Fr Jehan de Belleville
Religious Dr. Philip Blosser
Professor of Philosophy, Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Archdiocese of Detroit
Fr Robert Brucciani
District superior of the SSPX in Great Britain
Prof. Mario Caponnetto
University Professor, Mar de la Plata (Argentina)
Mr Robert F. Cassidy STL
Fr Isio Cecchini
Parish Priest in Tuscany
Salvatore J. Ciresi M.A.
Director of the St. Jerome Biblical Guild, Lecturer at the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College
Fr. Linus F Clovis Ph.D., JCL, M.Sc., STB, Dip. Ed
Director of the Secretariat for Family and Life in the Archdiocese of Castries
Fr Paul Cocard
Religious
Fr Thomas Crean OP STD
Prof. Matteo D'Amico
Professor of History and Philosophy, Senior High School of Ancona
Dr. Chiara Dolce PhD
Research doctor in Moral Philosophy at the University of Cagliari
Deacon Nick Donnelly MA
Petr Dvorak
Head of Department for the Study of Ancient and Medieval Thought at the Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague
Professor of philosophy at Saints Cyril and Methodius Theological Faculty, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
H.E. Mgr Bernard Fellay
Superior General of the SSPX
Christopher Ferrara Esq.
Founding President of the American Catholic Lawyers’ Association
Prof. Michele Gaslin
Professor of Public Law at the University of Udine
Prof. Corrado Gnerre
Professor at the Istituto Superiore di Scienze Religiose of Benevento, Pontifical Theological University of Southern Italy
Dr. Ettore Gotti Tedeschi
Former President of the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), Professor of Ethics at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan
Dr. Maria Guarini STB
Pontificia Università Seraphicum, Rome; editor of the website Chiesa e postconcilio
Prof. Robert Hickson PhD
Retired Professor of Literature and of Strategic-Cultural Studies
Fr John Hunwicke
Former Senior Research Fellow, Pusey House, Oxford
Fr Jozef Hutta
Diocesan Priest
Prof. Isebaert Lambert
Full Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain, and at the Flemish Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Dr. John Lamont STL DPhil (Oxon.)
Fr Serafino M. Lanzetta STD
Lecturer in Dogmatic Theology, Theological Faculty of Lugano, Switzerland; Priest in charge of St Mary’s, Gosport, in the diocese of Portsmouth
Prof. Massimo de Leonardis
Professor and Director of the Department of Political Sciences at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan
Msgr. Prof. Antonio Livi
Academic of the Holy See
Dean emeritus of the Pontifical Lateran University
Vice-rector of the church of Sant'Andrea del Vignola, Rome
Dr. Carlo Manetti
Professor in Private Universities in Italy
Prof. Pietro De Marco
Former Professor at the University of Florence
Prof. Roberto de Mattei
Former Professor of the History of Christianity, European University of Rome
Former Vice President of the National Research Council (CNR)
Fr Cor Mennen
Lecturer in Canon Law at the Major Seminary of the Diocese of ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Netherlands)
Canon of the cathedral chapter of the diocese of ‘s-Hertogenbosch
Prof. Stéphane Mercier
Lecturer in Philosophy at the Catholic University of Louvain
Don Alfredo Morselli STL
Parish priest of the archdiocese of Bologna
Martin Mosebach
Writer and essayist
Dr. Claude E. Newbury M.B., B.Ch., D.T.M&H., D.O.H., M.F.G.P., D.C.H., D.P.H., D.A., M. Med;
Former Director of Human Life International in Africa south of the Sahara
Former Member of the Human Services Commission of the Catholic Bishops of South Africa
Prof. Lukas Novak
Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Charles University, Prague
Fr Guy Pagès
Diocesan Priest
Prof. Paolo Pasqualucci
Professor of Philosophy (retired), University of Perugia
Prof. Claudio Pierantoni
Professor of Medieval Philosophy in the Philosophy Faculty of the University of Chile
Former Professor of Church History and Patrology at the Faculty of Theology of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Father Anthony Pillari J.C.L., M.C.L
Prof. Enrico Maria Radaelli
Philosopher, editor of the works of Romano Amerio
Dr. John Rao
Associate Professor of History, St. John’s University, NYC; Chairman, Roman Forum
Dr. Carlo Regazzoni
Licentiate in Philosophy at University of Freiburg
Dr. Giuseppe Reguzzoni
External Researcher at the Catholic University of Milan and former editorial assistant of Communio, International Catholic Review (Italian edition)
Prof. Arkadiusz Robaczewski
Former Professor at the Catholic University of Lublin
Fr Settimio M. Sancioni STD
Licence in Biblical Science
Prof. Andrea Sandri
Research Associate, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan
Dr. Joseph Shaw
Tutor in Moral philosophy, St Benet’s Hall, University of Oxford
Fr Paolo M. Siano HED (Historiae Ecclesiasticae Doctor)
Dr. Cristina Siccardi
Historian of the Church
Dr Anna Silvas
Adjunct research fellow, University of New England, NSW, Australia
Prof. Dr Thomas Stark
Phil.-Theol. Hochschule Benedikt XVI, Heiligenkreuz
Rev. Glen Tattersall
Parish Priest, Parish of Bl. John Henry Newman, archdiocese of Melbourne; Rector, St Aloysius’ Church
Prof. Giovanni Turco
Associate Professor of Philosophy of Public Law at the University of Udine
Member Correspondent of the Pontificia Accademia San Tommaso d'Aquino
Prof. Piero Vassallo
Former editor of Cardinal Siri’s theological review Renovatio
Prof. Arnaldo Vidigal Xavier da Silveira
Former Professor at the Pontifical University of São Paulo, Brazil
Mons. José Luiz Villac
Former Rector of the Seminary of Jacarezinho

MailOnline

BLASPHEMY: Bishop's blast at 'satanic' London Fashion Week show that turned a church into a catwalk

• Row erupted after part of London Fashion Week was held in London church

• Ex-Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, said satanic aspect 'not acceptable'

• St Andrew Holborn church said it had always supported London Fashion Week

By Jonathan Petre for The Mail on Sunday

PUBLISHED: 22:52, 23 September 2017 | UPDATED: 12:19, 24 September 2017

A bitter row has erupted after a fashion show featuring satanic designs was held at a historic church.

Leading clerics branded the event ‘blasphemous’ after models dressed as devils and vampires sashayed in front of the altar.

The show, part of London Fashion Week, was highlighting the work of controversial Turkish designer Dilara Findikoglu, whose creations have been worn by celebrities including singer Rihanna.

Against a backdrop of demonic images, heavily made-up models wearing horns or displaying upside-down crosses paraded down the aisle-turned-catwalk of St Andrew Holborn church in Central London last week.

Ms Findikoglu, who has been described as an ‘up-and-coming rebel of the fashion world’, told Vogue magazine earlier this month of her fascination with the occult and magic.

But the former Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, said the satanic aspect of the show was ‘not acceptable’ and could lead people ‘to areas where we don’t want them to go.’

He said: ‘Christians will be outraged. This was not necessary to do. In the sense that Christ’s name is being dishonoured, it is blasphemous.’

The bishop said the general rule was that churches should not do anything that ‘dishonours Christ or contradicts the Christian faith’.

‘That’s the rule of thumb that they should follow. They have to be very discerning about that,’ he added.

He questioned whether the church, which has apologised, had exercised proper caution when it took the booking, and called for an investigation.

Theologian Dr Adrian Hilton wrote in his Archbishop Cranmer blog: ‘How is it possible that a sacred space can be used for what can only be described as Lucifer lauding? How does hosting a Satanic Fashion Show glorify God?’

The church was founded 1,000 years ago and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London in 1666. Its current vicar is the Bishop of Fulham, Jonathan Baker.

The church said in a statement that it had always supported London Fashion Week.

It added: ‘We took this booking in good faith and were not aware of the content or design before the show took place.

This was obviously a mistake, and the content of this show does not reflect the Christian faith of the Church.

‘We will be looking at our booking processes to ensure this does not happen again.’

The row follows controversy over the decision by the 900-year-old Wells Cathedral in Somerset to allow the interior to be used for filming the latest Hellboy movie.

But cathedral officials have defended their decision by saying that the film, which features a comic-book superhero and a plot involving the occult, was a classic story of good versus evil.

***

WND

SATANISTS: HOW TO FORCE CHRISTIANS TO VIOLATE FAITH

Join in Supreme Court fight over promotions of LGBT weddings

Bob Unruh

September 29, 2017

Image by Satanic Temple

Shortly before the U.S. Supreme Court created “same-sex marriage,” LGBT activists were threatening Christians for their beliefs in a lawsuit in Washington state.

The activists demanded the release of the names of voters who had signed a petition to put a traditional-marriage initiative on the state election ballot so they could confront the citizens with “uncomfortable conversations.”

Later, and especially after the Supreme Court ruling, LGBT activists targeted Christian business owners with demands for goods or services promoting homosexuality.

Not because those goods or services couldn’t be obtained elsewhere, but because they wanted to establish a legal precedent by compelling the Christians to violate their faith.

A coming Supreme Court ruling will shed light on how far that agenda can be pushed. Colorado baker Jack Phillips is challenging orders from a biased state commission that he undergo a program of LGBT indoctrination because he refused to promote a “gay” wedding.

“Outlasting the Gay Revolution” spells out eight principles to help Americans who hold conservative moral values counter attacks on freedoms of religion, speech and conscience by homosexual activists

But now another group that routinely opposes Christians is offering what its promoters hope is a sure-fire way to force Christian business operators to violate their faith: Demand that a baker produce a pro-Satanic cake.

After all, while gender orientation and the like are not protected classes in the United States, religion is protected.

The idea comes from Lucien Greaves, co-founder of the Satanic Temple, a political activist group and religious organization based in Salem, Massachusetts, that has several chapters throughout the country.

Greaves released a statement explaining the objective.

“Our organization has received a lot of concerned messages from people who are upset by the prospect of an environment in which the LGBTQ community are openly and legally treated as second-class citizens,” he said. “The laws of the United States require that no one may discriminate by way of refusal of service against an evangelical theocrat for their religious beliefs, but the evangelical theocrat may discriminate against LGBTQ people because of who they are.”

Greaves said, because religion “is a protected class, a baker may refuse service to LGBTQ people, but they may not refuse service based upon someone’s religion.”

“If they aren’t willing to make a cake for same-sex unions, let’s have them make a cake to honor Satan instead.”

The Phillips case, which has generated a tidal wave of support for the Colorado baker, focuses on the conflict between the religious rights protected in the U.S. Constitution and the recently created “right” to same-sex marriage.

LGBT activists contend there is no exemption for Christians who follow biblical standards for marriage.

Christians believe the standard for marriage was established by God, through the Bible, and no earthly court, including the U.S. Supreme Court, can change it.

That position was stated emphatically by Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, author of the New York Times bestseller “The Harbinger” and the inspiration behind the “Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” movie. His most recent book, “The Paradigm,” will be No. 5 on the New York Time’s list during its first week.

He was addressing the Washington: A Man of Prayer event in the U.S. Capitol in 2015, just before the Supreme Court released its marriage opinion, which four justices criticized as unconnected to the Constitution.

“The justices of the Supreme Court took up their seats [in a hearing] on whether they should strike down the biblical and historic definition of marriage. That the event should even take place is a sign this is (the) America of (George) Washington’s warning … a nation at war against its own foundation,” Cahn said.

“If this court should overrule the word of God and strike down the eternal rules of order and right that heaven itself ordained, how then will God save it? Justices, can you judge the ways of God? There is another court and there another judge, where all men and all judges will give account.

“If a nation’s high court should pass judgment on the Almighty, should you then be surprised God will pass judgment on the court and that nation? We are doing that which Israel did on the altars of Baal,” said Cahn.

The Satanic Temple described how Phillips “refused” to make a cake.

“The argument has been contextualized as a matter of Free Speech versus Civil Rights. However, because sexual orientation is not a protected class under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (whereas race and religion are), there is a good chance that the right to discriminate against gay couples will be affirmed as a constitutional liberty. Given the political persuasion of the majority of Supreme Court Justices, this outcome is even more likely. For this reason, The Satanic Temple (TST) has announced a plan for those who feel alienated or oppressed by the privileged status that religion holds over sexual orientation: Request your homophobic baker make a cake for Satan.”

Greaves asked people who are refused a cake for a homosexual wedding to contact him.

“If you can’t get a cake for your same-sex union,” Greaves said, “we’ll host a party in your honor at The Satanic Temple headquarters in Salem and order a cake that praises Satan from your offending discriminatory ‘religious liberty’ enthusiast.”

The list of Phillips’ defenders reads like a who’s who of America’s leaders.

First, the Department of Justice has come down on Phillips’ side. Then there are the briefs from 20 different states, 86 members of Congress, 479 creative professionals, 34 legal scholars, 33 family policy organizations, 22 Utah Republican state senators and 14 legal and economic scholars.

In addition, he is supported by the Becket Fund, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Focus on the Family, Samaritan’s Purse, the Navigators, Tyndale House, Cato Institute, Christian Law Association, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the National Association of Evangelicals, the Rabbinical Council of America, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, Concerned Women for America, numerous Christian colleges, the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, First Amendment Lawyers Association, Foundation for Moral Law, Aaron and Melissa Klein, Family Research Council, U.S. Justice Foundation, Thomas More Society and numerous Catholic groups, led by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

They believe Phillips has the right under the U.S. Constitution to decline to support something that conflicts with his religious beliefs.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, which is arguing on Philips’ behalf before the U.S. Supreme Court, cited 45 friend-of-the-court briefs that have been submitted to the high court in support of the Colorado cake artist.

Just days earlier, ADF filed its opening brief in the case.

WND reported ADF said Colorado is “consistently opposing” anyone who objects to publicly supporting same-sex “marriage.”

Phillips was ordered by the state’s Civil Rights Commission to provide his customized wedding cakes to same-sex duos if he provided them to anyone. He also was forced to undergo state-mandated, homosexual-rights thought training, along with his staff.

A member of the state’s Civil Rights Commission, Diann Rice, publicly exhibited bias against him during a hearing, comparing him to a Nazi.

“I would also like to reiterate what we said in the hearing or the last meeting,” Rice said during consideration of Phillips’ case. “Freedom of religion and religion has been used to justify all kinds of discrimination throughout history, whether it be slavery, whether it be the Holocaust, whether it be – I mean, we – we can list hundreds of situations where freedom of religion has been used to justify discrimination. And to me it is one of the most despicable pieces of rhetoric that people can use to – to use their religion to hurt others.”

ADF said such “animus” in a state is “alarming” and “has no place in civil society.”

The organization said Rice’s comment “suggests that other members of the commission may share her view that people who believe marriage is only between a man and a woman are comparable to those who committed the Holocaust.”

“This anti-religious bias undermines the integrity of the commission.”

The lawyers explained that Phillips’ right to decline to promote homosexuality is protected by the First Amendment’s Free Speech and Free Exercise clauses.

“At issue here is whether Phillips may decline requests for wedding cakes that celebrate marriages in conflict with his religious beliefs. The First Amendment guarantees him that freedom because his wedding cakes, each one custom-made, are his artistic expression.

“Much like an artist sketching on canvas or a sculptor using clay, Phillips meticulously crafts each wedding cake through hours of sketching, sculpting, and hand-painting. The cake, which serves as the iconic centerpiece of the marriage celebration, announces through Phillips’s voice that a marriage has occurred and should be celebrated.

“The government can no more force Phillips to speak those messages with his lips than to express them through his art.”

***

MailOnline

Warding off evil' or 'channeling the Illuminati'? Twitter conspiracy theorists claim ulterior motives behind Prince Harry's 'devil horn' hand gesture when posing for photo with Melania Trump

• While posing for a picture with Melania Trump, Prince Harry's hand made the sign of devil horns, Twitter conspiracy theorists claims

• As Trump stood arms to her sides, Harry's hand was partially tucked into his jacket during the photo opp at the Invictus Games in Toronto, Canada

• But while his middle and ring finger were tucked inside his coat along with his thumb, his other fingers held outside

• Chris Kaufman said: 'Maybe people should start questioning why Prince Harry flashed a Satanic hand symbol during his meeting w/Melania Trump. Strange!'

• Another user said: 'Gotta love Prince Harry trolling Melania Trump. The use of a hand gesture to ward off evil. America loves you Prince Harry!'

• However this is not the first time Prince Harry has made the hand gesture

By MATTHEW WRIGHT FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 01:24, 26 September 2017 | UPDATED: 04:06, 26 September 2017

Melania Trump and Prince Harry's first meeting while at the Invictus Games has left social media in a bit of a frenzy.

While posing for a picture at the event in Toronto, Canada, Twitter conspiracy theorists noticed something off about Prince Harry's hand - it was in the sign of devil horns.

As Trump stood arms to her sides, Harry's hand was partially tucked into his jacket. But while his middle and ring finger were tucked inside his coat along with his thumb, his other fingers held outside.

While posing for a picture at the event in Toronto, Canada, Twitter conspiracy theorist noticed something off about Prince Harry's hand - it was in the sign of devil horns

And the photos quickly went viral with many speculating the secret message his royal highness was trying to say while taking the photo with the US First Lady.

Chris Kaufman said: 'Maybe people should start questioning why Prince Harry flashed a Satanic hand symbol during his meeting w/ Melania Trump. Strange!'

The sarcastic confusion was a common sentiment, with Karen Dalton Beninato adding: 'Prince Harry meeting FLOTUS and making devil hand sign. Is that a Hi Donald, or I'm Here So I Won't Get Fined?'

'Sure is a strange hand gesture being made by Prince Harry,' said another user.

Author Kevin Flynn added: 'Is it just me, or does it look like Prince Harry is flashing some secret rescue hand signal here?'

Others were a lot more direct with their theories, suggesting the signal was a sign of demonic connections.

Chad Darnell said: 'When Prince Harry is trying to tell you something by flashing the sign of the devil...'

'Prince Harry flashing Illuminati hand signs,' added another.

The sentiment was shared by another user, who said: 'Gotta love Prince Harry trolling Melania Trump. The use of a hand gesture to ward off evil. America loves you Prince Harry! @KensingtonRoyal.'

And while all the speculation is funny, it does seem that there may be a history to Prince Harry making the hand sign.

As far back as 2010, his royal highness could be seen doing the hand gesture while speaking to RAF recruits.

And in July, he did a variation of the gesture while at the StreetGames 'Fit and Fed' summer holiday activity session in Central Park, East Ham, London.

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The Telegraph

British supermarket offers 'finger vein' payment in worldwide first

By Katie Morley, consumer affairs editor

A UK supermarket has become the first in the world to let shoppers pay for groceries using just the veins in their fingertips.

Customers at the Costcutter store, at Brunel University in London, can now pay using their unique vein pattern to identify themselves.

The firm behind the technology, Sthaler, has said it is in "serious talks" with other major UK supermarkets to adopt hi-tech finger vein scanners at pay points across thousands of stores.

It works by using infrared to scan people's finger veins and then links this unique biometric map to their bank cards. Customers’ bank details are then stored with payment provider Worldpay, in the same way you can store your card details when shopping online. Shoppers can then turn up to the supermarket with nothing on them but their own hands and use it to make payments in just three seconds.

It comes as previous studies have found fingerprint recognition, used widely on mobile phones, is vulnerable to being hacked and can be copied even from finger smears left on phone screens.

But Sthaler, the firm behind the technology, claims vein technology is the most secure biometric identification method as it cannot be copied or stolen.

Sthaler said dozens of students were already using the system and it expected 3,000 students out of 13,000 to have signed up by November.

Finger print payments are already used widely at cash points in Poland, Turkey and Japan.

Vein scanners are also used as a way of accessing high-security UK police buildings and authorising internal trading at least one major British investment bank.

The firm is also in discussions with nightclubs, gyms about using the technology to verify membership and even Premier League football clubs to check people have the right access to VIP hospitality areas.

The technology uses an infrared light to create a detailed map of the vein pattern in your finger. It requires the person to be alive, meaning in the unlikely event a criminal hacks off someone’s finger, it would not work. Sthaler said it take just one minute to sign up to the system initially and, after that, it takes just seconds to place your finger in a scanner each time you reach the supermarket checkout.

Simon Binns, commercial director of Sthaler, told the Daily Telegraph: ‘This makes payments so much easier for customers.

"They don’t need to carry cash or cards. They don’t need to remember a pin number. You just bring yourself. This is the safest form of biometrics. There are no known incidences where this security has been breached.

"When you put your finger in the scanner it checks you are alive, it checks for a pulse, it checks for haemoglobin. ‘Your vein pattern is secure because it is kept on a database in an encrypted form, as binary numbers. No card details are stored with the retailer or ourselves, it is held with Worldpay, in the same way it is when you buy online."

Nick Telford-Reed, director of technology innovation at Worldpay UK, said: "In our view, finger vein technology has a number of advantages over fingerprint. This deployment of Fingopay in Costcutter branches demonstrates how consumers increasingly want to see their payment methods secure and simple."

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SupplyChainDigest

Despite the Controversy and "Ick" Factor, Growing Number of Humans Opting for Embedded RFID Chips

Candidate for California Governor Promotes Transhumanism, While Swedish Train Using Implanted Chip in Place of Tickets

Sept. 20, 2017

SCDigest has reported several times over the past few years about the small but it appears growing interest in having one or more RFID chips or similar technology implanted in someone's body, generally in the fleshy area between the thumb and index finger, and using that wireless device to automate an increasingly broad array of everyday tasks.

It largely started with a man name Amal Graafstra, who made news in 2010 by publicizing the fact that he had a RFID tag implanted in each hand, which he used to perform tasks such as opening his garage door or turning on his computer with a wave of his hand. (Are RFID Tagged Humans Closer than we Think?)

This summer, there was news that Wisconsin company Three Square Market offered employees implantable chips to open doors, buy snacks, log in to computers, and use office equipment like copy machines. It's not clear how many workers have taken advantage of the offer, though some 50 were said to have signed up initially.

There have been a few similar examples in Europe between Graafstra to Three Square Market timeframe. Graafstra has even managed to started a business selling kits for individuals, perhaps with some help, to implant their own chips using a type of syringe.

The movement in some circles goes by the name transhumanism, which is about people who want to use radical technology in their bodies.

Writing last week in an opinion column in the San Francisco Chronicle, transhumanist Zoltan Istvan - who is running for governor of California as a Libertarian, by the way - writes that "I got my RFID implant two years ago, and now I use it to send text messages, bypass security codes on my computer, and open my front door. Soon I'll get the software to start my car, and then my life will be totally keyless."
His implant cost $60, he says.

Also, recent news that a new program is being developed in Sweden that will allow train riders to use implanted chips instead of a physical ticket. Conductors will use a mobile phone app to match up the rider's membership number on the chip with a purchased ticket.

The company providing the technology said it initially expects around 200 people to join the program.

An image of a train employee using an app to read a passenger's chip and calling up his account and ticket information is shown below.

It is worth noting that around 3,000 people in Sweden have already had a chip embedded in their hand in order to access secure areas of buildings.

"You could use the microchip implant to replace a lot of stuff, your credit cards, they keys to your house, the keys to your car," a company executive told the BBC.

That is similar thinking to that on a report on NBC last year, which predicted the microchipping of children will happen "sooner rather than later" and that Americans will eventually accept the chipping process as something just as normal as the bar code in a grocery store.
Governor candidate Istvan agrees, writing that "With so much going for it, I'm expecting a mainstream cultural wave of chipping to take place over the next decade as implant technology becomes increasingly more functional."

There are of course concerns. Many privacy groups worry about where all this is headed - will the government be able to track citizens using the implanted chips - and there are also concerns from Christian groups.

For example, implants fit the biblical warning of the "Mark of the Beast" quite well - but there were similar concerns. But that was true of bar coding as well, and such concerns hardly slowed the adoption of the technology.

***

THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

In blow to Israel, Interpol admits Palestine as full member

75 of 133 voting member states back Ramallah's membership bid in secret ballot, despite vociferous Israeli and US objections

By RAPHAEL AHREN September 27, 2017, 11:52 am

In a stinging diplomatic defeat for Israel, the world’s largest international police organization on Wednesday accepted the “State of Palestine” as a full member.

At Interpol’s annual General Assembly in Beijing, the Palestinians’ membership bid was accepted with 75 counties voting yes, 24 voting no, and 34 abstaining.

Israel fiercely objected to the Palestinians joining Interpol, arguing that Ramallah’s alleged support for terrorism could hinder rather than aid Interpol’s efforts. The US administration, too, objected to Ramallah’s membership bid and helped Israel lobby against it.

Israel had expressed concerns that the PA’s membership in Interpol would result in sensitive information being leaked to Palestinian terror groups. It also reportedly fears Palestinian efforts via Interpol to mount legal challenges, including travel bans and extradition requests, against Israeli army officers and others for alleged war crimes.

Shortly after the vote at Interpol’s Executive Committee, Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki welcomed the decision, hailing it as a “victory” for his people.

“The State of Palestine considers this membership and the responsibilities that it entails as an integral part of its responsibility towards the Palestinian people and a moral commitment to the citizens of the world,” he said, according to the PA’s official news site Wafa.

“Palestine is ready and able to shoulder these obligations and responsibilities as an active partner in the international community, and to contribute effectively and significantly to advancing our common core values as nations,” he added.

Maliki stressed that “the State of Palestine will continue to struggle to raise the status and role of Palestine at the international level and defend the rights of our people in security and freedom by all diplomatic and legal means available and including joining the relevant international institutions.”

On Monday, PA President Mahmoud Abbas announced he would again put forward a resolution for Palestine to become a full member of the United Nations, after a failed bid in 2011.

The Palestine Liberation Organization also celebrated the vote, writing on its Twitter account: “Over 75% of #INTERPOL members just voted in support of #Palestine’s full membership. Congratulations! Alf Mabrouk #Palestine! #Thankyou.”

The Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem did not immediately comment on the matter. The Israel Police declined to comment on how the move may affect Israeli cooperation with the international body.

In the first official Israeli response, Environmental Affairs Minister Zeev Elkin urged the government to immediately suspend all commitments and goodwill gestures to the PA the cabinet had agreed to implement over the last two years. “One cannot wage war against us and incite against us here and in the world and at the same time enjoy gestures from the State of Israel,” he said in a statement.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has in recent weeks repeatedly declared that Israel’s standing in the international community has never been better and that the Arabs’ automatic majority is quickly eroding.

“We have many friends,” he declared Sunday.

But Wednesday’s Interpol vote can be seen as a bitter defeat for Israel’s diplomatic efforts. Since Palestine was admitted to Interpol in a secret ballot, Israeli officials cannot argue in this case that the world’s nations secretly support the Jewish state even if they are still unwilling to openly side with it.

***

RT

Gazprom unseats ExxonMobil as world’s largest energy company

September 25, 2017

Russia’s Gazprom has topped the S&P Global Platts 250 rating of the world's energy companies. The company has ousted US oil and gas giant ExxonMobil which reigned for 12 years.

The Russian company is focused on geological exploration, production, transportation, storage, processing and sales of gas, gas condensate and oil, sales of gas as a vehicle fuel, as well as generation and marketing of heat and electric power.

Gazprom has the largest reserves of natural gas in the world and is among Russia’s top four oil producers.

ExxonMobil is now ranked only ninth. Among other big improvers, Germany’s E.ON climbed 112 places to 2nd place from 114th. India’s Reliance Industries went up to 3rd place from last year’s 8th.

The first five companies also include Korea Electric Power and Chinese CNPC. Russian oil company Lukoil is in sixth place.

The rating is formed on the basis of financial indicators of companies, including the value of assets, total revenues, net profit and others. All companies on the list have assets of more than $5.5 billion.

The world's top ten largest companies earned $63.7 billion last year, 14 percent lower than the $74.3 billion posted the year before.

Coal companies saw a substantial decline in the rating, as more countries are striving to increase the use of renewable energy sources and cleaner fuels. However, China's Shenhua Energy rose to 13th place from 25th, as the price of coal in China rose sharply following output cuts by Beijing.

***

SPUTNIK

Venezuela Accuses US of Declaring a War, Pledges Proportinate Response

25.09.2017

Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Arreaza on Monday equated US President Donald Trump's speech at the UN General Assembly to a declaration of war, promising to take counter measures.

UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — Venezuela is open for dialogue with the US government but is ready to respond to any hostile actions "in the same field in which we are attacked," Jorge Arreaza told reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Monday.

Delivering a speech at the UN General Assembly earlier in the day, Jorge Arreaza said Trump had used the UN platform to declare war.

"As if he were the world’s emperor President Donald Trump used this rostrum built for peace to announce war, the total destruction of member states, the application of coercive unilateral and illegal measures," Arreaza said. "Today we must report to the world that our people have been directly threatened by the President of the United States."

On September 19 in a speech before the UN General Assembly, Trump lambasted "corrupt and destabilizing" "socialist dictatorships" of Cuba and Venezuela. He claimed that the US calls for the "full restoration of democracy and freedom in Venezuela," but didn't specify how he is going to accomplish such a task.

Following the speech, Trump banned or restricted travel visas to the US from eight countries, including Venezuela.

MailOnline

The nightmarish conditions at Puerto Rico's closed airport: Thousands crowd San Juan's sweltering terminals in the hope of escaping the 'apocalyptic' hurricane-ravaged island

• Puerto Rico's governor Ricardo Rossello has begged the White House to fast-track disaster relief funds

• Full scale of Hurricane Maria's devastation is still emerging as millions remain without power and cell service

• Desperate tourists and locals crowded San Juan International Airport on Monday in the hope of getting a seat out of the hurricane ravaged island

• Officials described conditions as 'apocalyptic' with widespread looting in homes and businesses

• Ten are confirmed dead in Puerto Rico, including two police officers who drowned in floodwaters

By REUTERS and EMILY CRANE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 20:51, 25 September 2017 | UPDATED: 03:47, 26 September 2017

Nightmarish Conditions in Puerto Rico

STRANGE SOUNDS

Roads in Mexico City have begun OUT-GASSING . . . They appear to be breathing

September 23, 2017

Mexicans are in EXTREME DANGER of another, even larger earthquake than the massive M7.1 which struck south of Mexico City earlier this week.

Roads in the area have begun OUT-GASSING . . . They appear to be Breathing . . . meaning the earth below is being squeezed so hard, it is venting gas from deep in the earth.

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theguardian

Zealandia drilling reveals secrets of sunken lost continent

South Pacific landmass may have been closer to land level than once thought, providing pathways for animals and plants

The mostly submerged continent of Zealandia may have been much closer to land level than previously thought, providing pathways for animals and plants to cross continents from 80m years ago, an expedition has revealed.

Zealandia, a for the most part underwater landmass in the South Pacific, was declared the Earth’s newest continent this year in a paper in the journal of the Geological Society of America. It includes Lord Howe Island off the east coast of Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand.

On Wednesday researchers shared findings from their two-month-long expedition, one of the first extensive surveys of the region, announcing fossil discoveries and evidence of large-scale tectonic movements.

“The discovery of microscopic shells of organisms that lived in warm shallow seas, and spores and pollen from land plants, reveal that the geography and climate of Zealandia was dramatically different in the past,” said Prof Gerald Dickens of Rice University.

Researchers drilled more than 860 metres below the sea floor in six different sites across Zealandia. The sediment cores collected showed evidence of tectonic and ecological change across millions of years.

“The cores acted as time machines for us, allowing us to reach further and further back in time,” said Stephen Pekar, a researcher on board the scientific drilling vessel, in August. “As one scientist put it: ‘We are rewriting the geologic and tectonic history of Zealandia at this drill site.’”

The 5 million sq km continent, roughly the size of the Indian subcontinent, is believed to have separated from Australia and Antarctica, as part of Gondwana, about 80m years ago.

On Wednesday Prof Rupert Sutherland from New Zealand’s Victoria University said the expedition had discovered “big geographic changes”.

“[The research] has big implications for understanding big scientific questions, such as how did plants and animals disperse and evolve in the South Pacific? The discovery of past land and shallow seas now provides an explanation: there were pathways for animals and plants to move along.”

Geologists and academics have intermittently argued for Zealandia’s recognition as a continent for the past 20 years. The name was coined by the geophysicist and oceanographer Bruce Luyendyk in 1995.

But this year’s paper in GSA Today was “when the penny dropped” in terms of Zealandia’s growing recognition, said one of its co-authors, Nick Mortimer.

Mortimer told Guardian Australia in February that his was the first peer-reviewed scientific paper on Zealandia but that it was “nothing new” to many other geologists.

The paper contends that Zealandia, in terms of elevation of continental shelf, distinct geology and thickness of crust, qualifies as a continent.

<

p>“Zealandia is everywhere substantially elevated above the surrounding oceanic crust,” it says. “Whereas most of Zealandia’s crust is thinner than the 30–46km that is typical of most continents, studies show that it is everywhere thicker than the 7km-thick crust of the ocean basins. “Currently used conventions and definitions of continental crust, continents and microcontinents require no modification to accommodate Zealandia …

This is not a sudden discovery but a gradual realisation. The 4.9m sq km area of continental crust is large and separate enough to be considered not just as a continental fragment or a microcontinent, but as an actual continent.”

Further study of the 2,500 metres of sediment core extracted during the expedition is expected to provide insight into climate change and Zealandia’s climate history. The drilling ship is scheduled to conduct further expeditions around New Zealand, Australia and Antarctica next year.

(According to the book of 2 Esdras, which is part of the Apcrypha, when God first created the world only one seventh of the earth were waters. “Upon the third day thou didst command that the waters should be gathered in the seventh part of the earth: six parts hast thou dried up, and kept them, to the intent that of these some being planted of God and tilled might serve thee.” 2 Esdras 6:42
This could easily explain sunken continents such as Zealandia, Atlantis, etc. The cause is obvious: the Flood.)

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Until next week...keep on believing.
Almondtree Productions

“But ask now the beasts, if they may speak to thee; and the birds of the air, if they may declare to thee. Tell the earth, if it may speak to thee: and the fishes of the sea shall explain to thee. Who then has not known in all these things, that the hand of the Lord has made them? Whereas the life of all living things is in his hand, and the breath of every man.”
(Job 12:7-10)

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