Saturday, April 30, 2011

MADhafi --- Closing in on him

Well the mad mad dictator in Libya just about got sent to the next life, where it is sleep and silence till a resurrection.
Nato bombs just about got him, they did get one of his mad dog sons and some of his family.
Maybe next time Nato will put to sleep the very top mad dog in Libya.
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Syria is still rocking with violence from the Government on its own people, yes looks like some other mad insane dogs need to be put to sleep also in that country.
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Yemen also....well the dictator said he was going to step down not he's changed his mind according to the news tonight. I guess only time will tell what happens in Yemen and this mad dog.
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The Arab world is rockin' and rollin' - now they say the dictator of Egypt could be put to death, for his ordering and killing of 800 in the people's revolt against him.

The Arab world is undergoing massive upheavals and changes yet to come. It must be so, for only in being so, can they eventually unite Arab countries into a strong power, called in the Bible and book of Daniel 11:40-45 the "king of the south" which will eventually "push at" the mighty "king of the north" the last resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire in Europe.

Prophecy is marching on...you are seeing it right before your eyes. It is all expounded for you in great detail on my website under "prophecy" - www.keithhunt.com
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Friday, April 29, 2011

Greatest Disaster since Katrina!!

211 Tornadoes in one day, many around 200 miles an hour, over 6 States. Some towns wiped off the map, and in one town they just said "God did not spare his flock" - many church buildings literally blow away.

The worst tornado blast they say in 86 years. They say the twister strength is right down to the ground. I guess so when you see the destruction at ground level.

Well the churches may think God was not even sparing His people, but though the members may be deceived the leaders know better, and they lead the people into false Christian religion.

It certainly is horrific to see the site of such destruction and it is sad that over 300 have died. I still have to tell you what I have already, the chapter of Amos 4 is still in the Bible. And one thing we know for sure is these things - natural storm disasters - are allowed by God, obviously He is not stopping them from blowing away towns and people.

The crazy weather the USA has been in now for a number of years, is having no effect on turning people to search their heart, and back to serving God in spirit and in truth. And as long as the leaders of this nation are not serious about the Bible or Godly living, which would mean reversing many laws now in place, the people will go on in false blindness to real truth and righteousness.

Now I've just heard on the news that Donald Trump last night said the leaders of the USA are "stupid"....... well indeed I have to admit he is correct on that matter. But is Mr. Trump's "un-stupid" really un-stupid, economically maybe he would be able to do much better. I've said that the USA should hire Dambisa Moyo as "economic adviser" after reading her block-buster book "How the West was Lost." I guess Trump was just being very in-your-face plain about it all, which Moyo was not as blunt about it.

So with the 14 BILLION dollar debt, high unemployment, the Wall Street and Bank bust of 2008, maybe the USA Government does need to listen to Dambisa Moyo and Donald Trump.

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William and Kate tie the knot

The British weather did what all were praying it would do - not rain.

I stayed up all night to see it all unfold.

Nice couple that I believe will give the Throne of Britain a good boost to bring it back to popularity and some stability after some decades of woes for the Royal family, where marriages just did not stay the course for most of them, some were marriages that should never have been in the first place.

The service in Westminster Abbey was the basic Church of England service. Most of it very Biblical, with the law and commandments of God mentioned, and of course how marriage was created by the Eternal, presented in no uncertain manner, which people like Elton John and his like, must feel a little nervous to hear. But then the world has, including much so-called "Christian" religion accepted today as they would like to think God blesses also, same sex marriage, which He does not.

If you watched it all you saw the pomp of the Church of England as it is in so many ways akin to Roman Catholicism, just not recognizing the Pope. I grew up in a Church of England school - grade 1 to grade 12, and on special "religious days" the school was off to the Church of England. My neighborhood church was not at all like the Anglican church, and when I had to attend on those "special days" I remember how I could never figure all the fancy trappings and clothes and "ceremony" up and down and in front of some fancy altar. I just could not see Jesus in such a setting - never made sense to me.

So you had for a little while this "Christian religious" pageant as done by the Church of England, yet the stats are that only about 3 per cent of British people attend church on a regular basis.

Yes, looking at this service by the Church of England (Anglican) you got a view and sound of an outward appearance of a church most would think is "Godly" - a religion that showed the world marriage is holy and created by God,  the law and commandments of God mentioned, and of course a number of times the name of Jesus Christ. All very "Christian" sounding. But behind it all is what Jesus said would be before He returned, that MANY would come in His name , saying Jesus was the Christ, and shall DECEIVE MANY!! The Jewish religious leaders of Christ's day had a form of "religion" an outward show of representing God in truth....they sure felt they had the truth and Jesus was the false prophet. But it was really the other way around and finally Jesus denounced them in no uncertain manner in Matthew 23. So it is today, MOST of "Christian religion" SOUNDS and LOOKS very "religious" and "holy" and "sanctimonious." But the truth of the matter is very different when you get to the nuts and bolts and nitty-gritty of testing "Christian religion" against the truth of the Word of God.
My website is devoted to getting to the nitty-gritty of the truth of God's word, and laying bare the falsehoods of popular Christianity.

When reality hits again after all this, the Brits will be back to their secular, keep God out, don't even think about Him, attitude.

Certainly you also saw the Royal pomp of Britain is still very much alive. As I've said, it will stay and this couple of William and Kate could well give it new live and vitality. The British throne is the greatest throne on earth, indeed I guess so, for it is the very throne of David, that Jesus will inherit when He returns. That is why it will survive and remain so famous.

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Thursday, April 28, 2011

Britain's Royal Wedding!

So in not too many more hours the world will be tuning in (they say about two BILLION) on TV etc. to see the Royal Wedding that many hope will give the British Royals a mighty boost in popularity.

Many think the British Throne and Royalty should be abolished.

But it never will be! I can be quite dogmatic in saying this, for the Throne of Britain is the Royal Throne of David - yes the ancient king David of Israel.

Yes it is indeed, even if you do not believe it.

David's throne was never to DIE, for how could it, when we are told the coming Messiah as a baby, that Mary was to bear, was to inherit the throne of David.

The story of David's throne is expounded in different studies on my website.

This Royal Wedding happening in not many hours as I type this, will put the throne back into popularity.  This new Royal couple will reach the hearts and minds of millions in Britain and in the Commonwealth.

David's throne.......William and Kate, will bring this throne and Royalty back to the glory it should be, even if most people do not understand exactly why.

There is no Royal throne on earth that is as GREAT as the British Throne, and when Jesus comes to inherit it, the world will surely then know why it is such an enduring throne.
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150 Twisters in ONE DAY!

Yesterday saw 150 "twisters" hit 6 USA States - and dozens killed - it's been decades, maybe never before, like anything this mighty (in two months) has it the USA, with two more months to go in the season of twisters.

You may like to read Amos 4:6-13. It is a prophecy to the tribes of Israel, and is applicable whenever Israel goes away from its God.

Believe it or not, most of the Western world are the nations (tribes) of Israel.

I do not know which so-called "natural" disaster is directly sent from God, as shocking as it maybe to some, for me to even say this, will have some people either angry at me, or at the Eternal.
But we certainly know that such power from nature that comes on our people like what we are seeing in all these mighty twisters and the destruction it is bringing, are all at least ALLOWED to take place; God is obviously NOT stopping them smashing physical towns and houses and also many people, who are not alive today.

The Almighty allows all this to bring our people back to Him in deep REPENTANCE, but so far we are NOT turning in HUMILITY, the USA nation is not being led by servants who will move the people to fall on their knees and get back to ordering their lives according to the Word of God.

Also in all the prophecies I've expounded to you on my website, you should now be seeing how easy it would be for the Lord to bring our nations to destruction from the forces of nature.

We have flooding again in southern Manitoba, Canada (like it is every Spring time) but this time even greater still. Devastation for many people.

But yes overall we in Canada do not have to deal with seasons of twisters, and other crazy weather the USA gets these years.

So is this the common pattern of disasters for the USA? Well as they say, time will tell.

But keep in mind that if God turns the force of nature against us ..... we can soon be on our face in the mud, down and out!
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USA BATTERED with Twisters - Obama "conspiracy" geeks!

The USA continues to get HIT with twisters - now Alabama - and dozens dead!!!

The USA is having its most horrific season of twisters on record - the destruction from these is like an atomic bomb was exploded over the areas they hit.

The twister season they say is from March to June, so who knows what the next two months will bring, but the way it's going it portends to be a nightmare for many States already hit.
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I'm sure you've all been seeing on the news these fellows who not only doubt that President Obama was not born in the USA (which the constitution demands for to be a President of the USA) ..... well Obama did produce I believe they say before the elections the "short" form of his birth certificate for all to see. But that was not good enough for some, they wanted the "long" form version. So today they got their wish or request, and it has been given out and seen in newspapers and on the TV news shows. So what do these "doubters" do or say, those of them that still doubt.......well to them it is STILL all a CONSPIRACY!!  OH, THEY SAY, "it's a conspiracy, it could be a fake, it could be a clever made up 'long form'"

I mean, GIVE ME A BREAK guys ...... you have "conspiracy" coming out of your ears, nose and mouth, you conspiracy geeks, are FRUIT NUT CAKES, with lots, I mean lots of NUTS in it all.

So you do not like Obama's policies, his mind-set, his .....whatever you do not like about him or his "demoncratic" party line. I do not like many things about his politics as well, but then I do not like YOUR politics either, you "republicans" or whoever you are. You are all so far off base, like from planet Pluto, so far away from God and the Bible and truth and righteousness, and saying and DOING the laws of the Eternal, you are ALL "mad" as God calls you in His word.

But you "conspiracy geeks" have got to be the MADEST of all......I'm not sure what you put in your tea or coffee or beer, but it must be something that blows your mind into the world of ET. I will say I agree with Obama today when he said this "silly stuff" has to be put away, there are far more important things to deal with, besides the side show from the fair ground.

And so it is, a side show, something that "I Love Lucy" could have dreamed up to get a good belly laugh, if it was not such a DUMB thing brought up by people like Trump who are supposed to be "educated." Trump likes to fire people from whatever that show he had or has.....my oh my he's the one to be fired right off this planet back to Pluto, with all the conspiracy geeks (ya I like that word when it fits, it fits so nicely at times) along with him.

Time to stop acting like late comedian Bob Hope (who did it for fun and laughs) and stop making yourself a joke when you are, sorry to say, trying to be dead serious. Next thing you'll be saying is that Ronald Reagan was never a Hollywood firm star - it was all just a conspiracy to make is believe he was.

Guuummmpppp........it's you conspiracy guys who are the real conspiracy!!!

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Monday, April 25, 2011

Last day of UB Feast 2011

I'm meditating after seeing the movie "The Greatest Story Ever Told" from 1965.

There was the Godhead from eternity past (something the human mind cannot comprehend) from way before this universe came into being, and they say the universe is 14 BILLION LIGHT YEARS OLD - light travels at 186,000 miles PER SECOND!!!
We know from the New Testament (NT) that God had a plan for this earth and the human kind BEFORE the world was. And that plan was to create human kind who would all fall into sin (1 John 3:4 which is the way of going contrary to the commandments of God), and a God figure, person, would be the only sacrifice for sin that could redeem mankind and give them salvation.

The NT tells us that ONE of the TWO members of the Godhead was willing to GIVE UP being God, being Eternal, being in the GLORY of the Godhead, and was willing to come to earth in the form of a man - come flesh and blood, take on all the physical functions that human kind have, having to eat food to live, sleep to rest the body, and yes go to the toilet as all of us humans must do.

This Godhead person would have to become  SEED -  a human sperm seed. The Bible tells us that NOTHING is IMPOSSIBLE for God, nothing is too hard for Him to do. So with a MIRACLE the One we now call the Father, took the One we now call Jesus Christ, took that GLORIFIED person and with the wave of the hand so to speak, turned that MIGHTY GLORY PRINCE into a frog, as we might say. But being specific that ETERNAL MIGHTY GLORIFIED ONE OF THE GODHEAD became a human SPERM SEED.

Think about this for a moment. A human sperm seed does not KNOW it is a human sperm seed! Oh yes it is alive, it has a built in knowledge of what it is supposed to do.....swim and fertilize an egg inside of a physical human woman. But that sperm does not have a developed brain to know it is a sperm per se. And even when united with a human egg, for sure for ex number of weeks it does not know it is developing into a human baby. Maybe we could argue that the God now as a baby, and as the NT tells us was filled without measure with the Holy Spirit, that the baby Jesus inside Mary knew who He was, and where He was etc. But that is only speculation that it was so. If God the Father just let the sperm and egg unite and continue to form as all us humans form before birth. Then.....well do you remember being inside your mother's body before birth. Yes okay, they say everything is in the human mind but we do not retrieve such knowledge UNLESS you have been on mind-bending drugs. I once read about a teen on mind bending drugs who said they went back in time into their mother's body and were being born into this world. They said it was a horror movie. We know it is not a horror per se to be born, but going back in time from the present to your mind recalling being born......well to that person who experienced it, it was to them a frightful experience. You can meditate on that, I will move on.

For a time, in the natural world as God created it, the God who became a sperm seed DID NOT KNOW it! That Godhead person had to be willing to place His entire Eternal life in the Father's hands, and have faith that the Father would make sure everything went safe and well, for that Godhead sperm to unite with the physical human egg inside of the woman chosen, and that the maturing of that sperm and egg would be protected, and come to be a full baby, which would be born into the world after about 9 months.

Now meditate on that!!

Then a baby does not really know it is a baby. Can you remember being 2 months old, then 4 months old then 6 months old and so on? Was the Godhead Jesus any different? Well some may argue He was, and want to think Jesus said to Himself, "Oh nice, I'm now one month old, I sure enjoy being breast fed."
NOPE ....I do not think so!  Some are going to say I'm blaspheming, surely the Godhead Jesus knew He was one week old and then one month old etc.  Well call me what you like.....NOPE do not think so, that the baby Jesus knew He was one month old and then two months old etc. I believe He was just like any baby, and when Jesus was say 3 years old did not remember coming out of Mary's birth canal. Yes He had the Spirit of God from conception and had it without any limits. But I really do not believe having the Spirit of God without measure was given without measure so Jesus could remember being in Mary's womb, and then coming down the birth canal, and then being one month old.
If Jesus was willing to TRUST the Father to look after him as a sperm seed, then surely He also had the FAITH to know the Father would look after Him coming down the birth canal, and being a baby of one, two, three etc. months old.

I'm trying to get you to meditate on the LOVE and the FAITH that Jesus had to have to willfully say to the Father, "Yes, Father, I will be the Godhead sacrifice that only a member of the Godhead could take away the sins of the world, so human people can be saved into Your Kingdom!"

I do not think we stop to meditate on the sacrifice of Christ from the BEGINNING ASPECT, not very deeply anyway. We all look at the cross, the crucifixion of Christ (and of course we should), but IT ALL STARTED WAY BEFORE THE CROSS friends! WAY BEFORE THE CROSS! It all started the moment the One we call the Father, devised a plan for planet earth and the humans He wanted to create on it. The SACRIFICE of Christ started from that very second the Father had a plan. The NT tells us in clear language the Lamb of God was sacrificed from before the foundations of the earth.

I'm just trying to get you to meditate on way more than just the cross of Calvary, as wonderful and as important as that is, to that plan that God the Father had from before the foundations of the earth.

NOW, I'm also meditating on another thing.

This Godhead person was going to unite with an egg inside a physical woman on the earth.

WOW....now stop.....meditate.....a physical woman had to be chosen. I'm not so much meditating on the importance of God the Father picking the right woman; God can see the innermost of the mind and heart of anyone. Of all the women in Judea, that side of it was nothing for God to do, I'm meditating on the WOMAN! And her thoughts!!  You women reading this....put yourself in Mary's shoes or sandals as the case was. First you have an angel coming to you......how many of you have had THAT experience to begin with. I have not. I mean an actual angel appearing to you, and then if that was not enough all by itself, this angel tells you something......not that you look nice, or have some nice clothes, or it's good you go to the synagogue regularly, or that you are marrying a good man called Joseph. This angel tells you that YOU have been chosen to carry the Godhead baby that will be called Jesus, and that He is the one to save people from their sins....the SAVIOR, the promised MESSIAH mentioned for centuries in God's word the Bible.

PUT YOURSELF RIGHT NOW IN MARY'S SANDALS!!!

My emotions put me there, but to put this into words for you, just is not easy. I mean you are going to carry inside your body a member of the GODHEAD!!!

You see your stomach grow, you know this baby is growing, but this is not just ANY baby, it is GOD inside you, coming into this world as a baby - human form - a God sperm seed united with your physical human egg, and you are carrying GOD!!

As a man I can only get a small glimpse of what the depth of emotion it must have been for Mary. You women can probably feel more depth of it than I can, because you are a woman able to bring a baby to term and have it born. But think on having a member of the Godhead inside of you as a baby.......

words escape me...so I will not try any more words.....just MEDITATE on it, and see what it must have been like for Mary to be told the baby she would carry was from the Godhead!

Then the day of birth, in a cattle barn, in a cattle manger to rest your Godhead baby. You and some shepherds from the hills, and your husband Joseph are looking at GOD IN THE FLESH, AS A HUMAN BABY........

IT ALL BLOWS ME AWAY......MEDITATE ON IT ALL!!!!

THEN THANK BOTH THE FATHER AND THE SON!!!!

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Saturday, April 23, 2011

MOYO - Last words "How the West was Lost"

DAMBIS MOYO AND HER LAST WORDS ON WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
FROM HER BLOCK-BUSTER BOOK "HOW THE WEST WAS LOST"
(Which friends, you need to read)
 

The odds are, however, the United States will be a bona fide socialist welfare state by the latter part of this century. Indeed, if nothing else changes it from its current path, it is almost certain that America will move from a fully fledged capitalist society of entrepreneurs to a socialist nation in just a few decades. The trouble is it won't be just any socialist welfare state (there is, after all, nothing inherently wrong with a socialist state per se if it's well engineered and designed and can finance itself).
While it is true that socialist-leaning states are clearly relatively well developed and engineered in Germany and across Scandinavia, well developed but perhaps badly designed in Greece and Italy, the trouble is that the US is on a path to creating the worst and most venal form of welfare state (poorly developed and designed) - one born of desperation from many years of flawed economic policies and a society that rapaciously feeds on itself.

America is already displaying the hallmarks of this fundamental shift. The pressure on the public purse is rising: the government's tax base is shrinking, but public expenditure is rapidly increasing (with healthcare, pension, unemployment and poverty spending all on the rise). This is set against the backdrop of a heavy debt burden, and with it the promise of sluggish economic growth for many years to come.
Looking at the link between different levels of debt and countries' economic growth over the last two centuries, the economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff find that countries with a gross public debt exceeding about 90 per cent of annual economic output tend to grow significantly more slowly. In particular, in developed economies, above the 90 per cent threshold average annual growth was about two percentage points lower than for countries with public debt of less than 30 per cent of GDP. For the US (as well as the UK and other industrialized countries) this does not bode well.

Already, after the financial crisis debt levels in the US and other countries at the centre of the financial crisis are approaching the 90 per cent mark. In 2009 gross government debt in the US stood at 85 per cent of GDP and according to IMF projections will reach 108 per cent of GDP by 2014. Meanwhile, the UK's 2009 gross government debt stood at 69 per cent of GDP and is forecast to reach 98 per cent of GDP by 2013.

The problems with the misallocation of capital, labour and technology are not helped by the political imperatives (short political terms and decentralized power) that discourage American and indeed most Western policymakers from implementing the transformational policies that will set the industrialized economies back on the right economic path. Ultimately, it is on this point where state-led capitalist societies, like those of China, have the edge.

There are those who say that what the world witnessed in 2008 and the years ensuing was simply the failure of the West's experiment with a social welfare system. That now that the leaders of developed nations realize the folly of running large deficits and accumulating mounds of debt in order to finance social safety nets and big government, we will see the pendulum swing again towards more market-based economies; a re-emphasis on and re-engagement of the private sector and the entrepreneur by more deregulation and lower taxes to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit. This would and could all make sense as an economic strategy, except for one thing. Such a market-based philosophy is predicated on a skilled and highly productive labour force, which, given the labour data and education statistics of the up-and-coming generations, will be in woefully short supply.

If anything, a swing back towards more market-based economics, and away from social welfare, poses a risk of increased income inequality in developed countries. Indeed, it is almost certainly the case that the incomes of the relatively small share of educated innovators and entrepreneurs will be higher than the large base of the unskilled, undereducated population.

Across the West, everyone is culpable. As argued in this book, for example, over the last fifty years in the US, governments, corporations and private individuals have implemented catastrophic decisions that at the time looked cost-less, but in fact were extremely costly and detrimental to the core long-term sustainable operation of the economy.

Over multiple generations, and different US administrations both left and right, public policy has misallocated capital by urging housing access for all despite people's means, establishing a long-term unsustainable pension culture, underwriting R&D for the world at unrequited costs to itself, and bailing out whole industries with a pattern of buying high and selling low!
Western corporations have set up shop in the cost-competitive emerging world (helping vast swathes of the emerging world's labour markets), but the benefit, and in particular returns on capital, accrued only to a handful of shareholders. And of course the decision of millions of families across the West to pursue other, ostensibly better-paying careers at the expense of education is creating a fast-growing surplus of expensive, undereducated, unskilled and globally uncompetitive citizens.

Many questions remain. Will Westerners still be, more or less, living at their current standards of living and looking with envy at the economic successes of the Rest? Who will discover cold fusion? Or the next 'killer app' - that special something or nudge that makes you want to buy a product? Where will the jobs of the future be created? And in what sectors of the economy? Will they be temporary positions or permanent, for-life roles? In the public sector or in the private? Robotics and robot technology are already permeating the workforce. Japan's already includes over a quarter of a million robots. And even at the Cleveland Clinic in the US, for a fraction of human wages, robots travel about 1,800 kilometres (1,100 miles) and make 5,000 trips a day, moving everything from linens, surgical equipment, patient food, supplies and, yes, even trash. If, as Western politicians tend to proclaim today, the future of developed countries is in digital, lowcarbon and pharmaceutical innovation, then richer countries certainly have their work cut out for them.

Of course, there are more political questions not dealt with here, such as who world citizens want to see as the global power? On the economics side, would the West be better off adopting a more insular stance and systematically reducing its economic and financial ties with the rising Rest? Though all parties are guilty of selectively applying the rules of fair trade, the West does garner benefits from trading with the Rest, and for some time yet the richer West will be appealing to the Rest. But the question is: are these economic benefits sizeable enough to warrant the mounting costs for the West of engaging with the Rest?
Contrastingly, the emerging Rest, by engaging with rapidly industrializing countries, will not only make strides in economic development, poverty reduction and technological sophistication but will advance economically in leaps and bounds.

But before this can take effect the West, and America in particular, must implement better policies and stop sowing the seeds of its own destruction. This is not sufficient to stem the economic tide, but it is certainly a necessary step. Changing trade patterns, financial destabilization of the world's most advanced economies, and the transition of economic opportunities to the emerging world are defining our world today, and will continue to shape the world we live in in the most dramatic ways.

This book has been about economics. While economics is one sort of warfare, one country seeking dominance over another, it's never just about the money. Other factors, political, social, even natural, shape and modify our world. Change is unsettling, unpredictable. But sometimes some things are clear; there is, if you like, a feeling in the air.

One suspects that when America's forefathers stepped off the Mayflower and took in the air, they knew, in their hearts, that a great adventure was being embarked upon, that this was the start of something big. In much the same way, although no one can say for sure what the outcome will be, in this, the beginning of the second decade of the twenty-first century, we all know that the world is standing on the lip of a global seismic change, where another country stands on the cusp of greatness. Though we have an inkling of how the land will lie when all is settled, what is also certain is that uncertainty and upheavals lie ahead.

To quote John Adams's world-famous 1987 opera Nixon in China: 'We live in an unsettled time. Who are our enemies? Who are our friends?' The good thing is, what history has taught us, is that while struggles, wars, disasters occur, the world survives and slowly, despite the setbacks, advances. Let us hope that is as true for the next hundred years as it was for the last.
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Moyo knows her economics, for sure, she did not get a PhD from running a "day care center" for pre-schoolers (nothing wrong by the way with such wonderful jobs like that). BUT she does NOT understand Bible Prophecy.
Yes, China is going to be a contender for economic power over the next 10 years plus. The East is going to rise - Russia, China, India, Japan. Then there is to come a mighty "king of the south" (Daniel 11:40-45) - a united Arab federation of nations LED by EGYPT!! You are seeing the start of this right before your very eyes today, with the overthrow of Arab dictators, which must be before the Arab nations can feel free enough to unite together and work as a team. How long will this take? That is in God's hands, as I've said many times, the Eternal can shorten the time or stretch it out. We've seen how long it took Germany to pull East Germany up to West Germany standards after the Berlin Wall came down - 22 years so far.

The Arab nations (a number of them, not all) will form a united confederation eventually - the king of the south.

But it is EUROPE that is YET, to emerge on the world scene as a BLOCK-BUSTER POWER HOUSE - economically, militarily, and religiously. She is yet to RISE from this 2008 crash and be a world trading power. Then a mighty RELIGIOUS power - with the largest religious denomination riding this Europe as a "woman riding a beast" - she will then be the LAST resurrected HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. In the book of Revelation she is called "BABYLON MYSTERY RELIGION" AND SHE IS DRUNK WITH THE BLOOD OF THE SAINTS!! Your history book will tell you in plain language WHO this power was in the last 6 resurrections of the Holy Roman Empire.

Europe right now is DOWN - like iron mixed with clay - she has MUCH to LEARN from this lesson of the economic crash of 2008. Oh she will learn from it make no mistake, but it may take some time, may take at least 10 years, but we'll leave the time table in God's hands.

We will need to yet see Europe RISE UP again, and be the mighty power of the world to fullfil Bible prophecy. Looking just at the way the Eternal is working with Europe to that end over the last 60 years ..... well for us humans we might say it has been slow going, only in the last few years passports done away with for all members of the Europe Unity Nations - a new Euro in money not very old, and some nations like Britain did not sign on to it. Some economically weak nations, the clay, having to be bailed out by the strong iron nations, the strongest being Germany.
We need to be patient friends; we need to keep looking, for Europe to become the "king of the north: as she indeed will, eventually, but it could take some time yet.

Then WHEN we do have the king of the north and the king of the south, we do not know how long it will be before the king of the south "pushes at" the king of the north (Daniel 11:4--45). But it will HAPPEN!!

This will then lead the king of the north into the promised land, into Daniel chapter 12, and into the LAST TRIBULATION, GREATER THAN ANY THAT HAS EVER BEEN ON EARTH. Then we will be into the last 42 months 1260 days of the book of Revelation and the last 1335 days of the last verses of Daniel 12, slightly longer than 42 months (a 30 days month).

SO there is much to yet move into fulfilment. But at least friends YOU CAN SEE IT COMING!! RIGHT BEFORE YOUR EYES IT IS ALL WORKING AS I'VE BEEN TELLING YOU FOR 30 YEARS IN WHAT I'VE BEEN TEACHING ON BIBLE PROPHRCY. WHAT I'VE BEEN TELLING YOU IS TAKING PLACE RIGHT BEFORE YOUR EYES. AND THE PROPHETS OF THE 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, AND SOME IN 2000s, AND SOME FOR 2010-2020, HAVE BEEN ***WRONG*** AND WILL BE WRONG FOR THIS DECADE ALSO.
WHEN A PROPHETS SPEAKS AND IT DOES NOT COME TO PASS GOD SAYS DO NOT BE AFRAID OF THEM, I NEVER SENT THEM, THEY WERE FALSE PROPHETS!!

WHEN GOD'S PROPHETS SPEAK AND TELL YOU WHAT THE PROPHECY IN THE BIBLE SAYS, AND YOU SEE IT COME TO PASS, YOU WILL KNOW WHO THE TRUE PROPHETS OF THE LORD ARE.

HE THAT HAS AN EAR TO HEAR WITH SHOULD HEAR!!
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Friday, April 22, 2011

Your children EYES - could mean trouble

A new report just out. Children who only watch the "screen" (TV/Computer) for 1/2 hour or less each day have NORMAL blood vessels at the back of the eyes - those are the kids out playing for recreation.
The children (as low as age 6) who watch the screen for 1 to 1 and 1/2 hours a day had ab-normal blood vessels at the back of the eyes. And the experts say this is how old people often are, which often leads to strokes and heart problems. As one doctor said, having unhealthy blood vessels at the back of the eyes is really meaning your body is not well, which could then later on down the road (for these children as adults)  give other health problems.
The answer? Very simple: tell your kids to go out and play - bike, run, throw or kick a ball around, all the things kids did when there was no screen to watch, keep the body and eyes moving.

So parents, play-time should be the old fashioned play-time that kids had before the TV and Computer and now the iPads etc. were invented. Leave all the screen technology stuff behind and GET OUT AND PLAY!!
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Syria and Libya CHOAS - More USA Twister - Pregnancy not

A bloody day (over 80 killed they say) in Syria today, 5 weeks of demonstrations for change - the Government still has the army behind it, but the fight for the old dictator guys to go marches on.

MADhafi as I call him is using everything he can to rain down deadly fire on those opposed to him. The USA is going to us "drone" planes to help out the ones against Madhafi.  Looks like the rebels will get guns and some "advisers" on how to fight a war. War is terrible but so are dictators who will kill their own people to hang on to their wealth and power.
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More Twisters coming down in the USA, looks like an horrific season (March to June) is in the making with more twisters so far than ever before.
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A popular 17 year old High School girl decided to get pregnant. Well her popularity hit the bottom, she was not so popular anymore, and yes there were the comments and etc. Then 6 months into her pregnancy she was given the "stand before the school" and a microphone. To everyone's shock she talked about stereo-typing people (you know the stuff, too fat, to tall, too short, macho or not-macho, book-worm, sports-jock and etc.) and then told the school she was not pregnant after all, and pulled out her inflatable stomach pouch. Only her Mom and Dad and boyfriend knew about the experiment.

Sad fact is, as the news-cast went on to say, the stats on teen pregnancy in the USA are OFF THE CHART!! Some states have more teen pregnancy than regions of the African continent which have been noted for a long long time as having a large teen pregnancy rate. And more sad stats, only 1 in 50 pregnant teen girls in the USA will finish College. As North America puts so much importance on a College or University education I guess they call that stat as sad, and maybe in a modern space-age economically tied in world, it is.

It's a kinda strange thing this fact of teenage pregnancy stats; you have a much higher percentage of a "religious" world in the USA, compared to Canada and especially Britain,  yet the stats go sky high for teen pregnancy. You would think with a high ratio of "Christian religion" still in the USA, the stats on this topic would be down, not shooting up off the page. Now it could be that the "religious kids" are hardly in these stats, and it is all the "un-religious" kids getting pregnant. The News-media don't try to break-down the stats, they just give them to us.
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Water for Elephants movie

During the winter months Friday afternoon, or actually closer to lunch time, is my "movie time" IF any decent good movies come along.

The new one out today is called "Water for Elephants" staring Robert Pattinson, one of the new young guys on the screen, and Reese Witherspoon, who you do not see much of - she I think picks her movies carefully.
Now and again a movie comes along that is different, or should I say a different backdrop - that of "a circus" life drama for this one, set back in 1931.
The Elephant, certainly a huge star if is was indeed a real Elephant doing the tricks and not digital film making etc.  - I guess when it comes out on DVD the "specials" will tell us how the movie was made.
In Canada it is rated PG which means because of some violence not suited for young children.
Yes I did like it very much, and it did end the way I think we all would like to see it end - justice and goodness wins out at the end.
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The movie "Hanna" is a good bad and good guys thriller type movie - for such type movies it was good.
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"Source Code" is also a different kind of science fiction movie which I also enjoyed.
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I mentioned them before (but bought them today as "previously viewed" from Blockbuster) :

"The Tourist" - Jonny Depp and Angelina Jolie - also a different good and bad guys movie, that keeps you guessing and has a twist at the end that I found unexpected, but gave the movie its difference from other such type movies.

"The Next Three Days" - Russell Crowe - and as it says on the back "A Pulse Pounding, white knuckle Thriller" and "Intense and Powerful"
Yes, I did find it all of that, and had decided it would be a part of my movie collection when on DVD.
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That's it for movies this time around. "Water for Elephants" a good drama where the leading man is not the tough guy beating the bad guys, it's an Elephant that is the final hero. Yes, well worth seeing.
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USA and it's "drastic" way OUT of HUGE DEBT!!

LISTEN TO THIS from PhD Economist Moyo in her book
"How the West was Lost"

She gives one way for the USA to get out of the troubles from ITS MOUNTAIN OF DEBT!!
 
ALL IS NOT LOST

Scenario 4: America's nuclear options

Drastic times call for drastic measures.

There is, of course, a more aggressive way for America to fight back - particularly when it comes to sorting out its financial problems; an option that goes very much against the American grain. This is to become much more closed and protectionist, even if only until America gets her economic house in order and her rates of economic growth trend higher.
Although proposals for greater US protectionism are generally met with derision from mainstream policymakers, evidence over the last thirty years suggests that Americans have not benefited that much from the US being open to globalization.

If anything, although global income inequality between developed and developing countries has improved, income inequality within the US has worsened. According to research at the University of Chicago, while the richest i per cent have seen their incomes rise three times over the past thirty years that the US has been opened, the poorest 10 per cent have seen their incomes rise by a relatively paltry 10 per cent.
Moreover, in that time American living standard improvements (measured as average per capita income) have been marginal. At z. L per cent, average US GDP growth between 1980 and 2001, when the US was largely open, is identical to growth between 1950 and 1980, when the US was largely closed.

This type of data suggests at least that closer consideration of the possible benefits of adopting more protectionist policies is warranted. There are compelling reasons why Americans (the results are similar across the major Western economies) have not benefited from globalization to a greater degree, such as the fact that economic gains over the past several decades disproportionately accrued to the holders of capital rather than to the providers of labour, and the fact that US households over-invested (at least 30 per cent of household wealth) in the domestic housing asset class, thereby remaining relatively under-invested in the globalization which registered marked gains."

In considering which direction to take - whether to remain open or become more closed from the global economy - policymakers need to be guided by long-term (twenty-year plus) thinking, as the urgent issues impacting the world's most developed economies today are precisely long-term and structural in nature. Of course, in light of the current economic circumstances, short-term, tactical considerations are important. But, unfortunately, as ever, the myopia around the political imperative in the West mitigates against long-term thinking.

This is precisely why there is an urgent need to decouple economic thinking from short term political expediency. Pull the plug and start anew. After all, 'the future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave.'

A stronger variant of this theme of protectionsim is for the US to default.  An outright US government default is not something to dismiss offhand. Default sounds like a cataclysmic option-stock markets would crash, the cost of debt would soar, the dollar would suddenly turn into monopoly money, and there would undoubtedly be a deafening international uproar. Already in November zoog the derivatives market was betting on an increasing chance of the US government defaulting on its bonds. According to the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, the volume of US credit default swaps - the derivatives that measure the cost to insure against bond defaults - have more than doubled from US$4bn in 2008 to US$10bn in 2009. But would it really be that bad for the US to default?

Western defaults have happened before (Iceland in 2008 and the UK, in all but name, in 1976, when it was forced to go to the IMF for a bailout loan), but certainly not on such a monumental scale - this is, after all, the United States, the economic leader of the world. This is not to suggest that America should default just for defaulting's sake, in order to wipe out its obligations. The attraction would be for America to wipe its slate clean and for the government to reset its financial statement. As in the case of the UK in 1976, such a default could provide an opportunity for a much needed overhaul of the domestic policy agenda, particularly the culture of leverage, as well as recasting the 'homeownership for all' strategy, and pushing for greater investment in labour and technology.

America's current financial state has, no doubt, given its policymakers the impression that their hands are tied, bound by the strictures of the lender that is China. However, they underestimate the power they have, and the strength of the symbiotic relationship that exists between America and China as the borrower and the lender, respectively.

Murder-suicide in Chimerica

A default scenario is the one China ought to fear the most. According to calculations by Standard Chartered, as much as 82 per cent of China's US$2tn in foreign reserves is in dollars, making China one of the biggest buyers of US Treasury securities, in some instances splashing out as much as US$10bn a month; in return China earns around US$50bn a year in interest from the United States, according to Brad W Setser at the Council on Foreign Relations. Half of the US Treasury bond market is owned by foreign investors.
It is true that in the event of a US default the American economy itself would suffer if foreign investors were to desert it (for example, long-term interest rates would rise sharply and this would increase the cost of mortgage financing and the corporate bond markets, to the detriment of the US economy), but a US default like this could be viewed as a necessary and temporary reset of the economy.

The US would not be the only loser. Remember that not only would China lose the value of all the American debt it held, but importantly such a US default would, at a stroke, jeopardize China's own development strategy, which counts on the US (government and individual citizens) borrowing cash to buy its goods and keep the Chinese populace employed. Perhaps anticipating this, China has, over several years, been encouraging greater domestic demand (domestic demand growth was forecast to reach 15 per cent in China, and 10 per cent in both India and Brazil) and pushing its goods towards other (non-US) international buyers.
Of course America's reputation would take a knock, but for how long? A guess is that the financial markets would be willing to lend to the US again within six months, if Russia is anything to go by. After all, just three years after it defaulted on its internal debt in 1998, the international debt markets welcomed new bond issues from Russia - the City of Moscow issued a 400m  pounds (around US$600m) bond in November 2001.

Without a strategy of default, many fear America will remain locked in a stranglehold of debt and dependence from which it will be very difficult to credibly escape. Certainly, it can inflate the debt away as many countries are essentially now doing (a means of defaulting by stealth as inflation will erode the value of the debt anyway), but adopting this softly, softly approach will ultimately have the same consequences.
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I'VE SAID FOR YEARS THERE IS NO WAY THE USA CAN OR WILL PAY OFF (it's now April 2011) 14 TRILLION DOLLARS OF DEBT! 
IF THE USA HAS A FIGHTING CHANCE TO REMAIN AT THE TOP OR NEAR THE TOP OF THE WORLD ECONOMIC LADDER, IT NEEDS TO BITE THE BULLET AND DEFAULT, JUST THAT SIMPLE!! SHOCKING TO THINK ABOUT, PRIDE MAY NEVER ALLOW THE USA TO DO SO; THEN AGAIN IT MAY EVENTUALLY COME TO SEE IT HAS NO REAL OTHER ALTERNATIVE, GIVEN ALL THAT DAMBISA MOYO GOES OVER IN HER BLOCK BUSTER BOOK "HOW THE WEST WAS LOST."

I'LL SAY IT AGAIN YOU....WHY EVEN BARAK OBAMA NEEDS TO READ HER BOOK....MORE STILL OBAMA NEEDS TO BRING HER INTO THE WHITE HOUSE AS HIS ECONOMIC ADVISER ....YES HE SHOULD, SHE'S GOT MORE BRAINS IN HER LITTLE FINGER THAN OBAMA HAS IN HIS WHOLE STAFF IN THE DOMOCRATIC PARTY!!!
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Thursday, April 21, 2011

Economic Facts

USA household consumption expenditures  as a percentage of GDP was, in 2007, 70 per cent, compared with about 35 per cent in China and 54 per cent in India.

China is the world's second largest economy but ranks 5th in consumption.

In 2009 China had a savings rate of 51 per cent of GDP - one of the highest in the world, compared to just US$1.6tn in the USA economy (13 per cent of it GDP), which is 6 times the size of China.

Chinese household savings a lofty 30 per cent of household income. The USA a negative savings rate of 0.4 per cent of US households, meaning the average USA household were saving nothing.

As Stephen Roach, former Chief Economist at Morgan Stanley put it in 2006, "The two major players in the global economy, the USA and China, are operating at different ends of the saving spectrum. Thrifty Chinese have taken savings to excess, while profligate Americans have spent their way into debt."

The tax revenue the USA federal government collects (about 17 per cent of GDP) pretty much offsets the government's spending on defence (even in 2008 Joseph Stiglitz estimated that the costs of the Orqi war alone were US$3tn - almost one third of the US GDP), health and pension benefits (social security, Medicare,  Midicaid, veteran's benefits), and interest payments on debt. The rest is financed on borrowing. Education, infrastructure (roads, railways, bridges, water, transport and tunnels), science and technological innovation, the courts and legal system, aid to foreign countries, security, clean energy and the climate change agenda, are financed with BORROWED MONEY!!

The DEBT for the USA is now 14 Trillion dollars!!  To put it in some perspective to understand this better, when you look at the average USA take-home (after-tax) pay is around 40,000 USA dollars. Every American would have to work for AT LEAST a year for FREE to cover this debt!!!

By 2008 HOUSEHOLD debt had grown from US$680bn in 1974 to US$14tn in 2008 (the size of the American economy). USA household debt as a percentage of income rose to 130 per cent during 2007, verses 100 per cent earlier in the decade, and nearly quadruple the 36 per cent of 1952. The average US household owned 13 credit cards, of which 40 per cent had debts outstanding (this was up from 6 per cent in 1970).

The USA is not alone: according to the "Financial Times" in cash terms, the UK government expects to borrow more in 2009 and 2910 than the entire borrowing of British governments between 1692 and 1997.
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The above facts are taken from the recent new book "How the West was Lost" by Dambisa Moyo.

As she goes on to say, "Of course, one can borrow as much as one likes, as long as someone out there is prepared to lend. The trouble arises when no one is willing to lend to you anymore, and lender's largesse comes to a screeching halt, leaving you with debt, and lots of it; Iceland 2008 being one recent example."

Moyo further  writes: "At the turn of the century, Angus Maddison postulated that China could overtake the USA and reach pole position as the largest economy on earth before 2020.....Goldman Sachs ... projections in 2001 and 2003 ... described China as on the path to the top of the GDP league table. Brazil, India and Russia were not far behind.......In the early summer of 2009 the newly appointed American Treasury secretary, Tim Geither, addressed a roomful of Chinese students at Peking University on the continuing financial crisis. When, in an attempt to reassure them of American's probity, he told them that China's official holdings of Treasury bonds were safe, the statement was met with open laughter. Faith in the almighty dollar seemed no more."

Moyo say: "In 2009, as a way to provide seed money to its trading partners, the People's Bank of China signed of 650bn "renminbi" (US$95bn) in bilateral currency swap agreements with six central banks: South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Belarus and Argentina. Meanwhile China is in discussions with other central banks to make additional swap agreements and will most likely expand them to cover all the country's trade with Asia. China's strategy to raise the status of the renminbi in international trade and global finance is well and truly underway. no more a world where the greenback is the world's favorite currency, instead it would be the redback. Think about it. Foreign exchange, share prices, the price of copper, the price of oil, all in Chinese renminbi."
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So the USA in debt to the tune of 14 TRILLION dollars!!!!   Will it ever pay back all that kind of money?   President Obama recently talked about making a good effort to get ex trillions paid back over the next 4 or 5 years (if he's elected again as President).....BUT talk is cheap.....wishful thinking is cheap also, as is good intentions.

I've said for years now that I do not think the USA can ever pay back that kind of money, just cannot see it happening at all. And I've said why bother trying, why not just go BUST, just say "sorry guys but we just have to forget it, wipe the slate clean."  Now in reading the last chapter of Moyo's book she gives about 4 scenarios of the way the world can go, and the way the USA can go to stay at the top, at least a good fight to stay at the top. One of those ways.......well it's going to surprise you ...... I'll bring what she says next time, so don't go away, stay tunes in.
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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Greatest Story Ever Told

I have just finished watching the 3 hours and 19 minute  MGM movie of 1965 called "Greatest Story Ever Told" about the life and death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ Messiah.

A movie  by George Stevens. And George deliberately wanted a NONE Hollywood man - an unknown - to play the part of Jesus. He said he wanted that so people would not be distracted from seeing Jesus by some famous face.

On the back of the DVD we find:

"The most incredible and remarkable portrayal of the life of Jesus Christ that has ever been put on film" - The Dallas Morning News.

"Touches the heart and stirs the spirit" - NY Daily News.

"Lavishly produced at a cost of $20 million - an enormous amount for the time - and honored with five 1965 Academy award nominations; this exceptional picture is exquisitely beautiful. Now fully restored to its original theatrical brilliance, it is truly The Greatest Story Ever Told.
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Ah and it has Jesus with no long flowing hair - it has him looking very much like any Jew of the time (the actor had very blue eyes which more than likely Jesus did not).

It shows water baptism as full immersion.

Yes, it has all kinds of things out of chronology, of course the birth, ministry life, and death and resurrection are all in correct order.

So you just have to forget about much of the teaching scenes of Jesus as given in the four Gospels, being out of order or put into different scenes from what they actually were, so you must overlook SOME of the wrong technicalities.

You just need to sit back, let the words of Jesus, the miracles shown, the background music, the splendor of it all, capture you as if you were right there.

This movie is rated G - for any age.

Oh by the way Stevens did not produce it shot in the Holy Land, because he said the Holy Land today is too built-up - too commercial - the movie was filmed in the State of UTAH, which Stevens in 1965 said looked more like the Holy Land as it was in Jesus' time.
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It is written - The Lamb Slain from the foundations of the world

"My God my God, why have you forsaken Me......
a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn; they shoot out the lip, they shake their head, saying: He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver him, seeing as he delighted in Him.....They opened their mouths against me, as a ravening and roaring lion.....For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.....they parted my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.....I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint....I may tell all my bones: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels...."  From parts of Psalm 22.

A Psalm of David yes, but indeed prophecies of the Messiah's first coming and being led as a lamb to the slaughter.

Some parts like "I may tell all my bones....all my bones are out of joint" are "general statements" (the Bible uses general statements as often we today do - there is a full study on my website called "Key of the Bible - General Statements" which you need to study and learn the truth of). There are 26 bones in the foot alone, was everyone of them out of joint? Well of course not. If every single bone of Jesus was out of joint how then did to walk to where they crucified Him? But certainly through the beating and scourging He was given before His crucifixion MANY of His bones were out of joint and broken through His torn skin.

God the Father had to step back just before Jesus died, for Jesus had to take the sins of the world upon Himself in His death and shed blood. The Father had to step aside from all those sins - all of our sins - all of yours and my sins, and all the sins of everyone in human history that will accept Jesus Christ as PERSONAL Savior.

Jesus did DIE!!  Yes FULLY AND COMPLETELY dead. He literally did not exist - for 3 days and 3 night, for 72 hours Christ did not exist. In all eternity past and future there is a period of 72 hours when Jesus the anointed Messiah DID NOT EXIST!! He had to put His entire FAITH in the Father to RAISE HIM FROM THE DEAD!

I have explained it in detail in "The New Testament Bible Story" (the last chapters of the Gospels) but I will go over it briefly again here.

The events of Jesus' death were so powerful, so mighty.....there was darkness from about noon till his death. At His death the Temple curtain separating the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place was ripped in two. There would have been an immediate STOP to any sacrificing being done in the Temple, if not before because of the darkness over and around Jerusalem. The priests in the Temple would have been in absolute chaos, and they certainly could have not cared one iota about this Jesus hanging outside Jerusalem on a Roman cross. Jesus' disciples were in utter SHOCK and DISMAY, in unbelief for they simply did not understand what was going on and why Jesus was dead on a cross. There were a few of Jesus' loyal women followers staying by Him, also wondering but caring enough to stand by Him through it all, and for a while after His death.

We find in the Gospels EVENING had come, and in a full in-depth study on my website I prove that the New Testament INTERPRETS itself to show that "evening" as used in the NT can not be before 6 pm.
It is then that the Gospels tell you about Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus coming before Pilate and asking for the body of Christ. The Romans could have care less how long those bodies of the three crucified that day, stayed on the stakes. The Romans had "washed their hands" of the matter, and allowed the demented (probably demon influenced) Jews to have their way, and to crucify Jesus.

Jesus disciples were not rushing to take down the body of Jesus, they were all scattered and in bewilderment as to everything that had happened that day.

Are you getting the picture? Do you see the situation of just about every person in and around Jerusalem. It was EVENING (see Mark 15:42 - Greek "aorist tense" for "was come" - action done in the past) before these two men came to Pilate and asked for the body of Christ. Now the rest of the story is as found in Luke 23:54. Most have completely missed it. Notice..."....and sabbath drew on." What most have missed is that the words "drew on" in the Greek are in the IMPERFECT tense, and the "imperfect" tense in NT Greek is action already under way but continuing!!

The Sabbath of the 15th day of the first month, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread HAD ALREADY COME AND WAS CONTINUING!! This is when Joseph and Nicodemus came to Pilate!!

It took some time then to take Jesus' body down from the cross and put Him in the tomb of Joseph.

So it was AFTER SUNSET when Jesus was placed in the tomb!!

And it was 72 hours later - 3 days and 3 night - that Jesus was RESURRECTED - which put His resurrection on a SATURDAY EVENING - after the weekly Sabbath - Jesus RESTED, was still resting for the entire weekly Sabbath of that Passover week (being killed on a cross on Wednesday). And it was AFTER the rest of the Sabbath that Jesus was resurrected!

This all fits in with the typology of the cutting of the wave sheaf as practiced by the Sadducees of the Temple (not the Pharisees, they had it all messed up and their practice was theologically wrong). The Sadducees cut the wave sheaf AFTER the weekly Sabbath had ended, and then prepared it to be offered in the Temple on the 1st day of the week - Sunday morning.

Jesus was the first of the first-fruits (1 Cor.15) - the wave sheaf.  Remember Jesus told Mary that Sunday morning "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father...."(John 20:17). Not long after He appeared to some disciples and they were able to touch Him. Jesus had to ascend to the Father that morning to be officially accepted as the first of the firstfruits.

The typology is FULLY IN SINK - just hand in glove- perfect fit!

Jesus was raised on the FIRST DAY of the week, but at the BEGINNING of that first day (as God starts days) - what we call today Saturday evening.

Now we begin to see WHY by the end of the first century and into the second century A.D. the apostate church coming from within the true church of God, was able, with a few more twists to start to teach and claim God had moved the holy weekly Sabbath day from the 7th day to the 1st day of the week, and claim they were observing the first day of the week as it was on the first day that Jesus was RESURRECTED!!

Oh the cleverness of the slight of hand and DECEPTIONS of Satan the Devil!

As I've mentioned all this and more is expounded upon in my "New Testament Bible Story" - the last chapters of the Gospels.

Jesus was raised from the dead, raised to IMMORTAL GLORIFIED ETERNAL LIFE, and before He ascended back to heaven to be on the Father's right hand, He gave instructions to His followers for all time, until He returned once more to receive the Kingdom promised Him.

"GO you therefore, and TEACH ALL NATIONS, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. TEACHING them to OBSERVE ALL THINGS whatsoever I have COMMANDED you: and lo, I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19-20).

Jesus' true disciples are still doing TODAY the work He told us to do, right up to the end of this age.

So it is written and so it shall be done!
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Jesus' LIFE saves!

And Jesus said to them:

"I am the vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that bears no fruit He takes away: and every branch that bears fruit, He purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit.....Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches: he that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing. If a man abide NOT in me, he is cast forth AS A BRANCH, and is WITHERED; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are BURNED UP......If you KEEP my COMMANDMENTS, you shall abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love" (John 15:1-10).

Now the only way it can be possible to be a branch abiding in Christ is that Jesus was RESURRECTED!!

It is just that simple. The words you have read are easy to understand, they say what they mean and they mean what they say!

A Christian continues to live on for some time (well most indeed do) after they accept Jesus as PERSONAL Savior, after they are baptized, after the death of Christ, His shed blood is applied to them, so their sins are washing away in the blood, after they are JUSTIFIED, FORGIVEN, and made AT-ONE with the Father.

But Christ was RAISED from the dead, not only to grant Him GLORY and ETERNAL LIFE once more, BUT to also be the LIVING VINE....that we Christians being the branched of that vine, could LIVE in that vine, being connected to that LIVING VINE!  And as Jesus said, if any person does not abide or stay CONNECTED to THE vine (Christ Jesus), that person is cast forth and will be BURNED UP!!

Jesus is a LIVING SAVIOR!  He MUST  be FOR as a living Savior He can LIVE within each Christian through the very nature of God, which is the Holy Spirit. A Christian has to be a LIVING branch, a living branch CONTINUES to have life giving nature pulse through them, as a branch connected to a vine has living nature pushing through them from the main body of the vine.

Verse 23 of chapter 14: "If a man loves Me, he will KEEP My words: and My Father will love him, and WE will COME TO HIM, and MAKE OUT ABODE with him."

So the rest of the story is that BOTH the Father and the Son LIVE WITHIN the Christian!!

Salvation does NOT STOP with being JUSTIFIED, FORGIVEN with and through the BLOOD of Christ. Salvation must CONTINUE within the person until that person dies the physical death of this life (or if alive at the coming again of Christ to earth, is CHANGED from mortal to IMMORTALITY - see the latter half of the famous resurrection chapter of 1 Corinthians 15). And to continue that what is often called "sanctification" of salvation - you must be IN the vine Christ Jesus, through the Holy Spirit.

This is why Paul said what he said in Romans 5:5-10 - read that section again friends.

And this is also why Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20 "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I LIVE, yet not I, but Christ LIVES IN ME: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the FAITH OF the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

Paul had Jesus LIVING WITHIN HIM, he had the VERY FAITH OF Christ in him! And so must ALL Christians. Salvation does not JUST have a "death part" to it; Salvation has a LIFE part to it. They are INSEPARABLE!!

And being so that is why Paul wrote: "But you are not in the flesh (carnal minded, vvs 6-8), but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone has NOT the Spirit of Christ, he is NONE of His.....But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead DWELL in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also MAKE ALIVE (quicken) your MORTAL body by His Spirit that DWELLS in you.....For as many as are LED by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" (Romans 9-14).

So we have returned to the example Jesus gave of the VINE and the BRANCHES!

There is another important reason that salvation is LIVING - that LIFE and not just DEATH is part of Salvation.

Jesus today is at the Father's right hand doing the work of being our INTERCEDING HIGH PRIEST! Yes that is truly so friends. The book of Hebrews shows this truth in clear plain language. You may want to take the time during this Feast of Unleavened Bread to read the book of Hebrews say in the New KJV. As you read this wonderful book you will see clearly that Jesus is NOW our HIGH PRIEST in heaven.
The New Testament Priesthood has been CHANGED friends, and the HIGH Priest of this New Testament Priesthood is Jesus the Christ - see it in Hebrews 7:12-25. Notice it, mark it well, verse 25....
"Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He EVER LIVES to make INTERCESSION for them."

The book of Hebrews is a WONDERFUL book, if you have not read it for a while, let me encourage you to read it in a modern translation, like the NewKJV. Read it slowly, there are so many verses in it that need to be imbedded in your heart and mind. There are so many TRUTHS of the Lord in that book, you need to read it SLOWLY and let the GLORIOUS WONDER of those truths sink deep into your mind.

Then put all the greatness of Hebrews with 1 John chapter one and chapter 2:1-6.

We are to admit that we are still sinners as we walk the Christian life. We must have the attitude that we do not want to sin,  that we want to walk in the light, desire to keep God's commandments; we must know that calling ourselves a Christian means we desire to walk, live, as Jesus walked and lived.
But we are still in the flesh, we do fall at times, we do miss the mark, we do sin at times, BUT we can take heart, we have Jesus Christ as our ADVOCATE  - INTERCESSOR - as our HIGH PRIEST that intercedes for us on our behalf to the Father. And as we acknowledge, have a mind-set that is always in a REPENTANT frame of mind, asking our Heavenly Father to forgive us our sins, as we forgive others that sin against us (remember that part of the so-called "Lord's prayer"?) - Jesus also interceding for us, His blood is then still applied to our sins, and we continue to be under GRACE!!

OH what RICHES is the LOVE of God and Christ TOWARDS us human flesh and blood creatures!

What riches and GLORY is the Feast of the PASSOVER and the Feast of UNLEAVENED BREAD!

May you who know these things continue to be richly blessed during this Spring Festival time of the Lord.

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I AM the RESURRECTION and the LIFE!

Jesus loved a man called Lazarus of the town of Bethany. This man had two sisters, one Mary and the other Martha. It was Mary who had on a previous occasion anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair.
Jesus was told that His friend Lazarus was sick, nigh unto death. "Oh his sickness is not unto death, but that the glory of God, and the Son of God might be glorified by it," was Jesus' answer to them.
Jesus made no hurry from the place He was at, but two days later Jesus said to His disciples, "It's time to go to Judea once more."
"Master," the disciples answered, "do you not remember it was there the Jews sought to stone you, and you want to go there again."
Jesus replied, "We go for our friend Lazarus is sleeping; but I go that I may wake him out of sleep."
The disciples told Jesus that if he was asleep, that was good. But Jesus was not talking about a sleep like we take at night time to rest for the next day's work, but Jesus spoke of Lazarus being dead, and He then plainly told them so.
"I'm glad for you that I was not there when he died, that you may believe."

When Jesus arrived he was told that lazarus had been dead for 4 days already. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming she ran to meet him. With tears and grief she cried to Jesus, "Lord, oh Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. Yet I know God can do anything we may ask of Him."
"Martha," said Jesus, "your brother shall RISE again!"
"I know Lord, yes I know he shall rise in the RESURRECTION at the last days," responded Martha.
"Martha, I am the resurrection and the life: whoever believes in Me though they were dead, they shall live again. And whoever lives and believes in Me, shall in no wise die forever. Do you believe this?"
"Yes Lord, yes indeed Lord I do believe this, and that You are the Christ, the Son of God, which was to come into the world."

Now Mary was still in the house being comforted by some Jews because of the death of her brother.  She then also ran out to meet Jesus, and crying, said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."
Jesus saw her crying and also the Jews that had followed her, crying also, He groaned and was upset in spirit.
"Where have you put Lazarus," Jesus asked.
"Come and see Lord, come and see."

We then have the shortest verse in the Bible....."Jesus wept."

This was not just a few tears running down His cheeks, this was real weeping, with full emotion. The Jews really knew then how much Jesus loved Lazarus, and his sisters.

Can we weep at times? Can we look around and see the sins of our nations, see the way the world is going, see the unbelief, see our nations departing more and more from Jesus, the personification of the word of God, the word of God in the flesh. Do we at times weep over the sins of the world, and where we know those sins will eventually take the world....into reaping the wages of sin - destruction and death. Do you at times read the prophecies of your Bible, and understand the sorrow and pain and death,  that lies ahead for the nations of this earth, because they will not REPENT of sin?

Jesus came to the grave where they had laid Lazarus.

"Take away the stone," Jesus told them.

Martha spoke up, "Lord, he has been dead for 4 days, by now he is stinking of decay."

"Did I not say to you Martha," replied Jesus, "that if you believed you would see the glory of God?"

The stone was taken away. "Father," said Jesus, "I thank you that you hear me, for the people standing by I have said this, that they may believe you sent me."

Jesus lifted up His voice and with a LOUD CRY said, "LAZARUS, COME FORTH!!"

Can you imagine the look on the faces of the people who, with their own eyes, SAW Lazarus WALK OUT OF THAT GRAVE!!

Has it ever been told, has it ever been seen, that someone dead for 4 days came walking out of their grave, ALIVE ONCE MORE, alive, back in the land of the LIVING - from death to LIFE.

Jesus died on that afternoon of the 14th day of the first month. He was fully dead. He put His faith in the Father to raise Him from death back to life, 3 days and 3 nights later. Jesus' resurrection was not just back to physical life as Lazarus' life was, but Jesus was raised to GLORIFIED IMMORTAL LIFE!! The first physical human to ever gain LIFE TO IMMORTALITY!! That is why Paul in one of his letters said Jesus had PREEMINENCE ..... IN ALL THINGS!!

Do you not know,  that we are not only saved by the DEATH of Jesus but also by His LIFE? Yes we are! It takes BOTH the death of Jesus and the life of Jesus to save us. Read it for yourself, MARK it in yellow. It's been in your Bible for two thousand years friends - Romans 5:8-10.

Notice it, again mark with a yellow high-liner!

"Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how is it that some among you say there is NO resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen. And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching VAIN, and your faith is also VAIN.....And if Christ be NOT risen, your faith is VAIN, you are yet IN YOUR SINS. Then they also which have fallen asleep (death is sleep friends, death is not life in some other location) in Christ are PERISHED. If in THIS life ONLY we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable" (1 Corinthians 15:12-19).

Within all this context of death back to LIFE, also note, time during this Feast of Unleavened Bread to note it, verse 33 and 34 of this famous resurrection chapter.

"Be not deceived: EVIL communications CORRUPT good manners. AWAKE to RIGHTEOUSNESS AND SIN NOT! For some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame."

Do you know a Bible definition of "righteousness" friends?  Well if not I'll give it to you .... Psalms 119:172.  Yes mark this in yellow also.  ALL THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD ARE RIGHTEOUSNESS!!!

Do you know a Bible definition of sin? One very plain one is 1 John 3:4 and tie that in with Romans 7:7

Those who teach that only the DEATH of Jesus saves you ARE WRONG!  They are so wrong they are DEAD wrong if they do not come to see the truth of the matter. It takes not only the death of Jesus to save you, it also takes the LIFE of Jesus to save you! I'll explain more on that as this Unleavened Bread Feast moves on.

Those who teach that the commandments of God are "done away with" under grace, well they must be some of the DUMBEST readers of the New Testament that there could ever be. Such teachers of "no law" under grace have not yet got out of the DIAPER stage of understanding the Bible - they are still BABES on the milk of the word, and I sometimes wonder if they have even got to the stage of having the milk of the word of God.

Jesus is indeed the RESURRECTION and the LIFE!!

And it takes His LIFE also to save you!!

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Monday, April 18, 2011

Evening of 1st day UB Feast

I was informed by my friend and co-worker Lynn, that he has uploaded the FIRST part of my series on the book of Revelation, on Youtube - keithmhunt

As we think about the Feast of Unleavened Bread, our thought go to SIN and RIGHTEOUSNESS!!

The book of Revelation and all that it contains must come to pass BECAUSE the world has gone over the line of throwing away God and the Bible - even the nations of the West that at one time were very open about being "Christian" nations, are NOT any more! Our Western nations have become SECULAR - our leaders do not establish the laws of the land based on the laws of God any more. The nations of the West as far as God is concerned, He says we call BLACK "white" and WHITE "black - we call sin and evil okay, good, and righteousness we call bad or racist or "lack of freedom" towards those who want to be free to do anything, except what our nations claim is a crime. Hence things like abortion on demand is no longer a sin or crime; same sex marriage is no longer a sin or crime.

The world is doing its own thing - going its own way - whatever seems right to the leaders or political party of that nation. God says there is a way that SEEMS right to man, but it will end in DEATH!

The book of Revelation is about mankind going its own way leading to death, and then it is also about the Eternal stepping in to also bring punishment in no uncertain form on a rebellious world. It is a heart-breaking book to have to expound to you and the world, but God's servants HAVE TO DO IT, there is no choice. So this prophetic book I will expound to you on Youtube. I will get at times very BLUNT, AND VERY PLAIN, I will call a spade a spade, I will tell you which nations and groups of confederate nations will do what to whom.

The book of Revelation is about the last 42 months, 1260 days of this age before the return of Jesus Christ to earth to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. It is especially about the last part of that 42 months - the prophetic "day of the Lord" - the Lord's day when He will step in and SHAKE and RATTLE and ROLL this planet in a way never done in human history.

Revelation is about GREAT DECEPTION and how Jesus will return with the POWER OF GOD and the armies of heaven, and the resurrected saints of all ages, to SMASH THAT DECEPTION, to put down the armies of the world that will be deceived enough to literally try to fight Him on His coming, and how Christ will melt them away - yes literally (as the prophet Zechariah shows us in his chapter 14).
Revelation is about God SAVING this world from itself, otherwise as Jesus said in Matthew 24, no flesh would be left alive on this planet called earth.

So the beginning of my expounded of the book of Revelation is now on Youtube - keithmhunt - that is where all my sermons from now on will be - keithmhunt - Youtube.

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The DEPTH of Satanic Deception!!

I'm meditating on the Church of God over the last 50 years - specifically the organization that started out as The Radio Church of God and then changed the name in the middle 1960s to the Worldwide Church of God. It's leader was a man called Herbert W. Armstrong.  I was a member of that church organization from the winter of 1961/62. I well remember up to the death of Loma Armstrong - HWA's wife - a humble Herbert Armstrong, who did not want anyone clapping as he came up to deliver a sermon at the Feast of Tabernacles.

All that humbleness began to change after Loma died in 1967 - I watched it all - I saw HWA get more filled with vanity as 1968/69/70/71 rolled on by. I was out of that organization by 1972.

Over the next 7 years I saw how the WCG grew and grew - indeed worldwide. In the Western world you began to see the Plain Truth magazine (published by the WCG) on street corners in most average to large towns and cities. I also saw how more vanity and vain glory was entering the mind of this man called Herbert Armstrong. It all led to the man adopting the Roman Catholic form of "church government." It led to men by his side pushing him up into more and more glory of the praise of men. It led to the organizations belief that this man was the "Elijah to come" as prophesied in the book of Malachi, and by Jesus in the Gospels (I have a full study of this subject "The Elijah to come" on my website). It led to most of his organization believing this HWA man would lead their church to the "place of safety" during the Great Tribulation, which would end with the coming of Jesus Christ.

Certainly by 1980 I had come to clearly see this man Herbert Armstrong had transformed his organization into a cult, with him as supreme cult leader. For many details as to the truth of that statement you can read "Lying with the Truth" by my late co-worker Jesse, that is on my website, and the book by John Tuit called "The Truth Shall Make You Free" also on my website.

In January of I believe 1986 (if my memory is correct) HWA died. Needless to say many left the WCG organization after his death, when they realized their hope and trust in this man to lead them into the Kingdom of God was now shattered. Most did not leave at this time, as long as the old doctrines were being taught, but the new leader (appointed by HWA before he died) by 1990 has done away with the weekly Sabbath the Feasts of the Lord. Well there arose SPLITS - Rod Meredith was told to leave, not wanting to, but he had no choice, he was to "get gone" and so he formed the Global Church of God first of all. It later split and Meredith became leader of the now Living Church of God. In the meantime a large group of ministers were playing their cards in secret, until they knew there would be a large (in the thousands) following, when they decided to pull the plug and leave the WCG. Hence the United Church of God was formed, which in the last year or so has also split. There were others who split from those splits.

Well in knowing a good deal about most of those splits I would say none of them HAVE EVER acknowledge the sins and wrong teachings that HWA moved into after 1967. None have called for a day of Fasting and REPENTANCE for being part of an organization that was turned into a CULT by the late HWA. It is very humbling to say the least to admit to yourself you were deceived into a WRONG church government teaching that had dictatorial authority over your life, who you could talk to, what literature you could read, how you were to think, and act, at any given function. It is VERY DIFFICULT for most people to admit they were a part of an organization that used heavy-handed "disfellowshipping" practices, where the local minister just cast people out of the church at the drop of the hat, as we say; if he thought people were not thinking or saying or acting "just right" - they were cast out, and in so doing the organization as a whole taught such people were OUTSIDE of salvation! It is VERY DIFFICULT for people to admit they were once part of (going along with) a BRUTAL, yes in many ways a HITLER type government, where you did as you were told, where people were spying and reporting to the "minister" about people who were thought to be NOT "toeing the line" as the line came down from the top dog - HWA - to those below the top dog, to ones below those, to ones below those, all the way down to the "deacons" of the local church.

Why is it that people in such organizations get that way? Well there are many reasons of course, not just one reason. Why is it that those who are still part of the larger splits from the WCG since 1990, have NEVER REPENTED as whole groups of people, and NEVER admitted to themselves just what they were part of when under the old WCG led by Herbert Armstrong? I was thinking about this in the last few hours of this 14th day - the Passover day - this afternoon around the time Jesus was dying on the cross.

It came to me, because I have some years back, observed the Passover service with the UCG (hoping they would come to see the light of truth concerning the past, which they have not, hence I gave up having any fellowship with them).  The PASSOVER service is only done once a year. It is THE most memorial service indeed, for it is the memorial of of what Jesus did for us - dying for our sins so we could have FORGIVENESS and LIFE!! So we could be JUSTIFIED!! So we could come under GRACE!!  So we could enter the FIRST part of Salvation (the second being His RESURRECTION for we are saved by BOTH His death and life, as Paul taught in the book of Romans and 1 Corinthians 15).

People in organizations like the UCG; the LCG and others, are very quiet, sober, as they partake of the foot-washing part of the service, then the taking of the unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine.

It is all very EMOTIONAL the Passover evening!

People in organizations that know the truth of the Passover service, that it should only be done ONCE a year, on the evening of the 14th day of the first month in God's calendar......well they know they have some knowledge that is kinda "special" from all other people calling themselves "Christian." There can be a certain VANITY in it all, if you are not being careful. You can find yourself saying to yourself, "Look how sanctimonious we are; look how faithful we are to obey the truth of the Passover teaching; we must be the children of God; these ministers of our organization must be the true ministers of God; look at the many truths we have."

So this attitude then carries over from that point on........"We are the true people of God, and we need to acknowledge these ministers we have are the true ministers of the Lord.  So admitting that we better not question their teachings or directives. We better pray and obey."

With that attitude which I now see comes so easily from keeping the Passover, the mind becomes a blank, the mind becomes, to put it very bluntly - "brain-washed" - you no longer prove ANYTHING; you no longer question anything; you no longer have a mind that says, "Hummm.....I'm not sure what is said or going on here has any backing from the Scriptures.....Hummm.....I better do some checking in the Word, to see it what I'm hearing and what I'm seeing being done, is in line with the Scriptures."

Yes, I believe observing the Passover correctly as per the Scriptures, with serious emotion, can, if not guarded against, give you so much pride and vanity and ego, that you just do not question that your organization and the men leading it, could possibly be "out to lunch" from "planet pluto" on things that are done AFTER the Passover.

It's much like the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, of Jesus' day. They had the law of God, they were not like the heathen nations around them. God had at a point (in the past) given them KNOWLEDGE others did not have. Oh they thought, "we are special" - we have the law; we have the correct weekly Sabbath; we have the correct Festivals of the Lord; we have this Passover feast; we have God's special blessing, a special direct phone line to Him, that others do not have." They became so filled with "religious sanctimony" they could not see where they had WANDERED away from truth into all kinds of ERRORS! They had made THEIR "religion" into "God's religion" - oh yes mixed with some truth. But there lies the DANGER, there lies the DEPTH of Satanic DECEPTION - having SOME things correct, but as time went on MORE and MORE errors of VANITY kept coming into their religion. By the time Jesus came on the scene, well even starting with John the baptist - Jesus called them a bunch of whitened graves, full of dead men's bones, a bunch of deceivers, a bunch of people who would spend all kinds of time (money and effort) into going anywhere to make one convert, but in so doing they made them the children of hell. Jesus had to tell them they appeared to be very righteous (the Passover service can indeed make you feel righteous as you acknowledge the sacrifice of Christ for your sins) but then in reality, as a way of life, you do not see your religious errors of vanity.

Well Jesus pulled no punches with those religious organizations who thought they were close to God. You can read it all in vivid "tecnicolor" in Matthew 23.

Yes, sad to say, I'm beginning to see that observing the Passover correctly by organizations like the UCG,  LCG, PCG, and others from splits of the splits coming out of the WCG, is one reason that those organizations as a whole organization have NOT YET admitted and REPENTED of their part in the old cult of the WCG under the leadership of Herbert Armstrong.

But the good news is: YOU can, if you have not done so, REPENT, admit the past, and THANK and PRAISE the Lord you have MOVED ON into the true LIGHT that will indeed SET you FREE!!!

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Romans chapter 2?

I'm up having a wonderful Passover night to be much observed.

A question came up from an email sent to me, about the latter half especially of Romans chapter 2.

This section has been used by many Catholic and Protestant teacher to say a number of  false teachings, because they did not know the plan of God for salvation for all who have ever lived on earth since the time of Adam and Eve.

What I wrote on this section years ago did not seem adiquate enough, so I've added a further explanation that I hope will make this section of Paul's writing, very clear, giving the context of this section as correction to Jewish Christians at Rome.

You will find it under part 2 of my expounding of the book of Romans under "The New Testament Bible Story" on my website (keithhunt.com)

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Sunday, April 17, 2011

PASSOVER night and whose the Greatest!

If you turn to Luke chapter 22, you will read about Jesus observing what would be His last Passover, until He returns to earth to observe it in the age to come.

Jesus instituted here the New Testament symbols of the Passover - the bread and fruit of the vine. All explained in detail in my many studies on the Passover on my website.

Notice verse 24, "And there was also strife among them, which of them should be accounted the GREATEST!!"

Oh my, the human heart, how off the tracks it can get at times. To them, 12 of them, well someone surely had to be the greatest, is what they were thinking. There just had to be a "top dog" - "a chief" above all the Indians. There had to be, to them, someone who could be the final authority, the one so great he could act as the final dictator of the group. I mean they thought, this is the way it is, everyone, all nations, did it that way, someone had to be the CEO of the company.

What did Jesus answer them? Oh He admitted the world did do it that way - a top dog - the boss of the herd as it is with a herd of horses. But Jesus said, "It shall NOT be so: but he that is greatest (well thinking that he is and maybe in abilities etc. he is) among you, let him be as the younger, and he that is chief (having the abilities to maybe be the chief leader), as he that does serve. For whose the greatest, he that sits at the food table, or he that serves? Is it not he that sits at the food table? But I AM AMONG YOU AS HE THAT SERVES!! (Luke 22:25-27).

I submit to you the above words of Jesus as pretty simple to understand. As Jesus at another time said, unless you become like little children you shall not enter the Kingdom of God. I think a child can understand what Jesus just said.

Now it's possible that someone has been given great gifts within the Church of God, someone with so many gifts that it is kinda natural for him and everyone around him to think he should be the greatest.
It may be very natural (and that's the problem the word "natural") for everyone to want to make this guy the greatest, the "chief" the "top dog" - he himself also may "naturally" think he should be for all kinds of "human" reasons.

Such has HAPPENED in the Church of God down through the centuries - others/and/or the man himself putting himself as the "chief leader" of the herd. It's all around us - the world has got to have its "leader" - some physical person has to lead this or that nation. It is so much a part of the world we grow up in that it becomes a part of us, it tends to "rub off" on us. But we Christians are not supposed to be "of the world" - we are "in the world" but we are not to be "part of the world." We are to have a different mind-set - we are to have the mind of Christ (Phil.2:5). And you see here as clear as a sunny day with no clouds, what the mind of Christ is on this matter of "greatness" in and among His disciples.

Oh the Corinthians had a mighty big problem over this matter. Paul had to lay it on the line with them. Some claimed to be of "Peter" - some of "Apollos" - some of "Paul" - and no doubt others of others. You can read about it all in 1 Corinthians chapter one and the correction Paul had to do - pulling no punches - just laying the truth down on the table for them.

How this matter has effected the Church of God in the 20th century - oh it's not anything that died away centuries ago - at times it can be very well and healthy, I'm sorry to say.

The real true servants of the Lord will never want to try and put themselves as "top dog" - they will not desire others to try and put them as the "chief" either. They will always be willing to be along side with anyone in the Church of Jesus Christ. They will appreciate the gifts God has given to others in the body of Christ. They will love and appreciate every single person in the body of Christ, knowing we are all a team, all one body of our Savior Christ Jesus.

Sure it is written the Lord has put some as apostles (just means ones sent forth), evangelists, prophets, pastor and teachers, but that is FUNCTION friends NOT some "pecking order" of "this is greater than that" attitude.

HUMILITY is (maybe the most important is) the precious gem of the Christian crown. I wrote an article called that many many years ago now. It's on my website somewhere. If you've never yet read it, I hope you will do so, a good time is now during this Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread season.

Jesus clearly taught that there is no "pecking order" in His church that He was going to build, and as He said that the gates of hell (death) would never prevail against His church, then that teaching of His is for His church for all times, in every age, in every generation.

It truly is as the apostle Paul was inspired to write, "Let everyone esteem the other better than themselves," (Phil.2).

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