Will Iraq be next? And after Iraq will we go after Libya, or Iran, or Syria, or Algeria, or Indonesia, or the Philippines, or Sudan, or Yemen, or Saudi Arabia? All are known to contain, if not support hotbeds of terrorists. In Damascus, for example, several of the most vicious terrorist organizations actually have offices with plainly listed street addresses and telephones!

The U.S. has spent BILLIONS of dollars on the war so far. Few seem to know that each one of those cruise missiles which were launched in the initial attack cost about the same as a small corporate jet aircraft; that the precision guided bombs cost tens of thousands of dollars each. How are our inventories holding up? How many bombs and rockets can those ships hold? What about ammunition ships plying the seas; bringing more tons of multimillion dollar weapons to the carrier battle groups?

From time to time, during my cruise offshore Korea aboard an American aircraft carrier, we took an ammunition ship alongside. I still have pictures of nets filled with 500 pound bombs being swayed aboard from the plodding vessel. I was called from time to time to assist in storage of our incoming ordnance in the magazines. For a long time, we would pass 100 pound bombs or five inch rockets from man to man, storing them in their bins. We would receive big 500 pounders, or 1,000 and 2,000 pound bombs from little elevators, and then skid them along the steel decks, attach winches to them, and swing them into their bins. Exhausted from long hours of such work, I have sometimes snatched forty winks atop a couple of 2,000 pound bombs in the magazine.

The point is, even those huge aircraft carriers have limited storage space for fuel, food, and ammunition. They have to be resupplied. We have been expending our stores of bombs at a prodigious rate in Afghanistan, at enormous cost. How long can we expect to keep it up?

Presumably, the factories which produce such weapons here in the U.S. are humming along at full speed. Presumably, there are ample stocks.

However, as has already been pointed out, our military was so deeply cut during the previous administration that we could not marshal a force the size of the one we deployed during the Gulf War if we had to. Our troop strength was cut by about 30 percent according to some estimates.

At the same time our previous President was cutting troop strength, he was closing U.S. bases, or even leasing them out to the likes of China, and increasing the work load of the military, by assigning them to “peace keeping” duties such as that in Kosovo.

Suppose we began attacking Iraq. What would be the response from our timid “coalition” partners? Russia has already issued warnings against any attack against Saddam. If the militant Islamic nations demanded “proof’” that Bin Laden was the mastermind of the attacks on September 11th, wait until you hear them screaming if we attack Saddam.

The President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf, occupies a very shaky office. The bulk of the country’s Islamic population (77% are Sunni, and 20% Shi’a Muslims) are admirers and followers of Bin Laden. While the demonstrations which have taken place virtually nonstop since the U.S. bombing campaign began, and while they have been downplayed by the western media, they indicate the strong sentiments which are rampant in Pakistan. The war which seems winding down in Afghanistan (with Bin Laden still at large as of this writing) is, as President Bush has declared, “only the beginning.”

It is quite likely that governments will topple; violent coups d’etat will occur. Remember the violent uprising in Dili, East Timor, in the Islamic islands of Indonesia? In fairly rapid succession, militant fundamentalist Moslems could overthrow governments in any number of countries.

President Hosni Mubarak succeeded Anwar Sadat. I interviewed President Sadat in Cairo. I have related many times how I suggested to him, in a conversation lasting for quite some time, that he go to Israel. At the time, the suggestion was to him “outrageous.” He told me all the reasons why it would not work. I reminded him that he occupied the top position over the largest population of any Arab country; how Israel, to his north, was like a “brain trust” of specialists, with the highest per capita collection of physicists, doctors, educators, scientists and teachers of any country. I reminded him that he was the only leader in modern history who had kicked the Russians out; how that, once they put a foot down in a foreign country, they were there to stay (this was after the Yom Kippur war, and before the reunification of Germany and the implosion of the USSR). I told him that the Middle East could become like a “United States of the Middle East”; a large, prosperous, peaceful grouping of nations which were cooperating together for their mutual benefit. I said, “If you simply announce you are coming, what will they do? Shoot down the airliner carrying the President of Egypt?”

Exactly one month Later, Anwar Sadat went to Jerusalem to meet Menachem Begin.

And, on October 6, 1981, it cost him his life. President Sadatwas shot to ribbons by vicious Muslim extremists, who also killed and wounded others in the reviewing stand on what was to have been the proudest day of President Sadat’s life. I cried when I saw those horrifying films! One man held up an arm, dangling only by a piece of skin, shot nearly off. The perpetrators of this bloody assassination were not all apprehended. Those who were caught found themselves on trial, and many were executed. However, they had connections to other operatives in Sudan, and other countries.

The fanatics who attempted to bring the Twin Trade Towers down in New York City in the early ‘90s are directly linked to the same organization which carried out Sadat’s assassination, as well as Bin Laden’s Al-Qaida network. Recently, the son of the blind Muslim fanatic who orchestrated the towers bombing was arrested in Afghanistan; is high in the Al-Qaida network sponsored by Bin Laden. Mubarak, who succeeded Sadat, was himself nearly assassinated in Ethiopia on June 26, 1995. He again escaped being killed when a knife-wielding would-be assassin attacked him on September 6, 1999. He, like any number of other so-called “moderate” Arab leaders (Egypt was the first, and for a long time the only Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel), occupies a very uncertain office. If an extremist Muslim should overthrow Mubarak, the entire balance of power in the Mideast would immediately change.

Bible prophecy strongly indicates that the prophetic “king of the south” who will “push at” the Beast power precipitating a whirlwind occupation of the Mideast, may well be an Egyptian leader (Daniel 11:40-45).

Cells of Bin Laden’s “Al-Qaida” organization are in dozens of countries all over the world. They are particularly active in all Islamic countries, but also operate in Europe and the Americas. They are active in the Philippines, have caused numerous riots, carried out assassinations, and eventually won recognition by the government for a substantial section of the large island of Mindanao to become autonomous. Currently, an Al-Qaida cell in the southern Philippines is holding two American missionaries hostage; has been holding them for six months.

The point is, “Islam” is everywhere! It is here, in the United States. It is daily flying over my head near Tyler, as 16 Algerian students are allowed to learn to fly in a local flying school, all supposedly here on “legal student visas.” Of course, we did not know that Atta and his henchmen were terrorists until they were dead, and documents recovered which identified them.

Recently, when Secretary of State Colin Powell attended a dinner with many American Muslims, major news media pointed out that several of them had been taped stridently denouncing the United States; calling us “terrorists,” and accusing us of being complicit in the murder of Palestinian women and children because of our support for Israel. At least one of these Islamic leaders, the same ones who met with President Bush only days after 9/11, are on record as saying that the U.S. is destined to “become an Islamic country.” We were shown the video of these men, smiling, talking at the dinner with Powell, and then shown them standing in front of a microphone, shouting invectives against the United States to a cheering crowd, calling for our overthrow!

That is, after all, their GOAL! They seek the overthrow of our country, and all of the democracies of the West! While we say we are “at war against terror,” they loudly say they are at war with us!

The Islamic fundamentalists characterize our “war against terror” as a “war against Islam”! They should know. After all, it is they who have declared war on us. If you have not yet read it, please read my article about “Islam-Religion of Peace?”Continually they speak of Jihad, or “holy war” against the West!

At least one sect of the Islamic religion sees Islam as a “religion of peace.” Outside of Islam is the religion of satanic “.infidels,” or “unbelievers” who have not accepted Mahomet as their “prophet” and who do not worship his concept of “Allah.” As you know, Islamic fundamentalists refer to the United States as “the Great Satan.” It is the sworn duty of every believer in these concepts to bring all of the “infidels” into Islam, and, if they cannot, to kill them! In much the same way (though drastically different in execution) as idealistic Protestant missionaries go to dozens of countries in order to bring about “Christian conversion” to the uninformed — to “bring Jesus to the masses,” so these Islamic fundamentalists see it as their lifelong commitment to convert the “infidels.”

Isn’t it instructive to note that the United States allows ANY religion to freely espouse its beliefs; to publish, preach and proselyte – to build mosques — while Islamic countries, Asian countries, and even some Catholic countries openly persecute, and sometimes kill, American missionaries?

For centuries, Islamic hordes swept over nations from the Balkans to North Africa; from Persia to Pakistan, bringing the “sword of Islam.”

Traditionally, those who overthrow governments or religions seek to stamp out and erase all the monuments and traditions of their predecessors. This is why Egyptology is such a difficult study. Many Pharaohs destroyed the statues and monuments of their predecessors, or altered the dates of their reigns to make them appear much shorter.

Mahomet, coming along about six centuries after Christ, is therefore accepted by Muslims as having SUPERSEDEDChrist. While they acknowledge Christ may have been a “prophet,” they believe Mahomet was the “last prophet,” and therefore greater than Christ.

When Mahomet put together his concoction of religion, he knew that the Christians believed Christ had ascended to heaven from Jerusalem. As a false Christ, he and his followers perpetrated the myth that he, Mahomet, ascended to heaven from the “Harm al Shaiif,” or the “Holy Mount” in Jerusalem, where the famous “Dome of the Rock” and the Al AksaMosques sit today. Thus did Mahomet not only pretend to usurp the teachings and doctrine of Christ, but also attempted to usurp His ascension, and therefore the claim of Christ’s followers to the “holy places” in Jerusalem. Thus were planted the seeds of centuries-long struggles over the “holy places” in Jerusalem!

Remember, the religion of Islam did not come along until the sixth century. Christ’s teachings were already more than 500 years old. By 637, the Muslims had conquered Palestine. They promptly turned a number of nominal Christian churches into mosques. Nevertheless, they continued to allow Christian pilgrims access to their “holy sites” for four centuries.

Then came the “Fatimite dynasty” who, in 969 AD extended their rule over both Egypt and Palestine. The “Fatimites” or “Fatimides” took their name from Fatima, a daughter of Mahomet. She married Ali, the son of Abu Talib, who was “caliph” (meaning successor). There is much literature on the subject of the ancestry of the founder of Islam, Mahomet. They believed that sovereignty was the right of successors, and this belief survives among various sects of Islam to this day. It is what divides Sunnis from Shiites.

Once the Fatimites had taken over the rulership of Jerusalem, cordial relations with Christian pilgrims and resident nominal Christians came to an end. Abuses became so intolerable that Pope Silvester II, who reigned from 999 to 1003, called for volunteers to free the “holy land” from the Fatimites. But it was not until long after the Seljuk Turks had occupied Palestine that an actual crusade was mounted. The first “crusade” was mounted in 1096 by a group of independent, often undisciplined men who undertook to pass through many countries enroute to Palestine, and who were almost completely destroyed as a consequence. Only a handful of stragglers ever reached their homes again. The protracted struggle of that first crusade makes interesting reading. Many nobles led an army of about 100,000 men to Constantinople, among them Godfrey of Buillon, duke of Lower Lorraine; Hugh of Vermandois, brother to Philip, king of France; Baldwin, brother of Godfrey; Robert II of Flanders; Robert of Normandy, brother of William II, King of England; Raymond of Toulouse; Bohemund  I of Otranto, son of Robert Guiscard; Tancred, cousin of Bohemund, and many others. Tancred was the inspiration for many poets of the time, including Chaucer.

And why all this? To free the “holy places” in Jerusalem from “unbelievers,” meaning the Muslim Turks and Arabs! When, after four years, the crusaders succeeded in defeating the garrison in Jerusalem, and Godfrey of Buillon was chosen as king of Jerusalem, he refused to wear the crown where he believed the Savior had worn a crown of thorns, and so took the title as “Defender of the Holy Sepulchre” instead. He died in 1100 and was succeeded by his brother, Baldwin.

So much has been written about the eight crusades that it would require an encyclopedia to contain only a part of it. Suffice it to say that this protracted struggle over who would control the holy places in Jerusalem caused a whole new age of interchanges among and between the nations of Europe; led to the Hanseatic league; introduced Eastern and Middle Eastern luxuries to hungry markets in Europe, and was a huge leap forward in art, literature, and knowledge. Many claim the 13thcentury was the greatest leap forward in all time concerning art, literature, and human liberty.

As you will read in my booklet Middle Eastern Strife – Will It Lead To Armageddon? the struggle for control over the holy places in Jerusalem was also at the root of the Balkan War, involving Britain, Russia, Turkey and the Baltic States.

Today, the struggle remains the same!

At the very root of the hatreds in the Middle East is RELIGION! The believers in Mahomet claim they have divine right to the mosques atop the Temple Mount. The Jews claim they have the right to the Temple Mount, for it is the site of Solomon’s Temple, and the temple that stood during the Herodian Period. Nominal Christians claim they have the right to the holy places because of Christ’s ministry, death and resurrection from those same environs.

Thus, the three “great monotheistic religions” of the world come into conflict in Jerusalem, which is the focal point of Bible prophecy, and the very place to which Christ says he will return to rule this world for a thousand years!

You and I know that the virulent hatred toward the United States is primarily because of OUR SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL. I know apologists claim it is mere jealousy; that some of these deprived, downtrodden people are jealous of our wealth and success, but it is much deeper than that. They HATE the Jews, and they HATE Christians! They hate the United States not only for our wealth and power, but also for our decadence; our hedonistic society. Bin Laden railed against U.S. troops “desecrating the holy soil of Saudi Arabia” which is the birthplace of Islam, and contains the two “holy cities” of Mecca and Medina.

Religious Fervor And Nationalism

The United States has no “state religion.” It would have had such, had not far-seeing men repudiated the concept of a king, and even worse, a king who would be beholden to a foreign potentate, such as the Pope in Rome.

It is purely mythological that the pilgrims came to Plymouth Rock only to escape “religious oppression.” In fact, the early colonials enforced the strictest kind of religious oppression over their residents. When our Bill of Rights, (as the first 12 clarifications of the Constitution were called) or the “Amendments” to the Constitution were adopted, the very first one stated that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” There is no amendment to the Constitution which is entitled “Separation of Church and State,” as many seem to assume.

All arguments concerning the “separation of church and state” eventually stem from the First Amendment. But the amendment clearly is for the purpose of KEEPING THE GOVERNMENT OUT OF RELIGION, and NOT KEEPING RELIGION OUT OF THE GOVERNMENT! Our founding fathers feared any kind of “state religion,” wherein a President would also be the head of the state church! They had seen enough of this in England, France, Spain, and many other nations!

Today, organizations like the ACLU and others become hysterically upset when they perceive that some “violation of the First Amendment” is occurring when a judge dares to display the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. Of course it is no violation! It does not remotely establish a “state religion” or so much as “promote” religion! What it does promote is the same belief in God as our Creator who “endows us with unalienable rights,” and the Creator who has sustained and preserved us all these years!

The Ten Commandments are hardly the doctrine of the mainstream churches, for NONE of them obey the fourth one! Perhaps someone should point this out to the ignorant people who believe the Ten Commandments are “promoting religion.” Oh, that they were!

But the United States, while not unique, is among the very few nations which have adopted similar concepts of freedom and democracy. Many of the states with which we find ourselves in conflict are RELIGIOUS STATES! The problem is when religious fanatics take over the government! As you know, the two young idealistic missionaries who narrowly escaped death in Afghanistan were arrested because the Taliban adopted a law which required the death penalty for “preaching Christianity” in Afghanistan! Women were beaten in the streets for daring to show their faces. One report said a woman had acid thrown in her face for appearing without her “burqua.”

These, then, are the enemies of the entire free world.

They are here, there, and everywhere. They are within our land. Do not doubt for a moment that there are not other “sleepers” here–some of who may well have come to the United States over ten years ago, and some of whom may have been BORN here, but whose minds have been filled with hateful invective and vitriol, and who are willing recruits for the insane terrorists who would send them to commit suicide while committing mass murder!

There are approximately 1.3 BILLION Muslims in the world! According to the World Almanac of 2000, there are approximately 5.5 million of them in the United States! Other estimates have been wildly exaggerated. In an attempt to appear as a much larger minority than they really are, some who have been interviewed on TV have claimed up to “13 million Muslims” in the U.S. This is a lie. Nevertheless, five and a half million is no small number.

Muslims are to be found in over a hundred countries. It only remained for a fanatic like Bin Laden, with hundreds of millions of dollars in hundreds of secret bank accounts in Switzerland, the Bahamas, and dozens of countries, to marshal modern technology in order to begin a network of terrorist cells that girdles the globe! By the use of telecommunications, the Internet, and every sophisticated device commonly available to those with the money, including corporate aircraft, access to satellite communications and/or intelligence information, Bin Laden managed to coordinate the activities of Islamic terrorists in countries all over the world.

It has already been revealed how the terrorists, in their frequent moves about our country (from San Diego to Florida, and from New York to Boston), would purchase hand-held cell phones, use them for a time, and throw them away, in order to avoid detection.

There are terrorist cells operating in Belgium, Holland, Britain, Spain, France, Germany, the United States, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya; Egypt;, Italy,. Syria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, and many other countries!

Which one will the LT.S. attack next?

In some cases, the host government openly protects and supports terrorists. This is true in Iraq and Syria. In other cases, while the host government gives lip service to the “coalition,” and decries terrorism in its official statements, it looks the other way as terrorists freely operate. In still other cases, the government itself is terrified of the terrorists, and fears the possibility of a violent overthrow, torture and death, and so does nothing to arrest them. This is true of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and, to some extent, Egypt. “Moderate” Islamic rulers can go only so far in their cooperation with the West; only so far in their internal interference with terrorist organizations. One of the prime examples of this is Yassir Arafat, who openly supports his “Hamas” guerrillas, who continue to carry out mass murder in Israel.

In one of the bloodiest suicide bombing yet, vicious suicide bombers struck a crowded Jerusalem promenade on a Saturday night; also boarded a bus in Haifa, killing large numbers of teens and children, and injuring more than one hundred fifty. The bombers strap explosives filled with bolts, nuts, and nails around them, hoping to kill and maim as many innocent victims as they can.

Israel struck swiftly, sending IDF helicopter gunships and F-16 fighter planes to bomb, strafe and rocket Hamas hideouts. They struck Arafat’s office, destroyed several of his helicopters. A second attack landed rockets within fifty feet of the Palestinian leader, who was not hurt. Israel sent tanks into Palestinian towns, bombed and closed down the Gaza airport.

For once, the U.S. government did not condemn the raids, but said Arafat must act to arrest and punish leaders of the terrorist organizations. Arafat’s days are numbered. He will either be assassinated by his own people who disagree with his policies, or will be killed in a future retaliatory attack.

Like many other Islamic leaders, he occupies a very shaky .office, paying lip service to a so-called “peace process” while clandestinely encouraging and supporting terror. Deep down, he has never renounced his desire for the destruction of Israel, and the murder of every Jew.

For decades, I have said “WATCH JERUSALEM,” for it is the focal point of Jesus’ prophecies about the end time. Struggles over who controls the “holy places” in Jerusalem are at the root of centuries of hatred and conflict.

This, then, is the world in which we live.

There is no real “front” in such a war, for the “front” is world wide! There is no “rear” where troops and the civilian population may feel entirely secure, for the enemy is among us!

The trouble with attempting to “root them out” (and of course the United States SHOUI.D DO SO, insofar as it is capable) is that they hide like cowards! Not only do they hide in the caves of Afghanistan. They hide behind false identities, false pretenses, false claims. They live and plot their murders in a shadowy world of lies and deceit. If there is any one word in the English language which describes these people, it is “treacherous”!

I have continually warned that, instead of trusting in God for our deliverance, we have trusted in “allies.” Read, archived in our web site, the commentary on how the Saudis claim to be “cooperating” with the U.S. in the war on terrorism. We have tried to “buy” the friendship of the corrupt Saudi government because of our dependence on foreign oil. God says of His people, “She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies” (Lamentations 1:2).

One of the great curses prophesied to come upon us is that “The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low” (Deuteronomy 28:43).

Yes, we are AT WAR today, just as Christ prophesied we would be: “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

“All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:6-8). Yes, only the BEGINNING! As Winston Churchill said to the British people when the U.S. landed in North Africa during World War II, “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is the end of the beginning!”

We are in a war with no end in sight. And, truly, we are at the end of the beginning. Now, it has BEGUN! But there is no true end in sight. Even as mere children scream invectives, and throw rocks at Israeli police and soldiers in the streets of cities all over Palestine children who know NOTHING about the true history of their own region, so there are CHII.DREN today in dozens of countries all over the world who listen to the vitriol spilling out of the mouths of their bearded “mullas” in their mosques, and who are encouraged to hate the “great Satan” – the United States of America!

Root them all out? In the Philippines? In Belgium, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Sudan, Yemen, Syria, .Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Germany, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and a dozen more countries? What do you think our chances are to rid the world of terrorists?

Maybe, just maybe, it will occur to our people and our leaders at some desperate point in time to CALL UPON GOD FOR OUR DELIVERANCE, and to TRUST Him to “root them out!”

God says, “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

“But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

“And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saiththe LORD of hosts” (Malachi 4:1-3).

May God speed that day!

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“And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

“And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever” (Daniel 12:1-3).

Jesus Christ prophesied, “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

“And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:21, 22). These descriptions of world trouble are mutually exclusive! They both describe the same time! It is the time into which this world now enters!

Today, there are “WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS” as Jesus said! There is PESTILENCE stalking the world, deliberately unleashed by terrorists! There is the potential for massive PLAGUES striking our people. WEATHER is on a rampage! Israel is experiencing a prolonged, terrible DROUGHT! The Sea of Galilee is one thousand feet from its normal shore line! Over one billion three hundred million Moslems are filled with HATRED against the U.S. and Britain, and any who ally themselves with us!

Surely, there can be no doubt in the mind of any thinking human being that this world has now entered a time of WORLD TROUBLE such as has never occurred in the history of mankind! Today, WAR rages in Afghanistan! Hundreds of millions are frightened to the point of paranoia over anthrax, or other biological or chemical attacks! The Muslim world seethes and boils with hatred, violent anti-U.S. demonstrations, and threats of Jihad (“Holy War”) against the U.S. and Britain!

Restive countries here and there see this as an opportunity to unleash their wrath on neighbors! U.S. officials are concerned that the only U.S. aircraft carrier in the Pacific was sent to the Arabian Sea and that China may take advantage of the fact and launch an attack against Taiwan.

South Korea fears an attack from the North Koreans. India and Pakistan are exchanging gunfire over the disputed Kashmir province.

Meanwhile, violent anti-war demonstrations in Germany take place as tens of thousands of young Germans boil into the streets of Berlin, shouting anti-American slogans. The German government says it stands ready now to extend its military power to any point in the world; that it must use its military force commensurate with its economic and political strength! I have predicted just that, in just those words, for decades!

Following the attacks on the twin Trade Towers and the Pentagon, I have been writing many commentaries, along with brochures, and publishing them on our web site at “www.garnertedarmstrong.org/.” Many thousands have read them there. But for the thousands more who do not have access to a personal computer, or are not on the World Wide Web, I now publish five of the most recent seven. If you have not received the important brochure “WHY DID GOD LET IT HAPPEN?” by all means call, or write for it immediately. Here are those commentaries, with the dates written and published on our web site:

Posted September 12:

Terrorist Attack

Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, a “day which will live in infamy,” I was aboard a McDonnell-Douglas 800, American Airlines jet, at 37,000 feet over eastern Arkansas, enroute to Norfolk, Virginia, from Dallas/Fort Worth. I was headed to Norfolk to join old shipmates I had not seen in 50 years for our 50th reunion of the USS Antietam (CV 36), and our nine-month’s long cruise off the shore of Korea during the Korean war. It was to be my first reunion. Then, I was (and still am, as I write) scheduled to speak at 12:00 Noon near Norfolk and Virginia Beach, in the Quality Suites, at a “Personal Appearance Campaign.”

As I was reading a book, looking out now and then at the landscape far below, our plane suddenly slowed down and began a descent. Having been a pilot for decades, I knew something was wrong. The Captain came on the intercom and said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we are going to have to interrupt your trip to Norfolk, and land at Little Rock. There is nothing wrong with this airplane; the airplane is perfectly safe, but there has been a threat concerning aircraft headed toward the New York area, and since we are enroute to the general vicinity, we are being required to land.” He then apologized for any inconvenience, and we continued a rapid descent.

A few minutes later, he came back on to say that we were not the only airplane being required to land; that there were “about a thousand aircraft being asked to land immediately.” At that point, I knew something big was happening. As we landed, I could see that four or five other large jets had arrived before us. As we taxied in another American Airlines jet landed, and I could see yet another one in the landing pattern.

We had to wait for a ramp, for the airport was rapidly becoming crowded. Eventually, when I exited the plane, I saw people gathered around a TV monitor to my left, beside the entry gate. Many were crying; some with eyes and mouths wide open; some sitting on the floor, faces in their hands. I looked in amazement as I saw the two twin Trade Towers in New York; one of them in flames. It was as I watched that the first huge building began to collapse from the top – floor after floor smashing into the floor below, slowly disintegrating before my eyes, with huge billowing clouds of smoke and dust rising into the air. Apparently, the camera I was watching had not yet caught the sight of the SECOND airplane smashing into the other tower.

I was shocked, stunned; it was a mind-numbing experience! Immediately, I thought “Bin Laden!” Or SOME terrorist group! At the moment, I was sickened, stricken with grief for the awesome sight of mass death before me – yet, I remembered that only days before, during a sermon in Tyler, I had repeated the statement that I had seen from some of the lesser-known news sources, that “something big was going to happen, which would make the destruction of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City look like a walk in the park.”

The airport was a scene of utter chaos. Someone said about 15 to 17 jets had suddenly landed at Little Rock; the gates, ground handlers and baggage crews were overwhelmed. I knew I needed to get back to Headquarters as soon as possible! But how? I quickly canvassed the rental car agencies, only to find all of them except Hertz completely sold out – with a line of about 150 people waiting in front of Hertz. The copilot of our flight came up to me and asked about cars, and I told him the situation. I then decided to go back to the gate – a long walk – and see if they were going to offload the baggage here, or continue on to Norfolk. I was not permitted to pass back through security – they had closed down the airport. It was later I learned no flights were going to be allowed into the air for perhaps two days!

By the time I finally managed to find a Taxi, and go to a nearby motel (the main ones were full), I found a line of about 7 to 10 people waiting at the desk of the “Days’ Inn.” The harried young lady was checking them in, with apologies that the rooms were not made up. I found I could obtain a room, and, in about a half hour, did so. I quickly called home; called the office; let them know where I was, gave them my telephone number. Time and again (for it took many calls) all circuits were busy, and it took me quite a while to get through. Meanwhile, the television set was tuned to CNN, and I was watching in horror as I learned that the Pentagon had also been attacked; that another aircraft had plunged into the ground in Pennsylvania!

It was then that a different camera angle showed the second aircraft flying straight into the second building and exploding in a huge orange ball of flames! Adjectives cannot describe what I saw; what I felt. Outrage. Anger. Rage. Shock. Pity. My mind balked at recreating the scene aboard those aircraft; the screaming, begging, crying, praying people, knowing that their plane was in the hands of a madman who was going to crash it – the victims who were suddenly crushed as thousands of tons of concrete came collapsing upon them as those gigantic buildings disintegrated into clouds of smoke and rubble. One thing I know: No airline pilot would have been at the controls of those airplanes and flown them straight into those buildings, or into the Pentagon!

No, this attack was carried out by persons who knew how to fly those planes. Either they had been airline or military pilots from some Middle Eastern country, or private pilots who knew enough to steer the aircraft! Any pilot, knowing he was going to die in any event, would refuse, even at the cost of his own life, to do such a thing! To me, the crash in Pennsylvania was the outcome of just such a scenario. The pilot of that aircraft must have fought the terrorists; managed to plunge the airplane into the ground, instead of proceeding – (in my opinion) either to the White House or the Capitol building – most probably the White House.

Think about it! These filthy, bestial, insane, hateful terrorists struck at the largest, most imposing symbols of American power, wealth, and military might! For decades, those huge towers amazed millions of visitors from all over the world. The Pentagon, built during the second World War, is known to house the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and is the chief nerve center of America’s command and control for our military forces all over the world; in communication with all our ships at sea; all overseas bases; all troops, deployed wherever they are. Obviously the airplane sent plunging into the Pentagon was trying to cripple our military, world-wide!

The most significant target left would be the White House! We will never know the things that took place in that plane which crashed in Pennsylvania, but I cannot help but think of it as a desperate struggle between a wounded pilot and crew – either a crash which occurred during that struggle, or a brave, self-sacrificing pilot who determined he would NOT obey those filthy terrorists, and crash his plane into the White House!

Now, what will be the impact of this massive attack? Several times yesterday, as I waited around a TV set in the lobby, I remarked to people that “more people have died today than were killed in the Korean War!” This morning, while it is yet dark outside (I arose at 5:00 AM, after a very brief, and very restive, disturbed sleep), I called our minister in the New York City area, whose son works in Manhattan, Mr. Larry Summerville. I was very relieved to hear that Larry, his wife and son are all right; his son was “about fifty blocks” from the building, and was among those who took to the streets, evacuating the area, as he saw the gigantic clouds of dust and smoke billowing up into the air. I have asked them to contribute their own eyewitness experiences, and will publish them in our next newspaper. Mrs. Summerville saw, out of her own window, the second aircraft fly straight into the building, which is clearly visible from their home! One can only imagine the trauma, the shock, at seeing this horrific tragedy in real time, with one’s own eyes, instead of on television!

For decades, I have been warning that a GLOBAL ECONOMIC COLLAPSE would occur; that a GREAT DEPRESSION will strike this earth! This will rapidly give rise to dictatorships! Autocrats; military governors will oust inept civilian rulerships in countries here and there! The United States of Europe will NOT result from a gradual, peaceful, slow-moving coalition, but from NECESSITY, from the result of WARS which give impetus to the need for a superpowerful MILITARY, capable of intervening in world events.

For years, I have emphasized that the flash point for the beginning of the Great Tribulation is JERUSALEM! God has said, “Behold, I will make JERUSALEM a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in siege both against Judah [the Jews] and Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: ALL THAT BURDEN THEMSELVES WITH IT SHALL BE CUT IN PIECES, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it!” (Zechariah 12:2, 3).

Yesterday, Palestinians in Jerusalem, Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem – all over Gaza and in the West Bank CELEBRATED!! Their children danced in the streets, waving Palestinian flags, gleefully shouting out their happiness that the United States, which they call “The Great Satan” had received such a massive blow! What kind of a religion is it which promises “heaven” or their version of it for MASS MURDER? Surely, Satan the devil is pleased and proud over the terror, the shock, the death of tens of thousands of helpless civilians!

It is because of OUR SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL that these bestial, murdering terrorists have mounted such a massive attack against us! The MOTIVES for such hate-filled killing are those of RELIGION! And, behind the scenes, from an economic and political point of view, it is also about OIL!

I knew, the moment I saw those buildings go down, that this would deal a MASSIVE blow to the global economy! Already, stock markets are plunging! Our U.S. market has (wisely) been SHUT DOWN! They knew that PANIC would set in; knew that the hundreds of major corporations and businesses which maintained offices in the World Trade Center would be plunged into chaos! TENS OF BILLIONS of dollars have been lost! Thousands of computers, with their hard drives chock full of financial and corporate data; contracts, insurance documents, legal documents – all gone in a massive destructive fire and collapse! The shocks will (and are now) reverberate all over the world!

As a symbol of the greed, avarice, and thoughtless, calloused cynicism of mankind, as I was leaving Little Rock, when a kind and thoughtful church member drove all the way from Tyler to Little Rock to pick me up and bring me home yesterday, we saw that gas stations had taken down their price signs; had pasted a hasty sign on the pump – ALREADY THREE DOLLARS per gallon! May God reward them according to their works! There are always, like vultures waiting for prey, those who will gouge, and take advantage of the suffering of others! As we left Little Rock, we found some stations within only about 30 miles whose prices were still at the dollar thirty-nine level!

Now, watch oil prices. Watch the stock markets. Watch what happens if and when the U.S. government determines WHO masterminded this huge attack! IS THIS THE BEGINNING OF WORLD WAR III? Remember, World War II did not begin all at once! It began SLOWLY, with Hitler scrapping the Treat of Versailles, and marching his troops into the Rhineland. It was two years BEFORE America was bombed at Pearl Harbor that Europe was plunged into war!

IS THIS THE BEGINNING OF THE PROPHESIED GREAT TRIBULATION? All of you who are a part of this WORK of the Watchman, are most probably, just like me, SHOCKED at this – BUT YOU ARE NOT SURPRISED!! Just how important, now, are the little, petty grievances among and between brethren? How important are “hurt feelings” when TENS OF THOUSANDS ARE DEAD AND DYING? Just as the President has called upon Americans to COME TOGETHER in this time of terrible national tragedy, so I call upon God’s divided people to COME TOGETHER in their most determined, spiritual resolve to DO THE WORK OF GOD; to let the peoples of our country, and nations all over the world, know that these mind-numbing events are but a prelude to GREAT TRIBULATION which is surely coming upon our people!

Christ said the time is ahead when NOT ONE STONE will be left atop another in Jerusalem! Will a massive WAR now break out in the Mideast? Will the U.S. attack Afghanistan, or Iraq, or Iran, or other Gulf states? Will Israel join in? Will Europe respond?

I cannot know each daily event in advance, but I DO KNOW the overall picture, according to the prophecies of the Bible! I know that GREAT EVENTS are now beginning to take place, as I have warned, and warned, and warned! It is time, and past time, for God’s people to JOIN TOGETHER AND DO THE WORK!

Jesus Christ, the LIVING HEAD of this church is waiting to see how HIS people will respond in such a time! Will we respond by HELPING those who are so stricken as best we can? Will we PRAY for those shattered lives; those horribly injured; those children without parents; those who leapt from hundred-story windows to their deaths, screaming in terror? Will we COME TOGETHER as the people of God, with our eyes on these events as Christ commands us?

For those of you who are fairly new to our web site – by all means read all I have written about the Middle East, including the booklet [Mideast Strife: Will It Lead To Armageddon?] posted in the literature section! I will TRY to get out another letter, and another newspaper as soon as I can! THANK you, to all who are helping support this work! I need to do a special TV program right away this morning, and try to FedEx it up to Chicago – if the planes will fly! God bless all those whose hearts are right!

With love, and in haste,

What is BEHIND the News? What May Happen Happen Next?

As rescue workers search through the rubble of two of the world’s largest and tallest buildings, now but ugly heaps of shattered concrete, officials say upwards of 20,000 may be dead. The actual count may soar much, much higher, perhaps above 30,000!

You can receive the news elsewhere – I have received massive amounts of news from our own news bureau (which receives news from all over the world), and, of course, have spent many hours between writing and doing television, watching the various news channels, principally Fox and CNN, along with others.

But what is BEHIND the news; what may happen next; and what Bible Prophecy says about global events will not be a part of your daily fare.

First, will the U.S. retaliate, and if so, against whom, where, and when?

The answers are difficult, speculative, and it is impossible to claim any accuracy. HOWEVER, Israeli intelligence believes that IRAQ may have financed the terrorists. They say that a multi-national group of terrorists such as those which carried out the attack; the sophistication of it, the timing, the logistical planning, seems far beyond even the capabilities of Osama bin Laden, even though they believe he could have been the mastermind.

If the U.S. government believes Iraq was complicit (buried in the avalanche of news was the alleged shootdown of a U.S. aircraft enforcing the “No-fly zone” in Iraq), and if both Iraq and Afghanistan become targets in the next days or weeks, what will be the likely outcome?

Such an attack may well be exactly what Saddam Hussein wants. He is no doubt, at this moment, moving about by night from one or another of his dozens of hiding places, just as are the cowardly “Taliban” leaders, the religious fanatics who rule Afghanistan. Should cruise missiles begin impacting Iraqi military and government installations once more, Saddam might use this as a pretext to launch SCUD missile attacks against ISRAEL! Certainly, the U.S. military planners, and the Israeli government understands that this would be the logical fallout.

But if the SCUDS contain chemical or biological warheads, the outcome would be FAR DIFFERENT than during the Gulf war! This time, there would be no holding back of the Israeli Air Force, and it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they would drop nuclear weapons on Baghdad, and other cities in Iraq, or on Kabul, or all of the above.

In such a widening war, SYRIA might start sending missiles (she possesses dozens of Chinese-made “Silkworm” missiles and many Russian-made weapons) against Israel.

There is a prophecy about Damascus, which, while it had an earlier “typical” fulfillment, is nevertheless set in the time frame of the time of the end. God says, “The burden [the prophecy concerning] of Damascus [Capital of Syria]. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

“The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim [Britain], and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel [which is prophesied to be completely despoiled], saith the LORD of hosts.

“And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin [both Ephraim and Manasseh], and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean” (Isaiah 17:1-4). A little later in this intriguing chapter, God says, “Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!

“The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters [the sounds of many airplanes, tanks, trucks, missiles being launched; a “rushing” to battle]: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.

“And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us” (Isaiah 17:12-14).

Is this a prophecy that Damascus will be reduced to rubble? It is difficult to come to any other conclusion! IF the United States should attack BOTH Kabul and Baghdad, you may see just such a scenario develop, for Israel would no longer use the incredible restraint she used when SCUDS fell on Tel Aviv during the Gulf War. In such a scenario (which is, remember, only speculative), ALL of the Arab states would be involved, as would be their supporters and clients. A widening war in the Mideast would ultimately involve RUSSIA and EUROPE!

America’s Incredible Self-Deception

For decades, Americans have been led down the primrose path of insisting upon foisting upon third world countries OUR “values.” Commencing with Jimmy Carter’s attempt to insist upon a Bible-belt, fundamentalist “human rights” agenda; lecturing third world countries from the point of view of CHRISTIAN values, America has attempted to view the world through the rose-colored glasses of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

In our much-vaunted “open” society; our open borders, our freedoms; our suspicion of any kind of “takeover” by a military government; our dozens of conspiracy theories; the continual harping about the “New World Order” can be found the paranoia which tends to reject any interference with freedom whatsoever. In this, the terrorists find their Mecca of opportunity. Because America has rapidly become a melting pot, as has Britain over the centuries, and because our nation is now host to MILLIONS of people from hundreds of countries; Afghans, Pakistanis, Algerians, Palestinians, Syrians, Iranians, Saudis, Yemenis, Indians, Koreans, Chinese, Vietnamese, Laotians, Russians, – the list is virtually endless – nations bent on our destruction can send “seed” against future terrorist operations as much as ten, fifteen, or twenty years in advance.

These people, feeding daily (on my machine on which I am typing, I can instantly tie in with web sites in Iraq if I choose) on virulent propaganda against “The Great Satan,” are groomed, prepared, trained, and made ready for the time when they are called upon to strike.

We are not necessarily being assaulted by those who penetrate our borders only days prior to their attack, as in the case of the terrorists who were intercepted many months ago, attempting to enter from Canada, and who had bomb-making materials in their possession.

Now, the terrorist may live just down the street; perhaps he is a cab driver in Boston (as were some of Osama Bin Laden’s relatives), or a policeman, or an airline pilot.

In a sense, our very freedoms are a threat; we are hoist by our own petard; we are in the catch-22 situation of being unwilling to give up our freedoms; of being terribly paranoid and suspicious of any kind of a “national identity card,” or of fingerprinting, or even, in many cases, of giving out our Social Security card numbers, or home addresses, and yet, we want the FBI, CIA, and local law enforcement authorities to instantly find and arrest those who commit acts of terrorism.

We simply cannot have it both ways.

Much of our hand-wringing over our lack of HUMINT (human intelligence) stems from the Iran-Contra days when a self-righteous, breast-beating Congressmen sternly chastised Colonel Ollie North, and tried to tie President Reagan into the “arms for hostages” deal with Iran and the Contras. I remember shouting at my television set: “Can anyone tell me why the Congress of the United States WANTS TO SEE A COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT IN NICARAGUA?” Because, by its very nature, covert intelligence operations include lining up informants, and include penetrating illegal cells, whether drug-runners or terrorists, and because such people are inevitably “unsavory characters” like the man Ollie North paid (Gorbanifar, an Iranian) and because of the Bible-belt fundamentalist, self-righteous concept of ethics and fair play (how can we dare to “dirty our hands with people like this?), America has, by default, been stripped of covert operations, and then wrings its hands when we cannot accomplish a seemingly simple act, such as GOING INTO AFGHANISTAN AND BRINGING BIN LADEN OUT!

The Israelis had no such compunctions when they arrested Adolf Eichman in Argentina; operating inside a sovereign country, spiriting a legal citizen out, returning him to Israel, and the hangman’s noose. Americans simply cannot apply their Christian philosophies to GEOPOLITICS!

It doesn’t work! Millions resent the “Old Testament” God, Who obviously told His people Israel to WIPE CERTAIN SOCIETIES OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH! God told Israel, “But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:

“That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 20:17,18). In self-righteous judgement of God Himself, millions of church-going, professing “Christians” ABHOR such a command! They have no idea that the member of divine Elohim who GAVE the command is the One they call Jesus Christ (John 1; Hebrews 1)! When you see little children capering in the streets of Gaza, Hebron, and other Palestinian towns, waving Palestinian flags, handing out candies, shouting with glee, clapping – children from 6 to 10; from 13 to 19 – what comes into your mind? Have these children been completely PROGRAMMED by their parents, teachers, imams and “holy men”? Have their LEADERS deliberately shaped their minds, until their minds are SO PERVERTED with hatred that they have no regard whatsoever for human life? Are they INCAPABLE of feeling remorse for upwards of THIRTY THOUSAND men, women and children being crushed, burnt, blasted, suffocated to death?

Today, there are many, many hair-shirted hand-wringing Americans who will be OUTRAGED if the U.S. military bombs Kabul or Baghdad, or other towns and cities, if any civilians are hurt! “Why should we stoop to the level of those terrorists?” they cry.

Yet, the polls also indicate that there is enough outrage in our country just now that a large number, perhaps even a majority, would not vote (if a plebiscite were held today) to stay the government’s hand, but let the bombs begin to fall.

The bottom line is that unless America were truly a GODLY country; unless we were also GOD’S country; a commandment-keeping, law-abiding, truly Christian society, (which we are not) then it makes no sense for those in government to attempt to apply Christian values in dealing with non-Christian, hate-filled, vicious killers who want to see all of us dead!

Another poignant example is the utter stupidity of our government openly committing itself to refraining from trying to assassinate an evil leader or head of state. Telling the likes of Bin Laden, or Maomar Kadaffi, or Saddam Hussein, or the Taliban in Afghanistan that they HAVE IMMUNITY is utterly ridiculous!

Now we know (as I strongly suspected, and said so yesterday) that the aircraft which went down in Pennsylvania was intended to target the White House! Now, we know that the terrorists also targeted Air Force One, and George W. Bush, the President of the United States. These vicious killers are not motivated by any Bible-belt mentality! It is utterly stupid, at the national level, and in the sense of geopolitics, to give vicious killers like Saddam Hussein immunity from a possible assassination! WILL the government have the guts; the courage, even clandestinely, to change this ridiculous policy? Read 1 Samuel 15, and see how God commanded Saul, the leader of the government to kill Agag, king of the Amalakites. Saul felt sorry for Agag, and spared him, contrary to God’s commands. Notice what God’s prophet, Samuel did (verses 32, 33). It was this transgression of Saul’s which caused God to remove him from his office.

Do Not Underestimate Them

Surely, now that America has been shocked to the roots of its very being we will no longer underestimate our enemies. There are those, among them “Newsmax’s” national security expert, Colonel Stanislav Lunev, a Russian, who believe there will be even greater attacks; perhaps featuring chemical, biological, and even nuclear weapons. “Newsmax” said Lunev called them and mentioned that Russia is still the number one sponsor of training for terrorist nations; that this horrific attack on America may be but the first in a wave of attacks.

I have written in the past about those missing “suitcase-sized” nuclear bombs which allegedly disappeared from Russia’s nuclear arsenal. I have also written how a terrorist, overflying a large city on a small airplane or helicopter, could dump only one small vial of virulent disease-carrying germs into the air, and cause the death of literally hundreds of thousands! I do not remind you of these warnings to make you paranoid, or cause any kind of panic! After all, God’s people are told that, when we see the Great Tribulation about to occur, we are to lift up our heads, because we know our redemption draws nigh!

Christ said it all revolves around JERUSALEM: “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.

“Then let them which are in Judaea [not Oregon, or Mississippi, or Australia!] flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.

“For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

“But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.

“And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;

“Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

“And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:20-28).

One thing is sure. Your life and mine are going to be very DIFFERENT from now on. And, while it may be well and good to proclaim “I will not let these terrorists deter me from living a normal life” it is also nonsensical to ignore the possibility of yet even more horrible attacks, or to resent the imposition of greater restrictions on air travel, or the clampdown on security measures!

As I can, you may be sure I will be posting yet additional “Word From” messages.

Meanwhile, I know millions are now beginning, at long last to WAKE UP! I know many are now, at long last PRAYING more than before! I HOPE that many will truly turn to God, repent of their sins, become CONVERTED (Acts 2:38), and be a part of God’s true church, and His WORK which is going out in this end time!

Posted on the 18th of September:

Events of the Past Week

I am writing to you just after 5:00 AM on Monday morning, September 17, 6 days after the massive terrorist attack on America. I hope those of you who have your own PCs will print off the various “Word From” messages I have sent, and send them to others who do not have computer access.

I was stranded in Little Rock, as most of you know, having been aboard an MD80 at 37,000 feet over eastern Arkansas when the terrorists struck. Mr. Earl Timmons, who was visiting in Tyler, volunteered to come to pick me up, arriving at the motel where I had found lodging at about 5:00 PM. It is about a 4 and half to 5 hour drive each way. I got to bed about midnight, and, after a very restive night, got up at 5:00 AM. I worked on my “Word From” article, as well as answering a host of emails, and then did a television program on that Wednesday morning, hoping that we could put it on FedEx, get it to Chicago in time, and that they would substitute this new program – a program which dealt with all the prophetic significance of the attack – for the standard, doctrinal kind of program I had done on Monday. Since I was to be gone, I also did about a 40 minute address to our local Tyler church, which was played here, together with my TV tape, in my absence.

Much to my embarrassment, chagrin, frustration – the planes were not flying, and it seemed impossible to get the tape to Chicago on time! How FRUSTRATING it is, not to be able to communicate INSTANTLY with our viewers when such a huge, unprecedented thing occurs!

As I write, my program has just been shown on WGN – a standard, “doctrinal” program, and not the one I did immediately following the disaster! How I hope we can eventually have the wherewithal to correct this frustrating situation!

I kept trying to resume my trip to Norfolk in the next few days; was finally re-booked on the same American Airlines flight out of Tyler at 6:18 AM on Friday. I arrived at the airport at 5:00, after getting up at 3:30 AM., only to be told the flight had been canceled. They re-booked me on a Delta flight which was supposed to leave at 9:00 AM, and go to Houston instead of Dallas, and then connect to Norfolk. The Delta flight was an hour late, so I finally left Tyler’s airport (after having to completely unpack my bag and have it searched; even down to taking sox out of shoes, feeling them, looking into the shoes; having my Bible opened, and making sure there was no compartment inside – there were three Tyler police there, and the entry to the airport had been barricaded, so I had to carry my bags from a distant parking lot) at 10:00 AM. The flight was late out of Houston, and I did not arrive in Norfolk until 8:30 Eastern time – a long, tiring day.

I tried to call Mr. George Trent, who had come to Norfolk for the personal appearance campaign, but he was out to dinner, having waited a long time for me, and finally thinking I was delayed (true); left him a message, and began meeting some of my old shipmates who had been aboard the USS ANTIETAM (CV 36), an aircraft carrier, during the Korean War. Mr. Trent called me the next morning, and we went to breakfast together. Neither of us had any idea whatsoever how many people to expect at the meeting, for we had no group meeting in the area; no local host, and no TV coverage. I was very pleased that 77 people showed up! I spoke about the attack, of course, and outlined many scenarios which could occur as a result; among them a global economic slump; greater recession, or even a global depression; an attack against various Arab nations from the U.S., which might result in Saddam Hussein attacking Israel with chemical or biological weapons; the possibility that Israel might retaliate with nuclear weapons; that Russia and Europe would become involved; and how the events portrayed in Daniel 11:40-45 might eventually occur. It was very sobering, and the people were extremely responsive. As a result of the meeting, we raised up two hosted fellowship groups; quite a number of families indicated they wished to begin meeting on a regular basis in Norfolk, and several others wanted a group started in Richmond. I visited with many of those who attended; almost half of them were meeting me in person for the first time – many told me they had listened to the program for many years; some, for decades! There was a couple present who I had met before, at the Feast in Florida, I believe, and who told me that the wife was a piano player, and the husband was a song leader! We were very pleased with that!

That evening, I had the opportunity to attend the final banquet of the Antietam reunion – the 50th reunion of the ship, but my very first. President Bush had sent a letter of congratulations to all of those attending – I have a copy of it with me. I met the outgoing and incoming presidents; and many others. In conversation with one man, who had been among the Marine group aboard, he told me of how a hung bomb had come loose, and caromed down the flight deck, coming to rest not far from the 40mm quad. anti-aircraft gun tub where he was, and how he had run out, together with a buddy, physically picked up that 250 pound bomb, and ran to the deck edge elevator, and thrown it overside! In amazement, I told him, “I SAW YOU DO THAT!” I had been “Captain’s talker” on the bridge, and was looking over the parapet high on the “Island” of the ship when the bomb came loose (we had been warned that a plane was landing with a hung bomb aboard; the pilot had tried steep dives and sudden pullouts many times, trying to jettison the bomb into the sea) – we were at battle stations. I had seen the plane land; the bomb come loose, and skid toward me; saw the fellows grab it, and hustle it over the side. In my “cruise book” (like a journal of our nine month cruise off the shore of Korea) is a clear picture of the plane landing, the bomb already skipping along well forward of the aircraft! There is a circle drawn around the bomb, to point it out. I said to him, “Let me shake your hand again! You may have saved my life!” I was surprised at how many of those present (there were 250 of us) who knew me – not from my having been a shipmate, but from my more than 45 years on radio and television!

I was very honored when the two presidents asked me if I would speak to them that night at the banquet. We were seated in a large ballroom with crystal chandeliers, and a band stand. A long dais flanked the front wall. The Mayor of Norfolk gave a short speech about the attack; presented a plaque to us which included the history of the Battle of Antietam Creek in Virginia, and commented that the losses in that, one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil Wars were about the same as the loss of life in the attack on the twin Trade Towers. I was introduced, and spoke for about 7 to 10 minutes. I characterized September 11th as a “day which will live in infamy”; told them where I had been – how I had tried to join them on the first day of their reunion. I told them that “any religion which promises instant entry into their version of heaven by murdering helpless, innocent civilians; men, women, and children, is a hateful, satanic religion!” I was interrupted three times by applause. At the end, I said “I know that all of us in this room, were we young again, like we were aboard our ship, would be standing at the gangplank, with our sea bags packed, wanting to go aboard, and go over there, and get those guys!” I was given a standing ovation. Seated at my table was a couple who came in late; somber, with their cell phone in hand. They, and another couple there were from New York. Both of them had sons-in-law who were NYC firemen, and who were missing. As I looked at the deep grief and distress playing over their faces; saw the woman toying with her food, I expressed my deep empathy toward them both. The incoming president read a lengthy prayer for the victims and loved ones, and there was not a dry eye in the room. Of course, these were all former military, and World War II and Korean war veterans, and all were united in their deep outrage and anger; their sorrow for the victims. I was certainly one of the lesser known sailors aboard my ship. But I was deeply honored to be asked to speak to them. I knew they represented the Catholic as well as many different Protestant religions, and so, though I did not go into any doctrinal discussion, I did say that our God is a God who gives us the love of life; that Christ said “I am the resurrection and the life,” and that “He that believeth in me, though he die, yet shall he be made alive.” It was an unforgettable experience for me, and I am very glad I was able to attend.

As I arrive back home, I find that the casualty list is far, far below what I had originally thought. I had thought that perhaps 20, 30, or 50 thousand may have died. Now, it appears the total casualty toll will be under 10,000, counting those aboard all the aircraft, the Pentagon, and the Trade Towers. Yet, a HORRIBLE death toll – THOUSANDS of helpless victims, suddenly killed by the most vicious, Satanic murderers known to mankind. As I write, I hear the economic loss is a staggering FOUR HUNDRED BILLION dollars; that the IMF and World Bank have postponed their meeting; that the interest rate has been lowered by another half point, and that, even though global stock markets are down, many are urging restraint.

I hear this morning that ninety-one percent approve of the way President Bush is handling the situation; that there are huge anti-American demonstrations in cities all over the Islamic world; that the Taliban in Afghanistan has amassed 20,000 troops near the Pakistan border; that U.S. Embassy personnel have been ordered out of Pakistan. Of course, I know all of us are WATCHING as never before; wondering when, and where, and with what force the U.S. will strike, and what will be the fallout when vicious, hate-filled fanatics “retaliate for the retaliation!” Arrests are being made. The identity of all the hijackers is now known. I must tell you of how I learned a bit more about the aircraft which plunged into the ground in Pennsylvania: I was reading the Norfolk newspaper as I waited for my plane to depart yesterday, and learned that famous golf pro Arnold Palmer was in the region; he had flown his private jet to Norfolk to dedicate a golf course. He commented that the plane had gone down only a few miles from his home, and that a friend or family member had said they saw it; that “it was rolling, and all over the sky.” This confirms what we all suspected; that those brave passengers and crew were STRUGGLING with those vicious killers; that they knew they were going to die anyway, and were able to thwart the terrorist’s plans to proceed to Washington, and perhaps crash into the White House or the Capitol building!

As I am able, I will be continually updating this “Word From” column with additional comments.

THANKS to all of those who are standing with us in this “Work of the Watchman!” By all means, COME TO THE FEAST this year – it will be the most meaningful ever – of that I have no doubt!

In Jesus’ name,

P.S. Something has just been brought to my attention. On the 18th of August I was speaking before a group in Lexington, Kentucky. At one point I was recounting the time Jesus was talking to the disciples about the temple and how “the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down (Luke 21:6, Mat. 24:2, Mark 13:2).” I then went on to describe what this would be like for us in the “here and now”. I then stated…

“That would be tatamount to saying; driving down Wall Street in New York, you are going to see the day when it is a pile of rubble. There will not be the Twin Trade Towers, there will not be the Chrysler building; there will not be the Empire State Building …. it will be GROUND LEVEL.”

An astounding analogy, given the events of the past week!

Posted 23 September:

They Are Not Cooperating, But “We Are Happy With Their Cooperation”

As U.S. forces speed toward the Persian Gulf region in anticipation of retaliatory strikes against nations which sponsor terrorism, word comes from the Saudi Arabian government that they will not allow the U.S. to use Saudi air bases (many of which we built with American tax dollars) for attacks against terrorist bases! The U.S. government has said it is happy with their “cooperation.”

Of course, this means that, because the Saudis have agreed to “share information” in the American attempts to track down terrorists, that our government is presumably happy with what little cooperation they are receiving. Which is practically none at all.

Remember, Osama Bin Laden is a Saudi Arabian. His great hatred toward the U.S. stems from his fundamental (and extreme) Islamic outrage that our military forces (the infidels) are on “holy Saudi soil,” thus defiling the “most sacred soil on earth.” Bin Laden hates the “corrupt” Saudi Government.

Bin Laden returned to his native Saudi Arabia following the protracted Soviet-Afghan war, where he was active among the mujahadeen. As the son of a billionaire, Bin Laden’s voice was raised in outrage against the “corrupt” government, especially because the royal family had allowed the U.S. to use Saudi bases in the war against Iraq. Eventually, Bin Laden was briefly placed under arrest for his strident accusations against the government, and he later fled to Sudan.

Bin Laden’s financial empire extends to communications, aerospace, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, aviation, and dozens of other business interests. It is known that one major company which has launched spy satellites has ties to Bin Laden, and that information obtained from just such sources may well have been used in following the movements of Air Force One during the September 11th attack. Thus, this Saudi multimillionaire actually is able to command a network of activists from dozens of pursuits; has more power at his fingertips than any number of nations!

The house of Saud finds itself astride an uncomfortable fence. While it covets U.S. dollars, it abhors U.S. support for Israel. Saudi Arabia joined with other Arab states in the wars against Israel in 1948, 1967, and 1973. It has sent hundreds of millions to fellow Arab states such as Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and the Palestinians. King Fahd’s half-brother, Crown Prince Abdullah, is the active head of state. Like so many so-called “moderate” Arab states, Abdullah finds himself ruling over a restive population of 100 percent Muslims, many of which are fanatically devout. The two “holiest” places to the Islamic religion are Mecca and Medina, both within Saudi Arabia.

It is the duty of every Moslem to make at least once in his lifetime a “pilgrimage” (a hejirah, following which the males may attach the name haj to their names, indicating that they have made such a trip). During the month of July in 1990, some 1,426 Islamic pilgrims were trampled to death when panic broke out in a pedestrian tunnel leading to Mecca. As recently as 1997, when hundreds of thousands were encamped in a vast tent city, intent upon making their circuitous course around their famous “kaaba” or black rock, more than 340 were killed when a fire broke out.

The decision recently announced by the Saudi government, preventing the U.S. from using Saudi air bases, must be viewed in the light of the foregoing facts. Abdullah sits astride a potentially unstable throne. His task is equally difficult as the U.S. one; how to appear to help an important friend and customer on the one hand, and not alienate a volatile, potentially dangerous population on the other. The previous king played a leading role in imposing the oil embargo against the U.S. and the West following the 1973 “Yom Kippur” war.

When terrorists killed seven by a truck bomb in Riyadh, the capital, on November 13, 1995, and when 19 Americans were killed in a similar attack at their base in Dhahran in June, 1996, the Saudis were not forthcoming in helping the U.S. track down and punish the terrorists.

The U.S. government has often chided the Saudis for such failure. With such a record, why should they expect the Saudis to cooperate now?

This announcement by the Saudi government shows us how difficult, if not virtually impossible, it will be to wage and ultimately win a war against terrorists! They represent a religion, or the perversion of a religion, and not any nation. They are to be found in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Crete, Cyprus, and Afghanistan, along with cells operating in the United States, Britain, Germany, Holland, Spain, France, and many other countries. In short, they are here and there around the world, and they are among us!

Hate crimes against those of Middle Eastern origin, or those who “look like” they may be of such origins are equally as evil as the crimes of terrorists against innocent victims! Yet, today in America, many second-generation Arab Americans from many such nations must live in apprehension; aware of glances of suspicion, if not outright hatred; aware that they could be the object of a hate crime, just as was a poor black man in Jasper, Texas, who was dragged to death by white cowards who so brutally murdered him simply because of the color of his skin.

Amid all the hate and fear, it is time for any person laying the slightest claim to being an “American” or being a “Christian” to reject such emotions, and instead turn to the teachings of Jesus Christ!

Can any of His teachings surpass His famous “Sermon on the Mount”? He said, “ Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”

Millions of us deeply MOURN the victims and their families; mourn for the brave firemen and policemen who rushed to help, and lost their lives as a result! God hears our cries, and he sees our tears of sorrow. Jesus Christ said, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

“Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

“Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you” (Matthew 5:3-12).

As never before, God Almighty is holding open a “window of opportunity” for our peoples to turn to HIM in our hour of need! God KNOWS where Bin Laden is. He KNOWS each and every one of the terrorists! He knows who they are, and where they are; what they are thinking; what they plan to do. We can know almost NONE of these things, and we certainly cannot lean on a “broken reed” like some of our so-called “allies” in the Middle East.

God says, “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:6-9).

In a time of uncertainty, God’s people must not respond to fear. They certainly must not hand the terrorists a win, by giving in to terror!

Coming soon: an article answering the question: “What should we do?”

Posted on October 16,2001:

Growing Rage – NOT AGAINST THE TERRORISTS, BUT AGAINST THE U.S.!

Remember when some far out conspiracy theorists accused the U.S. government of bombing the Murrah building in Oklahoma City? Now, there are those who believe the U.S. staged the terrorist attacks upon itself with the complicity of Jews in order to create a “new enemy,” and that we did it because we “need the money and the oil.” Sound insane?

It is. And it is coming out of Germany!

In a massive anti-war protest against the United States, students from all over Germany some 20,000 strong rallied in Berlin to noisily condemn the bombing of Afghanistan. They represented, however, the leftist leanings of many parties, including the Marxist-Leninists and the “greens.” Many an idiotic statement was heard, such as one young lad who said, “The American tradition is just to go in and bomb everything.” This, coming from a young German is perhaps understandable, since his grandparents and parents no doubt informed him of how dozens of Germany’s major cities were bombed into rubble during World War II. But the statement came despite continual statements from the U.S. military forces that they are doing everything possible to bomb only military and Taliban targets, and are not targeting civilians.

A young Turkish student studying in Germany said, “America wants the money and the oil,” and said, “America needed a new enemy,” thus laying the blame on some kind of “conspiracy” that America murdered thousands of its own citizens, destroyed the two tallest buildings in New York and the world, and took out a wing of the Pentagon, merely as an excuse to “get money and oil.”

Idiotic? Sure. Stupid? Absolutely.

Still another conspiracy theory was heard: “There were no Jews in the World Trade Center,” and that the Jews were in a conspiracy with the U.S. so as to manufacture an excuse to go to war against the Islamic world. This, in spite of the hundreds, perhaps thousands of names which are clearly Jewish, who perished in the attack. No Jews in the financial center of New York City? Where do these idiotic dunces come from?

But do these youngsters who shout and scream anti-U.S. slogans on the streets of Germany’s capital city simply dream up these outlandish and insane charges, or are they learning them elsewhere?

What is not easily seen behind much of world public opinion today is the simple, age-old struggle between the “haves and the have-nots.” Millions the world over hate America because of its wealth; its power. Many continually stress the plight of the common Afghan people; the plight of the “third world” countries which they believe are exploited by the United States.

The excuses being manufactured are many and varied. The most popular one is that America is being held responsible for its “Middle East Policy” which allegedly favors Israel over the Palestinians. The second most popular one is that Osama bin Laden is outraged (and has been since the Gulf War) over U.S. military presence on the “holy soil of Saudi Arabia,” where the two “holiest” cities of Islam, Medina and Mecca, are located.

As if to lend credence to this excuse, and as if an attempt is being made by the Bush administration to deflect it, George W. Bush has twice reiterated his desire to see the creation of a “Palestinian State.” Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reacted in very understandable anger when he said “do not appease them at our expense.”

But aside from all the insane mouthings of empty-headed students or the pronouncements of hate-filled Islamic fundamentalists, the simple fact remains that any nation which is attacked in such a shocking and horrific fashion has, by virtue of its very existence and national sovereignty, to say nothing of international law, the right to respond against those responsible for the attacks.

Some have said the terrorists are only in existence because of U.S. policies, such as sanctions against Iraq, which have allegedly “caused thousands to die in Iraq due to lack of food and medicine.” This view utterly ignores how Saddam Hussein killed thousands of his own people in poison gas attacks, and that the “no fly zones” currently being enforced are to protect the Kurds from similar pogroms.

Perhaps the epitome of stupidity was the apologetic and gratuitous explanation offered by one girl, a 23-year-old student from Leipzig, who carried a banner in the demonstration which asked, “Is that your globalization? Wealth for us, bombs for others?”

She said, “War is the same as terrorism” (this earns the prize for perhaps the grossest stupidity of all) – “[ending terrorism] can only be done by understanding the underlying reasons for terrorism. It is the great inequality, socially and economically, between the poor and the rich.”

This empty-headed young lady seems to know nothing of the underlying reasons for the poverty of dozens of nations; of the ethnic and religious underpinnings of dozens of dictatorships or one-party systems; of why it is that nations such as Afghanistan are forced to endure grinding poverty. Even when some glimmer of reason manages to penetrate a few such thick heads, such as the fact that the Taliban is a cruelly oppressive regime which brutalizes its women, denies education to females and will put to death anyone found proselyting on behalf of the Christian religion (perhaps this idealistic young lady should go to Afghanistan and live there so she can appreciate the joys and pleasures of governments which hate the U.S.), such persons will inevitably point out that the Taliban is only in power because the U.S. backed away from the Mujahadeen following Moscow’s exit from Afghanistan. Ergo: The U.S. is still at fault.

Yet, these same persons will be quick to decry the U.S. “setting up a puppet state” by insisting that the Taliban be replaced by a moderate government.

What should be done is this: Say to the neighbors surrounding the forbidding mountain wastes of Afghanistan that each of them are hereby offered a share of the pie. Say to the Iranians, Turkmenis, Tadzhikis, Uzbekis and Pakistanis that each can occupy a portion of what was Afghanistan in return for the following quid pro quo:

(1) They will immediately cease all research and development of weapons of mass destruction, and sign a 100-year pact agreeing never to seek such weapons, including permission for open inspections by the international community.

(2) Iran and Pakistan will dismantle and destroy any nuclear facilities, and destroy all stockpiles of chemical or biological agents.

(3) Each country will declare war against terrorism; will arrest and hold for trial any and all terrorists or their supporters.

(4) Each country will guarantee human rights, free access to education, free speech, free expression of religion, and will grant to women the right to vote, and, horror of all horrors, even to walk about in public with their faces showing.

(5) Each country will sign a peace treaty with Israel, and guarantee Israel’s right to exist.

Following the dismantlement of the Ottoman Turkish empire after World War I, many “nations” were created in the Middle East. Following the gradual disintegration of the world’s major colonial empires of Britain, France, Germany, Holland, Spain and Portugal, many other nations were created. Nations such as the “Anglo-Egyptian Sudan” became Sudan; “TransJordan” became the “Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan”; Yugoslavia was pieced together from a collection of several ethnic groups, as were nations in the rest of the Balkans. Czechoslovakia was pieced together from the Austro-Hungarian empire, and has since divided into the Czech Republic and Slovenia. There is plenty of precedent for big powers to partition, absorb, or divide up conquered territories. It has taken place virtually from the beginning of time. Clearly, the beleaguered, war-weary, exploited peoples of Afghanistan deserve something better than the governments which have suppressed them for the past many decades.

While no such “solution” will be forthcoming, of course, I offer the thought here merely as a possible solution, since it would not be the U.S. who would be accused of “setting up a puppet government” in what had formerly been Afghanistan, and each nation which benefited from receiving large chunks of landscape could then be judged on its merits and its behavior toward its newfound population and territory.

The trouble is, who believes that Iran is not a repressive regime? Who believes that the plight of the people of Afghanistan would be lessened if they found themselves governed by the Uzbekis, or the Pakistanis?

Many believe it is the feelings of futility, frustration and powerlessness that drive extremist groups. They believe that eliminating a few groups of terrorists will be only tokenism; that it will not even begin to eradicate the basic cause of terrorism against the U.S..

As one human rights activist in Cairo said, “This war on terrorism may eliminate a few terrorists, but without basic reforms, it will be like killing a few mosquitos and leaving the swamp.”

Exactly.

This is why nothing short of the intervention of God Almighty will EVER solve the problems the world now faces.

Every day that passes sees more and more deeply entrenched hatreds toward the U.S., even in our so-called “friends and allies” in Europe and elsewhere! We are “buying lovers” around the world, and those “lovers” are prophesied to BETRAY us! Overcome with sadness at what he saw was coming upon his people, the prophet Jeremiah lamented, “She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies” (Lamentations 1:2). Later, he said, “Behold, 0 LORD; for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.

“They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that thou hast done it [there has been REJOICING in the streets of Palestinian towns, and all over the Islamic world! One man said, “It is like I have won the lottery! This is the happiest day of my life” on September 11th]: thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me.

“Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint”

(Lamentations 1:20-22). Yes, God says HE will ultimately punish all terrorists, and those who rejoice over His people’s destruction!

Jeremiah continued, “He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about” (Lamentations 2:3). Clearly, since God COULD HAVE PREVENTED the September 11th attacks, and since He DID NOT do so, then He has ALLOWED these vicious murderers to grievously afflict our nation!

God did not CAUSE the attacks, but neither did He prevent them!

Jeremiah lamented, “Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment [Instead of showing our people WHAT SIN IS (1 John 3:4), and calling upon our people to REPENT OF BREAKING GOD’S TEN COMMANDMENTS, the preachers continually tell them the “law has been DONE AWAY!” Iniquity means “lawlessness!”].

“All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth? [From the breathtaking majesty of those huge, tall trade towers to a mass of ugly rubble containing the disintegrated bodies of thousands, New York City; “Gotham,” “The Big Apple” now appears as a terrible, wounded battle scene not unlike the cities of London and Berlin during World War II].

“All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.

“The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thin adversaries” (Lamentations 2:14-17).

Study the 26th chapter of Leviticus, and ponder the difference between the great BLESSINGS and benefits for obedience to God in contrast to the horrible CURSES He said would come upon us!

God said, “But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments [and we have not done so, as a nation, and are not doing so today!];

“And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant [MILLIONS of professing “Christians” despise His Sabbaths; His laws!]:

“I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

“And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you” (Leviticus 26:14-17).

No bombing campaign, no matter how protracted; no intelligence information, no matter how accurate; no prosecution of terrorists, no matter how thorough and successful, will EVER root out the countless hundreds of thousands of virulent, hate-filled, vitriolic Islamic militants who will step up to take the place of each one who falls.

There simply IS NO HUMAN SOLUTION to the horrifying troubles that grip our planet!

We are entering the time of the GREAT TRIBULATION – we are now entering a “time of trouble as never was from the time there was a nation!” Christ said, “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

“And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:21, 22). Are you one of God’s ELECT? You can be! You SHOULD be, and you MUST be, if you wish to ESCAPE all the terrible things which are to occur to our peoples!

Read the many booklets and articles published here, and then get on your knees and talk to God about what you have learned; and what you ought to be DOING about it!

CONCLUSION:

I am not chicken little. I am not an alarmist. I am not intending to somehow take advantage of world conditions to frighten anyone! But I would be a fool to ignore what is happening, or to ignore the incredible events which are obviously mentioned in Bible prophecy!

It is the duty of the watchman to CRY OUT when he sees the sword coming upon his land! God says, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins!” (Isaiah 57:1). It is past time for you, or anyone else to “argue” about doctrine! It is past time for those who must be dragged, kicking and screaming, to one point of “truth” after another, until they can become “convinced” about God’s law! It is past time for anyone to put his or her “interpretation” into the word of God, before which we are to TREMBLE!

Instead, it is time for every man and woman to REPENT of his or her sins, and to “SEEK THE ETERNAL WHILE HE MAY BE FOUND” (Isaiah. 55:6). Will you reject this “window of opportunity” your heavenly Father now opens before you? God says a vast number of those who SHOULD KNOW THE TRUTH, and who SHOULD BE BUSILY ENGAGED IN HIS WORK will be SLEEPING when the end comes! Notice what Christ warned: “Then [at the very time of the tribulation: see the preceding chapter) shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

“And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

“They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:

“But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

“While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.

“And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

“Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.

“And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.

“But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.

“And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.

“Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

“But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

“Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh” (Matthew 25:1-13). Notice that they ALL slept! But the difference was that the wise ones were “prayed up”; they had been praying, studying, overcoming; they had been busily engaged in God’s work! Obviously, the oil is a type of God’s Holy Spirit. Also, the virgins are a type of GOD’S CHURCH!

This is also a reference to the prophecy that the day of the Lord will not come except there be a GREAT FALLING AWAY first! THAT HAS HAPPENED! TENS OF THOUSANDS have already FALLEN AWAY from the truth they once proved to themselves; the truth they believed and practiced! Thousands have turned, like the dog to its vomit and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire, back to this world and its “churchianity.” They have rejected God’s laws; rejected His Sabbath days; rejected His holy days; rejected the truth about God’s very nature, and accepted the “Trinity.” They have adopted the sign of the cross, and now eat unclean things, and practice the pagan holidays!

What about YOU?

Will YOU be sound asleep, and unable to be counted worthy to escape all these horrible things which are coming upon the world, or will you REPENT, and be a part of the very work of God of witness and warning – fulfilling the commission of Christ to preach the good news of His soon-coming intervention in human affairs to the world?

God says, “…they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever” (Daniel 12:3).

Those who are busily engaged in this WORK of God are doing just that! God is BLESSING His work – now growing at the rate of THIRTY PER CENT PER YEAR! Jesus Christ promised, “And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:

“And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father” (Revelation 2:26, 27). How would YOU like to be given RULERSHIP over Afghanistan, or Iraq, or Syria, or Saudi Arabia? This is what Jesus Christ promises those who repent of sins, and who are begotten of God’s Holy Spirit!

If you have not yet read my booklet, “Here’s the BEST NEWS You Could Ever Hear,” please call, or write for your free copy immediately!

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The post Greatest Time Of World Trouble In History! first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

FRENCH PRESIDENT OFFERS TO WORK WITH VATICAN!

The vast majority of the French people are Roman Catholic. French President Jacques Chirac is working hard to restore France to what he believes is its rightful place as the leader of Europe, and, for that matter, a position of leadership in the world.

For one thing, he is working on launching the French response to both the BBC and CNN, to be called “CNN a la Francaise.” Citing the huge audiences of the British and American cable news networks, Chirac, who believes the world should speak French, intends to create a French language network which would “get our message across.”

Chirac knows that CNN claims it is viewed by over 160 million people in 200 different countries, and that the BBC claims even more – 253 million in 200 countries. To counter this English-language monopoly on news and propaganda, Chirac wants to broadcast the French message in the French language to the whole world. A major part of that message is that “American power must be restrained.”

As I have reported in previous commentaries, not all of Mr. Chirac’s concerns are based merely upon French revanchism(of which Germany has been aware), desire for hegemony, or historical greatness. There are many major French firms which have been doing lucrative business with Saddam Hussein, along with two giants in the energy business, Elf Aquitaine and Total, who were hopeful Hans Blix and company would somehow manage to stave off the U.S. and Britain, give Saddam a clean bill of health, lift U.S. sanctions, and let all that Iraqi oil begin to flow with those two French firms in on the ground floor.

The move to create a global French-language cable news network comes at the same time that Chirac has made overtures to the Vatican and the pope!

According to a leading British daily, the French President is now turning to the pope in Rome in his attempt to further emphasize what he calls the illegitimacy of the war against Iraq.

Chirac is basking in the afterglow of being labeled by the French media as a “Warrior for Peace.” Working hard to undermine the American and British led coalition now engaged in battle, Chirac is offering to work with the pope to ensure that what he calls the “primacy of law” prevails in the future.

In a letter to the Vatican, he wrote, “I profoundly regret the launch of military operations, while hoping that they end as quickly as possible and with the least loss of human life . . . It is essential that the international community rediscovers its unity around the most fundamental human values, starting with respect for one another and tolerance.

Because they share very similar views on all these subjects, the Holy See and France must work together so that law, justice; and dialogue between peoples prevail.”

How strange that a nominal Christian leader – a Roman Catholic – should seemingly take the part of Islamic nations against nominal Christian nations, and should solicit the aid of the pope of Rome in doing so!

The French President is smarting under his failure to prevent the war from commencing; his having to sit on the sidelines while he watches a client country, and countless millions of francs in military hardware and infrastructure being destroyed. He is smarting because he sees France being shrugged off (to use a typical French gesture and characteristic); isolated internationally.

Bible prophecy shows that the final coalition of ten nations comprising the “Beast” power will he. in collusion with a great false church. That church is called the “mother” church, who has daughters. “I was wroth with my people, 1 have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst show them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke.

“And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it.

“Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:

“But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments” (Isaiah 47:6-9). If those who comprise the “daughters” of the lady of kingdoms knew who they were; they would be very concerned, indeed!

There is one great nation which is called the “fatherland.” There is one great religious organization which calls itself  “the mother church.” A German protestor, many centuries ago, began a process whereby “daughters” came out of the great mother church; daughters which adopted practically all of her creeds and doctrines, but which eschewed her granting of indulgences and procedural abuses, while retaining much of her liturgy, many of her rites, and her refusal to obey God’s Sabbath and holy days, along with her sun worship, idolatry, and pagan holidays such, as “Ishtar” (silent “h,” pronounced “Easter” today):

This “lady of the kingdoms” is characterized as a great whore; a licentious old “mother of harlots” who has concourse with the heads of state of the world: “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters [symbol of many nations]:

“With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication [her false doctrines and political agendas].

“So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast [scarlet is the color of the College of Cardinals], full of names of blasphemy [they call themselves “holy”], having seven heads and ten horns.

“And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

“And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (Revelation 17:1- 5).

Of this great false church, Halley’s Bible Handbook says, “This description of Babylon the great harlot, seated on the seven-headed ten-horned beast, while it may have ultimate reference to a situation yet to appear, exactly fits Papal Rome. Nothing else in world history does fit.

“The desire for worldly power began to manifest itself in the church, on a broad scale, in the fourth century, when the Roman Empire ceased its persecutions and made Christianity the state religion. The spirit of Imperial Rome passed into the church. The church gradually developed itself into the pattern of the empire it had conquered…The Vatican is where the palace of the Caesars was. The popes have claimed all the authority the Caesars claimed, and more. The Papal Palace, throughout the centuries, has been among the most luxurious in the world: Popes have lived in pomp and splendor unsurpassed by earthly kings…`Full of names of blasphemy,’ Popes claim to hold on earth the place of God, they have supreme authority over the human conscience, to forgive sin, grant indulgences; and that obedience to them is necessary to salvation. How could anything be more blasphemous?

“`Scarlet’ is the color of the beast and the harlot, and also of the dragon [Rev. 12:3], is the color of the Papacy. The Cardinal’s hats and robes are scarlet” (Halley’s, pp. 731, 732).

One need not wonder about the interpretation of the ten horns, nor about the location or identity of the great harlot who rides the Beast.

John was told, “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast [the power of a king is absolute; the power of his economy and his military]. These have one mind (one policy; one agenda; they are in complete agreement], and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

“These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them [this DATES the prophecy insofar as the sequence of events; it is the FINAL economic/military coalition prior to Christ’s return!]: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

“And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

“And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire [study the 18thchapter of Revelation].

“For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

“And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, whichreigneth over the kings of the earth” (Revelation 17:12-18).

To which great world capital city do the heads of state go? To whom do they appeal? To the Dalai Llama? To a representative of Islam, or Buddha?  No, they go to the pope in Rome! 1t is this city, more than any other which has “reigned over the kings of the earth.” Over the centuries, Rome has crowned them, or taken away their crowns.

The most revered human religious leader in the world today is the pope. He issues statements about the wars of the world; about the Mideast; about politics and religion.

It is not strange in the least, in the light of Bible prophecy, to see the head of the great nation of France, which will be one of the final ten nations of the Beast, calling upon the pope for his help. It will be very interesting to see which one of the Cardinals, which includes a German, a Black from Africa, and even a Jew, will be the successor to pope John Paul.

Part II

WILL OPEC BANKRUPT THE U.S.?

Hailed as a major stepping stone to victory in the war against Iraq is the capture of the southern oil fields, as well as off-shore pumping stations, the Al Faw peninsula, and a strategic seaport.

Once it was known the coalition had captured those oil fields, the U.S. stock market  reacted with a positive jump — right in the middle of a war.

As I write, technicians are working to extinguish the last of some seven to nine oil wells deliberately set on fire by retreating Iraqi soldiers.

With the bulk of worrisome mines apparently moved from the shallow waters leading to Iraq’s only major seaport, a British ship has docked, offloading emergency humanitarian supplies.

Coalition possession of the southern oil fields is said to be critical to the “oil for food” program, which is once more being urged by U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair. In effect, since major French oil firms such as Elf Aquitaine and Totalwere in on the ground floor when the original oil for food program began in the mid-90s, this allows the French to have their cake and eat it too. Without sharing in the dangers of war; without committing a single soldier to the coalition forces, France will nevertheless be allowed to share in the spoils.

In one of the most shameful and shocking displays of arrogance and hostility, the French Foreign Minister, when asked recently whether he hopes to see a coalition victory in Iraq, refused to answer! His silence said it all.

Indications are that George Bush was not sanguine about Blair’s desire to go once again to the UN, and request KofiAnan’s support to crank up the oil for food program so as to avoid a humanitarian disaster in Basra and the rest of Iraq. Nevertheless, following their recent discussions at Camp David, Blair went the same evening to New York for talks with Kofi Anan about that very thing.

Of course, the U.S. government hopes that obtaining Iraqi oil at prices which can be set by the U.S. itself will help defray the untold billions of dollars this war will cost. President Bush has already gone to congress with a request for a supplemental budget allowance of many billions to help pay for the war.

Once the oil starts to flow again, it may be Europe, and not the United States, which will receive a double benefit. The U.S. has now begun to he attacked in a subtle, yet very real, global economic repositioning! It could mean bankruptcy!

For decades, oil-rich Arab countries (and, for that matter, nations such as Nigeria and Venezuela) have been awash in a sea off “petrodollars.” The U.S. dollar has been the primary global currency. Such wealth is why Kuwaitis had NO taxes; had free public services, free education and health care — all because of a little country which was the richest, in per capita terms, in the world.

Such nations have traditionally invested their excess dollars in U.S. securities and government paper.

However, as the new European central currency, the euro, has gained strength, some of these same countries have already switched to demanding euros for their oil instead of dollars.

Iraq was probably the first to move to the euro. This fact simply did not appear in the U.S. media. You probably never heard of it. There may have been at least four major reasons for the move. First, the U.S. has frozen Iraqi dollar-based assets in U.S. banks. Second, there is enough hatred and resentment to justify the move. Third, Europe has proved to be more of an ally of Iraq than of the U.S. and U.K. Fourth, the euro has gained in strength against the dollar, and as of the moment, stands at $1.05 to the U.S. dollar.

Following suit, Iran has already begun converting the bulk of its central bank assets to the euro. Will it also begin asking for euros in return for the sale of oil?

Not surprisingly, North Korea has joined in, beginning to switch from dollars to euros in its trade. Again, this is most likely a punitive measure. Venezuela is reportedly thinking about doing the same thing; demanding euros, not dollars, for its oil. It is a major oil exporter. But most ominously of all, it was during the April l4th, 2002 meeting of OPEC (oil producing and exporting countries) ministers in Spain, that some began saying they were interested in leaving the dollar for the euro.

Never forget that OPEC is made up primarily of Arabic, Islamic nations, hostile to the U.S. While the Saudi regime gives lip service to the U.S., it is well known that the vast majority of the restive Islamic population hates the U.S. All but one of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis; Osama bin Laden is a Saudi.

Major riots occurred in Mecca many years ago as Islamic fundamentalists sought to overthrow the government.

If the Saudis toss their people the delectable bone of switching to the euro, explaining behind the scenes how this would injure the U.S. economy, they could do so with impunity. Any economist understands a nation trying to earn more money, and obtain the best price for its exports. The U.S. might complain, but, short of another war to conquer the Saudi Arabian peninsula, there would be little they could do about it. An oil embargo could strangle the economies of the world.

Should the Saudis and OPEC switch to euros, it would force: U.S. banks and the Fed to get rid of their dollar holdings in favor of euros.

If a major move such as this occurs, it would mean the market will be flooded with U.S. dollars. Some economistsclaim that could cause the dollar to drop by virtually fifty percent!

What do you suppose foreign investors would then do? They would pull their dollars out of the U.S. stock market and government securities. Foreign-made goods would skyrocket in price. Oil would continue to be high priced for a long time to come, and could go even higher. The already burgeoning trade deficits would balloon to impossible heights.

The U.S. is already the world’s largest debtor nation. Others own much of our economy; huge slices of our real estate. The Japanese own most of the big buildings in Hawaii; a few years ago, it was reported they owned 80 percent of the high rise buildings in Los Angeles. Next year, if the European Union admits the additional ten nations knocking on the door, the expanded EU will be up to a third larger than the U.S. in consumer demands – especially oil. It is in their best interests to demand that the oil-rich nations, who have received euros for their oil, invest those euros in European central banks, not in the U.S.

After all, even considering the U.S. and Japanese demands for foreign oil, an expanded European Union would represent fifty percent of OPEC oil.

Is there another hidden reason for the U.S. and U. K. to mount a preemptive attack against Iraq? Will the U.S. and U.K. make sure that any new “oil for food” program is paid for by dollars, and not euros’? It is most certainly in U.S. interests to make sure OPEC does not abandon U.S. dollars as its reserve currency!

Is there another more subtle message being sent to other oil producing countries beyond the production of WMD and harboring terrorists? Is the message that it is hazardous to the regime to abandon the U.S. dollar and switch to the euro?

For decades, I have known that despots and dictators do not arise in nations whose economies are humming along; nations which are experiencing low unemployment, high productivity, and relative peace. Instead, they arise in times of terrible economic distress; of joblessness and despair; of social disequilibrium, riots, crime, and a breakdown of society.

One of the major features of the coming BEAST power to arise in Europe is that of its ECONOMY! It will Be gigantic TRADING bloc; a financial giant. Notice how the visions seen of John in the Apocalypse are of a church/state combine which grows vastly rich: “For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication [metaphor for false religious doctrine and political propaganda], and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her [have engaged in close political, financial and military alliances], and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies” (Revelation 18:3).

Later, when the Beast power turns on the great false church, depicted as a whore, God says; “And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeththeir merchandise any more:

“The merchandise of gold, and silver (representing monetary devices), and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,

“And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men [they will be engaged in slavery once again; this time, captured Israelites].

“And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.

“The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,

“And saying, Alas, alas; that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls [“Babylon the Great” a modern metaphor for the headquarters of the Beast to come]!

“For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off’ (Revelation 18:1I-17).

For decades, I have written articles and spoken on how a major TRADE WAR; an ECONOMIC war would weaken the U.S. and Britain! Many months ago, when I knew another war in the gulf was looming, I told my audiences it would not come any time soon for the simple reason that it takes time and a lot of money to replenish exhausted military supplies!

It is said each laser-guided bomb costs up to $ 100,000 dollars; that each cruise missile costs about the same as a small business jet!

Great concern is being voiced all over America about the enormous COSTS of the war. Of course, the Democrats are jumping on the anti-Bush and, to some extent, the anti-war bandwagon, complaining about burgeoning deficits and high spending. This is perhaps a bit strange, coming from Democrats, but then politicians have known to be able to instantly argue either side of an issue to their own benefit.

You now know that the U.S. and U.K. find themselves DIVIDED AGAINST EUROPE; that EUROPE is extremely hostile to our two countries. I have predicted that Europe will eventually emerge as a powerful ENEMY of the United States for DECADES! Perhaps this current flap will be papered over. But the antagonisms will not go away any time soon.

If you have not yet read my book Europe and America in Prophecy, you may read it on our web site, or request it through sending an Email to the site, or writing directly to headquarters of the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association at Box 747, Flint, TX 75762. It is free, of course. In its final pages, it contains information on the identity of the Beast; how it is formed; who is the woman who rides and controls the Beast, and its final end.

Part III

POINT OF VIEW

To millions of citizens in America and Britain, the war in Iraq is a war of liberation. To millions in Iraq, and across the entire Islamic world, the war in Iraq is an invasion; an attempt to overthrow a sovereign nation and occupy it.

Arabic television shows images, night and day, of civilian casualties and bombed-out civilian structures. U.S. and U.K. television show pictures of precision weapons, striking tanks, armored personnel carriers, or military and regime targets. One such video picture showed a precision weapon taking out a military vehicle hiding beneath a bridge, yet sparing the bridge.

An Iraqi “information minister” said today, sadly shaking his head, that “They are bombing the civilian population.”

To Americans and Britons, the frantic effort to clear mines so as to secure the port of Um Qasr, and allow humanitarian supplies to reach Basra and southern Iraq is a noble effort to alleviate civilian suffering. The regime deliberately cut off the water supply. Television footage shows frantic civilians fighting over boxes of food and water containers, with the soldiers who are delivering the supplies unable to hold them back.

To millions across the Islamic world, such attempts are to “colonize Iraq,” and are an attempt by the “American, British, Zionist” forces to “evangelize” Islam!

All this is called “point of view.”

One subliminal aspect of war is the battle for the hearts and minds of the enemy. The attacker seeks to bend the will of the enemy to the attacker’s will; forcing the enemy to obey.

For centuries, the Islamists pursued the policy of “converting” millions at the edge of the Arabic scimitar, as hordes of Muhammadans swept into Egypt, Palestine, Turkey, and into the Balkans.

Today, the Islamic nation of Albania (the poorest nation in Europe or the Balkans) remains as mute testimony to the advance of Islamic armies to the very gates of Vienna, in Austria. Eventually, the green Islamic flag was to conquer nearly half of Africa, the entire Middle East, and to find its way into the subcontinent of Asia, and to Indonesia and the Philippines.

Then it was perfectly rational, “holy” and justifiable for the “one and only true religion” to be forcibly brought to lesser races; to he brutally applied to “infidels,” whether they were living in Sidi Ifni, Bangladesh, Sudan, or Morocco.

Even casual students of history may remember that significant aspects of Spanish culture came from the Moors. One can hear the very same plaintive wailing in the “flamenco” songs and dances as in Arabic music of the Middle East.

For a very long time, Spain was under Islamic dominance.

It was in 711 AD that a Berber Muslim army (the Berbers were a north African tribe, later known as “Moors”), under a leader with a familiar Islamic name, one Tariq ibn-Ziyad, crossed the Straits of Gibraltar Iberian peninsula. The Arabic pronunciation of the peninsula anciently called “Heber” made the “H” silent. Likewise, one of the principal rivers of Spain, the “Quadalquivir” was originally the “Wadi el Heber.” It was those of the half tribe of Dan (who abode in ships [Judges 5:17]) who left the name of their eponymous ancestor, Dan, as well as their ancient forebear, Heber, on way places during their journeys. It has been suggested that “Gibraltar” comes from “Altar of the Hebrews,” or “Hebraltar,” if the “G” is given the Spanish “J” sound.

The invasion of the Iberian Peninsula by Islamic armies resulted in the defeat of Roderick, last of the Visigothickings of Spain, who was defeated at the Battle of Rio Barbate. By 719 the invading forces were supreme from the coast to the Pyrenees. Their progress north was arrested at a battle fought in France, between Tours and Poitiers, in 732 by the Frankish ruler Charles Martel.

The first years of their rule, the Islamic Moors, as the Berber conquerors came to be known, controlled all of Spain except for the Basque country. Spain became a dependency of the Province of North Africa, a division of the caliphate of Damascus. After 717 the country was ruled by emirs, appointed by the caliphs. The term “Caliph” means “Successor” of the .prophet Mohammed. Eventually, there became a struggle between the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties for control of the caliphate. The last of the Spanish emirs, Yusuf, favored the Abbasids, but the local officials of the empire supported the Umayyads. The Umayyads faction invited Abd-ar-Rahman I, a member of the family, to become the independent ruler of Spain, In 756 Abd-ar-Rahman founded the powerful and  independent emirate, which later developed into the caliphate of Cordoba.

The Muslims remained mostly in control of Spain until about 1056, when Ferdinand came to the throne.

The point is, and there are more than a dozen countries whose histories prove it, that the spread of lslam was at the point of the sword – bloody warfare and brutal suppression of populations — rather than patient teaching and missionary work.

Never forget, education is that attempt by the older generation to instill in the younger generation the values, religion, beliefs and practices of the older generation. History is filled with lies, exaggerations and minimizations. In many cases, history is the study of the garbage dumps of societies, or the perusal of the lies written against them by their enemies.

See those precious little .Iraqi children, coming forward hesitantly with their little brown eyes, receiving food and water from an American soldier?

Their parents have already planted the seeds, and will nourish and fertilize those seeds of’ Islamic fundamentalism, anti-Americanism (and anti-West, anti-Jewish) sentiments, until, by age fifteen or sixteen, they will join the millions of others who regularly take to the streets in Jordan, Cairo, Gaza, Damascus, Jidda and Baghdad, bouncing, dancing, waving their hands in the air, as they demonstrate against the “Great Satan.”

It is called “point of view.”

Do Iraqi citizens BELIEVE the U.S. and U.K. are engaged in a war against civilians? Yes. Do they BELIEVE we are in a war of conquest, not liberation? Yes. Do they BELIEVE what their clerics and parents tell them? Yes.

Many are drawing analogies from the days of the Crusades. To them, this entire struggle is nothing short of an attempt by the nominal Christian forces of the West to evangelize the Middle East; to abolish Islam, and force them into an unwanted western culture.

No less a monstrous tyrant than Napoleon Bonaparte said, “Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.”

The news media of the Islamic world spews out a daily torrent of lies, distortions, propaganda, hate and nationalistic and religious fervor. Those who watch it, listen to it, and read it BELIEVE it and accept it as truth.

To help you understand this sad fact, do you remember the elderly gentleman who denied that Americans had ever landed on the Moon? When shown actual pictures; he shook his head sadly, and opined that the pictures had been “shot in the Arizona desert.”

Do you want to see how far some of the leftist, liberal information media go in their “reporting” of the news, even in western societies? Here is a sickening example: “Far more terrible than the pictures of dead British soldiers, however, is the tape from Basra’s largest hospital [shown on “A1 Jazeera” Arabic television] that shows victims of the Anglo-American bombardment being brought to the operating rooms shrieking in pain.

“A middle-aged man is carried into the hospital in pajamas, soaked head to foot in blood. A little girl of perhaps four is brought into the operating room on a trolley, staring at a heap of her own intestines protruding from the left side of her stomach. A blue uniformed doctor pours water over the little girl’s guts and then gently applies a bandage before beginning surgery. A woman in black with what appears to be a stomach wound cries out as doctors try to strip her for surgery. In another sequence, a trail of blood leads from the impact of an incoming – presumably British – shell. Next to the crater is a pair of plastic slippers.

“The al-Jazeera tapes, most of which have never been seen, are the first vivid proof that Basra remains totally outside British control.” This report, which appeared on a liberal web site, is indicative of the kind of emphasis placed on civilian injury and death which re-supports the twisted beliefs of millions of believers in Islam. Hatred knows not truth or objectivity, it knows only blinded emotion. And, the “fog of war” is indeed blinding.

God says, “The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.

“Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.

“We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.

“We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us.

“For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them;

“In transgressing and lying; against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.

“And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter” (Isaiah 59:8-14).

As has been said; “Truth is the first casualty of war.” Will the millions of Islamists ever know the truth? Not until the time of the world rulership of Jesus Christ! THEN they will know, but not until then.

No wonder Christ commands us to pray,  “…Thy kingdom come!”

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This publication is intended to be used as a personal study tool. Please know it is not wise to take any man’s word for anything, so prove all things for yourself from the pages of your own Bible.

The activities of the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association are paid for by tithes, offerings and donations freely given by Christians and co-workers who are dedicated to preaching the gospel according to Jesus Christ.

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Why do the Arabs hate the Jews? Why do so many Jews hate the Arabs? Why the continual strife; bombings, knifings, shootings, rocket attacks; terrorism against helpless civilians in Jerusalem? To understand the real roots of protracted conflict between Arabs and Jews, you need to know the history of Jerusalem and Palestine; understand the ethnic and religious roots of the peoples who live there. Even more importantly, you need to understand the PROPHECIES of your Bible; how events yet to occur in Palestine and Jerusalem will affect YOUR life where YOU live!

Always, the media seems fixated on TERRITORY as the problem! Continually, they speak of “land for peace.” Millions of Americans are disgusted with the Jews; seeing them as obstructionists to the “peace process.” Many in the media debate back and forth about where “a mere 13 per cent of Israel’s territory” would bring peace in the region! How utterly ignorant they are about the REAL CAUSE; the real ROOTS of the conflict! Many of those young reporters who bring you your news on television were not born when Israel fought the combined armies of six Arab nations; many were not born when the famous “six-day war” was fought, which brought about the occupation of the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the “West Bank,” including the old city of Jerusalem! The U.S. media has virtually parroted the Palestinian Arabs, as they continually speak of the “occupied territories.” Millions seem unconcerned that the Jews speak of “security,” meaning buffer areas between themselves and hostile Arab neighbors. Ignorance of history, gullibility, propaganda—all play a part in shaping public opinion in the U.S. Much, if not most, of that public opinion is very badly skewed.

It’s time you understood the real truth!

Both races lay claim to the land of Palestine based upon ancient history, and, in the case of the Jewish state of Israel, upon the Bible itself.

Jews trace their roots to Jerusalem from the beginning of recorded time. Not only has it been speculated that Jerusalem is the site of the original Garden of Eden, it is also said to be the site of the near sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham, which Jewish tradition says took place on the very mount where the famed “Dome of the Rock” Arab mosque is located today. Jews base their claims on Jerusalem to the time of David and Solomon, while many Arabs believe it was their ancestors who were dispossessed of their lands when Israel “invaded” Palestine following the Exodus.

Muslims believe the site of the Dome of the Rock is where their prophet Mohammed “ascended to heaven.” Christians revere Bethlehem, Jerusalem and its “holy places” because of the ministry, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

The city of Jerusalem is a monumentally important holy site to the three great monotheistic religions of mankind—a city which is named after “peace”, allegedly deriving from “Jebus,” (after the Jebusites, who inhabited the city prior to David’s time) and “Salem,” meaning “peace.” It is believed that Melchisedec, the “King of Salem” who met Abraham, and to whom he paid tithes, was either a human priest and king; a type of Christ, or the very Personage of the Godhead who became Christ in the flesh (Hebrews 7:1-3), and that Jerusalem was the site of this occurrence.

Down through history, Jerusalem has more often been the city of bloodshed, conflict and war than the city of peace. Jesus Christ prophesied there will yet come another massive destruction of Jerusalem during the “Great Tribulation” of which He warned.

Why Terrorism?

Why are so many of the Arabs so violently angry with the Jews? The major news media seem to reinforce the assumption that what is really happening in Israel is simply another struggle for independence. Did not the United States of America fight a war of independence? Have not countries all over the world wanted to be free of domination by other powers; free to pursue their own religious, philosophical, political, social and economic goals?

To the average man on the street, the indiscriminate killing of civilians in Israel may seem like the natural effect of an obvious cause: Israel continues to “occupy” the West Bank; continues to build housing projects on land claimed by the Palestinian Arabs (even though it is privately-owned Jewish land); continues to occupy the Golan Heights; continues its refusal to negotiate over Jerusalem. Thirty years have passed since Israel was attacked by five Arab armies and won an astounding victory which resulted in their occupation of the disputed lands. Notwithstanding, the Palestinian Arabs and Syrians demand that Israel relinquish all lands won by force of arms, including East Jerusalem! Yet, from the Israeli point of view, those very lands; the Golan in the north, overlooking the Sea of Galilee; the Gaza Strip to the south, pointing like a dagger into the heart of Israel; Jerusalem and the West Bank to the west, provided dangerous jumping off points for armored columns of Arab armies. Prior to that war, as any map of that time shows, Israel had such a narrow waist it could have been cut in two by a thrust from Latrun to the Mediterranean!

Israeli military commanders and Israeli governments from that time to this have not relished the prospect of returning to those disastrous borders, any more than the U.S. has contemplated giving back California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, or part of Florida to Mexico. Now, let us go back into the past, and come to understand BOTH sides of this volatile issue—a conflict that could lead to another destructive WAR in the Mideast—a conflict that could drag the major power into war; a conflict that will eventually lead to ARMAGEDDON!

Palestine In History

The term “Palestine” comes from “Philistine,” the name of a tribe that was in virtually a continual state of war with ancient Israel. Goliath, the giant whom David slew with a slingshot, was a Philistine. Misraim, the second son of Ham, begat Casluhim, “out of whom came Philistim” (Genesis 10:14). It would be an error to assert that the present-day Palestinian Arabs are “Philistines.” The Philistines were not of Arab stock. Any history of the region is a chronicle of many different peoples representing all three of the sons of Noah; of dozens of wars; of invasions from the major powers on all sides; Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome, Turkey, Europe—all in their turn swept into Palestine. In more modern times, it was ruled by Seljuk and Ottoman Turks, and by Britain following the two world wars.

The Philistines are said to be descendants of “the Purasati,” a confederation of peoples from northern Syria, Asia Minor and the Levant (the Lebanon), which threatened Egypt’s power in the twentieth Egyptian dynasty.

Egyptian monuments display the Purasati with distinctive headdresses of feathers, resembling that of the Lycians and Mycenaeans. There is some confusion about the earliest origins of the Philistines. The Bible says they were immigrants from “Caphtor” (Amos 9:7). They appear in the land prior to the time of Moses, and prior to the trial of Abraham concerning Isaac, therefore rendering it impossible that they could have been “Arabs.” Notice, “Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba: then Abimelech rose up, and Phichol the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.

“And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.

“And Abraham sojourned in the Philistines’ land many days” (Genesis 21:32-34). Though they gave their name to the land, they were not children of Ishmael. The Philistines are mentioned time and time again in the Bible. Hasting’s Bible Dictionary says, “Politically, they had five principal centers, the cities of Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron [1 Sam. 6:17; Joshua 13:3; Zephaniah 2:4-7, etc.]…their political organization was unique…They were distinguished especially for their military prowess. Pretty full details of their system might be gathered from various parts of the Bible, including mention of their archers, their equipment for heavy armed infantry, their organization into hundreds and thousands, etc. [1 S 31:3, 1 Ch 10:3, 1 S 29:2]. The accounts make the impression that they usually fought as infantry, though chariots and cavalry are mentioned…We have descriptions of their savage treatment of the bodies of their fallen enemies [I S 31; 1 Ch 10], and of the honors with which their women welcomed their warriors returning from victory. But more significant than all matters of detail is the fact that this little nation, with its few hundred square miles of territory, was able again and again to conquer Israel, and to hold Israel in subjection for generations” (ibid. Vol. 3, p. 844-5).

In the account of David’s victory over Goliath, it is noted that they had perfected the art of metallurgy. Goliath wore a coat of mail, like that of Europeans, a helmet of brass, and carried a huge spear with a massive iron head (1 Samuel 17:4-7). Though the “tables of nations” in the tenth chapter of Genesis indicates that the original Philistines were probably Hamitic in origin, and therefore quite dark and swarthy, possibly even black, many authorities believe the name itself is of Semitic origin. Interestingly, Hastings says, “It was the Philistine policy to prevent the existence of a united Israel. As long as David is king of Judah, and has a rival king farther north, they seem to be content. When Israel is divided, the Philistine supremacy is not imperiled. But when it is proposed that David reign over all the twelve tribes, the Philistine armies march at once [2 S 5:17]. A similar situation had arisen previously, when Samuel became judge [1 S 7:7]” (ibid. P. 845).

The present-day “Gaza strip” is named after one of the five principal cities of the Philistines. Notice that the Philistines were an entirely different people than the Arabs from the east. “Gaza, the most southerly and famous of the Philistine towns, was the terminus of the great caravan-route from Edom [Turkey] and south Arabia, with whose Bedouin it was generally on good terms. It was the `outpost of Africa, the door of Asia,’ [G. A. Smith], the stepping-off point for the invasion of Egypt, and the fortress which, next in importance to Lachish, barred the maritime road to Phoenicia and Syria. It is necessary to realize Gaza’s position and its links with trading centers, since conditions in the comparatively small and half-desert land of Judah depended essentially upon its relations with the Edomites and Arabian tribes on the southeast and with the Philistines on the west” (The Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Vol. 21, p. 402).

Notice that the Bible itself makes this same distinction between Philistines and Arabians: “Also some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat presents, and tribute silver; and the Arabians brought him flocks, seven thousand and seven hundred rams, and seven thousand and seven hundred he goats.

“And Jehoshaphat waxed great exceedingly; and he built in Judah castles, and cities of stone.

“And he had much business in the cities of Judah: and the men of war, mighty men of valour, were in Jerusalem” (2 Chronicles 17:11).

The Biblical story of the earliest inhabitants of Palestine begins with Abraham, who is the progenitor of both the Jews and the Arabs. Abraham was a descendant of “Eber,” and thus a Hebrew. God told Abraham, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee:

“And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing” (Genesis 12:1,2). In a sense, the entire Bible could be called “One Man’s family,” for it develops a continuous thread commencing with the call of Abraham, and ending with the prophecies of Christ as portrayed in the Olivet prophecy and the book of Revelation. His statement to the Pharisees, “You will see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves cast out” plainly stated that Abraham will be in the Kingdom of God with Christ. Abraham is called “the father of the faithful,” and is greatly revered by Jews and Arabs alike.

Abraham’s faith was to be tested almost to the breaking point when he was told to sacrifice his only son for whom he had waited so long. Earlier, God had told him, “As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.

“Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.

“And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.

“And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee” (Genesis 17:4-8). Following Abraham’s great test of faith, God made the promises to Abraham unconditional! He said, “By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:

“That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

“And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

“So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba” (Genesis 22:16-18).

The story of Abraham’s possession of the land of Palestine and the perpetual promises made to him by God is one of the most fascinating in all history. It is only by understanding the call of Abraham that one can truly gain a proper perspective on the whole history of the Mideast. In his recent joint news conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel following the bomb blast in Tel Aviv, King Hussein of Jordan spoke of both Jews and Arabs as “the children of Abraham.”

Who Are The Arabs?

Abraham’s children were prophesied to spread abroad to all points of the compass. His grandson Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, was to eventually number in the hundreds of millions (as the “sand of the sea shore”), and spread abroad over all the earth. His son Ishmael became the progenitor of many of the Arabs. His grandson Esau, Jacob’s brother, is the progenitor of the Edomites, commonly believed to be the Turkish people. For a most fascinating insight into the identity of the United States and Britain, as well as the most ancient Europeans and the Germans, call (903) 561-7070 or write for your copy of the book, “Europe and America in Prophecy.”

Abraham’s frustration over his wife Sarah’s barrenness brought about his decision to engender children by his handmaiden, an Egyptian named Hagar. This was with Sarah’s consent if not with her active insistence: “Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.

“And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.

“And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.” Polygamy was perfectly legal. It was the common practice of nobles and the wealthier among the various tribes. Sarai, or Sarah, as her name later became, reasoned that it would be her child; Hagar would merely be a surrogate mother.

“And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.” Now, human nature asserted itself. Hagar felt like the true wife. Proud that she was bearing Abraham’s child, she was no doubt keenly aware of the important place she and her child would occupy in the future. Sarah was out. She was in. Frustrated and barren, Sarah was now as an outcast in her own home.

“And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and thee” (Genesis 16:1-6).

Abraham loved Sarah deeply. He told Sarah to do as she pleased with Hagar for, after all, she was Sarah’s handmaiden. Sarah began treating her so harshly that Hagar fled. An angel spoke to her, and told her to return. Notice the account, for in God’s promises to Hagar concerning her son we find the origins of many of the Arab nations: “And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.

“And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael [meaning “God hears”]; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.

“And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren…And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son’s name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael.

“And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram” (Genesis 16:9-16). This was eleven years before Abraham’s arrival in Canaan. Ishmael was prophesied to become the progenitor of twelve princes, each of whom would become a chieftain of a tribe in his own right. When God renewed His promise to Abraham of a son through Sarah, it is obvious Abraham had become very attached to Ishmael, for he asked, “O that Ishmael might live before Thee” (Genesis 17:18).

But God told Abraham, “And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.

“But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year” (Genesis 17:20,21). No doubt the many servants of Abraham looked upon Ishmael as the logical heir. Ishmael was fourteen when Isaac was born, and a great feast was held to celebrate the occasion of his weaning, probably about a year later: “And the child [Isaac] grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.

“And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.

“Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.

“And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son.

“And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

“And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed” (Gen. 21:8-13). The name Isaac means “laughter,” harking back to the time when Sarah laughed upon hearing she would bear a son in her old age (Genesis 18:12).

Sarah expelled Hagar and her teen-age son. Exhausted in the desert, and believing death was near, she walked a distance from Ishmael and wept, not being able to watch her son die (Genesis 21:14-16). God again intervened: “And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.

“Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.

“And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.

“And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.

“And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt” (Genesis 21:17-21). Hagar no doubt wanted her son to marry from among her own people.

Kitto’s Bible Cyclopedia says, “The wilderness of Paran, lying along the western side of the Arabah [desert], between Canaan and the mountains of Sinai, now became the home of Ishmael…some of the border tribes with which the shepherds of Abraham were wont to meet and strive at the wells of Gerar, Beersheba, and En-Mishpat, probably received and welcomed the outcast into their tents…His relation ship to Abraham would also add to his personal claims…at this period the Arabian desert appears to have been thinly peopled by descendants of Joktan, the son of Eber [from whose name the word “Hebrew” derives], `whose dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar, a mount of the east’ [Genesis x. 25-30]. The Joktanites, or Bene Kahtan, are regarded by Arab historians as the first and most honorable progenitors of the Arab tribes [ARABIA; D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, s.v. Arabes]…the Joktanites have left traces of their names and settlements chiefly in the southern and southeastern parts of the peninsula, while the Ishmaelites kept closer to the borders of Canaan” (ibid. Vol. 2. P. 430).

Remember, God specifically prophesied that Ishmael’s descendants would dwell to the east of his brethren (from Isaac and Jacob—the Israelites). That Ishmael remained near the same regions where Abraham and his family dwelt is obvious from the fact that the two brothers met at Abraham’s burial: “Then Abraham gave up the ghost [“expired,” or exhaled his last], and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.

“And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre;

“The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth: there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife” (Genesis 25:8-10). As the centuries passed, tens of thousands of people inhabited the middle east who were related to Abraham. In his great old age, Abraham sired six more sons by Keturah. “Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah.

“And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.

“And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim.

“And the sons of Midian; Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch, and Abidah, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah” (Genesis 25:1-4). As you will recall, Moses, many centuries later, was to marry the daughter of a Midianitish Priest, a descendant of one of the sons of Midian, who was himself a son of Abraham.

Ishmael sired twelve sons, and an unknown number of daughters. The Bible says, “Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s handmaid, bare unto Abraham:

“And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth; and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam,

“And Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa,

“Hadar, and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah:

“These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, and by their castles; twelve princes according to their nations (Genesis 25:12-16). Like Jacob, who was to sire twelve princes, each of whom would become the father of a nation, Ishmael was also to be the progenitor of twelve tribes, or nations. The word “nation” should not be understood here in a political sense, but in an ethnic sense only. The prophecy did not mean each son of Ishmael would become a king over a specific country, or political nation, but the progenitor of a tribe.

Ishmael himself was prophesied to become a “wild ass of a man,” with “his hand against every man, and every man’s hand against him.” The term should not be understood as an insult, the way it would be used today. Rather, it implied a fierce, hardy, untamed man of the desert; a warrior who would always dwell “near his brethren.” Writing of the history of the Bedoin tribes of the Arab nations of the last century, Kitto says, “Nearly 4,000 years have passed since the Ishmaelites became a nation [a people, not a single political entity], and yet in disposition, in manners, in habits, in government, in occupation, and even in dress, they are the same as they were at the first” (Kitto’s Bible Cyclopedia, vol II, p.431).

As the centuries passed, and as the children of Abraham through Keturah mingled with the children of Abraham through Hagar and Ishmael, many different Middle Eastern tribes developed. Eventually, they occupied vast areas from near India in the east to the Mediterranean, and gradually spread across Northern Africa.

“And it has not been in the confines of their own desert home only that `the hand of the Ishmaelite has been against every man.’ Inspired by the fierce fanaticism, and led by the daring chiefs of Mohammed, they carried their victorious arms to the banks of the Oxus and the Indus on the east, and over Syria, Egypt, Northern Africa, and Spain, to the shore of the Atlantic on the west” (ibid. P. 431). Notice that the Bible said the sons of Ishmael were listed by “their cities and their camps,” and by their “princes according to their nations.” Kitto says, “In this respect the statements in the Bible exactly accord with the ancient traditions and histories of the Arabs themselves. Native historians divide the Arabs into two races: 1. Pure Arabs; descendants of Joktan; and 2. Mixed Arabs, descendants of Ishmael” (ibid. p. 430).

For many centuries, the “purest Arabs” were known as “Bedouins,” which meant “dwellers in the open land,” or nomads. The term is “…the name given to the most important, as it is the best known, division of the Arab race. The Bedouins are the descendants of the Arabs of North Arabia whose traditions claim Ishmael as their ancestor. The deserts of North Arabia seem to have been their earliest home, but even in ancient times they had migrated to the lowlands of Egypt and Syria. The Arab conquest of northern Africa in the 7th century A.D. caused a wide dispersion, so that today the Arab element is strongly represented in the Nile Valley [most modern citizens of Egypt are Arabs, not ethnic Egyptians], Saharan, and Nubian peoples” (The Encyclopedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, Vol. 3, p. 623).

The earliest known traditions among the Arabs of the Saudi Arabian peninsula [the name “Saudi” is strictly a family, or tribal name] are that their people are derived from two stocks, the “…pure Arabs, descended from Kahtan or Joktan, fourth in descent from Shem; and the Mustarab or naturalized Arabs, from Ishmael” (ibid. Vol. 2. p. 261). Therefore, according to their own traditions, the many Arab nations represent a mixture of Hamitic and Semitic stocks. The same authority says, “Arabia is a land of Semites, and is supposed by some scholars to have been the original home of the Semitic peoples. Although this cannot be said to be proved, the studies, linguistic and archaeological, of Semitic scholars have shown it to be probable. The dispersion from Arabia is easy to imagine. The migration into Babylonia was simple, as there are no natural boundaries to separate it from northeast Arabia…the connection with Palestine has always been close…Arabian literature has its own version of prehistoric times, but it is entirely legendary and apocryphal” (ibid. P. 263).

Who Were The Earliest Inhabitants Of Palestine?

History proves that many peoples bear the names given them by others—sometimes the names attached to them by their enemies. As an example, the word “Teuton,” attached to the fierce, warlike tribes in central Europe north of the Roman limes, merely meant “spear thrower.” The name “Deutschland” for Germany, and “Dutch,” for the people of Holland has this ancient origin.

It is important to note that the names for nationalities rarely reveal their true ethnic origins. An “American” is a citizen of the “United States of America,” which name came from the first name of the Italian explorer, “Americus Vespucci.” Yet, an “American” can come from many dozens of different ethnic origins. Hundreds of modern nations bear names which do not remotely describe their earliest inhabitants, or even subsequent occupants. Christopher Columbus, completely confused, supposed he had landed in India, and so called the aboriginal inhabitants he encountered “Indians.” The name remains today. There are dozens of other examples everywhere in the world.

As another important point, remember that the peoples living in Egypt today are not the same people as the Egyptians of the days of the Pharaohs and the Exodus. They are Arabs, not ethnic “Egyptians.” Study the origins of the “Gypsies” in this regard, and ponder the origin of the pyramid builders of Mexico, Central and South America.

Many of the tribes in Palestine from very early times were given names by others, according to where they dwelt, or because they possessed certain characteristics. Though some of the names of tribes in Palestine at the time of the Exodus are questionable, the best scholarship lists them thus: “The Hittites, according to Genesis 23, extended to Hebron in an early age, but they were driven out of central Palestine before the Exodus by Thothmes III [Brugsch, Hist. Egyp. I. 325]. The Philistines [which means “Palestinian”], said to appear on monuments B.C. 1,200, and whose god Dagon was worshiped at Ashkelon in the 15th cent. B.C. are thought to have been of Cretan origin…but the remaining tribes bear Semitic names, such as Canaanites ‘lowlanders'[?] of Sharon and the Jordan Valley, Perizzites or `villagers’ [?], Kenites or `spear-men’ [?], Kenizzites or `hunters’ [?], Kadmonites or `easterns.’ The same cannot be said, however, of the Amalekites, who seem to have lived even in central Palestine [Judges 12:15, though they are usually spoken of as a tribe in the desert south of Palestine], or of the Girgashites—perhaps near Gergesa…the population thus seems originally to have included three distinct stocks, though many of the above names may be descriptive. The Hittites and Amorites alone are monumentally known—the first a hairless race with slanting eyes and pigtails, apparently Mongols; and the latter a darker people, bearded and black-haired, with aquiline Semitic features. The Hebrew groups, including Ammonites, Moabites, and the half-breed Ishmaelites and Edomites, were distinguished by language from the aborigines” (A Dictionary Of The Bible, James Hastings, Vol. 3, p. 646).

Shortly after the confusion of languages at the tower of Babel, the various tribes of Shem, Ham, and Japheth began overspreading the land; Japheth to the east, Shem to the west, and Ham from the Middle East southward. However, from the very earliest times, as indicated above, there were representatives of all three of the basic racial stocks living in parts of Palestine. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were most probably Hamitic. The Hittites were probably Japthetic, but the Ishmaelites and descendants of Joktan were Semitic. The earliest “Philistines” were not Arab stock, (even though their name is attached to the land), but were Hamitic! Notice, “Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,

And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.

“And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,

“And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim) and Caphtorim.

“And Canaan begat Sidon his firstborn, and Heth,

“And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite,

“And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,”

“And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad.

“And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha.

“These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations.” Ham was a black man, and is the progenitor of the black races, of which there are dozens of varieties. Thus, we see that the entire region of Palestine and the Mideast, including the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates (or “Mesopotamia,” which means “Land between the rivers”) commonly called the “cradle of civilization”, was originally overspread by all three representatives of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japeth. Eventually, the lands of the Middle East were settled primarily by Semitic people, even though earlier families of Hamitic stock were also to be found along the maritime plain and Mediterranean seacoast.

It is important to realize that many of the peoples dispossessed by the Israelites after the exodus were not Arabs at all, but were Hamitic peoples.

When the newly-formed nation of Israel passed through the Sinai desert, then, forty years later, crossed over the Jordan river into the land of Palestine, they found the land inhabited by many different tribes, some of which were of great size. So much so, that the spies who had been sent to search out the land were in terror of the “giants” they had seen. Their report to Caleb caused a near revolt. The peoples of the maritime plain and the mountains of Palestine were called “the children of Anak,” the Amalekites, who dwelt in the southern portion, the Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, and Canaanites. The Amorites were a mountain-dwelling people, while the Canaanites dwelt by the Mediterranean, and along the West Bank of the Jordan (Numbers 13).

Remember, Canaan was a son of Ham, not Shem. Though many have referred to “Palestine” as “The Land of Canaan,” the term does not connote Arabian stock.

Because of the near revolt, and their faithlessness toward God, it was predicted that none of them from twenty years of age and above, would inherit the land (Numbers 14:29-32). Only the younger ones would cross the Jordan. Turned away after they first assayed to inherit the promised land, the Israelites asked the Edomites, who were descendants of Esau, Jacob’s brother, for passage through their land. Here is the Biblical account: “And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us:

“How our fathers went down into Egypt, and we have dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians vexed us, and our fathers:

“And when we cried unto the LORD, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt: and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border:

“Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country: we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the king’s high way, we will not turn to the right hand nor to the left, until we have passed thy borders.

“And Edom said unto him, Thou shalt not pass by me, lest I come out against thee with the sword.

“And the children of Israel said unto him, We will go by the high way: and if I and my cattle drink of thy water, then I will pay for it: I will only, without doing any thing else, go through on my feet.

“And he said, Thou shalt not go through. And Edom came out against him with much people, and with a strong hand.

“Thus Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border: wherefore Israel turned away from him (Numbers 20:14-21).

After Aaron’s death, a king named Arad, of the Canaanites, attacked the Israelites, taking prisoners. Here is what happened: “And when king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies; then he fought against Israel, and took some of them prisoners.

“And Israel vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.

“And the LORD hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and he called the name of the place Hormah (Numbers 21:1-3). The term “Canaanites” was used for many different tribes who inhabited the land of Palestine from the Jordan valley to the Mediterranean. Zephaniah prophesied, “Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast, the nation of the Cherethites! The word of the LORD is against you; O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant” (Zephaniah 2:5). The term “Canaanite” has been the subject of much dispute, because instead of attaching it to the earliest descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham, it has been attached to many other peoples who inhabited the land of Palestine over the centuries. The Encyclopedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition) says, “…Canaan [referring to the land, not Ham’s son] in particular is shown to be an Arabian name. Now it is no mere hypothesis that beginning from about 4,000 B.C. a wave of Semitic migration poured out of Arabia, and flooded Babylonia certainly, and possibly, more or less, Syria and Palestine also. Also that between 2,800 and 2,600 B.C. a second wave from Arabia took the same course, covering not only Babylonia, but also Syria and Palestine and probably also Egypt [the Hyksos] (ibid. Vol. 5, p. 140-141).

The history books will tell you that from the early “bronze age,” commencing about 3,000 B.C., successive waves of Semites (from “Shem,” the son of Noah, and progenitor of all the Arabs and Israelitish tribes) moved into Palestine.

In 1479 B.C., Thutmose III of Egypt conquered the region. Egyptian control was challenged by other newly-arriving immigrants; the “Habiru” (Hebrews, not Jews, but earlier descendants from “Eber”) from Mesopotamia, Amorites from the Lebanon, and Hittites from Anatolia (modern-day Turkey). It was not until 1,200 to 1,000 B.C. that the “Philistines” which meant “peoples of the sea,” established themselves along the Agean, and the maritime plain of modern-day Palestine.

Around 1,225 B.C., the Israelites crossed the river Jordan following their hundreds of years captivity in Egypt, and settled in the land.

The Encyclopedia Americana says, “After 1,150 B.C., Egyptian control [of Palestine] slackened; and with the Philistines in the role of catalytic agent, unification of the Twelve Tribes of Israel took place—under their first king, Saul, and his two great successors, David and Solomon. At the time of his death in 973 B.C., David had conquered Jerusalem, made it his capital, and broken the power of the Philistines” (ibid. Vol. 21, p. 199).

At no time was Jerusalem ever the political capital of any Arab state. It is important to remember that Israel occupied the land of Palestine after the Exodus when no such religion as “Islam” existed. The peoples of early Palestine were entirely heathen. Many practiced infant sacrifice. They were polytheistic, worshiping “Baal” (Nimrod, or Isis) and various versions of Semiramus, or “Ishtar,” (pronounced “Easter”) the mother/wife of Nimrod, and founder of the Babylonish mystery religion.

Islam, or “Mohammedanism,” the creation of “Mahomet,” did not appear on the world scene until more than six centuries after the birth of Christianity, and more than three centuries after the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. The religion of the Middle East was at first that of the patriarchs following the flood, then of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and finally that of Israel, when they were brought out of slavery in Egypt, and into the promised land. There are marked similarities between the religion of Islam and that of Moses, and Muslims claim a distinct relationship to Abraham, not only religiously, but ethnically.

Mohammad and “Islam”

The faith called “Islam,” as it was called by its founder, “Mahomet” or “Mohammad” (it is spelled variously in the histories) is virtually universal among the Arab races. Its roots are found in the life and teachings of Muhammad, who died, according to tradition on June 7th, 632 A.D., or, in Arab reckoning, 11 A.H. (After Hejirah). The term means “submission,” or “to surrender.” Allegedly, it finds its roots in the total surrender of Abraham’s will to God in the circumstance of the near-sacrifice of Isaac, as well as Isaac’s docile surrender to his father’s will and purpose. It is presumed that Mahomet built his religion on this concept, and it is mentioned in the Koran several times.

Mahomet claimed to be a “prophet,” or an “apostle.” At different times he used both terms, the latter being Jewish. Since he claimed to be the only spokesman for God, he eventually became the “divinely appointed dictator” of his community. To disobey him would result in divine vengeance overtaking the disobedient. His earliest visions were said to have been accomplished by wrapping himself in a blanket, entering into a trance, and then, preceded by copious perspiration, uttering oracles or prayers. According to Mahomet, he was “directed” at the first, or so he said, to communicate his visions only to his nearest relatives.

Eventually, his followers began urging him to come forward, which ultimately resulted in his ouster from Mecca and his “Hejirah,” or the famous flight to Medina. The date for this event is the same for Islam as “B.C. and A.D.” (“Before Christ,” and “Anno Domini,” or “Year of Our Lord”) for Christians. The Encyclopedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, says: “Rejecting accounts of Mahomet’s first appearance as a public preacher, which are evidently comments on a text of the Koran, we have reason for supposing that his hand was forced by ardent followers, who many times in his career compelled him to advance. The astute rulers of the community perceived that the claim made by Mahomet was to be dictator or autocrat; and while this was naturally ridiculed by them, some appear to have been devoted adherents of the gods or goddesses whom he attacked…apparently there was a war of words, followed by a resort to diplomacy and then to force; and then a period in which Mahomet’s attention was directed to foreign conversions, resulting in his being offered and accepting the dictatorship of Yathrib” (Ibid. Vol. 17: p. 403). Yathrib was afterwards known as Medina.

There were two important tribes in Yathrib called the Ausand the Khazraj which were engaged in a feud at the time. There was a significant Jewish community in Yathrib, or Medina. In a series of battles between the two feuding tribes, the Aus were bested by the Khazraj. The Jews took no part in the feud, but ultimately were compelled to fight on the side of the Aus in the battle of Bu’ath. Mahomet had used a “divine title” which the Jews recognized, “Rahman” (a name common among Muslims today). When the battle was won, it was no doubt attributed by the Jews to divine intervention.

As Mahomet preached his ideas to the people of Medina, some of his first converts appear to have been members of the Khazraj who desired to secure the aid of the Israelitish deity during their next conflict with the Aus. The Encyclopedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, states, “For this the plan was substituted of inviting the prophet to come to Mecca as dictator, to heal the feud and restore order, a procedure to which Greek antiquity offers parallels. The new converts were told to carry on secret propaganda in Yathrib [Medina] with this end in view. At the next feast some of the rival faction embraced Islam. A trusty follower of Mahomet, Mus’ab b. `Umair, who resembled Mahomet in personal appearance, was sent to Yathrib to assist in the work…we first hear at this time the conditions of Islam, i.e. a series of undertakings into which the convert entered: namely, to abstain from adultery, theft, infanticide and lying, and to obey Mahomet in licitis et honestis [completely and honestly]. The wholesale conversion of Yathrib was determined by that of two chieftains, Usaid b. Huraith and Sa’d b. Mu’adh, both Ausites. The example of these was quickly followed, and iconoclasm became rife in the place. At the next Meccan feast a deputation of seventy Yathribites brought Mahomet a formal invitation, which he accepted, after imposing certain conditions” (ibid. Vol. 17, pp. 403-404).

By force of personality and claims of divine authority, Mahomet had managed to deeply affect not only the Aus and the Yathribites, but was now seen, by the magnates of Mecca, as a bitter enemy. The same authority says, “Although the transactions with the people of Yathrib had been carried on with profound secrecy, the nature of Mahomet’s contract with his new adherents was somewhat divulged to the Meccan magnates, and the danger of allowing an implacable enemy to establish himself on the high-road of their northbound caravans flashed upon them. The rule which forbade bloodshed in the sacred city had at last to be suspended; but elaborate precautions were to be taken whereby every tribe [except Mahomet’s own clan] should have their share of the guilt, which would thus be spread over the whole community fairly. When the committee appointed to perpetrate the crime [they intended putting him to death] reached Mahomet’s house, they found that it was too late; Mahomet had already departed, leaving Ali in his bed” (ibid. Vol. 17, p. 404). There is substantial literature available concerning Mahomet’s raids on caravans, including the name of the very first person to be killed while fighting against a Moslem force. He was `Amr b. al-Hadrami, a member of a caravan attacked by the followers of Mahomet at the beginning of the sacred month of Rajab. Mahomet had decided to take advantage of his professed power to bind and to loose, and so had ordered the attack at a time when raiding was unknown, and the caravans felt safe. A few months later, Mahomet organized a raid against a caravan returning from Syria which had evaded him the previous year. A band of 300 were organized, including a large number of adherents who called themselves “Helpers.” The leader of the caravan somehow learned of the impending attack, and so hurried home by forced marches.

Later, a major battle was fought between Meccans and the followers of Mahomet on March 17, 624 A.D. in which Mahomet won a decisive victory which he attributed to divine intervention. He alleged that God had dispatched a regiment of angels to fight on his side, while the devil confused the Meccans.

The Encyclopedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition) says, “In the narratives which have come down and which seem to be authentic the result is amply accounted for by the excellence of the Moslem discipline and the complete absence of any on the Meccan side. Mahomet himself is said to have fainted at the first sight of blood, and to have remained during the battle in a hut built for him to which swift camels were tied, to be used in case of a defeat; yet these accounts make him responsible for the tactics, whilst assigning the credit for the strategy to one Hobab b. al-Mondhir. Several of Mahomet’s old enemies and friends of Meccans perished on this occasion; notably one Abu Jahl, his uncle…another hostile uncle, Abu Lahab, who is cursed in the Koran, was not present but died shortly after the battle” (ibid. Vol. 17, p. 405).

This is an important date in Mohammedan tradition, called “the Day of Deliverance.” The story of supernatural aid for Mahomet soothed the feelings of the defeated Meccans; Mahomet gained in popularity and was able to strike at his enemies in Medina. The same authority says, “One of the sequels to the victory was a series of assassinations whereby critics of his actions were removed” (ibid. Vol. 17. p. 405). “Assassin” was originally the name for a secret murderer, and derives from the familiar “Hashish,” an opiate made from the juice of hemp leaves. The “Hashishin” became “Assassin,” which was originally the name of a branch of the Shi’ite Sect, known as “Isma’lites,” founded by Hassan (ibn) Sabah.

Mahomet eventually subdued Mecca, and some years later the entire Arabian peninsula. His horizons continually expanded. “The conquest of Persia is said to have been contemplated by the prophet as early as A.H. 5, when the famous Trench was being dug, but it was not till the year A.H. 7, on the eve of the taking of Mecca, that the prophet conceived of sending missives to all known sovereigns and potentates, promising them safety if, but only if, they embraced Islam. Thus it was that Mahomet envisioned eventual world conquest. The Britannica says, “The prophet claimed throughout that his revelation confirmed the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, and this claim is on the whole reasonable, though his acquaintance with both was in the highest degree vague and inaccurate. Still he reproduced the Old Testament as faithfully as he could, and though he patriotically endeavors to shed some lustre on his supposed ancestor Ishmael, he does not appear to have questioned the Biblical theory according to which the founder of the north Arabian nations was the son of a slave girl…he even allows that Israel was the chosen people” (Ibid. p. 407).

The Religion Of Mahomet—Islam

The Arabic name for God is “Allah,” which is similar in origin to the Hebrew “Elohim.” For the many names, titles, and attributes of God in the Bible, see the “Divine Names and Titles” section under the name “God” in the Oxford King James Version of the Bible, or the notes and appendices in the Companion Bible, by Bullinger.

There are many similarities between Islam and Judaism, but there are also marked differences. As a monotheistic religion, Islam insists, in its first and primary article of faith, that “There is no God but Allah,” which is one of the most common statements in Islamic doctrine. Muslims, or adherents to Islam, believe that God is One; He is pre-existent [before all things]; that he is Omnipotent and Omniscient. They believe he is the Creator of all things, and, according to the Koran, that he “begets not and is not begotten; nor is there like unto Him any one.”

As the second most important article of faith, it is believed that Mahomet, or Muhammad, or “Mehmet” (Turkish), is the messenger of God, in the tradition of Noah, Abraham, Moses, or Jesus Christ. Islamic Arabs believe Jesus Christ was a “prophet” of God, but do not accept Him as Messiah. Rather, they believe Mahomet was the last and greatest of all the prophets, and that he ascended to heaven from the site of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.

As Christians, or at least some of them, believe the Bible is the revealed Word of God, so Islamic Arabs believe the Koran is the word of God which was dictated, word by word, by the archangel Gabriel. Another belief is that the Koran should only be studied and repeated in the “original tongue,” or Arabic, and that the original Koran is in heaven—the “seventh heaven,” where it is guarded by God and the angels.

As in the Levitical rites of purification, Muslims believe no-one should ever touch the Koran unless undergoing rites of purity and ablutions. As in the Bible, Muslims believe in angels; that they are superior spirit beings to humans, and the names attached to them are similar to those of the Bible.

Like a starving man wishes for food and water, so it would seem the dwellers of the desert pictured “paradise,” or “heaven,” as a place of shade and water, of comforts, relaxation, enjoyment and sensual satisfaction. The Koran states, “He hath awarded them for all that they endured [such as dying in warfare, or blowing themselves to bits aboard an Israeli bus], with Paradise and silk attire, reclining therein upon couches. Naught shall they know of sun or bitter cold. Its shades close upon them, and low shall its fruits hang down. Vessels of silver are brought round for them, and goblets like flagons, flagons made of silver whose measure they themselves shall mete. There they are given to drink a cup whereof the mixture is of ginger from the fount named salsbil. There go round among them boys of everlasting youth whom, when thou seest, thou wouldst take for scattered pearls. And when thou lookest at this, thou wilt see bliss and high estate. Their raiment will be of fine green silk and gold brocade. With silver bracelets will they be adorned, and their Lord will give them drink of a pure beverage” (Koran: 76:12-12).

Nothing is said about what “pure beverage” is to be drunk in the Islamic version of heaven, nor why such mundane metals as silver and gold, or “fruits” which are entirely biological, are to be found in “Paradise.” Many religions envision escape from the mundane to some “higher level” of existence, and, even though they admit to such a transition as being entirely spiritual, tend to believe in purely physical, sensual rewards such as leisure, fine clothing, luxurious homes and fine foods.

Imagining enjoyment of the five senses appears ludicrous and illogical, since it is only the “soul” or the “spirit” which enters Paradise according to the belief, and not a physical metabolic organism which depends upon food and drink for survival.

Islamic believers also envision a final judgement day, believe in the immortality of the “soul,” and, remarkably like millions of nominal Christians, believe in an ever-burning hell fire where the damned are to be tortured eternally.

Eventually, Islamic teachers explained that “hell” consisted of seven divisions, where evil-doers are consigned to varying degrees of torture depending upon the degree of their evil.

Like many other religions, including some of the “New Age” adherents and believers in aliens from outer space or a “mother ship” trailing along behind a comet, the entire religion of Islam is founded upon the concept of the “immortality of the soul.”

Unlike nominal Christianity, Islam is not merely a “belief” which is essentially separate from one’s life pursuits or practice. Millions of nominal Christians work together, play together, enjoy social contacts, yet attend different churches, and believe very different things. Islam, on the other hand, demands constant outward practice.

No pastor of a nominal Christian church really knows whether his parishioners pray or not, even though he may deliver any number of sermons exhorting them to pray. But Islam requires a verbal profession of God, and verbal acknowledgment that only Mohammad (or “Muhammad”) is his prophet.

There are five religious “duties” in Islam. The first is as expressed above. The second is to practice five legally prescribed acts of prayer each day. In my many visits to the Middle East, I have poignant memories of the recorded voices emanating from loudspeakers in the minarets from Amman to Cairo, and from Jerusalem to Istanbul, echoing about the cities with the “call to prayer.”

In mosques all over the world of Islam, millions of Arabs kneel in orderly rows, listening to the prayers as they repeatedly press their foreheads to the carpet on the floor. Prescribed preparation for prayer includes ceremonies of purification and ablution. Following the required ablutions (in the absence of water even sand or dust is used), the Moslems stand with faces toward Mecca, then recite various formulas, and, kneeling on the floor, perform a number of genuflections. This is done at early dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, at sunset, and at night.

Many wealthy Arabs from the oil-rich Middle East such as Saudi Arabia possess their own luxurious jet aircraft, including such massive planes as the Boeing 747. I have seen the interior sketches and designs for one such airplane which was being prepared for the king of Saudi Arabia. It featured a large, plush room in which a gyro-driven pointer was mounted in a bubble in the ceiling which always pointed toward Mecca, no matter in which direction the airplane was flying. Thus, at the required time, those on board could gather in the large lounge room, turn on a tape-recorded Islamic prayer, and bow toward Mecca.

The third duty of Islam is almsgiving, which, in the early years of the religion were collected by officials appointed for the purpose, and were assumed to be used for the building of mosques and helping the poor. As the religion spread over the world, the practice of almsgiving became personal.

Fasting is the fourth duty, and “Ramadan,” supposedly the month in which the Koran was revealed. Since the early calendar used by Moslems was a lunar one, “Ramadan” can rotate through the solar year, falling even in the heat of the summer. The “fast,” however, is to be endured only from dawn until sunset. One may eat to the full from sunset until the following dawn.

The fifth obligation is to perform at least a once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to the holy places in Arabia, preferably Mecca. The Arabic word for pilgrim is “hajj.” Once a Moslem has made such a pilgrimage, he is entitled to wear the name like a title, in front of his name. A highly recommended book is “The Haj,” by best-selling author Leon Uris of “Exodus” fame, which gives fascinating insight into the attitudes of Arabs and Israelis who lived side by side in Palestine for decades prior to the creation of the state of Israel and the 1967 six-day war.

There is a sixth and last obligation, according to at least one Islamic sect, and that is the duty of waging “Jihad,” or “holy war.” This view sees Islam as occupying one zone of the world; a zone in which peace reigns. The other zone is occupied by non-Moslems, and it is the duty of every Moslem to bring them under the banner of Islam. One passage in the Koran says, “Fight in the path of God against those who fight against you, but be not the aggressors; for verily God loveth not the aggressors. And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter.”

This is especially significant in the light of present-day conditions in Palestine. Like the infamous “kamikaze” (“divine wind”) suicide bombers of Japan in the latter stages of the war in the Pacific during World War II, Islamic fanatics become suicide bombers by blowing themselves to bits aboard crowded buses, or in busy coffee shops and shopping centers. They believe that they are guaranteed instantaneous entry into the Islamic version of paradise if they lose their lives while killing “infidels,” or unbelievers in Islam.

Average nominal Christians, who believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ, who said, “love your enemies,” find it difficult to understand the depths of such hatred or fanatical belief. To average nominal Christians, this physical life is precious; a gift from God during which one should strive to follow the teachings of Christ and the Bible. Unfortunately, there is little defense against a determined suicide bomber, as events over many years in Israel have proven. The teachings of Mahomet eventually spread throughout the Middle East and Africa; found its way to Pakistan and Malaysia, and to the Philippines and Indonesia. Every seventh human being on earth is an adherent to Islam. Mahomet lived in Mecca, which city appears nowhere in historical records. Its pre-Islamic religion was almost certainly pagan, and featured a sanctuary shaped of “black stone,” called a “Cube” (Arabic, “ka’ba). During the fourth century of Islam, the black stone was stolen by the Carmathians, but afterwards returned (though it was never proven to be the same stone).

Like all religions, Islam had its detractors and defectors, as well as its would-be leaders of offshoots with their own agendas. One such sect was that of the Carmathians, or “Qarmathians,” which took its name from Hamdan Qarmat, who was himself a convert to what was then called “the religion of the Ishmaelites,” or “Islam.” He lived in Iraq. His teacher was Hosain ul-Ahwazi, son of a Persian Shiite, Abdallah ibn Maimun, who introduced various “degrees” of a “secret society” within the religion to attract followers. Like so many cults and sects, one of the primary requirements was to be in strict personal submission to the leader.

Also like so many cults, once one was initiated into the faith, one progressed from certain levels to the next, until one had passed through seven degrees. This was later expanded to nine. In the first stage, the believer paid a sum of money, took an oath of complete submission and was then shown that there was “mystery” in the Koran that could only be explained by a special teacher, an “imam.” As he progressed through the various stages, he was shown that the mainstream Islamic teachers were wrong in doctrine, and that the imams alone were infallible.

They learned there had “always been an imam,” whether openly or in secret, and that, since an imam could do no wrong, and that Is’mail, the eldest son of the sixth imam had drunk wine, then wine drinking could not be wrong. The drinking of alcoholic beverages is strictly condemned by Islamic fundamentalists.

By the time the adherent had passed through the fifth state of secret doctrines, he had ceased to be a believer in Islam altogether. Their doctrines were said to remain extant in Syria, Arabia, Iran, and India, as well as Zanzibar, into the early twentieth century.

The Abbasids, Seljuk Turks and Ottomans

From shortly after the death of Mohammed, or Mahomet, various dynasties emerged which eventually ruled over the entire Middle East. At the height of the Ottoman Empire, the Islamic religion held sway from Vienna in Austria to well within India.

The eldest uncle of Mahomet was “Abbas,” who lived from A.D. 566 to 652. His family regarded themselves as rightful heirs of the prophet Mahomet, in competition with the Omayyads, the descendants of Omayya, who claimed the same right. The word “caliph” means “successor.” Shortly after the death of Mahomet, various arguments ensued as to who was his rightful successor. There is much history available to a serious student of the caliphates, and the gradual development of Islam. In brief, the citizens of Medina believed themselves to be in charge of their own affairs, and, following Mahomet’s death, wished to appoint one of their own as caliph, or successor. The term eventually came to mean “ruler” more than “successor.”

There became three main divisions of the Mohammedan rulers in the east who were “caliphs.” They consisted of the first four caliphs, who were the immediate successors of Mahomet, the Omayyad caliphs, and the Abbasid caliphs. The Encyclopedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition) says, “Throughout the second period of the Omayyads, representatives of the family were among their [the Abbasids’] most dangerous opponents, partly by the skill with which they undermined the reputation of the reigning princes by accusations against their orthodoxy, their moral character and their administration in general, and partly by their cunning manipulation of internecine jealousies among the Arabic and non-Arabic subjects of the empire” (Ibid. Vol. 1, p. 10). There is truly nothing new under the sun. To this day, the identical tactics are used by would-be leaders of religious groups who attempt to build a following based upon their accusations against perceived competitors or former leaders.

The Seljuk Turks, who campaigned into present-day European and Asiatic Turkey, inherited their power from the then decadent caliphate of Baghdad.

From the 11th century until fairly recent times (at the end of World War I), the Middle East and Palestine were ruled by the Turks. The Seljuks were Turkish family members who formed several dynasties over more than three centuries. Their rule forms the first part of the history of the Turkish empire.

They came from the deserts of Turkestan (the term meant “one who looks like a Turk”), and were no doubt Edomites. Their rise to power reestablished the power of orthodox Islam, ending a decaying, subversive influence of the ultra-Shiite tenets of the religion, which threatened the continuance of Islam itself. The first Seljuk rulers were Toghrul Beg, Chakir Beg and Ibraim Niyal. Seljuk was their grandfather.

Much literature is available concerning these dynasties. With only the temporary exception of some of the crusades, the Seljuks, followed by the Ottomans, ruled Palestine, and therefore Jerusalem, for many centuries.

Legend says “Oghuz,” the son of Kara Kahn, was the “father of the Ottoman Turks.” The Ottoman Empire ruled the Middle East for about seven hundred long years. It is very important to note that not once during this vast period of time was there ever a suggestion on the part of any of the Arab or Turkish leaders that a “separate Palestinian state” be established in Palestine, or that Jerusalem be made a political capital.

During the many centuries of the Ottoman Empire, the sword of Islam advanced to the gates of Vienna, conquered much of the Balkans, and at one time extended from India to Austria. It would require a very large book to detail only a portion of this vast history; of the intrigues, wars, treaties, treachery and murder that occurred. As an illustration from this immense and detailed history of the roots of the present-day conflict over Palestine and Jerusalem, study this excerpt from The Encyclopedia Britannica (Eleventh Edition) concerning the tsar of Russia’s interest in Turkey (as geography naturally required, and as past wars and conflicts demanded): “By his [Tsar Nicholas’] concert with the other powers in the affair of Mehemet Ali, the tsar had abdicated his claim to a unique influence at Constantinople, and he began to revive the idea of ending the Ottoman rule in Europe, an idea which he had only unwillingly abandoned in 1829 in response to the unanimous opinion of his advisers. In 1844 he took advantage of a visit to England to propose to British ministers a plan of partition, under which Great Britain was to receive Egypt and Crete, Constantinople was to be erected as a free city, and the Balkan states were to become autonomous under Russian protection. This proposal, as might have been expected, only served to arouse suspicions as to Russia’s plans; it was politely rejected, and the whole Eastern Question slumbered, until, early in 1850, it was awakened by an incident trivial enough in itself, but pregnant with future trouble: a quarrel of Catholic and Orthodox [Greek] monks about the holy places in Palestine” (Ibid. Vol. 27, p. 459, emphasis added).

The geopolitical fallout from this quarrel was immense. It eventually resulted, as we shall see, in a division of the entire region; a vast area from Austria to Pakistan, by the three major powers, Russia, France and Great Britain, who emerged victorious following the wars of the next fifty years, including World War I.

Long prior to the birth of Mohammad, or Mahomet, the nominal Christian religion had laid claim to “holy places” in and about Jerusalem. Monasteries were founded, cathedrals built. With the eventual splitting of the Catholic Church into Greek Orthodoxy and the Roman church, inevitable competition between the two churches occurred. Remember, nominal Christianity preceded the faith called Islam in Palestine by about eight hundred years. Today, the source of strife is the conflict between Islam and Judaism, with the nominal Christian world looking on in deep concern because of the vital energy resources in Saudi Arabia and the gulf states. Early on, the conflict was between Greek Orthodoxy and the Roman Catholic church, and between both of the nominal Christian religions and Judaism. Islam was late to arrive on the scene.

As a result of the strife between Orthodox monks and Catholic monks in Jerusalem in 1850, Napoleon III handed the Ottoman government in Constantinople a formal demand for the restitution of rights of Catholic clerics in Jerusalem. As the above quoted authority states, “It was now clear that no less an issue was involved than a contest between France and Russia for paramount influence in the East, a contest into which Great Britain would inevitably be dragged” (Ibid. Vol. 27, p. 460). This is important. Britain’s interests were primarily economic, even though the period of the Crusades into Palestine were fueled by religious strife. Concessions were made, during which the British government urged a compromise upon Constantinople in which Protestants and Mohammedans were given equal rights with the Ottoman Turks providing “protection.” Neither Napoleon nor Nicholas really desired a settlement, however. Napoleon wanted a war because he wanted to expand the French empire, and Nicholas wanted a war because he wanted to expel the Muslims from Europe; especially from the Balkans. The influence of Islam in the Balkans planted the seeds which have blossomed into genocidal wars for centuries, including the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia in recent times, and the protracted butchery that took place between Serbs (many of whom are Greek Orthodox) and Croats (many of whom are of Islam) in Bosnia.

Nicholas believed France “…would never come single-handed to the assistance of Turkey; Austria would be bound at least to benevolent neutrality by `gratitude’ for the aid given in 1849; the king of Prussia would sympathize with a Christian crusade; Great Britain, where under the influence of John Bright and Richard Cobden the `peace at any price’ spirit seemed to be in the ascendant, would never intervene. Nicholas even hoped for the active sympathy of Britain…Early in 1853 the Russian army was mobilized, and Prince Menshikov…was sent to present the emperor’s [Tsar Nicholas] ultimatum [concerning the holy places in Jerusalem] at Constantinople” (Ibid. P. 460).

On April 22nd, the French, Russian and British ministers came to an agreement on the holy places. Menshikov nevertheless delivered his ultimatum to the Ottoman government, and on the same day, Russian troops crossed into the Balkans. This caused a major degree of excitement in Britain, where the government still attempted to preserve peace in the region. But it was too late. Russia wanted the Ottomans and Islam out of the Balkans.

Eventually, the Crimean War resulted. The Turkish government declared war on Russia in the beginning of October of that year, and the French and British fleets passed through the Dardanelles, with the clear message to Tsar Nicholas that, so long as the Russians did not pass the mouth of the Danube, the status quo would be maintained. To Nicholas, this was tantamount to a declaration of war because he had no intention of stopping at the Danube. The Russian naval forces attacked and slaughtered a Turkish squadron in the harbor of Sinope, which resulted in the combined French and British fleets entering the Black Sea.

The war came to an end after British and French forces landed in the Crimea in 1854, and the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1856. Its provisions were as follows: “Russia abandoned all pretensions to exercise a protectorate over the Christians in Turkey, or to an exclusive right of interference in the Danubian principalities [modern-day Bulgaria, Hungary, and Serbia, among others], to which Bessarabia was restored; the navigation of the Danube was made free and placed under the supervision of an international commission; the Black Sea was closed to warships, while open to the commercial flags of all countries; the Asiatic frontier between the two empires [Russia and Turkey] remained unchanged; Turkey was admitted to the concert of Europe.” The treaty further provided “…for a large measure of local autonomy for the Christian communities [including Protestant, Catholic, and Greek Orthodox who were in Jerusalem]. Fanatical outbreaks of violence by Mohammedans against Jews and Christians in Jidda and Syria, however, resulted in French occupation, which in turn resulted in autonomy for “the Lebanon.” A Christian governor was appointed by the three triumphant powers, and the arrangement lasted for many years.

As you will remember, the bloody civil war that destroyed Beirut, Lebanon, formerly called “The Paris of the Mideast,” which took so many lives, was primarily a clash between Maronite Christians, the Phalangists, and Islamic fundamentalists. In 1958, the United States was dragged into the conflict when U.S. Marines landed in Lebanon and remained from May until October, 1958. The history of Lebanon’s civil war between the Maronites, Phalangists and other Christian groups and the leftist Muslims and Palestinian groups is a bloody, repelling story. Over 60,000 were killed and billions of dollars of damage incurred during the 1975-76 civil war, and Israel twice occupied Lebanon. In 1983, some 50 were killed in a terrorist bombing of the U.S. Embassy, and on April 18th of that year, 241 U.S. Marines and 58 French soldiers were killed in a massive suicide attack on their barracks.

To this day, Israeli soldiers continue to occupy a portion of southern Lebanon, where frequent terrorist attacks and Israeli retaliation in the form of air and sea attacks and artillery barrages have driven up to a half million civilians from their homes.

The Ottoman Empire joined with Austria-Hungary and Germany during World War I, which eventually resulted in a victory by Britain in Palestine, when General Allenby defeated the Turks in 1917.

Lord Balfour’s declaration was accepted, which provided for a “Jewish national homeland.” The various caliphates and the Ottomans had been in control of Palestine and Jerusalem for many hundreds of years until this time. Never was there a move on the part of the caliphate of Baghdad, or the Ottoman Turkish empire to provide for a separate “Palestinian State,” or a move toward making Jerusalem into a political capital. Resulting from the Balfour Declaration, significant Jewish immigration began in 1920, when a British Palestine Mandate was established. The tide of refugees and immigrants swelled considerably in the 1930s as Jews fled Hitler’s Germany and other nations in Europe. In 1922 the land east of the Jordan was detached from the Palestine Mandate, and became “Trans-Jordan.”

Israel, Jordan And The Palestinian Refugees

When the truth about the “holocaust” became widely known in the closing months of World War II, the civilized world was astonished. Millions of Jews had been systematically starved, gassed and cremated in concentration camps all over Germany and Eastern Europe. Names like Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Dachau, Maidenek, and Belsen are etched into the minds of generations. The “Yad Vashem” in Jerusalem, the Jewish Holocaust Memorial, is a museum which impacts the visitor as no other. The life-size pictures of Nazi atrocities become deeply etched into one’s mind, and stir the emotions unforgettably.

In this regard, one needs only to research the dozens of titles available about this infamous period to understand. The world found a collective conscience when, in 1947, the United Nations voted to partition Palestine. Like other attempts at big-power partitioning of antagonists, one of the latest being the disastrous attempts to do so in the case of Bosnia-Herzgovina in the aftermath of the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the partitioning plan was doomed to failure from the beginning.

The United Nations, keenly aware of the continuing turmoil in Palestine, set up a “Special Committee on Palestine” (UNSCOP), to study the problem and suggest “…such proposals as it may consider appropriate for the solution of the problem of Palestine.” A majority view was that the earlier big power mandate for Palestine should “terminate as soon as possible” and that two states should come into being; the one Jewish and the other Arab; that “economic union” should occur, but that Jerusalem should be excluded from both states, and made into a “corpus separatum,” or “separate entity,” so that it would not be a political capital for either state, but continue to be an open city, with free access to adherents of the three great monotheistic religions.

The Arabs rejected the proposal. The Jews agreed, but made it plain they disagreed on the exclusion of Jerusalem. Resolution 181(11), dated November 29, 1947, agreed with the majority view of UNSCOP, and urged that the armed forces of the mandated territories be evacuated from Palestine no later than August 1, 1948. As actually occurred, the British finally withdrew from Palestine on May 14, 1948. On that very day, the “Jewish National Provisional Council” proclaimed that the “State of Israel” and sent a cablegram to the Secretary General of the UN on the following day.

The declaration is as important to Israelis as the 1776 Declaration of Independence is to Americans. Excerpted, it states: “Eretz-Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people…In the year 1897 the first Zionist Congress…proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country. The right was recognized in the Balfour Declaration, 1917, and reaffirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations which…gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and Eretz-Israel, and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home…On the 20th November, 1947, the U.N. General Assembly passed a Resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel…This recognition by the U.N. of the right of the Jewish people to establish their State is irrevocable. This right is the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their sovereign State.

“Accordingly, we…by virtue of our natural and historic right and on the strength of the Resolution of the General Assembly hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel to be known as the State of Israel.”

The Balfour Declaration was actually a personal letter from Lord Balfour to Lord Rothschild, dated November 2nd, 1917.

It reads: Dear Lord Rothschild: 

I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspiration which has been submitted to, and approved by, The Cabinet: 

His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object. 

It being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.” 

I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation. 

(Signed: Lord Arthur James Balfour)

Balfour had been British Prime Minister from 1902 until 1905, and in June, 1915, was one of the elder statesmen of Britain. He became Minister of Foreign Affairs, and had visited the United States earlier the same year of the writing of the letter reprinted above.

As might be expected, the declaration was viewed with great dismay and hostility by the various Arab states in the Mideast. Arabs argue that from the inception of the British Mandate in 1922 there were about half a million Moslems to only 83,790 Jews in Palestine; 71,764 Christians and some 7,000 others.

In the early 1980’s, I visited the royal palace in Amman, Jordan, and interviewed His Royal Highness Hassan Bin Tallal, Crown Prince of Jordan, brother to King Hussein. He gave me an autographed copy of his book, Palestinian Self-Determination: A Study Of The West Bank And Gaza Strip. It is a concise setting forth of the basis for the claims of Palestinian Arabs for self-determination.

He wrote, “The disturbances in the closing years of the Mandate, 1945-8, arose largely through the resumption of Jewish immigration after the Second World War. There had also been extensive acquisition of Arab land as well as industrial investment in Palestine by Jewish organizations. From 1946 both communities, Arabs and Jews, formed armed bands which fought each other and the Mandatory. By 1947 it had become apparent to the Mandatory that it was no longer able to maintain law and order in Palestine. By that date the demographic balance had changed considerably in favour of the Jews…In the event, the Mandatory withdrew its administration and military forces from Palestine on 14 May 1948” (Ibid. pp. 60,61).

It was not that the armed bands “fought each other” so much as Arabs fought Jews, and Jews fought both Arabs and the British. British officers were killed or kidnapped. Many civilians on both sides died.

During the 1940s the “Fighters for Freedom of Israel” displayed a poster in England worded as follows:

TO THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND!

TO THE PEOPLE WHOSE GOVERNMENT PROCLAIMED “PEACE IN OUR TIME”

THIS IS A WARNING ! 

YOUR GOVERNMENT HAS DIPPED His Majesty’s Crown in Jewish blood and polished it with Arab oil —YOUR GOVERNMENT HAS VIOLATED every article of the Eretz-Israel Mandate, Flouted international law and invaded our country.

Oswiecim [Auschwitz], Dachau and Treblinka made way for the “Exodus” to the Hitler-Bevin Alliance—To the murder of the survivors whom Hitler’s wrath could not reach 

WE ARE RESOLUTE 

That it shall not come to pass again!

WE WILL CARRY THE WAR 

To the very heart of the empire!

WE WILL STRIKE

With all the bitterness and fury of our servitude and bondage

WE ARE PREPARED TO FIGHT 

a war of liberation now to avoid a war of enslavement tomorrow.

PEOPLE OF ENGLAND! 

PRESS YOUR GOVERNMENT TO QUIT ERETZ-ISRAEL NOW! 

DEMAND THAT YOUR SONS AND DAUGHTERS RETURN HOME OR YOU MAY NOT SEE THEM AGAIN 

Clearly, the British people were put on notice by the Jews that they placed some of the blame for the holocaust at the door of the British government, which had clamped down on Jewish immigration into Palestine, held tens of thousands of survivors of the war in such places as southern France and Cyprus, and turned away “illegal” ships crowded with refugees at the port of Haifa. The poster threatened violence in London and other British cities, and throughout the British Empire. As portrayed in the motion picture “Exodus,” many Jews died when, turned away in sight of Israel, they jumped overboard and attempted to swim to shore from old freighters which had carried them there from Europe.

For many years prior to British withdrawal from Palestine, violence had spilled blood between the Arabs and Jews. Such Jewish organizations as the “Haganah,” the “Palmach,” and the “Irgun” were known to resort to assassinations and terrorist attacks against the occupying British and the Arabs alike. The Arabs likewise resorted to violence against the increasing number of Jews whom they saw as “illegal immigrants” to the land of Palestine. When the British Palestine Mandate had been recognized by the League of Nations in 1920, following World War I, violent riots occurred. Violence broke out again the following year, and again in 1929 and 1936. Almost non-stop violence ensued following World War II, and the British finally sought to rid themselves of the problem of the League of Nations Mandate by turning over the responsibility of Palestine to the United Nations. Late in the 19th century, there also has been heavy Arab immigration from Syria and Lebanon into Palestine.

When the British withdrew in May of 1948 and Israel declared itself a sovereign state, six Arab states attacked tiny Israel. Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia all sought to destroy the fledgling Jewish state. A famous book by Leon Uris entitled Exodus, which was later made into a major motion picture, lends vivid color to the period of post-war Jewish immigration to Israel and the war for independence.

To this day, when one drives up the steep, winding highway from the Maritime Plain to Jerusalem, one may see the wrecked hulks, which have been preserved as a memorial by heavy application of red lead paint, of the armored relief convoy that fought its way to Jerusalem. Many Israelis died in the attempt, but a number of the vehicles finally succeeded in reaching the surrounded, desperate defenders of west Jerusalem. Had the convoy not managed to fight its way through Jordanian armed forces who were ensconced on both sides of the road on the heights, a very different chapter of history would have been written. The story of the ancient roadway, and the armed force that managed to surprise the Arabs from an unsuspected direction is told in the history of that war.

Instead of being annihilated, or “driven into the sea,” as the combined Arab armies stated their intention, the Israelis gained territory. Following Israel’s “war for independence” in 1948—and this is very significant—Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip, and Jordan occupied the WestBank and the old city of Jerusalem.

From 1948 until 1967, a span of nineteen years, U.N. forces occupied a “demilitarized zone” between the Arabs and Israelis. A swath of land was declared “no man’s land,” and was festooned by sandbagged machine-gun emplacements and barbed wire. The white-painted military vehicles of the U.N. patrolled the region. However, frequent terrorist raids occurred. Israeli farmers were shot while they tilled the fields near the Sea of Galilee by Arabs ensconced on the steep, precipitous slopes of the Golan Heights. Terrorist attacks were mounted from Egypt and the Sinai; from Syria, and from Jordan.

Another war resulted in 1956 when Israel invaded Egypt’s Sinai. For a short time, both British and French forces entered into the war, and a U.N. cease fire was arranged by November 6th.

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, Syria occupied the Golan Heights overlooking the Sea of Galilee, and Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip.

Never did the three Arab governments propose the creation of a separate Palestinian state in any of these regions, or in any aggregate of them. For one thing, one of the major sources of income for Jordan was tourism. The old city of Jerusalem, Hebron and Bethlehem, among other sites, were favorite tourist attractions, and crowded with pilgrims from the west during Christmas and Easter holidays.

When the 1967 war broke out, it was as a result of Egyptian demands that the UN emergency force occupying the Gaza Strip be withdrawn. The UN acquiesced, and Egyptian armed forces promptly reoccupied Gaza, then closed the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping. Once again, combined Arab armies sought to destroy the state of Israel. Israel destroyed the Egyptian Air Force, mostly by precision bombing and rocket attacks in Egypt and the Sinai, catching many airplanes in their revetments. In a stunning victory at the famed Mitla Pass in the Sinai, Israeli warplanes caught huge Egyptian tank columns in a bottleneck, and destroyed them. Israel achieved major victories over massive Syrian forces in the Golan, drove Jordan’s desert legion from the old city of Jerusalem and the West Bank. After just six days, the UN arranged a cease-fire between the warring parties.

Israel now occupied the West Bank of the Jordan, the Golan Heights overlooking Galilee, the Sinai and the Gaza Strip.

However, the Egyptians and Syrians launched a sudden attack against Israel once again on “Yom Kippur,” the Day of Atonement, in 1973. For many years, Israeli forces had been dug in along the famous “Bar-Lev Line,” on the east bank of the Suez Canal. The defensive fortifications were reminiscent of the Siegfried or the Maginot lines of post World War I fame, featuring concrete artillery emplacements and a huge, hundred-mile-long berm of bulldozed sandbanks, with linked defensive hard points.

Egyptian forces successfully brought up high-pressure hoses and breaching equipment, and managed to break through the line, spilling into the Sinai. In the initial phases of this bloody and violent war, both Syria and Egypt seemed to have the upper hand, until a major counterattack by Israeli tanks in the Golan drove the Syrians back. The Israeli army crossed the Suez to the south, outflanking the Egyptian 3rd army, and was headed toward Cairo when the Soviet Union and the other major powers began calling for a cease fire. Israel withdrew from the west bank of the Suez in 1974. Anwar Sadat was the President of Egypt at the time. I shall now interject a brief personal experience which I have always believed may have had something to do with major events which followed.

“Egypt Under Sadat”

When the 1967 six-day war broke out, my father and I were en route to Jerusalem. I had left Pasadena, and was in England, preparing to go on to Jerusalem, where our radio program was to be broadcast to the Mideast for the first time. Mr. Adlai Muhtadi, who was head of the Jordanian Broadcasting Corporation, had arranged for a contract with the station in Jerusalem, which was then in Jordanian hands. We were inspired and elated to think that the gospel of the Kingdom of God could now be preached over an Arab owned Middle Eastern radio station, and my father and I intended doing the first few inaugural broadcasts in person. When the war suddenly broke out, Mr. Muhtadi, who has remained a close personal friend, lost his very fine home; found himself back in Amman. The radio station was now no longer in Jordanian hands, so the war brought an end to plans for our broadcast going to the region.

Mr. Muhtadi is a Palestinian Arab, with a lovely family, several of whom live and work in the United States. He and his wife Saida were here to visit us in our offices near Tyler in 1997. He is a very prominent individual among leaders in the Mideast, and remains a consultant to the Jordanian Government. His eldest daughter was personal secretary to Crown Prince Hassan Bin Tallal, King Hussein’s brother. In late 1976, when I asked him to help arrange a special series of television interviews with President Sadat, he went to Egypt, and began setting up the meeting. He told me it would be necessary for me to meet a number of other officials there before I would be able to interview Mr. Sadat personally.

It required a second trip for me to finally interview the President and First Lady of Egypt. On the first visit, Mr. Muhtadi had set up interviews with several major officials of the Egyptian government, including their “Speaker of the House,” (who was later assassinated by terrorists in Cyprus), the publisher of “Al Ahram,” the official Cairo daily newspaper, and several cabinet-level members of the government. I wanted them all to know that I was completely “apolitical” in my views; that I intended presenting both sides of all the issues fairly, and these many meetings were necessary to reassure the Egyptian government on that point. I was invited to a private dinner in the home of former Secretary General of the United Nations, Butros-Butros Galli, who then resided in Cairo.

On my second visit, I was able to interview both First Lady Jihan Sadat, in Cairo, and President Anwar Sadat, in the Presidential Palace just outside of Cairo, in separate interviews. Our television crew had shot hundreds of feet of footage all over Egypt; at the Suez Canal, the pyramids, and in Cairo. We put together a one-hour special television program which was shown all over the United States entitled “Egypt Under Sadat,” and another half-hour television program also featured excerpts of the interviews.

Of course, all my questions directed towards the Sadats regarded the Middle East, Egypt, Israel and the other Arab nations; past wars, and the future, with my assurance that I would present their point of view fairly.

Following our formal on-camera interview, I had an opportunity for a free-wheeling discussion with President Sadat, who spoke feelingly of his past, his family, and his younger brother, who had been an officer in the Egyptian Army during the Yom Kippur war, and who had been killed in the fighting. “He was like a son to me,” Mr. Sadat said, explaining the large age difference, and how he had helped raise his younger brother. It was obvious he was moved by the loss of his brother. He spoke of how he had died a hero, fighting for Egypt. Mr. Sadat had a very easily visible callous in the precise center of his forehead from his five-times daily prayers as a Moslem. All the billboard size pictures of him in Cairo and in the press showed the callus clearly. He smoked a pipe during the interview and the discussion which followed. His voice was a very deep bass; a low rumble. Personable, likeable, intelligent—a man of the people—Anwar Sadat had come from a small village along the Nile, and risen to become an officer in the Egyptian Army. He became Vice President of Egypt during the presidency of Gamel Abdel Nasser, and succeeded him upon Nasser’s death in 1970.

He was very proud of having ordered the Russians out of Egypt. He told me of a secret trip he had taken to Moscow, and of how the Egyptian armed forces had become too dependent upon the Soviets for equipment and spare parts. The Soviets were attempting to exert too much influence; had a large number of diplomats and military advisers inside Egypt. Angered over their attitude, Sadat ordered the Soviets to pack up and leave. He was the only modern leader to have done so. Very large numbers of Soviets and their dependents were forced to leave Egypt in only a matter of days.

His wife, Jihan, had spoken to me of her first trip to New York. She had gone there with her daughter, and was tremendously impressed with the power and strength of America. She told me of her personal impressions of the United States; how she had said to her husband upon her return, “Anwar, why are we fighting with these people?” Of course, she referred not to actual fighting, but the political debates that had taken place over the years as the U.S. continued to be a supporter of Israel.

I had not planned to say anything specific to President Sadat other than the questions I asked him for the interview, but somehow the moment seemed right. Israel had turned over the Sinai to Egypt two years previously, not only handing back Egypt’s domestic oil supplies, but enabling them to become an oil exporter. This had been a tremendous conciliatory gesture on the part of Israel. Our on-camera interview had covered the entire geopolitical spectrum of the region, of which I was keenly aware. I said, “Mr. President, why don’t you just go to Israel? Why not just tell them you’re coming, get on your airplane, and go there? You would go down in history as a great leader, who brought peace to the Middle East.”

I reminded him that Egypt was the largest Arab nation in population; in labor force. I said, “The Israelis are like a brain trust. There is a very high per capita proportion of scientists, educators, doctors, engineers and the like. Why not combine the very large Egyptian labor force with the skills and expertise of the Israelis for the mutual benefit and prosperity of all?”

I went on for some time about the tragedy of war, and the great benefits to be had by peaceful cooperation. I had no need to remind him of the poverty and squalor that was everywhere visible in Cairo.

He told me he could not go to Israel; cited, without naming any specific organizations, the dangers of his doing such a thing because of the outrage it might stir up among his own people; how some of his own supporters might feel betrayed; spoke of his political enemies, and how they might use such a move on his part to their advantage.

He indicated that he felt he might be rebuffed by the Israelis. I specifically remember saying, “But if you just went there—told them you were en route for personal talks—what would they do? They wouldn’t dare shoot down the personal airplane of the President of Egypt!” I mused aloud about how the entire Middle East could become a major power on the world scene; how, if real cooperation among all the Arab states and Israel could occur, a kind of a “United States of the Middle East” could be created which would be of great benefit for all.

At length our meeting came to an end. I have carried vivid memories of it in my mind ever since. I cannot help but wonder, in retrospect, if I planted some seeds of thought in his mind which led to his later actions. Within only months of our talk, in November of 1977, President Anwar Sadat, in a surprise visit, went to Jerusalem to meet Prime Minister Begin of Israel.

The Camp David meetings followed. Then came the signing of the “Camp David Accords” at the White House, and a formal peace treaty was signed between Egypt and Israel on March 26, 1979.

During the Sadat’s visit to Washington, my wife and I received a formal, engraved invitation to a reception and banquet in honor of the Sadats. We responded to the invitation, flew to Washington, D.C., and joined with several dozen others who were also attending.

When my wife and I walked up the wide staircase with the many other guests, it was to find the Sadats in formal attire, in a receiving line. Mrs. Jihan Sadat greeted us warmly, turned to her husband as he finished speaking to the gentleman just ahead of us, and said, “Anwar, it is Mr. and Mrs. Garner Ted Armstrong”!

President Sadat said, “Of course!” and shook our hands very warmly. I told him I had mentioned to Dr. Henry Kissinger, whom I had met at a reception in Dallas, how Mr. Sadat had said, during our talk in Cairo, “I trust Henry.” He had spoken of his many meetings with Henry Kissinger during Kissinger’s term as Secretary of State during the Nixon Administration. We had only a few moments to speak, and then moved on into the banquet hall. There, I met and shook hands with Senator Nelson Rockefeller, former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, Senator Hubert Humphrey, and a number of other government officials, and, incidentally, ABC’s Barbara Walters. Each of the government officials told me he watched my television program often. At the time, we had a very good time on a major Washington, D.C. station.

Only two years later, I was deeply shocked and painfully grieved when I saw the brutal assassination of Anwar Sadat on television in 1981. He was dressed in a military General’s uniform, reviewing the Egyptian army, which had cracked down on militant Islamic fundamentalists only a month earlier, in September. It was October; a sunny, brilliant day in Cairo, and a proud one for Anwar Sadat, when suddenly, some of the soldiers passing in parade before him rushed to the reviewing stand, and began spraying the crowd with submachine fire. President Sadat stood up, facing them, held out the palms of his hands, and shout “NO!” as several bullets struck him. His murder resulted in the arrest of some of the conspirators. Vice President Hosni Mubarak succeeded Anwar Sadat.

Unlike other Arab nations, Egypt has cracked down on Islamic fundamentalists and terrorists. During the 1990s, a number of Islamic terrorists have been captured, tried, and executed. President Mubarak himself barely escaped assassination during a visit to Ethiopia in June of 1995. The Egyptian government blames Sudanese fundamentalists for the attack.

God’s Word shows that Egypt will figure prominently in major events in the near future. Daniel’s eleventh chapter gives us great details of a time yet ahead of us when a great northern power will invade Egypt, occupy Palestine, and set its headquarters in Jerusalem. Here is what it says: “And at the time of the end [this prophecy is dated, in a sense. It takes place at the “time of the END”] shall the king of the south [this was always Egypt during the period of the Ptolemy and Seleucid kings] push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

“He shall enter also into the glorious land [Palestine; modern Israel] and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom [probably Turkey], and Moab [probably Iraq], and the chief of the children of Ammon [probably Jordan. The capital of Jordan is Amman].

“He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.

“But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians [Put and Cush. This could indicate Pakistan and India, rather than modern Libya and Ethiopia] shall be at his steps.

“But tidings out of the east and out of the north [Russia, and China lie to the north and east!] shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many [This results in the Battle of Armageddon: Revelation 16:12-16].

“And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain [between the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean; in Jerusalem!]; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him” (Daniel 11:40-45).

The “king of the north” mentioned several times in this lengthiest of all Bible prophecies was one of the Seleucid kings who divided up Alexander’s empire following his death. Eventually, the Roman Empire rose to world dominance, and occupied Palestine and Egypt.

The prophecy of Daniel 11 strongly indicates that the “King of the North,” which may well be this final Beast power from central Europe, will storm into Palestine, probably occupying Syria, Lebanon and Israel, then advancing into Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries, until arriving at the borders of Pakistan and India. This means that such a force would have possession of the bulk of the world’s oil supplies!

For many decades, would-be prognosticators have predicted that the Soviet Union would invade Palestine! This was because of their assumption that the “king of the North” meant Russia, rather than a major ten-nation European power. For over forty-two years, I have said repeatedly that a war between Russia and the United States was not prophesied! During the very darkest days of the cold war; even during the Kennedy-Khrushchev Cuban missile standoff, when the world believed we were on the brink of nuclear war with the Soviets, I was saying over radio and television, and to large live audiences, that we would not go to war with Russia.

Instead, I continually emphasized that a “United States of Europe” would eventually emerge in Europe, following the collapse of present-day governments, and the emergence of military dictatorships in many countries.

In order to truly grasp all aspects of prophecy about Jerusalem, Palestine and the Middle East, one must correctly understand the lengthy “Olivet” prophecy of Jesus Christ that He delivered to His disciples from the Mount of Olives. Always, there were religious reasons for the many, many wars that have savaged Jerusalem and the land of Palestine. It will be no different in the final conflict, outlined by Christ, and prophesied in both Daniel and the Book of Revelation.

The Palestinian Refugees

For decades, tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs have lived in squalor and poverty in refugee camps. Early on, following the 1967 six-day war, there were encampments in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt.

Today, there are many, many thousands of young Arabs in southern Lebanon, and in the Gaza strip, who have been born in such camps, and who are in their teens, twenties, and early thirties. They have been fed a steady diet of hatred by their parents and peers.

When one sees television reports of the latest riots in Gaza or the West Bank, one almost always sees mere youths hurling stones and bottles at Israeli police or soldiers. Each act of terror from either side fuels additional resentment and hatred; spawns reasons in the minds of the young Arabs for revenge.

In recent years, it has become commonplace to see riotous, shouting, weeping, gesticulating young Arabs carrying aloft on their shoulders a coffin, draped with a Palestinian flag, containing the body of yet another of their compatriots who has died as a result of either real or rubber bullets. Each such event fuels yet other events, until the burning hatred in the minds of thousands takes on a life of its own.

It must be noted, and thoroughly understood, that, for all the rhetoric and support from Arab governments for the Palestinians’ cause—statehood—none of the neighboring Arab governments truly allowed the Palestinians to become assimilated into their populations! For years, then decades, Palestinian Arabs have been kept in “refugee camps” along Israel’s borders. There are several painfully obvious reasons for this: (1) It has been in the interests of Yassir Arafat’s PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) to keep these displaced persons in the camps as a continual reminder of their plight; as if they are poised, ready at any moment, to move back into the “occupied territories,” meaning lands Israel seized in 1967. (2) The camps have been a hotbed of seething hatred, and a ready source for terrorist attacks into Israel. (3) None of the “host” Arab countries have allowed the Palestinians to assimilate.

The Palestinian Arabs are progressive, intelligent, energetic. Thousands of them have been allowed to hold jobs in such places as Saudi Arabia (many were deported during the Gulf War because of anti-Israeli sentiments), where they have sent part of their earnings to help support their families in Gaza or in the camps.

One of the most infamous events in the history of Israeli armed forces was on September 16, 1982. Israel had invaded Lebanon in a coordinated land, sea and air attack, because the PLO was openly operating from strongholds inside Lebanon. Its headquarters were in Beirut itself. Syrian armed forces fought against the Israeli armored columns in the southern Bekaa Valley, but Israel eventually encircled Beirut by August 21st. A new government was to be put in place in Lebanon. The Maronite Christian elected Bashir Gemayal, a very popular leader, who was promptly assassinated in a bomb explosion on September 14th. In a rage, Lebanese Christian Phalangists entered two of the refugee camps and slaughtered hundreds of men, women, and children.

The Israeli armed forces had surrounded the camps. Israeli troops without could hear the gunfire, and Israeli officers were accused of having allowed the Lebanese Christians to enter the camps. A wave of outrage and protest occurred in Israel. For the first time, the elite Israeli Army experienced incidents of soldiers and airmen directly resisting orders from their superiors. A number of Israeli fighter bombers simply dumped their bombs into the sea, because they said they could not trust the veracity of their assigned targets. Were they bombing helpless civilians, or terrorists?

Southern Lebanon remains a continual battlefield. In 1993, Israel struck back at guerilla bases in the region with air strikes and artillery barrages, causing over 200,000 people to flee their homes. Again in 1996 Israel struck at terrorist bases, which dislocated some half a million people. The problem is not resolved. Each such attack inevitably causes “collateral” death and injury, and becomes the newest outrage for the displaced Palestinian Arabs. Then, another terrorist attack is planned and executed; Russian-made “katyusha” rockets are launched, which results in yet another Israeli retaliatory air and artillery strike.

Jerusalem In Prophecy

What is ahead for Jerusalem, and the Mideast? Jesus Christ foretold that the time would come when Jerusalem would be destroyed; when a great False Prophet would be ensconced “in the temple of God” claiming to possess the very powers of God; when Jerusalem would be “surrounded with armies.”

Remember, all prophecy is dual, having a previous, or “typical” fulfillment, and a later, or literal fulfillment. There was a great destruction of Jerusalem about 40 years after the ascension of Christ by the armies of Titus. But there was no great false prophet in the temple, nor were there any heavenly signs, and Jesus Christ did not return! Yet, much of Christ’s prophecy in Matthew 24 dealt with THESE great, imagination-defying events.

Study all of Matthew 24, and notice how all the globe-girdling events of wars, rumors of wars, droughts, famines and pestilences lead up to the second-coming of Jesus Christ!

Christ did not return in 71 AD! Titus’ armies did not leave Jerusalem in such utter destruction that “not one stone remained atop another,” even though they wrought great death and destruction. Therefore, the destruction of Jerusalem at that time was a foretaste, or a typical fulfillment of the soon-coming literal fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy.

When the Jewish government of Israel decided to declare that Jerusalem was once again the capital city of their state, they began implementing complete integration of the formerly divided city. The infrastructure of the city began to become integrated; things like water and electrical lines, telephone lines, sewage lines, streets, bus routes; Jerusalem became one great city.

When I interviewed long-time Mayor of Jerusalem Teddy Kolleck a few years ago, I asked him on camera whether Israel would ever consider “trading land for peace” by handing over east Jerusalem to the Arabs. He said, repeating it twice, very emphatically, “NOT ONE INCH! NOT ONE INCH!” Subsequent national governments have reiterated the same thing. The Netanyahu government has stated over and over again that Jerusalem is “not negotiable,” notwithstanding strident claims by Yassir Arafat the Palestinian Authority.

To the three great monotheistic religions, Jerusalem is one of the most important cities in the world. Called the “holy city” by nominal Christians, it is also the holiest of sites to Zionists and orthodox Jews, and one of the holiest of sites to Muslims.

Bible prophecy does not predict peace for Jerusalem or the world. Instead, Jesus Christ showed that Jerusalem would be completely destroyed prior to the second coming of Christ! As horrifying as it sounds, yet another HOLOCAUST is going to overtake the Jewish people in Palestine! Jerusalem is to become the flash point of the last great wars in the history of man; a great third world war, a final phase of which will be the battle of Armageddon!

In His famous “Olivet Prophecy,” Jesus Christ foretold that the coming Great Tribulation would be triggered by events in Jerusalem. “And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and His disciples came to Him for to show Him the buildings of the temple.

“And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

“And as He sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matthew 24:1-3). The Greek word means “age.”

“And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

“For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”

“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places” (Matthew 24:1-7).

There are those who scoff and sneer; who say, “Oh well, there have always been wars; there have always been droughts and famines — all these things are cyclical!”

But Christ showed that all these events would grow in intensity; that the Tribulation would totally eclipse all previous human catastrophes!

Then Christ went on to describe how religious persecution of His true followers would occur. As he told His disciples, the time would come when those who kill God’s people will “think they do God a service”! Speaking of this time of terrible wars, Jesus said, “All these are the beginning of sorrows.

“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.

“And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

“And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

“And because iniquity [lawlessness: the breaking of God’s Ten Commandments] shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

“But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:8-14). The ONLY way in which God is intervening in the course of human events just now is through the proclaiming of the Good News of the coming Kingdom of God to the world!

God is not moving to stop the nightmarish suicide bombings in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem! He is not preventing terrorism and murder, or genocidal wars such as that which tore apart the former Yugoslavia. God is not taking an active hand in the affairs of man at all! He is ONLY intervening by guiding and directing HIS WORK of preaching the gospel as a witness and a warning to the world!

After warning about false prophets and religious persecution, Christ went on to say, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

“Then let them which be in Judaea [Jerusalem and the former Roman province of Judaea] flee into the mountains:…”For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

“And except those days should be shortened [by Divine intervention], there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:14-22). Plainly, this prophecy of Christ says that unless God would step in and CUT SHORT the horrifying war of MASS DESTRUCTION which will occur, ALL HUMANITY would be destroyed!

The Frantic Race To Obtain Weapons Of Mass Destruction By Arabs and “Third World” Nations. 

Once the Soviet Union imploded, millions of Americans heaved a vast sigh of relief, and began believing there are no more enemies in the world—at least, no major ones! But Americans are not lining up outside government stations to obtain upgraded gas masks! Recently, Israelis were!

Never could the prophecies of Christ about the possible annihilation of all mankind be understood until the invention of weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical and biological weapons, and atomic and hydrogen bombs! Today, Russia still possesses twenty-five thousand nuclear warheads. Atomic fuel is being secretly smuggled into such nations as Iran and Iraq—bitter enemies of Israel. Pakistan(which is Muslim), has the bomb, and has threatened to conduct tests.

In a recent edition of the Jerusalem Post, the HEADLINE shouted, “IRAN HAS THE BOMB!” The article showed that Iran had obtained “several nuclear warheads” from a former Soviet Republic, and that they had been “maintained” by Russian scientists. It was asserted that a U.S. government consultant admitted secret documents had been obtained which were “real, and we have had them for years.”

Iran, though not Arabic (they are Persians), is Islamic. Iran is known to have harbored and sponsored various of the terrorist organizations which seek to annihilate Israel.

Many, many nations have nuclear arsenals, and the rockets with which to deliver them. This includes the United States, Britain, France, Russia, the Ukraine, Georgia, India, Pakistan, China and Israel. It is suspected that South Africa, Brazil, and several other countries possess nuclear weapons, and, as was just mentioned, Israel believes Iran now has a small nuclear arsenal.

Major news media were shrilly trumpeting the possibility of imminent WAR breaking out between the U.S. and Iraq in early 1998, when UN inspectors were hindered from inspecting suspected chemical and biological weapons sites. In this instance, albeit perhaps temporarily, a major war in the gulf was averted when Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, made a quick, desperate journey to Baghdad, gaining a few feeble concessions from the Iraqi government, thus averting a major U.S. air strike perhaps only hours before it was scheduled.

True to Jesus Christ’s prophecies, these events demonstrated how “rumors of wars” can become major events; costing billions of dollars, and creating massive movements of ships, planes, and men. Scoffers notwithstanding, this world is poised on the brink of gigantic wars; mass destruction; incalculable loss of human life—just as Christ said it would be!

Notice Daniel’s prophecy of the coming “Great Tribulation” to strike our peoples: “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time [this is describing the GREATEST WAR IN ALL HISTORY!]: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.

“And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt [the time setting of this prophecy is at the time of the resurrection, and the return of Christ to this earth!].

“And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever” (Daniel 12:1-3). This shows the reward of those who are busily engaged in God’s WORK of witness and warning! Notice how closely it is tied to the events of the GREAT TRIBULATION; to the major HEADLINES of the next few years!

When Jesus Christ spoke of the potential of all of humanity being killed, He could only have implied our day, now!

In order to understand the two specific prophecies for which we are to WATCH today, you need to know what Jesus Christ means when He warned about the “Abomination of Desolation,” and the time when we will see “Jerusalem surrounded with armies”!

Whose armies? Why? Approximately when?

Just as in the case of the Crimean War, when Tsar Nicholas used a squabble over the holy places as a pretext to drive the Muslims from the Balkans, so will a modern power move into Palestine to IMPOSE PEACE upon the bitter, warring Arabs and Jews who cannot resolve their differences and live in peace. A great human religious leader will ensconce himself there, claiming to possess the very powers of God! He will be the “anti-Christ” of the Bible; the “false prophet” of prophecy, and he will be backed and protected by the armies of the BEAST!

Here are some of the major events for which we should be watching in the months and years ahead:

(1) The disintegration of society; moral and spiritual decay, will continue in the United States, Britain, the commonwealth countries, and the democracies of Northwestern Europe. The breakup of the family, mounting divorce, “same sex” marriages, the “gay rights” movement, “women’s lib” movements, and the dozens of other narrow causes such as legal moves to oust any mention of God from all education and from the courts, will continue to erode any remaining concept of right from wrong; of the fundamental truths of God by which we should live. You know that you live in a society where children, acting out the sickening violence they are fed daily on television, become mass murderers! God says, “As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths” (Isaiah 3:12). Millions of American homes are “matriarchies”; millions of children, especially among minorities, grow up without a father in the home.

A few decades ago, illegitimacy was a shameful, sinful thing. Today, MILLIONS of illegitimate children are growing up in “homes” with unwed mothers; farmed out to grandmothers, put out on the streets; several children with the same mother, but with different fathers who they will never know. Today, major sports figures, multimillionaires all, openly flaunt the fact that they have fathered any number of illegitimate children by different women! Our Godless, degenerate society will continue on a toboggan-slide of licentiousness, lawlessness, and immorality. Violence and crime RULE in thousands of neighborhoods, just as vile corruption festers in city, county, state and the federal government, as greedy politicians betray the public trust by dipping their hands into the public till. Our societies will continue to implode, and we will finally be destroyed as much by the “enemy from within” as the “enemy from without.”

(2) The inflated bubble that is the global economy will eventually burst. Billions will be lost overnight when the stock markets of the major nations crash. The United States and Britain will be reduced to the kind of poverty and joblessness that was extant during “the Great Depression,” only worse. Our cities will begin to resemble some of those of Bangladesh.

(3) When that happens, massive unemployment, and the strident voices of ultra-nationalists will be heard in the streets of many nations, especially in Europe and Germany.

Already, Germany is witnessing a steep rise in ultra right-wing violence as various neo-Nazi groups commit thuggery, cause riots, demonstrate against the government, and spray graffiti against foreigners. A special, flying riot squad has been organized in Berlin to deal with the rapid rise of skinhead violence. If Germany slips into deep depression, look out!

(4) The trend will be the emergence of military dictatorshipsin countries all over the world; in Europe, and in Germany and Japan, to combat total chaos, and rapidly spreading poverty and crime. Martial law will be declared. Civil rights will be abolished. Freedom of assembly, of the press, will be denied. Huge armies will form.

(5) As a response to alarming militarism in Russia and China, Europe will unite. The remaining difficulties with a single currency and tariffs will be overcome. Ultimately, ten nations will pool their economic and military power into one great superpower (Revelation 17:12-14).

(6) A “king of the south” which MAY yet prove to be a leader in Egypt, will “push at” a coalescing European power. Probably, this means cutting off the flow of Middle Eastern oil to Europe and other countries, which will bring about an immediate military response (Daniel 11:40-45).

(7) The United States and Britain will be attacked both from within and from without. Writhing in the midst of unbridled crime and violence; race war; total chaos, our peoples will not be prepared to withstand the combined blows of economic collapse, and the threat, or the actual use, of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons against us. The prophesied “Great Tribulation” (Matthew 24:21,22) will have begun.

(8) A great false prophet, calling himself “The Prince of Peace,” and taking divine titles, will say he is moving the headquarters of the “true church” back to its birthplace—Jerusalem! At some point in time, perhaps even before point number (6) above, a temple may be built in Jerusalem. IF orthodox Jews destroy the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aksa mosque in order to replace them with a Jewish temple, all the Arab nations would unite, and a major war would break out. This time, the Arab nations may well use biological and chemical weapons against the Jews. The ostensible reason for European intervention in the Mideast would be to “save” the surviving Jews from being exterminated. This move, by the false prophet AND by combined European armies, would fulfill Christ’s prophecies about the “Abomination of Desolation” and “Jerusalem surrounded with armies.”

(9) Shortly after this massive war and subsequent invasion of the Mideast by the Beast power, there will be threatened retaliation by Russia, and the many nations allied with her, perhaps including China (Daniel 11:40-45). The moving of millions of men into the region around Megiddo would result in the “battle of Armageddon” (Revelation 16:12-16), which will be halted by the heavenly signs (Revelation, 6th chapter).

(10) God will send the seven trumpet plagues upon the Beast, who will attempt to fight Christ at His coming. Jesus Christ will arrive on this earth accompanied by the seventh of the seven last plagues (Revelation, 19th chapter).

What is ahead of the Jewish state of Israel is a time of terrible tribulation! Events which will be triggered in Jerusalem will drag the major powers into WAR with one another! As you read in Daniel’s prophecy, many countrieswill be overthrown. Don’t count out Japan as a participant in the coming time of tribulation for the United States of America!

As you have seen, the roots of conflict in the Mideast are buried very deep in the soil of the past. They extend all the way back to Isaac and Ishmael; to Moses and the Amorites; to David and the Philistines; to the days of Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. The conflict extends back to the days of the early Mohammedans who swept into Palestine and Egypt; to the British Mandate following World War I; to the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948, and to the 1967 six-day war between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The roots of conflict are so deep that no mere humanly devised “peace process” will succeed.

That is why there will be NO PEACE in Jerusalem until the final intervention by the Only One who can truly impose PEACE on this war-torn, hating, virulent world—Jesus Christ of Nazareth Himself!

Those who attempt to delude themselves by hiding their eyes from the HEADLINES of our time, and playing the game of “pretending” that all these things are not REAL; that they are not IMMINENT, are due for a very rude shock!

ARMAGEDDON is shaping up! It is COMING, and it will affect the WHOLE WORLD! Jesus Christ warned us all, “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21:36). If YOU are one whom God is calling to take part in His WORK during these last days of proclaiming the witness of Christ; the Good News of His soon-coming intervention in human affairs; if YOU are one who wants to have a part in the “work of the watchman” (Ezekiel 33), then call, or write immediately to find the name and number of the hosted fellowship group or chartered church nearest your home.

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This publication is intended to be used as a personal study tool. Please know it is not wise to take any man’s word for anything, so prove all things for yourself from the pages of your own Bible.

The activities of the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association are paid for by tithes, offerings and donations freely given by Christians and co-workers who are dedicated to preaching the gospel according to Jesus Christ.

The post MIDEAST STRIFE—Will It Lead To ARMAGEDDON? first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Blood-splattered people screamed, sobbed, sank to the ground. More than one hundred fifty were injured, some horribly, as the bits of metal pierced eyes, faces, bodies.

Moments later, a car bomb shook the area, and the already traumatized victims shrieked in renewed horror. At about the same time, a suicide bomber boarded a bus in Haifa, Israel’s third largest city, and blew up himself and the bus, killing another fifteen people, and injuring forty. Again, the horrifying effects of a bomb strapped to a human body, containing metal projectiles, produced unimaginable, bloody mayhem. In the Gaza strip, gunmen killed another Israeli.

More than twenty six were dead; more than one hundred fifty injured. The death toll is sure to climb, as dozens were taken to hospitals. Once again, demoniacal, hate-filled, murdering terrorists had struck!

Hearing of the latest in a long series of bombings and shootings in Israel, President George W. Bush said it was “murder.”

When former Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu was interviewed by Brit Hume on the Fox News network, he said that, proportionate to the population, these latest attacks represented over 1,000 American deaths! He said that, proportionate to population, there had been the equivalent of 20,000 dead in Israel since the terrorist attacks began.

Can you imagine it? Israel has been under the tightest possible security for many, many years. Off duty soldiers, including young women who are in the army, regularly carry their automatic weapons with them. I well remember being seated beside some young Israelis in restaurants, and seeing them with their Uzis and other kinds of automatic weapons.

El Al, the Israeli national airlines, is deemed the safest in the world. For many years, they have had armed “sky marshals” aboard every flight. Of course, El Al has far, far fewer flights each day or each week than the huge airlines in the US. Passengers boarding El Al are segregated according to sex. The women are taken to a screened off cubicle, where they are body searched by a female security guard. This includes checking to make sure the brassiere is genuine.

During the past Intifada or Palestinian uprising, which began when now Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount with security guards, claiming it was sovereign Israeli territory; that he had every right to be there, Israel has mounted dozens of armed checkpoints; has sent Israeli tanks and armored vehicles into Palestinian towns harboring terrorists; has clamped down on Palestinian travel.

In the Jerusalem promenade where the bombs exploded Saturday night, December 1, 2001, only a week or so prior to the bombs, a Fox news correspondent stood in the midst of a vacant Pizza parlor. It was open for business. But no-one was there. It was the scene of another horrendous act of barbarous terrorism only a few months earlier, when another suicide bombing attack killed and maimed Israeli teenagers who were “hanging out” there. Likewise for other restaurants in the area.

The attacks were deliberately coordinated to coincide with a visit to Israel by an American official who is attempting to get the “peace process” (a sham of a name) back “on track,” and with Ariel Sharon’s visit to the United States.

When he was told of the attack, President Bush called it “an act of murder.”

But was it an act of “murder?” Or was it an act of WAR!

When millions of us saw, in our stunned horror, the fiery collapse of the twin trade towers in New York City, and the smoking hole in the side of the Pentagon, almost no-one called it “murder.” Immediately, the President and government officials, as well as the media, began characterizing it as “an act of WAR!” Based upon this characterization of the strike against us, the President used his powers, under the “wartime powers act” to conduct war against the state which had openly protected bin Laden and his “Al Quaeda” terrorist organization. As I write, the attacks against Kandahar are intensifying, and the end of the bombing campaign, if not the end of the war in Afghanistan, seems near.

An attempt at a provisional, interim government is being made as representatives of the disparate tribal groups, including several women, sit down to talk in Bonn, Germany.

The militant wing of Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority, Hamas immediately proclaimed responsibility for this latest onslaught of suicide bombings. They “justified” it as “retaliation” for the assassination of top Hamas leaders by Israel.
For a long time, Israel has unabashedly followed the policy of deliberately seeking out and killing the leaders of terrorist organizations. Wrong? Unjustified? If they had not done this, they would not have seen bits and pieces of their precious sons and daughters flying through the air in Jerusalem?

But wait! The US government says it wants bin Laden “dead or alive!” There is a 25 million dollar bounty on his head! Practically everyone interviewed, from the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, to the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has said they “want him dead.” Apparently, we do not care (and that includes me) just how this is accomplished; whether one of his own lieutenants gun him down, or whether the “Northern Alliance” hunts him down, or whether US special forces find which cave complex he is hiding in, and US bombs blow him to bits.

It is incredible how the US media nearly always follows an interview with Benjamin Netanyahu with Hanan Ashawri, the bitter, vindictive, apologist for Yasser Arafat and the Palestinians. When asked about the latest terrorist attacks, she said there were “dead Palestinians too, but they do not show them close up” as if in accusation against media coverage.

Netanyahu made a salient point when he reminded his interviewer that President Bush had said, “If you harbor terrorists, you are a terrorist.” Applying this to Arafat’s Palestinian Authority, Netanyahu said the United States was doing exactly the right thing in seeking to destroy the evil Taliban regime, which sponsored and harbored bin Laden and his gang of killers.

He said Israel needs to do the same thing. He said, “Israel should say to Arafat, ‘Surrender the terrorists, or surrender power.’” It was only during this interview that I learned Yasser Arafat, on the very day the terrorists attacked America, was saying in a speech in Arabic on Palestinian television, “Suicide bombers are the most honorable people among us.”

Shockingly, one almost always sees the liberal media taking the sides of the Palestinians! I was amazed to hear President Bush and Secretary Powell call for the “creation of a Palestinian State” only days after the trade towers attacks, as if attempting to placate Arab regimes we hoped would join the coalition against Afghanistan!

I was further amazed when one of the leftist interviewers said to Netanyahu, “Yes, but America has not occupied territory.” Netanyahu had only moments to respond that Israel had been repeatedly attacked, during five wars, by combined Arab armies, and that the territories she presently occupies are territories to which she makes ancient, Biblically-based claims.

Consider: Israel was attacked by six Arab armies the moment she announced unilateral independence in 1948. Did she have a right to do this? If you think not, perhaps you should remember the roots of the United States of America.
She was attacked again in 1956; again in 1967; again in 1973. As a result of the 6-day war in 1967, Israel ended up in possession of the West Bank, the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem, and all of the Sinai.

Years later, after Israel had developed the oil resources of the Sinai, she handed it back to Egypt as part of a peace accord. She has handed over large slices of the West Bank and Gaza to the Palestinian Authority. Continually, Israeli leaders have, albeit reluctantly, and with reservations about national security, been willing to “trade land for peace.”

But the attacks continued, nevertheless.

In 1948, the Arabs in Palestine were offered statehood. They turned it down.

Recently, Yasser Arafat was offered a portion of Jerusalem, along with lands upon which stood Jewish settlements. He turned it down. He wants a State of Palestine, built on what was once the State of Israel!

You decide. Was this latest vicious, monstrous, bloody attack mere “murder?”

Or was it an act of war?

Ariel Sharon said it was an “act of war.” Using the US President’s own words, he ordered Israeli helicopter gunships and fighter bombers to strike Yasser Arafat’s headquarters, destroy three of his helicopters, and the following morning, send rockets within 20 yards of where the Palestinian Authority Chairman was sitting.

Arafat promptly said he could not arrest any more Hamas militants because of the Israeli strikes. Unfortunately, the Israeli strikes cause casualties among Palestinian school children, which will further fuel the hatred among them, and deepen the resolve of such young people to volunteer to become suicide bombers.

There simply IS NO HUMAN SOLUTION to the mayhem, murder, violence and hatred in the Middle East! The ONLY solution for this world’s troubles is the intervention of Almighty God by sending Jesus Christ to INVADE this earth, and conquer it! Christ will truly fight the “war to end all wars” at last!

God says, “But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.

“And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

“And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

“But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it” (Micah 4:1-4).

For the sequence of events from our time leading up to the FINAL WAR on earth, read my booklet “Coming Soon — An Invasion From Space!”

You may copy and distribute this information only to friends and family without changes, without charge and with full credit given to the author and publisher. You may not publish it for general audiences.

This publication is intended to be used as a personal study tool. Please know it is not wise to take any man’s word for anything, so prove all things for yourself from the pages of your own Bible.

The activities of the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association are paid for by tithes, offerings and donations freely given by Christians and co-workers who are dedicated to preaching the gospel according to Jesus Christ.

The post “Murder” – Or An Act of War? first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The “trench coat Mafia” pair in Littleton, Colorado, were alleged gun nuts, war fanciers, and racists. Continually, the media hyped the “racist” overtones of the killings in the high school. However, only one black student out of fifteen was killed. As we watched the massacre in Colorado move the NATO bombings of Yugoslavia off the front page, we saw the media, inevitably, milking the tragedy for all it was worth; interviewing classmates, teachers, neighbors, friends, family, ambulance driver, police, school officials and the sheriff’s department.

Later, it was the governor and the State Attorney General. The President and Vice- President were heard decrying the murders, expressing sympathy for the victims and their families. It became a massive, protracted media event, sparking yet another huge debate on gun control, school security and the like. The President made statements about “more police” patrolling our schools. Outcries against gun ownership became strident.

Yet, the two boys who carried out these mass murders began their assault in the school parking lot, far from any metal detectors, had they been installed! One sometimes wonders whether politicians say what they think the public wants to hear; try to “sound” like they are somehow aware, involved — that they are going to “do something” about such crimes.

Again and again, the news media looked blankly at the screen after hearing the latest repeat of “he was just a normal kid,” and said, “no one seems to know what it was that set these boys off.”

Yet, in the same television news broadcasts it was revealed they constantly watched violent slaughter in gangland, war-type movies; watched the slow-motion “splatter” scenes of huge holes opening up in the chest of victims as large-caliber bullets impacted their bodies; watched knifings, bombings, shootings, over and over and over again. Their favorite video games, played constantly, were of the same format; guns and rays zapping weird creatures approaching with weapons in their hands!

The two boys watched, over and over, the horrible murder movie “Born to Kill.” They fed on murder; ingested violence, filled their minds with killing and death. They worked long and hard in a garage to make many, many home-made bombs, no doubt all the while chortling over just how much flesh such devices could shred; planning, preparing, plotting the moment when they would descend upon their helpless victims, guns blazing, bombs blasting, enjoying the shocked, stunned looks, the screams of their victims. The very fact of the home-made bomb factory proves long-term intent.

When a diary was found in the bedroom of one of the killers (whom the liberal media invariably terms “suspects.” (Suspects? They are not “suspects,” they are killers!), it was proved the boys had planned this mass murder for at least one full year! They had carefully planned to destroy the school on Hitler’s birthday! Their plans showed they hoped to kill FIVE HUNDRED or more of their classmates; then to go through the neighborhood, killing more innocent victims; then skyjack an airplane, and crash it into a major city! The incredible, mind-boggling EVIL they planned is simply unimaginable, and virtually unexplainable in any human terms.

Still, the hand-wringing media and millions in the general public look everywhere except at the plain, stark facts to find out WHY. Many said it was the guns! But the latest pair to attack their own schoolmates used home-made BOMBS as well as guns! Furthermore, the guns they used were ILLEGAL to possess. It is a crime to possess a “sawed-off shotgun,” which is a man-killing weapon, not a sporting weapon. To them, it was important to create the most violent, blood-splattered “killing ground” possible! One panic-stricken young boy who encountered one of the killers said “he looked like he felt nothing at all; like he was just numb!” This zombie-like state, as if in a trance, can only be explained by investigating the possibility of demon influence or possession! No such behavior is “normal” in any context.

Did Demons Influence or Possess Them?

On the one hand, society seems to revel in ghost stories; ghastly, grisly movies about possession — movies like “The Exorcist,” and many others, wherein it is freely admitted (and acted out in gruesome horror) that demons, which are rebellious, fallen angels who serve Satan the devil, can and do possess human beings!

Millions LOVE to fill their minds with the “horror” movies! They seem to believe it is wholesome and healthy to be “scared out of their wits” by dark, demonic, ghoulish murder, dismemberment, and death. Zombies, werewolves, poltergeists, trolls, dragons, monsters; all are portrayed to the delight of fascinated audiences.

What those same millions do not know is what they are playing around with; what it is to which they may be opening their minds!

The demon which possessed Hitler did not die in the “Fuhrer Bunker” in 1945! Was it Satan himself? Satan entered Judas on the night of Christ’s last supper, and carried out the assassination of the Son of God! The point is, these evil spirits ARE in existence, and they DO wish to influence and POSSESS the minds of those humans who are either careless enough, or fascinated enough, to allow it!

No demon can possess a sound mind, especially when that mind has been begotten with God’s Holy Spirit, and has the protection of God. James said, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Christ REBUKED Satan, who then had to flee from Him (Matthew 4:10, 11).

Satan is the “Lord of the dead” in the sense that he masquerades as “Samhain,” the evil spirit worshiped by the Druids. He delights in human suffering and death, for he knows that some day those same humans, begotten and eventually BORN of God (1 Corinthians 15:50-52), will JUDGE him and his rebellious demons. Paul wrote, “Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? (1 Corinthians 6:3).

A clue as to the final fate of these wicked, fallen spirits is found in the book of Jude, where they are described as “…trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever” (Jude 12, 13).

Satan HATES God and hates God’s law! He HATES mankind, made in the image of God for the purpose of becoming a member of God’s own family! It is his vicious intent to DESTROY the human race, if he can!

It is so obvious that the minds of the people who write, design, produce and sell the indescribable, bloody violence which is called “entertainment” today are heavily influenced, if not directly possessed, by Satan or his demons. This is NOT GOD’S WORLD! SATAN is the “god of this world!” Notice it, “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:

“In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:3, 4). Paul described how Satan influences, deceives, controls this evil world: “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

“Among whom also we all had our conversation [Greek: “conduct”] in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Ephesians 2:2, 3).

Since the two boys who viciously, heartlessly, unemotionally shot to death so many of their own classmates without any compunction; without mercy; said to have faces that seemed empty, devoid of emotion, and since they are now DEAD, it is impossible to determine whether or not actual demon possession had occurred. One thing is obvious, however. The fact that they FED on continual death and murder eventually made them into zombie-like dispensers of murder and death! If Satan did not directly CAUSE what they did, he certainly rejoiced when they did it!

We Are What We Eat

You and I are composed of matter. We have developed from the time of conception as a result of ingesting, from the beginning in our mother’s womb, and, after birth on our own, the foodstuffs that come from the ground.

Not a one of us would deliberately ingest poison. Yet, we all do. We ingest insidious amounts of poisons on a daily basis. Our foods are grown by spraying chemical fertilizers on the soil, then dousing the plants with herbicides, fungicides, insecticides and growth-enhancing chemicals. In the harvesting and food packaging and distribution process, it is not uncommon for other chemicals to be added. Our prepared foods, such as breakfast cereals, canned goods, TV dinners, frozen meals and the like have an ingredients label that reads like a lengthy paragraph in a chemistry textbook.

Millions of us, as a result of ingesting our pre-packaged, preserved, pre-boiled, pre-cooked, compressed, hydrogenated, artificial color and flavoring added “foods,” suffer from a myriad of diseases; crippling arthritis, emphysema, lung cancer, diabetes, lupus, gout, skin diseases, multiple sclerosis, cirrhosis of the liver, heart disease — a nightmarish list of debilities and sicknesses which defy description, and among them a virtual national condition of obesity, which brings on all kinds of diseases from simply breaking God’s laws against “eating the fat.”

The point is obvious. No one used a potato masher to force into our mouths all the foods we have ingested. We did so willingly, consciously, voluntarily. Simple cause and effect. The case is made, and the obvious need not be restated over and over again.

In like fashion, our moods, attitudes, emotional responses, and subjective thoughts are the precise result of what we have taken into our minds. “..as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7).

What is called “entertainment” is generally so evil that I wonder if there is a single TV program on any network or independent cable company Jesus Christ would watch if He were here in the flesh. Violence and sex, sex and violence — a never-ending theme of human sins and crimes which cater to the darkest impulses of evil human nature — these are the kinds of motion pictures which are produced by the purveyors of swill in Hollywood. They cater to the darker lusts and appetites of carnal human nature. They know, from decades of experience, that sex and violence SELL. They know the law cannot touch them; that they are free to explore the darkest, most demoniacal kinds of vicious human depravity, and get away with it! They know it is what the young people of today WANT.

Human nature is a mixture of vanity, jealousy, lust and greed. It is wholly SELF-centered; seeking only to satisfy and gratify the SELF. God said, “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!” (Deuteronomy 5:29). God’s laws include instructions about marriage, the home, and child-rearing. Because society has rejected God’s laws, it is in a toboggan-slide of divorce, “live-in” arrangements, desertions, child abuse, illegitimacy, abandonment, mayhem, and murder. In many cases “homicide” is truly “home-icide,” for very large percentages of America’s murders and assorted forms of violence, such as wife-beating, take place in the home, or between family members. The brutal killer in Springfield, Oregon murdered his own family which begat him, nurtured him, clothed him, fed him, and loved him. They also allowed him to feed on the same kind of satanic swill that is the common entertainment diet of much of America’s youth!

Unbridled human nature can very quickly become brutal, calloused, unfeeling, if it is not curtailed by the right kind of discipline!

God defines human nature as “DESPERATELY” wicked and evil: “The heart [the innermost human mind] is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

“I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings” (Jeremiah 17:9, 10). Also, the natural human mind deeply resents God and His laws! Paul wrote, “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

“Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:6, 7).

Some of the most blatant rejections of God’s laws are found in modern “child psychology.” With the advent of permissive child psychology and the nationwide movement against physical punishment in any form, especially in “spanking” (which the child psychologists inevitably called “hitting”) a child, the schools swung to a liberal extreme of no discipline, no punishment. Encyclopedic volumes could be written documenting America’s determined destruction of public education; the introduction of homosexuality into the classrooms of young pupils barely out of diapers in order to justify “same sex” “marriages” (a blasphemous and ridiculous term by itself) wherein a child was living in a home with two men, or two women.

Add to this evil brew the concoction of drugs, alcohol, broken homes, peer pressure, television, movies, video games, “rap” and “heavy metal” and you have a witches’ cocktail of Satanic garbage which is guaranteed to twist, distort, pollute and wreck any impressionable young mind. Throw in ignorant, unknowing or uncaring parents, plenty of family arguments and fights, or a broken home, and you have a full-course banquet of poison which is positively guaranteed to turn any child into a calloused, brutal monster who has no conscience, no feelings of compassion toward others.

The “Spock marks” are plainly visible in American society. Millions of young mothers were fed a steady diet of permissive child rearing; told it was virtually criminal to ever spank a child; told it was merely a passing phenomenon, called the “terrible twos” if their child hit, bit, kicked, scratched, grabbed, pushed, or threw screaming tantrums. To this day, millions read such ridiculous tripe in the various “parenting” kinds of magazines and books.

But children who are not lovingly disciplined when they do such things may end up killing their own parents some day! It is not only ignorant, misled parents who produce violent children. Today, any God-fearing parent must spend a great deal of time PROTECTING the minds of his children from Satan’s witches’ brew of filth which pours forth from the “one-eyed monster” called television, sitting in millions of living rooms. As one set of parents of the killers in Columbine High School plaintively said, “we are struggling to understand WHY this happened…” Just as surely as we are what we eat, physically, so we are what we take into our minds, mentally, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually!

How could a 10-year old neighborhood boy know about the bomb factory in the garage, when the parents allegedly didn’t know?

From The Families Of The Killers – An Apology And A Plea

The Associated Press carried written statements from the families of the two “trenchcoat Mafia” boys who murdered fifteen of their classmates, and carried a large number of explosive devices into the school. Said the family of Eric Harris, “We want to express our heartfelt sympathy to the families of all the victims and to all the community for this senseless tragedy. Please say prayers (for) everyone touched by these terrible events. The Harris family is devastated by the deaths of the Columbine High students and is mourning the death of their youngest son, Eric.” The family of Dylan Klebold said, “We cannot begin to convey our overwhelming sense of sorrow for everyone affected by this tragedy. Our thoughts, prayers and heartfelt apologies go out to the victims, their families, friends, and the entire community. Like the rest of the country, we are struggling to understand why this happened, and ask that you please respect our privacy during this painful grieving period.”

One can have no doubt the parents of the killers are deeply grieved. However, their carefully-worded statements leave much to be desired. Written by an attorney, perhaps? Worried about liability, perhaps?

If determined smokers can receive judgements from the tobacco companies in the millions of dollars because they contract lung cancer; if the families of murder victims can sue the gun makers and the gun dealers because of the misuse of a gun, can the families of high-school murder victims sue the factory that produced the killer — the home and parents which fostered them? The answer is yes! Many have done just that! For example, when three teenagers were shot down in a West Paducah, Kentucky school, the relatives of the slain children sued the killer’s parents, the killer himself, at least six of his friends, and the owner of the guns used in the murders. There were originally 45 defendants in the case, but the judge dismissed all but 10 of them, retaining the killer, Michael Carneal, his parents, and Carneal’s friends.

In a separate lawsuit also filed in West Paducah, the plaintiffs took on the entertainment industry, alleging it profited from the sale of the violent images which inspired the boy to murder his classmates. In this suit, the people who produced and released “The Basketball Diaries,” a violent motion picture in which the leading character kills his teacher and his classmates while he is shown in a “dream,” has also been named. Also sued are several Internet pornographic sites and various computer game companies. It is too bad there are not MILLIONS of such lawsuits pending; so many that ALL THE PORNOGRAPHERS; ALL THE VIOLENT FILM MAKERS; ALL THE VIOLENT VIDEO GAME PRODUCERS would be doing nothing except defending themselves in massive lawsuits! The trouble is, the only people who win, usually, are the attorneys, who charge large fees for conducting the legal actions!

What a tragedy it is, however, that even now, with all the media publicity about the two boy’s habits of continually talking about guns; of threats to “shoot someone”; of their fascination with violent movies and television; their continual playing of violent video games, the parents are “struggling to understand WHY this happened.” It is OBVIOUS to any thinking person — especially, any person who has God’s Holy Spirit; who has repented, and been baptized, and has become a submissive, obedient child of God, and who believes the Word of God.

It happened because the two filled their minds with murder! It happened because each real or imagined slight; each real or imagined insult heaped upon them by others fed their desire to “get even”; to get revenge. Their jealousy of the football players (including blacks) was often stated. The root cause of all this can be traced back to the very earliest age; the formative years from one to five! By the time any child is two years old, and a parent has not managed to control the child; has not managed to teach the child to be respectful, loving, and obedient, it may well be too late!

In an article entitled “Parent Time – Parenting A to Z – What Makes A Child Violent?” published on the Internet, David Rubin of Parenting magazine wrote of a Seattle couple who were frustrated by their two boys’ aggressiveness. The boys, ages 10 and 12, were frequently fighting. The school called the parents to report a shoving match on the playground. The older boy once slammed the younger lad’s head in a door, and then held it there, like a vise.

According to the mother, being the parent of two “active, physical quick-tempered sons was like being a firefighter.” She said, “You await the next alarm, and then race to subdue yet another flare-up.”

The article quoted the parents’ plaintive explanation: “We work hard to be good parents…we’re very conscious of trying to be consistent in our discipline. We spend a lot of time trying to help the boys find ways to work things out on their own, without fighting. There’s no violence in our house: We’ve never spanked…”

Incredible. Unbelievable. The “terrible twos” had caught up with these two parents at last; parents who described themselves as “exhausted” because of the constant aggressiveness of their two boys. The mother said, “…this boy energy is a very primal thing…don’t get me wrong, they’re both terrific kids. But sometimes I just watched them go at it, and I wondered, where is all this coming from?”

Notice the language. Spending time, allegedly, “trying” to be consistent in discipline is very different from using discipline. These parents, like millions of others (many of whom are showing the “Spock marks” of the horrific, and false, “child psychology” of the fifties and sixties) had already decided they would never spank their boys.

Bowing before the false god of “child psychology,” which is based upon evolution, they, and millions like them have given in to Satan’s obscene hatred of God; have decided that any form of discipline and punishment is “brutal,” (the Devil believes this — for he knows what is awaiting him!) and to be avoided. But God says, “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

“If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

“But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

“Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

“For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

“Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:6-11).

As God said through Solomon, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it,” and “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod [meaning “switch,” like the shoot of a willow, not a metal or wooden “rod” in our modern sense] of correction shall drive it far from him” (Proverbs 22:6, 15).

It is because America, through its government, through its courts, through its school, and through its families, has REJECTED THE LAWS OF GOD that we are suffering such terrible consequences of sin and crime. God says, “As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths” (Isaiah 3:12).

Today, if a parent were found spanking a child exactly as God commands, it is likely the child would be taken away, placed in a foster home, and the parent arrested! And because this is so; because divorce is outstripping marriage in many urban areas; because “live-in” couples are cohabiting without benefit of marriage; because millions of Americans are “single parents;” because the courts have not outlawed gratuitous VIOLENCE in entertainment; because, under the shield of “free speech” the pornographers and purveyors of bloody violence are allowed to make millions of dollars from impressionable youths — it is because of all of this that God says, “Make a chain [representing the linking of one evil act to another; the continuation of crime and violence] for the land is FULL OF BLOODY CRIMES, and the city if FULL OF VIOLENCE.

“Therefore [in the light of this: because of this!] I will bring the WORST of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease..DESTRUCTION cometh, and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none” (Ezekiel 7:23, 24).

Unless America can REPENT before God, individually and collectively; unless our GOVERNMENT, our COURTS, our SCHOOLS, our CHURCHES, and our FAMILIES REPENT, then we shall surely go the way of ancient Rome! Our civilization is DOOMED unless we turn to God and His laws! It is not enough to point out that there are many “good” people, as government apologists are quick to do; not enough to point to the many young people who acted bravely; who stayed with a bleeding teacher at the risk of their own lives. The point is that there is massive violence and crime on a huge, national scale, and unless it is stopped, it will surely destroy America from within.

You may copy and distribute this information only to friends and family without changes, without charge and with full credit given to the author and publisher. You may not publish it for general audiences.

This publication is intended to be used as a personal study tool. Please know it is not wise to take any man’s word for anything, so prove all things for yourself from the pages of your own Bible.


The activities of the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association are paid for by tithes, offerings and donations 
freely given by Christians and co-workers who are dedicated to preaching the gospel according to Jesus Christ.

The post Why Kids Kill! first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The news reports were almost frantic. In fantastic leaps of imagination, some commentators raised the specter of Saddam Hussein being able to “clone an entire army!” Suddenly, “science” had allegedly made all the impossible predictions of the twenty-first century come true! From small town pastors to the pope in Rome, religious leaders condemned the concept of “cloning” humans.

Science fiction is here, now, some said! By now, you have heard time and time again about the “cloning of an adult sheep” by Scottish scientists. Most people, when hearing the excited announcements over television, or reading about it in their daily newspapers, seemed to believe the scientists had somehow duplicated an adult sheep! Time, in its March 10, 1997 issue, produced a “digital photomontage” of “Dolly,” which was one photograph superimposed upon the same photograph—not two sheep. However, the cover photo left the impression one was viewing two absolutely identical sheep.

It was as if science had “created” a second sheep out of the first sheep. Somehow, as if by magic, poof! There was the “clone,” named Dolly, standing beside its identical twin, the mature ewe used in the cloning experiment. Is this what happened? Did scientists somehow “create” a mature, adult sheep?

According to the New York Times News Service, February 23, 1997, written by Gina Kolata, the following event took place: “In a feat that may be the one bit of genetic engineering that has been anticipated and dreaded more than any other, researchers in Britain are reporting that they have cloned an adult mammal for the first time” (emphasis mine). This expression, “they have cloned an adult mammal,” was heard time and time again over the news media.

The impression it leaves in the minds of millions of people is that the scientists somehow replicated an adult sheep! How? Did they put the first sheep into some kind of a machine, turn it on, and suddenly produce two sheep, the second one the identical copy of the first?

Absolutely not! Many news reports, particularly those on television, were misleading. A few days later, television newscasters were announcing that American scientists had successfully “cloned a monkey,” although, they added “it was not an adult.” The clear implication was that the sheep “cloned” in Scotland was an adult, but that the scientists who “cloned” the monkey were not quite so successful as those who cloned the sheep, since the monkey cloners had used cells from an embryo, not from a mature animal. This impression is false. In the very next paragraph, the Times News Service said, “The group, headed by Dr. Ian Wilmut, a 52-year-old embryologist at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, has created a lamb using DNA from an adult sheep.” The problem is, the general public did not understand that the word “cloned” did not refer to a lamb that developed in the womb of a ewe over a normal gestation period, and was then born just as all lambs are born, but assumed it meant the scientists had produced a mature sheep.

The article continued, “Their achievement shocked leading researchers who had said it could not be done. The researchers had assumed that the DNA of adult cells would not act like the DNA formed when a sperm’s genes first mingle with those of an egg.”

First, what is DNA? It comes from deoxyribonucleic acid. The ribbon-like structure occurs usually only in the nucleus of a cell. Appearing like a microscopic twisted rope ladder, it is made up of phosphate, and a type of sugar called deoxyribose. DNA is the most important material found in chromosomes, which are the bodies controlling heredity in plants or animals. Scientists have learned that when a cell divides, the chromosomes in its nucleus are duplicated exactly in the new cells. In this way, the “daughter” cell is furnished with a complete set of “instructions” for its own development, and for the development of all future generations of its descendant cells.

Thus, DNA is like a genetic code book. This is not surprising, for, just as bacteria divide and amoeba divide, producing “offspring” that are identical copies of the “parent,” so the great Creator God, who is the Designer of all forms of life, set in motion a method of procreation in which “copies” of the adults are produced. That is why zebras are born with stripes, why whites reproduce whites, and blacks reproduce blacks. It is why like reproduces like, kind after kind.

Look again at the quotation above. Is there anything a bit confusion or misleading in it? The reporter said that Dr. Wilmut had “created a lamb,” using DNA from an adult sheep. Did the learned doctor truly create a lamb? Well—no! The article says he did, but he did nothing of the sort.

Here is what he did, as the same article goes on to explain: “He took a mammary cell from an adult sheep and prepared its DNA so it would be accepted by an egg from another sheep [the article does not reveal how the doctor “prepared” the DNA]. He then removed the egg’s own DNA, replacing it with the DNA from the adult sheep by fusing the egg with the adult cell. The fused cells, carrying the adult DNA, began to grow and divide, just like a perfectly normal fertilized egg, to form an embryo” (ibid.). Apparently, if the reports are correct, the doctor managed to cause an egg from a ewe to become fertilized by the genetic code contained in another “adult sheep.” Then the doctor didn’t really create anything, did he? But the article says he did. No, he inserted an egg which had been fertilized, not by the sperm cells from a ram, which would have carried the genetic code of the ram, but by the DNA from the cells of another “adult sheep,” which, allegedly, was a female!

The article continued, “Wilmut implanted the embryo [the fertilized egg began to grow and produce new cells, so had become an embryo] into another ewe; in July, the ewe gave birth to a lamb, named Dolly. Though Dolly seems perfectly normal [sic], DNA tests show that she is the clone of the adult ewe who supplied her DNA.”

Then they did not “clone an adult sheep” after all! No, they managed to find a shortcut from the normal method of fertilizing the egg of a female sheep, then implanted it into the womb, where the embryo gradually developed into a lamb!

Of what did the female sheep consist? Why, of the elements of this earth! She had developed from eating grains, grasses, and drinking water! And how did the little embryo in her womb develop? Why, from the foods the mother sheep ingested; from the elements of this earth found in grains, grasses, and water! As illustrated above, many of the early news reports of “cloning” were confusing, even untrue. The sheep which was born from a female sheep in Scotland has its own liver, heart, lungs, kidneys, and vital organs. It is a completely separate individual, and it developed from the “dust of the earth,” from the elements of the ground! It is not a “carbon copy,” nor it is a photostatically reproduced replica, or a magic duplication!

By now, as the result of the most publicized trial of the century, much of the world has heard a bit about DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid. Though for some obscure technical reasons DNA was not a conclusive piece of evidence in said trial, scientists know that DNA is somewhat like fingerprints. There are no two that are exactly the same.

The genetic code contained in the DNA found in the nucleus of cells is not confined to the sperm of the male, or the egg of the female. Instead, it is found throughout the body, and can be identified from only a tiny drop of blood. When you and I were conceived, we were smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.

Now, a little reminder from our high school biology classes: Where did the spermatozoon of our fathers come from? It was produced in his body, in the testes. However, prior to puberty, it did not exist. It had to be produced after puberty. The genetic code that produced it contained “instructions” to replicate your father. It contained the “code” that determined whether he had large ears or small, brown eyes or blue, blond hair or black, swarthy or fair complexion. And where did the egg our mother produced come from? From the ovaries in her body, produced after her monthly cycle began. And what was the origin of these reproductive cells? Why, the bloodstreams of our mothers and fathers. Pick up any high school–level encyclopedia, and refresh your memory about life; about heredity, conception, development of the fetus, and human birth. If you do, you will be taken on a journey of amazing, fantastic proportions—an exploratory trip into the miraculous structure of the human body, and the mind-boggling capability of all life to reproduce after its own kind.

You will learn about genes and chromosomes; how the thread-like chromosomes in the nucleus of a cell carry dominant and passive genes; how the dominant genes determine whether you will be like your father or mother. DNA is the basic chemical in genes.

You and I began life as a microscopic male sperm cell which attached itself to a female egg, which became an embryo. In that tiny microscopic beginning, smaller than the period at the end of this sentence, was the genetic code that predetermined all you would become. General height, weight, texture and color of skin, texture and color of hair, color of eyes, and even talents and abilities that had been passed on from paternal and maternal grandparents were present.

The cells which came together in the process of conception had been produced from the elements of this earth. They had been ingested into the body through the mouth, metabolized and utilized by the body. Every cell of your parents’ bodies had been “fed” by the bloodstream of your parents, which carried the nutrients they ingested from food and drink! Whether or not you would have a certain kind of ear lobes; whether your eyes would be close set or wide set; whether you would have long toes and fingers; whether you would have brown eyes or blue eyes was determined by the genetic codes contained in microscopic DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, found in the nucleus of the cells forming your parents’ egg and sperm. Simply put, the sperm cell which fertilized your mother’s egg was like a miniature copy of the entire body of your father! It was not a copy only of his ear, or his left little finger. It had been formed in his body by the ingestion of material elements. The same thing was true of your mother. The egg which was ready to be fertilized carried her entire genetic code, not just a part of it.

What scientists have been able to do, allegedly, is to cause the fertilization of an egg of a sheep by a short cut. Instead of using sperm from the male, they used the DNA from a cell taken from the udder of another mature sheep, allegedly a female. The two genetic codes merged, and the egg’s reproductive mechanism was begun. It was “fertilized.” It was then implanted into the womb of the female sheep which had produced the egg in the first place, and a tiny embryo began to grow.

Did the scientist “create” anything? Not at all! No, he interfered with the normal reproductive cycle found in sheep by causing an egg to accept the genetic code contained in the DNA of another sheep!

Wild, Impossible Assertions

The news media broadcast a flurry of reports, and scientists from universities and laboratories around the world began making shocking, impossible statements! Whole armies could possibly be “cloned”! Maybe the dead could be cloned. Perhaps someone could “steal” a cell from your body, and you could be “cloned”! Now, another you would be walking around! How wonderful it would be, they said, if a pair of loving parents who were about to lose a child through leukemia could have their child cloned, then the clone could become a bone marrow donor for the sick child! Now, science was suddenly viewed as if they had the unlimited powers of God Himself. Theologians weighed in, anxiously wondering aloud whether or not “cloned” humans would have a “soul.”

Public polls were taken and duly reported. The vast majority of people believe humans should not be “cloned.” Fantastic visions of zombie-like armies of “cloned” beings, marching across the landscape, pillaging and burning, were conjured up. Virtual hysteria reigned.

A biology professor at Princeton University quickly revised a book he had been working on, because he had asserted in the first chapter that cloning was impossible. He said, “It basically means that there are no limits. It means all of science fiction is true. They said it could never be done and now here it is, done before the year 2000.”

All of science fiction is true? Soon, will “clones” be zipping about in the universe in huge space ships, zapping one another with “death rays,” blowing up planets, moving faster than the speed of light? Will Star Wars (“Star Peace” would never have sold!) soon be reality?

Some were imagining new crimes, wherein people would be “cloned” without their knowledge or permission! Said a professor in Chicago, “After all, all that would be needed would be some cells. If there is a market for a sperm bank selling semen from Nobel laureates, how much better would it be to bear a child that would actually be a clone of a great thinker, or, perhaps, a great beauty or great athlete?”

Other fantastic leaps of imagination occurred. Now, said a “medical ethicist” at the University of Missouri, this procedure would be “not…policeable.” Future possibilities, he said, would be incredible. Could researchers devise ways to add just the DNA of an adult cell, without fusing two living cells? If so, might it be possible to clone the dead? Think of that! Ghoulish grave-robbers, digging away at night in graveyards all over the country! Digging at the graves of past presidents, scholars, actors! Maybe even digging up the remains of Jesse James and Marilyn Monroe! Just think! George Washington’s grave robbed! Martin Luther King exhumed, to be cloned! Perhaps the founding fathers could be “cloned” so they could be engaged in debate with great civil rights leaders; could be asked what they really had in mind when they framed the constitution!

The speculations were wildly fantastic. Has science now found a method to produce virtual eternal life? Can they “create” identical humans from other humans who would then share the same “soul”?

World leaders, Nobel laureates, and the news media all chimed in with expressions of shock and alarm. President Clinton ordered an urgent inquiry into the ethics of cloning; later, in a special news conference, assured the public that no federal funds would be used to finance scientific research into cloning humans. The Farm Minister of France, Philippe Vasseur, spoke of producing “six-legged chickens” while others warned darkly of “foreign groups” or “extralegal” groups inevitably utilizing the new procedure, with unimaginable results. The group who allegedly performed the “cloning” reported not only to a government-appointed Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA), but to the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, a committee of scientists, doctors, and various other “experts.”

The Nuffield group indicated that they believed using animal organs for human transplants would be ethically acceptable, as long as care was taken to make sure animal viruses did not infect humans and that “the animals were not mistreated.” Mistreated? Why would anyone believe an animal was being “mistreated” simply because you removed its kidneys, stomach, or liver? Presumably, he meant they must not be “mistreated” in the “humane” manner in which you kill them prior to removing their organs.

The obvious overtone in all this is the debunking of belief in God, and breathtaking kudos for science and evolution. Such news reports tend to enforce atheism and agnosticism, and seem to deal a blow to those who believe in the Bible and creation. If you have not yet read it, write for a special booklet dealing with creation entitled “Life On Mars? Or Did God Create the Universe—And If So, Why?” Also, write for a new booklet entitled “Did God Use Evolution To Create Life?”

In these booklets, you will see proofs of God presented.

Would a “Cloned” Human Being Have a “Soul”?

Quickly on the heels of the sensational announcements about the cloning of a sheep, heads of state, leaders of major religious organizations, biologists, medical scientists, and psychologists all began debating the meaning of this “achievement.”

Ostensibly, the “cloning” of animals could lead, they said, to wonderful developments in the study for cures to human disease and congenital deformities. In a flurry of articles it was revealed that scientists had long since experimented in “cloning” frogs, mice, rats, rabbits, sheep, pigs, monkeys, and cows. All this was done using cells from embryos, they stressed, not from mature animals.

However, the implication was clear. Geneticists claim they are now on the threshold, of “cloning” human beings. The New York Times News Service reported, “Dr. Stanley Hauerwas, a divinity professor at Duke University, said that those who wanted to clone ‘are going to sell it with wonderful benefits’ for medicine and animal husbandry. But he said he saw ‘a kind of drive behind this for us to be our own creators’ [emphasis mine].

“Dr. Kevin FitzGerald, a Jesuit priest and a geneticist at Loyola University in Maywood, Ill., cautioned that people might not understand clones. While a clone would be an identical, but much younger, twin of the adult, people are more than just the sum of their genes. A clone of a human being, he said, would have a different environment than the person whose DNA it carried and so would have to be a different person. It would even have to have a different soul, he added” (emphasis mine).

Think through each of these statements. What were your parents when they conceived you? They were your human “creators.” God Almighty created the first two human beings—the first Genesis kind of all life forms. Each Genesis kind is capable of almost limitless variety within that kind, as evidenced by the human race. From tall, blond Nordics to tiny pygmies in Africa’s Ituri Forest, this capacity for incredible variety is clear. From tiny Chihuahuas to huge Irish Wolfhounds, the same is clear. All are interfertile. They are a part of the human kind, or the dog (or canine) kind, but they are very different.

You are unique. You are constructed of the elements of this earth, according to the genetic code, or pattern, you received from your parents. Through human reproduction, God has given to mankind limited “creative” abilities. But humans can never “recreate” themselves!

The cloning announcement caused the major networks to quickly assemble panels of “experts” to deal with the issue. In the interests of fairness, one program featured a Jewish rabbi, a Catholic priest, and a Protestant clergyman. They did not have a Buddhist, a Shintoist, or an Islamic imam present. They debated the moral and spiritual issues of “cloning,” speaking of the “soul.” But do you have a “soul”? From the pope to the leaders of major religious organizations, theologians have been expressing alarm at the alleged “cloning” of a sheep because of their belief in the “immortality of the soul.”

The belief in the soul is one of the pivotal doctrines of all nominal Christianity. Since most believe the soul is a conscious, spirit entity which is eternally alive, arguments rage over when the “soul” comes into the body, and where it comes from. Most of the major doctrines of mainstream nominal Christianity are viewed from the matrix of the “immortality of the soul.” Going to heaven when one dies or burning forever and ever in hellfire depends entirely on such a belief.

In order to intelligently discuss the moral, philosophical, and spiritual aspects of “cloning,” one needs to understand the real truth about what man is. Are we a “soul,” temporarily inhabiting a body of flesh? Will we live forever by virtue of being born? Let’s see what your Bible says about the “immortality of the soul.”

Do You Have an Immortal Soul? Can Scientists “Clone” a Soul?

Do you have a soul? Are you a soul? Is there something about you that is immortal—that will never die? If so, how and when did that “soul” get into your body? Was it imparted to you at the moment of conception? Did it come into your body at some time during your fetal development? Were you given an “immortal soul” at the moment you took your first breath, shortly after birth?

If you have a soul, can you touch it, taste it, feel it, hear it, or smell it? Can you take it out and look at it? Can you see the souls of others? Are you, with all your innermost, private thoughts, inclinations, perceptions, concepts, and dreams, going to survive this human flesh, and live forever?

According to nominal Christian religions the real person is dwelling within the temporal body. The body is seen as a temporary suit of clothes. The real person dwells within that temporary suit of clothes; and at the time of death, the now useless suit of clothes (the body) is discarded, buried in the ground or cremated, while the real person wafts away either to heaven or to everburning hellfire! (In the Catholic tradition, there are allegedly various intermediary stages called purgatory.)

In thousands of funeral services each week, bereaved family members hear ministers proclaim their deceased relative is “in heaven.” He or she has “gone to be with the Lord,” they say. A preacher will usually not wonder aloud whether the deceased person is in “the other place”—hell. But, in the vast majority of cases, whether heaven or hell, it is assumed the real person is still very much alive.

How can you know one way or the other?

What is your ultimate authority for determining the truth on any subject which has to do with life and death, judgment, and the hereafter?

Few nominal Christians have ever truly studied the Bible to prove whether or not we human being possess an “immortal soul.” For the purposes of this discussion, we will appeal, not to tradition, superstition, or fables, but to the Word of God as it appears in its original languages as the only and final authority on the subject of the immortality of the soul.

Obviously, the question concerning whether you have an immortal soul is really the question, what are you?

To atheists and evolutionists, man is merely a “hairless ape.” Some of the hysterical articles recently published about “cloning” referred to some Oregon scientists who had used the cells of embryos to “clone” two Rhesus monkeys. Over and over again, the media repeated the evolutionary concept that monkeys are “the closest to humans.” Thus, to the average layman, it was as if the next step, cloning humans, is inevitable. Hence, all the hysteria about “souls.” But such hysteria is based upon a myth—the myth of the immortality of the soul.

For the purposes of investigating what your Bible says about the soul, let us suspend, for the moment, the moral and spiritual questions about cloning humans, which will be covered later.

Anyone who has truly proved God exists; that God is not only Creator, but Lifegiver, Designer, Sustainer, and Ruler over all His creation, knows that the human family began with one man, and that a wife, miraculously created from his own body and as unique and original a creation as Adam himself, formed the first family. Though God’s miraculous creation of Eve was far from the genetic engineering feat of “cloning,” it is interesting to note in passing that God’s own Word says He used Adam’s rib—physical bone and tissue—to create Eve!

This is not a greater miracle than creating Adam, however, for Adam was created from the red clay of this earth, not from preexisting human cells. It should not be difficult to believe that the One who had the power to create all the billions of galaxies, with hundreds of billions of stars and planets, also had the power to create Adam and the Genesis kinds of creatures listed in the Bible.

When God created our first parent He told him exactly what he was. He said, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, til thou return unto the ground; for out of it was thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis 3:19).

God was talking to Adam. He was talking to the conscious man! He did not tell Adam that only his body was composed of the elements of the earth, and that Adam was really a “soul” locked within a temporal, physical body. He said Adam was red clay or red mud—for that is the real meaning of the Hebrew word translated “dust.”

“And the Eternal God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). This is what man IS. It is what Adam became, not something inside of him which he possessed.

Remember, the Bible was not written in the English language. The Bible was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic.

There was no such word in existence at the time the Bible was written as the English word soul. It is an English word, with an almost exclusively ecclesiastical connotation!

The word soul should be virtually expunged from the English language, and replaced with many of the possible synonyms which connote the real meaning of the Hebrew word nephesh, which is translated “soul” dozens of times in the Bible. However, the same word is used in many, many different ways. Let’s see how many.

Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance says: “(5315) nephesh; a breathing creature, i.e. animal or (abstr.) vitality: used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental); appetite, beast, body, breath, creature, dead, desire, contented, fish, ghost, greedy, he, heart…lust, man, me, mind, mortally, one, own, person, pleasure, (her, him, my, thy) self, them (your) selves, slay, soul, tablet, they, thing, will, would have it.”

What a list! You see, the Hebrew word nephesh has to do with “being”! As such, it has a wide usage, concerning the physical life of flesh and blood creatures! Notice that it can be translated as “dead,” “beast,” or “creature,” as well as “lust,” “mortally,” or “person.”

The Hebrew word nephesh is used several times for lower life forms before it is ever used for man in the Bible.

Notice Genesis 1, where nephesh is rendered “moving creature” in verse 21, “living creature” in verse 24, “living creature” and “beast” in verse 25. In this graphic description of the creation of all the animals and sea-dwelling creatures, the word nephesh is used again and again. It certainly has nothing to do whatsoever with anything spiritual, or immortal, dwelling inside of crabs, clams, tuna, or whales.

Even superstitious translators who were adherents to the Anglican doctrines in the 1600s did not dare render the word nephesh as “soul” in these passages. Such would have been ridiculous. Instead, they used many of the words we find in Strong’s Concordance, including “body.” Surprisingly, the identical Hebrew word nephesh, which is rendered “soul” so many times, is translated as “body,” even connected to the word dead! Turn to and read Numbers 19:11: “He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.” In this scripture, the laws of purification under the Levites are discussed. A person would be considered “unclean” if he touched the decaying corpse or body of an animal or man!

We read verse 22, “And whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean; and the soul [nephesh, obviously meaning person] that toucheth it shall be unclean until even.”

The very same word rendered “soul” in verse 22 (which should be translated “individual” or “person”) is rendered “dead body” in verse 11! Fix that into your mind once and for all! The same word which is translated “soul” in literally dozens of places in the Old Testament is here translated “dead body.”

Now, turn to and read Ezekiel 18:4,20: “Behold, all souls [nephesh] are mine; as the soul [nephesh] of the father, so also the soul [nephesh] of the son is mine: the soul [nephesh] that sinneth it [that “soul,” or nephesh] shall die” Here, it would be far clearer if the English were rendered, “Behold all persons are mine; as the person of the father, so the person of the son; the individual that sins HE shall die.”

The thrust of the scripture is individual, personal responsibility before God! What God is saying through Ezekiel is that no one can render excuses for sin; that we cannot “pass the buck” by pointing to others as the cause of our sins!

This scripture is not given as a lesson in whether or not souls are immortal or mortal; yet, because the scripture very plainly says that “the soul that sinneth, it shall die,” it represents a further, powerfully conclusive proof that the Hebrew word for soul (nephesh) means physical, mortal, temporal life, and has nothing whatsoever to do with immortality!

The word nephesh is found in two hundred and forty-three passages, and is translated in eleven different ways. Notice that the expression “the dead” is translated directly from the Hebrew word nephesh in the following passages: Leviticus 19:28; 21:1; 22:4; Numbers 5:2; 6:11.

The same word, which is translated “soul” in most cases is rendered “dead body” in Numbers 9:6,7,10.

It is translated “body” in Leviticus 21:11; Numbers 6:6; 19:11,13; and Haggai 2:13. It is only because the translators who lived in 1611 had false doctrine thoroughly ingrained into their minds that they close the English word soul time and time again, when it should have been rendered “person,” or “being,” or “he,” or “creature,” or “life.”

“Soul” in the New Testament

The Greek word psuche is the only word translated “soul” in the New Testament. You will find the word one hundred and five times in the New Testament, of which it is translated “soul” only fifty-eight times, but can also be rendered “life.” It is so rendered forty times. It is translated as “mind” three times; “heart,” “heartily,” “us,” and “you” one time each.

The Greek word psuche is the exact Greek rendering of the Hebrew word nephesh and is used in the same way throughout the New Testament.

For example, psuche is used of the lower animals, just as you have seen nephesh used of lower life forms in the first chapter of the book of Genesis! In Revelation 8:9, the Greek word psuche (remember this is the only word in the English language used for the word soul), is rendered “life.” Notice also Revelation 16:3, where lower life forms are being described, yet the word soul is used. Read that last scripture carefully! It describes one of the horrible plagues yet to fall upon the land and the sea, and says “every living soul died”! Here is one more New Testament proof that the word soul in the English language means a being, or a living thing, which can die! In this case, it is used of various forms of life (of which there are thousands) in the sea!

The Greek word psuche is also used for an individual. On many occasions, in making out a flight plan when I was piloting a jet airplane, we would have to include the information of how many persons were aboard the flight. All airlines dispatchers do the same things. Oftentimes, many pilots calling in their flight plans would say they had so many “souls” on board, using the word interchangeably for individuals, or persons. When a newspaper headline speaks of so many “souls” being lost in the sinking of a ship, it is using the word in much the same way as it occurs fourteen different times in the Bible! For proof, read Acts 2:41-43; 3:23; 7:14; 27:37; Romans 2:9; 13:1; 1 Corinthians 15:45; James 5:20; 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:14; Revelation 6:9; 18:13; 20:4.

In those passages, the Greek word psuche is used for the life of a man, which can be destroyed, or lost.

A classic example of where the translators have tampered with the English, in translating from the Greek, is found in Matthew 16:25,26.

Notice the way it is rendered in the King James Version: “For whosoever will save his life [psuche] shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life [psuche] for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul [psuche]? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul [psuche]?”

Obviously, since the identical Greek word is used in both passages, and since it is rendered differently in verse 26 (soul) from the way it is used in verse 25 (life), it was a translator’s decision as to changing the way he rendered this Greek word (psuche) in the two verses.

To be honest, and to be fair with the word, it should have been rendered the same in both passages! Here, it is obvious the word would better be rendered “life,” just as it was rendered in verse 25! For, after all, it is your life you can lose—and what can you give in exchange for your life?

The point is, the Greek word psuche is capable of nearly as many applications as is the Hebrew word nephesh, and can even be used of man’s moods, passions, and feelings! For example, psuche is translated as follows: “mind,” “us,” “you,” “heart,” and “heartily.”

By no stretch of the imagination can this Greek word ever connote anything which is immortal, or spiritual.

What Occurs at Death?

It is clear from both the Hebrew and Greek, the original languages of the Bible, that man dies in exactly the same fashion as does a beast: “For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast; for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again” (Ecclesiastes 3:19,20). For a thorough study into what the Bible says about the state of the dead, write or call for our free booklet, Afraid to Die?

Notice how the inspired Bible writers described the condition of death: Job wrote, “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: He fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not” (Job 14:1,2).

In the same chapter, Job said, “So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, [obvious reference to the resurrection and the new heavens and new earth], they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be passed, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man die shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come [an obvious reference to the change at resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15:50-52]. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands” (Job 14:12-15).

God inspired David to write a great deal about the subject of life and death. David said, “Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish…Like sheep they are laid in the grave [sheol]; death shall feed upon them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave [sheol] from their dwelling. But God will redeem my soul [Hebrew, nephesh—meaning life] from the power of the grave [notice the grave has power over the kind of “life” connoted by the Hebrew word nephesh]: For He shall receive me. Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish” (Psalm 49:12-20).

Because Almighty God reveals we human beings—the creation of His hands—are His children, and that we will be resurrected from the dead (Luke 20:36), He inspired David to write, “Precious in the sight of the Eternal is the death of His saints” (Psalm 116:15).

There are many examples in the Bible about what happens at death. Continually, the Bible refers to the state of the dead as a deep, profound sleep, from which the dead will awaken at the time of the resurrection. Notice: “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ [converted Christians who have died] are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Corinthians 15:16-23). Study this entire chapter, the “resurrection chapter” of the Bible. Then, think about the pagan concept of the immortality of the soul in the light of the inspired pages of your Bible. This passage is describing converted Christians; “saints” who died, but who died in Christ. And where are they? They are not “in heaven” at all, but in their graves, completely oblivious to the passage of time. They are in a deep “sleep,” according to your Bible. When will they once again become conscious, thinking, living beings? Your Bible says only “afterward…at His coming”!

They are not alive today. They have a human spirit which came from God, but they do not have an “immortal soul” which is conscious.

There is no case in the Bible where the words immortal soul appear! There is a “spirit in man” mentioned in the Bible. Each of us has a human spirit which is what makes man’s mind superior to animal brain. This is an important, and very profound subject. Please write or call for your copy of our booklet, Why You Were Born, which explains the “spirit in man” thoroughly. In brief, the spirit in man is that spiritual essence which lifts the mind of man to a level far above the mere brain of animals. This is mentioned by Job (32:8) and the apostle Paul who talked of how God’s Holy Spirit “witnesseth with our spirit” that we are the children of God (Romans 8:16).

The Bible clearly reveals that Almighty God is begetting children. A simple, yet profound truth which is almost entirely unknown is that God is reproducing after His own kind!

God reveals that His Holy Spirit does not unite with mere flesh; but that there is a spirit in man, very likely in the frontal lobes of the brain (which is why the forehead is mentioned so often: see Ezekiel 3:9) where our will power, our volition, our conscience, our decision-making capacity, and our personality exist.

God does not place His Holy Spirit in our knees or our elbows. He places His Spirit in our minds—Spirit with spirit, begetting a new spiritual “creature in Christ” within us (2 Corinthians 5:17).

The Human Brain and the “Spirit in Man”

When the Bible speaks metaphorically of the “heart” it is speaking of that portion of our human mind wherein our will power and our character resides. The human brain is divided into many different parts. Some portions of the brain control such things as our coordination, equilibrium, and physical and athletic ability. Other portions deal with our sensory perceptions such as the central nervous system, the eye, the power of speech, our sense of feel, taste and smell, and so on. The frontal lobes, directly behind the forehead, control our personality, our volition, and our conscience. The frontal lobes are where our emotions reside. They control our ability to love or hate; our perceptions about everything we can see or know; everything which occurs about us.

Nothing is more complex than the human brain. It is more powerful than thousands of the most powerful computers ever produced.

In a lengthy article in the New York Times (March 2, 1997), George Johnson conclusively proved that brain tissue can never be “cloned.” He said, “The precise layout of the cells, which neuron is connected to which, makes all the difference. Linked one with another, through the junctions called synapses, neurons form the whorls of circuitry [in the brain] whose twists and turns make us who we are.”

Pick up any encyclopedia, and read the lengthy article about the human brain. It is another awesome proof of the existence of God, and a disproof of evolution. Here is what Scientific American says about our brains: “The human brain is composed of some 10 billion nerve cells, more or less alike, which interact in various ways. Each cell contributes to behavior, and presumably to mental activity, by firing impulses or failing to fire. All the phenomena of memory must be explained in terms of the temporal and spatial pattern of these discharges.”

The brain emits electrical energy. Have you ever had a completely random thought; some past remembrance which suddenly leapt into your mind, yet had no idea what triggered it? Something did. Some set of circumstances; some sequence of things you saw or heard, or thought about, somehow “triggered” electrical impulses which searched through your memory bank, and caused the thought to spring into your consciousness.

Your brain is capable of storing an infinitude of information. It is your “command and control” center. It contains your emotions, your feelings, your attitudes, and your character. It determines whether you are loving and compassionate or cold and cruel. It contains your conscience; it determines who you are. It is because God has imparted to each of us our human spirit that we are capable of determining the difference between right and wrong.

But this spirit in man is not immortal! God’s Word says clearly that only God has immortality (1 Timothy 6:16). Man is described as being temporal, fleshly, carnal, physical—of the dust. The Hebrew word for “dust” merely means the soil of this earth, containing all the elements that make up matter.

There are about 103 known elements of the earth. All matter is made up of those elements. Only a few of them are: actinium, aluminum, antimony, barium, calcium, carbon, cobalt, copper, flourine, helium, hydrogen, iron, lithium, magnesium, oxygen, radium, silicon, sulphur, titanium, and zinc. The full list, with their properties, can be studied in any encyclopedia.

You and I came from the earth. We are only a metabolic, living organism, composed of matter. As we developed in our mothers’ wombs, our mothers subsisted, as all other humans and life forms, by ingesting the foods and drinking the water that comes from this earth. Through the umbilical, our mothers passed on to us the nutrients which fed the myriad cells that were forming into all the parts of our bodies—skeletal framework, brain tissue, eyes, ears, nose, circulatory system, nervous system, digestive system—all our vital organs. It was by this same process Dolly, the cloned sheep, was formed.

We are composed of the elements of this earth, fed to us through our mothers’ miraculous bloodstream during our fetal development, and ingested through our mouths ever since. In like fashion, the “cloned” sheep and monkeys gradually formed in the wombs of their mothers. Dolly did not suddenly appear from a machine. It did not suddenly “materialize” alongside its mother. Instead, a living egg from the mother sheep was made to accept the DNA from another living cell, taken not from the sperm cells of a male, but from the udder of another sheep.

Once the egg became fertilized by this bizarre and unnatural method, it began to grow. It was then inserted into the womb of the mother sheep, which was a blackface ewe. The ewe ate grains and grass, and drank water. Her system metabolized the elements of this earth, contained in the foods she ate and liquids she drank. The tiny embryo attached to her womb began to grow. After the normal gestation period of sheep, the little lamb was born.

From what source did its bone structure, its eyes, ears, stomach, circulatory system, and vital organs come? From this earth. From the grains, grass, and water ingested by the mother sheep. When it was born, it was a new, never before, never to be again, utterly unique creature. Another sheep. It had never been here before. It has its own organs. It is covered by its own wool. It does not “share” even a single molecule of living tissue with the “donor” sheep.

No, instead, the little embryo which became a lamb ingested the elements of this earth and sorted them out into the pattern which was supplied, not by a ram, but by the genetic code contained in the DNA of another female sheep.

Time will tell whether Dolly will live a normal, healthy life, or whether she will be susceptible to disease or genetic disorders.

A “Clone” is Composed of Matter

Many of the first news reports on the “cloning” of a sheep were not only nearly hysterical, many were filled with very misleading statements and illustrations. For example, Time magazine decided to place a duplicate photograph of the same sheep, “Dolly,” on its cover. A close inspection shows a sheep superimposed in front of “another” sheep. However, it is in reality the same sheep! A tiny white spot in the corner of the nose, tiny hairs about the face, individual fibers of wool—all are identical. Instead of presenting a picture of the donor sheep and the offspring of the blackfaced ewe, they chose to duplicate the same photograph. Inside the front cover is a small statement about the “photomontage.” One wonders, however, how many readers turn to the tiny, italicized words at the bottom of the table of contents to read about the cover. On page 62 of that issue, the article “The Age of Cloning” is illustrated by a two-page artist’s conception of zombie-like men coming out of a gigantic gumball machine!

The glass bowl of the machine features rigid, expressionless “men,” standing tightly packed, shoulder to shoulder. A metallic-looking spiral form rises from their midst to the top of the bowl, obviously intended to represent DNA. Below is a slot for a coin, a knob and a chute, like one finds in bubble-gum machines in a store. Legs of a man are visible in the chute. To the left, a column of the same, zombie-like men—all identical, all expressionless, is pictured marching off the page.

The powerful impression is that science is capable of producing some kind of a machine which creates “clones” out of thin air! Like the word “created” used in the article discussed previously, such pictures leave a very false impression. The lamb which was born to a blackfaced ewe did not come from a machine. It was not produced from a photograph. It was not “created” at all, but came from the earth—from the elements which were ingested by its mother.

Science may find a way to short-circuit the fertilization of an egg, but it has “created” absolutely nothing. Instead of creating anything, the geneticists used living animal cells to fertilize living animal cells. What has been created is not a sheep, but a myth. In the same issue of Time, Jeffrey Kluger, in his article “Will We Follow the Sheep?” asked, “What does the sudden ability to make genetic stencils [emphasis added] of ourselves say about the concept of individuality?” But mankind has always possessed the ability to “make copies of himself,” through the God-designed method of human reproduction. A little later, he wrote, “Is there something about the individual that is lost when the mystical act of conceiving a person becomes standardized into a mere act of photocopying one?”

Photocopying? But a photocopy is produced on paper, not in the womb of a human or a sheep. Many of the first news reports flashed around the world contained similar language.

You and I were not “created.” We were gradually formed by cell division in our mothers’ womb. Dolly the sheep was not “created,” but was gradually formed by cell division in her mother’s womb.

The Breath of Life

When God had finished shaping the first man from the mud and clay of this earth, He imparted life to Adam. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Remember, the Hebrew word is nephesh, as you have seen. It can just as easily be rendered “living being,” “living creature,” or “living person.” Man became a living “soul.” The verse says nothing about man “possessing” a “soul” inside of a body.

How did God impart the breath of life to Adam? The Bible says God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Like mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, God inflated Adam’s lungs. It was at this instant that Adam’s heart began beating, his lungs working, and his bloodstream flowing, carrying oxygen to his brain.

This stupendous miracle is not the mind-boggling impossibility it may seem to those who doubt the existence of God. Once one studies the incredible complexity of the universe; once one looks into atomic structure, and comes to realize that all the awesome forces and energies in our entire universe were created by God, one can understand that the Creator who brought all matter into existence from energy can do anything.

Adam’s heart did not begin pumping blood prior to his lungs being inflated. It was not the creation of the body with all its marvelous systems that made Adam a “living soul,” but the inflating of his lungs with the breath of life.

The human spirit, or the “spirit in man,” has no consciousness apart from the brain. It is logical that the spirit comes into the brain at the moment of the first breath, not earlier, in the womb, or days or months later, after birth. The Bible uses the word wind and spirit interchangeably. Study John 3, and see what Jesus told Nicodemus about how it is that those who are ultimately “born of the Spirit” will become spirit, and will be invisible, just as is the wind (John 3:8).

The human spirit comes from God. Paul wrote, “The Spirit itself [the Holy Spirit of God] beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God” (Romans 8:16). A few verses later, he said, “And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth [God, through the power of the Holy Spirit] what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:27).

This is precisely why the Bible uses the term “fallen asleep” for the dead in Christ. Their bodies are completely dead. The flesh corrupts and decays. All the vital organs—the heart, the lungs, the brain itself—utterly decay over a period of time. Man “returns to the earth” from which he came. But the spirit does not decay. It is spirit, and not flesh. Though utterly oblivious, completely unconscious in the deepest kind of “sleep,” it is not dead.

Paul wrote, “For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:16-22).

There are some who scoff about “soul sleeping,” angrily denouncing the fact of the resurrection, clinging to the false, pagan concept of the immortality of the soul. But the term soul sleeping is misleading. As you have seen proved, man does not possess a “soul.” Man IS a soul, meaning an air-breathing, food-eating, water-ingesting, physical, metabolic organism. God has placed within that physical being a spirit, called the “spirit in man,” which only has consciousness in connection with the brain. It is not a separate spirit being at all, but the spiritual essence connected to the brain of a human which gives to man his humanity. It is that combination which lifts man far above the animals, and endows him with limited creative ability and the capacity for either love or hate.

When the body dies, the spirit is said to be asleep. This term is not the invention of a theologian, but the term used in the Bible itself to describe the state of the dead. Notice in the passages you just read that it is not only just the dead which are said to be asleep, but the dead in Christ! So much for the false idea that souls go immediately to heaven or to hell when the body dies. If they are in Christ, yet are dead and are said to be asleep, they are certainly not in heaven! If you have not yet read it, please call or write immediately for your copy of our booklet, Believe It Or Not, The Bible Does Not Promise Heaven.

Obviously, geneticists have learned much about the miraculous structure of life, about the cell and its components. If God has designed these physical patterns to procreate life, has He also created a spiritual counterpart, so that, in the resurrection, He will utilize an existing spirit, which has been in a deep sleep, to produce a new spiritual creation?

The apostle Paul says, “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:50-53).

Later in this famous “resurrection chapter,” Paul deals with questions concerning how God resurrects the dead, and “with what body do they come?” He wrote, “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [Christ] was made a quickening [life-giving] Spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiriual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy [flesh and blood; composed of the elements of this earth], such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly [Spirit], such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Corinthians 15:42-49). These are plain words. Very simple to understand, and yet rejected by the vast majority of nominal Christianity. God is reproducing after His kind!

God will not resurrect the old, decayed physical body—the heart, liver, lungs, and brain that have long since turned to dust. Instead, He will construct a new spirit body, using, not a “genetic code” that was contained in the cells that are now long decayed and gone, but the “spiritual code” contained in the spirit. For a complete understanding of how God begets children, and a view into the awesome potential of every human being, call or write for your copy of our booklet, Why You Were Born.

“This They Begin To Do”

My father was born in 1892. He died in 1986 at the age of 93 and a half. He was born before the Wright brothers flew at Kittyhawk; before thousands of inventions we take for granted, such as television and jet travel. He lived from the days of horse-drawn vehicles until the time that he circled the globe many times aboard a sophisticated corporate jet airplane. He lived through the age of flight into the jet age, into the atomic age, and into the space age. He lived to see the first Model-T become available to the American public through mass production, and then, only about forty-five years later, to watch Neil Armstrong take the first step on the moon.

All this in just one lifetime! If he were here, he would tell you how brief his life seemed to him, how quickly it passed. Today, we live in the frightening age of nuclear fission and fusion, of atomic and hydrogen bombs, of nuclear-powered ships and triple-supersonic aircraft, of spy satellites 22,000 miles out in space. We live in the day when knowledge is virtually exploding, developing at a breath-taking pace.

When the prophet Daniel wanted to know when the amazing things he saw and heard would come to pass, he was told, “Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand” (Daniel 12:9). He was told about the impending time of the Great Tribulation (Daniel 12:1; Matthew 24:21,22), and the coming resurrection of the dead at the time of the Second Coming of Christ. God said, “But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased” (Daniel 12:4).

Today, scientific knowledge is increasing at a fantastic pace. Instantaneous communication via powerful computers means massive amounts of information can be available to millions of people in only seconds. Information which would have required whole blocks of large warehouses to store can now be stored in computers the size of a small suitcase. But knowledge, of and by itself is not necessarily good.

The prophet Hosea received a message from God about how man lacks the right kind of knowledge and misuses the knowledge he has: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame. They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity. And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings” (Hosea 4:6-8).

The Chinese invented gunpowder. Nobel invented dynamite. Oppenheimer and a team of scientists invented the atom bomb. Man had, by 1945, learned how to cause the stored energy found in matter to explode. In nuclear physics, man peers into the structure of matter, the design and special codes God used in creation. In genetic engineering, man now looks into the microscopic patterns found in deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, and discovers that he can engineer a “shortcut” to reproduction.

Thousands of years ago, as man was attempting to create a pluralistic society, attempting to marshal all his energies in a cooperative burst of invention, God divided the human family by confusing his languages (Genesis 11). Why? Because God knew human destruction would be the ultimate outcome. He knew that man would reach the nuclear age in a very short period of time.

He said, when seeing the tower of Babel and man’s attempt at amalgamation of all society, “Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language: and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do” (Genesis 11:6). Because men might have progressed in only two or three hundred years to the point they have reached today, instead of requiring nearly six thousand years to do so, God confused their languages, divided them!

The Bible asks, “But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Hebrews 2:6-10).

God shows that man is capable of unimaginable feats. Yet, throughout history, man has used his virtually limitless skills of inventiveness and ingenuity to produce horrifying weapons, engines of mass destruction. The bow was superceded by the crossbow, which could pierce armor. The crossbow was superceded by the gun. The high explosive bomb was superceded by the atomic bomb, which was superceded by the hydrogen bomb. Today, while Russians and Americans orbit the earth every ninety minutes aboard the Russian space station Mir, and while the shuttle routinely travels into space and returns, man has stockpiled enough explosive power in thousands of nuclear warheads that he has the capacity to erase all life from planet earth. Russia alone possesses 25,000 nuclear warheads!

Today, mad despots in third world countries such as Iran feverishly work to obtain nuclear weapons; set their scientists at work to produce chemical and biological weapons which can kill millions of people in a single attack! And today, man “imagines” he can begin “cloning” whole armies, like so many automatons or zombies, marching across the landscape, pillaging, destroying, carrying out the will of the mad scientist who has “created” them.

You and I had better give thanks to God that He will stop man from self destruction!

Jesus Christ prophesied, “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:21,22).

Thankfully, many theologians have spoken out against the process of “cloning.” Polls have shown that the vast majority are completely against it. It is morally and spiritually WRONG! You live in a time when a government has accepted the mass murder of hundreds of thousands; millions of unborn babies! On the one hand, science allows young mothers to legally kill their babies, while on the other hand, science wants to “clone” adults! None of this makes any sense! It is in direct defiance of the laws of Almighty God, and it carries horrifying consequences!

The engenderment of children should occur only in marriage, between two people who love one another, who have made a life-long commitment to each other. The family is the basic unit of any society. It is not a passing, evolutionary phenomenon, but a God-ordained institution, which is the closest relationship possible in the human experience.

The family is a picture of the Family of God; of the Kingdom of God! Just as God has endowed man with the ability to produce children after our own kind, God is begetting spiritual children, recreating after His own kind!

Human babies should never be the result of “cloning” by artificially fertilizing a female egg in a test tube! Children should be the result of the deepest moral and spiritual commitment on the part of prospective parents. Human babies should be conceived in love, in joy, in fulfilment of the deepest hopes, desires, and dreams of every young married couple to see their children and grandchildren. God has endowed us with the desire to produce children made in our “own image,” and with the desire to see our sons and daughters and grandchildren, carrying our genes, displaying our proclivities, talents, abilities, and physical characteristics.

Yet, chillingly, there are no laws to prevent “cloning research” on human beings in the United States! President Clinton has made a gesture toward prevention by cutting off any federal financing of such experimentation, but private funding could easily be provided.

In a shocking article on the front page of The Washington Times for March 9, 1997, it was revealed that hundreds of fertility clinics in the U.S. have “the means to create human clones using the same technology that produced Dolly the ewe, the world’s first clone of an adult mammal.”

An executive director of the New York-based Fertility Research Foundation said, “The technology is so simple and inexpensive. With an investment of $5,000 to $10,000, in addition to the $100,000 [start up costs] for an IVF lab, it’s doable.”

While he said he knows of no lab doing such research now, he said, “But it’s coming. It will happen.” How ghastly! How repugnant! It is sickening enough to realize there are millions of young Americans who don’t know their fathers; who have been born to single mothers, but it is utterly horrifying to think of children produced in a laboratory, “cloned” from adult cells in a test tube.

Presumably, it will be a simple matter for geneticists to find woman who are perfectly willing to become surrogate mothers for such experiments. In our morally decadent society, there are no doubt women who would count it an “honor” to produce children in such a fashion, just as there are mothers who have produced “test tube babies,” who have no idea who the donor of the sperm was. No wonder Jesus Christ tells us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven!” Yes, “this they begin to do….”

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