Here is the truth about Satan; his origin, his present evil work, and his ultimate fate.

“I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven,” said Jesus Christ (Luke 10:18). Did He really? Was there a time when Satan was in heaven, but “fell” from his position of power? Was Jesus Christ there to see it?

He said so. Either He was there when Satan was cast down from heaven, or you cannot believe Christ, or your Bible! Like so many other enigmatic scriptures, this statement of Jesus Christ stands or falls depending on the veracity of the Bible itself. Since the Bible IS the divinely-inspired word of God, and since Christ Himself is called the “Word” of God, or the “Spokesman” who did the creating (John 1:1-14), this means that the One of the Divine Family called Elohim who became Jesus Christ was THERE, in person, at the moment when Satan was hurled down to this earth from heaven! Not only does this prove the pre-human existence of Jesus Christ, but it also proves there is a devil, called “Satan,” which means “adversary” alive on this earth!

People revel in all things devilish! Hallowe’en, with its demons, witches, goblins, jack-o’-lanterns, black cats, skeletons, and themes of demon possession and death are a yearly reminder of how millions of otherwise nominal “Christians” love to pretend that things connected to the devil are “cute,” or “funny,” or “scary, but fun!”

Hundreds of television shows and motion pictures glorify evil. Films like “The Exorcist” and many more of the same kind are huge box office successes. Let Hollywood produce films showing chain saw murders or blood-dripping vampires, and the millions flock to pay their money. But movies about solid family values, or about conversion and baptism? Such are not only virtually non-existent, but would be a horrible flop financially.

Everyone knows there is a devil. Always the great masquerader; the great pretender, Satan has managed to deceive people into believing he is merely a capricious imp dressed in a red body stocking, with a barbed tail, little horns and a trident — not, instead, an evil spirit who seeks the death and destruction of the human race and the overthrow of God Himself!

Repeatedly, your Bible warns about Satan the devil. Peter wrote, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

“Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world” (1 Peter 5:8, 9). God’s people are not to joke, party, cavort, and pretend that the devil is merely “fun.” If you were in the deepest part of the Serengeti wilderness in Africa, alone at night, and heard a stalking, hungry lion roaring nearby, you would hardly think it funny!

So thorough are Satan’s deceits he has hoodwinked millions of those who THINK they are Christians, but who are, instead, very much a part of this present world. Paul wrote, “…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 4:4). How shocking! Your Bible says the GOD OF THIS WORLD is NOT the true God, but a false god who is Satan the devil!

It would be astonishing to hundreds of millions of believers in hundreds of different religions to discover they were not worshiping the true God at all, but a counterfeit religion, inspired by Satan! The most astonished among them all would be millions of professing Christians who THINK they believe what is written in the Bible, but who have been deceived into believing, in many cases, the exact opposite of what the Bible actually says.

Not only did Paul call the devil “the god of this world,” he also said he is “…the prince of the power of the air, the spiritthat now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). Satan is called the “accuser of the brethren”; the deceiverof all nations; the tempter; and is characterized by a serpent, a dragon, and the very embodiment of all evil.

But if God is LOVE, and if God wants all men to be saved, then WHY does God allow the devil to deceive the world? WHY does God allow the devil to tempt mankind? Did God place the devil here on earth?

The Perfect Original Creation

In order to understand where the devil came from, when he had originally been a brilliant, beautiful archangel, you must understand what your Bible says about the time long before Adam; the time which the Bible calls “the beginning.” Most believe the place to read about the “beginning” is found in Genesis, which means “beginning.” Open your Bible to its first page.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Genesis 1:1-3).

Remember, the Bible was not written in English. All the modern languages of Europe; including French, German, Italian, Spanish, and the languages of Scandinavia and of the United States and Britain gradually developed over many centuries, long after the time of Christ.

The Old Testament was written primarily in Hebrew. The original Hebrew word for “God” is Elohim. Elohim is a PLURAL word, meaning more than one. It is like the words “family,” “group,” or “assembly.” Notice the proof in Genesis: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after ourlikeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:26, 27).

Notice that when Elohim came down to view the earth, they saw that it was “without form, and void,” or, “vain, waste, chaotic.” The Hebrew words are tohu va bohu, which mean vain, empty, and in confusion. The word “was” in the original Hebrew should read became.

The same word is used in Genesis 2:7; 4:3; 9:15, and in Exodus 32:1. It is rendered became or “has become.” The expression “And the earth was without form, and void,” should read “And the earth BECAME without form, and void.” Notice the proof in your own Bible: “For thus saith the LORD [JHVH, “The Eternal” in covenant relationship with Israel] that created the heavens; God [Elohim, meaning more than one] himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain [Hebrew: tohu], he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:18). Since He created it NOT tohu and yet the creation account says it was tohu when God looked down upon it, that means it BECAME tohu or empty, chaotic and waste prior to the time of the recreation of the surface of the earth, and the creation of life, revealed in Genesis 1.

There was a much earlier, PERFECT creation! When you and I are ushered upon the scene by the book of Genesis, we see a planet totally covered with water; stygian blackness hid heaving seas. There were no continents visible; no living creatures whatsoever. How did the earth come to be in such confusion? Why was it empty of life, chaotic, covered with thick clouds, with no light penetrating to the surface? The Bible itself proves that God, called Elohim, began the REcreation of the earth; commanding that the clouds be parted so that sunlight could penetrate; commanding the continental land masses to rise above the seas; the tectonic plates heaving and groaning, mammoth forces gouging out great river gorges, creating bays and estuaries, forming huge rivers, and creating thousands of islands. Some have assumed that the earth is only about 6,000 years old. Ignorant men, many hundreds of years ago, even assumed God had “tricked” geologists by “planting” fake “evidence” of fossil life in the rocks. Not knowing the truth revealed in the Bible about a much earlier perfect creation, and ignorant of how the devil came to be, they falsely assumed the earth to be much younger than it really is.

One religious denomination accepted this folly, alleging that the fossils (there are billions of them, of thousands of species) were “created” AS FOSSILS, and did not truly represent an earlier creation. This has been rendered foolish by modern geology, and by radio carbon dating. This earth could easily be four or five billion years old, or even older.

The account in Genesis of the creation of the great whales, all green trees and herbs, and man himself, is an account of the reforming of the earth after a much earlier perfect creation, and a subsequent massive destruction! It is very possible that the age of the dinosaurs actually predated mankind by millions or even billions of years! Contrary to some opinions, the earth as we know it, with its vast coal beds and oil deposits; its continents and oceans, was not created by divine fiat only a mere six thousand years ago, but was created many billions of years earlier.

Now, notice an even earlier account of creation than Genesis, which can be found in your Bible: “In the beginning was the Word [Greek: Logos, meaning “Spokesman”], and the Word was with God [Greek: Theos a plural word, synonymous with Elohim in the Hebrew], and the Word was God [the Logos was Theos].

“The same was in the beginning with God.

“All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

“In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

“And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

“The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.

“He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

“That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

“He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

“He came unto his own [the Jewish race], and his own received him not.

“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:1-12).

This obvious reference to Jesus Christ of Nazareth proves that the One who became Christ was the CREATOR of all that is. Not that He was SOLE creator, but He was the Divine SPOKESMAN who said, “Let there be light — let the dry land appear — let US make man in OUR image!” Notice further proof: “God [Theos, meaning more than one], who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

“Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

“Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:1-3). The creating AGENT was the Logos of Theos who became Jesus Christ, born of the virgin Mary!

If the churches of this world of nominal Christianity would admit just this one wonderful truth, they would have to abandon many of their most cherished doctrines! For an example, since Jesus Christ is the Logos who WROTE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, and since He says “I change not,” and since the Bible says, “Jesus Christ the SAME yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), then obviously Christ did not come to do away with His laws!

As you read in Isaiah 45:18, the original creation was NOT tohu and bohu, or empty, chaotic, and vain! Instead, it was created to be inhabited! And it WAS inhabited! But by WHOM?

Lucifer’s Beautiful Kingdom

There are only three archangels named in the Bible; Lucifer, Michael, and Gabriel.

Each one was given authority over one third of all the countless millions of angels which have been created by God.

When the earth was first created, perhaps five billion years ago, the archangel Lucifer was given sole government over the earth. His name meant “light bringer,” or “shining star of the dawn.” The meaning of the name carries no connotation of evil, or of fire. Yet, in the American frontier, matches were commonly called “Lucifers,” because the name of Lucifer was connected to the fanciful (and pagan) doctrine of an “ever-burning hell fire.”

Notice the description of Lucifer’s kingdom: “…Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.

“Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.

“Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

“Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity [sin! lawlessness!] was found in thee.

“By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

“Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness…” (Ezekiel 28:12-17). Here, the King of Tyre is a type of Satan the devil. The expression “by the multitude of thy merchandise” means “by the abundance of your merchandising, or trafficking,” or going about as a “salesman,” with a spiel of sedition and rebellion. In the beginning, Lucifer was perfect in beauty; brilliant of mind, a bright, shining, powerful archangel, with access to the very throne of God.

When the mercy seat of the ancient Ark of the Covenant was built, it was to be overshadowed by two cherubim; powerful angelic creatures who stand by the throne of God. Lucifer was called one of the “covering cherubs” in Ezekiel’s account.

Over perhaps millions of years, Lucifer went about as a “salesman,” trafficking in his arguments against God. As he wallowed in narcissistic self-pity, lusting for all power; lusting after God’s own throne, and dissatisfied with his lesser, yet great role as world ruler, Lucifer convinced all the millions of angels under his charge to follow him in rebellion against God!

In this passage is contained the KEY to understanding where the devil came from! Obviously, God created this great archangel with FREE MORAL AGENCY! He was not an “automaton,” going about zombie-like in mindless obedience to God. Instead, he was able to think, reason, and plan. He had the power of volution; of conscience. He could make daily choices, just as we can.

Notice Isaiah’s account of Lucifer’s rebellion: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

“For thou hast said in thine heart [his innermost being — his private thoughts], I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars [other angels] of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

“I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

“Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit” (Isaiah 14:12-15). Here, the thoughts of Lucifer’s mind are revealed. He had a secret agenda! He coveted God’s throne! He became bitter, angry, jealous; he desired it all! He began resenting God’s position! He told himself he was more beautiful, more gifted, more talented, more deserving than God! Who knows how many thousands, or even millions of years passed as Lucifer wheedled, whined, argued, reasoned, talked, and sought to influence the minds of all the angels under him?

This whole world was like a beautiful Garden of Eden! Most likely, it was populated with billions of creatures — a pre-Adamic world of original beauty, but one which became wholly corrupted!

Geologists know there were mammoth catastrophes in the past; gargantuan upheavals of the rocks, huge floods, glaciers, earthquakes, volcanic explosions, and even meteors, impacting the earth. A current theory for the sudden disappearance of the dinosaurs is that a huge meteor smashed into the earth, so enshrouding it with dust and debris that the sun was blotted out, and all life died suddenly.

For centuries, geologists have puzzled over the “sudden die out” of the dinosaurs and other creatures who walked this earth perhaps billions of years ago. Our coal and oil deposits are “fossil fuel,” proof of a lush, verdant, richly-inhabited world of long ago which was BURIED by sudden catastrophes of unimaginable proportion!

Since Lucifer was corrupting his angelic companions, did he also corrupt the animals of the earth? Could he have caused the earth to become overrun with huge carnivores, who were preying on other species? Why, since Lucifer is pictured as a “serpent,” and a “dragon” in the Bible, were so many of the dinosaurs possessed of serpentine heads, and dragon-like bodies?

Did God endow Lucifer with limited creative powers? Probably not, but yet, IF Lucifer’s angels possessed animals, and if such possession caused not only “selective breeding” among the dinosaurs, but the increasing tendency for death and destruction (i.e., becoming flesh eaters rather than herbivores), such a scenario would perhaps answer a few questions.

Probably, the answers to these and other like questions will not be given until the Kingdom of God is established on this earth, and God reveals to human minds the mysteries of the billions of years prior to Adam’s creation. However, certain clues give indications. For one thing, God IS NOT THE AUTHOR OF CONFUSION (1 Corinthians 14:33). Yet, the world was in total confusion; the continents sunken beneath raging seas; thick, impenetrable clouds blotting out the sun, when the creation week, which was the REforming, the REcreation of the earth, took place.

It is futile to attempt to know the unknowable, so exactly how the dinosaurs died, and, more importantly, WHY, may remain a mystery. One thing is sure, that pre-Adamic creation, which may have existed on earth for billions of years, was destroyed; BURIED, in some cases suddenly, and forms the huge reservoirs of crude oil, and the vast coal deposits which lie beneath the rocks today. For centuries, mankind has utilized these fossil fuels for his machines.

The Original “STAR WARS”

Finally, after a vast period of time, Lucifer was ready. Having now completely convinced his angels that they should follow him in his war against God, he attempted to mount up a huge angelic army, and overthrow God!

Probably, he convinced himself that Michael and Gabriel would also follow him. He was doomed to bitter disappointment.

Notice, “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

“And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

“And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Revelation 12:7-9). Actually, this prophecy concerns a yet FUTURE attempt by Satan and his demons to conquer God! The time setting is after the birth of Christ (Revelation 12:4), and at the time of the “Great Tribulation” to come upon God’s people, the House of Israel and the House of Judah.

Remember, Jesus Christ said, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven!” (Luke 10:18). Christ was THERE, in His pre-human state, even as He said to the Pharisees, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” Remember what you read in Isaiah 14:13, Satan’s innermost plan was, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars [angels] of God.”

In an earlier “star wars,” Lucifer attempted just that!

What IS a “war in heaven”? Merely an exchanging of words? A clash of wills? Look at the EVIDENCE in our universe, and in our own galaxy and solar system. What do you see?

Look at the lifeless, pockmarked, airless, waterless face of our moon. Even a 10 power pair of binoculars shows many of the huge meteor craters, some of them over one hundred miles across! Look at the poisonous atmosphere of Jupiter, or the thick clouds obscuring Venus, or the rings around Saturn. Look at the lifeless, rocky, empty face of Mars.

Then, consider the billions of pieces of space junk and debris. Every day, thousands of these pieces come hurtling into the earth’s atmosphere, the vast majority of them burning up and turning to dust as friction destroys them, others landing on earth as meteorites.

Consider the many comets, including several which have been discovered in fairly recent times, which are in a vast orbit around our small dwarf star we call the sun.

Except for our beautiful blue-green planet, the solar neighborhood testifies to gigantic explosions, hurtling meteors, misshapen moons (as are many of the moons around other planets), and shattered shards of metallic remnants, sometimes blazing in light as they perish in the thick mantle of air protecting our earth. We see wreckage — debris — the evidence of titanic explosions and collisions in space!

Our earth presents proof of such massive, destructive forces acting upon it in the past.

The Bible itself begins with the earth completely covered by a global flood! One must not assume tidal action was suspended all during the indeterminate period when all the continents were covered with water. Geologic evidence of island and mountain building, both from coral polyps and from volcanic action, tend to indicate that there may have been any number of emergences and submergences of the tectonic plates over a vast period of time.

Consider the Alps, the Rocky Mountains, the towering Andes — all contain fossil shells which prove such lofty heights were once shallow sea beds.

Once God had recreated the surface of the planet, and created Adam and Eve, what happened next? Where was Lucifer during all the interminable years following his rebellion, and his abortive attempt to overthrow God? He was here on this earth, together with his fallen angels (demons), seeing not a single mountain top nor a single continent. When Jesus cast out a demon, he warned that if the person thus relieved of possession did not become converted, and become filled with God’s Holy Spirit, the demon, who would wander in “dry places, seeking rest,” would take seven more evil than himself, and, finding the original person’s mind “cleaned and swept,” enter in to him again, so that the man’s last state would be worse then his first.

During the period from the destruction of the solar system, and the destruction of all pre-Adamic life on earth by the flood which is revealed in Genesis 1, Satan and his demons could see a harbinger of their ultimate fate. Peter’s second letter explains this, as we shall see later.

Satan, The “Whispering Enchanter”

From the beginning of the Bible, God’s word tells us of a devil who was here on this earth; an “adversary” who attempted to destroy mankind, and cause his death.

Here is the biblical account: “Now the serpent [Hebrew: Nachash]was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

“And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

“But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

“And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

“For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

“And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

“And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

“And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

“And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

“And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

“And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

“And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent [Nachash] beguiled me, and I did eat.

“And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:1-15).

The Hebrew word nachash does not connote a snake. Translators assumed, since God said that the nashash was cursed to go upon his belly from that day forth, that it was a snake which appeared to Eve. Traditional pictures and myths show a serpent entwined around a tree with the two progenitors of mankind standing there with an apple.

But the larynx of a man’s throat is not really his “Adam’s apple;” there is no proof the forbidden fruit was an apple or any known fruit today, and the “beast of the field” the nachashwhich appeared to Eve was not a snake.

Remember, Satan is called a “cherub”; a fallen archangel, who was right next to God’s throne! What is a cherub? How do they appear?

Traditional church art displays little naked babies with tiny wings, like the mythological “Cupid,” as cherubic. A baby is said to have “cherubic” cheeks and visage. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Read the entire first and tenth chapters of Ezekiel for a complete description of cherubim. Here are the essential verses: “Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.

“And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings.

“And their feet were straight feet [as hoofs]; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.

“And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings.

“Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward.

“As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle” (Ezekiel 1:5-10).

Eve was not startled or terrified when a creature looking like this — standing upright, with four faces and four wings — spoke to her. She had no previous frame of reference.

When God drove Adam and Eve from the garden, He placed cherubim with flaming swords to “keep the way to the tree of life.” In the ensuing years prior to the flood, there were no doubt any number of human encounters with these creatures, who were tasked with frightening away any who would assay to enter into the Garden of Eden. The Bible says, “So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24).

One-sixth of all human history passed prior to the flood of Noah’s time; one thousand years. Ancient civilizations are replete with various monuments, sculptures and icons which represent the ancient’s knowledge of the different aspects of cherubim. The famous Sphinx of Egypt, guarding the pyramids, features the head of a man and the body of a lion. The “winged bulls of Bashan” as well as the huge man-headed, winged oxen of Babylon’s gates attest to the fact that ancient man worshiped “the host of heaven.”

A “winged flying serpent” was universally worshiped, and was the principal “god” of the Aztecs, who called him Quetzalcoatl, Quetzal meaning bird, and coatl meaning serpent. The serpent head festoons dozens of the major monuments of the Aztecs in Mexico and central America.

It was a large, awesome creature which approached Eve, not a little serpent entwined around a tree. Nachash does not connote aspect, but character. True to his “trafficking” in self-pity, jealousy and resentment toward God, the “whispering enchanter” who was more “subtle” than the other creatures, told Eve the first great lie, which he has perpetuated ever since.

He told her she would NOT “surely die,” implying that she would live forever! The doctrine of the “immortality of the soul” finds its roots in this first big lie.

Prior to Satan’s lies, Adam and Eve were perfectly innocent. They were unaware of any evil; anything “dirty” or “nasty” about the human procreative organs, or nakedness. But since Satan enticed them to know “good and evil” they now felt guilty and ashamed! Suddenly, that which had been accepted as natural, normal, and good, carried “evil” connotations!

They covered themselves, and, ashamed, guilty and afraid, hid themselves from God!

For centuries, man has wondered why God “hides Himself;” why God is invisible; why we cannot see Him! But when Moses went up into the mount to receive the law, the people said, “Let not God speak to us,” and fled far away! It is man who hides from God, just as did Adam and Eve, not the other way around. Isaiah says, “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

“But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59:1, 2).

Human nature is described as automatically rebellious against God’s law. Paul wrote, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:7). Sin is the “transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). Adam and Eve broke FOUR of the Ten Commandments when they sinned. James, Christ’s brother, said if we break one point, we have broken them all! (James 2:10). Adam and Eve lusted after the forbidden fruit, which is coveting, thus they broke the tenth Commandment. They dishonored their only Parent, who was God. They stole that which was not theirs! Your Bible says “covetousness is idolatry,” so they broke the second Commandment, as well!

Adam and Eve had the power of decision-making. They could choose either to obey God, or to disobey. They had volition; free moral agency!

So did Lucifer! As we read, Lucifer was perfect in his ways until INIQUITY (lawlessness; rebellion against God) was “found in him.” We are not told how long it took for Lucifer to become embittered, and to “traffic” among his cohorts; the angels under his care, in order to corrupt them.

But eventually he did so, and attempted to mount up and displace God! But Lucifer and his angels were cast back down to this earth in the midst of a mind-boggling, gargantuan “war in space” which resulted in the wreckage we see in the heavens, and the destruction of this earth described in Genesis 1.

How Christ Witnessed To The Fallen Angels

Believe it or not, there are any number of the nominal Christian churches which believe Jesus Christ was not really dead during His three days and three nights in the tomb. They believe He was ALIVE, but in “HELL” witnessing to; taunting, “departed souls!”

Their terrible error is based upon Peter’s statement: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

“By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;

“Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

“The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

“Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him” (1 Peter 3:18-23). Who were these “spirits in prison”?

Where were they? WHEN did Christ witness to them, and about what?

Read the passage carefully. Christ, “by the Spirit” preached, witnessed, testified to SPIRITS, who were fallen angels, kept “in prison” on this earth.

WHEN did Christ do this? “WHEN once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a preparing!”

As we have read, Satan and his demons were hurled down to this earth — their “place found no more in heaven.” There is a Greek word, Tartarus, used only once in the Bible, found in 2 Peter 2:4, which means “prison, or place of restraint.” It is used in the same context. Notice,

“For if God spared not the angels that sinned [Lucifer’s angels, who followed him in his rebellion], but cast them down to hell [Greek: Tartarus], and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

“And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

“And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;

“And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:

“(For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)

“The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished” (2 Peter 2:4-9).

Peter was saying to the church that they should take heart, and have faith that every misdeed would be repaid. He said “IF God spared not even sinning angels, then surely, since he delivered Lot, He is able to deliver the godly out of temptations!”

The word “hell” in the New Testament is nearly always from the Greek word hades, which means, simply, “the grave.” Hades connotes no infernal regions; carried no remote connotation of fire, or eternity, but means a grave, or a hole in the ground! The second most common word translated “hell” comes from “Gehenna,” which derives from “Hinnom,” the name of a family who owned a parcel of land in a deep valley adjacent to Jerusalem. In ancient times, a perpetual fire burned there, like the unsanitary garbage dumps of many smaller cities, into which refuse, and even the bodies of criminals or animals were thrown.

Because of this practice, the valley of Hinnom, or Geena, called Gehenna came to be used metaphorically for a BURNING “hell fire” which would DESTROY the bodies of the wicked who were thrown into it. Your Bible 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 Son 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, saith the LORD of hosts” (Malachi 4:1-3). Of course! When bodies were thrown into Gehenna, they were burnt up; they were reduced to ashes, just as in a crematorium! Your Bible does not reveal an ever-burning “hell fire” into which living “souls” are cast, and which burns, and burns, and burns forever! Instead, Christ said the wicked are to be DESTROYED in Gehenna fire — burnt up — reduced to ashes!

As you have read, the primordial battle between Lucifer and his angels resulted in them being hurled back down to this earth! From that time on, they have been forced, by the power of God, to remain in this earth’s atmosphere; in a condition of restraint! The Greek word Tartarus indicates this restraining, and is rendered “spirits in prison.”

But a judgement day is coming, even for Satan and his angels!

As Paul wrote, “Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? (1 Corinthians 6:3).

Now, think over what you have read. Since Christ witnessed to Satan and his demons DURING THE TIME OF THE FLOOD, He must have chosen to do so for a very important reason! That reason is revealed by Peter! Notice, “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

“And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation [they argue that things continue in “cycles,” without God’s intervention],

“For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

“Whereby the world that then was [populated by perhaps billions of human beings and animals], being overflowed with water, perished [the Noachian deluge destroyed the entire earth and all life upon it with water]:

“But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

“But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

“Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved [by GEHENNA FIRE!], what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

“Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” (2 Peter 3:3-12).

The flood of Noah’s time was a TYPE of the coming destruction of earth by fire! Then, the tectonic plates of the earth were compressed just enough to permit the waters of the oceans and subterranean rocks (the “fountains of the deep”) to overflow the continents, drowning all of mankind save eight people, safe in the ark.

But in the coming destruction by fire, God will not only utilize heavenly fire, just as He did in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, but will very likely cause vast magmatic extrusions to overflow the continents — the molten, super-hot layer of melted rock beneath the continents and oceans — thus completely destroying the seas, and all land masses!

Even as Lucifer and his angels were there when God brought the flood upon a sinning, beastly, predatory, evil world, and even as Christ Himself witnessed to them about an impending future destruction by fire, so will Satan and his demons be present here on this earth to see all they have labored, planned and fought for burnt to ashes!

Now, notice the truth about Satan’s ultimate fate:

Satan’s Fate

When Jesus Christ comes back to this earth, the fires of Gehenna will be reignited! They will begin to burn then, and will continue to burn throughout the millennium! Notice the proof: “And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.

“And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone” (Revelation 19:19-20).

What HAPPENS to them when they are cast alive into a lake of fire? They are BURNT UP! So says your Bible, and so says science, common sense, and logic.

In the types and antitypes of Satan found in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14, further light is shed on the fate of the modern “King of Babylon,” who is the BEAST, in collusion with the great False Prophet, who attempt to fight Christ (Revelation 17:12-14), and are cast into Gehenna fire. Notice, “Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell [Hebrew: Sheol the grave], to the sides of the pit.

“They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;

“That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?

“All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.

“But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.

“Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned” (Isaiah 14:15-20).

Remember what happened to the strutting, proud, arrogant dictator of Italy, Mussolini?

When partisans shot him, his body was hung from the parapet of a gas station in public, where thousands of his former worshipers spat on it, stoned it, pummeled it until hardly a bone in the body remained intact!

In like fashion, the prophecies indicate that, like the bodies of criminals in the past, the bodies of the Beast and the False Prophet may repose for a time in the “sides of the pit” (Isaiah 14:15), breeding maggots, before being finally consumed by the flames. Now, look at Ezekiel 28 once more: “By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

“Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: [here the type of the Prince of Tyre reverts from Satan to the human prince which is a type of the Beast] I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.

“Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.

“All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more” (Ezekiel 28:16-19).

WHEN are the Beast and the false prophet thrown into Gehenna; the valley next to Jerusalem, which will be ignited? By Christ Himself, at His second coming!

As we read: “And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone” (Revelation 19:20).

Now, notice what happens to Satan and his demons during the one thousand year reign of Christ on earth: “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

“And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

“And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season” (Revelation 20:1-3).

Now, notice what occurs when the devil is loosed following the thousand years: “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

“And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

“And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are [this word is not in the original. The italicized word is added, and should read “were cast”], and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Revelation 20:8-10).

“Gog and Magog” can read “Jaj and Majaj,” and, while some scholars believe Gog to be Russia, and Magog to be Mongolia and China, it is more likely the names are used to describe the incorrigibly wicked; human beings all over the earth, who, even after one thousand years of Christ’s rule, will follow Satan’s deceptions, and attempt once more to overthrow God.

Now, remember WHEN the Beast and false prophet were cast into Gehenna fire! They are to be cast in at the time of the second coming of Christ (Revelation 19:11-21). And what HAPPENS to human beings who are cast into a pit filled with fire? They are burned UP (Malachi 4:1-3). They are reduced to ashes!

Now, remember what you have learned about the ultimate fate of this planet! “…the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10).

Following his final abortive attempt to conquer God, Satan and his demons are to be cast into a lake of fire — the same Gehenna fire where the Beast and the false prophet WERE CAST, one thousand years earlier! But this time, following the Great White Throne Judgement day, the earth itself will be consumed! “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books [Greek: Biblos, meaning the books of the Bible], according to their works.

“And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell [Hades, the grave] delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

“And death and hell [hades, the grave] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:12-15). Read the entire twentieth chapter of Revelation, and continue on through the final two chapters of the Bible. This destruction of the earth by fire occurs AFTER the millennial reign of Christ; AFTER the Great White Throne Judgement day, which ensues for an additional one hundred years (Isaiah 65:20, 21).

Following the very melting of the “elements with fervent heat”; the probable extrusion of the molten layer of magma beneath the mantle of the earth, God says, “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea” (Revelation 21:1). Our oceans are vitally important for the existence of human and animal life on earth. Without them, no fleshly life; no fishes, no insects, no air-breathing, food-eating, water-drinking creatures can live.

The NEW earth will now become the headquarters of Christ AND God the Father! Notice, “And 1 John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

“And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

“And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:2-5).

Thus will conclude the FIRST GREAT PHASE of God’s plan, announced by the Logos who became Christ, at the creation of Adam! They said, “Let US make MAN IN OUR IMAGE!”

But creation was not completed in the Garden of Eden — it was only begun!

First, God made man in God’s physical image. God is revealed as having the form and shape of human kind! Moses was allowed to see His hind parts (Exodus 33:18-23). Christ said “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” God is described as having eyes, arms and legs. Christ is described in Revelation 1:12-16 from head to foot.

Next, through His wondrous plan of salvation, God planned to REDEEM man from sin; save him from the clutches of Satan and his powerful temptations, and through the process of spiritual growth and overcoming, create in God’s own image, SPIRITUALLY!

Man was but a human, physical prototype. The “new Creature in Christ” is to become a NEW SPIRIT BEING (1 Corinthians 15:35-52).

The god of this present God-rejecting, commandment-breaking evil world is Satan the devil (2 Corinthians 4:4). He is called the “Prince of the power of the air” who works in rebellious, disobedient people (Ephesians 2:2). When Christ was fasting for 40 days and nights, Satan continually tempted him, trying to cause Christ to fail in His mission. But finally, Christ gave a command, “GET THEE HENCE, SATAN!” and the devil had to obey!

Satan is pictured as the “Lord of the Dead,” in Hallowe’en mythology; Samhain, or the “Shaman” of the Druids and many other religious cults. As the first great sinner; the first great liar (John 8:44), Satan was the first cause of DEATH on this earth.

Christ came for many reasons, among them to conquer the present evil world ruler, thus conquering DEATH as well as conquering SIN! Christ “condemned sin in the flesh” by proving that a human being, with God’s Holy Spirit, can OVERCOME SIN!

Presently, Satan has been DISQUALIFIED, but not yet removed!

As Paul wrote, “Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

“For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:24-26).

This is why “death and the grave” are pictured as being “cast into the lake of fire,” metaphorically abolishing death and the grave forever!

Since Christ conquered Satan, He commands His people to “RESIST the devil, and he will flee from you!” (James 4:7). John wrote, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you [Christ!], than he that is in the world [Satan].

What, then, is Satan’s ultimate fate? First, Satan will see Christ’s prophecies delivered during the flood — that the flood was a type of a yet future destruction of the world by fire — come true! Following his final futile attempt to conquer God, the great Gehenna fire of the last day will envelope the whole world!

The “world and the works therein” shall be BURNT UP!

But Satan is impervious to fire. He and his demons are spiritbeings; a fallen archangel and fallen angels under his sway, who will see everything they have worked for; every evil, twisted, perverted, plan utterly destroyed!

Now, notice carefully the wording of God’s statement concerning Satan’s final fate: “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet [were cast].., and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Revelation 20:10).

This verse is describing TWO THINGS happening. One: the devil is cast into the same Gehenna fire where the Beast and the False Prophet were cast over one thousand years earlier:

Two: Satan will be “tormented day and night for ever and ever!”

Obviously he is not tormented IN THE FIRE for ever, for the fire finally ceases to burn when the surface of the earth has been changed; when there “is no more sea,” and when the “new heavens and new earth” are created!

A powerful clue to Satan’s ultimate fate is contained in Jude’s short letter, as he describes the demon-influenced men who deliberately infiltrate God’s church; evil men of no conscience, who have the very nature of Satan. Here is much of that short book, with commentary: “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

“For there are certain men crept in unawares [they do so deliberately!], who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness [“license,” permissiveness], and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

“I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation [the demons who followed Satan in his rebellion], he hath reserved in everlasting chains [Tartaroo, or “the place of restraint”] under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

“Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire [fire from God: however, the fires are not still burning. When Sodom and Gomorrha were destroyed, the fires having consumed all combustible materials, they died out, as all fires do].

“Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.

“Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

“But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.

“Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

“These are spots in your feasts of charity [“love feasts,” usually for the poor, but including God’s Feasts] , when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; 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 3-13).

Satan has deceived the Christian-professing world into believing mankind possesses an “immortal soul” which can never die, but which must go either to heaven or an ever burning hell fire upon death! Yet, Satan himself is an immortal spirit, who TRIED and will yet try, to get to heaven, and who will, instead, be consigned to ETERNAL PUNISHING!

The Bible frequently uses stars as symbols for angels (Revelation 1:20). “Wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever,” without doubt refers to Satan and his demons, whose false doctrines will come to pass upon themselves!

Satan is keenly, brilliantly intelligent! Yet, his intelligence is perverted by rebellion against God! He has a keen MEMORY!

Satan and his evil demons are to be cast far, far away into the universe — perhaps in a “black hole” somewhere, without the possibility of seeing even the tiniest pinprick of light — the light given off by a distant star! There, they will “wander in the blackness of darkness forever,” bitterly accusing one another, arguing, blaming, hating!

The HORROR of such unrelenting mental torment is Satan’s ultimate fate!

God Did Not Create A Devil

God did not create a devil. Instead, He created a beautiful, powerful archangel, Lucifer, and placed him upon this earth. Lucifer was WORLD RULER long, long prior to the destruction of this earth before Adam’s time.

But he became corrupted with a sense of personal beauty (narcissism) and power, and began to envy God! He attempted to overthrow God, and was himself overthrown, hurled back down to this earth!

He destroyed the earth, and the solar neighborhood, if not more of the universe, in the original “star wars,” the evidence of which is there to see today.

He was THERE in the Garden of Eden to cause the first sin. He tried to overthrow righteous Job, murdering his family and his servants. He was there at the birth of Christ, causing Herod to murder thousands of babies up to two years of age. He was there to try to overthrow Christ in the temptation on the mount. He entered personally into Judas, causing Christ to be killed. He has persecuted God’s church, and is called “the accuser of the brethren” who “accuses them day and night” before God!

He will personally enter into the great false prophet, who will murder tens of thousands of God’s people in the tribulation.

Like you and I, Lucifer was created with FREE MORAL AGENCY! He was able to CHOOSE which way he would go. He BECAME a devil; an adversary; an opponent who is “ANTI-Christ” by continually making wrong choices!

The devil is self-made! He created himself!

By CHOOSING to rebel against God and His government, Lucifer became, instead of the beautiful “cherub that covereth,” a hideous “dragon,” as a perpetual adversary against God!

All who CHOOSE to follow Satan and his ways — the ways of this evil world — will be burnt up in Gehenna fire, as the devil himself and his demons watch! Even as Satan left Judas once he had used him for his evil purposes, and Judas, overcome with fear and self revulsion committed suicide, so will all those who allow Satan to use them find themselves betrayed by their evil mentor, and left to suffer their own terrible fate!

Your only protection from the present evil world ruler is by the power and Spirit of God! Jesus cries out today, as He did when He first came to our earth, “REPENT ye, and believe the good news.” If you have not yet read it, please write or call immediately for my free booklet, “The GOSPEL, A Message For The Next Millennium!”

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.

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America is truly united! But are we also closer to God?

If you are somewhat like me, you may be having difficulty these days with your emotions. I find myself having moving, profound, often tearful feelings of patriotism; love of country; love of America; love of freedom; and yet, at the same time, sadness at the seeming inability of our nation to confront our personal and national sins.

Up front, I need to tell you I do NOT believe those fanatical, hate-filled, suicidal mass murderers were “agents of God” sent to “punish the United States.” Let us not try to “blame God” for mindless, insane murder and horrifying mass death. God was simply not involved.

Here is the simple logic of the situation. God does exist. God COULD have prevented those attacks. God DID NOT PREVENT them. But neither did God CAUSE them to occur. He was simply not involved, one way or the other.

Does this offend you? What other possible conclusion can you offer? Oh, I know what Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson said in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks. I also know they recanted their early, emotional outburst. However, I suspect there are any number of others who see the terrorist attacks as punishment heaped upon a commandment-breaking, godless society; who see it as something God Himself caused.

But God neither caused, nor prevented the actions of fanatical Muslims whose perverted twists of religious fervor led them to joyfully commit the most destructive act in our nation’s history.

Throughout the history of God’s people Israel and Judah, God sent His prophets to WARN the leaders and the people about their two greatest national sins: idolatry and Sabbath-breaking! Time and time again, their warnings fell on deaf ears. The result was death and destruction; invasion from foreign nations, and captivity!

But God did not CAUSE such destruction. The pagan nations did! God simply DID NOT PREVENT it! Jeremiah cried out, “The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.

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 2:2, 3).

While Jeremiah lamented that “The Eternal hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob [Israel],” he goes on to explain that God has simply WITHDRAWN HIS PROTECTION from Israel! He has ALLOWED foreigners to murder, pillage, burn, and destroy! God Himself is in His high heaven, beholding all the petty machinations of men! He was not at the controls of those hijacked jetliners! No, insane, murderous, hate-filled Muslims were! But God had “drawn back His right hand” from before America, just as He did in the case of ancient Israel and Judah!

Usually, when some inexplicable tragedy strikes, people tend to blame God. They say, “Where was God on September 11th?” They plaintively cry, “Why did God let this happen?”

Some, as the two well-known evangelists (who later recanted), immediately assume such a horrifying event as September 11 was direct “punishment from God.” Others wonder why God did not stop it! For the answer, read my commentary published on our web site (https://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/), or call for my brochure entitled “Why Did God Let It Happen?”

The ASSUMPTION in the minds of millions is the same false assumption that was in the minds of the Pharisees and religious leaders of Jesus’ day. Jesus Christ showed His own nation their hypocrisy in claiming God was working among them; that they were “God’s country”; that wherever God’s eyes were, they were assuredly right there, among the Jewish race of Jesus’ time.

Read the following detailed experience of Christ in your own Bible, and understand. First, I will quote it entirely, then comment: “And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

“And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

“To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

“And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

“And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

“And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?

“And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.

“And he said, Verily, I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.

“But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;

“But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.

“And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.

“And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,

“And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.

“But he passing through the midst of them went his way” (Luke 4:16-30).

Do you understand why they tried to kill Him? What an incredible result of a simple reciting of scripture; a simple recounting of historical fact! Have you ever attended a church service where the congregation tried to violently MURDER the preacher because of his sermon?

That is what the Pharisees tried to do!

If you missed the import of Christ’s words, consider: The Pharisees, a stern, strict religious sect, were fervent nationalists. They were patriotic to the point of xenophobia! They looked down upon “lesser races,” speaking evil of them.

They were “God’s chosen”! To them, wherever God was working, it was certainly NOT among the hated Goyim or the “Gentiles.”

To them, they were the proud children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Theirs was “God’s country.” God was right there among them, they thought. His eyes were on them, they thought. They were “God’s church.” They were “administering God’s government on earth.” They were “God’s agents; His priests; His ministers.” Their prayers were surely heard. Their fasts probably brought tears to the eyes of God Himself! Their entire lives were wrapped up in “godly pursuits.” God, to them, was the silent witness to every one of their meetings, to all of their religious services!

Yet, here was some “local boy,” (and one with an unsavory birth record at that, they all believed) who was telling them that during the days of the two greatest prophets in their national history, God had TURNED HIS BACK ON
ISRAEL, and instead sent each of those two powerful prophets to a Gentile women, a Syro-Phoenician, and to a Syrian king!

Raging inwardly, they seethed in righteous indignation! Why, this was preposterous! It was outrageous, incredible, blasphemous!

Losing all sense of dignity, decorum, or decency, these posturing religious leaders, who preached “Thou shalt not kill,” rose up in shrieking wrath, and tried to murder Jesus Christ!

If they had been allowed, they would have dragged Him to the precipice of a steep hill (I have been there, and seen the hill mentioned), and cast Him down headlong, surely killing Him!

When a person is so filled with a prideful mixture of patriotism and godliness, and such a person is told, “but this is not God’s country, and God is not working here,” it fills such a person with a mindless rage! Do you see why they tried to kill Christ?

What If Jesus Christ Were Here Today?

What if Jesus Christ should read the same passage of scripture, and say virtually the same things to an audience in a Roman Catholic Cathedral, or the National Cathedral, or in a major Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Episcopalian or Pentecostal church?

What if Christ were to say, “This is not God’s country. This is not where my Father is working?” What would be the reaction from the priests, clergy, and laity?”

Think of conditions in our nation, and among so many other nations, such as Britain, Europe, Australia, South Africa and Canada, today. God says, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

“For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

“Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

“Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

“Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

What an indictment! Yes, our peoples truly ARE laboring under the burden of all those carnal, sinful emotions and actions! People ARE lovers of PLEASURES more than lovers of God! People ARE proud, blasphemers, traitors, vain and high minded! Children ARE disobedient to parents!

We have a FORM of “godliness.” We freely use the expression, “God bless America,” or “God bless you.” By our millions, we flock to our cathedrals, synagogues, mosques, temples, or neighborhood church buildings, and listen to false doctrines, myths, superstitions, and lies.

We are told we have an immortal soul, which is conscious, and goes either to heaven or to hell instantly upon death. We are told God is maintaining an “ever-burning hell fire” where victims are writing in pain, blistering, singeing, burning, shrieking in agony for decades, centuries, and “for ever and ever.” We are told that God is an impersonal “hypostasis” or a “trinity,” or that Mary overshadows her Son, Jesus Christ, as the “mother of God” who is to be worshiped.

We adopt the sign of the cross, which is a pagan symbol; worship on the day of the sun instead of God’s commanded Sabbath day; believe the Ten Commandments were “nailed to the cross,” and that Christmas is the birthday of Jesus

Christ. We believe Hallowe’en and “Harry Potter,” though soundly condemned in scripture, are harmless “fun” for our children.

We are a society riddled with crime, drug abuse and addiction, pornography and child molestation, divorce, desertion, and abandonment; a nation with mass murders taking place even in schools and churches; a nation which exports our vaunted “Western culture” in the form of “MTV,” violent, murderous movies, featuring huge explosions, hundreds killed by automatic weapon fire, and insane “music” such as “heavy metal” to countries around the world.

We are a nation which saucily sneers at the true values of God, and speaks of “our values” when it comes to homosexuality and “gay rights.” Look at my commentary on Hillary Clinton and her statement about the “values” of gay rights published on our web site if you doubt this. We murder millions of the unborn, and call it “a woman’s choice.” We legislate against teaching the Bible in schools, but freely allow homosexuals to teach our preschoolers about “Adam and Steve” or about “Daddy’s Roommate.” We pass laws against praying in public, and attempt to pass laws to force the Boy Scouts to accept homosexuals as leaders.

Under the guise of “civil liberties” such organizations as the ACLU file lawsuits against those who would pray in school, those who would put the words “In God We Trust” on public buildings, or those who dare to display the American flag.

The point is, our nation cheerfully admits, nay, boasts, that we are NOT a commandment-keeping nation! Those who SHOULD be in the forefront of teaching God’s laws; God’s WAY OF LIFE, are instead the principal attackers of His laws. God says to us, “And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination.

“The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

“Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children’s children will I plead” (Jeremiah 2:7-9).

He is doing precisely that! Today, God is pleading with the children’s children — with the latter-day generations of those who rejected His laws in the past! Today, He pleads with YOU, and with every person to heed His call, “Repent ye, and believe the Gospel!” Peter said to the frightened people on Pentecost, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

“For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call” (Acts 2:38, 39). To repent means to be deeply sorrowful; to be remorseful, ashamed, heartsick over what one has said, thought, and done! It means to CHANGE; to “turn around, and go the other way!” It means to GIVE oneself to God! Paul wrote, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1, 2).

When Jeremiah said “they that handle the law,” he did not only mean pastors and preachers. They that handle the law includes the U.S. Supreme Court, all the State Supreme Courts; the entire judiciary of our people! God’s laws against divorce, homosexuality, murder, abortion and assorted crimes of all kinds are flagrantly set aside by human legislators.

Those who “prophesy by Baal” are those who preach and predict “in the name of the Lord.” The Hebrew word “Baal” means, quite simply, “The Lord.” Jesus Christ said, “Take heed that no man deceive you.

“For many shall come in my name, saying I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:4, 5). Men divided the original Greek into verses, and added punctuation marks. The inference here is that many would aver that CHRIST is Christ, and yet deceive many! Only rarely does some crazed would-be “Messiah” claim to BE Christ! But MILLIONS speak His name, and continually say, “Lord, Lord,” in their sermons and emotional songfests. Jesus Christ says to these, “…why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).

Baal was a PAGAN “god” who never existed! Ancient pagans worshiped their “Lord” or “Baal” in many guises. He was called “Baal-Abarin,” or “Lord of the mighty ones”; Baal-Aberin, or “the winged one”; Baal-Aph, or “Lord of wrath”; Baal-lashon, or “Lord of the tongue”; Baal-hatzim, or “Lord of Arrows.”

He is referred to in ancient writings and monuments as “Bel, or Belus,” and is found in many societies from ancient Babylon to Scandinavians. He is found in the origin of tree worship, and is called “Baal-bereth” or “Lord of the Fir Tree;” and masquerades as Christ in his title “Baal-Berith,” or “Lord of the Covenant.”

Is it a truthful indictment from God that MODERN preachers “prophesy by Baal”?

Absolutely! Christmas is replete with symbols of Baal worship! The day of the sun was deliberately foisted off on apostate nominal Christians over the second and third centuries after Christ!

NONE of the Apostles EVER worshiped on Sunday! God never made Sunday holy! Jesus Christ NEVER worshiped on Sunday! If you have not yet read my book Why Would Anyone Keep Saturday for Sunday? you may access it on our web site, or call or write, and request your free copy.

Whether we want to accept it or not, whether we believe it or not, the United States of America merely has a FORM OF GODLINESS, mixed in with a tremendous amount of patriotism, mom, and apple pie, but we DENY THE POWER thereof!

IF the pastors and those who for a few moments were center stage in the National Cathedral; at Yankee Stadium; at the Pentagon, and in the many memorial services had called upon our nation to REPENT OF SIN — and then gone on to EXPLAIN WHAT SIN IS — perhaps some few would have heeded. Dr. Billy Graham DID say we needed to “repent of our sins,” but did not explain WHAT SIN IS!

God says, “SIN IS the TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW” (1 John 3:4).

Today, America is caught up in a wave of patriotism. The “name” of God is on the lips of millions. More people are going to church. More people are waving the flag. But, in truth, it is “business as usual.” There are NOT more people truly repenting of personal and national sins! There are NOT more people coming OUT of sun-worship and spiritual Babylon, and REPENTING in broken-hearted surrender to God and His laws.

God’s prophets were the greatest patriots of all! They, too, no doubt had difficulties when they saw clearly the impending national calamities coming upon their beloved nations! Jeremiah cried, “Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.

“All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

“Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.

“Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people [Jeremiah cried many tears — was terribly distressed at the slaughter of his own countrymen!].

“Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,

“Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven” (Lamentations 3:45-50).

Ezekiel, who was one of God’s WATCHMEN to give warning of impending national calamities, said, “As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:11).

I know EXACTLY how these great men of God felt! I have shed many tears before and since September 11 because I know the horrifying punishments which are to befall our great land if we do not repent! I do not WANT to see any further terrorist attacks! I WANT to see America find, and bring Osama bin Laden and all his “al Quaida” group to justice! I WANT to see a time of PEACE break out in the Middle East, and all over the world!

But knowing human nature, AND KNOWING BIBLE PROPHECY, I simply WILL NOT join the ranks of the false prophets who cry “peace, peace,” and there IS no peace! I DO NOT WANT to hear of a chemical or NUCLEAR attack against American cities! We have already experienced a small, fairly contained biological attack, which spread FEAR throughout the country! I share the feelings of all of God’s prophets! Patriots all — men who LOVED their country and their people — they were commissioned to take a very bleak, stern message to the leaders and the people! Yet, it was also a message of LOVE, and of deep compassion!

The great MERCIFUL God promised them protection, peace and safety, prosperity, happiness, JOY, if they would only turn to HIM and His righteous laws which PRODUCE such wonderful benefits! Ezekiel was warned he would be met with “foreheads more adamant than flint!” Jeremiah was lowered into a slime pit, and had to be rescued, and given diplomatic immunity by the conquerors of his people!

I, too, find myself with conflicting emotions! On the one hand, a great love; a vast respect for those who gave their lives from Concord to Gettysburg; from Tripoli to Tarawa, from Guadalcanal to Iwo Jima, and from Korea and Vietnam to Kuwait. On the other hand, a deep sadness; a kind of desperate anxiety, for what I see coming upon our peoples in the future!

I served proudly during my years in the Navy. I am proud of the campaign ribbons I was issued from my service aboard the USS Antietam (CV-36), an American aircraft carrier offshore Korea, during the Korean war. I am an
American. I love my country. I dread what will happen to it if we do not repent!

Abraham asked God, when he knew God would destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, where his nephew, Lot, dwelt, “Abraham stood yet before the LORD. And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?

“Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?

“That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

“And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.

“And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes:

“Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it.

“And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty’s sake.

“And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there.

“And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty’s sake.

“And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake” (Genesis 18:22-32).

But there were not even TEN in those wicked cities who obeyed God. Only ONE, Lot himself! Let’s see, now. What is the ratio of a few thousand to three hundred and fifty million?

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 “Fervent Patriotism”… Is It The Same Thing As Godliness? first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

For her part, the German chancellor claimed that controlling financial markets is their (Germany and the Vatican) number one challenge and their number one goal! None of this has seen any mainstream attention, and likely wouldn’t even if it weren’t in the middle of some of the biggest scandals in American history.

What makes a Catholic pope think he has anything to say about money one way or another? If you’ve noticed, government lately thinks it has all kinds of say over matters of conscience, matters with relevance to faith and the practice of Biblical principles. We’re all having our taxes applied to after the fact “contraception,” and gay nonsense, and anti-Biblical educational formats complete with socialist dogma. Our national leaders don’t seem concerned that their  socialist agenda conflicts with our Constitutional right to practice religion free from state interference.

But the pope attacking money? That turns the whole thing around and seems to make the temporal matter of currency and its exchange the business of the world’s largest “Christian” church. To be blunt, what business is it of the pope? And why would Germany participate in this ridiculous charade?

Everybody knows the euro is in big trouble. Europe’s southern nations have been spent into ruin, requiring bailouts and long term arrangements to make it appear that there’s some  chance the whole thing will somehow work out in the long run. But then again maybe not. When the euro’s German founder says the currency must be dismantled before further damage is sustained, you know things are bleak.

So the pope comes out to declare money is inherently evil, just as it becomes apparent the euro may well collapse. The incredible spending spree that has diluted the value of the American dollar is also placing our currency at risk. Who’s going to come to the rescue? The Vatican Bank, with some new unit that automatically credits papal authority with every transaction? It sounds just like something out of the book of Revelation.

Maybe the rhetoric here is getting a little ahead of actual events. But the reader will be reminded that the Church of God in general, and Garner Ted Armstrong in particular have been way ahead of world events for decades as we’ve viewed the succession of world events through the lens of Bible prophecy. The following article, written in 2001 shows that history and also shows that these new developments are right in line with the witness and the warning that is part of the commission of the church.

For more than four decades, I have warned that a “United States of Europe” would eventually emerge in the “heartland” of Europe, and that such an organization of states would loom as the most dangerous enemy of the United States and Britain. I have said that such a power would eventually move into the Middle East as a “peacekeeping” occupying power, and that a great world religious leader would intervene in the protracted struggle between Israelis and Arabs over Jerusalem.

All during the Cold War, I was preaching on radio, television, and before tens of thousands in live audiences that the eventual fulfillment of Revelation 17:12-14 would NOT necessarily occur as a result of the current move toward a united Europe of more than fifteen states; that it would NOT arise from the NATO alliance. Instead, it would arise from the shattered remains of the present attempt at a European union, just as Germany, like the fabled Phoenix, arose from ashes of World War II.

Also, I have said for decades that Britain would NOT be a member of the final ten!

Today, as the “EU” (European Union) slowly forms, all is not well. Various flagging economies and vast disparities in population and gross national product make the entire system appear as a shaky structure without solid footing.

Recently, Germany’s Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder demanded that Germany be given a larger say in things. He said, “I cannot agree (to) a system that gives Spain or Poland – just think of the relative gross domestic product – just as many votes as Germany, which has double the population.”

Consistent Predictions for Decades

When I first visited Germany, the signs of the destruction of World War II were everywhere. But, for all the many shattered and shell-shocked buildings I saw, I also noticed the incredible beehive of activity. I have read extensively about Germany; not only its fascinating history, but dozens of books about the rise of Hitler, Nazism, the Second World War, and the aftermath, when Marshal Plan dollars were pouring into Germany to rebuild.

During one trip to all the nations of Central America, I spoke with the regional sales manager for the Ford Motor Company. He told me “The Germans are coming in the windows down here,” and referred to the hardy little Volkswagens, which are air-cooled, and which held up much better than the Fords. There was a saying there, and in Mexico that “Ford” was an acronym in Spanish which stood for Fabricacion Ordinaria, Reparacion Diaria, or, Ordinary Manufacture, Daily Repair.

It was in Columbia where I first heard the slogan, “Other people work to live; Germans live to work.” When I learned that workers in Wolfsburg, the site of the only working Volkswagen plant shortly after the war, had literally broken up their furniture to get the furnaces going so they could produce cars for export; when I heard lusty singing in the streets out my hotel window in Dusseldorf at 5:00 a.m., and looked out to see dozens of German workers, singing as they carried their lunch pails to work, it made an impression.

In my many visits since, I continually marveled at the incredible progress being made.

Within the past few decades, Germany has risen from the ashes of defeat into a glittering, modern, powerful nation – the most vibrant, successful, powerful nation in Europe!

Back in the mid-1950’s, I knew this would be so. I knew then, and said so many times, that the eventual United States of Europe would include such nations as Poland, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia (now divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia) and the Balkans.

I knew this because of the history of the old “Holy Roman Empire” and the fact that the “Beast” power in central Europe had in most cases been a Germanic empire.

I had read about the Hapsburgs; about Otto the Great, and Bismarck. I knew the aspirations of famous German leaders down through the centuries; that they, as did Hitler, believed there was a kind of “Divine Destiny” for Germany to fulfill; that the Germans were destined to “save the world from Bolshevism,” as well as lead the world in “Christian culture.”

As shocking as it may sound, there were those among the German High Command in the closing moments of World War II who actually thought they could convince the Western Allies to sign an armistice in return for the Germans helping the Western powers to defeat Russia!

Among them was Herman Goering! The US and Britain refused all such overtures.

Some of the significant books which were published shortly after World War II included Fire in the Ashes by Theodore White; Fragebogen, by Ernst von Solomon, and Watcher Along the Rhine by Brian Connells, who was a 20 year veteran writer for Reuters.

Even during the depths of the Cold War, when well-known American televangelists were telling their audiences that RUSSIA (the Soviet Union) would attack Palestine; that RUSSIA was the “beast” of Bible prophecy, I was saying that the nations of Eastern Europe (and I named them all) would come out from behind the “Iron Curtain,” unite, and become part of a U.S. of Europe.

For decades, I said repeatedly that Germany would be reunited!

Now, all that has HAPPENED!

Watch, now, as more and more controversy erupts between leaders in NATO and those who want an all new German dominated “European Army.” Watch as Britain becomes more and more disenchanted with the EU. Watch as Germany begins to swing its weight around – using its economic and military strength to play a much larger political role  – not only in Europe, but in the Mideast, and in the world.

As recently as December of 2000, Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair was quoted as being very concerned about the “political impact of Germany emerging as the country with the biggest clout in the community [the EU] in the future.” Many Britons have a long memory. So do the French. When Schroeder spoke out about Germany having a larger role, the French Prime minister, M. Chirac, said, “It’s not possible to overturn the founding principle of the Franco-German pact, which was one of inviolable equality… the postwar leaders of France and Germany – De Gaulle and Adenauer – sealed a reconciliation agreement after a tragedy of wars, killings, atrocities and reckless conduct, and we cannot go back on that.”

Was he merely being hopeful; even plaintive?

Schroeder was adamant. He said, “We can’t have a situation in an enlarged union where Germany, with more than 80 million people, has only 10 votes, while 19 small states with fewer than 80 million between them, have 57 votes.”

All is not well in the present shaky EU. Eventually, you will see a global economic collapse; the rise of virulent nationalism; despots, dictators, and then the forging together of the final ten nations.

Speaking of the nature of the modern German people, Isaiah prophesied, “I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

“Howbeit, he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few” (Isaiah 10: 6, 7).

Democracy is still an “experiment” in Germany. Their natural tendency is to look for a powerful, magnetic, inspiring LEADER; a “Fuhrer,” who will rise up like a Bismarck or a Hitler, and lead them to their perceived rightful place – a pinnacle of power over all Europe, and eventually the world.

Millions of Americans are utterly ignorant of Europe; ignorant of European history, and of the prophecies of your Bible which detail a step-by-step series of events which will soon SHOCK this nation, and the world! For decades, I have said Watch Germany! The warning is even more poignant today!

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 Germany Europe’s Biggest Power 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.

When Timothy McVeigh blasted the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City into rubble, shattering the bodies of one hundred sixty-eight innocent men, women, and children, maiming and seriously injuring dozens more, the entire United States was in a state of shock. Surely, I thought, in the early hours following the bombing, it had to be the work of terrorists from the Mideast—from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, or perhaps Libya?

But no, millions of Americans were astonished to learn it had been the work of Americans, and one of them a “war hero” from the Gulf War, at that! Even following the conviction of McVeigh in Denver, the public was left with very little in the way of an explanation for such a horrible act. How could anyone be so filled with vicious hatred that he would coldly and deliberately plan out and follow through with such a murderous act, blasting to bits dozens of human beings he had never met, including precious little children playing in a day school, merely to “make a point” of some kind? What tortured, satanic, twisted reasoning could remotely justify such a cowardly, brutal act?

Scraps of evidence were offered as his motive—all of it circumstantial: McVeigh had read a book that was a virtual blueprint for blowing up a federal building. He had been “upset” over the burning of David Koresh’s compound near Waco. He had been angered by the infamous Ruby Ridge incident. Most terrorists are only too willing to “take credit” for their hideous attacks upon innocent victims, either by statements given to the media, or anonymous telephone calls informing the police that this or that terrorist group—from the IRA to Hizballah—was responsible.

Not McVeigh. No, he never had the courage to stand up and explain why he did what he did. Unlike many a martyr for a “cause,” McVeigh attempted to scurry away from the bombing, and then hoped he could somehow end up with a hung jury, and get off scot free.

Eventually, McVeigh was allowed to read a statement before the judge. There was no ringing condemnation of the government, no denunciation of the BATF or the FBI. There was no stentorian thunder railing against the evils of the status quo, no idealistic rhetoric about an attempted revolution. No, instead, there was an attack against the death penalty, and the tiresome old excuse that society must not attempt to right a wrong (apparently, the closest McVeigh has ever come to truly admitting to his monstrous crime) by perpetrating another wrong. Incredible. Obviously McVeigh hopes his plaintive crying about his “rights” will trigger an outpouring of sympathy, and perhaps bring about anti-death-penalty legislation.

Not all hate-filled terrorists are such cowards. The most obvious way in which some Arab fanatics “take credit” for their actions is to blow themselves to bits in suicide bombings.

When two terrorists strolled into an open air market in the heart of Jerusalem recently, dressed in Jewish attire, carrying briefcases, they were playing out the ultimate act of their hate-filled lives. Seething with inner rage, perhaps even praying to their own personal version of “Allah,” they sought to make their way into the most tightly-packed groups of shoppers before hitting a toggle switch that would detonate the bombs they carried, instantly blasting them to bits and shredding the bodies of innocent men, women, and children.

No one calls them cowards, of course. But one stands in shocked disbelief at the incredible degree of vicious hatred that steeps and seethes in the minds of such fanatics. McVeigh and his ilk are craven cowards in comparison. Not only did they seek to escape the scene of their vicious crime, they sought to wriggle out of the consequences by attempting to prove themselves “innocent’ of any wrongdoing. Above all, they wanted to live. Not only that, they wanted to remain free, so that they might stand back and see if their heartless, brutal act would trigger the violent “revolution,” the overthrow of the American government, they hoped would follow.

Whom Do You Hate?

Dean Martin’s theme song was “Everybody loves somebody, sometime.” The words probably should be changed to, “Everybody hates somebody most of the time.”

Whom do you hate? Who fills you with anger? Which human beings do you hold most in contempt? Who makes you mad? When you think about him, or her, or them—does your heart beat a little faster, your mind race with self-righteous indignation? Do your palms grow moist, and your eyes flash with hate?

Whom do you hate? A former close friend? A member of God’s church? A member of your own family—a brother, or sister, or even a parent or a child? Many calloused people seethe with hatred against perfect strangers. Someone who cuts in front of them in traffic, or who is rude to them, causes a burst of hatred and, like as not, an obscene gesture accompanied by an angry shout.

Millions hate. Like a dank, evil-smelling blanket of cloying filth, the spirit of hatred is abroad in the world. Only a few years ago, the news media sensationalized a vicious shooting on a Los Angeles freeway. One driver had cut in ahead of another, so the hate-filled, outraged, violently angry driver who had been so horribly insulted raced to pull up alongside, stuck a pistol out the window, and shot the unknown person who had so enraged him.

Within days, a violent, county-wide spree of hatred and rage turned the entire freeway system into a shoot-out at the OK Corral on wheels. It is said that every fourth automobile on the freeways has a gun inside. Apparently, thousands of citizens, no doubt moved by fear as well as hate, armed themselves. “If some [unprintable] takes a shot at me, I’ll kill the [unprintable] wretch,” many of them thought.

Thousands began taking alternate routes. The police beefed up their patrols. Many shootings were detailed in the newspapers and on television. Eventually, when the violent blood lust had subsided, the freeways returned to their normal high-speed, frenetic, angry, aggressive, accident-plagued pace. A frenzied spate of hatred had gripped the minds of thousands.

Think of the past few decades of world history in the light of hatred, that evil, violent, virulent, satanic emotion that is the same as murder in the human heart.

Bosnian Serbs hate the Croats, and the Croats hate the Serbs. Turks hate Greeks, and Greeks hate Turks and Italians. Irish Catholics hate the British and Irish Protestants. Protestants hate the Catholics and the IRA. Arabs hate Jews, and Jews hate Arabs. Some Arabs hate each other, while some extremist Jewish groups hate other Jews. Vietnamese hate Chinese, while communist Chinese hate the nationalist Chinese in Taiwan. Communists hate capitalists, and capitalists hate communists. Many whites hate blacks, Chicanos, Orientals, and any other minorities, while many blacks hate whites. Ibos hate the Hausas—and you and I can’t tell them apart. Zulus hate the Matabele, who hate the Zulus and most whites. Egyptians hate the Sudanese, the Jews, and the British. Iranians hate Americans, and refer to the U.S. as the “Great Satan.” North Koreans hate South Koreans, yet they are the same people, divided by different governments. The Japanese are in total contempt of Koreans, while the Filipinos hate the Japanese. Many French Canadians hate other Canadians of British descent, while many Canadians hate Americans and the hundreds of thousands of Chinese and other Orientals who have come pouring into Canada. Many Mexicans hate Americans, While many Americans are in contempt of Mexicans. The Crips hate the Bloods, Chicanos hate the Blacks, Blacks hate the Vietnamese and Koreans, while neighborhood gangs living only a few houses apart hate each other with murderous venom. Everybody hates somebody sometime—and many people hate almost everybody all of the time. Husbands hate wives, children hate their parents, activists for this or that cause hate the government, while government agents hate activists and militants.

Wherever you look, in whatever nation, in whatever neighborhood, and, sickeningly, inside many a church, and even inside a family, you can find terrible hatred!

WHY?

The Author of Hate

Your Bible says there is an evil, hate-filled Devil abroad in this world. A fallen archangel, once named “Lucifer,” who is called “the god of this world.” Paul wrote, “In whom the god of this world [Satan] 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 4:4). Satan is described as a hideous dragon, with a serpentine body, huge, bat-like wings, and an evil, snakelike head (Revelation 12:9), and as a “roaring lion.”

Peter wrote, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world” (1 Peter 5:8,9).

Satan HATES God. He hates the plan of God. He hates the fact that we human beings are made in the image of God, and that we have a vast and glorious human potential—that we can ultimately be born of God—that we will ultimately “judge angels” (1 Corinthians 6:3). He hates the prospect of his ultimate fate as revealed in Jude, where Satan and his demons are depicted as “raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever” (Jude 13).

Hate is of Satan. Love is of God.

For countless thousands of years, Lucifer went about as calumniator “trafficking” in animosity, resentment, jealousy, and hatred toward God. God had placed him on a beautiful, gem-like earth, over one full third of all the angels.

Notice the Bible description of his original state: “Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity [lawlessness, sin, rebellion toward God] was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire” (Ezekiel 28:12-16).

Ezekiel saw a vision of God’s throne being transported about the universe by four cherubim. The Ark of the Covenant was crafted with two cherubim, with wings overstretched above the “mercy seat,” depicting the throne of God. Lucifer was originally allowed right next to the very throne of the Almighty Elohim, the Sovereign Godhead.

The King James language is a bit obscure in this passage, but various Bible study helps make it clear that the expression “multitude of thy merchandise” means “by the vast amount of your going about as a calumniator, as a slanderer, as a ‘salesman’ selling your resentment, your anger, your jealousy, your hatred toward God.”

Jesus said, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven”(Luke 10:18). God cast Lucifer down to this earth after Satan attempted to unseat God from His throne. From that ancient time to this, Satan has attempted to destroy God’s plan. He is totally filled with hatred and resentment toward God—bitterly hate-filled toward mankind.

Like Satan, hate-filled humans go about as slanderers and calumniators, prating, tattling, gossiping, reasoning, cajoling, arguing, and explaining. People hate others who know their sins and weaknesses. The spiritual mind repents and forgives. The carnal mind seeks to justify the self and hate others. The greater the degree of guilt to a spiritual mind, the greater the brokenhearted repentance and humble sorrow. The greater the degree of guilt to the carnal mind, the greater the fierce anger and hatred directed toward others. The carnal mind is not subject to the laws of God (Romans 8:7). Instead of repenting in self-effacing humility, it seeks to slander others to direct attention away from itself.

Wise old King Solomon was inspired to write about deceitful, hypocritical slanderers. He said, “As coals are to burning coals, and wood to fire; so is a contentious man to kindle strife. The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly. Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd [a cheap clay pot] covered with silver dross. He that hateth dissembleth with his lips, and layeth up deceit within him; When he speaketh fair [deceitfully puts on a front], believe him not: for there are seven abominations in his heart. Whose hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness shall be showed before the whole congregation. Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him. A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it; and a flattering mouth worketh ruin” (Proverbs 26:21-28).

Study those words of wisdom carefully. Does it remind you of any situations in your own life? Does it remind you of institutions, such as schools and universities, the military, corporations, or churches? Does it remind you of close circles of friends and acquaintances, or even family?

It is human nature to hate. Human nature is a mixture of vanity, jealousy, lust, and greed. It is wholly self-centered, adoring self, loving self, exalting self. “The carnal mind is enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:7), because it deeply resents anything which would prick the conscience, and make the self appear anything less than perfect.

Thus, when the self is perceived to have been wronged, the carnal mind, influenced by Satan, lashes out in self-justification, anger, vituperation, resentment, and hatred against the one who has been perceived to be at fault. At all costs, the Satan-influenced carnal mind must not REPENT in heartbroken remorse over sin—instead, it seeks to justify the self, and point the finger of blame and hatred toward others.

Christ said Satan is the mastermind behind murder and hatred. He said to the Pharisees, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44). Though laden with sin, the Pharisees who heard Jesus make these statements became so blindly furious they sought to murder Christ!

Satan wrecked this earth in the first great “star wars” in history. In a frenzy of hatred, Satan lashed out at God in an attempt to depose Him from His throne. The lifeless, pockmarked, uninhabitable face of the moon, and planets like Mars, attest to the titanic struggle that destroyed the solar system, that changed what had been like the

“Garden of Eden” into a stygian black, tossing, endless sea. The first chapter of Genesis shows that all the continents were covered by water, that no light from the sun shone through.

Following the recreation of the earth, and the creation of man, Satan was instantly present, deceiving, lying, cajoling, reasoning with Eve. The Hebrew word nachash, translated “serpent,” means “whispering enchanter.”

Satan’s subtle lies brought about the “fall of man,” causing Adam and Eve to be thrust from the garden. He was the evil influence behind the first murder in all history—a murder which was fratricide—when Cain killed his own brother due to jealousy and hatred. This is an unspeakable, incredibly brutal act. Yet, it was carried out at the very dawn of human history, perpetrated by a son of humankind’s first parents, who had walked and talked with God in the garden. Satan’s influence caused it all. HE was greatly responsible for it all.

Satan personally attacked Job and viciously caused the death of his entire family. He influenced Herod to murder thousands of innocent little boys in Herod’s attempt to kill Christ. Satan influenced Judas Iscariot, eventually entering into him personally, causing him to betray Christ to be killed. Then, Satan left Judas, hating him for his weakness, and Judas, filled with self-loathing and hatred, hung himself. Once Satan is through with a hate-filled human being, he will rejoice in the self-destruction of the very agent he has used. There is no such thing as loyalty with the Devil. He is the ultimate epitome of disloyalty, of betrayal.

Satan has countless thousands of perverted, fallen angels, called “demons,” who can plant thoughts into human minds, and who can actually take possession of unsuspecting persons who do not have God’s protection. Satan hates God with a virulent, bitter, violent hatred! He hates God’s people! He hates God’s church! He hates God’s work!

Satan is the “prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2), the wicked, hate-filled, evil spirit that has deceived all nations (Revelation 12:9).

The racism, nationalism, tribalism, and religious hatreds listed above are only the tip of the iceberg of the raging hatred that steeps and seethes in the minds of countless millions of human beings. Satan does not concern himself with those who are completely deceived, lost in the pagan darkness of demented heathenism. He is not concerned with the hundreds of millions who are believers in ancestor worship, animism, and hundreds of pagan religions.

Satan need spend no time—not a single extra second-in deceiving those who are already deceived! No, instead, he concentrates FULL-TIME on trying to pervert, delude, deceive, tempt, and destroy the very ones who are converted; who are called out of this evil world to do God’s work! Satan HATES God’s begotten family of Christians, the Church of God!

He hates their families! He hates each individual! He especially hates those who are deeply involved in preaching the good news of Christ’s soon-coming kingdom as a witness to the world, for he knows that the closer we are to that glorious event, the closer he is to being hurled into a stygian “black hole” in the universe—completely away from this earth (Revelation 20:1-3).

Hatred of the Spiritual Pharisees

For decades, I have said, “Be careful about getting too close to some of these religious people you could get yourself killed!”

Does Jim Jones or David Koresh come to mind? Do the bodies of those who committed suicide in San Diego, thinking they were going to join the “mother ship” they believed was trailing along behind the Hale-Bopp Comet, come to mind? There are too many thousands of cases of the most vicious persecutions inflicted upon innocent victims by self-righteous “believers” in this or that religion to even begin to document. This includes horrifying tales of religious intolerance in the early colonial days of America, when suspected “witches” were burnt at the stake in Salem, Massachusetts.

Reflect for a few moments on “religious” history, and think of the countless tens of thousands who have been viciously, brutally tortured, skinned alive, burnt at the stake by RELIGIOUS leaders! Here is what Halley’s Bible Handbook says about the sordid history of the great “universal” church: “The Inquisition, called the holy office, was instituted by Pope Innocent III, and perfected under the second following Pope, Gregory IX. It was the Church Court for Detection and Punishment of Heretics. Under it everyone was required to inform against Heretics.

“Anyone suspected was liable to Torture, without knowing the name of his accuser. The proceedings were secret. The Inquisitor pronounced sentence, and the victim was turned over to Civil Authorities to be Imprisoned for Life, or to be Burned. The victim’s property was confiscated, and divided between the Church and the State….

“Later on the Inquisition was the main agency in the Papacy’s effort to Crush the Reformation. It is stated that in the 30 years between 1540 and 1570 no fewer than 900,000 Protestants were put to death in the Pope’s war for the extermination of the Waldenses….

“Think of Monks and Priests, in holy garments, directing, with Heartless Cruelty and Inhuman Brutality, the work of Torturing and Burning alive Innocent Men and Women, and doing it in the Name of Christ, by the direct order of the ‘Vicar of Christ.’

“The Inquisition was the Most Infamous and Devilish Thing in Human History. It was devised by Popes, and used by them for 500 years, to Maintain their Power. For its record none of the subsequent line of ‘Holy’ and ‘Infallible’ Popes have ever apologized” (Halley’s Bible Handbook, p. 777, emphasis mine).

One may take exception to labeling the Inquisition the most “infamous and devilish thing in human history” in the light of Hitler’s pogroms against the Jews during World War II, or the vast purges carried out by Stalin, but any of these incredibly cruel, brutal, vicious programs of deliberate torture and murder rank in the same filthy cesspool of human degradation and satanic hatred.

To any converted person, such horrifying things as torture and murder of another human being is so utterly foreign, so unthinkable, that it is rejected with revulsion. Yet, more murders have been carried out in the name of religion or in the name of a nationalistic worship of state than for any other reason.

Continually, the fanatically religious Jews attempted to kill Jesus Christ! Many times, they attempted to stone Him to death, or to seize Him, flay Him alive, and put Him to death! Again and again He escaped from them by losing Himself in a crowd. Eventually, of course, it was His own disciple, Judas, who betrayed Him.

Judas was a thief. He was the “treasurer” of the twelve, the one who carried the common purse and was therefore manager of their money. He was a crook. Because his conscience continually gnawed at him, he sought to deflect the piercing pangs of conscience by criticizing Jesus.

God’s Word reveals that it is SATAN who is the author of hatred in the world.

“For God So Loved the World”

People hate each other because of any number of things. They hate those who do not look like they do, who have different color of skin, or who dress differently or have a different language.

Human nature cannot separate the person from the sin. Someone perceived as being your enemy, someone who does not measure up to your standards of behavior and has wronged you or rejected you, is someone who is easy to hate.

God is entirely different. Almighty God loves a sinner while hating the sin. God is able to see the sinner as a victim of his own lusts, of persuasive influences around him, and of Satan’s influence. God does not lay the blame solely on the sinner, but knows that Satan, who is the author of sin, and was the first sinner, is a “partner in sin” with every sinning human being. When one is taken in a sin, God does not draw Himself up in righteous indignation and say, “He did it!”

How does a parent feel when a child has done something which causes the child to be badly hurt? Parents get angry with their children in such situations, but they are angry because they love the child, and do not want to see the child hurt! A child who has burnt or cut himself is not taken up by the parent and further burnt or cut! No, the parent immediately tries to alleviate the pain, and tries to love and comfort the child.

This is how God feels toward us. When we hurt ourselves through sin, God hates the sin—He hates the deed which has hurt His spiritual child, but He still loves the child!

Jesus Christ did not die for the righteous! He did not die for the SELF-righteous! No, He died for SINNERS!

Paul wrote, “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (Romans 5:6-9).

It is simply unthinkable for a carnal human mind to give his life for an enemy! Rather, we are taught to HATE our enemies, to attempt to defame them, malign them, even kill them! But Christ tells us to love our enemies! Notice: “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:44-48).

This is simply impossible for the carnal mind to accomplish. It is only through the power of God’s Holy Spirit that the hating, vengeful, carnal mind can be transformed into a loving, caring, forgiving mind.

The reason there is such hatred abroad in the minds of human beings is because there is so little of God’s Spirit! Christ said, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day”(John 6:44). Almighty God must call each person to repentance! Then, once God has called, it is up to the individual to either answer or reject that call!

Think of the vast mercy of God, who sent His Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, and who inspired Peter to preach repentance to the murderers of God’s own Son! Think of it! God began to call FIRST the very people who had, in a wild frenzy of hate, killed Christ!

Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call [God was CALLING these people to repentance—the very murderers of Christ!]…. Save yourselves from this untoward generation” (Acts 2:38-40).

Thousands repented! God forgave them! Christ forgave them! This is the epitome of love, and was voiced by Jesus Christ as He died on the stake: “Father, forgive them—for they know not what they do!”

How utterly DIFFERENT is this wondrous, forgiving, loving attitude from the spirit of satanic hate that steeps and seethes in the hearts of millions of carnal men!

Whom do you hate? Remember, Jesus said, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use [abuse] you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).

There is no room for hatred in the converted heart. No room for vengeance, or rancor, or hostility. The next time you pray, remember that Christ said if we have anything between ourselves and anyone else, we must go to our brother or sister, solve the problem, and then go to the altar of prayer.

The way to rid yourself of all hatred is as follows:

(1) Repent! But in order to repent, you must know what sin is, and what it is for which you need to repent.

(2) Be baptized. Baptism signifies the death, burial, and resurrection of the old self. It pictures the old, sinning body buried in a watery grave, the sins washed away by the blood of Christ, symbolized by the waters of baptism.

(3) Have hands laid on you for the receiving of God’s Holy Spirit.

(4) Begin to lead a life of prayer and overcoming. Prayer and hatred don’t mix. God’s Holy Spirit imparts “love, joy, peace” to the repentant sinner, not rancor, bitterness, and hatred!

(5) PRAY for those you formerly hated. Separate the sin from the sinner. Come to realize that Satan is the instigator of all sin, that all sinners have a partner in sin who has influenced them. LOVE the one you formerly hated by seeing them in a repentant condition. Let your mind imagine them tearfully repenting before God, coming to the full realization of all their sins and faults, crying out to God for forgiveness. See them in the future, when they come to realize with a shock that will rock them to the foundation of their being that they have sinned before God, and desperately need His forgiveness! See them as a repentant, baptized Christian, striving to overcome Satan, this evil world, and their own carnal nature. Then, love them as they will be, when God leads them to repentance. Love them as God loves them—God, who GAVE His only begotten Son, that whosoever (including anyone you have hated) believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life!

If you are praying FOR those who are enemies, you simply cannot hate them!

Love! Don’t hate!

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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.

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The post The Religion of Hate first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

It’s time we looked at our society as God sees it; time we faced the tidal wave of crime that threatens to engulf every law-abiding citizen; time we saw what the real solution to crime should be.

Today, your chances of being the victim of violent crime are greater than being injured in an auto accident. The chances of the average young male in the United States being shot are greater than the average G.I. during World War 11. Why?

Why is America reeling under the massive assault of crime? Why do criminals go unpunished; why do murderers sometimes serve no time at all; sometimes serve only a few years for killing another human being? Why are thousands kept alive on so-called “death rows” in prisons all over the country, their lives prolonged by appeal after appeal, while their victims have long been buried? Here is what the Bible says about crime; what God thinks of weak, insipid judges, lawyers, and a spineless, ineffectual, chaotic “criminal justice” system. Here is how CRIME COULD BE STOPPED!

Los Angeles in flames! Riots erupt following the “not guilty” verdict of the police officers who mercilessly beat Rodney King following a high speed chase.

As I was completing this booklet on violent crime, more than forty had been murdered in Los Angeles alone; hundreds of shops, restaurants, service stations, apartments, supermarkets and houses had been burned. Thousands had become injured. Thousands had been arrested. A curfew was imposed, and National Guard, regular Army, and Marine Corps troops called out.

The president addressed a shocked, angry nation as riots and violent demonstrations erupted in dozens of other cities. A policeman was shot in Las Vegas. Elsewhere, furious blacks took to the streets to vent their rage.

Today, America should hang its head in collective shame and remorse. While we attempt to display to the world a “kinder, gentler” face, yet maintain our “super power” status, we appear to the burgeoning, developing economic giants of Germany and Japan as a society suffering from the terminal disease of social rot. Right-wing Germans, among them neo-Nazis who demonstrate, beat minorities, and celebrate Hitler’s birthday, are given aid and comfort by America’s race riots. They see in them their own twisted justification for their violent, xenophobic racist hatreds; their raucous cries of “Foreigners out!”

World leaders were not especially kind in their remarks following the most violent race riots in America since 1965, in the middle of the Vietnam War. They commented on our “social problems,” saying it was obvious our system was somehow flawed.

The world over, America’s enemies smirked, rolled their eyes in disdain. Perhaps the U.S. can attempt to be “policeman of the world,” but it is obvious it cannot deter, or stem the massive avalanche of crime and lawlessness within its own borders.

French President Francois Mitterand commented on America’s grievous “social problems,” and hostile Arab states no doubt shook their heads with knowing grins, as Americans killed and burnt out Americans.

By the time you read these lines, the ashes will have cooled; “order” will have been restored, and officials at all levels—local, county, state, and federal—will be attempting to deal with the aftermath of several nights of mind-boggling destruction, stealing, looting, burning, and murdering.

Now, it is time to review the entire scenario from top to bottom with Solomonic wisdom, from the point of view of God’s Word.

Who was Wrong, and Why

In a series of related wrongdoing in the Rodney King case, a virtual litany of carnal-minded greed, vanity, ego, hatred and racism emerges. So does the utter failure of the American “criminal justice” system. So does the fact that you and I live in a violent-prone society, one that revels in violent entertainment, violent “solutions” to problems.

First, Rodney King was wrong; he was sinning against God, and he was breaking man’s laws when he sped at the incredible speed of 115 miles per hour through Los Angeles neighborhoods! By doing so, he was turning his vehicle into a lethal weapon, a hurtling threat to life and limb which could have killed an entire family in a crash. He was most definitely “resisting arrest” when he sped away from officers attempting to pull him over for questioning. An alleged felon, suspected drug user, he allegedly bared his bottom, made obscene gestures, and shouted obscene epithets to a female Highway Patrol officer, who was one of the first officers on the scene. This was a shameful crime, a sin against God.

He now claims he was not “resisting” arrest. Many, many police officers claim he was. They thought, at the time, that he was under the influence of “PCP,” a powerful, mind-altering drug; that, when four officers tried to pin him to the ground, he threw all four of them off. Later tests proved this was not so; that he was drunk on alcohol.

Nevertheless, once they had him on the ground, the officers were wrong, and they were committing sin against God and their fellow man, breaking the law, violating their own codes they swore to uphold, when they continued beating, beating, beating the man when he lay helpless. Reports say there were as many as twenty-one police officers present. How simple it would have been for six or eight of them to simply sit on the man until they quieted him, rather than beat him so mercilessly they broke several bones! That beating simply was wrong! It was excessive, unjustifiable, in the light of each person’s civil rights, and millions of Americans saw the beating taking place over and over again on television.

The private citizen who video taped the final part of the episode was wrong. Had he been motivated by outrage, driven by a desire for justice, he could have made copies of the tape, placed them in a safety-deposit box. He could then have gone to the mayor’s office, the police Commission, the chief of police, and other appropriate agencies and shown them the tape. He could have demanded justice for the beaten man; demanded a full investigation; demanded the officers be fired, that criminal charges be filed.

Instead, he was motivated by greed. He sold his tape to the highest bidder! Predictably, the media then did what they always seem to do. In a scramble for sensationalism, for ratings, they showed the tape to shocked Americans dozens and dozens of times! In the first two or three days following the beating, millions of Americans, and people overseas, saw the video.

Having seen it about forty times myself, I remarked to my wife how sickening it was, and how, if the media did not stop exacerbating the situation, there would be attacks on police, perhaps even race riots!

Those in the media who make such decisions are wrong; they are sinning against God and mankind! They must bear full responsibility for their greedy exploitation of sensationalism, for inflaming the passions of millions, for insuring it would be next to impossible for a fair trial to ensue.

Now, hamstrung by the vast publicity and notoriety, the judicial system became involved in this litany of sin and error. The responsible judge or judges who decided to move the trial to an all-white community, a community m which many white L.A. police officers live, were wrong. Had they been sensitive to the potential racial violence stiffed up by repeated showings of the film; sensitive to potential rioting if the verdict were anything but “guilty,” they might have acted differently.

Ideally, the trial should have taken place in the community where the alleged crimes were committed. Ideally, the jury should have been racially mixed, with blacks, whites, perhaps even others, such as Oriental-Americans and Chicanos, or Mexican-Americans represented. That way, the appearance of a rigged, “racist” overtone to the entire process would not have been signaled to already angered, inflamed blacks all over the country.

The verdict was simply wrong. It was astounding, shocking beyond words that a “not guilty” verdict could be handed down. However, let us attempt to dispassionately understand how such a verdict might have appeared correct to the jury. First, viewing the whole episode with unbiased objectivity, one must admit the brief video clip seen repeatedly on the nightly news was but the final part of a very lengthy, very dangerous drama. One must review the entire trial, know who were the jurors, hear the testimony, hear the judge’s parting instructions to judge the case solely on the merit of evidence presented. One must realistically face the fact that the jurors, all white, saw several young, typically American, clean-cut police officers daily for a period of many, many weeks; heard them testifying about fellow officers shot; about their fears that of being assaulted, perhaps shot with their own guns; about their fears such might occur in the case of Rodney King.

One must realize a mood was gradually set in that courtroom; realize how some of the white female jurors’ prejudices might have been aroused; how the issue of drugs, crime, violence are disproportionately large among blacks in black communities.

The jurors saw and heard a great deal of evidence and information which was not contained in the brief tape seen on television. Further, in what seems an incredible decision, Rodney King never testified. It is hard to justify the prosecution’s decision in this regard, unless one realizes the prosecution must have known that tough cross-examination about King’s drug usage, his attitudes toward police, his criminal record, and his high-speed flight would have damaged their case.

Then came the shocking news: The jurors had found the officers “not guilty.” Not guilty? Millions of Americans, white, black, yellow, and brown, asked themselves, “Do you mean to say those jurors are telling me the police DID NOT BEAT that man?”

I was astounded when one of the jurors, a white woman, claimed she didn’t believe her verdict had anything to do with the rioting that followed. Such a statement, made on “Larry King Live” shortly after the riots broke out, is worse than prejudiced; it is stupidly ignorant, absolutely obtuse!

Now, once all these wrongs had been committed, the media once again committed another wrong. They should have tempered their announcements of a “not guilty” verdict with the message of new charges and of a new trial for the officer who did most of the beating. They should have spoken of federal investigation and of appellate proceedings.

But now the die was cast; now, furious, savagely angry blacks took to the streets.

What followed was a vast melee of sin and crime that made the Rodney King beating look trivial in retrospect.

It is axiomatic that sin plus sin does not equal NO SIN. No, it equals two Sins! Poison plus poison is twice as much poison! “Two wrongs don’t make a right” is the way a parent with common sense might state it to a child. Black leaders urged us to “understand” the rage blacks felt. I do. We do. But must we “understand” why the only outlet for such rage is murder, arson, beatings, theft, and riot? Of course not. Rage can be channeled in constructive ways. Massive marches could have been organized; strikes, protests, petitions—a massive outcry could have forced changes in police procedure and in the criminal justice system. It could have been done within the law.

Because some third party I do not know beats a man I never met, should I kill an innocent bystander? Because I saw a beating on television, should I smash, steal, loot, and then murder—should I burn down the local supermarket where my friends and neighbors have jobs?

It is time those who are so quick to react with rage and violence realized some simple truths; think dispassionately, with Solomonic wisdom, and Christ-like love and mercy, for a change.

Think about two different men in Los Angeles. One, a white police officer, let us assume, for the sake of argument, is no more “racist” than any other person—perhaps he has a black partner; is not guilty of racial bias. He is a high school graduate, with perhaps a year or two of college, and a graduate of the police academy.

His preparation for graduation includes classes in police psychology, how to handle arrests, how to be sensitive to each individual’s civil rights, how to avoid the use of “excessive force.” In the course of his training, he hears of dozens of examples, sees films, attends lectures by senior officers who have vast experience.

Finally, he is qualified to wear a gun and baton, carry handcuffs, and wear a badge.

Is it now impossible for such a person to simply lose his temper in a violent, dangerous situation? Is it?

Consider a young black man in Watts. He dropped out of school in the fifth grade. He grew up in the streets, has “done drugs,” and is the product of a broken home. He has no job. He seethes with resentment about his poverty, about living in a virtual ghetto, about the contrast between his grinding poverty and the obvious prosperity of many Korean Americans in the neighborhood. He has grown up with peers who tend to join gangs, who use drugs, and who resort to violence when it suits their objectives.

Of course, we are told by civil rights leaders and black leaders that we are to “understand” black rage; “understand” the anger and frustration which allegedly caused all the rioting, beating, shooting, and burning.

Are we to assume that every police officer, white or black, Mexican-American or Oriental-American, must possess the patience of Job, the wisdom of Solomon, and the love and mercy of Jesus Christ? Are we to assume that, while such young black men are virtually expected to burst out in violent rage, a police officer always keeps his cool, no matter how violent, threatening, or vicious the provocation?

Would it not seem obvious to most that if you provoke a man armed with a baton and a gun, you might cause him to lose his temper; to FORGET, in his anger, his careful training? Is this not a risk people run when they insult, kick, spit upon, curse, hurl filthy epithets at police? Are police the ONLY people in society not allowed to be human in their reactions?

It was sickening to the marrow of the bone to see black leaders justifying this savage mob violence; to wait in vain for them to decry the violence, instead of being so quick to “understand” it; to take the leadership in showing how to mobilize and constructively channel outrage over civil rights violations to effect meaningful change, to make things better, not burn down cities!

Those who rioted—tens of thousands of them all over the country—were simply committing criminal acts! They were sinning against God and mankind; in many cases, destroying their own neighborhoods, where others earned their livelihood.

In the ultimate hypocrisy, as many young, violent blacks reacted against what they said was “racism,” they singled out Koreans for beating and burning!

As the ashes cooled, some leaders began differentiating between understanding” the violence, and condoning it.

Quick to exploit any situation, politicians leapt into the fray. Democratic hopefuls condemned the Republican White House; blamed the whole thing on a poor civil rights record; on a lack of government housing, hand-outs, jobs. The president addressed the nation, tried to place the entire mess in some proper perspective. His message was predictably attacked as self-serving.

For weeks afterward, the debate raged. On every newscast, every talk show, every TV and radio call-in show, people vented their spleens, raged, blamed, shouted, made mindless, racist, bigoted statements spawned by miseducation and stupidity.

Here and there among all the screaming and invective, calmer, wiser voices were heard. Perhaps, in the tragic after-math, meaningful reform will occur. Perhaps.

Meanwhile, do you believe there was even one person out of the thousands who rioted who wondered, “What will our enemies, our critics, even our allies abroad think about all this?” Of course not. No, when hatreds and passions are aroused, all logic and all the Christian values of objectivity, fairness, meekness, patience, faith, and forgiveness go out the window.

God is not the Author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33). Satan is! God is not the Author of chaos, violence, looting, raping, stealing, vandalizing, shooting, stabbing, beating, burning, destroying—Satan is! Satan and his minions must have been cavorting amidst the flames, gleefully cackling to themselves as they watched the mindless mob furiously beat and shoot innocent victims to death!

The Thin Veneer of Civilization

It is, no wonder Godless atheists believe human beings evolved from animals, for, all too often, men act like ravening beasts! No, worse. Even a marauding lion only kills to eat.

God says “… the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:7). The fleshly mind, apart from God’s Spirit, is a lawless mind; a mind of ego, vanity, greed, selfishness, pride, resentment, jealousy, spite, vindictiveness, and racist hatred.

God’s Word describes perfectly the times in which we live, the attitudes of people: “This know also, that in the last days, perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves [selfish, utterly unconcerned for others], covetous [lusting after things, like VCRs, TV sets, radios, which the looters carried off with expressions of glee], boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents [most of the rioters and looters were young people], unthankful, unholy, without natural affection [brutish, calloused, pitiless toward victims], trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good; Traitors, heady [self-willed, head-strong], highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God…” (2 Timothy 3:14).

How utterly ironic that, as man has accumulated technical knowledge, he has retrogressed in behavior. For all our vaunted scientific and technological development; for all our boastful vanity and pride about our military power, our probes into space, our walk on the moon, and our attempts to “save our planet,” we have not yet learned to live together in peace!

Notice how Isaiah characterizes all of society; education, government, science, criminal justice—all of it!

God says: “Behold the Eternal’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities [lawbreaking] have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; and your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perverseness. None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity” (Isaiah 59:1-4).

This entire chapter is given over to a powerful indictment against the incredible Godlessness, immorality, and cynical, criminal mentality of God’s people! Notice how God begins to describe murderers, liars, and an all-pervasive attitude of deliberate avoidance of truth and justice!

Some other excerpts: “Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. 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 … And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity [fairness] cannot enter.

“Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the Eternal saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment” (Isaiah 59:7-15).

You and I live in a Godless, law-breaking, immoral, nihilistic society of pleasure-seeking rebels who utterly refuse to keep the Ten Commandments of God! Not only is racism the so-called “justification” for crime, so is joblessness, lack of education, poverty, or simple envy!

Search through thousands of law books, investigate the laws protecting violent criminals, and study the entire process called “criminal justice,” and see if you can find any reference to God, the laws and Ten Commandments of God, the justice and judgment of God, or even the acknowledgment that God exists!

Society sees criminal justice as a function of the judiciary branch of government and sees all government as utterly separate from anything having to do with God, or the Bible!

Since all man-made laws are based upon the concept that justice is relative—that the changing mores of society, the tiresome swinging of the pendulum of libertine people from one extreme to another, the gradual erosion of a former “Judeo-Christian ethic” into an era of permissiveness and licentiousness—forms the underpinnings of all legislation, there is no acknowledgment of God, no appeals to His Word, and therefore “…is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us…” (Isaiah 59:9).

Our Pitiful Criminal Justice System

Quite apart from the recent rioting, we live in a violent, lawless society where criminals rarely receive even a fraction of appropriate punishment for their crimes!

Just prior to the riots in Los Angeles, I was treated to the usual sickening litany of crime and violence I hear practically every morning over cable TV from Dallas, Texas. The body of a young woman had been found dumped in a gravel pit near the Trinity River in Southwest Dallas. Police were awaiting forensic tests on the badly decomposed body to determine whether or not it was that of a 22-year old who was abducted from a car wash in Waco in March.

The suspect in the crime had also abducted and murdered at least two other young women in the recent past. He was a parolee, who had brutally killed three young people almost twenty years before: a handsome young man and a beautiful young girl, fiancees about to be married, and the girl’s younger sister, about fourteen. The man had been convicted of this savage, bestial crime; he had raped and then strangled the girl, and shot the other two. He was convicted and sentenced to death. Then, the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional,” so his sentence was changed to life imprisonment. Less than twenty years later, a group of men and women who sit on a parole board decided he should be released.

Shortly after his release, he has gone out and kidnapped, raped, and murdered at least three more young women. The father of the young man killed twenty years ago was interviewed by the news media. He said, “That parole board needs to have its eyes pop open—needs to see the blood, and know about the pain and suffering of the victims.” He said the responsibility for all the pain and suffering of the families of these new victims should be squarely on the heads of the parole board.

Even to the present, the parents of the slain youngster from so long ago visit the grave of their son each week, taking fresh cut flowers, grieving over their loss. Their son’s killer, freed by a parole board, is presently roaming the country, looking for new victims to rape and kill. One cannot help but wonder how the parole board would feel if one of them, or one of their daughters or granddaughters, were his next victim.

A few years ago, a shaken young man went to the police here in Tyler, Texas, with a terrible story. He had brutally beaten a young woman with a motorcycle chain, thrown her into a copse of woods in the countryside. Thinking she may still be alive, and suddenly remorseful over his violent acts, he took them to the site. But it was too late. She had already died of her injuries.

At his trial, defense attorneys argued he should not have confessed, that the police had no right to know about the murder, that he should have had an attorney present to tell him not to reveal what he had done and not to disclose the location of the victim. Nevertheless, the murderer was convicted and sentenced to death.

But an appeal was filed. The appellate judge was more sympathetic. The verdict was overturned, and the man was set free. In the opinion of the appellate judge, the evidence was technically “inadmissible.” Since the jury should have heard nothing of his confession or of his leading police to the scene; since the jury should have been met only with stony silence on the part of the murderer, there would have been no evidence to tie him to the killing. He was set free.

When the father of the murdered girl was interviewed by the local Tyler paper, he said he would kill the man if he could only find him.

So far as I know, this vicious killer is still free, today, while the body of his victim has moldered in her grave.

Unusual cases?

Not at all. Today, thousands of such cases are reported every year, all across America.

God’s prophet Ezekiel wrote of our country, our cities. God told him, “Make a chain: for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence” (Ezekiel 7:8). The links of a chain were to represent the endless cycle of crime and violence among God’s people—to show how blood touched blood, how one act of brutal murder followed another—to illustrate mass murder, “serial” killings!

Could there be any more apt description of our teeming cities?

Millions of Americans live in terror each night. In a recent television newscast, elderly Dallas residents were being interviewed by a reporter inside their homes concerning the high crime rate, drug “crack houses,” gang shootings, and murder in their neighborhood. While the interview was being conducted, several gunshots were clearly heard outside!

All across the land—in Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Houston, New York, Atlanta, Dallas and Forth Worth—violent crimes are being committed at an unprecedented, alarming rate. Youthful gangs, shooting at rivals, spray bullets into crowds, into homes, businesses. Almost daily, we see pictures of little children, babies in cribs, teenagers shot down. They just happened to be “in the way” when vicious little cowards sped by in a car, shooting out of the window.

The horror stories are endless. It would require a thick book just to detail the murders, rapes, arson, muggings, armed robberies, burglaries, drug deals, drive-by shootings, car thefts, and other forms of violence perpetrated in our cities and towns over just one weekend!

Why?

Why are the law-abiding citizens of our country oftentimes living in FEAR, cowering indoors, while violent, calloused, cynical, cowardly thugs are roaming free, looking for victims?

Hair-shirted, breast-beating, do-gooder, wimpish parole boards, defense lawyers, appellate judges, and radical left-wing civil liberties groups clearly espouse policies revealing they feel they are more righteous than God!

God says murderers should be put to death! The breast-beating do-gooders say, “Oh, how HARSH! How INHUMANE! Why, we would only be ‘descending to their level’ to do such a thing!”

God’s method of criminal justice is completely UNFAIR to these people! What God’s Word says about rape, arson, robbery, injury, and bloody murder—the penalties God prescribes for these vicious, bestial crimes are far too harsh for these spineless tremblechins who weep for the poor criminal but seem unmoved by the oceans of tears shed by the loved ones of their victims; unmoved by the horrifying terror, agony, excruciating pain and suffering, mental and physical, endured by those who were brutally killed!

Such arrogant, calloused, indifferent wimps are judged of God as being themselves guilty of horrifying crimes! The appellate judge; the crafty defense attorney who cares nothing for truth, but cares only for his fee and his reputation; the uncaring, indifferent parole boards who release hardened criminals onto our streets are themselves the object of God’s righteous indignation, His Divine WRATH!

God says of them: “Woe unto them that draw iniquity [lawbreaking] with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:

“That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it! [In other words, God has gone way off somewhere, is not concerned, and cannot intervene!] Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

“Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight…. Which justify the wicked for reward [like defense lawyers and appellate judges who regularly “plea bargain” violent crimes into lesser offenses, allow murderers and hardened criminals to go free] and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!” (Isaiah 5:18-23).

Is not this an apt description of the entire criminal justice system of the United States today?

These quavering, spineless, God-defying people sit there on their parole boards and judge God as being TOO HARSH! To them, if evil people hurt or kill good people, the good people must not exact an appropriate penalty. It is perfectly all right, according to their Milquetoast attitude, for the bad to commit bad to the good; but let not the good commit bad to the bad!

See if a few examples of recent parole board decisions do not sicken you:

CASE: Carl Wayne Buntion: 11 felony convictions, 9 prison terms, serves 15 months of 15-year sentence for sexually assaulting a child, released on 6th parole. Weeks later he murders Houston police officer Jim Irby.

CASE: Samuel Barnett: 20 convictions dating from 1969, serves half of 12-year sentence for raping 9-year-old girl, released. Days later he rapes the same girl again, now 15, in the same East Oakland garage.

CASE: Alan Rose: Shoots wife, serves 7 months of 7-year sentence, out on probation in Florida. Shoots and kills his girlfriend.

CASE: Donald Leroy Evans: Long arrest record dating from 1974, serves 5 years of 15-year sentence for sexual assault, paroled. Arrested in Louisiana, claims to have killed 60 people in 10 years across 20 states.

CASE: Raymond Paul Wisecarver: Serves 4 years of 8-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter, released. Arrested in California for 60 armed robberies in a 7-month crime spree.

CASE: James Pough: Charged with manslaughter in 1971, plea-bargains to aggravated assault, serves 5 years on probation, criminal record expunged. His 1990 suicidal shooting rampage in Florida claims 9 lives.

In a recent ad campaign, the National Rifle Association announced a new campaign called “Crime Strike,” with two-page, full-color ads in several American sporting magazines. Among the many startling statistics revealed, they reported that criminals have a ninety-five percent chance of avoiding any time in jail for their crimes; that a serious crime in the United States will only cost the criminal an average of eight and one-half days in prison; that thirty-eight out of fifty states are now under court orders to release tens of thousands of criminals presently behind bars; that two out of three released criminals will be arrested again within thirty-six months!

Further, they stated that four out of five state prison inmates are repeat offenders! As proof of the total collapse of the American “criminal justice” system, they cited how seventy percent of all violent crimes are committed by only six percent of all violent criminals. More than half of these are released to the streets while they await trial. Of those who are free to roam the streets, twenty percent escape, while another sixteen percent commit other crimes. Shockingly, for every one hundred serious crimes committed, only five criminals go to jail!

The NRA is attempting to mobilize the power of publicity and create a groundswell of outrage among honest citizens around the country in order to accomplish the following:

* Identify armed repeat offenders and demand just punishment.

* Disclose conviction and sentencing records of lenient prosecutors and judges.

* Expose plea-bargainers who downgrade charges against armed criminals.

* Reveal parole board members who release violent criminals to our streets.

* Unseat politicians who oppose mandatory sentencing and building adequate prison space.

* Overturn laws and rulings that favor criminals.

* Lobby for adequate manpower, equipment and resources for local police departments.

But will this be enough? Do you believe the failed criminal justice system in the United States is going to be corrected because of such programs?

If so, you had better think again. For, while we can laud the NRA and other agencies for doing all they can, the problem in the United States of America is so deep-rooted, so all-pervasive, so much a part of the sin-sick, God-rejecting, law-breaking, calloused, corrupt character ofmillions of people that all such efforts are like attempting to stop an onrushing tidal wave by tossing a handful of pebbles in its path!

Is It too Late for America?

Do you think for one minute that if a Democrat had been in the White House during the 1980s the criminal justice system would have been different?

Do you believe for one moment one political party is solely responsible for the incredible erosion of criminal justice? Can one say the Bush administration is solely responsible for the weak, insipid, spineless miscarriage of justice in the shocking cases listed above?

Then think again. Even more than any given administration, Democratic or Republican, the U.S. Supreme Court is at the heart and soul of the criminal justice system. Their “on again, off again” vacillation over the death penalty and their decisions involving prisoners on death row have done great harm. When some new administration comes in power, this does not change the character either of congress or the judiciary.

Newly-elected officials find they are driven by deep-seated forces which may have been put in place three or four terms previously, by a man long dead! It is easy for politicians to search for scapegoats, to make political hay over social unrest, blaming each other. For Republicans to blame Johnson’s “great society” programs is ludicrous. For Democrats to blame George Bush for the riots in Los Angeles is equally ludicrous.

Can our politicians, our civic leaders, our civil rights advocates bring crime down to almost nothing? Can they succeed in creating a harmonious, peaceful, law-abiding society, with “liberty and justice for all“? Let’s look at the true causes of crime, and not just deal with the effects:

The Underlying Causes for Crime

Crime is sin. It is the breaking of law. God says, “Sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4). Asking what causes crime is like asking what causes sin.

The answer is contained in human nature.

As God’s Word says, “verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity” (Psalm 39:5), and, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

Human nature is essentially vanity, jealousy, lust and greed. It is entirely selfish, self-serving, self-centered. This total selfishness manifests itself in self-preservation, self-determination, self-perpetuation. Without controls and restraints imposed by the institutions of society, there would be no such thing as “law and order.”

Only when one understands that the basic nature of man is criminal—hostile toward authority—can one truly understand the problem of crime in society. Because some deceived professing Christian leaders teach that human nature is basically good, many do not understand.

Some dreamers even imagine that “God” is not a Person, not a Divine Ruler, or Creator, but is an abstract concept—the “goodness” and “decency” within human nature. So long as such deceived, Satanic concepts prevail, the real causes for human failings will elude them.

Human nature is a mixture of good and evil, with the evil tending to predominate. Most assume that man is good; that evil exists only in extreme cases such as mental derangement, temporary insanity, and rage. The verdict “not guilty by reason of insanity” for bloody murderers is shocking proof of this idiotic notion. It is proof that legislators and judges cannot bring themselves to believe that filthy killers were perfectly aware of what they were doing and probably enjoyed it as they killed fellow human beings. “Not guilty”? With bodies filling the morgue? With the killer standing there with a bloody knife or smoking gun in his hand?

Today, because of this underlying concept of the “goodness” of human nature, it is assumed bestial murders are aberrant behavior—an act of “temporary” insanity! Since no sane, good, decent person could ever viciously kill someone, juries are told, the murderer must not have known what he was doing; must have been “insane,” acting in an aberrant fashion, completely the opposite of his innate “goodness.” How many people have been killed, and the murderers go to comfortable quarters in a minimum-security hospital, judged “not guilty by reason of insanity,” only to be released within months or years when some psychiatrist says they are now once again “normal”?

We apply terms like “humanitarian” to mankind, meaning God-like qualifies of empathy, loving concern. Ascribing these God-like qualities to human nature is erroneous. Certainly, under given conditions, human beings can be moved with compassion, can make great sacrifices out of feelings of protectiveness and mercy. Nevertheless, human nature, apart from God’s Holy Spirit, remains hostile toward God, resentful of authority.

If the judiciary recognized that the nature of man is essentially sinful, and therefore law-breaking, perhaps the entire process of “criminal justice” could be revamped.

Law and Order

No society can survive without laws. No society can survive without protection of the innocent from criminals. No society can survive in chaos, anarchy, violence, a complete absence of orderly tranquillity. Yet, to many, the term “law and order” conjures up draconian visions of rednecked police brutality. Millions scoff at the term, equating it only with police brutality, excesses of police in certain sensational cases.

But without law and order, no society can function. Families cannot survive; businesses cannot thrive; schools cannot teach—society itself grinds to a halt. The kind of law and order needed is not the kind usually meant by blacks who speak of the injustices which lead to riot, but the kind of law and order which allows every citizen, black or white, yellow or brown, to pursue his goals of happiness and success; law and order which seeks to contain and control crime, drugs, violence, so communities may live in peace.

Unfortunately, human beings tend to paint given situations with a very wide brush. A case here and there of police brutality, and minorities react against all police. While minorities are enraged by racism, saying it is wrong to discriminate against all blacks because some blacks in the urban areas are involved in drugs and crime, those same minorities often tend to stereotype all police as red-neck brutes, just waiting for an opportunity to lord it over blacks.

Gradually, progress has been made. Many of America’s largest cities now have black mayors; many blacks have sought employment in large city police departments; many blacks are active in city councils, city and state governments.

A few years ago, a young black man in the ghetto summed up the attitude of many toward Los Angeles police. He complained, “They come riding through here on those motorcycles, acting big….”

But how does a motorcycle policeman not ride on his motorcycle? Should he wear, instead of blue uniform, badge, and white helmet, a hippie costume, and a German army helmet? Was he “acting big,” or does hostility and resentment toward symbols of authority just make it seemthat way to some?

To many, “law and order” means white supremacy, police brutality, red-necked, southern sheriffs mistreating blacks. “Law and order” is not used in that sense here. Instead, it is used in its purest sense: equal treatment under the law; order, meaning tranquillity, calm, peace, safety, protection, for everyone!

Now, let us see one of the fundamental, root causes for crime and violence.

It All Begins at Home

At the very foundation of society lies the family. The family is where every child first learns acceptable social behavior; learns how to conduct himself in public, how to give, share, serve. When parents are in their proper roles, with a strong father figure who is breadwinner, and a mother who is supervisor of the home and children, an environment exists which is conducive to rearing children who embrace solid, Christian values; children who know it is a sin and a crime to hit, to lie, to cheat, to steal; children who know it is a virtue to tell the truth, to help, share, serve—to give, rather than get.

The family unit is not an accident of “nature.” In the beginning, God created both sexes. He commanded, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).

God so designed human beings that the male and female are perfectly corresponding to each other; perfectly suited, adapted, mated. The family unit is not the end result of millions of years of evolution. It is designed by God. The Creator has given mankind a handbook to accompany His creation: the Bible.

In the Bible, the Word of God, are the instructions about how we human creatures function; the right ways which lead to success, fulfillment, happiness, reward. Also contained in the Bible are the warnings about the wrong way—the way of sin and crime, which leads to everything we don’t want!

What do you want out of life, after all?

Don’t you want, first of all, peace of mind, freedom from fear, good health, success, happiness, joy?

Each week, when our ministers meet with me in our Thursday morning prayer breakfasts, we must wade through dozens of letters, some tear-stained, begging for God to intercede. In most cases, the heartbroken appeals ask for help with the family. Divorce, desertion, wife-beating, drunkenness, drugs, child-abuse—we must read, each Thursday, the terrible results of sin within families!

Heartbroken grandparents tell us of children’s marriages gone awry; of husbands who are unfaithful, and who will not provide for their children; of grandchildren on drugs—every conceivable human aberration, a litany of sin.

Sometimes, I must comment, after reading a particularly long, tragic letter, that what this person is really wanting is God’s Kingdom to be set up on this earth—for Christ to come and RULE the world with a rod of iron! Read Revelation 2:26, and Revelation 19, to understand.

Yes, millions want all the wonderful things in life. Instead, they have all the sin and crime; all the aches and pains, kicks and bruises, failures and curses. Why? Because of one of the most fundamental sins of all society—the breakdown of the God-ordained family!

Today, America’s families are disintegrating at an alarming pace. Divorce, “pair-bound” relationships, “live-ins,” abandonment, desertion, illegitimacy, homosexual “marriages”—the assault on the God-ordained institution of marriage is enormous.

Statistics prove that, for decades, there has been one divorce for every two marriages each year. In the five-year period from 1981 to 1985, inclusive, there were five million, four hundred, thirty-five thousandchildren affected by divorce, averaging more than one million per year.

These children, now growing into their teens and young adulthood, victims of broken homes, will never know the security of a God-ordained home, with a father figure in his appropriate role, a mother in the home, being taught solid, Godly values. Any child taught to fear God and obey His laws will have little difficulty obeying the laws of man. A child reared by God-fearing parents who believe in God’s Ten Commandments and strive to obey them will have no difficulty with respect for the rights and property of others. It was not children such as these who rioted in Los Angeles; who beat, broke, stole, burnt, and murdered. Instead, it was those who had not been taught Godly virtues, and who had not been told and shown by example that wrong plus wrong does not equal right, that crime does not justify more crime, that sin plus sin does not equal righteousness.

Any person who has been taught that one sin does not deserve another knows better than to give himself over to rage and go out and murder a Korean, or burn down a supermarket because police brutally beat a man they don’t know.

In addition to all these children whose parents divorced, there are millions more who do not know who their father was; who are illegitimate, born out of wedlock, living with a single mother.

These arrogant, sinning young women, conscienceless about the lives they are bequeathing to illegitimate children, think nothing about the effects upon such children when they grow into their teens, and must endure the usual questions. How do they fill out questionnaires in school? How do they answer their peers’ questions about their father, their family? These immoral, uncaring young women are like factories, producing shoddy, inferior, twisted, undependable goods. Their children have little chance of becoming useful citizens, little chance of real success in life.

Abortion, for all its genocidal, grisly evil, is another poignant reminder of the millions of illicit, God-defying sexual relationships where an unwanted pregnancy occurs outside of marriage. In too many cases (and abortion is not the answer), single women are paid by the government for giving birth to illegitimate children! By the time they reach their pre-teens, hundreds of thousands of these children are on the streets, rubbing shoulders with pimps, prostitutes, drug pushers, burglars, petty crooks, rapists, arsonists, thugs and murderers. Hundreds of thousands of them drop out of school in the fifth, seventh, ninth grades and everywhere in between, then blame society because they cannot get and hold a good job when they are in their twenties.

If divorce were against the law—if marriages were only contracted with the firm knowledge that, once married, the couple are bound for life, a massive tidal wave of evil could be dissipated; an enormous amount of crime and violence would disappear. Divorce should be made so difficult that it could only occur under the most extreme circumstances, and even then, with substantial fines imposed. If all religions understood God’s teaching about divorce (God says, “I HATE DIVORCE!”), then the combined influences of family and church would cut the divorce rate down to a minuscule percentage.

If divorce were a social disgrace instead of the laid-back, devil-may-care, Hollywood marriage-go-round it is today among so-called “stars” and others in entertainment, families would stay together.

With such laws in place, people would not marry until they were more mature. Teenagers would not be marrying when they had no visible means of support, no savings, no future.

People would be much more chary about falling in “lust,” instead of “falling in love.” This is a ridiculous term, for a fall is an accident. People should not marry accidentally. Marriage should take place only after people really get to know one another in every way—except sexually. Today, the first thing people want to know is how they will be together sexually. The lust for sexual gratification is placed first, when it should be the last thing to be considered. Two people who genuinely like each other; who, through shared experiences, conversation, problem solving, shared interests, hopes and dreams, learn to deeply care for one another, who are attracted to one-another because of shared values; who gradually grow to deeply love one-another will have no difficulty whatsoever with the amorous side of marriage.

The entertainment media, books, magazines, TV, movies, exploit sex in a deafening roar, an avalanche of pornographic lust. If a book claims to be “explicit,” or “steamy,” it is sure to sell. Young people exposed to this never-ending stream of vivid sex scenes on home television, of centerfolds in pornographic magazines sold in local grocery stores, are given the clear impression that sex, sexual gratification, is the main ingredient in human relationships. How tragically, utterly wrong is this concept.

The statistics listing “sexually active” children down in the fifth and sixth grades are shocking. AIDS is now reaching into the primary schools! Debates rage about whether youngsters barely into their teens, and even pre-teens, should have access to private AIDS examinations, apart from parental knowledge.

All of this—the avalanche of sexual information and exploitation, without the balance of true, Godly knowledge about sex; why God designed us the way He did, how to live happily and successfully—is one of the root causes of crime. The so-called “sexual revolution” has ripped apart millions of marriages, cast millions of potentially successful, useful citizens onto the garbage heap of twisted, perverted values—hostility to authority, a criminal mentality.

Today, children marry children, who are often already pregnant. Children are giving birth to children. Half of teen-age marriages break up in the first year. Enormous numbers of single mothers are represented in the 25 to 44-year-old labor force; millions of waitresses, clerks, tellers, truck drivers, secretaries, servicewomen, go-go dancers, without a husband at home. Are the children of these marriages the stuff of a decent, productive, peaceful society?

If marriage were forever, it would be entered into only after a time of traditional courtship; a time involving both sets of parents, wholesome activities, meaningful dating, really getting to know the potential partner. Marriages would be contracted only when sufficient financial preparation had occurred; only when it was obvious that true love was present, not merely lust. Love is, first, outgoing concern. It is more a desire to serve, help, share than a desire to have.

Marriage should only occur after two people discover many, many mutual interests—intellectual, spiritual, and physical. Only after they become best friends, and not simply because they desire to “have” each other.

God’s laws concerning marriage exude wisdom, love, and concern. Eventually, in God’s Kingdom, such laws will be enforced upon mankind. But if you and I believe America’s marriages will somehow be healed ofthe horrible, turgid, chaotic mess they are in today, we are simply wrong.

How pitiful it is that our educational systems do not emphasize, for men and women alike, the vast responsibilities of the home and family. Today, any minister who stood up in the pulpit and fearlessly preached God’s laws about marriage, the home, and the family would be hated by many.

If you were to question the goals of most young girls in high school, you would hear that they intend becoming designers, artists, actresses, pilots, executives, computer programmers, executive secretaries, lawyers, doctors, police, or perhaps join the military. Not one in one hundred would say she is studying hard to become a fine wife and mother, a homemaker!

Such a girl would be laughed out of school. Yet God says, “But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: …that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed!” (Titus 2:1-5).

This blasphemy against God’s Word, by both male and female—this assault on the God-ordained family unit in society—is one of the most fundamental causes for crime! Today, government agencies strive to deal with the effect, while unable to either see clearly or know what to do about removing the cause.

Because the pulpit has lost its power; because many churches are liberal about divorce; because some churches have abandoned God’s commandments about homosexuality, perversion, aberrant sexual behavior, even ordaining into the clergy admitted “gays,” there is no powerful, influential voice being heard across the nation that deviant sexual behavior is a sin. The churches do not teach that divorce is a sin, that it has enormous consequences for those involved, especially the children.

Because false ministers have joined hands with Satan in his sexual revolution, voters think nothing about electing men into high public office who are divorced, or who are obviously not influenced in the slightest by the laws of God.

Decadent Education

Children are the responsibility of parents. It is not, generally, the well educated, highly-skilled, articulate, well-read, successful person who takes to the streets in a riot. It is not such a person who joins a gang, uses crack, participates in drive-by shootings, or burglarizes homes and businesses to feed a drug habit. It is, instead, someone’s child, grown into young adulthood, with no values, no Christian conscience which says “do not do this—it is wrong!”

Recently, when a TV newsman held a microphone to the lips of a young black man stealing a TV set from a smashed store, and asked the looter if he thought what he was doing was wrong, the man answered, “No, man! This is right!” He had absolutely no conscience about smashing, stealing, looting! To him, a crime committed by third parties against someone he did not know somehow justified his own criminal actions! To him, one crime plus one crime is no crime!

If parents were held responsible for the crimes of their children until those children reach the age of adult responsibility; if parents were fined, or given jail sentences for crimes committed by their children, an avalanche of crime could be stopped!

If truant laws were made tough—if it were a crime to drop out of school—requiring millions of dropouts to stay in school, a great deal of crime could be stopped!

If state school systems could establish truant, or “reform”-type schools designed along the lines of military academies, or the FDR era “Civilian Construction Corps,” making truant young people work on highways and bridges, building roads and repairing America’s sagging infrastructure, along with attending vocational-type classes, learning skills, a great deal of crime could be prevented.

Nowhere in America is any child deliberately, by law or social pressure, deprived of a chance for an education. Public schools provide free education for underprivileged children. It is because too many millions deliberately drop out from school that many become indolent, ignorant, unemployable thugs, instead of upstanding, honest, hardworking citizens. Peer pressure; the “something for nothing,” get-rich-quick mentality of America; entertainment and the attractions of the street are simply overwhelming for hundreds of thousands of youths in many of our big cities—particularly minorities, who live in communities where they daily see hopelessness and despair. Lacking any offsetting inspiration from a solid family, church, or other relatives, too many simply give up on education, and fall through the cracks of society at a very early age. These countless youngsters represent crimes waiting to happen.

Teachers are at the absolute bottom of the pay scale for professional occupations—far, far behind doctors and lawyers, engineers and pilots, executives and administrators. Yet, they stand at the very foundation of society, burdened with instilling the values and information into children’s minds that will help to determine the kind of adults they become.

If state and federal government wanted to deal with the causes of crime, they would pay more attention to this fundamental area than they do attempting to deal with the effect, such as building more prisons, appointing more judges, passing more laws, making ever more convoluted and labyrinthal an already engorged, unwieldy, complex criminal justice system.

If teachers were paid at the same level as doctors; if the qualifications for teachers were raised to much higher levels; if teachers’ certificates could be obtained only after one achieved at least a master’s degree in special education, the educational level of our country could be revolutionized. In America, lawyers outnumber engineers ten to one. In Japan, the reverse is true. Lawyers are at the very top of national pay scales, teachers at the very bottom. Why? In a litigious society, where huge settlements have been won against major companies, the dollar signs attract young men and women who go directly from college to law school. Nowhere nearly so attractive are the monetary rewards for the noblest of all professions, teaching. Those who opt for teacher’s credentials know they are locking themselves into a life of the narrowest margins—small home, economy everything, no frills. Therefore, one must look in clear, unbiased logic at the motives involved in various professional pursuits.

Thankfully, there are still a significant number of individuals who are preparing to enter the teaching profession who place more value on human success, human happiness, human fulfillment, than on large incomes.

An entire large volume could be written about the wretched conditions in America’s schools, about gun-wielding students, murders, hostage-taking, drugs, “date rape,” drop-outs, assaults against teachers, arson, and the simple inefficiency of education, and only the tip of the iceberg would be exposed.

Out of the classroom to the streets, to the prisons, is the pathway of too many young people.

Statistics prove millions of Americans possess a high school diploma—yet cannot read! Illiteracy is the stuff of riot and violence more often than a broad, comprehensive education. Illiteracy, and therefore lack of employability, forms another root cause of frustration, hopelessness, and rage.

But if you and I think our leaders will now begin to divert huge sums to pay professional teachers, to revolutionize our entire educational system, we are simply wrong.

Many teachers are themselves poorly educated. Some cannot write or speak effectively. Therefore, they cannot teach. A few years ago, teachers in Texas violently reacted against proposed state-wide tests for teachers, to evaluate teaching effectiveness and the educational level of teachers. If the pay for this vitally important profession were attractive enough, such semi-literate people could simply never qualify.

Education in America is simply decadent.

First, it is based entirely upon the theory of evolution. From math to science, from English to biology, the evolutionary, no-God concept is instilled in young people’s minds. It is illegal for children to pray in school. Recently, a brazen, rebellious young boy became embroiled in a court action because he refused to say the word “God” in a boy scout oath. Such is the fruit of our Godless, atheistic, hedonistic, decadent educational system. Now, a young boy barely old enough to develop pimples on his face, dares to stand up and claim, from his 13-year old “vast storehouse of knowledge and research,” that there is no God worthy of his notice.

Since this kid is in contempt of God, what do you suppose his attitude will be toward teachers, parents, and the police? What will be his attitude toward the law, the very laws he uses for his own ends, so long as they suit his mood?

Second, education deals only with material knowledge and information. It does not instill the values of God’s Word; does not teach children how to live, how to lead successful, happy lives.

Schools are hotbeds of crime. Many a young boy is introduced to a gang in school; learns how to extort “protection” money from others, how to terrorize teachers, how to beat up on those of another race, how to “make it” with the girls. The underground subculture of the hallways and lavatories is much more powerful than the classroom environment.

Much of what is “learned” in school is learned from interrelationships with peers, and is therefore corrupt.

Only when law-makers completely revolutionize education will we experience a real change of social and moral behavior.

How to revolutionize the educational system? First, pay the salaries required to attract the truly excellent into the teaching field.

Next, insist on discipline, and permit the use of suitable punishments for infractions.

Next, break up huge, unmanageable classes, where students are merely numbers and names, into smaller, more intimate groups—perhaps twelve to twenty students to each class, so teachers can deal individually with students.

Next, systematize the various academic levels to acknowledge differences in heredity and environment, differences in basic IQ, differences in learning ability, differences in gifts and talents, or the lack of them. In other words, break up the “fourth, fifth, sixth” grade system into different categories where students can learn at their own best pace, where those needing special attention can receive it, where those most gifted can progress without being held back by the majority, and where those who need to be receiving more vocational training than intellectual training can receive it.

Next, provide alternative vocational training as an adjunct to formal education for those with handicaps, those with learning disabilities, those who are simply unable to move through the present educational system successfully. Teach them skills. Teach them to become automotive mechanics, carpenters, painters, concrete finishers, TV repairmen, cooks, bakers, butchers, truck drivers, firemen, aircraft mechanics. Provide vocational training for less gifted students so that no student ever comes out of high school without an employable skill so he can get and hold a good job!

Finally, for those who refuse to attend, refuse to submit to discipline, refuse to learn even vocational skills, provide “special educational units” like the “Civilian Construction Corps” during the FDR administration, or like “Company 8” in boot camp. In the military, the so-called “scrounges”—those from backgrounds which seemed to make it impossible for them to learn cleanliness, orderliness, and discipline—were transferred from other companies into “Company 8,” where measures were specifically designed to administer special discipline, special attention, by skilled leaders who were saddled with the responsibility to make sailors or soldiers out of them.

Many such programs presently exist. The old “reform schools” of the 1930s are still out there, some of them teaching agriculture, animal husbandry, and other pursuits. In effect, they are like a half-way house to prison for miscreants, a kind of last-ditch attempt to make useful citizens out of rebellious, violent, uncooperative young people whose parents utterly failed to instill in them the slightest concepts of civilized behavior.

In short, make education so attractive, so rewarding, that every student looks forward to it with alacrity, knowing only success lies at the end of his or her formal education.

Will We See an End to Crime in Our Time?

If the American home and family could be restored to its God ordained status; if the educational system could be revolutionized; if the criminal justice system could be completely changed; if criminals were given swift, sure, unvarying punishment to suit the crime, then violence and crime could be reduced to only a tiny fraction of what it is today.

But since such profound changes would require a fundamental change in society itself, and a change in human nature, none of those changes will occur under the governments of man.

Mankind is simply incapable of governing himself apart from God! This is not God’s world. He is not ruling it, not controlling it. The god of this world is the arch-demon of violence; of hatred, jealousy, anger, rage, chaos, blood, and death! He is Satan, the devil (2 Corinthians 4:4), who delights in human suffering, delights in death, seeks the destruction of the human race to prevent the plan of God from coming to fruition!

Your Bible says Satan is controlling this earth today, that he is influencing the minds of world leaders (Revelation 12:9). He is called the “prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2), and is described as a “roaring lion, walking about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

But Jesus Christ came preaching the Gospel, which few realize is the good news about the coming WORLD-RULING GOVERNMENT OF GOD! To most, the “gospel” is a message about Jesus. Few know it is also the message He brought, the message of coming Divine RULE over this earth that He commissioned His disciples to preach to the world.

God is going to send Jesus Christ to this earth to put down all corrupt human governments, to smash them (Daniel 2:44,45). Christ will rule this earth, and His saints with Him, with a rod of iron! Notice: “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 [shards, splinters]: even as I received of my Father” (Revelation 2:26,27).

If you had such power now, what would you decree should be done to a mass murderer? Should he pay for his horrible crime with his life, or would you, like the hair-shirted, breast-beating, wimpish, sob-sister, liberal believers in the innate “goodness” of human nature decide the murderer was only “temporarily insane,” and therefore should merely be sent to a hospital for a psychiatric examination, perhaps be placed on a prison farm, so he can grow potatoes for the rest of his life?

For, if you would so decree, you will never qualify to rule the nations of this world with Christ!

What is the very first thing Christ is going to do when He returns to this earth?

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon Him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called The Word of God.

“And the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God” (Revelation 19:11-15).

Jesus Christ is going to return to this earth, not as a humble carpenter from Nazareth, not as a soft-spoken, humble carpenter who willingly allows Himself to be abused, beaten, and then murdered!

Now, He is going to return to this earth as world CONQUEROR, at the head of angelic armies, to absolutely smash war-mongering dictators, despots, arrogant, swaggering, egocentric, vain military leaders, and to pour out upon God-rejecting, sin-sick, law-breaking mankind the very wrath of God! His commands are likened to a “sharp sword,” meaning the swiftest and surest kind of justice, which He will enforce upon all nations!

Your Bible says Christ is coming to “rule with a rod of iron,” not a tiny little switch, or a wand, or a feather!

Notice that one of the first acts Jesus Christ personally accomplishes upon His return is to impose the death penalty upon the two arch criminals of the years just ahead of us, the beast (the military dictator at the helm of ten nations) and the false prophet!

“And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His army. And the beast was taken [arrested!], and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before Him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that had worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

” And the remnant were slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of His mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh” (Revelation 19:19-21).

Whether or not we want to believe it, we are living in the prophesied last days!

Whether or not we want to believe it, it is now TOO LATE for America! Only a total, national repentance can save America from the Great Tribulation and the coming Day of the Lord!

Our leaders could stop violent crime—or at least reduce it to but a tiny, minuscule fraction of the amount of crime and violence in our society today!

They could enact the kind of laws that would act as a powerful deterrent!

If murder resulted in a swift and sure death penalty carried out within WEEKS; if the commission of any crime with a gun resulted in an automatic twenty-year sentence at hard, physical labor; if those who murdered by a gun were executed by a firing squad, violent crimes could be dramatically reduced!

But such measures are simply not going to happen in a society which is essentially godless, atheistic, imbued with the notion that human nature is essentially “good.”

Therefore, I tell you in the name and by the authority of Jesus Christ that the avalanche of crime WILL NOT be brought down to tiny, insignificant proportions during the years just ahead. On the contrary, your Bible prophesies we are entering the time just before the GREAT TRIBULATION, when not only will there be riots, civil disturbances, violent demonstrations, mounting crime—there will also be religious persecution!

Jesus Christ said so!

He predicted the time would come when “They which kill you [meaning His own servants, who are preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God as a witness to the world] will think they do God a service! ”

This is why Jesus Christ says those who “endure to the end,” whether that “end” means the end of their own lives as a result of martyrdom, or the end of this age, will eventually be given a rod of iron with which to rule!

Those who believe in mollycoddling violent criminals will never be given such a rod of iron! They simply will not be in God’s Kingdom!

Notice what Micah said about our judiciary: “Hear this, I pray you, you heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity! … The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they [pretend to] lean upon the Eternal, and say, Is not the Lord among us? None evil can come upon us … But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Eternal 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 the mountain of the Eternal, and unto 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 Eternal 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 pruning hooks: 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 Eternal of hosts hath spoken it” (Micah 3:9-12; 4:1-4).

The Kingdom of God on this earth will be virtually one hundred percent crime free!

Then, and not until that time, the family will be restored to its God ordained place! Education will be universally available, and it will be of the highest possible caliber, covering the most essential subjects, and it will include discipline, as well as truthful, broad, balanced, truly inspirational teaching!

Children will be taught to obey their parents, to obey the commandment which says “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Eternal thy God giveth thee.” Divorce will be absolutely forbidden! Dating and preparation for marriage will be done under parental and grandparents’ supervision, under the direct supervision of the very family of Almighty God!

There will be no such thing as “racism,” for Almighty God will settle all the races according to their “old estates,” and each nation will excel according to its own talents, gifts, and special abilities. The millennial reign of Jesus Christ is described in many chapters in your Bible—not the least of which is Isaiah 11, where a picture of global peace is presented!

No wonder Jesus Christ commands His people to pray “Thy Kingdom come! ”

Yes, violent crime could be stopped if today’s leaders were converted, if they would but turn to the Word of God and the laws of God as their guide.

But since they will not do this, it is going to require the return of Jesus Christ to rule this earth with a rod of iron in order to finally stop crime!

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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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The majority of the citizenry of the United States was shocked recently to hear that the Supreme Judicial Court of the State of Massachusetts had sanctioned gay marriage, entitling them to literally hundreds of new rights as “legally married couples.” Thousands of same sex couples lined up to acquire legal marriage licenses and proceed to “sanctify their unions.” This is perhaps the most newsworthy of numerous recent events which have hit the headlines and made the lead stories on our televisions. So far, the Supreme Court has refused to intervene in the Massachusetts situation, and the door is open for this phenomenon to sweep across America.

Canada recently passed into law a bill which some fear may categorize portions of the Bible as hate speech due to references to homosexuality. It passed Canada’s Senate by a vote of 59-11 adding “sexual orientation as a protected category in Canada’s genocide and hate-crimes legislation, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.”

In a single generation, the subject of homosexuality has gone from being virtually unmentionable to the topic of everyday discussion in every media forum. Today, it is impossible to protect even very young children from non-stop news and talk having to do with “gay” this or that. News regarding the advances of the “homosexual agenda” was being reported so regularly last year that Garner Ted Armstrong wrote four commentaries on the subject for his “Word From…” column in addition to publishing an article by Michael Burkert in 21^ST Century Watch last fall on the rapid inroads which are being made into our American armed forces, and the unavoidable consequences.

GTA wrote about the decision of the U.S. Supreme court in striking down the Texas sodomy law in an article entitled Sodomites– And Proud of It! He began by saying, “The U.S. Supreme Court is in direct defiance of Almighty God and His inspired word, the Bible!” On the intentions of the homosexual movement he wrote, “Their agenda is clear. They intend being accepted in every profession, every institution, every nook and cranny of society as if their perversions are ‘normal,’ and even to be desired above the God ordained institution of marriage and the family.” On the role of today’s religious leaders he said, “The ones who should be in the forefront, upholding God’s righteous Ten Commandments and His WAY OF LIFE, the MINISTERS of the churches, are instead in the forefront of preaching, ‘THE LAW IS DONE AWAY!’

He wrote again when news was made by an Australian homosexual, given a grant from the University of Queensland to pursue a doctoral degree, who wrote that  ”Jesus Was Gay!” He showed how no pagan religion in the world tolerates such blasphemy against their false gods, but this guy is a member of the Anglican Church! In his commentary he wrote, “The man has not long to wait to see Christ’s own opinion of the blasphemous slime which has flowed from the homosexual’s pen. Does the Bible say anything about what would happen to such a person if God’s own government were in charge on this earth?

It certainly does! God explains how ironic it is that His own people curse His name; blaspheme His Son Jesus Christ and everything that is holy, while heathen nations who worship nonexistent gods remain fiercely faithful to idols.”

In August of 2003, when the Episcopal Church voted to approve the ordination of its first openly homosexual bishop, he wrote about the arguments which were put forth at that time. “Those who support the ‘gay’ bishop including the bishop himself, argued that Christ ‘reached out’ even to ‘prostitutes’ and others who were not acceptable to society.” GTA went on to explain how, “Christ died to SAVE SINNERS; He did not die to save them IN their sins, but FROM their sins! There is a vast difference!”

In a powerful paragraph later in the article he wrote, “Are sodomites going to ‘burn in hell fire’? According to the Bible, thousands of them ALREADY DID. The destruction of  Sodom and Gomorrah was like a forerunner of the coming ‘Gehenna Fire,’ of which Peter wrote: ‘The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.’”

In the early 1990s Garner Ted Armstrong produced a booklet on the subject of homosexuality, how it came out of the closet to become the topic of daily discussion. As it is today, the subject was a primary news topic at that time. Some of the arguments floated on the debate circuit include God and the Bible. GTA responds to the argument that “God created homosexuals.”And asks, “Is that true? Would God reject ‘discrimination’ against gays and lesbians–treat them as any other ‘minority’ like blacks, orientals, or native Americans? Are gays merely evincing a different ‘sexual orientation’?”

He pointed out the incredible irony of Bill Clinton’s inauguration ceremony juxtaposed with his first official action taken as President, changing the two hundred year old policy of excluding homosexuals from the military. He related how Dr. Billy Graham admitted in the invocation, “…we have sinned,” almost as if quoting from the words of the prophet Daniel who uttered a moving intercessory prayer to God on behalf of a sinning nation. Here now, beginning with an introduction to a quote from Daniel 9, is the remaining text Garner Ted Armstrong wrote in the context of those events.

Daniel had come to understand, by reading what Jeremiah had written, why his people had been removed from their land; why their country had been laid waste, their houses and fields given to others, their refugee remnants made to work at forced labor as slaves.

As a result, he said: “And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, and with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

“And I prayed unto the Eternal my God, and made confession, and said, ‘O Lord, the Great and Dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep His commandments;

“‘We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:

“‘Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spakein thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers [the leaders of government; the rulers and administrators], and to all the people of the land.

“‘O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces [shame, degradation; humiliation, desperation], as at this day; to the men of Judah; and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.

“‘O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face [shame], to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee’” (Daniel 9:4-8). The entire ninth chapter of Daniel consists of his intercessory prayer, and God’s answer to Daniel in the person of the archangel Gabriel. It is well worth the reading.

As I contemplated that historic morning when America once again underwent the peaceful transfer of power from one political party to another following a bitter, acrimonious, emotional campaign, I could not help but be struck by some very distasteful ironies: There was President-elect Clinton with his wife attending a church service in the morning of his inauguration; there was President-elect Clinton, with head bowed, eyes closed, as Dr. Billy Graham admitted before God, “We have sinned.” There was President-elect Clinton, with his right hand raised, and his left hand on the Bible, the Word of God Almighty, performing the swearing-in ceremony, uttering the final words, “…so help me God!”

So why did the sickening irony hit me like a physical blow when our newly-elected president; the leader of the “world’s only remaining super power,” who had campaigned about America’s sagging economy; about health care, joblessness, the deficit, and the plight of the poor, nuclear proliferation, a volatile situation in the Mideast-a newly-elected president whose first act was to insist homosexuals be openly admitted into America’s military?

Think of it!

You and I both know it erupted into one of the biggest flaps, one of the most unavoidable imbroglios, in the history of governmental transition. Suddenly, it was front-page news in every newspaper, the cover story on every major news magazine, the subject of every network newscast on TV, and the topic of countless TV and radio call in talk shows!

As if determined to hand the entire Christian community in the United States a ringing slap to the face; as if utterly heedless of the inaugural prayer by Billy Graham, acknowledging that “we have sinned,” President Clinton seemed in a frantic hurry to insist that gays and lesbians be admitted into the military. Why?

The Roots of the Controversy

What was so urgent about this seemingly backburner social issue that it should take precedence over the economy, over global problems of astronomical proportions?

First, it was revealed that Clinton had received about three and one-half million dollars in campaign funds from gay rights activists. Having said during the campaign that he fully intended allowing gays and lesbians openly into the military, it was obvious President Clinton intended making good on his promise.

The Responsibility of Leadership

You are living in the times prophesied in your Bible just before the great tribulation. This time of terrible trouble is to descend primarily on the peoples of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and the democracies of northwestern Europe.

Christ said: “…for nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in diversplaces.

“All these are the beginning of sorrows [great tribulation-margin].

“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” (Matthew 24:7-9).

For decades, Christians have assumed this prophesied time of religious persecution and martyrdom would be brought about because of religious, doctrinal disputes-that members of God’s church and believers in Jesus Christ would be killed for their faith in much the same way as Christ’s early apostles.

Perhaps. But something very sinister is afoot.

God says, “Hear ye the word of the Eternal, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah” (Isaiah 1:10). This ringing challenge was written centuries after the fiery destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, when thousands were burnt to death by a divine miracle, as a sign of God’s righteous WRATH against homosexuality.

At the time of Isaiah’s pronouncement, Israel’s leaders were greedily copying the degenerate religious and social practices of the pagan nations around them. These backward pagans not only perverted every good and decent thing; they inculcated bestial, depraved sex acts into their religious rites, making prostitution, sodomy and homosexuality a “religious” ritual!

The imaginary “gods” of the polytheistic, pagan Greeks and Romans, in later times, allegedly engaged in every conceivable lewd and lascivious act. These fictitious creatures of the perverted imaginations of deviants were depicted as cohabiting with animals; half man and half animal, performing rape, and every degenerate act. Naturally, if a nation’s gods were said to engage in orgies, sexual perversions, and bestiality, then it would be logical to assume it pleased these “gods” if their worshipers did the same things.

God had specifically warned His people never to emulate the depraved sexual practices of the savage nations around them (Leviticus 18; cf, Leviticus 20:11-21), nations who practiced pedophilia, incest, sodomy, and bestiality.

Their perversions resulted in horrible diseases! Grotesquely deformed, blind, crippled, diseased children were born. Their perversions led directly to a host of diseases, many of them related to a lack of understanding of how to be clean in body and in the home; how to avoid the diseases which come from human wastes (see Deuteronomy 28:27-35ff).

The eponymous ancestor of the Canaanites, a dark-skinned, pagan race living in Palestine at the time of the Israelites’ possession of the promised land, was Canaan. God cursed him because of a horrible perversion–sodomy with his own grandfather.

Notice: “And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark [all were married: Genesis 8:18], were Shem [progenitor of the “Semitic” races] and Ham [progenitor of the “Hamitic” races] and Japheth [progenitor of the “Japhetic” races]: and Ham is the father of Canaan.

“These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.

“And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:

“And he drank of the wine, and was drunken: and he was uncovered [naked] within his tent.

“And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.

“And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.

“And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his [Ham’s] younger son had done unto him. [Japheth was Noah’s younger son, not Ham. The pronoun is clarified by the next verse, and the curse pronounced upon Canaan.]

“And he said, ‘Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.’

“And he said, ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant’” (Genesis 9:18-29).

The family of Noah had come from a wholly corrupt society. “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

“And it repented the Eternal that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart…the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence” (Genesis 6:1-11).

Just as Lot and his wife were adversely affected by the perversions of Sodom (Genesis 19), it is obvious Noah’s family had been deeply affected by the evil perversions of the pre-flood society. Noah was a “righteous” man in the sense of observing God’s laws in the letter; a man who eschewed the perversions all around him. But Noah was not perfect. The sin of sodomy could never have occurred had he not become drunk.

In a massive, global flood, which God’s Word says is typical of the coming destruction of planet earth by fire (2 Peter 3:3-11 ), God totally destroyed that evil, perverted, murderous, filthy society! Later, as a microcosm of what is to come after the millennial reign of Christ, He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah in a blast of divinely-sent fire, like a nuclear holocaust (study Genesis 19).

The perversions of Canaanites in the villages in Palestine during Israel’s occupation of the promised land were legion. Because Israel disobeyed God and began copying the Canaanites’ religious and social customs, including such perversions as incest, sodomy and bestiality, God continually punished them with diseases, famine, drought, and invasion from foreign armies (Deuteronomy 28; Leviticus 26).

As went the leaders of the nation, so went the nation (2 Kings 16:1-0). When Ahaz adopted Baalism, sacrificing children in the fires (verse 3) “…in the way of the Kings of Israel” it resulted in war. Israel was overrun by Assyria, and then Judah was attacked, and Jerusalem besieged. Tens of thousands died.

Today, Isaiah’s prophecy is particularly poignant: “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, God is angry with America, with those in positions of leadership. Our society is a degraded, perverse, sin-sick, crime-ridden, God-defying society filled with hundreds of thousands of saucy, mincing, demonstrating perverts who demand “equal rights,” and who insist they are merely adopting an “alternative life style.”

But the “gay rights” activists are by no means the only individuals wallowing in sin. Who does not remember the insider-trading scandals, the S&L scandal, hundreds of banking scandals and failures, insurance fraud, congressmen kiting checks? Who is not aware, on a daily basis, of rape and murder, burglary and arson, kidnapping and car jacking? Who is not made sickeningly aware, almost daily, of the massive crime of drug abuse and alcoholism, of gang warfare~ crack houses, random shootings, knifings and thuggery? Who has not heard of prominent politicians who have been indicted for taking bribes; of union officials tied to the Mafia; of pedophiles preying on innocent children in day care centers?

Are all deviates suddenly a “political minority”? Will pedophiles, sadomasochists, and murderers begin to claim their “rights” are being violated because society says their crimes and sins are wrong?

So far, the burglars and serial killers of America have not come forward to form a political party and demand “equal rights.”

The “gays” have.

But God says of them: “The shew of their countenance doth witness against them: and they declare their sin as Sodom, they HIDE IT NOT” (Isaiah 3:9).

When our nation’s capitol is the scene of tens of thousands of gays and lesbians marching, demonstrating, screaming for “equal rights,” demanding that the courts allow two people of the same sex to “marry” (a moral, spiritual, and physical impossibility); when homosexuals have succeeded in becoming a major political force; even powerfully influencing political campaigns and determining who is in the White House, then it is clear God’s prophecies are coming to pass–our peoples are under a curse from God!

Countless thousands watched in sick disgust as a ribald group of “gays,” in one of the inaugural balls in Washington, D.C., took up their impudent, saucy chant, “We’re here, we’re queer–and now we’re in the White House!” So it would seem.

How did gays and lesbians become such a significant political force in America?

As everyone knows, “queers” were disparaged, ridiculed, feared, hated by normal heterosexual people for centuries. Homosexuality was considered a filthy perversion, practiced in secret. The Bible makes it clear that any male who adopts effeminate mannerisms will never enter God’s Kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). Everyone knew that homosexuality was a mental, psychological quirk-a conscious choice in most cases-perhaps a “mental illness” in others.

If gays and lesbians were to succeed in “coming out” (their term for “coming out of the closet”–publicly admitting their homosexuality), they needed to dramatically alter the way their perverted lifestyle was viewed by religion, medicine, and society in general.

As more and more homosexuals found their way into those very professions; as more doctors, psychiatrists, and clergymen became “gay,” the time edged ever closer when society’s perceptions of homosexuality would be forcibly changed; when a liberal media would relabel a deviant behavior, calling it an accident of nature: When a talk show host, angrily responding to anti-gay sentiments from his audience, recently blurted out “…but God made gays!” it was obvious society’s perceptions had come full circle. Welcome to Sodom.

How Gays and Lesbians Forced the American Psychiatric Association to Label Homosexuality “Normal”

For generations, in societies all over the world, homosexuality has been treated as perverted, abnormal. Among some of the northern plains Indian tribes, a deviant male was called “squawboot,” a derisive term, because some of them would effect feminine attire, including the high-topped moccasins of the squaws.

For the entire history of its existence, the American Psychiatric Association had described homosexuality as “abnormal,” labeling it a “mental illness.”

The Encyclopedia Britannica, 1lth edition, does not even include an article on the subject, nor does the Americana from the 1960s, or even the high school level World Book, in its 1956 edition. The subject was considered obscene by these and other eminent publications; something to be discussed only in medical and psychiatric journals.

As America wallowed in its newfound “situation ethics” of the late 1950s and early 1960s; as an explosion of antiestablishment passion erupted in entertainment, literature, the arts, and politics, homosexuality inevitably became more of a subject for open discussion and debate.

To a large extent, Dr. Alfred Kinsey’s famous book, Sexual Behavior In the Human Male, published in 1948, was responsible. Although his peers attacked his conclusions, recognizing the extreme bias of his findings, the media picked up on it, hailing it as “a landmark study of profound significance.” As always, the liberal media, which, after all, helps shape public opinion leapt upon a seriously flawed book, promoted it as “profound,” and thus gave renewed psychiatric and medical respectability to deviant behavior.

Kinsey’s co-authors, Gebhard and Pomeroy, later admitted that the book was overly concerned with aberrant and bizarre behavior, that Kinsey had used a large number of inmates in prisons–people more likely to have led deviant lives–and that Kinsey had used all volunteers for his research; people who, for one reason or another, were perfectly willing–probably eager–to discuss the most intimate details of their private lives.

Particularly damning to the Kinsey report was the fact that the author deliberately sought out people he knew were homosexual; that he went to gay bars, prowled their rooming houses, and even witnessed some of their “club orgies” because he was fascinated (?) with their behavior.

This completely twisted, distorted view of American male behavior was nevertheless snapped up by the liberal media as a “profound” revelation, and given the cloak of “scientific respectability.”

Along came all the other subliminal stimuli in what was soon to develop into a toboggan-slide plunge into hedonistic abandon: Elvis and the Beatles, rock and roll, and then “hard rock,” to eventually give way to “acid rock,” and “heavy metal;” which has been associated with Satanism.

The drug-related “hippie” era, with the trappings of massive “concerts,” the usual accouterments of marijuana, “yellows,” “reds,” “horse,” “speed,” LSD, and cocaine became commonplace. Men grew long hair, “dropped out,” and “turned on” to the demonic noises, shrieks, wails, moans, dirges, and deafening sounds of a demonic revolution in “music.” Draft dodgers fled to Canada, or went overseas, or attempted to “serve” in some nice safe berth in paramilitary organizations.

Men were ridiculed for military service, for butch haircuts. Now, the “flower children,” high on marijuana (and most of them inhaled) spat upon returning Vietnam veterans–young men only days away from the sound of exploding mortars and the crack of rifle fire; men who had seen their buddies shot to ribbons or blown to bits; young-old men, whose hollow eyes testified to the shocking sights and sounds that had propelled them from mere boys to tired old men in but a few months; were now the object of rage and derision.

Suddenly, the concept of a male being a “man,” that men were “macho,” became utterly unacceptable. “Male chauvinist pig” became the battle cry of the various feminist movements.

Subtly, satanic forces were eating away at America’s manhood. Women’s rights groups began talking about God as a “she,” and “man” became “person.”

Suddenly, it was no longer the “mailman,” or the “milkman,” but the “mail carrier,” or the “milk deliverer.” Mankind became humankind, and salesman became salesperson. Perhaps David should change his name to “David Letterperson”?

As women strove for equal rights, so did homosexuals. Some of their tactics are reminiscent of Nazi rowdies disrupting meetings in the Bundestag as Hitler was maneuvering for power in Germany in the 1930s.

For example, though the liberal press has not reported it, the manner in which the American Psychiatric Association was virtually forced to change its description of homosexuality as a “mental illness” to a genetic condition was particularly instructive.

In a book by Ronald Bayer entitled Homosexuality and American Psychiatry: The Politics of Diagnosis, one reads of how gay activists deliberately targeted the Psychiatric Association’s national convention in San Francisco, planning to engage in “the first systematic effort to disrupt the annual meetings of the American Psychiatric Association.”

Bayer described their disruptions thusly: “Guerrilla theater tactics and more straightforward shouting matches characterized their presence.”

During a panel discussion on “transsexualism and homosexuality,” a speaker, Irving Bieber, who was a well-known authority on the subject before the panel, was openly challenged. Bayer wrote: “His efforts to explain his position to his challengers were met with derisive laughter. Since the norms of civility were considered mere conventions designed to mute outrage, it was not difficult for a protester to call him a [foul name]. ‘I’ve read your book, Dr. Bieber, and if that book talked about black people the way it talks about homosexuals, you’d be drawn and quartered and you’d deserve it!’”

In a later meeting with an Australian psychiatrist, Dr. Nathaniel McConaghy, as he discussed the “use of adverse conditioning techniques” in treating sexual deviation, gay rights activists shouted McConaghy down, screaming “torture!” and “Where did you take your residency–Auschwitz?”

Refusing to allow the meeting to continue, the gays read from a list of “gay demands.”

Some of the psychiatrists gave in. One of their number, Dr. Kent Robinson, met with one of the activists, and agreed to allow the homosexuals to appear on the official program. He attempted to be a conciliator, presenting the homosexuals’ demands before the APA. He warned his colleagues that the gays were not going to be satisfied with “breaking up just one meeting,” told them the whole convention might be in jeopardy.

But this was not enough.

Bayer wrote: “Despite the agreement to allow homosexuals to conduct their own panel discussion at the 1971 convention, gay activists in Washington felt that they had to provide yet another jolt to the psychiatric profession. Accepting a limited role in the program without engaging in a more direct attack on psychiatry might have slowed the momentum necessary to force a retreat on the central issue, the classification of homosexuality as a mental disease. To smooth a transition toward the institutionalization of protest would have deprived the movement of its most important weapon-the threat of disorder.”

Bayer went on to detail how the gays obtained detailed floor plans of the hotels where the conventions were to be housed, and how they drew up logistical plans on how to disrupt meetings.

Soon, homosexuals were a “fully institutionalized” force at the annual meetings of the APA. Eventually, they got what they wanted-a political goal achieved-the abandonment by the psychiatrists of the description of “mental illness” for homosexuality.

In a bizarre occurrence, the homosexuals impaneled various gays and lesbians from the professional community to speak for them. A homosexual psychiatrist, introduced as “Dr. Anonymous,” appeared wearing a cloak and a mask.

Here is what he said: “As psychiatrists who are homosexual, we must know our place and what we must do to be successful…much like a black man with white skin [sic] who chooses to live as a white man, we can’t be seen with our real friends, our real homosexual family, lest our secret be known and our doom sealed…those who are willing to speak out openly will do so only if they have little to lose….”

This plaintive, whimpering protest against living “in the closet” could easily be applied to pedophiles, peeping toms, Satanists, serial killers, burglars, embezzlers, or arsonists. Would a normal man who was having serious marital troubles want “Dr. Anonymous,” a homosexual, to charge him about a hundred dollars or so an hour for “advice” on how to save his marriage?

Would he want such a man to offer advice on how to help a teen-age son who was having trouble with being overly shy toward girls?

Over the ensuing years, the psychiatric profession has offered but two basic possibilities as an explanation for homosexuality: (1) an inherited (genetic) predisposition, or (2) environmental influences (absence of a strong father figure; woman-dominated home, etc.).

All this was now about to be changed.

What Do “Gays” and “Lesbians” Really Want?

Though it is repugnant to Christians, society has proven itself extremely tolerant to homosexuals. For decades; it has been known that many of America’s most prominent actors and actresses, playwrights, poets, artists, musicians, decorators, designers, yes, and even hairdressers, are homosexual.

Who does not remember Rock Hudson?

As an illustration of this tolerance, one conservative writer asked, “Who would not rather spend an evening with Noel Coward than with A1 Gore?”

But mere tolerance is not enough for the homosexuals. They demand approval, complete acceptance.

Strengthened by their successes in the political arena, they sought to support the growing concept that homosexuality is something .which is inherited, even genetic.

Prejudicial, flawed studies were cited by the gay community which proved, they claimed, that homosexuality was normal.

Dr. Robert Spitzer, who was a member of the Nomenclature Committee of the APA, attempted to draft a statement which had a little something for everybody; a statement that would mollify the “National Gay Task Force.”Instead of calling homosexuality a “mental disorder,” his paper called it “a form of irregular sexual development.”‘ He also drafted a paper on the civil rights of homosexuals, and called for the repealing of all laws forbidding homosexual acts between consenting adults.

But the gays were not happy with Dr. Spitzer’s compromise. Ronald Gold of the GNTF attacked Spitzer’s papers. Bayer’s book describes how Gold viewed it:

“The Spitzer paper…did not embrace the view that homosexuality was a normal variant of human sexuality.” Referring to Spitzer’s comparisons of homosexuality, religious “fanaticism” (meaning anyone who believes in a literal interpretation of the Bible) and racism (an oft-used, but totally erroneous comparison) as “egregious “ and said the paper was “unscientific, revealing an attitude that ought to be irrelevant to psychiatry and the diagnosis of disorders.”

One would think Dr. Spitzer would have been outraged at such an attack on his professional expertise-after all, he was the one who had drafted the compromise manual, acceding to the demands of the gay activists,. Instead of withdrawing in fury, Dr. Spitzer persevered, and the APA adopted the new terminology.

Now, the die was cast.

One prominent member of the APA was to comment that; after all the months of lobbying and testimony by homosexuals, he and only two other colleagues were given only fifteen minutes for their rebuttal.

Within days, the liberal press came out with banner headlines: “Doctors Rule Homosexuals Not Abnormal.”

Obviously, if homosexuals can begin to claim they were “born that way,” they can equate their “sexual orientation” with minorities, such as blacks and Chicanos. They are doing precisely this, and becoming a far more active, militant political force than many people dream.

The Homosexuals’ Goals

For all the hue and cry about “equal rights,” there is an obvious, inescapable goal being vigorously pursued by gays and lesbians: They seek, according to their own statements and literature, the “homosexualization of America.”

Like the ancient Greeks and Romans, modern day homosexuals want to see their depraved practices gain not only public acceptance, but want to see it practiced in public, just like ancient Sodomites (Genesis 19}.

– One particularly sickening example of how homosexuals seek to pervert America’s children was a book and “study course” produced by DeryckCalderwood, in cooperation with the Unitarian Universalist Association (meaning the Unitarian Church), and distributed by that church and a New York mail order house which also distributes sexually-explicit materials.

Calderwood’s “course” blatantly promotes homosexuality.

According to Calderwood, all kinds of sexual experiences are equally good, completely acceptable, and “normal.”

His materials, accompanied by full-color videos, contain “testimonials” by various young people, men and women alike, who detail their homosexual and heterosexual experiences. His videos would be rated “triple X.” These “courses” are specifically designed for children in the seventh and eighth grade, and have been shown to children in the fifth grade.

Calderwood claims his “courses” “…make clear that sexual relationships with the same sex during youth are normal and do not necessarily indicate one’s future sexual orientation as an adult.”

This sickening lie attempts to convince young children in their early teens and even younger that engaging in any kind of sexual activity is “normal,” and that, even if they experiment with homosexuality, it does not mean they will become gay or lesbian-for, after all, being “gay” or “lesbian” is not something one chooses to become but is a matter of how you were born, what you were predetermined to be from the womb!

Once gay rights activists had steamrollered their strident demands into the national conventions of psychiatrists and medical doctors, the liberal press picked up the cry, and gave it respectability.

Now, “everyone knows” that “sexual orientation” is merely a matter of “finding out WHO YOU ARE,” not a matter of WHAT YOU DO!

God’s Word labels such perverted idiocy as abominable lies, demonic satanic perversions that are influencing countless hundreds of thousands of pliable young minds.

Many years ago, warnings appeared in the form of articles and books that detailed the goals of homosexual activists. It was asserted they sought to establish the “right” of homosexuals to marry, to enjoy legal status with the state, the IRS, or anyone else, as would any “married” couple; to adopt and rear children, and, as we now see happening, to deliberately teach young children how to perform homosexual acts!

Do you know what your children are being taught in school? In New York, newspapers depicted a new book for very young children entitled Daddy’s Roommate. Elsewhere, one encounters attempts by such organizations as the “National Organization of Women” (NOW), the ACLU, and the “National Gay and Lesbian Task Force” to force schools to accept such books, including the likes of Calderwood’s prurient filth as mentioned above.

Truly, “…they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not” (Isaiah 3:9).

God’s Judgments Against Homosexuality

God exists, and you can prove it! Paul wrote, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold [margin: hold back] the truth in unrighteousness;

“Because that which may be known about God is made obvious to them; for God has shown it to them.

“For the invisible things about Him are clearly seen by observing His creation; understood by the things He has made, revealing His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:18-20, paraphrased from the KJV).

It is God, the Creator, Lawgiver, Designer and Sustainer of the universe, who “made them male and female.” It is GOD who said a man should leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. God Almighty created sex. At the end of the final day of the physical creation, before He rested on the first Sabbath day, God beheld all His marvelous creation and said, “Behold, it is very GOOD.”

God says men have NO EXCUSE for claiming ignorance about God. Can any man explain reproduction apart from God? Man cannot understand the universe; cannot understand the terms “all,” or “ever,” or “nothing,” or “forever.” Man cannot divide one hundred into thirds, or truly understand the terms “up” (which is really “out”), or “down” (which is really “in”). Man can create false gods by the millions, but cannot create one segment of an earthworm in a laboratory.

Our solar system, the earth and all life upon it, gravity, inertia, all the laws of physics are testimony to the divine Creator’s limitless knowledge and power.

Paul wrote: “…they are without excuse, because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations [empty reasonings and hypotheses], and their foolish heart was darkened.

“Professing themselves to be wise [they “educate” one another in the vain, foolish theories of Godless “higher education,” and then proclaim one another “doctor” of this or that], they became fools.

“And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man [the Greeks and Romans worshipped the male human form] and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.

“Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves…” (Romans 1:21-24).

This is clear reference to sodomy, a filthy, disgusting perversion, and a great sin in God’s sight.

God makes plain reference to the real origins of AIDS in this passage of Scripture: “…for this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use [normal sexual relations in marriage to a man] into that which is against nature:

“And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust [a perverted, twisted, satanic lust] one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly [doing things completely contrary to nature, and God’s laws-committing sodomy], AND RECEIVING IN THEMSELVES THAT RECOMPENCE OF THEIR SIN WHICH WAS APPROPRIATE” (Romans 1:21-27, KJV, paraphrased).

In a recent call-in radio talk show interview conducted by a radio station in Austin, Texas, I was asked by a defendant of the gay rights movement whether I “stood with Falwell” that “AIDS’ has been sent upon gays as a curse from God.”

I answered: “God did not send AIDS, if you mean God deliberately caused a disease to descend upon mankind. God has set natural laws in motion, which, if broken, bring about terrible consequences. AIDS is a disease man has brought upon himself because of sodomy, not some divine act of God.”

God’s Word plainly warned this would be so! Today, the curse of AIDS, brought about by the filthy, bestial, depraved, disgusting acts of mincing, posturing, simpering, lusting homosexuals threatens to kill MILLIONS of people; is spilling over into the “straight,” or heterosexual, community through those who “sleep around” with various partners, and through such things as contaminated needles used in drug abuse.

How terrible it is when one learns of a little child born with AIDS, or a wife, completely innocent of any infidelity herself, contracts AIDS through her husband.

Paul goes on to say: “and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not right; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

“Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

“Who knowing the judgment of God, that THEY WHICH COMMIT SUCH THINGS ARE WORTHY OF DEATH, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them” (Romans 1:28-32). Homosexuals take pleasure in banding together, forming associations, marching, demonstrating, and openly flaunting their homosexuality, as the Bible says.

To claim, as homosexuals falsely do, that homosexuality is something with which a person is born seeks to sweep aside God’s Word, nullify the very existence of God, set aside His judgments.

But homosexuality is learned behavior; it is a choice that is made, NOT a chemical, biological, or genetic, physiological condition.

Notice: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor EFFEMINATE, nor abusers of themselves with mankind [sodomites; homosexuals], nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, norextortioners, shall inherit the Kingdom of God.

“And such were some of you [this was written to God’s church in Corinth in the first century!]: but YE WERE WASHED [they had repented of their homosexuality, been baptized, and received of God’s Holy Spirit], but ye are sanctified [set apart for holy use and purpose], but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

Does God HATE homosexuals?

No. “But God commendeth His LOVE toward us, that, WHILE  WEWERE YET SINNERS Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God loves sinners, but detests their sins.

Why? Because God is a loving parent! He does not want to see His own children, His progeny, mankind, made in His own image, bringing upon themselves the agony, pain, suffering; the heartache, grief, frustration and wretchedness of such things as terrible diseases, deformities, infections, and death!

God does not want His children to suffer wretched marriages, desertions, abandonment, divorce, child abuse, homosexuality, and terrible diseases like AIDS.

God loves sinners–not IN their sins, but IN SPITE of their sins. He wants to see them REPENT of sin, and receive salvation!

The alternative is a life of unhappiness, jealousy, envy, vanity, lust, sickness and disease-and, ultimately, the second death (Revelation 20:14), destruction in Gehenna fire! Genesis the nineteenth chapter shows clearly how God, in His MERCY; destroyed the sinning Sodomites of the city which gave its name to this terrible perversion-destroyed them as He would have wiped out any terrible communicable virus which was threatening humanity itself!

I know there are a few in God’s church who have had homosexual tendencies. We have received a number of heartfelt letters from some who have asked our ministry to pray for them; to pray they can overcome what is an abhorrent, disgusting lust that torments them.

God’s people should feel only empathy, concern, and love toward any such persons; should pray for them, asking God to give them the willpower and spiritual protection to overcome their wrongful appetites. We do not “hate” gays, but we strongly DETEST the goals and lifestyles of homosexuals and lesbians; deeply DETEST their attempts to infect the minds of our children and grandchildren with Satan’s perversions!

Soon, in our lifetimes, God will send Jesus Christ of Nazareth back to this earth in the divine WRATH of God to execute vengeance upon sinning mankind. “Vengeance is MINE, I will repay, saith the Eternal.”

God’s church is not political. We do not take sides in politics, we do not attempt to influence national elections.

Rather, we “sigh and cry for all the abominations that be done…” around us (Ezekiel 9:4), and pray, “Thy Kingdom Come” to our Creator.

If ever you wanted proof you are living in the very days prophesied in your Bible.

As God’s prophet Isaiah said, “They DECLARE THEIR SIN AS SODOM, they hide it not!”

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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 What the Bible Says About HOMOSEXUALITY 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 “Harry Potter” website is about what I expected – lots of black and dark colors; weird creatures, an hypnotic introduction together with a moving set of wings on a round orb, or eyeball (it is difficult to tell), ghostly fogs and black trains, and a menu to links which say “Hogwarts, Diversions, Dragon Alley, Platform 9 3/4, Daily Prophet, Wizard’s Shop,” and “Live the magic.”

There are icons with such enticing pictures as the main character, “Harry Potter,” who is presented apparently practicing witchcraft; a bespectacled, wimpish looking kid with wire rimmed glasses, unruly hair, and a weak, “sissy” looking visage. Others are labeled “Quidditch Practice,” a glowering owl’s face with intense, staring eyes labeled “Magical Creature Creator,” and “Introduction to Potions,” among others.

Click on the “potions” icon, and a vial appears with bubbles slowly ascending. It is positioned on a stand like those used over Bunsen burners in laboratories, with a squat, rounded shape and a tall neck or spout, not unlike an oil can. Beneath it is the word “Mixing…” which replaces the usual computer rejoinder “wait.”

One waits until a selection of weird icons appear, and a “game” board. One is then informed how to play the game of “mixing the correct potion” by selecting ingredients from what appears to be a tooth, an eyeball, a scorpion, and other obnoxious objects or parts of creatures. All in the name of innocent “fun,” of course. Meanwhile, a huge metal pot slowly bubbles with a thick, green mixture which could be anything from swamp slime to split pea soup, or a combination of both. The words drip in traditional weird, ghostlike fashion; the web pages create the atmosphere of dank dungeons; of demons that peep and mutter; of pointed hats and broomsticks; of bubbling pots and the smell of death.

Strange words, apparently stemming from the “fertile imagination” of a British female author, who has raked in millions, festoon the pages. One has never heard of “Hogwarts” or “Quidditch” before, but of course little children are eager to learn what they mean.

What is behind the “Harry Potter” craze? Why has it so quickly, in about one year, become the hottest-selling book in history; the movie projected to become the blockbuster of all time? Why are MILLIONS of American, British, Canadian, Australian and other children through­out the English-speaking world so enamored with “Harry Potter”?

It’s all about wizardry, séances, potions, seers, necromancy, witchcraft, and all elements of the so-called “black arts.” And, chances are, your children love it!

America Online has a plethora of information about “Harry Potter.” In the article “Who Is Harry Potter?” by Ann Patrick, one learns that “kids all over the world” are talking about Harry Potter. She says he is a “phenomenon – and simply a character in a series of books for children.”

She explains, “Actually, there is nothing simple about Harry and his popularity. He is charming – literally.” Do not read over that statement lightly. She meant it. The word “charming” means, according to the World Book Dictionary, “Very pleasant to the mind or senses; delightful; fascinating; attractive. 2. Using charms, exercising magic power.” The first usage is derived from the gradual adoption of the true meaning into a benign sense.

The true origin, from “charm,” is: “any word, verse, act or thing supposed to have magic power to help or harm people; incantation; spell,” and, “to act upon as if with a charm; influence by magic: put a spell on, bewitch.”

Exactly. What the author of the article indicated by her assertion that “Harry is charming – literally,” is that reading through the weird meanderings of the unbridled imagination of a British woman, one “J. K. Rowling” can quite literally cast the reader under a spell. Patrick continued, “Harry is an apprentice wizard at Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.”

To any God-fearing parent, this description, all by itself, should shout aloud to them, “This is EVIL. This is FORBIDDEN by the Eternal Creator God. This is WITCHCRAFT!” Do not go near it, and do not allow your children to go near it! Avoid it like you would an office or building in which ANTHRAX has been detected!

But the vast majority of nominal, Christ-­professing, church-going “Christians” eagerly lap up such tripe, like so many hogs at a slop trough.

Attempting to dismiss the obvious evil in such a book, the author gushed, “Harry is a character whom few children can resist. He is plucky and real (sic). He has friends who support him, and they have their own distinct personalities, so much so that the reader looks forward to each of these characters. The plots that author J. K. Rowling has woven these characters into have wonderful twists and surprises that will leave even the most savvy reader satisfied, and entice the nonreader to yearn for more.”

In South Carolina recently, outrage from parents created a media storm. Parents of children in the second grade of a school in the state demanded that the teacher, whose own son is in her classroom, desist from reading “Harry Potter.” She wrote a lengthy letter which found its way to the web site “Moms online.” Because her sophistry is so commonplace and seemingly benign, and because the web site wishes for the utmost exposure, I want you to read a portion of the introduction from “Moms Online,” together with the teacher/mother’s letter: “Harry Potter: Magical or Harmful? The beloved wizard – revisited!”:

“When, upon request, a Mom by the name of Jennifer G. agreed to cease reading from a Harry Potter book to her son’s second grade class, she did so gracefully – and with rumination aplenty. Her story and concern floated into Moms Online and struck a chord with staff and audience alike.

“Where and when are fantasy and magic in reading material considered okay? How does one distinguish between matter which provokes healthy, creative imagery, and that which leans towards disturbing ‘darker’ concepts; i.e., witchcraft? With over 81 million copies in print, the Harry Potter books’ popularity as children’s fiction is unprecedented, and contemplating a ban would be like pulling the candy from Halloween.”

Indeed. Or like taking Santa Claus out of Christmas, perhaps? Such sophistry is enticing, but incredibly misleading. Halloween is utterly pagan; the most important day of the year to Satanists and those who indulge in witchcraft. “Moms Online” argues from the accepted point of view that all such holidays and associated practices are perfectly normal, and perhaps even “Christian,” and that Halloween without candy for kids would be like the second grade without Harry Potter. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 16:25).

The teacher’s letter said: “…Recently I have been asked to STOP reading Harry Potter to one of the second grade classes at my son’s school … As most of you know, I have been reading stories to your child’s class since the beginning of the school year [Note: As a life-long educator, I find this to be ridiculous. Reading to children usually causes wandering minds, inattention, note­passing, and nodding off into sleep. She would be much better advised to teach them to read, rather then reading to them!]. This is an exercise that I consider a privilege and an honor. I believe that reading stories out loud to a child helps to promote their creativity and sense of imagination. These are very important, yet undervalued, skills they will need throughout their lives. It is a persons’ imagination and sense of creativity that enable them (sic) to solve problems and create new ideas in all occupations, from parenthood to profes­sional fields such as medicine, construction, and leadership (sic). In addition to creativity and imagination, reading out loud helps to teach children grammar skills, vocabulary, and writing skills (the use of similies [sic] and imagery, etc.).

“The book I have been reading to your child’s class is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J. K. Rowling. Rowling is a British author with a talent for writing and a fertile imagination. As many of you know, this book has recently been challenged in the state of South Carolina and has been much in the news the past few weeks. Coincidentally, with the intense media coverage, I have been asked to stop reading this book, due to protests from several parents.

“I have chosen to honor this request with a little protest of my own. I understand the religious concerns that people often have regarding the material that their children are exposed to (sic). However, I must admit to being faced with a new problem. I now find myself perusing my own home library for books that I read, not only to your child’s class but to children in the Montessori school (three-year-olds), Kindergarten, and First Grade classes. My newest dilemma is in choosing a new ‘appropriate’ book.

“My understanding is that the objection to Harry Potter generally comes from its focus on magic, sorcery, and fantastical creatures (goblins, unicorns, etc.). Some parents may be concerned from a religious standpoint; others may be afraid that it is too frightening a tale. This is a story of your standard good vs. evil (with good triumphing, as usual). There are undesirable characters who are portrayed in an exaggerated manner so that the reader (sic) will instantly dislike them. These characters have qualities about them that even children recognize as rude, mean, or intolerant. There are evil characters who commit evil deeds, and there are benevolent characters who seek to overcome evil. These are struggles that occur in our everyday life, and by reading and hearing stories about such struggles, I believe that our children will become more empowered to challenge that which is wrong or evil in the name of that which is right, or good. I also chose this particular tale because it seems to have a magical quality of its own in interesting children in reading.” [Note: Just how being read to encourages learning to read is a bit obscure.]

“On the attached page, I have listed some books that I have read to children of all ages, or that I have considered reading. You will surely recognize many of the titles as ‘classics,’ and have possibly seen their corresponding movies. I have chosen these from my own library as samples of books and stories that also have magic at their core. At this point, I feel a little confused (sic) as to where the line is drawn and where the fantasy and magic is considered ‘okay’ and where it is considered inappropriate. I recognize that it is possible that some parents may be concerned that ‘Harry Potter’ is a bit ‘dark’ and are more concerned with the age issue than a religious one…”

A PARTIAL LIST OF HER BOOKS:

• A Wrinkle in Time (Chapter Book).
• Aladdin
• American Folk Tales (Paul Bunyan, Mike Fink, etc.)
• Any Santa Claus Stories
• Babuska’s Doll
• Cinderella
• Goosebumps (Chapter book).
• Peter Pan
• Hansel And Gretel
• Jack and the Beanstalk
• Snow White
• The Magic School Bus
• The Wizard of Oz
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

And many others.

The young teacher misses the point entirely. By lining up all the mystical, mythical, imaginary “fairy tales” of her own childhood – and a very recognizable list it is – she indulges in the sophistry of saying, in essence, “let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water,” or “taking Harry Potter out of the classroom is like taking candy from Halloween, or taking Santa Claus out of Christmas.”

Very persuasive arguments indeed to those who believe children should be brought up with the traditional fairy tales of witchcraft, magic, cannibalism, dismemberment, wizardry, necro­mancy, talking animals and boiling wolves. Hansel and Gretel boil and eat the witch. The “big bad wolf” eats grandma and then takes her place in bed. The fairy tales can indeed be “Grimm.”

But it’s all just so much innocent “tradition” isn’t it? Do not millions of parents treasure their memories of childhood fables and fantasies; of Jack who killed the giant and stole his treasure; of Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother, who was gulped down in a bite?

Question: Does any Christian professing person honestly believe Mary and Joseph taught Jesus Christ all the “fairy tales” and myths common to their time? Did Jesus Christ spend one moment of his time in fantasy, sorcery, witchcraft, necromancy, or wild imagination?

Do not blaspheme the name of Christ by assuming he did. Jesus Christ was also a little boy of eight years of age once; the age of a second grader in our modern school systems.

Only four years later, when he was the age of our average 6th graders, notice what He did: “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

“Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.

“And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.

“And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it.

“But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.

“And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him.

“And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.

“And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.

“And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.

“And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?

“And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them.

“And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.

“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” (Luke 2:40-52).

There is much to be read between the lines. Obviously, Jesus was a boy of great character; a young lad upon whom His parents could rely. That they did not even look for him until having traveled a full day’s journey shows they trusted his self-reliance completely. Further, it is a comment on the society of the time. Parents today would be immediately concerned; would insure their 12-year old boy was right there with them, under their own observation, before leaving on an arduous trip. Modern parents would have been worried about child molesters and kidnappers.

Their lack of concern for an entire day proves there were no such fears; that they lived in a comparatively crime-free society. Could that be because the penalty was death for so many capital infractions?

Christ’s actions also prove that, even from the age of twelve, He was a sober, intelligent, thoughtful, observant young lad – one gifted with knowledge and wisdom beyond His years. Yet, He had to gradually LEARN through study and experience. He did not yet possess the degree of knowledge as a boy of twelve that He would as a man of twenty.

Jesus Christ was imbued with the Spirit of God from birth; even from the womb. He was perfect as a baby; perfect as a young lad; perfect as a man. Yet, he had to gradually LEARN as he grew. Notice, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

“And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him” (Hebrews 5:8, 9). Jesus Christ was perfect as a boy, but when a boy, He was not yet a man. He was perfect at age six, but did not yet know all He would know by age 10.

Can boys and girls of twelve sit with theologians, philosophers, doctors and scientists, asking them piercing, cogent questions, and giving wise and intelligent answers?

Children whose minds are chock full of garbage spew forth garbage. Children whose minds have been allowed to absorb countless hours of idiocy on television (witness the “Saturday morning children’s shows”) are usually incapable of rational thought or action. Many will still be making idiotic noises, fantasizing, “playing” in a child’s dream world of wild imagination, even up into the middle elementary grades.

But Jesus Christ would have been a SIXTH­ GRADER when he challenged the doctors in the Temple!

In the Hebrew society of His day, a lad of twelve was received into society as an “adult” by his elders and his peers. What a contrast between those today who waste their time reading trash such as comic books, playing bloody, violent, weird and demonic video games, and watching thousands of hours of explosions, shootings, mass death and unrelenting violence on television.

Long ago, it was determined that the average child will have watched more hours of television by the time he or she toddles off to the first grade than the child will spend sitting in a classroom in formal education. Many studies indicate that children watch up to five hours of television per day! Throw in the “Saturday morning kiddie shows” and the Sunday TV hours, and you have a formula for a wasted life.

Those who deny simple cause and effect, such as the known habits of TV viewing and video games of the Columbine High School killers, are utterly bereft of common sense.

The “Harry Potter” books encourage children to become excited, curious, enamored with various “characters” such as witches and sorcerers. Harry himself is portrayed as an “apprentice” who strives to achieve such a status.

Are Ms. J. K. Rowling’s books just so much harmless “fun” as most assume? Look around our society, at the casualness with which sorcery, witchcraft, Satanism, soothsaying, and fortune telling are accepted.

Look in your local newspaper near or on the “funnies” page. There, you will likely find the daily “Astrology” section, where you can look up your “horoscope” in the section with your “sign” in it. This will allegedly tell you which actions are propitious for that day. The word “horoscope” comes from two Greek words which mean “time watch.” In other words, an observer of “times.”

Somewhere in your town or city, or one nearby you might see a hand-painted billboard outside an old house with a picture of a human palm on it. The sign might read “Fortunes told,” or “Palmistry,” or “Madame LaZonga tells your future.” Most circuses and carnivals feature such “fortune tellers” or “soothsayers.” Have you noticed the TV ads, usually in connection with fake wrestling or boxing, which present women who claim that if you call them (for an expensive telephone charge) they will tell your “fortune”? Then, of course, it is such “fun” to open up the “fortune cookies” as dessert following a meal at a Chinese restaurant.

Tarot cards, crystal balls, magicians, haunted houses and Halloween – our nations are saturated with commonly-accepted accouter­ments of the black arts. All of this is taken for granted. And because it is, we should be horribly afraid of the consequences to befall us!

God commands His people, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live!” (Exodus 22:18). Whether we want to believe it or not, God Almighty says society should impose the DEATH penalty for anyone practicing witchcraft! God instructed Moses to say to Israel, “When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.

“There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times [horoscopes, or an enchanter, or a witch],

“Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer [one who claims to communicate with the dead].

“For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abomina­tions the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.

“Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.

“For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do” (Deuteronomy 18:9­14).

Notice what Samuel told Saul after Saul had disobeyed God in leaving the pagan king Agag alive, and saving alive the best of his sheep and cattle: “And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king” (1 Samuel 15:22, 23).

Suppose the parents were to return home from dinner, and discover that the baby sitter and their children were sitting in a darkened room, with only candles burning; a bleached skull in the middle of their circle on the floor, muttering incantations, as a strange-smelling incense filled the house? Would the parents be shocked; outraged? Of course!

But when their children REBEL against them; sass them, talk back, say “no” to parental suggestions or commands, the parents are not shocked at all. After all, they have been told by the child psychologists, “it is NORMAL” for a two-year-old to shout “NO!” at his parents!

One of the great sins of our peoples is the sin of abandoning our children to television, peers, schools, and society – failing to rear them according to the laws of God! It is because of this that God says, “As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. 0 my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths” (Isaiah 3:12).

Contrast the example of Jesus Christ as a boy of twelve with that of another boy of twelve, King Manasseh of Judah: “Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem:

“But did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, like unto the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.

“For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshipped all the host of heaven [such as the ‘signs of the Zodiac’], and served them.

“Also he built altars in the house of the LORD, whereof the LORD had said, in Jerusalem shall my name be for ever.

“And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.

“And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and usedenchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger” (2 Chronicles 33:1-6). Manasseh, as a boy of twelve, would have LOVED “Harry Potter!” Gleefully lapping up stories about an apprentice wizard would have been right down his alley. Manasseh’s sins ultimately caused the captivity of his people, and his own captivity. He bitterly repented, and was allowed to return to Jerusalem. Read the entire chapter for the full story.

Human Nature Tends To Evil

Human nature is a collection of vanity, jealousy, lust and greed. It is entirely concerned with SELF. It is selfish, conceited, egocentric, grasping, cunning, and consists of three major agendas: (1) Self preservation; (2) Self determi­nation; (3) Self perpetuation.

God shows that the human “…heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” He answers, “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).

Paul wrote of the human heart; human nature: “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

“For to be carnally [fleshly; physically; bereft of the Holy Spirit] 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.

“So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:5-9). The only way one can receive the Spirit of Christ is by REPENTANCE of sin, water baptism, and the receiving of God’s Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands of the ministry (Acts 2:38).

Human nature expresses itself in satisfying the lusts of the flesh; fulfilling inordinate human, physical appetites. Paul wrote, “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

“Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emula­tions, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

“Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21).

God sent His prophets to warn our forefathers repeatedly to repent of their dabbling in sorcery and witchcraft! The prophet Micah, writing of eventual vengeance against those who would destroy our peoples, said, “And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver.

“Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off.

“And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots:

“And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strong holds:

“And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers:

“Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.

“And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee: so will I destroy thy cities.

“And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard” (Micah 5:8-15).

Millions of professing, church-going nominal Christians believe God’s LAWS are “done away!” This is a lie. There is a massive amount of evidence in your Bible that God NEVER abrogated His law; that the Jesus Christ of the New Testament IS THE GOD of the Old; that the One who became Christ is the member of Divine Elohim who WROTE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS WITH HIS OWN FINGER!

If you have not read my book about “The Ten Commandments” or “Was The Law In Force BEFORE Sinai?” look them up on our web site, or call (903) 561-7070 for your free copies.

God commands us, “Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD.

“Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God” (Leviticus 19:30, 31).

God warns us, “And the soul that tumeth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.

“A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: – their blood shall be upon them” (Leviticus 20:6, 27).

As millions of Britons, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans and Americans flock to the theaters to sit, mesmerized, watching the “fertile imagination” of one Ms. J. K. Rowling enacted on the screen; as they crunch buttered popcorn and candy, and swill huge chemical mixtures called soft drinks, sating the appetites of the flesh and the mind, little do they know that they are opening up the door of their minds to the subtle wiles of the Devil, himself.

Little do they know that they are VIOLATING GOD’S LAWS by pretending sorcery, witchcraft, soothsaying, and delving into the “black magic” of demonism are merely harmless “fun.” It is about the same kind of “fun” as discovering your children playing with lighted matches in front of a hissing gas jet!

Here is God’s view from heaven:

“And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination.

“The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not [those in the ­FOREFRONT of preaching AGAINST God’s Ten Commandments are the ministers of the mainstream churches!]: the pastors also trans­gressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

“Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children’s children will I plead.

“For pass over the isles of Chittim [Cyprus], and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing.

“Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit [The Buddhists have not abandoned Buddha. The Hindus have never changed their religion. The Muslims have not abandoned Muhammad – but God’s people have abandoned the true God!]

“Be astonished, 0 ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD.

“For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:7-13).

If you are a parent, and if you intend permitting your children to become a part of the “Harry Potter” craze, do not be surprised to find that your children end up rejecting God and Christ, and perhaps decide to become actively involved in sorcery and witchcraft. It is the parents who shall bear the responsibility.

Be wise! Get wisdom! God inspired Solomon to write, “Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:

“She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,

“How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

“Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

“Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;

“But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:

“I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;

“When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.

“Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

“For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

“They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.

“Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

“For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.

“But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil” (Proverbs 1:20-33).

Today, IT IS AGAINST THE LAW for teachers to read the BIBLE to their students. Thus, if children are to learn about Creation; about Adam and Eve; about Noah and the Ark; about David and Goliath; about Daniel in the Lion’s den, they will have to learn it at home, or perhaps in their church, for it is not allowed in school. The Bible is filled with truthful stories about good overcoming evil; about courage in the face of danger; about human nature being overcome with God’s help. But our teachers are banned from reading the Bible to their students.

It is foolish to allow your children to become enamored with sorcery and witchcraft! Do not reject God’s commands. Resist the vile tempta­tions of Satan and his evil world.

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.

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