Sermon: Purpose-Driven Churches (Part 7)

How They Fit Into End Time Events
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Given 09-Sep-06; 79 minutes

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We must remain vigilant in the midst of heresy, false prophets, earthquakes, and signs in the heavens. Jesus tells His followers not to sleep, reminding them that disastrous events occurring in the world are going to intensify and wear out the saints. The Purpose Driven Church will be a major player trying to take us in the wrong direction. Groups such as the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem have used God's Holy Days for their own purpose. Herbert W. Armstrong studied a great deal into conspiracy theories, including education, media, and U S Government conspiracies. It was the midst of the 1800s, that the one-world buds started to sprout across the world. God condemns Judah and Israel and promises to send inept leaders, making unwise executive orders, partitioning the America into ten regions subject only to the president. As we become absorbed into these regions, we will lose our sovereignty, our currency, and our very identity as a people.


transcript:

We are going to begin this sermon by turning to Matthew 24:2-5.

Matthew 24:2-5 And Jesus said unto them, See you not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age? And Jesus answered, and said unto them, Take heed, that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many.

There is no doubt that the major exhortation given by Jesus to us in Matthew 24, and Matthew 25 as well, concerns our being ever alert to what is going on around us in the world at large, and at the same time taking care to make sure that we remain faithful to Jesus and the covenant we have made with Him.

Jesus' long response to the disciples' questions in verse 3 indicates that they somewhat misunderstood the statement in verse 2. Their misunderstanding was that the destruction of the Temple would immediately precede Jesus' return. Jesus then proceeds to clarify that misunderstanding, thus indicating that His return was a long way off from where they were right in that point in time.

Jesus' instruction and predictions in these chapters are divided into two overall sections. First would be those events that will be more or less occurring and would have to be dealt with in each succeeding generation; and second is those events which will be much more specific to the time immediately prior to His return.

The issue for Jesus, and thus for us, is this: Because we believe God's Word, and believe in Jesus and have come to love Him, and at the same time to hate and fear with a fervor of all that is going on in the world, there is always going to be an emotional tie to the things said in these two chapters. An emotional tie, when something is going wrong, can be very wearying, but understanding it is a different matter altogether.

False prophets of what we are dealing with in the Outcome-Based Religion series are among those that Jesus' disciples, in any age they might live in, are always going to have to be alert to and dealt with.

The appearance of false prophets, which in turn is linked to wars, famines, diseases, and earthquakes are events that, by themselves, do not signal Christ's imminent return. This does not mean that they will not be occurring just before His second coming; only that we should not jump to a wrong conclusion just because they do occur.

Matthew 24:6 And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that you be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

Just because wars occur, just because diseases and famines occur, and just because false prophets arise, does not mean that we are at the end yet.

Matthew 24:7-8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in different places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

You can begin to see very clearly there is a division that Christ is establishing here. It is made especially clear by the statement that "all these are the beginning of sorrows," and "the end is not yet."

Matthew 24:32-34 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near: So likewise you, when you shall see all these things, [all the things He has mentioned up to this point, and we are about 15 or 20 verses after verse 8], know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation [meaning the generation that sees all these things occur] shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.

We are going to add to this Luke 21, which is Luke's account of Matthew 24—the Olivet Prophecy.

Luke 21:11 And great earthquakes shall be in different places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

Luke advances it a little bit further than verse 8 does of Matthew 24.

Luke 21:25-26 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; [This sounds like tsunamis.] Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

The implication, when Luke 21 is added to Matthew 24, is that when you see all these things intensifying, and are more numerous and are happening together, the end indeed is near.

Not until the advent of extremely rapid electronic worldwide communication systems has it been possible to be a witness of events almost immediately following their occurrence as it is in our day. That was not available to mankind before, and I believe that the events described are occurring, are intensifying, and are happening one on top of the other, showing that we are indeed in the last days.

Matthew 24:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Now here Jesus clearly states our responsibility. If we took that verse by itself, we might think that all we are to do is just hang on. Well, I assure you... that is better than nothing, but not so good when other instruction is added to what Jesus stated here in Matthew 24:13. I will give you just one example that you are familiar with from Romans 13:11-14.

Romans 13:11-14 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, But put you on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

Perhaps the key word in that series of verses is the word "sleep." It indicates being insensitive to what is going on around you. That is the way it is when we are asleep. When we are asleep we do not know what is going on around us. When you tie that into Matthew 24 and to Luke 21, Paul is saying, "Do not be insensitive to what is going on in the world."

Events are proving that we are in the end time. We see false prophets. We see earthquakes. We see and hear of wars, and rumors of wars, and famines and disease epidemics, and tsunamis, and hurricanes. All of those things are increasing and intensifying, and they are worldwide in their occurrence, and the electronic media enables us to know what is going on almost instantaneously anywhere in the world. It is a witness against us that we must not be asleep, because it is happening.

God has blessed us with invaluable understanding, and so we are to make the best use of the time afforded us. We can grow and overcome despite what is happening in the world around us if we understand. There may be an emotional tie to what is going on around us, and that emotional tie may make us very tired and weary with having to deal with it every day, seemingly to be on guard to somehow work up a measure of happiness or a sense of well-being, or whatever it is. But if we understand, we can deal with it much better, and if we keep our eyes on the ball and not let other interests distract us from where we are headed.

So take Jesus' warning. We have to endure, but not passively. We have to go on. What Jesus did there in Matthew 24 is to begin this long discourse to His disciples with a cautionary statement, advising us to make sure we are careful regarding analyzing the news, and making the best use possible of our understanding. I most certainly hope that I am doing this, because I believe that we are witnessing something of great portent in the spiritual world, signaling a major step toward Christ's return.

Even the world calls the Purpose-Driven Churches the "emerging church." It is as though something new has come on the scene. It really is not new, but they see something here that is different from what they are accustomed to. I do not believe that this "emerging church" will be named "the Outcome-Based Religion Church" at the end, but nonetheless I do believe that it is going to be a major player along the way in influencing people in the wrong direction.

My previous sermon it reminded us, right at its very beginning, of a very important fact that must always be taken into consideration when we are seeking to understand why worldwide conditions and circumstances are the way they are in the world at this time in man's history. The major reason the Bible reveals is that Satan and his horde of demon colleagues, by means of their spirit, have permeated and corrupted all of the earth's cultures with strong anti-God inclinations. It is they who have established the course, or the way, of this world, and all of mankind, including us, has followed that way. It is what we were born into, and we accepted it as being normal.

We saw a strong evidence that Satan is a liar, and lying for personal gain is at the heart of conspiracies. We saw in Proverbs 1 that conspirators use lies in order to hide their true self-centered intention to gain for the conspirators' common good.

We saw in that sermon that as soon as within the third or fourth generation after the Flood, mankind, centered on Nimrod as the leader, and Babylon as its location, was already being used to form a one world government in opposition to God. It was this one-world-government proposition—not the fear of technology—that moved God to intervene and scatter, by means of confusing people's languages.

We went on to show that Daniel 2 reveals that four other major attempts to rule, at least the Western world, have already appeared and disappeared. These were Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome and its revivals; but all of them have left their mark in the cultures of nations worldwide, whether in the Occident, or in the Orient, right down to this very day.

For several centuries the fifth, and the most grandiose of all of the Genesis 11 revivals, has been underway. Its major last-days' leaders have not yet appeared, but we are centuries into Satan's preparation, and its outlines are clearly seen. The Beast of Revelation 13 is just below the horizon.

By means of his spirit and the course, or the way, of this world, Satan and his demons are leading mankind through an elite group of leaders to accept a one-world government and all that it entails. He is the master conspirator who enables this worldwide conspiracy to be kept going over centuries of time. He does not have to worry about dying.

This elite group of people is placed in positions of leadership in the Western world to influence the political, economic, military, educational, and religious standards and programs in order to bend all into a conformity that will associate the whole Western world into one loose giant union of peoples.

The Purpose-Driven Churches, the Outcome-Based Religion, or the Emerging Church—whatever one wants to call it—is a slickly devised religious organization calling itself Christian, but in reality it is nothing more than a business organization with human philosophical, pagan, and Occult religious undertones fit comfortably into this union.

One man, Gary Gilley, who is a fundamentalist preacher, wrote a book about the Purpose-Driven Churches, the title of which is This Little Church Went To Market. That is a play on words, but it tells you very clearly what he believes about the Purpose-Driven Church. It is really nothing more than a slick business operation with religious overtones, and it is producing tremendously.

This organization is especially attractive to Israelitish people, but its influences are now being managed to reach out into the Gentile world, and it is finding success there as well. Right now Rick Warren has an operation going on in Rwanda, and he is scheduled next year to go to North Korea of all places. I find that kind of interesting.

In addition, within the last several weeks I read of an American-based religious organization I have never heard of before. They call themselves The International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem. That might seem like a strange name for a church, but a church it is. Have any of you ever heard of them before? Let me tell you a little bit about them. These people hold a convention in Jerusalem each year called "The Feast of Tabernacles." They hold the Feast of Tabernacles the same time we do. Does that sound familiar?

To give you an idea of the importance the State of Israel holds them in, each year since 1980 no one less than the prime minister, regardless of party affiliation, takes time from his busy schedule to address their gathering. In addition, in recent years, portions of that address have been broadcast over BBC, CNN, FOX, and MSNBC cable news channels.

One of the major reasons why these people are so important to the Israeli government is because they are part of George Bush's conservative right-wing political base. That ought to tell you something. Their heart, their operations are in this world!

Now President Bush's brand of "born again" Christianity is very similar to theirs. Some of the same names associated with the Purpose-Driven Churches have a loose relationship with the ICEJ (International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem), and in an overall sense, the ICEJ has the same overall theological and political purpose very similar to the Purpose-Driven Churches. These people are what the theologians call "dominionists." This term describes the overall direction of their movement, which is to set up the Kingdom of God on earth before Christ ever gets here. That is the goal of the Purpose-Driven Churches, too. Those people too are dominionists. In fact these people teach that they will be perfected before Jesus arrives.

Now just like Genesis 11, all of this sort of political and religious movement is in direct opposition to God's Word, because the setting for God's kingdom is something that God clearly is going to do through Jesus Christ after He returns. See, they are declaring by their doctrine that they are actually anti-Christ.

Turn now to Psalm 83:1-8.

Psalm 83:1-5 Keep not you silence, O God: hold not your peace, and be not still, O God. For, lo, your enemies make a tumult: and they that hate you have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against your people, and consulted against your hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against you.

Can you see what is being described here? A conspiracy against Israel, against God, against Jesus Christ.

Psalm 83:6-8 The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assur also is joined with them: they have helped the children of Lot. Selah. ["Selah" apparently means, "Think about this."]

Nehemiah 4:7-8 But it came to pass that when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and the Arabians, and the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites, heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up, and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very angry, And conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder it.

I just went to these two places to remind you that conspiracies are not at all uncommon. There is always, in terms of biblical prophecy and history, one continuous goal that is always in mind when the conspiracies are spoken of, and that goal is always to destroy God's people and purposes.

Evelyn made a very interesting discovery this morning of something that I had completely and totally forgotten that I even had. I had it stashed away in a closet where I put things I am never going to use again, and make no reference to. The things that I use frequently are in a file cabinet right beside my desk. Things that are in that closet I have put out of the way, probably someday to throw away, or burn, or whatever. Well, I do not know why, but she went in there and was going through some of those things. I do not know where I got them. I have no idea. I did not write anything down on them.

The title of one of these is, "Herbert W. Armstrong Believed In Conspiracies." I found this really interesting, because the person who put this together went through practically subject by subject—I mean dozens, maybe scores of years—of Mr. Armstrong's writings to see whether Herbert Armstrong ever wrote on conspiracy theories. He did! Oodles of times!

This one is about the same thing. The title is, "A Secret Plot to Conquer the United States." Underneath that it says, "A Peace-keeping New World Order." I believe this came from an article that was written in October 1962 and appeared as part of the autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong. I am going to quote a major portion of that autobiographical chapter.

Mr. Armstrong attended the May 1945 conference held in San Francisco that formed the United Nations. He was there as a correspondent. In this autobiographical chapter he is relating to something that he observed there. That very same evening he left those meetings and went to speak to a group of people who had been invited beforehand, because he was going to be in San Francisco to give a Bible Study, a sermon, or whatever to the World Tomorrow program listeners. He is quoting his own notes. He said:

This San Francisco Conference is the greatest, most important conference of heads of nations ever held in world history. Here the top statesmen of the whole world are gathered, and why? To build a high tower, [he is thinking of Genesis 11], a super world organization—man's newest approach toward world government—an armed organization with the power of armed force to guarantee world peace.

Was he ahead of his time, or what? That was May 9, 1945.

Here is an interesting one that appeared in 1953. He predicts here that the government will be Fascist, and then right under that the next paragraph begins: "Conspiracy with the Vatican."

This next one comes from "The United States and Britain In Prophecy," pages 185 and 186:

And now we are fast approaching the final grand smash explosion that is going to stagger the mind of man beyond the bounds of sanity. Forces are at work today on plans, programs, and conspiracy movement that will soon erupt into a world explosion of violence and chaos such as never happened before and never will again.

This one here is especially interesting. It is titled "Educational Conspiracies" and is from a 1961 article. I am going to read a considerable portion of this. It says:

The most diabolical conspiracy of all time against you and your child and humanity is here, for the first time exposed, and you need to know the eye-opening facts. Today an evil conspiracy is infusing diabolical leaven into the process of disseminating knowledge. It is injecting mental and spiritual poison into the plastic unsuspecting minds of children and youth. This conspiracy is cleverly designed to destroy mankind. The plain truth about this plot and the secretly-operating forces behind it is something that you need to know.

In just the past two generations a new trend has marked the turning point in modern education. This new trend has been so subtly introduced and manipulated that the real plot and its authors have been unrecognized. Of course, many educators do not recognize that there is a dangerous drift into materialism and collectivism, but they are unaware of the underlying master plan and its real Satanic authorship. But of that diabolical plot to destroy all humanity through education, how could any such objective be accomplished? Who are the subtle Satanic forces working undercover to perpetrate it?

And then he goes on and on.

Another one is titled "Communist Conspiracies."

Here is an interesting one titled "Media Conspiracies." He wrote that in May, 1985. Just before he died he was beginning to see that the media was operating against the best interests of the American people. The longest, single section of this: "U. S. Government Conspiracies." "Catholic Conspiracies." At any rate, on and on it goes.

If you read any of those you will find that Mr. Armstrong's focus in almost all of them was on Germany. He felt that they were at the base of these things going on, and there was easily recognized reason why his mind was going in that direction. What had happened? Who was the enemy in World War I? Who was the enemy in World War II? Who was the enemy fighting against? In both cases, it was the Israelitish people.

Now he had a prophecy to go on in Ezekiel 21:14. Ezekiel was told by God that the sword is going to be doubled over three times. Two of them have already occurred, and in recent history, in the end time, the enemy fighting against the Israelitish people, in both cases, was Germany. That is why he looked in that direction, and he felt that again the German nation would be at the base of the conspiracies going on. They may yet be. I do not know.

They kind of faded into the background, but it is very interesting that in the last month or two, more and more news about German resurgence is beginning to occur—one being that their economy is beginning to show a measure of prosperity.

Another is that they are going to be the ones who are going to be responsible for a great deal of the Peace-Keeping Force in Lebanon, protecting Israel. Can you imagine this? Germany has always been Israel's enemy! The German navy is being sent to Lebanon as a large part of that contingency. Maybe things are beginning to turn in that direction, and that is a possibility. It is just good to keep those things in mind, and to always have your mind open to watching those things that are occurring. Each of the previous attempts of establishing a world government had a strong central core of religion, and today's leadership of these religious organizations, including the Purpose-Driven Churches, makes statements that clearly show their alignment with the political side of the movement toward the one world government. The circumstances that produced the times we are living in right now began a long time ago—in fact many centuries ago. I am going to give you a rather rapid overview of significant events, and even this rapid overview is going to take a little while—maybe for the rest of the sermon. We will see.

When you look out on the world today, I think that most of you understand that Western Europe is almost completely secular. For example, I read just in the past month that a mere 5% of French people attend church on a regular basis. France is ruled almost totally by secular minds bent only on political advantage, and as a nation they cannot be relied upon to think or act within Christian parameters. Other European nations with higher church-going percentages are not quite as bad, but their highest religious rating makes little difference to the direction those nations are headed.

By comparison, America's church-going attendance is almost out-of-sight higher than European figures, and thus there is a much stronger religious bent to our national thinking. That would be great if the thinking was right, but the reality is that America is rapidly headed in the same general direction of the complete secularization of the nation.

I want you to consider a brief overview of the background of what has been occurring relative to this subject for the past four centuries. It began in England.

The Englishman, Sir Francis Bacon, lived from 1521 to 1626. He was a philosopher, essayist, and statesman. There is a weak possibility that he was the real writer of Shakespeare's works. There is no doubt whatever that he was a brilliant intellect; however, it is also a clear indication from his own writing that he was influenced by demons. It is he who has been given a large share of the credit for laying a motivating foundation for our time, and this was accomplished by his authoring a work he titled The New Atlantis in which he predicts that in the West—that is, west of England—will arise a wonderful world mankind has been dreaming of.

Nobody knows for sure whether the original Atlantis was a myth or a solid-fact-based reality. But at any rate, Atlantis is described in a few ancient documents as a wonderful technologically-advanced city or nation of great beauty, liberties, and power, devastated by a great catastrophe and lying submerged under the sea. Perhaps its conception is a carry-over from the world before the Flood, but men have never located its remains. But what Bacon did was to vividly revive that dream, and predict that the new Atlantis would be built in the Americas. The North American continent at that time was just beginning to open up for settlement.

Many other people of influence, like preachers, teachers, and statesmen, were stirred to enthusiasm at the possibility of Bacon's writings, and thus when immigrants like the Pilgrims and the Puritans and entrepreneurial business types, and just plain adventurers, came to this nation, they came believing that this new virgin land was the beginning of the fulfillment of that dream, and that this land was to be homeland of spiritual, not physical, Israel. This is why the term "Israel," in reference to America, appears so often in the earliest settlers' writings. Some of the framers of our Constitution had elements of these concepts in their mind, and is part of the major reason why so many of our Constitutional liberties are drawn from the Bible. Bacon's book was the spark that lit that fire.

Now come forward in your thinking into the 1800s, and what one begins to find is that vast political and social changes were already underway in order to set things up for the time of Christ's return. And though they began then, they are affecting us in what we see happening in the world now; thus the way life in general is moving for everybody is toward one object: the return of Jesus Christ.

It is in the 1800s that we can clearly see for the first time the buds of globalist thinking. The concepts had actually been conceived and the seeds planted earlier, but the buds began to appear, and they were fertilized in a number of movements that we see in the 1800s.

Among the events helping to move things along was the industrialization of manufacturing, the gradual movement away from economies built around agriculture, and the rapid increase in the speed of transportation, especially those things like steam-driven ships and trains that aided trade between nations. But all this while, communication between vastly different cultures was being facilitated.

What we witnessed in the 1800s is a sort of a reverse of the confusion of tongues of Genesis 11. The English language was gradually moving to the fore as the language of commerce, then politics, and finally religion. In the academic world Darwinism and its evolutionary concepts had a major impact. That too began in the 1800s.

In addition, there were mass migrations of people out of Europe to the United States and Canada, and governments, especially federal governments, began growing to monstrous, burdensome proportions. Those governments quickly evolved into irresponsibility, producing Socialist forms. Why that form of government? Actually, the answer is quite simple, because the politicians soon found that those forms were an easy ticket to re-election, and therefore the opportunity to control the direction the populations of people moved geographically, politically, economically, educationally, and religiously.

It is always good to remember an important principle regarding human government. It is always about power. The politicians invariably claim to serve, and they do provide some services for those they govern. There are indeed some honest, sincere servants in human government, but history clearly shows that man cannot escape the effects of his Satan-induced nature, and governments always become self-serving. Always! Even when a revolution occurs and the tyrants are thrown out, the revolutionaries most frequently evolve into the new tyrants. The French Revolution, in its liberal use of the guillotine, is a vivid and tragic example of this principle.

Remember that Babylon was first and foremost a city. Cities have always existed. They existed, and they are not inherently evil, but during the period of time in the 19th and 20th centuries (the 1800s and 1900s) they began to grow enormous in size and population. This jammed millions of people into small geographical areas, making common communication of culture much, much easier. The effect was that ever so gradually political and economic power was becoming more and more centralized.

This also made it much easier for the lowest common denominator of morality to become the common thread of the way that the business of life was conducted. With industrialization and citification, the possibilities opened wider to invention, and thus the need for mineral resources to produce those inventions. This progression also opened wide the door to wars of worldwide scope, and by the twentieth century, those wars became a reality. Out of the ashes of war and worldwide economic depression came supra-governing organizations such as the League of Nations, which failed because of the lack of American support. But into that breach has now stepped the enemy of individual liberties—the United Nations. It too is inept, but it represents yet another step in the wrong direction.

There is a point to where all of this is moving as it impacts on each and every person, and at this point has very much to do with end-time prophecies that everyone of us is considerably aware of, and that is the rise and worship of the Beast who will be the very embodiment of Satan.

While all of this has been going on, the Israelitish people have been cursed in a particularly devastating way. I said cursed. I want you to see that God cursed Judah in some way that we need to understand, because it has happened to us as well.

Isaiah 1:5-6 Why should you be stricken any more? You will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick [That points to the leadership.], and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

Do you see what God is saying there? He is comparing the whole nation as one person who is sick from the top of the head to the soles of the feet. That is the way the whole nation was.

My Bible says at the beginning of Isaiah 3, "Judgment on Judah." Here is the judgment God gave to the people.

Isaiah 3:1 For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, does take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water.

God is saying there, "I am going to begin to break you economically." Food is represented by bread, and water represents the energy that they needed to produce.

I read a statement somebody made that appeared in The Charlotte Observer, that there is a new rare bit of something that would be good to collect, because off in the future it is really going to be valuable. And what is this? The tag that says "Made in America."

We do not make very much anymore. Everything is going out of the country. That is having disastrous impact on the United States of America, and it is kind of what he is saying here in Isaiah 3:1. But in verse 2 it gets worse—something else God is going to take away.

Isaiah 3:2-5 The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, the captain of fifty, and the honorable man, and the counselor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honorable.

Isaiah 3:8-9 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory. The show of their countenance does witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! For they have rewarded evil unto themselves.

Isaiah 3:12 As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths.

Basically, God is saying here to Judah, through Isaiah, "That because of your immorality, I am going to give you the leadership you deserve. I am going to give you foolish leaders who are incompetent to make decisions for your national well-being."

Step by step the leadership decisions are destroying our national sovereignty, eroding our personal liberty, intensifying uncertainty, and making us increasingly so focused on self-preservation. Gradually, brethren, it is becoming "every man for himself," and everybody doing "what is right in his own eyes."

The practical effect of this curse, brethren, is that the borders between nations, especially in the Western world where the Israelitish people live, though these border boundary lines still exist on maps as a legal separation between nations, they are, in reality of everyday life, actually disappearing.

You have undoubtedly heard of Executive Orders used to describe the source of some authoritative declaration coming from the federal government in Washington. Do you know where Executive Orders came from, and what their purpose originally was? They were originally instituted to facilitate the president's ability to make the Executive branch of the government only more effective and efficient in carrying out its responsibility to the American people. Executive Orders have no direct application to national law whatever. Their purpose was an internal Executive department facility or device only.

However—and remember that I just mentioned to you that government under human carnal leadership is all about power—through time, Executive Orders' powers gradually expanded to cover more than the Executive branch, and nobody in the other two branches—Congress or the Judiciary—challenged their use outside of the department. The Executive branch logic was that national welfare made its use imperative. Interesting interpretation.

The president—the Executive department—would simply say, "Well, we are doing this in the national best interest," or "We are doing this because we are being threatened by such and such, or so and so;" for example, the terrorists. So, the Executive branch is always reaching out for a little bit more power, a little bit more power. That made its use imperative. What this has gradually done over a generation or two is to give virtually dictatorial powers for the president.

Do you realize, that in practical fact, George Bush declared war on Iraq? According to the Constitution, that is absolutely, totally illegal! He is not allowed to do that. That is a job which is reserved for the 500 or so men who are in the Congress. So you have 500 heads of wisdom compared to one, you see. There is wisdom in it being that way in the Constitution.

There was a little bit of a stink raised when he started sending troops and asking for money to fight this thing over in Iraq. By everybody else's opinion, it is a war. "No. It is just an action we are taking against terrorism." Look how many men have died. That is just an example.

The first president to actually make a fair amount of use of this privilege was John Kennedy. What comes to mind is the Cuban Missile Crisis. You see, we were getting into this crisis, and so Executive Orders started coming out—just in case. You see, the Executive Order is backed up by the power of the Executive branch, and somehow or another it never really gets annulled, vetoed. The use of Executive Orders may have gotten Lyndon Johnson not elected. He pulled that Tonkin Gulf fiasco on his own. He ordered that thing by means of Executive Order, and so we found ourselves involved very deeply in an undeclared war in Vietnam.

Each president has added layers to the Executive Orders that have already preceded it. But are you aware that in 1971 President Nixon issued Executive Order No. 11,657 which legally divided the United States of America into ten regions, each with its own administrator who directly reports only to the president? This gets very interesting.

Are you also aware that at the same time President Nixon issued this Executive Order, others in leadership positions had already devised plans to divide the entire populations of the earth into ten supra-national geographical regions that could, at appropriate times, supersede all national sovereignty, thus establishing one worldwide system? I am not saying that all of these people of this latest thing I just said were in the United States.

That concept was so radical at the time it was revealed that it actually appeared in daily newspapers. They did not hide it, but it appeared in daily newspapers. It was not hidden.

Are you aware that this American regional government, formed through a series of Executive Orders issued by various presidents, is indeed in operation, and that it can, if fully implemented, absolutely nullify all local governing authority from the state on down, because it centralizes all decision-making in the White House? Do you see what we have developing? We are just that close to a dictatorial, fascist government. The pieces are falling into place.

Do you know that the White House already can gets its way in areas of the state and local governments? According to the Constitution, the state and local rights are stronger than federal rights. The federal government, through manipulation of tax revenues they grant or withhold, can use money to stop or start projects, whatever. They simply say to state officials, "Well, if you do not comply, we will not share the tax revenues with you, and so you will not get your highways and bridges built." They manipulate the state and local governments through the taxes they withhold or grant.

Do you know an example of how this regional government thing recently came to light, that it is actually in operation? It came to light pertaining to the rebuilding of New Orleans. The regional governmental system is actually calling the shots on the rebuilding of New Orleans, and the overall concept apparently is simply to rewild much of the city. "Rewild" is a simple euphemism for letting it go back to nature.

So Ray Nagin and his cohorts in the New Orleans city government have to bend before the regional government on this. They are finding that what their desires to rebuild the city are cannot get past this stronger entity which answers to the federal government. Now maybe the regional government's ideas are better. I do not know, but the fact remains, "Who is calling the shots?"

Incidentally, the reason I know this is because it was right on the news broadcast. It was not hidden. They said the regional government is issuing the orders.

Let us go into something else that I know you are well aware of. I want to help you to see that things are moving in a certain direction. It is like a tidal wave that is coming toward us.

Are you aware that the reality is that the border between the United States and Mexico may as well not even be there, that our nation is being invaded by a vast tide of illegal immigrants migrating across the Rio Grande River? My question is this: How much have you seen our president do to stop it? Does it not say right in the Constitution that it is the president's responsibility to "provide for the common defense"? We are undergoing an invasion. I do not blame the Mexicans. If I were them I would want to go to a place where there is better opportunity. They too are being used to accomplish something that is being withheld from them. I mean the full picture.

I do not know what President Bush personally believes in his heart of hearts, but I do know this, that his hands are legally tied because of UN sponsored international agreements to which we have previously committed ourselves, one of which is NAFTA. Listen to this quote that came across my desk just this week. It is from the Newswithviews.com website and is dated September 6, 2006, from an article written by Dennis L. Cuddy, Ph.D. It is titled "Javier Solana and the End Times."

Javier Solana is a Spaniard, and is currently Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union, and is responsible for coordinating its military and foreign policy. He does not set the foreign policy, but he does coordinate what is done once it is set, so he has a very responsible position. At the same time he is also Secretary-General of the Council of the Western European Union. He said,

What I am trying to do is to promote a process of reorganization of the world so that human beings are organized in a way that takes advantage of the new opportunities of this era. [Do you see how big this thinking is—"of the world!"?] If we can prove that you can merge integrated economies and integrated democracies, then we will be more likely to build a global system of this kind.

The author, Mr. Cuddy, then goes on to reveal what Mr. Solana is currently working on. It is a plan to form a Mediterranean Free Trade Zone in the Middle East with Libyan oil the carrot being held out as an incentive to draw nations together. You know how important oil is. This is telling the nations, "Well, if you will just come together into this Free Trade association, then we will ensure that in the future you will be able to tap into Libya's oil, and you will be well supplied." That is quite a carrot to pass before them.

The author goes on to say that Mr. Solana wants this Mediterranean Free Trade Zone in operation by the year 2010. Cuddy then goes on to say "The year 2010 also happens to be when the North American Union integrating the U.S., Canada and Mexico is to come into existence with a new currency called the Amero. You are probably saying Americans would never allow our country to be absorbed into a Union with 2 other countries. Actually, you will have nothing to say about it. The Amero will be adopted when the U.S. currency goes into the tank." He then goes on to say that the Amero will be replaced by a world currency called the Phoenix in 2018.

Brethren, do you see how far ahead these people are thinking, and the general direction they are taking us? Human government is all about power, and it is reaching out like an octopus to encompass the whole Western world. Our national sovereignty is disappearing, and with it the wonderful liberties that we have been given, afforded, and privileged to have because we have the best Constitution the world has ever seen.

Are you aware that the United States has already given to the United Nations effective control of our beautiful, wonderful American parks, like Yellowstone and Yosemite? And on and on it goes. The effective management is now outside the United States, and they can tell us what to do with that land. That is in the hands of the United Nations.

I just have a little note here. I am appealing to you Canadians who are listening. Do not laugh at us, because your nation no longer belongs to you either. National sovereignty in the Western world is continuously dissolving, and with it our beautifully Bible-based Constitution.

It is not just happening here. Turkish immigrants invited by the German government to come to do work there have invaded Germany. The Moroccans are invading Italy, and the Algerians are invading France. England has received a host of ethnic groups.

Something interesting happened in England just as the month of August was beginning. In an effort to reach out to the ever-growing Muslim groups, the English government planned a massive nation-wide day of celebration. A large number of the nation's parks were virtually turned over to Muslims only. The parks were offered by the English government a large number of freebees as an attraction. All food would be clean. Muslim dress codes were required. Do you know what happened? The Muslims snubbed it, and told England "to go!" "We do not need you, and we do not want this." It had to be called off. That is their attitude, and they are just a little bit further ahead of the United States. The reality is that these invasions are creating massive social problems.

Brethren, do you understand that the overwhelming number of real leadership in government in the Western world—the Israelitish world—does not want to stop these migrations because they fit into their overall globalization schemes? This elite group thinks that what they are doing is for our good. They are deceived to the nth degree, because they have absolutely no biblical base for their thinking.

Things I have mentioned are easily-discerned examples of what is happening in every area important to life and the former separations of people. Satan is moving to maneuver us in different directions to destroy every vestige of the Israelitish people from earth. Now why would he want to do this? Because Israel is the people through whom God chose to work—the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—and therefore Israel is the home of the true Christian religion. If Satan wants to destroy all of humanity, he has to destroy the people who hold the truth of God, and most of these people reside in Israelitish nations.

So before the destruction can be fully accomplished, people have to be manipulated by governments through circumstances, education, religion, and psychology into the acceptance of concepts contrary to God and the Bible, and Satan has been busy doing this, increment by increment, for centuries. It is what he does best, and he does it through lying. His object is to produce uniformity of thinking in areas important to himself, his purpose, which ultimately is to destroy mankind.

I think that is a good place to stop, and so God willing, I will pick this up on the Feast of Trumpets.

JWR/smp/cah





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