Category: Resource Notes

Beginning last Sunday, December 6, the Hebrew feast of Hanukkah is celebrated. The feast memorializes the dedication of the Temple in 165 BC, after Antiocus IV Epiphanes attempted to stamp out the Hebrew religion. It also celebrates a miracle where a one day supply of Temple oil lasted eight days.  Thus, it is called both the “Feast of Dedication” and the “Feast of Lights”.

With the cleansing of the Temple in 165BC, the Temple and the Nation of Israel were made ready to receive the Messiah. However, it was 160 years later that He was born and 190 years later that He began His ministry. Jesus celebrated the Feast of Dedication and used the occasion to clarify that He was the Messiah while teaching in the Temple (see John 11:22-39).

This week on December 9, we mark a significant date leading to the Second Coming of

Christ. It was 98 years ago on December 9, 1917 that the Turks surrendered Jerusalem to the British. The British mandate ultimately lead to the U.N. vote to form Israel thirty years later in 1947, and to the birth of Israel in 1948. Christians all over the world saw the miraculous rebirth of Israel as preparation for the Second Coming of Christ.

Few Christians expected the return of Christ to be delayed so long after the nation of

Israel was made ready. However, if we look back to the formation of Israel in 165 BC, preparatory to the advent of Christ, then a waiting period of 160 or 190 years is not so surprising. At 98 years, if counting began in 1917 instead of 1948, we would only be half way through a 190 year wait.

Let us then pray over the Feast of Dedication and let us then remember how it made the way ready for the Messiah. The Feast of Dedication also reminds us to purify our hearts, the New Convent temple of the Holy Spirit, as the Second Temple was purified in 165 B.C.

And let us also pray that Christians do not get discouraged by the delay in Christ’s return, for no one knows the day or the hour.

Even so, come Lord Jesus

Yes, there really is a Saint Nicholas. He was a fourth century Bishop in Myra, in Asia

Minor. And he really was famous for his gift giving and his concern for the poor and for children. His feast day is this week, on December 6.

In the Middle Ages some enterprising citizens of the Italian city of Bari stole his remains and built a cathedral in his honor in Bari. Because of the importance of Saint Nicholas to both Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Church, the cathedral is one of the few places in the world where Catholic and Orthodox minister under the same roof. Pilgrims of both denominations are welcome there.

When the Charismatic renewal swept through the Catholic Church, one of the leaders in Bari, Matteo Calisi, wondered if the tolerance expressed at the Saint Nicholas Cathedral could grow into real reconciliation. He and Italian Evangelical pastor Giovanni Traettino reached across the divide and began a movement which has brought Catholics and Evangelicals together throughout Italy. Over the years the reconciliation movement has reached out from Bari to Evangelicals in North and South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. In addition, the Orthodox and Messianic Jewish churches have also become involved.

One of Calisi’s major impacts was in Buenos Aires, where Cardinal Bergoglio opened the Catholic Church to reconciliation with the Protestant leaders. We now know Cardinal Bergoglio as Pope Francis, and he has continued his historic outreach to other Christian traditions. In 2014 the Pope sent a historic video to Kenneth Copeland at a Pastor’s meeting. This video can be seen on the website “unitedinchrist.net” (“Pope’s Unity Message Goes Viral”). Since then many Church leaders have met with the Pope to heal the divisions between Christians.

The reconciliation movement born in Bari seeks to bring Christians into genuine unity in our diversity. God realizes that we have different practices and beliefs, and we’re told to tolerate our brothers (see Ro14:1-4 and Ro 15:1-7). Our real unity is through Christ, for if we are each in Christ then we are also united in Christ. (see John 17:20-23).

So let us all join Christ in his prayer that we may be brought into complete unity (John 17:23).

And we need to thank Him for the gift of the reconciliation movement which was started in the Spirit of Saint Nicholas.

In the first year of the Untied States of America under its new Constitution, 226 years ago on November 26, 1789, the New Nation celebrated its first Thanksgiving.

President George Washington’s proclamation, with its emphasis on the Constitution and faithfulness to execute its laws, seems especially appropriate this year:

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly implore His protection and favor . . . .

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the twenty-sixth day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these United States . . . that we then may all unite unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are now blessed. . . .

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the People, by constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discretely and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord, to promote the knowledge and practice for the true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows best.

So let us follow Washington’s admonition to be thankful and prayerful this Thanksgiving.

In 1948, before the establishment of Israel, the 2500 year old Jewish community in Egypt numbered 80,000. Similar communities, numbering about 850,000 in total, were scattered around the Arab world.

After the formation of Israel, many Palestinian Arabs fled from Israel and received worldwide attention as refugees. Their demand to return, and thereby overrun democratic Israel, is a major stumbling block to Middle East peace. And the war the Arabs began in an attempt to destroy Israel in 1948 continues to this day, with almost daily terrorist attacks against Jewish civilians.

Little noticed or publicized was the fate of the 850,000 Jews living in Arab countries.

Many were attacked by mobs, burned out, robbed, and forced to flee for their lives. Today it is estimated that only 4300 Jews remain in the Arab countries, and the Jewish refugees are conveniently forgotten by Arabs demanding “justice.”

It was 36 years ago this week that Egyptian President Anwar Sadat made his historic peace visit to Israel. The world hoped that peace could be achieved in the Middle East, but Sadat was assassinated for his efforts and by radical Muslims of the infamous Muslim Brotherhood. Since then the Jihadists seem to have only grown stronger, while hopes for peace have receeded.

These developments do not surprise us, as we believe that a long period of war between the Arabs and Israel is prophesied in the Bible (see our Special Report “Understanding The Times”). However, as Christians we cannot turn a blind eye towards the suffering of Arabs and Jews, and we must remember that God loves them all.

So pray for the Palestinian and Jewish refugees of the long Middle East war. Pray for healing of their mental, emotional, and physical wounds. Pray that they find the true path of peace through Jesus Christ.

Above all, like the Bible says, pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

            The upcoming week marks the 97^th anniversary of the end of the First World War on November 11, 1918 and the 26^th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.

The city of Berlin was the epicenter of the ideological and military wars of the Twentieth Century. Those conflicts were rooted in the Nineteenth Century, when German theologians sold out to secularism and destroyed the Christian faith of most Germans. The spiritual void was filled by a secular state religion and Darwinist survival of-the-fittest militancy. It is not a coincidence that the Germans brought the ancient Temple of Zeus from Pergamum, “Where Satan has his throne” (Rev 2:13) to Berlin. And it may truly be said that Satan moved his throne to Berlin.

The First World War was welcomed by the militant Germans, who expected easy victories. They did manage to defeat the Russians, but at the price of helping to establish an expansionist Communist state. However, the Germans could not sustain the war in Western Europe and they surrendered on November 11, 1918. The Peace Treaty which followed in 1919 left the Germans humiliated and bitter, but they did not give up their militaristic spirit. They hardened their hearts, missing their chance to repent, and Satan remained enthroned in Berlin.

Feeding on that militaristic spirit, Adolph Hitler and his Nazis fashioned a new religion where the Germans would evolve into God like super humans. Their version of the Godhood Religion, or New Age Religion, swept through Germany and led to the Second World War. Their early success in the war led them to attack the Russian Communists and they even declared war on the United States. All the while they were murdering Jews, Christians, and others who did not fit into their super human evolutionary vision. No one could doubt that Satan ruled through the Nazis in Berlin.

Judgment came to Berlin in 1945 as the Russian army destroyed the city and revenged itself on the population. Berlin, and Germany, were divided between the Russians and the Western Powers. Yet, after the war, Berlin became the focal point of Cold War tensions as the Russians tried to force the Western Powers out. Berlin became an embarrassment to the Russians as it prospered under free enterprise and democracy. Finally, in 1962, they built  the infamous Berlin Wall to keep East Berliners from fleeing the Communist police state.

German Christians began to repent for their country and pray for deliverance from the Communist oppression, and God sent them a Polish Pope and an American President. The Russian tyranny simply fell apart under its own weight without a shot being fired. The Berlin Wall fell in 1989 as the prayers of the Christians were answered in an unmistakable way. Apparently Satan left town.

The two days in Berlin show the horrible consequences of failure to repent and the power of God to move for those who reach out to Him in repentance.

As we remember these two days, let us not harden our hearts if God’s judgment does come, because the Lord sends judgment to bring righteousness (Is 26:9). Let us learn from the German Christians to repent and ask God to deliver us from our oppression.

            The last week another debt settlement company failed, leaving thousands of customers stranded.

            Debt settlement companies offer to settle debts for a fee. Customers pay into an escrow account and then the company waits until the creditor is willing to settle. In other words, they put time to work for them.

We say that you make time work for you instead, eliminating the cost of the debt settlement company.

Most people are trained to think time is on the lender’s side. After all, interest continues to be added on, and debt collectors try to create a sense of urgency as if there were will be no second chance if you do not act now. Yet a person with a Debt Relief plan can afford to wait as lenders come around to accept an affordable settlement. You don’t have to beat them. You just have to outlast them.

For example, a credit card lender recently offered a 65% discount to settle a $20,000 debt, just a few months after offering a 20% discount. Forget about the 29% interest rate. And why take the first offer when offers get better over time? The debt in this example will probably be settled for a 90% discount or maybe even be allowed to be settled for zero by running it past the four year Statute of Limitations.

You, too, can put time on your side by developing your personal Debt Relief plan and using the System of Debt Relief.

               Once again Halloween is upon us. People are carving their Jack O’ Lanterns, selecting scary costumes, and buying candy for the neighborhood kids. But what, exactly, are they celebrating?

Beneath the mask of Halloween lies a dark secret and an even darker purpose.

To understand the dark secret of Halloween it is necessary to trace its origin back to the ancient Celtic peoples and their priests, the Druids. November 1 marks their high festival Samhain, named after the ancient Babylonian Sun God Samas. However, the real purpose of the celebration is death, as the Druids sacrificed humans on that day and kept the people in fear of the vengeful spirits of the dead. The Jack O‘ Lantern, representing a severed head, and the frightful costumes are echoes of these murderous rituals, the dark secret of Halloween.

When Christianity came to the Celts a decision was made to incorporate their holidays into the Church calendar  in order to make the pagans feel more at home in the Church.

However, this attempt to put a Christian mask on a pagan holiday backfired, as the pagan celebration was brought into the Church.

So the dark purpose of Halloween, the celebration of death instead of celebrating Christ author of life, continues to this day.

We pray that people will take off the mask of Halloween and honor the Lord of Life this

October 31. There are plenty of ways to have fun without celebrating the death day of the Druids.