On January 29, 2022, Kalon Mitchell will present the first split-sermon, titled, “Water,” and Michael Link will present the second split-sermon, titled, “True Passion.”

The live services are available, over video and audio, at http://eternalgod.org/live-services/ (12:30 pm Pacific Time; 1:30 pm Mountain Time; 2:30 pm Central Time; 3:30 pm Eastern Time; 8:30 pm Greenwich Mean Time; 9:30 pm Central European Time). Just click on Connect to Live Stream.

A while ago, someone rang and spoke to my wife as I was not available at the time.   The person said he would ring again later in the day.   The call did not happen.   I was musing on this matter as this was not the first time (nor the second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth time…) I had been let down by this person.

Actually, the lack of this phone call did not present a problem, but it could have done.   How many times have we stayed at home waiting all day for the workman to arrive, as agreed, for him not to turn up?   What about the time we took off work to make sure that someone turned up to do an urgent job and never arrived?

I remember the old joke about two promises we should never rely on – the cheques in the post and I’ll ring you back.   Funny, but not so funny when it actually happens to us when we are relying on someone else doing what they said they would do.

I recall a boss from many years ago who said he would do certain things and he had to be chased, reminded and nudged gently to do what he had said he would do.   I had over six years of being subjected to this approach, and it wore very thin over that period of time.

In “Tired Of Being Let Down? How To Hold People Accountable”, Margie Warrell states the following:

“When you decide not to call someone on their broken promise and ill-managed commitment, you’re, albeit inadvertently, being part of the problem. The one thing you can count on is to expect more of it. More broken promises. More turning up late. More cut corners. More well-worn excuses. More missed deadlines. And more of the stress, frustration and resentment you’d much rather avoid.

“If you’ve ever found yourself frustrated at someone who’s perpetually slack, or late, or unreliable then you’ll relate to some of the comments above. Many people value their promises cheaply or simply manage their commitments poorly. Others have a hard time holding people to account. It’s easier to just let it go and hope they’ll be more reliable next time.

“The problem is, they rarely are.”

When we’re let down by someone and the promise to follow through is not achieved, it might be a good idea to review whether we are guilty of doing this to others.   Do we say that we will get back to someone with an answer by a certain time and not achieve this?   Do we assure someone that we will answer their query within a certain time period?   Do we do anything at all where we let others down by not being true to our word or timescale?  If so, we need to change because this is a case of breaking our word and can be considered as lying.   Our intentions may be honourable, but the end product is unreliability.

It is not good, or godly, to be known as someone who cannot be relied upon to do as they say.

Wikipedia states that the saying “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” is attributed to “Saint Bernard of Clairvaux” who wrote this around 1150 and so the problem has been around a long time!   They further state: “One meaning of the phrase is that individuals may have the intention to undertake good actions but nevertheless fail to take action.  This inaction may be due to procrastination, laziness or other subversive vice.  As such, the saying is an admonishment that a good intention is meaningless unless followed through.”

In a study published in 2017 (“Citizens’ Beliefs about Pledge Fulfilment” by Fraser McMillan/John Smith Centre), 20,000 specific campaign promises from 57 elections in 12 countries were reviewed, showing that over 85% of promises by governing parties at least were partly enacted in the years studied with the strongest “programme-to-policy linkage” found in the United Kingdom.   The observations seemed to be that that was pretty good but we must note that this percentage was “partly enacted” and the result was still only 85%, well short of what it should be.   There were lots of promises not kept or only partly kept.   For a man or woman of honour, that simply isn’t good enough and yet another reason why a true Christian must not be involved in the politics of this world!

It is inevitable in society today, which is very heavily influenced by Satan, “the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2) and the “god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4), that humanity, in general, follows the wrong way of Satan who is “a liar and the father of it” (compare John 8:44).   Bearing false witness which is lying breaks the ninth Commandment (Exodus 20:16), and, as the people of God, our word must be reliable and be our bond (For further information, please read our free 180 pages-long booklet, “The Ten Commandments”).

Let us make sure that we are as good as our word and always follow through, doing exactly what we say we will do.   Then and only then will others be able to totally trust what we say knowing that our word is reliable!

by Norbert Link

We report on developments pertaining to Russia and Ukraine, as well as Russia’s further ambitions and the “response” of the USA, the UK and continental Europe, especially Germany. In this context, please view our new StandingWatch program, titled, “Germany’s Troublesome Dependency on Russia.”  

We address developments pertaining to coronavirus restrictions and authoritarian measures, and interesting reactions, in the USA, Canada, Israel, Australia, Austria and Germany.

We discuss developments pertaining to the scandal-ridden Catholic Church.

We conclude with developments pertaining to controversial medical experiments and the abomination of abortion.

Throughout this section, we have underlined pertinent statements in the quoted articles, for the convenience and quick overview of the reader.

US Evacuates Ukraine

Fox News wrote on January 22:

“The State Department has ordered families of U.S. Embassy personnel in Ukraine to begin evacuating the country as soon as Monday, U.S. officials tell Fox News. Next week, the State Department is also expected to encourage Americans to begin leaving Ukraine by commercial flights, ‘while those are still available,’ one official said.

“Late Friday night, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine announced the first shipment of ammunition had arrived as directed by President Biden. U.S. officials say small arms ammunition constitute the bulk of the 200,000 pounds of what the State Department is calling lethal aid – needed by Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines. U.S. officials also tell Fox that Javelin anti-tank missiles are expected to arrive early next week from the Baltic states and from U.S. military stockpiles.

“Advanced Russian fighter jets have now arrived in Belarus, north of Ukraine.  The Pentagon is concerned that Ukraine’s capital is ‘now in the crosshairs,’ another official added. The U.S. government is planning to move ‘a ton’ of weapons and ammunition into Ukraine in the coming days, officials say.”

No More Normal Relationship with Russia?

Fox News wrote on January 22:

“Senate Judiciary Committee member Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Fox News that earlier Friday he met with former President Donald Trump and that the two had a frank discussion about the state of the country. Graham told ‘Hannity’ that both agreed President Biden has been a disaster as commander-in-chief, and that Russian President Vladimir Putin no longer fears a serious U.S. response to his geopolitical proclivities… ‘Putin realizes that under Biden, he can invade Ukraine and get away with it,’ he continued…

“‘But here’s what President Trump said to me today: Putin is realizing that Biden’s weak, but he doesn’t realize that Biden won’t be around in 2024 — so President Trump said today if they invade the Ukraine, the Russians will make it impossible for any future president to have a normal relationship with Russia...’”

Will Russia invade soon? In any event, we know from the Bible that ultimately, Russia and Ukraine will be united and fight Europe together.

What Is Russia Planning?

The Associated Press wrote on January 23:

“Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday rejected a British claim that Russia was seeking to replace Ukraine’s government with a pro-Moscow administration…

“‘The disinformation spread by the British Foreign Office is more evidence that it is the NATO countries, led by the Anglo-Saxons, who are escalating tensions around Ukraine,’ Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said…

“British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the information ‘shines a light on the extent of Russian activity designed to subvert Ukraine, and is an insight into Kremlin thinking’… “

The Associated Press wrote on January 22:

“With tens of thousands of Russian troops positioned near Ukraine, the Kremlin has kept the US and its allies guessing about its next moves in the worst security crisis to emerge between Moscow and the West since the Cold War. Amid fears of an imminent attack on Ukraine, Russia has further upped the ante by announcing more military drills in the region. It also has refused to rule out the possibility of military deployments to the Caribbean…

“The military muscle-flexing reflects a bold attempt by the Kremlin to halt decades of NATO expansion after the end of the Cold War. In talks with the United States, Russia demands legally binding guarantees that the alliance will not embrace Ukraine and other former Soviet nations, or place weapons there. It also wants NATO to pull back its forces from countries in Central and Eastern Europe that joined the alliance since the 1990s…

“Putin has repeatedly asserted that Russians and Ukrainians are ‘one people,’ and says large chunks of Ukrainian territory are historic parts of Russia — arbitrarily granted to Ukraine by Communist leaders during Soviet times…

“In recent days, Putin also spoke by phone with the leaders of Nicaragua and Venezuela, and a Russian government plane was recently seen cruising between Cuba and Venezuela in a possible harbinger of the next Kremlin moves. After the US and its allies rejected Russia’s demands for a halt to NATO expansion, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov kept the door open for the deployment of military assets to Cuba and Venezuela.”

Putin will not stop with Ukraine.

EU not that Unified

The Guardian wrote on January 23:

“Behind the repeated assertions of unity, it is no secret that western allies are divided on how to respond to further Russian military aggression. Joe Biden’s comments that Nato allies would be ‘having to fight about what to do and not do’ in the event of a ‘minor incursion’ of Ukraine – comments that the White House subsequently rowed back on– were seen as undiplomatic, rather than untrue, in Brussels. In the EU, where sanctions have to be agreed by unanimity, differences are emerging. Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has expressed doubts about cutting off Russian banks from the Swift global payments system, one option under discussion. Poland and the Baltic states, however, think it is a mistake to take anything off the table.

“Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, accused Germany over the weekend of not showing enough support for his country. Writing on Twitter, he expressed disappointment about Germany’s apparent hesitations on Swift, refusal to supply offensive weapons, as well as recent comments from the head of the German navy, who said Ukraine would never get Crimea back [He subsequently resigned.]… Michael Gahler, a German MEP from the centre-right Christian Democratic Union party [and] the parliament’s standing rapporteur on Ukraine, said it was ‘unfortunate’ that Germany was not delivering offensive weapons to Ukraine…

“But it is not just Germany that has raised questions about EU unity. Alarm bells were set off when it was announced last week that Hungary’s autocratic prime minister, Viktor Orbán, would meet Putin on 1 February to discuss a planned Russian-built nuclear power station in Hungary, the Sputnik vaccine and Hungary’s gas supply contracts…”

Germany not only refuses to send weapons to Ukraine, but also prohibits other European countries which have bought weapons from Germany, to send their weapons to Ukraine.

Is the West preparing for War with Russia?

Fox News wrote on January 24:

“NATO announced Monday that it will send fighter jets and ships to eastern Europe… Denmark will sail a frigate to the Baltic Sea and send four F-16 fighter jets to Lithuania. Spain is also sending ships to join NATO naval forces in the region and is considering sending fighter jets to Bulgaria, the statement read. France said it is willing to send troops to Romania, and the Netherlands also said it will send two F-35 fighter aircraft to Bulgaria in April.”

The Guardian added on January 24:

“The US administration was also ready [other reports say, “considering”] to increase its military presence in eastern Europe, Nato’s chief, a former prime minister of Norway, warned in a statement… Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European commission, announced that the EU would provide €1.2billion in loans and grants to Ukraine to help cover the financial cost of the conflict.”

The Daily Mail wrote on January 24:

“Boris Johnson delivered a stark message as he admitted that the prospects of averting a confrontation over Ukraine were ‘gloomy’. Russia has stirred the pot by announcing live-fire naval drills off the coast of Ireland next month… There are concerns that any escalation will send gas prices spiralling again, with threats of punitive sanctions against Moscow. Speaking on a visit to a hospital in Milton Keynes, Mr Johnson said: ‘The intelligence is very clear that there are 60 Russian battle groups on the borders of Ukraine, the plan for a lightning war that could take out Kyiv is one that everybody can see’…”

Germany and France vs. USA and UK

 The Guardian wrote on January 26:

“Germany and, to a lesser extent, France are in danger of dividing from the US and the UK… [There is]  a deep fissure going back decades about what Germany and France, as opposed to the Anglosphere, regard as the best way to handle Russia…

“In Britain, the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has been openly critical of Germany for leaving itself so dependent on Russia for energy, and Berlin’s recent refusal to allow Estonia to send German-manufactured arms to Ukraine...

“In the US, the German question is increasingly riling Republicans, leading to commentary in the Wall Street Journal with the headline ‘Is Germany a Reliable American Ally? Nein.’…

“… in the wake of Russia’s intervention in Georgia in the summer of 2008, the then German Social Democrat (SPD) foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier[now German President], warned Europe against sanctions that he said would shut doors to rooms it wanted to enter later. Although Merkel’s response to the invasion of Ukraine in 2014 was firm, Steinmeier… went to Moscow and proposed an economic partnership with Russia… Within a week of the invasion, the chief executive of Siemens was in Moscow…

“That remains the dominant thinking inside parts of the SPD. The current economics minister, Robert Habeck, whose ministry is responsible for sanctions, is opposed to cutting off Russian access to the Swift payments system…

“However, in recent weeks the compromises inherent in Ostpolitik [by SPD chancellor Willy Brandt] have come under challenge from a younger generation. Michael Roth, the SPD chair of the foreign affairs committee, argued his party had to escape the shadow of Brandt… Other ministers have insisted that energy, including the future of Nord Stream 2, cannot be removed from the list of potential sanctions, as it was in 2014.”

Notwithstanding some “lip services” to the contrary, Germany’s new Chancellor, Olaf Scholz (SPD), seems to be following the official party line of not willing to antagonize Russia in any way. 

Who is in Charge at the White House?

The New York Post Editorial Board wrote on January 23:

“It sure doesn’t look to be President Biden. The latest evidence came last week when chief of staff Ron Klain delivered a behind-the-scenes message to Democratic allies and staff, just hours after Biden’s disastrous news conference: The prez had failed to mention that his next Build Back Better bill would fund child and elder care, but Klain insisted it would.

“As Axios reported,  ‘Klain’s private comments are yet another indication the White House has a core set of priorities it plans to fight for’ … even if the president doesn’t know about it fully yet. Klain’s real message: Don’t worry, we staff will make sure Biden does what we say.

“Yet some in Congress want the actual president to take charge: Politico reports that moderate Democrats complain that Klain is ‘overly deferential to their liberal colleagues’ and want him out…”

Fox News added on January 24:

“NBC anchor Chuck Todd said Sunday that President Biden was in trouble with the American electorate following the release of a new NBC poll last week showing dismal approval ratings to kick off the midterm election year. During the opening segment on ‘Meet the Press,’ Todd… declared Biden’s 43% approval rating showed he’d ‘lost his identity,’ and was ‘no longer seen as competent and effective’ in the eyes of voters, spelling a potential ‘shellacking’ for Democrats  in November.”

Trump the 47th US President?

 The New York Post wrote on January 26:

“Donald Trump has confidently declared himself the “45th and 47th” US president. The former president made the remarks while playing a round of golf at one of his clubs… As Trump was filmed walking to the first tee, one of his playing partners could be heard saying: ‘Now on the tee, the 45th president of the United States.’ ‘The 45th and 47th,’ a grinning Trump quickly fired back…

“Trump hasn’t publicly said if he is planning to run for the White House again — but he has repeatedly teased a second campaign and has been holding rallies ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. He already holds a commanding lead over other potential Republican 2024 candidates, according to several polls conducted this month. In one Reuters/Ipsos poll, Trump was leading Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by 43 percentage points.”

Federal Judge Blocks Vaccine Mandate for Federal Workers

The New York Post wrote on January 21:

“A Texas federal judge has blocked the Biden administration’s order for federal employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in the latest setback to the administration’s pandemic response. The ruling… stated that ‘because the President’s authority is not that broad, the court will enjoin the second order’s enforcement,’ wrote [Judge Jeffey] Brown, who was nominated to the federal bench by President “Donald Trump.

“Brown cited the Supreme Court’s decision last week that prevented the administration from enforcing a requirement that all businesses with at least 100 employees mandate that workers get vaccinated or undergo weekly testing… Brown claimed the administration’s order for federal workers was a ‘bridge too far’ by allowing the White House ‘with a stroke of a pen or without the input of Congress, [to] require millions of federal employees to undergo a medical procedure as a condition of their employment.’’…

“The DOJ has already appealed Friday’s ruling, sending its request to the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

“The mandate, which was first announced by President Biden last September, ordered more than 3.5 million federal employees to be vaccinated or face termination — with some medical or religious exemptions. Unlike the vaccine requirement for private businesses, federal employees were not given the option to test weekly for COVID-19 instead of receiving the vaccine.”

In the meantime and in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling, mentioned above, Starbucks announced that they are no longer requiring their employees to be vaccinated.

Biden Withdraws Vaccine Mandates for Large Employers

 CNN reported on January 25:

“The US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Tuesday it will be withdrawing the vaccination and testing emergency temporary standard for businesses with 100 or more employees.”

Another defeat for Biden… deservedly so. 

USA with New Restrictions

Global News wrote on January 21:

“Starting Jan. 22, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will require all Canadian and non-U.S. individuals to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to enter the country.

“This means anyone wanting to enter the U.S. at land borders or ferry terminals at the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada borders must provide proof of vaccination whether they are travelling for essential or non-essential reasons, DHS said in a release… These requirements do not apply to U.S. citizens [or] lawful permanent residents…”

More than a Quarter of Canadians Support Jail for Unvaccinated

LifeSiteNews wrote on January 21:

“A recent poll says that more than a quarter of Canadians support sending people who refuse COVID jabs to jail…  The poll also reported that 33% of Canadians believe the unvaccinated should not be allowed to renew their driver’s licenses, and two-thirds of Canadians are in favor of mandatory vaccines for everyone over the age of five.”

Global News wrote on January 25:

“… a majority of Canadians are in favour of imposing more restrictions on those who have not gotten the shots yet, according to new polling…. 67 per cent want the government to impose further measures on the unvaccinated population, with nearly half (49 per cent) of the respondents blaming the unvaccinated for prolonging the pandemic… 52 per cent said they were in favour of putting a tax on the unvaccinated…”

The article claimed that “Canadians have become increasingly polarized when it comes to COVID-19 vaccinations, lockdowns and the pandemic in general.”

This shows where nasty and ridiculous propaganda leads. But Canada, once a free country, is becoming more and more dictatorial and authoritarian. Note the next article.

Outrageous Persecution of Christians in Canada

Fox News wrote on January 16:

“Thousands of clergy in North America devoted their sermons on Sunday to affirming biblical sexual morality in response to a new Canadian law some warn could effectively criminalize such teachings… The controversial legislation, which went into effect Jan. 8 after being fast-tracked through the Canadian Parliament in December without extensive debate, describes as a ‘myth’ the belief that heterosexuality and cisgender identity are preferable. Counseling that does not align with such a worldview now carries a potential five-year jail sentence.

“Critics claim the language of the bill is overly broad and could even encompass private conversations. Several pastors, including some who have recently been imprisoned in Canada for keeping their churches open in defiance of government health orders, explained to Fox News that they believe the scope of the new law could open the door to religious persecution.

“Leading the protest against the bill in the United States is Pastor John MacArthur, whose Grace Community Church in Los Angeles won an $800,000 settlement in September after tussling with state and county authorities for continuing to congregate in defiance of the government…

“MacArthur’s involvement in the initiative was in part because of an email he received from Pastor James Coates, who was the first Canadian clergyman to be imprisoned in the name of public health. When he refused to shutter his church in Edmonton last year, Coates spent more than a month in a maximum-security prison. Federal law enforcement later raided his church at dawn, locked it and barricaded it behind three layers of fencing.

“Pastor Tim Stephens, who was imprisoned twice last year for keeping his Calgary church open, also told Fox News that he believes persecution is going to increase in Canada and other Western countries. Stephens’ second arrest, which happened after a police helicopter found his church gathering outside, prompted Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., to send a letter to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom… urging it to consider adding Canada to its watch list…

“Pastor Artur Pawlowski, a Polish Canadian pastor from Calgary who has faced repeated dramatic arrests after refusing to limit church attendance, described Bill C-4 as “straight from Soviet Russia.” … ‘I lived in a country that implemented laws like that,’ said Pawlowski, who met with U.S. lawmakers and warned large audiences last summer that Western governments increasingly resemble the communist regime in Poland he fled as a young man…

“Pastor Andrew Brunson, a missionary whose unjust imprisonment in 2016 plunged Turkey into a diplomatic feud with the United States, has been warning since his dramatic, high-stakes release in 2018 that he believes religious persecution is swiftly approaching in Western countries. Brunson, who now serves as special adviser for religious freedom at Family Research Council, told Fox News that he sees the issues around the Canadian law as part of ‘a dark wave of hostility’ that he believes is going to crash onto the church…

“Pastor Michael Thiessen, who is president of Liberty Coalition Canada, which began the initiative, told Fox News that he believes the government response to COVID-19 has helped prepare the way for such hostility… “A regime and agenda based on lies has to be coercive in order to maintain its power. It can’t rely on persuasion, truth, or beauty. So I anticipate further exile and punishment for non-conformists and those who will still stand and preach truth and reality in our time,’ he added.”

We hasten to add that the same developments can be seen in continental Europe, and especially in Germany, a so-called Christian nation, where government officials and their obedient agents, including their judges, behave anything but Christian.  

YouTube Removes Sermon about Sexuality as “Hate Speech”

 CBN News wrote on January 19:

 “Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, CA, preached a sermon Sunday about biblical sexuality... MacArthur said, ‘There is no such thing as transgender. You are either XX or XY, that’s it. God made man male and female. That is determined genetically, that is physiology, that is science, that is reality. On the one hand, the reality of that lie and deception is so damaging, so destructive, so isolating, so corrupting that it needs to be confronted, but on the other hand, that confrontation can’t exaggerate what already exists, which is a sense of feeling isolated in relationships,’ he said.

 “YouTube removed MacArthur’s sermon from its platform and told conservative commentator Todd Starnes  that MacArthur’s video presentation was ‘hate speech.’…

 “Jenna Ellis, special counsel for the Thomas More Society, who represented MacArthur when Los Angeles County tried to shut down Grace Church for defying pandemic-induced health orders, spoke out against YouTube’s censorship of MacArthur’s sermon.  ‘The big tech oligarchy in the United States is implementing the equivalent of Canada’s insane law by censoring truth and the right of pastors to teach the Bible,’ Ellis [said].  ‘If Americans don’t stop big tech, this new Regime will circumvent the Constitution to foreclose our fundamental rights to speak and exercise religion and the impact will be devastating.’

 “Critics worry the law will perpetuate religious persecution and could even govern private conversations. ‘Americans should be preparing for a time when pastors and religious leaders will face persecution for teaching the Word of God,’ Starnes warned.”

Bible Racist?

The Daily Mail wrote on January 22:

“One of Britain’s leading mental health clinics could face legal action after telling a student therapist to watch lectures saying that white people are unconsciously racist, that Christianity is a racist religion, and that the Bible can be blamed for racism because it contrasts ‘darkness’ and ‘light’.

“Amy Gallagher, a mental health nurse from south London, has spent more than £20,000 training to become a psychotherapist on a course run by the prestigious Portman Clinic in North London, part of The Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust But now the 33-year-old is preparing a legal case, saying she believes the Trust is guilty of religious and racial discrimination against her as a white Christian… Ms Gallagher says it is particularly concerning that radical identity politics are now ‘leaking into the health service’.”

Fox News Hypocritical?

The Huffington Post wrote on January 22:

“Tucker Carlson was pummeled on social media Friday night after he compared vaccine requirements to protect Americans from COVID-19 to the barbaric experiments Nazis inflicted on Jews during World War II. Critics pointed out that Fox News has a vaccine requirement so Carlson is likely not worried about contracting COVID himself, even while he encourages his viewers not to get them.

“They also pointed out that, late last year, Fox ‘ghosted’ contributor Lara Logan after she compared White House health adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci to infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele…”

Silly and Rude Conduct of American Airlines

The Washington Times wrote on January 21:

“An American Airlines plane headed to London was more than hour into its flight when its pilot decided to turn around and head back to the departure point, Miami, because a female passenger declined to wear a face mask… the airline then canceled the flight, screwing over 129 passengers who were told to exit, stage right, the plane in Miami, alongside the woman. And now American Airlines is patting itself on the back for a job well done…

“American, no doubt, is hiding behind the January 2021 announcement from the Federal Aviation Administration of a ‘zero tolerance’ policy for unruly passenger behavior — defined by this coronavirus crazed government we now have in place in the United States as anyone who dares disobey the government dictates. And plenty in America, too many in America, are probably on the side of the airline, saying American was just doing its job to keep passengers safe; American was just abiding the mandates put in place by the Joe Biden presidency; American was just simply trying to keep the peace and make sure all passengers were treated equally, fairly, equitably, safely, securely…

“Enough of the pretend care and concern on the part of businesses toward customers — care and concern that manifests in outright tyrannical crackdowns on freedoms and choice of customers… Let’s remember: these rules aren’t so much rules as fabricated dictates by overreaching bureaucrats… America has yet to see a federally passed law about face masking. We’re all still living under executive orders that were created out of fear and that continue on because of fear, bad science and the political exploitation of bad science.

“Besides, with American Airlines, there’s this consideration: the multibillion-dollar bailout it received, courtesy taxpayers. ‘American Airlines said it would receive $5.8 billion as part of the [bailout deal], with more than $4 billion in the form of grants and the remaining $1.7 billion as a low-interest loan,’ The New York Times wrote in March, 2021. ‘The airline also plans to apply for a nearly $4.8 billion loan from [the government]… That — so American could turn around and cancel hundreds of flights due to staffing issues, while taking big tax bucks. That — so American’s CEO, Doug Parker, could turn around and rake in $10 million plus in compensation while taking big tax bucks.

“And now that — so American can climb high and mighty and throw a hissy fit to boot a passenger for refusing to wear a face mask… Instead of booting this woman for refusing to comply with an unconstitutional demand from public servants, i.e., the political class, American Airlines ought to have extended her a red carpet for keeping the company in business. Biting the hand that feeds never ends well.”

This is an article which is rare in today’s mass media. The Washington Times is of course one of America’s most prestigious and established publications.

Routine Corona Vaccinations for Newborn Babies…

Israel Today wrote on January 23:

“Some of Israel’s top doctors are recommending that once the pandemic ends, the COVID-19 vaccine should be added to the regular vaccine regimen offered to children between birth and the age of five. Prof. Nadav Davidovitch, head of Israel’s doctors union and an advisor to the government on the coronavirus crisis, said this is the logical way forward…”

Israel 365 wrote on January 365:

“The Health Ministry plans on adding the Covid vaccine to the initial round of vaccines given to newborn babies in the hospital… In the meantime, Pfizer is undergoing clinical trials on infants to reduce the age of the vaccine from five years to six months.  Chief Medical Advisor to the President Dr. Anthony Fauci said that the FDA could approve Prizer’s covid vaccine for children under the age of five by next month.”

Amazing what doctors come up with. Sadly, Israel has been one of the most radical proponents of dictatorial measures.

The Protection through Natural Immunity

The Associated Press wrote on January 22:

“A new study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that people who were both vaccinated and had survived a prior bout of COVID-19 were best protected from infection

“The study, that examined infections in New York and California last year, found that unvaccinated people with a past infection were a close second. By fall, when the more contagious delta variant had taken over but boosters weren’t yet widespread, that group had a lower case rate than vaccinated people who had no past infection.”

Frightening Numbers of Sickness in Military as Consequence of COVID Vaccinations?

The Blaze wrote on January 26:

“Data, transparency, and surveillance. That is what has been missing from the greatest experiment on humans of all time throughout this pandemic. Now, military medical whistleblowers have come forward with what they claim is perhaps the most accurate and revealing data set on vaccine safety one could possibly find… [presenting] data that, if verified, would signal extremely disturbing safety concerns about the vaccine… On Monday… Ohio attorney Thomas Renz, who has been representing clients suing the vaccine mandates, presented DOD medical billing data from the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED) that paints a shockingly disturbing picture of the health of our service members in 2021…

“Drs. Samuel Sigoloff, Peter Chambers, and Theresa Long — three military doctors — revealed that there has been a 300% increase in DMED codes registered for miscarriages in the military in 2021 over the five-year average… the numbers tended to be remarkably similar in all those preceding years, including in 2020, which was the first year of the pandemic but before the vaccines were distributed. But then in 2021, the numbers skyrocketed, and the 2021 data doesn’t even include the months of November and December. For example, some public health officials speculate that COVID itself places women at higher risk for miscarriages. But the number of miscarriage codes recorded in 2020 was actually slightly below the five-year average (1,477)…

“Aside from the spike in miscarriage diagnoses… there was an almost 300% increase in cancer diagnoses (from a five-year average of 38,700 per year to 114,645 in the first 11 months of 2021). There was also a 1,000% increase in diagnosis codes for neurological issues, which increased from a baseline average of 82,000 to 863,000! Some other numbers…: myocardial infarction –269% increase; Bell’s palsy – 291% increase; congenital malformations (for children of military personnel) – 156% increase; female infertility – 471% increase; pulmonary embolisms – 467% increase.

“… one of the sworn declarations from one of the military doctors… states as follows, ‘It is my professional opinion that the major increases incidences of the above discussed instances of miscarriages, cancers, and disease were due to COVID-19 “vaccinations.”’…

“If these numbers are verified in the upcoming court cases, then absent some massive military insurance fraud or bizarre glitch in the system, it potentially paints a shocking picture of vaccine safety concerns…. Sen. Ron Johnson said at the Monday hearing that he put DOD on notice that it better not delete any of the data. ‘The Department of Defense, the Biden administration is on notice they must preserve these records and this must be investigated,’ said Johnson…

“Even if somehow these earth-shattering increases have nothing to do with the vaccines, isn’t it important that our government investigate what appears to be a catastrophic decline in the health of our active-duty fighting force?… The bottom line according to Renz is that the onus of proof is on the government, not on the military personnel and citizens being forced to take the shots. If the manufacturers are exempt from liability for government coercion to use their product, and the only pharmacological safety data we have is completely ignored, then where is the recourse of the people to redress safety concerns? In the opinion of the Ohio attorney, if the shots are safe and effective, then the Pentagon should have no problem explaining the source of these gargantuan increases in instances of numerous illnesses…”

One would think so. It is especially revealing that many in the military have refused to be vaccinated.

Austria Repeats History… Mandatory Vaccination for all Adults

Breitbart wrote on January 21:

“In a vote of 137 to just 33, the Austrian parliament has overwhelmingly voted to make vaccination against the Wuhan coronavirus mandatory for all residents over the age of 18… those who refuse to take the vaccine could face a fine of up to €3,600 (£2,994/$4,072), newspaper Kronen Zeitung reports.  Those who are not able to be vaccinated for medical reasons will be exempted from the mandatory vaccination along with pregnant women. Those who have recovered from the coronavirus will also be exempt for a period of six months after they recover.

“From mid-March Austrian police will also be checking vaccination status during routine checks and traffic stops and giving out fines to those who cannot prove they are fully vaccinated against the Wuhan coronavirus. Some officers have expressed concern regarding the enforcement of the vaccine mandate, stating that controls could damage their reputation in the eyes of the general public. ‘It is incomprehensible to me why the police are used here, in such an excess of controlling activity. I’m even talking about the fact that the police are used here for political purposes quite inappropriately!’ Werner Herbert, head of the police union AUF said.

“While the vast majority of the members of the Austrian parliament voted for the measure, the populist Freedom Party, led by firebrand Herbert Kickl, voted against the measure. ‘Today is a day of shame for the Austrian Parliament and for our democracy,’ Kickl stated on Facebook and added, ‘The FPÖ deputies have voted unanimously against this unjust law, which is the totalitarian low point… We will do everything possible to bring down compulsory vaccination with a majority of citizens.’

“Kickl has been a sceptic of the government’s policies to combat the coronavirus, including both the lockdown measures and the mandatory vaccine policy. ‘For us, it’s about voluntariness. Everyone has to decide for themselves whether they want to be vaccinated or not. No Austrian should be forced to vaccinate,’ Kickl said earlier this week.”

Deutsche Welle reported on January 21:

“The move makes Austria the first EU country to pass a vaccine mandate, despite tens of thousands of angry citizens continuing to protest such measures in Austria and across Europe… Herbert Kickl… railed against the law Thursday during the parliamentary debate, claiming it ‘paves the way to totalitarianism in Austria.’ Kickl vowed that he would continue to personally refuse vaccination.

“Cancellor Karl Nehammer however, told reporters ‘Vaccination is an opportunity for our society to achieve lasting and continuous freedom, because the virus cannot restrict us any further.’

“Austria now joins Ecuador, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Indonesia and Micronesia as among the only countries in the world to have passed vaccine mandates.”

What a company! SHAME on Austria! Kickl gave an EXCELLENT speech during the parliamentary debate, showing the many lies of Austrian politicians and the march towards totalitarianism in Austria, but his warnings fell mostly on deaf ears.—as they did before when Austria was about to embrace Hitler. It is amazing and deeply disturbing that the Austrian chancellor describes totalitarian measures, which deprive the people of their freedom, as the way to achieve lasting and continuous freedom.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Others vs. Corona Vaccination Mandates

JTA wrote on January 24:

“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. invoked Anne Frank while comparing COVID-19 vaccine mandates to the Holocaust, saying ‘none of us can hide’ today like the Jewish diarist could during World War II. ‘Even in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps into Switzerland, you could hide in the attic like Anne Frank did,’ Kennedy said at a rally against vaccine mandates on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. ‘Today the mechanisms are being put in place that will make it so none of us can run, none of us can hide.’

“Kennedy, the son of former Sen. Robert ‘Bobby’ Kennedy, went on to list what he perceived as threats from ‘low-orbit satellites’ and 5G internet networks, and named Bill Gates among those posing a threat to privacy…”

WND added on January 24:

“Despite frigid temperatures, thousands of Americans showed up Sunday on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to voice strong opposition to COVID-vaccine mandates. Kennedy hammered the companies that manufacture the experimental vaccines being mandated in many locations worldwide, with no legal liability. ‘You think they found Jesus suddenly … and they’re suddenly concerned with public health?’ he said. ‘These are the companies that gave us the opioid crisis. These are not good citizens, these are criminal enterprises.’

“He warned of what he called ‘turnkey totalitarianism,’ as dark powers look ‘to control every aspect of behavior.’…

“Kennedy was joined by doctors who have been censored by Big Tech as they warn of the dangers of the COVID shots. Among them was Dr. Robert Malone, one of the developers of the technology being used in today’s vaccines. ‘These vaccines do not prevent omicron infection,’ Malone declared….

“Kyle Warner, who was a professional mountain biker until he was severely injured by a COVID vaccine, also spoke at the event… Warner challenged President Joe Biden and health officials to hold a meeting with the victims of adverse reactions to the coronavirus vaccines. ‘Look them in their eyes, acknowledge their suffering, admit this is real, not just rare,’ Warner said. ‘Make the companies responsible for the damage they are causing. … to even consider requiring a vaccine that no one will stand behind is a total disgrace to the very idea of America.’…

“Rizza Islam, an author and minister for the Nation of Islam, said the devil is behind the current madness, saying ‘Satan [is] the one who has obviously declared war on all humanity.’”

Kennedy Apologizes … why?

“On Tuesday, [Kennedy] tweeted, ‘I apologize for my reference to Anne Frank, especially to families that suffered the Holocaust horrors. My intention was to use examples of past barbarism to show the perils from new technologies of control. To the extent my remarks caused hurt, I am truly and deeply sorry.’”

One gets sick and tired of people making appropriate comparisons only to apologize later because they might have hurt someone, as some Jewish organizations claimed. Apparently his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, who does not see eye to eye with Kennedy on the entire vaccination hysteria, objected as well. “Hines previously drew scrutiny after it was reported that she threw a holiday party at the couple’s California home and requested in the invitation that guests be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or test negative before arriving” (New York Post, January 24).

What Kennedy was expressing was clearly correct, noting the context.

Eric Clapton’s Fight against Corona Virus Mandates

The New York Post wrote on January 24:

“The 76-year-old musician … discuss[ed] how his life has changed since reluctantly taking AstraZeneca’s therapy in 2021… He claimed that he’d been duped into getting the COVID-19 jab by subliminal messaging in pharmaceutical advertising — and urged others not to fall for it…. Credited to Belgian psychologist Mattias Desmet, the theory essentially points to a sort of mind control that has taken over society, allowing for unscrupulous leaders to easily manipulate populations into, for example, accepting vaccines or wearing face masks… Clapton recalled ‘seeing little things on YouTube which were like subliminal advertising’…

“He said [van] Morrison, 76, complained that he wasn’t ‘allowed’ to freely object to vaccine requirements… Clapton also admitted that he’d given up on recent news media, which he described as ‘one-way traffic about following orders and obedience’… Despite making headlines, others in the music community have alienated him, Clapton said.”

It was recently reported in the press that Clapton played at a venue with vax mandate, even though he had said that he would not. It was later clarified that this news was bogus. We do not doubt the existence of subliminal messages in advertisement. But the real originator of the present hysteria is none other than Satan the Devil.

“This Justification Is a Scandal”

Bild Online wrote on January 21:

“The Australian federal court took four days to justify the expulsion of tennis star Novak Djokovic (34). Now the judges have said that the unvaccinated Serb’s presence could have fueled anti-vaccination sentiment in the country. They thus adopted the reasoning of the Immigration Minister, who described Djokovic as a potential threat to the security and order of Australia due to his vaccination skepticism… Djokovic had to leave the country because the government and judiciary are afraid of his opinion. And that’s despite the fact that he didn’t even come to Australia to spread his views – just to play tennis.

“The justification is reminiscent of politically motivated judgments that are actually unworthy of a democratic constitutional state like Australia. One of the defining characteristics of a free society is that everyone is free to express their opinion – without being disadvantaged or even punished for it. The fact that this cornerstone of democracy in Australia has now cracked is a sad side effect of the ‘NoCovid’ strategy there. after the government tried for two years to keep the number of infections low through tough lockdowns…

“It would have been easy for the judges to find plausible reasons for expelling the Serb, for example formal errors in his entry application or simply the principle of ‘equal rights for all.'”

But their main concern is not the violation of a technicality, but the suppression of opinions which do not fit into the political paradigm of the government. The same development can be seen in Germany… note the next article.

German Constitutional Minister against the Basic Law

Bild Online wrote on January 20:

“‘All Germans have the right to assemble peacefully and without weapons [and] without [prior] registration or permission,” says Article 8 of the Basic Law [“Grundgesetz”]. But Constitutional Minister Nancy Faeser (51, SPD) of all people seems to be questioning this right. Literally, Faeser wrote Wednesday evening on the social network Twitter: ‘I repeat my appeal: You can express your opinion without gathering in many places at the same time.’… Faeser calls on demonstrators to stop taking their protest to the streets.

“But who does the minister mean exactly?…

“‘The minister’s statement should be seen in the context of the corona protests and against the background of the dramatically high number of corona infections,’ a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior told BILD.

“At the same time, the Federal Minister of the Interior [Constitutional Minister] is a fervent advocate of public protest, of outdoor demonstrations and – also quite rightly! – public expressions of opinion. ‘I’m totally amazed at how many people took to the streets yesterday for climate protection…’ That was [in September of 2019,] before Corona. But even during the pandemic, she advocated demonstrations in public spaces and was even there several times. ‘Today I was in the Dannenröder forest as a parliamentary observer. Protest is legitimate…’, she tweeted in November of 2020. In February of 2021, she took part in a vigil for the victims of the right-wing terrorist attack in Hanau, laid a wreath at the site of the attack and commemorated the dead.”

But when it comes to protests against Corona, the left-wing political agenda is more than anxious and willing to violate the law.

The West Should Fight Dictatorships

Thomson/Reuters wrote  on January 21:

“Britain on Friday warned Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping that its allies would stand together to fight for democracy against dictatorships that it said were more emboldened than at any time since the Cold War. Speaking in Australia, British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Britain and its allies in the ‘free world’ must respond together to global threats, deepen ties with democracies in the Indo-Pacific…

“Truss argued that the ‘Kremlin has not learned the lessons of history’ and that ‘invasion will only lead to a terrible quagmire and loss of life, as we know from the Soviet-Afghan war and conflict in Chechnya.’

“More than 15,000 Soviet troops died in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, while hundreds of thousands of Afghans perished. The U.S.-led war in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021 led to more than 3,500 deaths among the international military coalition. Global aggressors ‘are emboldened in a way we haven’t seen since the Cold War,’ Truss said in the speech. ‘They seek to export dictatorship as a service around the world,’ she added. ‘That is why regimes like Belarus, North Korea and Myanmar find their closest allies in Moscow and Beijing.’”

There is a deep bitter irony here: While the West and the “free world” claim they will fight dictatorships in Russia and China, it is they, and especially Australia, which are becoming more and more totalitarian.

No Plea Deal with Netanyahu

Axios wrote on January 24:

“Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been hoping to reach a plea deal on the corruption charges against him before Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit left office at the end of January, but Mandelblit has reportedly notified Netayahu’s lawyers that won’t be possible… The deal Mandelblit and Netanyahu had been discussing would have kept him out of prison but seen him banned from politics for seven years. Netanyahu broke his silence on the plea talks after they collapsed and said he’d never accepted the seven-year ban.

“In a video statement, Netanyahu resumed his attacks on the police and prosecution and claimed the case against him was collapsing and should already have been dismissed. In a nod to the intra-party fight that had begun over his potential replacement if he took the deal, Netanyahu said he’d stay on as leader of the Likud party and of the opposition.

“The plea deal is not totally dead but will be frozen for now. The highest-profile case in recent Israeli political history will now pass to the next attorney general, who has yet to be named…”

Earthquakes in Israel

The Times of Israel wrote on January 24:

“Some one million homes in Israel are at risk of collapse in case of an earthquake, the Kan public broadcaster reported.

“The report comes after two minor earthquakes shook northern Israel earlier this week around 12 hours apart. The first quake measuring 3.7 on the Richter scale, struck late Saturday, while the other, at a magnitude of 3.5, was felt at around noon the following day…. At this point, Home Front Command officials and geological experts are not sure whether the earthquakes were an isolated incident or a prelude to a more powerful event…. a major earthquake is predicted to cause about 7,000 deaths and 145,000 injuries, with 170,000 people left homeless and 320,000 buildings damaged.”

It is interesting that the Bible prophesies an earthquake in Israel which will kill 7,000 people (Revelation 11:13).

The Scandal-Ridden Catholic Church

Chron wrote on January 21:

“Catholic Pope emeritus Benedict XVI committed ‘wrongdoing’ in the way he handled sexual abuse cases in his German archdiocese before he was pope, according to a church-commissioned investigation released Thursday. The German law firm that conducted the investigation said Benedict’s claims to have no direct knowledge of sexual abuse cases were not credible.

“The report amounts to a shocking and harsh condemnation of the retired pope – the first pope to resign his position before death in 600 years….

“Benedict is not the first pope among the nearly 270 in history whose scandals have caused Catholics and the Catholic Church headaches. The period between late 9th and 10th centuries saw some particularly bad popes… There was Pope Stephen VI, in power from May 896 to August 897. His predecessor was pope for only 15 days before dying, perhaps of gout or perhaps murdered by Stephen VI’s followers. Once installed, Stephen VI put his enemy – another of his predecessors – Pope Formosus, on trial, which was kind of weird considering Formosus had been dead for months. His corpse was dressed in papal vestments and propped up on a throne before being found guilty of perjury and other offenses, mutilated and tossed into a river. The people of Rome thought that was pretty gross, and they soon deposed and murdered Stephen VI.

“Then there was Pope Sergius III, pope from 904 to 911, who murdered his predecessors, bribed and threatened bishops and fathered an illegitimate child… This period also saw the papacy of John XII, who became pope at 18 in 955. He spent much of his time sleeping around and warring with rival factions… He died in 964 in the bed of a married woman, either of a stroke, being stabbed by the woman’s husband or thrown out the window by said husband, depending on which account you believe…

“Where other popes veered into lives of excess, Pope Paul IV, who led the church from 1555 to 1559, was controversial for his extreme austerity…  No one in Paul’s Rome had it worse than the Jews; he confined them to a ghetto, made them wear yellow hats whenever they left, and ordered dozens burned at the stake. He was so hated when he died that celebratory rioters tore down many of his statues; other statues were mocked with yellow hats.”

The Catholic Church claims that all popes are in direct succession of the Apostle Peter—a claim which is completely false.

Benedict Apologizes

Deutsche Welle wrote on January 24:

“Former Pope Benedict XVI has apologized for providing false information during a probe into sexual abuse in his old Munich archdiocese, his secretary said in a statement on Monday… The statement… said the false information was not given ‘with ill intent.’ Instead, it was blamed on an editing ‘oversight’ that occurred with Benedict’s written testimony to the inquiry.

“The former pope, 94, had told the inquiry that he had not been present at a 1980 meeting discussing a pedophile priest. He has now confirmed that he did attend the meeting but insisted that no decision had been made there about reassigning the priest to pastoral duties. ‘Rather, only the request to provide [the priest] with accommodation during his therapeutic treatment in Munich was granted,’ the statement said. Benedict was ‘very sorry’ for the mistake and said he hoped that it could be forgiven…”

Women Become more Influential in Catholic Church

Newsmax wrote on January 23:

“Pope Francis on Sunday for the first time conferred the lay Roman Catholic ministries of lector and catechist on women… he criticized those who need to have rigid regulations and ‘more rules’ in order to find God…

“Lectors read from scripture… and catechists teach the faith to children and adult converts…

“The change will be particularly important as a recognition for women in places such as the Amazon, where some are the de facto religious leaders of remote communities hit by a severe shortage of priests. The Vatican stressed that the roles are not a precursor to women one day being allowed to become priests… Francis has appointed a number of women to senior jobs in Vatican departments previously held by men.”

Transplant of Pig Kidneys into a Brain-Dead Human

NBC News wrote on January 20:

“In an operating room at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the surgical team was nervous but hopeful. It was Sept. 30, and they were attempting a medical first: implanting kidneys from a genetically altered pig into the abdomen of a human.  The lead surgeon, Dr. Jayme Locke, carefully sewed the first pig kidney into the patient, James Parsons, 57, a carpenter and father from Huntsville, Alabama.

“Days earlier, Parsons had been rendered brain-dead in an accident in a dirt bike race. A registered organ donor, he had long expressed a desire to his family to donate his organs after he died.”

Man playing God… where will it end…?

The Pro-Life Movement

Newsmax wrote on January 21:

“Actor Kirk Cameron told Newsmax on Friday that ‘more and more people’ in Hollywood are ‘coming to terms with the fact that equality begins in the womb.’… Cameron also mentioned how personal the issue of abortion is to his family, sharing how his wife, Chelsea Noble, and [their] first four children were adopted. ‘My wife is an adopted child. She was one doctor appointment away from not existing,’’ Cameron said.

“‘We adopted our first four children, and each of them were very close to not being here. And if my wife hadn’t been born, neither would our two natural-born children be here. And so my entire family of six kids and my wife I see not as mistakes, but as miracles, and I’m so glad and thankful for the pro-life community and their work, which resulted in me having this wonderful family.’’”

These are insightful comments showing the utter abomination of abortion.

Acknowledgement and Disclaimer

These Current Events are compiled and commented on by Norbert Link. We gratefully acknowledge the many contributions of news articles from our readership. The publication of articles in this section is not to be viewed as an endorsement or approval as to contents or accuracy of the selected articles, but they are published for the purpose of pointing at worldwide developments in the light of biblical end-time prophecy and godly instruction. Our own comments are provided in italics.

One of the great themes in the Bible is that of relationships – between God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, God and man, and between human beings themselves.  Pretty much everyone has relationships with other people unless they live on their own on a desert island, and so it should come as no surprise to anyone that it is a major theme running right through the Bible.   Unless we get these relationships right, we will have a miserable life, but much more importantly, the spiritual application is of paramount importance, as we get close to God, and stay close to Him, which will give us eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

This series of Q&As is but a brief overview on this subject, and we hope that it will prove helpful to all who read this information, and to those who decide to delve further into this matter.   There is so much more in the Bible than that which we will cover in this series.

Relationships – God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Right from the dawn of civilisation we read in the first book in the Bible that there was a relationship with God the Father and one other Personage, the “Logos” or “Spokesman.”  In Genesis 1:26, we read: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’”

There are those who take issue with the phrase “Let Us make man in Our image” dismissing the argument that it is about more than just one Person. This concern is addressed in our booklet “God is a Family” on pages 3-4:

“Some claim that the statement, ‘Let Us make man in Our image,’ does not reveal a plurality of persons in the Godhead, but that it is like an expression of a king who speaks of himself in the plural form. They point out, for instance, that the queen of England might say something like, ‘We have decreed…’ She is referring to herself, but she says, ‘we.’ This way of speaking is called ‘pluralis maiestatis’ or ‘pluralis maiestaticus.’

“The problem with applying this concept to God’s statements in Genesis 1 and 3 is that God did not use this kind of speaking in His inspired word, the Bible—in fact, the early Hebrews knew nothing about this way of speaking.”

The booklet then goes on to cover many more aspects about the relationship between the Father and the Logos—the “Word” and the Son of God, who became Jesus Christ, with subtitles such as “Jesus Was – And is – God!”; “Jesus Came to Reveal the Father”; “Who and What Was Jesus Before His Human Birth” and much more, and is very well worth reading or re-reading.

Let us look at some very pertinent Scriptures that show how important and close this relationship is and always has been.

In Revelation 13:8, we read: “And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Other translations render this phrase slightly differently, thereby implying that the Book of Life existed from the foundation of the world and that the names of true believers were written in that book before the world was founded. Both concepts are correct. We explain this in detail in our free booklet, “Are You Predestined to Be Saved?”

In any event, it was established or preordained or predestined from the foundation of the world (in fact, even prior to this) that Jesus Christ would come to this earth to die for our sins.

We read further that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:1-3).   In verse 14, it reveals that the Word was Jesus Christ: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

And so we can conclude quite clearly from these verses that the Word, Jesus Christ, had no beginning and was with the Father from eternity.  Micah 5:2 confirms this, saying that Jesus Christ—the One to be Ruler in Israel—will come “Whose goings forth are from old, From everlasting (literally, the days of eternity).”  In the letter to the Hebrews, it is explained that Jesus Christ—called “Melchizedek”—was and is “without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life” (Hebrews 7:3).

And the two of them are a Family. They are both God beings, referred to as the Father and the Son.

Jesus came to this earth to preach the Kingdom of God and this was central to His ministry.  In Matthew 4:23, we read: “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.”   He further taught: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).   There are well over 100 references to the Kingdom in the four gospel accounts.   This same gospel has to be preached today.

In our free booklet “The Gospel of the Kingdom of God,” we read, on page 2: “The Bible repeats time and again that Jesus Christ preached the gospel of the Kingdom of God. In fact, Christ’s whole message had to do with the Kingdom of God—WHAT it is, WHY we need to understand it, and HOW we can have a part in it.

“The Jews at the time of Christ were so upset about the message of the Kingdom of God that they killed Christ. Their understanding of what the Kingdom of God is, and who would be in it, was quite different from what Jesus taught. That is why they were so intent on killing Him.”

John 5:19 gives an insight into the close personal relationship that the Son had with His Father: “Then Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.’”  The Son and the Father were united in love and purpose.  In John 14:9, Jesus is quoted as saying: “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

In John 5:30, we read a statement which reveals the closeness of Father and Son: “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.”

The website of dailyverse.knowing-jesus.com says: “Jesus is the true representation of the immortal God in every aspect of His character and will. He is a visible image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation Who is able to genuinely say, ‘My food is to do the will of My Father’ and ‘Thy will not mine be done’. Philip had yet to understand that Jesus was the Word of God, made flesh, Who was with God in the beginning. He is the exact representation of God, Who had come to earth to reveal the Father to Adam’s fallen race.” Of course, we understand that man did not “fall”—it is Satan who fell like lightning from heaven (compare Luke 10:18).

Jesus came to earth not to do His own thing, but to do His Father’s Will.   We read this in several verses: “Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work’” (John 4:34); and: “‘For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me’” (John 6:38).  We further read: “Then Jesus said to them, ‘When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him’” (John 8:28-29).

Jesus always spoke as directed by His Father:   “For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak” (John 12:49).   We also read in John 14:31: “But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here.”

Jesus is immortal and came to this earth and preached about the Kingdom of God.  His Father commanded Him what to say; He always sought to do His Father’s Will, and copied what the Father does. This reveals very precisely and surely that the Father and Jesus Christ have the closest relationship that it is ever possible to have, being in total agreement and unity about everything.

The relationship between the Father and the Son has been in existence from before there was any beginning—before there was anything created—and they agree on all things.  We just have to think about the total agreement that they both had to have when working out their master plan of salvation for mankind and when creating the universe with every tiny detail agreed to completely.  We know that the return of Jesus Christ will be necessary at the end of this age (compare Matthew 24:22) but no one knows either the day or the hour when that will happen (see verse 36) except the Father.  The Father “knows” or better “decides” when that time has come; it is in His total, complete and sole authority to determine the timing. When the Father makes that decision, as He determines when that time has arrived, there will be no disagreement between the Father and the Son and Jesus will return just in time to save mankind from cosmocide. There is no competitive spirit between them and they are as one.   These remarkable examples in the Word of God give ample testimony to their close and unchanging relationship which will continue on throughout eternity.

The Father entrusted and entrusts Jesus with great responsibility: “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16); and: “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:1-2).  In turn, Jesus fully trusted and trusts His Father; theirs was and is a fully reciprocal relationship.

As alluded to before, the relationship between the Father and the Son is one of love. In fact, all the aspects of their relationship, discussed herein, are based and founded on the fact that they love each other. We read in Matthew 3:17 the Father’s message about His Son to the people, which was communicated by an angel: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This message was repeated to Peter, James and John on the mount of transfiguration (Matthew 17:5; compare 2 Peter 1:17). The Father loved and loves the Son (compare John 3:35; 5:20; 10:17; 15:9; 17:24, etc.)—He always has and He always will. At the same time, as already stated above, the Son loved and loves the Father (compare again John 14:31). That loving relationship will never end.

There is so much more information about our Saviour, Jesus Christ, but we have only referenced briefly that which is concerned with His relationship with His Father.

Our free booklets “Jesus Christ – A Great Mystery”;  “Do You Know the True Jesus of the Bible?”; “God is a Family;” and “Is God a Trinity?” are replete with so much more invaluable information.

(To be Continued)

Lead Writers: Brian Gale (United Kingdom) and Norbert Link

compiled by Dave Harris

“Germany’s Troublesome Dependency on Russia,” is the title of a new StandingWatch program, presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary: 

Historically, Germany’s relationship with Russia has been an odd one, ranging from “friendship” to financial and even military collaboration, reliance, appeasement, hostility and war. Today, it is no different. Germany’s current appeasement strategy is based, in part, on economic dependency from Russia. Nothing can show this more clearly than Germany’s conduct in the present conflict with Ukraine.  But Germany’s politics will have devastating consequences. Historically, Germany’s relationship with Russia has been an odd one, ranging from “friendship” to financial and even military collaboration, reliance, appeasement, hostility and war. Today, it is no different. Germany’s current appeasement strategy is based, in part, on economic dependency from Russia. Nothing can show this more clearly than Germany’s conduct in the present conflict with Ukraine.  But Germany’s politics will have devastating consequences. 

“Deutschlands bedenkliche Abhängigkeit von Russland,” is the title of a new AufPostenStehen program, presented by Norbert Link. This video covers the same material as presented in English. 

“Gott oder der Mensch?, Teil 2” is the title for this Sabbath’s new German sermon, presented by Michael Link. Title in English: “God or Man? Part 2”

We are very pleased to announce the baptism of Dominik Kaltenegger on last week’s Sabbath in Germany.  Ministers Thilo Hanstein and Christoph Sperzel conducted the baptism. Welcome to the Church of God Herr Kaltenegger!

“Die letzte Festung Satans,” the sermonette given last Sabbath in Germany by Robert Muhr, is now posted. Title in English, “Satan’s last stronghold.”

“All Not Lost,” the sermonette presented last Sabbath by Frank Bruno, is now posted. Here is a summary:

The very recent fires here in Boulder County ripped through the area at an astounding rate—described by emergency officials as the length and breadth of a football field every few seconds. In just hours nearly 1000 homes, pets, possessions, and many businesses were destroyed and impacted by flames and smoke. In this Sermonette we will consider God’s messages to those He calls, and how one can persevere despite great loss.

“Blood,” the sermon presented last Sabbath by Eric Rank, is now posted. Here is a summary:

Blood is found everywhere in the Bible. What is the significance? What can we learn about blood that can help us understand our Salvation?

On January 22, 2022, Frank Bruno will present the sermonette, titled, “All Not Lost,” and Eric Rank will present the sermon, titled, “Blood.”

The live services are available, over video and audio, at http://eternalgod.org/live-services/ (12:30 pm Pacific Time; 1:30 pm Mountain Time; 2:30 pm Central Time; 3:30 pm Eastern Time; 8:30 pm Greenwich Mean Time; 9:30 pm Central European Time). Just click on Connect to Live Stream.

In a talk with my son recently, I was mentioning to him how blessed we are. He wanted to get something, and I said no, and he wasn’t pleased about it. We talked about how continually wanting things leads to feelings of frustration, greed and maybe jealousy. As he walked away, I could tell he wasn’t exactly agreeing.

As I continued to think about this after our conversation, I realized that there are areas in my life where I act like this at times with God when I am asking Him for things and then getting frustrated when things don’t pan out like I think they should.

There is no point in living life like this!

A much better way is to remain in a continual state of thankfulness and mindfulness of what God does for us. How He blesses us and what He does to make this happen.

It is so easy to complain about what we don’t have, in what situations we are, and how they could be different. I have found though that complaining doesn’t change a situation nor does it make one feel any more willing to try harder or try to do something differently.

Why does God consider our complaining as something that should not be done?

Philippians 2:12-16 tells us: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.”

Complaining leads to us not being able to be used by God! When we complain, we take away the opportunity God has to use us or the chance to help us to grow. When we complain, we take matters into our own hands and leave no room for Him.

It is very easy to complain in this day and age when there is a lack of justice in our lands while immorality reigns. When nothing seems to be fair, it is easy to become dissuaded and discouraged. Even though we are told to sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done (Ezekiel 9:4), we need to realize that God is always there for us at all times. Lamentations 3 does a wonderful job in showing just how this is true, and it would be helpful at this time to read it thoroughly.

The reality is that there will always be opportunities to complain if we allow them to exist in our minds! How we choose to go about this is completely up to us.  We will be judged on this though, and we will have to give an account. Even though it is hard, we should stop and think often about how God has blessed us and strive to let Him be glorified through how we live.

by Norbert Link

We begin with the dramatic situation pertaining to Russia, especially focusing on Ukraine, Belarus, Iran and Sweden, and the unwillingness of the USA and Europe to really come to Ukraine’s rescue. Recognizing Europe’s inability to play an effective role, more and more voices are being heard for the need of European power and a European army.

We report on Biden’s failing policies internationally and domestically and Trump’s return to the campaign trail.

We focus on the dictatorships of Australia, Austria, Germany and France; as well as an alarming willingness by large portions of society to create a dictatorship in the USA. We also report on further nonsense regarding COVID-19 measures. Please view in this regard our new StandingWatch program, titled, “Is America Going to Lose More of Its Freedom?”

We conclude with an interesting development in Jerusalem regarding the demolition of the Golden Dome and the numerous eruptions of an undersea volcano near Tonga. One of these mighty eruptions has been described as the biggest eruption recorded anywhere on the planet in more than 30 years.

Throughout this section, we have underlined pertinent statements in the quoted articles, for the convenience and quick overview of the reader.

Fears and Tensions with Russia on the Rise

The Associated Press wrote on January 15:

“U.S. intelligence officials have determined a Russian effort is underway to create a pretext for its troops to further invade Ukraine, and Moscow has already prepositioned operatives to conduct ‘a false-flag operation’ in eastern Ukraine… White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday the intelligence findings show Russia is also laying the groundwork through a social media disinformation campaign that frames Ukraine as an aggressor that has been preparing an imminent attack against Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine. Psaki charged that Russia has already dispatched operatives trained in urban warfare who could use explosives to carry out acts of sabotage against Russia’s own proxy forces — blaming the acts on Ukraine — if Russian President Vladimir Putin decides he wants to move forward with an invasion…

“White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Thursday said… this is similar to what the Kremlin did in the lead-up to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that had been under Ukraine’s jurisdiction since 1954…

“Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned on Friday that Moscow wouldn’t wait indefinitely for the Western response, saying he expects the U.S. and NATO to provide a written answer next week. Lavrov described Moscow’s demands for binding guarantees that NATO will not embrace Ukraine or any other former Soviet nations, or station its forces and weapons there, as essential for the progress of diplomatic efforts to defuse soaring tensions over Ukraine. He argued that NATO’s deployments and drills near Russia’s borders pose a security challenge that must be addressed immediately.”

Ukraine’s Fate Sealed

Thomson/Reuters wrote on January 14:

“A week of diplomacy by U.S. President Joe Biden failed to defuse tensions between Russia and Ukraine, but has maintained unity with European allies against Moscow as Russian President Vladimir Putin seeks to expose cracks… “Biden’s bid to rebuild U.S. leadership globally was also hindered by a chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in August that prompted the European Union to consider ways to become more independent of the U.S. military… Biden has faced lingering doubts about America’s reliability as a partner. Leaders from the Group of Seven advanced economies, NATO and the European Union are worried…

“Although Biden pledged to continue giving military aid to Ukraine and to boost support if Russia invades, Washington’s response has been almost entirely diplomatic, and the West is not in a position to defend Ukraine militarily. The main attempt to deter a Russian invasion is a U.S. threat of ‘unprecedented’ sanctions, including export controls and measures targeting Russia’s financial system.

“U.S. officials have spent weeks trying to ensure Europe would match Washington’s planned sanctions response, but no clear agreement has been reached on what specific sanctions will be leveled. While the European Union imposed sanctions on Russia when it annexed Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014, the bloc has shown divisions over how to deal with Moscow, which accounts for one-third of EU gas imports.

“The United States said Moscow’s behavior towards Ukraine will play a crucial role in the fate of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, meant to transport natural gas from Russia to Germany. But Germany on Thursday warned against drawing a link between the pipeline and the Russian tensions…”

Of course, Germany, being dependent on Russia, does not want to jeopardize its lucrative Nord Stream 2 pipeline deal. And while the USA will not intervene militarily, and Europe cannot do so at this point, Ukraine will fall into Russia’s hands… as it is prophesied.

No German Weapons for Ukraine

 Deutsche Welle wrote on January 19:

“Germany has declined to join allies such as the US and UK in shipping weapons to Ukraine… [Germany’s] foreign minister, the Greens’ Annalena Baerbock, has made… expressions of solidarity with Ukraine but rejected its latest request for weapons deliveries…. Baerbock said her government’s decision on weapons had a historical dimension — a reference to Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union during the Second World War….

“Germany remains one of the world’s top arms producers and exporters, with sales increasing 21% from 2016 to 2020… Its largest customers were South Korea, Algeria, and Egypt….

“Ukrainian officials [were] most recently asking for warships and air defense systems. While Germany often cites its own belligerent history as grounds for sidestepping the military question, Ukraine is leaning into it. ‘This responsibility should apply to the Ukrainian people, who lost at least 8 million lives during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine,’ Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, told the DPA news agency.”

Germany’s Reliance on Russia

The Daily Mail wrote on January 19:

 “At the heart of the dispute is Nord Stream 2, Russia’s new gas pipeline running from Russia to Europe across the Baltic Sea: built, filled with gas but not yet approved for operation. If and when it is switched on, the pipeline will prove vital for German industry and heating the country’s homes…

“Poles and Lithuanians still remember how their ancient independence was signed away by Germans, Austrians and Russians as far back as the 18th century… we in Western Europe should not forget how Berlin and Moscow have benefited from colluding at our expense, too…

“Siemens and Mercedes along with a host of other big German companies also profit from exports to the Russian market. And this winter’s fuel crisis has exposed how dangerously dependent Germany already is on Russian gas. Europe is once again being rocked by soaring inflation — and now haunted by the prospect of a new German-Russian axis…”

Biden: Russia WILL Attack Ukraine

The Guardian wrote on January 19:

“Joe Biden has said he thinks Russia will attack Ukraine, warning that Moscow would face a ‘stiff price’, but he admitted Nato was divided on how to respond if there is only a “minor incursion”.

“The White House was forced to issue a hasty clarification to that last point, saying that any movement of Russian forces over the border would be treated as invasion. But Biden, in his most extensive remarks on the Ukraine crisis to date, given at an extended press conference on Wednesday, alarmed the government in Kyiv and strayed from the show of determined unity that Nato has sought to project.”

The New York Post, calling Biden’s news conference “an utter disaster,” added on January 19:

“President Biden blundered during his White House news conference Wednesday by saying that Russia’s military’ “will be able to prevail over time’ if it launches an invasion of Ukraine…”

Russia Won’t Tolerate NATO’s Invasion of Ukraine

Newsmax wrote on January 16:

“Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman [Dmitry Peskov] says Russia will no longer ‘tolerate’ NATO’s eastward expansion and ‘gradual invasion’ into Ukraine… ‘When Germany was reunited and when the then-Soviet Union and the Soviet Union leader Mr. [Mikhail] Gorbachev said OK to that, there was a promise by American side,’ Peskov continued. ‘Unfortunately, not fixed in a juridical, in a legally binding guaranteeing document, but it — there was a guarantee that NATO would never … expand its military infrastructure or political infrastructure eastwards.’

“‘Unfortunately, the opposite thing started to happen since then, and NATO’s military infrastructure started to get closer and closer to the borders of the Russian Federation,’ he said… ‘At first… they were just words, but with the time being, we have seen the gradual invasion of NATO into Ukrainian territory, with its infrastructure, with its instructors, with supplies of defensive and offensive weapons, teaching Ukrainian military, and so on and so forth. And that brought us to the red line. That brought us to the situation when we — when we couldn’t tolerate it anymore.’”

Russian Cyberattack on Ukraine

The Associated Press wrote on January 16:

“Ukraine said Sunday that Russia was behind a cyberattack that defaced its government websites and alleged that Russia is engaged in an increasing ‘hybrid war’ against its neighbor. The statement from the Ministry of Digital Development came a day after Microsoft said dozens of computer systems at an unspecified number of Ukrainian government agencies had been infected with destructive malware disguised as ransomware…

“In 2017, Russia targeted Ukraine with one of the most damaging cyberattacks on record with the NotPetya virus, causing more than $10 billion in damage globally. That virus, also disguised as ransomware, was a so-called ‘wiper’ that erased entire networks.”

Joint Military Exercises between Russia and Belarus

TRT World wrote on January 17:

“Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko has announced that his army will conduct military exercises next month with Russian forces and criticised what he said was NATO’s growing presence in Europe… He said the drills would be dubbed ‘Determination of the Union 2022,’ and should focus on a scenario in which his country’s military is forced to ‘resist forces coming from the West’…

“Lukashenko, who has grown closer to the Kremlin as the West shunned him, accused Ukraine of building up troops near Belarus in comments circulated by the Defence Ministry. He said Poland and the Baltics had more than 30,000 soldiers near Belarus’ borders.”

Russia’s New “War Games”

The Associated Press wrote on January 19:

“Russia is sending an unspecified number of troops from the country’s far east to Belarus for major war games, officials said Tuesday, a deployment that will further beef up Russian military presence near Ukraine amid Western fears of a planned invasion…

“Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said the joint drills with Belarus would involve practicing a joint response to external threats. Ukrainian officials have warned that Russia could launch an attack on Ukraine from several directions, including from its ally Belarus.”

According to MSN, dated January 15, the danger of war in Europe has never been higher for 30 years. The publication also states that Russia threatened with stationing troops in Latin America.

Military Cooperation between Russia and Iran?

VZGLYAD reported on January 18:

“On Friday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that President Vladimir Putin, together with his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi, will conduct an ‘inventory’ of our entire agenda during a visit to Russia. As the VZGLYAD newspaper wrote earlier, almost the main purpose of Mr. Raisi’s visit to Moscow, according to some reports, is Russian weapons.

“During an October visit to Russia, the head of the Iranian General Staff, Mohammad Bagheri, is rumored to have indicated his readiness to conclude large-scale contracts, including the purchase of multi-purpose Su-35s. A separate issue is the prospect of Iran buying the Russian S-400 system. However, there was no consensus in the expert community as to whether Russia was ready to sell this system.

“Earlier, military expert Konstantin Sivkov, in an interview with the VZGLYAD newspaper, suggested that in the event of new provocations from Washington, Moscow would begin a close military cooperation with Tehran.”

The EU Army and Europe’s Lust for Power

Express wrote on January 17:

“The EU has been mulling the deployment of 5000 troops from across the bloc as a backup plan in emergency missions in the name of enhanced ‘strategic autonomy’. The idea, first floated by French President Emmanuel Macron, is taking shape around the EU Commission’s table and will reach Parliament in Strasbourg soon. New Dutch defence minister Kajsa Ollogren attempted to minimise the plan saying the troops are not to be called ‘EU army’ per se. But Nexit Denktank campaigners warned: ‘… Just because you don’t call it an EU army doesn’t mean it isn’t an EU army… 5,000 soldiers are just the beginning. They know they don’t have the people on their side, so they play games with language…

“Confirming the two leaders’ [Von der Leyen’s and Macron’s] defence ambitions, a senior French government official told Politico on Thursday: ‘I would like the EU in the coming years to become aware of its power, because power not only gives you prosperity but also the ability to defend your values. You can see how we sometimes hesitate to defend our values against China. Why do we hesitate? Because we are not powerful enough, because we want to have access to the Chinese market, because we depend on certain technologies. Power gives prosperity, power gives independence. And if we could all collectively realise that, that it’s better to be powerful than weak, that it’s better to be sovereign than vassal, it would be a great political idea for the EU.’”

And so, Europe will develop a POWERFUL army.

Germany’s Scholz Should Do Something…

Der Tagesspiegel wrote on January 17th:

“Union parliamentary group leader Johann Wadephul (CDU) accuses Chancellor Olf Scholz (SPD) of inactivity and leadership failure in the field of foreign policy. ‘We are in the most dangerous situation we have experienced since the end of the Cold War,’ Wadephul told the Tagesspiegel. ‘There is a danger of war in Europe, but Chancellor Olaf Scholz hardly makes an appearance in terms of foreign and security policy,’ criticized the CDU politician.

“[He also said that] in the current tense situation, the head of government’s reticence is dangerous… Also because Macron is tied to his election campaign, Germany currently has a special responsibility in Europe.”

Scholz is not the man, but when that man arises, then there will be war.

Sweden on the Alert

Bild Online wrote on January 15:

“Fear of war now also in Sweden! While the world is spellbound on the Russian-Ukrainian border, disaster could also be brewing elsewhere in Europe due to Vladimir Putin’s fantasies for great power.

“Sweden’s army has been moving soldiers and weapons to the Baltic Sea island of Gotland since Friday. According to BILD information, Stockholm actually sees the possibility, albeit small, of a Russian attack on the largest island in the Baltic Sea. Soldiers and Swedish infantry fighting vehicles arrived in the coastal town of Visby (23,000 inhabitants) on Friday morning and secured the town’s harbor. In the evening, a US Air Force C-17 military aircraft landed at the nearby regional airport and brought 100 additional Swedish soldiers to the island. According to BILD information, the flight took place as part of a long-standing military cooperation between Sweden and the USA.

“Background: On Wednesday, Russia moved three of its heavy landing ships from the Kola Peninsula in the North Sea to the Baltic Sea. They would be deployed should Putin plan an attack on the Swedish island in the Baltic Sea. Since then, the Swedish army has been on alert.”

Biden’s Foreign Policy Setbacks

Fox News wrote on January 17:

“The one area in which presidents have the most executive power is foreign policy…  But a year into his presidency, Biden is receiving low marks for his foreign policy record. A recent Quinnipiac poll showed Biden has a 35% approval rating on foreign policy a year into his presidency, with 54% disapproving.

“Among the first setbacks in March of last year was when the summit with the Chinese, led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, to address trade, human rights, Hong Kong, cyber-attacks…  and rising military tensions in the South China Sea went off the rails [when the Chinese lectured America]… In the months to follow, China sent an unprecedented number of warplanes toward Taiwan to test the U.S. response, raising fears that an invasion of Taiwan appeared imminent…

“Biden’s handling of Afghanistan and his decision to pull all U.S. troops out of the country… has led to a humanitarian disaster. Afghanistan now stands on the verge of starvation and a collapsing economy, just four months after the chaotic U.S. military withdrawal… NATO allies who believed Biden would consult with them… were blindsided by the sudden unilateral U.S. withdrawal, leaving relations in the Gulf particularly frayed as those countries question whether the US is a reliable ally…

“Even the French, America’s first ally, erupted in anger when the Biden administration suddenly announced a nuclear submarine deal with Australia, undercutting a prior deal between the French and the Australian military — something President Biden had to apologize to the French President for.

“… in the past week, talks with the Russians ended without progress…

“Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted recently that time was running out for a new Iran deal. North Korea tested multiple ballistic missiles, which the Pentagon fears may have included a hypersonic weapon [This happened again on Monday.] And Iran keeps backing Shia militias sending drone strikes and rockets targeting the U.S. military and its allies in Iraq and the Gulf. A year into the Biden administration, the foreign policy tests continue to mount.”

Biden has been failing in just about every foreign policy situation. And it will only get worse. Domestically, his record has not been any better.

Biden as Unpopular as Ever

Axios wrote on January 15:

“In the two months since signing the $1 trillion infrastructure bill into law, President Biden has by almost every measure bombed big time… Biden, who marks one year in office next Thursday, has never been less popular nationally, after personally lobbying his party and the public on Build Back Better and voting rights — and failing….

“It’s rare for a president to be at odds with Republicans, moderate Democrats and liberal Democrats — all at once. But that’s where Biden finds himself at the start of an election year that many Democrats believe will result in the loss of the House and maybe the Senate… Yesterday was the third time in 3½ months Biden made an in-person trip to the Hill — and the third time he walked away having failed to persuade his party to back his plans. Biden can’t be faulted for having a 50-50 Senate and an unmovable Democratic centrist in Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). But he knew the daunting numbers game full well as he went into these fights.

“The Supreme Court yesterday blocked Biden’s vaccine-or-test mandate for large employers. The Afghanistan pullout played out about as poorly as it could have. Russia is messing with him: Biden’s warnings haven’t deterred Vladimir Putin from continuing to build toward a Ukraine invasion. Inflation is soaring: It’s the worst in 39 years. Empty grocery shelves get network-news coverage…”

It does not help that Biden blames everyone else but himself for the fiasco. His claim to the press on Wednesday that great progress has been achieved under his leadership is more than just a joke.

Trump Campaigning Again

The New York Post wrote on January 16:

“Former President Donald Trump held his first political rally of the new year in Arizona on Friday, continuing to insist that he had won the 2020 election without evidence… ‘Last year we had a rigged election and the proof is all over the place,’ he continued. ‘We have a lot of proof and they know it’s proof. They always talk about the Big Lie — they’re the Big Lie.’…

“Trump also mentioned the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill rioters, whom he said were being ‘persecuted’ for expressing their First Amendment rights when they disrupted congress’ certification of the electoral votes that would officially make Biden president.”

Why it is stated above that Trump provided no evidence in his speech is hard to understand, as Trump referred to thousands upon thousands of dubious and strictly illegal ballots during the election.

Newsmax added on January 17:

“He also excoriated the Biden administration’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. ‘It’s a criminal agenda what they’re doing; they’re mishandling it so badly,’ Trump said, adding a rebuke of Dr. Anthony Fauci. ‘Biden’s made him the big person; he’s like the king,’ Trump said…

“Notably, Trump said America’s kids have strong immune systems, suggesting pushing vaccines on kids is an overreach… ‘Leave our business alone. Leave all of us… alone. Tell Joe Biden the Americans’ health choices are none of his business. We can make our own choices…’”

This is a switch from his prior comments regarding vaccinations when he followed Bill O’Reilly’s foolish advice and “encouraged” his followers to get vaccinated, prompting an outcry from quite a few supporters. In an interview with Newsmax, Trump said that he would get rid of any vaccine mandates.

Insulting Comments by FBI

The New York Post wrote on January 17:

“Jewish leaders ripped the FBI on Monday and said the bureau ‘got it wrong’ when they said the terrorist who took hostages at a Texas synagogue didn’t make demands that were ‘specifically related to the Jewish community,’ reports said… Kenneth Marcus, founder and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, said… the attack was ‘obviously a matter of anti-Semitism.’ ‘Failure of the FBI to understand this is something of a pattern with law enforcement in the United States and frankly in Europe,’ Marcus told Fox News Digital. ‘It seems that time after time, we see law enforcement officials fail to understand when an anti-Semitic incident occurs, even when it’s entirely obvious,’ he said…

“Anti-semitism has been on the rise in the US for several years and remains at a ‘historically high level’… Late Sunday, the FBI clarified its comments in a statement but again, did not say that the hostages were targeted for their faith…”

Strange indeed. It should have been clear from the outset that this was a horrible attack on the Jews and their faith.

Airlines Cancel Flights over 5G Concerns

The New York Post wrote on January 19:

“Multiple international airlines canceled US-bound flights scheduled for Wednesday as a planned rollout of 5G service prompts safety concerns. The cancellations occurred despite decisions by AT&T and Verizon to temporarily delay their 5G launch near airports. Federal aviation officials and top US airlines fear the 5G signals could interfere with instruments that measure altitude on some passenger plane models, such as the widely used Boeing 777.

“Dubai-based Emirates said it was changing flight plans ‘due to operational concerns associated with the planned deployment of 5G mobile network services in the US at certain airports.’… Japan-based All Nippon Airways made a similar announcement, noting the Federal Aviation Administration ‘has indicated that radio waves from the 5G wireless service may interfere with aircraft altimeters.’… Air India noted it would cancel flights bound for New York, Newark, Chicago and San Francisco ‘due to deployment of the 5G communications in USA.;

“Japan Airlines said it would stop using the Boeing 777 plane model on US-bound flights until the safety concerns are resolved. Germany-based Lufthansa said it canceled a flight bound for Miami and would switch from the Boeing 747-8 model to the 747-400 model on some flights… British Airways canceled some US flights slated to use the Boeing 777 and switched to different models on others.

“On Tuesday, an AT&T spokesperson said the firm would continue with its 5G rollout as scheduled, but ‘voluntarily agreed to temporarily defer turning on a limited number of towers around certain airport runways’ due to safety concerns. Verizon said it had ‘voluntarily decided to limit our 5G network around airports.’…

“Their decision to alter plans came after US airline and shipping firm CEOs warned top Biden administration officials that the launch could cause ‘catastrophic’ disruptions to air travel. The CEOs suggested flight cancellations could exceed 1,000 per day if potential signal interference was not addressed. Despite the decision to alter the 5G rollout, Delta Air Lines warned some flight schedule disruptions may still occur.”

Australia’s Persecution of the Unvaccinated Continues

The Guardian wrote on January 15:

“Tennis champion Novak Djokovic… has been described as a risk to ‘civil unrest’ and a ‘talisman of anti-vaccination sentiment’…  Australia’s immigration minister, Alex Hawke, personally cancelled the unvaccinated world No 1’s visa, arguing his presence in Australia could incite ‘civil unrest’ and encourage others to eschew vaccination against Covid-19…

“Hawke said he accepted Djokovic’s recent Covid-19 infection meant he was a ‘negligible risk to those around him’, but [he wrote:] ‘I consider that Mr Djokovic’s ongoing presence in Australia may lead to an increase in anti-vaccination sentiment generated in the Australian community, potentially leading to an increase in civil unrest of the kind previously experienced in Australia with rallies and protests which may themselves be a source of community transmission.”

Australia has become one of the worst dictatorships in so-called “Democratic” countries. If they can do it to Djokovic, then they can and will do it to EVERYONE who dares to object to their ridiculous vaccination policies.

Newsmax wrote on January 16:

“In a rollercoaster ride, the world’s top men’s player was first detained by immigration authorities on Jan. 6, ordered released by a court on Jan. 10 and then detained on Saturday again pending Sunday’s court hearing… The player’s visa saga has dominated headlines around the world and fueled a debate over the rights of people who opt to remain unvaccinated…”

News.com.au wrote on January 16:

“Novak Djokovic left Australia late on Sunday night after the 20-time grand slam champion’s legal team failed to overturn Immigration Minister Alex Hawke’s decision to cancel his visa… The case was heard by a full bench of the Federal Court of Australia on Sunday afternoon which ruled unanimously to deport the Serbian star…

“‘This is not an appeal against the decision of the executive government,’ [Chief Justice James] Allsop told the court. ‘It is an application to the court as a separate arm of government being the Commonwealth judicial branch to review a decision by a member of executive, the minister, for the lawfulness or legality of the decision on the three grounds put forward. These grounds focus on whether decision was, for different reasons, irrational or legally unreasonable. It is no part or function of the court to decide upon the merit or wisdom of the decision.’”

Lack of wisdom was most certainly obvious.

“Serious Situation” for Democracy

LifeSiteNews wrote on January 17:

“British politician Nigel Farage, who supported Djokovic from the start of his legal issues with Australian authorities, published a video on his YouTube channel in reaction to the tennis star’s deportation, and described the situation as ‘serious..’ ‘There are lessons from history about authoritarian governments that behave in this way,’ he said. ‘My battle wasn’t just for a Serbian tennis player; it was about the direction that the free world is taking. Today, it feels much less free than it ought to.’…

“Djokovic has previously voiced his opposition to the COVID-19 vaccination and mandates, including travel mandates. He revealed his inclination not to take the jab back in April as part of a Facebook Live video with fellow Serbian athletes, saying, ‘Personally I am opposed to vaccination, and I wouldn’t want to be forced by someone to take a vaccine in order to be able to travel.’”

Farage’s analysis of the situation is absolutely correct. It seems there is not much freedom left in the “free” world.

A Political Decision?

The Guardian wrote on January 16:

“Serbia’s president has said… Djokovic had been ‘harassed … but not humiliated’ and the prime minister called his treatment ‘scandalous’ as the world tennis No 1’s home country reacted furiously to his deportation from Australia…. The Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, called the court ruling ‘a farce’….

“If it was ‘up to principle, they should have said unvaccinated players cannot enter – but they did not say that,’ Vučić said. ‘They gave him an exemption… ‘He said he was sure Djokovic ‘would have been treated differently if he hadn’t come from Serbia …’

“… the sports minister, Vanja Udovičić, described it as ‘nonsense and shame, absurdity and hypocrisy’. The Serbian tennis association said the ‘farce was over’ and expressed its ‘huge disappointment’, describing the decision to deport Djokovic, who has won nine Australian Open titles, as political. ‘Political pressure has led to the revocation of his visa to satisfy public interest,’ it said. ‘It begs the question whether athletes will from now on be incarcerated like criminals and deported when it suits the political interests of powerful individuals.’

“Boško Obradović, the leader of the far-right opposition party Dveri (the Doors), said Belgrade should introduce countermeasures and ‘chase the Australian ambassador’ out of the country.”

Austria’s Dictatorship Continues…

Politico wrote on January 16:

“Austria will make coronavirus vaccination mandatory from February, the government confirmed Sunday… Chancellor Karl Nehammer sought to reassure Austrians that ‘this is not about the battle of vaccinated versus unvaccinated’ but rather to underscore that ‘vaccination is the best guarantee for us to live together in freedom.’ The mandate… will apply to Austrian residents aged 18 and older, with exemptions for pregnant women and people who cannot receive the vaccine on medical grounds. An earlier draft wanted to make vaccination compulsory from age 14.

“The law takes effect on February 1 but police checks won’t be carried out until March 15. Unvaccinated people then face a penalty of around €600 and up to €3,600…  The government plans to set another deadline after March and send out reminders to the unvaccinated, who may then face another round of fines.

“In total, those not complying with the mandate can be fined up to four times a year. A fine will be dropped if the recipient gets vaccinated within two weeks of receiving the penalty notice. Austria’s parliament has still to vote Thursday on the vaccination mandate, but the law is expected to pass.”

Shocking how Austria’s past is repeating itself, including the misrepresenting propaganda.

 … so does Germany’s Dictatorship

Deutsche Welle wrote on January 16:

“The German government on Sunday added Austria to its list of high-risk travel destinations, meaning all nine of Germany’s neighbors now have the designation. Anyone crossing the borders who has not been vaccinated or recently infected must go into quarantine for 10 days. The isolation period can be shortened if they provide a negative test. The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Poland and Denmark were already on the list..

“Germany’s army, the Bundeswehr, is investigating 50 to 60 soldiers who have refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19, despite a vaccine mandate for all 180,000 soldiers… The refusal to get the vaccine has been classified as insubordination since the end of November. Soldiers who still refuse may face disciplinary action.”

Bild Online wrote on January 17:

“This comes as a surprise to many: people who contract Corona are only considered recovered [“genesen” and therefore immune] for THREE months since Saturday…

“So far, anyone who has been infected with Covid-19 is considered to have recovered [and is therefore immune] for six months. Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (58, SPD) had even promised that this status could possibly apply beyond these six months. Now the RKI – an authority that reports to Lauterbach’s Ministry of Health – has changed the conditions for all those who fell ill with Corona a few weeks or months ago.

“And actually it’s even less: The status only applies from 28 days after the infection, i.e. before that, you are not considered to have recovered. The 28 days are then included in the 90 days. Affected people have therefore effectively recovered for only 62 days. This regulation has been in effect since Saturday (January 15). Without much announcement, without this change being passed on to the citizens by politicians, millions of recovered citizens now have to find out what this means for them.”

What incredible German bureaucratic unscientific nonsense! But most Germans seem to like it.

A Couple of Particularity Bad German Traits

The Local wrote on January 14:

“The lights go on and the shopkeeper comes to the door, unlocks it, and barks at us to put our masks on. ‘Impfnachweis!’ he shouts at the first person in the queue before, having inspected their proof of vaccination with the demeanour of an Afghanistan-hardened army medic, reluctantly letting him in – and then slamming the door in the face of the second person in the queue and locking it shut again…

“That was life in Germany in late 2021. And life in Germany in early 2022 is about to get even worse – as of this weekend actually, when ‘2G-plus’ will become the latest nationwide requirement for doing all sorts of things…

“It would be unfair to single Germany out here: at some point in this pandemic… A couple of particularly German traits, however, are making our current situation unbearable… [It] feels like a return to the worst days of post-war German gastronomy, when café owners would impose all sorts of rules on their long-suffering customers, the most notorious of which was ‘Draußen nur Kännchen!’ – a petty refusal to serve single cups of coffee on outdoor tables which became an ironic catchphrase.

“Maybe our national love of excessive compliance – affectionately referred to as Kadavergehorsam (literally ‘corpse obedience’) – wouldn’t grate as much if it weren’t for the violent resurgence of another clichéd German characteristic: bone-headed rudeness. It’s such a shame, because even within the short space of my lifetime, Germany had made strides here.

“Where it had once been common for police officers to growl ‘Ausweis her!’ to see your ID, and for train guards to bark orders at passengers, by the late 2010s, Germany had reached a relaxed, friendly public tone – direct at times, blunt even like in the Netherlands (or the north of England), but warm-hearted nevertheless. Now, a shouty ‘Halt! Hände desinfizieren!’ (disinfect your hands) or a curt ‘Maske!’ with a long E are the new refrains of a country once again strikingly ill-at-ease with itself. Other Germans are upset about this too, but we all just can’t seem to help ourselves whenever we are the ones exercising authority….”

Sadly, we cannot argue with this report.

France’s Dictatorship Continues

LifeSiteNews wrote on January 17:

“France’s Parliament has passed a controversial bill turning the so-called French ‘health pass’ into a full-blown vaccine passport. Unvaccinated citizens will no longer be able to present a negative COVID test in lieu of proof of vaccination to access certain premises… the final version of the bill was passed with a majority of 215 votes in favor and 58 votes against.

“The bill has sparked massive controversy in France, with thousands of people taking to the streets of Paris and other French cities on Saturday to oppose it. Tension between police and demonstrators led to scuffles in some places. Some French politicians have expressed outrage at the bill which has, ever since its introduction, exacerbated the segregation that already exists between vaccinated and unvaccinated people in France…

“Once the bill is implemented… French citizens will have to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 to enter leisure venues as well as restaurants, bars, and regional public transports…”

This absolute insanity is mind-boggling.

American Dictatorship Supported by many Democrats on the Horizon

The Ron Paul Institute wrote on January 17:

“A shocking recent Rasmussen poll result highlights just how divided the US is after two years of covid lockdowns, restrictions, and propaganda. Nearly 50 percent of Democrats polled support fines or imprisonment for anyone questioning efficacy of covid shots on social media [including television, radio, or in online or digital publications.]

“This comes after several of the top ‘experts’ have themselves radically scaled back early promises of shot virus protection.”

Newsmax added on January 17:

“59% of Democrats told Rasmussen they like the idea of the government requiring unvaccinated Americans to stay at home ‘at all times’ unless there is an emergency…. Forty-five percent of Democrats liked the idea of limiting the spread of the virus ‘by having federal or state governments require that citizens temporarily live in designated facilities or locations if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine.’…

“When broken down by party, the unvaccinated were 58% Republican and 15% Democrat…

“Many who have been resistant to getting vaccinated have said they fear the vaccines have not been tested thoroughly and may present a higher health risk than COVID-19. They cite what they say is conflicted advice from government health agencies, which have even drawn fire in recent days from Democrats all the way up to the Biden administration.

“Others cite religious concerns, saying fetal tissue was used in research. While no such tissue is contained in the two approved mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna), they do benefit from research into fetal tissue from two elective abortions in 1973 and 1985.”

LifeSiteNews added on January 17:

“47% ‘favor a government tracking program for those who won’t get’ one of the vaccines. Nearly a third of Democrats, 29%, would even support ‘temporarily removing parents’ custody of their children if parents refuse to take the COVID-19 vaccine,’ according to the results. Further, poll respondents tend to understate positions they fear would be perceived negatively by interviewers, so the true number of Democrat voters willing to employ such coercive measures against their fellow Americans may be even higher.

“On Saturday, the Salt Lake Tribune editorial board gave voice to those impulses by declaring that, if Utah was a ‘truly civilized place, [Gov. Spencer Cox’s] next move would be to find a way to mandate the kind of mass vaccination campaign we should have launched a year ago, going as far as to deploy the National Guard to ensure that people without proof of vaccination would not be allowed, well, anywhere.’”

These radical concepts by Democrats and others are shocking, alarming and extremely dangerous.

Democracy will not Protect Us

The Ron Paul Institute wrote on January 15:

“If the era of COVID Mania has showcased one thing about democracy, it’s that the system we were brought up to… defend is no guarantor of our rights whatsoever. Far from securing our liberties, pure or representational democratic systems — as the foundation of over 100 governments — has instead been used in this era as a cudgel to impose totalitarianism on the masses.

“With so many of the world’s ‘democracies’ transforming into some of the worst examples of full-blown COVID tyranny, our present time reminds us of the inherent weaknesses of majority rule systems… We are now two years into this global authoritarian ‘great reset,’ and much of it has been imposed upon us with the eager consent of the governed. Surveys show that the COVID police states in Australia and New Zealand have long had the majority support of the people. Left wing enclaves in the United States, such as New York City and San Francisco, have imposed discriminatory movement pass systems, and they have been cheered on by the locals. Democracy in action.

“In reality, almost all of this authoritarian nonsense is being ordered and enforced by democratically elected representatives and bureaucrats who they’ve empowered… when put to the test in the era of COVID Mania, democracy has catastrophically failed to secure anything for us but a completely unchecked ruling class… Meanwhile, the people in charge continue to elevate themselves to greater positions of authority and power…”

Britain Ends All Covid Restrictions

Newsmax reported on January 19:

“Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the end of COVID-19 measures [including Covid passports, mask mandates and work restrictions] introduced to curb the rapid spread of the Omicron variant in Britain as he looks to live with the virus after a peak in cases.

“… while cases soared to record highs, hospitalisations and deaths have not risen by the same extent…”

Covid in spite of full Vaccination

Newsmax wrote on January 17:

“U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday and is experiencing very minor symptoms while isolating and working remotely, a spokesman said on Monday…

“Milley is vaccinated and has received his booster, the spokesman added.”

So much for the false claim that the fully vaccinated could not get Covid.

Fourth Dose not Good Enough

Deutsche Welle reported on January 17:

“An Israeli study found that a fourth shot of the COVID-19 vaccine was able to boost antibodies to higher levels than the third shot, but researchers found that it is still not enough to prevent omicron-variant infections researchers at Israel’s Sheba Medical Center said on Monday.”

Meaning, we would “need” a fifth booster shot, and then a sixth one, and so on…

Recovery Stronger Protection than Vaccination

On January 19, statnews.com wrote the following:

“New data released Wednesday showed that both vaccination and prior infection offered strong protection against infection and hospitalization from Covid-19 during the Delta wave — and that case and hospitalization rates were actually lower among people who had recovered from Covid-19 than among those who had been vaccinated.

“The data, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and health agencies in California and New York, are sure to inflame arguments from those who insist they don’t need to be vaccinated if they can show they’ve recovered from Covid-19.”

Demolition of Golden Dome

Israel 365 wrote on January 14:

“The Jerusalem Municipality has issued a demolition order for the ‘Golden Dome’ building in the Beit Safafa neighborhood of Jerusalem. ‘This is a huge construction, on a very large scale, built without a permit, without planning, while placing a finished fact on the ground, while violently and blatantly disregarding the rule of law,’ the demolition order said.

“Construction of the building was completed several months ago…

“The Al-Rahman Mosque in Beit Safafa, [one] of four mosques in the neighborhood, was built in 1948 but was recently refurbished and dramatically enlarged. Unlike the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, the dome of the Al Rahman Mosque is painted with a reflective gold [colored] paint.

“Maor Tzemach, chairman of Lech Yerushalayim, and Matan Peleg, chairman of the Im Tirtzu (If You Will It) movement, who exposed the construction of the illegal dome, said: ‘We congratulate the Jerusalem Municipality and Mayor Moshe Leon on issuing the demolition order. The last thing Jerusalem needs is more radical actions through illegal construction. The dome is intended to be another source of violence and rioting and therefore rapid action by the municipality is needed here…’”

Even though it’s not the Dome of the Rock, this example shows that even a demolition of the Dome of Rock on the Temple Mount would not be inconceivable.

Eruption of Undersea Volcano near Tonga

The Associated Press wrote on January 15:

“An undersea volcano erupted in spectacular fashion near the Pacific nation of Tonga on Saturday, sending large tsunami waves crashing across the shore and people rushing to higher ground. A tsunami advisory was in effect for Hawaii, Alaska and the U.S. Pacific coast… Satellite images showed a huge eruption, a plume of ash, steam and gas rising like a mushroom above the blue Pacific waters… The explosion of the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano was the latest in a series of spectacular eruptions…

“The volcano is located about 64 kilometers (40 miles) north of the capital, Nuku’alofa. Back in late 2014 and early 2015, a series of eruptions in the area created a small new island and disrupted international air travel to the Pacific archipelago for several days. There is not a significant difference between volcanoes underwater and on land, and underwater volcanoes become bigger as they erupt… With underwater volcanoes, however, the water can add to the explosivity of the eruption as it hits the lava…”

Israel365 News wrote on January 17:

“An underwater volcano near the Pacific Island of Tonga erupted for the third time in just four days. The eruption could threaten surveillance flights to monitor the damage caused to Tonga after Saturday’s major eruption and subsequent tsunami…

“Saturday’s eruption was likely the biggest recorded anywhere on the planet in more than 30 years… Satellite images  caught the explosion in real-time, which sent a massive plume of ash, gas, and steam about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) into the atmosphere as tsunami waves rippled throughout the Pacific.”

Die Welt pointed out that if the eruption would have occurred on land, the results would have been “apocalyptic.” According to the Bible, we can expect more dramatic volcanic eruptions all over the world.

Acknowledgement and Disclaimer

These Current Events are compiled and commented on by Norbert Link. We gratefully acknowledge the many contributions of news articles from our readership. The publication of articles in this section is not to be viewed as an endorsement or approval as to contents or accuracy of the selected articles, but they are published for the purpose of pointing at worldwide developments in the light of biblical end-time prophecy and godly instruction. Our own comments are provided in italics.

Have you ever wondered what God thinks about taxes; when man’s tax system was instituted and why; whether we ought to pay taxes today; and whether there will be taxes in the Millennium?

To be clear, we need to distinguish between tithe contributions—money which belongs to God—and taxes—money which belongs to Caesar. As we explain in our booklet on tithing, titled, “Tithing-Today?” the first time tithing is mentioned specifically is when Abraham gave the tithe from everything to Melchizedek (Jesus Christ manifesting Himself as a human being). We can see from the context that tithing was in force already prior to this event, and that Abraham followed a practice with which he was familiar. Later, we find that Jacob spoke about giving a tithe to God.

In the New Testament, it is clarified that tithing is still in force and effect today. In the book of Hebrews, we read that the tithe, which was temporarily given to Levi, reverted back to Christ who had received the tithe long before Levi was born. God challenges us in the book of Malachi to pay Him His tithe, and He says that we defraud Him, if we do not do this; and Malachi wrote for us today and addresses the time just prior to Christ’s return.

The Bible speaks of three tithes. Today, the first one is for the preaching of the gospel and being given to the Church, the second one is kept by the individual for the purpose of paying for his expenses to be able to keep the annual Holy Days; and the third one is given to the Church by those who can afford it every third and sixth year out of a cycle of seven years for the purpose of helping the Levites, the fatherless and the widows, referring today, for example, to those Church members who are in need of assistance.

Apart from the tithe, God also demands occasional offerings (especially on annual Holy Days), according to the free will and decision of the donor, and there were times when God asked the Israelites to contribute to the building of the Tabernacle in the wilderness. Also, Exodus 30:11-16 obligated the Israelites to pay “ransom money” in addition to the tithe.

The Bible indicates that there will be tithing in the Millennium, given the fact that it was established as a godly system long before the covenant with Levi.

One could think that the third tithe will not be enforced in the Millennium as there will not be any poor people in need of financial support. But the third tithe was also for the Levites, as they had no possession in the land. That will be the case again in the Millennium (compare Deuteronomy 14:28-29; Numbers 18:20-21; and Ezekiel 44:28-30).

We should also note that Ezekiel 44:30 refers to the first tithe as well which will be given to the priests. The Pulpit Commentary states:

“A further portion of the priests’ emoluments is stated as the first of all the firstfruits of all things – or, of everything (Revised Version), as e.g. of corn, oil, must, and wool – and every oblation- or, heave offering – of all – or, of everything – with the first of the people’s dough; or, coarse meal; which again re-echoes the provisions of the Law, the first of the firstfruits being specified in Exodus 23:19; Exodus 34:26; Numbers 18:13; Deuteronomy 18:4; the oblation, in Numbers 15:19; Numbers 18:19 and the dough, or coarse meal, or groats, in Numbers 15:20, 21. Ezekiel’s supposed… silence as regards the firstlings of cattle… is imaginary. The first of all the firstfruits of everything cannot surely mean of everything except cattle….”

When addressing man’s tax system, the Bible does not say when the human tax system began, but it is clear that God did not institute it. In fact, God told the nation of Israel through the prophet Samuel that the human tax system was the consequence of sinful behavior by the people. They did not want to be ruled anymore by God, but demanded a human king. God made it very clear that the demand for a king was SINFUL. It constituted the rejection of God’s rule over them. This desire, to be ruled by man, rather than God, has always been a major problem in man’s conduct. Christ explained that His own people (the house of Judah, John 1:11) would kill Him because they did not want Him to rule over them (Luke 19:14).

Samuel explained that the king and the human system over which he (or any human leader) would rule would take the sons and daughters of the people, as well as the best of their fields, to use them for his (or the government’s) own purposes and personal gain; that he (or the government) would make many weapons and build a great army to fight against other nations; and that he (or the government) would institute a tax system, in addition to the godly enjoined duty to pay tithe and offerings to Him.

Christ and Paul would make it clear, later on, that we are to pay our taxes to Caesar (Luke 20:22-25; Matthew 17:24-27; Romans 13:6-7). This clarification had to be made in light of the evil origin of the tax system and the abuse and waste of the collected tax money by the government. Some say that since the tax money is terribly wasted and used many times for ungodly purposes, we should not pay it. But Christ made clear that we need to do it, thereby being submissive to the human powers, in order not to give unnecessary offense. We read that Mary and Joseph obeyed the governor’s command to travel to their home town to be taxed or registered there (Luke 2:1-5). We also read about an interesting episode in Matthew 17:24-27 where Christ made clear that He was not obligated to pay a tax to the temple belonging to His Father. But Jesus paid it anyway by using money found in a fish, to give no justification to others to accuse and reject Him. Of course, they would later lie about Him anyway, saying falsely that He had taught them not to pay taxes, compare Luke 23:1-2.

On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with taking advantage of tax relief. Got Questions wrote:

“We are free to take every legal tax deduction available. We do not have to pay the maximum amount of taxes possible. If the government allows you a tax break, you are free to take it. If there is a legal way you can shelter some of your money from being taxed, you are free to shelter it. Illegal and/or dishonest methods of evading taxes must be rejected.”

Even though we are told to pay our taxes, this does in no way justify or exonerate those who collect and use the taxes for ungodly purposes. In this regard, let us focus on what the Bible has to say about “publicans” or tax collectors who collected taxes for the government which would then use them for many unrighteous and godless purposes.

We read that the apostle Matthew who was also known as Levi was a tax collector. But when he was called by Jesus, he left all that he had, including his occupation, to follow Christ (Luke 5:27-28; cp. Matthew 19:27).

In Matthew 9:10-13, we find an interesting account regarding Christ’s treatment of tax collectors:

“Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, ‘Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ When Jesus heard that, He said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.’”

The publicans, or collectors of taxes which the Jews paid the Romans, were infamous for their illegal exactions and malpractice. The publican was the pariah of Palestine, and no decent person would associate with him. The extortion practiced by this class made them hateful to the community, who in their current speech ranked them with “harlots.” There was a strong feeling among religious Jews against the lawfulness of paying taxes to a Gentile ruler. It is no wonder, therefore, that we find the native collectors (even of districts where the money raised went to Antipas’s treasury) classed with “harlots”, “sinners” and “heathen.”

But Christ came to call tax collectors and sinners to repentance. This included Matthew and Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector (Luke 19:1-10).

John the Baptist who conducted a baptism of repentance, warned the tax collectors not to engage in dishonest conduct, and he demanded repentance of them by refraining from collecting more than what was appointed to them (Luke 3:12-13).

Jesus did not whitewash the misconduct of tax collectors. He said that a brother who refuses to listen to the Church should be treated as a “heathen and a tax collector” (Matthew 18:17). At the same time, repentant and believing tax collectors and sinners or harlots will enter the Kingdom of God before or sooner than the unrepentant and unbelieving Pharisees (Matthew 21:31-32). In Luke 18:9-14, Christ compares the self-righteous Pharisee with the repentant tax collector and says that the tax collector was justified or forgiven, but not the unrepentant Pharisee. Christ did not reject tax collectors when they came to listen to Him (Mark 2:15; Luke  5:29; 15:1).

But He required change. Even if Mathew had been honest in his occupation, he did not continue as a tax collector for the Romans who used the taxes for many ungodly purposes, as it is true today for every country.

We are told to pay taxes but with that, our responsibility ceases. What is being done with the collected tax money is no longer our responsibility, but God will hold the government and those who work for it accountable for how the collected tax money is being spent. In fact, we will judge them, under Christ, when the time for their judgment has come.

It remains true, in any event, that the origin of the human tax system is evil, and that a country and a people are destroyed when heavy taxes are imposed (Proverbs 29:4, American Bible: “By justice a king gives stability to the land, but he who imposes heavy taxes ruins it.”).

The Pulpit Commentary writes about the passage in Proverbs 29:4:

“He that receiveth gifts overthroweth it… it may mean ‘the taker of bribes,’ the unrighteous ruler who sells justice… or it may signify ‘the imposer of taxes’…”

The Keil and Delitzsch Bible Commentary on the Old Testament comments on Proverbs 29:4 as follows:

“A king by righteousness bringeth the land to a good condition; But a man of taxes bringeth it down… A man on the throne, covetous of such gifts, brings the land to ruin by exacting contributions; on the contrary, a king helps the land to a good position, and an enduring prosperity, by the exercise of right, and that in appointing a well-proportioned and fit measure of taxation.”

Even though every nation has a man-made tax system today, it still must be stated that the higher the tax obligation is in a particular country, the less righteous that country [and the government] may be in God’s eyes. Rulers who demand the payment of oppressive taxes like to be called “benefactors,” but they exercise lordship over the people—being autocratic tyrants rather than servants of the people (Luke 22:26; cp. Matthew 20:25).

The Bible contains many examples when the kings or governments imposed high taxes on the people with disastrous consequences. For instance, we read in 1 Kings 12:1-19 about events that took place during the reign of Rehoboam, son of Solomon. To finance his massive building projects, Solomon had taxed the people heavily during his reign. Following his death, the ten northern tribes appealed for relief from the heavy tax burden, but Rehoboam listened to his young and inexperienced advisers and refused the request. Instead, he announced to them that he would even increase the tax burden. The Israelites rebelled against the king and when Rehoboam sent Adoram with the apparent goal to collect the taxes, he was stoned.

Amos 5:11 includes the following warning and condemnation from God:

“Therefore, because you tread down the poor And take grain taxes from him, Though you have built houses of hewn stone, Yet you shall not dwell in them; You have planted pleasant vineyards, But you shall not drink wine from them.” The Jamieson Fausset and Brown commentary states that this is a reference to “burdensome taxes levied in kind from the wheat of the needy.”

Another example of a king of Judah who did evil in the sight of God and who taxed the people heavily can be found in 2 Kings 23:31-37.

Taxing people heavily normally goes hand in hand with other evil conduct. Notice Micah 2:2; 3:1-3; 7:2-4. To do justly and love mercy (Micah 6:8) do not harmonize with the imposition of heavy taxes. And so, the people will “groan when a wicked man rules” (Proverbs 29:2); especially when no proper and sound counsel is being given to him (Proverbs 11:14) or accepted by him (Ecclesiastes 4:13), and when he is found out to be a liar (Proverbs 17:7) or a “child’ (Ecclesiastes 10:16), in that he is behaving in a childish or immature manner (cp. also Isaiah 3:4, 12) .

Because of sinful conduct, a nation has many princes or leaders (Proverbs 28:2), who are all in disagreement with each other; or, as this passage is being translated in the German Luther Bible, “because of the transgression of the land, its princes change often.” Taxing the people heavily to fill the coffers of the government and engage in wasteful and ungodly spending and even increase the government’s debt most certainly falls into the category of foolish and ungodly leadership which the Bible condemns.

How much different it will be in the Millennium! There is no indication that we will have any humanly devised taxes, and people will live in prosperity. Note Micah 4:4 which explains that “EVERYONE” shall sit under “HIS vine and under HIS fig tree.”

God has characterized our English-speaking “Israelite” nations and especially the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as “ungodly nations” (Isaiah 10:6). The reasons are manifold, of course, but the heavy taxes imposed by the governments on their people is most certainly one important factor. Let us look, as an example, at the oppressive tax burden within the United States, with special emphasis on California, but the situation is not much different in the other “Israelite” countries as well.

We are informed that 70 cents of a dollar earned is paid out in tax to the IRS. In addition to the many kinds of federal taxes, there are numerous state and local taxes. The tax authorities collect individual income taxes, corporate income taxes, payroll taxes, and capital gains taxes; sales taxes (or use taxes), gross receipts taxes, value-added taxes, excise taxes; property taxes, tangible personal property taxes, estate and inheritance taxes. (Some US states may not have all of these taxes, but most of them do.)

You might have never heard about some of those taxes, and if you did, you might only be vaguely familiar with some of them. For example, excise taxes are “internal” taxes levied against specific goods made or used within the country. Historically, liquor and tobacco have been the targets of such taxes; in modern times excise taxes have been collected on the cost of long distance telephone calls. Use tax is the tax that you pay for importing goods into your home state. In situations where there is no sales tax, you pay use tax. Sales and use taxes are mutually exclusive. For example, California’s sales tax rates range from 7.35% to 10.25%. This base rate is the highest of any state.

In the U.S., short-term capital gains are taxed as ordinary income. That means you could pay up to 37% income tax, depending on your federal income tax bracket. Long-term capital gains are taxed at lower rates than ordinary income, and how much you owe depends on your annual taxable income. You’ll owe either 0%, 15% or 20% on gains from the sale of most assets or investments held for more than one year, depending on your annual taxable income. There is a flat 28% capital gains tax on gains related to art, antiques, jewelry, precious metals, stamp collections, coins, and other collectibles regardless of your income.

In addition, you pay state capital gains tax in California. California taxes all capital gains as regular income. It does not recognize the distinction between short-term and long-term capital gains. This means, your capital gains taxes could run up to 13.3%, depending on your overall income and the corresponding California tax bracket.

In some of the US states, you may also have to pay estate tax. California is part of the 38 states that don’t impose their own estate tax, nor is there inheritance tax in California. Then there are gift taxes. In 2021, you could give up to $15,000 to someone in a year, and in 2022, this increases to $16,000; otherwise, the IRS requires the filing of a federal gift tax return. Some US states impose additional state gift taxes, but California, for example, is not one of them. But California’s state government is getting its tax money in many other different ways. In fact, California is one of the highest taxed states regarding income tax.

This short overview should make it clear how totally different the ungodly man-made tax system is from God’s tithe and offering obligations. Today, due to man’s decision to be subject to Satan rather than to God, God’s people are called upon to pay both. Thankfully, man’s evil tax system will end soon and prosperity and wealth for everyone will flourish as a consequence, when Jesus Christ returns to this earth to crush to pieces all human governments and replace them with God’s righteous rule. This day cannot come fast enough.

Lead Writer:  Norbert Link

compiled by Dave Harris

“Is America Going to Lose More of Its Freedom?” is the title of a new StandingWatch program, presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary: 

A most recent Rasmussen poll seems to suggest this. This program explores what many Americans think and what they would support in regard to potential governmental measures against the unvaccinated, and it points out the extreme danger for our liberties and freedoms.

A new Member Letter (January 2022) has been posted and mailed to our subscribers. Kalon Mitchell writes about the inevitability of change and focuses on our need to always seek God’s guidance as we face life’s challenges.

“Was Gott von unseren Steuern hält!” is the title for this Sabbath’s new German sermon, presented by Norbert Link. Title in English: What God Thinks About Our Taxes!

“Wenn die Zeit der Not anbricht,” a split sermon given last Sabbath in Germany by Thilo Hanstein, is now posted. Title in English: “When the Time of Distress Comes.”

Positiv oder Negativ?”, a split sermon given last Sabbath in Germany by Christoph Sperzel, is now posted. Title in English: “Positive or Negative?”

“The Antidote,” the sermonette presented last Sabbath by Eric Rank, is now posted. Here is a summary:

Among the most elusive spiritual poisons in the life of a Christian is pride. The antidote is faith. By putting our faith in God we bring Him into every aspect of our lives, leaving no space for pride to do its harm.

“So Great A Salvation,” the sermon presented last Sabbath by Dave Harris, is now posted. Here is a summary:

What does greatness have to do with Salvation? Understanding what the Bible reveals about godly greatness is important, and it is key to how Christians must live.

On January 15, 2022, Eric Rank will present the sermonette, titled, “The Antidote,” and Dave Harris will present the sermon, titled, “So Great a Salvation!”

The live services are available, over video and audio, at http://eternalgod.org/live-services/ (12:30 pm Pacific Time; 1:30 pm Mountain Time; 2:30 pm Central Time; 3:30 pm Eastern Time; 8:30 pm Greenwich Mean Time; 9:30 pm Central European Time). Just click on Connect to Live Stream.

What is the most important decision that we have made in our lives? There may be several different answers we could come up with; however, one “should” be rather obvious, but do we truly believe that? For those of us who made the choice to live God’s Way of Life, and continue to live that Way, do we still truly believe that making this choice was the correct and most important decision in our lives?  Are we convicted of the Truth, for life?  The quality of showing that one is firmly convinced of what one believes is what defines “conviction.”  For those of us who chose to become baptized, we have entered into a contract with God stating to Him that we are committing ourselves to Him, FOREVER.

But God had already been working with us before we made that decision.  God chose us first by calling us and opening our minds to His understanding and revealing His plan for us.  We then responded to His calling and chose Him.

Our personal conviction and how we individually choose to live our lives, our personal relationship with God, is how you and I are going to receive that crown, that final prize, the guarantee of eternal life as a God being. But we need to obey God and not let ANYONE deter us from reaching that goal, for we, individually, are responsible for ourselves as we will give account for everything that we have done in our lives.

When we commit ourselves to do something good, we have to follow through, or else we could be considered dishonest, and even unreliable.  Once we start getting lethargic, it will be a lot easier to continue on that path, unless we make the effort to change. That is why being successful involves hard work and commitment.

Living in this world is difficult and living God’s Way of Life is difficult because we are constantly bombarded with temptations, and some could certainly be considered our greatest weaknesses which we need to overcome by constantly having God involved in our lives.  We commit ourselves to Him by living the Truth; and in return, God is there for us.  We read many examples in the Bible of how God intervenes, how He fights our battles, how we should trust Him and trust in His plan for us (compare Jude 24-25; Ephesians 3:20).

We can have God’s special protection, and we must grow in wisdom and strength, to bring us closer to God’s master plan.  We don’t need to be afraid, and when we doubt, God lets us know that He is there for us, as we read in Isaiah 41:10, “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”

God is loving and merciful, and we shouldn’t be afraid of what is going on in this world today, but we must be committed to Him, and we can see what He promises us.  We have a responsibility that we must endure, because to live God’s Way of Life, we must fear Him.  What we fear is breaking His commandments, breaking our commitment we have with God.  Since we know these things, we have to ask ourselves, how committed are we to the Truth and God’s Way of Life?

Do we question our faith at times?  Do we have faith that God will protect us during the terrible times we are going through now and which we will experience in the future?  Will God show us mercy?  When God gives us a command, how will we respond?   “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

Our faith is constantly being tested, and we know that we need to have a tremendous amount of faith to live as God wants us to.   It “should” be easy for us to do this because we know firsthand what the Bible promises to those who are faithful with diligence.

Our conviction to the Truth should be evident in how we are living our lives, and as we proceed, we must be watchful and ready, always evaluating and examining ourselves, making sure that we are truly convicted.

by Norbert Link

We begin with deeply troublesome and disturbing comments by US Supreme Court Judges regarding the coronavirus; the US Supreme Court’s decision on vaccine mandates; address Australia’s “lunacy” in their treatment of tennis star Novak Djokovic which is somewhat systematic of that county’s “authoritarian insanity” for the last two years; address the world’s “insane persecution of the unvaccinated” with special emphasis on Austria and Germany; and publish and comment on an unbelievably propagandistic article of the Daily Mail. Please view in this context our new message, “The World in Turmoil—Comments on News and Prophecy, January 8, 2022.” 

We continue with reporting on the first anniversary of the violence on January 6, 2021 and the verbal insults between Biden and Trump; and remind our readers of the terrible legacy of Dick Cheney, father of Liz Cheney, who has suddenly become a hero in Democratic circles. We also address the latest spin of the White House pertaining to the job market and unemployment numbers; Biden’s fabrications; and we publish an article wondering whether the USA is really heading for a second civil war.

We speak on Russian troops in Kazakhstan and the concern that the Soviet crushing of the Prague Spring in 1968 and of the Hungarian revolution in 1956 could be repeated. Please view in this regard our new StandingWatch program, titled, “What does the BIBLE say about Russia’s future?”

We conclude with an article about former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s appointment as co-chairman of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation.  

Throughout this section, we have underlined pertinent statements in the quoted articles, for the convenience and quick overview of the reader.

US Supreme Court Judge Spreading False information

Fox News wrote on January 7:

“Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor [who had been appointed by Obama] came under withering criticism Friday after she falsely suggested that upwards of 100,000 children in the United States are hospitalized from COVID-19, many of them on ventilators. During oral arguments on the Biden administration’s mandate on private businesses for employees to be either vaccinated or frequently tested, Sotomayor drastically overstated the number of young people who have fallen severely ill from coronavirus.

“…according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the seven-day average of pediatric hospitalizations [of children] was around 3,700 this week, according to the Washington Post. As with prior strains of the virus, younger people are at far less risk than old ones of severe outcomes from the coronavirus… ‘Inexcusable for a SCOTUS justice to peddle this fear mongering false info,’ the Hudson Institute’s Rebeccah Heinrichs wrote. ‘It’s actually terrifying that a Supreme Court justice can be so misinformed…’ Ron DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw chimed in. ‘Justice Sotomayor’s comment on 100,000 children in serious condition with covid is such a flagrantly untrue statement she should have to correct it after the argument. It’s embarrassing for the Supreme Court to allow that factual inaccuracy to occur in an oral argument,’ OutKick’s Clay Travis tweeted.”

Fox News reported on January 9 that CDC Director Rochelle Walensky clarified… that “there are fewer than 3,500 children in hospitals with COVID-19… Walensky also pointed out that numbers of COVID hospitalizations generally include patients who go to hospitals for other reasons and just happen to test positive while they are there, as opposed to those who go to the hospital because they are sick with COVID…”

The left-liberal Washington Post performed what they call “the Pinocchio Test” and gave Sotomayor “four Pinocchios” for her “absurdly high” figure, arguing that “it’s important for Supreme Court justices to make rulings based on correct data” (compare Fox News, dated January 9).

Breitbart added on January 7:

“Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor also claimed that vaccinated people cannot transmit the coronavirus.”

This claim is also false, as set forth in an article below. But this is how the fearmongering propaganda operates, and even US Supreme Court Judges fall victims to its deception. How can we then expect a fair and reasonable judgment?

Fox News reported on January 8:

“Laura Ingraham… noted [in her show] that ‘’even Anthony Fauci admits that most kids are hospitalized with COVID, not because of COVID.’…

“Later she highlighted Clinton-appointed Justice Stephen Breyer claiming a delay in the Biden mandate could lead to thousands of more COVID infections… ‘If we delay [a decision for one day] then 750,000 more people will have COVID who otherwise, if we didn’t delay it, wouldn’t have,’ Breyer, 83, claimed.

“Ingraham responded: ‘Wait, so in Breyer’s warped thinking, if OSHA’s mandate is upheld, all infections would be eliminated? Who said you need basic logic and math skills to be a Supreme Court justice. You don’t. We are repeatedly told that the liberals on the court are some of the brightest legal minds in the country,’ she said. ‘I’m beginning to have my doubts, especially after hearing th[o]se words leave Justice Sotomayor’s mouth.’”

The comments to this article were telling:

“This is potentially a dire situation when we have supreme court justices spreading misinformation over an already politicized pandemic…. The problem here is does she KNOW this is misinformation, or is she simply badly misinformed? Both scenarios are bad, since this woman will be part of a decision that will affect 100M workers, and determine the future of how much a President can mandate…. I still can’t believe the republicans on the judiciary committee voted for her appointment to the supreme court with her past track record. she is more of a social activist than a judge… This was no accident. There is no way she can be this misinformed… And these justices are supposed to be the protectors of the constitution/nation against rogue government. The founders erred in thinking that by giving lawyers a job for life it would somehow ensure their integrity… How long before twitter takes down both Supreme Court justices for misinformation? Don’t hold your breath!… Kagan [the third liberal US Supreme Court Judge, appointed by  Obama] said this mandate/policy is the only thing that can end this pandemic. Wrong and her job is not to assess the policy but how it’s being implemented and by whom and is THAT constitutional.”

US Supreme Court “Decides”

 CNBC wrote on January 13:

“The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Biden administration from enforcing its sweeping vaccine-or-test requirements for large private companies… The mandate required that workers at businesses with 100 or more employees get vaccinated or submit a negative Covid test weekly to enter the workplace. It also required unvaccinated workers to wear masks indoors at work. ‘Although Congress has indisputably given OSHA the power to regulate occupational dangers, it has not given that agency the power to regulate public health more broadly,’ the court wrote in an unsigned opinion…. Liberal Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented…

“President Joe Biden, in a statement, said the Supreme Court chose to block requirements that are life-saving for workers. Biden called on states and businesses to step up and voluntarily institute vaccination requirements to protect workers, customers and the broader community…

“In a separate, simultaneously released ruling on the administration’s vaccination rules for health-care workers, a 5-4 majority sided with the Biden administration… Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, four of the six conservatives on the nine-seat bench, dissented…

“Biden, in a statement, said the vaccine requirement for health-care workers will save the lives of patients, doctors and nurses. ‘We will enforce it,’ the president said of the mandate.”

Australian Lunacy

The U.S. Sun wrote on January 7:

 “TENNIS star Novak Djokovic… was granted a vaccine exemption to compete in the Australian Open before his visa was cancelled following a six hour stand-off at Melbourne Airport and a major U-turn by Australian authorities. He was then banished to a filthy hotel ‘full of fleas and maggots’ to isolate…

“The 34-year-old had been granted an exemption to play despite his unvaccinated status before it was dramatically cancelled. As the athlete attempted to enter Aussie territory, he was ordered into a side-room by Border Force guards after a visa ‘blunder’ was revealed. Djokovic, seeking to win a record 21st Grand Slam title, was stripped of his phone and kept alone in the room, with armed police on patrol outside.

“Even Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic got involved, eventually contacting Djokovic to offer his support and backing and summoning Australia’s ambassador to the country for a dressing down. It emerged that Tennis Australia had granted exemptions to two other players who did not meet strict Border Force rules…

“In another twist, a second Australian Open competitor was detained by Border Force under similar circumstances and sent to the same hotel. Despite already playing in Melbourne earlier this week, Czech Republic doubles specialist Renata Voracova has now been asked to leave the country….”

CNN added on January 8:

“The 34-year-old… was granted a medical exemption to compete in the tournament unvaccinated ‘on the grounds that he had recently recovered from COVID,’ his lawyers said in a court submission Saturday…. Djokovic’s exemption was determined to be invalid under Australia’s BioSecurity Act because his ‘previous infection with COVID-19 is not considered a medical contraindication for Covid-19 vaccination in Australia.’…”

Breitbart wrote on January 8:

“Brexit champion Nigel Farage has backed tennis ace Novak Djokovic against ‘big, bullying, nasty government’ in Australia… Farage… insisted that the sportsman did have an exemption under the relevant regional rules…  ‘The most astonishing thing with all of this is how few people are prepared to speak out, how the broadcasters are making out that somehow Djokovic is a threat to public health — well, he absolutely isn’t,’ Farage asserted, claiming that even if you have ‘one, two, three, or in Israel four injections’ you are still at risk of catching and spreading the coronavirus. The BBC, citing research published in The Lancet, did report in October that people ‘who have had two vaccine doses can be just as infectious as those who have not been jabbed’…

“‘It seems to me that Australia has lost any sense of liberty, any sense, frankly, of common sense,’ Farage added… ‘What has happened to Australia, and what has happened here [in Britain] to us? Why are the majority prepared to allow Big Government, in the name of fighting this virus, to take away our liberties and freedoms?’ he demanded.”

Fox News commentator Will Cain condemned Australia’s “lunacy” and “authoritarian insanity” which has been going on ‘for 2 years.”

On January 10, Deutsche Welle reported:

“Federal Circuit and Family Court Judge Anthony Kelly ordered the government to release [Djokovic from detention] within 30 minutes of the ruling, and return his passport and other travel documents to him…. However, it is still not certain the Serbian tennis star will be able to compete at the Australian Open as the government may yet still order him to be deported.”

Deutsche Welle reported on January 12:

“Djokovic’s form said that he had not traveled anywhere in the 14 days before arriving in Australia, even though the tennis player had been seen at events in Spain and his native Serbia within that time period… Djokovic said his travel declaration was filled in by his support team, and that his ‘agent sincerely apologizes for the administrative mistake in ticking the incorrect box.’ ‘This was human error and certainly not deliberate,’ Djokovic wrote.”

The World’s Insane Persecution of the Unvaccinated

The Los Angeles Times wrote on January 7:

“In one European country after another, public health restrictions are steadily tightening. Italy declared a vaccination mandate for those over age 50…

“Austria plans to enhance enforcement of existing measures banning the unvaccinated from many public venues…[Also, vaccine mandates for everyone will be enforced in February.]

“In Germany, many of those who have chosen to remain unvaccinated report feeling socially ostracized as a result… Many Germans, mindful of their history under communist and Nazi rule, are also squeamish about a prospective national registry of the vaccinated, saying that runs counter to the country’s cherished data-privacy laws.

“And the anti-vaccination movement, while still relatively small, has grown in intensity, with protests sometimes boiling over into violence. On Monday, more than 35,000 people participated in protests that resulted in police being hit by bottles and firebombs…”

It will only get worse. On Friday, Germany foolishly decided the following, according to Deutsche Welle:

“Access to restaurants will be limited to people who are fully vaccinated or considered recovered, who can additionally provide evidence of either a booster shot or a current negative COVID-19 test…. Under the new rules, people who have received a booster shot will no longer have to quarantine if they come into contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19…. The existing rule that private gatherings of vaccinated and recovered persons with a maximum of 10 persons are allowed will remain in place. Those who are not vaccinated will continue to be subject to strict contact restrictions [meetings of only two households are allowed]”

In addition, according to Deutsche Welle, dated January 8, “German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has insisted vaccine mandates are the only way out of the pandemic… Lauterbach said gaining immunity through infection was a ‘dirty vaccination’ and not the solution… ‘Mandatory vaccination is also important for the future variants that may still develop,’ he told Welt. ‘Omicron infection does not necessarily make one immune to the next viral variant.’ Lauterbach also warned of the possibility that a new, more dangerous variant could start spreading.”

However, ABC News reported on January 9:

“Germany’s ruling parties are hitting the brakes on plans for compulsory coronavirus vaccinations, saying it may take months for lawmakers to properly debate the contentious measure in parliament. Berlin daily Tagesspiegel… reported that implementation could be delayed until June to ensure the technical conditions, such as a nationwide vaccine register, are in place… Among those who oppose a vaccine mandate are some members of the Free Democrats, who are part of the ruling coalition, and Germany’s former health minister [Jens Spahn] who pledged last summer not to introduce a general vaccine mandate…”

To top the irony, it was now revealed by Focus that Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer [loosely translated, “no Hammer”] was tested positive with Corona and is in quarantine, even though he had been fully vaccinated with three shots…

In addition, as Express reported on January 8, “On Friday, [Macron] said he stood by his earlier comments saying he wanted to ‘p*** off’ the five million French people who are still not vaccinated against COVID-19… Macron’s coarse language barely three months before a presidential election was widely seen as a politically calculated, tapping into [an] intensifying public frustration against the unvaccinated.’”

Health Tax and Fines for the Unvaccinated

BBC News wrote on January 11:

“The Canadian province of Quebec will charge a health tax to residents who are not vaccinated against Covid-19…. Starting later this month, Greeks over age 60 are being required to pay a €100 (£85; C$142; $113) fine for each month that they remain unvaccinated.”

Propagandistic Article by Daily Mail

The Daily Mail wrote on January 9:

“A staggering six million people follow UK accounts on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and TikTok that pump out anti-vaccine propaganda, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. Social-media giants have been accused of a ‘moral failure’ for not curbing the torrent of misinformation, which Boris Johnson last week blasted as online ‘mumbo-jumbo’…

“Technology giants claim they are cracking down on anti-vax propaganda but Imran Ahmed, from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, accused them of putting profit before public health… “Among the accounts spreading anti-vaccine misinformation is that of Leilani Dowding, 41, a former Miss Great Britain and Page 3 glamour model, who has attracted more than 90,000 followers… On Twitter, she wrote: ‘I Will NOT be part of their real world experiment‘, and on Facebook she posted: ‘2 years on my unvaxxed self had NOT had Covid!! Not after all the protests I’ve been to, the thousands of people I’ve hugged, having never worn a mask.’ Approached for comment, she said: ‘I absolutely stand by what I said. I’m never going to have the vaccine. I just don’t believe the science behind it.’

“Former reality TV star Jay Gardner, who appeared in Geordie Shore, regularly posts anti-vaccine and conspiracy theories to his 800,000 Twitter followers. Last month, he tweeted ‘These guys telling you to take all these shots have absolutely 0 idea of any long term damage, but we will force you to do it anyway’…

“Anna de Buisseret, 56, a lawyer with 24,000 Twitter followers, last week claimed that vaccinated people had been ‘deceived, lied to, coerced, threatened, intimidated, harassed, guilt tripped and shamed into taking part in this live human experiment’. Last night she said: ‘I am not “anti-vaccine”, I am against the use of experimental gene treatments.’…”

We do not deny, of course, that misinformation by anti-vaxxers is being spread, but are unable to agree with The Daily Mail that the excerpts quoted by the outlet in the article above are necessarily misinformation. Also, it is ludicrous to suggest that the manipulative social-media giants, which have been rightly accused of suppressing free speech, are cooperating with anti-vaxxers. Quite to the contrary, according to their own words, Facebook and Instagram alone have removed accounts of “more than 20 million pieces” of –what they determined to be—”harmful Covid misinformation.”

First Anniversary of January 6, 2021

Newsmax wrote on January 6:

“President Joe Biden, speaking Thursday morning on the first anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, excoriated former President Donald Trump — without ever mentioning Trump’s name — saying he ‘rallied the mob to attack… The will of the people was under assault … for the first  time in our history, a president had not just lost an election, he tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power as a violent mob breached the capitol but they failed. They failed.’

“Trump, said Biden ‘has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. He’s done so because he values power over principal, because he sees his own interest as more important than his country’s interest and America’s interest and because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy and Constitution.’ But Trump… ‘can’t accept that he lost, even though that’s what 93 U.S. Senators, his own attorney general, every battleground state have all said,’ said Biden. ‘He lost. That’s what 81 million of you did as you voted for a new way forward. He has done what no president in the history of this country has ever done. He refused the results of the election and the will of the American people.’

“Trump slammed Biden after the speech, saying in a statement that the president is ‘destroying our nation with insane policies of open borders, corrupt elections, disastrous energy policies, unconstitutional mandates, and devastating school closures’… ‘Why is it that the Unselect Committee of totally partisan political hacks, whose judgment has long ago been made, not discussing the rigged Presidential Election of 2020?’ Trump said. ‘It’s because they don’t have the answers or justifications for what happened…’”

Trump also wrote:

“Does anybody really think that Biden beat Obama with the Black population in select Swing State cities, but nowhere else? That he would lose 18 out of 19 bellwether counties, and 27 out of 27 ‘toss up’ House races, but somehow miraculously receive the most votes in American history with no coattails? That he would lose Florida, Ohio, and Iowa and win, even though it has never been done before?

“They spread a ‘web of lies’ about me and Russia for 4 years to try to overturn the 2016 election, and now they lie about how they interfered in the 2020 Election, too. Big Tech was used illegally. Where did all those votes show up from in Georgia, where it was just revealed they sold ballots for $10 a piece, or in Pennsylvania, and Arizona, and Wisconsin. He acts like he’s aggrieved, but we’re the ones who were aggrieved and America is suffering because of it with poisonous Borders, record Inflation, a humiliating surrender in Afghanistan, $5 a gallon gas and higher, empty stock shelves, and rampant crime. America is a laughingstock stock of the world, and it’s all because of the real insurrection, which took place on November 3^rd… Never forget the crime of the 2020 Presidential Election.”

After Biden thanked Trump for the speedy “success” of his vaccinations, Trump said that it would be difficult for him now to say bad things about Biden. Well, that “peace treaty” did not last long.

Dick Chaney’s Horrible Legacy and His Support of His Daughter and the Democrats

The Ron Paul Institute wrote on January 8:

“Former Vice President Dick Cheney visited the House of Representatives yesterday. He and his daughter Liz were the only two Republicans present at a moment of silence commemorating the events of last January 6^th...  the Washington Post wrote that ‘Democrats put aside their fierce and lasting policy divides with the Cheneys to thank them for condemning the attack and Trump’s continued effort to undermine the 2020 presidential election results with his false claims of fraud.’…

“I don’t mean to understate the seriousness of January 6th, even though it’s been absurdly misreported for over a year now. No one… could mistake 1/6 for ‘a coup.’…  a coup is a real attempt to seize power… we saw none of that on January 6th, but it’s become journalistic requirement to use either ‘coup’ or ‘insurrection’ in describing it…

“The endless hyperventilating efforts to describe January 6th as a disaster on the order of Pearl Harbor or even 9/11 has been awesome to behold. Huffington Post… even called it ‘1,000 percent worse’ than 9/11…

“Ted Cruz made a plea for mainstream recognition by denouncing 1/6 as a ‘violent terrorist attack’ before cowering in retreat on Tucker Carlson Tonight, in the process [placing] himself with audiences in all directions…

“It was no heroic storming of the Bastille… Trump [is] always trying out new material, and if he gets the right reaction, he comes back with a bigger delivery next time… The man has no attention span, no interest in planning or strategy, and most importantly, no ability to maintain relationships with the type of people who do have those qualities… Even if he wanted to overturn ‘democracy itself’ — I don’t believe he does, but let’s say — Trump has proven over and over he lacks the qualities a politician would need to make that happen.

“Which brings us back to Cheney. All those things Trump is rumored to be, Dick Cheney actually is. That’s why it’s so significant that he appeared on the floor of the House yesterday to be slobbered over by the Adam Schiffs and Nancy Pelosis of the world. Dick Cheney did more to destroy democracy in ten minutes of his Vice Presidency than Donald Trump did in four years… Even if you find the Trump phenomenon troubling, his opposition is not only authoritarian, but organized and armed with the intellectual tools to understand and appreciate how the technological elimination of democracy might be achieved in the 21st century.

“We’re living through a period where an unpleasantly likely outcome for the ordinary American is the invocation of emergency powers to eliminate basic rights…  have you noticed the total lack of interest among pundits and politicians in distinguishing between anti-vaxxers and people who merely have anti-mandate or anti-passport attitudes?…

“Where have we seen this style of intentional line-blurring to justify the expansion of executive authority before? From Cheney, who took emergency politics to places even a sober Joe McCarthy could never have dreamed of. On the pretense that new powers were needed to combat the sweeping global threat whose existence 9/11 supposedly proved, Cheney institutionalized executive assassination, torture, mass surveillance, secret prisons, secret budgeting, and the wholesale elimination of congressional oversight over most of his programs…

“It was under Cheney’s watch that we turned into a country that snatched people off the streets all over the world, put them in indefinite detention in an archipelago of secret hell-holes, threatened to rape their family members, and resorted to techniques like ‘rectal feeding’ so often that one Guantanamo Bay prisoner had to bring a special pillow to sit in court.

“The core principle of Cheney’s politics was protecting his new bureaucracies of murder and open-ended detention from legal challenge. That meant creating structures that were legally invisible… Courts repeatedly declined to listen to complainants… because the secrecy of the programs made it difficult or impossible to prove they had a cause of action, a perfect Catch-22.”

We should also not forget his terrible role in the misguided Iraq war which was fought under the pretext of Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction” which were never found. As the Atlantic wrote on August 30, 2011:

“When Vice President Dick Cheney left office, his approval rating stood at a staggeringly low 13 percent. Few political figures in history have been so reviled… President Bush bears ultimate responsibility for the Iraq War, as do the members of Congress who voted for it. But Dick Cheney’s role in the run-up to war was uniquely irresponsible and mendacious. And after the invasion, he contributed to the early dysfunction on the ground…

“Cheney undercut the CIA by instructing subordinates in that agency to stovepipe raw intelligence directly to his office. He also worked with Donald Rumsfeld to establish an alternative intelligence agency within the Pentagon. Both of these actions directly contributed to the faulty information that informed the decision to go to war…”

The White House’ Latest Spin

Fox News reported on January 8:

“… a disappointing jobs report showed hiring had fallen far below expectations in December… Biden defended the economy under his watch on Friday. ‘There’s been a lot of press coverage about people quitting their jobs,” he said from the White House. “Well, today’s report tells you why – Americans are moving up to better jobs. This is the kind of recovery I promised and hoped for, for the American people.’

“While economic experts had expected 400,000 new jobs to be added in the last report of the year, it was a dismal 199,000.”

Biden Keeps Lying

Fox News wrote on January 11:

“Laura Ingraham said that ‘lies that [have] bound’ President Biden the Democrats and the media ‘regime’ together are finally unraveling, and the administration is being exposed as a group of power-hungry bureaucrats who proclaim to be the arbiters of science, while instead continuing to ignore science to further take control and violate the autonomy of the American people…

“She pointed out that President Biden’s long-held public claims that people cannot be infected by the coronavirus if they are vaccinated, as well as his administration’s claim that a third ‘booster’ is effective, are both turning out to be false, as the omicron variant continues to infect vaccinated Americans. ‘On the vaccine mandates, it’s now a proven fact that being vaccinated and boosted neither protects you from contracting the virus nor spreading it. And more shocking is the new data that the vaccinated are more likely to contract omicron than the unvaccinated,’ she said.

“‘A fantastic piece today in the Wall Street Journal correctly notes that one study found that after 30 days, the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines no longer had any statistically significant positive effect against omicron infection, and after 90 days, their effect went negative — i.e. vaccinated people were more susceptible to omicron infection,’ Ingraham reported. ‘Their house of cards is falling in on itself, but courageous medical experts featured here as far back as May 2020 warned that… obsessing over case counts and mandating vaccines would crush our hospitals, our businesses and our schools. And lo and behold, even California now says it can’t go on this way forever. It’s now allowing asymptomatic hospital staff to return to work, calling it temporary flexibility once again,’ the host continued…

“‘But as with lies, they’re eventually overtaken by truth and experience…’”

 Fox News wrote on January 13:

“The Washington Post awarded President Biden its harshest fact-check rating of ‘Four Pinocchios’ over his false claim this week that he was ‘arrested’ for the first time as a teenager while attending a civil rights protest in Delaware. In a Thursday piece headlined, ‘Biden claims yet another arrest for which there’s little evidence,’ Glenn Kessler, The Post’s resident fact-checker, wrote that Biden was ‘not always a reliable source’ when it came to his ‘exaggerated’ stories, and that too many elements of his claim didn’t add up…

“Biden was forced to admit in 2020 he had concocted a tale of once getting arrested while trying to see Nelson Mandela in South Africa.”

“Is the US really heading for a second civil war?”

The Guardian wrote on January 9, 2022:

“It is a question that many inside America and beyond are now asking… A slew of recent opinion polls show a significant minority of Americans at ease with the idea of violence against the government. Even talk of a second American civil war has gone from fringe fantasy to media mainstream… The mere fact that such notions are entering the public domain shows the once unthinkable has become thinkable…

“Although most Americans have grown up taking its stable democracy for granted, this is also a society where violence is the norm, not the exception, from the genocide of Native Americans to slavery, from the civil war to four presidential assassinations, from gun violence that takes 40,000 lives a year to a military-industrial complex that has killed millions overseas.

“Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said: ‘America is not unaccustomed to violence. It is a very violent society and what we’re talking about is violence being given an explicit political agenda. That’s a kind of terrifying new direction in America… Of course, it doesn’t help in America that guns are prevalent. Anyone can get a gun and you have ready access to explosives. All of this is kindling for the precarious position we now find ourselves in.’…

“And yet the assumption that ‘it can’t happen here’ is as old as politics itself. [Barbara] Walter [a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego] has interviewed many survivors about the lead-up to civil wars. ‘What everybody said, whether they were in Baghdad or Sarajevo or Kiev, was we didn’t see it coming,’ she recalled. ‘In fact, we weren’t willing to accept that anything was wrong until we heard machine gun fire in the hillside. And by that time, it was too late.’”

As can be expected from a left-liberal outlet such as the Guardian, blame for the violence and the potential outbreak of civil war is placed on Republicans and Trump supporters, while ignoring the fact that the real violence with killing, arson and looting has been perpetrated in 2021 by followers of Antifa, Black Lives Matter and other left-wing radical left groups.

Russia in Kazakhstan

Deutsche Welle wrote on January 7:

“The importance of Kazakhstan for Russia can hardly be overstated. It’s the largest and richest former Soviet republic in Central Asia, which also has the closest ties with Moscow… Kazakhs made up the largest group among foreign students at Russian universities in 2020, numbering more than 60,000. In surveys conducted by the renowned Moscow polling institute Levada Center, about a third of Russians repeatedly rated Kazakhstan as the second most friendly country after Belarus. In 2014, it was overtaken by China and has since ranked third….

“Around 3.5 million ethnic Russians live in the northern provinces of Kazakhstan, out of a total population of around 19 million. There has been speculation in both countries for years about whether Russia might annex these territories in a manner similar to Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula… Now there is renewed discussion… about Russia’s actions in Kazakhstan. There is a widespread view that Putin could seize on the deployment of troops as an opportunity to expand Russian presence in Kazakhstan. Russia currently has no military bases in the country…

“In any case, the unrest in Kazakhstan is a nightmare for the Russian president. The Kremlin has called such events ‘color revolutions’ and accused the West of orchestrating them. The last successful uprising was in 2018 in Armenia, which has close ties with Russia. In Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko was able to hold on to power by force in 2020… All of Russia’s major neighbors have been rocked by social unrest…”

The Guardian wrote on January 7:

“The old joke about the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact was that it was the only military alliance to attack itself, after its tanks rolled into Prague in 1968 to crush a reform movement there. With the deployment of troops from the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) to Kazakhstan on Thursday, some heard ‘eerie echoes’ of the so-called Prague spring of 1968, and the Soviet crushing of the Hungarian revolution in 1956.

“Meant as a mutual defence pact, the CSTO has not made any joint deployments since its founding in 1999. Now it has been called upon to quell internal unrest in one of its member states. Kazakhstan’s president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, claimed the revolt was inspired by foreign-backed ‘terrorists’ to justify his appeal, but the call to the CSTO suggests he no longer felt he could trust his own forces. When Tokayev’s request came, the CSTO jumped into action in a matter of hours…

“In a hardline address to the nation on Friday in which he said he had personally approved orders to shoot to kill, Tokayev gave ‘special thanks’ to Vladimir Putin for sending the troops, but said they had not taken part in any fighting…

“One definite similarity with the Warsaw Pact is that although the CSTO is an alliance, the decision to intervene was almost certainly taken in Moscow. It was cheered on by Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko, who in 2020 was able to crush a huge revolution using his own domestic forces, but Putin will have made the final call.”

Deutsche Welle wrote on January 10:

“Putin has said the Moscow-led… military alliance would only remain in Kazakhstan for a limited time. He also said the bloc’s intervention was a signal that it would not allow any governments in the region to be undermined [or]  overthrown.”

Sweden Warns NATO of Russian Demands

Reuters wrote on January 7:

“Sweden’s security strategy would be entirely undermined if NATO agreed to refrain from expanding further and curb some of its activity in Europe, as Russia has demanded, Sweden’s top military commander said… Sweden… has strengthened ties with the alliance even if it has no plans to join at present…

“‘We aim to become a stronger defence power in all categories and develop overall defence. But that hinges on developed international cooperation,’ the commander said [adding that] Europe’s security order was non-negotiable. ‘In Sweden, we ourselves decide over our foreign and security policy and who we cooperate with.’”

Deutsche Welle wrote on January 8:

“The US said it has no plans to cut troop numbers in Eastern Europe to defuse tensions with Russia. Top diplomat Antony Blinken said Russia is pushing a ‘false narrative’ to justify troop deployments on Ukraine’s border… US outlet NBC News, citing several sources, reported on Friday that Washington was ready to discuss scaling back US forces in Eastern Europe, with Russia also pulling back from the Ukrainian border and other parts of the region.”

Austria’s Former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz Joins Anti-Racism NGO

Deutsche Welle wrote on January 9:

“Sebastian Kurz has been appointed co-chairman of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation, just a few months after leaving office amid a corruption scandal. Conservative politician Sebastian Kurz, who stepped [down] as Austrian chancellor… last year, was announced on Sunday as the new co-chairman of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation (ECTR). The ECTR is an international NGO that describes its goal on its website as fighting ‘such evils as extremism, racism, antisemitism and xenophobia.’

“Other noteworthy co-chairmen of the group are former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Aznar — both of whom were in power when their nations joined the 2003 invasion of Iraq…  “During his time in office, Kurz made efforts to confront Austria’s role in the Holocaust and placed himself firmly on the side of Israel in diplomatic affairs… During his political career, Kurz was also instrumental in forming a coalition with the far-right Freedom Party in 2017 — making Austria the only country in Western Europe to have a far-right party in government. He also opposed the acceptance of refugees from camps in Greece as well as those fleeing Afghanistan after the Taliban came to power. Since leaving office, he has joined the investment firm led by tech billionaire Peter Thiel whom many see as a far-right figure.”

Have we heard and seen the latest of Sebastian Kurz’s political career… or not?

Acknowledgement and Disclaimer

These Current Events are compiled and commented on by Norbert Link. We gratefully acknowledge the many contributions of news articles from our readership. The publication of articles in this section is not to be viewed as an endorsement or approval as to contents or accuracy of the selected articles, but they are published for the purpose of pointing at worldwide developments in the light of biblical end-time prophecy and godly instruction. Our own comments are provided in italics.

Some Scriptures appear to indicate that God can forget at times.

We read passages like Exodus 2:24-25: “So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.”  At first thought, it looks like God had, for a time, forgotten the children of Israel and finally realised that they needed help, but is this so?

First of all, what was the covenant that God remembered? A covenant with Abraham or Abram was first mentioned in Genesis 15:18, where we read: “On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates.”

A second covenant between God and Abraham (Abram) is mentioned in Genesis 17, beginning in verse 1. “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.’ Then Abram fell on his face; and God talked with him, saying: ‘As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be called Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.’ And God said to Abraham: ‘As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child after you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.’”

(Also, this second covenant included a separate covenant of circumcision; compare Acts 7:8). So, God promised everlasting blessings to Abraham. They would include many descendants, nations and kings, and a land in which to live. Abraham assumed that these covenant blessings would pass down through Ishmael, but God said no, they would be with a son, to be named Isaac, born to Sarah in her old age. Ishmael would be greatly blessed, but the everlasting covenant blessings would pass down through Isaac. This is mentioned in Genesis 17:18-20, which says that God would establish His covenant with Isaac.

In Genesis 26:3-5, God told Isaac not to go to Egypt but to “Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and to your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charges, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

God here is repeating the covenant promise He made with Abraham to Isaac, and He explained that it was because of Abraham’s obedience that God had made that covenant with him. When we come to the next generation, the covenant promise was to pass down through Jacob, rather than the firstborn Esau.

As we explain in our free booklet, “And Lawlessness Will Abound,” on pages 25-29, technically, God made separate covenants with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but they all included the blessing of inheritance of the Promised Land. We state this:

“In Genesis 17:21 God promised Abraham that He would make a covenant with Abraham’s son, Isaac: ‘But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.’ And so He did, and subsequently, God made another covenant with Jacob whose name was later changed to Israel. It is important to recognize that God made these covenants with Isaac and with Israel on an individual basis, just as He had entered into different covenants or agreements with Abraham. This again shows what a covenant is—simply a contract or an agreement, based on law, but not identical with the law.

“Notice the following Scripture that tells us about the covenants that God made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: ‘I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember; I will remember the land’ (Leviticus 26:42). Although the subject matter of these three covenants was identical, God still made individual covenants with Abraham, his son, and his grandson, as the parties were different.”

When God says, in Exodus 2:24, that He will remember His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob, He is using the word “covenant” as a summary term, as all these covenants include the same blessing of inheriting the Promised Land.

In Genesis 27, Jacob pretended to be Esau in order to deceive Isaac, and Isaac gave him physical blessings. However, Genesis 28 is quite enlightening. At this time Jacob was about to leave Canaan, both to find a wife in Padan Aram, and also because Esau had threatened to kill him. This time Isaac knew that he was blessing Jacob; there was no deceit involved. Reading Genesis 28:3-4, “May God Almighty bless you, And make you fruitful and multiply you, That you may be an assembly of peoples; And give you the blessing of Abraham, To you and your descendants with you, That you may inherit the land In which you are a stranger, Which God gave to Abraham.”

Thus, the covenant blessing of Abraham was being passed down from Isaac to Jacob. Again, this included a multitude of nations and the land of Canaan. This blessing was repeated in Genesis 35:9-12. “Then God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Padan Aram, and blessed him. And God said to him, ‘Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name.’ So he called his name Israel.  Also God said to him, ‘I am God Almighty, Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body. The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.’”

From here the blessings were no longer mentioned until we read that God remembered them when the children of Israel were in slavery in Egypt. So, had God forgotten them? Forgotten something that He had said was everlasting? Actually, no. It was all within God’s plan, part of which He had revealed to Abram and which is recorded in Genesis 15:12-14. “Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then He said to Abram: ‘Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in the land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they will serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions.’”

So, this was all a part of God’s plan to greatly increase the number of the children of Israel and to provide them with a great abundance. Returning to Exodus 2:24, the expression “God remembered His covenant” to English speakers would appear to mean that for a time God had forgotten His covenant. However, the Hebrew can also mean “To be mindful of” or “think upon”. The Soncino commentary explains it as “Not that He had forgotten it, but that now the opportunity had come for the fulfilment of His merciful purpose.”

Some of the qualities of God are described in Psalm 147:5. “Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.” He knows exactly when is the best time to perform His promises. Also, in Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” God does not have the frailties of man and has the power to do all that He says He will do.

So, when we read in Jeremiah 31:34 (quoted in Hebrews 8:12), “For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more,” Barnes’ Notes on the Bible informs us that “It cannot mean literally that God forgets that people are sinners, but it means that he treats them as if this were forgotten. Their sins are not charged upon them, and they are no more punished than if they had passed entirely out of the recollection. God treats them with just as much kindness, and regards them with as sincere affection, as if their sins ceased wholly to be remembered, or which is the same thing, as if they had never sinned.”

We should emphasize that God’s forgiveness and His willingness to “forget” are based on repentance.  But even this does not mean that God will erase certain (repented) sins from His memory. We discuss this entire subject in our Q&A, “What Will We Remember as God Beings?”

We point out that God did not forget the sin of David in the matter of Uriah, even though David deeply repented of it.

“Please realize that God saw to it that certain sins of David were recorded, for everyone to read. In addition to David’s sin in the matter of Uriah, some of his other sins were recorded as well, such as his fighting in war and numbering his army. Furthermore, sins of other righteous men and women were recorded: Moses’s sin of murder and his later outburst before Israel, which prevented him from entering the Promised Land; Aaron and Miriam’s murmuring against Moses; Abraham and Isaac’s lies; Abraham and Sarah’s adultery because of lack of faith; Jacob’s deceit towards his father Isaac; Rachel’s theft of her father’s idol; Peter’s sin of lying and denying Christ three times, and his hypocrisy towards Gentile Christians; and Paul’s persecution of Christians when he was still known as Saul. The list could go on and on. We also believe that Solomon came to repentance at the end of his life, but his prior terrible sins were included in the Bible…

“But in every case, God casts all repented sins behind His back and into the depths of the sea, so that when they are sought for, they shall not be found IN THE SENSE that God will never charge us with them. He does not retain them in His mind in the sense that He will not revisit what has passed…

“German Bibles translate Jeremiah 31:34 as, ‘I will not think of [or: about] their sins anymore.’ The New Jerusalem Bible and the Revised English Bible say that God will never more ‘call’ their sin ‘to mind.’… Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible adds this comment in regard to Isaiah 43:25: ‘God will not remember the sins of his people against them; having forgiven them, he will never punish them for them, which is meant by remembering them…’

“… Under the New Covenant, God will ‘take away’ our sins (Romans 11:27)—He will not hold them against us, if we repent of them. Jeremiah 50:20 tells us that ‘… The iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none; And the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found; For I will pardon those whom I preserve.’”

So, referring to the original question, “Does God forget?,” we understand that God is not a man with the accompanying frailties of man. God does not forget in the sense of being forgetful as we tend to be, but God is able to deliberately put out of His mind things that He will never bring up against us. When He makes an everlasting covenant, He will perform it at the appropriate time. Likewise, when He says He will remember our sins no more, He will deliberately do so in the sense as explained herein, and of that we can be very grateful.

Lead Writer: Paul Niehoff (Australia)

compiled by Dave Harris

“What Does the BIBLE Say about Russia’s Future?” is the title of a new StandingWatch program, presented by Evangelist Norbert Link. Here is a summary:

What are Russia’s real goals in Kazakhstan? What is the importance of the military alliance between Russia and four other Russian-controlled nations? Will Russia succeed with Putin’s desire to resurrect the former Soviet Union? What does the Bible tell us about a collaboration between Russia and other Far Eastern nations, including China? Who will be behind these developments? What is the significance of a huge army from the East, prophesied in the book of Revelation?  Who is actually ruling today all the kingdoms and nations of this world? Why are we to pray to God the Father: YOUR Kingdom come?

“Was sagt die Bibel über Russlands Zukunft?” is the title of our new AufPostenStehen program, presented by Norbert Link. The topic of this video covers in German the same material as described above in English.

A Tech Team meeting was held on Sunday, January 9, 2022, via Google Meet. Hosted by Eric Rank, special emphasis was given to our plans for reaching out with advertising in the near future. Other aspects included discussing technical issues regarding our broadcast of Live Services.

“Oh, Oh!” is the title of last Sabbath’s German sermonette, presented by Johann Schell. Title in English: “Oh, Oh.”

“The World in Turmoil—Comments on News and Prophecy, January 8, 2022,” the first message presented last Sabbath by Norbert Link, is now posted. Here is a summary:

Europe and especially Austria, France, Italy and Germany are becoming more and more autocratic and dictatorial, but this is also true for other democratic nations, including Australia, Canada and the USA. While Russia has been anxious to “help” the dictatorial government of Kazakhstan by sending troops into the troubled region, controversial information and opinions are being disseminated from many different sources within the USA, including from some US Supreme Court Judges. Further, after a relatively short calm, the fight and exchange of strong accusations between Biden and Trump have again reached dangerous proportions.

“Who Is Your Father?”, the sermon presented last Sabbath by Kalon Mitchell, is now posted. Here is a summary:

We all had or have physical fathers. We all have grown up under their rule. There is another father though of whom we are children. What effect should this have on us now? How do we allow our Heavenly Father to train us as His children.