Purgatory, Indulgences, the Treasury of Merit and the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Originally posted in /www.reformationtheology.com by  John Samson on July 21, 2013 08:51 PM

As you may have heard in the news this week, the new Pope (Francis), wishing to make use of the new social media announced that indulgences would be granted not only to those who attend the upcoming Roman Catholic Youth Day celebration in Brazil (a week-long event which starts tomorrow, July 22), but also to those who follow the event online, and especially follow his tweets on twitter. Some people seem very surprised by this announcement and yet the only thing new about it is the twitter component. The doctrine of Indulgences remains a central teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.

PURGATORY: (Latin: purgatorium; from purgare, “to purge”) - the condition, process, or place of purification. This is a place of PURGING or temporary punishment in which the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for heaven.

The doctrine of purgatory is an integral doctrine to the Roman Catholic understanding of redemption. It is the place where the vast majority of even professing Christians go upon their death.

As recently as the Roman Catholic Catechism, the Church declares that if a person dies with any spot or blemish or stain on their soul – any impurity – instead of going directly to heaven they must first go to this place of purging which is this intermediate state between earth and heaven. Rome makes clear that purgatory is not hell. It is not a place of the punitive wrath of God, but it is a place for the corrective wrath of God, as it were, where the sanctifying process is continued through the crucible of fire.

A person may be there for two weeks or they may be there for two hundred million years – as long as it takes for a person to become truly righteous – inherently righteous, and once that process is completed, they can be declared justified by God and released into heaven.

I’d now like to go through all the Bible verses that teach the doctrine of purgatory ________________________.



Ok.. well that did not take long, because there are none! That’s right, we do not find either the word or the concept of “purgatory” in the Bible. It is a tradition of the Roman Catholic Church that developed over a long period of time.

In 1095 Pope Urban II declared that the Crusades were God's will for His people to free the Holy Land from the Muslims. He granted a special dispensation to those who would take up the cross (an emblem placed on the soldier’s robes and shields) in the Crusades. Their sins would be forgiven though a penance (a non-Biblical word) being carried out called an INDULGENCE (again a non-Biblical word). For those who died in the Crusades, eternal life was assured. Purgatory would be shortened and heaven would be accessed a whole lot earlier.

THE TREASURY OF MERIT (Latin: Thesaurus Meritorum) According to Rome, just a drop of Christ’s blood would contain enough merit to save the whole world. Obviously Christ shed a vast amount of blood as He was crucified. What happened to all this excess merit? God stored this merit in a treasury (think of a treasure chest) in heaven.

Mary (according to Rome) was sinless. She gained far more merit than what was needed for heaven, and so the extra merit she acquired was added to the treasury, along with the merits of saints (who again had more than enough merit to enter heaven for themselves). All excess merit was stored in the treasury. Because of this, the more sinful believers could benefit from the merit of their more saintly brethren. (Mary was a wonderful sister in Christ, yet she herself was aware of her need for salvation. Luke 1: 46 And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior’…” Mary was saved by believing in her Son, the Lord Jesus Christ the same way anyone else is saved).

According to Rome, the Treasury of Merit is placed under the charge of the Pope, who alone possesses the keys , and he can dispense merit at his discretion in what is called INDULGENCES.

INDULGENCES - The Pope grants indulgences to those who fulfill certain conditions. These indulgences grant relief from the temporal punishments of purgatory and are measured in terms of time: hours, days, weeks, months and years in purgatory. Strictly speaking, indulgencies are not sold, but still the granting of a pardon was timed to coincide with a contribution of money by the sinner or the family.

THE SABBATINE PRIVILEGE - The privilege states that those souls who keep the necessary requirements of the privilege will be released from purgatory by Our Lady the Saturday after they die. The privilege was approved by Pope John XXII, and was later confirmed by Pope Gregory XIII, Pope Clement VII, and Pope St. Pius V. In the case of the scapular (worn like a necklace around the neck), the sacred sign is the scapular itself and the spiritual effect is the protection of one’s souls through the prayers of Mary, as she promised in the vision to St. Simon Stock.

The requirements are: 1. The scapular must be worn and the wearer must be enrolled in the scapular. 2. Chastity to one's state in life must be observed. 3. One must fast from meat on Wednesdays and Saturdays. 4. You must recite the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin or the rosary every day.

Blessed Claude De La Colombiere said, “I wanted to know if Mary really and truly interested herself in me. And in the scapular she has given me the most tangible assurance; I have only to open my eyes. She has attached her protection to this Scapular: ‘whoever dies clothed in this shall not suffer eternal fire?’” (Sermon Pour Les Fete du Scapuliare: Oevers. Lyon, 1701)

R.P. Laselve, O.F.M also stated, “In the same way that Jesus wished that something visible would reveal in the Sacraments the invisible effects of His grace, so also has Mary wished that the more particular protection which she accords to all those who serve Her with fidelity would be marked by an exterior sign, the Scapular.” (Haeffert, John Mathias. Mary in her Scapular Promise. Sea Isle City, N.J. 1942).

In my personal correspondence with Dr. James White, he made the following comment:

"Like so many other things, the Sabbatine Privilege is an embarrassment to some portions of the RCC today, just as Fatima is to others. But the proof is in the pudding: how many Popes preached it, practiced it, and profited by it? I have never taken the time to go back and put a list together, but it is self-evident that for literally centuries it was part of the 'sensus' of the church, practiced and accepted at the highest levels and across broad spectrums. It isn't a dogma, of course---but neither was the bodily assumption until 1950. It is still practiced, and, by all demands of logic, if you can gain indulgences from it, that requires the power of the keys."

BACK TO INDULGENCES - By Luther's time, the early 16th century, indulgences had become one of the most lucrative money raising schemes within the Roman Church. It was on the basis of the sales of Indulgences that St. Peter’s Basilica was built in Rome.

It was the preaching of this horrific doctrine that was responsible for sparking into flame the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. When John Tetzel, a Dominican monk, came into Germany selling indulgences, he so incensed Martin Luther, a devout Roman Catholic monk, that Luther lifted his voice in protest. When Tetzel would enter into a town, he would erect a cross bearing the Pope's own insignia, enter into the pulpit, and begin to harangue the congregation concerning indulgences. Here is a portion of the speech he would customarily make:

"Indulgences are the most precious and sublime of God's gifts. This cross (pointing to the emblem) has as much efficacy as the cross of Jesus Christ. Draw, near, and I will give you letters duly sealed by which even the sins which you shall hereafter desire to commit shall all be forgiven. I would not exchange my privileges for those of St. Peter! I have saved more souls with my indulgences than he has with his servants. There is no sin so great that indulgences cannot remit. And even if one should, which is doubtless impossible, ravish (rape) the holy Virgin, Mother of God, let him pay, only let his pay well for an indulgence, and all shall be forgiven him! Ye priests, ye nobles, ye wives, ye maidens, and you young men, hearken to your departed parents and friends who cry to you from the bottomless depths. 'We are enduring a horrible torment', they scream, 'a small alms from you would deliver us. You can give it now if you will'. Thus they cry to you from purgatory. The very moment that the money clinks against the bottom of the chest, the soul escapes from purgatory and flies free to heaven. Now just pay off, 0 senseless people! Almost like the beasts who do not comprehend the grace so richly offered. This day heaven is on all sides of you. Do you now refuse to enter? When do you intend to come in? This day you may redeem many souls."

Again that was a distortion, but what was not a distortion was that the Roman Catholic Church then and now still has the concept of indulgences, where the Church (and specifically the Pope) has the power of the keys, TO OPEN THE TREASURY OF MERIT to shorten a person’s sentence or duration in purgatory and getting them into heaven sooner.

The more Luther heard of Tetzel’s preaching, the more he saw the evil of the practice. The famous “Ninety-Five Theses” Luther nailed to the Wittenberg church door opened got to the heart of the indulgences issue. His words still thunder through the centuries: “Those who believe that they can be certain of their salvation because they have indulgence letters will be eternally damned, together with their teachers” [Thesis 32]. “Any truly repentant Christian has a rich right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without indulgence letters” [Thesis 36].

Luther tacked his 95 objections in Latin hoping to initiate theological debate with his scholarly peers in the Roman Church. Some of his zealous students though (without Luther’s permission), took the words, translated them into the German vernacular and through the use of the newly invented Guttenberg printing press, these 95 theses became the talk of all Germany within two weeks.

Again, if you’ve been to Rome in our day, if you’ve been to the Lateran Church where the sacred stairs are, besides that staircase (which was supposedly the stairs Christ would have climbed as he appeared before Pontius Pilate) there is a bulletin on the wall that tells you exactly how many indulgences you can gain today by going up that set of stairs on your knees and reciting the our Father, the hail Mary, and so on. The doctrine of purgatory is still integral to the Roman Catholic Church.

In the Scriptures, we are told that it is appointed for man to die once and then the judgment (Heb 9:27). The Protestant view is that there is no intermediate state whereby somebody can improve their condition after this life. If someone is not ready to go to heaven at the time of death they won’t ever be. Again the whole difference between the doctrine of justification is that the Protestant view which was recovered by Luther is that the moment a person puts their faith in Jesus Christ, at that moment they have passed from death to life and their passing into heaven is a matter of certainty. They still go through the whole process of sanctification in this world, but when they die they will receive the benefits of the justification that they experience the moment they put their trust in Christ. Those who are justified (right now) have peace with God and access into His presence.

Later, Luther was to decry the “shameful outrage and idolatry of indulgences,” which he had come to see as a slander to the atoning work of Christ and a denial of justification by faith. The Reformation revealed the great divide between the Reformers and the Roman Catholic Church on issues as central as grace, law, justification, faith, and authority in the church, but it was the practice of granting indulgences which sparked the explosion.

Against the background of a Europe filled with the traditions of men, including priestly absolution, penances, indulgences, pilgrimages, prayer to the saints, etc., Luther and the Reformers made the bold cry of "Faith alone." This did not mean faith in isolation, or a dead faith that produced no works. This referred to a vibrant, living faith, for only a living and not a dead faith would result in justification. Faith without works is dead, and a dead faith will not save anyone (James 2:17). Sola fide (Faith alone) then was the belief that faith alone is the instrument of justification without any meritorious works of man added to it.

Rome believed (then as it does now) that justification is by grace, through faith and because of Christ. What Rome does not believe is that justification is by faith alone, or by grace alone, or by Christ alone. For Rome, justification is by grace plus merit, through faith plus works; by Christ plus the sinner's contribution of inherent righteousness. In contrast, the Reformers called the Church back to the one true Biblical Gospel: Salvation is by God's grace alone, received through faith alone, because of Christ alone, based on the Scriptures alone, to the Glory of God alone.

Source: http://www.reformationtheology.com/2013/07/purgatory_indulgences_the_trea.php

Purgatory: The Money Making Lie Of The Catholic Church

Catholics who believe a purifying fire will purge away their sins are deluded victims of a fatal fabrication. The invention of a place for purification of sins called Purgatory is one of the most seductive attractions of the Roman Catholic religion. Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church described this deceptive hoax brilliantly. He said: "Purgatory is what makes the whole system work. Take out Purgatory and it's a hard sell to be a Catholic. Purgatory is the safety net, when you die, you don't go to hell. You go [to Purgatory] and get things sorted out and finally get to heaven if you've been a good Catholic. In the Catholic system you can never know you're going to heaven. You just keep trying and trying...in a long journey toward perfection. Well, it's pretty discouraging. People in that system are guilt-ridden, fear-ridden and have no knowledge of whether or not they're going to get into the Kingdom. If there's no Purgatory, there's no safety net to catch me and give me some opportunity to get into heaven. It's a second chance, it's another chance after death" (from "The Pope and the Papacy").


The Origin of Purgatory
There was no mention of Purgatory during the first two centuries of the church. However, when Roman Emperor Theodosius (379-395) decreed that Christianity was to be the official religion of the empire, thousands of pagans flooded into the Church and brought their pagan beliefs and traditions with them. One of those ancient pagan beliefs was a place of purification where souls went to make satisfaction for their sins. 

The concept became much more widespread around 600 A.D. due to the fanaticism of Pope Gregory the Great. He developed the doctrine through visions and revelations of a Purgatorial fire. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia (CE), Pope Gregory said Catholics "will expiate their faults by purgatorial flames," and "the pain [is] more intolerable than any one can suffer in this life." Centuries later, at the Council of Florence (1431), it was pronounced an infallible dogma. It was later reaffirmed by the Council of Trent (1564). The dogma is based largely on Catholic tradition from extra-biblical writings and oral history. "So deep was this belief ingrained in our common humanity that it was accepted by the Jews, and in at least a shadowy way by the pagans, long before the coming of Christianity" (CE). It seems incomprehensible that Rome would admit to using a pagan tradition for the defense of one of its most esteemed "Christian" doctrines. 

The Deception of Purgatory
Purgatory comes from the Latin word "purgare," which means to make clean or to purify. The Catholic Encyclopedia defines purgatory as "a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God's grace, are not entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions." They must be purified of these "venial" sins before they can be allowed into heaven. Here we see Catholicism perpetuating the seductive lie of Satan by declaring "you will not surely die" when you commit venial sins (Gen. 3:4). The Council of Trent dares to declare that "God does not always remit the whole punishment due to sin together with the guilt. God requires satisfaction and will punish sin...The sinner, failing to do penance in this life, may be punished in another world, and so not be cast off eternally from God." (Session 15, Can. XI). Those Catholic Bishops had the audacity to declare that the suffering and death of God's perfect man and man's perfect substitute was not sufficient to satisfy divine justice for sin. 

The Motivation for Purgatory
Over the centuries billions of dollars have been paid to Roman Catholic priests to obtain relief from imaginary sufferings in Purgatory's fire. The Catholic clergy has always taught that the period of suffering in Purgatory can be shortened by purchasing indulgences and novenas, buying Mass cards and providing gifts of money. When a Catholic dies, money is extracted from mourning loved ones to shorten the deceased's punishment in Purgatory. When my dear old dad passed away as a devout Catholic of 79 years, I was amazed at the hundreds of Mass cards purchased for him by well-meaning friends. We have heard of other Catholics who have willed their entire estates to their religion so that perpetual masses could be offered for them after they die. It is no wonder that the Catholic religion has become the richest institution in the world. The buying and selling of God's grace has been a very lucrative business for the Vatican.

HELL EXTREME

DID YOU KNOW THAT ONE OF THE EXTREMES OF GOD IS A PLACE CALLED HELL ?

       The place called HELL described in the Bible mostly found in the book of the New Covenant is a very extreme God's will for those who are not saved. Many people are offended by this Christian doctrine of punishment in Hell, but the words of Jesus has confirmed that there is indeed a place of torment and fire.

       In Matthew 25:46 we read;  "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." Those who are unkind and who has no compassion to people who are suffering shall receive their punishment and shall be partaker of a place prepared by GOD, or in other words made by God Himself for the Devil and his angels. A place of everlasting fire or HELL fire for those people who the Lord said are cursed!

Bible Translations

       Many will argue that they have not translated the Bible correctly and that the word HELL has been misinterpreted. They argue that there is no HELL and we should look at the original Hebrew or Greek word to understand the context. Many believed Hell is not a literal place but only symbolic. Many cultist adhere to this belief that there is no place called HELL. Many cultist will say they are only symbolic and not a literal place hence, Hell is not true because God is love and will not allow people to suffer eternally. 

"The word Hell is translated from several different words

Hebrew: sheol
Translated “pit” (3 times)
Numbers 16:33 So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly.

Job 17:16 Will it go down to the bars of Sheol? Shall we descend together into the dust?”

Translated “grave” (31 times)
Genesis 37:34-35 Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.” Thus his father wept for him.

1 Samuel 2:6 The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up.

Translated “Hell” (31 times)
2 Samuel 22:5-6 “For the waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction assailed me;6  the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.

Proverbs 23:13-14 Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.14 If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol.

Hebrew: Valley of Hinnom
A picture of Hell; misery and punishment
2 Chronicles 28:1-3 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done, but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made metal images for the Baals, and he made offerings in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom and burned his sons as an offering, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.

Jeremiah 7:31 And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind.

Greek: hades (translated from the Hebrew sheol)
Translated “Hell” ten times and “grave” one time
1 Corinthians 15:55 (KJV) O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

Greek: tartaros

Translated “hell” meaning eternal torment”
2 Peter 2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;

Greek: gehenna (from the Hebrew Valley of Hinnom)
Translated “hell” meaning place of everlasting torment
Matthew 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell."1

Jesus Descended into HELL.
       In the words of Ra McLaughlins, Vice President of Creative Delivery Systems at Third Millennium Ministries. He said;

 "In the ancient world, the universe was often described in the language of a vertical structure. The earth, where human beings lived, was in the middle. Heaven, the realm of God and his angels, was spoken of as being in the sky. And beneath the earth was a shadowy underworld where all the souls of the dead resided. In the Hebrew Old Testament, it was most commonly called sheol; in the Greek New Testament and in Greek translations of the Old Testament, it was normally called hades.

In the Old Testament, the souls of both the good and the wicked were said to reside there as they awaited the final judgment. In the New Testament, however, hades usually refers to the abode of the wicked souls, as in Luke chapter 10 verse 15. But sometimes the New Testament gives us a fuller picture that looks a lot more like the Old Testament. For instance, Jesus' parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, found in Luke chapter 16 verses 19 through 31, indicates that a great gulf divided the souls of the wicked from the souls of the righteous in hades. And while the wicked suffered in torment, the righteous were comforted. In this parable, Abraham resided in the place of comfort. For this reason, theologians have often called this part of hades "Abraham's Side" or more literally "Abraham's Bosom."

The church father Tertullian, who wrote in the early third century, expressed the common belief in this division of hades: "That souls are even now susceptible of torment and of blessing in Hades ... is proved by the case of Lazarus" (On the Resurrection of the Flesh, ch. 17). 

The church father Ignatius, writing in A.D. 107, said something similar in his Epistle to the Trallians:
By those under the earth, [I mean] the multitude that arose along with the Lord. For says the Scripture, "Many bodies of the saints that slept arose," their graves being opened. He descended, indeed, into Hades alone, but He arose accompanied by a multitude; and rent asunder that means of separation which had existed from the beginning of the world.

So, when the creed says that Jesus descended into hell, the most likely meaning is that his human soul descended to the place of the departed spirits. Specifically, he descended to the region reserved for the souls of the righteous, and not to the region where the wicked are tormented. Jesus' stay in this part of hell was a necessary part of his work because it subjected his soul to the judicial punishment of true human death."2


Jesus is the LORD of HELL.
       God is love but He is also a God who justifies, a God of judgement. He literally subjected Satan's power in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. The Holy Scripture says in Phil. 2:10,11 "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." 

       Jesus is not only our Saviour but He is our Lord. He is the LORD of Lords and even Hell has become His dominion. Jesus is the LORD of Hell. Yes, He has the authority and power in Hell and whatever He pleases it will be done. Many Christians today thinks Satan is the Lord of Hell but if we read the Scriptures you will understand that Satan has become subjected to the Son and literally under the control of Jesus Christ the King of Kings.

"For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life." - Romans 5:6-10

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  - Romans 6:23


Footnotes:
1-Extracted from http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/bible-verses-about-hell-21-eye-opening-scriptures/
2- Extracted from http://reformedanswers.org/answer.asp/file/40273

Worse Than Idolatry?

 Repost from http://concerningjesus.blogspot.com/2014/04/worse-than-idolatry.html

Last time we looked at the tug of war between the Pharisees and Jesus for the soul of the Jewish nation. We saw the Pharisees advance the theory that the indisputable works of Jesus were done because He was possessed essentially by Satan. And that was utterly unforgivable. This time we find ourselves a bit further advanced in the exact same conversation (Matthew 12.38-45).

          I find it mind-boggling that immediately after telling the people that Jesus does miracles in the power of Satan they immediately ask Him to do another one. Talk about adding insult to injury! And if they really believed in what they proposed they were actually asking to see Satan at work.

          Jesus rightly and angrily refuses, and tells them the only sign or miracle that He will now furnish them is one similar to the Jonah of the Old Testament, a resurrection when all hope was gone. Then, following up on the thought of Jonah, He informs them that Ninevah repented under Jonah's preaching, and He Himself is greater than Jonah. Speaking of greater than, the Queen of Sheba was eager to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and He is greater than Solomon. In other words, if the people of Ninevah and the Queen of Sheba could speak at the moment they would condemn the Pharisees and Israel for her complete lack of response to her actual Messiah.

          Jesus then proceeds to give them a powerful illustration of just exactly what is wrong with the Pharisees' approach. To me, this illustration is both enlightening and convicting.

          Jesus likens a man to an empty house, one in which an unclean spirit lives. The unclean spirit is kicked out, and rightly so. The house is then cleaned, fixed up, and prepared with care to be occupied again. The problem is that it remains empty, and now it is actually more attractive to that unclean spirit than ever. It finds some unclean spirit friends, and comes back and takes over the now fixed up empty house in which it used to live. The culmination of the story is that the house's condition, and thus the man's in Jesus' story, is worse now than it was at the beginning.

          This is precisely what Israel, under the influence of the Pharisees, had done.
          Think of Israel in the Old Testament, and how she continually struggled with one particular sin, that of idolatry, the worship of other gods. The proscription against this is the very first of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20.3). Yet before Moses gets down off the mountain with the tablets in which that commandment is inscribed they've built a golden calf and are worshipping it.

They failed at obeying this commandment repeatedly in the Old Testament. They failed under the leadership of Aaron. They failed in the time of Joshua, and after him during the judges. They failed at this under so many of the kings. Ezekiel said it had gotten so bad toward the end that secret rooms had been hollowed out underneath Solomon's Temple, and Israel's leaders worshipped idols right there below the Temple. The prophets repeatedly railed against the violations of the first commandment, and promised that God's judgment would fall on His people if they continued (Jeremiah 1.16). It was precisely for this disobedience specifically that Solomon's kingdom was divided in two after he died (I Kings 11.32-33). It was precisely for this disobedience specifically that the northern kingdom of Israel was carried away into Assyrian captivity (II Kings 17.6-12).

          God's judgment was poured out in fiery indignation, first splitting the nation in half, subjecting her to the will of her enemies, and then consecutively swallowing up each half thus causing the nation to effectively cease to exist.

          This finally seemed to make an impact, and we can see, in the five centuries between the return from the Babylonian Captivity under Ezra and the time of Jesus, that Israel never did return to idol worship. In fact, she became, if anything, more secure and stable in her monotheistic worship of only one God, Jehovah, than she had ever been.

          Well, what could possibly be wrong with that? At first, under the wise and godly leadership of Ezra and the last of the Old Testament prophets, and then later under the originally sincere though unscriptural Pharisees, and now finally under the insincere and wicked rabbis she had rejected idolatry firmly – but she had replaced that idolatry with a system of unscriptural, highly complex, extra-biblical, vain traditions. The Pharisees and their rabbis, slowly, over centuries, tore the heart out of Israel's religion, and even though she wasn't in idolatry she was so wicked as to reject and put to death her own Messiah. And instead of ceasing to exist as a nation for 70 years, as happened during the Babylonian Captivity, this time she would cease to exist as a nation for 1900 years. 'Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation' (Matthew 12.45).

          At the risk of boring you to tears with Edersheim again, here is my favorite author on the life of Christ in reference to this story:

The folly of Israel lay in this, that they thought of only one demon – him of idolatry – Beel-Zibbul, with all his foulness. That was all very repulsive, and they had carefully removed it…But this house, swept of the foulness of heathenism and adorned with all the self-righteousness of Pharisaism, but empty of God, would only become a more suitable and more secure habitation of Satan; because, from its cleanness and beauty, his presence and rule there as an evil spirit would not be suspected…and thus the last state – Israel without the foulness of gross idolatry and garnished with all the adornments of Pharisaic devotion to the study and practice of the Law – was really worse than had been the first with all its open repulsiveness.

 I see several lessons here. First, nations and people are both harder to reach when they are self-righteous than when they are exceedingly sinful and admit it. The Israel of Jesus' day was open with egregious sin. There is little record of any rampant homosexuality, or child sacrifice, or idolatry. It was outwardly buttoned up, and inwardly hypocritical. 'Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness' (Matthew 23.37). Jesus, with all of His powerful preaching and jaw-dropping miracles, couldn't reach that generation. They thought they were good, and refused to see that they weren't. On the other hand, you give me a man or a nation that is living openly in the full squalor of sin and I will show you a man fully conscious of his own deep need for salvation. The mind runs immediately to the recently discussed story contrasting Simon the Pharisee and the prostitute, doesn't it?

          Secondly, we must never lose sight of the importance of the heart. I've preached so about the heart recently in our church that I often feel like I'm beating a dead horse when I bring it up again, but I have to continue to bring it up for I keep finding it again and again in the Word of God. The vast majority of the problems that Jesus dealt with concerned a people outwardly following Jehovah to the letter and yet inwardly bankrupt. We must take great care, to the extent that we can, that such does not happen on our watch to our children, to our church, or to ourselves.

          Thirdly, a religion that is full of rules and empty of a relationship with God is an open door to the devil. I do not believe rules are wrong. I believe unscriptural rules are wrong, and I believe rules without a warm relationship with God are wrong. Don't tell me how many i's you dot and t's you cross if you also can't tell me that you are spending large chunks of alone time loving on Jesus. Don't tell me how many Christians notice and approve of what you are doing if you and God aren't living together moment by moment throughout the day. Don't tell me what position you occupy in the kingdom of God if you aren't yielded to Him in private and alone. Don't tell me all that you do and don't do if your heart isn't holy.

          One of the most fearful examples of this in Scripture is Judas Iscariot. Outwardly, he had it all together. Inwardly, he was rotten to the core, and the devil targeted him like a heat seeking missile. 'And after the sop Satan entered into him' (John 13.27). You can chase out of your life all the worldly pollution of wrong music, wrong friends, wrong entertainment, and wrong fun, and that is good. You can then fence yourself and your loved ones off from those things, and that is also good, in my opinion. But I beg of you not to leave the inside empty. Rot draws flies, but inward rot draws devils.

          If you ever get to the place where you think you are pretty good you are in deep trouble. Self-righteousness is such a terribly subtle and yet awfully damaging temptation to which to succumb. On the other hand, when you stay close to the Lord and the cross you stay constantly reminded of your own sinful condition and the great grace of God, and that is a wondrous protection to genuine spirituality.


          …and if you don't your last state will be worse than the first.

If you would like to listen to the audio version of this blog you may find it here on our church website. Just press 'launch media player' and choose We Preach Christ 37, 'The Last State Worse Than the First'.

HITLER & THE TRI-CITY OF THE 21ST CENTURY SATANIC NEW WORLD ORDER.

"It is about time we got our heads out the sand and opened our eyes to what the United Nations Organization and NATO truly represents. It is the UNO (Italian: One) World government and Waffen SS army of the Vatican (Holy See, Santa Sede, SS) Fourth Reich.

The Reich has always meant the Holy Roman Empires. The Vatican is the Reich. Every major war since the First Council of Nicaea was convened in Nicaea by the Roman Emperor Constantine I and the bishops of Rome in AD 325 to create the anti-Christian Catholic Church were all ordained by the Pope. The objective of these major wars was to establish the Reich – Holy “Roman” Empire.

The first ecumenical council resulted in the first, uniform Catholic (means universal) doctrine, called the Creed of Nicaea. Roman Emperor Constantine I became the first Pope of the sun worshiping (sun god Sol Invictus, a.k.a. Horus, Ra, Amen, Amen-Ra, Jesus, Ram of god, god the sun) Catholic Church.

The same allied forces that fought and defeated Rome’s Second (WWI) and Third Reich (WWII) are now fighting and killing to establish the Catholic Church’s Fourth Reich. The children and grandchildren of the fallen Allied forces are now dishonoring their fathers and grandfathers. They are conspiring with the enemy to enslave the World under a Vatican UNO World Order regime." - Extracted from http://presscore.ca/vatican-fourth-reich-1945-2013 )

Vatican controls all of the drug trade - all of the heroin, all of the opium, all of the cocaine

"It is alleged that the Vatican controls all of the drug trade - all of the heroin, all of the opium, all of the cocaine, everything going around in Columbia. Columbia has a concordat (treaty) with the Pope.

Winner: Colombian Nazi Weed Pope - https://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jul/14/world-cup-2014-strangest-saddest-funniest-moments

The whole drug trade is run by high Mafia families out of the country of Columbia, subject to the Jesuit General. The Jesuit General ran the Opium trade, a couple of centuries ago, out of China. Von Kolvenbach-the Jesuit General is in complete control of the international intelligence community: that's the CIA, the FBI, the KGB, the Israeli Mossad, the German BND, the British SIS. It was the Jesuits who organized and prodded the people into civil war.

Problem of handling the drug money is a major problem and without a sophisticated money laundering apparatus, the drug trade would quickly choke on its own cash. Exactly the same people who run the Global Financial System run the Global Drug Trade. Once money gets into the banking system, it can be transferred through a maze of banks and accounts around the world.

Not only banks knowingly handle drug money, they compete avidly for the business. It is a huge, lucrative business principally run by Jews.

In 1823 the Rothschilds had taken over the financial operations of the Catholic Church, worldwide.

In the 1980's, the Vatican Bank Scandal brought to light the connections between the Freemasons / Illuminati, the Vatican and the mafia. " (The deep within the bowels of the vatican by Greg Szymanski)

The Vatican and pharmaceutical industry

The Vatican

1. The fourth largest asset class owned by the Vatican is founding industry and controlling stocks in a narrow class of industries related to arms manufacture, military support and pharmacuticals including strategic financial relationships with the international trade of illegal drugs.

2. Through these strategic investments, the Roman Catholic Church is by far the single largest arms dealer, profiteer from conflict, profiteer from the growth of the pharmaceutical industry as well as single largest recipient of illegal drug money of any organisation in the history of the world.

3. In particular, the major funding of the industrial-military complex has been orchestrated and coordinated by the strategy of the Roman Catholic Church under the guidance of the Jesuits for the past two hundred years, including all major global conflicts, including major terrorism.

4. Unfortunately, almost no person upon first hearing such statements are inclined to believe what is tantamount to saying the Vatican is the most evil organisation on the planet- given such specific investments in such specific industries designed to destroy nations, peoples lives and minds.

5. However, this is precisely the nature of the Vatican, why it had supported such industries and why these investments are managed discretely through its loyal banking interests.

6. Let us look at the historic clues that provide credibility to these assertions. The "Good Old Days" when the Pope Commanded Armies

7. In the Good Old Days of the Catholic Church, before the age of enlightenment and democracy swept through parts of the world, the Catholic Church could depend upon Catholic Armies to step in and ensure

heretic groups would be burned alive, butchered and eliminated.

8. Most reasonable history books will clearly show that the pattern of the Christian Church upon achieving power through Theodosius at the end of the 4th century was to eliminate heretics and threats, to rule with absolute authority.

9. However, since the loss of the Papal States, the Pope and the Catholic Church lost its last official real temporal powers for amassing armies to continue its objectives of eliminating other religions and non-Catholic Christianity.

10. The Pope had also lost his financial power to direct at will the vast resources of the Catholic Church since the war with the Jesuits ending at the start of the 19th Century.

11. The 19th Century also saw a break out of the previous church controlled education of people concerning science, the arts and philosophy so that by the end of the 19th Century, various philosophers were proudly boasting that "God was dead".

12. Prior to this period, excluding investment in the slave trade, there is no clear evidence of the Vatican being remotely interested in industry, nor business ventures, except where it involved its two favourite classes of assets- Gold and Property.

13. On all accounts, the Vatican considered business and manufacturing a potential threat, to be closely checked, not something to be actively cultivated through investment.

14. However, by the beginning of the 19th Century all that had changed with the Jesuits in control.

15. The Jesuits knew first hand how much power could be wielded when a wealthy class of industrialists and bankers were wedded to a mutual interest. Aggressive and greedy men convinced of their own power and

"self-made" myth. Men who were quote happy to sell their country, their fellow citizens and occasionally even their own family for the sake of more money and occasional membership to "elite" secret brotherhoods.

16. To the Jesuits, such people were perfect and loyal troops for the cause. Through money, false representation and arcane association to a new counter-Masonic movement, the Jesuits recruited hundreds of business people involved in arms manufacturer, drugs and banking.

17. By the end of the Civil War, it was patently clear to the Pope, that the Jesuit strategy of funding both sides including earning profits from arms sales was a magnificent strategy. It was against used as a model for future conflicts, the most profitable for the Vatican being World War I and then World War II.

The rise of the illegal drug trade

18. One of the great changes of society over the past forty years has been the campaign of transference and ultimate domination of global pharmaceutical companies in the production of synthetic pain killers

compared to traditional plant based opiates.

19. For thousands of years, communities around the world have grown and harvested their medicine plants alongside their food crops. Hardy and tough plants such as hemp (marijuana) have been relatively easy to grow and have been a source of very cheap, reliable pain killers along with the poppy (morphine) and a host of other naturally grown plants.

20. However, in the space of a couple of generations, mostly American and some European based consortiums have succeeded in ensuring virtually every nation on Earth has banned the growing, importation and use of naturally grown pain killer crops in preference to the highly expensive, tightly controlled supply of patented pain killers and other drugs.

21. The global pharmaceutical industry is vast, at around $350 billion in annual sales. North America (US around 50% of total world market), Europe and Japan together accounted for 88 per cent of the worldwide

market. Of that, 70% of sales were synthetic pain killers.

22. While the total synthetic drug market continues to grow at around 5 to 10%, the size of the US market has started to decline, mainly because of the long term health side effects and ensuing law suits against various synthetic pain killers that have been found to have potentially lethal side effects. Many Americans no longer trust these multi-billion dollar synthetic drug manufacturers' promises on the safety of their drugs.

23. At the same time, it has emerged in the past four years that many hundreds of thousands of Americans and people around the world have become addicted to synthetic pain killers, much like addicts to prohibited drugs. However, unlike heroin or marijuana addicts, the supply of these pain killers have been much easier to source, and sometimes promoted.

Prohibited drug trade

24. The prohibited drug trade is the production, traffic and consumption of drugs that have been made illegal by the majority of governments of the world. These principally concern the agriculture crops of opium, cocaine (coca plant) and marijuana (hemp plant). It also includes the increasing market for synthetic opiates.

25. While virtually all of these drugs have been legal at some time in every country and the global coverage of prohibition has only effectively existed in practice for the past twenty years.

26. Today, the prohibited (illegal) drug trade is vast, accounting for over $240 billion in annual world trade (around 2.6% of total world trade) and slightly under the legalized monopoly of synthetic drugs. However, unlike legally traded commodities, no effective direct government revenue is gained from this traffic.

27. Of all illegal drugs, approximately $150 billion and around 4 million Kg of opium resin continues to be produced each year, mainly the mountainous Asian nations, predominately Afghanistan. This in turn fuels the $25 billion heroin industry per year. Cocaine (around 835,000 Kg at around $22 billion), Marijuana (2 million Kg and around $12 billion), Hashish (230,000 Kg and around $4 billion) are the other traditional drug crops now produced illegally by organized crime.

28. Significantly, methyl amphetamines, largely produced from converting legal synthetic drugs such as flu pills into illegal drugs has grown quickly to account worldwide trade of around 640,000 Kg and $17 billion.

Effects of handing legal control of synthetic drug manufacturing and supply to US and European Drug Companies

29. The effect of enforcing the legal monopoly of synthetic drug manufacturing companies of the world's market of pain killers has been as devastating distortion of the world's resources, individual health and well being.

30. Most cruelly, it has denied many of the poorest countries in Africa and Asia the right to grow and supply their citizens with cheap, safe pain killers. Instead, drug companies have for the past ten years been dumping old stock, which provides next to no effective relief along with potentially lethal side effects on the poor nations of the world, while receiving foreign aid dollars for their efforts.

31. At the same time, taxpayers in developed nations have watched as billions of dollars have been diverted to enforce the legal monopoly of drug companies, occasionally smash "illegal" drug cartels and jail millions of

people found to be using, or selling drugs not manufactured by American and European drug companies.

32. American politicians funded and supported by drug companies have now jailed over 2 million of their fellow citizens, of which 70% relate in some way to drug crimes.

33. Meanwhile, billions of dollars in "illegal" drug trade is untaxed and available across the world to help fund terrorist and radical organizations, organized crime and bribe hundreds of thousands of officials around the

world.

The looming synthetic time bomb

34. In an added perversion, the most recent looming crisis is the dramatic rise in the use of methyl amphetamines, a market of illegal drugs essentially made possible because of the monopoly of multi-national synthetic drug manufacturers of flu and cough medicines as well as other pain killers.

35. What makes this latest drug craze of greater concern is that along with virtually all synthetic classes of drugs produced by the multi-national drug companies, there are severe side effects in long term use, most notably severe psychosis and violence.

36. The drug "ice", a refined form of methyl amphetamines has been found to be responsible for some of the most shocking violent crime in major urban American and European cities since it became popular.

37. At the same time, the very American and European companies that forced law makers around the world to make their drugs the only legally available pain killers are now faced with a disaster of their own making as class actions in America and elsewhere are tipped to cost the industry tens of  billions in compensation for the misery, death and permanent health injuries their drugs caused thousands of unfortunate users.

38. In the end, naturally grown, side effect free opiate drugs might be permitted to be grown again as pharmaceutical companies are sued out of the business of making pain killers after all.

39. Furthermore, this massively wealthy underground industry has given rise to sophisticated international organized crime as well as huge distortions in corruption such as bribery.

The profits from arms, drugs and illegal drugs

40. The combination of profits from arm sales, investment in pharmaceutical companies and illegal drugs for the Vatican is estimated to be between a staggering $50 Billion to $200 Billion annually.

41. While these profits are nowhere near as profitable as the global finance network, nor gold, nor property, as strategic investments, the global drugs trade as well as arms race has been one of the most successful movements to degrade democratic societies over the past fifty years.

42. The Catholic Church depends upon its profits from organized crime (remembering it founded the Mafia in i860, an organization that is headquartered in the Vatican and still meets there annually). For organized crime to make money, the continued global ban on natural pain killers and other naturally processed drugs needs to be maintained.

43. Thankfully for the church, there are always a handful of moral activists ready and motivated to flood the airwaves of media outlets to ensure citizens maintain at least a public support of the ban on drugs.

44. However, as the war continues and the cost of such perverse and evil policies, deliberately maintained and support by the Jesuits and the Catholic Church, citizens around the world are starting to ask themselves why is this happening? And is there some better way?  By: One-Faith-Of-God.org 2010

The United Nations Organization (UNO) and NATO are political movements seeking to revive Nazism – the Fourth Reich or Fourth Holy Roman Empire – for the Satan serving and worshiping Vatican. These neo-Nazi organizations (UNO, NATO, Vatican) have organized representation in many countries (DHS, FEMA, Pentagon, CIA, CSIS, MI5, MOSSAD, Federal Reserve), as well as international networks (European Union, NAFTA, IMF, World Bank, Society of Jesuits, Order of the Garter, FSB, Council on Foreign Relations, One World Trade Center).

On March 24, 1999 the UN and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ordered United States puppet president Bill Clinton to launch an illegal and unprovoked War of aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Bill and Hillary Clinton, the UN and NATO violated the UN and NATO’s own charters, US law, and International Laws with the bombardment of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Not only did the aggression violate the UN Charter and the North Atlantic Treaty, but also many international covenants pertaining to the rules of war. NATO deliberately targeted civilians – not even hospitals were spared from the UN/NATO/US criminal attacks. In fact, Bill and Hillary Clinton destroyed more hospitals and killed more civilians than the Yugoslav Army under the insignia of NATO.

On October 7, 2001 the UN and its NATO (Waffen-SS) forces (United States, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Poland) launched another illegal and unprovoked War of aggression against the sovereign state of Afghanistan. Afghanistan did not attack any country, not on September 11, 2001, not prior to that date and not since that date. Afghanistan was a poor defenseless state that was and continues to be a victim of war crimes committed by the United Nations Organization (UNO) and its Waffen-SS forces (NATO).

On March 25, 2011 the UN and NATO (Waffen-SS) began another unprovoked war, this time against Libya.  Libya had not attacked any country nor made any threats against any country.  The Libyan government did only what any country would do, put down an armed rebellion that was initiated by foreign paid mercenaries.  Why did the United Nations Organization and Waffen-SS forces (NATO) attack Libya?   Gadaffi was on the verge of creating a new banking system in Africa that was going to put the UN’s IMF, World Bank, FSB and assorted other white supremacist bankers out of business in Africa. No more predatory loans used to intentionally cripple African economies with high interest payments.  Instead a $42 billion dollar African Investment Bank was planned to supply major loans at little or even zero interest rates to every African nation.  Libya has already funded major infrastructure projects across Africa that have begun to link up African economies and break the perpetual dependency on the western countries for imports.  Before the UN launched its war of aggression against Libya it stole the $42 billion that had been allocated to the African people through the African Investment Bank.

The crimes committed by the United Nations Organization and it Waffen-SS forces (NATO) against Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Libya are the same crimes that the UN and NATO’s predecessors committed in World War II.  European and U.S. historical documents reveals an insidious link between Nazism and the UN and NATO.  They reveal that the United Nations Organization and NATO were both created by Nazi war criminals who escaped capture and trial with the help of the Vatican through ODESSA and Operation Paperclip.

The United Nations and NATO’s sole mission is the establishment of the Fourth Reich – a.k.a. Fourth Holy Roman Empire. a.k.a. New World Order They, like their predecessors, are using war (invasion then occupation) to establish the Fourth Reich.  Wars in which they willingly and intentionally commit unimaginable atrocities against civilians.  Wars that are declared by International law as unadulterated aggression.  In the process of establishing the Fourth Reich their leaders commit crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.  Today they conscript (Waffen-SS) the governments of the United States, Canada, the UK, France, Italy and governments from former Nazi occupied countries to build this Nazi empire called the Fourth Reich – New World Order.

In terms of neo-Nazism, the Fourth Reich is envisioned as featuring Aryan supremacy, anti-Semitism, Lebensraum, aggressive militarism and totalitarianism. Subsequently, neo-Nazis believe that this rise will pave the way for the establishment of the Western Imperium, a pan-Aryan world empire encompassing lands with prominent European descended peoples (Europe, Russia, Anglo-America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Southern South America, and other significantly white countries in Latin America). The framework for the Fourth Reich began with the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the wars of the Fourth Reich began immediately after the reunification of Germany.

In his book, The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America, Jim Marrs argues that some surviving members of Germany’s Third Reich, along with sympathizers in the United States and elsewhere, given safe haven through organizations like ODESSA and Die Spinne, have been working behind the scenes since the end of World War II to enact at least some of the principles of Nazism (e.g. militarism, fascism, conquest, widespread spying on citizens, use of corporations and propaganda to control national interests and ideas) into culture, government, and business worldwide. He cites the influence the Nazis brought into the United States at the end of World War II, such as Nazi scientists brought in under Operation Paperclip to help advance aerospace in the US, and the acquisition and creation of conglomerates by Nazis and their sympathizers after the war, in both Europe and the US – the largest of which is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

America became the soldiers of the Nazi Fourth Reich on September 11, 2001.

When the World Trade Towers were attacked and demolished using tactical nukes, most Americans simply refused to believe suggestions that the attacks had been staged by parties working for the US Government itself. Americans were afraid to, even as news reports surfaced proving that the US Government had announced plans for the invasion of Afghanistan months before the attacks on September 11, 2001 even took place. The United States government made plans and announced their intention to the World early in the year 2001.  The timing of the attacks on the World Trade Towers fits entirely too conveniently.  The attacks and the outpouring of anger by the American people resulted in an unquestionable support of the already-planned war.  NATO used another Reichstag Building event to establish the Fourth Reich.

Even after being presented with the facts Americans to this day still believe that the Taliban and the Afghan people are the enemy of the United States.  The fact that no Afghan citizen, political official or military personnel took part in either the planning of the attacks on September 11, 2001 or the execution of the attacks is still incomprehensible.  Many in the United States believe Afghanistan attacked the United States on September 11, 2001 even after the United States government published the names and nationalities of the hijackers and mastermind of the attack. The majority were Saudi nationals. bin Laden is also a Saudi national. There were no Taliban or an Afghan national hijackers.  Zero.  None.  Zilch.

Even with all the evidence exonerating (to free from blame) Afghanistan of any crime against the United States the US government granted themselves temporary extraordinary powers, powers specifically banned under Constitutional law, but powers the government claimed they need to have to deal with the “terrorists”. The American people, too naive and fanatically self-centered to see that they have been grossly deceived by their government have agreed with their government’s blatant lies and contradictions.   Because Americans are too naive and self-centered those temporary illegal powers are now no more temporary in America than they were in Germany when Nazi ideologist, Adolf Hitler burned down the Reichstag building (the parliament building of the German Empire) and blamed it on “terrorists” they called communists. The destruction of the building gave Hitler the excuse for the Nazis to suspend most rights provided for by Germany’s 1919 constitution in an effort by Hitler to increase state security throughout Germany. 68 years later and history was repeated when the United States government attacked the United States on September 11, 2001 in order to grant themselves illegal extraordinary powers that illegally suspended the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights (an illegal suspension that continues to this day).  They too blamed the attacks on “terrorists” but this time they are called Al Qaeda.

The US Government knows they rule a nation of cowards. The U.S. government has had to spend $trillions to make the Fourth Reich wars something cowards can fight. The U.S. government has decorated the troops with regalia to make them proud of themselves, further trapping them in their self-image.

Knowing that it takes courage to kill the enemy face to face, the United States government has spent vast sums of money on wonder weapons, airplanes, submarines, ultra-long range artillery, cruise missiles, unmanned drones and guided missiles – weapons that kill at a distance, so that those doing the killing need not have to face the reality of what they are doing.

Did you know that Hitler was TIME Magazine’s Man Of The Year in 1938. Stalin was TIME Magazine’s Man Of The Year for 1939 and 1942. George W. Bush was Tine Magazine’s Man of the Year in 2000 and in 2004.  All of these men, and many others also celebrated by the media, were unimaginable monsters.  All 3 committed treasonous acts against their own country and people, took away the rights of their people and committed atrocities against foreign states. The lesson from these facts is that it isn’t easy to spot a genocidal tyrant when you live with one, especially one whom the press supports and promotes.

Tyrants become obvious only Western union locations when looking back, after what they have done becomes known. The German people did not stand up to Hitler because their media betrayed them, just as the American media is betraying the American people by willingly, voluntarily, even proudly, abandoning its traditional role as watchdog against government abuse.

It is the very nature of power that it attracts the sort of people who should not have it. The United States is a prize that attracts men and women willing to do absolutely anything to win that power, and hence are also willing to do absolutely anything with that power once they have it. If one thinks about it long enough, one will realize that all tyrants, past and most especially present, MUST use deception on their population to initiate a war.

No citizen of a modern industrialized nation will send their children off to die in a war to grab another nation’s resources and assets, yet resources and assets are what all wars today are fought over. The nation that wishes to initiate a war of conquest must create the illusion of an attack or a threat to start a war, and must always give their population of cowards an excuse never to question that carefully crafted illusion.

It is naive, not to mention racist to assume that tyrants appear only in other nations and that somehow the United States is immune simply because they’re Americans. The United States has not escaped the clutches of a dictatorship.  The United States people, like the Germans of the 1930s, didn’t have the moral courage to stand up and point out where the government is lying.

Unless Americans are willing to stand up against their tyrannical government, then future generations may well look back on the American people with the same harshness of judgment with which we look back on the 1930s Germans.

As a primary source of international law, the judgment of the Nuremberg Tribunal in the 1945-1946 case of the major Nazi war criminals is plain and clear. Our leaders often invoke and praise that judgment, but obviously have not read it. The International Court declared:

“To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”

At Nuremberg, the United States and Britain pressed for the prosecution of Nazi leaders for planning and initiating aggressive war. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, the head of the American prosecution staff, asserted “that launching a war of aggression is a crime and that no political or economic situation can justify it.” He also declared that “if certain acts in violation of treaties are crimes, they are crimes whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them, and we are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others which we would not be willing to have invoked against us.”

The United Nations Charter views aggression similarly. Articles 2(4) and (7) prohibit interventions in the domestic jurisdiction of any country and threats of force or the use of force by one state against another. The General Assembly of the UN in Resolution 2131, “Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention,” reinforced the view that a forceful military intervention in any country is aggression and a crime without justification.

Adolf Heusinger: Hitler’s Army Chief And NATO’s Chairman -MORE.. PLS CLICK HERE.

Putting a “UN / NATO” label on aggressive policy and conduct does not give that conduct any sanctity. This is simply a perversion of the North Atlantic Treaty, formed as a defensive alliance under the UN Charter. The North Atlantic Treaty pledged its signatories to refrain from the threat or use of force in any manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations, and it explicitly recognized “the primary responsibility of the Security Council (of the United Nations) for the maintenance of international peace and security.” Obviously, in bypassing international statue law and attacking and occupying the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria (US, UN, and NATO mercenary and armed forces are financing, training, commanding and arming terrorists groups now attacking and destroying Syria), the U.S. and the UN’s Waffen SS forces (NATO) have violated this basic obligation.

From another standpoint of international law, the current conduct of military aggressive armed attacks by the United States and the UN’s NATO constitutes a continuing war crime. Contrary to the beliefs of their war planners, unrestricted air bombing is barred under international law. Bombing the “infrastructure” of a country’s waterworks, electricity plants, bridges, factories, television and radio locations are not attacks limited to legitimate military objectives. US and NATO attacks has also caused an excessive loss of life and injury to civilians, which violates another standard. They have now killed hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent and defenseless civilians. (SOURCE: http://presscore.ca/nato-was-created-by-nazi-war-criminals-to-establish-the-fourth-reich)

THE NAZI KING

King Edward VIII was forced to abdicate in 1936 and soon took the title of the Duke of Windsor. He has always been known for his pro-Nazi sympathies. However, the extent of his betrayal could never be fully verified due to the secrecy of the Royal Archives.
The Royal Archives have always ensured that letters from German relatives of the royal family in the run up to World War II remain closed. Naturally, such censorship has led to endless conspiracy theories.
But over the past eight years I have accumulated damning evidence by sifting through 30 archives all over the world that are open. Intelligence reports and German, Spanish and Russian documents show members of the British royal family were indeed far closer to Nazi Germany than has previously been recognized. I present this in full in my new book Go-Betweens for Hitler.

One key to this Anglo-German network is Charles Edward Duke of Coburg (1884-1954). In a Channel 4 programme on him in 2007, I called Coburg “a Nazi who got away with it,” but I had no idea about the magnitude of his crimes at the time.
Coburg was part of a wider group of go-betweens—private individuals who were used for secret negotiations by Hitler. My investigation into Coburg’s work sheds new and damning light on the Duke of Windsor, a relative and confidante of Coburg.
Coburg was a grandchild of Queen Victoria destined for a privileged and unspectacular life. But the experiences of World War I changed him. After Germany lost the war, he turned to the radical right. In the 1920s he got involved with a German terrorist group that tried to overthrow the democratically elected German Republic. Members of the group were involved in several political murders in the 1920s. Though he did not pull the trigger himself, Coburg funded these murders.
After the failed Hitler Putsch of 1923, Coburg hid several Hitler supporters on the run in his castles. Hitler would not forget this great favor and later rewarded Coburg by making him a general. But he also needed him for something more secretive. In 1933 the Fuhrer was short of international contacts and did not trust his own foreign ministry.
He therefore used members of the German aristocracy for secret missions to Britain, Italy, Hungary and Sweden. Coburg was particularly useful in London from 1935 to 1939 and was received in Britain due to his sister Alice Countess of Athlone’s tireless work. She was Queen Mary’s sister-in-law and fought for Coburg’s acceptance. This resulted in him not just being welcomed in British drawing rooms, but most importantly, by the royals, including the Duke of Windsor.
Royal Secrets
Coburg was first invited in January 1932 to Sandringham to see George V and Queen Mary during their Christmas break. Despite the war, Queen Mary had renewed contacts with her German relatives as early as 1918. This occasion and subsequent visits were not listed in the Court Circular, as they normally would have been.
It was only by turning to intelligence reports and foreign archives that I was able to piece together that the Duke of Coburg and the Duke of Windsor dreamt of an Anglo-German alliance. Windsor helped Coburg towards this goal on several different occasions.
The Soviet intelligence services were convinced of the Duke of Windsor’s treachery when war broke out. It is probable that they had an informer on his staff. In 1940 they reported that he was conducting negotiations with Hitler to form a new English government and conclude a peace with Germany contingent on a military alliance against the USSR.
Even more evidence of Windsor’s treachery was hidden in Spanish archives. Like his relative Coburg, the Duke of Windsor was anti-Semitic. In June 1940 Don Javier Bermejillo, a Spanish diplomat and old friend of Windsor—he had known him since the 1920s—reported a conversation he had had with the Duke to his superiors.
Bermejillo reported that the Duke of Windsor blamed “the Jews, the Reds and the Foreign Office for the war.” Windsor added that he would like to put Anthony Eden and other British politicians “up against a wall.” Bermejillo stated that Windsor had already made similar remarks about the Reds and the Jews to him long before he became King in 1936. In another conversation on June 25, 1940 Bermejillo reported that Windsor stressed if one bombed England effectively this could bring peace. Bermejillo concluded that the Duke of Windsor seemed very much to hope that this would occur: “He wants peace at any price.” This report went to Franco and was then passed on to the Germans. The bombing of Britain started on July 10.
After the war, Coburg and the Duke of Windsor never met again. Windsor continued his jet-set life, and Coburg died in Germany in 1954. He never found out that his beloved Fuhrer wanted him murdered. In April 1945, code breakers at Bletchley Park came across a telegram from Hitler, saying: “The Fuhrer attaches importance to the Duke of Coburg, on no account falling into enemy hands.” This was one of Hitler’s famous “Nero orders,” an indirect sentence of death.

The secrets Hitler and Coburg shared seemed to be so important that they needed to be hidden from public view. More transparency at the Royal Archives is needed so that historical investigations such as this can be conducted fully, not shrouded in secrecy.

The ConversationKarina Urbach is senior research fellow at the Institute of Historical Research at School of Advanced Study. Her book, Go-Betweens for Hitler, will be published by Oxford University Press on July 23. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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