This month will likely go down as the worst ever for diplomatic relations between America and the rest of the international community. The Obama Administration has presided over an endless series of financial and intelligence missteps.
We started October with a deadlock over the federal budget, which made several nations nervous about the safety of holding dollar denominated securities. The Chinese, with $1.3 trillion of our debt, made the rare occasion of openly criticizing Washington D.C. for allowing the financial crisis to take place. Xinhua News Agency, China’s leading government-controlled news outlet, said the rest of the world should start to “de-Americanize” away from U.S. financial dominance:
“The world is still crawling its way out of an economic disaster thanks to the voracious Wall Street elites. Such alarming days when the destinies of others are in the hands of a hypocritical nation have to be terminated.”
Thanks to the standoff, President Obama was forced to cancel a trip to the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation). What resulted was an incredibly embarrassing picture of all the world leaders standing on a stage at the meeting, and the U.S. only represented by John Kerry—who was forced to stand in the back row—and far off to the side. Beforehand, the person representing America was always front, and center.
Some of the worst diplomatic bad blood resulted from revelations that America has been spying on some of its closest friends. There is a general understanding that allies, spy on each other. What is unforgivable is allowing this information to get into the public. Four times last week we had nations calling our ambassadors and other representatives onto the carpet for invading the privacy of their citizens.
1. A French newspaper reported that the NSA had swept up 70.3 million French telephone records in a 30-day period. The French government issued a formal complaint and put the issue of personal data protection on the agenda of the European Union summit.
2. In Italy, major media outlets reported that a parliamentary committee was told the U.S. had intercepted phone calls, emails and text messages of Italians. Premier Enrico Letta raised the topic of spying during a meeting with the U.S. Secretary of State.
3. Germany was shocked to learn from data provided by NSA leaker, Edward Snowden, that the mobile phones of German Chancellor Angela Merkel had been a target of the U.S. government. Merkel called President Barack Obama to confront him on the matter, saying it would be “A serious breach of trust” if confirmed. The White House refused to admit it had been eavesdropping on Merkel’s calls, but promised it wouldn’t happen in the future.
4. In Mexico, it was made known that information NSA collected to fight drug traffickers was also used to spy on the emails of two Mexican presidents: Enrique Pena Nieto, the incumbent, and Felipe Calderon. The Mexican government called the targeting of the presidents, “unacceptable.” Pena Nieto has demanded an investigation.
The most troubling rift in U.S. diplomatic relations occurred with Saudi Arabia, and it had nothing to do with spying. The Saudis have come to the point where they are unhappy with the alliance between Washington and the kingdom.
Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi intelligence chief, told European diplomats that the United States had failed to act effectively against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He also said the kingdom was unhappy with Washington growing closer to Tehran, and its failure to back Saudi support for Bahrain when it crushed an anti-government revolt in 2011. Prince Bandar promised there would soon be a “major shift” in relations between the kingdom and the United States.
If it gets to the point where the Saudis decide to move away from the petrodollar monopoly, it will be disastrous for the U.S. economy. Over a trillion dollars worth of Middle East oil is transacted in US currency. A switch to a new system would collapse the dollar and cripple our standing on the world stage.
There can be little doubt that America is well on its way to being fired as the leader of the free world. The only wonderment in my mind is why has it taken this long for America to be given the boot.
America’s absence from Bible prophecy would seem to confirm that our dominance will continue to fade. Since the Antichrist is predicted to become the undisputed leader of all inhabitants on earth, our decline may indicate how close we are to the Tribulation hour.
“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8).
“And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by [the means of] those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by the sword, and did live” (Revelation 13:14).
--Todd
The Pope, the Pen, and Peace
Jorge Mario Bergoglio--Pope Francis, 266th pontiff of the Catholic Church--seems to be taking the world by storm, as they say. He is, of course, the 112th pope since twelfth-century Irish Bishop, St. Malachy, “prophesied” that the last pope would be number 112 from the time he made the “prophecies,” as we’ve all learned about by now.
Obviously, he hasn’t overtly taken the official name “Petrus Romanus,” Peter the Roman, as Malachy predicted would be the moniker of the final pope who would preside over the Catholic Church during an era of the greatest time of trouble in its history. Let’s think again briefly upon what Malachy said he foresaw. Malachy’s biographer, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, reported in Life of Saint Malachy that St. Malachy wrote briefly, in Latin, on each succeeding pope of the future, and then gave the document to Pope Innocent II, who had it placed in Vatican archives, where it remained for several centuries. It was rediscovered in 1590 and published.
Some scholars who have studied these predictions carefully claim that Malachy was remarkably accurate about succeeding popes right up through Pope Benedict XVI, who abdicated his papal throne in 2013. Others who have looked into these things have found that in most cases regarding the Malachy prophecies, the bishop’s predictions were too oblique, too veiled, or couched in esoteric description to be validated as having been fulfilled to any great extent. Our bottom line conclusion must be that, while most of Malachy’s “prophecies” about the popes are questionable as to absolute proof that the bishop was accurate in every case, there is little doubt that the 112th pope from the time he wrote the predictions is a strange pope to be sure.
The world at large literally loves the guy. His popularity really jumped on a global scale–and especially in the view of national and international mainstream media, when he implied that there might be many ways to God and Heaven, and declared that Christians must be more tolerant of things we don’t embrace or understand. At least, that was the gist of his statements.
The pope made it clear in a number of statements in various speaking forums that the Catholic Church and all of Christendom must cease condemning and excluding from God’s kingdom homosexuals and those who hold other religious views than those that are Jesus Christ-centered.
That sentiment, even among a growing number within so-called Christian churches, is a visceral part of all of humanism’s elite and their mouthpieces. The Christian Bible and its harsh, restrictive, “one way to God” is intolerant, bigoted, homophobic, and bordering on fundamentalist insanity that desires to bring the world to Armageddon. (The pope didn’t say that; I did, based upon the pontiff’s stance of recent days that has won him great accolades.)
America’s current president is perhaps the most recent of the global leaders to express this pope’s elevated standing in his opposition to biblical restrictions. Barack Obama said recently: "I have been hugely impressed with the pope's pronouncements." He described Pope Francis as "somebody who lives out the teachings of Christ [who, by the way, claimed He is the only Way to God, the Heavenly Father]. Incredible humility--incredible sense of empathy to the least of these, to the poor."
In his interview with the CNBC business news channel, Obama was asked about Francis' recent comment that the Catholic Church has become too "obsessed" with issues like gay rights and abortion. Obama said:"[Pope Francis is] somebody who is--I think first and foremost--thinking about how to embrace people as opposed to push them away; how to find what's good in them as opposed to condemn them…And that spirit, that sense of love and unity, seems to manifest itself in not just what he says, but also what he does. And, you know, for any religious leader, that's something--that's a quality I admire” (http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2013/10/02/obama-pope-francis-cnbc-abortion-gay-rights/2911067/).
Sure sounds good, doesn’t it? Unity–that’s the ticket for the coming Antichrist system. Unity means to embrace all belief systems as acceptable to God’s prescription for living on planet Earth, according to the globalists elite. This is the route to “peace.”
We are to embrace those religionists who behead women for having been raped. We are to accept as brothers those who murder anyone with whom they don’t agree.
Pope Francis met a week or so ago with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. He wasn’t prepared to give the Israeli prime minister an audience, however. Yet, he is pushing the peace process so Palestine can have its statehood on Israel’s tiny land mass.
The pope gave the Palestinian leader a special pen. He said when handing it to him, "Surely, you have a lot of things you have to sign."
Abbas responded, "I hope to sign a peace treaty with Israel with this pen."
My thought was, upon reading about the pope’s generosity, the first beast of Revelation chapter 13 will have a sidekick who will–like Mr. Big himself--push the peace that will be the covenant made with death and hell (Isaiah 28:15, 18).
--Terry
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