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**Important News Headlines** – 25th August 2009
**IMPORTANT NEWS HEADLINES**
Dead Sea A Finalist In 7 Natural Wonders Vote – August 25, 2009
The Dead Sea is among 14 finalists in a global Internet poll to choose the seven wonders of the natural world, organizers said on Tuesday. The salty lake at the lowest point in the world is in the running for a place alongside spectacular natural phenomena such as the Amazon River, the Galapagos Islands, the Grand Canyon and the Great Barrier Reef. HaaretzGov’t Stimulus Hasn’t Improved Economy – August 24, 2009
“The good news is the recession is beginning to end, but government’s had nothing to do with it,” said Barry Bosworth, a Senior Fellow in the Economics Studies Program at Brookings Institution. “Disposable income for households have risen, but that’s been offset by government spending and payments — and people still aren’t spending. The problem is government has not acted fast enough because of the political process, and government hasn’t had anything to do with business investment growth.” Campus Report OnlineNetanyahu Visits London With Strong Position On Jerusalem – August 24, 2009
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu arrived in London on Monday for two days of meetings with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US Mideast mediator George Mitchell, making clear that he will not allow anyone to question Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem. The US and Israel have been wrangling for weeks about the nature of a settlement freeze that US President Barack Obama called for in the early days of his presidency, and which the Palestinians have now made a condition for restarting negotiations. The Jerusalem PostKorean Scientist Faces 4 Years Over Stem Cell Fraud – August 24, 2009
South Korean prosecutors told a Seoul court on Monday they wanted a four-year prison term for disgraced scientist Hwang Woo-suk, whose research team has been linked to major fraud in its once-celebrated stem cell studies. The 57-year-old Hwang, touted as a global stem cell pioneer and treated as a national hero, was indicted in 2006 on charges of embezzling 2 billion won (then $2 million) of research funds from two domestic companies using fabricated reports. The Korea TimesFreed Journalists Criticized For Endangering Refugees – August 21, 2009
Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two American journalists released after nearly five months in North Korean custody, have been widely portrayed at home as victims of unduly harsh punishment by a repressive government for simply doing their job. But…in South Korea, human rights advocates, bloggers and Christian pastors are accusing them of needlessly endangering the very people they tried to cover: North Korean refugees and the activists who help them. The New York Times
Rockets, Russia, and the Korean Peninsula
ROCKETS, RUSSIA, AND THE KOREAN PENINSULA
South Korea successfully launched a rocket on Tuesday, hoping to put a satellite into space from its own territory for the first time. The launch ended in disappointment when the satellite overshot its intended orbit, but Russia’s assistance has offered South Korea’s space program a solid jump start. In the meanwhile, North Korea has shown some slight softness in recent weeks. While South Korea and the United States are skeptical of real good will, there is hope Kim Jung Il’s failing health may mean he is serious about making a deal.
South Korea has long been a strong United States ally. When it asked the US to help with its young space program, however, the US declined for fear of starting an arms race on the Korean peninsula. South Korea then turned to Russia for assistance. Seoul has long had to depend on other countries to shoot its satellites into orbit, and the ability to launch its own rockets is a big boost to the Asian nation.
Assisting in the space program is not Russia’s first cooperation with South Korea. Russia has launched South Korean satellites in the past, and the two countries regularly cooperate on several different levels. Korean conglomerates like Samsung and LG have research centers in Russia, where they’ve hired hundreds of Russian engineers and scientists to improve the technology in their products. Korea found a surplus of unemployed educated Russians available and has made use of them. Samsung and LG both develop in Russian software platforms for the digital technologies in their cell phones and other digital products. The Russians are also willing to share intellectual property with Korea.
“The Japanese, Germans, and Americans either deny access to their state-of-the-art technologies or charge exorbitant license fees to Korean rivals,” says senior researcher Cho Joong Hoon at the state-funded Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology. “Russians are also more accommodative in negotiating terms for sharing intellectual properties after joint R&D.”
In the meanwhile, North Korea has been behaving less antagonistic than usual. First, it welcomed former US President Bill Clinton and released the two South Korean journalists it was holding hostage. Pyonyang then released a South Korean businessman, and even sent a delegation to the funeral for South Korea’s late President Kim Dae Jung last weekend.
Certainly, the North’s long-range missile program continues despite the world’s chagrin, but North Korea has also expressed willingness to open up talks with the United States again. That is, it will talk with the US alone, minus the other countries at the six-party talks of the recent past.
South Korea suspects the North will try to shove a wedge between the US and South Korea, but also trusts the US to share the content of the discussions. Seoul and Washington are in agreement that there can be no nuclear program in North Korea, and Seoul will only offer Pyongyang economic aid according to how well the North sticks to its commitments to denuclearize.
North Korea’s deceptive ways are well known; Pyongyang has already twice agreed to get rid of its nuclear program but hasn’t ever followed through. In light of Kim Jong Il’s failing health, though, the current situation may possibly be different than in the past. If Kim is getting ready to pass the baton to his youngest son, there could be an opportunity to make a real deal with North Korea. Then again, Kim’s treachery may last as long as he does… and get passed right along to his son.
Related Links:
• Russia’s Ties With South Korea Deepen – Business Week
• South Korea Launches Satellite – The New York Times
• South Korea Launches Its First Rocket, Satellite Fails – Fox News
• North Korea Makes Nice: An Opening for the U.S.? – Time
• Strategic Trends: Weapons Proliferation – Koinonia House
• Strategic Trends: The Rise Of The Far East – Koinonia House
Eating Test Tube Burgers
EATING TEST TUBE BURGERS
Food is always big news. From the dangers of a high-McDonald’s lifestyle to the potential cancer-fighting benefits of chocolate, people are always interested in food. In those parts of the world where people don’t necessarily eat every day, a steady food supply is serious business. At the same time, researchers and scientists have developed some bizarre methods for producing food, and the products may or may not be as great as their advertisers claim.
Test Tube Meat:
CNN reports that research group New Harvest has been working on creating “meat” in a laboratory. In an effort to get away from the hassles of animal production, with the space and grain requirements, New Harvest researchers are growing their protein-rich products in steel vats. New Harvest also claims its lab-made meat comes free of the diseases that can be found on normal animal farms.The process does not require anything exotic like big computers recombining atoms. Nature is still used, after a fashion. The eggs of cows or pigs are collected from a local slaughterhouse. Those eggs are fertilized and the resulting embryos are put in a nutrient solution where they can grow as big and strong as embryos can without a uterus involved. The in-vitro meat can’t replace a chicken leg or steak, but it can work as ground meat, sausages or chicken nuggets.
“Cultured meat would have a lot of advantages,” said Jason Matheny of New Harvest. “We could precisely control the amount of fat in meat. We could make ground beef with an ideal fatty acid ratio — a hamburger that prevents heart attacks instead of causing them.”
Environmentalists and animal rights groups are excited about the prospect of moving the world’s meat supplies from the stockyard to the lab. They visualize a world with no more cramped chicken runs packed with birds that are pumped full of hormones and antibiotics. They imagine rainforests safe from bulldozers because new fields are not needed to grow crops to feed cattle.
One environmental scientist was less than impressed with the plan, however, commenting on the CNN article:
“Animal cells do not manufacture protein out of wishes and moonbeams. There will be a feedstock, likely based mostly on soy and corn to balance the protein content just like animal feed today. It will be heavily chemically processed to break it down into a form muscle cells can use. There will be waste from this process which will be chemically similar to the waste produced by animal digestion. The metabolic processes of the tank meat will also produce waste which will be essentially identical to the waste produced by metabolism in an intact animal.”
In other words, this isn’t a food-from-nothing effort. There will still be feed and waste issues to deal with. We cannot grow in-vitro burgers “in a cup” in space for 700 years while WALL-E stacks our garbage into skyscrapers, fun as that sounds. At the same time, it would seem that, pound for pound, growing embryos would require less feed and would emit less waste than a steer that eats for half a year before it’s slaughtered.
Either way, there is something perverse about eating animal embryos, even coated with sweet and sour sauce. It might not be Soylent Green, but it will still take a long time to convince consumers that in-vitro is all good to eat.
Organic Continues To Thrive:
Test tube chicken nuggets are not the only option. There are other alternatives to hormone-filled chickens squished in cages. As the economy has slowed down, folks have been returning to their own backyards. People with a few acres are taking advantage of their land to let a bullock or two forage during the summer. Gardens grown with heirloom seeds and old-fashioned manure can be guaranteed free of chemicals and genetically modified vegetables. A few happy chickens wandering around the yard not only eat bugs, and poop out natural fertilizer, but they offer hormone-free eggs and even an occasional healthy supper of chicken and dumplings. Feathers are messy, but we all make trades in life.Organic farms have flourished in recent decades as people shy away from the hormones and chemicals and genetically modified produce that have overtaken supermarket shelves. Even in the cities, rooftop and vacant lot gardens have cropped up. A good supply of tomatoes or basil can be gathered from potted plants on a balcony, and they taste miles better than the ones from the store.
Future Famine?
In Revelation 6:5-6, the Bible speaks of a time when a simple measure of wheat will cost an entire day’s wages. Famines are not new, and there will be some terrible ones in the future. The problem is not lack of resources or overpopulation, however. The majority of famines on earth are man-made. The horrible economic conditions of the future will be caused by mismanagement and corrupt government rather than a lack of land or water, or even of a shortage of embryonic-beef burgers.The Christian’s Famine Today:
Too many Christians today suffer from malnourishment; we are living in famine conditions but the famine has nothing to do with food. Our famine is like the one that Amos spoke of:“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land – not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.” – Amos 8:11
Let’s put as much effort into feeding ourselves with the Word of God as we do putting supper (with or without in-vitro burgers) on the table. After all, man does not live by bread alone.
Related Links:
• In-Vitro Meat: Would Lab-Burgers Be Better For Us And The Planet? – CNN
• Opinion: Is In-Vitro Steak The Meat That Can’t Be Beat? – Digital Journal
• Organic Farmers Seek Healthier Future – The Wall Street Journal
• Rooftop Garden a Sweet Success – Telegram and Gazette
• Biotech: The Sorcerer’s New Apprentice – Koinonia House
Texas Schools will Teach the Bible
TEXAS SCHOOLS WILL TEACH THE BIBLE
Texas high schools will be offering Bible literacy classes this fall, according to a 2007 Texas law now officially going into effect. As expected, plenty of people are criticizing Texas for weakening the Church-State boundary. Others, though, laud the law for working to brick in an essential part of high schoolers’ education.
In 2007, Texas passed House Bill 1287, which requires that Texas public high schools offer “elective courses on the Bible’s Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and New Testament and their impact on the history and literature of Western civilization.” Problems with funding and training put the law on hold for two years, but this year the classes will be available all over the state. The law stipulates that the lessons are to be taught objectively, in an academic manner and should neither promote nor disparage religion. Instead, they should “teach students knowledge of biblical content, characters, poetry, and narratives that are prerequisites to understanding contemporary society and culture.” Teachers have to get a special certification that qualifies them to teach the course, lest the class become a daily devotional time.
School districts have some flexibility about how to implement the law in their own high schools. Wylie High School will offer a Bible literacy class using a textbook approved by the Texas Education Agency. Abilene Independent School District, though, will simply include Bible literacy information in other classes on literature or history.
Social studies teacher Jennifer Kendrick taught a Bible literacy course at New Braunfels High School three years ago, and 25 students have signed up for it this year.
“We cover comparative religion and study the archetypes in the Bible, as well as its influence on literature and Western civilization,” Kendrick said. “One unit talks about the books of the Bible and the other is more of a comparison of other religions,” and their history, she said.
“This is not Christianity 101,” said Eric Thaxton, an English teacher who will be teaching the class at Wylie High School. “This is the Bible and its influence. If someone in the class is not a Christian, I hope they get the same out of it as everyone else.”
Plenty of people have already accused Texas of failing to recognize the separation of Church and State over this law. Some have blamed Texas with one-upping the Taliban, and others have insisted that education on the Bible should be relegated to the Sunday School classroom. Some parents are concerned their kids will be taught that the Bible is true. Others fear the opposite, that their kids will be taught that the Bible stories are merely mythology. There is always the risk that teachers will push their agendas, whichever way they might lean. However, as long as schools stick to the rules and teach the Bible objectively, students will simply learn more about the Bible and be free to draw their own religious and spiritual conclusions about its contents.
Even completely secular educators, though, can argue that Texas is in the right. This can be seen simply from a quick look at Shakespeare.
Shakespeare and the Bible:
Shakespeare helped create the English language. We teach Shakespeare to unappreciative school children because his works offer excellent literature, and his stories are entertaining to boot. A knowledge of Shakespeare is useful toward a good education for another reason; a massive number of common idioms and phrases have come to the world through his plays.The same is true of the Bible. The Bible gives us poetry and drama, legal documents, history, and romance, and is arguable the world’s most excellent collection of literature, ancient or otherwise. And not only are the Bible stories worthy reads in themselves, but a massive number of common idioms and sayings come to us from the Bible. In fact, a knowledge of the Bible is vital for understanding much of Western literature, because allusions to the Bible pop up constantly. We don’t only find the Bible in obvious places like Paradise Lost by John Milton, but in the writings of John Steinbeck and O. Henry, Mark Twain and William Faulkner. Biblical references pervade Western literature.
In fact, Shakespeare himself alludes to the Bible so regularly that some folks have speculated he was one of the scholars that translated the King James Version. The story of Cain and Abel alone shows up in Shakespeare 25 times, and a conservative estimate of Shakespeare’s biblical allusions runs about 1200 in number.
Shakespeare also refers to Greek and Roman mythology a great deal. Frankly, students who are ignorant of Greek and Roman myths will be hard pressed to understand many of Shakespeare’s allusions. Nobody would question a course on Greek mythology in a public school classroom. Yet, Shakespeare used the Bible with relish. The Bible influenced all of Western history and law, literature and society far more than even the Greeks.
And that’s the point. Not only is it okay that the Bible be taught in public schools, but it is vital if students are to have a good understanding of Western literature and culture. People should not be attacking public schools for offering classes on the Bible. They should be upset if schools fail to offer classes on Bible literacy. Leaving it out for fear of breaking the sacred Church and State barrier is detrimental to the basic education of our students.
Related Links:
• Wylie H.S. To Offer Bible Course – Abilene Reporter-News
• Bible Course Offered Again – The Herald-Zeitung
• Does The Bible Belong In A Public Classroom? – Boston.com
• Shakespeare and the Geneva Bible – Reformation21
• Teaching The Bible As Literature – Koinonia House eNews (March 2006)
Daniel 7:15-28; The Visions of the Four Beasts – Part 3; Here we have the deep impressions which these visions made upon the prophet; The interpretation of these visions, given him by an angel that stood by; Note, It concerns God’s prophets and ministers to treasure up the things of God in their minds, and there to digest them well; If we would have God’s word ready in our mouths when we have occassion for it, we must keep it in our hearts at all times. B.C. 555
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The Vision of the Four Beasts. |
B. C. 555. |
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Daniel 7:15-28
15 I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. 16 I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things. 17 These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth. 18 But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. 19 Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron, and his nails of brass; which devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet; 20 And of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. 21 I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; 22 Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. 23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. 24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. 25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. 26 But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. 27 And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. 28 Hitherto is the end of the matter. As for me Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me: but I kept the matter in my heart.
Here we have, I. The deep impressions which these visions made upon the prophet. God in them put honour upon him, and gave him satisfaction, yet not without a great allay of pain and perplexity (v. 15): I Daniel was grieved in my spirit, in the midst of my body. The word here used for the body properly signifies a sheath or scabbard, for the body is no more to the soul; that is the weapon; it is that which we are principally to take care of. The visions of my head troubled me, an again (v. 28), my cogitations much troubled me. The manner in which these things were discovered to him quite overwhelmed him, and put his thoughts so much to the stretch that his spirits failed him, and the trance he was in tired him and made him faint. The things themselves that were discovered amazed and astonished him, and put him into a confusion, till by degrees he recollected and conquered himself, and set the comforts of the vision over against the terrors of it.
II. His earnest desire to understand the meaning of them (v. 16): I came near to one of those that stood by, to one of the angels that appeared attending the Son of man in his glory, and asked him the truth (the true intent and meaning) of all this. Note, It is a very desirable thing to take the right and full sense of what we see and hear from God; and those that would know must ask by faithful and fervent prayer and by accomplishing a diligent search.
III. The key that was given him, to let him into the understanding of this vision. The angel told him, and told him so plainly that he made him know the interpretation of the thing, and so made him somewhat more easy.
1. The great beasts are great kings and their kingdoms, great monarchs and their monarchies, which shall arise out of the earth, as those beasts did out of the sea, v. 17. They are but terræfilii–from beneath; they savour of the earth, and their foundation is in the dust; they are of the earth earthy, and they are written in the dust, and to the dust they shall return.
2. Daniel pretty well understands the first three beasts, but concerning the fourth he desires to be better informed, because it differed so much from the rest, and was exceedingly dreadful, and not only so, but very mischievous, or it devoured and broke in pieces, v. 19. Perhaps it was this that put Daniel into such a fright, and this part of the visions of his head troubled him more than any of the rest. But especially he desired to know what the little horn was, that had eyes, and a mouth that spoke very great things, and whose countenance was more fearless and formidable than that of any of his fellows, v. 20. And this he was most inquisitive about because it was this horn that made war with the saints, and prevailed against them, v. 21. While no more is intimated than that the children of men make war with one another, and prevail against one another, the prophet does not show himself so much concerned (let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth, and be dashed in pieces one against another); but when they make war with the saints, when the precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, are broken as earthen pitchers, it is time to ask, “What is the meaning of this? Will the Lord cast off his people? Will he suffer their enemies to trample upon them and triumph over them? What is this same horn that shall prevail so far against the saints?” To this his interpreter answers (v. 23-25) that this fourth beast is a fourth kingdom, that shall devour the whole earth, or (as it may be read) the whole land. That the ten horns are ten kings, and the little horn is another king that shall subdue three kings, and shall be very abusive to God and his people, shall act,
(1.) Very impiously towards God. He shall speak great words against the Most High, setting him, and his authority and justice, at defiance.
(2.) Very imperiously towards the people of God. He shall wear out the saints of the Most High; he will not cut them off at once, but wear them out by long oppressions and a constant course of hardships put upon them, ruining their estates and weakening their families. The design of Satan has been to wear out the saints of the Most High, that they may be no more in remembrance; but the attempt is vain, for while the world stands God will have a church in it. He shall think to change times and laws, to abolish all the ordinances and institutions of religion, and to bring every body to say and do just as he would have them. He shall trample upon laws and customs, human and divine. Diruit, ædificut, mutat quadrata rotundis–He pulls down, he builds, he changes square into round, as if he meant to alter even the ordinances of heaven themselves. And in these daring attempts he shall for a time prosper and have success; they shall be given into his hand until time, times, and half a time (that is, for three years and a half), that famous prophetical measure of time which we meet with in the Revelation, which is sometimes called forty-two months, sometimes 1260 days, which come all to one. But at the end of that time the judgment shall sit and take away his dominion (v. 26), which he expounds (v. 11) of the beast being slain and his body destroyed. And (as Mr. Mede reads v. 12) as to the rest of the beast, the ten horns, especially the little ruffling horn (as he calls it), they had their dominion taken away. Now the question is, Who is this enemy, whose rise, reign, and ruin, are foretold? Interpreters are not agreed. Some will have the fourth kingdom to be that of the Seleucidæ, and the little horn to be Antiochus, and show the accomplishment of all this in the history of the Maccabees; so Junius, Piscator, Polanus, Broughton, and many others: but others will have the fourth kingdom to be that of the Romans, and the little horn to be Julius Cæsar, and the succeeding emperors (says Calvin), the antichrist, the papal kingdom (says Mr. Joseph Mede), that wicked one, which, as this little horn, is to be consumed by the brightness of Christ’s second coming. The pope assumes a power to change times and laws, potestas autokratorike–an absolute and despotic power, as he calls it. Others make the little horn to be the Turkish empire; so Luther, Vatablus, and others. Now I cannot prove either side to be wrong; and therefore, since prophecies sometimes have many fulfillings, and we ought to give scripture its full latitude (in this as in many other controversies), I am willing to allow that they are both in the right, and that this prophecy has primary reference to the Syrian empire, and was intended for the encouragement of the Jews who suffered under Antiochus, that they might see even these melancholy times foretold, but might foresee a glorious issue of them at last, and the final overthrow of their proud oppressors; and, which is best of all, might foresee, not long after, the setting up of the kingdom of the Messiah in the world, with the hopes of which it was usual with the former prophets to comfort the people of God in their distresses. But yet it has a further reference, and foretels the like persecuting power and rage in Rome heathen, and no less in Rome papal, against the Christian religion, that was in Antiochus against the pious Jews and their religion. And St. John, in his visions and prophecies, which point primarily at Rome, has plain reference, in many particulars, to these visions of Daniel.
3. He has a joyful prospect given him of the prevalency of God’s kingdom among men, and its victory over all opposition at last. And it is very observable that in the midst of the predictions of the force and fury of the enemies this is brought in abruptly (v. 18 and again v. 22), before it comes, in the course of the vision, to be interpreted, v. 26, 27. And this also refers,
(1.) To the prosperous days of the Jewish church, after it had weathered the storm under Antiochus, and the power which the Maccabees obtained over their enemies.
(2.) To the setting up of the kingdom of the Messiah in the world by the preaching of his gospel. For judgment Christ comes into this world, to rule by his Spirit, and to make all his saints kings and priests to their God.
(3.) To the second coming of Jesus Christ, when the saints shall judge the world, shall sit down with him on his throne and triumph in the complete downfall of the devil’s kingdom. Let us see what is here foretold.
[1.] The Ancient of days shall come, v. 22. God shall judge the world by his Son, to whom he has committed all judgment, and, as an earnest of that, he comes for the deliverance of his oppressed people, comes for the setting up of his kingdom in the world.
[2.] The judgment shall sit, v. 26. God will make it appear that he judges in the earth, and will, both in wisdom and in equity, plead his people’s righteous cause. At the great day he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained.
[3.] The dominion of the enemy shall be taken away, v. 26. All Christ’s enemies shall be made his footstool, and shall be consumed and destroyed to the end: these were the apostle uses concerning the man of sin, 2 Thess. ii. 8. He shall be consumed with the spirit of Christ’s mouth and destroyed with the brightness of his coming.
[4.] Judgment is given to the saints of the Most High. The apostles are entrusted with the preaching of a gospel by which the world shall be judged. All the saints by their faith and obedience condemn an unbelieving disobedient world; in Christ their head they shall judge the world, shall judge the twelve tribes of Israel, Matt. xix. 28. See what reason we have to honour those that fear the Lord; how mean and despicable soever the saints now appear in the eye of the world, and how much contempt soever is poured upon them; they are the saints of the Most High; they are near and dear to God, and he owns them for his, and judgment is given to them.
[5.] That which is most insisted upon is that the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, v. 18. And again (v. 22), The time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. And again (v. 27), The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heavens, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. Far be it from us to infer hence that dominion is founded on grace, or that this will warrant any, under pretence of saintship, to usurp kingship. No; Christ’s kingdom is not of this world; but this intimates the spiritual dominion of the saints over their own lusts and corruptions, their victories over Satan and his temptations, and the triumphs of the martyrs over death and its terrors. It likewise promises that the gospel kingdom shall be set up, a kingdom of grace, the privileges and comforts of which now, under the heavens, shall be the earnest and first-fruits of the kingdom of glory in the heavens. When the empire became Christian, and princes used their power for the defence and advancement of Christianity, then the saints possessed the kingdom. The saints rule by the Spirit’s ruling in them (and this is the victory overcoming the world, even their faith) and by making the kingdoms of this world to become Christ’s kingdom. But the full accomplishment of this will be in the everlasting happiness of the saints, the kingdom that cannot be moved, which we, according to his promise, look for (that is the greatness of the kingdom), the crown of glory that fades not away–that is the everlasting kingdom. See what an emphasis is laid upon this (v. 18): The saints shall possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever; and the reason is because he whose saints they are is the Most High and his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, v. 27. He is so, and therefore theirs shall be so. Because I live, you shall live also, John xiv. 19. His kingdom is theirs; they reckon themselves exalted in his exaltation, and desire no greater honour and satisfaction to themselves than that all dominions should serve and obey him, as they shall do, v. 27. They shall either be brought into subjection to his golden sceptre or brought to destruction by his iron rod.
Daniel, in the close, when he ends that matter, tells us what impressions this vision made upon him; it overwhelmed his spirits to such a degree that his countenance was changed, and it made him look pale; but he kept the matter in his heart. Note, The heart must be the treasury and store-house of divine things; there we must hide God’s word, as the Virgin Mary kept the sayings of Christ, Luke ii. 51. Daniel kept the matter in his heart, with a design, not to keep it from the church, but to keep it for the church, that what he had received from the Lord he might fully and faithfully deliver to the people. Note, It concerns God’s prophets and ministers to treasure up the things of God in their minds, and there to digest them well. If we would have God’s word ready in our mouths when we have occasion for it, we must keep it in our hearts at all times.
- Matthew Henry Commentary
Daniel 7:9-14; The Vision of the Four Beasts – Part 2; His Vision of God’s Throne of Government and Judgment; That there is judgment to come, and God is the Judge, The Ancient of Days; Now men have their day, and every pretender thinks he should have his day, and struggles for it. B.C. 555
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The Vision of the Four Beasts. |
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Daniel 7:9-14
9 I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. 10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. 11 I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. 12 As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. 13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. 14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
Whether we understand the fourth beast to signify the Syrian empire, or the Roman, or the former as the figure of the latter, it is plain that these verses are intended for the comfort and support of the people of God in reference to the persecutions they were likely to sustain both from the one and from the other, and from all their proud enemies in every age; for it is written for their learning on whom the ends of the world have come, that they also, through patience and comfort of this scripture, might have hope. Three things are here discovered that are very encouraging:–
I. That there is a judgment to come, and God is the Judge. Now men have their day, and every pretender thinks he should have his day, and struggles for it. But he that sits in heaven laughs at them, for he sees that his day is coming, Ps. xxxvii. 13. I beheld (v. 9) till the thrones were cast down, not only the thrones of these beasts, but all rule, authority, power, that are set up in opposition to the kingdom of God among men (1 Cor. xv. 24): such are the thrones of the kingdoms of the world, in comparison with God’s kingdom; those that see them set up need but wait awhile, and they will see them cast down. I beheld till thrones were set up (so it may as well be read), Christ’s throne and the throne of his Father. One of the rabbin confesses that these thrones are set up, one for God, another for the Son of David. It is the judgment that is here set, v. 10. Now,
1. This is intended to proclaim God’s wise and righteous government of the world by his providence; and an unspeakable satisfaction it gives to all good men, in the midst of the convulsions and revolutions of states and kingdoms, that the Lord has prepared his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all (Ps. ciii. 19), that verily there is a God that judges in the earth, Ps. lviii. 11.
2. Perhaps it points at the destruction brought by the providence of God upon the empire of Syria, or that of Rome, for their tyrannizing over the people of God. But, 3. It seems principally designed to describe the last judgment, for though it follow not immediately upon the dominion of the fourth beast, nay, though it be yet to come, perhaps many ages to come, yet it was intended that in every age the people of God should encourage themselves, under their troubles, with the belief and prospect of it. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of it, Jude 14. Does the mouth of the enemy speak great things, v. 8. Here are far greater things which the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Many of the New-Testament predictions of the judgment to come have a plain allusion to this vision, especially St John’s vision of it, Rev. xx. 11, 12.
(1.) The Judge is the Ancient of days himself, God the Father, the glory of whose presence is here described. He is called the Ancient of days, because he is God from everlasting to everlasting. Among men we reckon that with the ancient is wisdom, and days shall speak; shall not all flesh then be silent before him who is the Ancient of days? The glory of the Judge is here set forth by his garment, which was white as snow, denoting his splendour and purity in all the administrations of his justice; and the hair of his head clean and white, as the pure wool, that, as the white and hoary head, he may appear venerable.
(2.) The throne is very formidable. It is like the fiery flame, dreadful to the wicked that shall be summoned before it. And the throne being movable upon wheels, or at least the chariot in which he rode the circuit, the wheels thereof are as burning fire, to devour the adversaries; for our God is a consuming fire, and with him are everlasting burnings, Isa. xxxiii. 14. This is enlarged upon, v. 10. As to all his faithful friends there proceeds out of the throne of God and the Lamb a pure river of water of life (Rev. xxii. 1), so to all his implacable enemies there issues and comes forth from his throne a fiery stream, a stream of brimstone (Isa. xxx. 33), a fire that shall devour before him. He is a swift witness, and his word a word upon the wheels.
(3.) The attendants are numerous and very splendid. The Shechinah is always attended with angels; it is so here (v. 10): Thousand thousands minister to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before him. It is his glory that he has such attendants, but much more his glory that he neither needs them nor can be benefited by them. See how numerous the heavenly hosts are (there are thousands of angels), and how obsequious they are–they stand before God, ready to go on his errands and to take the first intimation of his will and pleasure. They will particularly be employed as ministers of his justice in the last judgment day, when the Son of man shall come, and all the holy angels with him. Enoch prophesied that the Lord should come with his holy myriads.
(4.) The process is fair and unexceptionable: The judgment is set, publicly and openly, that all may have recourse to it; and the books are opened. As in courts of judgment among men the proceedings are in writing and upon record, which is laid open when the cause comes to a hearing, the examination of witnesses is produced, and affidavits are read, to clear the matter of fact, and the statute and common-law books are consulted to find out what is the law, so, in the judgment of the great day, the equity of the sentence will be as incontestably evident as if there were books opened to justify it.
II. That the proud and cruel enemies of the church of God will certainly be reckoned with and brought down in due time, v. 11, 12. This is here represented to us,
1. In the destroying of the fourth beast. God’s quarrel with this beast is because of the voice of the great words which the horn spoke, bidding defiance to Heaven, and triumphing over all that is sacred; this provokes God more than any thing, for the enemy to behave himself proudly, Deut. xxxii. 27. Therefore Pharaoh must be humbled, because he has said, Who is the Lord? and has said, I will pursue, I will overtake. Enoch foretold that therefore the Lord would come to judge the world, that he might convince all that are ungodly of their hard speeches, Jude 15. Note, Great words are but idle words, for which men must give account in the great day. And see what becomes of this beast that talks so big: He is slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame. The Syrian empire, after Antiochus, was destroyed. He himself died of a miserable disease, his family was rooted out, the kingdom wasted by the Parthians and Armenians, and at length made a province of the Roman empire by Pompey. And the Roman empire itself (if we take that for the fourth beast), after it began to persecute Christianity, declined and wasted away, and the body of it was destroyed. So shall all thy enemies perish, O Lord! and be slain before thee.
2. In the diminishing and weakening of the other three beasts (v. 12): They had their dominion taken away, and so were disabled from doing the mischiefs they had done to the church and people of God; but a prolonging in life was given them, for a time and a season, a set time, the bounds of which they could not pass. The power of the foregoing kingdoms was quite broken, but the people of them still remained in a mean, weak, and low condition. We may allude to this in describing the remainders of sin in the hearts of good people; they have corruptions in them, the lives of which are prolonged, so that they are not perfectly free from sin, but the dominion of them is taken away, so that sin does not reign in their mortal bodies. And thus God deals with his church’s enemies; sometimes he breaks the teeth of them (Ps. iii. 7), when he does not break the neck of them, crushes the persecution, but reprieves the persecutors, that they may have space to repent. And it is fit that God, in doing his own work, should take his own time and way.
III. That the kingdom of the Messiah shall be set up, and kept up, in the world, in spite of all the opposition of the powers of darkness. Let the heathen rage and fret as long as they please, God will set his King upon his holy hill of Zion. Daniel sees this in vision, and comforts himself and his friends with the prospect of it. This is the same with Nebuchadnezzar’s foresight of the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, which broke in pieces the image; but in this vision there is much more of pure gospel than in that.
1. The Messiah is here called the Son of man–one like unto the Son of man; for he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, was found in fashion as a man. I saw one like unto the Son of man, one exactly agreeing with the idea formed in the divine counsels of him that in the fulness of time was to be the Mediator between God and man. He is like unto the son of man, but is indeed the Son of God. Our Savior seems plainly to refer to this vision when he says (John v. 27) that the Father has therefore given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of man, and because he is the person whom Daniel saw in vision, to whom a kingdom and dominion were to be given.
2. He is said to come with the clouds of heaven. Some refer this to his incarnation; he descended in the clouds of heaven, came into the world unseen, as the glory of the Lord took possession of the temple in a cloud. The empires of the world were beasts that rose out of the sea; but Christ’s kingdom is from above: he is the Lord from heaven. I think it is rather to be referred to his ascension; when he returned to the Father the eye of his disciples followed him, till a cloud received him out of their sight, Acts i. 9. He made that cloud his chariot, wherein he rode triumphantly to the upper world. He comes swiftly, irresistibly, and comes in state, for he comes with the clouds of heaven.
3. He is here represented as having a mighty interest in Heaven. When the cloud received him out of the sight of his disciples, it is worth while to enquire (as the sons of the prophets concerning Elijah in a like case) whither it carried him, where it lodged him; and here we are told, abundantly to our satisfaction, that he came to the Ancient of days; for he ascended to his Father and our Father, to his God and our God (John xx. 17); from him he came forth, and to him he returns, to be glorified with him, and to sit down at his right hand. It was with a great deal of pleasure that he said, Now I go to him that sent me. But was he welcome? Yes, not doubt, he was, for they brought him near before him; he was introduced into his Father’s presence, with the attendance and adorations of all the angels of God, Heb. i. 6. God caused him to draw near and approach to him, as an advocate and undertaker for us (Jer. xxx. 21), that we through him might be made nigh. By this solemn near approach which he made to the Ancient of days it appears that the Father accepted the sacrifice he offered, and the satisfaction he made, and was entirely well pleased with all he had done. He was brought near, as our high priest, who for us enters within the veil, and as our forerunner,
4. He is here represented as having a mighty influence upon this earth, v. 14. When he went to be glorified with his Father he had a power given him over all flesh, John xvii. 2, 5. With the prospect of this Daniel and his friends are here comforted, that not only the dominion of the church’s enemies shall be taken away (v. 12), but the church’s head and best friend shall have the dominion given him; to him every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. Phil. ii. 9, 10. To him are given glory and a kingdom, and they are given by him who has an unquestionable right to give them, which, some think with an eye to these words, our Savior teaches us to acknowledge in the close of the Lord’s prayer, For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. It is here foretold that the kingdom of the exalted Redeemer shall be,
(1.) A universal kingdom, the only universal monarchy, whatever others have pretended to, or aimed at: All people, nations, and languages, shall fear him, and be under his jurisdiction, either as his willing subjects or as his conquered captives, to be either ruled or overruled by him. One way or other, the kingdoms of the world shall all become his kingdoms.
(2.) An everlasting kingdom. His dominion shall not pass away to any successor, much less to any invader, and his kingdom is that which shall not be destroyed. Even the gates of hell, or the infernal powers and policies, shall not prevail against it. The church shall continue militant to the end of time, and triumphant to the endless ages of eternity.
- Matthew Henry Commentary
Daniel 7:1-8; The Vision of the Four Beasts – Part 1; We have, in these verses, Daniel’s vision of the four monarchies that were oppressive to the Jews; He had visions of his head upon his bed, when he was asleep; so God sometimes revealed Himself and His mind to the children of men, when deep sleep fell upon them (Job 33:15); for when we are most retired from the world, and taken off from the things of sense, we are most fit for communion with God. B.C. 555
D A N I E L.
CHAPTER 7
The six former chapters of this book were historical; we now enter with fear and trembling upon the six latter, which are prophetical, wherein are many things dark and hard to be understood, which we dare not positively determine the sense of, and yet many things plain and profitable, which I trust God will enable us to make a good use of. In this chapter we have, I. Daniel’s vision of the four beasts, ver. 1-8. II. His vision of God’s throne of government and judgment, ver. 9-14. III. The interpretation of these visions, given him by an angel that stood by, ver. 15-28. Whether those visions look as far forward as the end of time, or whether they were to have a speedy accomplishment, is hard to say, nor are the most judicious interpreters agreed concerning it.
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Daniel 7:1-8
1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters. 2 Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. 3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. 4 The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it. 5 And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. 6 After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it. 7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. 8 I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
The date of this chapter places it before ch. v., which was in the last year of Belshazzar, and ch. iv., which was in the first of Darius; for Daniel had those visions in the first year of Belshazzar, when the captivity of the Jews in Babylon was drawing near a period. Belshazzar’s name here is, in the original, spelt differently from what it used to be; before it was Bel-she-azar–Bel is he that treasures up riches. But this is Bel-eshe-zar–Bel is on fire by the enemy. Bel was the god of the Chaldeans; he had prospered, but is now to be consumed.
We have, in these verses, Daniel’s vision of the four monarchies that were oppressive to the Jews. Observe,
I. The circumstances of this vision. Daniel had interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, and now he is himself honoured with similar divine discoveries (v. 1): He had visions of his head upon his bed, when he was asleep; so God sometimes revealed himself and his mind to the children of men, when deep sleep fell upon them (Job xxxiii. 15); for when we are most retired from the world, and taken off from the things of sense, we are most fit for communion with God. But when he was awake he wrote the dream for his own use, lest he should forget it as a dream which passes away; and he told the sum of the matters to his brethren the Jews for their use, and gave it to them in writing, that it might be communicated to those at a distance and preserved for their children after them, who shall see these things accomplished. The Jews, misunderstanding some of the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, flattered themselves with hopes that, after their return to their own land, they should enjoy a complete and uninterrupted tranquility; but that they might not so deceive themselves, and their calamities be made doubly grievous by the disappointment, God by this prophet lets them know that they shall have tribulation: those promises of their prosperity were to be accomplished in the spiritual blessings of the kingdom of grace; as Christ has told his disciples they must expect persecution, and the promises they depend upon will be accomplished in the eternal blessings of the kingdom of glory. Daniel both wrote these things and spoke them, to intimate that the church should be taught both by the scriptures and by ministers’ preaching, both by the written word and by word of mouth; and ministers in their preaching are to tell the sum of the matters that are written.
II. The vision itself, which foretels the revolutions of government in those nations which the church of the Jews, for the following ages, was to be under the influence of.
1. He observed the four winds to strive upon the great sea, v. 2. They strove which should blow strongest, and, at length, blow alone. This represents the contests among princes for empire, and the shakings of the nations by these contests, to which those mighty monarchies, which he was now to have a prospect of, owed their rise. One wind from any point of the compass, if it blow hard, will cause a great commotion in the sea; but what a tumult must needs be raised when the four winds strive for mastery! This is it which the kings of the nations are contending for in their wars, which are as noisy and violent as the battle of the winds; but how is the poor sea tossed and torn, how terrible are its concussions, and how violent its convulsions, while the winds are at strife which shall have the sole power of troubling it! Note, This world is like a stormy tempestuous sea; thanks to the proud ambitious winds that vex it.
2. He saw four great beasts come up from the sea, from the troubled waters, in which aspiring minds love to fish. The monarchs and monarchies are represented by beasts, because too often it is by brutish rage and tyranny that they are raised and supported. These beasts were diverse one from another (v. 3), of different shapes, to denote the different genius and complexion of the nations in whose hands they were lodged.
(1.) The first beast was like a lion, v. 4. This was the Chaldean monarchy, that was fierce and strong, and made the kings absolute. This lion had eagle’s wings, with which to fly upon the prey, denoting the wonderful speed that Nebuchadnezzar made in his conquest of kingdoms. But Daniel soon sees the wings plucked, a full stop put to the career of their victorious arms. Divers countries that had been tributaries to them revolt from them, and make head against them; so that this monstrous animal, this winged lion, is made to stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart is given to it. It has lost the heart of a lion, which it had been famous for (one of our English kings was called Cœur de Lion–Lion-heart), has lost its courage and become feeble and faint, dreading every thing and daring nothing; they are put in fear, and made to know themselves to be but men. Sometimes the valour of a nation strangely sinks, and it becomes cowardly and effeminate, so that what was the head of the nations in an age or two becomes the tail.
(2.) The second beast was like a bear, v. 5. This was the Persian monarchy, less strong and generous than the former, but no less ravenous. This bear raised up itself on one side against the lion, and soon mastered it. It raised up one dominion; so some read it. Persia and Media, which in Nebuchadnezzar’s image were the two arms in one breast, now set up a joint government. This bear had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth, the remains of those nations it had devoured, which were the marks of its voraciousness, and yet an indication that though it had devoured much it could not devour all; some ribs still stuck in the teeth of it, which it could not conquer. Whereupon it was said to it, “Arise, devour much flesh; let alone the bones, the ribs, that cannot be conquered, and set upon that which will be an easier prey.” The princes will stir up both the kings and the people to push on their conquests, and let nothing stand before them. Note, Conquests, unjustly made, are but like those of the beasts of prey, and in this much worse, that the beasts prey not upon those of their own kind, as wicked and unreasonable men do.
(3.) The third beast was like a leopard, v. 6. This was the Grecian monarchy, founded by Alexander the Great, active, crafty, and cruel, like a leopard. He had four wings of a fowl; the lion seems to have had but two wings; but the leopard had four, for though Nebuchadnezzar made great despatch in his conquests Alexander made much greater. In six years’ time he gained the whole empire of Persia, a great part besides of Asia, made himself master of Syria, Egypt, India, and other nations. This beast had four heads; upon Alexander’s death his conquests were divided among his four chief captains; Seleucus Nicanor had Asia the Great; Perdiccas, and after him Antigonus, had Asia the Less; Cassander had Macedonia; and Ptolemeus had Egypt. Dominion was given to this beast; it was given of God, from whom alone promotion comes.
(4.) The fourth beast was more fierce, and formidable, and mischievous, than any of them, unlike any of the other, nor is there any among the beasts of prey to which it might be compared, v. 7. The learned are not agreed concerning this anonymous beast; some make it to be the Roman empire, which, when it was in its glory, comprehended ten kingdoms, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Britain, Sarmatia, Pannonia, Asia, Greece, and Egypt; and then the little horn which rose by the fall of three of the other horns (v. 8) they make to be the Turkish empire, which rose in the room of Asia, Greece, and Egypt. Others make this fourth beast to be the kingdom of Syria, the family of the Seleucidæ, which was very cruel and oppressive to the people of the Jews, as we find in Josephus and the history of the Maccabees. And herein that empire was diverse from those which went before, that none of the preceding powers compelled the Jews to renounce their religion, but the kings of Syria did, and used them barbarously. Their armies and commanders were the great iron teeth with which they devoured and broke in pieces the people of God, and they trampled upon the residue of them. The ten horns are then supposed to be ten kings that reigned successively in Syria; and then the little horn is Antiochus Epiphanes, the last of the ten, who by one means or other undermined three of the kings, and got the government. He was a man of great ingenuity, and therefore is said to have eyes like the eyes of a man; and he was very bold and daring, had a mouth speaking great things. We shall meet with him again in these prophecies.
- Matthew Henry Commentary
Is Russia Turkey’s alternative to the EU?
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s recent visit marked another major step in the growing relations between Turkey and Russia. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Putin signed some 20 agreements in the fields of energy and trade.
Ankara gave its approval to the proposed South Stream gas pipeline from Russia to the European Union under the Black Sea through Turkish territorial waters; Moscow committed Russian crude oil to the planned Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline. The agreements even included some concerning Russian participation in the construction of Turkish nuclear energy plants. Putin also signaled an end to restrictions at Russian customs on Turkish export goods.
Moscow attaches great importance to South Stream and Ankara to Nabucco, which will carry Caspian and Central Asian gas to the EU through Turkey, the agreement on which was signed just last month. It is uncertain as to how these two projects, regarded by many as rivals, will affect each other. Some Turkish experts maintain that South Stream is likely to either delay or rule out Nabucco, while others argue that the EU is likely to give priority to the latter. Putin has not, on the other hand, ruled out Russian interest in the Burgas-Alexandropoulos pipeline, regarded by many as a rival to Samsun-Ceyhan, while Russian authorities have expressed doubts about the feasibility of the latter.
Only time will tell which side will gain the most, but it is already clear that economic globalization and interdependence have brought together Turkey and Russia, traditional adversaries until the Cold War’s end. Since then, trade has grown quickly between the two countries. Russia supplies energy to Turkey, and Turkey supplies Russia with many of its required goods and services. Societal relations are also on the rise. Russian have the largest share among tourists visiting Turkey, and among foreigners marrying Turkish men and settling in the country.
The deepening Turkish-Russian relationship is interpreted, notably by Kemalist circles in Turkey and neocon circles in the US, as an indication of how Turkey, under the “Islamist” Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, is moving away from the West. Others talk about the formation of a Turkish-Russian axis, and Russia becoming for Turkey an alternative to the EU, as its EU hopes fade.
- From Prophecy News Watch
The greatest change in the history of Europe – The impact of Immigration & Islam
This mild-mannered, mainstream journalist’s predictions for Europe’s future are devastating, says Ed West.
You might not hear about this book (Reflections on the Revolution in Europe by Christopher Caldwell) much in the next month, nor even in the next year, but it will affect your life in some way, and that of our country and continent.
Christopher Caldwell is a mild-mannered Financial Times journalist who over the past decade has covered continental Europe (France especially) and its relationship with Islam in particular.
That Caldwell is so mainstream, well-respected and analytical makes his conclusion all the more devastating – that the mass migration of Africans and Asians into Europe since the Second World War was an unprecedented, economically unnecessary and ill-thought-out plan that has had a profoundly negative impact on our way of life.
Furthermore, he says, the mass importation of Muslims at a time when Europe has lost its own faith and Islam has developed a dangerous and powerful radicalism threatens the very freedom of Europe.
Enoch Powell was right, at least in accuracy if not morality. His 1968 prediction about a non-white population of 4.5 million by 2002 was mocked – in reality it was 4.6 million by 2001.
In 1970 he was again scorned for suggesting that Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Inner London would be between a fifth and a quarter non-white by the turn of the century. The figures were 22.2 per cent, 29.6 per cent and 34.4 per cent and rising.
But Powell’s predictions of “rivers of blood” turned out to be inaccurate so far because he was out of step; the Tory MP was a passionate believer in the British Empire, while most of his political contemporaries were riddled with liberal white guilt over colonialism and the Holocaust.
Such self-loathing was at the heart of the immigration experiment and later experiments in multiculturalism and political correctness; only a society so racked with self-hatred would have invited foreign labour in such numbers despite the economic benefits being so thin. The economic benefits in the long term, Caldwell argues, have been “puny” and short-term, while the social effects are profound and permanent.
Most of the new immigrants, such as Pakistanis in Yorkshire and Turks in the Ruhr valley, were actually recruited into industries that were already on their last legs, and most immigrant groups took and still take more out of their exchequer then they pay in.
For the indigenous European poor, in particular, immigration has made life harder, but for everyone it brings challenges (“challenges” being a euphemism for problems).
Illegal immigration is handy because illegal immigrants do the jobs no one else wants to, keeping down inflation and labour costs, so allowing Europeans to work 30 hours a week and retire at 55.
The problem is that soon these new immigrants tire of doing the dirty work and new recruits are needed to keep an ever larger number of retirees and other state dependants in villas.
It is a gigantic Ponzi scheme – play today, pay tomorrow – and Europe is starting to pay now, financially and socially. The integration of Pakistanis, Algerians, Moroccans and Turks into England, France, Holland and Germany has been made a lot harder by the rapid and widespread decline of Christianity.
One of the side-effects is the collapse in the European birth rate: Austria is becoming Islamic not because Muslims are having too many children – their birth rate of 2.34 per woman is very close to the optimum – but because atheism is killing the country. Among Austrians who call themselves Catholics, which includes a majority of non-churchgoers and other nominal Christians, the birth rate is 1.32; among those who profess atheism it is 0.86. It is the same everywhere – in Brussels the seven most common boys’ names are Mohamed, Adam, Rayan, Ayoub, Mehdi, Amine and Hamza. Leicester and Birmingham will soon be Britain’s first-ever majority non-white cities.
And yet the elites have been in total denial about the growth of a Muslim body, arguing that to do so ignores diversity among these communities – which Caldwell compares to denying there is such a thing as a car because Volvos and Volkswagens are different.
As well as growing in size every year, this Muslim population is dis-integrating from the European mainstream; children in German Muslim schools learns six hours of Arabic a day and one of German; in England the veil has become a widespread sight; a British brigade fought in Iraq for al-Qaeda; and Muslim “nationalism” in France has led to the creation of suburban ghettos far worse than anyone realises.
Caldwell compares the French ghetto film L’Haine, which portrayed a mixed Jewish and Arab gang, to West Side Story in its realism.
That simply would not happen in a Muslim suburb. The ironic end result of this post-Holocaust guilt is a surge in anti-Semitism at the end of the century, and a Muslim bloc that has pushed Europe in an increasingly anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic direction. Norway threatened to boycott Israeli goods at the same time as Norwegians were being attacked in Gaza over the Mohammed cartoon affair. In France there were black African gangs like Tribu Ka, who roamed around Jewish areas like a “postmodern Freikorps”.
The collapse of Christianity, and the introduction of novel morals such as the belief in sexual freedom, totally at odds with both Muslim culture and European culture of only half a century ago, has made conflict between Europe and the new Europeans even harder. That is why surveys consistently show Muslims and non-Muslims thinking the other side are “disrespectful” to women, or why a large minority of young British Muslims advocate the death penalty for apostasy.
Can Europe be the same? Clearly not. Can we reach some happy compromise that peacefully integrates such large communities and avoids the conflicts that have plagued such multi-cultural countries in the past? Probably not.
Pim Fortuyn in Holland offered the best hope of a non-racist, liberal Europe that believed in itself; after his murder the future lies either with Nicolas Sarkozy, who believes in republican integration, or the likes of Geert Wilders, whose hostility to Islam is increasingly shared across Europe.
This is a fascinating, earth-shattering account of the most radical change in European history.
- From Prophecy News Watch
Getting Back to ‘Classic’ Christianity
During a visit with my parents in Georgia, two of my daughters asked if they could listen to a tape recording my father made in 1962 when I was only 4 years old. So my dad rummaged through some drawers and found the old reel-to-reel tape, which was amazingly still intact. Then he went to the garage and found the old Realistic tape player that no one in the family had used since the Nixon administration.
To our surprise the scratchy tape actually played without breaking, and my girls laughed when they heard me—in a babyish Southern drawl—describing a Florida vacation and a fishing trip with my grandfather. After my “interview,” it switched to an older recording made in 1956. It included a conversation with my dad’s mother, who died before I was born.
It was eerie to hear her voice. I’d never heard it before yet it sounded hauntingly familiar. After that brief segment of the tape ended we listened to comments from my other three grandparents—all of whom died in the 1960s or 1970s. Their voices unearthed long-buried but fond memories.
These sounds from the past reminded me of some other distant voices I have been listening to recently. They are the voices of dead Christians—writers of classic books and songs that we are close to forgetting today.
Their names are probably somewhat familiar to you. Jonathan Edwards. John Wesley. Charles Finney. Catherine Booth. Andrew Murray. Evans Roberts. Charles Spurgeon. Fanny Crosby. E.M. Bounds. Watchman Nee. A.W. Tozer. William Seymour. A.B. Simpson. Corrie Ten Boom. Leonard Ravenhill.
All of them could be labeled revivalists. All challenged the Christians of their generation to embrace repentance and humility. They understood a realm of spiritual maturity and a depth of character that few of us today even aspire to obtain.
When I read their words I feel much the same way I did after hearing my grandparents’ voices on that old tape. I feel as if I am tapping into a realm of spirituality that is on the verge of extinction.
What was the secret of these great Christians who left their legacies buried in their books? They considered humility, selflessness and sacrifice the crowning virtues of the Christian journey. They called the church to die to selfishness, greed and ambition. They knew what it means to carry a “burden” for lost souls. They saw the glories of the kingdom and demanded total surrender. They challenged God’s people to pursue obedience—even if obedience hurts.
Even their hymns reflected a level of consecration that is foreign in worship today. They sang often of the cross and its wonder. Their worship focused on the blood and its power. They sang words of heart-piercing conviction: “My richest gain I count but loss / And pour contempt on all my pride / Forbid it Lord that I should boast / Save in the death of Christ, My God.”
In so many churches today the cross is not mentioned. The blood is avoided because we don’t want to offend visitors. And worship is often a canned performance that involves plenty of rhythm and orchestration but little or no substance. We can produce noise, but often there is no heart … and certainly no tears.
In the books Christians buy today you will find little mention of brokenness. We are not interested in a life that might require suffering, patience, purging or the discipline of the Lord. We want our blessings … and we want them now! So we look for the Christian brand of spiritualized self-help that is quick and painless.
We’re running on empty. We think we are sophisticated, but like the Laodiceans we are actually poor, blind and naked. We need to return to our first love but we don’t know where to begin the journey.
These voices from the past will help point the way. I’ve found myself drawn to reading books by Ravenhill, Ten Boom, Murray and Spurgeon in recent days. I’ve even pulled out an old hymnal and rediscovered the richness of songs that I had thrown out years ago—because I thought anything old couldn’t possibly maintain a fresh anointing.
I realize now that I must dig for this buried treasure. We will never effectively reach our generation if we don’t reclaim the humility, the brokenness, the consecration and the travail that our spiritual forefathers considered normal Christianity.
- From Prophecy News Watch
