Football, Fatima and Fado – the FIFA-Olympic Connection - Chapter 30

 

Football, Fatima and Fado – the FIFA-Olympic Connection

The story goes that the last dictator of Portugal, J.A. Salazar, who was Prime Minister from 1932 to 1968, when asked what was necessary to rule the country, responded with the three ‘Fs:’ football, Fatima and Fado. He was saying that all that he needed to control the country was sports, religion and music.

Fatima, of course, stood for the religious element. The town of Fatima was where the famous three Catholic children were supposed to have seen a vision and to have received a message from the Virgin Mary. The apparition event took place just prior to WWI. Portuguese tradition has it that Mary’s appearance at Fatima and the public’s embracing response was the reason that Portugal was able to remain neutral during the war.

The ‘F’ for Fado stood for the typical sad folk music popular in Portugal at the time, while the ‘F’ for football, obviously, stood for sports. During those years Benfica was Portugal’s greatest football team, and Eusebio, a famous striker, was the star. When a famous Italian team offered Eusebio a large contract to come play in Italy, Salazar prohibited it, saying that Eusebio was a national treasure. Salazar knew the value of football over the masses and so kept their champion at home.

We all remember the words of Karl Marx, who said that religion was the opiate of the masses. Salazar amplified the opiate to include the music and sports industries, which at the time of Salazar were still in their infancy in comparison with today. But of course the Romans and Greeks had used sports in the same way. In the time of Rome’s decline it is said that the people demanded more circus and bread even while Rome was being surrounded by its enemies.

Today we could amplify the list of opiates further and include the giant commercial centers where thousands rush every weekend to shop for all the things that money can buy. These are the new temples of mammon, where the faithful go to worships the new idols. We buy gadgets that give us more time on the Internet where we can watch more sports, music or religious events, or even have Internet sex or watch movies that promote all the values we don’t want our children or grandchildren to have. And yet, with all our things and momentary pleasure, we still do not satisfy the deepest yearning of our soul for truth, love and eternal happiness. Like the Apostle John has said,

Love not the world neither the things of the world for all that is of the world, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, is not of the father but of the world. And the world passes away and the lust thereof, but whosoever doeth the will of God abides forever.[1]

Jesus said something similar,

A man’s life consists not in the abundance of things which he possesses.[2]

Apostle James put it a different way. He said,

Ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.[3]

The apostle is saying here that if we are lusting after the things of the world, or living for them only, we are committing spiritual adultery with the world. That is why we will never be ultimately happy. Man is not just a physical being. He is spiritual being, and he must seek first his spiritual needs. As Jesus said,

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.[4] Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceed out of the mouth of God.[5]

In the Old Testament the Lord said through Isaiah,

Why do ye spend money for that which is not bread? And you labour for that which satisfies not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline you ear, and come unto me: hear and your soul shall live.[6]

Man is constantly trying to find happiness in the things that are not eternal and therefore in the end do not bring ultimate happiness. His amusements help him escape from the predicament he finds himself in. They help him escape from his life without meaning and purpose. They help him escape the daily grind of making a living to acquire more things. In the end, he winds up empty, wondering if this is all there is to life. He ends up concluding he should “Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may die.”[7] He spends his time trying to take care of and satisfy his body and its needs and desires, while neglecting his spirit, his eternal soul which will last for eternity. Like the old poem He Fed His Body But Starved His Soul.

There was a man that some folks called great,

said he’d done good, had grappled with fate.

He’d won some fame and some riches, too.

But in the crowd there were those that knew;

the soul of him so miserably small,

that real greatness he knew not at all.

For all through life he had missed the real goal,

he fed his body but starved his soul.

He had no time for the little things,

that so much peace and contentment brings;

a faithful friend or a child’s tender look,

a promise sweet from the dear Old Book,

a little talk with a Friend Divine,

a little walk where the wildflowers twine.

He was just half a man, not well rounded, whole;

who fed his body but starved his soul.

And when that day of accounting came

in God’s own time, death called his name;

then the poor, frail, worthless, empty shell,

he groomed and fed and tended so well,

was left behind just an earthbound clod,

while his shriveled soul went to face his God.

All unprepared and paid the full toll,

for he had fed his body and starved his soul.

So come my friend and take time today,

to read God’s Word and walk in His ways.

We’ll follow the trail that higher goes,

to regions where the soul larger grows.

You’ll never hear them say of you then,

just one of the common herd of men.

So if you would be well-rounded and whole,

read God’s Word to nourish your soul.[8]

Are we feeding our physical body with food and drink and entertainments of the flesh to the full, while our spirits are empty and longing for satisfaction? Do we feel like the Rolling Stones’ famous song, I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.[9] We can’t get no satisfaction because all we’re trying to do is satisfy the flesh. 

But the trouble is that the flesh is never satisfied. It always wants more and more and never has enough. Like the Proverb says,

The eyes of man are never satisfied.[10]

No matter how many beautiful woman a man has seen, he will always look at another one. Like the rich Romans in the time of Rome’s great wealth and abundance who would attend banquets full of food and sex and alcohol. They would eat to the filling of their stomachs, only to vomit it all up, so they could fill themselves up once again. Like some of the scandals of recent times of rich politicians or wealthy businessmen well in years seeking sex with young girls hardly eighteen years of age. The flesh is never satisfied, it always wants more. But as Jesus said,

The flesh profits nothing.[11]

But in this article I wanted to look at the World Cup and Olympics and see what kind of affect they have on the economies of the countries that host the games. I also wanted to see if these sports events are part of the spiritual web woven to catch men within its borders and prohibit them from finding the way, the truth and the life. John Perkin’s Economic Hitman[12] which we have talked about earlier, explains of the infrastructure contracts that Third World countries are forced to accept from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. At minute 3:45 in the clip below he talks about the Economic Hitman.

These contracts ultimately leave the country poorer than when they started. Are FIFA and the Olympics part of the great financial sorcery to bind heavier burdens on the poor economies of the world in order to keep those economies and those peoples submissive to the international bankers?

Some time ago I did a study about the countries who had hosted World Cup and Olympic events. Some articles on the subject and a YouTube link can be found at the following footnote.[13] I had seen the affects of these games in Portugal, Greece, and Spain, where the governments invested large amounts of euros loaned from Europe. These loans went to improve infrastructure and to build the needed stadiums in the hope of reaping the financial benefits of the games. In the end we found out that the financial benefits hardly warranted such a financial investment, and the government and people were left with a big financial loan to pay back.

That’s why we saw the manifestations in Brazil before the World Cup soccer games, as some have come to realize that the games bring no relief to the poor and needy. They only serve to increase the wealth of the wealthy through construction contracts. Some cities are left with stadiums they do not know how they will pay off or maintain. But since football is part of the web to keep men caught, as Salazar so confessed, the Internationals keep sports as a high priority on their agenda. They want a pacific populace. They want a population which will not rise up against their masters, the financial elite. They want a population that will submit and adhere to the financial injustices perpetrated against them.

They bind heavy burdens grievous to be born and they themselves touch not the burdens with one finger.[14]

The bankers and politicians create big national debts and then expect the population to pay it back to them. Something is wrong with this picture, but the silent majority blindly go like sheep to the slaughter. Sports is one of today’s opiates that keep them walking in submission to their corrupt leaders.

But one of the problems today is the Muslim youth, many of whom have not integrated into the Western society. They remain aloof and therefore out of control through the normal methods of manipulation. The religious element usually helps governments control their populations. They’ll gain financial or influential favors because of their cooperation with the government. But radical Islamic movements from the Middle East embittered by the events that have occurred there are in this case feeding rebellion and violent acts of aggression as we have recently seen in France. But that’s a whole other topic. Let’s keep to FIFA and sports.

Of course FIFA always justifies the extra expense for the host country, saying it is good for the country's pride and national identity. Local government politicians will also parrot FIFA’s mantra knowing that big money coming into the country will mean contracts for their friends and supporters and something more in their own pockets. In the end, FIFA always manages to walk away richer than before, while the host country almost always has a great burden to pay and often some “white elephant” stadiums that are a burden on the local economy. In recent years, only Germany and the USA have had World Cup or Olympic events in which they have managed to break even. Many countries are waking up to the fact that the World Cup and Olympics are bad business.

But the truth is that for generations governments have used sports as a way to distract the population, keep them content, and foment national pride. Sports are an amusement. They keep men from thinking about their own problems. A man may have a poor and miserable job and life, but he can find self-esteem in his favorite champion who helps his team to victory over their rivals. The spectator gains euphoria through the victory his team wins on the playing field. His mind is distracted from his own wretched condition and he finds a sense of meaning in his favorite player and team.

Interestingly enough, the word amusement means “away from thinking.” During the time of the spectacle the fan is not thinking about his problems, but is absorbed in the game, as if he himself were playing. He forgets his problems and worries and dissatisfactions with life and his government, and for those moments he is amused. The word “muse” comes from the Greek for “to think” or “to ponder.” As in the word “atheist” the “a” before a word is used as a negative. A theist is a person who believes in God. An atheist is a person who does not believe in God. “Muse” means to think or ponder. “Amuse” means to not think or ponder or to be away from thinking or pondering. We seek out amusements for that very reason. They help us get away from thinking about our problems, whatever they may be.

Karl Marx predicted that the poor man would eventually turn against the rich and over throw their unjust rule over the poor. Why has not this prediction come to pass, when the poor far outnumber the rich? As the Caesars of Rome and as Salazar of Portugal confessed and the elite of the world know, amusements - whether they be music, sports or religious events - are important to control the masses and govern a nation. The rich have learned they need to share a tiny bit of their wealth with the poor to keep them passively submissive. Today we have the middle class, though many claim it’s a diminishing sector. We also have politicians who are suppose to be attentive to the needs and wants of their constituents, but are actually controlled by big money and its interests. It’s a sad day for the poor man. But never mind - let’s go have a beer and watch the game! Shall we? 

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Notes:

[1] 1John 2:15-17
[2] Luke 12:15
[3] James 4: 4
[4] Matthew 6:33
[5] Matthew 4: 4
[6] Isaiah 55:2-3
[7] 1Corinthians15:32 If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, What advantages it me, if the dead rise not? Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die.
[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciSAMY9c--A (accessed 03/2016)
[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrIPxlFzDi0 (accessed 03/2016)
[10] Proverbs 27:20 Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.
[11] John 6:63
[12] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-a6jzU0YgQ (accessed 03/2016)
[13] http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/11/ugly-side-beautiful-game/# (03/16) http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/07/3-reasons-why-hosting-the-olympics-is-a-losers-game/260111/ (accessed 03/2016) http://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/book/hosting-olympics-and-world-cup (03/16) http://rozvojovky.vse.cz/2SM412/presentations/Bjornstad_Aleksander-Hiltunen%20Tommi-SA_economy_and_FIFA_WC2010-paper.pdf (03/2016) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi9gTj_i3Nw (accessed 03/2016)[14] Luke 11:46

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All Bible verses are from the King James Bible, although I have changed some of the old English. Any similarity to any modern version is only by coincidence. Bible verses other than the King James have been foot-noted properly.

Copyright @ Dennis M. Edwards (photos used from Google Images for educational purposes only)

Originally published March 2016.

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Prophecies of Consequences - Chapter 19

 

Prophecies of Consequences

In the book of Joshua we find Joshua’s last words to the children of Israel,

Not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord God spoke concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing has failed thereof.[1]

Joshua was confirming to the children of Israel how God had fulfilled His promises unto Abraham and Moses, had brought them into the Promised Land and had defeated their enemies. He goes on to say,

Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all the good things are come upon you, which the Lord your God promised you; so shall the Lord bring upon you all evil things, until he have destroyed you from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you. When you have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land which he has given unto you.[2]

Israel’s time in the Promised Land was short as an independent nation. They soon disobeyed the Lord, were brought into bondage by other nations and finally destroyed and sent into captivity by both the Assyrian and the Babylonian empires, as Joshua and Moses had foretold. The warning prophecy God gave them was fulfilled. Later, the Jews were allowed to return and rebuild the city and the Temple because of the edit decreed by Cyrus (above), King of Persia around 535 BC, following his conquest of Babylon.

In Isaiah, we find a prophecy about Cyrus the King of Persia who would defeat the Babylonian Empire. The prophecy also stated he would give the captive children of Israel permission to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls of the city and the Temple. These had been destroyed seventy years earlier by Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army. It is interesting to note that Daniel, who counselled Nebuchadnezzar, continued to be king’s counsellor under the Medes and Persians who had conquered the Babylonian kingdom. Daniel may have been able to share with both Darius and Cyrus what the Scriptures had predicted.

So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius (the Mede), and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.[3]

Let’s look at the prophecy of Isaiah about Cyrus (pictured above) which was received some time after 740 BC.

That says of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shall be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.[4]

The prophecy continues, 

For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou has not known me.[5] I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, says the Lord of hosts.[6]

The above prophecy was fulfilled about 200 years later. In the book of Ezra we read that in the first year of Cyrus or in 535 BC, according to historical records, the following took place:

Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of Heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and He has charged me to build Him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all His people? His God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel, (He is the God) which is in Jerusalem.[7]

The Scripture from Ezra mentions a prophecy by Jeremiah. Jeremiah lived some eighty years after Isaiah. Isaiah was prophet from the time of King Uzziah, around 740 BC, through the reign of King Hezekiah. According to Jewish tradition, Isaiah was sawed in half during the reign of Manasseh, around 680 BC.[8]

Jeremiah began prophesying in Judah around 626 BC, or 54 years after Isaiah’s death and halfway through the reign of Josiah (640-609 BC), the son of Manasseh. Jeremiah continued prophesying throughout the reigns of Jehoahaz (609), Jehoiakim (609–598), Jehoiachin (598–597) and Zedekiah (597–586). He ended his prophesying sometime after 586 BC, at the time of the fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, just as he had prophesied by the Word of the Lord.

According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah was put to death by stoning while living in Egypt.[9] He had been taken captive there by some of the Jewish people after the murder of the Governor appointed by Nebuchadnezzar. Earlier in his career, he had prophesied that the captives of Israel would suffer seventy years in Babylonian captivity before God’s mercy allowed them to return to their homeland.

For thus says the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform My good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place (Jerusalem). And I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all places whither I have driven you, says the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.[10]

These are amazing prophecies which were fulfilled just as God stated them.

Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for My mouth it hath commanded.[11]

Not one prophecy would lack its mate or lack in fulfilment, just as God said. 

Notes: Written March 2016, Published Aug 31, 2020, Republished February 26, 2025.

[1] Joshua 23:14
[2] Joshua 23:15-16
[3] Daniel 6:28
[4] Isaiah 44:28
[5] Isaiah 45:4
[6] Isaiah 45:13
[7] Ezra 1:1-3
[8] http://www.biblica.com/en-us/bible/online-bible/scholar-notes/niv-study-bible/intro-to-isaiah/ (accessed 03/2016)
[9] http://www.biblica.com/en-us/bible/online-bible/scholar-notes/niv-study-bible/intro-to-jeremiah/ (accessed 03/2016)
[10] Jeremiah 29:10-14
[11] Isaiah 34:16

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Isaac’s Prophecy - Chapter 18

 

Isaac’s Prophecy

Another interesting prophecy by one of the patriarchs is Isaac’s prophecy over his sons Jacob and Esau. Isaac was Abraham’s son. Jacob and Esau were Abraham’s grandchildren. Similar to Ishmael and Isaac, the blessing does not go to the older child, Esau, but rather to the younger, Jacob. It’s a fascinating story which I do not have time to retell here. But get your Bible out and read it in the book of Genesis. Isaac ends up giving the blessing to Jacob. Esau comes seeking for a blessing, also. Isaac responds,

Behold I have made him thy Lord, and all his brethren have I given him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son?[1]

But Esau insists,

Hast thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven above; And by thy sword shall thou live, and shall serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shall have the dominion, that thou shall break his yoke from off thy neck.[2]

Afterwards, Esau realizes that his wives from the Canaanite women displease his father.

And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father; Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.[3]

Jacob becomes the father of the twelve tribes of Israel which today we know as the Jewish people. Isaac prophesied “corn and wine,” or in other words, wealth. Another part of Isaac’s prophecy said that Jacob’s brother and his brother’s descendants would be Jacob’s servants. Jacob, therefore, would have power. No one would deny that the descendants of Jacob, the Jewish people, have both wealth and through wealth they have power, as money often equals power.

Esau descendants intermarry with the children of Ishmael and with the children of Canaan and so become part of the Arab peoples. Similar to the prophecy over Ishmael, who

was a wild man and his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him,[4]

Esau would live by the sword and yet his brother Jacob would have power over him, because he would serve his brother.

It is interesting how throughout history the Arabs have lived by the sword and have been expert swordsmen. We even see ISIS in Iraq and Syria cutting the throats of foreigners with a knife or small sword! Some Bible scholars believe that

the fatness of the earth and of the dew of heaven above

refers to Arab petroleum, which is not something they obtained through hard work but rather as the dew of heaven, they have just been blessed with its richness. Another part of the prophecy says,

And it shall come to pass when thou shall have the dominion, that thou shall break his yoke from off thy neck.[5]

Some believe that sometime in the future the Arabs may break off the yoke of Jewish world control. Some scholars believe that the yoke was broken back in 1973 when the Arabs raised the price of oil and started to amassing huge sums of money through their sales. In any event, the fact that nearly three thousand years ago a rich shepherd in the land of Canaan prophesied the events above is not only very interesting, but surely miraculous.

Notes: Written 2016, First Published August 2020. Republished February 2025.

[1] Genesis 27:37
[2] Genesis 27:38-40
[3] Genesis 28:8-9
[4] Genesis 16:12
[5] Genesis 27:40

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The Wild Man Prophecy - Chapter 17

 

The Wild Man Prophecy!

Dennis Edwards

Most everyone knows that Abraham is the father of both the Jewish and Arab nations. However, most people do not realize that both Jews and Arabs are descendants of Shem. In fact, according to Biblical chronology, Shem and Abraham’s lives overlap by about 100 years. So Abraham could have known Shem. Some Bible scholars believe that Melchizedek to whom Abraham gave tithes after the battle of Chedorlaomer was in fact Shem.

Genesis 14:18-20 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he (Melchizedek) blessed him (Abraham), and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: and blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he (Abraham) gave him (Melchizedek) tithes of all.

The point I am trying to make here is that both Jews and Arabs are “Shemites” or Semites, that is, descendants of Shem. The word anti-Semitism comes from Shem’s name. Since both Arabs and Jews are “Shemites” or Semites, the word anti-Semitism should mean those who are prejudice to both Arabs and Jews. Instead it is used exclusively to designate hatred or prejudice toward the Jewish people.

According to Wikipedia, the word anti-Semitism was first used 

in the late 19th century in Germany as a more scientific-sounding term for Judenhass or Jew-hatred.[1]

In any event, Abraham is the father of the Jewish people through Isaac, the son of Abraham’s wife Sarah. But Abraham is also the father of the Arab nations through Ishmael, his son through his wife’s handmaiden Hagar. Ishmael was actually older than Isaac. Because of the jealousy which was arising between Hagar and Sarah, and ultimately between their descendants, Sarah asks Abraham to put away both Hagar and her son Ishmael. Abraham laments, but God tells him to yield to his wife’s request.

Hagar and her son are put out of the camp and wander in the desert. In her desperation Hagar calls out to the Lord for help and He helps her. The angel responsible for her rescue prophesizes over Ishmael saying,

And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.[Genesis 16:12]

The Lord also says,

For I will make him a great nation.[Genesis 21:18] 

And later:

These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, and by their castles (or encampments); twelve princes according to their nations.[Genesis 25:16]

Have the Arab nations been traditionally “a wild man?” Surely their manner of spreading their Islam faith during the time of Mohammed was by violence. Also, since they are a tribal people, each tribe tends to keep to themselves and have strong tribal preferences. Therefore, even though they are brothers, they find it hard to agree and have throughout history been in constant squabbles among themselves, which we even see today in the Sunni-Shiite division. We see it in the “liberated” nations of Iraq and Libya. Without a strong man dictator to force the different tribal areas to work together, the country soon falls into chaos, with every man’s hand against each other.

The Israelis, realizing that the Arabs are often against each other, have used the fact to their advantage in the Middle East conflict. Because of their knowledge of the Arab weakness, they have been able to prevent some attempted unions by Arab leaders which could have proved dangerous to Israel’s national security. Secret documents have shown that the Mossad, the Israeli equivalent to the CIA, have used the philosophy of divide-and-conquer as their foreign policy using their expert intelligence to foment division among the Arab nations. As long as the Arab nations are fighting among themselves, Israel’s security is safe and Israel becomes the most dominant military power in the area.

On June 25, 2014, blogger Brandon Martinez wrote the following on his website commenting on the fighting in Iraq between the different Muslim groups, confirming Israel’s policy:

On the June 22 edition of NBC’s Meet the Press, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu let slip his government’s intention to divide and conquer the Middle East. Remarking on the latest ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) incursions into Iraq, Netanyahu expressed the desire of his regime to promote internal strife in Israel’s neighboring states.

“We must weaken both [Sunni and Shia Muslims],” 

Netanyahu said, implying that it is in Israel’s interests to have Muslims fighting and squabbling among themselves.

“When your enemies are fighting each other, don’t strengthen either one of them, weaken both,” said the Israeli leader. 

Martinez continues, 

That is what ISIS was created to do. The terrorist militia’s American, Israeli and Saudi backers are content to see these roving bands of malcontents and marauders behead their way to Damascus and Baghdad. What better way to solidify Israel’s position as the sole hegemony in the region? Fragmenting, weakening and Balkanizing the Middle East has been part-and-parcel of the Israeli impulse from the very beginnings of the Jewish state.[2]

Martinez brings to our attention that oddly enough, back in 1982, Israeli military strategist Oded Yinon had written a paper called, A Strategy for Israel in the 1980s.[3] At the time Iraq was Israel’s most powerful and potential adversary and Israel’s greatest threat. Yinon, therefore, advocated the territorial dissection of Iraq into three states. Each state would be based on ethnic and confessional roots, namely Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis. Yinon promoted the same scenario for the other Arab/Muslim states surrounding Israel, including Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and Iran.

Some experts claim the idea of a Middle East divided along Arab tribal lines goes back as far as the 1920s. According to Martinez, Yinon believed that fractured and divided Arab/Muslim countries could not pose any challenge to Israeli dominance. He insisted,

Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation will assist us in the short run and will shorten the way to the more important aim of breaking up Iraq into denominations as in Syria and in Lebanon.[4]

Martinez concludes, 

Yinon’s geopolitical blueprint is still very relevant today. His vision of a crippled and prostrate Arab/Muslim world is playing out before our very eyes.[5]

Will Iraq be redrawn into three parts in the near future in fulfillment to Yinon’s suggested strategy? And what about the 5 Israelis arrested for filming and celebrating the destruction of the Twin Towers from New Jersey? Were they agents from the Israeli Secret Service, the Mossad? Did they have beforehand information about the event, as some believe? Were they involved in causing the buildings to implode using explosives on the foundations? Will we ever know the truth? (See article about the 5 Israelis here) [6]

[Since the Mossad are so smart and able to infiltrate the enemies most secret organizations and cause havoc like we have seen in Iran, and Lebanon, is it not possible that the Mossad could have orchestrated through its power to infiltrate the 9/11 attack? What nation benefitted from the 9/11 attack? The only nation that benefitted was Israel as she manipulated America to fight her wars and eliminate her enemies in Iraq, Libya, and almost in Syria had not Putin intervened at that time. Other articles on the 5 Israelis have seem to have shown that these men had rented a floor on one of the towers that was destroyed and would work at nights in the building transporting "Art" material in their rented truck. Some have speculated that they were responsible for planting the explosive devices that would later be used to bring down the buildings as fires are not on their own capable of destroying reinforced steel structures. The articles I have read were once available on Google now seem not to be. 

If the Mossad did not orchestrate the attacks, they at least knew of them and did not inform American intelligence. They may still have been used to plant the explosive devices aimed at bringing down the buildings. However, I am more inclined to believe the Mossad was manipulating the terrorists, and or, controlling the planes in some way, and in some form responsible for the whole thing!]

See the following link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMWp1YTTh-h/

Notes: Written in March 2016. Published August 2020. Republished February 2025

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism (accessed 03/2016)
[2] http://martinezperspective.wordpress.com/2014/06/25/isis-insurrection-serves-israels-interests/ (accessed 03/2016)
[3] http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/pdf/The%20Zionist%20Plan%20for%20the%20Middle%20East.pdf (accessed 03/2016)
[4] Ibid
[5] https://martinezperspective.wordpress.com/2014/06/25/isis-insurrection-serves-israels-interests/ (accessed 03/2016)

[6] Five Israelis were seen filming as jet liners ploughed into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001 ... | The Herald

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Bible Prophecy – Mathematically Impossible! Chapter 15

 

Bible Prophecy – Mathematically Impossible!

At the end of the New Testament in the first verse in the book of Revelation, we find the following words,

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show to his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified by his angel unto his servant John.[1]

At the end of the revelation, John tries to worship the angel who brought him the end-time message. The angel says,

See you do it not: I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.[2]

A testimony is a document that confirms the will of the testifier: like a person’s will is a document giving evidence or proof or testament to his desires. The spirit of prophecy found in the Bible is the testament or proof or evidence that Jesus is God. The accuracy of God’s prophecies confirms or testifies that Jesus is the Christ. The accuracy of God’s prophecies confirms or testifies to the fact that the Bible is true.

In my condensed Bible concordance, I can find some forty-eight Old Testament Messianic prophecies, or prophecies concerning the coming of the Jewish Messiah, all of which were fulfilled in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Nowhere in all of ancient Greek and Latin literature can there be found any real specific prophecy of a great historical event to come in the distant future. To the contrary, the Bible is full of countless, detailed, specific prophecies, all of which have been miraculously fulfilled and come true—except the final end-time prophecies which are either to be fulfilled in the near future or are coming to pass right now.

In 1957, Peter W. Stoner, a university professor at Pasadena City College in California, asked his twelve college classes what would be the chance of one person fulfilling forty-eight of the approximately 325 Messianic prophecies randomly? His book titled SCIENCE SPEAKS: An Evaluation of Certain Christian Evidences goes over the results.[3]

First Professor Stoner, with the help of the students from the twelve different classes, estimated the odds for just eight of the Messianic prophecies being fulfilled by one man. They made reasonable and conservative estimates which the students agreed upon unanimously.[4]

For example, they tried to figure out the odds of a child born in Bethlehem at the beginning of the first century becoming the Messiah. What were the odds of three wise men would come from the east and bestow gifts on the child and his family? What were the odds that they same child would escape the slaying of the male children of Bethlehem by Herod the Great? What were the odds of that child traveling specifically to Egypt and then returning later to live in Nazareth so that later he would be called a Nazarene?

Stoner then took the average result for each of the possible eight prophecies calculated by the twelve different classes. By multiplying the probability that was found for one of the prophecies by the other seven prophecies, he came up with the probability of one man fulfilling all eight prophecies. Making the reasonable and conservative assumption that the other forty prophetic possibilities would have nearly the same rate of probability, he did the math. He found that the odds of one person fulfilling all forty-eight prophecies would be one in 10 to the 157th power or one over 10 followed by 157 zeros, or one chance out of

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

Mathematicians state that a number with a probability of 10 to the negative 50th power, or one in 10 to the fiftieth power is impossible.[5] Therefore, one times 10 to the negative 157th power would be even less possible. Scientists have calculated the number of electrons in the universe to be around one times 10 to the 80th power. So fulfilling forty-eight Messianic prophecies would be like the possibility of finding, on the very first attempt, one specific electron out of all of the electrons in all the known mass of the entire universe![6] It’s just beyond possibility for one person to accidentally fulfil all forty-eight prophecies of the some 325 total Messianic prophecies found in the Bible. Nevertheless, Jesus did it.

Attorney Lee Strobel was the former agnostic journalist with the Chicago Tribune, who had received Illinois’ highest honour for public service in investigating reporting from United Press International. He said in 2007, that statistical information presented in Professor Stoner’s Science Speaks about the Messianic prophecies was one of the major factors which gave him confidence to believe in Christ. Lee went on to become a New York Times besting-selling author with his books: The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith and The Case for Easter.[7]

Notes: First Published 8/2020 - Written 03/2016

[1] Revelation 1:1
[2] Revelation 19:10
[3] Peter W. Stoner; Science Speaks; Moody Press; Chicago, Illinois; 1957
[4] http://www.bereanpublishers.com/the-odds-of-eight-messianic-prophecies-coming-true/ (accessed 03/2016)
[5] http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/abioprob/borelfaq.html (accessed 03/2016)
[6] http://jvmi.co.uk/who-is-yeshua/reasons-to-believe/prophecies.html (03/2016)
[7] http://www.leestrobel.com/Bio.php (accessed 03/2016)

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The Tough College Years - Chapter 4

 

The Tough College Years

Before getting started with the following chapter, I need to write a disclaimer. The title here is The Tough College Years. But by no means were they as tough as my fellow American colleagues were experiencing, who were fighting and dying by the tune of 5,000 a year in Vietnam. My friend Ronnie Santoro [1] was one of them. He joined the US Marines after high school and didn’t make it through a year in combat. Real war is not like a video game where you just “start over.”

Neither were those supposedly tough college years as tough as those that the poor Vietnamese civilians faced during that same period, or many other poor, undernourished oppressed populations faced elsewhere around the world. But they were tough for me as I looked death in the eyes in the form of suicide. It was during those years that my world view became atheistic and existential. One of the logical conclusions from that belief system was, why live? But before we get further into that question, we’ll start the chapter as I had originally written it. Here we go.

Moving to Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio in September of 1967 was the beginning of a new life. I was thrown into a society in which I was a “nobody.” No one knew I was president of my senior class. No one knew I was on the Central Jersey Group III State Champion football team. No one knew my girlfriend was secretary of the student body and a cheerleader. No one knew my best friend was president of the student body. No one knew what or who I was. An identity crisis was in full gear.

It was some time in that first year, that my former girlfriend came and told me she had another boyfriend. I was destroyed. Here I had been trying to keep all the church rules against premarital sex and the thing that I loved the most, my girlfriend, “God” took from me and gave to another. I fell into a deep depression. I was mad at “God.” I stopped believing in Him and threw away my "religious" faith and threw myself into atheism, evolution and political anarchy. I had been taking a geology course that first year that fed me evolution and “billions of years.” I swallowed it all in as a rational justification for our existence without the need of a “God.” I began attacking the faith of Christian girls I would date. I tried to convert others to my new-found beliefs proving through science that the Bible was wrong.

It was during my sophomore year that my close call with death came. My required geology course in my freshman year had given me justification for my rejection of God. I was, as Richard Dawkins explained, an intellectually satisfied atheist. Darwinian evolution and millions of years had given me an alternative to the Biblical creation story. 

In my psychology course we were studying, among others, Freud with his psychoanalysis, and Skinner with his psychological behaviorism, which was sort of the equivalent to psychological dialectic materialism. In Comparative Religion the head of the Religion department showed he was more emotionally excited about the “truths” of Buddhism than in the words of Jesus Christ. In my course on Modern European Novels, we were reading Kafka, Sartre and Camus with their atheistic existential meaningless-life world view. 

With all the negative input I was having, it was no wonder, one bleak winter afternoon that I decided to drive my car off the bridge between Marietta, Ohio and Parkersburg, West Virginia and into the Ohio River. Like George Bailey in the film It’s a Wonderful Life,[2] I had gotten to end of myself and just wanted to end it all. But as the car began its course across the ice-covered bridge, at the moment when I was to jerk the wheel to the right and break through the protective fence into the water, I saw, in my mind’s eye, the face of my dear Aunt Ida. 

It had been just a few months earlier when Ida had taken me in her arms and asked me, “What’s the matter, Dennis?” I couldn’t answer, as I couldn’t open up to her and share what was going on inside me. I had been a quiet and shy person throughout my life. In fact, I was plagued with timidity. But Ida took it all in stride, and tenderly sang I Love You a Bushel and a Peck and a Hug around the Neck.[3] As she rocked me in her arms, to that old familiar song she had used to sing to put me to sleep when I was just a wee little tot, I felt loved.

Because of the love my Aunt Ida had manifested to me, at that moment on the bridge, I knew I couldn’t kill myself. Even though my atheism and my existentialism seemed to cry “Just Do It,” I couldn’t. Somebody loved me. Ida loved me, and because Ida loved me, that meant love existed. I had felt it in Ida’s arms. If love existed, life wasn’t meaningless. Life was worth living. I just needed to keep on searching for the answers. 

If life doesn’t seem worth living for you at the moment, maybe Nick Vujicic’s inspirational YouTube video will encourage you. Whatever you do, don’t give up![4]

I need to reiterate here that my parents were loving people. My mother often received into our home the individual woman neighbors who would confide in her their problems. My father was a happy, helpful person who was always making conversation with strangers in the supermarket or doing some shopping for one of the neighbors. But coming from a Polish family, we weren’t a very affectionate family. My parents didn’t give me hugs, or my grandparents. However, Ida did, as well as my Godmother Aunt Dolores. 

In the 1980s, psychologist Dr. Virginia Satir shared with the 4,000 delegates of the American Orthopsychiatric Association the results of tests concerning the affects of hugging.[5] Research had shown that as the amount of hugs a person received increased, so their psychological health and happiness also increased.

The study concluded that 4 hugs a day were needed for survival, while 8 hugs were required for psychological, mental and emotional maintenance. For growth and happiness, 12 hugs a day were necessary. I think the “Free Hug” movement evolved from the above research. In Portugal we have a national association called “Abraços,” or “Hugs,”[6] based on the same idea with the goal of helping people infected by the AIDS virus.

Parents, please hug your children. I recently read a regret list where one of the regrets was “I wish I had hugged my wife, my children, my friends and my loved ones more often. I wish I had shown more physical affection for my loved ones.” I think we could all be more loving and do more to show our love through hugs and other forms of physical affection. 

Three and a half years ago, as I was about to go to sleep, at around 12 midnight, I received a telephone call. It was one of those calls you don’t want anyone to receive. My twenty-seven year old son had gone missing. He hadn’t showed up for work. His friends found his clothing on the beach not far from their rented bungalow. He was a good worker, conscientious, a good son and I was proud of him. Yet, I couldn’t remember when was the last time I had told him, “Martin, I love you,” or “Martin, I’m proud of you.” I couldn’t remember the last time I had hugged him and showed him in a tangible way that I loved him.

Of course, the Lord is always a very present help in time of trouble. I was surprised how He helped me get through the perhaps most difficult event of my life, my son’s death. I prayed. I read the Bible. I spent time praising. But His most present help came in the form of the hugs I received, the physical affection that I received, the love I received sometimes from total strangers.

After I arrived in the Bermudas, where my son had been working, I made my way to the place where he had been employed. While asking directions, I told the young heavy-set black Bermudian cashier that I was the father of the young man who had recently drowned. Without hesitating she said, “Do you mind if I come around from the cashier counter and give you a hug?” And so it happened various times in the days that followed. The physical affection I received in the form of hugs from people I did not even know, the love that I received, was the single most identifiable factor to me being able to overcome the utter sadness and lost I felt. Friends, please hug your loved ones. They need it and you need it. We all need it and we will be better persons for showing affection to others.

Now let’s get back to the story.

It was a few months after my aborted suicide attempt, while smoking hashish with a close friend, when I had my "God" experience. I want to make it clear here I am not advocating taking drugs to find God, but God used that experience on my path to Him. I recently asked a friend of mine if he had a similar experience while doing drugs. His answer was, yes, he did. But he had also had some very bad experiences - bad, demonic trips. It was the bad trips that assured him the Devil was real and caused him to search more desperately for God.

Here’s what happened to me. In a vision, I saw a small ball of light in the upper corner of the room. I was talking to my close friend Chris Smith at the moment. He was using some kind of encounter psychology to help me to open up. Finally, I reached out and touched his arm and said, “Yes, Chris, I need help!” At that very moment, with my confession of desperate need, the ball of light descended from the corner of the room and embraced me. Instantly, I was enveloped in an energy-field of unexplainable love. It was like a spiritual orgasm, a spiritual epiphany. My whole being had been transformed in an instance. It was kind of like what was visualized in the movie Cocoon[7] when the main male actor has “alien sex” with the beautiful female alien. 

My first thought was "Is this what Jesus is all about?" From that moment on I knew love was the power and the force of the universe. On that day, I went home and apologized to my parents for the way I had acted as a rebellious teen, even having fought with my father twice during my teen years. All I wanted to do was to love others. But now I had to consolidate my experience and find out where this power of love came from.

I started searching through different religious philosophies for truth. Buddhism was one of the first to catch my interest. I studied the eight-fold path of Siddhartha. I read Herman Hesse´s books which contained Buddhist philosophy. I became an organic vegetarian. I also dabbled in Judaism as I had a Jewish girlfriend for a time. I read heavily on transcendental meditation and used as my spiritual guides, the books Be Here Now by Ram Dass, Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, and Erich Fromm´s The Art of Loving, among others. I steered clear of Christian Evangelicals and Christianity and Catholicism which I assumed to be false because of the hypocritical actions of their followers and my previous experiences in childhood.

However, the question of war and my involvement in it, as I was due to be drafted after my four-year college deferment ended, led me to start reading heavily on the subject of conscientious objection to war and draft resistance. In my reading, I came across Leo Tolstoy’s Letter to a Non-Commissioned Officer,[8] and The Kingdom of God is Within You.[9] As Tolstoy mentions the teaching of Christ from the Sermon on the Mount in these writings, I started to read and study Jesus´ own words found in chapters 5-7 of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament.

In June of 1971, I graduated from Marietta College with a Bachelors of Arts degree in History and was on the Dean’s List with a straight B average. But by the month of October I had been denied conscientious objector status by the military, and after refusing to take the various pre-entrance examinations, I had been ordered to appear for induction into the US military or face the consequences. My mother, God bless her soul, telephoned me at the end of October telling me the FBI had been around to arrest me as I had not appeared for induction on the date specified.

I was working as a low-salaried teacher of special needs children in Marietta, Ohio at the time. However, when I put down the phone from speaking to my mom, I dropped to my knees and with tears falling from my eyes called out with all my heart to "God," if He indeed existed, to save me. I was not asking Him to save my soul, but to save me from the problem of having to go into the military, to save me from having to kill and/or be killed in Vietnam. But after having prayed, I rose from my knees and spit on the floor and said, "There’s no God, so why am I praying?"

But I was soon to find out that God does answer prayer when we call upon Him with all our heart, even if our mind sometimes gets in the way.

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