Endless Praise - "The End of the Road" by Rev.A.H Ackley in 1998
Saturday, August 16, 2014
Friday, August 15, 2014
Athens Olympics leave mixed legacy, 10 years later
By Nicholas Paphitis And Theodora Tongas, AP, Aug 13, 2014
ATHENS, Greece (AP)—In an obscure corner of a park sits a forlorn reminder that, 10 years ago, Athens hosted the 2004 Summer Olympics. The crumbling miniature theater is inscribed with the words “glory, wealth, wisdom, victory, triumph, hero, labor”—and it is where visiting Olympic officials planted an olive sapling that would bear their names for posterity.
Once a symbol of pomp, the marble theater is now an emblem of pointless waste in a venture that left a mixed legacy: a brand-new subway, airport and other vital infrastructure that significantly improved everyday life in a city of 4 million, set against scores of decrepit sports venues built in a mad rush to meet deadlines—with little thought for post-Olympic use.
As Greece groans under a cruel economic depression, questions linger of whether the Athens Games were too ambitious an undertaking for a weak economy. While economists agree it would be unfair to blame the meltdown on the 17-day Games, the post-Olympic era is seen as a decade of lost opportunities—including failure to significantly boost the country’s sporting culture. It’s a lesson to which Brazil may pay heed, as it races to complete projects ahead of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
“We didn’t take advantage of this dynamic that we got in 2004,” said former Olympic weightlifting champion Pyrros Dimas, a Greek sporting hero turned Socialist member of Parliament. “We simply made the biggest mistake in our history: We switched off, locked up the stadiums, let them fall to pieces, and everything finished there.”
“We spent a lot of money for some projects (that) are shut and rotting,” said Dimas, who won his last Olympic medal in an Athens arena now reinvented as a lecture and conference venue. “There were projects that should have cost 2 and 3 million (euros) and suddenly became so big that they cost 13 and 14 million. There was no control.”
The latest government estimate sets the final cost of the Games at 8.5 billion euros, double the original budget but a drop in the ocean of the country’s subsequent 320 billion-euro debt, which spun out of control after 2008. Former organizing committee chief Gianna Angelopoulos has commissioned the first independent survey of the Olympics’ overall economic effect. It will aim to weigh Olympic overspend and waste against a possible boost to the crucial tourism industry—arrivals have almost doubled since 2004, from 11.7 to 20.1 million—foreign investment and employment.
“The Olympics were very important in increasing the brand awareness … of Greece,” said economist Theodore Krintas, managing director of Attica Wealth Management. “But we did, very, very limited things on a follow-up basis.”
Andrew Zimbalist, a U.S. economist who studies the financial impact of major sporting events, said past experience shows that hosting the Olympics does not generally promote economic development: “At the end of the day, the main benefit to be had seems to be a feel-good experience that the people in the host city or the host country have,” said Zimbalist, a professor of economics at Smith College. “But that’s a fleeting experience, not something that endures.
“Why couldn’t Athens have simply invested … in development and transportation and communications and infrastructure, and not hosted the Olympics?”
In Greece, few of the sporting venues—mostly purpose-built permanent structures—have seen regular post-Olympic use. The badminton venue is a successful concert hall, but the empty table-tennis and gymnastics stadium is up for sale, and the beach volleyball center has been rarely used and was recently looted.
Most venues are padlocked.
The seaside site of Athens’ old airport hosted half a dozen venues. Politicians have dithered for a decade over how to use the sprawling plot—meaning facilities have simply been left to rot. Lengths of large tubing lie near abandoned runways. Decommissioned jumbo jets sit near where planners once dreamed of building a water amusement park.
Greek Olympic Committee head Spyros Capralos, a senior member of the 2004 organizing committee, said the state of the sporting venues “puts our country to shame.” The former swimming champion and two-time Olympic water polo competitor blames bureaucracy and lack of foresight.
“Nobody was thinking what would happen the next day,” he said. “Many of the sports facilities were constructed just to be constructed … and nobody thought that they required a lot of money for maintenance after the Olympic Games.”
Overall, Capralos insisted, the Games were a boost for Greece, mainly due to non-sports infrastructure pegged to the Games that otherwise might never have materialized.
Capralos believes the legacy of the stadiums can still be salvaged.
“Simply, someone must do whatever is needed for the venues to be taken over by the private sector—because I don’t think the state can be a very good entrepreneur or venue manager.”
ATHENS, Greece (AP)—In an obscure corner of a park sits a forlorn reminder that, 10 years ago, Athens hosted the 2004 Summer Olympics. The crumbling miniature theater is inscribed with the words “glory, wealth, wisdom, victory, triumph, hero, labor”—and it is where visiting Olympic officials planted an olive sapling that would bear their names for posterity.
Once a symbol of pomp, the marble theater is now an emblem of pointless waste in a venture that left a mixed legacy: a brand-new subway, airport and other vital infrastructure that significantly improved everyday life in a city of 4 million, set against scores of decrepit sports venues built in a mad rush to meet deadlines—with little thought for post-Olympic use.
As Greece groans under a cruel economic depression, questions linger of whether the Athens Games were too ambitious an undertaking for a weak economy. While economists agree it would be unfair to blame the meltdown on the 17-day Games, the post-Olympic era is seen as a decade of lost opportunities—including failure to significantly boost the country’s sporting culture. It’s a lesson to which Brazil may pay heed, as it races to complete projects ahead of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
“We didn’t take advantage of this dynamic that we got in 2004,” said former Olympic weightlifting champion Pyrros Dimas, a Greek sporting hero turned Socialist member of Parliament. “We simply made the biggest mistake in our history: We switched off, locked up the stadiums, let them fall to pieces, and everything finished there.”
“We spent a lot of money for some projects (that) are shut and rotting,” said Dimas, who won his last Olympic medal in an Athens arena now reinvented as a lecture and conference venue. “There were projects that should have cost 2 and 3 million (euros) and suddenly became so big that they cost 13 and 14 million. There was no control.”
The latest government estimate sets the final cost of the Games at 8.5 billion euros, double the original budget but a drop in the ocean of the country’s subsequent 320 billion-euro debt, which spun out of control after 2008. Former organizing committee chief Gianna Angelopoulos has commissioned the first independent survey of the Olympics’ overall economic effect. It will aim to weigh Olympic overspend and waste against a possible boost to the crucial tourism industry—arrivals have almost doubled since 2004, from 11.7 to 20.1 million—foreign investment and employment.
“The Olympics were very important in increasing the brand awareness … of Greece,” said economist Theodore Krintas, managing director of Attica Wealth Management. “But we did, very, very limited things on a follow-up basis.”
Andrew Zimbalist, a U.S. economist who studies the financial impact of major sporting events, said past experience shows that hosting the Olympics does not generally promote economic development: “At the end of the day, the main benefit to be had seems to be a feel-good experience that the people in the host city or the host country have,” said Zimbalist, a professor of economics at Smith College. “But that’s a fleeting experience, not something that endures.
“Why couldn’t Athens have simply invested … in development and transportation and communications and infrastructure, and not hosted the Olympics?”
In Greece, few of the sporting venues—mostly purpose-built permanent structures—have seen regular post-Olympic use. The badminton venue is a successful concert hall, but the empty table-tennis and gymnastics stadium is up for sale, and the beach volleyball center has been rarely used and was recently looted.
Most venues are padlocked.
The seaside site of Athens’ old airport hosted half a dozen venues. Politicians have dithered for a decade over how to use the sprawling plot—meaning facilities have simply been left to rot. Lengths of large tubing lie near abandoned runways. Decommissioned jumbo jets sit near where planners once dreamed of building a water amusement park.
Greek Olympic Committee head Spyros Capralos, a senior member of the 2004 organizing committee, said the state of the sporting venues “puts our country to shame.” The former swimming champion and two-time Olympic water polo competitor blames bureaucracy and lack of foresight.
“Nobody was thinking what would happen the next day,” he said. “Many of the sports facilities were constructed just to be constructed … and nobody thought that they required a lot of money for maintenance after the Olympic Games.”
Overall, Capralos insisted, the Games were a boost for Greece, mainly due to non-sports infrastructure pegged to the Games that otherwise might never have materialized.
Capralos believes the legacy of the stadiums can still be salvaged.
“Simply, someone must do whatever is needed for the venues to be taken over by the private sector—because I don’t think the state can be a very good entrepreneur or venue manager.”
Four Eye-witnesses Describe the Murder of Rachel Corrie
http://electronicIntifada.net/v2/article1263.shtml
Tom Dale, Greg Schnabel, Richard Purssell, and Joe Smith, International Solidarity Movement, 19 March 2003
American peace activist Rachel Corrie was murdered by an Israeli bulldozer driver on 16 March 2003 while attempting to defend a Palestinian doctor's home from demolition. Four of the seven International Solidarity Movement members present have written their recollections of the incident: Tom Dale (US), Greg Schnabel (UK), Richard Purssell (UK), and Joe Smith (US). Greg and Richard's accounts are more formal accounts. Tom and Joe's accounts are excerpted from e-mails to friends and families. Courtesy of the International Solidarity Movement.
TOM DALE EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT
British Citizen from Lichfield, Birmingham, born 17 August 1984.
Many of you will of heard varying accounts of the death of Rachel Corrie, maybe others will have heard nothing of it. Regardless, I was 10 metres away when it happened 2 days ago, and this is the way it went.
We'd been monitoring and occasionally obstructing the two bulldozers for about 2 hours when one of them turned toward a house we knew to be threatened with demolition. Rachel knelt down in its way. She was 10-20 metres in front of the bulldozer, clearly visible, the only object for many metres, directly in its view. They were in radio contact with a tank that had a profile view of the situation. There is no way she could not have been seen by them in their elevated cabin. They knew where she was, there is no doubt.
The bulldozer drove toward Rachel slowly, gathering earth in its scoop as it went. She knelt there, she did not move. The bulldozer reached her and she began to stand up, climbing onto the mound of earth. She appeared to be looking into the cockpit. The bulldozer continued to push Rachel, so she slipped down the mound of earth, turning as she went.
Her faced showed she was panicking and it was clear she was in danger of being overwhelmed.
All the activists were screaming at the bulldozer to stop and gesturing to the crew about Rachel's presence. We were in clear view as Rachel had been, they continued.
They pushed Rachel, first beneath the scoop, then beneath the blade, then continued till her body was beneath the cockpit. They waited over her for a few seconds, before reversing. They reversed with the blade pressed down, so it scraped over her body a second time. Every second I believed they would stop but they never did.
I ran for an ambulance, she was gasping and her face was covered in blood from a gash cutting her face from lip to cheek. She was showing signs of brain hemorrhaging. She died in the ambulance a few minutes later of massive internal injuries. She was a brilliant, bright and amazing person, immensely brave and committed. She is gone and I cannot believe it.
The group here in Rafah has decided that we will stay here and continue to oppose human rights abuses as best we can. I want to add that more than 10 palestinians have died in the Gaza strip since Rachel.
Please: forward this message. Boycott Caterpillar. Take direct action against the Caterpillar Corporation - please do not let this be without cost to them. Legally, I shouldn't ask you to do anything destructive or against the law.
If you're wondering about Rachel: her writings, photos of her and statements on her death are available on the website below. More photos: go to yahoo news section, search for photos by 'rachel'.
If you're wondering about the International Solidarity Movement: www.palsolidarity.org
If you're wondering about the bulldozers: They're American, Caterpillar-made armoured D9 Bulldozers. I estimate the blade is maybe 8 ft high, 15 ft wide and more than 9 tons. They're purchased from America using the $12billion per annum military aid package that America gives to Israel. [Report on their previous usage, well worth reading -- especially if you didn't believe anyone would be crazy enough to do this].
If you're wondering about Rafah: in the southern Gaza Strip, next to the Egyptian border. Apart from suffering in excess from the problems all over Palestine: Israeli manipulation of the water supply, economic strangulation, regular shootings and army operations, Rafah is afflicted by the building of an extra border wall. It has caused hundreds of homes to be destroyed.
The house in question, that of a doctor, like dozens of others in the area is not set to be demolished because of any supposed link to militants. Only because it lies within 100 metres of the new border wall, currently in construction. Families receive no compensation from Israel, and are frequently given just a few minutes warning in the form of live ammunition being shot through the walls of their house.
Tom Dale - 18 March 2003
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GREG SCHNABEL EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT
United States citizen from Chicago, IL, USA, born 26 April 1974.
I, Greg Schnabel, came to Rafah to work with the International Solidarity Movement.
At approximately 3 p.m. on the afternoon of March 16, 2003 I was with Rachel at a water well in the Tel al Sultan district of Rafah. We received a call from our fellow I.S.M. activists in the Hyy Es Salam district. Our friends informed us that two bulldozers were in that neighborhood threatening to destroy family houses.
Rachel and I went to the Hyy Es Salam area to help our friends. The homes that were being threatened by the bulldozers were the homes of families which our group had been sleeping with for the past four months. We had personal relationships with these families and defending their homes from being destroyed was very important to us.
When Rachel and I arrived on the scene, two bulldozers were clearing the ground near to these homes. There was also a tank Our group began to stand in front of these bulldozers in an attempt to stop them. Generally they did not stop when we stood in front of them, but continued to push the [dirt?] up from underneath our feet and push us away. Several times we had to dive away at the last moment in order to avoid being crushed.
This continued for about two and a half hours. All the time the bulldozers were approaching closer to the families homes. They made several attempts to evade us and outmaneuver us. At one point, Will from the United States was nearly crushed between the bulldozer and a pile of razor wire. The bulldozer stopped at the last minute in Will's case. If it had moved any closer he would have been impaled by the razor wire.
The bulldozers destroyed part of a home which was unoccupied. Members of our group including myself stood inside this home in an attempt to stop them. One bulldozer then moved toward the house of Dr. Samir, one of the families with whom we had relations.
Rachel was standing in front of this home. As the bulldozer approached she stood her ground. Rachel was wearing an orange fluorescent jacket. She was clearly visible to the bulldozer driver as well as to the soldiers in the tank.
The bulldozer began to push up the ground from beneath her feet. The pile of earth was mounding up and she tried her best to stay on top of it. As the ground continued to move Rachel went down on her knees.
The bulldozer continued to move forward. Rachel began to become buried beneath the dirt. Still it did not stop.
Finally, Rachel was beneath the bulldozer.
The bulldozer did not even pick up its blade. It ran over her completely and continued to advance. It stopped when she was completely underneath the body of the bulldozer. It then moved backwards over her body. It moved clear of her and backed away.
At this point I and my friends ran to her. She was obviously in terrible condition. Her upper lip had been split open and was bleeding. We called an ambulance immediately and continued to monitor her vital signs. She was breathing but she was losing consciousness rapidly. Within a minute she was no longer able to give us her name or speak. We continued to talk to her encouraging her, breathing with her, and telling her we loved her.
The ambulance staff came and took her to the hospital. Once there she died within twenty minutes or less.
Greg Schnabel 16 March 2003
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RICHARD PURSSELL EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT
British citizen from Brighton, England. A Construction Worker born on 12 October 1971.
I am Richard Purssell of the United Kingdom. I am here in Rafah to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinian people and take non-violent direct action to confront the illegal Israeli occupation. I am making this statement at 11:30 on the night after the incident.
On 16 March 2003 myself, Rachel Corrie, and Greg were acting as human shields at the well in Tel al Sultan. We received a call at 2.30 from other ISM activists who were working in the Hyy es Salaam area that bulldozers had been spotted. We arrived ten minutes later at the area, which was near both to houses we were protecting and houses which had been destroyed in the previous week. Using a megaphone and banners to identify ourselves as international nonviolent activists we moved forward to confront the bulldozers.
For two hours we attempted at great risk to ourselves to obstruct and frustrate the bulldozers in their work. One activist from the U.S was trapped underneath barbed wire. The bulldozers seemed to be concentrating on ploughing up the land in front of the buildings whilst making occasional runs at houses.
There were two bulldozers one marked 94 serial number 949623 the other 95 serial no. 949645. There was one tank but I do not recall its number. I noted these numbers prior to the incident.
At approximately 1645 a bulldozer began making a straight run at a house which I now know to belong to a doctor Izmir [sic: Dr. Samir]. At this point the majority of the group were positioned around a wrecked building. We were all within 70 metres of each other. I was to the left of the ruined building and to the right of Dr. [Samir]'s house. Rachel was approximately 15 metres in front of me.
The ground was level and the light was good, I had a good view of everything which happened. Rachel was wearing an orange fluorescent jacket with reflective strips (the type worn by construction workers for high visibility and the avoidance of accidents).
Rachel stood to confront the bulldozer and it approached her at about five or six miles an hour. The blade on the bulldozer was dipped into the ground and was scooping up soil.
As the bulldozer came nearer the pile mounted up. Rachel climbed up the pile and at the one stage was looking into the cabin window. There is no way that the driver could not have known she was there. The bulldozer continued driving forwards and Rachel turned round to face in my direction.
She began to slide down the pile, however as soon as her feet touched the ground for some reason she fell forward. Maybe her foot was caught or the weight of the soil pushed her forward. At this point the panic on her face was obvious.
We were all shouting, screaming and gesturing by this stage. The earth was totally pushed over her, engulfing her. She was lost to my sight. I noticed that the driver had not lifted the blade. The machine rolled straight over her and continued for a little way. It then reversed over her and retreated about twenty metres. Rachel was left in its tracks, bleeding from her mouth and twisted.
The tank came over to where she was briefly and then retreated to the border fence with the two bulldozers. At no point did any member of the Israeli forces enquire as to Rachel's well-being or offer any assistance.
Eventually we were able to call an ambulance and one arrived shortly. Rachel was taken to hospital in Rafah, where I heard she had died.
I certify that this is a true account to the best of my recollection.
R.J.A. Purssell 16 March 2003
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JOE SMITH EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT
United States citizen from Kansas City, MO, USA, born 25 April 1981.
I have never experienced anything like this in my life. I've never had someone close to me die before, let alone be brutally murdered right in front of my eyes. I don't even know how to react. I went through stages of dumbfounded shock and serious crying fits. I had no chance to be alone at all, I was either surrounded by Palestinians or on the phone with media. I chose the latter. I was doing interviews non-stop starting 30 min. after her death, all the way until midnight, and then starting again at 6am and continuing all day today. I literally would never hang up the phone, just switch to an incoming call on call waiting. When I did finally get a second to breath, I'd have like 30 missed calls.
Anyway, it was a bit therapeutic I think, telling the story over and over, and interviews make me feel [as if I was doing something] important [in the aftermath]. All this thing is is a media event now, so we must continue a campaign as hard as possible before the new and bigger tragedy, the Iraq war, begins.
The few hours I had off interviews last night between midnight and 4am, was spent organizing today's events, press conferences, live TV/radio interviews, a demonstration and the beginnings of the traditional Palestinian 3-day ceremony. Now we're preparing for a serious influx of people from the West Bank and Israel, as well as some people from abroad, possibly including her family.
The stress is really getting to me. I couldn't sleep for the 2 hours I was allowed because my body won't relax. My heart is racing and shake a lot, and even have trouble breathing. My jaw is the worst though. It won't losen to save my life, and it hurts like hell, especially when I chew (when i get time to grab a falafel sandwhich). I've never experienced physical stress and tension like this.
We thought this might happen eventually. We often spoke in the abstract that eventually one of us would get killed, but we always figured they'd shoot us, or it'd be an "accident", like in a house that is missiled or a stray bullet gets an unlucky activist. I never dreamed it'd be like this, the intentional crushing of a human being.
I do believe it was intentional. I saw it, and I know he saw her, I know he did, and I know he knew she was still under the bulldozer when it backed up without raising its blade.
I don't know if he wanted to kill her, or if he was just focused on doing his work and didn't care if he killed her or not, I don't know which is scarier.
I don't feel like telling the whole detailed story right now. I promise that for the record I will tell it in detail, but give me a few days. I just want to quickly dispel a few myths you may have heard in the media.
She did not "trip and fall" in front of the bulldozer. She sat down in front of it, well in advance, wearing one of the orange flouro jackets I got in Amsterdam. (By the way, I took the pictures you may have seen of her, standing with the megaphone in front of the bulldozer, and the ones of her friends helping her.)
He clearly saw her, and continued to drive until she was forced onto the top of the dirt he was pushing, elevating her so much that she was at eye level with the bulldozer's cab, he could see right into her eyes.
He continued forward, pulling her underneath the dirt, and out of his vision. He continued forward, crushing her underneath the weight of the blade. He continued forward, until she was well underneath the bulldozer. It was then quite clear that she was nowhere but underneath him, but he proceded to back up, without lifting the blade, crushing her again.
I beleive that it was the combination of these two crushings that caused her death. She was defending the house of a physician. We've all stayed in the house, we know that there are no weapons of any kind there. Just a middle aged doctor and his lovely family. They want to demolish it because it happens to lie near the border, and they're systematically demolishing all the houses near the border.
It has nothing to do with retaliatory or preventative operations. They were not searching for tunnels or bombs either. We know what this looks like, they do it a lot. It involves armored drills and bomb dogs and shooting at the ground, none of which was present here.
Its just a further example of the Israeli military's blatent lies.
There was never any gunfire from any Palestinians, the only gunfire came from the tank, when it shot at the ground a few times in order to scare us. But even this was extremely minimal.
The Palestinian that was killed was in a totally seperate area of Rafah, and was killed by blanket fire into the area, not in a gun battle. It is quite unfortunate that his death probably wouldn't even be reported anywhere if it weren't for [what happened to] Rachel.
The Palestinians have been incredible. They are quite used to this, as thousands of their people have died. Indeed I now know how every Palestinian family feels, as many of them have lost multiple freinds and family to this occupation.
Their support has been invaluable however, they've gone to full lengths to give her a proper demonstration and ceremony, like they give every other Shahid (martyr). They've made a nice poster of her as well, which will be posted in all of the places she has been, and there's ganna be a big march and demonstration this afternoon. We're planning actions for the coming days as well. We're planning to occupy the murder sight, and line the whole area with flowers, and erect a nice visible memorial as well. I don't know what this means for us now.
It could go one of two ways. It could make us more effective, because now they know that we are not going to move, and that we will risk our safety to oppose them. Thus they will be forced to be more careful, and withdraw sooner. Or, it could mean that they know longer care, and will willfully kill and injur us without hesitation. This would render us useless as human shields, and our work would be impossible. So we'll have to see.
I know we'll be much more careful, and have long talks about tactics, and with what people are still comfortable. I have a lot of thinking and considering to do. But we're not leaving, that's for sure. We're dedicated to staying here, especially with the Iraq war and risk of full invasion of Gaza. If any of you heard anything else and have questions, I'd gladly respond to them.
[...] I'm sure you'll keep me in your thoughts, I need all the energy I can get as I deal with this trauma. My close freinds and family have been wonderful, and havn't freaked out on me like I thought they would. But I share their concern. Ok, I must go the press conference. Below is an article by my professor from Evergeen, its a fabulous analysis of Sharon's occupation and his attacks on innocent civilians.
Joe Smith 17 March 2003
[Note: We've not seen the article by his professor. Perhaps a search will be fruitful, and perhaps we can post here. This last account is short. We're posting as it also had phone numbers for contacts. This was received as a forwarded e-mail from Biophilos on March 17th, 2003. Bio said:
Thanks Nicolina for this valuable information. I hope that this girl's death does not go in vain as so many innocents with good will and hearts have. The Juzis here in the U.S. have a virtual grip upon the pocketbook, politics, media, and thoughts of Americans, not counting the use of fear and intimidation tactics which they reap on those courageous enough to stand up to the brainwashed and hypnotically compliant who question none of their wrongdoings.
The Palestinian People are victims of Zionist Jewish Racism and Brutal Invasion, and the fact that American's thru the cunning manipulation of their Christian Faith's and Media distortions are supporting it makes a disgusting picture of grovelling, fawning , pandering and hypocrisy.
What American People need to do is to wake up and realize that Israel is not the friend of America, nor of anybody but themselves. The fact that American's trying out of concern and compassion to put their life on the line to move some initiative towards peace and being run over by bulldozers shows the degree of callous racism, and non-concern that Israelis have for Americans. All they are is a victim to be used for their racial goals and agendas. It is time to wake up America. This non-sense has gone far enough.
B:/
[Palestinian_Confessions] The full story about the death of Rachel Corrie in Gaza written by an eye witness who also happens to be a very good friend of mine.
Reply-To: Palestinian_Confessions@yahoogroups.com
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Here is some information about the killing of International Solidarity Movement activist Rachel Corrie that you may not get from other sources:
First, the confrontation between the ISM and the Israeli Army had been under way for two hours when Rachel was run over. Rachel and the other activists had clearly identified themselves as unarmed international peace activists throughout the confrontation.
Second, although the Israeli Army claims that Rachel was killed accidentally when she ran in front of the bulldozer, eye-witnesses insist that this is totally untrue.
Rachel was sitting in the path of the bulldozer as it advanced towards her. When the bulldozer refused to stop or turn aside she climbed up onto the mound of dirt and rubble being gathered in front of it wearing a fluorescent jacket to look directly at the driver who kept on advancing.
The bulldozer continued to advance so that she was pulled or fell under the pile of dirt and rubble. After she had disappeared from view the driver kept advancing until the bulldozer was completely on top of her.
The driver did not lift the bulldozer blade and so she was crushed beneath it. Then the driver backed off and the seven other ISM activists taking part in the action rushed to dig out her body. An ambulance rushed her to Al-Najar hospital where she died.
Rachel had been working as an ISM activist in Rafah for seven weeks when she was killed trying to prevent the demolition of Palestinian homes and property in the Al-Salaam area of Rafah. House demolitions as collective punishment of entire communities and therefore a war crime as defined by the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a signatory.
This is not the first confrontation of its kind. On Feb. 14, 2003, Rachel filed this report:
"The internationals stood in the path of the bulldozer and were physically pushed with the shovel backwards, taking shelter in a house. The bulldozer then proceeded on its course, demolishing one side of the house with the internationals inside. The driver then dropped a sound grenade out of the cab of the bulldozer, and continued to demolish the house, at which point the activists were able to escape, amid gunfire from the tank."
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For further information contact:
Tom on +972 52 694 380
Joe on +972 67 628 507
Nick on +972 55 874 693 or
Michael at +972-2-2774602 or +972-67-862 439
web: http://www.palsolidarity.org
________________________________________________________
"To move the world, we must first move ourselves" Socrates
Biophilos
Copyright ©
http://bellsouthpwp.net/B/i/Biophilos/
http://www.geocities.com/biophilo
http://biophilo.tripod.com/
Introduction to Israel
By Jackie Patru
What IS this all about? First we should attempt to determine what a Jew is, or isn't. Is a Jew a person who embraces a particular religion known as Judaism? Or, is it a Semitic person who traces his/her bloodline to the ancient tribe of Judah? Or is it both? Actually, it is neither. Their Biblical territory? The WORLD.
A Jewish Defector Warns America
BENJAMIN FREEDMAN SPEAKS. In 1961, at the Willard Hotel, Mr. Freedman warned of the cabal laying plans for WWIII, and the genocide being committed by Israel on the Palestinian people figured heavily then as now. This is a repost, taken verbatim from the taped version of the speech.
The Zionist State (Harbinger of WWIII)
By Douglas Reed
A microscopic look behind the scenes at the manipulations, threats, bribes and murders committed in order to secure the vote by the United Nations, mandating the 'state' of Israel as a homeland for the so-called Jews. A gruesome picture of the bloody terror in Palestine that began simultaneously with the UN mandate. This a MUST READ, even for those who believe they know the facts.
Rothschild-Israeli Connection
Baron Edmond James (Avrahim Binyamin) de Rothschild (1845-1934) is known as the "Father of the Settlement" (Avi ha-Yishuv). The Independence Day coin is dedicated to the memory of Rothschild and marks the centenary of his first projects in Israel.
The Kol Nidre
The first and most important prayer of the Talmudist (Jewish) Holiday. "All vows , obligations, oaths, and anathemas. . . from this Day of Atonement until the next. . . we do repent.. May they be deemed absolved, forgiven, annulled, and void, and made of no effect; they shall not bind us nor have power over us. The vows shall not be obligatory; nor the oaths be oaths."
Purim: What's It All About?
G.W.Bush announced 'his' decision to sack Iraq on Purim Eve, March 17th, 2003. WHY? Why Purim Eve? It was not his plan, it was the plan of his advisors/handlers. On CNN that evening, a boxed quote told the viewers, it was "A Time Of Our Choosing." Whose choosing? Read this about Purim -- the Feast of Lots, and you will KNOW who chose the time for the massacre in Iraq. "On Purim, the Jews reaffirm their allegiance to Judaism -- and reach new spiritual heights. But then come masquerades, parodies, and serious drinking and feasting." Celebrating the death of their named 'enemies'.
Samuel Untermeyer's Speech
A transcript of Samuel Untermyer's speech made on WABC, declaring a 'holy war' by the Jews against Germany, and appealing to the masses of non-Jewish humanity to boycott German-made imports and all merchants who have German-made items in their establishments. The entire speech was published in the New York times on the morning following the broadcast (August 7th, 1933) which was mentioned by Benjamin Freedman in his talk before a group of patriots.
The Protocols
A chapter from the Controversy of Zion, by Douglas Reed
"Uncanny knowledge, therefore, again seems to have inspired the statement, made in 1905 or earlier: 'Ever since that time' (the French Revolution) 'we have been leading the peoples from one disenchantment to another... By these acts all States are in torture; they exhort to tranquility, are ready to sacrifice everything for peace; but we will not give them peace until they openly acknowledge our international Super-Government, and with submissiveness'."
Israel: The Jewel-Box of the World
ISRAEL - THE ARTIFICIAL 'NATION/STATE' IS THE WEALTHIEST 'NATION' IN THE WORLD! READ: Message To Israel: May 1971: "See how this central piece of land, that is given the preeminence over all other land by God is, 'The Jewel Box of the World'. . . They [minerals in the dead sea] are estimated to have a total market value of about $1700 billion [$1.7 trillion] which is far more than the total wealth of the United States. . . This means that the Dead Sea will be a perpetual source of wealth to the nation that controls it."
The Cost of "Occupied" Israel to the American People
By Richard Curtiss
"Put another way, the nearly $14,630 every one of 5.8 million Israelis had received from the U.S. government by October 31, 1997, cost American taxpayers $23,241 per Israeli. That's $116,205 for every Israeli family of five."
The Finest Senate Money Can Buy
By Uri Avenim, member of Israeli Knesset
"One thing, however, is quite clear: Israel is not the 51st state of the United States of America, as some would like to think; rather, the US Congress is one of the occupied areas of Israel."
Israeli Lobby Slips Anti-Israel Speech Bill Through U.S. House of Representatives
This bill was introduced some time ago by Rick Santorum, 'Christian' Senator from Penna. The original bill would withhold 'federal funds' from a college that allowed ANY criticism of Israel. WHO controls the U.S. Congress?
Oscar Levy, a Jew, Admits His People's Error
"We (Jews) have erred, my friend; we have most grievously erred. And if there was truth in our error 3,000, 2,000, nay, 100 years ago, there is now nothing but falseness and madness... a madness that will produce an even greater misery and an even wider anarchy. There has been no progress, least of all moral progress. . . And it is just our Morality, which has prohibited all real progress, and -- what is worse -- which even stands in the way of every future and natural reconstruction in this ruined world of ours."
Disraeli's "Coningsby' - An Excerpt
(London, 1844)
"And at the moment, in spite of centuries, or tens of centuries, of degradation, the Jewish mind exercises a vast influence on the affairs of Europe. I speak not of their laws, which you still obey; of their literature, with which your minds are saturated, but of the living Hebrew intellect."
The Ship Wreckers
By George Lincoln Rockwell
"... in spite of all the fronts and cover-ups, there is one sure way of knowing who is the real boss anyplace."
Israel-Backed Firm Buys U.N. Plaza
Capital Real Estate, a New York-based company backed by Israeli shekels is now in contract to buy the glamorous green glass U.N. Plaza from the United Nations Development Corp. for approximately $161 million.
Israeli Extremists and Christian Fundamentalists - The Alliance
By Grace Halsell
"By the time my book came out those "crazies" were on the front page of every American newspaper and on every news channel. we are seeing how the Christian Zionists, motivated by religious beliefs, are working hand in glove with politically motivated, militant Jewish Zionists around the world."
A Lobby to Reckon With: Pro-Israel Christian Zionists
BBC Broadcast and transcript.
America's new Christian Zionists lobbying for Israel. "From this we see that the engine driving the U.S. and Israel into an all out world conflagration is -- along with the money from the Jewish PACs which control the U.S. Congress -- the Christian Zionists. Judeo-Christian wasn't quite 'Jewish' enough. What an oxymoron, and what a spit-in-the-face of Jesus." Jackie Patru
Israel Wants U.S. to Pressure Syria
Associated Press: In remarks published Monday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Israel has "a long list of issues we are thinking of demanding of the Syrians, and it would be best done through the Americans."
Greater Israel: What Does It Really Mean?
The U.S. led war on Iraq... and eventually many other Muslim nations may be part of an Israeli plan to let others die for the goal of its expansion into Greater Israel. Extremist Zionist sympathizers in Bush's administration are the perpetrators of this scheme to have American military men and women die for Israel. See the arguments for this claim. Webmaster's note: This document is lengthy and is full of maps and other images. Please allow extra time for loading.
American Murdered by Israeli Soldier
Hoffman Wire: "Rachel Corrie, 23, is the American woman who was killed by an Israeli soldier operating a giant, D-9 armored bulldozer (paid for with your tax dollars). Congress, the president and the war-Zionist media are all silent. Imagine if she had been killed by an Iraqi!"
Rachel Corrie's E-mails Home
The Guardian - UK: "23-year-old American peace activist Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by a bulldozer as she tried to prevent the Israeli army destroying homes in the Gaza Strip. In a remarkable series of emails to her family, she explained why she was risking her life."
Four Eye-witnesses Describe the Murder of Rachel Corrie
"Her faced showed she was panicking and it was clear she was in danger of being overwhelmed. . . They pushed Rachel, first beneath the scoop, then beneath the blade, then continued till her body was beneath the cockpit. They waited over her for a few seconds, before reversing. They reversed with the blade pressed down, so it scraped over her body a second time. Every second I believed they would stop but they never did."
Rachael Corrie's Memorial Service Disrupted by Israeli Army The Guardian - UK: "Israeli forces fired teargas and stun grenades yesterday in an attempt to break up a memorial service for Rachel Corrie, the American peace activist killed by an army bulldozer in Gaza on Sunday."
Rachael Corrie's mom speaks up and out
. . . about the Israeli genocide on Palestinians: "Friday, approximately twenty [Israeli] military vehicles surrounded the ISM (International Solidarity Movement) media office, seized ISM computers and video equipment, pillaged files and photos, broke equipment and damaged office space. Three females in the office (one from Human Rights Watch, a Palestinian volunteer, and an American volunteer) were taken away."
Israel - The Secret Arsenal of the Jewish State
MSNBC Interactive: "Despite Israel's refusal to acknowledge its nuclear weapons status, its secret arsenal is an open secret that Israeli policy makers don't go out of their way to deny." Look at the dots on this map! 2 Air Bases, 7 Strategic Weapons Plants and 3 Missile Facilities! It appears that no nation should have WMDs except U.S., U.K and Israel.
Israeli Professor: 'We Could Destroy All European Capitals'
"We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that this will happen before Israel goes under." [It's called The Samson Option, folks.]
What Christians Don't Know About Israel
By Grace Halsell
“We believe with absolute certitude that right now, with the White House in our hands, the Senate in our hands and The New York Times in our hands, the lives of others do not count the same way as our own.” —Israeli journalist, Arieh Shavit
Jewish Calendar for Soldiers and Sailors
Actual calendar, showing Bush family heritage.
Tell a Joke, Go to Jail
"In Hungary, the democratically-elected Parliament just last week passed a law stipulating a two-year prison term for 'someone who publicly insults a Jew'. What's more, if the insult amounts to an expression of 'hatred', the sentence goes up to three years! Fortunately, at the last moment, Hungary's President declined to sign the bill. It will be back, just like the American Federal hate-crime legislation kept coming back until it was passed recently.
Israel's Mossad
Black Ops and False Flags. Summary - MUST SEE! You WILL believe!
New Order > From the President of the United States
Jewish American Heritage Month, 2006
For our visitors who haven't read "Jewish Persecution", go to Chapters 12 and 18 if you would like to see the influence these people have had in the past -- early, early settling America, including the not-so-spontaneous American Revolution. A tough, bitter pill to swallow. -Jackie
Related Link:
www.come-and-hear.com
(Links outside of sweetliberty.org)
Come-and-Hear is: "A secular and pragmatic view of Talmud law as it advances into American law and society." Read: "America Under the Talmud: Will It Work for US? by Carol A. Valentine — Each essay is amply documented by hotlinks to the Talmud and other Rabbinical/Judaic sources. Learn what Talmud law says about: Religious Freedom; Atrocities & Just War; Animal Sacrifice and Blood Ritual; The Death Penalty; Marriage & Divorce; Sexual Fulfillment; Pederasty and Homosexuality; Polygamy; The Special Place of Gentiles" Also features is: "The Babylonian Talmud — A searchable hypertext version of the Jews' College (London) translation of the Babylonian Talmud, published through Soncino Press between 1935 and 1948: Tractates Sanhedrin, Berakoth, Shabbath, Yebamoth, Kethuboth, Nedarim, Nazir, Sotah, Gittin, Baba Kamma, Baba Mezi'a, Baba Bathra, Abodah Zarah, Horayoth, Niddah, and Tohoroth. This was the first complete English translation, produced by the most authoritative Judaic scholars in the world. It is the gold standard of English Talmuds, but chances are you won't find it in your local public library."
“W
Tom Dale, Greg Schnabel, Richard Purssell, and Joe Smith, International Solidarity Movement, 19 March 2003
American peace activist Rachel Corrie was murdered by an Israeli bulldozer driver on 16 March 2003 while attempting to defend a Palestinian doctor's home from demolition. Four of the seven International Solidarity Movement members present have written their recollections of the incident: Tom Dale (US), Greg Schnabel (UK), Richard Purssell (UK), and Joe Smith (US). Greg and Richard's accounts are more formal accounts. Tom and Joe's accounts are excerpted from e-mails to friends and families. Courtesy of the International Solidarity Movement.
TOM DALE EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT
British Citizen from Lichfield, Birmingham, born 17 August 1984.
Many of you will of heard varying accounts of the death of Rachel Corrie, maybe others will have heard nothing of it. Regardless, I was 10 metres away when it happened 2 days ago, and this is the way it went.
We'd been monitoring and occasionally obstructing the two bulldozers for about 2 hours when one of them turned toward a house we knew to be threatened with demolition. Rachel knelt down in its way. She was 10-20 metres in front of the bulldozer, clearly visible, the only object for many metres, directly in its view. They were in radio contact with a tank that had a profile view of the situation. There is no way she could not have been seen by them in their elevated cabin. They knew where she was, there is no doubt.
The bulldozer drove toward Rachel slowly, gathering earth in its scoop as it went. She knelt there, she did not move. The bulldozer reached her and she began to stand up, climbing onto the mound of earth. She appeared to be looking into the cockpit. The bulldozer continued to push Rachel, so she slipped down the mound of earth, turning as she went.
Her faced showed she was panicking and it was clear she was in danger of being overwhelmed.
All the activists were screaming at the bulldozer to stop and gesturing to the crew about Rachel's presence. We were in clear view as Rachel had been, they continued.
They pushed Rachel, first beneath the scoop, then beneath the blade, then continued till her body was beneath the cockpit. They waited over her for a few seconds, before reversing. They reversed with the blade pressed down, so it scraped over her body a second time. Every second I believed they would stop but they never did.
I ran for an ambulance, she was gasping and her face was covered in blood from a gash cutting her face from lip to cheek. She was showing signs of brain hemorrhaging. She died in the ambulance a few minutes later of massive internal injuries. She was a brilliant, bright and amazing person, immensely brave and committed. She is gone and I cannot believe it.
The group here in Rafah has decided that we will stay here and continue to oppose human rights abuses as best we can. I want to add that more than 10 palestinians have died in the Gaza strip since Rachel.
Please: forward this message. Boycott Caterpillar. Take direct action against the Caterpillar Corporation - please do not let this be without cost to them. Legally, I shouldn't ask you to do anything destructive or against the law.
If you're wondering about Rachel: her writings, photos of her and statements on her death are available on the website below. More photos: go to yahoo news section, search for photos by 'rachel'.
If you're wondering about the International Solidarity Movement: www.palsolidarity.org
If you're wondering about the bulldozers: They're American, Caterpillar-made armoured D9 Bulldozers. I estimate the blade is maybe 8 ft high, 15 ft wide and more than 9 tons. They're purchased from America using the $12billion per annum military aid package that America gives to Israel. [Report on their previous usage, well worth reading -- especially if you didn't believe anyone would be crazy enough to do this].
If you're wondering about Rafah: in the southern Gaza Strip, next to the Egyptian border. Apart from suffering in excess from the problems all over Palestine: Israeli manipulation of the water supply, economic strangulation, regular shootings and army operations, Rafah is afflicted by the building of an extra border wall. It has caused hundreds of homes to be destroyed.
The house in question, that of a doctor, like dozens of others in the area is not set to be demolished because of any supposed link to militants. Only because it lies within 100 metres of the new border wall, currently in construction. Families receive no compensation from Israel, and are frequently given just a few minutes warning in the form of live ammunition being shot through the walls of their house.
Tom Dale - 18 March 2003
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GREG SCHNABEL EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT
United States citizen from Chicago, IL, USA, born 26 April 1974.
I, Greg Schnabel, came to Rafah to work with the International Solidarity Movement.
At approximately 3 p.m. on the afternoon of March 16, 2003 I was with Rachel at a water well in the Tel al Sultan district of Rafah. We received a call from our fellow I.S.M. activists in the Hyy Es Salam district. Our friends informed us that two bulldozers were in that neighborhood threatening to destroy family houses.
Rachel and I went to the Hyy Es Salam area to help our friends. The homes that were being threatened by the bulldozers were the homes of families which our group had been sleeping with for the past four months. We had personal relationships with these families and defending their homes from being destroyed was very important to us.
When Rachel and I arrived on the scene, two bulldozers were clearing the ground near to these homes. There was also a tank Our group began to stand in front of these bulldozers in an attempt to stop them. Generally they did not stop when we stood in front of them, but continued to push the [dirt?] up from underneath our feet and push us away. Several times we had to dive away at the last moment in order to avoid being crushed.
This continued for about two and a half hours. All the time the bulldozers were approaching closer to the families homes. They made several attempts to evade us and outmaneuver us. At one point, Will from the United States was nearly crushed between the bulldozer and a pile of razor wire. The bulldozer stopped at the last minute in Will's case. If it had moved any closer he would have been impaled by the razor wire.
The bulldozers destroyed part of a home which was unoccupied. Members of our group including myself stood inside this home in an attempt to stop them. One bulldozer then moved toward the house of Dr. Samir, one of the families with whom we had relations.
Rachel was standing in front of this home. As the bulldozer approached she stood her ground. Rachel was wearing an orange fluorescent jacket. She was clearly visible to the bulldozer driver as well as to the soldiers in the tank.
The bulldozer began to push up the ground from beneath her feet. The pile of earth was mounding up and she tried her best to stay on top of it. As the ground continued to move Rachel went down on her knees.
The bulldozer continued to move forward. Rachel began to become buried beneath the dirt. Still it did not stop.
Finally, Rachel was beneath the bulldozer.
The bulldozer did not even pick up its blade. It ran over her completely and continued to advance. It stopped when she was completely underneath the body of the bulldozer. It then moved backwards over her body. It moved clear of her and backed away.
At this point I and my friends ran to her. She was obviously in terrible condition. Her upper lip had been split open and was bleeding. We called an ambulance immediately and continued to monitor her vital signs. She was breathing but she was losing consciousness rapidly. Within a minute she was no longer able to give us her name or speak. We continued to talk to her encouraging her, breathing with her, and telling her we loved her.
The ambulance staff came and took her to the hospital. Once there she died within twenty minutes or less.
Greg Schnabel 16 March 2003
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RICHARD PURSSELL EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT
British citizen from Brighton, England. A Construction Worker born on 12 October 1971.
I am Richard Purssell of the United Kingdom. I am here in Rafah to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinian people and take non-violent direct action to confront the illegal Israeli occupation. I am making this statement at 11:30 on the night after the incident.
On 16 March 2003 myself, Rachel Corrie, and Greg were acting as human shields at the well in Tel al Sultan. We received a call at 2.30 from other ISM activists who were working in the Hyy es Salaam area that bulldozers had been spotted. We arrived ten minutes later at the area, which was near both to houses we were protecting and houses which had been destroyed in the previous week. Using a megaphone and banners to identify ourselves as international nonviolent activists we moved forward to confront the bulldozers.
For two hours we attempted at great risk to ourselves to obstruct and frustrate the bulldozers in their work. One activist from the U.S was trapped underneath barbed wire. The bulldozers seemed to be concentrating on ploughing up the land in front of the buildings whilst making occasional runs at houses.
There were two bulldozers one marked 94 serial number 949623 the other 95 serial no. 949645. There was one tank but I do not recall its number. I noted these numbers prior to the incident.
At approximately 1645 a bulldozer began making a straight run at a house which I now know to belong to a doctor Izmir [sic: Dr. Samir]. At this point the majority of the group were positioned around a wrecked building. We were all within 70 metres of each other. I was to the left of the ruined building and to the right of Dr. [Samir]'s house. Rachel was approximately 15 metres in front of me.
The ground was level and the light was good, I had a good view of everything which happened. Rachel was wearing an orange fluorescent jacket with reflective strips (the type worn by construction workers for high visibility and the avoidance of accidents).
Rachel stood to confront the bulldozer and it approached her at about five or six miles an hour. The blade on the bulldozer was dipped into the ground and was scooping up soil.
As the bulldozer came nearer the pile mounted up. Rachel climbed up the pile and at the one stage was looking into the cabin window. There is no way that the driver could not have known she was there. The bulldozer continued driving forwards and Rachel turned round to face in my direction.
She began to slide down the pile, however as soon as her feet touched the ground for some reason she fell forward. Maybe her foot was caught or the weight of the soil pushed her forward. At this point the panic on her face was obvious.
We were all shouting, screaming and gesturing by this stage. The earth was totally pushed over her, engulfing her. She was lost to my sight. I noticed that the driver had not lifted the blade. The machine rolled straight over her and continued for a little way. It then reversed over her and retreated about twenty metres. Rachel was left in its tracks, bleeding from her mouth and twisted.
The tank came over to where she was briefly and then retreated to the border fence with the two bulldozers. At no point did any member of the Israeli forces enquire as to Rachel's well-being or offer any assistance.
Eventually we were able to call an ambulance and one arrived shortly. Rachel was taken to hospital in Rafah, where I heard she had died.
I certify that this is a true account to the best of my recollection.
R.J.A. Purssell 16 March 2003
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JOE SMITH EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT
United States citizen from Kansas City, MO, USA, born 25 April 1981.
I have never experienced anything like this in my life. I've never had someone close to me die before, let alone be brutally murdered right in front of my eyes. I don't even know how to react. I went through stages of dumbfounded shock and serious crying fits. I had no chance to be alone at all, I was either surrounded by Palestinians or on the phone with media. I chose the latter. I was doing interviews non-stop starting 30 min. after her death, all the way until midnight, and then starting again at 6am and continuing all day today. I literally would never hang up the phone, just switch to an incoming call on call waiting. When I did finally get a second to breath, I'd have like 30 missed calls.
Anyway, it was a bit therapeutic I think, telling the story over and over, and interviews make me feel [as if I was doing something] important [in the aftermath]. All this thing is is a media event now, so we must continue a campaign as hard as possible before the new and bigger tragedy, the Iraq war, begins.
The few hours I had off interviews last night between midnight and 4am, was spent organizing today's events, press conferences, live TV/radio interviews, a demonstration and the beginnings of the traditional Palestinian 3-day ceremony. Now we're preparing for a serious influx of people from the West Bank and Israel, as well as some people from abroad, possibly including her family.
The stress is really getting to me. I couldn't sleep for the 2 hours I was allowed because my body won't relax. My heart is racing and shake a lot, and even have trouble breathing. My jaw is the worst though. It won't losen to save my life, and it hurts like hell, especially when I chew (when i get time to grab a falafel sandwhich). I've never experienced physical stress and tension like this.
We thought this might happen eventually. We often spoke in the abstract that eventually one of us would get killed, but we always figured they'd shoot us, or it'd be an "accident", like in a house that is missiled or a stray bullet gets an unlucky activist. I never dreamed it'd be like this, the intentional crushing of a human being.
I do believe it was intentional. I saw it, and I know he saw her, I know he did, and I know he knew she was still under the bulldozer when it backed up without raising its blade.
I don't know if he wanted to kill her, or if he was just focused on doing his work and didn't care if he killed her or not, I don't know which is scarier.
I don't feel like telling the whole detailed story right now. I promise that for the record I will tell it in detail, but give me a few days. I just want to quickly dispel a few myths you may have heard in the media.
She did not "trip and fall" in front of the bulldozer. She sat down in front of it, well in advance, wearing one of the orange flouro jackets I got in Amsterdam. (By the way, I took the pictures you may have seen of her, standing with the megaphone in front of the bulldozer, and the ones of her friends helping her.)
He clearly saw her, and continued to drive until she was forced onto the top of the dirt he was pushing, elevating her so much that she was at eye level with the bulldozer's cab, he could see right into her eyes.
He continued forward, pulling her underneath the dirt, and out of his vision. He continued forward, crushing her underneath the weight of the blade. He continued forward, until she was well underneath the bulldozer. It was then quite clear that she was nowhere but underneath him, but he proceded to back up, without lifting the blade, crushing her again.
I beleive that it was the combination of these two crushings that caused her death. She was defending the house of a physician. We've all stayed in the house, we know that there are no weapons of any kind there. Just a middle aged doctor and his lovely family. They want to demolish it because it happens to lie near the border, and they're systematically demolishing all the houses near the border.
It has nothing to do with retaliatory or preventative operations. They were not searching for tunnels or bombs either. We know what this looks like, they do it a lot. It involves armored drills and bomb dogs and shooting at the ground, none of which was present here.
Its just a further example of the Israeli military's blatent lies.
There was never any gunfire from any Palestinians, the only gunfire came from the tank, when it shot at the ground a few times in order to scare us. But even this was extremely minimal.
The Palestinian that was killed was in a totally seperate area of Rafah, and was killed by blanket fire into the area, not in a gun battle. It is quite unfortunate that his death probably wouldn't even be reported anywhere if it weren't for [what happened to] Rachel.
The Palestinians have been incredible. They are quite used to this, as thousands of their people have died. Indeed I now know how every Palestinian family feels, as many of them have lost multiple freinds and family to this occupation.
Their support has been invaluable however, they've gone to full lengths to give her a proper demonstration and ceremony, like they give every other Shahid (martyr). They've made a nice poster of her as well, which will be posted in all of the places she has been, and there's ganna be a big march and demonstration this afternoon. We're planning actions for the coming days as well. We're planning to occupy the murder sight, and line the whole area with flowers, and erect a nice visible memorial as well. I don't know what this means for us now.
It could go one of two ways. It could make us more effective, because now they know that we are not going to move, and that we will risk our safety to oppose them. Thus they will be forced to be more careful, and withdraw sooner. Or, it could mean that they know longer care, and will willfully kill and injur us without hesitation. This would render us useless as human shields, and our work would be impossible. So we'll have to see.
I know we'll be much more careful, and have long talks about tactics, and with what people are still comfortable. I have a lot of thinking and considering to do. But we're not leaving, that's for sure. We're dedicated to staying here, especially with the Iraq war and risk of full invasion of Gaza. If any of you heard anything else and have questions, I'd gladly respond to them.
[...] I'm sure you'll keep me in your thoughts, I need all the energy I can get as I deal with this trauma. My close freinds and family have been wonderful, and havn't freaked out on me like I thought they would. But I share their concern. Ok, I must go the press conference. Below is an article by my professor from Evergeen, its a fabulous analysis of Sharon's occupation and his attacks on innocent civilians.
Joe Smith 17 March 2003
[Note: We've not seen the article by his professor. Perhaps a search will be fruitful, and perhaps we can post here. This last account is short. We're posting as it also had phone numbers for contacts. This was received as a forwarded e-mail from Biophilos on March 17th, 2003. Bio said:
Thanks Nicolina for this valuable information. I hope that this girl's death does not go in vain as so many innocents with good will and hearts have. The Juzis here in the U.S. have a virtual grip upon the pocketbook, politics, media, and thoughts of Americans, not counting the use of fear and intimidation tactics which they reap on those courageous enough to stand up to the brainwashed and hypnotically compliant who question none of their wrongdoings.
The Palestinian People are victims of Zionist Jewish Racism and Brutal Invasion, and the fact that American's thru the cunning manipulation of their Christian Faith's and Media distortions are supporting it makes a disgusting picture of grovelling, fawning , pandering and hypocrisy.
What American People need to do is to wake up and realize that Israel is not the friend of America, nor of anybody but themselves. The fact that American's trying out of concern and compassion to put their life on the line to move some initiative towards peace and being run over by bulldozers shows the degree of callous racism, and non-concern that Israelis have for Americans. All they are is a victim to be used for their racial goals and agendas. It is time to wake up America. This non-sense has gone far enough.
B:/
[Palestinian_Confessions] The full story about the death of Rachel Corrie in Gaza written by an eye witness who also happens to be a very good friend of mine.
Reply-To: Palestinian_Confessions@yahoogroups.com
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Here is some information about the killing of International Solidarity Movement activist Rachel Corrie that you may not get from other sources:
First, the confrontation between the ISM and the Israeli Army had been under way for two hours when Rachel was run over. Rachel and the other activists had clearly identified themselves as unarmed international peace activists throughout the confrontation.
Second, although the Israeli Army claims that Rachel was killed accidentally when she ran in front of the bulldozer, eye-witnesses insist that this is totally untrue.
Rachel was sitting in the path of the bulldozer as it advanced towards her. When the bulldozer refused to stop or turn aside she climbed up onto the mound of dirt and rubble being gathered in front of it wearing a fluorescent jacket to look directly at the driver who kept on advancing.
The bulldozer continued to advance so that she was pulled or fell under the pile of dirt and rubble. After she had disappeared from view the driver kept advancing until the bulldozer was completely on top of her.
The driver did not lift the bulldozer blade and so she was crushed beneath it. Then the driver backed off and the seven other ISM activists taking part in the action rushed to dig out her body. An ambulance rushed her to Al-Najar hospital where she died.
Rachel had been working as an ISM activist in Rafah for seven weeks when she was killed trying to prevent the demolition of Palestinian homes and property in the Al-Salaam area of Rafah. House demolitions as collective punishment of entire communities and therefore a war crime as defined by the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a signatory.
This is not the first confrontation of its kind. On Feb. 14, 2003, Rachel filed this report:
"The internationals stood in the path of the bulldozer and were physically pushed with the shovel backwards, taking shelter in a house. The bulldozer then proceeded on its course, demolishing one side of the house with the internationals inside. The driver then dropped a sound grenade out of the cab of the bulldozer, and continued to demolish the house, at which point the activists were able to escape, amid gunfire from the tank."
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For further information contact:
Tom on +972 52 694 380
Joe on +972 67 628 507
Nick on +972 55 874 693 or
Michael at +972-2-2774602 or +972-67-862 439
web: http://www.palsolidarity.org
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"To move the world, we must first move ourselves" Socrates
Biophilos
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Introduction to Israel
By Jackie Patru
What IS this all about? First we should attempt to determine what a Jew is, or isn't. Is a Jew a person who embraces a particular religion known as Judaism? Or, is it a Semitic person who traces his/her bloodline to the ancient tribe of Judah? Or is it both? Actually, it is neither. Their Biblical territory? The WORLD.
A Jewish Defector Warns America
BENJAMIN FREEDMAN SPEAKS. In 1961, at the Willard Hotel, Mr. Freedman warned of the cabal laying plans for WWIII, and the genocide being committed by Israel on the Palestinian people figured heavily then as now. This is a repost, taken verbatim from the taped version of the speech.
The Zionist State (Harbinger of WWIII)
By Douglas Reed
A microscopic look behind the scenes at the manipulations, threats, bribes and murders committed in order to secure the vote by the United Nations, mandating the 'state' of Israel as a homeland for the so-called Jews. A gruesome picture of the bloody terror in Palestine that began simultaneously with the UN mandate. This a MUST READ, even for those who believe they know the facts.
Rothschild-Israeli Connection
Baron Edmond James (Avrahim Binyamin) de Rothschild (1845-1934) is known as the "Father of the Settlement" (Avi ha-Yishuv). The Independence Day coin is dedicated to the memory of Rothschild and marks the centenary of his first projects in Israel.
The Kol Nidre
The first and most important prayer of the Talmudist (Jewish) Holiday. "All vows , obligations, oaths, and anathemas. . . from this Day of Atonement until the next. . . we do repent.. May they be deemed absolved, forgiven, annulled, and void, and made of no effect; they shall not bind us nor have power over us. The vows shall not be obligatory; nor the oaths be oaths."
Purim: What's It All About?
G.W.Bush announced 'his' decision to sack Iraq on Purim Eve, March 17th, 2003. WHY? Why Purim Eve? It was not his plan, it was the plan of his advisors/handlers. On CNN that evening, a boxed quote told the viewers, it was "A Time Of Our Choosing." Whose choosing? Read this about Purim -- the Feast of Lots, and you will KNOW who chose the time for the massacre in Iraq. "On Purim, the Jews reaffirm their allegiance to Judaism -- and reach new spiritual heights. But then come masquerades, parodies, and serious drinking and feasting." Celebrating the death of their named 'enemies'.
Samuel Untermeyer's Speech
A transcript of Samuel Untermyer's speech made on WABC, declaring a 'holy war' by the Jews against Germany, and appealing to the masses of non-Jewish humanity to boycott German-made imports and all merchants who have German-made items in their establishments. The entire speech was published in the New York times on the morning following the broadcast (August 7th, 1933) which was mentioned by Benjamin Freedman in his talk before a group of patriots.
The Protocols
A chapter from the Controversy of Zion, by Douglas Reed
"Uncanny knowledge, therefore, again seems to have inspired the statement, made in 1905 or earlier: 'Ever since that time' (the French Revolution) 'we have been leading the peoples from one disenchantment to another... By these acts all States are in torture; they exhort to tranquility, are ready to sacrifice everything for peace; but we will not give them peace until they openly acknowledge our international Super-Government, and with submissiveness'."
Israel: The Jewel-Box of the World
ISRAEL - THE ARTIFICIAL 'NATION/STATE' IS THE WEALTHIEST 'NATION' IN THE WORLD! READ: Message To Israel: May 1971: "See how this central piece of land, that is given the preeminence over all other land by God is, 'The Jewel Box of the World'. . . They [minerals in the dead sea] are estimated to have a total market value of about $1700 billion [$1.7 trillion] which is far more than the total wealth of the United States. . . This means that the Dead Sea will be a perpetual source of wealth to the nation that controls it."
The Cost of "Occupied" Israel to the American People
By Richard Curtiss
"Put another way, the nearly $14,630 every one of 5.8 million Israelis had received from the U.S. government by October 31, 1997, cost American taxpayers $23,241 per Israeli. That's $116,205 for every Israeli family of five."
The Finest Senate Money Can Buy
By Uri Avenim, member of Israeli Knesset
"One thing, however, is quite clear: Israel is not the 51st state of the United States of America, as some would like to think; rather, the US Congress is one of the occupied areas of Israel."
Israeli Lobby Slips Anti-Israel Speech Bill Through U.S. House of Representatives
This bill was introduced some time ago by Rick Santorum, 'Christian' Senator from Penna. The original bill would withhold 'federal funds' from a college that allowed ANY criticism of Israel. WHO controls the U.S. Congress?
Oscar Levy, a Jew, Admits His People's Error
"We (Jews) have erred, my friend; we have most grievously erred. And if there was truth in our error 3,000, 2,000, nay, 100 years ago, there is now nothing but falseness and madness... a madness that will produce an even greater misery and an even wider anarchy. There has been no progress, least of all moral progress. . . And it is just our Morality, which has prohibited all real progress, and -- what is worse -- which even stands in the way of every future and natural reconstruction in this ruined world of ours."
Disraeli's "Coningsby' - An Excerpt
(London, 1844)
"And at the moment, in spite of centuries, or tens of centuries, of degradation, the Jewish mind exercises a vast influence on the affairs of Europe. I speak not of their laws, which you still obey; of their literature, with which your minds are saturated, but of the living Hebrew intellect."
The Ship Wreckers
By George Lincoln Rockwell
"... in spite of all the fronts and cover-ups, there is one sure way of knowing who is the real boss anyplace."
Israel-Backed Firm Buys U.N. Plaza
Capital Real Estate, a New York-based company backed by Israeli shekels is now in contract to buy the glamorous green glass U.N. Plaza from the United Nations Development Corp. for approximately $161 million.
Israeli Extremists and Christian Fundamentalists - The Alliance
By Grace Halsell
"By the time my book came out those "crazies" were on the front page of every American newspaper and on every news channel. we are seeing how the Christian Zionists, motivated by religious beliefs, are working hand in glove with politically motivated, militant Jewish Zionists around the world."
A Lobby to Reckon With: Pro-Israel Christian Zionists
BBC Broadcast and transcript.
America's new Christian Zionists lobbying for Israel. "From this we see that the engine driving the U.S. and Israel into an all out world conflagration is -- along with the money from the Jewish PACs which control the U.S. Congress -- the Christian Zionists. Judeo-Christian wasn't quite 'Jewish' enough. What an oxymoron, and what a spit-in-the-face of Jesus." Jackie Patru
Israel Wants U.S. to Pressure Syria
Associated Press: In remarks published Monday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Israel has "a long list of issues we are thinking of demanding of the Syrians, and it would be best done through the Americans."
Greater Israel: What Does It Really Mean?
The U.S. led war on Iraq... and eventually many other Muslim nations may be part of an Israeli plan to let others die for the goal of its expansion into Greater Israel. Extremist Zionist sympathizers in Bush's administration are the perpetrators of this scheme to have American military men and women die for Israel. See the arguments for this claim. Webmaster's note: This document is lengthy and is full of maps and other images. Please allow extra time for loading.
American Murdered by Israeli Soldier
Hoffman Wire: "Rachel Corrie, 23, is the American woman who was killed by an Israeli soldier operating a giant, D-9 armored bulldozer (paid for with your tax dollars). Congress, the president and the war-Zionist media are all silent. Imagine if she had been killed by an Iraqi!"
Rachel Corrie's E-mails Home
The Guardian - UK: "23-year-old American peace activist Rachel Corrie was crushed to death by a bulldozer as she tried to prevent the Israeli army destroying homes in the Gaza Strip. In a remarkable series of emails to her family, she explained why she was risking her life."
Four Eye-witnesses Describe the Murder of Rachel Corrie
"Her faced showed she was panicking and it was clear she was in danger of being overwhelmed. . . They pushed Rachel, first beneath the scoop, then beneath the blade, then continued till her body was beneath the cockpit. They waited over her for a few seconds, before reversing. They reversed with the blade pressed down, so it scraped over her body a second time. Every second I believed they would stop but they never did."
Rachael Corrie's Memorial Service Disrupted by Israeli Army The Guardian - UK: "Israeli forces fired teargas and stun grenades yesterday in an attempt to break up a memorial service for Rachel Corrie, the American peace activist killed by an army bulldozer in Gaza on Sunday."
Rachael Corrie's mom speaks up and out
. . . about the Israeli genocide on Palestinians: "Friday, approximately twenty [Israeli] military vehicles surrounded the ISM (International Solidarity Movement) media office, seized ISM computers and video equipment, pillaged files and photos, broke equipment and damaged office space. Three females in the office (one from Human Rights Watch, a Palestinian volunteer, and an American volunteer) were taken away."
Israel - The Secret Arsenal of the Jewish State
MSNBC Interactive: "Despite Israel's refusal to acknowledge its nuclear weapons status, its secret arsenal is an open secret that Israeli policy makers don't go out of their way to deny." Look at the dots on this map! 2 Air Bases, 7 Strategic Weapons Plants and 3 Missile Facilities! It appears that no nation should have WMDs except U.S., U.K and Israel.
Israeli Professor: 'We Could Destroy All European Capitals'
"We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that this will happen before Israel goes under." [It's called The Samson Option, folks.]
What Christians Don't Know About Israel
By Grace Halsell
“We believe with absolute certitude that right now, with the White House in our hands, the Senate in our hands and The New York Times in our hands, the lives of others do not count the same way as our own.” —Israeli journalist, Arieh Shavit
Jewish Calendar for Soldiers and Sailors
Actual calendar, showing Bush family heritage.
Tell a Joke, Go to Jail
"In Hungary, the democratically-elected Parliament just last week passed a law stipulating a two-year prison term for 'someone who publicly insults a Jew'. What's more, if the insult amounts to an expression of 'hatred', the sentence goes up to three years! Fortunately, at the last moment, Hungary's President declined to sign the bill. It will be back, just like the American Federal hate-crime legislation kept coming back until it was passed recently.
Israel's Mossad
Black Ops and False Flags. Summary - MUST SEE! You WILL believe!
New Order > From the President of the United States
Jewish American Heritage Month, 2006
For our visitors who haven't read "Jewish Persecution", go to Chapters 12 and 18 if you would like to see the influence these people have had in the past -- early, early settling America, including the not-so-spontaneous American Revolution. A tough, bitter pill to swallow. -Jackie
Related Link:
www.come-and-hear.com
(Links outside of sweetliberty.org)
Come-and-Hear is: "A secular and pragmatic view of Talmud law as it advances into American law and society." Read: "America Under the Talmud: Will It Work for US? by Carol A. Valentine — Each essay is amply documented by hotlinks to the Talmud and other Rabbinical/Judaic sources. Learn what Talmud law says about: Religious Freedom; Atrocities & Just War; Animal Sacrifice and Blood Ritual; The Death Penalty; Marriage & Divorce; Sexual Fulfillment; Pederasty and Homosexuality; Polygamy; The Special Place of Gentiles" Also features is: "The Babylonian Talmud — A searchable hypertext version of the Jews' College (London) translation of the Babylonian Talmud, published through Soncino Press between 1935 and 1948: Tractates Sanhedrin, Berakoth, Shabbath, Yebamoth, Kethuboth, Nedarim, Nazir, Sotah, Gittin, Baba Kamma, Baba Mezi'a, Baba Bathra, Abodah Zarah, Horayoth, Niddah, and Tohoroth. This was the first complete English translation, produced by the most authoritative Judaic scholars in the world. It is the gold standard of English Talmuds, but chances are you won't find it in your local public library."
“W
Flesh or Spirit?
Author: D.Brandt Berg
Published January 17, 2004
The most raging religious controversy the world has ever known has been between the do-it-yourself religions and the God-alone-can-save-you kind. Man has always been trying to save himself, to work his way to Heaven, with just a little help from God thrown in. That way he can give himself most of the credit and go his own way.
The first murder was committed by a religionist of the do-it-yourself kind, Cain (the oldest son of the first couple, Adam and Eve). Cain killed his brother Abel, a man who was trusting God (Genesis chapter 4). This was the beginning of the persecution of the true church by the false church. Cain was religious, very religious. He was trying very hard to save himself in his own way, even sacrificing to God and claiming to worship God. He was doing his best to ask God to help him earn his own salvation—but his best wasn’t good enough! His way was not God’s way, but was the way of all false religions.
Those who follow false religions are all dependent upon self-righteousness and their own way. Most of them claim to be worshipping God and seeking a little help from Him to make it, but because they work so hard at trying to earn it, they figure they deserve it—with or without His help—and are quite offended if He doesn’t seem to appreciate their goodness. They say, “Why, look at all we’ve done for You, God! You ought to give us a medal! We really deserve to be saved! If You’re ever going to save anybody, You should save us! If anybody’s going to make it to Heaven, we should certainly make it!”
On the other hand, Abel just did what God told him to do—and he “offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain” (Hebrews 11:4): the sacrifice of pure faith in what God told him to do. By sacrificing a lamb, which was a foreshadowing of Jesus dying on the cross for the sins of the world (John 1:29), Abel showed that he was trusting God alone to save him. He knew he had only God’s righteousness, and none of his own, and that salvation was purely a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Abel’s humble sacrifice made such a fool out of the hardworking Cain, the self-made man and devout religionist, devoted to his own form of worship, and it so totally exposed the futility and hypocrisy of Cain’s hard work, that Cain was furious. After all his labors of the flesh, his legalistic reasoning, and his demands for salvation in return for all he was doing, Cain was so humiliated that he tried to wipe out the awful truth that his religion had failed to save him—and he did so by killing the man whose simple faith in God’s grace had exposed him.
Thus began the battle royal between pride and humility, between the damned religionists and the saved sinners—the perpetual warfare that has been waged ever since between the false church and the true church, flesh and spirit, works and faith, law and grace, self and God.
This conflict has resulted in some of the greatest misunderstandings and misinterpretations of the Scriptures that have ever existed. Most people have been trying to save themselves ever since, with as little thanks to God as possible, and they have twisted the Scriptures to try to prove they could do it! But God can’t help them to save themselves. He does not help those who think they can help themselves, but only those who know they can’t. They can’t save themselves, no matter how much they try to get His help to do it their way.
The religionists of ancient times wound up serving their do-it-yourself religions instead of God, and were destroyed in the flood of His judgments—and Noah and his family alone were saved by the grace of God in the ark. The very waters that destroyed the wicked, unbelieving world delivered the trusting believers (Genesis chapters 6 through 8).
But still the works religionists didn’t learn. As the German philosopher Georg Hegel (1770-1831) observed, the only thing we ever learn from history is that we neverlearn from history. They were soon at it again, this time building themselves a tower to try to get to Heaven by their own works, to try to make a name for themselves and take credit for their greatness. But that didn’t work either. It only resulted in Babel, or total confusion, and we’ve been suffering from this confusion, this babbling of many languages, ever since (Genesis 11:1-9).
Even the patriarch Abraham tried to pull a few tricks to save himself and his posterity, until God had to show him that it was all by faith and the miracle-working power of God, not by his own efforts (Genesis 20).
When Moses tried to liberate the Hebrews his way, he fell flat on his face before God in the desert when he found out he couldn’t make it on his own.
The children of Israel tried to win battles their way, and were defeated many times when they thought they could save themselves by their military might. Even Samson discovered that he was a weakling without the power of God.
Kings Saul, David, and Solomon all found that they only made fools of themselves whenever they tried to go it on their own. They all learned that only God could save them.
This “grace versus works” debate was the biggest cause of division amongst the early Christians. Could one simply believe and be saved, or was it necessary to also keep some of the hundreds of Jewish religious laws? The Jewish Christians just couldn’t help but believe that Jews were a little bit better than Gentiles, even amongst Christians. “Sure, we believe that Jesus is the Messiah,” they said, “but we still have to help Him save us by keeping the Mosaic Law.” This obnoxious mixture of works and grace so nauseated the apostle Paul that he publicly bawled out Peter for it and spent years fighting it in epistle after epistle (Galatians 2:11-21).
As a young Christian, I too was deceived for a time by the delusive doctrine of off-again, on-again, gone-again eternal insecurity taught by some churches and “works” religions. But then one day as a teenager, I was thrilled to discover the simple truth of John 3:36. After years of discouragement and defeat and lack of assurance of my own salvation, I found that all I had to do was believe. That was enough! Jesus said, “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life”—right now! No ifs, ands, or buts about it! No “providing you’re a good boy or girl and go to church every Sunday,” and none of this “sinless perfection” business.
I just hadn’t been able to make it on my own, and I knew it. It seemed that the harder I tried to be good, the worse I got! As the apostle Paul lamented, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25).
That was all there was to it. There was nothing else, no other way, no righteousness of my own, none of my own good works. None of these could keep me saved any more than they could save me in the first place! Only Jesus could do it! Not only had He needed to save me, but He also had to do the good works through me. It was all Jesus, and nothing of myself or my own goodness or self-righteousness—just Jesus. I was so relieved to learn that, as I knew I could never make it otherwise. It had to be God. I just couldn’t do it—so He did!
The trouble with many Christians today is that they’re still living in the Old Testament. Their Christianity is a works religion. Years ago I remember hearing about some missionaries who had gone to Japan. Upon arrival they were asked by the local people, “Are you Old Testament or New Testament Christians?” At first the missionaries didn’t understand what they meant, but they soon found out that “Old Testament Christians” referred to those who placed a great deal of importance on church buildings, ceremonies, formalism, and tradition—those whose religion was primarily a works religion. A “New Testament Christian” was one whose major emphasis was not on the things that are seen—buildings and ceremony and pomp—but rather on the unseen things of the spirit and the simplicity of everyday Christian living, like that of Jesus and His disciples. What a comparison, and how true!
Too many religions and religionists are still living in the past. They have inherited too many hangovers from pagan idolatry with its love and worship of buildings, sanctimonious priesthood, elaborate trappings, complicated ceremonies, and superstitious traditions. Their leaders have exerted a dictatorial stranglehold on the souls of men, making merchandise of them through their insistence on salvation by works—their kind of works, their particular religion, the special corner on God that they claim to have!
In the Old Testament, God had a hard time getting the children of Israel away from the idolatry of Egypt. He used the Mosaic Law as their schoolmaster to teach simple truths through object lessons and rituals: the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, and animal sacrifices. These were types and shadows, analogies, mere pictures of the spiritual realities and eternal truths He was trying to lead them into, almost like you would do with little children (Galatians 3:24-25). He had to take what they understood—the forms and ceremonies that they were familiar with in the religions of Egypt and other heathen nations around them—in a fatherly attempt to audio-visualize for them the genuine spiritual truths of the true mature worship of God Himself. As the apostle Paul says, these were all types of the true (Romans 5:14), mere visual likenesses or illustrations of the unseen realities of the spirit world.
Paul says, “When that which is perfect has come [Jesus’ Second Coming], then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:10-12).
Paul was saying that even the gifts of the Holy Spirit of this New Testament era are almost like toys, gifts from a loving Father to His simple little children, to help communicate understanding of Himself and His will.
How much more, then, were the material object lessons of the temple worship of the Old Testament childish toys for even tinier children spiritually, to help them understand their heavenly Father’s love? But “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2).
When Jesus came, He told the Samaritan woman at the well, “The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24). This is the spiritual era in which we are now living.
But Paul goes even further than this in his prediction to the early Christians of Corinth when he says that the time is coming when we shall see Jesus face to face and put away even these childlike gifts of communication in the spirit. For “whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away” (1 Corinthians 13:8-10). Even what we have now is only a sample of the glorious realities to come!
In the Old Testament were the illustrations, and in the present New Testament era are the spiritual truths that we have now by faith alone (John 1:17). But when Jesus comes again, we shall see Him as He is and literally be like Him and actually experience the fullness of the realities of God and the world to come!
“Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).
Published January 17, 2004
The most raging religious controversy the world has ever known has been between the do-it-yourself religions and the God-alone-can-save-you kind. Man has always been trying to save himself, to work his way to Heaven, with just a little help from God thrown in. That way he can give himself most of the credit and go his own way.
The first murder was committed by a religionist of the do-it-yourself kind, Cain (the oldest son of the first couple, Adam and Eve). Cain killed his brother Abel, a man who was trusting God (Genesis chapter 4). This was the beginning of the persecution of the true church by the false church. Cain was religious, very religious. He was trying very hard to save himself in his own way, even sacrificing to God and claiming to worship God. He was doing his best to ask God to help him earn his own salvation—but his best wasn’t good enough! His way was not God’s way, but was the way of all false religions.
Those who follow false religions are all dependent upon self-righteousness and their own way. Most of them claim to be worshipping God and seeking a little help from Him to make it, but because they work so hard at trying to earn it, they figure they deserve it—with or without His help—and are quite offended if He doesn’t seem to appreciate their goodness. They say, “Why, look at all we’ve done for You, God! You ought to give us a medal! We really deserve to be saved! If You’re ever going to save anybody, You should save us! If anybody’s going to make it to Heaven, we should certainly make it!”
On the other hand, Abel just did what God told him to do—and he “offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain” (Hebrews 11:4): the sacrifice of pure faith in what God told him to do. By sacrificing a lamb, which was a foreshadowing of Jesus dying on the cross for the sins of the world (John 1:29), Abel showed that he was trusting God alone to save him. He knew he had only God’s righteousness, and none of his own, and that salvation was purely a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Abel’s humble sacrifice made such a fool out of the hardworking Cain, the self-made man and devout religionist, devoted to his own form of worship, and it so totally exposed the futility and hypocrisy of Cain’s hard work, that Cain was furious. After all his labors of the flesh, his legalistic reasoning, and his demands for salvation in return for all he was doing, Cain was so humiliated that he tried to wipe out the awful truth that his religion had failed to save him—and he did so by killing the man whose simple faith in God’s grace had exposed him.
Thus began the battle royal between pride and humility, between the damned religionists and the saved sinners—the perpetual warfare that has been waged ever since between the false church and the true church, flesh and spirit, works and faith, law and grace, self and God.
This conflict has resulted in some of the greatest misunderstandings and misinterpretations of the Scriptures that have ever existed. Most people have been trying to save themselves ever since, with as little thanks to God as possible, and they have twisted the Scriptures to try to prove they could do it! But God can’t help them to save themselves. He does not help those who think they can help themselves, but only those who know they can’t. They can’t save themselves, no matter how much they try to get His help to do it their way.
The religionists of ancient times wound up serving their do-it-yourself religions instead of God, and were destroyed in the flood of His judgments—and Noah and his family alone were saved by the grace of God in the ark. The very waters that destroyed the wicked, unbelieving world delivered the trusting believers (Genesis chapters 6 through 8).
But still the works religionists didn’t learn. As the German philosopher Georg Hegel (1770-1831) observed, the only thing we ever learn from history is that we neverlearn from history. They were soon at it again, this time building themselves a tower to try to get to Heaven by their own works, to try to make a name for themselves and take credit for their greatness. But that didn’t work either. It only resulted in Babel, or total confusion, and we’ve been suffering from this confusion, this babbling of many languages, ever since (Genesis 11:1-9).
Even the patriarch Abraham tried to pull a few tricks to save himself and his posterity, until God had to show him that it was all by faith and the miracle-working power of God, not by his own efforts (Genesis 20).
When Moses tried to liberate the Hebrews his way, he fell flat on his face before God in the desert when he found out he couldn’t make it on his own.
The children of Israel tried to win battles their way, and were defeated many times when they thought they could save themselves by their military might. Even Samson discovered that he was a weakling without the power of God.
Kings Saul, David, and Solomon all found that they only made fools of themselves whenever they tried to go it on their own. They all learned that only God could save them.
This “grace versus works” debate was the biggest cause of division amongst the early Christians. Could one simply believe and be saved, or was it necessary to also keep some of the hundreds of Jewish religious laws? The Jewish Christians just couldn’t help but believe that Jews were a little bit better than Gentiles, even amongst Christians. “Sure, we believe that Jesus is the Messiah,” they said, “but we still have to help Him save us by keeping the Mosaic Law.” This obnoxious mixture of works and grace so nauseated the apostle Paul that he publicly bawled out Peter for it and spent years fighting it in epistle after epistle (Galatians 2:11-21).
As a young Christian, I too was deceived for a time by the delusive doctrine of off-again, on-again, gone-again eternal insecurity taught by some churches and “works” religions. But then one day as a teenager, I was thrilled to discover the simple truth of John 3:36. After years of discouragement and defeat and lack of assurance of my own salvation, I found that all I had to do was believe. That was enough! Jesus said, “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life”—right now! No ifs, ands, or buts about it! No “providing you’re a good boy or girl and go to church every Sunday,” and none of this “sinless perfection” business.
I just hadn’t been able to make it on my own, and I knew it. It seemed that the harder I tried to be good, the worse I got! As the apostle Paul lamented, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25).
That was all there was to it. There was nothing else, no other way, no righteousness of my own, none of my own good works. None of these could keep me saved any more than they could save me in the first place! Only Jesus could do it! Not only had He needed to save me, but He also had to do the good works through me. It was all Jesus, and nothing of myself or my own goodness or self-righteousness—just Jesus. I was so relieved to learn that, as I knew I could never make it otherwise. It had to be God. I just couldn’t do it—so He did!
The trouble with many Christians today is that they’re still living in the Old Testament. Their Christianity is a works religion. Years ago I remember hearing about some missionaries who had gone to Japan. Upon arrival they were asked by the local people, “Are you Old Testament or New Testament Christians?” At first the missionaries didn’t understand what they meant, but they soon found out that “Old Testament Christians” referred to those who placed a great deal of importance on church buildings, ceremonies, formalism, and tradition—those whose religion was primarily a works religion. A “New Testament Christian” was one whose major emphasis was not on the things that are seen—buildings and ceremony and pomp—but rather on the unseen things of the spirit and the simplicity of everyday Christian living, like that of Jesus and His disciples. What a comparison, and how true!
Too many religions and religionists are still living in the past. They have inherited too many hangovers from pagan idolatry with its love and worship of buildings, sanctimonious priesthood, elaborate trappings, complicated ceremonies, and superstitious traditions. Their leaders have exerted a dictatorial stranglehold on the souls of men, making merchandise of them through their insistence on salvation by works—their kind of works, their particular religion, the special corner on God that they claim to have!
In the Old Testament, God had a hard time getting the children of Israel away from the idolatry of Egypt. He used the Mosaic Law as their schoolmaster to teach simple truths through object lessons and rituals: the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, and animal sacrifices. These were types and shadows, analogies, mere pictures of the spiritual realities and eternal truths He was trying to lead them into, almost like you would do with little children (Galatians 3:24-25). He had to take what they understood—the forms and ceremonies that they were familiar with in the religions of Egypt and other heathen nations around them—in a fatherly attempt to audio-visualize for them the genuine spiritual truths of the true mature worship of God Himself. As the apostle Paul says, these were all types of the true (Romans 5:14), mere visual likenesses or illustrations of the unseen realities of the spirit world.
Paul says, “When that which is perfect has come [Jesus’ Second Coming], then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:10-12).
Paul was saying that even the gifts of the Holy Spirit of this New Testament era are almost like toys, gifts from a loving Father to His simple little children, to help communicate understanding of Himself and His will.
How much more, then, were the material object lessons of the temple worship of the Old Testament childish toys for even tinier children spiritually, to help them understand their heavenly Father’s love? But “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2).
When Jesus came, He told the Samaritan woman at the well, “The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24). This is the spiritual era in which we are now living.
But Paul goes even further than this in his prediction to the early Christians of Corinth when he says that the time is coming when we shall see Jesus face to face and put away even these childlike gifts of communication in the spirit. For “whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away” (1 Corinthians 13:8-10). Even what we have now is only a sample of the glorious realities to come!
In the Old Testament were the illustrations, and in the present New Testament era are the spiritual truths that we have now by faith alone (John 1:17). But when Jesus comes again, we shall see Him as He is and literally be like Him and actually experience the fullness of the realities of God and the world to come!
“Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).
God’s Chesspiece! You can’t, but He can!
Author: D.Brandt Berg
Published March 1, 2004
God doesn’t want you to try or pretend to be something you’re not and couldn’t possibly be. However, He teaches in His Word that almost anybody can be almost anything if they have faith and it’s according to His will. Anybody can be somebody or somebody can be anybody, because with God nothing is impossible and all things are possible to those who believe (Luke 1:37; Mark 9:23).
A lot of Christians make idols of the great men and women of God of the past. They idolize the heroes of the Bible, the patriarchs and the prophets, the Christian saints and martyrs, and they exalt them to such heights that they make it almost impossible for others to believe they could ever do the same things. And sad to say, it seems that all too often people do that to excuse themselves.
They say, “It’s impossible to be like that today. That sort of thing is reserved for Bible times, or saints or patriarchs or prophets. Ordinary Christians aren’t supposed to try to be like that. It’s impossible. Don’t even try! People today can’t expect to do miracles or have other gifts of the Spirit like the apostles and great Christians of the past had. The day of miracles is past!”
And one of the biggest lies the Devil tells people is, “You can’t be that way because you’re sinful and make mistakes, and you cannot be both good and bad.” Well, God’s Word says, “There is none righteous, no, not one… For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:10, 23). And that includes whom?—Not only you and me, but the saints and the prophets and the apostles and the patriarchs, and everyone else except the Lord Himself.
Now that changes the picture! That brings the apostles, prophets, and heroes of the Bible down to our level, and that means it’s possible for us to become more like them. Regardless of our sins and mistakes and faults or whatever, we too can be used of the Lord. So if the Devil tells you that you’ll never amount to anything for the Lord because you’re so bad, don’t listen to him. That isn’t so!
God created man and put him on earth in part to demonstrate His power in giving him salvation—to show that in spite of all our faults and shortcomings He can save us and make us useful. He can even use you. The fact that God can use you, bad as you are, gives the glory to Jesus when you do anything good or right. As the old hymn says,
Even the great apostle Paul lamented, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” He as good as said, “I stink! I’m a horrible mess!” But then the Lord encouraged him with the answer to his dilemma: “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 7:24-25; 1 Corinthians 15:57).
Now, doesn’t that give you some hope? When the Devil reminds you of your mistakes and faults and shortcomings, it helps to remind yourself that, yes, you’re no good; yes, you’re a sinner; yes, except for the love and mercy and grace and goodness of God, you’d never make it!
It takes a miracle of the grace of God! It all has to be a miracle! Your thoughts, your love for the Lord and others, your work for the Lord—all of it is a miracle of God’s grace, “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). It’s God’s work. You just have to have the faith that God is going to do it through you.
For many years I was convinced that I was nothing and nobody and could never do anything! I was too sinful, too carnal, I didn’t read the Bible enough and didn’t pray enough. How could I ever hope to do anything for God?
Of course you can’t do it! Of course you can’t save yourself! Of course you can’t live a perfect Christian life! Jesus Himself said, “Without Me you can do nothing.”(John15:5b)
Be honest. Isn’t that the way you feel sometimes? I’m sure the Devil lies to you like that too. When he does, slap him in the face with Scriptures, like Jesus did when the Devil tempted Him in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Where sin and human faults and failings abound, God’s grace does more abound (Romans 5:20). That’s what it’s all about!
Why do you think the Lord lets you make mistakes? Why do you think God let Adam and Eve fall prey to temptation in the Garden of Eden?—To prove that they needed God, and to prove that you need God! You can’t do it on your own! And what does that do?—It glorifies the Lord!
Of course you can’t do it! Of course you can’t save yourself! Of course you can’t live a perfect Christian life! Of course you can’t be good or do anything good of yourself! Jesus Himself said, “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). A lot of people have been taught the false doctrine that they’re supposed to do most of it with just a little help from God, but I want to tell you right now, God does it all! Isn’t that a comforting thought?
You don’t have to have faith to do things that the Lord isn’t asking or expecting of you. You just have to have faith to be what He’s made you to be and to do the job He has for you, whatever that may be. Don’t try to be somebody you’re not, but don’t let the Devil lie to you that you can’t be who God can make you, or do what God wants to do through you. God won’t ask you to do anything more than He knows you can do, with His help.
Too many Christians have been taught two conflicting doctrines: first, that they can’t be saintly and perfect, and second that they can’t be saved unless they are. Both are the Devil’s own doctrines! It’s no wonder that a lot of Christians give up trying to be or do anything for the Lord!
But the wonderful truth of the matter is that you can do anything with Jesus’ help. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). With His help you can do anything, go anywhere, and be anybody God wants you to be.
God has given us a free will, but to be successful for the Lord or even as happy as He would like to make us, we have to continually yield that will to Him. We have to find out from Him what His will for us is—what He knows is best for others and us—and then choose that.
Everybody has their place and job for the Lord, like the pieces on a chessboard. Chesspieces have no will of their own. When a player picks up a chesspiece and moves it to another square, the chesspiece doesn’t protest; it yields and goes where it’s sent, right? Well, you’re in God’s hands! Think of that whenever the Devil tempts you to worry about this or that. You’re in the hands of the Master Player and He’s going to put you wherever He wants you, so just trust the Lord.
You don’t have to make all the decisions; you only have to be yielded. But you’re a free moral agent and you can choose not to be yielded. When it comes right down to it, the only decision you have to make is to choose to do God’s will, whatever it might be. Simply yield to His moves and let Him do the thinking and the choosing. He can see the whole game, the whole chessboard, and all the pieces. You’ve got very limited vision and very limited power, but He sees and has it all.
Simply be what God wants you to be. Don’t worry about what you can be or can’t be or will be or won’t be, like I did for nearly fifty years! I spent over half my life worrying about what I would be, when all the time I was being exactly what God wanted me to be and learning all the things God wanted me to learn.
There have also been times when I’ve chosen to do this and do that, and God’s had to change my mind or do something else in spite of me—and I always found out in the end that He knew best.
It’s wonderful to let God decide, because He always has our best interests at heart and He knows what’s best. He never fails. Even if He should let us get His instructions wrong or do something wrong, He’s able to use even that to teach us some lesson and bring about some good if our hearts are right with Him (Romans 8:28).
God has given us a free will, but to be successful for the Lord or even as happy as He would like to make us, we have to continually yield that will to Him.
So quit worrying about what God’s going to do. You’re in God’s hands. “Rest in the Lord, and do good” (Psalm 37:3). “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6). “Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left” (Isaiah 30:21).
When a guide leads you down a path that’s new to you, he doesn’t tell you what you’re going to need to do before you get to the turn or the fork in the way. He waits till you get to the point where you need to know before he tells you what to do or where to go next—and that’s the way it is with the Lord. In most cases, you don’t need to know all the details of what you’re going to do tomorrow. Jesus said not to worry about tomorrow. You often have to plan ahead, but you’re not to worry about tomorrow. Just do what God knows you can do and what God asks you to do today, and be prepared to do the same tomorrow.
God made you a particular kind of chesspiece, and He’s given you powers accordingly. God is the player; you’re just the chesspiece. You’re His piece, and all you have to do is what God tells you to do. He doesn’t even expect you to do it yourself. He’ll reach down and take ahold of you and move you where He wants you to go. You can’t do it, anyway—but you can with His help! You can’t, but He can!
Published March 1, 2004
God doesn’t want you to try or pretend to be something you’re not and couldn’t possibly be. However, He teaches in His Word that almost anybody can be almost anything if they have faith and it’s according to His will. Anybody can be somebody or somebody can be anybody, because with God nothing is impossible and all things are possible to those who believe (Luke 1:37; Mark 9:23).
A lot of Christians make idols of the great men and women of God of the past. They idolize the heroes of the Bible, the patriarchs and the prophets, the Christian saints and martyrs, and they exalt them to such heights that they make it almost impossible for others to believe they could ever do the same things. And sad to say, it seems that all too often people do that to excuse themselves.
They say, “It’s impossible to be like that today. That sort of thing is reserved for Bible times, or saints or patriarchs or prophets. Ordinary Christians aren’t supposed to try to be like that. It’s impossible. Don’t even try! People today can’t expect to do miracles or have other gifts of the Spirit like the apostles and great Christians of the past had. The day of miracles is past!”
And one of the biggest lies the Devil tells people is, “You can’t be that way because you’re sinful and make mistakes, and you cannot be both good and bad.” Well, God’s Word says, “There is none righteous, no, not one… For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:10, 23). And that includes whom?—Not only you and me, but the saints and the prophets and the apostles and the patriarchs, and everyone else except the Lord Himself.
Now that changes the picture! That brings the apostles, prophets, and heroes of the Bible down to our level, and that means it’s possible for us to become more like them. Regardless of our sins and mistakes and faults or whatever, we too can be used of the Lord. So if the Devil tells you that you’ll never amount to anything for the Lord because you’re so bad, don’t listen to him. That isn’t so!
God created man and put him on earth in part to demonstrate His power in giving him salvation—to show that in spite of all our faults and shortcomings He can save us and make us useful. He can even use you. The fact that God can use you, bad as you are, gives the glory to Jesus when you do anything good or right. As the old hymn says,
I’ll give all the glory to Jesus,
And tell of His love, His wonderful love.
I’ll give all the glory to Jesus,
And tell of His wonderful love!
Even the great apostle Paul lamented, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” He as good as said, “I stink! I’m a horrible mess!” But then the Lord encouraged him with the answer to his dilemma: “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 7:24-25; 1 Corinthians 15:57).
Now, doesn’t that give you some hope? When the Devil reminds you of your mistakes and faults and shortcomings, it helps to remind yourself that, yes, you’re no good; yes, you’re a sinner; yes, except for the love and mercy and grace and goodness of God, you’d never make it!
It takes a miracle of the grace of God! It all has to be a miracle! Your thoughts, your love for the Lord and others, your work for the Lord—all of it is a miracle of God’s grace, “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). It’s God’s work. You just have to have the faith that God is going to do it through you.
For many years I was convinced that I was nothing and nobody and could never do anything! I was too sinful, too carnal, I didn’t read the Bible enough and didn’t pray enough. How could I ever hope to do anything for God?
Of course you can’t do it! Of course you can’t save yourself! Of course you can’t live a perfect Christian life! Jesus Himself said, “Without Me you can do nothing.”(John15:5b)
Be honest. Isn’t that the way you feel sometimes? I’m sure the Devil lies to you like that too. When he does, slap him in the face with Scriptures, like Jesus did when the Devil tempted Him in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Where sin and human faults and failings abound, God’s grace does more abound (Romans 5:20). That’s what it’s all about!
Why do you think the Lord lets you make mistakes? Why do you think God let Adam and Eve fall prey to temptation in the Garden of Eden?—To prove that they needed God, and to prove that you need God! You can’t do it on your own! And what does that do?—It glorifies the Lord!
Of course you can’t do it! Of course you can’t save yourself! Of course you can’t live a perfect Christian life! Of course you can’t be good or do anything good of yourself! Jesus Himself said, “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). A lot of people have been taught the false doctrine that they’re supposed to do most of it with just a little help from God, but I want to tell you right now, God does it all! Isn’t that a comforting thought?
You don’t have to have faith to do things that the Lord isn’t asking or expecting of you. You just have to have faith to be what He’s made you to be and to do the job He has for you, whatever that may be. Don’t try to be somebody you’re not, but don’t let the Devil lie to you that you can’t be who God can make you, or do what God wants to do through you. God won’t ask you to do anything more than He knows you can do, with His help.
Too many Christians have been taught two conflicting doctrines: first, that they can’t be saintly and perfect, and second that they can’t be saved unless they are. Both are the Devil’s own doctrines! It’s no wonder that a lot of Christians give up trying to be or do anything for the Lord!
But the wonderful truth of the matter is that you can do anything with Jesus’ help. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). With His help you can do anything, go anywhere, and be anybody God wants you to be.
God has given us a free will, but to be successful for the Lord or even as happy as He would like to make us, we have to continually yield that will to Him. We have to find out from Him what His will for us is—what He knows is best for others and us—and then choose that.
Everybody has their place and job for the Lord, like the pieces on a chessboard. Chesspieces have no will of their own. When a player picks up a chesspiece and moves it to another square, the chesspiece doesn’t protest; it yields and goes where it’s sent, right? Well, you’re in God’s hands! Think of that whenever the Devil tempts you to worry about this or that. You’re in the hands of the Master Player and He’s going to put you wherever He wants you, so just trust the Lord.
You don’t have to make all the decisions; you only have to be yielded. But you’re a free moral agent and you can choose not to be yielded. When it comes right down to it, the only decision you have to make is to choose to do God’s will, whatever it might be. Simply yield to His moves and let Him do the thinking and the choosing. He can see the whole game, the whole chessboard, and all the pieces. You’ve got very limited vision and very limited power, but He sees and has it all.
Simply be what God wants you to be. Don’t worry about what you can be or can’t be or will be or won’t be, like I did for nearly fifty years! I spent over half my life worrying about what I would be, when all the time I was being exactly what God wanted me to be and learning all the things God wanted me to learn.
There have also been times when I’ve chosen to do this and do that, and God’s had to change my mind or do something else in spite of me—and I always found out in the end that He knew best.
It’s wonderful to let God decide, because He always has our best interests at heart and He knows what’s best. He never fails. Even if He should let us get His instructions wrong or do something wrong, He’s able to use even that to teach us some lesson and bring about some good if our hearts are right with Him (Romans 8:28).
God has given us a free will, but to be successful for the Lord or even as happy as He would like to make us, we have to continually yield that will to Him.
So quit worrying about what God’s going to do. You’re in God’s hands. “Rest in the Lord, and do good” (Psalm 37:3). “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6). “Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left” (Isaiah 30:21).
When a guide leads you down a path that’s new to you, he doesn’t tell you what you’re going to need to do before you get to the turn or the fork in the way. He waits till you get to the point where you need to know before he tells you what to do or where to go next—and that’s the way it is with the Lord. In most cases, you don’t need to know all the details of what you’re going to do tomorrow. Jesus said not to worry about tomorrow. You often have to plan ahead, but you’re not to worry about tomorrow. Just do what God knows you can do and what God asks you to do today, and be prepared to do the same tomorrow.
God made you a particular kind of chesspiece, and He’s given you powers accordingly. God is the player; you’re just the chesspiece. You’re His piece, and all you have to do is what God tells you to do. He doesn’t even expect you to do it yourself. He’ll reach down and take ahold of you and move you where He wants you to go. You can’t do it, anyway—but you can with His help! You can’t, but He can!
There Are Absolutes! ---Contrary to the teachings of modern education.
Published on January 12, 2004
I’ve been thinking about the state of the world and how so many of the younger generation have lost respect for God and humanity. I believe that modern education is largely responsible for this downward trend because young people today are taught that there are no absolutes. That’s the underlying principle of modern education: There are no absolutes—nothing is certain.
I’m convinced that the whole purpose of this principle is to destroy confidence in God—the Absolute! Look how the secularists have attacked each major field that proves the existence of a perfect God. The first thing they attacked was religion itself, and their attack was subtle: No religion is necessarily wrong, therefore no religion is necessarily right. Various religions are just religions, probably fabrications of man anyway, so how can anyone say which is right or which is wrong? In other words, there are no religious absolutes. The whole idea is aimed, of course, at destroying faith in God.
Having gotten rid of God and religion, the next step was to debunk philosophy, to try to prove there was no perfect philosophy, that no particular philosophy was either right or wrong.
History is another area of study that proves the existence of God. God’s law of retribution, as seen in the rise and fall of empires because of their righteousness or wickedness, is one of the surest proofs that God exists and has rules. So the secularists had to debunk history. In history books it is now popular to say that men and women who have previously been considered great were really villains, to debunk all the godly, heroic characters of history.
The same was even done with music, to the point that music was no longer music—it was just noise. It didn’t have to be harmonious; it didn’t have to be pleasant. There was no such thing as good or bad music, because there were no more rules.
Look at art: Modernistic art is total confusion—no rules, no beauty, no nothing! Just absolute confusion! It doesn’t even have to mean anything. It doesn’t have to have any sense or meaning or order. See, if they can destroy the meaning, if they can prove to people that there’s no meaning to a thing, then there’s no order, there’s no purpose and no plan, therefore there’s no Planner.
Both art and music used to follow very strict laws to produce real beauty, but both art and music have abandoned the rules. They’ve thrown away the laws, and the result has been total ugly confusion—noise, chaos, bedlam, ugliness, crudity! Music no longer needs to be melodic, and much of it is just sound, noise, bedlam! Art no longer needs to be artistic, and much of it is no more than chaotic splotches of color and ugly, meaningless forms.
They attacked creation in the same way: They had to try to prove there were no laws, no plan, and no purpose; therefore there was no Planner. Creation became meaningless, chaotic evolution. “It all just happened by accident!”
Everything that has any rules or order or plan or purpose proves that there is some kind of Ruler who makes the rules and establishes the order and plans things with a purpose, and such things have to be attacked in order to destroy any faith in the absolute, and therefore in God. Their theme song is “It Ain’t Necessarily So!” “The things that you read in that Bible, they ain’t necessarily so! And history ain’t necessarily so; religion ain’t necessarily so; philosophy ain’t necessarily so; Creation ain’t necessarily so; music ain’t necessarily so; art ain’t necessarily so; nothing is necessarily so, they say, because there ain’t no so!”
If they can prove that each of these fields is imperfect, this supports their claim that the perfect doesn’t exist—therefore God doesn’t exist. It all goes back to the godless premise that if there are no rules, then there is no Ruler.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). But if nothing is so, as some would have us believe, then nothing is true and there is no Christ! So to disprove the existence of God they had to disprove the existence of truth and rhyme and reason, order, plan, laws, rules, etc.
To get rid of God, they had to get rid of the absolutes, the right and the wrong and the meaning and reason for things; and the result is total chaos, insanity, madness!
Of course, the perpetrators of this crime against humanity would disagree with me on that, too, because a popular school of thought in psychology today is that nobody is really sane or necessarily insane; they’re just different from you or me. Who is to judge who is sane and who is insane?
To have social order, you must have laws and rules; and to have laws and rules, the ones who make them and the ones expected to obey them have to believe that some things are right and some things are wrong; and if some things are right and some things are wrong, then there must be some ultimate Lawmaker or Rule-giver, which would have to be God.
So therefore the godless must eventually and ultimately become total anarchists who obey no rules or laws, recognize no order, find no meaning, follow no plan, and have no purpose—no nothing! In so doing, they are helping the Devil accomplish his ultimate purpose for creating all this chaos and confusion: the destruction of God’s creation.
In the face of all this, a truly revolutionary education today would be a back-to-God education. We must go back to real faith in religion, back to creation in science, back to genuine love in philosophy, back to a plan in history, back to truth in language, beauty in art, harmony in music, right and wrong in behavior, order in government, and God—the Creator of all things, the Designer, the Planner—in everything, so that life again means something. God is the only One who can give real meaning to living, so let’s get back to God in our education, in every subject and every field.
Let’s get back to sanity and reasoning, back to a pattern for existence made by a divine Designer who makes the plans according to rules. He brings about order with government in the place of lawlessness and disorder. He gives meaning to the universe and purpose to the planets. He brings love to our hearts and peace to our minds and health to our bodies and rest to our spirits and happiness to our lives and joy to our souls, and He teaches us that “the fear [reverence] of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10).
We must see God in everything to give it meaning, reason, purpose, plan, design, and a goal—the perfection of the kingdom of God! The godless would bring us to chaos and total destruction, but we, the faithful, must try to bring peace and order and the design for living given us by the Great Designer in His rules and laws, rights and wrongs and absolutes, without which there can be no peace or order or true happiness.
Thank God for the absolutes and the rules of the Ruler, that we may know the difference between right and wrong, and find happiness through His love and His loving laws and reasonable rules. May God help you to “know Him, whom to know is life eternal” (John 17:3)—and absolute!
Religion Unimportant to Most LGBT Americans
http://news.yahoo.com/religion-unimportant-most-lgbt-americans-132241382.html
By By Kelly Dickerson, Staff WriterAugust 13, 2014 9:22 AM
.View photo
Religion Unimportant to Most LGBT Americans
By By Kelly Dickerson, Staff WriterAugust 13, 2014 9:22 AM
.View photo
Religion Unimportant to Most LGBT Americans
Americans who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) are much less likely to be religious than non-LGBT Americans, according to a new Gallup poll.
Just less than half of LGBT Americans said religion is important in their daily lives, compared with about two-thirds of non-LGBT Americans. Moreover, about 40 percent of non-LGBT adults identified themselves as highly religious, compared with just 24 percent of LGBT adults. About the same percentage of LGBT and non-LGBT Americans said they considered themselves moderately religious (29 percent). But LGBT Americans were much more likely to identify as not religious at all: 47 percent considered themselves not religious, compared with just 30 percent of non-LGBT Americans.
Participants were categorized as "highly religious" if they said religion played an important role in their day-to-day life and they attended a religious service every week, according to Gallup. A person was considered "not religious" if they said religion is not important in their daily life and they seldom or never attended any religious service, according to Gallup. "Moderately religious" people reported that religion is important to them but they do not regularly attend services. [10 Milestones in Gay Rights History]
Part of the reason for the disparity in religiousness may be that LGBT individuals do not feel welcomed into religious communities whose doctrine does not support any kind of nonheterosexual relationship, Gallup representatives noted.
However, religious doctrine is not the only explanation for the difference in religiousness between the two groups: Gallup representatives pointed out that LGBT people may be more likely to live in areas where religion is less common, and more likely to adopt the same mind-set and practices of others in the area.
Age may also play a significant role, according to a statement from Gallup. Overall, the U.S. LGBT population is much younger than the non-LGBT population, and young adults are less religious than any other age group in the United States. This could partially explain the lower rates of religious people among the LGBT group, according to Gallup.
However, even after breaking up the data by age, LGBT individuals are still less likely to identify themselves as religious. More than half of LGBT young adults (ages 18 to 34) reported they are not religious, while only 39 percent of non-LGBT young adults said they are not religious.
LGBT individuals were most likely to identify with Protestantism (35 percent), followed by Catholicism (20 percent). LGBT individuals were also much more likely to identify with a non-Christian religion (8 percent) than non-LGBT individuals (2 percent).
Earlier this summer, the U.S. Presbyterian Church voted to allow ministers to marry LGBT couples if their state has legalized same-sex marriage. If religious communities continue to become more accepting, the religious gap between LGBT and non-LGBT individuals may close, Gallup representatives said.
The results of the poll are based on 104,000 telephone interviews with U.S. adults ages 18 or older between Jan. 2 and July 31.
Follow Kelly Dickerson on Twitter. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article onLive Science.
Just less than half of LGBT Americans said religion is important in their daily lives, compared with about two-thirds of non-LGBT Americans. Moreover, about 40 percent of non-LGBT adults identified themselves as highly religious, compared with just 24 percent of LGBT adults. About the same percentage of LGBT and non-LGBT Americans said they considered themselves moderately religious (29 percent). But LGBT Americans were much more likely to identify as not religious at all: 47 percent considered themselves not religious, compared with just 30 percent of non-LGBT Americans.
Participants were categorized as "highly religious" if they said religion played an important role in their day-to-day life and they attended a religious service every week, according to Gallup. A person was considered "not religious" if they said religion is not important in their daily life and they seldom or never attended any religious service, according to Gallup. "Moderately religious" people reported that religion is important to them but they do not regularly attend services. [10 Milestones in Gay Rights History]
Part of the reason for the disparity in religiousness may be that LGBT individuals do not feel welcomed into religious communities whose doctrine does not support any kind of nonheterosexual relationship, Gallup representatives noted.
However, religious doctrine is not the only explanation for the difference in religiousness between the two groups: Gallup representatives pointed out that LGBT people may be more likely to live in areas where religion is less common, and more likely to adopt the same mind-set and practices of others in the area.
Age may also play a significant role, according to a statement from Gallup. Overall, the U.S. LGBT population is much younger than the non-LGBT population, and young adults are less religious than any other age group in the United States. This could partially explain the lower rates of religious people among the LGBT group, according to Gallup.
However, even after breaking up the data by age, LGBT individuals are still less likely to identify themselves as religious. More than half of LGBT young adults (ages 18 to 34) reported they are not religious, while only 39 percent of non-LGBT young adults said they are not religious.
LGBT individuals were most likely to identify with Protestantism (35 percent), followed by Catholicism (20 percent). LGBT individuals were also much more likely to identify with a non-Christian religion (8 percent) than non-LGBT individuals (2 percent).
Earlier this summer, the U.S. Presbyterian Church voted to allow ministers to marry LGBT couples if their state has legalized same-sex marriage. If religious communities continue to become more accepting, the religious gap between LGBT and non-LGBT individuals may close, Gallup representatives said.
The results of the poll are based on 104,000 telephone interviews with U.S. adults ages 18 or older between Jan. 2 and July 31.
Follow Kelly Dickerson on Twitter. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article onLive Science.
