Posted on 07/04/2016 12:59:09 PM PDT by NYer
Five years ago I warned readers that folks on the left do not care one whit about your religious liberty.
Four-and-a-half years ago, Pope Benedict voiced particular concerns about "certain attempts being made to limit that most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion".
Four years ago, the US Bishops launched the first annual Fortnight For Freedom, running from June 21—the vigil of the Feasts of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More—to July 4, Independence Day. This event, once unnecessary but now imperative, seeks "to highlight the importance of defending religious freedom" in America.
Unfortunately, the situation for Christians has not improved, but is getting worse by the day.
Laws and lawsuits demanding that Christians violate their consciences and their faith have led to the closure of Catholic charities and adoption agencies, ruinous fines for many mom-and-pop bakers, florists, and photographers, and B&B owners, a years-long federal lawsuit pitting President Obama against the Little Sisters of the Poor, and in the past few days, the rulings against Christian pharmacists and Christian online dating sites, suddenly no longer "allowed" to operate according to the dictates of their Christian faith.
Make no mistake: Secular progressives (who are as fervent about their secular religion as any Christian is about Christ) are not bringing these lawsuits because of any lack of access to gay dating sites, or wedding cakes, flowers, or photographers, nor is there any lack of access to abortifacient pills and devices (all these things are easily accessible to all those Americans who desire them).
No, they are bringing these lawsuits specifically to make you comply to their worldview, specifically to force "acceptance" without dissent, specifically to publicly shame you, specifically to "fundamentally transform America". "Tolerance" was never enough, because it was never the goal. If you've noticed, the forces against religious freedom and conscience rights for Christians are only getting more angry, more fierce, and more unyielding.
If you think that I and others, or perhaps even the bishops, are simply overreacting, you'll want to know that three of the highest judges in our land are themselves explicitly sounding the alarm. Here's the dire warning from Supreme Court Justice Alito in his recent dissent -- which was signed by Justice Thomas and Chief Justice Roberts as well -- regarding the Stormans case (Christian pharmacy owners who did not wish to stock and sell abortion-inducing drugs):
This case is an ominous sign.
At issue are Washington State regulations that are likely to make a pharmacist unemployable if he or she objects on religious grounds to dispensing certain prescrip- tion medications. There are strong reasons to doubt whether the regulations were adopted for—or that they actually serve—any legitimate purpose.
And there is much evidence that the impetus for the adoption of the regulations was hostility to pharmacists whose religious beliefs regarding abortion and contraception are out of step with prevailing opinion in the State. Yet the Ninth Circuit held that the regulations do not violate the First Amendment, and this Court does not deem the case worthy of our time.
If this is a sign of how religious liberty claims will be treated in the years ahead, those who value religious freedom have cause for great concern.
Catholic ping!
When I stay with my mother, I occasionally thumb through the local Catholic diocesan newspaper that she subscribes to. It is complete fluff, all nicey-nice and NEVER, EVER wading into the growing conflict between Christianity and popular culture, or the increasing threats to Christian civil liberties.
Wandering Christians, wake up. The good Christians are awake.
The Catholic bishops in the U.S. have bent themselves into pretzels trying to keep Catholics voting for pro-abortion Democrats, including committing the mortal sin of giving Communion to pro-aborts.
ONE-HUNDRED-PERCENT of the politicians who are persecuting the Church are pro-abortion Democrats.
And who appointed these pro-abortion bishops? Saint John Paul II and Benedict XVI.
The defense of the faith is now in our hands, not those in leadership. It is incumbent upon us to stand up and speak out or be crushed by the weight of the encroaching secular culture.
Time is really short! The “great sign in the heaven” described in Revelation 12:1-2 will literally happen on September 23-24, 2017 according to the star charting program Stellarium.
Mostly because it came in the middle of the Book, Bible Scholars used to call it a mid-Tribulation event. It is only fifteen months away, so if that is true, then the Four Horsemen are out and about.
However, it is the first set of verses that contains something that provides a definite, sort of, date. So it could signal the start of the whole seven year period.
The point is that the turmoil in Christianity, the increase in lawlessness, etc. are all signs of the end. The organized Churches are going to turn into the Harlot riding the Beast. There is nothing we can do about it but “hold fast” to what Jesus taught us and try to teach as many as will be saved about the Gospel.
This theme of awakening inspired a composition by JS Bach called “Wachet Auf Ruft Uns Die Stimme”,or Sleepers Awake!
I looked up Stellarium and “the great sign”. I really don’t see why the great sign would refer to constellations and assign sex and kingship to planets based on pagan stories about Greek gods.
The New York Times is ground zero for Christian hatred.
The militant homosexual agenda starts and ends at 620 Eighth Ave, NY.
All the evil perpetrated on Christians in the USA comes from the satanic masters at the New York Times.
What is the “sign.”
What is “Stellarium”? Is it a website?
Stellarium is an open source application. You can get it at http://www.stellarium.org/wiki/index.php/Download
See the image at: http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_1y_hLqVXf4/maxresdefault.jpg
Graphic says 23 September 2017, as it depends on where you say Virgo’s feet are. Besides, no one knows the day or the hour.
Here are the details:
Revelation Chapter 12:
1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars.
2 Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.
Nelson, Thomas (2009-02-18). Holy Bible, New King James Version (NKJV) (p. 1193). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.
Previous Bible commentators have taken this as a symbolic vision about Israel (Mary) giving birth to Jesus, and marking the start of the 3 1/2 year Great Tribulation.
However, since “knowledge had increased”, we can use star charting programs such as Stellarium to see that this could be a literal “great sign” in heaven.
The constellation “Virgo”, the Virgin, has always been identified with Mary the Mother of Jesus. The nine stars of Leo, the Lion (of Judah), form a “garland” above her head.
Jupiter has always been identified as the “King” star. It is striped (by His stripes we are healed) and has a large, red spot (they pierced His side).
Here is the sequence of events regarding the Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Virgo, Leo, Mercury, Mars and Venus
Mon, 21 November 2016 = 20th of Cheshvan, 5777
Jupiter enters Virgo crossing line from Spica to Porrima
Sat, 28 January 2017 = 1st of Sh’vat, 5777
Jupiter retrograde motion begins inside Virgo. “Gestation” begins??
Sat, 10 June 2017 = 16th of Sivan, 5777
Jupiter prograde motion resumes inside Virgo
Thu, 17 August 2017 = 25th of Av, 5777
Total Solar eclipse across America (from Portland to Charleston)
Sun, 10 September 2017 = 19th of Elul, 5777
Jupiter crosses Heze — Spica line. Virgin gives birth? Conjunction Regulus and Mercury
Wed, 20 September 2017 = 29th of Elul, 5777
New Moon, Venus — Regulus conjunction
Sun, 24 September 2017 = 4th of Tishrei, 5778
Sun at Virgo’s shoulders (clothed), the Moon is at her feet, Mercury, Mars, Venus are added to Leo’s nine stars as Virgo’s 12-star ‘garland’
The great sign in the heaven is complete. This formation has not happened in the past 6000 years and won’t happen again for at least another 2000 years.
Luke 21
25 “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring;
26 “men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
27 “Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
28 “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”
Nelson, Thomas (2009-02-18). Holy Bible, New King James Version (NKJV) (p. 1023). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.
I don’t know for sure if Daniel’s 70th week has started. Sir Issac Newton’s calculation, which required Israel to be back in the land with control of Jerusalem (June 1967) worked out to September 2015. We don’t know if the Anti-Christ confirmed a seven year treaty back then, but it is possible. The colors of the Four Horsemen are White, Red, Black, and, while it is translated as “Pale”, the Greek can be translated as “Green”. These are the colors of the Islamic Nations that are going up against Israel.
The Revelation 12:1-2 Great Sign in the Heavens if September 23-24, 2017, so that would be two years into the Seventieth Week. The Revelation 12:3-4 sign is no where to be seen. However, there are reports of perturbations in the Cassini spacecraft orbit around Saturn, so the “great, fiery red dragon, may be out there as a brown dwarf, which would explain why the Vatican is operating an infrared telescope, called Project Lucifer, here in Arizona.
While there are folks who think that the “called out ones”, usually called the Church, will escape the entire Seventh Week, as I read it we are only offered escape from the final 3 1/2 years if we are counted as worthy, or just before the Anit-Christ is finally revealed, which ever comes first.
So we could very well be in the first half of the Tribulation, or Time of Jacobs Trouble. The thing with Bible Prophecy is that you only really know, for sure, after the event has happened.
So read your Bible and Pray! Do what the Holy Spirit leads you to do in this world, but don’t be too attached to it! Maranatha!
Take a look at “The Witness of the Stars” by E. W. Bullinger that was published in 1893. He explains how the Gospel is written in the stars.
http://philologos.org/__eb-tws/
Such are the contents of this wondrous book that is written in the heavens. Thus has God been speaking and emphasizing and developing His first great prophetic promise of Genesis 3:15.
Though for more than 2,500 years His people had not this Revelation written in a book as we now have it in the Bible, they were not left in ignorance and darkness as to God’s purposes and counsels; nor were they without hope as to ultimate deliverance from all evil and from the Evil One.
Adam, who first heard that wondrous promise, repeated it, and gave it to his posterity as a most precious heritage ground of all their faith, the substance of all their hope, the object of all their desire. Seth and Enoch took it up. Enoch, we know, prophesied of the Lord’s coming, saying, “Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment upon all” (Jude 14). How could these “holy prophets, since the world began,” have recorded their prophecies better, or more effectually, or more truthfully and powerfully, than in these star-pictures and their interpretation? This becomes a certainty when we remember the words of the Holy Spirit by Zacharias (Luke 1:67-70):
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel;
For He hath visited and redeemed His people,
And hath raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of His servant David;
As He spake by the mouth of HIS HOLY PROPHETS
WHICH HAVE BEEN SINCE THE WORLD BEGAN.”
The same truth is revealed through Peter, in Acts 3:20, 21: “He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you; whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all HIS HOLY PROPHETS SINCE THE WORLD BEGAN.”
These words have new meaning for us, if we see the things which were spoken “since the world began,” thus written in the heavens, which utter speech (i.e. prophecy), and show forth this knowledge day after day and night after night, the heritage of all the earth, and their words reaching unto the ends of the world.
This Revelation, coinciding as it does in all its facts and truths with that afterwards recorded “in the Volume of the Book,” must have had the same Divine origin, must have been made known by the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit.
We now proceed to compare the two, and we shall see how they agree at every point, proving that the source and origin of this Divine Revelation is one and the same.
Thanks. I presume you are familiar with the amazing video about the star of Bethlehem.
The secular world dislikes our Church because she stands behind the TEN COMMANDMENTS, not the ten "suggestions." The Church constantly stands for what Jesus preached, not what the secular society WANTS US to believe.
With the sometimes RABID dislike of some Catholics for Pope Francis, it's no wonder the Church has problems. Satan must LOVE seeing some of these Catholic posters dislike/loathing of our Pope.
THIS Pope, like the 2000-years of Pope before him, is merely the VICAR of Jesus' Church, merely an earthly deputy or representative. There were bad popes, good popes and some in the middle...but they were all elected by the council of cardinals. No man of little or questionable faith would have EVER succeeded in convincing all those "red hat" cardinals to make him Pope.
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