Thoughts on the Jubilee
I turned on the Service at St Paul’s Cathedral to honour the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with some foreboding expecting the usual establishment mish mash of multi faith platitudes. I was pleasantly surprised to hear a traditional Christian service with prayers in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that I could say Amen to and hymns and readings that were scriptural. It began with the Lord’s prayer followed by the hymn ‘Christ is made our sure foundation and the precious corner stone.’
It continued with prayers of thanks to God and prayers for the Queen and all in authority, ‘that all things may be done in wisdom, equity, righteousness and peace to the honour of your name through Jesus Christ your Son, our Lord who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever Amen.’
Prime Minister Boris Johnson read from Philippians:
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Keep on doing the things you have heard and seen in me and the God of peace be with you.
Philippians 4.4-9
The Archbishop of York replaced Justin Welby who had Covid. I was not too hopeful of much from him, knowing his pro LGBT stance, but was again pleasantly surprised when he began his talk with prayer, then quoted Philippians 4.8 above, saying:
‘Paul is worth following because he was following Jesus. Jesus shows us who God is and what our humanity could be. The Christian faith is an invitation to dwell close to the Father’s heart.’
Archbishop of York
He spoke of the Queen as a person with a heart’s desire to work for common good and learn the mind of Christ, showing consistency and faithfulness to God and obedience to her vocation
‘through her faith in Jesus Christ, who is a fountain and a well spring from whom we draw deeply in the joys and vicissitudes of life.’
Archbishop of York
He said we should ‘know that we are loved by God – through Christ dying and rising from the dead we have the promise of eternal life.’ He concluded that her Majesty
‘has been able to serve our nation faithfully because of her faith in Jesus Christ. Perhaps no better way than celebrating her platinum jubilee than by doing the same ourselves. Amen.’
Archbishop of York
I am not sure what the assembled dignitaries in St Paul’s made of that, but in the circumstances I thought it was a good tribute to the Queen and was pleased that he said so much about Jesus, something the Bishops of the Church of England generally seem very reluctant to do.
The Queen is known to be an active Christian, having a well read Bible by her bed side. There is a scene in the Crown TV programme which is generally believed to be authentic, where she invites Billy Graham to palace during his campaigns in 1960s and thanks him for explaining the Gospel, which she accepts as true. In her Christmas messages she has often put in a bit about her faith in Jesus. One occasion she quoted O little town of Bethlehem – cast out our sin and enter in, the dear Christ enters in and said we should ask Him into our lives.
Some have said she could have done more to use her position to prevent some of the ungodly laws and influences that have come in, for example abortion, homosexual marriage and the multi faith agenda. The problem is that although she is head of church and government she has little or no influence on decisions they take. She reads out the Queen’s speech of what ‘my government’ is going to do, but she has not written or decided one word of it. If she were to refuse to sign off bills passed by parliament she does not agree with, it would cause a constitutional crisis. She has played rigidly by protocol and never done so, nor even expressed her opinion, sticking with her policy not to get involved in public disagreement with politicians.
She has a regular meeting with the PM of the day and takes this seriously studiously reading her briefs. What she says to them we don’t know and she never publicly comments on political matters.
When she goes, Prince Charles may want to have more of an influence. This is not so good because Charles well in with global government crowd. He has spoken at the UN Cop 26 Climate Change meeting and World Economic forum meetings calling for global action to save the planet. Apart from his divorce from Diana and adultery with Camilla, Charles is very much on the multi-faith platform, making his position in the church problematic. He has expressed more interest in Islam than Christianity, and has some New Age ideas.
He wants his coronation to be multi-faith not Christian and to be known as a ‘defender of faiths’ not Defender of the Faith. I thought he looked uncomfortable at Christian references in the service at St Paul’s.
One reason why we can sing ‘God save our gracious Queen – long to reign over us.’
Church of Scotland votes to conduct same sex marriages
An historic vote has taken place which will allow Church of Scotland ministers and deacons to marry same-sex couples. The General Assembly voted to change a standing church law to allow the right to apply to become an authorised celebrant to conduct same-sex ceremonies by 274 votes to 136. The decision, which would enable ministers and deacons to opt-in to a new scheme, came after a majority of presbyteries – 29-12 – approved the “Solemnisation of Same Sex Marriage Overture”.
Right Reverend Dr Iain Greenshields, Moderator of the General Assembly, said:
“The Church of Scotland is a broad church and there are diverse views on the subject of same-sex marriage among its members. There has been a lengthy, prayerful and in-depth discussion and debate about this topic for many years at all levels of the Church to find a solution that respects diversity and values the beliefs of all.”
Right Reverend Dr Iain Greenshields
Speaking on TV after the debate Rev Scott Rennie hailed the decision as a victory for inclusivity in the Church of Scotland. Rev Rennie has served at Queen’s Cross Church in Aberdeen. After five years of marriage, he separated from his wife Ruth and divorced. He then ‘married’ his now ‘husband’, David Smith.
The problem is that ‘diversity and inclusivity’ really mean submitting to the demands of the homosexual lobby, which opposes Bible teaching. This means that such a church must be inclusive towards people who want to disobey God’s word and exclude those who wish to abide by it. In this case it ceases to be a church according to any biblical understanding of the word.
It is a recipe for closure in the long run as anyone committed to the Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching of Scripture will leave such churches. The Church of Scotland announced its plans to close up to 20 kirks in Aberdeenshire and 50 in Fife. More than half of the Three Towns’ Church of Scotland churches are to close over the next five years, due to declining numbers in the church. Ichabod.
Food crisis – Iran’s answer
The most immediate problem facing the world is the growing food crisis which some are warning could begin in the next six months and cause one-fifth of the entire population of the globe to descend into absolute poverty and hunger. A significant amount of grain has been removed from the world market due to the war in Ukraine, while droughts, floods, heatwaves, and unusually cold weather in places have affected food production around the world. Shortages of fertiliser and rising costs of fuel are causing farmers to cut back on production of food, while animal diseases are causing millions of pigs, chickens and fish to be slaughtered and removed the food chain.
As a result prices of food and energy are skyrocketing driving millions into poverty. Speaking at the World Economic Forum conference in Davos David Beasley, director of the UN World Food Programme, warned the world’s food security conditions are “worse” than what was observed during Arab Spring over a decade ago. That emergency led to revolutions toppling of Arab governments in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and the war in Syria, the massive refugee crisis and contributed to the collapse of Lebanon. What will this one do?
Already we are seeing social unrest in Sri Lanka, which has run out of money, food and fuel, largely as a result of corruption on the part of its government. When people get hungry, they get angry and revolutions happen.
There is an interesting angle on this coming out of Iran. People have been taking to the streets in cities across Iran to protest a massive hike in food prices. The government’s answer is to bring in food subsidies. But there’s a catch — the lower prices are only available to those who sign up to ‘digital ration cards’.
Initially, the Iranian government compensated for the rise in prices of basic foodstuffs by handing out cash to 90% of the population; however, many analysts believe this would cause further inflation (which already stands at 40+%). The next stage will be a ceasing of those payments and in their place will be ration cards. If you want to pay the affordable prices, you’ll need to ‘take the card’. These can be refused to you if you don’t behave as the government wants you to.
Iran is set to be the first country to roll out a food rationing scheme based on new biometric IDs. It is being helped by China in setting up this system. What better way to bend the masses to your will than making food prices so unattainable that the roll-out of food passports are actually widely deemed necessary, by a population who are otherwise facing starvation? The shape of things to come worldwide? Henry Kissinger once said ‘control food, control people.’
Reordering our lives to reach zero carbon
The World Government Summit in Dubai in March 2022 called for world leaders to unite to address global issues such as climate change, trade, and economic disruption. The programme required for this must accelerate the changes to ‘zero carbon’. This is backed by the UN and green lobby groups operating in all developed countries, that are demanding a drastic reduction in the use of fossil fuels.
Those pushing this agenda advocate a massive reordering of all our lives. When see some of the various pronouncements coming out of their climate conclaves, you’ll see they’re pushing for individual carbon footprint tracking, energy rationing, elimination of meat from our diet, elimination of private vehicle ownership, and eventually elimination of privately owned singe homes. See https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/03/
Michael Evans, president of Alibaba Group (a massive Chinese based hi tech company) told the WEF that the multi-billion-dollar company was creating a carbon footprint tracker to monitor people’s consumption of energy around the world.
“We’re developing, through technology, an ability for consumers to measure their own carbon footprint. What does that mean? That’s checking where are they travelling, how are they travelling, what are they eating, what are they consuming.”
Michael Evans, president of Alibaba Group
They have not yet got this up and running but it ties in with a proposal to bring in something called ‘ESG scores’ (environmental, social and governance factors) that would monitor and record people’s use of energy, with the power to cut off those who use too much.
WHO wants a World Pandemic Treaty
In May the UN’s 75th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland called for an international treaty on pandemics, drawing from the lessons learnt during the COVID-19 pandemic. World Health Organization (WHO) President Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said,
‘There will be other pandemics and other major health emergencies. The question is not if, but when. Together, we must be better prepared to predict, prevent, detect, assess and effectively respond to pandemics in a highly coordinated fashion. To that end, we believe that nations should work together towards a new international treaty for pandemic preparedness and response. … We don’t have rules of the game. To manage shared problems, like pandemics, you need laws and rules that bring obligations to countries.’
World Health Organization (WHO) President Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
The plan is to work on drafting and negotiating this treaty to be discussed at the next meeting of the WHO in August, then delivered to the 76th World Health Assembly in 2023 with a view to adopting it by 2024.
Critics say this is a step towards ‘global governance’. In the event of a future health crisis like the Covid pandemic, it would hand the WHO control over national governments. They would be able to order mandatory vaccines, global digital health IDs, lockdowns, isolation, testing regimes, no-jab-no-job rules, or anything else it decides as policy, irrespective of dissenting national voices. This treaty would inject a new supra-national global governance structure on the world in times of what we are being told is an inevitable, future pandemic or declared global health emergency.
The planned treaty also contains a clause for dealing with ‘misinformation’ which could include questioning what the WHO decrees. In this way control of the narrative would be handed over to an unelected global body.
The danger of this was explained by Christine Anderson, a member of the European Parliament.
She said, “The WHO is to be given de facto governmental power over member states in the event of a pandemic.” She asked the EU Commission,
“To what extent would it ensure that the principles of the people’s rule would be respected and that citizens would not be subjected to the arbitrariness of the WHO.”
Christine Anderson, member of the European Parliament
The answer she received was clear and brief: NOT AT ALL!
Weather related disasters increasing.
Italy is in the depths of one of its worst droughts, with the country’s largest river, the Po, hitting its lowest level in 70 years, threatening crops and raising the spectre of power outages. Northern Italian towns are rationing water and supplying it in trucks as they face a potential drinking-water shortage. Hydroelectric power, which usually supplies 15% of the country’s needs, is down 50% so far this year from 2021. Agriculture is in decline and food prices are surging.
During a U.S. Senate hearing on Western drought, the commissioner for the Bureau of Reclamation told the states in the Colorado River Basin that they have 60 days to create an emergency plan to stop using between 2 and 4 million acre-feet of water in the next year or the agency will use its emergency authority to make the cuts itself. Hotter temperatures driven by climate change have led to less water reaching Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the two largest reservoirs in the U.S., which have both recently hit their lowest levels on record. The Colorado River system supplies water and hydropower to millions of people in the West and is the lifeblood of the seven states in the river’s basin.
The 2022 heat wave in India and Pakistan was an extreme weather event bringing very hot weather in March and April raising temperatures to between 45 and 50C. The heat wave combined with drought and occurred mostly during the final weeks of the wheat growing season, killing the plants shortly before harvest. India faces its worst electricity shortage in more than six years, and demand due to the heat wave has strained the electric grid in the country. Scorching temperatures force early closures of schools and reduced power allocated to industry due to an increase in power consumption dedicated to cooling.
Massive floods affected northeastern India and Bangladesh in June leaving at least 18 people dead and millions of homes underwater. An estimated 2 million people saw their homes flooded in Assam alone while more than 1 million people are currently taking shelter in 373 relief camps. A total of 2 930 villages have been affected after the Brahmaputra River breached its banks in 28 of Assam’s 33 districts. 43 338 ha (107 362 acres) of cropland have been affected and at least 410 animals were washed away.
An intense hailstorm hit Qingyuan District in China’s Hebei Province on June 14, 2022, causing severe damage to crops and other material losses. The storm hit 7 townships around 23:00 LT on June 14, significantly impacting local agricultural activity and people’s lives. Preliminary statistics show that the disaster affected 2 443 ha (6 000 acres) of crops such as watermelon, wheat and sunflower, causing damage worth about $15 million.
A sudden hailstorm also hit Miyun District, Beijing, dropping stones as large as an egg and causing considerable damage.
These weather disasters are precursors of the disasters set to occur during the great tribulation.
Trouble in China
The severe lockdown imposed by the Chinese government on Shanghai in its attempt to reach ‘zero Covid’ brought great suffering to the people incarcerated in their homes for months on end with little food, no exercise, no ability to socialise or go to work. Although the lockdown is over for the moment the Chinese government has shown another repressive measure which is an ominous development in the power of the state to control the population.
As punishment for trying to protest against its repressive measures, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is freezing people’s bank accounts under the guise that they magically tested “positive” for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19). According to reports, some Chinese residents are now seeing their CCP-required Covid “smartphone” apps turn red as they venture near banks to try to pull their money out, leaving them unable to do so.
After scanning the venue barcodes in Zhengzhou, the provincial capital city of central China’s Henan Province, people seeking to retrieve their cash are being automatically barred by the app from accessing any public places, including banks, toilets and train stations. Those who see the red “health code” appear on their smartphones are then being required to enter mandatory quarantine at centralized isolation centres, which are basically prisons disguised as health centres.
Some one million banking customers in China are no longer allowed to access their money, thanks to the red code “glitch,” which is clearly being used as a political weapon to punish those who dare to speak out against the evil regime.
“The Chinese regime adopted three-tiered colour-based QR code systems utilizing big data and mobile technology to track people’s movement as part of its COVID-19 control measures. Residents must present a green health code on mobile phones while scanning a venue code for every place they visit.”
On a separate issue, People are reportedly lining up for hours in China to obtain money from their bank accounts in China. The large cities of Henan, Shanghai, and Dandong are three cities where the lines are long. After years of COVID mandates and a government that the average Chinese doesn’t trust, the people of China are scared that they will not be able to retrieve their life savings. In some cities, people are standing in line for hours to receive their money from their bank and finding they cannot retrieve it.
Some recorded comments are:
“Many banks in mainland China are about to collapse! They are closed.”
“People with money in the bank should retrieve it as soon as possible to buy valuables to preserve their value. The bank storm will have a chain reaction. Dandong is just the beginning.. . Let’s see!”
Commentators fear the Chinese economy really is about to collapse. The real estate market has crashed and buildings are sitting empty and there is no money to pay for them. If China does implode it could bring down the whole world economy. The lockdown and shutting people out of their bank accounts is a foretaste of the tribulation period and the 666 system of Revelation 13.