It all started as Global Warming…
That was replaced by Climate Change…
Now it’s all about…
Net Zero
But what is Net Zero?
We see this term regularly in the media, but what does it mean?
Where did it come from?
How does it all tie in with Climate Change?
First, Let’s Look At The Climate Change Issue
The concept of “global warming,” later changed to “climate change,” is being used by governments as an excuse for a wide range of controlling mechanisms. It all started off back in 1998 with the publication of the infamous hockey stick graph.
The Hockey Stick:
"The Most Controversial Chart In Science"
The chart did not tie in with real events, as we will show. Yet the IPCC claimed that the graph was “likely correct” — showing the “alleged temperature increase”.
“Back in 1998, a little known climate scientist named Michael Mann and two colleagues published a paper that sought to reconstruct the planet’s past temperatures going back half a millennium before the era of thermometers — thereby showing just how out of whack recent warming has been. The finding: Recent northern hemisphere temperatures had been ‘warmer than any other year since (at least) AD 1400.’ The graph depicting this result looked rather like a hockey stick: After a long period of relatively minor temperature variations (the ‘shaft’), it showed a sharp mercury upswing during the last century or so (‘the blade’).
The report moved quickly through climate science circles. Mann and a colleague soon lengthened the shaft of the hockey stick back to the year 1000 AD — and then, in 2001, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] prominently featured the hockey stick in its Third Assessment Report. Based on this evidence, the IPCC proclaimed that ‘the increase in temperature in the 20th century IS LIKELY TO HAVE BEEN the largest of any century during the past 1,000 years’.” (theatlantic.com)
Some Horrible History
A brief look at history proves that the hockey stick graph is deceptive, a classic gaslighting operation. The climate hasn’t been so stable during the last 1,000 years. The fluctuations have been dramatic — from being warm enough for winemaking in Britain and Northern Europe down to the other extreme with the River Thames freezing over — allowing elephants to perform ice skating on it in a circus act!
The Medieval Warm Period
“What impact did the relatively warm period in the 8th to 10th centuries have (more specifically AD 725–1025)? And more specifically: what were the characteristics?
In a recent article, a group of scientists have explored this period and found that the atmosphere had minimal contamination from explosive eruptions; at the same time there was no marked variance in solar irradiance in the period. In short the period must be characterised by its very low level of ‘natural’ (non-anthropogenic) forcing events.
This relative quiet period was brought to an end by a series of volcanic eruptions from AD 1108 and onwards, which heralded nearly 700 years of a much less staid climate. The authors suggest that the period might be named the Medieval Quiet Period. In the Medieval Warm Period even Greenland would be inhabited by farmers." (medieval.eu)
Why Sudden Climate Change?
A sudden upsurge in volcanic activity has been linked to change in the world’s climate! Worldwide famine can result from a large volcanic eruption.
Tambora: The Deadliest Volcanic Eruption In History
“It killed 100,000 people in the direct impact. But it led to tens of millions more deaths later. In 1815, Mount Tambora erupted on Sumbawa, an island of modern-day Indonesia. Historians regard it as the volcano eruption with the deadliest known direct impact: roughly 100,000 people died in the immediate aftermath.
‘What happened after Tambora is that there was three years of climate change,’ he says. ‘The world got colder, and the weather systems changed completely for three years. And so you had widespread crop failure and starvation all from Asia to the United States to Europe’.” (history.com)
Wine’s Beginnings In Europe
“The Romans planted vineyards in southern France and in the Rhine valley; viticulture spread with both majority Christian and minority Jewish settlement, since both religions required wine in their services and rituals. During the Medieval Warm Period, grapes could grow in northern England and in Denmark, but after the climate began to cool (1300s), England had difficulty producing wine. Germany and France were huge wine producers. It turns out that the best wine comes from grapes that grow in the marginal climate zones, those right on the edge of being too cold.” (ruthjohnston.com)
The Little Ice Age
“Winters in the mini ice age were more severe than nowadays. The Thames froze at least 20 times, sometimes for two months or more, and between 1607 and 1814 there were five or six occasions when the ice was thick enough to hold a fair on the river.
Frost fairs were a huge festival on the ice with bowling matches, football pitches, food and drink stalls and even a pub.
The ice was so firm in some places that elephants skated on the ice as part of a circus act and shopkeepers kept warm by lighting fires inside their tents. The last frost fair in London was in 1814…” (bbc.co.uk)
Check Out The Facts!
These “facts” that are used in the media all come from government publications!
“There’s a summer heat wave going on, which gives journalists the opportunity to fill up their stories with the climate change boilerplate. It no longer matters whether any of it is true. Just the opposite, in fact. If you point out the truth, you’re accused of being a denier.
The data doesn’t show an increase in the number of heat waves, or hurricanes, or tornadoes, or wildfires. Yet every time one or the other strikes, the press robotically connects that event to ‘climate change.’ And so, true to form, every story about the current heat wave says that climate change is to blame.
To our eye, there’s no discernible trend at all. Particularly when you consider that the truly terrible heat waves occurred in the 1930s, long before human activity could have had any meaningful effect on global climate.
The same is true for other claims that ‘climate change’ is causing more extreme and more deadly weather. Every time a tornado hits, the media say that twisters are getting more frequent and more violent.
Except that’s a lie!
Here’s what National Geographic said about tornadoes: ‘There is no real evidence that tornadoes are happening more often. A lot more are being recorded now than in 1950, but a closer look at the data shows the increase is only in the weakest category, EF0. There’s been no increase in stronger twisters, and maybe even a slight decrease in EF4s and EF5s.’” (issuesinsights.com)
The ‘Science’ Isn’t Settled!
“For instance, we’ve been assured for decades by all the right people that Arctic ice will disappear due to man’s wanton combustion of fossil fuels.
But The Reality Is…
But the reality is that in the middle of January 2024, ‘Arctic sea ice for this date stands at its highest level in 21 years,’ says Climate Change Dispatch.” (issuesinsights.com)
What Is NET ZERO?
“The current net zero concept originates from a single ‘clunky and jargon-filled’ sentence written in the 2018 IPCC report: ‘In model pathways with no or limited overshoot of 1.5°C, global net anthropogenic CO2 emissions decline by about 45% from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching net zero around 2050.’
The impact of this sentence has been dramatic. ‘The portion of the report outlining the 2050 timeline was just a single sentence, and yet very few corners of the world have remained unaffected by it,’ notes Bloomberg reporter Eric Roston. Indeed, the sentence that set countries on a path to a 1.5°C limit in average global warming is gaining recognition as one of the most influential bits of text in human history.
‘The sentence that gave birth to net zero carbon by 2050: not poetry, not all men are created equal. BUT CHANGING THE WORLD ECONOMY’ tweets energy historian Daniel Yergin, adding that, ‘It has provided an incredibly powerful traffic signal to tell you where “things” are going.’” (climateforesight.eu)
Where Are “Things” Going?
In the West, it’s all about closing reliable coal and oil fired power stations and replacing them with windmills and solar panels. ENERGY SECURITY is greatly threatened as a result! Less energy means less economic growth!
Not so in the East. China is NOT closing their coal fired power stations, they are building new ones. Why? Because they produce cheap electricity, which they need to produce all the windmills and solar panels for the West! It’s all about “changing the world economy”.
Green Energy Madness
"The Western powers, gripped by green energy madness, are handing the future to China. History will not look kindly on the leaders of this forced march to subservience. Members of the G7 economic alliance, meeting in Turin, Italy, agreed Tuesday to end usage of coal for power generation by the year 2035, a mere 11 years into the future.
This effort to rob power grids in the West and Japan of so much affordable, stable, round-the-clock baseload generation comes at an inauspicious time.
Electricity demand is rising at an accelerating pace, driven by new demands by AI, electric car charging needs, and new industrial plants for the manufacturing of EVs and renewable energy parts and equipment.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told a gathering in January that the power needed for AI and its data centers alone will require a doubling of generation capacity in barely a decade.
The G7’s announcement highlights the divide between the climate alarm-driven machinations by western governments and the ongoing growth of coal usage by China, India, Indonesia, and other developing countries in Asia. The contrast is especially stark where China is concerned, given its continuing permitting of more and more new coal plants despite public pledges to start cutting back. Indeed, Greenpeace claimed China permitted more new coal plants during Q3 2023 than it did in all of 2021.
Meanwhile, as the US and many fellow G7 countries are now moving to try to eliminate natural gas plants, China and other developing economies are simultaneously demanding more and more of the abundant and cheap commodity. What it is all boiling down to IS AN APPEARANCE OF UNILATERAL SURRENDER OF ENERGY SECURITY – and of all industries which need energy, especially including AI – by the western world to China. History will not look kindly on the leaders of this forced march to subservience.” (telegraph.co.uk)
The Observer’s View
We must keep in mind our job — to watch events as they happen. We are observers, we are not involved.
In the beginning was the hockey stick graph. Based on this “evidence”, The Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change (IPCC) proclaimed that “the increase in temperature in the 20th century IS LIKELY to have been the largest of any century during the past 1,000 years.”
What we witnessed here was the start of a mega gaslighting campaign. The creation of panic caused by lies — presented as “science”!
The climate hasn’t been stable during the last 1,000 years. The fluctuations have been dramatic — from winemaking in Britain and Northern Europe changing to the River Thames freezing over.
We see that the change seemed tied to an upturn in volcanic activity. Today, volcanoes are very active — many under the sea, altering sea temperatures — and thus affecting the world’s climate.
The data doesn’t show an increase in the number of heat waves, or hurricanes, or tornadoes, or wildfires. There’s no discernible trend at all.
Every time a tornado hits, the media says that twisters are getting more frequent and more violent. Except that’s a lie! Here’s what National Geographic said about tornadoes: “There is no real evidence that tornadoes are happening more often.”
The Arctic ice hasn’t disappeared as predicted — it’s at its highest level in 21 years!
To Understand What Is Happening — Follow The Money!
What we are witnessing right now could be described as economic warfare. In the West, reliable coal and gas fired power stations are being closed and replaced with unreliable windmills and solar panels, the vast majority of which the West has to buy from China.
And all this is going on at a time when the West needs to double its electricity output just to keep up with Al data centres needs alone. That is not possible with solar panels and windmills. What about power for all these electric cars?
This lack of cheap electricity is strangling economic growth in the West — with the East taking over the lead, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence.
Meanwhile, In The East
China is NOT closing their coal fired power stations, they are building new ones. Why? Because they produce relatively cheap electricity, which China needs in order to produce all the windmills and solar panels for the West!
The Bottom Line:
“It’s All About Changing The World Economy”
As we noted earlier, the wealth of the West is going East! And that includes political power…
“Xi Jinping has a plan for how the world should work, and one year into his norm-shattering third term as Chinese leader, he’s escalating his push to challenge America’s global leadership — and put his vision front and center.
That bid was in the spotlight like never before last month in Beijing, when Xi, flanked by Russian President Vladimir Putin, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, and some two dozen top dignitaries from around the world, hailed China as the only country capable of navigating the challenges of the 21st century.” (cnn.com)
God’s Plan In Action
We have enjoyed the blessings in times past…
In 1914, American debt was just $72 billion (at today’s dollar value). The British Empire encircled the world.
Today US debt is just under $35 trillion and the British Empire is gone!
“The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.” (Deuteronomy 28:12)
Now — the time of the Curses…
“The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low. He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.
Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:” (Deuteronomy 28:43-45)
“And I will break the pride of your power…” (Leviticus 26:19)
The enemies of America are taking advantage of the lack of leadership in the USA. The nation is drowning in debt. It’s not even clear who is really in charge — who is leading, who is running the country!
What kind of “power” does this project to the world?
The Plain Truth About Net Zero
The curses of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 are happening, right now, visible to those who have eyes to see. Our nations are drowning in debt… the strangers within our nation are “rising up”. The “pride in our power” is evaporating, China and the East are pushing for dominance.
At a time of huge increases in the demand for electricity, the West is suffering from a strong delusion. They are closing reliable coal and gas fired power stations, and replacing them with unreliable windmills and solar panels.
And the motivation? The lies about climate change!
The blind belief in the lie about global warming/climate change is effectively destroying our nations. The apostle Paul explains why!
“…Because they received not the love of the truth …God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.” (ll Thessalonians 2:10-11)
We were warned: “For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.” (Isaiah 9:16)
The pursuit of achieving Net Zero is well on the way to destroying our nations, and few seem to care.
Today, We Read The Book
“Now go and write down these words. Write them in a book. They will stand until the end of time as a witness that these people are stubborn rebels who refuse to pay attention to the LORD’s instructions.
They tell the seers, ‘Stop seeing visions!’
They tell the prophets, ‘Don’t tell us what is right.
Tell us nice things.
TELL US LIES.
Forget all this gloom.
Get off your narrow path.
STOP TELLING US ABOUT YOUR “HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL.”’
THIS IS THE REPLY OF THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL:
‘Because you despise what I tell you and trust instead in oppression and lies, CALAMITY WILL COME UPON YOU SUDDENLY — like a bulging wall that bursts and falls. IN AN INSTANT it will collapse and come crashing down.” (Isaiah 30:8-13, NLT)
That CALAMITY is not far off… WATCH!
God-fearing Leadership
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." (Proverbs 9:10)
Here in the UK our two main political parties have recently been embroiled in a leadership contest; to either continue as the Conservative party or replace it with a Labour government. From a biblical perspective, neither party could or will bring prosperity to this country, as the head of the outgoing Conservatives is a practicing Hindu, whilst 40% of the incoming Labour cabinet chose the secular, non-religious option to profess allegiance to the king as opposed a religious oath on the Bible. The newly-elected leader of the Labour party and therefore head of the British government, Sir Keir Starmer is a confirmed atheist, and as an article in The Times newspaper comments: " ... Britain elected the first parliament as godless as the nation at large" . Neither individual seems to be aware of God's condemnation of their personal lifestyle and leadership:
- Confounded [put to shame] be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods. (Psalm 97:7)
- The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. (Psalm 14:1)
But modern day Israel has not always been so devoid of biblical understanding. Even the popular authors of an earlier age – such as Agatha Christie, A J Cronin, and even Karen Blixen, who wrote the well-known book "Out of Africa" – would regularly use scriptural quotes or paraphrases confident that their readers were sufficiently educated to know what they meant, and how they augmented the story. And thankfully, the same goes for some of the leaders of yesteryear.
The Churchill Factor
Some time ago I read a book entitled: "The Churchill Factor" written by Boris Johnson – British PM from 2019-2022 – and his goal in writing this book was a lofty one: attempting to discover the very source of Churchill's character and therefore the origin of his leadership. His quest to discover Churchill's makeup he puts as follows:
"Character is destiny, said the Greeks, and I agree. If that is so, then the deeper and most fascinating question is what makes up the character? What were the elements that made him capable of filling that gigantic role? In what smithies did they forge that razor mind and iron will? What the hammer, what the chain, in what furnace was his brain? as William Blake almost puts it. That's the question." (The Churchill Factor, pages 5-6)
The problem is, there is a glaring omission in what Boris Johnson presents. As fascinating as the book may be, it nevertheless has been clearly warped by the present-day secular yardstick away from what was then an almost universal recognition of divine providence and its effect within the international theatre. This Unseen Hand in the course of history – particularly the history of the English-speaking peoples – was something clearly recognised by Churchill, yet largely sidelined within the book. As an example we can see this recognition of the eternal power and Godhead shaping events clearly alluded to in his address to Congress shortly after Pearl Harbour:
... Sure I am that this day, now, we are the masters of our fate. That the task which has been set us is not above our strength. That its pangs and toils are not beyond our endurance. As long as we have faith in our cause, and an unconquerable willpower, salvation will not be denied us. In the words of the Psalmist: “He shall not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.” ...
... If you will allow me to use other language, I will say that he must indeed have a blind soul who cannot see that some great purpose and design is being worked out here below of which we have the honour to be the faithful servants. It is not given to us to peer into the mysteries of the future. Still, I avow my hope and faith, sure and inviolate, that in the days to come the British and American peoples will, for their own safety and for the good of all, walk together in majesty, in justice and in peace. (Dec. 26, 1941, address to a joint session of Congress)
Knowledge of Scripture
The generation who listened while Churchill took the English language and sent it forth into battle were not ignorant of the Bible, which is unfortunately not the case as far as today's generation is concerned! The "smithies that did forge that razor mind and iron will " included a firm recognition of the divine wisdom to be found within the pages of the Bible and its value when applied to modern life. Take as an example the following used at the end of an article entitled, "The United States of Europe" published in 1930 – some years even before Hitler came to power:
“We [Britain] are bound to further every honest and practical step which the nations of Europe may make to reduce the barriers which divide them and to nourish their common interests and their common welfare. We rejoice at every diminution of the internal tariffs and the martial armaments of Europe. We see nothing but good and hope in a richer, freer, more contented European commonalty.
But we have our own dream and our own task. We are with Europe, but not of it. We are linked, but not comprised. We are interested and associated, but not absorbed. And should European statesmen address us in the words which were used of old, ‘Wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or the captain of the host?’, we should reply, with the Shunammite woman: ‘I dwell among mine own people.'” (US Saturday Evening Post 15 February 1930)
Yet how many readers today would even know who Elisha was, let alone the Shunammite woman? And how many of today's writers could effectively bring such a relatively obscure quotation from II Kings 4:13 into the present realities of the Brexit issue in a wise and understanding way? As God inspired Isaiah to write in the very first chapter:
- Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
- The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
- Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
- Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
- From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. (Isaiah 1:2-6)
A God in Control
But we can take encouragement in that the Bible repeatedly assures us that God has the final say. The prophet Daniel declares that "God removes kings and sets up kings" (Daniel 2:21, RSV). To King Nebuchadnezzar of ancient Babylon, Daniel affirmed that "the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory" (Daniel 2:37). The seven years' punishment of Nebuchadnezzar as mentioned in chapter 4 was for the purpose "that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men" (Daniel. 4:17).
The prophet Isaiah says it is God who "bringeth the princes to nothing" (Isaiah. 40:23). King David of ancient Israel declares that "For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge; he putteth down one, and setteth up another" (Psalm. 75:6,7).
And this understanding wasn't uncommon in the leaders of the last century, as it is today. For example, in 1942 Churchill told a group of mine-owners and mine workers delegates:
“I sometimes have a feeling of interference. I want to stress that. I have a feeling that sometimes that some Guiding Hand has interfered. I have a feeling that we have a Guardian because we have a great Cause and we shall have that Guardian so long as we serve that Cause faithfully."
Benjamin Franklin held a similar conviction. Speaking at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in June, 1787, Franklin asserted:
"The longer I live the more convincing proofs I see that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice [a reference to Matthew 10:29], is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?"
Lessons to be Learnt
It's commonplace today to hear the phrase, "lessons must be learnt" when Social Services have again desperately failed a family, or there has been a disaster of some sort that should easily have been avoided. Sadly, without a basic understanding of what has gone before – WHO we are, and WHERE we came from – actively influencing where we should be heading, it seems no meaningful lessons can be learnt. As these quite famous quotes show:
- "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." (George Santayana)
- "History repeats itself because no one was listening the first time." (Anonymous)
- "That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history." (Aldous Huxley)
This lack of appreciation of what has gone before is clearly evident in society today as it allows mankind to think he has free rein to do whatever he wishes – regardless of the consequences. This is particularly true in the headlong rush in allowing deviant sexual practices to take place – even within "christian" churches, ignorant or uncaring of the former fate of such cities as Sodom and Gomorrah, Pompeii and of course the fall of the Roman Empire.
I'm sure many of us share the same frustration – and longing – as King David expressed in this psalm:
- O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself.
- Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud.
- LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?
- How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?
- They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage.
- They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless.
- Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. (Psalm 94:1-7)
But God indeed does see, and His warning is very clear, as the next two verses show: "Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see? ". (Psalm 94:8,9) And the end result is inescapable:
- Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:
- And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.
- Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:
- (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;)
- That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. (Leviticus 18:24-28)
But both Mr Churchill – and Mr. Armstrong – held a broad perspective of history and the moral dilemmas faced by our forebears. Mr. Churchill was the author of "A History of the English-Speaking People" which detailed Britain's colonies and possessions throughout the world, covering the period from 55 BC to 1914 AD. and with that prodigious background he was then able to give what was quite an astonishing perspective, and therefore leadership, to his cabinet, when so many of his peers were intent on negotiating with Hitler around the time of Dunkirk:
'And I am convinced that every one of you would rise up and tear me down from my place if I were for one moment to contemplate parley or surrender. If this long island story of ours is to end at last, let it end only when each one of us lies choking in his own blood upon the ground.'
THE Historical Lesson
Similarly, Mr Armstrong was well versed in the history of 'the English speaking peoples' – with a far deeper understanding than even Mr. Churchill, as he was given profound understanding of prophecy and the whereabouts of the 12 tribes of Israel, and was able to thunder out this understanding of the coming time of Jacob's trouble to the whole world, without making any apologies for it.
And if there is one key event that has influenced everything in this world – and daily continues to do so – it is the decisive decision taken 6000 years ago by our first parents. Instead of putting themselves – and their descendents – under the loving guidance of the Creator, humanity ever since has unwittingly been under the malevolent guidance of the god of this world. (II Corinthians 4:4) And those with eyes to see can witness all around us the repercussions of this fateful choice: in divorce; broken homes; feral children; sexual perversions; gender dysphoria; abortions; euthanasia; suicides; mental illnesses; famines; disease epidemics; monetary worries; murders; massacres; genocides; atomic warfare ... and attempted assassinations. The very antithesis of what God was offering – life and peace. (Deuteronomy 30:19)
The problem with society today is not merely that we no longer have a deep respect for the Word of God – but that we live in a culture which actively persecutes and maligns any who would dare to promote it in any way, fully cognisant that the One that created Reality also has the authority to determine Morality!
- Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
- Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. (Isaiah 30:10-11)
As God explains through the prophet Jeremiah, by choosing the wrong tree, we rejected spiritual understanding that would lead to life, and are attempting to live the way WE choose, which will eventually lead to our destruction:
- Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.
- Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD.
- For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:11-13)
Moral Values
Mr Churchill also managed to see the gathering storm before it came. Most English speaking people at the time did not. The question is why? How? What was different between Mr Churchill's approach and the majority of those around him? What is the real value in reproducing these quotes ... is there anything we can learn from his life that is beneficial for us, at this pivotal and dangerous time in history?
Those of us who have read anything of what happened prior to the second world war understand that Winston Churchill was a fierce critic of Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Adolf Hitler in Munich on 29th September 1938. But to understand why, we need to note carefully what he said in a speech to the House of Commons shortly afterwards. Mr Churchill bluntly and prophetically stated to Mr Chamberlain, "You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war." He did not merely view Chamberlain's action as a lamentably wrong choice in hindsight, he saw it as the morally wrong choice.
But how did he come to this profound realisation? Backing up to 1929, and having lost his seat in Parliament, Churchill spent the intervening ten years – what he called his "wilderness years" – researching material for what became a 4-volumed historical work: "Marlborough – His life and Times". John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough was one of his ancestors, and his research took him frequently to Blenheim in Austria where one of the major battles against Louis XIV of France was fought. This warmongering 17th century "Sun King" -- who declared himself "without equal" -- brought to mind what he could see happening in Germany under Hitler, who arrogantly declared himself Mein Fuhrer; the "incontestable leader" of the German people. This historical basis gave him a greater perspective, in that he wasn't merely observing world events as they unfolded but was able to give them a moral interpretation – that placed mankind's actions as ultimately conducted before the Almighty. True, he had not been begotten by God's Spirit, but he most certainly did recognise the eternal power and godhead of the Eternal in a purely human way and appeared to act accordingly. This moral understanding of history seems to be the difference – noticeably missing from our leaders today, who, like Israel of old, have rejected God to have any authority whatsoever over them. (I Samuel 8:7)
- As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths (Isaiah 3:12)
Two years after writing his initial autobiography, "My Early Life", Mr Churchill published "Amid These Storms: Thoughts and Adventures". It is a collection of essays on a variety of subjects, written mostly in the mid-1920s before he had to shoulder the mantle of power against Nazi Germany. Notice this quote from his reflections on Moses and the Bible. Can you imagine any leader in Britain today publicly promoting such a stance?
“We reject, however, with scorn all those learned and laboured myths that Moses was but a legendary figure upon whom the priesthood and the people hung their essential social, moral, and religious ordinances. We believe that the most scientific view, the most up-to-date and rationalistic conception, will find its fullest satisfaction in taking the Bible story literally, and in identifying one of the greatest human beings with the most decisive leap-forward ever discernible in the human story ... In the words of a forgotten work of Mr. Gladstone, we rest with assurance upon ‘The impregnable rock of the Holy Scripture." (Amid These Storms, Thoughts and Adventures – Moses)
Mr. Churchill then went on to make this challenge:
"Let the men of science and of learning expand their knowledge and probe with their researches every detail of the records which have been preserved to us from these dim ages. All they will do is to fortify the grand simplicity and essential accuracy of the recorded truths which have lighted so far the pilgrimage of man" (Amid These Storms, Thoughts and Adventures)
The Big Questions
Within this collection of essays is another called, "Fifty Years Hence" in which he describes what at first glance seems very far from an ominous vision – neither of tyranny, nor of war, but of a life of ease based on purely materialistic accomplishment. It is one Mr Churchill says he had recently encountered in a book he had read that... "traced the history of mankind from the birth of the solar system to its extinction....In the end a race of beings was evolved which had mastered nature. A state was created whose citizens lived as long as they chose, enjoyed pleasures and sympathies incomparably wider than our own, navigated the interplanetary spaces, could recall the panorama of the past and foresee the future."
He then goes on to say:
"But what was the good of all that to them? What did they know more than we know about the answers to the simple questions which man has asked since the earliest dawn of reason—'Why are we here? What is the purpose of life? Whither are we going?' No material progress, even though it takes shapes we cannot now conceive, or however it may expand the faculties of man, can bring comfort to his soul. It is this fact, more wonderful than any that Science can reveal, which gives the best hope that all will be well." (Amid These Storms, Thoughts and Adventures – Fifty Years Hence)
We must keep in mind how God's guiding hand orchestrated the ultimate outcome of the second world war to the English-speaking Israelite's favour using Mr Churchill as His principle human leader. It was within the context of this larger-than-global, larger-than-material view of life that Winston Churchill took up his mantle of power in 1940. On the night of the tenth of May, on the eve of the ill-fated Battle of France, Mr Churchill became Prime Minister of Great Britain aged 65. As he went to bed, he tells us, at about 3 a.m., he was ...
..."conscious of a profound sense of relief. At last I had the authority to give directions over the whole scene. I felt as if I were walking with Destiny, and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and for this trial."
Our Own Position
Those "simple questions which man has asked since the earliest dawn of reason—'Why are we here? What is the purpose of life? Whither are we going?'" are the identical questions that we too are forced by God to contemplate each year when keeping His Holydays. But unlike Mr Churchill, and other thinking men within this carnal world, we have been granted the revealed answers that do indeed bring "comfort to the soul", including what can only be described as a truly profound grasp of our position within the overall scheme of existence. But the question is, do we use such revelation to its full advantage? Are our choices, our day-by-day actions governed by such things? Do we really understand our future teaching role? Can we, on an everyday basis, take "God's words and send them forth into battle" ... our own battle against the god of this world? Or have the cares of this world dimmed the priceless talent, this pearl of great price granted to so few?
Whatever our position in life, whatever influence – or lack of it – we may have, how we use whatever we have been given is the criteria by which we are now being individually judged (Matthew 25:14-30; 1 Peter 4:17). History is very much in the making, right now – and you and I, as custodians of God's Truth at this time, are expected to rise above the mere humanly perceived assessment of events. Via the Holy Days and the revelation of God's Plan we have been given a God-plane perspective of human existence, including our own.
Keep in mind that the greatest degree of His intervention within today's world is not in the minds of the presidents and prime ministers, the great and near-great of today's world leaders, but within you and me ... within the lives of the members of God's True Church! His amazing Plan is to develop His own Mind within us, imparting His spiritual DNA through the Holy Spirit, making us His sons – the very leaders of the World Tomorrow!
You may think ... "but I'm not of the calibre of a Churchill, a Roosevelt!" No, we can't all be Churchills, – and that has been a deliberate choice made by God, having called mainly the weak and foolish of this world, but He doesn't intend for us to stay that way. From Mr. Armstrong's sermon "Grateful for God's Blessings":
You see, Jesus was stamped with God's own CHARACTER; and we are to become stamped with His character, but it is a gradual process and you don't get it all at once. Now He's beginning to show us how important we are, how LITTLE we are without Him; and yet how important through Him we can become. Why should He be concerned about YOU or about ME? Because He is going to make any one of us greater than all of the nations on this earth put together are now. Brethren, I wonder if we can begin to grasp what God has in store for us, and what is the actual human potential – what we may become! (Grateful For Gods Blessings - 4 May 1982)
With the understanding of even PRE-history, and the significance of the fall of Satan and the Garden of Eden, and the Two Trees – and our appreciation of the incredible wisdom contained within the Holy Scriptures, we have this future to look forward to:
For to those that overcome ...
- ... I will give power over the nations ... (Revelation 2:26)
- ... I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem ... (Revelation 3:12)
- ... I will grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. (Revelation 3:21)
- ... shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. (Revelation 21:7)
- The LORD is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness.
- And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure. (Isaiah 33:5,6)
And when our birth into the family of God is indeed reality, we too might quite justifiably say something Churchillian along the lines of: "I feel as if I've been walking with Destiny, and that all my past life has been but a preparation for this hour and for this opportunity."
Latest Audio - 2024-07-20
“Just what is an APOSTLE?”
Today we find the Church of God in a “wilderness of religious confusion!”
The confusion is not merely around the Church – within the religions of the world outside – but WITHIN the very heart of The True Church itself!
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