The Night Is Coming

Feb 28, 2013

5.1 magnitude earthquake strikes off the coast of Oregon

February 28, 2013 – PORT ORFORD, Ore. — An earthquake has hit the ocean floor far off the Southern Oregon coast, but there were no immediate reports of anyone feeling it on land. The U.S. Geological Survey reports the magnitude 5.1 quake was 114 miles west northwest of Port Orford at 2:14 p.m. Wednesday. The epicenter was 6 miles deep. USGS spokeswoman Leslie Gordon says there were no immediate reports to the agency’s website from people feeling the quake on shore. –KGW

Stay Free part 43 - Paxman Versus Boris

Interesting debate here that helps explain why the elite billionaires get away with, well anything they feel like. Welcome to the now, and keep praying for Messiah to come and avenge His people.

Feb 27, 2013

You Must Suffer (If You Are A Christian) - John Piper

Digital Tattoo Advocates Say The Mark Of The Beast Is Going To Be Way Cooler Than They First Imagined. It Will Function By Using Mind Control!

Science hasn’t been easy on the paranormal, routinely deflating fantastic claims by hucksters purporting psychic abilities. So wouldn’t it be ironic if scientists were on the verge of making paranormal-like abilities a reality?

Imagine controlling an object with your mind. Or don’t, because you probably already have. I did when I was a (pretty little) kid. It never worked, of course, but boy did I stare daggers at several unsuspecting flower pots, pencils and sticks of chalk.

The trouble, of course, is that your brain works a whole lot better when it’s motivating things it’s actually wired to, say your eyeballs, tongue, fingers or toes. But aha, you’re saying, we have wireless technology in 2013. We live in the future! Can’t we just cut that cord, too?

We already have: If you want to get technical about it, when using a handheld remote control with old-school antennae to pilot a hobby-style airplane across a field, you don’t actually touch the radio-controlled plane; the brain-interface includes your hands and the control box. But that assumes you have hands to work with, and working a control box to drive a wireless drone around is hardly “telekinetic” — not half as cool-sounding as it might be if you could simply think that drone into action

Read more: http://techland.time.com/2013/02/22/finally-tattoos-that-let-you-control-objects-with-your-mind/#ixzz2MAM4VhwQ

Curious to creepy: CDC to dispatch medical team to Los Angeles while Woman May have been Sacrificed to stop Disease Outbreak

My question with all of this, was Elisa Lam some sort of occult sacrifice meant to stem the tide of Lam Elisa, the advanced TB which is killing folks in downtown LA? Strange stuff, to be sure.

Posted on February 27, 2013 by The Extinction Protocol

February 27, 2013 – LOS ANGELES, CA – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is dispatching scientists to Los Angeles to mount a new attack on an outbreak of tuberculosis on skid row. Health workers have identified about 4,650 people who were probably exposed and are trying to track them, according to news reports.

Homeless shelters in Skid Row are increasing efforts to urge people to get tested after state and local public health officials alerted them to the outbreak earlier this month. But people who are not homeless often come in contact with the homeless in public places such as libraries, where often the homeless spend their days or in public transportation and in any place where there is close contact indoors, such as a house of worship, park classroom, restroom, or community center.

Some of the homeless pick up TB germs in prison or jail and then spread it to the homeless on the street, including those who are able to spend afternoons in movie theaters near where they hang out or can reach with public transportation. Others may spread TB microbes at homeless shelters.

Check out today’s news report, “Skid Row TB epidemic is ‘alarming,’ but the community is well-versed in disease.” Downtown Los Angeles and its hotels attract tourists from Europe and the U.S.A. Los Angeles County health officials have asked federal officials for help to contain a worsening tuberculosis outbreak among the homeless in its downtown area.

County health officials here have identified 78 cases of a particular strain of the TB bacteria. But TB germs aren’t limited to the poor and the homeless in neighborhoods such as Skid Row. Recently live TB bacteria was collected just by swiping the eating tray in a plane, where people who are not limited to the homeless travel globally and nationally. TB bacteria is normally carried in “droplets” ranging from 1 – 5 microns, and M. tuberculosis itself ranges from 0.4 – 1.4 microns in size, so I would recommend a mask with a HEPA filter, which filters particles down to 0.3 microns.

The recirculated air in airplane cabins is notorious for carrying germs as well as chemical contaminants. Many people wear masks when traveling on airplanes. Homeless use public libraries during the day for access to restrooms and the Internet. It’s easy for TB bacteria to spread from the Skid Row homeless who frequently spend all day in public libraries to use the bathroom where they wash up or to use the computer. School kids coming into a library branch known for attracting homeless people can be exposed to TB microbes just by sitting near the homeless at a public library. –Examiner

Masks: The Los Angeles Police Department has asked officers who patrol the Skid Row neighborhood to wear protective masks and minimize face-to-face contact with individuals who might be infected with tuberculosis. The move comes days after CDC scientists were dispatched to Los Angeles County to help officials investigate and curb a TB outbreak that has sickened nearly 80 downtown residents and claimed 11 lives since 2007. -C.healthline

Despite the eeriness of the case, the Los Angeles TB outbreak has no connection to the grizzly homicide, and discovery of the body of 21 year old Canadian tourist Elisa Lam, whose badly decomposed body was discovered in a water tank at the Cecil hotel.

Movie tie in: In the 2005 paranormal movie, Dark Water, eerie things take place after a body is supposedly found in a water tank on the ceiling of an old apartment building. In the movie, the girl was left alone in the abandoned apartment and fell into the water tank, which Veeck had left open. He was aware of her body, which was why he refused to fix the water problem plaguing the complex.

Among the paranormal oddities in the movie, is dark water leaking down through the ceiling in adjacent apartments, and the elevators not working. Fast forward to 2013, leading up to the discovery of Elisa Lam’s body in the water tank, at the Cecil hotel, ‘”The water did have a funny taste,” Sabrina Baugh, a guest at the Cecil, told CNN, which adds that Baugh and her husband had used the water for eight days. ‘We never thought anything of it … We thought it was just the way it was here,’ Baugh said, adding that black water would come out of the shower when the tap was turned on.’” AW, TEP

Hotel’s dark history: The Cecil Hotel has served as temporary home for no less than two serial killers: the legendary “Nightstalker” Richard Ramirez and Austrian Euro-ghoul Jack Unterweger.

In 1985, Ramirez paid $14 a night to stay on the 14th floor of the Cecil, where he killed 14 people. Six years later, Unterweger murdered several prostitutes while living at the Cecil. The Cecil Hotel was also the scene of a 1962 suicide, in which 27 year-old Pauline Otten jumped out of her window and landed on a pedestrian, killing both.

Two years later, Goldie Osgood, known by some as the Pershing Square Pigeon Lady, was found raped and strangled at the Cecil. It is also widely rumored that Elizabeth Short, aka the Black Dahlia, patronized the seedy hotel and the bar next door shortly before her notorious disappearance in 1947.

Perhaps, even weirder, in the movie Dark Water (about the disappearance of a body in a water tank), the main character’s name is Dahlia and her daughter’s name is Cecilia. And if that wasn’t strange enough, the test for TB, is called a Lam-Elisa, which is the reversed name of the missing woman whose discovered body comes on the heels of virulent TB outbreak in Los Angeles. However, there is no established connection with Elisa Lam’s body, or cause of death to the TB outbreak spreading among the homeless in Los Angeles. –GD, TEP

Video surveillance of Elisa Lam’s bizarre behavior leading up to her death

3-D Printed Car Is as Strong as Steel, Half the Weight, and Nearing Production

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Engineer Jim Kor and his design for the Urbee 2. Photo: Sara Payne

Picture an assembly line not that isn’t made up of robotic arms spewing sparks to weld heavy steel, but a warehouse of plastic-spraying printers producing light, cheap and highly efficient automobiles.

If Jim Kor’s dream is realized, that’s exactly how the next generation of urban runabouts will be produced. His creation is called the Urbee 2 and it could revolutionize parts manufacturing while creating a cottage industry of small-batch automakers intent on challenging the status quo.

Urbee’s approach to maximum miles per gallon starts with lightweight construction – something that 3-D printing is particularly well suited for. The designers were able to focus more on the optimal automobile physics, rather than working to install a hyper efficient motor in a heavy steel-body automobile. As the Urbee shows, making a car with this technology has a slew of beneficial side effects.

Jim Kor is the engineering brains behind the Urbee. He’s designed tractors, buses, even commercial swimming pools. Between teaching classes, he heads Kor Ecologic, the firm responsible for the 3-D printed creation.

“We thought long and hard about doing a second one,” he says of the Urbee. “It’s been the right move.”

Kor and his team built the three-wheel, two-passenger vehicle at RedEye, an on-demand 3-D printing facility. The printers he uses create ABS plastic via Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM). The printer sprays molten polymer to build the chassis layer by microscopic layer until it arrives at the complete object. The machines are so automated that the building process they perform is known as “lights out” construction, meaning Kor uploads the design for a bumper, walk away, shut off the lights and leaves. A few hundred hours later, he’s got a bumper. The whole car – which is about 10 feet long – takes about 2,500 hours.

Photo: Sara Payne

Besides easy reproduction, making the car body via FDM affords Kor the precise control that would be impossible with sheet metal. When he builds the aforementioned bumper, the printer can add thickness and rigidity to specific sections. When applied to the right spots, this makes for a fender that’s as resilient as the one on your Prius, but much lighter. That translates to less weight to push, and a lighter car means more miles per gallon. And the current model has a curb weight of just 1,200 pounds.

Read more at - http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/02/3d-printed-car/

Feb 26, 2013

The Location of the Next Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem

Unfortunately, the final piece of this video is in error as to the timing of last days events. The antichrist will appear first, and their will be a great persecution, a fiery trial of the church on this earth. Then Jesus will return and the rapture will occur. The rest of the video is quite interesting.

Stay Free part 42 - Restrain From Within or Be Restrained from Without

The Last Pope and the Warning of La Salette

By Tom Horn & Cris Putnam

Most people are probably unaware that in addition to the Secrets of Fátima, a second, most renowned Marian apparition from La Salette, France, which was approved by Popes Pius IX and Leo XIII, revealed analogous information about a crisis of faith that would transpire within Roman Catholicism in the last days, during which Rome would become the seat of the Antichrist.

Delivered to Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud on September 19, 1846, while they tended cattle in the mountains, the Secret of La Salette reads in part:

The earth will be struck by calamities of all kinds (in addition to plague and famine which will be wide-spread). There will be a series of wars until the last war, which will then be fought by the ten Kings of the Antichrist, all of whom will have one and the same plan and will be the only rulers of the world. Before this comes to pass, there will be a kind of false peace in the world. People will think of nothing but amusement. The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin…this will be the hour of darkness. The Church will suffer a terrible crisis… Rome will lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist… The Church will be in eclipse, the world will be in dismay.^{^[i]}

In The Plot Against The Pope; Coup dé’tat in the Conclave–1958, Gary Giuffré discusses how French Masonic influences who had infiltrated the Catholic clergy in the 1800s were working overtime to suppress and discredit the Secret of La Salette, even though its message had been officially favored by two popes. This was because at that time, prophetic references to Rome “becoming the seat of Antichrist” was forming a common eschatology among Catholic scholars like Cardinal Henry Manning (discussed elsewhere in this book), Bishop Salvator Grafen Zola, and Frederick William Helle, who saw in these predictions the work of Masonically infested clergy who plotted the overthrow of the papacy and the use of the Church as a political vehicle for an occult World Order. “These kinds of details, found in the genuine, modern-day, Marian prophecies, would always generate the greatest opposition from the Church’s enemies who had infiltrated her structures,” wrote Giuffré. “For they threatened to expose the satanic plot and long-time goal of the Masonic Lodge’s agents in the Vatican, to usurp and control the papal chair.”^{^[ii]}

And it has to be remembered that the specter of infiltration of the Roman Catholic hierarchy by members of Freemasonry’s luciferian “light bearers” was a fairly well-established agenda historically, one which Pope Pius IX called the “Synagogue of Satan.” Pope Leo XIII went so far as to issue a damning encyclical (Humanum Genus) on April 20, 1884 against the efforts to invade and corrupt Roman Catholicism by Freemasons, and yet Leo’s own Secretary of State, Cardinal Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro was later identified as a secret Freemason of the diabolical Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) sect of whom Satanist Aleister Crowley belonged and later became leader. When Pope Leo passed away in 1903, it was widely anticipated that Rampolla would replace him as pope, and Rampolla did receive the early votes during conclave. Then something extraordinary happened, and the balloting was interrupted when Prince Jan Maurycy Paweł Puzyna de Kosielsko, a Polish Roman Catholic Cardinal from Kraków, rose on behalf of his Sovereign, Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, and shocked the assembly by declaring in Latin, “…officially and in the name and by the authority of Franz-Josef, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, that His Majesty, in virtue of an ancient right and privilege, pronounces the veto of exclusion against my Most Eminent Lord, Cardinal Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro.”^{^[iii]} This Jus Exclusivæ (“right of exclusion” or papal veto) was an ancient rule of order claimed by Catholic monarchs to veto a candidate for the papacy. “At times the right was claimed by the French monarch, the Spanish monarch, the Holy Roman Emperor, and the Emperor of Austria. These powers would make known to a papal conclave, through a crown-cardinal, that a certain candidate for election was considered objectionable as a prospective Pope.”^{^[iv]} It has since been suggested by some historians that the alert Emperor Franz Joseph knew something of Rampolla’s masonic connection and saved Rome from usurpation. It is also noteworthy that the official Liber LII Manifesto of the O.T.O. BAPHOMET XI° does indeed list Cardinal Rampolla among its members.^{^[v]} But was Rampolla just one of many covert Masons? The answer to that question appears to be yes according to experts like the late Canadian naval officer, author, and popular lecturer William James Guy Carr. In addition to his accounts of wartime activity as a Navigating Submarine Officer during World War One, Carr—though a conspiracy theorist—was a noted authority on the history of the Illuminati and its connection to Freemasonry. He chronicled the movement from its founding in 1776 by Adam Weishaupt to its purported penetration of the Vatican. In 1959, Carr published The Red Fog Over America, in which he said:

Weishaupt boasted that the Illuminati would infiltrate into the Vatican and bore from within, until they left it nothing but an empty shell… Since I exposed certain events which indicate that agentur of the Illuminati have infiltrated into the Vatican, I have received a number of letters from priests who have studied in the Vatican… Those who wrote assured me that the fears I express are more than well founded. One priest informed me that the Pope was surrounded by picked “Specialists”, “Experts” and “Advisors” to such an extent that he was little better than a prisoner in his own palace. Another priest informed me of the eternal surveillance exercised over the Pope…those who maintain the surveillance…give him no freedom of action even in the privacy of his own chambers. The priest said ‘Those who exercise this surveillance are all hand-picked members of a certain order and they all come from the same institution…where Weishaupt…conspired.’”^{^[vi]}

Carr’s description matches so closely to what Malachi Martin and similar priests have alleged on different occasions concerning a formidable Illuminati-Masonic group inside the Vatican that it is tempting to believe Malachi himself may have been one of Carr’s informants. But was this Illuminated council the unseen hand in Rome that “forced” Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict) and Cardinal Bertone to issue what Antonio Socci thought was astuzia inganno (cunning deception) at Fátima? And would this indicate both the current pope and his Secretary of State are clandestinely committed to, or being forced to go along with, the overarching scheme of a secret order inside the Holy See?

The solidarity between Pope Benedict and Cardinal Bertone goes back a long way and it certainly appears to have continued—at least for the first few years of Benedict’s papacy—in the time following the “Message of Fátima” controversy. After being elected pope in April, 2005 and taking his place as successor of John Paul II as Sovereign of the Vatican City State and leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Ratzinger as “Pope Benedict XVI” quickly appointed Cardinal Bertone to replace Fátima co-conspirator Angelo Sodano as the Cardinal Secretary of State. On April 4, 2007, Benedict also appointed Bertone as his Camerlengo to administrate the duty of the Pope in the case of a vacancy of the papacy. Benedict has since made decisions that indicate Bertone could be (or once was) his choice for successor, and both men have at times appeared to be stacking and massaging the Red Hats in Bertone’s favor for the next (final?) conclave. This was noted in the May 13, 2011 National Catholic Reporter article, “A Triptych on Benedict’s Papacy, and Hints of What Lies Beyond,” when NCR Senior Correspondent John L. Allen Jr. spoke of the shake-up inside the Roman Curia (the Curia is the administrative apparatus of the Vatican and, together with the pope, the central governing body of the Catholic Church) in which Italian Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu was appointed the Substitute for General Affairs by Pope Benedict XVI. Becciu, who replaced Archbishop Fernando Filoni for the job, seemed at first an odd selection to Vatican insiders. “Given how difficult it is to master the role [of Substitute], many observers found it curious that Filoni would be shipped out after less than four years, to be replaced by someone in Becciu who has no previous experience at all working inside the Vatican,” observed the NCR.^{^[vii]} But then the nail was hit on the head when the news service added, “When the dust settles, the most obvious beneficiary of these moves would seem to be Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary of State, who will not have to be concerned about the new substitute forming a rival center of power.”^{^[viii]} The job of the Substitute for General Affairs has been described as the most complicated and demanding responsibility in the Roman Curia due to the staggering amount of concerns the Substitute must carry on a daily basis. Roughly compared to a White House Chief of Staff, the Substitute meets with the Pontiff usually once per day to administer Vatican affairs and also regularly reports to the Cardinal Secretary of State (currently Cardinal Bertone). The organizational “success or failure of a papacy often rests on his shoulders,” adds the NCR. And those who have handled the office well over the years “have been the stuff of legend: Giovanni Battista Montini, for instance, was the substitute under Pius XII from 1937 to 1953, and went on to become Pope Paul VI; Giovanni Benelli, who was Paul’s own substitute from 1967 to 1977, was widely understood to be the power behind the throne” (emphasis added).^{^[ix]}

Of course, just when we thought it couldn’t get any more obvious, another—and this time unprecedented—move to consolidate his power (and which also raises the question of a third contender for the throne of St. Peter) was made by Bertone himself. It followed the October 24, 2011, document, “Toward Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority,” which amounted to a call by the Vatican for a World Political and Financial Authority. Published by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, which is headed by Cardinal Peter Turkson, the media was quick—inside and outside Christianity—to see the dark side of socialism raising its head, not to mention prophetic implications of the paper’s call for a Global Authority seated inside the United Nations. In a different chapter we explain how this new unsettling directive attempts to devise a “moral” mandate for establishing “a global public authority” and “a central world bank” that would oversee individual and world pecuniary institutions through subjugation to a new global power made “at the cost of a gradual, balanced transfer of a part of each nation’s powers to a world authority and to regional authorities” (emphasis added).^{^[xii]} The document was addressed at the 2011 G20 Summit in Cannes in comments by President Barack Obama and French President Nicholas Sarkozy, but nothing came of it there due to what Cardinal Bertone did just ten days later. And this is where things start getting interesting, as some soothsayers were already predicting that the author of the document, Peter Turkson of Ghana (Peter the Roman?) could be the next pope, as he is considered papabile by the College of Cardinals.

Following the election of America’s first black president in Obama, analysts around the world began speculating that perhaps Rome would follow suit and roll out the red carpet for a black pope, the first in fifteen hundred years, in somebody like Turkson. Cardinal Francis Arinze, whom Ronald L. Conte Jr. believes will be the next pope and fulfill “The Prophecy of the Popes” by taking the name Pius XIII, is also a black man, an Igbo Nigerian considered papabile since before the 2005 conclave that elected Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI). “The election of Barack Obama as the first African-American US President could pave the way for the election of [a] black Pope, according to a leading black American Catholic,” wrote the Times Online in 2008. “Wilton Daniel Gregory, 60, the Archbishop of Atlanta, said that in the past Pope Benedict XVI had himself suggested that the election of a black pontiff would ‘send a splendid signal to the world’ about the universal Church.”^{^[xiii]} The Associated Press agreed. “The pope has appointed Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana to head the Vatican’s justice and peace office, a high-profile post that cements his reputation as a possible future papal candidate… Turkson told reporters there was no reason there couldn’t be a black pope, particularly after Barack Obama was elected U.S. president.”^{^[xiv]} Given that Turkson is popular in some circles, here is how the National Catholic Reporter heralded the release of his document on Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in their October 28, 2011, headline: A Papal Contender Grabs the Spotlight:

Rome saw a striking coincidence this week, which could be either simple luck or a sign of things to come. There were two big-ticket Vatican news flashes, Monday’s note on reform of the international economy and Thursday’s summit of religious leaders in Assisi. In both cases, the same Vatican official was a prime mover: Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

Turkson, still young in church terms at 63, was the chief organizer of the Assisi gathering, just as he was the top signatory on the document blasting “neo-liberal” ideologies and calling for a “true world political authority” to regulate the economy. During Vatican press conferences to present both, Turkson was the star attraction each time.

Can anyone say, papabile?^{^[xv]}

Only a week following the National Catholic Reporter celebration, however, and only ten days after Turkson released his document calling for a global financial authority, an emergency summit at the Vatican was called by…you guessed it…the Secretariat of State—Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. And this time he wasn’t taking any prisoners. Bertone blasted the document by Turkson and laid down a new set of laws. From that day forward, he ordered, any new Vatican text would have to be authorized in advance by himself. The popular Chiesa News in Rome said of the power play:

Precisely when the G20 summit in Cannes was coming to its weak and uncertain conclusion, on that same Friday, November 4 at the Vatican, a smaller summit convened in the secretariat of state… In the hot seat was the [Turkson] document on the global financial crisis released ten days earlier by the pontifical council for justice and peace… The secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, complained that he had not known about it until the last moment. And precisely for this reason he had called that meeting in the secretariat of state. The conclusion of the summit was that this binding order would be transmitted to all of the offices of the curia: from that point on, nothing in writing would be released unless it had been inspected and authorized by the secretariat of state.^{^[xvi]}

While Bertone convinced some Vatican watchers that his overreaching motives had to do with protecting the Holy See from confusion by claiming that he had been in the dark and thus side-swiped by the release of the document (a case Chiesa News thoroughly debunked), others saw in it another giant step in Bertone carefully solidifying his powerbase in Rome. They also imagined that old enemy the Freemasons having something to do with it. “It would seem that the dark forces in the Vatican are making their moves to seize control of the Catholic Church,” wrote Catholic Jew Aron Ben Gilad. “They are using the recent document of the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace on the global financial crisis as the excuse to seize autocratic control of all the congregations of the curia and putting them under the control of Cardinal Bertone and the Vatican’s Secretariat of State. Whatever the merits or demerits of this document is not the important question, but its use as an instrument for ecclesiastical masonry to take control of the Roman Curia” (emphasis added).^{^[xvii]} Top Vatican watcher and journalist Andrea Tornielli had stated as much earlier, documenting how Bertone had been consolidating his influence in the Vatican:

…through a number of actions: he appointed bishops who are well known to him and friends in key roles, especially in positions involving the management and control of the Holy See’s finances. The last individual appointed, was the Bishop of Alexandria Giuseppe Versaldinew, to the position of President of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See… On the other hand, Bertone has done away with prelates who had moved against him in some way or another, such as Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who had left the Government office to become Nuncio (ambassador) to the United States, or Bishop Vincenzo di Mauro, who left the Office of Economic Affairs to become Archbishop of Vigevano.^{^[}

Alchemy Works - Gold Made in Laboratories

And very likely the CERN reactor is being used to make large quantities among other experiments...

The Moneychangers

Read Matthew 21:12-13 and Mark 11:15-18. Who were the moneychangers and what were they doing that angered Jesus?

Based on the reading of Exodus 30:12-16 every male 20 years of age and older had to pay the “temple tax” every year. The temple tax was known as the Jewish half-shekel, a gold coin.

Exodus 30:16 – “ And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls.”

The purpose of the tax from the commentary of John Gill - “then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when thou numberest them; which was not done yearly, nor was it perpetual; we have but two instances of it after this until the times of David, Num_1:2 yet it seems to have been a yearly tax or tribute, in the times of Christ; see Gill on Mat_17:24, Mat_21:12; and in the Misnah is a whole treatise called "Shekalim", in which an account is given of the time and manner of collecting this ransom money, and for what uses, and who were obliged to pay it, and who not; on the first of Adar (or February) they proclaimed concerning the payment of it, on the fifteenth the tables were set for that purpose, and on the twenty fifth the proper persons sat in the sanctuary to receive it:

that there be no plague amongst them when thou numberest them; as there was when David numbered them; which some have thought was owing to the non-payment of the ransom money after mentioned; the Septuagint version is, "no fall", the ransom of souls by Christ preserves them from a total and final fall by sin into everlasting ruin and destruction; or, "no death" as the Targum of Onkelos, for redemption by Christ secures from the second death, and even from a corporeal death as a penal evil.

(w) Misn. Shekalim, c. 1. sect. 1, 3.” - from the commentary of John Gill

The purpose of the tax was for the maintenance of the wilderness tabernacle, and later the Temple in Jerusalem.

It became known as the “temple tax”, and in Jesus time the requirement was it must be a gold half-shekel that was used to pay the tax. Since this was not the common form of money used, the people had to convert their (usually Roman) coins into the half-shekel. Only the half-shekel would be accepted for the tax. No other form of payment would be accepted.

The Pharisees made it mandatory to collect this tax, and could even seize someone’s property if they did not pay.

One month before Passover (Adar 1), messengers were sent out to remind Israelites of the tax. On Adar 15^th, money changers opened stalls across the country to convert the coins or goods the people had into the half-shekel.

By Adar 25^th, the stalls of the money changers were moved within the city of Jerusalem and the outer court of the Temple. If anyone other than a priest did not pay the tax, legal proceedings could be launched against them to confiscate lands or goods for payment.

Jesus paid the tax for Peter and Himself (though likely not on this occasion), through a fish! (Read Matt. 17:24-27)

This tax brought in much money for the temple. The money changers added a surcharge (just like banks charge interest and fees today) for their service.

The money changers working in concert with priests and Temple authorities had worked out a system in which sacrifices that were offered had to be approved by them. To avoid difficulties, men bringing sacrifices were wise to simply purchase a lamb, goat, dove or bull from the money changers. This practice of having sacrificial animals for sale within the Temple grounds was never provided for in the Law.

It’s good to remember that the Pharisees were “lovers of money”. (Luke 16:14) Also that the love of money was the “root of all evil”. (1 Tim. 6:10)

So looking back at Matt. 21:12-13, Jesus was angry because a commercial, for-profit operation had been set up within the temple grounds, and was preying on those faithful believers seeking to obey the Old Covenant.

So we might ask, how does this example apply to us today?

The Temple of the Old Covenant is not the equivalent of any church buildings today. No church building or sanctuary is comparable to the Temple. Why?

The Temple was created specifically for the practices of the Old Covenant and to help teach Israel how to worship God as well as the price of sin. Nothing written in the New Testament advocates giving money to support buildings that would house the Church. So while Christians may well give money for buildings that the church will use today, that giving is entirely voluntary. The tithe system is no longer applicable, as it was part of the Old Covenant. If you give today, give generously and wisely, as you are led of the Holy Spirit. However, always remember you are under no scriptural compunction to give to any specific persons or buildings. It’s a choice.

The Temple under the Old Covenant was a place the Israelites could come to encounter God. Today, believers in Jesus Christ are described as the Temple of the Holy Spirit, as well as the body of believers. (1 Cor. 6:19-20, Eph. 1:22-23, Col. 1:18)

There is some powerful symbolism involved with Jesus driving the money changers out of the Temple.

- It’s symbolic of Jesus Christ, (the second Adam) doing what the first Adam did not. Casting down Lucifer’s false ideas.

- It’s also symbolic of casting down and out erroneous thoughts and ideas in the temple of our hearts and minds. (2 Cor. 10:4-5)

- The buying and/or selling of religious or spiritual value is compared to MYSTERY BABYLON, the Mother of Harlots in Rev. 18:9-20. So when we see similar ideas crop up historically like the Roman Catholic practice of selling indulgences (paying money for documents that will forgive a person of a certain amount of sins) or modern churches using guilt to compel persons to tithe claiming to do otherwise is sin, we can safely equate those ideals with a historically evil system opposed to God.

- It’s symbolic of our responsibility to aggressively protect basic moral principles of scripture. Christians should always be humble, loving and gracious, but intolerant of moral and spiritual lies.

- Jesus Christ told Israel that His body was symbolic of the Temple itself. (John 2:19) “For where your treasure is, there is your heart.” (Luke 12:34)

It should be remembered this is the only time in scripture when Jesus used violence against anyone. Clearly this issue angered the Lord, and still does today.

Financing Ministers Today

It should also be mentioned since there is no priesthood for believers to support today (we are the priesthood – 1 Peter 2:5-9), local churches concentrate their financial giving on ministries. That is, those who serve the Kingdom of God in various ways, from preaching, teaching and many other provisions.

The scriptures also give us a guide for pastors in the early church. Jesus and His disciples were supported by followers, but also were involved in doing some work for their needs as it involves fishing. This work may have been a regular contribution to their finances.

Paul was “bi-vocational”. He supported himself in most instances through tent-making, but also received some donations for his ministry needs. The idea of a set payment (salary) for pastoral service is never addressed in the scriptures.

Various methods have been used for pastoral support throughout church history. These include pastors who are only supported by contributions (famously George Mueller and his orphanages), pastors who contribute a certain percentage of their salaries back into missions (A.W. Tozer) or back to their church (Rick Warren). One common denominator is that most pastors who accept a salary make sure the amount of pay is open knowledge to their congregations.

Grid Related Explosions Continue Around the U.S.

Who knew? One incident, two, maybe three don't raise an eyebrow. However, when you start to string them together, it seems like something is overloading transformers. Solar wind from the Sun? Some other stellar body near us?

China Uncensored: Watch a Chinese Official Freak Out at an Airport

I thought this was interesting, and sad. While the video is tongue-in-cheek, the narrator makes the point that officials can openly commit crimes and walk (sounds a little like the USA, doesn't it?), while many Chinese are imprisoned for terrible crimes like worshipping God in their homes or teaching their children who Jesus Christ is.

Stay Free part 41 - The Ruin of Sexual License - A Case Study

Arizona Highway Sinkhole Is Actually Side of Mountain Collapsing

The giant fissure in the ground swallowed two cars in Page, Arizona, and caused 120 feet of highway to sink over 8 feet. But geologists are now also worried that the road may be irreparable for a long time because it appears that the whole side of the mountain is sinking!

Anointing - Leonard Ravenhill

Magnitude 6.2 quake jolts eastern Japan, no tsunami warning

(Reuters) - An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 jolted eastern Japan on Monday, public broadcaster NHK said, adding that no tsunami warning had been issued.

The quake also shook buildings in Tokyo, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. Tokyo Electric Power Co said there were no reports of irregularities at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in north-eastern Japan or at its other nuclear facilities.

Read more at - http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/25/us-japan-earthquake-idUSBRE91O08W20130225

Feb 25, 2013

Hobby Lobby: resolute in court, visionary for Bible's relevance

OKLAHOMA CITY (BP) -- Hobby Lobby has been pushed to the front lines of a monumental battle over religious liberty just when the arts and crafts chain is aiming to open a Bible museum near the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

"God's up to something," Steve Green, Hobby Lobby's president, often says.

"We're just along for the ride."

Hobby Lobby's founder -- Green's father, David -- has publicly stated the company will not obey a federal mandate to provide employee health insurance that covers abortion-causing drugs. The 530-store chain could face government fines amounting to $1.3 million a day if the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services forces its will on Hobby Lobby and numerous other privately owned businesses lead by Christians who regard abortion as the taking of innocent life.

Steve Green, meanwhile, is leading Hobby Lobby's plan to open a museum showcasing many of the 40,000 Bible artifacts in The Green Collection secured by the family's company over the past three years. The museum and accompanying research center will be housed in 400,000-500,000 square feet renovated from two office buildings two blocks from the Air and Space Museum and a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol. The yet-unnamed museum could open as early as the fall of 2016.

Green spoke about the court battle and the museum to editors who visited Hobby Lobby's headquarters, its sprawling manufacturing plant and four distribution centers on the outskirts of Oklahoma City during the Association of State Baptist Publications' Feb. 11-14 annual meeting.

Asked if the HHS mandate, if ultimately enforced by the courts, could cost Hobby Lobby its solvency and its vision for a Bible museum, Green said, "I don't have the answer to that. All I know is that we're in good hands. I anticipate that it's going to be a long battle.

"And what and where God directs this, I don't know."

Read more at - http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=39762

High Density Ionospheric Plasma Clouds Produced Using HAARP

e! Science News

Sequence of images of the glow plasma discharge produced with transmissions at the third electron gyro harmonic using the HAARP HF transmitter, Gakona, Alaska. The third harmonic artificial glow plasma clouds were obtained with HAARP using transmissions at 4.34 megahertz (MHz). The resonant frequency yielded green line (557.7 nanometer emission) with HF on November 12, 2012, between the times of 02:26:15 to 02:26:45 GMT.

U.S. Naval Research Laboratory research physicists and engineers from the Plasma Physics Division, working at the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) transmitter facility, Gakona, Alaska, successfully produced a sustained high density plasma cloud in Earth's upper atmosphere. "Previous artificial plasma density clouds have lifetimes of only ten minutes or less," said Paul Bernhardt, Ph.D., NRL Space Use and Plasma Section. "This higher density plasma 'ball' was sustained over one hour by the HAARP transmissions and was extinguished only after termination of the HAARP radio beam."

These glow discharges in the upper atmosphere were generated as a part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) sponsored Basic Research on Ionospheric Characteristics and Effects (BRIOCHE) campaign to explore ionospheric phenomena and its impact on communications and space weather.

Using the 3.6-megawatt high-frequency (HF) HAARP transmitter, the plasma clouds, or balls of plasma, are being studied for use as artificial mirrors at altitudes 50 kilometers below the natural ionosphere and are to be used for reflection of HF radar and communications signals.

Read more at - http://esciencenews.com/articles/2013/02/25/nrl.scientists.produce.densest.artificial.ionospheric.plasma.clouds.using.haarp