By Paul Proctor at http://www.newswithviews.com/

It’s time to prepare for hard times, my friends. And, if you’re a bible believing, Christ-following Christian, I believe the coming years will be particularly troublesome. I say “bible-believing, Christ-following Christian” because our degenerating culture has all but stripped the biblical definition of the word “Christian” from today’s collective conscience so that it has lost much of it’s scriptural meaning, even among many of today’s attending church members.

The enemies of Christ have clearly risen to great power in this country and are, as I write, busy endeavoring to finish off what remains of the church for the purpose of replacing it with a god and religion more suitable for global government. Though they may well in time take possession of the many debt-heavy mega churches and other grand houses of worship around the country in order to turn them into federally-subsidized community centers for faith-based social services, they won’t be successful at completely silencing or eliminating the true body of Christ who will likely be forced to abandon them in order to keep hearing and proclaiming God’s Word uncensored. Unless the Lord Himself intervenes to alter the current course of events, those now in power will most certainly rule over us for a season – and an arduous one at that.

Considering the unbiblical and unconstitutional legislation at hand, it’s looking more and more like faithful Christians could soon be viewed as enemies of the state for no other reason than having believed, proclaimed and obeyed the Word of God. Not only is the church being attacked from without, it is also being undermined from within by charlatans who would transform it into something more spiritually pliable, socially useful and dialectically accommodating.  I believe Christians will again and again be called upon to choose whom we will serve in the coming days in ways that will bring more persecution and suffering than we are accustomed to, requiring a spiritual farsightedness and desire for the eternal things of God over the temporal rewards of this world.

We need to be ready. We need to be willing. And we need to be empowered, not by the mere passion of patriotic zeal, but by the Holy Spirit of God and His Word. It is not we against them – it is an angry and rebellious world against God, and we would do well to remember that when the devil comes knocking at our door demanding more tolerance, diversity and unity.

Vengeance is not ours – that belongs to the Lord, as He clearly states in His Word. Those who live by the sword will surely die by it – again, not my words – His.

When our Constitution and Bill of Rights are completely discarded for the New World Order, there will be no going back to the way things were. There will only be the Word of God to edify, encourage, inspire and sustain us through the hard times ahead. Those who understand and appreciate the power of that Word know very well what I’m talking about. Those who don’t will ignore it at their own peril because to them, it is foolishness.

Best we get into His Word now more earnestly and take it to heart in preparation for a time when bibles are no longer allowed or even legal, than get caught spiritually ignorant and scripturally unarmed when temptation and tribulation come.

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.“ – Hebrews 4:12

The following article was written by Steve Lumbley from www.apostasywatch.com

 By Chuck Baldwin                                       http://www.newswithviews.com/

It is hard to believe, but a majority of Americans (including Christians and conservatives) seem oblivious to the fact that there is a very real, very legitimate New World Order (NWO) unfolding. In the face of overwhelming evidence, most Americans not only seem totally unaware of this reality, they seem unwilling to even remotely entertain the notion.

On one hand, it is understandable that so many Americans would be ignorant of the emerging New World Order. After all, the mainstream media refuses to report, or even acknowledge, the NWO. Even "conservative" commentators and talk show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, or Joe Scarborough refuse to discuss it. And when listeners call these respective programs, these "conservative" hosts usually resort to insulting the caller as being some kind of "conspiracy kook." One host even railed that if anyone questions the government line on 9/11, we should "lock them up and throw away the key." So much for freedom of speech!

This is an area--perhaps the central area--where liberals and conservatives agree: they both show no patience or tolerance for anyone who believes that global government (in any form) is evolving. One has to wonder how otherwise intelligent and thoughtful people can be so brain dead when it comes to this issue. It makes one wonder who is really pulling their strings, doesn't it?

The list of notable personalities who have openly referenced or called for some kind of global government or New World Order is extremely lengthy. Are all these people "kooks" or "conspiracy nuts"? Why would world leaders--including presidents, secretaries of state, and high government officials; including the media, financial, and political elite--constantly refer to something that doesn't exist? Why would they write about, talk about, or openly promote a New World Order, if there is no such thing?

Many of us recall President George Herbert Walker Bush talking much about an emerging New World Order. For example, in 1989, Bush told the students of Texas A&M University, "Perhaps the world order of the future will truly be a family of nations."

Later, Bush, Sr. said, "We have before us the opportunity to forge for ourselves and for future generations a new world order . . .. When we are successful, and we will be, we have a real chance at this new world order, an order in which a credible United Nations can use its peacekeeping role to fulfill the promise and vision of the U.N.'s founders."

Bush, Sr. also said, "What is at stake is more than one small country, it is a big idea--a new world order."

Bush, Sr. further said, "The world can therefore seize the opportunity to fulfill the long-held promise of a new world order . . ." What was President G.H.W. Bush talking about, if there is no such thing as an emerging New World Order? Was he talking out of his mind? Was he hallucinating?

England's Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said, "We are all internationalists now, whether we like it or not." He continued saying, "On the eve of a new Millennium we are now in a new world. We need new rules for international co-operation and new ways of organizing our international institutions." He also said, "Today the impulse towards interdependence is immeasurably greater. We are witnessing the beginnings of a new doctrine of international community."

In 1999, Tony Blair said, "Globalization has transformed our economies and our working practices. But globalism is not just economic. It is also a political and security phenomenon."

What is Tony Blair talking about, if there is no emerging New World Order? What does he mean by "a new doctrine of international community"? What does he mean by "new world"? How can one have globalism, which includes "a political and security phenomenon," without creating a New World Order? Is Tony Blair hallucinating?

Likewise, former President George W. Bush penned his signature to the Declaration of Quebec back on April 22, 2001, in which he gave a "commitment to hemispheric integration and national and collective responsibility for improving the economic well-being and security of our people."

By "our people," Bush meant the people of the Western Hemisphere, not the people of the United States. Phyllis Schlafly rightly reminded us that G.W. Bush "pledged that the United States will 'build a hemispheric family on the basis of a more just and democratic international order.'"

Remember, too, that it was G.W. Bush who, back in 2005, committed the United States to the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), which is nothing more than a precursor to the North American Community or Union, as outlined in CFR member Robert Pastor's manual, "Toward a North American Community."

If there is no such thing as an emerging New World Order, what was G.W. Bush talking about when he referred to "a hemispheric family" and an "international order"?

The public statements of notable world leaders regarding an emerging New World Order are copious. Consider the statements of former CBS newsman, Walter Cronkite.

In his book, "A Reporter's Life," Walter Cronkite said, "A system of world order--preferably a system of world government--is mandatory. The proud nations someday will see the light and, for the common good and their own survival, yield up their precious sovereignty . . ." Cronkite told BBC newsman Tim Sebastian, "I think we are realizing that we are going to have to have an international rule of law." He added, "We need not only an executive to make international law, but we need the military forces to enforce that law." Cronkite also said, "American people are going to begin to realize that perhaps they are going to have to yield some sovereignty to an international body to enforce world law."

If there is no emerging New World Order, what is Walter Cronkite talking about? Can there be any doubt that Cronkite is talking about global government? Absolutely not!

Now, when Bush, Sr. talks about fulfilling "the promise and vision of the U.N.'s founders," he was talking about the same thing former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali was talking about when he said, "The time for absolute and exclusive sovereignty . . . has passed."

The United Nations has been on the forefront of promoting the New World Order agenda since its very inception. In 1995, the UN released a manual entitled, "Our Global Neighborhood." It states, "Population, consumption, technology, development, and the environment are linked in complex relationships that bear closely on human welfare in the global neighborhood. Their effective and equitable management calls for a systematic, long-term, global approach guided by the principle of sustainable development, which has been the central lesson from the mounting ecological dangers of recent times. Its universal application is a priority among the tasks of global governance."

If there is no emerging New World Order, what is "global governance" all about?

"Who are the movers and shakers promoting global government?" you ask. Obviously, it is the international bankers who are the heavyweights behind the push for global government. Remember, one cannot create a "global economy" without a global government to manage, oversee, and control it.

In a letter written to Colonel E. Mandell House, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson."

"Old Hickory" did his best to rid the United States from the death grip that the international bankers were beginning to exert on this country. He may have been the last President to actually oppose the bankers. In discussing the Bank Renewal bill with a delegation of bankers in 1832, Jackson said, "Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long time, and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the eternal God, I will rout you out."

Unfortunately, the international bankers proved themselves to be too formidable for President Jackson. And in 1913, with the collaboration of President Woodrow Wilson, the bankers were given charge over America's financial system by the creation of the Federal Reserve.

Ever since the CFR and Trilateral Commission were created, they have filled the key leadership positions of government, big media, and of course, the Federal Reserve.

In his book, "With No Apologies," former Republican Presidential nominee Barry Goldwater wrote, "The Trilateral Commission is intended to be the vehicle for multinational consolidation of the commercial and banking interests by seizing control of the political government of the United States. The Trilateral Commission represents a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power-- political, monetary, intellectual and ecclesiastical. What the Trilateral Commission intends is to create a worldwide economic power superior to the political governments of the nation-states involved. As managers and creators of the system, they will rule the future." Was Goldwater a prophet or what?

And again, the goals of the global elite have been publicly stated. Back in 1991, the founder of the CFR, David Rockefeller praised the major media for their complicity in helping to facilitate the globalist agenda by saying, "We are grateful to the Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. . . . It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries."

How could Rockefeller be any plainer? He acknowledged the willful assistance of the major media in helping to keep the elitists' agenda of global government from the American people. To this day, the major media has not deviated from that collaboration. And this includes the aforementioned "conservative" talking heads. They know if they want to keep their jobs, they dare not reveal the New World Order. The NWO, more than anything else, is the "Third Rail" to the national media.

Is it any wonder that President Barack Obama has stacked his government with numerous members of the CFR? Among these are Robert Gates, Janet Napolitano, Eric Shinseki, Timothy Geithner, and Tom Daschle. Other CFR members include CFR President Richard Haass, CFR Director Richard Holbrooke, and founding member of the Trilateral Commission and CFR member Paul Volcker. Obama even asked a CFR member, Rick Warren, to deliver the inaugural prayer.

Still not convinced? Just a few days ago, when asked by a reporter what he thought the most important thing was that Barack Obama could accomplish, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said, "I think his task will be develop an overall strategy for America in this period when, really, a New World Order can be created. It's a great opportunity; it isn't just a crisis."

This is the same Henry Kissinger, you will recall, who said back in 1991, "Today, America would be outraged if UN troops entered Los Angeles to restore order. Tomorrow, they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told that there were [sic] an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by the World Government."

Even Gideon Rachman, the chief foreign affairs commentator for the Financial Times, wrote an editorial expressing his support for world government. In his column he said, "I have never believed that there is a secret United Nations plot to take over the US. . . . But, for the first time in my life, I think the formation of some sort of world government is plausible.

"A 'world government' would involve much more than co-operation between nations. It would be an entity with state-like characteristics, backed by a body of laws. The European Union has already set up a continental government for 27 countries, which could be a model. The EU has a supreme court, a currency, thousands of pages of law, a large civil service and the ability to deploy military force.

"So could the European model go global? There are three reasons for thinking that it might."

Rachman then goes on to explain the reasons why he believes world government is plausible.

Do you now see why it does not matter to a tinker's dam whether it is a Republican or Democrat who resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? For the most part, both major parties in Washington, D.C., have been under the dominating influence of the international bankers who control the Federal Reserve, the CFR, and the Trilateral Commission. And this is also why it does not matter whether one calls himself conservative or liberal. For the most part, both conservatives and liberals in Washington, D.C., are facilitating the emerging New World Order. It is time we wake up to this reality.

Presidents Bush, Sr., Bill Clinton, and Bush, Jr. have thoroughly set the table for the implementation of the NWO, as surely as the sun rises in the east. All Obama has to do is put the food on the table--and you can count on this: Barack Obama will serve up a New World Order feast like you cannot believe!

That a New World Order is emerging is not in question. The only question is, What will freedom-loving Americans do about it? Of course, the first thing they have to do is admit that an emerging New World Order exists! Until conservatives, Christians, pastors, constitutionalists, and others who care about a sovereign, independent United States acknowledge the reality of an emerging New World Order, they will be incapable of opposing it. And right now, that is exactly what they are not doing.

By Chuck Baldwin                                            www.newswithviews.com

 In my last column, I attempted to wake up my fellow Americans, who are either currently slumbering through the collapse of our constitutional republic or in a protracted state of denial regarding a very real--and very dangerous--burgeoning New World Order. The information that I need to disseminate on this matter is so plentiful that it is extremely difficult to condense into one column. Therefore, I must at least attempt to provide a little more information on this subject. I will use this column to do just that.

I already quoted former President George Herbert Walker Bush in my previous column. Here are more of his quotes. In 1991, Bush, Sr. said, "My vision of a New World Order foresees a United Nations with a revitalized peacekeeping function." In 1992, he said, "It is the sacred principles enshrined in the United Nations charter to which the American people will henceforth pledge their allegiance."

Wow! I thought U.S. Presidents, as well as all civil magistrates and military personnel, swore an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution. Not in Bush's mind, obviously.

On January 25, 1993, Warren Christopher, the new Secretary of State under Bill Clinton, told CNN: "We must get the New World Order on track and bring the U.N. into its correct role in regards to the United States."

In 1958, Cleon Skousen, a former FBI agent (a man I was fortunate enough to get to know before his death), wrote a book entitled "The Naked Communist." In it, he outlined the long-term communist agenda. Since then, the movers and shakers of the New World Order have successfully achieved many of these goals within the U.S. Here are some samples of those goals:

* Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
* Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
* Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind.
* Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
* Get control of the schools.
* Infiltrate the press.
* Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
* Break down cultural standards of morality.
* Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with social religion.
* Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

Is there anyone who cannot see that the purveyors of the New World Order have largely achieved most of their goals? All they need to do now is tie it all together under one governmental umbrella.

One of the organizations that is at the forefront of promoting the New World Order is the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). In my last column, I showed how the CFR dominates the Presidencies of both Republican and Democratic administrations (including the current one), as well as the Federal Reserve. I would even go so far as to say that the CFR is a very "clear and present danger" to the sovereignty and independence of the United States.

For example, CFR member and UN spokesman, Walt Rostow, said, "It is, therefore, an American interest to see an end to nationhood."

The American people need to wake up to the fact that the international banking interests that dominate our political and financial entities are working tirelessly to "see an end to nationhood." I am talking about the Rothschilds and Warburgs of Europe, and the houses of J.P. Morgan, Kuhn, Loeb, Schiff, Lehman, and Rockefeller.

Rear Admiral Chester Ward, who was the Judge Advocate General of the Navy from 1956-1960 and a former member of the CFR who pulled out after realizing what they were all about, warned the American people about the dangers of this and similar organizations (such as the Trilateral Commission). He said, "The most powerful clique in these elitist groups have one objective in common--they want to bring about the surrender of the sovereignty and the national independence of the United States. A second clique of international members in the CFR . . . comprises the Wall Street international bankers and their key agents. Primarily, they want the world banking monopoly from whatever power ends up in the control of global government."

Admiral Ward also said, "The main purpose of the Council on Foreign Relations is promoting the disarmament of U.S. sovereignty and national independence and submergence into an all powerful, one world government."

Remember, the CFR was incorporated in 1921 and is currently comprised of only about 4,000 members. The CFR was co-founded by Edward Mandell House and John D. Rockefeller. Colonel (an honorary title--he was not a military colonel) House had been the chief advisor of President Woodrow Wilson. Historians often call House "Wilson's alter ego" due to the powerful influence he held over the President. House was a rabid Marxist, whose goal was to socialize the United States. In his book, "Philip Dru: Administrator," House said he was working for "socialism as dreamed of by Karl Marx."

House's stated goals were to incorporate a gradual income tax upon the backs of the American people for the purpose of establishing a state-controlled central bank. Both of these goals were accomplished in 1913, the very first year of the House-dominated Wilson administration.

House's blueprint became the foundation for the CFR. What was not accomplished by the proposed League of Nations at the end of World War I was realized with the formation of the United Nations at the end of World War II. Not by accident, much of the original funding for the CFR came from Rockefeller and J. P. Morgan. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave CFR members much authority in his administration, and they have pretty much dominated the foreign and financial policies of the United States ever since.

In the April, 1974 edition of the CFR publication, "Foreign Affairs," Columbia University Professor and CFR member Richard Gardner wrote a column entitled, "The Hard Road to World Order." In it, he called for "an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece." He named the following organizations that would help fulfill that objective: the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the Law of the Sea Conference, the World Food Conference, the World Population Conference, and of course, the United Nations. I would also include NAFTA, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), CAFTA, etc.

The CFR has a sister organization called the Trilateral Commission (TC). This group was co-founded by the Marxist, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and David Rockefeller. Like Gardner, Brzezinski calls for a piecemeal "movement toward a larger community of the developed nations . . . through a variety of indirect ties and already developing limitations on national sovereignty." (Source: Brzezinski, Between Two Ages, p. 296)

Brzezinski is also a major proponent (along with CFR member Robert Pastor) of the North American Community (or Union), whose construction began during the second term of President George W. Bush and continues today under President Barack Obama.

Here is a sample list of the notable dignitaries in and out of government who hold (or held) membership in the CFR or TC (and sometimes both):

George Herbert Walker Bush. Bill Clinton. Sandra Day O'Connor. Dick Cheney. Les Aspin. Colin Powell. Robert Gates. Brent Scowcroft. Jesse Jackson, Sr. Mario Cuomo. Dan Rather. Tom Brokaw. David Brinkley. John Chancellor. Marvin Kalb. Diane Sawyer. Barbara Walters. Cyrus Vance. Paul Volcker. Henry Kissinger. George Schultz. Alan Greenspan. Madeleine Albright. Roger Altman. Bruce Babbitt. Howard Baker. Samuel Berger. Elaine Chao. Dianne Feinstein. Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Chuck Hagel. Gary Hart. John McCain. George Mitchell. Bill Moyers. Jay Rockefeller. Donna Shalala. Strobe Talbott. Fred Thompson. Robert Zoellick. Richard Nixon. Hubert H. Humphrey. George McGovern. Gerald Ford. Jimmy Carter. John Anderson. Walter Mondale. Michael Dukakis. Al Gore. John Kerry.

It is absolutely essential that we stop looking at potential leaders as either Democrats or Republicans, or as conservatives or liberals. Those monikers mean very little today. We must start identifying people as either Americans or globalists. Either they believe in an independent, sovereign, self-governing United States of America, or they believe in supranational government and internationalism. Either they believe in devotion to the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence, or they believe in the goals and objectives of the United Nations. We must rid ourselves of the propensity to support those who classify themselves as "conservatives," and we must stop blindly supporting the GOP "because it is a 'conservative' party." If they do not understand AND OPPOSE the New World Order, they do not deserve our support or our vote!

George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George H.W. Bush laid the foundation for everything that Barack Obama is doing to facilite the New World Order. That two of these Presidents are Democrats and two are Republicans only proves my point: both the Democratic and Republican parties have succumbed to New World Order ideology.

There is more that we can do, of course, but I will save the bulk of that discussion for another day. In the meantime, we need to realize that the New World Order exists, to understand that both major parties are collaborating to facilitate its creation, to start looking at leaders as either Americans or globalists, and to refuse to support the latter in any shape, manner, or form.

Pastors need to start warning their people about the New World Order (and the Biblical principles relating to it) from their pulpits--loud and often! People need to start warning their family members and friends. We need to start searching out like-minded patriots--who understand what's going on--for information and encouragement. And remember this: WE CAN DEFEAT THE NEW WORLD ORDER. Yes, we can!

The fatalistic view that we are helpless is a bunch of baloney! Our forefathers defeated the New World Order in their day. The globalists have been stymied many times through the years. The fact that they have not yet totally achieved their globalistic objectives shows us that it is possible to stop them, or at the very least, set their agenda backward.

I also urge my Christian brothers and sisters to rid themselves of the propensity to say, "This is God's will; there is nothing we can do about it." That, too, is hooey!

Christians are to be the "salt of the earth." Salt is a preservative, a retardant against decay. We are instructed to be faithful "unto death." In Romans chapter 3, the Apostle Paul made it clear that we must never support evil that good may come. I would remind my brethren that refusing to resist evil is the same as supporting it. Sitting back complacently and saying, "This must happen so Jesus can come," borders on blasphemy. It runs counter to everything the Bible teaches. We Christians have a duty, an obligation to do right with no regard to outcome or consequences.

When asked when He would establish His Kingdom on the earth, the first thing out of Jesus' mouth was, "It is not for you to know." Yet, many Christians presume to know the times and seasons of Christ's return. But let's be honest with ourselves and admit that we do NOT know. To sit back and say that we have full understanding of Bible prophecy and can say for certain what God does or does not want to accomplish in and through our country is the height of arrogance and pride. Only God knows those things. It's time we let God be God and start doing what is ours to do.

What we do know is any attempt at establishing global government is as wicked now as it was at the Tower of Babel. As Christians, we are instructed to resist the wicked one. We must oppose him and his work. We are told to "occupy" until Christ returns, whenever that is. To "occupy" means to "take care of business." God expects us to follow His teaching and do what is ours to do. To use Christ's coming as an excuse to not "take care of business" is itself inexcusable!

As John Quincy Adams said, "Duty is ours; results are God's." If we would truly do our duty, who knows what God would do to help us defeat (for the sake of our children and grandchildren) this devilish New World Order?

As for me and my house, we will fight for a free, independent and sovereign United States--so that we might walk, work, and worship in freedom--as long as we have breath in our being. How about you?

P.S. Several readers informed me that Michael Savage began acknowledging the New World Order on his radio show last year. Some said he has even spoken against it. This is good news. If only the rest of the so-called "conservative" talking heads would do the same thing--but in a more aggressive fashion: you know, like America's freedom depended on it, because it does.

P.P.S. Dennis Cuddy wrote a good chronological history of the New World Order, which covers its progression through the twentieth century. It can be viewed here.

© 2009 RaidersNewsNetwork

Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them,
When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts,
and set him for their watchman:
If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;
Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come,
and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him.
But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take [any] person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity;
but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.
So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel;
therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. Ezekiel 33:1-6 

by Sue Bradley
March 2009

For six weeks prior to the September 11^th  of 2001,  events, Pastor David Wilkerson's Times Square Church had been heavily burdened for prayer.  As a result of this weight within the congregation, Times Square Church cancelled sermons and all activities during these six weeks including mission programs, speakers and youth programs.  

As the events of September 11^th unfolded in Manhattan, the watchmen and workers of Times Square Church began to realize the urgency of a persistent heaviness. What neither the congregation nor Pastor Wilkerson could have imagined was weight of the Glory which had just fallen in Manhattan.   

On October 11, 2001, Pastor Wilkerson gave a message to his congregation to address the World Trade Center attacks the preceding month.  Although the once mighty republic had for decades been in spiritual descent, the weeks of the late summer in 2001 carried disturbing urgency and Pastor Wilkerson chose a verse from Isaiah 9 to examine the attack. 

The ninth chapter of Isaiah is familiar to all: “For unto us a child is born, a Son is given,” but this was not what Pastor Wilkerson was called to address. Instead, he used the subsequent verses, frequently applied to the pattern used in the judgment of two houses of Israel.  Providentially and prophetically, Pastor Wilkerson read Isaiah 9: 8–11: 
 
“And all the people shall know,
even Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria,
that say in the pride and stoutness of heart,  
The bricks are fallen down,
but we will build with hewn stones:
the sycamores are cut down,
but we will change them into cedars. 

The significance was clear: Israel had turned her back.  Ezekiel cites the conditions that preceded the departure of the Glory and the judgment of the nation.  He saw at the gate of the altar, looking to the north, the image of jealousy, perhaps Baal, but a strong enough affront to a jealous God who was Himself married to Israel.  Ezekiel was promised a vision of greater desolations: at the door he saw “every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel portrayed on the wall,” the sins of the “ancients” of Israel, their self love, their dark deeds. 

As the sins of the nation are expanded and exposed, the women of the land are included: at the door of the gate of the north entrance,  Ezekiel saw the women “weeping for Tammuz,” engaged in craft and cult, sorceries, castings and lewdness, participants in rites of the idol later called by the Greeks, Adonis. 

As his vision continued, Ezekiel saw men in contempt, their backs to the altar, facing the sun.  Here, in view of the brazen altar of burnt offerings, they worshipped the sun, the god of the eastern idolaters: the worship of creature over Creator. 

The final abomination witnessed by Ezekiel was the violence in the land, the defiance of God and the celebration of Bacchus, to whom they bent their bodies in the ritual ceremony of bundled branches.  For these offenses, after the warnings of the prophets, there would be no pity, no hearing of cries.  Judgment was due, and judgment was delivered. The nations are called, the nations choose: Ninevah saw brief repentance, but later departed once more.   

For Israel, the watchmen sounded: the warning unheeded, the northern house fell to the Syrians, the chosen rod of judgment, the powers came, an initial attack.  Rather than heeding the warning, there was defiance and arrogance of heart. Again in character and mercy, a warning is given, a lull which would precede greater judgment if grace is rebuffed in defiance and arrogance of heart. 

Four times in Isaiah 9: 8-10, Israel was accused and four times the judgments followed.  There is consistent agreement among commentaries describing the patterns of the unleashing of destruction.  Matthew Henry speaks of the consequences of unrepentance, “The Lord warns before he wounds: He tries to call his people back but if they do not, there will come greater judgment.” The Interpreter's Bible defines the consequences: “What further horror of judgment is yet to fall on unrepentant man?”   

The nation's leaders spoke in defiance and arrogance of heart: “We will build, we will replace,” with the inference of larger and stronger.  Devastation fell on the southern kingdom.  The Diaspora of the nation had begun. 

Pastor Wilkerson had been given a glimpse of what would soon become, the most precise prophetic and relevant utterance in the history of the United States. 

Rabbi Jonathan Cahn of the Beth Israel Congregation in Lodi, New Jersey, was given the same understanding of Isaiah 9 two years earlier. In July of 2005, Rabbi Cahn delivered a message before the Messianic Congregation parts of which could only be understood from the perspective of the near future events.   

The scale of the attack of the World Trade Center on September 11^th, 2001 was massive. Technology insured the continued visibility and recollection of insistent images.  Was this event in New York unique in history?  On the surface it would appear that it was not: catastrophic and unimaginable yes, but unique?  

Rabbi Cahn describes the “Eight Harbingers of Judgment” experienced by Israel and their uncanny parallels to the events of September 11, 2001: his insights are prodigious, overwhelming and foreboding.  The consequences that would befall the nation that would not hear the Watchman after experiencing the prior warning which would be a shadow of the cataclysm to come.

1. THE FALLEN BRICKS

The ashes of bricks 

The newspapaers rolled: “Acts of War,” “A Day of Infamy,” “Who did this?” “Terror’s Toll,” “Nightmare,” “Freedom Under Siege,” “Under Attack,” “Second Pearl Harbor,” “A Nation in Sorrow,” “Attacks Paralyze US,” “Devastation,” “Terror Hits Home,” “Evil Acts,” “Unthinkable,” “Our Worst Day,” “War at Home,” “Darkest Hour,” “Our Nation Saw Evil,”

“Oh my God!,” “Our Purpose as a Nation is Firm,” “From the Ashes,”

“The Day That Changed The World.” 

There has been no event that has touched the United States and the world more indomitably than the attacks of September 11^th, 2001.  As the images of the smoke, dust and death gorged the airwaves, the descriptions of devastation penetrated every media source.  Fire, smoke, dust, ashes. 

Only sources with archives of the devastation of World War II had comparable images.  Berlin,

London, Nagasaki, Kassel, Hiroshima, Dresden, Rouen, Naples.  Images of earlier holocausts. These cities today, a generation later, reveal little of their broken past, their fallen bricks.  But the bricks of Ground Zero in Manhattan were reduced to ash, with little more than dust and metal to recover.  Is there a different message in these fallen bricks? 
 
2.WE WILL BUILD

The woe of the wills

Empowering the rulers 

On Wednesday, September 12, 2001, as a transfixed nation and world waited and wondered. Expectation was high for answers and outrage: it came in through the airwaves in the Joint Response of the Nation on the Senate floor in Washington, DC.  Representing the Congress and the nation and by authority as majority leader, Senator Tom Daschle addressed the world. 

Recorded in the Federal Register, the words of Senator Daschle for the Joint Resolution of Condemnation for the attacks the morning of September 12^th, 2001 can be read as they had been spoken:

“Mr. President, it is with pain, sorrow, anger, and resolve that I stand before this Senate, a symbol for 212 years of the strength of our democracy, and say that America will emerge from this tragedy, as we have emerged from all adversity, united and strong…

….The world should know that the Members of both parties in both Houses stand united. The full resources of our Government will be brought to bear in aiding the search and rescue and in hunting down those responsible and those who may have aided or harbored them.

Nothing, nothing can replace the losses that have been suffered. I know there is only the smallest measure of inspiration that can be taken from this devastation. But there is a passage in the Bible, from Isaiah, that I think speaks to all of us at times such as this:

The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.

That is what we will do. We will rebuild and we will recover. The people of America will stand strong together because the people of America have always stood together. And those of us privileged to serve this great Nation will stand with you.” 

If there are any acceptable uses for a misapplication of Scripture, it is clear from the text that Isaiah 9 is not one.  The heart of the message speaks specifically to the consequences of an improper response to a first judicial incursion.  The illustration is a rebuke for lace of contrition and pompousness of will.  It will be demonstrated by examination of the 8^th Harbinger that this very action is the most offensive of all. 

Of over 31,000 verses in Scripture, the Isaiah 9:10 verse would become, for those in governmental authority, the flagship verse of the Nation and be specifically spoken by four other prominent politicians [that are in public record and related to this event].   

The more esoterically inclined might find the use of five “We Will’s” as an echo and progression of the five, “I Will’s” of Isaiah 14…but this context is at the fall of Lucifer, before the creation of Adam, and before the enmity of the seeds of Genesis 3:14.   

In the years following the 2001 event, each of the five leaders in the line of Presidential Succession for the former and current administrations would follow the resolve of the majority leader’s precedent with a pledge to rebuild from this event, apparently unaware of Isaiah 5. 

A haunting undertone is found in the 1851 English Translation of the Greek Septuagint by Sir Lancelot C.L. Brenton translates Isaiah 9:10: 

•  

  The bricks are fallen down, but come, let us hew stones,

•  

  and cut down sycamores and cedars,

•  

  and let us build for ourselves a tower. 
  

To date, at the sites of the totally destroyed buildings, one new tower has been completed, World Trade Center Tower 7.

3. BIGGER AND BETTER

The arrogance of defiance

On the day of the 911 tragedy, Rudy Guiliani, the mayor of New York City punctuated the resolve of the city. "We will rebuild: We're going to come out of this stronger than before, politically stronger, economically stronger. The skyline will be made whole again."

 Seton Hall University Professor A.D. Amar described the devastation as, “A scene that no movie has captured,” correctly determining that, “America will rise out of it. We will build new Towers, larger than the ones we lost to these cowards.” 

The Freedom Tower 

In a 2005 interview with MSNBC, real estate developer, Donald Trump weighs in: 

“What I want to see built is the World Trade Centers stronger and maybe a story taller. And that's what everybody wants. ‘The New York Post’ came out today strongly.  ‘The Wall Street Journal’ yesterday in their editorial came out strongly for that.” 

Lower Manhattan Info reveals details of the construction project, initially scheduled for completion in 2011: 

Rising from its square base -- which will be constructed of impermeable concrete and steel -- the redesigned Freedom Tower will taper into eight tall isosceles triangles, forming a perfect octagon at its center. An observation deck will be located 1,362 feet above ground and there will be a square glass parapet at 1,368 feet, the heights of the original Twin Towers. From these, an illuminated spire containing a television antenna will rise to a final height of 1,776 feet.

3. THE HEWN STONE

Quaried, not brick

The Freedom Stone

The first stone to be used in the construction of the 1,176 ft. Freedom Tower was hewn from New York granite and lowered by crane in a ceremony on July 4, 2004.  Governor George Pataki of New York presided:  

"Today is indeed, a momentous day. Today we take 20 tons of Adirondack granite - the bedrock of our State - and place it as the foundation, the bedrock of a new symbol of American strength and confidence. Today, we lay the cornerstone for a new symbol of this city and this country and of our resolve in the face of terror.  Today we build the Freedom Tower.” 

The Freedom Stone

The polished and inscribed garnet flecked stone was lowered by a crane into a 5 story, 70 foot deep cavity to rest above the earlier foundation.  Rich in historic and ceremonial significance, cornerstones are often associated with unspoken dualistic motives, but reminiscent of a similar event at Babel, “The Freedom Stone” was removed on June 23, 2006, purportedly for design conflicts. A more specific explanation was given in July, 2008.  Detailing the circumstances, Michael Daly of NY Daily News wrote:

“…What ensued was senseless squabbling, near-criminal incompetence and bald-faced lies, all of which constituted a betrayal of the murdered innocents the stone purported to honor…We arrive at this Fourth of July with that 20 tons of disgrace sitting in the Long Island lot.”

The unity and selflessness so abundant two years earlier, was once again deteriorating.  Things were back on track on Wall Street, the good times began to roll again.

5. A SPIRIT OF DEFIANCE

Poking a finger in the eye of God 

Repeatedly Scripture and commentaries record defiance as the highest insult against the Most High God.  Senator John Kerry, in his statement before the United States Senate on Wednesday, September 12, 2001 remarked: 

“…And I believe one of the first things we should commit to - with federal help that underscores our nation's purpose – is to rebuild the towers of the World Trade Center and show the world we are not afraid - we are defiant.” 

On the day the cornerstone was laid, then New York Governor, George Pataki again insisted: 

“Today, we the heirs of that revolutionary spirit of defiance, lay this cornerstone.” 
 

6. THE SYCAMORE, THE BUTTONWOOD

Rooted and grounded, Ground Zero in bronze

1 Timothy 6 

Rabbi Jonathan Cahn reveals the significance of the harbinger of the sycamore: 

The Bible records the sycamore tree as being a sign of judgment. It even says in Egypt the sycamore tree was struck down as a sign of judgment.  On September 11^th, a freak event happened in the devastation:  a steel beam from the North Tower was hurled from the sky.  As the Tower fell, it went through the air and struck down an object: it was a tree.   

The uprooted sycamore at St. Paul's Chapel 

The next day [when] the people returned to ground zero, they found a tree lying on the ground, pierced by the beam of a falling Tower.  There, at Ground Zero was a sycamore tree – struck town…after the tree of Isaiah 9…a harbinger of judgment…’the sycamore has fallen’… 

…and strange, eerily, the people made a display of it, not realizing what it was in the Bible… and put it on display, its roots exposed…not realizing, as if to draw more attention to the sign. And a sculptor was commissioned to make a cast of it.  He poured metal into the cast: he cast it into bronze, the Biblical metal of judgment…an image of the fallen sycamore to be displayed on Wall Street. 

The significance of the bronze sycamore root sculpture is chilling.  In May, 1792, twenty-four stock brokers met underneath a buttonwood tree, along Wall Street in New York City.  The Buttonwood Agreement would be birthed as the golden calf of commerce, the bull of the New York Stock Exchange, but would be delivered, uprooted and cast in bronze. 

The buttonwood tree is more familiar as the American sycamore. This memorial on Wall Street would come to represent the riches of a nation uprooted, overturned, judged and displayed in bronze: and yet another idol.

Bronze scuplture of the Sycamore, Steve Tobin 
 

7. THE CEDAR, THE AREZ

The Tree of Hope

 Rabbi Cahn continues:  

On the same Ground Zero, you had three [physical SIGNS] of the harbingers.  But there’s one more, there is the cedar tree, the seventh harbinger is the cedar tree, the arez tree….’the sycamores are fallen but we will put cedars in their place...’ 

…Two years after September 11^th …a strange site was seen on Ground Zero, a crane, a different crane, was lowering a different object… the object was being lowered to a place where there had been a hole in the ground, it was being laid over the place where the fallen sycamore tree had been struck down...It would have been natural to replace the sycamore tree with a sycamore tree, but the Scripture says ‘we will replace it with an arez [cedar] tree…The object lowered was an arez tree, a conifer tree, the same as the cedar of Lebanon…  

Cedar, St. Paul's Chapel, crane 

He pauses at this point: … 

Now that would be enough, but there’s actually more: 

…In Hebrew parallelism…a verse is often matched with a verse that rhymes in thought and so it matches the fallen bricks and the fallen sycamore together and they were both found the day after 911 in the ruins. 

And then there are the two others, which are the cedar tree and the hewn stone. They are together because they both are lowered by cranes, they both had a ceremony surrounding them… they both labeled these icons: one was called the “Tree of Freedom,” the other was “The Tree of Hope.”  

[At] the ceremony, as the tree was coming down to where the sycamore was, there was a clergyman there….he said: 

We are gathered here today on holy ground. Ground hallowed by its witness to the dust, and death and destruction of September 11^th.   The ground is sanctified by our presence here as we dedicate this Tree of Hope in witness the divine within each of us.   

It replaces a sycamore tree destroyed on September 11^th 2001 by the collapsing Towers. Our prayer is that this Ground Zero Tree of Hope will be a sign: a sign of the indomitable nature of human hope. As we walk this hallowed ground, may this Tree be an icon of hope, a symbol.”

The ceremonial planting of the cedar Tree of Hope took place on November 22, 2003.  The inaugural lighting ceremony was held the following week.

Ground Zero's Tree of Hope, St. Paul's Chapel 

8.

THE VOW OF ARROGANCE: IMPENDING JUDGMENT

The ultimate harbinger is the vow

The words of the rulers in the wake of destruction. 

Rabbi Cahn continues: 

At the end of November of 2003, the tree came down to replace the sycamore.  Seven months later, the quarried stone came down on the ruins of Ground Zero…..two months after that was complete, there was a Presidential election and the Democratic candidate for Vice President was John Edwards. 

He was speaking in Washington DC at a gathering, it was September 11^th, the third anniversary of the devastation.  And since it was a prayer breakfast he chose a Scripture which he linked to the events of September 11^th. These now are his words on September 11^th [of 2004]. Listen:  Washington DC. 

“Good morning. Today on this day of remembrance and mourning, we have the Lord’s Word:  [Listen] 

‘The bricks have fallen, but we will build - with dressed stones:

the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place….’ 

Of all the thousands of Scriptures he could have chosen, he chose this one obscure verse from Isaiah, which even most Believers don’t know, not realizing what he was saying: it was a Scripture of judgment – marking it, he linked it to September 11^th and said that it was the Lord’s Word to us…. not knowing this, [he] then he based the whole speech on this scripture. He goes on to say: 

“Let me show you how we are building and putting cedars in those three hallowed places, the Towers, the Pentagon and the Field. Walk with me through this day and you will see that while those bricks fell and the sycamores cut down, our people are making those cedars rise.” 

And he closed with, 

“Each time that bell tolls it calls us to a greater purpose. To never forget: it calls us to always remember that when we walk together this day that the cedars will rise and the stones will go up.” 

CLOSING THE CIRCLE

 
The specificity of these parallel harbingers is profound and should surpass any standard of plausibility.  But there is yet more.  The response to the nation by Senator Tom Daschle on September 12^th, 2001 reveals another, far more disturbing reference.   

“It’s with pain, sorrow, anger and resolve that I stand before this Senate, a symbol for 212 years of the strength of our democracy.” 

At the time, few listening would have challenged the apparent inconsistency: 212 years before 2001 would have been 1789, our national documents record July 4^th 1776 as being the birth of the nation. 

Once more, Rabbi Jonathan Cahn explains: 

America was born, not on July 4^th but was conceived on July 4^th…  America was born as a fully formed nation on April 30^th, 1789.  On that day, for the first time, America had a Constitution, a House of Representatives and a President together. It was the birth of the United States as a fully formed, constituted nation. 

On that day, the government, the House, the Senate and the President all gathered in the Capital together, it was the Inauguration of George Washington.  It was the nation’s Dedication Day. 

Now often in the Bible, the threshold of a new beginning gives promises and warnings and prophetic truths:  Moses at the Jordan River, Solomon at the dedication of the Temple. So after being sworn in, Washington went inside the Capitol Building and issued the first Presidential address. The first Presidential words were short and in the middle of it was a prophetic warning. He said this: 

“We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and the right which heaven itself has ordained.” 

The warning was, [that] America’s future blessing would be, as with Israel, will hang on its relationship to God. If America should begin to depart from God, its blessings its prosperity and its protection shall be lifted up. 

The warning was given on the Nation’s first day, its day of dedication.  After finishing the address and giving his warning, the first act of the American government was undertaken. It was this: 

After the address, Washington, and all the other officials, the Senators, the House of Representatives, the Vice President, all left the place of Inauguration, travelled on foot to a small church, a chapel, they went inside…and we don’t know exactly what they said there, we know they were there for one purpose. For two hours they prayed, they committed, they consecrated this nation into God’s hands. The entire government was kneeling before God. 

George Washington's Pew, St. Paul's Chapel 

In ancient Israel, when judgment came, it came to the place where the nation was dedicated to God - the Temple Mount where Solomon had dedicated it.  America, like ancient Israel, also departed from its foundations: it sought the prosperity instead of the One who gave it.  The warning of Washington on that day: there would be the removal of God’s blessings if that happened.   

So there was a day that epitomized to God’s people the first tolling of that removal, and that, without a doubt, was the 11^th of September, 2001… 

…the key is:  Where is America’s ground of consecration?  Where was America was dedicated to God? The first inauguration did not take place in Washington DC…[not] Washington at all - or Philadelphia. The first Capital of the United States was New York City.   

It was there America began as a nation, it was there that the warning of judgment was given on the first day. Not just New York City, but lower Manhattan ... everything just described took place in New York City, in the southern part, [Washington’s] statue overlooking Wall Street. 

After he gave his warning, he led the government on a journey, to a place to dedicate the nation….a little chapel – there, they dedicated it to God.  It would be here, according to the pattern, [that] we would see the beginning of judgment: this consecration ground.   

“Now listen closely, I’ll tell you something unspoken but profound, says Rabbi Cahn: 

America, on its day of its birth as a nation was dedicated to God at the corner of a plot of land known as Ground Zero.  Ground Zero is the ‘mystery place’ of American history.’ It was right there at the corner of Ground Zero they all prayed. The terrorists had no idea they were touching the very place America was dedicated and where God’s favor and protection were prayed for, the very place linked to the warning of Washington that day, that would be lifted. 

…The spiritual birthplace of America is the corner of Ground Zero….the place where George Washington was, and knelt on the day of its birth.  America’s national seal, the depiction of its power: the Eagle with the arrows and shield and olive branches: this earliest depiction was kept -  not kept in the White House, not in the Pentagon. It was the sign of its protection. It is kept in a chapel that still remains standing to this day. 

The words on the plaque above Washington’s Pew in St. Paul’s Chapel: 

‘Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that you will keep the United States in Holy protection.” 

And in that place is where that protection was lifted.  As for ancient Israel, the bricks have fallen, we will rebuild, in fact, it says, the sycamore trees have been struck down: the sycamore, the 6^th harbinger, where was it, where did it stand?  It all happened on that very same ground where America was consecrated to God.  Where in that place, is where the sycamore grew, in the back yard of the chapel in the graveyard.  And where that arez tree, that pine tree, came to replace it, it was lowered into America’s consecration ground. The signs of judgment have been all there.   

And yet Washington’s prayer was also fulfilled as well as his warning.  In the wake of 911, all of the buildings around ground zero were badly damaged except one: they called it the “Miracle of Ground Zero:” the little chapel where America was dedicated to God.  

In the cloud of destruction that covered Manhattan, that covered the chapel…this one building was protected, where America was dedicated to God…and what they believe protected it was a tree, a sycamore tree: the Biblical sign of the beginning of  judgment:  also a sign of  the mercy of God. For as the steel beam went through the sky, the only thing blocking it from the chapel was the sycamore tree…the very place George Washington knelt was Ground Zero.   

Judgment or salvation?  Which will it be for America?  Well, it could be both…we see all the same harbingers as with ancient Israel.  Isaiah 9:10 before America on 9/11.  Because they have not turned to Him, he will bring a greater judgment on the land.  The ultimate purpose was not to destroy, but to call it back.  A nation that cannot hear the whispers of God will only be reached by His shouting.  The purpose was primarily not to destroy but to save…. revival comes when God shakes. 

How has the nation responded since the catastrophe of September 11^th, 2001?  How has the nation responded since the time of Rabbi Cahn’s remarkable presentation in 2005?  Perhaps the tragic outcome of the events surrounding The Freedom Tower provide a useful measure.  The American culture has been in serious decline for well over forty years and the condition of American society is not the product of a government, the government is the product of the society.   

HEADS AND TAILS

Ceremonies or invocations:

The power in words 

Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail,

branch and rush, in one day. 

The ancient and honourable, he is the head;

and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail. 

For the leaders of this people cause them to err;

and they that are led of them are destroyed.

Isaiah 9:14-16

The repeated acknowledgment and petitions to God by President Washington evidence the humility of purpose and manner.   

No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States.

 “…it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge.”

Of the many troubling revelations within the text of the most recent Inaugural Address on January 20, 2009, perhaps the most subtle is the determination to rebuild, to begin anew and rise from the ashes of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries without collective petition and sanction from God.  Any provision apart from Divine Will brings inescapable defeat and correction. “Yes we can!” do a great deal, but should we always?

“…Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.  
 
… For everywhere we look, there is work to be done.  The state of our economy calls for action, bold and swift.  And we will act, not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth.  We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.  We'll restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost.  We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories.  And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.  All this we can do.  All this we will do…

There have always been subtle signals: numbers, words, gestures and innuendo, but as with Ezekiel’s vision, when words and deeds begin to face the sun, no longer practiced in darkness, but in contempt of the brazen altar of judgment, a judgment falls: individually or collectively.  Although many in America had witnessed, “The Moment,” many were astonished to hear the passion and the provocation:

…We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense.  And for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken -- you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you…

A study in contrasts, the ancient and honorable: the elder. George Washington in 1789, the head of the Republic, consecrating a young nation to an acknowledged “Invisible Hand” of  Providence, while entreating His holy protection, joined by his government to walk to a Chapel, and then, in prayer for two hours, knees bent in reverent supplication for their sacred charge.

And another, bearing the name of a prophet’s son, possessing a discourse which blends through shades of gray, speaks to “this moment” that will “define a generation” infused with a spirit of service that “must inhabit us all?”  Two walks: a prayer and a parade.

Can the “sum of individual ambitions,” armed solely with the indwelling of this ‘spirit of service,’ pocket talismans and the indeterminate collective folly of “we will’s and devoid of Providence, dare assume righteous favor under the shadow of the cedar? “Out of many, one.”

While millions stood crowded in the “coldest of months,” in a Capital that was far from abandoned, a spirit was felt. But again, can the words first spoken by the elder President, now repeated by the younger, be again applied without the requisite piety?  “Let it be told to the future world…that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it].”

We will recall Ezekiel’s vision of bodies bent in ritual, and the castings and sorceries of the women, some will heed the prophets of old and the prophets of new.  The Nation’s back has been turned for some time, with little apparent recognition of a judgment that was delivered in one day. 

Isaiah 9 provides clarification of instruments of judgment used by God:

Therefore the Lord shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him,

And join in enemies together; 

The Syrians before and the Philistines behind;

And they shall devour Israel with open mouth. 

For all of His anger is not turned away,

But His hand is stretched out still. 

The initial incursion into the land was through the rod of Syria: the Philistines would be used to deliver the final judgment.  It is of note that the Biblical Philistines are often represented by the modern day Palestinians.  The adversity of the people of Gaza, themselves tragic victims of ancient enmity between rulers of the world, is a simmering fuse in a volatile climate. For the recipients of often interrupted humanitarian aid, on January 27, 2009, within one week of assuming the Presidency, BH Obama signed Presidential Determination No. 2009-15, the “Unexpected Urgent Refugee and Migration Needs Related to Gaza,” a memorandum directing $20M in funds to be released for those Palestinians affected by the conflict for relocation outside the area of Gaza. A similar Presidential Determination, No. 2009-16, authorizing funds for Pakistan was issued on March 11, 2009.

The Tree of Hope, the cedar, was placed with great ceremony on November 22, 2003: new roots were taking hold in the nation’s consecrated ground.  Ezekiel reminds us as well of his instruction to lie on his side for 40 days to reveal the 40 years before Israel would be destroyed.  This date in 2003 would have be the 40^th anniversary of the assassination of another US President in 1963.  We have since begun to experience the loss of provision, the loss of prosperity.  The pattern is holding and this judgment is prophesied to be repeated in kind, with an enormously heavier hand. Deliberate defiance is always met with swift judgment.

The smoke passes through the gate. 
 

As Ezekiel looked to the north to see the Glory depart over the gate to the east, so the willful rulers of a nation’s Capital gathered to look north, to watch billowing smoke from the ashes of New York drift through the gateway of the city.  The consecrated has been desecrated and in stunning arrogance of heart, the leaders proclaimed, in willful darkness, the very words prophesied 3,000 years ago:  

The bricks are fallen down,

but we will build with hewn stones:

the sycamores are cut down,

but we will change them into cedars.

With divine correction rebuffed, Isaiah once again admonishes, “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” 

The chapter closes:

Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened,

and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire:   

no man shall spare his brother.

And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry;  

And he shall eat on the left hand,

and they shall not be satisfied;

they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm. 

..For all His anger is not turned away,

but his hand is stretched out still.

Isaiah 9:19-21

Rabbi Jonathan Cahn asks, “What further judgment will befall the nation? There will be a greater calamity because His anger is not turned away.

During the message delivered on October 11, 2001, one month after the events of 9/11, and with a nation bearing a glimmer of repentance, Pastor David Wilkerson continued his vision: 

“Right now, I believe God is speaking a warning to New York City and I wrestled with His severe word as I prepared this message and I prayed, Lord, is this really going to happen?  Again and again I heard this still small voice, "Preach it and warn the people.  Those who want the truth will receive it."   

Saint: This warning is not meant to scare you.  It's meant only for you to take to the Lord and pray.  This is what I believe the Lord has shown me.  Thirty days of chastisement will fall on New York City such as the world has never seen.  God's going to let down the walls.  Unimaginable violence, looting, a thousand fires will be burning at the same time throughout the city and it's burroughs.  Times Square will be ablaze and the flames that ascend into the heaven will be seen for miles.  Fire trucks will not be able to handle it all.  

Trains and buses will be shut down. Billions of dollars will be lost.  Broadway shows will stop completely.  It will cause businesses to flee the city in an unstoppable hemorrhage.  The violence will be ferocious.  It will shock the whole world.  Our streets will be lined not just with National Guard but the militia.  The Los Angeles fires were confined to a few sections of their city but New York will be ablaze and its burroughs.  Such things are expected in Third World countries but not in a civilized nation like the United States.  Yet in not too long a time afterward New York City will go bankrupt.  The city's Queen city will be cast into the dirt.  A city of poverty. 

 You ask, when will all this happen?  All I can say is I believe I will be here when it happens.  When it happens, no matter where we are, in your apartment or on the job, God's people are not to panic or fear."

On March 7, 2009, Pastor David Wilkerson once more put forth an urgent message: one of warning, preparation:

I am compelled by the Holy Spirit to send out an urgent message to all on our mailing list, and to friends and to bishops we have met all over the world.

AN EARTH-SHATTERING CALAMITY IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN. IT IS GOING TO BE SO FRIGHTENING, WE ARE ALL GOING TO TREMBLE - EVEN THE GODLIEST AMONG US. 

For ten years I have been warning about a thousand fires coming to New York City. It will engulf the whole megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires—such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago.

WHAT SHALL THE RIGHTEOUS DO? WHAT ABOUT GOD’S PEOPLE? 
 
First, I give you a practical word I received for my own direction. If possible lay in store a thirty-day supply of non-perishable food, toiletries and other essentials. In major cities, grocery stores are emptied in an hour at the sign of an impending disaster. 
 
As for our spiritual reaction, we have but two options. This is outlined in Psalm 11. We “flee like a bird to a mountain.” Or, as David says, “He fixed his eyes on the Lord on his throne in heaven—his eyes beholding, his eyelids testing the sons of men” (v. 4). “In the Lord I take refuge” (v. 1). 
 
I will say to my soul: No need to run...no need to hide. This is God’s righteous work. I will behold our Lord on his throne, with his eye of tender, loving kindness watching over every step I take—trusting that he will deliver his people even through floods, fires, calamities, tests, trials of all kinds.

May God bless and cover the many and mighty Watchmen of this nation.

 
Sue Bradley
March, 2009         all emphases, smb
smbrad1229@aol.com