blog.Tribulationperiod.com

Belief Solidified in Islam – Israel can be destroyed in this Generation!

Once U.S. Troops are pulled Out, Iraq will become even more of a Hot Bed of Sunni vs.

Shiite vs. Kurds vs. Terrorist Groups!

July 13, 2007

Begin Arutz Sheva Israel National News Article

IDF: Iran May Go Nuclear in 6 Months – NATO: Go it Alone

25 Tammuz 5767, 11 July 2007

By Ezra HaLevi

(IsraelNN.com) According to the IDF, Iran will be able

to produce nuclear weapons within six months. NATO says Israel must ‘go it alone’ according to Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

The IDF Military Intelligence (MI) assessment was reported Tuesday to the Knesset and included a concrete assessment determining that Iran could cross the technological threshold required to produce nuclear weapons in the next 6-12 months and possess an operational warhead by the middle of 2009.

The assessment is at odds with US estimates that put the date between 2010 and 2013.

Both agree, however, that military strikes could set back the technology for years.

IDF MI also is of the opinion that sanctions against Iran have not weakened the regime, because huge oil reserves still proivide all the money necessary to neutralize any pressure created by the international community.

The assessment also revealed that Israel’s withdrawals – from Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005 – have added precedents and solidified belief throughout the Middle East that armed struggle can achieve the destruction of Israel within this generation.

Lieberman: NATO Says ‘Go It Alone’

Minister of Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu party), whose government portfolio was created specifically to deal with the Iranian threat, met with NATO’s Assistant Secretary-General Alexandro Minoto Rizo and the European Union’s representative Franco Partini earlier this week.

Lieberman reported that NATO’s senior officials said Israel should not assume that the international community will stop Iran just to help Israel.

“Israel should prevent the threat, herself, and should not expect support of other countries,” Lieberman reported as the conclusions reached at the meeting. “NATO is stuck in Afghanistan and European and American troops are wallowing in the Iraqi quagmire, which is something that is going to prevent the leaders of countries in Europe and America from deciding on the use of force to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities,” he said.

“Winds of Chamberlain are blowing in Europe,” Lieberman told Army Radio, referring to that leader’s conciliatory policy toward the Nazis in WWII.

“When I hear from a respected prime minister like [Italian Prime Minister] Romano Prodi that Israel should agree to a peaceful Iranian nuclear program, it seems like something surreal. The political situation is such that they are trying to turn this into our problem alone.”

Lieberman said that although Europe or the US could not be relied upon to attack Iran on Israel’s behalf, they would support Israel’s actions. “If we start military operations against Iran alone, then Europe and the US will support us,” he said.

Another Lieberman in Favor of Iran Strike

US Senator Joseph Lieberman has been publicly calling for US strikes on Iran.

He repeated the call last week, saying the Islamic Republic “has declared war on the US” and is waging a “proxy war” against coalition forces in Iraq.

The Connecticut Senator and former Vice-Presidential candidate said intelligence reports proved Iran was behind much of the terrorism in Iraq and must be confronted directly. “Although no one desires a conflict with Iran, the fact is that the Iranian government by its actions has declared war on us.”

Begin Israel News Net Article

President Gets His Veto Pen Ready!

Begin Israel News Net Article

U.S. House of Representatives votes to withdraw troops

BigNewsNetwork.com

July 12, 2007

The U.S House of Representatives has passed a bill requiring withdrawal of most combat troops from Iraq starting within one hundred and twenty days.

The withdrawal needs to be completed by April next year.

The House voted by 223 votes to 201 to pass the measure, in defiance of President George Bush, who has already vetoed a previous troop withdrawal time line.

He has pledged to do it again.

The majority Democratic Party got the bill through even though ten of its members voted against the bill.

Four Republicans voted in favour of the plan.

House Democratic leaders argued it was time to change tack in the U.S war strategy and get the Iraqis to step up

and be responsible for their country.

But Republicans accused the Democrats of backing a plan for defeat in Iraq.

House M inority Leader John Boehner said America will be less safe if the army fails

in Iraq.

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Terrorists Not Yet Ready to Take On Israel, but are Ready to Take Over Lebanon – An Assessment of Hizbullah’s Recovered Strength!

July 12, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

As we approach the guesstimated time frame of 2008 through 2012 I set a while back, as the most likely time that an attack would be launched against Israel by the Arab nations, I feel more and more confident it is likely to be correct. The period 2010 to 2013 looks most likely as the time for the attack to occur based on developments that have occurred since I first set the time frame.

Begin Haaretz Excerpt

Military Intelligence: Iran Will Cross Nuclear Threshold by 2009

Amos Harel (Ha’aretz)

Iran will cross the “technological threshold” enabling it to independently manufacture nuclear weapons within six months to a year and attain nuclear capability as early as mid-2009, according to IDF Military Intelligence.

MI also believes Syria is readying for war

with Israel, although it is not interested in starting such a conflict at this time.

MI says Iran’s nuclear program is the major threat facing Israel, followed by the danger of war with Syria and the possibility that Hizbullah will become involved.

Palestinian terror is predicted to continue, but is not considered an existential threat.

MI believes Hizbullah is not currently interested in another round of fighting against Israel.

It has begun to recruit new fighters, but Shi’ite enthusiasm to join the force has lessened since the war and Hizbullah is drafting boys as young as 15 to fill its ranks.

Begin Jerusalem Post Excerpt

Military Intelligence: Syria Has Replenished Hizbullah’s Medium-Range Missiles

Yaakov Katz (Jerusalem Post)

According to IDF Military Intelligence, Syria has transferred several hundred medium-range missiles to Hizbullah, which has completely replenished its weapon supplies since last summer’s war.

The missiles include 220-mm.

and 302-mm. Katyusha rockets that have ranges of up to 60 kilometers.

The IDF suspects that Hizbullah may have received more advanced Iranian and Syrian missiles as well.

Hizbullah is Locked and Loaded much better than Before!

July 12, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Begin DEBKAfile Article

Hizballah Has Missiles for Downing Israeli Warplanes One Year after Lebanon War

July 11, 2007, 11:04 PM (GMT+02:00)

One year ago to the day,

the Lebanese Shiite terrorist Hizballah sent a unit across the border into Israel and ambushed an Israeli patrol, killing eight of its members and kidnapping two. The raid, followed by a Katyusha rocket attack on northern Israel sparked the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and a 34-day war.

Today, DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Hizballah is in better military shape than ever before.

its sponsors, Iran and Syria, have not only replenished the rocket stocks depleted by daily barrages against Israeli towns and villages, but topped them up by 50%. Whereas Hizballah started the 2006 war with 12,000 rockets of different types, today the Lebanese Shiite terror group has accumulated 18,000 in its arsenal.

Drawing lessons of that war, Hizballah has doubled the number of teams trained to launch rockets and given them a fleet of all-terrain vehicles and motorbikes for speedy movement between firing locations.

Hizballah’s long-range rocket force, designated “Planning Unit,” is stationed in northern Lebanon in the Hermel district. Most of the new rocket supplies, including hundreds of Zilzal-2, Zilzal-3, and Fatah-110, which has a range of 250 km (reaching Tel Aviv and points south), are stored in large emergency depots on the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon to keep them out of sight of UN peacekeepers and out of the way of the Israeli Air Force in a flare-up of hostilities.

Hizballah plans to delay hauling the rockets into Lebanon until the last moment before they are fired.

Hizballah’s short-range rocket unit, designated the “Nasr Unit”, is stationed in the Tyre region of the South and its command center in the village of Maarub. They are positioned for striking the northern Israeli towns of Haifa, Kiryat Shemona, Tiberias, Safed, Acre and Nahariya.

To stay out of sight of UN peacekeepers policing in the South, this brigade keeps a low profile, reactivating only very few of the bunkers which served them in the war. the bulk have been cleared out, restocked with ammunition and combat rations, prepared for military use and kept closed.

This enables the Lebanese government and, less willingly, the Israel high command, to maintain that a lot has changed for the better since the war and Hizballah is no longer deployed right up to the border but at a distance.

This is only a half-truth. The fact is that the Shiite terrorists are back in the South, albeit well hidden in the Shiite villages. Consequently, Israeli policy-makers can continue to spin illusions, like those the Olmert government fed the public and the media before the last war.

Hizballah has tripled its shore-to-sea C-802 missiles, one of which crippled an Israeli missile ship in July, 2006. With 25-30 of these weapons, the Shiite militia is capable of menacing any of the warships cruising Mediterranean waters opposite the Lebanese coast, be they Israeli missile boats, the American Sixth Fleet or the European flotilla attached to UNIFIL.

Several dozen more are concealed across the Syrian border, ready for transfer at short notice.

Hidden there too is double the number of anti-tank missiles in service with the Hizballah in 2006, of types which caused heavy damage and casualties to Israeli tank crews. Syria has upgraded this stock with a large supply of “Third Generation” missiles bought in Russia with Iranian funding.

Another major difference between then and now is that Hizballah has established its first air defense unit armed with ground-to-air shoulder-borne Strela-7 missiles and the mobile Rapier 2s.

Last year, Hizballah fielded 1,600 well-trained commandos, the backbone of its fighting force, and lost 750 in combat with the Israeli army. Since then, 1,200 fresh fighters have been recruited and are undergoing commando training at a special facility near Tehran.

Each course of three to four months has an intake of 300 to 400 Hizballah recruits.

The third course went into training in July. By the end of the year, Hizballah will have some 2,000 elite troops, 400-500 more than its number at the outset of the last war.

Hizballah’s secretary-general, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, presents a charismatic, powerful image.

However, since the war, Iran and the movement’s leadership have reduced his mandate to internal Lebanese politics in opposition to prime minister Fouad Siniora and the rest of Lebanon’s anti-Syrian political bloc, headed by Saad Hariri and Walid Jumblatt.

The militia’s present war chief, special operations planner and liaison with Iran, Syria and al Qaeda, is the veteran Hizballah super-terrorist and kidnapper, Imad Mughniyeh.

Serving under him as chief of staff is Ibrahim Aqil.

Number 3 in the movement’s military hierarchy is Hajj Khalil Harb, commander of Unit No. 1800, which kidnapped the Israeli soldiers Udi Goldwasser and Eldad Regev in its cross-border raid of July 12, 2006, and is responsible for special operations in Israel, the Palestinian territories and Iraq.

Members of this elite unit are deployed in the Gaza Strip in support of Hamas.

In Iraq, they cooperate with Sunni and Shiite terrorists fighting US troops.

Unit No. 1800 has a permanent complement of 5,000 trained men and a partially-trained reserve force of 9,000 on standby.

The militia’s fighting manpower, including its special intelligence and security agencies, totals between 15,000 and 16,000.

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Palest inians will be liv

ing in Two great Walled Communities of Villages after 2010, while Israelis live outside the Walls in Unwalled Villages.

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

July 12, 2007

Everything seems to be jockeying into position for the final war of this Gentile age to begin at some point in time during the window of time from 2008 through 2012, with the most likely time in the window for the Jihad attack against Israel to occur being the last three years of it. It seems quite likely that before the dawn of 2012:

1. All American troops will be out of Iraq.

2. The great Security Wall will have been completed.

3. Iran will have an arsenal of mounted deterrent nuclear warheads.

4. Hizbullah will control most, if not all of Lebanon.

5. Iran, Syria, and all terrorist groups will be ready to attack Israel.

Ezekiel 38:8-11 – After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, AGAINST THE MOUNTAINS OF ISRAEL, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. [9] Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. [10] Thus saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: [11] And thou shalt say, I will go up TO THE LAND OF UNWALLED VILLAGES; I will go to them that are at rest, THAT DWELL SAFELY, all of them DWELLING WITHOUT WALLS, and having neither bars nor gates,

Begin Jerusalem Post Article

Exclusive: Security fence may not be completed until 2010

Tovah Lazaroff, THE JERUSALEM POST

July 10, 2007

Legal appeals to the High Court of Justice continue to delay the construction of the West Bank security fence, which now may not be finished until 2010, The Jerusalem Post has learned from the Defense Ministry.

That projection extends by two years the completion date of 2008 provided at the end of 2006. It also makes the barrier an eight-year project instead of the yearlong endeavor envisioned in 2002, when the cabinet approved the measure.

To date, only 56.9 percent, 450 kilometers, of the 790-km. structure has been completed, according to the ministry. Work is progressing on an additional 85 km., of which only 50 are expected to be completed by the end of 2007, leaving some 290 km. to be constructed in the next three years.

Included within the as-yet unbuilt 290 km, are some 255 km. in areas around Jerusalem, Ma’aleh Adumim, Gush Etzion, the area in the south leading to the Dead Sea and the finger that will encase the settlements of the Shomron.

In addition, there is an environmental dispute over the construction of the security barrier along some 31 km. in the southern Hebron Hills, accord

ing to the Defense Ministry.

A Defense Ministry report

issued in January said that the High Court of Justice has heard 109 cases against the fence and there were an additional 39 cases pending.

But not everyone is satisfied with blaming the issue on the High Court of Justice.

MK Danny Yatom (Labor), who heads the Knesset lobby group for the fence, and Marc Luria of the non-profit Public Committee for the Security Fence for Israel, said part of the problem was government apathy.

Luria said the fence was important in preventing suicide bombings and that every day that passed without its completion endangered the lives of Israelis.

But even as fence proponents lamented the slow progress, the United Nations on Monday released a report that blamed the fence for cutting Palestinians off from their land, social fabric and a host of social services such as schools and hospitals.

The report was issued three years to the day after the International Court of Justice’s ruling against the fence.

According to the court, all construction of the fence beyond the pre-1967 border was illegal.

According to the UN, only 20% of the fence was built along that 1967 line.

“Three years have passed [and] Israel has not complied with the ICJ opinion and the barrier construction continues,” said the report.

It cited in particular concerns for the Palestinians living in the 10.2% of the West Bank that would be included on the Israeli side of the security fence.

“Completion of the barrier around the Ma’aleh Adumim bloc will separate east Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, restricting access to workplaces, health, education and to places of worship,” according to the report.

It added that “further south, the route of the barrier around the Gush Etzion settlement bloc will sever Bethlehem from Jerusalem and isolate the majority of Bethlehem’s agricultural hinterland.”

In a survey of 57 Palestinian communities impacted in the northern section of the fence, the report said only 26 of 61 gates were open to allow farmers to cultivate their land on the other side and that even then, farmers could only access that land 64% of the time.

“Less then half have direct, regular access to their land,” the report said.

“Seventy-two percent of the surveyed communities complained of regular verbal abuse and humiliation by IDF soldiers at the gates. Twenty-four percent reported damage or refusal of entry of agricultural products,” according to the report.

It added that the barrier cut through 85% of the rural roads used by Palestinians in the areas.

Shlomo Dror, spokesman for the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, disputed many of the figures provided in the report.

The issue of the gates alone, he said, could not be determined by a survey.

Gates are opened by the IDF upon Palestinian request. It can be time-consuming, he admitted, but the Palestinians do have the ability to pass through the gates in the fence.

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Who knows what the Nose Knows – Speak Beak! Welcome to the Land of Smoke and Mirrors – Olmert

Said, Assad Said, and IDF

Said!

July 11, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Three back-to-back events in reactions between Syria and Israel on July 9, 10, and 11 are interesting to read about.

I received the first article on Tuesday, and the sec

ond at 3 AM on Wednesday morning. I had already prepared Article 1 for a blog, so when I received the second article Wednesday morning, I simply titled it “The Beak Speaks.” This sort of offer and refusal game has been going on between Syria since 2000 in a cat and mouse reversing role – Ever time Assad offers to negotiate peace with the Israeli Prime Minister he gets a “NO,” and when the offer is made by Israel, then Syria refuses.

Article I is Olmert’s offer of peace talks to Assad, and article 2 is the answer Olmert received back from Assad. Article 3 is what Olmert and the IDF said after he received Assad’s answer.

I say there will NOT be a war this summer between Syria and Israel, but there must eventually be one. But I would love to see a war start this summer between Syria, Iran, and Israel, with the great U.S. armada of sea fire power surrounding the Middle East. However, I think it will have to wait until Syria and Iran see themselves in a better position to start it.

Begin Jerusalem Post Article 1 – July 9

Olmert ready to hold talks with Assad

JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST

July 9, 2007

‘Come to Jerusalem to talk’

was the message of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Syrian President Bashar Assad, in an historic interview to Saudi satellite station Al Arabiya, aired by Channel 10 Monday evening.

In his first appearance on a major Arabic news station in over six years, Olmert, speaking in an office adorned with the blue and white Israeli flag, told his Hebrew-speaking interviewer: “Bashar Assad, you know … You know I am ready to hold direct negotiations with you and you also know that it’s you who insists on speaking to the Americans.

The American president says: ‘I don’t want to stand between Bashar Assad and Ehud Olmert. If you want to talk, sit down and talk.”

Assad has “heard many things from me already,” Olmert added.

When asked where he would hold such talks with Assad, Olmert said “any place he [Assad] would agree to meet,” hinting that Assad would even be welcome in Jerusalem.

Channel 10 analyst Zvi Yehezkeli remarked that Al Arabiya’s broadcasts are transmitted following approval from the Saudi government. He added the network was planning to follow up on Olmert’s interview with interviews with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas Damascus-based leader Khaled Mashaal and eventually, Assad himself.

Several weeks ago, during Olmert’s visit to the US, American President George W.

Bush, in Olmert’s presence, was asked if he would mediate between Israel and Syria in an attempt to warm the truce the two countries observe since 1973 into a full-blooded peace treaty. Bush’s response was that Olmert “is plenty capable” of achieving such a goal without US help. The Syria Accountability Act, isolating Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism, was passed during Bush’s tenure. Despite visits to Damascus by house speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressmen earlier this year, Bush keeps contacts with Syria cool. However, the US still keeps an embassy in Damascus.

The Beak Speaks back to the Nose! Now You Know what the Nose Knows!

July 10, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Begin Jerusalem Post Article 2 – July 10

Syria rejects offer to hold peace talks

JPost.com Staff, and AP, THE JERUSALEM POST

July 10, 2007

Damascus has rejected Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s offer to hold peace talks with President Bashar Assad, Army Radio reported on Tuesday morning.

Syrian parliament member Muhammad Habash said late Monday night that Damascus did not believe Olmert’s overtures were serious.

In an historic interview with Saudi satellite station Al Arabiya, aired by Channel 10 Monday evening, Olmert invited Assad to Jerusalem to talk.

In his first appearance on a major Arabic news station in over six years, Olmert, speaking in an office adorned with the blue and white Israeli flag, told his Hebrew-speaking interviewer: “Bashar Assad, you know … I am ready to hold direct negotiations with you, and you also know that it’s you who insists on speaking to the Americans. The American president says: ‘I don’t want to stand between Bashar Assad and Ehud Olmert. If you want to talk, sit down and talk.”

Assad has “heard many things from me already,” Olmert added.

When asked where he would hold such talks with Assad, Olmert said “any place he [Assad] would agree to meet,” hinting that Assad would even be welcome in Jerusalem.

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter told Army Radio that Olmert indeed wants a resumption of negotiations with Syria and his offer was “genuine and real.” But Dichter was not optimistic that Assad would agree to renew the talks.

“Bashar Assad apparently has other plans than making peace with Israel,” Dichter said.

“And now we will listen and wait.”

Begin Article 3 – July 11

IDF wary of possible war with Syria

Yaakov Katz, THE JERUSALEM POST

July 11, 2007

Predicting that war with Syria could erupt if Prime Minister Ehud Olmert does not begin peace negotiations with Damascus, the latest IDF assessment also states that such a conflict would be “at least 10 times worse” than last summer’s conflict with Hizbullah.

Military Intelligence is also identifying and pinpointing targets for the IDF in the event that a strike is launched against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

MI recently established a new division to translate intelligence into concrete targets and information that can be used by units in the field.

The new division is headed by Brig.-Gen. Nitzan Alon, a former commander of the General Staff’s Reconnaissance Unit (Sayeret Matkal.) The Israel Air Force has its own department that is responsible for processing intelligence and identifying targets.

According to IDF assessments, Syria is not interested in an armed confrontation, but has stepped up its preparations for war since last year’s Israel-Hizbullah conflict.

Due to the lack of communication between the two countries, the IDF assessment is that a war could erupt sometime in the coming year if a diplomatic resolution is not reached first.

If war breaks out, the IDF believes Syria would fire thousands of long- and short-range missiles at Israeli cities.

The assumption is that a war with Syria would erupt due to a “miscalculation” along the border, in the form of a terrorist attack that escalates into a larger conflict.

Syria has come to believe that the United States will attack Iran this summer, and that as a result, Israel will once more go to war with Hizbullah. If that happens, Syria believes Israel will not confine its operations to Lebanon, but will also strike Syrian targets.

Syria has transferred several hundred medium-range missiles to Hizbullah, The Jerusalem Post has learned, which has completely replenished its weapon supplies, exhausted during last summer’s war. The missiles include 220-mm. and 302-mm.

Katyusha rockets that have ranges of up to 60 kilometers.

The IDF suspects that Hizbullah may have received more advanced Iranian and Syrian missiles, with the assumption being that any weapon small enough to fit into a standard 12-meter shipping container has been sent to the guerrilla group by the two countries.

Turning to Iran, the assumption is that Teheran will continue to advance with its nuclear program, in defiance of United Nations-imposed sanctions and resolutions.

According to the most pessimistic estimates in the defense establishment, Iran will obtain a nuclear bomb by mid-2009, although the chances of this happening are seen as slim and it is more likely that the Islamic Republic will only succeed in manufacturing a nuclear device in 2010 or 2011.

The IDF believes that within the next six months, Iran will cross the technological threshold, obtaining independent research and development capabilities and mastering the technology needed to enrich uranium.

According to the IDF assessment, a military strike could cause enough damage to dramatically set back Iran’s nuclear program.

The Iranian regime is believed to be strong and Israel does not believe that it can currently be toppled.

Concerning Hizbullah, Israel says the IDF killed some 600 gunmen during the war last summer, a tenth of the group’s armed men. The guerrilla group is having trouble recruiting new guerrillas into its ranks, according to the IDF.

The growing assumption in the IDF is that Hizbullah is not currently interested in another round of fighting with Israel and that it is rehabilitating its damaged infrastructure. The assumption is that Hizbullah will recover by mid-2008 and might renew attacks against Israel.

Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah remains a target for the IDF, although

the assumption within the defense establishment is that the guerrilla group would respond harshly if he were killed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Now closing today’s BLOG from the Middle East land of smoke and mirrors, say one thing but mean another, he said, she said, they said, but none believed what they said – An analyst’s nightmare!

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Pope’s Document – Other Churches are Defective or not True Churches

Why are Protestant Churches Shocked at the Pope’s Document – It was the Catholic Church’s Position long before the Protestant Reformation!

July 11, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

I have written this blog in response to the Associated Press excerpts and quotes made by the Pope in an excellent article by Nichole Winfield.

There is a popular m

isconception that became quite apparent to me when I went into the Air Force during the Korean War.

There were three very common religious classifications on the dog tags – You were either Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish. I had them stamp “Baptist” on mine, because I am not a Protestant, I am a Baptist, in that I follow the rule of faith and practice of those Baptists today who still use the New Testament

for their rule and faith of practice.

Revelation 18:7 – How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow,

and shall see no sorrow.

I believe this Scripture refers to the Catholic Church. The first of the many types of Anabaptists did not come out of the Catholic Church during the great Protestant Reformation. They were not classified as reformers, but heretics by the Catholic Church, but only because

they held on to the truth under great persecution, and refused to accept the baptism of the Catholics.

If one tries to trace the Anabaptists back to the cross they will pass through many different types of Anabaptists not remotely similar in doctrine and practice. Some did come out of the Protestant Reformation, but the name has been around since the third century, and, in some cases, the only thing they all had in common was that they re-baptized those to came to them if they were not of like faith and order.

HOW DO I RELATE TO THOSE GROUPS CALLED ANABAPTISTS BEFORE THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION?

Even catholic history confirms Baptist existence from 324 A.D.! In 1524 Cardinal Hosius, President of the Council of Trent, made the following statement:

“Were it not that the Baptists have been grievously tormented and cut off with the knife during the past 1200 years, they would swarm in even greater numbers that the reformers.”

The 1200 years were the years preceding the great Protestant Reformation, during which the Roman Church persecuted Baptists with the most cruel persecution possible.

(1524 A.D. minus 1200 = 324 A.D.) The irregular churches united with the Roman State under Emperor Constantine in 313 A.D., and the persecution of regular churches was initiated by 324 A.D.

Unfortunately, when the Protestant Reformation began during the lifetime of Cardinal Hosius, the groups breaking away from the Catholic church brought out sufficient error to still be classified as irregular in most cases, and those breaking off the Protestant churches since that time have become even more irregular.

If you try and trace the history through the name of a church or group you will discover more different types than you could ever imagine. The only way you can be sure you are in a local church of which Jesus approves is this – Does it follow the teachings of the New Testament

?

The question each local church should address is this – are we a regular or irregular church in faith and practice in the eyes of our head and founder, Jesus Christ? Are we following the teachings once delivered to the saints in the New Testament, particularly as they relate to salvation, baptism, security of the believer, the Lord’s supper, and the church as being local and visible – those are the doctrines the Catholic Church has corrupted, which many Protestant Reformation churches carried out of the mother with them and, like leaven, these errors spread through the whole loaf I will call the family of God.

Jude 1:3 – Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

Begin Selected Paragraph Excerpts from Associated Press Article

Extracted from Yahoo.com

Pope: Other Christians not true churches

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer

July 10, 2007

Pope Benedict XVI reasserted the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church, approving a document released Tuesday that says other Christian communities are either defective or not true churches and Catholicism provides the only true path to salvation.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Benedict headed before becoming pope, said it was issuing the new document Tuesday because some contemporary theological interpretations of Vatican II’s ecumenical intent had been “erroneous or ambiguous” and had prompted confusion and doubt.

The new document — formulated as five questions and answers — restates key sections of a 2000 text the pope wrote when he was prefect of the congregation, “Dominus Iesus,” which riled Protestant and other Christian denominations because it said they were not true churches but merely ecclesial communities and therefore did not have the “means of salvation.”

The commentary repeated church teaching that says the Catholic Church “has the fullness of the means of salvation.”

“Christ ‘established here on earth’ only one church,” said the document released as the pope vacations at a villa in Lorenzago di Cadore, in Italy’ s Dolomite mountain

s.

The other communities “cannot be called ‘churches’ in the proper sense” because they do not have apostolic succession — the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ’s original apostles — and therefore their priestly ordinations are not valid, it said.

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