|
|
This newsletter is available online by
clicking here. The archived newsletter are also available by
clicking here.
The News In Review newsletter is a service
provided
by Understand The Times that
is a compilation of the news articles
previously posted
on our site . Understand The Times does not
endorse these events but rather is
showing the church the current events.
The
purpose of posting these articles is to warn the church of deception from a
Biblical perspective.
 |
|
|
November 24 - Next Generation To Be Born Into 'Cashless' Society
Artical: One World Government
Today's younger generation will trade in their
cash, credit cards and cheques for mobile digital wallets by 2016,
new research claims. Children
born today will be Britain's first "cashless generation" and will
frequently use their smartphones in exchange for goods and services,
according to a report by
the research company Forrester
for the e-commerce site PayPal.
The survey,
based on interviews with ten senior executives from major UK
businesses with a combined turnover of £85 billion in 2010,
identified 2016 as the year that the
"digital switchover" will take place on the high street.
From those
interviewed, nine out of ten said they
believed that mobile payments will be accepted within four
years, while half of those interviewed said the development
could happen in three years.
The firm
predicts that consumers will
trade in cash, credit cards and cheques for mobile wallets as
soon as 2016, when mass adoption of mobile payment technology is
expected to take place.
Commenting on
the digital switchover, PayPal UK managing director Carl
Scheible said: "We'll see a
huge change over the next few years in the way we shop and pay
for things.
"By 2016, you'll be able to leave your wallet at home
and use your mobile as a 21st-century digital wallet."
Orange and
Barclaycard launched the Quick Tap contactless mobile payment
service earlier this year. The near field communication system
allows consumers to have their handsets enabled to make
purchases in more than 50,000 shops.
Read Full Article....
|
|
|
|
|
November 22 - The Blessed Mother - The Vatican's Secret Weapon?
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days
Comment from Understand
the Times:
The New Evangelization promoted
by the pope in Rome is definitely connected to lying signs and
wonders and so-called apparitions of Mary. Of course, it is only a
matter of time when these apparitions of Mary will point to the
false appearances of the Eucharistic Jesus which will be a global
ecumenical factor that will bring all religions to a false Christ.
Two esteemed men, one a United States Catholic Bishop
from Green Bay, WI., the other a Cardinal based in Europe, serving as
the Archbishop of Vienna, suddenly seem to have very much in common.
Both men, charged
with revitalizing the Catholic faith, have courageously taken action
that acknowledges the supernatural presence of Our Lady.
First, the two men have recently been placed in
important leadership positions to assist Pope Benedict XVI in his
efforts to revitalize the Catholic Faith.
The Pope calls it "New Evangelization" and he has
established an entirely new bureaucratic department in Rome to oversee
this important function.
The American, Bishop Ricken has been elected as the
new chairman to
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's committee for
Evangelization and Catechesis. He takes over this month. The European is
Cardinal Christopf Schonborn, and he is one of the first members
assigned to the new Vatican department called "
the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization".
Generally (for good
reason) Ministryvalues.com leaves such reporting to others, but this
time something caught our attention, something we think is truly
astonishing, and this something brings us to the second item that both
men seem to have in common. It turns
out this "something" is that both men have a great interest and intimate
experience with the Blessed Mother.
To our surprise we
discovered that the man given the leadership role in the United States to
revitalize the Catholic faith, Bishop
Ricken, is also the Bishop who investigated and formally approved an
apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The approved apparition is the first
such authenticated case of the presence of the Blessed Mother on American
soil. The apparition occurred
nearly 150 years ago and today the Blessed Mother who appeared in Door
County, Wi. is known as "Our Lady of Good Help." The Marian Shrine in the
Green Bay area has quickly become a popular pilgrimage for the Catholic
faithful.
Now what is truly surprising is that the
European assigned to "New Evangelization" at the Vatican level,
Cardinal Schonborn, last
week had his own encounter with the Virgin Mother. The Cardinal invited
visionary, Ivan Dragicevic, to his Cathedral to talk to his parish about his
apparitions with the Blessed Mother. Ivan Dragicevic claims to see the
Virgin Mary in an apparition - an apparition not yet approved known as
Medjugorje.
Bishop Ricken, has acted boldly in the United
States, with his approval of an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary and in
Europe, Cardinal Schonborn, has acted fearlessly as well with his
activities. Both men, charged with
revitalizing the Catholic faith, have courageously taken action that
acknowledges the supernatural presence of the Our Lady and importantly her
motherly role in leading us to her son.
Do these two men talk to
each other? Do they talk to the Pope about their findings and activities? Coincidence
or not? Have Ricken and Schonborn been
selected to Evangelize for the Chuch precisely because of their association
with the Blessed Mother? Do the smoke signals tell us something more about
the role of Our Lady in the Vatican's efforts in the "New Evangelization"?
Either way it is clear
the Catholic Church has re-emphasized Pope John Paul II's call to seek Jesus
through Mary. Pope Benedict XVI just yesterday urged the faithful in Africa
- "Let us not be afraid to invoke, with confidence, her who ceaselessly
dispenses to her children abundant divine graces."
Read Full Article....
|
|
|
|
|
November 4 - Big Brother's THREE MILLION targets: Massive surge in intrusive surveillance by state snoopers
Article: One World Government
The astonishing extent of
Britain's surveillance society was revealed for the first time yesterday.
Three million snooping operations have been
carried out over the past decade under controversial anti-terror laws. They
include tens of thousands of undercover missions by councils and other state
bodies which are not responsible for law enforcement.
Cases include a family who were spied on to check they were not cheating on
school catchment area rules and so-called 'bin criminals'.
The group's report, titled Freedom from Suspicion, says:
'The UK has, in the space of 40 years, gone from a
society in which mass surveillance was largely a theoretical possibility to
one in which it has become not only ubiquitous but routine.'
Half of Facebook users 'can't keep up' with site's snooping policies as
privacy rules change EIGHT times in two years
RIPA, billed as 'anti-terror legislation', was passed by Labour in
2000 supposedly to regulate snooping by public bodies. But Justice, which
has campaigned on privacy matters for decades, says the result has been a
huge increase in intrusive surveillance. Since the Act was passed, there
have been:
More than 20,000 warrants for the interception of phone
calls, emails and internet use;
At least 2.7million requests for communication data, including phone bills
and location information;
More than 4,000 authorisations for intrusive surveillance, such as planting
a bug in a person's house;
At least 186,133 authorisations for directed (covert)
surveillance by law enforcement agencies;
61,317 directed surveillance operations by other public bodies, including
councils;
43,391 authorisations for 'covert human intelligence sources'.
In total, the report says there have been around three million decisions
taken by state bodies under RIPA, not including authorisations given to the
security and intelligence services.
Yet fewer than 5,000 of these - just 0.16 per cent - were approved by
judges.
The report also warns that
Britain has the largest DNA database in the world and the largest number of
CCTV cameras. It highlights how the public readily hands over information,
via supermarket loyalty cards and Oyster London Underground travel passes,
which can be used to track a person's movements.
Read Full Article....
|
|
|
|
|
November 30 - Knights of Columbus to launch series on New Evangelization
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days
Comment from Understand the Times:
The Roman
Catholic Church's program to win the world to the Roman Catholic
Eucharistic Jesus has now become a special project by the Knights of
Columbus. A key component of the New Evangelization program is the
practice of Eucharistic Adoration. Besides this bowing down to a
wafer, expect to see more and more attention paid to Marian messages
that point towards the adoration of the Eucharist.
The Knights of Columbus' Catholic
Information Service will launch a series of booklets and online
materials on the task of re-evangelizing formerly Christian societies.
"Pope Benedict XVI has made the New Evangelization
a priority," said Supreme Knight Carl Anderson on
Nov. 29.
"It is our hope," he added,
that the new series "will help Catholics to learn
about their faith in a way that allows them to participate first hand in
the Church's mission of the New Evangelization."
The New Evangelization Series
will feature online content and booklets focused on issues related to
evangelizing modern culture and will draw from the
writings of Popes Benedict XVI and Blessed John Paul II.
In their Nov. 29 announcement,
the Knights of Columbus noted that the term "New
Evangelization" was first used by Blessed Pope John Paul II early in his
pontificate in Poland in 1979. The late pontiff often returned to this
theme in his speeches and writing much like his successor, Pope Benedict
XVI.
Pope Benedict has organized a
synod in October of 2012 which will
gather bishops from around the world in Rome to discuss efforts on the
New Evangelization.
Read Full Article....
|
|
|
|
|
November 14 - New D.C. Episcopal Bishop Seeks to 'Build Up the Liberal Church'
Article: Perilous Times
The Rev. Mariann
Budde, the newly consecrated and seated bishop of the Episcopal
Diocese of Washington, wants to make a stronger voice for
progressive Christians. "I want to build up
the liberal church again so we can be a legitimate conversation
partner in the public arena religiously," said Budde to the
Washington Post's Michelle Boorstein.
Budde stated that
she believed this "public arena" is presently
"dominated by evangelical Christians and what many would call the
Christian right, and I would agree. It's legitimate for them to be
there, but they're drowning us out," said Budde.
In talking with
the Washington Examiner, Budde
spoke of supporting "full inclusion of gay and lesbian people in
every aspect of the life of the church and of our society. My guess
is that in five to 10 years this issue would be behind us, I really
do," she told the Examiner.
MacKinnon said
that as rector at St. John's, Budde
helped develop "a number of outreach, inclusion and social justice
ministries."
Robert Lundy,
communications officer for the AAC, took exception to Budde's
statement that she wants "to build up the liberal church."
"What happened to building up Christ's Church?" Lundy
asked CP, adding that he considered the statement to be
"ridiculous."
Read Full Article....
|
|
|
|
|
November 22 - Malls track shoppers' cell phones on Black Friday
Article: One World Government
Attention holiday
shoppers: your cell phone may be
tracked this year.
Starting on Black Friday and running through New
Year's Day, two U.S. malls -- Promenade Temecula in southern California
and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va. --
will track guests' movements by monitoring the
signals from their cell phones. While the data that's collected is
anonymous, it can follow shoppers' paths from store to store.
The goal is for stores to answer questions like:
How many Nordstrom shoppers also stop at Starbucks? How long do most
customers linger in Victoria's Secret? Are there unpopular spots in the
mall that aren't being visited?
While U.S. malls have long tracked how crowds move throughout
their stores, this is the first time
they've used cell phones. But obtaining that information comes with
privacy concerns. The management company of both malls, Forest City
Commercial Management, says personal data is not being tracked.
"We won't be looking at singular shoppers," said
Stephanie Shriver-Engdahl, vice president of digital strategy for Forest
City. "The system monitors patterns of movement.
We can see, like migrating birds, where people are going to."
The tracking system, called FootPath Technology,
works through a series of antennas positioned
throughout the shopping center that capture the unique
identification number assigned to each phone (similar to a computer's IP
address), and tracks its movement throughout the stores.
Now, U.S. retailers including
JCPenney (JCP, Fortune 500) and Home Depot (HD, Fortune 500) are also
working with Path Intelligence to use their technology, Biggar
said.
Some retail analysts say the new technology is nothing to be worried
about. Malls have been tracking
shoppers for years through people counters, security cameras, heat maps
and even undercover researchers who follow shoppers around.
But some industry analysts worry about the broader
implications of this kind of technology. "Most of this information is
harmless and nobody ever does anything nefarious with it," said
Sucharita Mulpuru, retail analyst at Forrester Research. "But the
reality is, what happens when you start
having hackers potentially having access to this information and being
able to track your movements?"
Read Full Article....
|
|
|
|
|
November 30 - Catholics, Orthodox must pursue new evangelization together, Pope tells Patriarch
Article: One World Religion
Comment from Understand the Times:
The pope is
calling for the Orthodox Church to work together with him to spread
the gospel. While this may sound like a genuine effort to lead
people to the real Savior, Jesus Christ, there is reason to ask some
questions if this New Evangelization program is 100% biblical. The
answer is that it is not. The Orthodox gospel and the Roman Catholic
gospel is based on tradition and extra-biblical ideas that place
Mary in a position as co-redeemer.
In a message of greeting to
the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople,
Pope Benedict XVI said that Catholics and
Orthodox must work together to bear witness to the Gospel in
increasingly secularized societies.
Pope Benedict sent a
personal message to Patriarch Bartholomew I for the feast of St.
Andrew, the patron of the Constantinople see, and for the 20th
anniversary of Bartholomew's election as Patriarch. Cardinal Kurt
Koch, the president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity,
led a Vatican delegation to Istanbul to join in celebrating the
feast.
After meeting with
Patriarch Bartholomew, the Vatican delegation joined in a liturgical
celebration, at which the papal message was read aloud. In it the
Pontiff said that he thanks God "for having
allowed me to strengthen the bonds of sincere friendship and true
brotherhood which unite us."
The Pope went on to say
that Catholic and Orthodox leaders face the
same challenges in a secularized society. "Announcing the mystery of
salvation through the death and resurrection of Christ needs to
undergo deep renewal in many regions which once accepted the light
but are now suffering the effects of secularization which
impoverishes man in his deepest dimension," he said.
The Vatican annually sends
a delegation to join with the Ecumenical Patriarch in celebrating
his patronal feast, just as the Orthodox leader sends delegates to
Rome for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.
Read Full Article....
|
|
|
|
|
October 19 - EmTech: Get Ready for a New Human Species
Article: Cloning And Genetic Engineering
The ability to engineer life is going to spark
a revolution that will dwarf the industrial and digital revolutions,
says Juan Enriquez,, a writer, investor, and managing director of
Excel Venture Management. Thanks to new genomics technologies,
scientists have not only been able to read organisms' genomes faster
than ever before, they can also
write increasingly complex changes into those genomes, creating
organisms with
new capabilities.
Enriquez, who spoke at
Technology Review's EmTech conference on Tuesday, says
our newfound ability to write the code
of life will profoundly change the world as we know it. Because we
can engineer our environment and ourselves, humanity is moving
beyond the constraints of Darwinian evolution. The result, he says,
may be an entirely new species.
Technology Review
senior editor Emily Singer spoke with Enriquez after his talk.
TR: Why
do you think there is going to be a new human species?
Juan Enriquez:
The new human species is one that begins to
engineer the evolution of viruses, plants, animals, and itself. As
we do that, Darwin's rules get significantly bent, and sometimes
even broken. By taking direct and deliberate control over our
evolution, we are living in a world where we are modifying stuff
according to our desires.
How is this
impending revolution going to shape the world?
People think this
technology will just change pharma or biotech, but it's much bigger
than that. For example, it's already changing the chemical industry.
Forty percent of Dupont's earnings today come from the life
sciences. It's going to change
everything; it will change countries, who's rich and who's poor.
It's going to create new ethics.
Read Full Article....
|
|
|
|
|
November 30 - Pope approves Diocese buying Crystal Cathedral
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The :Last Days
Comment from
Understand the Times:
The Jesuit plan to bring
the separated brethren back to the mother of all churches has taken
a giant leap forward. One of the best known megachurches in the
world has been bought up by the Vatican as another monument for the
Vicar of Rome. What has just happened is the beginning as many more
churches will end up in financial ruin only to be bought up by the
pope and for the purpose of the New Evangelization.
The Pope has signed off on a plan by the Roman
Catholic Diocese of Orange to buy the shimmering Crystal Cathedral.
The Orange County Register (
http://bit.ly/ukDoBp) reports Wednesday that
the approval was the final hurdle for the
diocese to buy the sprawling property for $57.5 million for use as a
countywide cathedral.
The diocese beat out Orange County's Chapman University in a
bidding war for the glass-paned building on the site that is home to
the "Hour of Power" televangelist program.
The Crystal Cathedral sold the property after filing for Chapter
11 bankruptcy protection last year.
A federal bankruptcy court judge approved the sale on Nov. 17. A
number of churchgoers wanted the university to buy the property and
let them continue to worship there.
Read Full Article....
|
|
|
|
|
December 2 - Papal preacher focuses on Christian duty to evangelize
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days
Comment from Understand the Times:
Raniero
Cantalamessa in not only the preacher to the pope, he also speaks at
Alpha leadership conferences in England for Nicky Gumbel where he
teaches on such topics as the importance of Mary and the sacraments.
The sacrament of the Eucharist is the core of the Roman Catholic
faith.
What is also
interesting is that Brian Brodersen, assistant pastor at Calvary
Chapel Costa Mesa has met with Gumbel in the past and discussed how
they can work together according to board member Rob Yardley.
So if Gumbel
has joined with Rome through Raniero Cantalamessa, then this would
mean that Brodersen and Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa has joined hands
with Rome and the New Evangelization program as well.
Something is
not quite right with this scenario
Father Raniero Cantalamessa,
the official preacher to the pontifical household, delivered the
first in a series of Advent sermons on December 2, with Pope
Benedict XVI among those in attendance.
The Capuchin preacher
focused his attention on the need to spread the Good News of the
Gospel. His Advent series is dedicated this year to evangelization,
putting the calls for a "new
evangelization" in the context of previous periods of notable
missionary activity within the Church.
The Advent sermons are
delivered on Fridays in the Redemptoris Mater chapel of the
apostolic palace.
Read Full Article....
|
|
We hope the Weekly News In Review has been a
blessing to you.
Sincerely,
Roger Oakland
|
|
