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Articles and Commentary

• Herman Van Rompuy And The EU Superstate - (Read)
• Happy Birthday America! - (Read)
• Hosea Can You See? - (Read)

Important News Headlines

HERMAN VAN ROMPUY AND THE EU SUPERSTATE - (Print)

European Union leaders congregated in Toronto June 26th and 27th in a Group of 20 meeting to address the struggle of economies world-wide. Those leaders agreed to take steps toward job growth, the reform and strengthening of financial institutions like banks, and economic stimulation world-wide. At its conclusion, Presidents José Manuel Barroso and Herman Van Rompuy declared the meeting a success – the premier forum for international cooperation. Earlier in June, Van Rompuy announced two additional upcoming meetings; one in September on foreign affairs and one in January and February 2011 to deal with energy issues.

As of December 1, 2009, the European Union's Treaty of Lisbon aspires to mold and uplift the 27 member nations of Western Europe into a more powerful single voice on the world stage. On January 1, 2010, Herman Van Rompuy went from obscure prime minister of Belgium to first appointed Permanent President of Europe.

Permanent President of Europe? That's right; and not by public election, but by appointment of the members of the European Council. The "permanent" appellation is cloudy; Van Rompuy's 30-month term leading the council ends in May 2012.

"As president of the European Council, I will listen to every country and make sure every country comes out a winner in every negotiation," Van Rompuy told the press last fall when he was first appointed as the EU's first full-time president.

Van Rompuy is known in Belgium for his inscrutable, mouse-like, mild-mannered exterior and his self-deprecating humor. He was in office in Belgium just a year and managed to keep Flemish- and French-speaking factions of the country from tearing the nation in two through conciliatory methods. Yet his past antics of political subterfuge indicate much more to his inner man than just a guy who composes haiku during parliamentary meetings.

Unassuming Van Rompuy has a history of getting his way. He advises that the path to power is to appear innocuous and unobtrusive, yet his methods have at times appeared more underhanded than meek. His critics point out that he broke a major 2007 campaign promise to split up his own political party's illegally proportioned election district, and he did so purposely and quietly. As Speaker of the parliament, he delayed a vote on the proposed district split, going so far as to have the locks changed on the session meeting rooms so that dissenting parliamentary members could not meet, He avoided his own office for over a week (purportedly) to avoid opening a related letter from concerned opponents. His opponents assert that he works not for the interests of the people, but for big government.

Herman Van Rompuy is an enigmatic, camera shy man who avoids elaborate public statements and media exposure. Van Rompuy is a federalist who wants the individual nation-state symbols, flags, and currencies to be set aside in exchange for one set of European icons. He is geared to meld the EU nations into a single economy and body, even against individual nations' objections to one federal government and the new taxes that come with it. Van Rompuy said last autumn, "The financing of the welfare state, irrespective of the social reform we implement, will require new resources. The possibility of financial levies at European level needs to be seriously reviewed."

Van Rompuy is pushing for Brussels to collect one Europe-wide Euro tax on financial transactions based on the unpopular Tobin tax. It could look a lot like an American national sales tax. Opponents of such a tax include Poland - which is not one of the eleven "insider" eurozone member countries and therefore fears losing power to them - and Great Britain, which has traditionally balked at surrendering its currency to the Euro.

Van Rompuy is currently working to assemble a taskforce of European leaders within the economic union of the eurozone of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. Eight other states are obliged to join the eurozone once they fulfill the strict entry criteria.

It will be very intriguing as US citizens to watch the European economy, freedoms, and spending over the upcoming months and years. Will Herman Van Rompuy, Gordon Brown, Jose Manuel Barroso lead Western Europe to an undeniably one-man or one-entity governed superpower, or will the countries and the individuals in them be weakened by too much governance and a loss of their own freedom of choice and enterprise?

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA! - (Print)

"For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another." --Gal 5:13

"Those who profess to favor freedom, yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." -- Frederick Douglass

"The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt." -- John Philpot Curran:

"It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error." -- U.S. Supreme Court in American Communications Association v. Douds

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania (1759)

"Freedom is never an achieved state; like electricity, we've got to keep generating it or the lights go out." -- Wayne LaPierre

Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom." --Albert Einstein

"Do we really think that a government-dominated education is going to produce citizens capable of dominating their government, as the education of a truly vigilant self-governing people requires?" -- Alan Keyes

"If we become a people who are willing to give up our money and our freedom in exchange for rhetoric and promises, then nothing can save us." -- Thomas Sowell

"History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower, First Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1953

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedoms of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." -- James Madison

"The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave." -- Patrick Henry

"Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." -- Winston Churchill

"The truth is, all might be free if they valued freedom, and defended it as they ought." -- Samuel Adams

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat." -- Theodore Roosevelt

"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first."-- Thomas Jefferson

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"To the American people I bid a fond farewell. Guard your liberties. It is the trust of each generation to pass a free republic to the next. And if I know you right, you will rouse yourself from slumber to ensure exactly that." -- Ambrose Evans-Pritchard 

"Liberty is the right to choose. Freedom is the result of the right choice." --Anon 

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."-- Eph 6:12-13

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HOSEA CAN YOU SEE? - (Print)

When Moses asked Pharaoh to "Let my people go," Pharaoh responded, "Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go?" If Pharaoh could have jumped into the future to read the book of Hosea, he would have known that the Lord was a sovereign God (Chapters 1-3); a holy God (Chapters 4-7); a just God (Chapters 8-10); and a loving God (Chapters 11-14).

Pharaoh, of course, never had the benefit of the depth of knowledge that Israel was given through the mouth and pen of the prophet Hosea, and yet the people were as stony-hearted toward God as Pharaoh was those many centuries before.

Hosea is one of the most remarkable books of the Old Testament. No other messenger gives so complete an outline of the ways of God with His earthly people as does Hosea:

1)God suffers when His people are unfaithful to Him;
2)God cannot condone sin;
3)God will never cease to love His own; and, consequently
4)He seeks to win back those who have forsaken Him.

Hosea was a contemporary of Isaiah (for most of his ministry) and Amos (in his earlier years); he was the "Jeremiah" of the Northern Kingdom. His main target was the Northern Kingdom, yet his message encompassed the entire people of God.

"Not My People"?
One of the pivotal insights occurs in the setting aside of his adulterous wife, and in the remarkable naming of his children: Jezreel, Lo-ruhamah ("not loved"), and Lo-ammi ("not my people"). The blood of Jezreel figures prominently throughout Israel's history and climaxes at Armageddon. In the New Testament the Holy Spirit confirms the application of these prophetic names to the State of Israel since they have been cast out of their land(Rom 9:26, 1 Pet 2:10). Their restoration is one of the key pronouncements in Hosea. Dr. Charles Feinberg, an outstanding Jewish believer and scholar, says of Chapter 3:

"It rightfully takes its place among the greatest prophetic pronouncements in the whole revelation of God."

Hosea is frequently quoted in the New Testament and each time reveals some surprises (Matt 2:15; 9:13; 12:7; Rom 9:25, 26; 1 Cor 15:55; 1 Pet 2:5, 10).

The Fatherhood of God
Among the provocative hermeneutical insights is the strange application of Hosea 11:1 by Matthew (2:15), which links the Fatherhood of God toward Israel and His calling His Son out of Egypt.  He didn't just adopt them; He cared for them. How tenderly and compassionately the Lord taught and cared for His son, Israel. These words seem to parallel Moses' description of Israel's being carried through the wilderness as a father carries his son (Deut 1:31-32; 32:10-11).

In response to the love of God as seen in their redemption from Egypt, Israel, like a prodigal son, turned a deaf ear to God's prophets, choosing Baal and other idols instead (Hosea 11:2, v.7; 2 Kgs 17:13; Jer 7:25; 25:4; Zech 1:4, et al). 

"The Best of Times and the Worst of Times"
Their material prosperity was unequaled since Solomon (2 Kgs 14:25-28; 2 Chr 26:2, 6-15). Jeroboam had recovered all the territory lost to Israel, even the possession of Damascus. Yet material prosperity is not a guarantee of safety to a people whose stability rests not on the moral basis of the fear of God and obedience to His laws. Hosea's warning was that God would use their enemies as His means of judgment.

An Incredible Book
The Lord's self-disclosure in Chapter 11 is so intense that many rank it as one of the greatest in the Bible. Perhaps among the most surprising of the prophetic insights in Hosea is the discovery of the prerequisites for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

It is truly an amazing book and, like all of the books of the Bible, the Holy Spirit always rewards the diligent student. And Hosea is among the most rewarding.

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Thomas Sowell On Gun Control Laws - June 30, 2010
Now that the Supreme Court of the United States has decided that the Second Amendment to the Constitution means that individual Americans have a right to bear arms, what can we expect? Those who have no confidence in ordinary Americans may expect a bloodbath, as the benighted masses start shooting each other, now that they can no longer be denied guns by their betters. When you stop and think about it, there is no obvious reason why issues like gun control should be ideological issues in the first place. It is ultimately an empirical question whether allowing ordinary citizens to have firearms will increase or decrease the amount of violence... National Review Online

Bedouin To Take Shot At Bible Contest - June 29, 2010
Shadi Abu Arar has enrolled in the National Bible Contest for adults in hopes of eventually winning the international quiz; and he remains undeterred despite less than enthusiastic responses in Bedouin sector. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar decided to resume the tradition after three decades. YNet News

Ten People Charged With Spying For Russia - June 29, 2010
Ten alleged members of a Russian spy-ring have been charged in the US with acting as foreign agents. The suspects are accused of posing as ordinary citizens, some living together as couples for years. They were charged with conspiracy to act as unlawful agents of a foreign government, a crime which carries up to five years in prison. A Russian foreign ministry spokesman said the allegations were contradictory. "We are studying the information. There are a lot of contradictions," spokesman Igor Lyakin-Frolov told the AFP news agency, declining further comment. BBC News

Pray For Chinese Landslide Victims - June 29, 2010
Hope of finding survivors was diminishing today as rescuers used heavy machinery including bulldozers to search for at least 107 people trapped under a landslide in south-west China. Villagers huddled in tents set up at the site as rescuers searched for survivors. "The number 107 remains unchanged, and there is still no sign of life here," he said. AP

Summer Warning: Parents! Keep Kids From Balconies and Windows! - June 28, 2010
The miracle tot who tumbled from an 18th-floor Manhattan window to a terrace 30 feet below was resting comfortably Sunday at Bellevue Hospital, his mother said. Ebrahim Aburawi, 2, was sleeping peacefully, but the child's relieved mother said he would remain at the hospital under observation for a day. "He's doing fine," said Ebrahim's mom, who did not give her name. New York Daily News

Social Conservatives Make Case Against Kagan - June 25, 2010
With Elena Kagan's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing set to begin Monday, conservative groups are pushing back against the media storyline that says President Obama's Supreme Court nominee is a blank slate on hot-button social issues. Americans United for Life has helped lead the charge, arguing that Kagan - Obama's solicitor general - has a history of speeches and writings that strongly hint she will be a left-leaning judge who supports abortion rights and other liberal causes. Baptist Press

"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32

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