Lockdown City: Liberty under Siege
By Pastor Hal Mayer
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Dear Friends,
I’m no longer surprised at the encroachment of the U.S. federal government on personal liberties and the constitution. The U.S. constitution is but a shell of its former self. Piece by piece it is being dismantled to the point where eventually it will have no more restraining power to prevent restrictions on religious liberty. When it gets to that point, there will be a Sunday law.
Jesus restrains the wicked through the Holy Spirit. And the U.S. Constitution is one of the things that restrain the agencies that are seeking to bring the whole world under a new empire of globalism. But as national leaders turn their backs on God’s law, and get closer to Rome, they also turn their backs on the Bill of Rights in the Constitution.
As I have said before, it isn’t that Sunday laws are being actively proposed at this time in America, at least not publically, though there are open attempts at increasing Sunday laws in Europe. But religious liberty is like the hub of a wheel. The spokes going from the hub to the outer rim are like the personal liberties defined in the Bill of Rights. The outer rim represents the laws of the land that are consistent with the Bill of Rights. If you remove the spokes one by one, the wheel eventually collapses and you must ride on a hub.
The government doesn’t address the issue of religious liberty until all the other freedoms have been either removed or stripped of their defensive power. I’m not saying there aren’t local attacks on some forms of religious freedom, such as zoning laws restricting Bible study gatherings in homes. These things happen. But I’m referring to a national attempt to either restrict and/or require religious worship. Once the rights that defend religious liberty are removed, then there can be a direct attack on the crown jewel of freedom. In the meantime, there is a steady erosion of a variety of personal liberties. This is being done in the name of fighting terrorism, which gradually brings the population to passively accept dictatorial powers in the name of protection. Fear is a very useful tool in the hands of government officials ambitious to assume more power and control over the lives of their citizens.
But it isn’t just the U.S. Constitution that is under assault. The American Constitution has been a bulwark against tyranny in other nations as well by influencing them to have similar principles in their own constitutions. But as goes the United States, so go many other nations. Australia, New Zealand, Germany and other nations of Europe, Canada, and others, copy or simulate changes in U.S. law and practice, to some extent. Perhaps not at first, but eventually, they collaborate and copy what the United States has done, more or less, in their own way.
But before we go any further, let us bow our heads and ask our heavenly Father for His presence and Spirit as we study today.
Our Father in heaven, as we consider an important prophetic marker in modern times, the destruction of the U.S. Constitution, we pray that You will bless us with Your presence. Please send Your Holy Spirit to enlighten and encourage us as we consider the times in which we live and the changes taking place to bring in the end of all things earthly, and usher in the new earth. We pray and ask in Jesus’ name, amen.
The tension was building in 1773 and 1774. Boston residents in the Massachusetts Bay colony were tired of having virtually no control over their own destiny. They felt that King George and the British Parliament were exploiting the colonies beyond reason. Issues surrounding the importation of tea became the flashpoint that led to the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773, which was a protest of the dictatorial power of the crown over the American colonies. That night colonists raided three tea ships in the harbor, some dressed as Mohawk Indians, and dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor.
Wikipedia Article on the Boston Tea Party
The inhabitants of Boston were not at all happy that the British Government was continually imposing taxes on them without their consent and without their representation. After all they were British citizens and viewed themselves as having a right to some say in their own destiny. Besides, those taxes were being used to finance the British regular troops who were stationed in Boston for their alleged military security. The colonists believed that they had supported the troops enough through their local government and that the taxes on tea were unnecessary, but also the tax symbolically represented the excessive control of the crown over the colony. The famous Benjamin Franklin appeared in the British Parliament to defend their rights. He reminded parliament that taxation without representation was illegal.
But parliament passed a bill called the Massachusetts Government Act in 1774 that ended local government in Boston and established control under a military dictatorship. Remember that the American colonists had left the old world so that they would not have to live under dictatorial rule. They wanted freedom more than anything else. And most of them wanted religious liberty more than any other freedom – at least for themselves. These were Puritans who had experienced persecution for their faith in Britain. Now on the eve of the American Revolutionary War, they were very unhappy with the way in which “good old England” was acting toward them.
Wikipedia Article on the Massachusetts Government Act
The Boston colonists protested so strongly that the local British government officials were pressured to resign and find refuge in Boston where British troops could protect them.
Eventually, it all came to a head on April 18 and 19, 1775. On the 18th of April Lieutenant General Thomas Gage, who commanded four regiments of British troops in Boston, known as Regulars (about 4000 men) decided to send 700 of them to Concord the next day to disarm the colonists and seize their weapons and ammunition in an attempt to prevent them from armed insurrection. The British commander did not want to lose control of the colonies. Disarming them was the best way to keep them under his thumb.
During the night of April 18, the famous Paul Revere learned about the Lieutenant General’s plan. He and other colonial militiamen, by pre-arrangement, rode through the towns and villages around Boston to warn the “minutemen,” as they were called, that the British were coming out of Boston headed for Concord the next day. The term “minutemen” referred to the highly mobile, rapid deployment colonial militia who could respond to war threats at a moment’s notice.
Wikipedia Article on Paul Revere
On the morning of April 19, the British troops on their way to Concord entered Lexington and found 77 of those minutemen waiting for them. Shots were fired and several minutemen were killed. These were the first shots of the War of American Independence, commonly known as the American Revolutionary War. Later in Concord, more than 500 minutemen routed those same British troops. As the British regulars retreated to Boston, minutemen hidden along the roads attacked them and inflicted heavy losses on them.
April 19, 1775 stands as the beginning of liberty for America and the beginning of the end of the British Empire as the dominant global superpower. These two battles of Lexington and Concord were the beginning of a new nation with a constitutional government instead of a monarchy. That constitution with its bill of rights became a model for many nations including many of those in the British Commonwealth. It featured religious liberty as its first right supported and defended by many other liberties that have protected it for more than 200 years.
Wikipedia Article on the American Revolutionary War
Now, 238 years later to the very day, on April 19, 2013 and less than seven miles from Lexington, Massachusetts, where those patriots started a war and seceded from Britain, those liberties were crushed by another power that is determined to destroy those very liberties the U.S. Constitution proclaims, and the liberties these patriots died to achieve. The inhabitants of the very same city, instead of defending their rights, cheered those who violated them more crushingly than the British could have ever done.
But before we go into more depth, we should consider this very important statement found in scripture. Revelation 13:11 and 12 very clearly point out that a second beast power will arise in the last days, referring to the United States, that will force the worship of the first beast or Roman Catholicism. These two global, but quite different powers will work together, as they are today; to eventually bring about global worship of Rome’s religion. Here is what these verses say of the United States. “And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.”
In other words, this second beast, which is mild and gentle at first, will eventually take on the characteristics of Satan. This is also pointedly telling us that the United States would become an agent of the Vatican, who has its power from the dragon too. We read this in verse two. These collaborate against Christ and His holy law eventually leading the whole world in a gigantic system of false worship.
These verses describe in a few cryptic words, the profound change that is presently taking place in America. The United States, which has been a champion of liberty, and in particular, liberty of conscience, will become the very menace to liberty and, like the first beast, take on the same power to persecute religious dissent. Verse 12 says it has ALL the power of the first beast. This represents quite a change of policy for the United States. Right now, the United States, through its president, its head of the Department of Homeland Security, its justice department and others deny that it will ever restrict religious liberty. But you should know by now that you can never trust what political leaders actually say. They often mean the exact opposite. But even if they truly mean what they say, they will change their views and policies when circumstances demand it of them.
Napolitano stands by controversial report
Obama to UN: US Respects Universal Values of Religious Freedom, Free Speech
Obama Moves away from ‘Freedom of Religion’ toward ‘Freedom of Worship’
For the United States to take the step of dominating religious worship it would have to have a complete reversal of its present policy of acknowledging that inalienable right of full freedom of religion to all of its citizens. The change in policy will no doubt come in a seemingly innocent way. But any attempt to regulate religion is not at all innocent. It is the very impulse of the Papacy and of Satan himself.
But regulating worship or requiring a certain type of worship is the very step that the Bible says will happen. And the United States will be in the forefront of the movement. The one religious worship law that Rome has consistently championed and which she is still advocating, is the principle of Sunday observance as a day of rest and worship. Gradually, imperceptivity, Rome is working to bring all the nations under her banner in defiance of the law of God.
Notice too, that this second beast, the United States, takes on an international or global responsibility for helping Rome impose this worship law, because it says in verse 12, “he causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast.” This law would not just be implemented in the United States, though that is where the worship aspects of this law would be implemented first. It is referring to the whole earth. America could not require something of everyone else in the world unless it compelled its own citizens to obey such a law. So, the ultimate religious tyranny begins in the United States and spreads to other nations until it is eventually a universal Sunday law.
In order for the second beast to exercise that kind of power, or “all the power of the first beast,” the United States will have to achieve dictatorial power over its citizens, remove their personal rights and liberties, and take on a religious principle, mixing church and state. The infallible word of God declares that America will change, and change dramatically.
Just think about this for a minute. If the United States is going to do all that, what has to happen? There would have to be the complete overthrow of the U.S. Constitution and its signature Bill of Rights. This cannot be done all at once. The power described here in Revelation cannot attack religious liberty head on. It has to work steadily, persistently, stealthily and gradually, eroding the principles of the constitution until the people are willing to accept complete control of their lives. Then a Sunday law with its economic sanctions and its death penalty can be imposed (see verses 15-17). Most people are clueless. They do not suspect these dramatic changes to the nation. And they cannot foresee them because they do not understand Bible prophecy.
Here is how it is done. The government pushes against the constitution a little too far, then backs up just a little when liberty advocates protest, but not all the way back. Then it pushes against the constitution a bit farther, then backs up a little bit again. It is a never ending cycle of increasing encroachments that gradually chip away at the principles of the Constitution until government has a free hand to dictate laws that remove liberty and replace it with tyranny.
This would have to be accomplished by distracting the citizen’s attention away from the Constitution and fix their eyes on a very terrible and fearful thing. The fear of terrorism is the perfect vehicle to overthrow the Constitution. The principle is to get to the point where the people of the United States are so fearful of being blown up in the streets of its cities, or on a plane that they will let the government do whatever it wants, to at least give them the feeling that they are safe. They have essentially forgotten about their Constitution.
Benjamin Franklin famously said “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” In other words, unless the people refuse to have their constitutional rights and freedoms withdrawn, they will lose them, never to get them back again.
And this suits the Vatican quite nicely. If ever the first beast is going to gain global ascendency, and impose her religion on the whole world, the United States must lose its Constitution. It is the U.S. Constitution that is keeping papal power at bay. In order to overcome that, Rome has to work secretly through her various agencies, including the Jesuits, to bring about the enslavement of every American citizen.
In a book about the United States called Our Country, Josiah Strong makes the following statement in chapter five. “The Constitution of the United States guarantees liberty of conscience. Nothing is dearer or more fundamental. Pope Pius IX, in his Encyclical Letter of August 15, 1854, said: ‘The absurd and erroneous doctrines or ravings in defense of liberty of conscience are a most pestilential error—a pest, of all others, most to be dreaded in a state.’
The same pope, in his Encyclical Letter of December 8, 1864, condemned those who advocate that “liberty of conscience and worship is each man’s personal right, which ought to be legally proclaimed and asserted in every rightly constituted society; and [which is] an absolute liberty, which should be restrained by no authority whether ecclesiastical or civil, whereby they may be able openly and publicly to manifest and declare any of their ideas whatever, either by word of mouth, by the press, or in any other way.” (Section 3) He also condemned ‘all [who] maintain that the church may not employ force.’
Wikipedia Article on Quanta Cura Sec. Opposition to freedom of conscience
That pope was advocating absolute tyranny. I’ll continue reading from Josiah Strong. “The pacific tone of Rome in the United States does not imply a change of heart. She is tolerant where she is helpless. Says Bishop O’Connor: ‘Religious liberty is merely endured until the opposite can be carried into effect without peril to the Catholic world…’ The archbishop of St. Louis once said: ‘Heresy and unbelief are crimes; and in Christian countries, as in Italy and Spain, for instance, where all the people are Catholics, and where the Catholic religion is an essential part of the law of the land, they are punished as other crimes…”
Modern popes have continued with this principle, though it cannot be implemented outside of the Catholic Church at the present. Pope John Paul II, in his apostolic letter, AD TUENDAM FIDEM, made the following statement “Whoever denies a truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or who calls into doubt, or who totally repudiates the Christian faith, and does not retract after having been legitimately warned, is to be punished as a heretic or an apostate with a major excommunication…
“In addition to these cases, whoever obstinately rejects a teaching that the Roman Pontiff or the College of Bishops, exercising the authentic Magisterium, have set forth to be held definitively, or who affirms what they have condemned as erroneous, and does not retract after having been legitimately warned, is to be punished with an appropriate penalty.”
Apostolic Letter Motu Proprio AD TUENDAM FIDEM
Rome never changes, my friends. She is presently enduring religious liberty, which she hates with a passion, until she can make a change without destroying support for the Catholic faith.
So, Rome loves any development that undermines liberty. “Republicanism (meaning a representative form of constitutional government of the people, by the people, and for the people) coupled together with a strong Protestant mentality and economy became the fundamental principles of the United States. These two things, republicanism and Protestantism, are the secret of its power and prosperity.”
And this is what Rome is hoping and working to overthrow because she knows that if she can do away with these liberties in the United States, she can much more easily do it in other nations. That is why there is such a hatred of the Constitution among the leadership of the United States, including its presidents and high officials, Supreme Court justices, academics, investors and corporate magnates. What is strange is that many of those who support the rise of tyranny in America would not, for one minute, want Rome’s religion crammed down their throats. Yet they are cooperating, perhaps unwittingly with Rome because it benefits them for the time being. They just can’t see where it is all heading.
Encyclicals and Writings of Pope Pius IX
There is a very interesting phenomena that I have noticed as I have watched the United States in action over the last two or three decades. On one hand, the nation is becoming more and more secular and left leaning, and on the other, its leaders are getting closer and closer to Rome. How can that be? Actually, Rome is a leftist organization. It is a conservative organization, but it is leftist. But underlying it all is the political nature of Rome. It’s not Rome’s religion that has the people enthralled in developed countries. Many Catholics themselves are opposed to Rome’s teaching. It is however, popular for leaders of nations to be attached to Rome because of Rome’s political might.
The more secular a nation becomes, the more security problems it has and the more of a conservative reaction will result. Eventually, when there is a large enough crisis, and people are fearful of a massive global threat, there will be those who will call for the nation to come back to God in order to restore prosperity. At that point, Rome can step in and become the object of worship in order to get people back to God. And the closer the United States gets to Rome, the more Rome is able to influence her laws and practices.
Wikipedia Article on Quanta Cura Sec. Opposition to freedom of conscience
Now let us talk about what happened in Boston. There is no doubt in my mind that the preparations for what happened in Boston would have been planned and prepared for a long time ago. I’m not saying that those who did that planning and preparation had Boston specifically in mind. But the underlying principles were developed with similar circumstances in mind. Boston was the opportunity to impose temporary tyranny and help citizens get used to what it looks like.
The Boston Marathon is the oldest marathon in the world, holding races each consecutive year since 1897 on what is known as “Patriot’s Day.” In 2013 it drew more than 23,000 runners from 92 countries, plus 500,000 spectators. There are over 500 marathons a year worldwide, but the Boston Marathon is one of six world marathon majors and one of the best known. The Boston Marathon is a huge event. The marathon was being held on April 15, a beautiful spring day with cool temperatures; a perfect day for running the race’s 26 miles. Boston was jammed with people. Patriot’s day, is a commemoration of the battles of Lexington and Concord and the role of the colonist in overthrowing British tyranny.
Wikipedia Article on the Boston Marathon
Wikipedia Article on Patriots’ Day
About two hours after the winners had crossed the finish line, but with thousands more to complete the race, two pressure cooker bombs, that had been placed in very crowded areas exploded at 2:49 p.m. killing 3 people and injuring 264, 14 of whom had to have amputations of their limbs. The bombs, packed with bits of metal, nails, bearing balls and explosives, blew up about 13 seconds and 210 yards (190 m) apart, near the finish line. The horrific and bloody scene of chaos was heartrending as innocent victims fell as they were hit by the shrapnel.
Three days later, on April 18, the FBI released the images of two suspects after examining security camera video. They were Chechen brothers who had immigrated to the United States from Dagestan, which is part of Russia, and the hunt began.
Wikipedia Article on 2013 Boston Marathon
That night, April 18, the two violent villains, both characterized as Muslim extremists, killed a police officer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), carjacked a Mercedes SUV, stole money from the driver’s bank account at an ATM, then tried to confront police in a violent 200-300 bullet firefight, in which they also used homemade grenades. During the melee, 16 police officers were injured, one of them critically. The spray of bullets also hit a number of houses in the area leaving pockmarks in walls. Fortunately, no innocent bystanders were injured. Also during the gun battle, 26 year old Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed and his 19-year-old brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was injured but escaped in the Mercedes. The SUV owner left his cell phone in his car when he escaped his kidnappers, and this helped the police track the vehicle to Watertown, a suburb of Boston.
Then on April 19, 238 years to the day after the Boston colonists dedicated themselves to liberty with their lives, residents of the Boston metropolitan area awoke to find themselves and virtually their entire city under siege. Police and National Guard had imposed an unprecedented total lockdown on the city and its surrounding suburbs after the police officer at MIT was killed. Residents were asked to “shelter in place,” which is an order to stay indoors. Police cordoned off a 20-block area of Watertown, MA and instructed residents not to answer the door, unless instructed to do so by a uniformed police officer.
The entire public transit network was suspended. Businesses, banks and schools were closed including the sprawling campuses of Harvard University and MIT. Public areas were taken over by police as “staging areas.” City offices, town halls, and courthouses were closed and public services cancelled. Busses and taxis were pulled off the streets. Subways, trams and Amtrak trains were halted. Major league sporting events were cancelled, trash collection was cancelled to keep the trucks off the streets, and even reporters were told to back off, and turn off their cell phones. Residents were instructed to stay in their homes for their own safety as the fugitive was thought to be armed, and so that they would not get in the way of the police. The fear of further violence and the overwhelming and intimidating show of force compelled the residents to obey the orders of the police.
“From Dudley Square to the Seaport, Cambridge to Kenmore Square, businesses [were] shuttered, streets remained empty, sidewalks abandoned, entire office blocks uninhabited.” It was like a ghost town.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said, “There is a massive manhunt under way… We are asking people to shelter in place.” The broad region-wide lockdown was intended to find a single suspect, a 19-year-old fugitive. They did not do that to find the Washington DC sniper who terrorized the whole city for many days a few years ago, killing and maiming people from the trunk of a car with a rifle and a silencer. But now citizens are ready for more totalitarian rule at least on a temporary basis.
Metropolitan Boston remains under siege as police continue manhunt for Marathon bomber
‘We got him!’: Boston bombing suspect captured alive
Police converge on neighborhood outside Boston
“The region felt as if it had been gripped by martial law.” Armored vehicles, tanks, swat teams and police in flak jackets and military style helmets, carrying heavy weaponry, made it appear like a military invasion, as an uncomfortable and eerie silence descended upon the region. “Police… patrolled deserted streets in Boston, Watertown, Cambridge, Waltham, Newton, Belmont, and Brookline. Frightened and intimidated residents hunkered down inside their homes, afraid to leave as convoys of heavily armed vehicles roamed the streets, and helicopters circled overhead. Police officers and National Guard troops in tactical military gear arrived by the hour, and snipers perched on rooftops and took up positions in backyards. Massachusetts Governor Patrick urged citizens to yield to police orders. “Keep the doors locked and [do not] open the door unless there is a uniformed, identified law enforcement officer on the other side of it requesting to come inside, he said.”
Police conducted an unprecedented door-to-door manhunt without search warrants, ordering some residents to come out on the street with shouts of “hands up” while they searched their homes for the fugitive. The whole event was very frightening.
Most people didn’t seem to mind, however, that their city was in lockdown. Many didn’t even notice that their constitutional rights were annulled for a day. They were fearful that the suspect would harm more people. They were just glad that the bombing suspect was being hunted down.
But one insightful commentator said, ““The power of the police to ‘lockdown’ a city is an authoritarian, borderline totalitarian power.” Then he added, “I fear they would welcome the abolition of liberty altogether, given their reaction [to the lockdown]… If we cannot look at the police reaction… very critically, there is really no hope for even moderate protection of our civil liberties today.”
Pictures:
BATTLEFIELD USA: De Facto State of Martial Law Declared In Boston Pics From the War Zone
Respect for the natural rights of a person and his property are at the foundation of any civilized society. When government transgresses these, even temporarily, it becomes clear to keen observers that the citizens no longer actually possess those rights. In the eyes of the government the citizens are their property.
This was the first time, since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 that a terrorist attack was successful in the United States. The show of force was the first major field test of the interagency task force created in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
If two criminals can shut down an entire city with the help of the government police force, then terrorism is actually winning, even as people cheered them when the fugitive was arrested.
Watertown became the epicenter of the search. When the house-to-house search yielded nothing, the police lifted the “stay indoors” order about 7 p.m. As people began to wander outside their homes, wondering what to make of it all, suddenly shots rang out and people fled back into their homes for cover.
A resident outside the search area, “had gone outside [of his house] to smoke and noticed a tarp on [his] boat was flapping. When he went to investigate, he saw what looked like a curled-up person and bloody clothes.” The man called the police. After a helicopter confirmed that a person was hiding in the boat through thermal imaging, police confronted him. They opened gunfire and used flash-bang grenades designed to disorient him. About 2 hours later, just before 9 p.m., the wounded Tsarnaev was taken into custody.
There was rejoicing in the streets as people applauded in joy and relief. Cops cheered at the arrest. Later, the people of Watertown flooded the streets, cheering every passing police car and armored vehicle in an impromptu parade. Chants of “USA! USA!” broke out. In Boston, people danced in the streets outside Fenway Park.
“We are so grateful to be here right now, so grateful to able to bring justice and closure to this case,” Massachusetts State Police Col. Timothy Alben said at a briefing. “We’re exhausted, folks, but we have a victory here.”
The Boston Lockdown: Bill of what?
Think about it for a minute. Martial law did not catch the suspect. He wasn’t even in the cordoned off section of Watertown, but in a nearby area. All the intimidating swat teams, police with military gear, heavy weaponry, all the armored vehicles and tanks were not the ones who found the suspect. They were used to terrorize and intimidate the citizens in the name of protecting them. It was all an unprecedented overreaction. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was discovered in the old fashioned way; by an alert normal citizen, a regular guy, who noticed something wrong about his boat in the back yard, and called the police.
President Obama said ‘The people of Massachusetts now owe federal and local law enforcement a debt of gratitude,’ as if they were the great heroes. But in reality, they owe a debt of gratitude to the man who called the police when he noticed his boat tarp flapping in the breeze. The military style lockdown was unsuccessful in terms of finding the suspect. But it was successful in controlling a city of over a million people. The president’s remark will certainly strengthen the notion in the minds of American citizens that they need the massive, coordinated and overwhelming show of police power to make them feel safe. Do you think we’ll see more of this type of lockdown in the future?
One commentator put it this way. “By effectively occupying a part of the Boston metro area they made an utter mockery of the 4th Amendment… Not only did they search without a warrant, there were multiple reports through the day of seizure of firearms, among other things.”
Why does Boston celebrate Martial Law with chants of ‘USA, USA’?
To put it into perspective, if a Boston style bombing happened every week, America would be terrorized, and quite a different place. But the homicide rate would only go up perhaps 1 percent at the most. In other words, there are so many murders in the major cities of America (and for that matter, around the world), that the cities should be in lockdown all the time already. The fact that they are not reveals that the government uses the lockdown tactic when it suits its purpose; when it can justify the imposition of an authoritarian regime, even if only temporary. And people tend to tolerate extreme police powers when they perceive that it is necessary and only temporary. “Lockdown,” by the way, is a term used in prisons to forcefully control the prisoners. It is interesting that this is a term being used in reference to cities and hundreds of thousands of regular citizens and residents. What would happen if such incidents were more regular or larger and more deadly than the Boston bombing? Injuring or maiming more than 260 people is not very nice at all, but ultimately it is a relatively small event.
What if the emergency persists? If regular attacks of this nature occurred in cities around America, or if a larger attack such as a dirty bomb blew up in some big city killing thousands, what would the people want, or expect from their government? Based on their response to the Boston manhunt, they would likely welcome the loss of all their liberty in order to have a measure of security.
Is it any wonder that God wants his people out of the cities? They are dangerous prisons. But many of God’s people are not interested in following His counsel. It is not easy to do, I might add. But God promises that he will make a way for those who sincerely, wish to do so.
“What is this world coming to? ’’asked Guy Dixon, a maintenance and security worker at a rooming house for women. “This is too close to home.”
And this is truly the real question. What IS the world coming to? The world, my friends, is coming to its great and final crisis. It is increasingly violent as it was in the time of Noah before the great natural disaster that destroyed the world by a flood. Many people revel in violence whether they are the criminals or the police, whether it is live or on television.
But there is an underlying reason why the bombing in Boston happened, as evil and tragic as it was. Here is a statement from Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 9, and Page 11. Listen carefully.
“We are living in the time of the end. The fast-fulfilling signs of the times declare that the coming of Christ is near at hand. The days in which we live are solemn and important. The Spirit of God is gradually but surely being withdrawn from the earth. Plagues and judgments are already falling upon the despisers of the grace of God. The calamities by land and sea, the unsettled state of society, the alarms of war, are portentous. They forecast approaching events of the greatest magnitude.”
“The agencies of evil are combining their forces and consolidating. They are strengthening for the last great crisis. Great changes are soon to take place in our world, and the final movements will be rapid ones.”
Are great changes taking place to America and the world? I’ll continue reading.
“The condition of things in the world shows that troublous times are right upon us. The daily papers are full of indications of a terrible conflict in the near future. Bold robberies are of frequent occurrence. Strikes are common. Thefts and murders are committed on every hand. Men possessed of demons are taking the lives of men, women, and little children. Men have become infatuated with vice, and every species of evil prevails.”
Most people cannot see that the increasing crime and bloodshed is because the Spirit God is gradually withdrawn. In Boston, men who were possessed of demons took human life in a senseless way, including an eight year old boy. There was theft, and robbery, murder all combined in one incident. These are direct harbingers of the chaos and conflict that is just ahead of God’s people.
But the consequences are designed by Satan to promote his goals, namely the destruction of the U.S. Constitution and other similar constitutions around the western, formerly Protestant countries, which include all the countries that were once part of the British Empire. The goal is the centralization of control over the whole world under Satan’s leadership.
Because of the fear and insecurity that terrorism wreaks on society, the national leaders and enforcement agencies have a reason to increase their control over their citizens and undermine their constitution and remove their liberties. This suits both Satan and the Vatican. And it is very difficult to argue against greater controls. After all, people think that the only way to lose the fear is to give away their rights and freedoms. Just go through an airport these days. You have to submit to warrantless searches every time you go through security procedures. Friends, Americans are ready for martial law. They are also ready for more dictatorial control over their lives when there is enough fear and terror. This is one of the great lessons of Boston. People cheered the very ones who took away their rights, freedoms and liberties for a period of time.
This is serious stuff because it brings us down to the very point that has been predicted by the following statement found in Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5, and Page 451. There is a threefold process going on all at once. The Holy Spirit is being withdrawn from the earth; crime, immorality and violence in all forms is greatly increasing, and America is getting closer and closer to the Vatican. In the process, we are losing our constitutional freedoms gradually, in the name of fighting terror and crime; we are increasingly vulnerable to the judgments of God and the consequences of a corrupt society. At the same time, Rome is standing in the wings, waiting until conditions are right to guide America into becoming the dragon power that will persecute God’s people. Here is the statement.
“When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near.”
So, the loss of constitutional freedoms is prophetically and directly connected to the increasing collaboration between the United States and the Vatican. It is also connected to the withdrawal of the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit. Eventually, the restraint of the Holy Spirit will be so seriously rejected, that the majority of the people can no longer hear the still small voice, and the restraint will no longer have an effect. That is talking about the time when the restraint on the wicked will be removed. That is when the nations will enact a Sunday law to protect the people from the judgments of God. It is also the time when Jesus ceases his intercession and leaves the heavenly sanctuary, which is also the time of the close of human probation. Listen to this statement from Great Controversy, page 614.
“When He leaves the sanctuary, darkness covers the inhabitants of the earth. In that fearful time the righteous must live in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor. The restraint which has been upon the wicked is removed, and Satan has entire control of the finally impenitent. God’s long-suffering has ended. The world has rejected His mercy, despised His love, and trampled upon His law. The wicked have passed the boundary of their probation; the Spirit of God, persistently resisted, has been at last withdrawn. Unsheltered by divine grace, they have no protection from the wicked one. Satan will then plunge the inhabitants of the earth into one great, final trouble. As the angels of God cease to hold in check the fierce winds of human passion, all the elements of strife will be let loose. The whole world will be involved in ruin more terrible than that which came upon Jerusalem of old.”
Can you imagine what that will be like, my friends!? The lockdown in Boston is merely a hint of what is to come, my friends. The bombings at the Boston Marathon showed us how fragile life and social tranquility are. The lockdown in Boston shows us how fragile liberty really is.
The overthrow of the U.S. Constitution is the aim. Then other nations will follow and do the same thing. While the focus is presently on terrorism, it is God’s people that Satan is aiming for ultimately. Eventually, he will have the system in place to destroy them if they resist him. He can then create such havoc (with God’s permission), that the population will demand more dictatorial powers, even over religion and clamor for religious laws to return the nation back to God.
The manhunt in Boston is not the first attempt to destroy the U.S. Constitution. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. Constitution took a major hit in that the United States started publically practicing the very same principles used by the Roman Catholic Inquisition of the Middle Ages, which the Constitution was designed to prevent, such as torture in secret prisons, indefinite detention without the benefit of legal counsel, assumption of guilt and much more. Of course, it was done to enemy combatants, as they were called. But in more recent times, some of these same principles and even more deadly ones are being used on U.S. citizens, such as extra-judicial killings, or assassinations, revocation of constitutional protections for some types of crimes, etc. And it is being publically justified by the U.S. Justice Department on the basis that we are in an indefinite war with terrorists, and that it is ok to do this to such villains as Muslim extremists.
Prophetic Intelligence Briefing: “The Power Claimed by Kings and Tyrants”–
The U.S. Constitution has been under assault from a number of different directions for a very long time, even by some of those who are given the responsibility to protect it. For instance, in February of 2012, Ruth Bader Ginsberg of the U.S. Supreme Court went to Egypt during the transition to the Islamic government. She recommended that the Egyptian government look to South Africa’s constitution as a model for its new constitution. She basically said that the U.S. Constitution was an old document and wasn’t so relevant anymore.
“I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012,” she said in a television interview. “I might look at the constitution of South Africa…”
If a Supreme Court justice has more respect for the South African Constitution than the U.S. Constitution, why is she a U.S. Supreme Court justice? Can we expect her to defend the constitution, if she can’t recommend it to other nations in modern times? And Ginsberg is not the only one on the court who despises the U.S. Constitution. There are others. Keep in mind that there are six Roman Catholics on the Supreme Court of the United States, who would be biased against its protection. Ginsberg is a Jew, and should have a strong loyalty to the principles enshrined in the Constitution, particularly the first amendment concerning religious liberty. After all, the Jews were persecuted for centuries by the Papacy. But she doesn’t seem to see the connection.
Justice Ginsberg also suggested that Egypt look to Canada’s 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It happens that the very charter she referred to is being used in Canada today to quash any free speech, freedom of the press, and any other freedoms that publically and morally oppose gay rights. This tramples on religious freedom.
Canadian Supreme Court Rules Biblical Speech Opposing Homosexual Behavior is a ‘Hate Crime’
Justice Ginsberg has gone on record saying that she considers foreign law when making decisions for the United States Supreme Court. She believes that the constitution is a living document and should be interpreted based on the needs of the times in which we live. That may sound good, but it basically opens the door to do the very thing that prophecy has predicted, remove the precious liberties contained in the Bill of Rights when it is deemed necessary, and in emergencies establish dictatorial control over the people.
Ginsburg to Egyptians: I wouldn’t use U.S. Constitution as a model
Even conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, sided with the liberals, when he broke a tie and supported the unconstitutional Obamacare law. In reality, he sided with the Catholic Church and its social doctrine in doing so. The Church urges governments to take more and more responsibility for the social welfare of its citizens, and the socialist Affordable Health Care act is just one way this is done. But this also means that the government takes more control of its citizens as well.
Chief Justice Roberts does the right thing on ObamaCare
The Catholic Church despises the U.S. Bill of Rights and is working very hard to undermine it in favor of centralized control of society in America. It may well be that Justice Roberts consults the bishops, or the Jesuits or other Catholic leaders from time to time, behind the scenes.
There are many other examples of ways in which the U.S. Constitution is being undermined, but these should suffice.
From the Review and Herald, November 22, 1906 we read the following. “Probationary time will not continue much longer. God is withdrawing his restraining hand from the earth. Long has he been speaking to men and women through the agency of his Holy Spirit; but they have not heeded the call. Now he is speaking to his people, and to the world, by his judgments. The time of these judgments is a time of mercy for those who have not yet had opportunity to learn what is truth. Tenderly will the Lord look upon them. His heart of mercy is touched; his hand is still stretched out to save. Large numbers will be admitted to the fold of safety who in these last days will hear the truth for the first time.”
Friends, Jesus is still in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary interceding for us. His work there is to send us His power to purify our lives so that He can end this nightmare of conflicting issues and chaos; this world of sin and violence. Don’t wait for more undermining of the U.S. Constitution to start getting ready for the coming of the Lord. This is the time now. These things are warning signs that help us see that we are nearing the very end.
Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we see the world around us is becoming more wicked and chaotic. We also see that we are gradually losing our liberties as the Bible has predicted. Help us to make the choice to yield our lives to Christ and live every day for Him… Please send us Your Holy Spirit to give us power and victory over temptation. May our choices reflect the love of God and His power to overcome sin. Bless our families. Bless our homes and our schools. Bless our churches that they may fully reflect the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. And we will give You the glory and honor, In Jesus name, amen.