PROPHETIC INTELLIGENCE BRIEFINGS

Prophetic Intelligence Briefings
Storms Spread Death and Damage · April 19, 2011

A string of deadly tornados in a storm system with its roots in the Pacific Ocean blasted through the U.S. Midwest and central East coast over three days in April, killing at least 43 people and injuring hundreds. More than 90 twisters were recorded; nearly a new record number for one storm system, leaving millions of dollars in damage, horrified residents and crippled businesses.

The tornados “reached their zenith on Saturday night in North Carolina.” April and May are the worst months for tornados in the Southern U.S., but this one “was unusual for its size and duration, officials said. The storm would calm itself a bit at night and then gain renewed strength with the day’s heat,” said a meteorologist. Storms in the region can be severe but smaller in size. It is unusual for so many tornados to come from one storm system.

The storm system and its family of tornados caused flash floods and giant balls of hail in Oklahoma. Furious driving rain and other storm damage was felt as far northeast as New York. Emergency rescue crews went from house to house looking for dead or injured residents. The number of dead is expected to rise. When one tornado would dissipate another rotating updraft would crop up and went on for several hours as the storm galloped across the Southeast U.S.

The record was set in 2008 when a string of tornados claimed 56 lives.

“In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power.” Great Controversy, p. 589-590.

New York Times Article

rophetic Intelligence Briefings
Lebanon Wonders After… · April 05, 2011

Benedict XVI met with Michel Suleiman, president of Lebanon in late February. As usual, the Lebanese president met with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Pontiff’s secretary of state, and Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for relations with states.

The discussions highlighted the role of Lebanon, which tolerates a coexistence of a mix of religious cultures including Christian and Muslims, and promoted further ecumenical discussions.

The discussion also addressed the conflicts in the Middle East and the Lebanese and Vatican role in helping to resolve them.

The Lebanese constitution of 1926 requires that the president be a Maronite Christian (a distinct Catholic rite). The executive counsel of ministers is presided over by a Sunni Muslim. It is claimed that this provides stability though Lebanon has had its share of violence in recent years.

“All the world wondered after the beast.” Revelation 13:3.

Zenit

Prophetic Intelligence Briefings
Lutheran and Catholics in Ecumenical Ceremony · April 01, 2011

The president of the Vatican’s Christian unity council joined with a Lutheran delegation in a ceremony at St. Paul’s which showed “that the dialogue between the two communities has become a reality of life and that the ecumenical commitment of the Catholic Church… is irrevocable and irreversible.” Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity participated in the event, which took place during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

United Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Germany, led by Bishop Dr. Johannes Friedrich also participated in the event. The group planted and blessed an olive tree as a sign of the ecumenical communion between Catholics and Lutherans.

The tree planting ceremony is part of the “Luther’s Garden” project in Wittenberg, Germany. The garden was opened in 2008, and according to the Lutheran World Federation, is designed to symbolize the “global magnitude of the Reformation,” as well as the “interconnectedness, interaction, and reconciliation between Christian churches.” Different ecclesial groups around the world are being invited to sponsor the 500 trees projected to be planted in the garden, a fitting symbol to the advancement of the ecumenical agenda.

During the event, the Evangelical-Lutheran delegation was received in private audience by Benedict XVI. The Lutheran delegation visited the Vatican for the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s visit to Rome in the year 1510.

Significant of this time, Luther was climbing up Pilate’s staircase on his knees in penance for his sins when he heard a voice say to him: “the just shall live by faith,” a clear indication to him that salvation and forgiveness of sins was through the merits of Christ alone and not the works or deeds of man. (See Romans 1:17). Also at this time the papal indulgences began, the proceeds of which contributed to the construction of St. Peter’s cathedral in Rome. However today, the Lutheran church in homage to the papacy is doing contrary to the teaching of Martin Luther and the Word of God, and is uniting with the apostate Roman Catholic Church.

It seems evident that the road to full, sacramental and ecumenical unity between the Lutheran and the Catholic Churches could be soon.

Zenit News Article

Reformation Article

Prophetic Intelligence Briefings
Protestants and Evangelicals Embrace Doctrine of Universalism · April 04, 2011

“The majority of Protestants and evangelicals believe that good people and people of other religions can go to heaven,” according to Prophecy News Watch.

A survey of 3,000 Americans shows that “American people of faith, though devout, are very tolerant. So much so that most believers also believe that good people, despite their religious affiliation, can go to heaven.”

“Eighty-three per cent of evangelical Protestants and 90 per cent of black Protestants believe good people can go to heaven, and 54 per cent of evangelical Protestants said people of non-Christian religions can go to heaven.”

Universalism is the theological doctrine that all people will eventually be saved despite a relationship with Christ, though the Bible teaches it is the only way to salvation. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” See Acts 4:12.

“Interlocking social networks allows believers to accept tenants of other faiths,” and this is especially true of youths.

Many, once protestant churches, have all-together given up the biblical ideals of salvation and redemption as rooted in Jesus Christ, and have adopted beliefs that are favourable to all and sundry. While the Lord may save those “Gentiles” who “without the law, who do by nature the things” found in the law showing that the law is written in their hearts, it is no excuse for these Gentiles or any other person, to ignore the light of truth in favour of their preferred belief system (See Romans 2:14 – 16).

“For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.” Hebrews 10:26, 27. Scripture teaches that Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life:” and that “no man cometh unto the Father, but by me [Jesus].” John 14:6.

Prophecy News Watch

Prophetic Intelligence Briefings
Jesuits Accused in Lawsuit of Ignoring Abuse · April 08, 2011

In a Chicago lawsuit, victims of sexual abuse by priests accused Jesuit leaders of ignoring or keeping secret numerous and detailed reports about a prominent priest who abused teenage boys for decades. Lawyers said that recently released church documents demonstrated “a reckless disregard for the safety of others in the face of repeated reports of sexual misconduct” on the part of Chicago Jesuit leaders.
“The former priest, Donald J. McGuire, now 80, was convicted on several counts of sex abuse in state and federal courts in 2006 and 2008, and is serving a 25-year federal sentence.”

The lawsuit argues that McGuire’s superiors turned “a blind eye to his criminal actions,” and says there is evidence of a “long trail of credible warnings about the priest’s behavior and ineffective responses by church officials.” The priest was even given directives that were never enforced.

“In depositions and settlement meetings over the last three years, senior Jesuit officials have said that until recent years they had not heard firm-enough evidence of sexual abuse to justify stronger action against Father McGuire.” But that is apparently not true. The motion “charges that the church misled prosecutors in 2006, with its lawyers claiming that they had little information about the priest — despite the lengthy record of complaints.”

McGuire was barred by some Jesuit schools in the 1960s and 1970s for suspicious behavior, including having students share his bedroom.

For about two decades, starting in the early 1980s, [McGuire] was a spiritual adviser to Mother Teresa, who put him in charge of retreats for the nuns in her worldwide order, Missionaries of Charity. He would travel several times each year to India, Russia, throughout the U.S., and other countries, leading retreats. In these travels he took a teenage boy as an “assistant,” saying he “needed help administering his diabetes treatment.” He would abuse them according to the lawsuit.

While teaching at Loyola Academy, a high school in Wilmette, Ill., in the 1960s, “two boys stayed with him in his room for about two years each, where he constantly abused them,” according to his 2006 trial.

McGuire had psychiatric treatment. But in 1991, McGuire travelled with a teenage boy from Alaska and shared a bed with him. His mother said that “her son has in some way changed.”

He was given “guidelines” by his Jesuit superior, to not travel on overnight trips with any boys or girls under 18. But McGuire “was left to police himself.” He was given other restrictions multiple times, but they were never enforced.

After all that, in 1998 the Chicago provincial wrote a letter of “good standing” for Father McGuire to allow him to minister in a diocese, stating that “there is nothing to our knowledge in his background which would restrict any ministry with minors.”
“McGuire was formally removed from the priesthood in February 2008 after a conviction in Wisconsin and after a federal indictment had been issued in Illinois.” Of course the removal should have happened long before it became public. The new documents and the subsequent lawsuit reveal that Jesuit leaders knew for decades that the priest was involved in molesting boys.

The Jesuits are the world’s largest Roman Catholic religious order.

The Bible says, that the corrupt woman (church) is “arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. Revelation 17:4, 5

NY Times