Watchman Newsletter

2008: A Year in Review — What Holly Thinks

Fulfilled Prophecy (Link) - Holly Pivec (December 30, 2008)

A financial crisis led to calls for a new global order — an order that seemed unachievable given the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East. The Annapolis process attempted to calm the turmoil and failed, but found new life as it won the backing of the international community. The key to peace in our time? Religions working together. History may dub 2008 the year of the interfaith movement — not realizing that good intentions will pave the path for the False Prophet.

New Global Order

• G-20 leaders launched an action plan to create a “new world economic order.” See more
• The UK’s prime minister, Gordon Brown, said now is the time to build a global society, led by the European Union and the United States. See more
• The Center for Strategic & International Studies issued a report calling for a new global order with the EU and NATO at the core. See more
• The World Council of Churches called for a new international financial structure. See more
• Barack Obama planned to strengthen the relationship between the United States and the United Nations. See more

Middle East Peace

• The UN adopted a measure backing the Annapolis process. See more
• Informal talks between Syria and Israel were relaunched after eight years. (This week, Syria suspended the talks due to the Israeli attacks on Gaza.) See more
• The EU’s Javier Solana positioned himself to take the diplomatic lead in the Middle East during the transition in the U.S. administration. See more, and here, here, and here.
• Evangelical leaders urged Obama to make Mideast peace a priority. See more
• The Union of the Mediterranean was launched under the umbrella of Javier Solana’s Barcelona Process. See more

Rise of the Interfaith Movement

• The Tony Blair Faith Foundation was launched. See more
• Rick Warren was appointed an adviser to the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. See more
• The United Nations held an interfaith conference attended by representative of 80 countries, including President Bush. See more
• The Vatican launched a Muslim-Christian dialogue. See more
• National Association of Evangelicals board member Joel Hunter attended the Alliance of Civilizations’ first annual forum. See more
• E.U. high representative Javier Solana and Alliance of Civilizations’ head Jorge Sampaio met to see how the E.U. and Alliance of Civilizations can work together. See more
• The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) issued a declaration to support the Alliance of Civilizations. See more
• A poll revealed that most American Christians say Christianity isn’t the only way to heaven. See more

Holly’s Top Pick for 2008

One of the biggest stories of the year in Europe was the failure of the Lisbon Treaty. Yet the part most people missed is that, without the treaty, Javier Solana and the 10 Brussels Treaty Powers remain in control of the E.U. military. Learn why these 10 nations may be significant to Bible prophecy here.

What did we miss? Let us know what you think. E-mail [email protected]

Related Article 2007: A Prophetic Year in Review

Maitreya Rising?

News With Views (Link) - Paul Proctor (December 19, 2008) Commented

There was a very strange announcement made recently in the form of a press release posted on the Dow Jones & Company’s Market Watch website dated December 12, 2008, that bears mentioning, if for no other reason, because it reads like something from a supermarket tabloid. Come to think of it, didn’t Rupert Murdoch just buy Dow Jones & Company not long ago? If you’re not aware, they also publish, among other things, the Wall Street Journal. Anyway, whether this speaks to the decline of a once great business publication or the growing power and influence of a coming world leader, only time will tell. Either way, it is clearly another ominous sign of the desperate times in which we live.

The article in question titled, Share International Reveals Christmas Miracle, advises readers to prepare for a coming miracle that all of us will see in the sky shortly before the “emergence of Maitreya and his group, the Masters of Wisdom.” Allow me to reiterate: This is a major business and financial news publication – not some obscure blog for Bigfoot hunters and UFO enthusiasts. The article goes on to say:

Look now for the biggest miracle of all. In the very near future a large, bright star will appear in the sky visible to all throughout the world -- night and day.

Unbelievable? Fantasy? No, a simple fact. Around a week later, Maitreya, the World Teacher for all humanity, will begin his open emergence and -- though not yet using the name Maitreya -- will be interviewed on a major US television program.

Who is Maitreya, you ask? The press release describes him this way:

Awaited by all faiths under different names, Maitreya is the Christ to Christians, the Imam Mahdi to Muslims, Krishna to Hindus, the Messiah to Jews, and Maitreya Buddha to Buddhists. He is the World Teacher for all, religious or not, an educator in the broadest sense.

If that doesn’t peg your spiritual discernment meter, you may want to go have it checked.

Many beliefs, many paths to heaven?

USA Today (Link) - Cathy Lynn Grossman (December 18, 2008)

Most American religious believers, including most Christians, say eternal life is not exclusively for those who accept Christ as their savior, a new survey finds. Of the 65% of people who held this open view of heaven's gates, 80% named at least one non-Christian group — Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists or people with no religion at all — who may also be saved, according to a new survey released today by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. This means 52% of Christians do not agree with the doctrines many religions teach, particularly conservative denominations.

Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, calls the findings "a theological crisis for American evangelicals. They represent at best a misunderstanding of the Gospel and at worst a repudiation of the Gospel." This survey on salvation is a follow-up to a highly controversial finding in Pew's Religious Landscape survey, released earlier this year. It detailed the religious demographics, beliefs and behavior of 35,000 U.S. adults surveyed in 2007.

An Enlightened Race?

From the Lighthouse (Link) - Caryl Matrisciana (December 5, 2008)

The Germany of the 1920s and 1930s was in social and economic despair, looking for a leader who would free her from the Great Depression. The man with the promise of hope was Adolph Hitler. A man with an affinity for the occult and "an abiding belief in astrology,"1 he claimed he was ordained by God to usher in one thousand years of peace and prosperity with a super race of humans. A student of Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine (the Theosophical Society's "bible"), Hitler manipulated an entire nation to surrender its collective mind to him.2

Aryanism, the belief in a super-race, is a foundational teaching of Hinduism's caste system. It was also Hitler's twisted rationale for the annihilation of six million Jews and additional millions of other "impure" racial and societal strains. This same attitude of elitism breeds the New Age viewpoint of man's coming "quantum leap in the evolution of consciousness" that will create a new "awakened" and "enlightened" race.3 But there won't be any room for those who resist this transformed mystical world.

Gurus excuse away the madness and cruelty of the Holocaust as being the result of inadequate karma. Even Gandhi pleaded with the British to surrender to Hitler. "Hitler is not a bad man," he told them.4

The Coming Kingdom: Evolution or Revolution

Herescope (Link) - Pastor Larry DeBruyn (November 17, 2008)

In recent years, Christendom’s thinkers have offered a smorgasbord of ideas and theories about Jesus, thus begging the question—will the real Jesus please stand up? If one pays attention to the Jesus revisionists, we are left with the impression that nobody really understood Him, not even the Apostle Paul. To some, Jesus is a white Caucasian, and to others He’s a black African. To some, He was a revolutionary, and to others a pacifist. To some, He’s a prophet, while to others He’s a Gnostic. From teacher to magician, Jesus, it seems, can become almost anyone to everyone—a man for all seasons. So, it is supposed, if we earnestly “quest” after Him, we might discover the authentic Jesus. However, Jesus “makeovers” usually require that disparate parts of the biblical record be affirmed on the one hand, and denied on the other. But amidst all this “Jesus questing,” the believer can take solace in knowing that controversy over Jesus’ identity is not new (See Matthew 16:13-20.).

As he embraces “the nonviolent Jesus of the Gospels” (the Jesus of “love and grace”), one Christian leader now debunks what he labels the “jihadist Jesus” of the “Second Coming” (the Jesus of “violence and domination”). According to Brian McLaren, “the Second Coming Jesus”—once held by an evangelical consensus to be one of the five fundamentals of the Christian faith—needs rethinking.[1]