The Trumpet Herald

Giving the trumpet a certain sound

November 2010

Pope Attempts History Revision

A recent article challenges the Pope’s account of the historical relationship between the Roman Catholic church and the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler.

The pope is at it again. In a speech before the Queen of England last week, Pope Benedict XVI carefully revised the history of what led up to the scourge of Nazism during World War II. He said, “Even in our own lifetime, we can recall how Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews, who were thought unfit to live” (emphasis mine throughout).

But was it really a godless society in Germany that led to the Nazi atrocities? Benedict, who was a registered member of Hitler Youth at 14 and served in the Germany Army at 16, said he recalled the regime’s attitude toward religion and Christian pastors “who spoke the truth in love, opposed the Nazis and paid for that opposition with their lives.” ...

Benedict concluded, “As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the 20th century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society. …”

Of course, it was actually the inclusion of “God” and religious ideology that provided the Nazi regime its greatest source of inspiration. Adolf Hitler himself was a deeply religious man and wanted to be seen as a religious figure.

“We are not a movement—rather we are a religion,” Hitler said about his regime (Robert G.L. Waite, The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler).

“Christ was the greatest early fighter in the battle against the world enemy, the Jews,” Hitler said in 1926. “The work that Christ started but could not finish, I—Adolf Hitler—will conclude” (John Toland, Adolf Hitler). He even said he learned from the Jesuit order “above all.”

While other influences, like social Darwinism, might have contributed to Nazi doctrine, this fact remains: Most Nazis believed in God and claimed to be doing the work of God.

And to suggest that the Vatican stood against Hitler’s psychopathic religion is yet another blatant attempt to revise the historical record.

The Vatican was actually Nazism’s chief enabler (“Benedict Revises the Historical Record," www.thetrumpet.com, Sept. 24, 2010).

Inspired commentary

Inspiration has described the continuing nature of the papacy.

The papacy is just what prophecy declared that she would be, the apostasy of the latter times. 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4. It is a part of her policy to assume the character which will best accomplish her purpose; but beneath the variable appearance of the chameleon she conceals the invariable venom of the serpent. “Faith ought not to be kept with heretics, nor persons suspected of heresy” (Lenfant, volume 1, page 516), she declares. Shall this power, whose record for a thousand years is written in the blood of the saints, be now acknowledged as a part of the church of Christ? (The Great Controversy, p. 571)

Lee Hamilton Sees More Trouble Ahead

Lee Hamilton, 79, former Congressman; Former President, Wilson International Center, retired recently after 40 years of public service. He was interviewed on National Public Radio by Steve Inskeep about his experiences.

INSKEEP: What worries you the most about the future?

Mr. HAMILTON: Whether this nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

INSKEEP: You just quoted Lincoln’s Gettysburg address.

Mr. HAMILTON: That’s correct. That was the operational question at Gettysburg. It’s the operational question today. I worry a lot more than most people, I think, about our ability internally to deal with our problems than I do about external problems. But I really wonder whether this country, moving in the direction it can, can solve the problems it has in front of it and continue to be number one in the world.

INSKEEP: You mean economic problems, political problems?

Mr. HAMILTON: I mean all kinds of problems: cultural, economic, political -obviously, the deficit problems and our budget. We're spending far more money than we have. We’re consuming far more than we produce. You just can’t keep that up on the economic side.

The big question in foreign policy today, the toughest question any American president confronts is: When do I intervene? I come out of Iraq and Afghanistan a lot more conservative. I think America has an enormously important role to play in the world. But I also come away now thinking that we’re not quite as able to solve a lot of these problems in the world as we might have thought at one time (“Lee Hamilton Shares Memories From His Public Life,” www.npr.org, Sept. 27, 2010).

Inspired commentary

Inspiration also writes about future social stresses and what some of the outcome will be:

Satan puts his interpretation upon events, and they think, as he would have them, that the calamities which fill the land are a result of Sunday-breaking. Thinking to appease the wrath of God, these influential men make laws enforcing Sunday observance. They think that by exalting this false rest day higher and still higher, compelling obedience to the Sunday law, the spurious sabbath, they are doing God service. Those who honor God by observing the true Sabbath are looked upon as disloyal to God, when it is really those who thus regard them who are themselves disloyal because they are trampling under foot the Sabbath originated in Eden (Manuscript Releases, v. 10, p. 239).

Canadian Court Voids Prostitution Laws

An Ontario court has thrown out key provisions of Canada’s anti-prostitution laws in response to a constitutional challenge by a Toronto dominatrix and two prostitutes in 2009.

Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice ruled Tuesday the Criminal Code provisions relating to prostitution contribute to the danger faced by sex-trade workers (“Prostitution laws struck down by Ont. Court,” www.cbc.ca, Sept. 28, 2010).

The Ontario Attorney General is reportedly considering an appeal of the decision. One of the “sex workers” who brought the case commented:

“It’s like emancipation day for sex-trade workers,” said Bedford, adding the ball is now in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s court. “The federal government must now take a stand and clarify what is legal and not legal between consenting adults in private” (ibid.).

Inspired commentary

News reports indicate that western societies are continuing to divorce morality from public life. The Bible predictions regarding the “last days” are being fulfilled.

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; (2 Timothy 3:1-4).