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The Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday begins today and is being marked by a stampede in Mecca in which 717 people were crushed and killed.
Eid is the time when Hajj pilgrims come from around the world to visit their holy city of Mecca. Everyone is supposed to do this at least once in their life time if they are able.
They also visit the city of Mina about three miles away, where they symbolically stone the devil.
Mina is where pilgrims carry out a symbolic stoning of the devil by throwing pebbles against three stone columns. It also houses more than 160,000 tents where pilgrims spend the night during the pilgrimage.
Two weeks ago on September 11, a large crane collapsed during a sandstorm, killing 111 pilgrims. Perhaps the devil objected to his stoning this year and was fighting back.
Speaking of symbolic acts, the September 11 crane accident was blamed on the construction company, the Saudi Binladen Group, which for years has been partners with the Bush family. It is the family that produced Osama Binladen, whose CIA code name was Tim Osman back in the days when he was a CIA asset. In the link above we read:
Thursday's crush happened less than two weeks after a giant construction crane came crashing down on the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the focal point of the hajj. The Sept. 11 accident killed at least 111 people and injured more than 390.
Authorities blamed the crane collapse on high winds during an unusually powerful storm, and faulted the construction giant Saudi Binladin Group, which oversees construction at the mosque, for not following operating procedures.
If this accident had been the result of sabotage, I would have suspected CIA involvement, but a windstorm makes it a natural disaster, i.e., an “Act of God.”
It seems that neither God nor the devil are very happy with Mecca these days.
A “Big” Event Coming Soon
Yesterday I was informed from afar of a prophetic word that “in a few days something big will happen.” The nature of this big event is unclear. It may be a cataclysmic event such as a natural disaster, or it may be something more positive. By the context of the word, it appears to be “a glorious event,” but the problem is that God sees things from His own perspective, not through man’s eyes. So it is difficult to pinpoint its meaning.
I believe it speaks of a natural disaster, whose ultimate outcome will prove to be positive, in that it will speed up the establishment of the Kingdom. Whatever it is, I do not think that the stampede in Mecca today is the fulfillment of this, although one never knows. Every event, regardless of its magnitude, has consequences, and sometimes it takes time to clarify these results.
Speaking of consequences…
The Volkswagen Scandal
The CEO of Volkswagen was ranked 58th among the most powerful men in the world (including politicians and kings). He resigned yesterday in the wake of a scandal, after it was discovered that the company was cheating on its emission standards. It seems that when their autos were being inspected, the software made it look good, but when it got out on the road, they were polluting the air.
Now other executives are being fired for their involvement or culpability.
Hopefully, these are not just scapegoats but are the real culprits. Some of these will probably do jail time. The class-action law suits are just now beginning. This is going to cost Volkswagen many billions of dollars just to fix the autos themselves, to say nothing of the fines and the lawsuits.
At the same time, public confidence in the company has dropped dramatically. Few people now want to buy a Volkswagen, and even if they wanted one, sales are banned in America and probably in Europe, too. It’s hard to see how the company can avoid bankruptcy.
Since Volkswagen is one of the pillars of the German economy, this could have political consequences to the Eurozone itself, especially if Deutsche Bank goes bankrupt soon.
Deutsche Bank
The bank has been paying large fines for its illicit activities in recent years, especially for its role in the 2008 bank crisis. It laid off 1900 employees in 2012….
another 500 last year….
http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/127074/deutsche-bank-plans-more-layoffs
and now another 23,000 this year, which is 25% of its work force.
http://marketbusinessnews.com/deutsche-bank-cutting-workforce-by-25-percent/106817
“Deutsche Bank plans to cut its workforce by 25 percent, according to financial sources....
“The company’s share price has been hit hard because of rising costs and hefty fines.”
Banks don’t normally reduce their work force unless they are having financial difficulties or unless they see economic problems in the future.
The Fed
The Fed’s reasons for not raising interest rates earlier this week were quite lame, in the opinion of various economists. Janet Yellen claimed to want more proof or confirmation in regard to the unemployment rate, obviously because she knows that the figures are manipulated and do not really reflect the true unemployment rate.
She also used volatility in China and in the US markets in general as an excuse. However, such volatility is here to stay, as long as the present system is in place. If this excuse is her genuine concern, then she is telling everyone that they will NEVER raise interest rates again. This, of course, has been forecasted by more than one economist. They say that since the US debt level has doubled during the Obama administration’s time in office, any rise in interest rates would make US debt unsustainable. Hence, they are locked into zero interest rates. Likewise, any rise in interest rates would bankrupt the big banks, which hold hundreds of trillions of dollars worth of derivatives that depend on zero interest rates.
I find this interesting, because it appears that God has forced the Fed to comply with biblical law which bans interest on money. If they do raise interest rates, it will either be an act of stupidity or a deliberate attempt to crash the economy in order to create chaos and to justify a final power grab.
Pope Francis Visits Congress
The city we now call Washington D.C. was built on land originally owned by a Roman Catholic named Francis Pope. David Ovason writes of this in his book, The Secret Architecture of our Nation’s Capital, page 8, 9,
“In 1663 the owner of this tract of land had been one Francis Pope. It has been suggested that Pope was slyly joking with his own name when he called the hill Rome—and the inlet marking the western boundary of his land the Tiber, after the famous river of the ancient city….
“Indeed, the story might easily be taken for the stuff of myth, were it not supported by a long manuscript in the Maryland State Archives, at Annapolis. The deed, dated June 5, 1663, is in the name of Francis Pope, and sets out the basis for a survey and granting of a strip of land called Rome, bounded by the inlet called Tiber.”
Today, Pope Francis is addressing Congress in Washington D.C., originally known as “Rome.” It is interesting that the 266th pope chose the 266th day of the year to address Congress.
President Obama met with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome on July 10, 2009.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/International/story?id=8049308&page=1
July 10 (7/10) has always been a prophetic type of the Day of Atonement, which is 7/10 on the Hebrew calendar.
It is interesting that Pope Francis visited President Obama on the Day of Atonement yesterday, September 23, 2015, or 7/10 on the Hebrew calendar.
There are 2266 days between these two visits. We might interpret this as a double 266, as in (1) Pope Francis being the 266th Pope, and (2) this being the 266th day of the year.
Furthermore, 9/23 is the Pope's 923rd day in office as pope.
In 2009, President Obama visited Pope Benedict immediately after visiting the tomb of Pope Celestine IV (1294 A.D.), who had declared a Jubilee of sorts. He said that anyone visiting his home church in L’Aquila, Italy, would receive full forgiveness of sin and would therefore spend no time in Purgatory. That church was rocked by an earthquake on April 6, 2009, just a few months before President Obama visited it at the G-8 summit that took place there. (From there, he went to the Vatican to visit Pope Benedict.)
Does any of this have prophetic significance? I have no doubt that it is indeed prophetic, although the full meaning will remain unclear until events unfold in the future.
Meanwhile, while Pope Francis was on his way to address Congress, he surprised everyone by visiting a group of nuns called “Little Sisters of the Poor.” These nuns had filed a lawsuit over the Obamacare contraception mandate.
After making a passing reference to the "innocent victims of abortion" while addressing the bishops, Pope Francis made a previously unannounced visit with the Little Sisters of the Poor, the group of nuns who went to court to fight the Affordable Care Act's requirement that employers provide health insurance that covers birth control….
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said Pope Francis made a short stop at the sisters' Washington convent, which is next door to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, where he celebrated Mass and made 18th-century Spanish missionary Junípero Serra a saint. "This is a sign, obviously, of support for them" in their legal case, Lombardi said.
The nuns, along with other religious groups, argued that Obamacare's contraception mandate forced them to violate their belief that life begins at conception.
So as you can see, there is lots happening this week. The significance of these events will be seen later.
Dr. Stephen Jones has been writing blog posts since 2005 on a variety of topics from Bible Studies to World News, and he has been writing books since 1992. Dr. Jones' most important writings came after God brought him back into the full-time ministry in 1991. It is here that all his earlier years of searching the Scriptures began to come into clear focus. He combines a knowledge of the Old and New Testaments with a personal revelation of God that began and developed during the "wilderness" period of his life, which he often refers to as God's True Bible College... Read More
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