No Such Thing As " Good Friday"

As churches worldwide observe Good Friday in a few days, it makes me just marvel that so many churches and believers just accept this man-made tradition... not realizing or noticing that Jesus died not on Friday, but on Wednesday!

Yes, Wednesday. Never heard that before? Mr Teno Groppi of kjv1611.org makes the biblical case clearly that Jesus died on Wednesday, and rose Saturday night.

Excerpts:

The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be
broken, and that they might be taken away. (John 19:31)

The Catholic church sees a Sabbath day there and knowing that the body must be buried before then, they have Christ going into the tomb on Friday night to beat the deadline. They mistakenly assume it's talking about the Old Testament Saturday (At least they got that much right for once, but even when they're right, they're wrong!) and try to cram 72 hours into 36 or less.

What they didn't notice was that this was an high day, not a normal weekly Sabbath. The high day was the Passover!  It fell on Thursday, and the days of unleavened bread followed (Lev 23:5-7, Num 28:16-17).

Searching the Scripture, we find that the phrase "day of preparation" is never used in the context of a regular Sabbath day.  The day of "preparation" is always speaking of a special Sabbath such as the Passover.

----

How could the Sabbath be past (Mark) if they had to prepare the ointments before the Sabbath (Luke)?  Easy, there were two Sabbaths, the Passover high day (Thursday), and the Saturday Sabbath.  The ladies bought the spices on Friday, between the two Sabbaths.  The Spice stores would've been closed on Thursday and Saturday. Friday was the only possible day they could've bought them.  The Catholic cramming of three days into one, and making two Sabbaths into one, makes this into a contradiction.


Full article here.

See also: The Good Friday Myth -- Jesus died on a Wednesday. 

America's Retirement Crisis: A Concise Guide

In one of the most striking articles I've read in a long time, thisweek.com demonstrates just how much of a looming catastrophe America is facing with it's retirement situation. The days of pensions are fading fast, and most Americans are now responsible to save for their own retirement. The problem is, most of us are doing a poor job of it. Consider this simple statistic: 1 in 4 Americans has less than $1,000 saved for retirement. And most Americans dont have a realistic sense of how much they'll need. Frankly, this is a disaster in the making, a ticking time bomb that's getting little attention from our mainstream media.

It's a complex problem with no simple answers. But my own advice to any and all would be this: Eliminate debt, and start putting away something - anything- as soon as possible. Debt is evil. Debt is bondage. Indeed, the Bible itself speaks strongly against debt, and tells us that "the borrower is the servant to the lender" (Proverbs 22:7).  America's debt problem has us as a nation headed toward almost certain calamity at some point in the future, but we can do what we can, individually, to cushion the blow to ourselves and our loved ones. To those who aren't familiar with him, I highly recommend personal finance expert Dave Ramsey, and his website, daveramsey.com.



From the article:

One in four Americans has less than $1,000 in his retirement savings account, according to the 20th Retirement Confidence Survey, a new study conducted by The Employee Benefit Research Institute that's sending shock waves through the media. Here's a rundown of how we got into this hole, and what you can do to avoid a bleak retirement:

What's the most important conclusion?
Americans aren't saving enough for retirement, and they don't have a realistic sense of how much they'll need. "People just don't want to think about this," says report co-author Jack VanDerhei. "Everybody thinks they're too young to think about it, until suddenly they're too old to do anything about it."

How bad is the situation?
A frightening 27 percent of workers have saved less than $1,000 for their retirement, and 43 percent have less than $10,000. Only 46 percent of American workers have even figured out how much they need for their Golden Years.

But everyone has something put away, right?
No. According to the study, a significant percentage of workers have saved nothing at all, and only 16 percent are "very confident" they'll have enough money to fund their retirement.


Full article: here.

The end of the road for Barack Obama?

A year ago, the thought of Barack Obama being just a one term president, like Jimmy Carter, was almost unthinkable. Now, the idea isnt so crazy after all. 

--------
Telegraph (UK) writer has an interesting article:

It is a universal political truth that administrations do not begin to fragment when things are going well: it only happens when they go badly, and those who think they know better begin to attack those who manifestly do not. The descent of Barack Obama's regime, characterised now by factionalism in the Democratic Party and talk of his being set to emulate Jimmy Carter as a one-term president, has been swift and precipitate. It was just 16 months ago that weeping men and women celebrated his victory over John McCain in the American presidential election. If they weep now, a year and six weeks into his rule, it is for different reasons.


Despite the efforts of some sections of opinion to talk the place up, America is mired in unhappiness, all the worse for the height from which Obamania has fallen. The economy remains troublesome. There is growth – a good last quarter suggested an annual rate of as high as six per cent, but that figure is probably not reliable – and the latest unemployment figures, last Friday, showed a levelling off. Yet 15 million Americans, or 9.7 per cent of the workforce, have no job. Many millions more are reduced to working part-time. Whole areas of the country, notably in the north and on the eastern seaboard, are industrial wastelands. The once mighty motor city of Detroit appears slowly to be being abandoned, becoming a Jurassic Park of the mid-20th century; unemployment among black people in Mr Obama's own city of Chicago is estimated at between 20 and 25 per cent. One senior black politician – a Democrat and a supporter of the President – told me of the wrath in his community that a black president appeared to be unable to solve the economic problem among his own people. Cities in the east such as Newark and Baltimore now have drug-dealing as their principal commercial activity: The Wire is only just fictional.

Last Thursday the House of Representatives passed a jobs Bill, costing $15 billion, which would give tax breaks to firms hiring new staff and, through state sponsorship of construction projects, create thousands of jobs too. The Senate is trying to approve a Bill that would provide a further $150 billion of tax incentives to employers. Yet there is a sense of desperation in the Administration, a sense that nothing can be as efficacious at the moment as a sticking plaster. Edward B Montgomery, deputy labour secretary in the Clinton administration, now spends his time on day trips to decaying towns that used to have a car industry, not so much advising them on how to do something else as facilitating those communities' access to federal funds. For a land without a welfare state, America starts to do an effective impersonation of a country with one. This massive state spending gives rise to accusations by Republicans, and people too angry even to be Republicans, that America is now controlled by "Leftists" and being turned into a socialist state.


Full article here: The end of the road for Barack Obama?

Huffington Post Article on "One Global Government"... (plus a flashback to Dec. 2008)

Huffington Post writer Patrick Takahashi gives his thoughts regarding the merits of the world one day uniting under a One World Government. (excerpt below). Little by little, this concept, once seemingly mostly discussed by Conservative Christians, conspiracy theorists, and "right wing extremists" is gradually getting more attention in the mainstream media. Look for more mainstream websites and publications to discuss the issue as the biblically prophesied Kingdom of Antichrist begins to take shape in our world.


An excerpt from the Huffington Post article:

The trend, though, is clear. First a G3, then a universal government. This already is happening with one global economy. We are inextricably linked on one Planet Earth and our common environment. World peace will only come when there is one global government.

Let's for the sake of discussion say that someday the world has one government. Won't this be like the United Nations, but worse? Well, linear thinking would come to that conclusion. Let us surprise ourselves and be smarter this next time. Let us design a system that works.

Yet, it remains unclear what will trigger this ultimate consolidation. Certainly, the United Nation (UN) will not morph into this leading role. As the EU has 27 members, should the U.S. then have 50, not one vote? If you've ever had to work with this organization, you can only agree with me that the UN has perfected paralysis by analysis. Thus, the UN cannot be that unifying force.

So what is the simple solution on how, exactly, to attain one world government and Peace on Earth? I really don't know. Perhaps someone out there has a clue.

Full article here: "One Global Government"

----------
 
However, probably one of the most noteworthy articles in recent memory that speaks favorably of One World Government was when Financial Times writer Gideon Rachman's wrote his article "And Now For a World Government".  That was back in December 2008, and the article gathered a whole lot of attention and was one of the most downloaded and most commented-on pieces in the website's history. For those who've never seen it, take a look below.

Excerpt here:

I have never believed that there is a secret United Nations plot to take over the US. I have never seen black helicopters hovering in the sky above Montana. But, for the first time in my life, I think the formation of some sort of world government is plausible.

A “world government” would involve much more than co-operation between nations. It would be an entity with state-like characteristics, backed by a body of laws. The European Union has already set up a continental government for 27 countries, which could be a model. The EU has a supreme court, a currency, thousands of pages of law, a large civil service and the ability to deploy military force.

So could the European model go global? There are three reasons for thinking that it might.

First, it is increasingly clear that the most difficult issues facing national governments are international in nature: there is global warming, a global financial crisis and a “global war on terror”.

Full article: "And Now For A World Government."