VOL. 56                     NEWSLETTER          JULY/AUG. 2007

Dear Friends of Israel and “Or Tzion”,

Shalom shalom in the wonderful Name of our Lord and Savior, Yeshua, from the Southern most town of Israel, Eilat, where I am staying to regain my health and strength, and write my and my family’s life story. A whole year has past since my last newsletter. As there are many others to update you about daily events here in the land, I don't feel the need to add to them.

However, very important matters have occurred in such rapid succession that I must address those issues prophecied thousands of years ago.

Let me begin with Pope Benedikt XVI’s¹ attempt to take the Roman Catholic Church back into the dark ages.

G-d’s move in the Catholic Church began first with Pope Johannes XXIII who established Vatican II, and then with the Charismatic Renewal. The Italians loved and adored Pope Johannes XXIII and followed closely the dramatic changes “Papa Giovanni” brought about, breathing “new life” into a Church smothering with man-made-doctrines and traditions.

But he lived all too short. Papa Giovanni died amidst rumors of “poisoning” before he could bring in more changes. Nevertheless, the ground work had been laid and the ensuing Catholic Charismatic Renewal swept throughout the world with an “awakening” of millions of Catholics that was doubtlessly one of the most outstanding moves of the Holy Spirit. Thousands were born again and filled with the Holy Spirit as their new found freedom filled them with a contagious, boisterous joy, their worship and praise being euphoric beyond anything I’d ever known. New, fresh teachings sprang up in the power and love of Messiah and the Holy Spirit while all the gifts of the Holy Spirit blossomed and bloomed with a love, a spirit of unity and brotherhood as I had never encountered before.

But the wolves in sheeps’ clothing were quick to infiltrate. Gradually there was a returning to the shackles of former traditions from which they just had been freed. By putting the “brakes” on the Renewal, Pope Paul VI, John Paul I, and the “traveling” Pope John Paul II (who signed a covenant between the Vatican and the PLO concerning the Land of Israel and the holy places²), prepared the way for this present Pope to put an end to the work of the Holy Spirit in that vast Church.

See the Vatican web site and click on “Latest Updates” for “Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church” (June 29, 2007). 

Pope Benedict XVI's letter contends that there is only one “true” Church - the Church of Rome. All others are splinters. While non-catholics may be credited with being believers in Messiah, they are outside of “Christ’s true ‘Catholic’ Church He instituted on earth” if they are not members of the Church of Rome with her doctrines and  traditions^a.

He is raising up again the old divide between Christians, and Christians and Jews. The “one new man” of Ephesians 2 is negated by his doctrine. Although there is not as yet enough evidence to state that he might be this “beast that rose out of the earth” in Rev. 13, which has 2 horns like a lamb but speaks like a dragon, we will do well to watch whether or not he is that “false prophet” who, beguiled by Satan, will deceive many to embrace a false messiah, a certain man as the returned Christ.

Pope Benedict may be the last Pope and this false prophet. Then the times for Jews, for the nation of Israel and all true followers of Yeshua will get very harsh, the testing fires of persecution looming at the horizon. 

With the whole world focused on Islam and its violent, bloody expansion and not on Rome, no misgiving is directed toward this meek, soft spoken new Pope - a German, native of the State of Bavaria - who, while professing faith in Messiah is actually proclaiming the Catholic Christ of the Church of Rome, in whose name millions were persecuted and innocent blood shed.

Many years ago I gave warning about these developments³. 

1 Ratzinger attended the boy's highschool in Traunstein, called Gymnasium, where besides the German language Greek and Latin were required subjects. It is the same school whose principal offered Annelore to attend there as a young girl when she had been maneuvered out of the girls' highschool, the Real Gymnasium, by the principal, Frau Back, because Annelore was Jewish and her mother divorced. Annelore's mother did not accept the offer.

2 See http://www.ortzion.org/news39_2.html

3 See http://www.ortzion.org/unichurch.html, which is page 31 of The Unchangeable Calendar of G-d. Read also pg 32.