INITIAL CONSEQUENCE OF PAPAL EMBRACE
In 1980, under the title "NATIONAL APOSTASY," Elder Grotheer wrote :
Three statements linking "national apostasy" with "national ruin" appeared from the pen of Ellen G. White between 1888 and 1893. Two are to be found in the Review and Herald (Dec. 18, 1888; May 2, 1893) The third statement appeared in the Daily Bulletin of the General Conference for 1891 (April 13.) The first statement in the Review & Herald associated "national apostasy" and "national ruin" with "laws" enacted by "legislative councils" which "bind the consciences of men in regard to their religious privileges, enforcing Sunday observance, and bring oppressive power to bear against those who keep the seventh-day Sabbath." As we noted in the first essay of this thought paper, this very well might have been. State officials using laws enacted by their legislatures did begin such oppressive measures against Sabbath keepers. But this phase of history took the same road as did the commencement of the "loud cry" and "the time of test."
The second statement given before the 1891 General Conference Session notes the specific act on the national level which will mark "the national apostasy." It reads:
It is at the time of national apostasy, when, acting on the policy of Satan, the rulers of the land will rank themselves on the side of the man of sin - it is then the measure of guilt is full; the national apostasy is the signal for national ruin. (p. 259)
The third statement from the 1893 Review & Herald gives the public reaction which will be associated with the event. It states - "The people of the United States have been a favored people; but when they restrict religious liberty, surrender Protestantism, and give countenance to popery, the measure of their guilt will be full ..."
The final months of this past year - 1979 - saw the fulfillment of these last two prophecies. To the shores of America came the reigning pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. At a reception given for Pope John Paul II at the White House attended by the judiciary, members of Congress, the Cabinet, and other political figures, President Carter stated:
I welcome you to the White House the symbolic home of all our people.
On behalf of every American of every faith I also welcome you to our nation's heart. God bless you for coming to our country. We are proud to have you here. (RNS, Oct. 8, 1979, Sec 1, p. 1)
This was the first time not only that a pope had visited the White House, but the first time in modern history that any pope has called on a governmental leader anywhere. The Papacy considers itself above the State, and therefore, the officers of the State must come to the Pope. However, on this occasion, the Pontiff stepped down from his "throne" and extended his hand to a Protestant head of the American nation, and that President grasped it! This is most significant. The handclasp has been fully consummated on the part of both Catholicism and Protestantism.
At the time of the reception, the Pope and President Carter spent two hours in private talks. Of this meeting it was voiced:
Even the private meeting between Pope John Paul II and President Jimmy Carter, a born-again Southern Baptist, was interpreted as having deep significant religious meaning. David Tracy, a Catholic theologian at the University of Chicago Divinity School, said of that historic meeting in the White House: "I think there is a symbolic significance for the acceptance and contribution of Catholics in this country as a whole, as well as a distinctly ecumenical flavor of American Christianity. It is an unusual and good gesture by the President, who is himself a deeply religious man." (Christianity Today, Nov. 2, 1979, pp. 64-65)
Jesuit, Robert A Graham, a RNS Rome correspondent, wrote prior to the arrival of John Paul II to the United States on what could be expected from this visit. He compared and contrasted the visit of Pope Paul VI to the United Nations in 1965 with the impact that John Paul II would make on America. In a RNS release Jesuit Graham wrote:
While Pope Paul VI was invited to and by the United Nations, spending hardly a day in this country, Pope John Paul is visiting not only New York, Boston, Chicago, and Des Moines, Iowa, but also the nation's capital, Washington, D. C. At this latter stop, in addition to celebrating the liturgy on The Mall, under the shadow of the Capitol, he will be received by the President of the United States in the White House.
At the time of Pope Paul's United Nations visit and his address before the assembly of the representatives of the world's governments, it was observed by many that such a spectacle would have been unthinkable in former times, at the old League of Nations. Rabid anti-clericalism would have ruled out such a possibility. But times change, and men and ideas change too. Thanks to the quiet persistence and vision of the Buddhist U. N. Secretary General U Thant, the way was cleared. Everyone showed up at the U. N. General Assembly Hall to hear Pope Paul, including the Soviet bloc. Only the (Maoist) delegation of Albania was conspicuous by its absence.
That the new pope now not only addresses the United Nations but also makes a liturgical appearance in the heart of Washington and even penetrates the White House shows graphically how far along world opinion and above all American opinion has moved. There was a time when no Catholic could anticipate becoming president because of the deeply rooted conviction of the then dominant Protestant establishment, in line with good old English "no popery," that with a Catholic in the White House, the Pope of Rome would come and take up residence there himself.
It is one of the ironies of history that this old taboo comes to a crashing end in the Presidency of a Georgia Baptist. (RNS, September 21, 1979, pp. 3-4)
Not only was political America, through a so-called "born-again" Southern Baptist President clasping the hand of the "man of sin" but religious America was also speaking. The evangelistic voice of Protestantism - Billy Graham - was quoted in Time as stating:
No other man in the world today could attract as much attention on moral or spiritual subjects as John Paul. He is articulating what Catholic and Protestant churches have traditionally held, the moral values of the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. The country is responding in a magnificent way. It shows there's a great spiritual hunger. The Pope has reached millions of Protestants. The organized ecumenical movement seems to be on the back burner and ecumenicity is now taking place where Roman Catholics and Protestants share beliefs in matters like the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection of Christ.(October 15, 1979, p. 34)
Prior to the Pope's arrival, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association released to the press, Mr. Graham's assessment of the papal visit. It read in part:
The visit of Pope John Paul II to the United States is an event of great significance not only for Roman Catholics, but for all Americans - - as well as the world. His uncompromising moral stand and his warm personality has won him the admiration of many from different religious backgrounds . . .
The pope's visit comes at a critical time in our world. All around us there are signs of confusion and fear about the future. As a world, we seem to have lost our way, and are groping blindly for answers to the complex dilemmas we face. But the basic need of our world is spiritual, and only spiritual and moral answers can give us the direction we need. In the short time he has been pope, John Paul II has become the moral leader of the world. (RNS, 9/27/79)
While the visit of the Roman Pontiff was not without protest from groups advocating various social reforms contrary to the papal stand, a reporter from Christianity Today observed that "the sheer magnitude of this present-day symbol of Christ and modern successor of Peter, plus his influence over more than 700 million Catholics worldwide, is awe-inspiring to many people despite personal thoughts or feelings about the papacy." (op. cit., p. 64) A nun of the Sisters of Mercy, Mary Ann Walsh, staff writer for a Diocesan weekly, served as correspondent for RNS to cover the papal visit. She filed a story from Albany, NY, summarizing her coverage. She wrote:
We read thousands of signs along the miles of motorcade. "We love you, John Paul ll," "You Don't Have to be Catholic to Love John Paul," written inside a Star of David, "Wow, What a Pope!" The crowds waved at the pope. They waved flags -- papal flags, Polish flags, Italian flags. They waved handkerchiefs and they waved babies. In hopes that he would stop, they sang, they danced, they offered flowers, they prayed that he'd run out of gas ...
I was stunned by Pope John Paul's display of power. He controlled the masses. With a wave of his hand, he roused them; with another wave, silenced them. ''Never," I thought, "would I want to see such power in anyone else but the vicar of Christ on earth." It was awesome. It was charismatic, and though I prefer to speak in understatement I had to say I believe he will be seen as the greatest figure of the 20th century. (RNS, Oct. 8, 1979, Sec. 1, pp. 8-9)
Truly in these evaluations, we see fulfilled not only the blasphemy prophesied in Revelation 13, but also the fact that all the world was to "wonder" after the beast, following the healing of the "deadly wound." (Rev. 13:3) The Greek for wonder - qaumazw - means - "to regard with admiration." When since 1929 has such a display of "admiration" been seen as in the papal visit to America!
How much more do we need to see, hear, and read before we come to realize the prophecy of Revelation 13 has been fulfilled in a way to signalize the final period of the end-time zone of human history, and the fulfillment of the conditions which mark "national apostasy" - the people surrendering Protestantism, giving countenance to popery, plus the "rulers" of the national government ranking themselves on the side of the man of sin? To the vast multitudes which assembled to see the Pope conduct the blasphemous mass in various cities of America, including the Capital itself, the Pope extended his blessing. It was also given at his reception in the White House. "At the conclusion of the reception, the pope surprised the audience by saying, 'The pope wants to bless you -- with the permission of the President of the United States.'" (RNS, Oct. 8, 1979, Sec. 1, p. 2) The significance of this papal visit has not been readily perceived by the onlookers - whether present, or before the TV screen. The pope during his visit did not voice various doctrines which separate Catholics, and Protestants; he implied them by "unspoken gestures and symbols. These included the impartation of the life of Christ through the Eucharist and the shortening of sentence to Purgatory through the Papal blessing directed at the crowds." (Christianity Today, Nov. 2, 1979, p. 69) (Did you get your stay in purgatory shortened by receiving this "blessing" while seated before your TV?)
National apostasy is to be followed by national ruin. Within a month following the handclasp in the White House, the United States has been confronted by the most humiliating experiences in its 200 year history by events in Iran, Pakistan, and Lybia. What more lies ahead only time will tell. Surely the events of the near future will come upon us "with blinding force." (Letter 26, 1903) Would Jesus say to us as he did to the Pharisees of old - "Ye hypocrites, ye know how to interpret the face of the earth and the heaven; but how is it that ye know not how to interpret this time?" (Luke 12:56 RV)
In the Last Day Events compilation from Ellen G. White's Writings, there are three additional statements not cited by Elder Grotheer. One refers to enforcement of the papal sabbath. We are clearly not there as yet. The other two are obviously applicable to these times:
Roman Catholic principles will be taken under the care and protection of the state. This national apostasy will speedily be followed by national ruin.—The Review and Herald, June 15, 1897. (LDE 134.2)
This prophecy has been in the process of fulfillment since Ronald Reagan was elected to the presidency in 1980 (Cf. REVEALING DOCUMENTATION OF THE PAPACY'S ROLE IN AMERICA.)
When the state shall use its power to enforce the decrees and sustain the institutions of the church—then will Protestant America have formed an image to the papacy, and there will be a national apostasy which will end only in national ruin.—The S.D.A. Bible Commentary 7:976 (1910). (LDE 134.4)
This prediction is clearly not confined to Sunday legislation, and is manifestly being fulfilled by the aggressive adoption and enforcement of anti-abortion laws at the instigation of Rome, through the agency of an alliance with Protestant apostates. It is no secret that the "Right to Life" movement is sustained by the dogma of the Immortality of the Soul. This dogma in turn is defensive and protective of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
The courtship with Rome beginning to be manifested during the Carter presidency was accelerated under succeeding presidencies, most notably those of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Even President Obama, who had fundamental differences with the major papal teachings, established a friendly working relationship with Pope Francis on matters of common interest, ranging from climate change to US relations with Cuba:
President Barack Obama’s upcoming White House meeting with Pope Francis will mark the latest chapter in a growing relationship between two men with often-similar priorities. But behind the scenes, Obama aides are working to avoid politicizing the papal visit, even as they hope to capitalize on it.
That will likely mean praising and deferring to Francis, whose calls for action against climate change and mass incarceration dovetail with the president's vision, but taking care not to explicitly link the pope to Obama's legislative agenda. It's the type of balancing act that will affect everything from what policy initiatives Obama announces in conjunction with the papal visit to what gift he gives the popular pontiff. . .
Obama has made no secret of his admiration for the pope, whom he first met at the Vatican in March 2014. He has called Francis a "transformative leader" and cited the pope in efforts to promote his own stances on issues, such as alleviating poverty. The president even name-checked Francis in his State of the Union address this year when discussing his administration’s decision to restore ties to Cuba, an initiative the pope helped push through.
Obama was deeply involved in the triumphal tour of America by Francis in 2015. In the "Final World Events in Prophecy Foreshadowed" column for that year we reported as follows:
The triumphal tour is over, and Pope Francis has returned to the Vatican. There is surely significance in the three cities visited on the tour: Washington, capital of the American Nation; New York City, financial capital of America and arguably of the world, also headquarters of the United Nations; and Philadelphia, cradle of the Nation and its constitution guaranteeing individual liberty, of which Rome has never been a friend. There was tremendous symbolism in the delivery of Pope Francis' speech at the very same lectern used by President Lincoln in his Gettysburg address. Be assured that the Pope will continue to loom large over the American nation through the papal policies of the Vatican enabled by the United States government (Rev. 13:12,) until the ultimate despotism predicted by prophecy is ushered in. The tour has been like a "Royal Progress." The Pope is an earthly potentate presenting himself as a lowly servant and a humble man of peace; but poised to wage war on the true saints of God. At the very inception of the papacy Pope Leo the Great, "declared in a sermon that the former Rome was but the promise of the latter Rome; that the glories of the former were to be reproduced in Catholic Rome; that Romulus and Remus were but the forerunners of Peter and Paul; that the successors of Romulus therefore were the precursors of the successors of Peter; and that, as the former Rome had ruled the world, so the latter Rome, by the see of the holy blessed Peter as head of the world, would dominate the earth. Later, "Pope Boniface VIII presented himself in the sight of the multitude, clothed in a cuirass, with a helmet on his head and a sword in his hand held aloft, and proclaimed: “There is no other Caesar, nor king, nor emperor than I, the Sovereign Pontiff and Successor of the Apostles;” and, when further he declared, ex cathedra: “We therefore assert, define, and pronounce that it is necessary to salvation to believe that every human being is subject to the Pontiff of Rome.” (From Alonzo T. Jones' The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection, Chapter XIII, "The Transgression and Abomination of Desolation.") Apply these declarations to Pope Francis' posture of humility on his tour of the three American cities; and consider that Rome has been working with particular zeal for over a century to make America Catholic. Rome has not changed:-
IN PHILADELPHIA
Hundreds of thousands flood Philly for Pope Francis' final Mass
Pope Francis celebrated Mass with hundreds of thousands in the streets of the City of Brotherly Love on Sunday, closing his historic six-day visit to the U.S. where he drew big and enthusiastic crowds wherever he went. . .
Catholics, as well as non-Catholics who are simply fans of "the people's pope," began flooding the Benjamin Franklin Parkway early on an overcast Sunday in hopes of landing a prime spot to bid Francis farewell. The parkway, an iconic thoroughfare, was dotted with big screens to watch the 78-year-old pontiff deliver his final message to the American people before his return trip to Rome.
Boisterous church groups banging drums and singing songs went suddenly silent as the first strains of the musical preludes of the service wafted over the city streets. Crowds blocks away joined in the chanting and prayers as Mass began.
The crowds were packed as far away as Philadelphia's city hall, more than a mile from the pope's altar. The Mass could be heard across much of the city's downtown, where crowds stood rapt watching the celebration on the big screens.
"We are having a blessed time," said Maureen Cobb, 65, a retired teacher from Canal Winchester, Ohio. "The weather is beautiful, the people are beautiful. All these Christians who want to celebrate the good news of Jesus Christ."
Long lines stretched for hours ahead of the Mass, as National Guard soldiers worked to keep the surging crowds orderly. . .
Ahead of the Mass, Francis made an unscheduled stop at Saint Joseph’s University to view a newly dedicated statue commemorating the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, a Vatican II document that helped bolster the relationship between the Catholic and Jewish faiths.
The document highlighted the historic bond between the two faiths and dismissed past efforts by the Church to convert Jews. Saint Joseph’s, a Jesuit university, established the Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations in 1967 in response to the Vatican call for strengthening the interfaith relationship.
Pope Francis brought joy to the United States
Pope Francis ended his remarkable nine-day visit to the Americas on Sunday with a triumphal outdoor Mass in Philadelphia, where he urged the million attendees to believe in miracles. . .
He ended his trip at about 7:30 p.m. when he climbed aboard an American Airlines flight for the trip home to Rome.
Thus ended the Royal Progress, which was a remarkable demonstration of the forward movement of prophetic events under Rev. 13. We do indeed have ". . . the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts." (2 Peter 1:19, NKJV; emphasis added) [Cf. As of Friday evening, September 25, 2015]
In the midst of the well-publicized preparations for the Pope's visit, Donald Trump announced his entry into the race for nomination as the Republican candidate for the presidency of the United States of America. In retrospect this placed the seal on the impending national ruin of the nation. Trump was famous and disreputable:
The Many Scandals of Donald Trump: A Cheat Sheet (Article dated January 23, 2017.)
The 2016 presidential campaign saw a long string of stories showing scandals involving Trump, both large and small—from questionable business dealings to allegations of sexual assault. While they did not derail his presidential hopes, many of them remain live issues as Trump begins his transition to the White House.
The breadth of Trump’s controversies is truly yuge, ranging from allegations of mafia ties to unscrupulous business dealings, and from racial discrimination to alleged marital rape. They stretch over more than four decades, from the mid-1970s to the present day. To catalogue the full sweep of allegations would require thousands of words and lump together the trivial with the truly scandalous. Including business deals that have simply failed, without any hint of impropriety, would require thousands more. This is a snapshot of some of the most interesting and largest of those scandals. . .
History will remember 2018 as the year it became increasingly clear that a grifter — and likely a felonious one — is living in the White House.
No matter what you think of tariffs, border walls and tax cuts, there should no longer be any illusions: What we're seeing isn't normal, or the product of some entrenched deep state, some Democrat-led conspiracy or a biased news media. No, what we're seeing is the result of a man — and a family — that repeatedly puts personal gain over all else, the rule of law be damned.
Amid all the speculation about Robert Mueller's probe into whether Trump's campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election and whether he then obstructed justice, not to mention the daily barrage of tweets, it's easy to lose track of the fact that there has been an abundance of detailed reporting this year to show that everything Trump touches ends up bilked and it shouldn't be lost on anyone that the Trump Organization, the Donald J. Trump Foundation, the Trump presidential campaign, the Trump Inaugural Committee and Trump himself are all currently under investigation amid substantial and extensive allegations of wrongdoing.
The mere fact that such a man as this could become President of the United States was in itself an omen of looming disaster. Most ominous was the fact that Trump, in competition with Senator Ted Cruz as the darling of the Religious Right, was chosen by these Christian Supremacist Theocrats as their candidate to achieve the goal of totalitarian governance.
It appears probable that national ruin will fall on America by degrees, with the ultimate disaster following the enforcement of the false sabbath. Even so, already the nation has been sowing to the wind, and is beginning to reap the whirlwind. Disaster is in the air! National ruin looms, far beyond what followed President Jimmy Carter's action in honoring Pope John-Paul II by inviting him into the White House, the "People's House," in the presence of the legislative leaders of the nation.
The man who was elected President of the United States, and the most powerful person in the world, in 2016 was an admitted liar, and continues to lie brazenly and in high volume:
The raging controversy over whether to call Trump’s lies “lies,” explained
It’s not the word you use that matters — it’s whether you extend him the benefit of the doubt.
Donald Trump is a liar. Not just in the sense that we are all fallible human beings who probably say things that aren’t true sometimes — he has made flagrant disregard for the truth a hallmark of his approach to business and politics.
He wrote about his strategic use of dishonesty in The Art of The Deal. He admitted to routinely lying about important matters in a sworn deposition. And of course it’s obvious to anyone who’s followed his political career that he has continued to exhibit a flagrant disregard for the truth as he pivoted from real estate developer to celebrity brand licenser to president. A core belief of his is that lying is a good way to get ahead, which is why he lies so much.
In addition to being a liar, Trump is unusually ill-informed about public policy for a president, so he plausibly says some things that aren't true out of genuine lack of knowledge. This leads to a natural caution on the part of some journalists who cover the White House about calling a lie a lie, with phrases like “demonstrable falsehood” instead. . .
This preference for euphemism over straightforward language is silly, so it’s attracted considerable social media criticism. . .
The good news is that euphemisms are not nearly so harmful as their critics fear. The thing that Trump does is lie, and whether we call the lies “lies” or “demonstrable falsehoods” is ultimately not that important either politically or journalistically.
The bad news is the fact that Donald Trump is a liar remains incredibly important and yet poorly integrated into ongoing coverage of his administration. Every politician I can think of has, at some point, said something that isn’t true. But almost all of them seem to mostly adhere to at least defensible interpretations of the facts. They do so to avoid obtaining a reputation for dishonesty, in part because they fear that obtaining a reputation for dishonesty would hurt their future efforts at communication.
Trump, thus far, has avoided this penalty. He says untrue things. The falseness of his statements is revealed and reported on. And then his future pronouncements are nonetheless treated as deserving the same presumption of truth that we grant to normal people.
That’s a big mistake. Presidents naturally end up making representations about things where the facts are not fully knowable to the public. When Trump does that, we need, as a country, to remember that our president is a huge liar. . .
DEADLY DANGER FROM A DELUDED MINORITY
A President in power who is a brazen serial liar is arguably a national disaster. The mental attitude of Trump's most ardent supporters, the Religious Right, should also command the attention of Christians who truly live by the Bible and believe in the prophecies of Rev. 13. These determined advocates of totalitarian "Christian" government not only voted for Trump with full knowledge of his disreputable character but believed that he was chosen by God. As his unconscionable mendacity has persisted, the Theocrats have continued in their blind faith. This exposes the deadly danger to individual and religious freedom from a fanatical and deluded minority which is just large enough to make it possible for Trump to be re-elected by clever manipulation of the electoral system:
Donald Trump didn't tell the truth 83 times in 1 day
Trump is averaging -- AVERAGING -- 30 false or misleading claims a day in the last seven weeks. And, per the Fact Checker, he often of late soars far above that average. As one example: On October 22, when he traveled to Houston to hold a rally for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R), Trump, said 83 untrue things in a single day. 83!
The scope of Trump's falsehoods is literally breathtaking. In the 649 days between his inauguration and October 30, Trump has made 6,420 claims that are partially or entirely false. That includes a number of assertions -- that the Russia probe being overseen by special counsel Robert Mueller is a hoax, that the Trump tax cut was the biggest in history -- that Trump has repeated ad infinitum. He's said the Russia investigation is a hoax or a witch hunt 157 times and claimed his was the biggest tax cut ever 120 times, according to the Fact-Checker.) . . .
Facts are, for Trump, fungible things. When they fit his narrative, he is happy to tout them. But they rarely fit his narrative. And when they don't, he has zero concern about creating his own narrative that simply doesn't have any real resemblance to the established truth.
In fact, as the Fact Checker's numbers make clear, Trump seems to flaunt his fact-less claims -- assuring his supporters that he is telling the "real" truth that the media won't let them in on. Trump has turned that tendency toward untruthfulness into a political strategy; he is so politically incorrect that he doesn't even abide by the rules of fact and truth that the so-called "elites" think he should.
It's truly stunning -- and frightening -- stuff. What's more terrifying to me is that Trump's supporters don't seem to know -- or care -- about any of this. They regard fact checks by the media as simply the "fake news" doing everything they can to slow down Trump's momentum. And to the extent they acknowledge that Trump doesn't tell the truth a lot of the time, they write it off as either a) him just talking or b) that all politicians lie. (Most politicians do say untrue things from time to time. When called on them, however, they stop saying the false things. Trump is not like that.)
Trump also works aggressively to ensure that his base sees him as the only honest man in the country, the only person who is really telling it like it is.
"Stick with us," he told a VFW crowd in Kansas City back in July. "Don't believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news. ... What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening."
Here's the thing, though: It is happening. Facts are not a partisan position. And here's one fact no one should forget: Donald Trump is misleading -- and outright lying at times -- at a pace that we have never seen before in politics. Never.
National ruin was predicted to follow America's alliance with Rome and the assimilation by the nation of papal principles and practices. National ruin has been in progress since the presidency of Jimmy Carter. President Carter was hit by the disastrous Iran hostage crisis. With ties deepening between America and the papacy during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush in particular, two more major national disaster can be identified - the 9/11 attacks of 2001 and the great recession of 2008. Then came Pope Francis' triumphal "Royal Progress" of 2015, followed in the next year by the election of Donald Trump. We are now witnessing national ruin on an unimaginable scale. The very structure of America's federal government is disintegrating before our eyes:
Trump Is Dragging American Governance Into the Fourth Regime, Whether We're Ready or Not
Social media, governmental dysfunction, and Supreme Court malfeasance have all combined to create an atmosphere ripe for constitutional chaos.
The first 18 months of Donald Trump's presidency have been the most transformative for the United States' federal government since the New Deal—but rather than expand the institutions of government, Trump has effectively destroyed them.
This is not an exaggeration. Beyond merely trimming the fat of America's bloated federal bureaucracy, the Trump administration has effectively waged war on federal agencies. The Department of State is a shadow of its former self; the Environmental Protection Agency has shrunk to Reagan-era levels; the entire federal workforce itself shed some 16,000 positions in the first year of the Trump presidency. One-time Trump consigliere Steve Bannon pledged shortly after the former took office that the administration's core objective was the "deconstruction of the administrative state," and he wasn't lying: While policies were once determined by collaborative processes, agencies are now forced to scramble to maintain the many, oft-conflicting decrees tweeted from the commander-in-chief's iPhone.
This Is How the Republican Party Plans to Destroy the Federal Government (A February 13, 2017, article)
The Overthrow Project existed before Trump, but it may not survive his presidency.
Before moderate Republicans became virtually extinct, the party advocated limited government. Today, however, President Trump is pursuing a radical shrinkage of the federal government that comes close to overthrowing it entirely. The goal of this project: to leave the country with a minuscule government that is basically an appendage to private enterprise. Call it the Overthrow Project.
The essence of the Overthrow Project is familiar: to reduce taxes on the very rich, free the business community from taxes and regulations that interfere with its money-making, and subsidize that community with public funds. In addition, the Overthrow Project aims to privatize as many governmental activities as possible. Left for government is the maintenance of the remaining public infrastructure that enables private enterprise to operate efficiently and safely, as well as the assurance of public safety through ever-higher funding of the military, the homeland-security apparatus, the police, and other forces of so called law and order.
Unlike conventional attempts by political parties to remain in power, the Overthrow Project also aims to obtain permanent control over all branches of the federal and state governments. That goal is pursued with an increasingly aggressive and norm-violating form of hardball politics only rarely seen in recent times. . .
Whether the project is a thought-out strategy or the skillful use of every opportunity to implement its far-right ideology will have to be determined by future historians. Either way, much of the Republican program and strategy originated in the many right-wing think tanks created and supported by the donor class and the business community.
Understanding the GOP’s various activities as a single project makes it possible to see the unstated purposes of these activities and how they are connected.
Donald Trump campaigned as a populist outsider and frequently attacked the Republican establishment. Nonetheless, he has always supported its Overthrow Project, adopting its goals and its hardball methods. In fact, Stephen Bannon, President Trump’s most senior adviser, has been quoted as saying, “Lenin wanted to destroy the state and that’s my goal too.”
Steve Bannon is no longer with the Trump Administration, but his ideological influence remains. This is because it is a Roman Catholic ideology that prevails. The foregoing article does not identify the Republican objectives as the same as those of the Church of Rome. No major publication would dare to confront the Church of Rome in that way; but we know that it is the power of the papacy that controls the Religious Right and the Republican Party. What the article calls the "Overthrow Project" is the Roman Catholic project.
The destructive actions of the Trump Administration range far and wide, and spell national ruin:
Environmental Protections on the Chopping Block
The Trump Administration is rolling back a wide variety of regulations that protect our water, air, land, and public health in order to benefit high-pollution industries that donate heavily to political campaigns.
Although the numbers show that environmental regulations on the whole are good for the economy and have benefits that far exceed costs by preventing illness and death from dangerous pollution, Trump’s war on environmental protections has been relentless. The administration has targeted almost 80 environmental rules, including those meant to control greenhouse gases, coal ash waste, water pollution, mercury, and smog.
Trump’s “Presidential Executive Order on Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth,” directs that “[t]he heads of agencies shall review all existing regulations… that potentially burden the development or use of domestically produced energy resources, with particular attention to oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy resources.”
Both the nation and President Carter's legacy were affected adversely by his grievous mistake in embracing the papacy. Similarly, and in far greater measure, the nation and the legacy of Barack Obama are being denigrated as a result of the part he played in the triumphalism of the Roman pontiff:
How Trump is rolling back Obama’s legacy
During President Trump’s first year in office, Congress and his administration plan to review, revoke and overwrite key parts of his predecessor’s domestic legacy. . .
Builder-turned-president Donald Trump has in many ways made good on his promise to be a political wrecking ball. But, he has found more success using the executive branch to undo his predecessor’s legacy than in writing new legislation or working with Congress. . .
The extensive and detailed list which follows in the report is highly reprehensible, because the actions are inflicting grievous harm on the body politic in the process of systematically rolling back policies which benefitted nation.
Consider further the many ways in which the Trump Administration's policies and enactments are ruinous for the nation:
Trump trillion-dollar-plus deficits are putting America on a path to fiscal ruin
Though no one in Washington will admit it, our nation's finances are in deep trouble. Spending is up, revenue is down, and this will only get worse.
It became very clear this month that neither the Trump White House nor its allies on Capitol Hill want you to know that the federal budget is already in very bad shape ... and getting worse. . .
Unlike the trillion dollar budget deficits that occurred during the Obama administration that were temporary and largely the result of the Great Recession, the Trump deficits that will soon reach and exceed $1 trillion are permanent and will only get worse in the years ahead.
Trump is destroying the U.S.’ global image
After 19 months of Donald Trump being the president, it might seem folly to seek a single area in which he has done the most damage. But I’d like to suggest one, which seems to me at least the most comprehensive: he has undermined the rule of law, both nationally and internationally.
The damage he’s done nationally to legal norms is well recognized. He has personally violated the law, both constitutionally and statutorily, in conspiring with a foreign power to turn the 2016 elections in his favor; in obstructing justice by seeking to thwart the investigation of the matter, including the dismissal of the chief investigator; in profiting grossly from his office in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution; in attacking and discrediting the fundamental instruments of law and justice, the courts, Congress, and his own Justice Department; in systematically undermining laws he doesn’t like and bending others to his will against their express intent. He has acted, in short, despotically.
And yet, I’d suggest, it is in the world at large that he has done the greatest damage. He’s played the schoolyard bully around the globe, smashed or neutered long-established alliances, walked out on treaties, thrown the world economy into disarray, and threatened annihilation against those who defy his will. This has received far too little attention at home, and very little pushback. But the rest of the world has paid great attention, and the image of America as a nation gone rogue will have lasting consequences that will be hard to undo.
Donald Trump’s War on Democracy
The president’s actions have been much more sinister than just tantrums and Twitter antics.
During a lifetime of make-believe, Donald Trump has never pretended to be a conventional politician. When he finally decided to make a serious bid for office, he built his presidential aspirations on the flimsiest of foundations: a wild conspiracy theory about Barack Obama’s birthplace. His leadership bona fides were equally laughable, having presided over bankrupt casinos and failed real-estate projects, fabricated the persona of a lady-killer, and created a reality TV show about a tin-pot entrepreneur.
It wasn’t difficult to predict how all this would end up politically. Plenty of oddballs had run for president, from Jello Biafra to Roseanne Barr, and gotten nowhere. The guardrails of American democracy were set up to prevent just such outsiders from making it anywhere near the Oval Office. Donald Trump’s three presidential qualifications—money, name recognition, and unbounded arrogance—were obviously not enough to overcome his lack of sway with party bosses. Seasoned politicians and backroom operators, the putative “adults in the room,” had spent years ridiculing the blowhard with the bad hair banging on the door and demanding red-carpet treatment.
And then, of course, he won. In the 2016 presidential election, the guardrails of democracy collapsed. The Electoral College, designed to weed out all those with what Alexander Hamilton had once called “talents for low intrigue and the little arts of popularity,” delivered a victory to a candidate who had talents for little else. As Jeff Greenfield wrote at Politico immediately after the elections,
“The blunt fact is that many of the guardrails that were supposed to protect the world’s oldest functioning democracy have been shown to be perilously weak, as vulnerable to assault as the Maginot Line was in the face of the German army some 75 years ago.”
Donald Trump is destroying America’s democracy
It is said that we get the government we deserve. If so, what have we done to get the incompetent who now holds the office of presidency once occupied by Lincoln, Roosevelt, Eisenhower and so many others?
This man, who had five draft deferments, seems to have no hesitation in threatening to use our military without considering the results or consequences. He took an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution but demeans and degrades those who use their First Amendment rights of freedom of the press or speech. He has no regard for the rule of law and thinks he can disregard any law he doesn’t like.
He has alienated our allies, strengthened our enemies and weakened national security. He lies or misrepresents facts, blames others for his mistakes and then denies he ever said or did those things. His administration appointees are weakening or destroying the hard work done in the past to protect the public health and welfare. All the while he is using his office to enrich himself and his family.
Members of Congress, meanwhile, sit quietly by, refusing to use their power to restrain the executive branch. This president is not making America great. He is ruining our democracy.
ROMAN CATHOLIC RESPONSIBILITY AS FORECAST BY A. T. JONES
The prophetic statements of Ellen G. White are being fulfilled. It is essential to recognize that the national ruin now undermining the democratic institutions and governance of the United States of America is precisely what the Church of Rome has sought to achieve for over one hundred years. A. T. Jones' masterful analysis of the papal aims of Leo XIII deserves careful reading, because it explains what seems to be inexplicable in America's present state of affairs:
And she is acting without hindrance. Now I am not saying that the constitution should be in such shape that Congress could legislate against the papacy. Not at all. The surest safeguard against the papacy is the constitution as it is, but under the circumstances she is making that the surest means to the dominance of the papacy. Leo continues:
Yet, though all this is true, it would be very erroneous to draw the conclusion that in America is to be sought the type of the most desirable status of the church or that it would be universally lawful or expedient for state and church to be, as in America, dissevered and divorced.
Although the church has prospered under this constitution and has here the finest chance and prospect of any place on the earth, that is not to be taken as evidence that it is better to have the church and the state separate. Oh, no, because before he gets done with this paragraph, he teaches that they shall be joined. Here are his words:
The fact that Catholicity with you is in good condition, nay, is even enjoying a prosperous growth, is by all means to be attributed to the fecundity with which God has endowed His church, in virtue of which, unless men or circumstances interfere, she spontaneously expands and propagates herself, but she would bring forth more abundant fruits if, in addition to liberty, she enjoyed the favor of the laws and the patronage of the public authority.
It is not enough that she shall be free and unmolested; she must be favored and supported before she is satisfied, and although the constitution leaves her totally unfettered, that is not enough. And although she prospers under it, that is not enough. Nothing can satisfy but that she shall be supported and favored by the laws and the public authority. . .
You see he is watching America for these greater things in view of "the times to come."
Now it is our wish that the Catholic church should not only share in but help to bring about this prospective greatness. We deem it right and proper that she should by availing herself of the opportunities daily presented to her, keep equal step with the Republic in the march of improvement, at the same time striving to the utmost, by her virtue and her institutions, to aid in the rapid growth of the States. Now she will attain both these objects the more easily and abundantly, in proportion to the degree in which the future shall find her constitution perfected. [That is, the church's constitution.] But what is the meaning of the legation [that is, Satolli's position] of which we are speaking? or what its ultimate aim, except to bring it about that the constitution of the church shall be strengthened, her discipline better fortified?
There is the whole situation laid out. The church sees herself in need of a new formation, a new molding of machinery and of the framework by which she carries forward her work and imposes her doctrines and dogmas upon the peoples of the earth. The United States is leading the nations, and she joins herself to this in view of the times to come and by reclothing herself, remodeling herself, intends to use this nation as the chief agent in her schemes. Here is a most forcible figure of this in the letter from Rome before quoted from the Catholic Standard of November 3, 1894:
Now to the mind of Leo XIII so receptive to the broad and fruitful ideas of Cardinal Gibbons, of Monsignors Ireland and Keane, Europe is going through the process of casting off its slough.
Europe here relates to the papacy as the chief of all and she proposes to cast off her slough, as the snake casts off its skin, and applying the argument and allowing the papacy to speak for herself, it is a very appropriate figure, because the Scripture says that she is actuated by that "old serpent." It is correct, and she casts off her old rough, worn skin and is coming out in such a new skin, so beautiful and so rosy that thousands of Protestants think it is another thing altogether, but God says it is the same old serpent, whether it be in the same old skin or not. It is the same old serpent in her new skin, working the same way for the same purposes for bringing the nations under her hand and she now proposes to do it, and will do it.
I must read a few more statements and make a few more comments. I read from the Catholic Standard of November 3, 1894, as follows:
There is an awakening, a metamorphosis, uneasiness and hope. The tradition is that in ancient Rome there were such strange expectations while the tragedy on Golgotha was being enacted and even now mysterious voices may be heard announcing that Great Pan is dead. What new order will arise? Will humanity be once more its own dupe? and will the old evils appear again under new names to people the world once more with false gods? Who knows?
The idea is suggested there that nobody knows what the answer will be. Now he tells:
What we do know is that a world is in its death agony.
Is it not time that Seventh-day Adventists knew that thing full well too? The papacy knows that the world is in its death agony. Do you know that? If you know it, is it not your place to tell it to the world, as well as it is the place of the papacy to tell it to the world? What has God given us this message for all these years but that we may show that the world is in its death agony and that we may tell the people so, that they may turn to the Author of life and be saved when the agony brings the last result? The papacy knows this, and she is acting in view of it. I will now read the rest of the sentence:
What we do know is that a world is in its death agony, and that we are entering upon the night which must inevitably precede the dawn.
Of course we are. "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said. The morning cometh, and also the night."
Continuing I read:-
In this evolution, the church, in the eyes of the pope, has a mission to fill.
This is in view of the times to come. What is she looking for? A world in its death agony. All nations uneasy, society racked, everything going to pieces as it is.[1] The papacy sees all that is going on and expects it to go on until the finish, and out of the agony and the tearing to pieces that comes with it, she expects to exalt herself once more to the supremacy over the nations, as she did of old. And she is going to do it; we know that. The Scriptures point that out.
She sees precisely what we see. We see the world in its death agony. We see society racking itself to pieces. We see thrones trembling. She sees that too, and she proposes to exalt herself upon what comes through all this at the end. We see that coming. We know she is going to do it, for her triumph comes out of this death agony. She gains new life herself and then glorifies herself upon it, living deliciously. . . .saying in her heart, I sit a queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning and famine. And she shall be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the God who judgeth her.
Are we not, then, in the very whirl of events that brings that thing before the whirl shall stop? We are in it; the whirl is going on. What are we here for but to tell the people that the world is in its death agony and to call upon them to flee to Him who is the life of all?
Has not the papacy had experience in just that thing? Has not the papacy seen, practically, the world once in its death agony? The Roman Empire was the world; all civilization was embraced within its limits, was under its control. She saw the Roman Empire go to pieces; she saw universal anarchy there. As the world then stood and then was, she saw the world once in its death agony, and out of that death agony of the world she exalted herself to the supremacy that she had in the Dark Ages and wrought the mischief that cursed the world so long. She sees the same elements working again--the same movements again going on among the nations, and she congratulates herself. "We did it once. Once I rose upon the ruins of that thing. I will do it again. That demonstrated to the world in that day that I was superior to all earthly things. This will demonstrate to the world in this day--large as it is--'I am, and there is none else beside me.' I shall be a lady forever. 'I sit a queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow.'"
That is her tone. That is what she is watching for, and God has opened this up to us in the prophecies that are before us and he wants us to call to all the people that the world is in its death agony. She raised herself upon the ruins of the death agony of the Roman world, and after the pattern of her old experience, she proposes to do the like thing now. She will succeed; that is certain. And it is likewise certain that her success will be her certain ruin, and therefore, "Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues." (Underscored emphasis added.)
This website has amply documented the historical fact that the Republican Party was taken over by the Church of Rome behind the facade of a Protestant Religious Right movement. The documentation has come from Roman Catholic publications, including the USCCB's pastoral letters, and admissions of open activists. However, long before this event, the Jesuits had established an innocuous reputation in America as educators; but they have had a secretive and sinister history which is well-documented in the chapter of Christian Edwardson's book Facts of Faith titled THE JESUITS. There can be little doubt that the Society of Jesus has played a secret and major role in the Catholicization of America and the Church of Rome's ascendancy to political power. Note in particular the following passages written by Edwardson:
When we reflect upon their past history, and remember that the Jesuits have been expelled from fifty different countries, seven times from England, and nine times from France, and from the Papal States themselves, there must be a reason why civil governments, Catholic as well as Protestant, have found it necessary to take such steps. Only in countries such as the United States, where they are allowed to carry on their work peaceably, we hear little of them. But some day Americans may wake up to find our present generation completely Romanized, and our boasted "liberty" a thing of the past. The prophet declares: "And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; . . . and by peace shall destroy many.” Daniel 8: 25. Any one desiring to know the historical facts should read the “History of the Jesuits,” by T. Griesinger, and “The Roman Catholic Church,” by F. T. Morton, pp. 167, 168. . .
Those who feel that the foregoing facts constitute no danger to American civil and religious liberty, would do well to remember that the Jesuits carry on an extensive educational program in this country, and that, according to their textbooks, their principles of civil government are diametrically opposed to the American ideas of separation of church and state. See their "Manual of Christian Doctrine, by a Seminary Professor," pp. 131-133. Philadelphia: 1915. The author has stated the foregoing facts, not because of any enmity towards Jesuits as individuals, nor to Catholics in general, but only from a feeling of responsibility to enlighten the American people regarding a public danger. We can truly love the persons, while we warn people against their dangerous tendencies. If we did not sincerely love everybody, we would not be true Christians. (Matthew 5: 43-48)