‘Threat to independent media worse than you know’
Is the USA, which has long prided itself on being the bastion of free speech in the world, becoming like nations it has criticized related to free speech? Many think so. Notice the following from :
Russia, China and Silicon Valley have censorship in common
March 31, 2018
Russia’s recent declaration that it is prepared to operate its own internet should the West cut off access has struck some observers as more Putinesque bellicosity, which indeed it might be. But Moscow’s desire to build a web it can control is the dream of authoritarians everywhere. And not all the authoritarians are in government.
Regulating the flow of information has been the goal of every tyrant ever since Emperor Qin Shi Huang burned books in 213 B.C., in hopes that later generations would believe history began with his reign. http://www.dailyherald.com/business/20180331/commentary-russia-china-and-silicon-valley-have-censorship-in-common
From what I have read, this was not the only attempt by the ancients to distort when history began. But control of information has long been a concern.
In the time of the Apostles, Jewish leaders tried to stop it:
27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them,28 saying, “Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!”29 But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men.30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.31 Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.32 And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him.”33 When they heard this, they were furious and plotted to kill them. (Acts 5:27-33)
Notice one plot and the response:
3 As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.4 Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.5 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them.6 And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. (Acts 8:3-6)
Will you support the work despite persecutions? What if the true Church of God is ridiculed on the internet–which happens basically every day–will that turn you away?
Anyway, after the New Testament, there were other persecutions of Christians, and Polycarp, to name one, was one of many martyred in the 2nd century.
There were later persecutions and book confiscations by Emperors Constantine and Theodosius in the 4th century.
There was also the book banning and Inquisition by the Church of Rome as well as the book banning and burning by Adolf Hitler’s regime.
Getting back to
Nowadays one country after another wants the ability to control its own intranet — or at least to throw a kill switch. …
Hosni Mubarak’s regime ordered Egyptian telecoms to close down their internet service during the Arab Spring of 2011, traffic slowed to just about zero. Nowadays China’s Great Firewall is the best-known effort to restrict what a population can find online, but countries around the world are doing their best to follow Beijing’s example.
Consider Iran. In addition to construction of the so-called halal internet, which would be entirely domestic, the Islamic Republic has cracked down on its enormous blogosphere and is pressuring its content providers to host their sites on servers within the nation’s borders. The regime has also raised the prices and slowed the speeds of internet connections, all in the hope of keeping its people away from the flow of information the government doesn’t want them to see.
North Korea solves the problem by keeping its people offline almost entirely: Only about 4 percent of the population has internet access. …
In the U.S., we like to pretend we’re better than all that. But of course we’re not. True, we don’t shut down the entire internet. We just restrict access to sites with the wrong politics — sort of like China. The only difference is that we leave the decision about what information should be available to private corporations rather than government bureaucrats. Internet companies are (on this issue anyway) liberal heroes. … ideologically driven choices by dominant internet corporations offer little improvement on ideologically driven choices by government agencies. …
Censors, whether official or unofficial, always believe that they know best what others should be permitted to consume. That we’re talking about the internet rather than books doesn’t mean they’re not still wrong.
• Carter is a Bloomberg View columnist. He is a professor of law at Yale University and was a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
You might not think any of this really affects you. But consider something that Jesus said:
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:19-20)
Christians are to teach ALL THINGS that Jesus commanded.
This is something that the Continuing Church of God has done. We have had sermons covering every verse of the four gospels plus every other verse Jesus is quoted as saying in the New Testament. Here are links to those sermons to prove that:
MATTHEW Here are links to twelve sermons covering the 28 chapters of Matthew: Matthew 1-2: Greek or Aramaic, Jesus, and the Star?, Matthew 3-5: John the Baptist, Temptations, and the Beatitudes, Matthew 6-7: Charitable Deeds, the Rosary, Prayer, the Golden Rule, and Faith, Matthew 8-10: Married Clergy, Faith, Coming Persecution, and the Ecumenical Agenda, Matthew 11-12: John the Elijah, Sodom, Unpardonable Sin, & 3 Days and 3 Nights, -14: Parables, Mustard Seeds, Birthdays, and Faith, Matthew 15-16: Tradition, Signs of the Times, and The Rock & Peter, Matthew 17-18: Transfiguration, Elijah to Come, Taxes, and Forgiveness, Matthew 19-20: Transgender? Divorce? Purgatory? The first shall be last?, Matthew 21-23: ‘Palm Sunday,’ Come as You Are?, and the Greatest Commandments, Matthew 24: Temple Destruction, Sorrows, Tribulation, and the Return of Jesus, and Matthew 25-28: Midnight Cry, False Christians, Resurrection, & Teaching what Jesus Taught.
MARK Here is a link to a sermon covering all of Jesus’ words in the Gospel of Mark: What did Jesus teach in the Book of Mark? Here is a link to six sermons covering all the verses in the Gospel of Mark: Mark 1-2: Author, Prophecy, & Miracles, Mark 3-5: Healing, Demons, and Parables, Mark 6-9: Tradition, John’s beheading, Elijah, and Restoration, Mark 10-12: Marriage, Divorce, Needle Eye, Greatest Command, & Taxes, Mark 13: Temple, Four Horsemen, Troubles, Great Tribulation, and Gospel Proclamation, and .
LUKE Here are links to eight sermons covering the entire ‘Gospel of Luke’: Luke 1-2: John the Baptist, Mary, and the Census, Luke 3-6: John the Baptist, Jesus’ genealogy, Satan’s Influence, and the Sermon on the Mount, Luke 7-9: Miracles, Purpose of Parables, Kingdom of God, and Women Supporting the Ministry, Luke 10-11: The 70, Doing the Work, the Good Samaritan, Prayer, and Signs, Luke 12-13: Priorities, Delayed Fruit Bearing, Little Flock, Prophecy, and the Narrow Way, Luke 14-16: The Lost Sheep, the Prodigal Son, the Rich Man and Lazarus, Luke 17-20: Faith, the Kingdom, Gathering, Prayer, & Rewards, and Luke 21-22: Giving, Sorrows, Persecution, Tribulation, Fig Tree, and Violence. The last sermon also covers Jesus’ words in the Book of Acts.
JOHN Here are links to a seven-part sermon series covering the entire ‘Gospel of John’: John 1-3: Anti-unitarian, Wine, Being Born Again, & Heaven, John 4-6: Jesus and the Samaritan Woman, Miracles and the Bread of Life, John 10-12: Sheep, Hirelings, Lazarus/Soul Sleep and ‘Palm Day’, John 13-15: Footwashing and the Words of Jesus, John 16-18: Truth, Trinity, and Pontius Pilate, and John 19-21: Do not only try, do what God wants.
REVELATION This is a link to a sermon covering words Jesus spoke as recorded in the Book of Revelation and in first and second Corinthians: Revelation: Jesus’ Final Words.
But if you go to those links, you will see that they are on YouTube. Since we finished covering all things Jesus commanded in the New Testament, YouTube changed.
While our number of subscribers has increased, YouTube changed its algorithms to make it harder for the general public to find what is called “conservative” content (see YouTube censorship of ‘conservative’ content), which in our case means biblically-oriented content.
YouTube has been suspending more and more channels it does not care for (see YouTube censorship of ‘conservative’ content).
Of course, it is not just YouTube. Facebook censored someone this year for quoting a verse from the Bible by removing his post (see Facebook says verse from the Bible does not meet ‘community standards’).
NASHVILLE — Leading tech companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter are censoring the online posts of Christians and conservatives — and if this trend continues, it won’t be long before free speech in America is gone, conservative leaders have warned.
During a session on public policy and online censorship attended by The Christian Post at Proclaim 18, the National Religious Broadcasters’ (NRB) International Christian Media Convention, U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn shared how, last year, Twitter blocked a campaign video in which she discussed her efforts to stop Planned Parenthood’s “sale of baby body parts.”
When Blackburn pushed against the social media company, Twitter told her the video was removed because it was deemed “an inflammatory statement that is likely to evoke a strong negative reaction.”
“That is how pro-life language was treated,” Blackburn said. “I said, ‘To me, harvesting and selling baby body parts evokes a very strong negative reaction.’ 03/14/18 https://www.christianpost.com/news/free-speech-endangered-twitter-facebook-google-censorship-conservative-nrb-221384/
Marsha Blackburn is in the US Congress representing the 7th district of Tennessee.
Notice also the following:
Threat to independent media worse than you know
Just this week, for instance, Politico published a story almost gleefully reporting that my friends at Breitbart.com have lost half their traffic and even more advertising during this siege by the politically motivated giants of the internet. Even if the reports are exaggerated, we’re talking about an imminent, existential threat to the biggest of the big independent media sites. …This war on us is not going away. We’re all in the same boat – and Google-Facebook are shooting holes in it. It’s a massive power play …Those on the left may not own the White House today, but they own every other cultural and political institution in America – and they’re going in for the kill, total control. They already own the means of distribution of news and information, and they are preparing to lock it up and seal it tight. …
Where does all this lead? http://www.wnd.com/2018/03/threat-to-independent-media-worse-than-you-know/
As far as where it will lead, the Bible has answers for that–which this post will get to.
Now, notice also something from a smaller player:
MailChimp has joined social media giants Twitter, Facebook, and Google in banning cryptocurrency advertising, citing the need to prevent “scams, fraud, phishing, and potentially misleading business practices” on its email distribution platform. 03/30/18 https://www.ccn.com/mailchimp-bans-cryptocurrency-ads-following-twitter-facebook-and-google-curbs/
MailChimp is censoring emails. So, do not think you cannot be affected by what is happening.
And then there is also direct governmental involvement.
The supposedly liberal Canadians have fined and threatened various ones for quoting parts of the Bible (watch Canadian censoring of the Bible).
Last Summer, Germany passed a law to fine social media companies for ‘not deleting hate speech’ (see Germany approves ‘same-sex marriage’ and sets fines for Facebook, etc. to crack down on ‘hate speech’), which became effective October 1, 2017 (see ZH: Germany has killed freedom of speech and expects the rest of the EU to do the same).
While that law might curb some ‘hate speech,’ make no mistake, laws like this will ultimately be used to prevent preaching the truth of the word of God!
The USA (see NY Senator proposing more censorship: Can this lead to Amos’ prophesied famine of the word? and ‘California To Have Harsher Penalty For Pronoun Violations Than For Knowingly Spreading HIV’), parts of Eurasia (see Internet censorship in Eurasia, what might Donald Trump do related to the USA?), China (see China’s internet censorship drills: Another prelude to the coming famine of the word?), the UK (see Totalitarian controls getting closer–The Guardian pushing internet censorship), and Canada (see Canada celebrates its 150th, but pushes internet and biblical censorship), to name a few nations, have also taken steps against freedom of speech.
Notice also the following:
European Union demands Google, Facebook step up Internet censorship
In a new attack on free speech, the European Union (EU) is calling on major social media and Internet firms including Facebook, Twitter and Google to automatically and immediately censor online material.
On March 1, the EU Commission called on companies and EU states to ensure “the detection and removal of illegal content through reactive (so called ‘notice and action’) or proactive measures.” It also identified a vast amount of material targeted for censorship. According to the Commission, its recommendations apply to all forms of “content ranging from terrorist content, incitement to hatred and violence, child sexual abuse material, counterfeit products and copyright infringement.”
“Considering that terrorist content is most harmful in the first hours of its appearance online, all companies should remove such content within one hour from its referral as a general rule,” it said. …
Press accounts of the latest EU demand for censorship cited the need, as the Guardian put it, to fight “extremist content on the web” that “has influenced lone-wolf attackers who have killed people in several European cities after being radicalised.”
The argument that EU censorship is aimed at so-called lone-wolf terrorists is a lie …
The EU wants the same IT companies that work closely on Internet censorship with a wide variety of states, above all Washington and the US intelligence agencies, to use similar methods to trample on freedom of speech and other democratic rights in Europe. …
In the name of fighting “illegal” content, the EU aims to target any oppositional views that challenge its plans … the EU is seeking to set up the censorship of the Internet and social media. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/03/05/euro-m05.html
I have warned for many years that under the guise of “hate speech”, aspects of what we in the Continuing Church of God teach will one day be censored. We have a position that those promoting European unity find now, and will notice more in the future, as “oppositional views.”
Changes in algorithms by Google and YouTube are simply a first step.
As far as Europe goes, notice the following prophecy:
12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. (Revelation 13:12)
18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666. (Revelation 13:18)
Doesn’t that indicate censorship?
Before that is fully implemented however, the following will happen:
14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:14)
The Bible shows that the Beast will persecute Christians (Revelation 13:7 and Daniel 11:30-35).
Part of the reason will be because a group of Christians will be explaining who the Beast is and that he is about to destroy the USA and its Anglo-Saxon allies as foretold in Daniel 11:39, he will be in league with the final Antichrist as Revelation 13 shows, and he will later destroy a confederation of Middle Eastern and Northern African nations that he made a deal with in Daniel 11:27, as Daniel 11:40-43 reveals.
He will not like that.
He will want the Philadelphian Christians stopped for telling that as well as the message of the The Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
Censorship will get worse. The Bible warns:
11 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord God,
“That I will send a famine on the land,
Not a famine of bread,
Nor a thirst for water,
But of hearing the words of the Lord.
12 They shall wander from sea to sea,
And from north to east;
They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
But shall not find it. (Amos 8:11-12)
Notice that the Bible tells of a time that will come when the word of God will not be found. And that would seem to be because truth from it will be taken off the internet. In the 21st century, the internet is accessed by people in every country, and thus some type of internet restriction/suspension/site removal for the truth is coming.
Related to this part of Amos, in a sermon on November 27, 1982 titled “U.S. of Europe is Coming,” Herbert W. Armstrong stated:
“Anyway this whole United States of Europe, when it goes together, is going to trigger nuclear World War III. Now let me tell you what else it’s going to do. It’s going to END OUR WORK! OUR WORK WILL BE THROUGH of getting the gospel to the world. That is, very shortly after it goes into force and effect; because they will move in such a way that it will end it. And then I’ll tell you what will happen. As you read here in Amos, the 8th chapter and verse 11 of Amos. Amos 8:11 ‘Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread … but of hearing the word of the LORD.’ ” (http://cog-ff.com/html/pcomments_07_04_08.html, viewed 10/03/13)
In a November 22, 1982 co-worker letter, Herbert Armstrong wrote:
… brethren and co-workers, the prophesied Great Tribulation (nuclear World War III) will start soon after the European unification. That means OUR WORK OF SPREADING THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD WILL BE FINISHED! We have not now much more time. Soon shall come a FAMINE of hearing the Word of the Lord (Amos 8:11). God says, work while it is day, for the night is coming when no man can work – in the Work of God! Nothing else is important in our lives, now, but this all-important Work of God. (http://cog-ff.com/html/pcomments_07_04_08.html, viewed 10/03/13)
So, the Bible tells of a time that will come when the word of God will not be found.
There will be governmental restrictions related to teaching what the Bible teaches. Groups, like the Continuing Church of God, will be censored for teaching what the Bible says should be taught!
More censorship is coming.
That is part of why we in the Continuing Church of God (CCOG) are preparing for the ‘short work’ (Romans 9:28) and the coming ‘famine of the word.’
The Apostle Paul wrote:
28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,
Because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth. (Romans 9:28)
Do you want to help us prepare for that short work now?
Romans 9:28 and Matthew 24:14 will be fulfilled, despite hopes of internet media companies and the coming Beast power.
The media will likely support the Beast.
Part of the reason will be that the Beast will feign peace and claim that he and a religious leader will usher in an era of peace:
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: (Daniel 8:25, KJV).
23 And after the league is made with him he shall act deceitfully, for he shall come up and become strong with a small number of people. 24 He shall enter peaceably, even into the richest places of the province; (Daniel 11:23-24a, NKJV)
But he will not really bring peace:
and he shall do what his fathers have not done, nor his forefathers: he shall disperse among them the plunder, spoil, and riches; and he shall devise his plans against the strongholds, but only for a time. (Daniel 11:24b).
The Apostle Paul wrote:
3 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. (1 Thessalonians 5:3).
Destruction to many nations is coming from the Beast power (Daniel 11:39-43).
The Beast will not want this widely publicized.
But we in the Continuing Church of God expect to publicize it as well as warn people before it happens that this is coming.
We in the CCOG will continue to prepare for the short work while also proclaiming The Gospel of the Kingdom of God (which we are now doing in about 100 different languages, go to www.ccog.org for multiple language information).
A famine of the word is coming. This will involve internet censorship.
UPDATE: 04/01/18: We just uploaded a video on this. Here is a link: Internet Censorship and Prophecy.
Some items of possibly related interest may include:
Preparing for the ‘Short Work’ and The Famine of the Word What is the ‘short work’ of Romans 9:28? Who is preparing for it? Here is a link to a related video sermon titled: The Short Work.
The Spanish Inquisition and Early Protestant Persecutions Was the Church of Rome really responsible for this? What happened? Here is a link to a related video sermon: The Past and Future Inquisition.
Persecutions by Church and State This article documents some that have occurred against those associated with the COGs and some prophesied to occur. Will those with the cross be the persecutors or the persecuted–this article has the shocking answer. There is also a YouTube video sermon you can watch: The Coming Persecution of the Church. Here is information in the Spanish language: Persecuciones de la Iglesia y el Estado.
Orwell’s 1984 by 2024? In 1949, the late George Orwell wrote a disturbing book about a totalitarian government called “nineteen-eighty four.” Despite laws that are supposed to protect freedom of speech and religion, we are seeing governments taking steps consistent with those that George Orwell warned against. We are also seeing this in the media, academia, and in private companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter. With the advent of technology, totalitarianism beyond what Orwell wrote is possible. Does the Bible teach the coming a totalitarian state similar to George Orwell’s? What about the Antichrist and 666? Will things get worse? What is the solution? Dr. Thiel answers these questions and more in this video.
Canadian censoring of the Bible In 2017, Lauri Skori of the Battle River School board told a religious school in Alberta, Canada that it could not teach/read certain portions of the Bible. In 2002, a court in Canada ruled against one who referred to certain scriptures that some homosexuals objected to. In 2017, there was “An Act to Amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and Criminal Code” related to those who wish to be considered transgendered. Government officials in Canada and elsewhere have been ruling against the Bible. Is any of this prophesied? Will this get worse? What was the prophet Amos inspired to write? This is a video.
Internet Control, Famine of the Word, and 666 Is the internet going to be used to suppress the teaching of the word of God?
Abortion, the Bible, and a Woman’s Right to Choose Do you know what the Bible teaches on this? Has the Roman Catholic Church allowed abortions? What about the real Church of God? Some may also, or instead, wish to view the YouTube video Abortion, the Bible, and US Debt.
The Snowden Leaks are Leading to the Destruction of the USA Can what happened with the leaks of what the NSA has done help the USA to be taken over? What does the Bible teach that seems to be related to this? Here is a related YouTube video titled Are the Snowden NSA leaks leading to the destruction of the USA?
Anglo – America in Prophecy & the Lost Tribes of Israel Are the Americans, Canadians, English, Scottish, Welsh, Australians, Anglo-Saxon (non-Dutch) Southern Africans, and New Zealanders descendants of Joseph? Where are the lost ten-tribes of Israel? Who are the lost tribes of Israel? What will happen to Jerusalem and the Jews in Israel? Will God punish the U.S.A., Canada, United Kingdom, and other Anglo-Saxon nations? Why might God allow them to be punished first? Here is a link to the Spanish version of this article: Anglo-América & las Tribus Perdidas de Israel. A video of possible interest may be Will Will USA Spying Help the Beast Power?
Europa, the Beast, and the Book of Revelation discusses the largest church since the second/third century, which in a real sense is the eighth church mentioned in the Book of Revelation (it also endorses “eighth day” worship). What church would support the Beast? Here is a link to a video titled: Europe and the ‘Holy Roman Empire’.
Leading the Final Phase of the Work Matthew 24:14 teaches “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come ” will be fulfilled and RCG is not the group doing this. Who is leading the final phase of the work? What did Herbert Armstrong and the old WCG teach about that and about prophets? Does Bob Thiel meet the criteria that the Bible and the old WCG set? What is the proof? What has the Continuing Church of God been doing? This is a sermonette length video.
The Gospel of the Kingdom of God This free online pdf booklet has answers many questions people have about the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and explains why it is the solution to the issues the world is facing. Here are links to three related sermons: The World’s False Gospel, The Gospel of the Kingdom: From the New and Old Testaments, and The Kingdom of God is the Solution.
Beware: Protestants Going Towards Ecumenical Destruction! What is going on in the Protestant world? Are Protestants turning back to their ‘mother church’ in Rome? Does the Bible warn about this? What are Catholic plans and prophecies related to this? Is Protestantism doomed? See also World Council of Churches Peace Plan. Famine of the Word? God inspired the Prophet Amos to write that the time would come when there would be a famine of hearing the words of the Lord (Amos 8:11-12). Are we seeing anything that is leading up to this? Is the Christian message already too ‘politically incorrect’?
Bible News Prophecy channel. Dr. Thiel has produced many YouTube videos for the BibleNewsProphecy channel. And you can find them there.
ContinuingCOG channel. Dr. Thiel has produced YouTube video sermons for this channel. Note: Since these are sermon-length, they can take a little longer to load than other YouTube videos.
CCOGAfrica channel. This has messages from African pastors in African languages such as Kalenjin, K
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