Big Stories of 2004

The overwhelming content of the news in 2004 was negative—bad news: war, famine, flood, fire, earthquakes, hurricanes, typhoons, pestilence, cataclysm, corporate intrigue, debt, debt and yet more debt—and terror! Very little hope of a bright future for mankind lit up the pages of newspapers, magazines and journals. It was the same old litany of licentiousness in human relationships and perversity in public pronouncements, overlaid with the tired gloss of the “glamour” of celebrity.

Mass media, in particular television news, struggled to maintain their market niche by picturing world news as another form of entertainment to appeal to a dazed audience that had “seen it all before.” It just didn’t work. By year’s end, disillusioned news anchors were departing the scene, networks were struggling to maintain a profitable bottom line, and the bloggers were beating them at their own game.

Why? Why is the public so disillusioned with the news media? Simply because, to many, it is a self-evident truth that the continuing attempt to present news in this tired format sacrifices truth and reality in favor of that which will titillate the senses and gain a response from the masses. It seems that those who bankroll mainstream media are wedded to this overworked and worn-out approach to selling the news.

Why are viewers leaving mainstream print and television news and switching to broadband in droves? There’s something at work here that the commercial news networks and the print news media, like the New York Times, have yet to grasp. Much of the public is fed up with spin. They simply want the facts.

Real News

The publishers of this magazine do not rely on mainstream news as a source for the material we publish.

Over seven years ago our editor in chief established our own news bureau. For seven years previous to that, the Trumpet had already been scooping other news magazines on world news stories well ahead of their making headlines in other print media. Our news bureau just added extra research capacity to the Trumpet’s already gathering strength and influence. We tend not to run with what is termed “breaking news.” Rather, we prefer to stay ahead of the game by declaring the real news even before it happens! We can do this simply because our foremost primary source of news analysis is Bible prophecy!

Ask any of our long-time readers. The proof is out there—15 years of it in print (check our archives on our website at www.theTrumpet.com). That’s in addition to the over 50 years of accurate predictions of our mentor, that great 20th-century forecaster of future events, Herbert W. Armstrong. Ask for a copy of our sample issue with the cover story “He Was Right!” to prove this for yourself.

Now, the news.

What Mainstream News Missed

Here are some of the headlines that you should have read last year:

“Britain and America’s Greatest Strategic Blunder”

“China Takes Charge of Sea Gates”

“Russia Returning to Imperial Status”

“Iran: Nuclear-Powered Leader of Islamic Crescent”

“Holy Roman Empire Extends Eastward”

“Anglo-American Decline Accelerates”

Crazy? No—reality! Let us prove this to you.

Major Blunder

As British mariner Sir Walter Raleigh declared in 1610, “Whosoever commands the sea commands the trade; whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself.”

One of the prime attributes of British power under the Pax Britannica, which largely secured the world in comparative peace for a century and more, was the British Empire’s literal possession of every major sea gate in the world!

Although those strategic control points were not fully secured until the 18th and 19th centuries, the headline predicting Britain’s acquisition of them was actually written over 3,500 years before that! Speaking of that which has since become a documented fact of British history, God declared to Abraham, patriarch of the tribes of ancient Israel, “[T]hy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies” (Genesis 22:17).

In his book The United States and Britain in Prophecy (request your own copy, free of charge), Herbert W. Armstrong stated, “Prior to World War ii, the American and British peoples had acquired more than two thirds of the cultivated resources and wealth of the world. Yet, astonishing wonder though it be, we acquired nearly all of it rather suddenly, since the year 1800. Never in all history did anything like this occur. Never did any people or nation spread out and grow so suddenly and rapidly into such magnitude of national power.”

This was the result of the deliberate and timely fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham’s seed. Britain and America are the offspring of Joseph, Isaac’s grandson. Joseph produced two sons: Ephraim, from whom sprung the British peoples, and Manasseh, from whose descendants the American nation was born. Between them, these two nations controlled the choicest parts of the world’s surface from the early 1800s to the mid-1940s, including all the world’s major sea gates! This power also secured for them a city which is an icon of their religious beliefs—Jerusalem.

Yet, about 1,900 years after the promises to Abraham, Jesus Christ declared that the very capital of the land of the ancient Israelites, Jerusalem, would be surrounded by armies at a yet future date and overrun by a foreign people during a time that He termed “the times of the Gentiles” (Luke 21:20, 24).

When the British Empire held sway, it controlled all sea-gate access to Palestine, the common name given to the general land area which incorporates the city of Jerusalem. Suez, the Dardanelles, Oman, Gibraltar, Malta and Cyprus were all under the British flag. It was impossible for any foreign nation to enter the vicinity of Palestine by sea without permission from the British Navy. Coincidentally, the British at this time controlled access to the Khyber Pass, which is the major strategic land gateway to Palestine from Asia via the Hindu Kush Mountains.

All that is now history.

Britain and America have literally given—not sold, but given—away their birthright possession of this world’s major sea gates! This will yet prove to be their biggest strategic blunder! The Turks now have the Bosporus, Pakistan has the Khyber, Oman is in Islamic hands, and German patrol boats secure the Mediterranean on behalf of the European Union. And who do we find now standing at both ends of what is, perhaps, the most crucial sea gate of all—the Suez Canal? China!

The Anglo-Americans’ greatest strategic blunder will manifest itself powerfully in the not-too-distant future in geopolitical consequences that will shake this world! The gateways to Jerusalem and to the Anglo-American nations are now secured by potential enemies!

Big Stories of 2004: China

The fact that China has gained control over most of the world’s strategic sea gates should have been the stuff of headline news! Over the past two decades, China has quietly and steadily moved to secure a position on most every major sea gate in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans. Even the British ports of Thameside and Felixstowe and the world’s largest seaport, Rotterdam, have been penetrated by Chinese interests. From Suez to Panama, the Straits of Malacca to the Persian Gulf, from Poland to Pakistan, China has steadily moved to take over control of the major cargo-handling facilities at the world’s most strategic trade chokepoints. China’s success at this strategy may be viewed by checking the map on page 4.

Amazingly, the U.S. has even permitted this nation, a declared enemy, to build and to control the largest container port in the world—in Freeport, Bahamas—just 60 miles south of its own backyard! This, without any public whimper of concern! In addition to Chinese control of the Panama Canal, this should send shivers up and down the spine of every realist in America who has any inkling of China’s drive to world-power status.

The world’s major sea gates are now in Gentile hands. Every land and sea gateway giving access to Israel—wherein lies the Holy City, Jerusalem—is in Gentile hands. That which simply was not possible while Britain and America controlled all the world’s major sea gates is today a startling possibility: The way is open for Jerusalem to be surrounded by foreign armies and overrun by enemies! This will be reality. The headline has already been written!

Consider the great strategic danger to the Anglo-Americans, who are now second only to the Jews as objects of hatred in this world. While they controlled the world’s sea gates, the possibility of their own countries being blockaded by an enemy simply did not exist. Yet again, in these “times of the Gentiles,” the prospect of the Anglo-Americans being besieged by enemies has become a definite possibility. In fact, it is destined to become a reality! Read the headlines: “And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee” (Deuteronomy 28:52).

Aside from the Anglo-Americans, three rising empires presently dominate world trade: China, Japan and the nations of the Far East; the federating European Union; and Russia and its remaining loyal satellite nations. Increasingly, these three entities are entering alliances of convenience as they compete for bigger slices of global trade. One thing they all have in common is a great jealousy of the obvious national blessings enjoyed by Anglo-America.

It is not beyond the realm of possibility that at a future time these three entities could combine to bring down the dollar. In fact, rumbles were heard from Japan and the EU on this very possibility as 2004 drew to a close. Even fiscal guru Alan Greenspan has recently hinted at that. It is now not far from being probable that an alliance will one day be struck between these three emerging power blocs to have China shut the gates to Anglo-American trade, besieging these English-speaking nations, thus reducing them to utter subservience and, believe it or not, abject slavery!

Headlining this future reality, God has declared of the British peoples who have trashed their God-given empire, of the Americans who have frittered away their great God-given wealth and power, and of the Jewish people who have denied their Messiah, that they will be reduced to a state where “he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates. … And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships … there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen …” (verses 55, 68). Some day soon, believe it or not, that forecast will make headline news! And it will significantly be due to the present blindness of the Anglo-Americans to the corner into which their failing foreign policies have painted them. We will yet rue the day that we so easily became a pawn in China’s grand scheme for global dominance!

Big Stories of 2004: Russia

Contrary to what some analysts maintain, Russia’s intentions are not to saddle up with the West. What to some appear to be Vladimir Putin’s present intentions are far from being Russia’s long-term strategy. Russia, as it always has, will end up turning east after its present convenient flirtation with the West. In the future we shall see Russia cementing itself into a grand alliance with China, Japan, the Southeast Asia bloc and India. Read that future headline in our January 2002 article “March Toward Armageddon,” based on the prophecy of Ezekiel 38, written well over 2,500 years ago!

A year ago, when Putin moved to consolidate his hold on Russian leadership by manipulating the electoral process, one startling headline did appear in the press. But it was not mainstream. The headline over Gerald Flurry’s article in our January 2004 edition read, “Russia Frightens Europe—and Fulfills Bible Prophecy.” Watching Europe’s reaction to Putin’s railroading the vote in his favor, the Trumpet’s editor in chief penned the following: “Russian elections have recently moved President Vladimir Putin much closer to becoming a dictator. This strikes intense fear in Europe. The Europeans still remember how violent Russia was in World War ii, and Russia is a close neighbor with massive piles of nuclear weapons. …

“The Russian election is triggering a fear that will hasten the uniting of the European Union. The Russian election will cause Germany and other European nations to want a stronger leader. Throughout history, Germany has often sought a strong leader. Bible prophecy says it will do so again—for the last time!

“These events are about a rapidly approaching World War iii.”

Chances are that around a million people read that shocking prediction. That means 6 billion didn’t! But one day they are going to read the headline that declares the first shots of World War iii have been fired—nuclear-powered shots! That is the unerring prediction of Bible prophecy, bound to happen despite all the blowhard energy vented by the scoffers and the naysayers!

President Putin is definitely stabilizing the government in his country. But he’s doing it the Russian way. Conditioned to tyranny for generations, the Russians will welcome the perceived security that a dictator will promise. The only question that remains in all this is just where the reviving Russian empire will draw the line of demarcation with that other empire emerging to its west. That game is being played out right now. The arena is Ukraine.

Will Russia insist on snatching back Ukraine under its imperial rule? Will Putin figure that coping with a religious and ethnic divide in Ukraine is not worth the trouble and do a deal with the EU, yielding up Catholic western Ukraine and holding on to the loyalist eastern Ukraine? Will the Dnieper River be the border between these two competing empires, or will Putin fight to hold on to the great Ukrainian breadbasket? Whichever way this falls, the outcome is guaranteed by Bible prophecy! (see story, page 8).

One thing is for certain: Putin is playing for high stakes. In October 2003, Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov declared that nuclear weapons remained “a key feature of Russia’s defense strategy and that Moscow did not preclude the possibility of pre-emptive strikes, if the need arose, to defend its interests or those of its allies” (Frontline, Nov. 22-Dec. 5, 2003; emphasis mine throughout). Frontline noted that this differed markedly from Putin’s earlier stated policy that “made no mention of pre-emptive strikes in the case of allies’ interests” (ibid.). As our editor in chief wrote, “In 2000, Russia publicly stated that its nuclear stockpiles were for defensive purposes. Now Vladimir Putin is talking about ‘pre-emptive strikes.’ That means Russia could strike first with that vast nuclear arsenal!” (op. cit.).

Last November Putin went public with a very aggressive statement on Russia’s nuclear intentions. “… Putin said Russia is researching and successfully testing new nuclear missile systems, the itar-Tass news agency reported” (Associated Press, Nov. 17, 2004). Putin was quoted as saying, “I am sure that … they will be put in service within the next few years and, what is more, they will be developments of the kind that other nuclear powers do not and will not have” (ibid.).

But why aren’t the media riding this story into the ground? Why, oh why will they seize on any story glorifying sleaze and neglect the real headline news?

We can give you the headline now, in advance of the event. The future of Europe will be played out, once again, between Germany and Russia! Just as Germany did with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact prior to World War ii, yet again—perhaps triggered by the Ukrainian crisis—a German-dominated EU and Russia will conclude a pact to secure their mutual border. Just as it was in World War ii, that pact will be broken by an attack on Russia led by Germany.

But this time there will be no alliance between Russia and the Western powers. For by that time, your Bible says, the West will be in slavery to a German-dominated union of West and East Europe that will have previously put Anglo-America to siege (Jeremiah 17:4).

This time, Russia aligns with the Oriental hordes to deliver a crushing blow to the European Union. Russia would simply not be in a position in the future to lead such an onslaught from the northeast if it had not by then been revived as a significant world power.

Do you see why we can be so confident in our predictions? This future headline news has all been predetermined by an all-wise God, who knows human nature so well, and who knows the evil spirit that powerfully influences the minds of the leaders of this world’s nations (Ephesians 6:12).

Big Stories of 2004: Iran

Less advanced in fulfilling its desire to become a world power is Iran. At this point, despite the fractious nature of its politics, Iran continues to be a lead player in the promotion of anti-Jewish and anti-Anglo-American terror. If there ever was an “axis of evil,” it revolved around Iran, chief sponsor of global terror. Still, the moribund and scandal-plagued United Nations continues to kowtow to the deceitful Iranian leadership.

Every intelligence organization worthy of the term knows full well that Iran is intent on developing itself as a nuclear power to be reckoned with in the Middle East. Yet Western politicians, negotiators and diplomats still deceive themselves into thinking that Iran’s signature on a piece of paper will guarantee its word that its nuclear intentions are for peaceful purposes. This simply defies all logic. The U.S. has even tried to cement a deal with Iran over its major foreign-policy headache—Iraq.

Once again, Iran’s true intentions should have been headline news last year. Instead, our news media showed very little interest in this harbinger of nuclear terror. Our editor in chief noted in our May 2004 edition the precise reason why the Anglo-Americans will not face up to the Iranian question: “Iran poses a problem for which we have no answer. That is because our people lack the will to confront the number-one powerhouse in the Middle East. The Iraqi conflict has been compared to the Vietnam War. There were many mistakes made in Vietnam, but one of those errors we rarely ever discuss. We had a lack of will in that war. This weakness has plagued us since we failed to win the Korean War.”

That has been the consistent message of this magazine.

Again, the year prior, in our November 2003 issue, Gerald Flurry wrote, “Our will has been broken, so we try to solve the problem the way the Israelis do—and their terrorist problem grows worse! The Israelis also lack the will to deal with Iran—the origin and primary source of world terrorism!” And that’s the nub of the problem. We have become so weakened in collective national character that we simply lack the moral courage and collective will, despite our sheer weight of evident power, to do the world a service and confront that denizen of crazed, hateful terror—Iran.

You may have read this in the Trumpet last year, but you did not see one front-page headline in the mainstream media on the cause of our abject failure to put Iran in its place!

Big Stories of 2004: European Union

The European Union absorbed another 10 nations into its realm last May. After much ado, a European constitution of sorts was also signed in Rome last year. One thing was missing: The Europeans left their traditional god out of the picture.

One could not but see the irony of the life-size statue of Pope Gregory staring lifelessly down on the assembled European dignitaries as they signed their “godless” constitution. Weren’t the founding fathers of the EU rabid Roman Catholics? Was not Valery Giscard d’Estaing, creator of the constitution, a deeply committed Roman Catholic? Had not images of him sitting directly across the desk of Pope John Paul ii circulated through the press at the time that he was formulating the idea of the constitution? Would he not have discussed ways and means of cementing the religion of Europe at the heart and core of the Union’s government? Did not they see this as a revival of the Holy Roman Empire? Well—Yes! Then why are the media playing up the “secularist” nature of the EU and its constitution? Secular my foot! The EU is Catholic to its core. A grand deceit is being worked here! Yet, once again, you have not read the vital headline in your local media.

Giscard d’Estaing is on record as declaring that those who charted the EU constitution deliberately left out any reference to religion. Well, so they should, shouldn’t they? After all, it was in Europe that the Enlightenment took place, and where humanism and secularism were born. So, is not the EU just subscribing to that latter-day enlightened philosophy of political correctness, not wanting to disenfranchise all those nice Islamic extremists who live in its midst? Not very likely!

Giscard d’Estaing and his cronies deliberately left religion out of the constitution precisely because they know that, had they recognized the traditional religion of Holy Roman Europe at the center of their constitution, it would have been tantamount to the state legislating one federal religion for all. That would never do! That would have tipped their hand. Far better to instigate a groundswell of reaction from the public, so that, by popular demand of the citizens of Europe, the gnomes of Brussels are then “forced” to write recognition of Europe’s traditional religion into this shabby document called a European constitution.

The Vatican is expert at creating a public groundswell. Remember the Solidarity movement in Poland? Fed by cash, encouragement and direction from the Vatican, this Catholic-led movement gained such a following and public audience that it split the Iron Curtain asunder! Then what happened? As the ussr imploded, the masses in eastern and southern Europe came out from under the godless wraps of communism and returned in droves to worshiping the god of Rome! They comprise the populations of the 10 nations that joined the EU last year. They have not come out of the communist closet to come under a “secularist” Soviet-style united Europe. They are going to demand that their religion be recognized in their new constitution at least as much as atheism was embraced by the constitution of their old communist masters!

Rather than the headline that did appear—“Europe Signs Secularist Constitution”—you should have read, “Europe Signs DECEITFUL Constitution”! Well, now we’ve written it for you—before the deceit is unveiled, which one day soon it will be.

Big Stories of 2004: Anglo America

Of the remaining British dominions, Australia alone joined the alliance against terror with the United States and the old mother country Britain. New Zealand, under its politically correct, feminized government, along with a weakened and divided Canada, refused. Many other non-English-speaking nations did join.

The U.S., Britain and Australia had to endure the vile invective of a left-leaning press and media as a result of their decision to support President Bush. Despite this, conservative leaders in the U.S. and Australia were returned to office with increased majorities. This says much about just how out of touch with reality our mainstream media are.

Yet conservatives in society continue to face an uphill battle. The paucity of good manners, the lack of a sense of shame for wrongdoing, the blurring of gender boundaries, the increasingly litigious nature of our human relationships, the descent of high culture, the dominance of the gutter in language and the field of entertainment—all of this and much, much more has become the norm in our daily lives. What is now acceptable as “normal” behavior was often, half a lifetime ago, that which one was arrested for as an offense against society.

As the European public increasingly clamor for their religion—the very foundation of their beliefs—to be written into their constitution, across the Atlantic we legislate to keep out of our schools and public places the God who was honored by the founders of our own nation in our own constitution!

It has been said that the nation that does not preserve its heritage is a nation not fit to survive. It is this very challenge that the English-speaking nations face. Their God cries out to them, as they slide ever deeper into moral and spiritual decline: “Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways [of God], and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls” (Jeremiah 6:16). But what is the nations’ response? “[T]hey said, We will not walk therein.”

So what does God do? He trumpets a final warning to them of that which will befall them if they do not repent of their individual and collective national sins: “Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken. Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it” (verses 17-19). You are reading that warning, trumpeted from the pages of this very magazine! You are reading the real headline news! And you are reading it just in time to really do something about it!

Blinded or Enlightened?

There will be those who, failing to see beyond today’s horizon, will scoff at these predictions.

“China, Japan, the EU? They’ll never pull the rug out from under our dollar economy—too much to lose! As to those sea gates, doesn’t the U.S. have the most powerful navy in the world? Could we not literally steamroll China’s navy to the bottom of the sea?

“Iran? It wouldn’t be game to taunt the U.S., the EU and the UN by developing nuclear weapons. The U.S. military could fuse them into glass with one well-placed nuke!

“Russia? Putin’s cuddled up to the West. Hasn’t that neocon U.S. president even stated that Putin is a man he can trust? Putin’s got too much to lose by resisting the U.S., the EU and the UN. Just look at the state of his economy. He’s all talk.

“Europe? Holy Roman Empire? Ridiculous! Hasn’t the EU written God out of the picture in its very constitution? How then can it possibly be termed holy? Wasn’t it the Catholic Church that dominated the Holy Roman Empire? It is clear out of the picture right now. Religion is old-fashioned in Europe! This is an enlightened free-trade bloc. What’s more, it is too disunited to be a real threat to the U.S. for years to come!

“Anglo-America? The world can’t afford for the U.S. economy to collapse. Too much depends on it. I don’t believe this bubble economy stuff. We are big enough to trade our way out of any foreign debt. Interest rates are still low, credit is easy, mortgages are there to burn, I’ve got my new suv, just re-mortgaged my home and my fridge is full. What more could one want? What’s more, the British economy is the strongest in Europe!

Morals? That is personal. What my neighbor does behind his closed door is not my business. Anyway, there’s no such thing as deviant behavior. That’s just an old-fashioned term to describe anything not permitted by the Bible, and we did away with those old oppressive rules years ago!”

So goes the ignorant circular reasoning of John Q. Public in too many cases. Yet demand for this magazine remains strong. Our literature requests are at an all-time high. Our telephone inquiries have increased beyond our capacity to keep up with them. Why? Why, if John Q. Public is so content with his lot, will people insist on reading the Trumpet magazine, continue watching the Key of David television program and keep on requesting our literature in record numbers? Simply because people increasingly do feel, deep down in their gut, something is terribly wrong with this world. Something has to give! There is a collective, ongoing, public feeling of insecurity that ripples on since 9/11. People want to know what is ahead. They would like to know tomorrow’s headlines today!

Tomorrow’s Headlines

Well, the good news is, you can! And tomorrow’s headlines will soon be literally filled to overflowing with good news, once we get beyond the terrifying storms that now loom ominously on the world horizon. Events will play out according to biblical prophecy—that is for sure! It is as sure as the very Word of God, for “the scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35). God simply cannot break His word! He has declared it—announced the outcome of current world events far in advance of their happening.

The “times of the Gentiles” are upon us! The coming demise of the nations of Israel is inevitable! The horrors ahead are as certain to come as tomorrow’s rising sun.

But, so also is the wonder of God’s direct and imminent intervention in human affairs—that very next event prophesied to occur following the Tribulation and the Day of the Lord (Matthew 24:21, 29-30). The Son of God, the Prince of Peace, will soon return to inaugurate the perfect peace plan for mankind!

More than ever, you need to understand this, so you can respond to this great vision and become part of the only solution to mankind’s ills, rather than remaining a contributor to their cause. We need to look forward to anticipate a time when bad news headlines, headlines that hide reality, headlines that mask the naked truth, are gone and buried forever! We need to look forward to a time of daily headline good news! Believe it or not, such a time is coming, and it’s just ahead of us—you can really feel the pulse of world events leading up to it! But you need real vision to see this! You need TOMORROW’S vision TODAY!

Request a free copy of our booklet The Wonderful World Tomorrow—What It Will Be Like, and start immediately to anticipate the soon-to-appear greatest headline ever in history: “JESUS CHRIST RETURNS!”