PER:Why the Omega Letter?

   As in any new arrangement such as the transition to the Iowa
facility, there are bound to be errors. (Fortunately, in this instance
I can report that they weren't ours). Anyway, the August issue of the
Omega-Letter went to the printers in the last week of July and was
mailed in the first week of August. Last week we found that the date
had now been set for September 11th--a full five weeks late.

   When we found that out we were discouraged as that meant you would
probably wouldn't get the August issue until Sept. 20th or so. Even
worse was the realization that the Sept. issue of would also be very
late. It is for that reason that we decided to reactivate our own
production facility to produce this Sept. issue of the Omega-Letter.
This has forced us to work with a reduced staff and organization. It
has also forced us to print this issue on white paper as our normal
grey would take at least ten more days to get here. Lord willing, the
October issue will be relatively on time and back to its normal format.

   KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN FOR PROPHECTIC FULFILLMENT

   One of the most exciting things about studying Bible prophecy is
seeing our daily newspapers and television broadcasts report on events
exactly fulfilling the prophecies written thousands of years ago in the
Word of God. When you read something like this please take a second and
send it to us. Some of the most significant things are reported in
local (not national) papers. Due to our severe staff shortage we may
not be able to acknowledge receiving the clippings but we sure do
appreciate them.

   THE OMEGA-LETTER AND THE CHRISTIAN WORLD REPORT ARE MOVING

   One of the greatest difficulties in the past couple of years has
been that while 95% of our subscribers are in the United States, our
offices are located some 300 miles north of the American boarder in
Ontario, Canada. This has cost us thousands of dollars and has terribly
slowed down the speed at which we receive mail (from our Dearborn, MI.
drop point) and which we could fulfill your orders. As you know, this
has been a great concern of ours.

   The reason we have stayed here this long is the we simply felt that
the Lord wanted us here in North Bay. However we believe now that the
Lord had released us to move to our new offices to the
Canadian/American border in Niagara Falls. The move will take place in
the first week of Nov. with the Lord's help. Please pray for us as we
undertake this expensive and very draining move. Also please do not be
concerned with which address (Dearborn, Niagara Falls or North Bay) to
use as all of the mail will reach us in any instance.

   BACK TO THE FUTURE

   I am tremendously excited at what the Lord is doing. By allowing our
income to drop and the debt to build up the Lord has shown me some very
important things that I had let slip:

   1) He is our source, pay as we go.

   2) I am not a gifted businessman.

   3) I am not called to be a businessman or to run a production
facility, I am called to write and preach of the Lord's soon return.

   This is why we are shutting down our printing operation, leaving
only a single press for small jobs and letting a professional company
do the job. I want to refocus all my energies onto the message and
ministry that I have been given.

   Please continue to pray for and financially support this ministry
during this critical transition. We believe that God is in these moves,
but we also know the next few months will be difficult ones. In His
Love Peter LaLonde

   MINISTRY OPPORTUNITY

   The Omega-Letter and its sister publication, The Christian World
Report are in need of a born-again graphic artist. The position is full
time and encompasses the layout of all publications, space advertising
and direct mail promotions. The applicant must be willing to relocate
to Niagara Falls, New York, or Niagara Falls, Ontario.

   Experience on Ventura Publisher or equivalent would be helpful.

   For further consideration mail your resume to us or call us at
(705)476-0266 and ask for Paul LaLonde.

   EDITORIAL/SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

   The Omega-Letter is published monthly, eleven times a year at North
Bay, Ontario, Canada. The annual subscription fee is $25.00

   THE CHINESE UPRISING IN THE LIGHT OF BIBLE PROPHECY

   We have received many requests for our comments on the position of
China in world affairs and in prophecy. Considering the current unrest
in that gigantic nation, people want to know what the Scripture says
will happen in the future.

   And as a matter of fact, China is very well covered in prophecy.
Revelation chronicles the Tribulation Period career of the King of the
East with his enormous army of "two hundred thousand thousand
horsemen"(9:16). The King of the East seems to be the major opponent of
the Antichrist and his ten-nation confederacy if Europe is in the
battle of Armageddon. The grand final war of east and west seems to
come to pass at that cataclysmic moment as the hordes of the Orient try
to overrun the erstwhile conqueror of Israel, the Antichrist, and his
western armies.

   But what does China's present situation show us that might lead
toward its Tribulation Period position? First of all, we have seen in
no uncertain terms the ruthlessness of the army of that totalitarian
state. First the newscasts were blacked out, and the army marched
against its own people. Casualty figures varied from the hundreds to
the thousands, but it clear that what was called the "People's
Liberation Army" was the enemy of the people even in the face of a
popular uprising, the army would obey its dictators, marching anywhere
and killing anyone, even its own countrymen. How much more so,
therefore, will the enormous force robbing and pillaging and they go,
all the way to the Middle East for that grand climatic battle. (Among
other things, the Chinese army's crackdown on its own people showed the
ruthlessness with which Bible Prophecy tells us the Chinese will invade
the Middle East in the days ahead).

   The recent news from China also showed us the principle that the
crisis of leadership all over the world extends to the Far East as
well. Obviously, for the peoples of the world to pledge their
allegiance to the Antichrist, they will have to be dishearten with the
governments they already have. Obviously, China is no exception, and
given a choice in the future the people of that huge nation will opt
for the Antichrist's promise of peace and security, at least for a
time. As the Tribulation Period goes on, however, the Chinese will
begin to perceive that the Antichrist is no god at all. The convincing
moment will be when he blasphemes in the Temple in Jerusalem (I Thess.
2:3, 4), and the Israelites bolt (Matt. 24:16). Observing the failure
of the Antichrist to dominate even little Israel, the Chinese will
begin to mobilize to overthrow him. The world will have never seen a
more destructive and murderous crusade than the Chinese march to the
Holy Land in the latter half of the Tribulation Period. The two hundred
million men will evidently march across the entire eastern hemisphere,
taking what they wish as they go, and in the symbolic language of
Revelation, issuing "out of their mouths....fire and smoke and
brimstone". Fully one-third of the world's population will be
annihilated by this horror: "By these three was the third part of men
killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone which
issued out of their mouths" (Rev. 9:18). The Euphrates River will dry
up for the forces of the East as they approach Israel. Their plan seems
to be bivouac in the quiet valley of Armageddon in northern Israel to
stage their assault on Jerusalem and the Antichrist and his forces will
pre-empt the attack by the invaders at Armageddon. Thus we have the
final battle of all the earth's wars with its horrible consequences.

   What we now see in China--popular unrest, danger of economic
collapse and inflation, a crisis of leadership--is going to become the
tendency of nations all over the world, where it hasn't already. We are
seeing some signs of it in our own country as well. All of these things
set the stage for the entrance of the Antichrist and his alleged
solutions to these critical problems. Let us just be thankful that what
seems to the rest of the world to be willy nilly political events,
falling this way and that at random, actually are completely
comprehensible with the tool of biblical prophecy.

   Zola Levitt Ministries Inc. P.O. Box 12268 Dallas, Texas 75225

   ANOTHER GOSPEL "As we said before, so say I now again, If any man
preach any other gospel unto you that ye have not received, let him be
accursed." Galatians 1:9

   THE INCREASED PRESENCE IN THE OCCULT AMONG POLICY MAKERS AND
NATIONAL LEADERS IN WASHINGTON IS BY NO MEANS PARTICULAR TO THE UNITED
STATES. THE FOLLOWING REPORT BY KENNETH B. NOLDE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES
SHOWS THE WAGES OF SIN IN LIBERIA:

   MONROVIA, Liberia--Eleven people, including Liberia's Defense
Minister, have been arrested and charges with the ritual murder of a
policeman as part of a plot to overthrow the Government.

   The plot began in March, court papers charged, after the Defense
Minister, Maj. Gen. Gray Allison, sought the aid of a "medicine man" to
help him advance his career.

   Prosecutors assert that General Allison had been told he would need
a potion of human blood and body parts to perform "juju" or "harsh
medicine".The potion would then be used against LIberia's President,
Samuel K. Doe, presumably to cause his death and bring down the
Government.

   A few days later a decapitated body was found laying across a
railway track near General Allison's home with its heart ripped out.
The body was later identified as that of J. Melvin Pyne, a local
policeman. The killing remained unsolved for several months until late
June, when General Allison was arrested and charged with first-degree
murder. He was also accused of engaging in "ritual intended to promote
his own selfish and greedy desire."

   TRIED BY MILITARY TRIBUNAL

   The general, who faced a maximum of penalty of death if convicted,
was removed as Defense Minister after his indictment and went on trial
before a military tribunal on July 10. His wife, Angeline Watta, and
nine others were tried separately by a civilian court.

   General Allison has vigorously denied the charges. Among those
testifying against him were Sekou Sachko, the "medicine man," and a
nurse who said he had cut off Officer Pyne's head. The trial is
expected to end shortly.

   The ritual killing has gripped Liberia this summer because the
defendants are not marginal members of society but pillars of the
establishment. Before his arrest last month, General Allison was among
Liberia's most prominent political figures.

   News articles about the trial often note that General Allison and
his wife were known as devout Christians. They were recently named
Liberia's Father and Mother of the Year.

   DOZENS CHARGED OVER YEARS

   While General Allison is the most prominent Liberian to have been
charged with the ritual murder, dozens of business leaders, politicians
and even clergymen have been charged, and sometimes convicted, of
similar charges over the last few decades.

   In 1987, six people, including a close aide to President Doe, were
executed for the ritualistic killing of two boys.

   General Allison's court-martial has been conducted behind closed
doors, but in daily accounts of the trial made public by the
Government, the former Defense Minister has steadfastly insisted on his
innocence.

   Whatever the court may decided, however, many people here have been
struck by the words of a speech General Allison gave six years ago. In
it, The Daily Observer reported, Mr. Allison complained that ritual
killings were posing a severe threat to the security of the nation
adding, "Anyone found guilty of being a ritual killer must face the
firing squad".

   INDIA'S "SPIRITUAL" AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.

   NEW DELHI, July 18 -- He said it himself: "There's a new kind of
ambassador coming". Karen Singh, a tall aristocrat with the self-
confidence of the comfortably noble, a man who would be maharaja of
Kashmir if India had not opted for democracy, is New Delhi's envoy in
Washington.

   Washington may now be India's most important and sensitive
diplomatic assignment. Issues of trade, nuclear proliferation and New
Delhi's treatment of its smaller neighboring nations have attracted the
attention of Congress and the State Department. But Mr. Singh, a doctor
of philosophy, has painted himself a broader diplomatic canvas.

   "My perception is that humanity is really transisting into a new
kind of civilization, a global civilization", he said. "All indications
point toward that political, economical, ecological, cultural,
linguistic and so on. We are really to close to the event realize its
significance".

   He believes that India has a special spiritual role to play. "For
one thing, we have this long philosophical tradition that goes right
back to the dawn of history", he said. "It has some remarkable
universal values built into it. The idea of unity of all existence. The
idea that the earth is a living entity, the idea that humanity is
ultimately a single family."

   Mr. Singh, the author of more than a dozen philosophical books and
an autobiography about to be released in a new paperback edition by
Oxford University Press -- is also the founder of a Hindu Movement, the
Virat Hindu Samaj, which is committed to modernizing the religion that
predominates in India, a constitutionally secular state. He believes
that contemporary life needs a spiritual component.

   "I look upon religion as a potentially powerful force for global
consciousness", he said. "But I am aware that if it is interpreted in
fundamentalist or fanatic terms, it can be the antithesis of the global
consciousness. This is why it is too important to be neglected".

   IN THE NEWS

   ARAFAT TO CALL PEACE CONFERENCE?

   JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia -- PLO leader Yasser Arafat will fly to New
York to call on the U.N. General Assembly to convene an international
peace conference on the Middle East, a newspaper quoted him saying
yesterday as saying.

   Last year, Washington denied Arafat a visa, prompting the world body
to move to Geneva to hear the Palestinian leader.

   "I am going to New York to discuss the convening of the
international conference" on Middle East peace, Arafat was quoted as
telling the daily newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.

   Mark Dillen, a State Department spokesman, said yesterday that "as
far as we know he has made no visa application".

   During last year's session in Geneva, the 60-year old Arafat openly
renounced terrorism and recognized Israel's right to exist, encouraging
the United States to end a 13 year ban on dealing with the Palestine
Liberation Organization and to begin a dialogue with the movement.

   ISRAEL MUST BE REMOVED

   TRIPOLI, Lybia, Step 1 -- As he celebrated two decades in power,
Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi declared today that Israel "Must be removed"
and promised to pursue an "international revolutionary program" to rid
the world of "government classes, parliaments and parties". Colonel
Qaddafi spoke at a gathering of loyalists flanked by an array of
foreign dignitaries, including President Hafez a-Assad, Yasir Arafat of
the Palaestinian Liberation Organization and President Daniel Ortega
Saavedra of Nicaragua.

   Laying out his version of world revolution, he said: "Governments
and classes and parliaments and parties will disappear. Armies and the
police, all the instruments of official repression will disappear. The
masses alone will take their place. libya with full self-confidence is
capable of supporting its international revolutionary program".

   The Libyan leader has shown readiness for conciliation with one-time
adversaries like Egypt, and on Thursday Libya and Chad signed a peace
treaty to end 16 years of hostility.

   But his speech today showed him unmoved in his opposition to the
existence of Israel, and there was no indication today that he and Mr.
Arafat had ended a feud that prompted Libya to cut off funds for the
P.L.O. earlier this year. Colonel Qaddafi has objected to Mr. Arafat's
decision to renounce terrorism and accept Israel's existence, which led
to the first official contacts between the P.L.O. and Washington.

   "The Zionist entity that has been among us since WWII must be
removed the same way as other effects of WWII have been removed", the
colonel declared. "All of Palestine is for the Palestinians". -NY Times
(89/09/02)

   A RUSSIAN INVASION COMING SOON?

   Here is a German report: Gorbechev has proposed to influential
persons in Germany the following: 1) If Germany will quit NATO -- at
least in effect -- Russia will agree to eventual re-unification; the
liberation of Poland and Hungry: the Sudenten to be incorporated into
Germany and possibly the independence of the Baltic States -- the
latter depending upon tranquility within the USSR. 2) All the foregoing
depending upon GERMAN TOLERANCE OF THE ISLAMIC CAUSE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
and Central Asia with a guarantee of the evacuation of all NATO
military forces and weaponry or the internment of such personnel and
confiscation of all weaponry in the event of the Atlantic Powers
intervening in the Middle East against ANY ISLAMIC CAUSE OR MILITARY
MOVEMENT IF AGAINST ISRAEL.

   It must be reported that the above proposals attract considerable
support in Germany and due to the proposals about Poland and Hungry
also Vatican circles.

   Whether so extensive a program will altogether be accepted remains
to be seen. What is already quite certain is that Germany will not
accept the Atlantic Powers in any Middle East cause whatsoever -- nor
will Germany allow any nuclear act (however retaliatory) to be launched
from German soil.

   You can altogether forget even the remotest possibility of any
nuclear action from German soil whatever the circumstances.

   Consequently NATO conventional forces located on German soil, if
ever confronted and in need of nuclear retaliation, would have to
depend upon it from some locality other than Germany. In fact, Russian
intention of any conventional move against Germany which would in no
way benefit Russia in the present or foreseeable strategic contest.
RUSSIA WILL ACT ONLY WITHIN ISLAMIC CONTEXT WHETHER GORBECHEV STAYS OR
FALLS.

   Even if Russia attacks the British Isles as a result of the Atlantic
Powers intervening in the Middle East, Germany would not come to the
assistance of the UK. Nor would she assist Denmark or the low countries
if Russia used them as a stage for an airborne attack upon the British
Isles. It is necessary to reckon upon total German neutrality. The
price offered by Russia to Germany is far to high to be resisted and it
is not one we can outbid.

   The reaction to all of this is by no means enthusiastic in France:
Where the implications of a Russo-German alliance are viewed with some
displeasure. France however has a multi-million Islamic fifth column
which makes any positive opposition to the Russo-German-Islamic slant
very difficult. -Intelligence Digest

   EDUCATION LEVEL DROPS AGAIN

   U.S. education continues to decline with SAT scores in 42 states
declining. Despite enormously increases in spending for public
education, SAT verbal and math scores have dropped to 428 and 476, down
50 points and 16 points from the 1963 average scores of 478 and 502.
And today's kids take full advantage of SAT preparatory courses to beef
up their scores! The evidence is clear--the academic performance of our
college bound students is in a long term downtrend.

   NEW AGE GAME BOARD HITS THE MARKET

   For those who want to have a past life but don't want to go through
the hassle of inhabiting a new body, there's a new game board to take
you back in time. "Past Lives", a reincarnation fantasy game produced
by the Avalon Hill Game Co., lets players accumulate points and read a
book afterward to determine what or who they were long ago. The higher
the point total the higher the persons status in a former life.
Identities range from Alexander the Great to a flea. The game which
retails for $38, has four status levels in which players can place
their point totals; Great and Saintly, Heros and Heroines, Commonplace
and Vulgar, Scum of the Earth. Bob Zimmerli, national sales manager for
Avalon Hill says more than 25, 000 copies of the game have been sold
since its introduction six weeks ago. Herald Statesman (89/07/31)

   MARK OF THE BEAST

   And he causeth all, both great and small, rich and poor, free and
bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads...
Rev. 13:16

   NEW YORK (AP) Credit cards that respond only to their owner's voice
have been invented by scientists at Bell Communications Research, it
was announced Monday.

   A card owner could put the card in a bank teller machine that was
equipped with a microphone and then speak a password instead of
punching in a four digit character identification code, Bellcore
researchers said.

   The system could also work with telephone calling cards, consumer
credit cards and doors that have card locks, Bellcore said.

   The system capitalizes on the premise that no two voices are alike.
It compares the spoken words with the voice pattern stored digitally on
the card.

   Bellcore said it has patented the system and plans to license it to
other companies.

   CHIP ON PET'S SHOULDER A LIFESAVER

   This article by Bruce Bursma of the Chicago Tribune (89/07/09) and
the next one by Charles Kelly of the Arizona Republic (89/07/20)
clearly shows how technology of the Mark of the Beast is being tested
and promoted.

   Remember these articles are not from a prophetic publication but
from secular daily newspapers.

   NOVATO, Ca.--Here in ultra-fashionable Marin County, where bubbling
hot tubs grace the backyard patios if hillside estates, the hottest new
trend has gone to the dogs. And the cats.

   Yuppie puppies and chi-chi kitties are being implanted with a high
tech microchip that will link them with their owners no matter how far
they roam from home.

   "So often, animals are used to develop technology, but in this case
they get to be the beneficiaries", said Diane Allevato, director of the
Humane Society, where all of the 2,000 dogs and cats offered for
adoption annually are being implanted with the microchip.

   The society's shelter, located on a wooded, pastoral campus, is the
first such facility in the country to employ the technology on so wide
a scale.

   Allevato says the program is experimental and will be carefully
monitored. But the managing director if the Southern California -based
Infopet System Inc., which markets the microchip and operates a
national computer databank, says he expects the pet identification and
recovery project to be a howling success throughout Northern America in
the next two years.

   "Everyone thinks it's a great idea", said Michael Thomas, a 39 year
old Canadian who set up Infopet in the Los Angeles suburb on Aguara
Hills to tap into the enormous pet market in California. The Golden
State is the home to 10% of the U.S. human population, but nearly 20%
of the country's registered animals.

   One Los Angeles shelter alone, the West Valley Care and Control
Center, impounded nearly 20,000 stray and wild animals last year. Half
of them were eventually destroyed.

   But in the last two months, the West Valley Center has recovered and
reunited with their owners, four stray dogs that had received their
identification microchips.

   "It is still too early to produce some results", said Thomas Walsh,
the district supervisor for the West Valley shelter. "It really could
narrow down the loss factor considerably."

   Using a large hypodermic needle, the tiny device is implanted under
an animals skin between its shoulder blades. The microchip is imprinted
with an identification code that is activated by a special scanner and
animal control officers.

   The laser scanner, like those that decipher bar codes at a grocery
check-out counter, is passed over the animals neck and shoulders. If a
chip has been implanted, a beep will be emitted and the code will
appear on the computer screen.

   The 10 digit code, stored in Infopet's central computer network,
will produce the corresponding information on the pet's owner, address
and telephone number along with any special instructions for medical
care.

   Implanting the chip would coat the consumer $40, though Marin County
shelter is getting a discount by helping introduce the product. Infopet
also charges an $11 annual fee to store the pet owner's information in
its network.

   Although the code on the chip is permanent, the information files on
the animal can be changed if the pet is sold or given to a new owner.

   Infopet's Thomas said many have been implanted so far, most of them
in major metropolitan areas of California. But he said the company is
expanding its marketing to Florida next month and expects to offer the
product in the Chicago area in the Fall.

   "EYE IN SKY" to Track Kids

   Jack Dunlap envisions his eye in the sky as a way to rescue snatched
children, but it sounds like a teen-age nightmare.

   You, Joe Teen-Ager, have a computer chip buried in your body, a
satellite in the sky tracks you where ever you go: to your girlfriends
house, to the local poolroom or the beer party in the desert.

   Whenever Mom or Pop get worried, the police are dialed and asked to
track you down on their computers.

   Of course Dunlap didn't come up with his KIDSCAN idea so that it
could bird-dog teen-agers

   The system is suppose to help find children who have been "picked
up, transported, molested, abused, raped and murdered," he says.

   Dunlap, who runs Arizona West Film Productions Inc. in Tucson and
works as a private investigator when the film business is slow, thinks
he has hit on a lifesaver.

   "The most important thing is to save the children, " he says. Each
child whose parents signed up for KIDSCAN would get a computer chip
planted under the skin and an identification number.

   The chip would transmit a signal that would bounce off a satellite
and be picked up by police on a computer-screen map.

   A parent with a missing child could call the police, give the
KIDSCAN number and have the child traced. Police every where would have
the equipment so you could find the child anywhere.

   But if Dunlap's dream is realized, it would cause some troubling
privacy problems, said Louis Rhodes, director of the Arizona chapter of
the American Civil Liberties Union.

   The police could use the system to enforce curfew laws or trace the
movements of teen-agers who had not agreed to such scrutiny, he said.

   "It's always dangerous to have so much information given to the
police", Rhodes said.

   Detective Charles Masino, a veteran of the missing-persons division
of the Phoenix Police Department, acknowledges that some parents would
be concerned about the "Big Brother" aspects of KIDSCAN.

   But the concept is attractive, Masino said.

   "Any technology that can be used to detect missing children that are
in danger would be welcomed", he said.

   Dunlap's project is just in the talking stage. He's trying to raise
money to have a prototype built.

   At one time, he said he had some Pennsylvania investors prepared to
kick in $600, 000.

   He received encouragement from employees of Martin Marietta Energy
Systems Inc. which runs the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge,
Tenn.

   Dunlap officials said they first told him they would build the
prototype, then backed out.

   "It was like a James Bond movie", Dunlap said. "It was like they had
been told to shut up and stay away from it".

   When the lab people sidestepped the project, his financial angel
made themselves scarce, Dunlap said.

   "It was really weird", Dunlap said. "This sort of knocked me for a
loop".

   Joe Culver, a lab spokesman, said there wasn't anything weird about
it.

   Lab people did speak to Dunlap about a microchip they are
developing, he said. Scientists want to paste the chip on "killer bees"
to track them as they sweep into the United States from Mexico.

   But the chip hasn't been fully tested, Culver said, so the lab can't
make a commitment to Dunlap.

   "It's way too premature", Culver said.

   -Arizona Republic (89/07/20)

   A GOOD SIDE OF MICRO-COMPUTERIZATION

   FIRST HAND-HELD ELECTRONIC BIBLE...Mt. Holly, NJ -- Franklin
Computer Company has announced the publication of a hand-held
electronic Bible. The electronic Bible offers readers instant access to
both familiar and obscure Bible passages in the Old and New Testaments.
It will retail for $299.00.

   MEDIA

   "If we can start changing attitudes in this country we can start
changing behavior". Grant Tinker, former Chairman of NBC

   "The purpose [of] the campaign is behavior modification - the
application of Madison Avenue expertise to affect the population
through mass-media". NY Times

   TED TURNER says, "Christianity is a Religion for Losers!"

   Ted Turner, president of Turner Broadcasting System, "has the
capacity to convene the world - in a sense to convene the Tower of
Babel and orchestrate one language, " according to the Rev. Jessie
Jackson.

   Turner, who also owns TNT entertainment network and station WYBS in
Atlanta, is now offering his Cable News Network daily news program to
junior and senior high schools free of charge. The program, called "CNN
Newsroom", will begin next fall to "strengthen the nation's educational
system", said Turner.

   James R. Oglesby, president of the National School Board
Association, said, "We believe that the program will add a new
significant dimension to the school curriculum".

   CNN's 15 minute newscast will provide students with comprehensive
reports on the latest national and international news. Turner stated
that he hopes the program will correct deficiencies students have in
geography and other areas.

   Just what kind of "significant dimensions" and "deficiencies" are
corrected by Turner may be summed in an article by Ed Bark, television
critic of The Dallas Morning News in the May 20, 1989 issue. The
article indicates that "If Mr. Turner doesn't like the world picture,
he adjusts it." Adjusts it how, you ask? Ted Turner proposes to rewrite
the Ten Commandments and call them the "Ted Commandments."!

   Commandment No. 1: "I love and respect the planet earth, and all
living things thereon, especially my fellow species, mankind." Mr.
Turner especially loves the Soviets in general, and communists in
particular. He is the chairman of the Better World Society, dedicated
to bringing together the Soviet Union and the United States in one big,
happy family.

   "Mr. Turner says he owes his latter-day global perspective to Fidel
Castro, whom he visited in Cuba seven years ago. He asks, "Why don't we
broadcasters make it our goal to get the world at peace by the year
2000? Let's make it the year zero - BP and AP. Before Peace and After
Peace."

   Calendar years are now being divided, of course, by the years Before
Christ, B.C.; and after the birth of Christ, A.D. Turner would like to
change the system to eliminate Christ from the picture. He says,
"Christianity is a religion for losers. Christ died on the cross, but
he needn't have bothered. I don't want anybody to die for me. I've had
a few drinks and a few girlfriends and if that's gonna put me in hell,
well, then so be it."

   And this person is responsible for the "news" which will be seen in
junior and senior high schools beginning this fall?

   Ralph Griffin in Prophecy in the News July 1989

   MUSICIANS WORKING TO CHANGE WORLD SET POOR EXAMPLE

   In mid-August a two day benefit concert, billed as the "Moscow Music
Peace festival" took place at the Lenin Stadium and featured US rock
bands such at Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Scorpian, Cinderella, Ozzy
Osbourne and Skid Row as well as Soviet Musicians.

   The event was billed as an anti-drug and anti-alcohol event with
proceeds funneled to programs that fight drug and alcohol abuse in the
Unites States and Soviet Union.

   USA Today's Edna Gunderson was one of only three US music
journalists invited to accompany the heavy metal bands to the peace
festival.

   Her reports reveal conflicting interests in the various bands
behavior and their supposed mission to deter young people from
substance abuse.

   On the way to Moscow Gunderson reported that, "band members ignored
instructions to fasten safety belts. Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach
nipped furtively from a bottle despite a liquor ban." USA Today 8/10/89

   And interviewers in Moscow asked star Ozzy Osbourne, "Ozzy, do you
have a problem with alcohol?" to which he Osbourne responded "Yes, I
can't find a bar." (USA Today 8/14/89)

   Besides that, Mr. Osbourne threatened to withdraw from the benefit
concert if he was not granted a higher billing. This attitude appears
somewhat selfish of someone who is suppose to be performing for the
sake of young alcohol and drug abusers.

   Associated Press also reported on their findings (8/14/89): "10, 000
security men and rockers with "Just Say Nyet" buttons kept the concert
from getting too intoxicating.

   "If the police weren't there, there would be drugs, drinking and
making love", said Anna Rvinokaya, an 18 year old Moscow woman..."But
what can you do with the police everywhere?"

   "Mountains of unopened voldka bottles, confiscated by security
guards (were) piled up outside the stadium, and that seemed appropriate
for a concert billed as an anti-drug and anti-alcohol event."

   HER PLAN TO AID ENVIRONMENT IS NEW, NOT RECYCLED

   It's kind of audacious if you think about it. using mass media-
movies, record, TV - to persuade the public to go along with a social
agenda. But Bonnie Reiss, a Hollywood powerhouse entertainment
attorney, is convinced it is the key to moving the environmentalists"
message.

   She has given up her clients and formed ECO, an organization
dedicated to getting producers, directors, writers, musicians, agents
and publicists enlisted in the environmental crusade. "This is a
people's movement that we're bringing across the globe, " she told
Sauce.

   "I felt that there are a few thousand people who could affect a few
million, " said Reiss. She rolled out her program on a big scale
recently with a forum underwritten by HBO. A lot of people are buying
the idea.

   New York City based screenwriter David Seltzer is writing public-
service spots for the film industry's leading lights. Mel Gibson and
Goldie Hawn, who are shooting his script "Bird on a Wire," have already
done a few.

   There's a commitment from the writers of "Alf" to start weaving in
the theme. Pee Wee Herman has offered to reach the kids.

   Back on the East Coast, HBO's Michael Fuchs is developing
programming that carries the theme. He also has all of HBO recycling
its waste and "we're trying to get all the plastic out of our
cafeterias." Daily News (7/16/89) FALLING AWAY "For the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts
shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they
shall turn away their ears from the truth, and be turned unto fables.
II Timothy 4:3

   JESUS CHRIST IS NOT THE ONLY WAY TO GOD, WCC says.

   Many disciples of the non-Christian religions, none of whom will be
washed in the blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, are to receive
eternal life by God's grace, so said Dr. Eugene Stockwell, the chairman
of the World Council of Churches Commission on World Mission and
Evangelism, giving the keynote address at the opening of the World
Conference on Mission and Evangelism, in San Antonio, Texas, May 23.

   Dr. Stockwell, veteran missionary leader of the ecumenical movement,
answered the question, "Is Christ the only way?" with the precise
answer: "No, Jesus is not the only way, if that is meant to be taken
that all who do not name the name of Jesus have lost the way have no
passport to heaven" Stockewell was very precise. He said, "We can share
our treasured faith in Jesus Christ with sensitivity and conviction
while opening ourselves also to God's gifts of grace so evident in the
faith of worlds of many religions on earth."

   Christians could learn from these religions in ascertaining Christ's
way for mission and evangelism today, he emphasized, saying that "In
our encounters with people of other faiths we cannot deny that many of
them have arrived at having a profound relationship to God." He was
emphatic under his heading, "Christian relationship to people of other
great religious faiths of humankind, " when observed, "Time and time
again they provide insights into the purposes of divinity that many of
us Christians fail to see and appropriate."

   This shocking and stunning appraisal of the pagan religions caused
little reaction. He even named those of whom he was speaking, "who are,
" he said, "Muslim, Buddhist, Hindus, Jews. Zoroastrians, Janis, etc, "
and was emphasized that they "are not created by another God than the
one we worship. They are our sisters and brothers, flesh of our flesh,
life of our life. Time and time again they espouse great ideas and live
by them, something we Christians fail to do."

   This detailed expounding of the merit and grace of other religions
was a significant development and was emphasized in the conference's
Ecumenical Press Service daily release headed "Conference Panders
Christ Way in Mission." It reported: "For the first time in the history
of these world mission conferences, followers of other faiths-two
hindus, two Jews, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Sikh, a Jain, and a native
American traditional religionist- attended as consultants."

   Betty Thompson, who has been a spokesman on the staff of the WCC in
the past, and had attended previous world mission conferences in Mexico
and Bangkok, wrote: "This will be the first world conference on mission
and evangelism to which consultants from other living religions have
been invited officially-Hindus, Muslims, Jews, a Buddhist, a Sikh, and
a Jain." Christian News (June 12, 1989)

   METHODIST TASK FORCE ON HOMOSEXUALITY MEETS AURORA, Colorado (EP)-A
national task force created by the United Methodist Church to study
homosexuality held its second meeting in Aurora, Colo. in early August.

   The Rev. Dennis Alexander of Wesley United Methodist Church in
Minneapolis, told those at the meeting that the time had come to "catch
a glimpse of the NEW AGE (emphasis mine) of God" when Christians will
overcome the barriers of sex, race, age, and "sexual orientation."

   The Committee to Study Homosexuality was created by the 8.0 million
member denomination to evaluate the church's policy statement which
bans ordination of practicing homosexuals and states that homosexual
acts are sinful. Similar discussions are taking place in other mainline
denominations.

   The early August meeting focused in part on different views of
scripture-a root issue in the question of homosexuality. While many
Methodists believe the Bible is the final perfect authority on all
moral issues, Victor Paul Furnish of the Perkins School of Theology in
Dallas says that United Methodism teaches that the Bible hold the
"living core of the Christian faith" but must be compared with truths
learned from other sources, (there is no other source but God) such as
reason (lean NOT unto your own understanding), human experience and
church tradition.

   The Rev. James V. Heidinger, leader of the Good News reform movement
within the United Methodist Church, says the task force is stacked in
favor of accepting homosexuality, even though the church's last general
assembly reaffirmed its ban on homosexual practice. EP News Service
(August 11, 1989)

   STOPPED: A CHURCH'S PLAN TO BLESS A LESBIAN COUPLE

   During a communion service, Bishop David E. Johnson of the diocese
of Massachusetts told clergy at St. John the Evangelist:"the church
does not bless an intimate covenanted relationship outside the context
of marriage. To do so would imply strongly a moral acceptance of such
relationships. It is therefore inappropriate for a diocese, a parish or
a priest to move forward separately in this regard at this time."
homosexuals constitute a third of the perish, according to St. John's
co-rectors. St. John asked the diocesan convention in November 1987 to
endorses the blessing of same-sex couples and seek the preparation of a
ritual for it by the national church. The clergy at the convention
supported the proposal 114-70, but the lay delegates opposed it 140-82;
the split vote defeated it. Church sources say such rituals have been
carried out in a number of Episcopal parishes both in Massachusetts and
elsewhere, but they have been done without seeking official
authorization. National and International Religion Report (Vol. 3 No.
10)

   CANTERBURY INTER-FAITH MEETING

   At the same time as the planned "Jesus March" (Sept 16th), the
"Largest celebration ever of religion and ecology" is due to take place
in Canterbury. As part of the "Canterbury Festival of Faith and the
Environment", members of all religions will gather to worship and pray
together, and "New Pilgrims" as they are called, will process from
Canterbury led by Bahai's and Hindus. Canterbury Cathedral itself will
be filled with religious displays and will host an inter-faith
"celebration of music, dance, sound and symbol."

   READERS WRITE IN TO OMEGA-LETTER

   Dear Peter and Family and Staff: Greeting to you in the Name of Our
Lord Saviour and soon coming King, Jesus Christ. I have just received
and am presently reading your June Omega Letter!

   I must tell you that I await and read each publication cover to
cover! As a primary teacher this is a monumental task-due to school
work load and home responsibilities! You are on target, I had to write
and tell you so! Things are so bad and people are so oblivious as to
what is really going on!

   I am looking for the Lord's soon return-not as an "escape", but I
can't see how man can improve anything! (And I'm not old-I'll be 41 on
October 9th - Yom Kipper-Perhaps we'll all "fly this year!") I am
trusting that the Lord will put your publications into as many hands as
I feel time is very short! May the Lord continue to bless you and your
ministry.

   Sincerely, E.M., West Seneca, NY

   Dear Peter:

   This letter is in response to "The bible: All the truth you will
Ever Need." Vol 4, No. 4, May 1989. I was one of those who came out of
a cult (positive confession). I was what is called a New Ager. For
three years I was under the call of a "professional", those which I now
call witch doctors.

   I was in the occult for five years and then underwent therapy for
three years. So for eight years the devil had me under his control.
Many (probably all) of three counseling techniques were things that got
me involved in the occult to begin with. Here they were promoting the
very ideas that enslaved me to the devil to begin with. I was declared
"mentally ill" and prescribed narcotics were part of my therapy.

   God led me to a Bible believing Church, ironically through someone
who is in the occult and still is. This person odes not attend the
church.

   I have accepted salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. I have been
born again for a year. I tried for six months to reconcile psychology
with the Bible and found 2 Corinthians 6:15 to be true. "What harmony
is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common
with an unbeliever" ( I know this verse mostly applies to marriage and
I don't intend it to be used out of context, but I think it applies in
other ways).

   The Lord broke my bonds of addiction to narcotics and led me to
sever my ties with secular counseling. I earnestly studied the Bible
and applied its principles to my life. All "so called" symptoms of my
mental illness left. I have never regretted placing my trust fully in
the Lord.

   Survivors of cults need only the Bible to and prayer and the
guidance of the Holy Spirit within to overcome Satan and the effects of
cults, not the counsel of godless men, nor the counsel of those who
claim to be Christian Psychologists.

   I praise God for those who stand up for true doctrine. May the Omega
Letter bring glory to His name and name the name of Jesus always. I
will also be writing to CIB Bulletin with whose permission you printed
this article.

   Sign Me

   Dear Omega-Letter:

   I would like to tell you what shocks me. I find it remarkable that
you are so threatened by my notion of a one world religion. Have you so
effectively damaged Christianity? If Jesus Christ brought one message
it was that God is here for everyone and not just a select few and that
unity and brotherly love is the single most important thing. God's
message and the Good News is LOVE. God's greatest interest is love
among all men.

   He is certainly more concerned about cooperation and caring than
whether or not simple and embittered little people are following petty
little rules written by men and reinterpreted by men to suit themselves.

   It is this sort of narrow-minded, isolationist fundamentalism that
breed hostility and anger in the name of religion and love. It is also
why religion has been responsible for more wars than any other single
cause. Your thinking is medieval-now think of the crusaders. If its
thoughts like yours that are going to determine the future of
Christianity than i agree that it must die as well. May you all really
come to see the light. And may my archaic religious thought fade away
and make way for the New Age.

   God Bless B.B.

   Dear Peter and Patti:

   Keep up the outstanding work that you are doing with the
Omega-Letter. We look forward to receiving it and we enjoy reading it
from cover to cover. Don't ever change the way that you publish it or
leave out any of the subjects that you cover in your letters. We
believe it's the Lord's way of weeding out the readers who don't truly
believe in Him. We are finding out, that He is really testing us to see
where we really stand in these last days. Your letter keeps us informed
of what is really happening in these last days before the Lord returns.
Keep the true information coming and don't worry about those readers
who can't afford to have their ears "tingled". It may cost you
contributions but we know the Lord always looks out for His "Sheep". In
His Loving Name B.J.

   ANOTHER GOSPEL: NATION'S CAPITAL ENTERS THE "TWILIGHT ZONE"

   Recent reports from Washington, more in the open now since the
revelations of Nancy Reagan's use of astrology, continue to show that
many of the leaders of this nation are indeed becoming involved in
occultic practices.

   The following article by "Arizona Republic" columnist Jim Bishop Jr.
further documents this disturbing trend.

   NANCY REAGAN WASN'T ALONE. ACCORDING TO A RECENT REPORT UP TO 25% OF
OUR CONGRESSMEN ARE ACTIVELY EXPLORING THE VARIOUS OCCULT
PHENOMENONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

   (emphasis and exclamation points mine)

   Events in Washington, D.C. ever since the Watergate mess have akin
to that a mix between the Gong Show and a Turkish bazaar.

   However, recent news from the banks of the Potomac suggest that
anyone who thinks that our capital's past has been bazaar and uncanny
would be wise to keep their seats.

   For it develops that a new days is dawning at the Central
Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon and Congress: The New Age has arrived.

   Taking a leaf from the pages of Sedona and Santa Fe, highly placed
officials are consulting psychics, getting Rolfed by metaphysical
chiropractors, engaging in past-life regressions or consulting mediums.
"This town is crawling with crystal-chasers and woo-woos", reports a
well connected but worried lobbyist.

   At any given time, about one fourth of congressmen are engaged in
exploring psychic phenomena according to the Rep. Charles Rose of North
Carolina "That would be healing, prophecy, remote viewing or physical
manifestations of psychic powers such as bending spoons or erasing
computer tapes, " he said.

   In view of this situation, apologies are due to former White House
chief of staff Donald Reagan. Last year, he was accused of overreacting
when he referred to Nancy Reagan's astrology influenced presidential
scheduling as a "floating seance."

   Although no high-energy vortexes have yet to burst upon the fairways
at posh, suburban golf courses in Chevy Chase or Alexandria, a new
organization called the Congressional Clearinghouse on the Future is
having a similar impact. psychics participate frequently at private
sessions of the group during which, among other activities, they peer
into the future as well as encourage military and intelligence agencies
to expand research in the psychic field. An Army-funded National
Academy of Sciences study late last year drew cosmic artillery fire
when it found no scientific basis for believing that psychic phenomena
are real and even implied the existence of fraud.

   Evidently the CIA and the Pentegon disagree. Reportedly, both
institutions use psychics to spy on Soviet arms developments and to
locate hostages in Iran and Lebanon.

   What's more, the Pentegon bus classified work in the psychic field
from the conventional Stanford Research Institute, a California
think-tank.

   Several senators, for their part, are also on the prowl for
spiritual guidance. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman
Caliborne Pell, a Rhode Island brahmin, has been reading the Astral
body, a treatise on out-of-body experiences as well as everything by
Shirley McClain, the sometime actress turned UFO aficionado.

   At various times, Sen. Pell has brought psychics to posh Washington
social gatherings. On one occasion Sen. Pell and his guests watched as
a psychic sent peaceful beams of thought into the mind of a Soviet arms
negotiator. Snicker though some guests did, the next afternoon the
Soviets put a proposal on the table in Geneva to rid Europe of
medium-range missiles.

   Most elected officials who have added psychic readings to their bag
of political tools are reluctant to disclose the fact for fear of being
denounced by powerful religious interests. New Agers are anathema to
all conservative religious groups who believe that spiritual-power
including psychic power - flows from God. "The New Age is the work of
the devil, " one Virginia pastor told a friend.

   To tell the truth, the government's use of psychics dates back to
the early 1960s when, according to an account in US NEws & World
Report, the CIA used a psychic to "image" the contours of a new Soviet
rocket. It worked. Later reports confirmed that by holding a photo
negative to his forehead, a Chicago truck driver was able to project
the image of the rocket.

   Driving high-government officials in the 1960s was not the only fear
of a "missile-gap" it turns out, but a psychic gap as well. In recent
years, the Soviets have been outspending the United States. "The
Soviets assume the reality of thought transference, " one report
concluded.

   Could it be that the influence of New Age Thinking will change the
way our national government works? Perhaps the good luck being enjoyed
by President Bush suggest that various unseen forces are already at
work. But then a psychic advised former White House Speaker Jim Wright
a few months ago that he had a "great future." none the less, the
attraction of the New Age approach- whether it can be proven that it
works or not-is a powerful antidote to rampant materialism and
warmongering.

   "Politics ain't beanbag", warned Franklin Roosevelt's vice president
"Cactus" Jack Garner. For what it may become under the influence of the
New Age approach, we shall have to wait and see."

   WHY WE BELIEVE WE'RE LIVING IN THE LAST DAYS Prophecy Check List!

   1. Israel is back in her homeland (Ezk. 36:24)

   2. Soviet Peace Offensive (I Thess. 5:3)

   3. Mark of the Beast Technology (Rev. 13:16)

   4. Hole in the Ozone Layer (Rev. 16:8, 9)

   5. Call for a world government (Rev. 13:7)

   6. One world religion emerging (Rev. 13:8)

   7. New Age Movement (Matt. 24:5)

   8. Emergence of "the lie" Ye shall be as Gods (Gen. 3:5)

   9. Apostacy in the Church (I Tim. 4:1)

   10. Peace movement and the Fear of Holocaust (Matt. 24:6) This three
tap series, and the free study guide that is included with it will help
you to better understand the times in which we live. You will be amazed
at the number of reasons we have for believing that ours is the
generation that will see the return of Christ.

   VICTORIOUS LIVING:

   For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Col.3:3)

   by Dave Hunt

   Torn between their sincere desire to serve and honor their Lord, and
the inner turmoil of fleshly lusts and the seductive pull of worldly
pleasures and honors, many Christians struggle to live for Christ. For
them, Christianity involves great effort, little joy, and much
frustration and disillusionment, and the loss (when they have enough
will power to deny themselves) of so much they once enjoyed in life.
They struggle to avoid Paul's list of "dont's" in Colossians 3:5-11:
"Mortify your members which are upon the earth; fornication,
uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and
covetousness, which is idolatry...put off all these: anger, wrath,
malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth." Failing
repeatedly, they repent remorsefully and puzzle over their inability to
live as they know they should-but seemingly can't.

   They fare no better with Paul's list of do's that follow (verse
12-15): "Put on as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of
mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, kindness; forbearing
one another, and forgiving...put on love...let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly...and whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the
name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by
Him...etc." Is it really possible to be sweet, kind, humble, loving and
forgiving at all times? The spirit is willing but the flesh is proves
ever to be embarrassingly weak. How can one live up to the high
standards the Bible sets for Christian living? Is there some secret
victory we are overlooking?

   Two key expressions, "Mortify" in verse 5 an d"put on" in verse 12
only increase the bewilderment and sense of failure. Is it really
possible to "put to death" ungodly desires and shedding that body of
evil as it were, to be clothed in a resurrection body of godliness?
Surely not at all practical. Was He not, Himself, an example of this
kind of life, and did He not say more than once, "Be ye followers of me
as I also am of Christ" (I Cor. 11:1, etc.)? Then why do we fail? From
whence comes the motivation and the strength to accomplish what is at
once so desirable and yet so impossible?

   The quotations above omit a word that occurs in verses 5 and 12. It
holds the answer to our delimma. Paul does not say "mortify your
members" and "Put on...bowels of mercies, kindness..." That would
impose a "do-it-yourself" religion of gritting one's teeth in
determination and struggling to live up to high moral standards-no
different from the atheist's or Buddhist's attempt to do the same. That
is not Christianity! Paul carefully and pointedly says, "Mortify
therefore...Put on therefore..." Clearly therefore refers to something
that Paul is convinced gives the Christian the motivation and power to
do what is commanding and lifts the Christian above the impossible
struggle of flesh trying to live a godly life. It is, therefore, the
Christian's secret to a happy and fruitful and holy life pleasing to
God.

   The mortifying of the old deeds and the putting on of the new is
possible only because, as the previous verses declare, "Ye are dead,
and, risen with Christ...and your life is hid with Christ in God."
Certainly the same thing could not be said of the followers of Buddha,
Mohammed, Kirshna et al. Christianity is thus unique and separated from
all religions.

   Herein lies the secret dynamics of the Christian life. Why, then,
doesn't every Christian experience this power in daily living? Sadly,
many who call themselves Christians have a very superficial
understanding of the gospel they claim to have embraced: "How that
Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture; and that He was
buried, and that He rose on the third day..."(I Cor. 15:3-4).

   For many who believe that Christ died for their sins, this event is
more mystical than historical. The horrible death of the cross is
something that happened to Christ, but which has only a theoretical
rather than a practical connection to them. They have such a faulty
understanding of what Christ's death means that they are not true
Christians at all. They have imagined that the death of Christ in their
place delivered them from the eternal punishment in hell they deserved
so that, like Barabbas, they could live as they pleased. They have
never desired what Paul rejoiced in: "I am crucified with Christ:
nevertheless less I live; yet not I but Christ liveth in me; and the
life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who
loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20).

   Paul was not expressing an inspiring but empty platitude. For that
great apostle, the cross was no mere religious symbol, but the place
where he had died to life as he would have lived it and had begun to
experience the very life of Christ being lived in him. He knew that
Christ gives ressurection life; therefore only those who have died can
experience it.

   With wonder, amazement and deep gratitude, he realized that Christ
had actually taken his place before a righteous, holy God-and that God
had put Christ to death in payment for his (Paul's) sins. Therefore,
Paul was a dead man. Christ's death in his place was literally his own
death, and he rejoiced in that fact. If he was to experience life
thereafter, it must be the resurrected Christ living in him.

   The transformation in Paul was at once remarkable, yet not
surprising. The most seductive temptation Satan can devise will arouse
no response from a dead man. Insult a dead man to his face and he will
not retaliate in anger. As a dead man, Paul experienced a new found
freedom over sin he had never known before. Yet, in spite of being
dead, Paul was more alive than he had ever been: "I am crucified, yet I
live." Dead to sin, he was alive to God through Christ. So real was
this to Paul, that it was as though Christ Himself were living in
him-and in deed He was! Christ had become his very life-and this, said
Paul, was what Christianity was all about.

   Paul reminded the saints at Colosse that victory over sin and self
was not possible through willpower and fleshly struggle. True victory
could only come through understanding and believing what it really
meant that Christ had died for their sins and was resurrected for their
justification. Paul declared that this was the secret to his own
complete transformation-and so it must be with them. But how could
Christ's death, burial and resurrection be as real to them as it was to
Paul-so real that their very lives would be transformed? Paul
explained: They must believe that Christ was coming at any moment to
take them to heaven, where they would thereafter appear with Him in
glory! It was the hope of Christ's imminent return that would make the
difference between victory and defeat in the Christian life.

   That this hope is the key to victorious living is clear. Notice
again Paul's staggering declaration: "When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory! Mortify
therefore..." That was such a vibrant hope and so certain of
accomplishment that Paul began this entire section with the statement:
"Since ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on
things above, not on things on the earth"(verse 1-2). Herein lay the
secret to the godly life that Paul himself lived and expected of the
Colosssians as well. They were to be so heavenly minded that the things
of this earth would have no appeal and thus no power over them.
