Dear Bruce, Pineman, Oliver and other Doves,This post is in regards to the excellent previous posts here:In Romans 2 we read of blessings and judgments coming upon the "Jew First, and also to the Gentile." It was always this way until a THIRD ENTITY came on the scene. NEW CREATURES (2 Cor. 5:17) showed up during the time of our Lord Jesus' life on this Earth around 2000 years ago, and have continued to dwell on this planet ever since. These New Creatures were, and still are, peculiar people. They were, and still are, neither Jew nor Greek. "To the Jew First" yes in times past, but these New Creatures, seeing that they are not Jews, when does God bless or judge them as a whole?1 Peter 4:17 For the TIME IS COME that Judgment must BEGIN at the House of God: and if it FIRST BEGIN with US, what shall the End be of them that obey not the Gospel of God?Loves, this verse quoted above is about to have another manifestation. Judgment will come to the Church FIRST as God marks those who are really His and are therefore qualified to be taken in the Rapture. Then, the Rapture (which is a Judgment separating the Church from the Remaining ones) will happen FIRST before the Trib comes to judge the Jew and the Gentile.We all know that 2014/2015 is the next Sabbatical Cycle after the one we are in now. So, 2016 would be the Jubilee year as we can see at the links listed above. That would mean that this FINAL JUBILEE COUNTDOWN BEGAN with the years 1965-1967:1965-1966 Sabbatical Cycle1966-1967 Jubliee-----the Year the Jerusalem "40 year countdown" beganWell then, if Judgment BEGINS with the House of God, His Church, then since the 40 year Judgment/Countdown for Israel began in 1967, did anything of major importance BEGIN with the Church FIRST, before it began for Jerusalem & the Jews?YESIn December of 1965, VATICAN II was passed, and FOLKS THIS WAS HUGE!!!Now, before we get into WHY this was a huge sign for the start of this Final Jubilee countdown, bear in mind that while the Head of God's true Church is Christ Jesus and no mere man, the "world at large" considers the Pope and the Catholic church to be the official spokesman for Christianity. Just consider in previous years for instance, and even now, how many world leaders have gone to visit the Pope. I don't have time to go into that part of history about the RCC, but it is true. Many say that Reagan couldn't have "brought down that wall" without the help of the Pope. Also remember that many Believers consider the "woman" who rides the Beast to be the Catholic church. If that is so, then the RCC plays a major role in the Trib that may be starting soon. Did she begin to prepare for her final role in 1965?I don't think many of us (especially those who are younger than 40 years of age) can appreciate how much the RCC has changed since 1965. I still remember how it used to be years ago. Our RCC neighbors were easy to spot because of all the statues of Mary (etc) in their yards, and we were not welcomed to play with their children because we were Protestants. A boy asked me out on a date in high school, and when his parents found out I wasn't a RCC they made him back out of the date. You see, before Vatican II, the RCC still had the mindset of "Us vs Them." That kind of world view would've left the RCC in the Dark Ages if Vatican II hadn't happened. Vatican II, which was finalized in December of 1965 (Judgment BEGINS with the House of God, FIRST, before Jerusalem's Judgment in 1967) OPENED THE DOOR FOR THE ONE WORLD CHURCH that is getting ready to be made into reality, AND not only that. It ALSO OPENED THE DOOR for a reconciliation with the world's (gasp) JEWS!! This was HUGE, a huge sign back then!!!Here is some info to consider about this Incredible Event regarding Christianity as a whole:1. A quote from Pope John XXIII (who opened Vatican II) as he lay dying in May, 1963:"Today more than ever, we are called to serve mankind as such, and not merely Catholics; to defend above all and everywhere, the rights of the human person and not merely those of the Catholic Church..." "It is not that the Gospel has changed: it is that we have begun to understand it better...the moment has come to discern the signs of the times, to seize the opportunity and to LOOK FAR AHEAD." Pope Paul VI carried on Vatican II after Pope John XXIII's death.2. A quote from Archbishop Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) who attended the Council:"No Council (Vatican II) has ever spoken so clearly about Christian Unity, about dialogue with non-Christian religions..." "The best preparation for the NEW millennium, therefore, can only be expressed in a renewed commitment to apply, as faithfully as possible, the teachings of Vatican II to the life of every individual and of the whole Church."3. Below are excerpts from a Time Magazine article written in 1967 after Vatican II was done. It took FOUR YEARS to bring this Council to completion. The article is 6 pages long so I'm just going to post some snippets from it, but it is a very good read:HOW VATICAN II TURNED THE CHURCH TOWARD THE WORLDFriday, Dec. 17, 1965Vatican II was strikingly different from the 20 other ecclesiastical assemblies that Roman Catholicism ranks as ecumenical. It is the first council that did not face, or leave in its wake, heresy or schism. Councils have always been the church's last-resort response to crisis — from the First Council of Nicaea, summoned by Emperor Constantine in 325 to combat the Arian heresy, to Trent (1545-63), which had to cope with the Reformation, to the abortive Vatican I (1869-70), which faced bewildering currents of anticlericalism and the effects of the ever-widening industrial revolution.At the time Vatican II convened, there were few obvious threats, few violent complaints among its 560 million members. Yet the church was scarcely facing up to the growing secularization of life, the explosion of science, the bitter claims to social justice in old nations and new. Catholic theology, dominated by a textbook scholasticism, appeared to have stopped in the 13th century. Except by a few pioneer ecumenists, Protestants were unhesitatingly regarded as heretics. When not openly despised as the devil's realm, the modern world was at least suspect.Today this sort of thinking seems almost as remote in the church as the sale of indulgences— and this is perhaps the strongest single measure of the council's achievements. The essentials of Catholic dogma stand, of course, as does Rome's claim of universality. What has changed drastically is atmosphere and attitudes. "Before, the church looked like an immense and immovable colossus, the city set on a hill, the stable bulwark against the revolutionary change," says the English Benedictine abbot, Dom Christopher Butler. "Now it has become a people on the march — or at least a people which is packing its bags for a pilgrimage."In all, more than 2,400 patriarchs, cardinals, bishops and religious superiors took part in the council's deliberations. For the first time in history, observers from Protestant and Orthodox churches not only sat in attendance at the debates, but were also consulted by the prelates responsible for shaping conciliar decrees. In Rome also were more than 400 periti, or theological experts, and 400 newsmen who made the frank, free debates, quarrels and achievements of Vatican II front-page news in every nation outside the Iron Curtain.The 16 promulgated decrees, constitutions and declarations that are the council's legacy divide roughly into two categories. The majority are aimed at the internal renewal and reform of Catholicism, but at least four may profoundly affect the relationship between the church and the non-Catholic world.Of more concern to non-Catholics are the documents that clearly define the end of the church's Counter Reformation hostility to other faiths.A decree On Ecumenism, committing Catholicism to work for Christian unity, for the first time acknowledges Protestant bodies as churches that share God's grace and favor. The declaration On Religious Liberty states the right of all men to freedom of conscience in worship. Another declaration, On Non-Christian Religions, condemns anti-Semitism and asserts that the Jewish people as a whole cannot be accounted guilty of Christ's death.In the wake of this progressive victory has come what Dominican Edward Schillebeeckx of Nijmegen University calls "the triumph of anti-triumphalism"—the rejection by the council of the world-hating, anathema-hurling Counter Reformation conviction that Catholicism alone possessed the truth of life. In contrast to past councils, which devoted much of their time consigning to eternal flames those who did not agree with majority decisions, Vatican II issued no such condemnations. On the floor of St. Peter's, Vienna's Franzis-kus Cardinal Konig argued that the church has much to learn from the world, even from atheism.As a first step, Paul last week announced a major overhaul of the stern, bureaucratic guardian of dogma, the Holy Office. Now known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, it must allow anyone charged with "error" the right to defend himself.Paul, when he set up an advisory Synod of Bishops, also gave positive meaning to the concept of collegiality enunciated by the council. In pursuit of Christian unity, Paul and Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople last week issued a joint statement deploring the mutual excommunications that Roman Catholic and Orthodox leaders had hurled at each other in 1054. Within months, it is expected that Paul will announce changes in Catholic discipline, such as a relaxation of the rules against mixed marriages and abolition of the compulsory Friday abstinence from meat.It took 30 years for the decrees of Trent to take hold, and even in this century of rapid communication, it may take nearly as long before the promise of Vatican II is realized.Much of the council's impact will not be felt until a reform of church seminaries and schools produces a new generation of priests and laymen."If the Roman Catholic Church had looked 450 years ago as it looks today," says Germany's Evangelical Bishop Otto Dibelius, "there would never have been a Reformation." Says U.S. Lutheran Leader Franklin Clark Fry: "Thank God that the council responded to the leading of the Holy Spirit as far as it did."In general, the council indicates a new attitude toward a complex, pluralistic world. At its birth, the church was a beacon of moral light that stood apart from the Roman society in which it flourished. For more than 1,000 years after Constantine, it was a power within society, acquiring some of the pride, intolerance and triumphal spirit that is part of power's corruption. At the Reformation and after, the church reacted badly to the loss of its claim to be God's only spokesman and clung to its shrunken patrimony of power in ways that justified the exasperation of those who stood outside it.Vatican II has made it clear that the church is ready to abandon "triumphalism," to erase the nonessential traditions that have often kept it from being credible as a moral force in the world at large. Without denying its own belief that it has a special divine mission, Catholicism now acknowledges that it is but one of many spiritual voices with something to tell perplexed modern man. When medieval Popes spoke to Kings and Princes, they listened and obeyed —or ran the risk of excommunication and exile from society. The words of Paul VI and his bishops to Presidents and Premiers bear no such threat; but neither did those of the Apostles to Roman procurators. Thus the more the church returns in spirit to the unfettered simplicity of the Gospel from which it sprang, the more likely it is that its voice will be heeded again by the world.4. Here is a quote from a Cutting Edge article also:"For more than 1400 years the Roman Catholic Church was not only self-righteous, but in its own eyes the Church possessed absolute infallibility. The Church of Rome lorded over monarchs, over wealthy men, and over the poor with an iron hand. Irrespective of social latitude, if one's personal beliefs were inconsistent with those of the Church-the consequences were either prison, torture, burning at the stake, or all of the above. From the Church's perspective there was no salvation apart from Rome, no Christianity apart from Rome, and no room for discussion. However, in 1962 (beginning of Vatican II) something strangely disproportionate occurred, and many of the attitudes that prevailed for more than a millennia suspiciously disappeared."
Read more here: http://www.cuttingedge.org/news/n1506ch3.html
5. "One of the most controversial documents was NOSTRA AETATE, which stated that the Jews of the time of Christ, taken indiscriminately, and ALL JEWS TODAY are no more responsible for the death of Christ than Christians. Many Catholics claimed that Vatican II marked the Beginning of a "New Springtime" for the Church. Vatican II OPENED THE DOOR to ecumenicalism and also Opened the door to Jews for the first time. Nostra Aetate Declaration was promulgated on 10/28/1965 by Pope Paul VI. The Title means: 'N OUR TIME' in Latin. The significance of this document as a NEW STARTING POINT in the Church's relations with JUDAISM, in light of the foregoing, can be appreciated from the vantage point of the passage of FORTY YEARS."6. This article, in light of the previous ones, sums it all up nicely:The Wait Is Over: Jews' Messiah Now Kosher Says Cardinal Ratzinger — the second most Powerful Person in the VaticanFriday April 8, 2005IS HE REALLY A JEWISH ZIONIST?IS HE THE NEXT POPE? or IS HE THE POPEMAKER?Vatican affirms Jewish position; scholars scramble to decipher new doctrine.Eric J. Greenberg – Staff WriterIn 1967, during the early thaw of Catholic-Jewish relations, Rabbi Irving “Yitz” Greenberg addressed a Catholic audience about the conflicting Messiah beliefs. The Orthodox rabbi noted that one difference between Jews and Catholics is whether the Messiah is coming for the first or second time. Christians believe the Messiah — a Jew from Nazareth called Jesus — came 2,000 years ago, and after dying and being resurrected, will someday return to redeem the world.Jews say the Messiah has yet to arrive — a belief that led to centuries of Christian anti-Semitism and killings of Jews who refused to accept the Christian view.Rabbi Greenberg suggested the dispute be tabled until the Messiah arrives. When the Messiah comes, Jews and Christians “can ask him if this is his first coming or his second,” finally putting the issue to rest. But this week, the Messiah debate suddenly took center stage in Jewish-Catholic relations, in an appropriately bizarre and mysterious manner.It follows the revelation last week that the Vatican’s top biblical scholars recently issued a report that for the first time in nearly 2,000 years apparently validates as legitimate the Jewish wait for the Messiah.A 210-page document titled “The Jewish People and the Holy Scriptures in the Christian Bible,” by the Pontifical Biblical Commission and authorized by the Vatican’s top theologian, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, reportedly states that “the Jewish messianic wait is not in vain.” It reportedly says Jews and Christians share their wait for the Messiah, although Jews are waiting for the first coming and Christians for the second.The new document also reportedly contains an apology to the Jewish people for anti-Semitic passages contained in the New Testament, and also stresses the continuing importance of the Torah for Christians. The book comes to light as anti-Semitism appears to be increasing around the world from Christian and Muslim sources.Also see: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/pcb_documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20020212_popolo-ebraico_en.html -- Published in 20027. On September 14, 1965 the last session (4th) of the Council was opened and it formally closed on December 8th, 1965. At the CLOSE of Vatican II, Pope Paul VI declared a Jubilee from January 1 to May 26, 1966 to urge all Catholics to study and accept the decisions of the Council and apply them in spiritual renewal.Loves, this Vatican II was a huge sign for the Church and for the world. Is it just a coincidence that this happened to occur during the Sabbatical Cycle of 1965/66? 1965/66 + 50 = 2015/16. Keep watching and praying Doves. Our Lord Jesus is at the Door!!!MARANATHA and love to all,your Sis,Renee