The Fingerprints of GOD Are Easily Seen
For Those Who Have Eyes To See.

The Priesthood:

In The Old Testament, the Aaronic priesthood was started in the book of Exodus, by Moses under the direction of GOD.

In the New Testament, we saw the fulfilling of the Old Testament and the beginning of the Christian priesthood of the order of Melchizedek as described in the book of Hebrews.

"Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests."
Hebrews 7:11-14
However, most Jews refused to convert to the new Christianity "of another tribe" and stayed with the Aaronic Levitical priesthood. Therefore there were two priesthoods, with GOD's intention to have the latter having replaced the former.

"But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies,
then know that its desolation has come near."
Luke 21:20
Verses following that one, and Matthew chapter 24, describe the destruction of Jerusalem. This all came to pass in 70 A.D. when Roman armies did surround Jerusalem and the city was indeed totally destroyed. You can read all of the gory details of this massacre of the Jews in the writings of Flavius Josephus (37-101 A.D.), a Jewish historian and eye witness to the carnage of that incident. Among the hundreds of thousands of Jews killed was every Jewish priest. However, it takes a priest to make a priest. Having no priests to make new ones, the Aaronic Levitical priesthood came to an abrupt and violent ending.
This is the reason why you will not find any priests in Judaism today, only Rabbi's (teachers).
The Aaronic priesthood line was broken.
God's fingerprints are easily seen here in his preservation of one priesthood only.

1450 years later in 1520, Martin Luther, a Catholic monk, separated from the Catholic Church and formed his own church without having any authority to do so. That same year Thomas Munzer, a fiery preacher who was sympathetic with Luther for a short while, split from him and formed yet another church, and again he had no authority to do so.
History repeated itself and again, there were multiple priesthoods, one each of the different Protestant sects. However, no Bishops took sides with Luther or Munzer, or any of the others, and so there was no succession to the priesthood in those lines of Protestantism. It takes a Bishop to make a priest. The priesthood line was ended when the last priest died in each line.
Realizing this, in his "Smalcald Articles" of 1537, Article X, Of Ordination and the call,
Martin Luther wrote "...we ourselves will and ought to ordain suitable persons to this office".
Sorry Luther, but as I previously said, it takes a Bishop to ordain a priest, so your so-called "ordinations" performed by a priest were invalid.
God's fingerprints are easily seen here in his preservation of one priesthood only.

Watching GOD at work in this next example is a fascinating story for me.
In 1534, Henry VIII, the king of England and staunch defender of the Catholic Church, formed his own Church, the Church of England, called Anglican, simply because the Pope had refused to give him an annulment of his valid marriage, so he could marry another. However, he threatened Catholic Bishops in England with torture, death, or banishment if they refused to condone his actions. By so doing he was able to force some Catholic Bishops to join him, and therefore there were two separate priesthoods again. How did GOD handle this one?
Only sixteen years later in 1550, King Edward VI, in a greater effort to protestantize the Anglican Church, deliberately changed the form of ordination, and by so doing invalidated the ordination of new priests. In 1662, realizing a mistake had been made, the Anglicans reverted to the valid form, but by then it was too late, for by this time all of the validly ordained Bishops had died. Because of the error of King Edward VI, Anglican orders from the Edwardian ordination of 1550 until the present day are invalid.
Once again a single priesthood is in order.
God's fingerprints are easily seen here in his preservation of one priesthood only.

GOD made provision for only one priesthood in the Old Testament, and still only one priesthood in the New Testament. There is no verse in Holy Scripture which authorizes multiple priesthoods.

"There is one God and one Christ, and one Church, and one Chair founded on Peter by the word of the Lord. It is not possible to set up another altar or for there to be another priesthood besides that one altar and that one priesthood. Whoever has gathered elsewhere is scattering."
Saint Cyprian of Carthage, Letter To All His People, 43,(40),5, 251 A.D., Jurgens 573

If man refuses to obey the will of GOD, then GOD in some way imposes His will on man.
GOD's Church:

The Word of GOD in Holy Scripture has told us in many places* that He will protect His one Church from the time He founded it until the end of time. Over the last two millennia, how many members of the human race have ignored his Word and have tried in vain to bring His Church to destruction?
*2Samuel 7:12-13, Psalms 127:1, Isaiah 54:17,59:21, Daniel 2:44, 6:26, 7:14, Matthew 16:18,28:20,
Luke 1:33, 10:16, John 14:16,18, Acts 5:38-39, Romans 8:31, Ephesians 3:21, 5:23, Hebrews 12:28

The Jews:
The Jews persecuted GOD's Church and instead of destroying it, Judaism itself was almost completely destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. as explained above.
It seems that even if GOD gives humanity plenty of warning of impending disaster,
so many simply ignore His Word and end up paying a high price for doing so.
Can you see now why the Apostles did not choose Jerusalem to be the seat of Christianity?
They knew the Word of GOD from Luke 21:20 and Matthew chapter 24, and they heeded it.
Do you see the fingerprints of GOD here?

The Romans:
Try as they may from a succession of Caesar's, and from century to century, the Romans who had the most powerful armies on earth, tried but failed to destroy GOD's Church. They murdered Christians by the tens of thousands and yet more popped up to take their places. Pagan Rome collapsed in 476 A.D., and was replaced by Christian Rome. Isn't it ironic, that from the ruins of the pagan Roman Forum, one can see the dome of Saint Peters Basilica, the center of world Christianity?
Well, maybe it is not so ironic, for we can easily see the fingerprints of GOD here, as the world center of paganism was transformed into the world center of Christianity.

The Protestants:
Martin Luther a Catholic priest started the Protestant reformation in 1520 and founded another church other than the one which GOD founded and claimed it to be the true church. Since more than one true church was not in GOD's plan (Psalms 127:1, 1Corinthians 3:11), His fingerprints were seen almost immediately in that very same year. Unresolved squabbling between Luther and his allies caused each of them to split off and form a chaotic plethora of separate denominations, which resulted in the scattering of the one flock of GOD. This chaotic madness is continuing to this very day. They are now numbering in the tens of thousands of sects, with each teaching something different, and with each claiming to be the true church.
It is simply a variation of the tower of Babel story, with the one flock of GOD being scattered this time not by language differences, but by personal opinion differences:
""Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Ba'bel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth."
Genesis 11:7-9

The truth of GOD is not wrought through personal opinion:
"They came and said to him, "Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you are not concerned with anyone's opinion. You do not regard a person's status but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.""
Mark 12:14
Those who refuse to acknowledge the hard lessons taught by Holy Scripture, are doomed to repeat the errors presented therein:
"What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, "See, this is new"? It has been already, in the ages before us. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to happen among those who come after."
Ecclesiastes 1:9-11
Approximately eight to ten million mis-guided Catholics followed Luther and his allies into Protestantism in old world Europe.
However, only eleven years later in 1531, eight to ten million new Catholics entered the Church in the new world Americas, as a result of the well documented miracle of Guadalupe.
See? GOD truly is the Savior of His Church. Ephesians 5:23

The fingerprints of GOD are all over the place, if we would only take the time to see and study them.
The Gravity of the Situation:

You have probably tied a string to a ball and whirled it around and felt the tug of the ball as it tried to escape from your pull. Now imagine no string at all, and what happens to the ball? Now imagine the earth whizzing around the sun with no visible "string" preventing it from flying off into space, but with an invisible "string" which we call gravity? The pull you felt on the ball was representative of the invisible force which pulls the earth in its orbit around the sun. Imagine the awesome power of the forces of gravity which are required to keep the universe in the well ordered state of which it is in? Why hasn't science been able to detect such a universal force as gravity, despite many ingenious methods used to unravel its mystery?
Could it be that the ways and the powers of GOD are to remain undetectable by any human means?

"He stretches out the north over the void, and hangs the earth upon nothing."
Job 26:7
The earth hangs upon nothing?
How many thousands of years did it take the human race to second that verse?

"And Ezra said: "Thou art the LORD, thou alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and thou preservest all of them; and the host of heaven worships thee."
Nehemiah 9:6

"Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?"
Job 38:33

"When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast established;"
Psalms 8:3
Fingers leave prints, do they not?

"He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."
Colossians 1:17
Hold together? Hold together by what...or by whom?

"He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power."
Hebrews 1:3

"Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger."
Isaiah 13:13
"Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken;"
Matthew 24:29
Don't these two verses sound like the disruption of what scientific minds call gravity?

"How would anything have endured if thou hadst not willed it? Or how would anything not called forth by thee have been preserved?"
Wisdom 11:25

"Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse;"
Romans 1:20

GOD is invisible.
However, His fingerprints are clearly visible, in and upon the things He has created.

By Accident or by Design?:

For us to even exist at all, have you ever thought that:

1. The sun had to have been the right type of star, not too hot nor too cold, not too large nor too small.
2. The earth had to be just the right size so its gravity (?) was not too great as to crush us, nor too feeble to allow us to float off of its surface.
3. The earth had to be just the right distance from the sun so life could exist in a not too hot, nor a too cold environment. So also that water, which is essential to life as we know it, would not be permanently frozen or vaporized.
4. The earth had to be tilted at just the right angle to keep these temperatures moderate enough for the existence of life as we know it.

After scientists have tried to disprove the existence of GOD for many years, one of the worlds top cosmologists* has admitted that some "force" had to have started the whole process**.
Force? What force?

*Those who theorize how the universe was formed and where it is headed.
**The "Big Bang" theory.
Fingerprints of GOD in Holy Scripture:

Navigation:
"The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." Psalms 8:8
"Paths of the seas"? Mariners use ocean currents to navigate around the world. Why would GOD want mankind to know this?
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," Matthew 28:20
"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Sama'ria and to the end of the earth." Acts 1:8
GOD made the ocean currents known to man so that the Gospel could be spread faster and easier to the Gentiles around the world.

Blood:
"For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it for you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement, by reason of the life."
Leviticus 17:11,14, Deuteronomy 12:23. See also Genesis 9:4-5.
For centuries physicians bled people to rid their bodies of their "poisonous" afflictions.
Joseph Lister (1827-1912) was the first to discover that the immune system was in the blood.

The expanding universe:
"I made the earth, and created man upon it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host." Isaiah 45:12
It was not until the twentieth century that man "discovered" that the universe was expanding.

Instant world wide communication:
"The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes forth like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them; and there is nothing hid from its heat. The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;"
Psalms 19:2-7
Today, we have AM, FM, and shortwave radio, television, telephone, internet, and satellite communications spreading the Word of GOD around the world instantly. There is no better example for all of these instant means of communication for spreading the Word of GOD world wide than, "The Eternal Word Television Network, EWTN".
The Catholic Church which Jesus Christ founded is fulfilling the command of her Head (Ephesians 5:23):
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age."
Matthew 28:19-20

The Fingerprints of GOD are easily seen for those who have eyes to see.

"And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: "You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders; but to this day the LORD has not given you a mind to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear."
Deuteronomy 29:2-4

"The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see, but not see, who have ears to hear, but hear not;...""
Ezekiel 12:1-2

"I see his blood upon the rose

and in the stars the glory of his eyes,

his body gleams amid eternal snows,

his tears fall from the skies.

 

I see his face in every flower;

the thunder and the singing of the birds

are but his voice --- and, carven by his power

rocks are his hidden words.

 

All pathways by his feet are worn,

his strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,

his crown of thorns is twined in every thorn,

his cross is every tree."

 

Joseph Mary Plunket, 1887-1916

 

©
Written by Bob Stanley, July 5, 2002
Updated August 18, 2004

"Have I then become your enemy, because I told you the truth?"
Galatians 4:16

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