In the Sinister News
By Nathan Jones
Students of Bible prophecy are always keeping a close eye on the news, looking for events that fulfill what the Bible explicitly says will lead up to Jesus’ soon return. This past few weeks the news has been filled chock full with set-up events that have arranged the players in their proper place for an epic prophetic event.
Read through the following headlines and summaries and see if you can recognize just which prophetically appointed event we’re looking at. (I’ll give you a hint: there’s more than one.)
1. Iran Leaders Pave Way for Messianic ‘Mahdi’ Iran last week held a multi-day conference… to plot what can be done to hasten the coming of the messianic, endtimes personage known as the Mahdi. Shiite Muslims believing the Mahdi is a messianic figure who will return after an apocalypse to elevate Shiite Islam to the status of the only true religion, with the consequence that all false religions, including Sunni Islam, will be vanquished. Israeli military intelligence experts are convinced that Ahmadinejad’s expressed religious devotion to the Mahdi is genuine.
2. Famous quotes by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:
“Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation’s fury,”
“The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of a war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land. As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map.”
3. 5 more nuke plants spotted in Iran Deep-cover MI6 agents who found the previously secret underground uranium enrichment plant near the Iranian holy city of Qom have discovered a staggering five more similar plants.
4. Iran Has Enough Uranium to Build at Least 2 Bombs IAEA indicates that Iran now has at least 1,508 kgs of low-grade uranium. Thus, Iran now appears to have the essential materials to move steadily towards building two atomic bombs as soon as it makes the political decision to do so.
5. Gaza rockets can now reach Tel Aviv The head of Israel’s Military Intelligence on Tuesday November 2nd warned that Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip now possess missiles capable of striking Tel Aviv.
6. Iran Threatens Oil Transport Route With the prospect of Israel bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities looming, Tehran has renewed its threat to shut down the strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which up to 40 percent of the world’s oil supplies pass.
7. Sudan wins a seat on the UN Human Rights Commission
8. Turkey: An Ally No More Turkey has taken a radical turn in their international policies, abandoning almost overnight its 2 decades long relationship with Israel. On October 13, 2009, Turkey cancelled a joint military exercise with Israel and instead signed a treaty with Syria that includes plans to strengthen military ties and to end visa requirements for each country. Syria is one of Israel’s most aggressively hostile border enemies.
9. Armenian-Turkish Accord In the news is the historical geo-political establishment of protocols for full diplomatic relations between the Armenian and Turkish peoples. Armenia is also full member of the Russian-led military alliance known as the Collective Security Treaty Organization.
10. Large Quantities of Natural Gas Found off Haifa Coast Israel continues to explore the mother lode of natural gas deposits. Noble Energy and a consortium of exploration and drilling companies have after 5 years of drilling at the Tamar site 56 miles west of the northern port of Haifa discovered an estimated 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
11. Russian-Syrian-Iranian Axis Russia, Iran and Syria have entered a defense pact that is in the process of altering the balance of power in the entire Middle East. The facts reveal a long, steady Russian commitment to the Iranian nuclear program and arms supply to Syria.
Painting a Prophetic Picture
Russia and Iran allies? Turkey turning on Israel and siding with Iran. Russia playing behind the scenes giving nuclear know-how and weapons for an attack on Israel? Mismatched countries now united by their Islamic hatred and jealousy of the Jews. Israel discovering exceeding wealth in natural gas? This all sounds very familiar, like I read it somewhere in the Bible. Indeed I did, in the book of Ezekiel, a prophet who wrote God’s prophetic word down almost 2,600 years ago.
Ezekiel in chapters 38 and 39 tell in great detail of an epic battle that will change the very world we live in — called the “Gog-Magog Battle.” In this battle God entices the greed of a ruler designated “Gog” to lead the modern equivalents of Russia, Turkey, Armenia, the “Stan” countries, Iran, Sudan, Ethiopia, Libya, and Algeria in an effort to plunder and annihilate Israel. Their effort is in vain, though, for God miraculously destroys the invading Muslim horde with His signature fire and brimstone, earthquakes and hailstones.
The alliances for this battle are already in place. Israel will be forced to deal with this threat in the very near future. In their present humanistic ideological mindset the Jewish nation doesn’t yet see that God has got their backs, so they will feel forced to act, and act expediently, or face extermination.
But first, there are the surrounding jihadist nations bordering Israel like Jordan, Egypt, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria who bewilderingly sit out the Gog-Magog Battle for Israel to contend with. And then, there is the question about whether the Church will be here for such a “time of Jacob’s trouble.”
The current news paints a grand picture showing that we are on the dagger’s edge of the fulfillment of a great number of end time prophetic events.
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Madness
By Jim Fletcher
I was in New York recently and had dinner with a well-known author who understands geopolitics inside-and-out. Amazing insights into not only domestic American politics, but also a deep understanding of the Middle East. His comments were riveting.
We were joined by another highly placed commentator who has his pulse on the Middle East as well. He also has unique contacts in Israel that feed him information.
(Here I will include an aside: still another dinner companion has direct knowledge of the slide in support for Israel among Christian leaders. He told me about two that really surprised me; these people are now pro Palestinian. Perhaps in the future I will write about this in detail, perhaps in a book, but for now just know that this impacts America’s future support for Israel.)
The author believes that Saudi Arabia will at least in private give Israel its support in hitting Iran’s nuclear facilities. Sooner rather than later. He acknowledged that the House of Saud has funded the most violent forms of Islam for decades, but that they have a pragmatic side, too. In other words, they know that the U.S. and Israel are all that stand in the way of them and a sweeping Islamic caliphate from the Black Sea to the Gulf. They do not want to see a nuclear Iran!
The commentator believes that Turkey is the key to the whole thing. He believes that the Ottoman Empire will be revived, led of course by those same Turks, and that they can unite the Sunnis and Shiites, who are constantly in a state of civil war with each other. The unifying factor?
An Islamic hammer in the Middle East would change world politics. Sharia law and the establishment of a new caliphate would make Muslim eyes glisten worldwide, from Indonesia to Egypt. And the commentator says that Turkey has no problem with a nuclear Iran, since that would add another weapon to the Muslim arsenal.
The author also had interesting things to say, when asked about America’s support of Israel, particularly regarding military equipment and support. He was dismissive.
“Increasingly, the American military is dependent on Israel’s military,” he said calmly.
Wow! He meant that Israeli technology is so advanced that it is helping the U.S., especially as we fight in that region. He described amazing technological advances the Israelis are making.
What this all means to me is that Israel, increasingly threatened and squeezed, will rely on herself for the coming apocalypse. And doesn’t Turkish/Ottoman ascendancy make sense in the light of, say, Ezekiel 38-39, and Psalm 83?
We already know from last week that Israel’s navy intercepted an arms shipment from Iran to Lebanon’s Hizbollah terrorists. There are also similar shipments coming through Yemen, increasingly an Al Qaida base.
War is coming. Change is coming. Just remember in these troubled times, God is in control and His plans cannot be thwarted. We shiver when we hear these reports, and when we watch the news and discuss it all in light of the Bible. We are human; this life can be difficult.
But it appears that the things our brethren hoped for are coming into focus.
And in all this madness, we are finding, as individuals I am quite sure, that our faith is sustained by God, whom we discover in the Bible. In our personal lives and in the hotbed of international news, God is sustaining us. He has sustained His people for 4,000 years, and nothing can wrest them from His grip.
As we look east and see war clouds gathering, let us pray that we will not falter in our faith, and that we will love our God and take refuge in His safe arms.
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Will We Be Microchipped?
By Michael G. Mickey
Bible prophecy foretells a time coming in the prophetic future when the prophesied Antichrist is going to cause “all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” (Revelation 13:16-17)
All of us familiar with bible prophecy know what the preceding Scripture specifically refers to, namely the mark of the beast, but do we fully realize that right now, buried within a Democratic party-endorsed bill that most of us overwhelmingly stand in opposition to, the precursor to the mark of the beast, at the very least, may be lurking, largely unseen by the public?
The following is an excerpt from a Canada Free Press article dealing, in part, with ObamaCare and the Democratic Party’s greatly sought health care reform bill:
The Obama Health care bill under Class II (Paragraph 1, Section B) specifically includes in its lists of things that must be registered in the NATIONAL MEDICAL DEVICE REGISTRY: ‘‘(ii) a class II device that is implantable.”
Then on page 1004 it describes what the term “data” means in paragraph 1, section B:
‘‘(B) In this paragraph, the term ‘data’ refers to information respecting a device described in paragraph (1), including claims data, patient survey data, standardized analytic files that allow for the pooling and analysis of data from disparate data environments, electronic health records, and any other data deemed appropriate by the Secretary.”
What is meant by the term, “class II device that is implantable”?
According to the FDA, a class II implantable device is a “implantable radiofrequency transponder system for patient identification and health information.” The purpose of a class II device is to collect data in medical patients such as “claims data, patient survey data, standardized analytic files that allow for the pooling and analysis of data from disparate data environments, electronic health records, and any other data deemed appropriate by the Secretary.” In other words an RFID chip such as are used in a number of dogs and cats. Just like Obama’s dogs.
Humans being marked in the manner domestic pets and livestock presently are? That’s precisely what bible prophecy seems to foretell coming, does it not?
Numerous times in the past I’ve directed my readers to consider the possibility that the implantable microchip, the VeriChip, could be the prophesied mark of the beast in the making or a precursor to same. The information above does nothing to discredit that possibility. To the contrary, it raises the possibility dramatically, especially when we consider the course VeriChip Corporation recently embarked on.
In an article entitled “VeriChip Buys Steel Vault, Creating Micro-Implant Health Record/Credit Score Empire” we read the following, in part:
VeriChip (CHIP), the company that markets a microchip implant that links to your online health records, has acquired Steel Vault (SVUL), a credit monitoring and anti-identity theft company. The combined company will operate under a new name: PositiveID.
The all-stock transaction will leave PositiveID in charge of a burgeoning empire of identity, health and microchip implant businesses that will only encourage its critics. BNET previously noted that some regard the company as part of a prophecy in the Book of Revelation (because the HealthLink chip carries an RFID number that can be used as both money and proof of ID) or as part of President Obama’s secret Nazi plan to enslave America.
Remember when the implantable VeriChip was approved by the FDA in October of 2004, supposedly for use in humans for ‘medical’ purposes, and critics of my suspicions were laughing at me, as well as others observing current events in light of bible prophecy, for speculating that the VeriChip’s applications might be expanded to include mark of the beast-like qualities? I do. The critics aren’t laughing now. Well, they may be but they’re doing it a lot more quietly, primarily because it looks like the bible prophecy-watching community had a great deal more foresight than they did.
As early as 2005, it was becoming clear the VeriChip implantable microchip was being eyed as attractive to government - and not just to store medical records. In a 2005 commentary, I included a quote of interest indicating that “these types of applications are actually being driven under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.” And no, I didn’t make that quote up. I pulled it directly from a story posted on Yahoo Finance’s list of business news stories and provided a link to same as verification for my readers to review for themselves. Unfortunately, the link from the 2005 commentary is dead now, as is often the case with news items several years old, but look at where we are now!
Before our very eyes, the once innocuous-sounding VeriChip Corporation has metamorphosized into PositiveID Corporation, indicating, in my opinion, that the primary focus of this company, regardless of how much it touts the medical uses of its implantable microchips, is CLEARLY on marketing its implantable microchip as a means of IDENTIFICATION.
The term ‘positive identification’ is one I’m quite familiar with as a retired police officer with decades of experience. Establishing positive identification is critical in any case where law is going to be enforced, far more so than in any hospital emergency room I’m familiar with! As a police officer, I have seen many an individual transported to the hospital and treated for serious illnesses or injuries without anyone positively knowing who the individuals were. I have not, on the other hand, seen a lot of people go to jail without ‘positive ID’ having been established beforehand.
Now don’t get me wrong! There are any number of circumstances where I’ve seen an unidentified suspect hauled off to jail and booked as a John Doe for committing a crime, but this is the exception rather than the rule - and by far! Reason? It’s a crime in most states to fail to identify one’s self to law enforcement if one is being legally detained or arrested by a police officer having probable cause to do so. Not only is it a crime to refuse to be positively identified, it’s a major inconvenience for a suspect. Refusing to be identified is a separate criminal offense that only adds to the suspect’s troubles. Even more bothersome, one charged with a criminal offense as a John Doe is never granted bail.
What I’m trying to convey here is we may be able to tell a great deal concerning the direction a corporation’s technology may be headed based on something as simple as a name change, especially in this case.
From day one I’ve said that if the implantable microchip is the prophesied mark of the beast in the making, or even a precursor to it, we would begin to see similarities between the two. While the verdict is still out, we know the implantable microchip can serve as a positive identification, can store personal information like medical records, and even be utilized to make a financial transaction. Without drawing any final conclusions, we’re getting there, aren’t we?
Assume for a moment that the implantation of microchips becomes mandatory in the future, toss in a dictatorial leader who would connect having (or not having) the implant as an indication of where one’s political loyalties lie, and make it impossible for one to buy or sell without having the chip and what do you have? I don’t know about any of you, but I think you may well have the mark of the beast.
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Key Prophecies Boiling
By Terry James
Lest you think the end-times train of prophetic stage-setting has begun rolling too slowly across this current hour’s strange geopolitical landscape, I offer several points to the contrary.
The first involves the dividing of God’s land. That process targets Israel as the chief hold-up to progress toward peace. The “Roadmap to Peace” seems to have been placed on the back burner of Middle East diplomacy. But the truth is far different.
More troubling is the fact that the United States continues to be at the forefront of prodding along the process. And it is Israel, not the Jewish state’s enemy antagonists of the region, who is receiving the brunt of the poking.
Israel must give up land won in the 1967 Six Day War: That is the demand of the American administration.
A top State Department official spelled out on Tuesday that the goal of the United States in its negotiations in the Middle East is to pressure Israel into expelling Jews from Judea and Samaria in order to ‘end the occupation that began in 1967.’
William J. Burns, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, said in his address to the Middle East Institute Tuesday that he sees the U.S. mandate as one of ‘determined leadership’ and that America must be straightforward about its intentions. (Hana Levi, “State Department: U.S. Goal to Expel Jews in ‘Occupied’ Post-67 Lands,” Israel National News, 11/11/09)
Burns said that U.S. goals clearly mandate that Israel and a new Palestinian state “live side by side in peace and security.” The declaration even more clearly - from God’s point of view - speaks to where this generation surely must stand on God’s prophetic timeline. At the very least, the undersecretary has put forth some chillingly familiar propositions, when considering prophetic terminology.
Again we think on Joel’s foretelling that has come ever more into view in recent times, due to America’s and the international community’s arm-twisting to make Israel give up more and more of the tiny parcel of land they secured through war - land that is a mere token of the vast land their God actually deeded to them.
I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. (Joel 3:2)
The second point of prophetic stage-setting on the front burner of our time, then, is the American undersecretary unwittingly using biblically prophetic jargon when issuing his imperious-sounding pronouncement of peace-making. Israel and the Palestinian state the powers-that-be intend to create, he said, must “live side by side in peace and security.” This has an ominous ring to prophetically/spiritually-attuned ears:
“For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3).
The Lord of heaven declares that such a “peace and security” arrangement as proposed by those who want to impose humanistic hegemony over Israel will actually be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back:
Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves… And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. (Isaiah 28:14-15, 18)
It will be, of course, the covenant of false peace instituted by the “prince that shall come,” as outlined in Daniel 9: 26-27, that will set in motion the last seven years of human history. The Tribulation will culminate in the return of Christ at Armageddon (Revelation 19:11).
The third point of stage-setting in the news currently involves yet another demand upon God’s chosen nation by one of Israel’s chief enemies. This particular news item brings into focus the city that is directly prophesied by Isaiah to be totally destroyed at some point:
“The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap” (Isaiah 17:1).
Syrian President Bashar Assad on Monday warned that if Israel does not negotiate away the Golan Heights, his nation may turn to more violent methods of reclaiming the territory it once controlled.
Speaking at an Islamic economic summit in Istanbul, Assad claimed to still want to reach a peace agreement with Israel, but said that if such an agreement is not based on Israels full surrender of the Golan, then ‘resistance’ is an option he is seriously considering.
It was not the first time Assad has threatened war should Israel not meet his precondition for peace talks by guaranteeing a full Israeli pullout from the Golan. (”Israel Today,” Headline News, 11/10/09).
Damascus, the longest-inhabited city in the world, according to many historians, is biblically prophesied to be completely destroyed. This is most interesting because, as I’ve written many times before, Damascus is headquarters to every major Mideast terrorist organization. Each of those hate-filled terrorist enclaves are vowed to erase Israel from the region - and from the world, for that matter. The anger stems from satanic rage that goes back more than three millennia.
But it is that city currently under the domination of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad that God says will be forever eliminated, while Jerusalem and Israel will remain forever.
The fires of things to come are blazing. God’s prophetic clock continues to tick - make no mistake.
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Verichip Buys ID Security Company
By Chuck Missler
VeriChip has a new name. The company famous for its development of RFID tags that can be implanted in humans has acquired Steel Vault Corporation, a provider of identity security products and services. Anti-identity-theft meet human microchipping. Together, VeriChip Corp and Steel Vault Corp are forming a new company called PositiveID.
For years radio frequency identification (RFID) tags have made product identification and inventory easier for stores. Farmers are injecting implantable RFID tags into their livestock in order to stem the spread of mad cow disease. If a diseased cow turns up, it can be easily tracked backward to every stockyard where it’s been, all the way back to its home ranch. Pet owners have had their animals “chipped” so they can be identified by animal control and returned home if lost. From passports to pre-paid train and bus smart cards, RFID can be found everywhere.
Applied Digital Solutions’ VeriChip has been marketed as a health care ID tag that is handy for quickly identifying at-risk patients if they show up at a hospital. A simple scan of the chip in a person’s arm would bring up the patient’s medical history at Health Link, helping hospital personnel to offer the best care to a patient, even if they’re brought in unconscious. A recent VeriChip commercial promoted its rice grain-sized microchip as useful to Americans from all walks of life, from the diabetic to the driver whose car goes off the road.
Now, a Steel Vault VeriChip combo will be in a position to use chipping as a means to protect people from identity theft. Americans may resist the idea of having chips stuck in their arms, even to protect their identity, but the brains behind PositiveID have a lot of different plans in the meanwhile.
Scott R. Silverman, Chairman and CEO of PositiveID, stated,
“In joining these two companies, we believe we are better positioned to accelerate the development of our exciting diagnostic and sensor applications such as glucose-sensing, as well as our rapid virus detection system for the H1N1 virus and other pandemic viruses. By moving beyond the original patient identification application of our implantable RFID microchip technology, we believe that we will be able to get high-value products to market faster with a more efficient use of capital.”
Of course, it’s easy to imagine the eventual use of RFID technology to identify every human being in America and even the planet. It certainly could reduce the problem of ID theft if one’s scannable ID was embedded in one’s arm. No more stolen or lost credit cards. No more forgetting one’s driver’s license at home. At least, PositiveID could make that argument, and then hello Big Brother.
Orwellian fears are unlikely to be realized any time soon, though. The implementation of RFID technology has actually taken much longer than folks originally anticipated, and for a variety of reasons. Since 2003, Wal-Mart has pushed for its suppliers to include RFID tags on pallets and cases of products, but the costs to implement RFID technology has made the transition slow. Only about 600 of Wal-Mart’s 20,000 suppliers are on board the RFID wagon so far, with others complaining not only about the expense of the readers, software, and tags (some still over $.07 each), but also about problems with the liquids and metals in their products interfering with the readers. Trying to integrate different technologies has also proved a pain in the neck.
The pharmaceutical industry has also been slow to implement RFID technology, even though it’s been mandated by California law. Pharmaceutical companies in California are supposed to use RFID tags to keep track of drugs in order to improve safety and reduce counterfeiting, but the pharmaceutical industry has balked at the expense and complications of implementing a comprehensive system. Because of these difficulties, California has given the industry until 2015 to abide by its electronic pedigree law.
And as far as “chipping” humans? Some people think it’s a jazzy idea and have had VeriChip injected under their skin for medical reasons or to avoid carrying their IDs (and wallets or purses) into nightclubs. A whole lot of people, though, have absolutely no intention of getting an implantable microchip – not under any circumstances. Not even when tempted by VeriChip’s well made commercials.
Even with the complications of chipping everything, though, RFID is a growing business that has worked its way up from a $1.9 billion-a-year industry in 2005 to a $5 billion-plus industry today. And the biggest user of RFID technology are world governments. China just spent $6 billion to get its citizens RFID-tagged national id cards. The US government has been using RFID tags to keep track of military inventory, and since 2006 has put these microchips on passports. The UK and India are also chipping their passports, and pre-paid public transportation cards have long been using RFID.
The chipping of the world has been a slow but steady progression, and it doesn’t promise to go away anytime soon, even with complaints and balking, inconvenience and negative public opinion. Whether for good or for bad, RFID is here to stay.
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MORE VIDEO VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
TV Violence against Women More Graphic, Frequent than Ever Before [Excerpts]
Violence against women on television is being shown with increasing frequency, more graphically and in ways never before seen in TV history, according to a report by a television watchdog group.
The Parents Television Council’s report found that violence against women increased 120 percent between 2004 and 2009, with the most frequent type of violence being beating (29 percent), followed by credible threats of violence (18 percent), shooting (11 percent), rape (8 percent), stabbing (6 percent) and torture (2 percent). Also, such violence resulted in death 19 percent of the time.
“Our new research points to a disturbing trend: by depicting violence against women with increasing frequency, or as a trivial, even humorous matter, the broadcast networks may ultimately be contributing to a desensitized atmosphere in which people view aggression and violence directed at women as normative, even acceptable,” Winter said.
The report found that Fox used violence against women as punch lines in its comedies, particularly “Family Guy” and “American Dad,” thus “trivializing the gravity of the issue.”
TBC: It is instructive that after decades of cries for equal rights and feminism, a world without God has always resorted to violence and abuse, and devalued human life. In contrast, We have seen how the Lord has used women mightily in unique ways in Old Testament times (Deborah, Abigail, Esther, and Rahab, to name a few); He continues to do so. Though Galatians 3:28 tells us that our position in Christ Jesus is “neither male nor female,” for we are all equal in Him, our condition is that God has created different spiritual as well as physical functions for us as human beings. The role of women is one of great importance and much to be sought after by those who understand its significance and value in the Kingdom (for example, 1 Timothy 3:11, 5:10, 6:1,2). I like what Paul said about Phebe: that she was a “succourer, help in time of need, of many,” including himself (Romans 16:1,2). What a marvelous tribute! Many social, family, economic and spiritual problems existing today may be traced to the failure of women to properly understand and carry out their scriptural roles, and sadly, even many Christian women, deceived by the temporal and often illusory status they may gain in the world, have forfeited fulfillment of their special and pivotal place in God’s plan. It’s so easy to exchange the truth for a lie.
None of His promises exclude women; not one of them has failed (1 Kings 8:56). We are to seek first the Kingdom, and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33). For the man or woman who obeys Christ, trusting only in Him, the Lord of hosts will open the windows of heaven and pour out such a blessing more than we can receive (Malachi 3:10), pressed down, shaken together, overflowing (Lk. 6:38), exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the power that works in us (Ephesians 3:20).
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OK. I THINK I GET IT NOW.
Let me see if I understand all this…. IF YOU CROSS THE NORTH KOREAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET 12 YEARS HARD LABOR.
IF YOU CROSS THE IRANIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU ARE DETAINED INDEFINITELY.
IF YOU CROSS THE AFGHAN BORDER, YOU GET SHOT..
IF YOU CROSS THE TURKEY BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU SPEND THE REST OF YOUR LIFE IN PRISON!
BUT, IF YOU CROSS THE U..S. BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET: A DRIVERS LICENSE A SOCIAL SECURITY CARD WELFARE FOOD STAMPS AND, FREE HEALTH CARE?
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Syria Accused of Aiding al-Qaida Against U.S.
By Aaron Klein
JERUSALEM – While the Obama administration has continued its diplomatic overtures to the Syrian leadership, America’s top commander in Iraq says weapons and fighters – possibly linked to al-Qaida – are coming in from Syria.
U.S. General Ray Odierno, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, told Reuters that investigations into massive suicide bombings in Baghdad on Oct. 25, in which more than 150 people died, indicated explosives or insurgents were coming across from neighboring Syria.
Odierno implied some tied to Syria’s ruling Baathist party may be supporting al-Qaida attacks in Iraq.
“There’s still a small foreign element to al-Qaida, there are some who used to be Sunni rejectionists or ex-Baathists who are involved in this because of course they don’t want the government to succeed,” he said.
“My experience is there probably was some movement of fighters or explosives coming from Syria,” Odierno added.
Reuters reported the U.S. commander’s comments reinforced accusations by the government of Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that Syria was giving a safe haven to Baathists plotting attacks in Iraq and that Baathists were working with al-Qaida.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration has been stepping up diplomatic overtures to Syria.
#As WND reported last month, the Obama administration dropped American opposition to a European Union partnership deal worth billions per year for the Syrian economy without first extracting a concession from Syria to end its military alliance with Iran or address suspected human-rights violations. A signing ceremony was reportedly supposed to take place in October, but was delayed.
In a surprise move in June, the White House announced it decided to send a U.S. ambassador back to Syria, a dramatic sign of reconciliation between the two countries.
The U.S. withdrew the American ambassador to Syria in 2005 after the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri. Syria was widely blamed in the murder.
Syria, in a military alliance with Iran, is also accused of supporting the insurgency against U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Syria openly supports Palestinian terrorism and hosts the leaders of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist groups.
Just last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency demanded an urgent and immediate visit to suspected illicit nuclear sites in Syria. The White House has yet to comment on those accusations.
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Why Sin Cannot Be Condoned by State
By Joseph Farah
Homosexual behavior has been successfully marketed as a “rights” issue.
For instance, if you dare to oppose homosexual marriage, even though the vast majority of Americans do and have demonstrated in referendum after referendum, those in the public eye run the risk of vilification and ostracism for articulating such positions.
On Friday, more than 150 Christian leaders, most of them conservative evangelicals and traditionalist Roman Catholics, issued a joint declaration reaffirming their opposition to homosexual marriage on the basis of protecting religious freedom.
While I agree that government’s granting of special “rights” based on aberrant sexual behavior is a religious freedom issue, it’s not the main reason for concern by Christians and Jews.
The Bible clearly identifies homosexual behavior, as opposed to homosexual thoughts or predilections, as sin.
The issue Christians and Jews should be focused upon is whether it can ever be acceptable for the government to condone sin – or, worse yet, encourage it by making it a “right.”
I don’t believe government can do that without dire consequences.
In Romans 1:18-32, a Hebrew scholar named Shaul, known to Christians as the Apostle Paul, wrote the following:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
What is he saying here?
He’s saying something to which every Christian, every Jew and every American should pay close attention:
God has revealed to all men the difference between right and wrong. You may not like God’s rules, but we are all without excuse as to what those rules are.
If you don’t obey God’s rules, your heart becomes darkened to the truth. You might think you know better than God, but you are actually a fool if you do.
When a whole society rejects the One True God and begins worshipping false gods, it opens the society up to judgment.
Those judgments include the following: more unrighteous behavior, sexual immorality, meanness, greed, envy, violence, conflict, lies, gossip, hate for God, pride, self-centeredness, mercilessness and disrespect for parents by children. Notice that No. 1 on that list is homosexuality. However, also notice, it’s not just homosexuality, but an increase in those who take pleasure in the exhibition of homosexual behavior that comes as a judgment on a society rejecting God.
Does this sound like any societies you know?
America is being judged by God.
The biblical proof text is Romans 1.
I am not stating the obvious here – that individuals will be judged for their behavior in the afterlife. What I am saying is we are already being judged in the here and now for rejecting God and one of those judgments is the explosion of homosexuality in our culture and the absolute explosion in the number of people accepting it, condoning it and even rejoicing in it.
Whether you are a believer or not, this affects you. It shapes the world in which you and your children live. If you think your society is depraved now, you have seen nothing yet.
There’s plenty of empirical evidence to prove it even to the most skeptical observer.
When societies accept, condone and embrace sin, they are judged.
That’s the forceful case that thoughtful Christians need to make in our world. Why? Because it’s truth. Why? Because it’s self-evident. Why? Because it leads people to God. Why? Because we can all live a happier and more fulfilled life on this planet if we listen to our Creator and obey his rules.
The founders of this once-great country understood that “rights” came not from government, but from God. They are unalienable. They cannot be granted or taken away by man.
While it is certainly true that God gave us free will, he also warned us all of the judgments that come with certain kinds of behavior.
Our world is a laboratory for proof that God exists, is sovereign and means what He says.
It’s time for people of faith to be bold in their proclamations of that truth and, without being shamed, to call a sin a sin.
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