The UN’s Dead End in Syria

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Mary

The situation in Syria is just so tragic – yet I also believe that much more is going on than we know from a prophetic standpoint. Syria is not an “Arab Spring” situation; it’s proximity to Israel I believe plays a major part in the situation there,  now that Russia is involved. It is not out of the question that it will spark a war across the region once Syria is neutralized.  Below is a good article from Front Page Magazine with the latest on Syria. I highly recommend Front Page Magazine as a daily read.  – Mary

The UN’s Dead End in Syria

Posted By Joseph Klein On June 21, 2012 @ 12:28 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage

The United Nations Security Council met in a closed session on June 19th regarding the ongoing Syrian crisis.  It heard from Maj. General Robert Mood, the commander of the three hundred unarmed UN observers who are supposed to monitor the situation in Syria but have been stymied. Herve Ladsous, the Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping operations, also addressed the Security Council members.

Both men briefed the press following the Security Council meeting.  To nobody’s surprise, they expressed frustration with the continuing level of violence in Syria, which had caused Maj. General Mood to suspend the patrols of his monitors last week.  The monitors remain in limbo, staying put in their current positions. Their current mandate is due to expire on July 20th. Whether the Security Council will decide to renew it is anyone’s guess.  Russia and China want to maintain its toothless status.  France appears to be leading the charge to upgrade the mission somehow. In fact, on his way into the Security Council chamber, French UN Ambassador Gerard Araud indicated the possibility of moving towards a UN Charter Chapter 7 Security Council enforcement mandate.  Considering the obstructionist stance taken to date by Russia and China against dealing firmly with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, France’s idea is unlikely to go anywhere.

Meanwhile, Under Secretary General Ladsou continued to hold on to the fantasy that the six-point “peace plan” put together by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan would actually work. Chinese UN Ambassador Li Baodong, June’s President of the Security Council, also urged all parties to implement the plan “in its entirety.”

All that Kofi Annan’s efforts to mediate the conflict have accomplished was to give President al-Assad, who has verbally supported the peace plan, more time to crush his opposition. More than 3000 Syrians are said to have lost their lives since mid-April when Annan’s plan was supposed to take effect.  It is literally at a dead end.

Maj. General Mood in particular did not put all of the blame for the continuing violence on the Assad regime. Indeed, in saying that one of the factors that would influence his decision to lift the suspension of the observers’ monitoring activities would be the commitment by both sides to the conflict to commit to allowing complete freedom of movement of the observers, he went out of his way to praise the Syrian government for its positive response. He added that the opposition had not yet responded.

Syria’s UN ambassador, Bashar Ja’afari, who also spoke to the press, singled out Maj. General Mood for praise in presenting what Assad’s UN mouthpiece called  a “balanced approach.”  He accused unnamed Western countries of wanting the Kofi Annan plan to fail so that they can accomplish their objective of regime change.

Ambassador Ja’afari ridiculed the notion that any Syrian government crackdown on the opposition was to blame for the violence. He repeatedly referred to a “Third Force” consisting of outsider armed terrorists, backed by countries such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Turkey. “Syria is committed to protecting the rights of 23 million civilians,” he claimed.

I asked Ambassador Ja’afari to address reports of Russian arms flowing to Syria’s military, including helicopter gunships. Without missing a beat, Ambassador Ja’afari said that it was Syria’s right as an independent sovereign state to purchase whatever weapons they wanted from whomever they wanted. Needless to say, he did not deny that Russia was supplying the Assad regime with weaponry.

Russia’s role in continuing to prop up the Assad regime does not appear to faze President Obama, by the way.  During a press conference in Mexico following the conclusion of the G-20 Summit, Obama said the following about the Russians and Chinese, after acknowledging that they were not on the same page as the United States with regard to Syria:

“I wouldn’t suggest that at this point the United States and the rest of the international community are aligned with Russia and China in their positions, but I do think they recognize the grave dangers of all-out civil war.  I do not think they condone the massacres that we’ve witnessed.  And I think they believe that everybody would be better served if Syria had a mechanism for ceasing the violence and creating a legitimate government.”

Really?  Does President Obama think the Assad regime separates out the arms it receives from Russia — whose state-controlled arms dealer is the biggest arms supplier to Syria’s government – and uses only non-Russian arms to carry out its massacres?  To make matters even worse, Obama will not use Russia’s hopes to join the World Trade Organization as leverage to get Moscow to end its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, particularly its flow of arms.

Finally, against all evidence, President Obama is still relying on the United Nations and the Kofi Annan “peace plan” as the solution:

“…it’s important for the world community to work with the United Nations and Kofi Annan on what a political transition would look like.  And my hope is, is that we can have those conversations in the coming week or two and that we can present to the world, but most importantly, to the Syrian people, a pathway whereby this conflict can be resolved.”

Maybe President Obama should have a conversation with the survivors of the 1994 Rwandan massacre. Kofi Annan directed UN Peacekeeping Operations when the Rwandan genocide took place and, according to Canadian ex-General Roméo Dallaire, who was force commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda at the time, Annan held back UN troops from intervening to settle the conflict, and from providing more logistical and material support.

How comforting it must be for the Syrian people to know that all they have going for them today in Syria is the discredited Kofi Annan peace plan and the United Nations.

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Russia Warns War is Coming

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Mary

Aaron Klein / World Net Daily

JERUSALEM – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is preparing a major offensive in the coming days against the opposition targeting his regime, an informed Syrian government source confirmed.

The source told WND yesterday Assad was warned by Russia that if the coming counterinsurgency targeting the opposition is not successful in the next 4-6 weeks, Syria should be prepared for a war.

The source did not say whether the possibility of war referred to a Russian expectation of international intervention in Syria.

The information comes after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday accused Russia of sending helicopter gunships to Syria for use in crackdowns on rebel positions across Syria.

“We have confronted the Russians about stopping their continued arms shipments to Syria,” said Clinton. “They have, from time to time, said that we shouldn’t worry – everything they are shipping is unrelated to their [the Syrian government’s] actions internally. That’s patently untrue.”

Continued Clinton: “And we are concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria, which will escalate the conflict quite dramatically.”

Also yesterday U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland echoed concerns by UN envoy Kofi Annan that a so-called massacre is being organized against the Syrian opposition.

“The United States joins joint special envoy Kofi Annan in expressing deep alarm at reports from inside Syria that the regime may be organizing another massacre,” Nuland said. “People will be held accountable.”

A previous attack against civilians in the Syrian neighbourhood of Houla saw 108 people, including 49 children, reportedly executed at close range on May 25. The international community quickly blamed Assad’s forces for the massacre.

This past weekend, Germany’s leading daily, the Frankfurter “Allgemeine Zeitung,” quoted sources claiming the Houla massacre was actually committed by anti-Assad Sunni militants.

Immediately following the massacre, WND reported Syria presented the United Nations and the U.S. with information that claimed it was a group affiliated with al-Qaida, armed by Turkey, that slaughtered the civilians in their homes in Houla, according to informed Middle Eastern security officials.

The international community has widely condemned Syria, pinning the blame for the Houla massacre on forces acting under the direction of Assad’s regime.

Assad’s regime several times has claimed al-Qaida was behind a series of attacks blamed on Syrian forces.

Last month, Syria said it arrested 26 al-Qaida “foreign terrorists,” including one Jordanian.

Two weeks ago Assad used a rare national address to blame “terrorists” and foreign elements for the Houla massacre.

The massacre furthered galvanized world opinion against Assad and has led to stepped-up calls by the opposition for the use of military force to oust the Syrian regime.

The U.S., Italy and Spain announced last week they are expelling Syrian ambassadors after similar moves by France, Germany, Britain, Australia and Canada.

In retaliation, Syria said it is expelling diplomats from Turkey and 10 Western countries, including the U.S. and the U.K.

Much of the Western news media blamed Assad’s troops for the Houla massacre.

But underscoring the gap of information on the ground, many news media reports at first claimed the civilian deaths in Houla were caused by mortars and shelling by Assad’s forces.

Two days later, much of the news media changed its tune, parroting a U.N. report that says most of the 108 victims of the Houla massacre were shot at close range, some of them women, children and entire families gunned down in their homes.

Survivors and witnesses cited by the U.N. blamed the house-to-house killings on pro-government thugs known as shabiha.

Largely unreported is Syria’s claim that an armed terrorism element is behind the massacre.

Middle East security officials told WND Syria has sent information to the U.S., U.N. and other international bodies indicating the house-to-house slaughter was carried out by a group affiliated with al-Qaida that came from North Africa.

According to Syria, the jihad organization entered Syria via Turkey, where the militants were first armed. Syria did not blame Turkey directly for the massacre, the security officials said. The Syrian report stated Turkey likely believes the al-Qaida elements were going to fight Assad’s regime.

For months now, Turkey has been hosting the Syrian opposition and agitating for international military intervention against Damascus.

Two weeks ago one Egyptian security official told WND there is a growing collaboration between the Syrian opposition and al-Qaida as well as evidence the opposition is sending weapons to jihadists in Iraq.

An Egyptian military attaché detailed the alleged collaboration between al-Qaida and the U.S.-aided opposition in Syria that operates under the banner of the National Free Army.

The purported cooperation extends to recent suicide attacks and bombings in Damascus and in the embattled Syrian city of Homs.

The military official told WND that Egypt has reports of collaboration between the Syrian opposition and three al-Qaida arms:

  • Jund al-Sham, which is made up of al-Qaida militants who are Syrian, Palestinian and Lebanese;
  • Jund al-Islam, which in recent years merged with Ansar al-Islam, an extremist group of Sunni Iraqis operating under the al-Qaida banner;
  • Jund Ansar al-Allah, an al-Qaida group based in Gaza linked to Palestinian camps in Lebanon and Syria.

The Arab League, which has condemned Syria, previously privately recognized an armed terrorist element agitating against Assad’s regime.

A leaked Arab League dispatch, posted in February by the Anonymous group, said Arab League monitors on the ground in Syria several times witnessed an “armed entity” provoking Syrian forces and placing civilian lives in danger.

That section of the classified report read: “The Mission determined that there is an armed entity that is not mentioned in the protocol. … In some zones, this armed entity reacted by attacking Syrian security forces and citizens, causing the Government to respond with further violence. In the end, innocent citizens pay the price for those actions with life and limb.”

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Get Smart

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Mary

Every Saturday night growing up in the ’60s, my family watched “Get Smart”. Ever since then I have been a sucker for a good spy yarn and particularly those with the latest gadget and cutting edge weapons to foil the arch-enemy.  While Maxwell Smart seemed pretty stupid at times, he knew the enemy and how to vanquish him. Same with the remake of “The Saint”, one of my favorite movies; same theme. Know thy enemy and what the plan is to route him.

I have had a Smart Car, I have a Smart Phone, and the ring tone if you call me is, of course, the theme from “Get Smart”.  Today when my phone rang while I was out in my garden,  I thought about the church at large, I think it is time for her to, well, “Get Smart”. About deception. About apostasy. About end times themes, particularly one called, “the blessed hope”.  Why should we care, you say, I have no job, I have no money, my child is wild and bill collectors are at my door. That is just why you must care, because regardless of what you are going through, Jesus is coming. That is a constant, a promise, a golden thread throughout the bible.  Old Testament theme: the coming Messiah. New Testament theme: the coming Messiah. How hard is that? Commit to a systematic study f the bible and you will see that theme too, and that hope will rise up in you, far above the bills, the pressures, the kids. It might be today. It might be tomorrow, but we are commanded to watch. And watch we must.

The church desperately needs to Get Smart, about how the enemy is trying to steal, kill and destroy our blessed hope. False teaching does that, so does the deceitful call for globalism in the disguise of Dominion Theology and Replacement Theology,  both of which will put the church in the ditch, unable to understand God’s plan for both Jew and Gentile.

The bible says we are not to be ignorant of the times, the seasons, and the apostasy. No, it doesn’t say “Get Smart”. But it sure could read that way. Maranatha!

Posted in Spirit of the Age | 1 Comment

Prophecy 101

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Mary

“Behold, the former things have come to pass, And new things I declare; Before they spring forth

I tell you of them.”

(Isaiah 42:9)

“Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,

And I will do all My pleasure’.”

(Isaiah 46:9-10)

“Now I tell you before it comes, that when it does come to pass,

you may believe that I am He.”

(John 13:19)

The future is coming. Profound, isn’t it? Because you’ll no sooner read that, but it’s here. We are barreling headlong into it every minute of every day. The current moment doesn’t even exist, really, in as much as each minute merely slips through our fingers like warm sand on a sunny day, and before you know it you have more days in your past than in your future. We can’t see one minute ahead, and yet we make our plans, watch the seasons come and go, and then marvel at how fast it all flies by. “Where did the time go?” is a common lament in these fast-paced times. Truth is, no one gets out of here alive, and the minutes tick by, days drip off the page.

And yet I will say something even more profound: some day, maybe not too long from now, I won’t even be able to say that “the future is coming”, because from our perspective on this side of eternity, time as we know it will have wound down. And for those we love who have passed on, their future is already sealed. It’s only the living, really, who can even consider boasting in some sort of “future” as we understand it in the time domain. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Now, that elusive “future”, as we normally define it, is or has been very important to every human. Whether you plan for it, as every sensible human should to some degree, or whether you take absolutely no thought for it whatsoever, everything you do, and a lot of what you say and feel will affect it for better or worse. If you live foolishly and disregard health, safety, and even the law, your future might turn out pretty sour and full of regret. If you live wisely and try to avoid the big stupid stuff, you will probably reap the benefits of your level head, which, while being a good thing for you and all those around you, reality being what it is, you might get hit by a bus in the fog tomorrow morning. Ah, the late, great you.

So what’s my point? It’s this: we all know tomorrow matters. Even for those who have convinced themselves to be atheists or existentialists so they can take the spiritually lazy route, deep down they know tomorrow matters. Reality check: if there were no such thing as God and faith, the self-proclaimed atheist/agnostic wouldn’t even have a religion in the first place. Atheism is the “anti-faith” religion, the polar opposite of truth – which does exist, and can be known. The adherents of such “beliefs” are simply being rebellious, not original or independent in their thinking as they like to believe.

There is no alternate, or opposite belief system that exists independent of truth, in the same way that Satan is not an opposing force to God, but a rebel fully against Him (the “Father of Lies”). Think of it this way: why do vegetarians eat patties that look like hamburgers? It’s because this ideology is not so much “for” something so much as “against”, and I am referring to those who have politicized or spiritualized their food choices either because of radical environmentalism or New Age beliefs. They are not pro-veggie, but anti-meat. The atheist then, is opposing God, period, no intellectualizing needed, check your brain at the door on this one,  and pass the A-1 sauce, please.

Now, the bible has a lot to say about numbering our days and making provision for eternity. It also contains a lot of warnings so that we can have some idea of where this old world is heading. Again, we have choices to make: take the Bible seriously for all things pertaining to life and eternity

(you WILL live forever – somewhere), or  just go on whistling in the dark and hope it all comes out OK in the end. One of these things is wise, the other eternally and regretfully  foolish.  As that old Sesame Street song goes, “one of these things just doesn’t belong here…”

Most people today think the Bible is full of dusty old sayings uttered by dusty old people in goat sandals who really don’t communicate well, and are so intellectually lame they can’t seem to get their point across to a generation that just wants some drive-through spirituality, hold the guilt please. The truth is, the Bible is a very unique set of writings, and in order for the honest seeker to take prophecy seriously, the subject of this article, I have to take a moment to establish that the nuts and bolts of what we call bible prophecy is even worth taking seriously. Without that, we might as well be talking about “Moby Dick”. But who quotes chapter and verse of Moby Dick anyway?

Inspiration or Perspiration?

First, the Bible is not just one single book, it is actually a collection of 66 books, the “canon of Scriptures”. These 66 books cover history, poetry, prophecy, wisdom, literature and letters, convey the future, teach essential doctrines, and outline the redemptive plan of salvation for every human who ever lived and curiously and courageously peered into its pages looking for the answer to the eternal question, “why am I here?”
These 66 books were written by 40 different authors who came from a variety of backgrounds: shepherds, fishermen, doctors, kings, prophets. And most of these never even met one another; consider further that they had no way of communicating with each other in the  pre-technology age. So, no earthly collaboration would have been possible, as these 66 books were also written over a period of 1500 years.
Furthermore, they were written in 3 different languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. And finally, these 66 books were written on 3 different continents: Africa, Asia, and Europe. This shows the varied historical and cultural circumstances and experiences of God’s people, with different gifts and callings, and people everywhere who have been a part of His plan for mankind.

With me so far? 66 books, written by 40 different authors, over 1500 years, in 3 different languages, on 3 different continents. They contain no contradictions, no historical or scientific errors. They contain a common theme, a scarlet thread, if you will, of God’s great love and a salvation available to all who repent of their sins and receive forgiveness thanks to the once-for-all finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and instruction in righteousness…” (2Timothy 3:16). God’s Word is truth, it is infallible, and is living and active and able to pierce the human heart with bare truth, driving right on down through our very marrow, discerning the thoughts and intents of our innermost being. Which is precisely why people tend to stay away from it, you think?  Written by  humans? I don’t think that self-possessed and self-glorifying humans would dare admit to having hearts that are “deceitfully and desperately wicked above all things” (Jeremiah 17:9) and go on to write a best-seller about it.

And if that is not enough, these books are woven throughout with prophetic forth-telling, events described that have yet to take place, various events that were future for most generations in one scope or another. Christianity is based on the infallibility of the Scriptures, and is the only “religion” that a) addresses the sin issue, and b) depends on the literal fulfillment of events. If God’s prophets are not 100% correct, then the Bible is not true. Therefore it is very important that every believer understand what the prophets have said, what has been fulfilled, and what has yet to be fulfilled or in the process of being fulfilled. These things we can study and understand. And for those who have not yielded their hearts and wills to Christ, prophecy should serve as a dire warning to be heeded in all seriousness.

Maybe you’re one of those who likes to see the numbers, and not just take my word for it. That’s OK. So, for the scientist and mathematician in you, here is something to chew on.

The number of prophecies in the Scriptures about Jesus of Nazareth being the fulfillment of all that God has promised in the Messiah is about 300, those being made before he was even born. What is the mathematical possibility of just one man accidentally fulfilling, or maybe even purposefully manipulating over 300 predictions written hundreds of years before his birth? If it’s either accidental or manipulative, you have lost me already and there is no reason to be a Christian. Hey, I’m not gullible. God gave us brains, and He expects us to use them.  But neither is true, and truth is what we are in pursuit of here.

Professor Peter Stoner (1888-1980) was Chairman of the Departments of Mathematics and Astronomy at Pasadena City College, and Chairman of the Science Division of Westmont College from 1953 to 1957. This man calculated the probability of one man fulfilling only a handful of the over 300 Messianic prophecies. In 1944, he published his research results in Science Speaks: Scientific Proof of the Accuracy of Prophecy and the Bible.  Stoner concluded that the probability of one person fulfilling just eight of the prophecies was one chance in 1017 (one, followed by 17 zeros). How about one person fulfilling just 48 of the over 300 prophecies? Stoner calculated these odds at one chance in 10157 — a statistical impossibility, I’m thinking.

Stoner presents an illustration that should drive it all home – take 1017 silver dollars (10,000,000,000,000,000) and lay them on the face of Texas, covering all of the state two feet deep. He says,  “Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man.”

Stoner considers 48 prophecies and says, “we find the chance that any one man fulfilled all 48 prophecies to be 1 in 10157, or  –

1 in

100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

This is something every person who thinks believing in the God of the Bible as revealed through Jesus Christ is nothing more than blind faith must consider.

Now, why do I begin here? It’s simple. In all my years of walking with Jesus, I have frequently found myself trying to communicate the necessity of the new birth and walking by faith to someone, only to find an iron curtain come down in my face right about the time that I present the truth as it is found in the Bible. All of a sudden the person I am speaking to is an expert on a Book he or she has never even read, and their objections generally sound something like this: “Too many people have had a hand writing this book to make it God’s Word. Too many people interpret it any way they want. Too many people don’t believe in it, and they can’t all be wrong.” Yes, and too many people parrot these lame excuses for not picking up the bible for themselves, and continue to compare themselves with one other, instead of comparing themselves with the only perfect and holy One, the only One whose opinion really matters.

This is the heart of it: when a Christian’s testimony gets a bit too close for comfort to a non-believer’s heart, that place that all too often has a ‘do not disturb’ sign hung on it, all they have to do is say, “but I don’t believe that the Bible is the Word of God” — invariably and conveniently ending any discussion on the need to heed the words of Jesus that, “you must be born again.” Because, if He did not really say that, or if it’s open to multiple interpretations, you’re off the hook and you can go back to whatever it was you were doing that tends to resemble Christianity Lite, with one-third less conviction, and their self-contained spiritual commitment-free zone.

Now, I am not in the arm-twisting business, and neither is the Lord. I’m just trying to bring some reason to the matter – so you can of course still believe what you want, you have a free will; but that doesn’t mean the Bible isn’t true nonetheless, and again, you are whistling in the dark on that. So likewise, this article is going to go merrily on, with or without you, but if you shut the door now to God’s Word and it’s power to change you utterly from the inside out, you will never really understand bible prophecy and those things which ARE coming on the earth, ready or not.  Remember the title of this article?  “Are You Ready for the Future? Well, it’s Ready For You”.

So, beg or borrow a bible, (stealing is a sin!), and finish this with me, you won’t be sorry. I hope you can do that much, your eternity depends on it. Better a little anguish now while you have your wits about you and a comfy couch, than a lot of anguish and regret later in a very hot place. This is our jumping off point, an understanding that Jesus Christ is not some random figure who twisted things to fit an agenda, but the One who came the first time as a suffering servant and atonement for sin, fulfilling hundreds of prophecies – and will return again in glory to judge the living and the dead, bringing planet earth to it’s knees over the issues of sin and holiness. I hope you stay with me. It won’t hurt near as much as dying unprepared to meet your Maker.

No Shallow End in This Pool.

As I indicated earlier, when Jesus came the first time, the Old Testament Scriptures yielded plenty of information to the reader about just who they were to expect as their Messiah. And we should not be surprised at this if we even remotely comprehend how powerful and omniscient God really is. Prophecy is the proof text for the Scriptures. Only a God who knows the end from the beginning is able to tell us how it will all come out. It’s a bit like being in an airplane and watching a parade down below. From that vantage point, there really is no time constraint on that parade, because you would be in a position to see both the beginning and the end, all at once. From your lawn chair on the curb, you have to await each segment. God is not bound by time, yet His creation is. Another way to look at the difference is to consider the mechanics of writing a book.

Suppose I am writing a novel. I write this in my novel:

“Mary laid down her work. The next moment, there came a knock on her door.” Mary lives in the time domain of the story I am writing about her. She did one thing, then the next thing took place, and to the reader it is a smooth, flowing series of events.  Now, she cannot get out of that time domain, I put her there and she is a limited creature bound by my novel’s universe and it’s laws.  But I, who am Mary’s maker, do not live in that imaginary time at all. Between writing the first half of that sentence and the second half, I might sit down and think about Mary for 3 hours or so, or however long I want to. I can think about her as if she were the only character in the book for as long as I want, because I have all eternity to do it. But that time I spent thinking about her does not appear in my book. I wrote half the sentence, and then got back to finishing it much later. Days, weeks, months, millennia, it matters not.  But anyone reading about Mary would never know that. In the same way, God has infinite attention to spare each of us, He is not bound by time, and this is borne out in Scripture as it says that His thoughts toward us are as the sands of the sea.

So if you think that bible prophecy is the imaginings of created humans, let me ask you this: is the God (author) of the universe so limited He is unable to communicate His plans with lowly humanity? If He wishes to tell His creation of His plans beforehand in a manner they can understand, who can stay His hand? This great gift to us has come in the form of the Scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation.  And somewhere in the middle, in the book of Daniel, we have one of the most phenomenal prophecies of all, and again, for those who want some concrete numbers, there is no mistaking that God definitely does math, even though I do not.

The Book of Daniel was written 500 years before the birth of Jesus. Many try to discredit the time of writing of Daniel, and in light of the importance of this prophecy, this is understandable, spiritually speaking.  In Chapter 9, Daniel predicts the very day that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem and allow Himself to be worshiped for the first time. The prophecy states that 69 weeks of years (69 “7s”, or 69×7 = 483 years) would pass from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem until the coming of the Messiah. Since Daniel was written in Babylon during the Jewish captivity after the fall of Jerusalem, this prophecy was based on the Babylonian 360-day calendar. Thus, 483 years x 360 days = 173,880 days.

According to records found in the Shushan Palace, and confirmed in Nehemiah 2:1, the decree to rebuild Jerusalem was issued by the Persian king, Artaxerxes Longimanus, on March 5, 444 BC. Remarkably, 173,880 days later (adjusting for leap years), on March 30, 33 AD, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey (fulfilling Zechariah 9:9). Five days later, Jesus was crucified on a Roman cross just outside Jerusalem. (crucifixion as a form execution did not even exist when His last words were foretold hundreds of years earlier in Psalm 22, but the Romans would later adopt it.) Three days later, the New Testament declares that Jesus rose from the dead, fulfilling many other prophecies too numerous to mention here. But the majority of humans alive at that time, and even those who saw Him with their own eyes, missed it. And so one must wonder why few if any actually were watching and waiting for His first coming – a clue as to what the days would be like leading up to His 2nd coming? Perhaps so.

This next point may sound like the most obvious thing in the world, but just so we are all on the same page: the #1 focal point of all of future prophecy is the  second coming of Jesus Christ. This is the centerpiece of prophecy in this age, this is what we watch, wait, and look for eagerly. Prophecy students are caricatured as loony toons carrying signs that say, “The End is Near!”, but this is nothing more than a cynical misrepresentation and not even true on a ”technicality”.

Jesus is coming, yes. This will usher in the end of this present order, but really is only a beginning. If our claims, observations of the times, and teachings are not centered on Jesus’ return, it is not the real deal. In other words, if someone claims to understand future events but they do not focus on the return of Jesus, it is not biblical prophecy, but a counterfeit. A good example here would be Nostradamus. I don’t care how poetic he is in his prognostications, it’s not going to be 100% reliable and so he fails the truth test. The bible warns that in the last days that many false prophets will arise and deceive many, (Matt. 24:24) but if you understand the real deal, the counterfeit will be easily detected. It is ALL about His return. Nostradamus may provide some clues if he had some sort of prophetic gift, but the Bible predicts the truth. Big difference.

But how do we know this coming will take place at all?

The book of Acts, the gateway book into the church age, begins with His ascension into heaven. When Jesus was taken up bodily, the people watched Him ascend into the clouds and out of sight. Two angels appeared in their company and said this: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This SAME JESUS, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-11). Here is a promise we can believe in, and so true believers have been watching the skies ever since, keeping in mind the Bible’s track record of fulfilled prophecies up to this point, and studying numerous other passages that shed considerable light on this promise. Considering how precise God was with Daniel 9, how much can we understand about coming #2? Glad you asked, and this leads me right up to the present day and age.

Having studied prophecy for nearly 3 decades, I can say confidently and without any hesitation, that we are indeed living in the times of the signs, and one must seriously consider the odds of all the following signs coming together in one generation all the while being painfully aware of how many missed coming #1. Once you consider these, you will be hard pressed to deny that Jesus must surely be coming soon, and if you are not His, time is running out for you. Can you be fully persuaded that the God of beginnings and ends loves you and has provided for your eternity through Jesus, the One who is to come?

Global “Warning”.

The next thing on the agenda, factoring in a time of some possible and random world-wide upheaval in the area of politics, financial crises, various pestilences and like perils (the Bible calls these “birth pangs” as the world moves from the kingdom of man to the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour) is the Rapture of the Church. This is an event in which Jesus snatches up the true believer (having become His through the new birth, out of every tribe and nation), meeting them in the clouds and taking them to heaven for the duration of a 7-year season that will come on the earth to judge a thoroughly wicked generation. This time period  is commonly referred to as the Tribulation, or Time of Jacob’s Trouble. There are various views out there about the timing of the rapture, but the Bible teaches that since this is a time of God’s wrath, and Christ took our wrath on the cross, those who have trusted in His finished work will not be judged a second time for any reason; God does not judge the righteous with the wicked. There are no events or signs that must be in place for this to take place, and it will come upon the world without warning; it is a sign-less event. (Matthew 25; Luke 21:26; 1Cor. 15:52; 1Thess 1:10; 1Thess 4; 1Thess. 5)

And since Bible prophecy focuses on God’s plans for the nation of Israel primarily, we understand that the season of time for these events is directly related to the time frame on earth that sees a re-gathered Israel in the ancient land of her fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They missed coming #1, but since they are still His chosen ones, He will once again present them with the opportunity to see that He was, all along, their Messiah. May 14, 1948 was the date of one of the most amazing fulfillments of prophecy ever, and we look to Israel today as God’s timepiece for both Jew and Gentile alike. (Zechariah 12:10; Revelation 1:7; Jeremiah 30:7; Matthew 24)

In addition, in your history books, you will find that at the precise time that God was reestablishing the modern state of Israel, prophecy was being fulfilled in another very important way. The key Gentile kingdom  of the last times, a revived form of the Roman Empire, was being framed out, beginning in 1948 and continuing today through layers of treaties, which will be the fertile ground from which the final world ruler/despot/dictator will arise, the one the bible calls “the Antichrist”. The book of Daniel, once again, provides multiple reasons as to why a European Superstate (growing into a great economic power as I write) will be the seat of final world government when Jesus returns. The 4 major world kingdoms  that God deems important to the prophetic timeline were/are: Babylon, which was conquered by the Medo/Persian empire, which in turn was swallowed up by the Greeks, which in due season gave up the ghost to the Romans. This account is found in Daniel 2 –  and while there is much that could be said here to further verify this exciting layout of world history that was written centuries before it took place, prophecy students can surely see “the handwriting on the wall” as the EU takes center stage in many critical areas of fulfillment both economically and politically.

Once the rapture of the church takes place, the world will immediately turn to survival mode and life as it has been will be radically altered, as people do their best to attend to the necessities of life in the area of buying and selling, health and well-being, and protecting their loved ones. And yet, with the world headed into a season about which the bible has more to say than any other, if we are considering the following scenario honestly, how can we not find ourselves becoming sober-minded about the future of planet earth, foregoing trivialities and focusing on what is really important?

Bible prophecy is a huge subject, but I trust that by simply outlining a portion of what is to come as I wrap this up, it will encourage you to do your own homework on these things.

Here is a summary of the top signs of the times with Bible references:

The Jews would begin to regather in Israel (Isaiah 11:11-12; Ezekiel 37:21-22; 38:8); The nation Israel would be born in one day – this was fulfilled literally on May 14, 1948 (Isaiah 66:8) Over five million Jews have returned to Israel in recent times, coming from the north, south, east, and west (Isaiah 43:5-6; Jeremiah 31:7-10). Nearly a million Jews have emigrated from Russia in the north. This continues on today.

Israel, once a desolate desert during the Diaspora, would blossom in the last days and export produce to the whole world (Isaiah 27:6; 35:1-2; Ezekiel 36:34-36). Advanced irrigation technology has caused the land to blossom. They currently export over 800 million dollars worth of fresh produce each year including over 200 million in flowers.

The Hebrew language would be restored (Zephaniah 3:9). The end of the 19th century brought about the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language. In 1948, Hebrew became an official tongue of the modern state of Israel. The son of Elieazer Ben  Yehuda was the first child in Israel in modern times to be fluent in Hebrew, fulfilling this prophecy.

False Bible teachers will arise and introduce heretical teachings, have many willing followers, and cause others to reject God’s Word (2 Peter 2:1-2) There will be a great falling away from the true faith (2Thess.2, 1Timothy 4, 2Peter 2). Spiritual deception will be on the rise. Every major cult in the world today has appeared on the scene within the last 125 year or so, and the New Age movement continues to build and grow, taking many unforeseen forms such as the Emergent Church and a growing arm of liberal theology. Instant spiritual gratification through contemplative and mystical  practices is now accepted in orthodox Christianity, much to the dismay of biblical Christians.

The rise of technology and a global communication infrastructure (Revelation 11:9-10; 17:8). The Bible says that the whole world will see certain events unfold, and “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”  (Daniel 12:4). The doubling of human knowledge, once occurring only every several decades, now happens every 18 months. The sum of human knowledge is now accessible via home computer; the entire Library of Congress could exist on one hard drive.

The Antichrist will arise as a peacemaker with answers to all the world’s problems but in reality will present a false peace to destroy many (Daniel 8:23-25). With all the problems facing mankind, multitudes are looking for a savior, from many faiths and religions; this one powerful man will usher in peace and prosperity and deceive many, often with false signs and wonders. In the last days, possibly coinciding with the Rapture of the church, Israel will sign a peace treaty with her neighbors that the Antichrist will confirm for 7 years up front, but eventually break (Daniel 9:27). Currently the world’s governments are striving over an Israeli peace treaty. Many have tried – The EU, the US, Russia, etc.- but in God’s timing, this will happen and the floodgates to prophecy fulfillment will blow open with incredible and swift force.

Another event whose fulfillment is yet to come is a massive invasion of tiny Israel by a coalition of nations, mostly Muslim, and headed up by the Russian federation. This invasion could take place any time, and the book of Ezekiel gives amazing ( and alarming!) detail as to the who, what, and wheres of a war in which God shows Himself strong on behalf of Israel, as He has many times before, putting her enemies down on the mountains of Israel. What this might do to the cultural and ethnic make-up of the Middle East during the climactic 7 year period, we cannot say at this time, but how can the peoples of the earth not sit up and take notice of God intervening in the affairs of men at that time? (Ezekiel 36- 39)

There will be a global government (Daniel 2:40-44; 7:23; Revelation 13:7-8) The world will be subdivided either into 10 governing regions or the EU will have 10 kings. This has been the subject of great interest to prophecy students for many years, due to the “10 toes” prophecy in Daniel 2, part of the “Metallic Man” image that King Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about when he was over Babylon.

A global economic system will exist (Revelation 13:16-17). This was unthinkable in the days of the early church. Yet today, globalists in every level of government are seeking to unite the world to solve current economic failings. Connecting the world monetarily is crucial to their goal, and the bible says that one man will see to it that no one buys and sells without pledging allegiance to him spiritually. Everyone has heard of 666, but only in our time has the technology existed to make it a reality. The current digital payment systems that exist around the globe are part of a huge technological framework/infrastructure that has been building since the days of the old IBM punchcards, the precursor to today’s computers.

There is currently a move to put an RFID chip into every single thing manufactured in the world, to enable each human to be tracked in every move they make every minute. In fact, RFID (radio-frequency identification) can be utilized in a chip as tiny as the period at the end of this sentence. Or it can be made into powder and tattoed on the hand or forehead, visibly or invisibly. This was predicted before any human knew what a “computer chip” was. Imagine that!

In addition, talk of a global currency has moved to action since the G20 summit this past April. Something to watch.

Famines would be common (Luke 21:11; Revelation 6:5-8)

Wars and rumors of war (Mark 13:7-8). This includes ethnic disputes (Matthew 24) Pestilences and earthquakes would be common in diverse places. Can you say, “swine flu”?

Jerusalem will be a cup of trembling to all surrounding peoples and a burdensome stone (Zech 12:2,3). This is in the news every day, all eyes are on that city and it’s inhabitants – and why?  The only thing they have to offer the world is that it is the center of the universe (Ezekiel 5:5) and claims to be the home of the world’s 3 largest religions. Look for this prophecy to continue to be fulfilled in ways we perhaps do not even understand at this point.

Humans will be utterly obsessed with self and self fulfillment; acting in ways that are not natural both physically and soulishly, brutal, unloving, disobedient and increasingly rebellious (2Tim.3). Of all prophecies, this is perhaps the most vexing and troublesome as we interact with one another on a daily basis. A world that is in deep trouble in every way now faces out of control human behavior without natural affection for one another. Consider these final verses as defining this future season: “ Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” (Luke 21;26); and, “unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand.” (Matt. 24:22)

Yes, this is heavy. No, I don’t want to soft-pedal it or make it go down easier. Americans, it would seem, prefer everything with a spoonful of sugar, but spiritual sugar is bad for you, just like the other kind. If someone had not been brutally honest with me about my lost condition, I would not be writing this today.

The good news? Jesus died for you. All you need to do is come to him in humility, in full knowledge that you have broken His laws. Romans 3:23 tells us, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Not some, but all. Humans are all in the same drifting and sinking boat, and if it were not for Jesus, we would all perish. Our hearts may condemn us, but Romans 3 goes on to say, “…being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”  Is there better news than that? Repentance, forgiveness, new life in Christ. It really is that simple. Even more so, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3)

He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus!

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. (Revelation 22:21,22)

And so ends the Book.

Mary Danielsen

Calvary Chapel of Appleton

www.ccappleton.org

cchapel@ccappleton.org

Posted in Spirit of the Age | 4 Comments

Food Prices Could Hit Tipping Point for Global Unrest

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Mary


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Posted by John under: Famines and Troubles
  • Source: Wired
  • News Date: 8/15/11
  • Submitted By: Doug Warwick

When food shortages and rising prices drive people to desperation, social unrest soon follows. It’s as true today as it was in 18th-century France. According to a new analysis of food prices and unrest, the 2008 global food riots and ongoing Arab Spring may be a preview of what’s coming.

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Famines and Troubles

“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles these are the beginnings of sorrows.”
—Mark 13:8

“When you have food prices peak, you have all these riots. But look under the peaks, at the background trend. That’s increasing quite rapidly, too,” said Yaneer Bar-Yam, president of the New England Complex Systems Institute. “In one to two years, the background trend runs into the place where all hell breaks loose.”

Bar-Yam and his colleagues are hunters of mathematical signals in social data: market trends and economic patterns, ethnic violence, Hollywood movies. In their latest expedition, described Aug. 11 in the prepublication online arXiv, they focus on the 2008 food riots and the Arab Spring, both of which followed year-long surges in basic food prices.


FAO Price Index at current prices (black curve) and corrected for inflation (blue curve) between January 2004 and May 2011. Red dashed lines signify the beginning dates of food riots and unrest in North Africa and the Middle East. Black and blue horizontal lines represent the current-price and inflation-adjusted food price thresholds for riots. Bar-Yam et al/arXiv

The researchers are hardly the first to portray food problems as a spark that inflames social inequality and stokes individual desperation, unleashing and amplifying impulses of rebellion. The role of food prices in triggering the Arab Spring has been widely described. Their innovation is a pair of price points on the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s food price index: about 215 in current prices, or 190 when corrected for inflation.

It’s at those points where, on a graph of food prices and social unrest between 2004 and 2011, unrest breaks out. But whereas they were crossed by price jumps in 2008, Bar-Yam and colleagues calculate that the underlying, steady trend — driven primarily by commodity speculation, agricultural crop-to-fuel conversion and rising prices of fertilizer and oil — crosses those points between 2012 and 2013.

“Once we get there, the peaks aren’t the problem anymore. Instead it’s the trend. And that’s harder to correct,” said Bar-Yam. At that point, widespread political unrest and instability can be expected, even in countries less troubled than those in North Africa and the Middle East.

“When the ability of the political system to provide security for the population breaks down, popular support disappears. Conditions of widespread threat to security are particularly present when food is inaccessible to the population at large,” write Bar-Yam and colleagues in arXiv. “All support for the system and allowance for its failings are lost. The loss of support occurs even if the political system is not directly responsible for the food security failure, as is the case if the primary responsibility lies in the global food supply system.”

The analysis comes with caveats, one of which is the possibility that it’s the dynamics of spiking prices, rather than a particular price level, that unleashes unrest. But according to Bar-Yam, even the underlying trends are rising at an extremely fast pace. “If things change slowly rather than rapidly, there would be a different response,” he said. “If it was going to happen over a period of 10 to 20 years, we’d be talking about something else. But the circumstance we’re talking about is one of changes in a year or two.”

Citation: “The Food Crises and Political Instability in North Africa and the Middle East.” By Marco Lagi, Karla Z. Bertrand and Yaneer Bar-Yam. arXiv, Aug. 11, 2011.

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Creepy Biometric IDs to Be Forced Onto India’s 1.2 Billion Inhabitants

Posted on September 7, 2010 by Mary

By Ranjit Devraj, IPS News

Posted on September 6, 2010, Printed on September 7, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/148097/

Fears about loss of privacy are being voiced as India gears up to launch an ambitious scheme to biometrically identify and number each of its 1.2 billion inhabitants.

In September, officials from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), armed with fingerprinting machines, iris scanners and cameras hooked to laptops, will fan out across the towns and villages of southern Andhra Pradesh state in the first phase of the project whose aim is to give every Indian a lifelong Unique ID (UID) number.

“The UID is soft infrastructure, much like mobile telephony, important to connect individuals to the broader economy,” explains Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the UIDAI and listed in 2009 by Time magazine as among the world’s 100 most influential people.

Nilekani is a co-founder of the influential National Association of Software and Services Companies and, before this assignment, chief of Infosys Technologies, flagship of India’s information technology (IT) sector.

According to Nilekani, the UID will most benefit India’s poor who, because they lack identity documentation, are ignored by service providers.

“The UID number, with its ‘anytime, anywhere’ biometric authentication, addresses the problem of trust,” argues Nilekani.

But a group of prominent civil society organizations are running a Campaign For No-UID, explaining that it is a “deeply undemocratic and expensive exercise” that is “fraught with unforeseen consequences.”

Participants in the campaign include well-known human rights organizations such as the Alternative Law Forum, Citizen Action Forum, People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Indian Social Action Forum, and the Center for Internet and Society.

A meeting was organized by the campaigners in New Delhi on Aug. 25 where speakers ridiculed the idea of a 12-digit number, and said it is unlikely to rectify, for example, the massive corruption in the public distribution system that is supposed to provide food to poor families.

J.T. D’Souza, an IT expert, asserted at the meeting that the use of biometrics on such a massive scale has never been attempted before and is bound to be riddled with costly glitches.

Other speakers raised issues of security and the possibility of hackers getting at databases and passing on information to commercial outfits, intelligence agencies or even criminal gangs.

In talks and television interviews, Nilekani has maintained that the benefits of the UID project far outweigh its risks. “It’s worth taking on the project and trying to mitigate the risks so that we get the outcomes we want,” he told the CNN-IBN television channel in an interview.

But the possibility of religious profiling by state governments or misuse by caste lobbies is real. This is because the central government has decided to include caste as a category in the UID questionnaire to be filled out by applicants.

Because identity is already a potent issue and the trigger for frequent identity-related conflict – such as the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat that left 2,000 people dead – any exercise that enhances identification is fraught.

Usha Ramanathan, a prominent legal expert who is attached to the Center for the Study of Developing Societies in the national capital, does not buy the UIDAI’s assurances.

At the Aug. 25 meeting, Ramanthan said that while enrolling with the UIDAI may be voluntary, other agencies and service providers might require a UID number in order to transact business. Indeed, the UIDAI has already signed agreements with banks, state governments and hospital chains which will allow them to ask customers for UIDs.

Ramanathan said that, taken to its logical limit, the UID project will make it impossible, in a couple of years, for an ordinary citizen to undertake a simple task such as traveling within the country without a UID number.

The UIDAI will work with the National Population Register (NPR) which draws its powers from the Citizenship Rules of 2003 and provides for penalties if information is withheld.

And as a government website says: “Certain information collected under the NPR will be published in the local areas for public scrutiny and invitation of objections.” Seeking to allay privacy fears, the website goes on to explain that this is merely “in the nature of the electoral roll or the telephone directory.”

But things begin to look ominous when seen in the context of the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), the setting up of which home minister P. Chidambaram announced in February as part of his response to a major terrorist attack.

Chidambaram said NATGRID would tap into 21 sets of databases that will be networked to achieve “quick, seamless and secure access to desired information for intelligence and enforcement agencies.”

He added that NATGRID will “identify those who must be watched, investigated, disabled and neutralized.”

“Internationally only a few countries have provided national ID cards because of the unsettled debate on privacy and civil liberties,” says Prof. R. Ramakumar at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai. He added that several countries have had to withdraw ID card schemes or drop biometric aspects because of public opposition.

Nilekani maintains that the main purpose of the UID project is to empower the vast numbers of excluded Indians. “For the poor this is a huge benefit because they have no identities, no birth certificates, degree certificates, driver’s licences, passports or even addresses.”

 

© 2010 IPS News All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/148097/
Posted in New World Disorder | 2 Comments

Lifest: “social justice” invades midwest

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Mary
I thoroughly enjoyed this op-ed by Robert Meyer of Appleton — Mary
In a recent letter to the editor of my local newspaper, Valley Scene columnist (a liberal arts and entertainment tabloid) Mr.N, a prominent local atheist, castigated historian Dr. Jake Jacobs for his expose of Lifest speaker Jim Wallis.

For readers unfamiliar with this event, it is an annual Christian music festival, held in Oshkosh Wisconsin, which features contemporary Christian music and acclaimed Christian speakers. Jim Wallis was invited to speak by Life Promotions president Bob Lenz, the promoter of Lifest, to the consternation of certain local Christian clergy and laity. The concern is because Wallis preaches a doctrine of “social justice” which promotes the idea of wealth distribution through government coercion, rather than exclusively through charitable volunteerism.

Some also cite research into Wallis’ past that link him to support of revolutionary socialist movements, as well as claiming Wallis holds unorthodox views on certain basic Christian doctrines. Obviously, all this is of great importance since the festival is attended primarily by highly impressionable teenagers and young adults.

A peripheral issue, but one equally important, is the bewilderment over why Mr. Lenz would invite such a controversial figure considering the composition of the Lifest audience. Mr. Lenz has had a sterling reputation for his interaction with youth, so the invitations to Wallis and other controversial presenters, leave some people who know Lenz, scratching their collective heads. The 64 million dollar question is whether this establishes a trend for future Lifest events, or whether Mr. Lenz will seek the advice of discerning critics before repeating similar decisions.

Mr. N and others, aren’t always clear whether they deny Jim Wallis’ past controversial connections, or if they acknowledge them, but claim they are somehow consistent with Christian biblical orthodoxy. As I have dialogued with a handful of Wallis apologists, many of whom are non-Christians, or at best, nominal Christians, I have noticed they often use a few boilerplate scriptural passages in support of their polemic. Most of them are outright non-sequiturs, making implausible leaps of logic to support their conclusions about biblical economics.

N’s piece for instance, was quite ironic. Not long ago in his postings, he was articulating the theme of the “schizophrenic Jesus”(scriptures that refer to the judgment of Jesus, as well as those that refer to His affinity for peace and love),” which he recycles frequently in his numerous editorials. Now, in making his own point about economics, he wields Jesus’ sayings as authoritative. Mr. N is an artisan of sophistry, and as such, engages masterfully in the gambit of “special pleading.” Mr. N holds a very low view of Christian scripture, but never hesitates to quote it in order to embarrass or manipulate the thinking of people who do take it seriously.

One can only wonder then if he holds in esteem biblical warnings to unbelievers as well?

His piece is a complete non-starter. How does one jump from biblical warnings against the unfaithful wealthy of the day, to a mandate whereby contemporary government ought to coercively redistribute wealth? Forced redistribution is not charity, and as such, is a big theological stumbling block for both him and Wallis.

We should ask why someone with an obsessive bent on discrediting Christianity, is suddenly ardent in defending the dubious biblical orthodoxy of one particular iconoclast? In doing so, we should observe that both he and Wallis hold to a similar worldview of statism — one waving a godless banner, the other wrapped in a religious flag. It should make circumspect Christians think twice, before recklessly aligning themselves with this perspective, and wake up one morning to discover they were duped as “useful idiots” for an unanticipated agenda.

During his presentation, Wallis said something about people adhering to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John(fine as far as it goes), rather than those of Rush, Sean, Bill and Glenn. One commentator asked rather naively, why would Wallis criticize political commentators who are generally accommodating toward religious expression in public? The answer is simple: As Obama’s spiritual advisor, Wallis wants to cast a pejorative pall on those who vocally oppose Obama, thus sneaking a political message into what was thought to be an apolitical presentation.

In his defense of Wallis’ appearance, Mr. N mentions that he was once invited to participate in a debate with a local pastor at Lifest, regarding the Virgin Birth. Even he should see the difference between a naked, unchallenged presentation and interactive debate, allowing for rebuttal, cross-examinations and asking of questions. Instead he pretends that it is at best a distinction without a difference. Of course others have attached themselves to this theme, suggesting that a diversity of ideas within Christianity is somehow healthy, as if one chooses doctrinal positions the way they choose dress shoes.

The support for Wallis by secularists and liberal Christians is predictable, though it underscores an interesting policy contradiction. A few years ago, a local High School hosted a fashion show that emphasized modest dress for young women. Apparently, the program was sponsored by a group tied to a religious organization. There was profuse objection by the usual suspects who smelled a proselytizing rat lurking behind the curtain. Now of course, the same secularists want to weigh in about what ideas should be promulgated in religious venues.

Mr. N quotes scripture to validate his economic ideology, while at the same time he supports groups advocating public religious suppression, wanting to abolish demonstrable vestiges of Christianity from open society. Talk about a philosophy divided against itself!

Naturally, Mr. N will cry foul and claim he is only concerned about deterring government endorsements of religion, but his advocacy taken to its logical conclusion can only result in affirmative action for atheists. Mr. N will claim that nobody is preventing people from attending the house of worship of their choosing. Of course not, but such sentiments seem to indicate that he confuses “tolerance of worship” with the “free exercise of religion,” which encompasses much more than personal devotions and corporate services.

If Marx and Jesus have the commonalities as he proposed in his letter, why are so many Marxists anti-theistic in their orientation? They are anti-theistic largely because leftist-leaning philosophies ultimately deify the state.

It is interesting that secularists who otherwise wish to absolutely separate church and state, anxiously merge them back together if such a union can be used as a pretext for promoting a leftist political agenda.

© Robert Meyer

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And in the End

Posted on July 12, 2010 by Mary

Lord bless everyone who contended for the faith over the recent social justice controversy. Stay the course! We may not know exactly what it all means this side of the kingdom but this might be a glimpse –I have one thing to relate to you, and this ought to make your heart beat just a bit faster. I can’t get this out of my mind:

The  church of Laodicea in Revelation 3 is generally taught by bible scholars as being the final apostacized church that will be around when Jesus returns. I have always believed that. Yesterday,  I looked up the meaning of that word “Laodicea” on Blue Letter Bible. It means, “justice of the people”. Wow. Is this a shout-out from the Lord to us, who will be the ones to understand these times, that His coming is at the door? What are we to think when our very world is obsessed with justice, and the church is right there with the world in what it pursues? Of course our mighty God, who knows the end from the beginning, communicates these gems to His people to help them watch and be ready.

Are you?

Posted in Spirit of the Age | 4 Comments

Gray Matters

Posted on July 7, 2010 by Mary

You know that stuff between your ears that “they” call “gray matter”? Well, it’s time for the church to start using it, dust off those critical thinking skills, because hey, gray matters.

I am a pretty black and white person when it comes to doctrine and such as constitutes absolute truth. I am also black and white in the rest of my life too but try and spread my toast with a lot of grace for stuff that doesn’t matter so much like where to have breakfast with my spouse on the occasional holiday, or any number of things that come up in inter-personal relationships. I mean, we all have to learn to do well in groups and love covers all.  But the church has either lost all it’s critical thinkers to death or Alzheimers, or no one wants to  listen to the remaining few who are not afraid to call ’em like they see ’em. And their critics prefer to play the guilt card by claiming that those who try and speak out on critical issues are simply not “loving”.  Nice try, but I will not bite on that one. I really don’t care for guilt trips in any form.

I get all this ponderment from the latest and greatest move in the church, “social justice”. I mean, come on – is there really anyone over 40 in this world, with their eyes open, who really believes anything in life is fair or just? Or that our hard earned money should be stolen by those who believe in it,  in order to give it to those who want to believe in it? How just is that? I work hard for my money and don’t want to give it to those who won’t.  And just what about life, since oh say, grade 1, has ever been fair or just, from who gets born first in your family to the one beats you out for that job you really wanted, to dozens of other examples.  Reality is our friend. Social justice gospel advocates are not.

Black and white matters, so speak out while you can. Gray matters – so use your gray matter  along with your bible – to figure out the gray, the compromise zones – and stay away from all of that. I really think that the Lord is challenging all of us to let our yay be yay and our nay be nay in so many areas. I find it significant that with books like The Shack, and with speakers like Jim Wallis, these issues are so polarizing because black and white and gray are all involved here. There doesn’t seem to be much middle ground in the issues of the day, both secular and sacred. The Lord is calling us to make choices that will determine the final leg of our race in Christ. Now is not the time to drop the ball but to make God honoring choices in all areas, all shades. He is at the door!

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Camping Out

Posted on June 24, 2010 by Mary

As the truth war heats up and the desire for discernment grows cold (I think when you mix the two you get something called, “lukewarm”) I am having some clarity of thought.

There seems to be 2 distinct camps within Christendom right now that will draw some serious lines in the sand, I predict. It already has. Rick Warren, who has influenced the church today more than any of us really realize, said back in 2007 that the greatest threat to the church is DISUNITY and this is Satan’s greatest tool. That really accounts for a lot of what he does, chit-chatting with Muslims on our common faith, for instance, and telling pastors that some folks (those old stubborn bible thumpin’ ones) would rather die than change, so your congregation won’t shift as quickly to his mode of ministry as quickly as you might like. Anyway, so we have a camp that has been influenced more by purpose and feelings than by Scripture.

The other camp is thinking that there might be a danger of lukewarmness and such in that approach, and believes that the Satan’s greatest tool is DECEPTION. Like deception in the areas of ecumenism, social justice, and that why-can’t-we-all-just-get-along attitude that surely God will have to bless regardless of sound doctrine on the “majors”.  Now, some folks in the first camp think that there may even be some wiggle room as to what the majors actually are. But, you know, God is love, and as long as it makes me feel good I know it’s from God because it’s all about how I feel. So I can just play fast and loose with things that make me feel good.

Here’s what I see happening all over this land, which will continue to crank up: These 2 camps will never come together. I know what I believe about the “worldview revolution” that is flooding the church and the secular world right now, and I condemn it wholeheartedly because it involves a whole lot of compromise and people pleasing – walking before men.  I want nothing to do with it, because it is sly and cunning and what breaks my heart is that so many Christians refuse to see it and come against it or even listen to those sounding the two-minute warning.  And these two concepts are very polarizing.  That’s why the church growth movement, The Shack, Purpose-Driven, and even what is going on regarding a local festival and their controversial speaker(s) are polarizing too. People feel very strongly one way or another on all the above: unity for the sake of it,  or deception at the heart of it – talk about your “polar opposites”.

As Joseph Farah wrote way back in 2007 in a column entitled, “Rick Warren’s Inquisition” – “Satan loves unity – as long as those unified are knowingly or unknowingly serving him. He’d love for all of us to “go to hell in a handbasket.”

Posted in Commentary, Spirit of the Age | 5 Comments