July 31, 2011
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The Most Dangerous War in the Middle East has Already Begun - By Alex Jakubowski - www.americanthinker.com
As international efforts to dispose of Moammar Gaddafi escalate, less and less attention is given to the real international threat in the region: Iran. While the Arab Spring has taken out or severely weakened hostile regimes throughout the Middle East, Iran has continued its dangerous buildup of nuclear material. At this point the nuclear ambitions of Iran's dictatorial regime have become clear: they want a bomb. The regime continues to enrich large amounts of uranium to 20%, far beyond the amount needed for nuclear power and about 90% of the way to nuclear-grade fuel. Just recently Iran began to move nuclear enrichment facilities to deep underground bunkers to avoid the possibility of outside intervention. Finally, it has been often reported that Iran is conducting research on a neutron initiator using uranium deuteride (UD3), the only purpose of which is to trigger a nuclear reaction in a warhead. With Iran's president -- and I use that term loosely -- being described by American diplomats as "unbalanced" and "crazy," this threat can no longer be ignored.
And in many ways it hasn't. Just this past year Congress passed their strictest set of sanctions ever against Iran's regime, the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010. Unfortunately, as Senators Mark Kirk (R-IL), John Kyl (R-AZ), and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) have noted, the enforcement of these sanctions has been far from effective; "[w]e are deeply concerned with what appear to be sanctionable activities by other entities involving energy investments in Iran, the provision of refined petroleum products to Iran, financial relationships with Iran, as well as the regime's proliferation activities."
The American government isn't the only one concerned about failing international efforts to stop Iran's nuclear expansions. As leaked diplomatic cables showed last fall, other Middle East governments are equally concerned with the threat a nuclear Iran poses to the region. Shortly after the WikiLeaks scandal broke, the British newspaper The Guardian reported that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had "frequently exhorted the U.S. to attack Iran to put an end to its nuclear weapons program," with Abudllah even going as far as saying, "[C]ut the head off the snake."
Furthermore, Iran is taking the threat of outside intervention seriously, practicing war games and frequently displaying its military might. In response to a question about their quest for longer-range ballistic missiles, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's aerospace force, stated, "[T]he range of our missiles has been designed on the basis of the distance to the Zionist regime and the US bases in the Persian Gulf region." While this may seem like a familiar situation -- both sides anxiously preparing for an impending conflict -- what seems to be ignored is the fact that Iran has already started the war.
Iran for years has been the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism -- funding, arming, and training organizations like Hamas, Hezb'allah, and others that senior Revolutionary Guard officials call "liberation armies." Leaked diplomatic cables even suggest a strong cooperation between Iran and Al Qaeda is far from dormant. Furthermore, Iran has been accused of financially and militarily supporting rebels fighting American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. According to a March 2009 report by the Council on Foreign Relations, for years Iranian-made weapons, including the Tehran-designed roadside bomb -- the explosively formed penetrator (EFP) -- have been used by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, prompting former Defense Secretary Robert Gates in June 2007 to state, "[G]iven the quantities that we're seeing, it is difficult to believe that it's associated with smuggling or the drug business or that it's taking place without the knowledge of the Iranian government." Recently, reports surfaced of Iranian assistance to rebels fighting American forces in Iraq. In his first visit to Iraq as defense secretary, Leon Panetta stated, "[W]e're very concerned about Iran and the weapons they're providing to extremists in Iraq. We cannot sit back and simply allow this to continue."
Yet thus far the United States and the rest of the world continue to sit back and wait -- wait for something to draw us into the inevitable. On October 14, 1962 President John F. Kennedy addressed the world: "It shall be the policy of this nation, to regard any nuclear missile, launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere, as an attack, by the Soviet Union, on the United States." We can only hope that it will not take a nuclear attack for this country to realize that we are already at war.
Iranian Revolutionary Guards train new Hamas commando brigade in Gaza – www.debka.com
A team of Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) officers has just finished setting up Hamas' first commando unit especially trained to combat any Israel military force entering the Gaza Strip, debkafile's military sources report. The new "Al Qods Brigades" unit of 400 men is to be the first of three. A week ago, July 23, the first unit held a passing-out parade and leave-taking ceremony from its two Iranian instructors.
debkafile's intelligence sources report that the pair arrived in the Gaza Strip in the latter half of May on Iranian passports which gave their cover names as Morteza Rahban and Hojjat Safar-Zadeh.
Their journey took them from Sudan through Egypt and Sinai where they were led by Bedouin smugglers to the contraband tunnels accessing the Gaza Strip. They went back to Tehran by the same route.
The two officers were members of the IRGC's notorious Al Qods Brigades which undertakes overseas terrorist and covert activities on behalf of the Iranian regime. For the Al Qods commander Gen. Qassem Suleimaini, setting up a Hamas commando force in Gaza was a high and immediate priority.
This information reached the desk of US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who passed it on to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak when they met in Washington Friday, July 29. Panetta has scheduled a visit to Israel in October.
The urban guerrilla combat tactics which the Iranian instructors imparted to their Hamas trainees drew heavily on the experience al Qods is gaining in Syria, where its experts are helping President Bashar Assad crack down on protest – especially accentuating advanced disguise and camouflage techniques for striking at the enemy under cover.
Many of the weapons handed out to trainees came from Libyan rebels who received them from British and French intelligence for their war on Muammar Qaddafi. The rebels sold the arms to the purchasing agencies Iran, Hizballah and Hamas maintain secretly in Benghazi. The weapons were then smuggled to the Gaza Strip via Egypt.
The Gaza passing-out parade marked the end of an exercise the Hamas graduates carried out, which their Iranian instructors praised as "most successful."
The new Hamas commandos were also given a cover name – The Brigades for Reconstruction and Challenge – under which they will set up more brigades in the coming six months. The newly-trained units will then fan out to the areas bordering on Israel, armed with techniques and weapons for inflicting the highest possible number of casualties on any invading force.
Iran 'on track' to take over U.S. influence in Mideast – Joseph Farah – www.wnd.com
Plan seen as succeeding unless U.S. has 'substantial military' in region
Iran has been working to convince Iraq it should not allow U.S. troops to remain within its borders, helping Syria respond to its internal unrest and generally extending its influence wherever it can, according to Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
Tehran also has been shoring up its connections to Shia-influenced power structures throughout the region, apparently with the goal of usurping the position of the U.S. as the dominant influence.
Iran's plan "would see power concentrated among the Shia in Mesopotamia, eastern Arabia and the Levant at the expense of the Sunnis who have dominated this land since the 16th century, when the Safavid Empire lost Iraq to the Ottomans," said Reva Bhalla of the think tank Stratfor Global Intelligence.
"So far, Iran's plan is on track," Bhalla said.
But the moves also have another goal, Bhalla said.
"Unless the United States permanently can station substantial military forces in the region, Iran replaces the United States as the most powerful military force in the Persian Gulf," he said.
Among the results would be Iran acquiring the ability to close the Straits of Hormuz, through which much of the world's oil supplies pass.
It's all coming about in the vacuum created by the lack of a coherent U.S. strategy, analysts say.
Iran has chosen to back the embattled regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, regarding its influence in Syria as vital to its growing strategic foothold in the Middle East. It's at least the third major initiative Iran has adopted to spread its power. First was its intervention in Iraq's affairs, then came Lebanon.
U.S. plans have been anything but clear, and currently there is an almost-desperate effort to get Iraq to agree to a U.S. troop extension beyond a Dec. 31 deadline set under the Status of Forces Agreement.
The idea that Iran and Al Qaida don’t get along, and other myths - By Fariborz Saremi – www.worldtribune.com
In the long history of terrorist violence sponsored by Iran, its wide range of proxies and partners is often overlooked.
The IRGC, and its Hizbullah client, are the two organizations normally discussed. Yet beyond these, Iran has worked closely with PIJ and Hamas in the Middle East and in Sudan with Al Qaida, al-jamaa al-Islamiyya, the Abu Nidal Organization, and others operating in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Pakistan.
One of the myths of modern Islamist terrorism is that Sunni and Shia do not get along; but when it comes to common enemies or objectives, they work quite frequently.
In the early 1980s Sudan had become the second country in the world after Iran, to be ruled by extremist Islamists. Its spiritual leader was Hassan al-Turabi. The government itself was controlled by General Omar al-Bashir who led a military coup in 1989 and has been President since 1993.
Iran hastened to offer oil and development aid to the new regime in Khartoum, ostensibly without demanding anything in return. In October 1990, diplomatic relations between Sudan and Iran were raised to the ambassadorial level, Ali-Akbar Mohtashemi-Pour was named Iran’s ambassador to Sudan. On Oct. 18,1991, an international conference in support of the Palestinians opened in Teheran, with over four hundred delegates from sixty countries attending. One of them was Dr. al-Turabi who was treated with great deal of respect. Upon his return to Sudan he worked assiduously to boost the operational capabilities of the Islamic guerrilla and terror movements based there, with Iranian aid.
Sudan very quickly became a satellite of the clerics and the IRGC and according to a U.S. congressional report, a distribution center for Iranian weapons for extremist Islamic Organizations. The government of al-Turabi and al-Bashir provided a refuge for members of a wide variety of groups: the Abu Nidal, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Algerian FIS Movement, the Tunisian Al-Nahda and the Al Qaida Network. The IRGC provided their training, under the supervision of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security, VEVAK.
Ayman al-Zawahiri visited Teheran in 1991 and cooperated with Iran over a variety of operations against the Mubarak government in Egypt. Even Bin Laden responded favourably to al-Zawahiri’s effort to establish links with Iran. Bin Laden sent some of his senior aides to train in Iran and with the Hizbullah in Lebanon. Imad Moughniyeh came to Khartoum to meet him, and told him about the enormous effect of the suicide attacks against the Americans and the French in the early 1980s in Lebanon. From this point on Moughniyeh became a major connection point between Iran and Al Qaida.
According to German intelligence, Zarqawi was a key figure in the “reorganized Al Qaida, as well as one of the major coordinators of Iranian-sponsored terrorism in Europe”. His group, al Tawhid, arranged false documentation for more than one hundred Al Qaida fighters who escaped from Afghanistan to Iran during the war, provided them with funds, passports, safe haven, and then organized their movement from Teheran to other areas such as Europe. Iran is a major center for Al Qaida, and the German intelligence identified a dozen camps around Teheran where Al Qaida terrorists were taken care of by the IRGC. Zarqawi was a Palestinian with a Jordanian passport, and he supervised terrorist training camps near Herat and Kabul, thus confirming the ongoing role of Iran/Al Qaida in organizing and running terrorist operations. In winter 2001, after the fall of the Taliban,Saif al-Adel one of the top leaders of Al Qaida crossed to Iran and contacted his friends in Teheran. He soon became one of the leaders of an Iran-based Sunni Cadre Teheran organized in order to convince the jihadists that Teheran was earnest about supporting the Jihad against the U.S. and its allies. In 2002 at Iran’s behest, Saif al-Adel took over the revival of jihadist terrorism in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states. He established a forward headquarters in the Iranian Baluchistan where some 500 Arab Mujahedin were being trained by the IRGC for future operations in Iraq,Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. The Campaign began with series of bombings in Riyadh in May 2003. Using satellite phones from his headquarters in Iran Saif-al-Adel directly supervised the progress of the bombing campaign.
By 2003,Saif-al-Adel had become one of Zawahiri’s closest confidants and strategic advisors. In the next few years Saif-al-Adel remained in Iran and worked with both the Iran based jihadist leaders and with the Al-Quds force of the IRGC.He concentrated on the organizing of highly professional command cadres which would be able to evade and endure the improved capabilities of the local intelligence and security forces.
The well-known turmoil of the Balkans in the 1990s ethnic cleansing against Muslims, civil war, the intervention of Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic, and the perceived indifference of the West led the leader of the Bosnian Muslims Alija Izetbegovic to appeal to Muslim states for assistance. Iran responded happily, and helped circumvent an embargo that was preventing Bosnia from legally arming itself. According to British intelligence reports, some two hundred advisers from the Al-Quds operational unit were in Bosnia during that time, and from 1,000 to 3,000 volunteers including some from Hizbullah came to help the Muslims. During that time in Bosnia, Iran’s relationship with Al Qaida expanded. To this day, Bosnia is an ideal location for the activities of the IRGC,VEVAK and the Al Qaida Network. The country is a magnet for International Crime, including drug trade, trafficking in humans, smuggling of all varieties and money laundering.
The NATO is aware of the extent of the Iranian penetration in the region and in 2006 produced an intelligence report on the organization, operations, and goals of the Iranian secret services, their activities in Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1992-2006. It is known that Al-Quds operational unit of the IRGC gives intelligence- logistic support to the European operations of Al Qaida. Officers of al-Quds are known to be also located in Zagreb, the Croatian capital. Particularly interesting is the fact that several officials of the Embassy of Iran in Zagreb, are on the list of officers of the intelligence arms of al-Quds. Several western intelligence agencies consider the Iranian Embassy in Zagreb to be one of the main communication centers of al-Quds. From B-H and Croatia the Al-Quds operational wing of the IRGC is in close contact with the European operations of Al Qaida.
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Arab Regimes Fear Ramadan will Be Month of Violence – Gil Ronen – www.israelnationalnews.com
Authorities in Syria fear the nightly prayers during Ramadan will transform every day into Friday.
Wikimedia CommonsArab governments in the Middle East are preparing for increased tensions during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan which may reignite the smoldering flames of uprisings that swept the region this year.
"Throughout history, Ramadan has been the month of revolutions and victory," Abdullah al-Amadi, director of the Qatar-based Islamonline website, explained to AFP. "I think it will inspire the youths of the Arab Spring to complete their struggles against injustice and tyranny."
Amadi said the Arab struggle could peak in the final ten days of Ramadan, believed to be the holiest of the month.
Authorities in Syria fear that the "Taraweeh" nightly Ramadan prayers will transform every day into a Friday, the Muslim holy day which is also the customary day for violence and mayhem.
AFP quoted a Facebook group called The Syrian Revolution 2011, which it called "a driving force of the protest movement," as writing: "The regime is afraid of Ramadan and the Taraweeh prayers," amid calls by Syrian activists for protests every night until dawn.
In Libya, a rebel fighting Muammar Qaddafi vowed to fast during the fighting: "If it's war and we're tired, we'll eat. But if we remain in a defensive position, we will fast. God is with us," said Hatem al-Jadi, 24, in Gualish, south of Tripoli.
Protesters camped out at a square Yemen's capital San'a since February say they are determined to revive their movement during Ramadan and finish the task of overthrowing President Ali Abdullah Saleh. "This will be the month of change, especially since Ali Abdullah Saleh is not in Yemen," said Walid al-Omari, an activist from Yemen's "Youth Revolution" group.
Other Arab governments are closely monitoring the prices of goods, which usually soar during Ramadan, in order to keep their people happy and un-rebellious.
In Egypt, the government is taking measures to maintain the subsidy system that keeps very low prices for basic foodstuffs such as bread. In Saudi Arabia, the ministry of commerce has forced dairy producers to reconsider their decision to increase prices, and may cut the price of imported barley to prevent an increase in meat prices. And in the neighboring United Arab Emirates, the president has ordered that rice be subsidized during Ramadan.
Meanwhile, Muslim religious authorities in most of the Middle East determined that Ramadan will start Monday this year (the Muslim calendar is calculated anew every year, and different countries often determine different calendars. Like the Hebrew calendar which predates it by thousands of years, the Muslim calendar is lunar – but the Jewish calendar as established by Hillel the Second in 359 C.E. has seven leap months every 19 years, making yearly changes unnecessary).
And There Shall Be Signs In The Heavens: Comet Races Toward Earth At Peak Of Holy Days - By Joe Kovacs – www.wnd.com
In the summer of 1998, Americans raced into movie theaters for not one, but two major Hollywood productions about giant asteroids about to smash into Earth.
The films – "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon" – had plots so similar, many people confuse the two.
Now 13 years later, a newly discovered, real-life comet named Elenin is racing toward our home planet.
No, it's not an asteroid, and no, it's not on a crash course, but it is expected to be at its closest point to us – some 21 million miles – during the culmination of God's annual holy days mentioned in the Bible.
This has sparked a wave of speculation that it could be some sort of miraculous sign possibly heralding the long-anticipated return of Jesus to Earth.
It's coming!" thunders Paul Begley, a preacher at Community Gospel Baptist Church in Knox, Ind., in a YouTube video. "It's on its way and right in the middle of the Feast of the Trumpets, it is going to come through and get in between the Earth and the sun."
"We've only known about this thing six months, folks," he continued, reflecting the fact the comet was discovered here in the U.S. by Russian astronomer Leonid Elenin on Dec. 10, 2010, at International Scientific Optical Network's robotic observatory near Mayhill, N.M.
Begley wondered aloud what sort of physical effect the comet might have.
"Will there be some type of magnetic pull? Will the poles shift? Will there be some type of pull of gravity that creates earthquakes and tsunamis and volcanoes and hurricanes and tornadoes and cyclones and mudslides, forest fires? What's gonna go on?"
He notes the comet's nearest point to Earth will take place Oct. 16, during the Feast of Tabernacles, according to today's Jewish calendar.
"I'm here to tell you right now, we're getting closer and closer and closer and closer to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ," Begley said.
In the New Testament, Jesus predicted celestial signs concerning the end of this current age and His return to Earth to govern the kingdom of God.
"And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory." (Mark 13:25-26)
· "And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven." (Luke 21:11)
· A Space.com article noted, "Internet rumors about Elenin began spreading earlier this year. Its approach to Earth was blamed for shifting the Earth's axis by 3 degrees in February, precipitating the Chile earthquake, then shifting the pole even more to trigger the Japan quake in March."
David Morrison, a planetary astronomer at NASA's Ames Research Center and senior scientist at the NASA Astrobiology Institute, wrote, "Ignoring plate tectonics as the cause of earthquakes, they suggest that the comet exerted strong gravitational or electromagnetic effects on our planet."
When it was pointed out how small the comet actually is – just 2 to 3 miles wide – with no magnetic field and that it won't even pass very near Earth, rumors began to circulate about NASA withholding information about Elenin.
"Ironically, the inconspicuous nature of this comet plays into some of the conspiracy theories," Morrison told Space. "For people who are convinced the comet did cause the earthquakes, this proves that Elenin is not a comet at all, but a much more massive, and dangerous, interloper."
Elenin's nucleus could resemble that of Comet Hartley 2 seen here by NASA's Deep Impact mission.
Astronomer Colin Johnston at the Armagh Planetarium in Northern Ireland is among those trying to put disaster fears and 2012 hysteria to rest.
"As Elenin will not hit Earth," he said, "some have claimed instead that its gravitational effect on the Earth's interior will cause earthquakes and similar cataclysms on our planet, offering the recent disasters in New Zealand and Japan as harbingers of the horrors to come. This is nonsense. I estimate the comet's nucleus to have a mass of about 20 billion tons, which is vast in human terms, minute in astronomical terms. Compared to the gravitational effects of the moon and other planets, Elenin's effects will be immeasurably small. In fact, Dear Reader, your gravitational influence on the Earth as you sit reading these words is greater than Comet Elenin's will be at its strongest!"
Others agree.
Astronomer and blogger Ian Musgrave in Adelaide, Australia, has posted a frequently-asked-questions page online about this celestial glob of ice and rock that has less than a billionth of the tidal force of the moon.
"If the moon can't cause the poles to tip, cause massive tidal floods or earthquakes, Comet 2010 X1 Elenin won't. We've been closer to other comets before with no ill effect," Musgrave said.
"The comet will pass no closer to us than 84 times the Earth-moon distance," said Ray Villard at Discovery News.
"The effects of the comet on Earth at closest approach will be as inconsequential as that of a mosquito slamming head-on into an ocean-going supertanker."
This is certainly not the first time some in the Christian community have made connections between the biblical feast days and events in outer space.
Total lunar eclipses often make the moon appear red
As WND previously reported, a minister who promotes the Old Testament roots of Christianity suggests a rare string of lunar and solar eclipses said to fall on God's annual holy days in 2015 could signal the return of Jesus.
Pastor Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries in Bonney Lake, Wash., noted a coming rare phenomenon of four consecutive total lunar eclipses, known as a tetrad, and often called "blood moons" since the moon often takes on a bloody color.
He says during this century, tetrads occur at least six times, but what's interesting is that the only string of four consecutive blood moons that coincide with God's holy days of Passover in the spring and the autumn's Feast of Tabernacles (also called Succoth) occurs between 2014 and 2015 on today's Gregorian calendar.
"The fact that it doesn't happen again in this century I think is very significant," Biltz explained. "So then I looked at last century, and, believe it or not, the last time that four blood red moons occurred together was in 1967 and 1968 tied to Jerusalem recaptured by Israel."
He then started to notice a pattern of the tetrads.
"What's significant to me is that even before 1967, the next time that you had four blood red moons again was right after Israel became a nation in '48, it happened again in 1949 and 1950 ... on Passover and Succoth. You didn't have any astronomical tetrads in the 1800s, the 1700s, the 1600s. In the 1500s, there were six, but none of those fell on Passover and Succoth."
When checking the schedule for solar eclipses, Biltz found two – one on the first day of the Hebrew year and the next on the high holy day of Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the seventh Hebrew month. Both of these take place in the 2014-2015 year.
Biltz says, "You have the religious year beginning with the total solar eclipse, two weeks later a total lunar eclipse on Passover, and then the civil year beginning with the solar eclipse followed two weeks later by another total blood red moon on the Feast of Succoth all in 2015."
In February of last year, the astronomical community was dazzled with a spectacular unknown object that some felt could be a sign from God, as it they said it resembled a flying cross or a Star of David.
The Hubble Space Telescope observed a mysterious, X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust that may have been the result of a head-on collision between two asteroids. Click image for larger view.
"The truth is, we're still struggling to understand what this means," comet expert David Jewitt at UCLA told Britain's Daily Mail. "It's most likely the result of a recent collision between two asteroids."
Debt Crisis Boost for Rapture 'Industry,' Magazine Says - By Anugrah Kumar – www.christianpost.com
A new “apocalypse establishment” has emerged in the momentary absence of Harold Camping, exploiting the fears resulting from the approaching debt-ceiling deadline, and may help the End Times preacher to resurrect “professionally,” a business magazine says.
“In addition to Camping’s revised forecast – the world is definitely going to end on Oct. 21 – many Rapture-seekers now believe the Aug. 2 debt-ceiling deadline signals that the end may be very, very near,” journalist Peter Savodnik writes in the latest issue of the Bloomberg Businessweek magazine.
This perception is being promoted by “new entrepreneurs” to take advantage of “a huge vacuum in the Rapture market” created by the absence of Harold Camping, the writer suggests.
The 89-year-old Family Radio Network founder had a stroke June 9, around three weeks after the Rapture failed to occur May 21 as predicted by him. Camping is reportedly recovering in a nursing home.
Many in America think the end of the world is near. Surveys show nearly six in 10 white evangelicals believe Jesus will return in judgment by 2050, as opposed to 41 percent of all Americans, according to Religion News Service. Two-thirds of white evangelicals also believe recent natural disasters are signs of the end times. However, many do not perhaps believe in predictions with exact dates.
But some are linking the end times to the debt ceiling “Armageddon,” the Aug. 2 deadline when the Treasury Department will run out of money to pay the bills without further borrowing, if the ceiling is not raised. “If the economy goes, that’ll be fertile soil for the antichrist to take power,” the magazine quotes RaptureReady.com “proprietor” Todd Strandberg as saying.
RaptureReady.com, which cautions against date setting, is the most popular Rapture-preparedness website in the world, and its owner, “part of a new generation of entrepreneurs trying to take advantage of Camping’s absence,” according to the author. “Hitler came out of the Depression. A lot of us believe the antichrist will use the same stepping stone,” reads the second part of Strandberg’s quote.
The scribe suggests that the “new apocalypse establishment” is smarter in business. Unlike Camping, new entrepreneurs are offering an “unprecedented array of doomsday-themed literature, podcasts, survival kits, and other goods and services for navigating the end of times.”
“Jack Van Impe, a televangelist from Troy, Mich., has developed an e-commerce business hawking educational literature such as the Prophetic Guide to the End of Times ($14.95) in addition to DVDs like 11:59: The Countdown (two-discs, $34.95),” he cites as examples.
Impe, the journalist says, is “competing for market share with the Costa Rica-based writer Tim McHyde; Alex Dodson, whose Watchman Radio Hour enjoys a nationwide audience; and evangelical minister and author Tim LaHaye, who has co-written 16 Judgment Day-inspired novels… According to Cheryl Kerwin, senior marketing manager at Tyndale House Publishers, LaHaye’s Left Behind series has sold 63 million copies worldwide.”
The magazine also mentions Keith Preston, owner of Rapture Ready Consulting in Kenton, Ohio which grossed $380,000 in 2009, as developing an app for those who will not be Raptured. “Let’s say 2 million people disappear,” Preston tells the magazine. “You’ve got doctors and police officers, you have IT guys, writers, and politicians. So the problem is, who’s going to do whatever they were doing? You need an app for that.”
“How he plans to sell it from Heaven remains unclear,” remarks the writer.
The Rapture economy even includes heathens, notes Savodnik. “Since most Rapture prophets have traditionally declared pets barred from Heaven, insurance company Eternal Earth-Bound Pets is now offering a 10-year relocation policy. For $135, the company promises to place dogs, cats, bunnies, and so forth with a loving family of atheists who have no hope of being saved.”
If October 22 happens, failing Camping’s prophecy yet again, Rapture enthusiasts will look at 2012, the journalist says. “And this is good news for Harold Camping’s own professional resurrection,” he remarks, concluding with a quote from Dr. William H. Sledge, a Yale University professor of psychiatry: believers in the Rapture tend to be either psychotic or very “suggestible.”
The “industry” is expected to thrive for longer than we thought it could.
The Coming Temple - By Jack Kelley – www.GraceThruFaith.com
Q. How long do you think it will take to construct the temple once Israel decides they need one? I know there is some preparation underway even now, but won’t it take at least a year or two or three to construct such a grand structure? If they don’t begin construction until the beginning of the 70th week, it could be close to the middle of that week before it is completed. Will the Jews be able to use the temple before the Anti-Christ defiles it?
A. Preparations are underway for the Coming Temple. I first saw them during my initial trip to Israel in 1988. The preparations most people are aware of concern Temple furnishings and implements and the preparation of priests. You can see pictures of these on the Temple Institute’s website (www.templeinstitute.org ).
But I’ve often heard rumors of building materials being secretly gathered as well. With modern construction methods a building like the Temple could go up relatively quickly once the go ahead is given. Some say a temporary structure similar to the Tabernacle could be used until a permanent one is ready. I believe that when Israel decides to build a Temple, the work will go very quickly.
Daniel 9:27 speaks of the Abomination of Desolation putting an end to the sacrifice and offering in the middle of the 70th week, so we know the Temple will be operational for some time prior to that.
Charlene's Story – Greg Laurie – www.harvest.org
Charlene McDaniel was a beautiful young woman. Some even compared her to Marilyn Monroe, which was pretty heady stuff for someone from Friendship, Arkansas. Although she had been raised in a Bible-teaching Baptist church, she bristled at the idea of following God's Word and not being free to do what she wanted to.
During her first marriage (it would be one of seven), Charlene gave birth to a son. But feeling her husband was not the man she was looking for, she divorced him. She married again and, after the anguish of giving birth to a stillborn child, she returned to the party scene, looking for something more exciting than married life. She had a fling, then found out she was pregnant. Not wanting to have her child out of wedlock, she married again and had her second son. Charlene's extended family nicknamed this son Pogo because, according to his aunt, "He was always so cute and mischievous, like the little opossum character in the cartoon strip."
Charlene's first son lived with his grandmother, but Pogo lived with his mom off and on as she made her way from one dead-end relationship to another, marrying and divorcing again and again. While Pogo was with his mother, all he saw was partying and violence. One night, he watched as her then-husband nearly killed her.
These were frightening times for a young boy. Some nights, he didn't know where his mother was. Some nights, she'd return home at four o'clock in the morning and pass out drunk. Pogo felt his mother had no one to care for her but him, so he did his best. He was a 10-year-old boy playing the parent to his self-destructive mother.
I know that for certain because I was the mischievous Pogo, and Charlene was my mother.
As the years passed by, my mother's once-legendary beauty began to fade. All the drinking, smoking, and hard living began to take its toll and one night, while driving under the influence, she had an accident that horribly disfigured her face. Her beauty, the one thing she had counted on throughout her life, was now greatly diminished.
I saw my mom begin to soften. She would wait for a prayer before a meal. She always seemed proud of me and was glad to tell everyone I was her son. And although I didn't know it at the time, she saved every newspaper clipping about our ministry.
After she discovered she had kidney failure and would need dialysis three times per week, she began returning to her spiritual roots. One month before her death, I had a very direct conversation with her. I asked her if she believed in Jesus Christ as her Savior and Lord. She said she did. I then told her that she ought to be coming to church. And the next Sunday, she came.
Her search brought her back to what she knew as a young girl. Like the prodigal son, she returned. Sadly, she spent almost all her life looking to men and to romance for fulfillment. All along, that fulfillment could have been found in a relationship with Jesus Christ.
There's another story of a woman who was a lot like my mother, or perhaps I should say that my mother was a lot like her. We know her as the "woman at the well," an empty person who thought romance and sex would fill the void in her life. She went from husband to husband, hoping to find her prince. But after five husbands, she simply gave up. She was disillusioned, scorned, and ignored. That is, until Jesus came along.
This woman had searched for, but never found, her heart's desire. What she (and people like my mom) did not understand is that she was trying to fill a void in her life that was created by God. That void is a loneliness for God. Jesus told this woman, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again." In fact, this statement could be written over all the wells of life:
• Over the well of success: Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.
• Over the well of pleasure: Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.
• Over the well of materialism: Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.
No matter how much we have, if we don't have Christ, we will always be thirsty. But when Jesus quenches that thirst, we will be satisfied.
Jesus cut to the core of her pain. He told her there was nothing the world had to offer that would quench her spiritual thirst. "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:13–14 NIV).
She had come to the well of relationships five different times, hoping to meet the perfect man who would fulfill all her desires. But time and time again, her Prince Charming turned into a frog. Her life was a miserable chain of unfulfilling relationships.
Jesus spoke of a spring of water, water that is always fresh, always clear. Unlike the stagnant water of shallow relationships and broken promises, the water Jesus offered was the kind that would refresh and renew the woman's soul. Jesus was telling the Samaritan woman that her deepest thirst could be completely and permanently satisfied.
How about you? From what "well" are you seeking satisfaction right now? Is it the well of pleasure? Is it the well of possessions? Or are you seeking satisfaction from the well of some perfect relationship? That was the problem with my mom.
She thought that what she was looking for could never be found in the faith of her childhood. It had to be found somewhere else. She thought it was in men. She thought it was in all of those empty, shallow things the world offers. And sadly, she found out by experience that this wasn't the case. As Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again." But in the end, she came back to the Living Water.
There are many out there today just like these searching women, people who are waiting for someone like you to reach out to them with the life-changing message of the gospel. Will you make yourself available to the Lord to be used in such a way?
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OSAS and Galatians 5 - This Week’s Feature Article by Jack Kelley – www.gracethrufaith.com
People who try to deny the Doctrine of Eternal Security (OSAS) sometimes point to Galatians 5:13-26 to support their position. And if you just considered those verses you might be tempted to agree. But if you look at the entire chapter you get a completely different perspective. So that’s what we’ll do.
Before we begin, it’s important to remind ourselves that the Bible, being the word of God, cannot contradict itself. If Galatians 5 denies OSAS it’s in direct contradiction to statements the Holy Spirit led Paul to make in Ephes. 1:13-14 and 2 Cor. 1:21-22. Ephes. 1:13-14 tells us that our salvation is assured from the moment of belief with the Holy Spirit sealed within us as a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. Before we had done anything, either good or bad, before we were baptized, before we had even fully responded to the altar call, we were saved forever. These other things are important, but our belief in the Lord’s completed work on our behalf came first and it’s the one essential ingredient to our salvation which alone brings us eternal life (John 1:12-13, 3:16, 6:28-29, 6:40).
2 Cor. 1:21-22 says, It is God Who makes us stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come. There are no passages in Scripture that speak of revoking or even modifying this guarantee. It would be impossible for the Holy Spirit to have led Paul or any of the Bible’s other writers to make any statements that contradict these clear promises.
So what was Paul saying? Let’s start at the beginning of the chapter.
Freedom In Christ
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5:1-6)
The context of Galatians 5 is the debate that was raging between two groups there. One consisted of believers in the Doctrine of Grace Paul had taught them. The other was made up of those who were being swayed by the teaching of the “Judaizers”, Jews who claimed that Gentile believers had to come under the Law and be circumcised to be saved.
Paul warned them that while neither circumcision nor uncircumcision was relevant in and of itself, it was being proposed to them as a sign of their acceptance of the Old Covenant. Therefore agreeing to it would obligate them to the whole Law. Attempting to keep the Law alienates us from the Lord because it denies what He’s done for us. It makes His death of no value leaving us responsible for saving ourselves.
You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves! (Galatians 5:7-12)
Law Or Grace?
You can’t have a little bit of Law mixed with Grace. Just as a little bit of yeast will permeate the whole batch of dough to change its composition, a little bit of Law will work its way through the doctrine of Grace, changing it into something it was not intended to be. When Paul said in that case the offense of the cross has been abolished, he meant the Law cancels Grace.
(The Judaizers were hinting that Paul preached the Law among Jews but switched to a watered down version of the Gospel when speaking to Gentiles. His response was, “If I’m preaching the Law to the Jews then why are they persecuting me?” His frustration with them is evident.)
You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. (Galatians 5:13-15)
Paul’s comments here concern the Galatians’ arguments over Law vs. Grace and was a warning to stop it. He called their arguing “indulging the sinful nature”and said while in Christ they were free from the Law they shouldn’t use their freedom to behave that way. Instead, they should serve one another humbly in love.
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. (Galatians 5:16-18)
This is a clear demonstration of the difference between the desires of the sin nature and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Our sin nature will always prompt us to do things that are contrary to the Spirit. As He did in Romans 7:18-19 Paul said our sin nature will sometimes cause us to do things we know we shouldn’t do. Here he said if we’re led by the Spirit we’re not under the Law, meaning these things are not counted against us.
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. (Galatians 5:22-26)
The differences between the acts of the sin nature and the fruit of the Spirit can be seen in the comparison of these two passages. In reading the first one we can all admit to periodically doing one or more of these things as believers. In Romans 7:20 Paul said from God’s perspective it’s not us but the sin nature that dwells within us that’s to blame when this happens.
His final words on the subject confirm that the whole chapter had been about about their arguing. He said since the Galatian believers belonged to Christ they should live by the Spirit and not become conceited, a common failing among Law keepers. He said they should stop provoking and envying each other, a reference to the contention among them. These are acts prompted by the sin nature and are not appropriate for believers.
What’s The Meaning Of This?
If you’re going to deny God’s Grace by going under the Law you’ll disqualify yourself from receiving two things that are essential to your salvation. First, you won’t have the Holy Spirit to guide you, so you’ll be left with only your sin nature which will always take you in a direction that’s opposed to God’s Spirit.
But far more importantly you won’t have the guarantee of the Lord’s death on your behalf to save you. You’ll be responsible for your own salvation. Without these two things you cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.
Remember, the Law was only given to point out our sins and no one can be saved by keeping it (Romans 3:20). But through faith we can achieve a righteousness apart from the Law and be saved (Romans 3:21-24). So there are only two ways to live one’s life, by Law or by Grace through faith. We can’t have it both ways. If we’re under the Law we cannot benefit from God’s grace.
In summary, if we depend solely by faith on our belief that the Lord saved us forever then we’re saved forever. If we think we have to apply our own effort to complete the work Jesus only began, then it’s doubtful we were ever saved. Paul wasn’t contradicting himself. Galatians 5 is not about losing our salvation once we receive it, it’s about whether we ever had it to begin with.
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"On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand, All other ground is sinking sand."
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