August 22, 2010
Read All the Headlines of Prophetic Interest at:
STAY INFORMED - DON'T BE LEFT BEHIND!
Let us make the short time we have left count for all eternity!
LIVING ON BORROWED TIME - DVD
A morally and spiritually bankrupt society …A worldwide economic meltdown…A planet racked with increasingly intense manmade and natural disasters…Are we the Final Generation?
Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Matthew 24:42-44
Reviews: The DVD should be seen by small groups and youth ministries far and wide. The clear quoting and referencing of bible verses is especially strong. The collage of dramatic imagery - both in photography and artwork, grabs the viewers' attention and weaves the conclusion that God is about to continue His plan in a major way. The video is so fresh - the oil explosion and spill in the Gulf of Mexico is shown as one example of how this old world is wearing out and is in flames
The video next defends the authorship and reliability of the bible before showing eight unmistakable developments in our world that point toward the soon return of the Lord Jesus Christ. The number one sign given to our generation is the return of the Jewish people to form the nation of Israel. Jesus Christ is now standing at the door waiting to take his beloved bride- His true believers. Like the admonition from the Book of Jude, verse 23, I pray that this DVD will be used by the Holy Spirit to pluck dying people out of the fire before the borrowed time runs out. - John Wicklund - Chair- Olive Tree Ministries Board of Directors - Maple Grove, MN
Great Job! We have watched all your DVD’s and we think this is the best one so far. After someone watches this DVD there is no way they could argue that we are not living in the last days! – Don & Cindy K. – Bakersfield, CA
The DVD came and it was great. GOOD JOB ! ! – Julie A. – Whitefish, MT
God bless you, the new DVD is amazing! I know that if there is anyone out there who doesn't know what the bible holds or has no clue about what is really going on after seeing this DVD they will surely be enlightened about what is truly going on in the world today. - The Taylor's - Bakersfield, CA
Now Shipping! New DVD "Living on Borrowed Time" for more information and to order your copy of this exciting new DVD, please click below!
www.prophecyupdate.com/living_on_borrowed_time.htm
FREE MOVIE! – THE FEATURED DVD FOR AUGUST – “THE RAPTURE: IN A MOMENT IN THE TWINKLING OF AN EYE…”
Each month Prophecy Update is going to feature one of our DVDS’s that you can watch for free online. This month’s featured DVD will be “The Rapture: In a Moment in the Twinkling of an eye…” – To watch this DVD click on the following link:
www.prophecyupdate.com/the_rapture1.htm
Iran starts nuclear reactor, says intent peaceful - Ali Akbar Dareini – www.news.yahoo.com
BUSHEHR, Iran – Trucks rumbled into Iran's first reactor Saturday to begin loading tons of uranium fuel in a long-delayed startup touted by officials as both a symbol of the country's peaceful intentions to produce nuclear energy as well as a triumph over Western pressure to rein in its nuclear ambitions.
The Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant will be internationally supervised, including a pledge by Russia to safeguard it against materials being diverted for any possible use in creating nuclear weapons. Iran's agreement to allow the oversight was a rare compromise by the Islamic state over its atomic program.
Western powers have cautiously accepted the deal as a way to keep spent nuclear fuel from crossing over to any military use. They say it illustrates their primary struggle: to block Iran's drive to create material that could be used for nuclear weapons and not its pursuit of peaceful nuclear power.
Iran has long declared it has a right like other nations to produce nuclear energy. The country's nuclear chief described the startup as a "symbol of Iranian resistance and patience."
"Despite all pressure, sanctions and hardships imposed by Western nations, we are now witnessing the startup of the largest symbol of Iran's peaceful nuclear activities," Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters inside the plant with its cream-colored dome overlooking the Persian Gulf in southern Iran.
In several significant ways, the Bushehr plant stands apart from the showdowns over Iranian uranium enrichment, a process that can be used both to produce nuclear energy or nuclear weapons. It also could offer a possible test run for proposals to ease the impasse.
The Russian agreement to control the supply of nuclear fuel at Bushehr eased opposition by Washington and allies. Bushehr's operations are not covered by U.N. sanctions imposed after Iran refused to stop uranium enrichment. And last week, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the Russian oversight at Bushehr is the "very model" offered Tehran under a U.N.-drafted plan unveiled last year.
That proposal — so far snubbed by Iran — called for Iran to halt uranium enrichment and get its supplies of reactor-ready material from abroad.
Western leaders fear Iran's enrichment labs could one day churn out weapons-grade material. Iran claims it has no interest in nuclear arms, but refuses to give up the right to make its own fuel.
Iran has some of the world's biggest oil reserves, but lacks refinery capacity to meet domestic demand and must repurchase fuel on international markets. Nuclear power is seen as both a goal to meet power needs and an important technological achievement for the Islamic government.
The French Foreign Ministry said the Russian deal shows Iran does not need to enrich uranium to benefit from civilian nuclear power.
"This clearly shows that the sanctions do not aim to deprive Iran of its right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful uses," said the French statement.
In London, a Foreign Office junior minister, Alistair Burt, said the loading of Russian fuel at Bushehr "demonstrates that Iran can have the benefits of nuclear power."
But conservative Iranian lawmaker Arsalan Faithipour struck a tone of defiance.
"The startup at Bushehr proved the ineffectiveness of sanctions," he said.
After years of delays in completing the plant, Moscow now claims that the project is essential to persuading Iran to cooperate with international efforts to ensure it does not develop the bomb.
Iran has said that monitors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, will have access to the fuel shipments at Bushehr, about 745 miles (1,200 kilometers) south of Tehran. Spent fuel contains plutonium, which can be used to make atomic weapons.
U.N. nuclear inspectors were on hand Saturday as the first truckloads of fuel were taken from a storage site to a "pool" inside the reactor. Over the next two weeks, 163 fuel assemblies — equal to 80 tons of uranium fuel — will be moved inside the building and then into the reactor core.
It will be another two months before the 1,000-megawatt light-water reactor — heavily guarded by soldiers and anti-aircraft batteries — is pumping electricity to Iranian cities.
Two weeks ago, two Iranian drones were sent over Bushehr to test of air defense capability. The drones were picked up, but were grounded before forces guarding the nuclear plant could open fire, Bushehr Provincial Gov. Mohammad Hossein Jahanbakhsh told The Associated Press.
"The decision had been to test the capability of the Bushehr air defense system. The reaction was appropriate and authorities were happy," he said.
The uranium fuel Russia has supplied for Bushehr is well below the more than 90 percent enrichment needed for a nuclear warhead. Iran is already producing its own uranium enriched to the Bushehr level — about 3.5 percent. It also has started a pilot program of enriching uranium to 20 percent, which officials say is needed for a medical research reactor.
Salehi said Iran will continue to enrich uranium to 20 percent, but had no intention to continuing the higher level of enrichment forever.
Iran raised more alarm in the West with its recent declaration of plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment sites inside protected mountain strongholds. It said it will begin construction on the first one in March in defiance of the U.N. sanctions.
"Today is a historic day and will be remembered in history," Salehi said at a news conference alongside the head of Russia's state-run nuclear corporation, Sergei Kiriyenko.
"The countdown to the Bushehr nuclear power plant has started," Kiriyenko said. "Congratulations."
Russia signed a $1 billion contract to build the Bushehr plant in 1995 but has dragged its feet on completing the work. Moscow had cited technical reasons for the delays, but analysts say Russia used the project to try to press Iran to ease its defiance over uranium enrichment.
Iran has announced plans to build other reactors and says designs for a second rector in southwestern Iran are taking shape.
Israel says Iranian reactor use 'totally unacceptable' – www.ynet.news.com
After US says Bushehr reactor not a proliferation risk, Israeli Foreign Ministry says country that 'so blatantly violates UN resolutions, IAEA decisions should not enjoy fruits of using nuclear energy'
Israel on Saturday denounced Iran's fueling up of its first nuclear power plant as "totally unacceptable" and called for more international pressure to force Tehran to cease any uranium enrichment.
Israel, widely assumed to be the only Middle East country to have nuclear weapons, has said a nuclear-armed Iran would be a threat to its existence, raising concerns Israel could attack Iran's nuclear sites.
In a statement issued after the Islamic Republic celebrated the launch of its reactor in Bushehr, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levy said: "It is totally unacceptable that a country that so blatantly violates resolutions of the (United Nations) Security Council, decisions of the International Atomic Energy Agency and its commitments under the NPT (non-proliferation treaty) should enjoy the fruits of using nuclear energy."
"The international community should increase pressure on to force Iran to abide by international decisions and cease its enrichment activities and its construction of reactors," Levy said.
The United States, Israel and some other Western countries fear Iran's nuclear is aimed at produce atomic weapons. Iran says it wants nuclear power solely for energy production.
UK: Concerns remain
Earlier Saturday, Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised a global response if his country is attacked.
"Our options will have no limits... They will touch the entire planet," he said.
Also on Saturday, US State Department spokesman Darby Holladay said the reactor "underscores that Iran does not need an indigenous enrichment capability if its intentions are purely peaceful."
"We recognize that the Bushehr reactor is designed to provide civilian nuclear power and do not view it as a proliferation risk," Holladay said.
Meanwhile, Britain acknowledged Iran's right to build nuclear power stations, but warned that concerns remain about the Islamic republic's atomic program.
"We have always respected Iran's right to develop an exclusively civil nuclear power program," Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt said, as engineers began loading fuel into Iran's Russian-built Bushehr plant.
"The problem is Iran's continued refusal to satisfy the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and international community that its work on uranium enrichment and heavy water projects are exclusively peaceful."
Secret US-Russian sanctions vs Bushehr deal tied Israel's hands – www.debka.com
The Obama administration and Netanyahu government greeted the start-up of Iran's first nuclear reactor at Bushehr with extraordinary meekness, given the grim military and strategic hazards it represents for the region and Israel in particular. Yet nary a squeak of protest came from Washington or Jerusalem when Russian technicians began loading 162 rods of 82 tons of fuel into Iran's nuclear reactor - a process that will take two weeks - Saturday, Aug. 21 - notwithstanding US-led sanctions, Israel's military preparations and international diplomatic posturing.
The State Department said Saturday after the event that Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant has "no proliferation threat" - a statement that was completely beside the point. debkafile reveals that both the Kremlin and the State Department have joined in concealing the secret deal whereby Russia votes for UN Security Council sanctions against Iran in return for US silent acquiescent to Moscow's activation of the Bushehr reactor.
The price the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government paid was prohibitive: Vladimir Putin was allowed to jump the Iranian nuclear drive miles forward toward a capacity for producing weapons-grade plutonium. (Moscow claims the rods will be returned, but Iran's capacity for deception and concealment in the entire last decide s well documented.)
Both Obama and Netanyahu had been beguiled into trusting that President Dmitry Medvedev's tougher line on Iran would prevail in the Kremlin. But Medvedev was nowhere to be seen last Monday, Aug. 15 when Putin took the risk of ceremonially assigned Sergei Kirienko, head of Rosatom, with shipping fuel to Bushehr within a week and getting the reactor on stream, after years of delays.
The Russian leader got away with showing the Muslim world the worth of Moscow's backing - upstaging the side show put on in Washington the day before when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the onset of direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks on Sept. 2 - a process which the greenest of Middle East pundits appreciates as having nowhere to go.
The Netanyahu government was supposed to have all its worries swept away by the US assurance that the Iran threat is not imminent but eleven months away, as the New York Times reported Friday, Aug. 20. The next day the London Telegraph mocked this assertion by explaining that US officials were really saying that "the process of converting nuclear material into a weapon that worked would take at least 12 months" - a prospect hardly likely to ease Israel's concerns.
Omitting any comment on the Bushehr reactor, Prime Minister Netanyahu stated that Israel's security would be paramount in a deal with the Palestinians. He issued a list of stipulations, such as the demilitarization of territory handed to the Palestinians - only side arms for police; Israel would retain control of the Jordan Rift Valley bordering the Kingdom of Jordan and the mountain ridges forming the spine of the West Bank, they key to defending Jerusalem and Israel's coastal plain.
Many will recall the prime minister's solemn reiterations that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose an existential threat to Israel and noticed how fast they have faded.
His "security pledges" regarding a future Palestinian state on the West Bank should therefore be taken with a hefty grain of salt. Indeed, according to debkafile's Washington sources, the prime minister may already be listening to a US proposal to assign the policing of the Jordan Valley and West Bank mountain peaks to NATO troops, most of them American.
Ahmadinejad unveils new 'ambassador of death' unmanned drone bomber – www.foxnews.com
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday inaugurated the country's first domestically built unmanned bomber aircraft, calling it an "ambassador of death" to Iran's enemies. ...
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday inaugurated the country's first domestically built unmanned bomber aircraft, calling it an "ambassador of death" to Iran's enemies.
The 4-meter-long drone aircraft can carry up to four cruise missiles and will have a range of 620 miles (1,000 kilometers), according to a state TV report — not far enough to reach archenemy Israel.
"The jet, as well as being an ambassador of death for the enemies of humanity, has a main message of peace and friendship," said Ahmadinejad at the inauguration ceremony, which fell on the country's national day for its defense industries.
The goal of the aircraft, named Karrar or striker, is to "keep the enemy paralyzed in its bases," he said, adding that the aircraft is for deterrence and defensive purposes.
The president championed the country's military self-sufficiency program, and said it will continue "until the enemies of humanity lose hope of ever attacking the Iranian nation."
Iran launched an arms development program during its 1980-88 war with Iraq to compensate for a U.S. weapons embargo and now produces its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles and even a fighter plane.
Iran frequently makes announcements about new advances in military technology that cannot be independently verified.
State TV later showed video footage of the plane taking off from a launching pad and reported that the craft traveled at speeds of 560 miles per hour (900 kilometers) and could alternatively be armed with two 250-pound bombs or a 450-pound guided bomb.
Iran has been producing its own light, unmanned surveillance aircraft since the late 1980s.
The ceremony came a day after Iran began to fuel its first nuclear power reactor, with the help of Russia, amid international concerns over the possibility of a military dimension to its nuclear program.
Iran insists it is only interested in generating electricity.
Referring to Israel's occasional threats against Iran's nuclear facilities, Ahmadinejad called any attack unlikely, but he said if Israel did, the reaction would be overwhelming.
"The scope of Iran's reaction will include the entire the earth," said Ahmadinejad. "We also tell you — the West — that all options are on the table."
Ahmadinejad appeared to be consciously echoing the terminology used by the U.S. and Israel in their statements not ruling out a military option against Iran's nuclear facilities.
On Friday, Iran also test-fired a new liquid fuel surface-to-surface missile, the Qiam-1, with advanced guidance systems.
'Iran's reaction to a U.S. strike won't be confined to the Mideast' – www.haaretz.com
Comment by senior Revolutionary Guards officer comes as Ahmadinejad unveils long-range bomber drone meant to defend Iran from 'world aggressors.'
Iran's reaction to a possible U.S. military strike against its nuclear facilities would target American interests beyond the Middle East, a high-ranking officer in Iran's Revolutionary Guards told Iran's semi-official Fars news agency on Sunday.
Iranian and Russian engineers began on Saturday the weeklong operation of loading uranium fuel into the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a major milestone as Tehran forges ahead with its atomic program, despite UN sanctions.
Speculating on the possibliity of a U.S. strike against Iran's developing nuclear program, Deputy Revolutionary Guards Commander for Political Affairs Brigadier General Yadollah Javani said Sunday that "if Americans make a strategic mistake and choose the military option against the Islamic Republic and our nation's interests, Iran will not confine its defense to the region."
"In case of any illogical move, the Islamic Republic's hands and advocates will be powerfully activated against the interests of the hegemonic system and U.S. bases outside the region," Javani told Fars.
Earlier this month, Javani had commented on the possibility of a U.S. strike of its nuclear facilities, saying that Iran would "give a crushing response to its enemies."
Turning his attention to Israel, Javani had that Iran did not believe its enemy was capable of attacking. Nonetheless, he said, Iran would be prepared in case that equation should change. "Iran never ignores its enemies. Hence, we have been increasing our defense and deterrence capabilities."
Also on Sunday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled what Iran is calling the country's first long-range drone, saying that Iran should seek the ability to make preemptive strikes against a perceived threat, although he said it would never strike first.
"If there is an ignorant person or an egotist or a tyrant who just wanted to make an aggression then our Defense Ministry should reach a point where it could cut off the hand of the aggressor before it decided to make an aggression," he said.
"We should reach a point when Iran would serve as a defense umbrella for all freedom loving nations in the face of world aggressors. We don't want to attack anywhere, Iran will never decide to attack anywhere, but our revolution cannot sit idle in the face of tyranny, we can't remain indifferent."
The exact capabilities of the new drone were not disclosed.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is entirely peaceful, has warned that any strike against its nuclear sites would be countered by measures not restricted to the Middle East region. Ahmadinejad said on Saturday an attack on Iran would be "suicidal."
.
Iran has said it was prepared to resume talks with major world powers but the exact nature of such negotiations has yet to be defined. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said last week Iran would not talk to the United States unless sanctions and military threats were lifted.
ALL OF OUR DVD’S NOW FOR ONLY $14.95 EACH
These DVD’s are not just someone standing at a podium and speaking to an audience, they are full length docudrama’s just like you would see on the Discovery Channel or the History Channel. They make wonderful witnessing and teaching tools and many churches show them to their congregations and youth groups as well as using them in home Bible study groups.
www.prophecyupdate.com/prophecy_update_dvd.htm
SAVE EVEN MORE WITH ONE OF OUR SUMMER DVD SPECIALS
Special #1 - The Last Days Trilogy
The End of Times
Perilous Times
Living on Borrowed Time
All 3 DVD's for only $29.95
Special #2 - Amazing Prophecy
As in the Days of Noah
The Rapture: In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye...
After the Rapture
All 3 DVD's for only $29.95
Special #3 - There will be Tribulation
Israel God's Timepiece
The Soon to be Revealed Antichrist
Gog and Magog
All 3 DVD's for only $29.95
www.prophecyupdate.com/dvd_special1.htm
Warning! Watching these DVD’s could change your life forever!
Our Best Deal! Now you can own all 9 of the DVD’s in our prophecy series for only $69.95…
THE COMPLETE PROPHECY UPDATE DVD SERIES
COMPLIMENT YOUR DVD LIBRARY WITH OUR INFORMATIVE AND INSPIRING PROPHECY SERIES
“The DVD’s were just wonderful – well done! I’m proud to show them to anyone.“ Sandra M, Florida
ALL 9 DVD'S FOR ONLY $69.95
www.prophecyupdate.com/prophecy_update_dvd_series.htm
Thank You So Very Much!
A great gift for your family or your church or favorite ministry!
Israeli and Palestinian leaders given a year to make peace – Mark Weiss – www.telegraph.co.uk
Israeli and Palestinian leaders have been given 12 months to make peace and agree to live side-by-side in two separate states in direct negotiations to start next month.
Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, announced she would personally lead the talks, to be launched in Washington on September 2.
They will follow the biggest Middle East summit for years, attended also by President Barack Obama, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, King Abdullah of Jordan, and Tony Blair, as representative of the Middle East Quartet of major powers.
Over the following months, negotiators will have to set boundaries for a new Palestinian state, decide the status of Jerusalem and the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees, all the while hoping the talks will not be scuppered by resumed Israeli settlement building or militant missile attacks.
Mrs Clinton said she and President Obama shared with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, “the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.”
“There have been difficulties in the past, there will be difficulties ahead,” she said. “Without a doubt, we will hit more obstacles. The enemies of peace will keep trying to defeat us and derail these talks.
“But I ask the parties to persevere, to keep moving forward even through difficult times and to continue working to achieve a just and lasting peace in the region.”
The resumption of direct bilateral negotiations, which were broken off in December 2008 when Israeli forces invaded Gaza, will be considered a foreign policy success for the Obama administration ahead of November’s midterm elections.
But the complex and contradictory political machinations that lay behind Friday’s announcement heralded the potential difficulties.
The two sides have accepted different invitations to the same talks. Israel would only consider a direct invitation from the United States without preconditions.
The Palestinians obtained from the Quartet a more fully worded invitation which made references to previous statements on their requirements. These included a call for an end to Israeli settlement building, a key demand.
That full invitation presages the creation of an independent Palestinian state based on the borders before the 1967 Six Day War, with some boundary changes to recognize “facts on the ground”.
That means existing Israeli settlements will be allowed to stay in return for a land swap, giving Israeli land to the Palestinians.
The major obstacles remain East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians view as a future capital but which Mr Netanyahu says must remain part of the “indivisible” capital of Israel.
On September 26th a 10-month moratorium on settlement construction agreed by Mr Netanyahu expires. The Israeli leader has already warned that any extension of the freeze would endanger the stability of his largely right-wing and religious coalition.
But the Palestinians are likely to insist that there can be no settlement building for the duration of the talks.
Above all, many Palestinians are not even represented at the talks. While Mr Abbas and his Fatah party rule the West Bank and have succeeded in restoring a credible degree of law and order in recent years, he lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas. Hamas refuses to recognize the Jewish state and will not participate in the peace talks.
Israel and the Palestinians resumed indirect, proximity talks in May with US envoy George Mitchell acting as mediator.
China's spectacular ascendance begins to reshape the world economy – David Barboza - www.guardian.co.uk
The country has passed Japan to become the second-largest economy behind the US
After three decades of spectacular growth, China passed Japan in the second quarter to become the world's second-largest economy behind the US, according to government figures released on Monday.
The milestone, though anticipated, is the most striking evidence yet of China's ascendance and that the rest of the world will have to reckon with a new economic superpower.
The recognition came early on Monday, when Tokyo said that Japan's economy was valued at about $1.28 trillion in the second quarter, slightly below China's $1.33 trillion. Experts say unseating Japan — and in recent years passing Germany, France and Great Britain — underscores China's growing clout and bolsters forecasts that China will pass the US as the world's biggest economy as early as 2030. America's gross domestic product was about $14 trillion in 2009.
"This has enormous significance," said Nicholas Lardy, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "It reconfirms what's been happening for the better part of a decade: China has been eclipsing Japan economically. For everyone in China's region, they're now the biggest trading partner rather than the US or Japan."
But while Japan's economy is mature and its population ageing, China is in the throes of urbanization and is far from developed, analysts say, meaning it has a much lower standard of living, as well as a lot more room to grow. Just five years ago, China's GDP was about half of Japan's.
China's per capita income is more on a par with those of impoverished nations like Algeria, El Salvador and Albania – close to $3,600 – than that of the US, where it is about $46,000.
Yet there is little disputing that under the Communist party, China has begun to reshape the way the global economy functions by virtue of its growing dominance of trade, its huge hoard of foreign exchange reserves and US government debt and its voracious appetite for natural resources.
China is already a major driver of global growth. The country's leaders have grown more confident on the international stage and have begun to assert greater influence in Asia, Africa and Latin America, with things like special trade agreements and multibillion-dollar resource deals.
"They're exerting a lot of influence on the global economy and becoming dominant in Asia," said Eswar Prasad, a professor of trade policy at Cornell and former head of the International Monetary Fund's China division. "A lot of other economies in the region are essentially riding on China's coattails, and this is remarkable for an economy with a low per capita income."
Beijing is also beginning to shape global dialogues on a range of issues, analysts said. Last year it asserted that the dollar must be phased out as the world's primary reserve currency.
"This is just the beginning," said Wang Tao, an economist at UBS in Beijing. "China is still a developing country. So it has a lot of room to grow. And China has the biggest impact on commodity prices – in Russia, India, Australia and Latin America."
There are huge challenges ahead, though. Economists say China is too heavily dependent on exports and investment and needs to encourage greater domestic consumption — something it has struggled to do.
Global companies are making a more aggressive push into the country, in some cases moving research and development centers there.
Some analysts say that while China is eager to assert itself as a financial and economic power – and to push its state companies to "go global" – it is reluctant to play a greater role in the debate over climate change or how to slow the growth of greenhouse gases.
China passed the US in 2006 to become the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, which scientists link to global warming. But China also has an ambitious program to cut the energy it uses for each unit of economic output by 20% by the end of 2010, compared to 2006.
Assessing what China's new clout means is complicated. While the country is still poor per capita, it has an authoritarian government capable of taking decisive action – to stimulate the economy, build new projects and invest in specific industries.
That, Lardy at the Peterson Institute said, gives the country unusual power. "China is already the primary determiner of the price of virtually every major commodity," he said. "And the Chinese government can be much more decisive in allocating resources in a way that other governments of this level of per capita income cannot."
Global currency around the corner? – Henry Lamb – www.wnd.com
If the International Monetary Fund gets its way, the U.S. dollar will be replaced by the "bancor" as the world's reserve currency. According to a report published April 13, the IMF would like to adopt a plan of action that would expand the use of SDRs (Special Drawing Rights) to replace the U.S. dollar as the storehouse of value and eventually create a global currency called the "bancor."
"Bancor" is the name suggested by John Maynard Keynes, the British economist who headed the World Banking Commission that created the IMF during the Breton Woods negotiations, which preceded the United Nations.
The new global currency would be issued by a new global central bank that would have the authority to levy taxes for various infractions. The bank would have to be, according to the report writers, "accountable to member nations, but remain independent." This statement sounds much like the defenders of the Federal Reserve, which was created by Congress and is supposed to be accountable to Congress, but refuses to allow Congress to audit its activities or even to answer congressional questions about to whom it lends U.S. dollars.
A global central bank has long been a goal of those who advocate global governance. America's school system has failed to teach students about the century-long conflict between those who want a global governing authority and those who do not. Schools barely teach that Woodrow Wilson and his colleagues created the League of Nations, or why this institution failed. Schools never explain that many of the same people who promoted the League of Nations continued their efforts through non-government organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations until Franklin Roosevelt was elected president.
Schools do credit Roosevelt with helping to create the United Nations, but they never explain that Roosevelt brought into his administration dozens of people from the Council on Foreign Relations to draft his "New Deal," as well as plans for the United Nations.
Schools do not teach that President Kennedy planned to turn over U.S. military power to the United Nations to give the emerging global government the power to enforce its policies. People who refuse to accept this statement are encouraged to read "Freedom from War: the United States Program for General and Complete Disarmament in a Peaceful World," Department of State Publication 7277, released September 1961.
The people who believe the world should be governed by a global authority have been working toward this goal for more than a century. They are relentless; they are driven; they are convinced that they know best how people should live. They believe that all nations and all societies should be controlled by an elite, benevolent intelligentsia that can ensure social justice by enforcing what has now become known as sustainable development. These people are closer to achieving their goal than at any previous time in history.
Woodrow Wilson assumed his political power would be sufficient to impose the League of Nations. He underestimated the determination of freedom-lovers such as Henry Cabot Lodge and other senators who refused to ratify the treaty that created the League. Roosevelt assumed that the devastation of World War II would be sufficient to usher in the era of world government under the authority of the United Nations – and he was right, until political reality crushed his utopian socialist dream of a global community.
Kennedy's 1961 plans for complete disarmament evaporated in 1962, when the USSR began building missile-launching sites in Cuba. It became abundantly clear that despite all the warm and fuzzy global-neighborhood talk, the Soviets fully intended to gain the military power to crush the United States. Fortunately, President Kennedy confronted Soviet military power with U.S. military power, and the Soviets backed down.
This historical fact is a powerful lesson that should teach current and future leaders that this nation cannot risk meeting military threats with anything less than superior military strength. Those who seek to dissolve threats with rhetoric and double-barrel teleprompters are a more dangerous threat to America than any external enemy.
Those who advocate global governance have changed their tactics, but not their goal. They have made great strides through a variety of treaties, and particularly through the implementation of Agenda 21 and the concept of sustainable development. The erosion of freedom that is inevitable under any system of global governance has been painted green, packaged in a bundle labeled "social justice" and sold to a generation of Americans eager to make the world a better place.
The global currency proposed by the IMF is just the latest step toward that ultimate utopian vision pursued for so long by so many. The freedom that powered America's rise to greatness cannot exist in a system of global governance. Individual freedom, granted by the Creator and guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution is at best diminished by global governance, and at worst completely denied.
Global governance in any form must be rejected.
Dates That Destroyed America - By Chuck Baldwin – www.chuckbaldwinlive.com
The decision by Congress to socialize medicine in the US ranks among the most draconian, most egregious, most horrific actions ever taken by the central government in Washington, D.C. This bill rocks the principles of liberty and constitutional government to the core. It changes fundamental foundations; it repudiates historical principle.
Oh! The same flag may fly on our flagpoles, the same monuments may grace our landscape, and the same National Anthem may be sung during our public ceremonies, but it is not the same America. The Congress of the United States has now officially turned America into a socialist state.
On March 21, 2010, Congress passed, and on March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the dreaded national health care bill into law, and as such, these dates join a list of dates that have each inflicted unconstitutional, socialistic, and sometimes even tyrannical action against the States united and have, therefore, contributed to the destruction of a free America.
April 9, 1865
This is the date when General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to U.S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
Regardless of where one comes down on the subject of the Civil War, one fact is undeniable: Abraham Lincoln seriously dismantled the Jeffersonian model of federalism in America. Ever since, virtually every battle that free men have fought for the principles of limited government, State sovereignty, etc., has stemmed directly from Lincoln's usurpation of power, which resulted in the subjugation and forced union of what used to be "Free and Independent States" (the Declaration of Independence). In fact, the philosophical battles being waged today regarding the recent health care debacle (and every other encroachment upon liberty and State power by the central government) have their roots in Lincoln's tyranny.
July 9, 1868
This is the date when the 14th Amendment was ratified. This amendment codified into law what Lincoln had forced at bayonet point. Until then, people were only deemed citizens of their respective states. The Constitution nowhere referred to people as "US citizens." It only recognized "the Citizens of each State." Notice also that citizenship was only recognized among the "several States," not among people living in non-State territories. Until the 14th Amendment, people were "Citizens of each State." (Article. IV. Section. 2. Paragraph. 1.) The 14th Amendment created a whole new class of persons: "citizens of the United States." This false notion of "one nation" overturned the Jeffersonian principle that our nation was a confederated republic, a voluntary union of states.
February 3, 1913
This is the date when the 16th Amendment was ratified, and the direct income tax and IRS were instituted. This was a flagrant repudiation of freedom principles. What began as a temporary measure to support the War of Northern Aggression became a permanent income revenue stream for an unconstitutional--and ever-growing--central government.
April 8, 1913
This is the date when the 17th Amendment was ratified. This amendment overturned the power of the State legislatures to elect their own senators and replaced it with a direct, popular vote. This was another serious blow against State sovereignty. The framers of the Constitution desired that the influence and power in Washington, D.C., be kept as close to the people and states as possible. For example, the number of representatives in the House of Representatives was to be decided by a limited number of voters. In the original Constitution, the ratio of "people of the several States" deciding their House member could not exceed "one for every thirty thousand."
(Article. I. Section. 2. Paragraph. 3.) And when it came to the US Senate, the framers also recognized the authority of each State legislature to select its own senators, thereby keeping power and influence from aggregating in Washington, D.C. The 17th Amendment seriously damaged the influence and power of the states by forcing them to elect their US senators by popular vote. The bigger the State, the less influence the State legislature has in determining its US senator. Senators who answered to State legislators, each answering to a limited number of voters, were much more accountable to the "citizens of the several States" than those who were elected by a large number (many times numbering into the millions) of people. For all intents and purposes (at least in the larger states), US Senators are more like "mini-Presidents" than they are representatives of sovereign states.
December 23, 1913
This is the date when the Federal Reserve Act was passed. This Act placed oversight of America's financial matters into the hands of a cabal of private international bankers, who have completely destroyed the constitutional principles of sound money and (for the most part) free enterprise. No longer would the marketplace (private consumption, thrift, growth, etc.) be the determinant of the US economy (which is what freedom is all about), but now a private, unaccountable international banking cartel would have total power and authority to micromanage (for their own private, parochial purposes) America's financial sector. Virtually every recession, depression, and downturn (including the one we are now experiencing) has been the direct result of the Fed's manipulation (again, for its own purposes and with Washington's cooperation) of the market.
June 26, 1945
This is the date when the United Nations Charter was signed and America joined the push for global government. Ever since, US forces have spilled untold amounts of blood and sacrificed thousands of lives promoting the UN's agenda. Since the end of World War II, in virtually every war in which US military forces have been engaged, it has been at the behest of the UN. And it is also no accident that America has not fought a constitutionally declared war since we entered the UN--and neither have we won one.
Furthermore, it is America's involvement in the United Nations that has spearheaded this draconian push for a New World Order that George H. W. Bush, Henry Kissinger, Tony Blair, Walter Cronkite, et al., have talked so much about. The United Nations is an evil institution that has completely co-opted our US State Department and much of our Defense Department. It is an anti-American institution that works aggressively and constantly against the interests and principles of the United States. But it is an institution that is ensconced in the American political infrastructure. Like a cancer, the UN eats away at our liberties and values, and both major political parties in Washington, D.C., are culpable in allowing it to exert so much influence upon our country.
June 25, 1962, and June 17, 1963
These are the dates when the US Supreme Court removed prayer ('62) and Bible reading ('63) from public schools. At this point, these two Supreme Court decisions were the most serious affront to the First Amendment in US history. Think of it: from before a union of states was established in 1787, children had been free to pray and read the Scriptures in school. We're talking about a period of more than 300 years! Of course, the various State legislatures--and myriad city and county governmental meetings--still open their sessions in prayer, as do the US House and Senate, and even the US Supreme Court. But this same liberty is denied the children of America. There is no question that America has not recovered from these two horrific Supreme Court decisions. In effect, the federal government has expelled God not only from our public schools, but also from our public life. And America has not been the same since.
October 22, 1968
This is the date when President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Gun Control Act of 1968. Before this Act, the 2nd Amendment was alive and well in the United States. The Gun Control Act of 1968 turned a right into a privilege and forever forced the American people to bow at the altar of government when seeking to arm themselves. Interestingly enough, this Gun Control Act mirrored Nazi Germany's Gun Control Act of 1938. In fact, the Gun Control Act of 1968 is almost a verbatim copy of Hitler's Gun Control Act of 1938.
Our Founding Fathers could never have imagined that governments within the "several States" would ever be allowed to deny the people's right to keep and bear arms. In fact, it was the attempted confiscation of the firearms stored at Concord, Massachusetts, that triggered the War of Independence in 1775. That the people of Massachusetts would be denied their right to keep and bear arms, as they are today, could not have been foreseen--and would never have been tolerated--by America's founders.
Yet, most of the hundreds of draconian gun control laws that have been inflicted upon the American people have all come about as a result of the Gun Control Act of 1968.
January 22, 1973
This is the date when the US Supreme Court issued the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions, which, in effect, legalized abortion-on-demand. These two decisions expunged the Jeffersonian principle that all men are endowed by their Creator with the unalienable right to life (Declaration). Since then, more than 50 million unborn babies have been legally murdered in their mothers' wombs. Abortion is, without a doubt, America's national holocaust. It has opened the door to a host of Big Government programs and policies that have resulted in the wanton destruction of human life both in the United States and overseas. It has created an entire industry whose express purpose for existing is the destruction of human life. It has desensitized the conscience and soul of America. Furthermore, it has forced men of decency and good will to finance--with their tax dollars--the unconscionable act of killing unborn children.
And once again, another Jeffersonian principle was eviscerated. He said, "To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." The Roe and Doe decisions violate this principle in the most egregious manner possible.
October 26, 2001
This is the date when President George W. Bush signed the USA Patriot Act, and the federal government's war against individual liberty began in earnest. Most of the unconstitutional eavesdropping, snooping, wiretapping, phone call intercepting, email reading, prying, financial records tracking, travel watching, ad infinitum, ad nauseam, by federal police agencies began with the implementation of the Patriot Act. The Department of Homeland Security and the "war on terrorism," which have resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people worldwide, and the usurpation of federal power at home, have all come about as an outgrowth of the Patriot Act. The USA Patriot Act has forever shifted the focus of American law and jurisprudence against constitutional government and individual liberty, toward a police-state mentality. The Patriot Act is even attempting to turn our local and State law enforcement agencies into military-style "Jackboots," where police officers see themselves not necessarily as guardians of the citizenry, but, as often as not, as adversaries, where citizens are deemed to be the "enemy."
October 17, 2006, and October 9, 2009
These are the dates when President G.W. Bush signed and President Barack Obama re-signed the Military Commissions Act. This Act is the outgrowth of the Patriot Act but has, in effect, terminated the fundamental protections of individual liberty, which are found in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. For all intents and purposes, the Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act eviscerated the 4th and 5th Amendments, and do serious injury to several others. The Military Commissions Act also expunges the constitutional right of Habeas Corpus.
March 21 and 23, 2010
These are the dates when Congress passed and President Obama signed into law the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," the so-called "health care reform" bill that we spoke about at the beginning of this column. While Social Security and various Welfare programs have toyed with socialism in the United States, this bill is the largest and most expansive endorsement of socialism in American history. This bill socializes some 18% of the US economy by socializing the health care industry in America. The fallout and ramifications of this bill are going to be horrific.
When future historians review the demise of our once-great republic, they will observe that the above dates were the dates that destroyed America. The American people have been far too tolerant for far too long.
People concerned about the future of freedom and prosperity in America should line up quickly and demand that their respective State legislatures and governors resist this new health care bill, even to the point of refusing to implement it in their states. More than 30 states are threatening to take the health care bill to court. But states must do more than that. They must pass legislation refusing to comply with it. Yes, I'm saying it: it is time for another State rebellion! If states do not stand up and draw their lines in the sand now, it will be forever too late.
When You Don't Know What to Pray – Greg Laurie – www.harvest.org
One of the things the Holy Spirit does in our lives is to help us with our prayers.
Why? Because there are times when we don't really know what or how to pray. Maybe you are overwhelmed by a burden. You find yourself discouraged, depressed, and overwhelmed. It is at that point that the Holy Spirit will help you.
Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as a "comforter." In John 14:16, He said, "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever" (NKJV).
We have lost the meaning of the word "comforter." It comes from the Greek word paracletos, which means "called alongside to help," a helper, aide, or assistant.
Some versions translate paracletos as the word "advocate," which is applied to Jesus in 1 John 2:1: "If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous" (NKJV).
The purpose of an advocate is to plead the cause of another—to be an intercessor. This is part of the work that the Holy Spirit has come to do in your life.
Here's the good news: sometimes just a sigh or groan will do. Why? Because we don't always have to put words to our prayers. The Holy Spirit will do the rest.
Trust me; I have done this many times. I don't know what to say, or how to say it. I just know that I am in pain; so I sigh, I groan, and sometimes I cry.
That's where the Holy Spirit comes in.
Romans 8:26–27 tells us, "And the Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. For we don't even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will" (NLT).
CSN RADIO - Where God's Word is Heard
PROPHECY UPDATE is a proud sponsor of CSN RADIO, Solid Bible Teaching, Passionate Praise & Worship, 24/7. Find a station near you or listen live on the internet
We Sure Could Use Your Support – Thanks!
If ever there was a time to invest in God’s Kingdom, it’s now!
What on earth are you doing for Heaven’s Sake?
"Share in the Blessings and Rewards that will last Forever!"
“Folks, it's all beginning to unravel. America is in more danger of falling than at any time in its history. But I believe Bible prophecy predicts this very decline. From this point on, we believers have to get serious. We are going to face discouragement, disillusionment and, most certainly, persecution in the time between now and the Rapture. But don't be discouraged or disillusioned. The coming turmoil will provide us unrivaled opportunities to share the good news of the Gospel. So be ready to share your faith and your hope with those who need Christ. We still have time to reap a great harvest of souls for God's kingdom!” – Hal Lindsey
1) We need your prayers! – We proclaim the Truth of the Word of God and we are under constant spiritual and sometimes even physical attack.
2) We need your encouragement! - We need to hear from you, let us know how the Lord is blessing you through this ministry so that we can share it with others.
3) We need your input! – If you have a prophetic article or story or if there is a news related item we missed, let us know.
4) We need your financial support! - To put it quite simply, without your support, there would be no Prophecy Update.
I ask that you would prayerfully consider partnering with us to get the Word out and keep the world informed. Remember, your gift, no matter how small, does make a difference! You will be helping to touch lives, around the world, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, thanks to the internet your generosity carries a global impact! – Thanks!
Our Prayer for You - "Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else." 2 Corinthians 9:10-13
If you have been blessed by Prophecy Update and would like to help support this ministry financially. You can make a secure donation online by going to:
www.prophecyupdate.com/donations.htm
Or write us at:
Prophecy Update
P.O. Box 40516
Bakersfield, CA 93384-0516
Above all things I ask for your prayers, Thanks!
As It Was In The Days Of Noah - This Week’s Feature Article by Jack Kelley – www.gracethrufaith.com
As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man (Matt 24:37). The time leading up to the Great Flood was a lot like our time today in that it was characterized by a deliberate and escalating disregard for the ways of God. Finally “the Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on earth had become and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Gen. 6:5).
What Day Is This?
If you plot the lifespans of the patriarchs in Genesis 5 , you’ll discover it was 1656 years from Adam’s creation to the Great Flood. During that time mankind had degenerated from human beings created in the very image of God who walked and talked with Him to a race whose thoughts and actions were totally depraved and bent only on evil (Gen. 6:5). It’s been about 1977 years since man was first given the choice to be re-created by events at the Cross (2 Cor 5:17) but most of today’s world has declined. As a result, a single look around us is all that’s needed to see that from a spiritual and moral perspective life today is becoming pretty much “as it was in the days of Noah”.
What Planet Are You From?
I’ve made mention in previous articles of the mysterious people in Genesis 6:4 called the Nephillim. They were the offspring of marriages between angelic beings and earthlings . Would these beings with super natural strength (origin of the titans or demi-gods in mythology) be called aliens today? In many documented alien encounters there seems to be a great interest on their part in our reproductive system. Are aliens using humans to breed a super race again? In the King James rendering of Daniel 2:43 there’s a curious reference to someone “mingling themselves with the seed of men” in the last days. Is the anti-Christ part alien or in command of beings that are part alien and part human? As it was in the days of Noah?
Out Of The Way
But in all my years of study comparing the days of Noah with the end of the age one insight has recently made things much clearer to me. In Genesis 6:3 God warned of the removal of His Spirit from Earth before the coming judgment. Some see this passage as capping man’s life span at 120 years, but that can’t be its purpose. In Psalm 90:10 we’re told that an average man’s life span is 70 years, and Isaiah 23:15 supports this conclusion. Average life spans before the flood were much longer than 120 years, and after the flood soon became much shorter. Looking at the Genesis lifespans again shows that Shem, probably the last pre-flood man, outlived 8 of the first 9 post flood generations of his descendants, including Abraham.
The fact is that 120 years was the time God gave man to prepare for the coming judgment. He said He was going to remove His Spirit from the earth prior to that judgment. In 2 Thes 2:7 a similar warning is given concerning the end of the age (but without a deadline), and there is confusion over it’s interpretation just as with Gen. 6:3. The only truly literal interpretation of this passage is that sometime before the anti-Christ can be revealed in all his power beginning the Great Tribulation, the restraining force of the Holy Spirit must be taken out of the way (literally out of the midst, or from among).
Then as I was reading Genesis 6 again, the most remarkable thing happened. In my Bible Genesis 6:3 is in the right hand column about 1 inch down the page. I’ve had it high lighted for years. In the left hand column directly across from Genesis 6:3 is another verse I highlighted some time ago. It’s Genesis 5:24 and reads; Enoch walked with God and then he was no more because God took him away. Seeing those two high lighted verses side by side like that caused the sequence of events to suddenly become so obvious to me, I don’t know why I hadn’t seen it before. First Enoch was taken alive from earth and the Holy Spirit was withdrawn. Then in Gen. 6:5 man’s behavior is described as having become unbearably wicked and in Gen. 7 the judgment came, in that order.
Enoch’s name means teaching and according to Jude 14-15 he gave the first prophecy of the 2nd coming. Hebrew tradition holds that he was born on the 6th day of Sivan on the Hebrew calendar and was taken by God on his birthday. The 6th of Sivan is the day we know as Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. For these reasons Enoch is often seen as a model or type of the church, whose calling is also to teach the world the ways of the Lord and to talk about His coming.
You Promised You Wouldn’t Do That
The Bible declares that the Holy Spirit is sealed within believers as a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance (Ephes. 1:13-14). Paul wrote that the Holy Spirit will be withdrawn from earth sometime before the anti- Christ is allowed to trigger the judgment known as the Great Tribulation (2 Thes. 2:7). Withdrawing the Holy Spirit with out removing the Church would break God’s promise to us since it would require “unsealing” the Holy spirit from within us. That’s something that God can’t do. “What I have said, that will I bring about,” He declares. “What I have planned, that will I do.” (Isaiah 46:11)
If Enoch is indeed a model of the church and if the Lord’s prophecy of Matt 24:37 is meant to describe the sequence of end times events, as seems likely, then one day soon we will be taken alive (raptured) from earth like Enoch was, and the Holy Spirit will be withdrawn. Man’s behavior will quickly become unbearably wicked and the judgment will come, all in that order. As it was in the days of Noah.
If You Died Today, Would You Go To Heaven?
Find out, visit: www.prophecyupdate.com/if_you_died_today.htm
Prophecy Update – GoodSearch Toolbar
http://www.goodsearch.com/toolbar/prophecy-update
Our Prophecy Update Toolbar is free to download and allows you to raise money for our cause every time you search or shop online!
DID YOU KNOW?
You can read all the news articles, analysis and commentaries at: www.prophecyupdate.com
You can visit the news archives at: www.prophecyupdate.com/prophecy_news.htm
You can submit an article, leave a comment or praise report at: prophecyupdate@bak.rr.com (Note: Due to the large amount of emails that I receive, I can't possibly reply to every email, but I do read each and every one!)
Maranatha!
(Lord Come Quickly)
"On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand, All other ground is sinking sand."
"Let Us make the short time we have left count for all eternity!"
YBIC-Randy
