August 26, 2010
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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
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Obama weighs offer of US nuclear umbrella if Israel scraps Iran strike – www.debka.com
A study of the mood among Israeli leaders and military chiefs indicates that at any moment a strike on Iran's nuclear sites must be taken into account. The Israeli media show nothing of this; they are totally absorbed in guessing whether Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will extend the 10-month settlement construction moratorium beyond its Sept. 25 expiry date at the talks opening with the Palestinians next week. The American media, in contrast, are highlighting speculation about a possible Israeli attack on Iran.
debkafile's Washington and Jerusalem sources report that Israel has revived its military option against Iran - especially since Iran activated its first nuclear reactor at Bushehr on Aug. 21, thereby placing Washington under enormous pressure. In addition to the dire predictions of catastrophe planted on various op-ed pages, the Obama administration this week sent two big guns to Jerusalem to try and check an Israel attack.
The first to arrive was International Atomic Energy Agency Director Yukiya Amano, who explained that under his stewardship the nuclear watchdog's treatment of Iran would be quite different from the lenience shown by his predecessor, Mohamed ElBaradei. He promised its inspectors would henceforth clamp down hard on Iran's nuclear activities including the Bushehr reactor.
Thursday, Aug. 26, Amano was joined by Dennis Ross, head of Obama's team of Iran advisers and a close friend of many Israeli leaders. He came laden with offers of security gifts - possible rewards both for restraint on Iran and as a softener for Netanyahu to be generous with concessions to the Palestinians in the forthcoming negotiations.
Ross has taken three days to make his pitch on Iran, while Netanyahu has less than a week to decide whether he can again trust the US president's new promises after they were not exactly upheld in the way the Bushehr reactor was allowed to go on stream or the modalities for the negotiations with the Palestinians.
While preparing the Ross mission, the administration let it be known that the security gifts on offer would be dramatic and make the IDF one of the strongest and most advanced armies in the world.
Advance notice came in a series of leaks to former CIA officer Bruce Riedel, who is very close to President Obama, for an article he published in the influential The National Interest on Aug. 25 under the caption "If Israel Attacks."
Riedel urged the US to do everything in its power to stop an attack happening as it would spell catastrophe and advised Israel to adjust to the fact that the development of an Iranian atom bomb can no longer be halted.
To make Israel feel secure in the new reality, Riedel "proposed" four steps for strengthening the Israeli armed forces and lending it a second-strike capability - even against an Iranian nuclear attack.
1. The US must spread a nuclear umbrella over Israel that would entail the installation of American nuclear depots in Israel to show Tehran that a nuclear attack on the Jewish state would meet with a US nuclear response.
2. American nuclear submarines would be supplied to the Israeli Navy as the backbone of its nuclear counter-strike. There are two categories - ballistic missile submarines and attack submarines.
3. The Israeli Air Force would receive US F-22 Raptor stealth jets, the most sophisticated warplane in the skies today. They would be equipped with all the systems and ordnance needed to strike the Iranian nuclear program.
4. The US would arrange for Israel's full membership of NATO, so rendering an Iranian nuclear attack on Israel subject not just to US retaliation but a declaration of war by the 26-member alliance.
To qualify for these American security perks, Riedel made it clear that Israel would be required to come to terms with a nuclear-armed Iran and eschew military action against it, a provision with debkafile's military and Jerusalem sources say the Netanyahu government is most unlikely to accept.
For the Riedel analysis, which runs to 3,600 words, has a built-in contradiction. He portrays the Iranian leadership as consisting, behind their fiery rhetoric, of reasonable people who, when it comes down to it, will react to military and political pressure situations in a way that will not endanger their regime and their country's very survival.
However, this proposition does not take into account the Islamic Republic rulers' persistent threats to wipe Israel off the map (without regard to the hazards this would incur) or his own and the Obama administration's conviction that if Israel attacks Iran, Tehran will hit back at US targets and interests (even more hazardous).
debkafile's sources ask: Why would a "reasonable" regime risk going to war with America instead of limiting its military action to Israel?
And good would all the wonderful new military systems be to Israel for a second-strike capability when an initial Iranian nuclear attack would suffice to destroy the tiny Jewish state?
Iran has material for 1-2 atom bombs: ex-IAEA aide – www.news.yahoo.com
PARIS (Reuters) – Iran has stockpiled enough low-enriched uranium for 1-2 nuclear arms but it would not make sense for it to cross the bomb-making threshold with only this amount, a former top U.N. nuclear official was quoted as saying.
In unusual public remarks about Iran's disputed nuclear program Olli Heinonen, the former chief of U.N. nuclear inspections worldwide, told Le Monde newspaper that Iran's uranium reserve still represented a "threat."
Until he stepped down earlier this month for personal reasons, Heinonen was deputy director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency and head of its nuclear safeguards department, which verifies that countries' nuclear programs are not being diverted for military use.
A no-nonsense Finn, he was one of the U.N. agency's leading experts on Iran, which denies Western suspicions that its nuclear program is aimed at making bombs despite intelligence indications to the contrary, which he investigated for years.
In the interview published on Thursday, Heinonen said the Islamic Republic now possessed three tonnes of low-enriched uranium, material which can be used to fuel nuclear power plants, or form the core of a bomb if refined much further.
"In theory, it is enough to make one or two nuclear arms. But to reach the final step, when one only has just enough material for two weapons, does not make sense," Heinonen said in the interview carried out just before he left office.
In comments translated from English to French, he suggested this was not sufficient to constitute a serious bargaining chip in any negotiations with the United States, the Islamic Republic's old adversary.
"But this constitutes a ... threat," he said, apparently referring to Iran's LEU stockpile.
Heinonen said the United States estimated that Iran would need a year to convert its low-enriched uranium to higher-grade material, adding that this was a not a "bad estimate."
Top Pentagon officials told the U.S. Congress in April that Iran could produce enough highly enriched uranium for a single nuclear weapon in as little as a year -- but would probably need three to five years to assemble, test and deploy it.
World powers hope that new U.N., U.S. and European sanctions imposed on Iran since June will persuade it to enter negotiations on its nuclear programme which the West hopes will lead to a suspension of all uranium enrichment activity.
Iran, which says its nuclear work is aimed at generating electricity so that it can export more of its gas and oil, has repeatedly ruled out halting enrichment, while keeping the door open for talks.
Heinonen is probably best known for giving a closed-door presentation to diplomats on Iran in 2008 which indicated links between projects to process uranium, test explosives and modify a missile cone in a way suitable for a nuclear warhead.
His department's five-year investigation based on Western intelligence funneled to the agency helped harden IAEA concerns that Iran might have worked to develop a nuclear-armed missile and was still doing so.
Tehran says the intelligence is forged and that its atomic work is solely for peaceful purposes.
Iran proposes to produce nuclear fuel with Russia - Nasser Karimi – www.news.yahoo.com
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran has submitted a proposal to Russia to jointly assemble the nuclear fuel for the country's new power reactor and any future facilities, state media reported Thursday.
The move appeared to be an attempt by Tehran to gain some control over the nuclear fuel process at its Russian-built Bushehr nuclear plant. With Moscow's help, Iran began loading uranium fuel into the facility on Saturday.
The United States and allies lifted their opposition to the Bushehr plant after Russia pledged to handle all the nuclear fuel to make sure no material is shifted to a possible Iranian weapons program in the future. The latest proposal by Iran to have even a sideline role in the nuclear fuel process could stir backlash in the West.
"We have made a proposal to Russia to create a consortium under Russian license to do part of the work in Russia and part in Iran," the head of Iran's atomic energy agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, was quoted as saying by state-run Press TV. "We should show the world our capability in uranium production and its conversion into nuclear fuel."
Salehi, who is also Iran's vice president, said Moscow is "studying the proposal."
An official at the Russian nuclear agency said the two countries have discussed the possibility of creating a facility to assemble the fuel rods for Bushehr. The facility would operate under Russian license on Iranian territory.
But the official said the uranium enrichment would be performed on Russian soil. Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, the official added that Russia first will focus on commissioning the Bushehr plant, and then turn its attention to Iran's new proposal.
Russia is currently supplying all the uranium fuel for Bushehr. That fuel is enriched to 3.5 percent, well below the 90 percent enrichment needed for a nuclear warhead.
Bushehr is not considered a proliferation risk because the Iranians have agreed to allow Moscow to retrieve all the used reactor fuel for reprocessing. Spent fuel contains plutonium, which can be used to make atomic weapons.
Salehi also said that Iran has produced 55 pounds (25 kilograms) of uranium enriched to 20 percent since February. Iranian officials say the uranium enriched to 20 percent is needed to fuel a medical research reactor.
Iran's refusal to stop enriching uranium lies at the heart of its dispute with the West over Tehran's nuclear program. Iran says it needs to enrich uranium to make fuel for an envisaged reactor network, but highly enriched uranium can be used to create fissile material nuclear warheads.
The United States and other nations fear Iran aims to produce nuclear weapons under the cover of its civil nuclear power program. Iran denies the charge, and says its program is peaceful.
The U.N. Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions on Iran in June over Tehran's refusal to stop enriching uranium.
Israeli FM says peace deal in one year unlikely - Steve Weizman – www.news.yahoo.com
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's firebrand foreign minister on Wednesday played down US hopes, shared by his own prime minister, that peace talks starting in Washington next week would bear fruit within one year.
Further putting a damper on a public show of enthusiasm by premier Benjamin Netanyahu and the US administration, settlers threatened to bring down the Israeli government if a partial moratorium on settlement construction is renewed.
Palestinians seek a complete freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem.
"It's clear that the two sides are so different -- in content, in approach -- that it's hard to talk about a peace agreement within a year," Lieberman told Israeli public radio.
The parties, due to relaunch direct talks in Washington on September 2 after a 20-month hiatus, have been negotiating since 1993, when they signed interim accords after secret peace talks in Norway, but have yet to reach agreement.
"What have we been doing for the 17 years since Oslo?" Lieberman asked rhetorically. "Suddenly we're going to reach a peace agreement within a year? I think that the more we can lower expectations the healthier it will be."
Lieberman said Palestinian insistence that talks cannot proceed if Israel continues building in settlements are part of "difficult preconditions" likely to torpedo talks from the outset.
"Anyone coming with an 'all or nothing' attitude will end up at the end of the day with nothing," he said.
Last November, at US urging, the Israeli government declared a 10-month moratorium on issuing new building permits for settler homes in the West Bank, but excluded east Jerusalem, which Israel captured, then annexed in 1967.
Yesha, the main association of settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, warned Netanyahu that it would bring down his coalition government if the freeze remained in force.
"If we are not given the legal right to actually build homes for our families and children, we cannot allow a situation where this coalition will continue to govern," a Yesha said in a letter to the premier.
The settlers have strong influence in Netanyahu's Likud party and in Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu, and the letter warned of "serious diplomatic and political implications" if settlement construction is restrained.
Parliamentarian Ariyeh Eldad, who represents the settler lobby as a member of the religious-right National Union party, says the hardliners can paralyze the government's work in the legislature.
"We can make life miserable for the prime minister," he told foreign journalists at a briefing this week. "In the finance committee, in legislation, we can incapacitate him.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas faces his own internal opposition from the Islamist Hamas and secular groups who see talks as capitulating to Israel.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Abbas has his headquarters, his security forces broke up a gathering of left-wing opponents on Wednesday, arresting several, a participant said.
But at a diplomatic reception in Ramallah, Abbas sounded a hopeful note, saying that "there exists a historic chance to attain peace" and appealing to Israel "not to miss this historic chance".
In this context, he recalled that a freeze on Jewish settlements had the support of the entire international community.
Lieberman said the settlement freeze was a major concession but the Palestinians had failed to reciprocate, campaigning against Israel in UN institutions, boycotting settlement products and preaching hostility in their schools and media.
"There is no reason to continue to freeze settlement," he told the radio. "We've done enough and we got nothing in return."
But Lieberman pledged that he would be prepared to give up his own home in the West Bank settlement of Nokdim if it helped to secure genuine and lasting peace.
He said there were currently about 2,000 homes in the West Bank which had all the necessary planning and building permits and were ready to begin construction on September 26. There were a further 1,600 housing units in the pipeline in east Jerusalem, he added.
Fighting breaks out in Lebanon between Sunnis and Hizbullah – www.worldtribune.com
NICOSIA — The Sunni community has begun to resist the Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah in Lebanon during the most serious political crisis in years.
Hizbullah and Sunni fighters exchanged heavy fire in which at least four people were killed and 10 others injured. The battle on Aug. 24 included members of the pro-Syrian Al Ahbash, believed funded by Saudi Arabia.
"The situation is very tense and the military is in the area," a Lebanese source said.
The Lebanese Army sent several armored personnel carriers and other combat vehicles to the Beirut neighborhood of Burj Abi Haidar. But the military presence has not quelled the violence, called the worst in the Lebanese capital since a Hizbullah offensive in 2008.
The source said both Hizbullah and Al Ahbash, formally known as the Sunni Muslim Association of Islamic Charitable Projects, fired heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Hizbullah fighters also attacked and torched businesses linked to Al Ahbash. Al Ahbash was said to be receiving funds from Saudi Arabia to help protect the Sunni community in Lebanon.
Burj Abi Haidar is a mixed neighborhood in which tensions have long simmered between Sunnis and Hizbullah supporters. The latest fighting was said to have been sparked by a fracas that quickly escalated into gunfire and casualties.
In the first stage of fighting, a Hizbullah commander, identified as Mohammed Fawaz, was killed by Al Ahbash gunfire. The word of the killing brought hundreds of Hizbullah gunmen to Burj Abi Haidar. The Shi'ite-dominated Lebanese Army sought to cordon the neighborhood but did not intervene in the fighting.
This marked the first sectarian fighting since a crisis erupted between Hizbullah and Prime Minister Said Hariri in August. A Lebanese tribunal has linked Hizbullah to the assassination of Hariri's father, a former prime minister, in 2005. Hizbullah was said to have threatened to kill Said if the investigation was not quelled.
Fawaz was identified as a regional Hizbullah commander in the Beirut area. Witnesses said Fawaz had been arguing with an Al Ahbash operative over a parking space in what led to the gun battle.
"The hostility is growing rapidly but this does not seem to yet reflect a wider confrontation," a diplomat said.
Hizbullah has demanded that the Sunni killer of Fawaz be handed over to authorities. At the same time, Defense Minister Elias Murr announced a ban on unlicensed weapons in the country.
By Aug. 25, army commanders were seeking to impose a ceasefire amid the threat that sectarian fighting would spread beyond Beirut. Al Ahbash said an agreement, which included Hizbullah security chief Wafiq Safa, had been reached by morning following a night of fighting.
"An agreement was reached with Hizbullah during a meeting at army intelligence headquarters," Al Ahbash spokesman Abdul Kader Fakhani said. "The army will open an investigation into the fighting."
During the clash, Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah called for the modernization of Lebanon's military to prepare for war with Israel. Nasrallah said the Lebanese military needed Arab weapons more than money.
"All Arab countries say that they love Lebanon," Nasrallah said. "I suggest that the government define the type of weapons [the army needs] and tell Arab countries: 'We don't want money, We want weapons.' "
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The Mideast mirage - By George Will
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | JERUSALEM -- Immersion in this region's politics can convince those immersed that history is cyclical rather than linear -- that it is not one thing after another but the same thing over and over. This passes for good news because things that do change, such as weapons, often make matters worse.
A profound change, however, is this: Talk about the crisis between Israel and "the Arab world" is anachronistic. Israel has treaties with two Arab nations, Egypt and Jordan, and Israel's most lethal enemy is Iran, which is not an Arab state. It and another non-Arab nation, Turkey, are eclipsing the Arab world, where 60 percent of the population of 300 million is under 25, and 26 percent of that cohort is unemployed. The prerequisites for Arab progress -- freedom, education and the emancipation of women -- are not contemplated.
Syria's Bashar al-Assad, a dictator buttressed by torture, recently called Israel a state "based on crime, slaughter." Imagine what Israelis thought when, at about the time Assad was saying this, a State Department ninny visiting Syria was tweeting to the world, "I'm not kidding when I say I just had the greatest frappacino [sic] ever."
Israel has changed what it can, its own near neighborhood. Since 1967, faced with unrelenting Palestinian irredentism, Israel has been weaving the West Bank into a common fabric with the coastal plain, the nation's economic and population center of gravity. Withdrawal from the West Bank would bring Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion Airport within range of short-range rockets fired by persons overlooking the runways. So, the feasibility of such a withdrawal depends on how much has changed since 1974, when Yasser Arafat received a standing ovation at the United Nations when he said Israel had no right to exist.
Thirty-six years later, Israelis can watch West Bank Palestinian television incessantly inculcating anti-Semitism and denial of Israel's right to exist. Across the fence that has substantially reduced terrorism from the West Bank, Israelis see Ramallah, where Mahmoud Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, lives and where a square was recently named in honor of Dalal Mughrabi. In 1978, she, together with 11 other terrorists, hijacked an Israeli bus and massacred 37 Israelis and one American. Cigarette lighters sold on the West Bank show, when lit, the World Trade Center burning.
The Obama administration, which seems to consider itself too talented to bother with anything but "comprehensive" solutions to problems, may yet make matters worse by presenting its own plan for a final settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian problem. Barack Obama insists that it is "costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure," although he does not say how. Gen. David Petraeus says Israeli-Palestinian tensions "have an enormous effect on the strategic context." As though, were the tensions to subside, the hard men managing Iran's decades-long drive for nuclear weapons would then say, "Oh, well, in that case, let's call the whole thing off."
The biggest threat to peace might be the peace process -- or, more precisely, the illusion that there is one. The mirage becomes the reason for maintaining its imaginary "momentum" by extorting concessions from Israel, the only party susceptible to U.S. pressure. Israel is, however, decreasingly susceptible. In one month, history will recycle when the partial 10-month moratorium on Israeli construction on the West Bank expires. Resumption of construction -- even here, in the capital, which was not included in the moratorium -- will be denounced by a fiction, "the international community," as a threat to another fiction, "the peace process."
This, even though no Israeli government of any political hue has ever endorsed a ban on construction in Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, where about 40 percent of the capital's Jewish population lives. Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon, who says "the War of Independence has not ended" 62 years after 1948, says of an extension of the moratorium: "The prime minister is opposed to it. He said that clearly. The decision was for 10 months. [On] Sept. 27, we are immediately going to return" to construction and "Jerusalem is outside the discussion."
Predictably, Palestinian officials are demanding that the moratorium be extended as the price of their willingness to continue direct talks with Israel -- which begin Sept. 2 -- beyond Sept. 27. If this demand succeeds, history will remain cyclical: The "peace process" will be sustained by rewarding the Palestinian tactic of making the mere fact of negotiations contingent on Israeli concessions concerning matters that should be settled by negotiations.
Peace push will yield violence – David Dolan – www.wnd.com
JERUSALEM – History is, sadly, repeating itself. Eleven years ago, Bill Clinton twisted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's arm in a successful attempt to get him to withdraw Israeli soldiers from most sections of the ancient Jewish holy city of Hebron. The pullback was supposedly designed to strengthen the crumbling Oslo peace accord signed on the White House lawn in 1993 by Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat.
Instead, the unpopular evacuation caused Islamic terror attacks to mushroom and Netanyahu's coalition government to collapse, forcing early elections won by Ehud Barak. The new leader's subsequent offer at Camp David to hand over even more territory to the PLO chief was answered a few months later with the violent Palestinian Al Aksa uprising.
Another Democratic Party president is now wrestling with Netanyahu while pushing down hard on the explosive "peace" button. Barack Obama's action is likely, once again, to ignite violent confrontations in the Promised Land.
Adding to the historic repetition chill, it was Bill Clinton's violated wife who delivered the State Department announcement that direct peace talks will begin again next week in Washington after a 20-month hiatus.
While opinion polls showed that a majority of Israelis viewed Bill Clinton as a true friend, the same cannot be said for President Obama. In fact many see him as – ta da – a closet Muslim. Living around millions of Arab Muslims all of their lives, Israelis recognize the chief characteristics of many of Muhammad's followers. Told by their parents and imams from birth that they are the unique Chosen People of Allah – not the rejected Jews or idolatrous Christians – pride is one of those recurring traits among Muslims. Many would cite its cousin, arrogance, as another.
Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean sees these same traits oozing out of the White House, even if he pinned them on Obama's advisers instead of the president himself. After all, what does his recent statement on CNN that "the people around him … really misjudged what goes on elsewhere in the country other than Washington, D.C." mean if not that they are insolent in handling presidential power? They couldn't care less what the peons out there think They alone know the correct way forward.
This is exactly how Iranian President AhMADinejad speaks all the time. He does not care what anyone thinks. He will enrich uranium, he will destroy Israel, he will conquer the world.
It is absurd to maintain that the current intelligent and eloquent American leader does not set the arrogant tone that "the people around him" display to U.S. citizens and folks all over the globe. And that is why most Israelis I talk to feel that, at least in his attitudes if not most of his actions, Obama seems more like a proud Muslim than the meek Christian he purports to be. Terrorist victims and their families and friends be damned! Muslims have a right to build a grand mosque and pray at the hallowed site where a band of their brothers slaughtered area innocents en masse.
And yes, Israelis have noted that the president's middle name is Hussein – quite popular in the Islamic world since it was the moniker of Muhammad's grandson.
Another point made by some Israelis is that if the man's father (who apparently named him) and all of his paternal relatives were Muslims, as nobody disputes even if they do wonder exactly where he was born, then the commander in chief is considered a Muslim by his co-religionists, albeit a backslidden one.
No doubt Obama's mother came from a European Christian heritage. But her son chose to marry an African-American woman and have children of color. In other words, he ultimately identified more with his father, from African Muslim stock, than he did with his white Christian mother from Kansas. Psychologists point out this is a natural process for most male and female children. The main role model as they mature into adulthood is the parent of their own sex.
But back to the reignited peace process. Bill Clinton knew full well that Bibi Netanyahu could not remain long in power without the support of his right-wing coalition partners, not to mention the more hawkish members of his own Likud Party. The very same thing applies today. So forcing the "peace" door back open at this time is likely to cause the current government coalition to at least wobble, if not collapse.
Obama and company understand that the Israeli cabinet only froze home building in Judea and Samaria until this coming Sept. 26. Netanyahu's partners, and many in his party, insist he keep his promise to resume construction after that date. PA leaders have already announced they will quit the new U.S.-mediated negotiations if the freeze is not maintained. In fact, many think they are only attending so they can blame the anticipated quick breakdown on "intransigent" Israel.
And there we have a recipe for a potential third act of the Palestinian uprising story, or at least for a new wave of Hamas terror attacks. This is especially the case since one-third of the local Palestinian population is not even under PA rule today, but governed in the Gaza Strip by the radical Islamic group. Its main outside backer, Iran, is hardly working for Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation, nor is the Shiite regime's heavily armed puppet Lebanese force, Hezbollah.
So the Obama peace push, like Bill Clinton's before it, is likely to help spark fresh violence and death instead of bringing lasting calm to the land. The apparent White House failure to understand that reality is truly arrogant. Worse yet, some Israelis suspect it may be deliberate.
The Gospel for 21st Century Sodom - Article by Peter Jones - www.ChristianWorldviewNetwork.com
Regarding "gay marriage" the brilliant New York Times social commentator, Ross Douthat, is batting .500. He is right that present society will not be able to refuse it. He is wrong that it will help salvage our morally challenged world.
It is surely true that the Sixties' "liberation" of sex from marriage and gender (by no-fault divorce, out-of-wedlock births, serial monogamy, pornography, abortion and the deconstruction of patriarchy) has left us with no moral ground for refusing any form of "liberated" sexuality.
But Douthat suggests that the life-long commitment implicit in "gay marriage" will offer a moral model for the immoral "straight" world. His reasoning is seriously flawed, for two reasons:
1) 90% of gay relationships lasting more than five years practice promiscuous sex, in line with the movement's programmatic declaration: "Gay liberation was founded on the sexual brotherhood of promiscuity";
2) in spite of elements of love and sacrifice, homosexuality is, at its heart, immoral. The Apostle Paul chose homosexuality, not the dissolute heterosexuality of the Roman world, as the ultimate expression of pagan rebellion. On a worldview level, heterosexual immorality is heresy: homosexual immorality is apostasy, turning everything on its head.
Our moral/sexual collapse cannot be undone by the rare long-term homosexual "marriage," for the collapse is linked to our Sixties "spirituality," which rejected "the plausibility structures" of the Creator/creature distinction. Glenn Beck won't discuss "gay marriage," which he naively considers secondary. For him the real problem of America is a lack of "faith," but we are awash in faith-including spiritual communion with the higher divine self. Just last week, Julia Roberts, raised a Catholic, expressed her faith in Hinduism, which C. S. Lewis described as the very antithesis of Christianity.
Things are being turned upside down, just as in Paul's day when, he says, paganism turned "natural" life upside down in three organically related acts of apostasy:
· Theology: "They exchanged" the transcendent Creator for Nature as god (Romans 1:18-22, 25);
· Spirituality: they exchanged the true worship of the immortal God for the worship of images of Nature and of the self (1:23-24);
· Sexuality: they exchanged the practice of natural heterosexuality for the unnatural practice of homosexuality (1:26-28).
These three exchanges are inseparable. Denying the transcendent God leads to spiritual communion with the (higher) self, which leads to sex with the self. Such "spiritual" sexuality is classically expressed in androgynous Hindu Tantric sex. Here "androgyny" means the self-contained person, embodying both male and female. Tantric sex is sex without the need of the other. In a similar way, homosexual sex is androgynous, since both partners play the male and the female role. It is sex not with the "other" (hetero) but with the "same" (homo). Homosexuality has been called by its intellectual practitioners the religious "sacrament of monism" (spiritual One-ism)-the "joining of the opposites," the perfect expression of "non-dual spirituality."
Western civilization has long been based upon a male-female contract of commitment to the "different and equal" other. Such commitment requires self-sacrifice for the sake of spouse and children. What will happen when this final apostasy from Christianity (approval of "unnatural sex") is enshrined in law? In the coming Sodom, appeals to normative heterosexuality will be declared politically-incorrect hate speech. The art and literature of Western civilization will be judged homophobic and consigned to the dustbin of history. The fact is, by legalizing "gay marriage," America is becoming officially pagan. We are converting from a "hetero-cosmology" of Two-ism, to a "homo-cosmology" of One-ism. We no longer believe that there is a transcendent God, outside the universe, who has revealed to us how we are to relate unselfishly to Him and to one another.
Ironically, in the name of "life-long commitment," "gay marriage" (though it includes expressions of human affection) ultimately deifies self-love. It does not see the other, but narcissistically sees a reflection of self in the other. A society that makes selfishness sacred, as a defining principle of communal life, will be deaf to the Gospel, and will eventually implode like the Sodom of old.
We are exchanging our worship of the great Other, the divine Lord our Maker, for an idolatrous worship of ourselves as self-serving little gods. In such a civilization, Christians must cling to (and declare) a different basis for living: life-long, self-giving commitment to the other who is different. If there is no other, no difference, we have lost the saving key to the cosmos-the Gospel of the Cross, reflected imperfectly in human heterosexual monogamy, but supremely in the selfless love of the God/man Jesus. This Bridegroom went all the way to death in self-sacrificial love for his sin-stained bride. That love washes her clean and reconciles her to the Other, her Creator, the God of all mercy, her only hope.
Living victoriously in the end times – Bill Wilson – www.dailyjot.com
The Garden Club is a small group of men from my church who get together two or three times a week. We discuss a wide range of issues from current events to religion to politics--all the things that we were told as youngsters not to discuss. In fact, sometimes we have some pretty heated discussions. Last night's Garden Club was especially poignant. Somehow, we got on the subject of the economy and what it meant to each of us. We are concerned. Reports that the government is going to default on bonds; that housing sales are at record lows; that jobs are nowhere to be found; that the United States is in a depression rather than a recession; are all weighing on how we proceed with our day to day decisions.
We talked extensively about the bottom line effects of the government defaulting on bonds and the home mortgage crisis that is growing because people cannot afford their house payments. Just how far are we as a nation from riots and anarchy? We may be a news event away. We may be a disaster away. We may be on the verge of experiencing an America that this particular generation has never had to face. And how would we deal with it? We discussed how gangs of people may organize and attack others by robbing them. How food would be scarce, especially as winter approaches. How homes would be confiscated by banks, if they had the ability to even do that.
The grave scenario brought back memories of my father talking about the depression. I have pictures of him as a young man on our farm. There is an old car with no tires and the rims exposed that he is trying to fix. He said that the depression, other than trying to get from one place to another, was not so bad on the farm. He and his dad were able to grow food and sell it or barter it. They could hunt. There was no mortgage on the farm. They had no debt. They also had no running water, no electricity, and only a coal furnace and wood stove for cooking and heat. Key was that the Wilson farm, though poor, was self-sufficient and able to even help others who were not so fortunate.
My advice for the tough times ahead is modeled after our family farm. As Paul wrote in Romans 13:8, "Owe no man anything, but to love one another." So get out of debt, if you can. If the dollar is worth nothing, then have a plan for a service, commodity or something to barter for food. Make sure you have enough clothing. Think about what you would do if you had no heat or electric. Plan ahead with friends and family. Now here is the real advice: Do not fear. Understand that as a Christian, when times get tough, it is our opportunity to share the gospel and to be the leaders in our communities. We have the answer: Psalm 119:105, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Jesus is there for us.
Have a Blessed and Powerful Day!
Bill Wilson
Word of Life Ministry
The Eighth Commandment – Greg Laurie – www.harvest.org
Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.
— Ephesians 4:28
Stealing is so widespread in our culture today that I don't know if we are even aware of how bad it has become. We habitually lock everything. We have grown accustomed to seeing gas station attendants behind bulletproof glass. We have car alarms, even though no one seems to be concerned anymore when a car alarm goes off. We post signs on our front lawns stating that we have a security system, even if we may not have one.
A Newsweek article entitled "The Thrill of Theft" pointed out that $13 billion in merchandise is stolen every year. In fact, one retail manager in a Los Angeles-area mall said she uses shoplifting as a guide, saying, "We know what's hot among teens by seeing what they steal."
And according to a University of Florida study, retail stores lose more to employee theft than to shoplifting. Most employee theft goes unreported, but employee screening company Guardsmark estimates it to be $120 billion per year. Stealing is rampant.
A poll taken among youth who were asked why they do not steal revealed that the number-one reason was the fear of getting caught. The second most frequently cited reason was fear the theft victim might seek revenge. The third reason given was the item may not be needed. How about not stealing because it is wrong? How about not stealing because it is a sin?
Here is what God says about stealing: "Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need" (Ephesians 4:28). Stealing is wrong before God, and He thought enough about it to include it in His Top Ten list, the Ten Commandments: "You shall not steal" (Exodus 20:15).
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Elam/Iran in the Latter-Days - John McTernan – www.johnmcternansinsights.blogspot.com
Jeremiah 49:38 And I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the king and the princes, saith the LORD.
Teaching
Elam is an ancient geographical location mentioned in the Bible. Today its location would be mainly in Iran with a small section in Iraq. It bordered with the ancient Babylonian Empire. The actual location of Elam would be the very northern end of the Persian Gulf and down along with the west coast of Iran. Today one of main sections of ancient Elam would include Bushehr Province with the capital city of Bushehr. On a map of the Persian Gulf, Bushehr would be directly across from Kuwait.
Bushehr is very important today because it is the location of Iran’s nuclear facility and has the attention of the world. Thus, the physical location of ancient Elam is critical today.
It is feared that Iran would use this plant to help build nuclear weapons to destroy Israel and threaten other nations. Israel has stated that it will not allow Iran to become a nuclear power, and it is very possible Israel will attack Iran to destroy this nuclear complex at Bushehr. It is also possible that World War 3 could start over the Bushehr nuclear plant. Thus, ancient Elam has become a focal point in dealing with Israel and fits directly into God’s prophetic plan as the world heads toward the day of the LORD.
In the Bible, the word Elam seldom appears. The name was derived from Noah’s grandson from Shem (Genesis 10:22). In Genesis 14, a battle is recorded between Abraham and a confederation of Kings. Chedorlaomer was listed as the king of Elam and part of the battle. In Isaiah 11:11, Elam is listed as one of the locations the Jews will return from just prior to the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus. In Daniel 8, the prophet was in Elam.
Elam was listed with the nations that assisted the Assyrians and Babylonians in their attacks against Jerusalem. The prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel all write blistering judgments against Elam.
The Prophet Jeremiah speaks the most about Elam, as he describes a severe judgment against Elam. In very powerful language God describes His fierce anger and judgment against Elam. The judgment against Elam is very intense with language that is only found in these verses. These verses found in chapter 49 follow:
Jeremiah 49:34,35 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might.
(36) And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.
(37,38) For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, saith the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them: And I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the king and the princes, saith the LORD.
(39) But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the LORD.
The context of Jeremiah 49 is judgment on nations that will be fulfilled during the Day of the LORD. The judgment against Elam was not fulfilled but will be in the future. The prophecy speaks of the people being driven off the land and scattered into all the world. This has never happened in recorded history. It also speaks of the God of Israel setting His throne in Elam. This has never happened. This is all future because this prophecy was never fulfilled. It appears that with Elam now the focus of world attention, God is about to fulfill it.
According to Obadiah 1:15, God judges nations in relation to what that nation does to Israel. The judgment as recorded in Jeremiah 49 indicates that Elam was a fierce enemy of Israel. It participated in two attacks on Jerusalem. Elam was with the Assyrians and assisted the Babylons in their attacks on Jerusalem. Now, Israel is once again a nation and ancient Elam/Iran is again trying to destroy Israel and capture Jerusalem. Iran wants to destroy Israel and drive the Jews into the entire world; therefore, Elam is going to be destroyed and the people scattered into the nations.
Right now Elam/Iran is a fierce enemy of Israel and wants to wipe Israel off the map. Literally, a nuclear reactor sits in Elam for the purpose of destroying Israel. Elam is Israel’s most dangerous enemy.
Elam/Iran is also the center of Shiite Islam which wants to conquer the world for Allah. It is the center of belief in the Mahdi who the Shiite Muslims believe will lead Islam to conquer the world. Elam can be viewed as the number one enemy of the God of Israel. Shiite Islam led by Elam/Iran is about to violently collide with God's End-Time prophetic plan as stated in the Bible.
Jeremiah records in verse 35 that God is going to break the bow of Elam which means its military power. In verse 36, the prophet states,
"And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven..." This is the first time the term "Four winds" is used in the Bible. Later the Prophet Daniel uses this expression . It means fierce judgment. God is going to bring judgment from every angle and drive them off the land. A special judgment is decreed against Elam.
In verse 38, God is going to set His throne in Elam. This is an astonishing verse! This is the only nation other than Israel, where God states He is going to set His throne! It is clear from many scriptures that God is going to set His throne in His Holy Temple in Jerusalem. It appears that this verse is indicating that God's authority will be over Elam.
Right now Islam is the authority over Elam as Iran is the center of militant Islam and the promotion of the Mahdi to rule the world. Is God singling out Elam because it is the center of Islam's attempt to destroy Israel and take over the world? This verse shows that Islam will be broken and the nation that wanted the Mahdi to conquer the world will be under the authority of the God of Israel.
In verse 39, Jeremiah wrote that in the "Latter-Day" God would bring the people back to Elam. This means that during the reign of the Lord Jesus, God is going to show His mercy and bring the Elam/Iranians back into the land.
Awesome events are about to break over Elam. They have a nuclear reactor and are making plans to destroy Israel. Elam is preparing for the Mahdi and world conquest. The prophecy recorded in Jeremiah 49:34-39 is waiting to be fulfilled. It appears the time to judge Elam/Iran and Islam is at hand. The throne of the Lord Jesus will be over Elam.
Revelation 11:15 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
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