(Revised addition)

I have been saying that the Mediterranean Union (MU) will be the actual revived Roman Empire and not the EU alignment that we see today because many of the nations in the EU do not belong in the land area of  the old Roman Empire and others that belong in it are missing from the EU. Some have said I am wrong because the MU idea was recently not well received by certain nations. However, that is changing, it looks like Sorkozy’s MU idea will take root after all.

The Mediterranean Union as the revived Roman Empire makes more sense to me than the present EU for a lot of prophetic reasons. First of all, let me be clear, I am not saying the EU is going to die, it will probably just morph into the borders of the MU and move its headquarters to Rome. Whether or not the EU changes its name to the MU or even something else is really not important.

I still think the major change from the present EU to the borders of the proposed MU will take place during and after a world war with radical Islam that will include the Arab and Israeli war of Psalm 83. There has to be a war in the Middle East. How else can Israel rid the area of over 40,000 rockets that threatens all of Israel today? The Arabs are never going to peacefully give up their weapons and they are not going to recognize Israel’s right to exist in the Middle East as a Jewish state. A major war is certain.

Some of the Eastern nations in the EU are just not going to fit in with the West and will eventually form their own union probably dominated by Russia. Look at a ancient map of the land extent of the old Roman Empire. This will probably be about the same extent of the revised Roman Empire. The EU today simply does not fit.

The EU has its headquarters in Brussels Belgium which prophetically means absolutely nothing. The MU would much more likely have its headquarters located in Rome which prophetically means absolutely everything.

Israel will be in the MU as will the defeated states of Psalm 83 and others already predetermined to be part of the MU. This makes the prophetic statement about the Antichrist figure confirming a covenant with the “many” for seven year much more plausible. The only way Israel can live in peace and security with hostile neighbors is if it is enforced by a force larger than any of the nations involved. Being part of the MU is a rational reason why Israel would be living in peace and security prior to the Ezekiel 38 and 39 war.

Israel is to become part of this revived Roman Empire also known as the MU. The peace and security in Israel is prophetically absolutely required before the war of Ezekiel 38 and 39. The covenant or treaty the Antichrist confirms with all these nations is the conditions lain down by Israel and the Western powers after the war of Psalm 83, the war against radical Islam, and probably the Ezekiel war.  At the end of the Ezekiel war, the God of Israel will reveal Himself to Israel and the whole world by His supernatural intervention which destroys the army of the northern invaders.

The “many” that this later Antichrist figure from the MU confirms the agreement with could be ten regional zone leaders within the MU. A much expanded Israel  could be one of the ten zones. Then 3 1/2 years after confirming this agreement, this world leader breaks the pact with Israel after Israel’s two prophets are killed. Then he attempts to appease and deceive all the world nations that hate Israel and the Israeli God and he eliminates three leaders and three MU zones in order to make room for his new Babylonian province that God identifies as Babylon the Great.

This article by Chris Perver will give you the latest on the revived Mediterranean Union. It is good to see that he also thinks this Mediterranean Union fulfills the prophecy of a Revived Roman Empire.

EU to Revive Mediterranean Union ~ Bible Prophecy Today

The French Foreign Ministry has announced that the Union for the Mediterranean, a project aimed at boosting ties between the European Union and Mediterranean states, is to be formally revived at the end of this month. The announcement follows a meeting of French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, who jointly hold the presidency of the new bloc.

As we saw at its inception, far from being a political project aimed at merely increasing peace and prosperity in the Mediterranean region, Sarkozy’s vision of the Union for the Mediterranean is nothing less than a revival of the old Roman Empire itself.

The French President claimed in February 2007, “within every man and woman who lives on the shores of the Mediterranean sleeps the memory, nostalgia, for the unity lost 15 centuries ago”. He added that he wanted to be “the president of a France that will set the Mediterranean on the path of its reunification, after 12 centuries of division”. That vision, of a revival of the order of the old Roman Empire, is also shared by other politicians involved in the European Union project. Last year European Commission President Manuel Barroso, when questioned on exactly what the European project hoped to achieve, claimed that the EU was the world’s first “non-imperial empire”. Belgian politician Paul-Henri Spaak, who famously called for a man, “be he god or devil”, to lift the nations out of the economic morass into which they were sinking, was a signatory to the Treaty of Rome which established the institutions of the European Union. When asked how he felt when signing the treaty, he said, “we felt like Romans on that day… We were consciously recreating the Roman Empire once more”.
(bold emphasis mine)

Full article

While reading Carla’s excellent and always discerning More Books and Things blog I came across an article that I think needs further attention by those who study world events and Bible prophecy. I might not agree with every single point in this article but I certainly agree with Prof. Malan’s major concepts. Bible prophecy teachers seem to convey that Israel today is in the will of God. Therefore they suggest we better not do anything that could be conveyed as touching the apple of God’s eye. Some even suggest that if we do not bless this largely atheist nation that God will judge our nation. There are some erroneous teachings going around that relate judgments on America to how we treat unrepentant Israel. That concept is wrong. The judgments coming on America today is due to our own sins. We are judged on how we treat all nations not just Israel. If we are a just and moral nation we have nothing to fear. God will judge all the nations on how they treat Israel after Israel accepts their true Messiah.

Israel today is still reaping the curse because they rejected God’s salvation in His Son. When God said He would curse those who curse the descendants of Abraham and Jacob he was talking about those cursing the children of the promise, the people of faith. They are the true children of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. Remember, the leaders of Israel claimed they also were children of Abraham but Jesus called them children of their father the Devil. So did Jesus curse these descendants of Israel? Actually He did. He cursed the unbelieving descendants of Israel as represented by the fig tree that had no fruit when He came (Mt 21:19).

Other Christians will not even evangelize Jews thinking that Jews already know God. They are also wrong. Those who do not accept Jesus Christ do not know the Father either (John 14:6). The nation of Israel will certainly prove that point when they accept the false Messiah that is coming in his own name and not the Father’s name like Jesus. Some of these Christian ministries will raise large sums of money to send Jews back to Israel but spend nothing on giving these Jews the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They do not even tell them that two-thirds of the people that they are sending back to Israel will be killed in the coming Jewish holocaust (Zec 13:8).

One might think that if Christians really loved the Jews they should be telling Jews about Jesus so they would get saved before these terrible events happen to them? But it is not happening, not that anyone is actually allowed to preach the gospel in Israel anyway. So what does that say about Israel? Instead we rant about how nations are dealing with Israel as if God is not sovereign and not using the leaders of these nations toward His own ends to bring Israel to repentance. Had not God said that these things would happen to the Jews in the end times?

So how will Christians siding with Israel on world events give them physical peace and spiritual enlightenment? Even if we could change our national policies toward Israel the things God said about Israel in the latter days are still going to happen. The real problem with Israel is not the Gentile nations and our leaders decisions. The real problem with Israel is the unbelief of the Jews in Israel. The Gentiles will just be used to bring Israel to a place of repentance. God would protect Israel if they came to belief in Jesus Christ but instead they will believe in the Antichrist and go into more national tribulation before they finally get the message that peace and security is only found in their Messiah Jesus Christ.

If I did not know that we were in the end times when God’s words about Israel will be fulfilled I would have to believe that the unbelieving Jews now occupying God’s land would again be cast out. Yet, the religious Jews living in Israel think that God is on their side while they reject His Son and the non-religious Jews think that they are going to hold unto the land by their own military might. Sorry, but that is not God’s plan for Israel. Many Christians by what they say and do, seem to covey similar false pretense as well. Ever wonder why the Jews flee to the mountains for 42 months? Because Satan seeks to kill every Jew in the world (Rev 12:13). That is the real destiny of those in Israel before they come to God’s Messiah. Exactly what world actions and reactions get us to that point is frankly very subjective stuff that even Bible prophecy experts do not agree on. So how do we know where God’s will is on every current event in the Middle East so that we take the correct position? Does our position even matter in God’s plan?

So knowing these things lets teach the truth to Israel and evangelize those that can be reached instead of acting as if Israel’s leaders or America’s leaders will make correct decisions to keep Israel from the holocaust that clearly will come upon Israel in these last days. In the final analysis, it really does not matters one iota if Israel or the US takes out Iran’s nuclear capabilities at least not if we are in the sequence of end time events like Bible prophecy teachers claim. Iran will invade Israel in the latter years because Ezekiel says so, and the end of that war has already been determined by God. It really does not matter if Israel agrees to divide Jerusalem in some false peace deal either because the Bible says it will happen anyway, “Zec 14:2  For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.”

It really does not matter what action Israel takes because whatever action Israel takes in unbelief will lead to the same biblical end that God foretold the prophets and that us Bible prophecy believing Christians should be aware of. The primary Christian commission is to teach the gospel to Israel and everyone else. Our commission is not trying to stop or change Middle East events that have to happen if we are in the last days. If Christians should learn anything from Bible prophecy it should be to discern how close we are to the Lords coming for the watching faithful Church. If Christians use Bible prophecy it should be to used to evangelize those who might come to know God through Bible prophecy. Bible prophecy for Christians should not be about trying to figure out every insignificant detail and the exact dating of all events beforehand. Some of these things cannot be known with any certainty.  Nothing at all has to be fulfilled before the rapture of the Church and after the restrainer is removed all end time events will rapidly come on the earth just as God said. For most Christians it is enough to know that what God said about the last days will take place literally and that the time to work is short.

If you want more thinking on this issue read the full article.

Jesus Christ in Biblical Prophecies

Jesus Christ in Biblical Prophecies

Prof. Johan Malan, Middelburg, South Africa (June 2009)

The spiritual and doctrinal value of various articles currently published on Israel is extremely poor. Authors mostly offer only a secular review of news events without giving a balanced biblical perspective on them.

It is an alarming fact that even Christian analysts on the situation in the Middle East reveal very little insight into Israel’s end-time position. Obama is now blamed for isolating and forsaking Israel. Is he responsible for these actions or did the Lord ordain them? According to Ezekiel 22:18-22, Jeremiah 30:7 and Zechariah 14:2, the Lord will bring Israel into great affliction because they have, spiritually, become dross in His eyes for dishonouring His Word and rejecting the Messiah. In the light of this situation we should understand their international dispersion during the past 2000 years, as well as the Holocaust of World War II. Or will we merely blame the Roman Empire, the Nazis and other nations for this human tragedy? These nations are definitely guilty, but Israel is more guilty and mainly responsible for their own problems. Didn’t Jesus say that Jerusalem would be destroyed and trodden down because its inhabitants refused to accept Him as their Messiah (cf. Matt. 23:37-38)? In the attached addendum a Messianic Jew, Arthur Katz, explains the full implications of Israel’s sin and lack of faith.

As for Israel’s future, it is really irrelevant what Obama, the pope, the EU, Iran or Russia say or do with regard to Israel. If they don’t persecute or isolate Israel the Lord will allow other groups or nations to do just that. The fact is that the Israelis have to go through the time of Jacob’s trouble because of their continued apostasy.

Why are there so few people who have the boldness to inform Israel on the true reasons for their problems? Why is their own spiritual bankruptcy not addressed? Why are even organisations such as the International Christian Embassy engaged with the establishing of good relations with unsaved Israel without explicitly proclaiming the Messiah to them? Why do preachers such as John Hagee deny Jesus as Messiah of the Jews by alleging that they don’t have to accept Jesus to be saved? Why do all the Christians follow him and merely donate money to Israel, but withhold the gospel from them, which is their only hope?

When will Israel’s fortunes take a turn for the better – when the United States again support and assist them militarily, or when they have accepted the Messiah? Will they ever seek the Messiah unless they are in a great affliction (cf. Hosea 5:15; 6:1-2)?

The less people think and speak about the Lord Jesus, the less they will believe in His promise of a pretribulation rapture (Luke 21:36); the less they know about His judgement seat, the less they will be prepared for His sudden coming (1 Cor. 3:9-15). Many people become so involved with a study of the signs of the times, including possible dates for the second coming of Christ, that they never seriously attend to the necessities of our relationship with Him (holiness), and also neglect to work for Him while it is still day – the night of God’s judgements is approaching when no one can work.

I do believe that Israel and many other signs are prophetically significant, but this knowledge should lead to deeper spiritual insights and particularly to the glorification and exaltation of the Lord Jesus – also to fear for the coming day of His wrath upon sinners, including all the carnal, agnostic and unholy people. His judgements should be considered as part of the bigger picture, lest people think that the nature of the future world will only be determined by the decisions and military actions of the present generation of world leaders. One actually pities them when listening to their decisions and beholding their military manoeuvres, as they don’t have the faintest idea of what is waiting for them. They don’t know that they will be gathered in Israel to be judged by the Lord (Joel 3:2; Zech. 14:2,12).

Israel is prophetically one of the most uninformed nations in the world as far as events at the end of the church dispensation are concerned. Their ignorance will cause their virtual downfall as they will lead the way in concluding a covenant with the Antichrist under the false impression that he is the true Messiah (Dan. 9:27; John 5:43).

People in the end-time are shallow in their thinking and judge all things in terms of secular, humanistic criteria. Even Christians start conforming to this way of thinking and are in most cases not able to correctly determine and describe a spiritual perspective on world events. Many of them do not even realise their own spiritual poverty and blindness,

every Christian is committed to inform Israel on the correct biblical route to their full restoration. If they are not warned against the coming false messiah and the great tribulation, how will they ever be able to correctly understand these times and make the right decisions? Without accepting Jesus the Messiah by faith they cannot be saved – neither can they share in the blessings that He promised to the believing remnant in Israel and also to the whole world during His coming reign of peace.

Full article

Saying I do not pray God Bless America might sound like a unpatriotic unchristian heresy to some. However, there was a time when God told Jeremiah not to pray for Judah because the peoples hearts were far from Him and they loved to believe lies. America is not even a called out nation like ancient Israel and Judah but America certainly is just as evil as they were just before their destruction.

Can anyone even come up with a passage that tells the Church to pray for Gentile nations on the earth anyway? The Bible tells us to pray for those appointed over us for the sake of the Church, so that the Church can live peacefully on the earth. I do not see where we are to pray for Gentile nations to be great prosperous nations on the earth. I do not see where the Bible tells us to pray for the prosperity of the nations of the world. On the contrary, nations that become wealthy and powerful and full of worldly things always turn against God. We are to pray for the peace of Jerusalem but that really is the same as praying for Jesus to come again because Jerusalem can only have true peace after the Prince of Peace returns to earth.

I will not pray for America because blessing America in her sins has to be contrary to God’s will. If I become the intercessor for people practicing evil I have to ask myself why? God brings judgment for correction and America certainly needs correction so why would I pray against God’s will for America? I can pray that Americans will repent but I also know people who reject the teachings of the Bible will not repent. I should pray for the Church in America to repent of their sins because that is the only way a nation will be healed. It is healed for the sake of God’s people living within her. I should pray that God will send laborers for the harvest and reach those dead in their sins but to pray that God Blesses America and enables her to continue on the sinful path she is now choosing is not a Christian concept.

The only thing of lasting value in this fallen world is those who will come into the Church through God’s grace, Christ Jesus. Only after the Church age when Jesus is ruling on the throne in Jerusalem does Jesus make the Gentile world conform to God’s will. But even after the dispensation of the Lord ruling with a rod of iron for a thousand years the nations will rebel, throw off God’s ways, and bring swift destruction on themselves.

Let the Church therefore dwell on the eternal because this world is temporal and all of it will soon pass away. There are no Christian nations on earth so it is rather pointless to pray for their prosperity. The city and kingdom that those of faith look for is the city made by God. It is not of this world. The Church really needs to separate its heart from the nations she occupies.

Christians need to keep America in proper perspective or they make the nation an American idol. Find out why Americans  love government and where that insane thinking will lead this nation. America was a blessed nation perhaps unlike all other great Gentile nations of the world but all the great nations in history fell because of sin. America will be no exception. As Christians we were fortunate to live in America when she allowed free Christian expression and we sent missionaries all over the world but those days are rapidly come to a close. So don’t confuse the fourth of July and American pie and all the glory of the American past with the role of the Church in America. Also, what happens to America in the near future should not be nearly as important to Christians as what Christians allow the Spirit to do through them in these last days.

Here is a good article by Jack Kelly that puts all this in proper perspective.

Don’t Pray For America | GraceThruFaith

We need to remember that while in many ways America is like Israel, the Church is not. First, The Church is not a national kingdom with a homeland and geographical borders. Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Phil 3:20) He’s not coming here to be with us where we are. He’s coming to take us to His Father’s house to be with Him where He is. (John 14:1-3) So when He does it won’t matter whether we’re from the United States, the United Kingdom or the United Arab Emirates because the Church is everywhere. God has only established one eternal nation on Earth and that’s Israel. The Church’s eternal home is in Heaven where an inheritance from God Himself awaits us. (Gal. 4:4-7)

Second, the Church never needs to fear a judgment such as the ones I described above. The Lord Jesus agreed to be judged in place of the Church in order to present us to Himself without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. (Ephes 5:27)

The Religious Right and other well intended American Christians frequently send out eMails urging everyone to pray for America. But where in the Bible did God to say to pray for any place on Earth other than Jerusalem? God’s will would be much better served if the Church would pray for itself, that it would finally adopt the Biblical world view it was intended to have, and become what it was intended to be, the body of Christ. It’s an indication of what a secular world view the American Church has when more of us are praying that God will restore the good old days in our country than are praying for the Lord’s speedy return to take us away from here.

Prayers for America are fine as far as they go, but they’re motivated more by a love for what our country has been than by a desire to see God’s will done on Earth. And when you get right down to it, praying that God will restore America could be seen as an admission that we’re really not ready to see God’s will done on Earth yet.

It’s time for American Christians to realize that America is just a place where we’re temporarily living. And while we mourn the fact that America seems to be turning its back on Israel, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that America is also turning its back on the Church.

According to no less an authority than our President, America is not a Christian nation. He’s right. The only connection between God and America today is that a bunch of us who believe in Him happen to live here. Americans don’t live by God’s laws, we don’t teach our children about Him in our schools, we don’t offer public prayers in His name, and the holy days we observe are no longer tributes to Him. We don’t thank Him for the blessings we receive and we don’t turn to Him when we’re in need.

America is a secular gentile nation that will soon be no more comfortable a home for the Church than pre-war Germany was for the Jews. It’s high time we excised our patriotism from our religion. Think of it as a reverse separation of Church and State. In the last election Americans said they don’t want the Church’s values guiding the nation’s direction. Well neither should Christians want America’s values guiding the Church. We should be so passionately yearning to leave here that our feet barely touch the ground when we walk.

full article

Here is another good article that add some thoughts to the subject.  A Word on Citizenship, by Heidi Swander of Olive Tree Ministries.
Also the excellent teaching of John MacArthur on America is unsurpassed.

Frontpage did a great interview with Fr. Zakaria Botros on the teachings of Muhammad. For those wondering why Islam will collapse and will not be the Beast of Revelation I think this article indirectly gives us part of the answer. The whole foundations of Islam are built on the babblings of a mentally ill demon possessed person. Sooner or later Muslims are going to come to know what their own scriptures say and see  that much of Muhammad said is contradictory and demented. The main reasons why Islam is spreading now and is a threat to the world is due to four factors:

1. The vast majority of Muslims do not know their own scriptures.  If they did know their scriptures they would see the many contradictions and they would not be bound by radicals in Islam who ignore Muhammad’s earlier teachings and just focus on Muhammad’s later sick hate filled teachings.
2. Muslims are being controlled by clergy that are often power crazy control freaks. They keep people in line through sharia law and harsh punishments.
3. Radical violent people use Muhammad’s insane writings as their own excuse to hate. They will allow no peace for anyone, including others in Islam who do not believe their views.
4. Muslims are having more children.

Sooner or later with mass communications Muslims are going to learn the truth about Muhammad from people like Fr. Zakaria Botros and others and each convert is going to open the eyes of still others. I am not saying that Islam will convert and disappear but it will be modified. It will become just another leg of a universal end time religious Harlot. Some obviously will convert to true Christianity but they will only be a small minority.

I do not expect this great awaking in Islam to happen until there is a war against the radicals in Islam. What we are seeing now is really the death rattle of Islam as we know it. The radicals know the only way they can keep this religious facade going is through creating scapegoats, violence, intimidation, hate and lies. These methods in the end will backfire on them it will bring the opposite effect that they expect. It will bring about a revolution against them within Islam. The day will come that the people will no longer endure enslavement and they will turn on their own taskmasters. The fall of Islam as we know it could happen as fast as fall of the Soviet Union.

A prime example is what happened in Iraq. The people got tired of the oppression and violence from the religious radicals and the people of Iraq turned against them. The radicals became more hated than the Americans. That was the turning point of the war and the nation changed in one year. Another example is what just happened in Pakistan. The same things are going to happen on a global scale once Muslims eyes are opened about the hate filled radical control freaks who use Muhammad’s crazy words for their own ends.

I will say this for Obama, he is a man of destiny. He is going to help open the eyes of many people in Islam but he is also going to bring upon himself and America great dangers. The violent extremists will correctly see him as a dire threat to their world Jihad movement. The action the radicals take because of this threat might also be the reason why the West gets into a much wider world war against the radicals. In fact, the next world war might start as a world war against radical Islamic states but end with a revolution within Islam. Because when the radicals bring a great war to many nations the majority of the Muslim people will get fed up with the extremists within Islam and they will revolt and turn against them.

I am not saying that Obama’s position of appeasement will turn out good for the world. I am saying the role he is taking with Islam might be a major factor that brings about the modification of Islam. However, Obama’s universalism and elitist Fabian Socialism will also set the stage for the rise of the religious harlot, a socialist one world government, and the rise of the Antichrist.

FrontPage Magazine – The Strange Teachings of Muhammad

The Strange Teachings of Muhammad By: FrontPage Magazine
FrontPageMagazine.com | Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Coptic priest Fr. Zakaria Botros, who al Qaeda has called “one of the most wanted infidels in the world,” issuing a 60 million dollar bounty on his head. Popular Arabic magazines also call him “Islam’s public enemy #1″. He hosts a television program, “Truth Talk,” on Life TV. His two sites are Islam-Christianity.net and FatherZakaria.net. He was recently awarded the Daniel of the Year award.

Botros: Theologically, as I am a Christian priest, I believe that only Christianity offers the truth. Based on my faith in Christ, I reject all other religious systems as man-made and thus not reflective of divine truths. Moreover, one of the greatest crimes committed by Muhammad—a crime which he shall surely never be forgiven for—is that he denied the grace and mercy that Christ brought, and took humanity back to the age of the law.

But faith aside, common sense alone makes it clear that, of all the world’s major religions, Islam is most certainly false. After all, while I may not believe in, say, Buddhism, still, it obviously offers a good philosophical system and people follow it apparently for its own intrinsic worth. The same cannot be said about Islam. Of all the religions it is the only one that has to threaten its adherents with death if they try to break away; that, from its inception, in order to “buy” followers, has been dedicated to fulfilling some of the worst impulses of man—for conquest, sex, plunder, pride. History alone demonstrates all this: while Christianity was spread far and wide by Christians who altruistically gave up their lives, simply because they believed in Christ, Islam spread by force, by the edge of the sword, by fear, threats, and lurid enticements to the basest desires of man. Islam is by far the falsest religion—an assertion that is at once theologically, philosophically, and historically demonstrable.

FP: You always document your discussions with Islamic sources. Why do Muslim clerics and imams have such a difficulty discussing what Islam itself teaches and instead just attack you personally?

Botros: I think the answer is obvious. The Islamic sources, the texts, speak for themselves. Muslims have no greater enemy than their own scriptures—particularly the Hadith and Sira—which constantly scandalize and embarrass Muslims. To date, I have done well over 500 different episodes dedicated to various topics regarding Islam. And for every one of these episodes, all my material comes directly from Islam’s textual sources, particularly usul al-fiqh—the Koran, hadith, and ijma of the ulema as found in their tafsirs.

So what can the sheikhs of Islam do? If they try to address the issue I raise based on Islam’s texts and sharia, they will have no choice but to agree—for instance that concubinage is legal, or that drinking camel urine is advocated. The only strategy left them, then, is to ignore all that I present and attack my person, instead.

Botros: Again, this is a reflection of the fact that Islam is less a faith, more a vehicle for empowerment. As you say, what is the point for a person to closely guard and follow a religion that he himself has to rationalize, ignore, minimize, constantly reinterpret, dissemble over, and so forth? The fact is, most Muslims do not know what is in their own texts; at best, they know, and here and there try to follow, the Five Pillars. This is why the issues I broach often traumatize Muslims

FP: So Islamic texts command that women must breastfeed strange men. Ok, so who would create such an instruction? For what purpose? Who even wrote this down and thought of it? Le’s even say that I am being open-minded and am ready to accept this as an understandable teaching. What’s the rationale here? Yes, women should breastfeed strange men because. . . .?

Botros: Because Muhammad—“Allah’s prayers and blessings be upon him”—said so. Period. Who created such a practice? Muhammad. Why? Who knows; the texts say he laughed after commanding the woman to breastfeed that man. Maybe he was joking around, trying to see how far people will believe in him as a prophet? The top hadith compilers wrote it down, preserving it for later generations. As for what purpose does it serve, one can ask that question about any number of things Muhammad said: what purpose does drinking camel urine serve? What purpose does commanding men to wear only silver as opposed to gold serve? What purpose does banning music serve? What purpose does anathematizing dogs serve? What purpose does commanding people to eat only with their right hands, never their left, serve? What purpose does commanding Muslims to lick all their fingers after eating serve? Simple: sharia law’s totalitarian approach serves to brainwash Muslims, making them automatons that never question their religion, or, in the words of their own Koran, “Do not ask questions that may prove harmful to them.”

FP: Tell us a bit about Muhammed’s sex life as documented by Islamic sources………. (you can read the answer of Botros in the full article)

FP: In your view, who was Muhammad?

Botros: Well, I have received the answer from Islam’s own books. Ironically, Ibn Taymiyya, who happens to be the hero of the modern mujahid movement, explained the prerequisites of prophet-hood very well. One of the things he stressed is that, in order to know if a prophet is in fact from God, we must study his sira, or his biography, much like the Christ’s statement that “You shall know them from their fruits.” So, taking Ibn Taymiyya’s advice, I recently devoted a number of episodes analyzing the biography of Muhammad, which unequivocally proves that he was not a prophet, that his only “fruits” were death, destruction, and lust. Indeed, he himself confessed and believed that he was being visited and tormented by a “jinn,” or basically a demon, until his wife Khadija convinced him that it was the angel Gabriel—which, of course is ironic, since Muhammad himself later went on to say that the testimony of a woman is half that of a man: maybe over time he realized she was wrong, and that his first assumption was right.

Full article

Did our men of valor die for a people who would freely allow our nation to fall into total moral decay? Did those we honor today die so we would freely become slaves to our own federal government bureaucrats? Or did they die so that you and I could have the freedoms expressed in our Constitution? Did our fallen heroes die defending the United States and its Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic? Or did these good men die in vain because the people of America freely choose to elect politicians that subvert our Constitution, rob those who work, tell our enemies how wrong America has been and lie to us by saying people that hate America really want peace while they continue to plan for our destruction?

The best way we can honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice on this Memorial Day is to work to free America from the elite international socialists that have hijacked this nation to make it conform to their plans for global governance and to once again make our government abide by the words in our own Constitution.

This following article has a very appropriate message for this Memorial day.

The American Cause this Memorial Day

“Based upon our observations of American soldiers and their officers captured in this war, the following facts are evidenced,” a foreign intelligence officer wrote. “There is little knowledge or understanding, even among United States university graduates, of American political history and philosophy … of safeguards to freedom; and of how these things supposedly operate within their own system.”

Believe it or not those words weren’t written by an Al Qaeda operative. They were written during the Korean War (1950-1953) by the chief intelligence officer of the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army in North Korea. In a 1957 response to these remarks, Russell Kirk wrote, “Many Americans are badly prepared for their task of defending their own convictions … against the grim threat of armed ideology…. And in our age, good-natured ignorance is a luxury none of us can afford.”

As we pause this Memorial Day to honor those who died to preserve our freedom, it’s a good time to take stock of the threats to our nation. I believe that the greatest threat is internal decay that results from a lack of knowledge of those things that make America great.

America’s modern enemies might have rejoiced in data released last fall by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute demonstrating that 71 percent of Americans in its survey failed a basic civic literacy test with an average score of 49 percent. Incredibly, the average elected official in the sample scored just 44 percent.

Last Saturday, I heard a stirring commencement address by Judge Alice Batchelder of the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals advocating the form of education that Kirk supported—education that will turn back the wave of national civic ignorance and strengthen our country. Following that address, an attorney and I discussed the deplorable treatment of the U.S. Constitution by the executive and congressional branches of the federal government that led to the approval of a 2009 budget deficit of $1.84 trillion. “Grotesque,” lamented the attorney. We talked about how many of the world’s countries have had multiple constitutions while America has had just one. We concluded that America operates from a new unwritten or “parallel constitution” that allows the government to spend whatever amount it desires without restraint by constitutional, moral or economic principle. This new constitution, birthed by civic illiteracy, is fostering the decay of a great nation—$60 trillion in deficits and unfunded liabilities, a failing educational system, breathtaking federal government interference in business, an out of control Federal Reserve that is putting the American dollar and the world’s economic system at great risk, and social programs that promote family breakdown and dependence on government. And we have governments in Washington, D.C. and in many of our state capitals that want even more.

As we prepare to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country this Memorial Day weekend, let us fulfill our duty to the American cause. Kirk says, “We do not need to invent some new theory of human nature and politics; but we do need, urgently, to recall to our minds the sound convictions that have sustained our civilization and our nation. Our enemies, no matter what resources they may have, cannot defeat us if we are strong in our own principles.”

Full article

Things are getting pretty crazy out there to say the least so I think I will give you my world trends forecast for 2010-2020 AD. I think the next decade will be the most violent decade since the days of Noah. The only decade that will exceed it in violence will be decade of Jacob’s trouble. Here is a glimpse of some of the things I think we can expect. They are not in any time sequence and I probably will add more as I think of them:

• The world will not recover from the economic downturn and unemployment will stay high right into the next world war.
• There will be a world war early in this decade and there will be civil war in many places. The World War could start as the war of Psalm 83 or an attack on Iran. This war against radical Islam could also start over Pakistan. No matter how the war starts, at the peak of the war it will cover much of Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. Radical Islam will be defeated but it will be a very costly and bloody war.
• India will take back Pakistan and whole cites could be lost to nuclear exchanges.
• There will be national drafts to fight the world war. The volunteer army concept will be dead.
• The whole world monetary system will have to be scrapped, the most advanced nations will be technically bankrupted because of debt. A  new world monetary system will be set up.  Most people will lose their investments.
• The word democracy may still be used but within a few years true democracies or republics will no longer exist.
• The Supreme Court of the U.S. will turn liberal and the Constitution will only mean what liberals want it to mean.
• The world will embrace the “third way” but the “third way” really is liberal fascism.
• After the world war against radical Islam a religious harlot will be given authorization to oversee all world religion. This religious harlot will claim to be the Universal World Church and have a many paths lead to God attitude. She will be tolerant and inclusive as long as others recognize that the Vatican harlot is the final religious authority speaking for God on earth. The harlot will advise the emerging world government on all religious issues.
• All fundamental religion that teach exclusive paths to God will be outlawed and those who promote it will be seen as a threat to world peace. The religious harlot will persecute all that will not submit to her authority on earth. Teaching on a coming savior, messiah figure or end time prophecy will be outlawed. Religious holy books will be sanitized and passages that might offend others will be taken out or changed.
• Many liberal post-modern Protestant churches will continue down the road of apostasy and join with the harlot.
• The true Church of Jesus Christ will have to go underground in most areas of the world and she will be at great risk.
• A nuclear EMP is very possible over the United States during the next decade and if it should happen it would bring massive civil unrest, riots and martial law.
• We can expect at least one natural pandemic in the world in the next decade but the real danger next decade will be from man made viruses. There will also be famine because of the world war.
• There will be successful terrorist attacks using weapons of mass destruction until after the world war.
• Due to the growing differences between liberals and conservatives certain states in the United States will secede and there might be civil war.  There certainly will be conflicts when police attempt to take away peoples guns.
• Toward the end of the decade all nations in North America will  join a new North American Union or face total isolation.
• Western Europe will emerge out of the world war against radical Islam as a western superpower. This will be a new union of nations, it will not include all the same nations as are in the EU today. The new union will be more on the boundary lines of  the old Roman Empire and the recently proposed Mediterranean Union.
• China, India and Japan will be well on their way to becoming nuclear superpowers.
• North Korea’s military will be obliterated and South Korea or China will take over  North Korea.
• Russia will dominate east Europe and northern Asia and form a block of nations almost on the same lines as the old USSR. Iran will make a defense agreement with the restored Russian superpower after the world war.
• Israel and most Arab states will join the Mediterranean Union after the war. This will bring a time of peace to the Middle East that will last until the Gog Magog war (Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39).
• Iraq will escape most of the world war and even profit from it and start the rebuilding of Babylon.
• Most of Africa will come under the control of the African Union of states.
• There will be a South American Union of states.
• Anything you say or write that is not politically correct and that offends someone else will subject you to hate speech laws and civil suits.
• There will be total surveillance of all electronic communications. The Internet will be policed and monitored. Talk radio and websites will have to be politically correct or they will be shut down.
• All main streets in cities will be under video surveillance. Geographical locations of homes and the names and identification numbers of occupants will just be two of the many layers on a massive Geographic Information System database that will be accessible to government and law enforcement.
• Homeschooling will be outlawed. Children will only be taught state approved programs. Parents that are not politically correct will be reported by their own children and parents will lose their children if they persist.
• All forms of sex  perversions will be called normal and protected. Addicting drugs will be taxed and legalized and addicts will be released from prison.
• There will be national health care but your access to certain health care will have to be pre-approved by bureaucrats following government guidelines.
• Energy prices will triple. Burning of firewood without obtaining an expensive permit will not be allowed. It will be enforced by sky police and by rewarding finks.
• There will be food and gas rationing almost all of next decade. Fuel will be very expensive and travel will be restricted.
• Foods that Big government Nanny says is unhealthy will be taxed out of existence. Obese people will be forced to lose weight or lose access to health care. Obese children will get parents charged with child abuse.
• Assisted suicide will be encouraged for terminal patients.
• There will be pay caps on all professions. The state will determine the most you can get paid.
• Taxes will take over half of the pay of professional productive people to pay for massive government.
• by the end of next decade the standard of living in the United States will be less than half of what it is today.
• In spite of what some are now teaching, the Lord will not physically return to earth during this period but the Rapture could occur (or  it may not).

Pakistan is probably going to become the catalyst for the next world war and it will take place within the next decade. The leadership of Pakistan is corrupt and has little popular support. There is now no political remedy that will prevent Islamic radicals from taking over the nation. Islamic militants are now taking over more and more of the countryside and there will be no stopping them by the Pakistani military because the military is already infiltrated and also obsessed with India.

India today is being attacked by Islamic terrorists supported by Pakistan and is probably only one or two more major terrorist attacks away from taking military action against Pakistan. If India should do that the Pakistan military would move to the Indian border and that would allow the Taliban to take complete control of the countryside of Pakistan. Should that happen the Islamic extremists would then take the revolution to the cities with bombings and killings until the people appeased them by giving them control of the nation.

India will not allow Pakistan to have nukes if Pakistan is controlled by Islamic radicals. If Pakistan fell to the Taliban India would do a first strike to take out Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities. The U.S. might also decide to take out Pakistan’s nukes with special forces in order to prevent a nuclear war between Pakistan and India.

Should that happen the U.S. would have to fight radical Islam from India to Iran alone or withdraw (I doubt if NATO nations would offer to help). The U.S. could not fight such a war because it would require an unpopular military draft and money that America does not have. So more likely the U.S. would be forced to pull out of Afghanistan and then the world will see radical Islam ruling from Pakistan to Iran. When that happens these Islamic radical nations would foster actions against Israel, Iraq, India and moderate Arab states. They would also become a major terrorist threat to the whole world. Inevitably these nations would have to fight and form an alliance against the Islamic radical states and there you have the makings of the next world war.

Europe would not escape because of its large radical Islamic populations. There would be civil war in many nations in Europe and elsewhere and once their internal wars were won they would have to join the allied effort to smash Islamic extremism.

The other possibility where India takes out the Pakistani nukes also leads to the same world war because all radical Muslim states would then join in the fight against India and Israel. When push comes to shove most nations in the world would have no choice but to side with India and Israel and fight against radical Islam.

This is going to happen in the next decade so do not think that all of a sudden America is going to win the war in Afghanistan and then live in a world utopia of peace because the Obama administration is in charge. Like it or not there is going to be nothing less than a major world war against Islamic extremists in the next decade. North Korea will also try to take over South Korea during such a world war. We also should realize that if India or the U.S. strikes Pakistan’s nukes that Israel would also strike Iran’s nuclear facilities and that also would bring a Middle East war.

This is the future of the world for the next decade. Islamic radicals will bring in real global warming.

Pakistan in danger of fracturing into Islamist fiefdoms, U.S. experts say – Politics | Centre Daily

WASHINGTON — A growing number of U.S. intelligence, defense and diplomatic officials have concluded that there’s little hope of preventing nuclear-armed Pakistan from disintegrating into fiefdoms controlled by Islamist warlords and terrorists, posing the a greater threat to the U.S. than Afghanistan’s terrorist haven did before Sept. 11.

“The place is beyond redemption,” said a Pentagon adviser who asked not to be further identified so he could speak freely. “I don’t see any plausible scenario under which the present government or its most likely successor will mobilize the economic, political and security resources to push back this rising tide of violence.

“I think Pakistan is moving toward a situation where the extremists control virtually all of the countryside and the government controls only the urban centers,”

Many U.S. officials, though, regard the civilian government of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari as unpopular, dysfunctional and mired in infighting. It’s been unable to agree on an effective counterinsurgency strategy or to address the ills that are feeding the unrest. These include ethnic and sectarian hatreds, ineffective police, broken courts, widespread corruption, endemic poverty and a deepening financial crisis, they said.

Pakistan’s army, meanwhile, is hobbled by a lack of direction from the country’s civilian leaders, disparaged for its repeated coups and shaken by repeated defeats by the militants. It remains fixated on India to ensure high budgets and cohesion among troops of divergent ethnic and sectarian allegiances, U.S. officials and experts said.

Many officers and politicians also oppose fighting the Islamist groups that Pakistan nurtured to fight proxy wars in Afghanistan and Kashmir, and because they think the U.S. is secretly conspiring with India to destabilize their country.

The U.S. intelligence official, however, said that Pakistan’s elite, dominated since the country’s independence in 1947 by politicians, bureaucrats and military officers from Punjab, have failed to recognize the seriousness of the situation.

“The Punjabi elite has already lost control of Pakistan, but neither they nor the Obama administration realize that,” the official said. “Pakistan will be an Islamist state – or maybe a collection of four Islamic states, probably within a few years. There’s no civilian leadership in Islamabad that can stop this, and so far, there hasn’t been any that’s been willing to try.”

Several U.S. officials said that the Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy that President Barack Obama unveiled last month is being called into question by the accelerating rate at which the insurgency in Pakistan is expanding.

The plan hinges on the Pakistani army’s willingness to put aside its obsession with Hindu-dominated India and focus on fighting the Islamist insurgency. It also presupposes, despite doubts held by some U.S. officials, that sympathetic Pakistani military and intelligence officers will sever their links with militant groups.

Full Article

Another view that says Pakistan could fall in months

Pakistan in extreme danger of falling to Taliban

U.S. tells Pakistan stop Taliban advance or we will

Find out why things are not going to change for the better

Seems Rick Warren was not against California’s Proposition 8 and homosexual marriage after all. Quoted below is the exact words Rick Warren made on “Larry King Live”. Also in the article that I have a link to is Joseph Farah’s appropriate view of this wishy-washy pastor.

Why is Rick Warren always in the news? If he was actually preaching the gospel of Christ he would not get on the worldly media. He is CFR for a reason and he has a Global Peace Plan because it conforms with the CFR globalist socialistic agenda. Rick Warren is yoked together with very powerful globalists unbelievers for the purpose of global governance. What he preaches to the world is a form of Universalism that includes aspects of religious dominionism.

Everything Rick Warren says is a compromise with the world instead of presenting the gospel of salvation to the world. I find this to be true ranging across the spectrum from Rick Warren’s purpose driven seeker friendly gospel lite movement to his many media opportunities that never clearly presents the gospel of Christ and never speaks of man’s, sin or need of repentance.

If a Christian pastor cannot stand up for clear teachings of their faith he certainly should not be standing in your church pulpit. The only reason I think Rich Warren is standing at Saddleback church is that the church membership has been made in his image. By the way, while I am at it, here is an example of how Rick Warren grows his Church.

It is amazing to me that a “Evangelical” Christian leader would actually apologize to homosexual leaders because some of them might think he took the biblical stand against homosexual perversion and marriage perversion. Also read this article that quotes what Rick Warren actually said to his church on Proposition 8. Apparently Rick Warren was even spining the truth to Larry King about his position.

After getting all the facts here is Dr. Norman L. Geisler’s postion on Rick Warren and the Gay Marriage issue.

The real problem in America is reflected in the choice of leaders that people put into power and that is doubly true in its churches.

America’s wishy-washy pastors

“You know, Larry, there was a story within a story that never got told,” he said. “In the first place, I am not an anti-gay or anti-gay marriage activist. I never have been, never will be. During the whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement, never – never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop 8 was going. The week before the – the vote, somebody in my church said, Pastor Rick, what – what do you think about this? And I sent a note to my own members that said, I actually believe that marriage is – really should be defined, that that definition should be – say between a man and a woman.

“And then all of a sudden out of it, they made me, you know, something that I really wasn’t,” Warren continued. “And I actually – there were a number of things that were put out. I wrote to all my gay friends – the leaders that I knew – and actually apologized to them. That never got out. There were some things said that – you know, everybody should have 10 percent grace when they say public statements. And I was asked a question that made it sound like I equated gay marriage with pedophilia or incest, which I absolutely do not believe. And I actually announced that. All of the criticism came from people that didn’t know me. Not a single criticism came from any gay leader who knows me and knows that for years, we’ve been working together on AIDS issues and all these other things.”

What are we to make of such mealy-mouthed, wishy-washy, namby-pamby hokum?

It’s a great illustration of America’s most prominent church leader equivocating and backtracking and saying almost nothing coherent so that he will offend no one.

Full article

Although I have seen this study posted in several different parts on a re-posting site elsewhere, the complete study is available on the link. This is about the best study I have seen on all the possible timings and positions on the Ezekiel 38-39 war. It gives all the different views and the pros and cons of each position. Nathan Jones position is quoted below. To read all the other views on this you will have to read the whole article.

By the way Nathan’s position is the same as mine except for a couple of timing differences. I am not sure this war is before the Rapture and I do not see how Israel could be burning the weapons of war for 7 years during the great tribulation?  At that point Antichrist has complete rule over the land of Israel and is exterminating Jews that did not flee to the mountains for safety. So how can Israel be burning Gog’s weapons of war in the great tribulation of 3 1/2 years?

My position is a little different then any Nathan presented. I think the war of Ezekiel 38-39 occurs 3 1/2 years before the 70th week of Daniel begins. After Gog is defeated supernaturally by God Israel burns the weapons of war but is forced to stop burning after 7 years because Israel has to flee from the Antichrist when the two witnesses sent by God are killed.

If you look at the many different views in this article you will see that none of them perfectly fit. I believe there is a reason for that. It is because most everyone thinks the war of Ezekiel 38-39 and Armageddon will happen within a seven year period. Actually I do not see where these events have to be limited to seven years at all. I do not think we can assume that all the seals of Revelation are within the last seven year spoken by Daniel. We also cannot assume that the first seals are part of Jacob’s trouble. The Jews are not even mentioned at all in Revelation until after the 6th seal is opened.

I say (not dogmatically) that the last seven years actually starts after the 6th seal. It begins with the sealing of 144,000 Jews. With my view we have a 10 1/2 year period from the war of Ezekiel 38-39 and Armageddon. All prophecy can then fit without using a shoehorn. In my view seven years after the Ezekiel intervention when the world is expecting a type of Christ to appear they receive the Antichrist.

So when is the Rapture in my view? It is imminent. It could happen today. It could be before the Ezekiel war or after it but before the sealing of the Jews.

Articles – Featured – Timing Gog-Magog

Timing Gog-Magog
When will Ezekiel 38-39 be fulfilled?
by Nathan E. Jones

My View
Which view one holds probably rests more on what one sees is the view that provides the most logical answers to the prerequisites. To me, timing the Gog-Magog Battle just before or at the very beginning of the Tribulation can best fulfill these prerequisites and makes the most logical sense in my mind.

This is how I see the timeline most likely playing out:

1. The Rapture of the Church removes the Restrainer.
2. Israel subjugates their surrounding neighbors in fulfillment of Psalm 83.
3. The Gog-Magog Battle destroys the Russian and Muslim influence in the Middle East, makes the world aware of God’s presence, and restores Israel’s belief in the God of the Torah.
4. The Antichrist conquers what’s left of the Middle East and makes a peace covenant with Israel to complete the Revived Roman Empire.
5. Israel spends the seven years of the Tribulation burning the weapons.
6. Jesus returns at the end of the seven years to defeat His enemies at Armageddon resulting in Israel acknowledging that Jesus is God’s Son.
7. Jesus gathers the people from all over the world for the Sheep/Goat Judgment, which results in only believers entering the Millennial Kingdom.

Time will tell when the Gog-Magog Battle will truly take place. But, the players are already in place and the scene is just about all set for this epic battle to be waged in the not-too-distant future.

Full article

This exclusive article about the author’s interview with Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel tells me that Netanyahu is not going to allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons. There are other problems with allowing Iran to get nuclear weapons besides the threat of a nuclear strike on Israel. If Iran acquired nukes it would upset the stability in the whole unstable Mid-East. The threat would also bully Israel citizens and some would depart Israel. Having Iran as a nuclear umbrella is certain to embolden all the terrorist groups in the area. Iran would also be a threat to Europe and Arab nations and could supply terrorists with a weapon of mass destruction that they might use anywhere. Another of Israel’s concerns is that eventually a Iranian leader would use the nukes to start a war with Israel and the West to fulfill his own Islamic Mahdi apocalyptic beliefs.

It is obvious that Netanyahu will give Obama a short period of time to use diplomacy. The chances of a peaceful solution are slim, but stranger things have happened in the world. After the Iranian election when Iran finds itself in increasing economic distress due to low oil prices and the leadership of Iran knows that an attack by Israel is imminent they might agree to a last minute agreement to allow some oversight of their nuclear program.

From my understanding of Bible prophecy, I think Iran’s nuclear weapons program will be put on hold or it will be delayed by a military strike on Iran. I do not see them being allowed to develop nuclear weapons at this time. Bible prophecy tells us that Iran will come against Israel with Gog of Russia but Russia is at least a decade away from having the modern military forces necessary to even fulfill that prophecy.

In any case, all this will probably come to a head by fall. Once again things might get very interesting around the time of the Jewish New Year.

Netanyahu to Obama: Stop Iran—Or I Will – The Atlantic (March 31, 2009)

In an interview conducted shortly before he was sworn in today as prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu laid down a challenge for Barack Obama. The American president, he said, must stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons—and quickly—or an imperiled Israel may be forced to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities itself.

“The Obama presidency has two great missions: fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu told me. He said the Iranian nuclear challenge represents a “hinge of history” and added that “Western civilization” will have failed if Iran is allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

In unusually blunt language, Netanyahu said of the Iranian leadership, “You don’t want a messianic apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs. When the wide-eyed believer gets hold of the reins of power and the weapons of mass death, then the entire world should start worrying, and that is what is happening in Iran.”

Neither Netanyahu nor his principal military advisers would suggest a deadline for American progress on the Iran nuclear program, though one aide said pointedly that Israeli time lines are now drawn in months, “not years.” These same military advisers told me that they believe Iran’s defenses remain penetrable, and that Israel would not necessarily need American approval to launch an attack. “The problem is not military capability, the problem is whether you have the stomach, the political will, to take action,” one of his advisers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told me.

Both Israeli and American intelligence officials agree that Iran is moving forward in developing a nuclear-weapons capability. The chief of Israeli military intelligence, Major General Amos Yadlin, said earlier this month that Iran has already “crossed the technological threshold,” and that nuclear military capability could soon be a fact: “Iran is continuing to amass hundreds of kilograms of low-enriched uranium, and it hopes to exploit the dialogue with the West and Washington to advance toward the production of an atomic bomb.”

In our conversation, Netanyahu gave his fullest public explication yet of why he believes President Obama must consider Iran’s nuclear ambitions to be his preeminent overseas challenge. “Why is this a hinge of history? Several bad results would emanate from this single development. First, Iran’s militant proxies would be able to fire rockets and engage in other terror activities while enjoying a nuclear umbrella. This raises the stakes of any confrontation that they’d force on Israel. Instead of being a local event, however painful, it becomes a global one. Second, this development would embolden Islamic militants far and wide, on many continents, who would believe that this is a providential sign, that this fanaticism is on the ultimate road to triumph.

“Third, they would be able to pose a real and credible threat to the supply of oil, to the overwhelming part of the world’s oil supply. Fourth, they may threaten to use these weapons or to give them to terrorist proxies of their own, or fabricate terror proxies. Finally, you’d create a great sea change in the balance of power in our area—nearly all the Arab regimes are dead-set opposed to Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons. They fervently hope, even if they don’t say it, that the U.S. will act to prevent this, that it will use its political, economic, and, if necessary, military power to prevent this from happening.”

If Iran acquires nuclear weapons, Netanyahu asserted, Washington’s Arab allies would drift into Iran’s orbit.

Few in Netanyahu’s inner circle believe that Iran has any short-term plans to drop a nuclear weapon on Tel Aviv, should it find a means to deliver it. The first-stage Iranian goal, in the understanding of Netanyahu and his advisers, is to frighten Israel’s most talented citizens into leaving their country. “The idea is to keep attacking the Israelis on a daily basis, to weaken the willingness of the Jewish people to hold on to their homeland,” Moshe Ya’alon said. “The idea is to make a place that is supposed to be a safe haven for Jews unattractive for them. They are waging a war of attrition.”

Full article

The excerpts of the article I quoted are from an article on “The Coming One World Religion, by Jim Simmons. I think in his article he has done an excellent job of communicating the Hallmarks of the false religious system called the Great Harlot in Revelation.

He like Roger Oakland and myself and some others believe that Mary apparitions will be a major unifier of the world religions. We know the apparitions and the messages will not be from Mary because the messages contradict what God says in the Bible. I believe the apparition is the same Queen of Heaven demonic being that God condemned in the Old Testament. The message coming from this being is a works theology and is a message of religious pluralism and Universalism.

Think about it… Catholicism in practice today already makes Mary the intermediary between God and man in place of Jesus. Most Muslims also hold Mary in higher esteem than they do Jesus. Also Eastern religions, New Agers and native religion pagans would not have a problem with a Queen of Heaven spirit leading man into a new spiritual paradigm. Even many liberal Protestants have bought into the mother God concept or Gaia the mother spirit of the earth.

So there is a real likelihood that at a time when the world is in turmoil and in world war and everything looks hopeless. An apparition disguised as Mary appears with signs and wonders and a message claiming that people of all religions must unite on love, peace, universalism, tolerance and good works or else there is no hope for the survival of the human race.

Most Catholics will buy into it immediately especially if it occurs during a major world war between the West and Islam. I think most in Islam will buy into it as well for peace, as will all the other major religions of the world. All religious doctrine would then be rewritten to remove anything that offends others so that all religion worship the same Universal God of love, peace and tolerance. They will condemn many religious teachings and all documents that support these teachings will be destroyed.

This world religion would be headed by the Vatican of course. Other world religions will either be incorporated into this great Harlot out of Rome or be an associate member. The Vatican already has an advisory role in the UN and has embassies in most nations as if it was a religious state. When world leaders feel that a universal religion becomes the only hope left for world peace all these pieces will rapidly come together.

This one world religious system will be the Harlot who rides the Beast/Antichrist into power. This is spoken of in Revelation Chapter 17. But when the Antichrist takes power at the mid tribulation point he will turn against the Harlot and destroy the Harlot and this all-paths religion. He will claim that he alone is God. He will then demand worship from everyone on earth. All those who resist will be killed.

Jan Markell also has similar thoughts about the New Age and Mary in this new article.

The Coming One World Religion, by Jim Simmons ~ Bible Prophecy Today

The Last Generation briefly covered all three pillars of a united world system that will need to be in place by or immediately following the beginning of the seven-year tribulation period. The three pillars are:

* One World Government
* One World Economy
* One World Religion

The pillar of the One World Government was given the most attention in the first article.

The focus of this article is to expand on the pillar of the coming One World Religion.

Today, in this generation, we have seen the foundation being laid for a one-world religion. This world religion is symbolized in Scripture by “… the great harlot who sits on many waters” (Revelation 17:1) and by the “… woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names …” (Revelation 17:3).

There needs to be a common denominator between Muslims and the one-world religion. This common denominator may very well be Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Koran exalts Mary, not Jesus. The Roman Catholics also exalts Mary. This along with the numerous alleged apparitions of Mary witnessed by both Muslims and Catholics creates a link between the two religions. These two religions together take in a sizeable portion of the human race.

The Marian apparitions, including the ones in Egypt and Africa, have an underlying message. According to Mary, this message is, “All religions are the same. We are the ones causing division.” This message is easily identified under the third hallmark of a false religion, namely, “Provides a Broad Road to Salvation.” Mary’s message is proven invalid because it contradicts Scripture. The only way to God is through Jesus (John 14:6). Since it is clearly demonstrated to be a false message, we can conclude that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was not the one delivering the message. Mary would never contradict her Son.

According to a British-Catholic magazine, “A Marian revival is spreading throughout Africa with alleged apparitions of Mary, finding a following among the Muslims.” Although African Muslims are supposedly seeing apparitions of the Virgin Mary, they “are not required to become Christians to follow her.”

Most of the spectators who witnessed the Marian apparitions in Zeitoun, Egypt, were Muslim. This apparition of Mary appeared for several nights each week for years and was viewed by millions of Muslims.

Mary appears to be the missing link that helps answer the previous question about how the Muslims could ever integrate into a one-world religion.

Full Article

Here is part II of The coming world religion, by Jim Simmons. This is really astute teaching. It traces Mystery Babylon from Babylon to the Catholic Church and it shows how Mary worship is tied into ancient pagan worship. It also suggests from the non biblical St Malachi prophecy that the next Pope will be the last Pope and that he will reign during the tribulation. That is my understanding of this prophecy as well. Simmons also suggests that the next Pope will be the False Prophet. I think that is a very high probability.

I  learned about these things years ago but Simmons does a wonderful job of putting it all together. I think his book would be well worth reading.

Food for thought – The present Pope is now 81. How much longer will he be around? If it turns out that the next Pope will become the False Prophet at some point also consider that the true Church will be removed in the Rapture at least 3 1/2 years prior to when the False Prophet appears. Time is certainly short.

Hal Lindsay points out the scenario that time and time again plays out against Israel. The U.S. has once again been bullied by world opinion and the press into not voting in the UN security council. Now a 14 – 0 vote calls for an Israeli cease fire. Time and time again this game is played out in favor of the terrorists so Israel can never destroy their enemies. Thus, you can be sure that it will be played out again but next time under the new U.S. administration the U.S. will side with the enemies of Israel.   Then Israel will have to either commit suicide or ignore the U.N. and risk world action against them.

Lets look at the logic of this. If ten missiles each day were being fired at Hawaii from ships from Iran would we not go to war? Darn right we would and Israel has every right to do the same thing because ten missiles are being fired each day from Gaza into Israel.

Frankly, those in Gaza are lucky that I am not prime minister of Israel because I would bulldoze all of Gaza into the sea and deport the people to the Arab nations or Rosie O’Donnell’s backyard. These terrorists could not operate without the support of the people of Gaza so they should quit with the innocent victim routine. The Palestinians are a terrorist nation. I would do the same thing with Southern Lebanon or any land that launches missiles into Israel. Don’t these people even known that one well aimed missile could hit Israel’s nuclear reactor and cause the worst nuclear fall out release on earth. It is only a matter of time for that to happen. So why would any sane nation take such a risk and allow missiles to be fired continually into the nation? But you do not hear about the danger for Israel in the one sided news.

Unless the terrorist stop firing missiles into Israel there is no peace in the Middle East nor can there be peace in the Middle East and proportionate responses would end up being catastrophic to Israel and following any such concept is insane. That is also true anywhere terrorists operate from on the earth. The dangers are too great for proportionate responses we must have
overwhelming responses to stop any threat of such an attack. Israel or any nation has a right to self defense even if that self defense means destroying their enemies. The dangerous games the world allows terrorists to play will eventually lead to catastrophe.

A formula for perpetual war

The so-called “enlightened and responsible nations” have developed a formula for exclusive use against Israel. This formula determines under what circumstances and in what manner Israel is allowed to defend itself against terrorist attacks. First, the provocation must be many times more serious than would be necessary for other nations. Simple acts of war, such as hostage-taking or continuous missile attacks against civilian population centers, are not sufficient provocation to permit defensive measures.

Since 2005, more than 6,000 rockets have rained down on Israeli cities from Gaza. In a display of remarkable restraint, only after three years and thousands of unprovoked attacks did Israel finally feel sufficiently justified to launch a defensive response.

Now, the second phase of the anti-Israel propaganda assault kicks in. It begins almost immediately with the usual suspects – led by the Arabs, the Russians, the Muslims – all demanding an immediate Israeli withdrawal from its “invasion” of Gaza.

Right on cue, the members of the United Nations begin their usual chorus – charging that Israel’s response is “not proportionate.”

Finally, the media revs up their one-sided campaign. Their job is to spotlight the injuries and deaths of Palestinian women and children who are accidentally hit during the intense battles. Apparently, the months and years of constant bombardment lavished on the Israelis by Hamas thugs didn’t trigger the media’s interest. Only when Israel struck back did the signal go out for the mainstream media to join the fray.

In Gaza, Hamas terrorists hide in classrooms and hospital basements. They store weapons in mosques and use university laboratories for bomb-making factories. They are currently hiding long-range rockets in the basement of Gaza City’s main hospital. They intentionally place women and children on the rooftops of buildings they know will soon be targets of the Israeli air force.

Then, when these human shields are killed or wounded by Israeli fire, the media vents their outrage on the Israeli gunner or pilot, not the calculating terrorist. The bodies of dead terrorists – or their human shields – are then paraded by the ever-accommodating media as “innocent victims of Israeli aggression.” And the orchestrated calls for “proportionality” grow louder.

Following this oft-repeated formula, as the selected media images mount, the predictable demands for an unconditional Israeli cease-fire rise to a global crescendo. Moderate Western governments like France, Britain and other EU nations that have large Muslim populations begin to demand that Israel cease this “disproportionate war.” The worldwide cry grows until finally the United States is bullied into not vetoing a Security Council resolution condemning Israel as an unjustified aggressor.

What is it about Israel that makes it the world’s pariah state? How can it be that no insult to the Arabs is too slight to justify wholesale murder, whereas no atrocity, no matter how outrageous, justifies an Israeli defensive response? It matters not how reasonable and legitimate the defensive action would be for any other nation. But leaders from around the world have streamed into the U.N. to defend the “Palestinian democracy” – as if such an entity exists.

It makes absolutely no sense in the natural. Only the Bible can explain the mystery behind the supernatural hatred of the Jews. Bible prophecy predicted that Israel would be miraculously reborn in “the last days.” The Bible also predicted that a supernatural hatred against Jews would grow worldwide. This will be soon followed by Armageddon and the return of Jesus the Messiah.

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Today things are again heating up in the Middle East because Israel is now taking action against Hamas terrorists in Gaza that have been firing rockets into Israel.  This action by Israel may not lead to a wider war but who really knows?

With that in mind perhaps it is time to look at this very interesting prospective of the deadly game being played out in the Middle East between the Jews, Iran, Islam and the West.

The following summery in that article raises a likely question. Will the West believe they can force Israel to give in to all demands when Israel already knows that Iran and Islam cannot be appeased? Pressuring Israel into a suicidal situation will only make Israel go it alone in self defense.

Considering the views of those now leading the West, I would say that the West offering up Israel on the altar of Baal for some hope of world peace is increasingly likely. What the leaders of the West do not understand is that Israel will not be the sacrificial lamb for world peace. Israel already gave birth to a sacrificial Lamb two thousand years ago and unless the world accepts His sacrifice there is no hope for world peace. Those that try to destroy His inheritance will certainly end up destroying themselves.

Eradicating the “Little Satan”

The Iranians and their allies throughout the Muslim world are bent on making the abandonment of Israel the price of “peace in our time.” In a scenario that should ring frighteningly familiar, a charismatic leader of an ideological, totalitarian state is building upon an endemic anti-Semitism inculcated by centuries of religious indoctrination to create an atmosphere in which the massacre of large numbers of Jews and the destruction of their independent polity will be considered a tolerable if not indeed a legitimate eventuality.

That is ominous enough. Even more ominous is the apparent willingness of any number of leaders of the Western world, under the banner of a hoped-for “reconciliation” with a major Middle Eastern power and a world religion, to tilt dangerously toward appeasement, ignoring the requirements of rational decision-making and putting at risk the West’s own abiding interests and deepest values.

As for Israel, if it takes today’s challenges seriously and prepares to meet them with the requisite strength and creativity, this may yet turn out to be its finest hour. If not, we may be witnessing the prelude to its last.

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It certainly looks to me like Benjamin Netanyahu will be the next Prime Minister of Israel and he certainly is not going to be dictated to by a President who sides with terrorists through Hillary.

Sure, Obama intends to offer Israel a nuclear umbrella and thus allow a nuclear Iran but why would Israel actually think that we would use nukes against Iran after Israel was already destroyed? What good would our nuclear umbrella be for dead people? I guess Obama’s whiz kids think that the threat would be enough of a deterrent to stop Iran from ever using their nukes but that is because they do not understand that the leaders of Iran actually want to bring about a war between the West and Islam. They intend to make Israel the scrape goat that they will slaughter to bring the end time war where their Mahdi comes back to help them take the world for Allah.

Netenyahu is not blinded by liberal pragmatic thinking where compromise solves the issue because people on both sides are basically good and really want to do what is right. He knows that Iran is led by evil mad men who must not get a nuclear weapon. So yeah, they are going to butt heads and Israel will strike Iran alone to prevent Iran from getting the bomb and the U.S. will play the “we condemn Israel” dumb fool on the world stage and thus brings about the war of Psalm 83. When the Arab nations think that we will not intervene.

Guess What? Israel wins, completely destroys Damascus and takes over more land. Next chapter!

U.S.-ISRAEL COLLISION COURSE at DickMorris.com

With the election of Barack Obama, the United States has moved dramatically to the left in its foreign policy at just the time that Israel, which seems likely to return Bibi Netanyahu to office in early February, is moving to the right. A collision is almost inevitable.

Caroline Glick, the highly astute conservative columnist for the Jerusalem Post, writes that the “international community” believes that Obama “will move quickly to place massive pressure on the next Israeli government to withdraw from Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and the Golan Heights in the interests of advancing a ‘peace process’ with the Palestinians and the Syrians.” She notes that “people who have been in close contact with Obama’s foreign policy transition team have privately acknowledged that the widespread belief that Obama will move swiftly to put the screws on Israel is fully justified. According to one source who has spent a great deal of time with the transition team since last month’s U.S. elections, Obama’s people are ‘scope-locked’ on Israel.”

Meanwhile, in Israel, there is a growing consensus, reflected in public opinion surveys, that trading land for peace is a chimera. Netanyahu points out that “we do not have a viable partner with whom to negotiate peace.

While Iran moves closer and closer to a bomb that could and will be used against Israel, Obama speaks of extending the American “nuclear umbrella” to cover Israel.

Reading between the lines, this means that he doesn’t think he can stop Iranian nuclear ambitions and will retreat to a policy of deterrence, accepting a nuclear Iran in the bargain.

If Netanyahu wins the election, he will bring with him a determination to stop Iranian nuclear weapons, no matter what, and a refusal to concede more territory in the name of the peace process. But Obama’s foreign policy team will be focusing on pushing Israel in just the opposite direction.

The result is likely to be the most significant divergence between Israeli and American policies since 1956

But Israel probably has the military capacity to bomb Iran and to win the Middle East war against Syria, Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah that is likely to result. Unlike Olmert, Netanyahu will use ground troops right off the bat and will fight such a war to win and to win big. But they may have to do it without their strongest ally: the United States.

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This article probably has plenty of Bible prophecy significance. Iraq is trying to set up a group of nations like the EU in the Middle East. Many who study Bible prophecy have been saying that Iraq will rise again as a great world center of prosperity in the last days and fulfill the prophecies of Babylon and Babylon the Great. This most likely is the first major step in building the foundation for that entity.

Also notice that other regions on earth are doing the same thing as this EU pilot project prototype. All generally are following the Club of Rome’s plan for ten regional governments under a central world government. When we get the heads of the ten regional governments giving allegiance to one man we will have the ten horns of Daniel and Revelation and the prophetic Beast world system. So far I know of the EU, the African Union, the Union of South American Nations, Central America just announced a Union, there are plans for a North American Union, Putin wants a new Russian alliance of states, Southeast Asia will have a Union, there is talk of a Mediterranean Union and I believe a Union in South Africa and now the Middle East Union. There certainly are a few others in the works that I missed but also remember than in the end there will only be 7 kings and the little horn who is the eight is the Antichrist and Beast world Kingdom. Three unions will be pulled out by the roots. Three will be absorbed by the seven regional governments that remain.

But don’t pack your bags just yet, this will take time. This Middle East Union is just in the planning stages right now. For there to be any union in the Middle East there first will have to peace. Also, the Arabs are not going to allow themselves to be dominated by Iran. Iranians are Aryans they will go with Russia. Can anyone see peace in the Middle East today before a great war? That is impossible with 50,000 missiles pointed at Israel and terrorism everywhere. Before this Middle East Union can even be set up terrorism and radical Islam will first have to be defeated. So now you know the grand plan for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other areas. It will expand into a great world war where all the Islamic radicals on earth will be crushed and more moderate religions of pluralistic tolerance will only be allowed. Holy books in all religions will be re-translated and sanitized to be politically correct.

That war will probably also include the war of Psalm 83 that will bring the defeat of all the terrorist groups that dwell around Israel and it radically change the governance of Arab nations and even the boundaries of many Arab states. But most of Iraq will not be among the radicals in this war and after the defeat of the radicals I can very well see Israel, Iraq and Egypt forming an alliance and administrating the entire Middle East. Then Israel can have the peace and security mentioned in Bible prophecy and great prosperity can come to the whole Middle East area when oil pipelines are built through Israel to the Mediterranean sea. Great solar farms for electric will be built for the pumping of underground water and desalination that will allow huge crop farms to be grown in the deserts.

That will last until Gog with Russia and Iran and other allies come down against Israel in the Last days but they are defeated by God. Not long after that Babylon the great (Iraq) will be the seat of world power under the Antichrist who will in the end lead many nations to their destruction when they come against the King of Kings in Israel.

EUobserver

Iraq has unveiled plans for the creation of a regional economic and security union for the Middle East explicitly modelled on the European Union.

Informal discussions on “Regional Economic Partnership” have reportedly been launched with Kuwait, Syria and Turkey, though not yet Iran. The aim would also to be to bring on board Jordan and Saudi Arabia and – in a subsequent phase – the Gulf states of Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, but not Israel.

“The new Iraq could convert the region into the EU model,” the UK’s Daily Telegraph quotes the Iraqi official as saying at the meeting. “Iraq is going to play a major stabilising factor,” he added.

Iraq sees a “necessity for regional security and economic co-operation,” Mr al-Dabbagh said.

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