The ‘Invisible Hand’ reappears at another anniversary: spooky!

A footnote to the recent post on accelerating eschatology implied something weird about this blog’s 2nd anniversary. And an identical event happened for the 4th anniversary on Saturday 21st November last – news of Iran rehearsing a military attack upon Jerusalem!

But hasn’t an international agreement been agreed with the Iranian regime, you may ask? As many well-informed have repeatedly warned: that doesn’t change their radical ambition to eliminate Israel. Although of late the focus has been elsewhere in the Middle-East, the Iranian leadership adheres to and works toward the manifestation of an extremely radical Shiite eschatology (see Further Reading below).

The Invisible Hand

Invisible Hand

And that’s exactly what got me intrigued about End-times as a non-Christian thirty years ago. If you’re unfamiliar with my story let me recount from Welcome what and why it caught my attention.:

As a part-time editor/publisher I was well placed in the mid-1980s for a friend who ran a mail-order book business to give me an unusual new book on geopolitics, The Invisible Hand by Victor Dunstan published by his Megiddo Press (1984).

This gift claimed the Bible held coded and plain-text details of prophecies relating to the British Mandate in Palestine, as well as giving historical details of the Mandate.

I flicked through the book whilst watching a TV documentary about the then current Iraq-Iran war and noticed its many references to the significance of Jerusalem.  Then I heard the narrator refer to elite units from opposing forces rehearsing together an attack upon Jerusalem – despite being at war with one another!  What a staggering coincidence!!

So I looked and saw what purported to be a video of such an attack – my jaw dropped!  Wouldn’t yours?  This was a book to take seriously. It grabbed and got my full attention!

Consequently, I became more alert to Middle-Eastern and globally related events, which all suggest things may not be as they seem at first glance – or as reported in the media (certainly not the BBC).  I was amazed to learn many events are of Biblical significance.  Bemused, therefore, I began to watch as events unfolded…[NB: on Monday I blogged on this acceleration and dozens of recent news headlines in USA relating to holy writ!]

Back to the book: Victor Dunstan estimated all the prophecies would come to a climax in 1992 with Russia being the lead villain against Israel. However, he didn’t foresee the collapse of communism in 1989!

Yet 1992 proved to be pertinent because the ‘Middle East Peace Process’ had just got under way in October 1991 and led to the Oslo Accords of 1993. After the millennium I found that John McTernan and William Koenig had followed prophetical developments since 1986 and the mid-1990’s respectively. In 1996 William published his work as Koenigs’ International News (now Watch.org) and became an accredited White House correspondent in 2001, the year they co-authored Israel: The Blessing or the Curse. They’ve written other works and independently continue monitoring daily events, as occasionally covered in this blog – see tags Koenig, McTernan.

Also, although the Soviet Union had dissolved into separate republics, the world soon found motherland Russia regaining its prominence under Vladimir Putin. The re-birth is so strategically significant that Putin ousted Obama last year as the world’s most powerful person (Forbes Magazine).

Therefore, Victor’s prognostication about the Soviet Union seemed to be mistaken BUT, in fact, Russia itself has increasingly come into the picture and is now the dominant power in the Middle-East.

We should also note what Victor foretold over 30 years ago about Islam. He writes in chapter 12 of The Invisible Hand,

“Let us make no mistake; Islam is about to become the most powerful empire the world has EVER SEEN.”

His chapter summary includes this foresight:

“We are about to witness a mighty and almost unbelievable upsurge in Islam. Though we see the first signs of an Islamic revival, that revival has a long way to go but it’s going that ‘long way’ very quickly.”

How uncannily true!

So upon launching Richard’s Watch on 21st November 2011, I introduced myself and told about that book. Little did I suspect that what happened decades ago would keep popping up on every alternate anniversary of that date!

21 November 2013

The intriguing events around the 2nd anniversary are recounted in The Invisible Hand Re-appears! Preceding that I reported a Weird mix-up resurrected the blog’s Welcome.

Next, on the actual anniversary of 21st November 2013, the Washington Beacon reported Iran Launches ‘Massive’ War Drills – Codename: ‘Towards Jerusalem’!  (Within that week I read president Obama secretly agreed to elevate Iran to seventh world power.)

Moreover, my trying to write and publish anything about Iran was severely frustrated by internet connection problems with my blogging platform WordPress, as told the next day.

21 November 2015

Now on the blog’s 4th anniversary I found upon reading John McTernan’s Insights that he reported upon ‘Iran Guards Simulates Capture of Al-Aqsa Mosque’. (Link not available but The Times of Israel has Iran trains for capture of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa but uses Dome of the Rock model.)

John McTernanJohn comments, “Iran, like so many other nations, has gone “mad” over Jerusalem. Just before the first Gulf War, Sadam Hussein went “mad” over Jerusalem. He fantasized that he was like the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar and was going to destroy Israel, capture Jerusalem and take the Jews captive to Iraq. Now it is Iran’s turn for destruction. Iran is now “mad” over Jerusalem and will suffer the same fate as Sadam.”

AND there are ongoing issues with WordPress functionality once again!!! (Not connection but much bigger issues over using a new editing facility.)

Spooky?

Not at all. Such repetitive, ‘mirror-image’ coincidences must be more than that – I call them ‘God-incidences’. The Living Lord must surely be pointing out the huge biblical significance to these military events and the Iranian leadership’s true, apocalyptic mission.

WE ARE BEING WARNED WITH PRECISE REGULARITY!

AND there’s a quickening pace in other eschatological events as noted a few days ago!

Further Reading:

Is Obama complicit in the persecution of Christians?

The claims made by Lord George Weidenfeld about president Obama’s inept Middle-East policy only gloss the surface of what a multitude of highly informed experts have been continually saying – including Russian president Putin, as below!.

It’s notable, for example, that on the very same day that interview was broadcast one expert (who warned of the likelihood of the 9/11 atrocity) published his ‘One-Minute Guide’ on POTUS’ foreign policy.

That and this peer’s preference to assist Iraqi and Syrian Christians escape barbarity, deserve deeper consideration in the light of recent events.

Without writing in depth on this I’d refer anyone who’s interested to read the following by Raymond Ibrahim, a few of whose writings I’ve reposted here on this blog. The last of these is on the US’ policy of preventing Christian testimony of persecution. So let me direct you to some of his latest on our matter-in-hand:

Putin admonishes Obama Continue reading

Leading publisher contradicts BBC HARDtalk on Obama, Mid-East & terrorism

An extraordinary interview popped onto our TV screen last night after a dvd closed down. We rarely bother with ‘talking-heads’; however, we stopped in our tracks upon hearing a question on the persecution of Christians. Joining as the first question was asked, we remained ‘glued’ to the dialogue.

Lord Weidenfeld credit Independent

Lord Weidenfeld; credit, Independent

News-makers and personalities around the world are interviewed in-depth on BBC World Services’ and News channel’s HARDtalk by presenter Stephen Sackur. Last night he interviewed British peer Lord Weidenfeld, who  made London his home for the past eight decades after escaping nazi Austria and the Holocaust just before World War II. He became one of Britain’s best known publishers of high quality, prize-winning fiction and non-fiction (see Weidenfeld&Nicolson).

The programme was billed: ‘Now 96 years old, his life says much about the modern history of Britain, Europe and the Jewish people. But as he reflects, is he filled with hope or something darker?’. It reflects Sakur’s stance, quite contrary to that of his guest!  And he didn’t cave in to the presenter’s polite grilling…

The opening question was about why he’d set up Operation Safe Haven, as publicised last July (eg. see Daily Mail article). His answer is that it’s in gratitude for and repayment of his debt to Christians because they’d helped him and his family to escape Austria, as well as when problems arose in pre-war Britain.

As the Operations objective is being purely to assist Iraqi and Syrian Christians, Sackur  objects by referring to USA’s reservations about helping and says such help should be humanitarian only: his work shouldn’t be religiously selective but include Muslims too because they’re also suffering.

Weidenfeld recognises it’s an important point and counters by referring to his inter-faith work in improving relations between Jews, Christians and Muslims. The presenter then pushes for the logical consequence of such cooperation by rescuing those of any faith.

But the guest is candid and forthright in saying Christians in those lands “get a raw deal, they don’t get sufficient support” and because of his personal experience wants to repay them.

“Let me put it bluntly” retorts Sackur and posits a position of his guest refusing to help  those in the migrating masses who are not Christians.

Weidenfeld is forthright about this ‘academic question’, reminds him of the Communist and Nazi persecutions and that nothing is being done by the Western world to help the ancient Christian world. He contradicts Sackur’s typically BBC pro-Palestinian and anti-Christian moronic mind-set,

“A great deal is being done for the Muslims…logistically they’re in the situation and their safe havens are pretty close by and a huge amount of money is available for them – but the Christians get the raw deal: that’s what I’m saying!”

Not content, Sackur pushes his point by referring to Europe and problems here only for his guest to be equally blunt,

“The Western world is in a bad moral shape and, I’m afraid, I blame the leader of the Western world, President, Obama for a lot of what’s happening now”

“You can’t surely blame him for Europe’s failure to lead on this (migrant) crisis…?” blurts the Beeb’s man.

“I blame him for having created situations in the Middle-East and undulating, uncertain, weak foreign policy that has done a great deal to bring about this present situation. I could go into great detail on this…”

As regards Europe and jihadist attacks they discuss the safety of Jews, the call for their return to their original, ancient homeland (now the state of Israel), anti-Semitism and the roots of terrorism. In view of the peer’s connections and experience in Germany a good discussion develops. Regarding anti-Semitism he thinks,

“There are two roots of anti-Semitism: a religious root and an economical root….the first is no longer valid for people don’t say, “You killed the Saviour” – so that root died out in the 18th Century. The economic root is also not so valid because, if you look at the phone directories of most European capitals many (Jewish) bankers, lawyers and dentists no longer exist there because of Auschwitz.

“So it is Jihadism – the hatred of Jews brought about by radical Islam. There’s no question about that! It’s anti the Jewish state, it’s anti-Zionism – that’s what it is really.”

Sackur notices his disquiet over the Obama administration and asks what’s made him so angry. Having spent time in the States, Weidenfeld responds that,

“…he is someone who has no talent or knowledge about foreign affairs. He may be a good orator, possibly quite well equipped to deal with home affairs, but he hasn’t got a feeling for foreign affairs. He is naïve. He builds up Putin into a position of where he’s a mixture of Disraeli and Bismarck as arbiter in the Middle-East; in Syria he made him the man for opening the debate with Iran to his own disadvantage – and I think he has weakened, he has alienated, some of our allies to a point of great bitterness. So I make him responsible for a lot of what’s going on today in the Middle-East.”

The presenter offers, as though speaking for that administration, their objection based upon delivery of democratic mandate, getting out of the M-East and making a deal with Iran, which earns the peer’s gentle but forthright rebuke,

“With Iran it is a very dangerous situation now because – although there may be a way of curbing the atomic ambitions – you’re dealing with a theocratic government of extreme violence – and the present president just has a better table-manner than his predecessor – but I think that by filling their coffers now you make it possible for them to support Hezbollah, to support all kinds of extremists and you’re probably going to have another intifada or full-fledged war before long because the Iranians are again going to be on the warpath.”

Watch this interesting and stimulating interview in full by clicking here.

Further Reading:

U.S. officially blocks Christian testimony of Islamist persecution

An article quoted in the previous post on the violent persecution of believers asks, “Is this the end of Christianity in the Middle-East?” In his answer, Joel Rosenberg reminds us of Bible passages foretelling this predicament in the lead-up to the return of Jesus Christ, and the ensuing, extensive evangelisation across that region.

Ray-ibrahimA couple of hours later the Middle-East Forum sent an excerpt from Raymond Ibrahim’s monthly update on the endemic persecution of Christians in Muslim states around the world. As one of the expert sources I introduced in my earliest blogs and have since quoted, his site is featured on my ‘blog-roll’ of Links. Born of Egyptian Coptic parents, Raymond explores the intersection of Christianity and Islam. Author of The Al-Qaeda Reader and of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War of Christians, he translates pertinent Arabic and Egyptian news that never reaches the West.

Read his full article here about how the U.S. State Department blocked the issue of visas to Christian nuns and leaders from Iraq, Nigeria and Syria thereby preventing their telling America about the violent persecution in those nations by Islamists. Without any shadow of a doubt, this is the fruit of the Obama administration’s anti-Christian bias.

Ever since expressing reservations over Obama’s Cairo Speech to the Muslim world in 2009, and subsequent espousal of the Muslim Brotherhood and appointment of several of it members within his administration, I’ve noticed POTUS’ deep reluctance to stand up for Christians – plus his misunderstanding of the Gospel and scripture, as well as activities contrary to decisions of the Church’s first council in Jerusalem (Acts 15:20).

In that email I queried several times, “If he really were a Christian…”, eg. after quoting his “As a student of history”, I noted: ‘If Obama really were a well-informed Christian and student of history then he would have told the truth about the founding of Israel…’

Six years later, I again refer to Rick Joyner’s Discerning the Times, the prophetic validity of which will be recognised by those in the real church of Jesus Christ:

This new unity in the church is being driven because of foreboding created by the demeanor and laws being passed by the Obama Administration, which seem to be specifically designed to open doors for persecuting the church. Even though it is very sad to see this happening in our nation, which was begun and built by those seeking freedom, especially religious freedom, nevertheless these present trends are working to strengthen and galvanize the church like possibly nothing has ever done before. (Emphasis RB)

May the peace of the Lord be with us in these days…

With ISIS on the rampage, “is this the end of Christianity in the Middle East?”

Joel RosenbergIn reviewing NY Times’ article Joel urges believers not to be discouraged but to note what’s happening is as prophesied in scripture. Therefore, we are not at the ‘end of Christianity’ in its heartland. Read also A devilish plot to avoid the ‘Lake of Fire’ and mini-series Global satanic strategy on this blog.

joelcrosenberg's avatarJoel C. Rosenberg's Blog

(source: New York Times) (source: New York Times)

(Denver, Colorado) — In my recent novel, The Third Target, a New York Times reporter  criss-crosses the Middle East, trying to understand and explain to the world the rise of the Islamic State and the objectives of its leaders. Among the questions my fictional character — J.B. Collins — is trying to answer:

  1. Why are ISIS jihadists are so blood-thirsty?
  2. Why do ISIS leaders want to establish an Islamic kingdom or caliphate?
  3. Are ISIS leaders are really serious about slaughtering and/or enslaving all of the Christians of the region, in addition to annihilating Jews and all Muslims who don’t subscribe to their theology or eschatology?

What he discovers is evil beyond his worst nightmares — a Satanic movement determined to rob, kill and destroy everyone in its path, and particularly Christians.

Now, in real life, a must-read feature story has been published in the New…

View original post 1,506 more words

Update on Cameron’s speech – diplomatic/military component against IS

Cameron_latestAt long last a politician has punched a ‘PC’ idol in the teeth! (PC = political correctness aka. political clap-trap)

Contributing Editor to The Commentator, Clare George-Hilley, has summarised David Cameron’s speech and the strap-line to her report reads,

Prime Minister David Cameron has announced new measures to crack down on Islamic extremism at home and abroad. For far too long, political correctness has allowed this wicked ideology to flourish. Cameron’s remarks may seem late in the day to some, but he’s on the right track at last.

She opens Cameron campaign against Islamic extremism is long overdue with,

‘Today, in front of British Muslims in Birmingham, David Cameron made his first major domestic speech on how to tackle Islamist extremism in our country.  It is poignant that Cameron chose to give his speech in Birmingham, the place where the schools were infiltrated as part of the Trojan Horse plot, where extremists sought to indoctrinate the minds of innocent children…

‘For many years, I and many other commentators, political activists and counter-terrorism experts have been recommending and asking for measures that the government can tangibly apply to combat Islamic extremism in Britain and abroad. The warning signs have been clearly visible in our country for many years…’

After noting political tolerance of intolerance allowed extremists to exploit our freedom of speech laws to preach hatred on our streets, Clare covers her favourite part of the speech (emphases mine):

‘The best, and most important, part of his speech was when he finally came round to the notion that violent extremism exists at the apex of a broader Islamist narrative:

“It may begin with hearing about the so-called Jewish conspiracy, and then develop into hostility to the West and fundamental liberal values before finally becoming a cultish attachment to death. Put another way, the extremist worldview is the gateway, and then violence is the ultimate destination,” the prime minister said.

‘Not so many years ago, such (obviously correct and pertinent) remarks would have drawn charges of “Islamophobia” in some quarters. Cameron deserves praise for moving the debate in the right direction, however late in the day it may now be.’

Diplomatic Component

British_Foreign_Se_3378279b AFP

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conference at the latter’s office in Jerusalem – credit AFP

The timing and content of this major speech by David Cameron must surely be directly connected with action being taken against those who murder British citizens and others – and apparently with the outcome of last week’s nuclear power deal with Iran (aka. the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – JCPOA).

One of the signatories to the JCPOA, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, went to Israel to tell PM Netanyahu officially of the agreement’s full terms. But he went under a mistaken understanding. He presumed Israel doesn’t want any deal whatsoever with Iran, just a permanent stand-off or continuing conflict – and said as much in Parliament before leaving (as here). So Netanyahu took him to task during their public meeting in Jerusalem:

“Israelis know better than anyone else the cost of permanent conflict with Iran and it is wrong to suggest that Israel wants such an outcome. We seek a genuine and effective diplomatic solution,”

“The alternative to this deal is not war. The alternative is a better deal that would roll back Iran’s military nuclear program and tie the easing of restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program to changes in Iran’s behaviour. That’s the kind of deal that would be welcomed in Tel Aviv and here in Israel’s capital Jerusalem.”

This morning another part of that meeting in Jerusalem emerged in connection with Isil – and how the nuclear deal means Iran will be taking more action against Isil, as reported exclusively by DebkaFile:

‘Although the Secretary’s formal mission was to elucidate the accord to Israel’s leaders, his real purpose was to hand him a letter from British Prime Minister David Cameron. In this letter, Cameron explained that his decision to extend RAF bombing missions from Iraq to Syria (depending on parliament’s approval in September) had nothing to do with Washington’s policies, but was solely motivated by the Islamist threat hanging over British national security.
‘Britain, he said, was not acting in support of the Syrian-Iranian-Hizballah lineup against the Islamist group; nor was it part of the Obama administration’s turnabout in favor of supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad. British bombers would target ISIS in the UK’s own interests.

Note the comment about yet another of Obama’s turnarounds – in favour of Syria!  This is because of Iran’s close interest in supporting their puppet Assad. Please read that Debka report to appreciate what’s started, or already happening, on the ground.

Is Debka’s claim about British diplomatic/military action credible? They are the ones who broke the news of secret US-Iran back-channels communications being set up soon after Obama’s inauguration – and prior to his infamous Cairo speech to the Muslim word. (Read Today’s Importance in History, 18 May 2009 and note especially the Arab world’s alarm at Obama’s activity. They were vindicated by last week’s nuclear deal.)  Therefore, there are reasonable grounds for regarding the Debka report as reliable.

So we now glimpse what’s happening behind closed doors and how determined David Cameron is to deal with and, if at all possible, remove Islamist extremism here.

Political common-sense emerges on Islamist threat

The Times front-page headline on a major speech Prime Minister Cameron is making today:

The Times Monday 20 July 2015

(Click image to enlarge – their young award-winning journalist continues on page 4 as follows) “…loss of British citizens in a terrorist attack, happened before the Iraq war.

“When they say that these are wronged Muslims getting revenge on western wrong- doing, lets remind them: from Kosovo to Somalia, countries like Britain have stepped in the save Muslim people from massacres. It’s groups like Isil, al-Qaeda and Boko Haram that are the ones murdering Muslims….etc.”  [Murdoch papers require subscription.]

For the latest with video read the Telegraph’s David Cameron speech: my five-year plan to tackle extremism – Live; or The Independent’s online report here.

The PM’s announcement is long overdue in view of nationwide reaction to last month’s appalling massacre of 30 British holidaymakers in Sousse, Tunisia (see Wikipedia), and the fact that Islamists declared war on the West a long time ago! He is delivering upon his statement in the House of Commons after Sousse for the UK to be “intolerant of intolerance”. (NB: Contemporaneous killings were committed in France and Kuwait too – see The West’s war against Jihadi terrorism is just beginning.)

In his citing events from the 1990s caused by maniacal Muslims, I’m sure Cameron is well aware it’s been periodically endemic since the foundation of their religion in the Dark Ages. An insight into a global satanic strategy covered that historic fact in depth a few months ago. There, we looked at the cause of the Medieval crusades as a reaction to Muslim violence – not vice versa! – and how warped thinking poisoned the Greek-based mind-sets of liberals.

In addition to those earlier facts I’d also refer the PM to the total estimated murders by Muslims since 9/11: over 26,400! (The Religion of Peace database.)  BUT this may be undercounted and need doubling, as determined by the BBC’s ‘thorough analysis’.

!cid_image002_jpg@01CDBDD2Two years ago I blogged about the PM’s comment “A war against al-Qaeda could last decades”, and considered it further in a subsequent post wherein I wrote:

Winston Churchill foresaw of the danger of militant Islam in 1899! His trenchant opinion, based upon personal military service in The Sudan, speaks with great insight and I quote only the portion pertinent to this post.::

“…Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome…”  [Read full extract in Wikipedia’s The River War.]

Notes:

  1. Churchill’s criticism spread wherever he found fault, including the British high command!
  2. I know many Muslims (eg. medical staff) who are a jewel in humanity and, therefore, totally unlike those deranged extremists.

2015 REPRISE – Review 2: Iran and nuclear ‘fix’

We continue to consider some past posts relevant to today’s events:

IRAN

Invisible HandRegular readers may recall the eschatological role of Iran was drawn to my attention 30 years ago as a non-Christian. I’d been given a new book on history and geopolitics that claimed the Bible held coded and plaintext prophecies on the British Mandate in Palestine (The Invisible Hand)

Whilst watching a documentary on TV about the Iraq-Iran war, I flicked through the book and noticed it has lots of references to the significance of Jerusalem. Then I heard the narrator’s voice over video purporting to show elite units from Iran and Iraq rehearsing an attack upon Jerusalem, despite their being at war with one another! Continue reading

Prophetic points on the SCOTUS marriage decision

The most violent storm-complex since the June 2012 derecho blasted Washington DC area in July’s opening minutes (click image for details).

The most violent storm-complex since the June 2012 derecho blasted Washington DC area in July’s opening minutes. (Credit Washington Post, click image for details.)

In view of the suppression of free speech, Friday’s decision on equal marriage by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has ramifications beyond America.

I’m so pleased not to be alone in understanding the possibility of a spiritual ‘crossover’ effect from here across the Atlantic, as asked in Does a spiritual yet political trend link UK and USA?  In the prophetic word Cindy Jacobs brought for the UK whilst passing through Heathrow in May, the Lord is exhorting us,

If you will stand up now and be the voice to the nations this awakening that you have prayed for is on its way; it is coming, it is coming like a mighty rushing wind…this is the season where I am giving you a loud voice, Body of Christ, and if you will speak now I will amplify that voice and it is going to begin to tip the nation. If you miss your window you will not have the effect…” (read in full here).

Therefore, it’s now time for followers of Jesus Christ to stand up, speak and dissent for the sake of not-yet believers and our society – even if civil disobedience is necessary, as in the anti-Vietnam war and anti-racial segregation demonstrations of yesteryear.

Consider some points from what little reading I’ve done on this and I thank a couple of readers for informing me. Be warned – these tend to highlight the culpability of churches in failing to follow Jesus properly:

The Church Disappears

Tony Puccio of Tucson blogs about a most accurate observation on 1st July,

“I was shown a vision 07/01/2015 where I saw a church situated in what I will call a jungle of vegetation.  There was vegetation all around but the church building stood out and was recognized as a church. Then I began to see a vine creep its way toward the church building. It was very small and most probably gone unnoticed had I not seen it and my attention drawn to it in the vision. The vine was left unchecked and eventually it covered the church building, although you could still make out the shape of the church it no longer stood out as it once did. Finally, the vine grew so dense and thick that the church disappeared altogether and you could not see the church any longer.

“The creeping vine is worldliness and it was allowed to creep into the church unchecked and most likely unnoticed.  It was allowed to grow until it totally engulfed the church.  The church went from a building that stood out for all to see to one that blended in with its surroundings to finally disappearing from view altogether.

“The vine got its nourishment from the outside and not from the inside.”

I read this earlier upon logging into WordPress and a short while later an email brought directly related information, as follows:

A Surprising Prophetic Word

William Smith in Bournemouth area sent a link to this Prophetic Insight from Charisma, which I quote in part but deserves reading in full. Jeremiah Johnson sought Father on the SCOTUS decision and believes the Lord said to him (emphases added):

“In the natural, the Supreme Court justices have just legalized homosexual marriage in America, but little do they know that they also just authorized an awakening of the Spirit in My bride. For know that now is the time to turn inward, it is a time of repentance and fasting for My people. Has their laziness and blindness on the issue of sexual immorality in their midst not given the homosexual agenda its true power? America has now legalized homosexual immorality because the American church legalized heterosexual immorality first.”

Then came a vision of intercessors in which he heard their prayers and was asked:

“Do you know what’s wrong with these prayers Jeremiah? They are all focused on the call for America to repent when I have called My bride to repent! You must tell the intercessors to shift their focus from America to My bride. Their self-righteous hearts and blindness to their own sin is a stench in my nostrils. The issues coming forth in the United States is not an American problem, it’s an American Church problem.”

Therefore, Jeremiah writes,

“America is in a crisis, but the American church is in a greater crisis. We are and will continue to reap what we have sown and that is seeds of silence and tolerance on the key issues of our day that have come before the Father as sin…While I do believe that these individuals are choosing to blatantly sin and will be judged by God Himself for their behavior (Romans 14:12), we have an obligation as believers in Jesus Christ to look within our own lives and in our own spiritual communities and ask the Spirit of truth to search us inwardly before we begin calling others to accountability (see Psalm 51:6).”

Four Key Things to Consider

In case you haven’t read the re-blog of Joel Rosenberg’s remarks on the implications of SCOTUS’ decision let me briefly cover his four main points. Joel asks if Christians may be hyperventilating over the issue. No! “Unfortunately, this is a very big deal and it puts America on a perilous path”.

He draws attention to key things on the Court’s ruling for believers at this critical time:

  1. The Supreme Court is over-reaching its Constitutional authority, and is thus  undermining its own legitimacy and pouring gasoline on a highly-politicized issue that will deeply divide Americans for years to come.
  2. It forces 320 million Americans to embrace overnight a radical re-engineering of the entire social compact of marriage that even some of the nation’s most liberal political leaders strongly opposed just a few years ago.
  3. It opens the door for a frontal and massive assault on religious liberty… Christians all over the country who hold to the Biblical definition of marriage are beginning to be taken to court and fined — some are even in danger of losing their businesses and their homes…The 1st Amendment to the Constitution plainly states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” But the Court’s ruling seems to put the un-enumerated “civil right” of a same-sex marriage above the enumerated right of religious freedom…gay political activists are not content with mere legalization of same-sex marriage. They want to force the rest of the country to embrace and support them. Thus, they and their supporters in Washington will likely move aggressively to criminalize the Biblical definition of marriage and to severely penalize those who teach and follow it.
  4. Most troubling, the Court has acted in direct and brazen defiance of the Word of God — painful as it is for me to say it, this will likely accelerate us towards judgment if America does not soon change course.

The Supreme Court v. The Supreme Being

In his inimitable style Rick Joyner is on target in his Prophetic Bulletin #94’s brief on the ‘legal contest’ implicit in this decision and uses ‘three questions’ from US Army Manual for dealing with a crisis, viz.:

  1. What is happening?
  2. What is not happening? (spiritually)
  3. What can we do about it?

In tackling the first question Rick majors upon the foundation of the Union and ‘creeping tyranny’. He opens,

“As the four dissenting justices pointed out, the Supreme Court does not have the constitutional authority to make this decision. First, even though SCOTUS has taken this authority upon itself, it is a usurped authority and nowhere does the Constitution give it this authority. The authority to determine the constitutionality of laws was given to Congress, not the courts. We are now suffering under the very tyranny that the founders warned about if the courts ever presumed this authority. Regardless of our position on same-sex marriage, every American should be deeply troubled by the actions of SCOTUS that this case is just the most recent and dramatic.”

From his fine argument I wish to quote only two points made from a global perspective rather than the nationally introspective. This isn’t to imply US laws or policy should be based on what other nations think, but does need to know how they are perceived because it affects international relations. (“It’s been a major wedge driven between the US, Russia and China, as well as Africa and South America. To much of the world, the US and Western Europe now look like Sodom and Gomorrah”.)

On this he writes:

“Paul the Apostle wrote to Titus that even false prophets can sometimes tell the truth (see Titus 1:12-13). Pravda, the Moscow daily newspaper, has been predicting for years that the United States would break up into several pieces just like the Soviet Union. Their reasoning was not based merely on sour grapes, but on the historically proven consequences of the kind of direction in which our government has been going. To date, we have most alarmingly followed the pattern predicted. We really are close to breaking apart.

“Islamists consider America “the great Satan” because of our moral and spiritual debauchery that has made us “a homosexual nation”—so perverted that the only remedy is to wipe us off the face of the earth. Their belief about the U.S. has now been affirmed by this Supreme Court decision. This decision will likely make their recruiting to this cause much easier. This is not the only issue fuelling these groups, but it is a major one.”

Like Joel Rosenberg, Rick concludes his brief with a solid action plan.

Prophetic Warning of a Divided Nation

Grand Canyon Wpaper113In The River and The Schism Chuck Pierce refers to having visited the Grand Canyon, which reminded him of a vision received in August 2007 of a coming division within his nation.  Another one came in May 2011 about a deteriorating relationship with one of its closest allies – Israel.

We have good Biblical grounds for understanding that, as America treats Israel and Jerusalem, so too will its well-being be guarded – or not. As mentioned before, its initials are in the centre of the capital of Israel; ie. JER-USA-LEM.  Therefore, its leaders can either protect the ‘apple of God’s eye’ by holding it together – or else divide it – with all the inherent consequences of Zechariah chapter 2.

Read more about this in Modern prophecy on USA & Israel approaches fulfilment.

3 of 3: US presidents’ actions relate to Daniel’s visions

Ancient Babylon’s king Nebuchadnezzar had a very disturbing dream and demanded that his ‘wise’ men tell him not only what it meant…but also what it actually was!

An impossible task! And they told him so, but in his fury he called for their executions. Questioning the urgency of this, captive Jew and king’s advisor Daniel sought a stay of execution in order to pray for the answer. With friends, Daniel petitioned the Lord and the secret was revealed in a night vision. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven as follows (as in Daniel 2 per NKJV, emphasis added):

“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
For wisdom and might are His.
 And He changes the times and the seasons;
He removes kings and raises up kings;
He gives wisdom to the wise
And knowledge to those who have understanding.
 He reveals deep and secret things;
He knows what is in the darkness,
And light dwells with Him.

I thank You and praise You,
O God of my fathers;
You have given me wisdom and might,
And have now made known to me what we asked of You,
For You have made known to us the king’s demand.”

With this scripture setting the scene we’ll continue (and close) our consideration of the devil’s attempt to pre-empt the Bible’s ‘end-game’. This time we’ll look at how America may have become involved. As previously, it’s helpful for new readers to know why I’m engaged with this particular issue. (Confirmations it’s of the Lord have come and I may share that personal material soon.)

Quick recap

Writing got irregular throughout February and March. Nina’s sudden immobility meant time for blogging was available only as and when I was free to do so – yet I was blessed it didn’t detract from musing upon and insights into specific themes, especially satanic strategy. (Start reading here if you want the full story).

An avalanche of related material (which even allowed for the scheduling of my wife’s operation!) ‘nudged’ me into checking my earliest writings. Amazing to see how history cycles around in events I’d written about!

One month ago

First Monday in March brought synchronous, or ‘God-incidental’, information to my in-tray. And into the week I was deluged with physical and mental material. It began with Lion Bite: Watchmen Arise! and a post from Mark Davidson’s The Four Signposts.

[It’s ‘God-incidental’ that Tony Puccio out in Arizona has today posted a vision from last night about Watchmen on the Wall – please read, noting my associated comments. He certainly had no idea of what I was about to write today.]

What Mark published really caught my attention and set me ‘buzzing’ for the week, as though a ‘door’ or ‘gateway’ had opened up for me. When I started writing there was too much for one post and so it would be a 3-part mini-blog. I considered cycles, looked at specific events and their current equivalent.  I referred to what had set me off in the mid-1980s – that’s what amazed me about Mark’s post of Monday 2nd March.

The Invisible Hand

Invisible HandIn 1 of 3: the ‘End-game’ gets ramped up another level I outlined how this book published in 1984 had ‘hit me between the yes’!  Later its importance got  ‘coincidentally’ reinforced, as in The Invisible Hand re-appears!

Yet again, it’s significance got flagged by Mark’s post going back to Saddam Hussein’s war with Iran and American involvement. Before we look at this there are some interesting points.

First, look at what author Victor Dunstan foresaw. He opens chapter 12, The Mark of the Beast – 666 which covers Daniel 7 and Revelation 12 & 13, as follows:

‘That we are about to witness some of the most traumatic political events the civilised world has seen is clear from the writings of the ancient seers [ie. OT prophets].

‘Within a few years, according to the prophets, the economy of the civilised world will be operable only by the consent of, and on the terms laid down by, an Islamic Empire which will rule a large part of the earth’s surface.

‘The oil producing nations will be swept by a wave of religious fervour such as not been seen since prophet Mohammed himself inspired the great upsurge of religious, political and militant Islam.’ [Emphases RB]

Doubtless, Dunstan had in mind the experience of outrageous hiking up in oil prices by OPEC in 1970s. Even so, he subsequently stresses,

‘Let us make no mistake; Islam is about to become the most powerful empire the world has EVER SEEN.

His chapter summary includes this accurate prophetic point, made 30 years ago:

‘Though we see the first signs of an Islamic revival, that revival has a long way to go but it’s going that ‘long way’ very quickly.’ 

InvHand p198

Early Emails

That Monday 2nd March email alert from Mark opens with claims that President Obama had ordered Israeli aircraft to be shot down if overflying Iraq en-route to Iran. Now that reminded me I’d written something on that matter and dug into my records.

My contemporaneous email covering a likely attack on Iran’s not-yet operational nuclear reactor at Bushehr was entitled Could This Weekend Change the World? And the world did change, but not following an attack!  The reactor’s production of material for nuclear weapons has led to global economic sanctions against Iran and prolonged discussions to allow its restricted operation. Also as my email of August 2010 stated, it eventually led to Saudi Arabia falling out with America.

But what is particularly amusing is what I found last week. It confirms Mark’s points! The next email, Update to…Change the World? closes by asking,

…perhaps the Lord may be using Obama to bring about His purposes?

To flag up the peculiarity of what I’m writing, that remark’s followed by:

Do I sense pieces of the Lord’s biblical ‘jigsaw puzzle’ falling into place? (At this very moment, as I write, my PC radio plays ‘Dies Irae’ (Day of Wrath) from Verdi’s Requiem Mass!! Now is that just coincidence or God-incidence? I’d stopped writing to get a coffee and share my thoughts with Nina before resuming with fresh idea about jigsaw. Had that not happened there’d have been no synchonicity – so I’m awestruck!)

From The Four Signposts

With that in mind, Mark’s illuminating observations on US presidential involvement in Daniel’s visions conclude as follows:

“So what’s next, courtesy the Obama administration?  Engraved invitations to the IRGC to run amok all over the Mideast while being given free transportation by the American military?  I’m joking of course.  But by the time this is all over we might be quite surprised at the total contribution that U.S. leadership made so that God’s word is ultimately carried out.

“It is interesting and surprising to me that God has chosen the mightiest nation that ever existed – and the only nation dedicated as a Christian nation, the United States of America – to unwittingly orchestrate the execution of the Signposts one by one.  The nation responsible for churches planted all over the dark places of the world and bringing the light of the Gospel to millions of the lost, is the same nation most helpful in allowing the Antichrist to emerge.

“How many Christians in the USA even realize that their country is being used by God to bring out the Antichrist?  Who could even imagine such a thing on their own?  The only reason I discovered this is because it is a consequence of the Signpost interpretation of Daniel 7 and 8.  Truth can be definitely stranger than fiction.”

Amused, I commented that his opening quip may actually be what’s happening! Also, I’d add that from the outset of his presidency Obama opened up ‘back channel’ diplomatic communications with Iran and is said to have used them to seek permission to fly US troops to Afghanistan (email May 2009 Today’s Importance in History refers).

Now let’s continue by reading Mark’s account and discussion of how the USA fits into prophetic ‘signposts’ in Daniel’s book, by clicking on this linked-image:

USpresidents-contributions

The five living U.S. Presidents gathered at the White House in 2009, with their end-time accomplishments noted, per the Signposts. (Credit and courtesy of Mark Davidson)

Finally, it’s claimed USA is in the middle of ‘Jerusalem’. But that could also mean it’s either closely supportive or else divisive, as in ‘Jer-usa-lem’ ?

2 of 3: devilish plot to pre-empt the Bible’s ‘endgame’

Thank you to this week’s visitors and subscribers in helping me with this post, which has been in preparation as and when possible throughout this month. Your interest in one of last year’s posts enabled me to a draw it to a specific conclusion, as you’ll read below.

UPDATE 5/5/15: Tony Puccio has reminded me of a dream in July 2013 of a spinning top in connection with the Devil speeding up events – Vision of a Spinning Top.

Continued from 1 of 3: the ‘End-game’ gets ramped up another level

In that post’s History cycles around I covered events in 2009 directly relating to today’s ‘hot potatoes’: US appeasement of Iran on nuclear energy and president Obama making Israeli PM Netanyahu the ‘bogeyman’ against discussions, as well as other nations dismay with USA. (See previous post for latest developments.)

That part summarised a reason for the increase in worldwide troubles lying in tactics to delay, or better still, to prevent the return of Jesus Christ to reign and rule on earth. This way, maybe Satan avoids his fate of not only being defeated but also being thrown into the lake of fire, as prophesied in The Book of Revelation. I gave evidence for this strategy by way of events; or ‘pieces’ that had popped to mind as though being placed into the Lord’s invisible jigsaw

Spiral stairway to cloudsIn fact, the week of 16 -21 February was unusual. It was as though a physical cycle of events intertwined with the non-physical, or spiritual, one I was sensing. ‘Bells were ringing’ and I was ‘buzzing’ and aspects of the cycle are still bubbling away, as will be explained in Part 3.

My attention had been re-directed and thoughts unfurled to point to a possible counter-strategy to the Bible’s End-times scenario!  Menacing events are not only escalating but also accelerating rapidly!  (And I’m now reminded of the urgent word Neville Johnson brought last year about Yom Kippur 2014 being ‘a cut-off in God’s timeline’.)

In mulling over all that I was ‘prompted’ to dig into my first emails on End-time events and found items relevant to what’s happening these days, as well as to what another blogger posted that same week. (It’s related to what kick-started my interest in End-times! And last week I noticed another relevance!)

The first draft of this post had become too bulky so it got split into two parts. In closing part 1 of 3 on history repeating itself, I said a forgotten idea kicked around in an old email had just popped up in the previous fortnight.

That idea is the subject of this second part.:

Pre-empting End-times prophecies

Snippets of detail and other’s disclosures about today’s Sunni vs Shiite (ISIL vs Iran)  war in Iraq reminded me of an aspect of Biblical events that’s been unfolding for years.

August 2010

Asking Could This Weekend Change The World? I referred to Iranian leaders’ plans to hasten the appearance of their ‘Hidden Imam’ (aka ‘Mahdi’) by bringing nuclear conflict to the Middle-East. I quoted security analyst Ryan Mauro and Israeli PM Netanyahu on “an apocalyptic cult controlling atomic bombs”.

At that time Russia was about to get Iran’s first nuclear reactor at Bushehr operational ahead of the internationally agreed schedule. In the above email I commented,

Once that happens the balance of power in the region tilts completely as all Sunni Muslim States in Persian Gulf will have to turn away from a weak USA and kowtow to an extremist Shiite regime – ONE THAT HAS THREATENED TO ANNIHILATE ISRAEL and will have the ability to carry out its intentions and achieve Hitler’s goal far more efficiently and effectively. Both Iran’s President and supreme spiritual leader anticipate an apocalyptic war heralding the appearance of their crescent-moon god’s Mahdi (accompanied by Jesus!) and bringing peace to a world that’s come into the ‘house of submission’ [ie Islam].

The good thing about this is that all the rational Sunni Arab leaders are wanting America and/or Israel to take out the facilities (as they did with Iraq’s and Syria’s reactors). But Israel would have to go it alone as Obama wouldn’t commit to action. Debka’s sources report an Iranian phantom fighter and unidentified drones crashing nearby and into the reactor buildings.

[Since assuming office president Obama forced US Middle-Eastern policy into a U-turn. And so strategic US influence in the region has all but vanished: see last footer below and latest on Egyptian navy defending Gulf of Aden and Red Sea. Also apropos the email, early this month a rumour surfaced about him having ordered the shooting down of Israeli jets over-flying Iraq to attack Iran’s reactor, as here.

The Middle-East nuclear race is now under way. Last week BBC interviewed Saudi Prince al-Faisal on their deep unease (since Obama took office) over Iran being allowed to have nuclear energy and develop weaponry. Consequently, Saudi Arabia is planning to build its own nuclear power plants. Also, this week Reuters reports Jordan has signed a contract for Russia to build them a nuclear power plant.]

In view of my preceding remarks I wanted to ‘bounce’ the following off my contacts,

I recall a speaker saying satan is attempting to bring forward End-Time events in order to nullify God’s schedule and thereby wrong-foot God. His logic, perhaps, is to avoid his demise in the Lake of Fire? The revelation Jesus received from God and which He gave to John states that will happen after He returns and defeats Satan. Prophecy points to this being centred on Jerusalem and the Jews will at last recognise Jesus as their true messiah.

The latter part served as a scriptural reminder and, I shared my thoughts on how such a pre-emptive aim could be achieved. Only lately have I since revisited this notion:

The obvious way out of this [scriptural] scenario is to ensure there are no Jews whatsoever left alive for Jesus to come back for and, if Jerusalem is still standing, then its population should be followers of a false god. Indeed, Hasan Nasrallah, head of Hezbollah (Party of God!), wants all Jews to come to Israel because that makes it so much easier to despatch them in one fell swoop!!

[As al-Qaeda activity had died down and was mainly active in central Asia, persecution and removal of Christians from the Middle-East didn’t figure in my conjectures.]

The world is now faced with precisely the above scenario – many others recognise it and are now warning in-depth about it!

Reluctantly, I mused upon those possible tactics in the latest Paws 4 thought. Within days the appalling martyrdom of Egyptian Copts in Libya supported my ideas. As said before, had it not been for that week being half-term, thus delaying Nina’s surgery, I would have overlooked all these things. Their cyclical relevance would have gone unnoticed too.

My covering note to Joel Rosenberg’s re-blog about this butchery led into a two-part outline of historical evidence for our enemy’s tactics. However, the heart of the matter is directly relevant to this theme and had to be addressed later – as herein.

Kindly forgive and bear with me in the following vile quotations, which are included only as an informative necessity. Also, the Lord loves these people and weeps over their wicked actions. They need our prayers – read Canon J.John on how. Also, remember  apostle Paul had been the first to hunt down Christians. Let’s pray these murderers will have just as thorough and an awesome conversion experience as did Paul.

Revelation 13

Courtesy Victor Books, The Bible Reader's Companion by Lawrence O. Richards (1991)

Courtesy Victor Books, The Bible Reader’s Companion by Lawrence O. Richards (1991)

1st Account

Joel’s report of the Libyan atrocity refers to one murderer’s videoed remarks, as reported by AP in Cairo. It reminded me of Revelation chapter 13’s prophecy of a demonic beast rising out of the sea, and the above modern illustration, because the villain declared:

“All crusaders: safety for you will be only wishes, especially if you are fighting us all together. Therefore we will fight you all together,” he says. “The sea you have hidden Sheikh Osama bin Laden’s body in, we swear to Allah we will mix it with your blood.”

It’s another example of Islamists brainwashed by ‘the myth’. Moreover, we see Satanic control of their irrational beliefs. The reference to ‘sea’ and a dead leader’s body and believers’ blood is redolent of Rev 13:1-10 (credit BibleGateway).:

Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”

And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

If anyone has an ear, let him hear. 10 He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

I submit this is strongly suggestive of today’s re-emergence of Islam’s original spirit that directed its founder and followers to attack, conquer and subjugate neighbouring territory and peoples. (He personally led 27 battles and planned 39 others. No wonder his disciples squabbled madly over succession!  Compare this with Jesus and his disciples!)

The beast from the sea has a direct similitude to the third of the four beasts in prophet Daniel’s dream-vision (Dan 7:6). On page 658 of Unlocking the Bible David Pawson speculates this ‘leopard’ represents the Arab world – not in Daniel’s days but today.

daniel-revisited-cover-smallIn Daniel Revisited also, Mark Davidson considers the description links the beast from the sea to those of Daniel 7, which has a four-winged leopard. He makes a most pertinent observation about the symbolism of leopard on page 215:

“The lion will give chase to its prey but the leopard will stealthily wait and watch until it finally pounces…the prey is totally surprised”.

This describes exactly how Islamic terrorists operate.

2nd Account

Raymond Ibrahim’s background and qualifications in writing The Al-Qaeda Reader give him a unique advantage in discussing Islamist terrorism. In Libya’s War on Christians he reveals another eschatological implication, as reported in Coptic Solidarity’s account of the lead executioner boasting of savagery and hatred of the cross of Christ:

“Oh people, recently you have seen us on the hills of as-Sham and Dabiq’s plain [Syrian regions], chopping off the heads that have been carrying the cross for a long time. And today, we are on the south of Rome, on the land of Islam, Libya, sending another message.”

Their other account quotes: “We will fight you until Christ descends, breaks the cross and kills the pig” (all eschatological actions ascribed to the Muslim “Christ,” Isa).

As the instruments through which his authority over mankind was broken, Satan hates the Cross and Blood of Jesus Christ. Recent events nearer to home gives an example of this, as in my covering note about Wales in re-blogging Justin Abraham’s tribute to John Paul Jackson.

The area of the Preseli Mountains has a reputation for witchcraft and the occult. Such practitioners have objected to the presence of a large cross and requested its removal. The objection is that it nullifies their powers. The cross’ location in solid rock astride the shoulder of ‘The Hill of Angels’ displays the Lord’s direction in furnishing and installing it in the consecrated grounds of the prayer and retreat centre at Ffald-y-Brenin.

Therefore, the absolute hatred of the Cross of Christ and Christians is entirely spiritual and demonstrates their god definitely is not the same as the Lord Almighty, Father of Jesus Christ – and ours too! As apostle John warns in his first letter:

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,  and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” (1 John 4:1-3 NKJV, per BibleGateway)

Analysis

Joel Rosenberg summarises this apocalyptic pre-emptive plot in his abridged version of What does ISIS want? To usher in the End of Days by Graeme Wood (click here for his in-depth article).  Some of Joel’s points are as follows:

  • ISIS and its supreme leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is consumed by a Radical Sunni Islamic version of eschatology, or End-Times theology.
  • US president and senior team do not see this, and this is one of the most serious mistakes they are making. We cannot defeat an enemy we refuse to define. I realize eschatology is a topic foreign — even bizarre — to most political, military and intelligence officials.
  • But to truly understand what ISIS wants, and how far they are willing to go to get it, our leaders absolutely must study and understand it.
  • One of the most intriguing and disturbing developments of our times is that we now have two nation states — the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic State — driven by adherents to apocalyptic, genocidal forms of End-Times theology.
  • The Iranian leaders hold to a Shia brand. ISIS leaders hold to a Sunni brand. But both are driven by a belief that their messiah is coming and judgment with him.
  • The Iranians believe they must lay the groundwork for the messiah (Mahdi) to come and build his caliphate or kingdom. ISIS isn’t waiting. They have launched a jihadist rampage to build the caliphate now, so that the Mahdi will come soon.

A Vision

About 2007-8, two friends living on opposite sides of the globe – Paul Keith Davis and Neville Johnson – had the same vision on the same weekend as the other did of all hell being let loose. (Teaching series In the Days of Noah, disc 1.)

Happily, the vision did not end with darkness for, according to Paul Keith, the Lord said,

“I am sending messengers of My Face” and He told me there are angels that have stood in the Presence of Almighty God from the beginning of time that have waited for this generation. There is a holy heavenly host that has been waiting for this generation for this hour for this confrontation. They have been especially prepared… I looked up and I saw a door being opened in Heaven and I saw a flood of angels from heaven who had stood in the Presence of God since the beginning of time. I saw them coming and teaching people in their bedrooms. We have to respond to the level of darkness and evil coming to this generation ‘in like fashion’.” (Courtesy Justin Abraham)

A Prophecy

In the middle of preaching, English evangelist Nathan Morris prophesied from the Lord for 2012: Setting the stage for the End-Times. He opens very notably with,

For lawlessness will abound as nations and their leaders meet together to try and make alliances and make allegiances seeking peace.  They shall seek peace, but shall not find it –  they shall seek peace, but shall not find it! This will cause many to cry out for resolution but it shall still elude them for a time for further unrest will be their reward. 

“For even in 2012 there shall be great events that will change the course of this world, as you know it! For as many pour out their resources to find solutions of peace, another crisis will drain them of knowledge and resolution.

For I would know that My people would hear My voice, that I am setting the stage for that which I have foretold in My Word and it will quickly and swiftly come to pass. For the days are coming when the lawless one shall be revealed and the son of perdition shall take his stand.

Conclusion

There’s indisputable evidence for the Islamist impetus to bring worldwide calamity and to eradicate Christianity, thereby preventing fulfillment of the prophetic timetable, as outlined in the Bible.

Those above accounts show the falsehood of Islam’s belief in recognising Jesus, but as the Muslim Mahdi’s underling!  Pew Research Centre stated in 2012 that well over half, and over 2/3 in some countries, the Muslim world expects the return of Jesus within their own lifetime. Their 2010 results for the number of American Christians expecting Jesus’ return was much lower and very mixed!

Now, as for the would-be usurper of the Almighty’s throne trying to pre-empt His plan and timetable for the End-times, it’s worth noting something that happened whilst polishing off this post’s latest draft.  AND, it’s thanks to you my readers and visitors for pointing me towards the conclusion the Lord may want me to draw…

Some old posts keep showing up in the Popular Posts listing. One was ‘top of the pops’ over Mon-Wed and I thought of reminding myself of its content. It’s Neville Johnson’s urgent word brought last August about a cut-off date in God’s timeline. The Lord told him,

“Neville, it is over – there is no more extension of time!”

This prophetic declaration and decree, as well as holy scripture, supersedes anything the father of lies is scheming and doing. In no way could he possibly pre-empt the Lord’s end-game! The Almighty – not the creature – calls the shots!

This timing is completely the Father’s prerogative. Neither Jesus (when He was on earth) or the angels know the schedule for His return. (Mathew 24:36 and Acts 1:7 refer.)

Although this may not be the definitive or final word on this issue, most importantly, we know we’re on the winning side – thank and praise you Jesus!

You may be interested to read about the difficulties in publishing this post, as reported in What’s weird about writing about Iran.

In Part 3 we will look at the Lord’s use of American leaders for his End-times purposes.

Suggested Reading

[‘Spiral Stairway To Clouds’ by Victor Habbick, courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.net]

Critical Calendars Affecting Netanyahu’s Speech to Congress

Further to my recent posts, Dr Randall Price’s commentary Critical Calendars Affecting Netanyahu’s Speech to Congress published on Bible Prophecy Blog is most timely in discussing political (and potential nuclear deal), Purim, original Islamic ‘peace-deal’ and prophetic calendars.

Anti-terrorism summit confirms this week’s insight!

Puzzle in sky - Idea goOpening Part 2 of An insight into global satanic strategy, I mentioned a few fascinating things happened over its content – and its timing! Maybe God-incidence? Let me tell you what I read whilst relaxing over a morning coffee yesterday:

First, recall that most of my work recently has been re-blogs of others’ posts as a result of home circumstances affecting my regular blogging time-slots. We’re trusting the Lord in all this, but a change in schedule was necessary. Yet I had time to write more fully this week.

Also, be aware my plan was to finish and publish what I’d already drafted on a dubious aspect of Churches Together prayer-focus for Lent (started last Wednesday). So that got well and truly waylaid – martyrdom of Egyptian Copts demanded my attention!  And then my brief covering note to Joel’s piece on that led directly into the 2-part ‘insight’.

In other words, on two counts that ‘insight’ would not have seen the light of day! Over two half-days I wrote the full piece and then separated into 2 parts; published the first half on Thursday and scheduled the second half for Friday morning.

Yet that second part didn’t see the light of day either!  A few teaks were needed and so I postponed its appearance for another day. But I reckoned without 3 technical issues!

1st Technical Glytch

What a game that was! As you know, Fridays to Sundays I’m normally off-line and we were heading out for the morning. So just a quick tap into my smartphone straight into WordPress to reset the date would do the trick!

No it didn’t!

There were connection issues trying to adjust the publication date – annoying! So I had to boot-up the pc, wait for that to load, log-in Norton security, launch WP and do the job.

That was the first spanner in the works!  I did get the date adjusted and off we went…

Stunning Confirmation

Nero_6A superb cappuccino and croissant in Caffé Nero, Petersfield with Nina tackling the paper’s crossword and me digging dug inside…I read that Barack Obama has referred the previous day at a counter-terrorism summit to “twisted interpretations” and “lies”! That’s more or less the focus in my 2-part ‘insights’, both published and yet to be published parts!!

Furthermore, Britain’s Home Secretary addressed the Washington summit about the immediate need for an unprecedented need for a global response to the threat of ISIL!! Now that’s exactly why the Crusades were launchednote well Mr Obama!

The Telegraph reporters open with (emphases added):

ISIL will develop into “something even more grotesque and inhumane” unless the world acts now, Theresa May, the Home Secretary, said yesterday…

“There is simply no choice…The extraordinary nature of the threat posed requires an extraordinary response. It must be international in reach, unprecedented in scale and immediate“.

They go on to report:

Mr Obama…said that, while Western nations must take care not to vilify and marginalise their Muslim minorities, Muslim leaders “have a responsibility to push back, not just on twisted interpretations of Islam, but also on the lie that we are somehow engaged in a clash of civilisations”.

He added: “The notion that the West is at war with Islam is an ugly lie”.

Hmm, I was amazed!  (See copy of the full report below.)

2nd Technical Glitch

As Nina’s daughter is here for the day and took mum out for the morning I published Part 2, and can spend time on this post.

When I looked for the digital version of what I read in yesterday’s paper there was only an earlier piece by one of the journalist’s. (Nothing further has followed online or in today’s Telegraph, but the Guardian has White House resists call to focus on Islamist terrorism at 3-day summit – for a paper keen on security and focussing on the Ukraine this is a poor show for the Telegraph.)

3rd Technical Glitch

In trawling for the summit through the Telegraph’s recent archive my Internet Explorer encountered a ‘buffering event’ that IE couldn’t repair! Google couldn’t get any network connection either.

The home network had vanished and Windows couldn’t repair the connection after its auto-diagnosis!! The router’s settings had been trashed!!!

Re-booting and repeating re-boot twice didn’t clear the problem. Fortunately, there’s a handy laptop…and it worked. Thank you Lord

So more time had been wasted and it seemed I was being prevented from publishing Part 2. Something spiritually unclean doesn’t like what I’ve found and am writing about!

SO THIS MUST BE VERY IMPORTANT

 As this doesn’t exist on-line, here’s the hardcopy I read: 

(The closing paras’ reference to youngsters leaving Britain to join the terrorists is borne out in last night’s news. See also Frontpage Mag Obama’s Summit of Jihad Denial.)

ISIL Threat

[Puzzle in Sky by Idea Go, courtesy Freedigitalphotos.net]

An insight into global satanic strategy – part 2

Timing in publishing this follow-on, 700th post is exceptionally fascinating not only for its confirmation in directly related news from Washington but also in other details. I will explain in next post; meanwhile, may you too be blessed with insights as you read:

Hand Holding Puzzzle PieceContinuing from Part 1 let’s consider further the revelatory ‘jigsaw piece’ found whilst musing upon satan’s strategy to avoid the Lake of Fire. It came whilst reading specialist historian Paul Crawford’s  Four Myths About The Crusades.  His solid, illuminating essay on president Bill Clinton’s unsound premise to his remarks on the 9/11 attack also apply to Barack Obama’s recently equating Christianity to Islamist butchery of Christians. Paul’s paper exposes falsehoods behind and adroitly disposes of the following:

  • Myth #1: The Crusades represented an unprovoked attack by Western Christians on the Muslim world.
  • Myth #2: Western Christians went on crusade because their greed led them to plunder Muslims in order to get rich.
  • Myth #3: Crusaders were a cynical lot who did not really believe their own religious propaganda; rather, they had ulterior, materialistic motives.
  • Myth #4: The Crusades taught Muslims to hate and attack Christians.

Part 1 of this post briefly summarised Myth #3 and I concluded:

“The period of the Enlightenment with its liberal intellectual and philosophical attitudes nourished a growing rejection of religion, agnosticism and atheism. So a jaundiced view of Christian scripture and history developed. Thus, the Western intelligentsia began to put a twist upon the Crusades.”

His paper deserves to be studied in full and in view of its importance in this part I shall quote more extensively, adding emphases where appropriate:

The Muslim Attitude to the Crusades

Dr Crawford begins answering Myth #4 by stating part of the answer lies in that for Myth #1 – ie. Muslims had attacked Christians for centuries ever since the inception of Islam. His answer to the first myth succinctly summarises what was happening, as itemised on 7 pages by Dr Bill Warner on Political Islam, and which show that ‘jihadic’ attacks and strategic advances occurred on average every 5 years for 460 years!

Paul continues by stating Muslims “needed no further incentive to continue (jihad). But there’s a more complicated answer here…”.

“…until quite recently, Muslims remembered the crusades as an instance in which they had beaten back a puny western Christian attack…(One) of Lawrence of Arabia’s letters (describes) a confrontation during post-World War I negotiations (over) a case for French interest in Syria going back to the crusades, which Faisal (later Faisal I of Iraq). dismissed with a cutting remark: “But, pardon me, which of us won the crusades?”

He goes on to state that before WW1 most Muslims had a similar, if any, attitude to the Crusades,

“…that is, when Muslims bothered to remember them at all, which was not often. Most of the Arabic-language historical writing on the crusades before the mid-19th century was produced by Arab Christians, not Muslims, and most of that was positive…There was no Arabic word for “crusades” until that period, either…It had not seemed important to Muslims to distinguish the crusades from other conflicts between Christianity and Islam…As Carole Hillenbrand has noted, “The Muslim response to the coming of the Crusades was initially one of apathy, compromise and preoccupation with internal problems”.

“The first Muslim crusade history did not appear until 1899. By that time, the Muslim world was rediscovering the crusades — but it was rediscovering them with a twist learned from Westerners.”

At this point our author has introduced a new angle: the influence of modern European schools of thought. This was covered in Part 1 of this post for the purpose of leading into an appreciation of how Muslims’  attitudes towards the Crusades  changed radically in the early decades of the 20th Century. As Crawford explains:

“At the same time, nationalism began to take root in the Muslim world. Arab nationalists borrowed the idea of a long-standing European campaign against them from the former European school of thoughtmissing the fact this was a serious mischaracterization of the crusades and using this distorted understanding as a way to generate support for their own agendas.

“This remained the case until the mid-20th century, when, in Riley-Smith’s words, “a renewed and militant Pan-Islamism” applied the more narrow goals of the Arab nationalists to a worldwide revival of what was then called Islamic fundamentalism and is now sometimes referred to, a bit clumsily, as jihadism.

“This led rather seamlessly to the rise of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, offering a view of the crusades so bizarre as to allow bin Laden to consider all Jews to be crusaders and the crusades to be a permanent and continuous feature of the West’s response to Islam.

“Bin Laden…is no more accurate in his view about the crusades than he is about the supposed perfect Islamic unity which he thinks Islam enjoyed before the baleful influence of Christianity intruded. But the irony is that he, and those millions of Muslims who accept his message, received that message originally from their perceived enemies: the West.

“So it was not the crusades that taught Islam to attack and hate Christians. Far from it. Those activities had preceded the crusades by a very long time, and stretch back to the inception of Islam. Rather, it was the West which taught Islam to hate the crusades. The irony is rich.”

Conclusion

The last leads Paul Crawford ‘back to the present’ in asking how much of president Bill Clinton’s Georgetown speech of 2001 was accurate, especially his emphatic assertion that the story of the Crusades was “still being told today in the Middle East and we are still paying for it!”.

“This is the most serious misstatement of the whole passage. What we are paying for is not the First Crusade, but western distortions of the crusades in the nineteenth century which were taught to, and taken up by, an insufficiently critical Muslim world.

In drawing everything together, this specialist in the history of the Crusades offers his opinion:

“The problems with Mr Clinton’s remarks indicate the pitfalls that await those who would attempt to explicate ancient or medieval texts without adequate historical awareness, and they illustrate very well what happens when one sets out to pick through the historical record for bits—distorted or merely selectively presented—which support one’s current political agenda. This sort of abuse of history has been distressingly familiar where the crusades are concerned.

Thank you Paul Crawford for such an excellent examination and clarification of a crucial current issue. (Paul is an Associate Professor at California University of Pennsylvania –  also see his bio at Queen Mary University of London, and The Intercollegiate Review.)

The Diabolical Spin

Clearly, as shown above, the “Father of Lies” has been spinning his worldwide web of deceit, to which a surprising confirmation has been given this week and will be revealed in the next post.

Out of the post-Reformation intellectual freedom that eventually led to the rejection of most Judeo-Christian values, was born an anti-Christian mind-set that deliberately warps any spiritual understanding. It eventually affected not only traditional Christian beliefs but also associated historical facts.

Into his engineered ungodliness Satan could sow seeds of disbelief to twist and poison intellectual integrity. This serves his strategy to disunite and weaken Christianity further by falsified history harnessed to intellectual dishonesty and arrogance to belittle, blame and persecute the church of Jesus Christ.

“But Jesus…”

UPDATE: current security concerns led to a relevant development upon this thesis, as revealed in Anti-terrorism summit confirms this week’s insight.

MORE: this theme develops further in 1 of 3: the ‘End-game’ gets ramped up a level.

[‘Hand Holding Puzzle Piece’ by Ponsulak, courtesy Freedigitalphotos.net]

An insight into a global satanic strategy – part 1

A nuance new to me of our enemy’s tactics has come to light which seriously affects politicians’ and public’s perceptions. As in the caveat to Paws 4 thought, it’s a topic I’d much rather not blog about, but current events require this information to be shared. It should help you to understand the huge, beguiling deception blinding national leaders.

An “aha!” moment instigated continuation of those musings. Long-standing readers may recall, like my friend and fellow End-times teacher-author ‘Neil Mac’, that ‘jigsaw pieces’ occasionally bring revelation ‘out-of-the-blue’.

Hand Holding Puzzle Piece by PonsulakAfter popping a small ‘piece’, the last link, into my brief comment to the re-blog of Joel Rosenberg’s post on the war against Christianity, it struck me that link is part of an ‘invisible’ jigsaw. Not exactly as depicted in this photo by Ponsulak, it seemed like I’d inserted a ‘piece’ into a large puzzle, part of which covers Islamist actions.

Puzzle - Salvatore VuonoTo the first ‘puzzle pieces’, or links to comments on US National Prayer Breakfast, I added two more on the Crusades. It was upon later reading the last of these four at leisure that I was struck by it’s being like a piece connecting one area to another (rather  like Salvatore Vuono’s picture here).

That ‘piece’ connects the modern revival of Islam in all its original barbarity that overflowed from Arabia 1,500 years ago with my musings on the Devil’s plot to avoid the Lake of Fire. Now, it’s not the fact that this phenomena is part (5) of my historical evidence, but more the facts emerging from further analysis that brought a better perspective.

Historical Evidence cont’d

In those musings we considered just a few events to support my thesis that satan is the source of anti-Semitism and Christian disunity. There’s a ‘rationale’ to such a strategy.  Nowadays,we’re brainwashed into ignoring the historical facts behind Christianity’s massive reaction 920 years ago to 460 years of jihad – widespread strategic attacks and invasions. That is, it all started 1,380 years ago – and ISIS/ISIL want the whole world to regress not improve! (Hence, my re-blog’s link to Dr Warner’s itemised listing.)

Also, militant Muslims, backed by mendacious academics in Western universities, use that twisting of historical facts to pretend they’re victims of the Crusades: but in actual fact, Muslims came out as the winners!!

What is deeply disturbing is the fact that presidents Clinton and Obama were duped, or else wallowed in self-imposed ignorance, about the Crusades – and displayed this in public!  My readers in the States will be aware of the outcry following Remarks by the President at National Prayer Breakfast in Washington on 5th February when Mr Obama said, and I underscore the cause of the issue:

“…we have seen violence and terror perpetrated by those who profess to stand up for faith, their faith, professed to stand up for Islam, but, in fact, are betraying it.  We see ISIL, a brutal, vicious death cult that, in the name of religion, carries out unspeakable acts of barbarism…and claiming the mantle of religious authority for such actions…[examples of sectarian wars] a rising tide of anti-Semitism and hate crimes in Europe, so often perpetrated in the name of religion

“So how do we, as people of faith, reconcile these realities…operating alongside those who seek to hijack religious for their own murderous ends? 

“Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history.  And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.  In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ…”

To his credit the President didn’t refer to deep anti-Semitism that had riddled European churches since the ‘early Church fathers’ and led up to the Holocaust. (Reformer Martin Luther was renowned for his strident, ungodly dislike of Jews!)

Elliott AbramsEven so, cluelessness masks deep disingenuity over the recent anti-Semitic murders of French and Danish Jews, as Elliot Abrams (Senior Fellow at the CFR and just one among myriad experts) pointedly questions and explains, Why can’t the White House see Terrorism and anti-Semitism? (see his linked lead-in post too).

Franklin Graham, outspoken son of Billy Graham, took issue with Obama’s comments, as emphasised above. On his Facebook page the evangelist sought to correct them:

“Today at the National Prayer Breakfast, the President implied that what ISIS is doing is equivalent to what happened over 1000 years ago during the Crusades and the Inquisition. Mr. President–Many people in history have used the name of Jesus Christ to accomplish evil things for their own desires. But Jesus taught peace, love and forgiveness. He came to give His life for the sins of mankind, not to take life. Mohammad on the contrary was a warrior and killed many innocent people. True followers of Christ emulate Christ—true followers of Mohammed emulate Mohammed.”

A fortnight later Franklin asks about the butchery in Libya,

“…In a statement the White House even called the 21 Christians who were beheaded “Egyptian citizens,” refusing to identify them as Christians. The truth is–their barbaric murderers openly said they killed them because they were “people of the cross.” Why is the President seemingly continuing to protect Islam and refusing to open his eyes to the truth?” (emphasis added)

The essential point, as in several earlier posts, is to compare the founders of both faiths – that of Islam just doesn’t, and cannot, bare comparison with Jesus.

William Koenig’s perspective on this as an accredited journalist at the White House and editor-in-chief of World Watch Daily is worth noting too:

“An important point to remember is that President Obama’s speeches have a specific audience or audiences in mind. At the National Prayer Breakfast…he equated the Christian (ie. Catholic) Crusades with radical Islam’s brutality. Moreover, he neglected to contrast the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ, who came as the Savior to the world, with the brutality of Mohammed, who attempted to dominate and terrorize the world…

 “What did Muslims hear? A Muslim apologist who happens to be the President of the United States, and who calls himself a Christian, lectured Christians not to be on a “high horse”. He equated horrific Muslim violence with Christians who resorted to violence in two specific periods in history.”

This furore comes as no surprise. I questioned the President’s claims to be “a student of history” in his 2009 Cairo speech, which benefitted the Muslim Brotherhood. To the very deep disquiet and legitimate suspicion of many Americans, the MB since infiltrated and became too influential within the US administration, as lawyer and author Joseph Klein recently maintained in Obama Bolsters the Brotherhood.

Also refer to Tuesday’s article by Ephraim Karsh, professor emeritus of Kings College London, on White House Delusions, Islamist Realities, wherein he tells what happened after Cairo. UK readers will find relevant material by searching on ‘Cordoba foundation’ and ‘UK islam and democracy conference’ by Global MB Watch.

‘Four Myths About The Crusades’

Historian Paul Crawford’s above-titled article is the revelatory ‘jigsaw piece’ referred to above. It was first published by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in 2011, but I found it through the Catholic News Agency. It gave me a new perspective into another tactic used by the Devil against Christianity. This scholarly paper should be recommended reading for every serious student of history; click to read in full.

The author, a specialist teacher of medieval history, opens by referring to Bill Clinton’s speech in 2001 where he, like Obama, excused the perpetrators of 9/11 by comparing them to medieval crusaders!

Crawford’s well-reasoned and illuminating essay exposes the falsehoods behind and adroitly disposes of:

  • Myth #1: The crusades represented an unprovoked attack by Western Christians on the Muslim world.
  • Myth #2: Western Christians went on crusade because their greed led them to plunder Muslims in order to get rich.
  • Myth #3: Crusaders were a cynical lot who did not really believe their own religious propaganda; rather, they had ulterior, materialistic motives.
  • Myth #4: The crusades taught Muslims to hate and attack Christians.

What opened my eyes to a nuance in the devilish scheme to avoid the fiery lake was a scenario cloaked within the facts underlying Myths #3 and #4, for which the scholar’s opening gambit to the first (#3) reads:

“This has been a very popular argument, at least from Voltaire on. It seems credible and even compelling to modern people, steeped as they are in materialist worldviews. And certainly there were cynics and hypocrites in the Middle Ages…

“In the modern period, there were two main European schools of thought about the crusades. One school, epitomized by people like Voltaire, Gibbon, and Sir Walter Scott, and in the twentieth century Sir Steven Runciman, saw the crusaders as crude, greedy, aggressive barbarians who attacked civilized, peace-loving Muslims to improve their own lot. The other school, more romantic…saw the crusades as a glorious episode in a long-standing struggle in which Christian chivalry had driven back Muslim hordes. In addition, Western imperialists began to view the crusaders as predecessors, adapting their activities in a secularized way that the original crusaders would not have recognized or found very congenial…”

Free from church controls, the Enlightenment’s intellectual and philosophical liberality nourished a growing rejection of religion, agnosticism and atheism. So a jaundiced view of Christian scripture and history developed. Consequently, Western intelligentsia put their own twist upon the Crusades.

Part 2 will look at how this diabolical spin generated Myth #4; that the Crusades taught Muslims to hate and attack Christians – and the implicit activity of the “Father of Lies” in avoiding his ultimate demise.

[‘Hand Holding Puzzle Piece’ and ‘Puzzle’ courtesy Freedigitalphotos.net]

Egypt’s president el-Sisi orders military strikes after ISIS beheads 21 Egyptian Christians. Details & analysis.

Lest anyone’s unaware: Islamists have declared and are waging war against the world. Americans will have noted their leader continues to insult one’s intelligence (misleading comments at US National Prayer Breakfast: read Douglas Murray & Raymond Ibrahim). To correct this, Dr Bill Warner compiled over 100 facts, the vast majority of which were military attacks. Thus, over 460 years of JIHAD CAUSED THE CRUSADES – NOT THE OTHER WAY ROUND!!  When will Western leaders learn? See also Four Myths about the Crusades [Latest: Egypt’s airforce struck at dawn today UPDATE 28 Feb: Egypt goes to war on ISIS, masses troops against Islamist Libya stronghold.]

joelcrosenberg's avatarJoel C. Rosenberg's Blog

ISIS jihadists prepare to behead 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya. (source: screen capture from new ISIS video) ISIS jihadists prepare to behead 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya. (source: screen capture from new ISIS video)

UPDATED: Much of the West remains asleep or lethargic concerning the threat posed by the Islamic State, even as the movement’s gruesome killing spree continues unabated.

The latest: an Islamic State affiliate has beheaded 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians who were working in Libya, according to a new ISIS video released on Sunday. “In the video, militants in black marched the captives, dressed in orange jump suits, to a beach the group said was near Tripoli,” reported Reuters. “They were forced down onto their knees, then beheaded.”

“The people of the cross, followers of the hostile Egyptian church,” read a caption on the five minute video, Reuters noted.

President Obama spent eight hours golfingon Sunday.

But Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi vowed to “avenge” the “criminal killings.” He immediately ordered the Egyptian air force to…

View original post 782 more words

The man most used by God to seal Daniel?

This by Mark Davidson is not only a helpful follow-on to Sealed up until the End of Time but it also introduces his well-researched book Daniel Revisited and website The Four Signposts. Mark’s thesis reveals that scholars and theologians failed to recognise how the Bible foretold the rise of Islam and its geo-strategic End-time role in the Middle-East. (Also note the subsequent comments.) When I tried to re-blog this on Saturday a Word-Press glitch prevented logged-on interaction between our blogs – intriguing!

Mark Davidson's avatarTHE FOUR SIGNPOSTS

Meet Trajan, Emperor of Rome from AD 98 to AD 117.  That’s his marble bust below.  Known as one of the Five Good Emperors, historians even after nineteen centuries know him as the Roman emperor who ruled with public welfare programs, building programs, philanthropy, and military expansion of the Empire.  Every emperor that followed Trajan was honored by the Roman Senate with the wish: “be luckier than Augustus and better than Trajan.”

Trajan, 13th Emperor of Rome, 98-117 AD Trajan, 13th Emperor of Rome, 98-117 AD

So why would this man be tied to the sealing of the book of Daniel which was written 650 years earlier?

“The vision of the evenings and mornings that has been given you is true, but seal up the vision, for it concerns the distant future.” (Daniel 8:26)

“But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here…

View original post 1,211 more words

Prince Charles – defender of persecuted Christians

Perhaps our heir to the Crown is on the point of – or has had – a Damascus Road experience and starting to see, or about to meet, the true Light of the World?

Prince of Wales_2713228b Credit Chris Jackson_GettyAs heir to his mother Queen Elizabeth’s throne and title of ‘Defender Of The Faith’ (ie. the Protestant, Anglican version) Charles has expressed his wish some years ago to be ‘Defender of Faith’. His deep admiration of Islam led to speculation since 1997; Is Prince Charles a convert to Islam? (as summarised and updated over 2003-13 by Daniel Pipes).

Last December, however, as noted by leading blogger ‘Cranmer’ he sensibly corrected the government’s Muslim minister for Faith (who resigned in August):

‘While the Government’s Minister for Faith and Communities Baroness Warsi insists that the persecution and eradication of Christians in the Middle East has absolutely nothing to do with Islam, the Prince of Wales has exposed the lie’ (continue reading)

This week Prince Charles must really be hacked off with Islamist hatred, as evident when addressing the Chaldean Church in England, as ‘His Grace’ reports in Charles – defender of the persecuted faith, (emphases added RB)

‘…It was a speech of empathy, grace and humanity. His mind is clearly troubled; his heart is with the “unbearable suffering” and “indescribable agony” of Iraq’s Christians – a church which can trace its origins back to the ministry of Thomas the Apostle. Their eradication is “beyond belief”, the Prince said. For one who has dedicated his life to the cause of peace and to a greater understanding between people of faith, the intolerance of the Islamist creed is beyond comprehension.

“It is utterly inconceivable that a person of one faith could find it in themselves to persecute a person of another faith,” he said.

“Surely to do so brings nothing but dishonour on the faith of the persecutor?” And then he took the theme of the Apostle Paul in his speech at the Areopagus:.

“It seems to me that all faiths to some extent shine a light on the divine image in every human life. If that is so, then surely to destroy another human being is to desecrate the image of the Divine, and to do so in the name of faith is nothing less than a blasphemy?

“As these truly dreadful images of executions and beheadings are transmitted around the world via the Internet I cannot help but feel that we are in serious danger, in this so-called modern age, of descending into the dark ages of public executions.”

Cranmer continues, ‘Man is made in the image of God, and God is love. To kill another human being is to destroy what God has created; to kill in His name is nothing short of blasphemy. The Prince of Wales is not ignorant about the God he worships, who desires a living relationship with all those who would follow Him. Nor is he blind to the malignant doctrine of those who worship the pernicious god of Jihad: it is an idol of death and destruction, spreading its bitter creed through the modern media. St Paul spoke against the idols of gold and silver: Prince Charles faces down those who idolise terror, brutality and bloodshed.’

It’s most interesting that Charles proceeds to refer to Saint Paul’s life of persecution. May we hope that he’s woken up to the deep difference between our faith in the real living God who saved us from our sins and whom we can know personally, and another that denies salvation through the Cross of Christ only, and His holy nature.

Do take the time to read Cranmer’s excellent summary and commentary upon the Prince’s speech.

[Photo credit Chris Jackson/Getty Images]

Fulfilled prophecy #2 – diversity and Islam in the UK

News of 22 years-old dream & prophetic words of last 2 months being fulfilled

Western EuropeWith this year’s huge increase in persecution and atrocities committed by Muslims against Christians, I’d often wondered if my dramatic dream about the fall of Islam that stunned me in early 1992 would actually materialise. But I thought the violence would defeat its purpose because ordinary, moderate Muslims should be disgusted and appalled by what’s being done in the name of their religion. Also, because it all portrays the reality of its founder’s purpose.

Thus, its adherents would become so disillusioned they would seek radical change, as  happened for Communism (which was my understanding of the dream). So I concluded it may happen sometime soon. I now learn that’s indeed happening, as recounted in the following Comments Paper from Dr Clifford Hill.

Dr Hill also authenticates some of the content of the prophetic words brought in the last few weeks by Cindy Jacobs and Heidi Baker, namely:

“United Kingdom, red, yellow, brown, black and white, dancing upon injustice, releasing the Glory of God to the streets. God has brought the Nigerians and the people from West Indies, …some people say the complexion of the nation has changed”, but the Lord says, “I have caused it to be the colour I have always wanted it to be in my people coming together as one, for love has no colour says the Lord”. (Cindy Jacobs)

“…the other faiths, the other religions, they’re going to take notice when the Christians come together in radical love – a cross-stream, they won’t care what they’re called, they won’t care…” (Heidi Baker)

CHRISTMAS HARVEST

On Advent Sunday this year M and I had the great joy of going back to the East End of London. We were speaking at the morning service of a Church just a few hundred yards from the street where we lived and raised our three children back in the 1970s. But how different it is today from the time we lived there! There are very few local white people in the area around our old house and more than half of those who live there now are Asian Muslims.

Looking Back
We were glad to see that the congregation approaching some 200 in the church reflects the local population among whom there were no more than about 10 or 12 local white people. They represented every region of the world with the worship leaders being a mixture of African, Caribbean and Asian. When we lived there we saw the first handful of Asians arrive and now they are in the majority and their culture dominates the High Street. We remembered appointing the first member of our team to take responsibility for work among the Asians and we used to say that the ‘Overseas Mission Field’ had become the ‘Home Mission Field’.

Embracing Change
We had a vision in those days of Christians not only welcoming the newcomers but sharing their faith and leading them to know Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Of course, we had no idea that the number of incomers would be so large and so rapid that in 40 years it would be hard to find a local white family living in our neighbourhood. But the church where we were speaking has not only survived the changing population, but embraced it by becoming a fully multi-ethnic congregation. They have committed Christians in each of the ethnic groups who are evangelising among their own people.

Who Are True Muslims?
Throughout the past year we have been speaking at meetings all over the country with a basic message about the great shaking of the nations that is now taking place. The message we took to Newham was that God is now shaking Islam. The shaking began with the Arab Spring in Egypt and other countries of North Africa and the Middle East. But the rise of the Islamic State in Syria and Northern Iraq has produced a level of atrocities that has shocked the civilised world and rocked the confidence of Islamic leaders and millions of ordinary Muslims. It is the claim of the ISIS fighters to be the true followers of Muhammad in pursuing their policy of violent conquest and coercion that has shaken ordinary Muslims who think that Islam is a religion of peace.

Visions of Jesus
Advent is the season of light and life and liberation. The message that God is turning the light upon Islam was received with great joy. We related reports of hundreds of Muslims in Egypt and many other countries having revelations of Jesus at the same time as they hear terrible reports of atrocities from the Islamic State which are causing them to question the spirit behind Islam.

Muslim Harvest
Many of the church were able to confirm that their friends and neighbours in East London are beginning to question their faith and are open to Christians telling them about Jesus. A number in the congregation used to be Muslims before giving their lives to Christ. Together we rejoiced that the ‘Muslim Harvest’ has begun and the church was making preparations for using the Christmas season to reach out to the Muslim population to tell them the true story of Jesus coming into the world to reconcile sinful human beings to God our Loving Father. For the Christians in East London Christmas has become the season of Harvest – Harvest for the Kingdom!

Further Reading:

Catholic and Orthodox churches choose fealty to 7th Century Muslim edict

Jesus asked, “When the Son of Man returns will He find faith on the earth?”  Today’s answer could well be, ‘Not where You’d expect to find it – in parts of Your Church!”

templemountmain

The Temple Mount with al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques

The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem reported last week that some Christians in Jerusalem pledged solidarity with Muslim authorities of the Temple Mount – and this in accordance with a 1,400 years-old decree of subjugation!  The ICEJ report opens as follows (inserted numbers refer to my comments),

 “Leaders of Jerusalem’s Catholic and Orthodox churches met with Moslem officials this week, declaring their solidarity against what they described as Israeli “oppression” and “violations” of the Temple Mount complex in Jerusalem’s Old City [1]. Examples they cited of such “violations” included rumors about plans to change the status quo on the Temple Mount which have been dismissed as “fabrications” by Israeli officials but which have persisted nonetheless [2].

“The statement also reaffirmed the leaders’ commitment to the so-called “Pact of Omar” which was established following the Moslem conquest of Jerusalem in 637 AD which codified understanding that Moslems have a superior legal, political and social status to all others in the Levant, while also protecting the rights of non-Moslems to practice their religion [3, 4].” (Read full report here.)

In response I submit the basic facts, along with a few thoughts:

1.  A timeline of recent related events is given in Joel Rosenberg’s blog and indicates the violence was instigated by Muslim extremists and deliberate incitement from the Palestinian leader to start a third intifada. But Joel doesn’t go back far enough!

Six months ago, after disturbances in April, an imam from al-Aqsa mosque called for the destruction of Israel and urged Middle Eastern countries that signed peace agreements with Israel (Egypt and Jordan) to take up arms against it. [Israel Today citing al-Jezeera as herein.]

The latest outbreak was started not by Jews, but by Moslems throwing rocks, Molotov cocktails and fireworks at police at the entrance to the Temple Mount – NOT because Jews tried getting onto it or into the mosque, BUT BEFORE the Israeli police tried stopping this disturbance.

See Honest Reporting’s detailed analysis of Wall Street Journal and New York Times’ reports, the details of which give a better account than Daily Telegraph’s incomplete video which, in the fuller context, actually gives credence to the Israeli version of events.

BBC Watch also provides a proper picture by correcting badly biased broadcasters, as well as exposing the quisling BBC’s platform to Palestinian Authority’s falsehoods and incitement of violence on Judaism’s holiest site. [Today: Anachronism and inaccuracy in BBC News Jerusalem reporting.]

The massive rock platform which the first and second Jewish temples were built upon is supposedly sacred to Moslems too, but their fanatics don’t treat it with reverence or with respect. And it’s no wonder because the city of Jerusalem and its sacred centre do not feature in their holy book. There are no historical references in it, only an inference that Jerusalem was the destination of their founder’s ‘night journey’ on an imaginary horse!

2. PM Netanyahu Israeli addressed the recent wave of violence in Israel last Tuesday by telling journalists that PA’s Abbas is “fanning the flames” of incitement by lying about Israel’s non-existent plans to change the status quo on the Temple Mount.

Deception and dissimulation are sanctioned in the Qur’an and known as the doctrine of taqiyya. According to a former Islamic studies professor at the American University of Beirut, Sami Mukaram, “Taqiyya is very prevalent in Islamic politics, especially in the modern era”. (Raymond Ibrahim’s eye-opening analysis, How Taqiyya Alters Islams’ Rules of War)

I’d add, ‘and throughout Western media too’!  The global scale of misinformation and lies makes Herr Goebel’s Nazi propaganda machine look archaic by comparison. No wonder the need for the highly commendable services of various media watchers, for as Raymond explains in summing up the implications of taqiyya:

…zealous belief in Islam’s tenets, which legitimize deception in order to make God’s word supreme, will certainly go a long way in creating “incredible self-confidence” when lying.

Yet most Westerners continue to think that Muslim mores, laws, and ethical constraints are near identical to those of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Naively or arrogantly, today’s multiculturalist leaders project their own worldview onto Islamists, thinking a handshake and smiles across a cup of coffee, as well as numerous concessions, are enough to dismantle the power of God’s word and centuries of unchanging tradition. The fact remains: Right and wrong in Islam have little to do with universal standards but only with what Islam itself teaches—much of which is antithetical to Western norms.

[Churchill was well aware of the dangers, as quoted in my blog All Hail the Lamb!. AND whilst writing, an excellent example of media proclivity to blame Israel arrived from CNN of today’s outrage on a synagogue as ‘Deadly attack on Jerusalem mosque’!! So much auto-brainwashing its overwhelmed what few ‘grey cells’ they possess…]

Had it not been for that faith’s founder using dishonesty to defeat his first opponents in reneging upon the treaty of Hudaybiya (628AD) – thereby showing the perpetual nature of jihad – his totalitarian religion would not have swept by the sword across Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Compare this with the Ten Commandments the Almighty gave Moses for how Israelites are to live; eg., to be truthful and trustworthy, as required by not bearing false witness against one’s neighbour! (Exod 20:16)

Compare also with Jesus’ description of the devil as “a murderer from the beginning” and “a liar and the father of lies”! (John 8:44)  Noteworthy for this discussion is the fact Jesus was chastising the Pharisees and scribes, which can be applied to mullahs and imams too because His rebuke concerned their non-acceptance of His identity and His relationship to God. (Read about it in this link to BibleGateway.)

But the Qur’an describes Allah as the best makar, ie the best deceiver or schemer!!(Suras 3:54, 8:30,10:21 per Ibrahim; also see in-depth discussion in Answering Islam)

Thus, anyone claiming the Holy God of the Jews and Christians is one and the same as Islam’s Meccan moon-god has been deceived and is utterly deluded!

3. As liberals whine about Israel ‘occupying’ Palestinian territory and the PA still does not recognise the right of Israel to exist but is to be removed, then the same ‘logic’ must be applied to Muslim claims. Second caliph Umar, companion to their founder, and his army invaded and occupied Jerusalem in 637AD. Therefore, Muslims don’t have any  legitimate right to be there or to have built mosques on the platform. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander!

Dr Mike Evans writes only last week, “Palestinian leaders have issued a new demand to their allies in the liberal media—stop calling the Temple Mount the Temple Mount. The Palestinians are annoyed because of the unmistakable link to Israel’s heritage in the Holy City that remains in the name of the places…so they want to wish it away.”

This capacity for lying to themselves has also produced the stupid claims that Jesus was a Palestinian and thus not a Jew!  Anyone with any intellect knows Palestine didn’t exist until the Romans trashed Jerusalem and dispersed nearly the entire population of Judea. The region was then named ‘Philistia’ after Israel’s old enemy, the Philistines.

Update (22/11) Read Ruthie Blum on ‘Temple Denial’, a term coined in 2007 by Dore Gold author of The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, the Future of the Holy City.

4. In the non-sectarian book that opened biblical prophecy to me in the mid-1980s,The Invisible Hand (see blog’s Welcome), Victor Dunstan makes the following remark:

“It is interesting to note that when Caliph Omar entered the city, Gibbon in his ‘Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’  records:

“After signing the capitulation, he entered the city without fear or precaution; and courteously discoursed with the patriarch concerning its religious antiquities. Sophronius bowed before his new master and secretly muttered, in the words of Daniel, “The abomination of desolation is in the holy place”.

Recall Jesus’ warning about this,

“Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains…” (Matthew 24:15 NKJV)

Read for yourself the requirements of this Dark Ages despotic document in Analysis of the Pact of Umah, courtesy of Wiki-Islam.

Conclusion

In preferring to kowtow to Muslim demands instead of those of their Lord and Saviour, and opportunities afforded by the liberation of Jerusalem, those church leaders have given affront to the men, women and babes martyred by maniacs in recent months.

Sowing and reaping comes to mind. The traditional super-cessionist stance of the Church replacing Israel in God’s favour together with centuries of anti-Semitism has brought about these leaders’ own subservience and spiritual captivity to a falsehood that claims superiority. How abject!

We also have to ask, where’s these Catholic/Orthodox leaders’ real faith?  Apostle Paul’s prime point about Jesus Christ’s identity, the clear denial of which by these clerics in bowing the knee to 1,400 years of antichrist rule, implies they may have little faith,

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11 NKJV)

An unclear theology and lack of understanding the Word of God has probably led them to their unsound slavery. But in my humble opinion they’re in danger of committing, if not having committed, apostasy because what they speak from their authority could hinder others’ growth into fullness of faith. As the Lord warns disciples (Luke 17:1),

“It is impossible that no stumbling blocks should come, but woe to him through whom they come!”

Enough said?

Further Reading:

Links for readers wanting specific information on Islam:

  1. Australian Anglican pastor Mark Durie blogs on issues related to Islam here – also see his post Three Choices and the Bitter Harvest of Denial: How dissimulation is fueling genocide in the Middle-East.
  2. Gates of Vienna: Taqiyya and Kitman in Washington DC translation of Fridays’ Muslim prayer service in the USA’s National Cathedral, and about its significance.
  3. Bill Warner’s Political Islam; see 14th Nov (HA!) on Sacred Deception – Taqiyya
  4. Comprehensive coverage/translation by the Middle-East Media Research Institute
  5. A solid source/repository of well-informed authors at The Middle-East Forum.