The Enemy

The Enemy
Vol: 116 Issue: 31 Tuesday, May 31, 2011

According to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, the Hebrew word “satan” means “adversary” from the primitive root word satan meaning, “to lie in wait (as an adversary).”

Its first use as a proper name in Scripture is found, appropriately enough, in the sixth verse of the first chapter of the (chronologically) oldest Book in Scripture. 

“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.” Job 1:6 

Because of its age, authorship of the Book of Job is probably the least certain of any book in the Bible. Rabbinic tradition says that Job the son of Uz, who was the son of Nahor brother of Abraham, who lived within living memory of the Flood, sometime around 2000 B. C.

“And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees.” (Genesis 11:26-28)

The author may be Job himself, or possibly Elihu, a contemporary of Job, but Hebrew rabbinic tradition is as unanimous as Hebrew rabbinic tradition can get in its view that the book of Job predates Moses by centuries.

The longevity and lifestyles, the tone of the book, foreign from traditional ancient Hebrew, and the offering of a sacrifice by the head of the family all place Job at a point in history well before the Exodus during the time of the Patriarchs.

The name of Job’s friend, Bildad was short for Yabil Dadum, a name found in cuneiform sources of the second millennium B.C.  

Job is the titular character in a cuneiform composition entitled “Babylonian Job” and the name, “Job” is contained in the Egyptian Execration Texts c.(2000 B.C.)

Additional clues included mention of roving bands of Sabeans and Chaldeans, consistent with the 2^nd millennium B.C. and geographic clues suggesting Job was himself a pre-Babylonian Chaldean.

Elihu was a Buzite from northeast Arabia and Eliphaz was from Teman, a city in Edom.

It is safe to conclude that the Book of Job was written by a Chaldean relative of Abram at some point after Abram departed from Ur of the Chaldees at least seven centuries before Moses wrote what are commonly known as the first five books of the Bible.

In previous volumes of the Omega Letter we’ve discussed Dispensationalism, which is the systematic study of Scripture as progressive revelation, and the four classes of created spiritual beings; angels, Gentiles, Jews and Christians.

Job was a Gentile who lived before there were Jews and before God had begun the systematic revelation of His plan for mankind to the Jews in what we know as the Bible.

The Book of Job therefore, stands both outside it and before it. 

Assessment:

“For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His Majesty.”( 2^nd Peter 1:16)

Why am I going on and on about Job’s dates and location?  To demonstrate that Satan is NOT a mythical being who was invented by the Jews over the course of centuries. 

Satan was not invented by Moses; Satan was well-known to the ancients. So was the one True God.

Much of what Moses wrote down eight hundred years later was already known in the Gentile world when Abraham packed up his family and left the Land of Ur in what is today Iraq and headed for the Promised Land.

Job’s friends, Eilhu, Eliphaz and Bildad were from regions surrounding Ur from northern Arabia in the east to Edom in the West.   

Each of them was well-conversant with the One True God long before Charlton Heston thundered to Yul Brynner, “Let my people go!” and went off to write Genesis.

Job knew about the hydrological cycle, polar ice caps, that wind moves in circular paths, rather than in a straight line, that light was in motion . . .  and about Satan.

“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered My servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?” (Job 1:8-9)

Remember, this was centuries before Moses wrote about the Garden of Eden. Because that is the point.

C.S. Lewis once wrote that “Satan’s greatest trick was in convincing man that he does not exist.” If Satan can convince you that he doesn’t really exist, then you are unprepared to withstand him when he attacks. 

“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” (Ephesians 6:11)

We know from the Bible that Satan is the most brilliant of all created beings.  He is smarter than the smartest human, more crafty than the craftiest among us, more evil than the most evil among us, but then we have to confront the fact that he can’t figure out the Bible.

The Bible says in no uncertain terms that he loses at the end.  Secondarily, there is the question of why. What does Satan have to gain by keeping a lost person in the dark or by preventing you from effectively spreading the Gospel? 

According to the Bible, in the last days, Satan will be cast into the Lake of Fire, where the beast and the false prophet are, just like every other sinner.  

So what does he have to gain by keeping you down?  And why bother, since he knows he can’t win? 

What he has to gain is time.  Satan is evidently aware of, and bound by time, just as we are.

“Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” (Revelation 12:12)

Satan has known his time was limited from the beginning.  Job knew of his own redemption and Satan’s defeat eight hundred years before Moses first penned the words, “in the beginning.”

“For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:  And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.” (Job 19:25-27)

Satan doesn’t know when the Lord will return at the Rapture, but he knows numbers.  He knows from Romans 8:29 that there is a finite number of people predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son by becoming believers.

“Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.” (Romans 8:30)

Satan has no more idea how many believers are so predestinated than we do.  He only knows that the Lord won’t start to close down the books on his operation until the very last one comes to Christ.  

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2^nd Peter 3:9)

One of the last classes our military warriors attend after going through the staging process and before going into battle is a class called, “Know Your Enemy.”    

For Satan, it’s a numbers game.  He doesn’t care about you, particularly, but he does care about him.  If he can keep you down and keep you from sharing the Gospel, that keeps the numbers down. 

If he can convince his prospects that he doesn’t exist, that keeps the numbers down.

He knows that he doesn’t have to start racing against the clock until his number comes up.  And for all he knows, you are the one holding that spiritual bullet with his name on it. 

And he knows that his odds are getting worse with every passing day. 

“. . .  for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” (Revelation 12:12)

Jerusalem — End of the Line

Jerusalem — End of the Line
Vol: 116 Issue: 30 Monday, May 30, 2011

By every measurable historical standard, the city of Jerusalem should have fallen into oblivion centuries ago. The city was destroyed in AD 70 by the Romans and its founders and traditional inhabitants were killed or fled into exile in foreign lands.

It has no natural wealth. It has no coastline. It sits inconveniently upon a mountain. It overlooks nothing of strategic military value.

It is on no ancient trade route. The King’s Highway of David’s time ran north and south through modern Jordan. Jerusalem was well off the beaten path — folks didn’t pass through Jerusalem on their way to somewhere else — Jerusalem was the end of the line.

Like other historical ‘end of the line’ cities, once its reason to exist was extinguished by the destruction of its native population, so should its history.

The once-great city of Babylon is a perfect example.  Once capital of the world’s greatest empire, it is today little more than a living museum, devoid of influence or even much interest outside scholarly circles.

Over the centuries, it has been fought over by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Ptolemies, Seleucids, Romans, Byzantines, Persians, Arabs, Seljuks, Crusaders, Mongols, Mamelukes, by the Turks, the British, Jordan and most recently, by those Jordanians who became ‘Palestinians’ after Jordan’s defeat in the 1967 War.

Jerusalem remains one of the most contested cities on earth to this day. That list doesn’t include the approximately two hundred million Islamic fundamentalists or Islamic states like Iran or Saudi Arabia who have conducted a decades-long shadow war to ‘liberate’ the city from Jewish control.

Despite two thousand years of war aimed at destroying the Jews and seizing their city, in this generation, the Jews again inhabit an undivided Jerusalem.

“And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” (Luke 21:24)

Jesus’ sweeping prophecy concerning the future of the city of Jerusalem and its inhabitants was fulfilled to the letter throughout history, including its restoration to Jewish hands.

Note that its restoration signals the fulfillment of the ‘times of the Gentiles’.

The Apostle Paul called himself the ‘apostle of the Gentiles’ (Romans 11:13) but Paul had formerly been known as Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee (lawyer) and Jewish religious leader. Paul explains that the Church is a ‘graft’ from the original tree (Judaism), saying,

“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” Romans 11:25)

Here we find the same phraseology that was employed by Jesus concerning the ‘times of the Gentiles’. Jesus referred to the times of the Gentiles as being ‘fulfilled’. Paul speaks of the ‘fulness of the Gentiles’.

Paul says that, following the ‘fulness of the Gentiles’,

“And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.” (Romans 11:27)

Paul notes that, during the Church Age,

“As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes,” but Paul cautions; “but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father’s sakes.”

Then Paul wraps it all together by saying,

“For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” (Romans 11:29)

This is one of the great mysteries of Scripture. The Jews are enemies of the Gospel for ‘our sakes’. What does that mean?

Jesus taught that His mission was to come first to the Jews. When approached by the Samaritan woman begging Him to help her daughter, Jesus told her, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 15:24)

To the Jews He prophesied,

“I am come in My Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” (John 5:43)

If the Jews had accepted their Messiah at His First Advent, there would have been no Church Age and the Lord would have set up the Millennial Kingdom right then and there.  Salvation was only opened to the Gentiles after the Gospel was rejected by the Jews.

Jesus prophesied that because of their rejection of Him, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”

This prophecy was fulfilled in AD 70 with the destruction of Jerusalem. And thus begins the ‘Times of the Gentiles.’

The usurper, who comes in his own name and is received by the Jews as their Messiah, is not revealed until after the ‘fulness of the Gentiles’ is come in.

Jeremiah calls it the ‘Time of Jacob’s Trouble’ (Jeremiah 30:7). Jesus calls it the ‘Tribulation’ (Matthew 24:29). The prophet Daniel outlines the Tribulation’s six-fold purpose, from the perspective of Israel;

“(1) to finish the transgression, and (2) to make an end of sins, and (3) to make reconciliation for iniquity, and (4) to bring in everlasting righteousness, and (5) to seal up the vision and prophecy, and (6) to anoint the most Holy.” (Daniel 9:24)

Assessment:

Let’s connect the dots and see how the Big Picture develops here. Jesus said that the restoration of Jerusalem to Jewish control would signal that the ‘fulness of the Gentiles be come in’.

Jesus said of the generation on earth at that time,

“This generation shall not pass away, till ALL be fulfilled.” (Luke 21:32)

Paul says that the Jews, as an institution, rejected Jesus so that the Gentiles would have a chance at salvation. He said that God would not return His attention to Israel until ‘the fulness of the Gentiles be come in’.

The ‘fulness of the Gentiles’ indicates a finite number — a ‘quota’, so to speak — of Gentiles who will come to know Christ during the Church Age.

Once that quota — the Church Age ‘elect’ have been gathered, God returns His attention to the Jews, “And so all Israel shall be saved” — because “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”

That Jesus offered salvation first to Israel is confirmed by His own Words as recorded by John.

The ‘Time of Jacob’s Trouble’ is so-called because of its purpose as outlined by Daniel — the six-fold purpose that culminates with the ‘anointment of the most Holy’ as Messiah and the beginning of the Millennial Reign from Jerusalem.

Note how clearly the two Dispensations are divided. Until the Crucifixion, God’s attention was focused on Israel. Until the ‘fulness of the Gentiles be come in’ God’s attention is focused on the Church.

The Church, as the ‘Bride of Christ’ serves no role in Daniel’s six-point outline for the Tribulation Period. Take another look at Daniel 9:24 before we go on.

The transgression was finished at the Cross. The Blood of Christ takes away all sin. (1st John 1:7) His death and resurrection reconciled the Church to God.

“And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.” (2nd Corinthians 5:18-19)

To the saved believer reconciled to God by the Blood of Christ, ‘everlasting righteousness’ is a gift of grace through faith, ‘sealing’ the vision and prophecy of the Old Covenant and introducing the New Covenant with the Church.

The believer knows that Jesus is ALREADY anointed King of King and Lord of Lords and is awaiting His return at the end of the Church Age.

There is no role for the Church Age during the Time of Jacob’s Trouble — it doesn’t begin until after the ‘fulness of the Gentiles’ is come in. And this is the generation in which Jerusalem was recovered from Gentile control, signaling the approach of the fullness of the Gentiles’.

The Tribulation serves two main purposes; the first is the judgment of God on a Christ-rejecting world. The second is the national redemption of Israel. By definition, Church-Age believers have NOT rejected Christ, and need no further redemption.

The Bible says that, before the unfolding of the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, there will come an ingathering of Church Age believers:

“Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” (Revelation 3:10)

Jerusalem is the signal that this is the generation that will see the ‘fulness of the Gentiles be come in’. It was to that generation that Paul promised:

“For this we say unto you BY THE WORD OF THE LORD, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall . . . be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1st Thessalonians 4:15,17b)

The time is short. Don’t let anybody steal your victory. Jesus is coming soon for His Church:

“And THEN shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming.” (2nd Thessalonians 2:8)

Get excited! The time is short, the fulness of the Gentiles is at hand; the Lord IS coming soon!

“Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” (2nd Thessalonians 4:18)

Note:  Today is Memorial Day in the United States of America.  I am free to write the OL — and you are free to read it — thanks to the veterans that fought and died to pay the price freedom demands. 

“That  you can read this, thank a teacher.  That you can read it in English, thank a vet.”

Thank you to all our veterans — may you live out your lives in peace.  God bless you all.

Happy Memorial Day.

The Thousand Year Reign

The Thousand Year Reign
Vol: 116 Issue: 28 Saturday, May 28, 2011

Scripture reveals that there are still two Dispensations remaining between now and the destruction of universe and its replacement with the ‘new heavens’ and ‘new earth’ as described by the Apostle Peter.

“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” (2nd Peter 3:10)

Peter refers to this as the “Day of the Lord” and later, the “Day of God” (2nd Peter 3:12). This is different than the “Day of Christ.” The “Day of Christ” is the day He returns for His Church at the Rapture.

“Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.” (2nd Thessalonians 2:1-2)

While the “Day of Christ” refers to the ingathering of the Church at the Rapture and the Bema Judgment for rewards, the “Day of the Lord” refers to judgment for sin; judgment against the Gentile nations; judgment against unbelieving Israel and the final judgment at the Great White Throne.

It is important to remember that “Christ” is not God’s last Name; it is His title. “Christ” is the Greek equivalent [Christos] to the Hebrew Messiah [Mosiach]. The Day of the Lord is therefore significant of judgment, whereas the day of Christ signifies redemption.

So, here is the chronology remaining for the human race: the current Dispensation [the Church Age] comes to an end at the Rapture as part of the Day of Christ.

The Raptured Church attends the Bema Seat Judgment (2nd Corinthians 3:11-15), the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9) and accompanies Him to the earth at His triumphant Second Coming. (Jude 1:14-15)

The Tribulation Period is its own Dispensation, in addition to being a resumption of the Age of the Law – it represents the 70th Week of Daniel.

The revealing Angel gave Daniel an panoramic view of Israel’s history, beginning with the order to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple and ending with the coming of the Messiah.

Daniel’s outline is interrupted at the end of the 69th week (of years) with the ‘cutting off’ of the Messiah and resumes with the revelation of the antichrist when he confirms a seven-year peace treaty between Israel and her enemies.

How can we know that the 70th Week is set apart from the Church Age? The angel listed six specific things to be accomplished during the 70th Week, from Israel’s perspective:

“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.”

Before going down the list, notice that the 70th week is for Daniel’s people, [the Jews] and Daniel’s holy city [Jerusalem] and NOT for the Church.

1. “Finish the transgression” – yet future for Israel/accomplished at the Cross for the Church.
2. “Make an end of sins” – sin loses its power over believers at regeneration – regeneration is a function of the Cross in the lives of believers
3. “Make reconciliation for iniquity” – simply stated, it means to make restitution [payment] for sin. Accomplished at the Cross for believers – yet future for unbelieving Jews
4. “Bring in everlasting righteousness” — Christ returns to set up the Millennial Kingdom with Himself on the Throne in Jerusalem.
5. “Seal up the vision and prophecy” – the fulfillment of all Messianic prophecy – yet future
6. “Anoint the Most Holy” – the Mosiach is ‘anointed’ King as per Israel’s ancient custom and reigns over mankind for a thousand years – the “Millennial Kingdom.”

The Church has no role to play during the Tribulation, which Scripture identifies has having two specific purposes; the judgment of a Christ-rejecting world and the national redemption of Israel.

The Church was judged at the Cross and found judicially blameless by grace through faith. The Church neither rejected Christ nor has need of further redemption.

Consequently, the Church does not remain on the earth beyond the Church Age.

Assessment:

So, who inhabits the Millennial Kingdom? According to Scripture, there are but two groups who survive the Tribulation – believing Gentiles and believing Jews.

In Revelation 19:11-16, we find the return of Jesus Christ to the earth. This is His Second Coming. The Rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:51-53) is an appearing of Christ in the air. That is not the same as His Second Coming.

This is included, I believe, to draw a distinction between the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ. There is no mention in Revelation 19-20 of any kind of rapture event where believers receive glorified bodies.

The prophet Joel, in his description of the Tribulation Judgment, was clear and specific concerning those to come under Tribulation judgment:

“Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up . . . Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.” (Joel 3:9,11-12)

The believing Gentiles are non-Jews who come to faith during the Tribulation. Note that they are distinct from the ‘new creature’ of the Church Age.

Jesus said that He will separate the ‘sheep’ [righteous, or believing,] nations from the ‘goat’ [unrighteous, or unbelieving] nations. The goats are cast into the Lake of Fire whereas the sheep [the righteous Gentiles] survive and live on into the Millennial Kingdom.

By implication, no unbelieving Gentile will survive the Second Coming. The righteous Gentiles, or sheep, will live on into the millennial kingdom. They will give birth to children and will populate the earth. However, these are not the only ones who will be producing children during the millennial kingdom.

The impression is given that when Christ returns, all Israel will trust in Him (Zechariah 12:10). They, too, will not receive glorified bodies (as those did who were raptured prior to the tribulation). They also will produce children during the millennial kingdom.

To summarize, the Millennial Kingdom will be populated by believing Gentiles, Israel, and the resurrected/raptured believers whom, according to the Apostle Paul, will hold positions of authority and judgment as well.

“Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?” (1st Corinthians 6:2-3)

According to the Prophet Isaiah, during the Millennial Kingdom, the earth is restored to its original ecological balance, and lifespans return to what they were prior to the Flood. “. . . for the child shall die an hundred years old” (Isaiah 65:20)

Everyone who enters into the Millennial Kingdom will be a believer, but the Scripture say that children will be born to believing Jews and Gentiles.

And, as incredible as it sounds (what with Jesus Himself on the throne and resurrected believers in glorified bodies running around directing traffic, or whatever) many of those born into the Millennial Kingdom will reject Christ, and they will, once again, gather themselves together to do battle against the Lord of Hosts. (Revelation 20:7-10)

And with that act, the final curtain comes down on the human race. “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind,” writes the Prophet Isaiah. [65:17)

Which leaves us contemplating the question asked by the Apostle Peter; “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?”

That’s a question that each of us has to answer for ourselves in this life. For it will surely be asked of us as we seek admittance into the next.

Note: Happy Memorial Day weekend!  God bless our troops! And God bless us, every one.  Maranatha!

Crazytown Annual BBQ

Crazytown Annual BBQ
Vol: 116 Issue: 27 Friday, May 27, 2011

If you had a neighbor who not only despised you and your family but was also an unpredictable homicidal maniac, what would you do?  If you had any brains, you’d make sure your family was secure.  If you were the Obama administration, you’d head off to the Annual Crazytown BBQ to discuss buying him some guns and an outline of your family’s daily schedule.

The Group of Eight met this week in Deauville, France.  The Group of Eight, or G8, is a forum originally formed by the French in 1975 as the Group of Six; France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and US.  In 1976 Canada joined, thus creating the Group of Seven.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the G7 was expanded to include Russia in an effort to prop up the struggling Boris Yeltsin transitional administration.

“Following 1994’s G7 summit in Naples, Russian officials held separate meetings with leaders of the G7 after the group’s summits. This informal arrangement was dubbed the Political 8 (P8) – or, colloquially, the G7+1. At the invitation of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair and President of the United States Bill Clinton, Russia formally joined the group in 1997, resulting in the Group of Eight, or G8.”

It was a bone-headed move.  Yeltsin’s administration never managed to pull off the transition, but he didn’t fail spectacularly enough for the G-7 to credibly revoke Russian membership.

So the G7 became the Seven Industrial Democracies Plus One (That Ain’t).

The Russians didn’t like it because it made them feel like they didn’t belong.  Mainly because they didn’t, since Russia is still neither industrialized nor a democracy.

So the G7 created a new entity, known as the G8 – not to be confused with the G7, which still meets as the G7, which is actually the G8 minus Russia.   The G7 consists of the heads of finance (Treasury secretaries and Finance ministers) of the Seven Industrialized Nations.

So when the G8 meets, it is a meeting of the heads of government, since technically, Russia could be at least be said to have a government — if not a democracy or an economy.

The Group of Seven is in reality the Group of Seven Central Bankers.  And the Group of Eight is the Group of Seven Central Bankers plus The Russian Mafia.

Now that we’ve identified the players, we’ll return to the Crazytown Annual BBQ.  The Group of Eight Government Leaders is proposing that the Group of Seven Central Bankers offer twenty BILLION dollars in ‘international loan guarantees’ to Tunisia and Egypt.  

And since “international loan guarantees” is international diplo-speak for “bribe” it was only fitting that the Russian Mafia be on hand to “make sure that everything goes smoothly.”

The offer of twenty billion (twenty thousand MILLION) is conditional on Tunisia and Egypt “continuing their transformation into democratic and tolerant societies.”

In Tunisia, that means the Ennahda Party, which the New York Times points out, “bore the brunt of former President Ben Ali’s repressive rule.” 

The Ennahda Party is little more than the Muslim Brotherhood, reorganized and renamed.  

Ennahda, which means ‘rebirth’ or ‘renaissance’ in Arabic is the odds-on favorite to win a majority in Tunisia’s first elections on July 24^th. 

With crucial elections scheduled for July 24, Ennahda’s popularity and organizational strength are of growing concern to many activists and politicians, who worry that the secular revolution in this moderate state — the revolt that galvanized the Arab Spring — might see the birth of a conservative Islamic government.

And just as the protests in Tunis heralded the revolt in Cairo, analysts are looking to Tunisia as a bellwether for the more broadly influential developments to come in Egypt, where the Muslim Brotherhood enjoys similar advantages and has stirred similar misgivings.

“How do you want us to go up against Ennahda?” asked an exasperated strategist for the Republican Alliance, a secular party. “They’re prepared to do anything.”

With years of organizational experience, a vast membership and decades of credibility as a sworn enemy of Mr. Ben Ali, Ennahda has proved to be better-equipped than any other party — most have existed only for a matter of weeks — to step into the political void. The Republican Alliance strategist called for the elections to be delayed.

“July 24 is a favor to Ennahda,” he said, requesting anonymity for fear of attacks by the party’s supporters. “It’s suicide.”

With Ennahda in power, he said, “It would be Iran.”

When the Group of 7 Central Bankers Plus 1 Mafiocrat met in at the Crazytown BBQ in Deauville, Ennahda was already way out ahead of its next closest rival.

While the Group of 7 Central Bankers Plus 1 Mafiocrat were in the process of discussing how best to support Egypt’s transition into a “democratic and tolerant society” protestors in Egypt were launching what they called the “Second Revolution” demanding that Egypt’s ruling military junta step up elections.

The Muslim Brotherhood officially decried the uprising, while at the same time filing the documents necessary to run when elections are held.  When the protestors do force new elections, the Muslim Brotherhood’s  Freedom and Justice Party will be there.

With an extra twenty thousand million dollars at their disposal, courtesy of Seven Central Bankers Plus 1 Mafiocrat.

Assessment:

Middle East terrorism expert (and reformed terrorist) Wahlid Phares warned that what he called “President Obama’s grand plan. . . may be commendable, but could bring catastrophic results.”

Reading through his article, I was struck mainly by how well Phares has grasped the language of nuance, since he never quite called the plan idiotic – at least not outright – and he stopped just short of calling Obama and his advisors clueless.

“By any analysis, short of massive support for democratic forces in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood will acquire significant influence in the next parliamentary election and thus the lion’s share of posts in the ensuing Cabinet. This would mean that Mr. Obama has sent billions in economic aid to a government controlled or significantly influenced by Islamists who have not abandoned, but remain loyal to jihadi ideology.

The administration’s intellectuals have been arguing that the Muslim Brotherhood are undergoing transformation and becoming reformers. If the Ikhwan were to reform ideologically, those most targeted by their Islamist agenda — secularists, women, liberals, youth and Copts — would be the first to know it. The news coming from those interests in Egypt does not endorse this claim.”

According to both the Prophet Daniel and the book of the Revelation, the system of the Beast consists of three persons, (the Antichrist, False Prophet and Dragon) seven heads and ten horns.

“And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.” Revelation 13:1

The ten horns of Daniel 7:24 and Revelation 17:12 are interpreted as ten kings. Daniel says that an eleventh “little horn” will rise after them, and “subdue” three of them.  John says that they have “received no kingdom as yet, but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.”

Revelation 17:10 interprets the seven heads as “seven kings: five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come.”

“And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.” (Revelation 17:11)

Traditionally, the ten kings have always been interpreted as a revived form of the Roman Empire. 

Five hundred years ago, Sir Isaac Newton, in his “Observations on Daniel” speculated from Scripture that the ten would be France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Great Britain, Rome, Denmark, Sweden, Prussia and Poland.

Matthew Henry’s Whole Commentary on the Bible identified the ten kings as subservient to a future revived Roman Empire as far back as 1755.

In 1948 six nations in Western Europe, known as “the inner Six” signed the Benelux treaty creating the Western European Union (WEU).  Full membership is limited to ten – all new members are granted associate or observer status, but not full membership.

Sir Robert Anderson identified a revived Rome as the seat of the antichrist’s government in 1895 – before the first Zionist Congress in 1897 and sixty years before the Benelux Treaty launched the WEU.

Having cited all those historical interpreters and interpretations, let me say that every single one of them could be wrong – it is the Bible that is 100% accurate, not its interpreters. 

I don’t have everybody figured out in detail; neither does anybody else, I don’t believe. We see through a glass darkly; these are shadows of what is to come granted us as a warning. 

Jesus said to start watching when these things begin to come to pass – because all the details won’t be clear until after the Rapture.  But the outline, although a bit fuzzy, is not hard to make out in general terms.

The Bible said that in the last days, the antichrist would arise as a prince of the people that destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple.  He would make his appearance as a little horn, an eleventh member of ruling cadre of ten kings of whom only seven have genuine power.

We don’t know who that is.  But we do know what horse he rode in on. All of this has been a matter of record for twenty-five centuries, since King Nebuchadnezzar first asked Daniel to interpret his dream. 

None of it was possible prior to this generation because in order for Daniel or John’s prophecy to be fulfilled, there must first exist a nation known as “Israel”. 

The first problem to overcome is that Israel was the name of a country destroyed by the Assyrians in the 8^th century before Christ.  And from the days of Sargon II until May 14, 1948, no such entity existed anywhere on earth. 

Secondly, to fulfill prophecy, any nation known as “Israel” would have to exist on the exact same piece of real estate, situated between the Med and the Jordan River, with its capital at Jerusalem.

Finally, the Prophet Daniel predicts that whoever the antichrist is, he will eventually have to contend with the King of the South, whom most interpreters identify as representing Islamic North Africa.

It is against THAT historical backdrop that ten kings will arise that will give their power to the Beast.   

The Treaty of Brussels was signed on March 17^th, 1948, beginning the revival of the old Roman Empire.  The nation of Israel was reborn in a day – that day being May 14^th, 1948.  

We can’t foresee the details, but six decades later, all the named players are involved in an ongoing political firestorm that can only turn out one way.

“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” (Daniel 2:44)

Forever.  I like the sound of that.

Why Are Bad Things Acts of God?

Why Are Bad Things Acts of God?
Vol: 116 Issue: 26 Thursday, May 26, 2011

Catastrophes like the ongoing Midwest tornado outbreak are called “acts of God” by insurance companies to distinguish them from deliberate acts undertaken by men, such as destruction in time of war, for example.

In legal terms, an “act of God” is a “natural catastrophe that no one can foresee or prevent including, but not limited to, an earthquake, tsunami, volcanic eruption or tornado.”

Christians also view such natural catastrophes as “acts of God” except that Christians mean it in the entirely literal sense of the word.  A sparrow does not fall from the sky without the Father’s knowledge, for example.

To an insurance company, an “act of God” is defined by its randomness.  Most things happen according to statistical probability spread over time and are therefore foreseeable and predictable – acts of God are not.

By this understanding an “act of God” describes a blind force of nature, an unstoppably powerful force acting according to the impersonal laws of physics and nature.  

To the secular actuarial, “acts of God” have no wider implication; no deeper meaning – things happen because they happen.  Out of every thousand people, x number of them will suffer this catastrophe or that disaster or this manner of death.

It’s a numbers game in which everybody has a ticket and when your number comes up it comes up and it is just as simple as that. Joplin got flattened because Joplin is smack in the center of Tornado Alley. Tulsa didn’t because Tulsa didn’t. 

Sigh. Ignorance is bliss.  Christians can’t write off an “act of God” so easily.  God is not some impersonal force of nature, but He is a loving Father who so loved the world that He gave His only Son – the Father of Whom Paul asks rhetorically:

“He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)

Joplin is one of my favorite cities – I have stayed there many times.  There are churches on practically every corner. The twister that roared through Joplin on Sunday claimed at least 125 lives – many innocent children and certainly many Christians. 

Most of the survivors of the storm lost everything they had.  Ironically, insurance companies single out many “acts of God” and exclude them from coverage – for a Christian the irony is double-edged.  If God gets the blame, then it means you’re losses aren’t covered.

“Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling His Word,” wrote the Psalmist. (148:8)

The Psalmist says in no uncertain terms that the ‘stormy wind’ is a direct fulfillment of God’s Word.

Proverbs 30:4 tells us that God “gathers the wind in His Fists.” During a sudden storm on the Galilee, Mark tells us that Jesus rebuked the wind, saying;

“Peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.”

Knowing that “acts of God” really are acts of God should give Christians a measure of comfort, but in reality, the opposite is often true.  The secular world shrugs it off as ‘stuff happens’.

But we want to know where God was when the Christian that trusted Him gets sucked out of a sunroof by a tornado and is never seen again?

Assessment:

We’ve discussed the link between the natural catastrophes striking the American homeland and US foreign policy regarding Israel, and on that level, nobody really seems to have much of a problem with the idea.

But Will Norton didn’t have anything to do with US foreign policy and neither do his frantic parents.  And while we mostly agree at the national level, our view changes when we zoom in on the human carnage where the “act of God” looks a lot different.

As one member put it in an OL forum post:

“Can anyone please help me understand how God’s punishment works here? Our admin goes against Israel, and then He punishes whatever places in the US that He wants??  My heart aches about all of this, and maybe particularly because I don’t understand the connection between wicked government and, seemingly, capricious punishment from God upon “innocent” towns-folk.”

It’s a fair question.  Why do bad things happen to good people?  First, we have to distinguish between punishment and chastisement. Punishment is the result of judgment against the guilty.

Chastisement is aimed at correcting wrong behavior. The Bible says that for individuals, chastisement is evidence that God loves us as sons.

“For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.” (Hebrews 12:6)

I am one of those that is of the opinion that America is loved of the Father and that American exceptionalism is direct evidence of that fact. 

America’s reputation as the “world’s most Christian nation” dates back to its foundation and even the most hardened atheist would have to admit that America is the most blessed nation the world has ever seen.

When Christians step outside of God’s perfect will, He chastises them until they step out of the Chastisement Zone and back into line.  America’s foreign policy vis a vis Israel puts it directly in the Chastisement Zone.

America isn’t being judged for sin.  It is being chastised back into compliance with God’s will.

But what about the suffering it imposes on the individual Christian?  Well, to start with, let’s acknowledge the obvious: God is our Judge, we are not His.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

But what about those Christians that prayed for protection from the storm and we taken by it anyway?  “The Lord works in mysterious ways” isn’t a very satisfying answer.  There is good reason for that.

It is because the Lord doesn’t work in ‘mysterious’ ways; He works according to His will. He has a purpose for everything that He does. Whether we understand that purpose is irrelevant — HE does.

“So shall My Word be that goeth forth out of My Mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11)

To the unbeliever, this life is all there is — so when God takes it, it seems exceedingly cruel.  But this is no more ‘all there is’ than the blackness of the womb is to the unborn child. The blackness of the womb is simply all it knows until it is born.  

What seems exceedingly cruel from this perspective of existence may well be an act of exceeding mercy when viewed from the perspective of God.

Saved or lost, death isn’t the end.  It is either the beginning of unspeakable joy with the Lord in eternity, or the beginning of unspeakable horror and loneliness, separated from the Lord for eternity.  

God put each of us here for two reasons. The first is so that we can choose to one day enjoy fellowship with Him in eternity.

The second is to spread the Good News to the lost. Especially in times of trouble, when the lost demand an answer to the question; “Where was God in all this?”

The tornado that swept much of Joplin away is a reminder that our lives on earth are like a wisp of smoke – here, and then, gone, just like that.

We learn a lot about why bad things happen to good people from the story of Joseph.  God uses evil to accomplish good. Had Joseph not been sold into slavery in Egypt, then his brothers would have starved to death.

Had his brothers not hated him, the twelve tribes of Israel wouldn’t have existed, there would have been no Jewish people, no Chosen People, no Jewish carpenter named Jesus, and no hope of salvation for mankind. 

We live in a world where, in order for there to be a Joseph, there must also be his brothers.

Mideast Politics and Midwest Storms

Mideast Politics and Midwest Storms
Vol: 116 Issue: 25 Wednesday, May 25, 2011

There are two related stories in today’s headlines. The first is the Israeli Prime Minister’s address to Congress.  The second is the incredibly destructive series of storms decimating the American Midwest.

It is hard to comprehend just how badly the city of Joplin, Missouri was hit. The death toll stands this morning at an incredible 124 — but the real shocker is the number of missing.  At least fifteen hundred people are missing and unaccounted for.

The Sunday tornado was classified an EF-5 with winds exceeding 200 mph and is the deadliest storm to hit the country in nearly sixty years.  The series of twisters that swept through the South late last month killed more than 300 people.

Adding this week’s tally so far, the storm season has this year already killed 480 people.

That doesn’t really sound like that many, given the HUGE numbers we’ve become accustomed to in the 21^st century where we’ve had serial disasters with death tolls in the hundreds of thousands. 

Try and imagine a group of 480 Americans.  Picture them in your mind.  It’s quite a crowd.  If you were in an auditorium with 480 people, it would take quite a while to fight the crowd to get out.  Imagine how many cars are necessary to transport 480 people. 

You couldn’t get them all into ten buses.  You couldn’t pack them all into two jumbo jets.  Imagine having to feed 480 people? 

It doesn’t sound like much when compared to the victims of the Great Japanese Tsunami or the Haiti earthquake but 480 people is a big chunk of humanity. 

And of that number, 127 victims are from the same storm — in the same town.  I heard one local newscaster say that there isn’t anyone in Joplin that didn’t lose somebody.   

That was on Sunday.  On Tuesday, a new series of tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas.

The Oklahoma storms killed at least five in one county, injured dozens and destroyed much of Piedmont, OK.  Another storm killed at least two in Arkansas. At least seven twisters touched down in Kansas – killing two more.

The governor of Oklahoma, Mary Fallin summed up what many people were thinking during an interview with CNN:

“I’ve been in (public) office for 20 years. I’ve been through a lot of these natural disasters, but I’ve never seen this many in a short period of time.”

According to Al Gore, it is because of man-made global warming.  According to Joe Bastardi, formerly Accuweather’s chief meteorologist, solar inactivity has caused the Pacific to cool slightly, creating the weather patterns that spawn tornadoes in the American Midwest.

But Al Gore is a professional politician who got a “D” in Natural Sciences in college and barely passed both physics and chemistry.  Joe Bastardi is a professional meteorologist with a degree in meteorology whose predictions earned him the undying hatred of the Al Gore Chorus.

Given their relative credentials, I’m inclined to trust the smarter Bastardi.

Assessment:

As Joplin was beginning to dig itself out, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the US Congress to plead with the American people not to get behind President Obama’s revised US policy stating that the starting point for negotiations should be the 1967 lines.

The “1967 lines” refers to the Israeli borders as they existed prior to the Six Day’s War.  Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban used to call them the “Auschwitz borders” because they left Israel defenseless. 

Prior to 1967, the Golan Heights was part of Syria.  From 1948 to 1967 the Syrians used the Golan Heights to rain down artillery shells on the Galilee region with impunity.

After Israel captured it in the Six Days War, Israel annexed the Golan to prevent it from being used against them by Syria in some future attack.

Prior to 1967, the Gaza Strip was part of Egypt.  Egypt used the Gaza Strip as a staging area for its attacks on Israel during the 1948-49 War of Independence, the 1956 Sinai campaign and the 1967 War.

After Israel captured the Gaza Strip in 1967 it annexed it to prevent it from being used against them by Egypt in some future attack.

Prior to 1967 what is called “the West Bank” was part of Jordan, including East Jerusalem.  In 1967 — when the Jordanians began their assault on the Jewish State — they were already in Jerusalem. 

After Israel captured it in 1967, they annexed it to prevent it from being used against them by Jordan in some future attack.

Prior to 1967 the residents of the Golan were Syrians. The residents of Gaza were Egyptian. The residents of the West Bank were Jordanian.  

After 1967 they reinvented themselves as “Palestinians” and claimed they were under Israeli “occupation.”

The existence of a ‘Palestinian people’ is one of the most easily disproved historical fictions in the history of mankind.  The ‘Palestinian’ people are Arabs that were abandoned by their own countries after Israel’s 1967 victory. 

Because it is so easily disproved, Obama’s call for a Palestinian state as ‘a matter of right’ is disingenuous, to say the least.  He knows better. 

If Obama’s position is the right one, then it would be equally right for us to adopt a domestic policy of negotiating immigration issues with Mexico using the 1844 borders as a starting point. 

Or re-negotiating our western borders based on the 1802 borders — before the Lousiana Purchase. What about the Union’s borders as of July, 1861?  

But even stretching the point that far, it is still nowhere near as a far as this newly-articulated Obama Doctrine stretches Israel.

Because even if America’s borders were redefined to those historic extremes, what remained would not render the rest of the country indefensible.  And we’d still be in possession of our national capital. 

Moreover, Mexico doesn’t deny America’s right to exist.  We might miss Texas, New Mexico and California, but our continued existence would be no more at risk than would our capital in Washington, DC. 

Imagine if the starting point for negotiations with Mexico was similar to the stated Arab position with Israel. . . . “give us back the Southwest FIRST – and then, MAYBE, we’ll consider not attacking you – for now. . . maybe.”

Even if Israel withdrew to the 1967 borders, there is no credible guarantee that any peace deal would outlast the Arab leader that signs it.

Israel already made major territorial concessions with Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak in exchange for peace. It lasted only as long as Hosni Mubarak did.  Now Egypt is threatening war if Israel “invades” Gaza.  

It met almost all of Arafat’s demands – then Arafat changed his mind and started a new intifada.

In 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza and turned it over to the Arabs to govern as they saw fit. The newly “freed” Palestinian population saw fit to immediately elect terrorists dedicated to Israel’s destruction as their representative government.

In the event that Obama got his way and Israel withdrew to within the 1967 borders, does anybody really believe that next Arab demand won’t be a return to the pre-1948 borders?  

The Palestinians responded to Netanyahu’s speech to the Congress by declaring it “full of lies” while Israeli cabinet minister Zvi Hauser pointed out that if the Palestinians simply accepted Israel as a Jewish state, (which they do not) the conflict would be 90% resolved.

The United States has undertaken a foreign policy position that calls for the Land of Israel to be divided and given to the sworn enemies of the Jewish State, whether Israel agrees or not.

During the same week that Obama articulated America’s new position — a position so anti-Israeli that it prompted Israel’s Prime Minister to throw caution to the winds and directly criticize the policy from the well of the US Congress – America suffered the deadliest tornado outbreak in sixty years.

“And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3)

The connection is so obvious and so direct that there are more websites focused on denying any connection than there are making one.  

Which is itself a Biblically correct position.

The Hopeful Monster

The Hopeful Monster
Vol: 116 Issue: 24 Tuesday, May 24, 2011

I am convinced that those who believe in evolution do so because they think they are too smart to believe in God. It is a willful ignorance. Any close examination of the evidence for evolution proves the truth of Romans 1:20:

“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”

Let’s apply some understanding to what is clearly seen, and see where we end up.

Currently, the world’s population doubles every forty years. This is the result of two mathematical principles; exponential growth and doubling time.

This presents a major problem for evolutionary theory.

Evolutionists find themselves in a dilemma when they try to reconcile the population growth curve with their imaginary history of human life.

Like, if man has been living on the Earth for a million years or more, then why are there only 6.7 billion people here now? When any given quantity’s rate of increase is proportional to its current value, it is said to grow exponentially.

Stated more simply, the larger the quantity, the faster it grows.

‘Doubling’ is the length of time it takes for a quantity, growing at a measurable and sustained rate, to double itself. For example, $100 invested at 7% compound interest will take ten years to double itself to $200, another ten to double to $400, and so on.

So we have two different factors at play here; exponential growth and doubling.

At the time of Christ, the world’s population was only about 300 million people. It took until 1800 for the world population to reach one billion people. But it only took until 1930 for the population to double to two billion.

Thanks to the principle of exponential growth, by 1960 there were three billion, by 1974, four billion, 1985, five billion, 1999, six billion. The global population is slated to reach the seven billion mark in the year 2012.

If one applies the principles of doubling and exponential growth to the human population, one gets a whole different picture than the one presented by evolutionary “science.”

The population of the earth has been growing throughout history at a more-or-less constant 1.9%, which means it doubles roughly every forty years. But let’s build in a fudge factor for earthquakes, famines, wars and epidemics and allow 150 years between population doublings.

Assuming a startup population of two people, how long would it take to reach the present population of roughly 6.7 billion?

That’s the thing about doublings and exponentials. With the population doubling every 150 years and factoring in exponentials, it would take only thirty-two doublings over about 4,800 years for the population of Planet Earth to go from two to the present 6.7 billion.

Now think it through. How could the population stay below 300 million for a million years and then jump from 300 million to nearly seven billion in just two thousand years?

When it comes to blind faith, it is the evolutionist that is ‘religious’.

Assessment:

Christianity is a peculiar sort of religion, since it’s basic premise is that a religion is not necessary for one’s salvation.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast,” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

But “religion” demands more than that — it must be organized, and that is where it begins to break down. To be a religion, it must be organized by flawed humans. It doesn’t take long before any organized religion breaks down into competing denominations.

Religious evolutionism has at least four major denominations; Classical Darwinism,Neo-Darwinism, the “Hopeful Monster” and Punctuated Equilibrium.

Classical Darwinism proposes that evolution is the result of natural selection and the survival of the fittest. Survival of the fittest has some social problems. Why shouldn’t we eliminate weaker classes of humans which are competing for what we feel we need?

Evolution taken to its logical conclusion would eventually lead to a savage world where the strong determine what is right.

So a new explanation became necessary. Neo-Darwinism adds mutation to Darwin’s survival of the fittest. The problem is that mutations do not produce something new, they merely scramble what is already there.

The Hopeful Monster Theory is advanced as an explanation for why there are no transitional fossils; that is to say, there are no fossils of anything in the process becoming something else. The Hopeful Monster sees evolution taking place in a single jump; a dinosaur that lays an egg that hatches a robin.

Punctuated Equilibrium also attempts to explain away the lack of evidence like transitional fossils by saying all the changes took place over short periods of time. It relies on the absence of evidence to prove itself — ‘since there’s no evidence of transitional life forms, this is proof that evolution must have happened quickly.’

Seriously.

These are not scientific positions — they are religious ones. Let’s tell the story of evolution the way the kids learn it in school.

Billions of years ago, there was nothing. Then suddenly, nothing exploded into something. Everybody agrees on that. It’s called the “Big Bang Theory.”

This ‘something’ produced hydrogen which, when cooled down enough, magically turned into solid rock. Other hydrogen combined with oxygen which caused it to rain on the rock until it broke down into minerals which washed down into a pool.

Once in this pool, all these minerals combined into a primordial ooze that eventually grew up into plants and animals and mosquitoes and bacteria and evolutionary scientists.

The very word ‘theory’ means “An assumption based on limited information or knowledge; a conjecture” but it is illegal in the United States to teach any other explanation dealing with the origins of life.

Even the ‘abrupt appearance’ theory and without any mention of God is forbidden, despite the fact the abrupt appearance theory has far fewer flaws than does evolution.

We’ve already seen that belief in ‘scientific evolution’ requires a suspension of the provable, immutable mathematics. It also requires the suspension of the laws of physics.

The 2nd law of thermodynamics incorporates the law of ‘entropy’ — the measurable, systematic breakdown of all things into their component elements.

In other words, the fact is that everything ages, and everything breaks down with age.

Entropy is a natural law that can be observed, without scientific instruments or double-talk. A beautifully landscaped park, left untended, becomes an overgrowth of weeds. A new car left parked and untended gets rusty and falls apart. A baby becomes an old person and dies.

Everything decays, eventually. Even earth’s orbit around the sun has a measurable decay factor — yet evolution teaches that — with the addition of a billion or so years, the exact opposite happens!

Evolution is a made-up explanation, constantly under revision, to explain the unexplainable — apart from the existence of God.

The truth makes so much more sense. 

The Harold Camping Effect

The Harold Camping Effect
Vol: 116 Issue: 23 Monday, May 23, 2011

I would estimate that I heard approximately forty thousand “end of the world” jokes (give or take) since Harold Camping’s deadline for the Rapture passed without incident.

It is all anybody was talking about, pretty much everywhere I turned. My neighbor across the street was triumphant; “See! We’re still here!”

Every late night comedian and Hollywood celeb made some kind of joke about Christians that believe in the Rapture.

Every secular TV news outlet had some kind of sneering “background” report about Christians that believe in the Rapture as if they were some kind of cult within mainstream Christianity of whom Harold Camping was exemplar.

Most of them located a prominent ‘Christian’ – usually a priest, sometimes a prominent Protestant theologian, to explain the prevalence of “rapture cults” claiming the rapture was “unknown to the Church until it was invented by “Darby in the early 19^th century.  .  . blah, blah, blather, blah, blah.”

The general sense of the news coverage is that in terms of Christian doctrine, the Rapture is something held only by those on the lunatic fringes of Christianity, as is interest in Bible prophecy in general. 

And not only is such interest bordering on the lunatic fringe, it is extremely damaging. 

If one is a secular news editor, a militant skeptic or even a casual Christian reader/viewer, this isn’t a hard premise to swallow.  Look at all the damaged lives! 

Every news story found a fresh example of  ‘believers’ that quit their jobs, gave away their life savings, split their families — or worse.  There was actually a debate between two lawyers on Fox News on Sunday morning about whether or not the disenchanted had a right to sue Harold Camping for damages!

Clearly, there is no legal or Constitutional protection against being gullible.

But it seems like there ought to be a law against guys like Harold Camping.  Or so the general consensus seems to be in what passes for secular thought on issues of Bible doctrine.   

Take this front-page example from the seriously biased Detroit Free Press reporter Niraj Warikoo:

But from the Christian militia Hutaree to a preacher with a TV show out of Rochester Hills, the belief that Christ will return in the end of times is held by many in Michigan. For some of them, it’s a way to convince people to turn to God and live righteously.

For some of them . . . (insert dramatic pause here) . . . but here’s Warikoo’s view of the ‘typical’ doomsday believer.

In 1999, the FBI issued report called Project Megiddo that looked at various apocalyptic groups, some of them Christian, in advance of 2000. And in recent years, the Left Behind series of books by Tim LaHaye that depict the end of times as a bloody apocalypse have become best sellers. Today, some believe in a supposed Mayan prophecy that the world will end in 2012.

Picking days and years of Christ’s return has often gotten headlines, but to this date none of the prognostications have come true,” Rev. Bob Cornwall, pastor of Central Woodward Christian Church in Troy, said Saturday. He notes that current Rapture theology, as popularized today by LaHaye, “dates only back to the 19th century.”

You see? Only the lunatic fringe of Christians believe all that Rapture stuff — mostly because they read “Left Behind” – but they are dangerous enough to warrant the FBI’s attention.  

In Wichita Kansas, a group of militant atheists gathered at Wichita State University “to say that “end of the world predictions” are “dangerous” to society.

They are not just dangerous. They’re none too bright, either:

About 19% of Americans with college degrees believe that Christ will return by the year 2050. That increases to 35% for those with some college education and to 59% for those with a high school degree or less, according to a 2010 survey by the Pew Research Center.

Most churches don’t teach much about the Rapture now — and I would be willing to bet the farm that it will be taught even less in the days to come. 

Assessment:

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”

According to Camping, the Rapture would have occurred on Saturday and the destruction of the universe would take place five months later.

I am gratified to report that I didn’t receive a single email from any of our OL members asking me if Camping’s calculations had any validity.  You were able to see through it. 

That is because the only similarity between Camping’s interpretation and what the Bible actually predicts is that the Bible says there will be a Rapture.  

Other than that, Camping made up the rest of it out of an over-eager imagination. But what about all those people that tossed their Bibles and instead chose to believe Camping?  What were they thinking?  

Now that he has been proved a fraud, what happens to their faith? Camping’s followers had great faith – many showed more faith in Camping’s predictions than he did.

Many of his followers quit their jobs, sold their homes, gave away their possessions and money and picked up their cross to follow him.   

Harold Camping, whose Family Radio Network was worth $180 million the day before the world was supposed to end, was still worth $180 million after his prediction failed. Camping hung on to his possessions — just in case.

That should have been a clue. When the guy selling the product doesn’t use it — you shouldn’t either.

Harold Camping’s followers had great faith and no doubt many of them lost it on Saturday. That is because they had misplaced it to begin with. 

Some of them put their faith in Harold Camping. Others put their faith in the Rapture.  Still more, believing they had some special Biblical insight, put their faith in their own abilities.

In the end, they had their faith in everything except Jesus, Who said that no man could know the day or hour.  By their standard, Jesus let them down.  In truth, it was the other way around. 

Jesus was right — it was Camping that was wrong.

The Bible says, ‘by their fruits ye shall know them’. Camping made two other failed predictions. That should have been a clue, as well. Clearly, it wasn’t.

Bible prophecy is real – and it has been proved accurate in every circumstance where it is possible to test. 

Those that followed Harold Camping weren’t following Bible prophecy. They were following Harold Camping — so they got what they should have expected.

It’s heartbreaking to see faith as great as that wasted on something so transparently obvious.

We cannot know when Christ will return.  Apart from the drop-dead statement to that effect –  “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only” – there is logic and reason to consider.

Let’s take the reasons why logic and common sense agree (unsurprisingly) with Scripture.  First, if God wanted men to know when Christ would return, He would have said so clearly.  

Instead, He said precisely the opposite. So speculating about the timing of the Rapture is not merely pointless, it is disobedient.  Because it is disobedient it is also divisive and diversionary. 

Christians that believe they’ve calculated the date of the Rapture end up breaking fellowship with those that tell them they are following the wrong path.

Instead of spreading the Gospel of Love, they are diverted into spreading the gospel of wrath.  Rather than salvation by grace through faith, they embrace salvation by Rapture through fear.  To Camping’s followers, if you didn’t embrace his May 21 doctrine you’re not saved and would be left behind.

Salvation does not come by faith in a doctrine, or by faith in a teacher, or by faith in the Rapture.  Believing in the Rapture for salvation is like believing that seat belts prevent traffic accidents.   

There are things we know, things we think we know, and things we cannot know.

We can know that if we place our faith in Jesus, we will “in no wise be cast out.” We think we know the chronology of the last days, but in reality, we “see through a glass darkly”  we know only in part, but have confidence that we will eventually know, “face to face.”

We cannot know the things that God has specifically told us we cannot know – like the date of the Rapture.  We know that the Bible is infallible. We should know that Bible teachers are not.

We know that Christ will return.  We know that all the earth will be judged.  We know that all that has not been redeemed (including unregenerate, unrepentant sinners) will be purged. 

We know that it is not too late for sinners because we are still here and we know what the Great Commission requires of us.  We cannot know the date and time of the end, but we can know that it is near, even at the doors.   

Wisdom is found in knowing the difference.

Harold Camping’s followers were world-wide and therefore, Saturday amounted to a world-wide disappointment.  As I said earlier, there aren’t many churches that teach the Rapture, and no doubt there will be a lot fewer in the days to come.

It will be a lot harder for us to discuss the last days and the Rapture with the lost – and even with the saved.  A lot of Christians that believed the Rapture was near will rethink their positions – I even expect to see the rise of ‘anti-rapture’ sermonizing in the Churches.

There is a verse about the coming of the Lord that always sort of clanged off-key to me.  After all, we live in a world that so resembles the one the Bible forecast would exist in the last days that a guy like Camping could make world-wide front page headline news.

“Be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh.” (Matthew 24:44)

Post-Harold Camping, that verse makes a lot more sense to me than it did before.

Judgment Day, 2011 — The End is Here?

Judgment Day, 2011 — The End is Here?
Vol: 116 Issue: 21 Saturday, May 21, 2011

Today is the end of the world and this is my last column.  Unless today isn’t the end of the world, in which case, we’ll see you Monday, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.

Family Radio President Harold Camping predicted that the end of the world will begin on May 21^st at precisely six pm in each time zone.

“A great earthquake will occur the Bible describes it as ‘such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.’ This earthquake will be so powerful it will throw open all graves. The remains of the all the believers who have ever lived will be instantly transformed into glorified spiritual bodies to be forever with God.”

That was Camping’s prediction.  But if he is right, it means that the world has already ended on the other side of the world where May 21 has come and gone without any ill effects for our friends Down Under.

I have in my library a rare copy of one of Harold Camping’s early books, entitled “1994.”  One of the reasons that it is rare is because, as the title suggests, the book was all about how the Rapture would occur in 1994. (Talk about a book with a limited shelf-life!)

So how does a guy who was so spectacularly wrong last time gain so much credibility this time? It isn’t as if he is just another nut out there.  

Camping’s supporters have shelled out millions of dollars to advertise the Rapture, including financing some twenty-two HUNDRED billboards proclaiming the Rapture on May 21^st.

The New York Times ran a heart-breaking story about the Hadad family, followers of Harold Camping who are at this moment making their last preparations for the Rapture at six pm this evening.

Abby Hadad quit her job two years ago to spread the word about the May 21 Judgment Day, going out on mission trips and handing out “The End of the World Is Near” tracts to anyone that would take them.  The Hadads also stopped renovating their house and saving for college.

Last week they pulled their kids out of school and took them to New York City where they could spend their last days passing out tracts.  The three teenaged Hadad kids, not surprisingly, think their parents are nuts.

“My mom has told me directly that I’m not going to get into heaven,” Grace Haddad, 16, said. “At first it was really upsetting, but it’s what she honestly believes. . . .

People look at my family and think I’m like that,” said Joseph, their 14-year-old, as his parents walked through the street fair on Ninth Avenue, giving out Bibles. “I keep my friends as far away from them as possible.”

“I don’t really have any motivation to try to figure out what I want to do anymore,” he said, “because my main support line, my parents, don’t care.”

His mother said she accepted that believers “lose friends and you lose family members in the process.”

“I have mixed feelings,” Ms. Haddad Carson said. “I’m very excited about the Lord’s return, but I’m fearful that my children might get left behind. But you have to accept God’s will.”

Camping’s followers around the world spent the past few days saying goodbye to friends and relatives.

Thousands of other American families are in the same situation as the Haddads with Harold Camping’s prophecy splitting families into opposing camps of believers and unbelievers in his Judgment Day prophecy. Thousands of believers in the Camping prophecy have taken to streets of  New York with many “sounding the trumpet” in Time Square in the last few days, dressed in doomsday T-shirts, with placards and leaflets, some taking the last few days off to say bye-bye to friends and relatives before they are caught up into the heaven in Rapture.

What are they going to do tomorrow?

Assessment:

“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only.” (Matthew 24:36, Mark 13:32)

When the Lord repeats Himself, it is because He wants us to get it right. Jesus said that even He didn’t know the day and hour of the Rapture.  

Jesus isn’t referring to the 2^nd Coming – the date of His second coming is easily calculable.

The Bible tells us that there will be exactly two thousand, five hundred and twenty days between the revelation of the Antichrist and the 2^nd coming of Christ.  The revelation of antichrist takes place when he confirms the covenant for seven years.  

But if that isn’t a precise enough marker,  Daniel also says that the antichrist will at first permit Temple worship and later, he will “cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease.”

That event begins what the Bible calls the “Great Tribulation” in that it is at this point that God turns His attention toward the national redemption of Israel.  Since the resumption of Temple worship will be a big deal, its subsequent interruption will be a big enough deal to merit global attention.  

The Jews will mark the date that their Temple was taken from them a third time, as they did the first and second time.  

“And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.” (Daniel 12:11)

Calculating the date of Christ’s 2^nd coming will be no more complicated an exercise than simply marking the date the antichrist closes the Temple and counting forward 1,290 days.

What is impossible to calculate, the Lord says, is the day and hour of the Rapture.  Why? The Bible gives us a pretty clear and concise chronology to work with.

It is incalculable because there are no signs preceding the Rapture and so there is no set point to count from. The Rapture signals the end of the Church Age, but not necessarily the start of the Tribulation.

The Church Age could end tomorrow (or anytime except today at six pm) and the Tribulation could still be years into the future.  The Tribulation begins with the revealing of the antichrist, the rider on the white horse – NOT the Rapture of the Church.

The Church Age has a discernible beginning at Pentecost — and a discernible conclusion with the Rapture.

The Tribulation doesn’t start with the disappearance of Christians. And the Church Age doesn’t end with the revelation of the antichrist.

The Church Age ends at the Rapture. The Tribulation begins with the appearance of the antichrist. There is no knowing whether there is an intervening period or how long it might be — the Bible does not say.

The judgment against a Christ-rejecting world begins with the revelation of antichrist as the rider on the white horse.  The antichrist comes first as ruler of the Gentile world and offers as his credentials a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.  

At some point thereafter he reestablishes Temple worship. Three and a half years later, the Time of Jacob’s Trouble begins with the revocation of Temple worship and concludes with the Second Coming.

Harold Camping, (a civil engineer and self-taught Biblical authority), cannot therefore have calculated the date of the Rapture because, on the authority of the Word of God, nobody can. 

Not now, not later, not even when it is ‘near, even at the doors’ – because there is no point from which to begin. 

That is deliberate.  It is by design.  God did not intend for the Church to know and He said so in no uncertain terms.  There are those who want to parse words with God . . . (eg He said we wouldn’t know the day and hour – it doesn’t mean the date) – but parsing words with God is false prophecy by any name.

Harold Camping is wrong this time, like he was wrong the last two times.  He is wrong like Edgar Whisenant was when he wrote “88 Reasons Why Christ Will Return in 1988” and he is wrong like William Miller was in 1841 and 1844.   

Jesus went to a lot of trouble to make the point that nobody could know when the Rapture will take place.

 “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. . . Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” (Matthew 24:42,44)

“Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.  .  . Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:” (Mark 13:33,35)

“Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.” (Luke 12:40)

This is not difficult to understand.  The Lord has drawn a curtain around the Rapture for a reason – and He warns the Church in no uncertain terms not to try and peek behind it. Why?

According to the website, “What’s the Harm?” apocalyptic expectations and the subsequent disappointment when it fails to materialize on schedule has, throughout history, killed 368,379 people and injured another 306,096 more and caused nearly three billion dollars in economic damage.

I don’t know if ALL those numbers are accurate, but it does list 1,810 verifiable people who were either killed or committed suicide as a consequence of apocalyptic fear.  

There is plenty of harm to be found in stepping outside of the Bible for doctrine, which is what date-setting is.  The Bible says it can’t be calculated so guys like Harold Camping look elsewhere for data.

Then people like the Hadad’s stop living normal lives, stop saving, stop working, stop raising their kids and stop caring about their future.  THAT is why the Lord drew a curtain around the date of His return. He even explained His logic so that we’d “get” it.

“But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.” (Matthew 24:43)

If I knew the Lord was coming back on a date-certain schedule, then I wouldn’t feel any pressing need to prepare until the last minute.  If you knew the Lord was coming back tomorrow, would you still go to work today?  Mow your lawn?  Make this week’s RRSP deposit?

How hard is this to figure out?   

We cannot know the hour.  But we also cannot know the day.  We can know when it is near, even at the doors, but that is about it.  And for obvious reasons.

The Rapture is very, very close.  But very, very close doesn’t mean tomorrow.  Or today.  Or October 7, 2011.  It means, “near, even at the doors.” 

If somebody tells you, here is Christ (coming) or there he is, he is lying, or he is deceived, but in either case, he doesn’t know.  

The damage caused by Harold Camping is incalculable, but it is easily seen.  Just read through the news reports about the nutbars that believe that Jesus will one day return for His Church and leave everybody else behind. 

Thanks to Harold Camping and guys like him, you are painted with that same nutbar brush. Every person that you will witness to going forward is going to hear “Harold Camping” the second you mention the Rapture. 

Many of those that put their faith in Harold Camping instead of Jesus Christ will turn away, embittered by the experience, believing that it was Christ, not Harold Camping, that let them down.  

Naming a date certain for the Rapture is not an interesting pastime – it is a deadly serious violation of Christian doctrine. 

The damage done to one’s own walk, faith and reputation is nothing compared to the damage done to the lives of those that misplaced their faith and are too badly hurt to take that risk again.

We cannot know the date of the Rapture. The reason why is obvious enough, but it doesn’t stop guys like Harold Camping from trying to outsmart God.

“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only.” (Matthew 24:36)

It just doesn’t get any clearer than that.

”And the End Shall Be With a Flood. . . ”

”And the End Shall Be With a Flood. . . ”
Vol: 116 Issue: 20 Friday, May 20, 2011

President Barack Hussein Obama formally embraced the Palestinian position regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict in a speech in which he declared that any final solution will have to be based on the 1967 borders.

The speech, delivered on the eve of a scheduled visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was intended to signal to Netanyahu that Obama is expecting major concessions from the Israelis.

Israeli officials were especially surprised at Obama’s “blunt” language, especially Obama’s criticism of so-called “settlements” and what he called Israel’s continued “occupation” of “Arab lands.”

According to Obama, “The dream of a Jewish and democratic state cannot be fulfilled with permanent occupation.”  Great, swelling words – but ultimately meaningless. 

First off, Israel does not dream of a Jewish and democratic state.  Israel IS a Jewish and democratic state – and has been such for more than sixty years.  And second, what “permanent occupation?”  

The only territory that qualifies as “occupied” would be the Golan Heights captured from Syria and annexed to prevent Syrian gunners from lobbing shells down into the Galilee region. 

Giving the Golan back to Syria would be suicidal – but one suspects Obama knows that. 

Maybe that is why Obama has steadfastly refused to take any meaningful action against Syria’s Bashar al Assad, despite reports that he has ordered his troops to shoot indiscriminately into crowds of protestors.

According to published news reports, Assad’s forces have arrested more than eight THOUSAND people, many of whom have been tortured.

“In Banias, a strategic oil refining port on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, prisoners were being held in the power station and a sports stadium because all the city’s jail cells were full. . . In interviews with 19 Syrian detainees last month, including two women and three teenagers, Human Rights Watch found that all but two had been tortured, including being whipped with cable and stunned with electric-shock devices while drenched in cold water.”

There is more, but it is just too sickening to repeat.  But that isn’t what is important to President Obama. What is important to President Obama is keeping up the pressure on Israel.

Like everyone else, I’ve been wondering why Obama dumped Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak so abruptly, siding forcefully with the protestors against Mubarak, while staying relatively silent when other, less friendly dictatorships were on the ropes.  

Why did Obama plunge into the fray in Egypt but refrain from any interference with Iran?   Iran is already sworn to Israel’s destruction.  Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt had a peace treaty with Israel. 

Iran is an Islamic republic led by Muslims according to the tenets of the Koran and Sharia Law. Hosni Mubarak was a secular leader of secular state ruled apart from the Koran.

Obama sided with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, a group dedicated to replacing Egypt’s secular government with an Islamic republic.  

In Iran, Obama sided with the government, congratulating Ahmadinejad’s fraudulent ‘re-election’ and respectfully referring to Ayahtollah Khameini as the ‘Supreme Leader.”

But when it came to Syria, Obama’s criticism was muted.  He didn’t call Assad’s regime ‘illegitimate’ — as he did with Mubarak – much less call for Assad to step down.   It seems the only Arab dictatorships not supported by Obama are those few with friendly relations with Israel.

Memo to Arab Dictatorships:  If you want to survive the Arab Spring, avoid any appearance of friendship with Israel.

Assessment:

“And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. “

“And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” (Daniel 9:26-27)

This linked map shows what the President of the United States called “the Israeli occupation.”

Note the little blue dots – those are Israeli settlements. Places where Jews live.  The Palestinians want all Jews expelled and the West Bank to be a “no Jews allowed” zone.  

Can you imagine the outcry if Israel agreed on the condition that all Arabs be expelled from Israel?  Not even the Israelis would agree to something that reprehensible. 

Look now at all the little red dots.  Those are the Palestinian ‘refugee’ camps – camps for homeless displaced Palestinians from the 1948 War of Independence.  How many little red dots do you see in Israeli-controlled territory? 

There are none inside Israel because Israel didn’t put them into camps.  Israel absorbed its Arab population, granting them full Israeli citizenship. It was the Arab states that put them into camps.  

Sixty-three years later they are still kept in these concentration camps as ‘refugees’.  These Arab ‘refugees’ are the ones actually under occupation – but their occupiers aren’t the Jews – they are their Arab brothers.

How do the ordinary Arabs really feel about the Israeli occupation? You would suspect that somebody would ask them. But when somebody did, the answer was so shocking that they quit asking the question.

Given the choice, vast majorities of Palestinians now living under Israeli rule say that they would fight against being turned over the Palestinian Authority.   As one of them explained to Daniel Pipes:  “The hell of Israel is better than the paradise of Arafat.”

While Obama is throwing Israel under the bus and offering American support for the division of Jerusalem, how are things going back home?

From May to September, 1993 the Clinton administration was secretly engaged in feverish talks with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.  On the table was the Oslo Agreement  — a seven year contract between the two sides — based on the formula of land for peace.

The Oslo Agreement called for Israel to take land captured from Jordan, Syria, and Egypt during the 1967 War and give it to the indigenous Arab peoples who claimed national status as a ‘Palestinian people’.  

Despite the fact that there never was such a people, or a Palestinian culture or Palestinian language or Palestinian history, the Oslo Agreement required Israel to pretend there was a Palestinian people and to carve out part of its own territory to give them for a Palestinian state.

The Oslo Agreement was brokered by the Clinton administration and held an emotional signing ceremony in the Rose Garden overseen by US President Bill Clinton.  

As Clinton nudged a reluctant Rabin to take the blood-stained hand of Yasser Arafat on September 13, 1993 the Mississippi River overflowed its banks in what was called “a five-hundred year flood.”

 “And I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3)

According to NOAA:

“The magnitude and severity of this flood event was simply over-whelming, and it ranks as one of the greatest natural disasters ever to hit the United States. Approximately 600 river forecast points in the Midwestern United States were above flood stage at the same time.

Nearly 150 major rivers and tributaries were affected. It was certainly the largest and most significant flood event ever to occur in the United States.”

Here we are almost twenty-years later, with an American president calling for the division of Jerusalem and supporting the creation of a Jew-free Palestinian state in Biblical Samaria and Judea.

And that’s exactly the interval between five-hundred year floods in the American Midwest, too.  

I don’t believe in coincidences.