God's honest truth or sardonic political humour?

'There's many a truth told in jest' or so the saying goes. You will have to decide. In the UK, it would seem that Parliament has decided. 

The fourth transgression

I remember 1962 and the Cuban Missile Crisis. All most of us could do was wait and see who would blink first, Kennedy or Khrushchev. At least, that's how it seemed at the time. Nine years old and wondering if we would see another day.

Fast forward eleven years and most of us didn't have a clue how dangerous the 1973 (October War) was. Nixon was embroiled in the Watergate scandal and Russia decided to send a warship with nuclear warheads to Alexandria, Egypt. For the first time since Cuba, Nixon put the US military on a Stage Three alert. Russia, under Brezhnev, backed off.

We've had all sorts of major and minor conflicts since then, but never one with the US and Russia eyeball to eyeball. Now both countries have warships in the Mediterranean.

Syria has warned that if attacked it will attack Israel. Iran has made similar threats/promises(?). Syria has said that it can surprise everyone if it has to defend itself.

Why does nobody believe them?

Putin is one of the toughest men on the political scene and Obama one of the most duplicitous. He cares little or nothing for Israel and his actions would indicate that his loyalties lie outside the USA.

Who blinks first? 

And the fourth transgression? That would be Syria's - see here.

It will be the fourth overt attack on Israel by Syria since the restoration of the State of Israel in its historic homeland.

All this beginning to look like Bill Salus is right about the Psalm 83 war. One wonders how easily the Egyptians and Jordanians would be pressured into joining the fight. It wouldn't be the first time.

 

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. 

The tinderbox that is the Middle East

While we all wait to see what our political masters will do to Syria and how Syria will respond contemplate the poster shown below. Nobody knows how all this is going to end, but everyone knows it won't be good. They should read the Bible.

There are still plenty of conspiracy theorists that say Israel wants a regional war. One wonders what planet they must be on.

Have we forgotten what it was like to be bombed?

I know most Americans have never experienced aerial bombing apart from Pearl Harbor and those who served in the forces, but we Brits have no such excuse.There are still plenty of people around who can remember the Blitz and more than enough War Memorials to remind us of the horrors of the Blitz. (Non-UK readers. This affected many more cities than just London).

You would think that this would give us pause for thought before we set about bombing others. Sadly, it does not seem to be the case. Our politicians are gearing up for more computer-game bombing with real casualties.

A vote against bombing in the House of Commons, when Parliament is recalled, won't necessarily make any difference. 

That there are reasonable doubts about who is responsible for the alleged gas attack does not seem to matter.

That we should wait for the UN Inspectors' report would seem reasonable, but what has reason got to do with anything?

In this article by Jerome Corsi of WND, you will see pictures and videos that cast reasonable doubt over the allegations that Assad is responsible.

This, very chilling,  example and more:

In the Telegraph, a straw poll shows 79% of readers against bombing at the time of writing. There are also two comment articles questioning the reasons for military action. This one questions why Assad would mount a gas attack and this one, MEP Daniel Hannan questions whether the UK has any national interest in Syria.

All this is in addition, to what I have previously posted on the topic here.

And as for the media, especially Al-Beeb, we are presented with images of child refugees fleeing Syria, immediately after reports about the gassing. They fail to mention that these children were not fleeing the gas or Assad. They were fleeing the Islamist rebels who kill Christians. The Assyrian Orthodox Church is fleeing Syria, its ancient homeland.

Syria used to be Christian. St. Paul was converted on the way to Damascus and was cared for by the Jewish believers in Jesus in Damascus.

There is a telling article over at Cranmer by a guest blogger, the Rev. Peter Mullen. I just hope that he is wrong about the historical parallels.

If you throw aside all the political rhetoric and let the trend of events speak for itself, I have to conclude that Obama wants the Muslim Brotherhood to dominate the Middle East.

Goodson's law 

When the consequences of incompetence become indistinguishable from the consequences of malice, it is wiser and safer to assume malice.

When was Jesus born?

Why on earth post on this in August? Because Joseph Farah CEO of WND has called for a national day of prayer in the USA and then linked it to a putative date of birth for Jesus. It's all based on Astrology and possibly Mariolatry and goddess-worship.

  If this goddess had reddish-brown hair, she'd look like Diana Rigg. The point being that images of the long dead are not the real person; they are images of someone else, though not Diana Rigg in this case.

I pray he succeeds with the Day of Prayer.  Most Western Countries need one. He's so wrong with the date.

Astrology is forbidden by the Law (Torah). The wise men used clues in Daniel to calculate the dates of Christ's birth, death and resurrection. Saturday September 14th 5BC is His birth date. I will be blogging on this topic closer to that date. This year (2013) Sukkoth is Sept 19th. 

Some more truth-telling about Israel.

Zombie Anti-Zionism and more about Greenbelt.

In the USA, one Alf Cengia, writing for the Omega letter, characterises the mindset of Israel's opponents as Zombie-like. You can read it here.

In Australia, Daphne Anson has dug deeper into Greenbelt and Kairos Britain.

No prizes for guessing the one name that crops up in both articles. You can read his thinking here. Apparently, Christian Zionism is a heresy. That's very strong language. It means that we are not Christians, we are false teachers and, unless we repent, we're doomed.

He completely misrepresents/misunderstands the theology that underlies Christian Zionism. I have begun to address this in previous posts here and follow the links at the bottom of the post. I will address the issues in future posts on understanding prophecy.

Much, much more to come.

Lots of lies in the Middle East

But there are some people who are telling the truth and asking the right questions.

Our good friend of this blog, Daphne Anson has this recent post: A former muslim on intolerance of Israel It includes a video.

There are two excellent articles over at Cranmer. The one is asking the right questions about Assad's alleged gassing of a suburb of Damascus. William Hague believes it was Assad, but if you read the article linked to carefully he has no real evidence. The Telegraph also links to an article about Syrian refugees but does not distinguish who these refugees might be except to mention the Kurds. What about the Assyrian Orthodox Christians who are not part of the rebel movement so beloved of Obama and Hague? They are refugees from their own country.

We might also consider previous experience in Egypt. At Israel Today there is an open letter from Dr Ashraf Rameleh, director of Voice of the Copts. He states that Obama is, effectively, supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.

WND has a possible explanation for Obama's apparent support of terrorism. His half-brother is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood!  Read it here and judge for yourself.

There is another excellent article in Cranmer about Anti-Israel propaganda at what used to be the evangelical flagship festival, Greenbelt. Cranmer's post includes a superb summary of the history and legitimacy of Israel which is well worth studying. It is by Fran Waddams of Anglican Friends of Israel.

It includes this telling picture.

In the interests of fairness and balance this is the official Greenbelt position on the debate here. 

Buried in the comments on the second Cranmer article is this analysis by one Carl Jacobs

The actual logic in play is this:

1. The root of the problem is oppression caused by Israeli power.

2. To achieve peace the Israelis must make themselves vulnerable.

3. Eventually the Arabs will stop feeling threatened and everyone will live in peace and harmony.

4. The Israelis as the stronger power (and unstated) because their oppressive behavior is the proximate cause of the problem, should endure the residual death inflicted upon them until the Palestinians come around.

The Middle East conflict is a lab experiment for Left wing non-violent conflict resolution. Their world view is tied into the success of their efforts. They want it to succeed because their world view tells them it must succeed. That's why they would be shocked at the slaughter attendant to Arab victory. Their world view won't allow them to predict it.

carl

23 August 2013 13:14

I think he's right about the general mass of Left-wing/Liberal opinion. I'm not so sure about some of the leaders.

We need to ask some simple questions.

1. Who is killing Christians and other dissidents from Islamism?

2. Who is protecting Christians and other dissidents from Islamism?

3. Who has a history of faking massacres for Western consumption? See here or search for 'Pallywood'.

4. What happened after our other efforts to liberate Islamic countries? 

Then there is Goodson's Law.

And finally, the acid test as proposed by the Lord Jesus, 'By their fruits...

It isn't really that difficult to work out who the liars are.

Gaza and the God of Ya'akov.

This is an interesting video from Israel Video Network. It is full of powerful images and makes some amazing/controversial/fascinating claims. I offer it without comment, because I am not sure what to write - but it is worth watching.

These are Jews who really believe in the God of  Jacob/Israel. We could do with few more such in the Church as well as in Israel.

Jonathan Pollard - spy turned prophet?

The Jerusalem Post has an opinion piece by Jonathan Pollard, yes, that Jonathan Pollard. See here.

It's called 'Restoring Israel to Greatness' and to this Christian some of it has clear resonances from the prophets. In particular, these paragraphs are a salient reminder that right to the Land is predicated on its behaviour.

The Land of Israel is eternal and the State of Israel has temporal stewardship over the land. The corrosive moral ambiguity that has brought us to this dreadful day is relentlessly eating away at the legitimacy of the state’s continued role as legal guardian of the land. The prognosis is dire.
Only a reawakening of national resolve and a rebirth of ethical politics rooted in national self-respect, moral rectitude and courage of conviction can guarantee the future. No political process devoid of these fundamental values will ever end the agony or the fear for the State of Israel.
It is clearly time for an historic restoration.

I don't think that Israel will be expelled again, it could bring a great deal of suffering upon itself by way of judgement, and apart from the suffering that others might seek to inflict. 

One thing that I have learned from teaching RE in multi-faith situations is never to compromise on my faith.  Muslims respect a strong faith and are full of questions - and arguments. They have no respect for the wishy-washy liberal 'we are all the same' approach.

Polite, firm, fair and committed gets much better results.

P.S. The name Pollard comes from the days when almost every Englishman was trained in archery. It's how we won at Agincourt. A deliberately cut tree-stump produces new shoots. The resultant staves can be used for all manner of things including bows and arrows. There many archery related names in England and Pollard is probably one of them. 

He hits the mark in the linked article. 

For more about growth from tree stumps see here and here.

Is this Pollard an accidental prophet cutting out cant, recalling Israel to morality and preparing the way for the  Messiah? God speaks through whomever He chooses. 

Gossip - not such a little sin.

 First the bad news.

Why write about gossip? On Saturday two churchwardens known to me had just come away from their church, when they stopped to greet a member of the congregation. One saw it as an opportunity to get to know a brother in Christ a little better. He did get to know him a little better, but he didn't like what he learned. The brother was a gossip. The brother spent, what felt like an hour but was probably about twenty minutes, bad mouthing their vicar. Their vicar is on holiday. A good opportunity to spread a little malice with no-one to gainsay it with facts.

According to the gossip, the vicar is driving everyone away, the young people in the community hate the sight of him etc. etc.  The gossip attends church and is checking everything the vicar teaches watching for false teaching! Not much chance of success there, I can promise you. It's poison and it's false witness. That's the sound of a commandment being broken and it most certainly is not loving your neighbour as yourself.  This isn't just a little peccadillo.  We're into serious sin here.

I have seen idle and ill-informed gossip destroy a business which would have benefited the poor of Zimbabwe. It still grieves me when I see artefacts similar to the ones we were hoping to sell on their behalf.

I have seen malicious gossip seek to destroy someone's livelihood. It failed, but the target later resigned and the community centre he was running then went from profit to loss and, eventually, was taken out of the community's control.

I have seen malicious gossip by a sick woman destroy two friendships and a ministerial team because the lie was believed and they failed to abide by biblical principles.  1Timothy 5:19; Deuteronomy 19:15 and Matthew 18:16.That church never thrived as it should have done and has since fallen into the hands of  a 'word of faith' style ministry. Most of the original members have left and gone elsewhere, including the original ministry team.

I have seen malicious gossip destroy another church that was close to revival and being the sort of church that would have been a model for everyone. It was evangelical, charismatic, socially active and multinational. It saw miracles, deliverances, conversions, sound gospel and bible preaching, it made a difference in the community but lies destroyed it. It is now a shadow of its former self.

False witness isn't just lying in court. It is any kind of slander or libel and it is also gossip. 

We live in a society full of gossip. It fills our newspapers, there are magazines devoted to it, there are whole websites and so-called 'social' media that are nothing but havens for idle and malicious gossip. These websites destroy lives and reputations.Other websites have to be set-up to counter the lies.

Then there all those lies about Israel occupying Palestine. This also destroys lives and not just Jewish ones. 

There's the atheist lie, there's the lie about Jesus not being the Messiah, there's the lie that another saviour is coming who is not Jesus, there are the lies of false religion and on and on. Lies destroy lives and send people to hell.

I nearly forgot, Satan accuses the brethren. Gossip does the Devil's work.

Now for the good news.

There is a God, Jesus is the Messiah. Because of His atoning death even gossips and liars can be forgiven if, like the rest of us sinners, they repent, believe in Jesus, are baptised and seek the Holy Spirit's help to cease from sin. 

God is still building His Church, He is still keeping Israel even though neither institution deserves such gracious mercy. He will vindicate His Name and His servants which brings me full circle to our little bit of local gossip.

On the Sunday morning a new family arrived in that church,  they will possibly stay and they know the vicar. In the evening, two teenage girls enquired about confirmation and they also know the vicar. 

As I have just written, God will vindicate His Name and His servants. One day, He will do it permanently and forever, but in the meantime, if we pay attention, He does it more often that most people realise.

Abortion is cultural suicide.

The premise is simple; Abortion is a way of destroying ourselves from within. It's not about wimmin's rights; it's about ceasing to exist as a culture, a way of life, as nations.

You can read the whole magnificent article here: Mark Steyn

The key quote is  this: “When the state has the ability to know everything except the difference between right and wrong, it won’t end well.”

It describes David Cameron, Tony Blair, Obama and many others in a nutshell.

And Jesus said:  Matthew 12:31

Some videos from Israel that should interest and encourage.

Firstly, a contemporary music video;


Secondly,speculative (?) archaeology about the Ark of the Covenant:


Thirdly, great music , no idea what it's about except 'Ha Shem'. A translation would be greatly appreciated.

And has now been provided with a link from 'John' - see comments. 

It turns out to be a musical setting of the first three verses of Psalm 130, known as 'De profundis' to the West; 'From the depths'. It is one of the 'Psalms of ascents' which are an extremely important part of worship, a spiritual journey and of prophetic significance.

Priest - Angel; Angel - Priest? You decide.

WND have published this video complete with an easy copy facility. Quite rightly, as they don't really own the copyright on a story like this. 


Personally, I go with Angel. It fits the pattern in scripture and in other reliable testimonies.

While Britain sleeps is America slowly awakening?

It really pains me to write this because I believe that America was deceived into rebelling against the UK and has been consistently deceived over the decades about Britain. It has been my hope that the fire of revival would ignite in the UK and spread out to the colonies [ ;-) ]  and commonwealth. It may still happen, but now there is a race to the finish line.

However, as I have written here (about the spiritual condition of the UK and the Western Churches), here (about the potential for revival) , here (about the coming persecution) and here (about practical evangelism) all is not, quite, lost but prayer and repentance are needed.

So is the USA awakening spiritually? Well,  94 year-old Billy Graham has compared the USA to Nineveh and turned to Jonah for inspiration. The whole article is worth reading, especially for the call to a national day of prayer and repentance.

But Billy Graham is not the only one. In Birmingham, England (the original one), there is a Nineveh road and an evangelist lives there. Jonah means the Dove - a model, without the temper tantrum, for revival.

This poem here expresses that hope for revival. This PowerPoint forms the basis of a sermon that challenges churches to revival oriented prayer and obedience. Finally, this article outlines God's conditions for revival.

So are we going to have a glorious revival and an end to our worries? I think not. We missed the boat for that one during the 1968 - 73 revival (Jesus People).

Sadly, I think we will get our glorious revival in the midst of humbling persecution even to the shedding of blood. I wish I could say otherwise, but, in all honesty I can't.

The Dove comes only after Jesus' baptism, signifying the Cross.

Just this once...

I am going to direct my readers' attention to the 'Email me' link on the right hand side above the blog links and below the 'About  Me'.

I will block abuse and spam (any attempt to sell me anything). Please don't ask for charitable help. 

I am interested in friendly emails, reasonable and relevant questions that might stimulate a blog post, constructive comments etc.  However, do consider whether your comments should go beneath the relevant blog post. It doesn't matter how old my post is. The website lets me know you've commented.

I reserve the right to terminate pointless discussions. Don't write anything that you would be ashamed to say to my face, in front of your parents, or before God.

I look forward to reading your emails and comments.

Christians against Poverty - not what you think.

Of course, we're all against poverty. Paint the banners, find out where GX are meeting and show our love for the poor by holding hands. Been there, done that, won't buy the T-shirt as I don't want to be ripped off.... yawn.

Except, it's not like that. These Christians get no government support - it's the word 'Christian' that turns off the tap. They don't do financial aid, only in extremis. They are about helping people (rich or poor) to get themselves out of debt.

It's all church-based and my church is getting into it.

They are getting very big in the UK and are moving into Australia, New Zealand and Canada.  They will help anyone of any faith. The links go to the CAP of that country.

Perhaps the churches in your country should be getting into touch with them and starting your own version.

CAP are about money management and are rated by secular experts as one of the best. You need to know how it works. See here .

People in debt often lose friends or avoid friends and family. CAP counsellors become the trusted friend who is helping the debtor out of trouble without judgement or condemnation. 

The debtor knows that it is Christians who are doing this. It often leads to conversion. 
PLEASE GET THE ORDER RIGHT.

The help can lead to conversion. Conversion is NOT a requirement for help, see above, any faith means any faith. 

CAP is a form of practical and effective evangelism as well as a social benefit. If your country could benefit and doesn't have a CAP of its own, why not contact them and see if you could start one?

Just because you're paranoid...

...doesn't mean they're not out to get you. Or assorted variations thereof.

They said it wouldn't happen. They said there was a quadruple lock (whatever that means) on the legislation. The Church rightly said, " Really?" or variations... etc. It didn't take long. The Gay persecution of Bible-believing Christians has started and is extremely well funded.

And if anyone is thinking, "It won't happen here", well it happened here. In Israel, they'll target the Messianics and the Orthodox.

It's about the Bible and its authority.

A gay alliance is set to sue the Church to allow them to 'marry' with all the trimmings in Church and with a religious service.

These gays are millionaires. This will go all the way to the European Court of Human Rights. Anyone who thinks that it won't is a fool.

At some point, either when they win or the gays scent victory, we will see church invasions, we will see vicars and church officials arrested and possibly imprisoned, we will see increasingly violent demonstrations and the victims will be arrested (It's already happened). The link leads to a letter documenting a great many instances.

Something horrible will happen before the Church and the country wake up. The link leads to a previous post about what God is doing.

My advice to all pastors and congregations is to be as subtle as the serpent. Record everything, video services, record phone calls , see gay  couples with a witness or two. Be paranoid, because they really are out to get you.

Why is this happening? Because the Church failed to stand up for Biblical morality or discipline deviant clergy; and because our current bunch of Christian leaders are not prepared to resist even unto the shedding of blood.

And on that last point, I risk being tested, pray for me.