The fact that a book on Biblical prophecy, Christian fiction no less, is hitting the best selling lists attests to the ready interest of many, skeptics included, on how the present economic and social unrest fits in with what the Bible predicted so long ago.
'It is obvious: The Lord of Heaven wanted this book written and disseminated widely'
(Rapture Ready) A phenomenon has taken place in the book
publishing world. The secular book market–headed by the New York Times’
Best-Sellers list—has let slip through its normally anti-Christian
critics’ hands a book of profound significance. It is on the surface a
work of fiction that is at the same time deeply ingrained truth from the
only source of truth there is–the very Word of God.
A phenomenon has taken place
in the book publishing world. The secular book market–headed by the New
York Times’ Best-Sellers list—has let slip through its normally
anti-Christian critics’ hands a book of profound significance. It is on
the surface a work of fiction that is at the same time deeply ingrained
truth from the only source of truth there is–the very Word of God.
Not since Hal Lindsey’s Late, Great Planet Earth and Tim LaHaye and
Jerry Jenkins’ Left Behind series has such a volume been allowed to
reach such a mass audience by those who control that level of mega sales
in the book publishing industry. First time author Jonathan Cahn
outlines the stunning fact about The Harbinger with the simple
understatement from the opening page: “What you are about to read is
presented in the form of a story, but what is contained within the story
is real.”
I’ve been studying Bible prophecy for more than fifty years and have
been writing about eschatological matters in terms of prophecy’s
progression through our daily lives for most of forty. In all that time,
I haven’t seen a case for current issues and events as having prophetic
relevance presented in a more evidence-based way than in this book.
To my way of thinking, this book defies the art of fiction writing
because the template would have it that there be action that builds to a
crescendo, always keeping readers on the edge of their seats, wanting
to get past the present life-and-death cliffhanger and onto the building
suspense of the next. The Harbinger is all narrative through dialogue
between three people, basically. It is, as the author says, a story, but
one that is real. Unheard of! A Christ-centered story, with no real
action–so massive in its appeal that it makes the big show–the NY Times
Best-Seller list?
Certainly it is not formulaic. The Harbinger is inspired. There can be
little doubt about it, after reading it. Most everyone who reads the
story will agree, I’m convinced. That is the secret of its appeal. That
is the power behind its defying the odds to crash right through the
critique barrier that the secular guardians of contemporary literature
constantly put up against scribes who would mention the name of Jesus
Christ in ways other than as invective.
It is obvious: The Lord of Heaven wanted this book written and
disseminated widely. There’s no agent or publisher who can see that that
is done in a more proficient or powerful way. There is no critic or
system of critiquing that can change such a course as He determines.
The question becomes, then: Why is this book so important that the Lord
has forced it past those anointed defenders of literature who rarely let
such works get past them?
15 Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.
Revelation 6:15
With 7 Billion people on the planet, there are bound to be leaders that rise and abuse the power and wealth that has either been earned or given to them. Some of the most powerful political and business leaders have been getting together to discuss the current state of Geo-political affairs for some time at the Bilderberg Conference and it is here they no doubt begin to form more secure political alliances in which to preserve their power and influence.
What is Bilderberg?
So what exactly is Bilderberg? It’s neither an organization
nor a lobby. The “Bilderberg Meetings,” as they dub themselves in their
(apparently) official website www.bilderbergmeetings.com, is a
“by-invitation-only” club of around 140 very high-power people from
business, finance, oil, politics, media, industry, academia and nobility
who come together in a very private no-media / no cameras /
extremely-tight-security surroundings to discuss… Well… there’s the
rub: what exactly do they discuss?
These powerful men and women may be 'innocently enough' doing a little hob-nob and champagne; but, beneath the fluff, serious discussion will eventually entail. It is here; however discreet it may be, that seeds are planted, seeds that will turn into power grabs and strategic alliances that will shape the future of our planet.
Scripture basis for the New World Order begins with a 10 leader or 10 king alliance. The first move of the Anti-Christ will be to over-throw 3 of these leaders and gain the following of the other 7. Eventually, this 10 king alliance must form. This New World Order, an alliance of geo-political powers and the formation of a world governance and economic system, is being pushed for more and more by those in power. Pay attention to any new news that comes out regarding the New World Order from Bilderberg, any words spoken will often become action over the coming months and years.
Daniel 7:24
“And the ten horns out of
this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise; and another
shall rise after them (small horn); and he shall be diverse from the
first, and he shall subdue three kings.”
Power knows no bounds and can only be restrained by the vigilance of those oppressed and those who seek the freedom to live independent, with the ability to speak out their God given conscience without fear. Restraining power's evil side by spreading Truth and Knowledge through the spoken and written word is the first step.
Thus, Bilderberg is basically part of that very powerful Global
Private Power Web; a “node” so to speak… And a very powerful one at
that!!
It’s therefore no surprise to see that last year’s attendee
list looks like a Who’s Who of banking, industrial and media CEO top
brass: Deutsche Bank, HSBC, CitiCorp, European Central Bank, US Federal
Reserve Bank, Lazard Frères, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Barclays,
World Bank, Bank of Canada, AXA, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Fiat, Nestle,
Novartis, Coca-Cola, Airbus, Eni, Telecom Italy, ExxonMobil, Alcoa,
Marks & Spencer, Die Zeit, The Economist.
As their website
points out about Meeting participants, “about one-third is from
government and politics, and two-thirds from finance, industry, labour,
education and communications. Participants attend Bilderberg in a
private and not an official capacity.”
European nobility regularly attend too: the Dutch Queen, the Spanish King and Queen, Norway’s Crown Prince…
Bilderberg’s
high-power participants interact with, and are cross-represented on,
the global private power web through membership and directorship in the
Trilateral Commission, CFR, AEI, governments, corporations, banks, media
and others.
Interestingly, also in attendance are founders and
top executives of giant Internet management and intelligence gathering
companies as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and Microsoft.
Clearly, they run countries around the world, not voting citizens…
10The
third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a
torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of
water—
11the name of the star is Wormwood.a A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.
Revelation 8:10
15And
the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and
month and year were released to kill a third of mankind.
16The number of the mounted troops was two hundred million. I heard their number.
Revelation 9:15-16
Wormwood:
In Revelation chapter 8, a series of destruction is unleashed upon the earth. One of these destructive events is the turning the earth's water into undrinkable poison. Many have speculated how this will occur, as recently as last year during the massive Horizon oil spill in the gulf of Mexico, some thought perhaps it would be a massive oil spill. This could be true as Revelation 8:9 states the 'sea would turn to blood', but for verse 9 to be fulfilled, we need the rivers---drinkable desalinated water---to become toxic. Perhaps radiation is the answer?
Further, the 200 Million man army prophecy appears shortly after in sequence, Revelation 9. Could these two prophecies be related? Does the army march in need of water?
A massive earthquake rocked Japan in the spring of 2011. While another Chernobyl was avoided at least at the outset, the situation is still highly volatile. Reports, as indicated below, demonstrated that the nuclear reactors are still hot and it appears that it will take years for these fuel rods to cool down. Scientists also estimate that another earthquake could rock these reactors to the point of a nuclear melt down. Despite Japan's best efforts to contain the mess, the situation appears dire.
We noted days after the Japanese earthquake that the biggest threat
was from the spent fuel rods in the fuel pool at Fukushima unit number
4, and not from the reactors themselves. See this and this.
We noted in February:
Scientists say that there is a 70% chance of a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hitting Fukushima this year, and a 98% chance within the next 3 years.
Given that nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen says that an earthquake of 7.0 or larger
could cause the entire fuel pool structure collapse, it is urgent that
everything humanly possible is done to stabilize the structure housing
the fuel pools at reactor number 4.
Tepco is doing some construction at the building … it is a race
against time under very difficult circumstances, and hopefully Tepco
will win.
As AP points out:
The structural integrity of the damaged Unit 4 reactor
building has long been a major concern among experts because a collapse
of its spent fuel cooling pool could cause a disaster worse than the three reactor meltdowns.
***
Gundersen (who used to build spent fuel pools) explains that there is
no protection surrounding the radioactive fuel in the pools. He warns
that – if the fuel pools at
reactor 4 collapse due to an earthquake – people should get out of
Japan, and residents of the West Coast of America and Canada should shut
all of their windows and stay inside for a while.
The fuel pool number 4 is apparently not in great shape, and there have already been countless earthquakes near the Fukushima region since the 9.0 earthquake last March.
Germany’s ZDF tv quotes nuclear engineer Yukitero Naka as saying:
If another earthquake occurs then the building [number 4] could collapse and another chain reaction could very likely occur.
The storage pool in the No. 4 reactor building has a
total of 1,535 fuel rods, or 460 tons of nuclear fuel, in it. The
7-story building itself has suffered great damage, with the storage
pool barely intact on the building’s third and fourth floors. The roof
has been blown away. If the storage
pool breaks and runs dry, the nuclear fuel inside will overheat and
explode, causing a massive amount of radioactive substances to spread
over a wide area. Both the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and
French nuclear energy company Areva have warned about this risk.
A report released in February by the Independent Investigation
Commission on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident stated that the
storage pool of the plant’s No. 4 reactor has clearly been shown to be
“the weakest link” in the parallel, chain-reaction crises of the nuclear
disaster. The worse-case scenario drawn up by the government includes
not only the collapse of the No. 4 reactor pool, but the disintegration
of spent fuel rods from all the plant’s other reactors. If this were
to happen, residents in the Tokyo metropolitan area would be forced to
evacuate.
Former Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Sumio
Mabuchi, who was appointed to the post of then Prime Minister Naoto
Kan’s advisor on the nuclear disaster immediately after its outbreak,
proposed the injection of concrete from below the No. 4 reactor to the
bottom of the storage pool, Chernobyl-style.
***
“Because sea water was being pumped into the reactor, the soundness
of the structure (concrete corrosion and deterioration) was
questionable. There also were doubts about the calculations made on earthquake resistance as well,”
said one government source familiar with what took place at the time.
“[F]uel rod removal will take three years. Will the structure remain
standing for that long?
Asahi noted last month that- if Unit 4 pool gets a crack from an earthquake and leaks, it would be the end for Tokyo.
Kevin Kamps said last month:
Unit 4 storage pool… The entire building is listing
including the pool. What they have is steel jacks underneath the pool
to try to keep the floor from falling out or the pool from flipping
over.
If that cooling water supply is lost, it will be just a few hours at most before that waste is on fire.
135 tons outside of any radioactive containment. They would be direct
releases into the environment. 100% of cesium-137 could be released to
the environment.
Former U.N. adviser Akio Matsumura – whose praises have been sung by
Mikhail Gorbachev, U.S. Ambassadors Stephen Bosworth and Glenn Olds,
and former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and Goldman Sachs co-chair
John C. Whitehead – notes:
The unit suffered enormous damage during the
tsunami—a hydrogen explosion blew the roof off, leaving the highly
radioactive fuel pool exposed to the open air. If another high level
earthquake hits the area, the building will certainly collapse. Japanese
and American [seismologists] have predicted that such a strong
earthquake is indeed likely to hit this year.
The meltdown and unprecedented release of radiation that would ensue is the worst case scenario that then-Prime Minister Kan and other former officials have discussed in the past months. He warned
during his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos that such an
accident would force the evacuation of the 35 million people in Tokyo,
close half of Japan and compromise the nation’s sovereignty.
Such a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe is unimaginable.
Hiroshi Tasaka, a nuclear engineer and special adviser to Prime
Minister Kan immediately following the crisis, said the crisis “just
opened Pandora’s Box.”
The current Japanese government has not yet
mentioned the looming disaster, ostensibly to not incite panic in the
public. Nevertheless, action must be taken quickly. This website over
the last year has published a running commentary from scientists
explaining why Reactor 4 must be stabilized immediately, who might be
able to accomplish such a task, and why the situation has largely gone
unnoticed. We believe an independent, international team of structural
engineers and other advisers must be assembled and deployed
immediately. Mounting public pressure would force the Japanese
government to take action. We hope these resources are helpful in
educating the public about the crisis that we face.
As the eminent German physicist Dr. Hans-Peter Durr said ten months
ago, if the spent fuel pool spills, we will be in a situation where
science never imagined we could be.
Matsumura was told that if the fuel pool at unit 4 collapses or the
water spills out, so much radiation will spew out for 50 years that no
one will be able to approach Fukushima:
Japan’s former Ambassador to Switzerland, Mr. Mitsuhei
Murata, was invited to speak at the Public Hearing of the Budgetary
Committee of the House of Councilors on March 22, 2012, on the
Fukushima nuclear power plants accident. Before the Committee,
Ambassador Murata strongly stated that if the crippled building of
reactor unit 4—with 1,535 fuel rods in the spent fuel pool 100 feet (30
meters) above the ground—collapses, not
only will it cause a shutdown of all six reactors but will also affect
the common spent fuel pool containing 6,375 fuel rods, located some 50
meters from reactor 4. In both cases the radioactive rods are not protected by a containment vessel; dangerously, they are open to the air. This would certainly cause a global catastrophe like we have never before experienced. He stressed that the responsibility of Japan to the rest of the world is immeasurable. Such a catastrophe would affect us all for centuries.
Ambassador Murata informed us that the total numbers of the spent fuel
rods at the Fukushima Daiichi site excluding the rods in the pressure
vessel is 11,421 (396+615+566+1,535+994+940+6375).
I asked top spent-fuel pools expert Mr. Robert Alvarez, former Senior
Policy Adviser to the Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for
National Security and the Environment at the U.S. Department of Energy,
for an explanation of the potential impact of the 11,421 rods.
I received an astounding response from Mr. Alvarez [updated 4/5/12]:
In recent times, more information about the spent fuel
situation at the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi site has become known. It is my
understanding that of the 1,532 spent fuel assemblies in reactor No. 304
assemblies are fresh and unirradiated. This then leaves 1,231
irradiated spent fuel rods in pool No. 4, which contain roughly 37
million curies (~1.4E+18 Becquerel) of long-lived radioactivity. The
No. 4 pool is about 100 feet above ground, is structurally damaged and
is exposed to the open elements. If an earthquake or other event were to
cause this pool to drain this could result in a catastrophic
radiological fire involving nearly 10 times the amount of Cs-137
released by the Chernobyl accident.
The infrastructure to safely remove this material was destroyed as it
was at the other three reactors. Spent reactor fuel cannot be simply
lifted into the air by a crane as if it were routine cargo. In order
to prevent severe radiation exposures, fires and possible explosions, it must be transferred at all times in water and heavily shielded structures into dry casks..
As this has never been done before, the removal of the spent fuel from
the pools at the damaged Fukushima-Dai-Ichi reactors will require a
major and time-consuming re-construction effort and will be charting in
unknown waters. Despite the enormous destruction cased at the Da–Ichi
site, dry casks holding a smaller amount of spent fuel appear to be
unscathed.
Based on U.S. Energy Department data, assuming a total of 11,138
spent fuel assemblies are being stored at the Dai-Ichi site, nearly all,
which is in pools. They contain roughly 336 million curies (~1.2 E+19
Bq) of long-lived radioactivity. About 134 million curies is Cesium-137
— roughly 85 times the amount of Cs-137 released at the Chernobyl accident
as estimated by the U.S. National Council on Radiation Protection
(NCRP). The total spent reactor fuel inventory at the Fukushima-Daichi
site contains nearly half of the total amount of Cs-137 estimated by
the NCRP to have been released by all atmospheric nuclear weapons
testing, Chernobyl, and world-wide reprocessing plants (~270 million
curies or ~9.9 E+18 Becquerel).
It is important for the public to understand that reactors that have
been operating for decades, such as those at the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi
site have generated some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity
on the planet.
Many of our readers might find it difficult to appreciate the actual
meaning of the figure, yet we can grasp what 85 times more Cesium-137
than the Chernobyl would mean. It would destroy the world environment and our civilization. This is not rocket science, nor does it connect to the pugilistic debate over nuclear power plants. This is an issue of human survival.
There was a Nuclear Security Summit Conference in Seoul on March 26
and 27, and Ambassador Murata and I made a concerted effort to find
someone to inform the participants from 54 nations of the potential
global catastrophe of reactor unit 4. We asked several participants to
share the idea of an Independent Assessment team comprised of a broad
group of international experts to deal with this urgent issue.
I would like to introduce Ambassador Murata’s letter to the UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to convey this urgent message and also his letter to Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda for Japanese readers. He emphasized in the statement that we should bring human wisdom to tackle this unprecedented challenge.
Ambassador Murata’s letter says:
It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of Japan and the whole world depends on NO.4 reactor. This is confirmed by most reliable experts like Dr. Arnie Gundersen or Dr. Fumiaki Koide.
Anti-nuclear physician Dr. Helen Caldicott says that if fuel pool 4 collapses, she will evacuate her family from Boston and move them to the Southern Hemisphere. This is an especially dramatic statement given that the West Coast is much more directly in the path of Fukushima radiation than the East Coast.
Will humanity rise to the occasion, and figure out how to stabilize fuel pool number 4 before catastrophe strikes?
Or will modern civilization win a Darwin award for failing to pay attention to the real threats?
And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and
bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
Revelation 13:16
Another development in the technological march toward a potential chip in us all. We already have a national ID card in the works by the FBI. RFID chips are becoming more mainstream. As the internet becomes more and more integrated with our daily life, soon everything we do will be able to be monitored at the click of a button. The Mark of the Beast will most likely be something very easily monitored and comfortable to put on the skin, perhaps not the chip, but rather a Liquid Tattoo:
A Tattoo would be a tough sell to be used on the forehead unless
there is invisible ink which could make the sell much easier. The RFID
chip technology is terrific but has to be surgically implanted, which
might be too much work as the chip most likely will be placed into
millions of bodies within a short time frame. A tattoo makes a whole
lot of sense, and invisible to boot? Oh my, watch out. If the RFID
technology is able to combine itself into the tattoo somehow (which may
already be the case with this EES technology described below), and if
this chip is able to be scanned like the eye or fingerprint and required
by government to be used to both buy and sell in the marketplace or
online, then we have it......exigo perfectus.
Also mentioned here is a new push by Dept. of Homeland Security to put RFID chips in every Drivers License:
The proposal, which was supported by Janet Napolitano, the chief of
the Department of Homeland Security, would embed radio chips in driver’s
licenses, or “enhanced driver’s licenses.”
“Enhanced driver’s licenses give confidence that the person holding
the card is the person who is supposed to be holding the card, and it’s
less elaborate than REAL ID,” Napolitano said in a Washington Times
report.
REAL ID was a plan for a federal identification system standardized
across the nation that so alarmed governors many states have adopted
formal plans to oppose it. However, a privacy advocate today told WND
that the EDLs are many times worse.
The U.S. military wants to plant nanosensors in soldiers to monitor
health on future battlefields and immediately respond to needs, but a
privacy expert warns the step is just one more down the road to computer
chips for all.
“It’s never going to happen that the government at gunpoint says,
‘You’re going to have a tracking chip,’” said Katherine Albrecht, who
with Liz McIntyre authored “Spychips,” a book that warns of the threat to privacy posed by Radio Frequency Identification.
“It’s always in incremental steps. If you can put a microchip in
someone that doesn’t track them … everybody looks and says, ‘Come on,’”
she said. “It’ll be interesting seeing where we go.”
According to a report at Mobiledia,
the U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has
confirmed plans to create nanosensors to monitor the health of soldiers
on battlefields.
The devices also would report data to doctors. But privacy analysts
have expressed concern that the implants could be used not just to
monitor health but to keep track of and possibly control people.
DARPA describes the technology on which it is working as “a truly
disruptive innovation,” which would diagnose, monitor vital states and
“even deliver medicine into the bloodstream.”
According to LiveScience.com,
“Solving the problem of sickness could have a huge impact on the number
of soldiers ready to fight, because far more have historically died due
to illness rather than combat.”
The report suggested that for special forces, “the practical
realization of implantable nanosensors capable of monitoring multiple
indicators of physiological state could be a truly disruptive
innovation.”
Already being researched is the concept of nanosensors diagnosing disease.
DARPA expects to launch a second effort focused on treatment later this year.
Albrecht said the move is another step in the trip down the road of
having every person implanted with a chip that might very well monitor
health but also other areas of life.
Microchipping, she said, already is “par for the course” for pets in
many parts of the nation, and that acceptance will make it easier to
require it for people.
She
said it was expected that captive audiences, such as prisoners and
troops, would be the first subjected to the requirement, which would
make it easier for the general populace to accept it as well.
“It’s interesting,” she said. “I’m stunned how this younger
generation is OK. They don’t see the problem. … ‘Why wouldn’t everyone
want to be tracked?’”
But she said Americans will have to decide to say no to incremental
advances, or by the time officials finally roll out the idea of chips
for all, whether they want them or not, it will be too late to decide
“The analogy that I draw is [that of a train], and if I’m in
California and I do not want to wind up in New City, every stop brings
me closer,” she said. “At some point I have to get off the train.”
Albrecht also has helped develop and launch a new project called StartPage, which now is handling some 2 million search requests per day.
The benefit of the page is its privacy. The site explains that every
time a person uses a typical search program such as Google, “your search
data is recorded.”
“Then they store that information in a giant database,” she explains.
As a result, corporate America and the government have access to “a
shocking amount of personal information about you, such as your
interests, family circumstances, political leanings, medical conditions
and more
Albrecht told the story of another dog, a 5-year-old Yorkshire
terrier named Scotty that was diagnosed with cancer in Memphis, Tenn.
Scotty developed a tumor between his shoulder blades, in the same
location where the microchip had been implanted. The tumor the size of a
small balloon – described as malignant lymphoma – was removed. Scotty’s
microchip was embedded inside the tumor.
Verichip, a major manufacturer of the microchip implants, touts the
technology’s capability to identify a lost pet and enable its return
home, while dismissing potential health risks.
“Over the last 15 years,” stated the VeriChip website, “millions of
dogs and cats have safely received an implantable microchip with limited
or no reports of adverse health reactions from this life-saving
product, which was recently endorsed by the USDA. These chips are a
well-accepted and well-respected means of global identification for pets
in the veterinary community.”
WND also reported there
were warnings about a radio chip plan that would allow identification of
individuals by government agents simply by walking through an assembly.
The proposal, which was supported by Janet Napolitano, the chief of
the Department of Homeland Security, would embed radio chips in driver’s
licenses, or “enhanced driver’s licenses.”
“Enhanced driver’s licenses give confidence that the person holding
the card is the person who is supposed to be holding the card, and it’s
less elaborate than REAL ID,” Napolitano said in a Washington Times
report.
REAL ID was a plan for a federal identification system standardized
across the nation that so alarmed governors many states have adopted
formal plans to oppose it. However, a privacy advocate today told WND
that the EDLs are many times worse.
An author I have come to to respect and appreciate, Eric Metaxes, has recently taken over for Chuck Colson at Breakpoint. His most recent Breakpoint discusses the next unreached people group, the cultural elites. Culture is largely driven by those who have the money, power, and material gains in this life. Reaching these individuals with an intellectual articulate defense of the Gospel mixed with the love of Christ is essential to winning back the culture from its bent toward religion-free living.
Metaxes wrote a book on William Wilberforce, a leader in Britain during the early 1800's to abolish the slave trade and reform society from a number of social ills. Each year, the William Wilberforce Award is presented by Prison Fellowship, the group formally led by Chuck Colson. Below is what the award represents, an award we should all strive to obtain.
Criteria:
Making a significant impact on the social ills of the day through personal effort, skill, and influence;
Showing perseverance and selflessness in combating injustice, even to the point of willingness to sacrifice personal comfort, career, and reputation;
Making a positive change in the values and character of society--"reforming manners"--through personal witness, example, and education;
Yesterday I told you that not all New Yorkers sleep in on Sunday
mornings. Increasing numbers of them can be found in the churches
popping up all over the city.
But Christian outreach to what I call “the next unreached people
group” isn't limited to Sunday mornings: Christian ideas and worldview
are also getting a hearing here, too.
One example is “Socrates in the City,” which I have the privilege of
hosting. Our goal is to provide a setting in which busy and successful
professionals can think about life’s most important questions.
About once a month, writers and other thinkers speak about what we
jokingly call “life, God, and other small topics.” Speakers have
included N.T. Wright, Francis Collins, Os Guinness, and our own Chuck
Colson. The topics have included “Making Sense out of Suffering,” “The
Concept of Evil after 9-11,” and “Can a Scientist Pray?”
Another great example is the New Canaan Society (NCS) started by my
friend Jim Lane, and me sort of. His goal is to help men in the
marketplace with the issues he had encountered as a Goldman Sachs
executive: “over-achievement stress, relationship failures at home,
addictions, personal struggles,” and difficulties in genuinely caring
for other people.
NCS has grown from a handful of men meeting in Jim’s home to more
than 800 at our most recent retreat. The combination of “trustworthy
friendship, allegiance to Jesus, and safety among their peers” has led
to transformed lives and transformed workplaces.
Using words like “successful professionals” and “cultural elites”
around some Christians can invoke suspicion. While I understand the
misgivings, I also understand that the kind of cultural change we aspire
to can’t be achieved without reaching out to these elites.
After all, God is no respecter or persons. That works both ways. For
good or for ill, it is the cultural elites who determine much of what
goes on in the rest of the culture, who can set the tone and content of
the cultural conversation. Changing the tone of that conversation
requires a concerted outreach to cultural elites.
William Wilberforce understood this: If anything, the situation in late 18th
century England was worse than the situation in our day. Cultural
elites, while nominally Christian, were every bit as hostile to
Christian ideas as ours are.
Yet Wilberforce knew that without these elites, ending the slave
trade was impossible. So, instead of disdaining them or turning up their
noses at the debaucheries of figures like Charles Fox, Wilberforce and
his friends befriended them. They viewed themselves as God’s ambassadors
and missionaries within the elite culture of their day.
This missionary effort was helped by the fact that people like Wilberforce, Edward James Eliot, and Hannah More were
themselves elites. They were a veritable pantheon of big shots, and
without their societal stature, the causes they championed simply could
not have succeeded.
Of course, this pantheon only existed because someone had reached out
to them. In Wilberforce’s case it was John Newton, best-known for the
hymn “Amazing Grace.” This one conversion set in motion a process that
eventually changed the world.
That’s the goal of efforts like “Socrates in the City.” Because who
knows? Perhaps the next Wilberforce is a member of the next unreached
people group living in places like New York. I, for one, intend to keep
looking for him or her.
A fascinating move by Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu. Moving the elections up, elections that you are supposedly scheduled to win with a 'strong mandate' for action against the threat of Iran. The speculation is that he might have more flexibility to take action on Iran should he have the support of the Israeli people while the US president is facing a potential re-election loss. Given the president's political expedient decision making, what would happen if he then came out in complete defense of Israel and pledged a full out war against anyone who would attack Israel? That could play well with potential swing voters. Another war, more chaos, more opportunity.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to announce this
Sunday that he will hold elections in Israel a year early, on September 4
of this year. This move has prompted at least one of Israel’s major
commentators to speculate that Netanyahu might have more than just a
parliamentary majority in his sights.
Ammon Abramovich, one of the best-known Israeli commentators on the
popular Channel 2 news station, suggested that Netanyahu may, in fact,
be calling the election early so that he can come back to power with a
decisive governing majority while President Obama is still hamstrung by
elections here in the United States, and thus powerless to stop him from
attacking Iran. The Times of Israel explains the reasoning behind this alarming prediction:
Abramovich said that the dramatic decision to bring the
elections forward relates to Iran. After the September elections, which
all polls show Netanyahu winning easily, he will head a transition
government for several weeks while a new coalition is formed. During
that period, Netanyahu “will not be beholden to the voters,” and will be
free to take decisions on Iran that many Israelis might not support,
Abramovich said.
Furthermore, he will still have his trusted Defense Minister, Ehud
Barak, at his side. Barak is seen as unlikely to fare well in the
elections, and may not even retain his Knesset seat, but would retain
the defense portfolio until a new coalition is formed.
And finally, said Abramovich, the September-October period would see
Obama, who has publicly urged more patience in allowing diplomacy and
sanctions to have their impact on Iran, in the final stages of the
presidential election campaign, with a consequent reduced capacity to
try to pressure Israel into holding off military intervention.
Obama, “on the eve of elections, won’t dare criticize
Israel,” said Abramovich. From Netanyahu’s point of view, “the
conditions would be fantastic.”
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has given some credence to this
theory with this ominous quote regarding Iran: “The moment of truth is
approaching.”
That’s not to say that Israel has no concerns about war with Iran –
the country is small enough that the fallout from just one nuclear bomb
being dropped would do serious, possibly fatal damage, which has led
some Israeli officials to label the country a “one bomb state.” Clearly,
if Netanyahu is planning to attack Iran, this will factor into his
calculations, and a decision to attack would suggest that he expects far
more than one bomb to be involved if he doesn’t act. We’ll be keeping
an eye on this story.
"WAR IS PEACE," "FREEDOM IS SLAVERY," "IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH."
The word free still existed in Newspeak, but it could only be used
in such statements as "This dog is free from lice" or "this field is
free from weeds." It could not be used in its old sense of "politically free" or "intellectually free", since political and intellectual freedom no longer existed even as concepts. and were therefore of necessity nameless.
News outlets have really already become propaganda machines, with bias so blatant as the sky is blue. That said, the following article does not really reveal any new revelations. I mean, does the Great Deceiver's White House really need to buy a media broadcast when they already have announcers at major TV networks that get chills up their legs just thinking about the President? Perhaps, eventually these new bought media broadcasts will allow the announcers to get a pay raise, after all with ratings in the tank at certain outlets like MSNBC, they might need to raise some revenue if advertisers pay less. Getting paid by the State Department or White House to broadcast what they are already broadcasting, maybe not half bad for them.
The U.S. State Department is planning to “buy” media broadcasts, as
the Obama administration assembles a de facto propaganda machine,
according to documents that reveal the president’s plans moving closer
to the 2012 election.
According to information WND located via routine database research,
State’s Bureau of Public Affairs is soliciting the help of “global news
coverage service providers” to create and disseminate department “news.”
“The department seeks a service provider for full, turn-key
news-style global television coverage of ad hoc open press events
featuring the Secretary of State and other officials across the United
States and throughout the world,” according to the SOW, “and to send
this content back to the department’s Washington headquarters…”
Upon receiving these privately packaged productions, the department,
in turn, “will distribute this video content to media organizations
through an array of traditional and new media platforms.”
Indeed, just as the department is awaiting contractor bids on the
project, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s representative at the
World Press Freedom Day in Tunisia heaped accolades upon UNESCO for
hosting the annual event.
In a “tweet” from Tunisia, Assistant Secretary of State for
International Organization Affairs Esther Brimmer said, “I applaud the
tireless, continuing work of #UNESCO in promoting the ideals of free and
open media.”
Brimmer delivered remarks on behalf of the Obama administration during the opening ceremony, along with presenting a video speech from Clinton.
Referring to the Arab Spring demonstrations across the Middle East
and North Africa, Clinton said, according to a prepared statement,
“Voice by voice, text by text, Tunisians, Egyptians, Libyans and many
others have dared to say what they believe and stand up for their own
rights.
“Many others have dared to report on what they see happening, even when their lives were at risk.”
The State Department plan is twofold: to hire a single contractor to
provide television news crew services on the one hand, and to provide
transmission/streaming services as a corollary service.
“The television news crew category is both one and two-person crews,
and includes one and multi-camera productions,” the SOW pointed out.
“The transmission category includes both traditional fiber, terrestrial
and satellite-based as well as file-based and Internet delivery
platforms.”
The use of such government- as well as industry-funded broadcasts,
known as “video news releases,” or VNRs, has increasingly come under
fire in the past decade.
VNRs “are segments designed to be indistinguishable from
independently produced news reports that are distributed and promoted to
television newsrooms,” according to Source Watch, a Center for Media
and Democracy project that chronicles the intersecting of public
relations and public policy.
The General Accountability Office – the investigative arm of the U.S.
Congress – in 2005 declared that several federal entities, such as the
Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services,
may have violated the law by disseminating VNRs as fact-based news
reports.
Subsequent to the GAO’s findings, the “Stop Government Propaganda
Act” was introduced to rein in and punish such activities; it died,
however, after being introduced in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Proponents of VNR distribution claim that use of the video products
is wholly legitimate. The Public Relations Society of America is that a
VNR simply is “the video equivalent of a press release.”
The organization does advocate that industry members abide by certain parameters to ensure the integrity of VNR usage:
Organizations that produce VNRs should clearly identify the VNR as
such and fully disclose who produced and paid for it at the time the VNR
is provided to TV stations.
PRSA recommends that organizations that prepare VNRs should not use the word “reporting” if the narrator is not a reporter.
Use of VNRs or footage provided by sources other than the station or
network should be identified as to source by the media outlet when it
is aired.
Despite congressional refusal to crack down on VNRs, the Federal Communications Commission
issued a reminder to licensees of their sponsor-identification
requirements under the Communications Act or 1934. Rather than holding
liable the creators of the reports, the commission has placed the burden
of disclosure on who ultimately airs the VNR.
“These rules are grounded in the principle that listeners and viewers
are entitled to know who seeks to persuade them with the programming
offered over broadcast stations and cable systems,” the FCC said.
When such VNRs are aired, “licensees and operators generally must
clearly disclose to members of their audiences the nature, source and
sponsorship of the material that they are viewing.”
Although the FCC continues to enforce these rules, the penalties arguably have been light.
Last year, for instance, it issued a forfeiture order to Fox
Television Stations, Inc. when station affiliate KMSP-TV of Minneapolis
used – but failed to identify – a General Motors-provided VNR during a
news broadcast.
Among other VNR-related enforcement actions, in 2007 it imposed a
$4,000 fine on Comcast Corp. for also violating the sponsorship
disclosure rules. Comcast’s CN8 news affiliate in that case had aired a VNR produced on behalf of Nelson’s Rescue Sleep.
The State Department through May 21 is reviewing contractor proposals
in response to the new solicitation. It did not disclose the estimated
cost of the endeavor, for which it will award a year contract with four
one-year options.
The Anti-Christ, as described in Biblical prophecy in both Revelation and Daniel, comes to power as head of a 10 member coalition or kingdom, which many have believed to be the revived Roman Empire or the modern day EU. That is why this new announcement is all the more intriguing--apparently leaders within the EU are plotting to create a new super president to oversee the EU. The power combined with this position would rival the presidential powers of the United States' president! Perfectly laying the way for the Anti-Christ to rise to power.
The new leader would effectively be above the EU Council and EU Commission.
EU Commission: Legislative body: Like Congress in the US, one commissioner from each nation.
EU Council: Figure-head body comprised of the heads of each member nation.
Proposed President: Executive power over both the committee and council.
This proposal would have to be ratified by a majority of the members of the EU Commission.
A covert group of EU foreign ministers has drawn up
plans for merging the jobs currently done by Herman Van Rompuy,
president of the European Council, and Jose Manuel Barroso, president of
the European Commission.
The new bureaucrat,
who would not be directly elected by voters, is set to get sweeping
control over the entire EU and force member countries into ever-greater
political and economic union. Tellingly, the UK has been excluded from
the confidential discussions within the shady “Berlin Group” of
Europhile politicians, spearheaded by German foreign minister Guido
Westerwelle.
Opponents fear
the plan could
create a modern-day equivalent of the European emperor envisaged by
Napoleon Bonaparte or a return to the Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne
that dominated Europe in the Dark Ages. They are concerned that David
Cameron’s coalition Government is doing nothing to prevent the sinister
plot. The secret talks were uncovered by Independent Labour peer Lord
Stoddart of Swindon.
Scriptural Basis for the Anti-Christ:
A brief look at a few verses on the where we see the Anti-Christ in scripture. The Anti-Christ is known as the Beast or Little Horn and one of his first acts in his rise to power is to subdue 10 kings that presently rule the earth. Many speculate these 10 kings represent some formation of the EU due to a prophecy in Daniel chapter 2 which portrays a large statue of kingdoms to come. The final kingdom on this statue is the feet--or the ten toes, thus the ten kings. The last major empire was Rome and this prophecy states that this final empire will be a kingdom that 'was, was not, and yet shall be', alluding to the fact that this final empire will disappear and then come back to life. The Roman Empire was, was not, and then came back again in the form of the EU.
Daniel 7:24
“And the ten horns out of
this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise; and another
shall rise after them (small horn); and he shall be diverse from the
first, and he shall subdue three kings.”
In this verse below we see a fourth
beast with 10 horns. The small horn, speaking haughty
words, rises up and conquers three of them. This
represents the antichrist that will come to power through
the last kingdom of the Empires of Daniel prophecy found in chapter 2. The 10 horns, 3 of which are
subdued, are the 10 kings that make up the rulers of this final
kingdom. From this kingdom
will come a global system of government that will rule
over the earth prior to the return of Christ to set up the new heaven and new earth.
Also:
Revelation 13:1
And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.
Daniel 7:7-8
“After this I was
watching in night visions, and behold! A fourth beast,
exceedingly terrifying, awesome and strong. It has
immense iron teeth, and it was devouring and crumbling,
and trampling its feet what remained. It was different
from all the beasts that had preceded it, and it had ten
horns.
The EU today is made up of over 25
countries, however the ten nations of the Western European
Alliance have a separate status as full members, while
those nations who joined subsequent to the original 10
have only associate membership, or observer status. This
10 nation military wing of the EU may very well fulfill
the prophecy of the beast with 10 horns from Daniel 7:7-8
and Revelations 13:1. On this beast’s back will ride the
woman that symbolizes a global religious system that is to
appear before Christ returns to set up His kingdom.
Lest we forget, elections recently held and soon to be held in the countries that immediately surround Israel have not gone the way of Israel's best interests. Egypt in particular has now elected a much more aggressive government in the way of the Muslim Brotherhood influence that is more aligned with Hamas and Hezbollah mentality than Mubarak was. The change in relations continues to lay the stage for conflict between Israel and Egypt. As of today, things are taking an even further turn for the worse with emergency orders and the build up of troops along the border
In terms of Egypt, Israel is worried due to rising Islamic influence
in the country following the fall of Mubarak, especially the ascendency
of the Muslim Brotherhood, and a popular backlash against the Camp David Accords which have kept the peace between Cairo and Jerusalem since 1979.
Amr Moussa, a popular Presidential candidate in Egypt,
has publicly stated that while Egypt still honors its peace with Israel,
the accords are “dead.”
The IDF has
issued emergency call up orders to six reserve battalions in light of
new dangers on the Egyptian and Syrian borders. And the Knesset has
given the IDF permission to summon a further 16 reserve battalions if
necessary, Israeli media reported on Wednesday.
An IDF spokesperson said intelligence assessments called for the deployment of more soldiers.
According to 2008′s Reserve Duty Law, combat
soldiers can be called for active reserve duty once every three years,
and for short training sessions during the other two. Rising tensions between Israel and Egypt and the ongoing unrest in Syria caused the army to ask the Knesset for special permission to call up more soldiers, more often.
The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee
approved the request recently, enabling the IDF to summon up to 22
battalions for active duty for the second time in three years. Already,
the army has called up six of them.
“This signifies that the IDF regards the
Egyptian and Syrian borders as the potential source of a greater threat
than in the past,” the former deputy chief of staff, Dan Harel, said on
Wednesday night.
“The army needs a better ‘answer’ than in the
past to the threat,” he said, citing Egypt’s deteriorating control over
the Sinai, marked by an upsurge in Bedouin smuggling of weapons and
other goods. He also spoke of the growing threat of terrorism from
Sinai, as exemplified by an infiltration last August in which eight
Israelis were killed.
The Syrian situation was also highly
combustible, Harel said, “and it could explode at any moment… and pose a
direct challenge to us.”
Maariv said the army had to decide whether to
cancel training sessions for enlisted soldiers or to summon additional
reserve units, and it chose the latter; canceling training would mean
soldiers would not be prepared in the case of an all-out war.
The IDF spokesperson said all the letters
summoning soldiers for reserve duty were sent after the IDF received the
approval of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for the larger
call-up.
One of the reservists summoned told Maariv he
hadn’t expected his call-up letter until next year. Leaving home for
more than three weeks is something you have to prepare for, he noted.
Activists from the Reserve Soldiers Forum said
they were disappointed time and again by the way the IDF treated its
reserve soldiers. The law was supposed to help reservists, but it has
been repeatedly bypassed and ignored, they said. “At the end, all that
will remain of the law will be its title.”
Monarch reacts to plan for 1,100 hotel rooms in Givat Hamatos neighborhood
Jordan’s King
Abdullah criticized Israel on Wednesday for plans to build some 1,100
hotel rooms in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Givat Matos,
Israel Radio reported.
Abdullah warned Israel, according to the
report, that its policy of taking unilateral steps in
Palestinian-claimed land would increase tensions and destabilize the
region.
The municipality had already approved the
construction of 2,610 housing units in Givat Hamatos, which is located
between the neighborhoods of Talpiot, Beit Safafa and Gilo, and another
plan to build an additional 1,400 housing units is currently awaiting
final approval.
On Monday, the city submitted its plans for
the hotel rooms to the Planning and Building Committee. The rooms are to
be built in an existing delapidated building, Israel Radio said.
From a since passed christian & political activist, head of a prisoner outreach, Chuck Colson:
I live everyday to the fullest because I live it for Christ,” Chuck
Colson liked to say. “And no matter what I do today … I’m going to do
something to advance the kingdom of God. Does that make you fulfilled?
You bet it does, and it gives you joy about living.”
Great men, as defined by those who have changed hearts, minds, and lives
for whatever purpose, all woke up each day with purpose in mind. They
never had a day go by in their life that they didn't declare what they
believed. In the end, that's why we're here. If a day goes by and we
didn't do something to advance the ultimate reason why we're here, it is
a day wasted forever. For those of us who work a day job or do something that doesn't match your passion, it means that a day can never go by without attempting to pursue what it is that gives you peace and meaning.
Ecclesiastes 3:11
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Covenant With Many
-
Trump leaps into Middle East fray with peace plan that Palestinians
denounce - Reuters
Reuters reports: "U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday proposed cre...
Obama's Middle East Debacle
-
By Alan Caruba
I had to laugh when I heard that the new King of Saudi Arabia, Salmon, told
the White House he wasn’t going to attend Thursday’s photo-op...
