Friday, February 28, 2020
Plague of locusts threatens East African economies as UN sounds emergency alarm
I honestly thought that the current locust swarming
would have stopped by now, or at the very least lessened, but just the
opposite is taking place. It is increasing in intensity, with the
locusts eating the food of 35,000 people in a single day. Interestingly,
the locust swarms seem to be affecting nations that reject the God of
the bible who commands the locusts at His will.
“If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people;” 2 Chronicles 7:13 (KJB)
“Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?” Job 38:22,23 (KJB)
The book of Job
tells us that God uses the weather as a weapon, and it is more powerful
than anything the militaries of the world can command. Read the book of
Revelation sometime and see how God is going to use weather to judge
this world. Hydrogen bombs are nothing more than mere firecrackers
compared to what God will rain down upon this earth in the coming time
of the great Tribulation.
I am starting to think that this relentless locust plague is more than a
seasonal outbreak, as it is rapidly approaching biblical territory.
Birth pangs, perhaps? Time will tell.
Plague of locusts threatens East African economies as UN sounds emergency alarm
FROM CNBC:
In recent days, locust swarms have begun to impact South Sudan, Uganda
and Tanzania, having already decimated crops throughout Ethiopia, Kenya
and Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti. The Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) of the United Nations earlier this week called the situation
“extremely alarming.”
The UN warned of an
unprecedented threat to food security in a part of the world where
millions face hunger, and the FAO estimated that 70,000 hectares of
crops in Kenya and around 30,000 hectares in Ethiopia had been infested.
It added that locusts had attacked coffee and tea crops that account
for approximately 30% of Ethiopia’s exports.
The FAO also estimated that around 8.5 million Ethiopians and 3.1
million Kenyans already face food insecurity. The locusts have now
begun breeding along both sides of the Red Sea in Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea
and Saudi Arabia.
Desert locusts can travel up to
150km (95 miles) a day, and a one-square-kilometer swarm can devour as
much food as 35,000 people in a single day, according to the UN.
'Onward' introduces the first LGBTQ character in Disney animation history
It’s been a long wait, but a Disney heroine finally has a girlfriend… and it’s not Elsa. Months after The Rise of Skywalker featured the first same-sex kiss in the Star Wars galaxy, the new animated film Onward
introduces the first self-identified lesbian character into the
Disney-Pixar universe. Her name is Officer Specter, and she’s a Cyclops
cop voiced by openly gay screenwriter and actress Lena Waithe. While
Specter’s inclusion in Onward is a major first for Disney, it’s
treated almost matter-of-factly in the movie itself, which the
filmmakers say is by design. “It just kind of happened,” Onward producer
Kori Rae tells Yahoo Entertainment. “The scene, when we wrote it, was
kind of fitting and it opens up the world a little bit, and that’s what
we wanted.” Adds director Dan Scanlon, “It’s a modern fantasy world and
we want to represent the modern world.”
Specter only appears in one scene in Onward,
which opens in theaters on March 6, but her role is vital to the
emotional arc of the story. Written by Scanlon, Jason Headley and Keith
Bunin, the film takes places in a magical universe whose fantastical
citizens — think elves, dragons and manticores — have lost their
connection to the magical arts. Onward’s heroes are two elven
brothers, Ian and Barley (Tom Holland and Chris Pratt), who lost their
father at a young age before either had a chance to properly say
goodbye. On Ian’s 16th birthday, their mother (Julia Louis-Dreyfus)
hands them a present left behind by dearly departed dad, which turns out
to be a 24-hour resurrection spell. Due to their limited experience
with magic, the spell immediately goes haywire, forcing the duo to
embark on a ticking-clock quest to find a replacement element before
their father vanishes again. Meanwhile, Mom and her new boyfriend,
centaur cop Colt Bronco (Mel Rodriguez), try to catch up with the boys
to protect them from a curse that their mission threatens to unleash.
Ancient Biblical era temple discovered in Israel
An international team of archaeologists has uncovered an ancient Biblical era temple in Israel.
The
ruins of the Canaanite temple were discovered within a large Bronze Age
settlement in what is now National Park Tel Lachish. The temple, which
dates back to the 12th century B.C., was once part of the ancient
Canaanite city of Lachish.
Professor Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem and Professor Michael Hasel of Southern
Adventist University in Tennessee led a team of researchers that
uncovered the temple.
Lachish
was built around 1800 B.C., destroyed and rebuilt on a number of
occasions over the following centuries, according to Hebrew University.
“The
settlement is mentioned in both the Bible and in various Egyptian
sources and was one of the few Canaanite cities to survive into the 12th
century BCE,” it explained in a statement.
The city’s deliverance "into Israel's hands," for example, is described in the Book of Joshua.
The
ancient Canaanite civilization, which created the first alphabet and is
mentioned frequently in the Bible, has long fascinated historians.
Vatican set to open Pope Pius XII's secret WWII archives
Fox. February 20
The Vatican is set to open the secret archives of Pope Pius XII, the World War II-era pope whose record during the Holocaust has come under intense scrutiny.
The archive will be opened on March 2.
Some Jewish groups and historians have said Pius, who was pope from 1939-1958, stayed silent during the Holocaust and didn’t do enough to save lives. His defenders at the Vatican and beyond say he used quiet diplomacy and encouraged convents and other religious institutes to hide Jews.
Majority of Germans say shops should be closed on Sundays
A survey published by news agency Idea in Germany concludes that most agree that businesses should remain closed on Sundays. 61% of the respondents said they agree with the view that, as a general rule, shops should remain closed on Sundays. Only 28% were against and 11% did not know or did not respond. According to the survey conducted by INSA-Consulere, the highest percentage support for closed shops on Sunday was found among women (64% vs 57% of men). All age groups seemed to agree on this issue except those between 18 and 29 years old: 54% prefer businesses to work on Sundays.
CONTRAST BETWEEN CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS
The survey also showed a different approach to the issue depending on the religion of the respondents. Protestants (66%), Catholics (67%) and members of free churches-evangelicals (62%) were in favour of shops closed on Sundays. In contrast, Muslims did disagree, with only 37% saying businesses should remain closed.
POLAND AND THE UK
The trend in European countries in the last years has been to allow businesses to extend the trading hours, including Sundays. But social initiatives have also called to “Keep Sunday Special”, as a campaign led by Christians in the UK has been asking for decades. In Poland, the calls to allow time “for family, rest and social relations” led the parliament to restrict the number of working Sundays. From 2020 on, businesses will be able to open only eight Sundays a year.
EU poised to create massive transatlantic facial-recognition database, link with US
RT 22 Feb, 2020
The EU is laying the groundwork for a massive international
facial recognition database that may someday hook into the one
maintained by the US, according to leaked internal documents.
National police forces
of 10 EU member states are calling for a legal framework to create a
massive system of interlinked facial recognition databases “as quickly as possible,” a report leaked to the Intercept
on Friday reveals. Austria is leading the way on the project, which was
still in its early phases as of November, when the report initially
circulated among EU officials.
Produced as part of a project to
expand Prüm, the EU-wide database-cross-referencing system that already
allows for all-at-once scanning of individual DNA, fingerprint, and
vehicle registration databases, the report calls for EU legislation that
would create and connect country-level facial recognition databases,
potentially all the way to the US. Because the US already has a
Prüm-like exchange in place with countries that are part of the Visa
Waiver Program, including most EU member states, some – including the
alarmed EU official who allegedly leaked the report to the Intercept –
believe any future facial recognition database network would include the
US by default.
Thursday, February 20, 2020
Sunday, February 16, 2020
SIDS Listed as a Side Effect on a DTaP Vaccine Insert
SIDS is the term given to all of the babies who die of an unexplainable death before they turn one year old.
SIDS and the DTaP Vaccine
“70%
of children who have died of SIDS received the pertussis vaccine within
3 weeks before death.” Within this 3 week time period after receiving
the vaccine, children’s breathing patterns became stress-induced,
wreaking havoc on their respiratory systems (Pages 120 and 121 of
Vaccine Safety Manual For Concerned Families and Health Practitioners).
This stressed induced breathing, combined with a baby sleeping face down
would seem to make it even more troublesome for him/her to breathe
freely. This is the very same vaccine that lists SIDS as a possible side
effect. Something to think about (at the very least).
Please
note, the CDC is changing their inserts over the last year, leaving out
important side effects even though they are very much still side
effects.
Any infant death that is ‘unexplainable’ gets lumped
into the term SIDS. I believe much of it has to do with a toxic
overload. Here’s some more information on that: Protecting Your Baby From SIDS
Statement from the World Health Organization on Vaccines
Just Two Days Ago (January 18, 2020), after meeting to discuss vaccines at the Global Vaccine Safety Summit, the World Health Organization came out with a statement acknowledging that they are questioning the safety of vaccines. The live feed is pretty eye-opening.
The Childhood Vaccination Program
As
far as the childhood vaccination program, Robert F. Kennedy has been
studying the ingredients and the program itself, for years. “These guys
at the CDC originally were telling me ‘well, there’s a good mercury and a
bad mercury,’” Kennedy said. “I knew at that point, their argument was
not with me, it was with the periodic table, because there’s no way that
could happen.”
Kennedy said according to well-known vaccine
proponent and rotavirus vaccine developer Paul Offit, who he spoke with
by phone, ethyl mercury leaves the body so fast that it doesn’t have
time to do damage. However, Kennedy said that he had read Thomas
Burbacher’s monkey studies which confirmed that although ethyl mercury
does clear the blood quickly, it goes directly into the brain, where it
rapidly metabolizes into highly toxic inorganic mercury, and then lodges
there, creating inflammation and brain damage.
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
All denominations uniting under the trinity ecumenical movement as described in revelation 13
11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
12 And
he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth
the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose
deadly wound was healed.
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
14 And
deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles
which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that
dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which
had the wound by a sword, and did live.
15 And
he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image
of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not
worship the image of the beast should be killed.
16 And
he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to
receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here
is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the
beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred
threescore and six. Revelation 13:11-18
Friday, January 31, 2020
A mere profession of godliness is worthless
A
mere profession of godliness is worthless. It is he that abideth in
Christ that is a Christian. For “every man that hath this hope in him
purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” In every clime, in every nation,
our youth should cooperate with God. The only way a person can be pure
is to become like-minded with God. How can we know God?—By studying his
word. “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true
God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” Of what profit is it to say pleasant things, to deplore the works of Satan, and yet at the same time to enter into the fulfillment of all his devices? This is being double-minded. “Wash ye, make you clean: put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes, cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”
There must be a cleansing of the hands, and a purifying of the double mind. “Be afflicted, and weep and mourn: let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into heaviness.” It is right to be cheerful, and even joyful. It is right to cultivate cheerfulness of spirit through sanctification of the truth; but it is not right to indulge in foolish jesting and joking, in lightness and trifling, in words of criticism and condemnation of others. Those who observe such persons who make a profession of religion, know that they are deceived. They know that the hands of such professors need to be cleansed, their hearts need to be purified. They need to experience genuine repentance for sin. What have they to mourn over? They should mourn over their inclination to sin, over the danger they are in from inward corruption and from outward temptation. They should be afraid because they have so feeble a sense of the sinfulness of sin, and so little idea of what constitutes sin.
When you truly repent of sin, you will not be satisfied to acknowledge simply that you are sinful, and let the matter rest there. Do you intend to remain sinful while life shall last? Do you mean to violate your conscience? Do you mean to do evil always? What does the Lord say to those who have had light, and yet have failed to live in accordance with it? “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” There is a repentance of sin that needeth not to be repented of. “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”
Does this text mean that the human agent can remove one stain of sin from his soul?—No. Then what does it mean to purify himself?—It means to look upon the Lord's great moral standard of righteousness, the holy law of God, and see that he is a sinner in the light of that law. “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sin; and in him is no sin.” It is through faith in Jesus Christ that the truth is accepted in the heart and the human agent is purified and cleansed. Jesus was “wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” Is it possible to be healed, while knowingly committing sin?—No; it is genuine faith that says, I know that I have committed sin, but that Jesus has pardoned my sin; and hereafter I will resist temptation in and through his might. “Every man that hath this hope in him [abiding in him] purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” He has an abiding principle in the soul, that enables him to overcome temptation. “Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not.” God has power to keep the soul who is in Christ, when that soul is under temptation. “Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.” That is, every one who is a true believer is sanctified through the truth, in life and character. “Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth [not professeth to do] righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.” “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; ... because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil.” Now mark where the distinction is made: “Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither is he that loveth not his brother.” “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” The Youth's Instructor, February 15, 1894
The Supremacy of Christ
15Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
16For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
18And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
19For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
20And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. Colosians 1:15-20
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Disney: going farther into the darkness of the spiritual world
The Disney Channel will premiere a new cartoon – The Owl House – on Friday, January 10, that promises to introduce young viewers to a world of demons and witchcraft.
According to Disney, “The series follows self-assured teenage girl Luz, who discovers a portal to another realm where humans are not well-liked, and she must disguise herself in order to fit in at witch school.”
Disney describes that realm as a “Demon town,” where Luz takes up residence with Eda the Owl Lady, “the most powerful witch on the Boiling Iles.”
Luz declares, “Someday, I’m going to be just like her.”
“The original pitch (for the show) was ‘girl hangs out with witch in hell,’” voice actor Alex Hirsch told Newsweek.com.
The show’s art director, Ricky Cometa, explained
that when the show’s creator, Dana Terrace, first approached him, “she
said that ‘we're trying to make this demon realm a part of Disney.’”'
“We really wanted to make this demon realm feel like home, and just had to figure out how to do it," said Cometa.
The writers room for the show is “full of books on witchcraft,
witches and spells to take inspiration from,” according to the Newsweek
piece.
The visual design of the show is inspired by various European
painters such as Hieronymus Bosch, who was best known for his
surrealistic depictions of hell.
Show creator Terrace, who first became acquainted with religious
painters while growing up in Catholic school, said Bosch’s twisted takes
on angels and demons would make for a “cool show in that art style.”
Last month, controversy arose
over when major retailers such as Walmart, Amazon, and Barnes &
Noble offered a book inviting young children to learn how to summon
demons.
Written for 5- to 10-year-olds, A Children’s Book of Demons directs kids to “conjure gentle demons by writing their sigils, which serve as ‘a phone number’ straight to the spirit.”
“As ridiculous as the ‘demons’ contained in the book may be, there is
nothing innocent or fun about even pretending to summon evil spirits,”
noted Elizabeth Johnston, aka Activist Mommy, on her blog. “But who is to say it is pretend? The spirit world is real and is no laughing matter.”
“It is a sign of the degeneration of our society that making use of
demons is considered acceptable, and it manifests ignorance of their
malice and desire to do us harm,” renowned exorcist, Fr. Chad Ripperger,
told LifeSiteNews. “Books such as these ought to be avoided by parents
and children, as they pose a possible opening to demons’ influence in
their lives, which will only end in affliction and suffering.”
“Parents would be well warned that it is not something ‘silly,’ but
contrary to the proper formation of their children,” he continued.
“Opening up children to this at a young age will often place the child
in a mindset that diabolic influence of demons in his life is not
something serious or to be avoided.”
Trump and Francis bulding the one world religion
NTEB January 25, 2020
VP Mike Pence arrived at the Vatican for what was billed as a 'meet and
greet', then stunned everyone by turning into a high-level, closed-door
meeting on something so sensitive that neither party was willing to
discuss it. And within mere hours of that bombshell, President Trump
announced he was finally ready to reveal his 'Deal Of The Century'
Middle East Peace Plan, and asked Benjamin Netanyahu to fly to
Washington this coming Tuesday, for a meeting on that very subject. Do
you see where all this is heading? Trump has the relationship with
Israel, Pope Francis has the relationship with the Muslims, put the two
together and....peace in the Middle East?
Suddenly, everything begins to makes sense. From one
side, I have been watching Donald Trump over the past three and a half
years, the man that God placed in power of the world’s strongest and
most-prosperous nation, doing amazing things for the nation of Israel. The thing he wants most to do in Israel is his ‘Deal Of The Century‘ Middle East Peace Plan, headed up by his Jewish son in law, Jared Kushner.
“Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is
in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death,
and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall
pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our
refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: Therefore thus saith
the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried
stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.” Isaiah 28:14-16 (KJB)
On the other side, I have been watching Pope Francis over the past 7 years, weaving and scheming to build the One World Religion of Chrislam. In 2019, things came to a head as Chrislam, otherwise known as the Abrahamic Faiths Initiative, was finally formalized. The peace covenant document known as ‘Human Fraternity For World Peace‘ was signed by Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, and sealed by kissing each other on the mouth. Chrislam.
For quite awhile,
I viewed both these paradigms as something happening separately from
each other, until today. The thing that always nagged at me in the back
of my mind was how to combine the two and keep all parties happy at the
same time. It was seemingly impossible. Then last week, U.S. Ambassador
to the Holy See, Callista Gingrich, held a meeting at her office at the Vatican
and declared to Pope Francis that the United States is “fully committed
to working with you to advance our shared goals of mutual respect,
religious freedom, and peaceful coexistence” in regards to the Abrahamic
Faiths Initiative, otherwise known as Chrislam.
Do you see where all this is heading? Trump has the
relationship with Israel, Pope Francis has the relationship with the
Muslims, put the two together and….peace in the Middle East? Sure seems
like it to me. The missing ingredient that no other political leader has
had in the past 70 years is Chrislam. Rick Warren started it, handed the baton with full evangelical support
to Pope Francis, the pope then signed a covenant with Islam, and the
Trump administration has thrown in their full support in the same week
as announcing they are finally ready with the Peace Plan. Across the
board you have complete and total harmony, everyone gets something,
everyone is happy.
Monday, January 27, 2020
Tempted in All Points Like As We Are
Christ
paid an infinite price to redeem the world. He sacrificed his honor,
his riches, his glorious home in the royal courts, and endured the
fierce assaults of Satan, that man might have strength to overcome as he
overcame. The temptations that Satan brings to bear upon the human race
are severe; but his test for the Son of God was a hundredfold more
severe. It was not merely the gnawing pangs of hunger that made Christ's
sufferings so intense; it was the guilt of the sins of the world, which
pressed so heavily upon him. He who knew no sin was made sin for us.
With this terrible weight of guilt upon him, he withstood the fearful
test upon appetite; upon the love of the world and of honor; and upon
pride of display, which leads to presumption. Christ endured these great
temptations, overcoming in our behalf, and working out for us a
righteous character.
Many
who fall under temptation excuse themselves with the plea that Christ's
divinity helped him overcome, and that man has not this power in his
favor. But this is a mistake. Christ has brought divine power within the
reach of all. The Son of God came to the earth because he saw that
moral power in man is weak. He came to bring finite man in close
connection with God. It is by combining divine power with his human
strength that man becomes an overcomer.
When
we are tempted to question whether Christ resisted temptation as a man,
we must search the Scriptures for the truth. As the substitute and
surety of the human race, Christ was placed in the same position toward
the Father as is the sinner. Christ had the privilege of depending on
the Father for strength, and so have we. Because he laid hold of the
hand of infinite power, and held it fast, he overcame; and we are taught
to do the same. He met every temptation with, “It is written;” and so
must we. The one who resists evil in his strength can say, in the words
of Inspiration: “The Lord God will help me: therefore shall I not be
confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I
shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me; who will contend
with me? ... Behold, the Lord God will help me: who is he that shall
condemn me?”
The
language of Christ on many occasions shows that he was placed in the
same position that we are. He had to walk by faith, as we walk by faith;
and when temptations came to him with overwhelming power, he used the
language that every child of earth must use. “The Son can do nothing of
himself,” Christ declared, “but what he seeth the Father do: for what
things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” “I can of
mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just;
because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath
sent me.” “When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know
that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath
taught me, I speak these things.”...
Christ
is the Captain of our salvation. “It became him, for whom are all
things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to
make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” The
suffering that poured in upon the Son of God is beyond anything that man
will be called to endure; yet Christ overcame, and perfected a spotless
character. By his suffering and resistance he made plain to man that
perfection of character can be obtained and maintained by humanity.
When
Satan fails to lead men into sin by the first two temptations, those of
appetite and presumption, he besets them with the third, the love of
the world; and in almost every case he leads them into apostasy by this
means. It is the glory of this world that attracts and ensnares. But we
have reason to thank God that the Captain of our salvation was made
perfect through suffering, and came off conqueror in our behalf. Every
son and daughter of Adam may have this divine strength. The promise of
the Comforter has been given us. “He that believeth on me,” said Jesus,
“the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these
shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” The power that came to Christ
as a representative of the human race will come to every member of the
human family who will make God his strength.
“We
have a great high priest, which is passed into the heavens, Jesus the
Son of God.... We have not an high priest which can not be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we
are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of
grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of
need.” We may take courage, and believe that we shall overcome every
imperfection of character. Our Redeemer has taken our nature, fought our
battles, and in his name we shall conquer. Human nature may take hold
of the strength of God, and be victorious. The Youth's Instructor, December 28, 1899
Saturday, January 25, 2020
Trump uniting with evangelicals
NBC. Jan. 3, 2020
President Donald Trump launched his campaign's
new coalition to court evangelical voters at a Latino megachurch
Friday, part of efforts to shore up support in the community for his re-election bid as well as broaden it in the wake of a prominent evangelical magazine coming out in support of his impeachment.
“Every
Democratic candidate running for president is trying to punish
religious believers and silence our churches,” Trump told a crowd of
thousands at the Ministerio Internacional El Rey Jesús. "This election
is about the survival of our nation."
The
rally-style event, which included everything from a prayer session and
brief remarks by a young woman who chose not to get an abortion after
becoming pregnant unexpectedly in college, saw Trump acknowledge the
power of the evangelical voters who helped put him in office in 2016 and
boast of conservative accomplishments both real and exaggerated while
promising more to come.
A win in November, Trump said, would be “another monumental victory for faith and family, God and country."
Australia calls world to pray at sunrise
This year our focus is to pray for the nations. Over the last two
years we had registrations from 50 different countries including USA,
South Africa, Namibia, Pakistan, Japan, United Kingdom, Fiji, Vanuatu,
New Zealand, and Australia.
Warwick Marsh, coordinator for Australia’s National Day of Prayer & Fasting
said, “David said in Psalm 108:2, ‘I will wake the dawn with my song.’
During this time of prayer, we want to focus on giving great praise to
God. We also want to pray for revival and transformation, that God will
bring healing to each of our nations: 2 Chronicles 7:14.”
Marsh
continued, “In declaring Jesus Christ as Lord at this worldwide Sunrise
Prayer Relay we are circling the globe with prayer, praise and worship
and surrendering our lives to Jesus Christ for the glory of God. This
year we want to challenge people to pray for the nations. Use the prayer
resources on the website and social media and register your location
at: www.sunriseprayerrelay.org. This year we are asking you to help reach a billion people and get behind www.go2020.world/home.
Pat
Steele, a prayer & evangelist leader in Wollongong Australia, said,
“We encourage you to pray the Lord’s Prayer together aloud as the sun
rises and make a declaration that Jesus Christ is Lord of your life,
your family, your region and your nation. Let’s also join to pray for
the nations. At your location we encourage you to include praise and
worship, prayers, and scripture readings. We suggest 30 minutes, but you
can pray for longer. You could even take communion, shine a torch, or
light a candle. What you do for your sunrise celebration is up to you.”
Mike Pence meets Pope Francis in private audience
VATICAN CITY — U.S. Vice President Mike Pence met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Friday, discussing the anti-abortion march in Washington and telling the pontiff, "You made me a hero" back home by granting him a private audience.
The
pope and the vice president had a private hour-long conversation. Pence
was beaming after the meeting, which appeared to be particularly
cordial.
The hero description apparently referred to Pence's Roman Catholic family upbringing. He later became an evangelical Christian.
Trump had a private audience with Francis at the Vatican in 2017, and
on Friday in Washington, the U.S. president was attending an
anti-abortion rally in Washington. Trump is the first sitting U.S.
president to do so in the history of the annual March for Life’s
history.
Pence's office said the march in the U.S. capital was
among the topics discussed with the pontiff. Catholic church teaching
forbids abortion, and Pence himself has been staunchly anti-abortion.
In Friday's interview, Pence also praised Francis for his “passion for the sanctity of life.”
Francis smiled warmly throughout the traditional exchange of gifts at
the end of the audience. Pence presented the pope with a large, plain
wooden cross made from a tree on the grounds of his official residence
in Washington.
Francis gave Pence five bound books of his writings
as pope. The pontiff then pointed to a large white envelope,
explaining, “this is a message of peace.” Francis was referring to an
annual message to promote peace issued by the Vatican.
Religious gathering with Kanye West to fill up Sun Devil Stadium
Ktar January 17, 2020
PHOENIX – College football season is over, but a huge crowd is
expected to converge on Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe on Saturday for a
daylong religious gathering featuring rapper Kanye West.
All of the free tickets for Awaken 2020 were quickly snapped up online. The event’s website invites attendees “to be part of the Jesus awakening that is shifting HISTORY.”
West and his Sunday Service Collective gospel choir may be the
biggest draw, but the event runs from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. with about a
dozen evangelical leaders.
In addition to West, who released the Christian-themed album “Jesus
is King” in October, Daniel Kolenda, David Herzog, Brian “Head” Welch,
Cindy Jacobs, Jerame Nelson, Guillermo Maldonado, Jake Hamilton, Jeremy
Riddle, Stephanie Herzog, Eddie James and Steve Swanson are scheduled to
speak.
Remember when Sunday was a day of rest?
Iol. 16 January 2020
My mother was not a particularly religious woman. She was an Anglican.
Her generation of Anglicans regarded religion as duty rather than a
passion.
I remember, though, how shocked she was when the law was changed to
allow shops to open on Sundays. This was not for any religious reasons.
She simply thought it was unfair to expect shop assistants to work on
weekends after having worked hard all week.
“For goodness sake! Everybody deserves one day of rest every week.”
In those days, shops and banks closed at around noon on Saturday and remained closed until Monday morning.
Nobody complained. It was simply the way things were. People knew the
shops would be shut on Sunday, so they bought the groceries they needed
for the weekend in advance.
Banks would be closed. Remember there were no ATMs then, so if you
needed money for the weekend, you cashed a cheque on Friday. No big
deal.
We don’t really have weekends anymore. We slide through the week, day
by similar day, with hardly a blip on the road through life. Nobody
needs to plan ahead.
I sometimes think my mother may have been right about Sunday closing.
We have allowed shopping to become the new religion. Instead of
enjoying relaxed weekends at home with our families, we dash off to the
shops, anxious not to miss out on the latest bargains. We are more
interested in stuff than we are in each other. One side effect of this
shopping religion is that we now tend to judge each other by the stuff
we have bought.
“Jimmy got a new smartphone, Sally bought a new flat-screen TV that’s bigger than ours.”
I suppose it’s too late to turn back now. If families decided to
spend a quiet, shopping-free Sunday together, they probably stick it for
two hours before becoming bored and heading off to see what’s on
special offer at PnP or Checkers.
The Court Case That Could Finally Take Down Antiquated Anti-Catholic Laws
The Atlantic. January 12, 2020
Later this month, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear one of the most significant education cases in decades: Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue. Centering around a modest tax-credit scholarship program in Montana, Espinoza could have major ramifications for educational-choice programs across America, which help nearly half a million students attend private schools.
In deciding Espinoza, the Court has the opportunity to do more than just settle the fate of one controversial tax credit; it could also junk Montana’s Blaine Amendment, finding it in violation of the Constitution’s religious-freedom and equal-protection clauses. In doing so, it would set a strong precedent against any law born of bigotry, even if other justifications seem neutral.
The Espinoza case dates back to 2015, when, shortly after state lawmakers enacted the tax-credit scholarship program, the Montana Department of Revenue devised a rule that banned families from using the scholarships to attend religious schools, which account for more than two-thirds of the state’s private schools. The case is brought by three Montana moms whose children are thriving at a private religious school; without the tax-credit scholarships, the families are struggling to pay tuition. (Litigating on behalf of the parents is the Institute for Justice, where I work, though I’m not directly involved with the lawsuit.)
In May 2017, a trial court ruled in their favor and struck down the Department of Revenue’s rule. But in December 2018, the Montana Supreme Court reversed the decision, citing what is commonly known as Montana’s Blaine Amendment.
Enacted during a wave of anti-Catholic bigotry in 1889, the amendment
bans “direct or indirect” public funding for any “sectarian purpose.”
According to the majority opinion, the tax-credit scholarship program
violates the Blaine Amendment, even though it’s funded entirely through
voluntary, charitable, private donations incentivized by the state’s tax
credit. This past summer, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the
case, and it will be argued on January 22.
Today, 37 states have Blaine Amendments in their state constitution, though the precise wording varies. The amendments are named after Representative James G. Blaine of Maine, who in 1876 proposed a federal constitutional amendment that would have prohibited state funding for schools “under the control of any religious sect.” Blaine’s amendment passed the U.S. House of Representatives but fell just short of the supermajority it needed to pass the U.S. Senate.
Even though Blaine’s amendment was never enacted nationwide, Congress later required many potential states to adopt a version of the amendment in order to be admitted to the union. Starting with the Enabling Act of 1889, Congress granted statehood to Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Washington only after their state constitutions guaranteed that their public schools would be “free from sectarian control.” Senator Henry Blair of New Hampshire, who regularly reintroduced the Blaine Amendment in subsequent sessions, called this provision of the Enabling Act “the very essence” of his proposal, and praised Congress for setting a “great precedent.”
At first glance, Blaine Amendments may seem like a benign way to ensure the government’s neutrality toward religion. In the 1875 speech that inspired Representative Blaine, President Ulysses S. Grant called for a federal ban on government funding for “sectarian schools” in order to “keep the Church and state forever separate.” More recently, nine states with Blaine Amendments collectively filed an amicus brief in the Espinoza case, arguing that no-aid provisions like theirs and Montana’s merely “sought to solidify the Framers’ original design separating church and State.”
But Blaine Amendments weren’t truly devoted to the separation of Church and state. Instead, they were mainly focused on separating the Catholic Church and state. Although public schools are largely secular today, that wasn’t the case in the 19th century. Public or “common” schools typically instilled in their students a nondenominational form of Protestantism, requiring them to sing hymns, pray, and read from the King James Bible—in direct conflict with Catholic dogma.
Refusing to send their children to schools that clashed with their values, many Catholic families (often immigrants) created their own private, religiously affiliated school systems. In turn, those parochial schools quickly became a target for bigoted attacks, most infamously by the Know Nothing party, and later by the American Protective Association. The association was particularly powerful in Montana: At the APA’s peak, up to one-tenth of Montana residents were members. The fact that Blaine Amendments featured so prominently in the platforms of those groups clearly shows that prejudice was a motivating factor behind state Blaine Amendments. More
A Trum calendar: replacing the seventh day Sabbath for the first day Sunday?
Washington Times December 31, 2019
For more than 500 years, the most popular and influential book after
the Bible was “The Golden Legend” by Jacobus de Varagine. At the end of
the 13th century, Varagine was grappling with how medieval Christians
perceived time: He mapped the liturgical calendar and the stories of
feast-day saints associated with it. The book was a bestseller.
Flash forward to today. We now waste a great
deal of time fumbling around with the flawed Gregorian calendar. For one
thing, new calendars have to be printed ever year. What a waste of both
time and money.
But this isn’t the only cost dished up by our
Gregorian calendar. Indeed, there are a number of problems and
inefficiencies associated with it. Under the Gregorian calendar, the
scheduling of the days for holidays, sporting events and school
schedules — to name but a few — must be redone each year. What a waste
of time and money.
The Gregorian calendar also causes confusion when it comes to the
age-old idea of “time is money.” For example, to determine how much
interest accrues for a wide variety of instruments — bonds, mortgages,
swaps, forward rate agreements, etc. — day counts are required. The
current calendar contains complexities and anomalies that create
day-count problems.
And there are other financial problems
generated by the Gregorian calendar. For example, back in 2013, Apple
was caught up in a quarterly reporting fiasco. Following its
firt-quarter 2013 earnings announcement, Apple suffered its worst
one-day loss in four years as a result of the company’s failure to meet
Wall Street’s expectations. This was largely due to a simple
calendar-generated error — most analysts failed to account for the fact
that Apple’s Q1 2013 was one week shorter than the same quarter the year
before.
The past 400 years have only seen a handful of cohesive efforts to
standardize the modern calendar or iron out the kinks of the Gregorian
calendar. The crusade for calendar modernization found one of its most
prominent champions in 19th-century industrialist George Eastman, the
founder of the Eastman Kodak Co. Driven by a desire to create a more
business-friendly calendar, he developed the “Eastman plan.” It was one
of the first cogent models of a fixed (or permanent) calendar and was
designed to eliminate the practical and financial inefficiencies
generated by the Gregorian calendar system.
However innovative, the Eastman plan was in
many respects crude, failing most crucially to account for and preserve
the Sabbath. Like many past attempts at calendar reform, the Eastman
plan was doomed by its failure to address religious and cultural
concerns. Indeed, one of the major criticisms of such calendar reforms
is that they interfered with religious days of rest, which play an
integral role in the organization of economic activity, i.e. “the work
week.”
Faith leaders call for unity, 75 years after the liberation of Auschwitz
Church Times. 24 January 2020
THE 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz should be used
“to come before God in worship, conscious of our need for forgiveness,
but committed to action that would seek the common flourishing of all”,
the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.
In a statement released this week, in advance of Holocaust
Memorial Day on Monday, Archbishop Welby said: “The Holocaust, the
Shoah, remains a unique stain on the history of Europe, and a chilling
reminder to me of how millennia of Christian anti-Jewish hatred could
provide a seedbed for such evil.”
The Council of Christians and Jews (CCJ) has released a prayer for this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day. It was launched at an event in the House of the Lords on Monday, where it was read by the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally.
The chair of the CCJ, the Bishop of Lichfield,
Dr Michael Ipgrave, said: “Through prayer, we will be asking Christians
to remember the pains of the past, and to recommit to a better future
for all people, and, in particular, of course, to commit themselves to
combating anti-Semitism, which is such a scourge in our society and our world.”
The chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT),
Olivia Marks-Woldman, said: “This year, we reflect on the theme ‘Stand
Together’. In the run-up to the Holocaust, and in each subsequent
genocide, perpetrators took deliberate steps to stop their designated
victims living, studying, and working alongside their neighbours.
Communities were stopped from being together.
“And, today, we know
that prejudice and hostility based on faith or identity is still
prevalent in many areas. Indeed, in some cases, it is even on the
increase. We need to show solidarity to others.”
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
What You Need to Know About Gene-Edited Farm Animals
Organic Consumer January 8, 2020
For
decades, the biotech industry has spun a narrative around genetically
engineered crops that could be summed up very simply as “jam tomorrow,
instead of bread and butter today.”
Sustained—and financed—largely on the promise of spectacular success at some unidentified point in the future,
the research and development of new types of GMO foods, made with a
whole host of new genetic engineering technologies, has gathered pace in
recent years.
These
days, without most people being aware of it, genetic engineering is
spreading from the crops in the field to the animals in the barn.
Using new genome editing (sometimes referred to as “gene editing”) techniques like CRISPR, biotech
breeders are proposing to breed a brave new world of farm animals that
don’t get sick, don’t feel pain and produce more meat, milk and eggs at a
lower cost than ever before.
Not
many NGOs are currently working on this issue and it can be hard to
find good information to help make sense of it all. But two recent
reports provide in-depth information on the mechanics as well as the
ethical issues around gene-edited farm animals.
One, from Friends of the Earth, entitled “Genetically Engineered Animals: From Lab to Factory Farm,”
is an extensively referenced report that provides key background
information and highlights the urgent need for safety assessments of
genome-edited animals.
The other, “Gene-edited Animals in Agriculture,”
is a report from a day-long roundtable in June 2019, co-hosted by my
organization, Beyond GM, and Compassion in World Farming in the UK. The
roundtable involved individuals representing a wide range of
perspectives. What emerged was a fascinating glimpse into not only the
technology, but also the ethics and values systems that underpin that
technology.
If
you are new to the subject of genetically engineering farm animals for
food, if it concerns you or if you just want to know more in order to be
an informed consumer, these two reports provide an important starting
point
What could go wrong with military robots?
RT 5 Jan, 2020
When human troops are replaced by robots on the battlefield, it
won’t be because the Pentagon's had some revelation about the value of
human life – it’ll be an effort to defuse anti-war protests by
minimizing visible casualties.
US military commanders are
itching to get their hands on some killer robots after an Army war game
saw a human-robot coalition repeatedly rout an all-human company three
times its size. The technology used in the computer-simulated clashes
doesn’t exist quite yet – the concept was only devised a few months
ago – but it’s in the pipeline, and that should concern anyone who
prefers peace to war. More
The Hidden Uses of 5G Technology
Walking Times December 23, 2019
At the London Summit, the 29 member countries of NATO agreed to
“guarantee the security of our communications, including 5G”. Why is
this fifth generation of mobile data transmission so important for NATO?
While
the earlier technologies were perfected to create ever more advanced
smartphones, 5G is designed not only to improve their performance, but
mainly to link digital systems which need enormous quantities of data in
order to work automatically. The most important 5G applications will
not be intended for civil use, but for the military domain.
The
possibilities offered by this new technology are explained by the
Defense Applications of 5G Network Technology, published by the Defense
Science Board, a federal committee which provides scientific advice for
the Pentagon –
The emergence of 5G technology, now commercially available, offers the Department of Defense the opportunity to take advantage, at minimal cost, of the benefits of this system for its own operational requirements.
In other words, the 5G commercial network, built and activated by private companies, will be used by the US armed forces at
a much lower expenditure than that necessary if the network were to be
set up with an exclusively military goal. Military experts foresee that
the 5G system will play an essential role for the use of hypersonic
weapons – missiles, including those bearing nuclear warheads, which
travel at a speed superior to Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound). In
order to guide them on variable trajectories, changing direction in a
fraction of a second to avoid interceptor missiles, it is necessary to
gather, elaborate and transmit enormous quantities of data in a very
short time. The same thing is necessary to activate defences in case of
an attack with this type of weapon – since there is not enough time to
take such decisions, the only possibility is to rely on 5G automatic
systems.
This new technology will also play a key role in the battle network. With
the capability of simultaneously linking millions of transceivers
within a defined area, it will enable military personnel – departments
and individuals – to transmit to one another, almost in real-time, maps,
photos and other information about the operation under way.
5G
will also be extremely important for the secret services and special
forces. It will enable control and espionage systems which are far more
efficient than those we use today. It will improve the lethality of
killer drones and war robots by giving them the capacity of identifying,
following and targeting people on the basis of facial recognition and
other characteristics. The 5G network, as a weapon of high-tech
capacity, will also become the target for cyber-attacks and war actions
carried out with new generation weapons.
As well as the United
States, this technology is under development by China and other
countries. The international disagreement concerning 5G is therefore not
only commercial. The military implications of 5G are almost
entirely ignored, because the critics of this technology, including many
scientists, are concentrating their attention on its toxic affects for
health and the environment, due to exposure to very
low-frequency electromagnetic fields. This engagement is of course of
the greatest importance, but must be linked to research on the military
use of this technology, financed indirectly by ordinary users. One of
its greatest attractions, which favours the dissemination of 5G
smartphones, will be the possibility of participating, by subscription,
in war games of impressive realism in direct contact with players from
all over the world. In this way, without realising it, the players will
be financing the preparation for war – but this time it will be a real
war.
Sunday, January 19, 2020
Is God Plural in Greek?
In the Old Testament, the
most common Hebrew word for “God” is “elohim”. (Strongs 0430 Myhla ‘elohiym el-o-heem’)
It is (sometimes) used as
the plural form of the singular noun (strongs 0433) hwla ‘eloah.
Trinitarians commonly make
the mistake of claiming that this plural appearance of the word
is “proof” of their Trinitarian doctrine.
However this claim is
seriously wrong! It is an abuse of the Hebrew Grammar. We must
NOT ignore the fact that although “elohim” looks plural
because of its suffix “IM”, it is most often singular in its own
right. To distinguish between the singular and
plural uses of “elohim” you have to be able to read Hebrew and
know a little bit of Hebrew grammar. (or know someone who does!)
When it is mean to be understood as singular, it is accompanied
by SINGULAR verbs and pronouns. And when it is meant to be
understood as plural it is accompanied by PLURAL verbs and
pronouns. (Hebrew is a complicated language. There are a very
few instances where this rule does not apply. However these
relatively rare cases do not affect our main conclusions here)
When ELOHIM is used as a
proper name, or when referring to Israel's ONE God, it is
treated as a singular noun.
WHEN ELOHIM IS TRANSLATED INTO GREEK
It helps to look at how
“elohim” is translated into the Greek language
The Greek language doesn’t
have this same “singular/plural appearance” problem.
In the Septuagint version of
the Old Testament, and the Greek New Testament, when OT
references to “elohim” as the ONE God of Israel are translated
into Greek the word "theos" is used. “Theos" is always a SINGULAR noun. You
can’t ever mistake it for plural!!
When plural “elohim” meaning
(idol) “gods” is translated into Greek the plural form "thea" or "theoi" is easy to distinguish. And when elohim refers to
“goddess” or goddesses”, the singular is translated by “thea”. and the plural by “theai”.
LATIN
The same happens in the
Latin translations. When “elohim” refers to plural (idol) “gods”
(note the lower case) the
term “deus” (singular) or “dei” (plural) is used, When it means
“goddesses, “dea” (singular) or “deai” (plural) is used, while
for the Christian God the Latin uses simply “Deus” (singular).
From this it ought to be
clear that when the OT Hebrew “elohim” refers to the ONE God of
Israel, BOTH the Greek and the Latin recognise that it is a
singular noun.
There is no possible
justification for claiming that it supports the doctrine of the
trinity. Allon Maxwell
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)