Posted in Christian Persecution, Church Falling Away, Days of Noah, Deception, End Times Prophecy, One World Currency, One World Government, One World Religion, Rapture, Salvation, tagged christian persecution, chruch falling away, days of noah, deception, end times prophecy, global currency, global government, interfaith, one world currency, one world government, one world religion, Rapture, salvation on September 23, 2010|
Wonderful teaching about prophecy from the pulpit, oh I wish we could have more of this these days in our churches…
I plan on pulling the end times portions each week and posting them here.
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Posted in Antichrist, Church Falling Away, Deception, End Times Prophecy, One World Religion, tagged alliance of civilizations, church falling away, deception, end times prophecy, global religious system, interfaith dialogue, interfaith movement, Narrow and wide gates, one world religion, prophecy, tolerance on September 22, 2010|
Amazing article on where we are headed and some good links to all of the infrastructure being put into place.
You can see this all around us know, framing people as extremists or moderates. We are beginning to see this done with Christianity. Those that hold true to the Bible as the Truth, Jesus is the only way, are being labeled as intolerant.
Be watchful so you are not deceived!
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Interfaith movement brings world closer to global religious system
During the last days prior to the return of Jesus Christ, one of the many signs heralding His return will be a global apostasy (2 Thessalonians 2:3) coinciding with a global cry for peace.(1 Thessalonians 5:3) Globalized communications of our day facilitate the rise and speed of this falling away from the faith, and have also been prophesied since the Bible foretells the world will see certain events come to pass. (Revelation 11:9-10; 17:8)
With nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons technology, terrorist threats, combined with several nations increasingly more hungry for power and domination than for true peace, the capability of mankind destroying all life on earth today, is real. Over 2000 years ago, Jesus predicted this capability for world destruction at a time when only spears and swords were the weapons used. (Matthew 24:21-22)
All these factors and more, play into the role of fulfilling the prophecy found in Revelation chapter 13, the time coming when the Antichrist , or ‘false messiah’ forms his one world religion (Revelation 13:12)
To get to the point of global worship of the Antichrist who will rule the world temporarily during the tribulation prior to the return of Jesus Christ , the true Messiah, there must (logically) be a global ‘conditioning’ or preparation, and this begins with apostasy, or the ‘falling away’ from the true faith in Jesus Christ in much of the Christian world. This is happening right now and increasingly so, with the global cry for peace. Jesus Christ is denied as being the ‘only way, truth, and life’ (John 14:6) and in many churches, this truth is excluded (subtly in many cases with a weak gospel) in the name of ‘peace and tolerance.’ How can this happen? What is the motive or inspiration? This is an examination of only a few factors working together to bring about this change.
Posted in Church Falling Away, End Times Prophecy, tagged church support of israel, end time prophecy, end times prophecy, eschatology, israel watch, prophecy, side issue on September 20, 2010|
A good article from Israel Watch, a weekly commentary by Jim Fletcher.
This week his commentary addresses the churches stance on Israel.
Unfortunately, we are not all on the same path or with one voice for Israel…
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Increasingly, I feel ill winds blowing for Israel. On all fronts, the Jewish state is threatened, and most of them we expect. The PLO, foreign diplomats, various terrorist groups worldwide, dictators like Hugo Chavez…these are the obvious villains. They deserve the label.
Yet the threat that bothers me most is the one from the Church. The subject itself is controversial, and even diabolical in that many of those who “oppose Joshua” today would deny that they do!
Posted in Church Falling Away, End Times Prophecy, One World Currency, One World Government, Rapture, tagged atlas shrugged, end time prophecy, high taxes, one world currency, one world government, Rapture, who's john galt on September 19, 2010|
For those that have not read Atlas Shrugged, it was set in a very similar situation.
All of the producers and successful people were vilified and shut down through government intervention, regulation, or other backroom deals, always for the “good of the people”. So they just started disappearing? Decided to leave.
This is a great article below of what we are doing to our country. Anytime you have 50% of the country not paying any taxes and 2% paying more than the other 98% something is seriously wrong.
Will we see an exodus, it is still yet to be seen, but the fact that more and more people are becoming vocal about it, is surely a sign.
America is not mentioned in the end times, our economic might will have fallen. Could we be exporting it?
From a different angle, we can imagine what would happen to our society if all of the economic producers left. What do you think will happen, when all of the “moral” producers (restrainers) leave (are taken)? What would the world be like?
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America: Love it or (if you’re rich enough) leave it?
Glen Esnard, a Newport Beach executive for real estate services firm Grubb & Ellis, went to bat in the Wall Street Journal last week for high-income-earners who believe it’s unfair that their tax rates should rise on Jan. 1, as President Obama proposes.
Esnard also suggested that the answer might be for the better-heeled to find a new country.
Posted in Church Falling Away, End Times Prophecy, Rapture, tagged bible study, christianity, church falling away, end time prophecy, house church, prophecy, Rapture on September 19, 2010|
So for some reason this headline on fox caught my eye, something just drew me to read it. And I am glad I did, the story is very different from the headline. And I was taken back at how it is being treated.
This exact same story could have been told a lot different and not strayed from the stated facts. Now, I am not supporting or condemning the actions of this group, just using it as an example of how things are starting to change/transition.
Those that believe in the inerrant word of the Bible, fundamentalists, those that believe in the end times, are going to be shifted to ‘cult’ or ‘cult-like’ in the not so distant future, in fact you could argue they already are by the existence of this story.
The two areas that struck me the most were first when the article’s author stated that:
“…they were awaiting the Rapture, which some Christians believe is an event during which they will be gathered together in the air and reunited with Christ.”
Some, not most, or almost all, or fundamentalists. Only some Christians believe. This article really drives home a glimpse of what it may be like after the “event” that evidently only “some” Christians believe will occur.
Second, was how they described the group.
Chicas apparently had formed her own religious group, Parker said. About 12 to 15 people would gather at her home in Palmdale, a high-desert city of 139,000, and one night about a week ago, they didn’t leave until 2 a.m., said neighbor Cheri Kofahl.
“We’ve got a group here that’s practicing some orthodox and some unorthodox Christianity,” Parker said. “Obviously this falls under the unorthodox.”
Others who knew Chicas said she was devout but hardly fanatic in her religious beliefs.
So let me get this right. We have about 12 to 15 people gathering in a woman’s home to study the bible at night and staying late occasionally. And that is considered practicing unorthodox Christianity?
Normally that would be called a bible study in the US, or in other countries that would be called the house church. How many disciples did Jesus have? Twelve, and where did they meet most of the time? Oh, in people’s houses at night over a meal.
How far have we strayed as a world? Can you feel the shift?
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Leader of ‘Cult-Like’ Religious Sect Hospitalized
PALMDALE, California — The leader of a breakaway religious sect was hospitalized Sunday for a mental evaluation after she and members of her group went missing and left behind evidence that they were awaiting the Rapture or some catastrophic event.
Continue… (more…)
Posted in Christian Persecution, Church Falling Away, Devotional, Salvation on September 6, 2010|
Must see video, it is a little under an hour, but worth every minute.
It is what America needs.
The Truth! No punches pulled.
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Paul Washer’s shocking message to America
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Click on the article title for a link to full original referenced article.
Posted in Church Falling Away, Deception, Salvation on September 5, 2010|
Great article on the Deception Satan uses to lead Christians & Non-believers astray.
Three main tactics he outlines.
Lust of the flesh
Lust for the yes
The pride of life
Example of Satan using all three from the very beginning:
Satan pulled that trick when he deceived Eve in the garden, and laid out his scheme for defeating mankind. He told Eve, in words as smooth as butter on a hot biscuit, “Has God indeed said ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” [my italics] (Genesis 3:1b). This subtle inquiry tells Eve that God was holding out on her ”right to know everything” .
But, no, God said they could eat of every tree except the one in the midst of the garden, lest you die, she responds. The devil implies that God lied to her, that He is holding back vital information from her. He says God knows, if she eats of that tree, her eyes will be opened and she will be like God, knowing good from evil. She, now, has been set up, and she realizes that the fruit of the tree was “good for food’ (lust of the flesh), it was “pleasant to the eyes” (lust of the yes), and “it would make one wise” (the pride of life). It is just as John described it in I John 2:16.
We must be watchful, and study God’s Word and Jesus’ warnings…
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the give of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.” — Ephesians 2:8-9
Posted in Church Falling Away, End Times Prophecy, One World Religion on September 2, 2010|
End times prophecy tells us that there will be both a falling away within the church as well as the rise of a single world religion.
The two articles here show the contrast of the direction we are heading.
The first article talks about how certain church leaders have written the president urging and encouraging him to stand strong for peace and end the occupation that began in 1967. Wait who’s side are they on? (That’s another story for another day…) What I noticed while reading the article is how reliant they were on the human ability, yes the mentioned prayer, but most of it was on our human ability to achieve lasting peace.
From the Bible, we know that only Jesus, will bring lasting peace to earth following His second coming after the tribulation.
I was especially shocked at the statement: (more…)
Posted in Christian Persecution, Church Falling Away, Deception, One World Religion on August 30, 2010|
This story is very disturbing. There are so many articles these days on how Islam is aggressively moving into areas of our government, society, and country in general. It is almost like creeping sharia went into high gear.
One of my theories, that is shared by several others, is that Islam will have a huge role in the Antichrist’s tribulation government, economy, and religion. (But more on that in a separate post.)
It does feel like Islam is making a full court press on America, as if someone said go, go.
Most Americans are probably oblivious. We must wake them up.
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Coming August 31: ‘Direct Access’ Stimulus Grants for the Muslim Brotherhood
Think of it as ACORN reborn, with a slice of Jihad on the side.
On August 31, this coming Tuesday, the Muslim Brotherhood-associated “Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations” (CCMO) will bring 25-30 Muslim leaders of 20 national Muslim groups to attend a special workshop presented by the White House and U.S. Government agencies (Agriculture, Education, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services etc.) to provide the groups “funding, government assistance and resources.” The workshop will apparently provide special access for these Muslim Brotherhood organizations: the organizers pledge to provide “direct access” and “cut through red tape.” Government and Muslim groups will hold an Iftar dinner (breaking the fast of Ramadan) after the workshop.
The event was announced in an email newsletter sent August 27 by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial, long associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, the global Islamist network (great backgrounder here from Hudson Institute). Here are three key paragraphs from the email (the entire article on the August 31 event from the ISNA email is pasted below this post as reference):
This year, a phenomenal next step has been made where government iftars become coupled with workshops to provide resources and benefit the Muslim community. The US Department of Agriculture (DOA) and the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations (CCMO) have paired the first of such events, scheduled for August 31, 2010.
…Leaders from Muslim organizations around the nation, particularly social service organizations, are invited to a workshop with representatives from the DOA, Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Health and Human Services, the White House, Department of Education, the Department of Homeland Security, and more. Twenty five to thirty Muslim leaders representing 20 Muslim organizations are expected to attend the workshop.
According to a representative of CCMO, this workshop is designed to clarify how Muslim nonprofits, mosques, Islamic centers, and social service organizations can strengthen their communities through more direct access to opportunities provided to social service agencies at the Federal level. “It will hopefully help cut through some of the red tape and shine light on the many opportunities for funding, government assistance, and resources that we just don’t know about at the local level,” said Elsanousi.
The Problem: Your Money, redistributed to the Muslim Brotherhood
This workshop constitutes an abdication of their professional responsibility by all government participants – and a taxpayer-funded government stimulus program for the attending Muslim Brotherhood-associated groups. The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928, is a global Islamist political movement dedicated to imposing Shariah law on all nations and institutions. Their credo is “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”
Why do we think some of these groups attending, possibly all, may be associated with the Muslim Brotherhood?
Because the sponsoring organization – the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations (CCMO), co-sponsoring with the Department of Agriculture – has a long history of associations with the Muslim Brotherhood. They also signed a 2009 American Muslim Task Force statement threatening to “suspend” relations with the FBI, because the FBI was investigating possible links to homegrown terrorism in mosques and other Muslim organizations.
Not so evident on the current website, of course. This happens all the time with groups associated with the Muslim Brotherhood – the current CCMO website has a LOT less information than the older ones preserved at archive.org (aka “The Wayback Machine”). Here are the previous websites for the CCMO from 2004-2008. The pre-whitewashed CCMO websites are highly revealing. They expose the degree to which this Administration intends to direct taxpayer money (and “reduced red tape”) to Muslim Brotherhood-associated organizations in the U.S.
The Administration has not revealed which 20 groups and 25-30 leaders will attend the special workshop, but if they include the 41 CCMO members listed in 2007, the attendees could include the following groups , which I’ve linked to descriptions published by The Investigative Project (please support their work):
The Islamic Society of North America, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Terrorism Finance trial, and the source of Friday’s email promoting this CCMO/Department of Agriculture Event;
The Council on American Islamic Relations, shunned by the FBI, several of its leaders indicted or convicted for terrorism, a possible violator of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, sued for fraud by Muslim, Hispanic and African-American families, named as an unindicted co-conspirator (CAIR fundraiser advertised at the CCMO site);
The International Institute of Islamic Thought , the “think tank” of the Muslim Brotherhood, described at that link by The Grand Jihad author and former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy. One of the current and longest serving officers of CCMO is Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, founder of the educational arm of IIIT, the Fairfax Institute and the Director of Outreach Program for Dar-ul Hijrah “Terror” Mosque – more on him below.
The Muslim Public Affairs Committee , exposed in that linked 88-page IPT report particularly for their defense of terrorists and terrorist financers. MPAC advertised here at the CCMO site for an event co-sponsored by Islamic Free Market Institute, the latter described in Paul Sperry’s pathbreaking book Infiltration)
The Dar al Hijrah Mosque (known as the “Terror Mosque” in Northern Virginia for its links to imprisoned, indicted or wanted terrorists as vividly described by Frank Gaffney), advertised here at the CCMO site.
The Muslim American Society “Freedom Foundation” run by three-time felon Mahdi Bray (MASFF Fundraiser advertised at the CCMO site). The Muslim American Society was originally founded as the U.S. branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. MAS leader Mahdi Bray was elected on September 7, 2003 to the Executive Committee by over 40 CCMO member organizations.
I suggest that the Administration knows these groups are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. They think that’s a good thing.
This isn’t incompetence; it’s intentional.
The CCMO Officers: Muslim Brotherhood Leaders
These are not just your garden-variety Muslim Brotherhood operatives. The CCMO officers include leading national and international figures in the Muslim Brotherhood, settled in the Washington DC suburbs to enjoy “direct access” to the Administration and Congress. CCMO is a major U.S. node in the loosely coordinated Muslim Brotherhood network. Just the fellows to give your tax dollars as stimulus money!
CCMO appears to have started as an umbrella organization in the late 1980s, when so many Muslim Brotherhood organizations were expanding. According to this 2005 article at Washington, DC’s Muslim Link Newspaper, CCMO was 18 years old in that year, making the start date around 1987.
Who are these CCMO officers? We could write a book on each of them; their personal biographies are the tale of the Muslim Brotherhood’s ongoing “Project” to bring Shariah Law to America. Here are brief sketches on a few (Mahdi Bray, previously a CCMO officer and linked above, is not on the current CCMO board):
Dr. Iqbal Unus
Unus, like fellow CCMO officer Anwar Haddam below, holds the position currently of “Member at Large” on the CCMO board. Daniel Pipes notes that Unus unsuccessfully sued anti-terrorism researcher Rita Katz, and that his house was searched in the Green Quest investigation. He’s a leader in an alphabet soup of groups named as unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial, or known to be associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Just review his published biography ( pdf ) from a 2007 “Islamophobia Conference” in Turkey (here’s the conference program in Google translation to English). Several of the organizations he directs are listed in “An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America,” the Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial’s most famous document (p. 32), which I noted in brackets below in Unus’ bio below:
Dr. Iqbal Unus is director of The Fairfax Institute (TFI), the instructional division of International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) [listed on p. 32], located near Washington, D.C., U.S.A., where he has also served as director of human development and director of administration since 1989. Between 1995 and 1998, he taught and worked at the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences as dean of students and registrar. Prior to joining IIIT, Dr. Unus served as secretary general of Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) [listed on p. 32] after having worked as director of administration and assistant secretary general since 1977. Between 1980 and 1982, Dr. Unus taught in the applied sciences and nuclear engineering departments at King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Dr. Iqbal Unus has had a wide ranging volunteer service experience in the Muslim community in the United States for over 37 years. Some of the prominent offices he has held include president of the Muslim Students Association [listed on p. 32] of the United States and Canada (1975), several offices including president of the Association of Muslim Scientists and Engineers (AMSE) [listed on p. 32], member of Majls ash Shura of Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) [listed on p. 32], trustee of Amana Mutual Funds Trust, working committee member of International Council of Awqaf and Non-Governmental Organizations (ICANO), board member of Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations in Washington Area (CCMO), and trustee of All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS).
In his lecture at the 2007 Islamophobia conference, Unus stated, “Western academic institutions must reevaluate their curriculum on all levels and purge material that may encourage or promote violence or hatred towards others through Islamophobia and xenophobia.” Why this is important: the Department of Education will attend the August 31 workshop to provide “direct access” to grants. Americans have a right to know if the DoE will be talking to Unus on August 31 about funding projects to purge school curricula according to Unus’ standards.
Johari Abdul-Malik
Johari is a convert to Islam; he was formerly Winslow Seale of Brooklyn New York. Johari is currently CCMO Treasurer, and he has previously been Chairman of CCMO. He is the Director of Outreach at the Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center near Washington DC. Dar al Hijrah is exposed in this report from the Investigative Project, in which the Department of Treasury’s Enforcement Communications System (TECS) records describe it as “a mosque operating as a front for Hamas operatives in U.S.,” “is associated with Islamic extremists,” “has been under numerous investigations for financing and proving aid and comfort to bad orgs and members,” has “been linked to numerous individuals linked to terrorism financing,” and “has also been associated with encouraging fraudulent marriages.”
Furthermore, his history of statements defending terrorist recruiter and trainer Al-Awlaki, promoting violence against Israel, and claiming that Islam will be the “first religion” in America are standard Muslim Brotherhood doctrine. His advocacy of terrorism against Israel in 2001 was particularly troublesome: he enthuses over specific acts of terrorism, with a passing nod to avoiding civilian casualties, almost as murderous as the violent guerrilla warfare in Algeria endorsed by CCMO officer Anwar Haddam (see below):
I am gonna teach you now. You can blow up bridges, but you cannot kill people who are innocent on their way to work. You can blow up power supplies… the water supply, you can do all forms of sabotage and let the world know that we are doing it like this because they have a respect for the lives of innocent people.
In the last two months, after highly critical media exposure on the radicalism of the Dar al Hijra Mosque, Johari has suddenly modified his behavior. On June 8, 2010, Johari announced his resignation from a variety of openly- Muslim Brotherhood-connected organizations, remaining as a representative of those interests on interfaith boards. He resigned from:
1. Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA)
2. Muslim Council of America (MCA)
3. American Muslim Task-Force (Representative of MANA)
4. MELD/EVEN START
5. North American Imams Federation (Founding Board member)
6. Georgetown U – Chaplain Advisory board
7. University of MD-Chaplain Board
Also to his credit, on June 20, he published a post urging the removal from Islamic store Halaco.com (also his neighborhood store) of two sets of publications or recordings: 1) those by Dar al-Hijrah’s previous Imam, terrorist Al -Awlaki, and 2) the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Christian Broadcasting Network had just exposed the Halalco.com bookstore for carrying radicalizing materials.
Whether Johari’s statements reveal a tactical retreat, in the face of public exposure of the Muslim Brotherhood associations of his prior directorships, or a genuine rejection of the Muslim Brotherhood ideology, remains to be determined, since he retained his leadership positions in CCMO and Dar al Hijrah. This administration reportedly has favored Dar al Hijrah previously with a government contract from the U.S. Census Bureau costing taxpayers $23,000/month since November 2008, and serious questions should be asked about how much “direct access” Dar al Hijrah will have at the August 31 workshop.
Anwar N. Haddam
Haddam is listed at the CCMO website as Member-At-Large on the Board (a title held earlier by Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation head Mahdi Bray). Prominently displayed in the menu of the CCMO websites from 2004-2008 (but whitewashed from the current site) is this report – First Impressions: American Muslim Perspectives on the 9/11 Commission Report – sponsored by CCMO, published by IIIT (see above) and edited and authored by another coalition of Muslim Brotherhood-associated groups, the American Muslim Task Force. Of the several authors for the Report, one to note is Anwar N. Haddam. According to his bio in the “First Impressions” book, Haddam is a long-time and currently listed board member of CCMO, “elected to the Algerian Parliament in December 1991… currently Advisor to the Islamic Front for Salvation (FIS-Algeria)… involved with the Algerian Islamic Movement.”
What the bio doesn’t mention is that the Clinton Administration kept Haddam detained for four years, based on classified evidence. He had already been banned from Algeria. In late 2000, in spite of efforts to prevent his release from detention by Attorney General Janet Reno and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), he was granted asylum in the U.S. by the Board of Immigration Appeals. That decision, according to an assessment at Sheikh Qaradawi’s islamonline.net, was due to “political pressure from the Muslim community in Europe and the US, as well as from members of the US Congress.”Earlier, in 1996, Daniel Pipes and Patrick Clawson had conducted an extraordinary in-depth interview with Haddam, published in the Middle East Quarterly, which exposes his absolute dedication to imposing an Islamist State in Algeria based on Shariah law, regardless of the costs in human life or liberties. Haddam himself wrote a revealing memoir of his leadership of the banned Islamic Front for Salvation. Algeria is an example of what happens when a somewhat secular Muslim-majority country is targeted by the Muslim Brotherhood – in this case, Haddam’s Islamic Front for Salvation – to force it to become an Islamic state. Decades of civil war, over 200,000 dead – and under this administration, a remorseless leader invited to the White House for “direct access” to grants using your money.
Here’s the abstract of a speech Haddam made in 2009, in which he describes himself (and the nature of his political party) in words relevant for the August 31 meeting: “The author of this paper – who has been in charge of the international relations of one of the first contemporary political parties of Islamic obedience…” Just to drive the point home here, that means he considers himself in the U.S. in official capacity (detained or not), representing a political party that is a leader in creating the Islamist state: “political parties of Islamic obedience.” And to connect the dots, that would be the same “Shariah-Compliant State” – also known as a state of “Islamic obedience” – that Ground Zero Mosque Imam Rauf is promoting for the U.S. and worldwide through his Shariah Index Project.
Congress should ask: will CCMO be given “financial assistance” to help further Haddam’s political goals for Algeria, working among the expatriate community here in the U.S. – or his goals for America?
Faizul Khan
Faizul Khan is Assistant Secretary-Treasurer for CCMO. He was the imam, recently replaced, at the Maryland Muslim Community Center Mosque attended for years by Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Malik Hasan, until Hasan moved to Texas and shortly after killed thirteen people and wounded dozens. (He also reportedly attended services at CCMO-related Dar al Hijra Mosque in northern Virginia.) Khan is also on the board of ISNA, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial.
In interviews after the shootings, Imam Feizul Khan referred to Hasan as “very devout.” This is, to say the least, an understatement. In fact, it’s not unlike another CCMO officer (and Dar al Hijrah spokesman) Johar minimizing the radicalism of al-Awlaki when the latter attended Dar al Hijrah. Somehow, terrorists Hasan and al-Awlaki were merely devout in these two CCMO-related mosques right before they went completely jihadist on America.
Stephen Schwartz exposed the radical associations of Khan’s mosque in November 2009 in this article in the NY Post. Schwartz found that Faizul’s Mosque website advertises for the Shariah Compliant “Amana Mutual Fund” which he states is still under investigation by the FBI. Faizul’s Maryland mosque also “hosted at least four talks by Enver Masud, the founder of The Wisdom Fund, the main Muslim ‘truther’ group in America.”
So, what is to be done between now and Tuesday, August 31?
Let’s review.
CCMO – the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations – is co-sponsoring the August 31 event with the Department of Agriculture. CCMO has deep and broad ties, possibly dating since 1987, to the Muslim Brotherhood.The issue: If the Obama administration is preferencing one religion over others for special workshops, “direct access” and cutting red tape for financial assistance, that’s not only wrong, it may be unconstitutional; combining the funding workshop with an Iftar dinner just makes it worse.
One solution: Cancel this meeting, and schedule one for all religious organizations. If government grants are to be given to religious groups (a policy some question, but set that aside here), then all grant applicants of all religions, including Muslims should be treated equally. And if Muslim social service groups attend, they should be ones without ties to the Muslim Brotherhood or other Islamist groups dedicated to imposing Shariah law in the U.S.
An alternate solution: Keep the event as currently planned – apparently arranged and dominated by CCMO – but open it up to the media (including network, cable, radio, Big Peace, bloggers, etc.) as well as organizations with expertise on the Muslim Brotherhood, like the Investigative Project, the Middle East Forum, NEFA Foundation, Hudson Institute, the Center for Security Policy and many others. Let the sunshine in…
After all, surely this administration – and CCMO – have nothing to hide?
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Here’s the email in entirety:
Iftar with Our Government:
Serving up Resources for American Muslim Communities
In celebration of Ramadan, ISNA leadership and staff have been busy attending iftars hosted by the White House, State Department, Federal and State Agencies, Embassies, elected officials and interfaith partners.
“These iftars are a place to celebrate the diversity of America with our partners in the government and interfaith communities,” said ISNA Director for the Office of Interfaith and Community Alliances Dr. Sayyid Syeed. He adds, “They are also evidence that Muslims and our traditions are more regularly incorporated into the mosaic of cultures and traditions that form the foundation of American life.”
Although these iftars are important symbols of the transition of Muslims into mainstream American culture, according to ISNA Director of Community Outreach Mohamed Elsanousi, they are also a very important place for brainstorming and the development of practical ideas to help the Muslim community.
“Muslim community members have been asking for more from these iftars for years now. They have contacted ISNA and requested that we work with our partners in government to make the dinners more useful to our communities at the local levels,” said ISNA Director of Community Outreach Mohamed Elsanousi.This year, a phenomenal next step has been made where government iftars become coupled with workshops to provide resources and benefit the Muslim community. The US Department of Agriculture (DOA) and the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations (CCMO) have paired the first of such events, scheduled for August 31, 2010.
“ISNA is happy to join other nation-wide Muslim organizations and participate in this workshop. We absolutely expect that there will be more of these paired iftars and workshops in future Ramadans,” said Elsanousi.
The Workshop: So what exactly is this workshop, you may ask. Leaders from Muslim organizations around the nation, particularly social service organizations, are invited to a workshop with representatives from the DOA, Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Health and Human Services, the White House, Department of Education, the Department of Homeland Security, and more. Twenty five to thirty Muslim leaders representing 20 Muslim organizations are expected to attend the workshop.
According to a representative of CCMO, this workshop is designed to clarify how Muslim nonprofits, mosques, Islamic centers, and social service organizations can strengthen their communities through more direct access to opportunities provided to social service agencies at the Federal level. “It will hopefully help cut through some of the red tape and shine light on the many opportunities for funding, government assistance, and resources that we just don’t know about at the local level,” said Elsanousi.
The Iftar: Following the workshop, the DOA will host an Iftar to acknowledge and thank Muslim employees for their dedication and to the DOA. Keynote speakers will discuss the issues of increasing access to healthy foods for all communities and the powerful communal and sacred aspects of food. In addition to the DOA employees and representatives of various Muslim organizations, the DOA also invited Muslim employees from various other government agencies. The Deputy Secretary of the Department of Agriculture is also scheduled to attend.
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Link to full original article: Coming August 31: ‘Direct Access’ Stimulus Grants for the Muslim Brotherhood
Posted in Church Falling Away, Deception, One World Religion on August 30, 2010|
Evil has infiltrated our churches with their progressive agenda, social justice, and collective salvation.
We must be watchful, and make sure we are founded in the Word of God, the Bible! So we are not deceived.
Christ warned us about the false prophets and that many would be misled.
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Wallis-Soros ties surfacing
The leader of the “progressive Christian” Sojourners movement has accepted funding from leftist atheist billionaire George Soros.
Mark Tooley, president of The Institute on Religion & Democracy (IRD), tells OneNewsNow the information about Jim Wallis receiving the funds surfaced recently in a report from WORLD Magazine.
“This was significant in that Jim Wallis in recent years has adamantly insisted he did not belong to either side of the political spectrum, but essentially was a centrist who was transcending left and right and was simply a purely Christian activist,” Tooley notes. But in fact, he continues, with the Wallis-Soros connection now confirmed, “Wallis…stands exposed as what he always was: a man of the political left.”
Wallis — a spiritual advisor to President Obama — has openly stated in the past that Sojourners did not receive funding from atheists, but he later issued a statement confirming there had been at least three Soros grants from Soros’ Open Society Institute totaling about $325,000. One of those grants, according to Christianity Today, totaled $100,000 and was earmarked for “immigration reform” — prompting Wallis to tell the publication: “I have no apologies for taking a donation on immigration reform from Open Society. We’d do it again.”
Tooley feels it is disingenuous for a Christian group to accept money from non-believers, and he thinks Wallis and Soros are in sync on several different levels.
“George Soros, besides being politically on the left, obviously is very pro-abortion rights and pro-euthanasia and would have very strong views on a whole range of topics involving sanctity of life and definition of marriage and others that the vast majority of orthodox Christians would disagree with,” Tooley suggests.
But the IRD president points out that at the same time, Wallis is trying to make his appeal primarily to evangelical Christians — resulting in what Tooley describes as a clear “dichotomy.”
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Link to full original article: Wallis-Soros ties surfacing
Posted in Church Falling Away, Restoring Honor on August 30, 2010|
Awesome photos of this historic event about Faith, and turning back to God and the values of our founding.
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August 30, 2010 – 3:58 ET
Thank you to the thousands of people who attended the Restoring Honor event that took place on August 28 in Washington DC. We have selected about 100 photos from the thousands that were sent in by fans, take a look below…
Restoring Honor Photos: On Stage
Take a look at Glenn, Sarah Palin, Marcus Luttrell, Albert Pujols and more…
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Restoring Honor Photos: People
Who attended the 8/28 event and why is the media so scared of them?
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Restoring Honor Photos: Crowd
The crowd was estimated at a half million, take a look for yourself…
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Restoring Honor: Front pages of newspapers
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Restoring Honor: Online Coverage
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Link to full original article: Photos of Restoring Honor Event
Posted in Church Falling Away, Restoring Honor on August 28, 2010|
Some amazing pictures, you be the judge, but it has to be between 300k-600k.
I am sure the debate will go on, but I am so proud so many attended to help deliver the message that we must turn back to God….
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Link to full original post with these pictures and more: Photos: Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor Rally
Posted in Church Falling Away, Restoring Honor on August 28, 2010|
Click on the link to the Right Scoop below to see the CSPAN video of all 3 hours.
Great, well worth watching….
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Watch Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor (3 hours)
Watch all 3 hours of Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor rally that happened on 8/28/2010. It was an amazing event that left me in tears more than I though it would. It was not about politics, but about honoring God, honoring those who have fought and currently fight for our freedom, and restoring honor and integrity to our great nation that we call America. A special thanks to CSPAN for covering the event.
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Link to full original article: Watch Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor (3 hours)
Posted in Church Falling Away, Restoring Honor on August 28, 2010|
This was an amazing event, and a very good article from the New York Times. Surprisingly fair.
This is exactly what America needs, and I believe God has been working through Glenn to call his people back. Not to a specific denomination or religion. But God wants all his children to stand behind him as we enter these challenging times.
Only God can fix the mess we have gotten ourselves into and lead us to the promise land, what ever that may be.
My favorite quote from the article was the last paragraph on the second page, Glenn said:
“My role, as I see it, is to wake America up to the backsliding of principles and values and most of all of God,” he said. “We are a country of God. As I look at the problems in our country, quite honestly, I think the hot breath of destruction is breathing on our necks and to fix it politically is a figure that I don’t see anywhere.”
Wake up America, turn back to God!
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At the Lincoln Memorial, a Call for Religious Rebirth
WASHINGTON — An enormous and impassioned crowd rallied at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday, summoned by Glenn Beck, a conservative broadcaster who called for a religious rebirth in America at the site where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech 47 years ago to the day.
“Something that is beyond man is happening,” Mr. Beck said in opening the event as the crowd thronged near the memorial grounds. “America today begins to turn back to God.”
It was part religious revival, part history lecture, as Mr. Beck invoked the founding fathers and the “black-robed regiment” of pastors of the Revolutionary War and spoke of American exceptionalism.
The crowd was a mix of groups that have come together under the Tea Party umbrella. Some wore T-shirts from the Campaign for Liberty, the libertarian group that came out of the presidential campaign of Representative Ron Paul, while others wore the gear of their local Tea Party group, or of 9/12 groups, which were founded after a special broadcast Mr. Beck did in March 2009.
But the program was distinctly different from most Tea Party rallies. While Tea Party groups have said they want to focus on fiscal conservatism and not risk alienating people by talking about religion or social issues, the rally on Saturday was overtly religious, filled with gospel music and speeches that were more like sermons.
Mr. Beck imbued his remarks on Saturday and at events the night before with references to God and a need for a religious revival. “For too long, this country has wandered in darkness,” Mr. Beck said Saturday. “This country has spent far too long worrying about scars and thinking about scars and concentrating on scars. Today, we are going to concentrate on the good things in America, the things that we have accomplished, and the things that we can do tomorrow.”
Many in the crowd said they had never been to a Tea Party rally, but they described themselves as avid Glenn Beck fans, and many said they had been motivated to come by faith.
Becky Benson, 56, traveled from Orlando, Fla., because, she said, “we believe in Jesus Christ, and he is our savior.” Jesus, she said, would not have agreed with what she called the redistribution of wealth in the form of the economic stimulus package, bank bailouts and welfare. “You cannot sit and expect someone to hand out to you,” she said. “You don’t spend your way out of debt.”
Mr. Beck’s themes were ones he returns to on his radio and television shows, and people in the crowd echoed his ideas, saying that “progressives” were moving the country toward socialism and that the country must get back to a strict interpretation of the Constitution, which would limit the role of the federal government and do away with entitlement programs.
“The federal government is only to offer us protection from our enemies and help us when we need it,” said Ron Sears, 65, who came on a caravan of three buses from Corbin, Ky. “The states are supposed to control education and everything having to do with their citizens, except when they need federal help.”
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Link to full original article: At the Lincoln Memorial, a Call for Religious Rebirth
Posted in Church Falling Away, Deception on August 26, 2010|
I have no words to describe how upsetting it is to read the article below.
How can satan infiltrate and deceive so many? I am in lock step with the article’s author as he comments on this misled editor from Christianity Today.
The Christianity Today author is not describing our God from the Bible (the only God) but satan’s view of God. His logic and words are so tangled, I don’t know where to start. Please read the article and take the commentators words to heart. We must stay watchful….
It goes to show you that you can’t just trust the name, you have to dig deeper. We are seeing this type of deception and perversion more and more today. But this is probably the worst since it is inside our Christian church with the potential to mislead so many….
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Christianity Today’s Anti-Christianity Today
According to the online encyclopedia wikipedia.org, “Christianity Today [CT] is an Evangelical Christian periodical based in Carol Stream, IL. It is the flagship publication of its parent company Christianity Today International, claiming readership of 290,000. The founder, Billy Graham, stated that he wanted to ‘plant the evangelical flag in the middle-of-the-road, taking the conservative theological position but a definite liberal approach to social problems.’
“Today it, and its 13 sister publications, reach well over 2 million readers in its traditional paperbound form, and more than 10 million pageviews per month in their Internet form.”
It was right after I became a born-again Christian more than thirty years ago that I encountered my first copy of Christianity Today. Having grown up Roman Catholic, my appetite for anything evangelical was ravenous. Yet even in those early years of my faith, there were things that I read in that magazine that troubled me. I recognized, in Mr. Graham’s own words, “a definite liberal approach to social problems” in the promotion of “Christian” psychological counseling (see TBC, July 1999 )…..
……All of this leads us to Christianity Today’s senior managing editor, Mark Galli, and his article of July 15, 2010, titled “Divine Drama Queen,” which is his characterization of the God of the Bible. We’ve reprinted here extensive excerpts of CT’s God-demeaning/man-exalting article (albeit reluctantly, due to its wicked content) as further evidence of this “evangelical” magazine’s continuing slither into the last days’ apostasy. What Galli has written is CT’s latest installment of corrupting the faith, generated from decades of undermining the Word of God and distorting the God of the Bible. Editor Galli makes this so obvious that what he writes needs few comments on my part. Nevertheless, his writing is in italics, and my words appear in brackets and regular type:
I like a tranquil, even-keeled, self-controlled God. A God who doesn’t fly off the handle at the least provocation. A God who lives one step above the fray. A God who has that British stiff upper lip even when disaster is looming.
When I read my Bible, though, I keep running into a different God, and I’m not pleased. This God says he “hates” sin. Well, he usually yells it. Read the prophets. It’s just one harangue after another, all in loud decibels. And when the shouting is over, then comes the pouting.
Take his conversation with Hosea….He orders Hosea to take a prostitute for a wife; she becomes a symbol of Israel’s unfaithfulness to God. This is no down-on-her-luck-but-with-a-heart-of-gold prostitute like those so often portrayed in movies. This is some sleazy woman who, even when given a chance at a decent life, keeps “whoring.”
God then tells Hosea to have children with this woman. When the children are born, he tells Hosea to call the first Jezreel, explaining, “I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.” The second, God calls No Mercy, because “I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all.” The third he calls Not My People, “for you are not my people, and I am not your God” (Hosea 1:1-9).
This God is like the volatile Italian woman who, upon discovering her husband’s unfaithfulness, yells and throws dishes, refuses to sleep in the same bed, and doesn’t speak to him for 40 days and 40 nights.
[I refrained from drawing conclusions up to this point on my first reading of this article because I suspected that Galli would indicate his own misunderstanding of God. I guessed wrong. This is the kind of blasphemy that one would expect from militant atheists and humanists, such as Richard Dawkins, or foul-mouthed, Christ-mocking comedians like Bill Maher. It is total blasphemy–a mischaracterization of God as well as a denigration of His perfectly holy character.]
We may think this a crude depiction, except that Jesus–God with us–seems to suffer the same emotional imbalance. He rants about Pharisees and Scribes–or “snakes” and “hypocrites,” as he calls them. So upset is he over sacrilege in the Temple, he overturns tables and drives people out with a whip. And then we find him lamenting, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! See, your house is left to you desolate!”(Matthew 23:37-38). This God knows nothing about being a non-anxious presence. This is a very anxious God, indeed.
[It’s difficult to restrain anger here. The Creator of the universe, the sacrificial Lamb of God, who paid the full penalty for our sins, and His Father, who sent Him to the Cross for our sake–they suffer from “emotional imbalance”?! They–whose Word tells us to be anxious for nothing–they are anxious?]
I’d rather have a God who takes sin in stride. Why can’t he relax and recognize that to err is human. I mean, you don’t find us flawed humans freaking out about one another’s sins. You don’t see us wrathful, indignant, and pouting. Why can’t God almighty just chill out and realize we’re just human?
[Has the reader been manipulated by Galli into fleshing out his own similar thoughts about God? Will he now set the record straight?]
It’s that little phrase, “we’re just human,” that may be the rub with God. Sin seems to be a big deal to God because apparently we’re a big deal to him. That little phrase, “we’re just human,” signals that we may not be as big a deal to ourselves….[God] believes that to be human is to be destined for glory. As Peter put it, he has “called us to his own glory and excellence,” that we “may become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:3-4).
[So much for repenting of the character assassination of God the Father and God the Son. Instead, Galli panders to mankind’s self-image, dangling before us the “glory” of humanity. He then leads the reader to the next step, self-deification–the same lie that Satan offered to Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:5).]
That’s right: he [God] thinks “just humans” can become nothing less than gods. Not in the sense of beings who should be worshipped, but beings who have become, in the fullest sense, bearers of the image and likeness of their Creator….He created beings with deep awareness of themselves and their Creator, who could envision the absolute heights they could scale and the perfect love they could enjoy, and who knew they could have all this forever and ever….
[Nowhere in Scripture do you find the word “god” (with a lowercase “g” ) ever used to denote a righteous person or entity.]
…And yet God gambled. He has thrown everything into this grand enterprise. He made the creation of these beings not a matter of course or compromise, but a matter of life or death. Everything was on the line with this roll of the dice. To win meant for these creatures a bliss that only God knows. To lose meant death and eternal destruction. There was no holding back. God was going to make human glory a winner-take-all proposition, even if it killed him.
[God gambled? Does he mean that God doesn’t know how things will turn out? This is the heresy of Open Theism, which denies God’s omniscience–denies that He is the God of prophecy as He proclaimed in Isaiah 46:9-10: “Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done….”]
So when things start going south, we find him throwing dishes and slamming doors….God rants at us as an Olympian curses himself for losing concentration during a crucial part of the race. Or as a novelist chastises herself for lazy writing. For the righteous perfectionist (versus the neurotic perfectionist), every detail matters. God wants nothing less than perfection, because he knows that perfection is the only way for us to become what he created us to become: godlike.
[Galli must be having flashbacks to his college Greek mythology classes. At least I hope that’s his excuse. Of course, he could plead insanity. How much more irrational could one be than to posit a “righteous perfectionist” who throws dishes, slams doors, rants, and curses himself. Again, this is unashamed blasphemy. It is anti-Christianity from Christianity Today.]
When the stakes are so high, of course, the consequence of failure, even in the smallest detail, spells disaster. It’s like a space shuttle–one of the most sophisticated and marvelous of machines–crashing to earth because of a faulty oil ring. When God sees the space shuttle hurtling toward its destruction, he weeps, he rants, he pulls his hair out. And something inside him dies. Our God cares about us frail, fickle, weak human beings because he knows something we often forget: we’re not “just human.” He’ll go to any length to get us to grasp and live into our glory, even if it kills him.
[Our glory? What about the glory of God that Galli has dragged through the gutter of his paganized imagination?]
This is why the Bible traffics in such dramatic language. There is nothing cautious, careful, or reasonable about the human enterprise. It’s about being lost or saved. Living in darkness or in light. Knowing despair or being filled with hope. Death or life. The Bible is not interested in a religion that merely improves the human condition, or makes life manageable. It’s not about success or happiness or helping us all get along. These are paltry aspirations. No, what God wants is to raise the dead and make gods out of sinners.
[No! Once again, that was Satan’s goal.]
So what we have, for better or worse, is a melodramatic God. He yells and throws dishes, and walks off in a huff, slamming the door behind him-and then he turns around and gives his life for us. In a foreshadowing of Jesus, he says to Israel through Hosea: “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel?…for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath” (Hosea 11:8-9). He’s anything but calm and collected, reassuring and reasonable. He’s as mercurial as gods go.
[God is] like the crazy uncle in the family. At some point, you have to let your friends know about him, but you’d just as soon avoid having to introduce him.
I much prefer reasonable religion with reasonable expectations, and a God who doesn’t get bent out of shape every time his people trip up. But then again, I don’t love as God loves. Not God. Not others. Not myself.
[So, are we to suppose that Galli was just trying to get our attention with his blasphemies for effect? Did we misunderstand his “literary cleverness”? No. What he paraded before us was a mockery of God akin to what Jesus suffered from those who gathered to watch Him being crucified and to what every God-hating humanist has since voiced.]
The road to hell is paved with reasonable religion with a non-anxious god. Most days, I’m pretty happy driving down that road. But I keep running into this Crazy Fellow along the way. At every stop light, he jumps up and down to get my attention. He pounds on my window asking me where the heck I think I’m going. He stands on the front bumper, shouting at me to turn around. When all else fails, he throws himself in front of the car. He’s such a drama queen.
[Galli is “pretty happy” driving down the road to hell? God is a Crazy Fellow? God is a Drama Queen? I have two suggestions: 1) Send your reaction to Galli’s article to the founder and honorary chairman of CT, Billy Graham, noting what seems to be the ultimate degeneration of what he started, and 2) Pray for Mark Galli, that he will repent. “[Regarding the wicked] there is no fear of God before his eyes” (Ps 36:1).] TBC
Billy Graham’s address:
BGEA
1 Billy Graham Parkway
Charlotte, NC 28201
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Link to full original article: Christianity Today’s Anti-Christianity Today
Posted in Church Falling Away, Deception, One World Religion on August 23, 2010|
I pray for our president and our government everyday, it is harder some days than others.
Threw all that reflection, something just doesn’t add up, and I think a lot of American’s feel the same way.
If it were just one thing or maybe two, you could or maybe did chalk them up to coincidence or poor decisions, but the string of evidence has become overwhelming.
Well that is unless you only watch the MSM, then you have only seen maybe 10% of the stories.
I don’t know what faith our president holds, but I do know that Jesus told us to judge a person (or maybe an institution) by their fruits.
Matthew 7:14-20 – “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
And I am not seeing a lot of good fruit or actions that match those modeled by Christ.
It is very perplexing and very un-nerving not knowing for sure who you have in the white house, what he believes, and what is his foundation.
Is God his Rock? Jesus tells us to look at the fruit…
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Obama: Tee-ing off nation, 1 Sunday at a time
EDGARTOWN – Another Sunday, another missed opportunity for President Obama to prove to America he’s not a Muslim.
But instead of attending church services at one of the dozens and dozens of quaint, island Christian churches yesterday morning, the commander in chief hit Our Lady of the Fairways, aka the Vineyard Golf Club, yet again, to play 18.
Obama again teed off with Chicago pal Eric Whitaker and aide Marvin Nicholson . Rounding out the foursome was Bill Lewis, a regular Vineyard vacationer who played with Obama and Whitaker last year. Once again, the press corps was kept far, far away from the presidential golf party.
Perhaps the Leader of the Free World is a little sensitive about his game. Because our spies report that Barry was hacking away at a ball in the bunker on the 12th hole – a la Judge Elihu Smails – before giving up and throwing it onto the green. Shades of Bill Clinton!
Anyway, it was Obama’s second outing to the posh, private golf club since landing Thursday on The Rock. The prez teed off at 8:30 a.m. under cloudy, drizzly skies. A perfect day to be inside. Like, say, in church!
Now you’d think, with polls showing that one in five Americans believe Obama is a Muslim – and with the furor over the president’s flip-flops on the Ground Zero mosque – that his White House handlers might have orchestrated a nice little photo op of the first family doing a little vacation worshiping yesterday morning.
Because, despite the administration’s insistence that Barry is a Christian and that he prays daily, most Americans have noticed that Obama rarely attends church. That’s a noticeable departure from previous presidents, such as George W. Bush and Clinton, who were on their knees every Sunday.
Of course, the last time Obama had a regular church, it was Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright fame, and, well, we all know how that turned out.
The president’s handlers have said Obama doesn’t attend services regularly because he doesn’t want to be “hugely disruptive to congregations.” This is apparently not an issue on the golf course. Especially now that the Secret Service is following the boss in golf carts instead of those giant SUVs they drove down the fairways last year!
Following the golf game, the prez went back to Blue Heron Farm and spent the rest of the day in seclusion there.
File Under: Praying for a Better Handicap.
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Link to original post: Obama: Tee-ing off nation, 1 Sunday at a time
Posted in Church Falling Away, Days of Noah, Deception on August 20, 2010|
First, I did not post this article to join the debate on what faith Obama keeps.
I think if you step back and look at this poll it tells you something significant. We have seen so much deception and spin over the last ten plus years that as a society, we don’t know what to trust. We no longer can trust a man at his word. Politicians have destroyed that trust.
I would even go further, that as a society we have destroyed that trust. We have little white lied ourselves into the situation where truth and honesty are not valued, and so are not upheld.
Christ said this would be part of the end times, as the Church began falling away and having less influence on our culture, we would see increases in sin and deception, until it became like the Days of Noah.
Think about it, and look at events through this third lens of scripture….
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Obama a Muslim? Rumors gain steam, defying facts
By HILLEL ITALIE
The Associated Press
Thursday, August 19, 2010; 10:00 PM
NEW YORK — “President Obama is a Muslim.” “He’s not an American citizen.” “He wasn’t even born here.”None of this is true. But to surprising levels, it is believed.Blame it on the media, or on human nature. All presidents deal with image problems – that they’re too weak or too belligerent, too far left or far right. But Obama also faces questions over documented facts, in part because some people identify more with the rumormongers than the debunkers.
“Trust and distrust – that explains almost all of it,” says Nicholas DiFonzo, professor of psychology at the Rochester Institute of Technology and an expert on rumor and gossip research. “We are in such a highly polarized political environment. Our country is sorting itself into more closely knit, opposing factions each year” – factions, DiFonzo suggests, that in turn become “echo chambers” for factoids that aren’t fact at all.
Nearly one in five people, or 18 percent, said they think Obama is Muslim, up from the 11 percent who said so in March 2009, according to a poll released Thursday. The proportion who correctly say he is a Christian is just 34 percent, down from 48 percent in March of last year.
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Link to full articles: Obama a Muslim? Rumors gain steam, defying facts
Posted in Church Falling Away, End Times Prophecy, Salvation on August 16, 2010|
Once a week the two men that manage Rapture Ready write an article. It is the Nearing Midnight section and I would suggest checking it out each Monday. Here is what Terry wrote this week.
This article sums up pretty well, the struggles I went through internally with God as he convinced me to launch this site. Since giving into His Will, I must confess, I have not felt any animosity toward non-believers or those that have not awoken yet. Instead, I feel this urgency to wake as many as I can before God’s timeline runs its course.
I use the term “wake up” simply because that is the feeling I felt when my eyes were open to looking at life through the third lens of scripture. Once I was awakened, all of the events took on a more positive note, more like amazement at God’s power and the Truth of His Word, then fear. Yes, these events still concern me and I sometimes lose sleep, but it is so much better than before I woke up.
Link to the Full article: Prophecy with Purpose
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Prophecy with Purpose
One of the most false and cutting accusations launched at the belief that the Bible teaches that a person cannot lose his or her salvation when truly born again (John 3:3) is: “If you believe once saved, always saved, you are saying that people can live any way they want without fear of punishment.” Or so the line of condemning criticism goes.
The absolute assurance of eternal security, of course, engenders no such thought within the mind truly regenerated by the saving power of Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches that the Lord convicts His children in their spirits, and that habitual, unrepented-of sin will result in severe penalties–even physical death, in some cases. The Heavenly Father’s patience is longsuffering, but it is not infinite.
A person who is a child of God cannot sin without severe repercussions, if repentance isn’t forthcoming. But, that person will never be kicked out of God’s family. Never.
A kindred sort of accusation is thrown at those who believe in the Pre-Trib view of Bible prophecy. The Pre-Tribulation view, of course, is the one we at Rapture Ready believe God’s Word teaches. It is the view that Jesus Christ will call all who are born again to Himself before the Tribulation, which is the last seven years of history leading to the Second Advent (Rev. 19: 11).
The angry diatribe against the Pre-Trib Rapture view–by even genuine Christians, in many cases–usually goes something like this: “People like you, who believe that the Lord is going to rapture them before the Tribulation, think you can live however you want, because you think and teach falsely that you are going to be rescued before God’s judgment and wrath fall, no matter what.”
The non-Christian accusers who castigate those of us who hold the Pre-Trib rapture view have their own version. It goes something like: “Christians who believe like that don’t care anything about making the world better. You even hope for things to get worse and worse. You wish for earthquakes, famines, pestilence, war in the Middle East, and for Armageddon to hurry up and get here so you will go to your pie in the sky, and watch the rest of us get ours.”
Although the first criticism is absolutely not true, I have to admit that, regarding the second, too often I’ve sensed–even heard–such sentiments from some of those who believe in the Pre-Trib rapture. And, it is entirely the wrong attitude for the Christian to hold. There are no excuses for wanting the Christ-rejecting world of non-believers to be the recipients of God’s judgment and wrath. It is only by God’s unfathomable grace that every one of us isn’t headed into that time of unprecedented horror.
No matter how–to use Lot’s King James Version word–“vexed” we becomes by the debauched, debased actions of the lost world around us, our job as Christ’s children–His representatives here on earth–is of a completely different nature than wanting to see them “get what’s coming” to them. The changed nature produced by being born again into God’s eternal family should make you and me do just the opposite of wanting them, in our vexation, to get what we see as coming to them.
The Christian whose spirit is attuned to the Holy Spirit’s desire for the lost doesn’t want to see them “get what’s coming to them” either during the Tribulation or upon death. Rather, we want to do all within our power to keep them from having to go through the coming time of God’s judgment and wrath. That’s what Christ’s Great Commission to His disciples before He ascended to sit at the Father’s right hand is all about, you see. That is what God’s love–love that those who have Christ indwelling them possess–is all about. (Read Matthew 28:18-20.)
In the same vein, that’s what Bible prophecy is all about. Prophecy given in God’s Word has purpose–profound purpose. Bible prophecy has at its center the commission from the Lord to forewarn of God’s judgment and wrath to come upon all who oppose Him–the Lord of Heaven and Creator of all things. It is not the hatred of God for the lost people of this fallen planet that drives prophecy. It is the love of God that powers His prophetic Word. It must be the Christian’s desire, therefore, to study Bible prophecy and put forth those forewarnings out of a spirit of God’s love, not through an anger-filled abhorrence of those who are lost.
Christians who do study prophecy–and they seem to be few these days, I’m sad to have to say–are often heard wondering about when Christ will call the church (born-again believers) in the rapture. Everything seems so ripe for His plucking His people from this sin-darkened sphere.
Nothing and no one can change God’s timing for His next catastrophic intervention into earth’s history. It will happen exactly on time, as He has determined since before the foundation of this world. However, we might as believers look to ourselves for the Lord’s–often in our view–delay in calling us as outlined in 1 Corinthians 15:51-55 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
The apostle Peter gave the heart of the reason Christ hasn’t raptured His church: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9).
The purpose of Bible prophecy is to show the love of God to a lost and otherwise doomed world. God is not willing that anyone should perish (die in his or her sins), but that all should come to repentance (accept Jesus Christ as the one and only sacrifice for sin that God will accept).
The Lord is “longsuffering.” The reason, I’m convinced, that the Lord seems so “slack” to many in His coming is because those same people have neglected their duty to share the love of God with the lost–the lost whom God loves so very much that He sent His only begotten Son in order that they not perish.
It is well past the time for God’s people to begin investing in getting the message of the love of God to those who will otherwise not hear the warning of deadly things soon to befall this Christ-rejecting planet. Considering these times that so dramatically are signaling the coming Tribulation, Bible prophecy can and must be used as a productive tool for evangelism.
— Terry
Posted in Church Falling Away on August 16, 2010|
Once a week the two men that manage Rapture Ready write an article. It is the Nearing Midnight section and I would suggest checking it out each Monday. Here is what Todd wrote this week. I love the prayer that he quotes in the middle of the article. Oh if all of us could be so bold to speak the Truth. I think it has inspired me to add that to my daily prayer list.
Link to the Full article: The Church Needs to Make a Stand Now or Never
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Aug 16, 2010
The Church Needs to Make a Stand Now or Never
The church of Jesus Christ has clearly lost sight of its mission for this world. In the last few years, there has been a sudden decline in the church’s ability to influence society. The devil is winning on every front, and believers are totally inept at standing up for biblical principles.
It’s not like the church has lost all its members. Over 80 percent of U.S. citizens claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, with 45 percent saying they’ve had a born-again experience. In every city I visit, I see huge numbers of churches. Where I live–in Saline County, Arkansas–we have more than 120 churches. By comparison, there are only three McDonald’s in the county.
Rather than just cite endless examples of the lack of boldness on the part of the church, I thought it would be good to show you an example of a true Christian leader. The following prayer was given in the Kansas House of Representatives. When Pastor Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:
Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, “Woe to those who call evil good,” but that is exactly what we have done…
We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and call it “pluralism.”
We have exploited the poor and called it the “lottery.”
We have rewarded laziness and called it “welfare.”
We have killed our unborn and called it “choice.”
We have shot abortionists and called it “justifiable.”
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it “building self esteem.”
We have abused power and called it “politics.”
We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it “ambition.”
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it “freedom of expression.”
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it “enlightenment.”
Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.
Amen!
This event happened over fourteen years ago. Pastor Wright has since retired from the church he represented. Yet there is such a drought of spiritual bravery in America, you can still find numerous recent references to the speech on the Internet. There is general praise for Pastor Joe Wright’s prayer, but few people want to copy his example.
Today, the ministries that offer the inoffensive sermons are the most successful. It’s common knowledge that standing for biblical values is bad for business. One Ohio church has been causing trouble for the Foxhole Strip Club. Members of the church have gone to the club armed with bullhorns, signs, and video cameras for posting customers’ license plate numbers online. The owner of the club has started protesting at the church by having his dancers picket the church during Sunday services.
There is a desperate need for the body of Christ to examine its priority list. In the battle between good and evil, there is no such thing as a standoff. When the devil perceives that he has the upper hand, he keeps pressing on the attack.
I see a church that is so unprepared for battle, I fear the coming months are going to show how quickly Satan can take advantage of our weakness. In a few short years, we may find ourselves reduced to second-class citizens in our own so-called “Christian nation.”
Last week, eight Christian medical workers were murdered in Afghanistan. Before we blame the missionaries for intentionally going into harm’s way and getting themselves killed, we need to realize that our duty is to take the Good News to every nation on earth. The travesty here is how ready people are to accept Islamic terrorists’ right to kill peace-loving Christians at will.
It would be a shame for the church to be raptured out of here, with the world barely noticing our absence. If we are doing what the Lord commanded us, the refrain should be, “Thank goodness those crazy Christians are gone.”
— Todd
Posted in Church Falling Away, One World Religion on August 14, 2010|
I found this link to the Presidents Iftar dinner speech on Rapture Ready. I have included their commentary below as well as a link to the video.
I think they are right that what use to be fringe language is becoming common place and more accepted within our churches. All religions under God, all seeking peace, and all support tolerance. I just don’t see the words matching actions.
Preparing for a One World Religion – Revelation – coming to a world near you – White House Video
The President hosts an Iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan in the State Dining Room. Stressing the tolerance and Respect of religions, he states we are all the ‘children of God’- people of all faiths ‘we are a nation of Christians and Muslims , Jews and Hindus and Non-believers, and shaped by every language and every culture’, as he defends right to build mosque near 9/11 site.
Posted in Church Falling Away, Deception on August 10, 2010|
It is amazing to see prophecy reflected in our actions today. Jim quotes 2 Timothy toward the end of his article and it jumped out at me how his article and others like it are perfectly predicted by Paul in his letter to Timothy. God is truly Great! And His Word is the Truth!
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Israel Watch – Link to weekly column on Rapture Ready: Israel Watch
by Jim Fletcher
Aug 9, 2010
Friendly Enemies
One of my hobbies is studying and researching the sons of fathers and grandfathers who were theological liberals from the Enlightenment through the Victorian era. It might sound like a snooze-fest, but it’s important when one considers that Erasmus Darwin’s radical views seeped-into the worldview of his famous grandson.
This study is important if we want to understand why we see heresy and apostasy becoming mainstream in the Church.
Thomas Huxley, “[Charles] Darwin’s bulldog,” was the most aggressive famous atheist of his day, and his grandsons Julian and Aldous influenced Western education in ways we probably don’t have the stomach to face.
My research has expanded to now study how theological liberals influence their associates, friends, and by extension, the masses—most tragically, youth.
Not surprisingly, one of the biggest targets of the liberals’ wrath today is Christian Zionism. It is quite fascinating to realize that the (ultimately successful) attempts to undermine Scripture began in the 17th and 18th centuries, with the attacks on this historicity of Genesis 1-11.
The next target were the books of the prophets—undermining the Jews and predictive prophecy. The ghastly outcomes of these attacks by the critics resulted in the Holocaust. Martin Luther, an outrageous anti-semite (but still darling of many evangelicals), and efforts by people like the German Christian Movement in the 20th century, plowed the soil for the Nazis.
Today, of course, the final battlefront for the Bible’s critics concern the person of Jesus Christ. We have an irony here: the Bible is true in its history, where it touches on science (such as the book of Job), and its philosophy for life. Yet the average person’s perspective is that somehow the critics have proved their case.
They have not.
That hasn’t stopped the sophisticated efforts of change agents like Brian McLaren and his Emergent friends. Not surprisingly, Israel is on the receiving end of their hateful efforts to marginalize the Jewish state and her friends: Christian supporters of Israel.
McLaren blogs frequently (www.brianmclaren.net) and also spends a fair amount of time touting the blogs of his theological friends, such as Frank Schaeffer, the son of biblical apologist Francis Schaeffer. The elder of course foresaw the rising apostasy, but the son is quite willing to attack Bible believers (www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/christian-zionism-is-trou_b_636872.html).
Remember what I said about the sons and grandsons being part of the decline in belief in the Bible?
McLaren’s blogs are quite revealing. Notice the following; his response to questions. He reveals his strategic thinking in advancing the goals of liberalism:
“This question reminded me how we need to remember that each day, new people are for the first time realizing that some sort of paradigm shift is possible, happening, and needed in their faith. Every day, new people are ready to start on the journey and get involved. A number of friends from the emergent village community have talked about this for years … we need to keep extending the new road farther and farther into new territory, while maintaining onramps for people from many different communities to start the journey from wherever they are, whenever they’re ready. It’s too easy to do one without the other … but both are essential.
“First, you’re fortunate in that fifteen years ago, when this journey was beginning for me, it was really hard to find anyone “safe” to talk to … there was a lot of talk about innovative methodology, but to raise theological questions was somewhat risky. Of course, it’s still risky – but thankfully more and more networks are forming where it’s safe to ask questions, think together, and explore.”
McLaren is simply pointing out that a generation ago, his ideas wouldn’t fly. Then, we had pastors in the pulpits that would stand for biblical truth. Today, we have pastors who are “life coaches” and advocates of their parishioners engaging in frequent sex. Or they promote and teach the latest clap-trap “Bible study” from a Christian celebrity.
In a later blog entry, McLaren then discusses one of his favorite subjects: bashing the Second Coming; he also never misses an opportunity to promote his books:
“Thanks for the encouragement. One slight tweak – in Chapter 18, I talk about the meaning of the word “parousia.” I explain that the term “second coming” isn’t found in the biblical text. It’s a term like “the Fall” – developed in extra-biblical theological literature, and then read back into the text (and sometimes put there by “translators” who are actually interpreters). That doesn’t mean it’s wrong – just that the term itself is subject to questioning. When Jesus speaks of coming back or again, sometimes he’s referring to the resurrection … sometimes he may be referring to his coming to be with us via the Holy Spirit at Pentecost … and sometimes he may be referring to the coming of a new era and “the end of the (current) age” centered in holy city, temple, priesthood, and sacrifice. He may also be referring to some ultimate judgment day … but the more I read the New Testament, the fewer of those references I think there are. More and more, it seems, Jesus was referring to things that were very close at hand, and so in that way, it turns out both Jesus and Paul were right: the cataclysm they predicted would happen “before this generation passes.”
McLaren is a preterist, one who believes most if not all the last-days prophecies were fulfilled by A.D. 70.
One of the outcomes of this kind of teaching—you won’t be surprised—is that Israel is again marginalized. When one believes that God’s promises for the Jews, from the Hebrew scriptures, are no longer in effect (Replacement Theology—God’s promises have been transferred to the Church), Israel takes on less importance in one’s thinking.
It is then a short step toward advocating the “rights of the Palestinians” above those of the Jews. This is the wedding between Palestinian propaganda efforts dating to the aftermath of the Six Day War, and theological liberalism, which has always despised the Jews.
It is why a change agent like John Shelby Spong can write books in which he claims to be a savage opponent of anti-Semitism, and at the same time (in the same book—what chutzpa!) claim that belief in the historicity of the Hebrew scriptures is the domain of fundamentalist crackpots!
Do you see? When you claim that the Old Testament is myth, symbolism or metaphor when it appears to be literal…you have just become a classic anti-Semite. You have denied the history and legitimacy of the very oppressed people you claim to defend!!
I have never forgotten the story told by David Reagan—surely one of the great Bible teachers of our time. Dave remembers as a youngster in church, asking the pastor what Zechariah meant when he recorded that the Messiah would re-visit Earth.
The pastor told him it was symbolic of Jesus coming into someone’s heart. In other words, there would never be a future moment in which the Jewish messiah would return to His homeland and begin to usher in an era of peace.
This is the result of liberals refusing to read the Bible in its plain-sense meaning. This “plain-sense” view is itself mocked by the liberals. Ironically, when Scripture admonishes the Jews to love justice, the liberals insist it means exactly what it says! The “Jews should practice justice” is always used by liberals who feel Israel needs to arm and bow-down to a Palestinian state.
Just know that Israel’s enemies are not limited to jihadists with a death wish. The long list of enemies includes those theological enemies who also long for the end of the Jewish state.
Christian Zionists who support Israel must know they are in a war of ideas. We must, must, must educate ourselves and resist the theological madness of the liberals.
Know also that men like McLaren come across as reasonable, earnest, and desirous of justice for everyone.
In the end, though, his vicious views of Israel will serve as a divisive wedge. The Christian Zionists McLaren and Schaeffer love to bash will have to decide how much they like perseverance.
We should well remember what Paul wrote to his protégé, in 2 Timothy 4:
“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
“For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
“Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me.”
The point is, for us, many Christians “love the world” because that’s easier in the short-term than standing for truth. A whole lot of people will side with the Palestinians and work to try and push the Jews into another ghetto. The pack mentality that has always plagued mankind, and fosters efforts to call, as Isaiah wrote, “good evil and evil good.”
Support of the Jewish state will cost you in the short-term. Ultimately, though, it will pale in comparison to the claims of the Judge of History that He will one day hand out judgment to the nations for the way they treated his people, Israel.
That day is coming, and when it does, I will be glad that my heart has always been toward Zion.
myBlessedHope 