John Baptist Henry

Why Baptist?

2012-02-11T04:26:00.014-06:00

Baptist History Conference
At The First Baptist Church of America
In Providence, Rhode Island

Why I Am a Baptist

A Revolution Back to the Bible

Becoming a First Century Church

Israel & America

2011-12-30T06:00:00.329-06:00

9/11: Signs of God's
Impending Judgment on
The United States of America
Foreshadowed by Ancient Israel
"If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14)

INTRODUCTION:

There are only two nations in all history founded from their inception on God, His Word and His grace. They are Israel with the call of Abram in Genesis 12:1-3, and the United States of America founded by believers in the Lord Jesus Christ seeking freedom to worship the Almighty in spirit and truth. God said to Abram:

"I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." (Genesis 12:2-3)

God has blessed all the families of the earth through Abraham in two major ways:

1. The 66 Books of the Word of God which contain the words of salvation and eternal life for all people were given and protected by the seed of Abraham.

2. Jesus Christ, "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, came through the seed of Abraham, Issac and Jacob.

President George Washington secured the blessings of God for America early. In 1790 in reply to letters from Jewish congregations he wrote:

1. To the Jewish community of Newport, Rhode Island saying:

"All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens. ... May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.'' -- G. Washington, 1790

2. To the Hebrew Congregations of Philadelphia, New York, Charleston, and Richmond in these words:

"The power and goodness of the Almighty, so strongly manifested in the events of our late glorious revolution, and His kind interposition in our behalf, have been no less visible in the establishment of our present equal government. In war He directed the sword, and in peace He has ruled in our councils. My agency in both has been guided by the best intentions and a sense of duty I owe to my country. ... May the same temporal and eternal blessings which you implore for me, rest upon your congregations." -- G. Washington, late December, 1790

3. In office for less than a month President Washington blessed the children of Abraham when he answered a 6 May 1789 letter from the Hebrew Congregation of Savannah, Georgia:

"... I thank you with great sincerity for your congratulations on my appointment to the office which I have the honor to hold by the unanimous choice of my fellow citizens, and especially the expressions you are pleased to use in testifying the confidence that is reposed in me by your congregation ... I rejoice that a spirit of liberality and philanthropy is much more prevalent than it formerly was among the enlightened nations of the earth, and that your brethren will benefit thereby in proportion as it shall become still more extensive; happily the people of the United States have in many instances exhibited examples worthy of imitation, the salutary influence of which will doubtless extend much farther if gratefully enjoying those blessings of peace which (under the favor of heaven) have been attained by fortitude in war, they shall conduct themselves with reverence to the Deity and charity toward their fellow- creatures. May the same wonder-working Deity, who long since delivered the Hebrews from their Egyptian oppressors, planted them in a promised land, Whose providential agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United States as an independent nation, still continue to water them with the dews of heaven and make the inhabitants of every denomination participate in the temporal and spiritual blessings of that people whose God is Jehovah." -- G. Washington, late May 1789

Some may deny this, but I cannot but see America in Isaiah 55:5 which in context says:

"Behold, I [the Father] have given Him [the Son] for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. 5 Behold, Thou [the Son] shalt call a nation [the USA] that Thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee [the USA] shall run unto thee [the USA] because of the LORD thy [the USA's] God, and for the Holy One of Israel [the Son]; for He hath glorified thee [the USA]. 6 Seek ye the LORD while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near: 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our [the USA's] God, for He will abundantly pardon." (Isaiah 55:4-7)

God has used the United States of America as a base to send forth the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world. More Gospel preaching missionaries have gone forth into all the world from America since it's beginning than all the time before that back to our Lord Jesus Christ.

For these two reasons God has blessed America above all nations of all history, 1) because America has been a blessing to the Israelites, and 2) because we have give God's Word to the world!

AMERICA'S INCEPTION, INAUGURATION AND DEDICATION TO GOD:

The USA was conceived on the 4th of July, 1776 with the unanimous Declaration of Independence by the thirteen United States of America.

However, this once Great Nation was not birthed until the Constitution was completed, the House, Senate and President were elected, and finally the inauguration of the first President. George Washington was inaugurated on April 30, 1789 in New York City, the Nation's first Capitol.

In Washington's inauguration speech he acknowledged Divine providence in the establishment of the Nation with these words:

"... it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellowcitizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage. ..."

After these thanksgivings to the Almighty, Washington rightly states that America may not expect the continued blessings of the past if our Nation disregards the eternal truths and laws of righteousness ordained by God. He stated it in these words:

"... we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people."

President Washington closed his speech with supplication to God for the new Nation of the United States saying:

"Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the Human Race in humble supplication that, since He has been pleased to favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquillity, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government for the security of their union and the advancement of their happiness, so His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend."

After President Washington's inaugural address, he lead the House and Senate to nearby St Paul's Chapel for a 2 hour prayer meeting. This same Chapel is the longest standing structure in New York City, perhaps symbolic of the ancient temple of the Lord in Jerusalem which stood until the people forsook the Almighty and they were taken into the 70 year Babylonian captivity, and again into the 1,878 year Roman Diaspora (70 AD to 1948). There is a plaque in St Paul's Chapel with this prayer of Washington which reads:

"Almighty God, we make our earnest prayer that Thou wilt keep the United States in Thy holy protection, that Thou wilt incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, and entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another and for their fellow citizens of the Unites States at large. And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and specific temper of mind which were the characteristics of Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplications, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

Washington freely acknowledged and adored the great Saviour of "whosoever" (John 3:15-16; Rev. 22:17). This is seen in his hand written prayer journal of his youth where he wrote:

"I humbly beseech thee to be merciful to me in the free pardon of my sins, for the sake of Thy dear Son, my only Saviour, Jesus Christ, who came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance; be pleased to renew my nature and write thy laws upon my heart, and help me to live, righteously, soberly, and godly in this evil world; make me humble, meek, patient and contented, and work in me the grace of thy Holy Spirit."

And again, "... give me grace to hear thee calling on me in thy word, that it may be wisdom, righteousness, reconciliation and peace to the saving of the soul in the day of the Lord Jesus. Grant that I may hear it with reverence, receive it with meekness, mingle it with faith, and that it may accomplish in me, Gracious God, the good work for which thou has sent it. Bless my family, kindred, friends and country, be our God & guide this day and for ever for his sake, who lay down in the Grave and arose again for us, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen."

So it is seen that America was founded by a free people who overwhelmingly elected a Christian President who led their elected representatives to a prayer meeting on the very day of the establishment of the United States.

Fast forward 212 years, 5 months, and 11 days, from April 30, 1798 to September 11, 2001. America has changed greatly! The Bible and prayer has been banned from schools, and replaced with the absurd theory of evolution. Millions of innocents have not been allowed the most basic of unalienable rights, not only liberty, not only the pursuit of happiness, but defenseless babies by the millions in the womb are now denied life! Homosexuality, pornography, alcohol and drug abuse are now rampant. New Age and other false religions abound. Many have embraced the United Nations and the Global Governance of the New World Order. The overwhelming majority of our elected officials are corrupt and ignore the Constitution they are sworn to uphold. All this because we have abandoned the Almighty who's hand was mightily upon this Nation at it's founding!!!

America is very much reminiscent of Solomon and ancient Israel which forsook their God and fell into idolatry, and later rejected and crucified Jesus Christ (cf. John 1:11; Matt 27:22-25; Acts 2:22-23).

SOLOMON'S COMPLETION OF THE TEMPLE OF THE LORD & THE APOSTASY FROM GOD THAT FOLLOWED:

Similarly to the founding of America and Washington's inauguration, it is recorded in 1 Kings 9 and 2 Chronicles 7 that Solomon constituted the Temple of the Lord. These passages tell the story of God's promise of blessing if Solomon and his children would walk before the Lord in integrity of heart and in uprightness; but if he and his children would not follow the Lord and keep His statutes and go and serve other gods and worship them, then the Lord would cut them off from the land which He given them.

Please carefully observe 2 Chronicles 7:13-14, 19-20:

13 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;
14 If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. . . .
19 But if ye turn away, and forsake My statutes and My commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;
20 Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of My land which I have given them; and this house [the Temple], which I have sanctified for My name, will I cast out of My sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations. (Read the full text of 2 Chronicles 7 here.)

Almighty Jehovah first gave Israel warnings of impending judgment and eventually removed all Israel from the Land in the 70 years of Babylonian Captivity. First was the strong warning of the 10 northern tribes being removed into the Assyrian captivity. Their removal from the Land occurred in 722 BC. The details are recorded in 2 Kings 17 where it says:

1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years.
2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him.
3 Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents.
4 And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.
5 Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.
6 In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
7 For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,
8 And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.

This is seen again in 1 Chronicles 5:

25 And they transgressed against the God of their fathers, and went a whoring after the gods of the people of the land, whom God destroyed before them.
26 And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day. (cf. 1 Chron. 5:6; 2 Chron. 30; Ezra 2; Ezek 37:15)

AMERICA IS FOLLOWING IN ANCIENT ISRAEL'S FOOTSTEPS:

As has already been alluded to America was founded on the last day of April, 1789 upon the Biblical principles of our first God fearing President, George Washington who was elected virtually unanimously by a predominantly principled if not Christian people.

As a young man Washington was well aware of the Christian Great Awakening in the Colonies of the 1730s and 40s. Preachers, not the least of whom was Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) shaped the hearts and minds of the people with the Scriptures, and thereby all but saved the colonies from going the way of anarchists France.

Edwards was also a reader of the works of theologian, educator and philosopher, John Locke (1632-1704). By the time of Locke's death his influence on the thinking of Americans had been firmly established. Locke directly influenced everything from the American idea of separation of powers to the Bill of Rights. But in spite of these facts modern universities make little to no mention of him. An example of the reason for this is his classic work, Two Treatises of Civil Government (1689), has over 1300 references to the Bible. His Biblical and libertarian views are opposed to the New World Order elite who control not only the schools, but also a large part of the media, politics, government, finance, big business, and religious organizations of today.

The American people today, as the ancient 12 tribes of Israel, have forgotten their heritage and Biblical foundation, and now stand at the precipice of God's judgment. And as the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, who heeded not warnings of impending judgment, nor humble themselves before God when the 10 tribes of Israel were taken away into captivity; in similar manner America was warned by God on September 11, 2001, and has not listened.

Neither have blood washed believers in our Lord Jesus Christ turned from your wicked ways, and humbled yourselves, and sought the face of the Almighty in prayer that He might forgive our nation's great sins, and heal our land (2 Chron. 7:14). Most believers continue to live like the world (1 Jn. 2:15-17), care not for God's holy Word (2 Tim. 2:15), have no concern for the lost to witness to them of the saving grace of Jesus Christ (Matt. 4:17; Jude 22-23; Prov. 11:30), and fail to attend the House God faithfully (Heb. 10 23-25; 1 Tim. 3:15)! For born again, but worldly believers who are not dull of hearing, heed these verses of God's Word:

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." (1 Timothy 4:1) "Submit your selves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up." (James 4:7-10) "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10)

Oh God, forgive us for we have left our first love, Jesus; help us to see our need of repentance, and help us do the first works (Rev. 2:4-5)!

9/11: AMERICA'S WAKE UP CALL & THE PUBLIC PRONOUNCEMENTS OF IT'S PUBLIC OFFICIALS:

As the 10 northern tribes worshiped false gods and for it went into the Assyrian captivity first in 722 BC; so likewise the tribes of Judah and Benjamin who remained in the land did not take heed of God's warnings, but also rebelled against God and fell into the Babylonian captivity in 606 BC.

It is recorded in the Congressional Record, 107th Congress that on the day after 9/11 that Senate Majority Leader, Tom Daschle (D, South Dakota) in his Floor Statement on a 'Joint Resolution of Condemnation for the September 11, 2001 said:

"Mr. President, it is with pain, sorrow, anger, and resolve that I stand before this Senate, a symbol for 212 years of the strength of our democracy, and say that America will emerge from this tragedy, as we have emerged from all adversity, united and strong. ... The world should know that the Members of both parties in both Houses stand united. The full resources of our Government will be brought to bear in aiding the search and rescue and in hunting down those responsible and those who may have aided or harbored them. Nothing, nothing can replace the losses that have been suffered. I know there is only the smallest measure of inspiration that can be taken from this devastation. But there is a passage in the Bible from Isaiah that I think speaks to all of us at times such as this: 'The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.' That is what we will do. We will rebuild and we will recover. The people of America will stand strong together because the people of America have always stood together. And those of us privileged to serve this great Nation will stand with you.” (View the video below)

Senator Daschle said that it was with "... anger, and resolve that [he stood] before [the] Senate, a symbol for 212 years of the strength of our democracy ..." This takes us back 212 years from 2001 to 1789 to the first Constitutionally instituted assembly of the Senate on April 30, 1789 and the day of the swearing in of George Washington as the first president of the United States of America. Unlike the first spokesman of our Republic, not democracy, Daschle rather than calling for prayer to seek God's will, as Washington did at his inauguration, pronounced a curse on our country. It is for this reason that God commands His people (2 Chron. 7:14) on this wise:

"I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." (1 Timothy 2:1-4)

As Senator Daschle quoted Isaiah 9:10 from the corrupt New International Version little did he know that he used a verse which God used to pronounced a curse upon Israel for their sin of pride and idolatry. His verse comes just after the great prophetic passage concerning both the 1st and 2nd coming of Jesus Christ, the original Lord of the United States. Here is the verse in context with Isaiah 9:10 in bold from the pure English translation:

6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
8 The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel.
9 And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart,
10 The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.
11 Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together;
12 The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
13 For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts. (Isaiah 9:6-13, King James Bible)

Three years later on September 11, 2004, Democratic Candidate for Vice President John Edwards (D, North Carolina) spoke the same curse upon America using the same verse. Speaking at the prayer breakfast for the Congressional Black Caucus he said:

"Good morning. Today, on this day of remembrance and mourning, we have the Lord’s word to get us through. 'The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place.' ... And let me show you how we are building and putting cedars in those three hallowed places - the footprints of the Towers, the Pentagon, and the field in Pennsylvania. ... Walk with me through this day. And you will see that while those bricks fell and the sycamores cut down, our people are making those cedars rise. ... Each time that bell tolls, it calls us to a greater purpose. It calls us to never forget. It calls us to do the Lord’s work here on earth. And it calls on us to always remember that when we walk through this day together - the cedars will rise, the stones will go up, and this season of hope will endure." (See the video below, and Remarks to the September 11, 2004 Congressional Black Caucus Prayer Breakfast).

Both Tom Daschle and John Edwards left office in disgrace amid scandals. Daschle was President Obama's nominee to serve as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, but he withdrew his name on February 3, 2009, amid a growing controversy over his failure to accurately report and pay income taxes. On June 3, 2011, Edwards was indicted by a North Carolina grand jury on six felony charges related to an extramarital affair he admitted to following his 2008 campaign.

THE INTERPRETATION & TIMELINE OF ISAIAH 9:8-13:

8 The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel.
9 And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart,
10 The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.
11 Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together;
12 The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
13 For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts.

From the prophetic message of peace and justice through Jesus Christ, "the Prince of peace" (Isaiah 9:6-7), the prophet turns and begins his pronouncement of judgment and doom upon Israel in verse 8.

The prophetic Word of judgment had "lighted upon Israel" because of her pride and arrogance (Isaiah 9:8).

Samaria, in Ephraim was the capital of the 10 tribes of Israel where their king sat (Isaiah 7:9-10).

Israel had said, "... in the pride and stoutness of heart, the bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars." They had survived an initial attack by and a partial captivity of Gilead, Galilee, all the land of Naphtali by the Assyrians (2 Kings 15:29), but determined "in the pride and stoutness of heart that it would not happen again. They would use stronger building materials for their fortifications, "hewn stones" like those used by Solomon in the building of the Temple (1 Kings 5:17). They would replace the "sycomores" that were cut down by the Assyrians with strong "cedars."

Where it says, "... the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him" (Isaiah 9:11) it speaks of Assyria. Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel had been allies (Isaiah 7:1-2), but when Assyria defeated Syria and her capitol, Damascus in 732 BC, then they too became Israel's adversary. So thus it is said, "the Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth." Isaiah 9:12).

Time Line of the Captivity of Israel:

1. In 2 Kings 15:27-29 which dates about 758 B.C. we read of the initial captivity of Israel:

"In the two and fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and reigned twenty years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria." (2 Kings 15:27-29)

2. Our Text, Isaiah 9:8-13, was penned about B.C. 740.

3. Around B.C. 740 Israel and Syria's unsuccessful try to take Jerusalem (2 Kings 16:5-6), and Judah requests the help of King Tiglathpileser against Syria and receive it (2 Kings 16:7-9).

4. Syria and Damascus fall to Assyria in approximately B.C. 732.

5. In 2 Kings 17:1-6 which dates about 722 B.C. we read of the final captivity of Israel:

"In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him. Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents. And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison. Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes." (cf. 1 Chron. 5:26)

Reasoning behind the prophecy of Isaiah 9:8-13:

Again in verses 12 and 13 of our text in Isaiah 9 it says, "... For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. For the people turneth not unto Him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts." It was the Lord God Almighty who had smitten Israel, for their pride, idolatry and rebellion, but they refused to repent. Continuing from where we left off in 2 Kings 17 we continue from verse 7 to 12 to find the reason for God's fierce anger:

"For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree: And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger: For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing."

The above passage from 2 Kings 17:7-12 is similar to the place the United States of America finds herself today. Help us, O Almighty God!

The Lord's chastening rod for the punishment of Israel:

"O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few. ... Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood." (Isaiah 10:5-7, 15)

The end of this chastening rod of the Lord:

"Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt. For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction. And the LORD of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him ... as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt." (Isaiah 10:24-26)

The remnant of Israel to return:

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God." (Isaiah 10:20-21)

AMAZING PROPHECY OF ISAIAH 9:9-10 POINTS PEOPLE TO THE TRUE GOD & ONLY SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST:

Words full of Pride saying, Hewn Stones for Bricks and Cedars for Sycomores:

America as Israel of old has not heeded God's warnings, and as we will see there are amazing parallels between the events of 9/11 and Isaiah 9:9-10.

When Assyria first attacked Israel she cut down many of the the sycamore trees. Samaria representing the 10 tribes of Israel said, "... in the pride and stoutness of heart, The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars." (Isaiah 9:9-10)

Matthew Henry (1662-1714) in his commentary says this concerning the passage:

"They say, in the pride and stoutness of their heart, Let God himself do his worst; we will hold our own, and make our part good with him. If he ruin our houses, we will repair them, and make them stronger and finer than they were before. Our landlord shall not turn us out of doors, though we pay him no rent, but we will keep in possession. If the houses that were built of bricks be demolished in the war, we will rebuild them with hewn stones, that shall not so easily be thrown down. If the enemy cut down the sycamores, we will plant cedars in the room of them. We will make a hand of God's judgments, gain by them, and so outbrave them."

John Gill (1697-1771) in his commentary on Isaiah 9:10 wrote:

"The sycamores are cut down; which grew in the fields, and outer parts of the cities, and were but a mean sort of wood, and which the Assyrians cut down to serve several purposes in their siege; of this sort of trees, ... but we will change them into cedars; that is, will plant cedars in place of them; trees tall and large, very delightful to look at, of great worth and usefulness, and very durable; though this may regard not so much the planting of them as the use of them in building, and the sense be agreeable to the former clause; that as, instead of brick, they would build houses with hewn stone; so, instead of sycamore wood, which was not so substantial and durable, and fit for building, they would make use of cedar, which was both beautiful and lasting. ... [T]hey flattered themselves they should be gainers, and not losers, by the Assyrian invasion; thus deriding it, and despising the prophecy concerning it.”

Now note the following parallels of Isaiah 9:9-10 and 9/11:

1. A sycomore was cut down:

A falling steel beam from the North Tower of the World Trade Center struck down a sycomore tree at the northwest corner of the graveyard knocking it over and protecting Saint Paul's Chapel where George Washington had prayed on the day of the founding of America on April 30, 1789!

On September 14th Saint Paul’s was finally inspected for damage. Unlike the buildings on the same street, Church Street to the Northwest, across from the Twin Towers Saint Paul’s sustained no damage. The workers expected to find a pile of rubble, but not a bit of the walls or the roof had been damaged. There was only a cracked window, but the building’s structure was as sound as it had ever been.

2. The sycamore was changed:

On November 22, 2003 a 21 foot tall Norway Spruce, dubbed "the Tree of Hope," was lifted into the same place that the sycamore had stood at the northwest corner of the Saint Paul's property.

The Norway Spruce (of the Genus & Species: Picea abies) is the same kind of tree, a pine, as the "cedar" (Cedrus libani) spoken of in Isaiah 9:10. They are both in the same biological Kingdom (Plantae), Division (Pinophyta), Class (Pinopsida), Order (Pinales) and Family (Pinaceae).

During it's dedication ceremony as it was being lowered to the place where the sycamore once stood, a clergyman said: "We are gathered here today on holy ground. Ground hallowed by its witness to the dust, and death and destruction of September 11th. The ground is sanctified by our presence here as we dedicate this Tree of Hope in witness the divine within each of us." That phrase, "the divine within each of us" is not Christian, but is occult New Age language, and no ground is sanctified or made holy by any man's presence.

Furthermore, there is NO "divine within each of us," but only in those who are "born again" believers in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:5-16; 1 Pet 1:18-23; James 1:18, 21; Titus 3:5), and the witness to it is not a tree, but is God Himself! That is the only way people may become "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4).

This pine tree was decorated and used as a pagan christmas tree. The Word of God tells us that we should not learn the way of pagans such as in setting up idolatrous trees:

"Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen. ... For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not." (Jeremiah 10:2-4)

3. In pride and stoutness of heart National, State and local leaders said, we will build:

We have already seen what Tom Daschle and John Edwards said, even using the very words that God used to curse Israel (Isaiah 9:10), but not understanding that they pronounced a curse on America, because the Country is sinful before the Lord. However, the Governor of New York, and Mayor of New York City spoke "in pride and stoutness of heart" likewise:

In a speech on the Senate Floor of the United States on September 12, 2001 Skull and Bones Senator John Kerry said:

"I believe one of the first things we should commit to - with federal help that underscores our nation's purpose - is to rebuild the towers of the World Trade Center and show the world we are not afraid - we are defiant." (John Kerry Speech on 09/12/2001)

New York City Mayor, Rudolph Giuliani said on the day of the crisis:

"We will rebuild: We're going to come out of this stronger than before, politically stronger, economically stronger. The skyline will be made whole again." (Quoted in the article by Tess Taylor entitled: Should the Twin Towers be Rebuilt).

New York State Governor, George E. Pataki said the following on the 4th of July 2004:

"Today we build the Freedom Tower. ... Let this great Freedom Tower show the world that what our enemies sought to destroy, our democracy, our freedom, our way of life -- stands taller than ever." (Governor Pataki's complete speech, Laying of the Cornerstone for Freedom Tower, is available here in pdf format.)

The first openly sodomite state governor in United States history, New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey, usurped God Almighty's words concerning the building of His second Temple at the return of the Jews from the 70 year Babylonian captivity. Governor McGreevey said this on the July 4, 2004 at the dedication of the Freedom Tower:

"The glory of this latter house shall exceed the former." (Book of Haggai 2:9. See New York Times story, Rebirth Marked by Cornerstone at Ground Zero by David W. Dunlap, July 5, 2004).

4. The bricks are fallen down:

The fallen bricks and most everything else that once stood at Ground Zero was reduced to dust and ashes, and piles of twisted and molten metal.

Richard Pyle in his January 4, 2002 Associated Press article makes it sound better than it actually was. Pyle wrote this concerning the World Trade Center site:

"For three months, the 16-acre site had the look of post-World War II Berlin with its buildings skeletonized and reduced to piles of bricks by Allied bombing raids." (Source: The Attack and Aftermath article: Changes continue at World Trade Center site as visitors get more of a glimpse into wreckage)

5. They say, we will build with hewn stones:

The symbol of Israel's rebuilding was the quarried stone. The first stone used in the construction of the Freedom Tower was the hewn stone from New York granite which was lowered by crane in a ceremony on July 4, 2004. Governor George Pataki said this at the ceremony:

"Today is indeed, a momentous day. Today we take 20 tons of Adirondack granite -- the bedrock of our state -- and place it as the foundation, the bedrock of a new symbol of American strength and confidence. Today, we lay the cornerstone for a new symbol of this city and this country and of our resolve in the face of terror. Today we build the Freedom Tower." (New York Lays Cornerstone For Freedom Tower, CNN).

Here we have seen 5 clear cut parallels from Isaiah 9:9-10 between the only two nations in history that were founded upon the truth of the one true God and His holy Word. Namely Israel and the United States. The have been fulfilled upon Israel to the letter, and are likewise being fulfilled upon America in our day. God gave warning before hand of more severe judgment if left unheeded.

Again the 5 prophetic signs seen both in ancient Israel and modern America were: 1) Sycomores were cut down by the enemy; 2) Bricks had been knocked down by the enemy; 3) In pride and defiance leaders said, we will rebuild; 4) The sycamores were replaced with pine trees; 5) They laid hewn stones in the place the fallen brick. The bottom line: Israel went into captivity; America has been warned!

But that is not all. There are more prophetic signs of warning!

MORE AMAZING PROPHECIES POINTING PEOPLE TO CHRIST BEFORE THE SOON COMING TRIBULATION:

1. The sign of the Shamittah and Jubile that occurred just after 9/11 on the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement:

Deuteronomy 15:1-2 says:

"At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release [shamittah], And this is the manner of the release [shamittah]: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release [shamat] it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the LORD’S release [shamittah]."

The Hebrew "shamita" or "shamittah" (literally: "release") begins on the first day of the new Sabbatical Year or seven year cycle. Personal debts are considered forgiven as of the end of this 7th year. This day also ends the year long rest of the land which was mandated in the Law of Moses for the Land of Israel (Ex. 23:10-11; Lev. 25:1-7; Deut. 15:1-9, 31:10-11). The land rests during the seventh year, just as no work was to be done on the seventh day.

The Hebrew Calendar has two different New Years: One for the Biblical Feast Days which begins on the first of the seven feasts, Passover (during the March / April time frame; The Biblical month of Nisan, also called Abib). The other is the Civil Calendar that begins during the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah, which means "the head of the year") on the first day of the Jewish month of Tishrei (September / October time frame). The first of Tishrei is when the numbered year changes, and this date is most significant for determining the Shemittah (release) and Yovel (Jubile) years. The Jubile come after 7 Shemittahs (49 years), at the beginning of the 50th year on the 10th of Tishrei which is the Day of Atonement.

The Shemittah is still observed in contemporary Judaism. Since the reestablishment of Israel in 1948 the Shamittah years have been observed in 1950-1951 (The Hebrew calendar year of 5712), 1958-1959 (5719), 1965-1966 (5726), 1972-1973 (5733), 1979-1980 (5740), 1986-1987 (5747), 1993-1994 (5754), 2000-2001 (5761), 2007-2008 (5768). The next Shamittah will be 2014-2015 (5775).

Today the Jubile is not observed, because all 12 tribes must be present in the land, but all 12 cannot be identified at this time. However, if it was observed, the latest Jubile would have began on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) on September 27, 2001, and the most recent Shemittah began on September 30, 2008.

It is interesting that just after 9/11 when the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) reopened on September 17, 2001, after having been closed for a week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed down 7%, having fallen 684 points by the end of trading. It was the biggest-ever one-day point decline up until that time. By the end of the week, the DJIA had fallen 1369.7 points (14.3%), its largest one-week point drop in history. It cannot be a coincidence that by the time the NYSE closed it was Tishrei 1, 5762 in Israel on the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashana) which was also the Shemittah, the day of the release of debts. (See September 2001 Calendar with Biblical months, days and feast days)

But that's not all! Seven years later and the next Shemittah on September 30, 2008, in Israel, the 29th in New York the same thing happened again. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 7% again, having dropped 777 points. Approximately $1.2 trillion of the market value was lost. (See September 2008 Calendar with Biblical months, days and feast days)

2. The next Shamittah will occur in conjunction with the 7th Passover / Tabernacles Lunar Tetreds:

In 2005, artist Steve Tobin created a ten-foot-tall bronze sculpture of a sycamore tree’s root structure fo Trinity Wall Street. The sycamore in question is known as “the tree that saved St. Paul’s Chapel,” because it took the brunt of damage from debris falling from the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and the chapel remained relatively unscathed.

When "The Lord Will Not Hear" Our Prayers

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"If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." (Psalm 66:18)

"He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination." (Proverbs 28:9)

"Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and YOUR SINS HAVE HID HIS FACE FROM YOU, THAT HE WILL NOT HEAR." (Isaiah 59:1-2)

"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." (Proverbs 28:13)

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." (1 John 1:8-10)

"The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight." (Proverbs 15:8)

"Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. ... Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered." (1 Peter 3:1-2, 7)

"Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." (Matthew 5:21-24)

"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. ... For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (Matthew 6:12, 14-15)

"Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. ... And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, WHEN YE MAKE MANY PRAYERS, I WILL NOT HEAR: your hands are full of blood. ... 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." (Isaiah 1:10, 15, 18-20)

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14)

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)

George Washington Blessed The Seed Of Abraham

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Washington, as the father of of our Nation, secured God's blessings on our behalf by blessing the seed of Abraham in our Country early on the history of the United States.

"Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I WILL BLESS THEM THAT BLESS THEE, and curse him that curseth thee: and IN THEE SHALL ALL FAMILIES OF THE EARTH BE BLESSED ." (Genesis 12:1-3)

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The first Jewish community to address the newly elected George Washington was the Hebrew Congregation of Savannah, Georgia, on May 6, 1789. Washington replied thusly in late May 1789:

Gentlemen:-I thank you with great sincerity for your congratulations on my appointment to the office which I have the honor to hold by the unanimous choice of my fellow citizens, and especially the expressions you are pleased to use in testifying the confidence that is reposed in me by your congregation ...

I rejoice that a spirit of liberality and philanthropy is much more prevalent than it formerly was among the enlightened nations of the earth, and that your brethren will benefit thereby in proportion as it shall become still more extensive; happily the people of the United States have in many instances exhibited examples worthy of imitation, the salutary influence of which will doubtless extend much farther if gratefully enjoying those blessings of peace which (under the favor of heaven) have been attained by fortitude in war, they shall conduct themselves with reverence to the Deity and charity toward their fellow- creatures.

May the same wonder-working Deity, who long since delivered the Hebrews from their Egyptian oppressors, planted them in a promised land, whose providential agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United States as an independent nation, still continue to water them with the dews of heaven and make the inhabitants of every denomination participate in the temporal and spiritual blessings of that people whose God is Jehovah.

G. Washington.

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In 1790, President George Washington wrote a letter to the Jewish community of Newport, Rhode Island, affirming the values of tolerance and religious freedom that he saw as the bedrock of the country:

All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens. ...

May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.

May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.

G. Washington.

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In late December of 1790 replied to a letter from the Hebrew Congregations of Philadelphia, New York, Charleston, and Richmond in these words:

To the HEBREW CONGREGATIONS IN THE CITIES OF PHILADELPHIA, NEW YORK, CHARLESTON, AND RICHMOND.

Gentlemen:-The liberality of sentiment toward each other, which marks every political and religious denomination of men in this country, stands unparalleled in the history of nations.

The affection of such a people is a treasure beyond the reach of calculation, and the repeated proofs which my fellow-citizens have given of their attachment to me and approbation of my doings form the purest source of my temporal felicity.

The affectionate expressions of your address again excite my gratitude and receive my warmest acknowledgment.

The power and goodness of the Almighty, so strongly manifested in the events of our late glorious revolution, and His kind interposition in our behalf, have been no less visible in the establishment of our present equal government. In war He directed the sword, and in peace He has ruled in our councils. My agency in both has been guided by the best intentions and a sense of duty I owe to my country.

And as my exertions have hitherto been amply rewarded by the approbation of my fellow citizens, I shall endeavor to deserve a continuance of it by my future conduct.

May the same temporal and eternal blessings which you implore for me, rest upon your congregations.

G. Washington.

REPENTANCE

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Misunderstood Repentance
An Enemy of Soul Winning
By Jack Hyles

Answered by John Henry
Over and over again the question is asked me, "Is repentance necessary for salvation?" Of course, this is of utmost importance. Anything that deals with the way a person can escape the fires of eternal Hell and go to Heaven to live forever is of vital importance. In this chapter, we will address this most important question.

1. First, we need to find what makes one lost. Please notice John 3:18, "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." It is very plain in this verse what makes a person lost. Notice the words, "he that believeth not is condemned already." A person who does not believe is condemned, so not believing is what makes a person lost.

Agreed!

Bear in mind, the word "believing" is the Greek word which means "to rely upon." When one believes on Christ, he simply relies on Him to save him and take him to Heaven when he dies. It is very plain here that what condemns a person is believing not. Then notice it says, "because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Once again, we are told what makes a person lost - because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. It is as simple as that.

Good! Agreed!

Now look at John 3:36, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." Again, we are trying to decide and determine what makes one lost. It is very plain here. Notice the word believeth, "and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." What keeps a person from seeing life? Believing not! What makes the wrath of God abide on a person? Believing not! So, from what must a person repent in order to be saved? He must repent of that which makes him lost. Since "believing not" makes him lost, "believing" makes him saved. The repentance there is a turning from the thing that keeps him from being saved to the thing that saves him. So, yes, there is a repentance from unbelief in order to believe. It is simply a change of direction. It means a turning around. You are going away from believing, and you decide to turn around and believe. You change your direction; you change your mind. With your will you believe and rely upon Christ to save you. In order to believe, you have to repent of unbelief. That which makes a man lost must be corrected.

An erroneous and incomplete explanation! Belief is the second part of ONE turning. Yes, repentance is turning from unbelief, but it is also a turning from what caused Christ's bloody death on the cross, namely one's sin. Just because a thing is mentioned in a verse of Scripture, in this case belief, and another is not, in this case, repentance, does not mean the latter is not also required.

Now turn to John 5:40, "And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." Oh, how simple this is, and yet how plain! Why does a person not have life, according to this verse? Because he will not come to Christ. So, if a person is going away from Christ, he must turn around and come to Christ, which is a change of direction or a change of mind. This is repentance - repenting of the thing that keeps one from being saved, repenting from "going away" to "coming to."

Agreed! However, our "going away" from Christ includes one's love of his sins. In order to turn to Christ (believe), one must turn from (repent) sin.

Notice Isaiah 53:6, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Especially notice the words, "we have turned every one to his own way." That's what not being saved is - turning to our own way. Now if we turn to God's way, which is putting our faith and trust in Jesus, we turn around from going our own way to going His way, from unbelief to belief. This is Bible repentance. Bear in mind, it is the faith that saves. The turning around is necessary in order to put our faith in Christ. One must repent from that thing that keeps him from being saved in order to be saved.

Agreed! However, the phrase, "we have turned every one to his own way" indicates our sin, our transgressions, and our iniquities that must be turned from!

If a person were saved by good works, then he would have to repent of bad works, or of not doing good works, in order to be saved. If a person were saved by quitting his sinning, then he would have to repent of his sinning in order to be saved. A person is saved by believing, so he repents of his unbelief or turns from his unbelief in order to be saved.

What a misrepresentation of the Doctrine of Repentance! Repentance has nothing to do with works, but has to do with "godly sorrow" which causes a turning from sin (repentance) to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (faith). No Bible believer that I know of believes that Repentance is a work, much less, a work for salvation! Repentance if a turning from sin to God for salvation in Christ!

"... I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD, AND FAITH TOWARD OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST." (Acts 20:20-21)

"Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. FOR GODLY SORROW WORKETH REPENTANCE TO SALVATION not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death." (2 Corinthians 7:9-10)

"For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing. For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how YE TURNED TO GOD FROM IDOLS TO SERVE THE LIVING AND TRUE GOD; And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." (1 Thessalonians 1:8-10)

Let us look at the verses that teach us we are saved by belief.

John 3:15, "That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life."

John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

John 3.18, "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

John 3:36, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."

Acts 16:31, "And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."

The not mentioning of something in a verse does not negate the fact of the thing. The second half of the turning in salvation (faith) being mentioned in a verse doesn't mean the first part (repentance) does not exist. Christ Jesus began His earthly ministry preaching repentance and He ended it with the command to continue preaching repentance:

"... Jesus came into Galilee, PREACHING the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: REPENT YE, AND BELIEVE THE GOSPEL." (Mark 1:14-15)

"... thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that REPENTANCE and remission OF SINS SHOULD BE PREACHED in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." (Luke 24:46-47)

There are those who say we have to repent of our sins in order to be saved. No, we have to repent only of the thing that makes us unsaved, and that is unbelief. If a person needs to turn from his sins in order to be saved, what sins does he turn from? Does he turn from pride? Does he turn from selfishness? Does he turn from covetousness? The truth is, nobody can turn from all of his sins until he is raptured and he receives a body like the body of the Saviour. I John 3:2, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." According to Psalm 19:12, we do not even know all of our sins. David said, "Cleanse thou me from secret faults." What he is talking about here is being cleansed from faults he doesn't even know he has. A person, when he is first saved, does not know all the things that he is doing that are wrong, and if a person has to repent of all of his sins, where is growth in grace? Where is being a babe in Christ? Where does the carnal Christian fit in here?

Just as faith is an act of the heart, so likewise is repentance. Neither are works. Both are a simultaneous turning in the heart from all that is offends God (sin) to Christ (faith). This is the part of man in salvation. When one does this then God does His work of regeneration and we are born again, we receive a "pardon," our sins are "blotted out," and "the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord."

"Therefore also now, saith the LORD, TURN YE EVEN TO ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: And REND YOUR HEART, and not your garments, and TURN UNTO THE LORD YOUR GOD: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil." (Joel 2:12-13)

"... As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked TURN FROM HIS WAY AND LIVE: TURN YE, TURN YE FROM YOUR EVIL WAYS ..." (Ezekiel 33:11)

"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." (Isaiah 55:7)

"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." (Acts 3:19)

"... I [Jesus] send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me [Jesus]. ... I [Paul] was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision: But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should REPENT and TURN to God, and do works meet for repentance." (Acts 26:18-20)

Now don't misunderstand me. I am certainly for separation and for living a godly life, but the cleansing of our lives is not done by us any more than salvation is done by us. Salvation is simply repenting of unbelief, and believing, and letting Christ save us. We yield to Him to save us; He does! Immediately the Holy Spirit comes in to live. The Holy Spirit begins His work of cleansing in our lives. He is the one Who cleanses, just as he is the one Who saves. He is the one Who points our sins out to us after we are saved just as He is the one Who saves us when we are saved.

Yes, God is the One who cleanses us repeatedly after we are born again, but He is the One that also cleanses us when we first repent of our sins, and trust Christ Jesus.

":.. REPENT, AND TURN YOURSELVES FROM ALL YOUR TRANSGRESSIONS; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and MAKE YOU A NEW HEART AND A NEW SPIRIT ..." (Ezekiel 18:30-31)

This chapter is being dictated in San Antonio, Texas. I am sitting in a Holiday Inn. Tomorrow morning early I will catch a plane for Chicago. Let's suppose I get on that plane, and I am trusting the pilot to take me to Chicago. I do not know how to operate the plane, nor do I know the route to Chicago by air. There is nothing I can do to get myself to Chicago by that plane. I trust the pilot to get me there. So, we get up in the air thousands of feet high, and let's suppose I get a knife and cut up the seat in front of me. Now, where am I going? I'm still going to Chicago. Why? I repented of "not trusting the plane to take me" to "trusting the plane to take me."

The stewardess comes and says, "Mr. Hyles, what are you doing back here?" I say, "I'm just cutting up a little bit!"

Then suppose I reach up and cut off a lock of her hair. Now where am I going? I'm going to Chicago. You see, how I behave on the flight does not determine my destination.

So, the stewardess goes to the pilot and says, "Mr. Hyles, back in seat 14A is causing some disturbance. Look at my hair. Go back and look at the seat." The pilot leaves the plane in the hands of the co-pilot and comes back to seat 14A and says, "Mr. Hyles, what are you doing back here?" He looks at the seat I've cut up, he sees the lock of hair that I've cut off the stewardess, and I reach out and cut off his tie. Now where am I going? I'm going to Chicago. That was all determined when I got on the airplane. Now the truth is, I will not enjoy Chicago as much as I would have enjoyed it, nor will I go to the part of Chicago I'd planned to, but I'm still going to Chicago.

Agreed. "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; 13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. 14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." (1 Corinthians 3:11-15)

When we put our faith and trust in Christ, and repent of unbelief, and believe, God's Holy Spirit comes in to live and begins to straighten us out. He points out our sins, and as we yield to Him, He cleanses us from our sins. If we misbehave on the journey, we are still going to Heaven, because we go to Heaven by trusting Christ to take us there. The Holy Spirit Who came in to live begins to point out things that we should and should not do. If we do not obey Him, if we misbehave on the journey, we will still go to Heaven; we simply will not enjoy it as much as we would have had we behaved, just as I would not enjoy Chicago as much as I would have had I behaved.

Agreed.

I know a young man who recently got married. He got an apartment several months before he got married and lived there alone until the wedding took place. What a mess that apartment was! His pants were hung on the bedpost, his shoes were left on the floor beside the bed, and the bed was never made. Then one day he got married. Now how did he get married? He got married by turning from being single to being married. He repented of not being married and got married. When he took his new bride to the apartment, she was aghast, but immediately she began to straighten things up. She put his shoes in the closet, took his shirt off the chair, removed his clothes off the bedpost, and made a lovely little apartment out of the mess that he had made. Now he was not married because he cleaned up his apartment; he was married because he repented of that thing that kept him from being married. He repeated the vows and accepted her as his wife. It was then that she came in; it was then that his apartment began to get clean!

Good example to a point. That point being that his new wife is not Almighty Jehovah, holy, just, righteous and true. Suppose that mess was the SIN of the young man and he was lost, and rather than a new wife, he came face to face with God through the mirror of His holy Word. As there are steps and conditions in getting married, the same is true in receiving Jesus Christ. At a bear minimum, in this new case, he would first need to gain knowledge of 1) the holiness and justice of God, and 2) the love, mercy and grace of God. Number one here is called "the fear of the Lord." The Bible tells us exactly what the "the fear of the Lord" is:

Proverbs 2:1, 5: "My son, IF thou wilt RECEIVE My words ... then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God."

Proverbs 1:7: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction."

Proverbs 9:10: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding."

Psalms 111:10: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever."

Job 28:28: "... Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding."

Proverbs 14:27: "The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death."

Proverbs 16:6: "By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil."

Proverbs 3:7: "Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil." (cf. Prov 8:13, 10:27, 14:26, 15:16, 33, 19:9. 23, 22:4, 23:17)

Any one who will receive the Word of God which teaches us that it is "by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil" (turn from or repent), and put his trust in Jesus Christ who died in his place (turn to or believe) then he will be born again, and thus saved. Anyone who does not fear the Lord will meet the Lord at the Great White Throne Judgment:

"I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. 28 Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me: 29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: 30 They would none of My counsel: they despised all My reproof. 31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. 32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them." (Proverbs 1:26-32)

Above we do not see the lost "turn to the Lord" (2 Cor 3:15-16; cf. Acts 26:20; Deut 4:30; Hos 14:1-2), but rather rejection of God's calling, their "turning away" (Prov 1:32). The Holy Spirit ends Proverbs 1 with these words: "But WHOSO HEARKENETH unto Me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil." (Proverbs 1:33) Harken to what? Harken to repent or "choose the fear of the LORD."

"And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: FEAR HIM, WHICH AFTER HE HATH KILLED HATH POWER TO CAST INTO HELL; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him." (Luke 12:4-5)

Case in point: In Luke 23 we have the salvation of one thief who had "the fear the Lord" and put his faith in Jesus, another who did not "fear God" and trust Him.

"And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. 40 But the other answering rebuked him, saying, DOST NOT THOU FEAR GOD, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. 42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. 43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:39-43)

This thief on the cross with Christ was saved the exact same way all are saved: 1) he feared God, recognizing his own sin and that he deserved his punishment (this is called repentance), and 2) he realized that Jesus was sinless, that He was Lord (God) and that He was willing and able to save him (this is called faith). The thief repented and put his faith in Jesus Christ to take him to paradise. There was no ability or time for works whatsoever! It was a turning in his heart from sin to God. This is the same way I was saved. It is the only way anyone has ever been, or ever will be saved. When we do this, then God does His part and regenerates us and makes us His sons and daughters in Christ!

Practically every false doctrine comes from getting things out of order. God's divine order is salvation, then change; not change and then salvation! If one has to be changed to be saved, that's salvation by works. It is also salvation by the flesh. The truth is, one is cleansed from the sins of the flesh just as he is saved; by yielding to the Holy Spirit and letting Him do His work.

It is agreed that practically every false doctrine comes from getting things out of order. In this case repentance is the first part (faith being the second) of an instantaneous turning from sin to the Lord, from falsehood to Truth, from the Devil to Jesus Christ. Works have nothing to do with it! The new birth has everything to do with it! An instantaneous receiving of Jesus Christ by way of the Word of Truth into our hearts through repentance and faith on our part enables God to regenerate the residue of our dead spirits.

"He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is BORN OF GOD doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is BORN OF GOD. ... We know that whosoever is BORN OF GOD sinneth not; but he that is BEGOTTEN OF GOD keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not." (1 John 3:8-9, 5:18; cf. Malachi 2:15: "And did not He make one? Yet had He the residue of the spirit ... that He might seek a godly seed" [see Gen. 2:24; Eph 2:1, 5]. Malachi 2:15 speaks of one's dead spirit before we are born again. The part of us that "cannot sin" is our born again spirit, not our soul and body, but these will also be made perfect and sinless at the Rapture when we receive our glorified bodies.)

"Blessed be the GOD AND FATHER of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy HATH BEGOTTEN US AGAIN unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ... Being BORN AGAIN, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, BY THE WORD OF GOD, which liveth and abideth for ever." (1 Peter 1:3-5, 23)

"Of his own will begat he us with THE WORD OF TRUTH, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. ... Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and RECEIVE WITH MEEKNESS THE ENGRAFTED WORD, which is able to save your souls." (James 1:18, 21)

"[The Father] hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in Whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:" (Colossians 1:13-14)

"But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, 5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the WASHING OF REGENERATION, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; 7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." (Titus 3:4-7)

"Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." (John 3:7)

"Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN YOU, than he that is in the world. ... And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. ... He that believeth on the Son of God HATH THE WITNESS IN HIMSELF: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son." (1 John 4:4, 5:6, 10)

2. You can repent of something other than sin. Matthew 7:3, "Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders." Notice that Judas repented. Now what does it mean? It means he repented about keeping the money. He had sold our Saviour for thirty pieces of silver; he changed his mind and took the silver back. A change of mind and change of direction took place, but it had nothing to do with salvation. He had made a bad deal; he regretted he had made that bad deal, and he tried to correct it.

Everybody who lives in sin eventually repents, but they do not repent of unbelief. They change their mind about sin. No one lives in sin without realizing later that it did not bring the joy, happiness, peace and contentment that it claimed to bring. I talk to people every week who are tired of their sins, unhappy in their sinful life or living a miserable, wretched life because of the results of sin. What have they done? They have changed their mind about sin, and in some cases, they even quit their sin - at least that sin which was most predominant in their lives. You can repent of sin without repenting of unbelief. Such was the case with Judas. No doubt he repented that he had done wrong. He certainly repented of the bad deal he had made. He turned around, changed his mind and brought the money back, but he did not repent of that thing from which he must repent in order to be saved, and that is unbelief.

Agreed, one can repent of sin without repenting of unbelief, but this does not change the fact that the RIGHT kind of repentance is essential for salvation. That is, the kind of repentance the thief on the cross had. Namely: repentance in "the fear of the Lord" (Prov 1:29, Lk 23:40), and in "godly sorrow" (2 Cor 7:10). Not a mere change of action, direction or mind, but a change of direction toward God's judgment and hell, and a change of heart concerning one's sin that nailed Jesus to the cross. This immediately accompanied by faith in Christ Jesus' willingness and ability to save from hell. The fact that God repents or changes in the course of His actions, or that Judas and others often repent without receiving Christ is irrelevant.

3. God repents. Notice Genesis 6:6, "And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart." Bear in mind, the word "repent" means "change of mind." God made man and wished He hadn't. He was grieved because of what man had done, and He repented that He had made man. This does not mean that God repented from sin, because God could not sin; He simply changed His mind, which He does often. Basically, that is what answered prayer is much of the time.

Now notice I Samuel 15:35, "And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel." God had made Saul king over Israel. The truth is that God did not want to do so, but Israel clamored for a king. Saul was chosen to be that king, but it then did not turn out as it should have. So, in this verse it simply says that God repented that He had made Saul king. He changed His mind.

What I'm saying is, there is repentance other than repentance from sin. A lady can change her mind about the kind of perfume she wears. A man can change his mind about the kind of food he eats or the kind of clothes he wears. He can change his direction concerning his manners. You can repent from discourtesy to courtesy. You can repent from stubbornness to leniency. You can repent from impatience to patience, but those things don't save. Repenting from the thing that makes you lost is the thing that makes you saved, and that is, repenting of your unbelief.

Now notice Exodus 32:9-14, "And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and thy shall inherit it for ever. And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people."

Let me paraphrase the story. God said to Moses, "I'm sick and tired of the people and their rebellion. Get out of the way so I can consume them." Moses came to God and said, "Lord, don't do that. You're the One Who brought the people out of the land of Egypt, and if You consume them, the heathen people are going to criticize You. Not only that! You promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that you would multiply their seed and that You would give them the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession." Moses pleaded his case before God, reminding God what God had promised. Then verse 14 simply says, "The LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people." The word "evil" here means something that would cause them pain; it's not talking about sin. God decided not to hurt them after all. He decided not to consume them after all. He changed His mind, but He did not change His mind concerning a sin, because God cannot sin.

Now turn to Jonah 3:9, 10, "Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not."

God was going to punish Nineveh. Jonah had preached in Nineveh and had warned the people that destruction was coming. The people believed God, turned from their unbelief to belief, and God changed His mind about punishing the people. In verse 10 the Bible says, "And God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not."

Again, God simply changed His mind and changed His direction. He was going to punish; they believed; He decided not to punish. He changed from the direction of punishing to the direction of not punishing. This is repentance, but not repentance from sin, because God cannot sin.

Look at Amos 7:3, "The Lord repented for this: It shall not be, saith the Lord."

Amos 7:6, "The Lord repented for this: This also shall not be, saith the Lord God."

So, repentance does not always deal with salvation and sin; it is simply a change of direction or a change of mind.

In reality God never changes His mind, although He speaks thus, because He knows the end from the beginning, but does change His courses of action.

"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, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure." (Isaiah 46:9-10)

Note that in Genesis 6:6 that Godly sorrow was involved in the Lord's course of action:

"And it repented the LORD that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at His heart." (Genesis 6:6)

Also note that men repenting of sin (the fear of the LORD) does cause God to repent Himself of sending people to hell:

"He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; 28 He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light. 29 Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, 30 to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living." (Job 33:27-30)

Again the fact that God repents of one course of action in lieu of another, or that the word, "repent" is not always used concerning "repentance to salvation" (2 Cor 7:10) does not change the fact that it is the first part before faith, the turning from sin before the turning to God.

Again these arguments are irrelevant.

4. Now we consider repentance and salvation. Look at Acts 3:19, "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord."

Peter is preaching here. He tells the people to repent and be converted. Now we have to go back to what saves. John 3:14-16, 18, 36, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." Acts 16:31, "And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."

So these people had to repent from not believing and believe in order that they might be converted. They had to change directions, change their minds.

The above tenet has already been proven false.

Let me say again that I do not believe for a second that Christian people should live like the Devil. No preacher preaches separation more than I do. I simply believe that that separation is a work of the Holy Spirit just like regeneration is a work of the Holy Spirit, and it starts after one has repented from that which makes him lost, and that is unbelief. When this is done, he believes, he is saved. Then the Holy Spirit comes in and begins to tell the Christian what sins from which he should repent. The man changed his mind about unbelief. The Holy Spirit directed him there. Now the Holy Spirit comes in to live and begins to change his mind about other things.

This is true to a point. Unbelief is sin; and not trusting Christ is the greatest sin of all, unless we are talking about one who knows nothing of Jesus Christ or perhaps has never even heard the name of the Lord. However, even that one has offended the Holy One and will stand guilty of all the sins he has ever committed. "The fear of the Lord," that is His power to cast into hell as punishment, and "godly sorrow" for not only not believing in Christ, but for all of one's sins that He died that terrible death for is required. Furthermore, "the fear of the Lord" and "godly sorrow" do not end with the moment of the new birth, just as the Holy Spirit's teaching, convicting and our repenting of sins do not end there.

Now look at Acts 2:38, "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."

Peter is saying, "Change your mind and be baptized." Now, about what did they change their minds? This is answered in verse 41. Look at what they did in response. "They gladly received His Word, and then they were baptized." So what was this repentance? It was repentance from not receiving His Word to receiving His Word. That's all Peter was saying. He was saying, "Change your mind about receiving the Word," which states that you must believe and repent from unbelief in order to be saved.

Again this is not merely a change of mind, but a change of heart through "the fear of the Lord" and "godly sorrow" for murdering the Saviour. Note that after preaching the death burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, Peter, spoke of Christ's "foes" or "enemies" (Ps 110:1) invoking "the fear of the Lord," and then said "that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye [meaning both us and them] have crucified, both Lord and Christ." This caused "godly sorrow" to prick their hearts so they ask what was required of them. This was more than just unbelief convicting them. Read what it says:

"For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, 35 Until I make thy foes thy footstool. 36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. 37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." (Acts 2:34-38)

Now what did they repent of? It was for being the enemies of God and for murdering the Lord Jesus Christ. These are the greatest sins imaginable, not only unbelief, although that is included.

"But he 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. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:5-6)

Now turn to Acts 17:30, "And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent." Notice God commandeth all men every where to repent. Repent from what? Repent from the thing that keeps them lost, and that's unbelief. What corrects this? Look at Acts 17:34, "Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Dammaris, and others with them." Notice it said, "certain men believed." So, when he said, "repent," he was saying "repent from unbelief and believe," because just as in Acts 2:38 and 41 a command was given to repent, and the believing was the obedience to that command. They changed their mind about belief. They decided to believe instead of not believe.

"And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." (Acts 17:30-31)

Why has "God ... now commandeth all men every where to repent"? The answer is in the following verse: "Because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained ..." Who is "that man whom he hath ordained" by whom He will "He will judge the world in righteousness." It is Jesus Christ to whom they must turn to in "the fear of the Lord" and "godly sorrow," because they have sinned against Him, because they are His enemies, because them murdered Him, and because they have not trusted in Him.

Now look at Mark 1:15, "And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel."

Jesus Himself is saying repent, and notice immediately He says, "repent, and believe." What He was saying is, "Quit unbelieving, and believe. Quit not believing, and believe." Again, I'm not saying a Christian should live like the Devil, but I am saying that changing your life does not save you. That's salvation by works. Faith is what saves you. You turn from unbelief to belief; from no faith to faith, and then repentance from sins begins, because He Who convicted you from the sin of unbelief to believing now lives in you. How easy it is now for Him to convict you day by day of other things from which you can repent and about which you can change your mind.

5. Repentance from sin is directed to God's people.

Absolutely! However, as we have seen God also "... commandeth all men every where to repent: Because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained ..." (Acts 17:30-31)

Revelation 2:5, "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

Here is a case of a church that was a good church. It was a church that worked. It worked hard. It hated sin. It was doctrinally sound. Revelation 2:2, "I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars." It was a patient church. It was a church that believed in the name of Jesus and did not faint in their standing for that. Revelation 2:3, "And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted." However, it was a church that had left its first love. It does not say that that church lost its first love, but they left their first love. When you lose something, you don't know where it is. When you leave something, you know where to find it. It does not say that this church did not love any more. The truth is they did love. Love is what made them faithful, what made them work, what made them have patience, what made them hate sin, what made them stand for the name of Jesus, what made them hate false doctrine. This was a church of people who loved God, but they had left their first love - that first sweet love - maybe more shallow than the love they had then.

It does not say that they loved Him less. The truth is they probably loved Him more, but God is saying, "I want both. I want the deep, mature love that you have now and the sweet expressive love that you used to have.

The only sin this church had committed was the sin of leaving their first love -that "Amen!" love, that "Hallelujah!" love, that "Glory to God!" love, that sweet, expressive love. Nevertheless, they sinned, and God told them to repent. Repent from what? Repent from drinking? No. Repent from adultery? No. This is not the subject here. It's repenting from not loving Christ with the first love.

This same type repentance was commanded to the church in Pergamos. Revelation 2:16, "Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and willfight against them with the sword of my mouth." The same thing was said to the church at Thyatira in Revelation 2:21, 22, "And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds." The church in Sardis was told likewise to repent in Revelation 3:3, "Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." The church at Laodicea received the same command in Revelation 3:19, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent."

Both saved and lost must repent as is taught by the Lord Jesus in His letters to the seven churches. For example:

The Church at Pergamos (Revelation 2:12-17):

"But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth." (Revelation 2:14-16)

In this passage Jesus is speaking to the Pastor or "angel of the church in Pergamos" who was tolorating lost people in his Church who held "the doctrine of the Nicolaitans" and "the doctrine of Balaam." These false doctrines were the beginnings of Roman Catholicism. These false teaching were offences that required church discipline as prescribed in Matthew 18:15-20 and 1 Corinthians 5. The Pastor of the church in Pergamos was negligent and needed to repent of this sin.

The Church at Thyatira (Revelation 2:18-29):

"Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works." (Revelation 2:20-23)

Here again we have a pastor who was negligent and needed to repent. But notice too that "that woman Jezebel" was given "space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not."   This false prophetess was clearly unsaved, and what she needed to repent of was clearly sin. The Lord says that He would cast "them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation." This is prophetic language speaking again of Roman Catholicism, this time full blown, after the Rapture and in the Tribulation. Be sure that they needed to turn from their sin of unbelief, but also of their sinful "deeds." Some of those in this church were God's "servants" (saved), but others were "her children" (lost). Both needed repentance!

So you can see that God tells individuals to repent; He also tells groups to repent. He tells nations to repent. Time and time again He called Israel to repentance.

Agreed. However, what I am trying to zero in on is repentance unto salvation.

Now let us review, as follows:

1. God says to the unsaved, "Repent of your unbelief."

It's very interesting that in I John the word "repentance" is never mentioned, and yet the purpose of I John was to give people the assurance of salvation. I John 5:13, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." Of course, repentance is certainly implied throughout the entire book, because the book tells us that what saves is believing on Christ (or relying on Him) to save, which, of course, implies that that person must repent of what makes him lost, which is unbelief.

The thing that causes us to be lost in the first place is our sin nature received from Adam, and our own sin. Again this is the way of repentance unto salvation:

"He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him: and he shall see His face with joy: for He will render unto man His righteousness. 27 He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; 28 He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light. 29 Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, 30 To bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living." (Job 33:26-30)

"They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. ... 17 And the way of peace have they not known: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. 19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." (Romans 3:12, 17-26)

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: 13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. 15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. 16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. 17 For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) 18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. 20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: 21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 5:12-21)

"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." (Proverbs 28:13)

2. God says to the saved people, "Repent of sin." This is done by the Holy Spirit as He comes in to live to remind us to take the clothes off the bedpost, the shirt off the chair, put the shoes into the closet, etc.

Yes, saved people need to repent of their sins daily.

3. If a person must repent of his sins to be saved, of what sins must he repent? Can he repent of all of them? Isn't that sinless perfection or holiness? Isn't that salvation by works? Of what sin must one repent? He must repent of the sin that makes him lost, and that's the sin of unbelief.

One must repent (as already defined) of all his sins and put all his trust in Jesus Christ for his salvation. Of course, it is not necessary to name every sin, but to acknowledge one's depraved and sinful condition, and desire for forgiveness. This is what one does when he receives God's Word which testifies that we need to receive Jesus Christ and Saviour.

"Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls." (James 1:18, 21)

"He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:11-13)

"Sanctify them through Thy Truth: Thy Word is Truth." (John 17:17)

"Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures." (James 1:18)

4. If turning from sins would get you saved, then turning back to sins would get you lost. In Acts 16:30 the very simple question is asked, "What must I do to be saved?" This is the one time in the Bible where this question is asked. Now the answer to this question must be what saves a person. Acts 16:31, "And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." There's the answer-belief. There is nothing about repentance here, except, yes, there is something about repentance, because you can't believe without repenting from unbelief.

Let's take the Bible in it's whole tenor and context, and not pick a verse out here and there to make up new doctrines. We could this passage and just as easily say we only need repent in order not to perish:

"There were ... some that told Him [Jesus] of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." (Luke 13:1-5)

But if we take the whole tenor of Scripture in context we find that there is a two fold turning from sin (repentance) to Jesus Christ (faith):

"... I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, ... and have taught you publickly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts 20:20)

This turning from and to is done in the fear of the Lord and in godly sorrow :

"The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death." (Proverbs 14:27)

"For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death." (2 Corinthians 7:10)

5. If a person has to clean up his own life before he gets saved, we are back to Arminianism or salvation by works.

This is a straw man that no baptist that I know of believes. We do notbelieve in cleaning up our life before he gets saved; we believe in Biblical repentance and faith which produces the new birth into God's family. God never disowns His children! When one receives Christ he is born again and cannot be unborn again.

"Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye MUST be born again." (John 3:7)

"I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall ALL likewise perish." (Luke 13:3)

"I said ..., that ye shall die in your sins: for IF YE BELIEVE NOT that I am he, ye shall die in your sins." (John 8:24)   "Jesus saith ..., I am the way, the truth, and the life: NO MAN cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6)   "NEITHER IS THERE SALVATION IN ANY OTHER: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)   "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." (1 Timothy 2:5-6)

6. We cannot do what the Holy Spirit can do. The Holy Spirit first convicts us of our sin of unbelief to bring us to Christ. Once He brings us to Christ, He comes in us to live. Romans 8:9, "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spint of Christ, he is none of his." I Corinthians 6:19, 20, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."

Amen!!!

Then when the Holy Spirit is in us, He begins to convict us of things in our lives that should be changed. Then the Christian life becomes a constant repenting until we wake in the likeness of Christ.

"If so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings." (Jeremiah 26:3)

"How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge? 23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. 24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; 25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: 26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; 27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. 28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: 29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: 30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. 31 Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. 32 For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. 33 But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil." (Proverbs 1:22-33)

"Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: WHEREFORE TURN YOURSELVES, AND LIVE YE." (Ezekiel 18:30-32)

"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 Peter 3:9)

---

From Chapter Four of Dr. Jack Hyles book The Enemies of Soul Winning, 1993.

See: http://www.RepentanceBlacklist.com

Answered By John Henry, November 26, 2011

See: JohnBaptistHenry.blogspot.com

Jews in early America & Israel's Reestablishment

2011-11-22T05:24:00.039-06:00

In 1948 President Harry S. Truman by following in the footsteps of President George Washington and heeding the Scriptural advice of Pastor J. Frank Norris of First Baptist Church, Fort Worth, Texas blessed Israel by being the first head of state to recognized Israel as a sovereign Nation.

Below you will find historical information concerning President Harry Truman to recognized Israel as a Nation.

Following this you will find how President George Washington also brought blessings upon America!

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"Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I WILL BLESS THEM THAT BLESS THEE, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." (Genesis 12:1-3)

"O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen. He is the LORD our God: his judgments are in all the earth. He hath remembered his covenant FOR EVER, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an EVERLASTING covenant: Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance: When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it." (Psalm 105:6-12)

YouTube Channel of Roy Falls,
Director, J. Frank Norris Historical Society

The J. Frank Norris Historical Society

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Dr. J. Frank Norris' Letter on Israel
to President Harry S. Truman
dated October 2, 1947

In 1947 President Harry Truman asked for the opinion of Dr. J. Frank Norris on the Palestine situation. Below is Dr. Norris' answer and President Truman's personal reply to him.

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First Baptist Church
4th and Throckmorton Streets
Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth, Texas
Oct. 2, 1947

Hon. Harry S. Truman
President United States
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. President:

Mr. Matthew J. Connelly wired me New York October 1st and suggested that I write you certain matters of my trip to Palestine.

First, I want to thank you for your very kind personal letter of August 5th, which was of invaluable assistance in all my travels.

I have given extensive study to the Jewish Palestinian question. The issue is whether we will take the authority of the Bible of our mothers or the Koran with the sword and flame.

In that whole controversy the big issue is who owns the land, who has the title to that land? If that question is settled there is no other question.

The Lord God Almighty in Genesis the 17th chapter, specifically states that the title to Palestine is given not to Ishmael, the ancestor of the Arabs, but to Isaac and his seed for ever.

“And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.” (Gen. 17:19)

This covenant was confirmed to Isaac, Genesis 26:3:

“Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;”

This covenant was also confirmed to Jacob, Genesis 28:13:

“And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;”

The covenant was likewise confirmed to Moses in Deuteronomy 30:3-5:

“That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the out most parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.”

David specifically states the title to that land is to the Jews and the descendants of Jacob: Psalm 105:9-12:

“Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance: When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it.”

Thirteen hundred years ago the Arabs were usurpers, Mohammet with fire and sword, and they were robbers of property that belongs to the Jews.

A second and very important authority in addition to Scriptural authority, Great Britain was given mandate over Palestine for the purpose of Jewish immigration into that land and for making it a national home.

This mandate was confirmed by the United States Government and by the 57 Nations of the League of Nations.

The tragedy and the cause of all the present trouble is that Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister, put on a two-fold appeasement in 1939:

First, with Hitler, and that brought on World War II.

Second, with the Arabs, who were the allies of Hitler.

Chamberlain violated the international law giving that land as a national home for Jews in 1939, and said only 70,000 Jews would be permitted to go for the next five years, and after that none except by the consent of the Arabs. But the mandate made no such restrictions.

Therefore the present Jewish immigration into Palestine is not “illegal”; it’s legal.

Based on the mandate given to Great Britain over Palestine, and confirmed by the United States Government and confirmed by the League of Nations, the Jews invested six hundred and fifty million dollars in Palestine, built cities, public works, and the curse of God Almighty is on every hand that violates this most solemn agreement the mandate three times over confirmed.

Now, Mr. President, it certainly is a matter that should cause us to stop and think that the Arab leaders from the Grand Mufti on down were allies of Hitler, and it ill becomes them to come now into court with their hands dripping with the blood of the Jews, six million of them murdered by Hitler.

I interviewed many Arab leaders, and without question I found that the whole crowd are for Stalin, just like they formerly were for Hitler.

While this country was fighting Hitler, thirty thousand young Jews from Palestine volunteered and went to the battle front and not a single Arab regiment.

If the Arabs and Jews in Palestine were left alone they would get along and settle their troubles.

Russia is doing everything at her command to foment the trouble.

The time has come, and long past, when the United States should keep its promise and take a firm stand for law and order in that land that has given the world its Bible and Saviour.

Yours very sincerely,

(Signed by J. Frank Norris)

J. Frank Norris
First Baptist Church
4th and Throckmorton Streets
Fort Worth, Texas

JFN:r

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THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON

October 7, 1947

Dear Dr. Norris:

I am most grateful for your thoughtful letter of October second. I deeply appreciate having the benefit of this expression of your views because I know that you have given long and extensive study to the Jewish Palestinian question.

Very sincerely yours,

(Signed by President Harry Truman)

Harry Truman
President
Reverend J. Frank Norris,
First Baptist Church,
4th and Throckmorton Streets,
Fort Worth, Texas.

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SOURCE OF THE TWO HISTORICAL LETTERS ABOVE:

October 22,2004

Dear Brethren:

Dr. DeWayne Nichols, pastor of Liberty Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas, thought this would be something you ought to read.

Sincerely,
Dr. James A. Vineyard
Pastor, Windsor Hills Baptist Church
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

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Truman's message of recognition of Israel

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http://www.trumanlibrary.org/photos/israel.jpg
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/israel/palestin.htm
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George Washington
Blessed the Stock of Abraham in America
The first Jewish community to address the newly elected George Washington was the Hebrew Congregation of Savannah, Georgia, on May 6, 1789.

Washington replied thusly in late May 1789:

Gentlemen:-I thank you with great sincerity for your congratulations on my appointment to the office which I have the honor to hold by the unanimous choice of my fellow citizens, and especially the expressions you are pleased to use in testifying the confidence that is reposed in me by your congregation ...

I rejoice that a spirit of liberality and philanthropy is much more prevalent than it formerly was among the enlightened nations of the earth, and that your brethren will benefit thereby in proportion as it shall become still more extensive; happily the people of the United States have in many instances exhibited examples worthy of imitation, the salutary influence of which will doubtless extend much farther if gratefully enjoying those blessings of peace which (under the favor of heaven) have been attained by fortitude in war, they shall conduct themselves with reverence to the Deity and charity toward their fellow- creatures.

May the same wonder-working Deity, who long since delivered the Hebrews from their Egyptian oppressors, planted them in a promised land, whose providential agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United States as an independent nation, still continue to water them with the dews of heaven and make the inhabitants of every denomination participate in the temporal and spiritual blessings of that people whose God is Jehovah.

G. Washington.

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In 1790, President George Washington wrote a letter to the Jewish community of Newport, Rhode Island, affirming the values of tolerance and religious freedom that he saw as the bedrock of the country:

All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens. ...

May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.

May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.

G. Washington.

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In late December of 1790 replied to a letter from the Hebrew Congregations of Philadelphia, New York, Charleston, and Richmond in these words:

To the HEBREW CONGREGATIONS IN THE CITIES OF PHILADELPHIA, NEW YORK, CHARLESTON, AND RICHMOND.

Gentlemen:-The liberality of sentiment toward each other, which marks every political and religious denomination of men in this country, stands unparalleled in the history of nations.

The affection of such a people is a treasure beyond the reach of calculation, and the repeated proofs which my fellow-citizens have given of their attachment to me and approbation of my doings form the purest source of my temporal felicity.

The affectionate expressions of your address again excite my gratitude and receive my warmest acknowledgment.

The power and goodness of the Almighty, so strongly manifested in the events of our late glorious revolution, and His kind interposition in our behalf, have been no less visible in the establishment of our present equal government. In war He directed the sword, and in peace He has ruled in our councils. My agency in both has been guided by the best intentions and a sense of duty I owe to my country.

And as my exertions have hitherto been amply rewarded by the approbation of my fellow citizens, I shall endeavor to deserve a continuance of it by my future conduct.

May the same temporal and eternal blessings which you implore for me, rest upon your congregations.

G. Washington.

HYPNOSIS

2011-11-21T05:36:00.018-06:00

HYPNOSIS IS NOT BIBLICAL
Compiled by John Henry
"Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." (Proverbs 4:23)

"And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment." (Mark 12:30)

Mesmerism was an 18th century movement begun in France by the Austrian doctor Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), who believed that astrological influence on humans was conveyed through a force or substance similar to magnetism. He first began treating patients with magnets or charged fluids but quickly modified his position, theorizing that cures were actually coming from an energy or mysterious “magnetic fluid” coming from the hands, voice, or nervous system of the practitioner. This invisible substance or magnetism was thought to be similar to electro-magnetism and was dubbed “Animal Magnetism.” Mesmer’s pupils were later able to induce a “magnetic sleep” (trance state or hypnotic condition) in their patients. The term Mesmerism eventually became analogous with hypnosis and was linked with both Spiritualism and Mind Science religions.

Hypnosis has long been linked to ancient religious practices and eastern mystical experiences involving similar trance states or altered states of consciousness. Such altered states are essential to such practices as out-of-body experiences, astral projection, and Yoga. William Kroger, M.D. and William Fezler Ph.D. maintain that, "hypnosis has been practiced in one form or another in the civilized and uncivilized world under many different labels since the dawn of history." They further note that historically elements of hypnosis have been an integral part of pagan religious practices and world religions including Assyro-Babylonian exorcism, Egyptian soothsaying, Jewish mysticism, Byzantine Catholicism, Chinese Taoism, Sufism, Hinduism, Shintoism, forms of Buddhism (Tibetan and Zen), and Yoga (Hypnosis and Behavior Modification, pp. 6-8).

Pastor David L. Brown, Ph.D. gives us this advice in his article entitled, The Dangers of Hypnosis : "Hypnotism ... opens the mind to believe almost anything. As one researcher put it, 'hypnotic induction ... consists of a system of verbal and nonverbal manipulation to lead a person into a heightened state of suggestibility -- more simply, a condition in which one will believe almost anything.' [Hypnosis And The Christian; by Martin & Deidre Bogan; Bethany House; p17] That statement should alarm you because in essence it is saying that a person who is hypnotized can be told a lie and believe it. But does this really happen? The answer is yes. Bernard Diamond, a professor of law and clinical professor of psychiatry wrote in an article for the California Law Review that people who underwent hypnotism would 'graft onto their memories fantasies or suggestions deliberately or unwittingly communicated by the hypnotist and that after hypnosis the subject cannot differentiate between a true recollection and a fantasy or a suggested detail.' [California Law Review, March 1980; Article: Inherent Problems in the Use of Pretrial Hypnosis on a Prospective Witness; by Bernard L. Diamond; p 314] ... Hypnosis is dangerous because the mind loses its ability to distinguish between fact and fantasy (truth and error). ... Satan can and does take advantage of the opportunity. Let me give you one example. Over a five year period, in the late 70's and early 80's, a massive study was done of more than 6,000 people who had undergone hypnosis. It was discovered that one-fifth of those people who had been hypnotized said that they had lived previous lives on other planets! That is bizarre to say the least! But let me tell you about some other experiments. According to one of Peter Francuch experiments 'The person [who was hypnotized] was able very precisely to describe in minute detail what was happening in another friend's house 300 miles away. At the same time, the person was able to describe exactly what was happening a month ago, a year ago, and ten years ago in the same place ...' [Principles of Spiritual Hypnosis; by Peter Francuch; Spiritual Advisor Press, 1981; 924] One might ask, 'How is that possible?' My answer is by demonic contact! One New Age author puts it this way -- 'Hypnosis can be an open door to psychic experiences of many kinds, and in an emotionally unstable, insecure, or neurotic person the possibility of obsession or psychic invasion of one kind or another is always present...' [Many Lives, Many Loves by Gina Cerminara; Wm Morrow and Company, 1963; p. 83] It only takes a brief look at Acts 16:16-18 to discover the source of psychic powers. Hypnosis is dangerous. At the least, it hinders one's ability to discern the difference between real memories and suggested/engrafted memories. Even more dangerous is the fact that hypnosis opens the 'heart's door' (mind) to demonic invasion. If you have not been hypnotized, don't be. If you have been hypnotized I suggest that you renounce your association with the practice by praying -- Dear Lord, I come to you in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. I confess that I have participated in Hypnotism. I ask your forgiveness and renounce hypnotism as contrary to the Bible which warns me not to be brought under any power other than yours (I Corinthians 6:12). I identify myself as a child of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who has been redeemed by His (Christ's) precious blood. Amen."

"There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD ..." (Deuteronomy 18:10-12)

In their book The Bible and Hypnosis Martin and Deidre Bobgan write: "Because of the apparent occult nature of hypnosis (which is more obvious in the deeper stages) and because hypnosis is practiced by many who involve themselves in other areas of the occult, Christians would be wise to avoid hypnosis even for medical purposes. The words from the Old Testament which are translated charmers and enchanters seem to indicate the same kinds of persons whom we now call hypnotherapists. Dave Hunt, author ... and researcher in the area of the occult as well as the cults, says: 'From the Biblical standpoint, I believe that in such places as Deuteronomy 18, when it speaks of "charmers” and “enchanters,” the practice involved anciently was exactly what has recently become acceptable in medicine and psychiatry as hypnosis. I believe this both from the ancient usage of this word and from occult traditions.' [Dave Hunt, personal letter to Walter Martin, January 13, 1982, p. 5.] ... There is general agreement that hypnotized individuals are somewhat vulnerable to uncritically accepting as true any suggestion given by the hypnotist. This factor alone creates the potential for misuse and deception. Some Christian researchers go a step further warning that it is possible for hypnotized subjects to be influenced by voices other than that of the hypnotist. They believe that in a trance state one is more susceptible to demonic oppression or even possession especially if the subject has a history of occult experimentation . Hypnosis can be indirectly linked to biblical admonitions against 'charming.' It is historically linked to pagan and occult practices. ... Just because hypnosis has surfaced in medicine does not mean that it is different from the ancient practices of charmers and enchanters or from those which have been used more recently by witchdoctors and occult hypnotists. John Weldon and Zola Levitt say that even “a strictly scientific approach toward occult phenomena is insufficient protection against demonism. The judgment of God does not distinguish between scientific and nonscientific involvement with powers alien to Him. [John Weldon and Zola Levitt, Psychic Healing, Chicago: Moody Press, 1982, p. 10.] In various sections of Scripture, occult practices are listed side by side, because although one activity may differ from the next, the power source and the revealer of 'hidden knowledge' is the same: Satan. Enchanters, sorcerers, wizards, charmers, consulters of familiar spirits, necromancers, soothsayers, and observers of times (astrologers) are grouped together as those to avoid. See Lev. 19:26, 31, and 20:6, 27; Deut. 18:9-14; 2 Kings 21:6; 2 Chron. 33:6; Isa. 47:9-13; Jer. 27:9. A singular word for those practicing the occult is used in the New Testament: sorcerer."

"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many ..." (Hebrews 9:27-28)

"Another form of Hypnotherapy involves the discovery of forgotten or repressed memories. Just as a hypnotist can effectively suggest that the subject "forget" events that take place during the trance, he can also elicit memories or details of events long forgotten by the conscious mind. Critics warn that these "recovered memories" may not correspond with reality. The phenomenon is too similar to the testimonies of those who are able to "remember" through hypnosis being abducted by aliens on a UFO or to those who recount vivid memories of reincarnation after being regressed back to some alleged previous lifetime (John Ankerberg, John Weldon, Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs, pp. 334-335). Many of the early myths of hypnosis have been disproved and the medical and mental healthcare communities have generally accepted the practice. Many Christians, however, remain troubled by its occult history, the lack of a scientific consensus on how or why hypnosis works, the potential of unethical influence, and its possible link to biblical prohibitions against "charming" or "enchanting" (Ibid., pp. 309-310)." (From Watchman Fellowship Profile on Hypnosis by James K. Walker)

The following concerning hypnosis and reincarnation is from Dave Hunt's book Occult Invasion : "There are the studies of clinical psychologist Helen Wambach. She hypnotically regressed hundreds of subjects into "past lives" and found them to be more than 99 percent accurate in descriptions of life and surroundings. Hypnosis, however, involves a highly suggestible state in which one is controlled by the hypnotist. It is entirely reasonable to believe that a demon would take advantage of this passive state to interject its influence as well. Hypnosis is one of the oldest occult practices. No one should ever submit to hypnosis."

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." (1 Timothy 4:1)

Hypnosis is an occult practice and is condemned strongly in Scripture. No person, let alone a born again believer, should relinquish the soul liberty that God gave them to anyone except their Creator. Doing so opens one up not only to the hypnotist, but to devils. Dave Hunt has pointed out that Nobel prize winning neurophysiologist Sir John Eccles described the human brain as "a machine that a ghost can operate."

"Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." (Proverbs 4:23)

Beginning Sorrows

2011-11-10T04:57:00.107-06:00

The Beginning of Sorrows Sign
By John Henry
BACKGROUND:

After the Lord Jesus gave a scathing rebuke to "the scribes and the Pharisees" pronouncing 8 woes upon them in Matthew chapter 23, the Lord "departed from the temple" (Matthew 24:1).

Then the Lord's "... disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." (Matthew 24:1-2)

This was fulfilled in 70 AD, about 40 years after Jesus spoke these words, in accordance with Daniel's prophecy of 70 weeks (Daniel 9:24-26). Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed and the Hebrew people were murdered and sold as slaves throughout the Roman Empire.

"And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" (Matthew 24:3)

The rest of Matthew 24 is Christ's answer to this question. The Lord gives several signs, but we will deal only with the first sign (singular) here. Jesus answered and said unto them:

"... Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows." (Matthew 24:4-8)

Note that this is one sign with five components:

1. Many False Christ.
2. Wars and Rumours of Wars.
3. Famines in Various Places.
4. Pestilences in Various Places.
5. Earthquakes in Various Places.

Note too that this sign is called, "the beginning of sorrows." These "sorrows" are of the same kind recorded in Genesis 3:16 when God cursed Eve for the original human sin:

"Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."

This is the key to the Lord's prophecy here: ALL five of these things: 1) false christs, 2) wars and rumours of wars, 3) famines, 4) pestilences, and 5) earthquakes will be increasing all at the same time during the last days. ALL five are increasing now, in our day.

I have been studying the prophetic "beginning of sorrows" for over 20 years now, and have seen that they are all increasing as a woman's pains when she is about to give birth.

The Lord Jesus Christ prophesied in His Word that just prior to His return for His own (Matthew 24:37-42) and the Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:15-27) that the sorrows would be on the increase.

THE FIVE BIRTH SORROWS OF MATTHEW 24:

Following are a few facts and statistics showing that the five sorrows are in fact increasing:

1. FALSE CHRISTS: "... Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many." (Matthew 24:4-5)

There were more people in the twentieth century calming to be Christ than ever before in history. "Since the year 1900, over 1,100 false christs have appeared on the scene. [False christs like Father Divine, Prophet Jones, Maharaj Ji, Sun Myung Moon, and] scores of lesser known, self-proclaimed messiahs." [1] Today many sects of the New Age Movement teach their followers that all have the Christ spirit within, so there are now literally millions of false christs. According to the Word of God there is only one Christ:

"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." (1 Timothy 2:5-6) "... God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." (Romans 8:3) Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world." (1 John 5:2-3) "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight." (Colossians 1:2-22) "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." (1 Peter 3:18)

2. WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS: "And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars .... For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom ..." (Matthew 24:6-7)

The frequency and intensity of wars has been increasing greatly since the early 20th Century! "It has been calculated by a former president of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences, aided by historians from England, Egypt, Germany, and India, that since 3600 B.C., over 14,531 wars have been waged in which 3,640,000,000 people have been killed. ... [But since] World War II there have been at least 12 limited wars in the world, ... 74 rebellions for independence, and 162 social revolutions." [2] (These statistics are only up to 1981) It has been estimated that during the 7 years of World War II (1939 to 1945) that 54,800,000 people, both military and civilian, died as a result of that war world wide. From these figures it is easy to see that wars and revolts have greatly increased. For example, by using some simple math, we can see that over the past 5,596 years since 3600 B.C. an average of about 650,465 people die as a result of war per year. Whereas, during World War II alone an average of 7,828,571 people died per year. That is an increase of 7,178,106 deaths per year from from just one 20th century war! As far as numbers of wars over the past 5,596 years the average per year is: 2.59 per year; and the average for the past 50 years is 4.96 per year.

"And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." (Isaiah 2:2-4)

3. FAMINES: "... there shall be famines ... in divers places." (Matthew 24:7)

"Presently [1983], 2,000,000,000 of the worlds inhabitants go to bed hungry each night. Thousands are dying painful deaths, while scores of others are too numb with hunger to realize what is happening. ... [A] billion [people] are malnourished." [3] About 350 years ago there were only about 500,000,000 people on the Earth; today that many are starving to death. "[The world] reached a billion [1,000,000,000] people around 1850. ... It took only 80 years or so for the next doubling ..." [4] In 1985 the population was four billion [4,000,000,000], in 2000 it was over six billion [6,000,000,000], and in March of 2012 we are expected to have seven billion [7,000,000,000] people alive on the Earth! Along with the increase in population comes an increase in famine! There are at least six reasons for famine: 1) the population explosion, 2) a natural after effect of war is famine, 3) big business and government taking the farm land out of the hands of the farmer, and regulating farm production, 4) insects that destroy about six billion dollars in crops each year, 5) God's curse on the Earth restricting growth (Genesis 3:17-19; Romans 8:20-22), and 6) deliberate efforts by New World Order elitists to reduce world population. God will do away with the NWO and lift The curse, and take care of all the other causes of famine after He judges the world for its sins. But before this, during the first half of the seven year Tribulation it will take a days wages just to buy a pint of grain. "A Greek measure for dry things [in New Testament times was] ... considered to be equal to a pint." [5] The Roman denarius or penny of the Bible "was a silver coin. ... [and it was] considered liberal pay for a days work of 12 hours." [6] It will take a days wages just to have enough to eat for one day.

"And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth." (Revelation 6:5-8)

4. PESTILENCES: "... there shall be ... pestilences ... in divers places." (Matthew 24:7)

"Immediately after World War I, in the winter of 1918 - 19, a flu epidemic spread worldwide, killing 20,000,000 [twenty million] people . ... [This] was the first time in history such a plague covered the entire world. That may have marked the first of an ever increasing series of diseases ... [foretold] by Jesus." [7] Today diseases that were thought to be defeated are coming back. Cholera, tuberculosis, diphtheria, bubonic (black) plague, schistosomiasis [snail fever], malaria, and other diseases which had been pushed back and some even thought to have been eradicated are on the rebound. Some of the top killers are heart disease, cancer, stroke, and cirrhosis of the liver. However, there is a new killer now: HIV, the AIDS virus. This disease now eclipses all others. In only about 22 years AIDS became the #1 killer disease. It was first introduced into humans around 1970 [8] and it became the #1 killer in 1992. [9] It's the most dangerous disease ever, to this point in history. There is no cure, it is 100% lethal. AIDS is not an epidemic, but the greatest pandemic ever known to man. Here are some liberal estimates from the World Health Organization (W.H.O.), but in reality the cases are much higher than these: world wide there are 14,000,000 infected and awaiting death (9 million in Africa, 2 million in Asia, 1.5 million in South America, 1 million in North America, and .5 million elsewhere in the world). [10] These figures do not include the millions who have already died with AIDS. "W.H.O. estimate[d] ... [a] rise to 30 million - 40 million by the year 2000." [11] HIV victims are mostly homosexuals, drug abusers, and those who engage in sex outside of the marriage bond.

"And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts." (Revelation 9:20-21)

"And the first [angel] went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. ... and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds." (Revelation 16:2, 10-11)

5. EARTHQUAKES: "... there shall be ... earthquakes, in divers places." (Matthew 24:7)

The last "birth sorrow" in the inspired record of Matthew speaks of earthquakes which have definitely been increasing. Between the years 526 A.D. and 1896 there were only 31 known major earthquakes worldwide. Approximately 2,693,000 people died in that 1,370 year period from those 31 earthquakes. However, during the 20th century alone there have been over 56 major quakes in which well over 2,000,000 people have died. One might say that the detection and reporting of earthquakes has improved recently over those centuries of the past. Granted, this may be true, so let us look at the quakes from 1890 to 2009 that measured over 6 on the Richter scale to see if these have increased.

From 1890 to 1899 there was 1 quake.
From 1900 to 1909 there were 3.
From 1910 to 1919 there were 2.
From 1920 to 1929 there were 2.
From 1930 to 1939 there were 5.
From 1940 to 1949 there were 51.
From 1950 to 1959 there were 475.
From 1960 to 1969 there were 1,056.
From 1970 to 1979 there were 1,184. [12 a]
From 1980 to 1989 there were 1,085. [12 b]
From 1990 to 1999 there were 1,492. [12 c]
From 2000 to 2009 there were 1,611. [12 d]

The record shows an increase in seismic activity, and when quakes of over 5 on the Richter scale are added, it is even clearer. When 5.0 - 5.9 Richter quakes are factored in to the 90's and 00's above, the increase becomes even more dramatic:

From 1990 to 1999 there were 1,4801 [12 c]
From 2000 to 2009 there were 1,7209 [12 d]

And there is even more graphic proof for recent years:

Magnitude   2001 to 2005    2006 to 2010
8.0 to 9.9               5                          8
7.0 to 7.9             66                         72
6.0 to 6.9            669                       783
5.0 to 5.9         6836                 9374
4.0 to 4.9          49799                54268
                              57375              64505 [12 d]

Finally, for 2010 and 2011 the number of Quakes are as follows:

Magnitude        2010                   2011
8.0 to 9.9               1                          1
7.0 to 7.9             22                         18
6.0 to 6.9            150                       170
5.0 to 5.9         1983                 2058
4.0 to 4.9          10383                11457
                              12529              13704 [12 d]

CONCLUSION

The key to the Lord's prophecy here is that ALL five things, false christs, wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, must be increasing simultaneously in frequency and intensity. Other than that it is not a fulfillment. ALL are increasing in our day.

The prophetic sign of Birth Sorrows has been in effect for many years. It is strong evidence that we are living in the last days just before the Second Coming of Christ.

There are at least five other major prophetic signs now in effect that show nearness of Christ's "coming, and of the end of the world" as we know it (Matt 24:3). They are:

1. The reestablishment of the nation of Israel (Matthew 24:32-34).
2. The increase in knowledge and travel (Daniel 12:3).
3. Globalism, that is: 1) One World Government, 2) One World Religion, 3) One World Economic System (Revelation 13:1-18).
4. The Mark of the Besat (Matthew 24:15).
5. The increase in evil (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

But these are another story.

END NOTES:

1. Jack Van Impe, 11:59 And Counting! (Jack Van Impe Ministries, Royal Oak, MI, 1983), p. 22.
2. H. L. Willmington, Signs of the Times (Tyndale House, Wheaton, Ill, 1981), pp. 18, 19.
3. Jack Van Impe, 11:59 And Counting!, pp. 25, 26.
4. H. L. Willmington, Signs of the Times, p. 26.
5. Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (AMG Publishers, Chattanooga, TN, 1992), p. 1478.
6. Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament, p. 415.
7. J. R. Church, "Pestilence plagues the planet," Prophecy In The News, Vol. 7, No. 1, January 1987, p. 3.
8. Gene Antonio, The AIDS Cover-Up? (Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA, 1987), p. 2.
9. 1995 Medical And Health Annual (Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc, Chicago, Il, 1994), p. 216.
10. 1995 Medical And Health Annual, pp. 53, 215.
11. 1995 Medical And Health Annual, p. 53.
12. Earthquake statistics:
    a. Stats up to the end of 1979 are from Prophecy In The News:
       Vol. 9, No.1 (Jan. 89)
       Vol. 14, No. 2 (Feb. 94)
       Vol. 16, No. 6 (Jun. 96)
       Vol. 16, No. 10 (Oct. 96)
    b. Summary of earthquake stats from 1980 to 2009
    c. USGS Worldwide Earthquake stats for 1990 to 1999
    d. USGS Worldwide Earthquake stats for 2000 to 2011

Updated: 12 Nov. 2011

Grice of Catholicism

2011-11-04T10:13:00.011-05:00

King James Moments
On Roman Catholicism
By Pastor David Grice
7 short videos totaling 28 min.

BE BORN TWICE OR DIE TWICE!

2011-11-04T08:28:00.031-05:00

IF YOU ARE BORN TWICE YOU WILL ONLY DIE ONCE!
IF YOU ARE BORN ONLY ONCE YOU WILL DIE TWICE!

IN THE BEGINNING:

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion. ... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply ..." (Genesis 1:26-28; cf. 1 Thess. 5:23: "I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless")

"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. ... And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. ... And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." (Genesis 2:7, 16-17, 21-24)

SIN ENTERED INTO THE WORLD:

"And the woman said unto the serpent, ... of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. ... And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. ... And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, .... I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. ... And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, ... dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." (Genesis 3:2-4, 6, 14-15, 17, 19)

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. ... But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many." (Romans 5:12, 15)

"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. ... And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit." (1 Corinthians 15:22, 45)

REGENERATION OF THE RESIDUE OF OUR DEAD SPIRITS:

"And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth." (Malachi 2:15)

"He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." (1 John 3:8-9; cf. Luke 8:11: "The seed is the Word of God.")

"And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." (Romans 8:10-11)

"... Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." (John 3:5-7; cf. Eph. 5:26: "the washing of water by the Word.")

"He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:11-13)

"Of his own will begat he us with the Word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. ... Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls." (James 1:18, 21)

"But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." (Titus 3:4-7)

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ... Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the Word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you." (1 Peter 1:3-5, 23-25; cf. 1 Cor 4:15: "begotten ... through the gospel.")

"Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. ... For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" (1 John 5:1, 4-5)

BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST:

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my [Jesus Christ] name, ... will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. ... Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth ..." (John 14:26, 16:8-11, 13)

"Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." (Matthew 12:31-32)

"And ... because they received not the love of the truth ... God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12)

"... And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word [the pre-incarnate Son], and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. ... If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar [blasphemed the Holy Ghost]; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (1 John 5:6-7, 9-12)

"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3:36)

THE BOOK OF THE LIVING & SECOND DEATH:

"He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels." (Revelation 3:5; cf. 1 Cor. 15:57: "God ... giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ"; also see Rev 12:11; 1 John 5:4-5)

"Surely he [Jesus Christ] hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he 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." (Isaiah 53:4-5)

"Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents. For they persecute him [Jesus Christ] whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous." (Psalm 69:24-28; cf. John 15:20: "If they have persecuted me [Jesus], they will also persecute you;" also see 1 Thess. 2:15; 1 Pet. 4:12-14, 16, 19; et. al.)

"And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." (Revelation 20:11-15)

CONCLUSION:

"If any man have an ear, let him hear." (Revelation 13:9)

"He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." (Revelation 21:7-8)

"And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." (Revelation 22:17)

George Washington's Hand Written Prayer Journal

2011-11-02T08:11:00.027-05:00

Entitled, Daily Sacrifice

BACKGROUND:

In the 1919 book, George Washington, the Christian, William F. Johnson on pages 23 and 24 quoting W. Hebert Burk' book Washington's Prayers writes saying:

"On April 21, 22, 23, 1891, there was sold at auction in Philadelphia a remarkable collection of Washington relics owned by Lawrence Washington, Bushrod C. Washington, Thomas B. Washington, and J. R. C. Lewis. Among them was found a little manuscript book entitled Daily Sacrifice.

'This gem is all in the handwriting of George Washington, when about twenty years old, and is, without exception, the most hallowed of all his writings. It is neatly written on twenty-four pages of a little book about the size of the ordinary pocket memorandum. [Note: Burk states on page 13 of his Book Washington's Prayers: "Experts in Washington City, Philadelphia and New York are satisfied that it is Washington's handwriting without a doubt."]

'The occasional interlineations and emendations indicate that it was prepared for his own use.

"Whether Washington composed the prayers himself or copied them from some source as yet unknown has not been determined; but they are a revelation of that striking character which has been the wonder of the world. Professor S. F. Upham, professor of practical theology in Drew Theological Seminary, wrote: 'The Daily Prayers of George Washington abound in earnest thought, expressed in simple, beautiful, fervent and evangelical language. They reveal to us the real life of the great patriot, and attest his piety. None can read those petitions, which bore his desires to God, and often brought answers of peace, without having a grander conception of Washington's character.'

'The prayers are characterized by a deep consciousness of sin and by a need of forgiveness, and by a recognition of dependence upon the merits and mercies of our Lord. They contain fervent applications for family, friends, and rulers in church and state.'"

Source: George Washington, the Christian, by William J. Johnson, The Abingdon Press, New York & Cincinnati, 1919, pp. 23-24.

WASHINGTON'S EIGHT DAILY SACRIFICE PRAYERS:

Sunday Morning

Almighty God, and most merciful father, who didst command the children of Israel to offer a daily sacrifice to thee, that thereby they might glorify and praise thee for thy protection both night and day, receive, O Lord, my morning sacrifice which I now offer up to thee; I yield thee humble and hearty thanks that thou has preserved me from the danger of the night past, and brought me to the light of the day, and the comforts thereof, a day which is consecrated to thine own service and for thine own honor. Let my heart, therefore, Gracious God, be so affected with the glory and majesty of it, that I may not do mine own works, but wait on thee, and discharge those weighty duties thou requirest of me.

And since thou art a God of pure eyes, and wilt be sanctified in all who draw near unto thee, who doest not regard the sacrifice of fools, nor hear sinners who tread in thy courts, pardon, I beseech thee, my sins, remove them from thy presence, as far as the east is from the west, and accept of me for the merits of thy son Jesus Christ, that when I come into thy temple, and compass thine altar, my prayers may come before thee as incense; and as thou wouldst hear me calling upon thee in my prayers, so give me grace to hear thee calling on me in thy word, that it may be wisdom, righteousness, reconciliation and peace to the saving of the soul in the day of the Lord Jesus. Grant that I may hear it with reverence, receive it with meekness, mingle it with faith, and that it may accomplish in me, Gracious God, the good work for which thou has sent it. Bless my family, kindred, friends and country, be our God & guide this day and for ever for his sake, who lay down in the Grave and arose again for us, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Sunday Evening

O most Glorious God, in Jesus Christ my merciful and loving father, I acknowledge and confess my guilt, in the weak and imperfect performance of the duties of this day. I have called on thee for pardon and forgiveness of sins, but so coldly and carelessly, that my prayers are become my sin and stand in need of pardon. I have heard thy holy word, but with such deadness of spirit that I have been an unprofitable and forgetful hearer, so that, O Lord, though' I have done thy work, yet it hath been so negligently that I may rather expect a curse than a blessing from thee.

But, O God, who art rich in mercy and plenteous in redemption, mark not, I beseech thee, what I have done amiss; remember that I am but dust, and remit my transgressions, negligences & ignorances, and cover them all with the absolute obedience of thy dear Son, that those sacrifices which I have offered may be accepted by thee, in and for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ offered upon the cross for me; for his sake, ease me of the burden of my sins, and give me grace that by the call of the Gospel I may rise from the slumber of sin into the newness of life.

Let me live according to those holy rules which thou hast this day prescribed in thy holy word; make me to know what is acceptable in thy holy word; make me to know what is acceptable in thy sight, and therein to delight, open the eyes of my understanding, and help me thoroughly to examine myself concerning my knowledge, faith and repentance, increase my faith, and direct me to the true object Jesus Christ the way, the truth and the life.

Bless O Lord, all the people of this land, from the highest to the lowest, particularly those whom thou has appointed to rule over us in church & state. Continue thy goodness to me this night. These weak petitions I humbly implore thee to hear accept and answer for the sake of thy Dear Son Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Monday Morning

O eternal and everlasting God, I presume to present myself this morning before thy Divine majesty, beseeching thee to accept of my humble and hearty thanks, that it hath pleased thy great goodness to keep and preserve me the night past from all the dangers poor mortals are subject to, and has given me sweet and pleasant sleep, whereby I find my body refreshed and comforted for performing the duties of this day, in which I beseech thee to defend me from all perils of body and soul.

Direct my thoughts, words and work, wash away my sins in the immaculate blood of the Lamb, and purge my heart by thy Holy Spirit, from the dross of my natural corruption, that I may with more freedom of mind and liberty of will serve thee, the everlasting God, in righteousness and holiness this day, and all the days of my life. Increase my faith in the sweet promises of the gospel; give me repentance from dead works; pardon my wanderings, & direct my thoughts unto thyself, the God of my salvation.

Teach me how to live in thy fear, labor in thy service, and ever to run in the ways of thy commandments; make me always watchful over my heart, that neither the terrors of conscience, the loathing of holy duties, the love of sin, nor an unwillingness to depart this life, may cast me into a spiritual slumber, but daily frame me more & more into the likeness of thy Son, Jesus Christ, that living in thy fear, and dying in thy favor, I may in thy appointed time attain the resurrection of the just unto Eternal life.

Bless my family, friends & kindred; unite us all in praising & glorifying thee in all our works begun, continued, and ended, when we shall come to make our last account before thee blessed Saviour, who hath taught us thus to pray, 'Our Father, which art in Heaven...'

Monday Evening

Most Gracious Lord God, from whom proceedeth every good and perfect gift, I offer to thy divine majesty my unfeigned praise & thanksgiving for all thy mercies towards me. Thou madest me at first and hast ever since sustained the work of thy own hand; Thou gavest thy Son to die for me; and hast given me assurance of salvation, upon my repentance and sincerely endeavoring to conform my life to his holy precepts and example. Thou art pleased to lengthen out to me the time of repentance and to move me to it by thy spirit and by the word, by thy mercies, and by thy judgments.

Out of a deepness of thy mercies, and by my own unworthiness, I do appear before thee at this time; I have sinned and done very wickedly, be merciful to me, O God, and pardon me for Jesus Christ sake; instruct me in the particulars of my duty, and suffer me not to be tempted above what thou givest me strength to bear. Take care, I pray thee, of my affairs and more and more direct me in thy truth, defend me from my enemies, especially my spiritual ones.

Suffer me not to be drawn from thee, by the blandishments of the world, carnal desires, the cunning of the devil, or deceitfulness of sin. Work in me thy good will and pleasure, and discharge my mind from all things that are displeasing to thee, of all ill will and discontent, wrath and bitterness, pride & vain conceit of myself, and render me charitable, pure, holy, patient and heavenly minded. Be with me at the hour of death; dispose me for it, and deliver me from the slavish fear of it, and make me willing and fit to die whenever thou shalt call me hence.

Bless our rulers in church and state. Bless O Lord the whole race of mankind, and let the world be filled with the knowledge of thee and thy son Jesus Christ. Pity the sick, the poor, the weak, the needy, the widows and fatherless, and all that morn or are broken in heart, and be merciful to them according to their several necessities. Bless my friends and grant me grace to forgive my enemies as heartily as I desire forgiveness of Thee, my Heavenly Father. I beseech thee to defend me this night from all evil, and do more for me than I can think or ask, for Jesus Christ sake, in whose most holy name & words, I continue to pray, 'Our Father, which art in Heaven ...'

Tuesday Morning

O Lord our God, most mighty and merciful Father, I thine unworthy creature and servant, do once more approach thy presence. Though not worthy to appear before thee, because of my natural corruptions, and the many sins and transgressions which I have committed against thy divine majesty; yet I beseech thee, for the sake of him in whom thou art well pleased, the Lord Jesus Christ, to admit me to render thee deserved thanks and praises for thy manifold mercies extended toward me, for the quiet rest & repose of the past night, for food, raiment, health, peace, liberty, and the hopes of a better life through the merits of thy dear son's bitter passion.

And O kind Father, continue thy mercy and favor to me this day, and ever hereafter; prosper all my lawful undertakings; let me have all my directions from thy Holy Spirit; and success from thy bountiful hand. Let the bright beams of thy light so shine into my heart, and enlighten my mind in understanding thy blessed word, that I may be enabled to perform thy will in all things, and effectually resist all temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil. Preserve and defend our rulers in church & state. Bless the people of this land, be a father to the fatherless, a comforter to the comfortless, a deliverer to the captives, and a physician to the sick. Let thy blessings guide this day and forever through Jesus Christ in whose blessed form of prayer I conclude my weak petitions--'Our Father, which art in Heaven ...'

Tuesday Evening

Most gracious God and heavenly father, we cannot cease, but must cry unto thee for mercy, because my sins cry against me for justice. How shall I address myself unto thee? I must with the publican stand and admire at thy great goodness, tender mercy, and long suffering towards me, in that thou hast kept me the past day from being consumed and brought to naught.

O Lord, what is man, or the son of man, that thou regardest him; the more days pass over my head, the more sins and iniquities I heap up against thee. If I should cast up the account of my good deeds done this day, how few and small would they be; but if I should reckon my miscarriages, surely they would be many and great. O, blessed Father, let thy son's blood wash me from all impurities, and cleanse me from the stains of sin that are upon me. Give me grace to lay hold upon his merits; that they may be my reconciliation and atonement unto thee,--That I may know my sins are forgiven by his death & passion.

Embrace me in the arms of thy mercy; vouchsafe to receive me unto the bosom of thy love, shadow me with thy wings, that I may safely rest under thy suspicion this night; and so into thy hands I commend myself, both soul and body, in the name of thy son, Jesus Christ, beseeching Thee, when this life shall end, I may take my everlasting rest with thee in thy heavenly kingdom.

Bless all in authority over us, be merciful to all those afflicted with thy cross or calamity, bless all my friends, forgive my enemies and accept my thanksgiving this evening for all the mercies and favors afforded me. Hear and graciously answer these my requests, and whatever else thou seeth needful grant us, for the sake of Jesus Christ in whose blessed name and words I continue to pray, Our Father, which art in Heaven ...'

Wednesday Morning

Almighty and eternal Lord God, the great creator of heaven & earth, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; look down from heaven, in pity and compassion upon me thy servant, who humbly prostrate myself before thee, sensible of thy mercy and my own misery.

There is an infinite distance between thy glorious majesty and me, thy poor creature, the work of thy hand, between thy infinite power, and my weakness, thy wisdom, and my folly, thy eternal Being, and my mortal frame, but O Lord, I have set myself at a greater distance from thee by my sin and wickedness, and humbly acknowledge the corruption of my nature and the many rebellions of my life. I have sinned against heaven and before thee, in thought, word & deed; I have contemned thy majesty and holy laws. I have likewise sinned by omitting what I ought to done, and committing what I ought not. I have rebelled against light, despised thy mercies and judgments, and broken my vows and promises; I have neglected the means of Grace, and opportunities of becoming better; my iniquities are multiplies, and my sins are very great. I confess them, O Lord, with shame and sorrow, detestation and loathing, and desire to be vile in my own eyes, as I have rendered myself vile in thine.

I humbly beseech thee to be merciful to me in the free pardon of my sins, for the sake of Thy dear Son, my only Saviour, Jesus Christ, who came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance; be pleased to renew my nature and write thy laws upon my heart, and help me to live, righteously, soberly, and godly in this evil world; make me humble, meek, patient and contented, and work in me the grace of thy Holy Spirit.

Prepare me for death and judgment, and let the thoughts thereof awaken me to a greater care and study to approve myself unto thee in well doing. Bless our rulers in church & state. Help all in affliction or adversity--give them patience and a sanctified use of their affliction, and in thy good time deliverance from them; forgive my enemies, take me unto thy protection this day, keep me in perfect peace, which I ask in the name & for the sake of Jesus. Amen.

Wednesday Evening

Holy and eternal Lord God who art the King of heaven, and the watchman of Israel, that never slumberest or sleepest, what shall we render unto thee for all thy benefits? Because thou hast inclined thine ears unto me, therefore will I call on thee as long as I live, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same let thy name be praised. Among the infinite riches of thy mercy towards me, I desire to render thanks & praise for thy merciful preservation of me this day, as well as all the days of my life; and for the many other blessings & mercies spiritual & temporal which thou hast bestowed on me, contrary to my deserving. All these thy mercies call on me to be thankful and my infirmities & wants call for a continuance of thy tender mercies.

Cleanse my soul, O Lord, I beseech thee, from whatever is offensive to thee, and hurtful to me, and give me what is convenient for me. Watch over me this night, and give me comfortable and sweet sleep to fit me for the service of the day following. Let my soul watch for the coming of the Lord Jesus; let my bed put me in mind of my grave, and my rising from there of my last resurrection;

O heavenly Father, so frame this heart of mine, that I may ever delight to live according to thy will and command, in holiness and righteousness before thee all the days of my life. Let me remember, O Lord, the time will come when the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise and stand before the judgment seat, and give an account of whatever they have done in the body, and let me so prepare my soul, that I may do it with joy and not with grief.

Bless the rulers and people of this and forget not those who are under any affliction or oppression. Let thy favor be extended to all my relations, friends and all others who I ought to remember in my prayer and hear me I beseech thee for the sake of my dear Redeemer in whose most holy words, I further pray, 'Our Father, Most gracious Lord God, whose dwelling is in the highest heavens, and yet beholdest the lowly and humble upon earth, I blush and am ashamed to lift up my eyes to thy dwelling place, because I have sinned against thee; look down, I beseech thee upon me thy unworthy servant who prostrate myself at the footstool of thy mercy, confessing my own guiltiness, and begging pardon for my sins; what couldst thou have done Lord more for me, or what could I have done more against thee? Thou didst send me Thy Son to take our nature upon

[Note: The manuscript ended at this place, the close of a page. Whether the other pages were lost or the prayers were never completed, has not been determined].

Source: George Washington, the Christian, by William J. Johnson, The Abingdon Press, New York & Cincinnati, 1919, pp. 24-35, quoting from Washington's Prayers, by W. Herbert Burk, 1907.

OTHER QUOTES FROM GEORGE WASHINGTON

"Most Glorious God, in Jesus Christ, my merciful and loving Father; I acknowledge and confess my guilt in the weak and imperfect performance of the duties of this day. I have called on Thee for pardon and forgiveness of my sins, but so coldly and carelessly that my prayers are become my sin, and they stand in need of pardon. I have sinned against heaven and before Thee in thought, word, and deed. I have contemned Thy majesty and holy laws. I have likewise sinned by omitting what I ought to have done and committing what I ought not. I have rebelled against the light, despising Thy mercies and judgment, and broken my vows and promise. I have neglected the better things. My iniquities are multiplied and my sins are very great. I confess them, O Lord, with shame and sorrow, detestation and loathing and desire to be vile in my own eyes as I have rendered myself vile in Thine. I humbly beseech Thee to be merciful to me in the free pardon of my sins for the sake of Thy dear Son and only Savior Jesus Christ who came to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Thou gavest Thy Son to die for me. Make me to know what is acceptable in Thy sight, and therein to delight, open the eyes of my understanding, and help me thoroughly to examine myself concerning my knowledge, faith, and repentance, increase my faith, and direct me to the true object, Jesus Christ the Way, the Truth, and the Life." (George Washington, Authentic handwritten manuscript book, April 23, 1752)

"The Hon. Continental Congress having been pleased to allow a Chaplain to each Regiment, with the pay of Thirty-three Dollars and one third pr month--The Colonels or commanding officers of each regiment are directed to procure Chaplains accordingly; persons of good Characters and exemplary lives--To see that all inferior officers and soldiers pay them a suitable respect and attend carefully upon religious exercises. The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary but especially so in times of public distress and danger--The General hopes and trusts, that every officer and man, will endeavour so to live, and act, as becomes a Christian Soldier defending the dearest Rights and Liberties of his country." (George Washington, General Orders, July 9, 1776)

"While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian. The signal instances of Providential goodness which we have experienced and which have now almost crowned our labors with complete success demand from us in a peculiar manner the warmest returns of gratitude and piety to the Supreme Author of all good." (George Washington, General Orders, May 2, 1778)

"I am glad you have brought three of the Children of your principal Chiefs to be educated with us. I am sure Congress will open the Arms of love to them, and will look upon them, and will look upon them as their own Children, and will have them educated accordingly. This is a great mark of your confidence and of your desire to preserve friendship between the Two Nations to the end of time, and to become One People with your Brethren of the United States. My ears hear with pleasure the other matters you mention. Congress will be glad to hear them too. You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. Congress will do everything they can to assist you in this wise intention; and to tie the knot of friendship and union so fast, that nothing shall ever be able to loose it." (George Washington, To the Chiefs of the Delaware Indian tribe, who had brought three youths to be trained in American schools, May 12, 1779)

"If I could have entertained the slightest apprehension that the Constitution framed by the convention where I had the honor to preside might possibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesiastical society certainly I would never have placed my signature to it: and if I could now conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny and every species of religious persecution." (George Washington, Address to the General Committee of the United Baptist Churches of Virginia, May 10, 1789)

"While I reiterate the professions of my dependence upon Heaven as the source of all public and private blessings; I will observe that the general prevalence of piety, philanthropy, honesty, industry, and economy seems, in the ordinary course of human affairs, particularly necessary for advancing and conforming the happiness of our country. While all men within our territories are protected in worshipping the Deity according to the dictates of their consciences; it is rationally to be expected from them in return, that they will be emulous of evincing the sanctity of their professions by the innocence of their lives and the beneficence of their actions; for no man, who is profligate in his morals, or a bad member of the civil community, can possibly be a true Christian, or a credit to his own religious society." (George Washington, Letter to the Presbyterian General Assembly, May, 1789)

"It would ill become me to conceal the joy I have felt in perceiving the fraternal affection, which appears to increase every day among the friends of genuine religion. It affords edifying prospects indeed, to see Christians of different denominations, dwell together in more charity and conduct themselves in respect to each other, with a more Christian-like spirit than ever they have done in any former age, or in any other Nation." (George Washington, Letter to General Convention of Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church, August 18, 1789)

"Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see the religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society." (George Washington, Letter to Edward Newenham, October 20, 1792)

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"Let the deist reflect on this, and remember that Washington, the saviour of his country, did not disdain to acknowledge and adore a great Saviour, whom deists and infidels affect to slight and despise." (Jonathan Mitchell Sewall, in an address to Portsmouth, New Hampshire on December 31, 1799)

9-11 Ten Years On

2011-10-13T05:27:00.006-05:00

ISLAMIC TERROR, ISRAEL, AMERICA & THE NEW WORLD ORDER

By John Henry

October 6, 2001
[Updated October 22, 2011]

INTRODUCTION

Just as not all Catholics are aware of the wicked nature of their religion, so it is with those who hold to the false religion on Islam. There are still Moslems that have not been totally corrupted by their false religion, but the reasonable are becoming fewer and fewer and the fanatical are on the increase. This was evidenced by the wicked joy of Moslems in many countries of the world over the murder of innocent men, women and children in New York City on September 11, 2001 by Islamic terrorists. This is an evil religion indeed.

I believe that there are higher ups in all the world religions, central banks, governments, media, and also in many businesses, economic and educational institutions that are members of the New World Order [NWO]. They are conditioning, manipulating and deceiving the world, the American people, and even the elect. Things are not as they seem.

PRESIDENT BUSH'S SPEECH & SOUL LIBERTY

I recently read President Bush's address before Congress of September 20, 2001. It was an excellent speech except for his giving the false impression that the Islam of Osama bin Laden is any different from the teachings of the Koran. The Islam of Osama bin Laden is not as the President said "...a fringe movement that perverts the peaceful teachings of Islam." It rather upholds the fundamental doctrines of Islam as taught in the Koran. Our President is either ignorant of this fact or he lied. Muslim clerics and teachers that deny this do not understand their own religion, or they are lying too, or are not true Muslims.

The Muslims that do not agree with the World Islamic Front, the Hizballah (Party of God), Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement), et al do so only because they do not fully believe the Koran and still have vestiges of the conscience that God gave them.

I am a Baptist and I believe in soul liberty, one of the landmarks of the true faith of God. The Baptist faith has never persecuted any other group or people (Matt 21:25-26). We believe in using the Word of God to persuade whoever will to receive the free pardon of sin which is by the Lord Jesus Christ's blood atonement. Baptists (Waldensians, Anabaptists, etc.), along with the Jews, were persecuted by the Catholic Church for over a thousand years of the Dark Ages, and later by Protestants in Europe and America alike. It was because of this that the Baptists were instrumental in getting freedom of religion, speech, etc. written into the U.S. Constitution. It is this freedom that Islam hates. They as the Catholics before them would force the whole world into their false religion if they could.

As a Baptist, I believe in soul liberty! I believe that a Muslim has the right to believe the Koran if that is his hearts desire. I believe that the Jew has the right to believe only the Old Testament if he please. I believe Mormons have the right to believe the Book of Mormon if that is what they want. I believe that Satanists have the right to believe the Satanic Bible. Catholics have the right to believe what they do, Buddhists can believe in Buddah, Hindus in their million gods, etc., etc. That is part of what soul liberty is all about. However, I have the God given right to witness to all who will listen of those false religions (Matt 28:19-20; Rom 10:14-15; 1 Pet 3:14-16), and they have the God given right to listen if they wish (Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 29, 3:6, 13, 22). That is the other side of soul liberty, and that is what the words "whosoever will" and "whosoever believeth" in the Bible are all about (Deut 18:18-19; John 3:14-15).

Revelation 22:17: "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."
John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Acts 10:43: "To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins."

It is wrong for any religion to force their religion on others. People have the right to make up their own minds. Not only that, but governments have the duty to stop anyone who immorally by use of coercion, terror, and murder to force their religion on others (Gen 9:6; Num 35:30-31; Rom 13:1-4). This, however, is the government's responsibility, not the church's.

THE EVIL RELIGION OF ISLAM & IT'S HATRED OF ISRAEL

President Bush was not speaking for me when he said to Muslims, "We respect your faith." I respect only their right to hold to that religion, but I do not respect the many false teachings Islam.

Furthermore, President Bush was absolutely wrong to say this about Islam: "It's teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah. The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself." Islam has been a corrupt religion from it beginning and bin Laden is merely following Mohammed's example.

President Bush said, "Americans are asking, why do they hate us?" And then correctly answered, "They hate what we see right here in this chamber -- a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms -- our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other."

However, it is the Koran that "commands them to kill Christians and Jews ... and make no distinction among military and civilians, including women and children", and not merely the terrorists' leaders as President Bush says.

In 1937, a decade before the rebirth of Israel, Saudi Arabia's King Ibn Saud explained that the Muslim's hatred of Jews is based on the Koran. Thus, "for a Moslem to kill a Jew ... ensures him an immediate entry into Heaven." [1]

Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Egypt all attacked tiny Israel the day after it declared it's independence as a nation on May 14, 1948. Those Arab countries were supported by other Islamic nations such as Libya and Saudi Arabia. This pitted some 45,000,000 Arabs against around 64,000 Jews (out numbered 700 to 1). Since 1948 the Arab nations have unsuccessfully invaded Israel three additional times (in 1956, 1967, and 1973). Israel not only repelled the enemy, but gained territory. It seems like the Arabs would learn their lesson, but not so. The many Ishmaelite nations surrounding the Jewish State have repeatedly shown their ill will toward their half brothers, the Israelites, by acts of war and constant terror campaigns against them. This is a demonic hatred.

Most of the "Palestinians" came into Israel after the Jews reestablished their nation. The "Palestinians" have many homelands, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon etc. A "Palestinian" state is not the issue. The Arab states refusal to recognize the State of Israel's right to exist and their determination to expel or destroy them is the issue. The issue is the jealousy and hatred of the Ishmaelite's toward the true heir's of that land which is bred by their "holy" book.

A sermon by the acting rector of the Islamic University of Gaza, broadcast on Palestinian television last October, railed, "Wherever you [Muslims] are, kill those Jews and those Americans who are like them." [1]

This demonic Arab / Islamic hatred of the Jews / Israel was further witnesses at the recent U.N. World Conference Against Racism held in early September 2001 in Durban, South Africa. This conference served two purposes: 1) to cover up of Islamic crimes against humanity and 2) to wrongly accuse Israel of racist war crimes, acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, state terrorism, etc. The Nazis spoke behind closed doors of a "final solution" whereas Arab government-organized rallies outside the conference chanted "Death to Israel" or "Death to the Jews." [2] Palestinian protestors waved signs reading, "Hitler should have finished the job." [1]

Anti Semitic literature, including the infamous "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" was distributed to delegates of the World Conference Against Racism." [2] The Protocols are in fact a Masonic New World Order plan for world domination, not a Zionist document. However, the Protocols were used by Hitler to inflame German hatred for the Jews, and when the Protocols were distributed to White Russian troops in 1919 some 60,000 Jews were massacred, having been blamed for the Bolshevic Revolution of 1917.

Religions like Islam, Occult Nazism (New Age), Secular Humanism, and Satanism cannot be fully practiced in a civilized world because they are all murderous religions that do not respect the soul liberty of others. But alas we do not even have a civilized America any longer, because She is abandoning the Biblical principles on which She was founded. God will continue to punish America if She does not repent! Mark it down.

ABANDONING ISRAEL

"Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!" (Isaiah 31:1)

Israel is America's only true ally in the Middle East. However, the Bush administration is now snubbing Israel in it effort to build a coalition of Islamic states to help fight terrorism. Surely President Bush knows that the Islamic nations, like Syria, Iran and Sudan, that he is trying to buddy up to are the ones that are supporting the terrorist organizations!

Recent news stories read:

"U.S. Delays Terrorism Report In Bow To Would-Be Allies: The United States is considering last-minute revisions to a State Department report of state sponsors of terrorism in light of the new national strategy following the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington. Officials said the report is being withheld until after any offensive against Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden. They said the delay is meant to provide those currently on the list to demonstrate their renouncement of terrorism by helping in the military campaign. In Tel Aviv, Israeli military sources said several Arab countries wooed by Washington to join the anti-terrorism coalition continue to train Palestinians for Islamic terrorist attacks, Middle East Newsline reported. The greatest beneficiary of this support, they said, has been Hamas. The State Department includes Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria on the terrorism list. Sudan and Syria, the officials said, could be removed from the list if they join the effort." (WorldTribune.Com, October 1, 2001)

"Bush Backs Palestinian State For First Time: President Bush yesterday publicly endorsed for the first time the creation of a Palestinian state as the goal of Mideast peace efforts." (By Ben Barber, The Washington Times, October 3, 2001).

"Palestinian Terrorists Are Terrorist Too: The Bush administration erred in failing to place the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups on its list of terrorist organizations and individuals published earlier this week. It is precisely the militant Muslim warriors in these groups, along with their Lebanese Hizbullah militia allies-and not their hero Osama bin Laden-that threaten to plunge the tense Middle East into full-scale war. ... Indeed, both Palestinian groups have launched significant terror attacks in the past few days. Islamic Jihad exploded a car bomb inside Jerusalem on Monday, which did not kill anyone only because tight Israeli security apparently forced the bombers to abandon it on the southern edge of the city. Hamas holy warriors invaded an Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday night and shot dead two young Jews and injured several others-a daring raid that they had not so much as attempted until now. Like earlier attacks over the weekend, both assaults against Israeli civilians were designed to spark off a major military response and focus regional Muslim public opinion back on the simmering uprising conflict. Israeli leaders understand what the radical Palestinian game is all about, but that doesn't mean they can ignore such provocative attacks in order to help America build its anti-terror coalition. The fact that they will not ignore them, nor the fact that Yasser Arafat continues to refuse to arrest Islamic terror leaders, was amply demonstrated when Israeli forces were sent into action against Palestinian Authority positions in the northern Gaza Strip early Wednesday morning." (By David Dolan, World Net Daily, October 3, 2001)

It is absurd to trust the PA, Syria, and Sudan, or even Saudi and Egypt to aid in the fight against terrorism. They persecute, enslave, and murder the Christians of their own lands. It is wrong and wicked to even think of giving military aid to Syria, Sudan and Iran in trade for the cooperation in the "fight against terrorism" as President Bush has suggested.

A NEW WORLD ORDER PLOT?

However, this whole September 11th situation stinks of a good guy, bad guy plot. It fits perfectly into the New World Order agenda by facilitating:

1) The strengthening the Ecumenical Movement while President Bush continues to persecute the true church (He is following in Constintine's ecumenical footsteps who married paganism with a semblance of Christianity).

2) National ID card systems in the U.K., the U.S., and elsewhere that will wind up as "mark of the beast" on people hands and foreheads.

3) The installation of mark of the beast technology.

4) A homeland gestapo.

5) A world police force.

President Bush continues to confirm my suspicions that he is fully committed to the shaping of the New World Order.

AIDING & ABETTING THE ENEMY

Now President Bush wants to aid and abet what he is supposed to be fighting by give U.S. military aid to Syria and Iran who are among the worst of the terrorist nations.

A September 25th news headline read: "Bush wants to send military aid to Syria, Iran". The story began: "The United States wants to provide military aid to Iran and Syria to woo them to a Washington-led coalition against terrorism. President George Bush has asked Congress to lift restrictions on the provision of military aid and weapons to those on the State Department list of terrorist sponsors. The list contains such countries as Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, North Korea and Yemen. The waiver would last for five years and allow the administration to provide military aid to any country, regardless of its record on terrorism or human rights. The Bush administration is said to believe that Iran and Syria will be crucial in any coalition against Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden." [3]

On September 20, 2001 former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the following remarks before the Government Reform Committee:

"The first and most crucial thing to understand is this: There is no international terrorism without the support of sovereign states. International terrorism simply cannot be sustained for long without the regimes that aid and abet it. Terrorists are not suspended in mid-air. They train, arm and indoctrinate their killers from within safe havens on territory provided by terrorist states. Often these regimes provide the terrorists with intelligence, money and operational assistance, dispatching them to serve as deadly proxies to wage a hidden war against more powerful enemies. These regimes mount a worldwide propaganda campaign to legitimize terror, besmirching its victims and exculpating its practitioners --- as we witnessed in the farcical spectacle in Durban last month. Iran, Libya, and Syria call the US and Israel racist countries that abuse human rights? Even Orwell could not have imagined such a world. Take away all this state support, and the entire scaffolding of international terrorism will collapse into the dust. The international terrorist network is thus based on regimes – Iran, Iraq, Syria, Taleban Afghanistan, Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority and several other Arab regimes such as the Sudan. These regimes are the ones that harbor the terrorist groups: Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, Hizballah and others in Syrian-controlled Lebanon, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the recently mobilized Fatah and Tanzim factions in the Palestinian territories, and sundry other terror organizations based in such capitals as Damascus, Baghdad and Khartoum. These terrorist states and terror organizations together form a terror network, whose constituent parts support each other operationally as well as politically. For example, the Palestinian groups cooperate closely with Hezbollah, which in turn links them to Syria, Iran and Bin Laden." [4]

Iran and Syria are many time over as bad as bin Laden. Furthermore, at least two Islamic terrorist groups, supported by Iran, The Islamic Group (IG) and The Jihad (al-Jihad) have ties with bin Ladin's World Islamic Front.

Note Iran and Syria's track record on the support and involvement in terrorism according to the State Department's 1998 report." [5]

1. Both Iran and Syria support the Hizballah (Party of God), a radical Shia group. Hizballah is dedicated to creation of Iranian-style Islamic republic in Lebanon and removal of all non-Islamic influences from the area. It is closely allied with, and often directed by Iran. Known or suspected to have been involved in numerous anti-US terrorist attacks, including the suicide truck bombing of the US Embassy and US Marine barracks in Beirut in October 1983 and the US Embassy annex in Beirut in September 1984. Elements of the group were responsible for the kidnapping and detention of US and other Western hostages in Lebanon. The group also attacked the Israeli Embassy in Argentina in 1992.

2. Both Iran and Syria support the Palestine Islamic Jihad - Shaqaqi Faction (PIJ). The PIJ is to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel through holy war. Because the United States supports Israel, it has been identified as an enemy, and it also opposes moderate Arab governments that it believes have been tainted by Western secularism. The PIJ conducted suicide bombings against Israeli targets in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Israel. It has threatened to attack US interests in Jordan.

3. Both Iran and Syria support the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC). The PFLP-GCis led by a former captain in the Syrian Army, Ahmad Jabril. It has close ties to Syria and Iran. It has conducted numerous cross-border terrorist attacks into Israel using unusual means, such as hot-air balloons and motorized hang gliders.

4. Both Syria and Iran have supported the Marxist-Leninist insurgent group called the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in their insurgency and terror campaign in Turkey and in Western Europe against Turkish targets. The PKK has bombed tourist sites and hotels and kidnapped foreign tourists.

5. Iran helps the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), a terrorist group whose aim is to overthrow the secular Algerian regime and replace it with an Islamic state. The GIA began its violent activities in early 1992 after Algiers voided the victory of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS)--the largest Islamic party--in the first round of legislative elections in December 1991. The GIA frequently conducts attacks against civilians, journalists, and foreign residents. In the last several years the GIA has conducted a terrorist campaign of civilian massacres, sometimes wiping out entire villages in its area of operations and frequently killing hundreds of civilians. Since announcing its terrorist campaign against foreigners living in Algeria in September 1993, the GIA has killed more than 100 expatriate men and women--mostly Europeans--in the country. Uses assassinations and bombings, including car bombs, and it is known to favor kidnapping victims and slitting their throats. The GIA hijacked an Air France flight to Algiers in December 1994, and suspicions centered on the group for a series of bombings in France in 1995.

6. The Egyptian Government believes that Iran supports the terrorist group called, Gama'a al-Islamiyya (The Islamic Group, IG). The IG signed Osama Bin Ladin's fatwa in February 1998 calling for attacks against US civilians. Primary goal is to overthrow the Egyptian Government and replace it with an Islamic state. They conduct armed attacks against Egyptian security and other government officials, Coptic Christians, and Egyptian opponents of Islamic extremism. Al-Gama'at has launched attacks on tourists in Egypt since 1992, most notably the attack in November 1997 at Luxor that killed 58 foreign tourists. Also claimed responsibility for the attempt in June 1995 to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

7. Iran supports HAMAS (Islamic Resistance Movement) in it's terrorism. the goal of HAMAS is to establish an Islamic Palestinian state in place of Israel. It's strength is concentrated in the Gaza Strip and a few areas of the West Bank. HAMAS has conducted many attacks--including large-scale suicide bombings--against Israeli civilian and military targets, and suspected Palestinian collaborators.

8. Iran supports the Egyptian terrorist group called The Jihad (al-Jihad). One of it's leaders is Osama Bin Ladin. The Jihad's primary goal is to overthrow the Egyptian Government and replace it with an Islamic state. It targets US interests in Egypt. It specializes in armed attacks against high-level Egyptian Government officials. It was responsible for the assassination in 1981 of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Appears to concentrate on high-level, high-profile Egyptian Government officials, including cabinet ministers. It has threatened to retaliate against the United States, however, for its incarceration of Shaykh Umar Abd al-Rahman and, more recently, for the arrests of its members in Albania, Azerbaijan, and the United Kingdom.

9. The Japanese Red Army (JRA) is believed to be based in Syrian-controlled areas of Lebanon. The JRA is an international terrorist group whose stated goals are to overthrow Japanese Government and monarchy and help foment world revolution. During the 1970s JRA conducted a series of attacks around the world, including the massacre in 1972 at Lod Airport in Israel, two Japanese airliner hijackings, and an attempted takeover of the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

If President Bush's administration desire to provide military aid to Iran and Syria, two of the top supporters of world wide terrorism, is not absurd and traitorous, it is at the very least extremely mysterious. It smacks of Illuminati / NWO tactics.

CONCLUSION

I pray for President Bush to repent of his NWO philosophy, and for his salvation if he is not already saved. I pray for our other leaders also and for our men in uniform. I hope you will too.

Islam clams to believe in the God of the Old Testament and in Jesus Christ. But they deny the doctrine of the Trinity and thus the Deity of Christ. It also denies Christ's death and resurrection. It has given heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils. Much of Christendom has also denied the Faith and speak lies in ecumenical hypocrisy. These are signs that we are in the latter times, the last days.

1 Timothy 4:1-2: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron."

2 Timothy 3:1-5: "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."

These are truly exciting time as we watch and wait for the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. Even so, come Lord Jesus. Maranatha!

END NOTES:

1. RACISTS CRY RACISM AT U.N. CONFERENCE, Don Feder, Monday, September 10, 2001

2. THE U.N.'S WANSEE CONFERENCE, Hal Lindsey, Wednesday, September 5, 2001

3. BUSH WANTS TO SEND MILITARY AID TO SYRIA, IRAN Middle East Newsline, September 25, 2001

4. STATEMENT OF FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU BEFORE THE GOVERNMENT REFORM COMMITTEE, September 20, 2001

5. BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS, U.S. Department of State's Office of Counterterrorism, Released October 8, 1999

http://LandmarkBibleBaptist.net

Palestine!?

2011-10-13T00:46:00.014-05:00

THE FACTS ON PALESTINE
"There is no such thing as a Palestinian Arab nation ... Palestine is a name the Romans gave to Eretz Yisrael with the express purpose of infuriating the Jews. ... Why should we use the spiteful name meant to humiliate us? " "The British chose to call the land they mandated Palestine, and the Arabs picked it up as their nation's supposed ancient name, though they couldn't even pronounce it correctly and turned it into Falastin a fictional entity." (Golda Meir quoted by Sarah Honig, Jerusalem Post, 25 November 1995)

"Palestine has never existed as ... an autonomous entity. ... There is no language known as Palestinian. There is no distinct Palestinian culture. There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. Palestinians are Arabs, indistinguishable from Jordanians (another recent invention), Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, etc. Keep in mind that the Arabs control 99.9 percent of the Middle East lands. Israel represents one-tenth of one percent of the landmass. But that's too much for the Arabs. They want it all. And that is ultimately what the fighting in Israel is about today ... No matter how many land concessions the Israelis make, it will never be enough." (Myths of the Middle East by Joseph Farah, Arab-American editor and journalist, WorldNetDaily, 11 October 2000)

"From the end of the Jewish state in antiquity to the beginning of British rule, the area now designated by the name Palestine was not a country and had no frontiers, only administrative boundaries." (Professor Bernard Lewis, Commentary Magazine, January 1975)

Talk and writing about Israel and the Middle East feature the nouns "Palestine" and Palestinian", and the phrases "Palestinian territory" and even "Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory". All too often, these terms are used with regard to their historical or geographical meaning, so that the usage creates illusions rather than clarifies reality.

WHAT DOES "PALESTINE" MEAN?

It has never been the name of a nation or state. It is a geographical term, used to designate the region at those times in history when there is no nation or state there.

The word itself derives from "Peleshet", a name that appears frequently in the Bible and has come into English as "Philistine". The name began to be used in the Thirteenth Century BC, for a wave of migrant "Sea Peoples" who came from the area of the Aegean Sea and the Greek Islands and settled on the southern coast of the land of Canaan. There they established five independent city-states (including Gaza) on a narrow strip of land known as Philistia. The Greeks and Romans called it "Palastina".

The Philistines were not Arabs, they were not Semites. They had no connection, ethnic, linguistic or historical with Arabia or Arabs. The name "Falastin" that Arabs today use for "Palestine" is not an Arabic name. It is the Arab pronunciation of the Greco-Roman "Palastina" derived from the Peleshet.

HOW DID THE LAND OF ISRAEL BECOME "PALESTINE"?

In the First Century CE, the Romans crushed the independent kingdom of Judea. After the failed rebellion of Bar Kokhba in the Second Century AD, the Roman Emperor Hadrian determined to wipe out the identity of Israel-Judah-Judea. Therefore, he took the name Palastina and imposed it on all the Land of Israel. At the same time, he changed the name of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina.

The Romans killed many Jews and sold many more in slavery. Some of those who survived still alive and free left the devastated country, but there was never a complete abandonment of the Land. There was never a time when there were not Jews and Jewish communities, though the size and conditions of those communities fluctuated greatly.

THE HISTORY OF PALESTINE

Thousands of years before the Romans invented "Palastina" the land had been known as "Canaan". The Canaanites had many tiny city-states, each one at times independent and at times a vassal of an Egyptian or Hittite king. The Canaanites never united into a state.

After the Exodus from Egypt probably in the Thirteenth Century BC but perhaps earlier -- , the Children of Israel settled in the land of Canaan. There they formed first a tribal confederation, and then the Biblical kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and the post-Biblical kingdom of Judea.

From the beginning of history to this day, Israel-Judah-Judea has the only united, independent, sovereign nation-state that ever existed in "Palestine" west of the Jordan River. (In Biblical times, Ammon, Moab and Edom as well as Israel had land east of the Jordan, but they disappeared in antiquity and no other nation took their place until the British invented Trans-Jordan in the 1920s.)

After the Roman conquest of Judea, "Palastina" became a province of the pagan Roman Empire and then of the Catholic Byzantine Empire, and very briefly of the Zoroastrian Persian Empire. In 638 CE, an Arab-Muslim Caliph took Palastina away from the Byzantine Empire and made it part of an Arab-Muslim Empire. The Arabs, who had no name of their own for this region, adopted the Greco-Roman name Palastina, that they pronounced "Falastin".

In that period, much of the mixed population of Palastina converted to Islam and adopted the Arabic language. They were subjects of a distant Caliph who ruled them from his capital, that was first in Damascus and later in Baghdad. They did not become a nation or an independent state, or develop a distinct society or culture.

In 1099, Catholic Crusaders from Europe conquered Palestina-Falastin. After 1099, it was never again under Arab rule. The Catholic Crusader kingdom was politically independent, but never developed a national identity. It remained a military outpost of Catholic Europe, and lasted less than 100 years. Thereafter, Palestine was joined to Syria as a subject province first of the Mameluks, ethnically mixed slave-warriors whose center was in Egypt, and then of the Ottoman Turks, whose capital was in Istanbul.

During the First World War, the British took Palestine from the Ottoman Turks. At the end of the war, the Ottoman Empire collapsed and among its subject provinces "Palestine" was assigned to the British, to govern temporarily as a mandate from the League of Nations.

THE JEWISH NATIONAL HOME

Travellers to Palestine from the Western world left records of what they saw there. The theme throughout their reports is dismal: The land was empty, neglected, abandoned, desolate, fallen into ruins:

"Nothing there [Jerusalem] to be seen but a little of the old walls which is yet remaining and all the rest is grass, moss and weeds." (English pilgrim in 1590)

"The country is in a considerable degree empty of inhabitants and therefore its greatest need is of a body of population" (British consul in 1857)

"There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent [valley of Jezreel] -- not for 30 miles in either direction. ... One may ride 10 miles hereabouts and not see 10 human beings. For the sort of solitude to make one dreary, come to Galilee ... Nazareth is forlorn ... Jericho lies a moldering ruin ... Bethlehem and Bethany, in their poverty and humiliation ... untenanted by any living creature. ... A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds . . a silent, mournful expanse ... a desolation. ... We never saw a human being on the whole route. ... Hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country ... Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes ... desolate and unlovely." (Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, 1867)

The restoration of the "desolate and unlovely" land began in the latter half of the Nineteenth Century with the first Jewish pioneers. Their labors created newer and better conditions and opportunities, which in turn attracted migrants from many parts of the Middle East, both Arabs and others.

The Balfour Declaration of 1917, confirmed by the League of Nations Mandate, committed the British Government to the principle that "His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish National Home, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object." It was specified both that this area be open to "close Jewish settlement" and that the rights of all inhabitants already in the country be preserved and protected.

Mandate Palestine originally included all of what is now Jordan, as well as all of what is now Israel, and the territories between them. However, when Great Britain's protégé Emir Abdullah was forced to leave the ancestral Hashemite domain in Arabia, the British created a realm for him that included all of Manfate Palestine east of the Jordan River. There was no traditional or historic Arab name for this land, so it was called after the river: first Trans-Jordan and later Jordan.

By this political act, that violated the conditions of the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate, the British cut more than 75 percent out of the Jewish National Home. No Jew has ever been permitted to reside in Trans-Jordan/Jordan.

Less than 25 percent then remained of Mandate Palestine, and even in this remnant, the British violated the Balfour and Mandate requirements for a "Jewish National Home" and for "close Jewish settlement". They progressively restricted where Jews could buy land, where they could live, build, farm or work.

After the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel was finally able to settle some small part of those lands from which the Jews had been debarred by the British. Successive British governments regularly condemn their settlement as "illegal". In truth, it was the British who had acted illegally in banning Jews from these parts of the Jewish National Home.

WHO IS A PALESTINIAN?

During the period of the Mandate, it was the Jewish population that was known as "Palestinians" including those who served in the British Army in World War II.

British policy was to curtail their numbers and progressively limit Jewish immigration. By 1939, the White Paper virtually put an end to admission of Jews to Palestine. This policy was imposed the most stringently at the very time this Home was most desperately needed -- after the rise of Nazi power in Europe. Jews who might have developed the empty lands of Palestine and left progeny there, instead died in the gas chambers of Europe or in the seas they were trying to cross to the Promised Land.

At the same time that the British slammed the gates on Jews, they permitted or ignored massive illegal immigration into Western Palestine from Arab countries Jordan, Syria, Egypt, North Africa. In 1939, Winston Churchill noted that "So far from being persecuted, the Arabs have crowded into the country and multiplied." Exact population statistics may be problematic, but it seems that by 1947 the number of Arabs west of the Jordan River was approximately triple of what it had been in 1900.

The current myth is that these Arabs were long established in Palestine, until the Jews came and "displaced" them. The fact is, that recent Arab immigration into Palestine "displaced" the Jews. That the massive increase in Arab population was very recent is attested by the ruling of the United Nations: That any Arab who had lived in Palestine for two years and then left in 1948 qualifies as a "Palestinian refugees".

Casual use of population statistics for Jews and Arabs in Palestine rarely consider how the proportions came to be. One factor was the British policy of keeping out Jews while bringing in Arabs. Another factor was the violence used to kill or drive out Jews even where they had been long established.

For one example: The Jewish connection with Hebron goes back to Abraham, and there has been an Israelite/Jewish community there since Joshua long before it was King David's first capital. In 1929, Arab rioters with the passive consent of the British -- killed or drove out virtually the entire Jewish community.

For another example: In 1948, Trans-Jordan seized much of Judea and Samaria (which they called The West Bank) and East Jerusalem and the Old City. They killed or drove out every Jew.

It is now often proposed as a principle of international law and morality that all places that the British and the Arabs rendered Judenrein must forever remain so. In contrast, Israel eventually allotted 17 percent of Mandate Palestine has a large and growing population of Arab citizens.

FROM PALESTINE TO ISRAEL

What was to become of "Palestine" after the Mandate? This question was taken up by various British and international commissions and other bodies, culminating with the United Nations in 1947. During the various deliberations, Arab officials, spokesmen and writers expressed their views on "Palestine".

"There is no such country as Palestine. 'Palestine' is a term the Zionists invented. ... Our country was for centuries part of Syria. 'Palestine' is alien to us. It is the Zionists who introduced it." (Local Arab leader to British Peel Commission, 1937)

"There is no such thing as Palestine in history, absolutely not" (Professor Philip Hitti, Arab historian to Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, 1946)

"It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but southern Syria." (Ahmed Shukairy, United Nations Security Council, 1956)

By 1948, the Arabs had still not yet discovered their ancient nation of Falastin. When they were offered half of Palestine west of the Jordan River for a state, the offer was violently rejected. Six Arab states launched a war of annihilation against the nascent State of Israel. Their purpose was not to establish an independent Falastin. Their aim was to partition western Palestine amongst themselves.

They did not succeed in killing Israel, but Trans-Jordan succeeded in taking Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and East Jerusalem, killing or driving out all the Jews who had lived in those places, and banning Jews of all nations from Jewish holy places. Egypt succeeded in taking the Gaza Strip. These two Arab states held these lands until 1967. Then they launched another war of annihilation against Israel, and in consequence lost the lands they had taken by war in 1948. During those 19 years, 1948-1967, Jordan and Egypt never offered to surrendar those lands to make up an independent state of Falastin. The "Palestinians" never sought it. Nobody in the world ever suggested it,much less demanded it.

Finally, in 1964, the Palestine Liberation Movement was founded. Ahmed Shukairy, who less than 10 years earlier had denied the existence of Palestine, was its first chairman. Its charter proclaimed its sole purpose to be the destruction of Israel. To that end it helped to precipitate the Arab attack on Israel in 1967.

The outcome of that attack then inspired an alteration in public rhetoric. As propaganda, it sounds better to speak of the liberation of Falastin than of the destruction of Israel. Much of the world, governments and media and public opinion, accept virtually without question of serious analysis the new-sprung myth of an Arab nation of Falastin, whose territory is unlawfully occupied by the Jews.

Since the end of World War I, the Arabs of the Middle East and North Africa have been given independent states in 99.5 percent of the land they claimed. Lord Balfour once expressed his hope that when the Arabs had been given so much, they would "not begrudge" the Jews the "little notch" promised to them.

Netanyahu - Abbas

2011-09-29T00:24:00.036-05:00

Netanyahu & Abbas Speeches
at the United Nations
September 23, 2011

Video & Full Text Below

ABBAS ASKS U.N. FOR
PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD
By August Rosado

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas asked the U.N. for Statehood based on 1967 borders. Adding injury to insult Abbas also asked that East Jerusalem be the capitol of the new PA State. In his September 23, 2011 speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Abbas stated:

"[W]e decided to adopt the path of relative justice – justice that is possible and could correct part of the grave historical injustice committed against our people. Thus, we agreed to establish the State of Palestine on only 22% of the territory of historical Palestine – on all the Palestinian Territory occupied by Israel in 1967. ... The goal of the Palestinian people is the realization of their inalienable national rights in their independent State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, on all the land of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, which Israel occupied in the June 1967 war, in conformity with the resolutions of international legitimacy and with the achievement of a just and agreed upon solution to the Palestine refugee issue in accordance with resolution 194, as stipulated in the Arab Peace Initiative which presented the consensus Arab vision to resolve the core the Arab-Israeli conflict and to achieve a just and comprehensive peace. To this we adhere and this is what we are working to achieve. ... I would like to inform you that, before delivering this statement, I submitted, in my capacity as the President of the State of Palestine and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, to [His Excellency] Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, an application for the admission of Palestine on the basis of the 4 June 1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif [Jerusalem] as its capital, as a full member of the United Nations. I call upon Mr. Secretary-General to expedite transmittal of our request to the Security Council, and I call upon the distinguished members of the Security Council to vote in favor of our full membership. I also call upon the States that did not recognized the State of Palestine as yet to do so."

Abbas has argued that he has lost all faith in negotiations with Israel, which is why he is going to the U.N. for Statehood. Abbas has called for all the nations of the world to support them for Statehood.

By going to the U.N. Abbas violated the Oslo Accords (OA) signed by Israel and the PA in 1993. Under the OA the PA cannot declare Statehood without direction negotiations with Israel.

Under the OA the PA must also recognize Israel's right to exist as well as recognize Israel as a sovereign Jewish State. The PA to this day has refused to do either. Under these violations Israel would be free from all aspects of the OA it agreed to. Abbas claims he is willing to negotiate peace with Israel, but will not recognize Israel as a Jewish State with a right to exist. The question is, how can you make peace with such a person?

In PM Benjamin Netanyahu's September 23, 2011 speech to the U.N., he again called on Abbas to meet with him in New York for direct talks.

Many U.N. member states have criticized Israel for their "hostile" treatment of the Palestinians. However, the United States has promised to veto any attempt by the PA for Statehood, calling it, counterproductive.

Abbas has gone to the U.N. to ask for recognition of a PA State. He called on the nations of the world to support his call for a state with East Jerusalem as their capitol. However the Bible calls for all nations to come against Jerusalem in the end times. The Jewish prophet Zechariah mentions Jerusalem 42 times in his book, containing 14 chapters. Zechariah describes all nations coming against Jerusalem (Zech 12:2-3; 14:2).

The Jewish prophet Joel mentions Jerusalem 6 times and describes all nations coming against Jerusalem. Joel says God will gather all nations to Jerusalem to gather in the valley of Jehoshaphat, the Kidron valley in Jerusalem.

"I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. ... Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. ... Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision." (Joel 3:2, 12, 14)

Whether the UN will or will not recognize a Palestinian State at this time, they will eventually lead the world into war in the Middle East, and all nations will come against Jerusalem. The Bible told us in advance what the wicked of this will would do.

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Remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu
to the U.N. General Assembly
United Nations Headquarters,
New York City, New York

Ladies and gentlemen, Israel has extended its hand in peace from the moment it was established 63 years ago.On behalf of Israel and the Jewish people, I extend that hand again today. I extend it to the people of Egypt and Jordan, with renewed friendship for neighbors with whom we have made peace. I extend it to the people of Turkey,with respect and good will. I extend it to the people of Libya and Tunisia,with admiration for those trying to build a democratic future. I extend it to the other peoples of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, with whom we want to forge a new beginning. I extend it to the people of Syria, Lebanon and Iran,with awe at the courage of those fighting brutal repression.

But most especially, I extend my hand to the Palestinian people, with whom we seek a just and lasting peace.

Ladies and gentlemen, in Israel our hope for peace never wanes. Our scientists, doctors, and innovators apply their genius to improve the world of tomorrow. Our artists, our writers,enrich the heritage of humanity. Now, I know that this is not exactly the image of Israel that is often portrayed in this hall. After all, it was here in 1975that the age-old yearning of my people to restore our national life in our ancient biblical homeland — it was then that this was branded shamefully, as racism. And it was here in 1980, right here, that the historic peace agreement between Israel and Egypt wasn’t praised; it was denounced! And it’s here, year after year that Israel is unjustly singled out for condemnation. It’s singled out for condemnation more often than all the nations of the world combined. Twenty-one out of the 27 General Assembly resolutions condemn Israel — the one true democracy in the Middle East.

Well, this is an unfortunate part of the U.N. institution. It’s the theater of the absurd. It doesn’t only cast Israel as the villain; it often casts real villains in leading roles: Gadhafi’s Libya chaired the U.N. Commission on Human Rights; Saddam’s Iraq headed the U.N. Committee on Disarmament. You might say: That’s the past. Well, here’s what’s happening now — right now, today, Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon now presides over the U.N. Security Council. This means, in effect, that a terror organization presides over the body entrusted with guaranteeing the world’s security.

You couldn’t make this thing up.

So here in the U.N.,automatic majorities can decide anything. They can decide that the sun sets rises in the west. But they can also decide — they have decided — that the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Judaism’s holiest place, is occupied Palestinian territory.

And yet even here in the General Assembly, the truth can sometimes break through. In 1984 when I was appointed Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, I visited the great rabbi of Lubavich. He said to me — and ladies and gentlemen, I don’t want any of you tobe offended because from personal experience of serving here, I know there are many honorable men and women, many capable and decent people, serving their nations here — But here’s what the rebbe said to me. He said to me, you’ll be serving in a house of many lies. And then he said, remember that even in the darkest place, the light of a single candle can be seen far and wide.

Today I hope that the light of truth will shine, if only for a few minutes, in a hall that for too long has been a place of darkness for my country. So as Israel’s prime minister, I didn’t come here to win applause. I came here to speak the truth. The truth is — the truth is that Israel wants peace. The truth is that I want peace. The truth is that in the Middle East at all times, but especially during these turbulent days, peace must be anchored in security. The truth is that we cannot achieve peace through U.N. resolutions, but only through direct negotiations between the parties. The truth is that so far the Palestinians have refused to negotiate. The truth is that Israel wants peace with a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians want a state without peace. And the truth is you shouldn’t let that happen.

Ladies and gentlemen, when I first came here 27 years ago, the world was divided between East and West.Since then the Cold War ended, great civilizations have risen from centuries of slumber, hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty, countless more are poised to follow, and the remarkable thing is that so far this monumental historic shift has largely occurred peacefully. Yet a malignancy is now growing between East and West that threatens the peace of all. It seeks not to liberate, but to enslave, not to build, but to destroy.

That malignancy is militant Islam. It cloaks itself in the mantle of a great faith, yet it murders Jews,Christians and Muslims alike with unforgiving impartiality. On September 11thit killed thousands of Americans, and it left the twin towers in smoldering ruins. Last night I laid a wreath on the 9/11 memorial. It was deeply moving.But as I was going there, one thing echoed in my mind: the outrageous words of the president of Iran on this podium yesterday. He implied that 9/11 was an American conspiracy. Some of you left this hall. All of you should have.

Since 9/11, militant Islamists slaughtered countless other innocents — in London and Madrid, in Baghdad and Mumbai, in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, in every part of Israel. I believe that the greatest danger facing our world is that this fanaticism will arm itself with nuclear weapons. And this is precisely what Iran is trying to do.

Can you imagine that man who ranted here yesterday — can you imagine him armed with nuclear weapons? The international community must stop Iran before it’s too late. If Iran is not stopped, we will all face the specter of nuclear terrorism, and the Arab Spring could soon become an Iranian winter.

That would be a tragedy. Millions of Arabs have taken to the streets to replace tyranny with liberty, and no one would benefit more than Israel if those committed to freedom and peace would prevail.

This is my fervent hope. But as the prime minister of Israel, I cannot risk the future of the Jewish state on wishful thinking. Leaders must see reality as it is, not as it ought to be.We must do our best to shape the future, but we cannot wish away the dangers of the present.

And the world around Israelis definitely becoming more dangerous. Militant Islam has already taken over Lebanon and Gaza. It’s determined to tear apart the peace treaties between Israel and Egypt and between Israel and Jordan. It’s poisoned many Arab minds against Jews and Israel, against America and the West. It opposes not the policies of Israel but the existence of Israel.

Now, some argue that the spread of militant Islam, especially in these turbulent times — if you want to slow it down, they argue, Israel must hurry to make concessions, to make territorial compromises. And this theory sounds simple. Basically it goes like this: Leave the territory, and peace will be advanced. The moderates will be strengthened, the radicals will be kept at bay. And don’t worry about the pesky details of how Israel will actually defend itself; international troops will do the job.

These people say to me constantly: Just make a sweeping offer, and everything will work out. You know,there’s only one problem with that theory. We’ve tried it and it hasn’t worked.In 2000 Israel made a sweeping peace offer that met virtually all of the Palestinian demands. Arafat rejected it. The Palestinians then launched a terror attack that claimed a thousand Israeli lives.

Prime Minister Olmert afterwards made an even more sweeping offer, in 2008. President Abbas didn’t even respond to it.

But Israel did more than just make sweeping offers. We actually left territory. We withdrew from Lebanon in 2000 and from every square inch of Gaza in 2005. That didn’t calm the Islamic storm, the militant Islamic storm that threatens us. It only brought the storm closer and made it stronger.

Hezbollah and Hamas fired thousands of rockets against our cities from the very territories we vacated.See, when Israel left Lebanon and Gaza, the moderates didn’t defeat theradicals, the moderates were devoured by the radicals. And I regret to say that international troops like UNIFIL in Lebanon and EUBAM in Gaza didn’t stop the radicals from attacking Israel.

We left Gaza hoping for peace.

We didn’t freeze the settlements in Gaza, we uprooted them. We did exactly what the theory says: Get out, go back to the 1967 borders, dismantle the settlements.

And I don’t think people remember how far we went to achieve this. We uprooted thousands of people from their homes. We pulled children out of — out of their schools and their kindergartens. We bulldozed synagogues. We even — we even moved loved ones from their graves. And then, having done all that, we gave the keys of Gaza to President Abbas.

Now the theory says it should all work out, and President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority now could build a peaceful state in Gaza. You can remember that the entire world applauded.They applauded our withdrawal as an act of great statesmanship. It was a bold act of peace.

But ladies and gentlemen, we didn’t get peace. We got war. We got Iran, which through its proxy Hamas promptly kicked out the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority collapsed in a day — in one day.

President Abbas just said on this podium that the Palestinians are armed only with their hopes and dreams.Yeah, hopes, dreams and 10,000 missiles and Grad rockets supplied by Iran, not to mention the river of lethal weapons now flowing into Gaza from the Sinai,from Libya, and from elsewhere.

Thousands of missiles have already rained down on our cities. So you might understand that, given all this, Israelis rightly ask: What’s to prevent this from happening again in the West Bank? See, most of our major cities in the south of the country are within a few dozen kilometers from Gaza. But in the center of the country, opposite the West Bank, our cities are a few hundred meters or at most a few kilometers away from the edge of the West Bank.

So I want to ask you. Wouldany of you — would any of you bring danger so close to your cities, to your families? Would you act so recklessly with the lives of your citizens? Israelis are prepared to have a Palestinian state in the West Bank, but we’re not prepared to have another Gaza there. And that’s why we need to have real security arrangements, which the Palestinians simply refuse to negotiate with us.

Israelis remember the bitter lessons of Gaza. Many of Israel’s critics ignore them. They irresponsibly advise Israel to go down this same perilous path again. Your read what these people say and it’s as if nothing happened — just repeating the same advice,the same formulas as though none of this happened.

And these critics continue to press Israel to make far-reaching concessions without first assuring Israel’s security. They praise those who unwittingly feed the insatiable crocodile of militant Islam as bold statesmen. They cast as enemies of peace those of us who insist that we must first erect a sturdy barrier to keep the crocodile out, or at the very least jam an iron bar between its gaping jaws.

So in the face of the labels and the libels, Israel must heed better advice. Better a bad press than a good eulogy, and better still would be a fair press whose sense of history extends beyond breakfast, and which recognizes Israel’s legitimate security concerns.

I believe that in serious peace negotiations, these needs and concerns can be properly addressed, but they will not be addressed without negotiations. And the needs are many,because Israel is such a tiny country. Without Judea and Samaria, the West Bank, Israel is all of 9 miles wide.

I want to put it for you in perspective, because you’re all in the city. That’s about two-thirds the length of Manhattan. It’s the distance between Battery Park and Columbia University.And don’t forget that the people who live in Brooklyn and New Jersey are considerably nicer than some of Israel’s neighbors.

So how do you — how do you protect such a tiny country, surrounded by people sworn to its destruction and armed to the teeth by Iran? Obviously you can’t defend it from within that narrow space alone. Israel needs greater strategic depth, and that’s exactly why Security Council Resolution 242 didn’t require Israel to leave all the territories it captured in the Six-Day War. It talked about withdrawal from territories, to secure and defensible boundaries. And to defend itself, Israel must therefore maintain a long-term Israeli military presence in critical strategic areas in the West Bank.

I explained this to President Abbas. He answered that if a Palestinian state was to be a sovereign country,it could never accept such arrangements. Why not? America has had troops in Japan, Germany and South Korea for more than a half a century. Britain has had an an air base in Cyprus. France has forces in three independent African nations. None of these states claim that they’re not sovereign countries.

And there are many other vital security issues that also must be addressed. Take the issue of airspace.Again, Israel’s small dimensions create huge security problems. America can be crossed by jet airplane in six hours. To fly across Israel, it takes three minutes. So is Israel’s tiny airspace to be chopped in half and given to a Palestinian state not at peace with Israel?

Our major international airport is a few kilometers away from the West Bank. Without peace, will our planes become targets for antiaircraft missiles placed in the adjacent Palestinian state? And how will we stop the smuggling into the West Bank? It’s not merely the West Bank, it’s the West Bank mountains. It just dominates the coastal plain where most of Israel’s population sits below. How could weprevent the smuggling into these mountains of those missiles that could be fired on our cities?

I bring up these problems because they’re not theoretical problems. They’re very real. And for Israelis,they’re life-and- death matters. All these potential cracks in Israel’s security have to be sealed in a peace agreement before a Palestinian state is declared, not afterwards, because if you leave it afterwards, they won’t be sealed. And these problems will explode in our face and explode the peace.

The Palestinians should first make peace with Israel and then get their state. But I also want to tell youthis. After such a peace agreement is signed, Israel will not be the lastcountry to welcome a Palestinian state as a new member of the United Nations.We will be the first.

And there’s one more thing.Hamas has been violating international law by holding our soldier Gilad Shalitcaptive for five years.

They haven’t given even oneRed Cross visit. He’s held in a dungeon, in darkness, against all internationalnorms. Gilad Shalit is the son of Aviva and Noam Shalit. He is the grandson of Zvi Shalit, who escaped the Holocaust by coming to the — in the 1930s as a boy to the land of Israel. Gilad Shalit is the son of every Israeli family. Everynation represented here should demand his immediate release. If you want to pass a resolution about the Middle East today, that’s the resolution you should pass.

Ladies and gentlemen, last year in Israel in Bar-Ilan University, this year in the Knesset and in the U.S.Congress, I laid out my vision for peace in which a demilitarized Palestinian state recognizes the Jewish state. Yes, the Jewish state. After all, this is the body that recognized the Jewish state 64 years ago. Now, don’t you think it’s about time that Palestinians did the same?

The Jewish state of Israel will always protect the rights of all its minorities, including the more than 1million Arab citizens of Israel. I wish I could say the same thing about a future Palestinian state, for as Palestinian officials made clear the other day– in fact, I think they made it right here in New York — they said the Palestinian state won’t allow any Jews in it. They’ll be Jew-free — Judenrein. That’s ethnic cleansing. There are laws today in Ramallah that make the selling of land to Jews punishable by death. That’s racism. And you know which laws this evokes.

Israel has no intention whatsoever to change the democratic character of our state. We just don’t want the Palestinians to try to change the Jewish character of our state. We want to give up — we want them to give up the fantasy off looding Israel with millions of Palestinians.

President Abbas just stood here, and he said that the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the settlements. Well, that’s odd. Our conflict has been raging for — was raging for nearly half a century before there was a single Israeli settlement in the West Bank. So if what President Abbas is saying was true, then the — I guess that the settlements he’s talking about are Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa, Be’er Sheva.Maybe that’s what he meant the other day when he said that Israel has been occupying Palestinian land for 63 years. He didn’t say from 1967; he said from1948. I hope somebody will bother to ask him this question because it illustrates a simple truth: The core of the conflict is not the settlements.The settlements are a result of the conflict..

The settlements have to be –it’s an issue that has to be addressed and resolved in the course of negotiations. But the core of the conflict has always been and unfortunately remains the refusal of the Palestinians to recognize a Jewish state in any border.

I think it’s time that the Palestinian leadership recognizes what every serious international leader has recognized, from Lord Balfour and Lloyd George in 1917, to President Truman in1948, to President Obama just two days ago right here: Israel is the Jewish state.

President Abbas, stop walking around this issue. Recognize the Jewish state, and make peace with us. In such a genuine peace, Israel is prepared to make painful compromises. We believe that the Palestinians should be neither the citizens of Israel nor its subjects. They should live in a free state of their own. But they should beready, like us, for compromise. And we will know that they’re ready for compromise and for peace when they start taking Israel’s security requirements seriously and when they stop denying our historical connection to our ancient homeland.

I often hear them accuse Israel of Judaizing Jerusalem. That’s like accusing America of Americanizing Washington, or the British of Anglicizing London. You know why we’re called”Jews”? Because we come from Judea.

In my office in Jerusalem,there’s a — there’s an ancient seal. It’s a signet ring of a Jewish official from the time of the Bible. The seal was found right next to the Western Wall,and it dates back 2,700 years, to the time of King Hezekiah. Now, there’s aname of the Jewish official inscribed on the ring in Hebrew. His name was Netanyahu. That’s my last name. My first name, Benjamin, dates back a thousandyears earlier to Benjamin — Binyamin — the son of Jacob, who was also known as Israel. Jacob and his 12 sons roamed these same hills of Judea and Samaria4,000 years ago, and there’s been a continuous Jewish presence in the land ever since.

And for those Jews who we reexiled from our land, they never stopped dreaming of coming back: Jews in Spain, on the eve of their expulsion; Jews in the Ukraine, fleeing the pogroms;Jews fighting the Warsaw Ghetto, as the Nazis were circling around it. They never stopped praying, they never stopped yearning. They whispered: Next year in Jerusalem. Next year in the promised land.

As the prime minister of Israel, I speak for a hundred generations of Jews who were dispersed throughout the lands, who suffered every evil under the Sun, but who never gave up hope of restoring their national life in the one and only Jewish state.

Ladies and gentlemen, I continue to hope that President Abbas will be my partner in peace. I’ve worked hard to advance that peace. The day I came into office, I called for direct negotiations without preconditions. President Abbas didn’t respond. I outlined a vision of peace of two states for two peoples. He still didn’t respond. I removed hundreds of roadblocks and checkpoints, to ease freedom of movement in the Palestinian areas; this facilitated a fantastic growth in the Palestinian economy. But again — no response. I took the unprecedented step of freezing new buildings in the settlements for 10 months. No prime minister did that before, ever. Once again — you applaud, but there was no response. No response.

In the last few weeks,American officials have put forward ideas to restart peace talks. There were things in those ideas about borders that I didn’t like. There were things thereabout the Jewish state that I’m sure the Palestinians didn’t like.

But with all my reservations,I was willing to move forward on these American ideas.

President Abbas, why don’t you join me? We have to stop negotiating about the negotiations. Let’s just get on with it. Let’s negotiate peace.

I spent years defending Israel on the battlefield. I spent decades defending Israel in the court of public opinion. President Abbas, you’ve dedicated your life to advancing the Palestinian cause. Must this conflict continue for generations, or will we be able our children and our grandchildren to speak in years ahead of how we found a way to end it? That’s what we should aim for, and that’s what I believe we can achieve.

In two and a half years, we met in Jerusalem only once, even though my door has always been open to you. If you wish, I’ll come to Ramallah. Actually, I have a better suggestion. We’ve both just flown thousands of miles to New York. Now we’re in the same city.We’re in the same building. So let’s meet here today in the United Nations. Who’s there to stop us? What is there to stop us? If we genuinely want peace, what is there to stop us from meeting today and beginning peace negotiations?

And I suggest we talk openlyand honestly. Let’s listen to one another. Let’s do as we say in the Middle East: Let’s talk “doogri”. That means straightforward. I’ll tell you my needs and concerns. You’ll tell me yours. And with God’s help, we’ll find the common ground of peace.

There’s an old Arab saying that you cannot applaud with one hand. Well, the same is true of peace. I cannot make peace alone. I cannot make peace without you. President Abbas, Iextend my hand — the hand of Israel — in peace. I hope that you will grasp that hand. We are both the sons of Abraham. My people call him Avraham. Your people call him Ibrahim. We share the same patriarch. We dwell in the sameland. Our destinies are intertwined. Let us realize the vision of Isaiah – (Isaiah 9:1 in Hebrew) — “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light.” Let that light be the light of peace.

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Remarks by Palestinian Authority President Abbas
to the U.N. General Assembly,
United Nations Headquarters,
New York City, New York

Mr. President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, Mr. Secretary-General of the United Nations, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

At the outset, I wish to extend my congratulations to H.E. Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser on his assumption of the Presidency of the Assembly for this session, and wish him all success.

I reaffirm today my sincere congratulations, on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian people, to the government and people of South Sudan for its deserved admission as a full member of the United Nations, wishing them progress and prosperity.

I also congratulate the Secretary-General, H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon, on his election for a new term at the helm of the United Nations. This renewal of confidence reflects the world’s appreciation for his efforts, which have strengthened the role of the United Nations.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

The Question Palestine is intricately linked with the United Nations via the resolutions adopted by its various organs and agencies and via the essential and lauded role of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East – UNRWA – which embodies the international responsibility towards the plight of Palestine refugees, who are the victims of Al-Nakba (Catastrophe) that occurred in 1948. We aspire for and seek a greater and more effective role for the United Nations in working to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in our region that ensures the inalienable, legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people as defined by the resolutions of international legitimacy of the United Nations.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

A year ago, at this same time, distinguished leaders in this hall addressed the stalled peace efforts in our region. Everyone had high hopes for a new round of final status negotiations, which had begun in early September in Washington under the direct auspices of President Barack Obama and with participation of the Quartet, and with Egyptian and Jordanian participation, to reach a peace agreement within one year. We entered those negotiations with open hearts and attentive ears and sincere intentions, and we were ready with our documents, papers and proposals. But the negotiations broke down just weeks after their launch.

After this, we did not give up and did not cease our efforts for initiatives and contacts. Over the past year we did not leave a door to be knocked or channel to be tested or path to be taken and we did not ignore any formal or informal party of influence and stature to be addressed. We positively considered the various ideas and proposals and initiatives presented from many countries and parties. But all of these sincere efforts and endeavors undertaken by international parties were repeatedly wrecked by the positions of the Israeli government, which quickly dashed the hopes raised by the launch of negotiations last September.

The core issue here is that the Israeli government refuses to commit to terms of reference for the negotiations that are based on international law and United Nations resolutions, and that it frantically continues to intensify building of settlements on the territory of the State of Palestine.

Settlement activities embody the core of the policy of colonial military occupation of the land of the Palestinian people and all of the brutality of aggression and racial discrimination against our people that this policy entails. This policy, which constitutes a breach of international humanitarian law and United Nations resolutions, is the primary cause for the failure of the peace process, the collapse of dozens of opportunities, and the burial of the great hopes that arose from the signing of the Declaration of Principles in 1993 between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel to achieve a just peace that would begin a new era for our region.

The reports of United Nations missions as well as by several Israeli institutions and civil societies convey a horrific picture about the size of the settlement campaign, which the Israeli government does not hesitate to boast about and which it continues to execute through the systematic confiscation of the Palestinian lands and the construction of thousands of new settlement units in various areas of the West Bank, particularly in East Jerusalem, and accelerated construction of the annexation Wall that is eating up large tracts of our land, dividing it into separate and isolated islands and cantons, destroying family life and communities and the livelihoods of tens of thousands of families. The occupying Power also continues to refuse permits for our people to build in Occupied East Jerusalem, at the same time that it intensifies its decades-long campaign of demolition and confiscation of homes, displacing Palestinian owners and residents under a multi-pronged policy of ethnic cleansing aimed at pushing them away from their ancestral homeland. In addition, orders have been issued to deport elected representatives from the city of Jerusalem. The occupying Power also continues to undertake excavations that threaten our holy places, and its military checkpoints prevent our citizens from getting access to their mosques and churches, and it continues to besiege the Holy City with a ring of settlements imposed to separate the Holy City from the rest of the Palestinian cities.

The occupation is racing against time to redraw the borders on our land according to what it wants and to impose a fait accompli on the ground that changes the realities and that is undermining the realistic potential for the existence of the State of Palestine.

At the same time, the occupying Power continues to impose its blockade on the Gaza Strip and to target Palestinian civilians by assassinations, air strikes and artillery shelling, persisting with its war of aggression of three years ago on Gaza, which resulted in massive destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, and mosques, and the thousands of martyrs and wounded.

The occupying Power also continues its incursions in areas of the Palestinian National Authority through raids, arrests and killings at the checkpoints. In recent years, the criminal actions of armed settler militias, who enjoy the special protection of the occupation army, has intensified with the perpetration of frequent attacks against our people, targeting their homes, schools, universities, mosques, fields, crops and trees. Despite our repeated warnings, the occupying Power has not acted to curb these attacks and we hold them fully responsible for the crimes of the settlers.

These are just a few examples of the policy of the Israeli colonial settlement occupation, and this policy is responsible for the continued failure of the successive international attempts to salvage the peace process.

This policy will destroy the chances of achieving a two-State solution upon which there is an international consensus, and here I caution aloud: This settlement policy threatens to also undermine the structure of the Palestinian National Authority and even end its existence.

In addition, we now face the imposition new conditions not previously raised, conditions that will transform the raging conflict in our inflamed region into a religious conflict and a threat to the future of a million and a half Christian and Muslim Palestinians, citizens of Israel, a matter which we reject and which is impossible for us to accept being dragged into.

All of these actions taken by Israel in our country are unilateral actions and are not based on any earlier agreements. Indeed, what we witness is a selective application of the agreements aimed at perpetuating the occupation. Israel reoccupied the cities of the West Bank by a unilateral action, and reestablished the civil and military occupation by a unilateral action, and it is the one that determines whether or not a Palestinian citizen has the right to reside in any part of the Palestinian Territory. And it is confiscating our land and our water and obstructing our movement as well as the movement of goods. And it is the one obstructing our whole destiny. All of this is unilateral.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

In 1974, our deceased leader Yasser Arafat came to this hall and assured the Members of the General Assembly of our affirmative pursuit for peace, urging the United Nations to realize the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people, stating: “Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand”.

In 1988, President Arafat again addressed the General Assembly, which convened in Geneva to hear him, where he submitted the Palestinian peace program adopted by the Palestine National Council at its session held that year in Algeria.

When we adopted this program, we were taking a painful and very difficult step for all of us, especially those, including myself, who were forced to leave their homes and their towns and villages, carrying only some of our belongings and our grief and our memories and the keys of our homes to the camps of exile and the Diaspora in the 1948 Al-Nakba, one of the worst operations of uprooting, destruction and removal of a vibrant and cohesive society that had been contributing in a pioneering and leading way in the cultural, educational and economic renaissance of the Arab Middle East.

Yet, because we believe in peace and because of our conviction in international legitimacy, and because we had the courage to make difficult decisions for our people, and in the absence of absolute justice, we decided to adopt the path of relative justice – justice that is possible and could correct part of the grave historical injustice committed against our people. Thus, we agreed to establish the State of Palestine on only 22% of the territory of historical Palestine – on all the Palestinian Territory occupied by Israel in 1967.

We, by taking that historic step, which was welcomed by the States of the world, made a major concession in order to achieve a historic compromise that would allow peace to be made in the land of peace.

In the years that followed – from the Madrid Conference and the Washington negotiations leading to the Oslo agreement, which was signed 18 years ago in the garden of the White House and was linked with the letters of mutual recognition between the PLO and Israel, we persevered and dealt positively and responsibly with all efforts aimed at the achievement of a lasting peace agreement. Yet, as we said earlier, every initiative and every conference and every new round of negotiations and every movement was shattered on the rock of the Israeli settlement expansion project.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I confirm, on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, which will remain so until the end of the conflict in all its aspects and until the resolution of all final status issues, the following:

1. The goal of the Palestinian people is the realization of their inalienable national rights in their independent State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, on all the land of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, which Israel occupied in the June 1967 war, in conformity with the resolutions of international legitimacy and with the achievement of a just and agreed upon solution to the Palestine refugee issue in accordance with resolution 194, as stipulated in the Arab Peace Initiative which presented the consensus Arab vision to resolve the core the Arab-Israeli conflict and to achieve a just and comprehensive peace. To this we adhere and this is what we are working to achieve. Achieving this desired peace also requires the release of political prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons without delay.

2. The PLO and the Palestinian people adhere to the renouncement of violence and rejection and condemning of terrorism in all its forms, especially State terrorism, and adhere to all agreements signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel.

3. We adhere to the option of negotiating a lasting solution to the conflict in accordance with resolutions of international legitimacy. Here, I declare that the Palestine Liberation Organization is ready to return immediately to the negotiating table on the basis of the adopted terms of reference based on international legitimacy and a complete cessation of settlement activities.

4. Our people will continue their popular peaceful resistance to the Israeli occupation and its settlement and apartheid policies and its construction of the racist annexation Wall, and they receive support for their resistance, which is consistent with international humanitarian law and international conventions and has the support of peace activists from Israel and around the world, reflecting an impressive, inspiring and courageous example of the strength of this defenseless people, armed only with their dreams, courage, hope and slogans in the face of bullets, tanks, tear gas and bulldozers.

5. When we bring our plight and our case to this international podium, it is a confirmation of our reliance on the political and diplomatic option and is a confirmation that we do not undertake unilateral steps. Our efforts are not aimed at isolating Israel or de-legitimizing it; rather we want to gain legitimacy for the cause of the people of Palestine. We only aim to de-legitimize the settlement activities and the occupation and apartheid and the logic of ruthless force, and we believe that all the countries of the world stand with us in this regard.

I am here to say on behalf of the Palestinian people and the Palestine Liberation Organization: We extend our hands to the Israeli government and the Israeli people for peace-making. I say to them: Let us urgently build together a future for our children where they can enjoy freedom, security and prosperity. Let us build the bridges of dialogue instead of checkpoints and walls of separation, and build cooperative relations based on parity and equity between two neighboring States – Palestine and Israel – instead of policies of occupation, settlement, war and eliminating the other.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Despite the unquestionable right of our people to self-determination and to the independence of our State as stipulated in international resolutions, we have accepted in the past few years to engage in what appeared to be a test of our worthiness, entitlement and eligibility. During the last two years our national authority has implemented a program to build our State institutions. Despite the extraordinary situation and the Israeli obstacles imposed, a serious extensive project was launched that has included the implementation of plans to enhance and advance the judiciary and the apparatus for maintenance of order and security, to develop the administrative, financial, and oversight systems, to upgrade the performance of institutions, and to enhance self-reliance to reduce the need for foreign aid. With the thankful support of Arab countries and donors from friendly countries, a number of large infrastructure projects have been implemented, focused on various aspects of service, with special attention to rural and marginalized areas.

In the midst of this massive national project, we have been strengthening what we seeking to be the features of our State: from the preservation of security for the citizen and public order; to the promotion of judicial authority and rule of law; to strengthening the role of women via legislation, laws and participation; to ensuring the protection of public freedoms and strengthening the role of civil society institutions; to institutionalizing rules and regulations for ensuring accountability and transparency in the work of our Ministries and departments; to entrenching the pillars of democracy as the basis for the Palestinian political life.

When division struck the unity of our homeland, people and institutions, we were determined to adopt dialogue for restoration of our unity. We succeeded months ago in achieving national reconciliation and we hope that its implementation will be accelerated in the coming weeks. The core pillar of this reconciliation was to turn to the people through legislative and presidential elections within a year, because the State we want will be a State characterized by the rule of law, democratic exercise and protection of the freedoms and equality of all citizens without any discrimination and the transfer of power through the ballot box.

The reports issued recently by the United Nations, the World Bank, the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) and the International Monetary Fund confirm and laud what has been accomplished, considering it a remarkable and unprecedented model. The consensus conclusion by the AHLC a few days ago here described what has been accomplished as a “remarkable international success story” and confirmed the readiness of the Palestinian people and their institutions for the immediate independence of the State of Palestine.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is no longer possible to redress the issue of the blockage of the horizon of the peace talks with the same means and methods that have been repeatedly tried and proven unsuccessful over the past years. The crisis is far too deep to be neglected, and what is more dangerous are attempts to simply circumvent it or postpone its explosion.

It is neither possible, nor practical, nor acceptable to return to conducting business as usual, as if everything is fine. It is futile to go into negotiations without clear parameters and in the absence of credibility and a specific timetable. Negotiations will be meaningless as long as the occupation army on the ground continues to entrench its occupation, instead of rolling it back, and continues to change the demography of our country in order to create a new basis on which to alter the borders.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is a moment of truth and my people are waiting to hear the answer of the world. Will it allow Israel to continue its occupation, the only occupation in the world? Will it allow Israel to remain a State above the law and accountability? Will it allow Israel to continue rejecting the resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations and the International Court of Justice and the positions of the overwhelming majority of countries in the world?

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I come before you today from the Holy Land, the land of Palestine, the land of divine messages, ascension of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the birthplace of Jesus Christ (peace be upon him), to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people in the homeland and in the the Diaspora, to say, after 63 years of suffering of the ongoing Nakba: Enough. It is time for the Palestinian people to gain their freedom and independence.

The time has come to end the suffering and the plight of millions of Palestine refugees in the homeland and the Diaspora, to end their displacement and to realize their rights, some of them forced to take refuge more than once in different places of the world.

At a time when the Arab peoples affirm their quest for democracy – the Arab Spring – the time is now for the Palestinian Spring, the time for independence.

The time has come for our men, women and children to live normal lives, for them to be able to sleep without waiting for the worst that the next day will bring; for mothers to be assured that their children will return home without fear of suffering killing, arrest or humiliation; for students to be able to go to their schools and universities without checkpoints obstructing them. The time has come for sick people to be able to reach hospitals normally, and for our farmers to be able to take care of their good land without fear of the occupation seizing the land and its water, which the wall prevents access to, or fear of the settlers, for whom settlements are being built on our land and who are uprooting and burning the olive trees that have existed for hundreds of years. The time has come for the thousands of prisoners to be released from the prisons to return to their families and their children to become a part of building their homeland, for the freedom of which they have sacrificed.

My people desire to exercise their right to enjoy a normal life like the rest of humanity. They believe what the great poet Mahmoud Darwish said: Standing here, staying here, permanent here, eternal here, and we have one goal, one, one: to be.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

We profoundly appreciate and value the positions of all States that have supported our struggle and our rights and recognized the State of Palestine following the Declaration of Independence in 1988, as well as the countries that have recently recognized the State of Palestine and those that have upgraded the level of Palestine’s representation in their capitals. I also salute the Secretary-General, who said a few days ago that the Palestinian State should have been established years ago.

Be assured that this support for our people is more valuable to them than you can imagine, for it makes them feel that someone is listening to their narrative and that their tragedy and the horrors of Al-Nakba and the occupation, from which they have so suffered, are not being ignored. And, it reinforces their hope that stems from the belief that justice is possible in this in this world. The loss of hope is the most ferocious enemy of peace and despair is the strongest ally of extremism.

I say: The time has come for my courageous and proud people, after decades of displacement and colonial occupation and ceaseless suffering, to live like other peoples of the earth, free in a sovereign and independent homeland.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I would like to inform you that, before delivering this statement, I submitted, in my capacity as the President of the State of Palestine and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, to H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, an application for the admission of Palestine on the basis of the 4 June 1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital, as a full member of the United Nations.

I call upon Mr. Secretary-General to expedite transmittal of our request to the Security Council, and I call upon the distinguished members of the Security Council to vote in favor of our full membership. I also call upon the States that did not recognized the State of Palestine as yet to do so.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

The support of the countries of the world for our endeavor is a victory for truth,freedom, justice, law and international legitimacy, and it provides tremendous support for the peace option and enhances the chances of success of the negotiations.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Your support for the establishment of the State of Palestine and for its admission to the United Nations as a full member is the greatest contribution to peacemaking in the Holy Land.

I thank you.

Sources of full texts:

Mahmoud Abbas speech at UN (23 Sept 2011)

Benjamin Netanyahu speech at UN (23 Sept 2011)

Schaap on the KJV

2011-09-24T09:12:00.012-05:00

Jack Schaap's Indefensible Views On The
KING JAMES BIBLE
The Error Exposed

Signs in the Heavens

2011-09-17T04:49:00.084-05:00

SIGNS IN THE SUN, MOON & STARS

AND THE FEASTS OF LEVITICUS 23

"And God said, LET THERE BE LIGHTS in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and LET THEM BE FOR SIGNS, and for seasons, and for days, and years." (Genesis 1:14)

"And THERE SHALL BE SIGNS IN THE SUN, AND IN THE MOON, AND IN THE STARS; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring. ... And WHEN THESE THINGS BEGIN TO COME TO PASS, THEN LOOK UP, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." (Luke 21:25, 28)

And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come." (Joel 2:30-31)

INTRODUCTION

The Word of God is self proving through 1) scientific facts unknown till recently, 2) 100% historical accuracy, 3) numerical and mathematical evidences in the text, and especially 4) fulfilled prophecy.

A primary and recurring theme in Biblical prophecy is the Nation of Israel. This people was chosen by God to provide the prophets of old who the Lord would use to speak and write His Word. They are also the people that the Almighty chose to provide the lineage that He would use to take upon Himself human flesh in order to live a perfect and sinless life and provide Himself as a sacrifice to the sins of the world.

"... Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." (John 1:29) "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:9-10) "And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2:2) "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:16-18) The Lord Jesus came the first time as the Lamb of God to make atonement for our sins. He will also come again as "the Lion of the tribe of Juda" (Rev. 5:5, cf. Gen. 49:9) to Judge the world and take it back from Satan.

The Lord prescribed 7 Feasts and had Moses record them in Leviticus chapter 23. They are: 1) Passover, 2) Unleavened Bread, 3) First Fruits, 4) Pentecost, 5) Trumpets, 6) Atonement and 7) Tabernacles. These 7 Feast are still observed by the Jews today.

It has been proven that the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled the first 3 feasts (Passover, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits) to the day at His first coming. They represent the Lord's death (1 Cor. 5:7), burial (Isa. 53:9; cf. Jn. 19:38-42) and resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20-23). The Feast of Pentecost represents this present Church Age and is on going. Next comes the Feast of Trumpets which represents the Rapture of all believers of this present Church Age. Then there is the Day of Atonement speaks of the soon coming 7 year Tribulation. Finally come the Feast of Tabernacles which is representative of the Millennial reign of Christ on this Earth.

Several astronomical phenomenon have occurred or will occur in conjunction with the Feasts of Israel and other special days of the Hebrew people. Some of these amazing events are documented in this article.

COMETS ELENIN & HONDA

A Russian amateur astronomer, Leonid Elenin of Lyubertsy near Moscow, discovered a magnitude 19 (note 1) comet (known as C/2010 X1) on December 10, 2010 using a remotely controlled telescope situated in New Mexico, USA.

Comet Elenin was closest to the Sun on, September 10, 2011, at 0.48 Astronomical Unit (note 2), and closest to Earth on 16 & 17 October 2011 at 0.23 Astronomical Unit (AU) or about 35 million kilometers (22 million miles) from Earth during its closest approach.

Elenin has been intrinsically faint at magnitude 10, but should be visible to the unaided eye at magnitude 4 in the evening sky for Southern hemisphere observers during early September 2011. Faint comets are usually gas rich and dust poor, but they do have a tendency to brighten rapidly when they are near the Sun. By mid September, it continues to brighten but is lost to evening twilight. During early October Elenin will reappear in dawn skies in the Northern hemisphere. In mid-October it will again be visible in the Southern hemisphere, but moonlight will interfere until October 23rd.

Comet Honda will join Elenin on 7 October on the eastern horizon in the Northern hemisphere making for a rare treat. Both comets will be around magnitude 5 or 6 and should be visible with the unaided eye with clear skies, and a dark location.

These comets are interesting Biblically for the following reasons:

1. Earth, Elenin, the Sun, and Mercury will be in alignment on 28 & 29 September. From the evening of 28 September to the evening the 29th is the Biblical Feast of Trumpets, a foreshadow of the Rapture (Leviticus 23:23-25; cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52). Furthermore, the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly will be in session from September 28th to 30th and is scheduled to vote on whether to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state. The Bible gives this parting of the Land of Israel as a reason for God's judgment on the nations during the 7 year Tribulation. In the Book of the Prophet Joel God states: " I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land." (Joel 3:2) The Rapture will occur before this, the culmination of the 7 years of God's judgment on an unbelieving world.

2. When Elenin and Honda become visible together on the night of 7 October it will be the beginning of Feast of Atonement, a picture of the 7 year Tribulation (Leviticus 23:26-32; cf. Daniel 9:27, 12:1 ; Matthew 24:21). Could these 2 comets be a type of God's 2 witnesses during the first half of the Tribulation? In Revelation 11:3-4 God says: "And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth."

3. When Elenin is closest to the Earth on October 16, 17 & 18 at 22 million miles (0.233 AU) it will be right in the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles, a type of the Millennial reign of Christ, and the eternal state after that (Leviticus 23:33-43; cf. Revelation 20:1-6, 21:1-7).

"And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." (Luke 21:25-28)

RED MOON & BLACK SUN IN BIBLE PROPHECY

Blood Moon and Dark Sun prophesied in the Old Testament and reiterated in the New Testament:

"And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come." (Joel 2:30-31)

"And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come." (Acts 2:19-20)

"And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" (Revelation 6:12-17)

There is a rare astronomical phenomenon called a Lunar Tetrad which consists of a set of four consecutive total lunar eclipses (Blood Moons).

Four Blood Moons occurred in 1949/1950 beginning with the first Passover (Pesach) after Israel became a nation on May 14, 1948. There were two Blood Moons on Passovers (the first Biblical feast) and two during the Feast of Tabernacles (the last of the 7 feasts of Israel). Then in 1967/1968 the exact same thing happened again! The year 1967 is significant because it was the year Jerusalem was liberated during the Six-Day War! Before that, you have to go back to 1493 for four successive lunar eclipses on Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkoth).

The reestablishment of Israel as a nation is a major theme in Bible Prophecy, and likewise the reoccupation of Jerusalem is prophesied many times in the Bible.

Here is the breakdown of Tetrads that have occur during the first and last of the 7 feasts of Israel, and also including one that will occur on a Sabbatical year during 2014 & 2015:

Tetrad of 1493 & 1494 tied to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain of 1492:

April 2, 1493 Pesach (Passover) Total Lunar Eclipse
September 25, 1493 Sukkot (Feast Of Tabernacles) Total Lunar Eclipse
March 22, 1494 Pesach (Passover) Total Lunar Eclipse
September 15, 1494 Sukkot (Feast Of Tabernacles) Total Lunar Eclipse

Tetrad of 1949 & 1950 tied to the rebirth of Israel after 1878 years on May 14, 1948:

April 13, 1949 Pesach (Passover) Total Lunar Eclipse
October 7, 1949 Sukkot (Feast Of Tabernacles) Total Lunar Eclipse
April 2, 1950 Pesach (Passover) Total Lunar Eclipse
September 26, 1950 Sukkot (Feast Of Tabernacles) Total Lunar Eclipse

Tetrad of 1967 & 1968 tied to the Israeli retaking of Jerusalem after 1,897 years on June 7, 1967:

April 24 1967 Pesach (Passover) Total Lunar Eclipse
October 18, 1967 Sukkot (Feast Of Tabernacles) Total Lunar Eclipse
April 13, 1968 Pesach (Passover) Total Lunar Eclipse
October 6, 1968 Sukkot (Feast Of Tabernacles) Total Lunar Eclipse

The coming Tetrad of 2014 & 2015 which will fall during a Sabbatical year:

April 14, 2014 Pesach (Passover) Total Lunar Eclipse
October 8, 2014 Sukkot (Feast Of Tabernacles) Total Lunar Eclipse
April 3, 2015 Pesach (Passover) Total Lunar Eclipse
September 27, 2015 Sukkot (Feast Of Tabernacles) Total Lunar Eclipse

There are no more tetrads on Biblical feast days after the 2014 / 2015 in this century.

In addition to these Lunar eclipses on in 2015 there will also be 2 Solar eclipses. The first will be a total Solar eclipse on 1 Nissan (March 20, 2015), New Year's Day, and the other will be a partial Solar eclipse on Tishri 1 (September 13, 2015), the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashana).

The full array of eclipses during 2014 & 2015 are as follows:

Nisan 15, 5774 (April 14, 2014): Total Lunar Eclipse, Passover.
Tishrei 15, 5775 (October 8, 2014): Total Lunar Eclipse, Feast of Tabernacles.
Nissan 1, 5776 (March 20, 2015): Total Solar Eclipse, Just Before The Biblical New Year.
Nisan 15, 5776 (April 4, 2015): Total Lunar Eclipse, Passover.
Tishrei 1, 5776 (September 13, 2015): Partial Solar Eclipse, Just Before the Feast of Trumpets.
Tishrei 15, 5776 (September 28, 2015): Total Lunar Eclipse, Feast of Tabernacles.

Four blood moons occurring on Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles in two consecutive years is fantastic, but when solar eclipses are added on the Jewish New Year on March 20, 2015 (Nisan 1), and the Rosh Hashanah (Trumpets) on September 13, 2015 (Tishri 1) it is phenomenal.

It is also important to note that the year 2015 is a sabbatical year. It is the last year in a 49-year cycle (7 x 7 = 49). This sabbatical year comes just before the year of Jubilee, which is announced every fifty years. The year of Jubilee is to be proclaimed the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), 2015.

Since the First Advent of Jesus Christ there have only been 7 tetrads falling on the Biblical feasts days (162/163 AD, 795/796 AD, 842/843 AD, 860/861 AD, 1493/1494, 1949/1950, 1967/1968). The Tetrad of 2014/2015 will be the 8th. In all eight examples, the eclipses have fallen or will fall on Passover and the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot).

There were only two tetrads during the 20th Century which fell on the Feasts of the Lord. Each time, it was in relation with an important event concerning the nation of Israel or the Jewish people. The first tetrad occurred in 1949-1950, just after the independence of the state of Israel, and the second in 1967-1968, at the moment when the Jews conquered Jerusalem.

There were no tetrads in the 17th, 18th and 19th century. There were several during the 16th century, but none corresponded with the Jewish feasts.

After the 2014/2015 Tetrad there will be no more such tetrads for the rest of the 21st Century.

21 DAYS OF MOURNING AND THE 1ST & 9TH OF AV

"And Aaron the priest went up into mount Hor at the commandment of the LORD, and died there, in the fortieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the first day of the fifth month [Av]." (Numbers 33:38)

"And to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month [Av], separating myself, as I have done these so many years? Then came the word of the LORD of hosts unto me, saying, Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me? And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves? Should ye not hear the words which the LORD hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain?" (Zechariah 7:3-7)

There were total solar eclipses for 3 years straight on the 1st of Av during 2008, 2009 and 2010.

The NASA web site indicates that total solar eclipses occurred on these dates:

August 1, 2008 (1st of Av 5768 began at sunset on August 1st and ended at sunset on the 2nd)
July 22, 2009 (1st of Av 5769 began at sundown on July 21st and ended at sunset on the 22nd)
July 11, 2010 (1st of Av 5770 began at sunset on July 11th and ended at sundown on the 12th)
NOTE: Biblical days begin at sunset and ends at sundown the following day.

It was on the 1st of Av that Moses' brother, Aaron, the first Levitical Priest, died (Numbers 33:38-39)

Jews still observe 21 days of mourning from 17 Tammuz to 9 Av in commemoration of the Roman General Titus' breach of the outer walls of Jerusalem on 17 Tammuz, and his order on the 9th of Av (Tisha b'Av) to leveled the Temple to the ground (4 Aug 70 AD). The 9th of Av was the very same day on which the First Temple was destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian forces (29 July 587 BC). Accordingly, Tisha b'Av has been called the "saddest day in Jewish history."

Other tragic events that have occurred on Tisha b'Av:

1. Jewish tradition says that it was on Tisha b'Av (9 Av 1312 B.C.) that the Jewish fathers were not allowed to enter the Promised Land, because the people rebelled against Moses, and the 2 true spies, Joshua and Caleb, and believed the 10 false spies. The sin of the 10 spies caused God to decree that the Children of Israel who left Egypt would not be permitted to enter the land of Israel (Numbers 13 & 14, 32:11-14).
2. The Roman army plowed Jerusalem with salt on 25 July 71 AD (9 Av 3831).
3. The destruction of Simeon Bar Cochba's army on 5 Aug 135 AD (9 Av 3895).
4. The First Crusade was declared by Pope Urban II on July 20, 1095 (Av 9, 4855), killing 10,000 Jews in its first month and destroying Jewish communities in France and the Rhineland.
5. Anti-Jewish rioters stormed a castle in York, England - 500 Jews died as a result on 14 July 1190. (9 Av 4950).
6. England expelled all Jews on 18 July 1290 (9 Av 5050).
7. During the Spanish Inquisition after centuries in Spain some 200,000 Jews were expelled on 11 August 1492 (9 Av 5252). The following 2 years, 1493 & 1494, experienced a series of 4 lunar eclipses (blood moons) on the first (Passover) and last (the Feast of Tabernacles) of the seven feasts of Israel (Leviticus 23; cf. Joel 2:30-31; Acts 2:19-20; Rev. 6:12).
8. World War I was declared on 1 August 1914 (9 Av 5674). Russia launched persecutions against the Jews on the same day.
9. Mass deportation of Jews at the rate of six to ten thousand per day from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka began on July 23, 1942 (9 Av 5702).

The 9th of Av for 2011 to 2015 are as follows:
Sunset August 8 to sunset August 9, 2011
Sunset July 28 to sundown July 29, 2012
Sunset July 15 to sundown July 16, 2013
Sunset August 4 to sunset August 5, 2014
Sunset July 25 to sundown July 26, 2015

CONCLUSION

In Luke 21 the Lord Jesus told us that, among other things, there would "be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars" (verse 25) that will point to the nearness of His second coming. Then in the same chapter speaking especially to believers He continued, saying, "when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." (verse 28)

When 1) these signs in the sun, moon, and stars occur on 2) Biblical feast as both accompany 3) the fulfillment of Bible prophecies like the reestablishment of Israel in 1949 and the re-taking of Jerusalem in 1967 it makes a strong case for Biblical inerrancy and for God's power and foreknowledge of the future. Not to mention the fact that the reestablishment of Israel and capture of Jerusalem were essential for further fulfillment of end time prophecy.

Among other Biblical prophecies that show that we are in the last days just prior to the Lord's righteous judgment of this Christ rejecting world are these:

1. Daniel 12:4: "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased."

No one can honestly deny that travel, technology and scientific "knowledge" of all kinds have not "increased" just in the past 100 years or even 50 years as appose to thousands of years prior.

2. Revelation 13:15-18: "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. 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: 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. 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."

Until my lifetime this prophecy would have been impossible to be fulfilled, but now with the advent of the computer, the Internet, satellite tracking, and microchip technology it is NOW possible.

3. Revelation 13:7-8: "And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."

There has been a plan, a long time in the making, to establish a one world government, or New World Order. It has been brain washing and deceiving the world through the UN, our education systems, the media, music, TV, and movies for over half a century now. The New World Order could be fully implemented very soon under the Antichrist.

4. Matthew 24:3-8: "And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows."

Here the Lord Jesus gives a five in one prophecy. Here "the beginning of sorrows" is the same spoken of in Genesis 3:16 where God said to Eve, " I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children." In a similar way an end time increase of 1) false christs, 2) wars, 3) famines, 4) pestilences and 5) earthquakes will signal the nearness of "the end of the world" as we know it. We have been experiencing a simultaneous increase in all 5 of these things especially since the reestablishment of Israel.

Space does not allow for mention of other Biblical prophecies so let the these 4, Israel, and the signs in the sun, moon and stars suffice as ample evidence for the truth and eminence of God's Word, and God's imminent judgment prior to Christ's return to the Earth.

If these things be true, and they are, then the following are likewise true:

"He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." (John 1:11-12)

"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." (1 Timothy 2:5-6)

"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)

"Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls." (James 1:21)

"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3:36)

"For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? ... He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (1 John 5:4-5, 10-12)

The Lord Jesus Christ says:

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. ... I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. ... He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." (Revelation 1:8, 18, 21:7-8)

"But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." (Matthew 24:36-42)

"Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." (Luke 21:36)

NOTES:
1. Visible stars are measured by brightness (Magnitude) on a scale of 1 to 6, the brightest being 1. Magnitudes on the scale with numbers greater than 6 are not visible to the naked eye. Objects brighter than Magnitude 1 are indicated as minus (i.e. -1, -2. -3).
2. One Astronomical Unit (AU) is the distance from the center of the Earth to the center of the Sun, about 93 million miles.

WEB SITE REFERENCES:
Comet Elenin: http://elenin.org
Comet Elenin & Honda: http://elenin.org/honda.php
Elenin: http://members.westnet.com.au/mmatti/sc.htm
Elenin: http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2010X1/pictures.html
Elenin & Honda: http://www.theweatherspace.com/news/EleninHonda
Solar Eclipses (NASA's Main Page): http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov
Lunar Eclipses 1901 - 2000: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov
Lunar Eclipses 2011 - 2020: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov
Solar Eclipses 2011 - 2020: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov
Hebrew Calender: http://www.hebcal.com/
Hebrew Holidays: http://jewishaustralia.com/JWL/holidays/
Hebrew Months: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_calendar
Jewish Holidays: http://world.std.com/~reinhold/jewishholidays.txt
Hebrew Calender: http://standeyo.com/

EVERLASTING LIFE

2011-07-18T05:33:00.015-05:00

101 BIBLE REASONS PROVING
ETERNAL SECURITY

1. The believer has everlasting or eternal life.

John 5:24: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”

John 10:28: “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”

2. The believer is born of God.

John 1:12-13: “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

3. Christ will raise every believer up at the last day.

John 6:44-47: “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”

4. The believer has already passed from death unto life.

John 5:24: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”

5. The believer is not the object of God’s wrath.

John 3:36: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

6. Believer are God’s sheep.

John 10:2-4: “But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.”

7. The believer will not listen to nor follow a stranger, but will flee from him.

John 10:5: “And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.” (The stranger here is Satan and his false teachers.)

8. The believer is known of God.

John 10:14: “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.”

9. The believer listens to the voice of the shepherd.

John 10:27: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

10. The believer is in Christ’s hand and cannot be plucked out.

John 10:28: “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”

11. The believer is in the Father’s hand and cannot be plucked out.

John 10:29: “My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.”

12. The shepherd is charged with the responsibility of keeping the sheep.

John 10:11-14: “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.”

13. The believer is not condemned.

John 3:18: “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

14. The believer shall never thirst.

John 4:14: “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

15. The believer will keep Christ’s commandments.

John 14:23: “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”

16. The believer is secure because of Christ’s prayer.

John 17:9-12: “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.”

17. The believer shall never die.

John 11:26: “And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”

18. The believer to be kept from the evil.

John 17:15: “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.”

Jesus prays that the believer may be kept from the Devil. Was this prayer answered?

19. The believer to be with Christ in glory.

John 17:24: “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.”

20. The believer shall never hunger.

John 6:35: “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”

21. The believer will in no wise be cast out (Not under any circumstance).

John 6:37: “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”

22. Christ will not lose a single believer.

John 6:39: “And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.”

23. Christ will raise up the believer at the last day.

John 6:38-40: “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.”

24. Whosoever eats the bread of life shall never die.

John 6:51: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

25. Because the Holy Spirit abides in the believer forever.

John 14:16-17: “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”

26. Because it is the Father’s will that Christ should lose nothing.

John 6:39: “And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.”

27. Because one cannot be unborn.

John 3:5: “Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”

28. The believer will follow Christ.

John 10:27: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” Following Christ, can one be lost? Have we any right to add to God’s Word by inserting if” to the passage?

29. The believers continue with God.

1 John 2:19: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.”

30. Because it is the believer’s faith that overcomes the world.

1 John 5:4: “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”

31. Because of the record that God hath given.

1 John 5:10-11: “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.”

32. The believer is to be like Christ.

1 John 3:2: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”

33. The believer is kept by the power of God.

1 Peter 1:5: “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

34. The man who believes shall be saved.

Acts 16:31: “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”

35. The believer has been saved.

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

36. The believer is hid by God in Christ.

Colossians 3:3: “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Can the devil find that which God hides?

37. The believer shall not come into condemnation.

John 5:24: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”

38. There is now therefore no condemnation for the believer.

Romans 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

39. The believer is sealed by the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 1:13: “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.”

40. The believer is sealed for a definite time, the day of redemption, or the resurrection of the body.

Ephesians 4:30: “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”

41. The believer liveth and abideth forever.

1 Peter 1:23: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.”

42. The believer is dead to sin.

Romans 6:2: “God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”

43. The believer will appear with Christ in glory.

Colossians 3:4: “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”

44. The life of the believer is Christ’s life.

Colossians 3:4: “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”

45. Since Christ cannot die again, the believer is eternally secure.

Romans 6:9-10: “Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.”

46. The believer is saved through faith not by works.

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

47. This faith a gift from God.

Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

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

48. The believer is not saved by what he does, but by what Christ has done for him.

Titus 3:5: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.”

Romans 4:5: “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”

49. Salvation is a gift, not a wage.

Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

50. The believer’s hope is a living hope.

1 Peter 1:3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

51. The believer’s hope will not fade away. Will not grow dim.

1 Peter 1:4-5: “To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

52. The believer’s hope is reserved (set aside) in heaven for him.

1 Peter 1:4: “To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.”

53. The believer’s inheritance is incorruptible.

1 Peter 1:4: “To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.”

54. The believer’s inheritance cannot be defiled.

1 Peter 1:4: “To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you.”

55. The believer is kept through faith.

1 Peter 1:4-5: (See reasons number 36 and 37): “to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

56. The believer to be revealed in the last time.

1 Peter 1:5: “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

The believer is more than conqueror through Christ.

Romans 8:37: “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”

57. The believer justified by faith, to be saved from wrath.

Romans 5:9: “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”

58. Nothing can separate the believer from Christ.

Romans 8:38-39: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

59. Christ will complete salvation until the end.

Philippians 1:6: “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

60. The believer to be preserved spirit, soul, and body.

1 Thessalonians 5:23: “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

61. God cannot lie.

Titus 1:2: “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.”

62. Jesus is able to save unto the uttermost.

Hebrews 7:25: “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

63. The believer is born of incorruptible seed.

1 Peter 1:23: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” Can the devil corrupt that which God says is incorruptible?

64. The believer is perfected forever.

Hebrews 10:14: “For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.”

65. The believer believes unto the saving of his soul.

Hebrews 10:38-39: “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”

66. The believer made righteous through Christ’s obedience.

Romans 5:18-19: “Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”

67. Because all things work together for good to the believer.

Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

68. Because the believer is so helpless that he cannot place his sins upon Christ. God must do it for him. Therefore salvation is by grace.

Isaiah 53:6: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

69. Because Christ did not come to help us, but to save us.

Luke 19:10: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

70. Because God, not being a man, cannot lie.

Numbers 23:19: “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”

71. Because His mercy endureth forever.

Psalm 136: Twenty-six times in this Psalm it is written His mercy endureth forever.”

72. Because the believer has not yet borne the image of the heavenly.

1 Corinthians 15:49: “And as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”

73. Because the believer is preserved unto the heavenly kingdom.

2 Timothy 4:18: “And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory forever and ever.”

74. Because the believer is the object of God’s mercy, not His wrath.

Ephesians 2:4: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us.”

John 3:36: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

1 Thessalonians 5:9-10: “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.”

75. Because a sealed and witnessed transaction is final.

Ephesians 1:13: “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” Sealed by the Spirit.

Hebrews 10:15: “Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us.”

76. Salvation is obtained, not attained.

Hebrews 9:12: “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”

77. Because the believer is a new creation. Created in Christ Jesus. Therefore eternal in righteousness.

Ephesians 4:24: “And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

78. Because the Father reckons the sinner:

Romans 6:3-5: “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.”

Ephesians 2:4-6: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved); And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

79. Because all believers will be changed at Christ’s coming.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52: “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”

80. Because of the “MUST” of 1 Corinthians 15:53.

1 Corinthians 15:23: “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”

81. Because the power of God is not limited.

Matthew 28:18-19: “And Jesus came and spake to them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

1 Peter 1:5: “Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

82. Because the saints are preserved forever.

Psalms 37:28: “For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved forever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.”

83. Because nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

Romans 8:35: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”

The answer NO” is demanded by the passage to the question.

84. Because God will not forget the believer.

Isaiah 49:15: “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet I will not forget thee.”

85. Because the new covenant in His blood, is an everlasting covenant.

Jeremiah 32:40: “And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.”

86. Because the believer has ceased from his own works.

Hebrews 4:10: “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” It is God that works in the believer.

87. Because we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ once for all.

Hebrews 10:10: “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

88. Because the believer has already been redeemed (Past tense).

2 Peter 1:18-19: “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

89. Because the believer’s salvation is begun and finished by Christ.

Hebrews 12:2: “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

90. Because salvation is by grace, and not by any mixture of grace and works.

Romans 11:6: “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.”

91. Because Christ died. rose again, and intercedes for born again believers.

Romans 8:37: “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”

Hebrews 7:25: “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

92. Because God predestined believers in His Truth according to His foreknowledge before the foundation of the world to be conformed to the image of his Son, and then, in time, He calls and justifies us, and finally He will glorify us.

Romans 8:29-30: “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”

Ephesians 1:5, 7, 11, 13: "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will ... In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace ... In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: ... In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation ..."

2 Corinthians 2:13: "... God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth."

93. Because salvation IS salvation.

Hebrews 5:9: "And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec."

Hebrews 7:25: "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them."

94. The believer cannot perish.

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

95. Because God’s promise that through the offering of Christ He will put away the believer’s sins, and will remember them no more.

Hebrews 10:17: “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”

96. Because God is for us!

Romans 8:31: "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?"

97. God chastens His children rather than exiling them to Hell.

1 Corinthians 11:31-32: "For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world."

98. God allows His children to suffer loss of rewards in Heaven rather than exiling them to Hell.

1 Corinthians 3:11-15: "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire."

99. God allows His children to suffer shame at His coming rather than exiling them to Hell.

1 John 2:28: "And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming."

100. Because God is greater than our heart.

1 John 3:20: "For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things."

101. God is able to save and keep us.

2 Timothy 1:12: "... I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."

Jude 1:24: "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen."

Gun Control

2011-06-30T21:11:00.025-05:00

The American Militia
Versus
Gun Control

Luke 22:34-36: "And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one."

THE SECOND AMENDMENT TO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION:

"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." -- Appended to the Constitution on December 15, 1791 after having been ratified by three-fourths of the states.

Our 2nd Amendment has worked just fine for over 200 years. Let's keep it that way! Why? Here's why:

Theodore Haas, a survivor of Dachau, said, "There is no doubt in my mind that millions of lives could have been saved if the people were not 'brainwashed' about gun ownership and had been well armed. Hitler's thugs and goons were not very brave when confronted by a gun. Gun haters always want to forget the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, which is a perfect example of how a ragtag, half starved group of Jews took up 10 handguns and made asses out of the Nazis."

It was a basic principle of a tyrant "to unarm his people of weapons, money, and all means whereby they resist his power." -- Sir Walter Raleigh (1554 - 1618)

"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms." -- Tench Coxe, Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution, under the pseudonym "A Pennsylvanian" in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1989 at col. 1.

THE RESULTS OF DISARMING THE PEOPLE:

In 1911, Turkey established gun control and from 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control and from 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.

China established gun control in 1935 and over 70 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

Guatemala established gun control in 1964 and from 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

Uganda established gun control in 1970 and from 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

Cambodia established gun control in 1956 and from 1975 to 1977, one million educated people, unable to defend themselves, w ere rounded up and exterminated.

Defenseless people rounded up and exterminated in the 20th Century because of gun control: 56 million.

"Germans who wish to use firearms should join the SS or the SA - ordinary citizens don't need guns, as their having guns doesn't serve the State" -- Heinrich Himmler, Head of Hitler's Nazi SS

THE FOUNDING FATHERS ON THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS:

"To disarm the people [is] the best and most effectual way to enslave them ..." -- George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 380.

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." -- George Washington.

"Experience hath shown, that even under the best forms [of government] those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." -- Thomas Jefferson, Bill for the More General diffusion of Knowledge (1778).

"Arms in the hands of citizens (may) be used at individual discretion ... in private self defense ..." -- John Adams, A defense of the Constitutions of the Government of the USA, 471 (1788).

"A free people ought not only to be armed but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well digested plan is requisite: And their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories, as tend to render them independent on others, for essential, particularly for military supplies." -- George Washington: First Annual Message to Congress (January 8, 1790)

"When firearms go, all goes -- we need them every hour ..." -- George Washington

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants." -- Thomas Jefferson

"The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a greater measure than they have it now, they may change their rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty. They will only exchange Tyrants and tyrannies." -- John Adams

"The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty." -- John Adams

"Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in our possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?" -- Patrick Henry

"... the people have a right to keep and bear arms." -- Patrick Henry and George Mason, Elliot, Debates of 1785.

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined. ... The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun. -- Patrick Henry

"Show me that age and country where the rights and liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their rulers being good men, without a consequent loss of liberty! I say that the loss of that dearest privilege has ever followed, with absolute certainty, every such mad attempt." -- Patrick Henry Speech, March 23, 1775

"They that can give up liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." --Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.

"To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them ..." -- Richard Henry Lee writing in Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republic (1787-1788).

"The Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms." -- Samuel Adams, debates & Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 86-87. " During Massachusetts' U.S. Constitution Ratification Convention (1788)

"The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed." -- Thomas Jefferson.

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms ... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. ... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man." -- Thomas Jefferson, quoting Cesare Beccaria.

"On every question of construction [let us] carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed." -- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823

"[The Constitution preserves] the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation ... [where] the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms."-- James Madison of Virginia, The Federalist, No. 46

"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." -- James Madison, The Federalist, No. 46 at 243- 244

"Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation. ... Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." -- James Madison, The Federalist, No. 46

"... Arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. The balance of power is the scale of peace." -- Thomas Paine

"The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them." --Zachariah Johnson, 3 Elliot, Debates at 646.

THE MILITIA:

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." -- Appended to the Constitution on December 15, 1791 after having been ratified by three-fourths of the states.

"The right of the people to keep and bear ... arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country." -- James Madison, I Annals of Congress 434, June 8, 1789

"I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials." -- George Mason, Debates in Virginia Convention on Ratification of the Constitution, Elliot, Vol. 3, June 16, 1788

"Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American. ... The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people." -- Tench Coxe, Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.

"A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves ... and include all men capable of bearing arms." -- Richard Henry Lee, Additional Letters from the Federal Farmer (1788) at 169.

"It is not certain that with this aid alone [possession of arms], they would not be able to shake off their yokes. But were the people to posses the additional advantages of local governments chosen by themselves, who could collect the national will, and direct the national force; and of officers appointed out of the militia, by these governments and attached both to them and to the militia, it may be affirmed with the greatest assurance, that the throne of every tyranny in Europe would be speedily overturned, in spite of the legions which surround it." -- James Madison, The Federalist, No. 46

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. the supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any bands of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States." -- Noah Webster, An Examination into the Leading Principles of the federal Constitution (1787) in Pamphlets to the Constitution of the United States (P. Ford, 1888).

The relevant section of the U.S. code - Title 10, Section 311 states:

"Militia: composition and classes
     (a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
     (b) The classes of the militia are -
            (1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and
            (2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia."

In other words, you - as an able-bodied male citizen of the United States between the ages of 17 and 45 - are a member of the unorganized militia. As a member of the unorganized militia you are responsible to purchase your own weapons and ammo.

Title 10, Section 311 of the U.S. code well regulates the American militia as required by the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution which says: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms has been recognized by the General Government; but the best security of that right after all is, the military spirit, that taste for martial exercises, which has always distinguished the free citizens of these States...Such men form the best barrier to the liberties of America." -- gazette of the United States, October 14, 1789.

"The whole of the Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals... It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of." -- Albert Gallatin of the NY Historical Society, October 7, 1789

CONCLUSION:

With guns, we are 'citizens'. Without them, we are 'subjects'.

During WWII the Japanese decided not to invade America because they knew most Americans were ARMED! If you value your freedom, Please spread this anti-gun control message to all of your friends.

Take note my fellow Americans, before it's too late! The next time someone talks in favor of gun control, please remind them of this history lesson.

Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property. Gun-control laws adversely affect only the law-abiding citizens.

For those Government officials who seek Gun Control, it is not about guns, but about control.

New Age Movement

2011-06-20T01:17:00.012-05:00

Inside the New Age Nightmare
By former New Age Guru Randall Baer

King James Bible:

Please forgive Randall Baer's use of the New International Version. He likely did not know any better. Here are passages he uses from the King James Bible:

2 Thessalonians 2:9-11: "Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie." (KJV)

John 10:27-28: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." (KJV)

Luke 15:24 : "For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry." (KJV)

Deuteronomy 18:9-12: "When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee." (KJV)

Randall N. Baer died under suspicious circumstances at the young age of 33:

After the veil was lifted so he could see the deception he received Christ and began speaking to others about the New Age Movement (NAM).

He had just spoken to a large gathering of people on 5 May 1989 and was returning home to Colorado from this New Mexico engagement when his car went off a windy mountain road.

The suspicious part is that there were no skid marks, and he did not have any injuries that one might expect from such an accident, but was lying next to his car. Also, his brief case had been tampered with. It makes one wonder what might have happened.

Baer's book, Inside the New Age Nightmare. exposing the NAM came out just 2 weeks after his death.

Considering the circumstances of his death, foul play is very likely. As a member of New Age hierarchy he would have been especially hated as a traitor. Its one thing for a lay person to follow New Age ideals, then later become a Christian, but its entirely another to be considered a teacher and leader in the New Age Movement, and then openly denounce and expose it.

Others Christians who have exposed various aspects of the NWO and NAM have also been framed and imprisoned, and even murdered or disappeared. Namely: John Todd former Illuminatist (imprisoned and then disappeared), William Cooper former Naval Intelligence (murdered), Fritz Springmeier expert on the Illuminati (imprisoned), and Kent Hovind NWO expert (imprisoned).