The God of Israel Rules - Charles Gardner ISRAEL TODAY

The God of Israel Rules

Friday, September 15, 2017 |  Charles Gardner  ISRAEL TODAY

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Bible

The threats of the North Korean dictator are frightening indeed, and could well ignite a nuclear war, but they are part of a bigger picture of worldwide rebellion against the God of creation. On a more specific front, they’re a smokescreen for a potential Armageddon in the Middle East as Russian-backed Iran and its allies move dangerously close to Israel’s borders.

Only last week (September 7) Israel carried out a daring air strike against an Iranian-run weapons factory in the heart of Syria, severely damaging (if not destroying) the facility where chemical and biological munitions as well as medium-range missiles are being developed. Syria has in turn warned about “dangerous repercussions”.

The strike took place exactly ten years after Israel – the only country in recent years that has stood up to North Korea until now – destroyed a Syrian nuclear reactor being built with the help of the rogue regime.

British politicians, while appalled by the antics of Kim Jong-un, are nevertheless shaking their fists at God in their own way as, with their atheist agenda, they question the existence of a divine order. Like the serpent in the Garden of Eden, they pose the subtle question: “Did God really create man and woman to procreate?” (See Genesis 3.1)

At the centre of the earth today stands a small Jewish state. And what the world interprets as an ideological battle over a piece of land the size of Wales is in effect an Arab-Muslim challenge to the God of Israel, revealed to us through his Son Jesus Christ.

Their claim that the land does not belong to the Jews despite thousands of years of historical, archeological and biblical evidence was decisively countered by the 1947 discovery on the shores of the Dead Sea of ancient scrolls proving Jewish connection to the territory well before the emergence of Islam – and recognised as such by the United Nations that same year.

The findings in caves at Qumran included the entire original text of the Book of Isaiah, over 2,500 years old. This was found intact among hundreds of parchment scrolls hidden in the desert cliffs exactly as it is recorded in modern times – no Chinese whispers here, but God’s authentic hand.

There is no doubt that the unearthing of these scrolls – along with much more archeological evidence – fully vindicated Israel’s claim to the land, quite apart from other political and biblical factors.

At the heart of all the sabre-rattling going on now is a battle – not really over whether there is a God, but over who he is. And the Judeo-Christian position that formed the basis of Western civilization is that He is the God of Israel. When Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, threatened Jerusalem with destruction in ancient times (2 Kings 18 & 19), Judah’s King Hezekiah prayed to the ‘God of Israel’ and the result was a resounding defeat for their enemies. The emphasis of his prayer was that his Lord would demonstrate that he alone was God. (2 Kings 19.14-19)

Similar threats are heard today from those opposed to Israel. The former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, has been denied the chance “to promote dialogue and a better understanding of the Palestinian narrative” in the UK Parliament thanks, it seems, to an 18,000-strong petition. But the barefaced nerve of a man who has called for the destruction of Britain to attempt to infiltrate its parliament with his poisonous lies takes some beating.

This man represents the same ideological ethos as Islamic State. We are investing so much in the prevention of terror, yet are pathetically slow to recognise such threats to our democracy. ‘We all worship the same God,’ I hear so many naïve people say – even in church pews. But Sheikh Sabri says that when he enters the Al-Aqsa Mosque (on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount) he is “filled with rage toward the Jews”.

Contrast this with Jesus’ command to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors. (Matthew 5.44) As the Sheikh makes clear, Islam is a death cult committed to the destruction of ‘infidels’. “The Muslim loves death and martyrdom,” he says.

Part of the ‘Palestinian narrative’ is that Israel is guilty of human rights violations and of being an apartheid state. But the absurdity of these accusations is underlined by the emergence of a transgender Arab Christian from Nazareth as a new secret weapon against BDS, the boycott Israel campaign. Talleen Abu Hana, winner of the first Miss Trans Israel pageant, was guest of honour at the Israeli Embassy in Washington during LGBT Pride month.

Abu declared: “I’m happy to be Israeli because being Israeli means being truly free.” And when an American journalist questioned Israel’s record on human rights, she replied: “Are you crazy? In what other country in the Middle East can I live my life openly.”

Most Christians, including myself, do not agree with her lifestyle choice, but far more distasteful is the rank hypocrisy behind much liberal thought which sets politically correct agendas that are inevitably contradictory.

In any case, Israel’s restoration – according to biblical prophecy – is not yet complete. A restoration to the land (i.e. a political rebirth) is what we are witnessing today; this will be followed by a restoration to their Lord and Messiah, which is in the process of happening but still in the early stages.

One line of theological thought sees the ‘fig tree’ (Matthew 24.32) as a symbol of political Israel while the olive tree is seen as representing a return to its original purpose as a nation under God.

The fig tree is certainly blossoming as Israel becomes a powerful nation once more, but many of its inhabitants are still in rebellion against the Almighty.

Christians are privileged to have been grafted onto the natural olive tree of Israel (Romans 11.11-24). But the day is coming when all Israel will finally turn to their Messiah (Romans 11.26).

All the hordes of hell are trying to stop that happening – hence the current battle – because it will usher in the Lord of glory who will crush the enemies of Israel and rule over the earth from Jerusalem for a thousand years of peace.

Pic: [The caves of] Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered by a shepherd boy in 1947

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Charles Gardner is author of Israel the Chosen, available from Amazon, and Peace in Jerusalem, available from olivepresspublisher.com

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China Gripped by Spiritual Revival as 'Hundreds of Millions Turn to Religion and Faith' - CBN News

China Gripped by Spiritual Revival as 'Hundreds of Millions Turn to Religion and Faith'

CBN News 04-25-2017

Forty-one years after China's Cultural Revolution snuffed out all forms of religious expression, hundreds of millions of Chinese people are flocking to religions like Christianity.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ian Johnson believes what's transpiring in China is nothing short of "one of the world's great spiritual revivals" and says the world better take note because the impact of this "spiritual transformation" could have significant global implications.  

"People {in China} are looking for new moral guideposts, some sort of moral compass to organize society," said Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion after Mao. "So they are turning to religion as a source of values to help reorganize society."

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Non-Stop Prayer Movement Grips Atheist China

Radical Revival Falls on China's State-Controlled Churches

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Johnson spent six years researching the "values and faiths of today's China." He says the fastest-growing drivers of this "religious revolution" are unregistered churches or so-called "house" or "underground" churches.

"These groups have become surprisingly well-organized, meeting very openly and often counting hundreds of congregants," Johnson wrote in an article for The Atlantic. "They've helped the number of Protestants soar from about one million when the communists took power to at least 60 million today."

Over the past 15 years, CBN News has also documented this unprecedented revival.

From the countryside to the big cities, we've highlighted how a new generation of believers is changing the face of Chinese Christianity.

"Any casual visitor to the country can tell you that the number of churches, mosques, and temples has soared in recent years, and that many of them are full," Johnson wrote. "While problems abound, the space for religious expression has grown rapidly, and Chinese believers eagerly grab it as they search for new ideas and values to underpin a society that long ago discarded traditional morality."

Church leaders that CBN News spoke with say prayer has played a key role in sparking the Christian revival.

For example, in one corner of northeast China, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, thousands of Christians have been meeting for an unprecedented prayer movement.

What started as a small gathering several years ago has turned into a nationwide prayer initiative uniting hundreds of Chinese churches.

In some cases, this revival is even touching China's state-controlled churches known as Three-Self Church.

"Now there's big revivals happening in the Three-Self Churches," Dr. Zhao Xiao told CBN News from his offices on the outskirts of China's capital city.

Zhao is one of China's foremost experts on Christianity. A former Communist Party member and atheist, Zhao converted after reading the Bible.

"If you go to Haidian Church, you'll find yourself in a more than 100-meter line trying to get inside and worship. In Shenzhen, there are usually an average of 500 people being baptized each Sunday!" he shared.

Decades ago, the Chinese government had a law that said that young men and women below the age of 18 could not attend Three-Self Churches. Zhao says those rules have been loosened in recent years.

"There's an increasing proportion of them in churches now -- more young male believers, professionals, mainstream celebrities, especially in the big cities, that are attending the church unlike the past when it was mainly the elderly who attended."

While the government remains deeply suspicious of China's religious revival, Johnson says it hasn't stopped people from exploring matters of faith.

"Hundreds of millions of Chinese are consumed with doubt about their society and turning to religion and faith for answers that they do not find in the radically secular world constructed around them," Johnson writes in his book.

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Is The United States About To Bomb North Korea? The White House Says ‘The Clock Has Now Run Out’ - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Is The United States About To Bomb North Korea? The White House Says ‘The Clock Has Now Run Out’ Posted: 04 Apr 2017  Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG I got chills when I saw a CNN report that said that a White House official has just warned that “the clock has now run out” on North Korea’s nuclear program and that “all options are on the table”.  That second phrase has been repeatedly used by members of the Trump administration in recent days, and everyone knows what it means.   When I wrote that a conflict with North Korea could be “Trump’s first war” last month, I was still hoping that cooler heads would prevail and that a military conflict could be avoided.  Unfortunately, it appears that a peaceful solution is not in the cards, and that means that the United States may soon start bombing North Korea.  And of course if that happens the North Koreans will strike back with whatever they can, and that includes nuclear weapons. I don’t know if I have the words to effectively communicate how serious this situation could become.  We have gotten to the point where the White House is openly talking of going to war with a nuclear power… A senior White House official issued a dire warning to reporters Tuesday on the state of North Korea’s nuclear program, declaring “the clock has now run out and all options are on the table.” “The clock has now run out, and all options are on the table,” the official said, pointing to the failure of successive administration’s efforts to negotiate an end to North Korea’s nuclear program. Later this week, President Trump is going to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Florida.  The eyes of the entire world will be on this summit, because everyone knows that Trump is going to press the Chinese leader for help on resolving the crisis with North Korea. But what can China actually do? The Chinese could cut off trade with North Korea, and that would definitely hurt, but North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appears to have become convinced that long range nuclear missiles are the key to the survival of his regime, and so he will never give up his nuclear program. And the Chinese will certainly not strike North Korea militarily, and so ultimately if something is going to be done to stop North Korea from getting long range nuclear missiles it will be up to the United States. On Tuesday morning, North Korea once again showed their defiance by firing yet another test missile into the Sea of Japan… The missile was fired from the Sinpo region at 10.40pm GMT (6.10am local time) on the communist nation’s east coast and landed into the sea off the Korean peninsula, South Korean military officials confirmed. The rocket is believed to have flown around 37 miles before crashing into the sea. Specific details about the type of projectile were not immediately available. Kim Jong Un conducted more missile tests in 2016 than his father did in nearly two decades. It has become crystal clear that North Korea is not going to back down. President Trump is still hoping that China will step up to the plate, but if the Chinese don’t he has already stated that the United States is fully prepared to “act alone”.  In fact, he made headlines all over the planet when he told the Financial Times the following: “Well if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you.” It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out what Trump is saying there. Previous administrations have tried sanctions and negotiations for decades, and they all failed. In the end, Trump is going to be faced with a choice whether to bomb North Korea or not, and four-star general Jack Keane says that bombing North Korea “may be the only option left”… A four-star general with close ties to Donald Trump has warned that military strikes are ‘rapidly’ becoming the only solution to North Korea’s nuclear program. Jack Keane, who declined the President’s offer to become Defense Secretary last year, said bombing Kim Jong-un’s nuclear facilities ‘may be the only option left.’ But bombing North Korea is not like bombing Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya or Syria. The North Koreans already have nuclear weapons, and the U.S. better destroy them all in an overwhelming initial assault, because Kim Jong Un will use any that survive to strike back. If you doubt this, just consider what a very high level North Korean defector just told Lester Holt of NBC News… A senior North Korean defector has told NBC News that the country’s “desperate” dictator is prepared to use nuclear weapons to strike the United States and its allies. Thae Yong Ho is the most high profile North Korean defector in two decades, meaning he is able to give a rare insight into the secretive, authoritarian regime. According to Thae, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is “desperate in maintaining his rule by relying on his [development of] nuclear weapons and ICBM.” He was using an acronym for intercontinental ballistic missiles — a long range rocket that in theory would be capable of hitting the U.S. North Korea is currently developing an intercontinental ballistic missile known as the “Taepodong 2” that will have a range of approximately 8000 kilometers. In other words, it would be capable of striking cities in the western portion of the United States. It is unthinkable that we would allow a tyrannical leader that is literally insane and that is obsessed with destroying the United States to have such a weapon. But the moment that we start dropping bombs on North Korea we will start a war in which millions could die.  Whatever nuclear weapons are missed in the first assault will likely be fired at U.S. military bases in Japan or at South Korea’s capital city of Seoul.   Approximately 10 million people live in Seoul, so the death toll would be absolutely enormous.  And even if all North Korean nuclear devices are destroyed by the first attack, the North Koreans still have thousands of artillery guns and rocket launchers trained on Seoul, and they would not hesitate to use their vast stockpile of chemical warheads. After the initial North Korean barrage, the fourth largest military on the entire planet would start pouring across the border in a massive invasion of South Korea.  The U.S. military would be forced to respond with large scale ground forces if South Korea would have any chance of surviving, and just like in the first Korean War the Chinese may decide to respond to that move by committing their own troops to the war on the side of North Korea. This is a season of “wars and rumors of wars”, and most Americans have no idea how dangerously close we are to the beginning of World War III.  My hope is that a peaceful way out of this crisis can still be found, but at this point that is becoming increasingly difficult to imagine. If Donald Trump decides to go to war with North Korea, he needs to hit them with an absolutely overwhelming first strike that takes out every single North Korean nuke, the bulk of North Korea’s artillery and rockets, and the entire North Korean leadership team within the first few minutes of the attack. It is hard to imagine a scenario that does not involve nukes that would accomplish that. And Donald Trump better get the public approval of South Korean and Japanese leadership before ever attempting such an attack, because they will likely pay the highest price if North Korea is able to strike back. If South Korea or Japan balk at backing such an operation and then they get hit by North Korean nukes, the United States could lose them as friends and allies forever. The stakes are incredibly high, and there are so many things that could go wrong. So let us pray for peace, because the alternative is almost too horrible to imagine.

The Jerusalem Journal - Your news from Israel - 9 January 2017 - Brian Schrauger

ISRAELI ANALYSIS: AS TRUMP PREPARES TO TAKE OFFICE, OBAMA PREPARES ACTIVE OPPOSITION, WITH ISRAEL AND THE MIDDLE EAST IN THE CROSSHAIRS ...by Brian Schrauger Why is there such heated difference between America's intelligence community and President-elect Trump - about Russia? According to an Israeli intelligence news service, the brouhaha is being orchestrated by President Obama who plans to actively oppose Trump after he takes office on 20 January. The implications for fighting terror in the Middle East, and their attending risks for igniting a world war, are profound. READ MORE... ✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡ THOUSANDS OF CHINESE COMING TO WORK IN ISRAEL: IS THERE A RISK OF ESPIONAGE? Before the end of June, Israel is expecting approximately six thousand Chinese nationals to arrive in the Jewish State. The purpose: build labor force for housing construction The unaddressed risk: spies from a country that has aligned itself with Russia and Iran. READ MORE... ✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡ ISRAEL ON ALERT: MORE UN RESOLUTIONS? Are more UN Security Council resolutions condemning Israel, and attempting to constrain its sovereignty, in the making? Could one or more pass before Trump takes office two weeks from today? Netanyahu thinks so and has put Israel's ambassadors on alert. READ MORE... ✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡✡ D O N A T E !        E N D O W ! Around the world, news agencies are finding it increasingly difficult to fund their operations. As a result, the quality of news, especially written news, is suffering. If you do not want to see this happen to news about Israel, from Israel, we need your help.  If you have a passion for the news, especially news about Israel and from Israeli perspectives, help us. Donate a monthly amount, endow us for the present and coming crucial years. CLICK HERE Our primary financial need is to pay those who write for us. Many do so at no charge. Even so, every laborer deserves to be paid. Inasmuch as we pay our reporters, we facilitate their lives in Israel, encourage them and insure more and better stories in the future. There is also a need to go on location where stories are happening stories. Because we are already in the Middle East, we do not have to go far. Still, there is a cost in sending reporters to places "on the ground" where stories are happening. Partner with us in this work through your monthly donation.

The Jerusalem Journal is a USA 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. As such donations may have tax benefits. Please, check with an accounting professional to see if a gift has a beneficial impact on your income taxes. Copyright © 2017 The Jerusalem Journal, All rights reserved. You have been identified by market research as a support and friend of the Jewish State of Israel Our mailing address is: The Jerusalem Journal Jerusalem Jerusalem 91010 Israel

The Economic Collapse Of South America Is Well Underway - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE

The Economic Collapse Of South America Is Well Underway Posted: 03 Mar 2016   Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE The 7th largest economy on the entire planet is completely imploding.  I have written previously about the economic depression that is plaguing Brazil, but since my last article it has gotten much, much worse.  During 2015, Brazil’s economy shrank by 3.8 percent, but for the most recent quarter the decline was 5.89 percent on a year over year basis.  Unemployment is rising rapidly, the inflation rate is up over 10 percent, and Brazilian currency has lost 24 percent of its value compared to the U.S. dollar over the past 12 months. At this point, Brazil is already experiencing its longest economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and things are getting worse for ordinary Brazilians every single day.  The following comes from CNN… But with Brazil plunging into its worst recession in over two decades — hopes for a brighter future are fading. The Brazilian economy shrank 3.8% in 2015, according to government data published Thursday. That’s the biggest annual drop since 1990 and the country is in its longest recession since the 1930s. “I have never seen anything like this,” said Alves, 24, as he stood on his balcony overlooking Rocinha, a massive lower middle class neighborhood or favela in Rio de Janeiro where he grew up. “My parents would tell me about hard times, but today it is really tough. Prices are going up every day.” So how did this happen? Well, there are a couple of factors that are really hurting South American economies. Number one, during the “boom years” governments and businesses in South America absolutely gorged on debt.  Unfortunately, many of those loans were denominated in U.S. dollars, and now that the U.S. dollar has appreciated greatly against local South American currencies it is taking far more of those local currencies to service and pay back those debts. Number two, collapsing prices for oil and other commodities have been absolutely brutal for South American economies.  They rely very heavily on exporting commodities to the rest of the world, and so at the same time their debt problems are exploding they are getting a lot less money for the oil and industrial commodities that they are trying to sell to North America, Asia and Europe. I want you to pay close attention to the following chart and analysis from Zero Hedge.  As you can see, the economic problems in Brazil appear to be greatly accelerating… “The Brazilian economic downturn took a real turn for the worse in February,” according to Markit’s Composite PMI, which collapsed to record lows at 39.0. Despite a slightly less bad than expected GDP print this morning (still down a record 5.89% YoY), hope was quickly extinguished as PMIs showed economic activity continuing to contract at a record pace, job losses accelerating, and manufacturing’s collapse accelerating. As Market sums up, “With the global economy also showing signs of slowing, which will impact on external demand, it looks as if the downturn is set to continueto run its course in the coming months.”              GDP was a disaster (but better than expected)   And of course Brazil is not the only South American economy that is a basket case right now.  In fact, things in Venezuela are far worse.  In 2015, the Venezuelan economy shrunk by 10 percent, and the official rate of inflation was a staggering 181 percent. Could you imagine living in an economy with a 181 percent inflation rate?  As prices have escalated out of control, citizens have attempted to hoard basic supplies in advance, and this has resulted in food shortages that are absolutely frightening… Cardboard signs on the door warning of “No bread” have become increasingly common at Venezuelan bakeries. Venezuela gets 96 percent of its foreign currency from oil exports, and as crude prices have plunged, so have the country’s imports — among them wheat. The leftist government of President Nicolas Maduro has tightly controlled access to hard currency, and this has affected imports ranging from medicine to toilet paper. Now it is seriously affecting imports of wheat, which Venezuela does not grow. Add to this the soaring inflation rate — 181 percent in 2015, the world’s highest — and you see why customers are mainly interested in buying basic food items such as bread. Here in the United States, there are still people who doubt that an economic crisis is happening. But in Venezuela and Brazil there is no debate. Unfortunately, what is happening in Venezuela and Brazil is also slowly starting to happen to most of the rest of the planet as well.  It is just that they are a little farther down the road.  Economic and financial bubbles are bursting all over the world, and I like how author Vikram Mansharamani described this phenomenon during a recent interview with CNBC… Deflationary tides are lapping the shores of countries across the world and financial bubbles are set to burst everywhere, Vikram Mansharamani, a lecturer at Yale University, told CNBC on Thursday. “I think it all started with the China investment bubble that has burst and that brought with it commodities and that pushed deflation around the world and those ripples are landing on the shore of countries literally everywhere,” the high-profile author and academic said at the Global Financial Markets Forum in Abu Dhabi. And of course the evidence of what Mansharamani was talking about is all around us. Just this week we found out that Chinese state industries plan to lay off five to six million workers, U.S. factory orders have now fallen for 15 months in a row, and the corporate default rate in the United States has now risen above where it was at when Lehman Brothers collapsed. There are some people that would like to point to the fact that stocks have bounced back a bit over the past couple of weeks as evidence that the crisis is over. If they want to believe that, they should go ahead and believe that. Unfortunately, the truth is that the hard economic numbers that are coming in from all over the world tell us very clearly that global economic activity is slowing down significantly. A new global recession has already begun, and the pain that is already being felt all over the planet is just the beginning of what is coming.