Standing in support of Israel, Jews, and believers in all the nations, in the name of Jesus (Yeshua). Sharing biblical truth, encouragement, news and prophecy.
(Denver, Colorado) -- Whither the U.S.-Saudi alliance?
A ferocious debate over this question is raging in Washington at this very moment, and the stakes are high.
On on side of the debate are many in the media, along with numerous former advisors to President Barack Obama. They have never liked how close Washington has been with Riyadh and they are freshly determined to smash the Saudis in the mouth because of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist.
Most of these voices had no problem with President Obama cutting a nuclear deal with Iran -- one of America's most dangerous enemies and certainly the worst terrorist state on the planet. Despite Iran's history of murdering thousands of their own people and others throughout the Middle East (now especially in Syria and Yemen), these voices saw no problem with providing the ayatollahs with $150 billion in cash, removing economic sanctions from Iran, or legitimizing Tehran's previously illegal enrichment of uranium. They never once during the process seriously tried to require Iran to stop funding terrorism, building longer range missiles, or sowing seeds of revolution and destruction throughout the Middle East. But the Saudis, oh the Saudis, these folks claim, these are the blood-thirsty despots who really need to be punished.
What's more, a growing number of Republicans on Capitol Hill are also ready to impose severe punishments on the entire Saudi government over the Khashoggi affair. Some are calling into question the nature of the alliance itself.
On the other side of the debate are those who fully agree that the Khashoggi murder was despicable and must be punished, but are calling for cooler heads to prevail when it comes to upending American policy in the Gulf region. They make the case that we need the Saudis to help us counter Iran and Russia in the Middle East, to help us fight the Radicals like al Qaeda, ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood, to keep oil flowing, and hopefully to advance Arab-Israeli peace.
They make the case that the 33 year-old Saudi Crown Prince is making bold, serious, and important reforms at home, and wants to work more closely with the U.S. and the West. Yes, he has made mistakes, even serious ones. But he should be helped, coached, encouraged, not cut loose.
What's more, these voices caution that punishing the entire Saudi government -- rather than targeting the operatives responsible for the crime -- would be a serious mistake, one that could rupture the alliance. Some worry that if Washington hits the Saudis too hard, this could drive Riyadh into the waiting (eager) arms of Vladimir Putin and the Russians.
Putin is headed to the G20 summit in Argentina and plans to meet with the Saudi delegation. He would absolutely love to flip Riyadh from the American camp into the Russian orbit. I don't believe Saudi King Salman or Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) are inclined at the moment to switch sides to the Kremlin. But I fully expect Putin to make a very tempting offer. And who knows where the king and his son might wind up if most of Washington loses focus on U.S. national security interests in the region, in addition to our enormously important human rights concerns.
At the moment, the anti-MBS/anti-Saudi faction is the loudest. Their articles, interviews and speeches are everywhere.
It's tougher for the average reader or viewer to find articles and statements by those who want to punish those responsible for the murder of Khashoggi but who also want to maintain or even strengthen the U.S.-Saudi alliance.
Here are a few worth reading, including the statement by President Trump just before Thanksgiving.
I found particularly insightful the columns by Elliott Abrams and William McGurn. Both urge President Trump to send a retired senior American statesman who is liked and trusted by the Saudis -- perhaps former Secretary of State James Baker, or former V.P. Dick Cheney -- to meet with MBS in Riyadh. They recommend such a statesman quietly recommend big, specific, immediate reforms MBS should make that would signal to the world just how serious he is about taking the kingdom in a different, better, more positive direction.
Interestingly, both cite the example of former President Nixon discreetly and very effectively communicating with the Chinese leadership in Beijing after the Tiananmen Square, warning them -- as a long-time trusted friend -- that the massacre was a huge deal and they simply could not proceed with their "business as usual" approach. First, Nixon personally traveled to Beijing to have off-the-record talks with the most senior leaders. Second, Nixon sent a follow up letter that was respectful, frank and specific -- a letter that was kept secret for decades. Abrams and McGurn argue Nixon's approach worked, helping both President George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton reengage with China on more positive terms for both countries, while not ignoring the atrocities that had been committed.
Nashville, Tennessee -- On the eve of the release of The Kremlin Conspiracy, I was invited to deliver a keynote address to the National Religious Broadcasters convention.
Here is a link to the full text of my speech. We will post the video when it's available.
The following are selected excerpts from the speech:
Preaching the gospel in the open air is now illegal in Russia. So is sharing the gospel with friends and coworkers—even in your own home. So is inviting friends to come to church to hear the Word of God. Christianity Today described the new Russian law signed in July 2016 as the “most restrictive measures [against religious freedom] in post-Soviet history”....
143 million people spread across eleven time zones are slaves of an evil they either cannot see or cannot stop. We must stand with our brothers and sisters who love Christ but hear the prison doors closing and locking around them. We dare not put our lamp under a bushel. The Billy Graham era may be over, but we must never stop communicating the Good News, especially to nations enslaved by cruel and wicked tyrants....
Darkness is falling in Russia. A new czar has risen, and his name is Vladimir Putin. Putin calls himself a Christian, but he has declared war on the gospel.
Opponents wind up in jail. Journalists disappear or die. The economy is suffocating. Poverty is rampant. Deaths by alcoholism and drug overdoses are exploding. Since Putin came to power in 2000, the population has shrunk by more than three million people. They’re not emigrating. They’re dying. One in four Russian men die before age fifty-five. And Russians aren’t having enough children to replace themselves. Why would they? They have no hope.
Yet on March 18—barring something unforeseen—Russians will go to the polls and re-elect Vladimir Putin once again, giving him power to rule until 2024. Why? If life is so dismal in post-Soviet Russia, why is Putin so popular? Why should it matter to our leaders in Washington that by the end of his next term, Putin will have ruled for nearly a quarter of century? And why should any of this matter to you and the American Evangelical movement? Allow me to take those questions one at a time....
Why should any of this matter to leaders in Washington and the West?
Because Vladimir Putin poses a grave and growing threat to the national security of the United States and our allies of any power in the world—greater than Radical Islam, greater than Iran or North Korea or China....
Putin made global headlines around the world by announcing that Russia has developed new first-strike nuclear missiles and state-of-the-art hypersonic underwater torpedoes that make NATO defenses “completely useless.” In an angry, menacing State of the Union address, the Russian president vowed that “Russia cannot be contained.” He explained when and how Russia will use nuclear weapons against her enemies. He complained no one has been listening to his threats and promises of nuclear superiority over the West. “Listen now,” he warned. “I’m not bluffing.”
Putin is hungry for wealth, hungrier for power, hungrier still for territory. He must be stopped, yet no one is stopping him....
Putin is that he sees himself as a modern-day czar. He’s not a Communist. He’s not a Marxist or Leninist. He is, rather, an imperialist. He feels humiliated by the collapse of the Soviet Empire. He sees his mission as rebuilding the glory of Mother Russia, and to that end, he is hell-bent on expanding Russia’s borders.
“My historical mission,” he once said, is to stop “the collapse of the USSR. . . . If I can help save Russia from collapse, then I’ll have something to be proud of. “The monarch [that is, the czar] doesn’t have to worry about whether or not he will be elected, or about petty political interests, or about how to influence the electorate. He can think about the destiny of the people and not become distracted with trivialities.” Thus, one part mafia kingpin, one part imperialist czar, Putin is . . .
rebuilding the Russian offensive war machine, o rebuilding Russia’s strategic and tactical nuclear forces
selling advanced weapons and even nuclear technology to Iran
Rick Joyner Jim Bakker Show 2017 | Show# 3314 | Aired on September 7, 2017
A Morningside Studios Production
Advanced Search »
Pastor Jim and Lori Bakker welcome Prophet Rick Joyner as they discuss the most recent prophetic signs in America.
Quotes
You’ve got to get healed of your wounds or you can’t be the priest we’re called to be. -Rick Joyner
Any place we’ve been wounded, once we get healed we can have authority for healing others of those same wounds. -Rick Joyner
Scriptures
Proverbs 17:17 KJV A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.
Leviticus 21:20 KJV Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken.
Isaiah 53:5 KJV 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.
Exodus 15:23-25 KJV And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?And he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them.
Matthew 6:15 MEV But if you do not forgive men for their sins, neither will your Father forgive your sins.
1 Timothy 2:2 MEV For kings and for all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty.
Proverbs 12:15 MEV The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,but he who listens to counsel is wise.
Genesis 18:23-24 MEV Then Abraham drew near and said, “Shall You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?What if there are fifty righteous in the city? Shall You also destroy, and not spare the place, for the fifty righteous who are in it?
Ephesians 6:12 MEV For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Matthew 5:15-16 KJV Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
2 Timothy 3:1 KJV This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
Isaiah 1:18 KJV 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.
Proverbs 22:3 MEV A prudent man foresees the evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished.
With disasters and tragedies now filling daily headlines and becoming more common, the desensitizing of our hearts becomes the placebo that convinces us that these things will soon stop and could never happen to most of us. (REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein)
Have You Spotted These 11 Dangerous Signs in America?
(Many of these world events I share came from a report given by Alex Jones of Infowars.com)
The average American citizen is virtually unaware of the danger that now lurks. They are busy enjoying life, being entertained, working their jobs to make ends meet and so on. Even when disaster or tragedy strikes most people quickly return to their status quo life and soon all is forgotten. And with disasters and tragedies now filling daily headlines and becoming more common, the desensitizing of our hearts becomes the placebo that convinces us that these things will soon stop and could never happen to most of us.
The reality is that underneath every tragedy, bizarre event, and senseless act is a global agenda to lead us into World War III and bring about one world order. If this sounds like a far-fetched conspiracy theory, consider the following:
Historians, political scientists, and analysts from the U.S., England, Canada, Russia, Germany and Australia are telling us that the same chain of crisis and pattern of events that led to World Wars I and II are happening now.
There is a deliberate global movement to implode economies, to set world depressions in motion, and policies to collapse third world nations.
The most stone-age barbaric groups are being granted political power.
Borders are being open to bankrupt our economies and flatten our social welfare programs.
The globalist agenda is first to cause collapse of our political and socio-economic systems and then to take control and bring in total tyranny, even waging war on nation states who are working to stabilize their economies.
Led by billionaires like George Soros and others, they actually fund crisis such as the Arab Spring, the flow of Jihadists into Europe, assisting the migration of illegal immigrants and those with diseases such as refugees into our societies.
Right now there are major U.S. and Chinese fleets lining up against each other in Chinese waters with the communist Chinese President preparing his troops for World War III.
There are reports that Turkey President Tayyip Erdogan is being backed by jihadists and not his own army. If true, this has immense ramifications as Turkey is considered the gateway into Europe.
Vladimir Putin of Russia is also preparing for nuclear war and warning journalists and begging for a global debate as the media remains silent.
From Venezuela to Nigeria, world governments are going bankrupt while the Pentagon reports that this is the most dangerous time in our history.
All this is happening while our own enemy of the state, Obama, reports that the world is as safe as its ever been and the economy is the best its ever been.
These are just a few examples of hundreds of scenarios that are occurring worldwide to create the perfect storm. This is modern 21st century warfare spearheaded by top globalists against all nation states, individuals and any type of logic, intelligence and independence. Currencies are being manipulated, stock-markets are being rigged and computers are making major decisions.
Heck, even in our solar system, great changes are being reported. Record level earthquakes, volcanoes, and natural disasters are being recorded. These are also harbingers of war as paralleled with World War I and II. It is all so surreal as we sense it and see it, and yet only a small minority of the general populace is aware, involved, engaged or awakened to these things. People are asleep on their watch as our own species wage war against the majority of the human race.
The mainstream media has been controlled by the globalists for a long time, and they are intent on sowing chaos, stopping innovation, preventing nations from joining efforts, funding ISIS and aiding Obama in overthrowing our allies such as Israel—all this for a one world order and government. But now they are expanding and making the weaponization even more deceptive and vicious. All the major networks are state run, and the globalists are engaged in worldwide economic siege. This explains the stupid, often bizarre, and satanic nature of the decisions being made and/or the inaction of many of our politicians.
Behind it all is an evil agenda for a post-industrial world, a United Nations plan to be fully implemented by the year 2030. There is an international group fighting against all the nation states. We have criminals in our government working against our own nation and everyone else. Have you seen how many Muslims Obama has placed in his administration? Doesn't it give you a warm cozy feeling to know that some of them are working in the department of Homeland Security?
Even what once were reputable organizations such as the NFL cannot be trusted as they've become a political weapon opposing the second amendment and the freedoms of our nation. MSNBC is now telling us that our children belong to the state and to our communities and not the parents. It's crazy and inexplicable until you realize there is an agenda, and it's playing like a sci-fi movie and doing everything to destroy civilization as we've known it. It is the Antichrist agenda that has been unleashed on the world.
It is one minute before midnight on God's calendar and we are in the most dangerous times we've ever been in, but people are asleep. As for me, I am fully awake and actually encouraged. Why, you ask? Because Jesus foretold all these things.
"There will be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men fainting from fear and expectation of what is coming on the inhabited earth. For the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption is drawing near" (Luke 21:25-28).
To the true believer these events are actually a source of great hope and encouragement because it means that the coming of the Lord is drawing ever so near, and that we, the church, should be about our Father's business of winning souls and making disciples. When these things start happening, Jesus also told us to look up and to lift up our heads because it means our redemption is drawing near.
Don't be afraid, but get your eyes on Jesus, from whom comes perfect peace. The church is the restrainer of evil and total lawlessness. When the church is removed, the lawless one, or the Antichrist, will be revealed, whom the Lord shall destroy (2 Thes. 2:5-8). Ha ha! Game over! We win! Jesus rules and reigns, and we shall reign with Him forever.
In the meantime, let us take advantage of the greatest opportunity of our lifetime. The world will panic and men's hearts will be full of fear, but we will have the answer and the wisdom of the ages that they all need. Truly, I believe the greatest harvest is still ahead of us when more men will be saved perhaps in one day than in one century, as these hellish world events continue to unfold. Let us pray and exercise our God-given authority on this earth because we can still change some things, delay some things and even stop some things. Some things have been prophesied and foretold by Jesus and cannot be changed, but it's comforting to know that He is in complete control of the destiny of His own people.
Look up saints! Lift up your heads! Our redemption is near.
Bert M. Farias, revivalist and founder of Holy Fire Ministries, has authored several books with an emphasis on helping to restore the true spirit of Christianity in the Church today, including the newly released, Passing on The Move of God to The Next Generation. An anointing of fire marks his ministry with frequent demonstrations of the Spirit and power of God. He ministers interdenominationally and cross-culturally in nations, churches, conferences, on the streets and in homes. He and his wife Carolyn also host The Holy Ghost Forum – a school of the Spirit. Follow him at Bert Farias and Holy Fire Ministries on Facebook and @Bertfarias1on Twitter.
Draw closer to God. Experience the presence of the Holy Spirit every month as you read Charisma magazine. Sign up now to get Charisma for as low as $1 per issue.
Has God called you to be a leader? Ministry Today magazine is the source that Christian leaders who want to serve with passion and purpose turn to. Subscribe now and receive a free leadership book.
Did you enjoy this blog? Click here to receive it by email.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has just crossed a very dangerous line. He has just signed a law making it illegal for Russian followers of Jesus Christ to share or preach the Gospel anywhere outside the walls of their church, or even email their family and friends to invite them to church. What's more, he has done so under the guise of preventing "terrorism."
As I have been warning for a decade (see here, here, hereand in my 2006 book,Epicenter), Putin -- who is fashioning himself as a rising Czar -- is an increasingly dangerous despot. He continues to centralize government power and control to himself. He is trampling over human rights, the media, and NGOs. He is rebuilding the Russian military. He has invaded neighboring Georgia and Ukraine. He is arming and building alliances with Radical Islamic countries, particularly Iran.
Now, Putin is positioning himself as an enemy of Christ and His Church. If he doesn't not reverse course, he risks bringing disaster upon himself and the people of Russia.
As Christianity Today reports, last week "Russian President Vladimir Putin approved a package of anti-terrorism laws that usher in tighter restrictions on missionary activity and evangelism. Despite prayers and protests from religious leaders and human rights advocates, the Kremlin announced Putin’s approval yesterday. The amendments, including laws against sharing faith in homes, online, or anywhere but recognized church buildings, go into effect July 20."
......Though opponents to the new measures hope to eventually appeal in court or elect legislators to amend them, they have begun to prepare their communities for life under the new rules, reported Forum 18 News Service, a Christian outlet reporting on the region.
Protestants and religious minorities small enough to gather in homes fear they will be most affected. Last month, “the local police officer came to a home where a group of Pentecostals meet each Sunday," Konstantin Bendas, deputy bishop of the Pentecostal Union, told Forum 18. "With a contented expression he told them: ‘Now they're adopting the law I'll drive you all out of here.’ I reckon we should now fear such zealous enforcement.”
“There are potentially very wide-sweeping ramifications to this law,” Joel Griffith of the Slavic Gospel Association said in a Mission Network News report. “It just depends on, again, how it is going to be enforced, and that is a very huge question mark.”
------
Earlier CT reporting (June 29): Christians in Russia won’t be allowed to email their friends an invitation to church or to evangelize in their own homes if Russia’s newest set of surveillance and anti-terrorism laws are enacted.
The proposed laws, considered the country’s most restrictive measures in post-Soviet history, place broad limitations on missionary work, including preaching, teaching, and engaging in any activity designed to recruit people into a religious group.
To share their faith, citizens must secure a government permit through a registered religious organization, and they cannot evangelize anywhere besides churches and other religious sites. The restrictions even apply to activity in private residences and online.
This week, Russia’s Protestant minority—estimated around 1 percent of the population—prayed, fasted, and sent petitions to President Vladimir Putin, who will have to approve the measures before they become official.
“Most evangelicals—leaders from all seven denominations—have expressed concerns,” Sergey Rakhuba, president of Mission Eurasia and a former Moscow church-planter, told CT. “They’re calling on the global Christian community to pray that Putin can intervene and God can miraculously work in this process.”
Following a wave of Russian nationalist propaganda, the laws passed almost unanimously in the Duma, the upper house, on Friday and in the Federation Council, the lower house, today.
“If this legislation is approved, the religious situation in the country will grow considerably more complicated and many believers will find themselves in exile and subjected to reprisals because of our faith,” wrote Oleg Goncharov, spokesman for the Seventh-day Adventists’ Euro-Asia division, in an openletter.
Proposed by United Russia party lawmaker Irina Yarovaya, the law appears to target religious groups outside the Russian Orthodox church. Because it defines missionary activities as religious practices to spread a faith beyond its members, “if that is interpreted as the Moscow Patriarchate is likely to, it will mean the Orthodox Church can go after ethnic Russians but that no other church will be allowed to,” according to Frank Goble, an expert on religious and ethnic issues in the region.
Russian nationalist identity remains tied up with the Russian Orthodox church.
“The Russian Orthodox church is part of a bulwark of Russian nationalism stirred up by Vladimir Putin,” David Aikman, history professor and foreign affairs expert, told CT. “Everything that undermines that action is a real threat, whether that’s evangelical Protestant missionaries or anything else.”
Sergei Ryakhovsky, head of the Protestant Churches of Russia, and several other evangelical leaders called the law a violation of religious freedom and personal conscience in a letter to Putin posted on the Russian site Portal-Credo. The letter reads, in part:
The obligation on every believer to have a special permit to spread his or her beliefs, as well as hand out religious literature and material outside of places of worship and used structures is not only absurd and offensive, but also creates the basis for mass persecution of believers for violating these provisions.
Soviet history shows us how many people of different faiths have been persecuted for spreading the Word of God. This law brings us back to a shameful past."
Stalin-era religious restrictions—including outlawing religious activity outside of Sundayservices in registered churches and banning parents from teaching faith to their kids—remained on the books until the collapse of the Soviet Union, though the government enforced them only selectively.
Some have questioned whether the government could or would monitor religious activity in private Christian homes.
“I don’t think you can overestimate the Russian government’s willingess to exert control,” Aikman told CT. If history is any indication, the proposed regulations reveal a pattern of “creeping totalitarianism” in the country, he said....
If passed, the anti-evangelism law carries fines up to US $780 for an individual and $15,500 for an organization. Foreign visitors who violate the law face deportation.
Russia has already moved to contain foreign missionaries. The “foreign agent” law, adopted in 2012, requires groups from abroad to file detailed paperwork and be subject to government audits and raids. Since then, the NGO sector has shrunk by a third, according to government statistics....
(Many of these world events I share came from a report given by Alex Jones of Infowars.com)
