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.
JERUSALEM, Israel -- Just outside Jerusalem, a team of Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists uncovered the remains of a 1,500-year-old Byzantine-era church.
Contractors discovered the church while widening the main highway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
IAA archaeologists said the church was part of a larger complex, which also served as a road station for pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem.
"The location of the church is not accidental," the IAA's Annette Nagar said.
"On the one hand it's built beneath a water spring, which in Arabic is called 'anaka.' And on the other side, it's built on one of the ancient roads leading from Jerusalem, between Jerusalem and the coast," Nagar explained. "This was a road station, which besides giving services of food and drink, it also gave religious services."
The church and road station were part of a series of churches that served travelers on their way to Jerusalem.
Other churches discovered along this route include a church in Emmaus, the traditional site where according to the Gospel of Luke (24:13-28), Jesus appeared to two of his disciples.
Scholars believe Emmaus was located where Motza stands today, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Jerusalem, just off the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway.
The Islamic State is converting one of the largest churches in Mosul into a mosque almost a year after the city fell to ISIS.
Christian Today reports that notices of the conversion have been posted on streets throughout Mosul, a city that was once the heart of Iraq's Christian population.
Most Christians fled the city since the jihadists forced them to either convert, flee, or be killed.
According to the Vatican's news service, the church being overtaken is the Syrian Orthodox Church of St Ephraim. ISIS fighters have already removed Christian symbols from the building, including the cross on the church's dome.
Iraqi media says the church has already been draped with the nortorious black and white flags of the Islamic State.
Nuri Kino, president and founder of A Demand For Action, told Newsweek the church conversion is proof of the Islamic State's intentions with Iraqi Christians.
"A year ago they said 'convert, pay or die.' Then it turned out to be a lie, that even if you pay you will not be able to stay," Kino said
"If they changed a church to a mosque it is further proof of their cleansing, something that many call a genocide," he added. "They destroy our artifacts, our churches. and try to erase us in any way they can."
A Byzantine church dating to the 5th century AD was discovered this month along Highway 1 connecting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The site is situated near the Arab village of Abu Ghosh and the Messianic moshav of Yad Hashmonah.
According to archaeologists, the church was part of a rest stop on the route between Jerusalem and the coastal region. During the excavations, a chapel featuring a white mosaic and a small baptismal in the shape of a cross (pictured) was found. Red plaster chips scattered around the floor indicated frescoed walls.
Nearby living quarters and storage facilities contained ceramic tiles, beautifully-preserved oil lamps and other objects belonging to the church.
Annette Nagar, an archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority, noted that this was the third church that had been discovered along this ancient route, the other two being located in Kiryat Ye’arim and Emmaus.
The church was discovered quite by accident during a major construction project to expand the highly-trafficked Highway 1. It again goes to show that no matter where you dig in Israel, you are certain to come face-to-face with history.
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A heated debate at the recent Jerusalem Post Annual Conference in New York highlighted that back in 2010, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apparently ordered Israel’s defense establishment to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, or to prepare to do so.
During the discussion, Post columnist Caroline Glick accused fellow panelists former Mossad chief Meir Dagan and former IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi of refusing Netanyahu’s orders during their respective tenures.
“In 2010, according to a report from 2012 on the Israeli news program Uvda, we learned that two of the gentlemen on this panel were given an order to prepare the military for an imminent strike against Iran’s military installations and they refused,” charged Glick.
The popular columnist was adamant that had Dagan and Ashkenazi gone along with Netanyahu’s policies, the region and the world would not today be facing the specter of a nuclear Iran.
Dagan responded that he had rebuffed Netanyahu “because it was an illegal order.” Earlier in the debate, he had suggested that a firm order was never given: “We were always willing to obey any legal order by the prime minister. We never refused an order.”
In a subsequent interview with Israel’s Channel 10, Dagan explained that Netanyahu had indeed told himself and Ashkenazi to prepare the IDF to strike, but had backed down after realizing that doing so would put Israel on a slippery slope toward regional war.
Also speaking at the Jerusalem Post event was former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who lamented that with the Obama Administration now racing toward an ill-advised agreement with Tehran, a nuclear-armed Iran seems inevitable.
“We went through these negotiations with Iran in the earlier part of this decade, and they cheated for three years and were caught three times cheating,” Giuliani noted. “There is no reason for Iran to have peaceful use of nuclear power, they have plenty of energy. You have to be naive to think they want nuclear power for peaceful uses.”
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Joseph Kim was born to an ordinary family in North Korea. Until the age of 5 he lived a relatively normal life in the closed-off country tightly controlled by its totalitarian regime. But in the mid-1990s a terrible famine swept the country and lasted more than a decade. Millions died in the disaster, including Joseph's father. After his mother was arrested and his sister sold into marriage, Joseph found himself alone on the streets begging for food.
After three years living on the streets, he made the desperate decision to flee to China.
"I had been informed by others that China had…if not surplus, at least people don't die of starvation. That information really compelled me and I knew that as long as I make it to China, at least I'm not going to die of starvation," he said.
However, he found survival in China nearly as difficult as in North Korea. Most people either didn't have the money or the desire to help Korean refugees living in their country.
Eventually, Joseph found help from a church that gave him money to buy food. Later he found safe haven with a Chinese-Korean Christian woman who took him into her home. While living with the woman he called 'Grandma,' he read the Bible and learned about Christianity and began what he calls his "spiritual journey."
"Growing up in North Korea, I never really heard of religion, God, Jesus," he said. "So it was really difficult for me to understand what religion was and what Christians are."
But because Christians were the ones who took the risk to help him and other refugees, it sparked his curiosity and desire to learn more about religion, he said. Several months after coming to China, an underground Christian group helped him escape to the United States, where his is studying for his college degree and continues his spiritual journey.
But could that also mean they're exposed to a form of evangelism like no other? These martyrs are not dying silently, and the Lord is apparently working through them.
"One of our YWAM workers in the Middle East was contacted by a friend earlier this year and they met up and he was introduced to an ISIS fighter who had killed many Christians already. I mean that's a horrible situation, and admittedly, he was probably on guard," Gina Fadely, director of Youth With A Mission Frontier Missions.
"He told this YWAM leader that he had begun having dreams of this man in white who came to him and said, 'You are killing My people.' And he started to feel really sick and uneasy about what he was doing," Fadely continued. "The fighter said just before he killed one Christian, the man said, 'I know you will kill me, but I give to you my Bible.' The Christian was killed and this ISIS fighter actually took the Bible and began to read it. In another dream, Jesus asked him to follow Him and he was now asking to become a follower of Christ and to be discipled."
Google CEO Eric Schmidt is in Israel this week, and had nothing but glowing praise for the Jewish state’s culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.
“Israel is booming in terms of entrepreneurship because you have a culture to challenge authority and to question everything,” Schmidt told students at the Weizmann Institute on Sunday.
The Google chief said Israelis were so successful because “you’re not going by the rules.”
And that success has benefitted not only Israel, but the world. “The impact of the Israelis on science and technology is immense, so that’s why I’m here and why I’m investing here,” said the head of one of the world’s largest technology firms.
On Tuesday, Schmidt met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. While he hardly needed to do so, Netanyahu reminded Schmidt of Israel’s leadership in the cyber industry, and reiterated his commitment to bolstering the growth of what has been called “the Start-Up Nation.”
Schmidt, for his part, reaffirmed Google’s commitment to investing in Israel.
PHOTO: Netanyahu and Schmidt meet at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem.
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WATCH: Rabbi Jonathan Cahn Gives the Keys to Preparing for an Enemy Attack
The armor of God protects our bodies from the snares of the enemy, but what's our battle strategy?
Any soldier can be overtaken if he isn't prepared, which is exactly why we must renew our mind and out maneuver Satan and his demons in spiritual warfare.
But Rabbi Jonathan Cahn knows how we can defeat the enemy.
An Israeli family protects itself in a bomb shelter during the Six Day War in 1967. (Wikimedia Commons )
"Remember the wonders He has done, His miracles and the judgments He pronounced, O descendants of Abraham, O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones. He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth" (Psalm 105:5-7).
Jewish tradition based on the Scriptures encourages us to remember Yehowah's deeds in history. This is because He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. In "remembering" what He has done in the past, we revisit and rejoin ourselves, in a real sense, to God's interaction with our people through the ages. Presently remembering the past helps equip and embolden us to walk in His ways in future. We know Him better and love Him more.
The past few days, Jewish communities have been remembering Israel's historic Six Day War of June 5-10, 1967. The war ended, against all odds, with Israel's stunning victory in six days over the combined armies of her surrounding enemy states. Israeli losses were heavy. And, over time, most of the territory gained has been returned in exchange for promises or hopes for peace.
But back in 1967, most Jews—as well as Western Christians—viewed the war's turnout as nothing less than miraculous.
As you may know, Jewish holidays are based on the Hebrew, rather than international Gregorian calendar. But the Six Day War is not remembered as a Jewish holiday. Instead, Jerusalem Day (Yom Yerushalayim) officially commemorates the climax of the war, the Holy City's prophetic return to Jewish leadership. The holiday is based on the Hebrew calendar and often occurs in May.
But in 2015, the international community is feverishly pushing to create a Palestinian state from biblical land, including Jerusalem, that fell to Israel in the Six Day War. For that reason, certain aspects about the war are worth remembering at this time.
As you do, be encouraged! If you're a Gentile, God's covenant faithfulness to you personally as a follower of Messiah reflects His covenant faithfulness to the Jews. And if you want what's best for the Palestinians, align with biblical justice in support of them.
To start, in 1967, Israeli troops were outnumbered by their enemies approximately 2:1. In addition, she was highly under-equipped against the combined forces of Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Jordan. The world expected Israel to lose the war—which would, in effect, mean the annihilation of the Jewish state. But God intervened.
Here's a short list of six documented military events regarded by many as miraculous (there were plenty more):
1. In a defensive pre-emptive strike on June 5, the Israeli air force flew over and destroyed one Egyptian military air fleet after another for three straight hours. Apparently, no Egyptian air base tried to inform the others of the attacks. Meanwhile, an advance warning by Jordan of the air assault failed because Egypt had changed their warning codes the day before. This victory proved key to the outcome of the war.
2. The battle of Shechem in the West Bank (illegally annexed by Jordan since 1948) was expected to be one of the hardest and bloodiest. But when Israeli forces approached the town from an unexpected direction—east instead of west--heavily armed Arabs in Shechem mistook them as Iraqi reinforcements arriving from the east. As a result, the Israelis were warmly welcomed and the city easily fell into their hands. This helped Israel regain much of the rest of the West Bank from Jordan with minimal resistance.
3. Israel was particularly outnumbered and under-equipped in the Golan Heights against Syrian troops. But in a watershed battle, as the IDF advanced, many of the Syrians quickly pulled out of position and fled in chaos. Most of their weaponry was dropped and left behind. Afterwards, some said they'd seen frightening visions, there on the battlefield, of Abraham. The patriarch was reportedly warning them not to harm the Jews.
4. Within a couple of days of Israel's airstrike on its military planes, Egypt began blowing up or abandoning its other military bases, seemingly inexplicably. As a result, Israel easily took both the Sinai and Gaza, the latter of which Egypt had illegally annexed in 1948.
5. An IDF truck stockpiled with explosive ammunition, desperately needed to rearm Jewish troops, was directly hit by a live grenade. This should have caused the truck to instantly explode and destroy surrounding facilities and troops. But the grenade landed quietly on top of the truck, where it sat until dismantled and removed. This sort of incident reportedly occurred throughout the war.
6. International pressure forced Israel to accept a ceasefire proposed by King Hussein of Jordan. But at the last moment, Hussein nixed essential terms of the ceasefire he himself had initiated. This gave Israel the extra time needed to annihilate their enemies' military infrastructure—and restore Jewish leadership over the Old City of Jerusalem.
Radio communications on 6/7/67 between Israeli troops approaching the Old City and their commanders at the "David Operations Room" have been made public. Hear how excerpts from these communiqué reflect the heartbeat of a God faithful to His ancient covenant people:
"... Shortly we're going to go into the Old City of Jerusalem that all generations have dreamed about. ... Ahead we go, through the Lion's Gate! ... I'm with the first unit to break through into the Old City. ... The Temple Mount is in our hands! I repeat, the Temple Mount is in our hands! ... All forces, stop firing. This is the David Operations Room. All forces, stop firing! ... I'm walking right now down the steps towards the Western Wall. I'm not a religious man, I never have been, but this is the Western Wall and I'm touching the stones of the Western Wall. ... [The soldiers spontaneously pray together:] 'Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech haolam, she-hechianu ve-kiemanu ve-hegianu la-zman ha-zeh'" (Blessed are You, Lord God, King of the Universe, Who has sustained us, kept us and brought us to this day).
The military chaplain blows the shofar. The seventh day after the war began, Israel rested. Let us remember that when the hour appears darkest, the future desperately daunting, and odds seemed stacked against us, Yehowah's glory is at hand.
Sandra Teplinskyhas been in the Messianic Jewish ministry since 1979. She is president ofLight of Zion, an outreach to Israel and the church based in Southern California and Jerusalem. She is an ordained minister and prophetic conference speaker, and has written several books and articles about Israel and the church.
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In a major blow to the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) movement, UK Business Secretary Sajid Javid this week vowed that his government would be bolstering, not boycotting business ties between Britain and Israel.
“…Let me be very clear: I do not believe in boycotts, nor, I am proud to say, does my party, my prime minister or, for the most part, my country,” Javid said at the annual awards dinner for UK Israel Business, a bilateral chamber of commerce.
He went on to state that “my department… will be working hard to boost Anglo-Israeli trade and investment, and I as business secretary will do anything I can to support and promote it.”
Javid’s remarks came just days after Britain’s National Union of Students voted to boycott the Jewish state. The secretary noted that it “speaks volumes” that the student organization had chosen to target Israel, while rejecting a similar motion against ISIS.
Surprising to many, Javid, despite coming from a Muslim background, has long been an outspoken supporter of Israel. In 2013, he described the Jewish state as “the only country in the region that shares the same democratic values as Britain,” and said that were he to move to the Middle East with his family, Israel would be the only country he would consider calling home.
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How the Current Wave of Anti-Christian Sentiment Could Backfire
Voting booths (Facebook)
With everyone from pop culture icons to the mainstream media to Internet memes to the president himself seemingly bashing Christianity, is there no hope for a resurgence in the cultural battle?
According to one analyst, the widespread anti-Christian campaign may be ultimately be its own undoing. In a recent TIME magazine article, Dave Carney offers a compelling argument that the religious bullying and persecution could be the factor that unites and mobilizes Christians to once again become a force to be reckoned with in the public arena.
Despite findings that the percentage of those who identify as Christians has dropped sharply over the past decade or so, Carney points out that evangelicals have only seen a 0.9 percent decline. Further, while Christian denominations in the cited study lost 7.8 percent of the religious "market share" between 2007 and 2014, the fact remains that roughly 7 in 10 Americans still identify as Christian.
Though arguments could be made against the strength of conviction or faithfulness to Christianity for some of those self-reported respondents, the fact remains that—despite years of cultural leaders hammering against Christian beliefs, traditional values and religious freedom—the vast majority of Americans still chooses to identify as such.
Politically speaking, there is tremendous untapped potential for Christians to exert influence and power over the nation's direction. Unfortunately, much of the reason that potential remains untapped is Christians' own fault.
"Even before this troubling trend was reported, too many Christian voters had dropped out of the political process already," Carney writes. "In the past decade, about 78 million U.S. adults self-identified as evangelical in their beliefs, but reportedly only about 46 million were registered to vote, and only about 28 million cast a ballot in the 2004 presidential race."
With barely one-third of all evangelicals exercising their right to vote for this nation's leadership, it's no wonder that Christians' voices have continued to be silenced over the past decade—we've often chosen not to speak up when it matters most.
Identifying several recent escalations in "Christian-bashing" across the country, Carney believes that we are close to reaching the breaking point where Christians will eventually say enough is enough.
"These attacks on Christianity have the potential to create a populist movement across America, uniting Christians who have become disillusioned with government institutions and political leaders, and who are fed up with the attacks on the Christian values that built our nation," he writes. "The candidates who speak to evangelicals and their values, and who actively seek their support will find a massive latent block of voters waiting to be excited."
With the mounting attacks on faith and traditional values building seemingly daily, Carney thinks the looming 2016 presidential election may see a massive demographic shift in who turns out to the polls, one with massive consequences in the way Christians in America operate, and how the nation itself will treat people of faith.
"Those looking to forecast the end of the evangelical voting block should take a careful look at one of the lessons from Barack Obama's 2008 election—who comes out to vote matters," Carney writes. "Just a small increase in the turnout of the evangelical vote could change the political landscape dramatically.
"It is just these type of studies and reports on the demise of the religion that will drive even more public debate about the need for Christian values. The logical result will be a clearing of the pews on Election Day."
