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.
The Israel Antiquities Authority has put on display the contents of an ancient Roman cargo ship that sank off the coast of the Israeli coastal town of Caesarea some 1,600 years ago.
The treasure was discovered by two Israeli divers, and includes bronze sculptures, thousands of coins and other well-preserved pieces.
Israeli officials are calling it the largest and most important find in the past 30 years.
False Human Rights Destroying the Church and Our Nation
Gay rights activists (Reuters/Alexandre Meneghini)
Does a moment go by that we don't hear about some group or movement making demands for their supposed human rights?
"My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." —John F. Kennedy
What happened to this? What happened to America? What happened to the church?
Greater love has no man than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)
Today we are absolutely overwhelmed by the constant, self-centered shouts of those who demand that their country—or their church—gives them what they believe is rightfully theirs.
It's a false human rights movement.
The right to abortion. The right for same-sex marriage. The right to be equal. The right to be heard.
It's a sickening, selfish focus that is driven by human desire instead of a willingness to take up our cross and die. How often have people left churches because their supposed rights weren't addressed? How much dissension is in the workplace because people are looked over in favor of another?
I've said it before—today, when people's self-centered pursuits are rejected, they abandon relationships, leave churches and cause division, but when Jesus was rejected, He didn't abandon people. He didn't forsake the church.
He let people kill Him so they might be saved. He died so the church could thrive.
My point in this article isn't to address specific issues as much as it is to deal with a deadly, demonic spirit that is extremely advanced in its progress in the destruction of the church and, thus, the nation.
A Spirit of Entitlement
This spirit is pervasive in our nation, and unfortunately it has infiltrated the church to such a degree that it has altered the church's very DNA. Today people attend church with expectations of how they should be treated instead of a plan to lay down their lives for the sake of the mission. There is a predetermined checklist of items that they presume they are rightfully entitled to. If those demands aren't met, then trouble is initiated—just as the enemy planned.
This spirit of entitlement convinces us to look inward and fight for our perceived rights. It's fueled by pride that results in the pursuit of personal attention, gain and satisfaction.
Isaiah 14:12-15 says, "How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weaken the nations! For you have said in your heart, 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also on the mount of the congregation, in the recesses of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.' Yet you shall be brought down to Hell, to the sides of the pit."
Lucifer was focused on self—entitlement. This pride resulted in destruction beyond anything we could measure. He fell and weakened the nations simply because he was focused on self!
America, are you listening?
Because of Lucifer's attitude, millions of people have been destroyed, the Holocaust terrorized a generation, an ancient flood destroyed the masses, 55 million American babies have been murdered and Hell is growing in size to hold the increasing number of people who will live there for eternity.
Yes, a spirit of entitlement destroys.
"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Prov. 16:18).
"When pride comes, then comes shame; but with the humble is wisdom" (Prov. 11:2).
"Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honor is humility" (Prov. 18:12).
Taking on Offense
When entitled people gather together, you have a union. Here in Detroit, this is understood well. There are certain expectations that must be fulfilled by leadership, or those in union will threaten harm to them or the organization. This concept isn't hard to understand. Often on the news we hear of school teachers or bus drivers who are in a union, and when their demands aren't met, they strike.
When an entitlement isn't met, offense is the result—and when people are in union with another who has been offended, they very quickly take on that offense—and, again, it is deadly.
We see this happen in churches all the time. Offended people have friends, who unify with them and come into agreement with their arguments.
Of course, it would be very easy right now to start considering all of the secular benefits to actual unions. We could discuss how the playing field is evened and the way leadership treats the working class is improved by holding them accountable.
But I'll say this very clearly—this spirit of false unity, entitlement and offense has no place in the church. Our nation would begin down the road of healing and strengthening if we all stopped making demands and started serving, loving and following Jesus and the principles of Scripture.
An offended people will destroy a nation. A surrendered people will build a nation.
As an example, the spirits of entitlement and offense drive the abortion industry. False compassion, demonic in nature, is one of the tools that is used to gain sympathy and support for that movement. The threat is that we will come across as unloving, uncaring people if we oppose that movement. The same is true with the homosexual agenda. False love results in accusations of homophobia and hatred for those who don't support their movement.
As Christians, we are handcuffed as we are forced into a position of affirming our love of these people. If we don't, they win the debate.
Our only weak, predictable response seems to be, "We love the sinner and hate the sin."
Boldness
We as prophetic voices in the church must brake off intimidation and fear of man. Keep in mind we are wrestling against demons, not humans. What is difficult is that when humans embrace the lies of the demons, we who stand for truth can come across as attacking those people. So many Christians avoid any appearance of conflict at all.
Listen closely: People are going to enter into Hell today. If we don't have bold prophetic messengers rise up in the spirit of John the Baptist, in the spirit of David and other historic Godly warriors, millions upon millions of people will actually, literally go to Hell! If it's rare to make it to Heaven, and common to enter Hell, how can we sit back and avoid a violent conflict with those forces of hell? We cannot.
"From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has forcefully advanced, and the strong take it by force" (Matt. 11:12).
Check out this commentary on the above scripture:
Greek: biazo (GSN-<G971>), to use force, to force one's way into a thing. The idea here is that before John the kingdom could only be viewed in the light of prophecy; but now that it was preached, men were pressing into it with ardor resembling violence or desperation. They appeared as if they would seize it by force (Matt. 11:12; Luke 16:16). It expresses the earnestness that men must have in getting rid of sin, all satanic powers, the world, and in standing true when relatives oppose them (Matt. 10:34-39). (From Dake's Annotated Reference Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments of the Authorized or King James Version Text.)
This is where we are now! Let the fire-branded, love-driven warrior bride arise!
When David killed Goliath, it's true that he killed a human, but he was actually fighting against a demon that was manifesting through a human. David didn't sit down in a coffee shop to passively, casually discuss the dispute with Goliath. He was ready for a violent assault against the kingdom of darkness.
He made clear what the situation was and what was to be done! How easy it would be for David to be accused of not loving Goliath! But the truth is that David loved God first (Luke 10:27) and was fully invested in partnering with him. Human arguments would have to meet the fierce decrees of the child of God! Fear-driven false humility was not an option for David. David was on a mission of salvation—the salvation of God's people.
"David spoke to the men that stood by him, saying, 'What will be done for the man that kills this Philistine and takes away this reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?'" (1 Sam. 17:26).
David was bold. Who is this uncircumcised Philistine? He was calling out Goliath's immorality and his lack of consecration to the Lord.
Come on church! Quit cowering in false-humility and rise up in the greatest love this nation has ever known! It's time to declare the word of the Lord to the uncircumcised enemies of the Lord in America!
But beware, many in your sphere, in the camp of the Lord, will also be intimidated by your love-driven boldness. The prophetic, apostolic anointing often results in jealousy and accusation against the one advancing fearlessly. Accusations of pride will always accompany those who are willing to live radically by laying down their lives for the Lord.
Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men. And Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, "Why have you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the evil of your heart. For you have come down that you might see the battle."
David said, "What have I done now? Was it not only a word?" (1 Sam. 17:28-29).
His brother attacked him! I'm sure he felt conviction as little brother David was going to do what every other person should have done—deal with the uncircumcised Philistine with expediency!
Will you raise your anointed, prophetic voice, or will you seek a false sense of peace? Remember we are to be peacemakers, not peacekeepers! We cannot keep peace where there is no peace!
We have no obligation to passively form our words in such a way that we will be heard. It's time to bring a shaking to this nation—before it is literally destroyed!
The Philistine came walking and drew near to David, and the man bearing the shield went before him. When the Philistine looked and saw David, he despised him. For he was a youth and ruddy with a handsome appearance. The Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" Then the Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the heavens and to the beasts of the field."
Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a shield, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have reviled. This day will the Lord deliver you into my hand. And I will strike you down and cut off your head. Then I will give the corpses of the Philistine camp this day to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. (1 Sam. 17:41-46)
It's time that we go after the anti-Christ spirits that are overtaking our nation! We can no longer use human arguments. It's time that we are anointed in the boldness and power of the Holy Spirit! We aren't to prove our love, we are to love—and true love brings true problems in the pursuit of liberty for a nation! We see this cover to cover in Scripture.
Let me be clear: I deeply love but do not care.
I will say it very, very clearly. I radically love those who are advancing humanistic agendas, even though you may not believe me. That's your battle, not mine.
Jesus loved people though He would not bend to their demands. He cared about their emotions, their hearts, their eternities—but He didn't defend himself. He let his accusers kill Him. Who was the one who cared and loved when he was lifted up on a cross that day?
In an attempt to break the church out of a passive, false-love driven debate over holiness and morality, I will say this very clearly:
I do not care enough, young woman—about your career, your comfort, your supposed right to independence or the crisis and cost a new baby will bring to your life—to affirm your plan to kill your baby. You are not entitled to comfort. You are not promised happiness. I challenge you to lay down your life for a baby that God thought enough about you to entrust its care to.
When you wave a coat hanger in the air during an abortion rights protest, you are declaring that you have more compassion for one who would intentionally harm someone than one who is being harmed. The answer to losing access to 'safe abortions' (how is intentional murder safe?) is not to head out to the back alley to abort the baby yourself with a hanger—it is to have the baby and love it with selfless passion! The answer is so simple!
I do not care about a supposed right to sexual freedom, gay or straight, that results in a devastating lifestyle that is bringing destruction on our nation. Decrees of holiness must return to our churches and nation again.
I do not care about equality in our nation if it results in climbing over people who are in our way or forcing them to affirm our self-centered position. It's time that we lay down our demands, surrender our agendas and quit manipulating systems in a selfish pursuit of personal gain. It's time for humility to reign in America again!
Christian leaders, I honor you deeply and pray for you, and I do understand the pressures you are under. However, I do not care about personal agendas, self-centered ministry projects, self-assigned titles or ego-driven programs, and I will not unite with those who embrace them. Your legacy and history in the city is meaningless unless it results in a future of Holy Spirit freedom for desperate people. I will expend energy, time and money to run with you if you are humble and passionate about the plans of God in the region. Let's slow the flow to hell together.
"Let each of you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Let this mind be in you all, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. But He emptied Himself, taking upon Himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in the form of a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross" (Phil. 2:4-8).
I care about the heart of God and His overwhelming love for people—and the fact that hell is swallowing millions of them. I care about the clear truths of Scripture. I trust in God's wisdom and I refuse to allow humanism to gain the upper hand in the debate. I care about bold prophetic messengers who will lay down their lives and open their mouths and shout truth from the rooftops.
Today, not tomorrow, it's time to die to self and run to the battle, as the spirit of Goliath is threatening to destroy us. It's time for the circumcised, consecrated lovers of God to take back America.
John Burtonhas been developing and leading ministries for over 20 years and is a sought-after teacher, prophetic messenger and revivalist. He has authored nine books, has appeared on Christian television and radio and directed one of the primary internships at the International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas City. Additionally, he planted two churches, has initiated two city prayer movements and is currently directing a prayer- and revival-focused ministry school in Detroit called theLab University. John also has a web- and graphic-design business and is continually developing new and exciting ventures. He and his beautiful wife, Amy, have five children and live in the Detroit area. He can be reached via his website atjohnburton.net.
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“And Moses said unto Joshua: ‘Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek; tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.'” Exodus 17:9 (The Israel Bible™)
The AquaShield radar at work. (Photo: DSIT/JNi)
Alongside the efforts to discover and destroy the Hamas terror tunnels leading into Israel, the IDF has been following the terrorist organization’s efforts to improve its ability to attack Israel using commando divers, Army Radio reported Sunday. According to the report, during the 2014 Gaza conflict, Hamas underwater special forces managed to reach Israeli shore at Zikim beach, between Ashkelon and the northern Gaza Strip, and engaged IDF forces in a battle.
916 Navy Squadron Commander Lieutenant Colonel Liav Silverman, told Army Radio about the “blue tunnel” threat, as those attempts to enter Israel from the sea are referred to. “The blue tunnel, this ‘underwater tunnel,’ is extremely challenging defensively,” he said. “Any attempt by the enemy to develop the capacity for diving and sailing, is challenging above and under water.”
Following Operation Protective Edge and the terrorist encroachment at Zikim Beach, the IDF has invested in strengthening the communication and cooperation between the Navy and the Infantry Gaza Division. Deputy Commander of the Northern Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Asaf Hamami told Army Radio, “We want civilians to be able to come here. We don’t want to disturb the civilians, as far as we’re concerned they should continue with their lives. When we see tourists and swimmers here, in Banana Beach, it means I fulfilled my mission. We’re not influenced by fear, we will know how to protect them, our forces are in the area.”
Hamami says you can see the Hamas seals training, and the size of the unit has increased significantly since the summer of 2014. “We see them in training, their entire range of training, including diving and shooting.”
Both officers believe in the military’s ability to come up with a technological response to the challenge from the sea. The IDF has developed a system called AquaShield™, comprised of numerous sensor systems on the bottom of the sea across the water border with Gaza. Silverman expects these systems to provide a reliable alert “as soon as the enemy dives down and even earlier, when it is just getting organized to go diving.” He notes that this includes “an enormous investment in weapons on our vessels, which enable me to reach and deal with any situation involving divers or swimmers.”
In September 2014, DSIT Solutions, a subsidiary of Acorn Energy, announced today that “a leading Mediterranean navy” has placed an order for its AquaShield™ Diver Detection Sonar (DDS) system, which guards the underwater perimeter of strategic coastal assets.
DSIT’s Shield family of underwater security systems includes three main types of diver detection solutions: the AquaShield ER™ SDV Detection Sonar (SDS), the AquaShield™ Diver Detection Sonar (DDS) and the PointShield™ Portable Diver Detection Sonar (PDDS). All of the systems support fully automatic operation with high probability of detection and low false-alarm rate.
Anti-Semitic incidents seem to spring up each week on college campuses throughout the United States. According to a study, “The strongest predictor of anti-Jewish hostility on campus” is the presence of a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. The greater the BDS activity, especially involving faculty members, the more likely anti-Semitic episodes become, said the study issued last month by the AMCHA Initiative, a non-profit organization dedicated to investigating, documenting, and combating anti-Semitism on U.S. campuses.
One recent example occurred on April 15, when the City University of New York Doctoral Students’ Council passed a resolution calling for an academic boycott of Israel, 42-19. Weeks earlier, a CUNY professor and BDS advocate claimed that the killing of Palestinians in Gaza “reflects Jewish values.” On CUNY campuses, the New York Observerreports, Jewish students were harassed, with “Jews out of CUNY” uttered in at least one instance, and a professor who wears a yarmulke was called a “Zionist pig.”
On April 21, two-thirds of a union representing about 2,000 graduate students at New York University voted to approve a motion to support a BDS resolution against Israel. The motion also urges the union and its affiliate, the United Auto Workers, to divest from Israeli companies. The resolution asks NYU to close its program at Tel Aviv University, claiming the program violates NYU’s non-discrimination policy.
About a month earlier, NYU’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), one of the main organizing forces behind the nationwide BDS campaign, hosted Israeli academic Ilan Pappé, described by Benny Morris as “one of the world’s sloppiest historians.”
“Pappé blamed Jews, perceived historically as evil, for antisemitism stating, ‘The [Jewish] Israelis...are responsible for bringing antisemitism back.’ He denied Jews self-determination and demonized Israel stating, ‘evil Zionism will come to an end – all immoral regimes do’ as well as suggested rich Jews should leave Israel as a process of ‘decolonization.’ He further demonized Israel throughout accusing Israel of carrying out ‘ethnic cleansing’ multiple times. Pappé delegitimized Israel consistently referring to Israel as a ‘settler colonialist project,’ ...[and] promoted BDS.”
The Jewish Law Students Association at Harvard University and Harvard Hillel co-sponsored an event April 14 on “The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict & the U.S.” During the question and answer session, Husam el-Qoulaq, an HLS student and head of SJP at the school, insulted Israeli Knesset Member Tzipi Livni by asking, “How is it that you are so smelly?... A question about the odor of Ms. Tzipi Livni, she’s very smelly, and I was just wondering.” The student’s question resurrected the anti-Semitic stereotype of a “smelly/dirty Jew.” Incredibly, some “progressive” HLS Jewish students later defended el-Qoulaq.
As BDS campaigns spread on campuses, anti-Semitic expression increasingly follows – from swastika-filled vandalism at UC Davis and Purdue University to student “debates” at Stanford University that implicitly dignify classical anti-Semitic tropes about Jews controlling the media and economy. Among other recent incidents:
April 20: At Michigan’s Grand Valley State University, there have been six anti-Semitic incidents reported on campus since last December. These involved swastikas on walls or doors of residence halls, messages including “I am a Nazi” and “Hitler did nothing wrong,” a faculty member making anti-Semitic gestures in a classroom, and a Star of David with an “X” scratched into it on the window of a bus.
April 19: At the University of Maryland, about two dozen protesters arrived at a Hillel and Jewish Student Union event called, “Israel Fest” and, for about an hour, chanted, “Fight the power; turn the tide; end Israeli apartheid” and held signs saying “Zionism kills.”
April 15: At the University of Notre Dame, a letter published by three students in the school newspaper accused Israel of apartheid and directed readers to the Anti-Semitic site “IfAmericansKnew” and the site for a major BDS group, Jewish Voice for Peace.
According to AMCHA, 2016 already has seen 171 anti-Semitic/BDS incidents as of April 21. At this rate, 2016 will see a 36 percent increase in incidents over last year.
Faculty members have become increasingly active in BDS efforts and smears. During a talk at Vassar College in February, Rutgers professor Jasbir Puar accused Israel of harvesting Palestinian organs and conducting scientific experiments in “stunting” the growth of Palestinian bodies. Last month, 40 Columbia University professors signed a BDS petition. More recently, one pro-BDS professor even tried to link campus rape to Israel. As Rochester Institute of Technology lecturer A.J. Caschetta notes, “at a time when much of academe is jumping on the BDS bandwagon, there is little risk to academics who join the movement, whereas opposition to majority leftist positions often leads to a perilous path.”
Indeed, academics who buck this trend may be endangering their careers. At Connecticut College, one of the few professors who defended Andrew Pessin, who hasn’t been in his classroom for the past year after a hate-filled campaign miscast hiscomments about Hamas as a smear on all Palestinians, says his stance cost him a promotion. Manuel Lizarralde, associate professor in Ethnobotany, wrote in a faculty-wide email Jan. 26 that the college “acted like vigilantes and found the perfect scapegoat,” in Pessin.
Within days, Lizarralde said, he was called in by the administration for a scolding. Noting that he was recently denied promotion, Lizarralde suggested in a recent email that this was payback for his support of Pessin. Connecticut College has “a sense of racism since we are Latinos, Jews and advocate for social injustice...[and we] are being punished [for such activism].”
Responding to the negative media coverage generated by the Pessin case, Connecticut College President Katherine Bergeron published an email to the faculty March 28, in which she championed “the right of all its members to express their views freely and openly.” She failed to explain how that principle applied to Pessin, who was hounded off campus for expressing his views, only to see them twisted and turned against him. She said that the school should promote “reasoned and informed debate about the most complex issues of our time,” but Pessin’s absence leaves the school with no pro-Israel voice. When asked about the contradictions between her email and the Pessin affair, she declined to comment.
Meanwhile, outrage against Connecticut College continues to build, with a petition to investigate the Pessin affair and revoke the school’s accreditation now exceeding 1,500 signatures.
Just as the character assassination targeting the only pro-Israel voice at Connecticut College appeared as a total surprise, BDS campaigns to influence student government votes across the country pop up with minimal notice, just weeks before the vote, giving the opposition little time to organize. That strategy helped secure SJP a BDS victory at the University of Chicago undergraduate student government in March. It failed to persuade the university’s administration, though.
Who is funding BDS? Analyst Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies recently told members of Congress that former employees of Hamas-linked charities now work for the Illinois-based organization American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), which is “arguably the leading BDS organization in the US, a key sponsor of the anti-Israel campus network known as Students for Justice in Palestine.” Schanzer noted that AMP provides money, speakers, training and even “apartheid walls” to SJP campus activists. More surprising, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund has given anti-Israel BDS organizations hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the Shurat Hadin Israel Law Center.
On campus after campus, the BDS movement has proven itself to be well organized and determined to poison the minds of impressionable students against Israel. It will take an equally concerted and sustained effort to oppose BDS in academia.
Noah Beck is the author ofThe Last Israelis, an apocalyptic novel about Iranian nukes and other geopolitical issues in the Middle East.
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