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.
Join us on the new C-Pop podcast where Taylor and Jessilyn discuss, debate and sometimes deride pop culture with a strong sense of humor and a focus on Christ. Listen at charismapodcastnetwork.com.
Editor's Note: 2016 was a big year in the church—and in the world. This week we're looking at some of the biggest stories of the year, selected based on feedback from our readers. Thanks for reading Charisma News this year and stay tuned as we continue expanding our coverage in 2017 to include more spiritual insights on the stories that matter most to you.
This article was published May 11th.
Beth, of the blog The Other Side of Darkness, was a practicing witch until the cross transformed her life.
Now, the Spirit-filled believer is out to share the good news of how others can connect to God through the gifts of the Spirit, particularly praying in tongues as described in 1 Corinthians 14.
"Speaking in tongues can scare people," Beth says in a recent video. "I mean, we don't understand what is being said. God understands, and angels and demons understand."
While our minds can't comprehend, our spirits can. And though the gift can be a bit confusing, it has several benefits for both the speaker and those around them.
Watch the video to see what they are!
3 Reasons Why you should read Life in the Spirit. 1) Get to know the Holy Spirit. 2) Learn to enter God's presence 3) Hear God's voice clearly! Go deeper!
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.
IN LAND LIBERATED FROM ISIS, REMAINING CHRISTIANS PREPARE FOR CHRISTMAS ...by Seth Frantzman
It sometimes seems that Israelis are more concerned about persecuted Christians in the Middle East than Christians in the West. Instead of arguing about Christmas, Seth Frantzman, op-ed editor of the Jerusalem Post, wonders how the radically dwindled community of Christians in Iraq are going to celebrate it. READ MORE...
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THE OLDEST KNOWN 10 COMMANDMENTS TABLET
According to the book of Exodus, God himself carved the Ten Commandments onto tablets of stone. That engraving is said to be inside the Ark of the Covenant, whereabouts unknown. Apart from these, the oldest known inscription of the Ten Commandments onto stone was, for several years, used as paving. This is that tablet's story. READ MORE...
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'MOVING US EMBASSY TO JERUSALEM IS A DECLARATION OF WAR ON MUSLIMS'
In a sermon on the Temple Mount last Friday, the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem announced in Allah's name that if the US moves its embassy to Israel's capital city, it will be a "declaration of war on all Muslims." READ MORE...
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WATCH: YINGLE BELZ? LITTLE DRUMMER BOYCHICK?
This year Hanukkah, Christmas and New Years happen at the same time. One Jewish response is humor. Yingle Belz? The Little Drummer Boychick? See for yourself in the video below. Merry Crisismukkah! READ MORE...
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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.
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Posted: 20 Dec 2016 Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG
Gallup’s U.S. Economic Confidence Index has never been higher than it is today. The “Trumphoria” that has gripped the nation ever since Donald Trump’s miraculous victory on election night shows no signs of letting up. Tens of millions of Americans that were deeply troubled by Barack Obama’s policies over the last eight years are feeling optimistic about the future for the first time in a very long time. And it is hard to blame them, because what we have already seen happen since November 8th is nothing short of extraordinary. The stock market keeps hitting record high after record high, the U.S. dollar is now the strongest that it has been in 14 years, and CEOs are personally promising Trump that they will bring jobs back to the United States. These are things worth getting excited about, and so it makes perfect sense that Gallup’s U.S. Economic Confidence Index has now risen to the highest level that Gallup has ever seen…
Americans’ confidence in the economy continues to gradually strengthen after last month’s post-election surge. Gallup’s U.S. Economic Confidence Index averaged +10 for the week ending Dec. 18, marking another new high in its nine-year trend. The latest figure is up slightly from the index’s previous high of +8 recorded in both of the prior two weeks. The first positive double-digit index score since the inception of Gallup Daily tracking in 2008 reflects a stark change in Americans’ confidence in the U.S. economy from the negative views they expressed in most weeks over the past nine years.
And of course this booming level of confidence is not just reflected in Gallup’s numbers. As I discussed in a previous article, the mammoth shift in the results of CNBC’s All-America Economic Survey after the election was nothing short of historic…
The CNBC All-America Economic Survey for the fourth quarter found that the percentage of Americans who believe the economy will get better in the next year jumped an unprecedented 17 points to 42 percent, compared with before the election. It’s the highest level since President Barack Obama was first elected in 2008. The surge was powered by Republicans and independents reversing their outlooks. Republicans swung from deeply pessimistic, with just 15 percent saying the economy would improve in the next year, to strongly optimistic, with 74 percent believing in an economic upswing. Optimism among independents doubled but it fell by more than half for Democrats. Just 16 percent think the economy will improve.
On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at yet another all-time record high. That was the 17th record close since election day, and overall the Dow is up a whopping 8 percent during that time span. I don’t think that we have ever seen an extended post-election stock market rally quite like this one, and the U.S. dollar is rallying too. On Tuesday, the U.S. dollar was the strongest that it has been in 14 years…
The dollar hit a fresh 14-year high on Tuesday, boosted by upbeat comments from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen that kept alive market expectations for swifter U.S. interest rate hikes next year than had been expected. The greenback climbed broadly but its gains were strongest against the yen, which slid as much as 1 percent after the Bank of Japan kept monetary policy unchanged.
But of course not everything is rainbows and unicorns. Signs of trouble continue to erupt all over the U.S. economy, and there are many that believe that Trump will be facing some very serious economic concerns very early in his presidency. Just look at what is happening in the auto industry. Unsold vehicles are piling up at an alarming pace at dealers all over the nation, and GM just announced that it is going to temporarily close five factories…
GM has been reacting to its fabulously ballooning inventory glut by piling incentives on its vehicles. But that hasn’t worked all that well though it cost a lot of money. Now it’s time to get serious. It will temporarily close five assembly plants in January and lay off over 10,000 employees, spokeswoman Dayna Hart said today.
In October, Ford announced that it would temporarily shut down production at one of its F-150 assembly plants (Kansas City), along with production at a plant that assembles the Escape and the Lincoln MKC (Louisville), plus two plants in Mexico. It would also lay off about 13,000 workers, 9,000 in the US and 4,000 in Mexico.
Another signal that the economy is slowing down is the tremendous difficulty that Uber is experiencing right now. If you can believe it, they just announced that they lost a staggering 800 million dollars in the third quarter…
Uber racked up pro-forma losses of more than $800m in the third quarter of this year as a price war with rival ride-hailing service Lyft in the US and heavy spending on new initiatives weighed on its figures, according to a person familiar with its recent financial performance, reportsThe Financial Times. The third-quarter figures, first reported by tech news site The Information, show that Uber still faces steep losses even after pulling back from China.
I don’t understand how Uber could possibly lose 800 million dollars in three months. Something is definitely very wrong over there. Personally, I hope that things go as well as possible during the Trump administration. If we truly are entering a new golden era of peace and prosperity, that would be more than okay with me. But we should not forget that our economic fundamentals have continued to deteriorate all throughout the Obama years, and our nation has been steadily accumulating the largest mountain of debt the world has ever seen. Unless there is some sort of unprecedented miracle, there is no way that this giant bubble that we are in at the moment is going to end well. So it is definitely good to be optimistic, but we also need to be realistic about where we are right now and about the great challenges that we will soon be facing.
Once these ideologies take hold, the masses can then be easily controlled, because they will have no loyalty to a religious creed, national identity or moral code. (Flickr )
A Wake-up Call: A New Chapter in the Hanukkah Story
The story of Hanukkah is often told with an emphasis on the evil ruler, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, King of the Hellenistic Seleucid empire, who was bent on the Hellenization of the Jewish people.
Had he succeeded, it would have meant the demise of the Jewish faith and thereby, the Jewish people. God's plan to bring salvation to the world through their Messiah would have died with them.
In his attempt to force the Jews into compliance, Antiochus IV slaughtered 40,000 inhabitants of Jerusalem; murdered the high priest and prohibited sacrifices, the service of the temple and the observance of the Sabbath and feast days. The temple was dedicated to Zeus and then desecrated with the slaughter of a pig on the sacrificial altar.
The Maccabean family, from the priestly line of Aaron, led a revolt and miraculously experienced victory after victory over the mighty Greek forces until, at last, the temple could be purified and its services restored. Hanukkah is known as the Feast of Dedication because it commemorates the cleansing and rededication of the temple to the God of Israel. Its symbol is the temple menorah, which allegedly burned miraculously for eight days on just a small amount of oil.
Ancient Means of Control
This story, however, is about more than an evil ruler. He was imposing the ruling culture and ideologies of the empire upon the Jews, including paganism and an immoral pagan society as well as the Greek language; culture and ruling philosophies of reason, humanism and pursuit of knowledge. This is how kings subdued and controlled the people in their kingdoms.
In the ancient world, Jews often clashed with pagan rulers such as Antiochus Epiphanes, who demanded obedience to them and homage to their gods as a means of proving one's loyalty. The Jewish people could not bow down to these pagan leaders nor their gods and were bound by the Mosaic Law to certain behaviors and observances that set them apart from other societies and brought upon them great persecution, exiles and threats of extinction.
Modern Imposition of Ideologies
A new chapter in the Hanukkah story is being written today—godless world leaders are attempting to impose on all of us the ideologies of secularism, globalism, and moral relativism. Once these ideologies take hold, the masses can then be easily controlled, because they will have no loyalty to a religious creed, national identity, or moral code.
Israel, a Jewish nation-state, is antithetical to all three of these modern ideologies. Therefore, its Jewish national identity is accused of being racist by secular globalists. The very nation that gave to the world the Ten Commandments, on which Western civilization bases its legal code and definition of morality, is hated by those attempting to impose their ideology of moral relativism: the belief that there is no objective right or wrong, truth or falsehood, good or evil.
The seemingly contradictory part of this secular movement is that its proponents are not just tolerating but are assisting in the global dominance of Islam—a religion with a very strict legal and moral code that it seeks to impose on the world, especially upon the secularist "infidels." There is only one explanation for this strange alliance, and that is deep down, both movements share something in common: they are both anti-Christian and anti-Semitic at heart.
UNESCO Imposing Islamic Ideology
In this context, the recent attempt by the United Nations Educational, Science and Cultural Committee (UNESCO) to deny the historical and biblical connection of the Jewish people to Jerusalem and, indeed, all the land of Israel begins to make sense. The Arab voting block and their secular, globalist cohorts in the UN ignore what is a written and historical record of ownership by the Jews.
Islam teaches that the Jewish and Christian Bibles are corrupted. Therefore, Muslims completely disregard biblical accounts, proving Jewish ties to the land of Israel, including the city of Jerusalem, and most importantly, the temple mount.
This is in spite of the fact, the biblical record has been backed by one archaeological find after another proving not only the existence of the Jewish temple on the temple mount, but a 3,000 year history of Jews in the city of Jerusalem. Islamic groups bent on taking over Israel, therefore, prefer to destroy archaeological remains than allow them to prove a historical record that stands in their way.
This history, however, is not just found in the Bible or in archaeological finds but in historical Ottoman Empire decrees and in many Muslim writings. The truth of the matter is that to destroy all evidence of the existence of the Jewish temple on the temple mount, they would also have to destroy Muslim artifacts, such as the recently excavated central mosque in the village of Nuba near Hebron. Inside is a thousand-year-old Arabic inscription that calls the Dome of the Rock "Bait al-Maqdess," the Arabicized version of "Beit Hamikdash," the Hebrew name for the temple.
This is the new chapter in the Hanukkah story: leading world powers attempting to deny the Jewish people their Bible, history, faith and holy sites. Because they won't comply, they are demonized and threatened with extinction.
The Jewish Bible is Our Bible
Christians need to stand up on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people because their Bible and history of faith is also ours. If we do not speak up and stop these attempts to rewrite biblical and historical fact, we will one day wake up to the reality that evangelical Christians are next on the list of undesirables.
The Hanukkah story is a reminder that when we stand up against the mighty powers of our day, we do so not in our own strength, but with God's help. No matter how hard it may look, we can expect to take back lost territory and rededicate ourselves and our nations to the God of the Bible. He will give us the power to become a light—like a Hanukkah menorah—shining forth into a dark world, bringing hope and truth to those with hearts to receive it.
3 Reasons Why you should read Life in the Spirit. 1) Get to know the Holy Spirit. 2) Learn to enter God's presence 3) Hear God's voice clearly! Go deeper!
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.
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Planned Parenthood has claimed for more than a year that it did nothing illegal in its grotesque practice of trafficking the body parts from the babies it aborted.
But two weeks ago, a U.S. House Select Investigative Panel referred Planned Parenthood’s largest affiliate to federal authorities after finding enough evidence that it allegedly illegally profited from selling baby parts.
Now, a second congressional investigation by the Senate Judiciary Committee has uncovered even more evidence that has led to four more Planned Parenthood affiliates and Planned Parenthood’s national office being referred to federal law enforcement for further investigation and potential prosecution.
The committee also referred three tissue brokers that Planned Parenthood partnered with to authorities. It found evidence that the brokers -- the middlemen that sell to end buyers -- made thousands of dollars per aborted child by selling the parts piecemeal.
While Planned Parenthood claimed the fees they charged on their end only recovered their costs, the committee showed that they never had conducted an analysis of their costs before they set their fees.
Evidence also shows that the national Planned Parenthood office (PPFA) had discovered that its affiliates weren’t following its procedures meant to ensure they complied with federal law. But rather than bring its affiliates back into compliance, PPFA changed its procedures to let the affiliates continue their organ trafficking.
The evidence shows this was not a set of isolated incidences or a few rogue employees; these crimes were coordinated at the highest levels of Planned Parenthood.
It should surprise no one that an industry that violently kills a million innocent children in the womb every year doesn’t see the problem with tearing apart their little bodies and trafficking the parts for money.
I am thankful to both committees in the House and Senate for their investigations and for David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress for exposing this horrific practice to the American people.
We are hopeful that federal law enforcement will bring Planned Parenthood and these tissue brokers to justice. In addition, Live Action is meeting with members of Congress to work with them and the new administration to end the half a billion dollars in taxpayer subsidies that are propping up this absolutely corrupt and potentially criminal enterprise.
In 2017, let’s push to bring justice to Planned Parenthood on both fronts.
