Posted in bp, end time, haven't pumped all day, prophecy

BP lied about pumping. CNN reported the lie, then deleted BP’s admission

As millions eagerly tuned in to the live cam at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico to watch BP’s latest efforts to stop the flow of oil into the gulf, we saw mud roiling from four holes in the riser. We prayed and hoped and watched that this scourge of oil that BP has loosed on the world would be stopped before even WORSE damage was done.

The effort was called a ‘top kill’, an attempt to pipe mud into the top of the Blowout Preventer and then cap it with cement.

Then in a CNN press conference, BP executives admit they haven’t pumped a thing all day. I’ll post the link, but guess what? Half an hour after the story was published online, the paragraph about ‘not pumping all day’ was deleted. Good thing I got a screen shot. Screen shot below along with original reporting verbiage:

Venice, Louisiana (CNN) — BP’s much-anticipated effort to cap its undersea gusher in the Gulf of Mexico was temporarily suspended at midnight and was expected to resume Thursday evening, a BP executive said. The “top kill” procedure continued until “just before midnight, when we stopped pumping operations,” Doug Suttles, the company’s chief operating officer, told reporters. BP has been evaluating the results of the first round of pumping over the past 16 hours. “We have not yet pumped today,” Suttles said. The light-brown material that’s been seen flowing out of the well throughout Thursday was the previously pumped fluid mixed with oil.

The link no longer says the above, the incrminating admission has been scrubbed. Duplicitous CNN, shame on you!

And BP liars! For this was still on the BP website all day up until I grabbed the screen shot at 6:30 PM:

Update on Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill – 27 May “Top kill” operations continued over the night and are ongoing. There are no significant events to report at this time. BP will provide updates on progress as appropriate.

And they let the world think they were doing something they weren’t…

“But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.” (1 Timothy 6:9)

Misuse of Riches
“Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and put to death the righteous man; he does not resist you.” (James 5:1-6)

Posted in end time, prophecy

Paul’s message to Colossians

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” (Col 3:15-17)

Christ called us to be different. To be salt, which is a preservative, and light, which is shining to show our works in His name and give Him glory. We cannot be hid. Though you may have lost your job and want to hide, you cannot. You must not. Though your brother may have wronged you, you cannot hold a grudge and hide from fellowship. You must not. NOW is the time for which we have been put on the earth, for just such a time as this. We should be seen singing praises, hosannas, psalms to Him and about Him with all joy! We need to have peace with each other and in our hearts. Everything we do, let us do for Jesus, He who became sin and died for ours. The kind of Christians Paul was urging the Colossians to be, let US be!

Posted in angel, end time, entertain angels unaware, prophecy, satan

About entertaining angels unawares

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. (Hebrews 13:2 KJV)

From the bible, we know that God created angels. (Colossians 1:16-17) We know that angels interact with humans at the behest of God. (Luke 1:26-38) They deliver messages. (Daniel 9:20-23). They fight for territory. (Daniel 10:20). They guard humans (Matthew 18:10) and report to God on the actions of children, anyway (Matt. 18:1-14) and perhaps to individually minister to adult Christians also (Hebrews 1:14). Angels are divided into hierarchies and troops,  including both good and evil angels, and special categories such as cherubim, seraphim, and the archangel. They are invisible. (2 Kings 6:17). They look like men sometimes, (Gen 18:1-2) and other times they look like glory (Matthew 28:2-4) and other times they look like metal and lightning (Daniel 10:5-6) and still there are other angels who look completely unusual and beyond description (Revelation 4:6-8). [For the record, with one debatable exception, angels are not biblically described as having any wings]

Surely, it is a blessing that there is a class of created being whom God uses for His glory and for our help. It is a blessing also to think that we may entertain one of them at some point in our lives!

But do not forget, there is another class of angels. There was a rebellion in heaven, and the highest angel, one created to guard the throne itself, tried to vault himself above God and was kicked out of heaven for it. His name is Lucifer, whose title is now the devil, adversary, satan. And even though a third of the multitudes of angels lived with God, and saw His glory and knew His heart, Lucifer was apparently so convincing that they sided with him against God, and so they were kicked out too. (Revelation 12:3-4,9)

Not everything supernatural is from God! If you entertain angels unawares, it may be a good angel sent to minister to you. Or it may be a fallen angel, sent by satan to thwart you, deceive you, or hinder you. ( also 1 Tim.4:1-3; 2 Cor.11:13-15) “And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.” (2 Corinthians 11:14-15)

If you are reading this before the rapture, Christian and non-believer, be aware that deceit comes in a guise wrapped in a beautiful package. Fallen angels would look just like the glorious angels, as stated above in the Corinthians verse. If you are a Christian, you should be praying daily to receive wisdom, and it will be given to you without reproach. You should be in the Word daily so that you will know the truth from a lie. If you are a non-believer reading this after the rapture, know that your odds of learning the truth have diminished but you can pray to Jesus to forgive you of your sins (if you are truly sorry for your bad acts and thoughts, that is) and He will forgive you. He will send the Holy Spirit to you to help you discern the truth from a lie. Without His help, you are at the mercy of an adversary who can and does ‘appear to us unawares’ and always for the purpose of destroying us!

NOT EVERYTHING SUPERNATURAL IS FROM GOD! “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders,” (2 Thessalonians 2:9). Angels might surround you unawares, but YOU should not be unaware of satan and his angels’ counterfeiting abilities!

Posted in end time, pre-trib, prophecy, rapture

Pre-tribulation rapture in the Old Testament

1 Thes. 4:15, right at the beginning of the Rapture passage, verse 15 opens with the phrase “According to the Lord’s own word.” Here’s the whole rapture scenario from verse 15-18:

“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

Well, WHAT ‘Lord’s own word? Paul was referring to the Old Testament, because he was revealing the mystery of the rapture for the first time, and the Gospel of Matthew hadn’t been written yet, or if it had just been written was not widely disseminated yet. So Paul meant the Old Testament. It’s in Isaiah:

Isaiah 26:19-21. “But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead. Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until his wrath has passed by. See, the LORD is coming out of his dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins.”

More explanation here.

I didn’t make up the rapture doctrine. It’s “by the Lord’s own word!”

Posted in burning down the shack, deception, doctrines of demons, end time, prophecy

Burning down The Shack

In July of 2008, at the height of Shack-mania, I wrote here that the best-selling book “The Shack” is a devilish deception. I wrote about it again in April of 2009 here, saying it is a book full of doctrines of demons. In November of 2009 I explained why Christians should not read The Shack, here. Are you getting the idea that I believe The Shack is not-good?

Tim Challies was one of the first to identify this book as a deception, back in January of 2008, and he wrote about it here. Another book has come along with a chapter-by-chapter rebuttal of the doctrines of demons contained in the best-selling book that has influenced millions.

Up in flames: Melting false teachings of ‘The Shack’: Professor takes torch to ‘blasphemous doctrine’ of best-seller is the subject of a promotion by World Net Daily. “Author James De Young says of The Shack, “its depiction of God as an African woman who suffered Christ’s crucifixion – and the book’s exclusion of any existence of Satan and hell – represent just some of its many dangerous deceptions.
If such deceptions, which upend biblical teachings on sin, redemption, salvation and damnation, go unchallenged, says De Young, this “feel-good novel” could prove terribly divisive and destructive to millions of Christians.” In my opinion it has already done great damage.

Here is another review of “Burning Down The Shack”, due out June 1:

New Book ‘Burning Down ‘The Shack” Exposes Great Deception Lurking in Church’s Blindside

It’s the feel-good novel about faith that millions of people love. And its warm and fuzzy depiction of God the Father is cherished by millions of Evangelical Christians who’ve embraced it as though it were gospel.

This mass adoration has helped seemingly cement William Paul Young’s The Shack to the stratosphere of numerous best-sellers list–where it’s remained for more than 100 weeks–a claim no other book can make.

Yet it is infused with counterfeit Christianity, says author James De Young in his new book, Burning Down ‘The Shack’: How the ‘Christian’ Bestseller is Deceiving Millions, and its depiction of God the Father as an African woman who bore the scars of Calvary with Jesus Christ is just one example of its many dangerous deceptions.

De Young isn’t only a New Testament Language and Literature professor at Western Seminary in Portland, Ore., he’s also a former longtime colleague of Paul Young, and was his Portland-area neighbor when Young wrote The Shack.

Burning Down ‘The Shack,’ which WND Books publishes June 1, challenges readers to consider the perilous religious beliefs of the author. While writing The Shack, Young, a victim of child molestation, had recently embraced “universal reconciliation” — a belief identified as far back as the sixth century as heresy — which emphasizes that Jesus’ loving nature renders him incapable of eternally damning people.

In “Burning Down ‘The Shack'”, De Young delivers a chapter-by-chapter evaluation of more than 15 heresies within The Shack. Chief among the errors is what Young left out. “A familiar, but deceptive maneuver is to give an aspect of a theological issue, while ignoring an equally important aspect that qualifies or limits the first one,” De Young writes to explain Young’s obvious exclusion of Satan and Hell.”

What does the bible say? 1 Timothy 4:1 – “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” And The Shack is one of them.

Posted in end time, prophecy, quake rainbow

LA quake rainbow appeared, and then there was a quake

On May 15 I wrote that people had spotted what has come to be known as a “quake rainbow” over Los Angeles. Weatherspace.com was reporting that a “quake rainbow” hovered for hours over the city, which some say portends an upcoming earthquake. Similar rainbows had been spotted over China before their quake and also Peru prior to theirs. An alleged quake rainbow is a rainbow that does not arc in bands of color, but instead is a colorful patch that hovers. Of course, Discover Magazine debunked the phenomenon (if it is one in the first place) here. But Physics Forums maintained a scientific inquiry into the quake cloud issue, here, and excited sky watchers of all stripes exclaimed over the coincidence: here. Maybe quake rainbows are a thing, and maybe they are not.

But then a day or two later there was a 5.1 quake in LA. Coincidence? Could be, LA is very seismically active. Not a coincidence? You decide.

Posted in atheist, bp, end time, oil, prophecy, ted turner

About that Ted Turner comment…

The End Time, technically since the moment Jesus ascended and the angels told the onlookers He’d be back (Acts 1:11), and especially since Israel was created in 1948, are ramping up like the birth pangs we’re told will come. God is making Himself more evident in the world and will do so until the rapture and then things will go forward on warp speed.

Though God is speaking to us not only through the Spirit but through the events listed in the end time discourse, and are loud and clear to us Christians. But for most lost people, they are part of the background din satan successfully weaves into “normal life” so that the mind remains blinded. That was why it was all the more extraordinary that super-atheist and billionaire Ted Turner thinks that the BP Oil Spill could be a message from God. Is the Spirit speaking to Mr Turner? And if He is, is the message being received correctly?…

Turner has been openly hostile to Christianity in the past, once famously saying “Christianity is a religion for losers,” and as reported here, “Seeing CNN employees wearing ashes on their forehead on Ash Wednesday, he remarked, “What are you, a bunch of Jesus freaks? You ought to be working for Fox.” He is so viscerally uncomfortable with the Christian faith that he blamed his divorce from his third wife, Jane Fonda, partly on her decision to become a practicing Christian.” He joked that he has been “born again seven times, so one of them is bound to take.”

This week in an interview with CNN, he said that the BP Oil spill may be God trying to tell us something. Now, for a super-hostile atheist to liken earth’s events to the divine hand of God is a great glimmer of light to the blinded mind. But oftentimes, it is not enough.

What Turner said was, “Could be, He’s sending us a message.” Turner sat down with Harlow recently to discuss the energy policy in the United States. He continued, “I’m not a real religious person, but I’m somewhat religious. And I’m just wondering if God is telling us he doesn’t want us to drill offshore,” he said. “And right before that we had that coal mine disaster in West Virginia where we lost 29 miners,” as well as repeated mining disasters – “seems like there’s one over there every week” – in China. “Maybe the Lord’s tired of having the mountains of West Virginia, the tops knocked off of them so they can get more coal.”

Most people do not make the connection between things that happen in the world and God’s Divine Hand and Plan. The end time is a time where God, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance, rolls out opportunity after opportunity for us to do so. Note that the verse is often misquoted ‘not willing that any should perish but all come to everlasting life…” but this is not correct. The goal is REPENTANCE. The end time is a time for all to see a Holy God pouring out His warnings and to make the connection to self, our sin and rebellion against God. The first step is repenting.

Turner said it could be that God is sending us a message. Yes, He is. But what message? The message is not that He doesn’t want us to drill or mine. It is that He wants us to repent. It’s all too easy for the blinded mind to understand there is a God but never make the connection to sin, self, and Jesus’ work on the cross as the only way to heaven. The end time is a period where we pray that the lost not only acknowledge a Holy God’s warnings to an unbelieving world, but to have them understand that without Jesus we are nothing and worse, we are destined for hell forever.

Before we get over-excited about Turner’s possible conversion remember that even the demons believe in God, and tremble. But they do not repent. If the Spirit is working in Turner, and in others during the end time, who see these things coming to pass and wonder about God, pray for them. But pray that the most important step is taken, that they repent of their own sins. It’s hard to imagine the man who re-wrote God’s Ten Commandments and carries them around in his wallet (and by the way they are all “earth”- oriented, none recognize his personal sin) is the same man who would get down on his kneels acknowledging Jesus and submitting his life to Him, the next step after repentance. Always keep repentance in mind. Acknowledging a God-sent message is not enough, and satan strives to misquote God’s messages to us at every turn.

In an ironic statement, when Turner created CNN, he said, “we won’t be signing off until the world ends. We’ll be on, and we will cover the end of the world, live, and that will be our last event–and when the end of the world comes, we’ll play ‘Nearer my God to Thee’ before we sign off.” He is likely right. During the Tribulation when the Two Witnesses are killed, they lay in the street of Jerusalem for three days and then are miraculously resurrected and ascend to heaven before the astonished eyes of the world. (Rev 11:8-9; 11-12) It may well be true that an intrepid reporter with a CNN microphone will interview the fearful crowd as the Two Witnesses stir from having received the breath of life from God and float up to heaven upon His command to “Come up Hither!” I hope that by then Mr Turner is a participant in Jesus’s Kingdom and not just a scoffing observer. For Christians are not “losers,” but are winners. “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.” (1 Cor 9:24)

Posted in end time, God, hail, oklahoma city, prophecy

The language of God: Hail

By Elizabeth Prata

Throughout human history (post Fall), there have been “natural disasters.” Insurance companies call these Acts of God.

An act of God is an uncontrollable event, such as tornadoes, floods, or tsunamis, not caused nor controlled by humans. Insurance companies often limit or exclude coverage for acts of God.” (Source)

How does God get our attention? Through many ways, and one of them is hail. God uses hail to demand attention, it is one of His signature calling cards. It behooves us to return to the Bible to see when and how He uses hail to make His name known.

God has storehouses of hail (Job 38:22). He uses hail as a just warning to those who refuse to acknowledge Him, notably Pharaoh. “Throughout Egypt hail struck everything in the fields–both men and animals; it beat down everything growing in the fields and stripped every tree.” (Exodus 9:25) Initially awed by God’s power, Pharaoh acknowledged that he had sinned. However when the rain and hail stopped, He sinned again.  God specifically used a massive hailstorm to indicate His power over the earth, and to know that the earth is the LORD’S. Pharaoh did not acknowledge God’s sovereignty.

God uses hail to warn the unrepentant to come back to Him. ” ‘I smote you and every work of your hands with blasting wind, mildew and hail; yet you did not come back to Me,’ declares the LORD.” (Haggai 2:17).

He uses hail to render justice upon the wicked. “I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place.” (Isaiah 28:17). In one example, the LORD hurled hail down onto the Amorites at Azekah, as a vengeance against the wicked (Joshua 10:11)

God plans to use hail again in the future: “The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered great Babylon, to make her drain the cup of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found; and great hailstones, heavy as a hundred-weight, dropped on men from heaven, till men cursed God for the plague of the hail, so fearful was that plague.” (Revelation 16:18-21)

It is evident that from His storehouses of hail God has used it for a variety of reasons and will use hail for the same reasons again. Job’s verse continues from this “Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, “Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?” The ‘Time of Jacob’s Trouble’ is also known as the Tribulation, (Jeremiah 30:7; Daniel 12:1; Matthew 24:15-22 ) and the Revelation verse is the one that promises another plague of hail, one most especially severe with hailstones weighing a hundred pounds.

Terrible hail storms have always been and will be part of God’s language to an unrepentant and wicked people. Was the hail storm in Oklahoma City and in China His warning to us? Could be. We look to the bible and see such warnings many times over in the past so we would be remiss is we did not at least let the thought into our mind that He may be speaking again right now. Are you listening?

Posted in end time, gray whale Israel coast, nuclear, prophecy

Will there be nuclear war?

At the time just before the Tribulation begins, Israel is attacked by an evil coalition of nations that include Russia, Iran, Turkey and others. During the Tribulation, Israel is attacked again.

Zechariah 5:1-4
Then I lifted up my eyes again and looked, and behold, there was a flying scroll. And he said to me, “What do you see?” And I answered, “I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits and its width ten cubits.” (30 X 15 feet) Then he said to me, “This is the curse that is going forth over the face of the whole land; surely everyone who steals will be purged away according to the writing on one side, and everyone who swears will be purged away according to the writing on the other side. “I will make it go forth,” declares the LORD of hosts, “and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of the one who swears falsely by My name; and it will spend the night within that house and consume it with its timber and stones.”

A scud missile looks like a rounded cylindrical scroll of about thirty feet in length and fifteen feet in diameter… and the effects of radiation linger in the house…

Zechariah 14:12
“Now this will be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth.”

Many interpreters take this to mean something in modern warfare, such as a nuclear bomb or a neutron bomb. “A Neutron Bomb, also called ENHANCED RADIATION WARHEAD, specialized type of small thermonuclear weapon that produces minimal blast and heat but which releases large amounts of lethal radiation. The neutron bomb delivers blast and heat effects that are confined to an area of only a few hundred yards in radius. But within a somewhat larger area it throws off a massive wave of neutron and gamma radiation, which can penetrate armor or several feet of earth. This radiation is extremely destructive to living tissue.” source

Alternatively, the plague which comes upon Israel could be the Ebola Virus, which also causes the flesh to rot from the insides.

I bring this up because nuclear issues are in the news and they all surround Israel and the Gog-Magog nations. Suddenly everything is about nukes, who has them and who will use them. After 70 years of nuclear ambiguity, Israel suddenly is being outed in her nuclear capabilities. It is entirely possible that the last battles of the Tribulation may be nuclear in nature. There is an IAEA board of governors meeting in Vienna on June 7 over which I urge Christians to pray and be watchful. I pasted below, in its entirety, a great essay on the subject of Israel and nukes from “Israel Behind the News.” It’s readable and sheds light on this important and dangerous topic.

NUCLEAR AMBUSH FOR ISRAEL?
By Ronen Bergman,Investigative Reporter,Yediot Ahronot
Published in Yediot Ahronot, May 12, 2010 /Sat May 14 2010

In the midst of the Munich Security Conference that was held four years ago, a number of Arab representatives tried to place Israel’s nuclear capabilities on the agenda. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld gave Maj. Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, who was sitting in the crowd, a smile and shot them down. Everyone knows that Israel has to defend itself against existential dangers, said Rumsfeld, and ended that debate before it even began.

But the reality nowadays is completely different.

For the first time in its history, the International Atomic Energy Agency is going to discuss the atomic arsenal that is ascribed to Israel. Section eight of the agenda for the IAEA board of governors meeting in Vienna on June 7 ought to be troubling to Israel for two reasons. The first is that the Israel Atomic Energy Commission and the Israeli intelligence community learned yesterday about the existence of this section from an Associated Press report, and not from their own sources. The second and more important reasons is that this constitutes the further erosion of the wall of nuclear ambiguity that Israel has maintained around the “textile factory” in Dimona.

Had the US administration acted differently, none of this would have happened. While the senior American representative at the Munich conference four years ago derailed the debate on Israel’s nuclear arsenal, American representatives at the very same conference that was held this February squirmed and provided vague answers about the need to free the Middle East of nuclear weapons, identical to the official statements that have recently been issued by the White House and the State Department on this issue.

Why are the Americans doing that? Does this not constitute the violation of the secret agreements that were reached between Golda Meir and President Nixon, that Israel would scrupulously maintain its nuclear ambiguity and the US, in exchange, would not demand that it either sign the NPT or open its nuclear installations to IAEA supervision? What truly is prompting President Obama to attack us on this front as well or, at the very least, to sit with folded arms while others do so?

One possible answer is that Obama is motivated by a liberal ideology that truly believes that the powder-keg known as the Middle East truly can be defused before peace reigns here. Another possible answer pertains to the fabric of relations between Israel and the United States. The US is furious with Israel about its behavior on the Palestinian track and that is why it has partially removed the protective vest that it has provided to Israel for so many years on the nuclear issue. There are some members of the Israeli intelligence community who believe that the Americans are so fed up with Netanyahu that they enjoy seeing us bleed.

Either way, the Arab states have correctly read the changes in Washington and are bombarding us in Vienna. On April 23 the Arab representatives sent IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano a letter in which they asked him to report to the board of governors everything the IAEA knows about Israel’s nuclear capabilities and to demand that Israel permit supervisors to enter its nuclear facilities. Amano recently sent a letter to the foreign ministers of the 151 IAEA member countries and sought their recommendations as to how to persuade Israel to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

If Israel were a signatory of the NPT, the IAEA meeting could have led to a UN Security Council debate and a ruling that Israel was in violation of the treaty. Based on that ruling, the UN Security Council then would have the right to impose sanctions against the violating country. Since Israel never signed the NPT, that is a scenario that cannot occur. Yet the very fact that such a meeting is being held by such an important forum that oversees global nuclear proliferation, for the first time since that agency was established 52 years ago, is very problematic from Israel’s perspective.

The position that was drafted by Yehiel Horev, the former director of security in the security establishment, posits that any discussion, debate or demand to supervise the turn of events in Dimona is bad for Israel. If the ambiguity dissipates, warned Horev and his colleagues, Israel will find itself on the list of countries under international boycott, and even the United States, under any administration, would be obliged to change its policies. That would be damaging to science, the economy and Israel’s national security.

Others, such as Professor Uzi Even, one of the founders of the reactor in Dimona, believe that the time for nuclear ambiguity has passed. Israel, believes Even, needs to achieve a status similar to India’s. While it does not publicly brandish the nuclear weapons it possesses, it is a signatory of the NPT and enjoys the international consequences resulting from this.

The problem is that the upcoming IAEA meeting is liable to erode Israel’s policy of nuclear ambiguity, but also its ability to cope with Iran in the diplomatic arena. The very fact that someone has placed Israel, Iran and Syria on the agenda of the same meeting makes the Israeli Foreign Ministry fight against a nuclear Iran much more difficult.

Ultimately, this sort of meeting is going to damage Israel’s shaky international standing. Everyone eager to lash out at Israel, and not only in the Arab world, is going to exploit this meeting to demand that the very same steps that are being taken against Iran be taken against Israel. As is, Israel has been suffering from mounting isolation and delegitimization as the national home of the Jewish people. In that kind of reality, raising the issue of Israel’s nuclear capabilities is the last thing that we need.

Posted in bp, end time, oil, pollution, prophecy, sin

Man’s failure at stewardship

The BP Gulf oil spill is heart-breaking. Knowing that the Gulf economy is wrecked, the fishing industry is kaput, tourism is gone, and the lovely and stunning beaches and marshes are oil-slicked ruins is completely disheartening. Also knowing that the animals are suffering is also hard to watch, because they are innocent. What did a dolphin ever do to us?

As a matter of fact, God set it up so that they would depend on us and our stewardship. He gave dominion of the animal world to us, saying to Adam, “have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” The bible talks a lot about stewardship, and many people take that to mean money and tithing, and it is, but it also means conscientious handling of the earth. [Above, An oil soaked bird struggles against the side of the HOS Iron Horse supply vessel at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana. Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP (Guardian / UK) – May 10, 2010.] We are definitely failing in our stewardship charge.

Today I saw some photos of an ‘illegal highway’ in Arizona, a path where Mexicans apparently go across the border and when they do, they drop what they are carrying so as to blend in better with the local illegal and legal population once they emerge from the desert. The photos were accompanied with the typical “Good for Arizona and Oh gosh those filthy Mexicans” kind of tripe. Here is one photo example making the rounds:

But then thanks to Coyote Blog‘s entry ‘Glass Houses”, I started thinking of other areas of the world where such trash piles accumulate. Left unpicked-up, trash accumulates in National Forests,

In bucolic New England towns, from people too lazy to cross town to get to the dump, where they leave “Bags of trash, mattresses, cardboard boxes, metal barrels, tires, and car seats were just some of the items found on a quick inspection of the area on Tuesday. [K]ids found dead animals in trash bags a few years ago. Typically the trash has been household garbage, washers and dryers, tires and sometimes adult magazines…”

And from rich Americans and Europeans atop Mount Everest, where a massive expedition has been undertaken to remove it.

From the forests to the prairies, from the mountains to the sea, we’re pigs. We have totally abandoned God’s call to stewardship of the planet and of the animals.

It reminds me of a great Twilight Zone episode called “The Masks.” In it, a rich guy with an attractive and well-tailored but craven and evil family summons the gang to his deathbed. He tells them that if they wear some Mardi Gras grotesque masks until midnight they get all his money but if they don’t all they get is train fare home. Uncaring of his imminent death and wanting the money, they comply. As the evening progresses, they writhe under the unbearable discomfort the masks afford, and beg to remove them. Reminded that the riches will not be theirs until the appointed hour, they reluctantly leave them on. The patriarch dies after making his final speech. Joyous that they could now remove the grotesque masks, they reach up only to find that the masks had morphed into their faces, rendering their outward likeness as a mirror of their interior character and nature.

In Matthew 23:26 Jesus said, “Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.” What is on the inside of us will come out as filth. Unless our insides are cleaned by Jesus, it will always result in filth. The photos of the trash and death and destruction of the earth are simply an outward representation of what is inside us, for “Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. (Isaiah 59:7). As long as the world is ruled by a fallen man, the fruits will surface, and the fruits of fallen man are trash. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” (Isaiah 64:6).

However that is not the end of the story. He will make all things new!! “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.” (Rev 21:5). He is true and faithful, He will remake the earth that we have messed up in our sin and filth, and forevermore sin will no more pollute the earth- or our souls! Hallelujah.