Category: prophecy

Posted in end time, humanity plus, prophecy, transhumanism

The Singularity looms

Posted on by elizabethprata

Does the idea of creating human-like skin in the lab gross you out a little? Does it give you a disquieting feeling in your spiritual center? It does to me too.

I read this week of a breakthrough in the lab where skin that’s sensitive to the touch is being developed at the nano-level:

Engineers make artificial skin out of nanowires
“Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a pressure-sensitive electronic material from semiconductor nanowires…”The idea is to have a material that functions like the human skin, which means incorporating the ability to feel and touch objects,” said Ali Javey, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences and head of the UC Berkeley research team developing the artificial skin….A touch-sensitive artificial skin would help overcome a key challenge in robotics: adapting the amount of force needed to hold and manipulate a wide range of objects.”

Darwin has a lot to answer for. His Theory of Evolution proposed the notion that our humanity emerged from apes over time, and not God in a day. It took root and has been gaining ground in secular minds ever since it darkened the light of day in 1859. Humanity is becoming less a son of God every year and more a product of evolving technology achieved at the skill and will of man by himself. The nano-skin breakthrough is another advance toward the end of humans as biological beings. Why? The natural outcome of Darwinism at its end-point is a being that is not fully biological, but an amalgam of biological and man-made materials merged together into one being that transcends human limitations. This concept is the foundation of the Trans-Humanism movement, or Posthumanism.

 The Transhumanism entry at Wikipedia says, “after Charles Darwin “it became increasingly plausible to view the current version of humanity not as the endpoint of evolution but rather as a possibly quite early phase.”

The Transhumanism manifesto states, “To a transhumanist, progress occurs when more people become more able to shape themselves, their lives, and the ways they relate to others, in accordance with their own deepest values. Transhumanists place a high value on autonomy: the ability and right of individuals to plan and choose their own lives.” The complete removal of God from the biological creative process is completed in transhumanism, which really began in Darwinism.

Transhumanism is represented in culture by the logo:

When you see h+, you know it means Humanityplus (transhumanism). Humanity plus what? Think about it. Humanity plus what else? This?

That photo is why the notion of humans with prosthetic limbs plus nano-skin that can really feel make us uncomfortable. It is leading to the end result of Darwin’s evolutionary theory which is a robotic-like human barely recognizable as the beings God created in Adam.

It is a world where humans are no longer flesh and bone. Where you can place a back-up a copy of your brain to an external hard drive. Life as we know it is changing from one where nurturing the soul is passe and stimulating the body is all that matters. We live on a planet with exponentially improving technology and soon it will outpace us. You might think the photo of the robot hosting a human in the womb is unrealistic…that producing skin at the nano-level (or any nanotechnological production) can’t be a reality yet. Well, it is.

September 17, 2010: “Quantum computer chips are now a reality” “By using the principles of quantum mechanics, revolutionary design will be possible. CPU’s will have new structures because they will be able to run operations trillion times faster, but not using the old designs. Memory chips will be able to store much more data than before.” It is the quantum computer’s storage and processing capability that makes nano-production possible.

“But as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase.” (Daniel 12:4). This is a verse that relates to the end of the end times that we are now living in, but interpretations vary. Some think that because the verses immediately prior to this verse discuss end time prophecy, that it means that knowledge of end time prophecy will increase, and this is so. Suddenly these last few years, many people are keenly interested in and knowledgeable about end time prophecy, even the more mysterious and little-discussed verses in Daniel and Revelation. Others however, believe this verse means that the end time will be characterized by information overload, that technology will outpace human capacity to understand it, and eventually outpace its ability to control it.

As far as the second interpretation goes, this has been true also. Gordon Moore of the microchip company Intel once said in 1965 that computer processors will double their speed and power every five years and they will also halve in size. This is now known as Moore’s Law and it has held true. Scientists do not think that the pace will slow until 2015 or after, if then. See accompanying photo for an illustration:

An Osborne Executive portable computer, from 1982, and an iPhone, released 2007. The Executive weighs 100 times as much, has nearly 500 times the volume, cost 10 times as much, and has a 100th the processing power of the iPhone.

Before Darwin proposed his evolutionary theory, humanity was separate and distinct from the animal kingdom, a special class of biological being created for relationship with God Himself, for His pleasure, for His glory. (Rev 4:11; Col 1:16; Gen 1:27). After Darwin, humanity was seen as simply animal. As time progressed, man became a different animal, but certainly was not created, not special, and sharing limitations just the same as the animals do, limitations which man himself must strive to overcome. God is not on the scene at all.

Far be it for me to point to one or the other of scientific advancement and claim it is a scourge. Pig valves were first used in human hearts in 1960 and were a blessing to many. Artificial heart valves were first implanted in 1961 and have been used ever since, praise Him. The Six Million Dollar Man was fictional TV program in 1974 in which the main character’s right arm, both legs and the left eye are replaced by “bionic” implants that enhance his strength, speed and vision far above human norms: he could run at speeds of 60 miles per hour, and his eye had a 20:1 zoom lens and infrared capabilities. But Jesse Sullivan became the first real bionic man in 2001, when he lost both of his arms in a power-line accident, while working as a utility lineman. He is now equipped with two prosthetic arms: the right is a traditional prosthetic and the left is controlled by thought. I’m sure Jesse and his family are grateful for this technological advance. But because of the totality of these advances, humans may be on the verge of self-directed evolution and that is a very bad thing.

You can see that despite individual advances that enhance a person’s life in the examples above, the sum total of these same advances are changing our humanity from one thing to another. We are not the biological beings God intended. I don’t know where the stopping point is or should be, whether it should have been stopped in the past or in the future. God knows. But I often think about His statement in Luke 18:8b, “However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” and His statement in Mark 13:20 “Unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom He chose, He shortened the days.” and I personally wonder, ‘When the Son of Man returns, will He find biological humans? If He tarried would He even recognize us as the species that He created?’

Of course, we do “evolve” in a way that transhumanists mock like in the quoted excerpt just below. Sinful humans can become an amalgam of biological and supernatural: after asking forgiveness of our sins and accepting Christ as Savior, the Holy Spirit indwells us. We are more than biological at that point.

“In this way, the true-bluest Singularity-ecstatic transhumanists are not unlike the LaHaye-thumping Pop Eschatologists you’re likely to meet in a Colorado Springs coffee bar: they want a transcendent story to believe in, and more, to be a part of,” write the editors of H+ Magazine in their editorial, “Technological Trans-whateverism: On becoming a Christ-tard.”

Our human limitations became something for man to solve through technology, not God to handle through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is a fork in the road of belief. The fork has long been looming, and now it is here. As always, which road you take is your choice.

[The Singularity definition]

Posted in china ufo, end time, prophecy

Another UFO in China shuts down another airport

Posted on by elizabethprata

AOL News-
Another UFO Shuts Down Another Airport in China
“Here we go again. Just months after an unidentified object temporarily shut down an airport in China, another UFO briefly halted operations at a different Chinese airport. According to initial sketchy reports in ShanghaiDaily.com and the People’s Daily Online, the UFO forced the Baotou airport in China’s Inner Mongolia province to prevent three planes from landing for almost an hour Saturday night. Whatever the unknown object was — and mind you, nobody is claiming aliens or interdimensional beings here — it was reported hovering near the airport. As strictly a safety response, officials wouldn’t allow aircraft to land and directed two of them to land at neighboring airports (where, presumably, the UFO had no interest).”

I reported on the first UFO incident here, and it has photos.

What does this mean for the End Time? Satan is already god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4), though his power over man is only to the extent that unsaved man will allow him in. Demonic activity is increasing as satan and his fallen angels ready themselves for their heyday with all power and authority given to them by God. (Rev 13:2; Rev 13:5;). It’s interesting that the AOL news article mentions the ‘interdimensional beings’, because of course, demons (fallen angels) are interdimensional. They appear and disappear as the bible shows angels doing (Luke 1:19; Mt 28:1-32; Heb 13:2). They are extraterrestrial also, since they are living, created beings who do not live on this planet but visit it frequently.

Since they have power to move through dimensions, to appear and disappear, and also to appear as bright light, (2 Cor. 11:14) then of course it would be no small matter to cause a bright light to appear in the sky and zoom this way or that. And since satan will have power to cause lying wonders, it would be no small matter for the fallen angels (demons) to make a craft appear in the sky and startle the locals. Someday they may land and say “take me to your leader.”

If we are still on earth when that happens who would you tell them your leader is?

Posted in end time, prophecy

Jesus not only loves you…

Posted on by elizabethprata

He advocates for you!

“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. (1 John 2:1)

The longer a Christian walks in faith, the deeper our relationship with Him becomes. The deeper it becomes the more evident our position compared to Him becomes: He is High. We are low. Therefore it is all the more amazing to read that He loves us:

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. (John 15:9-17)
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10).

But He also advocates for you. We know that as we walk with Him, we will fail Him, but it is all the more crushing to sin because we know when we do, we feel like we disappoint Him. But He knows about all our sins already, the past ones and the future ones. He died on the cross for those, so our sins, while not optimal behavior on our part, do not diminish His love for us. We are so carnal and live in the flesh, we really can’t conceive of a love that is not contingent on behavior. Even the most humble and sacrificing of husbands or wives or sisters or brothers have a tiny amount inside them believing that a loving relationship is lessened or increased based on what we do for each other. Selfishness is our currency, and it’s hard to understand the Selfless Righteous One who loves us no matter what.

But then we read that He advocates for us! God is Ultimate Judge “It is appointed unto man, once to die, but after this, the judgment. (Hebrews 9:27)” and though the heavenly courts are convened and books are opened; “A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened.” (Daniel 7:10), Jesus is there to defend us. Matthew Henry wrote:

“The nature of his advocacy may be stated in the following particulars:
(1) He admits the guilt of those for whom he becomes the advocate, to the full extent charged on them by the law of God, and by their own consciences. He does not attempt to hide or conceal it. He makes no apology for it. He neither attempts to deny the fact, nor to show that they had a right to do as they have done. He could not do this, for it would not be true; and any plea before the throne of God which should be based on a denial of our guilt would be fatal to our cause.”

“(2) as our advocate, he undertakes to be security that no wrong shall be done to the universe if we are not punished as we deserve; that is, if we are pardoned, and treated as if we had not sinned. This he does by pleading what he has done in behalf of people; that is, by the plea that his sufferings and death in behalf of sinners have done as much to honor the law, and to maintain the truth and justice of God, and to prevent the extension of apostasy, as if the offenders themselves had suffered the full penalty of the law. If sinners are punished in hell, there will be some object to be accomplished by it; and the simple account of the atonement by Christ is, that his death will secure all the good results to the universe which would be secured by the punishment of the offender himself. It has done as much to maintain the honor of the law, and to impress the universe with the truth that sin cannot be committed with impunity. If all the good results can be secured by substituted sufferings which there would be by the punishment of the offender himself, then it is clear that the guilty may be acquitted and saved. Why should they not be? The Saviour, as our advocate, undertakes to be security that this shall be.”

So take comfort. No matter how hard life in this fallen earth gets, no matter how badly it grieves our hearts to see the sin around us, and to stalwartly withstand its infiltration into our families’ lives, sometimes we fall. But He advocates for us! The Creator of the Universe, the Alpha and the Omega, the Righteous One, has plans and thoughts of us and He advocates for us in heaven. THIS is the Jesus we serve. This is the God who calls us “friend”: “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:15)

He has given us comfort indeed.

Posted in atonement, doctrines of demons, end time, prophecy, sin

Call language that hides or softens sin what it is: lies

Posted on by elizabethprata

“Americans need national repentance and atonement.”

That was the headline of an editorial written by Rabbi Michael Lerner. He is editor of Tikkun http://www.tikkun.org, and chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives (an interfaith organization, open to atheists as well). I got positively excited! It was published in Counter Currents, an alternative webjournal culling news and analysis on the fight against economic globalisation and other issues. A spiritual person, writing about needing atonement! How wonderful!

The declaration of the fact we are sinners is rare these days. I’ve become saddened that so many people refuse to see that they are indeed wretched sinners, in need of a savior. The mere mention of the fact that we sin is enough these days to engender a harsh reaction, even profanity and blasphemy. I’m not kidding, the reactions are loud and brash.

That was why I was excited to see a published column about national repentance and atonement. With beating heart, I began reading.

“Now that the Iraq war is supposedly winding down, America needs a period of reflection, repentance and atonement before rushing into more of the same mistakes we’ve been making globally and domestically.”

Oh. It’s about Iraq. The Rabbi continues, “So I’d like to invite my non-Jewish neighbors and friends and allies in the struggle to heal and transform America to join with Jews…”

‘Heal America’? How about healing the soul? A healing that only Jesus can accomplish? Nope, the Rabbi continues: “…taking collective responsibility for our larger world.” Unfortunately, the rabbi’s stance of taking collective responsibility for our larger world means that the rabbi is less interested in the front and center fact of individual sin, and would rather submerge that concept into a diluted context of national sin. Removing the immediacy of sin from the actions of the individual person to one that’s further afield (like a ‘nation’) makes it feel less convicting, that is for sure.

And then the horrible zinger comes: “Rather than see ourselves as at the core evil, the Jewish tradition sees us as created in the image of God and hence intrinsically good and worthy-and it is with this understanding that Americans can then feel safe to explore where we’ve gone off course, missed the mark, and hence need a mid-course correction.”

NOOOOOOOO! It is a pure satanic twist, perpetuating the oldest and most basic satanic lie: changing the fact of our craven sin nature to one of intrinsic goodness and worthiness. If we are intrinsically good and worthy, we do not believe we need a savior, which suits satan just fine. Satan’s first lie is that man is intrinsically good. We are not. Satan says if we are left to ourselves, we will do things that are moral, just and upright, (like heal the planet and refrain from wars, as the rabbi states.) Don’t you think that if we could collectively do that which is just and moral we would have already? Satan’s lie about just how good we are is refuted in Romans 5:12 “Wherefore by one man sin entered the world and death by sin, so then death is passed upon all men for all have sinned.”

The essay states that once the notion of sin is pushed from us to the realms of national stumbles, we can feel safe in taking the safe path toward a correction. That path is NOT safe, it is the worst of dangers and snares! “The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, That one may avoid the snares of death.” (Proverbs 14:7).

The rabbi then proposes a course of action, “It won’t take long to help each of us to construct a list of the areas that we need to address in our repentance. We could start with the easy ones: our inability to stop deep ocean drilling for oil and gas even after the Gulf oil disaster; our inability to limit carbon emissions even though the scientific evidence is clear that rising emissions are above the level consistent with continuing human life (and possibly all life) on earth; our inability to acknowledge the pain we’ve inflicted on the Iraqi people by our invasion,…” So the author believes the sins of the world can be cured by intrinsically good and worthy people working together to stop the ‘mistakes’ of oil drilling and excessive carbon emissions. This is another satanic lie, that we can control our own destiny. Certainly, making lists is not going to save us. Satan says man “is the captain of my own fate.” The LORD is the captain of our fate. The Scripture says, “A man can do nothing except it be given him from heaven.” (John 3:27) and “We can make our plans, but the final outcome is in God’s hands.” (Proverbs 16:1)

The worst is yet to come. There is included in the essay a prayer template in which we are to among other things, ask for atonement “For the sin of not doing enough to challenge racist, sexist, and homophobic institutions and practices…” I ask, just whom do we ask for atonement of these communal ‘sins’? He writes,  “For these sins we ask the people of this planet and the Earth itself to forgive us.”

This essay dismisses the fact of individual sin, proposes safety on the path away from God, and ultimately removes God entirely from the conversation of Whom to ask for forgiveness. “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is forever praised. Amen.” (Romans 1:25). Earth-worship is not new, but calling oil drilling a sin we need to ask each other for forgiveness of, is.

Now, the rabbi knows God, but “although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” (Romans 1:23-24)

I don’t mean to pick on the Rabbi personally. He is likely a very nice man. He cares about the problems of the world. But he is in a position as editor and contributor to influence a great many people. In his widely circulated journals he has a responsibility to rightfully handle the word of Truth. As a Jew, he may not acknowledge the words in the New Testament but the Pharisees themselves said in Luke 5, when Jesus forgave the sins of the paralytic, “The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Asking the ‘earth’ and ‘other men’ to forgive our sins is blasphemy, which the rabbi should well know.

It is the end time. “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. (1 Timothy 4:1). In the photo above, the author urges us to collectively lift up the earth as an object of worship, as a created thing we must exalt. In this illustration below, we are told what we must do:

In these days of doctrines of demons, we read a great many things that are couched slyly as satan would say, with insinuating concepts of God as outdated, of personal sin as too harsh to accept against our innate goodness, of men who can collectively make a list and change the world through strength and actions of their own control of destiny. Watch for articles like those, of conversations that accept these lies. We must be strong and call these statements what they are, not mistakes, or wrong thinking, but lies. We do not need correction of national mistakes, but forgiveness of personal sin. Why be so clear and pointed? Jesus calls them lies. Jesus calls them antichrists. “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.” (2 John 1:7). “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.”

Posted in creator of the universe, end time, global governance, prophecy

UN renews push for "global governance"

Posted on by elizabethprata

Revelation 13:16-17 shows us that sometime in the near future, the technological infrastructure and the will of the people will be solidly enough in place to allow for a global governance, established through the economy.

“He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.” (Rev 13:16-27). ‘He’ is the beast, AKA the antichrist.

 “All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.” (Rev 13:8)

“The whole world was astonished and followed the beast.” (Rev 13:3b)

“And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation.” (Rev 13:7b)

If you doubt global governance is coming then you doubt prophecy and you dismiss the word of God, because those scriptures make it perfectly clear that one man will dominate the world. He will force people to worship him, he will attack nations, and he will murder rebellious people by chopping off their heads. He will control the economy and he will command authority for three and a half years. It is written.

Only a few years ago, we used to wonder how these verses could possibly come true. National sovereignty is part of patriotism – in greater and smaller degrees- for each national living in their land. Individual currency is beloved, representative of each nation’s artistic and economic ambitions. Yet the European Union was born and by January 1, 2002  all but three of the member nations had abandoned their currency. The global governance is coming, you can be sure. We do not know when, but it is close.

It has been my contention that the rapture would be a major catalyst for tipping the world over from teetering global depression to a solid and deep depression and attendant famine and chaos. Though not as many Christians will go in the rapture as people think, because Jesus has been consistent in warning us that not all who believe really believe, but despite that, the disappearance of millions who contribute to the global economy will have a devastating effect. We are barely hanging on now. “Doomsday warnings of US apocalypse gain ground” as Economists peddling dire warnings that the world’s number one economy is on the brink of collapse, amid high rates of unemployment and a spiraling public deficit, are flourishing here.” It wouldn’t take much to push the world over the edge into an economic abyss that only the antichrist will seem to have the answers for climbing out of. The weary world will embrace whatever solution he will have. Meanwhile, the UN is ready with their plans to institute just such infrastructure that will cement the global governance they heartily desire… 

EXCLUSIVE: After a Year of Setbacks, U.N. Looks to Take Charge of World’s Agenda
After a year of humiliating setbacks, United Nations Secretary General Ban ki-Moon and about 60 of his top lieutenants — the top brass of the entire U.N. system — spent their Labor Day weekend at a remote Austrian Alpine retreat, discussing ways to put their sprawling organization in charge of the world’s agenda. Details concerning the two-day, closed-door sessions in the comfortable village of Alpbach were closely guarded. Nonetheless, position papers for the meeting obtained by Fox News indicate that the topics included:

— how to restore “climate change” as a top global priority after the fiasco of last year’s Copenhagen summit;

— how to continue to try to make global redistribution of wealth the real basis of that climate agenda, and widen the discussion further to encompass the idea of “global public goods”;

— how to keep growing U.N. peacekeeping efforts into missions involved in the police, courts, legal systems and other aspects of strife-torn countries;

— how to capitalize on the global tide of migrants from poor nations to rich ones, to encompass a new “international migration governance framework”;

— how to make “clever” use of new technologies to deepen direct ties with what the U.N. calls “civil society,” meaning novel ways to bypass its member nation states and deal directly with constituencies that support U.N. agendas.

“As one underlying theme of the sessions, the top U.N. bosses seemed to be grappling often with how to cope with the pesky issue of national sovereignty, which — according to the position papers, anyway — continued to thwart many of their most ambitious schemes, especially when it comes to many different kinds of “global governance.” [more at link]

Not coincidentally, the conclave of bureaucrats also saw in “global governance” a greater role for themselves, the article states. But of course, of course they crave power. We are in the end times. They are heaping up treasure for themselves … (James 5:3). You can almost hear the indrawn breath of the Trumpet blower…

Posted in cops, dash cam, end time, prophecy

Heartbreak by the dash cam light

Posted on by elizabethprata

In yesterday’s post, I examined the vacuum that good leadership is causing all over the globe. The nations’ leaders are mentally stagnant, corruption is at an all-time high, and problems needing to be solved are increasing in intensity and complexity. No one is solving them. The outlook for millions around the world ranges from dreary to depressing. Part of the reason the population feels this way is not only the corruption at the top, but the corruption, lack of ethics, and the selfishness of leaders all the way down to the street-level. Ethics are a thing of the past. Honor is a forgotten word. Responsibility is always someone else’s. It seems sometimes that there’s simply no one in authority to trust.

Paul wrote to Timothy and warned that there will be terrible times in the last days. People will be abusers, boastful, proud and selfish. Men will be brutal, slanderous and without self-control. (2 Tim 3:1-5). We are told that in the last days, “You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you…” (James 5:5-6).

Now imagine the leaders in whom you have placed your trust, who have behind them all the authority of the laws of the land, being brutal, slanderous and self-indulgent. We know it happens. We understand that some men are good and some men are not. But four Hollywood FL policemen were caught plotting to frame a motorist so they could get away with not having to answer to crashing into her car from behind. Except…they forgot the dashcam was ON.

“A cop’s dashboard camera is supposed to catch criminals in the act. For four Hollywood cops, the dash cam may have foiled their plans to frame a motorist. The four police officers — three of them longtime veterans of the force — were caught on one of the cop’s dash cameras plotting to place the blame for a February traffic accident on a woman one of them had hit with their patrol car. The disturbing video shows the woman, Alexandra Torrensvilas, handcuffed in the back of the squad car as the officers get their stories straight on what they are going to say happened. Officer Joel Francisco, 36, an 11-year veteran, crashed into the back of Torrensvilas’ vehicle at a light on February 17 at midnight. The cop radioed to other officers who converged on the scene and hatched a way to bail Francisco out. Officer Dewey Pressley, 42, arrives and questions Torrensvilas, who tells him that she has been drinking. The 21-year veteran officer seizes the opportunity and arrests her for DUI. But the plot thickens from there. The cops begin to brainstorm believable excuses for the accident.”

“As far as I’m concerned. I’m going to put words in his mouth. She went to accelerate and a cat jumped out of the window at which point he thought it could have been a pedestrian, which distracted him,” Pressley tells Sgt. Andrew Diaz, another veteran of the force. “I mean what’s the chances of hitting a f—in drunk when a cat jumps out of the window?” Still, the cops run with the half-baked idea and rush to get Torrensvilas to do a Breathalyzer test so they can officially say she was drunk. “I nailed her on the video. I already hung her on video. She said she has been doing a beer party,” Pressley says. “She’s gonna blow.” Then, another cop debates with Pressley on who is going to write up the fabricated report to clear their police comrade.

“I know how I’m going to word this with the cat so we can get him off the hook. I’ll write the narrative,” Pressley says. “We’re going to bend this a little bit.” Civilian Community Service Officer Karim Thomas joins the three senior officers and the four cops go so far as to change the angle of pictures of the accident to make it look like Torrensvilas swerved in front of the cop car and caused the accident, not Francisco. Throughout the tape, the cops acknowledged what they are doing is illegal, but when you are the law, there is nothing wrong with bending it for a fellow cop, one says.”

“I don’t lie and make things up ever because it’s wrong, but if I need to bend it a little bit to protect a cop, I’ll do it,” Pressley tells Francisco after reassuring him no one will ever find out. “She’s freaking hammered anyway.” The cops even do a final rehearsal before Villa is taken to the city lock up. “We’ll take care of it,” one officer says. The others reply: “We’re good.” The police officers are currently on administrative leave pending a state attorney’s office investigation. Torrensvilas, who was charged with four counts of DUI and cited for improper lane change, is still fighting the charges in court.”

Trust defined is “reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.” When that trust is broken by those we are supposed to uphold and rely on, it creates an emptiness. And emptiness is wont to be filled with yearning. We yearn for someone to do the right thing. To have answers. To be confident and know our confidence will not be misplaced (again.)
 
This state of affairs of lack of trust in leadership from high places to low levels makes a perfect atmosphere for the antichrist to come. He will seemingly bring peace, be boastful, arrogant, confident, fierce, and flattering, (Dan 7:8, Dan 8:23-25; Dan 7:20). What a contrast that will be,  to the milquetoast, rudderless politicians we have now! Someone who is decisive, clear, and articulate of what needs to be done? The world will grab onto him in a heartbeat! He will cement his seeming competence with signs and wonders, lying that those will turn out to be. (2 Thess 2:9) 
 
Meanwhile, so many men of authority are falling, falling, with no ethics, honor, valor, or trustworthiness. Please pray for the leaders of all levels to be good men and women and to be led into good decisions by the pure Holy Spirit. They seem to be few and far between but we need all of them that we can get. And those who are in good standing with the Spirit need prayer cover!
Posted in end time, jesus, prophecy

Leadership vacuum causing distress

Posted on by elizabethprata

On September 4th, I posted the following essay:
Ayatollah Durrani’s call for Obama to be Caliph has enormous end time implications in Christianity AND Islam

7/2008 cover of the New Yorker

That post generated a HUGE amount of internet traffic. It was repeated and posted and discussed in many places. It got over 1000 page views the next day after I posted it (after it’d propagated) and it’s still getting huge traffic to date. I think the Obama as Caliph post clearly shows the extreme uneasiness of the American populace in terms of current leadership. Any culture needs and craves good leadership, a steady hand, and comfort that our representatives are truly representing us. When our leaders don’t, we get uneasy. Usually, an election takes care of the problem, as it did after the horrendous presidency of James Buchanan, generally acknowledged to be our worst President ever. (Sorry Bush haters…)

But the current uneasiness has an added tinge to it these days: panic. This is because the problems facing us are out of the norm, outsized, and seemingly insurmountable no matter how many Czars and funds and strategies we throw at it. This uneasiness tinged with panic is repeated the world over. The problems are simply getting bigger and more frequent. And no one is solving them.

I also think the root of the uneasiness about Obama as Muslim is the intuitive understanding at the soul-level Islam is of the devil and that it will likely be a major segment of the coming one-world religion. It’s all part of the end time.

The end time is technically the time between Jesus’ ascension and the Second Coming. However, He said that the signs of the end of the age would be as birth pangs: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.” (Mark 13:8). The character and nature of birth pangs are that they begin with a watershed moment (pun intended) and continue in rising frequency and intensity until they are so frequent and intense that they harbinger the event’s imminence.

The world’s problems are mounting in frequency and intensity. Earthquakes are on the rise. Drought is common. Crop failures are intense. Romania is so broke that they put forth a bill to tax fortune tellers and witches, just about the last ‘professions’ not to be taxed for their revenue. Leaders are out of ideas and the popularity of the American Tea Party is evident that we sure do notice the dearth of political innovation, or even competence.

As much as rallies satisfy for the moment, they do not suffice for true, steady leadership over time. Americans, and everyone else (except perhaps Germany) is craving it. We are not getting that craving satisfied, and it is making the world nervous. Crop after crop of leaders arise, only to disappoint. None of them have a clue as to how to solve the devastating problems facing us today.

That Obama’s origins are murky at best makes us even more nervous. An Associated Press article from today headlines the moment: “Unsettled nation marks 9/11 with rituals of sorrow (AP)” Unsettled is correct. We are unsettled not only because our leaders are failing us but we do not really even know who our top leader IS. Is he Muslim? Christian? Kenyan? Indonesian? Hawaiian? White? Black? Obama even calls himself a mutt. A mutt is an animal or a plant resulting from various interbreedings, especially a dog of mixed or undetermined breed. We are being “led” by a  man of undetermined origins who stands for unexplained philosophies in a time of uncertain future. Unsettled isn’t the half of it.

Then the rapture will come. Suddenly, things will tip even more to the panic side of global turmoil. A terrorized populace will ask, scream, demand to know Where did they go? Why? Who took them? The weakened economy perhaps will not be able to stand the vacuum created by millions of vibrant and contributing Christians. The problems will get worse.

This uneasiness of the present day will translate into sheer panic after the rapture and will be one of the emotional foundation blocks that will be the path for allowing the Antichrist to arise. There will be a leadership vacuum of problematic proportions. There will be rampant panic to quell, and clamor for a steady, sure hand at the helm. The antichrist will fill the bill.

In the bible he is referred to by many names, such as Son of Perdition and Man of Lawlessness, and most often simply “The Beast”. He will be boastful, full of intrigue, win by craft and put forth dark sentences. He will be fierce, blasphemous and seemingly come in peace. By the time the leadership vacuum is at its fullest, none of the above will matter. The world will want somebody, anybody. The fact that Ayatollah Durrani was willing to settle for Obama as the Muslims’ Supreme Religious Leader (Caliph) is indicative of the yearning on the Muslims’ side of the world for someone to fill the leadership gaps spiritually as well as politically.

Part of the end time is not only the quantifiable and observable news that we read each day and match to the scriptures. Though it seems that some days the newspaper reports are ripped from the pages of the bible, it is also the spiritual and emotional feelings generated by the global events that are also part of the complex make-up of this unique time. That the “Obama as Caliph” post generated such buzz is indicative, I believe, of the unsettling emotional season upon which we are embarking. There is a children’s book by PD Eastman called “Are You My Mother?” in which a baby bird falls out of the nest, and unable to fly, walks all around repeatedly asking every animal he meets, “Are you my mother? Are You My Mother? Are You My Mother?” That book is like the world after the rapture and just before the antichrist. They will search and search, their tired legs carrying them to and fro, asking each potential candidate, Are you our leader? Are you the one? And finally the world will finally settle contentedly under the sheltering wing of the one who says, “Yes, I am the one.” He will be false, and he will wreak havoc on the world, and all because of lack of discernment of true leadership of the Holy Christ who has already come. Jesus said this will be so: “I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.” (John 5:43)

Nature abhors a vacuum. It is an idiom used to express the idea that empty or unfilled spaces are unnatural as they go against the laws of nature and physics. Humans abhor a leadership vacuum, and our hearts abhor a spiritual vacuum. The antichrist’s empty promises and false words will fill the vacuum created by the lack of leadership now and the coming days. Don’t fall for it. Empty words are no substitute for …

the real leadership of King JESUS CHRIST.

Posted in colombia meteor, end time, prophecy, san bruno explosion

Fireballs, meteors, explosions, and mayhem. And these are only the warnings

Posted on by elizabethprata

There have been quite a few explosions, meteors and fireballs this week. Commentary after the news blurbs. First, the aerial events. There have been three meteors and two asteroids hitting or nearly hitting earth this week:

Meteor streaks up Mex-Cal coast
Residents from Mexico to Long Beach California reported seeing a white or green fireball this morning just before dawn. The Coast Guard and others received many reports of the sighting. The crew of the USS Sterett, based off San Diego, saw it too. It was a meteor, and because of the clear skies, it was visible for a long way. Many were stunned at how long the sight lasted.

Two asteroids whiz by earth
“Two small asteroids that were discovered on September 5th by the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Ariz., whizzed past the Earth on Wednesday. While the two asteroids passed within the moon’s orbit, they didn’t pose a threat to our planet. These types of near misses happen quite frequently—and even if something this small were to hit the Earth, it would break apart in the atmosphere and burn up before it hit the ground. Larger asteroids, however, don’t burn up—such as the famed Tunguska event where an estimated 200+ million-pound space rock entered the atmosphere of Siberia and detonated in the sky producing a fireball, releasing energy equivalent to almost 200 Hiroshima bombs.”

In the blurb above here’s what gets me: the two asteroids that appeared were inside the orbit between the moon and the earth. They appeared suddenly, without having been spotted from afar, first. Isn’t anybody watching these things?

Colombian meteorite sparks confusion
The Colombian media is going wild with speculation over a “giant fireball” that crashed into the earth in the Andean nation’s central Santander department. Andina.com reported that Bucaramanga Mayor Fernando Vargas confirmed that the phenomenon was a meteorite which left a crater 100 meters in diameter where it crashed in the San Joaquin municipality in Santander. “Something happened, but we aren’t clear about what it was, there is a lot of speculation. I myself hear the noise and I thought it was a bomb,” Serpa told W Radio.

A day later, a second alleged meteor hit Colombia:

Second Explosion Under Investigation in Colombia
BOGOTA – Authorities are investigating whether a second explosion heard on Monday in the vast area of the southwestern Colombian province of Valle, similar to one heard a day earlier in the northeast, was caused by a falling meteorite. The explosion was heard in the municipalities of El Cairo, Versalles Toro and El Dovio, in the northern part of Valle del Cauca. A powerful explosion was heard and then “the earth seemed to shake,” the area police commander, Col. Nelson Aceros, told reporters. He recommended that people near the place of impact take precautions. The emergency response network in Valle was activated to try and establish the origin of the phenomenon and the consequences, though the authorities have reported no damages. Local residents are alarmed, and apparently people “after seeing the bright light heard an incredibly powerful explosion that shook the earth,” Versalles Mayor Jorge Hernan Gomez said, citing eyewitness accounts. At first “we thought that it was an airplane that crashed, but that idea was dismissed,” the mayor said.

Now, the explosions. A major gasline exploded in San Francisco (San Bruno) killing 4. Two oil rigs exploded in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana this week.

San Francisco gasline explosion kills 4:

Henry Sanchez was driving home from his three kids’ back-to-school night at a nearby school when he approached the intersection of Claremont and Glenview. He looked through the windshield where just a few blocks ahead of him a flash of flame crossed the sky, followed by a deafening explosion. His three kids were at home doing homework – and located directly on the other side of the fireball, which seemed to reach 100 feet into the sky. Local residents said they felt an explosion followed by a fireball that soared hundreds of feet into the air. “We heard what sounded like a plane, then all of a sudden an explosion,” Carmann Robbins told KTVU.

Two oil rigs exploded this week in the Gulf of Mexico. One was in operation and emitted oil, the other was not in operation. The causes are under investigation:

An oil platform explosion overnight in the Gulf of Mexico forced the crew to jump into the sea and threatened further damage to waters still recovering from the BP disaster.  It was the second such disaster in the Gulf, but this time there was no leak and no one was killed. Fire engulfed the offshore platform 160 kilometres south of the Louisiana coast shortly after 9am (midnight AEST) and massive plumes of grey smoke billowed into the sky as rescuers rushed to fish out the workers. No cause for the explosion has been established. 

On to the fires. Detroit is burning.

Detroit fire chief: ‘I haven’t had anything like this in 20 years’
[B]blazes jumped from house to house, garage to garage, displacing families, disrupting neighborhoods and stretching thin the Detroit Fire Department on Tuesday. “I haven’t had anything like this in 20 years,” said Detroit Fire Chief Gregory Williams, a 36-year veteran of the department.

Boulder is burning.

Will Esposito describes an otherworldly scene after a wildfire tore through a canyon in the Colorado foothills: Some houses in his neighborhood burning while others stood intact, a propane tank shooting flames into the sky, and an eerie quiet interrupted only by firefighting helicopters and airplanes.  About 3,500 people have been evacuated from about 1,000 homes since the fire broke out Monday. Firefighters say mapping now shows the blaze is burning on 6,168 acres, or about 9 1/2 square miles. No injuries have been reported. The cause is still under investigation.
Imagine sitting in your living room and hearing such a loud explosion. That happened to me this summer and I’ll never forget it.

I was sitting in my living room on a quiet summer day, the windows open, and reading with my two kittens purring contentedly next to me. Suddenly that peace was shattered by the loudest sound I’d ever heard. An explosion, a crackle, and another explosion. I saw smoke and a fireball. My cats disappeared and I blew out of the house like a shot. My first thought was someone had bombed the school across the street. I saw ashes drifting down from the tree 30 feet from my living room, and the electrical wires were aflame. A transformer had blown. Situated only 50 feet from where I had been sitting, the explosion was tremendous and my heart didn’t stop racing for a long time.

Imagine the horror of the folks who escaped from the gasline explosion in SF. Or the fear and awe of the folks seeing the fireball streak long and low across the California sky. Or the confusion of the Colombian people seeing the fireball and then hearing the explosion. What were their first thoughts? A missile? A bomb? A terror attack? These times are uncertain and terror is everywhere. It is part of the end times, where God is pulling out our security blankets from under us and causing our carnally secure equilibrium to become upset. As we live on earth now, it is like walking on a log in a pond. It doesn’t take much for us to tumble. From the earth beneath us quaking and exploding, to the skies aflame with fireballs, explosions, meteors and asteroids, to everything in between becoming unstable (finances, family, labor) it should be making us look UP to the One whom gives all stability: Jesus. Did the photos above of the explosions and burning didn’t at least make you wonder? Don’t you think this is not normal? Did you pause, and think of the end times and what it means for us all? It means the destruction of all we know. For Christians, this is a happy thought, because “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah. The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah. (Psalm 46:1-3,7).

For non-Christians, though, it likely means terror. Non-believers are like the guys on the log, either tumbling or about to tumble…into what? Nothing. If you do not believe Jesus died for your sins and that you need forgiveness of them, I hope that the signs that we are seeing before the rapture will convince you to at least think about where you are going after you die. It has been a miracle that no one died in the Christchurch 7.2 quake. It was amazing that only 4 died in the horrific fireball that devastated the neighborhood of San Bruno. It was mercy that no one was killed in the Detroit and Boulder fires so far. That is because judgment has not begun yet, it is warnings only. But when the judgments start after the rapture, about two-thirds of the people on earth will die. These deaths begin with the opening of the 4th seal. “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.” (Rev 6:8) It literally will be HELL ON EARTH. You will be seeing a lot more of the above, and there will be deaths.

You can escape that by asking Jesus to forgive your sins. “Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:36)

Posted in dove outreach, end time, koran burn, prophecy, quran burn

Conduct unbecoming Christians

Posted on by elizabethprata

This is a re-post of the essay I wrote three weeks ago on the proposed Quran/Koran burning in Florida by Dove Outreach Center. My sentiments have not changed. The issue is getting worldwide attention now, so here is the re-post:

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Florida Church Forbidden from Burning Quran

“Florida authorities have forbidden a church in Gainesville to burn the Quran on the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. If the church burns the Qur’ans it would suffer a financial penalty. This is due to the municipal law in Gainesville, which prohibits the burning of books in public. However, the church has announced that it plans to burn the books on September 11 in any case.”

The church is non-denominational, and their Facebook page has a statement of intent on this day that call “International Burn A Koran Day:” “On September 11th, 2010, from 6pm – 9pm, we will burn the Koran on the property of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, FL in remembrance of the fallen victims of 9/11 and to stand against the evil of Islam. Islam is of the devil!” They say their mission is “To bring to awareness to the dangers of Islam and that the Koran is leading people to hell. Eternal fire is the only destination the Koran can lead people to so we want to put the Koran in it’s place – the fire!”

How un-Christian can you get. How misguided can you be.

Though it is true that Islam is of the devil, so are all religions that do not acknowledge that Jesus is the one and only path to salvation. The Koran is not leading others to hell, satan is. Islam is not the enemy, satan is. Focusing on the symptom and not the cause is a mistake, and attacking it is worse. We are not to attack, but to resist. We are not to burn and hate, but to love. There is nothing that we as Christians can do that will be worse than the unbeliever’s eternal torment, but engaging in hateful and negative behaviors this side of judgment is only a confirmation of the unbeliever’s suspicion that Christians, under “their God,” are intolerant.

When unbelievers use the word intolerant, they usually mean “unforgiving.” Forgiveness is what marks the Christian from the rest of the intolerant world, because at the root of forgiveness is love. Who can forget the Amish extension of forgiveness to the murderer of their children and the family of the murderer? In 2006, a suicidal killer rounded up girls aged 6 to 13 inside their school, bound them, laid them down, and massacred them execution style. Several of the parents of the slain girls and others went to the father of the killer, and consoled him. The sobbing father of the killer took one hour to be consoled, but in his grief and shame the love of Jesus shined through the arms holding him. When the Amish instead urged all to forgive, it was a remarkable display of Christian love that reverberates to this day. Satan, that old enemy, had gotten inside the killer’s head and influenced him to do a heinous thing, but the Amish response to this terrible event was love, not hate.

If the Amish had responded with pickets, or burnings, or clenched fists waving angrily, the reverberations for the Kingdom of God would not resound in His courts, but instead, be resounding in the hellfire that satan dwells in. Burning Korans is a senseless and pointless activity that only widens the gap between souls needing salvation and souls who should know better.

Muslims are not our enemy. Satan is our enemy. Muslims are simply lost souls waiting to be harvested. Our love and forgiveness could be the seed that the Holy Spirit grows into wheat, and not chaff destined for the fire.

Note the two images on this blog entry, the book burning far above and the prayer circle just above. Our children are watching you, Dove World Outreach Center. What image do you wish to be indelibly imprinted on their minds? One of forgiveness, or one of hate?

Posted in end time, gray whale Israel coast, prophecy

Jews migrating to Israel in huge numbers, as Ezekiel prophesied for the last days

Posted on by elizabethprata

Israel National News: 17,880 Made Israel Their Home in 5770
“17,880 people made aliyah (immigrated) to Israel in the Jewish year 5770 (in English, year 2009), according to Jewish Agency records – up from the previous year, when 15,180 people came to Israel via the Jewish Agency. Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky said, “Aliyah is one of Israel’s strategic assets. It is the most substantial way for Diaspora Jews to identify with Israeli society.” The increase in Aliyah over the past year “is particularly moving in light of the campaign to delegitimize Israel that has been running worldwide recently,” he added. “Each new immigrant is a bridge connecting his Diaspora community to his ancient-new homeland, Israel.” (IsraelNationalNews.com)”

According to the Jewish Agency/Aliyah, “The year 2009 was a turning point: for the first time in a decade there was a rise in the number of new immigrants to Israel as compared with the previous year. Globally, aliyah increased also by 17% compared with ’08, excluding Ethiopian immigration. This year so far, in 2010 (from January to June), the rise in aliyah is 13% over 2009 during the same period. Including all populations the total rise in olim (immigrants) from last year was 32%.

CBS data released ahead of Rosh Hashana 2010 shows Israel’s Population 7.6 Million (75.5% Jews). This exceeds Jewish population anywhere else outside of Israel, including the US.

So after a downward trend from the highs of the early 2000s, the last two years has seen a sudden upturn in Jews from outside Israel requesting to make Israel their home. This is predicted to occur in the last days.

Ezekiel 39:28 – Then they will know that I am the LORD their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind.

Is this a prophecy from Ezekiel that has been fulfilled? Or is it one to come? It is one to come, and is related to the last days. Matthew Henry comments: “This is the conclusion of the whole matter going before, and has reference not only to the predictions concerning Gog and Magog, but to all the prophecies of this book concerning the captivity of the house of Israel, and then concerning their restoration and return out of their captivity. Ez 39:23-29: When the Lord shall have mercy on the whole house of Israel, by converting them to Christianity, and when they shall have borne the shame of being cast off for their sins, then the nations shall learn to know, worship, and serve him. Then Israel also shall know the Lord, as revealed in and by Christ. Past events do not answer to these predictions. The pouring out of the Spirit is a pledge that God’s favour will continue. He will hide his face no more from those on whom he has poured out his Spirit.”

This article was published last week:

Young Jews Emigrate in Greater Numbers to Israel
“…Compared with most people who make this life change, their decision can be called impulsive. Though both Holz and Lux were born Jews, neither is observant. And they’ve only gone to Israel once. How long? “Ten days,” replies Lux. And that was enough to decide to move there? “I think the first day was enough,” Holz jumps in. “I mean, we fell in love with it immediately. The scenery, the people, the food. Just everything.” Kate, a server, is 28; Rob, a cook, is 23. According to the Jewish Agency of North America, that’s about average for people who choose to emigrate to Israel from North America. “Once they’ve visited and seen the opportunities and seen there are other options for them in Israel for higher education, I see an increase in young people going more than anything else,” says Shirah Ozery, director of the Jewish Agency’s Midwest office in Skokie. Ozery’s seeing the trend in the Midwest, but it’s on par with the rest of the country. Eight years ago, about 2,000 Jews left North America to go to Israel, according to the Jewish Agency of North America. Last year the figure was nearly double that. The Jewish Agency expects the trend to continue.”

Yes, according to the prophecy of Ezekiel, that trend will continue…

What is aliyah, exactly? This article by Sharona Benjamin answers quite well.

 Making Aliyah: A Continuing Trend: Why Do Many Jewish People Decide to Move to Israel?
The term ‘aliyah’ (literally ‘moving up’) is used to describe the repatriation of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel.

History of Aliyah
“Israel is not just a country; it is a national and religious homeland. The citizens of modern Israel share the same religion, language and culture as the original Twelve Tribes. Following their forced exile, the Jewish people kept Israel deep in their hearts and minds. For two thousand years they faced Jerusalem and prayed, three times a day, that one day they would return to their homeland. “…The people kept faith with it (Israel) throughout their dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom.” (Israel’s Declaration of Independence). The establishment of the Zionist Movement in the late nineteenth century saw the commencement of political activity to create a Jewish state. Although some Jews had been returning to Israel independently, the birth of Zionism marked the beginning of organized groups of aliyah to settle the land and rebuild a nation.”

Reasons for Aliyah
“There are two reasons people make aliyah; one is the ‘push’ away from their current country; possibly for lack of political, social, economical, religious or cultural freedom. The other is the ‘pull’ towards Israel, likely to be manifested in a positive aspiration in any of these areas. Since the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948 there have been waves of ‘mass aliyah’. Largely these were motivated by the ‘push’ of oppression.”

Number of People Moving from Diaspora Jewish Communities to Israel 1948-2006
765,591 from Arabic Countries
1,174,617 from the Former Soviet Union
75,547 from Ethiopia
(stats provided by Jewish Agency for Israel)

“Israel welcomed and absorbed these and other communities to the point that, today, there are few Jews who need ‘rescuing’. According to the Jewish Agency those arriving in recent years and in the future (assuming no major catastrophe occurs) will largely be making aliyah out of choice. So what is the relevance of aliyah for today’s more assimilated communities?”

Modern Aliyah
“Successful integration within their adopted societies has come at a price for many Jewish communities in the west. The younger generations often feel disconnected from their religious and cultural roots. To address this, a variety of community programs have been set up, many of which include trips to Israel. Programmes through Birthright, Bnai Akiva, Aish and others have been successful in instilling in participants an appreciation of their roots and an increased sense of Jewish identity. Another large group of recent ‘olim’ (immigrants) are religiously observant young people and families, who feel increasingly uncomfortable and dissatisfied by their lives in the Diaspora. They are searching for stronger community ties and the comfort and security of being amongst ‘their own’. In 2007 over 3,500 people made aliyah from the United States, UK and Canada. This figure is influenced by the foundation of Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organisation working to encourage and support western aliyah. Their successful promotion of aliyah and package of support has proved to be effective, with an increase of around 300 ‘olim’ from the US arriving in each successive year since their inception. (Figures provided by NbN)”

“The State of Israel was built by ongoing waves of aliyah and the country developed techniques to successfully absorb a diverse range of people and to transform them into a Hebrew-speaking nation with a strong Israeli identify. Aliyah built and now bolsters Israel. It provides valuable people and skills to support her continued social and economic development. They depart from all four corners of the globe as different nationalities but emerge in Israel as one people.” —end article—

God made Himself known through the Jews, and through them the Gentiles became grafted into the family of believers, because Jesus made Himself knowable. Salvation is available to all, through Jesus, who is the only way to heaven. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. The Jews are undergoing heightened tensions, attacks, world hate, and soon, persecution. Pray for the people whom God CHOSE! Pray for the Land GOD CHOSE!