August 15, 2010
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LIVING ON BORROWED TIME - DVD
A morally and spiritually bankrupt society …A worldwide economic meltdown…A planet racked with increasingly intense manmade and natural disasters…Are we the Final Generation?
Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Matthew 24:42-44
Reviews: The DVD should be seen by small groups and youth ministries far and wide. The clear quoting and referencing of bible verses is especially strong. The collage of dramatic imagery - both in photography and artwork, grabs the viewers' attention and weaves the conclusion that God is about to continue His plan in a major way. The video is so fresh - the oil explosion and spill in the Gulf of Mexico is shown as one example of how this old world is wearing out and is in flames
The video next defends the authorship and reliability of the bible before showing eight unmistakable developments in our world that point toward the soon return of the Lord Jesus Christ. The number one sign given to our generation is the return of the Jewish people to form the nation of Israel. Jesus Christ is now standing at the door waiting to take his beloved bride- His true believers. Like the admonition from the Book of Jude, verse 23, I pray that this DVD will be used by the Holy Spirit to pluck dying people out of the fire before the borrowed time runs out. - John Wicklund - Chair- Olive Tree Ministries Board of Directors - Maple Grove, MN
Great Job! We have watched all your DVD’s and we think this is the best one so far. After someone watches this DVD there is no way they could argue that we are not living in the last days! – Don & Cindy K. – Bakersfield, CA
The DVD came and it was great. GOOD JOB ! ! – Julie A. – Whitefish, MT
God bless you, the new DVD is amazing! I know that if there is anyone out there who doesn't know what the bible holds or has no clue about what is really going on after seeing this DVD they will surely be enlightened about what is truly going on in the world today. - The Taylor's - Bakersfield, CA
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John Bolton: Russia's Loading of Nuke Fuel Into Iran Plant Means Aug. 21 Deadline for Israeli Attack - By: David A. Patten – www.newsmax.com
News that Russia will load nuclear fuel rods into an Iranian reactor has touched off a countdown to a point of no return, a deadline by which Israel would have to launch an attack on Iran's Bushehr reactor before it becomes effectively "immune" to any assault, says former Bush administration U.N. Ambassador John R. Bolton.
Once the fuel rods are loaded, Bolton told Fox News on Friday afternoon, "it makes it essentially immune from attack by Israel. Because once the rods are in the reactor an attack on the reactor risks spreading radiation in the air, and perhaps into the water of the Persian Gulf."
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared in March that Russia would start the Bushehr reactor this summer. But the announcement from a spokesman for Russia's state atomic agency to Reuters Friday sent international diplomats scrambling to head off a crisis.
The story immediately became front-page news in Israel, which has laid precise plans to carry out an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities while going along with President Obama's plans to use international sanctions and diplomatic persuasion to convince Iran's clerics not to go nuclear.
Bolton made it clear that it is widely assumed that any Israeli attack on the Bushehr reactor must take place before the reactor is loaded with fuel rods.
"If they're going to do it that's the window that they have," Bolton declared. "Otherwise as I said before, once the rods are in the reactor, if you attack the reactor you're going to open it up and radiation will escape at least into the atmosphere and possibly into the waters of the Persian Gulf.
"So most people think that neither Israel nor the United States, come to that, would attack the reactor after it's been fueled."
Bolton cited the 1981 Israeli attack on Saddam Hussein's Osirak reactor outside Baghdad and the September 2007 Israeli attack on a North Korean reactor being built in Syria. Both of those strikes came before fuel rods were loaded into those reactors.
"So if it's going to happen in Bushehr it has to happen before the fuel rods go in," Bolton said.
The conversation that touched off the de facto deadline for Israeli military action was a telephone conversation with wire services involving Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for Rosatom, the Russian Energy State Nuclear Corp.
Novikov said: "The fuel will be loaded on Aug 21. This is the start of the physical launch” of the reactor.
"From that moment the Bushehr plant will be officially considered a nuclear-energy installation," Novikov said, adding that the head of Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, will visit Bushehr Aug. 21 to conduct a ceremony for the event.
According to Bolton, once the reactor is operational, it is only a matter of time before it begins producing plutonium that could be used in a nuclear weapon.
"And in the normal operation of this reactor, in just a fairly short period of time, you could get substantial amounts of plutonium to use as nuclear weapons," Bolton told Fox.
Russia, which is operating under a $1 billion contract with Iran, has spent more than a decade building the reactor. If Russia moves forward with its plan to fuel the reactor, it could be seen as a major setback to the Obama administration's strategy of engaging Russian leaders in order to win their cooperation.
"The U.S. urged them not to send the Iranian's fuel rods," Bolton said. "They did that. The Obama administration has urged them not to insert the fuel rods in the reactors, but as they've just announced that will begin next week. What that does over time is help Iran get another route to nuclear weapons through the plutonium they could reprocess out of the spent fuel rods."
The developments mean Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu soon may face a stark choice: Attack the Bushehr reactor in the next 8 days, or allow it to become operational despite the certainty it would greatly enhance Iran's ability to create nuclear weapons.
Russian leaders have said the Bushehr reactor project is being closely monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN's nuclear watchdog group. According to Iran's ISNA news agency, IAEA inspectors will be on hand to observe the fuel-rod loading process that is now scheduled to begin Aug. 21.
According to Russian officials, Iran has promised in writing to send all spent fuel rods from Bushehr back to Russia for reprocessing, to ensure they cannot be used for nuclear weapons.
Bolton said the reactor has been "a hole" in American foreign policy for over a decade.
The failure to demand it be shut down began in the Bush years, he said, and continues with the Obama administration "under what I believe is the mistaken theory that Iran is entitled to the peaceful use of nuclear energy."
"I don't think Iran is entitled to that, or I don't think we ought to allow it to happen, because they're manifestly violating any number of obligations under the non-proliferation treaty not to seek nuclear weapons. But this has been a hole in American policy for some number of years, and Iran and Russia are obviously exploiting it," Bolton said.
Russia’s move would put Iran "in a much better position overall," he said, adding, "I think this is a very delicate point, as I say, it closes off to the Israelis one possible target for pre-emptive military action.
U.N. sanctions against Iran, he said, "have not had and will not have any material effect on Iran's push to have deliverable nuclear weapons."
Flap in Jerusalem over Aug. 21 activation of Iran's first reactor – www.debka.com
The sudden announcement in Moscow and Tehran on Aug. 11 that Russia is set to activate Iran's first nuclear power reactor by loading the fuel on Aug. 21 has caused a major flap in Israel in view of the military aspects of the plant. debkafile's military sources report that only last week, high Israeli officials asked Washington for clarifications on the latest intelligence information that Moscow had decided to finally activate the Bushehr reactor after innumerable delays.
The White House called the Kremlin and was assured that President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minster Vladimir Putin stood by their pledge to President Barack Obama that the Russian-built nuclear plant would not go on line this year.
This pledge now proves worthless.Indeed, Rostratom director Sergei Kiryenko will attend the Bushehr launching ceremony.
Jerusalem is also worried by the news that Russia has stationed S-300 anti-missile batteries in Abkhazia on the Black Sea because it ties in with the imminent activation of the Bushehr reactor. It is taken as a signal that Israel's air route to Iran is hereby closed and Moscow will do its utmost to thwart an Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.
John Bolton, former US ambassador to the United Nations and adviser to the Bush administration, defined Moscow's date for loading nuclear fuel rods into the Iranian reactor as touching off a point of no return. Talking to Fox News Friday, Aug. 11, he said Aug. 21 is a deadline "by which Israel would have to launch an attack on Iran's Bushehr reactor before it becomes effectively 'immune' to assault."
Once they are loaded, he warned, "an attack risks spreading radiation in the air and perhaps in the water of the Persian Gulf."
Bolton gave Israel no more than a week to destroy Iran's nuclear program. "If they're going to do it, that's all the window they have," he said, noting that Israel attacked the Iraqi Osirak reactor in 1981 and the nuclear plant Syria was building in 2007, before the fuel rods were in place.
The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi said Friday, Aug. 13, "The process of loading fresh fuel into the reactor building would begin on Aug. 21. Then the reactor will be officially classified as a nuclear energy installation. The testing phase will be complete and the physical launch begin."
According to debkafile's military sources, the Bushehr reactor billed as a peaceful project is in fact integral to Iran's military program because the fuel rods powering it can also produce weapons-grade plutonium. Attached to the main plant too are a number of smaller facilities connected to the weapons program.
An earlier report in the Atlantic magazine estimated that the chances of a military strike against Iran in the next 12 months are "better than 50%." It is the result of extensive research for the magazine by Middle East expert Jeffrey Goldberg. After interviewing some 40 current and past Israeli decision makers and as many American and Arab officials, Goldberg expects Israel to launch an attack with the next few months, possibly supported by the US and UK.
But that was before the rescheduled Bushehr launching. Bolton has since made a point of narrowing the window of months to days.
Just One Trigger Finger Can Do It – Jerry Golden – www.goldenreport.com
With Hezbollah, Hamas, Lebanon, Syria, and Iran all on the highest alert, and all five literally sitting a few hundred yards apart -staring at each other with loaded guns - it will only take one trigger happy soldier to plunge this whole planet into the Third World War. Not to mention the political unrest in Iran which is about to upset the plans of Ahmadinejad. He believes that he has been called by his 'god' to reveal the 12th Imam who will establish Islamic global control after a catastrophic war from which Persia apparently emerges victorious. Ahmadinejad desperately wants this war to begin - and soon.
Then, when we look at the conditions now developing around the Obama administration, Barack may find war an attractive option at this time as well? God only knows what collaborations he has entered into with the Islamic community at large. One thing is obvious though - he has gone out of his way to accommodate them whilst turning his back on the civilized western world.
When we take a closer look at what is happening in and near Iran [mostly in the Straits of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman] we see once again the gathering of many American warships. This includes the USS Truman aircraft carrier with over 6,000 Marines aboard. She is accompanied by a fleet which includes the USS Normandy, a missile cruiser, and the USS Oscar Austin a missile destroyer. We have been told that the USS Truman doesn't go anywhere without being protected by at least two nuclear subs. There are other vessels in the area as well; the USS Churchill and the USS Peieliu. They are stationed in the Arabian Sea and have many marines aboard. These are just the ones we know about!
The Iranians possess many torpedo and missile boats and they have recently purchased the British "Bladerunner" speedboat which has a top speed in excess of 60 MPH. What worries the USS Truman is that these vessels are armed with the Russian Shkval torpedoes, believed to be the fastest in the world with speeds of 360 MPH. They would be impossible to destroy once fired. To add to this scenario, Iran has now sent out four Ghadir type mini-subs into the area.
As we have reported over the past few weeks, Israel is now believed to have at least two submarines and two warships located somewhere near the Iranian coast. What is not known is how many, if any, Russian subs are in that area also. We do know that they have been seen docking along the Syrian coast with aircraft carriers also unloading military gear for Hezbollah and the Lebanese Army. I believe the "Flotillas" now trying to break the Gaza blockade are nothing but an organized effort to draw attention away from the Persian Gulf and what is happening there at present..
The Russians, not surprisingly, have sided with Iran and have now installed the S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to make sure they can defend themselves against any Israeli air attack.
The USA has just struck a deal with the Saudis to deliver 84 more F-15 fighter Jets. Egypt is sitting there quietly and has also been armed by the US with everything needed for the coming war with Israel. Bashar Assad of Syria has made the statement many times over the past few months that war is the only thing Israel understands, and that Syria is now ready with tens of thousands of Missiles tipped with chemical warheads. Hezbollah now boast that they have over 50,000 missiles, and many of them are long-range which can, and will, hit every part of Israel. It is even known that Syria has sent scuds into Lebanon to Hezbollah.
So you see when we shout "wolf", "Wolf", it is not that the Wolf isn't showing his ugly teeth. We see him alright! And it seems that as he circles us he is getting bolder every day. I think the big question now for Israel and the US is; have they waited too long?
Abbas, US official to mull direct talks proposal – www.news.yahoo.com
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was on Sunday to meet a senior US official to mull over a Middle East Quartet proposal for launching direct talks with Israel, a Palestinian official said.
David Hale, the assistant US Middle East envoy, was to meet Abbas at the Palestinian leader's West Bank headquarters in the city of Ramallah at 8:30 pm (1830 GMT).
He was expected to show Abbas a draft copy of an invitation to direct talks put together by the Quartet which groups top diplomats from the European Union, the United Nations, Russia and the United States.
"Abbas will meet David Hale to discuss the final statement of the Quartet, and Hale will hear the final offer from Abbas about the (direct) negotiations," the Palestinian official told AFP.
Palestinian officials on Friday said they would make a final decision about moving to direct talks after the Quartet issues an official statement -- a move expected in coming days.
"It is expected that the Quartet's statement will reiterate the (details in the) March declaration and will invite the two sides to go to direct negotiations," he said.
In that document, the so-called Moscow Declaration, the Quartet called on Israel to halt all settlement construction and for the two sides to resume final-status talks with the goal of reaching a peace deal in 24 months.
The official said Washington was looking to begin direct negotiations "at the start of September," although the Palestinians were hoping to wait until the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan which ends in mid September.
The direct talks were likely to be officially launched at a trilateral meeting, which would probably be held in Washington or Egypt, he added.
Israel has repeatedly called for direct talks, but gave a frosty reception to the Moscow Declaration when it was issued.
The international community has been putting increasing pressure on the Palestinians to move from US-brokered indirect talks to direct negotiations -- a move they have so far rejected without a clearly defined framework in which to operate.
The last round of direct talks collapsed in December 2008 when Israel launched a blistering offensive on the Gaza Strip aimed at halting rocket attacks.
Syrian PM: Conflict with Israel will never end – www.ynetnews.com
Muhammad Naji al-Otari says Lebanon's tough response to recent Israeli actions proves 'Israeli plots against Lebanon failed completely'; admits Beirut is Syria's weakest link
Syrian Prime Minister Muhammad Naji al-Otari said Saturday that "the conflict with Israel will always exist" and stressed that the Lebanese Army's tough response to recent Israeli actions proves that "Israeli plots against Lebanon have failed completely."
In an interview with Syrian media, the Syrian premier discussed his country's close ties with Beirut. "Lebanon is the weakest link in Syria's back," he said and added that Damascus is extremely concerned with Lebanon's welfare, security and stability. "It worries us because it's related to our national security."
Al-Otari added that Israel's goal was to eliminate any resistance movement in order to enforce its will on the entire region. He also addressed the investigation of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's murder and said that his country had been blamed for the assassination for the past five years. Al-Otari also noted that Syria has turned Lebanon into a stronger country than it was before.
This is the Syrian prime minister's second anti-Israel statement in the last week. On Thursday he said that should Israel try to start a war with Syria it will "pay a heavy price." In an interview with a Yemenite magazine, Al-Otari said that Israel was the Arab and Islamic nation's greatest enemy and noted that international elements are helping it achieve its goals in the region.
Israel to purchase F-35I fighter jets from US - Aron Heller – www.news.yahoo.com
JERUSALEM – Israel's defense minister has given the go-ahead to a $4 billion purchase of advanced American F-35I fighter jets.
Ehud Barak's office says Barak approved the purchase of the stealth fighters along with spare parts and services. Military officials said Israel would purchase around 20 of the Lockheed Martin jets. The F-35I is also known as the Joint Strike Fighter.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the deal were not made public.
Israel's government is expected to approve the deal soon. The purchase will be funded by U.S. military aid to Israel.
The F-35I can avoid enemy radar systems. Analysts suggest that could help Israel strike Iran's nuclear facilities.
In a statement Sunday, Barak said the plane will allow Israel to maintain its "aerial supremacy."
Arabs lobby US on anti-Israel vote - George Jahn – www.news.yahoo.com
VIENNA – Ignoring a U.S. warning, Arab nations are urging Washington and other powers to end support of Israel's nuclear secrecy and to push the Jewish state to allow international inspections of its program, diplomats told The Associated Press Sunday.
Islamic nations have long called for Israel — which is widely believed to have nuclear arms — to open its program. But the fact that the Arab League has directly approached Washington and other Israeli allies for support at the September meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency is significant, considering that President Barack Obama last month warned against using that forum to single out Israel.
Obama then suggested that such a move would likely kill hopes of breakthrough talks on a Mideast nuclear-free zone, as proposed by the U.N.'s 189-nation Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty conference three months ago.
Over Israeli objections, the planned 2012 talks were backed by the U.S. and other nuclear powers for the first time since Arab nations pushed for such a gathering 15 years ago.
The Arab appeal to pressure Israel to open its nuclear program to inspectors also threatens to deflect attention from Iran, which Washington and its allies now consider a grave nuclear proliferation threat, even though Tehran insists it is not developing nuclear weapons.
The Arab appeal is contained in an Aug. 8 letter signed by Arab League chief Amr Moussa that was shared with The Associated Press. It asks for backing of a resolution that Arab nations will submit to the September assembly of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
An attached draft of the resolution expresses "concern" about Israel's nuclear program and urges it to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and to open its atomic activities to outside inspection.
A cover note also seen by the AP asks the Belgian Embassy in Cairo to transmit the letter and the draft to Belgian Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere, who now holds the rotating European Union presidency.
Diplomats accredited to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency and familiar with the issue told the AP that the letter also was sent to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the foreign ministers of Russia, China, Britain and France — the four other permanent U.N. Security Council members.
All the diplomats who agreed to discuss the issue with the AP asked for anonymity because of the confidentiality of their information.
Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed in a statement last month to "work together to oppose efforts to single out Israel" at the 150-nation International Atomic Energy Agency conference.
On the proposed Mideast nuclear-free zone talks, their statement warned that "any efforts to single out Israel will make the prospects of convening such a conference unlikely."
But the Arab letter says the notion of singling out Israel "is not the case."
"Singling out a state assumes that there are a number of states in the same position and only one state was singled out," the letter says. Referring to the Nonproliferation Treaty, it says: "The fact is that all the states in the region have acceded to the NPT except Israel."
Israel is commonly assumed to have nuclear weapons but refuses to discuss the issue.
The latest pressure puts the Jewish state in an uncomfortable position. It wants the international community to take stern action to prevent Iran from obtaining atomic weapons but at the same time brushes off calls to come clean about its own nuclear capabilities.
Passions have grown since September when the International Atomic Energy Agency assembly overrode Western objections to pass a resolution directly criticizing Israel and its atomic program for the first time in 18 years.
The result was a setback not only for Israel but also for the United States and other supporters of the Jewish state.
Because the resolution passed by only a four-vote margin, lobbying by both sides has intensified ahead of next month's meeting.
Three diplomats from International Atomic Energy Agency member nations said the EU and the U.S. were meeting or planning to meet with possible undecided nations to seek their support of Israel, even as the Arab bloc continues pushing for support for its resolution, entitled "Israeli nuclear capabilities."
The U.S. and its allies consider Iran the region's greatest proliferation threat, fearing that Tehran is trying to achieve the capacity to make nuclear weapons despite its assertion that it is only building a civilian program to generate power.
They also say Syria — which, like Iran is under International Atomic Energy Agency investigation — ran a clandestine nuclear program, at least until Israeli warplanes destroyed what they describe as a nearly finished plutonium-producing reactor two years ago. Syria denies that.
But Islamic nations insist that Israel is the true danger in the Middle East, saying they fear its nuclear weapons capacity. Israel has never said it has such arms, but is widely believed to possess them.
Even ahead of the General Conference, key International Atomic Energy Agency nations are expected to disagree about Israel's nuclear activities. The item is to be discussed at the agency's decision-making board of 35 nations, according to a copy of the restricted provisional agenda of that gathering shared with The AP.
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Obama makes clear support for ground zero mosque - Pauline Jelinek www.news.yahoo.com
WASHINGTON – Weighing his words carefully on a fiery political issue, President Barack Obama said Saturday that Muslims have the right to build a mosque near New York's Ground Zero, but he did not say whether he believes it is a good idea to do so.
Obama commented during a trip to Florida, where he expanded on a Friday night White House speech asserting that Muslims have the same right to freedom of religion as everyone else in America.
The president's statements thrust him squarely into a debate that he had skirted for weeks and could put Democrats on the spot three months before midterm elections where they already were nervous about holding control of the House and maybe even the Senate. Until Friday, the White House had asserted that it did not want to get involved in local decision-making.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent who has been a strong supporter of the mosque, welcomed Obama's White House speech as a "clarion defense of the freedom of religion."
Gov. Charlie Crist, R-Fla., who was among those who met with Obama on Saturday, lauded the president's position.
"I think he's right — I mean you know we're a country that in my view stands for freedom of religion and respect for others," Christ said after the Florida meeting with Obama and other officials. "I know there are sensitivities and I understand them. This is a place where you're supposed to be able to practice your religion without the government telling you you can't."
Others were quick to pounce.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Greene of Florida took Obama's Friday speech to mean the president supports the construction.
"President Obama has this all wrong and I strongly oppose his support for building a mosque near Ground Zero especially since Islamic terrorists have bragged and celebrated destroying the Twin Towers and killing nearly 3,000 Americans," Greene said. "Freedom of religion might provide the right to build the mosque in the shadow of Ground Zero, but common sense and respect for those who lost their lives and loved ones gives sensible reason to build the mosque someplace else."
The mosque would be part of a $100 million Islamic community center two blocks from where nearly 3,000 people perished when hijacked jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001.
The proposed construction has sparked debate around the country that included opposition from top Republicans including Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich as well as the Jewish civil rights group the Anti-Defamation League.
Obama's Friday comment was taken by some to mean that he strongly supports the building of an Islamic center near the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, something he never actually said.
Speaking to a gathering at the White House Friday evening to observe the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Obama said that he believes "Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country."
"That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances," he said. "This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable."
Asked Saturday about the issue during his trip to Florida, Obama said: "I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right that people have that dates back to our founding."
Obama said that "my intention was simply to let people know what I thought. Which was that in this country we treat everybody equally and in accordance with the law, regardless of race, regardless of religion."
Some relatives of people killed in the Sept. 11 attacks supported Obama's comments.
The mosque is "in many ways ... a fitting tribute," said Colleen Kelly of the Bronx, who lost her brother Bill Kelly Jr. in the attacks.
"This is the voice of Islam that I believe needs a wider audience," said Kelly, who is Catholic. "This is what moderate Islam is all about."
Opinions are mixed among family members.
Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son was killed at the World Trade Center, has said the president's comments show "a gross lack of sensitivity to the 9/11 families and to the people who were lost."
Underneath Lebanon, Israel sees hidden battlefield - Matti Friedman – www.news.yahoo.com
.MOUNT ADIR, Israel – With tensions mounting along their shared border, Israel's military says Hezbollah is moving fighters and weapons into the villages of south Lebanon, building up a secret network of arms warehouses, bunkers and command posts in preparation for war.
The Israeli military has begun releasing detailed information about what it calls Hezbollah's new border deployment, four years after a cross-border raid by its guerrillas triggered a 34-day war.
A reminder of the volatility came on August 3, when Lebanese troops fired at Israeli soldiers clearing brush on their side of the border. One Israeli officer was killed, another badly wounded, and a retaliatory helicopter strike killed two Lebanese soldiers and a reporter.
Hezbollah, which is armed by Iran and Syria and is more powerful than the Lebanese military, stayed out of the Aug. 3 fight. But its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, threatened that he would intervene next time. He has also said that if war breaks out again his forces will fire rockets into Tel Aviv.
Neither side has signaled that another war is imminent, but the Israelis' unusual openness about what they claim to know of Hezbollah's preparations seems to have two goals: to show the reach of their intelligence, and to stake their claim that if another war breaks out and many civilians die, it will be because Hezbollah placed its armaments and fighters in their midst.
Israel's military says Hezbollah has changed strategy since the last war, moving most of its fighters and weapons from wooded rural areas into villages. It says the aim is to avoid detection and use to civilians for cover if war erupts.
The military says all of this exists under the nose of 12,000 international peacekeepers who, by their own count, conduct up to 340 patrols a day in south Lebanon but are hobbled by a hostile population and rules preventing them from searching private property.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Mount Adir, a hill overlooking the border, an officer from the military's Northern Command pointed through the summer haze at the village of Aita al-Shaab.
One of its southernmost buildings, a white structure housing mentally handicapped children, is a Hezbollah lookout post, the officer said. Several guerrilla command posts are in civilian buildings in the center of Aita al-Shaab, she said, with several dozen fighters able to move among houses through underground tunnels. The military would not allow her name to be used because of the sensitivity of her job.
The village also houses a network of warehouses holding arms trucked in from Iran via Syria, she said, some in stand-alone structures and some in smaller stashes in garages, basements and buried under backyards.
The officer said the guerrillas now have 5,000 fighters operating in the buffer zone between the border and the Litani River — a strip ranging from 5 kilometers to 30 kilometers (3 miles to 18 miles) wide — which is supposed to be free of militant activity under the 2006 cease-fire. In late 2009, Nasrallah said Hezbollah's rocket arsenal stood at 30,000. Israel says it's now about 40,000.
Israel's intelligence probably comes from surveillance flights over Lebanese territory, spy satellites and Lebanese agents. But the military provides no proof of its claims, saying that could compromise its sources, and the peacekeeping force says it sees no evidence of new military infrastructure. Hezbollah officials did not respond to requests for comment on Israel's accusations.
It's difficult to independently confirm the allegations on the ground. The south Lebanese, mostly Shiite like Hezbollah, tend to support the movement and rarely criticize it publicly or volunteer information. Hezbollah members or supporters often attach themselves to journalists entering villages, shadowing them and discouraging photography.
South Lebanon is festooned with posters of the bearded, turbaned Nasrallah, but the only visible hint of Hezbollah fighters are the bearded men in civilian clothes who travel on motorbikes or in cars and occasionally approach reporters working in the area.
In July, looking to build its case that Hezbollah is digging in among civilians, the military released maps, photographs and a 3-D simulation of the streets and houses of another Lebanese town, Khiam.
The simulation shows one arms storeroom, a squat, freestanding building colored red, located 130 meters (150 yards) from a school, colored blue. A map on the military's Web site purports to pinpoint 12 arms storerooms and three command posts in the town.
The Israeli implication is clear: If another war erupts, many civilians will die.
In 2006, Israel responded to the Hezbollah border raid with a heavy bombardment of the south and then invaded, while Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets into northern Israel. The fighting killed 160 Israelis and around 1,200 Lebanese, according to official counts from each side. Israelis were dismayed to find their military suffering from organizational and supply problems, and were infuriated by international censure over the civilian death toll. That criticism was repeated even more forcefully over Israel's Gaza offensive two winters ago.
But the Lebanon border has been largely quiet since 2006. Hezbollah has not fired a rocket in the past four years — though Palestinian militant groups have — and the Israeli officer killed in early August was the military's first fatality on the frontier since 2006.
UNIFIL, the international peacekeeping force, "has not found any evidence of new military infrastructure in its area of operations," said spokesman Neeraj Singh. "Only on a few occasions, UNIFIL found armed elements in the area with personal weapons like AK-47s."
While saying UNIFIL had made "significant progress" in helping the Lebanese army secure the south, he acknowledged that the peacekeepers are barred from searching private property, where the Israelis say much of the evidence of the guerrillas' presence would be found.
Some indications of Hezbollah activity in the south have surfaced unintentionally. When a building at Khirbet Silim exploded on July 15, 2009, peacekeepers identified it as an actively maintained Hezbollah arms warehouse. Another storehouse blew up in October, the Israelis say, and in December, according to Singh, peacekeepers caught a "group of individuals" with about 250 kilograms (550 pounds) of explosives.
UNIFIL's performance has implications beyond south Lebanon. If the Israelis turn out to be right about the Hezbollah buildup, it will undermine their trust in international forces to police other volatile areas, such as Gaza and the West Bank, under a peace treaty.
In preparation for a new round against Hezbollah, the Israeli military has simulated parts of south Lebanon at a training base called Elyakim, about an hour's drive south from the border. A second facility in central Israel is nearing completion.
One day in late July, near a mock Lebanese village of gray concrete, a company of sweating Israeli infantry recruits staged a maneuver through thick Lebanese-style undergrowth, complete with rockets hidden in the bushes and bombs camouflaged as rocks.
A square metal cover on the earth opened onto a concrete tunnel where Lt. Natan Mann stood in the dark, drilling his men for the real thing.
"The army has made tactical changes and changes in its mindset," said Mann, 23, one hand on the plastic grip of his rifle. "We're either at war, or we're training for war."
This week on 'The Hal Lindsey Report' – Hal Lindsey – www.hallindsey.com
On this week's edition of "The Hal Lindsey Report": Once again, the administration is practicing some sleight of hand. While making sure Americans know that they're taking care of Israel by selling them $2 billion worth of aviation fuel and diesel fuel (but still withholding many of the requests granted by the Bush administration), they're not making such a big deal of the fact that we're filling $23 billion in procurement requests to Turkey and other Arab nations and selling $30 billion in advanced fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. That's a 25 to 1 ratio.
Remember what I've been emphasizing the last few weeks? It's not important what they say. It's important what they do.
If the President wants to be so inclusive of the Arab Muslim nations, then why doesn't he listen to everything they say? Most of them are desperate for someone to neutralize Iran. So desperate, in fact, that Saudi Arabia is actively helping Israel prepare for a strike on the Iranian nuclear facilities. Though the Saudis deny it publicly, they've made forward bases accessible to the Israelis and intelligence reports say they're going to allow them an air corridor over Saudi territory.
The United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United States has made a flat-out public statement. He told the media that "a military attack on Iran by whomever would be a disaster, but Iran with a nuclear weapon would be a bigger disaster." He said that an attack would spark street protests by Muslims throughout the region, but that leaders like himself would be willing to deal with that in exchange for eliminating the Iranian threat. Can you say it any more plainly?
Nine years on, German authorities have finally had enough. This week, Hamburg's interior ministry seized and closed the mosque where Mohammed Atta recruited two of the 9/11 hijackers. Under constant scrutiny since the authorities made the 9/11 connection, the Taiba Mosque in Hamburg has remained "a center of attraction for the jihad scene." That's the conclusion of a 2009 report by Germany's internal security services. But when the Germans discovered that 11 home-grown members of the mosque had trained as terrorists and two were jailed for planning an attack in Germany, they decided to act.
We're acting in America, too, but we're going in the other direction. Our authorities are falling all over themselves to open new mosques!
Remember the 1968 Mel Brooks comedy classic, "The Producers?" By staging a terrible production of the most offensive Broadway musical they could imagine, a travesty called "Springtime for Hitler," the shady producers figured the abomination would close before the curtain fell on opening night. They would then pocket all of the investment money raised when they oversold shares in the show. The plan backfired. The show was so odious, the crowd loved it and the producers had a "hit" on their hands. They were on the hook for all the money they had raised and spent, and the show could never hope to earn enough to pay everyone back. That's an absurd plot, indeed. But, then, it's a comedy movie and a zany Mel Brooks comedy at that.
But today there's a plot unfolding in Manhattan that is even zanier than "The Producers." It's called, "The Cordoba Initiative." You've been hearing dribs and drabs about it because the mainstream media has been doing its best to keep it under wraps. They knew that once the word got out, most normal Americans ("unsophisticated wackos" in liberal-speak) would oppose it. And they were right.
The plan is to build a 13-story Muslim mosque and cultural center literally only a few hundred feet from Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. The plan has cleared all the hurdles with the New York City government, mostly because Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been obsessively promoting it and pushing it.
The leader of the project, Imam Abdul Rauf, says that the mosque is intended as a gesture to build "bridges between faiths." Another proponent claims that the mosque, which will occupy the site of a 152-year old building that suffered damage in the 9/11 attack, is really a "celebration of America's religious tolerance." I'm an old tugboat captain and I have to be careful how I react when I hear (stuff) like that!
Why would a religion founded on fealty to one law, one leader, and one god -- a religion whose modern defining characteristic is its intolerance of all other faiths and traditions -- actually "celebrate" America's religious diversity. That's the very thing Islam HATES about us. How could a religion that reduces women and girls to mere chattel and considers all non-Muslims to be second-class citizens conceivably "celebrate" a non-Muslim society that believes all humans are created equal in God's sight? It's laughable. Yet our leaders and the media-types have fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.
Are they that stupid or have they been intimidated into acquiescence? New York City already has more than 100 mosques. We've already proven that we really are an open, tolerant society. To say with a straight face that this is Islam's celebration of America's religious tolerance would be like the Southern Baptists building a church in Amsterdam's infamous Red Light District to "celebrate" Holland's sexual promiscuity. It doesn't make sense because it doesn't make sense.
I'll tell you why the Muslims insist on putting a 13-story mega-mosque (which, by the way, will eerily resemble a World Trade Center tower) within earshot of Ground Zero. It will be nothing less than a traditional act of Islamic triumphalism. It's a symbol of conquest.
Although the Muslims have changed the name of the proposed structure to "Park 51 Mosque," the campaign to build it is still called "The Cordoba Initiative." On this week's program, I'm going to share with you a short history lesson about the symbolism of "Cordoba" in the Islamic mind. And trust me, the Muslims are big on symbolism.
Don't miss this week's Report on TBN, Daystar, Inspiration, CPM Network, various local stations, www.hallindsey.com or www.hischannel.com
A generation adrift – Greg Laurie – www.harvest.org
I know something about everyone walking the planet today that is common to every human being, young or old, male or female, famous or unknown, attractive or not-so-attractive, affluent or poor. Regardless of where a person lives, these are things that are universally true of every person.
First, everyone is empty. All humanity is crying for something. The problem is they don't know what it is. Pascal had it right when he said there is a God-shaped vacuum in every life that only God can fill. And it really is an emptiness for God. This is unique to humankind. God has effectively prewired us for something more. The Bible says that God has placed eternity in our hearts (see Ecclesiastes 3:11), and we see this played out in so many ways. In 2007, after spending time in rehab for alcohol issues, country music star Keith Urban told an interviewer, "Playing massive stadiums is not going to fill any hole in me." People are looking for whatever will fill that emptiness.
Second, everyone is lonely. The Beatles sang of it years ago: "All the lonely people, where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong?" Sometimes you feel it in a crowded room, surrounded by family and friends. A loneliness sweeps over you, and it is a loneliness that people will not fill – not friends, not a husband or wife, not children. It really is a loneliness for God. When the lead singer for one of the world's most successful rock bands committed suicide a few years ago, a note was found clipped to his shirt that read, "I am a lonely soul." And that is true of everyone. Everyone is empty. Everyone is lonely.
Third, everyone feels guilt. Why? Because we are guilty. Because we have broken God's commandments. Some may deny this, however. Actress Angelina Jolie has said, "I don't believe in guilt, I believe in living on impulse as long as you never intentionally hurt another person, and don't judge people in your life. I think you should live completely free." Really? Free from all restraints? No rules? No laws? No sense of right or wrong? Not according to what the Bible says: "For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard" (Romans 3:23 NLT).
Watch the trailer for Greg Laurie's inspiring DVD biopic, "Lost Boy: The Next Chapter"
Last, everyone is afraid to die. Deep down inside, death frightens us. The Bible even speaks of those who are held in slavery by their fear of death (see Hebrews 2:15). Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, has had his own health struggles and has come quite close to death's door. In an interview with Fortune magazine, he said, "Life is brief, and then you die, you know?" Woody Allen famously said, "I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens." But of course he will, just as every person will.
Regardless of who we are and where we live, we all feel emptiness, loneliness and guilt. And we are afraid to die. So what is the answer? I believe that Jesus Christ is the answer to our emptiness, loneliness, guilt and fear of death.
The problem is that people probably know less about the Bible and Jesus Christ than at any other time in history. The so-called Millennial Generation, young adults age 18 to 29, is incredibly illiterate biblically. They have, in many cases, been raised without biblical values – not even basic moral values – and so they are a generation adrift. According to a recent USA Today article, 72 percent of Millennials say they are more spiritual than religious. What that means is they don't believe in organized religion. They are making up their own spirituality as they go. We live in a time when people are customizing God as though he were an app on an iPhone. They borrow a little of this and little of that, shake it all together and come up with their own concept of who God is.
There is an entire generation adrift, and there are Christians today who are not connecting. Far too often, we come across as narrow-minded, argumentative, condemning and holier-than-thou. And unfortunately, that is true sometimes. Far too often we are known more for what we are against than what we are for. We are more adept at burning bridges than building them. We need to figure out how we can connect to the culture today.
And if there is one thing Christians and non-Christians have in common, it is the simple fact that both are uptight about evangelism. Christians are uptight about sharing their faith, and non-Christians are often uptight when it comes to talking about God.
Evangelism has fallen out of favor with a lot of people today. Some churches even emphasize other things instead of it. They may have great social programs in the community. They may volunteer their services to assist in cleaning up areas that need help, or they build homes or give out food and clothing. And those are great things. I am all for those things. However, if in the process of doing those things the gospel is left out, then it is a fateful omission. If we feed people or clothe them or even house them and have done nothing for their souls, then we have completely missed the point.
Suppose I was a scientist who happened to have cancer. I feverishly work to find a cure for myself and for others I know. Then one day, after a lot of effort, I come up with a cure – a single, one-dose pill that instantaneously removes cancer. What should I do about that? Try to make the most money I can and take my sweet time in getting this new product to the market? How about befriending cancer patients but never letting them know that I have been cured? (I am a caring scientist, after all, and I don't want to confront them about it.) That would be the epitome of selfishness. Some might even call it criminal. The correct response would be to get the cure to as many people as possible, as quickly as I could. And if that were true of a cure for a fatal disease, then how much more is it true of the gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ?
Christians need to care. We need to lovingly engage people with the gospel message. Souls are of the greatest value to God, and they must be to us as well.
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“Folks, it's all beginning to unravel. America is in more danger of falling than at any time in its history. But I believe Bible prophecy predicts this very decline. From this point on, we believers have to get serious. We are going to face discouragement, disillusionment and, most certainly, persecution in the time between now and the Rapture. But don't be discouraged or disillusioned. The coming turmoil will provide us unrivaled opportunities to share the good news of the Gospel. So be ready to share your faith and your hope with those who need Christ. We still have time to reap a great harvest of souls for God's kingdom!” – Hal Lindsey
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Restoring Planet Earth - This Week’s Feature Article by Jack Kelley – www.gracethrufaith.com
Jesus said to them (the Disciples), “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Matt. 19:28)
He (Jesus) must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. (Acts 3:21)
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new.” Then He said, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.” (Rev. 21:5-6)
The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God. (Isaiah 35:1-2)
The End times judgments will be devastating in the extreme, and the Lord warned that if He didn’t bring them to a close at the appointed time, not a single soul would survive (Matt. 24:22). But for the sake of the elect, He will bring them to a close and when He does the restoration will begin.
I believe one of the ancillary functions of the end times judgments will be to begin the process of returning Earth to the condition it was in just after the creation, as if the Great Tribulation is the demolition phase of the restoration. This is hinted at by phrases like “every island fled away and the mountains could not be found” (Rev. 16:20) and “there was no longer any sea” (Rev. 21:1).
Comparing verses like these with the return of long life spans indicated in Isaiah 65:20, I have concluded that Earth will once again become a single land mass surrounded by water, the way Gen. 1:9 described it. Scientists call this original land mass Pangea, and Genesis 10:25 makes mention of its division into today’s continents. We can see other evidence of how radically the Earth’s topography was changed during and after the Great Flood, and now it will be time to put things back the way they were. I think most of the present seas will either return to their underground origins or rise into the upper atmosphere to re-establish the water vapor canopy that once surrounded Earth (Gen. 1:6-7) and enabled the long pre-flood lifespans.
The mountains will be lowered, the sea floor elevated, and the continents rejoined at their seams. Streams and rivers will flow through lands that have been parched for thousands of years. The great desserts will become verdant plains again.
I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs. I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set pines in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together, so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the LORD has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.(Isaiah 41:18-20)
The current tilt of the Earth’s axis causes extreme differences in the world’s weather and makes large areas uninhabitable. I believe this will be corrected at the time of the 2nd Coming. The axis will become upright again and the year shortened to its original 360 days. Earth will once again enjoy a worldwide sub-tropical climate like it did before Adam lost it and the terrible effects of sin were loosed upon it. This is something the creation has been waiting for ever since.
The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. (Romans 8:19-21)
When the Lord Returns in glory the wait will be over, and soon afterward the creation will once again resemble a lush garden. He will make her deserts like Eden, her waste lands like the garden of the Lord (Isaiah 51:3)
Some people are troubled by all this because they’re so in love with the creation as it currently appears. I even read a book review recently whose author is asking God to be left behind at the rapture because she can’t imagine anything being more beautiful than this present Earth, not even Heaven. People like this are limited in their thinking. In the first place, they don’t stop to think that if the Earth is this beautiful while under a curse how much more so will it be when the curse is lifted and it’s restored to its original condition?
And second, they don’t realize that the Lord has spent the last 2,000 years “preparing a place for us” in His Father’s house (John 14:2-3). The Church will no longer call Earth home but will dwell with Him there. Do these folks really think that after the rapture, when we see all eternity spread out before us, we’ll be disappointed with our future and long to go back into this fallen creation? Is that what they think the Lord has in store for us?
But our focus here is the restoration of Planet Earth, where Israel will once again be the pre-eminent nation. One of the clues we get that the Kingdom Age on Earth features Israel and not the Gentile Nations, or even the Church, is that almost all the descriptive passages are in the Old Testament, and for the most part center around Israel.
From them we learn of the desert bursting into bloom (Isaiah 35:1-2), of the land being so fertile that before they can complete the harvest it will be time to begin planting again (Amos 9:13). Peace will flow like a river and the wealth of the nations like a flooding stream (Isaiah 66:12) In Jerusalem men and women of ripe old age will sit in streets filled with playing children (Zechariah 8:4-5). And in the country side, “Every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD Almighty has spoken.” (Micah 4:4)
Peace will prevail in the animal kingdom as well. Predators and prey will live side by side, and their young will lie down together, all of them existing in perfect harmony with each other and with mankind again (Isaiah 11:6-8). This will be another reversal of a post-flood condition, when fear and dread of man fell upon all the beasts of the earth and the birds of the air (Gen. 9:2-3).
And so the time of restoration will have come, and in every way Earth will be like it was in the beginning. Where ever one goes there will be peace on Earth and good will toward men, like the angel Gabriel promised to the shepherds so long ago. The Lord Himself will rule, assisted by the Church.
The mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law (Torah) will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. (Isaiah 2:2-4)
But like it was at the beginning, the seed of rebellion will still exist in the heart of natural man. Even though he’s been given every conceivable advantage in this, his last best chance to live in peace with God, within a generation or two that seed will begin to germinate as the children of Tribulation survivors come of age. Some will choose to follow their parents to the foot of the cross and receive their personal redemption. But with each generation an increasing number won’t. This will happen even though Satan will be bound, the Lord Himself will be their King, and God’s Law will be their law.
You see, there is no condition or circumstance that will allow natural man with his sin nature to live in peace with God. As the end of the Thousand Year Kingdom approaches, unbelievers will vastly out number believers again, especially among the nations. When Satan is released they will mount up as one and march across the breadth of the Earth to surround the camp of God’s people and the city He loves in a final attempt to kick the Lord off the planet. But fire from Heaven will devour them, and Satan will be captured again, this time to be thrown into the lake of fire forever. (Rev. 20:9-10)
And so for the seventh time, God will enter into covenant with man in an attempt at coexistence. And for the seventh time all but a remnant will refuse and the covenant will be broken and end in judgment. These seven attempts by God to live among His creation are called dispensations, and if this is a new idea for you, here’s a brief description of each.
The Seven Dispensations
The first attempt has been called the Age of Innocence. Between the Creation and the Fall of Man God interacted freely and personally with man. Man was created immortal and while he had agency (the power of choice) he didn’t have a sin nature. God placed Adam and Eve in His garden and gave them only one restriction. But they violated this restriction and were expelled from the Garden. Adam, Eve, and the Serpent who beguiled them were all judged, the Creation was cursed, and sin entered the world.
Then came the Age of Conscience. From the Fall of Man to the Great Flood, God allowed man’s conscience to rule without Divine interference. Because of man’s newly acquired sin nature, the result of this was “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5) After repeated warnings, God destroyed all but 8 members of the Human race in the Great Flood.
Next there was the Age of Human Government which lasted from Noah’s Flood to the Tower of Babel. After the Flood, God allowed man to establish his first system of government. But the people disobeyed God’s commandment to go forth and replenish the Earth, setting about instead to build a great city and a tower to protect themselves from another flood. They also used the tower to study astrology, a corruption of the Gospel that God had written in the stars using the names of 12 constellations. So God gave each of the 70 families of man a unique language that other families weren’t able to understand. This caused confusion and distrust among the people and they drifted apart to be scattered throughout the world, and God destroyed the tower.
The fourth attempt was called the Age of Promise. God set Abraham’s descendants apart as His Chosen People and promised Abraham and Sarah a son through whom He said He would bless the world. But they grew tired of waiting for Him, and they produced a son on their own, calling him Ishmael. Later, when God gave them Isaac, the son He had promised, Ishmael was sent away causing bad blood between Ishmael (Arabs) and Isaac (Jews) that continues to this day.
Number five was the Age of Law which lasted from Mt. Sinai to Pentecost. After God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, He gave Moses the 10 Commandments and offered the Jews the land He had promised to Abraham along with a life of peace and plenty if they obeyed His Law. After 2000 years of vacillating between obedience and rebellion that resulted in them rejecting the Messiah, God finally had enough, expelled them from their land, and dispersed them throughout the world. (But not forever. The Age of Law was interrupted seven years short of its allotted time while God created the Church. After the Rapture, the final 7 years, also known as Daniel’s 70th Week Israel will have one final chance to live in obedience to God and accept their Messiah.)
The Age of Grace, also known as The Church Age, was God’s sixth try. No longer requiring that righteousness be earned through obedience to the Law, God imputed His own righteousness to man by grace through faith in the completed work of the Lord Jesus, promising eternal blessing and a place in His own house to all who accept. It was the most outrageously lavish gift ever bestowed, free for the asking. But by the end of the Age of Grace most of humanity will have rejected His gift, choosing instead to live on their own terms, betting that either God doesn’t exist, or if He does He’ll allow them into His kingdom anyway. After removing the relative few who have accepted His gift so they’ll be safe with Him, He’ll punish the rest through the most severe time of judgment ever visited on Earth.
And finally the Kingdom Age, number seven. This is the 1000 Year Reign of the Lord, also known as the Millennium, that we’ve been discussing. And like the previous six, it will end in failure and judgment. Seven attempts, seven failures, seven judgments. Enough is enough.
After the Millennium, God and man will enjoy a new beginning, called Eternity. We’re not given any information about this because the Bible effectively ends at the end of the Millennium. In Rev. 20, John skipped ahead after verse six to describe the final destinies of Satan and all unbelievers while he was on the subject. (Rev. 20:7-15) Then in Rev. 21:1-27 he went back to the beginning of the Millennium to show us the New Jerusalem, and in Rev. 22:1-6 gave us a glimpse of Millennial life on Earth. We know this because Rev. 21:1 is a direct quote from Isaiah 65:17 where the context is the Kingdom age in Israel and Rev. 22:1-6 is a summary of Ezekiel 47, also a millennial passage.
As part of the Church we’ll effectively have a head start on Eternity, as will resurrected believers from both Old Testament times and Daniel’s 70th Week. But we’ll have to wait at least until the rapture to see what it’s going to be like. All we know for now is that it’ll be the greatest adventure ever designed for mankind, and we’re at the head of the line.
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Maranatha!
(Lord Come Quickly)
"On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand, All other ground is sinking sand."
"Let Us make the short time we have left count for all eternity!"
YBIC-Randy
