August 20, 2010
Read All the Headlines of Prophetic Interest at:
STAY INFORMED - DON'T BE LEFT BEHIND!
Let us make the short time we have left count for all eternity!
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
Now Shipping! New DVD "Living on Borrowed Time" for more information and to order your copy of this exciting new DVD, please click below!
www.prophecyupdate.com/living_on_borrowed_time.htm
FREE MOVIE! – THE FEATURED DVD FOR AUGUST – “THE RAPTURE: IN A MOMENT IN THE TWINKLING OF AN EYE…”
Each month Prophecy Update is going to feature one of our DVDS’s that you can watch for free online. This month’s featured DVD will be “The Rapture: In a Moment in the Twinkling of an eye…” – To watch this DVD click on the following link:
www.prophecyupdate.com/the_rapture1.htm
Iran test fires surface-to-surface missile - Jay Deshmukh – www.news.yahoo.com
TEHRAN (AFP) – Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi announced on Friday that Iran has test fired a surface-to-surface missile, Qiam, a day before it is due to launch its Russian-built first nuclear power plant.
State television showed images of the sand colored Qiam (Rising) blasting into the air from a desert terrain, amid chants of "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest).
The words "Ya Mahdi" were written on the side of the missile, referring to Imam Mahdi, one of the 12 imams of Shiite Islam, who disappeared as a boy and whom the faithful believe will return one day to bring redemption to mankind.
Vahidi, whose speech during Friday prayers in Tehran was broadcast on television, did not say when the launch took place nor did he reveal the precise range of the missile.
Fars news agency had in a report earlier this week quoted the minister as saying that Qiam was a short-range missile.
"The missile has new technical aspects and has a unique tactical capacity," he said on Friday, adding that the device was of a "new class."
"Since the surface-to-surface missile has no wings, it has lot of tactical power, which also reduces the chances of it being intercepted," he said.
Iran's ISNA news agency cited Vahidi as saying that Qiam was entirely designed and built domestically and was powered by liquid fuel.
"This missile is capable of hitting the target with high precision," Vahidi said.
On Tuesday, Vahidi had said that Qiam was to be test fired during the annual government week, the period when Tehran touts its achievements in various fields. This year government week begins on Monday.
The third generation Fateh 110 (Conqueror) missile was also to be test fired during this period. Iran has previously paraded a version of Fateh 110 which has a travel range of 150 to 200 kilometers (90 to 125 miles).
Also during government week, the production lines of two missile-carrying speedboats, Seraj (Lamp) and Zolfaqar (named after Shiite Imam Ali's sword) are due to be inaugurated, while a long-range drone, Karar, is expected to be unveiled.
The firing of Qiam comes days after Iran took delivery of four new mini-submarines of the home-produced Ghadir class. Weighing 120 tons, the "stealth" submarines are aimed at operations in shallow waters, notably in the Gulf.
Iranian officials regularly boast about Tehran's military capabilities and the latest missile launch coincides with warnings by local officials against any attack on the Islamic republic.
Iran's archfoes the United States and Israel have not ruled out a military strike against Tehran to stop its controversial nuclear program.
On Saturday, Iran is due to launch its Russian-built first nuclear power plant which eventually aims to generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity. The plant is scheduled to go online after more than three decades of delays.
Iran's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi said on Friday that Tehran aims to power the Bushehr plant in future with fuel made domestically for which the Islamic republic would continue its sensitive uranium enrichment program.
"Enrichment (of uranium) for producing fuel for the Bushehr plant and other plants will continue," Salehi told state news agency IRNA. Currently, Russia has supplied the fuel for the plant.
Salehi said the contract with Russia does not stipulate that Tehran must always buy fuel from Moscow, as the "memorandum of understanding says they will meet our demand if we request" it.
"The Bushehr plant has a lifespan of 60 years and we plan to use it for 40 years. Suppose we buy fuel for 10 years from Russia, what are we going to do for the next 30 to 50 years?" Salehi said.
The Bushehr plant is not directly under UN sanctions, although the Security Council has slapped Tehran with four sets of punitive measures for pursuing its uranium enrichment program.
Western countries suspect Tehran is enriching uranium to make nuclear weapons, a charge strongly denied by Iran. Enriched uranium can be used to power nuclear reactors as well as to make the fissile core of an atom bomb.
Iran to enrich uranium for Bushehr plant – www.news.yahoo.com
TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran said Friday it will press ahead with its controversial uranium enrichment program in order to provide fuel for the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear plant due to go online this weekend.
"Enrichment (of uranium) for producing fuel for the Bushehr plant and other plants will continue," the country's atomic chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, told state news agency IRNA.
Iran's first nuclear power plant, in the southern port city of Bushehr, is due to be launched on Saturday, although it will only start generating electricity from October or November, according to an Iranian nuclear official.
Russia has built the plant and also supplied it with fuel.
But Salehi said Iran would pursue uranium enrichment as Tehran may not always be in a position to buy fuel for the plant from Moscow.
"The Bushehr plant has a lifespan of 60 years and we plan to use it for 40 years. Suppose we buy fuel for 10 years from Russia. What are we going to do for the next 30 to 50 years?" Salehi said.
He said the contract with Russia does not stipulate that Tehran has always to buy fuel from Moscow, as the "memorandum of understanding says they will meet our demand if we request" it.
The Bushehr plant is scheduled to go online after more than three decades of delay.
Ali Shirzadian, spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, was cited by Fars news agency as saying that the actual "commissioning ceremony (of the facility) will take place in the ... (Iranian month of) Aban (late October to November) when (its) electricity will be connected to the national grid."
In a separate report, IRNA cited Iran's envoy to the UN atomic watchdog, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, as saying that Bushehr launch symbolises Tehran's "dominance over the nuclear fuel cycle."
The Bushehr plant is not directly under UN sanctions, although Tehran has been slapped with four sets of punitive measures for pursuing the sensitive uranium enrichment program.
The latest round of UN sanctions were imposed on June 9.
US assures Israel on Iran's A-bomb plans – www.news.yahoo.com
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States has persuaded Israel that Iran would take one year or longer to build a nuclear weapon, dimming the prospects of a preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, The New York Times said.
"We think that they have roughly a year dash time," President Barack Obama's top advisor on nuclear issues Gary Samore was quoted as saying in the daily's online edition.
By "dash time," the official referred to the shortest time Iran would take to build a nuclear weapon, judging from its existing facilities and capacity to convert stocks of low-enriched uranium into weapons-grade material, a process known as "breakout."
Samore said the United States believes international inspectors would detect any Iranian move toward "breakout" within weeks, leaving the US and Israel ample time to craft a response.
Israel has hinted in the past that it would likely attack Iranian nuclear facilities should the Islamic republic try to build an atomic bomb, a development that the Jewish state says would be a mortal threat to its existence.
Israel believes Iran is only months away from such a scenario, while the US intelligence thinks it would take longer.
Based on intelligence collected over the past year, the new US assessment is not clear on what problems Iran's uranium enrichment program -- which Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes -- is confronting.
The daily said the lag could be due to poor centrifuge design, difficulty in obtaining components or accelerated Western efforts to sabotage the nuclear program.
'Al-Qaida prepares for Israel-Iran war' – www.jpost.com
Report: Al-Shehri warns against "the greater state of Israel."
Al-Qaida is ready to exploit a war "by the Jews against Iran," the Sunni group's second-in-command in Yemen, Saeed al-Shehri, said in an audio message this month, according to the Daily Beast.
The mostly Shi'ite nation of Iran is an enemy to Al-Qaida, and al-Shehri predicted that after Israel attacked Iranian nuclear installations, Iran would blame Saudi Arabia - which reports say may let Israel fly through its airspace to attack Iran - and use the opportunity to seize the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Shehri said Israel would then seize territory from surrounding Arab nations to establish "the greater state of Israel," and the Sunni Arab population of the Middle East would be trapped between the “Jews in the Middle East and Iran in the Peninsula," the Daily Beast reported.
According to the Daily Beast, Al-Qaida would benefit from an Israel-Iran war because if Israel attacked Iran's nuclear installations, Iran would use its proxies to lash back at Americans in the Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Arab sources: A major military surprise is close. Galant scandal a smokescreen – www.debka.com
War preparations are reported by debkafile's military sources in Tehran and Damascus, debkafile's military sources report.
In Tehran, Iran's Revolutionary Guards announced Friday, Aug. 20: "IRGC is in full readiness to encounter firmly with the stupidity of the US and the Zionist regime."
In Damascus, Syrian prime minister Naji al-Otari gathered his ministers and heads of security and emergency services Thursday and ordered them to place all their services on immediate war readiness.
And sources close to the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas quoted him as saying that direct talks with Israel were not in the offing because "a big military surprise awaits the Middle East."
On Thursday, too, Tehran pitched its threat level high by warning that any attack on Iran's nuclear sites would be met by the IRGC "targeting the interests of the enemies in any part of the world."
Some Iranian sources have suggested that Israel's obsessive preoccupation with the Galant scandal (over a forged document designed to influence the choice of the next Israeli chief of staff) is a smokescreen for masking preparations for an imminent attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
In the United States, respected commentators this week talked and wrote openly about a possible war over Iran's progress toward a nuclear bomb capability.
Former US ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, who has excellent connections in Washington and Jerusalem, wrote: "The United States is more likely than Israel to launch an attack on Iran."
Lawrence Eagleburger, former US Secretary of State, had this to say about the activation of Iran's first reactor at Bushehr Saturday, Aug. 21: "The world's going to war over this. If Iran gets the weapon it's going to use it."
He urged an attack on Iran before it obtained a bomb.
Some other US experts suggest the world powers would wait longer than 11 months before weighing an attack, whereas informed American sources are talking for the first time in 14 months about a possible US-led multilateral Western attack on Iran which, according to debkafile's military sources, would be in conjunction with Germany, Britain and France.
In the first week of June, 2009, those sources note, US, UK and French forces carried out a joint exercise at the French Canjuers training facility near Toulon, simulating a marine attack with close air support on Iranian ground targets
British planes took off for the exercise from airbases in the UK, while US warplanes flew in from the USS Harry S. Truman and French jets from their carrier, the Charles de Gaulle. It was their first display of strength, in which the German frigate FGS Hessen also took part, for a combined air-sea-ground war offensive.
The Truman and the Hessen are currently stationed in the Gulf of Oman opposite the strategic Straits of Hormuz.
In an apparent bid to calm the rising war fever in America, the New York Times Friday reported that the Washington has assured Israel that an Iranian threat was not imminent but had been delayed for a year by problems in enriching uranium and divisions within the regime over how far to push their nuclear program But the NYT added suspicions in Israel that the enrichment problems may be a pretext to conceal a secret enrichment site yet to be discovered in tunnels being dug across the country, including some near Natanz. Tehran may then take everyone by surprise and jump up with a nuclear bomb - in the same way as it caught the world napping with a banned uranium enrichment industry turning out fuel for a bomb unhindered.
Simon Henderson, an eminent American expert on Iran, published an article Thursday on the imminent inauguration of the Bushehr reactor in which he stressed that the fuel rods it uses could produce enough plutonium-rich residue for building at least one nuclear bomb a year.
The plant will moreover provide cover for training an entire generation of Iranian nuclear scientists and technicians for its weapons industry. After all, the regime's nuclear and missile programs involved "evasion" and "an array of deceptive practices."
Yet not a word was heard in Israel - either from official sources or by media commentators - in advance of the ceremony inaugurating the Russian-built Bushehr reactor Saturday. All their efforts were bent on untangling the Galant affair and coping with its fallout. No wonder Iran, Syria, Hizballah and the Palestinians refused to believe this obsession could be so all-consuming and treated it as a red herring for deceiving them.
Quartet 'aims to start Mideast peace talks September 2' – www.haaretz.com
World powers will invite Israelis and Palestinians to begin direct peace talks on September 2 in Washington, diplomatic source says.
World powers will invite Israelis and Palestinians to begin direct peace talks on Sept. 2 in Washington, a diplomatic source said on Thursday.
Envoys from the so-called Quartet of powers - the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations - agreed to the details on Thursday, the source told Reuters. A formal statement is due to be issued on Friday.
"They've got an agreement that the talks will start on September 2 in Washington," said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Israelis and Palestinians were expected to agree to attend, and President Barack Obama would be present at the talks, the source said.
Earlier, diplomatic sources said the Quartet was discussing a draft statement inviting Israel and the Palestinians to embark on direct talks intended to conclude a treaty in one year.
The Quartet said in June that peace talks would be expected to conclude in 24 months. The new draft says 12 months. The Palestinian Authority government intends to have established all the attributes of statehood by mid-2011.
Diplomats say the idea that a unilateral declaration of statehood could win support if talks do not start or collapse in the next 12 months is gaining interest.
The peace process resumed in May after a hiatus of 19 months but is stalled over the terms of an upgrade from indirect talks mediated by U.S. envoy George Mitchell to direct negotiations.
Israel insists it is ready for direct talks provided there are no preconditions. The Palestinians are ready provided there is a clear agenda. Israel says an agenda means preconditions.
Israel and Palestinians await invite to year of talks - Douglas Hamilton – www.news.yahoo.com
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A Middle East treaty creating a Palestinian state at peace with Israel can be completed in one year of negotiations, said major powers who were due on Friday to invite both parties to start talks in two weeks.
A diplomatic source said the Quartet of world powers engaged in Middle East peace-making had agreed on the details of the invitation on Thursday and would issue it formally on Friday.
Israeli and Palestinian officials said they expected a U.S. invitation by the end of the day to launch the talks on September 2 at a meeting with President Barack Obama in Washington.
"We are waiting to see the formulation of the American invitation draft. Our position remains that we don't want preconditions," an Israeli official said.
A Palestinian official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "If the statement meets what we are calling for, we will say yes of course."
The Palestinians were focused on the statement they expect from the Quartet -- the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- which would set out terms of reference for the talks.
The Quartet says 12 months should be sufficient to conclude a deal. In June, the powers said talks could take 24 months.
The Israeli government, playing down the role of the Quartet, was focused on the forthcoming U.S. invitation to direct talks with few specifics.
In three statements on the Middle East conflict this year, the Quartet said Israel should stop building settlements in the West Bank and agree to a Palestinian state within the borders of land it has occupied since the 1967 Middle East war.
Israel says direct talks should begin with no preconditions. For the Palestinians, however, the Quartet statement constitutes a minimum guarantee of the terms of reference.
The Palestinian official said that if the statement of the Quartet was not satisfactory "we will express our demands."
LAUNCH IN SEPTEMBER
Middle East analysts say the peace process which began in the early 1990s long ago established the basic outlines of a deal acceptable to Israel and the Palestinians, and identified crunch issues remaining to be thrashed out.
In one year from now, the Palestinian Authority government intends to have established all the attributes of statehood, raising speculation that it might declare independence should talks fail to make progress on a "final status" treaty.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah party rules the West Bank, broke off talks with the previous Israeli prime minister in 2008. Contacts were frozen after Israel's massive offensive in the Gaza Strip in that same year against Hamas.
Contacts resumed in May this year after a hiatus of 19 months in the form of "proximity talks" via Obama's envoy George Mitchell, who has been working for weeks to get Abbas to agree to upgrade the process by resuming direct negotiation.
The Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza and refuses to renounce violence against Israel, said the proposed peace talks would do nothing to help the Palestinian cause.
"There is no use at all in resuming the negotiations," Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said in Gaza after Friday prayers.
Launching the talks early in September is seen as crucial.
Obama wants them started well before September 26, when Israel's 10-month moratorium on Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank is due to end. Full-scale return to settlement construction could sink the talks for good.
The Quartet statement reaffirms the four powers' "full commitment to its previous statements." But it does not explicitly repeat the demand for a settlement freeze -- wording which would almost certainly be rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's center-right coalition.
Abbas needs the endorsement of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the support of Arab states to engage Netanyahu in direct talks.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has warned the Israelis not to offer Abbas "some Mickey Mouse state."
ALL OF OUR DVD’S NOW FOR ONLY $14.95 EACH
These DVD’s are not just someone standing at a podium and speaking to an audience, they are full length docudrama’s just like you would see on the Discovery Channel or the History Channel. They make wonderful witnessing and teaching tools and many churches show them to their congregations and youth groups as well as using them in home Bible study groups.
www.prophecyupdate.com/prophecy_update_dvd.htm
SAVE EVEN MORE WITH ONE OF OUR SUMMER DVD SPECIALS
Special #1 - The Last Days Trilogy
The End of Times
Perilous Times
Living on Borrowed Time
All 3 DVD's for only $29.95
Special #2 - Amazing Prophecy
As in the Days of Noah
The Rapture: In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye...
After the Rapture
All 3 DVD's for only $29.95
Special #3 - There will be Tribulation
Israel God's Timepiece
The Soon to be Revealed Antichrist
Gog and Magog
All 3 DVD's for only $29.95
www.prophecyupdate.com/dvd_special1.htm
Warning! Watching these DVD’s could change your life forever!
Our Best Deal! Now you can own all 9 of the DVD’s in our prophecy series for only $69.95…
THE COMPLETE PROPHECY UPDATE DVD SERIES
COMPLIMENT YOUR DVD LIBRARY WITH OUR INFORMATIVE AND INSPIRING PROPHECY SERIES
“The DVD’s were just wonderful – well done! I’m proud to show them to anyone.“ Sandra M, Florida
ALL 9 DVD'S FOR ONLY $69.95
www.prophecyupdate.com/prophecy_update_dvd_series.htm
Thank You So Very Much!
A great gift for your family or your church or favorite ministry!
Dusk in Iraq - By Caroline B. Glick
The trajectory of strategic blindness will come at a huge cost
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | A troubling milestone arrived on Thursday when the US withdrew its final combat brigade from Iraq. The remaining 50,000 US forces are charged with advising and training the Iraqi military. US President Barack Obama has pledged to withdraw them as well by the end of next year.
When US- led allied forces invaded Iraq seven years ago, their action raised the hopes and incited the dreams of millions throughout the region and throughout the world. Operation Iraqi Freedom promised to bring the light of liberty to a corner of the world that had known none. By doing so, it would inspire and enable men and women throughout the region to believe that they too could be free.
But as the last US combat brigade departed on Thursday, the Iraq they left behind was not an Arab shining city on an Iraqi hill. The Iraq they withdrew from has no government. The post-March 7 elections coalition talks are hopelessly deadlocked. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has agreed to serve as the head of a caretaker government for now and take no major decisions about Iraq's future. In a word, Iraq suffers from governmental paralysis.
Then there is the US-trained and armed Iraqi military. Recently, Iraq's most senior general, Lt. Gen. Babakir Zebari acknowledged that Iraqi forces will be unable to defend the country from domestic and foreign aggression until 2020. Zebari asserted that the reason the withdrawal of US combat forces was proceeding well was "because they [the US forces] are still here."
This week's suicide bombing at the military recruitment office in Baghdad in which some 61 people were murdered is part of a growing trend in Iraq. As the US withdraws, the forces the US fought throughout the past seven years are on the rise. Al Qaida is reportedly behind much of the recent violence as it seeks to convince Iraq's uneasy Sunnis to rejoin its ranks in a continuing war against the Shiites. And as to the Shiites, their leaders remain alternatively and often simultaneously dependent on and threatened by Iran. As outgoing US commander in Iraq Gen. Ray Odierno acknowledged last month, Iran remains the largest sponsor of sectarian violence in the country.
And so, despite the US investment of more than a trillion dollars in Iraq, and despite the more than 4,400 US servicemen and women who lost their lives in the country, the future of Iraq remains uncertain at best. Certainly a coherent, moderate, US-allied, and democratic Iraq remains an elusive goal.
The US blames Iran for Iraq's political deadlock. It is right to do so. The election results gave a narrow two-seat lead to former prime minister Ayad Alawi's's Sunni-backed Iraqiya party over Maliki's State of Law Shiite coalition. And yet, rather than accept the results, Iranian-allied Shiite politicians led by Ahmed Chalabi sued to have six members of Alawi's party denied the right to assume office due to their past ties to Saddam's Baathist party. Although their lawsuit was defeated in May, the sides continue to be unable to come to an agreement that would enable the Iraqi Parliament to come into office or a government to be formed.
Iran's hand is everywhere in this chaos. As George Friedman wrote in a recent Straffor Intelligence Bulletin, it is true that today, with fifty thousand US forces still deployed in Iraq, "the Iranians do not have the ability to impose a government on Iraq. However, they do have the ability to prevent the formation of a government or to destabilize one that is formed. Iranian intelligence has sufficient allies and resources in Iraq to guarantee the failure of any stabilization attempt that doesn't please Tehran."
As Friedman notes, for Iran, keeping Iraq in an ongoing state of instability with sporadic periods of outright chaos is a low-cost, high-return investment. It denies Iraq the ability to reconstitute itself to its traditional role as a regional counterweight balancing Iranian power in the Persian Gulf. It also denies the US victory, erodes its will to fight and saps it of its determination to defend the Persian Gulf from Iranian ascendance.
As Friedman sees it, "The Iranian strategy seems to be to make the United States sufficiently uncomfortable to see withdrawal as attractive but not to be so threatening as to deter the withdrawal. As clever as that strategy is, however, it does not hide the fact that Iran would dominate the Persian Gulf region after the withdrawal. Thus, the United States has nothing but unpleasant choices in Iraq. It can stay in perpetuity and remain vulnerable to violence. It can withdraw and hand the region over to Iran. It can go to war with yet another Islamic country. Or it can negotiate with a government that it despises - and which despises it right back."
There are two frustrating aspects to Friedman's analysis and what it tells us about the prospects for the region going forward.
The first frustrating aspect of Friedman's diagnosis of the situation in Iraq today is just how similar it is to the situation in Lebanon. As in Iraq, anti-Iranian political forces won the Lebanese elections last year. But as is the case today in Iraq, Iran's proxies in Lebanon gridlocked coalition negotiations and so coerced the anti-Iranian March 14 movement candidates led by Prime Minister Saad Hariri to agree to forge a unity government with Hizbullah. Moreover, they forced Hariri to accept effective Hizbullah — that is, Iranian — control over his government. This they did by demanding that Hizbullah receive enough votes in the cabinet to give it veto power over all governmental decisions.
Hizbullah's dominant position in Lebanon was depressingly and tragically demonstrated last week when Hariri called on the UN to investigate Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah's allegations that Israel was behind his father's assassination in 2005. Former prime minister Rafiq Hariri's murder in February 2005 was carried out by Hizbullah and Syria and his son knows this.
That he would bow to his father's murderer is a hair raising example of how the ruthless Iranian power game works. Lebanon's hapless prime minister rightly fears Hizbullah, Syria and Iran more than he trusts the US. And so he remains Prime Minster in name only and serves at their pleasure — the effective slave of his father's killers.
On a military level, the US's inconclusive campaign in Iraq bears striking similarities to Israel's departure from southern Lebanon ten years ago. In Lebanon as in Iraq, Iran and its proxies made it impossible for Israel and its allies in the South Lebanese Army to bring stability to the south. Hizbullah's constant, but low key assaults on Israel and IDF forces, punctuated by sporadic escalations eroded the Israeli ruling class's will to fight. So too, the elusive character of the asymmetric enemy made it easy for the same elites to ignore the nature of the adversarial forces arrayed against Israel and so paved the way for Israel's retreat. This in turn fomented Hizbullah's triumphant takeover of the south, and in due course, its takeover of the whole of Lebanon.
The second frustrating aspect of the state of Iraq today is what it says about the US's ability to acknowledge the realities of the region and fashion successful strategies for contending with its challenges. For the past seven years, advocates of the Iraq war and opponents of the war, Republicans and Democrats alike has consistently refused to understand the nature of the battlefield and what that meant about their prospects in Iraq and the region.
Both the Bush and Obama administrations wrongly characterized Iraq as a stand-alone war. But the fact is Iraq has always been a battleground of a regional war. And the main enemy in Iraq, the main obstacle to stability and victory is Iran. Just as Israel was unable to beat Iran in Lebanon, and so lost to its proxy Hizbullah, so the US has been and will remain unable to defeat Iran in Iraq. And if it maintains its current strategy, it will be defeated by Iran's proxies.
The only way to safeguard Iraq is to overthrow the regime in Iran. The only way to get the likes of Hariri out from under the jackboots of Hizbullah and the Iranian-proxy regime in Damascus is to overthrow the regime in Iran.
If it were just a question of Iraq's wellbeing as a country, it would arguably make sense for the US to avoid escalation of the war and refuse to challenge the regime in Teheran. But Iran is not only fighting for Iraq and it is not only fighting in Iraq. Through its proxies, Iran is also fighting in Lebanon and is using its proxies to increase its influence throughout the Persian Gulf, the Levant and beyond. And with the regime just a short step or two away from nuclear capabilities it is clear that the US strategy in Iraq was wrong all along. It was wrong and dangerous.
The US strategy was to bring democracy to Iraq and by doing so, inspire democratic revolutions throughout the Arab world. Although inspiring, it was wrong first and foremost because it was predicated on ignoring one of the basic dictates of strategy. It failed to recognize that there were other forces in the region.
It failed to anticipate that every US move would be countered by an Iranian move. And in failing to recognize this basic strategic truth — even though it has been staring them in the face — the Americans aggressively pursued a strategy that became more and more irrelevant as time went by.
As the actions of the Hariris of Lebanon and their counterparts in Iraq show clearly, Iran's countermoves have always been more forthright and compelling than the US's moves have been.
In the September issue of Commentary, Arthur Herman depressingly sets out the Obama administration's declared plans and early moves to gut the US military. It is obvious that regardless of Obama's political position after the mid-term elections in November, he will not revisit the US's current Middle East strategy which is predicated on ignoring the Iranian nuclear elephant in the middle of the room. He will not work to overthrow the regime or support any forces that would overthrow the regime.
It is true that in the short term, the prospects for the region hinge on whether or not Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has the courage to order the IDF to attack Iran's nuclear installations. And it is also true that if an Israeli strike is sufficiently successful, it would empower many positive forces throughout the region — from Teheran Kurdistan to Ankara, Damascus and Beirut.
But in the medium and long-term, nothing can replace America. And as long as the US continues on its trajectory of strategic blindness, the Iraqis will be far from alone in their suffering.
This week on 'The Hal Lindsey Report' – Hal Lindsey – www.hallindsey.com
On this week's edition of "The Hal Lindsey Report": I'm going to take another run at the Cordoba Mosque Ground Zero controversy. President Obama decided to weigh in on one side (as did Nancy Pelosi, though Harry Reid surprised me).
What bothers me, though, is the double standard. Diners at a senior citizens center in Georgia can't publicly say grace over a federally-subsidized meal. The Left says that amounts to a government endorsement of religion. But the President can make a pronouncement defining Islamic theology at a Ramadan dinner in the White House, and that ISN'T a government endorsement of religion? I may not be the brightest bulb in the box, but....
One Jewish family whose son was murdered in the Twin Towers attack likened building the Cordoba Mosque at Ground Zero to bringing "a pig into the Temple." The reference has its roots in Jewish history, but it illustrates the deep-seated emotion evoked by this insane proposal.
Last week, Russia broke its pledge to the United States and Europe. It announced that it would load in the nuclear fuel rods at the Bushehr reactor in Iran. Scheduled to begin on Saturday, August 21, the loading of the fuel rods will officially make Iran the world's newest nuclear power. John Bolton, former US Ambassador to the UN, says that means that Saturday is the dreaded point of no return for the West to do something to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. After the rods are loaded, an air strike is almost unthinkable. The risk of radiation contamination of that part of the world would be too great.
Returning rested and refreshed from her luxury vacation in Spain (but before re-packing for her vacation trips to the Gulf Coast and Martha's Vineyard), First Lady Michelle Obama was pleased that her husband signed a Presidential Memorandum making her centerpiece enterprise official. The President's signature provides $8 billion for Mrs. Obama's "Let's Move! Initiative." Her effort is aimed at eliminating childhood obesity in this generation. I certainly can't dispute that childhood obesity is a growing problem in our culture. However, in light of current economic conditions, I'm concerned that the funding of this program may cause some unintended consequences.
Finally, the courts have done it again. An openly homosexual District Court Judge in San Francisco has declared unconstitutional California's constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. With the stroke of his pen, Judge Vaughn Walker declared the votes of seven million Californians to be null and void. Never mind the cultural and moral implications of his decision, the sheer fact that one man can impose his wishes on 37 million Californians -- and maybe another 290 million Americans -- is mind-boggling. I'm constantly amazed by how these lone judges can find definitions and implications in our United States Constitution heretofore undiscovered by thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of judges before them. Like I said, I may not be the brightest bulb in the box, but....
A programming note: 'The Hal Lindsey Report' will not be seen on Daystar Television Network this Sunday, August 22. It's Sharathon time at Daystar. But we'll be back next week.
Don't miss this week's Report on TBN, Inspiration, CPM Network, various local stations, www.hallindsey.com or www.hischannel.com
Survey shows public schools are breeding grounds for immoral activity – Bill Wilson - www.dailyjot.com
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, headed up by former Carter Administration Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Joseph Califano, has released its annual survey of American attitudes on substance abuse. Consistent with its findings over the 16 years of surveys, the Center's survey of some 2,000 teens and nearly 500 parents indicates that the public school system is failing miserably in protecting America's children against drugs and violence. Even the liberal Califano can see that there is trouble with the public school system, although he has no understanding of to fix it.
Califano writes, "Perhaps our most important finding from so many years of surveying teens and other research is this: A child who gets through age 21 without smoking, using illegal drugs or abusing alcohol is virtually certain never to do so. And, for better or worse, no one has greater power to influence a teen's decision whether to drink or use drugs than that teen's parents." The report says, "Our nation's public schools are riddled with gangs--and schools where there are gangs are likelier schools where there are drugs...some 5.7 million public school students attend schools where drugs are used, kept or sold and where gangs are present."
Califano says, "If you want to know one of the reasons why so many public schools are failing our children, consider the difference our survey reveals between public schools and private and religious schools: 46 percent of teens at public schools say there are gangs at their schools compared to only 2 percent of teens at private and religious schools. Think about this situation: compared to private and religious schools, public schools are 23 times likelier to be gang infected." In 2001, the report stated that 62% of public schools were drug free compared with 43% today. Some 79% of private and religious schools, however, were drug free in 2001, and the number is virtually unchanged a decade later.
Take note: the infiltration of public schools by radical anti-moral, humanist liberals and organizations like the National Education Association and the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network have ruined schools and generations of children. You cannot condone an immoral culture and expect to produce good character. Public schools are locally controlled by taxpayers. And taxpayers are us. We must take a stronger role in the schools to hold them accountable to our moral standards. Organizations that do not match our morals should be booted. Proverbs 22:6 says, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." This is no time to be asleep at the switch.
Have a Blessed and Powerful Day!
Bill Wilson
Word of Life Ministry
A Murderer at Heart – Greg Laurie – www.harvest.org
"You have heard that our ancestors were told, 'You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.' But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell."
— Matthew 5:21–22
Have you ever hated anyone? Have you ever hated anyone so much that you wished they were dead? If you are thinking, Oh, no—not me, then allow me to rephrase the question: Have you ever driven on a freeway? If we were honest, we all would probably admit to having a strong dislike for certain people at one time or another in our lives—people who, if they were to walk into the room, would make our blood begin to boil.
But the Bible tells us, "Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don't have eternal life within them" (1 John 3:15). We know that murder is a sin before God. But God says that if we hate another person, then we are committing a sin as well.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was referring to the Ten Commandments when He said, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.' But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment . . . " (Matthew 5:21–22).
We can feel good about not murdering, but have we ever hated anyone? The Bible tells us, "Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior" (Ephesians 4:31). The Bible teaches that we are to love, not hate, our enemies (see Matthew 5:44).
We are all sinners. We have all broken God's commandments in some way, shape, or form. We all need God's forgiveness. And God offers it graciously and lovingly—if we will come to Him.
CSN RADIO - Where God's Word is Heard
PROPHECY UPDATE is a proud sponsor of CSN RADIO, Solid Bible Teaching, Passionate Praise & Worship, 24/7. Find a station near you or listen live on the internet
We Sure Could Use Your Support – Thanks!
If ever there was a time to invest in God’s Kingdom, it’s now!
What on earth are you doing for Heaven’s Sake?
"Share in the Blessings and Rewards that will last Forever!"
“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
1) We need your prayers! – We proclaim the Truth of the Word of God and we are under constant spiritual and sometimes even physical attack.
2) We need your encouragement! - We need to hear from you, let us know how the Lord is blessing you through this ministry so that we can share it with others.
3) We need your input! – If you have a prophetic article or story or if there is a news related item we missed, let us know.
4) We need your financial support! - To put it quite simply, without your support, there would be no Prophecy Update.
I ask that you would prayerfully consider partnering with us to get the Word out and keep the world informed. Remember, your gift, no matter how small, does make a difference! You will be helping to touch lives, around the world, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, thanks to the internet your generosity carries a global impact! – Thanks!
Our Prayer for You - "Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else." 2 Corinthians 9:10-13
If you have been blessed by Prophecy Update and would like to help support this ministry financially. You can make a secure donation online by going to:
www.prophecyupdate.com/donations.htm
Or write us at:
Prophecy Update
P.O. Box 40516
Bakersfield, CA 93384-0516
Above all things I ask for your prayers, Thanks!
Pulling the Wool over God’s Eyes - Ron Graham - twotug@embarqmail.com
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28. Paul clearly states the obvious, punctuated by the true fact that we, who are born again believers, are all one in Christ. How can this verse be so widely misinterpreted? In response to a commentary I wrote on women pastors many have used this particular verse to contradict Paul’s teachings. As we all know, God’s word never contradicts itself. So in this commentary I’ll show what Paul was clearly teaching while addressing the Galatians.
It’s interesting, if we go back and read from the beginning of this chapter we see that Paul is disturbed by what’s going on in Galatia and his blood pressure must be more than just slightly elevated as he refers to the Galatians as fools. “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth…” Galatians 3:1. Paul is speaking to the Galatians as believers who, by all accounts, knew the truth. They had been taught well and the knowledge and understanding was there. So what went wrong? The doctrines of men, the pride of life, the rebellion to the simple truth of the scriptures, and we see the same thing has happened today in many of our Christian Churches. Perhaps not the same deceptions as the Galatians were entertaining but deception none the less. Letting down our guard allows Satan a foothold and erroneous doctrines will creep in, most of the time unawares.
“… who hath bewitched you…” Galatians 3:1a. Paul is speaking to the Galatians as though they are under some kind of a spell. Paul knows the Galatians and what they’ve been taught, but something has changed. He sees the Gospel of Christ, having been previously accepted by them, being supplanted with a huge error. The Galatians were in the process of adding to the simple gift of salvation with the Old Testament Law of Moses.
Jesus Christ came to fulfill the law and the prophets and the Galatians were taught that truth. But they were bewitched in their thinking and became disobedient to that truth. The Galatians were heading off course and Paul had to help them get their sights back on Jesus Christ, and Him alone for salvation.
Unbiblical doctrines have once again permeated the Church, and strangely enough, these lies have become the norm and widely accepted by those in leadership. It’s as though no one pays attention to all the warnings against such doctrines. Jesus Himself addresses seven churches in the book of Revelation and most of them have strayed way off the correct path. Only two were still hanging onto the truth of the Gospel, and that was way back in the first century AD. Like the Galatians, much of the Christian Church has moved way off base.
Man’s perception of the Bible has changed over the years. It’s now seen as allegorical, erroneous, mythological and in many instances quite controversial. When man determines the Bible contains errors, or when verses are interpreted in a controversial way, some simply prefer to delete those supposed errors and stubborn contradictions so their agenda may be easier to achieve. If this procedure is continued for any length of time we can be assured many false doctrines will infiltrate our Christian Churches. Oh yeah, they already have. When people are blindly led by the rings in their noses instead of studying the scriptures for themselves these errors will fester into huge doctrinal issues which no one will want to deal with so they’re systematically ignored. Finally, erroneous doctrines become the new truth, and as we can now see are well entrenched in present day Christendom.
Paul saw this coming and he tried to head it off at the pass. The Galatians were being foolish in their attempts to yoke the Law of Moses with salvation, and Paul knew where this would lead. Our Christian Churches today have wandered off course; sadly there does not seem to be enough men with true biblical knowledge around to affect the change needed to get the Church back on course.
Over the past few decades there has been a huge lack of spiritual maturity among Christians. They’ve grown lax in how they deal with erroneous teaching. They’ve allowed new ideas and concepts that are unbiblical to filter in among the sheep, and in the end God’s truth has suffered greatly.
If we were to somehow conjure up Paul today and allow him ability to see for himself what has happened to the Church he would be both appalled and deeply saddened. His teachings are being treated with distain each time they stand in disagreement with or contradict a person’s personal stance on a certain issue. When someone doesn’t want to agree with the Apostle Paul because his words contradict their own manipulation of scriptures, they simply say “Although I respect Paul as a man of God he certainly didn’t speak for God in all instances”. This proves their own ignorance and deceitfulness. Of course since all scripture is God breathed (2 Timothy 3:16) we know that it’s not Paul’s words that are being tortured and manipulated, but God’s.
There’s an old adage that goes something like this, “If you torture the text long enough you can make it say whatever you want.” I’ve seen this many times, especially when someone disagrees with my commentaries. No matter how I try to explain various Scriptures in context and from the original Greek or Hebrew meanings, there are those who have been taught a skewed doctrine for so long that they cannot accept Biblical truth. Or Biblical truth doesn’t fit into their concept of how God should be doing things.
The Galatians were moving away from the pure teaching of salvation by grace through faith and trying to incorporate the Law of Moses into the salvation mixture. Paul basically resorts to teaching them all over again. This is what we learn as we read the entire 3rd chapter of Galatians.
In today’s world, a common occurrence is to manipulate the scriptures by taking them out of context. This misguided approach to the scriptures has proved quite successful for those who wish to further their own agendas. This erroneous and misguided manipulation of scriptures has led many people to believe these false interpretations while completely ignoring the exegetical process of studying scriptures. This ill conceived and satanic approach to the scriptures is what’s referred to as torturing the text. If you take a pair of scissors and cut the Bible into many pieces you can put it back together to read however you want it to read. Of course that would be cheating, and there are many who revel in this deceptive process.
“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Galatians 3:26-27. Paul’s admonition through these verses is for one purpose, to get the Galatians back on the track. To the traditional Jewish way of thinking you’re standing before God was predicated on whether or not you keep the Law. Paul says we can be considered sons of God in a different way: through faith in Christ Jesus. The Galatians were heading toward instituting a major error by attempting to add the Law of Moses to salvation, and ultimately by forcing the gentiles to adhere to the rudiments of the law, thankfully along came Paul to set them straight.
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28. Now we’re getting to the fundamental reason for this commentary. I sort of went the long way around the barn as it were, but it was a necessary route because of the misinterpretation, and erroneous manipulation of the above verse.
There is an old adage that states “The only barrier to receiving the truth is the belief you already have it”. Consequently I purposely explained the substance of the entire chapter of Galatians 3 so when I got to this verse those who might disagree wouldn’t just run away at this point. So keep reading and learn what Paul was really getting at.
You see, the problem that arose in the Church at Galatia was that some of the folks wanted the dividing line that once stood between the Jews and the Greeks to remain. It was Paul’s mission to open their eyes to the fact that in Christ Jesus no such line exists. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. We are all one in Christ, so according to Paul what does “one in Christ” mean? There is no longer a dividing line between the three characteristics he mentions because when we become born again we are all “In Christ.” Greeks, slaves, and females are all the same when it comes to our inheritance of the Kingdom of Christ. We are all “In Christ”, one body, a group of people set apart for God’s good pleasure.
This doesn’t mean that there are no longer any differences. Paul knew that there was still a difference between Jew and Greek, and his evangelistic approach might differ to each group. “For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” 1 Corinthians 9:19-22.
The slave still had a daily obligation to obey his master , though they might be equal in Jesus “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.” Ephesians 6:5-8. The whole book of Philemon addresses this same thing.
There is neither male nor female? Of course there are still differences that no one can dispute, and there are still roles for male and female in the home and in the Church “This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?”1 Timothy 2:1-5.
“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body” Ephesians 5:22-33. Though they are equal in standing before God there is still a chain of command set forth by God for all who belong to Him to follow. There are differences in role and in function, but none in standing before God through faith in Jesus.
“When we say that Christ has abolished these distinctions, we mean not that they do not exist, but that they no longer create any barriers to fellowship.” – John Stott
“He is not writing about a unity that comes about as a result of human achievement. He is saying that when people are saved by Jesus Christ they are brought into a marvelous unity, a unity between the saved and the Saviour and a unity that binds together all the saved.” – Henry Morris www.icr.org
“And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:29. This concluding verse of Paul’s ties it all together as to just what correcting was going on with the Galatians. This chapter of Galatians and in particular the verse that states we are all one in Christ has nothing whatsoever to do with women pastors or teachers; it’s about fellowship and our inheritance. Clearly Paul is addressing the Galatians erroneous view that adhering to the Law of Moses was a part of salvation. Paul uses this chapter to set the Galatians straight.
Although I understand how when taken out of context some might think by referring to there is neither male nor female that they’ve achieved their vindication for women pastors and teachers, clearly the opposite is true. “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” 1 Timothy 2:12-14. As for the word of God, it’s clear and thus it still stands.
Women who have taken on a teaching role or pastoral role by usurping the authority God gave only to men are in direct contradiction God’s word. But I’m sure these women, as well as many mislead men, will find another way to torture the text so they can continue in their attempt at pulling the wool over God’s eyes.
God bless you all,
Ron Graham
twotug@embarqmail.com
All scripture is from the KJV
If You Died Today, Would You Go To Heaven?
Find out, visit: www.prophecyupdate.com/if_you_died_today.htm
Prophecy Update – GoodSearch Toolbar
http://www.goodsearch.com/toolbar/prophecy-update
Our Prophecy Update Toolbar is free to download and allows you to raise money for our cause every time you search or shop online!
DID YOU KNOW?
You can read all the news articles, analysis and commentaries at: www.prophecyupdate.com
You can visit the news archives at: www.prophecyupdate.com/prophecy_news.htm
You can submit an article, leave a comment or praise report at: prophecyupdate@bak.rr.com (Note: Due to the large amount of emails that I receive, I can't possibly reply to every email, but I do read each and every one!)
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
