 TODAY'S NEWSLETTER...
Israelis Are Heartbroken and Wounded… But We Are Not Defeated – By Amir Tsarfati - https://harbingersdaily.com/amir-tsarfati-israelis-are-heartbroken-and-wounded-but-we-are-not-defeated/
(Galilee, Israel) — Shalom from Israel! Along with the rest of the world, many in my country celebrated the beginning of a new year. However, instead of the sound of champagne corks and the singing of Auld Lang Syne, we rang in the turn of the calendar to the tune of air attack sirens and the deafening sounds of our low-flying fighter jets. Lest that sound pessimistic, let me tell you that I in no way feel negative about the future of Israel. We are sorrowful, wounded, and heartbroken. But we are not defeated. In fact, it is just the opposite. The Israeli people are filled with a scowling, jaw-clenched determination that should have those who are set on harming us running deeper into their tunnels. The year 2024 will see Israel at peace and without any more fear of what is just on the other side of its borders. To get there, though, it is going to take another six-to-nine months. That is what the US administration and the United Nations need to understand. Well, maybe not the UN – they’re hopeless. But the pressure and the restrictions that my government is dealing with from Washington is threatening to hobble the effort. How do people not understand that this is not just an anti-terror action? This is an all-out war against a real enemy. When the Americans and the British bombed Dresden, Germany, in February 1945, there were no restrictions demanding that the 3,900 tons of explosives be precision directed only at military targets. There was no requirement that humanitarian aid be immediately provided as part of the assault. Instead, it was determined that the reward of shortening the war was worth the cost of the devastation. It was the same thinking used to end the War in the Pacific. But the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are not indiscriminately bombing. In fact, they are doing everything they can to avoid civilian casualties. The war in Gaza could have been completed before the end of October with far fewer Israelis hurt and killed if the IDF didn’t care about civilians. Instead, the military gave up the advantage of surprise in order to warn Gazans to flee areas that would soon be targeted. Also, they limited the size and strength of the ordnance used if civilian targets would be put at great risk. What does Israel get for their care in the prosecution of the war? The Gazan perpetrators are made victims by the press, and the US administration warns our prime minister that he better stop the “indiscriminate bombings”. Academics, social influencers, protest organizers, and the talking heads on television all agree that the while the Palestinians may have possibly gone a bit overboard in expressing their legitimate rage on October 7, it can certainly be understood after so many years of repression. What ultimately needs to happen to bring peace in the land is summed up in the catchy little phrase, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free!” For those of you who may not get what is meant by “free”, just add “Jew-” in front of the word and that should clarify it. I wish there was a magic wand that Benjamin Netanyahu could wave that would give us peace on all our borders. But that kind of security only comes through perseverance, hard work, and time. Israel is determined to see it through. While I would love to think that Washington will stand with us the whole time, I am not that naïve. But there is a bigger, global entity that I believe is even more important to have as an ally. That is the church. Already, I am seeing cracks in the resolve of the worldwide church when it comes to Israel. Some are condemning the country’s actions. Many more are just ignoring it, afraid to speak of it out loud for fear of offense or reprisals. I call on the church to pray in your services for Israel. I call on the church to pray in groups and as individuals. We show our love for God when we love that which He loves. Please, encourage your pastors to weekly bring the safety of Israel before the One who considers this backslidden nation to be, even now, the apple of His eye. Zechariah 2:8 KJV – “For thus saith the Lord of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.” IDF Assassinates Major Hamas Commander Tuesday night saw a meeting of key leaders of the terrorist organization, Hamas. Among those attending the meeting was Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy chairman of the Political Bureau of Hamas. Born in the West Bank, al-Arouri joined early with Hamas, and in 1993 he founded the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, which is the military wing of the terrorist organization. He continued to rise in the ranks until he became the most important person in Hamas outside of Gaza. That came to an end when an Israeli airstrike targeted al-Arouri’s Tuesday night meeting. He was instantly killed, along with five other terrorist leaders. Not only was this an embarrassment to Hezbollah since the meeting was taking place in their headquarters, but more importantly this is a major blow to Hamas. Al-Arouri was the number two man in Hamas and deputy to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. But his elimination is even more significant than if it had been Haniyeh taken out. Al-Arouri was a strategic terrorist. He was a creator, an initiator, and an implementer. He was also ambitious and very charismatic. The elimination of Haniyeh might have been more symbolic in nature, but taking al-Arouri will have far greater impact and it is a shame it didn’t happen earlier. To learn more about this attack, watch my short Breaking News Update from immediately after the event. IDF Working Hard in Khan Yunis There are five governorates to Gaza descending southwards. The first two, North Gaza and Gaza City, are firmly under IDF control. Rather than continue to the third, Deir el-Balah, the IDF has focused its attention on the fourth governorate of Khan Yunis. They are doing this to try to cut off the gradual southward retreat of Hamas. If the fleeing terrorists were able to make it all the way to the fifth governorate of Rafah, then they would potentially be able to flee across the border into Egypt. This is why, if you follow my Telegram, you have seen so much activity in Khan Yunis this past week. Beyond the activity in the south, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) has been very busy in the north. Iranian officers and proxy militias bore the brunt of the attacks in Syria, while Hezbollah targets were incessantly pounded in Lebanon. Extraordinary Number of Chinese Weapons in Gaza The IDF says that it has seized a “massive” amount of Chinese manufactured weaponry in Gaza. Defenders of China have said that it is impossible because China does not sell weapons to the Middle East. This short-sighted response ignores the round-about way weapons travel, particularly within what seems to be an emerging axis of evil between China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran with its minion proxy militias. So, while China may claim to have a strict control over the flow of their weaponry, it is likely that the containment practices of their arms factories are similar to that of their biological labs. Houthis Given Stern Warning A stern warning was issued to the Houthis by a coalition of 13 countries, led by the United States. A joint statement issued by the coalition read, “Ongoing attacks in the Red Sea are illegal, unacceptable, and profoundly destabilizing…. The Houthis will bear the responsibility of the consequences should they continue to threaten lives, the global economy, and free flow of commerce in the region’s critical waterways.” In the last three months, there have been approximately 24 attacks on international shipping in the area. U.S. Bases in Iraq and Syria Under Constant Attack There have been at least 118 attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria since October 17. The perpetrators of these assaults are the Iranian-led proxy militias. While they’re sending suicide drones toward U.S. troops, the Washington administration continues to play footsie with the ayatollahs holding out hope for some sort of nuclear deal. For those of you in America who are reading about this, how many of you knew that the attacks were this extensive? If you didn’t, then ask yourself why you didn’t? There’s an event coming the first Tuesday in November that might have something to do with it. Explosions in Iran Cause Hundreds of Casualties An explosion yesterday sent shrapnel flying into the massive crowd that had gathered in Kerman Martys Cemetery, located just over 500 miles southeast of Tehran, to commemorate the death of assassinated Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. The fleeing crowd funneled onto Shohada Street, where twenty minutes after the first blast took place a second bomb went off. It is here that most of the casualties occurred. So far, at least 103 are known to be dead, while another 211 are wounded. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the terror attack, but sources in the U.S. speculate it to be ISIS or a related group. It is also possible that it is one of the many disgruntled minority populations that make up between one-third to one-half of Iran’s population. Iran, however, claims that they know who the perpetrators are. Mohammad Jamshidi, deputy chief of staff for political affairs to the Iranian president, posted on X today, “Washington says USA and Israel had no role in the terrorist attack in Kerman, Iran. Really? A fox smells its own lair first. Make no mistake. The responsibility for this crime lies with the US and Zionist regimes and terrorism is just a tool.” The Islamic regime knows full well that it is neither the U.S. nor Israel, but their own opposition. But less than 24 hours after the assassination of al-Arouri, it’s much more convenient to make Israel the scapegoat. Turkey’s Skyrocketing Inflation It’s possible that Turkey’s President Erdogan needs to stop worrying about Israel’s prosecution of its war and start focusing on his own economy. The inflation rate finished the year near 65%. A shift in philosophy at the central bank this past June has led to interest rates lifting from 8.5% to 42.5% six months later. Unfortunately, from what we know about Erdogan, this kind of news will not quiet him on the world stage. It will only make him more dangerous. Difficult Start for Japan’s New Year A 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck Ishakawa Prefecture on New Year’s Day. At least 55 people were killed, and there was widespread damage to roads and houses. The next day, sorrow compounded sorrow when a JAL jet carrying 379 people collided on the ground with a Coast Guard plane preparing to aid victims of the quake. Everyone on board the passenger plane survived, but five of the six on the smaller plane perished. South Africa Accuses Israel of Genocide The South African government has filed a case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, accusing Israel of genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. Apparently, the country’s ANC-dominated leadership has forgotten what genocide really is. To refresh their memories, they are welcome to look back at the Hamas-led atrocities on October 7. Or, if they prefer something closer to home, their constant turning of a blind eye to the massacring of white farmers all across South Africa speaks well of the concept. Israel has chosen to defend itself against the charges, and South Africa is demanding that the case, which would normally take several years to adjudicate, be dealt with directly. In the meantime, they are asking the court to issue a legally binding injunction for Israel to “immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza.” Should this occur, I am positive that the Netanyahu administration will give the demand the due that it gives everything connected to the United Nations. For all of Behold Israel’s dear friends in South Africa, especially those who have contacted us apologizing for this court case, let me assure you that we recognize that this is your ANC-led government, not you. We pray for you as you struggle under their leadership, even as you faithfully pray for us in the difficulties we bear. Underreported Stories Of 2023 – Ben Johnson - https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=6596 The Nashville Shooter's Manifesto On March 27, Audrey Elizabeth Hale entered Nashville's Covenant School and murdered six innocent people: three nine-year-old children and three adults. Although school shootings have become distressingly commonplace, elements of this atrocity set it apart from other mass shootings: Hale identified as a transgender male named "Aiden," and her target was a Christian school. "One day, this will make more sense," Hale texted her former middle school basketball teammate, Averianna Patton, on the morning of the shooting. "I've left plenty of evidence behind." Yet the government-media industrial complex has assured that day has not come. The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department has continued to withhold Hale's manifesto nine months after the shooting -- and the legacy media largely ignored leaked pages of Hale's diary, posted on social media by talk show host Steven Crowder on November 6. Crowder obtained only three pages of Hale's diary, but reading Hale's words, it's easy to see why the media suppressed them: They shatter the media narrative about mass shooters. "Wanna kill all you little crackers" with "your white privileges," wrote Hale. "I hope I have a high death count." "God let my wrath take over my anxiety," she mock-prayed. The New York Times and The Washington Post reported on the leaked diary pages -- without quoting a single word of their content. (The Post story quoted the manifesto ... of Payton Gendron, a teenage white supremacist who targeted black shoppers in a supermarket in Buffalo in 2022.) NBC News covered the police investigation into the leak, not Hale's words. When news leaks thwart conservative aims, they're news; when leaks harm liberal causes, they're prosecutions. What's more, the media know the profound pain their silence has caused the people of Nashville. "Spiritually it's eating me, it's eating me alive right now right now, because I'm trying to make God help me wrap my mind around what, what is this God?" said Patton shortly after Hale's rampage. The media could have answered her question and assuaged her existential angst, but they let her suffer for political ends. Studies Show the Dangers of Transgender Surgeries and the LGBTQ Lifestyle When historians look back, they may say 2023 marked a turning point when the harms of transgender surgeries became public knowledge. Several studies this year revealed the dangers of the LGBT lifestyle. Perhaps most dramatically, the chair of a transgender surgery department found that people who have transgender surgeries are lonelier and more depressed than those who do nothing -- as are trans-identified people who play on sports teams of the opposite sex. "Higher loneliness levels were significantly associated with ... already having a gender reassignment surgery and more than 4 hours a week of sports activities," as "compared to no sports activity," said a study by Dr. Marco Blessmann, the founding chair of University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf's plastic surgery department. The German facility carries out such common transgender procedures as "labiaplasty" and "breast augmentation," as well as "other surgical services," and has every financial incentive to come to different conclusions, yet its peer-reviewed studies detail the harm its own procedures cause. A different study found a majority (55%) of women who had vaginoplasty experienced pain, sometimes for years after the procedure, and one in three has difficulty urinating and having sex. The data come from a study of patients who underwent "bottom surgery" from the Postoperative Care Clinic at the Women's College Hospital (WCH) in Ontario between 2018 and 2020. Media reported the study, sparsely, in January. Among the unlikely sources contradicting the LGBTQ narrative that all lifestyles are equally healthy, the Biden administration noted the deep ties between identifying as LGBT and mental illness. As this author reported: "'Female students, LGBQ+ students, and students who had any same-sex partners were more likely than their peers to experience poor mental health and suicidal thoughts and behaviors,' said a Biden administration report released in February by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "Teenagers who identified as LGBTQ were twice as likely to report 'poor mental health' as those who identified as heterosexual, three times as likely to have 'seriously considered attempting suicide' or 'made a suicide plan,' and 366.6% more likely to have attempted suicide. Not only do they contemplate suicide more frequently, but they are 700% more likely to have injured themselves in a suicide attempt. While only three out of every 100 straight students have been injured in a suicide attempt, the number soars to one out of every seven teens who identifies as LGBTQ. "'Nearly 70% of LGBQ+ students experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness ... and more than 20% of LGBQ+ students attempted suicide,' said the CDC report." Open Border Transforms America Joe Biden has set a number of records; unfortunately, they are all for new national humiliations. Among his worst failures is the open U.S. border with Mexico, where illegal immigration has broken all U.S. records each successive year of the Biden administration. In all, a reported 10 million illegal entries have taken place since Biden took office -- and they have radically and deliberately transformed the nation we live in, against the will of the American people. Thanks to this influx, the United States now has the largest number and percentage of foreign-born residents in American history: 49.5 million people, or 15% of the U.S. population. The illegal population grew so precipitously in part, because the Biden administration has failed to remove 99% of the illegal immigrants released into the United States. Among these illegals is a record number of border-crossers whose names are on the terrorist watchlist. Yet the Biden administration has reduced criminal alien deportations. The problem has finally reached America's "sanctuary cities," as Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) sent busloads of illegal immigrants to Martha's Vineyard, Chicago, Los Angles, and the Big Apple. New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) has said the problem will "destroy" his city and implored the Biden administration to send illegal immigrants to every city, town, and village in America. (Which, for all we know, the administration is already doing.) No one knows where the planeloads of illegal immigrants Biden flies around the country are going. The Left plans to withhold border security until Republicans give in and approve another 1986-style amnesty plan, which will transform the electorate into what SEIU and socialist organizer Eliseo Medina called "a governing coalition for the long-term." (See my previous writing on the topic -- which includes Democrats discussing their plans to win by relying on voting demographics as far back as 2002 -- in this article.) If the corporate GOP rewards the Democrats' lawless behavior, it will assure America's permanent transformation. The LGBT Agenda Is Losing Support Although the legacy media give the LGBTQ political agenda uniformly positive coverage and focus on the group far out of proportion to that demographic's share of the population, this year they omitted several salient stories: Multiple polls found the LGBTQ cause has lost political support in 2023, even among its most supportive generation. Among Americans born since 1997, known as Gen Z, support for same-sex marriage fell by a whopping 11 percentage points since 2021, according to a study released in November by AEI's Survey Center on American Life. Broadly, the percentage of Americans who believe same-sexual relationships are "morally acceptable" fell by 7% this year, the largest decrease of any of the moral issues posed by Gallup pollsters in their annual Values and Beliefs poll, released in June. Most Americans do not see "a married gay or lesbian couple raising children together" as "completely acceptable" (47% do), and even fewer believe an unmarried same-sex couple should raise a child (41%), the Pew Research Center found in September. Even the Biden administration's U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) admitted people who identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual are far more likely to suffer from major depression, abuse illegal drugs, and are up to six times as likely to attempt suicide. Transgender ideology also lost support, with a 55% majority of Americans saying "changing one's gender" is morally wrong, according to a Gallup poll in June -- a 4% increase in two years. Transgender extremism was one of the major issues that brought down the leader of Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, in February. These results may seem counterintuitive, since Americans said to identify as LGBTQ more than ever, according to the same polling firms. It could be polling agencies, which are masters at manipulating results, wish to create a sense of complacency in the midst of a social revolution. Or something more ominous may be occurring: Americans may be moving in both directions at the same time. It could be that more young people are caving to social pressure to identify as LGBTQ, while older people (and members of Gen Z who do not buy in to the latest trends) resist the bandwagon effect, which they see will harm themselves and their loved ones. Churchgoers and Married People are Happier Despite an endless barrage of negative media about the drudgeries of married life and the pointlessness of faith, multiple studies this year verified the benefits of both. Americans who believe in God and value marriage are more likely to be "very happy" than non-believers and single people, according to a Wall Street Journal-NORC poll taken in March. Practicing Christians who regularly read the Bible report a higher score on the Human Flourishing Index -- which measures "happiness & life satisfaction," "mental & physical health," "meaning & purpose," "character & virtue," "close societal relationships" and "financial & material stability." Active Christians score 7.8, compared to 6.9 for inactive Christians and 6.7 for religious unaffiliated, according to an American Bible Society report released this June. The biggest difference between active Christians and non-Christians came in "meaning & purpose." (They're also far more likely to vote Republican.) The aforementioned AEI study also found that "Overall, religious Americans tend to believe their life is meaningful more often than do those who are not religious." Evangelical Christians are 33% more likely than unbelievers to say their actions matter in the grand scheme of things. Even the Biden administration issued a warning this year saying Americans' health may be undermined by not attending church. A report from Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, which was released in May, says loneliness harms physical health "even greater than [the risk] associated with obesity and physical inactivity" and is as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. "Religious or faith-based groups can be a source for regular social contact, serve as a community of support, provide meaning and purpose, create a sense of belonging around shared values and beliefs, and are associated with reduced risk-taking behaviors," Murthy writes. "As a consequence of this decline in participation, individuals' health may be undermined." Huge Increase in Homeschooling, Stay-at-home Moms According to The Washington Post, homeschooling has become the "fastest-growing form of education" in the United States. The United States has seen a 51% increase in homeschooling in five years -- between the 2017-2018 school year and this school year. With school strikes, lower educational standards, and teachers hiding children's transgenderism and teaching Woke curricula (repeating the lies of the 1619 Project and stocking school libraries with gay pornographic books), it's easy to see why. At the same time, the number of stay-at-home mothers has increased, according to two studies released this year. The number of stay-at-home moms skyrocketed from 15% in 2022 to 25% in 2023, according to Motherly's Annual State of Motherhood survey. The Pew Research Center said 26% of mothers worked exclusively in the home in 2022, up from a low of 23% two decades ago. The children raised by mothers who care enough to sacrifice their career advancement for their children's development and education may just offset the kids neglected by the public school system since COVID-19. They will be our nation's greatest hope, and the source of our nation's good news stories, for years to come. DOWNLOAD THE PROPHECY UPDATE APP Prophecy Update Videos Must Watch Videos! Videos You Can Trust
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DONATE HERE Your can also mail your support to: Prophecy Update PO Box 40516 Bakersfield, CA 93384 Artificial Intelligence Is Allowing Them To Construct A Global Surveillance Prison From Which No Escape Is Possible - by Michael Snyder - https://endoftheamericandream.com/artificial-intelligence-is-allowing-them-to-construct-a-global-surveillance-prison-from-which-no-escape-is-possible/ Every inch of our planet is being watched, and incredibly sophisticated “artificial intelligence solutions” make it possible for those that are watching our planet to find whatever they want in just minutes. You can try to run, and you can try to hide, but if they really want to find you it won’t be very difficult. All around us, a global surveillance prison is being constructed. Even if you completely stay off the Internet and you totally avoid all forms of modern technology, cameras and satellites will still be endlessly watching you. And once your face has been identified, artificial intelligence can be used to locate you wherever you pop up on the entire planet. Corey Jaskolski is the CEO of an artificial intelligence company known as Synthetaic, and the system that his company has developed is extremely impressive. According to NPR, it “really can find anything you want anywhere in the world”… BRUMFIEL: AI has been getting attention for its potential to bring huge changes to lots of different fields in the near future, but the AI revolution in surveillance is happening now. For decades, cameras have been watching over cities, businesses and even homes. But that footage has mainly been stored locally, and reviewing it took a pair of human eyes. Not anymore. AI systems can now hunt for a van in a city, scan license plates and even faces in real time. The system being developed by Synthetaic has many possible uses. An environmental group, for example, is trying to use it to track large livestock operations globally to monitor greenhouse gas emissions. Synthetaic’s system really can find anything you want anywhere in the world. JASKOLSKI: We’ve run searches, as an example, across the entire eastern seaboard of Russia for ships, and we can find every ship in a few minutes. It’s pretty remarkable. BRUMFIEL: Being able to scan the vast coastline of a nation like Russia is why this kind of technology has caught the eye of big government intelligence agencies. Watching everything that needs to be watched has always been a labor-intensive business. Even in George Orwell’s famous novel “1984,” the all-seeing thought police struggled to keep up. In the wrong hands, such technology could potentially be used to enforce tyranny on a scale never seen before in all of human history. I wanted to learn more about Synthetaic, and so I went to their official website, and I discovered that they recently announced “a five-year strategic partnership agreement with Microsoft”… Synthetaic, a leading provider of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, and has announced a five-year strategic partnership agreement with Microsoft aimed at revolutionizing AI data and cloud solutions. As part of this agreement, Microsoft is providing Synthetaic access to nearly 1 million hours (about 114 years) of cloud compute resources. This strategic collaboration will unlock a new era of possibilities in computer vision and data analysis, with a wide range of benefits across defense and intelligence, commercial, and non-government agency applications. This partnership will help significantly accelerate innovation with Synthetaic’s key product, the Rapid Automatic Image Categorization (RAIC) tool. RAIC, built on Microsoft Azure, enables unparalleled search capabilities through automated data labelling, allowing for the exploration of massive global datasets, without the need for pretraining or structuring. RAIC was instrumental in the tracing of suspected Chinese balloon flights through 18 trillion pixels of Earth observation imagery without a pretrained model using a rough sketch and unlabeled data. Most people don’t even know that this sort of surveillance technology exists. And now AI has made it possible for the watchers to seamlessly connect everything that we do online to everything that we do offline… However, with the advance of the internet and the increased reliance on it to perform many of our daily activities, governments and other commercial companies can monitor everything we do online and connect it – using different ways – to our real identity, creating a complete profile for every internet user. For example, our online purchases, search queries we submit to search engines, social connections, geographical locations we visit, and anything we do online can be recorded and traced back to our real identity. AI surveillance will allow interested parties to exploit the power of AI to collect and analyze the tremendous volume of data available online and connect it to each person. However, it is worth noting that surveillance is not limited to people’s online activities; we mean what people do on the internet. For instance, surveillance cameras powered by AI technology can recognize individuals’ faces quickly and track them across the city. Like I said, there is nowhere to run and there is nowhere to hide. Of course most of us willingly hand them vast troves of personal information about ourselves anyway. And the big tech companies are always searching for new ways to extract even more… Facebook recently rolled out a new “Link History” setting that creates a special repository of all the links you click on in the Facebook mobile app. You can opt out if you’re proactive, but the company is pushing Link History on users, and the data is used for targeted ads. As lawmakers introduce tech regulations and Apple and Google beef up privacy restrictions, Meta is doubling down and searching for new ways to preserve its data harvesting empire. The company pitches Link History as a useful tool for consumers “with your browsing activity saved in one place,” rather than another way to keep tabs on your behavior. With the new setting you’ll “never lose a link again,” Facebook says in a pop-up encouraging users to consent to the new tracking method. The company goes on to mention that “When you allow link history, we may use your information to improve your ads across Meta technologies.” The app keeps the toggle switched on in the pop-up, steering users towards accepting Link History unless they take the time to look carefully. Needless to say, this isn’t just happening on the Internet. These days, most new vehicles are systematically collecting information about you… If you own an EV or a “digital car,” you better watch what you say because you might be under total surveillance, and that goes for your passengers as well. What? Your data will be sold, too? Yep. Multiple times to multiple companies. However, there is an easy opt-out fix: “Never buy them, drive them, sit in them, or exist on the street when they drive by.” When you go to purchase a new vehicle, be very careful to read the fine print. For example, just check out what anyone that buys a new Subaru is agreeing to… Here’s something you might not realize. The moment you sit in the passenger seat of a Subaru that uses connected services, you’ve consented to allow them to use — and maybe even sell — your personal information. According to their privacy policy, that means things like your name, location, “Audio recordings of Vehicle Occupants”, and inferences they can draw about things like your “characteristics, predispositions, behavior, or attitudes.” Call us bonkers, but we don’t think that simply sitting in the passenger seat of someone’s Subaru should mean you consent to having any of your personal information use for, well, pretty much anything at all. Let alone potentially sold to data brokers or shared with third party marketers so they can target you with ads about who knows what based on the the inferences they draw about you because you sat in the back seat of a Subaru in the mountains of Colorado. We’re gonna really call out Subaru for this, because they lay it out so clearly in their privacy policy, but please know, Subaru isn’t the only car company doing this sort of icky thing. Wow. We have reached a stage where virtually everything that we do is monitored and put in a database somewhere. And with each passing day, the surveillance prison that is being constructed all around us become even more intrusive. So where is all of this ultimately going? We might want to think about that, because we are moving into one of the most chaotic periods in all of human history. There is so much potential for AI surveillance tools to be abused, and tyranny is on the rise all over the globe. Six Signs That Something Is Amiss At Your Church – By Jonathan Brentner - https://harbingersdaily.com/six-signs-that-something-is-amiss-at-your-church/ On Crosswalk.com in June of 2023, an article appeared entitled “5 Signs Your Church Might Be Heading toward Progressive Christianity.” Below are the main points from Crosswalk’s piece:
I would say that if all these things are true of your church, it has arrived at the point of “progressive Christianity.” It’s either already a “woke” church or well on its way to it. The article in Crosswalk inspired me to put together a list of signs that indicate something might be amiss at your church. 1. There’s A Lack Of Respect For The Words Of Scripture The “lowered view of the Bible” mentioned in Crosswalk’s list most often begins with the spiritualizing of its words in regard to biblical prophecy. By this, I mean that many pastors and teachers today retrofit God’s promises to Israel so that they apply to the church, albeit spiritually. This disregard for the intent of the author often has severe negative repercussions for other portions of Scripture. For example, if one can assign different meanings to John’s written record concerning what he saw and heard concerning the future (the book of Revelation), it opens up other passages in God’s Word, such as those that forbid homosexuality, to continue retrofitting in order to make its words align with secular human wisdom. 2. Attendance Numbers Trump Teaching The Whole Counsel Of God If your pastor avoids mentioning the truths of Jesus’ appearing for His church, the Rapture, lest it upset a few people and they leave, something is amiss at your church. If you hear the Gospel presented without one word regarding “eternal life” or eternity, you can be certain that something’s amiss. Churches primarily dedicated to putting people in the chairs often use the word “tertiary” to describe their beliefs regarding future things. This conveys that message one’s view of future things is of lesser importance than the essential doctrines of the faith and should not be a dividing factor in the congregation. However, in my experience, the use of the word “tertiary” means that the church accepts all views except that of Jesus’ appearing before the Tribulation starts and His’ thousand-year rule over the nations. Those holding these views are often silenced in “tertiary”-minded places of worship and told that their beliefs are not acceptable. For us, we sense that a “Not Welcome Here” sign hangs over the door. Despite their claim of avoiding disunity, the leaders of such churches divide the body of Christ over the matter of future things by denying many saints a place where they feel at home because of their hope in Jesus’ imminent appearing. 3. The Preaching Lacks Relevance To What’s Happening In The World Because of its amillennial beliefs (the denial of Israel’s restoration and Jesus’ thousand-year reign), the preaching at many churches lacks relevance to what its members read in their newsfeeds or see in the world around them. This is especially true in regard to the war in the Middle East. Since many pastors today regard Israel’s miraculous rebirth as a fluke, they see Israel’s war as just another conflict and, worse yet, fail to defend Israel’s right to the Land from the pulpit. They fail to recognize Satan’s ongoing opposition to Israel and how that contributes to not only the war, but also to the demonstrations on the streets of major cities around the world in support of Hamas. Today, more than at any time since Pentecost, believers urgently need to hear how biblical prophecy speaks to the wickedness, lawlessness, and violence of our world. Preaching that suggests Jesus is already reigning over the nations not only contradicts God’s Word, but gives those in the pews a false sense of security regarding current events and diverts their attention away from the comfort found in the “blessed hope” of the Gospel. 4. The Elders Rule Rather Than Shepherd The Flock I agree that elder leadership in the church has biblical roots. Today, however, the elders sometimes rule rather than shepherd the flock. They ignore the Lord’s admonition to not “lord it over” those He intends for them to serve (see Mark 10:42-46). Many churches emphasize the biblical qualifications for its overseers but ignore the words of 1 Peter 5:1-8, which emphasize humility for those who lead. If key decisions at your church are made without any input from the members whatsoever, it’s a sure sign something’s greatly amiss and that the elders rule rather than inspire the type of body life described in Romans 12:3-8. I wrote a post about this last summer entitled, Silencing the Remnant Church, where I go into more detail concerning this matter. 5. The Pastor Preaches Grace To The Lost, But The Law To The Saints What makes life all the more challenging for those of us seeking to find a church where we feel welcome with our beliefs regarding the future is this: several churches that faithfully adhere to what we believe miss the mark when comes to the Gospel. Its pastors preach grace to the lost, but place the demands of the Law upon believers by saying that such obedience precedes blessings in the Christian walk. Of course, preaching through a book of the Bible may lead to addressing sins. However, teaching conformity to a standard apart from who we are in Christ and the Spirit’s work inside us sorely misses the mark and is also a sign that something’s amiss at your church. Ephesians 1:3-14 makes it clear that we begin our walk with the Lord from the place of Him showering abundant blessings upon us. His blessings and unfailing love inspire us to greater obedience. Obeying to receive blessings negates such motivation. 6. They Apply Inconsistent Outcomes For Israel And The Church, Further Blurring The Biblical Distinction Between The Two When I was in seminary, the title of my master’s thesis was: Roman Catholic Justification in the Light of Scripture. Writing this led to a deeper realization of the wonders of God’s great mercy and love toward us, which has increased my understanding of the Gospel in the many years since then. What might surprise you is that my study on this topic contributed to my firm convictions regarding God’s promise to restore a glorious kingdom for Israel. Lest you think I’m crazy, or perhaps more so, let me explain. In Romans 8:28-38, the apostle tells us that nothing at all can change our status as justified saints or alter God’s plans to bring us to glory. Absolutely nothing. We are forever free from condemnation (8:1) regardless of our behavior or what happens to us after God’s pronouncement of righteousness upon us. God will most certainly glorify all those that He justifies; He will not fail in this regard. At some point during the Dark Ages, Roman Catholic theologians moved God’s justification of believers from the moment of saving faith to the end of their lives. I don’t have any definitive insights into their motives, but two things stand out in my mind regarding their decision:
Paul’s message in Romans chapters 9-11 concerning the future repentance and restoration of Israel illustrates our secure standing before God as justified saints (as the apostle reveals for us in chapters 5-8). Books could be written on the truths that come from chapters 9-11, but what I am emphasizing here is how the certainty of Israel’s future restoration as a nation demonstrates the truths pertaining to our unalterable position before God as righteous and holy saints. In Romans 9-11, Paul defends his assertion of our total security in Jesus by pointing to God’s preservation of the Jewish nation. Israel’s repeated disobedience, which resulted in numerous judgments upon the nation, did not deter His determination to bless His people in the end. The Lord will surely accomplish His eternal purposes for the nation just as He will for us. From other passages, we learn that God will bring a remnant of His people to repentance at the end of the Tribulation and bless them with a glorious kingdom (Zechariah 12:10-13:1, 14:8-21; Matthew 23:37-39). God’s ultimate plans for His people Israel, and for us, cannot change. The Lord will fulfill His stated purposes for both. It’s inconsistent to say God will preserve His saints without saying the same about the future of Israel as a nation. This does not mean, as some today errantly claim, that every Israelite will obtain eternal life regardless of what they believe. What it does signify, however, is that as Romans 11:29 puts it, “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” For Israel, these words signify that God will surely keep His promises to them regarding their glorious future reception of a kingdom. For us, it means that absolutely nothing can change our status as New Testament saints. We are eternally secure as justified saints and thus heirs to a kingdom (Ephesians 1:11-14; 1 Corinthians 15:50-54). As a former pastor, I grieve because of what’s happening in many churches. The silence of shepherds keeps many saints in the dark regarding what lies behind current world events and diverts their attention to temporal things away from their glorious “blessed hope” in Jesus’ appearing. Such leaders deny the saints the comfort that the Lord provides them in Scripture concerning what lies ahead for them. Daily Jot: The Farm Chronicles: Roy Rogers and me - Bill Wilson – www.dailyjot.com I was down in the basement going through some old boxes and happened to find my lunch pail from my elementary school days. It reminded me of so many adventures. This was no ordinary lunch pail. It was a Roy Rogers Chow Wagon lunch pail. When you run on to something like that, all of a sudden you are transported back to another time. My imagination was brought to life every Saturday morning when the Sons of the Pioneers welcomed me into the world of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Roy, the singing cowboy, and his girl Dale, dog bullet and sidekick Pat in Nellybelle the Jeep. This show, more than any other on television, shaped my vision of the type of man I wanted to become. Roy Rogers always stood for what was good and right. He lived by a code of conduct held accountable to God. He loved his country. He loved his wife. He never let the bad guy win no matter how insurmountable the odds. I was infatuated with Roy Rogers. While the pony we had growing up was not a palomino like Roy’s Trigger, Tricker was a black and white pinto. During my very young years, I renamed him Trigger. In fact, I renamed by cousin Steve to be Pat. And for years, he was not allowed to call me by my real name, only Roy. I called him Pat. Everybody thought we were crazy, but we lived the Roy Rogers life—me and my horse, and Steve, I mean Pat, was into cars, so he had Nellybelle the Jeep. We had so many adventures on the 100-acre farm. Sometimes Steve/Pat would be over at our house on Saturday mornings. We would watch The Roy Rogers Show and then get dressed up in our kerchiefs, cowboy hats, six-guns and head on out to the barn to saddle up Tricker/Trigger. One time, I thought I would really get in trouble after I carved RR into the horn of one of my Dad’s best saddles. He didn’t seem to mind. One year, when I was about 8 years old, I was the Master of Ceremonies for the Paris Elementary School Christmas Program. I wore a gray cowboy hat, a checkered shirt with fringe across the front and back, and new cowboy boots. My confidence was at a high when Mom and Dad said I looked just like Roy. I nearly wore out that Roy Rogers Chow Wagon lunch pail over the years taking it to school. At night, I had a little Roy Rogers lantern to show me the way when we were camping out in the woods or at Cooks Forrest. Roy Rogers had quite the impression on me and still does. Not that I think about it often, but when I do, I remember the lessons he taught by his example. He and Dale did a lot of good for kids during their lifetimes. 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.” Apart from my wonderful parents, brothers and buddy Sonny, Roy Rogers was one of the few people who kept me on the right path. I’ll end with this: As the Sons of the Pioneers would sing at the end of every episode, Happy trails to you! Daily Devotion: Solomon the Searcher - by Greg Laurie – www.harvest.org I observed everything going on under the sun, and really, it is all meaningless—like chasing the wind. —Ecclesiastes 1:14 https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/solomon-the-searcher/ - Listen If anyone could ever say “Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt,” it was Solomon. He was the hedonist extraordinaire. He went after everything the world had to offer. Solomon was highly educated, yet he went on unbelievable drinking binges. He was an architectural genius, building the most incredible structures. Yet he abandoned God in his search for meaning in life. The irony is that Solomon knew better. He was raised in a godly home. His father was King David, and his mother was Bathsheba. While it’s true that David had a serious lapse of faith, it’s also true that he repented and got right with God. The Bible describes David as “a man after [God’s] own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14 NLT), and he did his best to raise Solomon, the future king, in the way of the Lord. Shortly before his death, David gave these words of wisdom to Solomon: “And Solomon, my son, learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately. Worship and serve him with your whole heart and a willing mind. For the Lord sees every heart and knows every plan and thought. If you seek him, you will find him. But if you forsake him, he will reject you forever” (1 Chronicles 28:9 NLT). Essentially David was saying, “Son, you can’t live off your dad’s faith. You must get your own. You need to know the God of your father. Serve Him with an undivided heart and a willing mind, not because you have to, but because you want to. Don’t allow your heart to be divided. Set your heart completely on God.” Initially Solomon followed his father’s advice. In fact, he did quite well in the beginning. But after a while, Solomon allowed his heart to be divided. He tried to walk with God yet dabble in sin and compromise his values. And it was only a matter of time until Solomon began to backslide and fall away. Then one day Solomon basically said, “Forget it. I’m going to go for it.” He abandoned God, and the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes is the account of what he learned in this backslidden state. A phrase Solomon repeatedly used in Ecclesiastes was “under the sun.” He was talking about horizontal living. It is life this side of Heaven, life without God. Solomon also used the word “meaningless” (NLT). For example, in Ecclesiastes 1:14 he wrote, “I observed everything going on under the sun, and really, it is all meaningless—like chasing the wind” (NLT). Solomon the searcher was telling us there is nothing on this earth that will satisfy us completely. That doesn’t mean it’s wrong to love life or have possessions. In fact, no one appreciates life more than the child of God does. And the Bible tells us that God “richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17 NLT). Solomon set out to experience what most people only dream of. And in the end, it turned out to be a nightmare. PROPHECY UPDATE NEWS HEADLINES Yesterday's Prophecies - Today's Headlines HEADLINES IN PARTNERSHIP WITH TRACKING BIBLE PROPHECY 1/5/24 http://trackingbibleprophecy.org/birthpangs.php
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