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Three Raptures- Vol. II Elijah - by Pete Garcia and Randy Nettles -
http://rev310.com/2019/05/three-raptures-elijah The Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock in the year of our Lord, 1620. For all intents and purposes, this was the year our forefathers attributed to the original founding of America. Approximately 156 years later, the American colonists declared their independence from a tyrannical England. For the next 243 years, the United States would serve the world as a sovereign nation, providing a safe-haven to the politically, ideologically, and religiously oppressed peoples of the world. To wit, the Jews, who were still in their millennia's long diaspora, found the New World a place of refuge from the rolling tides of European antisemitism. They resettled in America and ultimately flourished from then until today. Taken together since our nation's original founding in 1620, 399 years will have passed. In fact, 2020 marks the 400th year of both the idea and the reality of the United States of America. What is the Biblical significance to this four-hundred years, Elijah, and the Rapture of the Church you ask? The unconditional promise of the Promised Land. But more on that in a minute. "Dr. Donald S. Lutz, a professor of political science at the University of Houston and the author of The Origins of American Constitutionalism, points out that the Bible provided the concept of the covenant." In reference to the Pilgrims, the Puritans, and early Christian settlers of British North America, Lutz told me: These poor people came to the New World, they had the wrong technologies, their plows would not work, their houses that they constructed were inappropriate for the weather. All their technology was wrong, except for one technology they brought with them, which was the ability to use covenants to create communities. It was the perfect technology. It was the technology that mattered that allowed them to survive all up and down the coast. Assessment Elijah the Tishbite (from Gilead) first shows up in the Old Testament in 1st Kings 17 around the same time as the prophet Obadiah. He is given neither backstory, nor lineage, but appears from out of nowhere to challenge the evil reign of King Ahab by declaring a three-year drought. He then seeks refuge with a widow and her son in a neighboring country, where he performs the miracle of the flour and oil, as well as resurrecting her son from the dead. He goes back and challenges the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah (1 Kings 18:18-19) in the "mother of all showdowns." After thoroughly destroying their credibility as prophets and their false gods, he then had all 850 of them put to death by the Jewish people who came to watch. Afterwards, he declares an end to the drought, but a scorned Jezebel puts a bounty on his head, and Elijah flees for his life. Even Elijah's fleeing takes on superhuman feats of strength. He runs from Mt. Carmel to Jezreel (15 miles) beating King Ahab's chariot back. He then goes on to run from Jezreel to Beersheba (100 miles) and after eating, goes on a forty-day fast while travelling and avoiding Jezebels' hit teams. He ends up at Mt. Horeb where the Lord meets with Elijah. He instructs him to appoint a new king over Syria, a new king over Israel, and his successor, Elisha (1 Kings 19:15-16). These leaders would help turn Israel away from the evil of idol worship and would facilitate the total destruction of the wicked line of Ahab and Jezebel: "And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death" (1 Kings 19:17). Elijah had dealt a death-blow to Baal-worship in Israel, and the three men Elijah would anoint would remove the remaining vestiges of that particular form of idolatry. King Ahab ruled during the time of the divided kingdom (Israel-North [209 years], Judah-South [326 years]) before ultimate destruction by the Assyrians and Babylonians (respectively). He had been a morally weak Jewish King (of the northern kingdom) who essentially abdicated his throne to his pagan wife Jezebel. He She worshipped Baal, who was the main god of the Canaanites and Phoenicians. She normalizes Baal worship in the north, and eventually, it became problematic to the identity of the Jewish people. Nonetheless, Baal worship had become widespread in Israel during this time, primarily because of Jezebel's influence, and was why God used Elijah (and his successors) to ultimately put an end to this vile practice. According to Canaanite mythology, Baal was the son of El, the chief god, and Asherah, the goddess of the sea. Baal was considered the most powerful of all gods, eclipsing El, who was seen as rather weak and ineffective. In various battles Baal defeated Yamm, the god of the sea, and Mot, the god of death and the underworld. Baal's sisters/consorts were Ashtoreth, a fertility goddess associated with the stars, and Anath, a goddess of love and war. The Canaanites worshiped Baal as the sun god and as the storm god-he is usually depicted holding a lightning bolt-who defeated enemies and produced crops. They also worshiped him as a fertility god who provided children. Baal worship was rooted in sensuality and involved ritualistic prostitution in the temples. At times, appeasing Baal required human sacrifice, usually the firstborn of the one making the sacrifice (Jeremiah 19:5). The priests of Baal appealed to their god in rites of wild abandon which included loud, ecstatic cries and self-inflicted injury (1 Kings 18:28). Similar to the worship of Molech, human sacrifice (usually children) was a common practice to the pagan people inhabiting the ancient area of Canaan. This was the same land to whom the Lord promised unconditionally to Abraham that his descendants would inherit, but would require a 400-year waiting period. This 400-year waiting period was important because God is longsuffering, and was giving the then current tenants (the Amorites), time to repent because their iniquity had not yet run its course (Gen. 15:16). After the 400-years, God raises up a man named Moses and he leads his fellow Hebrews out of Egypt. After a forty-year jaunt in the desert, only the second generation (plus Joshua and Caleb) were allowed entrance into the Promised Land. The Hebrew tribes were then instructed to destroy all the giants and the pagans in the land, but failed to do so. After a period of general lawlessness... In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Judges 18:25 ...a golden era arrived (Saul/David/Solomon). But 120 years later, the country split between north and south, with ten tribes aligning with the north (Israel), and two in the south (Judah). Still, by the time Elijah comes upon the scene (circa 845BC) paganism remained an endemic problem polluting the land for over a millennia. God had enough, and sent Elijah to begin the purge. Having then named his successor, God then spectacularly raptures Elijah from life into eternity, and does it all in front of Elisha. So he said, "You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so." Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 2 Kings 2:10-11 We know according to Revelation 11:1-10, that Two Witnesses will come back to the land of Israel in the last days and perform judgments against the Antichrist, his forces, the city of Jerusalem, and the people there. They will do this in very much the same way that Moses and Elijah did, i.e. there are great similarities in the kinds of judgments and the manner that they are carried out. They will have power to cause a drought for three and a half years. They can turn the waters into blood. They can cause plagues as often as they like. They will strike down with fire from their mouth, anyone, who tries to harm them. My personal opinion is that these Two Witnesses are Enoch and Elijah. Enoch because he represents the Gentile Saints, and Elijah for the Jewish Saints. Although we have no record of Enoch causing plagues or other miraculous signs, we know that he was perhaps the very first prophet and foretold the coming judgment of Christ's Second Coming (Jude 1:14-15). We are told that Elijah must come before the great and dreadful day of the Lord (Mal. 4:5-6). Again, my personal opinion here is that whenever the phrase the day of the Lord is used, if it does not have a modifier before it (great, dreadful, terrible, etc.), then that phrase is speaking to the general use of the word talking about the whole 70th Week. However, we see the way Malachi uses it, is speaking to the actual day of the Second Coming. Thus, my two candidates are Enoch and Elijah. Although nothing to break fellowship over, I contend that it is possible that it could also be Moses and Elijah-see Mt. of Transfiguration (Mark 9:4). Conclusion For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness 1 Cor. 1:21-23 I like to draw correlations between things that are seemingly out of man's control to influence. Some might call that destiny or fortune, but with God, we know that it is divine providence. Although Abraham's descendants would have to wait for four centuries in bondage in order to inherit the Promised Land, the waiting was not in vain. Not only did it serve to deal with the Amorite people, but it also created a shared experience would unite the Twelve Tribes forever. It was at the foot of a smoking and thundering Mt. Sinai that the Hebrews came together for the first time as a nation. It was here that they bound themselves to the conditional covenant of God's law (Exodus 19-34). Their regathering as a nation in 1948 after two-millennia of diaspora was meant to be an even greater miracle than their deliverance from Egypt. Not only were the Jews coming from just one geographic location (e.g., Egypt), but from all over the world (Num. 32:13, Deut. 28:64). Not only did the Jews wander about the desert for forty-years for their disbelief, but would spend next two-thousand years wandering the world for their ultimate act of disbelief by rejecting their Messiah (Matt. 27:15-26, Zech. 12:10-14). Not only would God remove the Amorites, but God would geopolitically restructure the entire world order by way of: the creation of the United States, two World Wars, the Holocaust, and the creation of a United Nations to make it happen. The United States was a nation founded on Judeo-Christian principles. It was at one time, the greatest proponent of spreading the Gospel the world had ever seen. When the US began to turn into a post-Christian nation toward the end of our 400-year run, the Internet was developed and the Gospel began to go out that way. Now the Internet is under assault (and freedom of speech online) because of its effectiveness in spreading the Gospel and truth. When the last bastion of religious freedom has been shut down, God's usefulness for this nation will have run its course. Interestingly enough, at our 400-year mark, God raised up a President like Donald Trump, who, despite his personal faults, has been an invaluable and strategic ally to Israel. He then partnered Pres. Trump with a devout Christian Vice President, and Secretary of State. Nevertheless, Israel's rebirth as a nation would happen because the Bible said it would. The finality in this divine providence demonstrates the specificity with which the Jews could see its fulfillment with their own eyes. It also further demonstrated God's faithfulness in keeping His promises (Isaiah 11:11, 66:8, Amos 9:15, Ezekiel 37:11). Now consider the fact that the US was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and that the Church is neither Jew, nor Greek... (Gal. 3:28), and we are in the Laodicean-era of the Church age, therefore, it makes sense that the nature of our Rapture is reflective of that reality. We are translated from mortal to immortal, meeting Christ in the air, visible to the entire Church, yet hidden from the world. Makes one wonder why Elijah was taken up in such dramatic fashion, e.g., the fiery chariot, while Enoch's departure was so enigmatic? Think back to Enoch for a second. Enoch walked with God, and then he was not, for God took Him (Gen. 5:24). We know later in Hebrews 12, that his being "took" meant he did not see death, but was translated eternity alive (Heb. 12:5). Enoch as far as we can know from Scripture, was the seventh generation from Adam, and was not a Jew/Hebrew/Israelite, because that would not come about until the life of Abraham many centuries later. Presumably, Enoch's unexplainable disappearance was just, unexplainable, until the writer of Hebrews by the Holy Spirit, explains the why, late in the first-century AD. Elijah's disappearance was about 180 degrees opposite of Enoch's. First, he and everyone with him knew when his rapture was coming (2 Kings 2:1-5). Second, aside from the timing, Elijah's rapture (or manner of departure) was not a mystery. He knew he was going up to heaven, although, he may not have known exactly what that would look like. Last, his deliverance upwards was not some instantaneous translation from mortal to immortal; in fact, there is no mention of Elijah's physical transformation at all. Instead, he is taken up in an over the top, chariot of fire which becomes a whirlwind of fire that could be seen from a distance (vs. 16). Volume III will discuss The Rapture of the Church The Palestinian War on the Trump Peace Plan - by Khaled Abu Toameh - https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14298/palestinians-vs-trump-peace-plan The Palestinians seem to be moving on two fronts to thwart US President Donald Trump's plan for peace in the Middle East, also known as the "Deal of the Century." The Palestinian Authority and its political allies in the West Bank have launched a diplomatic and media campaign to rally worldwide support for their rejection of Trump's upcoming plan. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian extremist groups, for their part, are already hinting that they will resort to violence in an effort to thwart the "Deal of the Century." Last week, Hamas called on Bahrain not to allow the "Zionist enemy to defile its lands" by attending the economic conference. Recently, the Palestinians intensified their attacks on the upcoming peace plan, particularly after the US administration announced that it will unveil the economic portions of the "Deal of the Century" at an economic workshop in Bahrain in late June. The Palestinians have voiced strong opposition to the workshop and said they will boycott it, despite its goal of improving the living conditions of the residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In a rare show of unity, President Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah faction and its rivals in Hamas and Islamic Jihad are saying that the Palestinians will not only boycott the Bahrain conference, but that all the countries invited should also reject the invitation to attend the workshop. The Palestinians are particularly focusing their effort on trying to persuade the Arab states to boycott the Bahrain workshop. They are terrified that the Arab countries will surrender to US pressure and attend the conference, thus, as they see it, abandoning their Palestinian brothers and leaving them isolated in the international arena. In addition to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have announced that they will send delegates to the US-led economic workshop. Jordan, Egypt, and Qatar are also expected to participate in the conference, notwithstanding fierce Palestinian opposition. Abbas last week visited Qatar and Jordan in a bid to persuade the two countries to join the Palestinian boycott of the Bahrain workshop. The most Abbas managed to get from Qatar and Jordan were the usual laconic statements of support for the Palestinian cause and rights. His hope that Qatar and Jordan would publicly endorse the Palestinian boycott has failed to materialize. Even Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, the country hosting the conference, have made similar statements expressing full political support for the Palestinians, while ignoring their call for boycotting the economic workshop. The Arabs have always excelled in paying lip-service to the Palestinians, at the same time offering them precious little in real support. Echoing fears of being abandoned by their Arab brethren, Palestinian officials are now publicly appealing to the Arab states to boycott the Bahrain economic workshop. They have even gone as far as warning that participation in the workshop would be considered an act of treason against Palestinians and Arabs. Several Palestinian factions, including Fatah, have made it clear that any Arab who attends the economic conference will be denounced as a traitor. The Palestinians, in other words, are directly threatening the Arab heads of state that they would be labelled traitors for "colluding" with US President Donald Trump's administration and Israel to liquidate the Palestinian cause and national rights. This unprecedented threat is an indication of the Palestinians' growing predicament and sense of isolation as the Arab states appear to be turning their back on them. Moreover, the threat is a sign of mounting tensions between the Palestinian leadership and Arab heads of state, who are apparently fed up with Palestinian intransigence and refusal to adjust to the new reality in the Middle East, particularly Iran's continued meddling in the internal affairs of Arab countries. PLO leaders who met in the West Bank city of Ramallah this week called on the Arabs to heed the Palestinian call for boycotting the Bahrain workshop. "The PLO Executive Committee calls on all the Arab countries that agreed to attend the conference to reconsider their decision," the PLO leaders said in a statement. They also warned that no Arab country was authorized to speak or negotiate on behalf of the Palestinians at the conference of any other international forum. PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat also called on Arab states that have committed to attend the Bahrain conference to revisit their plans. "We call on the countries that have agreed to attend the Bahrain workshop to reevaluate their decision," he said. Praising several Palestinian businessmen who announced that they turned down invitations from the US to attend the conference, Abbas's Fatah said it will not hesitate to "expose" anyone who dares to violate the Palestinian boycott or thinks of "conspiring" against the Palestinian cause. "Our patience won't last for long as we follow attempts by some suspicious people to open channels with the US administration," Fatah cautioned. In the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, representatives of the private sector said that mere participation in the Bahrain conference was a "betrayal of the blood of Palestinian martyrs, the suffering of the prisoners and the pain of the wounded. The Palestinian cause is not for sale." In light of these threats, it is hard to see how any Palestinian businessman living under the rule of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip would dare to take the dangerous step of participating in a US-led conference that is being denounced by Palestinian leaders as a "conspiracy" to eliminate the Palestinian cause and rights. The Palestinian threats, however, are directed not only towards Palestinian businessmen, but also against entire Arab states and their leaders. For now, it seems that the Arabs are unfazed by these Palestinian threats. Yet while Abbas and his officials have resorted to political pressure to persuade the Arabs to boycott the conference, other Palestinian groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, seem to be preparing for a violent response to Trump's "Deal of the Century." In the past few days, the Gaza-based groups have issued several statements hinting that they would use all means, including terrorism, to foil the US peace plan. Islamic Jihad Secretary-General Ziad al-Nakhalah said last week that the Palestinian "resistance has enough power cards that would enable it to thwart the Deal of the Century." Although he did not provide details about the "power cards," al-Nakhalah was apparently referring to the possibility that his Iran-backed Islamic Jihad would resort to violence. Islamic Jihad and Hamas say they are now cooperating with Hezbollah, Iran's proxy terrorist group in Lebanon, to foil the Bahrain conference and Trump's "Deal of the Century." Last week, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah expressed strong opposition to the "Deal of the Century," and drew praise from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and even the Palestinian Authority. This is the message that the Palestinians are sending to the Arab world: "Either boycott the US administration, or we will incite the Arabs and Muslims against you." What is perhaps most worrying for the Arab leaders are the threats coming from Iran's puppets -- Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah. It now remains to be seen whether the Arab heads of state will be deterred by these threats or ignore them at the risk of becoming the Palestinians' terror targets. Clearly, the very Palestinians who are boycotting a conference -- whose aim is to help them move beyond their leadership-imposed economic devastation -- will wind up the big losers in this spiteful scenario of hate. This time, however, it also seems that the Palestinians will not only deprive themselves of billions of dollars, but will also damage -- perhaps irrevocably -- their relations with influential Arab countries. By all accounts, the Palestinians appear to be heading toward another "nakba" (catastrophe). Israel's not-so-subtle message to Iran that it is watching and poised to strike - By Yaakov Lappin - https://www.jns.org/israels-not-so-subtle-message-to-iran-that-it-is-watching-and-poised-to-strike/ Recently release satellite photographs of Iranian construction along Iraqi-Syrian border indicate Israel is closely watching Iran's efforts to build a land bridge from Tehran to the Mediterranean. The Israeli satellite imagery company, ImageSat International (ISI), released photographs in recent days showing what it described as "Iran's land bridge from Tehran to the Mediterranean." The images show Iranian construction work on a new crossing on the Syrian-Iraqi border, which, according to ISI, would allow Iran to transfer weapons, armed personnel and oil into Syria. The images are from an area that has been in the headlines in the past. An older border crossing in the same area, known as Albukamal, was destroyed in airstrikes attributed to Israel by international media reports a little more than a year ago. The 2018 strikes were unusual not only because they demolished an Iranian-run border crossing, but also because they destroyed a building that served as a headquarters for Iranian-backed Shi'ite Iraqi militias-just the kind of forces that Iran wants to inject into Syria, along with weapons and oil to bypass U.S. sanctions. According to reports from last year, dozens of Iraqi militia operatives, most of whom were members of an organization called "Hezbollah Battalions," were killed in the attack. Now, it seems, Iran's Islamic Republican Guards Corps (IRGC) is trying again. It is building a new land corridor in the very same area. The satellite imagery can be interpreted as an Israeli warning to Iran to cease its activities or face additional strikes. This state of affairs reflects the fact that Iran remains committed to its long-term objective of turning Syria into an Iranian military zone and a future base of attack against Israel. A Fox News report from last week quoting "Western sources" said that "Iran increased its presence in the area last summer, adding that after the 2018 airstrikes on the old Albukamal crossing, the Iranians have put a lot of effort and resources into building the new one." Iran has been involved in a stubborn and patient effort to turn Syria into a base of operations. But it has run into a brick wall, in the form of an even more determined Israeli effort to disrupt this threatening process. Hundreds of Israeli airstrikes in the past few years alone have put a major dent in Iran's plans, destroying missile bases, weapons production sites, military bases and weapons' transfer stations. This mission, of preventing Iran from taking over Syria, has become a top objective in the Israeli Air Force. The campaign, known as the "War Between Wars," is continuous, and requires 24-7 intelligence-gathering, precision strikes and calculated risks. But the latest satellite imagery suggests that Iran's leadership is far from giving up. Iran has two central objectives in Syria: The first is to turn the country into an Iranian-controlled war machine against Israel and the second is to use it as a weapons trafficking zone for supplying Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon. Israel watches activity in the Persian Gulf Despite being under major American economic pressure and facing bruising Israeli strikes on its assets in Syria, the Iranians are not walking away. They are merely tweaking the "volume" of their activities, turning the dial up and down in line with conditions, but never switching their Syria project off. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the IRGC remain committed to building capabilities in Syria, so that they can fire missiles and rockets at Israel, create terrorist cells and send armed formations to the Syrian-Israeli border. Tehran wants to create a "second Lebanon" on Syrian territory. In order to achieve that aim, its leaders cannot rely on cargo flights to deliver weapons and fighters alone. Those flights are under close Israeli surveillance. Repeated strikes on Iran's weapons depots at Damascus International Airport are proof of that. Iran, in response, reportedly moved its air-smuggling operations earlier this year to the T-4 Syrian air-force base in the central Syrian desert. But that base is also vulnerable to reported Israeli strikes, as an attack on it in July 2018 has demonstrated. A land corridor would enable Iran to keep building its bases in Syria, to nourish Hezbollah, and to expand its destabilizing influence. The question then arises as to why Israel appears to have chosen to warn Iran to stop building the crossing via media reports that show that Israeli intelligence is on to Iran's activities, rather than directly striking it. One reason seems to center on the effectiveness of "information campaigns" in the use of intelligence to disrupt enemy activity via media warnings, as a complimentary tactic alongside kinetic airstrikes. This provides Israel with some flexibility, allowing it to try and diffuse a threatening situation without the associated risk of fire strikes, which can snowball into larger conflicts. Israel may have opted for this tactic due to the rising American-Iranian tensions in the Persian Gulf. Israel may wish to lower its profile during this time to see how the tensions play out and to avoid taking action that can further inflame the region. As the White House mobilizes additional troops to the region, as well as naval ships and missile defenses, Israel appears to be turning down the volume on its own preemptive strikes in Syria. But only up to a point. This month alone, media reports claimed that Israel conducted a missile strike on a target south of Damascus. In April, Israel reportedly struck a major Iranian weapons' facility in the northwestern Syrian city of Masyaf. Such strikes presumably occur in response to urgent and critical intelligence of threatening Iranian activities, which, if left, unchecked, will expose Israel to the risk of guided missile attacks from Syria. Another risk stems from Syrian President Bashar Assad's repeated and reckless attempt to attack Israeli Air Force aircraft from surface firing stations. The latest example of this occurred on Monday, when a Syrian anti-aircraft system fired on IAF jets that were on a routine flight in northern Israeli airspace. The IDF in response struck the launcher, reportedly killing one Syrian soldier and injuring another. The Assad regime's policy of firing on Israeli jets risks dragging it into any future Israeli-Iranian escalation. Nearing Midnight: Today: They Don't Burn Books; They Bury Them - Todd Strandberg - https://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/ Mark Levin is an American lawyer, author, and radio personality. He is a firebrand for constitutional conservative beliefs. He specializes in exposing leftist tactics by the Democrats and the liberal media. He is the host of the syndicated radio show The Mark Levin Show, as well as Life, Liberty & Levin on Fox News. Mark has some of his greatest success in the book world. He authored the 2005 book Men In Black: How The Supreme Court Is Destroying America, in which he advanced his thesis that activist judges on the Supreme Court have "legislated from the bench." Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto was released in 2009 and became a #1 New York Times bestseller for eleven to twelve weeks. His 2013 book The Liberty Amendments laid out a plan for restoring the American Republic by suggesting eleven new constitutional amendments. This latest book has just been released. It is called Unfreedom of the Press, and the liberal media are going to need to get the smelling salts. Just check out the Amazon description: "... A groundbreaking and enlightening book that shows how the great tradition of the American free press has degenerated into a standard profession that has squandered the faith and trust of the American public, not through the actions of government officials, but through its own abandonment of reportorial integrity and objective journalism." Because Satan has found that the liberal media make for an effective tool for guiding and controlling society, it is a must order. Levin doesn't understand the demonic link to the media, but a Christian reading the book can see Satan's hand at work. I was motivated to write about Mark's new book, but not because of its content; I wrote about it because I could not find it on Amazon.com. It will come right up if you type in "Unfreedom of the Press." If you had never heard of the book, it's unlikely that you would stumble across the book. As I was searching through the various categories in the Book section of Amazon, I could not find the book that was their current #1 seller. Wal-Mart sells more bananas than any other product. They are generally located in the front of the store in the central area of the produce department. If Wal-Mart had the bananas in the far back corner in the fabric section, there would be many complaints. It is very strange that a company that started out as a bookseller and has become the go-to place for ranking of books would make it so hard to find the current top seller. In the book section there is a list of Celebrity Picks, which are books picked out by mostly liberal celebrities. On top is a Book Awards section, which is by leftist-leaning organizations. I didn't find Levin's book in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Books, which is a requirement for every book page. There is a Best Books of the Month section, which I'm guessing were hand-selected by Amazon staff. Mark Levin has set a trap for the New York Times. In one of his chapters, he details how the NYT downplayed the holocaust, the largest mass murder of human beings in history. I think the NYT will break from decades of tradition of listing their book of raw sales. The NYT will create a new form of tabulation that largely overlooks Levin's book. It would be a very shocking sight to see piles of books being burned by a government that approved of a set content. Because Amazon can block what people are able to see in their search results, we might as well have scenes of Brown Shirt Nazis emptying physical libraries and burning books that fail to meet up to the new Aryan standard. Because censorship only requires a few lines of computer code, books can be buried with little notice. The madness that has become the left is likely the same group who will murder tribulation saints. The Democratic Party is so sure of their moral footings that they will soon kill believers with not the slightest trace of guilt. "They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God" (John 16:2). Daily Jot: Lies appearing as truth - Bill Wilson - www.dailyjot.com In interpreting the Bible, twisting the facts is called eisegesis-using a scripture out of context to support one's own ideas. It's a big No-No, but it's done by people all the time, especially by pastors from the pulpit. America suffers from a great deal of eisegesis by people twisting not only the facts, but the truth to support their own agenda. 1 Timothy 4:1-2 says, "Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron." While this is speaking of those leaving the faith and lying about doctrine, there are lies every day that we must discern or be lead astray. In today's society, with the internet, instant communications and a 24-hour news cycle, it is really easy to plant a lie and people will not only believe it, but swear by it and repeat it as truth. Those with agendas can manipulate millions with the push of a "send" button. We see it everyday with the news media. Those posing as journalists present the "facts" in what they say is an unbiased way, but in reality they are lying about what happened because they are speaking these "facts" from their own agenda-driven hearts. It's difficult to know what to believe. One example is a new book by Michael Wolff, titled, "Siege-Trump Under Fire" where the author makes a very false claim that has fueled calls for impeachment. According to the Guardian, Wolff states in his book that Special Counsel Robert Mueller drafted an obstruction of justice indictment against President Trump on counts of witness tampering, witness retaliation, and corruptly influencing a pending proceeding. When Mueller's spokesman Peter Carr was asked by the Guardian to confirm the veracity of Wolff's claim, Carr categorically denied the claim and responded, "The documents that you've described do not exist." Yet, you can bet that the news channels are full of reports about this claim, and it will most likely further fuel calls for impeachment from the neo-communist coup-makers. People will believe it and repeat it. Wolff has been under fire for inaccuracies in his previous best seller "Fire and Fury," which also made outrageous factual errors. Wolff, in response to questions about "Fire and Fury," essentially admitted he lied about his insider account of the White House. Wolff told Vassar Political Review: "I am an observer: I investigate nothing. All I do is look and write what I see and what I hear, and my job--which has nothing to do with truth--is to take what I see and what I hear and write that in a way that readers can come [as close] as possible--as close as I came--to the experience of doing this. I want to be able to turn what I see into something that a reader says 'oh, I see that too...I'm not a political journalist. I'm not, frankly, all that much interested in politics. I'm a writer. I'm barely a journalist, actually. I am a writer." So goes the twisting of the facts so lies appear as truth. Daily Devotion: Tough Love - by Greg Laurie - https://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/ 'For the LORD corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights.' - Proverbs 3:12 As much as it is important to love our kids and tell them how much we love them, we must also discipline our kids. That is our responsibility as parents. A trend nowadays is to be your child's friend, not their parent. But they don't need you to be their best friend. They need parental guidance, counsel, and discipline-only you can give that. Only you can be Mom or Dad. They may not like it now but they will thank you later for being a parent and doing what a parent ought to do. When you discipline your children you actually reflect God's character. God is love. And because He is love, He disciplines us. The Lord says that whom He loves He will discipline (Revelation 3:19). Hebrews 12 says, "For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God's discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening-it's painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way" (verses 10-11 NLT). Because God loves us, He disciplines us. Deuteronomy 8:5 says, "You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you" (NKJV). If you can go and sin without any concern, remorse, or guilt, that would indicate to me you are not even God's child. God makes it hard for you to disobey because He is showing you how much He loves you. If you don't discipline your children, you don't show them how much you love them-or how much God loves them. FROM THE HEART
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