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Prophecy Update Newsletter

July 4, 2016

Prophecy Update End Time Headlines
for 7/3/16

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IN TODAY'S NEWSLETTER...

Featured Article: The Sinner in the Saint The Biblical Basis for the Israel-Turkey Reconciliation and its Prophetic Future Israel's Diplomatic Spring Who's Behind the Bloodbath in Turkey? Remember the Future Our Last True American 4th of July? - The Rise of a New Darkened America Freedom Isn't Free Daily Devotion: America's Only Hope

The Sinner in the Saint - Pete Garcia - http://www.omegaletter.com/articles/articles.asp?ArticleID=8267

One of the greatest paradoxical mysteries in all of the known universe, is that of the mystery of Christ in the believer. How can an all holy, all righteous, divine Being who is Creator and will not tolerate even the tiniest infraction of His divine law...dwell, inside His fallen, sinful, creation? Certainly, the Apostle Paul wrestled with the significance of this concept and was given the understanding to explain for our benefit. He says;

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, 26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Colossians 1:24-28

According to Scripture, the age we live in now has been on the mind of God since eternity past. Being omnipotent and knowing the end from the beginning, God knew that there could only be one way. When a person becomes spiritually born again by God's grace through our faith, they must take on the righteousness of God through the Son's sacrificial atoning work on the Cross. (John 3:3, Eph. 2:8-9, 2 Cor. 5:21)   At the moment of conversion, a believer does not go from being evil to being righteous per say, but goes from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive. Although we are spiritually regenerated from within, we still must dwell in the shell of the fallen, fleshly, man which causes the believer to have two natures, the divine, and the sin nature.

Think about it this way, before a person becomes born-again, what God sees in that particular individual is only them in their sinful, fallen, spiritually dead, state...of which He will not and could not share His glory in and with. For starters, we couldn't physically exist with Him in a fallen state. Moses had to hide himself in the cleft of a rock and could only cast his gaze at the shadow of God walking past and he still glowed for days. John on Patmos, witnessed the resurrected and glorified Christ (or Christ in His natural state), and he fell over as dead. Physically, we couldn't survive the experience of witnessing God in our flesh, without God dimming down (if that is a way to put it) His own Being. We must be born again in order to receive the glorification (think upgrade) to our mortal status.

When a person becomes a believer in the finished work of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15:1-5). They realize that there is nothing they can do to earn what God the Son has already accomplished on Calvary's cross, (John 19:30). Then by placing their faith in that finished, perfect work, instead of relying on their own feeble efforts they have in affect allowed God the ability to quicken their dead, spiritual nature, in which He substitutes His own righteousness in place of theirs.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.           2 Cor. 5:17-21

At that point, the believer is no longer seen by God as fallen man but redeemed man. God see's the Son's blood if you will, painted over the believer, much as it was painted over the door at the first Passover. That God would choose to inject Himself through the Holy Spirit into and sealing the believer, is beyond our comprehension. If anything, it shows us that God is infinitely loving, and infinitely good, and infinitely merciful while still remaining infinitely holy and infinitely righteous. So He is able to both keep the divine order in tact by not violating His own laws or violate the principle of free will, which is necessary for man to willingly come to their God of their own volition.

In terms of the grander scheme, God chose to redeem fallen man by becoming a Man, while remaining fully God, which would also allow Himself the ability to both serve man as our brother and kinsman redeemer. At some point yet future to us now, Christ will first redeem His bride at the Rapture of the Church (the catching up) and then redeem Israel and Creation through the seven-year Tribulation. We see this played out in type in the book of Ruth (the Gentile-bride) and what we will see played out in reality in Revelation 5-6, where Christ takes the title deed to the earth (which was lost from Adam) from the hand of the Father and begins opening the seal judgments because only He is worthy to redeem man, as He is both God and Man.

Assessment

Where many Christian denominations, teachers, and individuals get things wrong concerning the doctrine of Salvation (Soteriology) is, that they confuse the 'tenses of salvation'. When you are born-again, you become as Paul writes, a new creation. You are that proverbial caterpillar who is transformed into the butterfly. Once that happens you can never go back to being a caterpillar. Once you are truly born-again, you can't be un-born, spiritually speaking. In other words, since you can't earn your salvation by your works neither can you 'un-earn' or lose your salvation by your works. If salvation is a gift of God (it is), then it's not based on our own efforts but solely on God's mercy and grace. (Romans 4) The tenses of salvation are;

1.Justification- are saved from the penalty of sin. It is a one-time event for the believer (happens at the moment of salvation)

2.Sanctification- being saved from the ravages of sin. It is a lifelong event for the believer (happens throughout the life of a believer)

3.Glorification- will be saved from the presence of sin. It is a one-time event for the believer (happens at the Rapture of the Church)

Salvation happens when we come to the end of ourselves and trust wholly in the finished work of Christ at the Cross. We come to Calvary as sinners unable to save ourselves. Sanctification happens over the life of a believer and it is Christ who promises to 'finish the good work He began' in us. (Philippians 1:6) Sanctification is that maturing process every believer goes through from the point of their rebirth until the time when either Christ calls us home through death or we see Him in the air at the Rapture which is the Glorification.

Christians still sin (1 John 1:8-10) because it is in our fleshly (human) nature to sin. If Christians were physically separated from our human bodies at the moment of conversion then we would no longer desire to sin. But since we aren't and we must wait for that future day when Christ changes us from mortal and corruptible, to immortal and incorruptible. Our sin nature is something that we must contend and hopefully overcome in the meantime. Again, Paul speaks to this;

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. Romans 7:18-20

Sin is what interrupts our relational process with God once we are already believers just as disobedience interrupts our relationships with our own parents as we were growing up. Sin, and moreover, unconfessed sin doesn't make us unsaved it simply makes the believer miserable because now he is both redeemed by God yet out of fellowship with God...while being reviled by the world and accused by the Accuser. In other words, it is a bad place to be.

But the believer has at his or her disposal a reconciliation for sin. (2 Cor. 5:18) We have a Mediator for our sin. (1 Tim. 2:5) We have access to the very throne room of God. (Heb. 4:16) We have the ability and the liberty to confess our sins and have them wiped away as if they never happened since they were already paid in full at the Cross. (Col. 2:13-15)   But this liberty isn't free per say because it will impact how we live in the here and now.

And one day, we will have to give account for what we did with our salvation at the Bema Judgment. (1 Cor. 3:9-16) We are not judged for salvation because that is already settled. What we are judged for is what we did with our salvation. And if a believer is constantly living in unconfessed sin, he or she is hard pressed to still be doing God's will, thereby frustrating God's plan for your life and now missing out on the reward that God had intended to bestow upon you.

Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 11 Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences. 2 Cor. 5:9-11

But if the Bema Judgment sounds frightening, it is not meant as punishment, even though there will be reward and loss. For many have sacrificed much, and some all, to try to be the men and women God has called us to be. And God wants very much to bestow His riches on His own so that we may share in His merciful bounty.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-6

So it is now after salvation, begins the lifelong process of sanctification for the believer....

till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-Christ- Eph. 4:13-15

Conclusion

Far too little is made of the Rapture of the Church in regards to the actual purpose of it. The Rapture is that future tense of salvation, known as glorification. It isn't just to escape the wrath that is scheduled to visit the earth but also serves specific purposes in regards to our physical nature. Just as it will be at the Sheep and Goat Judgment, (Matt. 25) where Christ separates and judges the nations between those who can and cannot enter into the physical, millennial Messianic Kingdom, the Pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church also separates the worthy from the unworthy.

The Rapture of the Church separates His redeemed Bride (the Church) from this sinful world and to an even further and more personal degree, separates the individual believer from the sinful bodies in which they've had to dwell in while living in this fallen world. (1 John 3:1-3) The Rapture is the process that transports us from our current abode to the heavenly. The Rapture changes us from our mortal estate, to an immortal one so that we may straight away, stand at the judgment seat of Christ, as we must be judged first, in order for Christ to then exact His perfect wrath on a Christ-rejecting world. (1 Peter 4:17)

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed-in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." 1 Cor. 15:50-54

The Biblical Basis for the Israel-Turkey Reconciliation and its Prophetic Future - By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz - http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/71131/biblical-basis-israel-turkey-reconciliation-prophetic-future/?utm_source=Breaking+Israel+News&utm_campaign=7a5293bf3a-BIN_morning_7_16&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b6d3627f72-7a5293bf3a-86588445#Iwm1rBu0OK3uK3yw.97

"And thou son of man prophesy against Gog and say: Thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold I am against thee O Gog chief prince of Meshech and Tubal" Ezekiel 39:1 (The Israel Bible™)

Israel recently signed a controversial reconciliation deal with Turkey after six years of disharmony between the nations. While the recent deal can be attributed to a number of modern political considerations, an alliance between Israel and Turkey can clearly be understood to be bolstered by its Biblical roots. More importantly, it has prophetic implications that will help bring the Messiah.

The agreement, signed in June, will ally Turkey in Israel's fight against mutual terrorist enemies, such as the Islamic State (ISIS). Additionally, Turkey will stop blocking Israeli interests in international organizations such as NATO and the UN.

Israel, on the other hand, will permit Turkey to transfer humanitarian and material aid to the Gaza Strip, ruled by Hamas, through Israel's Ashdod harbor. Israel will also transfer $21 million to a Turkish fund as restitution payment to the families of ten Turkish nationals killed in the 2009 Turkish flotilla to Gaza led by the MV Mava Marmara, a decision that has been much vilified in the political arena.

Though the modern Republic of Turkey, established in 1923, is not mentioned in the Bible, that area of the Middle East is integrally connected to the very roots of Judaism. Mount Ararat in Turkey is the site where the Bible records Noah's ark came to rest.

And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. Genesis 8:4

Turkey is the source of the Jewish people. Though Abraham's birthplace is a matter of some controversy, with several locations claimed as the actual site, the Turkish city of Sanliurfa is accepted as the Biblical city of Haran where Abraham lived until his father Terah died.

And Terah took Avram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Avram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. Genesis 11:31

After leaving Haran and arriving in Israel, the connection remained strong via the matriarchs, who all came from Haran. The forefathers had a complicated love-hate relationship with their relatives in Haran. Abraham orders his servant to bring back a bride from Haran, but admonishes him that under no circumstances should Isaac go there.

The precedent for a pact with Turkey was set by Jacob and Laban. Jacob fled to Padan Aram, a region now identified as the border between Syria and Turkey. When he and Laban parted ways, they made a covenant ensuring they remain allies, while at the same time requiring firm borders between them.

Hashem watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another...I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm. Genesis 31:49-52

This Biblical connection between the two nations continued in the prophets. Japheth, the son of Noah, was the father of Meshech (Genesis 10:2), a nation Josephus identified as occupying an area identified now as modern Turkey. Meshech is named in Ezekiel as one of the principalities of Gog.

Thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold I am against thee O Gog chief prince of Meshech and Tubal; Ezekiel 38:3

Assyria plays a large role in the Bible and Assyrians still live in Turkey today as a Christian minority. Isaiah's messianic prophecy predicts a blessed alliance between Israel, Egypt, and Assyria.

In that day shall Yisrael be the third with Mitzrayim and with Ashur, a blessing in the midst of the earth. Isaiah 19:24

Breaking Israel News spoke to Dr. Efrat Aviv, a specialist in Turkey for the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. When asked if it was relevant to consider the Biblical basis when relating to Turkey in modern diplomacy, surprisingly, she affirmed that it was.

"In the Bible, in the days of King David and Solomon, we read about Israel conquering areas that are now Turkey. When I visit Turkey, it amazes me that the average Turkish citizen still suspects Israel wants to retake this Biblical territory."

Though Turkey may not be the nation of Gog that initiates the war that ushers in the Messianic era, there are sources that identify it as playing an important role in that process. In December, Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, the Vice-President of the Rabbinical Court, related the arrival of the Messiah to the conflict between Turkey and Russia.

"We have received a direct teaching, passed down from one to another, from the Gaon of Vilna, (the foremost Torah scholar of the 18th century) that when Russia goes and conquers Istanbul, the capital of Turkey, it is time to quickly put on your Shabbat clothes and expect the Messiah," the rabbi said.

The Kloisenberger Rebbe, a 20th century Hasidic rabbi, also predicted the role of Turkey's conflict with Russia as part of the Messianic process. He wrote, "When you see the Russian horse in Constantinople, a city in Turkey, you should know Moshiach (Messiah) is about to arrive."

Dr. Aviv accepted the prophecy. "There may very well be basis for this prophecy. The situation we have today, where a total war can break out at any moment between Russia and Turkey, no one could have anticipated this. As an academic, I am very interested in the situation the prophecy describes. As a religious Jew, this reinforces my belief in prophecy."

Israel's Diplomatic Spring - Caroline Glick - http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/263367/israels-diplomatic-spring-caroline-glick

The time has come to recognize the Jewish State's new geopolitical position.

We are living at a time when preconceived notions are crashing down one on top of the other.

We thought that nothing would ever change in the Arab world. But the Arab world hasn't merely changed, large portions of it have collapsed. And regimes that have so far survived are beating a path to Israel's door.

We thought that American dominance in the Middle East would last forever. And today the US is withdrawing. Its withdrawal may be short-lived, or it may stay out for the foreseeable future. Whatever the case, Russia is already picking up the pieces.

That would be shocking enough. But even worse, as it has withdrawn, the US has turned a cold shoulder to Israel and its Sunni allies in a bid to build an alliance with Iran.

We thought that the European Union was the rising world power. We thought the euro was the currency of tomorrow.

Instead, Britain decided to bolt the EU and the euro zone is a disaster zone. European economic growth is sclerotic. European societies are coming apart at the seams under the crushing weight of failed monetary policies, over-regulation and mass emigration from the ruins of the Arab world.

Now we are witnessing the collapse of yet another preconceived notion.

For more than 20 years - indeed, since the initiation of the phony peace process with the PLO in 1993 - the who's who of Israel's chattering classes have told us that our growing diplomatic isolation is the result of our failure to make peace with the PLO. Everything will change for the better, immediately, they tell us, the minute we give up Jerusalem, expel hundreds of thousands of Israelis from their homes in Judea and Samaria, and hand security control of the Jordan Valley over to someone else.

But amazingly, despite the fact that there is no peace process, rather than suffering from diplomatic collapse, it is springtime for Israeli diplomacy as governments around the world seek out closer ties with the Jewish state.

And they aren't coming to us, despite our supposed moral failings. They are coming to us because they admire us.

Exhibit A: Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Last week Putin delivered an address before the All Russian Historical Assembly about the importance of teaching Russian history to Russia's citizens.

Putin used Israel as a model for how historical knowledge empowers a nation.

Putin said, "Israel... relies and develops its identity and brings up its citizens with reliance on historical examples."

Putin's use of Israel as a positive role model showed that Putin's sudden courtship of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not solely the product of strategic and economic interests.

He happens to admire Israel.

Next week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will embark on a five-day visit to Africa. During the trip he will visit Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia.

He may meet with additional heads of state during one of his stops. Netanyahu's visit marks the first prime ministerial trip to Africa since Yitzhak Rabin visited in the early 1990s.

Africa isn't Russia. But it is an important arena.

For nearly a century and a half, Africa has been the playing ground of world powers. In the 19th century, the European powers divided it up among themselves. In the Cold War, the newly independent states of Africa were sucked into the superpower competition as the US and the Soviet Union competed for turf through their African proxies.

Since the end of the Cold War, both world powers and regional ones have been drawn to Africa who view it as a convenient economic and strategic stomping ground.

Over the past decade and a half, China has emerged as the dominant economic player in Africa.

The Chinese move from state to state, building infrastructure in exchange for mining and petroleum contracts.

The US has opted not to challenge China's economic dominance in Africa. The US's nonchalance is either a function of indifference or of ignorance of the toll that China's economic behavior will eventually take on US companies in Africa.

Case in point is Gabon. The West African nation is an oil power. According to business sources in Gabon, President Ali Bongo Ondimba is a pro-Western Muslim. He is interested in expanded trade ties to the US.

Ondimba's electoral opponent, Jean Ping, a former senior UN official and former foreign minister, is oriented toward China. Yet, the US is allegedly supporting Ping over Ondimba due to dissatisfaction with the latter's human rights record. If Ping is elected in August, US oil companies in Gabon are liable to see their contracts challenged.

Human rights and democracy promotion are major themes of US policy in Africa. Since the 1998 al-Qaida bombings of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, counterterrorism has also been a major concern. During his presidency, George W. Bush established the US military's Africa Command to run US operations in the continent.

However, as part of Obama's policy of winding down the US's war against terrorism, and following the US's contribution to the overthrow of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, the US has constrained its operations. Its minimalistic approach to fighting Boko Haram in West Africa and al-Qaida offshoots in East Africa makes clear that the US's strategic disarray, after seven-and-a-half years of the Obama presidency, has not left Africa unaffected.

World powers are not the only players in Africa.

Regional powers are also on the scene. Iran, for instance, views Africa as a theater for expanding its influence over the Middle East. Last month The Wall Street Journal reported on Iran's growing missionary presence in West Africa.

Iran and Hezbollah are running Islamic centers in Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania and Cameroon, and they're getting results. Whereas in 1980, a Pew Survey showed no adherents to Shi'ite Islam in Africa, today, 12 percent of Nigeria's 90 million Muslims are Shi'ites. So are 21% of Muslims in Chad, 20% in Tanzania, and 8% in Ghana.

Much of the missionary work is being handled by Lebanese expatriates in West Africa. Many of these former Lebanese are suspected of having close ties to Hezbollah. Indeed, earlier this year, the US Treasury Department named three Lebanese nationals living in Nigeria as Hezbollah operatives.

During Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's tenure as Iranian president, Tehran expended enormous resources expanding and deepening its presence in Africa.

Among the fruits of his efforts was the Eritrean regime's agreement to allow Iran to operate a naval base in the Horn of Africa. Iran's cooperation with Sudan, and its use of Sudanese territory to ship advanced weapons to Gaza, reached new heights.

Iran's Africa strategy took a major hit earlier this year, however. Owing to massive Saudi pressure, and, in all likelihood, massive payoffs, Sudan, Comoros, Somalia and Djibouti cut diplomatic ties with Iran in January. Sudan even joined Saudi Arabia in its campaign against Iran in Yemen. Eritrea reportedly permitted the Saudis to launch operations in Yemen from its territory.

This then brings us back to Israel, and Netanyahu's visit to Africa.

In recent years, Israel has also been expanding its relations with African nations. Even South Africa, Israel's greatest antagonist in Africa, indicated earlier this year that its hostility isn't all-consuming.

In March, Foreign Ministry director-general Dore Gold paid a prolonged visit to South Africa where he was the guest of his South African counterpart.

South Africa aside, African nations from all over the continent view Israel as a rich source of technology and security expertise they are keen to tap.

They also view Israel as a rising economic power.

With an average economic growth rate of 6%, Africa is also an attractive market for Israeli companies across a swath of industries.

The most practical lesson from power politics in Africa is that for Africans, nothing is a done deal.

African states can cooperate simultaneously with competing outside powers and everyone benefits.

For instance, according to reports, Eritrea allows Iran, Israel and Saudi Arabia to operate on its territory simultaneously. In other words, there is no reason to ever consider anyone in anyone's pocket, and no reason not to ask for what we want. We may get it.

In recent years, Israel has done this to our advantage in the diplomatic realm, long thought to be a lost cause.

Last September, a draft resolution at the International Atomic Energy Agency calling for Israel to open its nuclear sites to UN inspectors came up for a vote. It was defeated due to opposition from African states.

So, too, in late 2000, a draft UN Security Council resolution recognizing "Palestine" was defeated because Nigeria and Rwanda chose to abstain from voting. The African representatives' action caught supporters of the resolution by surprise.

The Israeli leader most responsible for those successes was then-foreign minister Avigdor Liberman.

During his tenure at the Foreign Ministry, Liberman conducted two prolonged visits to Africa during which he visited seven countries, including Nigeria and Rwanda.

There is every reason to expect that during Netanyahu's visit to Africa, Israel will expand and deepen its ties with Africa still further. And at some point, those deepened ties will result in further African support for Israel at the UN.

This returns us to our shattered accepted wisdom about Israel's diplomatic isolation.

The view that Israel's diplomatic fate is directly tied to its willingness to give up Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem is based on the Eurocentric view that the EU is the most important player in the diplomatic arena and that Israel cannot be successful unless Brussels supports us. For Israel's elites, the fact that the EU is hostile to Israel is taken as proof that we are morally compromised and don't deserve its support.

But as Israel's diplomatic rise in Africa, Asia, Russia and beyond makes clear, the Eurocentric view is wrong. Israel needn't waste its time and energy trying to appease the Europeans. Not only is it an exercise in futility, given Europe's boundless and unhinged hostility. It is also unnecessary, given Europe's economic weakness and political decay.

Due to our elite's continued allegiance to the Eurocentric view, scant media attention has been paid to Israel's diplomatic blossoming. Much of the public is unaware that far from being isolated, Israel is enjoying a diplomatic rise unseen since the end of the Cold War.

The time, however, has come for us to recognize the change. For the faster we come to terms with our new position, the faster we will maximize its potential.

Who's Behind the Bloodbath in Turkey? - By Cliff Kincaid -
http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/71086/whos-behind-the-bloodbath-in-turkey-opinion/#m61tY42dP52oQLqh.97

Apologists for Vladimir Putin, including his propaganda channel Russia Today (RT), have been telling us for months that Turkey has been facilitating and even funding the global Islamic terrorist group ISIS. But the carnage at the Istanbul, Turkey, airport, apparently carried out by ISIS, demonstrates this is a big lie. ISIS is doing Russia's dirty work in targeting the only Muslim and Middle Eastern country that is a member of NATO.

This would not have been the first time that ISIS had attacked Turkey. In fact, a suicide bomber who struck a busy tourist area in central Istanbul on Saturday, March 19 was also an ISIS terrorist.

But there's also the possibility that the PKK, the Kurdish terrorist organization also known as the Kurdistan Workers Party, was behind the attack. The PKK has killed thousands of people in Turkey, and has bombed or attacked the country's tourism industry, hospitals and businesses.

Incredibly, in a scandal that could turn into another Benghazi, it has been confirmed that President Obama's administration is arming the Democratic Union Party (PYD)-a branch of the PKK-supposedly to fight ISIS. But the PYD's increasing consolidation of power in northern Syria could pose a military threat to Turkey.

Turkey, a long-time NATO member, is caught in the middle between ISIS and the PKK, while Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan says Obama's support for the PYD is helping to create a "sea of blood" in the region.

The timing of this terrorist attack was significant. The NATO Summit of Heads of State and Government in Warsaw, Poland is scheduled to begin on July 8.

If it turns out that another terrorist group carried out the attack, such as the PKK, that would not be surprising either. Turkish President Erdogan has directly accused Russia of providing anti-aircraft weaponry and rockets to the PKK. "At this moment, terrorists are using anti-aircraft guns and missiles supplied by Russia," Erdogan recently said. "The separatist terrorist organization is equipped with these weapons. They have been transferred to them via Syria and Iraq." These charges followed revelations that the PKK used a Russian-made shoulder-launched missile to down a Turkish helicopter.

Retired Turkish diplomat Murat Bilhan, who served in Moscow, noted, "The PKK had an office in Russia and from time to time it received assistance and support from Russia in the 1990s; Russia never considered PKK as a terrorist organization."

Indeed, the PKK was another one of the "liberation movements" started by the old Soviet intelligence service, the KGB.

Turkish commentator Burhanettin Duran noted that Obama's support for the PYD "continues to strain ties between Turkey and the United States." He added, "A recent visit to Kobani by U.S. special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS (DAESH), Brett McGurk, where he accepted gifts from a former PKK member who now serves in the PYD leadership, took the crisis to the next level...To make matters worse, State Department spokesman John Kirby stated at least twice that the United States would continue working with the PYD, which the U.S. does not consider to be a terrorist group." He went on to say that McGurk offered "to protect Turkey against the PKK," but that he "came out in favor of strengthening the PYD's armed People's Protection Units (YPG) even after President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an openly asked the administration to choose between Turkey and the PYD."

The New York Times has been slow to acknowledge the scandal that is developing with another Obama administration policy in the Middle East. However, the paper did run a story in February that Turkish President Erdogan "called into question the American commitment to fighting terrorist groups in Syria and cited Washington's failure to recognize a Syrian Kurdish rebel group as a terrorist organization." That group was the PYD. "Are you on our side or the side of the terrorist PYD and PKK organizations?" Erdogan asked.

At the State Department's daily press briefing on February 8, spokesman John Kirby said, "...we don't, as you know, recognize the PYD as a terrorist organization. We recognize that the Turks do, and I understand that. Even the best of friends aren't going to agree on everything."

During testimony before a Senate panel, Obama's Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said "yes" when asked by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) whether the PYD and its militia force, the YPG, were aligned with the PKK. The Reuters news agency noted that Graham had said, "We are arming people inside of Syria who are aligned with a terrorist group: That is the finding of the Turkish government."

Isn't that a variation of the pro-terrorist policy that led to the Benghazi massacre?

Remember the Future - By Daymond Duck -
http://raptureready.com/featured/duck/dd234.html

I have received e-mails asking for my thoughts on the Brexit vote. In all honesty, the ramifications are over my head. I must stick to my calling or what little I know will become obvious.

First, the EU will not cease to exist (Dan. 9:26-27). It is reasonable to expect some restructuring, and it may even be delayed, but when God's time is right a united Europe will emerge with a more powerful government and a greater global influence than ever.

The Antichrist will come out of a Revived Roman Empire, confirm a covenant with many for seven years of peace in the Middle East, sit in the rebuilt Jewish Temple, claim that he is God, establish a world government and more (Dan. 9:27; II Thess. 2:4; Dan. 7:23; Rev. 13:7).

Second, it is just speculation, but the U.S. could be in greater peril than the EU.

In 1892, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. is a Christian nation. In 1952, President Truman established one day a year as a "National Day of Prayer." In 1988, President Reagan designated the first Thursday in May of each year as the "National Day of Prayer."

In 2007, then Presidential candidate Obama said the U.S. is no longer a Christian nation. In 2016, he cancelled the "National Day of Prayer" ceremony at the White House because he didn't want to "offend anyone."

On June 15, 2016, Rev. Franklin Graham said the Islamic terrorist murders at a gay nightclub in Orlando Florida are a "symptom" of America's spiritual condition and he declared that America has become a "godless nation."

Bible prophecy teachers are often asked, "Why isn't America in Bible prophecy?" It is a debatable issue, but this is a sure thing: America cannot go from being a "Christian nation" to being a "godless nation" and get away with it.

Third, the division of the England and the EU should have been expected. The leadership in London and Brussels is obsessed with the satanic desire to divide Israel and Jerusalem.

According to the Bible what the nations do to Israel and Jerusalem at the end of the age will come back on them (Obad. 1:15). God has divided them because they have worked to divide Israel and Jerusalem.

If they would pay attention, they could escape the battle of Armageddon, but they won't. They will pursue their effort to divide the Promised Land all of the way to the Valley of Jehoshaphat (Joel 3:2).

Fourth, Brexit could actually speed up the development of the EU and world government. Globalists often say, "Never let a good crisis go to waste." To them a crisis is often an opportunity to push legislation upon the people that otherwise wouldn't stand a chance of passing.

Many globalists have said an economic crisis may be needed to bring in world government. This could be the beginning of a crisis beyond their wildest imaginations.

Fifth, in a great article for Rapture Ready Matt Ward recently expressed the thought that Brexit could have some implications for the Battle of Gog and Magog (Ezek. 38-39). It is risky to be dogmatic, but he could be onto something.

Many Bible commentators think the merchants of Tarshish in Ezek. 38:13 is a reference to England. When Russia, Iran and others attack Israel, the merchants of Tarshish don't do anything but stand around and ask questions.

It is not unreasonable to believe that England's economy could be so weak that she can't afford to go to Israel's defense.

Also, Russia might view England's financial woes as an opportunity to attack Israel and get away with it.

Regardless of that, this is the point. There is none like God. He knows the end from the beginning (Isa. 46:10). Remember the future. It will be what God said it will be hundreds of years ago. We don't have dates, but we can know what is going to happen because God doesn't make mistakes.

Prophecy Plus Ministries
Daymond & Rachel Duck
duck_daymond@yahoo.com

Our Last True American 4th of July? - The Rise of a New Darkened America - David Pepe - http://www.theignorantfishermen.com/2012/07/birth-of-new-nation-this-4th-of-july.html

Much has changed in America in this last year... even since the last few months and weeks even! The hope and joy that once filled American has turned to great despair and dread concern for many of its inhabitants. My dear friends, as I look at America at present I truly believe that this will be our last true 4th of July we will celebrate and remember as a nation as regarding our founding. Whoever is to be elected in this coming presidential election nothing good will come of it at all. We as a nation are on the Titanic with just minutes to go until our final implosion morally, fiscally and socially. Our nation has been never more divided ideology wise and at accelerating speeds we are seeing the demonetization of our Judeo/Christian founding and all that is moral and virtuous (Isa. 5:20). We have had many great challenges before in our nation's past but we have never experienced an inward hostile takeover of our three branches of government as we have seen of late. The jig is finally up America and the Four Horsemen are at the door to begin their ride and NOTHING is going to stop that now! The Kingdom of Heaven is TRULY at hand!

The years of leftist preparation and incrementalism have finally paid off and they have seized the power and are now implementing their socialistic secular lawless tyrannical agenda full bore. This present state of helplessness and great concern has now finally engulfed the hearts of those Americans who had once clung onto optimistic appraisals and hopes. They have now finally come to understand that the very hour in which they are now living in is indeed the end of America. Great worry and concern is now found throughout the New Media including Rush Limbaugh and in the conservative movement in general. Optimistic appraisals of our return to our Founder's vision for America are now but a vapor and the reality of our nation's estate have finally set in frightening those who now understand and can see that the implosion (morally and fiscally) of our nation is at hand and lawlessness, tyranny and governmental slavery are at our very door.

I would liken our nation to a loved one, who has been hit by a car and is in the critical care unit of the hospital. He shows possible signs of recovery and there is great relief among his loved ones at the future prospect that he will survive and get some of his functions back. He will not be fully restored to the way he once was, but at least he will be with us and we can love him. Then... the doctor purposely prescribes the wrong medications and as a result of this doctor's diabolical deed our love one is now placed in a comma and is in a greater state of emergency than the first. He has now received brain damage due to the medication's complications of his poisoning and to continue to live he must be on life support. Our moment of temporary joy and hopeful optimism at our love one's partial recovery is now turn to great anger, despair and hopelessness. The reality that our loved one will never recover from his doctor's injustice and injury has made us angry and fully grieved, for the reality has now set in that we will never be able to interact or enjoy our loved one again, for he is indeed truly gone and we are helpless to save him. We have tried to do all that is within our power but must now come to the very sobering realization as he lies on life support that he is lost and has not much time left in this world. My friend, that is how I and others now feel about our nation's present estate. The jig is finally up and we fully know that indeed very troubling days of tyranny, lawlessness and oppression are at our very door as a nation... and the world.

The anti-Constitutional secular left have finally fulfilled their secular tyrannical desire and have slain our Founding Father's vision and our Constitution in which it cannot return. The glass is broke and unrepairable. It is my personal opinion - with lawlessness abounding in all three branches of U.S. Government - that anarchy, oppression, fiscal depression and civil war is at hand and it is just a matter of time before our national implosion (fiscally and morally) finally occurs.

Our U.S. government (local/national) has been occupied and saturated with those who HATE and DESPISE all that our Founding Fathers stood for. The Laws of Nature and of Nature's God (Almighty God's moral absolutes for time) have been under the unrelenting secular jihad of those who disdain and abhor their Creator and all that represent His moral absolutes (Rom. 1:18-32, Jude 1:8,10). Our current president is the fulfillment of all these godless secularist twisted dreams and hopes. He has been absolutely hell bent on the destruction and disintegration of our nation and its Judeo/Christian heritage and has been very successful in his war against our Constitution.

Over the last 75 years the secular socialistic seed has been planted, watered and nourished. The time has now finally come in our history to reap this secular socialistic harvest and Obama has been the man to "git R done". Obama's policies, euphemisms and twisted justifications of his lawless actions have cut through the rotted America social core as a hot knife through warm butter. Fifty years of lawless indoctrination, critical theory, secularism, moral relativism and socialistic kool aid has dumbed down and made drunk this nation's citizens and has made this nation's inhabitants ripe for the pickings and dumb as a rock.

America's clueless pleasure seeking narcissistic inhabitants (Right, Moderate and Liberal) and governmental program addicts have all been mentally and morally passed out and at the wheel for years, while America has been stealthily taken over. As the U.S. frog has been slowly cooked over 75 years so have our nation's inhabitants. Many have finally woken up since the Lefts (in 2006) and Obama's (in 2008) takeover of America, but it has been a little too late; for the damage has long been done and the lawless reaper's now have come.

This day the Left rejoices in a new "lawless revolution" that has finally taken over the Founding Father's vision of America. The Left celebrates a new nation born to replace our old one which was founded on the Laws of Nature and of Natures God. Almighty God has been finally ousted from our three branches of government and a secular agenda and government is now the new god of America. We look back at what once was America and understand that we are now in a new era, a new realm, a new estate ever evolving now into fascist tyrannical state of despotism and anarchy. The American Lefts fascism, which has hid behind a smiley face for years has now revealed its self to be the consuming Dragon of old (John 8:44, Eph. 6:12, Rev. 12:9). Make no mistakes my friends more is at work here then the hands of lawless man (2 Cor. 4:3-4, Eph.6:12). The Master politician has now set the stage for his soon reception and 666 global state (2 Thess. 2:3-12, Rev. 13) in which none shall escape (1 Thess. 5:1-4, Rev. 6-19).

Our nation's ONLY hope in this dire hour is for each American to turn to Almighty God and to His saving grace. For that is what this little existence here in this fallen world is all about. Almighty God has provided a Savior for time and ETERNITY may it be that you know Him (John 3:16-17).

The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!

Freedom Isn't Free - Jack Kinsella - www.omegaletter.com

This Independence Day, we remember the thousands of Americans that have given all they had to give in defense of in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond -- and we thank God for them, and for their families.

We thank God for all the American families who gave their sons and daughters, thousands more who gave up a limb, not for oil, not for gain, but to give the greatest gift of all: Freedom.

America sent its sons and daughters to Vietnam because the Communist North threatened to impose itself on the South. The politicians and the media each had their own agendas, but the cause for which America sacrificed fifty-six thousand young men and women was freedom.

Fifty-two thousand men went to the other side of the world where they gave their lives fighting to protect the freedom of the South Korean peninsula.

America sent millions of its young men to Europe in 1942 to restore freedom to the countries occupied by the Nazi horde . . . 408,000 never came home. Another 600,000 were wounded.

In one blood-soaked year, 116,000 Americans gave their lives to save the French during World War I. Not one of these conflicts were fought for conquest. Americans asked for no more land than was necessary to bury their dead.

America was founded by men who valued freedom so deeply that the Declaration of Independence, signed 230 years ago today, concluded with the solemn oath, "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

Of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration, nine gave their lives in battle; five were captured by the British. Eighteen were utterly ruined for their devotion to the cause.

Lewis Morris of New York had his estate destroyed by the British, his cattle butchered, and his family sent fleeing for their lives.

William Floyd and his family became refugees for seven years. Floyd's wife didn't survive the war.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, an aristocratic planter who had invested heavily in shipping, saw most of his vessels captured by the British navy. His estates were largely ruined, and by the end of his life he was a pauper.

Thomas Nelson Jr. of Virginia raised $2 million for the patriots' cause on his own personal credit. The government never reimbursed him, and repaying the loans wiped out his entire estate. During the battle of Yorktown, his house, which had been seized by the British, was occupied by General Cornwallis.

Nelson quietly urged the gunners to fire on his own home. They did so, destroying it. He was never again a man of wealth. He died bankrupt and was buried in an unmarked grave.

John Hart of New Jersey was forced to flee in the winter of 1776, at the age of 65, from his dying wife's bedside. While he hid in forests and caves, his home was demolished, his fields and mill laid waste, and his 13 children put to flight.

When it was finally safe for him to return, he found his wife dead, his children missing, and his property decimated. He never saw any of his family again and died, a shattered man, in 1779.

These men were all men of great wealth and influence in the Colonies, but they gave all they had to give their countrymen freedom. Freedom is never free.

This July 4th, remember to pray for the American forces who remain on the battlefield, earning in blood the freedom that so many of us take for granted.

May God continue to bless them and keep them and grant them victory.

And may God bless us all.

Daily Devotion: America's Only Hope - Greg Laurie - www.harvest.org

"Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?" -Psalm 85:6

What is the future of the United States of America? Are we doomed to just go the way that so many other once-great nations have gone? Is America headed to the ash heap of history? Are our greatest days behind us, or could they still yet be ahead? Is there any hope for America?

No one can answer those questions with any certainty, but we know this much: America is not the superpower of the last days. The greatest nation on earth is conspicuous in her absence from the world stage in the end-times scenario given to us in the Bible. America is not the first, nor will it be the last, nation to rise and fall. Every nation's days are numbered; America is no exception.

Rome was once the mightiest empire on the face of the earth. But she collapsed internally before she was conquered externally. We as a country can be diligent to guard against enemies on the outside, but we would be wise to look within.

Historian Will Durant, in his book on Rome's history, Caesar and Christ, said, "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within. The essential causes of Rome's decline lay in her people, her morals. . .."

The difference between Rome and the U.S. is that we were founded on Judeo-Christian values. We've strayed from the original vision of our founding fathers, the vision that produced "America."

What was once "freedom of religion" has now become "freedom from religion." We have succeeded in getting God out of our schools, sporting events, public venues, and workplaces. Instead of Christmas, when we should focus on Jesus, we have Happy Holidays and Winter Solstice. Instead of Good Friday and Easter, we have Spring Break. It seems to me that America has gone out her way of late to turn from God. But America needs God's intervention.

We saw many turn to the Lord after 9/11. Remember those prayer vigils on street corners and packed churches? Remember the members of Congress spontaneously singing "God Bless America"? These memories give me hope that there could be at least one more great revival in America's future.

If we do not have revival, I do believe that judgment is inevitable. Peter Marshall, former chaplain to the U.S. Senate once said, "The choice before us is plain: Christ or chaos, conviction or compromise, discipline or disintegration."

God was able to turn the very wicked nation of Nineveh around in the days of Jonah. We know there have been some great spiritual awakenings in our history as well. Let's pray that America will turn back to God in these last days.

FROM THE HEART

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