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Prophe-Zine Issue 039
PropheZine # 39
April 16, 1997
Kim Koster....Welcome to PropheZine # 39
Cyndee Parker... National ID Card is Now Federal Law
Berit Kjos....Zero Tolerance For Non-Complience..Clinton's Ten Steps Toward Behavior Modification
Alan Yusko...The Mark Of The Beast and The Rise of the Antichrist
Micheal Ferringo...The Harvest...Poem
Todd Strandberg.....It's the End of the World as We Know it
Todd Strandberg...The Train... The Train...
Andrew Strom.... Signs in the Heavens Now !
PropheZine News Bytes
Lee Underwood...FYI- Israel in the News
Arutz Sheva News Serv.....Documented Palestinian Incitement
Alex Buchan ...The Persecution Most House Church Christians Face In China!
Grace Lee ... Hong Kong Churches Could Face Prosecution For Overseas Connections
Final Words
Ray Gano....God 's Promises to Memorize
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Welcome To Issue # 39
Hello everyone,
I would like to introduce myself , my name is Kim Koster and God has allowed me to join the PropheZine staff as assistant editor. Ray has already put me to work helping on this issue. I will be working hard to try to bring you the interesting articles and up to date news stories you have come to depend on. Your comments and suggestions are welcome .
Well it is tax time once again and as some of us rush to meet the last minute deadline we can reflect on how our goverment plans on using all that money. With that thought in mind we thought that we would focus this issue on Rev 13:16-18. In this issue Cyndee Parker has written a great article to let us know how the Goverment plans on slipping the National ID card to every American and shows us how some states are getting the ball rolling in their own state's. Berit Kjos Has given us a wonderful article on the Zero Tolerance Policies sweeping our school system and she also gives us some views on what Clinton may really be saying in his Ten Steps Toward Lifelong Behavior Modification. Alan Yusko gives us a superb article on the mark of the beast and the antichrist. Micheal Ferrigo has let us include his unique and interesting poem The Harvest. Todd Strandberg's articles It's the End of the World as we know it and The Train gives us some important things to think about involving the rapture. Andrew Strom's article discuss the past Blood Red Moons and the Hale Bopp comet and what they mean to the Jewish people.
Don't forget to check out the PropheZine newsbytes there is a lot of news from Israel. We would like to ask that everyone keep Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu in our prayers. Also May 1,1997 is the National Day of Prayer lets all join in to pray for a worldwide revival so as many as possible can learn about our Lord Jesus Christ. In His Service,
Kim Koster
Asst. Editor
PropheZine
email: KKOSTER@DATAWISE.NET
EDITORS NOTE: To find out more about Kim, check out the PZ Staff page. I will be adding her information up there soon. Also, a heads up. Go to www.intermind.com and download the plugin from Intermind. PZ is going to bepublishing news and has gotten a "channel." I remind all of you that we need reporters. If you are interested in this, please zap me an email <mailto:ray@prophezine.com>
Welcome aboard Kim and good work.
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National ID Card Is Now Fedral Law and Georgia Wants To Help Lead the Way
by Cyndee Parker
In September of 1996, President Clinto signed into law the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996. Buried at approximately page 650 of the new national defense bill,also known as Public Law 104-208,Part B, Title IV, the American public is given a national ID card. With no fanfare, no publicity and no scrutiny, the bill easily avoided the watchful eyes of even its most aggressive opponents.
The Coalition to Repeal the Fingerprint Law,a Georgia grassroots movement trying to rid the state of the new requirement to give digital fingerprints in order to obtain a state ID or drivers license,recently found the national ID tie. The group found that the national law not only mandates a national ID card but found how it is to be used.
In Section 401-403, pilot programs have been initiated by the U.S.Attorney General,one of which is the " Machine Readable Document Pilot Program". In this particular program, employers would have to "procure" a document reader linked to the federal goverment's Social Security Administration in order to have the potential employee swipe their drivers license/national
ID card through the reader. Then it would be up to the federal goverment to either approve or disapprove the applicant for employment. Section 326 and 327 provide $5,000,000 per year grants to each state participating in any of the three pilot programs. The money has been allocated through the Criminal Alien Tracking Center and is called the Criminal Alien Identification System. The "automated identification system", which is to be used by " Federal, State andlocal law enforcment" and will "provide for recording of fingerprints of aliens previously arrested and removed".The grants run from "fiscal years 1997 through 2001.
Additionally, Section 656 of the new law states that "after October 1, 2000", Federal agencies may only accept as proof of identity, drivers licenses that conform to standards developed by the Secretary of State,after consultation wuth state motor vrhicle officials and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. The AAMVA sees digital fingerprinting as the best way to go in driver's licence identifers.
Fearing that all Americans were about to be digitally tattooed under the goverment's paraniod guise of catching everything from aliens to deadbeat dads, Congressman Dick Armey(R-TX) was one of the first to voice his opinion. Armey called the move,"an abomination and wholly at odds with the American tradition of individual freedom". Senator Spencer Abraham(R-MI) joined Armey in signing a letter denouncing the computer registry and tracking system and Jack Kemp announced in the New York Timesthat this was,"an anti-privacy, anti-business and anti-American approach", and that " it was no way to run an immigration policy". Of course, all this was said before the bills were snuck through in the last defense bill. There is a possibility at this time, they don't even know the proposed legislation became law.
For the first time in American history and reminiscent of Communist countries, our goverment would have the ability to grant approval before a private company enters into private contracts with private citizens. Because of the nature of the employment system alone, personal information would be accessible to local agencies and anyone who even claims to be an employer. The goverment would've comprehensive files of all American citizen's names, dates of birth, place of birth, mother's maiden names, social security numbers, gender, race, driving record, child support payments, divorce status, hair color, eye color, height, weight, and anything else they dream up in the future.
On May 10,1995, a hearing was held by the Senate Subcommittee on immigration entitled," Verification of Applicant Identity for the Purposes of Employment and Public Assistance". The hearing was chaired by Senator Alan Simpsom (R-WY) and attended by Senators Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and John Kyl R-AZ). Robert Razor of the Secret Service Finacial Crimes Division gave the Subcommittee an explanation of the emerging biometric technological role in personal identification. He said," The use of biometrics is the means by which an individual maybe conclusively identified. There are two types of biometric identifers; physical and behavioral characteristics. Physiological biometrics include facial features, hand geometry, retinal and iris patterns, DNA, and fingerprints. Behavioral characteristics include voice characteristics and siniture analysis."
Now the people of America not only must have digital tattoos on their driver's licenses, we must also give information to the goverment when boarding commercial aircraft, called personality profiles, along with a goverment ID card. Of course, this guise is in order to catch some would be
terrorist. Dianne Feinstein, author of the national ID law, explained in a capitol hill magazine that it was her intention to see congress immediately implement a national identity system where every American is require to carry a card with a "magnetic strip on it which the bear's unique voice, retina pattern, or fingerprint is digitally encoded." She also stated that " fifteen years ago, they would have torn the building down. And here we are today, just a bunch of us, kind of sitting around and no media, no nothing. This is fine with me. I get tired of them on this issue."
Based on other federal mandates, the Associated Press reported in the Wichita Eagle on March 6 , 1997 that the " Federal goverment mandates a registry of new employees: State lawmakers balk at bill required by congress to ease child support collection. A bill designed to increase state collection of child support payments was described as a "Big Brother" move and drew little support from members of the senate judiciary committee on Wednesday. But the federal goverment says the legislature must pass it or the state could lose as much as $29 million in federal funds." The bill referred to requires the state to set up a "new hire directory" that would require all employers to report to the state information about every newly hired employee. The directory would be made available to the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services of child support collections. In the article, they reported that "the date in Kansas and other states, although confidential, would be available to a national directory of new hires." They further reported that all people would be listed, regardless of age and even those that have no child support obligation.
The Senate Judiciary Committee in Kansas was quick to offer comments condemning the federal mandate. Senator Mike Harris from Wichita, the committee chairman said," This is the most potentially significant, far-reaching piece of legislation that has come through this committee." The legislators from both parties referred to "Big Brother" and George Orwell's novel, 1984". Kansas State Senator Paul Feleciano of Wichita said," If ever we give witness to Big Brother watching over us, this is the begging of it." Sen. Ed Pugh of Wamego had sharper words for the bill. He said," I don't see how it can be drafted by someone in a free society, it's a perfect example of the ends justifying the means." These Kansas lawmakers are not referring to the immigration Act, but to another new federal law, the Welfare Reform Act. If Kansas refuse to have a state bill in place later this year, they will lose as much as $29 million in federal funds for child support collection. Senator Pugh said." it is a wholesale assault on Constitutional rights."
The new driver's license requirement mandating fingerprints for Georgia driver's and those wanting ID cards passed the state legislature with virtually no public or media attention in April of 1996. The first known announcement was on the local Atlanta news announcing an October 1996 date to begin fingerprinting. Cyndee Parker, now a coordinator for the Coalition to Repeal the Fingerprint Law in Georgia began the campaign to repeal the egregious law.
Many Georgia lawmakers joined in on the repeal efforts. Representatives Mitchell Kaye, Brian Joyce , Vernon Jones and Senator Pam Glanton were the first to help lead the repeal efforts in the General Assembly of Georgia. Eight bills were drawn by the House and one by the Senate. Mitchell Kaye refers to the law as,"tracking us like a can of dog food".
Due to the Governor's and House Speaker's manipulations, all eight house bills were held hostage by the House Motor Vehicle's committee and were never voted on. The Senate overwhelmingly passed a senate bill, only to find it placed as hostage, along with the other bills in Motor Vehicles. On the last night of the Georgia session, Senator Glanton amended another driver's license related bill and it also was never voted by the House due to the same manipulations, illegal rule changes and an incredible amount of confusion on the House floor. Governor Miller stated numerous times during the year that he would veto any repeal effort. House Speaker Tom Murphy was happy to see that the Governor did not get out his veto pen.
The Coalition will now take their story around the state using town hall meetings. The repeal effort has made very strange political bed fellows, with such groups as the ACLU, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Libertarian Party of Georgia, the Christian Coalition, American's for Lawful Goverment, ABATE a motorcycle rider's education group, and many other divers groups, totaling about 20 in all and growing rapidly. The coalition believes that once Georgians know about the federal implications, the groundswell will grow so large that the Governor will have no Choice but rid the state of the obviously federally mandated bill. The group says that at least the State of Washington was honest with it's citizens when proposing the same fingerprinting legislation. Right in Section 1 of the Washington bill, they state this is a national ID card in conformity with federal mandates.
Georgia just slipped theirs through unnoticed by lawmakers and the public, the same way the Illegal Immigration reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act was. The Group also had to notify their United State Congressional Representatives and Senators, as they were unaware of the facts as well. Both State and Federal Representatives and Senators had absolutely no knowledge they had passed the new laws until the Coalition brought it to their attention. The Coalition to Repeal the Fingerprints Law can be reached at 404-250-8105 or visit their web site at www.mcwebs.com/repeal/
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ZERO TOLERANCE FOR NON-COMPLIANCE
Clinton's Ten Steps Toward Lifelong Behavior Modification
by Berit Kjos
"The critical point of behavior control, in effect, is sneaking up on mankind without his self-conscious realization that a crisis is at hand. Man will not even know that it is about to happen".1 Professor Raymond Houghton
" President Clinton will be successful if he manages to use American influence to...increase significantly the role of the United Nations....Bill Clinton will be a great president....if he can make America the creator of a new world order based on consensus."2
Mikhail Gorbachev,"New World Order:Consensus
John Turner, a twelve-year-old honor student, was arrested during a school recess, handcuffed, taken to juvenile hall, fingerprinted, and forbidden to call his mother. He had to sign a $250 bond and may face steeper punishment along with a lifelong blot on his personal computerized data
file "if found guilty"
What could a sixth grader do to deserve such bad treatment?............." He hit back," says his mother, Alyne Turner.
During a January cold spell in Louisiana, the students at his elementary school were kept inside during recess." Another student began picking on John, calling him names,"says Mrs.Turner. John responded to the intimidation by telling his adversary that he must be stupid if he thought those insulting words were true. The other boy hit him in the face. It hurt especially since John was wearing braces. John reacted and hit back. The other students agreed that John had been provoked. But that didn't matter. There was a "fight" and John had participated. He had failed to follow the prescribed steps toward "conflict resolution". By suggesting that the other boy was "stupid", he failed to "respect" his tormentor. He had broken the ground rules for the politically correct peace-making process which demands a standard of self-restraint that would disqualify most adults.
John's school had adopted a policy called "zero- tolerance", a strategy touted by President Clinton and leading educators across the country. In Ohio, the "Zero Tolerance for Violence"policy brings swift punishment on innocent victims as well as aggressors, both are summarily suspended. So when a young girl in Ohio was beaten by two other girls on her way to the school bus, all three girls were sentenced to equal punishment: a ten day suspension.
Intent to do wrong, a key element in criminal justice, is irrelevant." If you are hit, you are suspended , no matter what," explained a concern mother who asked to remain anonymous." If somebody wants to get another person, they just hit them. Some kids don't mind getting suspended, but the students who want to succeed do. Middle Schoolkids are getting hit by High-School kids and they are punished as if they hit back. The daughter of a high school board member got hit in the hallway. She was suspended, even though other students said she didn't provoke it.
It's happening from coast to coast. A straight A-student in San Jose, California was expelled for bring a finger nail clipper to school. Amber Nash, a high school honor student in Gobles Michigan, brought a knife to school to cut a friend's birthday brownies. She was suspended for ten days. In Alexandria, Louisiana, Eight year old honor student Kameryan Lueng brought a family heirloom to her second grade class. She didn't realize that the little knife attached to the chain of her Grandfather's Gold plated old pocket watch would violate the "zero tolerance" policy. Her punishment was suspension from school and remediation at Redirection Academy.
" They were studying colonial times, and Kameryan thought her teacher would be interested in seeing something old," said her mother, Cheryl Luang." Kameryan cried when I told her she couldn't go back to her school on Monday. She feels like a criminal"3
How can schools justify their harsh punishment when their victims intended no wrong? And why do most of the victims seem to be honor students and high achievers?
Some educators" say the benefits of zero tolerance policies in raising a school's overall standard of conduct outweighs the harm done to any child who inadvertently breaks the rule, 4wrote Tamar Lewin in a New York Times article titled" School Codes Without Mercy Snare Pupils Without Malice." "We don't want to be making exception, having a principle say this is a good child from a prominent family so we'll over look it, or this is a problem child from a poor family so we'll enforce it." says Sylvia Pearson, president of the Rapides Parish School Board, referring to little Kameryan. "We adopted zero tolerance to make a safe environment for children." 5
What about emotional safety? Was the emphasis on self-esteem and self-expression merely a passing fad, a bridge between the old and the new paradigms? Did our permissive humanist stage prepare America to welcome a new global stage?
CLINTONS TEN POINT PLAN. For most of this century, humanist educators have sought ways to use education to transform both the world and its people. " All of us, including the owners, must be subjected to a large degree of social control," wrote NEA leader Willard Givens in 1934." The major function of the school is the social orientation of the individual. It must seek to give him an understanding of the transition to a new social order."
Today, self-proclaimed "change agents" see the fruit of their work. Around the world, nations are conforming their national standards. President Clinton outlined the U>S> version of this global system in his 1997 State of the Union address to Congress:
1. "Adopt high national standards."
2. " Establish nationally accepted credentials for excellence in teaching."
3. "Help our children read"
4. "Start teaching children before they start school."
5. " Give parents the power to choose the right public school for their children."
6. " Teach our children to be good citizens."
7. " Help communities finance $20 billion in school construction."
8. " Open the doors of college to all"
9. " Expand the frontiers of learning across a lifetime."
10." Bring the power of the information age into all our schools."
These goals sound good don't they? They should. Their purpose is to win public support, not to communicate facts. As New York Times editor Alison Mitchell wrote on February 12," Clinton is still using his campaign polling firm of Penn & Schoen to gauge public opinion and help him test and craft language for his speeches. 6
Clinton's marketing strategy matches the tactics of educational change agents who say one thing but mean another. North Carolina school superintendent Dr. Jim Causby summarized it well at a 1994 international model school conference in Atlanta: " We have actually been given a course in how not to tell the truth. How many of you are administrators? You've had that course in public relations where you learn to put the best spin on things."
Todays reformers shun clear definitions. Ambiguous promises do far more to persuade the public, subdue the opposition, and create consensus. So truth-telling must wait until polls indicate public readiness. Clinton has learned his lessons well. He challenges us to learn as well to be ready always to test what we hear in the light of the truth and facts. Unless we decode his noble visions in the light of new regulations and stated goals of education leaders, we will be deceived.
By changing the sequence of Clinton's ten goals we see a different picture, one that shows how the nice-sounding pieces fit into a monstrous system that would manipulate, manage and monitor " human resources" for the envisioned global village. But keep in mind, the outline below is merely a summary. For factual details explore Internet's education sites, check your state's "workforce development" program, and read Brave New Schools.
"TEACH OUR CHILDREN TO BE GOOD CITIZENS",said Clinton. "Promote order and discipline.... impose curfews, enforce truancy laws, remove disruptive students from the classroom and have zero tolerance for guns and drugs."
Like "zero tolerance" for guns, the policies for drugs and truancy have been stretched far beyond the realm of danger and reason. Brooke Olson, a 13-year-old from Texas was suspended for carrying a bottle of Advil in her backpack. A thirteen-year-old honor Ohio student was suspended and faced possible expulsion for recieving the mild pain reliever Midol from her friend for cramps. And the new truancy laws often seem more effective in intimidating home schoolers on the way to libraries than stopping genuine truancy. What is happening?
A good citizen is a global citizen in the minds of leading educators. These global citizens must be trained to put planetary needs above their own. As governor in 1987, Clinton, together with Professor John Goodlad, Carnegie president Ernest Boyer, and other visionary members of the study commission on Global Education, wrote a report titled " The United States Prepares for its Future: Global Perspectives in Education." Its forewordstates," A dozen years ago....teaching and learning " in global perspective" was still exotic doctrine, threatening those who still thought of American citizenship as an amalgam of American history, American geography, American lifestyles and American ideas. It now seems almost conventional to speak of American citizenship in the same breath with international interdependence and the planetary enviroment."7
It isn't easy to persuade Americans to trade national pride for planetary loyalties. But our new education system is designed to instill utopian vision of global interdependence in people everywhere. Contrasted to the exaggerated evils of western culture, this vision looks enticing enough to motivate many to accept unthinkable environmental and social restraints.
Using " zero tolerance" policies to shock, embarrass, and intimidate dutiful students into complience with irrational rules fits the plan. Most students caught in the confusing web of federal regulations must endure long sessions in "conflict resolution" and " anger management" two related psycho-social strategies used to instill a submission, collectivist mentality. They have already become standard procedure in our nation's classrooms. Thomas Sowell, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, summarized the process: " The techniques of brainwashing developed in totalitarian countries are routinely used in psychological conditioning programs imposed on American school children. These include emotional shock and desensitization, psychological isolation from sources of support, stripping away defenses, manipulative cross examination of moral values, and including acceptance of alternative values by psychological rather than rational means."8
These un-American strategies may shock most parents, but they fit the plan for transformation. While the Carnegie Foundation was importing Soviet psychosocial strategies long before the US-Soviet General Education Agreement 9 was signed by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, the 1985 treaty made it official. Social studies, science, arts....all facets of education were included in the exchange.
"Cooperation would cover all computer based instruction, instructional hardware and curriculum designed for all grades of primary and secondary education, as well as college and university studies, "wrote Malachi Martin in the Keys of this Blood. The obvious goal was a total homogenization not only of the methods of teaching and learning, but what was to be taught and learned. 10"he continued," Cooperation in the " social sciences" turned a blind eye to the official prostitution of psychiatry and psychology by the Soviet Union as clinical tools for inflicting mental and physical torture as political punishment and for disposing of dissidents. The USSR had been banned from the World Psychiatric Association in 1983 for such practices...."Or take cooperation in the humanities. As taught in the Soviet Union, all humanities are marinated in Lenist Marxism as a matter of course. And history is distorted by the systematic suppression of facts, and by downright lies. One might wonder what common curricula might be drawn up between the USSR and US..."
The aim of the General Agreement was " to transform the shape of the world" and to restructure " institutions so that they are not confined merely to nations-states. "11 It would take a new kind of teacher to instill this message in the hearts of students across the nation.
"ESTABLISH NATIONALLY ACCEPTED CREDENTIALS FOR EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING "said Clinton" Reward our best teachers" Remove those few who don't measure up..."
This "excellence in teaching" has little to do with traditional academics. It refers to expert training in psycho-social strategies. Like other political promises, the nice-sounding phrase was not designed to tell the truth but to win the support of an uniformed public.
"Enlightened social engineering is required to face situations that demand global action now," 12 said Professor John Goodlad, who served on the governing board of UNESCO"s Institute for Education before he joined Bill Clinton on the 1987 study Commission on Global Education. He knew that teachers could only be social engineers in their classrooms when they themselves have been trained in the new values and thinking processes. His dream is near reality.
" We must require tougher licensing and certification standards, 13" says Education Secretary Richard Riley. Even before 2000 A.D, the target year, his new " performance based" teacher certification process is purging traditional teachers who cling to the old academic ways.
With the global paradigm came an emphasis on earth centered spirituality and pantheistic oneness. Facts and memorization(drill and kill) were traded for imagination, touchy-feely experiences, and systems thinking which puts little weight on pieces of information unless they can be fitted into the new global context. This thinking compels students to see their future from a socialist point of view. Individualism must yield to the interest of the greater whole. Personal rights must yield to community responsibilities. And the nation-state must absorb into the global village
where the person merges into "the people" a mystical, impersonal union to be defined and managed by ruling elites. Individual achievement would clash with collective equality, and traditional learning would raise logical questions globalists prefer to dodge. In his article " Experts Say Too Much is Read Into Illiteracy Crisis," Thomas Sticht, a member of (the labor) Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills(SCANS) explained that " Many companies have moved operations to places with cheap, relatively poorly educated labor. What maybe crucial, they say, is the dependability of a labor force and how well it can be managed and trained, not its general educational level, although a small candre of highly educated creative people are essential to innovation and growth. Ending discrimination and changing values are probably more important then reading in moving low income families into middle class. "14 Professor Benjamin Bloom, called "father of outcome-based education" introduced the battle plan for changing values and managing people around the world: " The purpose of education and their schools is to chug the thoughts, feelings and actions of students." 15" A large part of what we call "good teaching" is the teacher's ability to attain affective objectives through challenging the students' fixed beliefs and getting the to discuss the issues. "16
" Discussing issues" is key to the paradigm shift in schools, workplaces, homes, and community meetings. The "ground rules" for this Hegelian dialect or consensus process forbids debate and arguments. All must participate, compromise, and seek " common ground"." In "democratic" classrooms from coast to coast where teachers facilitate rather than teach, students follow manipulative suggestions, "discover their own: truth, and embrace a globalist ideology that censors every reason to be grateful for the land God gave us. The chart below describes the two kinds of schools from an educator's prespective."17
"BRING THE POWER OF THE INFORMATION AGE INTO ALL OUR SCHOOLS", " said Clinton. " Connect every classroom and library to the Internet by the year 2000, so that a child in the most isolated rural town, the most comfortable suburb, the poorest inner-city school will have the same access to the same universe of knowledge."
Computer learning will speed the paradigm shift. Every student must be linked to an interactive computer program designed to prod each child toward the "right" beliefs and values, test rate of change, monitor complience and remediate when necessary-all at a pace tailored to the individual's progress, cooperation, or resistance. Dustin Heuston of Utah's World Institute for Computer-Assisted Teaching(WICAT) shares his delight in the power of this technology: " We've been absolutely staggering by realizing that the computer has the capability to act as if it were ten of the top psychologists working with one student. You've seen the tip of the iceberg. Won't it be wonderful when the child in the smallest county in the most distant area or in the most confused urban setting can have the equivalent of the finest school in the world on that terminal and no one
can get between that child and the computer?"18
"HELP COMMUNITIES FINANCE $20 BILLION IN SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION" Dilapidated buildings and peeling paint are good excuses for new buildings, but they don't explain why school districts that close functional schools only one yea or two ago-long after the time of declining enrollments are now demanding millions for new schools. The old schools were sufficient for old paradigm education, but they were inadequate in design and electrical capacity for the computer links needed to bring students into the global cyber village.
" ADOPT HIGH NATIONAL STANDARDS", said Clinton. " Every state and school must shape the curriculum to reflect those standards... to help schools meet the standards and measure their progress.... we will develop national tests..."
The " high national standards" are high only to those who measure them against achievements in inner city schools where few could meet traditional standards. Based on affective standards set by the Department of Health and Human services and work skills and competencies set by the Department of Labor, they are low enough to ensure success for anyone willing to conform to the new values. Individual progress would be tracked and stored through the monstrous national-international information management system.
The new standards fit the "seamless web" of "cradle to grave" learning designed by Marc Tucker. As chief of the National Center on Education and the Economy, which began as an agency with in the Carnegie Foundation, Tucker leads the nation wide school-to-work program. In a jubilant 1992 post-election letter to Hillary Clinton, he describes the new education program: "...regulated on the bases of outcome...in which curriculum, pedagogy, examinations, and teacher education and licenser systems are all linked to the national standards...a system that rewards students who meet the national standards with further education and better jobs..."
Tucker's "pedagogy" for developing " human resources" for the global economy follows the school-to-work pattern developed in the former USSR. It's not surprising then that the massive goals 2000: Educate America Act would parallel Soviet education in virtually all its details: early childhood education, state controlled child raising through community" partnerships", vocational training for all, mandated " parental involvement" in goverment program, indoctrination in the politically correct ideology, lifelong monitoring of complience, ect. Valdmir Turchenko summarized Soviet education goals and the new American goals in the Scientific and Technological Revolution and the Revolution in Education: " One of the most important functions of education today is the preparation of a skilled labor force for the national economy...A second task is to ensure the socialization of the younger generation...(this) involves shifting the focus of instruction from memorization to teaching how to think... The upbringing of the younger generation will become the affair of all.
"START TEACHING CHILDREN BEFORE THEY START SCHOOL, "Said Clinton." The First Lady and I will convene a White House Conference on Early Learning and the brain this spring to explore how parents and educators can best use these startling new findings." This "startling news" provides a plausible rationale for bringing "parent educators" into homes of pregnant and new mothers. These "helpers" teach and monitor politically correct parenting skills and guide parents to the proper community "partners". Like classroom teachers, all these parent teachers must soon be trained to discourage Judeo-Christian values which block the "open mindedness" needed for children to" start school" ready to embrace group thinking and global spirituality. Non-compliant parents put their children "at risk" a label that could put parents at risk of losing their rights to raise their own children. Hillary Clinton;s "village" is near reality.
" GIVE PARENTS THE POWER TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT PUBLIC SCHOOL FOR THEIR
CHILDREN, "said Clinton. "Create 3000 charter schools by the next century." Since all public schools must produce "outcomes" that match national-international goals and standards it doesn't really matter which parents choose. All students whether public, private or homeschools must " demonstrate" competency in specified work skills and conform to the "high standards" for global citizenship. If their portfolios and assessments show failure to adapt, they will not earn their CIM ( Certificate of Initial Mastery). That means no work or college until after "remediation".
" HELP ALL OUR CHILDREN READ," said Clinton." Forty percent of our 8 year olds cannot read on their own...We want at least 100,000 college students to help... Sixty college presidents have answered my call."
A century ago, almost all school children learned to read. The rate of illiterate children soared because schools switched from phonics to "whole language". Unless college volunteers are better trained in phonics then elementary school teachers, their efforts won't solve the problem.
There is another advantage. An army of college "volunteers" will be taught through politically correct " service learning" a blend of politicized social studies and managed multicultural experience.(see brave new schools)
"OPEN THE DOORS OF COLLEGE TO ALL, "said Clinton "Make the 13th and 14th years of education- at least two years of college- just as universal in America as a high school education is today."
A new kind of college is the reward for complience. Only students who have demonstrated the "right" work skills- primarily the collective mind set required for Total Quality Management- and world citizenship attitudes can climb the dubious ladder of the new education system. Since colleges must be "dumb-downed" and adapted to the new " human resource development" goals, Clinton's deceptive promise is little more than a tempting carrot to draw us toward national consensus.
"EXPAND THE FRONTIERS OF LEARNING ACROSS A LIFETIME, "said Clinton. " All our people, of whom which age, must have a chance to learn new skills...
Lifelong learning, an idea first developed by UNESCO, pulls all the complex pieces of the puzzle together into a continuos process of change and behavior modification. Marc Tucker described it well in his letter to Hillary Clinton,"...create a seamless web of opportunities to develop one's skills that literally extends from "cradle to grave."This web, which mandates a massive multi -layered bureaucracy of political, communitry, health, environment, and business partners, merges education and labor into a national-international workforce program. Every person young and old, parents and children must be included in the transforming process."Parents and the general public must be reached also. otherwise children and youth enrolled in globally oriented programs may find themselves in conflict with values assumed in the home." 19 said Professor John Goodlad, broadening his vision for "enlightened social engineering."
Parents are gradually being forced into the massive system through regulations and contracts mandating thier"participation" in community partnerships. When a Florida woman who suffers from kidney failure, missed a mandatory PTA meeting, the school punished her by expelling her 5 year old son from kindergarten. She had called from the hospital to let the Pasadena Fundamental School in Tampa know she was to sick to come, but hospitalization was not an acceptable excuse. She was told she should have found someone to go in her place. 20 Lifelong learning must prepare all workers far a global economy regulated through intrnational standards based on Total Quality Management. This sounds good to those who see TQM merely as a way to ensure quality products. It looks ominous when the quality product is our children.
It looks worse when seen as a means to manage people at every level of society. Beginning with early childhood training in group thinking and global values, the training,counseling,indoctrination, and tracking-along with rewards and punishment- continues through the years of formal schooling and later through the stanardized workplace and "sustainable community". Global citizens may not know how to multiply or read books, but they can work as a team, dialogue in cyberspace with young idealists around the world, and submit to a flood of new regulations, blissfully unaware of the freedom they have lost.
Today, as in recent totalitarian regimes, well chosen compensations distract the masses from the terrors of goverment tyranny. In Brave New World. British socialist Aldous Huxley describe some seductive "feelies" that compensate for the loss of freedom. My next article will show how educators promote the same compensations today. Small wonder, since Aldous Huxley's brother was Julian Huxley, the first Secretary General of UNESCO. A gulliable public will give its consent unless America soon wakes up.Remember Gorbachev's warning: "Bill Clinton will be a great president if he can make America the creator of a new world order based on consensus." Year
2000 is the target date.
The Old Testament shows that the deceptions of ambitious leaders have stayed remarkably constant throughout the centuries:"Because you have spoken nonsense and envisioned lies, therefore I am indeed against you,"says THE LORD GOD. "My hand will be against the prophets who envision futility...They seduced my people, saying,'Peace!' when there is no peace"(Ezekial 13:8-10)
The way to genuine peace is found in Isaiah 30:15:"In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strenght." The words that follow bring a sad reminder of todays spiritual rebellion:"but you would have none of it."
Yet for those who stat true to the Lord and His word, Isaiah brings a wonderful promise:" The LORD longs to be gracious to you;He tries to show you compassion. For the Lord is God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!
The end
To understand the new education system and what concerned parents and others can do, read Brave New Schools(Harvest House Publishers) by Berit Kjos. Available through Christian bookstores or call call 800-829-5646. Or as a special offer to PropheZine readers, you can order directly from Berit and she will personally autograph it for you. Http://www.prophezine.com.
END NOTES
1Raymond Houghton, to Nurture Humanness: Commitment for the `70's(The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development of the NEA,1970)
2Mikhail Grobachev," New World Order: Consensus,"The Cap Cod TImes. January 28,1993
3Tamar Lewin,"School Codes Without Mercy Snare Pupils Without Malice," New York Times,12 March 1997.
4Ibid
5Ibid
6Alison Mitchell," Clinton Seems to Keep Running Though the Race is Run and WOn,"New York Times,12 February 1997.
7"The United States Prepares for its Future: Global Perspectives in Education, Report of the Study Commission on Global Education,"1987. The report was financed by the Rockefellor,Ford and Exxon Foundations.Cited by Dr. Dennis Laurence Cuddy, A Chronology of Education(Pro Family Forum Inc.,Box 1059, Highland City, Florida),80
8Thomas Sowell,Ph.D.,"Indoctrinnating the Children," Forbes, February 1 1993,)65.
9 The General Agreement on Contacts,Exchanges and scientific Technical Education and Other Fields.
10Malachi Martin, The Keys of This Blood(New York: Touchstone,1990),391
11Ibid
12 John Goodlad, Preface to Schooling for a Global Age, edited by James Becker (New York;McGraw Hill,1979)
13Richard Riley," Master Teachers Can Now Seek National Certification of Excellence,"Community update,U.S. Department of Education, February 1997.
14Thomas Sticht and Willis Harman,"Experts Say Too Much is Read Into Illitracy Crisis,"The Washington Post, August 17,1987.cited by Charlotte Iserbyt,"OBE Choice;The Final Solution"4
15Benjamin Bloom,All Our Children Learning (New York;McGraw Hill 1981);180
16 David Krathwohl, 16Benjamin Bloom and Bentram Massia. Taxonomy of Educational Objectives,The Classification of Education Goals , Handbook ll: Affective Domain,( McRay Publisher,1950),55
17 As described by Ira Shor, Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change( The University of Chicago Press, 1992)
18Dustin H. Heuston, Discussion-Developing the Potential of an AmazingTool," Schooling and Technology, Vol. 3, Planning for the Future: A Collaborative Model,published by Southeastern Regional Council for Educational Improvement, P.O. Box 12746, 200 Park, Suite 111, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709.Grant from National Institute of Education, p.8 cited by Charlotte Iserbyt, Back to Basic Reform Or...OBE Skinnerian International Curriculum( bath, me:1993),27.
19Goodlad
20"Across the USA: News from every state", USA Today, 13 Feb.1997.
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THE MARK OF THE BEAST AND THE RISE OF THE ANTICHRIST
By Alan Yusko
We are living when the days of the antichrist is about to come upon the world scene. After the rapture of the church the restrainer will be removed and the antichrist will be able to rise to power. He will come to power and make a 7 year covenant with Isreal. note 1 week is 7 years in the verse below)
Daniel 9:27
27And he shall confirm the covenant with many for 1 week: and the oblation to cease, and for the overspread of abominations he shall make [it] desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall pour upon the desolate.
In the `midst of the week' (after 3 1/2 years of the total 7 year period) the antichrist will commit the abomination of desolation in the rebuilt temple in Israel. Right now Israel has plans to rebuild the temple but due to political pressures they held back. The day is coming when Israel will have the chance to rebuild and they will quickly seize it. Plans are in the works to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and restore the daily sacrifice. Right now in Israel the temple priests are being trained in all aspects of temple ceremony and sacrifices. When they are able the daily sacrifice will be resumed. While the temple is being rebuilt the sacrifices can be performed. All this can begin quickly.
After the rapture of the church, the antichrist will come and he will confirm a 7 year covenant with Israel. He will break that covenant by entering the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem and stop the daily sacrifices. At this point he will sit down in the temple and claim to be God and demand that worship from all men. The Bible says:
2 Thessalonians 2:3
3 Let no man deceive you by means: for [that day shall not come] except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
The antichrist will claim to be God and try to exhalt himself above everything that is worshipped while he seeks worship of men. Notice that the antichrist will oppose God and try to exhalt himself above God. He will be sitting in the temple of God and claim to the world to be God.There will be all kinds of satanic miracles to confirm these things. All who have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ will accept the antichrist and will bend knee and worship him.
Daniel 8:25
25 And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand: and he shall magnify [himself] in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many; He shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.
During the days of the antichrist the occult will be everywhere. Today we are seeing a rise in the occult with the new age movement. There is really nothing `new' about the new age. It is just old fashioned occultism. In the days of the antichrist the godless, the vile,and evil will be greatly exalted. The antichrist will not have to wage war to conquer the world. He will do it through PEACE. He will be a master deceiver and negotiator and he:'by peace shall destroy many'. At the end of his reign when the Lord Jesus Christ returns, the antichrist will stand up against the Lord. The antichrist will quickly be destroyed.
Matthew 24
24 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
God will not be silent when all these evil things are happening during the time of the antichrist. The abomination of desolation committed by the antichrist will cause the wrath of God to be poured out on the world. The next 3 1/2 years will be time of `great tribulation' on the world.
Through the history men have come to power and claimed to be God. The Lord Jesus warned that men would make that claim. The goal is deception and many men have gathered followers unto themselves while they made these crazy claims.
Matthew 24:4
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
When the antichrist claims to be God, he is the climax of the above prophecy. All others who made that claim were only shadows or forerunners of the antichrist. Many men have gathered a following and made claims to be Christ. They are only antichrists. However the antichrist will one day make that claim one day and demand that men worship him or die. At this point the antichrist will demand worship and begin a massive killing holocaust to anyone who refuses worship. All men will be required to give their allegiance/ worship to the antichrist by recieving the mark of the beast. To receive the mark of the beast a person must `willingly' worship the beast. At that point he is lost forever and can never be saved.
The antichrist, the false prophet, and the governments of the world will kill those who refuse the mark of the beast. Those who refuse the mark of the beast will have their heads cut off. Notice the group below who were before God and they died by being beheaded. If someone does not worship the antichrist and take the mark of the beast, the penalty will be death.
Revelation 20:4
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and [I saw] the souls of them that were BEHEADED for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had NOT WORSHIPPED THE BEAST, NEITHER HIS IMAGE, NEITHER HAD RECEIVED [his] MARK UPON THEIR FOREHEADS, OR IN THEIR HANDS;and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Revelation 12
12 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, Which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Many have died for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They faced death knowing that the evil people can only kill the body and then they can do no more. Those who do the killing face a far worse fate. They will not only have their body destroyed but they will die spiritually being cut off from God for eternity.
Matthew 10:28
28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both the soul and body in hell.
So far we have seen how the antichrist will rise to power after the rapture and confirm a 7 year covenant with Isreal.In the middle of that covenant he will break it. He will enter the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem and claim to be God and demand all men to worship or die. This is the abomination of desolation and will trigger the ` great tribulation' when the final judgments will be poured out on the earth by God.
Next lets look at the rise of the antichrist as shown in the bible in Revelation 13.
Revelation 13:1
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
2And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as [the feet] of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion; and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. After the rapture the antichrist will rise from the `sea' of nations and come to power. The characteristic of his kingdom will be one of blasphemy. He will blasphemy God and those in heaven and those who belong to God. The beast will come to power very quickly. Look at verse 2. He is like unto a leopard which means that he will move quickly and deadly. His feet were like a bear and will destroy any that stand in his rapid rise to power. He has a mouth like a lion and will have a `roar'. " Be sober, be vigilant; because you adversary the devil,as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."( 1 Peter 5:8)
Finally who will give the antichrist his power, his seat (to rule the kingdoms of the worlds), and his great authority----> the devil himself. The antichrist will be possessed by Satan and directly controlled during these closing days before the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
3And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed; and all the world wonder after the beast.
4And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast; and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who (is) like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
5And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty( and) two months.
The antichrist will be assassinated after 3 1/2 years of the 7 year covenant with the nation of Israel. It will be a satanic miracle and he will come back to life. This `resurrection' will cause the world to `wonder' and be amazed at the beast. He will be like a superman to the world and will be loved and worshipped. Those who reject Jesus will be amazed by this man and think he is invincible. They will say ` who is able to make war with him'?
He will speak `proud' things and he will blasphemy God and everything that is sacred. He will have permission to continue his reign for 42 months(that is 3 1/2 years before Jesus returns)
6And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blasphemy his name and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
His blasphemies are repeated again and again in scripture. What we see today with the rock groups blaspheming God in their lyrics is only a forerunner of the soon day when the antichrist will reign. Those days will be great days of blasphemy against God and his people. Not only will the antichrist blasphemy but also will those of his kingdom. Blasphemy will be transmitted over the airways by TV, radio, news shows, ect..Again the mockery of God we see today in music, TV, movies ect...is only a forerunner of the day when the antichrist will rule. At that time there will be no restraint and godless filth direct from hell will be readily available for all.
7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and overcome them,and power was given him over all kindred's, and tongues. and nations.
The antichrist will start a killing campaign and kill as many of God's people as he can. He will literally rule the world and impose his laws and morality throughout the world..killing all he can who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
ALL, ALL, ALL,I repeat ALL who reject the Lord Jesus Christ will openly embrace the antichrist. There is no middle ground. A person either accepts the Lord Jesus Christ OR he will accept the devil and his antichrist.
9 If any have an ear, let him hear.
This is a direct warning from God. Listen and be saved or face perdition in the lake of fire. Hear what God is saying or be lost and spend your eternity in hell.
10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity; he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
Many will die during the 7 year reign of the antichrist. The world population which is currently at about 6 billion will be reduced to only a few million,(if that) when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to earth.During those days it will be a literal holocaust on believers. They will be `open season' for killing in those days by those who willingly accept the mark of the beast.
11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of man.
14 And decieveth them that dwell on the earth by (the means of) those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image of the beast, which had the wound by a sword and did live.
Above we have the introduction to the companion to the antichrist. He is known as the false prophet. He is sort of a satanic John the Baptist who will perform miracles and cause man to worship the beast. He will not seek his own worship but rather will force men to receive the mark of the beast and worship the antichrist.
Those days will be days of great deception. In fact if anyone rejects the Lord Jesus Christ then he is already deceived. The devil wants to take people to hell and he does that by deceiving them to reject the free salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ.
15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
An image of the beast will be setup and it will have supernatural power to speak. Again the goal is to get people to worship the beast. If a person refused to worship the image of the beast they will be killed.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads;
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Here we have the fulfillment of the one world goverment and the one worldeconomic system. it will be a cashless system driven by computers. Today the world is rapidly putting in place all the tools needed to implement the mark of the beast, one world government, and cashless society.
A person without the mark of the beast will not be able to transact any business transaction. He will not be able to work, to buy goods (food,rent,ect..), or sell goods without the mark of the beast. The only catch is to get that mark a person must worship the beast.
Matthew 16
26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his own soul?
Many will exchange their eternal soul for the mark of the beast. By taking the mark people will have their physical needs TEMPORARILY satisfied... but they will be lost eternally.
What will happen to those who receive the mark of the beast by worshipping the devil's antichrist?Once they have received the mark they have sealed their eternity. They are lost and can never be saved .They will burn forever in the lake of fire. Keep in mind in order to receive the mark of the beast a person must willingly worship the beast.No one will be tricked into secretly accepting the mark. They will have to make a open, willing decision to bend the knee and worship the beast.
See the verses below:
Revelation16 :2
2 And the first went, and poured out his vile upon the earth; and there fell an anoysome and grievous sore upon the men which HAD THE MARK OF THE BEAST; and (upon) them which worshipped his image.
Revelation 14 :9
9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, if ANY man WORSHIP THE BEAST and his image, AND RECEIVE(his) MARK IN HIS FOREHEAD, OR IN HIS HAND.
10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the lamb;
11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever, and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever recieveth the mark of his name.
The above verses are pretty clear as to what will happen to all who receive the mark of the beast and worship him. They are forever LOST and have nothing to look forward to except judgment!
What will be the end of the antichrist, his kingdom, and his mark? Look what happens when the Lord Jesus returns:
Revelation 19
19 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army.
20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.
21 And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which (sword) proceeded out of his mouth; and all fowls were filled with their flesh.
2 Thessalonians 2:8
8 And then shall that wicked be revealed, Whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.
When the Lord Jesus returns the antichrist and false prophet will be thrown into the lake of fire, His kingdom will be destroyed and the Lord Jesus will set up his millennial kingdom bringing in a time of great peace and prosperity to the earth.
What will happen to the devil, Satan when the Lord Jesus returns?
Revelation 20:1
1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
2 And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.
3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
The devil will be bound and thrown into the pit for the duration of the 1000 year kingdom that the Lord Jesus will set up. He will be allowed out of the pit at the end of the 1000 year millennium to deceive those on earth who have rejected the Lord Jesus. Even though the Lord Jesus will be physically present on earth for all to see, many will still reject him. The devil will deceive those people and the rebellion will be quickly destroyed and Satan will then be thrown forever into the lake of fire.
What about those who refuse the mark of the beast during the 7 year reign of the antichrist? Most will be killed for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God encourages them with the following promise :
Revelation 20:4
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and (I saw) the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had NOT worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received (his) mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived in reign with Christ a thousand years.When the Lord Jesus returns to earth he will setup his earthly kingdom and reign for 1000 years . those few believers who survive will go into the millennium and repopulate the earth. God will lift the cur
se and people will again live for 1000 years during the kingdom. The millennium will be a great time of blessing on earth however before the blessings of the millennium, the world has to go through the 7 year reign of the antichrist these will be the darkest days in human history.
Those days will begin sometime after the rapture of the church, when Jesus removes the church from earth and takes her home to heaven.
Luke 21
28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads;for your redemption draweth nigh.
Be encouraged ... as we can see the coming `shadow' of these days coming we should be encouraged .Soon and very soon the Lord Jesus will rapture his church from earth to be with him in heaven. What a blessed hope for the spirit-reborn Christian!
1 Thessalonians 4
15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive(and) remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are a sleep.
16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout , with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive (and) remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
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THE HARVEST
by Micheal Ferrigno
In ninety-one the seed was sown,
Just seven years the fields well grown,
By ninety-eight a drought with sorrow,
For seven years no one will borrow,
It's time to walk the straight and narrow,
When help is need call "The Sparrow,"
Halfway thru the pain will double,
The time has come for Jacob's trouble,
For to a statue all must bow,
To get a number on their brow,
But if the the beast you must refuse,
Do not expect to be let loose,
The camps are old and sometimes brrr,
Like any military base foreclosure,
For those who run it will be worse,
But if you do don't take a purse,
Don't dial the phone or they'll be there,
There is a code for those who dare,
For just two days is all you'll have,
To sell the house the car and scram,
Joseph Mary its time to go,
To the place you first did grow,
Family is so important,
Bring the kids just for enjoyment,
Take two bags but leave the pets,
Pack only clothes or have regrets,
While you are there attend the classes,
Reeducate just like the masses,
Guards are few but very friendly,
Watch the lines cause they are deadly,
Now if my words you fail to grasp,
Let Jeremiah try the task,
See thirty-eight and verse thirteen,
There you'll see just what I mean,
Don't try to run don't try to hide,
The safest place will be inside,
To be outside would be a shame,
Because the world will be in pain,
The time has come you must decide,
To wait till the end in suicide,
Don't be a fool just be the best,
Prayer with fasting is the rest.
Thank you Micheal for this insightful poem, If you would like to check out
more of Micheal Ferrigno's work go to his web site at tlg@syspac,com
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ITS THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT
By Todd Strandberg
For years I've heard prophetic ministries explain over and over again to their viewers that they don't preach the world will come to an end. It
never registered with me why they were saying this, because I already knew the world was not going to be destroyed.
It wasn't until the internet came along that it dawned on me why prophetic ministers like Jack Van Impe, Ray Brubaker, and Grant Jeffrey were always wasting their time, in my eyes, by repeatedly telling people the earth is not going to blow up or fall into the sun someday.
After reading literally thousands of newsgroup postings by individuals that are anti-God or anti-prophecy, I realized the unsaved all seem to have three common understandings about prophecy. Those three are: the number 666, the person named the Antichrist, and fact that Christians think the world is going to end someday. The first two beliefs that most nonchristians hold are true, there will be a mark given to all which will equal 666 and it will be given by a man that the Bible calls the Antichrist. However, the last belief is not true at all because this world will go on existing eternally.
The reason Satan wants men to think the Bible foretells of a doomsday scenario for the earth is because such a scenario is one that people normally would not desire to dwell upon.
Satan is trying to hide the fact that soon Jesus will be coming in the air, to catch up all believers, and take them back up to heaven. You will rarely ever here any mentioning of the rapture by the liberal media, because Satan does not want people to be ready for or aware of this event. If a news account is ever given on the rapture, the purpose of the story has always been to discredit the idea of a pre-trib rapture.
What men need to realize is their world their life is the thing that's going to end someday. If the Lord Jesus tarries, we will all grow old and die, yet the earth will continue forever. We need to stop worrying about the possibility of ecological death and start worrying more about the possibility of spiritual death.
For the record, Revelation does talk about the earth being renewed after the 1000 years millennium. This is will be a planned event, not an apocalyptic one.
Here are a number of scriptures that assures us the earth will exist forever:
Isaiah 45:17 But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.
Ecc 1:4 One generation passes away and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth forever.
Psalm 104:5 Who laid the foundation of the earth, that it should not be removed forever.
Eph 3:21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (todd@novia.net)
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THE TRAIN
THE TRAIN....
By Todd Strandberg (todd@novia.net)
"My goodness 2000 years of waiting, the train is about to pull into the station, and they've picked up their bags and left the platform."
Many of you folks don't have the same opportunity to read the amount of e-mail I get everyday. One of the most surprising and most repeated e-mail I've receive from people is the ones that reads, "I use to believe in the pre-trib rapture but I don't any more." Every time I read one this message I think to myself, "My goodness 2000 years of waiting, the train is about to pull into the station, and they've picked up there bags and left the platform.
This raises an interesting question: Will those Christians who reject the rapture be raptured. From my observations at how busy the devil has been at trying to convince people that the rapture is not true, there has to be some sort loss involved here. Certainly, If the rapture was a falsehood, Satan wouldn't be out doing Christians a favor by protecting them from an erroneous doctrine.
I believe just as we have a choice over our salvation we have a choice whether we want to be raptured. The question I often get thrown back at me: "What about those who never heard of the rapture, will they be raptured?"
The answer is yes.
A person may have a rich uncle who's leaving him a million dollars and not know it. Another person may have a rich uncle leaving him a million dollars and he does know of it. The one who knows of his uncle intentions, before hand, has the option of refusing his inheritance, while the one who doesn't know of his pending wealth lacks this option.
I know of people who for various reasons reject outright being included in a relatives will. I've never known of someone rejecting an inheritance from someone who was a stranger to them. "...For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required..." Luke 12:48 I ask, "When the rapture takes place, is God going to kidnap people against their will?" Post-trib folks need to also remember who's on their side: the ungodly who mock the rapture, the liberal media, and to my knowledge, every cult group there is.
I end here with a quote form Jesus: "But that which ye have [already] hold fast till I come. " Revelation 2:25
Todd Strandberg is the publisher of Rapture Index Web Page
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SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS - NOW!
by Andrew Strom.
How many Christians know that there has already been ONE BLOOD-RED MOON AND ONE 'SACK-CLOTH' MOON over Jerusalem in 1996, precisely on the Passover Sabbath and the Eve of the Feast of Tabernacles? And how many know of the other significant signs that are occurring at the moment - obviously pointing to imminent events that must surely be about to shake this planet?
(THIS ARTICLE OWES MUCH TO THE INFORMATION GATHERED BY GREG KILLIAN OF ISRAEL, WHOSE WEBSITE IS LINKED AT THE END OF THIS ARTICLE).
Some Christians seem to view the concept of 'signs in the heavens' as being somehow akin to godless astrology or pagan superstition. However, the Bible makes it very clear that God Himself very often employs such celestial signs, to prepare and warn His people of imminent earth- shaking events. We are told in Genesis that God created the sun and the moon "for SIGNS and for seasons" (Gen 1:14). "And I shall show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath..." (Acts 2:19). The Bible declares that this will be particularly true of the Last Days. Jesus Himself warned of this 'End-time' period: "And great earthquakes shall be in diverse places, and famines, and pestilence's; and fearful sights and GREAT SIGNS shall there be from heaven... And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars" (Mt 21:11,25). The Bible even talks of the moon being "turned to blood" as a sign that we are nearing the very end of the age. (Joel 2:31, Rev 6:12).
Significantly, there has already been ONE BLOOD-RED MOON AND ONE 'SACK- CLOTH' MOON (caused by lunar eclipses) over Jerusalem this year, falling precisely on major feast-days of the Jewish calendar. The first of them came on the evening of 3 April 1996, which was the beginning of the Feast of Passover. The second came on the evening of 26-27 September 1996, which was 'Erev Hag HaSuccoth' (the Eve of the Feast of Taber- nacles). And there will also be two such eclipses in 1997, falling precisely on the feast-day of 'Purim' (23 March 1997 - a 90% eclipse) and also in the middle of the 'Days of Teshuva (Repentance)' on 16 Sep- tember 1997. There will not be any further total lunar eclipses over Jerusalem until 21 January 2000. The chances of such a string of eclipses occurring over Jerusalem precisely on these significant dates surely has
to be far more than coincidence. It is also worth noting that if we take the Jewish month of Nisan as being the first month of the year, as the Jews were commanded in Exodus 12, then the first three of these eclipses all occur within the space of just ONE BIBLICAL YEAR. (April 1996 to March 1997).
But what causes some eclipses to turn the moon blood-red? Well, the answer is as follows: A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon is full, and the earth passes between the moon and the sun, thus blocking the sun's light and casting a shadow on the moon for a time. However, often during a total lunar eclipse, the moon is not completely dark, but is faintly illuminated with a red light refracted by the earth's atmosphere which filters out the blue rays. Occasionally a lunar eclipse occurs when the earth is covered with a heavy layer of cloud, which prevents light refraction, making the surface of the moon completely dark (like sack-cloth). However, the first lunar eclipse this year certainly turned the moon blood-red. As one Jerusalem res- ident commented of the Passover eclipse: "Did you see that beautiful 3-D Red Moon? It was awesome; The most beautiful sight I've ever seen in the sky..."
The words of the prophet Joel regarding blood-red moons are somewhat more ominous however: "And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, before the great and terrible day of the LORD come" (Joel 2:30-31). These words are found in the same passage that speaks of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon "all flesh" in the Last Days. In other words, the prophesied great End-times Revival and harvest occur in the same immediate time- frame.
It is also interesting to note what the Jewish Talmud (book of tradition) has to say about blood-red moons: "When the moon is in eclipse, it is a bad omen for Israel... If it's face is as red as blood, [it is a sign that] the sword is coming to the world..." Interestingly enough, on the very day of the 'Erev Hag HaSuccoth' Sack-cloth moon this year (26 September 1996), renewed violence broke out between the Palestinians and the Israelis (due to the opening of a tourist tunnel near the Dome on the Rock), after many months of comparative peace. Who knows where all this renewed bloodshed might lead?
It seems very clear that the signs mentioned above are obviously designed by God to point us to the significance of the JEWISH FEAST-DAYS AND FESTIVALS at this time. And indeed, the significance of these Feasts for the Last Days is well worth looking into. The three most important Feasts that God instituted for the Jewish people were, of course, Passover, Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles. Significantly, Jesus the Messiah was killed exactly on the Passover nearly 2000 years ago, with the details of His death corresponding precisely to symbolic Passover rituals (the slaying of the sacrificial lamb, etc.). And fifty days later, precisely on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was outpoured upon His disciples for the first time, thus beginning the Christian Church. Many Christians today believe that the last great move of God before the end - the last great 'harvest' - will somehow be tied directly to the coming of the third one - the Feast of Tabernacles (which is a festival celebrating the 'first fruits' of harvest). It was actually during the Feast of Tabernacles that Solomon dedicated the Temple, and while the musicians 'lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD', suddenly
the cloud of God's glory filled the Temple (2 Chron 5:3-14... Might it not be the same in our day also?) These are some of the reasons why I feel it is so significant that these blood-red and sack-cloth moons are pointing to particular Jewish Feasts.
(I also want to make an additional point about the Passover here. During the Passover meal, it has been Jewish tradition from time immemorial, to set a place at the table for Elijah the prophet, symbolizing the fact that they expect Elijah to come, "preparing the way" for the Messiah. As Greg Killian wrote, "Pesach [Passover] is when we expect Elijah to begin turning hearts and preparing the way for the King". As the Scriptures declare: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers..." (Mal 4:5-6). Many Christians today also believe that 'Elijah' is about to arise again during the Revival/harvest period that will
precede the final JUDGEMENT and the return of Christ. The reason I mention all this is that it gives an 'End-time' aspect to the Passover which may be one reason why God is again pointing to this particular Feast at this time. Perhaps 'Elijah' really is about to emerge again, just as John the Baptist did almost two millenia ago).
Some people today scoff at the idea that we are nearing the end of the age, and the final Judgement of all the earth. When they are reminded of the unprecedented bloodshed, and the terrible droughts, earthquakes, famines and plagues that have scourged the planet in recent years, they say that such natural disasters have occurred right down through history. (Yes, but on such an epic scale?) Perhaps even now they will continue to scoff, even with blood-red and sack- cloth moons hanging ominously in the Jerusalem sky. But are we not witnesses today to the exact signs prophesied in Scripture, pointing to the 'time of the end'?
These blood-red and sack-cloth moons are by no means the only spec- tacular "signs in the heavens" that are occurring at the moment, however. In July 1995, the comet Hale-Bopp was discovered by two amateur astronomers from America. What fascinated astronomers at the time was that while it was still far beyond the orbit of Jupiter, the comet could actually be seen with small telescopes. Leading astronomers admitted to being astonished at the discovery. "It is unheard of for a comet to be visible by small telescopes while so far away," said Dr
Brian Marsden of Harvard University, an expert on comets. "It could become the comet of the millennium as it comes in towards the sun over the next year or two." This giant comet is now estimated to be about as large as a mountain (between 25 and 100 miles across), making it probably the biggest comet ever discovered. The last time it visited the inner solar system was about 4000 years ago. And amazingly, the day that it will make it's closest pass to earth is 23 March 1997 - the very Feast Day ('Purim') when there is to be another blood-red (or sack-cloth) moon over Jerusalem. (More on the meaning of this particular Feast in a moment). In fact, the comet will be easily visible on the very night that the eclipse itself occurs.
It is interesting to note that when it was first discovered, this comet was located right inside the drawn "bow" of the archer in Sagittarius. Those Christians who are familiar with the 'Divine witness of the stars' will be aware that Sagittarius is known to signify the Redeemer's triumph. The figure is that of a mighty warrior with a bow and arrow, riding forth majestically. Most importantly, the barbed arrow in his bow is aimed at the heart of the Scorpion. In the Apocalypse, the apostle John sees the same mighty conqueror going forth: "And I saw, and behold a white horse; and he that sat on him had a bow, and a crown was given unto him, and he went forth conquering, and to conquer" (Rev 6:2). Of course, there is nothing new in God using such "signs in the heavens" to alert mankind to spiritually significant events. As everybody knows, it was just such a sign that enabled the wise men to locate the newborn Messiah, Jesus, almost exactly 2000 years ago.
According to the traditions of the Jewish Talmud, it is especially alarming to have a comet pass through the constellation of Orion (which is exactly what Hale-Bopp is doing): "There is a tradition that it never passes through the constellation of Orion, for if it did, the world would be destroyed..." However, the Jewish Feast of 'Purim', which is clearly being drawn to our attention in the most obvious way by the above signs, actually celebrates a very signifi- cant DELIVERANCE in the history of Israel. If you read the book of Esther, you will see that this was the day that the king's right- hand man Haman had purposed for the exiled Jews to all be put to death. The holiday is called Purim after the selection process which Haman used to select the date of the Jews destruction: a lottery (or a "Pur"), using astronomical forecasting . This method was supposed to result in the date that the Jews were most vulnerable to attack. In fact, this was astronomically true - the Jews WERE most vulnerable on the 13th of Adar. One of the miracles of Purim was that Esther - godly Bride of the king - was given the ability to totally reverse the astronomical implications of the day so that the Jews would instead be victorious. Because of this miracle which came about through the lottery - the "Pur," the holiday is called Purim. Interesting that God is so clearly pointing to this particular Feast-day at this time, isn't it?
Another significant 'sign in the heavens' that is occurring at present very possibly equates with the 'Woman crowned with twelve stars' found in Revelation 12: "And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery... And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth; she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to His throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which to be nourished for 1260 days" (Rev 12:1-5).
Over the next four years (1996 to 1999), precisely at the time of the Feast of Trumpets in Israel (Tishrei 1), there will be a sign in the heavens that has never occurred before and will never occur again. The new moon will be 'born' in the constellation of Bethulah (the Virgin) on this date during each of these four years, and will then move directly to the feet of the Virgin within 24 hours. The Sun is just below the horizon, so that Bethulah is 'clothed' with the Sun. Positioned over the Virgin's head is the constellation known as "Bernice's Hair",- this is the crown of twelve stars! And higher, above her legs, we find Draco, the Dragon, poised to devour her child when it is born.
Greg Killian believes that the three-year period of this sign may represent the "birth pangs" of the woman. In 1996 and also in 1999, this sign occurs on the Sabbath. His thought is that these birth pangs may begin in 1996, with the actual birth taking place in 1999?
Please remember that this particular positioning of the constellation Bethulah (the Virgin) - about to give 'birth' to Lavanah (the moon), has never occurred before, and will never occur again, due to the procession of the equinoxes. The new moon is a very significant factor to all those who follow the Jewish Talmudic tradition, and is the basis of the whole Jewish calendar system. (It is believed to be symbolic of the Messiah).
There are a number of other interesting factors which also point to these years (particularly 1996 and 1997) as being important ones in God's End-time calendar. As is well-known by many Christians, 1996 has seen the celebration of exactly 3000 years since the founding of Jerusalem as David's capital for Israel. Many also believe that 1996 brings up exactly 2000 years since the birth of Christ (most likely on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles), though some believe that the correct year is actually 1997. The idea that God has a specific timetable that He is working through, with certain 'signs' indicating important seasons of spiritual activity, should not be foreign to those who study the Bible. Many prophecies (notably those of Daniel and Revelation) have times, years and dates specified in great detail, and it is obvious that God is ordering events and spiritual seasons on the earth to coincide precisely with His long term plan. And this applies even more to the 'Last Days', which is the period that we have now very much entered into.
Just as an aside here, a number of Revival-oriented readers might also be interested to note the thrust of a prophecy reportedly given at the tail-end of the great "Healing Revival" of the 1950's by the man who is universally regarded as the key leader of that move of God. (The Healing Revival essentially lasted from 1947 through 1955, and was the last true 'Revival' as such to hit the Western world. We have had Charismatic renewal and the "Jesus Movement" of the '70's since then, but nothing this powerful). This prophecy which was given in Chicago on the 16th of January 1956, stated that the church was about to go into a "wilderness" period for forty years (obviously
implying that on the other side of this wilderness lay further Revival). And of course, forty years on from 1956 brings us to the year 1996. Perhaps true Revival really is just around the corner?
The year 1997 is obviously also being pin-pointed by God, with blood-red moons and unprecedented celestial signs, but also with patterns of spiritual activity involving YEARS AND DATES as well. Many Christians recognize that as this age draws to a close, the spiritual impact of the church on Israel, and Israel on the church, becomes more and more significant. A number of Christian leaders have noted that significant events affecting Israel over recent decades have often mirrored or foreshadowed trends that were occur- ring in the church also. And I believe that this will become increasingly true as we near the very 'time of the end'.
There is an interesting pattern of significant dates involving Israel over this past century or so, which it would be good for us to look at with this in mind. The following is a very significant set of dates that have been crucial to the successful formation and survival of modern Israel:
(a) 1897. The first Zionist Conference in Europe, led by Theodore Hertzl. (Two-thirds of the delegates were Messianic Jews). Crucial to the eventual formation of Israe
TWENTY YEARS LATER: (b) 1917. The British Generals Gordon and Allenby (a Christian) and their armies take Jerusalem without firing a shot. When camped outside, after praying about the situation and getting a Scripture about a "flock of birds", they decided to send biplanes over the city and drop clay tablets bearing the words: "Leave the city now, signed Allenby." The Turks thought the word 'Allenby' resembled 'Allah', and they fled the city, surrendering Jerusalem entirely without a fight!
THIRTY YEARS LATER: (c) 1947 (- November). The United Nations officially declares Israel to be a recognized state. (It took the Israelis another nine months to defeat the Arabs who were occupying the land).
TWENTY YEARS LATER: (d) 1967. The Six-day War. Against all odds, the vastly outnumbered Israelis are completely victorious, and now occupy the whole of Jerusalem, Gaza, the West Bank and the Sinai, etc.
THIRTY YEARS LATER: (e) 1997. Blood-red moons over Jerusalem. Who knows what will eventuate for the nation?
It is interesting to note the Revivals and significant trends that began in the church at around the same time that things were happening in Israel. And this "foreshadowing" has become even more pronounced in recent years, I believe. After a relatively quiet (and in the church, 'stagnant') 1980's, the 1990's are again proving to be a tumultuous and eventful period for both Israel and the church. Like Israel, in the last couple of years it seems to me that through spiritual compromise, the church has literally been 'giving away' huge sections of it's own territory to the enemy, who have no doubt been rubbing their hands with glee. However, when true Reformation and Revival come (with the corresponding godly leadership), this whole "Laodicean" scenario will be completely re- versed, and it will be Satan who will be on the back foot. (Surely this mighty move of cleansing and repentance is not too far away now. And like Israel, it will begin with a complete change of leadership - the kingdom being taken from one group and given to another). Who knows - perhaps 1997 will be a significant year toward the emergence of such a mighty move of God?
I have been amazed at what has been occurring in the political scene in Israel over the last few years or so. I believe that it was quite significant symbolically that the Jewish Prime Minister Rabin (who had really been buying peace by giving away Israeli land to the Arabs) was killed at a peace rally in 'Kings of Israel Square' in Jerusalem in late 1995, and was replaced by Mr Peres, whose name is literally part of the "writing on the wall" where it says: 'Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians' (Dan 5:28). The very man who was continuing Rabin's policy of giving away Israeli land had a name that Biblically carried the sense of a kingdom being taken away and divided! And I find it interesting also that Mr Peres has now been replaced as leader by Benjamin Netanyahu, whose first name means 'Son of the right hand' and whose last name means 'Beloved of God'.
Like this complete change in the leadership of Israel, I believe that the church is also about to go through a complete 'Reformation' of it's leadership, which will lead to a tremendous Revival, though this may come at quite a price. I am convinced that, as always, only a comparative "remnant" from today's church will make it through into the coming move of God. What God has been showing many praying people in my own country about the coming move is that it is to be a "street-revival" - a street- based outpouring of the Spirit of God, bringing tremendous conviction of sin and deep repentance. But after this mighty 'harvest' comes an equally mighty JUDGEMENT, which will fall upon all the earth.
To conclude this article, I would just like to return again to the fact that AT THIS VERY TIME - IN OUR DAY - there are awesome Scriptural prophecies being fulfilled, which have implications that are almost too vast to take in all at one time. WE ARE LIVING IN THE VERY LAST DAYS - the very 'time of the end' that the Bible speaks of. RIGHT NOW. And God is sending His "signs in the heavens" to warn us of what is about to come upon this generation. The question is, what will you, what will I, do about it? Will we allow apathy to continue to dominate our lives? Will the church "laugh and party" it's way into the next millennium? Or will we allow God to bring true Reformation - beginning with us? To me, one of the most frightening Scriptures in the entire Bible is the one that speaks of people in the End-times, "eating, drinking, partying, marrying", etc, blithely ignorant of what is coming upon the earth. But isn't much of Christendom in our day largely in the same 'bless-me, bless-me', inward-looking state? Church awake! Clothe yourself with righteousness and Truth. The "happiness club" days are gone. It is surely time now to get serious with God. Surely only those who are seeking Him with all their heart can expect to make it through the dark days that lie ahead.
(Special acknowledgments to Greg Killian for much of the information presented here. Acknowledgments also to Jim Denby, George Curle and Michael A. Clark).
This article can be found on the World-wide Web at
http://crash.ihug.co.nz/~revival
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PropheZine Newsbytes
F.Y.I. - Israel In The News
By: Lee Underwood
Week Ending: April 12, 1997/5 Nisan, 5757
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"For thus says the Lord, "Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chiefs of the nations; Proclaim, give praise, and say, 'O Lord, save Thy people, the remnant of Israel.'" Jeremiah 31.7
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YESHIVA STUDENTS ATTACKED IN HEVRON: Tuesday morning two yeshiva students from Yeshivat Shavei Hevron were attacked by an Arab, who threw acid at them. They were walking on the main road from the Yeshiva to Ma'arat HaMachpela (Cave of the Patriarchs). According to a Yeshiva director, Gideon Margolit, following the acid attack, one of the men shot in the air. At that point, the two students were surrounded by a group of Arabs, who began throwing rocks at them. Mr. Margolit, citing an eye-witness, said that at that time, border police arrived and became involved in dispersing the crowd. He claims that one of the police shot and killed one of the Arabs. According to other reports, one of the Yeshiva students shot one of the Arabs before the police arrived.
The two students were immediately taken into custody and interrogated by the Kiryat Arba police. Over an hour and a half passed before they were examined by a doctor, who confirmed their account that acid was thrown at them. They were released on bail Wednesday. The two are restricted from entering Hevron for a period of three months, Ha'Aretz reports. A regional police spokesman said the Arab threw an unidentified chemical at the two students. Earlier in the week,
Ochana, director of the Gutnick Center in Hevron, was arrested after he shot in the air when accosted by hundreds of Arabs in central Hevron. Ochana was driving to Tel Rumeida through Arab-controlled Hevron, as the regular route is closed until further notice due to construction. A large group of Arabs blocked his way and threw stones at his car. He exited the vehicle, and the stones continued to fly. He finally shot in the air, and the crowd dispersed; Ochana was arrested by the Hevron police (none of the Arab attackers were apprehended, however).
On Wednesday, leaders from the Jewish Community of Hevron met with Israeli Minister of Defense Yitzhak Mordechai. Among those present were Noam Arnon, Avraham ben Yosef, and Ronen Cohen, as well as General Uzi Dayan, Commander of the Central Region and General Gabbi Ofir, Commander of Judea and Samaria. On the way to the meeting at the Har Manoach army base on the outskirts of Hevron, the Hevron leader's GMC was attacked by Arabs from building rooftops. Cement blocks, stones and metal bars were hurled at the vehicle. Soldiers in the area opened fire on the attackers. (The GMC was attacked for a second time at the same location, following the meeting. At that time, no soldiers were present at the scene.)
On Saturday, Israeli troops fired rubber-coated steel pellets and stun grenades at Palestinian rioters who threw stones and fire bombs at the troops and toward settler homes. Israel radio said five Palestinians, including a policeman, were wounded. Palestinian police formed a human chain, using vehicles as a barrier, to prevent rioters from reaching the Israeli-controlled downtown area of divided Hevron. After five hours of unrest, the streets were quiet with settlers and Palestinians indoors. During the week, Border Police complained that Palestinian Authority (PA) troops, armed with automatic weapons, are just standing by, without making any attempt to stop the violence. Some of the PA troops have actually been reported to be participating in the violence aimed against Israeli targets.
A statement Saturday from the PA Cabinet said the unrest "reflects the persistence of our people in resisting settlements." The Cabinet blamed Israel for violating peace agreements and said Israel would bear responsibility for the consequences of the construction project. (Hevron Press Office, VJ News, Arutz Sheva, AP, SNS)
BEN-ELISSAR: ALBRIGHT DID NOT DEMAND HAR HOMA HALT: Israeli Ambassador to the United States Eliyahu Ben-Elissar has denied media reports that US Secretary of State Madeleine Alright demanded that Israel cease the Har Homa construction. Ben-Elissar said that Alright merely asked Defense Minister Yitzchak Mordechai for 'clarifications' concerning the publicized reports that building activity in Yesha [Judea, Samaria and Gaza] will be expanded. Meanwhile, Deputy Housing Minister Meir Porush and Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert have instructed the contractors working at Har Homa to work in shifts throughout the day and night. Olmert explained that the costs for extra security precautions at the site make it imperative that the work conclude as soon as possible.
Israeli President Ezer Weizman spoke at a reception at the President's residence in Jerusalem for participants in the International Conference of Mayors. Weizman, when asked about construction on Har Homa, said: "It's a pity that it happened. Idon't want to give my opinion, but it could have been handled differently". However, added Weizman, even such a serious crisis should not have stopped the Israeli-Palestinian dialogue or induced terrorism. "Har Homa has turned into a symbol, and symbols are more dangerous than things" said Weizman.
In another story, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi Sunday urged Arabs to quit talking about Jerusalem and do something about it. In a speech at Al-Fatih University in the Libyan capital Tripoli, Gadhafi said the Arab world must counter Israeli moves in Arab east Jerusalem. "The Zionist movement in East Jerusalem must be confronted by an Arab countermovement to occupy East Jerusalem and deny any Zionist entry," Gadhafi told a rally of university students. "It is not through paper resolutions." He chided those countries that have tried to develop relations with Israel, saying "We must expose the stupidity of the Arab economic and political approaches because it is part of the deteriorating, decaying and immoral international approach."
On Monday, Yassir Arafat stated, "There will be no peace in the area until Jerusalem is returned to its rightful owners, to become the capital of Palestine. Jerusalem is the key to peace or war in the area." (Arutz Sheva, SNS, Globes, AP)
WASHINGTON MEETING UNSUCCESSFUL: Monday's meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Bill Clinton was essentially a failure, with Washington officials saying even the lowered American expectations were not met. An unnamed Israeli government official was quoted as saying that some of the suggestions put forward by the Americans were "dangerous". Netanyahu told reporters after the meeting with the President that Israel will not cease construction at Har Homa nor in Judea and Samaria. The Prime Minister said that no pressure was exerted upon him, but that "very crude and preliminary ideas" for renewing the peace process had been raised in the discussions. Reporters said afterwards that Clinton had demanded that the next withdrawal be coordinated with the Palestinians, despite the fact that the Hevron agreements and its attached notes specify that Israel may determine the extent of the withdrawals on its own. Foreign Minister David Levy hurried to clarify that Israel rejects the American demand. Later in the week Netanyahu told business leaders gathered at the Hague, "I believe we should keep our eyes on the goal of peace," he said. "I am committed to achieving it and with God's help we will achieve it." (ICEJ, Arutz Sheva, AP)
NETANYAHU TO CONSIDER A UNITY GOVERNMENT: Netanyahu said Friday that he was considering asking the Labor Party, which signed the first peace accords with the Palestinians, to join his government. Netanyahu hinted his coalition partners may not support a final peace settlement with the Palestinians. The Labor Party announced it would hold a general meeting next week to debate whether if would join the government of PM Netanyahu if such an offer was made. Many Labor party members are likely to oppose a unity government unless Netanyahu softens his policies. (AP)
ON THE NORTHERN FRONT: Four South Lebanese Army (SLA) soldiers were wounded in a Hizb'Allah attack on Wednesday in the Security Zone of southern Lebanon. An explosive device which was detonated a wireless remote, was set off in the central sector of the Security Zone. The extent of their injuries is unknown. Terrorists shot an anti-tank rocket at an armored personnel carrier of the SLA Thursday, hitting the vehicle but causing no casualties, security officials said. The incident took place in the village of Houla, about 3 kilometers (2 miles) west of the border with northern Israel, security officials said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity. There were no casualties, officials said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for firing the rocket. The Iranian-backed Hizb'Allah has routinely carried out such attacks.
Meanwhile, the SLA exchanged three Hizb'Allah prisoners Monday for a>soldier held by the terrorists. The Red Cross supervised the exchange at the Bater-Jezzine mountain crossing east of Sidon. The pass is one of several linking the north with the Security Zone in southern Lebanon In July, Israel freed 45 Hizb'Allah prisoners and returned the bodies of 123 terrorists in exchange for the remains of two Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon 10 years ago and for the release of 17 captured allied SLA soldiers.
The leader of the Iranian-backed Hizb'Allah said Sunday, he was confident Israel would be driven out of southern Lebanon because the terrorists have a weapon the Israelis can't match - suicide operations. "The Israelis have very big military capabilities," said Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of Hizb'Allah. "They are receiving military, technical, logistic and other support from the United States." But he added: "We are superior in faith, will, courage and the love of martyrdom." Nasrallah made the comments in an interview with the Associated Press.
In another story, the Ministry of Labor announced a grant of NIS 1,400 ($462) to families who move to Katzrin in the Golan from areas which are not in the list of national preference areas. The total government assistance for purchasing a home in Katzrin in the Golan is NIS 200,000 ($66,000) of which NIS 40,000 ($13,200) is a grant. Contractors are offering an additional loan of NIS 70,000 ($23,100). The price of a home is around NIS 310,000 ($102,300). A total of 500 housing units are at various stages of planing and construction in Katzrin. (SNS, AP, Lebanon Newswire, UPI, SNS, Globes, Ha'Aretz)
"JEWISH FAITH" TO FORM BASIS OF NEW MOVEMENT: Some 300 people gathered in Jerusalem on Monday night for the founding convention of a new movement whose stated aim is to install a new Jewish- based political leadership in Israel. Although key figures have right-wing credentials, the conveners said the organization would not be another right wing party, nor another religious party, but rather the driving force behind an attempt to bring about a cultural Jewish revolution within Israeli society. They planned to field a candidate in the next prime ministerial election. Founding members include the head of the nationalist Zo Artzeinu ("This is our land") movement, Moshe Feiglin; the disenchanted brother-in-law of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Haggi Ben- Artzi; and a leader from Jewish communities in Judea-Samaria, Moti Karpel. The slogan, There Is An Alternative, indicates their efforts to run a religious candidate as Prime Minister.
Meanwhile, Australian billionaire, Rabbi Yosef Gutnik, affiliated with the Chabad/Lubavitch Hasidic sect, sponsored bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah ceremonies Thursday at the Western Wall, for 1,000 boy and girls from the CIS. Boys were presented with Tefillin (phylacteries) and girls received candlesticks to light Sabbath candles.
In another development, Reform and Conservative Jewish communities in the US, angered by the Israeli Knesset's first round approval of a conversion law [see F.Y.I.-04-05-97/-ed] that legitimizes Orthodox conversions only, have decided to divert part of their contributions to Zionist-based organizations and transfer them to their representative movements in Israel. The major institutions that stand to be affected by the move are the United Jewish Appeal and the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency. The Jewish Federation in San Francisco decided to cut $1 million in its annual donation to the UJA, nearly 15% of its budget, and will instead channel the monies into Israeli Conservative and Reform institutions as well as projects for Jewish-Arab coexistence. Jewish-American investors in Israeli corporations have warned they may reconsider their relationship to the Israeli business sector in light of the decision. (Arutz Sheva, Kol Yisrael, SNS, Ha'Aretz, VJ News)
IRAN AND IRAQ TO JOIN PEACE PROCESS? Syrian leaders have left for a visit to China and the Far East, and will stop off for consultations in Iran. The Syria-Iran-Iraq axis is ready and waiting for developments that may include them in the peace process, an idea which is being put forward by King Hussein in Washington. This may lead Washington to begin including Iran and Iraq in the peace process with Israel, which will allow Syria to present less extreme positions in its negotiations with Israel.
In another development, according to a report in a London-based Arabic daily newspaper, Syrian President Hafez el-Assad has placed the nation's military forces on high-alert in anticipation of
engaging into war with Israel, based on recent developments in the Middle East. According to the unnamed senior Syrian political figure, Syria stated it does not have to rely on any outside assistance and it is capable of causing "a great deal of damage to Israel" using its own 600 kilometer (360 miles) missiles and other weaponry. Defense Minister Mordechai, in Washington, stated at the end of last week that Syria is preparing the military option. Mordechai stated, "Israel is not afraid of the military option but we are concerned over recent developments." In addition, a senior Syrian official explained the resumption of peace talks with Israel is dependent on Israeli willingness to withdraw from the Golan Heights.
Meanwhile, a senior Israeli military source said Sunday night that the Israel Defense Force (IDF) is monitoring the situation and "there are no unusual Syrian movements which might concern Israel. There is no question that the Syrian army is training and continues to grow in but from the standpoint of the IDF there is no change at this time in either their level of state of alert or force size." Israel is also carefully following meetings between senior Syrian-Russian and Syrian-Iranian contacts - principally in the military field. (Arutz Sheva, SNS, Ha'Aretz, MED)
"SUICIDE OPERATIONS ARE PERMISSIBLE": Suicide bombings were "permissible" against military targets, the head of Egypt's Sunni Muslims, Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, said in remarks published on Wednesday. Israeli & Global News reports that the cleric told professors and students at the University of Cairo: "Suicide operations are permissible so long as they are staged against enemies who are carrying out inhumane and terrorist policies. "The Egyptian government and people, both Christians and Muslims, are on the side of the Palestinians (and are) ... ready to defend their holy places," he continued. "We are opposed to Jewish settlement, notably in east Jerusalem. Palestine has been an Arab and Muslim state for 14 centuries." (ICEJ)
RELATIONS BETWEEN IRAN AND SAUDI ARABIA IMPROVING: Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the "two poles" of Islam, are reportedly improving. The Asia Times News reports that improving ties could remove many of the "misunderstandings" between Tehran and Riyadh which have been blamed by some Muslims on the US. One sign of a thaw in relations was provided by a visit to Riyadh last month by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati. "Iran's strategic goal remains to focus on similarities with gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and to pinpoint moral and ideological differences present between the majority of gulf states and Iran with the United States and its Western allies," the report said. "Iran believes the US is already feeling pressure from a 'wave of change' in the gulf. As the US and its Western allies begin to suffer from a lack of credibility for protecting exclusive interests at the expense of indigenous political and commercial aspirations, Iran hopes to solidify its progress with gulf states. Iran and Saudi Arabia are regarded respectively as the homes of Shi'ite and Sunni Islam.
Meanwhile, Oman has refused to grant entry visas to two Israeli diplomats, Nissim Ben Shitrit, the Director General of the Foreign Ministry and David Zohar, a lower ranking diplomat. An Israeli official in Jerusalem said Oman appears to be the first Arab country to follow the Arab League's decision to freeze ties with Israel. (ICEJ, Kol Yisrael, MED)
BODY OF MISSING SOLDIER RECOVERED: In a major breakthrough against Islamic terror networks, Israeli security forces Thursday broke up a Hamas cell located in Kfar Tzurif (in the Hevron District) responsible for at least 11 murders, including that of a soldier missing since last September. However, security sources warned that more such cells existed, and that the threat of further attempts to launch terror attacks had not dissipated. After seven months of painful uncertainty for the kidnapped soldier's family, captured members of the cell led investigators to the body of Sharon Edri, who would have turned 21 last week. On September 9, 1996, Edri left the Tzurif IDF Base after having been checked by an IDF physician. He received a 24 hour sick leave after complaining about not feeling well. He phoned his parents in Moshav Zanoach, near Bet Shemesh, a few minutes after 10:00pm, and stated he was on his way home. He was last seen at the Shimshon Junction. From there he hitched a ride and was never seen again. Two of the terrorists are being held by Israel, two by the Palestinians, and one is still at large. A sixth member of the cell blew himself up, apparently unintentionally, at Tel Aviv's Apropo cafe last month, killing three women. Among those arrested was Dr. Samir Khadi, head of Alia Hospital in Hevron and a former Hamas deportee. Arrested in Hevron were two of the terrorists who live in the Arab section of Hevron. The demise of the cell followed the Tel Aviv bombing. The cell had planned to plant the bomb, then escape,and two members of the cell drove to Tel Aviv. While one of them went to the cafe, the other waited in the getaway car, but for some reason the bomb went off. The driver then returned to Kfar Tzurif and fled to Hevron the next day, when the identity of the bomber became known.
The Kafr Tzurif Hamas cell began its terror with drive-by shootings in late 1995 and moved on to kidnappings and eventually the suicide Bombing in Tel Aviv last month, according to the IDF. March 21, 1997 - Cell member blows himself up at the Apropo cafe in Tel Aviv
killing Yael Gilad, Anat Rosen-Winter, and Michal Midan-Avrahami, and wounding 47 others. September 9, 1996 - Kidnapping and murder of Staff-Sgt. Sharon Edri hitch-hiking to his home in Moshav Zanoah. His body is buried near the village. July 26, 1996 - Drive-by shooting near Moshav Tirosh killing Uri Munk, his son Ze'ev, and his wife Rachel. June 9, 1996 - Members of the cell open fire on a car near Moshav Gefen, killing Yaron and Efrat Unger, of Kiryat Arba. January 16, 1996 - Murder of Maj. Oz Tivon, a doctor, and Sgt. Yaniv Shimel, a medic when their car is attacked near Karmei Tzur. December 9, 1995 - Drive- by shooting near Neveh Daniel in Gush Etzion. Yonatan Moshitz and his daughter Lior are wounded. November 18, 1995- Opened fire on a vehicle driven by a resident of Jerusalem as itpassed the village of Beit Omar. No one was injured. (ICEJ, MED, Jerusalem Post, Kol Yisrael, Ma'ariv)
TEL AVIV BOMBING NOT CONNECTED TO HAR HOMA: A senior military figure said Friday that the Cafe Apropo (in Tel Aviv) attack was not planned as a response to the construction in Har Homa. He said that the terrorist ring members had decided to carry out the attack more than two weeks before the construction began, but was pushed off for various reasons and was executed coincidentally three days after the beginning of the Har Homa project. The military figure said that the history of the cell proves that there was never any connection between political developments or Israeli government decisions and the gang's murderous activities. (Arutz Sheva)
ARAFAT TO US: NOW IT IS ISRAEL'S TURN: Now that PA Chairman Arafat has helped in the arrest of the terror cell that operated in the Apropos cafe bombing and in the kidnapping and killing of soldier Sharon Edri, he is making some clear demands if he is to continue aiding in the war against terror. Arafat is saying the PA is willing to help in the war against terror, but Israel must stop the construction on Har Homa in Jerusalem and the expansion of settlements. The PA, however, only helped at the end of the investigation into the Tzurif-based terror cell and only after intense pressure was placed on it by the Americans, mostly in the form of the CIA. (Ha'Aretz, MED)
ISRAEL TO EASE CLOSURE: On Saturday, the defense minister announced an easing of the closure to take effect Sunday at 4 a.m. According to an army statement, 20,000 Palestinians -- all married men older than 35 --will be allowed to enter Israel to go to work. In addition, 50 trucks carrying imported goods will be allowed to enter Judea, Samaria and Gaza each day from Israel, and trucks accompanied by Israeli troops would be allowed to leave the Judea and Samaria. Israel sealed Judea, Samaria and Gaza -- barring most of the territories' 2 million Palestinians from entering Israel -- after a March 21 suicide bombing in a Tel Aviv cafe that killed three Israeli women. (AP)
FYI - Israel In The News
"For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not keep quiet" Isaiah 62:1
'F.Y.I.' may be reproduced & distributed in any form. Please give proper credit. Send comments and subscription requests to Lee Underwood at: fellowship@inet-images.com Web site: http://www.inet-images.com/fellowship/fyi.htm
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From: Arutz Sheva News Service
Thursday, April 10, 1997 / Nisan 3, 5757
DOCUMENTED PALESTINIAN INCITEMENT
The official Government Press Office has released a list of statements by Palestinian Authority officials which represent violations of the Oslo accords. According to a letter of September 9, 1993, the Interim Agreement of September 28, 1995 (Oslo II), and the Note for the Record which accompanied the Hevron Protocol of January 15, 1997, the PA is obligated to ensure that all PLO elements and personnel abstain from incitement, including hostile propaganda, against Israel. Accordingly, the following recent statements are examples of violations of the agreements:
"Rabin understood the situation after paying a very steep price. After Netanyahu sees blood in the streets, he will understand, too. Netanyahu is a beginner in politics. He hasn't gotten any big blow yet. When he gets one of those hits, he will understand... Today, if things fail, I'm not going to be shocked if Hamas is going to do something else." -- PA Communications Minister Imad Falouji, April 5, 1997
"The only option in this situation is to continue the uprising since this is the only language which Israel understands." --- Farouk Kaddumi, Head of the PLO Political Department, April 2, 1997
"All options are open, including the armed struggle if necessary." --- Amin Maqbul, member of the Fatah Supreme Council, at a rally, March 30, 1997
The PA Council congratulates "all the holy martyrs resulting from the noble wave of opposition to the Israeli Government's settlement activity." --- from a statement issued by the PA's legislative council on March 27, 1997, six days after the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv
"I don't think that stones are violence. It is peaceful to throw stones." --- Marwan Barghouti, Fatah Secretary-General and PA Council member, March 26, 1997
"Israeli authorities infected by injection 300 Palestinian children with the HIV virus during the years of the intifada." --- Palestinian representative Nabil Ramlawi at a session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, March 17, 1997
"From now on, resisting settlements will not be through words, condemnation or complaints to the UN Security Council. -- PA Cabinet Secretary Ahmed Abdel Rahman, March 10, 1997
"The Ministry of Information warns the Israeli government and its settlers that their crime will not pass quietly and that the Palestinian people has the right to defend itself and its land." --- PA Information Ministry press release, February 26, 1997
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THE PERSECUTION MOST HOUSE CHURCH CHRISTIANS FACE IN CHINA!
by Alex Buchan
Letter from Hong Kong: Personal Observations by Alex Buchan, Asia Bureau
Chief for Compass Direct
Did you know that the average Chinese Christian is far more likely to face persecution from an outraged neighbor anxious to defend the honor of village gods, than from a fierce Communist Party cadre out to maintain the purity of the national ideology?
One could be forgiven for thinking that most persecution in China comes from the state. Headlines are dominated by the hundreds of house church leaders jailed, harassed, or pursued by the Public Security Bureau in the name--loosely at least--of Marxist ideology. Yet jailed leaders are numbered only in hundreds, house church members are numbered in millions. Most of them will never see the inside of a 10-foot-square cell. Instead, for these millions scattered throughout China's villages, their cell is their own home, their jailers their own neighbors, and their persecutors the village gods they once trusted in, and then defied in order to worship Christ.
The average Chinese village is awash with gods. There are gods for the kitchen sink, gods for the bathroom, gods for the yard, gods for the hearth. Every action is watched and noted by each god, who reports the deeds up the celestial bureaucracy to the supreme being. It's no coincidence that in many rural temples an abacus sits by the doorway to symbolize the accuracy of the gods' accounting of one's deeds.
For centuries this folk religion has rolled on, picking up Buddhism and Taoism like a lint cloth wiped over a dusty jacket. When Chinese convert to Christ, this tradition is challenged. Worse, the gods of the village may get angry at being ignored, and will plague the village with accidents, illnesses and strife.
Which is why most Christians get persecuted. When villagers see a Christian convert not giving enough homage to the gods, they fear the whole village will be harmed by the celestial backlash. Thus converts are coerced back to the traditional faith, lest everyone suffer.
A friend of mine visited a small village in central Shaanxi recently, where a couple had converted to Christ in the aftermath of their young son's death. As it is believed that demons are the spirits of the young dead who seek revenge for being deprived of a long life, so the village at first offered sacrifices to their gods to keep the angry spirit of the dead son from harming them. But when the parents converted and got rid of their gods, the protection--in the eyes of their neighbors--was removed.
Sure enough, the village was soon plagued with mysterious illnesses. One man blamed his goiter on the new demon. Another blamed her appendicitis on him. Another found a field unexpectedly flooded and a crop ruined. And all because the dead son's parents no longer sacrificed to the local gods who alone could stop the young demon seeking revenge.
The couple's house was surrounded. Villagers would gather around and let off firecrackers to drive the evil spirits away. They were turned away at the market, and attacked on their way to the fields. So isolated and exhausted were they, the wife attempted suicide last year.
As my friend said, "The villagers think they are doing the right thing. After all, their gods have seen them through for 2,200 years. This Jesus is just a recent interloper. Better to trust the proven record of the past."
So the couple suffer on. And there are millions like them, since 80 percent of China's population live in villages just like the one described. In some revival areas, whole villages became Christian together, thus spiking this kind of persecution at the source. But in most provinces, this is not so. Peasant Christians are the forgotten core of the house churches. They have a hard enough life as peasants. They have a harder one when they become Christian peasants.
Pray for these unsung heroes of the faith, who despite little Christian education and often even less fellowship, follow their new found God-in-Christ in defiance of 2000-year-old cultural traditions. Exiles in their own villages, they shine for God.
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HONG KONG CHURCHES COULD FACE PROSECUTION FOR OVERSEAS CONNECTIONS
Interpretation of the Law After July 1 the Key Factor in Predicting Consequences
by Grace Lee
HONG KONG (Compass)--Hong Kong churches could face prosecution for overseas connections, according to Margaret Ng, a Hong Kong barrister. In her March 28 weekly column in the South China Morning Post, Ng expressed concern that the right of association may be sacrificed under the dubious guise of "public interest...national security or public order."
The right of association refers to links between different groups, formal and informal, local and international. Hong Kong churches have always maintained links with the worldwide church. As Ng points out, the key will be how the words of Article 23 of the Basic Law, Hong Kong's mini-constitution, are interpreted and applied. Article 23 requires the Hong Kong government to prohibit "political organizations or bodies of the Region (Hong Kong)...(from) establishing ties with foreign political organizations or bodies."
Hong Kong has two laws that protect the right of association. One is in the Hong Kong Bill of Rights, Article 18, a part of the Bill of Rights Ordinance that will remain in effect after the handover. The other is article 39 of the Basic Law which protects all rights under the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights as applied to Hong Kong.
"We do not know yet how these words of Article 23 are going to be construed and implemented...what will count as a 'political organization or body,' what can amount to 'establishing ties,' and whether they will be defined broadly or narrowly," writes Ng. The Secretary of Justice-designate, Elsie Leung, offered some comfort by assuring that Article 23 would be subjected to Article 39.
A recent English High Court ruling labeled the human rights organization Amnesty International as "political" and set a precedent for a broad interpretation of "political" as almost any organization that lobbies and mounts publicity campaigns to communicate its perspective.
Likewise, "establishing ties" may be given a broad definition "to include such things as an agreement to have regular exchanges." These broad interpretations may make Hong Kong churches among those non-government organizations "particularly vulnerable" to prosecution under Article 23 of the Basic Law. As Ng notes, "Public interest can be interpreted by the government to its advantage...national security or public safety and such like are regularly given what is termed a 'wide margin of appreciation.' The state has a distinct advantage against the individual."
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God 's Promises to Memorize
Ray Gano
God had given us many promises to claim. They bring God's actions that allow us to partake of His divine nature, avoid sin, and escape the corruption in the world. They give action we are to take to have living faith. They influence out lives to be dependent u
pon God.
1 Peter 1:3-4
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
We can memorize many promises to bring us closer to God, and allow Him to intervene into our lives to make them successful. When memorized, they are instantly available as the situation requires. I encourage you to do so. What would happen if you did not have access to your Bible? Learn the leasson taught to us by those POWs who only had the verses they learned in Sunday School to keep them going while they were prisoners of war. 1Peter 3:15 tells us to always be ready to give an answer for the hope in us. By memorizing these verses, you to can equip yourself so that you can always be ready.
Joshua 1:8.
8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
2 Chronicles 16:9.
9 For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.
Psalms 37:4-5.
4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
5 Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.
Psalms 37:23-24.
23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.
24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.
Psalms 56:3.
3 What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.
Psalms 118:8.
8 It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.
Proverbs 3:5-6.
5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Proverbs 8:17.
17 I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.
Proverbs 16:7.
7 When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Isaiah 40:31.
31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Isaiah 41:10.
10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Jeremiah 33:3.
3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
Matthew 6:33.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 7:7-8.
7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Matthew 11:28-30.
28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Matthew 21:22.
22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
Romans 8:28.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
1 Corinthians 10:13.
13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
2 Corinthians 12:9.
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
