 The first amendment was originally written to prevent a “state” church in the United States. Unfortunately due to a wholesale ignorance of our Constitution as well as a campaign to misinform people about the 1st Amendment – we have come to understand that the 1st Amendment was to separate church and state. What is truly fascinating though is that the way our government is acting currently there is a state church being supported by millions and millions of our tax dollars. Actually it isn’t a church – it is a lack of separation of mosque and state. Let me explain.
The Obama administration has been spending millions of dollars trying to build good will with Muslims by rebuilding mosques and minarets. The State Department hides such actions under the guise of being a “cultural restoration” rather than an overt support of religion by the state. These projects have taken place in 27 different Muslim nations. The goal is to show that the United States is open to a multi-religious mindset. Yet, the use of these mosques has been anything but tolerant to the practice of Christianity in these places. While the United States was giving money to rebuild an Egyptian mosque – the very worshippers of Islam gathered to burn to the ground the St. George Church in the village of Minarab. Even though the church sought to be peaceful by removing their cross and taking down a dome in the building, it did little to stop a crazed throng of thousands of Islamic worshippers from descending on the church to burn it down. As the building burned to the ground shouts of, “Kill all the Christians,” resounded at the site. Wonder if St. George’s Church will be rebuilt with U.S. funds? A generous U.S. taxpayer donation was made to preserve the 900 year old mosque on the island of Zanzibar – off the coast of Tanzania. This gracious act was repaid as Islamic worshippers shouted, “Away with the church – we do not want infidels to spoil our community, especially our children!” This from a religious that our own State department calls, peaceful. This is nothing though when you consider what has happened in northern Nigeria where the United States taxpayer has given generously to repair and restore a 15th century minaret there. Our act of kindness was repair with gross violence since 2009. Over 288 Christian churches have been burned to the ground and 2000 Christians have been killed since then. In 2012 a particularly gruesome event in this region took place as 50 members of a Christian church were burned alive in their pastor’s home. Some would assert that this is just the fringe radical elements of Islam. But when they do this they ignore that recently Sheik Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia declared, “It is necessary to destroy all the churches of the region. And while his declaration was against churches on the Arabian Peninsula – this kind of terrorism and religious hatred is going on throughout Africa, the Mideast, and even in Asia. In the past two months Muslims in Kena have attacked 11 churches – and assaulted Christians meeting in open air meetings with grenades. This has resulted in the killing of at least three worshippers with 46 others wounded from the attacks. It is beyond comprehension that we are spending money we don’t have to convince people that we are tolerant toward their religion – when they are making it plain that no such tolerance will be shown to us – especially the Christian religion. The North Sudanese government recently bulldozed three churches and confiscated several Catholic schools saying that such buildings were no longer welcome in a country were Islamic law (Shar’ia Law) was dominant. Even in Afghanistan, where we are fighting for the freedom of the Afghani people, the last public Christian church was demolished in October of 2011. How amazingly tolerant of them! Even in countries where Christians have been forced to meet underground or in parking lots or sides of streets – they are still harassed. A mob of 600 Indonesian Muslims hurled bags of their own unine, as well as rotten eggs and ditchwater at 100 Christians whose only crime was that they were trying to attend a church service in an empty parking lot in Bekasi. One would think that such inhuman treatment and religious bigotry would be addressed by our State Department – yet they remain eerily silent. They don’t remain silent when Islam is supposedly insulted. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went on the offensive by cutting a video and buying over $70,000 of air time in muslim countries to say that the Islamic faith, “respects the fundamental dignity of human beings.” Not quite sure she gets all the dignity that is being shown to Christians in these lands. What is happening should chill us to the bone. Christians face the most strident opposition to ANY kind of hint that the state gives even a dime to a Christian organization. We have people in the liberal media almost stroke out while touting the false view of separation of church and state. Such a view or statement is not even in our constitution. Yet now we see millions of dollars being spent to restore and maintain Muslim places of worship. Evidently there is NOT a separation of church and state in our Constitution in their minds. There must just be a separation of Christianity and state, because there is wholesale support of Islam evident in at least 27 nations. While we bow to them to assure them we are tolerant of their religious practices – it seems to bother us far too little to protest the destruction of Christian churches and the violent killing of those who would worship there. Confused about all this? Me too!
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 Those who recently heard of the speech the president gave at the United Nations must have been impressed by the ability he has to speak out of both sides of his mouth at once. I am sure that he was seeking to bring peace and calm to a situation that is beginning to get out of control. Yet the utter hypocrisy of stating that we should not slander either the prophet of Islam or desecrate the “image of Jesus Christ,” is really beyond the pale. As we examine the gross hypocrisy of our president’s statement, we should read it first. Here is the statement he made in the United Nations speech on September 25th, 2012.
“The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. Yet to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see when the image of Jesus Christ is desecrated, churches are destroyed, or the Holocaust is denied.” (emphasis mine) If President Obama is serious about this statement – and I mean by serious that he will stand up for Christianity as well as Islam – I await his forthcoming denunciation of Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ” that is going back on display in the very city in which he gave these remarks. I wonder when our President will be coming out with strong statements about the return of this federally funded desecration of Jesus Christ? I also wonder when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be joining him to condemn in the strongest words possible this outrage. I look forward to their joint commercial, at the cost of at least $70,000, so that all of the Christians in the United States can hear their strong rebukes, apologies, and calls for this artwork to be removed from the public view? You see, that IS what happened when the recent anti-Muslim film, “The Innocence of Muslims” caused problems in the Muslim world. Geez, I wonder if the Joint Chiefs of Staff has personally called Serrano yet urging him to withdraw his picture from the Art Gallery in Manhattan? All this was done by our current administration to protest the offense to Muslims worldwide for the presence of “The Innocence of Muslims” on YouTube. Yet in 1989 when it came out, what we found when Cerrano decided to plunge the image of Jesus Christ on the cross into a jar of his own urine – was strong defenses by Democrat officials. They would not allow censorship – or even calls for it to be seriously considered. But that was before hope and change. Certainly NOW that there was someone who knew that people should not desecrate the image of Jesus Christ, we’d finally have a rebuke from our administration? But . . . there were no commercials made – no calls – no outrage – no disgust – just deafening silence. But now we have a President who gets it – right! He described such things as hateful actions! Therefore, according to our president, this was an act of hate paid for with your tax dollars! So, based on this speech, we should be hearing his denunciation of it as hate any moment now. What is truly strange is that we find him oddly silent. He feels that the future cannot belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. He also backs up those words with serious actions. We know from what he has DONE that he is serious about protecting Islam as a religion. But when it comes to Christianity once again we find him strangely mute. But now . . . now that our president is on record about the “hate we see when the image of Christ is desecrated,” things are going to be different. We can hold our breath, knowing that strong denunciations – commercials – apologies – will be coming from him, Secretary of State Clinton, and many others. How dare they! NOW we’ll hear President Obama and his administration really give it to them! My advice to you would be to avoid holding your breath waiting for ANY action or statement to come as a result of this speech . . . unless you are a Muslim. Christians don’t riot and burn things - and kill Ambassadors when they are offended. (Actually the death of our Ambassador to Libya wasn’t due to the film – that was a terrorist attack – or at least a Libyan act of workplace violence.) We don’t act this way as Christians because we are told to rejoice when we are persecuted. We are told to love those who do such things to us. So, if you are a Christian, don’t hold your breath awaiting the strong denunciations that are forthcoming concerning the desecration of Jesus Christ that are currently on display in New York City – unless you want to actually meet Jesus in person. My guess is that you’ll die for lack of oxygen waiting for that kind of consistency on religious matters from this current administration.  What is as small as 21 miles across, has ships from 25 different nations around it, and can cause the entire world economy to nose dive by being shut down for as little as two to three days? Don’t know the answer to that one? The answer for the next 12 days is a little channel of water called the Strait of Hormuz.
The Strait of Hormuz is a small exit at the base of the Persian Gulf. It is one of the most congested waterways in the world, since through it flows 35% of the world’s oil in tankers from countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kuwait. What is making this strait even more congested is all the naval vessels that are congregated there for the largest naval exercise ever in the history of modern warfare. Included in this force are three Nimitz class carrier groups from the United States, four British minesweepers and the HMS Diamond, one of the most powerful destroyers in the entire British Navy. In addition to these ships there are 12 U.S. battleships cruisers, frigates, destroyers, and assault ships. These vessels are joined by additional ships from France and the UAE. Why are all these ships in this region? It is because they are conducting training for what they fully expect to be a war in the gulf region. The war will involve Iran and the reason behind it is a dispute over whether they are seeking to build a nuclear weapon. Iran claims that their nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, but Britain’s MI-6 disagrees. Their latest intelligence says that Iran could have operational nuclear weapons as soon as early to mid-2013. This has brought about a situation that Israel says cannot exist. That is why Prime Minister Netanyahu has made it clear that if necessary, Israel will go it alone in an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Why has Israel taken such a hard stance? It is because of the way that leaders in Iran have spoken about such things. Iranian President Ahmadinejad has stated many times publically that Iran intends to destroy Israel – and leaders in Israel do not want to give him enough leeway to accomplish this threat by using a nuclear weapon. But what would be the result of such an intervention by Israel? Iran is having an annual test of its own involving all their air defenses. The largest exercise of Iran’s history is coming, according to Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili. This test will involve surface-to-air missiles, unmanned drones and state-of-the-art radar, The Iranian Revolutionary Guard and air force will work together to test their own defenses. These defenses seek to protect over 3,500 sensitive locations throughout the Iran. Among these sites are their oil refineries and uranium enrichment facilities. The Iranian military is seeking to “identify vulnerabilities” as well as practice their tactics, both old and new. But defense is not their only goal. The Iranians have also practiced offensive attacks using mini subs, fast attack boats, mining vessels, and land-based anti-ship missiles from a number of batteries along the gulf. It is predicted that before being destroyed, these ships can cause a great deal of carnage among both military and civilian shipping. Iran has promised an asymmetrical response that will not only strike in the Strait of Hormuz, but also in Israel and in the United States. Iran fully expects cooperation from terrorist groups in Syria and Lebanon who have thousands of missiles that promise to rain down upon Israel. Those in charge of Israel’s missile defense expect between 400-500 deaths in the initial strikes with more coming later if they are unable to destroy all the missile batteries quickly. The Iranian secret service, named Quds, also is believed to have numerous operatives in the United States waiting to strike with multiple terrorist attacks if Israel strikes Iran. Some have stated that such an attack will not happen before the United States elections – but with things heating up in the region – there is no guarantee that the attack won’t happen very soon. With both these war games and the continued escalated rhetoric from both Iran and Israel, it wouldn’t be wise to hold your breath. So how does all this relate to biblical prophecy? First of all, there is no mention of a massive war between Israel and Iran in the Bible. The major prophecy that may come into play is that of a Gog-Magog battle that is prophesied in Ezekiel 37-38. The major players in that event are Israel and a Russian/Islamic Army that comes like a hoard from the north into Israel. I am one who believes that this event will happen just prior to the 7 year Great Tribulation in Revelation. I also personally believe that this also may be an event that happens in connection with the rapture of the church. Since there is a mutual protective alliance between Iran and Russia, this could very well help start a massive response from Russia – joined by the Islamic nations in the Middle East – who would come to punish Israel for their attack on Iran. Such an alliance would be massive and highly motivated since there is a mutual hatred of Israel among all of them. After reading this you might wonder, “What does this have to do with me?” It has much to do with you and me. First of all, there will be a series of things we will have to deal with as Christians. First, the reality that gas prices will likely shoot up to over as much as 8-10 dollars a gallon. This will cripple the economy – not just of the United States – but the entire world. Second, we will have to decide if we will stand with Israel or not. This event, if it happens, will result in calls worldwide to punish Israel. Therefore it will cost us something to stand with Israel. This will be a personal choice – because I fully expect our national leaders, who have decided upon a path far more allied with Islam, than with Israel, to turn on Israel and join with the rest of the UN in calling for punishment of Israel for their pre-emptive strike. Just remember that God promises to bless those who bless Israel – and curse those who curse her. Another question that may arise is this, “What can I do about this?” Well, actually, you can do nothing about this. If God intends to use these events to usher in the events that accompany the second coming of Jesus – you can do nothing to thwart what He allows. But the question you should ask should not be what you can do about all this, but rather what you should be doing in light of it. Let’s answer that one instead. Two things are true if these events are close at hand. First, you do not have “all the time in the world” to share Christ with those around you. It may be a matter of months, weeks, or honestly – even days. Take advantage of every opportunity to share Jesus with those you know who need Him and the salvation He has purchased with His own blood. Now is not the time to become complacent and lazy. Now is the time to redouble our efforts to share Christ with others. The second thing that is very important is to be people of the Word of God. Dear saints – check your doctrine and make sure that you are spiritually ready for what is coming. Scripture tells us that these days are going to be ones where great deception will be loosed upon all mankind. Many will fall for the lies of the evil one – and of the culture and media that does his bidding daily. Are you ready to stand on God’s Word in the midst of a flood of deceptive rhetoric that is about to be unleashed on you? If you haven’t noticed, that flood is rising even now as what were once basic biblical beliefs are being denigrated hourly on network and cable television. It will take strength – and a love of the Word – to be able to stand. Are you ready? We live in the midst of amazing times. The world seems to be aflame with strange doctrines – and religious movements willing to riot and rampage in the streets. The financial world is reeling under the weight of debt that is out of control as socialist government’s promise more and more – but are quickly seeing that they cannot deliver on their promises indefinitely. Nation is warring against nation – and the saber-rattling that often precedes world wars is rampant in the political realms. It is time for us to draw near to God so that our hearts will not be weighed down with sin – but liberated to stand fast on His Word and on the gospel of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Getting cash to buy bread in Weimar Germany Many really don't know what is actually happening with the current FED policy called, Qualitative Easing parts 1, 2, and now 3. We are being told that this is a stimulus for our sluggish economy. There are little more than empty promises that this will help put more money into our economy - thus making it more solvent and better for all of us. Such statements are policy statements at best, and lying propaganda statements at worst. What is slowly happening with these moves by the FED is that our money is slowly being made worthless green pieces of paper. The only inaccuracy in that statement is that this is a slow process. Unfortunately there is going to be a day very soon when we will experience a crash similar to that which was experienced by the 1920's Weimar Republic in Germany. Let me explain a little more - and hopefully also tie this to what is going to happen in these last days.
The Weimar Republic was the government in Germany after WWI. Due to a number of different factors, this government was facing great financial difficulties. During WWI Germany had borrowed tremendous amounts of money. The debt of Germany had risen from 3 billion to 55 billion marks. The way the government decided to deal with this was to "monetize" the debt. To "monetize" a debt simply means to print money to pay it. The problem is that the printed money has nothing to back it and make it worth anything. The result of monetizing their debt was disastrous. Since their money was worth nothing - it created hyperinflation. The price of everything went through the ceiling. The way the German government dealt with this was to further print worthless money. By 1922-23 hyperinflation exploded and the result was skyrocketing prices for EVERYTHING! Rising prices is something that we've learned to deal with - and some say that we will see increases in prices - but that inflation will remain under control in all of our Quantitative Easing - or monetizing our debt. To give you a little better idea of the increase of prices in Germany I will offer an example. In July of 1914 you could buy a loaf of bread for 1 mark. After they monetized their debt with their own version of QE-1, prices began to soar. By July of 1922 that same loaf of bread cost 100.6 marks. But even though that kind of inflation seems outrageous, it was nothing compared to what was to come. German government officials decided in 1922 to buy some of their debt in the form of bonds from the world markets. They did this by printing a whole lot of worthless paper money. Their hope was to create a stimulus of their economy through these actions. But what happened turned German financial markets - and prices in the street into a disaster zone. A loaf of bread shot from 100.6 marks in July 1922 to 2785 marks by January 1923. But this was nothing compared to the hyperinflation that was about to be released. A year later, in July 1923 a loaf of bread would cost 194,000 marks - and by November of that same year, 1923, the cost of a loaf of bread shot to 726,000,000,000 marks. All because the nation thought they could print money to deal with their financial problems. This seems crazy when you read it, I know, but it is all in the history books and can be verified quite easily. The decision today to initiate QE-3 is a step toward a financial cliff over which it is almost beyond our power to now avoid. The FED has stated that QE-3 is an effort to buy hundreds of billions of dollars of our government's debt bonds in the open market. What are we going to use to pay for them? Money that will be printed by the FED. What backs that money? NOTHING! We are attempting to do what the Weimar Republic did from 1914-1923 - but think we can do it without any financial repercussions. Here is the truth - we cannot! This move to initiate QE-3 is simply another order to start the printing presses of the FED. We are printing money that one day won't be worth the paper it is printed upon. What is even crazier is that the Legislative branch of our government just voted to continue to fund itself at current levels for the next 6 months because very few have the guts to tell the collective United States electorate that the emperor doesn't have any financial clothes. They are more interested in being re-elected than in doing the hard work of governing responsibly. By the way this required a bi-partisan response from both Republicans and Democrats. Hardly anyone is willing to say the truth about all this - even fewer are willing to tell us we are far beyond broke. We are flying down the path of the Weimar Republic - and no one is willing to be honest about it. Now, how does all this fit in with the Biblical last day's scenario? First of all, it is a preface to a world without cash. Since pretty much every currency is going to be worthless - why have money at all. There will be moves to remove cash from society - and for the world to work only within the framework of electronic money. This move will help us toward the second thing that is being prepared in our day - biometric chips or some other device that will have all our financial, medical, and government records on them. Thus we can run the back of our hand over a scanner or stand in front of a camera and have all our finances done electronically. This paves the way for the antichrist to institute a program where he will control all spending - and will tie it to worshiping him. The third thing that will happen is that great chaos will sweep over the world in the wake of the dollar and the euro crashing and becoming utterly worthless over a short period of time. Remember what happened in the wake of the Weimar Republic's financial stupidity. A period of horrific financial depression resulted - followed by the rise of a very charismatic leader named Adolph Hitler. When people are struggling to be able to survive - they will follow anyone - even a crazed, satanic dictator. What is about to happen worldwide due to the crash of the dollar and the euro is going to make the Weimar Republic financial disaster look like a picnic in the park. QE-3 is going to result in financial disaster. The worthless paper money that will be pumped into our system is going to do nothing except further depress it in the end. Prices will one day begin to explode - first by 10% all the way to 100% over a few years. The real disaster will come quickly as that horrific 100% increase will be eclipsed by 1000%, 100,000%, and even 1,000,000,000% increases in prices throughout our economy. IT IS COMING! The only way that we can avert it is to face up to the foolishness of what we are doing currently. That will radically affect the elections this Fall - not toward a Republican or Democratic leanings. It will require us to elect HONEST politicians who will tell us the truth - in all of its ugly overtones - and in all of its horrible consequences. But, to be honest, I don't see that happening. What I see is eminent financial disaster - followed by a descent into chaos and anarchy. Why? Because have not nor will we learn from the history of the Weimar Republic. But I truly see that what awaits us in this difficult repeat of history is something far more sinister than Adolph Hitler. The one who will rise to power over the rubble of world economic disaster (and most likely a major attack on Israel - see Ezekiel 37-38) will fulfill much prophecy in doing so. But, do not fear, little flock, for this has all been prophesied previously. Yes, things will get very difficult - and the world will face a 7 year period unlike anything it has ever seen or ever will see. But you, saints of God, lift up your heads - for in the midst of the chaos, destruction - your redemption draws near! |
 What is the Prophecy/News Update?At Calvary Chapel of Jonesboro, we believe that history is moving toward fulfilling God's plans and purposes. In an effort to help us be prepared for His appearing - and also to chronicle news items you just won't see in the national media - this page is devoted to sharing those items and their possible significance to 
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