Author: Martin

A motive is the reason to do a certain thing, or simply put, a reason for an action. Usually a motive asks what we can gain by doing a specific thing. In other words, “What’s in it for me?” We all seem to be hard wired for this way of thinking. It is viewed by psychiatrists as a logical tool for self preservation. Yet true Christian living requires that all that we do should be done selflessly. For the true Christian motives are everything. Nevertheless, it can be a hard thing to determine a person’s true motives, even our own.

Pure motives require introspection and prayer. Since God can’t be patronized or conned, true prayer can’t or shouldn’t be flowery, shallow or meaningless words. Our Heavenly Father wants us to pray in Spirit and Truth. All too often we Christians only mouth sweet sounding words that are designed to entrance, deceive and justify a particular action, especially when praying in front of others. More often than not, we want to be seen as paragons of the faith. We want or need the affirmation of others. But like David, we should ask to have God search our hearts to see if there be anything amiss in our motives toward Him. In this respect David was a man after God’s own heart. True repentance, should be paramount in our introspection. “The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.” He knows our motives and the intent of our heart.

On the other hand, there are those who whimper in dread and fear because they haven’t developed a close relationship with the Father of lights. They have a problem in trying to reconcile their motives to what God requires of us. First that God is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. When we fret and cry without reason in the presence of our Heavenly Father it is usually due to lack of understanding of the scriptures, which give us hope and assurance and an intimate knowledge of the goodness of the God of heaven and earth. These people fear Him, and rightfully so, but once love and trust is established they can be open and talk to Him without dread. Then they can come boldly to His throne of Grace, fearlessly saying Abba Father!

The more we know of Him the more we understand his ways and what pleases Him. We can only know these things when we study the Holy Scriptures. That’s why it is imperative to read and study the bible as often as possible. There isn’t any need to jump up and down, stomp and wail for His presence, you don’t have to fall on the floor and spin around on your back like a dying cockroach, or try to reach him on tiptoes with hands extended toward the heavens.

When you know our Heavenly Father intimately you have peace, assurance of salvation and hope, even in the face of adversity. The more we know of Him the more fearless and joyful we become.

So what are your motives? If you think God is a means of making money or achieving fame and recognition you are only deceiving yourself. You will have to answer to the Almighty sooner or later, so please don’t go there.

“Take notice, you senseless ones among the people; you fools, when will you become wise? Does He who fashioned the ear not hear? Does He who formed the eye not see?”

 

By the way,

I realize that today’s movies and even television are being used by the evil one to the destruction of humanity. Morals and sexual purity are shredded and homosexuality is becoming the norm in today’s society. Decent entertainers and entertainment are hard to come by these days. Even the Disney star “Hanna Montana” (Miley Cyrus) rails against her parents religious beliefs with outspokenness, using the F bomb repeatedly, and displaying her female lover openly. Her parents must be devastated.

My criteria for a worthwhile film or production is: what is the redeeming value and/or what have I learned. Maybe the redeeming value is only a momentary respite from the reality of the evil days in which we live, after all we need to laugh and be entertained once in a while.

Trying to make a decent and meaningful evangelical film is the hardest thing I’ve ever tried to do, and I’ve always excelled in everything I’ve put my hand to. But Satan has kept me from advancing this agenda. However, I can now see the good in having been stalled, as now I can mention Isis in my screenplay and also the deterioration of our God ordained laws in our beloved land as well, things that have only begun to happen openly in the past couple of years. This ought to make people aware of the evil times in which we live, the last days.

I’m on facebook now in preparation for appearing on the crowd funding website Indiegogo. Check it out and feel free to write me.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

YBIC

Jim Torres “Towers”

https://www.facebook.com/people/Jim-Towers/100009303176673

(Article by Terry James. Terry James at Rapture Ready)

(Editors note: I am reminded of the passage in Isaiah 5:20)

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”

Early this morning I was listening to a Bible teacher teaching on prophecy and how it looks like America and the world are at the end of the Church Age (Age of Grace). He was talking about U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

The teacher was in the book of Romans and he was in the first chapter. The teacher was Les Feldick presenting his then weekly teaching by way of his Through the Bible television ministry. The year the program was produced was 1995. I was listening to his teaching Friday, June 26, 2015 –20 years later. A Christian TV cable network on our cable outlet is running the series on a daily basis at 5 a.m.

Les, as I understand, is now in his mid 80s and, I’m sure, still teaching somewhere in Oklahoma. I once met him at the Tulsa Mid-America Prophecy Conference held annually in early April. that was 7 or 8 years ago.

Today, a few hours after I listened to him teaching from that video recording back in that year 2 decades earlier, I heard on network television the announcement.

It was Pete Williams of NBC News –who you might remember as the Pentagon spokesperson during the first Gulf War– standing near the wildly cheering crowd. The NBC correspondent –an avowed “gay”– had to clear his throat of emotion before answering the anchor’s question about what had just happened at the Supreme Court.

He enthusiastically gave the requested report, almost shouting to be heard above the jubilant throng screaming their approval of the court’s decision.

The decision was 5 to 4, with the swing vote coming from Justice Kennedy, Williams said. The United States would now require every state to accept same sex marriage as constitutionally validated.

Twenty years earlier, Les Feldick had dealt with what I was now hearing from Pete Williams on Friday, June 26 of this year.

Les  said during that early morning program, recorded in 1995, that every time he read through Romans, Chapter 1, he couldn’t help but think of the almost insane decisions that come out of the U.S. Supreme Court. He said that the insanity really began back during the days when Earl Warren, the former governor of California, was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

The Warren court, Les said, had rendered the most destructive decisions in American history. He mentioned the decision to remove prayer and Bible reading from public schools in 1963 and 1964. He talked about Roe v Wade, issued in 1973, opening up the nation to the slaughter of babies in the wombs of America’s mothers.

He compared the Warren Supreme Court’s decision making and the resultant chaos to Paul’s condemning words in his letter to the Romans.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.  Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” (Rom 1: 18-32)

Les Feldick, in that lesson recorded 2 decades ago, saw the Supreme Court as demonstrating that God’s Word is absolutely True. When man moves away from God, their minds become reprobate –that is upside-down in their thinking. they make foolish, unthinking, unreasonable decisions. And, the Supreme Court, the majority of those 9 men (not all were reprobate in thinking,)               seemed to try, like Lucifer himself, to usurp the Throne of God –the Creator of all things.

There were ramifications, in my view, from those earlier Supreme Court decisions. John F. Kennedy was assassinated; Vietnam would eventually take 50,000 American lives; The Great Society began the financial collapse of the U.S. –and the world, for that matter; Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered, as was Robert F. Kennedy; a slide into abject immorality and cultural rot continues today, as a result of those decisions which have exacerbated other aspects of national life.

Friday, June 26, 2015 is another historical, milestone demarcation of man’s foolishness. The decision to, in effect, tell the Creator that the Supreme Court knows what constitutes marriage, so He should just butt out, is the ultimate insult in testing God’s patience. It is an act of rebellion that demonstrates this generation has reached a level of reprobate thinking like that reached by the earth-dwellers of Noah’s pre-flood day and Sodom’s days of Lot.

I’ve received a number of emails stating that such a Supreme Court vote making mandatory that all states allow gay marriage will bring instant retribution from Heaven. This is what we are now to expect. The United States will now reap God’s Judgment and Wrath in short order.

Looking at what happened almost immediately following the 1963 and 1964 decisions by the Warren Court –considering the apparent consequences listed above– it would seem such predictions have credence. I’m not at all sure there is a valid comparison to be made, then to now, however.

That which happened in those earlier years, with those consequences that befell America, I’m of the conviction, involved corrective action –a call by God to this nation, imploring that there be a turning from such rebellion. A question to ponder is: does time remain sufficient enough to even warrant a call in the form of corrective action? I.e., Has the Lord just decided in this obviously late, late hour, to turn America over to a “reprobate mind,” as the Apostle Paul (Rom 1:28)  indicates  for a rebellious people who have turned their back on Him?

Paul tells God’s Thought about those who treat the Lord with contempt.

“But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God…” (Rom 2: 5)

Despite this warning of God’s Judgment and Wrath accumulating, we get a look into the Lord’s Merciful Patience.

“What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.” (Rom 9: 22)

The Apostle Peter explains God’s patience –the reason He hasn’t ended mankind’s rebellion to this point.

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Pet 3: 9)

All who name the name of Jesus Christ should not be caught up in the cares of this world, in becoming more and more like the world system of materialism. While we must live upon this world of quickly declining morality, we should be aware of what the forces of evil are perpetrating. We should stand against those powers and principalities, both human and supernatural, just as written in Ephesians 6: 12.

The buying, selling, planting, the marrying –heterosexual or otherwise– is a way of life that is going to end in one stupefying microsecond of time. The Christian will stand before his or her Lord and give an account of whether we have been working and watching for Christ, or whether we have been caught up totally in the cares of this world, with callous disregard for being salt and light as we see the end of the age approaching.

“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.” (Lk 21: 34-35)

The only Court that is going to matter ultimately is that which renders the Supreme’s Decision on how we, individually, have lived within or apart from His Governance.

Make sure you aren’t one whose head is stuck deeply into the proverbial sand of worldliness and apathy.

 

(Editors Note: the following post is from Michael Snyder at Endoftheamericandream.com website.  I have read his articles on ZeroHedge for some time and he adds a great deal of insight to events happening around the world, but especially here at home.  The military side of me is always alert to the environment around me ( stay alert, stay alive!), and I have an uneasy feeling of the events going on here and abroad.  It is hard to pinpoint but something does not feel right.  The best course of action is to always be prepared for any situation. As Roger Rangers stated in his standing orders of 1756. Rule #1 Don’t forget nothing.  To me that includes situational awareness)

 

Is something really big about to happen?  For months, people have been pointing to the second half of this year for various reasons.  For some, the major concern is Jade Helm and the unprecedented movement of military vehicles and equipment that we have been witnessing all over the nation.  For others, the upcoming fourth blood moon and the end of the Shemitah cycle are extremely significant events.  Yet others are most concerned about political developments in Washington D.C. and at the United Nations.  To me, it does seem rather remarkable that we are seeing such a confluence of economic, political and spiritual events coming together during the second half of 2015.  So is all of this leading up to something?  Is our world about to change in a fundamental way?  Only time will tell.  The following are 7 key events that are going to happen by the end of September…

Late June/Early July – It is expected that this is when the U.S. Supreme Court will reveal their gay marriage decision.  Most believe that the court will rule that gay marriage is a constitutional right in all 50 states.  There are some that believe that this will be a major turning point for our nation.

July 15th to September 15th – A “realistic military training exercise” known as “Jade Helm” will be conducted by the U.S. Army.  More than 1,000 members of the U.S. military will take part in this exercise.  The list of states slated to be involved in these drills includes Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, California, Mississippi and Florida.

July 28th – On May 28th, Reuters reported that countries in the European Union were being given a two month deadline to enact “bail-in” legislation.  Any nation that does not have “bail-in” legislation in place by that time will face legal action from the European Commission.  So why is the European Union in such a rush to get this done?  Are the top dogs in the EU anticipating that another great financial crisis is about to erupt?

September 13th – This is Elul 29 on the Biblical calendar – the last day of the Shemitah year.  Many are concerned about this date because we have seen giant stock market crashes on the last day of the previous two Shemitah cycles.

On September 17th, 2001 (which was Elul 29 on the Biblical calendar), we witnessed the greatest one day stock market crash in U.S. history up until that time.  The Dow plummeted 684 points, and it was a record that held for exactly seven years until the end of the next Shemitah cycle.

On September 29th, 2008 (which was also Elul 29 on the Biblical calendar), the Dow fell by an astounding 777 points, which still today remains the greatest one day stock market crash of all time.

Now we are approaching the end of another Shemitah year.  So will the stock market crash on September 13th, 2015?  Well, no, because that day is a Sunday.  So I guarantee that the stock market will not crash on that particular day.  But as Jonathan Cahn has pointed out in his book on the Shemitah, sometimes stock market crashes happen just before the end of the Shemitah year and sometimes they happen within just a few weeks after the end of the Shemitah.  So we are not just looking at one particular date.

September 15th – The 70th session of the UN General Assembly begins on this date.  It is being reported that France plans to introduce a resolution which would give formal UN Security Council recognition to a Palestinian state.  Up until now, the United States has always been the one blocking such a resolution, but Barack Obama is indicating that things may be much different this time around.

September 25th to September 27th – The United Nations is going to launch a brand new sustainable development agenda for the entire planet.  Some have called this “Agenda 21 on steroids”.  But this new agenda is not just about the environment.  It also includes provisions regarding economics, agriculture, education and gender equality.  On September 25th, the Pope will travel to New York to give a major speech kicking off the UN conference where this new agenda will be unveiled.

September 28th – This is the date for the last of the four blood moons that fall on Biblical festival dates during 2014 and 2015.  This blood moon falls on the very first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, it will be a “supermoon”, and it will actually be visible in the city of Jerusalem.  There are many that dismiss the blood moon phenomenon, but we have seen similar patterns before.  For example, a similar pattern of eclipses happened just before and just after the destruction of the Jewish temple by the Romans in 70 AD.

Perhaps none of this alarms you.  But when you add everything above to the fact that the elite definitely appear to be feverishly preparing for something, a very alarming picture emerges.

For example, due to fears that a “natural disaster” could interrupt their operations in New York, the New York Fed has been working hard to build up a satellite office in Chicago.

What kind of “natural disaster” could possibly be so bad that it would cause the entire New York Fed to shut down?

And NORAD has decided to move back into the base deep inside Cheyenne Mountain after all these years.  The threat of an electromagnetic pulse was the reason given for this decision.

By themselves, perhaps those moves would not be that big of a deal.  But let’s add all of the weird movements of military vehicles and equipment that we have been witnessing lately to this discussion.  I included this list from Intellihub in a previous article, but I believe that it bears repeating…

• On March 13th, Intellihub founder Shepard Ambellas detailed photos and documentation of nearly 40 U.S. Army soldiers, wielding training rifles and dressed in full combat gear, participating in an urban warfare style training drill just outside the Texarkana Regional Airport perimeter.
• In the middle of April, a report out of Big Springs, Texas revealed that a train full of military equipment and over a dozen helicopters had arrived in the town ahead of Jade Helm 2015.
• Photographs taken in Corona, California a few days later added to the Jade Helm speculation after they showed a MRAP full of what looked to be U.S. Marines driving down the 1-15 freeway. “In broad daylight with not a care in the world”
• On April 24th a shocking report on Intellihub News detailed armed troops seen confronting angry protesters in a “professional news package”of riot control training released by the military
• “A massive buildup, a lot of movement and its undeniable at this point,” read the headline on April 25th after a convoy was seen in Oroville, California that stretched as far as the eye could see.
  
• Moving into May, photographs taken in Indiana showed a massive military convoy heading down the freeway. The photos, taken by a concerned citizen, show the convoy heading west on I-70 for reasons unknown.
• Two days later, video footage, this time out of Texarkana, Arkansas, highlighted a convoy of Humvees driving down the highway as well as a trainload of military vehicles that was seen shortly after.
• In mid May, Intellihub reporter Alex Thomas published a detailed report that confirmed that the military was indeed training to take on the American people, this time in the form of domestic house to house raids.
• The next day a new report, also by Alex Thomas, proved that Marines were actually practicing for the internment of American citizens.
• On May 18th, a train full of hundreds of military Humvees was spotted, further revealing the increased military buildup across the country leading into Jade Helm 2015. The train was heading towards Cleveland for unknown reasons although a possible connection to planned upcoming protests had been mentioned.
• This past week a massive military war game simulation called Raider Focus was announced. The war game will include the largest military convoy seen on the roads of Colorado since World War II.
• On may 23th, Intellihub News reported on pictures sent to ANP that show a 1/4 mile long military train convoy near the Colorado Wyoming border.
• Finally, a report published this week detailed a stunning propaganda move by the military involving a New Jersey school and the worship of the military on the streets of America. “As parents, teachers, and students looked on with joy, Marines from the Special-Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force landed helicopters on the baseball diamond of a New Jersey school.”

What does all of this mean?

It is hard to say.  We have imperfect information, so it is difficult to come up with perfect conclusions.

But what I will say is that I believe that the second half of 2015 is going to be extremely significant.  I believe that events are about to start accelerating greatly, and I believe that life in America is about to change dramatically.

So what do you think?  Please feel free to share your thoughts with all of us by posting a comment at

Endoftheamericandream.com

The retort – “I don’t talk about religion and politics” used to be said by most here in the good old U.S.A. when a person was approached with either subject. But today, many are beginning to find their tongue about these very important issues pertaining to life. A number of North Americans are finally beginning to wake up to see the disaster of turning their backs on Almighty God and letting subversives rule the country. Until now they were deceived by political leftists who used deceit, voter theft and intimidation to enable them to reach the very heights of government. Having achieved this goal they set out to alter our morals and laws.

These were for the most part adherents of the teachings of Saul Alinsky and Cloward – Piven, whose words were prevalent on college campuses during the mid to late sixties. These same people now rule the country! In so doing they’ve taken God and the Ten Commandments out of our schools and other institutions and no one objected. Now we are paying the price in lawlessness across the board. Pedophiles and homosexuals are imposing their perversions on us. Now they want to shoot poison into the hearts of the unborn instead of sucking out their brains in unrestrained abortions.

Saul Alinsky is the man who wrote “Rules for Radicals” in the mid-sixties. His most ardent followers were college students looking to make a name for themselves in the chaotic days of student unrest during the Vietnam War. Hillary Clinton was one of them and she wrote a thesis on this book and highly admired this evil man. There are many others who also rode this ideology into the very halls of political power through deceit, lies and intimidation. One of Saul Alinsky’s quotes was of a spiritual nature. It goes like this, “The first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom was Lucifer.” His writing consisted of how to win at all costs.

What Saul Alinsky is trying to say is that political radicals should usurp and destroy the ideals and laws instituted by our country’s founders by any and all means. The bible tells us that Lucifer is the originator of that lawless mindset and is a liar and the father of lies. He is also referred to as a murderer. Not only that, but he is full of pride and would have us be like him, arrogant and proud. This way of life leads to anarchy, sorrow and eventually to death. When we deny the authority of our heavenly creator we are doomed to failure in the end. Our country appears to be in its death throes because of this corrupt ideology.

Richard Cloward and Francis Fox Piven were students of Saul Alinsky and added to his work of promoting atheistic communism. When they were young and impressionable they thought they were doing a good thing for the working class people, but they were wrong and we are seeing the end result now. Many of today’s political leaders are followers of this erroneous and devious teaching and are diminishing our freedoms at an alarming rate, with no one trying to stop them. Even the pulpit remains silent about the issues that plague our nation, a nation that was founded on the word of God. However, we church goers can understand that they would lose their tax free status and therefore they have to navigate the prevalent politically correct waters with caution.

Not surprisingly, many Cubans and Russians who were formerly communists would say that communism is a very bad thing. As a matter of fact, they try desperately to escape that way of life in rickety boats and by any and all means, often at great peril. They know from experience that communism doesn’t work, except for the few who instigate and promote it. The moment communism is set in place the leaders of that movement begin to rule with an iron hand, exterminating any and all the dissenters. When communist “progressives” take over a government they eventually take over complete control of the country and oppress, vilify and assassinate those who stand against them.

While progressives want to rule the country through the tyranny, lies and deceit that Saul Alinsky taught, Islamists want us to comply with Sharia and the worship of Allah at the same time – in our own country! These two factions are determined to destroy our country and way of life, but there is a conundrum about these two forces that are out to destroy us. Progressives are using Islam and Islam is using progressives to achieve dominance, but only one of them will eventually win, and that is the Anti Christ.

Although we here in America have been duped by so-called progressives, and should Sharia be instituted across the land through this diabolical collaboration, these same progressives will be the first to be singled out for death by Muslim extremists! Homosexuals, feminists, Christians and Jews will face persecution like never before in the history of the world. Feminists will be stoned to death, homosexuals will be thrown off buildings and the silent Christians and Jewry will have their throats slit. This is the end result that we will be paying for not speaking out and standing up against these forces of evil.

If the country is toppled, then the only ones to gain anything are the people in high office. Their only obstacle will be Muslim extremists, but since so many of the Muslim Brotherhood have already infiltrated the U.S. government there will certainly be a battle as to who will be the supreme rulers of this country and the world. This will most certainly be Islam and the U.N. which is made up of Muslim nations, in collusion with them. Then the tribulation period will begin in earnest with all hell breaking loose.

Whatever you may think of Michael Savage, the outspoken Jewish talk radio host, he speaks the unadulterated truth when he fearlessly rails against the establishment. While Dr. Savage may not be a Christian, he certainly acts like one and will probably decide on becoming one in the near future. I, for one, would welcome the opportunity to talk to him about Yeshua Hamashia.

Another man who’s found his tongue is Franklin Graham, who in recent days is speaking out fearlessly against these evil entities. America needs hundreds if not thousands of fearless men to stand up and speak out.

Didn’t the old time evangelists like Billy Sunday and Billy Graham preach God’s truth perched on the proverbial “soap box?” We Christians are the salt of the earth and a light to the world. Maybe it’s time we all begin talking openly about religion and politics, which are important life and death matters.

By the way, I hope to do that very thing with my movie “The Prophecies”. A movie in which the American masses are asked to repent and seek God’s face before it’s too late to do anything except weep for our country and the terrible fate of mankind.

YBIC

Jim Torres “Towers”

 

(Editors Note. After reading the following article, I asked the same question, what is my/your church doing to help? How many Sunday’s have gone by in the last year as ISIS has systematically persecuted some of the oldest Christian communities in the world? Yet on Sunday, not a peep.  Follow the link and find out what more YOU can do)

In the spring of 2014, an organized militia set out to create a form of Islamic government known as a caliphate in the Middle East. As spring turned to summer, this Islamic State (ISIS) destroyed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Syrian Christians, Iraqi believers, Yazidis and various sects of Shia Muslims. Over 1 million were driven from their homes, and thousands of others were slaughtered or enslaved as this ruthless caliphate swept across Syria and Iraq.

Thousands upon thousands fled into the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq to places called Erbil and Dohuk. They took refuge in parks, stadiums, abandoned buildings, parking garages, shelters and tents. Months later, many of them continue to live in camps and refugee centers with little hope of ever returning home.

I have just returned from northern Iraq where I served with a Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief medical and children’s trauma team. The team was comprised of Dr. Tom Ashburn of Barbourville, Glenn Hickey of Monticello, Stacy Nall of Shelbyville, Pat Callan of Sparta, Debra Kramer of Henderson, Karen Smith of Shepherdsville, and myself, Coy Webb, Kentucky Baptist DR director. We spent nine days in northern Iraq seeking to bring help, healing and hope to those displaced by war and violence. As we ministered among the refugees, they only asked one thing of us, “Will you please tell our story to the world?”

Read the Story Here

Dozens of books have been written in recent years by liberal theologians in an attempt to demonstrate that homosexuality, homosexual relationships, and homosexual marriage are fully consistent with Biblical Christianity.  I have grown weary of reading that King David was a homosexual because he loved Jonathan, or that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of a lack of hospitality, or – my personal favorite – that the Bible never actually addresses the issue of homosexual behavior.

I would suggest that the fact that some of such foolishness comes from persons who once professed to be Christians is yet further evidence of the fact that the nation – indeed the world – is well along in the Biblically-foretold age of apostasy.  During such a period, we are warned about the prevalence of false teachers.  How can we tell whether a teacher is false?  Who can we rely on?  But for the fact that we have the Word of God, we would be adrift on such matters.

One ubiquitous question asked among Christians for a decade has been:  What Would Jesus Do?  A recent article by Dave Daubenmire thoughtfully addressed the topic:  Would Jesus Officiate at a Same Sex Marriage?  His article discusses how we can know, for certain, the answer to this question by studying exactly what His Father has revealed to us through the Holy Scriptures as to what He intended marriage to be.  If you do not believe that the Bible is the Word of God, this article may mean nothing to you.  But even if you don’t believe the Bible, I challenge you to read through it, so that you at least you can say you have heard the other side.

Before we address homosexual marriage it is imperative that we seek to know how the Definer of marriage identifies marriage.  We begin in Genesis 2:18-25, which states:

“Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.’ Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.’ For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

God is the one who said that it was not good for man to be alone.  So when He created a helper for man He created a woman – not another man.  God established monogamy as the pattern for marriage.  From Genesis 1:1, which reads, “In the beginning God … ,”  we know that the universe is not a chance happening.  God is intimately involved with our existence.  God putting His stamp on creation in a unique way creates man.  Genesis 1:26-28 states:

“Then God said, let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”

Man is created to have dominion over the earth.  Before family comes purpose.  The purpose was that mankind would have dominion. Remember, the fall of man has not occurred, yet.  Man is still in a perfect environment.  Genesis 1:31 reads, “And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”  When God created man, He created the capstone of His creation whose job it is to run His creation.

In Genesis 2:18 the woman comes on to the scene:  “Then the Lord God said, it is not good for man to be alone, I will make him a helper suitable for him.”  Woman was conceived in the mind of God, not Adam’s.  Please note that this is different than the creation of male and female animals.  Male and female animals were all created at the same time.  The first creation of man and woman occurred at different times.  I believe the reason why this happened is because male and female human beings were given the responsibility of dominion.  Animals were not.  Whenever you delegate dominion you necessarily have hierarchy.

Genesis 2:21 states, “So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place.”  Eve is created out of Adam.  So Adam is only half the man he used to be because he loses one side.  In order for him to become a whole man he has to get his rib back.  But his rib is now located in somebody else.  He can’t take the rib out of somebody else and put it back.  So in order to get his rib back he has to take hold of somebody else’s life, and make this somebody part of his life to get the rib back that he lost.  But getting his rib back means he gets another half he didn’t count on, because he not only gets his rib, he gets her rib, too.

That means, gentlemen, that what marriage does is bring back what you lost, with a bonus.  That is why she is different from you.  And, that means, ladies, if you are going to understand your rib, you have got to understand Adam because half of your ribs belong to him.  So in order for you to understand who you are, in the marriage relationship, you need to understand who he is, because half of what makes you who you are, is part of what makes him who he is.  So in order for both of you to become all that both of you were meant to be, both of you have to merge into each other.  If you don’t take from your mate their strengths you do not become all that you were created to be.

God performs the marriage ceremony and Adam says, in Genesis 2:23, “This is now …” (note he doesn’t say “she” is now). He says, “This is now … ,” meaning this new relationship. Ee is talking about marriage.  “This is now bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman because she was taken from man,” said Adam.  Adam names her.  He names her after himself.  His name in Hebrew is Eish.  The Hebrew word for woman is Eisha.  In the first marriage, she takes his name.  All Eve knows when she is created is that she is there.  She doesn’t know who she fully is until she receives his name.  That is why in marriage there is a transfer of names from the woman’s last name to the man’s last name, because she is now merged into another purpose.

The Six Purposes for Which God Created Marriage and Family

There are at least six purposes for which God create marriage and family.  The first reason for marriage is procreation: having babies.  The Bible makes grand statements about having babies, the more the merrier.  Why the big deal?  Remember God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply so that you will have dominion over the earth. The reason was not just to have people that looked like them. It had to do with the theology of dominion.  Dominion meant to reproduce yourself and spread out all over the earth, so that all over this planet there would be somebody ruling under God’s authority.  Mankind cannot perpetuate itself based on homosexual marriage.

Secondly, marriage is self-realization.  “Adam I will make a helpmate for you.”  As long as you are single, God is your completeness.  When it is time to marry, God is in the process of bringing someone along to fix up the rest of us to make us complete.  The reason Adam was given a wife was to complete him.  God doesn’t give you somebody just like you.  For if both of you are the same, then one of you would be unnecessary.  He gives someone who is different from you so that you can make up the differences, so that you can fulfill the complete purpose of God that He has ordained.

Thirdly, marriage is a divine Illustration.  You are a type of Christ in the church.  The Bible says that you are the bride and Christ is the bridegroom.  You are to illustrate a greater reality of God to His people.  So a bad marriage means a bad illustration. Ephesians 5:32 tells us that this is an illustration of the relationship of Christ.  Homosexual marriage is not a reflection of divine illustration.  In fact, one could make an argument that it borderlines on blasphemy.

Fourthly, marriage brings about companionship.  God created marriage for companionship.  Genesis 2:18 states, “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone.’”  There is a great blessing in sharing life with the one you love – your companion.  God created Adam and Eve when He declared that it was not good for man to be alone.

Fifthly, marriage brings enjoyment.  God created sex for enjoyment, in the context of marriage.  I Corinthians 7:5 says, “Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” Outside of the context of heterosexual marriage there might be “pleasure for a season,” (Hebrews 11:25) but there can be no true, lasting enjoyment.

Sixthly, marriage is for protection.  God desires a godly seed.  Malachi 2:15 reads, “But not one has done so who has a remnant of the Spirit. And what did that one do while he was seeking a godly offspring? Take heed then to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of your youth.”  God knows that marriage provides protection for the family.

But we now live in a lost and fallen world.  And America is not exempt from this broken world.  In fact, there are many reasons to believe that America, far from being an example for the nations, is now leading the nations in the wrong direction.  A recent article on systemic corruption in America is an eye-opening compendium of the near complete fallenness of government, corporations and the people.

The Book of Romans gives us a description of the end-times society when Jesus will return and God will pour out His wrath, beginning with Chapter 1: “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise they became fools.”  I have seen men with degrees, piled on top of degrees that get up and say how you and I evolved from monkeys.  Maybe they did, but I sure didn’t!  Some of the greatest intellectual minds of the universe talk about how we evolved from a single cell protoplasmic blob!  That is beyond the comprehension of the mind.  If you saw a Boeing 747 flying across the sky, wouldn’t you assume that because it could fly, it can carry people, its seats are placed in rows, and that it can do all the things it can do; wouldn’t you assume that somebody thought it up, and somebody put it together?  Certainly you would not conclude that it was the accidental product of a tornado blowing through a junkyard.  Yet, the same mind can look in the sky and see a bird fly by and say, “product of chance.”

“And they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures,” reads Romans.  They worshiped the creature rather than the Creator.  We have the worship of the creature going on around us on a global scale.  Then look what happened – here is the tragic payoff. Romans continues:

“Therefore God gave them over in the lust of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever, Amen.”

Now look what God did, because they worshiped the creature rather than the Creator, God steps back.  It is as if God has parameters, or limits, as to how far evil can go.  He says that evil can only go so far.  But, God says if you are going to knock against those limits, and if you knock against them long enough I am going to step back.  I will let you foul your own nest and if you want to live like a pagan, you can.  When He steps back what happened?  There was an outbreak of immorality.  Does that sound familiar?

“For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way the men abandoned that natural function of the woman and burned in their desire towards one another, men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own person the due penalty of their error,” continues Romans.  God says if you are going to live like that I am going to step back.  What happens?  An outbreak of sexual immorality begins.  It culminates in an outbreak of homosexuality.  We are there!  We have arrived!

“And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,” says Romans.  When God steps back there is an outbreak of immorality.  When we continue to push up against those limits God will step back again, and there is an outbreak of homosexuality.  When we continue to push those limits, God steps back again and turns us over to a depraved mind, “to do those things which are not proper.”  It is a time when lawlessness begins to rule and mankind does not have any standards by which to live by.  Paul finishes the chapter by listing signs of depravity:

“being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”

With all the attention given to homosexuality in the media, it is no wonder that Gallup recently found that the American public estimates that 23 percent of Americans are gay or lesbian, while the actual number Gallup finds to be 3.8 percent.  And the Williams Institute finds a total of 390,000 married same-sex couples.  However, regardless of the number of homosexuals in America, the definition of marriage is not decided by plebiscite.  God has defined marriage as between one man and one woman.  If a man and a man or a woman and a woman desire to be together, that is not marriage.  Marriage has been defined from the beginning, by the One who created us male and female.

Most people know the story of Jonah: he was a prophet whom God told to go to Nineveh and preach a message of repentance.  Nineveh was the capitol of Assyria which was located 550 miles Northeast of Israel.  But Jonah decides he would go to Tarshish, which was 2,500 miles to the Northwest.  Jonah is a renegade preacher who does not want to do what God called him to do.  In his rebellion, he is tossed overboard of a ship and is swallowed by a big fish.  He was there three days and three nights and was regurgitated on to dry land.

After Jonah goes on the first submarine ride in history, he agrees to do what God asked him to do.  Jonah goes to Nineveh and preaches to the city, and in one day the entire city repents. Jonah 3:5-9 reads:

“Then the people of Nineveh believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. He issued a proclamation and it said, ‘In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flocks taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. ⁸’ But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. ‘Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.’”

Notice this about the people of Nineveh.  Conversion changed the political environment of Nineveh.  It didn’t happen because they made better laws, hired more policemen, or provided more arms for the people to reduce the violence.  The violence was removed because the people met a living God.  The thing that changes people and brings about peace to an environment is when men repent before a living God.  Nineveh still had the same King, the same Congress, the same Supreme Court, and the same city Council.  The difference now was there was a heart transformation, and that translated into actions and behavior.  That is the only thing that will help America change.  When the people of America, leaders of America, and Supreme Court Justices of America encounter the Living God who has the power to forgive, and to transform our hearts, then we will see a new America.  It doesn’t matter who is in public office; it matters if their hearts are committed to the Living God.

Dr. James Taylor, Senior Pastor at Christ’s Church of Norman in Norman, Oklahoma. http://www.ccnonline.biz. He is the author of the forthcoming book “It’s Biblical, Not Political: How to Line Candidates up Biblically.”

When you try to share what you know of the salvation message, some people try to tell you how good they are. They claim to protect animals and the environment. Atheists and agnostics try to tell you their lives are beyond reproach. They’ve never killed anyone and hardly ever lie. How was that again?! Liberals, atheists and agnostics lie all the time. The Holy Scriptures say, “Although all men are liars, God is not.”

Seldom, if ever, do atheists and agnostics actually do any societal good, especially for their fellow human beings. Instead, they try to stir up strife wherever they go. They need to have a cause, no matter how outrageous, in trying to appear righteous. They seldom, if ever, donate time or money to humanitarian endeavors, yet they are always condemning Christians who do.

The whole world knows that Christians do more good throughout the world than any and all groups of people combined, Hindus, Muslims and all the rest. If Christian relief organizations were to be numbered on a list, the names of them all would run off the edge and continue down the street. All around the world people count on Christians for relief and health management, especially after a natural disaster. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and thy neighbor as thyself.”

The ACLU is renowned for doing some good, even though they are an atheistic organization, but the bad things they advocate far outweigh the good. They have just won the right for homosexuals to be Boy Scout leaders! We all know what we can expect to happen to innocent boys just coming into puberty. Many will be raped – you can bet on it! Without self control they can’t help themselves.

Homosexuality is a choice, and like drugs it is a habit that won’t let you go easily. I can say this with authority because in my street ministry I’ve had two different men cry on my shoulder about their plight. All I could do was pray for them. Sexual pleasure can be highly addictive and can be a killer as well, yet some of the more hard core perverts demand we let them teach our children their wicked way of life.

Another glaring example of the ACLU agenda is Roe vs. Wade. While a woman’s life should be protected from certain death, it is unreal to believe that every woman who asks for an abortion is in a life and death crisis. More than likely they just want to remedy the mistake they made while being promiscuous. The percentages tell the story. The choice to kill an innocent infant is just plain evil. Thousands upon thousands of infants die needlessly because of this Godless aberration. God can’t be pleased at what Americans are doing with His greatest gift – children. If these people had their way no one would have been born after that law was put in place.

I would say to Bill Maher, Jon Stewart and other Godless clowns, don’t try and foist your twisted rationale on the Godly (those who believe in the God of heaven and earth). We are happy knowing the Father of Creation and His Son Christ Jesus. We have peace of mind and a hope for the future. Bill and Jon would have us swallow their mindless chatter; with them laughing all the way to the bank while treading on holy ground.

So where do these atheists, agnostics and the indifferent go when life seems to be falling apart? Who do they call on when they are down and out or when they’ve lost a loved one? The truth is, they have no hope and nowhere to go. They’ve made the fatal mistake of not believing in the God of the Bible, in spite of all the tangible evidence surrounding us. That’s a very bad choice.

The place to find Him is in the Holy Bible. There is no other book in the whole world like it. It tells us the beginning from the end, and of the consequences we must pay for ignoring the words of the Master of the universe. We have to pity atheists and agnostics for their ignorance, even though ignorance is their very own tragic choice. Atheists and agnostics must begin taking the God of heaven and earth seriously before it’s too late. Time is running out.

God in his goodness gives us the freedom of choice. What is your choice? Will you believe in Him and his Son Christ Jesus, or scoff and reject what the Bible says about them.

“It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear the second time, apart from sin, for salvation.” Amen.

By the way,

The movie “San Andreas” is playing everywhere and is a block buster. It is about the infamous San Andreas fault line that runs along the Sierra Madre mountains. A massive earthquake opens that fault line and California is decimated. The movie is a thriller.

Surprisingly, my screenplay “The Prophecies” begins and ends with that same scenario, but it is not the main thrust of the movie. The major thrust of this movie is repentance toward God in this true to life thriller. News clips of devastation and chaos from around the world intertwine throughout the story line indicating that biblical prophecy is being fulfilled today like never before. The message is that America needs to repent and seek God’s face before the fearful tribulation period arrives to test all men.

I will soon be on the crowd funding site indiegogo to seek funding for my movie “The Prophecies”.

YBIC

Jim Torres “Towers”

Coming from a Jewish family, I experienced what most Jews do when they meet Jesus Christ, and realize that He is indeed the Messiah. We are ostracized by our families, and it’s as if we are dead to those who once loved us. The Lord warned that this would happen:

“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.” (Matthew 10:34-36)

In my walk with Jesus, there have been wonderful times, and there have been deep valleys. But with each step, I know that He is with me and that He will never leave me. That is the joy that we have abiding in our hearts. Joy and happiness are so different. Happiness depends on what is happening. Joy stays forever for those of us who love and walk with Jesus. Joy knows tears as well as the brightest of smiles. Joy knows wondrous days, but joy also knows and stays with the child of God, sitting up in the night, because they are afraid of dreadful things happening around them. Joy is knowing that He is holding us at all times.

The news of my husband being struck with cancer has traveled around our neighborhood. I’m not one of the popular ladies on my street. Most people will say hi, but Tim and I are not invited to get-togethers. People know that we are Christians, and I’ve heard in the past that some people refer to me as the Jesus freak lady. If they only knew how much I love that label! But it is times like this that I would love to have a friend close by; you know, just to share and chat with — ladies love to talk!

There is a family who lives directly behind us. They have beautiful dogs, and our dogs love them. They come to greet each other at the fence; but not so with the people. There were years that have gone by where not a word was spoken. It was very uncomfortable. I would pray to the Lord so much to please show me what to do — should I make an attempt to break the ice? I never heard Him answer that, but I did feel Him urging me to pray for them.

Today, I went outside to water the plants. I heard the woman call my name. I turned to look at her, and she said “Geri, how is Tim?” I broke down in tears as I walked to the fence. She put her arms around me and said “Life is so hard.” I agreed with her about that, but then the words that came out of her mouth so astounded and thrilled me, I could have jumped for joy!

She told me that she and her husband had rededicated their lives to Christ. She said that they had been going through the most horrible of times, and that she even considered leaving him. We talked for over an hour, sharing how good God is, and how we couldn’t imagine living without Him. I felt the presence of God all around us. All the years that had gone by; it was a precious gift from Him. He gave me a new sister in Christ at a time when He knew I needed one. He never ceases to amaze me!

“But thou, O Lord, [art] a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.” (Psalm 86:15)

For a few weeks I have been thinking how nice it would be to have a ladies Bible study in our home. With the beautiful weather finally here, I’ve imagined holding it in our screened porch. But then I would think —who would come? During the joyful conversation with my new sister, I talked about wanting to hold the Bible study, and she said she would come! I knew then that the Holy Spirit had put that thought in my mind about the Bible Study. He knows all things. He knows our beginning to our end.

“For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139: 14-17)

One thing I have not spoken of in this piece is that many years ago, before the years of silence, I shared the Gospel with my neighbor. Back then, we would call one another, and we had a pretty good relationship. She told me that she and her husband went to a Christian club together in high school. That opened the door for me to speak about my relationship with Christ. It was soon after that, the talking ceased. I heard the whispers of the evil one, telling me “You ruined the friendship — you should have kept your mouth shut!” But he is a liar, and the father of them. God was completely in control — He always is.

So, I wanted to share this with others. I want to encourage you to do what is right, and don’t listen to the devil, no matter what happens. Trust in God and pray always. He loves to hear us talking to Him! Don’t fear rejection when you want to tell someone about Jesus. Remember that your words are seeds, and God is the one who brings in the harvest. We are His vessels. Isn’t that amazing? The Creator of the Universe, who is also our Father, wants to use us to bring others to know Him. That is glorious!

“Blessed be the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him. The Lord is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed. Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up forever.” (Psalm 28: 6-9)

Shalom b’Yeshua.

MARANATHA!!

grandmageri422@gmail.com

By Geri Ungurean

The fall of Damascus and Baghdad, or large slices thereof, into the rapacious hands of the Islamic State, is no longer a debatable subject of strategic forecasts. Today, the capital cities of Syria and Iraq are within the Islamists’ grasp. The Middle East is about to pay the price for President Barack Obama’s single-minded obsession with a US détente with Tehran and a nuclear accord. It is the end product of Washington’s insistence on playing down ISIS as a formidable opponent and contention that the meager US-led coalition air campaign destroyed much of its operational capabilities, which proved to be an illusion. Equally fallacious was Obama’s trust in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and its terrorist arm, the Al Qods Brigades, to curtail the Islamist momentum.

Washington’s trust has since faded. Tehran too has cooled to the idea.
In March, a group of Iraqi Shiite militias commanded by Al Qods chief Gen. Qassem Soleimani, managed to snatch parts of the Sunni Iraqi town of Tikrit from Islamist grasp. That was Iran’s first and last engagement against ISIS in Iraq. After that, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei decided to pull back from engaging Sunni Muslims in an overt sectarian showdown. It was clear to him, that the battlefield was not Iran’s forte, but rather subversion, clandestine warfare and limited support for local Shiite surrogates.

As the Islamists advanced, therefore, Tehran cut back on further military intervention in Syria and Iraq and turned instead to Yemen and the Houthi rebellion as its vehicle. This is a smaller arena, which is no less strategically valuable than Iraq and Syria, thanks to its command of the globally important Gulf of Aden and the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb to world shipping.

Khamenei also saw the US president had little appetite for fighting the Islamic State. He concluded that Tehran would be better off saving the Iranian army and Revolutionary Guards forces for defending its borders against potential ISIS assault from neighboring Iraq, instead of wearing them down in Iraq and Syria.

The Iranian leader also decided that if the United States could only afford a very minor-key air campaign against the Islamist terrorists, Iran’s air force should not be called on for a greater effort.

All these circumstances combined to tip America over into the heart of the fiercely burning Middle sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shiites. Washington’s latest plan to send arms to Iraqis of both sects who are ready to defend Baghdad looks like a certain recipe for stoking the sectarian fire, or even pushing ISIS into an offensive to seize the city.

The Islamists have until now held back from an all-out offensive to capture Baghdad for a variety of tactical considerations. A city of this size is a bit too large for the Islamists to swallow, hold and administer. It suits the jihadists better to hold the town to siege and under constant terrorist harassment.

The most knowledgeable sources in the region can’t explain what part the US Central Command is playing as a military factor in any of these conflicts – in particular, Gen. John Allen, whom Obama last year named Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS. Some account for their low-to-vanishing profile by their having been preoccupied in preparing a grand campaign for the recovery of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, which is under ISIS rule.

Today, this plan looks like a pipe dream. ISIS has caused a Middle East earthquake after another by capturing Ramadi in Iraq and Palmyra in Syria in a matter of days. Their alarmed neighbors in Jerusalem, Amman and Riyadh have been forced to conclude that their borders are in danger – not just from Iran, but also from ISIS, and they will have to confront these perils on their own.

Source Debka File

Pete does an awesome job laying out the meaning of “This Generation“.  Furthermore, this can be easily used to help spread the Gospel as we see the time approaching.  It should fire up a sense in urgency in all of us.

Pete Garcia

The time of the end has been one of the most controversial, debated, and often divisive topics within Christendom.  It would seem that as soon as Christ ascended, Christians began arguing about when He would return.  So why is it important for us to even care about when Christ will return?  Isn’t He going to return, when He returns?

Given the numerous positions and all the confusion of when and how He will return, a proper understanding eliminates certain positions which have been promulgated throughout the centuries, which both destroy the faith of many, and are counter to what the Scripture actually teaches.  Clearly, we have only one Bible.  Contained on the pages therein, lies one consistent message about when Christ would return.  What everyone is divided over then, is how to interpret the Bible.  Some say allegorically (i.e.…you can’t take it literally), and others, take it literally (you take it for what it says).

In the end, only one eschatological (end times) view can play out.  Opposing views about when and how Christ returns cannot be weighted equally, because they do not all possess either the historical facts or consistent theological message which qualifies and quantifies their particular interpretations.  The only logically, scripturally consistent method of interpretation, is to take the text for what it says.  If one were reading a medical book, or newspaper, one would take it at face value…so why can’t we apply that same level of interpretive application to God’s word?  The same God who spoke the very universe into being, is the same one who inspired the prophets and apostles to write the very words we read.  And if the naturalistic world can be understood down to the very fabric of our being (DNA), why do we arbitrarily apply some mystical level of interpretation to what the text clearly say?

If taking the text literally seems nonsensical, then we must take the text in its proper context.  Many Christian’s almost seem antagonistic to the idea that Christ would return at all.  So let us look at one controversial passage that deals with the timing of Christ’s return and see how only one interpretation can actually fit it, given the screening parameters of history, scriptural consistency, and context.

“Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.  Matt. 24:32-35.

“Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that it is near—at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.  Mark 13:28-31

Then He spoke to them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. Luke 21:29-33

Since this was a parable (story meant to convey a deeper truth), we know that Christ was using this as a teaching tool to convey a truth about the timing of His return that would resonate with everyone.  In other words, like the sower and seed, yeast spreading through dough, master journeying on a long journey, and all the other parables Christ used to convey truths, He chooses here the fig tree, which both has historical linkages to the nation of Israel, and would be something that everyone would understand and relate too, even Gentiles.

Jesus is not speaking to all His disciples, but only to those who came to Him privately (Mark 13:3-4) to inquire about what He meant when He said that not one stone would be left atop the other of Herod’s temple.  And since Christ was speaking, we know that it is impossible for Him to lie.  Nor was Christ being elusive about this particular topic.  He was both stating when it would occur and what the conditions would be surrounding His return, which is what makes up the bulk of the Olivet Discourse.  Given that preface, we can only come to four possible conclusions about this particular passage:

1.  If this generation meant the people of Israel as an ethnic group, then the people of Israel should not exist today.  He stated ‘this generation would not pass away until’, and for those who believe in an AD70 Second Coming (primarily Preterists), that would mean that once the Romans under General Titus Vespasian conquered and decimated Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and scattered the remaining Jews out of Judah, there should not exist Jewish people today or a nation of Israel.  Clearly, the Nazi Holocaust says otherwise. This generation cannot be referring to an ethnic group.

2.  If this generation meant that it found fulfillment in the destruction of Jerusalem, how is that redemptive? (Luke 21:28)  In other words, if the parable of the Fig Tree found fulfillment in the destruction of Jerusalem, how is that something the Apostles could both look forward to and somehow find redemption in?  How does God glory in the destruction of the ‘apple of His eye’?  (Zech. 2:7-9)  Although the Olivet Discourse (primarily Luke’s account) mentions AD70’s destruction of Jerusalem, it was by no means an act of redemption.  This generation cannot be referring simply to the events surrounding AD70.

3.  If this generation meant Christ would return to that generation He was physically speaking there to on the Mount of Olives, then He was wrong when He said that He didn’t know when He would return (Matt. 24:32; Mark 13:32), because He would have known that He would return in their lifetimes.   Christ stated He did not know, and knowing that Christ did not give up any of His Deity when becoming a man, but rather, gave up the privileges of being Deity, which include surrendering to the will of the Father, the timing concerning His return.  Subsequently, if this generation meant ‘that generation sitting there with Him on the Mt. of Olives, how could it apply to them considering Luke 21:24?  And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

And how could that generation, if it was to the one He was physically speaking too, live to see this transpire, considering that Jerusalem was in Gentile hands for the better part of 2,000 years?  They couldn’t, which by very basic deductions (remove all other choices), means that either the Jews in Israel now aren’t really Jews, Israel isn’t really Israel, or that Scripture has been fulfilled with the rebirth of the nation of Israel after 1,900 years of diaspora.  The parameters of the diaspora were laid out by Moses in Deuteronomy 30:1-5, the prophet Amos in Amos 9:15, and the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 37.  This being a second, global re-gathering of Jews, from the four corners of the earth, in unbelief.  So clearly, this generation could not only be referring to those alive in the first century.

4.  This generation, is speaking to that future generation who would live to see all the events come to pass, as explained in the Olivet Discourse.  These events would in birth pang fashion, find their prophetic fulfillment culmination (or crescendo) in one, single generation.  These are those who would see all the things that Christ spoke about, which means this generation who live to see all the events, can be the only logical, biblical and historical conclusion.

Assessment

Given what we know of history, we know that the events that are laid out in the Olivet Discourse, have not yet fully come to pass.  Yes, Jerusalem was conquered and destroyed by the Romans in AD70.  Yes, false messiahs have come claiming to be “the” Christ.  Yes, there have been wars, and rumors of wars.  Yes, there have been earthquakes and divers places, as well as pestilences and signs in the heavens.  What can’t be, is that ALL of those things, took place as birth pangs, meaning there would by necessity, be a slow escalation leading up to a faster and more intense escalation, all in forty years.

While scoffers, both religious and non, like to point out that every generation thought they were the last one.  I would counter to them, to which generation saw the rebirth of the nation Israel?  Which generation saw the assimilation of Europe back together as a single entity?  Which generation has seen technological advancement move from the speed of horse, to the speed of sound?  Which generation has seen massive World Wars, unparalleled in human history?  Which generation has seen civilization create instantaneous, global communications?  Which generation has created a virtual reality that has literally taken over every facet of our existence?  This same virtual reality is also able to monitor and record everything we say or do, as well as everything we buy or sell?  Which other generation has seen morality turned on its head?  Which other generation has seen the rise of violent, completely anti-Christian religions on a scale unmatched in human history?  Which generation has seen the population reach back over seven billion?  Which generation has given birth to the reality of artificial intelligence?

Which generation has seen all of these happen at the same time?

This generation.

Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” Luke 21:28

 

Courtesy of The Omega Letter

Pete’s bio is found here. Omega Letter Bio