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Prophecy News Watch Newsletter
Biblical Prophecy In The News
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Keeping You Informed of World Events From A Biblical Perspective

Prophetic Trends & Headline News

1. Where is the United States in Prophecy?

Three major US naval strike forces due this week in Persian Gulf
DEBKAfile’s military sources note that the arrival of the three new American flotillas will raise to five the number of US strike forces in Middle East waters – an unprecedented build-up since the crisis erupted over Iran’s nuclear program. This vast naval and air strength consists of more than 40 carriers, warships and submarines, some of the last nuclear-armed, opposite the Islamic Republic, a concentration last seen just before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Our military sources postulate five objects of this show of American muscle: 1. The US, aided also by France, Britain and Canada, is finalizing preparations for a partial naval blockade to deny Iran imports of benzene and other refined oil products. This action would indicate that the Bush administration had thrown in the towel on stiff United Nations sanctions and decided to take matters in its own hands. 2. Iran, which imports 40 percent of its refined fuel products from Gulf neighbors, will retaliate for the embargo by shutting the Strait of Hormuz oil route chokepoint, in which case the US naval and air force stand ready to reopen the Strait and fight back any Iranian attempt to break through the blockade. 3. Washington is deploying forces as back-up for a possible Israeli military attack on Iran’s nuclear installations. 4. A potential rush of events in which a US-led blockade, Israeli attack and Iranian reprisals pile up in a very short time and precipitate a major military crisis. 5. While a massive deployment of this nature calls for long planning, its occurrence at this time cannot be divorced from the flare-up of the Caucasian war between Russia and Georgia. While Russia has strengthened its stake in Caspian oil resources by its overwhelming military intervention against Georgia, the Americans are investing might in defending the primary Persian Gulf oil sources of the West and the Far East............... read more

U.S. Cities Would be Locked Down, Quarantined Under Pandemic Flu Response Plan
The federal government would need to quarantine infected households and ban public gatherings to contain pandemic flu, according to a computer simulation study conducted by researchers from Virginia Tech and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "You wouldn't go out to the movies. You wouldn't congregate with people," said researcher Stephen Eubank. "You'd pretty much be staying home with the doors and windows battened down." The consensus among health experts is that a pandemic, or global epidemic, of influenza is inevitable. The last such pandemic, in 1918, killed between 40 and 100 million people. Because of the belief that a pandemic cannot be avoided, researchers are instead looking into ways to limit its effects. In the current study, researchers used a computer to model the hypothetical spread of flu pandemic in the city of Chicago under various containment scenarios. They found that a vigorous early response could reduce the infection rate by 80 percent. Under the containment scenario, people infected with or exposed to the disease would be confined to their homes, and schools and day-care centers would be shut down, as would places of public gathering like bars, restaurants and theaters. Offices and factories would remain open but would operate at reduced capacity due to quarantines. The extreme measures would need to continue for months, until a vaccine was developed........... read more


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2. Israel - God's Timepiece

Israel adopts U.S. plan to split nation into 2
A detailed proposal for the creation of a Palestinian state that reportedly was presented by Israel to the Palestinian Authority in recent weeks was heavily influenced by the U.S. and is largely based on an American-drafted plan, WND has learned. Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported yesterday Prime Minister Ehud Olmert handed to PA President Mahmoud Abbas a plan for an Israeli withdrawal from most of the strategic West Bank and for parts of the Israeli Negev desert – Israeli territory undisputed by the international community – to become part of a Palestinian state. WND last week quoted a top Palestinian official stating Olmert told the PA he intends to accelerate negotiations the next few weeks to reach a deal on paper outlining a Palestinian state before he steps down from office next month. The Haaretz report says the deal, confirmed by diplomatic sources speaking to WND, was rejected last night by the Palestinians unless certain key modifications were made. The proposal calls for Israel to evacuate 93 percent of the West Bank, while the Palestinians would receive territory equivalent to 5.5 percent of the West Bank, located in the Israeli Negev desert. The plan grants the Palestinians passage between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on territory that would be jointly patrolled by Israel and the PA. The passageway would give the Palestinians access to areas close to central Israeli population centers............. read more

Temple Institute enlisting hundreds of teens for advancement of Third Temple
Mourning over the destruction of Jerusalem is normal in the month of Av, but at the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faith Movement all focus is on the “big day” - the day in which the Third Temple will be built. As part of the preparations, hundreds of teenagers are expected to sign the “Temple Treaty” and to proclaim, “We commit to doing everything in our power to abide by this commandment and to devote at least half an hour a week toward this effort.” In the youth conference conducted by the Temple Institute in the Old City of Jerusalem, scheduled for Thursday, participants will discuss possible plans of action to further the building of the Temple. Under the title, “Building the Temple, it’s in Our Hands,” lessons will be given by rabbis identified with the Temple and for the first time ever, a treaty pertaining to the necessity of building the Temple will be revealed. “God commanded us in his Torah, ‘build me a Temple and I shall dwell amongst you',” as written in the document, “All of Israel must do everything they can to obey this commandment...” In a conversation with Ynet, Temple Institute Director Rabbi Yehuda Glick vowed that this is the first event in a series that will institutionalize and widen youth activities.. ............. read more

Barak vows to hit 'deep in Lebanon' if Hizbullah attacks
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak pledged "very tough" Israeli retaliation to any attack by Hizbullah, vowing to target areas "deep in Lebanon" Lebanese daily An-Nahar reported this week. Barak warned against an "intimate relation" between Hizbullah and Syria saying it could lead into distorting the balance of power in Lebanon, "which would lead Israel to retaliate." Meanwhile, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Thursday that Israel will hold Lebanon responsible for any attacks against Israel, in particular for any Hizbullah efforts to avenge the murder of its top military commander Imad Mughniyeh. "This decision on Wednesday by the security Cabinet represents a change in Israeli policy, after always firmly separating Hizbullah and the Lebanese government," it reported. According to defense establishment recommendations adopted by the security cabinet, Israel will treat the Lebanese unity government, which is headed by Fouad Siniora and includes Hizbullah, "as responsible for any event that takes place in its sovereign territory or events for which Lebanese nationals are responsible." ............. read more

Israel loses Druze allies in Lebannon as Jumblatt signs pact with pro-Iranian Hizballah
The fervently pro-US, pro-Israeli Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt, has decided to hold out no longer. He has thrown in his lot with the most extreme pro-Syrian, pro-Iranian, anti-Israel force in Lebanon, the Shiite Hizballah, which has gained veto power over the government in Beirut unopposed. DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources disclose that over last weekend, Jumblatt quietly signed a “defense cooperation pact” with Hassan Nasrallah, affording Hizballah a strong foothold in the Lebanese Druze bastion of Mt. Chouf. Drawing the hostile noose around northern Israel ever tighter, Lebanese president Michel Sleiman was due in Damascus Wednesday, Aug. 13, to celebrate the thaw in relations between the two countries. Neither Israeli ministers, sunk in an acrimonious contest over the succession to Ehud Olmert, nor the United States in the dying days of the Bush presidency, have lifted a finger to arrest Lebanon’s swift slide into the Iranian-Syrian orbit. Jumblatt, after watching pro-Western strategic positions crumble in his country, decided to join forces with Hizballah to shield his ancestral mountain domain from Syrian domination. The Druze and Hizballah militias agreed to set up a joint commission for coordinating military operations. The joint security patrols for the Druze communities of the Chouf, will also give Hizballah a military presence on its third strategic Lebanese peak, after Mt. Sannine and Jebel Barukh............... read more

Security and Defense: In advance
The missile barrage is launched simultaneously in three countries. Scud Cs from Syria, Shihab-3s from Iran and shorter-range Zelzals from Lebanon. As alarms sound, air force officers huddle in front of their large plasma computer screens, wipe the sweat off their brows, clear their throats and get to work. In the "cube" - the heavily fortified Arrow missile defense command center in the Palmahim Air Force Base - a young lieutenant punches a series of buttons on his keyboard, to identify the incoming threats. He then rattles them off to the rest of the room. "There is a launch in the East," he says, as the letters ENG - standing for the Shihab-3's engine - pop up on his screen, accompanied by a "bleep." "And another one from Syria," he adds, as a second bleep sounds, and the letters SD appear - standing for Scud D, Syria's largest ballistic missile. Across the cube - officially called the Citron Tree - another junior officer watches a satellite image pop up on his screen, with an arrow pointing at the incoming missile's projected landing site. One missile is headed toward Petah Tikva, three others toward Jerusalem and two toward Dimona, home to the country's nuclear reactor. These images are transmitted directly to the IDF Home Front Command, which immediately sets off air-raid sirens and dispatches rescue workers to the projected sites. After 10 enemy missiles are in the air, quickly picking up speed as they hone in on their targets, a row of officers on another side of the room hit the F2 buttons on their keyboards, launching close to two dozen Arrow 2 interceptors from Palmahim, and another battery deployed at Ein Shemer in the North. THIS SCENARIO - simulated Tuesday at Palmahim - is one of the IDF's worst nightmares: a simultaneous Iranian and Syrian missile barrage, possibly carrying nuclear or non-conventional warheads, and all heading toward Israel, with only minutes to be intercepted. While the Home Front Command is prepared to deal with a potential missile fallout, the country is banking on the Arrow to prevent that from being necessary. ............... read more

Analysis: Subtly and determinedly, Syria is taking over Lebanon
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman is to visit Syria next week, to discuss the opening of diplomatic relations between the countries, a Lebanese official told reporters this week. The signs of normalization in relations between Syria and Lebanon are significant. They are the latest indication of Syria's growing confidence, and far from being a harbinger of more peaceful times in the neighborhood, they offer clues as to the shape of possible further strife. The formation of the new Lebanese government after the Beirut clashes in May represented a very significant gain for the pro-Syria element in Lebanese politics. Hizbullah now controls a blocking 11 of the 30 cabinet seats. With a Lebanese government of this type, there is no reason for Syria to be in dispute there. The short period when Damascus felt the need to express its will in Lebanon solely in a clandestine way is drawing to a close. Behind Assad's honeyed words, one may glimpse the contours of Syrian strategy in the next stage. The election of May 2009 will be conducted under the shadow of Hizbullah's independent and now untouchable military capability. Such a government would mark the effective final reversal of the events of the spring of 2005, when the Cedar Revolution compelled the Syrian army to leave Lebanon. Damascus would then go on to conduct friendly and fraternal relations with the new order in Beirut. Mission accomplished. If this strategy plays out, however, it will represent not the normalization of Syrian-Lebanese relations, but rather the enveloping of Lebanon into the regional alliance led by Iran, of which Syria is a senior member. .............. read more


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4. The Gog/Magog War

Is Georgia payback for Kosovo?
Tiny Georgia with an army of less than 18,000, having been roundly defeated in South Ossetia, cannot hope to withstand the mighty Russian army in Abkhazia either. Therefore, President Saakashvili, whose bid to join NATO and the European Union infuriated Moscow, will have to write off both breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as lost to Russia. This is Moscow's payback for the US-NATO action to detach Kosovo from Serbia and launch it on the way to independence. It is also a warning to former Soviet bloc nations, Ukraine, the Caucasian and Central Asian peoples against opting to join up with the United States and the NATO bloc in areas which Moscow deems part of its strategic sphere of influence After severing South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia, five follow-up Russian steps may be postulated: 1. The two separatist provinces will proclaim their independence, just like Kosovo. 2. Russia will continue to exercise its overwhelming military and air might to reduce the pro-American Saakashvili to capitulation. 3. The Georgian president will not be able to face his own nation after losing two regions of his country and causing its humiliation. Moscow will then make Washington swallow a pro-Russian successor. 4. Moscow’s trampling of Georgia will serve as an object lesson for Russia’s own secessionist provinces, such as Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, and a warning not to risk defying Russian armed might. 5. Western plans to develop more oil and gas pipelines to bypass the Russian network to the West, in addition to the Caspian line which carries one million barrels a day from Baku through Georgia to Turkey and out to the West, will be held in abeyance pending an accommodation with the rulers of the Kremlin................ read more


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5. Apostate Christianity

New Indian Bible Draws Fire over Hindu References
A new Indian version of the Bible recently, published by the Catholic Church, has run into controversy over its inclusion of verses from the Bhagavad Gita, a form of Hindu chant, and references to the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. An illustration in the new version, New Community Bible, depicts Jesus, Mary and Joseph as poor Indian villagers. Mary wears a simple sari and has a bindi on her forehead alongside Joseph in a turban and loincloth. According to the 30 Indian biblical scholars who worked for more than 15 years on the new edition, the Bible draws on "the rich cultural and religious heritage of India." Although approved by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India and published by the Society of St. Paul, the Bible met the disapproval of Protestants and other Christian groups, who believe it diverts from biblical truth. Pastor Vijay Thomas, who heads a Bible college in Chennai, told Christian Today, “By making it appear ‘Indian’ with references to Hindu scriptures and great poets, people will not come to the truth. This is a complete turn back from the real Bible." Oswald Gracias, the Catholic Archbishop of Bombay, defended the Bible edition, saying, "I am sure this Bible, made in India and for Indians, will bring the word of God closer to millions of our people, not only Christians." Accompanied by extensive commentary notes to assist readers in interpreting the verses, the edition also references Indian ancient literary works such as Ramayana and Mahabharata. Jesus' words about storing "treasures in heaven" in the Gospel of Matthew, for example, are compared to the Bhagavadgita's teaching that "work alone is your proper business, never the fruits it may produce." The teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore, Asia's first Nobel laureate, are also referred to in the commentary. The general editor of the New Community Bible, the Rev. Dr. Augustine Kanachikuzhy, admitted that references to Hindu scriptures had drawn complaints. "This was expected," he said. "It will take some time for the new Bible to gain acceptance.".............. read more


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6. The Rise of Islam

Saudi woman arrested for driving a car, Wahhabi scholars call it sinful
Saudi religious police have arrested a woman in the region of Qatif in eastern Saudi Arabia for driving a car. The 47-year-old woman was spotted by agents from the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice after other men reported the woman, said Saudi daily Okaz. The woman was later released after her family posted bail, and will now be put on trial. There is no law in Saudi Arabia that prevents women from driving. However, fatwas or religious edicts, have been issued by Wahhabi scholars saying it is sinful for women to drive. Conservatives argue that if women were allowed to drive, this would lead to women being able to mix freely with men, to corruption and the destruction of family values.............. read more

Fearful Publisher Random House Kills Islamic Novel
Yesterday should have been a proud moment for Sherry Jones — the day that The Jewel of Medina, her historical novel centered on Mohammed's young wife Aisha, was due to be released by Random House. But that did not happen. Random House dropped the novel in May over concerns that the dramatization of life in the prophet's harem could spark violence: In an interview about Ms. Jones' novel, Thomas Perry, deputy publisher at Random House Publishing Group, said that it "disturbs us that we feel we cannot publish it right now." He said that after sending out advance copies of the novel, the company received "from credible and unrelated sources cautionary advice not only that the publication of this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community, but also that it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment." Professor Denise Spellberg of the University of Texas helped dissuade Random House from going ahead. An editor who had spoken with her wrote in an email that "[Spellberg] thinks there is a very real possibility of major danger for the building and staff and widespread violence. Denise says it is ‘a declaration of war … explosive stuff … a national security issue.'" The company soon dumped the book, citing "the safety of the author, employees of Random House, booksellers, and anyone else who would be involved in distribution and sale of the novel."Sherry Jones may be crushed personally, but she recognizes the big picture: I was also chagrined to realize the far-reaching ramifications of this historic decision to quash a work of art before it could even reach the public eye. Is Random House no longer publishing books about Islam? How does this bode for the future of publishing? What will be banned next? Art? Music? Theater? Dance? Potter Grayson Perry, who has no qualms about insulting other faiths, has even admitted to censoring himself with regard to Islam............... read more


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7. Increase in Knowledge/New Technologies

FCC Commissioner: Return of Fairness Doctrine Could Control Web Content
There’s a huge concern among conservative talk radio hosts that reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine would all-but destroy the industry due to equal time constraints. But speech limits might not stop at radio. They could even be extended to include the Internet and “government dictating content policy.” FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell raised that as a possibility after talking with bloggers at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. McDowell spoke about a recent FCC vote to bar Comcast from engaging in certain Internet practices – expanding the federal agency’s oversight of Internet networks. The commissioner, a 2006 President Bush appointee, told the Business & Media Institute the Fairness Doctrine could be intertwined with the net neutrality battle. The result might end with the government regulating content on the Web, he warned. McDowell, who was against reprimanding Comcast, said the net neutrality effort could win the support of “a few isolated conservatives” who may not fully realize the long-term effects of government regulation. “I think the fear is that somehow large corporations will censor their content, their points of view, right,” McDowell said. “I think the bigger concern for them should be if you have government dictating content policy, which by the way would have a big First Amendment problem.” “Then, whoever is in charge of government is going to determine what is fair, under a so-called ‘Fairness Doctrine,’ which won’t be called that – it’ll be called something else,” McDowell said. “So, will Web sites, will bloggers have to give equal time or equal space on their Web site to opposing views rather than letting the marketplace of ideas determine that?” McDowell told BMI the Fairness Doctrine isn’t currently on the FCC’s radar. But a new administration and Congress elected in 2008 might renew Fairness Doctrine efforts, but under another name..................... read more

NYPD prepares to track every vehicle entering Manhattan with "Operation Sentinel"
It's called "Operation Sentinel" and it proves just how far the NYPD will go to protect this city from terrorists. The plan involves some high-tech tracking that is coming under fire from some groups. As part of the plan the NYPD is creating a huge buffer zone, working with cops in a 50-mile radius of the city. Officials in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Long Island are given radiation detectors to stop terrorists as far away from New York City as possible. Police also plan to track every vehicle that enters Manhattan. "We're going to be adding cameras as we go forward," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said. That part of that plan calls for photographing and scanning license plates of cars and trucks at all bridges and tunnels. Even small ones like the Willis Avenue Bridge will also be used to detect radiation. "I don't think it's hyperbole to call this Big Brotherish," said Christopher Dunn of the New York Civil Liberties Union. "The New York City Police Department is creating a huge computer database of the movement of everyone in a vehicle in Manhattan." Civil libertarians take issue with one aspect of that plan – data on each vehicle entering Manhattan would be stored for at least one month. The city also intends on putting Lower Manhattan in a so-called "ring of steel," with 3,000 public and private security cameras below Canal Street. There will be 600 cops assigned to protect ground zero...................... read more

Before the Gunfire, Cyberattacks
Weeks before bombs started falling on Georgia, a security researcher in suburban Massachusetts was watching an attack against the country in cyberspace. Jose Nazario of Arbor Networks in Lexington noticed a stream of data directed at Georgian government sites containing the message: “win+love+in+Rusia.” Other Internet experts in the United States said the attacks against Georgia’s Internet infrastructure began as early as July 20, with coordinated barrages of millions of requests — known as distributed denial of service, or D.D.O.S., attacks — that overloaded and effectively shut down Georgian servers. Researchers at Shadowserver, a volunteer group that tracks malicious network activity, reported that the Web site of the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, had been rendered inoperable for 24 hours by multiple D.D.O.S. attacks. They said the command and control server that directed the attack was based in the United States and had come online several weeks before it began the assault. As it turns out, the July attack may have been a dress rehearsal for an all-out cyberwar once the shooting started between Georgia and Russia. According to Internet technical experts, it was the first time a known cyberattack had coincided with a shooting war.But it will likely not be the last, said Bill Woodcock, the research director of the Packet Clearing House, a nonprofit organization that tracks Internet traffic. He said cyberattacks are so inexpensive and easy to mount, with few fingerprints, they will almost certainly remain a feature of modern warfare. “It costs about 4 cents per machine,” Mr. Woodcock said. “You could fund an entire cyberwarfare campaign for the cost of replacing a tank tread, so you would be foolish not to.”.................... read more

Scientists Say Invisibility Cloak Now Possible
Scientists say they are a step closer to developing materials that could render people and objects invisible. Researchers have demonstrated for the first time they were able to cloak three-dimensional objects using artificially engineered materials that redirect light around the objects. Previously, they only have been able to cloak very thin two-dimensional objects. The findings, by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, led by Xiang Zhang, are to be released later this week in the journals Nature and Science. The new work moves scientists a step closer to hiding people and objects from visible light, which could have broad applications, including military ones. People can see objects because they scatter the light that strikes them, reflecting some of it back to the eye. Cloaking uses materials, known as metamaterials, to deflect radar, light or other waves around an object, like water flowing around a smooth rock in a stream. Metamaterials are mixtures of metal and circuit board materials such as ceramic, Teflon or fiber composite. They are designed to bend visible light in a way that ordinary materials don't. Scientists are trying to use them to bend light around objects so they don't create reflections or shadows. It differs from stealth technology, which does not make an aircraft invisible but reduces the cross-section available to radar, making it hard to track................. read more

A 'Frankenrobot' with a biological brain
Meet Gordon, probably the world's first robot controlled exclusively by living brain tissue.Stitched together from cultured rat neurons, Gordon's primitive grey matter was designed at the University of Reading by scientists who unveiled the neuron-powered machine on Wednesday. Their groundbreaking experiments explore the vanishing boundary between natural and artificial intelligence, and could shed light on the fundamental building blocks of memory and learning, one of the lead researchers told AFP. Looking a bit like the garbage-compacting hero of the blockbuster animation "Wall-E", Gordon has a brain composed of 50,000 to 100,000 active neurons. Once removed from rat foetuses and disentangled from each other with an enzyme bath, the specialised nerve cells are laid out in a nutrient-rich medium across an eight-by-eight centimetre (five-by-five inch) array of 60 electrodes. This "multi-electrode array" (MEA) serves as the interface between living tissue and machine, with the brain sending electrical impulses to drive the wheels of the robots, and receiving impulses delivered by sensors reacting to the environment. Because the brain is living tissue, it must be housed in a special temperature-controlled unit -- it communicates with its "body" via a Bluetooth radio link. The robot has no additional control from a human or computer. From the very start, the neurons get busy. "Within about 24 hours, they start sending out feelers to each other and making connections," said Warwick. "Within a week we get some spontaneous firings and brain-like activity" similar to what happens in a normal rat -- or human -- brain, he added................. read more


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8. Christian Worldview/Issues

New TV Program: "Make Me a Christian" Lesbian, Atheist, Muslim all attempt Christian life
A new television program broadcast this month follows a group of 13 non-Christian volunteers, who, on camera, attempt to "live by the teachings of the Bible for three weeks." "Make Me a Christian," broadcast in a three-part series, asks the participants to be mentored by four pastors from a variety of backgrounds – Anglican, Catholic, Evangelical, and Pentecostal – as they attempt to live like Christians, an effort that runs in stark contrast to many of the participants' backgrounds. The 13 volunteers who will make the effort include a tattooed militant atheist biker, a man who converted from Christianity to Islam, a lesbian schoolteacher, a lap-dancing witch with a lust for expensive shoes, a middle-class yuppie couple that can't find time to spend with their children and a party animal who claims he's slept with over 150 women. Whether people can be made into Christians by a three-week crash course in discipleship, however, remains a matter of debate. The Rev. George Hargreaves, one of the four mentor pastors featured on the show, was quoted by the Christian Post saying, "Viewers will be deeply moved by the participants' personal journeys. I believe that a major nationwide evangelism initiative could be launched on the back of the series." A review by Charlie Brooker of England's Guardian newspaper, however, expressed severe criticism of the show's depiction of Christianity. Brooker wrote sarcastically, "The broadcast will doubtless be accompanied by the percussive sound of thousands of Christians enthusiastically smashing their foreheads against the wall with delight at the way they're represented." ............. read more

Hamas leader's son declares faith in Christ
The son of a prominent leader in the Hamas terrorist organization has publicly declared his faith in Jesus Christ and warned that Israel can never be at peace with the "wicked and cruel" men who lead Hamas. Masab Yousef, who now prefers to be known as "Joseph," is the oldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a political leader of the Hamas organization in the West Bank and one of the movement's most popular public figures. He gave his life to Christ in 2004, four years after a friend invited him to a Bible study and he began to read the Christian scriptures for himself. "At this stage I was still a Muslim and I thought that I would remain one. But every day I saw the terrible things done in the name of religion by those who considered themselves 'great believers,’" Yousef told the Haaretz news organization. "I studied Islam more thoroughly and found no answers there. I re-examined the Koran and the principles of the faith and found how it is mistaken and misleading. The Muslims borrowed rituals and traditions from all the surrounding religions." When he was arrested by the Israel Defense Force in 1996 at age 18 for being the head of a Hamas youth organization, Yousef was incarcerated at Megiddo Prison, where he had an opportunity to see true face of Hamas. "I sat in Megiddo Prison and suddenly I understood who the real Hamas was," Yousef told Haaretz. "These people have no morals, they have no integrity. But they aren't as stupid as Fatah, which steals in broad daylight in front of everyone and is immediately suspected of corruption. Hamas people receive money in dishonest ways, invest it in secret places, and outwardly maintain a simple lifestyle."............. read more

Christian leaders fail to recognize implications of Christian-Muslim Yale Declaration
A ministry that works with the persecuted church found parts of a declaration recently adopted by Christian and Muslim leaders troubling because it did not emphasize the differences between the two religions enough and gave too much credit to Islam. Barnabas Fund’s international director, Dr. Peter Sookhdeo, a former Muslim, says the inclusion of the Qur’anic commandment to speak to Christian and Jews (Q 3:64) in the opening passage of the “Final Declaration of the Yale Common Word Conference, July 2008” actually calls for the conversion of Christians and Jews to Islam . The opening passage also includes the “ascribe no partner” phrase, which is a Muslim critique of the Christian doctrines of the Trinity and the deity of Jesus, according to the U.K.-based Barnabas Fund. “It seems that the implications of this verse were not realized or discussed,” commented Barnabas Fund in a reflection on the declaration published Tuesday. The declaration was made at the conclusion of an eight-day conference at Yale University that was in direct response to a letter signed by 138 Muslim leaders last fall that called for peace between Muslims and Christians for the sake of world peace. Over 140 conference participants unanimously approved on July 31 a cooperative statement that signaled a new beginning of collaboration between Christians and Muslims where stronger assertions of faith would not just be allowed but required. Barnabas Fund raised several concerns with the final declaration. The document raises Islam, Muhammad and the Qur’an to the same level as Christianity through the language “our common Abrahamic heritage” and “Judeo-Christian-Islamic monotheistic heritage,” the ministry pointed out. “This is a step towards affirming that Muhammad is a prophet and the Qur’an a word of God,” the ministry said. “As Christians we affirm that the promises of Abraham are fulfilled in Christ.”............ read more

Are you a kind-of Christian?
How can you tell a no-doubt Christian from a maybe Christian? Answer: There will be spiritual results, or hard evidence, in his or her life. In fact, I propose that what is considered Christianity by many in the United States today would not even qualify as conversion in the first-century church. And what is considered normal as far as a Christian was concerned in the first century would be considered radical by today's standards. There are a lot of people running around today who could be described as kind-of Christians. Now, that is not a theologically correct term, because according to the Bible, you either are or are not a Christian. But I am talking about people whom you are not really sure about. He or she is sort-of a Christian or maybe a Christian or could be a Christian or almost is a Christian. You see some things in their lives that make you believe they might be followers of Christ. They attend church regularly and talk about God periodically. Maybe they pray before their meals. But then there are other things in their lives that seem to contradict this behavior. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people today who believe they are Christians yet probably are not. And one of the reasons for that is a lot of shallow and anemic preaching in our churches today. I fear there may be a generation of people running around who believe they really know God when, in fact, they don't really know him at all. One recent poll indicated that seven out of 10 American adults have no clue as to the meaning of John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." And barely one-third of all adults know the meaning of the expression "the Gospel." I question whether most Americans have ever heard the authentic Gospel message. I know we have heard a lot of preaching. I know we have heard a lot of sermons. But have most Americans really heard the Gospel? And do they have a basic understanding of it? In their book, "unChristian," David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons identify behaviors that so-called Christians share with non-Christians. When asked to identify their activities over the last 30 days, those identifying themselves as born-again Christians were, according to the book, just as likely to gamble, visit a pornographic website, take something that did not belong to them, consult a medium or psychic, consume enough alcohol to be legally drunk, use an illegal drug, or lie about someone to retaliate. My question is not whether these people are Christians who are ignoring God's commands. My question is whether these people are really Christians at all............ read more