The aim of this blog is to identify those newsworthy events that tie in with Bible Prophecies. Then to report those findings back here. In doing so, those who read the articles may be readily informed as to where the world stands relative to the end times.
By Ryan Jones As Egyptians prepared to elect a new president on Wednesday, a noted Egyptian philosopher explained that this was not true democracy and polls suggested the future of relations with Israel did not look promising. Israelis have been warning since the start of the Arab Spring that Egypt's revolution would ultimately result in increased oppression for Egyptians themselves and a straining of ties with Israel that could easily lead to war. Western officials initially brushed aside those concerns, but the recent parliamentary takeover by the Muslim Brotherhood validated the Israeli position. Now Egyptians are readying to complete their democratic revolution by holding their first truly free presidential election. But the frontrunners in that race only give greater cause for concern. Of the four men leading the pack of 13 presidential contenders, two are Islamists closely affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Mohammed Mursi is the official presidential candidate fielded by the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that has never hidden its hostile feelings toward Israel. Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh is a leading Islamist who left the Brotherhood to form his own political movement. Abolfotoh has called Israel an "enemy state" and believes the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in America were an "inside job." In an interview aired on Sada Al-Balad TV last month, Egyptian philosopher Murad Wahba warned that if either of those men win, the result will not be a democratic and free Egypt. "We're not even in the ballpark" of democracy, said Wahba. "If the Muslim Brotherhood takes over the presidency, it will herald the beginning of a comprehensive process of Islamization, from top to bottom." As for external relations, Wahba suggested war with Israel would be inevitable should the Muslim Brotherhood control both the parliament and the presidency. "For the Muslim Brotherhood, war is something one initiates, in an effort to convert the region and the entire world to Islam. Therefore, the Muslim Brotherhood is ideologically required to start wars," explained Wahba. When told that even Mursi and Abolfotoh had publicly promised to honor the Camp David Accords, Wahba reminded his interviewer that both men had qualified those promises with a "but." "I always pay attention to the expressions they use when they talk about their commitment to the international agreements. They always add the qualifier: 'But it's subject to change and to discussion.' That is their tactic," said Wahba. "It is these expressions that will enable them to send the Egyptian army to initiate war against Israel in the future." [Translation of the Wahba interview provided by MEMRI—Middle East Media Research Institute] What if the Muslim Brotherhood does not take the presidency? The two leading "secular" candidates are former Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, who also called Israel an enemy state, and Hamdeen Sabahy, who promised greater Egyptian support for Palestinian terrorism against Israel. All four candidates seem to be in line with Egyptian popular opinion when it comes to relations with Israel. According to a Pew poll published last week, 61 percent of Egyptians want to annul their nation's peace treaty with Israel. Another poll conducted by Jerusalem's Menachem Begin Heritage Center found that a small 56 percent majority of Egyptians want to maintain the current peace agreement with Israel, and that only 18 percent desire war with the Jewish state. However, 80 percent of respondents said relations with Israel, whatever form they take, should remain cold. WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.
There really does not seem to be any doubts at all that the author of the attached article is one of the best known and gifted of the modern Jewish Christian writers. Notwithstanding that fact, the purpose of this article is not to denigrate Joel C. Rosenberg as all that I am attempting to do in this instance is to verify that what a person is at the onset of his life he will more than likely maintain his original heritage right throughout his life. Rosenberg was born a Jew, (and by the obvious favour that he shows towards Israel and the Jews, and in the instance of this article his obvious biased attitude towards the current Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu) he will die a Jew. As that is the case, even though he may have had a spiritual conversion, to later on in his life, become a Born Again Christian, he was still a Jew first and a Jew is what he will be for the rest of his life, not that there is anything wrong with that at all. As that is the case, the aforementioned comments are of a derogatory nature against Rosenberg, as that was not the intention at all. The purpose of the aforementioned comments were to simply verify that what a person is at the onset of their lives they will more than likely remain for as long as they live, as blood is always thicker than water. TIME Crowns Netanyahu “KING BIBI”: The Eyes of the Nations Are Riveted on Israel By Joel C. Rosenberg When was the last time the leader of a country with fewer than eight million citizens made the cover of Time magazine? “Time Magazine devoted its lead story to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is featured on the cover of the renowned publication, under the heading ‘King Bibi,’” reports Ynet News. “Underneath the heading, in the article, titled ‘Bibi’s choice,’ author Richard Stengel describes Netanyahu’s unshakable political stature, writing that he ‘is poised to become the longest-serving Israeli Prime Minister since David Ben-Gurion, the founding father of Israel. He has no national rival. His approval rating, roughly 50%, is at an all-time high.’” It is further evidence that the eyes of the nations are indeed riveted on Israel, the epicenter of the momentous events that are shaping our times and shaking our world. 'King Bibi' Graces Cover of TIME Magazine The Jerusalem Post reports that “Netanyahu discussed his relationship with the presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, disputing the impression left by a recent New York Times piece that the two have a ‘warm friendship little known to outsiders’ stretching back decades that was ‘nurtured over meals in Boston, New York and Jerusalem.... It was at Boston Consulting [Group] that he met Mitt Romney,’ Stengel wrote. ‘We did not know each other that well,’ Bibi says. ‘He was the whiz kid. I was just in the back of the room.’ In actuality, the article says, Netanyahu has seen Romney only a handful of times over the years and only once this year—when they spoke for 10 minutes during his visit to Washington in March, mainly about Iran. Netanyahu was asked about the cover and Time’s appellation ‘King Bibi’ during a press conference Thursday in Prague. ‘I can tell you one thing,’ he quipped, ‘Israel will remain a democracy, not become a monarchy.’ This was the second time Netanyahu had the weekly news magazine’s cover all to himself, the first time being on June 10, 1996, after he was elected prime minister for the first time. Then the headline was, ‘Can He Make Peace?’ Last month a small portrait of him appeared in a collage on Time’s cover of the ’100 Most Influential People in the World.’ WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.
I see a problem with the attached information as it only serves to provoke feelings of resentment and anger against Iran that can only lead in one direction, an all out war. Already, there is a great deal of talk of a hostile nature coming from Israel relating to their desire to retaliate against Iran because the former has allegedly stated Israel should be wiped off the face of the map. That is the peril that I see. Even though the reporter in question may be only espousing what he knows to be a fact, by doing so all that he is really doing is nothing more than just adding fuel to inflame a situation already well alight in the Middle East. There is no one who sees a major conflict between Israel and Iran as being necessarily a good thing. On the contrary, war is a terrible thing for all of those who are involved. Accordingly, in that sense those who are misrepresenting what the word of God says proportional to the state of the modern day Israel comparative to the rest of the nations in the Middle East are guilty of the most vile of crimes. Those who are favouring an ideology of biases towards Israel against the Arab nations in the region are not far removed from the persecution of the Jews in Hitler's Germany. This time of course the shoe is on the other foot, and it is not the Jews who are the ones being persecuted. Instead, it is the Jews of Israel who are the ones doing the evil, and not vice versa. As that is the case, it is then just about time that those who think they are Christian began to rethink some of their own misguided doctrines. In addition, begin to rethink what they are coming forth with as all that they are really doing is presenting an immediate danger to the lives of innocent men, women and children in the Middle East, and for that matter the rest of the world. Please keep in mind that Israel has an army that is far ahead in superiority over anything Iran may have at their disposal, and as that is the case an all out war between Israel and Iran is going to result in the deaths of thousands and thousands of innocents, not only in Iran, but Israel as well. Another Blast from Tehran By David Dolan Although it was barely reported by the world press, another serious Iranian threat was issued against Israel during May—a fresh vow that the world’s only Jewish State will be totally erased from the Middle East map. More ominously, the vitriolic pledge came from the country’s senior military leader, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Hassan Firouzabadi. According to the state-controlled Fars news agency, he told a "defense gathering" in Tehran on May 20 that "The Iranian nation is standing for its cause, which is the full annihilation of Israel." The top military commander added that "threats and pressures cannot deter Iran from its revolutionary causes and ideals," meaning international sanctions and warnings of possible military action against the Shiite regime’s manifold nuclear sites will not alter its jihad war against Israel. He called upon the world "to wake up" to the supposed "threats and dangers posed by the Zionist regime," as if the Iranian regime’s repeated vows to destroy Israel while pursuing a rogue nuclear development program were just plot lines in some science fiction film. The Major General was said by Fars to have "reiterated the Iranian nation and Supreme Leader’s emphasis on the necessity of support for the oppressed Palestinian nation and its causes." He reminded his audience that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said earlier this year that "defending Palestine is a full religious duty," adding "he believes that any kind of governance and rule by anyone other than the Palestinians is an instance of usurpation."
The latest Iranian vow to annihilate Israel came just days before diplomats from the so-called P5+1 nations, the USA, UK, Russia, China, France, plus non-nuclear Germany, held crucial talks with their Iranian counterparts. After two days of discussions in Baghdad, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton admitted that "significant differences" were evident at the talks. Speaking more bluntly, British Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters only "limited progress" had been made. He also warned that the defiant Shiite regime would face intensifying economic sanctions and the growing prospect of military action unless Iranian leaders took what he termed "urgent, concrete steps" to scale back their uranium enrichment program. This came after chief Iranian negotiator Said Jalili insisted once again that Iran "has every right to enrich uranium" for supposedly peaceful purposes. Days later, Iran announced it would begin constructing a second nuclear power plant in the south of the country next year. After hearing the unimpressive results of the latest talks with Iran, PM Netanyahu repeated his government’s position that the belligerent Iranian regime was merely stalling for time as it proceeded full speed with its insidious nuclear weapons program. Earlier in the month, Brad Gordon, a former US government arms control official who now works for the AIPAC pro-Israel lobby in Washington DC, told a conference in New York that Iran has enough uranium already enriched to twenty percent grade to produce several nuclear warheads in short order. He pointed out that although such uranium must be fortified to ninety percent to reach weapons grade, the spinning process to reach that level is a rapid one. Gordon’s chilling assessment was echoed by the Iran Watch American group, which posted disturbing information on its website revealing that with existing uranium stockpiles, Iran could produce a bomb equivalent to the one which destroyed much of Hiroshima Japan in 1945 in less than two months time. Another American group, the Institute for Science and International Security think tank, said Iran has enriched enough uranium to build five nuclear warheads if refined to ninety percent. The reports came just before the UN’s Atomic Energy Agency issued its latest review of Iran’s nuclear program on May 25, saying the Islamic state is pressing ahead with its uranium enrichment program. It said Iran has produced an additional 750 kilograms of enriched uranium since its last report was issued in February, with monthly production rising by around a third since then. With this tumultuous region at the heart of planet earth now spinning around at a dizzying pace, it is wonderful to know and worship the One who holds the whole world in His unshakable hands: "For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:10:12). End of quote. WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.
By Nicole Perlroth A complex computer virus has been pilfering confidential information from computers in the Middle East for at least two years, according to a security report released on Monday. The virus, called Flame, has been infecting computers in Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Sudan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. It has been grabbing images of users’ computer screens, recording their instant messaging chats, remotely turning on their microphones to record their audio conversations and monitoring their keystrokes and network traffic, according to a report by Kaspersky Labs, a Moscow-based security research firm. If the report’s findings prove to be true, Flame would be the third major Internet weapon to have been discovered since 2010. The first, named Stuxnet, was intended to attack software in specialized industrial equipment, and was used to destroy centrifuges in an Iranian nuclear facility in 2010. The second virus, called Duqu, like Flame, performed reconnaissance. Security researchers believe Duqu was created by the same group of programmers behind Stuxnet. The researchers said Flame appeared to have been developed by a different group of programmers. It contains 20 times more code than Stuxnet and is much more widespread than Duqu. Researchers believe Duqu hit fewer than 50 targets worldwide. Kaspersky’s researchers said they had detected Flame on thousands of computers belonging to individuals, private companies and universities across the Middle East. “Flame can easily be described as one of the most complex threats ever discovered,” Alexander Gostev, the head of Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis team, wrote in a blog post on Monday. “It’s big and incredibly sophisticated. It pretty much redefines the notion of cyber war and cyber espionage.” Researchers say they do not know who is behind the virus, but given its complexity and the geography of its targets, they said it was most likely being staged by a government. The authors of Stuxnet and Duqu are also unknown but their targets and digital evidence suggest to some researchers that they may have been part of a joint American-Israeli project to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program. Kaspersky’s researchers said the majority of computers infected with Flame were located in Iran. Like Duqu and Stuxnet, Flame infects machines through a known security hole in the Windows operating software. Researchers discovered Flame while investigating reports that another computer virus, called Wiper, had been erasing computer programs in Iran. The International Telecommunications Union, a Nations agency, had asked Kaspersky’s researchers to look into Wiper when they discovered that thousands more computers had been infected with Flame WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.
Identifying as a Fundamentalist Born Again Christian, (who holds fast to the Reformed Theory for Biblical interpretation) I do not agree with those who say that there is something out of the ordinary relative to Israel, or that God has not ordained this land for any special privileges. Having said made that statement; there was a time in the Old Testament when God promised to return the Jews to their promised land. That was achieved in 1948. However, when the Jews hung Christ on the cross they lost any special privileges God had in preparation for them from that point onwards. Accordingly, what remains in Israel to this current day are the remnants of the original Christian Israelites. It those privileged few that have been ordained by God to have received salvation, and not those who currently inhabit Israel. Evidence of that salvation can be found in the book of the Revelation that speaks of just 144,000 of the original Israelites from the 12 original tribes. Even though there are no Jews who reside in my homeland of Australia that are living under any fear of persecution whatsoever a common terminology that is being bandied around lately is anti-Semitism. However, the expressed use of that term is now being used unfairly and is being applied to those who do not favour the Jews who inhabit Israel Conversely, it now seems to me that rather than those who do not see Israel in the most favourable of lights labelled Anti-Semitic it really should be those Christian Zionists who believe the Jews have special privileges from God that really should be labelled as being opposed to their own race/religion. Accordingly, those persons need to be labelled as being Anti-Christ, not those who do not see Israel in the most favourable of lights as Anti-Semitic. After all, it is almost impossible to see Christ as the Saviour of Mankind if one is to see those who crucified him as being the favoured ones. Just to show that there is not prejudice against, or indeed favour towards Israel and the Jews, I have published this article from a BlogSpot that is quite clearly pro-Israeli. There is some news from Israel By David Hoyle All around the world anti-Semitism is on the rise and in many countries Jewish people are living in fear. A headline in the Jewish telegraph read “Greek Jewry fearful after election…. But for French Jews its wait and see.” Greece – Jewish leaders expressed concern and disappointment after the neo Nazi “Golden Dawn party” won 21 seats in the Greek Parliament. When their leader won a seat on Athens City Council in 2010 he said “we are coming” and gave a Nazi salute. During the election the party’s supporters shave their heads and wore black shirts! The party said it would tolerate religious freedom “except in cases that affect national interest and undermine Hellenism.” However the party displays Mien Kampf and works on Greek racial superiority at its headquarters. The party has plans to landmine Greece’s borders! The party’s banner has a swastika like motif. Whilst the neo Nazi’s are not in power the right wing is strengthening and anti-Semitism is on the rise. France – There was a mixed reaction in Jewish circles to the election of the left wing François Hollande as France’s president. Fears are that despite soothing noises Mr Hollande election would lead to a rise in the anti-Israel left. It is estimated that 92% of the Jews living in Israel cast their votes at the French Embassy in Tel Aviv in favour of Nicholas Sarkozy who was linked to the release of Gilad Shalit and has also strong links with the Jewish Community. Anti Semitism has been rising in France for years and a holocaust survivor who left there 3 years ago told me whilst I was speaking at their association in Leeds that parts of France were like Berlin, where she was in 1938. She escaped Berlin, went to Paris, and left for England only to find that there is anti – Semitism here! Only a few years ago swastikas were painted on Jewish peoples doors in Harrogate! Shortly before Ariel Sharon went into a coma (he is still alive) he caused outrage whilst on a visit to France by calling on French Jewry to make aliyah and live in Israel; such was the vilification of Jews at that time. Someone has said recently “there is only one safe place for Jews – Israel!” Jordan – Israeli and U.S. flags were recently burned in Amman and calls were made for that cancellation of the Jordan- Israel peace agreement. However their PM said, ‘Given a second chance I would sign again’. Jordan has of course gained immensely in Israeli technology, farming techniques and not least… water from their peace treaty. Aliyah - All around the world there is a movement of Jewish people back to their homeland. Recently 5,000 queued to attend an aliyah fair in Paris – an unprecedented number! It raised memories of the tens of thousands (ultimately over 1,000,000) who left Russia at the time of Mr. Gorbachev. Natan Sharansky was in Paris for the event. I met him 2 years ago and he asked me, ‘Ask your Christian friends to keep praying for us, God answers prayer’. U.K. – An Israeli invited to speak at a conference on mental health had his visit cancelled at the behest of the UNISON union. The Co-op has severed its connections with Israeli exporters and will ban all imports from so-called Jewish settlements. Stop buying from the Co-op, embargos can work two ways. Support Morrison’s and Waitrose, who both promote Israeli goods. Israeli Election – One day after Israel was set to call an early election on September 4th the move was cancelled as the main opposition party Kadima agreed to join the coalition. Shaul Mofez, their leader, had previously said he would keep them in opposition, but as they faced possible annihilation in an election he changed his position. The government will now have one of the biggest majorities in its history, 94. Friction may well be on the horizon as Mr. Mofez has stated he will give the Palestinians all they want! This is diametrically opposed to Mr. Netanyahu’s position. Additionally Mr Netanyahu has consistently stated that he might bomb Iran, Mr. Mofez is against any such move. Mr. Netanyahu has often reiterated that Jerusalem would remain the undivided capital of Israel; Mr. Mofez takes the opposite view. Orthodox – The new unity government has stated it will make, ‘Equality of military service a priority’. Currently more than 60,000 orthodox men of military age are exempt from army service. Olympic Games – An online petition is calling for the International Olympic Committee to honour the 11 Israeli athletes who were murdered at the Munich games in 1972. Petition organisers hope for 1,000,000 signatories. Lebanese Border – Israel is to build a mile long wall to protect the town of Metulla from rockets. During the second Lebanese war in 2006 160 of its residents were killed. Iran – Iranian Jews are reported to be living in fear as talk of an attack on Iran continues. A Tel Aviv spice seller who imports through a third country said, ‘The people there need food, not a bomb’, nevertheless if they get a bomb they will use it. Israeli Iranian Jews fear for their families in Iran should war break out. Gaza – Speaking at the UN Israel’s Ambassador Ron Prosor (formerly Ambassador to the UK) addressed myths surrounding the Middle East. He went on,’ There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza’. Numerous international organisations including the Red Cross confirm this. Exports are expanding and there are no civilian goods that cannot enter the country. “Yet” he said, ‘as aid flows in, the missiles fly out, that is the problem not aid’. Jerusalem – Mr. Prosor, again speaking at the UN said, ‘Across the Arab world we are accused of Judaising Jerusalem, this accusation is 3,000 years too late’! He went on, ‘We are accused of the ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem even though the Arab population has risen from 26% to 35%.’ Refugees – Mr. Prosor pointed out that, ‘No one talks about 850,000 Jews uprooted from Arab countries in our 64 year history they are of course busy talking about Arab refugees.’ Good News – 7,000 visitors descended on Tel Aviv from 115 countries for “Agritech Israel” to study new approaches to growing better crops, flowers and even fish and dairy cows. Israel has solved problems of irrigation, recycling, crop storage, drought, disease resistant pest control and purification of waste water for its thirsty agriculture. A 7 man medical crew visited Ethiopia to provide free cataract surgery. Hundreds of adults and children were waiting and one young girl with a protruding eye was flown to Israel for a very special gift ‘A life-changing operation’. Another 10 year old girl had a tumour behind her eye removed. Undoubtedly Jewish people are specially gifted by God. Finally – Congratulations to Israel on her 64th birthday! Truly God’s hand is upon them - well that statment, I am not all that sure of? WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.
WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.
Paolo Gabriele charged with illegal possession of documents after whistle blowing book alleges corruption at Holy See By Damien Pearse and Tom Kington in Rome guardian.co.uk
Pope Benedict XVI with his butler Paolo Gabriele (bottom left) and private secretary Georg Gänswein. Photograph: Andrew Medichini/AP The pope's butler has been formally charged over suspicions he leaked a large number of confidential letters addressed to Benedict XVI which have lifted the lid on alleged corruption and nepotism at the Holy See. Vatican magistrates charged Paolo Gabriele, 46, with illegal possession of secret documents and said a wider investigation would take place to see if he had any accomplices who helped him leak them. Gabriele, who has worked as Benedict's butler since 2006, was taken into custody after investigators reportedly found a mass of documents in the Vatican apartment he shares with his wife and three children. The arrest comes a month after the Vatican gave an investigative team led by Cardinal Julián Herranz, a member of Opus Dei, a full "pontifical mandate" to join Vatican police in rooting out the perpetrators of what has been dubbed Vatileaks. Gabriele is a member of the 85-year-old pontiff's closest circle of helpers, assisting him in his papal apartment at the Vatican alongside four female members of the Italian religious movement Comunione e Liberazione who cook and clean. The Rome-born butler is in custody in the Vatican's cells. "We have cells," said a Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi. "It is a simple structure, since this is a small state, but we have them." Among the most serious leaks published this year is a letter from Carlo Maria Viganò, the former deputy governor of Vatican City, denouncing inflated contracts with friendly companies, false invoicing and missing cash. Further revelations were published this week in a book by a journalist, Gianluigi Nuzzi, who described how an unnamed whistleblower sent emissaries to sound him out before they held secret meetings in an unfurnished rented flat near the Vatican. "I wore a USB round my neck for six months with the leaked documents on it," Nuzzi said. "It was like something out of a film." In the book, the source says he was coming clean because "hypocrisy within the Vatican goes unchallenged and scandals multiply". The book, which was described as criminal by the Vatican, alleged that the editor of the Vatican's newspaper started a gay smear campaign against a rival editor, with the help of a newspaper owned by the Berlusconi family. Letters depict collusion between the Berlusconi government and the Vatican over how to avoid EU pressure to make the Catholic church pay tax on its properties. Huge cash donations to the pope from banks and a TV presenter are described, as well as a €100,000 (£80,000) truffle sent by a businessman which was donated to the poor. "After Pope John Paul II's death I started putting aside copies of some documents that came into my possession thanks to my work," the source told Nuzzi. "Initially I did it sporadically. When I saw that the truth coming out in the newspapers and official speeches did not match the truth in the documents I put everything aside in a folder to try and investigate and understand." The source said his growing disenchantment with the "personal interests and hidden truths" at the Vatican was shared by other people living and working in he city state, but "nobody knows who all the others are". The letters show the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, in a bad light but spare the pope. "The source backed Benedict's reforming spirit. The problem is that the pope has not been able to achieve things very quickly," said Nuzzi. Marco Tosatti, a Vatican expert at La Stampa newspaper, said: "I don't believe they would have arrested him if they didn't have real proof, but I believe he is not the only guilty one. I imagine he will go before an Italian court and risks 20 years for stealing correspondence from a head of state." Other letters reveal a row over improving transparency at the Vatican bank after it was implicated in the 1980s in the collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano whose chairman, Roberto Calvi, was found hanging under London Bridge. On Thursday, the Vatican bank's president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, who was brought in to improve transparency, was ousted "for not having carried out various responsibilities of primary importance regarding his office," the Vatican said in a statement. WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.
By Alessandro Speciale Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, president of the Vatican bank, in Rome in late February (CNS/Reuters/Alessandro Bianchi) VATICAN CITY -- In an unprecedented move, the board of the Vatican Bank on Thursday forced its president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, to resign. According to a Vatican statement, the bank's supervisory council unanimously passed a no-confidence motion in Gotti Tedeschi for his "failure to fulfill various primary functions of his office." Carl A. Anderson, the supreme knight of the U.S.-based Knights of Columbus, is one of the council's four members. The Vatican's chief spokesman, Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, declined to give more details on the reasons for the dismissal, but analysts say the move should be read in the context of an internal Vatican struggle over controversial new rules for financial transparency. Since 2010, Gotti Tedeschi, together with the bank's director general, Paolo Cipriani, has been under investigation for alleged money laundering. In the past, the Vatican Bank, which operates under the protection of the Vatican's status as a sovereign nation, has been often accused of involvement in shady financial operations, such as money laundering for Italian politicians and even mafia bosses. According to Giuseppe Di Taranto, professor of finance with LUISS University in Rome, in recent years "Pope Benedict XVI has spearheaded an effort to bring more transparency to the Vatican," seeking its entry into an international list of financially transparent countries. A key step in this direction was the creation of an independent financial watchdog in December 2010. But according to internal Vatican documents leaked in recent months to the Italian press, the watchdog panel's effective powers have been at the center of a heated Vatican power struggle. A senior Vatican source quoted by the Italian news agency ANSA said this so-called "Vatileaks" scandal was one of the reasons that led to Gotti Tedeschi's ousting. In a statement, the Vatican Bank -- officially known as the Institute for Works of Religion -- said it hoped to find a new president who would "rebuild relationships between the Institute and the financial community, based on mutual respect of internationally accepted banking standards." A cardinal's commission overseeing the bank's activities, headed by the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, will meet tomorrow to discuss the bank's "future steps." An outspoken economist, Gotti Tedeschi had been at the helm of the Vatican Bank since 2009. His provocative analyses of the global economic crisis often appeared in the pages of L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's semiofficial newspaper. According to Di Taranto, even if the precise reasons for Gotti Tedeschi's dismissal remain unclear, to comply with European standards "there is a need for a further modernization and restructuring" of the Vatican Bank. "After all, the Vatican is a very rich country." WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.
By David Kupelian “PC is, strictly speaking, a totalitarian philosophy.” —Newsweek, Dec. 24, 1990, “Thought Police” cover story A major engine for the left’s insatiable quest for power goes under the strange name of “political correctness”—an insidious frontal attack on common sense and conscience through language manipulation. Many people mistakenly regard political correctness as just a nutty liberal fetish for not hurting people’s feelings. Words and phrases are continually decreed to be “insensitive” to various “minorities” and therefore replaced with euphemisms so as to avoid real or perceived offense. People who are mentally retarded used to be called “idiots,” “imbeciles” and “morons”—psychological terms that correspond to different IQ ranges (0-25 for idiots, 26-50 for imbeciles, 51-70 for morons). But as those words gradually came to be considered offensive, the euphemism “retarded” came into vogue. When “retarded” came to be regarded as insensitive, new-and-nicer euphemisms like “intellectual disability” and being “intellectually challenged” emerged, culminating with “special.” It’s hard to be offended over being “special.” In like manner, the deaf became “hearing impaired,” the blind “vision impaired” and the crippled “mobility impaired,” inspiring a new breed of cocktail-party jokes wherein the bald are “folically challenged” and so on. More subversively, however, people’s ignoble or criminal qualities became disguised and excused with euphemisms: “Illegal aliens” became “illegal immigrants” and then “undocumented immigrants” and presto-chango, something bad was magically transformed into something good. Homosexuals became “gay,” abortion advocates became “pro-choice” and atheists became “brights,” each euphemism converting a negative association into a positive one. Today, increasing numbers of people refer to pedophilia as “intergenerational sex” and child molesters as “minor-attracted persons” or MAPs. (In Islam, the popular euphemism for pedophilia is “child marriage,” just as adultery is called “temporary marriage.” Really.) Of course, Islam has become a major beneficiary of political correctness, reminiscent of what George Orwell called “Newspeak” in his novel “1984.” After 19 Muslim terrorists, acting in the name of Islam, murdered almost 3,000 Americans in a wanton act of war on Sept. 11, 2001, the government and media, to avoid offending Muslims, declared Islam to be a “religion of peace.” The Islamic jihad declared on America was mysteriously referred to by our leaders as a “war on terror” involving some unnamed enemy. But even that awkward and evasive expression was deemed too insensitive toward Islam, so under Obama the euphemizing turned surreal when “war on terror” morphed into “overseas contingency operations.” Likewise, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano came up with a friendly new phrase for mass-murder terror attacks. Announcing that she was deliberately avoiding the term “terrorism” in speeches because “we want to move away from the politics of fear,” she adopted the term “man-caused disasters.” All of this is not, however, just a matter of annoyingly manipulative “word games.” Our civilization is literally being turned upside-down through the strategic redefinition (and therefore transformation) of our society’s operating principles. Today’s most obvious case in point: Barack Obama, a far-left radical manifestly hostile toward free-market capitalism and American exceptionalism—in fact, to just about everything American.but who campaigned using powerfully evocative words of national restoration and reconciliation. Hope, change, fairness, justice, reform and transparency would usher in a bright new era of “healing and unifying America and the world through this charismatic young leader’s post-racial, post-partisan” presidency. What we got instead was a jarringly narcissistic, supremely demagogic and corrupt Chicago politician, lacking both in experience and wisdom, and displaying breathtaking contempt for America’s Constitution and its best-in-the-world system of government. If the ongoing language war consisted solely of one man’s use of emotionally compelling catch-phrases—like Obama’s current re-election favorites (“Everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules”) and his ceaseless appeals to raw envy (attacks on “millionaires and billionaires,” “hedge-fund managers” and “oil-company executives”)—it wouldn’t be difficult for truth to prevail. But the political and cultural left has hijacked virtually our entire language in the last couple of generations. It has redefined many key words, phrases and concepts, changing not only the words we use, but the way we think. Consider: “Equality” has been utterly redefined. To previous generations, equality—as in Jefferson’s phrase in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights”—referred to our being equal in our God-given rights before the law. Today’s idea of equality, however, is based on the virtual repudiation of meaning and morality and God Himself. Good and evil are basically “equal.” As I write in “The Marketing of Evil”: Today, in the rarified but toxic air of multiculturalism and political correctness, all cultures and all values are of equal value. The most ignorant, oppressive, suffocating, women-hating kind of culture—where people’s hands and feet are amputated as punishment for petty offenses—is now worthy of equal respect to Western culture, which has provided most of the world’s knowledge, progress, food, medicine, technology, quality of life, representative government, and liberty. This moral inversion, which proclaims that all cultures are equal, has extended to virtually every area of society. “Love” too has been redefined. At its finest, love is a spiritual quality of selfless, sacrificial caring about others, epitomized by Jesus when He said on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” The soldier who falls on an enemy grenade to save the lives of his fellow warriors acts out of love. But today, “love” has reached a low point—the word is used to sanctify same-sex marriage and celebrate what once were called “vile affections.” Even pedophiles creepily talk about “men and the boys they love” to justify their crimes. After all, how can love be vile? For many, our idea of “love”—basically, our feelings of attraction toward anything to which we are addicted—is now firmly in the gutter, like “equality.” “Justice,” likewise, has been redefined. Phrases such as “social justice” and “economic justice” are euphemisms for confiscating, by threat and raw force, what belongs justly to others—in other words, injustice. Likewise, “affirmative action” is imposed and defended in the name of justice, but is inherentlyunjust: The most qualified applicant for a job is turned down in favor of another, because that other person has the right skin color. That used to be called racial discrimination (a great injustice), but now the same act is rationalized as “social justice.” Freedom Is Slavery In Orwell’s “1984,” the outside walls of the “Ministry of Truth” (headquarters for propaganda and revisionist history) are adorned with three “Newspeak” phrases—slogans of the political party ruling the total surveillance state of Oceania. They are: WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. America today is rapidly becoming Oceania, where many key political and cultural concepts actually amount to the opposite of what their labels profess: MHow about these? THEFT IS JUSTICE. MORALITY IS HATE. FAITH IS IGNORANCE. Or maybe these: ENVY IS RIGHTEOUSNESS. SIN IS LOVE. CHARITY IS ENTITLEMENT. A 180-degree inversion of reality has been codified within our political and cultural vernacular. Whereas the poor and disadvantaged once were the grateful recipients of charity, thanks to the generosity of individuals, churches and organizations, today what used to be charity is an “entitlement.” The idea that charity—whether through private-sector generosity or governmental “safety-net” programs—is something to which the recipient is “entitled” is bizarrely presumptuous and discordant to all right-thinking people. It’s almost as though the government intends to program recipients of charity to become arrogant and ungrateful; after all, why would you be grateful for receiving something to which you were already entitled? Likewise, “tolerance” today often amounts to not only acceptance, but virtual celebration of sexual immorality—or at the very least, an agreement not to utter or write a word of disapproval over immoral, corrupt or self-destructive behavior. However, homosexual activists condemning the “intolerance” of others are notoriously intolerant of all who hold to the millennia-old moral code of the Western world. Why are the most perverse, immoral and confusing programs imaginable being instituted so easily throughout our nation’s public schools under the banner of “anti-bullying”? Because “gay” activists figured out that the best way to intimidate everyone into embracing their agenda was to package it that way. This is pure conditioning. For most people, the very thought of opposing any “anti-bullying” program is chilling, because we fear being condemned as haters of children. The emotional programming inherent in words and phrases is so compelling that it affects our behavior in many areas of life. So, for instance, many conservatives automatically conclude that “environmentalism,” “conservation,” “hybrid” vehicles, “recycling” and “organic” foods are things to avoid, just because they associate them with liberals. The Hidden Power of Political Correctness The whole idea of political correctness is an assault on the freedom of the human mind. The operating principle behind political correctness is raw intimidation: In a politically correct culture, if you dare use certain words—and by logical extension, even think a certain way—you are ignorant, insensitive, intolerant, bigoted or hateful. If you criticize the president of the United States as a “socialist” or “Marxist,” for instance, you will likely be accused of “McCarthyism.” Regardless of the real history of the “McCarthy era”—yes, there really were Soviet agents honeycombed throughout the U.S. government—the phrase has become a verbal weapon with which the left attacks conservatives. (Personal story: As a guest on Sean Hannity’s “Great American Panel,” I used the words “socialist” and “Marxist” to describe Obama,and rattled off highlights of far-left associations and exploits from his teen years to his presidency. Liberal panelist Bob Beckel, taking offense at my use of the word “Marxist,” turned to me and angrily accused me of being “worse than Joe McCarthy,” insisting I should “apologize to the president.” Apologize for what? Telling the truth? For the record, I like Beckel, he’s a very nice man off-camera.) The point is, the weaponization of a word like “McCarthyism” has nothing to do with history or reality; it is the intimidation factor that’s programmed into the word—almost like a post-hypnotic suggestion—that we automatically associate with fears of being ostracized, diminished, marginalized and ridiculed. Remember Saul Alinsky’s famous Rule No. 5 from “Rules for Radicals”: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” Nobody wants to be scorned and mocked, and therefore many of us, consciously or unconsciously, avoid intimidating situations by refraining from standing up for what we really believe. At its core, then, political correctness is nothing more nor less than the unjust intimidation of others into thinking and speaking a certain way. As such, it is pure totalitarian mind control. [The preceding was excerpted from a much more comprehensive report—titled “Magic Words: The left’s secret weapon for transforming traditional America” by David Kupelian—in the May issue of Whistleblower magazine. WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.
By Richard Schiffman (Huntington Post) The headline "Biblical Angels Were Just 'Lucid Dreams'" intrigued me. The Internet article cited a recent study by the Los Angeles based Out-of-Body Experience Research Center that instructed its participants to try to visualize angels during states of lucid dreaming. In some cases, they succeeded in having experiences which seemed to parallel the encounters of Elijah and other Old Testament prophets with angelic messengers which are recorded in the Bible. Still, I was put off by the dismissiveness of the phrase "just lucid dreams" in the headline, and also by the suggestion that the visions of mystics and prophets reported in the Bible and elsewhere are merely imaginary events that can be reproduced at will. In my own experience, lucid dreams, while clearly owing a lot to the imagination, often contain a spiritual element which is not merely "imaginary." In other words, the imagination in this instance is not just a faculty for creating fictions and illusion, but equally a portal into another realm of experience, a realm of heightened awareness and intense spiritual aliveness which challenges our very notions of what is real and what it means to be awake. The music that we hear during lucid dreams is rapturous and drenched in feeling; the colors are more subtle and vibrant than the ones we see in the "real world"; the aromas and tastes are more real than real, and may linger even after awakening; sex is explosive and ecstatic; and the insights we receive in lucid dreams are profound, if frequently difficult to put into words. A lucid dream, in other words, can be an intoxicating glimpse of what life might be like if we lived, as the Zen masters recommend, fully in the now -- alert, fiercely present and with wide open hearts. In 1902, the British writer and occultist, Hugh Calloway, wrote of his first lucid dream: "Instantly the vividness of life increased a hundred fold. Never had the sea and the sky and trees shone with such glamorous beauty; even the commonplace houses seem alive and mystically beautiful. Never had I felt so absolutely well, so clear-brained, and so inexpressibly free!" The intensity of experience in lucid dreams is one reason so many people today are pursuing them. Books have been written and workshops are offered on how to cultivate these visionary experiences. Lucid dreams, which typically occur just after the onset of sleep, or during the process of awakening, are episodes in which we remain aware that we are dreaming and can exercise a certain degree of control over the imagery and action of the dream. While they are relative newcomers to the world of science, which only started studying lucid dreams in recent decades, references to them can be found as early as the writings of the fifth century Catholic saint, Augustine of Hippo. The12th-century Sufi philosopher and mystic, Ibn El-Arabi, instructed his students to take control of the imagery in their dreams. They also figure in a Tibetan tradition called Dzogchen, in which meditators practice mastery of lucid dreaming as a training for navigating the Bardo, the after death state that Buddhist believe helps to determine ones future incarnation. The indigenous Senoi people, who live in the mountain jungles of central Malaysia, believe that by confronting and overcoming dangers -- like fire, flood and tigers -- in lucid dreams, and by consciously guiding those dreams to good endings, we can master our fears and have a positive impact on the events in waking life. More recently, Australian psychologist Milan Colic developed a method which employs lucid dreaming to help control nightmares and treat depression. Working with dreams to gain psychological insight is a cornerstone of psychoanalysis, whose founder Sigmund Freud believed that dreams reveal in the symbolic language of the subconscious aspects of the personality of the dreamer and offer keys to understanding their emotional complexes. He argued in his pioneering work "The Interpretation of Dreams" that most dreams are a form of wish fulfillment in which the psyche attempts to resolve suppressed conflicts often originating in childhood or early adolescence and frequently of a sexual nature. Freud's protege Carl Jung broke with his mentor in asserting that dreams were not just the byproducts of inner conflicts and psychopathology, but offered guidance for achieving psychic wholeness. Jung wrote that a dream is like "a small hidden door to the most deep hidden and secret corners of the psyche ... In our dreams we take the form of a more universal, true and eternal man..." One of the function of dreams, according to Jung, is to provide an entree to what he called "the collective unconscious," a repository of the wisdom of the human race which is often cloaked behind the more superficial layers of the mind. Both Jung and Freud were aware of the existence of lucid dreams. Freud wrote in the second edition of "The Interpretation of Dreams," "There are people who are quite clearly aware during the night that they are asleep and dreaming and who thus seem to possess the faculty of consciously directing their dreams." The founder of psychoanalysis was reportedly disturbed by the sexual content of one of his own lucid dreams. Traditional Jungians, on the other hand, sometimes object to the conscious element in guiding lucid dreams. In their view, dreams belongs exclusively to the subconscious mind and should not be meddled with. Yet I suspect that Jung himself was not as upset as some of his orthodox followers appear to be at the unconventional nature of lucid dreams. The great analyst had experienced lucid visionary states, both in sleep and in waking, and he understood that, while one can indeed remain conscious during visions, they are not merely products of the conscious mind. On the contrary, such experiences, for Jung, involve contact with an awareness which is more than merely personal. He reportedly had premonitions and received messages during these states. Lucid visionary states have been sought by a wide variety of cultures, not just for the sense of euphoria, freedom and radiant aliveness which they convey, but because they were believed capable of transforming and uplifting the individual to a divine level. Native Americans went on spirit quests in remote places to seek visions which would result in positive new directions in life both for the individual and the tribe. In ancient Greece, sick people journeyed to temples dedicated to Aesculapius, the God of medicine, to engage in incubation, a ritual designed to produce lucid dreams, which they hoped would provide healing, or the answer to a troubling question. This ancient practice of incubation was the topic of a recent study conducted by Dr. Deirdre Barrett at Harvard Medical School in which the participating students were instructed to focus on a problem of a personal, or academic nature just prior to falling asleep. Of those who remembered their dreams when they woke up, more than half reported that they contained solutions to the problem. This research dramatically confirms the validity of the oft-repeated recommendation to "sleep on it." It also supports the age-old intuition that dreams are sometimes not just dreams, as we may dismiss them, but keys that unlock a deeper wisdom within ourselves. Lucid dreams, in particular, offer a rare bridge between the state of waking and sleep, which may provide clues to the nature of consciousness itself. Science is just now beginning to demonstrate that they are also invaluable tools for cultivating creativity, self understanding and personal growth. So perhaps we should amend that reductive and condescending headline explaining away biblical prophecy -- "Biblical Angels Were Just 'Lucid Dreams'" -- to the far richer and more intriguing statement, "The Potential For Lucid Dreaming Makes All of Us Prophets!" WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.
By Ryan Jones 
According to a Pew poll published last week, 61 percent of Egyptians want to annul their nation's peace treaty with Israel. Another poll conducted by Jerusalem's Menachem Begin Heritage Center found that a small 56 percent majority of Egyptians want to maintain the current peace agreement with Israel, and that only 18 percent desire war with the Jewish state. However, 80 percent of respondents said relations with Israel, whatever form they take, should remain cold.
