Monday, June 15, 2009

Netanyahu Peace Speech: Israeli Prime Minister Appeals to Arab Leaders For Peace

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv, Sunday, June 14, 2009. Netanyahu on Sunday called for creation of a limited Palestinian state for the first time, saying it would have to be disarmed. Netanyahu made the call during a major policy speech about his Mideast peacemaking intentions. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner, Pool)

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsed a Palestinian state beside Israel for the first time on Sunday, reversing himself under U.S. pressure but attaching conditions such as having no army that the Palestinians swiftly rejected.

A week after President Barack Obama's address to the Muslim world, Netanyahu said the Palestinian state would also have to recognize Israel as the Jewish state _ essentially saying Palestinian refugees must give up the goal of returning to Israel.

With those conditions, he said, he could accept "a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside the Jewish state."

The West Bank-based Palestinian government dismissed the proposal.

"Netanyahu's speech closed the door to permanent status negotiations," senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said. "We ask the world not to be fooled by his use of the term Palestinian state because he qualified it. He declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel, said refugees would not be negotiated and that settlements would remain."

Netanyahu, in an address seen as his response to Obama, refused to heed the U.S. call for an immediate freeze of construction on lands Palestinians claim for their future state. He also said the holy city of Jerusalem must remain under Israeli sovereignty.

The White House said Obama welcomed the speech as an "important step forward."

Netanyahu's address was a dramatic transformation for a man who was raised on a fiercely nationalistic ideology and has spent a two-decade political career criticizing peace efforts.

Story continues below.
“”I call on you, our Palestinian neighbors, and to the leadership of the Palestinian Authority: Let us begin peace negotiations immediately, without preconditions," he said, calling on the wider Arab world to work with him.”Let's make peace. I am willing to meet with you any time any place _ in Damascus, Riyadh, Beirut and in Jerusalem."

Since assuming office in March, Netanyahu has been caught between American demands to begin peace talks with the Palestinians and the constraints of a hardline coalition. On Sunday, he appeared to favor Israel's all-important relationship with the U.S. at the risk of destabilizing his government.

But his call for establishing a Palestinian state was greeted with lukewarm applause among the audience at Bar-Ilan University, known as a bastion of the Israeli right-wing establishment.

As Netanyahu spoke, two small groups of protesters demonstrated at the university's entrance.

Several dozen hard-liners held up posters showing Obama wearing an Arab headdress and shouted slogans against giving up West Bank territory. Across from them, a few dozen dovish Israelis and foreign backers chanted slogans including "two states for two peoples" and "stop the occupation."

Police kept the two groups apart.
The Palestinians demand all of the West Bank as part of a future state, with east Jerusalem as their capital. Israel captured both areas in the 1967 Mideast war.

Netanyahu, leader of the hardline Likud Party, has always resisted withdrawing from these lands, for both security and ideological reasons. In his speech, he repeatedly made references to Judaism's connection to the biblical Land of Israel.

"Our right to form our sovereign state here in the land of Israel stems from one simple fact. The Land of Israel is the birthplace of the Jewish people," he said.

But Netanyahu also said that Israel must recognize that millions of Palestinians live in the West Bank, and continued control over these people is undesirable. "In my vision, there are two free peoples living side by side each with each other, each with its own flag and national anthem," he said.

Netanyahu has said he fears the West Bank could follow the path of the Gaza Strip _ which the Palestinians also claim for their future state. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and Hamas militants now control the area, often firing rockets into southern Israel.

"In any peace agreement, the territory under Palestinian control must be disarmed, with solid security guarantees for Israel," he said.

"If we get this guarantee for demilitarization and necessary security arrangements for Israel, and if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people, we will be willing in a real peace agreement to reach a solution of a demilitarized Palestinian state alongside the Jewish state," he said.

Netanyahu became the latest in a series of Israeli hard-liners to soften their positions after assuming office. Earlier this decade, then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon led Israel out of Gaza before suffering a debilitating stroke. His successor, Ehud Olmert, spoke eloquently of the need to withdraw from the West Bank, though a corruption scandal a disastrous war in Lebanon prevented him from carrying out that vision.

Netanyahu gave no indication as to how much captured land he would be willing to relinquish. However, he ruled out a division of Jerusalem, saying, "Israel's capital will remain united."

Netanyahu also made no mention of uprooting Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Nearly 300,000 Israelis live in the West Bank, in addition to 180,000 Israelis living in Jewish neighborhoods built in east Jerusalem. He also said that existing settlements should be allowed to grow _ a position opposed by the U.S.

"We have no intention to build new settlements or expropriate land for expanding existing settlements. But there is a need to allow residents to lead a normal life. Settlers are not the enemy of the nation and are not the enemy of peace _ they are our brothers and sisters," he said.

Netanyahu also said the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state. The Palestinians have refused to do so, fearing it would amount to giving up the rights of millions of refugees and their descendants and discriminate against Israel's own Arab minority.

Although the Palestinians have agreed to demilitarization under past peace proposals, Erekat rejected it, saying it would cement Israeli rule over them.

Nabil Abu Rdeneh, another Palestinian official, called on the U.S. to challenge Netanyahu "to prevent more deterioration in the region."

"What he has said today is not enough to start a serious peace process," he added.

In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called the speech "racist" and called on Arab nations "form stronger opposition" toward Israel. Hamas ideology does not recognize a Jewish state in an Islamic Middle East and the group has sent dozens of suicide bombers into Israel. Netanyahu also came under criticism from within his own government _ a coalition of religious and nationalistic parties that oppose Palestinian independence.

Zevulun Orlev, a member of the Jewish Home Party, which represents Jewish settlers and other hard-liners, said Netanyahu's speech violated agreements struck when the government was formed. "I think the coalition needs to hold a serious discussion to see where this is headed," he told Israel Radio.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Mubarak: Two-state solution is coming; Netanyahu will concede

Bethlehem – Ma’an – A two-state solution is coming sooner or later, said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Wednesday following a flurry of political activity in the region.Earlier the same day US Middle East Envoy George Mitchell affirmed US administration policy in the West Bank, saying he intends to stress a settlement freeze and push for a two-state solution. Mitchell expressed similar sentiments to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday. During an interview on Egypt TV, Mubarak commented on the latest developments, noting that he had expressed his determination for a two-state solution to Netanyahu when they were in Sharm Ash-Sheikh earlier this year. Mubarak said Netanyahu had not refused the idea at the time. Mubarak explained his interest in achieving a just solution to the Palestinian case, saying stability and peace for Palestinians meant stability in the region, including Egyptians. The Egyptian leader also spoke about his meeting with US President Barack Obama, noting that the leader promised that Israel would “lend a hand” in the halt of settlement construction. He also mentioned, however, that Palestinians must help by achieving unity.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Is there life after death—the Ian McCormack testimony?

Even though the subject matter of life after death is not a really a very healthy subject, yet, it still has to be dealt with in a manner that is sane and rational. As this blog is all about leading the readers of these articles on to eternal salvation by being washed under the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ through repentance, and even though it is not really all that wise to dwell too heavily on the subject matter of death, for the sake of this article, and for the specific reason stated above, it is my intention to do so here.

Before we continue on, you may come to a point of repentance, and thus salvation, right now, in the privacy of your own home, by simply clicking onto the How to be Saved page on the side of this site and then by reciting the believers prayer of repentance formatted therein, go on, do it now, before it is too late.

For those persons that are Born Again into the living spirit the prospect of life after death can be extremely exciting, for it is for certain, that after we do indeed have the death experience, we are guaranteed, that, even though the life has passed from our body, and the corpse will be placed into the ground, or incinerated, our spirits will still live on, and will be elevated up into Heaven to be with the Lord Jesus Christ for an eternity, and we will experience eternal life, or life without ending, and what a glorious prospect the thought of that is.

On the other hand, those that are not Born Again into the spirit the prospect of death is not so rosy. For those whose names have not been put down in the Lambs Book of Life the Lord cannot allow to enter into his kingdom, and even though the non believer may be shown the tunnel and the entrance to Heaven, the Lord has no other option other than to send them back down into the darkness of the tunnel, and into eternal hellfire - to there remain forever.

Most of these non believers are of the atheist, or agonist, variety and because they do not believe in the existence of a God, nor do they also believe in the existence of both Heaven and Hell.

Nevertheless, those that are of the aforementioned variety, atheist, or agonist, will not remain in their current state of non belief forever, for after having experienced death and they are sent into the burning Lake of Fire to there remain forever, and it will be at that point that they will suddenly become very interested in God.

Unfortunately, when that stage has been reached it is too late, far too late, for repentance, and there, in that state of eternal torment they must remain for a time without end.

For beginners, I have no doubts whatsoever that there is life after death, and here in a very concise manner is just how most would have described their (NDE’s) near death experiences

There really does seem to be a common denominator attached to near death experiences, and without going into all of the necessary details here, that common denominator appears to be the spirit of the dead person is lifted out of the body, and them most experience some sort of a tunnel experience, with a light at the end of the tunnel, and there at the end of the light is the Lord Jesus Christ, who either blocks the entrance to paradise that is clearly visible beyond the tunnel; or alternatively, allows the deceased persons spirit into paradise. That appears to be the near death experience very briefly, and of course there is a lot more detail attached to it than what I have mentioned here.

I have in my possession a tape called a Glimpse of Eternity, and describes how one man, a New Zealander by the name of Ian McCormack, had a death experience very similar to the one that I had described above, and I would highly recommend that you if you are able to secure this tape it is well worth the effort is having to do so, as I have personally watched it more than a dozen times, and will probably continue to watch it another dozen times well into the future. Ian has a website and it is http://www.aglimpseofeternity.org/ go to it now, and take a look you will not be disappointed.

I have reformatted the entirety of Ian’s testimony here, at the bottom of the page, in the hope that by doing so, you, the reader of this article, will do as I have suggested above, and click onto the Your Choice link as above at the top - and at the bottom of this page.

The supervisor where I work related to me a very similar experience to the one that Ian had, and it concerns both his mother, and his auntie who had both died for a time and where also drawn into a tunnel, with a light at the end of the tunnel, to be met at the end of the tunnel by the Lord Jesus Christ, who blocked their entrance to paradise, and told them to return from where they came, as it was not yet their time.

In summary: even if a person is an atheist, and does not believe a word that has been written in the Bible, then there is no doubting the similarity of both of these experiences, and the exact authenticity of both Ian McCormack’s, and my supervisor’s mother, and sister’s experience. There is no doubting whatsoever -- there is Life after Death.

Now here is Ian’s testimony
One night while diving for lobster on the small Island of Mauritius I was stung on my forearm by 5 Box-Jellyfish, which the local Creole fishermen called "invisibles" A sting from a Box-Jellyfish often proves to be fatal - as exemplified in Australia where 70 people are known to have died from their stings. Many books quote this particular type of Jellyfish to be among the most venomous creatures in the world.

By the time an ambulance arrived my body was totally paralyzed and necrosis had begun to set into my bone marrow. On route to the hospital I began to see my life flash before me. At this point of my life I was an atheist - but I knew I was nearly dead and I didn't know if there was life after death or whether there was just nothing. As I lay there dying, I saw my mother in a vision praying for me, encouraging me to cry out to God from my heart and He would hear me and forgive me (my mother was the only Christian in our family.) I didn't know what to pray and cried out that if God was real, could He help me to pray. Immediately God showed me the Lord’s Prayer, and for the first time in my life I prayed from my heart and gave my life to the Lord.

Death & Hell
The ambulance stopped and they placed me in a wheel chair and raced me into the hospital. The nurse took my blood pressure twice but could not find a pulse as my veins had collapsed. The doctors tried to save my life by injecting anti-toxins and dextrose into my body, but seemingly to no avail. Within a few minutes I seemed to slip away (apparently life ceased from my body for a period of approx. 15 minutes).

During this time I found myself in a very dark place, not realizing where I was. So I tried to find a light switch, thinking I was still in the hospital - but as I reached out into the dark I couldn't touch anything. Reaching to touch my face I found my hand go straight through it. It seemed so bizarre, as I knew I was standing there but couldn't touch any part of my physical body.

As I stood there I began to sense that this wasn't just a physical darkness but that there was something else there. I could feel a cold eerie feeling as though something or someone was looking at me - a spiritual darkness. From the darkness I began to hear men’s voices screaming at me telling me to "shut up" - "that I deserved to be there" - "that I was in Hell". I couldn't believe it, but as I stood there a radiant beam of light shone through the darkness and immediately began to lift me upward. I found myself being translated up into an incredibly brilliant beam of pure white light - it seemed to be emanating from a circular opening far above me (I felt like a speck of dust being drawn up into a beam of sunlight).

The JourneyI entered this opening to find myself inside a long narrow passageway or tunnel - at the far end of the tunnel I could see the source of the light - it was so radiant that it looked to be the centre of the universe. As I continued to look towards this light it seemed to draw me towards it at an incredible speed - I wasn't walking but was being translated along this tunnel towards the source of this light. I watched as a wave of light broke off the source and moved up the tunnel towards me - as it passed through me I could feel a wave of warmth and comfort flood my soul … it was incredible. This light wasn't just physical, but was giving off a living emotion … Halfway down another wave of light - this time it gave off pure peace - followed by another wave - of pure joy. Coming out of the end of this tunnel I found myself standing in the presence of awesome light and power - it seemed as though even the constellations in the universe must find their energy source from this focal point.

As I stood there I wondered to myself if this was just an energy source in the universe or if perhaps there could be someone standing in the midst of this light!!!!! A voice immediately responded to my thought and asked me "Ian, do you wish to return?" Return, I thought!!! Where am I??? As I looked over my shoulder I could see the tunne1 going back into darkness.

The Light
I thought - darkness - hospital bed - am I out of my body? - is this real? - am I standing here? - or am I in a coma having some bizarre dream? Am I in my body or out of my body?? (I could cognitively think of the two alternatives.) As I looked back towards the light, it was still there ... I responded "I don't know where I am, but if I am out of my physical body I wish to return." The voice responded "If you wish to return - you must see in a new light." "New light", I thought, "I'm seeing the light." "Are you the true light???" Words appeared in front of me "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5)." I had never read a Bible before in my life so I didn't know this was straight out of the scriptures. God is light, I thought - that is pure light - I see no darkness here, I have just come from darkness - I see no evil, no shadows - this is pure light - am I standing in the presence of God??? He knows my name and I didn't tell Him, only God could do that - He knows what I am thinking before I even speak, only God could do that. Then he must be able to see everything I have done wrong in my life ... no ... I don't want God to see that. I felt totally exposed and wanted to move away from the light and go back into the darkness where I belonged. I thought someone had made a mistake and brought the wrong person up. As I drew back towards the darkness a wave of light swept through me ... I felt pure unadulterated Love flow over me. Love I thought, how could God love me - I've taken his name in vain - I've slept around - I'm not a good man … but no matter what I said, waves of His unconditional Love continued to flow over me. I found myself weeping uncontrollably in His Presence. It was so amazing that He had totally forgiven me and accepted me as I was.

The waves of Love ceased and I wondered if I could possibly step into the light and see what God looked like. I was so close. ... I asked if I could step in. ..???.. I heard no response but thought if God could love me so much, He wouldn't mind …. As I stepped into the light I found myself disappear into it as it was so radiant - it had the intensity of laser light, yet you could look directly at it. The light seemed to absorb me into it - the centre seemed to be very bright so I aimed for it - I could feel a healing presence coming off this light that was healing my broken heart ... it was touching me deep inside my heart of hearts where no one gets to see … so beautiful.

God
Suddenly it opened up in the centre and standing in front of me was the most awesome sight - I could see a man standing in front of me, but he was not like anyone I'd ever seen before in my life. His garments were shimmering white in colour - garments of light - I could see His bare feet and His hands were outstretched towards me as if to welcome me. I knew I was looking upon God … as I looked toward His face the intensity of the light seemed to increase 7-fold - you couldn't make out the form of his face as the light was so bright - such purity, such holiness, such beauty. I asked God if I could step closer. I felt I could, I wanted to see His face. Moving closer waves of more Love began to flow towards me, and I felt very safe. Standing, now feet away, from the Lord I tried to see His face - but I didn't know that no man can see the face of God and live. And so, as I moved my face into the radiance that surrounded His face, He moved - and all His Glory moved with Him. Directly behind Him it opened out into a brand new World - green pastures, a crystal clear stream, rolling green hills to my right, mountains in the distance, blue skies above, to my left fields interspersed with trees and flowers. As I looked at the grass in front of me I could see the same light that was on the presence of God was radiating throughout this entire creation - totally untouched by man - perfect creation. And in my heart I knew I belonged here, that God had created me to live here - I knew I was home.

Return?I was just about to enter in and explore, when God stepped back in front of me, and asked me this question. "Now that you have seen - do you wish to step in or do you wish to return?" I thought, "I don't want to return. I wish to step in. I have no one to go back for and no one has ever loved me, all they've ever done is manipulate me and try to control me ... I have no one to go back for, I wish to step in." But God didn't move, so I looked back behind me to say "goodbye, cruel world", and standing behind me in a vision in front of the tunnel was my mother. And as soon as I saw her I knew that there was one person in my life that had shown me love, and that was my mother, and that she had prayed for me every day and tried to show me that this was the way. In my mind I thought, "If I am dead and I did choose to step into heaven, what would my mother think? Would she know I made it or would she think I went to Hell - because she knew I had no Faith? … I realized that it could break her heart and that she would have no reason to believe that God had heard my prayer in the ambulance and forgiven my sins. … I thought, "How can I do that to my mum, it would be so selfish" … and decided I wished to return.

God then spoke to me and said, "If I wished to return - I must see things in a new light." I understood that to mean that I must begin to see through his eyes of Love, Peace, Joy, Forgiveness, from His Heavenly perspective, not my temporary earthly perspective. Looking back towards the tunnel again I now could see a vision of all my family, and thousands and thousands of other people. I asked God who all these people were, and He told me that if I didn't return then many of these people would not get a chance to hear about Him….

I told God that I didn't know most of them and I didn't love them, but that I loved my mother and wished to return for her. God spoke to me and told me that He loved those people and wanted them all to come to know Him. I asked God how could I possibly return back down the tunnel and back into my hospital bed. He spoke and said "Son, tilt your head; now feel the liquid drain from your eye. Now open your eye and see." And I was immediately back in my physical body.

Back to earth
As I opened my eye, I was lying back on a hospital bed with my right leg elevated, cupped in the hands of the young Indian doctor who had been trying to save my life. He had a scalpel or some sharp instrument in his hand and he was prodding the base of my foot like a dead piece of meat. He wasn't aware that I was looking at him. I thought, "what's that man doing with my foot, what is he doing with that knife!!!!!!" At the same time something seemed to spook the doctor and he quickly turned his head to see my right eye open, looking at him… Terror struck his face and I got the distinct impression that he has just seen a dead man looking at him… My eye wasn't moving much and I could see the doctor thinking to himself that perhaps he had hit a nerve in my foot and caused the corpse to twitch, and that he had the evil eye looking at him or something. As for me, I was trying to grapple with what I had just seen. … Did I just see God, has He just given my life back??? As I lay there I heard the voice of God say "Son, I have just given you your life back." I said if that is true God, could you help me to tilt my head to the left and look out of the other eye, as I was getting sick of looking at the doctor’s terrified face. Strength came back into my neck and I opened my left eye to see a whole bunch of nurses and orderlies standing in the doorway looking at me as if the dead had just risen … As my eye locked onto theirs they began to jump backwards out of the doorway. From what I can ascertain I had been dead for a period of some 15 minutes. I prayed to God that night and asked him to heal me and enable me to walk out of the hospital. That night God completely healed me and enabled me to walk out of the hospital the next day.

I asked God what I had become, as I found my entire life was changing for good. God told me I was a Re-Born Christian and that he wanted me to read His Bible. I had never read a Bible and had never heard about being Born-Again. Over the next 6 weeks I read the entire Bible. I have never been the same, and believe that I saw our Lord Jesus Christ in His Glorified form (Rev. 1: 13 -18)

Psalm 91, the Antichrist, Satan and the Rapture of the Church

For many, many years now I have identified as being a fundamentalist (Bible believing) Born Again Christian. Now that is not to say that I completely satisfied with any aspect of the current state of today’s modern church movement.

On the contrary, I believe the church age as entered its final throws where the Bible describes it as being lukewarm, a condition that must exist so that the Antichrist can rise to power unrestrained by any leaders within the church, and in particular by the Christians themselves?

If the pastors of the churches themselves have been dumbed down, and we are not being told about Bible prophecy relative to world events, how then can a new Born Again believer expect to know the truth if he is not being told it by regular church attendance.

This condition must also exist so that the Prophecies can be fulfilled heralding the return back onto the earth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

For those that feel regular church benefit is of some assistance in their daily Christian walk, to those good folk I extend my heartiest blessings, and may they continue on with regular church attendance if they feel that is a requirement by God in their daily lives.

As for me, my experience with regular church attendance has left me feeling very cold and unwanted. Therefore, I attend church meetings only on the very rare occasions that there is a speaker of whom I really would like to hear, and see in person.

That being the substance of the matter there is nothing to prevent me from regular Bible reading and daily prayerful devotions so as to commit my ways over to the Lord, which I have made a habit of doing for a number of years now.

The information WebPages relative to the end times that I create on this blog have been derived my very limited knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, the daily news broadcasts, the Internet and other various resources.

I never ever write anything to upload to the Internet unless it can be absolutely proven by the scriptures themselves. Even though my interpretation may not be correct all of the time, it certainly is correct some of the time, and that is enough to prove just how close to the end off the age we really are.

As I had mentioned previously the main purpose of this site was to correctly identify the Beast of Revelation, for knowing very well in doing so the rest of the Bible prophecies would fall into place and then the Lord would return once more to reclaim the earth. I now believe that there may be a very strong likelihood that the retired British Prime Minister, Tony Blair fulfils that role.

I first became alerted to that fact when the late Barry R Smith said in one of his cassettes that the Antichrist would come forth and confirm a seven year Middle East peace treaty that would be in very similar form to an Irish treaty between the Protestants and the Catholics, and then low and behold what happened?

Just before leaving office Tony Blair confirmed a peace treaty between the Protestants and the Catholics and was then appointed to lead the international quartet of four towards Middle East peace. Could this be just a coincidence or not; personally, I do not believe the possibility of it being anything other the fulfilment of Bible prophecy right before our very eyes could be extremely remote.

Barry had also said that the power base for the Antichrist would be the EU, and that the Antichrist would be appointed as the president of the EU. Now, even though an official announcement has not as yet been made, it does seem to be the case with Tony Blair being the forerunner to achieve the presidency of the EU Council of ministers.

It would also come as no surprise to learn that the Council of Ministers were the inner tier of the ten governing nations of the EU - thereby fulfilling the prophecy of ten horns or ten crowns - constantly mentioned right throughout the scriptures.

As I had mentioned above, I make it a habit to read the Bible, and in fact I hardly ever leave the house unless I put on the armour plate of God, and as a part of my daily Bible devotions I read Psalm 91 which I have reformatted below. However, for the sake of this exercise I am concerned with Verses 13 and 14 of Psalm 91. 13 You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. 14 "Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

After having read this verse for a number of years – and after having realized that Tony Blair was the Antichrist – remembering that Britain was named Great Britain (before it was renamed to just Britain, possibly for that reason) it was almost like there was a light switched on when I had come to the realization that the word lion has been mentioned twice with the second reference referring to the great Lion, or Great Britain.

There are also two references to a snake, with the first reference clearly referring to the physical animal itself – a cobra – the second reference very clearly does not refer to a snake in the sense of an animal, but instead, refers to a serpent. With it being common knowledge that right throughout the scriptures themselves there is constant reference to Satan being described as being a serpent?

Therefore, there is no doubting that hidden all of this time in Psalm 91 there was a constant reference to the Antichrist and Satan, with the insinuation being that the Antichrist is British. In the context of the fact that we are told that the Lord will rescue us from both the Antichrist and Satan we are then told in the next line that the Lord will rescue us which could only refer to the Rapture of the Church.

Psalm 911He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
3Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
4He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
5Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
6Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
7A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
8Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
9Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
10There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
11For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
12They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
13Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
14Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
15He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
16With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

RPT-Obama wants "immediate" Mideast talks -Mitchell

OSLO, June 8 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama wants "immediate" talks between the Palestinians and Israel to forge a comprehensive Middle East peace agreement, U.S. envoy George Mitchell said on Monday.

"The President has told me to exert all efforts to create the circumstance when the parties can begin immediate discussions," Mitchell told reporters at the start of a Palestinian donors' conference in the Norwegian capital.

Mitchell, who is en route to the Middle East, said the aim of such talks was "a comprehensive peace and normalisation of relations" between Israel and its neighbours, which would also serve "the security interests of the United States". (Reporting by Wojciech Moskwa; Editing by Louise Ireland)

European elections: Sarkozy party and green coalition hail triumphs

Guardian.co.uk

First time since 1979 that sitting French president's party has won European Elections while Europe Ecologie scores high share of vote!

Two parties last night claimed victory in the French European elections as Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling centre-right UMP topped the poll and the new Europe Ecologie green coalition won a surprise high score to force climate change back onto the agenda for all French politicians.

Sarkozy's party increased its seats from 17 to around 30, far ahead of the beleaguered Socialist party, whose disappointing result saw the humiliating loss of around half its seats in the European parliament.

It was the first time since 1979 that a sitting French president's party had won a European election.

The government claimed the UMP's projected 28% of the vote was a seal of approval for its handling of the economic crisis and Sarkozy's high-profile French EU presidency last year.

The other major winner was Europe Ecologie, headed by the former May 1968 student leader and Europe veteran Daniel Cohn-Bendit.

The party was projected to come third with around 16.2%, less than 1% behind the Socialists.

The effects of this green surge were immediately felt in the wider political discourse.

The centre-right Prime Minister, Francois Fillon, carefully adapted his victory speech to stress the EU's fight against climate change.

Europe Ecologie's campaign was driven by key personalities in France, including the investigating judge Eva Joly, who led the inquiry into the Elf oil scandal, as well as the radical sheep-farmer José Bové.

In the Greater Paris and South East regions, Europe Ecologie overtook the Socialists.

Martine Aubry, the new Socialist leader, admitted her party was no longer credible, that it needed to stop internal divisions and profoundly reform.

A big loser was Francois Bayrou, the centrist who came third in the presidential election of 2007.
He had used the European campaign to attack Sarkozy and build support for another presidential bid in 2012, but appeared to commit political suicide in the final days of the campaign when he launched a highly criticised live TV slanging match with the Europe Ecologie leader, Cohn-Bendit.

His party had hoped to come third tonight but instead scored around 8%, far behind the green coalition.

The opposition to the government was split into several centre-left and extreme-left parties, with many still maintaining last night that their total combined vote showed a high anti-Sarkozy feeling in France.

Netanyahu to present Mideast peace policy next week

By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent

Tags: Israel News, Netanyahu

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday that he would deliver a major address on his foreign policy next week. The decision comes in the wake of U.S. pressure over the peace process with the Palestinians and Obama's address to the Muslim world last week.

Join the debate on Obama's speech on the Haaretz.com Facebook group

"Next week I will deliver a major diplomatic speech in which I will present to Israel's citizens our principles for achieving peace and security," said Netanyahu at the weekly cabinet meeting.

"Ahead of the address, I will be happy to hear the opinions of my coalition partners and of other figures in the Israeli public."

Obama has made repeated calls for Israel to halt West Bank settlement construction, and last week declared he would personally pursue a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a concept Netanyahu has so far refrained from publicly supporting.

"Over recent days I have read and heard different quotes that were attributed to me - but that I did not say," Netanyahu added.

"I wish to clarify that we want to achieve peace with the Palestinians and with the Arab world while attempting to reach optimal understanding with the U.S. and the international community."

Netanyahu has drawn fire in Israel over his failure to back a two-state solution; his comments on Sunday came shortly after opposition leader Tzipi Livni warned that this may cause the United States to withdraw its support for Israel.

At Sunday's meeting, Netanyahu declared: "My aspiration is to reach a stable peace that rests upon the foundation of security for the State of Israel and its citizens."

Monday, June 8, 2009

New World Order – and quotes

Novus Ordo Mundi – the New World Order – is a frightening conspiracy to impose global dictatorship. This scenario is orchestrated by an extremely powerful and influential group consisting of many of the world’s wealthiest people (notably the Rockefellers), influential political leaders, awry intellectuals, as well as big corporations. These people do not want money (they mostly have more than enough) – they want total control.

The term ‘New World Order’ has been used in different contexts by numerous politicians through the ages. The goal is to create worldwide autocratic government through a combination of political finance, social engineering, mind control, and fear-based propaganda.

Their agenda is to create world government without national and regional boundaries and without democratic checks and balances, subservient to the leaders. The intention is to effect complete and total control over every human being on the planet and to dramatically reduce the world’s population by two-thirds. They intend to make our world their world.

It is thought that increasing surveillance and control in the present day is just the lead up to the total and absolute control which is being planned for.


New World Order Quotes
“The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes” – Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli of England, in 1844 “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power” – Benito Mussolini, 1883-1945, Italian dictator“The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is the American Branch of a society which originated in England … (and) … believes national boundaries should be obliterated and one-world rule established.” – Professor of History Carroll Quigley, Georgetown University, in his book “Tragedy and Hope”

“Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organised, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it” – Woodrow Wilson

“(The New World Order) cannot happen without U.S. participation, as we are the most significant single component. Yes, there will be a New World Order, and it will force the United States to change its perceptions” – Henry Kissinger, World Affairs Council Press Conference, Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel, April 19th 1994

“David Rockefeller is the most conspicuous representative today of the ruling class, a multinational fraternity of men who shape the global economy and manage the flow of its capital. Rockefeller was born to it and he has made the most of it. But what some critics see as a vast international conspiracy, he considers a circumstance of life and just another day’s work.

… In the world of David Rockefeller it’s hard to tell where business ends and politics begins” – Bill Moyers

“We know in the not too distant future a half dozen corporations are going to control the media. We took this step (merger) to ensure we were one of them” – Time-Warner spokesman “We shall have World Government, whether or not we like it. The only question is whether World Government will be achieved by conquest or consent.” – Statement made before the United States Senate on Feb. 7, 1950 by James Paul Warburg, son of Paul Moritz Warburg, nephew of Felix Warburg and of Jacob Schiff, both of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. which poured millions into the Russian Revolution through James’ brother Max, banker to the German government.

“All of us will ultimately be judged on the effort we have contributed to building a NEW WORLD ORDER” – Robert Kennedy, former U.S. Attorney-General, 1967 “The real rulers in Washington are invisible and exercise their power from behind the scenes” – Justice Felix Frankfurter, U.S. Supreme Court “I am concerned for the security of our great nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within” – General Douglas MacArthur“For some time I have been disturbed by the way the CIA has been diverted from it’s original assignment. It has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the government” – President Harry Truman

“The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centres has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson” – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a letter written Nov. 21st 1933 to Colonel E. Mandell House

“The real menace of our Republic is the invisible government which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy legs over our cities, states and nation” – Mayor (1918-1925) John F. Hylan of New York. “Fundamental Bible-believing people do not have the right to indoctrinate their children in their religious beliefs because we, the state, are preparing them for the year 2000, when America will be part of a one-world global society and their children will not fit in” – Nebraska State Senator Peter Hoagland, speaking on radio in 1983 “When we got organized as a country and we wrote a fairly radical Constitution with a radical Bill of Rights, giving a radical amount of freedom to Americans … and so a lot of people say there’s too much personal freedom. When personal freedom’s being abused, you have to move to limit it. That’s what we did in the announcement I made last weekend on the Housing Projects, about how we’re going to have weapon sweeps and more things like that to try to make the people feel safer in their communities” – President Bill Clinton 3-22-94, MTV’s “Enough is Enough”

“Gun registration is not enough” – Attorney-General Janet Reno – 12-10-93 – Associated Press “Waiting periods are only a step. Registration is only a step. The prohibition of private firearms is the goal” – Janet Reno

“If a nation values anything more than freedom, then it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort and security that it values, it will lose that too. Unknown Americans must decide: Are we to be governed by Americans or by an international organization? I, for one, owe no alliegence to the United Nations nor will I give it any. I obey only the U.S. Constitution. You had better think about this issue, for if the U.N. can violate the Sovereignty of Haiti, Iraq and other countries, it can violate ours … The United States may not be the top dog 15 years from now. U.N. security council resolutions, backed by say Chinese soldiers, could be aimed at us” – Charley Reese – Orlando Sentinel

“We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected the promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world-government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the National auto-determination practiced in past centuries” – David Rockefeller in an address to a Trilateral Commission meeting in June of 1991

“From the days of Sparticus, Weishaupt, Karl Marx, Trotski, Belacoon, Rosa Luxenberg and Ema Goldman, this world conspiracy has been steadily growing. This conspiracy played a definite recognisable role in the French Revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the 19th century. And now, at last, this band of extraordinary personalities from the under-world of the great cities of Europe and America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their head and have become the undisputed masters of that enormous empire” – Winston Churchill to the London press in 1922. “The Trilateral Commission is intended to be the vehicle for multinational consolidation of the commercial and banking interests by seizing control of the political government of the United States. The Trilateral Commission represents a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power – Political, Monetary, Intellectual, and Ecclesiastical” – U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater from his 1964 book “No Apologies”

“I believe that if the people of this nation fully understood what Congress has done to them over the last 49 years, they would move on Washington; they would not wait for an election … It adds up to a preconceived plan to destroy the economic and social independence of the United States!” – George W. Malone, U.S. Senator (Nevada), speaking before Congress in 1957

“The invisible Money Power is working to control and enslave mankind. It financed Communism, Fascism, Marxism, Zionism, Socialism. All of these are directed to making the United States a member of a World Government …” – AMERICAN MERCURY MAGAZINE, December 1957, pg. 92

“The Air Force is suffering from pilots who have lost faith in their generals, jet engines that still don’t work after repairs and maintenance depots with ‘little quality or quantity of work being produced’, according to an internal Defence Department memorandum. The draft memo paints a troubling picture of the state of American air power. ‘The sad state of airforce readiness can be blamed on the Clinton Administration, which treats the military as a toy to be deployed for meals-on-wheels-type missions without due onsideration for it’s impact on readiness”, said Robert Maginnis, a retired Army Lieutenent colonel and an analyst at the conservative Family Research Council “The International government of the United Nations, stripped of it’s legal trimming, then, is really the International Government of the United States and the Soviet Union acting in Unison” From the American Jewish Committee’s official magazine “Commentary” of Nov. 1958, Pg. 376

“War to the hilt between communism and capitalism is inevitable. Today of course, we are not strong enough to attack. Our time will come in 20 or 30 years … The Bourgeoisie will have to be put to sleep. So we shall begin by launching the most spectacular peace movement on record. There will be electrifying overtures and unheard of concessions. The capitalist countries, stupid and decadent, will rejoice to cooperate in their own destruction. They will leap at another chance to be friends. As soon as their guard is down, we shall smash them with our clentched fist” – Dimitry Z. Manuilsky in a speech made in 1931 before the Lenin School of Political Warfare. (He became an officer of the U.N. Security Council in 1949)

“We must realise that we cannot co-exist eternally. One of us must go to his grave. We do not want to go to the grave. They do not want to go to the grave, either. So what can be done? We must push them to their grave” – Sewren Bailer, a Polish communist leader, who defected to the west, charged that in April, 1955 Khrushchev said this to a group of Warsaw Communists “We operate here under directives which emulate (sic) from the White House … The substance of the directives under which we operate is that we shall use our grant-making power to alter life in the United States so that we can comfortably be merged with the Soviet Union” – Rowan Gaither, President of the Ford Foundation, 1954

“The old world order changed when this war-storm broke. The old international order passed away as suddenly, as unexpectedly, and as completely as if it had been wiped out by a gigantic flood, by a great tempest, or by a volcanic eruption. The old world order died with the setting of that day’s sun and a new world order is being born while I speak, with birth pangs so terrible that it seems almost incredible that life could come out of such fearful suffering and such overwhelming sorrow” – Nicholas Murray Butler, in an address delivered before the Union League of Philadelphia, Nov. 27th 1915

“The peace conference has assembled. It will make the most momentous decisions in history, and upon these decisions will rest the stability of the new world order and the future peace of the world” – M. C. Alexander, Executive Secretary of the American Association for International Conciliation, in a subscription letter for the periodical International Conciliation (1919)

“If there are those who think we are to jump immediately into a new world order, actuated by complete understanding and brotherly love, they are doomed to disappointment. If we are ever to approach that time, it will be after patient and persistent effort of long duration. The present international situation of mistrust and fear can only be corrected by a formula of equal status, continuously applied, to every phase of international contacts, until the cobwebs of the old order are brushed out of the minds of the people of all lands” – Dr. Augustus O. Thomas, president of the World Federation of Education Associations (August 1927), quoted in the book “International Understanding: Agencies Educating for a New World” (1931)

“… when the struggle seems to be drifting definitely towards a world social democracy, there may still be very great delays and disappointments before it becomes an efficient and beneficent world system. Countless people … will hate the new world order … and will die protesting against it. When we attempt to evaluate its promise, we have to bear in mind the distress of a generation or so of malcontents, many of them quite gallant and graceful-looking people” – H. G. Wells, in his book entitled “The New World Order” (1939)

“The term Internationalism has been popularized in recent years to cover an interlocking financial, political, and economic world force for the purpose of establishing a World Government. Today Internationalism is heralded from pulpit and platform as a ‘League of Nations’ or a ‘Federated Union’ to which the United States must surrender a definite part of its National Sovereignty. The World Government plan is being advocated under such alluring names as the ‘New International Order,’ ‘The New World Order,’ ‘World Union Now,’ ‘World Commonwealth of Nations,’ ‘World Community,’ etc. All the terms have the same objective; however, the line of approach may be religious or political according to the taste or training of the individual” – excerpt from A Memorial to be Addressed to the House of Bishops and the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies of the Protestant Episcopal Church in General Convention (October 1940)

“In the first public declaration on the Jewish question since the outbreak of the war, Arthur Greenwood, member without portfolio in the British War Cabinet, assured the Jews of the United States that when victory was achieved an effort would be made to found a new world order based on the ideals of ‘justice and peace’” – excerpt from article entitled “New World Order Pledged to Jews” in the New York Times (October 1940)

“If totalitarianism wins this conflict, the world will be ruled by tyrants, and individuals will be slaves. If democracy wins, the nations of the earth will be united in a commonwealth of free peoples, and individuals, wherever found, will be the sovereign units of the new world order” –

The Declaration of the Federation of the World, produced by the Congress on World Federation, adopted by the Legislatures of North Carolina (1941), New Jersey (1942), Pennsylvania (1943), and possibly other states.

“New World Order Needed for Peace: State Sovereignty Must Go, Declares Notre Dame Professor” – title of article in The Tablet (Brooklyn) (March 1942)

“Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles tonight called for the early creation of an international organization of anti-Axis nations to control the world during the period between the armistice at the end of the present war and the setting up of a new world order on a permanent basis” – text of article in the Philadelphia Inquirer (June 1942)

“The statement went on to say that the spiritual teachings of religion must become the foundation for the new world order and that national sovereignty must be subordinate to the higher moral law of God” – American Institute of Judaism, excerpt from article in the New York Times (December 1942)

“There are some plain common-sense considerations applicable to all these attempts at world planning. They can be briefly stated: 1. To talk of blueprints for the future or building a world order is, if properly understood, suggestive, but it is also dangerous. Societies grow far more truly than they are built. A constitution for a new world order is never like a blueprint for a skyscraper” – Norman Thomas, in his book “What Is Our Destiny” (1944)

“He [John Foster Dulles] stated directly to me that he had every reason to believe that the Governor [Thomas E. Dewey of New York] accepts his point of view and that he is personally convinced that this is the policy that he would promote with great vigor if elected. So it is fair to say that on the first round the Sphinx of Albany has established himself as a prima facie champion of a strong and definite new world order” – excerpt from article by Ralph W. Page in the Philadelphia Bulletin (May 1944)

“The United Nations, he told an audience at Harvard University, ‘has not been able – nor can it be able – to shape a new world order which events so compellingly demand’ … The new world order that will answer economic, military, and political problems, he said, ‘urgently requires, I believe, that the United States take the leadership among all free peoples to make the underlying concepts and aspirations of national sovereignty truly meaningful through the federal approach’” – Gov. Nelson Rockefeller of New York, in an article entitled “Rockefeller Bids Free Lands Unite: Calls at Harvard for Drive to Build New World Order” – New York Times (February 1962)

“The developing coherence of Asian regional thinking is reflected in a disposition to consider problems and loyalties in regional terms, and to evolve regional approaches to development needs and to the evolution of a new world order” – Richard Nixon, in Foreign Affairs (October 1967)

“He [President Nixon] spoke of the talks as a beginning, saying nothing more about the prospects for future contacts and merely reiterating the belief he brought to China that both nations share an interest in peace and building ‘a new world order’” – excerpt from an article in the New York Times (February 1972)

“If instant world government, Charter review, and a greatly strengthened International Court do not provide the answers, what hope for progress is there? The answer will not satisfy those who seek simple solutions to complex problems, but it comes down essentially to this: The hope for the foreseeable lies, not in building up a few ambitious central institutions of universal membership and general jurisdiction as was envisaged at the end of the last war, but rather in the much more decentralized, disorderly and pragmatic process of inventing or adapting institutions of limited jurisdiction and selected membership to deal with specific problems on a case-by-case basis … In short, the ‘house of world order’ will have to be built from the bottom up rather than from the top down. It will look like a great ‘booming, buzzing confusion,’ to use William James’ famous description of reality, but an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece, will accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault” – Richard N. Gardner, in Foreign Affairs (April 1974)

“The existing order is breaking down at a very rapid rate, and the main uncertainty is whether mankind can exert a positive role in shaping a new world order or is doomed to await collapse in a passive posture. We believe a new order will be born no later than early in the next century and that the death throes of the old and the birth pangs of the new will be a testing time for the human species” – Richard A. Falk, in an article entitled “Toward a New World Order: Modest Methods and Drastic Visions” in the book “On the Creation of a Just World Order” (1975)

“My country’s history, Mr. President, tells us that it is possible to fashion unity while cherishing diversity, that common action is possible despite the variety of races, interests, and beliefs we see here in this chamber. Progress and peace and justice are attainable. So we say to all peoples and governments: Let us fashion together a new world order” – Henry Kissinger, in address before the General Assembly of the United Nations, October 1975)

“At the old Inter-American Office in the Commerce Building here in Roosevelt’s time, as Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Affairs under President Truman, as chief whip with Adlai Stevenson and Tom Finletter at the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco, Nelson Rockefeller was in the forefront of the struggle to establish not only an American system of political and economic security but a new world order” – part of article in the New York Times (November 1975)

“A New World Order” – title of article on commencement address at the University of Pennsylvania by Hubert H. Humphrey, printed in the Pennsylvania Gazette (June 1977)
“Further global progress is now possible only through a quest for universal consensus in the movement towards a new world order” – Mikhail Gorbachev, in an address at the United Nations (December 1988)

“We believe we are creating the beginning of a new world order coming out of the collapse of the U.S.-Soviet antagonisms” – Brent Scowcroft (August 1990), quoted in the Washington Post (May 1991 “We can see beyond the present shadows of war in the Middle East to a new world order where the strong work together to deter and stop aggression. This was precisely Franklin Roosevelt’s and Winston Churchill’s vision for peace for the post-war period” – Richard Gephardt, in the Wall Street Journal (September 1990)

“If we do not follow the dictates of our inner moral compass and stand up for human life, then his lawlessness will threaten the peace and democracy of the emerging new world order we now see, this long dreamed-of vision we’ve all worked toward for so long” – President George Bush (January 1991)

“But it became clear as time went on that in Mr. Bush’s mind the New World Order was founded on a convergence of goals and interests between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, so strong and permanent that they would work as a team through the U.N. Security Council” – excerpt from A. M. Rosenthal, in the New York Times (January 1991)

“I would support a Presidential candidate who pledged to take the following steps: … At the end of the war in the Persian Gulf, press for a comprehensive Middle East settlement and for a ‘new world order’ based not on Pax Americana but on peace through law with a stronger U.N. and World Court” – George McGovern, in the New York Times (February 1991)

“How I Learned to Love the New World Order” – article by Sen. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. in the Wall Street Journal (April 1992)

“How to Achieve The New World Order” – title of book excerpt by Henry Kissinger, in Time magazine (March 1994)

“The Final Act of the Uruguay Round, marking the conclusion of the most ambitious trade negotiation of our century, will give birth – in Morocco – to the World Trade Organization, the third pillar of the New World Order, along with the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund” – part of full-page advertisement by the government of Morocco in the New York Times (April 1994)

“New World Order: The Rise of the Region-State” – title of article by Kenichi Ohmae, political reform leader in Japan, in the Wall Street Journal (August 1994).

The “new world order that is in the making must focus on the creation of a world of democracy, peace and prosperity for all” – Nelson Mandela, in the Philadelphia Inquirer (October 1994).

The renewal of the nonproliferation treaty was described as important “for the welfare of the whole world and the new world order” – President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, in the New York Times (April 1995) “Alchemy for a New World Order” – article by Stephen John Stedman in Foreign Affairs (May/June 1995)

“We are not going to achieve a new world order without paying for it in blood as well as in words and money” – Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., in Foreign Affairs (July/August 1995)
Links and References Field-Marshall Watkins Retrieved from…. “http://wiki.gosurf.tk/index.php?title=The_New_World_Order”

Saturday, June 6, 2009

America’s Doom Industry

I do not believe in all of this buying and selling by supposed Christian Authors.

The word of God is liberally available for anyone to read and so I do not go along with or necessarily agree with anything that has been said or reproduced by those who chose to make money out of what is freely available for anyone to have, as it should be.

As an example of the type of scamming that goes on I have decided to reproduce the following article that deals with a so-called American prophecy expert named Hal Lindsay.

By Paul Boyer

What we see in contemporary American mass culture really is that apocalyptic belief has become big business. It's become an industry. It's a subset of the publishing industry. ... And books that become successful literally sell millions of copies. And what we're seeing is a kind of synergistic process where a successful televangelist will publish a book which is successful, which will then spin off into videotapes and movies and sometimes prophecy magazines, and even we have bumper stickers and wristwatches and other kinds of material, all of which reinforce popular belief and interest in Bible prophecy.

Who is Hal Lindsey?
Hal Lindsey is one of the most fascinating figures in the whole history of contemporary prophecy belief. Late 1960s! He's a campus preacher out in southern California. 1970, publishes a book, The Late Great Planet Earth, which is really a popularization of John Darby's system.

Theologically, there's nothing new there. What he does is link it to current events: the Cold War, nuclear war, the Chinese Communist threat, the restoration of Israel. All of these events, he links to specific biblical passages in the classic fashion of prophecy popularizes. And he and his ghost writer write the book in a very almost slang-like, very accessible language. It's not a heavy theological book at all. It's a popular book. And this book just took off and became the all-time non-fiction bestseller of the entire decade of the 1970s, and it represented the point at which publishers began to realize there's tremendous potential in prophecy books. And so many other writers begin to write books in the same popular way, which has an enormously broad appeal.

The significance of Hal Lindsey, I think, is he represents another one of those moments of breakthrough, when interest in Bible prophecy spills out beyond just the ranks of the true believers and becomes a broader cultural phenomenon. And people who had never paid much attention to prophecy at all hear about this book. They pick up the paperback. They see the way Lindsey weaves together current events and finds Biblical passages that seem to foretell those events, and they say, "Wow, this is amazing. There must really be something to this." So Lindsey's a very important transitional figure, I think. ...

Hal Lindsey seems to have had considerable influence not just on the part of the public as a whole, but at some of the highest levels of government. He's a somewhat boastful person, and it's not entirely clear how much to trust all of his stories, but he does tell of giving seminars at the Pentagon, seminars at the National War College, that were crowded, thronged with people. So there does seem to have been in the 1970s a considerable interest in prophetic interpretations, particularly as they related to Russia and the Cold War, at some of the highest levels of government. Go through the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and give a general thought about how popularizers turn to film, TV, paperbacks, and what's happening to the new way of disseminating an apocalyptic message in that time.

Prophecy believers since the time of the Millerite movement, the 1840s, have been extremely skilled at using the latest technologies. And that's been very much true in our own day. It's fascinating to see how this ancient belief system is being spread, really worldwide, by ... all the technologies, from mass paperback books to the Internet, World Wide Web sites, videotapes, even feature length films. The entire apparatus of modern mass culture is accessible to those who are believers and who wish to spread their message. ... It's also interesting to see how the prophecy popularizers view modern technology. On the one hand, they see all of these systems of mass communication preparing the way for the Antichrist. But in the meantime, they're quite ready to use these same technologies themselves, to spread the word of their particular interpretation of Bible prophecy.

Again, Hal Lindsey and The Late Great Planet Earth sort of set the standard for this, because Lindsey proved to be an enormously successful marketer of his product. And The Late Great Planet Earth, published initially by an obscure religious publisher in Michigan, is taken up by a mass market publisher and produced in a mass market format that is sold in supermarkets and airports and so on.

A film is made of The Late Great Planet Earth narrated, actually, by Orson Welles. So it set the pattern of a multimedia phenomenon that we now see with a number of prophecy popularizers today. ...

A perfect example of the mass marketing of prophetic belief is the Left Behind series that is now selling by the millions of copies in modern America. It's by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, and it's a series of novels which deal in fictional form with pre-millennial dispensationalist beliefs.

It begins with the Rapture. It deals with a small group of so-called Tribulation Saints that find each other during the period of the Great Tribulation and try to survive the rise of the Antichrist. They're very readable.

They're very well written. And they are being marketed in a very powerful and successful way.

The publisher has a web site. You can comment on the book. The publisher has produced a children's version of four kids going through the Great Tribulation. I understand that a film version is in the works. So the Left Behind phenomenon is a classic example of the way a very ancient belief system has broken through into the mass market of modern America. ... What does the Left Behind series tell us about the way prophecy believers are using the media today?

The Left Behind series of novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, I think, tells us some very interesting things about the way prophecy belief is being used today in this post Cold War period. For one thing, it deals with contemporary themes: the new communications technologies.

The characters in the novels are all using the Internet and communicating by e-mail, and so it's very up-to-the-minute in terms of the cultural material that's described. And yet it deals with a sort of fictionalized version of a very ancient traditional system of Bible prophecy interpretation: the Rapture, the Great Tribulation, the rise of the Antichrist. The religious themes, the apocalyptic themes of the series are very well known, very well established. But they're combined with these contemporary allusions that give the series a very up-to-the-minute quality. ... Is there a contradiction between these stories both using and featuring today's latest greatest technology (Internet etc.) and being true to the story of the Book of Revelation?

I think there's inevitably a kind of distortion and trivialization of what in some sense is a very profound insight. The apocalyptic world view is one that speaks to the human condition in very profound ways, in terms of the opposition of forces of chaos and order and so on. When it's translated into the world of contemporary mass marketing, contemporary Hollywood film techniques, inevitably, it seems to me, much of the depth, much of the complexity, much of the meaning that it might have for people in terms of encouraging them to really think about the nature of the world that we live in, gets lost, and it simply becomes another product to be consumed and forgotten.

Middle East peace process to move forward in next few weeks says Tony Blair

Tony Blair said yesterday that he expected the Middle East peace process to find "a way forward" in the next few weeks.
In a rare return to Westminster, the former prime minister said the month of June would be "critical" to efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Mr. Blair, now Middle East envoy for the Quartet of the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia, was giving evidence to the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.

He claimed success in assisting development in the Palestinian territories since taking up his role in summer 2007, but suggested the recent political situation had been an obstacle.

He expressed hope, however, that the commitment to peace from President Barack Obama, the Israeli government and the Arab world could bear fruit.

"I think the desire at the present time frankly is to see if we can get this going again," he told MPs.

"I think June will be a very critical month in this whole business."

Mr. Blair predicted that Mr. Obama would use a speech in Egypt on Thursday to signal the extent of the new American administration's "serious undertaking" in the Middle East.

He said other discussions were also taking place.

"I think at some point over the next few weeks there will emerge a way forward for this," he said.

"There is a lot of thinking that will be done by the Israeli government internally, by the Arab world, by ourselves as a quartet and the American administration, and I think people want to see is there a positive way forward we can achieve here."

Mr. Blair said peace in Israel and the Palestinian territories help improve stability in the wider region, such as Syria and Lebanon, but also in relation to the current Iranian regime.

"If instead of a dynamic that moves towards conflict you have a dynamic that moves towards peace, it gets harder for anyone, in this case the Iranian leadership, to impose a sense of conflict or inevitability of conflict on the region," he said.

The Middle East peace draft of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

RAMALLAH - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas presented a draft proposal on settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the US administration when he met President Barack Obama in Washington, a Palestinian source said Saturday.

“The plan includes timetables and mechanisms for carrying out the deals to push forward the political process,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

Abbas’s proposal was based on the US-backed Road Map peace plan, previous agreements reached between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and the Arab peace initiative, the source added.

Israeli-Palestinian negotiations were resumed in late 2007 following a push by former president George W. Bush but failed to progress.

The Palestinians say the non-stop construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the territory which will make up the largest part of a future Palestinian state, was the main obstacle to the talks.

Abbas, who held his first meeting with Obama in Washington on Thursday, asked for immediate help to stop the Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank, including the so-called natural growth of the settlements.

“He also asked for removing the checkpoints in the West Bank, lifting the blockade on the Gaza Strip and reopening the PNA’s office in East Jerusalem, taking in consideration that these were basic points in the Road Map,” the source said.

Obama told Abbas that he would send his envoy George Mitchell to the region next week to meet Israeli and Palestinian officials and discuss ways of pushing the stalled peace talks forward.

Obama also emphasised the need to create a Palestinian state alongside Israel as the best solution, reiterating his administration’s commitment to achieving this goal, the official said.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Obama’s statements generated more optimism for the PNA.

“The Palestinians and the Americans have a common interest in securing a fair and lasting peace in the Middle East,” Erekat added, stressing that the Palestinian statehood must be “viable”.

“Time is running out and the two-state solution must be applied, ” he added.

Meanwhile, Islamic Hamas movement, bitter rival of Abbas, said the meeting between Abbas and Obama was disappointing and did not bring any new thing.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said his movement saw Abbas’s commitment to the Road Map as “an uprooting of the resistance and a liquidation of Hamas” as the plan calls on the PNA to dismantle armed Palestinian groups.

“All the Palestinian factions rejected the Road Map except Abbas,” Barhoum said, adding that Obama’s statements were “insufficient wishes that are no longer useful under the Zionists’ increasing military escalation”.

Hamas wants Abbas to halt peace negotiations with Israel, and to adopt armed resistance against Israel to pressurise the Jewish state into giving the Palestinians their legitimate rights back.

Abbas, however, insists on pursuing peace talks with Israel until finding a fair and just peaceful solution to the conflict and establishing an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.