The Great Serpent, the Red Dragon, and the Soaring War Eagle

The book of Revelation gives us an incredible window into what is going on today and what is soon to transpire. Prophecy paints for us an awesome picture of three amazing symbolic creatures—a Serpent, a Dragon, and an Eagle.

What do these symbols mean? Is the meaning behind these symbols deeper than we can imagine? Why does God use symbols in the books of Revelation and Daniel?

Is the Great Serpent, the Red Dragon, and the Soaring War Eagle—Israel, China, and America?

If the following comments by a quite well known rabbi are any indicator, it now seems that is the instance? Now read on...

Iran calls Israel's existence an 'insult,' as prominent rabbi warns it's more than rhetoric

Aug. 17, 2012: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at the conclusion of an annual pro-Palestinian rally in Tehran. (AP)

TEHRAN, Iran – Israel's existence is an "insult to all humanity," Iran's president said Friday in one of his sharpest attacks yet against the Jewish state, as Israel openly debates whether to attack Iran over its nuclear program.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said confronting Israel is an effort to "protect the dignity of all human beings."

"The existence of the Zionist regime is an insult to all humanity," Ahmadinejad said. He was addressing worshippers at Tehran University after nationwide pro-Palestinian rallies, an annual event marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan.

The comments are "reminiscent" of a letter written about the Jews and signed by Adolf Hitler in 1919, Rabbi Marvin Hier, Founder and Dean of the Simon Wisenthal Center, says.

"Even though Ahmadinejad is attacking the state of Israel, we know what he means," Rabbi Hier said.

Israel considers Iran an existential threat because of its nuclear and missile programs, support for radical anti-Israel groups on its borders and repeated references by Iranian leaders to Israel's destruction.

Ahmadinejad himself has repeatedly made such calls, as has Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Rabbi Hier compares Ahmadinejad's comments to the notion found in Hitler’s letter referencing the "removal of Jews all together." "Twenty-two years later he implemented everything, and the same is true about Ahmadinejad," Rabbi Hier said.

"We assume it's only rhetoric, but we once paid a very high price for assuming Hitler was talking rhetoric," he said.

The leader of the Lebanese Shiite militant Hezbollah, which has ties to Iran, says his group will transform the lives of millions of Israelis to "hell" if Israel attacks Lebanon.

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah says the group has a list of Israeli targets that it can hit with few rockets.

"We can transform the lives of millions of Zionists in occupied Palestine to a real hell," he said.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a deadly, inconclusive monthlong war in 2006, when Hezbollah fired about 4,000 rockets at Israel.

Iran has denied allegations that it is seeking to build nuclear weapons, saying its nuclear program is peaceful and aimed at producing electricity and radioisotopes used to treat cancer patients.

Israel has been carrying on an increasingly public debate about whether to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. Israel's official position is to favor diplomatic and economic measures to persuade Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program, but Israel insists that Iran must not be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons. Israeli leaders say "all options are on the table," a clear reference to a military strike, if they determine that other measures have failed.

"You are not going to make a deal with the Iranians, not under their current leadership," Rabbi Hier said.

Iran has warned it would hit back at Israel if it is attacked, also threatening to strike at American interests in the region.

Ahmadinejad called Israel "a corrupt, anti-human organized minority group standing up to all divine values."

"Today, confronting the existence of the fabricated Zionist regime is in fact protecting the rights and dignity of all human beings," said Ahmadinejad, with a black and white scarf many Palestinians wear around his neck.

Iran and Israel have been bitter enemies for decades. Khamenei has called Israel a "cancerous tumor" that must be wiped out.

"This is a threat to wipe out the state of Israel," Rabbi Hier said. "We should take these people at their word."

Tensions between Iran and Israel have intensified since 2005, when Ahmadinejad said in a speech that Israel will one day be "wiped off the map."

But Rabbi Hier said he does not "subscribe at all with those who say this is a legitimate form of rhetoric."

"The only way to stop what's happening in Iran is for at least the United States and her allies to say, 'How long are we going to sit by and take this threat?'" he said.

The Iranian president has also described the Holocaust, when 6 million Jews were killed by German Nazis and their collaborators during World War II, as a "myth."

"Most intellectuals in 1939 and 1938 did not think Hitler was serious, they thought they knew better, but they didn't know better, and we paid a dear price that we were not on the right side of history," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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.

Can twitter help expose psychopath killers' traits?

Ted Bundy, most psychopaths are not Hannibal Lecters

Scientists are trying to discover if we can spot a psychopathic killer using anything he or she has written, from a tweet to a blog post. The researchers want to take methods used to analyze the language of psychopaths and apply it to the general population using social media, reports CBS News.

Professors Jeff Hancock from Cornell University, and Michael T. Woodworth and Stephen Porter from the University of British Columbia studied hardcore criminals, including “14 psychopathic and 38 non-psychopathic homicide offenders.”

According to the study’s abstract, psychopaths often use cause-and-effect descriptors like “because” and “since.” They tend to focus on material needs like money, food and drinks. There are fewer references to family or religion. There was a higher frequency of “uh” and “um,” which indicates that emotional events are difficult for them to describe. Finally, they tend to talk in the past tense, which indicates psychological detachment from an incident.

Because they take the text and calculate percentage, it makes it possible to use data as little as 140 character tweets. The study will be published in the Legal and Criminological Psychology journal.

 There might be one in your family. Just quietly, psychopaths make great CEO material

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.

How Close Is Israel To Attacking Iran?

Security and Defence: Taking a ‘bridge loan’
By YAAKOV KATZ

Most security officials agree the IDF can hit Iran’s nuclear program.

Ramat David Air Force Base is located in the picturesque Jezreel Valley in northern Israel. If it were not for the occasional F-16 fighter jet that takes off there every few hours, a visitor would be forgiven for mistaking its rolling green pastures for those in Tuscany.

Due to its proximity to the northern border, Ramat David will be a prime target for Hezbollah and Syria in a future war. For that reason the base has put a strong emphasis over the past year on “operational continuity,” a new IDF concept aimed at ensuring that during a future war, planes will be able to take-off, land to refuel and rearm, and take-off again.

The base’s trademark, however, is the F-16 fighter jets that are parked in its hangers and whose job it is to protect Israel from threats originating in the North. Every day or so, the jets are scrambled to intercept incoming civilian aircraft that fail to respond to Israel’s air traffic control and raise concern of a potential 9/11-like attack.

In July 1980, Israel received its first batch of four F-16s, which were flown to Ramat David by American pilots.

The delivery of the planes was somewhat of a fluke since they had originally been intended for delivery to Iran.

But in late 1979, then-US secretary of defense Harold Brown came to Israel and offered his counterpart Ezer Weizman the opportunity to purchase the jets, since they could not longer be supplied to Iran following the Islamic revolution. Israel immediately agreed and later used the planes in Operation Opera, the bombing in 1981 of the Osirak reactor in Iraq.

“At least we gained something from the Islamic revolution in Iran,” a senior IAF officer recently said in jest.

In 2007, Ramat David again played a key role in the bombing of the second nuclear reactor destroyed by Israel.

According to a report in Der Spiegel, the planes which bombed the al-Kibar nuclear facility in northwest Syria also took off from there.

While the IAF still has some of the old-model F-16s it received from the US in the early 1980s, it has spent the past 15 years upgrading its fleet, the backbone of which consists today of the F-16I known as the “Sufa” (Storm) and the F-15I known as the “Ra’am” (Thunder). Israel has a total of 101 F16Is and 25 F15Is.

If and when Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear facilities it will be looking to cause a storm with a lot of thunder.

Ramat David’s location in the North could make it the base the IAF would choose to use in the event that Israel attacks Iran, enabling it to conserve fuel for a mission during which every drop will count.

ULTIMATELY, THERE are three major questions Israeli military planners need to ask themselves before embarking on such an operation.

Firstly, can IAF F-15s and F-16s fly to where they need to go with the appropriate munitions? Secondly, will they be able to overcome Iran’s air force and air defense systems? And thirdly, will they be able to penetrate the facilities, some of which – like Fordow and Natanz – have been built deep underground? This is why, when it comes to the viability of Israel’s military option, the answer depends on who you ask.

Either way, the general assessment within the IDF and shared by the three recent chiefs of staff – Dan Halutz, Gabi Ashkenazi and Benny Gantz – is that Israel has the ability to knock out some of Iran’s key facilities. However, they agree that the extent of the damage would set the Iranian nuclear program back by only a few years, rather than completely destroying it. For this reason, one IDF general has termed such an attack a “bridge loan,” in reference to the short-term bank loan homebuyers use to tide them over until they can secure permanent financing.

This is primarily because Iran has already mastered the technology. Even if Israel causes significant damage to a number of key facilities in the nuclear production line, it is just a matter of time before Iran makes the necessary repairs and has the facilities up and running again.

In 2006, Moshe Ya’alon, who had just stepped down as IDF chief of staff and was mulling an entry into politics, gave a lecture at the Hudson Institute in Washington, and provided crucial insight into how the IDF viewed such an operation.

Firstly, Ya’alon said, Israel would need to attack a few dozen sites.

Secondly, the strikes would need to be “precise, like a targeted killing” – in reference to the IAF’s expertise in striking terrorists with precise munitions in the crowded streets of the Gaza Strip.

Thirdly, Israel would have to “disrupt” Iran’s air-defense systems and could use other capabilities to do so, not just aircraft, Ya’alon said without elaborating. The assumption was that he was referring to Israel’s electronic warfare capabilities, rumored to have been used successfully when IAF jets infiltrated Syria in 2007 to bomb the country’s nuclear reactor.

Ultimately, Ya’alon concluded, such a strike would be difficult but feasible.

Ya’alon holds by this assessment today even though some six years have passed since the Hudson lecture.

While Defense Minister Ehud Barak has argued that just nine months or so are left for Israel to stop Iran – before it moves into the so-called “immunity zone,” following which a strike would no longer be effective – Ya’alon has argued that this is not the case.

“Anything built by man can be destroyed by man,” he said earlier this month, stressing that as a former chief of staff he knew what he was talking about.

What is certain is that Iran has learned the lessons from Iraq and Syria.

Instead of keeping all of its eggs in one basket, it has scattered its nuclear facilities throughout the country, some of them in eastern Iran, making the attack mission even more difficult for Israeli aircraft.

Military planners would also likely feel compelled to attack Iran’s centrifuge fabrication sites, since their destruction would make it extremely difficult for Iran to reestablish its program – although the destruction of Natanz, Arak, Isfahan and Fordow on their own would be enough to set back the Ayatollah’s dream of obtaining the bomb. Other targets would likely include Iran’s ballistic missiles and launchers.

While the operation would be done mostly by air, Israel could, according to foreign reports, also potentially utilize its Jericho roadmobile, two-stage solid-propellant missile, which has ranges varying from around 1,900 to over 4,800 kilometers and is capable of carrying a one-ton conventional or non-conventional warhead. The latest version of the missile – called Jericho III and tested in early 2008 – has enhanced accuracy and puts every Arab capital, including Tehran, within striking distance of Israel.

Israel also has three Dolphin-class German-made submarines, which according to foreign news reports, can carry cruise missiles capable of delivering a large warhead to ranges of over 100 km. Some reports suggest that the subs might be capable of carrying nuclear-armed Popeye Turbo cruise missiles, granting Israel second-strike capabilities.

But the question ultimately comes down to how close Israel really is to attacking Iran. Judging by the events that preceded the strike against the Syrian reactor in 2007, it is highly likely that the meeting on March 5 between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama will be critical for Israel as it nears a final decision.

What the two leaders say to one another in the Oval Office will have an impact not only on what decision Netanyahu makes but also what happens the day after he makes that decision.

If, for example, Israel decides to attack, Netanyahu will need to ensure that he can depend on US support – diplomatic and military – in the aftermath. If Israel decides not to attack, Netanyahu will need to walk away from the meeting with a commitment that Obama will stop Iran at all costs, even with military force.

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.

The Dark Night in Denver—Groping for Answers

By Dr. Albert Mohler
The news hit the airwaves like a sudden onslaught, and the truth began to sink in. It has happened again. This time, 50 people shot while attending the midnight premier of the last in the Batman sequence, “The Dark Knight Rises.” According to press reports, a 24-year-old man burst into the crowded theater, wearing a gas mask and carrying an arsenal. After deploying what is believed to be tear gas, he opened fire with a shotgun, a rifle, and two handguns. At least 12 people are dead, and dozens are injured, many critically.

Over 100 police officers responded to the scene in Aurora, just a few miles from Columbine High School, where in 1999 two high school students killed 12 fellow students and one teacher in a rampage that also injured 21 other students. That school massacre became a milestone in the nation’s legacy of violence. Now, yet another Denver suburb joins that tragic list.

The inevitable media swarm focuses on the data first—the who, what, when, and where questions. Then they, along with the public at large, begin to ask the why question. That is always the hard one.

The same vexing but inescapable question comes every time a Columbine happens or an Anders Behring Breivik attempts to justify his mass homicide. How could such a thing happen? How could a human being do such a thing?

There is no easy answer to this question. The easy answers are never satisfying, and they are often based in the confused moral calculus of popular culture. We assume there must have been a political motivation, a psychiatric disturbance, a sociological pressure...anything that will offer a satisfying explanation that will assure us. Wave after wave of analysis is offered, and sometimes some horrifying clues emerge. But the moral madness of mass homicide can never be truly explained.

Christians are driven by instinct to think in biblical and theological terms. But, how should that instinct be guided?

The Reality of Human Evil

First, Christians know that the human heart is capable of great evil. Human history includes a catalog of human horrors. The twentieth century, described by historian Eric Hobsbawm as the century of “megadeath,” included a list of names such as Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Pol Pot, and Charles Manson. But those murderers did their killing from a distance, at least usually. Those who carry out the murders themselves are even more haunting to us. The young man arrested in this case, 24-year-old James Holmes, looks disarmingly normal.

The Fall released human moral evil into the cosmos, and every single human being is a sinner, tempted by a full range of sinfulness. When someone does something as seemingly unthinkable as this, we often question how anyone could do such a thing. The prophet Jeremiah spoke to this when he lamented,

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick, who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

Human beings are capable of unspeakable moral evil. We are shocked by such atrocities, but only because we have some distance from the last one. We cannot afford to be shocked when humans commit grotesque moral evil. It tells us the truth about unbridled human sin.

The Grace of Moral Restraint

Second, we must be thankful for restraints on moral evil. Christians must not underestimate the potential of any human being—ourselves included—to commit moral horror. We know ourselves to be sinners, and we know ourselves to be capable of sins we do not actually commit. Why do we not commit them?

God restrains human sinfulness. If the fullness of human sin was set loose, humanity would destroy itself. God restrains human evil by several means. First, he has created us in his image, and at least part of this image is what we call conscience. The moral conscience is a powerful restraint on human evil, and for this we must be exceedingly thankful. At the same time, the human conscience is also warped by the Fall and no longer fully trustworthy. We have developed the capacity to ignore the conscience, torture the conscience, and even misdirect the conscience by moral rationalization. Nevertheless, the restraint of the conscience is fundamental, and for that we must be very thankful.

God has also established institutions and orders that restrain human evil. As the Apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 13, God gave us the institution of government in order to restrain evil and to punish the evildoer. He has also given us the institution of marriage and the family and the larger order of society in order to restrain evil. We are surrounded by a complex of laws and statutes and social expectations and civic associations. All these function to restrain evil.

At the foundation of these restraints is the fear of God, which, even in an increasingly secular society, still retains a more powerful force than is often acknowledged.

Evil Answered at the Cross

Third, we must admit that there will be no fully satisfying answer to these questions in this life. Christians know that God is sovereign, and that nothing is outside of his control. We also know that he allows evil to exist, and human beings to commit moral atrocities. We cannot deny the sovereignty of God to be denied and evil allowed its independent existence, and yet we cannot deny the reality of evil and the horror of its threat to be lessened. We are reminded that evil can be answered only by a cross.

Theologian Henri Blocher explains this truth vividly in these words:

“Evil is conquered as evil because God turns it back upon itself. He makes the supreme crime, the murder of the only righteous person, the very operation that abolishes sin. The maneuver is utterly unprecedented. No more complete victory could be imagined. God responds in the indirect way that is perfectly suited to the ambiguity of evil. He entraps the deceiver in his own wiles. Evil, like a judoist, takes advantage of the power of good, which it perverts; the Lord, like a supreme champion, replies by using the very grip of the opponent.”

We must grieve with those who grieve. We must pray for Gospel churches in the Denver area who will be called upon for urgent ministry. We must pray for our nation and communities. And we must pray that God will guard ourselves from evil—especially our own evil. And we must point to the cross. What other answer can we give?

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.

World War Three has begun as the battle for Damascus escalates

If Damascus falls, Israel and its gas fields feared threatened

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report July 17, 2012, 2:32 PM (GMT+02:00)

Syrian military forces were gathered in Tuesday, July 17, to save Damascus.

Tanks and armored vehicles were positioned in strength in the capital’s centre and around government buildings. However, the noise and fury of battle in the Syrian capital Tuesday, July 17, were produced, Debkafile’s military sources report, by six battalions of Bashar Assad’s loyal Allawite militia in clashes with the rebels who captured the two southern suburbs of Meidan and Tadmon Monday. They are trying to pound the enemy into extinction before its forces reach central Damascus.

The two beleaguered districts are home to a quarter of the capital’s 1.8 million inhabitants.

The Syrian general staff has withdrawn its command headquarters to a well-fortified complex on Shuhada Street in the capital’s center.

If Damascus falls and Assad is cornered, the entire region stands in peril of wider repercussions, because neither he nor Tehran will take defeat lying down.

Debkafile’s military sources report their campaign will be paced and scaled according to the momentum of the Syrian rebels’ advance on Bashar Assad’s door-step, which could be drawn out and bloody.

On the Iranian-Hizballah list are Middle East oil installations as well as Israeli, US, Turkish, Saudi and Jordanian strategic targets.

Saturday, the Cypriot police captured a Hizballah terrorist before he could blow up an Israeli El Al flight and tourist buses in Limassol.

Tehran is feared to be focusing on the Mediterranean island as part of a plot to set Israel’s Mediterranean gas field Tamar on fire. The field is 80 kilometers west of Haifa

It would be a spectacular curtain-raiser for the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and for strikes against Gulf oil installations.

Navy Commander, Maj. Gen. Ram Rothberg called last week for an extra five warships and submarines to safeguard Israel’s burgeoning gas fields at the cost of a billion dollars.

The Syrian ruler has stoked up the menace by moving out of storage missiles and shells armed with mustard gas, sarin nerve gas and cyanide stockpiled for years.

They are on operational readiness at Homs, Latakia and Aleppo and, according to Nawaf Fares,

Syrian ex-ambassador to Iraq who defected to the opposition, may already have been used against rebel concentrations.

The longer the battle for Damascus goes on, the greater the danger that the Syrian ruler will release his poison-tipped missiles against Israel, Turkey and Jordan.

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.

The End Game of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad: And What that Might Mean?

The sociopathic war criminal, Bashar al-Assad

By Tom Payne
Whenever I initially mention the name of Bashar al-Assad I refer to him as the sociopathic war criminal, because it is accurate. This unflattering estimate seems to be shared by a growing number of his closest associates and it points to the potential for a quick end to this sad son who followed too closely in the footsteps of his father, the equally brutal Hafez al-Assad.

There are reports that three generals in his inner circle have fled to Turkey for sanctuary. Two of the generals were leaders of the Shabiha paramilitary that was savagely attacking the opposition and civilian populations. These commanders are Gen. Mohamed Tatouh, Deputy chief of Syrian political intelligence, and Gen. Mohamed Kodissia, deputy chief of the “Palestinian” Intelligence agency.

Evidently, the “Palestinian” addition to his title is a ruse as he is concerned with other intelligence issues. Finally, the Sunni Maj. Gen. Adnan Nawras Salou, former head of the chemical warfare authority (until 2008) left with six other generals in tow. These revelations come from the DebkaFile, a Jerusalem based news agency specializing in intelligence in the Middle East and elsewhere.

This is impressive news, but here is the bomb shell. These defectors were able to get their families out of Syria as well. This means that they were planning for weeks on a complex operation, and successfully executing it, underneath the noses of the supposedly well-informed intel network protecting Assad and his interests. This in turn means Assad is exposed and vulnerable and probably as scared and dangerous as a cornered rat.

What might this lead to? The permutations are endless, but the first likely option is the intervention of Iran to protect one of its only allies, Syria, their lifeline to Hezbollah. If a Sunni rises to power in Syria, where is Hezbollah? Who will store their missiles, as Syria now does (unless they’ve recently been moved)? Syria’s influence in Lebanon has been strong for many years and if Assad, the member of a Shiite sect, falls, who will support Shiite Hezbollah in the region?

The Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran

Hezbollah’s importance to Iran is only this. They have few missiles that can reach Israel from Iran. But they have tens of thousands that can reach them from southern Lebanon. Therefore, expect Iran to intervene in some capacity. It could be in this one: they realize they are about to be check mated (shah mat, the king is dead; chess came from Persia/Iran) so they do to the West what the West has done to them: they hurt us economically by actually shutting the Strait of Hormuz for weeks and then slowing traffic for months with the occasional strike. And they could decide to use all of those missiles in southern Lebanon while they still can since they may never have a better chance to hurt the Little Satan, Israel.

America should never forget that in the minds of these Muslim extremists, we are the Great Satan. Their missiles might not reach us yet, but their terrorists can. What it comes to is this. You may hate Israel or you may love Israel, but what ultimately matters is whether or not Israel’s interests and ours parallel one another. Should Iran make a desperation play to destroy Israel (an unlikely outcome) and cripple the economy of the West (a more likely outcome), can their be any doubt who we need to be working with and who against?

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.

“Super Event” Warned Near As Weather Chaos Pounds Planet

A grim report prepared by the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) for President Putin on the catastrophic flooding in the ‎Krasnodar region that has killed at least 144 people warns that our world is fast approaching what is termed as a“Chizhevsky Super Event” due to the rapidly growing number of sunspots that continue to hurl M and X Class Flares towards Earth causing continued and massive global weather chaos.

A “Chizhevsky Super Event” is named after famed Russian scientist Alexander Chizhevsky (1897-1964) who founded “heliobiology” (study of the sun’s effect on biology) and “aero-ionization” (study of effect of ionization of air on biological entities). Chizhevsky was also was noted for his work in “cosmo-biology, biological rhythms and hematology.”

Chizhevsky is most notable for his use of historical research (historiometry) techniques to link the 11 year solar cycle, Earth’s climate and the mass activity of peoples, research that was confirmed by Western scientists earlier this decade in two important studies titled Amplifying the Pacific Climate System Response to a Small 11-Year Solar Cycle Forcing and Synchronized Northern Hemisphere climate change and solar magnetic cycles during the Maunder Minimum.

Important to note, this report says, are the “four components” of Chizhevsky’s eleven year cycle and their approximate lengths: 1) a three year period of minimum activity characterized by passivity and autocratic rule; 2) a two year period during which masses begin to organize under new leaders and one theme; 3) a three year period of maximum excitability, revolution and war; 4) a three year period of gradual decrease in excitability until the masses are apathetic.

Of these “four components”, this report continues, our world has now entered into the Third Period: A three year period of maximum excitability, revolution and war.

According to Chizhevsky’s research, RAS scientists state in this report, the defining characteristics to be looked for when our world enters into a Third Period “Super Event” timeline is a rapid overturning of existing weather

phenomena combined with an equally sudden major changing of the global social-political power structures all occurring during a period of Solar Maximum.

Interesting to note about the current Solar Maximum we are in was the 23 March 2009 scientific article titled Space Storm Alert: 90 Seconds From Catastrophe published by New Scientist that eerily describes somewhat exactly what is now occurring in the United States following their East Coast region being struck by what is being called a “derecho” storm that, in part, says:

“It is midnight on 22 September 2012 and the skies above Manhattan are filled with a flickering curtain of colourful light. Few New Yorkers have seen the aurora this far south but their fascination is short-lived. Within a few seconds, electric bulbs dim and flicker, then become unusually bright for a fleeting moment. Then all the lights in the state go out. Within 90 seconds, the entire eastern half of the US is without power.”

According to NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center web site, a derecho (pronounced “deh-REY-cho”) is a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms.

Chizhevsky’s research, however, states that derecho storms are but a precursor to the much more damaging events associated with a “Super Event”, a finding made even more terrifying with the 2008 news that NASA’s five THEMIS spacecraft had discovered a breach in Earth’s magnetic field ten times larger than anything previously thought to exist. Solar wind can flow in through the opening to “load up” the magnetosphere for powerful geomagnetic storms.

RAS scientists in this report blame this “loading up” of the magnetosphere caused by solar flares for causing not only the catastrophic Russian floods, but also our present global weather chaos, to include: 1.) The unrelenting heat wave hitting the United States that has caused at least 30 deaths, hundreds of forest fires and billions in crop damage. 2.) The torrential floods and rain continuing to batter the United Kingdom. 3.) The catastrophic floods that have hit India leaving nearly 100 dead and millions homeless. 4.) The historic and severe drought that has hit northern and central Mexico. 5.) The historic drought that has ravaged Brazil’s northeast.

Most important to note about a “Chizhevsky Super Event”, this report concludes, is that while no one is able to predict exactly what the “main event” may be, the historic record leaves no doubt whatsoever that it is coming with terrifying suddenness and will most certainly upend the entire world as we know it.

 Of particular concern for this particular “Chizhevsky Super Event”, say RAS scientists in this report, would be the sudden outbreak of global war combined with an equally catastrophic global flu outbreak such as that which happened last century during the Solar Maximum decade of 1910-1918 that saw the outbreak of World War I and the Spanish Flu Pandemic that combined killed estimated 500 million people.

Not known to but a few researchers was that in 2001 Canadian researchers warned that influenza epidemics are more likely to sweep the globe when the sun develops spots and sends its excess energy barreling toward Earth such as it is doing now.

“Epidemics are four times as likely during solar maxima,” said Ken Tapping, a solar physicist with the National Research Council, pointing to the striking correlation between flu pandemics and the peaks of the 11-year sunspot cycle, also known as the solar maximum. He and two colleagues have compared flu and solar records dating back to 1729 and found a statistically significant connection. There were flu epidemics, some of them fatal to millions of people, in 1729, 1830, 1918, 1957, 1968 and 1977, years when solar activity and flares bombarded the Earth with extra radiation and cosmic rays.

The effects of solar cycles on influenza epidemics is especially important to note as along with the current global weather chaos the highly deadly Bird Flu virus has once again emerged in Mexico, China andIndonesia.

Of greatest concern, however, to global health authorities is the mysterious respiratory and neurological disease that has killed, so far, at least 64 Cambodia children this past week that is feared to be a Bird Flu mutation more deadly than any ever seen before.

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 does a loving God allow Christians and none Christians to suffer in pain and suffering, sometimes for decades and decades?

Mental anguish, pain and suffering
 is the common lot for the majority of mankind

‘Earthquake Claims 10,000 in India.’ ‘Thousands Perish in Bangladesh’s Flood.’

Tragedy is constantly in the news, including large-scale, ‘senseless’ disasters that snuff out the lives of thousands, such as the terrorist attacks on New York’s World Trade Centre. Nor is tragedy confined to today—it was not too long ago that an evil regime wiped out 6 million Jews and many others.

In addition to the headline events, each of us suffers pain at one time or another—illness, headaches, accidents and death. It is not surprising, when the burdens become too great, that people cry out to God in anguish, ‘Why don’t you do anything? Don’t you care?

Death and suffering is everywhere, and as that is the case, then how can how can an all-powerful, loving God allow suffering to continue. The bottom line is that multitudes and have rejected God because of suffering and as a result have more than likely found themselves suffering in eternal damnation at the end of their lives for having done so.

Charles Darwin rejected Christianity after the death of his daughter and then one would suppose came up with his theory of evolution. Famous media mogul Ted Turner lost his faith after his sister died.

After having injured my back as a young man, I have been in constant and regular pain for decades and decades, 38 years to be precise. At the time of the incident, I was working as a labourer in a railway siding loading soft drinks into railway trucks.

When it happened, I knew what the cause of the intense and severe pain to the lower back region was the result of - a slipped disc in the lower vertebrae.

However, that was only the start of my problems as I soon learnt there was not one GP who was willing, or able, to do anything about the predicament that I had found myself in.

After having visited so many over the years to be told all I had was mild arthritis, and that there was nothing at all that could be done. I was left completely despairing and in a state of bewilderment as there was nothing at all that I could think of to relieve the pain.

What that meant was that for decades and decades anytime that I did anything at all that was strenuous or involved the use of my back that result was that I suffered sometimes for days and days until my back started to return to normal.

The bottom line out of all of this is that there was nowhere that I could go to find a cure to this quite intense pain. That was until recently when I was talking over the fence to my next-door neighbour who told me that he also had been suffering with intense pain in the lower back region and that he had gone to a highly recommended chiropractor who had worked a miraculous cure returning his back to normal.

I followed that advice and after only having made one visit to the chiropractor managed to have the disc pushed back into place resulting with a 70% cure. Subsequent visits have only improved the situation further.

As a young man of just 18, I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my saviour and deliverer and then just 4 years later I was inflicted by Satan with what was to become a lifetime of suffering and pain. However there was never ever a time over those forty years of what was at times sheer torment did I ever give up on the Lord, just as the Lord had never ever given up on me.

As that is the case, if there are those out there who may be in the same situation that I was in and are thinking of giving up on the Lord, DON'T DO IT, is my best advice, just hang on in there with the Lord and eventually he will see you through.

Those who put their trust in Christ as Saviour have a wonderful hope—they can spend eternity with the Lord in a place where there will be no more death.

‘And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away’ (Revelation 21:4).

Indeed, death is really the path that opens the way to this wonderful place, called Heaven. If we lived forever, we would never have an opportunity to shed this sinful state.

However, God wants us to have a new body, and He wants us to dwell with Him forever.

In fact, the Bible states that ‘precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints’ (Psalm 116:15). Death is ‘precious’ because sinners who have trusted Christ will enter into the presence of their Creator, in a place where righteousness dwells.

IT IS SATAN, NOT GOD, WHO INFLICTS PAIN AND SUFFERING ON THE CHRISTIAN, AND THE NONE CHRISTIAN ALIKE, SO THAT HE MAY DRIVE THE SUFFERER INTO ETERNAL DAMNATION. DO NOT LET HIM DO THAT TO YOU.

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.