What has been missing from this debate is not just a serious conversation – and public debates – about the constitutional consequences of altering the Constitution but also a very serious debate about the change of direction needed to secure Indigenous advancement.
Australian governments, and their various departments, are advised by many Indigenous advisory bodies, many very well-funded ones. The answer for Indigenous advancement is not a new constitutional location for a lobby group – it is confronting what has gone wrong in the past. That means rigorously measuring successes and failures, demanding that every action is measured against real metrics, rather than the continual flow of feel-good money with no testing of outcomes.
This truly arduous work could have begun decades ago.
Noel Pearson said this week, that policy must return to a dual focus on rights and responsibilities. He observed correctly that many on the left bristle at any mention of responsibility.
What he failed to explain is how yet another bureaucracy – one entrenched in the Constitution and whose existence will be quarantined from parliamentary oversight – will confront this challenge.
How will the voice challenge, let alone discard, the failed shibboleths of those Indigenous activists who are opposed to focusing on the responsibilities each of us – regardless of race – has towards our children, our family, our friends and our society, responsibilities that secure the best educational, health, social and financial outcomes?
Well-meaning leaders at the forefront of Indigenous affairs for the past 40 years haven’t managed to move the dial enough to significantly improve the lives of the most vulnerable Indigenous people. A very large industry has a track record of very poor outcomes.
Cementing a lobby group into the Constitution won’t alter that direction. It risks entrenching the same “rights” agenda. We know that from the Uluru Statement from the Heart, from the demands of voice activists such as Thomas Mayo and others, further undermining the need for a transformative cultural change towards responsibility.
These difficult issues are being drowned out by a deliberately emotional and disingenuous campaign, and by Farnsy’s 1986 song. Recognition is one thing. So is listening to a lobby group. But giving them constitutional rights is absurd.
This has been taken from the excellent article by Janet Albrechtsen Columnist for The Australian Saturday, 08/09/2023
A team of scientists has recently uncovered new evidence of how geckos can deftly scuttle around vertical surfaces without falling off. The animals studied to reveal this ‘new trick to their stick’ were tokay geckos (Gekko gecko).
The research article states that gecko feet, “possess the most hierarchically integrated natural structures that span seven orders of magnitude in size…” The images opposite demonstrate what that means. The ‘hierarchical’ structure of a gecko’s foot (fig. 2) is shown photographed by an electron microscope (fig. 3). Many rows of extremely fine hairs (setae) can be seen, about 1/10 of a millimetre long and densely packed, with 5,000 per square mm (three million per square inch). The end of each seta has up to 1,000 branches, ending in spoonlike structures (spatulae), approximately 0.2–0.5 μm (micrometres—less than 1/50,000 inch) long. All of this is constructed at the molecular level from proteins by molecular machinery, encoded on the DNA—an astounding biological fact!
When these microscopic structures come into contact with a surface, van der Waals (vdW) forces come into play. These are weak electrostatic forces that operate at very small distances. vdW forces are very short-range, decreasing with the sixth power of distance. This is why gecko feet, and gecko-inspired biomimetic sticky tape, need extremely fine hairs so the surfaces can be close enough for vdW forces to operate.
The fact that geckos’ spatulae are so numerous means that a huge surface area is available, producing an overall large attracting force. Tokays demonstrate this in that their entire weight can be suspended from a single, upwardly pointing toe, in contact with a smooth, vertical surface.
Terrific tokay technology
Previously, it was discovered that tokay feet and skin have superhero-like abilities to repel liquids, leading to new gecko-inspired materials. Gecko toe structures have inspired new materials (‘nano-tape’) that take advantage of vdW forces. Under normal conditions, the tape is completely non-sticky, but under shear force, the material’s engineered coating induces vdW forces, enabling the tape to stick strongly to any surface. This allows objects to be lifted or pulled, or surfaces to be climbed by robots (or people) using the tape. As soon as the shear force is reduced, the tape simply falls away from the surface in a similar fashion to how geckos ‘unstick’ their feet.
More evidence for intelligent design. How could this evolve by random chance. It is ludicrous to think that our schools and universities are teaching evolution as the means by which our complex information-based universe with such diverse living creatures came into being without having any possible plausible mechanism and explanation for how it could have happened.
The new James Webb Space Telescope can ‘see’ much farther than ever, probing distant realms of the universe never observed before.
Some of its earliest images were of galaxies with highly red-shifted light, thus interpreted as very remote and among the first ones formed after the supposed Big Bang (BB).
As reported last issue, fully mature spiral galaxies were found, not ones in their early stages—much bigger than thought possible. In BB theory, gravity should not have had the time to assemble them, so headlines carried statements like “massive galaxies that shouldn’t exist”. Now a new study suggests the galaxies could be up to ten times more massive than first estimated, making the BB’s problem that much worse.
Despite this, secular astronomers are unlikely to abandon the BB, the favoured way of explaining how the universe supposedly made itself with no Creator. Rather, rescue attempts will involve ‘auxiliary hypotheses’ to try to explain the observations.
The ideas of dark matter, dark energy, and inflation were similarly postulated to overcome conflicts between theory and observation. No one has ever seen or sampled dark matter, for example, but without it, BB theory doesn’t work. So, expect various refinements and modifications to salvage the theory in due course.
Niels Bohr Institute, James Webb’s ‘too massive’ galaxies may be even more massive, phys.org, 17 May 2023.
There is increasing evidence of the remarkable stability of our solar system. CMI has reported on this previously (Creation Vol 44, Issue 3, page 8, 2022).
Medium-sized planets are common in other systems, but there are no medium-sized planets in our solar system; instead, we have gas giants and ice giants on one hand, and small rocky planets like our Earth on the other. Using the Nice model, scientists previously found that the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn regulate the orbits of the smaller planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars), and have prevented them from becoming unstable and falling closer to the Sun. A further study has recently suggested that our solar system has built-in constraints on the degree of movement of inner planet orbits, preventing them from becoming increasingly chaotic and colliding. Moreover, the latest mathematical modelling (Mogavero, F., Hoang, N.H., and Laskar, J., Timescales of chaos in the inner solar system: Lyapunov spectrum and quasi-integrals of motion, Phys. Rev. X, 13:021018, 2023), suggests that certain symmetries in the orbits of the planets restrict the chaotic forces at work. Yet such stability is not evident in other planetary systems in the Milky Way.
The remarkable stability and order of our solar system point to the wonderful design by an intelligent and benevolent God. The chaotic factors would also limit the age of the solar system, pointing to a maximum age less than naturalism allows. As the creation account in Genesis records, the sun, moon, and planets have been intelligently placed in their positions for divine purposes, “for signs and for seasons, and for days and years” (Genesis 1:14).
adapted from REMARKABLE EVIDENCE OF A DESIGNED, YOUNG, AND STABLE SOLAR SYSTEM by Andrew Sibley Creation Magazine, volume 45, Issue 4, 2023
Christians must beware of this DANGEROUS new ideology – Gender Identity Theory.
In this video, Martyn Iles reveals why gender identity theory is unbiblical and harmful to society, and what we should do about its rise in popularity.
The only thing that is truly important is what God, our Creator says about who we are. For one we are made in the image of God which refers first to what we are called to be.
Martyn looks at the following three identities. 1. Humans as God made us. 2. Humans as Sin spoiled us. 3. Humans as Jesus Christ restored us.
1. Humans as God made us: We were made perfect without sin and death.
2. Humans as sin spoiled us:
“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” Mark 7:21-23
3. Humans as Jesus Christ restored us:
“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” 1 Corinthians 15:22
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:4-7
In 301 A.D., Armenia became the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as its state religion. Now, more than 1,700 years later, Armenian Christians are facing a religious and cultural genocide — for the second time in a century.
This is just another of the Biblical prophesied end times signs that are unfolding in our day.
A recent report issued by the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague urgently warned that neighboring Azerbaijan’s blockade of the only road connecting Armenia to the Nagorno-Karabakh region is preventing desperately needed food, medical supplies and other essentials from reaching the 120,000 people, mostly Christians, who live there.
“Starvation is the invisible genocide weapon,” the report states. “Without immediate dramatic change, this group of Armenians will be destroyed in a few weeks.” The report goes on to say that there is a “reasonable basis to believe that genocide is being committed against Armenians.”
This group of Christians is not months or years, but mere weeks away from extermination. The situation could not be more urgent, and both U.S. and international government officials must pressure Azerbaijan to end the blockade immediately so these much-needed supplies can reach Nagorno-Karabakh. This genocide must not be allowed to happen in plain view on our collective watch.
Like all ethnic conflicts, the history of the Nagorno-Karabakh area is complicated. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan claimed the region, sparking a land dispute that led to the first Nagorno-Karabakh war in 1994. Armenia gained primary control of the territory in the end, but tensions flared again in 2020 when Azerbaijan launched a war of choice to retake land. Russia brokered a peace deal, with Azerbaijan gaining control of large areas of the region. Armenia is now connected to Nagorno-Karabakh via a small strip of land called the Lachin corridor. But Azerbaijan is blocking access to this strip, seeking a final solution.
A line of 19 trucks and 360 tons of food has been parked for two weeks waiting for permission to cross the Lachin corridor. Natural gas has been cut off since March and other energy supplies remain spotty at best. Families have been separated and surgeries canceled.
Genocide has been defined as the killing of people not for what they have done but because of who they are. What we are witnessing in this region is more than a mere land dispute. Muslim-majority Azerbaijan’s aggression against Christian-majority Armenia is distinctly religious in nature, and the ongoing blockade is only the most recent example of Azerbaijan attempting to erase Armenia’s cultural and religious heritage. Azerbaijan, with Turkey’s backing, is really slowly strangling Nagorno-Karabakh. They’re working to make it unlivable so that the region’s Armenian-Christian population is forced to leave, that’s what’s happening on the ground.
Dr. David Curry is President and CEO of Global Christian Relief (GCR), America’s leading watchdog organization focused on the plight of persecuted Christians worldwide.
Finnish Member of Parliament Päivi Räsänen, acquitted more than a year ago after being prosecuted for voicing her traditional Christian beliefs about marriage and sexuality, is back in court, facing charges of “hate speech.”
Räsänen, a parliamentarian with over 25 years of service, and Bishop Juhana Pohjola arrived at the Helsinki Court of Appeal this week to face the prosecution’s appeal of their acquittal.
Päivi Räsänen holds a bible as she arrives with her husband, Niilo Rasanen, to attend a court session at the Helsinki District Court in Helsinki, Finland, on January 24, 2022.
“Everyone should be able to share their beliefs without fearing censorship by state authorities. With God’s help, I will remain steadfast,” Räsänen told her supporters.
The prosecution kicked off the proceedings with arguments against the defendants, focusing on a booklet written by Räsänen nearly two decades ago and stating that the content was “insulting” and violated “sexual rights.”
The prosecutor argued that the use of the word “sin” in Räsänen’s booklet was “degrading” and that her interpretation of Bible verses was “criminal.”
“The point isn’t whether it is true or not but that it is insulting,” the prosecutor stated, according to ADF International.
“We can limit freedom of expression in the outward expression of religion,” the prosecution added. “You can cite the Bible, but it is Räsänen’s interpretation and opinion about the Bible verses that are criminal.”
Last year, the Helsinki District Court cleared both Räsänen and Bishop Pohjola of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland of similar charges. The prosecution appealed this decision, arguing that the court had “misinterpreted” Räsänen’s tweet and reached an incorrect conclusion.
Paul Coleman, Executive Director of ADF International, was present in court to support the defendants.
“Criminalizing speech through so-called ‘hate-speech’ laws shuts down important public debates and endangers democracy,” he said.
Räsänen is facing multiple charges related to the content of the 2004 booklet, her participation in a radio debate in 2019 and a tweet containing Bible verses directed at her church leadership.
Bishop Pohjola is also facing trial for publishing Räsänen’s pamphlet, Male and Female He Created Them: Homosexual relationships challenge the Christian concept of humanity, nearly 20 years ago. The charges against both defendants fall under the “war crimes and crimes against humanity” section in Finnish law, adding another layer of gravity to the case.
The case originated when Räsänen questioned her church’s sponsorship of the LGBT event Pride 2019 in a tweet. Following this, she was subjected to 13 hours of police interrogations over several months.
As we approach the time of Jesus second coming He told us that persecution of Christians will increase at that time. In fact, the Bible gives us an incredible number of prophecies about Jesus’ second coming so that Christians will not be taken by surprise. One of the most troubling Scriptures for me has always been this one spoken by Jesus about the time of His return.
“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.”Matthew 24:21-22
What both leading Muslim scholars, Sunni and Shia, declare: Islam allows the accumulation of sufficient force to “terrorize the enemy and deter against an attack upon Muslims.” The “prevention of Muslims from the production of weapons of mass destruction … while other countries are allowed to do this – causes general, great and large damage upon all Muslims.”
It is thus permissible for Muslims to produce WMDs “in order to seek balance in armed conflict between them and hostile forces.” The achievement of strategic balance with the enemy is not only legitimate but religiously obligatory. “It is possible for an Islamic state to use this type of weapon if the enemy uses it, or it is thought likely that the enemy is poised to use it. It is why Iran is determined to have nuclear weapons.
The achievement of strategic balance with the enemy is not only legitimate but religiously obligatory.
When recognized Islamic scholars speak, all Muslims listen. When those scholars state clearly that it is a religious obligation to produce nuclear weapons of mass destruction to ward off the infidels, and that Islam sanctions use of such weapons if “it is thought likely that the enemy is poised to use it,” you can see why everyone in the world should be nervous about Islamists getting within a million miles of nuclear weapons.
Who Will Unite Muslims and Take On the West?
What kind of leader would be needed to unite an extremely disparate group of Muslims around the world, tired of Western domination and seeking earnestly to “prepare” the world for Allah’s final judgment as the “last, best revelation of God” is presented to all? This man would have to have unusual gifts of diplomacy, holiness, charm, wisdom, and the ability to gain the admiration and respect of Muslims worldwide. Well, you should know that Muslims are already waiting for this man, with 42 percent in a recent survey believing the Islamic superman will appear in their lifetime. His name is al-Mahdi, the “Rightly Guided One,” who has been discussed since the earliest days of Islam. This Islamic messiah was referred to by Muhammad’s grandson, Ali, who said that Islam would “prevail over all religions … when the Messiah of this ummah (Islamic nation) makes his appearance.
All branches of Islam throughout history are expecting the al Mahdi, as revealed by this quote from what has been called the greatest Islamic history book from the pre-modern era: “Let it be known that it is a narrated event by ALL Muslims in EVERY era that at the end of time a man from the family of the Prophet (PBUH&HF) will, without fail, make his appearance and will strengthen Islam and spread justice; Muslims will follow him and he will gain domination over the Muslim realm. He will be called al-Mahdi.
He will appear just as mankind reaches a stage of great suffering, to show the light of Islam when men and women need it most, and to prepare the world for Allah’s judgment just in time, according to accepted Islamic teaching.
He will reappear on the appointed day, and then he will fight against the forces of evil, lead a world revolution and set up a new world order based on justice, righteousness, and virtue … ultimately the righteous will take the world administration in their hands and Islam will be victorious over all the religions.
If this sounds like the Antichrist, you can see why many of us who have studied Islam for years believe that Mahdi will be that man. One Muslim background Believer who has done a lot of speaking and writing about al-Mahdi, Walid Shoebat, says that as he read scriptural prophecy for the first time, he was astonished by the description of the Antichrist. His conclusion? This is the Mahdi (Mehdi) that we have long talked about in Islam.
Other aspects of Mahdi’s profile include: He will be from the line of Fatimah, Muhammad’s first wife, and become a public figure at the age of forty. Physically, he will have a high forehead and hooked nose, according to prophecies traced back to Muhammad.
He will center his operations in Karbala, Iraq, according to Shiites. A hadith of Muhammad says that he will sweep across the Middle East and set up his reign in Jerusalem. That reign will, of course, be headquartered at the Dome of the Rock, the mosque in Jerusalem
He will have miracle-working power, which will impress the Islamic community and verify his status as a special instrument of Allah. One teaching says, “In the Last Days of the ummah, the Mahdi will appear. Allah will give him power over the wind and the rain, and the earth will bring forth its foliage.” He will guide Muslims to great wealth, but he will not lead a profligate lifestyle. Instead, he “will give away wealth profusely, flocks will be in abundance, and the ummah will be large and honored.” Likewise, “A man will stand and say, ‘Give to me Mahdi!’ and he will say, ‘Take.’” He will rule over the world for seven years, according to most accounts, including those that claim to trace this time span back to Muhammad’s prediction. This will feature a seven-year “peace agreement” between the “Arabs and the Romans,” what many believe will be between Islam and the West. Such parallels with Scripture are no accident, according to many. He will be assisted by “Jesus,” who will descend, probably in Damascus, from heaven to work miracles and preach Islam. “Jesus will testify against those who had called him son of God, the Christians, and those who had belied him, the Jews.” I think this Islamic version of Jesus fits the description of the Antichrist’s assistant in Revelation 13 perfectly.
While Mahdi straightens out the ummah by “freeing Islam from the hypocrites who have corrupted it,” this Jesus will handle the evangelization of the Jewish and Christian communities.
The end result? “Jesus” will summon Christians and Jews “to live by the Qu’ran by purging them of the errors into which they have fallen. As Christians follow the Prophet Isa [Jesus], the Christian and Islamic world will unite in a single belief, and the world will enjoy a period of great peace, security, happiness, and well-being, known as the Golden Age.”[210] Here is a fitting capstone to describe al-Mahdi: “He is the precursor of the victory of the Truth and the fall of all tyrants. He heralds the end of injustice and oppression and the beginning of the final rising of the sun of Islam which will never again set and which will ensure happiness and the elevation of mankind … The Mahdi is one of Allah’s clear signs which will soon be made evident to everyone.” Muhammad ibn Izzat, Muhammad Arif, Al Mahdi and the End of Time (London: Dar Al-Taqwa, 1997).
And, he will rule from Jerusalem, according to a hadith from Muhammad: Jerusalem will be the location of the rightly guided caliphate and the center of Islamic rule, which will be headed by Imam al-Mahdi … that will abolish the leadership of the Jews … and put an end to the domination of the Satans who spit evil into people and cause corruption in the earth, making them slaves of false idols and ruling the world by laws other than the sharia of the Lord of the worlds.
These Islamic prophecies are not from an infallible source. However, if the entire Islamic world is looking for a Messiah who will arise from the Biblical prophesied nation and accomplish all that the Biblical prophecies say the Antichrist will do it is unlikely it is a coincidence.
…let’s jump right in and acknowledge the elephant in the room. What business does a retired football player have speaking into the pro-life discussion?
It’s all right. I get that question a lot, and while I realize many people consider this to be a women’s issue, there are several reasons that I, as a man, have joined the ranks of those speaking into it.
For one thing, there are currently seven children (and holding) in the Watson household, each one of whom has forty-six chromosomes, twenty-three of which they got from my wife, Kirsten, and twenty-three of which they got from me. So from a strictly biological standpoint, men have an equal share in the procreation of every child.
Also—while I am by no means saying this is right— historically speaking, when it comes to politics and the law, men have held the majority of the power. Case in point: there have been 115 Supreme Court justices in US history, and all but seven of them have been white men. Women didn’t even hold a seat on the Supreme Court until Sandra Day O’Connor was confirmed in 1981, and there was not a Black woman represented until 2022, when Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first Black female justice in the Court’s 232-year history. It was seven men who voted Roe v. Wade into law in 1973, and five men and one woman who voted to overturn it in 2022.
I’m not trying to quell the voice of a woman speaking out on her own behalf. It’s vital that women do advocate for themselves. But given that it’s still predominantly men making the decisions, it seems to me that the most effective way to even the playing field is for men with like-minded ideologies to advocate for equality and justice along with and on behalf of women.
In many ways and for many reasons, men have championed abortion on demand in this country. They—we—have led the campaign to legalize this practice, harming women along the way, framing the unnatural as choice and freedom while ultimately seeking to benefit our own interests and protect our own passivity. It was a man, Dr. Alan Guttmacher, who first introduced abortion to Planned Parenthood.
Too often, men have remained silent on topics that matter most, believing the common assertions that abortion is a women’s issue. I have even encountered men who claim abortion is a necessary good to protect against future suffering or to keep other social ills at bay.
But as a man, I take very seriously the words written in Proverbs 31. Most people are familiar with the description of the Proverbs 31 woman, but earlier in the chapter, the author (King Lemuel) describes what his mother taught him. I suppose you could say this is what it means to be a Proverbs 31 man:
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice. PROVERBS 31:8-9
Isaiah 1:17 says, “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s case” (ESV). Over and over in Scripture, God challenges us to protect widows, foreigners, the young, and the vulnerable. In fact, the truth of the gospel, in its totality, challenges each one of us to humbly ask God to show us places where we can make a difference.
To that end, the issue of abortion is very much intertwined with others of equal importance to me, like poverty, racism, and the trafficking of children. The way I see it, these are all matters of justice.
Over the course of my career, Kirsten and I have been introduced to individuals and organizations on the front lines of some of the worst ongoing human rights violations in the world today. Through those partnerships, I’ve seen firsthand how poverty, inequality, fear, and desperation can push people into unthinkable choices.
I traveled to the Lebanon-Syria border in the spring of 2017 with a pastor-friend of mine to witness the impact of the war in Syria. Hundreds of thousands of refugees had fled the violence, leaving behind their homes and possessions. We met with Lebanese pastors who had opened their church doors to families fleeing violence and visited primary schools where children were trying to continue their education in an unfamiliar land. I remember seeing a student’s drawing taped on the wall, depicting him and his family running from tanks and bombs. Sitting on the floor in the primitive conditions of a tent settlement, I spoke to a father about his harrowing experience. His wife sat by his side as their children peered through the sheet that served as a door.
Recalling the dangerous journey to safety across the border, he said through our interpreter, “As a father, I just want my family to be safe. We go to sleep hoping we will wake up back home. But we don’t know if we will ever return.”
My heart and mind drifted thousands of miles away to my own family and how, like him, I would willingly endure extreme hardship to keep them safe. No matter the cause of suffering—war, sexual abuse, food poverty, or discrimination— human suffering should upset us, and even offend us.
So while a lot of people define pro-life as protecting the preborn, I believe being pro-life means caring about life, period, and recognizing that everyone has the right to flourish and be protected, regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic standing.
To echo pro-life activist Cherilyn Holloway, being pro-life means that “we care about the life that is in the womb, but we also care about the man on the street. We also care about these children and where they’re getting their education and health care from and Grandma and Grandpa who are entering end-of-life care and that they’re treated with dignity and respect. . . . These are all whole-life issues for us.”
Simply put, every life bears the image of God, so every life has value. For me, being pro-life means advocating for every life—especially those who cannot advocate for themselves.
As China, in the past several years, stably imported over 60% of its semiconductor manufacturing equipment from the US, Japan, and the Netherlands, these countries agreeing to impose export controls together will effectively set back China’s semiconductor industry development. This will only intensify China’s interest in taking back Taiwan which with the Taiwan Semi-Conductor Manufacturing Company (TSCM) is the largest chip maker in the world including the most advanced microchips. They even contract manufacture for Nvidia and Apple. This would be a major win for China and assure the growth of all those manufacturing industries that depend upon the availability of the very best microchips. AI, Robotics, EV vehicles, I.T., etc. China would also be concerned that TSCM is building an enormous semiconductor manufacturing facility in the USA and announced its intention to build facilities in Europe and Japan. This only intensifies the pressure on China to respond as so much of China’s manufacturing relies on the availability of microchips.
While speaking at the Aspen Security Forum on November 3, 2022, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: “Based on my analysis of China, I think that it is likely (invasion of Taiwan) in the near future – being defined as six, 12, maybe 24 months, that kind of window.“
Iran unveils attack drone ‘capable of bombing Israel into Stone Age’. Mohajer-10 has a range of around 1,240 miles and is armed with a 660lb explosive payload.
Iran has blamed Israel for a mysterious explosion at the weekend that knocked out power at its uranium enrichment facility at Natanz.
Israel has not publicly said it was behind what Iran calls “an act of sabotage” but US and Israeli media reports are quoting officials as saying it was carried out by Israel’s overseas intelligence agency, Mossad. Iran has vowed to take revenge “at a time of its choosing”.
This is not an isolated incident. It follows a gradually accelerating pattern of hostile, tit-for-tat actions by both countries as they step up their covert war while being careful – so far – to avoid an all-out conflict.
What about the Russia/Ukraine war? The support given to Ukraine by the USA and European countries has escalated Russia’s losses of soldiers and equipment. The sanctions on trade by both the USA and European countries are having a major impact on the Russian economy. Putin is now under enormous pressure to end the war. The following announcement by Yury Borisov, the director general of the state space corporation Roscosmos, in a recent media appearance is of concern: “Russia’s newest nuclear weapons system — the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, known in the West as “Satan II” — is now operational, Yury Borisov said. It will replace a Soviet-era missile system. The Sarmat strategic complex has been put on combat duty,”
Back to the Middle East, The Israeli government has allocated $1.5bn (£1.1bn) to prepare the Israeli armed forces for a potential strike against Iranian nuclear sites, and there are near-daily warnings from political and military leaders.
Israel bombing Iran will awaken the Muslim world to a long-time enemy and unite Muslims against Israel and the “Zionist” U.S. It will create a perfect Petri dish for Islamism to thrive, as Muslims construct a compelling narrative that Israel and the U.S. do indeed want to wipe Islam from the face of the earth. As that message is spread around the world, it will not matter to Muslims if they are Shiite in Lebanon or Sunni in Turkey. They will amalgamate to defend what they have in common. This temporary unity will dissolve quickly unless someone can bridge the Sunni-Shiite gap and maintain the momentum toward a unified Muslim world, a caliphate. It so happens that all Muslims, Sunni, and Shia, are expecting their Messiah (al Mahdi) to appear soon. Considering the Bible says the Antichrist (Little Horn) arises out of what is now Turkey, we can assume he will be a charismatic, well-educated Muslim, very fluent in English. He may well be a leader for his country in the U.N. and the one who initiates a peace treaty with Israel. The Muslims al Mahdi, their Messiah, our Antichrist.
All of the prophesied end-times signs are happening now, whether it is wars and rumours of wars, pestilences, famines, earthquakes, an apostate church with most of the denominational churches compromising with the world on gay marriage, homosexual pastors, and even lesbian bishops. Most have forgotten that the major end-times sign occurred over 70 years ago, the re-establishment of the nation of Israel.
As we fast approach the time before Jesus’ return when persecution of Christians intensifies we need to begin to develop the type of Christian life that doesn’t need a large church to sustain it and a walk with Jesus that values true community, not backseat participation – in effect, non-participation. You might grow as never before under persecution, as millions around the world can testify, and as Paul testified clearly in Romans 5:1-5:
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:1-5
We will experience hope in a new way as we are persecuted. Our focus will more and more turn to what is next on God’s agenda for this world, Jesus Millennial Kingdom (www.millennialkingdom.net). Suffering will purify us of our preoccupation with the current corrupt world. God will grow us all up in a hurry under such conditions, and those of us who have long lamented the differences between the church of Acts and the modern church will get a chance to see many of those differences wiped away in an instant. It will be an exciting time.
Middle Eastern Christians have learned what it means to bless those who persecute them.
Christians in Syria are learning daily how to do this. Many have chosen to stay in their towns and cities, even if Islamist rebels have overrun them and raped, looted, tortured, and killed them. As Open Doors USA spokesperson Emily Fuentes has reported: There are some Christians who are fleeing because they have no other choice, but there are many Christians who have really felt God’s call to stay in town, even though they have been attacked and targeted because of their faith. They realize that God’s using them, and (are reaching) out to their Muslim neighbours. Thus, it seems to me that in the days ahead as persecution increases we will have the basic option of running, or remaining and seeking to win our attackers and fellow refugees to Christ. The choice that we make will be a matter of conscience, as Scripture can be used to support both. Believers in both Syria and Egypt have made different choices.
In the parts of Syria where church buildings have not been desecrated, they have become de facto relief agencies, providing clothes, food, and Christian teaching. These churches are seeing people come to faith in Christ as the congregants love everyone who has been made homeless, not just Christians. This is in stark contrast to the Islamic approach to providing aid for Muslims only. As Syrian Christians have ministered to all people as war rips their country apart, they ask not for relief from the persecution, for money, or any sort of assistance, but primarily for prayer. Syrian Christians know prayer is the only way that peace will come to their country. What an amazing witness, to care for everyone in the midst of intense suffering. The Church has done this throughout history. I would venture to say all of the books in the world’s libraries would not be enough to tell the stories of instances when Christians helped people in desperate need, regardless of skin color or creed.
Soon, I think, we will all enjoy caring for people in our communities and have the opportunity to make a bigger impact on their souls than a thousand sermons would be able to. It will be thrilling to watch all of our fellow church members get their hands dirty in ministry, a greater percentage than ever before, I believe! Can you see how suffering refines a church? It will do the same for us. There will be no more CEO (Christmas and Easter Only) Christians in our churches when the persecution starts. All of you who are tired of the pretenders coming to Sunday services will see the meeting sizes shrink as the wheat is separated from the chaff (Matthew 13:24-30). As a side note, won’t it be thrilling to see all the prophetic Scriptures that we have read for so long coming to pass? I think it will be an incredible time, even when it is very hard. I also believe God will give us abundant grace as we endure. All of the distractions that have kept us from following hard after God will be eliminated. Daily life will consist of a focus on how everyone in our community is doing, how they can be helped that day, how the new believers can be discipled, and how God’s love can be shown to the occupiers. Does that sound like Acts 4? It sure does to me. All of those sermons over the years, where pastors lamented the differences between Acts 4 and twenty-first-century churches will be made irrelevant. We will be living Acts 4.
Our churches will never become Acts 4 churches until the circumstances around us mirror the conditions of the early church. That prophesied day will come. And I think we will enjoy living out our faith as our predecessors did and those Christians who are already experiencing intense persecution in Muslim countries in the Middle East.
One source in Egypt reports the reaction of Christians to the burning of dozens of churches: “Churches are united together. And the spirit of prayer is happening in all the churches. People are praying all the time,” according to a source named “David.”
Churches united, churches praying, and people praying all the time. The church will become what we’ve all wanted it to become, but it may not happen until we are aggressively persecuted.
The churches in Egypt haven’t stopped with simply prayer. According to a Charisma News source in-country, Christians are answering the violence and pro-Islamic graffiti with signs that read, “You burned our church, but we love you.” If you were a Muslim in these cities, what would you think of such signs? I can tell you the two predominant reactions would be, 1. “Those Christians are just total weaklings” and 2. “How does this happen? How does someone love rather than avenge?” God is certainly doing all sorts of things amid this brutal persecution, acts of salvation that we won’t know about until we get to heaven.
During the great tribulation under an Islamic Antichrist, we will see brothers and sisters killed for their faith often, some right out of our communities. This is what is happening in the countries of the Arab Spring; martyrdom is expected, not imagined.
Soon, we will know true suffering and understand so many other portions of the Bible, such as 2 Timothy 4:6-8:
“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:6-8
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to utter these words, knowing you are about to be killed for your faith? You might get this opportunity, and join the crowd of people who come out from under the altar as Jesus returns, those who had been martyred by the Beast (see Revelation 6:9 and 20:4), reigning on special thrones, and given authority to judge.
Early church father Tertullian’s famous line, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church,” will come true before our eyes as those around us see our courage, even in the face of death, and are deeply moved.
It’s sad but true; people have to feel absolutely helpless sometimes before they look to God.
Peace and courage during these sorts of times of suffering have a powerful impact on the hardest hearts. One Egyptian has reported about the church’s witness there: “It’s a great message of forgiveness. This makes many Muslims discover the reality of Christianity, and many of them come to know Jesus.” These new believers are meeting “underground in a secret way. They worship the Lord together, and they’re growing.”
Extracts from Ralph Stice’s book Arab Spring, Christian Winter: Islam Unleashed on the Church and the World
LIVING ETERNAL NOW 