Pope Francis recently announced he would visit Iraq for the first time in early March, 2021. He is scheduled to visit Baghdad, the southern city of Ur and the Christian heartland of Nineveh province.
Iraq’s Christian community has witnessed years of conflict and targeted attacks, forcing many to flee. From 1.4 million three decades ago, its population has come down to an estimated less than 400,000.
Days before Christmas, the Muslim-majority country’s parliament announced that Christmas will now be an annual national holiday.
The Pope’s announcement has sprung hope in Karemlash, a predominantly Christian town on the Nineveh Plains about 18 miles southeast of Mosul and which was once held by the Islamic State terror group.
“We hope this visit can prevent demographic change, preserve the identity of our region, and prompt the government to seriously start rebuilding our areas,” St. Adday’s priest, Fr. Thabet al-Mekko, said, according to AFP. “We’ve started the countdown. We need to feel closer to the Christian community in the rest of the world.”
Responding to the pope’s announcement, Zuhair Mansour, a 50-year-old school principal in Karemlash, said, “It could be the step in building peace in this wounded country.” Martin Banni, the priest at the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Baghdad, called the pope’s decision “a great, wonderful Christmas gift.”
Pope Francis claims Islamand Christianity are equal In The Eyes of God
Pope Francis, who has previously called for a “one-world government” to “save humanity”, signed in 2019 a historic covenant with leaders of the world’s major faiths, pushing us much closer to a one-world religion.
Is this proposed visit by Pope Francis to Iraq in March 2021 one step closer to the biblical “end times” one world religion? Could he be the false prophet? If he is we know his end.
“And the beast (Antichrist) was captured and with it the false prophetwho in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.” Revelation 19:20
“I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,”Isaiah 46:10
God’s interventions in history to alter reality are a given for born-again believers that know God’s Word is inerrant. All traditional Christianity has always believed and taught that such interventions occurred and their occurrence is necessary for our salvation. It seems that for many liberal theologians those “mighty, saving acts of God” are symbolic, images, rather than extra-mental realities.
“Truth itself” is debatable—as to what the word or concept even means. One can no longer even know what a truth claim is without a somewhat extensive discussion about the meaning of “truth.” This is why communication is breaking down in postmodern Western culture.
Reality exists outside the mind and “truth” is correspondence between our thoughts and claims and reality itself. Reality does not depend on its being known. Reality was, is, is yet to be…independently of any mind.
The Bible, God’s Word is truth and it provides the only true truth. The many fulfilled prophecies, Jesus coming to earth fulfilled many of them, are proof conclusive the Bible has been given to us by God so we can know the true history of the cosmos and our place in it. We are made in the image of God and were meant to be in relationship with Him as sons and daughters. Man’s rebellion caused the death, suffering and pain we see in todays lost world. The good news is Jesus is planning to return to rule and reign on His earth with a “rod of iron”. He does so with His resurrected and transfigured saints. Much of Bible prophecy gives us details of the events preceding His return, particularly of the last seven years.
Wise men (Magi) from the East come to worship the new born king.
“In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand... Nebuchadnezzar commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans… Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah.”Daniel 1:1-6
Daniel was part of the king’s administration and was even made head over it all (Daniel 5:29, 6:1-3). Eventually, Daniel was the highest authority (next to the king) in Babylonia, holding the position of governor and ruling over all the authorities in this enormous kingdom. And this subsequent ruleincluded reigning over all of the wise men or magi in Babylonia (Daniel 2:12, 48).
Daniel’s title was rab mag or “chief of the Magi” (Daniel 5:11), so he would have left historical records of his writings to the kings of Babylon which included Daniel chapter 9 where Daniel references the appearance of Jesus Christ and goes into very specific detail about the timing of the Anointed One’s appearance (Daniel 9:21-26), so even near the time of Christ’s birth, and even after hundreds of years had already passed, Daniel’s pronouncement of the Anointed One’s coming would allow the wise men to discern the when and where of the Messiah’s birth. So how was Daniel able to predict the time of the Messiah’s arrival (Daniel 2:12-48, 9:24-26)? Daniel was a man of prayer, and Gabriel answered his prayer and told Daniel not only when the Messiah would come, but when He would be killed (Daniel 9:25-26). And the location must have been obviously known to the wise men, recognizing that Daniel’s point of reference was not Babylon but the temple at Jerusalem (Daniel9:16), so for the wise men, it was not a guessing game, otherwise, if they were too early, they would have missed Him, and if too late, the child Jesus would have been in Egypt (Matthew. 2:13).
Fulfilled prophecy is incontrovertible truth the Bible is God’s Word to us. It alone holds the truth about the Cosmos, its origin, history and future.
“When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or SEND PESTILENCE among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7: 13-14
“The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it.” Jeremiah 18:7-8
How foolish are our leaders! The answers to our problems are in God’s Word as these two scriptures testify. Sadly, as God’s Word predicts, in the “last days” the world turns away from God and in fact denies His existence. The consequences of that rebellion are also revealed in the Bible – God’s wrath will be poured out on an unrepentant world just as it was in Noah’s day. Jesus also warns us beforehand of the coming tribulation that will face Christians who fear God and hold to the inerrancy of His Word, His commandments, particularly the sanctity of marriage, and gender.
“For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man (Jesus second coming). For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” Matthew 24:37-39
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matthew 24:29-31
He will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Tony Abbott is a former prime minister of Australia. This is an edited extract of his contribution to Cancel Culture and the Left’s Long March by Wilkinson Publishing which will be out in March 2021. His accurate summation of the spiritual condition of the world in the first paragraph was sufficient for me to bring it to your attention.
Tony Abbott Prime Minister 2013-2015
“My sense is that it’s the seismic cultural shifts, now underway in the West, that have driven a pandemic response that’s so different from that envisaged under plans drawn up even just a short time ago. We are materially rich but spiritually poor, and generally more fearful. More self-confident governments would not have placed so much faith in unelected and unaccountable experts. The experts would not have so readily changed their minds about the need for mandatory shutdowns. Societies that retained more “faith in the world to come” would have been less alarmed by a virus similar to those that have readily been seen off before.
Nine months on, with the virus much better understood and much less likely to kill, even here in Australia, it’s still being treated like the grim reaper. More perspective on this virus, at least going forward, could help to dispel the climate of fear that, once created, is hard to shake, and that tends to bring out the authoritarian in officials and the conformist in citizens.
When state governments get away with imposing tougher restrictions on churches than on brothels and on religious services than on sporting events, keeping state borders closed for months longer than any health imperative could justify, requiring people on the street to produce their “papers” in order to avoid heavy fines, denying sick and dying people ready access to their families because of minute infection risk, failing to notice stormtrooper tactics against people in parks or in their own homes, and announcing draconian new restrictions based on impossible-to-question “expert advice” (that’s invariably not released), public trust is unlikely to be sustained. Our sense of nationhood could take a long time to recover from the Queensland Premier’s declaration that “Queensland hospitals are for Queenslanders”; or the West Australian Premier’s refusal to allow Australians from other states to enter his, even with quarantine.
Always, it’s the job of a thoughtful conservative to question and to doubt; to insist that new measures be justified, and proportionate, especially when the change goes counter to considered positions that conservative political movements have been supporting for decades. Of course, as Cicero once declared, “the people’s safety is the highest law” but that hardly makes “safety first” the only principle or even the first principle that should guide government. Especially when the impact of action or inaction is speculative; and when not knowing the future makes it hard to decide what to do now; it’s more important than ever not to overreact. Even if Australia’s COVID toll remains low and there’s a quick recovery from the policy-induced economic slump; even if an early vaccine means that Australia does not need to remain closed to the world, this is unlikely to be a time anyone recalls with much pride because so much that’s happened has been out of character with an Australia accustomed “to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield”.
For premiers much more on centrestage than usual; for health officials dictating the terms of daily life; and above all, for the scientists seeking COVID cures, these have been the most bracing of times. For most of us, though, there’s been the dull prospect, not of doing more but of doing less: not “how much more can I do for my country” but “how much less must I do in order to be safe”.
I can’t think of a better way to kick off the new year than with a renewed emphasis on the active virtues and the robust attitudes that have made Australia a country to be proud of. Let’s get back to being people who “have a go”, so that 2020 turns out to be the only year in our history blighted by a focus on what we can’t do, rather than what we can.”
This extract of Tony’s comment in the new book is insightful. It supports Scripture and its end-times predictions of the state of the world at that time.
Dr David Wood, Tony Costa, and Sam Shamoun discuss the virgin birth of Jesus in Christianity and Islam. This is a video I recommend you watch All three men are brilliant apologists and all have a heart for Muslims.
It’s often assumed the miracle of the Virgin Birth is something Christians take ‘on faith’ alone. Christian philosopher Lydia McGrew explains why the source material and embarrassing realities of the Virgin Birth accounts in Matthew and Luke make them historically plausible. Lydia recently debated these issues on a Christmas edition of Unbelievable? It is part of a YouTube series on the virgin birth. Check it out, you will be glad you did.
Fenoglide, Tricor tablets (fenofibrate) helps reduce cholesterol andtriglycerides (fatty acids) in the blood. High levels of these types of fat in the blood are associated with an increased risk of atherosclerosis (clogged arteries). It has now been found that the Covid-19 virus causes a major build-up of fat cells in the lungs which causes rapid patient deterioration. Patients given fenofibrate recovered fast from the disease. It was an Israeli Research Team that discovered the solution to the deadly outcome of the Covid virus.
Jonathan Edwards resolved “that I will live so as I shall wish I had lived when I come to die.” Before he died, he helped spark the First Great Awakening, became president of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton), and is widely considered America’s greatest theologian.
Edwards was right to live each day in light of his death: he died at the age of fifty-five from the new smallpox vaccination.
If you knew that you would die next month of COVID-19, what would you do to prepare? What would you do or stop doing? What changes would you make to prepare to meet God?
Can I suggest you start living now with an eternal mindset Not only is the prospect you can die at anytime but also we now have the prospect of Jesus returning, perhaps in your lifetime.’
“Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” 1 Timothy 6:12
“Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for My sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.” Mark 10:29-30
available as an eBook on Amazon and as a trade paperback book from me. mailed anywhere in the world for AUS$20. email me your address to ron@bakb.com.au and click donate icon on Home page to make donation.
“The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?“Psalms 27:1
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains are moved into the heart of the sea” Psalms 46:1-2
“Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in his commandments! His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.” Psalms 112:1-2
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.” Psalm 23:4-5
“You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday… because you have made the LORD your dwelling place, the Most High, who is my refuge, no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.” Psalms 91:5-6,9-10
“When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?“Psalms 56:3-4
The Word of God is enough, you do not need words from Ron Edwards.
