Sunday, August 31, 2003

It Is Time To Cast a Worried Eye Towards Yellowstone
From Your Own World USA. At issue: Yellowstone National Park, which includes Old Faithful Geyser and all the other geysers, is basically an active volcano. And now it might be about to erupt. Such an eruption could bury everything up to six hundred miles away in volcanic ash. This article even has specific recommendations concerning the sort of supplies to buy and have on hand against such an event.::Submitted for your earthquakes in divers places [Matthew 24] files.

Saturday, August 30, 2003

Editor of London's Al-Sharq Al-Awsat Daily: Arafat and Abu Mazen Must Go!
From MEMRI So the Arab editor living in London thinks that Arafat and Muhammad Abbas have done nothing! Hundreds of civilian casualties, or thousands, over the years are far more than nothing. Still, even this editor has a point: for all the casualties that the PA and PLO have inflicted (and, to a lesser extent, taken) over the years, the people they claim to lead are still living in limbo, no closer to a dignified existence than they ever were. The editor also says that all those guys care about is retaining their leadership posts. That should sound familiar to any Westerner--as it certainly does to this American.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.

Friday, August 29, 2003

Attempt to expel US Anglicans at summit
From The Daily Telegraph (London). It would appear that the conservative primates have no intention of letting Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, browbeat them into accepting a compromise. They intend to move to suspend the American Episcopal Church from its voting privileges, and then start a process leading to expulsion. Under the terms of such expulsion, conservative dioceses could separate themselves from an expelled province and join other provinces.::Submitted for your touch not the unclean thing [2 Corinthians 6:14-18] files.
Yahoo! News - At least 17 killed in car bomb blast in Iraqi Shiite holy city
From Agence France-Presse. Here are the details on the recent assassination of Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim and others in Najaf today.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
The Golden Report - Something very diabolical is in the air!
No, it's not the Palestinian situation--though that's bad enough. It's the danger of nuclear weapons in the hands of North Korea, Libya, Egypt, and other countries.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
The Golden Report - God calls us to do a work, and then waits for us to wait on Him, to do it.
Jerry Golden offers a personal example of how God's timing and man's are not the same.
Editorials from the New Iraqi Press: MEMRI Baghdad Dispatch (6)
If you want to know what the Iraqis really think, check this out. This is the first time in memory that Iraq even has an independent press--and some of these papers really are independent, not just party organs.

Note one thing: MEMRI has been scooped in one regard. Assassins have probably killed Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir Al-Hakim by rigging his car to explode after he got into it following Friday prayers.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.

Thursday, August 28, 2003

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Official: N. Korea Vows to Make Nuke Test
AP reports, "Rejecting U.S. disarmament demands, North Korea said Thursday it will prove to the world that it possesses nuclear weapons by carrying out a nuclear test, a U.S. government official said." :: Submitted for your wars and rumors of war files.
Bomb at Denver Planned Parenthood May Have Targeted Pro-Lifers
From Lifenews.com. Now see how ugly the abortion wars are getting. The so-called bomb was actually a plastic bottle filled with a chemical mixture designed to liberate expanding gases, and then to splatter and burn any flesh that it splattered on. This was not designed to blow a hole in a wall. Therefore, Planned Parenthood just might have left it themselves to hurt those that are picketing them.::Submitted for your persecution files.
Rape charge dismissed against one youth
Remember the shocking story of the rape charges at the ELCA youth retreat? We now learn that one of the accusers recanted her story. On that basis--at least, I can think of no other--prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss the charges against the particular boy that she accused. The judge granted the dismissal with prejudice, which means that prosecutors could not re-file charges even if they wanted to.

It's hard to tell what's sadder--that a boy would commit rape against a girl at a youth camp, or that a girl would accuse a boy of such a thing when it wasn't true. I still come back to the central issue: why were boys and girls at a youth retreat put in such a compromising position, or allowed to place themselves in that position? With proper supervision, separate housing (in separate buildings, not merely separate wings), and proper counseling on boundary-setting, none of these disgraceful events need have happened at all.::Submitted for your adultery in your heart [Matthew 5:28] files.
Columnist for Egyptian Government Daily to Hitler: 'If Only You Had Done It, Brother'
From the archives of MEMRI. The same columnist who today calls America cannibalistic, said in this article over a year ago that Hitler ought to have done the deeds that we call the Holocaust--which she denies.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
Columnist in Leading Egyptian Government Daily: U.S. Forces in Iraq Strip the Flesh from Their Victims' Corpses
From MEMRI The columnist involved, who has in the past apologized for Adolf Hitler, is speaking largely metaphorically (except for an accusation about the treatment of the bodies of Saddam's sons). This diatribe basically says that America is a pirate nation and that all Muslims should rise up against it. This appears in a government organ that gets big-time funding from US taxpayers. Thank you, Foggy Bottom!::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files--and probably for your unprofitable steward [Luke 16] files, too.

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

Close Encounter with Mars Excites Stargazers

Reuters reports, "From the shores of Tahiti in Polynesia to outback Australia and Japan, amateur and professional stargazers aimed their telescopes at the eastern sky for a close encounter with Mars. At 5:51 a.m. EDT, Mars passed just 34.65 million miles from Earth, making it the closest such encounter since the Stone Age." :: Submitted for your files on signs and wonders in the heavens (Luke 21:11).
Most Nations Standing Firm in Iraq
AP reports, "They're talking tough - and standing firm. Nations that have sent forces to help keep the peace in postwar Iraq have no immediate plans to draw down or pull out despite mounting casualties, eroding security and a growing wariness of the potential for a quagmire." :: Submitted for your war (Matthew 24:6) files.
7 Killed in Chicago Warehouse Shooting
AP reports, "A man who had been fired from an auto parts warehouse six months ago came back with a gun Wednesday and killed six employees in a rampage through a maze of engine blocks and 55-gallon drums before being shot to death by police." :: Submitted for your wickedness increases (Matthew 24:12) files.
Hamas Leader Rantisi: The False Holocaust - The Greatest of Lies Funded by the Zionists
From MEMRI. Well, what do you expect from Hamas? Interesting, that "Doctor" (of what?) Rantisi should cite a French Holocaust denier. No wonder the French won't recognize Hamas for the terrorist organization that it is. They're just as bad. And I thought Swiss banks were the depositories of choice for despicable people looking for a place to park their ill-gotten gold. I guess French banks have joined them--in that France will not freeze Hamas' assets, as the USA has done.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.

Tuesday, August 26, 2003

New Israel-Palestinian Tensions on Shrine [pop-ups warning]
Reuters reports, "Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas [aka Abu Mazen] accused Israel Tuesday of creating a recipe for violence by allowing Jewish extremists to visit the most politically sensitive holy site [the Temple Mount] for both sides in Jerusalem." :: Submitted for your holy site files on the Temple Mount.
Mel Gibson 'Passion' Film Causing Uproar
AP reports, "The uproar over Mel Gibson's upcoming film on Jesus' death is testing the unusual partnership between American Jews and evangelical Protestants, who have recently become among the staunchest supporters of Israel. Many conservative Christians have called "The Passion" the most powerful depiction they've seen of Christ's final hours." :: Submitted for your gospel preached to all files.
The New Iraqi Press and the Jews
From the Inquiry and Analysis series, by MEMRI It begins with a discussion of the de facto expulsion of 150,000 Jews from Iraq, Jews who turn out to be descended from the contingent of Jews who did not make aliyah with the rest of their fellow Jews at the time of the Persian kings Cyrus, Darius I (the Great), and Artaxerxes [Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther]. Most of this is a discussion of the frankly wild accusations that the newly free Iraqi press now makes against the Jews--"they're coming back", "they're buying everything in sight", et cetera. But I submit this for your I will bring them home [Nehemiah 1] files, as an illustration that God's Providential planning will not be thwarted.

Monday, August 25, 2003

U.S. Now Demanding Biometric Technology
AP reports, "Biometric technology that scans faces, fingerprints or other physical characteristics to confirm people's identities is about to get its biggest, most public test: at U.S. border checkpoints." :: Submitted for your mark of the beast (Rev 13:16-18) files.

Sunday, August 24, 2003

Passports and Visas to Add High-Tech Identity Features
The New York Times reports, "Technologies that scan faces and fingerprints will become a standard part of travel for foreign visitors next year, and for all travelers in the near future." :: Submitted for your mark of the beast (Rev 13:16-18) files on identification technology :: Are we ready for the return of the infamous phrase "Your papers, please," at checkpoints? A day when people are not allowed to buy or sell without official identification seems not so remote when the day of not being able to travel without official identification is so close at hand.

Saturday, August 23, 2003

DNA basis for new generation of computers
CNN reports, "It almost sounds too fantastic to be true, but a growing amount of research supports the idea that DNA, the basic building block of life, could also be the basis of a staggeringly powerful new generation of computers." :: Submitted for your mark of the beast (Rev 13:16-18) files on human genetics, the number or the code of man.
Mars Approaches
The New York Times reports, "Mars is now the brightest object in the night sky, and next Wednesday the red planet will be closer to Earth than it has been in almost 60,000 years." :: Submitted for your signs in the heavens (Joel 2:30; Luke 21:11) and signs in the stars (Luke 21:25), files.
Incitement in the Palestinian Authority After the Aqaba Summit
From MEMRI. This Special Report gives the details of Palestinian incitement to violence and their transparent attempts to achieve "plausible deniability." Included are seven inflammatory political cartoons (including a travesty of the crucifixion) and seven photographs of Palestinians, including children, carrying weapons.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.

Friday, August 22, 2003

Europe Grapples With Heat Wave Death Toll
AP reports, "Europe's deadly heat wave claimed more than 2,000 lives in countries outside of France, where an estimated 10,000 have died, according to official reports. Italy, which had refused to release figures, bowed to public outcry over increased deaths and agreed Friday to investigate the toll." :: Submitted for your fear for the future (Luke 21:26) files on global warming and climate change.
CDC: 715 People Infected With West Nile
AP reports, "West Nile virus continues to plague the central Plains, with nearly 80 percent of the nation's cases occurring in four states, federal officials said in their weekly update Thursday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the virus killed three people in the past week, bringing the nationwide death toll to 14. Twenty-nine states have reported a total of 715 infections, with Colorado maintaining the unwanted lead with 263 cases. South Dakota had 117, Nebraska 99 and Texas 70, according to CDC's count. Six in Colorado have died from the mosquito-borne virus." :: Submitted for your pestilence (Luke 21:11) files.
Zimbabwe Food Aid in Jeopardy Over Plan
AP reports, "United Nations officials threatened to stop delivering food relief to the hungry in Zimbabwe if the government proceeded with plans to take control of the distribution of food aid, the U.N. food agency said Friday. A government directive issued earlier this week ordered international donors to hand food aid over to ruling party-dominated rural committees and local leaders in famine-hit districts, raising fears the government will use the food as a political weapon." :: Submitted for your famine (Matthew 24:7) files.
Israel Threatens to Kill Militant Leaders
AP reports, "Israeli troops killed a Palestinian militant and wounded two others in a shootout Friday at a West Bank hospital as Israel vowed to hunt down and kill militant leaders unless Palestinian authorities rein in the armed groups.":: Submitted for your wars and rumors of war (Matthew 24:6), and battle for Jerusalem (Ezekiel 38:8; Zechariah 12; Luke 21:20) files.
Bush: 'Foreign Elements' Infiltrate Iraq
AP reports, "President Bush said Friday "foreign elements" are infiltrating Iraq in hopes of committing terrorism and predicted that U.S. allies will send more troops to help secure the war-torn nation." :: Submitted for your wars and rumors of war (Matthew 24:6) files.
U.S. Sees Tough Nuke Talks With N. Korea
AP reports, "The Bush administration has no expectation of an early breakthrough from a six-nation meeting next week to discuss ways of dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. :: Submitted for your wars and rumors of war (Matthew 24:6) files.
Yahoo! News - Alabama Justice Suspended Over Monument
From the Associated Press. This year, a Chief Justice of a state Supreme Court faces suspension. As the Tribulation approaches, a judge in a similar position may face arrest and imprisonment.::Submitted for your persecution files.
WorldNetDaily: Moore faces suspension?
That's Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court. The same crew who want his Ten Commandments monument removed, now are complaining against him before an ethics panel, charging that in refusing to remove the monument in the face of an order from a Federal District Court, he stands in violation of Alabama's Canons of Judicial Ethics. Never mind that the Federal judge is acting beyond any law on the books, or that the conflict between Federal and State law in this case is far from settled.::Submitted for your persecution files.
Egyptian Jurists to Sue 'The Jews' for Compensation for 'Trillions' of Tons of Gold Allegedly Stolen During Exodus from Egypt
From MEMRIWhat's the equivalent of "Stella" in Arabic? That would be the Arabic word for "star" in a feminine form, wouldn't it? These guys have just won the worldwide Stella Award for the most frivolous lawsuit of all time.

In going to law against the Jews for the looting of Egypt during the Exodus, these Egyptian ex-pats are doing something they perhaps didn't intend: validating the Bible. After all, if no such people as "the Jews" ever existed in Israel, than no such event as "the Exodus" ever took place, and these plaintiffs have no case!

This kind of spite demonstrates yet again that the Arabs are not anyone's friend but themselves.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
Hamas, Islamic Jihad Scrap Israel Truce
AP reports, "Palestinian militants called off a tattered two-month-old truce on Thursday after an Israeli helicopter killed a senior Hamas political leader with a volley of missiles. Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters marched in protest through the streets of Gaza, vowing revenge." :: Submitted for your war (Matthew 24:6) and battle for Jerusalem files.

U.S.: Terrorism Now Top Threat in Iraq
AP reports, "Terrorism is now the biggest threat to U.S.-led efforts to stabilize Iraq, but adding more American troops to the fight is not the answer, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said Thursday." :: Submitted for your war (Matthew 24:6) files.

Thursday, August 21, 2003

FSO: Global Analysis with J. R. Nyquist "An International Problem: Terrorism vs. Business" for 08/20/2003
Nyquist's analysis: that Muslims hate capitalists, out of either envy or a desire for power. He then urges his fellow businessmen to stop trading with the enemy.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
The Golden Report - Can you hear the weeping?
Jerry Golden weeps for innocent Jewish (and not necessarily Jewish) children who are the real victims of what obviously qualifies as Muslim rage against the world. "We don’t need to hear any more talk about peace," he concludes. "We need to make the Palestinians beg us for peace."::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
CBN News - How the Media Lumps Christians with Islamic Fundamentalists
I have said on these and other pages, ever since September Eleventh (a.k.a. Jumada t'Tania the Twenty-second), that the modernists would spare no effort to say that Christians are no better than Muslims when it comes to promoting their religion by any means, even the vilest. Now Marvin Olasky, the editor-in-chief of World magazine, speaks out.::Submitted for your delivery up for tribulation files.
Syrian Government Daily Celebrates Hamas Military Wing Namesake - Izziddin Al-Qassam
From MEMRI. If this does not show where the Arab nations are really coming from, I don't know what does. I am eagerly awaiting the next Special Dispatch that will come as the Arab government and independent media absorb the story of the latest Hamas leader who just got killed.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.

Wednesday, August 20, 2003

WHO to Study Flu-Like Illness in Canada
AP reports, "It looks like SARS and acts like a milder version of the disease that has killed 44 people in Canada, but officials doubt the respiratory illness that swept through a British Columbia nursing home is severe acute respiratory syndrome." :: Submitted for your pestilence (Luke 21:11) files.
Starving Liberians Await More Food Aid
AP reports, "Despite a peace deal signed Monday formally ending Liberia's brutal civil war, hundreds of thousand of people - many nearly starving - are awaiting food aid before they celebrate. While 60 tons of food have been delivered by U.N. groups since West African peacekeepers and U.S. Marines secured the capital's port last week, aid officials concede it is still far too little." :: Submitted for your famine (Matthew 24:7) files.
WorldNetDaily: 10 Commandments showdown tonight
Chief Justice Roy Moore has been, frankly, looking for a place to bring the secularists in the American government to battle. At issue is a two-and-a-half-ton monument to the Ten Commandments, the Declaration of Independence, and other founding documents. He commissioned this monument out of his own salary and had it installed in the Alabama Judiciary Building--after hours, so that it wouldn't impede traffic, which has given rise to a charge that "he installed a religious monument in the building in the dead of night."

Today is his deadline for removing that monument. He has definitely refused. Now we shall see.::Submitted for your fight the good fight [2 Timothy 4] files.
The Golden Report - Islam is the enemy!
Jerry Golden lays it on the line, in the wake of the homicide bombings in Iraq (targeting the UN, of all things!) and Jerusalem. The bottom line:
  1. Islam itself, and not any "fundamentalistic sect" within it, is the enemy of peace and indeed of civilization.
  2. Very likely Islam is the foil of a claque of behind-the-scenes manipulators of history, hoping to establish a "New World Order" with themselves as its leaders and needing an excuse. And Islam is certainly a good "excuse"!
::Submitted for your Beast from the Sea [Revelation 13] files.

Tuesday, August 19, 2003

Truck Blast at U.N.'s Iraq HQ Kills 20
AP reports, "A cement truck packed with explosives detonated outside the offices of the top U.N. envoy in Iraq on Tuesday, killing him and 19 other people and devastating the U.N. headquarters here in an unprecedented suicide attack
against the world body." :: Submitted for your war (Matthew 24:6) files.

Suicide Blast Kills 18 on Israeli Bus
AP reports, "A suicide bomber blew himself up Tuesday on a bus packed with Jewish worshippers returning from the Western Wall, killing at least 18 people, including five children." :: Submitted for your war (Matthew 24:6) and battle for Jerusalem files.
WorldNetDaily: Blast rocks U.N. mission in Baghdad
Further details on the destruction of the UN Mission in Iraq. Rush Limbaugh predicts that now many liberal commentators will explode in righteous indignation and call for the United States Army to bring them the heads of the men who planned this deed. It's one thing, apparently, to attack America. It's quite another to attack the United Nations.::Submitted for your king of fierce countenance who thinks to change times and laws [Daniel 7:20-25ff] files.
Janitor beaten outside church
And why? Because the pastor preached against the consecration of Canon Robinson, that's why. From The Plain Dealer (Cleveland).::Submitted for your intolerance of sound doctrine [2 Timothy 4:2-4] files.
CBN News - A Tidal Wave of Christianity
The center of Christendom isn't in the West any longer. It's in, of all places, Africa. If God tarries for another twenty years, two-thirds of all Christians will live in the Southern Hemisphere! So says Dr. Philip Jenkins, author of The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity.

Here is a critical figure: 360 milliion Christians live in Africa and represent half its people. Half! Just imagine what a shock the Rapture will be! Another 80 million Christians live in China, representing six and two-thirds percent of its people.

Many Western Christian commentators--and I mean fundamentalistic commentators, like Joel and me--have made much of the disgusting apostasy in America and the virtual abandonment of Christianity in Europe and Canada. Based on what I would be first to call an appalling spectacle, they estimate that less than one percent of the world's people will participate in the Rapture, and that the Rapture will be of absolutely no moment in the West. Either you won't have enough people vanishing to cause more than a minor fender bender or two, or else our cars will disappear with us and no one will even know we were there, much less that we're suddenly not there.

But one percent of the world's people amounts to sixty million people. Dear readers, if even half of Philip Jenkins' figures represent "real" Christians, they would represent nearly ten percent of the world's people just in the Southern Hemisphere. It might not create transport or other infrastructural disasters, but it will capture the world's notice, and will not let go until someone--maybe the SecGen of the UN--offers some explanation.::Submitted for your spread of the good news [Acts 8] files.
Reuters: Blast at UN Headquarters in Baghdad Injures Many
This is a deliberate attack on the United Nations, and furthermore, many more Iraqis died than anyone else. Will this turn public opinion against the saboteurs? Stay tuned.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
Yahoo! Groups : abubanan2 Messages : Message 330 of 332
This is the text of the communiqué referred to in the two Blog posts below. You will need Arabic language support in order to read it. Note where they published it: on Yahoo!Groups, of all places!::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
Al-Qa'ida Claims Responsibility for Last Week's Blackout
Here it is, from the definitive English-language source for all Arabic media, the Middle East Media Research Institute. From the London daily Al-Hayat we get further details of the communiqué. How interesting, that Al-Qaeda blames the UN for so much of its troubles, though the UN is such a feckless bunch of thumb-twiddlers! The message also makes specific reference to the New York-based stock exchanges.
What's even more interesting is that the message takes note of the current official explanations--that lightning strikes are responsible for the blackout--and holds them up to ridicule.
Once again we must ask ourselves: Are they taking credit for something they did not in fact do? Or have the American and Canadian governments jointly decided to cover up the shocking (pun intended) truth?::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
WorldNetDaily: Al-Qaida claims power blackout
So the other sandal drops. The communiqué gives no details of how the attack was carried out, however. So in assessing the "credibility" of the message, we have to ask ourselves:
  1. Are the senders of the message who they say they are?
  2. Did they really do what they said they did?

In this context, other military analysts, among them Colonel Dave Hunt at Fox News Channel, have already said that the US government was just a little bit too quick to wave off any suggestion that the Northeast Blackout of 2003 was sabotage, whether by Muslim terrorists or anyone else. Furthermore, the communiqué made the precise boast and demands that I predicted:
  1. the release of certain convicts, whom Al-Qaeda are pleased to regard as prisoners of war, and
  2. the immediate withdrawal of our troops from Iraq (and also, interestingly enough, from Israel, where we have no troops, and Kashmir--same thing).
::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.

Monday, August 18, 2003

Identix Expands Mobile, Real-Time Identification Network
Business Wire reports, "Identix Incorporated, the world's leading multi-biometrics security technology company, announced today that the Portland, Oregon Police Bureau has awarded Identix a contract valued in excess of $200,000 for the initial deployment of Identix IBIS system to enable each of its five precincts to capture forensic-quality fingerprint images and photographs in the field for real-time, on-the-spot identification." :: Submitted for your mark of the beast (Rev 13:16-18) files on biometric ID technology.
WorldNetDaily: Saddam and bin Laden
Joseph Farah, editor-in-chief, reminds us that sharp journalists were saying for years that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were keeping company. That some of those same journalists should ignore their own articles and deny such a connection for no better reason than that Iraq is now under Anglo-American occupation defies logic.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
Fading stars 'spell the end of the universe' - smh.com.au
From the Sydney Morning Herald (Australia). As if the Bible didn't say specifically that the universe had a finite time span, now the Institute for Astronomy of Edinburgh University says that the stars are fading out and new stars are not forming as fast as they once were. Professor Alan Heavens uses evolutionistic time frames, of course, but even within those time frames he states that new star births have been slowing down ever since the creation of the sun!

We can lay aside the multi-billion-year time frames that secular astronomers insist on using. D. Russell Humphreys has previously stated, and continues to maintain, that time has never flowed uniformly throughout the universe, and in fact shortly after the explosion that created our universe, time in our corner of it stood still while the rest of the universe got old. (I have this from Dr. Humphreys personally, by the way.) In this context, the slowdown in new-star births is telling. It is exactly what the Bible predicted.::Submitted for your signs in the heavens files.
Wired 11.09: The New Diamond Age
It had to happen sooner or later. Two companies are now running off gem-quality diamonds--by machine. This could destroy many careers and lifestyles that have their basis on the "rarity" and "preciousness" of diamonds.

I guess diamonds aren't forever. Or rather, charge a high enough price for something, and someone, somewhere, will eventually knock it off for less. More to the point, nothing is "precious" when it is super-abundant. And that is about to happen to diamonds.

I remember an episode of the classic Star Trek TV show, titled "Catspaw." In one memorable and relevant scene, Captain James T. Kirk and his senior officers, having been captured by the natives of a really weird planet, were sitting at a table. The natives set soup bowls full of precious gems before them--and Captain Kirk said, "But we run these things off by the ton!" Their host was shocked--could ne no longer tempt human beings with precious material objects? Guess not.

Well, we don't have faster-than-light travel (and, I imagine, never will). But the day when precious stones are not so precious anymore has finally arrived. Not only can these lab processes fool even a diamond expert, but DeBeers has long been rumored to have a lot more diamonds in its vaults than have ever hit the market, and this discovery just might smoke 'em out.

What would King Solomon think? And what should we all think? Did not Paul tell us not to fill our heads with material things? In Romans, Paul tells us that "the carnal way of thinking is death, and the spiritual way of thinking is life and peace." [Romans 8:6] To the Ephesians Paul said, "Don't get drunk on wine, wherein is excess, but fill yourselves up in spirit." [Ephesians 5:18]. And as the Rapture comes closer, we should all remember that God will someday destroy all the elements and reshape them. (Oh, yeah--this laboratory process ought to make it a little more difficult to assert that the earth is all that old. Evolutionists always thought that diamonds took millions of years to form. Not true!)::Submitted for your Vanity of vanities [Ecclesiastes] files.

Sunday, August 17, 2003

The Golden Report - Who said terrorism doesn't pay?
In the light of renewed attacks on Israel, Jerry Golden reminds us of some home truths.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.

Saturday, August 16, 2003

Earthquake in China Topples 2,700 Homes, Kills Two
Reuters reports, "An earthquake hit China's northern region of Inner Mongolia toppling more than 2,700 homes and killing two people, officials said on Sunday." :: Submitted for your quake (Matthew 24:7) files.
Ex-Uganda Dictator Idi Amin Dies
AP reports, "Idi Amin, who called himself 'a pure son of Africa,' but whose bizarre and murderous eight years as president of Uganda typified the continent's worst dictatorships, died Saturday." :: He was one of the most murderous dictators of the late 20th Century. :: Submitted for your wickedness increases (Matthew 24:12) files.
About The Prophecy News Blogstream
The blogstream idea is very simple really, think of a river branching off into different tributaries, one river, different streams. In the same way this web site is the river, and it branches off into a group of smaller streams of related blogs dealing with specific prophetic signs. For example, there will always be war news presented on the Prophecy News blog, but that will be in addition to all the other prophecy news our blog team uncovers. The War Watch blog is devoted exclusively to covering war news as a prophetic sign. Similarly, the Famine Watch blog is devoted to news of famine and hunger. So, if you feel called to create a blog devoted to covering one specific prophetic sign (if you have an interest or degree in geology then perhaps a quake blog is something you could contribute; other possibilities include a blog devoted to persecution; how people are sharing the gospel; the mark of the beast...whatever) please let me know and I will add it to the side bar list of blogs in the blogstream. To join the blogstream your blog must be devoted to news and commentary on one prophetic sign, must have a link back to the Prophecy News blog, and must identify itself as belonging to the Prophecy News Blogstream. Aside from that, it's your blog and you have creative control over how often you post, what kinds of news reports and resources you link to, and what kind of template and design you use. So, if you feel called to contribute a blog to the blogstream, please let me know. You can use Blogger or any of the other free or not-so-free blogging services. So, please think about and pray about participating in this new experiment in online evangelism and ministry.

Friday, August 15, 2003

2 Pakistani Christians' Life Terms Upheld
AP reports, "A High Court in eastern Pakistan has upheld a decision sentencing two Christian men to life in prison for allegedly burning the Quran, Islam's holy book, a human rights activist said Friday." :: Submitted for your believers persecuted (Matthew 24:8) files.
Believe It, or Not
From The New York Times. (Note: to view this article, you must establish your own individual account with the NYT company. Fortunately, it's free. Why they don't just turn on a "guest" account for viewing of free material, as The Wall Street Journal does, I'll never know this side of the Rapture.)

Nicholas Kristof is definitely no Christian, and strikes me as an agnostic at best. But as far as I can tell, he does not play fast and loose with fact or logic. You really do either believe it, or not!

He is afraid that America is becoming less intellectual and more mystical in its belief system. (Never mind that the intellectual foundations of atheism are crumbling, but that's another topic.) And at the last, he compares Christianity to Islam. I predict that the Beast [Revelation 13] will do the same.

And yet--if Kristof is afraid of "mystical" Christians, let him wait until he sees the False Prophet! [Revelation 13:8-18]
Radiofree West Hartford - The Marriage Strike by Wendy McElroy
Ms. McElroy tells us three reasons why young men don't marry:
  1. They can get sex without marriage.

  2. They can get a "wife" through cohabitation.

  3. They are fearful of divorce and its potential to ruin them financially and even cause them never to see their kids again, or at least not in a meaningful fashion.


Result: men are not marrying in the numbers that they once did.::Submitted for your lovers of self and so forth [2 Timothy 3:1-5] files.
Saudi Columnist: 'Where Do We Start With Reform?'
From MEMRI, and specifically from the Saudi daily Al-Jazirah, which is another transliteration of the Arabic for "The Peninsula." (The popular one is Al-Jazeera, the name of a television station operating from Qatar.) Any sensible man, whose country had a similar set of problems, would say the same--and notice how great a national debt Saudi Arabia has! "Our population is growing faster than the economy" is another way of saying, "At this rate we'll all starve to death if we don't watch out!"

I suppose, then, that all that oil hasn't helped them. Rashed Al-Fowzan, who wrote the column, even cites "total dependence on oil" first in his list of problems that the government needs to "address."

What would happen if the Western world implemented an "energy independence solution" that allowed it to tell the Arabs what to do with their oil? One can only imagine...!

::Submitted for your Ride a Black Horse [Revelation 6:5-6] files.

Thursday, August 14, 2003

Largest-Ever Blackout Hits Eastern U.S.
AP reports, "A sudden blackout robbed electricity from millions of people across a vast swath of the northern United States and southern Canada on Thursday, exposing them to stifling heat and jammed rush hour streets - and then darkness." :: Submitted for your fearsome events (Luke 21:11) files.
WorldNetDaily: Judge Moore stands firm
He will not remove the Ten Commandments monument from its place in the Alabama Judicial Building. To refresh everyone's memory, Judge Roy Moore first got national attention by having a wall plaque of The Ten Commandments in his courtroom. The ACLU sued to have the plaque taken down, and lost.

Now Moore is the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. As such he is the chief administrative officer for Alabama's judiciary. Out of his own purse, he commissioned the monument. And on his authority as Chief Justice, he ordered the monument installed in the Judicial Building. That's what the case is all about.

Let's face it: Mr. Justice Moore knew what he was doing. He intended to force a constitutional crisis over the issue. That is why he commissioned a monument that is an obvious testament to the Godly heritage of American law. Sometimes you have to do that in order to stop the "creeping anti-constitutionalism" that we see in the United States.::Submitted for your you will be delivered up files.
WorldNetDaily: Cities in eastern U.S. hit by power outages
Officials say that "it's not terrorism." But it does point out three things:

1. The North American power grid is entirely too vulnerable to this kind of disruption. All it took was one transformer to get knocked out by--well, we don't even know at this hour. (The report of fires in the Bronx and Brooklyn is inaccurate; ConEd shut down their boilers, and those boilers often spew black smoke when they do that.) As I said--one transformer gets knocked out, and several cities in the USA and Canada suffer for it.

2. "It's not terrorism" is not enough of an assurance in this age. And you can expect this sort of thing to happen again and again. Indeed, someday the Beast [Revelation 13], whoever he might be, might set something like this up just to make the point that he "need[s] wider powers" to keep such things from happening.

3. God's economy, whether Millennial or eternal, will not depend on the puny efforts of man. When God builds something, it's perfect. When man builds something, anything that can go wrong, often does.::Submitted for your beginning of sorrows [Matthew 24:7] files.
Leading Egyptian Islamic Clerics on Jihad Against U.S. Troops in Iraq: March – August 2003
From MEMRI. In sum, the Egyptian Muslim clerical establishment doesn't want us in Iraq. We are not Muslim, we are kaffir, and therefore we are invaders of Allah's territory--pure and simple. Once again, I ask: with "friends" like these, who needs enemies?::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
Gibson Says He Has 'Softened' Crucifixion Story in New Jesus Movie-- Beliefnet.com
If this is true, then it is worse than a shame. It's nice to dream that not all of the Jewish leaders favored crucifixion, or that not everyone in the mob that shouted for His head and said, "His Blood be upon us and on our children" agreed with those sentiments. It's even nice to dream that no one actually said any such thing as that. But Matthew 27:15 says that they did.

We cannot have this. "Dialogue" must never trump the Truth. If people have a problem with the Truth, then ultimately they'll have a problem with the Teller of Truth, when they face Him in the next life.::Submitted for your intolerance of sound doctrine [2 Timothy 4:2-4] files.
Rise of the Cyborgs
From The Orlando Sentinel. This is not Snopes bait--this is real. And the possibilities for enhancing the power of the Beastly Regime [Revelation 13] are staggering. Just imagine:

A security guard carries monitoring to a brand-new level--by linking directly to a camera and mike array and thus being able to cover a stakeout without even being there--and without detection. Or he carries it further--by linking to some "defensive" systems. So he zaps someone with poison gas before that someone even knows he's been detected--and, human operator that he is, he knows positively that the intruder is a threat. Forge ID's all you want--if you don't look like the right person, all the forgeries in the world won't fool the system, because the system has human intelligence behind it.

A commando team sends telepathic signals to one another and tracks down an "enemy of the state" with the precision once employed by Velociraptor mongoliensis and similar species of pack-hunting dinosaurs.

We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile.

::Submitted for your who is like unto the Beast [Revelation 13:4] files.
WorldNetDaily: The Jewish Temple
Joseph Farah, editor of WorldNetDaily, comments on recent statements by "Palestinian authorities" (an oxymoron both on the terms Palestinian and authority) that no such thing as a Jewish Temple ever existed, and the Jews never had any history in the region. This ignores not only the Bible but also the statements by Arabs who used to live there back in the 1930's. In fact, this goes along with earlier reports that the Muslim "archaeological authority" called the "Waqf" have been deliberately destroying evidence under cover of a major construction project. Though Farah does not reference that "project" specifically, Farah accuses the Muslims in the region of laying a foundation for a crime they intend to commit in future: totally destroying the Jewish state and as many of the Jewish people as they can reach.

This illustrates two things. One, Islam is not a religion of peace, despite President George W. Bush's apparent belief that it is. Two, Islam will be the foil for the Beast from the Sea of Peoples [Revelation 13] who will rule the world for forty-two months. What better reason will the world have to give away their liberties and their sovereignties, than as "the only way" that they can put down a murderous streak of nationalism that tries to pretend that it is "one of the world's great religions"?::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] and abomination that causes desolation [Daniel 9:27] files.

Wednesday, August 13, 2003

Report: Arctic Ice Shrinking Due to Global Warming
Reuters reports, "Global warming will melt most of the Arctic icecap in summertime by the end of the century, a report showed Wednesday." :: Submitted for your fear for the future (Luke 21:26) files on global climate change.
Weblog: Orthodox Anglicans Attacked in Wake of Gay Bishop Debate - Christianity Today Magazine
And I mean physically attacked. Two Church of England clergymen grabbed a Kenyan bishop and actually threatened to strike him before some bystanders separated the three. And in Texas, a church suffered from vandalism and arson.::Submitted for your whitewashed wall [Acts 23:3] files.
Gospel of Inclusion?
From the "Taste" pages of The Wall Street Journal. The commentator says that the Episcopal Church seems to have little room for Scripture anymore.::Submitted for your intolerance of sound doctrine [2 Timothy 4:2-4] files.
BBC NEWS | Americas | Briton arrested in 'terror missile' sting
That arrest happened in Newark, New Jersey--right in my neighborhood, you might say. Just to assure everyone: the Russians sold the suspect a disabled SA-18 missile. And even if Air Force One were the target, the two special planes that fly under that call sign carry flares and flak to ward off any missile fired at them.::Submitted for your wild man of the desert files.
Liberal Arab Columnist: 'Why do Arabs Hate the West, Especially the U.S.?'
This, of course, is another Special Dispatch from MEMRI. The only hesitation I have about a "liberal" voice in the Arab world is that a liberal Arab sounds awfully like a liberal Westerner--much given to naiveté and Narcissism, and boy, does it ever show! Except in this case, much of what he says is correct. It's always refreshing to see _anyone_ get the history straight! He reminds everyone that Arabs invaded Europe before the Crusades even began, castigates the "regression" of Arabs since 1948, and even says that Arab "fascism and fundamentalist Islam have nothing to offer people"--a direct slam against men like Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.::Submitted for your wild man of the desert files.

Tuesday, August 12, 2003

Moderate Quake Jolts Northwest Iran
Reuters reports, "A moderate earthquake hit northwest Iran on Tuesday, but there were no immediate reports of casualties, the official IRNA news agency reported." :: Submitted for your quake (Matthew 24:7) files.
Colorado Records Sixth West Nile Death
Reuters reports, "A sixth person has died from the West Nile virus in Colorado, which leads the United States in confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne disease, officials said on Tuesday." :: Submitted for your pestilence (Luke 21:11) files on the spread of the West Nile virus.
Australia's Top Spy Says 'Catastrophic' Attack Likely
Reuters reports, "Another catastrophic attack like the September 11 strikes on the United States is only a matter of time and Australia is a likely target, Australia's top spy said in comments backed by Prime Minister John Howard on Wednesday." :: Submitted for your fear for the future (Luke 21:26) files.
Twin Suicide Bombings Kill Two Israelis
AP reports, "A pair of 17-year-old Palestinians killed two Israelis in suicide bombings Tuesday, rattling a shaky Mideast truce and prompting warnings by Israel that it will freeze a U.S.-backed peace plan unless all violence stops." :: Submitted for your battle for Jerusalem (Ezekiel 38:8; Zechariah 12; Luke 21:20) files. Of course, this is not the battle for Jerusalem, but you can see how this may be a series of smaller battles leading up to what we could call the War for Jerusalem. :: So, some ceasefire, huh?
Mars Looming Large in Evening Sky
AP reports, "The wandering of the planets brings Mars closer to Earth this month than at any time in nearly 60,000 years. It will be a last-chance proposition for all alive today: Mars won't be as close again until Aug. 28, 2287." :: Submitted for your signs in the stars (Luke 21:25) and signs in the heavens (Luke 21:11) files.
Sights and Sounds of the Perseid Meteor Shower
The annual Perseid meteor shower peaks today and tomorrow, August 12th and 13th. Bright moonlight will interfere with the display, but you can still spot some Perseids--especially if you look when the moon is hanging low just after sunset on Tuesday, August 12th or, better yet, just before dawn on Wednesday, August 13th. (This is true no matter where you live.) Looking at the full moon during a meteor shower is normally a poor idea; it ruins your night vision. But tonight during the Perseid meteor shower, take a moment to glance at the moon. Pleasingly nearby you'll see Mars--a vivid orange "star." Mars is now so close to Earth and so bright that even the full moon won't overwhelm it. :: This Space Weather report is submitted for your signs in the moon and stars (Luke 21:25) files.
Expert Says Following 'Roadmap' Would Lead to Israel's Destruction
From AgapePress The expert's name is Victor Mordecai, who is more than an "expert"--he has served in the Israeli government and army. He gives strong evidence that withdrawal from "Palestinian" lands is militarily untenable.::Submitted for your fight for Jerusalem [Zechariah 12 and 14] files.
HoustonChronicle.com - Group sees anti-Semitism in Gibson film
Some people have a problem accepting the Truth, unfortunately. The problem is that you can't get around High Priest Caiaphas ripping his robe and yelling something that might loosely translate as "We don't need no stinkin' witnesses!"::Submitted for your intolerance of sound doctrine [2 Timothy 4:2-4] files.

Monday, August 11, 2003

Australian Scientists Propose West Nile Vaccine
Reuters reports, "A vaccine using a harmless relative of the West Nile virus could offer a way to protect people against the disease, researchers in Australia said on Monday." :: Submitted for your pestilence (Luke 21:11) files on the West Nile virus.
General Convention 2003 :: American Anglican Council - A Place to Stand
The American Anglican Council offers this guide to distraught Episcopalians who are wondering what to do next.::Submitted for our Biblical separation [2 Corinthians 6:14-18] files.
Weblog: Orthodox Episcopalians Answer 'What's Next' After Gay Bishop - Christianity Today Magazine
With the pending consecration of Gene Robinson as the first-ever openly homosexual bishop of an Episcopal diocese, a bunch of orthodox Episcopalians are running around wondering what to do next. The American Anglican Council offers some advice, which Ted Olsen of Christianity Today is kind enough to quote here.::Submitted for your Biblical separation [2 Corinthians 6:14-18] files.
WorldNetDaily: Time to go
The commentator calling himself "Vox Day" is a Southern Baptist. He offers the same assessment I do: the Episcopal Church is a dead church, and good Biblical Christians should leave it. God always exhorts His true followers to leave dead churches, not to tilt with the leadership--probably because tilting with church leadership sets a bad precedent for leader-follower relations, and also because it is often a waste of time.::Submitted for your intolerance of sound doctrine [2 Timothy 4:2-4] files.
WorldNetDaily: Terror link to West Nile?
The West Nile virus is a disease that affects migratory birds and human beings. It was never seen in this country before 1999. I have heard from a relative who says, "West Nile virus...Middle Eastern origin...how do you know that's not terrorism?" Now Joseph Farah, writing primarily for his premium "G2 Bulletin," asks the same thing--and presents chilling evidence that the answer might very well be that "It is!" (The only reason it may not be is that the casualty figures are pretty paltry.)::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
The Golden Report - The beginning of the end is near.
Jerry Golden describes the shelling in northern Israel and puts it in a prophetic context.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.

Sunday, August 10, 2003

London Temps Hit 100 for First Time
AP reports, "Melting Alpine glaciers unleashed a cascade of rocks, London choked in a record 100-degree temperatures and with wildfires raging in seven countries, the pope urged people to pray for rain. Europe sizzled this weekend, and there was no immediate relief in sight for much of the continent. The heat also broke a record in Germany, and a French toddler died of exposure in a sweltering parked car.With the mercury hovering around 100 degrees for days, more than 40 deaths have been blamed on the heat. Britons also gasped through a record-breaking day, watching thermometers climb above the 100 for the first time in Britain since temperatures have been recorded. The record-breaker - 100.22 degrees - was measured at Heathrow Airport, near a parched and baking London, the national weather service said." :: Submitted for your fearsome events (Luke 21:11) and fear for the future (Luke 21:26) files on weather extremes and global climate change.
Pat Buchanan: Yes, Virginia, there is a religious war
He is talking, of course, about the impending consecration of Gene Robinson as an Episcopal bishop. He sees the sad story of the Episcopal Church as a metaphor for America.::Submitted for your intolerance of sound doctrine [2 Timothy 4:2-4] files.
Unmasking Hamas' Hydrs of Terror
From the Simon Wiesenthal Center. This is a long file, and you'll need Adobe Acrobat to read it. It largely debunks the EU's fanciful notions that Hamas "is not a terrorist organization." Shown on the report's cover is a little boy in camo fatigues, wearing a headband that looks like an Arabic version of a kami-kaze pilot's headdress, and toting an AK-47 rifle. Doesn't that image just about say it all?::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
WorldNetDaily: Al-Qaida terrorists captured with Saudi donation boxes
Evidently it was the Saudis who caught about sixteen of them and found the donation boxes in their possession. The government has also ordered a halt to the use of the boxes and to collections at mosques.

Yes, and they still pay those remittances to the professors who foment the kind of hate that makes a terrorist. So they still haven't solved the problem--and they can't.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
Bush Promises Full Implementation of Roadmap
Ha'Aretz reports, "U.S. President George W. Bush promised Jordan's King Abdullah in a telephone call on Saturday that Washington remained committed to the international roadmap for peace in the Middle East, according to a Jordanian Royal Court statement. Washington was 'determined to fully implement' the plan which envisages the creation of an independent Palestinian state by the year 2005, the statement said." :: Submitted for your covenant with many (Daniel 9:27) files.

Saturday, August 09, 2003

WorldNetDaily: Is al-Qaida targeting U.S. Capitol building?
Good question. You see, UAL Flight 93 was targeted at the Capitol, except that Todd Beamer and his fellow martyrs had other ideas and they crashed prematurely. So to Al-Qaeda, the Capitol represents unfinished business.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.

Friday, August 08, 2003

Argentines Flock to Saint's Shrine
AP reports, "Delia Noris Lencina huddled for months on the sidewalk in wind and rain to be the first of tens of thousands of Argentines, many jobless, who flooded a shrine to the patron saint of work...But the crowds swelling outside the church of St. Cayetano on Thursday, the day marking the saint's annual celebration, bore witness that recovery is painfully slow...At the St. Cayetano shrine, women prayed and sang religious songs while hoping the saint would end the crisis." :: Submitted for your false christs (Matthew 24:4) files. :: There is power in prayer, but it all depends on who you pray to.
Starving Crowds Gather in Liberia Capital
AP reports, "Starving crowds gathered in Liberia's war-divided capital Friday, stuffing leaves into their mouths to quell their hunger as aid agencies pressed for opening of humanitarian routes. Fighting surged in cities outside Monrovia." :: Submitted for your famine (Matthew 24:7) files.
Fla. Declares Emergency After Tornado
AP reports, "Thursday's tornado surprised forecasters and carved a three-mile path of destruction, damaging or destroying 500 homes but causing only minor injuries. Gov. Jeb Bush declared an emergency Friday morning that sent state workers to help assess damage and render aid." :: Submitted for your fearsome events (Luke 21:11) files on extreme weather.
Google News Alerts
This is just a quick aside, but those of you who follow the news (and you would not be here if you didn't) may be interested in this new service from the good folks at Google. All you have to do is give them a topic you want to follow, tell them how often you want to get an alert, and then give them your e-mail address, and they will then alert you everytime your keyword is mentioned in online news.
Archbishop of Canterbury to Convene Emergency Primates Meeting
Straight from the horse's mouth this comes. The meeting will take place "in Mid-October." The Archbishop says, "I am clear that the anxieties caused by recent developments have reached the point where we will need to sit down and discuss their consequences. I hope that in our deliberations we will find that there are ways forward in this situation which can preserve our respect for one another and for the bonds that unite us. I hope we can use the time between now and then to reflect, to pray, to consult and to take counsel." Oh, really? Let us see what "counsel" you take, Most Reverend Archbishop. I still say that Episcopalians need to walk away from their ornate properties, meet in high-school auditoriums if they have to, and separate themselves from what has been an apostate denomination for some time. Touch not the whitewashed wall [Acts 23:3].::Submitted for your Biblical separation [2 Corinthians 6:14-18] files.

Thursday, August 07, 2003

New Xerox Printing Tech May Thwart Forgers
News Factor reports, "Armed with a new technology dubbed Glossmark, scientists at Xerox want to rob terrorists and other criminals of several important weapons in their arsenal -- forged drivers' licenses, phony passports, fake birth certificates, and similar documents of dubious origin...Information embedded in a Glossmark print -- for example, a seal or a date and time -- catches the light when it is tilted and can be seen as an additional and separate image...The embedded information cannot be reproduced on a conventional copier or scanner." :: Submitted for your mark of the beast files on ID technology. :: I wonder if you can put a Glossmark on a person?
Temple Mount Secured for Jewish Holiday
AP reports, "Police prevented dozens of ultranationalist Jews from entering a contested holy site Thursday...The hilltop, once home to two biblical Jewish Temples, is now the location of the Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third-holiest shrine. Thursday was the annual day of fasting and mourning for the destruction of the Temples by invading armies." :: Submitted for your files on the status of the Temple Mount, the only holy place (Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:15 & 2 Thessalonians 2:4).
West Nile Virus Cases Triple in One Week
AP reports, "The number of West Nile virus cases has tripled to at least 164 since last week and will likely break last year's record, a top federal health official said Thursday in the latest warning about the rapid advance of the mosquito-borne disease." :: Submitted for your pestilence (Luke 21:11) files.
U.S. Help for Ethiopia Falls Short, Say Groups
One World news service reports, "the leaders of eight major U.S. aid agencies called on the U.S. government and Congress to address the country's long-term development needs as well as the emergency situation in which it finds itself." :: Submitted for your famine (Matthew 24:7) files.
Iran, Cuba Zap U.S. Satellites
WND reports, "State sponsors of terrorism not only threaten U.S. interests on land, at sea and in the air, but now they have teamed up to attack U.S. assets in space. By successfully jamming a U.S. communications satellite over the Atlantic Ocean, the regimes of Cuba and Iran challenged U.S. dominance of space and the assumptions of free access to satellite communication that makes undisputed U.S. military power possible. The Bush administration, meanwhile, appears paralyzed about how to cope with this latest threat, which one U.S. official likens to an "act of war." :: Submitted for your rumor of war (Matthew 24:6) and Iran/Persia (Ezekiel 38:5) files. :: It may not be an act of war, but it is very close. Let's watch and see what the U.S. response is.
The Golden Report - Reported 100,000 march around the Old City of Jerusalem.
The occasion was the commemmoration of the Fast of Tisha Be-Av, literally "The Fast of the Ninth Day of Av." On this date (Hebrew calendar) in 586 BC (Julian), Nebuchadrezzar destroyed the first Temple. Incredibly, also on this date in AD 70, Titus, future Emperor of Rome, destroyed the second Temple.::Submitted for your destruction of the city and the sanctuary [Daniel 9:26] files.
CNN.com - Taylor says he will leave Liberia - Aug. 7, 2003
He also says that he will hand over his government to his Vice President. Well, this is in the seeing-is-believing category.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
Speaking Out: Are Episcopalians Still a Church? - Christianity Today Magazine
Uwe Siemen-Netto, religion editor of UPI, asks this tough but very good question. Her answer: "No."::Submitted for your Church in Laodicea [Revelation 3:15-22] and Church in Philadelphia [Revelation 3:7-14] and Biblical separation [2 Corinthians 6:14] files.
Weblog Bonus: 'Difficult Days Ahead' For Anglican Commmunion - Christianity Today Magazine
"Difficult days" doesn't half say it, says Ted Olsen, the compiler of the Weblog for Christianity Today. A schism is definitely in the offing, with plans to create a brand-new Anglican denomination in America to compete with the Episcopal Church.

Abroad, the critics are already weighing in. Anglican Primates and lesser Bishops everywhere are basically asking what in the Name of Jesus the Episcopalians think they are doing. We haven't heard the last of this, and are not likely to for many years to come.::Submitted for your Biblical separation [2 Corinthians 6:14-18] and intolerance of sound doctrine [2 Timothy 4:2-4] files.
Dispatch: Bishops Sanction 'Resources,' Not Rites - Christianity Today Magazine
The latest on the wishy-washy "debate" at the Episcopal General Convention.::Submitted for your whitewashed wall [Acts 23:3] and Biblical separation [2 Corinthians 6:14-18] and intolerance to sound doctrine [2 Timothy 4:2-4]
Temple Mount Secured for Jewish Holiday: "Police prevented dozens of ultranationalist Jews from entering a contested holy site Thursday, and a newspaper reported that Israel is considering spending $95 million to bring more Jews to the West Bank." :: Submitted for your holy place files on the status of the Temple Mount (Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:15 & 2 Thessalonians 2:4).
Believer Murdered, Pastor Clubbed in South India
Christian Aid Mission reports, "Hindu extremists clubbed a Christian believer to death in Karnataka state recently, beat another pastor till he was unconscious, and then hindered relatives from conducting Christian burials. Even though Karnataka itself does not yet have an anti-conversion law, the presence of an anti-conversion law adopted last fall in neighboring Tamil Nadu-and similar laws in four northern states of Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Gujarat and Arunachal Pradesh-is thought to have lent a permissive atmosphere for such violence." :: Submitted for your persecution (Matthew 24:12) files.
Bali bomber sentenced to death
From BBC's Asia-Pacific Bureau. Why is this idiot smiling? Because he thinks he is going to Muslim paradise, where he will lie on brocaded couches, and seventy-two dark-eyed virgins will service him night and day for eternity. He also says that his "targets" were Americans and Jews.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
Holy warriors enlisting online
From WorldNetDaily. The title pretty much says it all.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
Something is not Kosher in the Knesset!
Nor in the Church, either, says Jerry Golden. Why, he asks, is Ariel Sharon releasing so many prisoners--many of whom, I gather, really are terrorists after all? And why, he asks, doesn't the "free world" realize that the world's Muslims all have one plan only, and that plan is to take over the world with Islam? He also discusses the recent upheavals in the Church, about which this Blog has already seen many posts.

I don't think that Islam will succeed. Its defeat will come, however, at the hands of the Beast from the Sea [Revelation 13]. My reason for suggesting that Islam will fall before the Beast, and is not the Beast itself, is that the Beast's society is one of idolatry, murder, drug partying as if there's no tomorrow, sexual acting-out on a grand scale, and "theft"--which we might as well define as the total disrespect of the rights of individuals. [See Revelation 9:20-21.] These five social diseases are the hallmarks of an insane and vindictive modernism and not of Islam. Islam, in contrast, is about worshipping one god only (albeit a false one), the death penalty for petty murders and for drug (and alcohol) users and abusers, sexual repression, and cutting off the hands of thieves.

But that doesn't mean that I am complacent about Islam. Islam is not a religion of peace, either, no matter what its apologists say. And well can I understand why a Jew, albeit a Messianic one, would fear Islam. They've been living with knowing what Islam really is for over fifty-five years.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 13:6] and fight for Jerusalem [Zechariah 12-14] files.

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

Editor-in-Chief of Syrian Ba'ath Daily In Favor of Political Reform
From MEMRI. Reform voices in the Arab world do exist, and whenever MEMRI finds one it jumps it all the way to the top. But one must ask what sort of double game Bashir Assad is playing, to allow the editor-in-chief of his government organ--or his party organ, anyway--actually to call for reform of an authoritarian system.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
Team of Seven Marines Lands in Liberia
AP reports, "A team of U.S. Marines landed in Monrovia on Wednesday, flying in on olive-green helicopters that passed almost unnoticed over a ruined city where people are preoccupied with searching for food after weeks of fighting between government and rebel troops. :: Submitted for your wars and rumors of war (Matthew 24:6) files.
Iran Says It Won't Give Up Nuke Program
AP reprots, "Iran vowed Wednesday not to surrender its nuclear power generating program, as U.N. experts met with Iranian officials in an effort to arrange unrestricted inspections of its nuclear facilities." :: Submitted for your rumor of war (Matthew 24:6) and Iran/Persia (Ezekiel 38:5) files. :: It's a race, you know, to see which country will be next to declare itself a nuclear power. The doomsday clock keeps ticking.
European Heat Wave Kills at Least 37
AP reports, "Roadways buckled under the scorching sun in Germany, water levels on the Danube and other rivers dropped and wildfires forced tourists and residents to flee Wednesday as record-breaking heat, blamed for at least 37 deaths, tormented Europe." :: Submitted for your fearsome events (Luke 21:11) and fear for the future (Luke 21:26) files. :: The science on global warming has yielded contradictory conclusions, but it appears that there are a lot of people in Europe who have no doubts about the reality of the phenomenon. Some meteorologists are suggesting that Europeans may just as well get used to it, as it will happen every summer from here on out. Regardless of whether global warming is real or not, it is something that fills people with trepidation for the future, which is what Luke 21:26 is all about.
Italy Reports First Mad Cow-Linked Death
AP reports, "A 27-year-old Sicilian woman died Wednesday of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, becoming Italy's first victim of the brain-wasting malady linked to mad cow disease, doctors said." :: Submitted for your pestilence (Luke 21:11) files.
Episcopalians Vote Robinson In, 'Turn Away from Scriptures'
From AgapePress. It gives the current state of the controversy, with comments--often scathing--already rolling in from other Anglican Primates and other bishops worldwide.::Submitted for your intolerance of sound doctrine [2 Timothy 4:2-4] files.
With Biometric HandPunch, Business Cuts Over 90% of Payroll Prep Time
According to this Business Wire press release, "IR Recognition Systems, the biometric component of Ingersoll-Rand's (IR) Security & Safety Group's Electronic Access Control Division (EACD), today announced that all nine locales of Don Carter All Star Lanes in three different states use biometric HandPunch terminals to clock its 700 employees in and out, saving the corporation between 400 to 500 hours of payroll preparation time per year. The HandPunch eliminates the expenses associated with employee badges and fraud caused by buddy punching. Instead of having to fill out or punch timecards, employees simply place their hands on the HandPunch. It automatically takes a three-dimensional reading of the size and shape of the employee's hand and verifies the user's identity in less than one second. :: Submitted for your mark of the beast files on biometric ID verification technology. My proposed slogan, "With biometric HandPunch, you're in good hands." Ha!

Tuesday, August 05, 2003

Perseid Meteors
Space Weather reports that, "Although the peak of the 2003 Perseid meteor shower is still a week away, sky watchers have already spotted a few bright meteors, like the exploding fireball that streaked across Texas on August 4th. A movie of this Perseid, recorded by the Sandia Meteor Detection Network, is available on Spaceweather.com now. :: Submitted for your signs in the stars (Luke 21:25) and signs in the heavens (Luke 21:11) files.
Ending Hunger in Our Lifetime
The International Food Policy Research Institute reviews a new book, "examining recent research on global food security suggests that hunger and poverty can be overcome by 2025 if better economic and investment policies and sustainable environmental practices are followed." :: Submitted for your famine (Matthew 24:7) files.
New Address
Prophecy News blog now has a new URL, please update your bookmarks to:

http://prophecynews.blogspot.com/
China Getting Ready for Severe Blitzkrieg
From the English-language edition of Pravda. Specifically, China is preparing to move against Taiwan. The whole Pacific theater could blow up in everyone's face.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
Ayatollah Khomeini's Grandson: 'Iran Needs Democracy and Separation of Religion and State;' 'The Iranian Regime Is the World's Worst Dictatorship'
From MEMRI. Hussein Khomeini, grandson of the Ayatollah, has moved out of Qom, the Iranian holy city, to Najaf, the Iraqi holy city. Now that's a defection! His is one of the strongest indications yet that the situation in Iran is anything but stable.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
Speaking Out: Israel's Anti-Family Values - Christianity Today Magazine
This commentary sharply criticizes Israel's new citizenship-by-marriage limitation statute as "discriminatory against the alien/sojourner." But I suggest that this commentary misses the mark. First, God told His people not to marry foreigners. Second, there's a difference between a sojourner and an invader--and given the overriding ethos of "Palestinians," I cannot blame Israelis who look on "Palestinians" as invaders.::Submitted for your be not unequally yoked [2 Corinthians 6:14-18] files.
Weblog: Voodoo Weddings, Funerals to be Official - Christianity Today Magazine
In addition to the above, this edition of CT's "blog" also has the full text of an e-mail response by the ELCA to the rape allegations at their youth camp. It also has multiple links to articles discussing the Robinson Affair. Multiple commentaries predict a schism in the Anglican Communion--to which I say, "Schiz away!" Now let's see whether such a schism really comes about.::Submitted for your be not unequally yoked [2 Corinthians 6:14-18] and the unrepentant idolators [Revelation 9:20] files.
Dispatch: The Bitter Harvest of Sexual Ideology
From Christianity Today. Detailed commentary from someone now attending the Episcopal General Convention.::Submitted for your be not unequally yoked [2 Corinthians 6;14-18] files.
Harassment, Porn Charges Derail Approval of Gay Bishop
From Christianity Today. The latest on the controversy in the Protestant Episcopal Church of the USA surrounding The Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson. Already the liberals are circling the wagons.::Submitted for your be not unequally yoked [2 Corinthians 6:14-18] files.
U.N. Says Congo Rebels Use Cannibalism
AP reports, "Rebels used looting, killing, violence against women and cannibalism as "premeditated tools of war" in northeastern Congo, according to a new U.N. report...According to the investigators from the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, 173 killings and executions were reported including 12 incidents of cannibalism." :: Submitted for your rumor of war (Matthew 24:6) and wickedness increases (Matthew 24:12) files.
The Abomination of Homosexual Clergy and Churches
Bill Keller, founder of LivePrayer, gives a ringing condemnation of the very idea of homosexual clergy, and of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the USA for tolerating this spectacle, as they have long before the current controversy over making a bishop of one of them. He urges all Episcopalians to leave the church--at once!::Submitted for your be not unequally yoked [2 Corinthians 6:14-18] files.
Bishop on Hold!
From the Traditional Values Coalition. That's the Reverend Canon V. Gene Robinson, that is. Here, Paul Sheldon of TVC gives further details of the alleged touching incident, the web link allegation, and the investigation, which is in the hands of The Right Reverend Gordon B. Scruton, Bishop of Western Massachusetts. We also hear of an estimate that one fourth of the bishops might "walk out" in "protest" of Robinson's ratification, when, as, and if it comes.::Submitted for your intolerance of sound doctrine [2 Timothy 4:2-4] files.
King Faysal University Professor: 'Jews Consider Iraq Part of Greater Israel'
From MEMRI. Much of what Umayma Ahmad Al-Jalahma says reads like warmed over Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. The Jews controlled and exhausted Britain, the Jews want to control everything, the Jews, the Jews, the Jews. As far as I know, Ariel Sharon did call upon the fifty-odd Jews remaining in Iraq to make aliyah, and I know of no such order as the one that Dr. Al-Jalahma attributes to Rabbi Nehemya Tehori, calling for every Jew wearing a coalition uniform to say a special prayer concerning ancient Babylon [see 2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel]. It is worth noting that Dr. Al-Jalahma has figured in three previous MEMRI Special Dispatches, all three of which are linked to this article. The context that she provided was a "blood libel" article accusing the Jews of requiring the blood of Arab teen-agers to make Purim patries [see Esther].

Oddly enough, Dr. Al-Jalahma is correct about one thing: the lands west of the Euphrates river, including much of Iraq, do belong to "greater Israel," a relationship that will be quite clear during the Millennium [see Zechariah]. But what's really stunning is that King Faysal University continues to honor a woman with a full professorship. Then again, anyone who crafts anti-Semitic libel so beautifully must be allowed to stay.::Submitted for your fight for Jerusalem [Zechariah 12-14] and your "Fell, fell did Babylon the Great" [Revelation 17-18] files.

Monday, August 04, 2003


S.Africa Seen at 'Death' Phase of AIDS Epidemic

Reuters reports, "South Africa is entering the 'death' phase of its AIDS epidemic as mortality outstrips new infections, presenting new challenges for a health care system struggling to cope with the disease, scientists said on Monday." :: Submitted for your pestilence (Luke 21:11) files.
Local Galactic Dust is on the Rise
According to this ESA report, "New observations from the European Space Agency's Ulysses spacecraft show that galactic dust in the Milky Way is passing through our solar system more than normal. The Sun's magnetic field normally forms a barrier around our solar system that forces dust to go around us, but the Sun has reached the high point of its 11-year cycle, and the magnetic field is highly disordered - so the interstellar dust is coming through the solar system more directly. Although it has no direct effects on the planets, the dust impacts asteroids and comets producing more fragments, and may increase the amount of material that rains down on the Earth." :: Submitted for your signs in the sun and stars (Luke 21:25) and signs in the heavens (Luke 21:11) files.
Iran Rapidly Pursuing Nuclear Caspability
According to the Los Angeles Times, international jihad sponsor, Iran, is close to developing the capacity to build a nuclear bomb. :: Submitted for your rumor of war and Persia files.
Swedes find signs of Saddam's weapons?
WorldNetDaily tells us that a number of Swedish arms experts paid a visit to Iraq in June of 2003 to evaluate documents obtained from Iraq. A Swedish Defense Research Agency official authorized the visit, but evidently the higher levels of the Swedish government did not--and now they, red in the face, are trying to downplay the findings.::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
The Fence the Wall and more.
Jerry Golden shares these excellent pictures of the "security fence" and the Wailing Wall.::Submitted for your fight for Jerusalem [Zechariah 12] files.
'Touching' allegations against 'gay' pastor
As a follow-up to the below post, now WorldNetDaily is weighing in. We hear of an e-mail sent to the Bishop of Vermont, frankly accusing Canon Robinson of touching its author inappropriately. I have no further details on the porn-link allegation at this time.::Submitted for your whitewashed wall [Acts 23:3] files.
Episcopalians Delay Vote on Gay Bishop
From the Associated Press, with further background from AgapePress. The details are these: The Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson, Bishop-elect of New Hampshire in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA, was about one vote away from confirmation as the Anglican Communion's first-ever openly homosexual bishop. Apparently the reality of his sinful lifestyle--or at least what the House of Bishops knew already--wasn't enough for them to break their long-standing rubber-stamp policy when it comes to confirming bishops following diocesan elections. But now it would appear that he touched a man inappropriately and put a porn link on an official website. The Presiding Bishop has appointed a "committee" to "investigate" the "allegations." The details that I have are from ABC Radio News, broken first at 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. EST) today.::Submitted for your intolerance of sound doctrine [2 Timothy 4:2-4] and your whitewashed wall [Acts 23:3] files.
3 charged after rapes were reported at youth gathering
From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Briefly, three young men raped three young women at a youth conference at Issaquah Church Camp near Seattle, WA. Dave Ellingson, Congregational Ministries Coordinator, told Seattle Station KOMO-TV, "We all make mistakes, and this was a big mistake." Hel-lo-ooo? "A big mistake?" This is the worst crime that a man can commit against a woman, short of murder. It is the worst example of how youth programs say that they teach Christian values, and do not. I have identified several mistakes that my church's youth pastor would never make:

  1. Why were these young people housed in a co-ed dorm, with men in one wing and women in the other? What is wrong with this picture? You tell me.

  2. When an adult supervisor learned that the three boys and the three girls were about to meet unchaperoned in some of the rooms (accounts differ as to whose rooms they were in), why did he not put his foot down and tell them, "No!"?


In addition, the girls made one mistake that I would hope that no girls at my church would make: they agreed to meet with the boys at night in a room or rooms even though those boys had been sexually aggressive with them from the get-go.

This is a real sick-making case, and I list it as--::Submitted for your itching ears [2 Timothy 4:2-4] files.
Palestinian Gunmen Wound Mother, Child
AP reports, "Palestinian gunmen ambushed an Israeli car near Jerusalem, seriously wounding a mother and child, hours after Israel dismissed a Palestinian proposal to call a permanent cease-fire instead of disarming militant groups." :: Submitted for your battle for Jerusalem files.
Nurses book gives firsthand account of life in Saudi Arabia - August 3, 2003
From the Medford (Oregon) Mail Tribune. A former nurse at the Saudi Ministry of Defense gives out the skinny on what life is really like in Saudi Arabia. Might that government be funding Al-Qaeda on the sly? It wouldn't surprise this self-published author, whose story by itself ought to be reason for the United States government to reassess its "alliance."::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] files.
Radical Islam's 'plan' to take over America
From WorldNetDaily. An Arab-American author has identified twenty different trends and political tactics and concludes that they could all be part of a secret plan to fly a green crescent-moon-and-star flag over the White House by 2020.

Many of Mr. Shorrosh's "twenty points" look like credible threats. These are things we need to combat by getting out into the marketplace of ideas. Frankly, why the modernists would put up with an advancement of Islam, I can't imagine. Islam, after all, teaches a view of marriage that is even further removed from the Hillary Clinton anti-marriage ideal than does Christianity. Indeed, this country is galloping toward the recognition of homosexual marriage. And we're going to accept Islam in the public square? The cognitive disconnect positively gapes!

His Point Nine sounds like something out of a hypothetical Protocols of the Learned Elders of Baghdad. I doubt that any "secret Baghdad caliph" is orchestrating mass immigration anywhere.

However: taken together, it looks like a credible threat. But again, the modernists might be the ones to revolt against it. The trouble is, those same modernists will declare that Christians are no better than Muslims when it comes to the use of terror as a means of advancing our "religion."::Submitted for your war and rumor of war [Matthew 24:6] and your ride a red horse [Revelation 6:3-4] files.

Sunday, August 03, 2003

Archaeologists Find 'Supreme' Zeus Temple
From the Associated Press, by way of New York Newsday. This "supreme Zeus" represents the ancient Hellenic progress from polytheism to monotheism. (The Roman equivalent of Hypsistos Zeus would later be called "Jupiter Optimus Maximus.") The statue and temple date from 400 BC. (To put that in perspective, Alexander the Great conquered the Middle East in the name of Greco-Macedon in 332 BC.)::Submitted for your idols that can neither hear nor see nor walk [Revelation 9:20] files.
$600M gold cache really brass
From The Toronto Star. Apparently Saddam Hussein was melting down spent shell casings into brass ingots cast to make them look like gold ingots. I know I said that I respect brass more than hypocrisy, but this is the limit!::Submitted for your unrighteous steward [Luke 16] files.