Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Relgion Today - Imprisoned Protestant Pastors transferred to Unknown Location
According to this Religion Today report, "Three prominent Protestant pastors detained for months have been transferred from a police station jail in the capital of Asmara to an unknown location. Haile Naizgi and Kiflu Gebremeske, leaders of the Full Gospel Church, have been imprisoned since May 23, and Tesfatsion Hagos, who leads Rema Evangelical Church, has been jailed since May 26, Compass Direct reported." :: For your files on persecution (Matthew 24:14).

Saturday, August 28, 2004

AllAfrica - Government Blamed for Famine
There are indeed famines (Matthew 24:7) taking place all over the world, though they don't get much media attention anymore. This news report deals with famine in Africa.

Friday, August 27, 2004

AP - U.S. Preparing for Global Flu Epidemic
This AP Yahoo News report details plans to combat a global flu pandemic. Epidemiologists say that it is only a matter of time before this happens again. Submitted for your files on Pestilence (Luke 21:11).

Thursday, August 26, 2004

Webindia123.com - Earth's closest encounter with an asteroid
Scientists reported last Sunday that Earth had a very close call with an asteroid a few months ago. Keep watching for those Signs in the Heavens (Luke 21:11).
AP - Christian School in Pakistan Reopens
Here is some good news, for your files on the spread of the Gospel (Matthew 24:14).
VOA - Koisumi to Demand Increase in Permanent Security Council Seats
While most commentators in the prophecy community continue to promote the New Rome theory of the fulfillment of the Ten Kings (Rev 17:12-14) prophecy, I've always been convinced that the U.N. Security Council represents a far more likely candidate. We may be at a crossroads in time when one outcome will be favored over the other.

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

CNET News.com - Idea of implanting ID tags raises Orwellian fears
RFID is becoming something more than a supply chain innovation. As usual, submitted for your Mark of the Beast (Rev 13:16-18) files.

Sunday, August 22, 2004

Archeologists protest Temple Mt crimes
This article concerns the "construction" work done by the The Moslem Waqf on the Temple Mount. In this report from the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem a group of senior Israeli archeologists weigh in on the matter. The Temple Mount is a site of past and future prophetic events (Daniel 9:27, Matthew 24:15 & 2 Thessalonians 2:4) and the prophecy community follows events there with great interest.

Saturday, August 21, 2004

AP My Way - China Detains Buddhist, U.S. Group Says
This news report is about China rounding up members of a Buddhist group, it also mentions the recent government crackdown on the underground Christian church. Posted for your files on persecution (Matthew 24:8).

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Wired News - Internet Heading to Light Speed
Here is another report for your Mark of the Beast (Rev 13:16-18) files. Don't see the point? Well, if the mark turns out to be technology linking ID verification with commerce, then perhaps a faster global network will be needed. This reports suggests that a new optical network faster than our present internet may be on the way.

Friday, August 13, 2004

AP MyWay - Biometrics Creeping Into Everyday Life
I received an e-mail from a woman who asked me if she should be worried that she used her debit card too much and can go weeks without using cash for her purchases. I told her no, not to worry. Every time I post a news report for your mark of the beast (Rev 13:16-18) files I feel like I should also post a warning, something along the lines of, "Don't panic, these are just interesting trends to watch." My position has always been that we don't know what the mark of the beast will be and so we watch the trends to keep up on what is happening. The last thing I want to do is inspire fear and anxiety, that is not what Bible prophecy is about. Be aware, be discerning, but don't be afraid.
MSNBC - Russians add new twist to old UFO mythIn this excellent commentary, James Oberg reviews the history of the Tunguska Incident and of every theory, realistic or crackpot, that anyone has advanced to explain it. Specifically, he tells us that the newest "find"--that "metal box" of an allegedly unknown alloy--that the latest expedition recovered from the site--was probably a chunk from Vostok 5, which landed way off-target back in 1960. (Vostok 5, for you space buffs out there, carried two dogs into space in one of the Soviets' repeated attempts to stay ahead of the West in the Space Race. Those of you with a deep and abiding love for the more vulnerable of God's creatures, don't worry--the Soviet Army retrieved their errant capsule and rescued the two K-9 cosmonauts alive.)

More broadly, Oberg--who, as far as I know, is not a saved man himself--throws welcome buckets of cold water on the UFO theory, and on UFOlogy generally. He also tells us what really happened: The Tunguska Meteorite was a big rock, about 200 feet across, that blew up roughly five miles up, and with such force that ot knocked down trees up to sixty miles away, but left no debris at ground zero.

As refreshing as Oberg's commentary is, it is still incomplete--for neither Oberg nor anyone else who writes about meteors and meteoroids these days seems to have a clue to where they came from. If you really want to know, check out Walt Brown's excellent site where he explains his Hydroplate Theory of pre-Flood earth. Basically, meteoroids--and asteroids and comets, too--are ejecta from the Noachic Flood, and specifically from the breaking-open of the fountains of the deep [Genesis 7]. And I repeat: UFO's are either man-made hoaxes, or else they are demonic manifestations--exactly what we ought to expect as the baleful prophecies of Daniel, John the Revelator, and Jesus Himself, uttered two thousand years or more ago, now approach fulfillment.

Thursday, August 12, 2004

NASA: The 2004 Perseid Meteor Shower
Voice of America - Famine in Zimbwean City Claims More Than 150 Lives
Hurricane CHARLEY Advisory 13Text of the latest from the National Weather Service.
WorldNetDaily: Did aliens save planet in 1908?That's the question to which a Russian research team thinks they have the answer. Searching at the site of the Tunguska Meteorite, they have found a large metallic block of unknown composition and have chipped off a chunk and sent it for assay.

For the record, in 1908 a large explosion felled trees for sixty miles around near Tunguska, Siberia, in the last years of Tsar Nikolai II--three years after the Russo-Japanese War. Witnesses described a fireball as bright as the sun, and then the explosion. The modern scientists are now actively speculating that an "enlightened" ET admiral sent a ship to destroy a meteor that, had it struck intact, would have created an Extinction-Level Event. The crew of that ship allegedly sacrificed themselves--hence the lump of metal of an unknown alloy.

But what these scientists do not mention--what such "scientists" never mention--is that they have no better explanation than any Christian might have for how such an ET fleet might have gotten here. Talking about their motives, and assuming those motives to be "enlightened," is not enough. It's bad enough that secular scientists blithely assume that with advancement in technology comes equal advancement in enlightenment and ethics and sensitivity and compassion. Gene Roddenberry, of Star Trek fame, asked us to buy that theory, this although he populated his "advanced technology" world with stand-ins for the Soviets ("Klingons") and the ChiComs ("Romulans"). But such assumptions violate everything that even a secular scientist must admit about the fallen nature of the cosmos and of every life-form in it.

But what is so stunning is that the same scientists who are so quick to claim that they have found crash debris from an ET scoutcraft--or even the space-borne equivalent of a SWIFT Boat--have no idea how such a craft--or the fleet of which it would have been a part--could have gotten here, or from where. The overwhelming consensus in astronomy today relies heavily on Einstein, who said that nothing could ever reach the speed of light in a vacuum, and that the closer anyone got to that speed, the heavier he'd get, with no limit--and once he got to that speed, he might never stop. While this is convenient for claiming that the cosmos must be older than six thousand years (though Einstein himself might quarrel with that view, since General Relativity suggests that space-time continual conditions were far different at Creation than they are today), it becomes most inconvenient to anyone who wants to speculate about extraterrestrial visitation! Here again is a perfect example of how "scientists" ignore their own earlier pronouncements whenever it suits them.

I submit this for your strong delusion [II Thessalonians 2:8ff.] files, as a sample of the kind of deluded theory that secularists will propound in order to explain certain soon-to-be-fulfilled biblical prophecies as having a cause other than Divine intervention.

Monday, August 02, 2004

Sunday, August 01, 2004

My Way News - Gov't Warns of Threats Against Buildings: "The federal government warned Sunday of possible terrorist attacks against 'iconic' financial institutions in New York City, Washington and Newark, N.J., saying a confluence of intelligence over the weekend pointed to a car or truck bomb."
Breaking News: U.S. Terror Alert Level Raised
CNN is reporting that the Department of Homeland Security is raising the alert level in the New York, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia on the basis of intelligence reports indicating a possible al-Qaida attack. More details to follow.