Freak storm: hailstorm with ice boulders rain down in Indian villages

Reblogged from Elizabeth Prata: the-end-time.blogspot.com

The Daily Mail has the story, along with their typically fantastic photos

Nine people killed as freak hailstorm rains massive boulders down on Indian villages
Hailstones the size of boulders have rained down on villages in southern India.
"At least nine people were killed when the violent weather hit several villages in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The hailstorm which lasted for almost 20 minutes, destroyed crops, houses and live stock, causing devastating financial implications for residents. It was once-in-lifetime experience for people living in seven villages in Chevella, Moinabad and Shankarpally. The hailstones started falling from the sky on Tuesday night and covered the entire villages under the snow-like blanket."

This area in India which received the hail is prone to huge hailstorms. The Weather Underground reports,

"The deadliest hailstorms, and perhaps the largest hailstones, in the world occur on the Deccan Plateau of northern India and in Bangladesh. The heaviest authenticated hailstone ever measured was one of 2.25 pounds that fell in the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh on April 14, 1986. The stones size was not measured although anecdotal reports claimed the stones were the size of “pumpkins”. Ninety-two people perished as a result of the storm although how many of these can be attributed to the hail is uncertain. A hailstorm in the Moradabad and Beheri districts of India killed 246 people on April 30, 1888, the deadliest hailstorm on record in modern history."

But even this storm has the Meteorological Office scratching their heads.
"HYDERABAD: Two days after a severe hailstorm lashed parts of Chevella mandal in Rangareddy district, a two-member team of meteorologists from the Indian Meteorology Department (IMD) visited the affected areas, but were clueless as to what caused the unusual phenomena and were only able to give textbook answers. ... Officials said that hailstorm normally occurs during summer months but not in January. ... When asked if the hailstorm of such a scale as the one witnessed on Wednesday ever occurred, Rao said that there was no record and did not rule out such a possibility."

Here is a gentle reminder:

God controls the weather. He either sent the storm or He allowed satan some latitude to cause it. (Job 1:9-12, 19; Isaiah 30:30).

The other reminder is that He will send 100lb hailstones in the Tribulation.

"And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe." (Revelation 16:21)

You notice the verses 'they cursed God for the hail'. The people by that time will know it is God sending these things as plagues, or judgments. It is better to know it now, before the judgment comes.

Do you acknowledge God is King (Psalm 29:10)? Do you understand that you are a sinner, that He sent His Son as the sacrifice to die for your sins, and God accepted the sacrifice by raising His Son from the dead to reign in heaven, and who will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead? That's the Gospel. (1 Corinthians 15:1-8)

The Culture of Praise

 The Culture of Praise

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Michael Craven

 Reblogged from http://www.crosswalk.com/blogs/michael-craven/

 

The Wall Street Journal recently ran a story addressing the “culture of praise” that is becoming characteristic of the next generation of American workers.

The article reports that “corporations including Land’s End and Bank of America are hiring consultants to teach managers how to compliment employees… The 1,000 employee Scooter Store, Inc… has a staff ‘celebrations’ assistant whose job it is throw confetti – 25 pounds a week – at employees… The Container Store Inc. estimates that one of its 4,000 employees receives praise every 20 seconds through such efforts as its ‘Celebration Voice Mailboxes.’” Bob Nelson, a consultant specializing in “praise issues” counsels up to 100 companies each year. Nelson says “workers under 40 require far more stroking…they want near-constant feedback.” Nelson advises bosses: “If a young worker has been chronically late for work and then starts arriving on time, commend him.” Commend him?! How about reminding him of his obligations and responsibilities for which he receives a paycheck!

Steve Smolinsky, a marketing consultant who teaches MBA students at the prestigious Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, says that he and his colleagues feel hand-cuffed by the language of self-esteem. “You have to tell students, ‘Its not as good as you can do. You’re really smart, and can do better.’” Smolinsky says he enjoys giving praise when it’s warranted “but there needs to be a flip-side. When people are lousy, they need to be told that.”

The article’s author points out, “Childhood in recent decades has been defined by such stroking – by parents who see their job as building self-esteem, by soccer coaches who give every player a trophy, by schools who used to name one ‘student of the month’ and these days name 40.” What the article fails to identify is what produced this culture of superficial self-esteem building.

Christopher Lasch points out in his important book, The Culture of Narcissism, “The contemporary climate is therapeutic not religious. People today hunger not for personal salvation, but for the feeling, the momentary illusion, of personal well-being, health, and psychic security.” Following the eclipse of the Christian worldview that once shaped American life and culture, the “therapeutic” revolution of the sixties emerged to convince us that “personal happiness” was the ultimate goal of human life. This idea has only further encouraged the individual self to elevate his or her needs and interests above everyone else’s.

By replacing the former religious culture with today’s therapeutic culture we have unwittingly created the most narcissistic generation in American history. “For a multi-university study released this year, 16,475 college students took the standardized narcissistic personality inventory… Students’ scores have risen steadily since the test was first offered, in 1982. The average college student in 2006 was 30 percent more narcissistic than the average student in 1982.” (WSJ)

What precisely is this narcissism I speak of and how does the therapeutic sensibility contribute to its formation? In short, the advent of Freudian psychotherapy sought to liberate men from what it saw as outdated modes of thinking about such things as love, duty, self-sacrifice, and submission to higher authority. Under the Freudian premise “mental health,” which becomes the highest human goal, was defined as “the overthrow of inhibitions and the immediate gratification of every impulse.” Each person’s own desires and wants were given primacy over and above everything and everyone else, including God. Doing so, we were told, would make us “happy” and nearly every aspect of contemporary American culture has combined to reinforce this message.

By contrast, the Bible defines love as subordinating your needs to those of others; that we have a God-given duty to serve and assist others, that self-sacrifice is the ultimate demonstration of this love, and that we are to submit to authority in the same way we submit to God. Furthermore, happiness is NOT the central aim of human existence – knowing and glorifying God is, and from this flows something much deeper than temporal happiness: joy, which endures beyond circumstances, producing true contentment.

Not surprisingly, the “praise me” generation are not only, NOT happy; they are, in many cases, increasingly alienated from others, disconnected from any transcendent meaning or purpose, insecure, and overly dependent upon the approval of others. This generation suffers from the highest levels of depression, suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, and various other psychological pathologies, than any other generation in American history despite having been repeatedly told that they are the greatest!

This misguided love of self, personal happiness and self-gratification has effectively replaced the Gospel of Jesus Christ as mankind’s hope. Even, in some cases, within the Church itself by the creation of the “therapeutic Jesus,” who is presented as merely the religious means to these same ends.

How does the church, who takes it mission seriously, respond to and reach such a culture? Here, I refer not to my own “wisdom” but to the words of Jesus himself:

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Mark 12:31)

Add to this Jesus’ words given to the disciples in the book of John:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35)

This generation desperately needs to see and experience the love of Christ, not in word, but in deed. By witnessing and experiencing true love and acceptance – on no other basis than they are people made in the image of God – they can begin to discover their true value in something other than superficial praise. This is especially so among this generation, who, on one hand craves praise and attention, also recognizes the artificiality of same. They want praise and attention but their pervasive insecurities, because of the all-too-often unmerited praise, make them suspect of its authenticity when it is given. In general, they have become cynical when it comes to words spoken – they need authentication through demonstration.

Practically, this means that the Church must return to being “missional” by both strengthening its own sense of community (love for one another) and reaching out to and physically serving the community that surrounds them (love of neighbor). Quite simply, the Church must return to being the Church and stop relying on programs, events, and spectacles to win the lost and instead love one another and their neighbors in order to bear witness to the life-changing truth of Jesus.

© 2007 by S. Michael Craven

Islamic-Christian Alliance in Israel

By Gary Stearman on September 30, 2012

The following news item was recently published in Israel: Arutz Sheva, Aug. 27th – “The Temple Mount, the place where Avraham [Abraham] came to sacrifice his son to God, the site of the first and second Jewish Temples, where the Jewish people worshiped for hundreds of years and the focal point of every practicing Jew’s prayers, is under increasing assault from the Islamic-Christian Committee.
“This relatively new Palestinian institution has been able to win the support not only of the entire regional Christian leadership, but also of leading Christian personalities from abroad.

“The Islamic-Christian Commission has just warned that the Israeli authorities are working to impose ‘a false Jewish history’ in Jerusalem, ‘the occupied city,’especially ‘on the area known to Jews as the Temple Mount.’ The Committee warned of a new ‘Judaization.’ Such fabricated lies help the Palestinians to conquer a seat in the international agencies like Unesco and to excite the Muslims against the Jews.”

In this report, we see the sad truth that not all Christians understand the prophetic truth that Israel is destined to return to the Holy Land in the last days. Instead, they view the institutional church – not Israel – as the central element in God’s plan to renew the Earth. Some even envision transferring their ecclesiastical headquarters to Jerusalem when the time is right, to greet the Lord upon His return in the Second Coming.

In their thinking, the church has superseded Israel, and is destined to create the spiritual platform that will pave the way for the Lord’s return, as He brings the Kingdom of God to its final fruition upon Earth.
In their world view, termed “replacement theology,” modern Israel is a temporary accident that will soon be swept aside into the dustbin of history. They see it as a strange offshoot of the Jewish Holocaust of World War II, whose presence in the Middle East is an irritant and obstacle to peace. Prophecy has been improperly taught for centuries; any attempt to correct long-held positions will certainly be met with dramatic resistance.

In this arena, we encounter a real contradiction in the interpretation of Bible prophecy. In sharp contrast with this view, Dispensationalism was developed in the 19th century under the leadership of John Nelson Darby and his immediate support group. They restored the long-extinct Apostolic doctrine of imminency and placed national Israel at the center of prophetic fulfillment.As dispensationalists, we do not see the Church – the body of Christ – as usurping Israel’s central place in the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.

Part of the problem is that Christians who follow denominational creeds are only rarely (if at all) involved in the study of Bible prophecy. Eschatology has been sidelined, and is considered nearly irrelevant. Besides that, it is generally thought to be so divisive in nature that it is approached with caution. For this reason, most seminaries now admonish their young graduates to steer clear of prophetic teaching, except in the most simplistic terms. In other words, be content with, “Jesus will return to Earth some day.” Christians who believe in the latter-day return of Israel to the Holy Land are continually amazed at the widespread failure to understand this basic Bible prophecy.
In fact, there is a long tradition of power politics behind the precautionary stance of today’s theologians. Religious empires have been built and are vigorously protected.

The Islamic-Christian Committee

The Committee mentioned earlier is comprised of theologians who represent the tip of the replacement theology iceberg. They are amillennialists, with an understanding of prophecy that goes back to Augustine, whose writings were a reaction to the allegorical biblical interpretations of earlier church fathers. He cut off their strange prophetic conjectures by denying that there would be a future Millennium.

Of course, national Israel found no place in his view. The Jews had been banished to the four corners of the world, and in his thinking, would never return.

And so, in the early 5th century, he envisioned a thousand-year Church Age. When that period passed, his timing was discredited. His followers in the Roman Church then spiritualized the remaining period, assigning it an indefinite duration. Once again, Israel found no place in this renewal of prophetic interpretation.

Though flawed, Augustine’s system of eschatology found practically universal acceptance in the medieval church. Centuries later, the Roman Church and the later Reformed churches continued to accept his theology as firm and correct tradition, which is still the case, today.
Today’s Islamic-Christian Committee is comprised of church leaders who follow Augustinian eschatology. Naturally, they see Jerusalem as he did: the City of God as capital of the Gentile world. The church institutions they represent are all steeped in this concept of Gentile authority.





One of them (left) is Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canturbury. He has been termed “Anglo-Catholic.” He recently said, “It is impossible to deny that Christians and Muslims have a common agenda here: both faiths have at their heart the living image of a community raised up by God’s call to reveal to the world what God’s purpose is for humanity.”

Fouad Twal, the new Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, serving in that capacity since 2008, recently took part in a meeting with Williams in London, England. There, he protested the fact that there are “more than 550,000 Israelis living in East Jerusalam and the West Bank.” He also spoke against “the demography of Jerusalem changing rapidly with the sacred space being threatened.” In other words, he detests the growing Jewish population there.

Another is the Vatican’s former archbishop in Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah. He has launched appeals in Europe and the United States, urging them to “stop the Hebraization of Jerusalem.”

The founder of the Committee, is Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem, Atallah (Theodosius) Hanna. Since his appointment in 2001, quickly established himself as a vigorous political activist, publicly denouncing the “Israeli occupation” and the establishment of a “Palestinian identity.” Naturally, he is very popular among Arabs. Israeli authorities, however, have repeatedly arrested him on charges of “incitement.”

Hanna once said, “The suicide bombers who carry out their activities in the name of religion are national heroes and we’re proud of them.”

Supersessionism

There is a fundamental error in the theology that states it has replaced Israel, which it deems to be forever lost in sin.
Theologians sometimes refer to replacement theology as “supersessionism,” from the English word “supersede.” This church position states that the New Covenent replaces the Mosaic Covenant, which it refers to as the “Old Covenant.” On this basis, it believes that it has inherited the promises made to the biblical Israelites.
It is only natural, therefore, that modern church leaders would view Israel as a temporary obstacle to peace in the Middle East.

However, contemporary scholarship points out a fundamental error in their theology. They begin with the idea that Israel is forever lost in sin, never to be redeemed. However, the Apostle Paul speaks of national Israel as being at the center of God’s long-term plan for this world. Surely, anyone with the slightest experience in Scripture has read Paul’s explanation for the purpose of Israel’s rejection:
“I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness” (Rom. 11:11,12).

Here, he plainly states that the collapse of Israel’s rule in Israel was only temporary. It brought salvation to the Gentiles (through Christ’s death, burial and resurrection at the feast of Firstfruits). Then, he says that they will rise again to fullness. In order to throw out this Scriptural truth, one must nullify Paul as an Apostolic authority. He adds that Israel, like Christ, will rise from the dead:
“For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” (Rom. 11:15).

But Paul’s pure and simple statement cannot be misinterpreted. It must be ignored. And so it has been, by those who believe that the church has superseded the promised Kingdom, composed of the twelve tribes of Israel.

According to those who follow it, supersessionism expresses itself in several ways. Augustine believed that the church superseded Israel in terms of a new form of management replacing the old. He saw this development as historical and practical.
Others say that supersessionism is structural. It is simply the natural development of God’s ages-long plan for the redemption of the Earth.
Still others see the church’s supersession as God’s punishment of the Jews, who continue to reject Jesus. In the second century, Justin Martyr wrote, “For the true spiritual Israel are we who have been led to God through this crucified Christ.”

In the third century, Hippolytus is quoted as having said, “The Jews … have been darkened in the eyes of your [the Lord’s] soul with a darkness utter and everlasting.”
Among many others, Hippolytus, Origen and Martin Luther held the belief that the Old Testament prophecies once intended for the Jews were now to be interpreted as pertaining to Christians.
And as stated above, most contemporary mainline churches continue to hold various forms of this view, opening the way for emphatic rejection of Israel as legitimately back in the Land.
What’s wrong with this view? First, it is erroneous to believe that the New Covenant is a replacement for the Mosaic Covenant. Christians have not received redemption through the Law of Moses, but through the finished work of Christ.

And the inescapable fact is that the covenant of His priesthood goes back to Abraham, centuries before Moses received the covenant of Law at Mount Horeb.

The Priesthood of Melchizedek

The writer of Hebrews makes this clear, by recalling that Abraham, after his military defeat of the four Gentile Kings, paid a tithe to the priest called Melchizedek.

“Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham: But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises. And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better. And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth. And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him” (Heb. 7:4-10).

Levi, the priest of the Mosaic law, is here shown to have an inferior priesthood to that of Melchizedek, by virtue of Abraham’s action toward Melchizedek. The author of Hebrews then goes on to point out that Christ’s spiritual heritage originates from him, rather than from Moses and Aaron:
“If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest, Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec” (Heb. 7:11-17).

A Spiritual Priesthood

In his first epistle, Peter speaks of those who were not a people, but now through Christ and the mercy of God have become members of His family, having the ability to act as priests and co-regents:

“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy” (I Pet. 2:9,10).
Certainly, this does not imply that God must throw away one group (the Jews) in order to elevate the status of another (the Church).

Yet this is the motivation behind the theology of the Islamic-Christian Committee. It is driven by an ages-long vitriol, expressed in the language of loathing. The group also includes in its membership one Sheikh Tamimi, a high-ranking judge in the Palestinian Authority (PA). He once said, “Perhaps one day the world will awake and realize that these Zionist elements are the bloodletters who hang on the peoples, sucking their blood and consuming their resources.”

The leaders of this group have for a long time, worked hand-in-glove with the PLO, Yasser Arafat, and the PA’s current leader, Mahmoud Abbas.
The Arutz Sheva article concludes with this brief historical note: “23 December, 1995, is the date of the turning point for the Islamic-Christian alliance against the Jews in Jerusalem. The Greek Orthodox patriarch of the holy land, Deodorus I, handed over the custody of Churches in Jerusalem to PLO leader Arafat. This was done in the presence of the Catholic, Anglican and Greek orthodox archbishops.
“The patriarch declared, ‘I am the heir of Sophronius and I am handing the keys (to Christian holy sites in Jerusalem) to the heir of Omar Ibn al-Khattab.’

“Omar, the caliph who claimed Jerusalem from Byzantine rule in 638, gave then Patriarch Sophronius custody of Churches and a pledge to safeguard them. The move was meant to put Christian holy places under the custody of Arafat, a Muslim, and strengthening the Arab-Islamic claim to Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state.”

The article ends with a question: “Will this new Islamic-Christian alliance be able to convince the European Union, the UN and the US to baptize Jerusalem, ‘Al Quds’”? This, the Islamic name for Jerusalem, means “the holy.” In context, it designates the Israeli capital as “the holy place.”
Certainly, it is that, with a history that dates back to Abraham, who paid tithes to the High Priest Melchizedek in this place, and later offered up Isaac here, on the holy mountain. It is the site of both Temples and the rule of King David. Its holiness was established before there ever was an Islam. And its prophetic destiny as God’s city is one of the most basic themes of the Bible. The Committee should know that changing the name of this eternal city will not change what has been written … and what will be fulfilled.

Was the Anti-Muslim Film Actually Produced by Muslims and Blamed on Christians?

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Philip Hodges Filed Under Christianity, Islam, Media, Terrorism, War, World News

 

Was the Anti-Muslim Film Actually Produced by Muslims and Blamed on Christians?

Islamic radicals stormed the U.S. Consulate in Libya and killed 4 people including Ambassador Stevens supposedly because of an anti-Muslim video on YouTube. But something just isn’t right about this video.

There’s still so much about the film, the producer and the rest who were involved that we just don’t know. The producer and director goes by the name Sam Bacile, but that’s not his real name. He won’t divulge his true identity. He claimed to be an Israeli-born Jewish filmmaker and California real estate agent, but Christian activist and film-promoter Steve Klein stated that he was neither Jewish nor Israeli. Israeli officials have no record of him and neither do California real estate agencies.

He apparently had a $5 million budget. So, why didn’t he put that money toward production of the film? Sure, he had to pay actors and actresses (one of the actresses got $500) and a crew, but what about equipment and post-production? I ask because it doesn’t look like very much time, effort or money was spent on those things at all.

In fact, I dare you to get through all 14 minutes of the film’s “trailer.” It’s got to be the worst“anti-Muslim” film ever. It is so bad, and the voice overdubs are so poor, it’s as if whoever put this together was trying desperately to make Christians look bad, not Muslims. Yes, the film involves a lot of statements about Muhammad being a “gay” bastard and portrays him as a bloodthirsty killer, polygamist and an overall buffoon. But all the Islamic and Muhammad references were overdubbed in “post-production,” and they sound like they could have been done by some 8^th grader on Garage Band.

The film’s “trailer” begins in presumably present-day Egypt. But then, a few minutes in, it “non-sequitors” into the ancient Middle East somewhere where an obvious green screen is used to supply a desert, a tent and a few camels in the background. The audio sounded like it was done in a bathroom, and the voice overdubs were even worse. Who in their right mind would give $5 million to someone who obviously had no idea what he was doing and who refused to use decent engineers? Bacile claimed that he raised the money from “100 Jewish donors.”

The end result is that it mocks Christians’ opinion of Islam to the point of absurdity. Now, since this film has all of a sudden gotten publicity even though it was posted to YouTube back in July, the media will point to it as an example of what Christians believe, and that these “extremist” and “anti-Muslim” sentiments are to blame for the violence and murder overseas.

Another mysterious figure is Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who admitted to being the manager of the film’s production company. He too has aliases. Fox News reports:

Nakoula denied he directed the film and said he knew the self-described filmmaker, Sam Bacile. But the cell phone number that AP contacted Tuesday to reach the filmmaker who identified himself as Sam Bacile traced to the same address near Los Angeles where AP found Nakoula. Federal court papers said Nakoula’s aliases included Nicola Bacily, Erwin Salameh and others.

 

His aliases sound vaguely like “Sam Bacile” (“Salameh” – Sam; “Bacily” – Bacile). Do all these aliases refer to the same person? They might, but Nakoula denies posing as Bacile.
Nakoula also served 21 months in a federal prison and had to pay over $790,000 in restitution after pleading no contest in 2010 for federal bank fraud. Fox News continued:

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Leigh Williams said Nakoula set up fraudulent bank accounts using stolen identities and Social Security numbers, then checks from those accounts would be deposited into other bogus accounts from which Nakoula would withdraw money at ATM machines.

 

He claims to be a Coptic Christian.

When you look at the background of this bizarre film, you’ll find out that it was originally called “Desert Warriors,” and it was going to be about what life was like in Egypt 2,000 years ago. Actors were hired to portray Egyptians, and the main character was named “George.” The other characters referred to him as “Master George.” But their dialogue was edited later to make is sound like it was about Muhammad. The actors involved are now denouncing the film because they say they had no idea that it was going to turn into an “anti-Muslim” video. One of the actresses said that initially, when she received a copy of the script, it had nothing to do with religion at all. The film apparently played once or twice at some run down LA theater last year, and it was dubbed a “historical Arabian desert adventure film.” A “Sam Bassiel” was listed as the producer.

This Bacile figure is now in hiding because he fears for his life from Muslim radicals. We still don’t know who he is, who Nakoula is, and why such an over-the-top poor job was done in producing the film, and why it was used as an excuse for Muslim violence in Libya and elsewhere.

I’m definitely anti-Muslim, or more appropriately pro-Christian. I’m all for exposing Islam as the violent, hateful, and bloodthirsty religion that it is. There are plenty of videos, films and documentaries on the subject of Islam and Muhammad that are actually well done that don’t get any attention at all by the media or the violent Muslims overseas. Yet they all chose simultaneously to react to this ludicrous excuse for an “educational film” that attempted to “reveal truths about Muhammad that are possibly not widely known,” as Florida pastor Terry Jones said. I’m not buying it. There has to be more to this than what the media have told us.

An Open Letter to Praise Bands

Monday, February 20, 2012

An Open Letter to Praise Bands

 

http://forsclavigera.blogspot.com.br/2012/02/open-letter-to-praise-bands.html

Dear Praise Band,

I so appreciate your willingness and desire to offer up your gifts to God in worship. I appreciate your devotion and celebrate your faithfulness--schlepping to church early, Sunday after Sunday, making time for practice mid-week, learning and writing new songs, and so much more. Like those skilled artists and artisans that God used to create the tabernacle (Exodus 36), you are willing to put your artistic gifts in service to the Triune God.

So please receive this little missive in the spirit it is meant: as an encouragement to reflect on the practice of "leading worship." It seems to me that you are often simply co-opted into a practice without being encouraged to reflect on its rationale, its "reason why." In other words, it seems to me that you are often recruited to "lead worship" without much opportunity to pause and reflect on the nature of "worship" and what it would mean to "lead."

In particular, my concern is that we, the church, have unwittingly encouraged you to simply import musical practices into Christian worship that--while they might be appropriate elsewhere--are detrimental to congregational worship. More pointedly, using language I first employed in Desiring the Kingdom, I sometimes worry that we've unwittingly encouraged you to import certain forms of performance that are, in effect, "secular liturgies" and not just neutral "methods." Without us realizing it, the dominant practices of performance train us to relate to music (and musicians) in a certain way: as something for our pleasure, as entertainment, as a largely passive experience. The function and goal of music in these "secular liturgies" is quite different from the function and goal of music in Christian worship.

So let me offer just a few brief axioms with the hope of encouraging new reflection on the practice of "leading worship":

1. If we, the congregation, can't hear ourselves, it's not worship. Christian worship is not a concert. In a concert (a particular "form of performance"), we often expect to be overwhelmed by sound, particularly in certain styles of music. In a concert, we come to expect that weird sort of sensory deprivation that happens from sensory overload, when the pounding of the bass on our chest and the wash of music over the crowd leaves us with the rush of a certain aural vertigo. And there's nothing wrong with concerts! It's just that Christian worship is not a concert. Christian worship is a collective, communal, congregational practice--and the gathered sound and harmony of a congregation singing as one is integral to the practice of worship. It is a way of "performing" the reality that, in Christ, we are one body. But that requires that we actually be able to hear ourselves, and hear our sisters and brothers singing alongside us. When the amped sound of the praise band overwhelms congregational voices, we can't hear ourselves sing--so we lose that communal aspect of the congregation and are encouraged to effectively become "private," passive worshipers.

2. If we, the congregation, can't sing along, it's not worship. In other forms of musical performance, musicians and bands will want to improvise and "be creative," offering new renditions and exhibiting their virtuosity with all sorts of different trills and pauses and improvisations on the received tune. Again, that can be a delightful aspect of a concert, but in Christian worship it just means that we, the congregation, can't sing along. And so your virtuosity gives rise to our passivity; your creativity simply encourages our silence. And while you may be worshiping with your creativity, the same creativity actually shuts down congregational song.

3. If you, the praise band, are the center of attention, it's not worship. I know it's generally not your fault that we've put you at the front of the church. And I know you want to model worship for us to imitate. But because we've encouraged you to basically import forms of performance from the concert venue into the sanctuary, we might not realize that we've also unwittingly encouraged a sense that you are the center of attention. And when your performance becomes a display of your virtuosity--even with the best of intentions--it's difficult to counter the temptation to make the praise band the focus of our attention. When the praise band goes into long riffs that you might intend as "offerings to God," we the congregation become utterly passive, and because we've adopted habits of relating to music from the Grammys and the concert venue, we unwittingly make you the center of attention. I wonder if there might be some intentional reflection on placement (to the side? leading from behind?) and performance that might help us counter these habits we bring with us to worship.

Please consider these points carefully and recognize what I am not saying. This isn't just some plea for "traditional" worship and a critique of "contemporary" worship. Don't mistake this as a defense of pipe organs and a critique of guitars and drums (or banjos and mandolins). My concern isn't with style, but with form: What are we trying to do when we "lead worship?" If we are intentional about worship as a communal, congregational practice that brings us into a dialogical encounter with the living God--that worship is not merely expressive but also formative--then we can do that with cellos or steel guitars, pipe organs or African drums.

Much, much more could be said. But let me stop here, and please receive this as the encouragement it's meant to be. I would love to see you continue to offer your artistic gifts in worship to the Triune God who is teaching us a new song.

Most sincerely,

Jamie

Update: See the new "Postscript" to this open letter.

SATANIC MESSAGE REACHES FOUR BILLION THROUGH GREAT BRITAIN OLYMPICS

SATANIC MESSAGE REACHES FOUR BILLION THROUGH GREAT BRITAIN OLYMPICS

By Paul McGuire
August 21, 2012
NewsWithViews.com

During the recent Olympics in Great Britain, the Illuminati communicated, through Satanic rituals and symbols, an occult message to a global audience. According to Nielsen Media Research, 4.7 billion viewers worldwide (approximately 70% of the global population) viewed it. Although, the vast majority of the audience did not consciously understand the symbols and rituals, many sensed something ominous, disturbing and dark. Once people are informed as to what the symbolism and rituals were all about, they were both scared and horrified that these powerful and elite groups exist and the dark plans they have for mankind.

A growing number of people are starting to understand that there is a Satanic and global secretive global elite who are in control of global finance, culture, science and politics. The door to this higher level understanding can begin with something as simple as explaining who the Illuminati are and their symbolism on the back of the U.S. dollar. The occult pyramid with the all-seeing eye of Lucifer which has the actual words “Novus Ordo Seclorum,” which means New Order of the Ages, or New World Order. The light bulb goes on and they begin to see through the doorway of ever increasing understanding. People seem to sense that the global financial system is being manipulated. Due to the internet, millions of people are beginning to understand the relationship between the Illuminati and the international banking families who control the Federal Reserve.

However, despite these positive trends, the majority of Americans are in a mass hypnotic state. They have been brainwashed and live in a level of unconsciousness, completely unaware of what is really going on. One of the primary evidences that an individual is brainwashed is that no matter how logical an argument is and how many facts you bring up, they completely reject it, often react with anger and attack you as a conspiracy theorist, which is what they have been programmed to do.

Starting in the late 1800s, the Illuminati developed highly sophisticated brainwashing and occult-based mind control sciences which enabled them to control the thinking of much of the world and even entire nations. Fabian socialists, and very possibly agents of British intelligence like Aldous Huxley, H.G. Wells and George Orwell, all wrote science fiction novels tha predict a future where all citizens are controlled by scientific brainwashing.

Interestingly, the Tavistock Institute in Great Britain developed the science of mind control, with the help of Sigmund Freud and other scientists. These methodologies of mind control spread to the most elite universities and think tanks, to be used in the U.S. Adolph Hitler and the Third Reich, which was heavily involved in Satanism and the occult, developed the brutal, but effective, trauma-based mind control, that used powerful drugs, torture, sexual abuse and Satanic rituals to program people. After World War II, the U.S. brought in nine thousand of Nazi scientists under Operation Paperclip, who specialized in rocket science and mind control science. Today, the average person has no idea how advanced the science of mind control has become.

The great secret is that the Nazi scientists brought with them their occult and Satanist beliefs and that the science of mind control and Satanic rituals often go hand in hand. This science of occult-based mind control has been used to break down the family unit, promote sexual immorality, destroy the Christian belief system and patriotism and establish a new occult and Luciferian religious system. The counter culture of the 1960s, the sexual revolution, the feminist movement, the use of drugs and the mass acceptance of New Age and occult religions did not happen spontaneously! The British music invasion of the 1960s-1970s with their records, radio, promotion of drugs, so-called free sex, the occult and eastern mystical religions, was a planned psychological warfare operation. It was not an accident that the clean-cut Beatles evolved into a vehicle for promoting drugs, sex, anarchy and the occult. It was not an accident that there are numerous occult messages in their albums, or that the picture of Aleister Crowley, the world famous and influential Satanist, who called himself the Beast 666, has his picture on the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Satanism and the occult are all over the albums and the rock groups. These include the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, whose lead singer was a follower of Aliester Crowley and now lives in Crowley’s former mansion. Dr. Timothy Leary, who promoted LSD to millions, claimed to be the new Aliester Crowley.

The blatant occult symbols used in the Olympics in Great Britain this past week sent out the message that the elite (and that means the financial elite inside the City of London, which is a city within a city, like the Vatican City in Rome) are now tightening the noose on America by deliberately destroying the dollar and the net worth of the American middle class, as they are in Europe and other nations of the world, in order to usher in the one world economic system, one world government and one world religion the global elites have been planning for centuries. Ironically, all of this was predicted by the prophet Daniel, the Apostle Paul, Jesus Christ and the Apostle John in the Book of Revelation.

Many people dismiss these occult rituals as ignorant, meaningless and merely superstitious rituals. That is a very dangerous misconception! True Satanic and occult rituals, that go back before the Flood and were heavily practiced in Canaan and in Babylon, open portals into other dimensions which allow the access of the Kosmokratos or world rulers, who existed before the Flood of Noah and were reunited under the leadership of Nimrod during the time of the Tower of Babel to have powerful influences over world events. The Tower of Babel was a highly advanced technological instrument that acted as a star gate which opened portals into another dimension. The symbols from the Tower of Babel are peppered all over the EU and are in reflected in the architecture and symbols of Washington D.C. These same symbols were heavily employed at the Olympics and its opening and closing ceremonies, in particular.

The purpose of the true church, regardless of denomination, is to host the Restrainer, the Holy Spirit and restrain evil and the spirit of antichrist from taking control of a nation. This did not happen in Nazi Germany in the 1930s because the church was compromised by false doctrine promoted by the German schools of higher criticism, which taught pastors that there was nothing miraculous in the Bible. This teaching made the church powerless, as any false doctrine always does. Yet, at the same time, the secret occult societies were teaching people that their rituals can produce all kinds of supernatural power. Today, the Church in America, Great Britain, the EU and other nations, is replicating what happened to the church in Nazi Germany. They are substituting the supernatural power of God with humanistic and psychological motivation sermons, which are powerless against the supernatural forces of the occult!

The economic conditions in America and Europe today are also very similar to what happened in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. The church has been seduced by psychological humanism, which severs its access to the supernatural power of God. In addition, we see the pattern of collective denial in motion, with people essentially saying, “It can’t happen here.” History shows us the timeline in Nazi Germany and where this process will lead to. The lesson from history and the Bible is that when the church and its people have no clear sense of right and wrong and do not occupy spiritually, occult powers will take over a society and culture. Occult powers are satanic and historically they lead to specific things happening.

When powerful symbols of the occult and satanic worship are openly displayed before hundreds of millions of people, it is a spiritual indicator, or warning of what is to come.

The “sons of God,” referred to in Genesis Chapter 6, established a highly advanced, occult-based civilization before the Flood. The legends of Atlantis, Thule and Hyperborea, along with the monolithic ruins of Babylon, the Great Pyramid, the Sphinx, Mayan and Incan ruins, Stonehenge, Titicaca and countless other archeological evidences above and now under the water, testify to the existence of civilizations so advanced, that they must have had access to information from another dimension beyond this world. [In addition, this super race of god-men referred to as the “sons of God,” in Genesis 6, who mated with the daughters of men, have interbred genetically with the human race. They are known as the B’nai Elohim, who produced the Nephilim. They are referred to with such names as the Sumerian gods, the giants of old, the Anakim, aliens and are described in the legends of countless cultures. A common theme is repeated over and over again, with minor changes in names. The ancient civilizations all refer to a super race of god-men. The legends of the god-men are found in the Nordic, Atlantean, Babylonian, Egyptian, Sumerian, Mayan, Incan, Native American Indian and other civilizations. The legends share come common themes, in that they claim that this race of supermen, or gods, came from the stars and possessed higher forms of intelligence and technology. In reality, these are the principalities and powers referred to in the Bible in Ephesians 6:12-19 which operate in another dimension.

It is possible that there are bloodline families that originated from Sumeria, Babylon, Canaan and Egypt. If that is the case, they would be the genetic descendants of an ancient priest class that is known as “Mystery Babylon.” The primary occult symbol of the Olympics would be the lighted torch, or the flame of illumination, which is the ancient symbol of the Illuminati. Some historians believe that the population of planet earth exceeded over 7 billion people before the Flood of Noah.

When you read the account of the Noah, the Ark and Flood from a modern scientific perspective, it is very obvious that this is a story about maintaining a specific genetic line and DNA. The God of the Bible is literally wiping out the DNA of mankind and the animals, with the exception of a limited number of people and animals who apparently had DNA that was not spiritually corrupted.

This interpretation would explain why God wiped out almost everything alive in the Flood. It also gives meaning to the words of Jesus Christ when He said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will in the days of the coming of the son of man.” What Jesus Christ is saying is that in addition to the world being wicked and violent, the time period immediately preceding His return would see a marked increase in the number and level of Nephilim produced through interspecies breeding. The Rockefeller Foundation in the 1920s experimented with the science of eugenics and attempted to promote the abortion of people groups that they perceived as having inferior DNA and breed a master race. This was what Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood and abortion is really all about.

Hitler believed that the super race was to come from the blonde haired and blue eyed Nordic races, that he believed were the genetic descendants of the race of god-men who came from the stars and settled in the legendary island of Thule and an underground civilization near the south pole in Antarctica. The German philosopher Nietzsche promoted the concept of the ubermensch or superman. Hitler took all these ideas and mixed with his occult beliefs set out to breed a master race.

All the ancient occult mystery religions, which originated in ancient Babylon, seem to have passed on similar secret teachings of supernatural knowledge, power and advanced technology passed from one generation to the next within secret occult family bloodlines. The Greek philosopher Plato wrote of the advanced pre-Flood civilization of Atlantis and Sir Francis Bacon, a leader in the occult Rosicrucian society, believed that America was to become the New Atlantis and head of a New World Order. The powerful symbols In Washington D.C. seem to support that theory. The phallic symbol the Washington Monument, with the womb-like dome of the nation’s capitol, mirrors the phallic

Egyptian obelisk in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican, with its dome-womb of St.Peter’s basilica. In America, it appears there was a great spiritual battle that was fought among our Founding Fathers, many of whom were Freemasons and almost all of whom were Christians. Today, the spiritual conflict between the Illuminati and the Remnant church, is now engaged in all-out spiritual warfare.

The occult-elite who rule our world, under the power of Lucifer, have sent out coded messages through the symbols that dominate America’s architecture, media, art, film, science and politics. For those who understand the teachings of Bible prophecy, those symbols of the mystery religions have now converged to give mankind a final warning of what is about to come and what our response should be.

For those who remain skeptical of the occult symbolism that clearly was a central theme of the Olympic Games opening and closing ceremonies, consider the fact that the Olympics began with an orchestra playing a piece actually called, “Nimrod,” by Enigma Variations. Nimrod was the legendary ruler who built the Tower of Babel. Babel was the first one world and occult government that God judged! Why would the orchestra play a musical piece entitled, “Nimrod,” in light of the countless occult symbols at the Olympics that made reference to Babylon?

“Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.” -Revelation 17:5

Additionally at the Olympics, there was a green image of a British meadow with a tree that was raised on a hill. Was this the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden? Since the first two first two songs played appeared to be themed around Babylon and Jerusalem, is it possible that the green hill may have represented the tree of life and the ancient Tower of Babylon? In the Olympic ceremony, the ancient descendants of Babylon were walking down from the tree; they may have represented the elite behind the New World Order.

The Maypole dance at the Olympics is an ancient occult and pagan dance. It is based on a fertility rite in the worship of pagan gods. The Maypole represents the male principle (the phallus) and the ribbons represent the female principle, with the virgins of the goddess Isis. Isis is named after Semiramis, who was Nimrod’s wife. This goes back to ancient Babylon and the occult societies of Nazi Germany, who employed the Maypole dance with their youth to lure them into their occult practices and deceptions.

After the Olympic bell was rung, a song named “Jerusalem” was sung by a young boy before he was joined by a children’s choir.

“And did those feet in ancient time walk upon England’s mountains green? And was the holy Lamb of God on England’s pleasant pastures seen? And did the countenance divine shine forth upon our clouded hills? And was Jerusalem builded here among these dark Satanic Mills?”

The children’s choir continued to sing as a man read from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.”

Professor James Shapiro, an English professor at Columbia University, commented, “Why you would someone choose Caliban’s lines as — in a sense — a kind of anthem for the Olympics?, I’m not sure. Why give him the lines Shakespeare wrote for a half-man, half-beast?” This is an honest intellectual question from a secular professor.

Is it possible that the beast-man that was seen at the Olympics symbolized the revival of interspecies breeding that is going on in laboratories between alien, animal and human DNA? The central scientific thrust of our time involves Transhumanism or inter-species breeding. The genetic creation of a superman is what Rockefeller and Hitler were doing with the science of eugenics. Jesus Christ said, “And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” Luke 17:26

Historians have noted the similarities between Shakespeare’s final work and the famous occultist Francis Bacon’s final book, “New Atlantis.” It was Francis Bacon who planned for America to be the “New Atlantis,” or the new Babylon, where a world ruler in the tradition of Nimrod would arise to establish a New World Order emanating from Washington D.C.

William Shakespeare’s, “The Tempest” and Bacon’s, "New Atlantis," predict societies that are ruled by an elite, or are made gods through secret and occult knowledge! This finds its roots all the way back in Nimrod and ancient Babylon.

The global occult message sent out from the Olympics in Great Britain, is in actuality, a declaration of war against those of us of humanity who will not worship Lucifer. This is the final showdown in mankind’s history. No matter what your religious beliefs, you are going to have to choose sides. Are you going to worship Lucifer in the rising Babylonian system or worship what is good and of God?

There is no middle ground; this is precisely what is going on behind the scenes at every level of conflict in our world. I would like to challenge you to learn what you can about the nature of this conflict from credible sources. Then you must make your choice, I am speaking in a spiritual sense, within the constraints of abiding to the law and peaceful change. But you must realize that you will either choose to join the armies of the light or the armies of the dark. Depending upon your choice, you will know what to do. There are a lot of men and women, who have deceived themselves into thinking they can conduct themselves in one way and still remain, part of the armies of the light.

Do not be deceived, the God of light is not mocked; you will reap what you sow. Do not mistake the patience of the personal living God of the universe as powerlessness or impotence. Time is quickly running out and every man will be known by his actions, not by his mere words! There will be a point in time that will come suddenly and without notice, when the unlimited force of God will completely take over this world system. It does not matter what you profess with your mouth, your denomination, or if you have some kind of church affiliation. All such affiliations will mean absolutely nothing to God!

Millions of people have deceived themselves. The personal living God of the universe will know exactly who or what you are really serving by what is in your heart and the evidence of your actions. We live in a temporary time period, when people are in such spiritual deception, that they think they will not be accountable. If you are wise, you should tremble at the thought of what I am talking about. Remember you have been warned that suddenly without any notice you will be seized as if by a violent force. The very dimensional nature of reality will change in an instant and what you really are will be made evident. Then, whether you like it or not, many will experience a violent transition from one dimension or another and you will serve your master, whoever you chose that to be, forever! A sane man should tremble at those words because of what they imply. However, depending upon the choices you have made, you have nothing to fear. There should be a great hope and promise of the future!

Hope to see you there!

Syria’s neighbors braced for chemical threat. Assad warns Turkey on Stingers

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report August 17, 2012, 10:14 AM

Syrian CBW ordnance

 

The US and its allies are discussing a worst-case scenario that could require up to 60,000 ground troops to go into Syria to secure chemical and biological weapons sites following the fall of the Assad government, an unnamed American source said Thursday night, Aug.16.
This scenario postulates the disintegration of his security forces, he said, leaving chemical and biological weapons sites vulnerable to pillaging. It assumes the sites could not be destroyed by aerial bombings in view of health and environmental hazards.
“There is no imminent plan to deploy ground forces,” the source insisted. This is just a worst-case scenario.

Debkafile’s military sources find in this disclosure a bid to psychologically prepare the world for the prospect of chemical warfare, as the dialogue between Bashar Assad and his neighbors gains in violence.
The American special forces deployed on the Jordanian-Syrian border and in bases in Israel and Turkey clearly perceive a chemical-biological weapon threat. Military and medical preparations are being quietly put in place. Reconnaissance teams from potentially targeted countries have infiltrated Syria. They are on the lookout for any chemical missiles being moved into firing positions, although it is taken into account that Assad may be shifting decoys and that not all the real launchings can be stopped.

The Syrian ruler may also decide to transfer chemical explosives to Hizballah in Lebanon. Israel is on record as warning it would prevent this.
Medical preparations are also in place. The US and France are flying special military hospital facilities trained in the treatment of chemical weapon injuries to Turkey and Jordan.
Israeli hospitals are on war alert and have begun opening fortified emergency wards and making them ready for patients.

Tuesday, Aug. 14, IDF Home Front Command units embarked on a series of chemical attack drills in the towns of the northern district down to Afula, which is 52 kilometers east of Haifa and 110 kilometers north of Tel Aviv.
The soldiers taking part those drills wore new anti-contamination suits.
In Tel Aviv, city hall announced underground parking spaces would be available in an emergency as bomb shelters for up to 850,000 people.

Wednesday, August 15, Bashar Assad’s violence again broke new ground:
Syrian air force bombers struck Azaz not far from the Turkish border – for the first time with the aim of razing a complete Syrian town. More than 80 people were killed and 150 wounded. He was telling the Free Syrian Army rebels who had been using Azaz as their command post and logistical hub for the Aleppo battle that the gloves were off and the same punishment would be meted out to any urban areas hosting them.
The Syrian ruler also warned Ankara through back channels that if any more Turkish FIM-92 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles were supplied to the FSA, he would arm the 2,500 Turkish rebel PKK Kurdish fighters allowed to deploy on the Syrian-Turkish border with Russian SA-8 anti-air missiles for use against Turkey.
Ankara shot back: That will be war.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly's military sources report that Assad is resolved more than ever to stand fast after the shot in the arm he received last week from Tehran.
Iran’s National Security Adviser Saeed Jalili visited Damascus Aug. 6-7 to ascertain that Syria would strike Israel and US military targets in the region with all its might if they attacked Iran.
Assad was ready to offer this pledge, but demanded in return that Tehran guarantee to exercise all its military capabilities to save him from any military or covert attempts to end his rule - whenever it was requested.
Jalili promised him that guarantee. He also held a similar conversation with HIzballah’s Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut.

Disinformation: How It Works

Submitted by Brandon Smith from Alt-Market
Disinformation: How It Works

There was a time, not too long ago (relatively speaking), that governments and the groups of elites that controlled them did not find it necessary to conscript themselves into wars of disinformation.
Propaganda was relatively straightforward. The lies were much simpler. The control of information flow was easily directed. Rules were enforced with the threat of property confiscation and execution for anyone who strayed from the rigid socio-political structure. Those who had theological, metaphysical or scientific information outside of the conventional and scripted collective world view were tortured and slaughtered. The elites kept the information to themselves, and removed its remnants from mainstream recognition, sometimes for centuries before it was rediscovered.
With the advent of anti-feudalism, and most importantly the success of the American Revolution, elitists were no longer able to dominate information with the edge of a blade or the barrel of a gun. The establishment of Republics, with their philosophy of open government and rule by the people, compelled Aristocratic minorities to plot more subtle ways of obstructing the truth and thus maintaining their hold over the world without exposing themselves to retribution from the masses. Thus, the complex art of disinformation was born.
The technique, the “magic” of the lie, was refined and perfected. The mechanics of the human mind and the human soul became an endless obsession for the establishment.
The goal was malicious, but socially radical; instead of expending the impossible energy needed to dictate the very form and existence of the truth, they would allow it to drift, obscured in a fog of contrived data. They would wrap the truth in a Gordian Knot of misdirection and fabrication so elaborate that they felt certain the majority of people would surrender, giving up long before they ever finished unraveling the deceit. The goal was not to destroy the truth, but to hide it in plain sight.
In modern times, and with carefully engineered methods, this goal has for the most part been accomplished. However, these methods also have inherent weaknesses. Lies are fragile. They require constant attentiveness to keep them alive. The exposure of a single truth can rip through an ocean of lies, evaporating it instantly.
In this article, we will examine the methods used to fertilize and promote the growth of disinformation, as well as how to identify the roots of disinformation and effectively cut them, starving out the entire system of fallacies once and for all.
Media Disinformation Methods
The mainstream media, once tasked with the job of investigating government corruption and keeping elitists in line, has now become nothing more than a public relations firm for corrupt officials and their Globalist handlers. The days of the legitimate “investigative reporter” are long gone (if they ever existed at all), and journalism itself has deteriorated into a rancid pool of so called “TV Editorialists” who treat their own baseless opinions as supported fact.
The elitist co-opting of news has been going on in one form or another since the invention of the printing press. However, the first methods of media disinformation truly came to fruition under the supervision of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who believed the truth was “subjective” and open to his personal interpretation.
Some of the main tactics used by the mainstream media to mislead the masses are as follows:
Lie Big, Retract Quietly: Mainstream media sources (especially newspapers) are notorious for reporting flagrantly dishonest and unsupported news stories on the front page, then quietly retracting those stories on the very back page when they are caught. In this case, the point is to railroad the lie into the collective consciousness. Once the lie is finally exposed, it is already too late, and a large portion of the population will not notice or care when the truth comes out.
Unconfirmed Or Controlled Sources As Fact: Cable news venues often cite information from “unnamed” sources, government sources that have an obvious bias or agenda, or “expert” sources without providing an alternative “expert” view. The information provided by these sources is usually backed by nothing more than blind faith.
Calculated Omission: Otherwise known as “cherry picking” data. One simple piece of information or root item of truth can derail an entire disinfo news story, so instead of trying to gloss over it, they simply pretend as if it doesn’t exist. When the fact is omitted, the lie can appear entirely rational. This tactic is also used extensively when disinformation agents and crooked journalists engage in open debate.
Distraction, And The Manufacture Of Relevance: Sometimes the truth wells up into the public awareness regardless of what the media does to bury it. When this occurs their only recourse is to attempt to change the public’s focus and thereby distract them from the truth they were so close to grasping. The media accomplishes this by “over-reporting” on a subject that has nothing to do with the more important issues at hand. Ironically, the media can take an unimportant story, and by reporting on it ad nauseum, cause many Americans to assume that because the media won’t shut-up about it, it must be important!
Dishonest Debate Tactics: Sometimes, men who actually are concerned with the average American’s pursuit of honesty and legitimate fact-driven information break through and appear on T.V. However, rarely are they allowed to share their views or insights without having to fight through a wall of carefully crafted deceit and propaganda. Because the media know they will lose credibility if they do not allow guests with opposing viewpoints every once in a while, they set up and choreograph specialized T.V. debates in highly restrictive environments which put the guest on the defensive, and make it difficult for them to clearly convey their ideas or facts.
TV pundits are often trained in what are commonly called “Alinsky Tactics.” Saul Alinsky was a moral relativist, and champion of the lie as a tool for the “greater good”; essentially, a modern day Machiavelli. His “Rules for Radicals” were supposedly meant for grassroots activists who opposed the establishment and emphasized the use of any means necessary to defeat one’s political opposition. But is it truly possible to defeat an establishment built on lies, by use of even more elaborate lies, and by sacrificing one’s ethics? In reality, his strategies are the perfect format for corrupt institutions and governments to dissuade dissent from the masses. Today, Alinsky’s rules are used more often by the establishment than by its opposition.
Alinsky’s Strategy: Win At Any Cost, Even If You Have To Lie
Alinsky’s tactics have been adopted by governments and disinformation specialists across the world, but they are most visible in TV debate. While Alinsky sermonized about the need for confrontation in society, his debate tactics are actually designed to circumvent real and honest confrontation of opposing ideas with slippery tricks and diversions. Alinsky’s tactics, and their modern usage, can be summarized as follows:
1) Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.
We see this tactic in many forms. For example, projecting your own movement as mainstream, and your opponent’s as fringe. Convincing your opponent that his fight is a futile one. Your opposition may act differently, or even hesitate to act at all, based on their perception of your power. How often have we heard this line: “The government has predator drones. There is nothing the people can do now…” This is a projection of exaggerated invincibility designed to elicit apathy from the masses.
2) Never go outside the experience of your people, and whenever possible, go outside of the experience of the enemy.
Don’t get drawn into a debate about a subject you do not know as well as or better than your opposition. If possible, draw them into such a situation instead. Go off on tangents. Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty in your opposition. This is commonly used against unwitting interviewees on cable news shows whose positions are set up to be skewered. The target is blind-sided by seemingly irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address. In television and radio, this also serves to waste broadcast time to prevent the target from expressing his own position.
3) Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules.
The objective is to target the opponent’s credibility and reputation by accusations of hypocrisy. If the tactician can catch his opponent in even the smallest misstep, it creates an opening for further attacks, and distracts away from the broader moral question.
4) Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.
“Ron Paul is a crackpot.” “Gold bugs are crazy.” “Constitutionalists are fringe extremists.” Baseless ridicule is almost impossible to counter because it is meant to be irrational. It infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage. It also works as a pressure point to force the enemy into concessions.
5) A good tactic is one that your people enjoy.
The popularization of the term “Teabaggers” is a classic example; it caught on by itself because people seem to think it’s clever, and enjoy saying it. Keeping your talking points simple and fun helps your side stay motivated, and helps your tactics spread autonomously, without instruction or encouragement.
6) A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.
See rule No. 5. Don’t become old news. If you keep your tactics fresh, it’s easier to keep your people active. Not all disinformation agents are paid. The “useful idiots” have to be motivated by other means. Mainstream disinformation often changes gear from one method to the next and then back again.
7) Keep the pressure on with different tactics and actions, and utilize all events of the period for your purpose.
Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new. Never give the target a chance to rest, regroup, recover or re-strategize. Take advantage of current events and twist their implications to support your position. Never let a good crisis go to waste.
8) The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.
This goes hand in hand with Rule No. 1. Perception is reality. Allow your opposition to expend all of its energy in expectation of an insurmountable scenario. The dire possibilities can easily poison the mind and result in demoralization.
9) The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.
The objective of this pressure is to force the opposition to react and make the mistakes that are necessary for the ultimate success of the campaign.
10) If you push a negative hard and deep enough, it will break through into its counterside.
As grassroots activism tools, Alinsky tactics have historically been used (for example, by labor movements or covert operations specialists) to force the opposition to react with violence against activists, which leads to popular sympathy for the activists’ cause. Today, false (or co-opted) grassroots movements and revolutions use this technique in debate as well as in planned street actions and rebellions (look at Syria for a recent example).
11) The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.
Never let the enemy score points because you’re caught without a solution to the problem. Today, this is often used offensively against legitimate activists, such as the opponents of the Federal Reserve. Complain that your opponent is merely “pointing out the problems.” Demand that they offer not just “a solution”, but THE solution. Obviously, no one person has “the” solution. When he fails to produce the miracle you requested, dismiss his entire argument and all the facts he has presented as pointless.
12) Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it.
Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. The target’s supporters will expose themselves. Go after individual people, not organizations or institutions. People hurt faster than institutions.
The next time you view an MSM debate, watch the pundits carefully, you will likely see many if not all of the strategies above used on some unsuspecting individual attempting to tell the truth.
Internet Disinformation Methods
Internet trolls, also known as “paid posters” or “paid bloggers,” are increasingly and openly being employed by private corporations as well governments, often for marketing purposes and for “public relations” (Obama is notorious for this practice). Internet “trolling” is indeed a fast growing industry.
Trolls use a wide variety of strategies, some of which are unique to the internet, here are just a few:
1. Make outrageous comments designed to distract or frustrate: An Alinsky tactic used to make people emotional, although less effective because of the impersonal nature of the Web.
2. Pose as a supporter of the truth, then make comments that discredit the movement: We have seen this even on our own forums — trolls pose as supporters of the Liberty Movement, then post long, incoherent diatribes so as to appear either racist or insane. The key to this tactic is to make references to common Liberty Movement arguments while at the same time babbling nonsense, so as to make those otherwise valid arguments seem ludicrous by association. In extreme cases, these “Trojan Horse Trolls” have been known to make posts which incite violence — a technique obviously intended to solidify the false assertions of the think tank propagandists like the SPLC, which purports that Constitutionalists should be feared as potential domestic terrorists.
3. Dominate Discussions: Trolls often interject themselves into productive Web discussions in order to throw them off course and frustrate the people involved.
4. Prewritten Responses: Many trolls are supplied with a list or database with pre-planned talking points designed as generalized and deceptive responses to honest arguments. When they post, their words feel strangely plastic and well rehearsed.
5. False Association: This works hand in hand with item No. 2, by invoking the stereotypes established by the “Trojan Horse Troll.” For example: calling those against the Federal Reserve “conspiracy theorists” or “lunatics”; deliberately associating anti-globalist movements with racists and homegrown terrorists, because of the inherent negative connotations; and using false associations to provoke biases and dissuade people from examining the evidence objectively.
6. False Moderation: Pretending to be the “voice of reason” in an argument with obvious and defined sides in an attempt to move people away from what is clearly true into a “grey area” where the truth becomes “relative.”
7. Straw Man Arguments: A very common technique. The troll will accuse his opposition of subscribing to a certain point of view, even if he does not, and then attacks that point of view. Or, the troll will put words in the mouth of his opposition, and then rebut those specific words.
Sometimes, these strategies are used by average people with serious personality issues. However, if you see someone using these tactics often, or using many of them at the same time, you may be dealing with a paid internet troll.
Stopping Disinformation
The best way to disarm disinformation agents is to know their methods inside and out. This gives us the ability to point out exactly what they are doing in detail the moment they try to do it. Immediately exposing a disinformation tactic as it is being used is highly destructive to the person utilizing it. It makes them look foolish, dishonest and weak for even making the attempt. Internet trolls most especially do not know how to handle their methods being deconstructed right in front of their eyes and usually fold and run from debate when it occurs.
The truth is precious. It is sad that there are so many in our society who have lost respect for it; people who have traded in their conscience and their soul for temporary financial comfort while sacrificing the stability and balance of the rest of the country in the process.
The human psyche breathes on the air of truth. Without it, humanity cannot survive. Without it, the species will collapse, starving from lack of intellectual and emotional sustenance.
Disinformation does not only threaten our insight into the workings of our world; it makes us vulnerable to fear, misunderstanding, and doubt: all things that lead to destruction. It can drive good people to commit terrible atrocities against others, or even against themselves. Without a concerted and organized effort to diffuse mass-produced lies, the future will look bleak indeed.

Homosexuals Demand that Chick-Fil-A Stop Serving “Gay Chicken”

I really needed to be entertained and laugh today. It would be hilarious if it weren´t so sad and tragic. The next worse thing that I can think of is a Brazilian soccer player scoring  a goal against his own team!

Usually I stay away from gratuitous controversial subjects not because of fear of repercussion or persecution, but I like to choose my battles and not be distracted from the most important task at hand which is to call people everywhere to repent and come to the Lord Jesus-Christ as their Savior to receive pardon for their sins and freedom to enter a new life of righteousness that leads to an eternal state of fellowship with God.
I am not a mocker, a teaser maybe, but a gentle and loving one.

But this was too much. I hope that it was a joke. Even if it was written as a act of sabotage, it would be a pretty creative one! After all, we could all take a lesson in how to undermine the political opponent´s credibility and intelligence through ridicule from Saul Alinsky, mentor to President Barak Obama. But let me not upstage the comedian/s who wrote the petition and let see where the meat of these tolerant, inclusive and multi-cultural people is.  

Here are the comments about the post by Elizabeth Prata in http://the-end-time.blogspot.com

The next news excerpt is a great article on the silliness of the unsaved's thinking. Romans 1:21 says of the reprobate, "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened."

The word foolish here means without comprehension; foolish because incoherent; failing to "put facts together", "lacking synthesis"; & describes a person failing to structure information in a meaningful way, and therefore unable to reach necessary conclusions. And they call us ignorant morons. We see here what God really thinks of the intellectual capacity of the unsaved. The definition goes on to say, this person is illogical because they're unwilling to use good reason.

Peter is more directly blunt. Of those who "and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority," (2 Peter 2:10), "What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire." (2 Peter 2:22).
So here it is.
Jean-Louis.

Homosexuals Demand that Chick-Fil-A Stop Serving “Gay Chicken”
http://politicaloutcast.com/
I must admit I don’t get around much, so I didn’t even know the reliably left-leaning Huff ’n’ Puff Post had a “Gay Voices” section. But yesterday, I read an article from there that covered a recent petition (with a whopping 1,500+ signatures!) that demanded that Chick-Fil-A be consistent with their “anti-homosexual” values and stop serving “homosexual” chicken at their restaurants. As the petition explains, some male chickens will mount other male chickens, so Chick-Fil-A cannot be consistent with their values until they make sure that none of the chicken meat they are serving comes from “homosexual” chickens. Wow. I’ve read some really, really stupid petitions in my life. But that one… Where do you even start?

First, I’m sure this petition was meant as a sort of barbed joke, but it falls squarely into the “Boom! How will you ever recover from the devastation of my cleverness?!!!!” category—a category which regularly falls far short of its intended goal. I feel bad for the people that wrote this actually. Is this really the best they can come up with?

 

Second, if these people actually think Chick-Fil-A is a hate-filled, anti-homosexual company, wouldn’t it be more consistent for Chick-Fil-A to serve only homosexual chickens? I mean it’s not like Chick-Fil-A sends their chickens on luxury vacations. They kill them. And then we eat them.

Third, why are homosexuals so obsessed with the fact that animals intermittently commit homosexual acts? The fact is that animals really don’t practice homosexuality per se. It’s not like any of them are exclusively attracted to the same sex. They just have no self-control. They will hump pretty much anything around if they get the notion. My dog used to hump male and female dogs, plush toys, the legs of guests, sectional sofas… you know—anything. He was a dog, after all. He ate our underwear and pooped in the hallway too. I fail to see why that matters. Animals variously engage in incest, genocide, cannibalism, pedophilia, and other socially unacceptable behaviors. If homosexuals want to legitimize their behavior by claiming that it is “only natural,” what leg do they have to stand on to condemn anything—including the so-called “intolerance” of Chick-Fil-A?


Read more: http://politicaloutcast.com/2012/08/homosexuals-demand-that-chick-fil-a-stop-serving-gay-chicken/#ixzz22oQSoSkn