Inside The Revolution: Drama builds amidst military coup in Egypt. Muslim Brotherhood leadership arrested. Who is Adly Mansour, new “interim president”?

Reblogged from flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com  

In Uncategorized on July 4, 2013 at 6:49 am

“Adly Mansour, left, has been declared interim President of Egypt by the military after mass protests.” (photo credit: UK Telegraph)

>> Watch the 2013 Epicenter Conference on Friday, July 5, 2013 from Jerusalem.
(Jerusalem, Israel) — As if there is not enough drama in the epicenter already, a military coup d’état occurred overnight in Egypt. Mohamed Morsi is no longer the president after 22 million Egyptians signed a petition to remove him. Morsi and other top Muslim Brotherhood leaders have been arrested. The Brotherhood’s TV station was seized by the army. Other Brotherhood leaders have been put on watch lists and told they may not leave the country. The country’s new Sharia law-focused constitution has also been suspended.

Now all eyes are on Adly Mansour, the 67 year old judge, the interim president,appointed by the Egyptian army. Mansour is expected to oversee the drafting of a new electoral law, and oversee new elections, though it is not yet clear when those elections will be. A new constitution will also be drafted. More on Mansour in a moment.

First, let me say that I am grateful Morsi has been removed and the Brotherhood has been neutralized, at least for the moment. Generally, I don’t support military coups. But in this case I believe Morsi posed a grave threat to the people of Egypt, and to Israel, and the U.S. and the West generally. He needed to be removed and I have been praying for this ever since he rose to power. According to Bible prophecy — notably Isaiah 19 — the Egyptians have very dark days ahead of them. But as long as possible, I so want them to experience spiritual and personal freedom and for the Church to be free to preach the Gospel and demonstrate the love of Christ and the power of the Word to a nation in so much pain.

Second, this coup represents another dramatic chapter in the battle between the Radicals and the Reformers in the Muslim world. The Egyptian people launched a revolution against Hosni Mubarak in 2011 because they wanted real reform and he was resisting true democracy and personal freedom. But Morsi and the Radicals of the Muslim Brotherhood hijacked that revolution and turned into an opportunity for them to dominate and oppress Egypt. Now the Reformers are pushing back. It’s been stunning to see 22 million people — 1 in 4 Egyptians — sign a petition to get rid of the Radicals. 

The Egyptian army’s leadership are not Jeffersonian democratic reformers, to be sure. But they have long opposed the Radicals and they could see the popular handwriting on the wall. The army signaled last December it would not allow Egypt to enter a “dark tunnel” of Radical Islamic extremism and economic collapse. Yet that is precisely where Morsi and the Brotherhood were heading.

• “Who is the new President of Egypt?” I wrote just one year ago on June 25, 2012. “He’s an absolute disaster — an Islamic Radical who poses a grave threat to Israel, the U.S. and to the people of Egypt, especially the Christians of which there are millions in Egypt. Here’s what Mohamed Morsi  (sometimes spelled Morsy or Mursi) said at a speech at Cairo University in May: ‘The Koran is our constitution, the Prophet is our leader, jihad is our path and death in the name of Allah is our goal.’ According to a Russian news service, Morsi also said, ’Today we can establish Sharia law because our nation will acquire well-being only with Islam and Sharia. The Muslim Brothers and the Freedom and Justice Party will be the conductors of these goals.’ Those quotes ought to provide insight into just how dangerous Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood really are.”
• Just last month, for example, Morsi called for Egyptians to support a jihad or “holy war” against the Assad regime in Syria.
• Recent polls show the vast majority of Egyptians were coming to the same conclusion just a year after electing Morsi. A stunning 73% of Egyptians say Morsi didn’t make a single good decision in his first year in office.

All this is further evidence of the central dynamic in the Muslim world that I described in my non-fiction book in 2009, Inside The Revolution: How The Followers of Jihad, Jefferson and Jesus Are Battling To Dominate The Middle East and Transform The World. The Islamic world is going through historic convulsions. The Radicals (like Morsi and the Brotherhood) are trying to overthrow the Resisters and return the region to a “pure” version of fundamentalist Islam based on Sharia law. They believe “Islam is the answer and jihad is the way.” Ultimately, they want to create a global Caliphate where all people in every country are living under Islamic rule. The Reformers, on the other hand, believe “Islam is the answer, but jihad is not they way.” They are pushing back at the Radicals. They are Muslims, but they don’t want Sharia law. They don’t believe in waging jihad. To the contrary, they want more freedom, more openness, and even democracy. Then there are the Revivalists. They believe “Islam is not the answer, jihad is not the way; Jesus is the way.” What’s more, they believe that “the only way for our part of the world to move forward is to skip back in our history before Islam and revive what we once had — first century, New Testament, Biblical Christianity.” They are Muslims who are renouncing Islam and becoming true and fully devoted disciples of Jesus Christ. We need to be praying for these Revivalists to be strong and bold in their testimony for Jesus and their proclamation of the Word of God.

Third, there is still a very real possibility that a civil war will erupt in Egypt. The Radicals might counterstrike. The Muslim Brotherhood — a Radical Islamic jihadist organization — is furious about what has happened. It has been trying to seize power in Egypt since the 1920s. It may not take the coup lying down and it could unleash waves of brazen violence. Isaiah 19 indicates a tragic civil war is in Egypt’s future in the last days. Let us pray that we have not yet arrived to that point. Let us pray for peace and stability and calm in this important country of more than 80 million people.

Now, let’s look more closely at Egypt’s interim president. “It’s been a momentous week for Judge Adly Mansour,” reported CNN. “On Monday, he became the head of Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court. Just two days later, the 67-year-old was installed as the country’s president after a military coup ousted Mohammed Morsy from power.”
“New parliamentary elections will be held, and Mansour will have the power to issue constitutional declarations in the meantime,” CNN noted. “[Mansour] as appointed vice president of the court in 1992. In that role, Mansour served during former President Hosni Mubarak’s nearly 30-year rule and also helped draft the elections laws that set the time frame for campaigning in the 2012 vote that brought deposed President Mohammed Morsy to power, the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper reported.…Mansour was born in Cairo, according to a biography on the court’s website. He received law and management science degrees from Cairo University, and also studied in Paris. He is married and has a son and two daughters.”

Foreign Policy magazine reports: ”The shakeup thrusts a little-known judge into the spotlight, and entrusts him with the unenviable task of shepherding Egypt to its next presidential and legislative elections, which could take place in as little as three to six months. But Mansour, a veteran of the Supreme Constitutional Court who only just became its chairman on July 1, will not hold ultimate authority. ‘He is not the president of Egypt in the same way that Morsy or Mubarak were presidents of Egypt,’ Tarek Masoud, an associate professor of public policy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, tells Foreign Policy. The best analogy, according to Masoud, is probably Sufi Abu Taleb, who served as acting head of state for eight days following the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981. ‘The administration of the country is going to be in the hands of the military, but they had to put a constitutional face on it. [Mansour] is under no illusions about the extent of his power,’ says Masoud.”

“Despite his subordinate position, however, Mansour will likely exercise considerable control over the drafting of a new election law, experts say,” FP notes. “‘His main job will be to get an electoral law done,’ Michael Wahid Hanna, a fellow at the Century Foundation, tells FP. Over the past year, the Supreme Constitutional Court has twice invalidated electoral laws drafted by the Shura Council, Egypt’s upper house of parliament. The result, according to Hanna, has been a delay in holding parliamentary elections and a deepening of the political crisis in Egypt.”

Isaiah 17, An Oracle Against Damascus

Reblogged from gracethrufaith.com/popular-posts-from-the-past
A Bible Study by Jack Kelley

It is becoming clearer by the day that Isaiah’s prophecy of the destruction of Damascus  could soon come to fulfillment, perhaps being part of the Psalm 83 scenario I’ve written about.  If so, it would explain why Syria is not included among the coalition of Muslim nations who will gather against Israel in the Battle of Ezekiel 38. Let’s review what God had Isaiah say about this.



An Oracle Concerning Damascus:
“See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins. The cities of Aroer will be deserted and left to flocks, which will lie down, with no one to make them afraid. (Isaiah 17:1-2)

Because of the language of these verses, many scholars believe that this prophecy was only partially fulfilled when the Assyrians defeated the Arameans and overran their capital, Damascus, in 732 BC. To this day Damascus is thought to be the world’s oldest continuously inhabited city with a 5000-year history and a population close to 2 million, yet Isaiah 17:1 indicates that it will one day cease to exist.

Some believe the phrase “cities of Aroer” refers to Aramean territory east of the Jordan River around the Arnon River, which flows into the Dead Sea in southern Jordan.  However, the Jewish Encyclopedia claims that this phrase in Isaiah 17:2 is probably translated incorrectly  because the geographical distance from Damascus is too great.  While they say it’s possible that there may have been another Aroer near Damascus, it is more likely that the passage should be rendered “the cities thereof shall be forsaken.” 

If that’s the correct translation, Isaiah 17:2 could refer to other Syrian cities currently in the news such as Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, and the Hezbollah stronghold in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, which was part of Aramean territory in Isaiah’s time, and is in a direct line between Beirut and Damascus.

The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim, and royal power from Damascus; the remnant of Aram will be like the glory of the Israelites,” declares the LORD Almighty. “In that day the glory of Jacob will fade; the fat of his body will waste away. It will be as when a reaper gathers the standing grain and harvests the grain with his arm- as when a man gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim. (Isaiah 17:3-5)

This segment speaks of the defeat of Damascus in 732BC and the destruction of Samaria 10 years later (722 BC).  Damascus continued to exist as part of the Assyrian Empire and is still here today, but the ruins of Samaria are just now being excavated out of the sandy soil of Israel.  The systematic relocation of the ruling classes to the far reaches of the Assyrian Empire is also in view here, symbolized by the fat of Jacob’s body wasting away.  This was standard Assyrian policy to reduce the likelihood of subsequent rebellion among their conquered peoples.   Jacob and Ephraim are alternate names for the Northern Kingdom, and Samaria was its capital.

Yet some gleanings will remain, as when an olive tree is beaten, leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches, four or five on the fruitful boughs,” declares the LORD, the God of Israel. (Isaiah 17:6)

Not all the people were dispersed.  Farmers were left behind to tend the crops and protect the harvest for their new rulers. They were joined by refugees from other parts of Assyria and their combined descendants were known as the Samaritans in the time of Jesus.  (A quick reading of 2 Chronicles 11:16 shows that all the faithful from the 10 northern tribes moved south at the time of the civil war that divided the nation after King Solomon’s death 150 years earlier.  From then on, all 12 tribes were represented in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, so the 10 tribes from the North weren’t totally lost.  The Lord has always preserved a believing remnant from all the Tribes of Israel.)

In that day men will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. They will not look to the altars, the work of their hands, and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles and the incense altars their fingers have made. In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation. (Isaiah 17:7-9)

This is another passage that’s problematic for those who try to consign the whole passage to history. There is simply no reason to believe that the Assyrians turned to God following their conquest of Aram and Israel. And far from abandoning their cities because of the Israelites, it was the Israelites who were defeated and dispersed. The yet future Jewish attack on Damascus causing the destruction and abandonment of Syrian cities, and the eventual return of the survivors to their God is a much more likely fulfillment. And it could happen soon.

You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress. Therefore, though you set out the finest plants and plant imported vines, though on the day you set them out, you make them grow, and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud, yet the harvest will be as nothing in the day of disease and incurable pain. (Isaiah 17:10-11)

Asshur, father of the Assyrians, and Aram, father of the Arameans were both sons of Shem. Aram’s son Uz is the traditional founder of Damascus. (The setting for Job, the Bible’s oldest book, is the Land of Uz.) The knowledge of God in the memories of these patriarchs cannot be questioned. It wasn’t that they never knew Him, but that they had forgotten Him, abandoned Him in favor of the Canaanite gods of the region, Baal and his consort Ashtoreth (aka Asherah, Astarte, Ishtar, Aphrodite, Venus.) Currently Syria is almost totally Muslim.   Until they return to their Maker and Savior none of their plans and schemes will prosper in the long run, no matter how promising they seem at the beginning.

Oh, the raging of many nations- they rage like the raging sea! Oh, the uproar of the peoples- they roar like the roaring of great waters! Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters, when he rebukes them they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweed before a gale. In the evening, sudden terror! Before the morning, they are gone! This is the portion of those who loot us, the lot of those who plunder us. (Isaiah 17:12-14)

Having conquered most of the Middle East including the Arameans and the Northern Kingdom,  the Assyrians set their sights on the Southern Kingdom, Judah. Assyria’s King Sennacherib brought his armies almost literally to the gates of Jerusalem, so close his commanders were within speaking distance of the Jewish defenders. On the night before they were to attack, the Lord sent His angel into the Assyrian camp on Mt. Scopus to slaughter 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. Before dawn they had packed up and fled, ending 44 years of conquest. (Isaiah 37:36-38) This time in Israel’s history so parallels the Jewish view of the End Times that Sennacherib is seen by them as a type of the anti-Christ, while Judah’s King Hezekiah models the Messiah.

But notice that Isaiah speaks of many nations raging against God’s people, not just Assyria, leading us once again to consider Sennacherib’s defeat to be a partial fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.

The phrase “rushing of many waters” is often used to describe the sound of loud voices and today many nations are stirred up.   The cry of anti-Israeli sentiment can be heard around the globe.  The various Mid-East “peace” conferences combined with the Gaza war and the  boarding of the Turkish/Terrorist flotilla  have left Israel standing alone against all but irresistible pressure to negotiate away its very existence. Syria and Iran are dead certain that Israel will attack soon, and are preparing accordingly.  Israel’s other next-door neighbors are also preparing for war, and indeed many nations are taking sides.  For example the US just increased its military presence in Jordan on Syria’s border. Russia has a Mediterranean fleet with landing parties standing by, the Chinese Navy is also present, and Iran continues to send troops and weaponry to bolster Assad’s forces.

Israel is not blind to these mounting threats, but until lately seems to have been ignoring them.  That’s about to stop.  Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has told the world he will not apologize for defending his country and will continue to do so even if it results in more confrontations.  We can easily envision a scenario that escalates into the final fulfillment of Isaiah 17, the destruction of Damascus.  Once again there will be sudden terror in the evening, and before morning they will be gone.

Army deposes Morsi. In TV statement, army chief names judge provisional president. Tahrir Sq. jubilant

Reblogged from:

DEBKAfile Special Report July 3, 2013, 10:36 PM (IDT)

Tags:  Egypt,  Egyptian mililtary,  Barack Obama,  Mohamed Morsi,  Muslim Brotherhood,  Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi,

Egypt's army takes control of Cairo 

 

In his tensely-awaited televised statement, Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Khalil Al-Sisi announced Wednesday night, July 3, that the head of the constitution court will act as provisional president and form an interim government of technocrats to run the country until early presidential and parliamentary elections.  He was flanked by Christian, secular opposition and Muslim leaders. Al-Sisi said that all the army’s efforts to effect a national dialogue and reconciliation were welcomed by all factions and blocked by President Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood. On hearing the announcement, Tahrir Square exploded in a frenzy of fireworks and shouts of jubilation which quickly spread across Egypt.

Egypt’s military coup d’etat has been bloodless for now. President Mohamed Morsi was taken from his palace to a military barracks. Muslim Brotherhood officials were detained and issued with travel bans. Army tanks, APCs and troops, including commandos, are deployed at key facilities in the capital and positioned so as to seal off and separate rival groups of demonstrators. Muslim Brotherhood followers continue to stream into the city to join the pro-Morsi rally around Cairo University. Violence clashes have so far been averted.

Sources in Cairo report that top Muslim Brotherhood officials will be tried for “crimes” committed during their year in office. Prime Minister Hisham Kandil and the remaining ministers have left their offices with their possessions. 
      
Defense minister Gen. El-Sisi spent the afternoon conferring with leading politicians and clerics. Muslim Brotherhood leaders refused to attend.

Tuesday night, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi rejected the Defense Minister‘s demand that he quit to avert a bloodbath. He said he stood by his “constitutional dignity and demanded the army’s withdrawal of its ultimatum. Sixteen people were killed in three separate violent clashes after the speech between supporters and opponents of the Islamist president. Another huge anti-government took place in Alexandria as well as other Egyptian cities.

Military circles indicated that to defuse the crisis the army would force the regime to transfer ruling authority to an interim council made up of citizens and technocrats and entrusted with drafting a new constitution and preparing early elections for president.
Those sources did not disclose what would happen to Morsi and whether he would stay on in the meantime as a figurehead president without executive powers.

President Morsi and the Muslim Brothers are hardly likely to lie down for this roadmap out of the crisis, because it would mean relinquishing power after just one year, at the end of decades of being pushed to the fringes of Egypt’s political scene.

But there is not much they can do. Their call to turn out and demonstrate for the Islamic flag Tuesday brought out their own followers and no one else, whereas the opposition is not only backed by millions of assorted groups but has now gained the support of the army, the police, the security service and the intelligence agency.

Tuesday morning, US President Barack Obama and Chief of US General Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey intervened in the Egyptian crisis early Tuesday, July 2, in an attempt to save the besieged President Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood. Obama called the Egyptian president and Gen. Dempsey phoned Chief of staff Gen. Sedki Sobhi, hoping to defuse the three-way crisis between the regime, the army and the protest movement before it gets out of hand.

The crash of Morsi’s presidency would seriously undermine the objectives of the Arab Revolt pursued by the Obama administration as the arch-stone of his Middle East policy.
The administration had earlier sought unsuccessfully to persuade the heads of the Egyptian army not to issue its 48-hour ultimatum to Egypt’s rulers “heed the will of the people” by Wednesday afternoon - or else the army would intervene. The Americans proposed instead to leave Morsi in place after stripping him of presidential authority and installing a transitional government to prepare the country for new elections to the presidency and parliament.

Debkafile’s Middle East sources report that the army chiefs led by Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi rejected the American proposal.

Obama promised to back steps taken by President Morsi to show he is “responsive to the opposition’s concerns,” while Gen. Dempsey asked Egyptian generals to moderate their stand against the Muslim Brotherhood. The underlying message was that if they failed to do so, Washington might reconsider its $1.3 billion annual military assistance package which is the main source of income for the armed forces.

Heartened by the US president’s vote of support, Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamic allies, rejected the army’s ultimatum for resolving the country’s deadly crisis, saying it would sow confusion and ran contrary to the Egyptian constitution.
Morsi insisted he would stick to his own plans for national reconciliation.

His regime is meanwhile crumbling:  Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr resigned early Tuesday, the sixth minister to quit the government in the last 24 hours. He follows the president’s military adviser Gen. Sami Anan, former chief of staff under President Hosni Mubarak. Senior judges and high police officers were seen taking part in the anti-government protest rallies of the last week.

Morsi and the Brotherhood now face two ultimatums: If by Tuesday afternoon, he has not agreed to step down and call an early election, the organizers of the protest movement, which has brought millions to the streets of Egyptian cities, will launch a relentless and anarchic campaign of civil disobedience. The defense minister says the army will intervene if the government fails “to heed the will of the people” by Wednesday afternoon.

CDC: Women's painkiller overdose deaths up 400 percent

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The Middle East Is on Fire: An Unsettling Wrap-Up of the Death, Destruction and Chaos From Around the Globe

The Middle East Is on Fire: An Unsettling Wrap-Up of the Death, Destruction and Chaos From Around the Globe

Focus on the Family, Bono, & who is a Christian?

Reblogged from Elizabeth Prata´s the-end-time.blogspot.com

This series of posts will look at one issue divided into three parts:

1. Focus on the Family's increasing apostasy
2. Whether Bono is a Christian
3. Lack of discernment in Christians today/ not everyone who claims Jesus is a Christian

Part 1: Focus on the Family

When the History Channel's miniseries "The Bible" came out in the spring of 2013, many individuals, pastors, and churches recommended the series to their flocks, most notably, the Christian organization Focus on the Family (FOTF). Lots of Christians who should have known better declared the series pretty good, or almost good, or nearly good, or good enough... to eat as holy food.

They were wrong. The Bible miniseries was shown to have omitted foundational portions of the Gospel, twisted scripture, presented Jesus incorrectly, and over-or-under dramatized important passages. It was created by people who have shown they do not know Jesus as savior. This kind of half-hearted, casual approach to presenting the Word of God is not acceptable but is inevitable when written by people who don't know Jesus. More on that below.

However, let's begin nearer the beginning. FOTF's downward slide away from the purity of the cross has been going on for a while. No apostasy is sudden. Their eyebrow-raising involvement with The Bible miniseries and the apostates who created it was not the beginning of and obvious lack of discernment. It just takes a while for its sins to arise from the heart and mind and be noticed externally.

In 2008, controversy arose when FOTF interviewed Mormon Glenn Beck and appeared to be endorsing Mormonism. They later pulled the interview down from their website as the heat rose.

Mr. Dan Gilgoff of God & Country was disappointed in FOTF's retraction of the Beck interview, saying that the long-standing pattern of interfaith dialog FOTF had evidenced was squandered in this case. He wrote of then-FOTF President James Dobson, "Dobson deserves credit for helping the evangelical movement build political alliances with other faith traditions, including the Mormons, or Church of Latter-day Saints. ... Focus could have used the Beck episode as another opportunity for interfaith bridge-building, perhaps by leaving the interview up, even if it meant adding a clarification that the organization doesn't endorse Mormonism. Another setback for interfaith dialogue, which seems to be all too rare these days."

If I was an evangelical I would be very worried if I was named as having built political alliances, because that is not our calling.(James 4:4, John 15:19). I would be equally worried about having been identified as engaging in interfaith dialog and being unequally yoked in activities with those who are not of the faith. (2 Corinthians 6:14).

In 2009, FOTF endorsed a book published by Zondervan which promoted the practice of contemplative spirituality. Contemplative spirituality has been amply demonstrated on this and other blogs as a mystical practice originating in the apostate Romans Catholic Church.

In 2008, FOTF hosted Roman Catholic occult writer Anne Rice on the show.  Way of Life writer David Cloud wrote at the time, "The spiritually-dangerous nature of Focus on the Family (FOF) was evident in a reply that was given to a Christian who wrote to them about having Anne Rice, the Roman Catholic author of occultic horror novels, on the Focus radio program. In a reply dated December 3, 2008, Timothy Masters wrote the following for Focus on the Family: "It’s worth adding that anti-Catholic sentiments like those you’ve expressed are more than just uncharitable and un-Christlike. They’re also harmful to the richness of your own Christian experience.  ...  To dismiss the Roman Catholic Church wholesale is to obliterate the first fifteen centuries of Christian history."

Mr Cloud rightly noted of FOTF's response to the concerned listener, "This statement reflects gross ignorance both of the Bible and of church history. The Bible plainly teaches that it is impossible to be saved apart from the one true gospel of the grace of Christ (Galatians 1:8-9). Since the Roman Catholic Church teaches a false gospel of sacramentalism (e.g., the Council of Trent, which has never been rescinded, cursed those who say that salvation is by God’s grace alone), it is impossible to be saved if one believes what Rome teaches."

Later, Mrs Rice publicly quit Christianity. Of course, being a Catholic she already showed she was not a Christain, something the FOTF interview should have been clear about. (1 John 2:19).

In 2011, FOTF declared that they had lost their fight against homosexual marriage, blaming the culture as being too overwhelming. FOTF President Jim Daly said at that time, "We're winning the younger generation on abortion, at least in theory. What about same-sex marriage? We're losing on that one, especially among the 20- and 30-somethings: 65 to 70 percent of them favor same-sex marriage. I don't know if that's going to change with a little more age—demographers would say probably not. We've probably lost that. I don't want to be extremist here, but I think we need to start calculating where we are in the culture."

The world is a system which satan rules and therefore we must be in it but apart from it, that's "where we are in the culture." (John 17:14-15)

Source

Yet the article's author says "Daly has taken a more conciliatory approach to to traditional hot-button issues than his predecessor at Focus, James Dobson, so perhaps it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to see him speak so candidly."

Again, I would be very worried if the ultra-liberal publication Mother Jones was saying if I, someone who declares myself and my organization as evangelical, was being conciliatory on hot-button issues.

In early 2013, the FOTF organization took part in the History Channel miniseries development and promotion of "The Bible" as I mentioned at the start. This raised many eyebrows.

As a matter of fact FOTF was one of the organizations behind the series on the consulting level. They were supposed to be overseers of the theology. The problem was, that oneness pentecostal believer TD Jakes and prosperity/word of faith promoter Joel Osteen, and rabbis and Catholics were also theological overseers. Mr Jakes & Mr Osteen are not known for their solid preaching of the whole counsel of God, and Catholics and rabbis do not subscribe to a saving doctrine of Jesus Christ alone.

Devastatingly, Matt Kaufman of Focus on the Family's blog wrote that "Part of the reason for the ratings is that viewers have a degree of trust in the people behind the series. Producer Mark Burnett (Survivor) and his wife, Roma Downey (Touched by an Angel), are Christians who consulted with ministry leaders (including Focus on the Family President Jim Daly) during its development. So going in to the series, Christian viewers got strong signals of the producers' good intentions. That's not something they normally can expect from Hollywood."

Good intentions mean nothing. Proper execution is all. Preaching the whole counsel of God in spirit and in truth is what matters. (Acts 20:27, John 4:24, Philippians 3:3)

It also matters that FOTF lent its credible name to a project that blasphemed Jesus, yet many people took their endorsement and watched a program that did more harm than good. That is why it is especially devastating when a formerly credible organization becomes unequally yoked with unbelievers. Downey and Burnett are most certainly not Christians. I can say that with biblical confidence because neither Downey nor Burnett evidenced the fruit of the spirit in their production. I say this also because they adhere to doctrines which do not save, including Catholicism and New Age spirituality. For FOTF to bring them and their false doctrines under the umbrella of our faith is devastating to the faith and shows a massive lack of discernment.

Doing this also muddies the waters on who a Christian IS.

In mid-2013, FOTF did it again. They had already brought in Anne Rice, Roma Downey, and Mark Burnett under the umbrella of our faith, and this week, they brought Irish singer Bono under the umbrella.

Bono is not a Christian, despite what FOTF President Mr Daly asserts. Bono is well-known for his well-intended work on many social activist causes, including HIV awareness and reducing poverty. However, despite naming Jesus as atoning savior, the blend of beliefs that Bono has stated in this week's interview as well as previous interviews unfortunately demonstrates more confusion than belief.

Obviously impressed with Bono, FOTF President Daly wrote a piece in the Washington Post subsequent to his interview with Bono, titled, "Why Orthodox Christians Should Appreciate An Unorthodox Bono". Her is how Focus on the Family presented Mr Daly's piece on their blog, accompanied by this week's Time Magazine cover: (click for larger)

FOTF has swallowed the blue pill of "social justice" as being the proper expression of Christianity, and lost their discernment of who is a Christian. It is Jesus who saves the world, not a confused Irish rock star.

Next up, looking at why Bono is not a Christian, and why it matters.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Further Reading:

The End Time: Why I am not watching History Channel's "The Bible"

The End Time: Why I am not watching The History Channel's "The Bible", part 2

The End Time: Watching The Bible miniseries is like eating brownies 

What does the bible say about social justice?

Why Is The U.S. Arming Rebels That Eat Human Hearts And Massacre Entire Christian Villages?

Reblogged from  endoftheamericandream.com

By Michael Snyder, on June 30th, 2013 

     

 

Why would Barack Obama want to help al-Qaeda take over Syria?  Why in the world would he want to spend hard-earned U.S. tax dollars to arm jihadist rebels that eat human hearts and massacre entire Christian villages?  We have always been told that al-Qaeda is our greatest enemy in the “war on terror”.  So now why are we arming them?  None of this makes any sense, and the American people are certainly not behind it.  In fact, polls have shown that up to 70 percent of the population is against arming the Syrian rebels. 

What was the whole point of spending more than a trillion dollars on the “war on terror” if we are actually going to start helping al-Qaeda now?  Even Russian President Vladimir Putin has pointed out how absurd this all is.  And if these rebels are eating human organs and killing off entire Christian villages now, what do they plan to do once they take over and have full control of the Syrian government?  That is a very frightening thing to consider.

If anyone still had any doubt about how stupid it would be to arm the Syrian rebels, those doubts should have been erased when a video surfaced that showed a prominent rebel fighter carving open the body of a soldier and eating his heart…

The ghastly video shows how barbaric the Syrian civil war can be.

A man, said to be a well-known rebel fighter, carves into the body of a government soldier and cuts out his heart and liver.

“I swear to God we will eat your hearts out, you soldiers of Bashar. You dogs. God is greater!” the man says. “Heroes of Baba Amr … we will take out their hearts to eat them.”

He then puts the heart in his mouth and takes a bite.

This is one of the “rebels” that we want to spend our tax dollars helping?
Are we insane?
The truth is that “moderate” groups that plan to establish a “democracy” in Syria have been completely overwhelmed by al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups in territories that are controlled by rebels.  This is something that journalists from Reuters saw very clearly during a recent trip through war-torn areas of Syria…

During a 10-day journey through rebel-held territory in Syria, Reuters journalists found that radical Islamist units are sidelining more moderate groups that do not share the Islamists’ goal of establishing a supreme religious leadership in the country.
The moderates, often underfunded, fragmented and chaotic, appear no match for Islamist units, which include fighters from organizations designated “terrorist” by the United States.

With all of the spying that the NSA is doing, you would think that this shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out.  Al-Qaeda and other radical jihadists groups are running the show over there.  Even the mainstream media has been openly reporting on this.  The following is from a USA Today article entitled “Syrian rebels pledge loyalty to al-Qaeda“…

A Syrian rebel group’s April pledge of allegiance to al-Qaeda’s replacement for Osama bin Laden suggests that the terrorist group’s influence is not waning and that it may take a greater role in the Western-backed fight to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.

These jihadists are not “tolerant” and they have no interest in “democracy”.  Instead, they have already shown exactly what they plan to do once they are in power.  They have been killing Christians everywhere they go, and in some cases they have wiped out entire Christian villages.  For example, the following is from a news report that was posted on May 29th…

Armed rebels attacked a village in Syria’s Western province of Homs and slaughtered all its Christian residents on Monday.
The armed rebels affiliated to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) raided the Christian-populated al-Duvair village in Reef (outskirts of) Homs near the border with Lebanon today and massacred all its civilian residents, including women and children.

Should we really be arming such people?
What in the world is Barack Obama thinking?
Does he actually approve of the rebels dragging kids off the street and executing them for saying things against Mohammed?  Because that is what is actually happening…

15-year-old Mohammad Qataa was taken hostage by the extremist group and was then summarily executed in the northern city of Aleppo on Sunday night. Pro-opposition group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) released a photo of the boy with bullet wounds in both his face and neck.
The SOHR said witnesses claim Qataa got into an argument at a coffee stand where he worked in the Sh’ar neighborhood of Aleppo. He was overheard saying: “Even if the Prophet Mohammad comes down (from heaven), I will not become a believer.”

His words caught the attention of members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria who kidnapped Qatta. They then brought him back to the stall late on Sunday night with whiplash marks on his body.
According to the report published by the SOHR, one of the members of the group addressed the crowd and said: “Generous citizens of Aleppo, disbelieving in God is polytheism and cursing the prophet is polytheism. Whoever curses even once will be punished like this.”
“He then fired two bullets from an automatic rifle in view of the crowd and in front of the boy’s mother and father, and got into a car and left,” the report said.

How in the world can the U.S. claim to have “moral authority” if this is the kind of people that we are backing?

The following is a video report from reporter Ben Swann about these rebels.  Some of the things that he has uncovered are absolutely amazing…



So what is going to happen if these rebels actually take over Syria?
Well, for one thing they will immediately impose Sharia law on the entire nation.  The people of Syria will be under an even more tyrannical regime than before.
Life under such a system can be incredibly cruel.  For example, two girls in Pakistan were recently shot dead for dancing in the rain…

Two teenage sisters have been murdered in Pakistan after they were accused of tarnishing their family’s name by making a video of themselves dancing in the rain.
The girls, aged 15 and 16, are seen running around in traditional dress with two other younger children outside their bungalow in the town of Chilas, in the northern region of Gilgit.
The sisters, named as Noor Basra and Noor Sheza, appear to break into dance and one even flashes a smile at the camera.
However, when the footage was circulated via mobile phones, it caused outrage in the conservative Pakistani town.
Last Sunday the girls were shot alongside their mother in their home by five gunmen.

Why are we spending our tax dollars to help al-Qaeda set up such a system in Syria?
It is hard to put into words how stupid this all is.  Please share this article with as many people as you can.  Hopefully we can help the American people to understand how foolish it is to help these rebels.

Obama to Save Presidency by Bombing Iran? Round Two

By Daniel Pipes on July 1, 2013 inNEWSUnited States

PHILADELPHIA-DanielPipes

I wrote an article 3½ years ago (see article below), at a low moment in Obama’s first term, when his ratings tanked and his party just lost Edward Kennedy’s senate seat to a Republican, that usefully suggested that Obama could “salvage his tottering administration” by taking “dramatic gesture to change the public perception of him as a lightweight, bumbling ideologue, preferably in an arena where the stakes are high, where he can take charge, and where he can trump expectations.” He could do well and do good, I offered, by taking out the Iranian nuclear infrastructure.

Well, as the world knows, he did not follow my advice. But the time has come to crank it out again at a moment when Obama seems close to imploding. As the distinguished historian Andrew Roberts puts it in the July/August issue of the British magazine Standpoint:

he is credibly accused by the internal opposition of serious civil liberties violations, the secret seizure of journalists’ phone and email records, the illegal use of the state tax authorities to harass citizens, a full-scale government cover-up over the circumstances of four murders and the “systematic targeting” of news organisations. … this summer Barack Obama has no fewer than four separate scandals pending, which are collectively referred to as “Obamagate”. Astonishingly, less than a year after his re-election, we may be witnessing the unravelling of the Obama presidency.

Given this background, I propose that (updating my 2010 article) a strike on Iranian facilities would dispatch Obama’s feckless fifth year down the memory hole and transform the domestic political scene. It would sideline immigration reform, prompt Republicans to work with Democrats, make netroots squeal, independents reconsider, and conservatives swoon.

Daniel Pipes is an American historian, writer, and political commentator. He is the founder and director of the Middle East Forum and its Campus Watch project, and editor of its Middle East Quarterly journal.

How to Save the Obama Presidency: Bomb Iran
by Daniel Pipes

National Review Online
February 2, 2010
 I do not customarily offer advice to a president whose election I opposed, whose goals I fear, and whose policies I work against. But here is an idea for Barack Obama to salvage his tottering administration by taking a step that protects the United States and its allies.

If Obama’s personality, identity, and celebrity captivated a majority of the American electorate in 2008, those qualities proved ruefully deficient in 2009 for governing. He failed to deliver on employment and health care, he failed in foreign policy forays small (e.g., landing the 2016 Olympics) and large (relations with China and Japan). His counterterrorism record barely passes the laugh test.

This poor performance has caused an unprecedented collapse in the polls and the loss of three major by-elections, culminating two weeks ago in an astonishing senatorial defeat in Massachusetts. Obama’s attempts to “reset” his presidency will likely fail if he focuses on economics, where he is just one of many players.
He needs a dramatic gesture to change the public perception of him as a lightweight, bumbling ideologue, preferably in an arena where the stakes are high, where he can take charge, and where he can trump expectations.

Barak Obama’s job approval problem. (For the current graph, seehttp://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html.)

Such an opportunity does exist: Obama can give orders for the U.S. military to destroy the Iranian nuclear weapon capacity.

Circumstances are propitious. First, U.S. intelligence agencies have reversed their preposterous 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, the one that claimed with “high confidence” that Tehran had “halted its nuclear weapons program,” No one (other than the Iranian rulers and their agents) denies that the regime is rushing headlong to build a large nuclear arsenal.

Second, if the apocalyptic-minded leaders in Tehran get the Bomb, they render the Middle East a yet more volatile and dangerous. They might deploy these weapons in the region, leading to massive death and destruction. Eventually, they could launch an electro-magnetic pulse attack on the United States, utterly devastating the country. By eliminating the Iranian nuclear threat, Obama protects the homeland and sends a message to American’s friends and enemies.

Third, polling shows longstanding American backing for an attack on the Iranian nuclear infrastructure.

• Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg, January 2006: 57 percent of Americans favor military intervention if Tehran pursues a program that could enable it to build nuclear arms.
• Zogby International, October 2007: 52 percent of likely voters support a U.S. military strike to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon; 29 percent oppose such a step.
• McLaughlin & Associates, May 2009: asked whether they would support “Using the [U.S.] military to attack and destroy the facilities in Iran which are necessary to produce a nuclear weapon,” 58 percent of 600 likely voters supported the use of force and 30 percent opposed it.
• Fox News, September 2009: asked “Do you support or oppose the United States taking military action to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons?” 61 percent of 900 registered voters supported military action and 28 opposed it.
• Pew Research Center, October 2009: asked which is more important, “To prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, even if it means taking military action” or “To avoid a military conflict with Iran, even if it means they may develop nuclear weapons,” Out of 1,500 respondents, 61 percent favored the first reply and 24 percent the second.

The nuclear facility at Qum on Sep. 26,2009 from 423 miles in space, provided by GeoEye.

Not only does a strong majority – 57, 52, 58, 61, and 61 percent – already favor using force but after a strike Americans will presumablyrally around the flag, jumping that number much higher.

Fourth, were the U.S. strike limited to taking out the Iranian nuclear facilities, and not aspire to regime change, it would require few “boots on the ground” and entail relatively few casualties, making an attack politically more palatable.

Just as 9/11 caused voters to forget George W. Bush’s meandering early months, a strike on Iranian facilities would dispatch Obama’s feckless first year down the memory hole and transform the domestic political scene. It would sideline health care, prompt Republicans to work with Democrats, make netroots squeal, independents reconsider, and conservatives swoon.

But the chance to do good and do well is fleeting. As the Iranians improve their defenses and approach weaponization, the window of opportunity is closing. The time to act is now or, on Obama’s watch, the world will soon become a much more dangerous place

Army gives Cairo politicians 48 hours to meet “people’s demands” - implying option of military takeover

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report July 1, 2013, 6:12 PM (IDT)

Tags:  Egyptian demonstrations,  Mohamed Morsi,  Muslim Brotherhood,  US,  Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi,

Egyptian army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi

Egypt’s defense minister Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi issued a statement on behalf of the armed forces Monday, July 1, warning the politicians they had 48 hours to “meet the people’s demands” and agree on an inclusive road map for the way ahead. He did not define “the people” either as the millions who voted for the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi as president or the masses demanding his resignation. The army chief’s statement acted as a warning to the politicians in both camps that if they failed to agree, the army would step in and assume power once again.

The military statement went on to say that the Egyptian army will not get involved in politics but had decided to act in view of the real danger facing national security. 

President Barack Obama also voiced his concern about the situation in Egypt and called on President Morsi to respond to opposition demands and work with the protest leaders. 

The morning after millions of Egyptians demonstrated fairly peacefully Sunday night, June 30, for and against President Mohamed Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood rule, a mob Monday stormed and ransacked Brotherhood headquarters in Cairo and set it on fire. The building was empty at the time. 

In the early stage of the opposition uprising, the Brotherhood more or less avoided direct street clashes in the 20 or so Egyptian towns where protests were staged, even though they and their premises were often under assault.

There were two reasons for this restraint:

1. The morning after the big event Sunday, which was timed for the first anniversary of Morsi’s presidency, found him shaken but still hanging in there. The first crack came later Monday, July 1, when four members of his cabinet, the ministers of tourism, environment, communication and legal affairs, handed in their resignations. 

2.  The protest organizers gave Morsi until Tuesday to step down and call an early election, or else face more demonstrations and a long campaign of civil obedience. Against this ultimatum, the Brothers reckoned they could hold out until next week, when the Muslim month of Ramadan begins. During that month, they hoped the millions of protesters would be too busy breaking their daily fast after nightfall to be available for mass rallies against the government.

Muslim Brotherhood tacticians changed their minds after the attack on their Cairo headquarters was found to have been carried out by a “rebel unit.” The MB spokesman then announced that “self-defense units” were being considered to protect the movement. What this means is that Egypt’s ruling Islamists are contemplating activating armed militias, or paramilitary groups, in the face of attacks by “rebel units.” This would take the country another step towards greater violence and a more protracted confrontation. For now, the army is not interfering in the contest.

It is feared in ruling circles in Cairo that the protest movement will resort to violent assaults on their institutions, alongside a campaign of civil obedience, to keep the flames of their campaign to topple the Islamist government burning high.

See debkafile’s exclusive eport on Sunday.
The protest rallies against Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi staged across Egypt Sunday June 30, a year after he took power, offered two surprises. Rather than an outpouring of anti-Islamist rage, the tenor of the banners, placards and chants raised over Cairo’s Tahrir Square echoed the slogans of pan-Arab, nationalism, socialism and xenophobia, with which the charismatic Gemal Abdel Nasser caught the Arab world by storm half a century ago. The Muslim Brotherhood rule in Egypt, thrown up by the Arab Revolt, may face the challenge of a neo-Arab nationalistic uprising, a throwback to the Nasserist era.
There was also a strong strain of anti-American sentiment.

In Cairo, placards of US Ambassador Anne Patterson, accused of currying favor with the Muslim Brotherhood, were hoisted alongside those of President Morsi – both defaced with large red exes. 

The second surprise was the less-than expected turnout – hundreds of thousands - at most one millon - rather than 3-5 million the organizers hoped to rally in Cairo alone and no more than two-to-two and a half million in all the main city centers combined.

According to the Egyptian Interior Ministry, 17 million demonstrators counting supporters and opponents of the president, were in the streets Sunday night. Our sources say this figure is much inflated.
No one is even trying to guess what sort of Egypt will emerge from this new turbulence, or who will rule the country when it subsides. Some facts and figures may offer some clues to where Egypt is heading:

1. The organizers of the “Tamarod” (Rebellion) have laid long-term plans for a civil disobedience campaign to disrupt the government administration until it is forced to quit - although the initial phase was marked with scattered violence: Ten people were killed Sunday night and 700 injured, after seven were left dead in clashes between pro-and anti Morsi supporters in the past week, including an American.

The protest leaders claim to have harnessed various anti-government groups – liberals, pro-democracy factions, academics, members of the free professions, secular politicians, students and ordinary people who elected the Muslim Brother for jobs and a better and safer life and are now jobless and unable to feed their families.
Among the demonstrators in Tahrir Square Sunday night were police officers and judges.

2.  The next stage planned is for a shutdown of public transportation, factories, financial companies and the flow of oil and gas in and out of Egypt. Within days, the country will face electricity and water outages and start the grim descent into complete chaos.

3.  The uprising has a leader, the Nassersit Hamdeen Sabahi, who came in third place after Morsi in last year’s presidential election. But the trouble for the protest leaders is that he is virtually faceless on the national scene and has never made his mark as a figure able to inspire the masses to rise up against the government. Without a strong figure, the  uprising may soon lose traction.