Matt Drudge interview - Alex Jones

Huge Oil Discovery on the Golan Heights

Reblogged from www.jewishpress.com
If the oil can be extracted at a reasonable cost, and that is a big "if" now, it would make Israel self-sufficient for decades.

By: Tzvi Ben-Gedalyahu

Published: October 7th, 2015

Equipment at an oil well. (illustrative only, file photo)
Photo Credit: Flash 90

Syrian rebels, the Islamic State (ISIS) and the Assad regime, and today that means Russia, now have another reason to capture the Golan Heights – oil.
Drilling that began more than a year ago has exposed a huge find of billions of barrels of oil, but it is too early to know if the black gold can be extracted at a price that would make the oil commercially viable.

Afek Oil and Gas chief geologist Dr. Yuval Bartov was quoted by Globes as saying:

We are talking about a strata which is 350 meters thick, and what is important is the thickness and the porosity. On average in the world strata are 20-30 meters thick, so this is ten times as large as that, so we are talking about significant quantities. The important thing is to know the oil is in the rock and that’s what we now know.

The drilling is in the southern Golan Heights, far away from the northern border but several miles from the eastern border. Syria has claimed the entire Golan since it lost the strategic and water-rich area in the Six-Day War in 1967.
If oil can be extracted, it will be a huge bonanza for Israel and an enormous reason for whoever rules in Syria, or for Hezbollah that is fighting with Assad’s forces and is based in Lebanon, to launch a war on Israel. Israel uses approximately 270,000 barrels a day. Billions of barrels of oil would satisfy the country’s need for a long time.

If the oil can be produced at today’s prices, which are the lowest in years, it would generate a huge employment boom. It also would infuriate environmentalists, who have fought oil drilling the Golan Heights and virtually anywhere else in Israel because of damage to the pristine landscape.
Drilling in the Golan Heights was delayed by environmentalists and was resumed last February when the court dismissed their appeal to stop the work.

The red area marks the eastern border with Syria, The black area is the approximate location of the oil drills.

About the Author: Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu is a graduate in journalism and economics from The George Washington University. He has worked as a cub reporter in rural Virginia and as senior copy editor for major Canadian metropolitan dailies. Tzvi wrote for Arutz Sheva for several years before joining the Jewish Press.

Column one: Israel’s risk aversion problem

 

by Caroline Glick

 Reblogged from jpost.com

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the government at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow. (photo credit:REUTERS)

On Wednesday the Obama administration was caught off guard by Russia’s rapid rise in Syria. As the Russians began bombing a US-supported militia along the Damascus-Homs highway, Secretary of State John Kerry was meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, at the UN. Just hours before their meeting Kerry was insisting that Russia’s presence in Syria would likely be a positive development.

Reacting to the administration’s humiliation, Republican Sen. John McCain said, “This administration has confused our friends, encouraged our enemies, mistaken an excess of caution for prudence and replaced the risks of action with the perils of inaction.”

McCain added that Russian President Vladimir Putin had stepped “into the wreckage of this administration’s Middle East policy.”

While directed at the administration, McCain’s general point is universally applicable. Today is no time for an overabundance of caution.

The system of centralized regimes that held sway in the Arab world since the breakup of the Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago has unraveled. The shape of the new order has yet to be determined.

The war in Syria and the chaos and instability engulfing the region are part and parcel of the birth pangs of a new regional governing architecture now taking form. Actions taken by regional and global actors today will likely will influence power relations for generations.

Putin understands the opportunity of the moment.

He views the decomposition of Syria as an opportunity to rebuild Russia’s power and influence in the Middle East – at America’s expense.

Russia isn’t the only strategic player seeking to exploit the war in Syria and the regional chaos. Turkey and Iran are also working assiduously to take advantage of the current absence of order to advance their long term interests.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is exploiting the rise of Islamic State in Syria and Iraq to fight the Kurds in both countries. Erdogan’s goal is twofold: to prevent the establishment of an independent Kurdistan and to disenfranchise the Kurds in Turkey.

As for Iran, Syria is Iran’s bulwark against Sunni power in the Arab world and the logistical base for Tehran’s Shi’ite foreign legion Hezbollah. Iranian dictator Ali Khamenei is willing to fight to the bitter end to hold as much of Syrian territory as possible.

Broadly speaking, Iran views the breakup of the Arab state system as both a threat and an opportunity.

The chaos threatens Iran, because it has radicalized the Sunni world. If Sunni forces unite, their numeric advantage against Shi’ite Iran will imperil it.

The power of Sunni numbers is the reason Bashar Assad now controls a mere sixth of Syrian territory. To prevent his fate from befalling them, the Iranians seek to destabilize neighboring regimes and where possible install proxy governments in their stead.

Iran’s cultivation of alliances and proxy relationships with Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaida, and its phony war against Islamic State all point to an overarching goal of keeping Sunni forces separated and dependent on Tehran.

The Iranian regime also fears the prospect of being overthrown by its domestic opponents. To counter this threat the regime engages in large-scale and ever escalating repression of its perceived foes.

Iran’s nuclear program also plays a key role in the regime’s survival strategy. As Khamenei and his underlings see things, nuclear weapons protect the regime in three ways. They deter Iran’s external foes. They increase domestic support for the regime by enriching Iran which, no longer under international sanctions, sees its diplomatic and economic prestige massively enhanced due to its nuclear program.

Finally, there is Iran’s war with Israel and the US. A nuclear-armed Iran is a direct threat to both countries.

And this, too, is a boon for the mullacracy. From the regime’s perspective, fighting Israel and the US serves to neutralize the Sunni threat to the regime. The more Iran is seen as fighting Israel and the US the more legitimate it appears to Sunni jihadists.

This then brings us to the Americans. Like the Russians, the Turks and the Iranians, President Barack Obama and his associates are strategic players. Unlike those powers however, the administration is moved not by raw power calculations but by ideological dictates.

Obama and his advisers are convinced that the instability and radicalization of states and actors throughout the region is the consequence of the actions of past US administrations and those of America’s regional allies – first and foremost, Israel and Egypt. The basis for this conviction is the administration’s post-colonial ideological underpinnings.

Because his strategy is based on ideological beliefs rather than power calculations rooted in reality, Obama’s position cannot be swayed by evidence, even when evidence shows that his administration’s policies endanger US national security.

This brings us to Israel.

Israel has limited power to influence regional events.

It cannot change its neighbors’ values or cultures. Israel can however limit its neighbors’ ability to harm it and expand its ability to deter would be aggressors by among other things, using its power judiciously to influence now forming power balances between various regional and world actors.

Israel has followed this model in Syria with notable success.

At an early stage of the war our leaders recognized that aside from the Kurds, who have no shared border with us, there are no viable actors in Syria that are not dangerous to Israel. As a result, Israel has no interest in the victory of one group against others.

The only actor in Syria that Israel has felt it necessary to actively rein in is Hezbollah. So it has acted repeatedly to prevent Hezbollah from using its operational presence in Syria as a means for augmenting its offensive capabilities in Lebanon.

The problem with this strategy is that it has ignored the fact that from Hezbollah’s perspective, there is no operational difference between Lebanon and Syria.

The war in Syria spread to Lebanon years ago.

Now, with Iranian and Russian assistance, Hezbollah is beginning to develop the industrial capacity to bypass Israel and independently produce advanced weapons inside Lebanon. This rapid industrialization of Hezbollah’s military capabilities requires Israel to end its respect for the all-but-destroyed international border and take direct action against Hezbollah’s capabilities in Lebanon.

This brings us to Hezbollah’s boss, Iran. For the past several years, the same caution that has led Israel to grant de facto immunity to Hezbollah forces in Lebanon has led to Israel’s passivity and deference to the Obama administration in relation to Iran’s nuclear program.

With regard to Iran’s nuclear installations, the strategy of passivity has largely been forced onto an unwilling political leadership by Israel’s military leaders.

For the past several years, the IDF’s General Staff has refused to support the government’s position on Iran’s nuclear program.

Our military leaders have justified their insubordination by arguing that if Israel takes independent action against Iran’s nuclear program it will undermine its bilateral relations with the US, which they consider more important than preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Although under the best of circumstances, the IDF’s position would be unacceptable from the perspective of democratic norms of governance, since the ideologically driven Obama administration took power seven years ago, the military’s position has imperiled the country.

So long as Obama – or the ideology that informs his actions – remains in power in Washington, US security guarantees towards Israel will have no credibility.

The IDF’s assessment that ties to the US are more important than preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power will remain incorrect, and dangerously so.

Today is Israel’s opportunity to shape the future of the Middle East by not only preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power, but by preventing a regional nuclear arms race.

The closer Iran comes to emerging as a nuclear power, the more Sunni regimes, including Islamic State, will seek their own nuclear capabilities. It goes without saying that the more regional actors have nuclear weapons, the more dangerous the region becomes for Israel, and indeed for the world as a whole.

For many Israelis, the story of the week wasn’t Russia’s air strikes against US-allied forces in Syria. It was PLO chief and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s speech at the UN General Assembly.

Leftists expressed horror in the face of Abbas’s threat to end the PLO’s adherence to the agreements it signed with Israel in the 1990s (and has stood in material breach of ever since). The government insisted, for its part that the reason the peace process has not brought peace is because Abbas and his PLO refuse to negotiate with Israel.

Unfortunately, both sides’ responses to Abbas’s speech indicate that Israel has lost all semblance of strategic purpose in regard to the Palestinians.

Fifteen years ago this week, on September 28, 2000, the Palestinians opened their terrorist war against Israel. Ever since it has been clear that no Palestinian faction is interested in living at peace with Israel.

Despite this, for the past 15 years, Israel has refused to reconsider its strategic allegiance to the false notion that it has the ability to influence the hearts and minds of the Palestinians and bend them in the direction of peace.

This delusional thinking is what caused the IDF’s General Staff to convene immediately after Operation Protective Edge ended and try to figure out how to rebuild Gaza.

Ever since the cease-fire came into force, Hamas has diverted all the assistance it has received from Israel and the international community not to rebuild Gaza, but to rebuild its military capacity to harm Israel. And yet, from the IDF’s perspective, ever since the war ended our most urgent task has been to save Hamas and the Palestinians alike from reckoning with the price of their aggression.

Likewise, Israel continues to insist that we have a strategic interest in peace with the PLO. Even if this is true in theory, chances are greater that unicorns will fall from the sky and prance through Jerusalem’s Old City than that the PLO will agree to make peace with Israel.

Our continued defense of the PLO as a legitimate actor harms our ability to secure other strategic interests that are achievable and can improve Israel’s regional position. These interests include securing transportation arteries in Judea and Samaria and strengthening Israel's military and political control over the areas. These interests have only grown more acute in recent years with the rise of jihadist forces throughout the region and among the Palestinians themselves.

This brings us back to McCain and his strategic wisdom.

Israel must not allow the risks of action to lure us into strategic paralysis that imperils our future.

The more Israel allows other actors to determine the nature of the emerging regional order, the less secure Israel will be. The more willing we are to take calculated risks today the greater our ability will be to influence the future architecture of regional power relations and so minimize threats to our survival in the decades to come.

www.CarolineGlick.com

John Haller Prophecy Update 2015 4 10

Obama, Putin and the Syrian Situation : Another Fine Mess

Reblogged from kingjester.wordpress.com

This is another fine mess you've gotten us into. - Oliver Hardy to Stan Laurel

To quote the late, great Strother Martin, in "Cool Hand Luke",

What we have heah is a failure to communicate.

According to mcclatchydc.com...

While they confer about “de-conflicting” their bombing raids in Syria, U.S. and Russian military officials also might want to discuss what the word “terrorist” means.That would be an easier discussion for the Russians, who began conducting airstrikes Wednesday, than the Americans, who’ve been bombing Syria for more than a year.

For Russian President Vladimir Putin and his generals, the definition of “terrorist,” when it comes to the increasingly turbulent Syrian civil war, is simple: anyone who uses violence to try to topple President Bashar Assad.

Assad is a dictator, but he’s Moscow’s dictator. Just as the late Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein was Washington’s dictator, for decades, before President George W. Bush turned against him and launched an ill-fated March 2003 invasion whose consequences are still playing out more than a dozen years later across the Middle East, from Syria and Iraq to Libya and Iran.

For President Barack Obama and his top military aides, it’s becoming more complicated by the day to say just who is a terrorist in Syria.

Like Moscow, Washington views some of the anti-Assad forces as terrorists, starting with the Islamic State militants.

But the United States’ uneasy alliances with Turkey and the elusive “moderate opposition groups” in Syria, along with the reluctance of Obama and Congress to get drawn further into that nation’s bloody disaster, require American leaders to engage in verbal jujitsu when asked if the U.S.-led air campaign is also targeting the Nusra Front, Ahrar al Shram and other al Qaida-linked groups.

“The fundamental problem is that the United States is trying to divorce its international anti-terrorism campaign from the rest of the Syrian civil war,” Christopher Kozak, an analyst with the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, told McClatchy. “That’s very difficult as we saw when the (U.S.-trained) New Syrian Force went in and just got obliterated by Nusra. The rebels want to fight the regime, not ISIS.

“The Russians have some leverage because they’re coming in with a position that’s more coherent,” he added. “Their anti-terrorism strategy is part of an endgame for ending the civil war, which is to protect the Assad regime.” ISIS is one of several acronyms for the Islamic State; ISIL is another.

Beneath their diverging views of who is a terrorist lies a more fundamental difference between Moscow and Washington: Russia traces the rise of the Islamic State to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq; the United States blames it on the brutal Assad rule that it blames for the deaths of more than 200,000 Syrians.

Despite Assad’s record, Russia is now backing his regime with air strikes. It bombed other forces Wednesday and Thursday before striking Islamic State targets Friday.

Russia fought Islamic extremists in the Chechnya region within its own borders in two wars covering more than a decade and ending in 2009.
A U.S. official, who requested anonymity in order to discuss intelligence matters, confirmed the most recent Russian raids.

“We believe that they’ve struck a couple of different places where ISIL is present today, both near (Islamic State headquarters in) Raqqa and Deir el Zour” in eastern Syria, the official told McClatchy.

After Russian warplanes began bombing Syria this week, reporters repeatedly asked Pentagon officials how they felt about the Kremlin targeting Assad foes other than the Islamic State. Just as repeatedly, the U.S. military spokesmen declined to answer the questions directly.

Army Col. Steve Warren, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve in Baghdad, was asked via video conference about reports that Kurdish fighters in Syria, who have been the United States’ most effective ground force there against the Islamic State, welcomed Russia’s entry into the air wars.

“Our focus and our determination is to defeat ISIL,” Warren said. “If others are willing to work with us to defeat ISIL, then that is something that we are willing to welcome.”

Warren was asked to respond to Russian airstrikes against CIA-backed Syrians fighting to overthrow Assad.

“It’s an extraordinarily complex battlefield,” he said. “Now, what I’ll say is our focus is ISIL, and I’ll leave it there.”

At a separate briefing, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook deflected similar questions.

“The sooner the Russians can be focused on those efforts to try and go after ISIL, the better, and that’s the message we’re going to continue to deliver,” Cook said.

Here's the problem with that:

For Putin, this military action services two distinct purposes. As was just reported, Putin is protecting his "buddy", Assad.

At the same time, Putin is enjoying making Obama look weak to the rest of the world.

And, that's not just my opinion.

Per the London Telegraph,

This past week, White House press secretary Josh Earnest strained credulity when he said Mr Obama doesn't regret drawing that red line.Weakness invites provocation, and – never one to miss an opportunity to outmanoeuvre Mr Obama – Mr Putin provided a self-serving opportunity that would also allow the president to save face: Moscow would push Syria to put their chemical weapons under international control. 

It's also important to note that in the wake of the red line being trampled, Russia invaded Crimea. President Obama's legacy may be mixed, but one thing is for sure: Vladimir Putin is much more powerful and provocative than he was before Mr Obama took office, and Russia has only expanded its sphere of influence.

The Syria bombings also come almost immediately after Mr Putin met with Mr Obama at the UN where they agreed to "deconflict" military operations – a very Obama-esque line that Mr Putin immediately crossed.

And prior to bombing our friends in Syria, the Russians also had the audacity to issue a "démarche" for the US to clear air space over northern Syria. As if that weren't enough, this came just as reports that the Russians attempted to hack Hillary Clinton's email server.

For those paying attention, Mr Obama's foreign policy world-view has failed.

The suggestion that America could leave a vacuum that wouldn't be filled by our adversaries – the idea that the "international community" (whatever that means) would respect us more if we were to retreat from the world – was always a farce.

At some level, high-stakes diplomacy is still a game of chicken – where machismo matters.

Even domestically, there are still traces of this left in our more civilised politics. 

We recently witnessed an example of Jeb Bush standing on his toes during a photo-op, attempting to appear taller than Donald Trump. This is childish and petty, and yet serious people play these power games.

But nobody plays them better than Mr Putin, the former KGB officer who likes to ride horses while shirtless.

It's nice to live in a postmodern country, but we shouldn't delude ourselves into believing the rest of the world is impressed by our sophistication.

In the vast majority of the world, power (or the perception of power) is what matters. In America, President Obama's brand of metrosexual coolness works well.

He mocked Mitt Romney, for example, as a Neanderthal stuck in the 1980s for suggesting in 2012 that Russia was still our main geopolitical foe.

Mr Obama's mix of cool insouciance and biting sarcasm plays much better with the latte-sipping crowd than it does with former KGB operatives, where his style and rhetoric suggests weakness, softness, and a lack of commitment and moral clarity.

This disdain that those in Europe hold for Obama is nothing new.

In an article posted on April 10, 2009, columnist Gerald Warner of this same London Telegraph, coined the title President Pantywaist for Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm).  He gave him this nickname after Obama:

…recently completed the most successful foreign policy tour since Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow. You name it, he blew it. What was his big deal economic programme that he was determined to drive through the G20 summit? Another massive stimulus package, globally funded and co-ordinated. Did he achieve it? Not so as you’d notice. 

Given the way America’s enemies are laughing at America and spitting in our face, the way that Obama has arrogantly alienated our foreign allies, and the President’s Steve Urkel-esque naiveté as exhibited by his Smart Power Foreign Policy, I would say Mr. Warner hit the nail on the head.

In December of 1985, five U.S. citizens were murdered in simultaneous Islamic terrorist attacks at the Rome and Vienna airports. Upon finding out that Libyan Despot Muammar al-Qaddafi was behind the attacks, U.S. President Ronald Reagan ordered expanded sanctions against Libya and froze Libyan assets in the United States. On March 24, 1986, U.S. and Libyan forces clashed in the Gulf of Sidra, and four Libyan attack boats were sunk. Then, on April 5, terrorists bombed a West Berlin dance hall known to be frequented by U.S. servicemen. One U.S. serviceman and a Turkish woman were killed, and more than 200 people were wounded, including 50 other U.S. servicemen. U.S. intelligence actually intercepted radio messages sent from Libya to its diplomats in East Berlin ordering the April 5 attack on the LaBelle discotheque.

On April 14, 1986, President Reagan ordered air strikes against Libya in retaliation for their sponsorship of terrorism against American troops and citizens. The raid, which began shortly before 7 p.m. EST (2 a.m., April 15 in Libya), involved more than 100 U.S. Air Force and Navy aircraft, and was over within an hour. Five military targets and “terrorism centers” were hit, including the headquarters of Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi.

In fact, the rumor was, we fired a Stinger Missile right into Qaddafi’s bedroom.

After this, Qaddafi left us alone and kept his mouth shut for 25 years. All it took to make the sponsor of Muslim Terrorism back down was a show of strength and a United States President who was not afraid to use our military might in defense of our country.

Fast forward to today…

Obama and his Secretary of State, John (I served in Vietnam) Kerry has agreed to a deal with Kerry's son-in-law's father, his counterpart in Iran, which will give them nuclear capability, while leaving four Americans, including a Christian Preacher, imprisoned in that barbaric country.

Now, Obama has Kerry trying to negotiate with Putin and the Russians after they have made the President of the United States of America look like a wuss to the rest of the world..

Meanwhile, last Friday, Obama gave a Press Conference, insisting that it is Putin who is looking weak.

Way to go, President Pantywaist. That showed ’em.

God protect us.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Spirit of Fear

 

Reblogged from  gracethrufaith.com

Saturday, October 3rd, 2015

• Featured
• Prophecy

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)

I first wrote an article by this name in October of 2014. The level of fear among pre trib evangelicals was on the rise even then. From the number of emails I have received lately, I’ve concluded that if anything, the spirit of fear has gotten worse.

I believe this is largely due to all the hype we’ve heard in the past year from preachers and writers who seem to be obsessed with a coming judgment. Some base this on numerous signs in the heavens that the Bible never speaks about. Others focus on a highly questionable interpretation of scripture meant for a different purpose, a different people, and a different time. Although they don’t come right out and say so, it seems pretty obvious that they are warning us about the time of God’s wrath.

For generations the rapture has been referred to as our blessed hope and our great escape, the time when Jesus will come in the clouds to snatch us away from this dying world in advance of the most horrifying time of judgment ever to be visited upon it. This view has been supported by several hints in the Old Testament that the righteous would escape this judgment leaving the unrighteous to suffer through it.

The clearest examples are Enoch, who was snatched away by God to walk with Him before the great flood. Then there was Lot who had to be removed from Sodom before the angels could bring judgment upon it. And let’s not forget Daniel who was unaccountably missing during the episode of the fiery furnace. These are hints that tell us God planned for some of His people to escape the end times judgments all along. (For more detail on these and other Old Testament references read Rapture References Part 1 )

During New Testament times, these hints became much clearer and more specific, as the following references will show. In spite of this, some are beginning to doubt the validity of the pre trib position. Others see everything happening around them and are worried they will not qualify for the rapture. Still others are afraid they may not even be saved. I believe much of this doubt is due to the fact that the judgements seem so close, and yet there are no signs to indicate the rapture is even closer. This is because:

1. The rapture is a signless event.
2. The teachers getting most of the attention are focused on the nearness of the coming judgments. You hardly hear anything about the nearness of the coming rapture.

With that in mind, lets take a quick look at the clearest indications that the Bible does teach the pre trib rapture position. After that we’ll review the clearest passages confirming the security of our position in Christ.

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! (Romans 5:9)

Doing a word search on the word “wrath” it seems clear that God reserves His wrath for His enemies, those who disobey and rebel against him. Those He has justified by His own blood are not His enemies. In fact, the word justified comes from a Greek word that means “to render righteous.” The word “from” in Paul’s statement above means a physical separation of time and place from the event being referenced, which is God’s wrath.

What Paul’s saying here is that the Lord went to a lot of trouble to save us from our sins. It took the shedding of His blood to do it in one of the most selfless and heroic deeds in the history of man. Why would He then subject us to God’s wrath? And then, only one generation of all those He has saved. It doesn’t make sense.

… to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. (1 Thessalonians 1:10)

Here Paul said our time on earth is meant to be spent waiting for God’s Son from heaven. We’re not supposed to be walking around waiting for some terrible calamity to befall us. We’re supposed to be waiting for Jesus to come rescue us from that time. This time Paul used another word for “from.” It means out of, or away from, the coming wrath.
When we see the time of calamity coming we are to stand up and lift up our heads for we know the time is near. “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:28)

 …putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:8b-9)

Our destiny is to be justified by the blood of Jesus and saved from the penalty of our sins, not to endure the time of God’s wrath. Therefore we walk by faith not by sight, (2 Corinthians 5:7) even in the face of those who walk by sight not by faith using incorrect interpretations of the Bible to instill a sense of fear in our hearts.

Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth. (Revelation 3:10)

Here the Lord is speaking to the church in Philadelphia. This is the one church about whom He could find no criticism to offer. That means they were perfectly righteous in His sight. This is the church that remained true to His word and was enduring patiently for His return. Many scholars see the church in Philadelphia as a model of the body of born again believers at the end of the age, with a righteousness from God that makes us perfect in His sight. Accordingly, He has promised to keep us from the end time judgments. Just like Paul did in 1 Thessalonians 1:10, Jesus used the word for “from” which means out of, or away from, the coming wrath.

As these verses clearly promise, it’s the destiny of the Church to be rescued from this time. And yet a handful of teachers and writers have been trying to persuade the Church that we’re about to endure it. And judging by the quantity of books, CDs and DVDs being sold, a great part of the Church has bought into this.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the Bible promises that everything will be gumdrops and lollypops until the day of God’s wrath suddenly commences. But what I am saying is that world wide economic collapse and wide spread warfare, famine, and pestilence are things all associated with the time of His wrath. Therefore, the Church is not to fear these things but to live in faith of our coming rescue from them.

Over my years of study I’ve been persuaded that the Bible does not give us options to choose from where the rapture is concerned. It teaches only the pre trib rapture position, as long as you read it in the most literal way, staying in the context in which it was given. And it was written the way it was, so the diligent student could know God’s plan for His Church in advance. I think the reason we’ve been led off the path so easily is that most Christians get their understanding of what the Bible says from what other people tell them, not from their own study.

For the next year or so we’ll have people giving us “proof” that certain years and certain signs are coming to fruition. But our role is to live by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)
Now let’s review the security of our position in Christ to reassure those who are wondering if they are really saved, or if they really qualify to be included in the rapture.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

In this verse Jesus identified belief in Himself as the condition for eternal life. Nothing in the New Testament negates or contradicts that statement.

“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:24)

Here Jesus clearly indicated that those who believe in Him not only have eternal life, but will not be judged.

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” John 6:28-29

And in these verses Jesus declared belief in Him is the only thing that God requires of us.

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27-30)

If you believe that the Lord’s sacrifice paid the price for your sins, He has you in His hands. In other words, you belong to Him now and no one can take you away from Him. Not even you.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

This is Paul confirming and expanding on what Jesus said about no one can take you away from Him. Notice in both these passages, “no one but you” does not exist.

Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2 Corinthians 1:21-22)

Once you come to the Lord He accepts responsibility for your salvation. He actually takes ownership of you and puts His Spirit in you heart guaranteeing what is to come. You are not your own anymore; you belong to Him. And nothing or no one can change that.

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)

Here Paul says the same thing in a different way, and added the duration of the Holy Spirit’s guarantee which is the day of your redemption. He confirmed this by declaring it again in Ephesians 4:30. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

There are numerous other verses I could have used to make my point, that once you are saved you are always saved. (So many, I’ve compiled them into a free ebook) Nothing you or anyone else can do can ever change that. And if you are saved you will go in the rapture. There’s no further qualification. In 1 Thessalonians 4:17 Paul said that after the dead arise at the rapture then we who are alive and are left will join them. He didn’t say those of us who qualify, or those of us who persevered in our belief. He simply said “we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds.”

It’s essential that we remember that we are children of God. (John:1:12-13) We have actually been adopted into His family  and made heirs of His estate, (Galatians 4:4-7) and are destined to dwell with Him forever. (Psalm 23:6) And He has told us very clearly that when all these end times signs begin to take place we’re not to duck and run for cover, but to stand up and lift up our heads because our redemption is drawing near. (Luke 21:28) We walk by faith not by sight. That means our thoughts and actions are guided by what we believe from our study of the Bible, not by what we hear from others or even see with our own eyes. 10-03-15

J.D. Farag - Prophecy Update 10.4.2015

Question: "Is hell real? Is hell eternal?"

Reblogged from gotquestions.org

Answer: It is interesting that a much higher percentage of people believe in the existence of heaven than believe in the existence of hell. According to the Bible, though, hell is just as real as heaven. The Bible clearly and explicitly teaches that hell is a real place to which the wicked/unbelieving are sent after death. We have all sinned against God (Romans 3:23). The just punishment for that sin is death (Romans 6:23). Since all of our sin is ultimately against God (Psalm 51:4), and since God is an infinite and eternal Being, the punishment for sin, death, must also be infinite and eternal. Hell is this infinite and eternal death which we have earned because of our sin.

The punishment of the wicked dead in hell is described throughout Scripture as “eternal fire” (Matthew 25:41), “unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12), “shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2), a place where “the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:44-49), a place of “torment” and “fire” (Luke 16:23-24), “everlasting destruction” (2 Thessalonians 1:9), a place where “the smoke of torment rises forever and ever” (Revelation 14:10-11), and a “lake of burning sulfur” where the wicked are “tormented day and night forever and ever” (Revelation 20:10).

The punishment of the wicked in hell is as never ending as the bliss of the righteous in heaven. Jesus Himself indicates that punishment in hell is just as everlasting as life in heaven (Matthew 25:46). The wicked are forever subject to the fury and the wrath of God. Those in hell will acknowledge the perfect justice of God (Psalm 76:10). Those who are in hell will know that their punishment is just and that they alone are to blame (Deuteronomy 32:3-5). Yes, hell is real. Yes, hell is a place of torment and punishment that lasts forever and ever, with no end. Praise God that, through Jesus, we can escape this eternal fate (John 3:16, 18, 36).

Recommended Resources: Four Views on Hell edited by John Walvoord and Logos Bible Software.

Martyrdom in America and the 'indomitable human spirit'

Reblogged from The end Time

Sunday, October 4, 2015

On October 1, 2015 a mass shooting took place at an Oregon Community College. The lone gunman shot and killed 9 people and injured 9 others before turning his weapon on himself as police arrived and a battle ensued.

The shooting at Umpqua CC was one of the deadliest in recent memory. The list of school shootings just in recent years is depressingly long. In addition to the UCC shooting this week in Oregon, are the 2015 shootings at Emmanuel African Methodist Church in which 9 were killed during a worship service, the 2012 Aurora CO movie theater shooting, and several recent shootings at military installations such as Ft. Hood and US Navy Yard.

In 2015, The Washington Post reported 204 mass shootings occurring in the U.S. in that year alone, according to ShootingTracker.com. In August 2015, the Washington Post reported that the United States was averaging one mass shooting per day. As of October 2015, U.S. President Barack Obama had given eleven speeches on eleven different mass shootings. (source).

One difference with this particular shooting in Oregon is that the shooter targeted Christians. In Charleston, though it was a church shooting, the motivation was racial. In other shootings, the gunman was a disgruntled employee targeting the workplace or simply an angry young madman locating a place where great numbers of people gather. The Umpqua Community College shooting is unique and represents a deepening of the exposure of our human spirit's depravity. But before I delve into that biblical discussion, here are the facts surrounding this latest incident.

As the gunman entered the classroom at the Community College, he told all the students, adults, and teachers in the room to lay on the floor. Then he demanded that each one rise in turn and state their religion. If they said nothing, or 'other', they were maimed. If they said they were a Christian, the gunman reportedly replied,

"'Good, because you’re a Christian, you’re going to see God in just about one second," Stacy Boylan said in a televised report. "And then he shot and killed them."

The United States has been relatively shielded from direct assault on Christians solely due to their religion. This shielding is obviously over.

Back in June, the Supreme Court of the United States made a moral declaration in their judicial capacity, rendering an opinion that stated that homosexual people across the land had the right to marry. Wikipedia's synopsis states,

In the United States, same-sex marriage has been legal nationwide since June 26, 2015, when the United States Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that state-level bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional. The court ruled that the denial of marriage licenses to same-sex couples and the refusal to recognize those marriages performed in other jurisdictions violates the Due Process and the Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The ruling overturned a precedent, Baker v. Nelson.

Most Christians recognized this as a spiritual watershed moment in our society. God sets up nations and establishes their boundaries. (Acts 17:26). Though only one nation has been specifically established to glorify Him as His special elect (Israel, Isaiah 45:4), the LORD does expect Godly behavior as the Gospel spreads. Moreover, He is always angry at sin. (Psalm 7:11).

The reverse of His setting up nations and working within them is that He also releases nations to their sin when they consistently fail to repent or when they consistently defy Him. This process is described in Romans 1:18-32. It applies to individuals but also applies en masse to nations when enough of the people consistently choose sin over God. That great nations and empires come and go is testament to His work within them. Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, the British Empire ... all consigned to the dustbin of history as once great but no more. This isn't an accident of history but a purposeful work of God.

When the SCOTUS decision came down in June 2015, many American Christians remarked that it seemed that God had turned the US over to its sin and allowed a hardening to take place. At that time, Dr John MacArthur had some wise and encouraging words. He preached that the decision to encourage sch a particularly depraved sin, having reached the highest levels, was a marker that God had indeed turned America over. This hardening and release will have consequences, MacArthur said.

Practical atheism, rejection of the truth, moral relativism has always prevailed in Satan’s kingdom. But here in America we’ve been protected from that in its full fierceness. No more. And by the way, religious liberty isn’t promised to Christians, is it? Freedom isn’t promised to Christians. Persecution is. Persecution is. I think we’re going to feel it. 

There will be a barrage of persecution. These are going to be very challenging days. We will not bow. We will be gracious and we will be loving, but we will render to God what is God’s. (Source: Sermon We Will Not Bow.)

He was right. A mere three months later, Christians were murdered on US soil for the first time solely due to their stated religion. As a nation founded by religious separatists on the concepts of freedom, religious liberty, and one nation UNDER GOD, it has always seemed absurd and farcical that the kind of religious persecution written about in the first century or the Middle Ages could ever happen in the US. Then ISIS formed and many people in the 10/40 Window were martyred, persecuted, hunted and killed for their religious beliefs.

But still, it seemed far-fetched that it would happen here any time soon, despite what the Bible promised about Christians having trouble in this world. (John 16:33).

But Dr MacArthur was right, or more correctly, the Bible was right about what happens to nations that reject Him. Trouble and persecution always follows. America is certainly no exception. For some people, that fact just took a while to sink in. Then Umpqua happened and Christians were killed.

Jordan Standridge wrote at The Cripplegate yesterday about the martyrdom. Here is a short excerpt, and I recommend the entire piece-

When the Devil Points a Gun at You

The world will hate Christians 

I have to begin with this as we heard that the gunman singled out Christians in the shooting. He hated organized religion and made it a point to shoot the Christians in a fatal way. Jesus was clear that Christians will be persecuted (2 Timothy 5:12). He also tells his disciples that the world will treat them just like He was treated (John 15:20-21). When the devil points a gun at you, he desperately wants to kill Christ but he can’t get to him. But we know Christ will ultimately crush his head.
The world can’t stop the Gospel
On the day of their executions, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley knew that their burning would only enflame the light of the Gospel even more. Though John Bunyan’s tongue was silenced, the Gospel spread through his writing at a higher rate than ever before. Time and time again the world has tried to silence Christians and yet you cut a head off and two grow back. You can’t stop the Gospel. Though the devil seems to win battles, he will not win the war. When the Devil points a gun at you he desperately wants to stop the Gospel, but he can’t and it always spreads further.

Here is Adam Ford with One Simple Question

So all this was not to simply recount the news. It was to get us to this point and then remark on a comment made by CNN and former US Representative Gabrielle Giffords. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, CNN reported this comment made by Gabby Giffords. Mrs Giffords was also a victim of a shooting when a politically motivated gunman shot her in the head. She knows the emotions of being a victim of violent crime, and she has experienced the aftermath. In addition to being shot with the physical effects, her wounding ended her political career. Giffords said of the Oregon shooting,

As far as I know, Mrs Giffords is not a Christian. Her Wikipedia page lists her religion as Reformed Judaism.

The human spirit is not indomitable, unless you say it is indomitably depraved. Indomitable means "impossible to subdue or defeat." The sin-nature that's in all of us IS impossible to subdue or defeat, without Christ. Our indomitable human nature is exactly why we need Christ! The same community comprised of individuals who mourned the victims' deaths and injuries at Umpqua and who will attempt to rebound from their heartbreak, is the same community comprised of individuals any of whom may turn around some day and do the exact same thing.

In my early Christian walk, as I began to grapple with the difficult concepts of
total depravity & sin, (Ecc 7:20), I worked through these concepts by
 making collages. If we could see our spirit as God sees it, it might
look like this, as I collaged my representation of the sin-nature.

I'd said that the list of US mass shootings is depressingly long. Mass shootings are not isolated incidents, happening only rarely. Serial murders are not rare. Infanticide is not rare. Abortion infanticide is not rare. They are regular, normal acts from regular, depraved people whose sin nature has not been subdued and resisted with the aid of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

You might think my attitude is excessively dark.  And indeed, things do look dark. Jesus promised that before His Second Coming the earth's people would be like they were in the days of Noah. (Luke 17:26). Immediately prior to the Flood, the Lord withdrew His Spirit, because He will not strive with Man forever. (Genesis 6:3). The world was released to wallow in its depravity, which had descended to this:

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5).

The reality is, man's 'indomitable' spirit is dark. It's evil. Left to our own devices, we only think evil all the time. It will be that way again prior to the second judgment, when His wrath is released onto an unbelieving world during the Tribulation after the rapture when the restraining Holy Spirit is removed along with the people He dwells in. Except, Jesus promised, it will be worse. (Matthew 24:21-22).

And here is where the Light breaks.

Our God is so majestic, loving, and kind, He did not leave us to eternally deal with our indomitably evil human spirit. He begot a Son, who is Jesus. He sent His Son to incarnate into human flesh. Emptying Himself, He lived a perfectly holy and sinless life on earth. He dwelled among men and in all man's depravity, yet in Him there was no darkness for one moment in all His days on earth. Falsely accused, Jesus allowed Himself to be beaten, scourged, spit on, maimed, stripped, and placed on a humiliating and painful cross, to die. Before His death, He took on God's wrath for His elect's sin.

We speak of the dark spirit of man, but think of this darkness. The moment when Jesus took on God's wrath and absorbed the sin of the world, He was separated from God for the first time in eternity. All the world was literally dark. (Matthew 27:45)

This was so that Jesus could become the perfect sacrifice needed to please God and exhaust God's wrath. God raised Jesus in the flesh the third day, and He ascended to the Father, where He reigns until He comes again.

Now what sinners must do is believe this Gospel. Believe your spirit is not pure and white and able to conquer anger, sin, and death. But believe that Jesus conquered sin and death and became the Door through which we may enter Holy heaven, pure and undefiled, because Jesus is pure and undefiled. The Light has come! Read this, slowly, even though it is so familiar to you-

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

19And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (John 3:16:21)

As Dr MacArthur preached, we will not bow. In addition, not only will we not to bow, but we will stand.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. (Ephesians 6:13)

Just as the martyred Christians did on October 1. Stand and declare ... for Jesus. Be ready to die answering that one simple question. Are you a Christian? The new martyrs' light has not been extinguished, but only burns brighter as this world's spirit of the age darkens. For the Light has come.

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. (Luke 9:24)

Paula White, Kenneth Copeland and Others Lay Hands On, Pray for Donald Trump

More Gap Theory Questions Biblical Qs and As

Reblogged from   https://gracethrufaith.com/ask-a-bible-teacher        

Sunday, October 4th, 2015

• Creation

Q. Question about the gap theory? Exodus 20:11 states that heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them was created in six days. Wouldn’t this include the angels and Satan? The Garden of Eden?

Wasn’t Satan in the garden of eden at some point in the creation drama? How could he have fallen and been judged and still be the anointed cherub and present in the garden of Eden before his fall.

God said that his creation was GOOD. It was good with a fallen and judged angel hanging around?? That doesn’t make sense to me.

I just recently found your site and have enjoyed your Revelation studies. I just can’t go along with the gap theory though. Why is it needed? It provides nothing and calls God’s word into question.

A. In Exodus 20:11 the Hebrew word for heaven is in the dual form, indicating that it refers to two heavens. They are the Earth’s immediate atmosphere and the vast reaches of space. The place of God’s throne, where the angelic host dwells, is called the third heaven in 2 Cor. 12:2 and is not included in Exodus 20. The creation account of Genesis 1 uses the same word, indicating that it wasn’t talking about the 3rd Heaven either.

The Garden of Eden was located on Earth and Satan was there. But the gap theory postulates that he was there after his judgment, after (according to Isaiah 14:12) he had been cast to Earth. Ezekiel placed this fact early in his narrative of chapter 28 to show that he’s not talking about the Earthly King of Tyre, but about Satan, the power behind him.
On the 2nd day of Creation, God did not pronounce His work good. This was the day on which He divided the first heaven, the Earth’s atmosphere, from the 2nd one, that we call space. In Ephesians 2:2 Paul called Satan the ruler of the Kingdom of the Air, leading many to believe that Satan and his forces immediately inhabited Earth’s atmosphere as it was being formed.

I like the parts of the Gap Theory that help to explain passages like Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 where Satan’s fall is described, Job 38:1-7 describing the angels singing as the Lord began the six days of creation, and Isaiah 45:18 where in effect God says he did not create the earth formless, as the English in Genesis 1:2 says, but ready for habitation. In fact it makes all of Genesis 1:2 clearer for me. So rather than adding nothing to or disputing God’s word it helps me to tie it all together.
But as I’ve said before the Gap Theory, as it’s used today, is much different than when it was first proposed. I do not agree with using it to explain fossils as evidence of a pre-Adamite race of humans and animals, including dinosaurs. Neither did its original proponents.

Gary Stearman´s commentary on Oregon college shooting

Hal Lindsey 10.2.2015

The Gospel RAPped up

God´s judgment and WWIII