22 Aug
Goodbye Gaza; Hello Jerusalem
As I'm writing this article, Israel is nearing the completion of its withdrawal
from the Gaza Strip. You may have seen news reports of soldiers forcefully
removing the last remaining settlers who refused to leave their Gaza
settlements.
The government is compensating settlers for the loss of their homes and
land. Compensation usually amounts to $200,000-$300,000 per family.
The main reason Israel has decided to withdraw from Gaza is security.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said the move is necessary to strengthen
Israel's hold on West Bank settlement blocks. The current land division
between the Arabs and Jews follows a crazy quilt pattern that makes it
difficult to patrol.
The "disengagement plan" involved the building walls to stop suicide terrorists from getting into Israel. Because it has been so successful, Sharon is seeking to
further isolate Israel from the Palestinians.
Not everyone thinks the withdrawals will lead to peaceful co-existence. Former Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who quit Sharon's coalition government because of the planned pull out, gave the following warning: "Missiles...will be fired within a year to two years on Israeli cities from the terror bases that we are allowing Islamic terrorists to set up in
Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. One sided concessions only push peace back and
encourages terror."
The whole idea that Israel needs to give up land to the Palestinians to
reduce overcrowded conditions is huge sham. The Arab world is 650 times the
size of Israel, and it makes no sense to have several million people crammed
into such a tiny area. There are plenty of jobs and ample living space in several
Gulf states.
Before Israel came along there were no Palestinian people. If you were to ask
Arabs living in the Gaza and West Bank area in 1930 to state their
nationality, "Jordanian" would be their most common response.
The "peace process" is simply a satanic ploy to try to drive the Jews from
the land God gave their forefathers. The devil knows fully well that
the only way for him to escape his destruction is to hinder God's prophetic
plan for Israel.
The most important piece of real estate in the struggle between good and
evil is the city of Jerusalem. The Bible predicts that Jerusalem will
someday become the center of end-times activity. Russia, the Antichrist, and
the Arabs will seek to gain control of the holy city.
"Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round
about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against
Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all
people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though
all the people of the earth be gathered together against it" (Zechariah
12:2-3).
The withdrawal from Gaza moves the focus closer to the thorny issue of
Jerusalem. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has already confirmed that the
Israeli withdrawal marked a huge step in his people's quest for an
independent state, with a capital in Jerusalem. "Today Gaza and tomorrow
Jerusalem if God wills it," Abbas told a crowd.
Because Israel is running out of land to use as payment for peace, troubling
days are very likely in the near future. Once Israel refuses to surrender
Jerusalem, force will be her enemies' only option.
-- Todd
Abortion: The REAL Supreme Court Opinion
Roe v Wade in 1973 hastened America’s plummet toward Gomorrah, following on the heels of the decision in 1963 that, ostensibly, was meant to kick God out of public school classrooms.
The U.S. Supreme Court has, for the most part, been instrumental in adhering to an “organic” view of the nation’s Constitution. It is a living, breathing, document, the Court has implied in its decisions of recent decades. There are no moral absolutes–especially none based upon the principles established by some deity—particularly not the Judeo-Christian God. The founding fathers of America, despite “In God We Trust” stamped upon the country’s founding documents and marbled buildings, interpret the Constitution 180 degrees from the originalist or strict constructionist view held by the Supreme Court of early America.
The court systems within the U.S. were, in those early days, set upon a solid base. That foundation was constituted of documents and case law constructed by judges and justices who looked to a higher power than themselves. That higher authority was the God of the Bible. That’s why, for example, “In God we Trust” is chiseled in stone throughout America’s courtrooms and inscribed upon our currency. That’s why every person testifying is asked to place his right hand on the Bible. That’s why the President swears an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and say in the final words of the oath, “So help me God” –all the while, holding his left hand on the Holy Word of God.
America’s founders and the champions of the Constitution who followed knew the truth in the words from the Bible, such as:
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (Jam. 1:17).
And:
“For I [am] the LORD, I change not…” (Mal. 3:6a).
The original fathers who interpreted the Constitution planted their confidence in fairness under law firmly in the one unshakable foundation upon which they knew they must depend: the Creator-God of all things.
As we look at one issue in particular, it is easy to see how far Supreme Court decisions have varied from original intent. The issue is abortion.
Mankind’s fallen desire to throw off all bonds of any controlling authority that is not humanistic in its precepts has run rampant since the 1963 decision to eject prayers from public schools and the 1973 Roe v Wade decision to allow the killing of babies in their mother’s wombs on a massive scale. Humanistic decisions are acceptable by those who hold to a liquid or organic Constitution, because humanism –unlike God Almighty-- allows for pouring actions of convenience into the molds of a judicial system that requires no divine accountability.
Almost 50 million babies have been killed in this way since that Supreme Court decision 32 years ago. It is genocide upon the fetuses who have suffered at the hands of the pagan gods of convenience. The horrendous slaughter is, in some ways, worse than the most infamous of genocides, like Hitler’s Holocaust and the purges of Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and Saddam Hussein.
Yet, for the most part, Americans glide through daily life giving little if any thought to this unspoken murderous activity. Those who say it is “murder,” like I have just written, are stamped in the politically correct circles as fomenting hate and spewing hate speech. Ignored is the fact that innocents –right here in this nation once based upon godly principles-- are being slaughtered by the millions while in their mother’s wombs. Disregarded are the heinous acts of barbarism that are as wicked as the Old Testament’s description of children being passed through the fires of the pagan god Molech. Under the Supreme Court of humanism, the evil is seen in the ones who call these acts what they are: murder!
I get questions quite often asking my opinion on children and the Rapture. Will they go or stay when Jesus steps out on the clouds of glory and shouts with the voice like an archangel and a divine trumpet? Such questions always punch my button of dogmatism. I am dogmatic on this matter. My being so adamant stems from my unshakable belief in my unshakable, changeless God.
His very character is in question in the matter of the little ones going or staying when the Rapture occurs. The Rapture is a question of salvation. It is a matter of one on one with God, himself.
An innocent child, whether still in his or her mother’s womb, or whether not yet having achieved the age of accountability, is viewed by God as not under sin. How can we know this?
Among other Scriptures is the following:
“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth [it] not, to him it is sin” (Jam. 4:17).
How does one do “good”? Through Christ, and Christ only! Only those who have the intellectual ability (i.e., know) to choose Christ can choose to do good or not do good. If one rejects, he remains in sin.
The Rapture is for those who have chosen Christ during this dispensation (the Church Age, or Age of Grace). The saints who have died in Christ and those who are alive at the time of that stupendous event will go to be with Jesus at His shout, “Come up hither” (Rev. 4:2).
The promise of this resurrection and translation is found in 1 Corinthians 15: 51-52:
“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
Children below the age of accountability cannot choose for themselves to do good. God will choose for them! The aborted babies of all the ages past will instantly be resurrected into the bodies they were meant to grow into, and will join body and spirit in one electrifying instant.
Every woman left behind who is with child will find her womb instantly vacant, in that same twinkling of an eye.
That is the prophetic moment yet future when the REAL Supreme Court opinion on who is and is not a human being will be excruciatingly demonstrated for a wrath-deserving world of earth-dwellers to see!
--Terry
