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ANOTHER STEP TO FALSE PEACE IN 2007

December 1, 2005

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The move of politician Shimon Peres to Ariel Sharon’s new Kadima (Forward) Party is a good sign of drawing in more Labor voters than losing Likud voters. This new party may well be the party in power when the notorious “false peace,” which biblical expositors say must precede antichrist’s attack against Israel, finally arrives on the scene.

The following extracts from an article in the Jerusalem Post by Gil Hoffman and the JPost.com Staff give insight into the latest shifting of Knesset leaders between parties.

BEGIN EXTRACTS FROM JERUSALEM POST

Peres: Sharon Only leader Who Can Lead Israel to Peace

By Gil Hoffman and the JPost.com Staff, THE JERUSALEM POST

November 30, 2005

After 61 year

s in the Labor party and a record 46 years in the Knesset, Shimon Peres announced on Wednesday evening that he was quitting party politics.

“My political party activities have come to an end, but my contribution to peace and to the development of the Negev and the Galilee is still vital. I intend to dedicate the next several years to the effort of bringing peace to our region,” Peres announced during a press conference he convened in his Tel Aviv office.

In his st atement, Peres s

aid that the current political setup could not lead to Mideast peace, and a new team was needed.

“I believe the most qualified person to head this coalition, based on the test of experience, is Arik Sharon,” he said, referring to Sharon by his nickname.

According to Peres, “It is a very tough day for me. I ask myself, what is the most important thing for the state in the next few years? The answer, no doubt, is peace and progress in the diplomatic front.”

“During recent talks with Sharon,” Peres added, “I reached the conclusion that Sharon was adamant about implementing his agenda and will start doing so immediately after the elections.

Sharon is serious about achieving peace.”

The veteran politician noted the words of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, who, after quitting Mapai and establishing the Rafi Party, said he preferred the state to the party.

“When I spoke with Sharon, we discussed the creation of a regional triangle of

Israel, the PA and Jordan that would enjoy a special status in the European Union.

We also spoke about the importance of opening a dialogue with the US to ensure the safety of the region from the Iranian nuclear threat and from rampant terrorism,” he said.

Sources close to Peres said he had decided to join Sharon “because the party framework is irrelevant, the pursuit of peace is essential and only Sharon can dismantle settlements in a peace agreement.”

Meanwhile, Sharon and Peretz continued drafting new faces to Kadima

and Labor on Wednesday, following a full day of political comings and goings.

Peretz is negotiating with former IDF deputy chief of general staff Uzi Dayan, former MK Dalia Rabin, and a social-affairs lawyer named Yuval Elbashan.

Sharon has several political meetings on Wednesday, with the most fateful expected to be with Peres.

END EXTRACTS FROM JERUSALEM POST

The Greatest Danger Christianity Has Ever Faced Is Islam!

November 30, 2005

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For more than 30 years I have frantically cried out to believers that the danger this final generation faces is not an antichrist that comes out of Europe, but an antichrist that comes out of Islam in the Middle East. I am more and more convinced the vast majority of believers will not believe it until he actually arises and attacks Israel. However, I plan on continuing the same old song to all believers, in the hope that when he eventually does arise in Islam, they will finally realize he is not coming out of the European Union, but out of the Middle East.

I believe the attack against Israel is likely to occur at some point in time between 2007 and 2012. However, I must admit candidly, when it will occur is speculation on my part. But that it will eventually happen, of that I am certain.

The article which follows, by Ksenia Svetlova, in the Jerusalem Post, consists of extracts from her article that show the rise and goals of Islam reflected by numerical growth, as well as by its spread geographically into multiple cultures and religions worldwide.

BEGIN JERUSALEM POST EXTRACTS

TRUE BELIEVERS

By Ksenia Svetlova, THE JERUSALEM POST

November 24, 2005

It’s Friday afternoon, a week after the July 7 bombings in London, and

the central mosque of London at Russell Square is crammed.

Worshipers flood the mosque and, even though it seems as if there is no more room inside or outside, the mosque’s attendants unfold more and more praying carpets.

The crowd is multiracial, filled with Muslims of Arab, Pakistani, Afghani and Malaysian.

Many people in the mosque say that they have noticed an increase in the number of converts coming to the mosque to study, pray and receive guidance within the last three to four years.

The fastest-growing religion

Today, Islam is the second-largest

religion on earth.

According to various sources, just over a fifth of the world’s population is Muslim.

Only Christianity is larger, comprising 33 percent of the population. But Islam is by far the fastest-growing religion on the planet, with a growth rate estimated at 2.8%-2.9% per year.

One explanation for this increase is that the birth rate in Muslim countries is much higher than in the majority of Christian countries (a reasoning popular among Christian missionaries), while others say that most of Muslim growth in Europe and the US comes from immigration, rather than conversion.

However, numerous studies indicate that the rapid growth of Islam in the United States, Canada, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa is, in fact, due to conversion. There are also surveys that point out the following phenomenon: a wave of conversion to Islam in the US and Europe following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Pan-Arab newspapers such as Al-Hayat and A-Sharq al-Awsat, as well as The New York Times, The Guardian and The Los Angeles Times, have reported an increasing interest in Islam in the US, which in many cases results in a conversion.

Mixing religion and politics

While some converts didn’t change their political views after converting to Islam, others became sudden admirers of al-Qaida and Hamas.

Sharovsky, who used to be a Kahane Chai sympathizer, has turned 180 degrees.

Nowadays, although he declares that he doesn’t identify with any political party, he says the Palestinian uprising against Israel is absolutely justified. He believes that there will ultimately be an Islamic caliphate – the only legitimate form of government on earth, he says, which will also resolve all the problems of what he believes is a fully bankrupt nation-state.

“It’s wrong to kill innocent women and children,” says Sharovsky, who believes that no political party, especially secular, is permitted to take the law into their own hands.

Khattab, on the other hand, is not ready to denounce the suicide attacks against Israeli civilians, although he calls the Beslan tragedy a “slaughter.” In his tiny shop in east Jerusalem, you can find a photo of bin Laden, symbols of Hamas and other Palestinian organizations.

“I’m not a Hamas activist, although I support them in good things that they do,” he says.

Like Sharovsky, Khattab believes the only real solution is the creation of an Islamic caliphate which will rule the world.

“Islam is not about the East and the West.

You can be Muslim anywhere, and the Koran teaches that our future is the true Islamic state, not like the fake and corrupt states there are today,” he says.

Both Sharovsky and Khattab believe that Islam has not yet peaked, and that more and more people will soon realize that this is the only true solution for humanity.

The proselyte religion

Researchers also believe that Islam has not yet reached its peak in terms of expansion and conversion.

“The expansion of Islam didn’t stop in the 7th century, and Islam certainly continued to spread in different regions over the course of time. Sometimes it takes hundreds of years for a certain region to convert fully, while others convert faster then others,” explained Professor Reuven Amitai of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, director of the Nehemia Levtzion Center of Islamic Studies.

“There are a few models of conversion in history; among them is the conversion which comes after the expansion of the state – it happened in the 7th century after the first conquests of Islam.

The second model is a conversion which is initiated by the individuals – scholars, merchants, travelers and migrants who come from the world of Islam. Today we are witnessing the second model.

“Islam is a missionary religion; there is a general call for people to embrace Islam. It is also quite easy to become a Muslim – you just need to repeat a shahada before a witness and that’s it,” Amitai continues.

“Of course, there is no one simple answer to the question of why people convert to Islam, and the reasons vary from individual to individual, but perhaps one of the reasons is the alienation of Western society – the frustration and disillusion by modern theories, such as communism, socialism etc., whereas Islam gives simple and clear answers.”

END JERUSALEM POST EXTRACTS

LOIMOS – ANY DEADLY INFECTIOUS DISORDER

November 29, 2005

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The Greek word “loimos,” which is found in the N.T. Olivet Discourse of Jesus, is supposed to become most evident shortly before the rapture.

According to Bullinger’s Critical Lexicon of the New Testament it is: “Any deadly infectious disorder.” Would the H5N1 strain of the Asian bird flu fit this definition – Absolutely! Is it going to become a “deadly infectious disorder for humans

? I have no way of knowing, nor does anyone else, but the world is anxiously waiting to see if H5N1 is able somewhere to jump from one human to

another. If this ever happens, the population of this planet is in big trouble. So let’s take a brief look at the history of H5N1 up to this point.

It was first detected in birds

in 2003.

It has spread from Asia to Europe, being detected in Russia, Croatia, Turkey, and Romania, and is certain to be carried into the rest of the Middle East and North Africa by migrating flocks of birds.

As long as we could say, “It’s just for the birds,” we had no problem.

But earlier this year scattered cases of the H5N1 bird flu were discovered in South Asia, and concern grew that the virus, having passed from birds to individual humans, might make the jump

from being passed from human to human,

which would create a vicious Pandemic. Tens of millions of birds have been destroyed around the world since the virus popped up its ugly head in 2003.

So far, so good, it hasn’t jumped from human to human. However, new outbreaks of bird flu suddenly regenerated in Vietnam, Thailand, and China early in November and, on November 16, 2005, China reported its first three confirmed cases of a human bird flu. However, it has not yet passed from human to human, and the world lives in

the hope it will not. In November 17th China confirmed its first human death from the H5N1 virus, and another was reported on November 23rd. This is a very deadly infectious disorder.

Since H5N1 is carried by migratory birds from place to place, I have no doubt it will begin to show up in the bird populations that migrate from Canada to South America on a yearly basis.

I believe it is quite likely that in 2007 we will find it in scattered bird populations across the face of the earth.

I am not trying to alarm anyone, but I will say this, if H5N1 ever passes from one human to another, it will generate chaos like this generation has never experienced, and could certainly be a part of the fulfillment of Luke 21:11. Both HIV and H5N1 certainly fit the definition of loimos.

Luke 21:11 – And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences (loimos); and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

God’s Book Can Do the Work in a Man’s Heart Seeking God!

November 29, 2005

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I found the article which follows as a link out of a Jerusalem Post article concerning the rapid worldwide growth of the Islamic faith. I attended USAFIHL technical schools with two Islamic officers, Captains Nazier and Omar, in the late fifties, and it brought them to mind. Over the years I have attempted to witness to those I knew or taught among my Islamic associates in

the USAF, AWS and NSA, but with little success. This article was an encouragement to me. I had even gotten to the point of thinking I was just wasting my time. However, after reading the following article about a Muslim converted to Christianity by the direct testimony of the Scriptures from the Spirit who wrote it, I am greatly encouraged. Please read his testimony.

BEGIN ARTICLE FROM EveryStudent.Com

God’s Love Toward a Radical Muslim

By Mohammad Saleem

I am no more than an ordinary man who has been spending life as if knowing nothing. I was born in a wealthy Muslim family in Pakistan, but when I was a few months old, I was carried to Saudi Arabia by my father. When I was about six, my mom passed away. As I grew older I had so many questions like almost everyone experiences at some point in life. Why am I here? Where did I come from? Is there really a God and if so where is He? Why doesn’t He tal

k?

I have been studying the Quran since I was around 12. Later I also started reading other kinds of Islamic books like the Life of Prophet Mohammad, Hadiths, etc.

I have been Wahabi or Ahlae Hadiths like most of the Saudi Muslims are.

(Osama Bin Laden is also one of them.) They are very extreme and I have been one also.

I had been taught that Islam is the only way to Heaven. I was told, “If you do this, you’ll get so and so blessings in Heaven,” and “if you do that, you’ll get so and so blessings in Heaven.” I became an extremist for the religion Islam.

Well, I believed what I was doing was right, and if it is right, then there is no risk in digging. I had read about the prophets in the Quran and Hadiths, but Jesus Christ was the only personality that really touched me more than any others. I found out that Christians believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I very much wondered why they believe that.

I started searching for Jesus Christ more and more. I had a Christian friend who used to study with me. I asked him one day if I could have his Bible.

He was surprised and said “Sorry, you cannot have it.” I assured him no one would ever know, “It will remain between me and you.” But my father came to know that I read the Bible and that it was in our home. He was very angry and he knew I have only one Christian friend. So he took me with my uncle to this friend’s home and warned them saying, “If you do this again and try to preach Christianity to a Muslim child, you’ll have to suffer a lot and you know it. We will complain about it to Islamic Police (Mutawa) and you could be exiled from this country forever.” I was a bit worried. I shouldn’t have done this to my friend’s family.

My father warned me, and so did my uncle, to pray five times a day as I used to pray, and one time in the mosque. I kept going, and many times when there was no one in the mosque I used to cry and ask God to show me, “who is this Jesus and who are you?” Often while the Imam (leader) of the prayer was praying in Arabic (as it’s compulsory to pray in Arabic only), I did not give much attention to what he was saying. One day I was praying in the Mosque, during Zuhar’s prayer (noon prayer). I wasn’t thinking of Jesus Christ that time. I saw an image of a handsome person on the floor where we bow our heads in prayer. I was shocked. I never saw such a thing before. It was kind of an image on water. I heard in myself that this is Jesus Christ. This is the Lord!

I was worried what and how could that be, as I have learned in the Quran that God is only one, yet Christians take Jesus as the Son of God and also call Him God.

This is the greatest sin which God can never forgive. I could not leave without completing my prayer just for this reason. So I completed it and began thinking about it later. My hunger to know about Jesus Christ grew more and more.

I did not have a Bible with me anymore. One day I was passing with a friend through shops and I came to an internet shop. I was on the Net on yahoo.com and there came a thought in my mind: type “Who Is Jesus?” I did, and got lots of web sites. I was amazed that I could search about Jesus Christ there.

A web site provided very nice information about who Jesus is, and prophecies about Him in the Old Testament, and how amazingly they are fulfilled in the New Testament.

I was very much amazed. I never knew how and why to accept Jesus Christ. I was very happy to visit this site.

I kept coming to this web site often. Some of the other Christian web sites were blocked as you may know very well. One day I thought of giving Jesus a try and so I said the salvation prayer on their web site. After that I also started thinking, “Did I do the greatest sin? I will never ever get to heaven,” and so on.

I also had been seeing that same image of Jesus Christ often when I used to go in the Mosque to pray. One day I was walking toward a market using a short cut. It’s a bit lonely area. Not many people cross through there. I was walking and had been thinking and asking God if what I was doing was right and should I be Christian or Muslim? I heard a voice behind me saying “My son, you are on the right path.” I was again amazed. I had never had experienced these kinds of things.

But in all I had been going through, I became happier when I came to know the Holy Bible, which says many things. For example it says,

“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’”

And it says,

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope

and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all you heart.”

God has been faithful to me!

I had learned in the Quran that our first parents, Adam and Eve, were living in Paradise until they committed sin. (This is the same in the Bible.) But in the Quran I was told

they were forgiven of their sins. I asked my Muslim friends, “If they were forgiven of their sin, then why did God being so merciful and gracious make them leave the garden? Does it mean He did not forgive them?”

If, according to the Quran, the Torah (Pentateuch), Zabur (Psalms) and Injeel (Gospels) are the Word of God, then how can they change? If they have changed, as many Islamic scholars say, then who changed them and why? They claim that the Bible has changed and they feel so happy in that, but to know the truth we need to be humble and seek to find out if everything we believe is really true. Where would I be if I did not search my Bible and ask God’s guidance for my life? The God of the Bible replies like no other! That is reality!

In the Quran it says that some revelations are abolished or forgotten.3

What does that mean? In fact it’s exactly the opposite in the Bible.

In the Torah, Numbers 23:19,

“God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.”

And in Zabur (Psalms) 31:5,

“Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth.”

And in Injeel (the Gospel of John) 17:17,

“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”

Never did I find a single verse in the Bible saying that God lies or that He changes His verses and leads people astray.

Many measures and efforts have been taken to destroy the Bible from this earth but they have never been successful. That proves that God who revealed knows very well how to keep it protected. I challenge all who say that the Bible has changed to prove it to me with evidence. Hundreds of scientist have studied it and have confirmed its clarity and what has been written.

The prophecies made in the Bible are being fulfilled in our very day. These are some of the most amazing things and confirm God is the author of this book. The very creator of this world knows what is going to happen tomorrow and the coming days. He does not predict it like a psychic but knows it!

It’s also amazing to understand the differences between Jesus and Mohammad. In the Bible it says:

“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”

Why is Jesus Christ called the Word of God, but nothing is mentioned about Mohammad as such?

Also, why was Jesus Christ faultless and without sin, whereas Mohammad was touched by Satan and lead a sinful life? Many times in the Quran, Mohammad is rem

inded of repenting his sins.

Every Muslim who reads the Quran with understanding knows it very well.

The Bible also says Jesus Christ did miracles and did many other things which no one except God can do. Why did God allow Him to do these things which only He did…things like giving life to death, and healing the sick? Why?

Why did Mohammad never do that? Despite many people of his time asking for miracles he refused. But one miracle is recorded in the Quran that he parted the moon in two. What benefit did it bring to humanity?

Before Jesus Christ was born, angels were sent to announce the noble birth of a faultless son through a virgin. But Mohammad being the greatest of Prophets in Islam does not have that much privilege? Why is nothing similar said for Mohammad?

If God really was able to make a virgin give birth, then why would it be difficult for Him to call Him His Son?

The Quran tells that there will be a revelation for mankind and mercy5 — revelation and mercy to all mankind even after Mohammad. Why? Why is it ordained? What kind of mercy to the world

? The Quran does not answer that. Muslims will have to read the Injeel (Gospel) to find out about God’s mercy for mankind.

In the Injeel (Gospel), Mark 10:46-47, one blind man cries out to the Lord Jesus Christ saying:

“A blind man, Bartimaeus, was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Also in the New Testament:

“Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.”

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

The Lord Jesus Christ is not the mercy that was meant for people of His time or of His area only. God made Him Mercy for ALL MANKIND EVEN AFTER MOHAMMAD.

We know from the Bible that we are sinners and away from the Lord. Jesus Christ is the only provision for us to reconcile us with the Lord, because He was sinless and became sin for our sake.

Our sins were transferred to Him.

Jesus Christ bore our sins and became sin for us. In Injeel (Gospel), it says:

“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his prople from their sins.”

To many other people, He said “your sins are forgiven” indicating He wants them to be saved from sins! He bore their sins!

Also from the New Testament:

“God made Him (Jesus) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Many people have found God’s mercy in the Lord Christ and have been changed.

One of them is me. Many look for the miracles, authority, Truth and only truth in the wrong places, and I also have been doing so, until I met Him, the

only One who not only knows the way to God but Himself is The Way. In Jesus’ very words:

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him, and have seen him”

Mohammad and Muslims have been praying every day many times in their much-devoted prayers for guidance, and amazingly the last and greatest of Islam’s Prophet kept praying for it till his death.11

Was Mohammad on the straight path? Is Islam the straight path? I encourage all Muslims to ask him or herself is it really true what they are doing to get to heaven?

I do not believe heaven is a place with a price tag on it, which can be bought by our deeds, but only through God’s Mercy and grace. I pray God will give hunger in each of us more each day and we will turn to Him for our Spiritual food and our salvation! It is made so simple like never before. Come to Him with a humble heart. Seek His Face and find yourself in His arms!

We become a new creation in Christ. It was written long ago, but today it is still true! How our minds and our thoughts change because the One who created us knows how to fill that missing gap and to reinstall our spiritual life in the Lord Jesus Christ who is the only Way to Him! So Brothers and sisters, open your hearts and minds to accept His amazing Love. Allow the Lord Jesus Christ into your life and see what happens next. The greatest adventure in the Universe begins. Whenever I have been in trouble He has been there and comforted me like no one ever could. He has shown me that He’s alive forever and He loves us very much. I praise and thank God for sending His Son the Lord Jesus Christ to die for me and for all of us, and making the marvelous and glorious bridge to reach Him! To understand how to begin a relationship with Him, please see:

http://www.everystudent.com/features/gettingconnected.html

END ARTICLE FROM EveryStudent.Com

The New Owner-Friendly Kadima (Forward) Party!

November 28, 2005

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The f ar, f

ar, far right of the Likud Party has disappeared from the new Kadima Party formed by Ariel Sharon, and a more compatible party platform has emerged, which is likely to appeal to more Jewish voters.

Make no mistake, the Kadima Party is a conservative, right wing party, but the sharp edges of extreme conservative positions have been shaved

off. I should stay out of predicting

Israeli elections, which are usually complicated affairs, but I do expect the Kadima Party is likely to get the most seats in the coming election.

However, whoever gets the most se ats must still form

a government with other parties to get a majority of 60 seats in the Knessett.

It will be an interesting sideshow to watch from now to the elections in March of 2006. The following article from the Jerusalem Post by Gil Hoffman gives the basic outline proposels of the Kadima Party.

BEGIN JERUSALEM POST ARTICLE

Kadima Platform Proposal Allows for Palestinian State

By Gil Hoffman, THE JERUSALEM POST

November 28, 2005

Justice Minister and Sharon ally Tzipi Livni outlined the proposed platform of the new Kadima Party Monday afternoon, emphasizing the nature of Israel as a democratic Jewish state and the need to continue along the road map peace plan.

Outlining the party’s diplomatic stance, Livni focused mainly on the roadmap plan.

She alluded to the need for a Palestinian state, although she did not state her intentions specifically.

The document from which Livni read contained statements referring to the creation of a disarmed, terror-free Palestinian state as well as the preservation

of settlement blocs, Army Radio reported.

Livni discussed the stalled road map, as Israel waits for the Palestinians to fulfill their commitment

to combat terror and violence.

She also emphasized the need for maintaining a Jewish democratic state with Jerusalem serving as the undivided capital.

END JERUSALEM POST ARTICLE