Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

More Than 8,000 Rwandan Churches Now Closed Following Government Directive
Aug 4th, 2018
CommentaryChristian News
Categories: Persecution

Public domain

(World Watch Monitor) — The Rwanda Governance Board continues to close churches it says fail to meet requirements laid down at the beginning of the year. New requirements set in place for those congregations that want to continue ministry are also complicating efforts to comply. Many see the closures as part of an effort by the government to make its aggressive secular stance clear.

According to a report by Rwanda’s pro-government KT Press, more than 8,000 churches have now been closed, and the number keeps growing.

“On checking which churches were included, we learned that all churches are suffering the same fate, and that even churches considered luxurious for local standards have had to close,” a local analyst, who wished to remain anonymous, told World Watch Monitor.

World Watch Monitor learned that in one village the church was closed while a wedding was ongoing. The couple and all the guests were simply told to leave the church during the service, and the church was closed.

Let the Headlines Speak
Aug 4th, 2018
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines

Hamas confirms: Egypt trying to broker broad Israel-Hamas truce
Following weeks of escalation along the southern border, high-level Hamas delegation arrives in Gaza for talks on possible wide-scale cease agreement with Israel; Israeli Cabinet to discuss possible deal on Sunday; PM Netanyahu cancels trip to Colombia over Gaza situation.

U.S. Sanctions Turkish Officials, White House Says
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced on Wednesday that the Treasury Department placed financial sanctions on two high-ranking Turkish government officials, and the Trump administration demanded that Turkey release American Pastor Andrew Brunson from custody. “We’ve seen no evidence that Pastor Brunson has done anything wrong, and we believe he is a victim of unfair and unjust detention by the government of Turkey,” Sanders said.

U.S. Issues New Warning to Europe: End Business With Iran or Face Harsh Sanctions
Congress and the Trump administration are issuing a stern warning to European partners: End all business ties with the Iranian regime or face harsh new sanctions in the coming months, a move that could impact international financial markets and U.S. banks tied to foreign monetary institutions, according to multiple senior U.S. officials who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon about diplomatic efforts to pressure Europe on Iran.

Google: King of Trump Derangement Syndrome
Google is not a “fine company.” In fact, its search algorithms stack the deck with news reports that border on anti-Trump hysteria. If you doubt what I say, just try this little experiment yourself: First go to Google News on any day, any hour, any minute. Then search the news for Trump. See what you find. In preparation for this column, I did it Wednesday morning. What comes up is a collection of madcap fake news, beginning with the usual Huffington Post insanity, apparently considered by Google an actual fair, balanced and accurate “news” company, which it is not. It should not even be considered news.

China moves to take part in Syrian civil war
The U.S. military has participated in the civil war between government forces and Muslim rebels in Syria, as has Russia. Now it looks like China is stepping in. In a report in the Al-Watan daily newspaper in Saudi Arabia, Chinese Ambassador to Syria Qi Qianjin said there is that possibility. China, he said, “is following the situation in Syria, in particular after the victory in southern (Syria), and its military is willing to participate in some way alongside the Syrian army that is fighting the terrorists in Idlib and in any other part of Syria.”

Iranians cry out ‘death to the dictator’ in economic protest
Ahead of renewed American sanctions and amid high inflation, hundreds of Iranians angrily take to the streets in multiple cities to demand solution to economic woes; police break up demonstrators.

Invasion of big, voracious lizards threatens U.S. South: study
A group of South American lizards that can grow up to four feet long (1.2 meters) has established a home in the Florida wild after being brought to the United States as pets, and the reptiles could begin a voracious march across the U.S. South, according to a new study.

Israel ‘thwarts IS attack’ on Golan Heights
Israel says it has killed seven suspected Islamic State (IS) militants who it says had crossed inside Israeli lines on the Golan Heights. The Israeli military said it launched an air strike near a ceasefire line separating Israeli and Syrian sides of a demilitarised zone. It is a rare attack by Israel on militants in the area, recently retaken by Syrian forces from IS and rebels.

Brexit: Theresa May and Emmanuel Macron set to hold talks
Theresa May is to meet Emmanuel Macron on Friday as she steps up her efforts to win backing for Brexit plans. The UK prime minister is cutting short her holiday for talks at the French president’s summer retreat. It comes after UK Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab held talks with his counterparts in Paris on Thursday.

Yemen war: Deadly ‘air strike’ near hospital in rebel-held port
At least 20 people in the rebel-held Yemeni port city of Hudaydah have been killed in air strikes blamed on the Saudi-led coalition. The strikes hit a fish market and the entrance to a nearby hospital, eyewitnesses and medics said. However a Saudi spokesman said the coalition had not flown over Hudaydah, blaming the attack on rebels instead.

Sun Wenguang: Chinese activist’s live interview shut down by police
“I have my freedom of speech,” are the last words a retired university professor is heard saying before the line goes dead. On Wednesday, Sun Wenguang, 84, was in the middle of an interview with US-funded broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) when police broke into his home in Jinan, China and forced him off air. Prof Sun has in the past been openly critical of the Chinese government.

280 Percent Increase In Young Democratic Socialists Of America Chapters On College Campuses
Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) says it currently has 57 registered chapters on college campuses, according to Democratic Socialists of America Program Associate Lawrence Dreyfuss, up from just 15 in 2016. YDSA has experienced 280 percent increase in the number of clubs from 2016 to 2018.

Trump staffs up Mideast team for peace plan rollout
U.S. officials say the Trump administration is staffing up a Middle East policy team at the White House in anticipation of unveiling its long awaited but largely mysterious Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. The National Security Council last week began approaching other agencies seeking volunteers to join the team, which will work for President Donald Trump’s Mideast peace pointmen Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, according to the officials.

Chase ATMs go cardless
Forgot your bank card? No worries. Chase has you covered. The New York City-based bank announced that it has expanded its cardless access to nearly all of its 16,000 ATMs nationwide. The new technology will allow customers to get cash through their phone’s mobile wallet without needing a physical debit card or an access code for authentication.

‘Death to the dictator!’ Violence on streets of Iran as police use tear gas on furious protesters…
Iran entered its third day of protests as furious citizens took to the streets to rail against the regime they blame for devastating the country’s economy. Protests have broken out in a number of cities this week over the dramatic drop of the country’s currency and other economic problems ahead of the imposition of renewed US sanctions.

Russia: UN peacekeepers back on Golan Heights-Syria frontier
UN peacekeepers returned Thursday for the first time in years to the frontier between Syria and Israel, conducting joint patrols with Russian military police in a reflection of Moscow’s deepening role in mediating between the decades-old foes in the volatile region. Israel has increasingly sought Russia’s involvement in securing its frontier with Syria and in scaling back Iran’s influence in the area.

Hamas confirms: Egypt trying to broker broad Israel-Hamas truce
Egypt is trying to broker a broad cease-fire deal between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers that is to pave the way for Gaza’s reconstruction and an eventual prisoner swap, senior Hamas officials said Thursday. Repeated cease-fire deals over the years collapsed, but there were signs of possible momentum toward a new agreement, after weeks of escalation along the Gaza-Israel frontier.

Get Ready And Pray To God — The Time Is Now — The Imposters Are Preparing The Final Act In Their Coup D’état
To all readers and all American patriots we are informing you to prepare yourselves. This country is at a precipice. America is either going to be overrun by a power hungry Deep State or it will survive one of the biggest attacks to its existence since the Civil War.

“Mullahs Get Lost!” Anti-Regime Protests Spread to TEHRAN — Iranian People Rise Up Against Brutal Regime
Mass protests continued Thursday in several cities across Iran.
The people are angered by the failed economic policies and brutality of the Khamenei regime.

Netanyahu warns that Israel will stop any Iranian attempt to close Red Sea
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran on Wednesday that Israel, together with an “international coalition,” would not allow the Islamic Republic to close a key regional waterway.

Australia’s drought is like a cancer eating away at farms and families
 From ground level, Australia’s drought looks like a featureless, brown dustbowl, but from the air it transforms into an artistry of color and texture as the land cracks under a blazing sun.

Germs gaining resistance to hand gels in hospitals
Potentially dangerous bacteria already resistant to antibiotics are now developing resistance to common alcohol-based hand gels, a new study reports.

Salon Writer: Abortions Can Be Good For Families
In a piece published in Salon on Wednesday, Williams commenced with the argument that a woman who is a mother can be just dandy if she gets an abortion:

Trump Says ‘The Time Has Come for Photo ID’ for Voting – Do You Agree?
President Trump, speaking at a rally in Tampa, Fla., resurrected the issue of photo ID at the polls, suggesting that all voters should be required to show ID when they vote for president, senator, governor, or congressman.

A Dozen Christian Villages Wiped Out in Four-Day Muslim Killing Spree in Nigeria
The attacks have some local sources saying that the ongoing violence is part of a “grand plan to Islamize Nigeria.”

Black pastor: Trump more pro-black than Obama
President Trump wants to do something of significance for the nation’s urban black communities and will end up being more “pro-black” than his predecessor, Barack Obama, says a black pastor.

Freemasons Allow Transgender Women To Stay If Joined As Men
The English Freemasons have announced that they will now accept both transgender men and women.

Nearly One in Four Germans Now Come from a Migration Background
The coming of the Fourth Reich. For real. The largest ethnic group of the 19.3 million people are those from a Turkish background.

Death Valley Broke World Record For The Hottest July
Death Valley National Park is poised to set a new world record for its hottest July ever with an average temperature of 108.1 degrees.

Assad Has Regained Control Of Syria From The Deep State, Officials Say
The Israeli minister of military affairs has been forced to admit that President Bashar al-Assad has regained full control of Syria and that stability is returning to the occupied Golan Heights.

New fire erupts in Northern California; homes threatened
Stunning satellite photos show the smoke from California’s wildfires stretching as far east as Utah – an indication of just how devastating the blazes have been.

Pro-Migrant Charity Ceases Operations as Camps Declared Violent No-Go Areas
A pro-migrant charity who volunteers to provide aid to new migrants in Paris has been forced to cease its operations due to the growing violence in the area.

Abortion Battle Rages In Brazil. Professor In Hiding After Receiving Death Threats
A leading personality in the fight to legalize abortion in Brazil hid herself after receiving death threats ahead of a hearing on a proposal to legalize abortion.

Kenneth Copeland Carries on Tony Palmer?s Crusade to End the Protestant Church
Aug 4th, 2018
commentaryLighthouse Trails
Categories: Apostasy

As many readers may remember, in 2014 Word of Faith preacher Kenneth Copeland invited the Anglican priest Tony Palmer to speak to his congregation.* Palmer, who died in a motorcycle accident a few months later, was an “evangelist” for Pope Francis to convince leaders in the Protestant church that the reformation was over and that there was no longer any need for division between the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant church. During that particular meeting at Copeland’s church, Palmer played a video clip from Pope Francis who greeted Copeland’s congregation and encouraged them to unite. Incidentally, Palmer also shared a similar message of unity on James Robison’s T.V. show during that same time period.

Fast forward to the fall of 2017 where Kenneth Copeland reiterated what Palmer and the Pope were conveying. In this video, Copeland is clearly carrying on Tony Palmer’s message that there is no longer a need for the Protestant church to be separated from the Catholic Church.

As Ray Yungen points out in his book, Simple Answers, many evangelical leaders, including Rick Warren and Beth Moore, are doing their part to convince Christians that the Catholic Church is part of the true church. If this is accurate, then Jesus Christ can be found in a wafer (the Eucharist), and all Christians who are not Catholics do not have the life of Christ in them because according to Catholic doctrine, that can only be accomplished through the Eucharist (the focal point of Catholicism). Also keep in mind that from the Catholic perspective, the Catholic Church is the one true church and all Protestants are the “lost brethren,” so the only way we could unify with Catholicism is for Protestants to become Catholic. Some may think that such a unification could never happen, but as Yungen points out in A Time of Departing, global spiritual unification is happening in the mystical realm (e.g.,  contemplative prayer, centering prayer, mindfulness meditation, etc). For countless Christians (including many leaders), who at one time would have never considered uniting with the Catholic Church, they now see this as a viable path as they embrace contemplative prayer and have allowed doctrine to be superseded by mystical experiences. Now is a perfect “opportunity” for this to happen as the current pope has shown his New Spirituality/New Age affinities—such as proposing a new beatitude that believes God is in everyone.

Iran Knocking on Israel's Door As Assad Retakes Border
Aug 4th, 2018
CommentaryBENJAMIN KERSTEIN/ALGEMEINER.COM
Categories: The Nation Of Israel

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad's successful takeover of the area adjacent to the border with Israel marks a "very painful strategic failure" for the Jewish state, an Israeli expert told The Algemeiner on Tuesday.

The Assad regime -- backed by Russia and Iran -- launched a massive offensive in recent weeks against rebel strongholds in southwestern Syria near the Golan Heights border with Israel. In the past few days, the last pockets of resistance have been defeated and Assad's forces have essentially declared victory.

Veteran Israeli journalist Ehud Yaari believes that this is bad news for Israel for several reasons, mainly due to its failure to exploit the opportunity to topple the Assad regime and thus deal a blow to Iran's imperial ambitions in the region.

"Israel has suffered in my opinion a very painful strategic failure in Syria," he said in an exclusive interview with The Algemeiner, "because the government and the army were over-cautious, and didn't take the measures necessary over the past seven years of the civil war in order to assure that Assad is removed."

"The failure to get Assad removed means that he was saved by the Iranians and, of course, the Russians," Yaari continued. "And the Iranians are the main players. I personally consider it a very grave mistake on our part. And there will be consequences."

Iran, Yaari said, is by now burrowed deep into the Syrian military. "Assad doesn't have an army," he explained. "When people speak about the Syrian army, Assad's army, there is no army. There are remnants of the once-huge army that he had. And mainly what you have is an array, a myriad of all sorts of militias. 

Many of them affiliated in one way or another with the Iranians, with Hezbollah. So when the Syrian army is going to retake the positions along the Golan line, that means that we will see these type of forces positioned there."

Nonetheless, Yaari feels that war is unlikely in the short term. "I think that the Syrians and Iranians are not interested in any flare-up along the border," he stated. "I think because they have different priorities. They have to stabilize Assad's hold on Syria. It's a country which is destroyed to a great extent. 

They have to rebuild an army. They have to do a lot of stuff before they are seeking to engage the IDF. Therefore, I believe that we will see the Syrians, whether from this myriad of remnants of the army and militias, they will take the old positions that they had, as long as they don't shoot fire at us, the Israelis will remain calm."

In the long term, however, Iran will entrench its control in Syria, something Israel has pledged to prevent.

"The Iranians will increase, slowly but steadily, to get themselves not just entrenched in Syria but entrenched within the Syrian army, and this is what they are doing," Yaari assessed.

"So all in all, if we are trying to look ahead a few years from now, what I see is the emergence of growing Iranian proxies within the Syrian army," he predicted. "They will pursue the effort to upgrade the arsenal of missiles and get them much more accurate, will pursue their efforts to establish intelligence facilities, etc., etc."

Israel's current response to this, in Yaari's view, is effective only in the short term.

"I think that what Israel is doing is Israel is sending the Air Force," he said. "When you identify an Iranian target, an Iranian convoy, a shipment, etc., Israel sends the air force in. It disrupts. The Iranians don't have a good answer to that. It disrupts the Iranian effort, it stalls it, it doesn't stop it."

The future, however, is far more worrisome, Yaari cautioned.

"What will come next is, I believe, sooner or later, the few American troops east of the Euphrates river, close to the borders of Jordan, Iraq, and Syria, when the Americans are no longer there, the Iranians will have the possibility whenever they want to use the corridor to move militiamen from Iran, from wherever, shipments, anything they want, along the road into Syria instead of relying exclusively as they do now on sending cargo planes to Syria," he said. "Not a good picture."

Church Demolished As Hindu Radicals Attempt to Create Christian - Free Village in India
Aug 4th, 2018
Daily NewsChristian News
Categories: Persecution

(International Christian Concern) – “All that the Hindu radicals want is for Sangameshwar to be a ‘Christian-free’ village,” Pastor Srinivas Sapa, a 42-year-old Christian resident of Sangameshwar, told International Christian Concern (ICC). “Of all the 50 odd Christians who are native to Sangameshwar, most were born in the village and are now panicked over the situation.”

Located 80 miles north of Hyderabad, the capital of India’s Telangana state, Sangameshwar has become one of the most recent sites of Christian persecution in India. In the early hours of July 14, a group of Hindu radicals, led by Loyapalli Srinivas Rao and Jettamaina Naresh Kumar, completely demolished the only church building in Sangameshwar. The building that was only three years old, built of bricks, cement, and iron sheets, was no more.

“The Hindu radicals were opposed when we decided to buy land for the church building about five years ago,” Pastor Sapa told ICC. “None of [the] villagers were willing to sell their land for the church, as they were instructed, even threatened, by Hindu radicals not to sell.”

Belgium Euthanized Three Children, Hundreds Dealing With Conditions Common to Aging, in 2016-2017
Aug 4th, 2018
CommentaryChristian News Network
Categories: Warning

BRUSSELS — A new report out of Belgium shows that among the 4,337 Belgians who opted to die by euthanasia in 2016-2017, three were ill children, and hundreds of other cases were listed as “polypathology,” or the suffrage of a combination of health issues commonly related to aging, such as blindness, hearing loss, incontinence, dementia and heart and lung diseases.

Belgium’s Federal Commission for Euthanasia Control and Evaluation recently released a report analyzing the euthanasia cases over the time period, which shows that the number of people choosing to take death into their own hands continues to rise in the country.

In 2016, 2,028 died by physician-assisted suicide, and in 2017, 2,309 ended their lives—a year-to-year increase of almost 14 percent.

Euthanasia was first legalized in Belgium in 2002, and in 2014, lawmakers decided to remove age restrictions, thus allowing terminally ill children to request to die.

“In the beginning, they presented a law that included mentally ill children,” Belgian Senator Els Van Hoof told reporters at the time. “During the debate, supporters of euthanasia talked about children with anorexia, children who are tired of life—so how far does it go?”

The first child to die under Belgian law, after requesting to do so, was a 17-year-old boy who was “suffering unbearable physical pain.” The method of death was termed “palliative sedation.” Two other children, ages 9 and 11, died last year. One of the children had muscular dystrophy, another had brain tumors and the third fought cystic fibrosis. Their cases were all stated to be terminal.

“Although, luckily, few children are involved, extending the law to discerning minors makes sense, as it aims to allow them free choice and the flow of speech with respect to childrens’ end of life,” the report claimed.

While the majority of cases where people chose to end it all—2,781—involved cancer, hundreds of deaths were marked as being due to “polypathology,” or the sufferance of multiple health issues—many of which are common to the elderly, such as blindness, loss of hearing, incontinence, gait and mobility disorders, nervous system diseases, dementia and/or significant heart ailments.

Reports state that the elderly are finding the combination of ailments intolerable and negatively affecting their quality of life, and are consequently opting to die.

“We are seeing more and more people who no longer accept that condition,” Professor Wim Distelmans, chair of the commission, told The Brussels Times. “In addition, we are getting older and older, so the figures also go up. This is in fact the first generation to be confronted with polypathology.”

“The combination of these conditions explains that the death of 60% of these patients is considered to be expected in the short term and that their suffering is unappeasable,” the report also states. “On the other hand, extreme physical suffering leads to psychic suffering, which is indicated by some patients to be a fatigue of living, but which is secondary to the physical suffering expressed. However, without a legal medical context, fatigue is never accepted by the commission as a justification for euthanasia.”

It notes that the 60-80 age group is the largest requesting euthanasia.

77 Belgians with mental or behavioral issues also died by physician-assisted suicide in 2016-2017.

As previously reported, Distelmans is known for carrying out a lethal injection in 2013 on a woman who identified as a man and was dissatisfied with the way she looked following various “sex change” operations. Nancy Verhelst, 44, known in recent years as Nathan, cited “unbearable psychological suffering” as the reason for her death wish. Verhelst had felt rejected from her youth as her mother reportedly wished she had been born a boy.

Distelmans is also stated to have been involved in a case surrounding twin brothers who were born deaf. The 45-year-old brothers wanted to die after learning that they were going blind as did not want to face the reality of losing their independence, nor could they bear never seeing each other again. David Dufour, doctor of Marc and Eddy Verbessem, said that the twins also had other medical conditions, which combined “made life unbearable” for them psychologically.

The most recent report out of Belgium, which now shows that children are starting to die under the law, has reignited concern over the slippery slope that occurs when physician-assisted suicide is legalized.

“[C]hildren are not pets to be put down—or, at least, shouldn’t be,” remarked Wesley Smith of the Discovery Institute in an article published on Thursday.

“With children being killed in the womb through abortion, disabled babies dying through medical omission or even intention, and now active euthanasia, what we are seeing is an attack on life at all stages,” the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children also remarked in 2016 after learning of the first child death. “Euthanasia is contrary to the ethos of medicine, which is to care, not to kill …”

As previously reported, Scripture outlines that God, not man, appoints the days of mankind (Job 14:5), and even before a person is born, He writes their times in His book.

“In Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them,” Psalm 139:16 reads.