Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Let the Headlines Speak
Dec 9th, 2019
Daily NewsFrom the Internet
Categories: Today's Headlines

No one knows why rocks are exploding from asteroid Bennu
OSIRIS-REx spacecraft spotted the asteroid spitting out rocks. Earlier this year, the OSIRIS-REx team witnessed particles exploding from the asteroid’s surface—and the team’s not sure why. “No one has ever seen an active asteroid up close like this,” says Carl Hergenrother, an astronomer at the University of Arizona and the scientist who proposed Bennu as the target for OSIRIS-REx. “It wasn’t that long ago that the conventional wisdom was that asteroids are these dead bodies that didn’t change very much.”

Gantz hints at compromise on unity government
Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz kept hope alive that a government could be formed by Wednesday midnight’s deadline on Saturday, when Channel 12 quoted him telling confidants “I will have to make tough decisions over the next few days to avoid elections.”

Three rockets fired towards southern Israel
Several Hamas sites in the Gaza Strip were struck by Israeli Air Force jets after three rockets were fired from the Hamas control enclave towards southern Israel on Saturday night. According to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, IAF jets and helicopters struck several terror targets, including a Hamas terrorist camp including it’s warehouses, offices and security posts. In addition, a military position of the naval force of Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip was struck and destroyed.

Two earthquakes hit northern Dead Sea early Friday
Jordan Seismological Observatory (JSO) recorded two earthquakes in northern Dead Sea on the dawn of Friday, December 5, 2019. Director of the JSO, Mahmoud Qaryouti said in a press statement that the quakes measured 2.5 on the Richter scale. Earlier in November, four earthquakes were recorded in the area. The quakes were felt by residents of the Jordan Valley and Karak governorate. The strongest quake measured 3.8 on the Richter scale.

Rocket hits Iraqi cleric’s home following deadly Baghdad attack
A rocket fired from a drone targeted the home of populist Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Saturday, lawmakers from his Saeroon party said, following one of the capital’s bloodiest nights in recent weeks. The drone attack, which caused little damage and left no casualties, followed a deadly attack by armed men near Baghdad’s main protest site on Friday night, which left at least 23 dead, police and medical sources said.

The Dangerous Progressive Christianity Message Of Mayor Pete
Pete Buttigieg may be a more dangerous candidate than most Christians realize. Social conservatives are used to voting against candidates who are generally uncomfortable speaking about religion, and are often Scripturally illiterate. Buttigieg, on the other hand, is attempting to weaponize a new, progressive version of Christianity against those who vote to protect life in the womb, religious liberty, and the natural family. In fact, in his latest statewide South Carolina TV ad, Buttigieg quotes the Lord Jesus to support his policy platform and attack Christian GOP voters. The ad opens with him saying: “Whatever happened to ‘I was hungry and you fed me, I was a stranger and you welcomed me?”

Donald Trump to IAC: Some American Jews ‘don’t love Israel enough’
Some American Jews “don’t love Israel enough,” US President Donald Trump said to a crowd of around 4,000 people…at the Israeli-American Council’s (IAC)annual event, a comment reminiscent of previous remarks made by the president. “I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty,” Trump told reporters in April.

Nikki Haley: Canada made a ‘deal with the devil’
Former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley condemned Canada for voting in favor of an anti-Israel General Assembly resolution claiming that in their actions the government made a “deal with the devil.” Haley made the proclamation at the UN Watch Gala in New York City on Thursday, adding that Canada is “trading its integrity for a seat on the Security Council” by using the vote to damage the State of Israel…

IDF’s Search and Rescue brigade drills for multi-front war
Israel’s Search and Rescue Brigade has completed a large scale drill from the Golan Heights all the way to the Negev desert simulating significant infrastructure damage sustained from a multi-front war. The drill saw over a thousand soldiers and reservists working on several fronts affected by simultaneous missile strikes causing widespread infrastructure damage over the course of several days…

Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters out in force
For the first time since August, police have allowed a rally by the Civil Human Rights Front, one of the territory’s largest pro-democracy groups. Police said 11 people were arrested ahead of the rally in raids and that a handgun was seized. The protests started in June over a controversial extradition bill, and have now evolved into broader anti-government demonstrations.

Military bases across the U.S are put on high alert as FBI hunts missing Saudi servicemen linked to Pensacola shooting and probes shooter’s trip to New York two days before as terror investigators are called in
Military bases across the United States have been put on high alert in the wake of Friday’s mass shooting at Navy Station Pensacola. US Northern Command…sent out an advisory calling for an increase in security checks on Saturday night, according to Fox News. It comes as FBI continues to hunt for several Saudi military students from Pensacola, who have seemingly vanished in the wake of Friday’s attack.

World’s first ever pig-monkey hybrids have been created by Chinese scientists
THE world’s first monkey-pig hybrids have been born, which could pave the way for human organs grown by animals. A groundbreaking experiment produced creatures with hearts, livers, spleens, lungs and skin which contained pig and primate cells. Stem cells from macaque monkeys were grown in a lab and then injected into pig embryos five days after fertilisation.

Mexico, U.S. draw closer to finalizing USMCA: source
U.S. and Mexican negotiators are “very close” to finalizing the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a Washington-based source familiar with the talks said on Saturday, after a top Mexico official said the two sides had made progress on the trade deal. The person added that U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi still needed to agree on revisions of the pact, known as USMCA.

Hamas calls pre-dawn Israeli strikes in Gaza a ‘dangerous step’
Hamas on Sunday called the overnight Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip as a “dangerous step,” saying Israel “will bear the consequences” of its actions. The military struck the targets belonging to the terror group in a pre-dawn raid, in response to at least three rockets fired at the southern city of Sderot just hours earlier.

Iran says new budget bucks US oil embargo, uses Russian loan
Iran’s president said on Sunday his country will depend less on oil revenue next year, in a new budget that is designed to resist crippling U.S. trade embargoes. Iran is in the grip of an economic crisis. The U.S. re-imposed sanctions that block Iran from selling its crude oil abroad, following President Trump’s decision to withdraw from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Luongo: “Pelosi’s Mask Just Slipped”
“Her vehement denial is her admission of guilt. For a moment, Speaker ‘Ratched’ lost control and the results were a glimpse into the depths of her evil…”

George Soros: A New Kind of Tyrant?
…In Soros’ own words, “Next to my fantasies about being God, I also have very strong fantasies of being mad.

‘Mega-fire’ burns out of control just north of Sydney, Australia
More than eight bushfires have merged to form a “mega-fire” which is now raging out of control across a swath of land just north of Sydney. Firefighters said it will take weeks to control, but will not be contained without heavy rains.​

THE MSM Has Known All Along That Millions Will Die In the Cascadian Subduction Zone As They Purposely Underestimate the Carnage
Understandably, there will be many who will feel their anger spilling over as we all discover that the mainstrain stream media (MSM) have known just how dangerous the Cascadian Subduction Zone (CSZ) actually is. For the past three years, MSM outlets have accruately reported on the threat, while at the same time, grossly underestimating the consequences of the threat.

Deceptive New Netflix Series ‘Messiah’ Heralds The Coming Of The Biblical Antichrist And Has Based The Main Character On Dajjal Of Islam
With big, bold letters Netflix announces the coming of their new series ‘MESSIAH‘, but one look at the main character tells you right away that while he may be a christ, he is absolutely not Jesus Christ. The unnamed character in ‘MESSIAH’ is dark and foreboding, with a sinister glint in his eyes, so much so that many who have watched the trailer have posted comments asking if his right eye goes blind in future episodes. Why would they ask that? Because that is a hallmark of Antichrist.

Scientists Shocked That “Gender Bending” Chemicals In Our Food 44 Times Higher Than Thought
An old “conspiracy theory” about chemicals in food and water having the ability to affect one’s hormones is gaining much more evidence to back it up.

Mandatory UK Sex Education Program Teaches 6-Year-Olds to Touch Themselves
A new mandatory sex education curriculum being rolled out in the United Kingdom teaches children as young as 6 about “stimulating” their genitals.

Is France reaching a breaking point? Fuel supplies now depleted across western France as the masses rise up against corruption and government waste
Since around 2011 the French Republic began suffering a self-inflicted cultural and social wound when the government began accepting millions of migrants and refugees from the Middle East. Today, France has the highest Muslim population in all of Europe (5.7 million), one of the biggest problems with terrorism, and cultural decay from within because Muslims and Western Christians just don’t mesh well.

Democrat-run Virginia legislature to criminalize all CURRENT owners of AR-15s… door-to-door gunpoint confiscation coming soon
Many of our nation’s founding fathers and a number of our early presidents — including our first one, George Washington — were from Old Dominion, the state of Virginia.

Japan Is Again Forced To Stimulate Its Troubled Economy
Japan has put together a large-scale stimulus package totaling 26 trillion yen to prop up the domestic economy. Please note, this is equal to $239 billion. For a country the size of Japan, this is massive.

Ephesians - Key Words #10: Power
Dec 9th, 2019
Morning MeditationF. B. Meyer
Categories: Meditation;Inspirational;Book Study

MAN longs for Power. The young man will give all he has for love; the older man counts no sacrifice too great for power. He who wields power is the idol of his fellows, even though, like the first Napoleon, he has won it at the cost of the suffering of myriads. We are not wrong in longing for spiritual power, if only we desire it for the glory of our Master and the blessing of man. It is even our duty to covet this great gift, and to take all means to procure it, that we may be strong and able to do exploits.

Let us never forget that the power of the spiritual realm is never to be had except in submission to the laws of its operation. All around us in our world-home great forces are throbbing, prepared to do our bidding, to carry our messages or draw our carriages; but we must obey them ere we can use them. Once learn the laws of their operation, and yield to them exact obedience, and there is nothing they will not do, toiling like another Hercules in notable deeds. And similarly we must learn, by prayer and watching, the laws of the operation of the power of God; that we may adapt our lives and methods to benefit by each throb and pulse of it which may be within the reach of man.

We must remember also that spiritual power is not a separate entity, which we may possess independently of the Holy Spirit. The power of the spiritual world is the indwelling and inspiration of the Holy Spirit Himself. We cannot have it apart from Him. We diminish it when He is grieved or quenched. We are most evidently the subjects and vehicles of it, when He resides in his gracious fulness in yielded and loving hearts. We covet the gift, let us then make welcome the Giver. Let us no longer speak of it, but of Him.

Babylonian Religion
Dec 9th, 2019
CommentaryHarry A. Ironside
Categories: Apostasy;Topical Study

As we go back into the dim twilight of history with Scripture, we learn that the founder of Bab-el, or Babylon, was Nimrod, of whose unholy achievements we read in the 10th chapter of Genesis. He was the arch-apostate of the patriarchal age. He is described as a "mighty hunter before the Lord" -- "a hunter of the souls of men," the rabbis said. Going out from the presence of the Lord, he impiously sought to gather a multitude about himself, and in defiance of the express command of God to spread abroad upon the face of the earth, he persuaded his associates and followers to join together in "building a city and a tower which should reach unto heaven."

Not surely as some of us were taught in our childhood a tower by which they might climb up into the skies to escape another possible flood, but a tower of renown, rising to a great height, to be recognized as a temple or rallying center for those who did not walk in obedience to the word of the Lord. With all the effrontery of our modern apostates, they called their city and tower Bab-El, the gate of God; but it was soon changed by divine judgment into Babel, Confusion. It bore the stamp of unreality from the first, for we are told, "they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar." An imitation of that which is real and true has ever since characterized Babylon in all ages.

Nimrod, or Nimroud-bar-Cush, as he is called on the monuments, was a grandson of Ham, the unworthy son of Noah, whose character is revealed in his exposure of his father's shame. We know that Noah had brought through the flood the revelation of the true God, for he was a preacher of righteousness, and his utterances on more than one occasion show that he had the prophetic gift. Ham on the other hand seems to have been all too readily affected by the apostasy that brought the flood, for he shows no evidence of self-judgment, but the very opposite. His name, as spelled out upon Egyptian monuments is Khem, and this agrees with the literal sound of the Hebrew word rendered Ham in our Bibles. It means "swarthy," "darkened," or more literally, "the sun-burnt." The name indicates the state of the man's soul. For what is a sun-burnt person? One who is darkened by light from heaven. Ham had been granted wonderful mercies; he was saved from the flood because of his father's faith, but he abused his privileges and "turned the grace of God into lasciviousness." He was actually darkened by the burning rays of light that God caused to shine upon his soul. Thus his conscience became seared as with a hot iron, and he became the founder of a race that departed from the living God and led the way into idolatry, worshipping and serving the creature more than the Creator.

We know something of what this means. We speak of people today who have become, as we say, gospel-hardened. They too have been darkened by the light, and are often the ringleaders in apostasy: "If the light that is in thee becomes darkened, how great is the darkness." There are many in the world tonight who used to listen with tears in their eyes to the story of the matchless grace of God as revealed in the cross of Christ, but are unmoved now though that story be told ever so tenderly; they have become hardened in their sins, and their seared consciences no longer feel the Spirit's breath. It is a most dangerous thing to trifle with the light from heaven.

But to proceed with our theme, Ham became darkened by the light. We know his failure and sin. But when Noah had recovered himself and knew what his son had done unto him he pronounced, by the spirit of prophecy, a curse upon Canaan, not on Ham. Do you wonder at that? I did, until I saw that God had already pronounced a blessing upon all three sons of Noah-Shem, Ham, and Japheth. So Noah passes over his unworthy son and utters a curse upon Canaan, who we can well believe was, as we say, "a chip off the old block." Ham begat a son named Cush, "the black one," and he became the father of Nimrod, the apostate leader of his generation.

Ancient lore now comes to our assistance, and tells us that the wife of Nimrod-bar-Cush was the infamous Semiramis, the First. She is reputed to have been the founder of the Babylonian mysteries and the first high-priestess of idolatry. Thus Babylon became the fountainhead of idolatry, and the mother of every heathen and pagan system in the world. The mystery-religion that was originated there spread in various forms throughout the whole earth, and as we shall see in a few minutes, it is with us today. It is identical with the mystery of iniquity which wrought so energetically in Paul's day, and shall have its fullest development when the Holy Spirit has departed and the Babylon of the apocalypse holds sway.

Building on the primeval promise of the woman's Seed who was to come, Semiramis bore a son whom she declared was miraculously conceived, and when she presented him to the people, he was hailed as the promised deliverer. This was Tammuz, whose worship Ezekiel protested against in the days of the captivity. Thus was introduced the mystery of the mother and the child, a form of idolatry that is older than any other known to man. The rites of this worship were secret. Only the initiated were permitted to know its mysteries. It was Satan's effort to delude mankind with an imitation so like the truth of God that they would not know the true Seed of the woman when He came in the fullness of time. To this Justin Martyr bears definite witness.

From Babylon this mystery-religion spread to all the surrounding nations, as the years went on and the world was populated by the descendants of Noah. Everywhere the symbols were the same, and everywhere the cult of the mother and child became the popular system. Their worship was celebrated with the most disgusting and immoral practices. The image of the queen of heaven with the babe in her arms was seen everywhere, though the names might differ as languages differed. It became the mystery-religion of Phoenicia, and by the Phoenicians was carried to the ends of the earth. Ashtoreth and Tammuz, the mother and child of these hardy adventurers, became Isis and Horus in Egypt, Aphrodite and Eros in Greece, Venus and Cupid in Italy, and bore many other names in more distant places. Within 1,000 years, Babylonianism had become the religion of the world, which had rejected the Divine revelation.

Linked with the central mystery were countless lesser mysteries, the hidden meaning of which was known only to the initiates, but the outward forms were practiced by all the people. Among these were the doctrines of purgatorial purification after death, salvation by countless sacraments (such as priestly absolution), sprinkling with holy water, the offering of round cakes to the queen of heaven (as mentioned in the book of Jeremiah), dedication of virgins to the gods (which was literally sanctified prostitution), weeping for Tammuz for a period of 40 days prior to the great festival of Istar (who was said to have received her son back from the dead); for it was taught that Tammuz was slain by a wild boar and afterwards brought back to life. To him the egg was sacred, as depicting the mystery of his resurrection even as the evergreen was his chosen symbol and was set up in honor of his birth at the winter solstice, when a boar's head was eaten in memory of his conflict and a yule log burned with many mysterious observances.

The sign of the cross was sacred to Tammuz, as symbolizing the life giving principle and as the first letter of his name. It is represented upon vast numbers of the most ancient altars and temples, and did not, as many have supposed originate with Christianity. From this mystery-religion, the patriarch Abraham was separated by the divine call, and with this same evil cult the nation that sprang from him had constant conflict, until under Jezebel, a Phoenician princess, it was grafted onto what was left of the religion of Israel in the northern kingdom in the day of Ahab, and was the cause of their captivity at the last. Judah was polluted by it, for Baal-worship was but the Canaanitish form of Babylonian mysteries, and only by being sent into captivity to Babylon itself did Judah become cured of her fondness for idolatry. Baal was the Sun-God, the Life-giving One, identical with Tammuz.

When Christ came into this world the mystery of iniquity was everywhere holding sway, save where the truth of God as revealed in the Old Testament was known. Thus, when the early Christians set out upon the great task of carrying the gospel to the ends of the earth, they found themselves everywhere confronted by this system, in one form or another; for though Babylon as a city had long been but a mystery, her mysteries had not died with her. When the city and temples were destroyed, the high-priest fled with a company of initiates and their sacred vessels and images to Pergamos, where the Symbol of the serpent was set up as the emblem of the hidden wisdom. From there, they afterwards crossed the sea and immigrated to Italy, where, they settled on the Etruscan plain.

There the ancient cult was propagated under the name of the Etruscan Mysteries and eventually Rome became the headquarters of Babylonianism. The chief priests wore mitres shaped like the head of a fish, in honor of Dagon, the fish-god, the Lord of life-another form of the Tammuz mystery, as developed among Israel's old enemies, the Philistines. The chief priest when established in Rome took the title Pontifex Maximus, and this was imprinted in on his mitre. When Julius Caesar (who was an initiate like all young Romans of good family) had become the head of the States, he was elected Pontifex Maximus, and this title was held henceforth by all the Roman emperors down to Constantine the Great, who was at one and the same time, head of the church, and high priest to the heathen. The title was afterwards conferred upon the bishops of Rome, and is borne by the pope today, who is thus declared to be, not the successor of the fisherman-apostle Peter, but the direct successor of the high priest of the Babylonian mysteries, and the servant of the fish-god Dagon, for whom he wears, like his idolatrous predecessors, the fisherman's ring.

During the early centuries of the church's history, the mystery of iniquity had wrought with such astounding effect, and the Babylonian practices and teachings had been so largely absorbed by that which bore the name of the church of Christ, that the truth of the Holy Scriptures on many points had been wholly obscured, while idolatrous practices had been foisted upon the people as Christian sacraments, and the heathen philosophies took the place of gospel instruction. Thus was developed that amazing system which for a thousand years dominated Europe and trafficked in the bodies of souls of men, until the great Reformation of the 16th century brought in a measure of deliverance.