SAUDI MUSLIM WOMAN CONVERTS TO CHRISTIANITY AFTER DREAM ABOUT CHRIST!

Lebanon: Muslim Woman Converts To Christianity After Dream About Christ, Flees Saudi Arabia.

By Tafeel Al-Yousif -”AL-KHOBAR — A Saudi girl who recently embraced Christianity and fled the country for refuge in Lebanon told the host of a religious program on an Arabic TV channel that she was tired of performing prayers and fasting during Ramadan.
The girl, who said her name was Maryam, said praying and fasting did not bring her any benefits. She also criticized the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai’a) and claimed that she was raised to hate Judaism and Christianity but fell in love with the religions after she found peace in Christianity.
She said she became a Christian after she had a dream one night. In it, she climbed to the skies and heard God telling her that Jesus is His son. She said that she had been living in the Kingdom since she was 17.
Meanwhile, Christian groups of all denominations in Lebanon have dismissed reports that the Saudi girl is living in a church in the country.
Maryam’s father filed a complaint against her two former co-workers, a Saudi and a Lebanese, accusing them of helping his daughter illegally flee the Kingdom and embrace Christianity. The Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution (BIP) in Al-Khobar accused the men of forcing the girl to convert and arrested them. However, both men were later released on bail while their case has been referred to a court in Al-Khobar.
The Lebanese man, who is accused of playing a major role in the girl’s conversion, has had his name put on a travel ban list.
The Saudi Embassy in Beirut is coordinating with the concerned authorities in the country to convince the girl to return to the Kingdom. It is expected that the Al-Khobar District Court will look into the case, the first of its kind in the Kingdom, soon.” Source – Saudi Gazette.

Flashback: Dreams And Visions Moving Muslims To Christ – “… The film documents and dramatizes Ali’s story and several other Muslims who came to faith in Jesus through a dream or vision. ‘We’re seeing that all around. We’re hearing about people that have never even thought about Jesus as savior,’ Tom Doyle, with e3 Ministries, said. ‘They’re content Muslims and they’re having dreams over and over.’ Doyle and his wife Joanna take the gospel to the Muslim world. He’s also the author of the upcoming book, Dreams and Visions: Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World?… The phenomenon of dreams and visions has surfaced throughout the Muslim world, from Indonesia to Morocco.” Read more.

 

THE PROPHESIED END TIMES "WHITE HORSE" OF MORMONISM REARS ITS HEAD AGAIN!! MITT ROMNEY ATTACKED BY PALESTINIANS!

Palestinians attack Mitt Romney for 'racist' comments

Mitt Romney has travelled to the UK, Israel and Poland - all close US allies

Continue reading the main story

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Mitt Romney has been accused of racism for suggesting to Jewish donors that "culture" might explain Palestinians' income inferiority to Israel.

A senior Palestinian aide said the Republican presidential candidate had failed to note economic restrictions placed by the Israeli occupation.
But the Romney campaign said his remarks in Israel were misinterpreted.
The former Massachusetts governor is now in Poland, for the third and final leg of a week-long foreign tour.
Mr Romney is set to face Barack Obama in November's presidential election.
'Hand of providence'
Speaking at a breakfast of about 40 donors in Jerusalem on Monday, Mr Romney said he had thought about how Israel had achieved greater prosperity than its neighbours.

"This breakfast remark is perhaps not a gaffe in any sense - it is of a piece with [Mr Romney's] attitude generally, and what he thinks.” 

Mark Mardell North America editor

---

"As you come here and you see the GDP [Gross Domestic Product] per capita, for instance, in Israel which is about $21,000 dollars, and compare that with the GDP per capita just across the areas managed by the Palestinian Authority, which is more like $10,000 per capita, you notice such a dramatically stark difference in economic vitality," Mr Romney is reported to have said.

He referred to a book called The Wealth And Poverty Of Nations, by David Landes, which examines how some societies became more prosperous than those of their neighbours.
Mr Romney said he had concluded from the book that "if you could learn anything from the economic history of the world it's this: culture makes all the difference.

He added: "And as I come here and I look out over this city and consider the accomplishments of the people of this nation, I recognise the power of at least culture and a few other things."
Mr Romney also said he recognised "hand of providence in selecting this place [Israel]".
The economic disparity between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is even wider than Mr Romney's remarks suggest.

According to a World Bank report, in 2011 Israel's GDP was $31,000 per head, compared with just over $1,500 in the West Bank and Gaza.
'Scratching their heads'
Saeb Erekat, an aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, responded quickly to the comments.

"It is a racist statement and this man doesn't realise that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation," Mr Erekat said.
"It seems to me this man lacks information, knowledge, vision and understanding of this region and its people.
"He also lacks knowledge about the Israelis themselves. I have not heard any Israeli official speak about cultural superiority," he added.

Mitt Romney: It would be "foolish not to take Iranian threat seriously"

Romney campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul said his remarks had been "grossly mischaracterised".
His campaign added that the candidate's comments had been more general and had included examples of income disparities between the US and Mexico, and Chile and Ecuador.
Meanwhile, a White House spokesman said Mr Romney's comments had left some people "scratching their heads a little bit".

At the breakfast, Mr Romney sat next to casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who has given millions of dollars to Republican presidential campaigns.
The owner of the American football team New York Jets, Woody Johnson, and hedge fund manager Paul Singer were also guests at the breakfast, which is thought to have raised about $1m.
Deputy Israeli Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon came to Mr Romney's defence.
"It is unfortunate that the Palestinians find every reason and opportunity to discomfit or to criticise or to attack Israel or anyone who pays respect to Israel and Jewish culture," he said, reports the Associated Press.

On Sunday, Mr Romney caused controversy when he described Jerusalem as the country's capital.
He said in an interview with CNN that he would favour moving the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, where it is currently located.
The status of Jerusalem is a key issue in peace negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Mr Romney's visit to Israel followed a three-day visit to London. There, he was criticised in the British press for expressing doubt about whether Britain was ready to stage the Olympic Games.

MUSLIMS PROVE THEIR POWER AT THE OLYMPICS AGAIN! WILL NO ONE STAND UP TO THEM?

International Olympic Committee Bows To Allah, Sets Up Barrier For Lebanese Judo Team To Separate Jews

07/28/2012 ICA Leave a comment Go to comments

 

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In the Muslim world, only Islamic spirits are permitted. The Olympic spirit is clearly forbidden …
“The Lebanese judo team forced International Olympic Committee officials to erect a barrier between themselves and the Israeli judo squad, Friday afternoon in London, just hours before the Games’ opening ceremony, reports Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot.
Both teams were scheduled to train inside London’s ExCeL center but Lebanon’s team did not want to be seen by the Israeli one, and IOC officials heeded to the Lebanese’s demand after the team’s coach demanded separation.
This is not the first time Middle Eastern judo teams have caused a political stir. In February, Egypt’s Ramadan Dawris defeated Arik Zeevi of Israel, but afterwards, Dawris refused to shake the hand of his competitor.” Source – the algemeiner.
Iranian Olympian Claims ‘Gut Infection’ To Avoid Competing Against Israeli – “For 33 years, Iranian athletes have forfeited or withdrawn to avoid matching up against Israeli athletes in international competition. It was all supposed to change in London. Earlier this week, Bahram Afsharzadeh, the head of Iran’s Olympic committee, said ‘we will be truthful to sport. We just follow the sportsmanship and play every country.’ That very same day, the Tehran Times reported that Iranian judokan Javad Mahjoub would be withdrawing from the Olympics with ‘a gut infection.’ Why does this matter? Mahjoub, in the 100kg judo competition, was the only Iranian athlete who could possibly have matched up against an Israeli …” Read more.
Maybe the thought of a humiliating loss to a Jew must have made the poor guy sick. What ever happened to “Allah is Greater”? …
Palestinians Welcome IOC’s Rejection of Moment of Silence for Murdered Israeli Athletes, Saying It Would Be ‘Racist’ – “The Palestinians are praising the International Olympic Committee’s decision not to hold a moment of silence in memory of the 11 Israeli athletes murdered in the 1972 Munich Olympics in the London Games’ opening ceremony, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Friday. Jibril Rajoub, chairman of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, sent a thank you letter to IOC President President Jacques Rogge… ‘Sport is a bridge for love, unification and for spreading peace among the nations,’ he wrote. ‘It must not be a cause for divisiveness and for the spreading of racism.’” Read more

http://midnightwatcher.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/international-olympic-committee-bows-to-allah-sets-up-barrier-for-lebanese-judo-team-to-separate-jews/

SYRIA'S CHEMICAL WEAPONS ARSENAL BY MELANIE PHILLIPS.

OPINION PIECE: SYRIA'S CHEMICAL WEAPONS ARSENAL

(by Melanie Phillips - July 26th, 2012)

There is a degree of panic, and rightly so, over whether the Syrian tyrant Basher al Assad will use chemical weapons against either his own people or foreign attackers. His regime has this week threatened to do the latter, thus finally confirming what was long suspected but never openly admitted, that Syria possesses chemical weapons. It is believed to have mustard gas as well as nerve agents such as tabun, sarin and VX. The fear is either that the Assad regime uses them or that they fall into the hands of Hezbollah, al Qaeda or other Islamic terrorist groups. Either prospect is utterly nightmarish. Even Russia says it has told Syria it is unacceptable to threaten to use them.

 

In the last few days, this has been much discussed. What has not been raised, however, is the question of how Syria managed to develop such a chemical weapons stockpile in the first place. No-one in the western media seems remotely curious about how Syria has managed to arm itself to the teeth with them beneath the radar of international scrutiny.  

 

Dr Danny Shoham, at the Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, is an expert in chemical and biological warfare. In a Middle East Quarterly article in 2002, Guile, Gas and Germs: Syria's Ultimate Weapons, he set out the extraordinary history of Syria's chemical weapons programme.  

 

It first received chemical weapons from Egypt, he says, as far back as 1973. By the late eighties, it was saying it possessed an 'answer to Israel's nuclear threat'; people who read between the lines understood this meant Syria now possessed non-conventional weapons. In 1992, Syria refused to commit itself to the elimination of chemical weapons. From the 1970s onwards, wrote Shoham, Syria covertly developed a chemical weapons programme, aided by a wide variety of European and Asian suppliers including the Soviet Union, West Germany and middlemen and brokers located in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Britain, and Austria.

Shoham concluded:

 'Syria now possesses the most formidable CBW capabilities of any Arab state. Its arsenal probably even exceeds that of Iran in quantity and quality. Yet in building it from scratch, under the rule of Hafiz al-Asad, Syria has always managed to stay just outside the spotlight of international scrutiny. It did so by diffusing its efforts, and by playing its political cards with supreme skill-entering (and exiting) the Arab-Israeli "peace process" at just the right times, joining the Kuwait war coalition, cutting back at the last moment on its support for Kurdish separatism in Turkey, and so on. The West has always had some reason not to include Syria on its blackest list. Other regional problems have also drawn attention away from Syria. The United States is still preoccupied with Iraq and Iran, alongside which Syria appears benign.

 

'But at this moment in time, it is a fact: Syria has more destruct ive capabilities than either of them. The West is often accused of a double standard-of tolerating Israel's possession of WMD, while preventing those same weapons from coming into the hands of Arabs or Muslims. But if there is such a double standard, then how does one explain the West's silence, if not complicity, in the building of Syria's CBW capabilities? A simple explanation would be to say that Syria outwitted the world. But that explanation may be too simple. Many parties profited from the Syrian build-up, and foreign strategists thought that a strong Syrian deterrent might give Hafiz al-Asad the confidence to make peace.'

 

That, however, was back in 2002. In 2003 the US, Britain and others went to war in Iraq to make the world safe from Saddam Hussein and his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. Ever since, however, we have been told that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and the proof of that is that none was ever found - surely one of the most profoundly illogical and imbecilic formulations ever to have fallen from human lips.

 

At the time, however, there were a number of reports that enormous truck movements across the border from Iraq into Syria suggested that some of these WMD had been moved there. Saddam's Air Vice-Marshal Georges Sada, whom I interviewed, said he was absolutely certain that WMD had been moved from Iraq to Syria. All of this was however brushed aside for, as the bien pensant world has never stopped intoning with positively religious fervour, 'we were taken to war in Iraq on a lie'.  

 

But now we know that Syria possesses an arsenal of chemical weapons. So could any of this have come from Saddam's Iraq, just as it was transferred from Egypt two decades previously?  

 

In a more recent paper published in 2006 in the International Journal of Intelligence and Counter-Intelli gence , An Antithesis on the Fate of Iraq's Chemical and Biological Weapons, Dr Shoham wrote that the two official reports - Duelfer and Carnegie in 2004 - that supposedly exonerated Saddam of still having WMD by the outbreak of war ignored much information that indicated the smuggling of chemical and biological weapons from Iraq into Syria. Although the most knowledgeable and experienced individuals tracking Iraq's WMD were members of UNSCOM, they were largely excluded by the US intelligence community. Ill-trained soldiers would go to a site, find something suspicious, return 48 hours later and find it had disappeared.  

 

In October 2003, the US intelligence community publicly pointed for the first time to transfers of WMD from Iraq to Syria. The Director of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, James Clapper, said it linked the disappearance of Iraqi WMD with the huge number of Iraqi trucks entering Syria before and during the US invasion; based on satellite imagery, it assessed that these trucks contained missiles and WMD components. Shipments to Syria were supervised by Saddam's most loyal intelligence agents. Once the shipments were made, these agents would leave and the regular border guards resumed their posts.

 

Moreover, captured Iraqi documents record that the Russian 'spetsnaz' moved many of Saddam's weapons and related goods, including chemicals used to make chemical weapons plus missile components and MIG jet parts, out of Iraq and into Syria in the weeks before the 2003 invasion.

 

In 2004 Nizar Najoef, a Syrian journalist who defected from Syria to Europe, claimed he had received information from contacts in Syrian intelligence that:

* Tunnels dug under al Baida near Hama in northern Syria were an integral part of an underground factory, built by the North Koreans, for producing Syrian Scud missiles. Iraqi chemical weapons and long range missiles were stored there;

* Vital parts of Iraq's WMD were stored in the village of Tal Snan, north of Salamija where there was a big Syrian air force camp;

* Iraqi WMD was also stored in the city of Sjinsjar on Syria's border with Lebanon.

Shoham concluded:

 'Apparently, then, the prevailing perception of the "failure" to find Iraq's CBW arsenal ought to be rethought...Strategically, Iraq's enduring arsenal may affect Syria's CBW capabilities, provided that the transfer did in fact take place...'  

 

Might some of Basher al Assad's chemical (and possibly biological) arsenal have Saddam Hussein's name on it?

 

Melanie Phillips.

PART TWO OF "THE ISLAMIC ANTICHRIST" BY NEVILLE STEPHENS.

THE MUSLIM ANTICHRIST (PART TWO).

We saw last time that the origin of the soon-coming Antichrist will be from the ancient “Assyria” of Bible times, and not from the Revived Roman Empire as is commonly taught in most prophetic circles today.

The Bible is very specific, for after all, it is the Divinely Inspired Word of God. The geography of the Bible is a masterpiece in itself, yet us poor mortals try to indoctrinate our thoughts and teachings into Bible prophesies instead of letting the Sacred Writings mean what they say, and let Holy Writ be its own and best interpreter.

We must also remember that the Bible is predominantly a JEWISH book, and bear this in mind when we come to attempting to unravel certain difficult passages. Every author in the Bible was a Hebrew except one (and even the Gentile Luke became a Proselyte Jew), The Twelve Disciples were all Jews, and all of the Old Testament Judges, Kings, Patriarchs, Priests, and Prophets were all Israelites.

And on top of all of this, the eagerly awaited Messiah of two millennia ago when he appeared on the scene was born in Bethlehem, was baptised in the River Jordan, was raised in Nazareth, spent most of His time in Galilee of the north, was executed in Jerusalem, and never set one foot of His adult life outside of His beloved Israel after his short sojourn in Egypt as a baby!

This is vitally important!! Yeshua ministered only “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt 15:24). He never preached to a gentile audience, and only seemed to accept a gentile enquiry rather reluctantly during His earthly ministry devoted to the Hebrew people,(see Mark 7:25-30 re the Syrophoenician woman and the infamous “dogs eating crumbs from the Jewish table incident”)!

I heard of a lady from the USA recently who was shocked to discover that Yeshua was a Hebrew, and not an American! What is more, she refused to accept her newly found FACT,  and continued to believe that Jesus was a handsome six feet tall  American with long dark hair, ruggedly good features, beautiful blue eyes, and as good looking as any model on the front page of the latest fashion magazine!

Obviously this is a very extreme case, but it does illustrate the point perfectly. A lot of us in Britain, Europe, and America tend to read the Scriptures with a biased Westernised educated viewpoint, and we need to take off those “glitzy glasses” which only distort the real picture, to gain a true perspective on what this Eastern book is teaching us about God’s chosen covenant people, and those countries which come in to contact with her.

Who was Ezekiel thinking of when he was writing about the northern enemies of Israel? Why should we read Russia into this equation when it did not exist as such at that time. He was obviously thinking of the un-mistakable enemies of the Jewish people who existed then, and still do today, such as the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Medes and the Persians. Similarly in the South, the ancient enemies were the Philistines (now Gaza), but primarily Egypt, who are now coming into prominence once again with the fall of the Mubarak regime, and the emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood.

You might have hated the atrocities perpetrated by such despots as Hosni Mubarak, Saddam Hussein, and Muammar Gaddafi, but Scripture informs us that it is the Lord who appoints leaders, and these dictatorial leaders ruled their respective countries with a rod type grip of iron, and kept most of the unrest at bay.

However, since their removals, these states are now being over-run by extreme Islamic organisations such as the Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood, both of which want the destruction of Israel and the removal of the Jewish State off the maps of the world. This is just an extension of the Shi’ite doctrine espoused by the mad Mullah’s of Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority, and all of these anti-semitic countries and their proxies surround poor little Israel at present, and banging their war drums louder and louder with every passing day!

Also, another point remembering is that the Roman army under Titus which ransacked and destroyed Jerusalem in AD70 leading to the modern theory that the Revived Roman Empire will produce the Antichrist of Armageddon, was not Roman at all! Several highly respected scholars have written that by the time of the destruction of the Temple in AD70, the Roman army had as few as one in five Italians amongst their huge numbers, with most of the remainder coming from the surrounding territories. 

There were approximately twelve legions of the Roman army which were involved in the attack on Jerusalem. Each legion comprised of 5000 soldiers, but of these 60,000 warriors, only eight per cent were actually Italian! It is estimated by accredited historians that there were approximately 55,000 enemies of Israel that fateful day in AD70, comprising mainly of Syrians, Arabs, and other recruits and mercenaries from other Eastern countries, who actually delighted in the annihilation of their sworn Jewish enemies.

So much so, that according to Josephus in his “Wars Of The Jews”, that even when Titus demanded the withdrawal of his troops after certain victory, these anti-semitic terrorists just continued with their bloodthirsty tactics of death and destruction to the Hebrews, irrespective of disobeying orders from their Roman paymasters, and risking the death penalty for disobeying orders!

Seeing that it was still possible to save the Temple from complete destruction, Titus gave orders to rescue the Holy Structure, according to Josephus, but his orders were ignored by in excess of fifty thousand blood thirsty Jew-hating warriors wanting the complete annihilation of the Hebrews. It was not by the commands of Rome that the Temple was burned to the ground, but by the pure anti-Semitic hatred from the eternal Ishmaelite enemies of the chosen Israelite people!  

The Assyrians have always played a mega part in the downfall of Israel and Jerusalem in the past, and they will also be Satan’s tool in the future to again attempt to bring doom and destruction to God’s ancient covenant people.

There are still many prophesies from the Tanakh yet to be fulfilled, but there are two major predictions from the Old Testament in particular which need our careful attention from the books of Micah and Isaiah.

First of all, let us deal with the section of Scripture from Micah.5:5-15. Here we see a description of a war still future very similar in nature to the eschatological military campaign in the same area east of the Euphrates river described in Rev 16:12, and very much involving the Assyrian and his armies.

In Numbers 24:23, 24 “Ships from the coast of Chittim will afflict Assyria and Eber”. And again in Daniel 11 when the Antichrist is attacked, these ships from Chittim are very much in evidence, giving very strong evidence as to the northern identity of this invader (read Daniel 11:30 and whole chapter). See also Ezra 6:22-7:1 where the King of Assyria and their King of Syria are heavily linked.

Assyria represents the Mesopotamian power. Rome was never a Mesopotamian power, its main geographical theatre being Europe, not Western Asia, whereas Bible prophecy focuses its attention on the northern Mesopotamian power.

The Assyrian power of the end times receives even more treatment in Isaiah. Through the description of his destruction in Isaiah 11:4, he appears again in Paul’s picture of the Antichrist in his second letter to the Thessalonian church. The apostle here quotes directly from Isaiah 11:4 when describing the destruction of this man of perdition. “The lawless one will be at once revealed. Then the Lord Jesus will come in all His splendour, He will breathe upon him and destroy him, and take away all his power. The coming of the lawless one will be accomplished through the power of Satan” (2 Thess 2:8). Paul has in mind the Assyrian material presented by Isaiah, and in this “evil one” he sees the final Antichristian figure.

We have no difficulty in recognising Paul’s quotation of Isaiah 10:22,23 in Romans 9:27,28 that “the remnant will return”, as a prophecy of the future restoration of Israel. Therefore, there is no good reason to overlook his quotation of the destruction of the Assyrian as the destruction of the eschatological Antichrist.

The secret of much good Bible study is in discovering the links between the Old and the New Testaments. Most mistakes occur when the connections are broken, especially when the Old Testament is neglected. When Jesus explained the Bible to His disciples, He “began with Moses and with all the prophets, expounding the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27).

However, much of traditional Christian orthodoxy is based on a Greek philosophical reading of the New Testament severed from the Old, and we in the West are very much guilty of this erroneous approach to our study of Holy Writ today, and of Bible prophecy in particular.

Why do we not let the Bible mean what it says? If it prophesies that the future Antichrist and the King of the North is to be an “Assyrian”, why do we try to wrestle with the Scriptures to make them fit with modern interpretations of a gentile coming out of the Revived Roman Empire? It is far better, and consistent, to let the Sacred Writings mean what they say, and we will continue with this approach in our third instalment to come shortly.

Neville.

PS. Part one of this series is a little further down this blog.

THE EXCELLENT DAVID HOYLE'S LATEST NEWS FROM ISRAEL BULLETIN.

BIBLE PROPHECY FOUNDATION

News from Israel - David Hoyle July 25^th 2012

There is much argument in the press on an ongoing basis about the legality, or otherwise, of Israel’s settlements in the so called “West Bank” (Biblical Judea and Samaria).

The United Nations and European Community are not surprisingly opposed to all settlement building and regard it as illegal.  Both Barack Obama and William Hague among others are vociferous in their condemnation of Israel on a regular basis.

A committee appointed by Mr Netanyahu to examine the legality of Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria issued the following statement on July 4^th 2012.  “Israeli’s have a legal right to settle that region”.   The committee head, retired Israeli Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy declared “According to international law Israeli’s have a legal right to settle all of Judea and Samaria, at the very least the lands that Israel controls under agreement with the Palestinian Authority.  Therefore the establishment of Jewish settlements (in Judea and Samaria) is, in itself, not illegal.”    

The detailed report went on to say ”The fourth Geneva Convention on the transfer of populations does not apply, and was not intended to apply to communities such as those established in Judea and Samaria.” 

Israel can now cast off the bonds of false accusations that it “occupies” Judea and Samaria!

America  

Perhaps in the light of this edict we may anticipate the USA moving its embassy to Jerusalem, a move already passed by both houses of Congress.

A Two State Solution?  

In the home of the UK ambassador to Israel Dhud Ehud Ya´ari who works for Israeli television with a mandate to liaise with the Arab Community said, ‘There has been an explosion in the Middle East and Islamic dust is falling.  We do not know the outcome’. He went on to say that in his discussions with Israel’s Arab Community he has found that 99% want a one state solution with no Israel.  He further said that in the countries that have freed themselves from dictatorships the people are no longer subject to a regime but are citizens of a country!

Mr Abbass has, of course, often reported Mr Arafat’s desire for a Palestinian state from “the river to the sea.”  A biblical study of God’s promise of the land to Abraham through Isaac and the apportionment of the land to the different tribes leaves no doubt to the ultimate outcome.  All the land from the Mediterranean to the river Jordan and an area including much land “occupied” by Arabs will one day belong to Israel. 

God keeps His covenant with the Jewish people, if He doesn’t our salvation would be in doubt as He will also break His promises to us!  Believers in Replacement Theology take note!

Anti Semitism 

Takes many forms but on all fronts it is rampant today.  In its more violent form it took the form at last week’s bomb attack on Israeli tourists in the Bulgarian resort of Burgas.   Seven people died and thirty five of the injured were flown to Tel Aviv for treatment.  There have been other attempts in India, Thailand, Azerbaijan and Georgia.  Many of these attacks and attempted attacks are blamed on Hezbollah a proxy of Iran, and by the time you read this you may well have heard of Israel’s retaliation.

In another form Anti Semitism was evident in the Anglican Church’s vote to send monitors to investigate Palestinian human rights.  As always, no consideration of Israel’s position.  This vote led to the Mayor of Hendon, Melvyn Benjamin calling for a severing of relations between Jewish organisations and the Anglican Church.  Vivian Wiseman chairman of the Jewish Board of Deputies said “we shall not cut links but it will not be business as usual.”

Elsewhere the BBC refused to identify Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on its Olympic website.  The Palestinian team was listed as having East Jerusalem as its capital.  After protests the BBC listed Jerusalem as Israel’s “seat of government although most foreign embassies are in Tel Aviv.”   The Palestinian page was changed to East Jerusalem, intended seat of Government, Ramallah its administrative capital.

Amnesty International

Has defended a senior officer accused of coordinating campaigns against Israel.  He claims that “Israel should be listed alongside North Korea and Iran as a stupid, dictatorial regime.”   He threatened to assault an Israeli supporter at an Amnesty event.  On another occasion he said that Israel had the same wanton attitude to human beings as Sudan and Burma!   Anti-Semitism is alive and well at Amnesty International.

Israel Government 

Just 70 days after Shaul Mofaz took Kadima into the coalition he resigned because of the failure of Mr Netanyahu to honour the coalition agreement to pass a bill removing the exemption from the IDF draft for the ultra orthodox.  This now leaves Mr Netanyahu as leader of a right wing government dominated by nationalist and religious hard liners and brings the possibility of an election nearer. 

Having been found not guilty of corruption Ehud Olmert may now return to politics and seek to take over as leader of Kadima.

 Arab Spring (so called)

With the imminent fall of the Assad regime 30 000 refugees have crossed into Lebanon and the situation grows ever more dangerous.  It is reported that many border posts between Syria and Turkey also Syria and Lebanon are now in rebel hands.   Most people are fleeing the fighting but should the regime fall the Alawites would have to fight to the death or flee, most probably over the Golan Heights to Israel’s border.  There has been and argument in Israel as to whether to open the border or not, but the decision has been taken and this week Ehud Barak, Israel’s Defence Minister  said “ Israel will stop Syrian refugees entering the Golan Heights if they try to flee there.”   Apart from Lebanon many refugees have fled to turkey but the Christian community who were protected and well treated by Mr Assad will be in grave danger of a massacre if the regime fell as they declined to take part in the uprising!  Please pray for them as they wait with anxiety. 

Hamas

Speaking at a conference in Tunisia Khaled Mashaal said “We shall continue to resist Israel and seek the recovery of occupied Palestinian territory.”   He said Palestinian lands had been looted!  Since the revolution in Tunisia unemployment has risen, the country is racked by strikes, and the economy is shrinking.

On every front the Arab Spring is bringing problems not improvements. 

Interesting and Good News

    

Parts of ancient Acre’s (Ptolemais) ancient harbour, 2300 years old, have been uncovered. Akko in Hebrew was the most important port in the Hellenistic period (3^rd and 4^th century BC).

Researchers from Tel Aviv University have recently discovered a collection of gold and silver jewellery from around 1100 BC hidden in a vessel at Tel Megiddo.  One piece is a gold ear ring decorated with ibexes which is described as “without parallel.” 

Scientists from the Wieizmann Institute in Rehovot have designed a robot that can be controlled using brainwaves!  The team who designed it hope it can be used to help the paralysed, people who had strokes and those with locked in syndrome.

Labour’s Baroness Blackstone

Has attacked the sale of products from Israeli West Bank settlements.   She also said that if Israel struck at Iran with American backing the base at Diego Garcia should not be used.

Olympics

With the possible threat of an attack on Israel’s athletes, the Israeli secret service Shin Bet has been flown in to aid their security.  Security on the athletes’ arrival was felt to be insufficient.

Keep praying for Israel and the Jewish people as the Lord’s return grows ever more imminent.

You can still book for our Israel Tour in October, but move fast!  Tel. 01423 881803 for brochure.

Breaking News

Writing in today’s Times the former prime minister of Spain Josē Maria Aznar states Israel was excluded from the first meeting of the Global Terrorist Forum so as to not offend its host Recep Erdoğon of Turkey.  Worse still, a meeting of the victims of terror also excluded Israel.   This on the event of the anniversary of the attack on the Olympic village when 11 Israeli is despicable. Mr Aznar was himself a victim of a terrorist attack!

Israel Radio have reported that at least six of the 28 members of the Kadima party in the Israeli parliament say they will leave the party to join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition. It is reported that Netanyahu has offered them senior government posts. The expected defections mean that Netanyahu would have a solid majority of 71 members in the 120 seat parliament, making early elections less likely.

Party activists say party leader Shaul Mofaz must quit as leader, citing low numbers in the polls.

David Hoyle, Chairmain of the Bible Prophecy Foundation, and Host of nearly Ninety Tours to Israel.

WHY THE ANTICHRIST WILL PROBABLY BE A MUSLIM (PART ONE).

WHY THE ANTICHRIST WILL PROBABLY COME FROM "ASSYRIA" AND BE A MUSLIM (by Neville Stephens).

Ever since I was saved under “Second Coming Teaching” back in the mid seventies, eschatology, the Second Advent of Yeshua, the Rapture of the Church to Glory, and the general end times scenarios have always been close to my heart, as well as providing a very useful tool to witness, and to warn people of events to come on this earth.

However, the one area of “the last days” doctrine I was always uneasy with was the almost universally held belief amongst Bible Prophecy scholars and students that the Antichrist will come from the Revived Roman Empire, and that he would become a WORLD dictator and leader.

What emphatic evidence do they have to base such an argument? I think you will find that if you approach this issue with an open mind, and let Scripture speak for itself, you will find the evidence is very flimsy indeed!

Have we ever had a “world leader” in the past, despite the Bible giving the impression that dictators such as the Pharaohs of Egypt, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Darius the Mede, Cyrus the Persian, Alexander the Great of Greece, and the Caesars of Rome all held sway for vast sways of our ancient history?

None of these despots actually conquered all of the known world at their various points in history, and one by one, all of these great empires of seemingly invincible power, crumbled and were overtaken.

What they do have in common is that they all conquered Jerusalem, Israel, and the surrounding territories, and this is very important to remember. The Bible is Jerusalem-centric, and from the heavenly vantage point of Almighty God, all things revealed in the Scriptures relate to His ancient Jewish covenant people and the land promised to them.

Everything revolves around them in the eyes of the Lord, and also the countries which come into contact with them. Blessings on countries which help and bless Israel, and curses upon countries which attack them, physically, spiritually, and verbally (Genesis 12:3).

The Bible does not mention countries such as China, India, Russia, America, The Commonwealth countries of Britain, Canada, Australia, South Africa etc (and many other illustrious nations), simply because they had no direct involvement with Palestine and The Holy Land In Bible times.

If this was the case in the Old Testament, it stands to reason that the same consistent principle must apply to the New Testament, and in particular to the events prophesied to end at Armageddon and the Second Coming of Jesus. After all, He comes back to Jerusalem, and to Israel, not to Rome, London, or New York.

Before He returns in glory and judgement, however, he is preceded by this “man of sin”, and I will try and convince you in this short series of articles that there is far more Scripturally based evidence for claiming that the Antichrist will be a Muslim, an Islamist, possibly descending from Israel, but probably more likely to be a descendant of the former “Assyrian” Empire of the ancient prophets.

After all, one of his thirteen Biblical titles is “The Assyrian” (Micah 5:5), but this name of the beast (another name for the Antichrist) is nearly always overlooked by most prophecy buffs as they strive to endorse their view that he must come from “Rome and its subsidiaries, in the newly revived empire of modern days”.

Although very much in the minority, I have always tended to favour the viewpoint put forward by the likes of Bullinger, Welch, Allen, and others that this man will indeed be an Assyrian, as the Bible states, and it is always best to let the Bible be its own interpreter.

The Tim LaHaye “Left Behind” books, and the Christian television prophecy pundits with large audiences such as David Reagan, Ed Hindson, Hal Lindsey, Jack Van Impe, Perry Stone, Grant Jeffrey, and others have always maintained that this “beast” of Revelation 13 will come from Rome and its cohorts.

But with the emergence of the teachings from the Joseph Farah inspired World News Daily expositors and other excellent writers such as Joel Richardson, Walid Shoebat, Simon Altaf, and others, they are now making Christians sit up worldwide to re-evaluate their opinion! In particular, I would like to give an awful lot of credit to Richardson after reading his exciting books titled “The Islamic Antichrist”, and “The Mid East Beast”. Even great men such as Chuck Missler, Ron Matsen, and John MacArthur have been influenced by these splendid works, and have changed camps following several interchanges with these men, on television, at conferences, and at other Christian gatherings.   

If Islam is going to be the primary vehicle which Satan will use to fulfil his final rebellion against God, it is the Bible that must be the primary litmus test. What does the Bible say about the nature and the composition of the Antichrist’s empire? The fact that the Antichrist is “an Assyrian” is very important, and this geographical element will play a major part in our discussion in this series. It is a very vital ingredient for discovering where this “man of lawlessness” originates. But for now, I would like to concentrate on why this “son of perdition” does not come from Rome, Strasbourg, Brussels, Paris, London, or any other leading European country.

The Bible abounds with proofs that this Satanic Empire will consist only of nations that today are all Islamic! Despite numerous prevailing arguments for the emergence of a revived Roman Empire as the Antichrist’s power base, the specific nations that the Bible identifies as comprising this empire are today all Muslim.

The Old Testament lists the nations of this final empire quite specifically, as Ezekiel prophesies the future attack of the Antichrist against Israel. The prophet describes how an alliance of Gog, Magog, Meshech, Tubal, Persia, Cush, Put, Gomer, and Togarmah form an unbeatable alliance to defeat their ancient common foe, namely the chosen and covenant people of Israel (Ezek.38:1-7).

Gog is a title, such as a Pharaoh in Egypt or a Caesar in Rome, and this titled being is recorded here in Ezekiel chapter 38, and with his people of Magog  they appear here in Ezekiel, and again in the New Testament in the Book of Revelation. After Satan is released from his one thousand year imprisonment after the Millennial Reign Of Christ, he appears to resurrect Gog and Magog again for another final and decisive battle against the Holy One Of God (Rev 20.7-10).

So as we attempt to identify the eight nations mentioned in this ancient Biblical prophecy which is yet to be fulfilled, we are indebted to Joel Richardson for such a concise summary. Seven of these nations are mentioned in the book of Genesis as descendants of Noah and his three sons.

Bible scholars and historians can trace the names of Noah’s sons to certain people groups and regions, and thus identify them with modern nations. While the identification of some of these people groups is somewhat debatable, there is a general measure of agreement among Bible scholars as to their identification.

MESHECH AND TUBAL:  Modern day prophecy buffs such as Hal Lindsey, Jack Van Impe, and their counterparts quickly jump to the false conclusion that these two identities are Moscow and Tobolsk, because of their false premise that these enemies “come from the north” of Israel, and that their names fit in with their incorrect scenario that the northern enemy is Russia, rather than Turkey. Please remember that when Ezekiel  penned his words, Russia did not exist, and that the enemies of the Jewish nation were always the countries that encompassed their territory then, AND NOW! They were always Arabic and Islamic, not European, and certainly not Russian!

A modern day American scholar who does not fall into this false teaching, is Dr. Mark Hitchcock from Oklahoma, who has written many best selling prophecy books worldwide. In his impressive book “The Coming Islamic Invasion Of Israel”, he  points out that Ezekiel 27:13 describes Meshech and Tubal as trading partners with ancient Tyre, in what is today Lebanon. Hitchcock says “that it is highly doubtful that ancient Tyre was trading with people as far north as Moscow and Tobolsk”.

In fact it is even questionable whether or not these areas were even very well populated in Ezekiel’s day. Hitchcock concludes this section by stating that these ancient peoples dwelt in the area around, and primarily south of, the Black and Caspian Seas in Ezekiel’s day, and that these nations today are in the modern country of Turkey, and also possibly parts of Southern Russia and Northern Iran.

We need to keep a watchful eye on Turkey in these last days of Bible Prophecy, for they often fall under the radar of watchful eyes for some strange unknown reason. This former great country ruled Palestine and the Middle East area for centuries following the collapse of the Roman Empire, and they are making strenuous efforts today to revive their former Caliphate status for this critical region in world affairs. A former friend of Israel, they have now shown their true colours by returning strongly to their Islamic roots, and have sided with the many other Muslim countries in their sworn defiance of the newly formed Zionist state in Israel.

MAGOG: The identity of this people group has also led many people astray, mainly because “the easily led sheep-like” commentators of our western culture have followed the false premise laid down by Cyrus Schofield in 1909 in his now infamous “Schofield Reference Bible”, and also the similarly inaccurate teachings of Matthew Henry in his “Complete Commentary On The Whole Bible”.

Both of these great men of God have helped an enormous number of Christians along the pilgrim pathway, and also helped to bring sinners to saints at the foot of the Cross. We do not belittle their overall Christian efforts one iota. But sadly, like a lot of great men of God down through the ages, they have got their theology slightly wrong in places, and this is such a case.

Schofield and Henry base their perspective from the ancient writings of the Jewish Historian Flavius Josephus, who claimed that Magog founded the Magogians, who the Greeks called Sythians, and based in modern day Southern Russia.

Mark Hitchcock, however, claims that the Sythians were a great nomadic tribe who inhabited the ancient territory from central Asia all across the southern part of ancient Russia. He states that the descendants of Magog were the original inhabitants of the plateau of central Asia, therefore today the land of Magog is inhabited by the former Soviet Republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and possibly even northern parts of Afghanistan.

Walid Shoebat in his book “Islam And The Final Beast” agrees with this scenario, but adds that “the location of Magog is the land mass between ancient Armenia and Media, namely the Republics south of Russia and north of Israel, comprised of Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Turkestan, Chechnya, Turkey, Iran, and Dagestan”.

There is a third school of thought that Magog could include the country of Syria, but even if this was the case, we are still left with an Islamic nation. Thus, while the specific nations that comprise Magog may be partially in question, the same general area is agreed upon. We are dealing with Asia Minor, and possibly parts of central Asia, and some of the southern regions of the former Soviet Union. Please note that despite small differences of opinion, these countries and regions are all ISLAMIC, and not European!

Of the other countries mentioned in Ezekiel’s prophecy, Persia is obvious to everyone, the ancient country from Biblical times which only changed its name to Iran in 1935. There is no dispute over this identity amongst prophecy students.

Cush is also relatively easy to identify. Some scholars just claim that this is the modern country of Ethiopia, but to be more accurate it also encompasses the modern state of Sudan, and you will find it hard today to find a more sworn enemy of Israel and Christianity than this ultra radical Muslim Islamic state!

Put is the region west of Egypt, normally today called Libya, but again to be more accurate to the ancient terminology, most scholars would include what we would today call Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia (starting place of the Arab Spring Uprising of 2011)! Either way, we have another entirely Islamic region or nation.

Gomer, scholars seem to almost universally agree refers to the Celtic Cimmerians of Crim-Tartary of north central Asia Minor. Therefore Gomer is Gimarra, which is Cimmeria, which is Cappadocia. Cappadocia is simply central Turkey, and another Islamic region.

Togarmah is a descendant of Noah through Japheth, then Gomer (Gen.10:1-3). He is known to Assyrian records as Tilgarimmu in Asia Minor, which is a city state in Eastern Anatolia, more specifically the South Eastern part of Turkey, near the Syrian border.

You do not need to be an Einstein to work out from this, that all of these countries, states, or regions come from the north of Israel, that is the Turkish, Assyrian, Syrian, and the Muslim “istan” states of the former Soviet Union (as mentioned above), and every single one of them is ISLAMIC!!

Thus, in the final assessment, five of the eight nations mentioned by Ezekiel, occupy modern day Turkey, and possibly some parts of the Southern Russian regions near the Caucasus Mountains, as well as some of the Turkic nations of central Asia. Obviously the Lord directed Ezekiel to significantly highlight Turkey. The other three mentioned, Libya, Sudan and Iran, together with Turkey, form a perfect circle around Israel.

Turkey covers Israel’s entire northern horizon, while Iran (which has sworn to wipe Israel off the face of the earth) covers the eastern flank, with Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Israel finds herself surrounded on all four sides by ISLAMIC nations of the Antichrist’s Empire, and all desiring the downfall of the Jewish state! Therefore, in my opinion, the coming invasion of the Holy Land from the north with its confederacy of assisting nations will be Islamic, led by Turkey from the north, and not European led by Russia, from further north.

Neville Stephens.

Part Two To Follow Shortly.

PART FOUR OF OUR "EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS OF 2012", THIS THE NEW UP-DATED VIDEO FOR JULY.

"THE FRONT FELL OFF"!! WANT A GOOD LAUGH? THEN WATCH THIS SHORT VIDEO NEWS CLIP FROM AUSTRALIA AND DECIDE FOR YOURSELF WHETHER IT IS REAL OR NOT!!

JESUS ASKED? SATAN REPLIED DEMANDING HIS LIFE!! JESUS ACCEPTED!! WATCH THIS SHORT MUSICAL VIDEO AND BE BLESSED FOR WHAT YESHUA, OUR GREAT GOD AND SAVIOUR DID FOR US!!

THE MAD PRESIDENT OF IRAN STRIKES AGAIN!! PLEASE READ HIS LATEST OUTBURST CLAIMING THAT CHRISTIANITY AND JUDAISM DO NOT EXIST!!!

AHMADINEJAD'S LATEST BOAST -  JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY DO NOT EXIST!!!

“FCNN (Farsi Christian News Network) reports from Tehran (article supplied by http://www.midnightwatcher.wordpress.com/:

"Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of the Islamic Republic, in his opening speech at an Islamic conference held in Tehran on Tuesday 10th July 2012 said that the prophet of Islam is the prophet of Americas, Europe, and Asia, as well as Buddhists, and Hindus; adding that God did not create Judaism nor Christianity, in fact god only ever created one religion, Islam!

Thrashing out the details of the immediate need for a fundamental change in world affairs and the role of the United Nations, he said that the UN can be a key institution in this change; and went on to ask ‘but who controls the UN today?’

He reiterated: ‘people across the world, in Asia, Africa, Americas and all other parts of the world should wake up for the world to be rectified. The Prophet is to rectify the world affairs, our dear prophet Muhammad came to rectify the world affairs, Islam is a world religion, God did not send one religion to any one group of people, nor did he send it to one race of creed only’. After a lengthy discourse on Justice, he said: ‘My dear ones! Islam is a world religion and god has only one religion, that of Islam, he did not send Judaism or Christianity; Abraham was a harbinger of Islam, as were Moses and Jesus!

Repeating himself many times over, The President of the Islamic Republic added: ‘god has only ever created one religion, that of Islam!, our dear prophet belongs to the whole world, he is the last of the prophets, he is the prophet of Asians, Americans and Europeans, he is the prophet of Buddhists and Hindus too, he came to save everyone, our prophet is for all the people of the world’. Ahmadi-Najad said: ‘Muhammad, our dear prophet, is not just for Muslims, Koran is not just for Muslims either, Koran belongs to all the world’.

Adding; ‘we must be careful to have our weapons always pointed against Israel and bring down the dictatorial regimes in the region, Zionism is the cause of dictatorship in the region and across the world, and unless Zionism is destroyed, nations of the world will not have, nor see, happiness’.

‘To establish justice in the world, god has chosen one heavenly creature, who is himself the embodiment of pure justice and free from wrong decisions and mistakes he can deliver god’s promises. God has declared that when peoples of the world rise against tyranny, a child of prophet of Islam will come down from on high alongside Jesus Christ himself!’”

Article from http://www.midnightwatcher.wordpress.com/. 

READ AGAIN LANCE LAMBERT'S CHILLING PROPHECY ABOUT THE WEATHER IN BRITAIN THIS YEAR!!!

Do you ever wonder what is happening to the economy and the weather in Britain at present? Have another read of the prophecy made by the renowned Lance Lambert in August last year. It is quite chilling and startling!

"PROPHETIC WORD FOR GREAT BRITAIN ON SATURDAY 6TH AUGUST 2011".

Dear Friends, 

Hear the voice of the Lord, O Isles that I have so greatly loved and favoured. I the Lord the Almighty, I took you when you were nothing, clothed with skins and woad, and through My saving power, I made you great. When you were nothing, through My Word and your faith in Me, I lifted you and made you Great Britain.

Through many awakenings and many revivals, stage by stage, I took you until you became a great power with the greatest Empire in the history of the nations. From you My Gospel and My Word went throughout the world, and tens of thousands came into an experience of saving faith! That Empire with all its many failings and weaknesses was still one of the most just and righteous Empires of history.

Those Isles of yours were soaked with the blood of My faithful martyrs and its soil received the burnt ashes of those who would not renounce My Name, My Truth, and My Word. I, the Lord have not forgotten those who gave their all for Me!

But now the whole nation that I created and sustained has turned from Me. They paganise their land, state and institutions; there is no voice heard to warn the nation. False religion, the work of world rulers of darkness, cover your Isles; A Laodicean church, neither hot nor cold, rumbles on like machinery. It is a church where I am outside of its routine; its organisation and its methodology. It is Christianity without Me: Religion without Me!

My being is seared with pain, for judgement is determined against your land. I can do no other. I will destroy the vestiges of her greatness; I will return her to her first estate. I will wreck her economy, destabilise her in every way. I WILL CHANGE HER CLIMATE, EVEN HER WEATHER! I will prove to her that the way of the transgressor is hard and terrible. I will allow demonic forces held in check erstwhile by My Word and Gospel, and the living faith of so many, to become rampant in her social life, to the destruction of her society.

Will you who know Me and love Me go blind and dumb and deaf into this judgement? It is time for you who love Me, who are faithful to Me, to take action! Stand before Me and plead The Finished Work of My Son. At least cry out to Me, that there will be those who turn from darkness, from sin, and be saved. For whosoever shall call upon My Name in the midst of these judgements, I will save!

It will cost you everything to stand in the gap, but you will enter into My heart, and know deep fellowship with Me. Such travail conceived in your heart by My Spirit will cost your deeply, but it will end in My Throne and Glory.

Lance Lambert.

ANTICHRIST DECEPTION! THE WHITE HORSE IS NOW RIDING WORLDWIDE. FALSE PROPHETS ARE EVERYWHERE, INCLUDING AMERICA'S LATEST RISING STAR, JOEL OSTEEN!

ALERT! - THE ROMNEY RISING - THE WHITE HORSE PROPHECY OF MORMONISM!!

17 (NO MAKE THAT 23) REASONS TO BE EXTREMELY CONCERNED ABOUT THE SECOND HALF OF THIS YEAR!!!

What is the second half of 2012 going to bring? Are things going to get even worse than they are right now? Unfortunately, that appears more likely with each passing day. I will admit that I am extremely concerned about the second half of 2012. Historically, a financial crisis is much more likely to begin in the fall than during any other season of the year.

Just think about it. The stock market crash of 1929 happened in the fall. "Black Monday" happened on October 19th, 1987. The financial crisis of 2008 started in the fall. There just seems to be something about the fall that brings out the worst in the financial markets. But of course there is not a stock market crash every year.

So are there specific reasons why we should be extremely concerned about what is coming this year? Yes, there are. The ingredients for a "perfect storm" are slowly coming together, and in the months ahead we could very well see the next wave of the economic collapse strike.

Sadly, we have never even come close to recovering from the last recession, and this next crisis might end up being even more painful than the last one.

The following are 17 ( no, make that 22) reasons to be extremely concerned about the second half of 2012....

#1 Historical Trends

A recent IMF research paper by Luc Laeven and Fabián Valencia showed that a banking crisis is far more likely to start in September than in any other month.

So what will this September bring?

#2 JP Morgan

Do you remember back in May when JP Morgan announced that it would be taking a 2 billion dollar trading loss on some derivatives trades gone bad? Well, the New York Times is now reporting that the real figure could reach 9 billion dollars, but nobody really knows for sure. At some point is JP Morgan going to need a bailout? If so, what is that going to do to the U.S. financial system?

#3 Derivatives

Last week, Moody's downgraded the credit ratings of 15 major global banks. As a result, a number of them have been required to post billions of dollars in additional collateral against derivatives exposures....

Citigroup’s two-notch long-term rating downgrade from A3 to Baa2 could have led to US$500m in additional liquidity and funding demands due to derivative triggers and exchange margin requirements, according to the bank’s 10Q regulatory filing at the end of the first quarter.

Morgan Stanley – which Moody’s downgraded from A2 to Baa1 – said a two-notch downgrade from both Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s could spur an additional US$6.8bn of collateral requirements in its latest 10Q. The bank did not break down its potential collateral calls under a scenario where only Moody’s downgraded the bank below the Single A threshold.

Royal Bank of Scotland estimated it may have to post £9bn of collateral as a result of the one-notch Moody’s downgrade to Baa1 in a statement on June 21, but did not detail how much of this additional requirement was driven by margin for swaps exposures.

The worldwide derivatives market is starting to show some cracks, and at some point this is going to become a major disaster.

Remember, the 9 largest U.S. banks have a total of more than 200 trillion dollars of exposure to derivatives. When this bubble completely bursts it is going to be impossible to fix.

#4 LEAP/E2020 Warning

LEAP/E2020 has issued a red alert for the global financial system for this fall. They are warning that the "second half of 2012" will represent a "major inflection point" for the global economic system....

The shock of the autumn 2008 will seem like a small summer storm compared to what will affect planet in several months.

In fact LEAP/E2020 has never seen the chronological convergence of such a series of explosive and so fundamental factors (economy, finances, geopolitical…) since 2006, the start of its work on the global systemic crisis.

Logically, in our modest attempt to regularly publish a “crisis weather forecast”, we must therefore give our readers a “Red Alert” because the upcoming events which are readying themselves to shake the world system next September/ October belong to this category.

#5 Increasing Pessimism

One recent survey of corporate executives found that only 20 percent of them expect the global economy to improve over the next 12 months and 48 percent of them expect the global economy to get worse over the next 12 months.

#6 Spain

The Spanish financial system is basically a total nightmare at this point. Moody's recently downgraded Spanish debt to one level above junk status, and earlier this week Moody's downgraded the credit ratings of 28 major Spanish banks.

According to CNBC, Spain's short-term borrowing costs are now about three times higher than they were just one month ago....

Spain's short-term borrowing costs nearly tripled at auction on Tuesday, underlining the country's precarious finances as it struggles against recession and juggles with a debt crisis among its newly downgraded banks.

The yield paid on a 3-month bill was 2.362 percent, up from just 0.846 percent a month ago. For six-month paper, it leapt to 3.237 percent from 1.737 percent in May.

Needless to say, this is very, very bad news.

#7 Italy

The situation in Italy continues to deteriorate and many analysts believe that it could be one of the next dominoes to fall. The following is from a recent Businessweek article....

The euro zone’s third-biggest economy is seen as the next domino at risk of toppling after the European Union’s June 9 deal to lend Spain $125 billion in bank bailout funds. Yields on Italy’s 10-year government bonds reached 6.2 percent on June 13, up from just 4.8 percent in March. By pushing up Italy’s borrowing costs out of fear of default, investors are making a default more likely.

A recent Fortune article detailed some of the economic fundamentals that have so many economists deeply concerned about the Italian economy right now....

The main glaring risk threats that could propel Italy down the path to become Europe's next domino is the size of country's outstanding debt (at €1.9 trillion or 120% of GDP); the mountain of debt it has to roll over in the next 12 months (nearly €400 billion); and the market's cracking credibility around Prime Minister Mario Monti's ability to reduce the country's fiscal footprint and spur growth.

Further, fear around Italy's creditworthiness, which has recently been expressed by near cycle highs in sovereign CDS spreads and government yields on the 10-year bond, follow some rather glaring negative fundamentals over recent quarters and years: declining GDP over the last three consecutive quarters; a rising unemployment rate (especially among its youth); deterioration in labor market competitiveness; and increased competition for export goods to its key trading partners.

#8 Greece

I have written extensively about the financial nightmare that is unfolding in Greece. Unemployment has soared past the 20 percent mark, youth unemployment is above 50 percent, the Greek economy has contracted by close to 25 percent over the past four years and now Greek politicians are saying that a third bailout package may be necessary.

#9 Cyprus

The tiny island nation of Cyprus has become the fifth member of the eurozone to formally request a bailout. This is yet another sign that the eurozone is rapidly falling apart.

#10 Germany

German Chancellor Angela Merkel continues to promote an austerity path for Europe and she continues to maintain her very firm position against any kind of eurozone debt sharing.

Merkel, speaking to a conference in Berlin today as Spain announced it would formally seek aid for its banks, dismissed “euro bonds, euro bills and European deposit insurance with joint liability and much more” as “economically wrong and counterproductive,” saying that they ran against the German constitution.

“It’s not a bold prediction to say that in Brussels most eyes -- all eyes -- will be on Germany yet again,” Merkel said. “I say quite openly: when I think of the summit on Thursday I’m concerned that once again the discussion will be far too much about all kinds of ideas for joint liability and far too little about improved oversight and structural measures.”

In fact, Merkel says that there will be no eurobonds "as long as I live". This means that there will be no "quick fix" for the problems that are unfolding in Europe.

#11 Bank Runs

Every single day, hundreds of billions of dollars is being pulled out of banks in southern Europe. Much of that money is being transferred to banks in northern Europe.

In a previous article I included an extremely alarming quote from a CNBC article about the unfolding banking crisis in Europe....

Financial advisers and private bankers whose clients have accounts too large to be covered by a Europe-wide guarantee on deposits up to 100,000 euros ($125,000), are reporting a "bank run by wire transfer" that has picked up during May.

Much of this money has headed north to banks in London, Frankfurt and Geneva, financial advisers say.

"It's been an ongoing process but it certainly picked up pace a couple of weeks ago We believe there is a continuous 2-3 year bank run by wire transfer," said Lorne Baring, managing director at B Capital, a Geneva-based pan European wealth management firm.

How long can these bank runs continue before banking systems start to collapse?

#12 Preparations For The Collapse Of The Eurozone

As I have written about previously, the smart money has already written off southern Europe. All over the continent major financial institutions are preparing for the worst. For example, just check out what Visa Europe is doing....

Visa Europe is holding weekly meetings to discuss scenarios in the event the euro zone collapses, joining other companies that are preparing for a potential breakup of the currency bloc.

Chief Commercial Officer Steve Perry said Tuesday that management at the U.K.-based credit-card company meets weekly to explore various possible outcomes, including a total collapse of the euro zone.
#13 Global Lending Is Slowing Down

All over the globe the flow of credit is beginning to freeze up. In fact, the Bank for International Settlements says that worldwide lending is contracting at the fastest pace since the financial crisis of 2008.

#14 Sophisticated Cyber Attacks On Banks

It is being reported that "very sophisticated" hackers have successfully raided dozens of banks in Europe. So far, it is being estimated that they have stolen 60 million euros....

Sixty million euro has been stolen from bank accounts in a massive cyber bank raid after fraudsters raided dozens of financial institutions around the world.

According to a joint report by software security firm McAfee and Guardian Analytics, more than 60 firms have suffered from what it has called an "insider level of understanding".

What happens someday if we wake up and all the money in the banks is gone?

#15 U.S. Municipal Bankruptcies

All over the United States there are cities and towns on the verge of financial disaster. This week Stockton, California became the largest U.S. city to ever declare bankruptcy, but the reality is that this is only just the beginning of the municipal debt crisis....

Stockton, California, said it will file for bankruptcy after talks with bondholders and labor unions failed, making the agricultural center the biggest U.S. city to seek court protection from creditors.

“The city is fiscally insolvent and must seek Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection,” Stockton said in a statement released yesterday after its council voted 6-1 to adopt a spending plan for operating under bankruptcy protection.

#16 The Obamacare Decision

The U.S. economy is already a complete and total mess, and now the Obamacare decision is going to throw a huge wet blanket on it. All over America, small business owners are saying that they are going to have to let some workers go because they cannot afford to keep them all under Obamacare.

It would be hard to imagine a more job killing law than Obamacare, and now that the Supreme Court decision has finally been announced we are going to see many businesses making some really hard decisions.

#17 The U.S. Election

It is being reported that Barack Obama is putting together an army of "thousands of lawyers" to deal with any disputes that arise over voting procedures or results.

It certainly looks like this upcoming election is going to be extremely close, and there is the potential that we could end up facing another Bush v. Gore scenario where the fate of the presidency is determined in court. This campaign season is likely to be exceptionally nasty, and I fear what may happen if there is not a decisive winner on election day. The possibility of significant civil unrest is certainly there.

We definitely live in "interesting" times.

Personally, I am deeply concerned about the September, October, November time frame.

The other day, Joe Biden delivered a speech in which he made the following statement....

"It's A Depression For Millions And Millions Of Americans"

And what Biden said was right for once. Millions of Americans are out of work right now and millions of Americans have fallen out of the middle class in recent years. If you have lost everything, it does feel like you are living through a depression.

When people lose everything, they tend to get desperate. And desperate people do desperate things - especially when they are angry.

A whole host of recent opinion polls have shown that anger and frustration in the United States are rising to unprecedented levels. The ingredients are certainly there for an explosion. Someone just needs to come along and light the fuse. We truly do live in frightening times.

Let us hope for the best, but let us also prepare for the worst.

                                           **********************************
PS. This is a concerning and thought-provoking article from the  http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/ website (please go there for more details). But on top of their 17 dire warnings, I would like to add a few more of my own.

18. There is every chance of some major terrorist action in the upcoming London Olympic Games, and even if the mega counter-terrorist operation being put into place succeeds, watch out for diversionary tactics from the enemy as all of the main focus will be on London!

19. The USA Presidential elections were mentioned briefly above, but the scenario was omitted which could present us with a MORMON as the most powerful man in the Western World come November! Mitt Romney is already five per cent ahead of Obama in the national polls, but either way we will have a Mormon or a Muslim leading the USA come November. It is also worth mentioning here, that the Book of Mormon predicts that a powerful world leader from within their ranks will emerge at the end times to put the world to rights, so to speak! Obviously, this is not Scripture, but Satan has always used devious deceptive methods to lead people astray, and none better illustrated than the false Koran and the devilish faith of Islam!

20. There is a splendid new book out right now called "Petrus Romanus - The FINAL Pope Is Here". Pope Benedict has turned 85 and is increasingly showing signs of frailty and fatigue. Thes observations have prompted speculation over whether he will be the first pontiff in seven centuries to resign! He is the only Pope in living memory to discuss the possibility of resignation, and has recently said he recognises he is now in "the last stretch of his life"! Benedict is now the oldest reigning Pope since Leo XIII, who died aged 93 in 1903. For more than 800 years, scholars have pointed to the dark augury having to do with "The Last Pope". The prophecy, taken from St.Malachy's "Prophecy Of The Popes", is among a list of verses predicting each of the Roman Catholic Popes from Pope Celestine II to the final Pope, "Peter The Roman", whose reign would end in the destruction of Rome. Tradition holds that Malachy had been called to Rome by Pope Innocent II, and while there, he experienced the vision of the future Popes, including the last one, which he wrote down in a series of cryptic phrases. According to the prophecy, the next Pope (following Benedict XVI) is the final Pontiff, Petrus Romanus, or Peter The Roman. The idea by some Catholics that the next Pope on St.Malachy's list, heralds the beginning of "great apostasy" followed by "great tribulation" sets the stage for the imminent unfolding of apocalyptic events, something many non-Catholics agree with. This will give rise to the false prophet, who according to the Book Of Revelation leads the world's religious communities into embracing a political leader known as the Antichrist!

21. The much publicised Mayan Calendar predicts "the end of the world" on December 21 this year! This also ties in with the ancient prophesies of the Inkas, the Summarians, and several other of the "ancient religious" tribes of times gone by. Scripture tells us that this world will never end, but is it possible that a current "age" might come to a cataclismic end with judgement and tribulation? There are so many frightening scenarios going on right now in this decaying world of ours, that there is much speculation that something very severe and calamatous could occur to our planet around this crucial November/December period!

22. Read again the prophecies of Lance Lambert, John Hayward, and Stewart Dool on this blog. There is no doubt that there is a "shaking" going on in the world (Haggai 2:6), and that Britain, Europe, and even the mighty USA are suffering what many believe is judgement from Yeshua! And things will get worse, not better!

23. Also, read again the article on the dreams of impending further terrible judgement to be passed on the USA in the second half of 2012. They are from reliable and normal Christians with good pedigrees, both in leadership and others well acquainted with the Scriptures, not the usual scare-monger type of "nutter" out there, so read them again, and be warned!

It is the 1st of July today friends, and the second half of 2012 has begun. The first six months have seen some extreme weather patterns (see videos on this blog), floods, droughts, famines, earthquakes, tornadoes, giant hail stones, wild bush fires destroying vast areas, economic meltdown worldwide, the possible collapse of the Euro and even the Eurozone itself, Rampant apostasy in the Church, the emergence of new age and new religious philosophies, and much, much more. Well, if this is just for "starters" you had better hold on tight to your seat belts, for the second half of 2012 promises to be one heck of a roller coaster ride!

Neville.