"THE TWO FACES OF ISLAM" A WEEKEND EDITORIAL FROM THE SPLENDID BARNABAS FUND.

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29 AUGUST 2014

The two faces of Islam Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund Dr Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun, the Grand Mufti of Syria Last month I was in Damascus. I had the great privilege of meeting Dr Ahmad Badr Al-Din Hassoun, the Grand Mufti of Syria. He is a man of peace who pleads repeatedly for equal and harmonious relations between Muslims, Christians and followers of all religions as members of one human family. Because of this stance, he has endured great abuse and criticism from some of his fellow Muslims and was targeted for assassination by the Saudis. Knowing that he would have good security and protection, the group of Islamist hit-men were instructed that, if they could not kill the Grand Mufti himself, they should kill one of his sons instead. In due course they murdered his teenage son. After some months, two of the perpetrators were caught and imprisoned. The Grand Mufti asked to see them and they were brought to him blindfolded. He instructed that their blindfolds be removed, and the two young men, discovering themselves face to face with the head of Sunni Islam in Syria and the father of their victim, shook with fear. But, to their astonishment, the Grand Mufti gently reached out his hands to them and told them not to be afraid. He said that he did not want their mothers to weep as his own bereaved wife had wept for her son, and therefore he forgave them. Last week I was in northern Iraq and came face to face with the stark reality of another face of Islam, that of ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, now calling itself simply the Islamic State). The sheer brutality of this face of Islam cannot be comprehended. It kills men, women and children, the elderly, the poor and the weak. It cuts in half little children and commits acts of ethnic cleansing that border on genocide. This behaviour is pure barbarism reminiscent of the early Assyrians and later Babylonians who once inhabited this region and were known for their immense cruelty. Islamic apocalyptic dimension ISIS militants ISIS has started to produce a magazine, in English and other European languages, calledDabiq. The name is actually a town not far from Aleppo in northern Syria, which is important in Islamic history because it was the site of a major battle between the Ottomans and the Mamluks in 1516. But, more significantly, Dabiq is mentioned in a hadith (tradition recording the words and actions of Muhammad) that prophesies that a great battle will be fought there in the End Times, in which the Muslims will be victorious over the Christian forces, and which will be the first step in the Muslim conquest of the whole world. In Islamic eschatology, Jesus, whom Muslims call Isa, will descend via a minaret of the Great Mosque in Damascus, and from there he will lead his armies to victory. “Victory” means destroying every cross, killing every Jew and pagan, and either converting every Christian to Islam or killing them. This apocalyptic dimension is now shaping ISIS as it sees itself fighting an End Time battle. Read full article...

"THE END TIMES INVASION - PART TWO" FROM THE EXCELLENT TERRY JAMES PROPHECY LINE.

New post on Terry James Prophecy Line The End-Times Invasion – Part Two by Terry James The world changed drastically in the 20th century. The most powerful time of change came in mid-century, with World War II and the Jewish Holocaust, accompanied by the explosion of the first atomic bomb, and that horrific weapon’s first use on Hiroshima, then Nagasaki, Japan. There swiftly followed the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls at Qumran, and the birth of modern Israel, coinciding with the formation of the United Nations. Technology, the development of which had moved at a snail’s pace throughout history until the late 19th century, seemed to ignite in rocket-like fashion. Inventions burst forth from the time of the steam engine to the telegraph, electric power, then to powered flight…and, well, you know the rest. President John F. Kennedy, in his January 20, 1961 inaugural address, summarized the position that generation held on history’s timeline: “…man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life…” The very year the president was assassinated, America’s leaders chose to gravitate toward the latter option verbalized by Kennedy two years earlier—to begin to “abolish human life”. That year –1963—the Supreme Court elected, without inviting America’s electorate to participate in the decision, to kick God out of public schools. This downward spiral of moving away from the Life-Giver –God—and toward death, eventuated ten years later with Roe v. Wade and the murder of almost 60 million babies in their mothers’ wombs since. Something profound had happened to this human sphere. When one dissects the strange dichotomy –the fantastic progress in man’s knowledge and technological achievement, and at the same time the geometric progression of violence and degeneration of morality in this nation and the world—a truly empirical conclusion must acknowledge that something eerie is going on. Planet Earth is experiencing dynamic rearrangement that even the most fervent apostle of the faith system called evolution must be hard-pressed to explain. God’s Word, the Bible, through Jesus and the Old and New Testament prophets, however, are not hard-pressed to explain. This world is becoming as it was in the days of Noah and Lot (read Luke 17:26-29). Planet Earth is experiencing an invasion--not from Mars, the Pleiades, or some other far-distant star system, but from right here, where earth’s trouble has stemmed since the leader of the invasion first entered man’s sphere of existence. The invasion is interdimensional, not extraterrestrial. Lucifer, in his first assault on God’s creation called man, first deceived Eve, then convinced Adam to disobey God, with whom Adam and his wife had walked perfectly. From that point, Satan attacked humanity with a vengeance, his minions even intermingling their seed with humankind. The chief Scripture that both tells of the serpent’s (Satan’s) war against humankind and the fact that God promised that woman’s (Eve’s) seed would ultimately crush the Devil’s head, is found here: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). What I want to look at in this Scripture is the fact that the invaders (Lucifer’s minions, the one-third of the angels who rebelled in heaven and were expelled) possess “seed”. They would go on to intermingle their "seed," with the “seed” of the woman, Scripture tells us: “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown” (Gen. 6:4). We again are given the abominable mingling of the fallen angels' seed with the seed of human women: "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (Jude 1:6-7). Just as the Sodomites–the homosexuals of the doomed city of Sodom-- committed fornication with “strange flesh” (with those of the same sex), the fallen angels, Jude is saying, went after “strange flesh” (those of a different creation –human women). Jesus said it would be the same as in that antediluvian time when He returns in the second coming. The minions of Satan will again be in process of contaminating or corrupting human genetics. God had to judge that world, killing all except Noah and his seven family members, and animals selected from earth’s animal populations. The latter-day invasion is manifested–I’m convinced—through the strange, unexplained UFOs, apparitions, stigmata, and other things reported by even quite credible people. Just watch Discovery, History, A & E, and National Geographic cable channels to understand just how much of these things are going on today. Additionally, we’ve all heard about the recent group of former military people, pilots, scientists and government officials--now retired--who have come forward to try to get out the message that, indeed, these things are being witnessed. Mainstream news media and government by-and-large are still stonewalling efforts to get to the truth about these anomalous matters. The main point to make is that this invasion is but one more signal of where we stand on God’s prophetic timeline. Are there “nephilim”–giants, as in the days of the Genesis 6 report—again coming into view? Is there presently luciferian intervention into the very genetic make-up of humankind? I’m of the opinion that the answer is “yes,” at least in that the rulers of the darkness of this world (Ephesians6:12) are influencing human scientists and others through cloning and other covert projects. I will speculate a bit here by way of a question or two. Why is the “son of perdition” declared by Jesus himself to be lost from the beginning (Jn. 17:12)? Isn’t everyone to have a chance to repent and be saved—to be given their day in court–whether at the bema (judgment seat of Christ) or at the great white throne? Yet this man of sin–the son of perdition, the Antichrist “beast” and his sidekick, the false prophet, are apparently not given their day in court. Both are simply thrown into the lake of fire. They are the first two to be thrown in that eternally burning place of punishment. There will be none other in that place prepared for the devil and his angels until Satan is thrown in that fiery lake at the end of the 1,000-year reign of Christ. Then, they will be joined by the billions upon billions of lost souls who are cast in the lake of fire following the great white throne judgment of Revelation 20:11-15. Here is my speculation, but one based upon a good scriptural foundation, I think. The beasts described in Revelation chapter 13 –both the world leader, who will demand worship, and the false prophet, who will force people to worship him—might well be without souls, in the sense that human beings have souls. Human souls can be redeemed. Angels cannot be redeemed, once lost –as in the angels who rebelled with Lucifer. It is prudent to ask if the Antichrist and the false prophet are the offspring of the angels–are nephilim, the result of the intermingling of the serpent seed with the seed of human women. Certainly, they will perform great feats as Genesis chapter 6 reports of the angelic/human offspring of the pre-Flood times. Are Antichrist and the false prophet to be nephilim? Again the commercial, if you will indulge me. That’s what my novels, The Rapture Dialogues, and The Nephilim Imperatives, are about, in general –that, mixed with a human love story and with the love story of all time –God’s love for His creature called man. I believe that if you get and read the novels you will find the story fascinating, as Mr. Spock of Star Trek would say. Although fiction, the story is wrapped in truth from God’s Word—and in Bible prophecy, in particular. The story is all about the end times invasion we are even now experiencing. Terry James | August 29, 2014 at 12:59 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL:http://wp.me/p3bg6P-4u

"THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH" BY DR. ARNOLD FRUCHTENBAUM FROM ARIEL MINISTRIES IN THE USA. GOOD VIDEO TEACHING HERE TO GIVE YOU "A TASTER" OF WHAT ARNOLD WILL BE SPEAKING ON AT "TURF" IN CROSS KEYS AND AT "NANCY'S FARM" IN NEWPORT ON BOTH THE 16TH AND 17TH OF SEPTEMBER. PLEASE DO NOT MISS THESE TWO MEETINGS - THEY WILL BE ELECTRIC (NEV).

"THE TWO WITNESSES" BY PAUL KUSIAK FROM THE EXCELLENT "RAPTURE READY" WEBSITE!

The Two Witnesses

By Paul Kusiak

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After the Rapture God will send two people to act as His special representatives to the world. Their identities are a mystery, but it isn’t who they are that’s important, it's what they say.

They’re described in Revelation 11. Here is what the Bible has to say about the Two Witnesses.

1) THEY WILL PREACH FOR 3 1/2 YEARS

“And I [God] will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth” (Revelation 11:3).

God doesn’t want “anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

And so even in the mist of His wrath He offers the world a chance to repent and be forgiven. He will send Two Witnesses to represent a living God to a dying world. Their witness will last 1,260 days: three-and-a-half years.

The Bible says that they will be clothed in sackcloth. Sackcloth represents mourning (Genesis 37:34) and repentance (Matthew 11:21). Explaining the importance of mourning (feeling guilty of sin) and repentance (turning from sin, to Christ) will be the mission of the witnesses.

2) THEY WILL PREACH THE WORD OF GOD

“These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth” (Revelation 11:4).

The Witnesses are described as lampstands filled with oil from the olive tree. Oil represents grace and the light from the lampstand represents a life lived in the light of Christ. So they are filled with grace and the light of Christ shines through them.

Their message will also be one of grace and the light of Christ and will stress three main points:

1) “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

2) “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

3) “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16-17).

3) THEY WILL PERFORM MIRACLES

“And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner. These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire (Revelation 11:5-6).

God will supernaturally protect the Two Witnesses until their work is complete. He gives them the ability to kill their enemies through fire and cause droughts, turn water to blood and bring plagues upon the earth.

The Witnesses’ message of salvation through Jesus Christ is so important that God will not let anyone stand in their way until the three-and-a-half years are completed.

4) THE ANTICHRIST WILL KILL THEM

”When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit [The Antichrist] will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified” (Revelation 11:7-8).

For reasons known only to Him, God will allow the Antichrist to kill the Two Witnesses. This will greatly increase the influence and popularity of the Antichrist because many will reject the message. of the Two Witnesses.

5) THE WORLD WILL CELEBRATE THEIR DEATHS

“Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth” (Revelation 11:9- 10).

Why does the world reject the message of the Two Witnesses? The Bible gives us the answer:

”Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed” (John 3:19-20).

People don’t want to be told they are sinful and so reject the light of God because their sins are exposed. But there is hope because the Bible adds:

“Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” (John 3:21)

All people have a choice to either accept or reject Jesus Christ.

6) GOD WILL RESURRECT THEM

”Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them. In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. In the earthquake seven thousand people were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven” (Revelation 11:11-13).

After the three-and-a-half days the world will hear the voice of God commanding, “Come up here!” and the Two Witnesses will be resurrected and brought up into heaven. This will be a terrifying event and will be followed by a horrible earthquake which will cause massive damage and seven thousand deaths.

The resurrection of the Two Witnesses serves at least two purposes:

1) It shows the world that these truly were God’s representatives.

2) It shows the world that for those who put their trust in Christ nothing will be able to separate them from God -- not even death because to be “absent from the body is to be present with the Lord forever” (2 Corinthians 5:8).

THE LATEST PERSECUTION UPDATE FROM THE EXCELLENT BARNABAS FUND.

Problems viewing this email? View it on our website. 22 AUGUST 2014 Latest need “You can help,” say church leaders in war-ravaged South Sudan The message from senior South Sudanese church leaders, who came together this week for a conference convened by Barnabas Fund, is one of desperate crisis and need – and a united, loving response. These leaders are determined to provide the support our brothers and sisters in South Sudan need. Will you help them support Christian communities ravaged by conflict? Read more... Donate South Sudanese church leaders met for a conference convened by Barnabas Latest international news Displaced Iraqi Christians die in miserable conditions Reports have emerged that Iraqi Christians driven from their homes by Islamist militants are beginning to die in crowded camps and other temporary places of refuge. Read more... More than 1.2 million Iraqis have reportedly been driven from their homes Five Christians accused of murder in Laos found not guilty A group of Christians in Laos who were falsely accused of murder have been found not guilty. The believers, who remain in custody, were arrested after a sick woman sought prayer at her local church, converted to Christianity and later died. Read more... Village officials often ignore the rights that Christians in Laos should enjoy CC BY-SA 2.0 / sweet_redbird Indian Christian women arrested following false accusations of forced conversions Four Christian women were arrested in the Indian state of Karnataka after visiting the home of a non-Christian family. Shirley, Mini, Leelamma and Shubha were falsely accused by residents of Pulittadi village of forcing the family to convert by “laying siege to the house”. Read more... Indian Christians praying News in brief Iran: Imprisoned pastor Saeed Abedini threatened by ISIS Nigeria: Repeated attacks target Christians in Taraba state North Korea: American missionary transferred back to labour camp Read more...

PASTOR ARTHUR WICKS FROM PONTYPRIDD SPEAKING ON "A PECULIAR PEOPLE" AT TURF IN CROSS KEYS ON TUESDAY EVENING.

"AMAZING LOVE" (THE PASSION OF CHRIST) BY HILLSONG - BE BLESSED MY FRIENDS!

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