Olive Tree Views Ministries with Jan Markell » Jan’s Articles

ON THE BRINK

admin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:10:17 +0000

Something major is in the works and it is very likely not good. So many have said Iran will be “ready to go” within days as it concerns her nuclear capability that it has become a bit like crying wolf. Few pay attention anymore.

Well, you’d better listen up.

The Jerusalem Post reports that Russia will start loading uranium fuel into the nuclear reactor of the Bushehr nuclear power station in Iran on August 21. This is the crucial step in outfitting Iran with nuclear weapons of mass destruction.

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The World’s Oldest Disease

admin — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 00:18:32 +0000

The world remains sick with a very old disease for which no cure has ever been found. It tends to go into remission now and then, but it always reappears as virulent as ever. It even develops into new strains. Some have called it a lethal obsession. It is called anti-Semitism, and if the Jews did not exist, some anti-Semite would invent him. It’s that bad.

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How About the “Israelification” of Our Airports?

admin — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 14:32:06 +0000

It’s time to follow Israel’s El Al Airlines and profile, interrogate, and treat everyone with polite suspicion. I have been through their routine more times than I’d like to remember. It’s an enormous inconvenience but the procedure works. Getting up at 3 AM to prepare for a two-hour cross-examination isn’t a joyride, but there are no El Al plane parts floating in an ocean or embedded on the ground.

According to Global Traveler magazine, El Al is the world’s most secure airline. This is both despite and because her planes are assuredly the highest value terrorist targets in the air.

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The Story of 2009: The Year the World Embraced a Single Leader

admin — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:50:42 +0000

By Jan Markell

The Bible is clear that there is coming a one-world leader at the end of days. Most just call him the antichrist; however, there are many other names for the man.

He is called “The Little Horn” (Daniel 7:8); “The King of Fierce Countenance” (Daniel 8:23); The Man of Sin (2 Thessalonians 2:3); The Son of Perdition (2 Thessalonians 2:3); The Lawless One (2 Thessalonians 2:8);The Beast (Revelation 11:7).

There is much floating over the Internet that Barack Obama is the antichrist. He is not. He simply doesn’t qualify. However, in 2009, he fooled the world into believing that he was a world leader. Many Web sites called him “The President of the world,” “the messiah,” “the world leader,” and much more along those lines. He persuaded the masses that he could unite the world, but to do that, America would have to be reduced from a superpower to the same level as Portugal or Brazil.

Eventually the antichrist will accomplish this, so Obama’s efforts are a run-up to it. During the campaign, he mesmerized the world. Not everyone was fooled, but the world is so longing for a “man with a plan,” a “Mr. Fix-it,” that they bought his redistribution of wealth statements and overlooked a dozen dangerous associations and said they just didn’t matter because this was the closest the world had come in modern history to this so-called “President of the world.” Shortly after the 2008 election, Tunisia was just one country of several that headlined the story, “Today America elects ‘the president of the world.’ “

On David Horowitz’s FrontPageMagazine, David Gutmann makes an interesting case for all of this “Mr. Unity” longing. Gutmann suggests Obama is already wearying of being President of the United States and suggests he is planning a bigger role in the world.

Gutmann says, “I am now betting even more money that our president is not particularly concerned about his own re-election in 2012 and that he will enact as many of his programs in health reform, energy conservation, arms reduction, and income redistribution as he can before his current term expires. He will then try for higher goals. My hunch is that he is already getting restless in his present job, and that he seeks a promotion to an ever greater status.”

Gutmann continues, “Observers of his presidency have been puzzled by the continuing pattern: Obama is still in campaign mode, spending a good deal of time giving major policy speeches, not only in the states but around the globe. What office is he running for now?”

Gutmann concludes, “If this is indeed Obama’s fantasy, then it is shared by a sizable portion of the world’s population. A poll taken in September of 2009 by the BBC indicated, at that time, that a large proportion of the global sample favored Obama as world president; and my Google search of ‘Obama, world President,’ turns up more than 120,000 posts.”

The stars have aligned for radical liberals worldwide. America’s Barack Obama is positioning himself to become the world’s first de facto president. Just a short time ago he was a mere college professor opining on important issues such as health care, education, and poverty. Now, he is taking on more daunting issues such as a “new world order” in the form of foreign appeasement and the surrender of the U.S. currency to foreign dictators. It is terribly emperor-esque.

The German newspaper Der Spiegel stated, “America has voted, and the world has voted along with it. Germany, Europe, every continent on earth has finally discovered the America that is an idea and not just a superpower. In only three countries — Israel, Georgia, and the the Philippines — did a majority prefer John McCain. The rest of the world was Obama country.”

They continue, “There were parties in cities on all continents, and they even celebrated in the Gaza Strip where, normally, the only good Americans are considered dead Americans. Obama is the world’s president, at least for a while.”

Someone wrote on their blog the sentiment below:

You get the drift of this. Obama is paving the way for the antichrist but at this point is too low in opinion/popularity polls to qualify. There are other reasons he is not qualified for this ungodly title. He still has the worship of some people, but he is no friend of God.

There is coming that “single leader.” Could it be that the world is turning into such a mess so that he — the antichrist — will soon come along and say, “I have the answer to solve all these problems”? Obama’s “messiahship” can’t come close to that of the antichrist who will be demonically-appointed to pull a million rabbits out of hats. So what we see now is just a microcosm of what will really happen.

More Proof: The East is Seducing the West

admin — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:01:52 +0000

On Saturday I had a spirited on-air discussion with a Bethel University professor who acted as spokesman for the college regarding its recent interfaith symposium. As I wrote last week, Buddhism was featured and there was a suggestion that there just might be “common ground” with Buddhism and Christianity when it comes to “meditation.” Hear the program at this link. The potential “common ground” regarding meditation would be an eastern-style mystical meditation. I saw once again how the East has been seducing the West for nearly 50 years.

When I came home from the radio studio I had more e-mails that brought the total to about 15 in two weeks on the issue of “spiritual formation.” It is hitting Christian universities and churches like Hurricane Katrina. Bad metaphor, you say. Not really. It is causing real destruction. And since spiritual formation, too, deals heavily with the mystical, I thought I would take time to give a brief overview of this topic. I know many of you feel nothing unsound as this could walk in the door of your church, but don’t be so sure!

Roger Oakland explains, “As the Word of God becomes less and less important, the rise in mystical experiences escalates, and these experiences are presented to convince the unsuspecting that Christianity is about feeling, touching, smelling, and seeing God. The postmodern mindset is the perfect environment for fostering spiritual formation.

“This term suggests that there are various ways and means to get closer to God and emulate Him. Thus, the idea is given that if you do certain practices, you can be more like Jesus. Proponents of spiritual formation erroneously teach that anyone can practice these mystical rituals and find God within. Some even say that having a relationship with Jesus Christ is not a prerequisite.”

Oakland continues, “The spiritual formation movement is widely promoted at colleges and seminaries as the latest and the greatest way to become a spiritual leader. It teaches people that this is how they can become more intimate with God and hear His voice. Even Christian leaders with long-standing reputations of teaching God’s Word seem to be succumbing. In so doing, many Christian leaders are frivolously playing with fire, and the result will be thousands, probably millions, getting burned.”

The proponents of the spiritual formation would tell you the Christian life is always a process of spiritual formation. We are always in transition, becoming more and more spiritual. But they seem to suggest that it would be helpful if we had some gimmicks to help us speed this up.

In 2008, Christianity Today online gave the term of spiritual formation credibility by interviewing the man most prominent in this movement, Richard Foster. They said to Foster, “Evangelicals have been reading your book, A Celebration of Discipline, for 30 years. What is the discipline you think we need to be exploring more at this point?” Foster then promoted “solitude.” But over time we have learned that once again those in this movement are borrowing from Hinduism, Buddhism, and Catholic mystics to perfect a practice for the 21st century.

Promoters of Emergent conversation say we are on the verge of an era that promises renewed spiritual awareness. “Spiritual disciplines” are being touted as the avenue to a spiritual reformation that will take Christianity to a new and higher level of spirituality, drawing all participants closer to God. The problem is that the means to attain this are not godly!

Pastor Bob DeWaay writes in his Critical Issues Commentary, “I met a lady who attends a Christian college. As part of her study program, she was required to take a course on spiritual formation. Spiritual formation in her class also concerned the study of Roman Catholic mystics and the search for techniques to help those who implement them feel closer to God. This study also explored ’spiritual disciplines’ which promised to make those who practiced them more Christlike. After she finished the class, she shared her text books with me.”

He continues, “To hear evangelicals like Dallas Willard and Richard Foster tell us that we need practices that were never spelled out in the Bible to become more like Christ or to get closer to God is astonishing. What is more astonishing is that evangelical colleges, seminaries, and church denominations are requiring their students and members to study practices that are relics of Medieval Rome, not found in the Bible, and closely akin to the practices of many pagan societies.”

So while the term spiritual formation sounds like a good concept as we all want to grow spiritually, it comes with questionable baggage that is, once again, mystical and hardly sound. Ask questions of your church leadership or college staff. Challenge the issue by pointing out that much of this foundation has been laid by mystics and Catholicism – and throw in some Buddhism and Hinduism as well. You will then conclude that when the term spiritual formation comes up as it does more and more frequently, it should have a “buyer-beware” label on it. If you see your church bulletin announcing its arrival, don’t just sit there — do something. Confront your leadership!

Such things as the Bethel University symposium on “meditation” and the spiritual formation movement are driven by what is known as “contemplative prayer.” Contemplative (mystical spirituality) is the heartbeat of the spiritual formation movement. It is more likely to derail you spiritually than draw you closer to God. Don’t believe them when promoters of spiritual formation tell you that this will take you to a higher level of Christianity and to a new level of spirituality. New spiritual programs aren’t necessary; rather, hearts yearning to grow in the knowledge of the Lord simply from reading the Bible. We cannot get any “closer to God” than Jesus Christ indwelling us through His Holy Spirit!

So, Isaiah had it right when he wrote, “For you have abandoned your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with influences from the east, and they are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they strike bargains with the children of foreigners” (Isaiah 2:5, 6).

Spiritual formation is just another “tickle the ears” effort drawing on experience rather than the Bible.

To help you better understand the dangers of this kind of prayer and the spiritual formation movement, check out the two items to the left: Roger Oakland’s book Faith Undone and Ray Yungen’s DVD, The Face of Mystical Spirituality. Also visit the “Spiritual Deception” category at my Web site.

America’s Foundations Are Being Destroyed: What Can the Righteous Do?

admin — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:56:26 +0000

A controversy has broken out between two sides over a serious issue. It concerns The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience, which has been in the works for months and released just prior to Thanksgiving. Allow me to present the case the signers are making for this Declaration and then share concerns that others have who will not sign it. If I may, allow me to report and you decide. I am sorry this takes more paragraphs than normal.

Bill Wilson, a Washington-based journalist and a part of Bill Koenig’s Koenig’s International News recently summed up the unstable tide of our times. He says, “The Senate is poised to debate socialized health care and take a vote on it despite its unconstitutionality and opposition from the American people. This bill shreds the Constitution and the rights of Americans under the false pretense that it will provide health insurance to every American. This bill is the linchpin to legislating unprecedented and unconstitutional socialist humanism as the form of government in America. These usurpers in Congress must be stopped, and the American people must be heard from. From a Constitutional perspective this legislation, in effect, surrenders the power of the people to the power of the government.”

Additionally, we have activist judges and other leftists who are attempting to ram down the throats of Christians some of the most radical, anti-biblical policies in the history of America. “Conscience issues” are facing doctors, nurses, pastors, ministries, radio personalities, and more.

As a result, 150 leaders representing Evangelical Christianity, Catholicism, and Orthodox Christianity, issued a joint statement called The Manhattan Declaration reaffirming their opposition to many of these conscience issues. In a nutshell they state, “Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act. We also will not bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s.”

Pretty gutsy! Again, these men and women are risking a lot! They have the courage to gamble with their convictions should a radical government decide to clamp down on them.

Indeed, socialist humanism is trying to take over America. Many of our leaders would love us to embrace government as our god. Someone once said that absolute evil is coming out of Washington. Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived (2 Timothy 3:13).

They are waiting in the wings to take over all the freedoms Americans have known. It is the aim of many of these secular humanistic men and women to relegate the Christian worldview to the trash heap of history.

You can read the entire Manhattan Declaration here and view the signers here.

But some very prominent Evangelicals would not sign on to this declaration as they say the gospel is nowhere presented or explained. They suggest it is because of the contradictory views held by the broad range of signatories regarding what the Bible teaches and what it means to be a Christian. They suggest Evangelicals are uniting in an ecumenical way with what they call “various apostate traditions” and those who represent “a different gospel.” These men and women are standing on their convictions as well.

John MacArthur will not sign on. Nor will my friend and radio colleague David Wheaton. But Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, signed the Declaration stating, “I believe we are facing an inevitable and culture-determining decision on the three issues centrally identified in this (Manhattan Declaration) statement. I also believe that we will experience a significant loss of Christian churches, denominations, and institutions in this process. There is every good reason to believe that the freedom to conduct Christian ministry according to Christian conviction is being subverted and denied before our eyes. I believe that the sanctity of human life, the integrity of marriage, and religious liberty are very much in danger at this very moment.”

He continues, ”We are especially troubled that in our nation today the lives of the unborn, the disabled, and the elderly are severely threatened; that the institution of marriage, already buffeted by promiscuity, infidelity and divorce, is in jeopardy of being redefined to accommodate fashionable ideologies; that freedom of religion and the rights of conscience are gravely jeopardized by those who would use the instruments of coercion to compel persons of faith to compromise their deepest convictions.”

The Bible says, If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? (Psalm 11:3). Our foundations are being hammered like never before. Edmund Burke wasn’t quoting the Bible but he spoke the truth when he said, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” Signers pledge to each other, and to fellow believers, that “no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence. It is our duty to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in its fullness, both in season and out of season. May God help us not to fail in that duty.”

Nor can I take issue with John MacArthur who states, “It (The Manhattan Declaration) assumes from the start that all signatories are fellow Christians whose only differences have to do with the fact that they represent distinct ‘communities.’ Points of disagreement are tacitly acknowledged but are described as ‘historic lines of ecclesial differences’ rather than fundamental conflicts of doctrine and conviction with regard to the gospel and the question of which teachings are essential to authentic Christianity.”

MacArthur concludes, “In short, support for The Manhattan Declaration would not only contradict the stance I have taken since long before the original ‘Evangelicals and Catholics Together’ document was issued; it would also tacitly relegate the very essence of gospel truth to the level of a secondary issue. That is the wrong way — perhaps the very worst way — for Evangelicals to address the moral and political crises of our time. Anything that silences, sidelines, or relegates the gospel to secondary status is antithetical to the principles we affirm when we call ourselves Evangelicals.”

We cannot slaughter babies, unplug the elderly, devalue the imperfect, glorify perversity, and devalue marriage without consequences. God cannot restore America until we make things right spiritually. Can a “declaration” do that? It would be far more appropriate if every church in America and the Western world got right with God, but let’s be realistic. That global end-time harvest many speak of is just not going to happen other than in pockets here and there.

Pray about your involvement in this. If your conscience tells you not to align with the signers, so be it. You can sign on here or you can just delete this e-mail. I believe judgment should be withheld on individual decisions regarding this issue. To be sure, tens of thousands of signers are risking their ministries and are courting punishment to stand for good and not evil.

So let’s withhold the chastizing of the signers. We are all aware of the Bible’s warnings not to be unequally yoked. This is the biggest drawback to The Manhattan Declaration. And all ecumenical endeavors put us on the road to the one-world religion. The question is, could signing this be an exception in light of the tide of our times and the need for a unified effort to stop evil?

While there are troubling names heading up The Manhattan Declaration who are outside of the Evangelical camp and who represent that “different gospel,” there are also some very sound leaders who have signed on. I would be honored to identify with the likes of Kay Arthur, Dr. Albert Mohler, Tony Perkins, Joni Eareckson Tada, Dr. Frank Wright from the National Religious Broadcasters, and others.

I probably land closer to radio Bible teacher and preacher Alister Begg on this issue. He states, “In accord with others who have chosen not to sign, my reservation is not with the issues themselves, or in standing with others who share the same concerns, but it is in signing a declaration along with a group of leading churchmen, when I happen to believe that the teaching of some of their churches is in effect a denial of the biblical gospel. I wonder whether it might not have been more advantageous for Evangelicals to unite on this matter, rather than seeking cooperation with segments from Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy.”

Perhaps it’s not too late to do this in some other form or declaration.

Now you know both sides of the story. Ask God for guidance on just where you should stand and He will lead you. No one should press you to compromise your convictions.

Thrown Under the Bus and Then to the Wolves

admin — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:29:49 +0000

Where is the outrage? Why aren’t good Americans by the millions bitterly protesting a Florida judge who has ruled that former Muslim Rifqa Bary, age 17, must return to Ohio? Her parents reside there, and when she lived with them, she became aware that they could kill her for her conversion to Christianity. They would be perpetrating an “honor killing,” something common under Sharia Law.

Rifqa and many converts like her are apostates. To make the story worse, her parents are a part of a radical mosque. Rifqa knows that in spite of her father’s assertions to the contrary, she has committed one of the worst offenses: Renouncing Allah for Jesus. Living as a Christian in a strict Muslim home is just not an option.

You may not know the rest of the story. As soon as she ran away to Florida, Ohio law enforcement dismissed her charges of abuse before they had even conducted an investigation. A month ago, Ohio Governor Strickland publicly stated that he wanted Rifqa back in Ohio. But Strickland has been a supporter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Thus, she was not just thrown under the bus, she was also thrown to the wolves.

As commentator Pamela Geller writes, “Imagine the psychological abuse for a 17 year old girl upon her return. Seventy-five pound Rifqa vs. the Islamic machine. David meets Goliath.”

Geller further comments that Rifqa’s parents have been very dodgy — even dishonest — on their immigration status. They have consistently refused to produce copies of their immigration documents. It now appears they are in the U.S. illegally.

Geller states that this is a landmark case on many levels. The obvious is the media’s censorship. Their bias is so fixed that they would rather put a teenage girl’s life at risk than report this story properly. Geller asked another “apostate” (Christian) if Rifqa is safe. That person responded, “No. She will die. She has gone too far. Islam has to take a stand for this because it is a shame. Rifqa has brought a shame for their religion and for their society.”

These kinds of cases pit Sharia Law against the rule of law in America. The U.N. estimates that there are 5,000 honor killings worldwide every year. The U.S. and Canada together have seen at least 20 such murders in the past decade. This is the manifestation of Sharia Law at its worst. It is Muslims slaughtering their own for being too Westernized, dressing improperly, or rejecting Islam.

Rifqa Bary could end up in a foster home in Ohio or she could be hauled off to Sri Lanka with her parents, Mohammed and Aysha Bary. But Rifqa has told a reporter from WFTV in Florida that she expects to be killed if she is forced to return to Ohio.

As Robert Spencer of “Jihad Watch” says, “No attention has ever been paid, in any official level, to Islamic apostasy law, to the risk that she’s under from that, and to the reality of Islamic ‘honor killing’ in the United States. None of that registered among any of the investigators.”

The story isn’t over yet. The entire family is to have psychiatric evaluations. If you ask me, officials in Florida and Ohio need the evaluation.

Here’s what you can do: Let the powers that be know there are plenty of us who aren’t interested in political correctness or cozying up to the “religion of peace” at the expense of a young girl’s life. Write Florida’s Governor, Charlie Crist: Charlie.Crist@myflorida.com or Ohio Governor Strickland: info@TedStrickland.com.

And pray for Rifqa and her parents. She states, “In many generations of my family, no one has known Jesus. I am the first. Imagine the honor in killing me.”

Barack Obama recently appointed Dalia Mogahed as his advisor on Islamic issues. She is on the President’s Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and recently appeared on a British TV show hosted by members of the extremist Islamist Hizb ut Tahrir Party. This group believes in the non-violent destruction of Western democracy and the creation of an Islamic state under Sharia Law across the world.

When the President of the United States stays silent on the subject of Islamification — or worse, appoints people who want to advance it — one can only surmise that it is something with which he is comfortable.

So there may be more Rifqa Barys if America is going to go soft on Sharia. Things unthinkable in the Western world may become routine.

To better understand these issues, visit the categories of “Islam & the Arabs” and “Christian Persecution” at our Web site.

Red-Letter Christians: Neo-Marxists in the Church?

admin — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:51:03 +0000

They call themselves “red-letter Christians.”

They feel it is convenient to blot out the words of Paul on homosexuality and focus in on the good deeds Jesus talks about. Most are pacifists who reject an “eye for an eye” (Leviticus 24:19-20). They focus on Jesus’ words about helping the poor, ministering to “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40), loving our enemies, etc. That justifies abandoning hundreds, even thousands of condemning verses in the Bible they choose to wish away. That makes homosexuality OK and war wrong! And remember, Paul and the others in the Bible represent Jesus’ words. They were His spokesmen.

Some who believe this way practice a form of neo-Marxism and others would call it “Christian Marxism” – an oxymoron if there ever was one. They note that the early church shared everything (socialism). A close cousin to this is “liberation theology.”

Those who are high profile in this movement include Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo, Brian McLaren and his Emergent bunch, and the National Council of Churches. Jim Wallis says,

“In those red letters, Jesus calls us away from the consumerist values that dominate contemporary American consciousness.”

Translate that to mean he loathes capitalism and opts for socialism and/or communism.

Wallis continues,

“Jesus calls us to be merciful, which has strong implications for how we think about capital punishment. When Jesus tells us to love our enemies, He probably means we shouldn’t kill them. Most important, if we take Jesus seriously, we will realize that meeting the needs of the poor is a primary responsibility for His followers. Ghandi once said that everybody in the world knows what Jesus was teaching in those verses exceptChristians.”

To your average evangelical, the words of Ghandi are meaningless.

Red-letter Christians feel evangelicals spend far too much time worrying about abortion and homosexuality. Wallis and Campolo make the college circuit and get standing ovations from young people who are seeing them as newfound gurus. Red-letterChristians champion “social justice,” the cause of illegal immigrants, environmentalism, high taxes, discrimination issues, socialized medicine, and getting rid of the death penalty. They are first to stand in line to play the “blame America” game.

Red-letter Christians support unrestricted big government, sometimes equating the welfare state with the Kingdom of God.

This crowd loves to spend other people’s money. They put down conservative Christianity when, in fact, it is conservative Christians who are first to step up to the plate whenever there is a disaster at home or abroad!

As David Noebel of Summit Ministries writes about Wallis,

“Wallis and his Sojourners’ community believe Castro, Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega, and the other revolutionary forces are the Communist paradises the U.S. needs to emulate in order to establish ’social justice.’”

Noebel emphasizes the startling and frightening fact that Wallis is Obama’s spiritual advisor.

Ronald Nash in his book, Why the Left Is Not Right, says,

“Wallis was pro-Viet Cong and gloried in America’s defeat in Vietnam. Wallis said, ‘I don’t know how else to express the quiet emotion that rushed through me when the news reports showed that the U.S. had finally been defeated in Vietnam.’”

But he said not a word about the blood baths that followed.

The issues you will never hear red-letter Christians talking about include winning the lost, the lateness of the hour, or sin and repentance. Their mantra is peace, yet they do not understand that only Jesus ruling from Jerusalem will bring peace to this planet. They would scoff at that and say peace would be better accomplished if they saved the planet with their works based on the red letters of Jesus. And their understanding of the peace of God is minimal.

As Mark Tooley of the Institute for Religion and Democracy writes,

“These people only criticize the U.S. and Israel in its human rights critiques, while remaining largely silent about monstrous regimes. They focus on America’s supposed mistreatment of Indians, about slavery, and the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. But they will never talk about the Holocaust.”

You will also note they don’t talk about the butchery of Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, or Kim Jong IL.

Red-letter Christians join the chorus of those who believe in a utopia with no wanting or war. Yes, that will come someday, but not the way they think. This could come as a shock to them just because they have little to no regard for other parts of the Bible. They have almost created a new meaning for the term “biblical illiteracy.”

It is also tragic that these folks are frequently called “the evangelical Left.” They don’t have even 1% of evangelical theology in a single bone in their body. They cherry-pick the verses they like, almost exclusively the red letters of Jesus.

Also on a sad note, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) is promoting a Leftist conference featuring Jim Wallis October 21. This was announced in their “NAE Update” received today, October 5, by e-mail. Tooley’s more Mainline Protestant Institute for Religion and Democracy takes a more righteous stand against Leftist causes than does the NAE.

Is Time Running Out?

admin — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:59:28 +0000

How can a world filled with secular humanists, atheists, and just plain God-haters be pondering the end of the world? They are embracing what is found in the mystical Mayan calendar that has the world ending on December 21, 2012. And has the media taken notice! The History Channel, Fox News, U.S. News & World Report, ABC News, USA Today, and more are talking or writing about it. Books on the topic are flying off the shelves.

Hundreds of Web sites discuss the issue. The world of skeptics is captivated!

Dr. Mark Hitchcock has come out with an excellent overview of the story in his new book 2012 and the End of the World. This ministry carries the book found at “Products.”

December 21, 2012, marks the end of the 5000-year cycle Mayan calendar. The ancient Aztec calendar corroborates the Mayan end date and points to the same date as the end of the world. The sudden vanishing of these two civilizations remains a mystery. The most accepted theory today is some kind of environmental collapse and resulting famine. One thing is certain: They were sky-watching timekeepers.

The Mayans were obsessed with astronomy, and they built entire cities that were in alignment with astronomical events. There is speculation as to how they attained such an advanced level of knowledge and understanding, although none of it lines up with the Bible. The unbelieving world doesn’t know this and is thus connecting the dots improperly as they buy into the 2012 madness. Throw in Nostradamus and the Bible Codes and you have a recipe for the supernatural that the world seems to crave today.

Hollywood is about to join in on this with the movie simply called 2012. It may not be for everyone with its images of death, destruction, scorched earth, and all-out carnage of biblical proportions. The final scene of the trailer shows a stunning image of the U.S.S. John F. Kennedy caught in a tsunami washing over Washington, D.C., and the White House.

Setting apocalyptic dates is nothing new. In the past such people were mocked and rightfully called false teachers. So what’s different over something that may be a silly Mayan Y2K? The reaction to this may make that Y2K panic pale in comparison.

Clearly some people are asking questions about the end of the age like never before. As Hitchcock says in his book, “The rapidly increasing tempo of life, combined with today’s natural disasters, wars and rumors of wars, terrorism, and mounting financial uncertainty has given the entire world a sense of impending crisis.” The Bible doesn’t suggest any such date but the pop culture of today is captivated with it!

Christians should be seizing the opportunity to share the gospel with many who are now giving some credibility to terms like Armageddon, apocalypse, and the end of the world.

Author Mark Hitchcock presents the Christian perspective as to the end of the age. We know some things for sure: 1) We are living in the last days; 2) God’s timetable is not our timetable; 3) Christ’s coming is closer than it has ever been; 4) The timing is in God’s hands. None of us knows how much time we have left.

We cannot know when Jesus will come and we must stay away from setting dates. Date-setters are upsetters, and they are batting zero as to accuracy. They promote

unnecessary worry and even panic. Jesus said no one knows when the end is coming (Acts 1:7). But that doesn’t mean that Christians cannot seize the moment here and talk about these issues to some who have swallowed the lie that 2012 is it and the Mayans had the inside secret.

Don’t gamble with your eternal destiny. Time may very well be running out. There really is a new world coming. We may be on the threshold. Even though the 2012 phenomenon is not setting a day or an hour, it is still unwise to even suggest years. Previous date-setters have made fools out of themselves. Only God the Father knows and He’s told no one!

To better understand these issues, visit our “Prophecy Watch” link at our Web site.

The Hijacking of 9/11

admin — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:04:31 +0000

The infamous date of 9/11 is about to be hijacked. This effort to reshape the American psyche has nothing to do with healing the nation and everything to do with leading the nation along the path of the radical transformation of America. The president signed into law a measure in April that designated September 11 as a National Day of Service.

September 11 is hardly a sacred day. Those days belong to God. But it is one of the most memorable days in American history when 3,000 Americans died a horrible death just for being Americans. So what’s wrong with the plans being made for this solemn day?

President Obama was counting on two Marxists who blame America for the 9/11 terrorist attacks to help turn September 11 from a day of solemn remembrance into an unseemly celebration of radical environmentalism and big government. One of them was Van Jones, a radical Marxist who thankfully stepped down this past weekend after Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, and others revealed his perverse connections. The other is Lennox Yearwood, an ordained minister of the Church of God in Christ who is also a Marxist, wishing America no good.

As stated in The American Spectator, “about 60 groups including those associated with Yearwood and Jones, are planning to help the Obama administration greenwash the meaning of 9/11. They want to turn each September 11 into a National Day of Service focused on the importance of bicycle paths, ethanol, carbon emission controls, putting solar panels on your roof, and radical community organizing.” Some of those groups are ACORN, the AFL-CIO, Friends of the Earth, Rainbow-PUSH Coalition, the Urban League, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, and the unsavory left-wing pressure group Color of Change.

Though Jones stepped down a few days ago, one has to wonder why he was one of the appointees in the first place. What kind of judgment does a person have to appoint a Van Jones to a committee who after 9/11 stood with the terrorists? Just one day after 9/11,

he held a vigil in which he expressed solidarity with Arab and Muslim Americans as well as “victims of U.S. imperialism around the world.”

World Net Daily reports those who are opposed to health care reform are to be blasted as “right-wing domestic terrorists” on 9/11. As The Heritage Foundation says, “The Obama team has designed September 11 as the day to liken conservatives to al-Qaida terrorists.”

The antics of the religious Left are not much better. The appointed guru of this movement is Jim Wallis, himself a Communist. Shane Claiborne, writing for Jim Wallis’s magazine Sojourners, suggests remembering 9-11 by donating to Christian Peacemaking Teams

(CPT). Clairborne writes, “We lament the violence suffered by 9/11 victims and their families, and we lament the violence that people in Afghanistan and Iraq have suffered these past eight years. We cry out against the violence, and we want to act now for peace.” Note the religious pacifist’s moral equation. The U.S. suffered “violence” on 9-11. And Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered “violence” at the hands of the U.S. ever since then.

Sadly, this comes down to politics. The Left believes that 9/11 is a “Republican day” because it focuses on issues like patriotism, national security, and terrorism. According to the Left, 9/11 was long ago hijacked by Republicans and their enablers and unfairly used to bludgeon helpless Democrats at election time. The current plan is to turn a “day of fear” that helps Republicans into a day of activism called the “National Day of Service” that will help the Left. Nihilistic liberals are planning to drain 9/11 of all its real meaning.

September 11 is a national day of mourning and not a day for service projects led by hard-core Leftists and Marxists. Taking the focus off the events of 9/11 disrespects and dishonors the memory of those who died. But we must never forget that God had His hand on America that day. The terrorists had hoped to kill hundreds of thousands. Their plans were foiled. As horrific as the day and its aftermath were, remember that it could have been 100 times worse.

Rather than politicizing this event, how about spiritualizing it? Use the time to pray for America and thank God that He has kept us safe for eight years. How much longer will He have mercy on this nation?

And remember that 3,000 people got up that morning thinking life would go on a lot longer for them. It came to an abrupt and agonizing end. The same could happen to you. Eternity spent in the right place will be glorious. Eternity spent in the wrong place is unthinkable because forever is a very long time. If you are unsure of your salvation, I encourage you to turn your life over to the Lord Jesus today — while there is still time. There may not be time tomorrow.