New Technologies Boosting Transhumanist Agenda

 

Will there one day be a one-world religion? If so, what will it look like? Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, or any other particular faith in the world? Perhaps it would look somewhat agnostic, pagan, shamanistic, occultic or atheistic? Or even an ecumenical blend of all of the above? Perhaps even none of the above?

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The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies recently examined the area of Transhumanism and wondered if it might actually turn out to be ‘mankinds final religion’. Dirk Bruere admitted that there were varied interpretations and definitions of what Transhumanism really is, but settled on the following one for reference:

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“Transhumanism is a class of philosophies of life that seek the continuation and acceleration of the evolution of intelligent life beyond its currently human form and human limitations by means of science and technology, guided by life-promoting principles and values.” (Max More 1990).

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The average Transhumanist is typically male, likely to be an engineer or scientist, technologically savvy and could easily be one of a “non-negligible contingent of current or former occultists”.

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His/her primary goals and ambitions include the elimination of aging, eternal existence via ‘upward evolution’, achieving super-intelligence and maximising the use of artificial intelligence, in such forms as Googles self-driving cars, applications like Apples Siri, intelligent robots and the like. Generally, anything that would help mankind to ‘transcend humanity’ would be considered part of the transhumanist exhaustive agenda.

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Bruere further states that Transhumanist goals “address the deepest hopes and fears of the human mind life, death, the afterlife, immortality, the nature of God(s) and the destiny of the universe”.

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Sounds very much like your typical religion. However, the difference, based on Brueres controversial viewpoint, is that “unlike conventional religions they (transhumanists) seek hard engineering answers rather than ill-defined and ancient obfuscations”.

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The Transhumanist fraternity certainly has friends in high places and is not afraid to toot its own horn. Zoltan Istvan, US Presidential candidate of Transhumanist Party and Author of bestselling novel ‘The Transhumanist Wager’ described 2015 as a “great year for the transhumanism movement, “simply incredible” and a potential “breakout year”.

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Istvans reasons for being so delighted with 2015 were published in an article for the Huffington Post in late December. He focused on the wide and largely positive exposure given to the Transhumanist cause, predominantly via news websites, TV interviews and social media.

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Troy Anderson for Charisma News recently reported on Istvans definition of Transhumanism: “Transhuman literally means beyond human. Transhumanists consist of life extensionists, techno-optimists, Singularitarians, biohackers, roboticists, AI (Artificial Intelligence) proponents, and futurists who embrace radical science and technology to improve the human condition. The most important aim for many transhumanists is to overcome human mortality, a goal some believe is achievable by 2045.”

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Anderson quoted Dr. Richard Lands reactions to the Transhuman goals and ideals. Dr. Land is President of the Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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“The fact that we’re trying to do this (artificially enhance human beings) is, to me, really high-tech eugenics… when we start permanently altering the genetics of the people involved that’s going to have catastrophic consequences and you can see where that goes, it leads to Frankenstein monsters,” said Land, who was recently named among the top 100 most influential Christian leaders in America.

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“If, as Christians assume, man is the special creation of God with a soul and a spirit, bearing the image of God, no matter how flawed and warped it may be by sin, then human beings cannot be reconstructed by other humans as mere machinesvirtual or otherwise. There is indeed a divine spark in human beings that no man-created machine or technology can reproduce,” Anderson said.

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That wont stop the transhumanists from trying, as part of their culture seems to be to embrace a patronizing attitude towards people of faith and religion. The ‘superior’ transhumanist agenda aligns well with the pattern prophesied regarding the Anti-Christ, the Satan-indwelt end-time world leader who will appear to personify the ultimate goals of transhumanism.

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Instead, he will use deception to feed into the age-old desire of mankind to replace God, or at the very least to be “like the Most High”, while leading them into ultimate destruction.

 

Another Proud Palestinian Parent!

 

“I am proud of my son,” the father of 16-year-old Morad Adais, of the Palestinian village of Dura, declared this week.

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What do you suppose was the occasion for this burst of parental pride? What was it that young Morad did which so pleased his father? An impressive report card? Helping with home repairs? Taking care of younger siblings?

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No, what Morad did to bring honour to the Adais family was that he broke into the home of a young Israeli Jewish mother of six and brutally stabbed her to death.

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Not that the elder Adais is the exception. On the contrary, his response is the rule in Palestinian society.

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Just two weeks ago, the official Facebook page of the Fatah movement posted a large photo of another Palestinian parent expressing pride at the deeds of a murderous child. On Jan. 5, Fatah published a photo of the mother of the late Muhammed Shamasneh. She is smiling broadly and making a “V” sign with her right hand. The caption under the photo reads: “How great you are, O mother of the Martyr.”

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Shamasneh, 22, was a Palestinian terrorist who stabbed three Jews near the Jerusalem central bus station last Oct. 12, and then was shot by the police. Fatah, which is glorifying Shamasneh, is chaired by Mahmoud Abbas, who is also president of the ‘moderate’ Palestinian Authority (PA).

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The website of Palestinian Media Watch (www.palwatch.org) overflows with examples of pro-terrorism statements by parents of Palestinian terrorists.

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Advocates of the Palestinian cause are always telling us that ordinary Palestinians are just like ordinary folks everywhere. They say Palestinian moms and dads have the same concerns as moms and dads in America, Israel, and anyplace else.

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Then-president Bill Clinton epitomized this attitude when he met with Israeli parents of terror victims on Dec. 15, 1998, and then traveled to Gaza to meet with Palestinian parents of imprisoned terrorists. The president told reporters: If I had met them in reverse order, I would not have known which ones were Israeli and which Palestinian.

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Even back then, the president should have been able to tell the difference. The Israeli parents were the ones mourning the deaths of their innocent children. The Palestinian parents were the ones cheering on their children for murdering the Israeli children.

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The problem is not just individual Palestinian parents endorsing their childrens terrorism. The problem is that the official Palestinian leadership actively encourages such attitudes. Consider how the PA’s Minister of Womens Affairs, Haifa Al-Agha, recently explained the “uniqueness” of Palestinian women: “The Palestinian womens uniqueness differentiates her from the women of the world, as only she receives the news of her sons Martyrdom with cries of joy.”

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Her statement appeared in the official daily newspaper of the ‘moderate’ PA, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, on Nov. 7, 2015. Such declarations appear in the official PA news media every day. They send a very specific message to the Palestinian public; and its clear that the message has been received, loud and clear.

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As much as we wish that the Palestinians were moderate, reasonable people who hate violence and terrorism and would live in peace with Israel if they were just given a state of their own, they keep demonstrating, through their words and deeds, exactly the opposite.

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Posted with Permission from JNS.org

 

Israeli Doctors Discover New Treatment, Save Palestinian Boy’s Life

 

Doctors discover new disease that affects the offspring of relatives who marry each other, and go on to save Palestinian boy’s life.

A genetic disease heretofore unknown in the scientific literature has been discovered by doctors at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem. The doctors who succeeded in treating the disease are referring to it by the name TPP2 deficiency.

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The disease affects the immune system and involves a certain protein deficiency in the blood which causes the immune system to attack itself. This in turn leads to an accelerated rate of aging in cells as well as severe side effects, and can even cause death. The disease is said to be common in societies in which close relatives marry each other.

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The disease was first encountered ten years ago when a 21-month-old boy from Shechem (Nablus) in Samaria was brought to Hadassah suffering from severe symptoms of an unexplained malfunction of the immune system. His older sister, at the time a toddler, had previously died of the same syndrome. Dr. Polina Stepensky, head of the Hadassah’s pediatric hemato-oncology and bone marrow transplantation department told reporters that “the Palestinian hospital could not diagnose the disease, and we didn’t know at first what it was either. When the symptoms appeared in the sister the doctors tried various treatments but they didn’t know exactly what the diagnosis was and it didn’t help and she died.”

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When the little boy started exhibiting the same preliminary symptoms, “his mother was the first to understand that it was apparently the same illness and it was liable to end the same way,” Stepensky said. The mother abandoned the idea of going to the Palestinian hospital once again and sought out help at the Israeli hospital.

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According to a report by Haaretz, in order to diagnose the disease Dr.Stepensky together with Professor Orly Elpeleg of Hadassah’s genetic research department utilized a new technique, by which they created a genetic sequence of both the boy and his family. Upon carrying out the sequence they discovered that the family possessed a damaged gene that resulted in the deficiency of the protein TPP2. This isolation of the problem was a big step in solving the mystery around the boy’s condition ,for even though the disease destroys red blood cells, normal blood tests won’t detect it.

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The process was made simpler by the Human Genome Project which was completed in 2006. The project, together with the technological developments that followed, allowed for a relatively easy and inexpensive genetic sequencing for the family. “We actually discovered a new mechanism of the immune system, a previously unknown path that leads to premature aging of the immune system, which both allowed us to diagnose this disease and will also help us better understand the whole system,” Stepensky said.

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Two years ago, doctors decided that the most effective treatment would be a stem-cell transplant to rejuvenate the boy’s immune system. The boy who was by then aged 12 had been treated for years with immunosuppressive drugs. In 2014 he received a transplant from the bone marrow of his healthy seven-year-old sister and now seems to have recovered.

 

Science Increasingly Makes the Case for God

LBC radio presenter – Iain Dale’s recent attempt to promote the atheistic pseudo-scientific view of how evolution created all things, was in his case, something akin to shooting himself in the foot.

Evolution requires reproduction to drive it forward. Natural Selection eliminates organisms that cannot meet that requirement. So whether you’re man, animal, bird or fish, you better be able to reproduce or that Natural Selection axe is falling on your posterity.

Iain Dale is a male homosexual who recently ‘married’ his male homosexual partner. He has in the past argued that his homosexuality is natural – BANG! 

 

The op-ed, “Science Increasingly Makes the Case for God,” was published in the Wall Street Journal on December 25, 2014. Since then, the article has garnered over 550,000 Facebook shares and more than 9,250 comments, making it, unofficially, the most popular article in Wall Street Journal history.

In 1966 Time magazine ran a cover story asking: Is God Dead? Many have accepted the cultural narrative that he’s obsolete—that as science progresses, there is less need for a “God” to explain the universe. Yet it turns out that the rumors of God’s death were premature. More amazing is that the relatively recent case for his existence comes from a surprising place—science itself.

Here’s the story: The same year Time featured the now-famous headline, the astronomer Carl Sagan announced that there were two important criteria for a planet to support life: The right kind of star, and a planet the right distance from that star. Given the roughly octillion—1 followed by 27 zeros—planets in the universe, there should have been about septillion—1 followed by 24 zeros—planets capable of supporting life.

With such spectacular odds, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, a large, expensive collection of private and publicly funded projects launched in the 1960s, was sure to turn up something soon. Scientists listened with a vast radio telescopic network for signals that resembled coded intelligence and were not merely random. But as years passed, the silence from the rest of the universe was deafening. Congress defunded SETI in 1993, but the search continues with private funds. As of 2014, researchers have discovered precisely bubkis—0 followed by nothing.

What happened? As our knowledge of the universe increased, it became clear that there were far more factors necessary for life than Sagan supposed. His two parameters grew to 10 and then 20 and then 50, and so the number of potentially life-supporting planets decreased accordingly. The number dropped to a few thousand planets and kept on plummeting.

Even SETI proponents acknowledged the problem. Peter Schenkelwrote in a 2006 piece for Skeptical Inquirer magazine: “In light of new findings and insights, it seems appropriate to put excessive euphoria to rest . . . . We should quietly admit that the early estimates . . . may no longer be tenable.”

As factors continued to be discovered, the number of possible planets hit zero, and kept going. In other words, the odds turned against any planet in the universe supporting life, including this one. Probability said that even we shouldn’t be here.

Today there are more than 200 known parameters necessary for a planet to support life—every single one of which must be perfectly met, or the whole thing falls apart. Without a massive planet like Jupiter nearby, whose gravity will draw away asteroids, a thousand times as many would hit Earth’s surface. The odds against life in the universe are simply astonishing.

Yet here we are, not only existing, but talking about existing. What can account for it? Can every one of those many parameters have been perfect by accident? At what point is it fair to admit that science suggests that we cannot be the result of random forces? Doesn’t assuming that an intelligence created these perfect conditions require far less faith than believing that a life-sustaining Earth just happened to beat the inconceivable odds to come into being?

There’s more. The fine-tuning necessary for life to exist on a planet is nothing compared with the fine-tuning required for the universe to exist at all. For example, astrophysicists now know that the values of the four fundamental forces—gravity, the electromagnetic force, and the “strong” and “weak” nuclear forces—were determined less than one millionth of a second after the big bang. Alter any one value and the universe could not exist. For instance, if the ratio between the nuclear strong force and the electromagnetic force had been off by the tiniest fraction of the tiniest fraction—by even one part in 100,000,000,000,000,000—then no stars could have ever formed at all. Feel free to gulp.

Multiply that single parameter by all the other necessary conditions, and the odds against the universe existing are so heart-stoppingly astronomical that the notion that it all “just happened” defies common sense. It would be like tossing a coin and having it come up heads 10 quintillion times in a row. Really?

Fred Hoyle, the astronomer who coined the term “big bang,” said that his atheism was “greatly shaken” at these developments. He later wrote that “a common-sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with the physics, as well as with chemistry and biology . . . . The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question.”

Theoretical physicist Paul Davies has said that “the appearance of design is overwhelming” and Oxford professor Dr. John Lennox has said “the more we get to know about our universe, the more the hypothesis that there is a Creator . . . gains in credibility as the best explanation of why we are here.”

The greatest miracle of all time, without any close seconds, is the universe. It is the miracle of all miracles, one that ineluctably points with the combined brightness of every star to something—or Someone—beyond itself.

Mr. Metaxas is the author, most recently, of “Miracles: What They Are, Why They Happen, and How They Can Change Your Life” ( DuttonAdult, 2014).

– See more at: http://ericmetaxas.com/media/articles/science-increasingly-makes-case-god/#sthash.0Iluz5h5.dpuf

The Global Warming Myth

 

Those who listen to the LBC radio channel may have, along with myself, heard resident scoffer – James O’Brien – label as ‘Foil Hat’ types, those of us who reject man made Global Warming as a deception designed to distract people from the biblically prophetic reasons for the climate going wild, and make a fortune out of us all through carbon taxation at the same time.

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In his attempt to marginalise those who reject GW, that product of Jesuit indoctrination reeled out the names of numerous scientific institutions that support the Global Warming myth, with the notable exception of the University of East Anglia that hatched it.

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Why?

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Type ClimateGate into your browser and you will see the motivating factor was money. The British government of the time was in a battle with the Unions representing coal miners and coal fired electricity production workers. They threw a fortune at any scientific institution that would give them a justifiable reason for shutting down the British coal mining industry and coal fired electricity production in favour of nuclear and other methods of production. 

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I think it was Hitler who spoke in his 1925 book Mein Kampf, about the use of a lie so “colossal” that no one would believe that someone “could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.”

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The truth is being buried by scoffers like James O’Brien. If you want it, you must study the history, whilst keeping in mind the fact that ‘the love of money is the root of all evil’.

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There are however some who refused to soil their reputations for filthy lucre…

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Professor Emiritus Hal Lewis Resigns from American Physical Society

By reasonmclucus

The following is a letter to the American Physical Society released to the public by Professor Emiritus of physics Hal Lewis of the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Sent: Friday, 08 October 2010 17:19 Hal Lewis

From: Hal Lewis, University of California, Santa Barbara
To: Curtis G. Callan, Jr., Princeton University, President of the American Physical Society

6 October 2010

Dear Curt:

When I first joined the American Physical Society sixty-seven years ago it was much smaller, much gentler, and as yet uncorrupted by the money flood (a threat against which Dwight Eisenhower warned a half-century ago).

Indeed, the choice of physics as a profession was then a guarantor of a life of poverty and abstinence—it was World War II that changed all that. The prospect of worldly gain drove few physicists. As recently as thirty-five years ago, when I chaired the first APS study of a contentious social/scientific issue, The Reactor Safety Study, though there were zealots aplenty on the outside there was no hint of inordinate pressure on us as physicists. We were therefore able to produce what I believe was and is an honest appraisal of the situation at that time. We were further enabled by the presence of an oversight committee consisting of Pief Panofsky, Vicki Weisskopf, and Hans Bethe, all towering physicists beyond reproach. I was proud of what we did in a charged atmosphere. In the end the oversight committee, in its report to the APS President, noted the complete independence in which we did the job, and predicted that the report would be attacked from both sides. What greater tribute could there be?

How different it is now. The giants no longer walk the earth, and the money flood has become the raison d’être of much physics research, the vital sustenance of much more, and it provides the support for untold numbers of professional jobs. For reasons that will soon become clear my former pride at being an APS Fellow all these years has been turned into shame, and I am forced, with no pleasure at all, to offer you my resignation from the Society.

It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford’s book organizes the facts very well.) I don’t believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition of the word scientist.

So what has the APS, as an organization, done in the face of this challenge? It has accepted the corruption as the norm, and gone along with it. For example:

1. About a year ago a few of us sent an e-mail on the subject to a fraction of the membership. APS ignored the issues, but the then President immediately launched a hostile investigation of where we got the e-mail addresses. In its better days, APS used to encourage discussion of important issues, and indeed the Constitution cites that as its principal purpose. No more. Everything that has been done in the last year has been designed to silence debate

2. The appallingly tendentious APS statement on Climate Change was apparently written in a hurry by a few people over lunch, and is certainly not representative of the talents of APS members as I have long known them. So a few of us petitioned the Council to reconsider it. One of the outstanding marks of (in)distinction in the Statement was the poison word incontrovertible, which describes few items in physics, certainly not this one. In response APS appointed a secret committee that never met, never troubled to speak to any skeptics, yet endorsed the Statement in its entirety. (They did admit that the tone was a bit strong, but amazingly kept the poison word incontrovertible to describe the evidence, a position supported by no one.) In the end, the Council kept the original statement, word for word, but approved a far longer “explanatory” screed, admitting that there were uncertainties, but brushing them aside to give blanket approval to the original. The original Statement, which still stands as the APS position, also contains what I consider pompous and asinine advice to all world governments, as if the APS were master of the universe. It is not, and I am embarrassed that our leaders seem to think it is. This is not fun and games, these are serious matters involving vast fractions of our national substance, and the reputation of the Society as a scientific society is at stake.

3. In the interim the ClimateGate scandal broke into the news, and the machinations of the principal alarmists were revealed to the world. It was a fraud on a scale I have never seen, and I lack the words to describe its enormity. Effect on the APS position: none. None at all. This is not science; other forces are at work.

4. So a few of us tried to bring science into the act (that is, after all, the alleged and historic purpose of APS), and collected the necessary 200+ signatures to bring to the Council a proposal for a Topical Group on Climate Science, thinking that open discussion of the scientific issues, in the best tradition of physics, would be beneficial to all, and also a contribution to the nation. I might note that it was not easy to collect the signatures, since you denied us the use of the APS membership list. We conformed in every way with the requirements of the APS Constitution, and described in great detail what we had in mind—simply to bring the subject into the open.

5. To our amazement, Constitution be damned, you declined to accept our petition, but instead used your own control of the mailing list to run a poll on the members’ interest in a TG on Climate and the Environment. You did ask the members if they would sign a petition to form a TG on your yet-to-be-defined subject, but provided no petition, and got lots of affirmative responses. (If you had asked about sex you would have gotten more expressions of interest.) There was of course no such petition or proposal, and you have now dropped the Environment part, so the whole matter is moot. (Any lawyer will tell you that you cannot collect signatures on a vague petition, and then fill in whatever you like.) The entire purpose of this exercise was to avoid your constitutional responsibility to take our petition to the Council.

6. As of now you have formed still another secret and stacked committee to organize your own TG, simply ignoring our lawful petition.

APS management has gamed the problem from the beginning, to suppress serious conversation about the merits of the climate change claims. Do you wonder that I have lost confidence in the organization?

I do feel the need to add one note, and this is conjecture, since it is always risky to discuss other people’s motives. This scheming at APS HQ is so bizarre that there cannot be a simple explanation for it. Some have held that the physicists of today are not as smart as they used to be, but I don’t think that is an issue. I think it is the money, exactly what Eisenhower warned about a half-century ago. There are indeed trillions of dollars involved, to say nothing of the fame and glory (and frequent trips to exotic islands) that go with being a member of the club. Your own Physics Department (of which you are chairman) would lose millions a year if the global warming bubble burst. When Penn State absolved Mike Mann of wrongdoing, and the University of East Anglia did the same for Phil Jones, they cannot have been unaware of the financial penalty for doing otherwise. As the old saying goes, you don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing. Since I am no philosopher, I’m not going to explore at just which point enlightened self-interest crosses the line into corruption, but a careful reading of the ClimateGate releases makes it clear that this is not an academic question.

I want no part of it, so please accept my resignation. APS no longer represents me, but I hope we are still friends.

Hal

Harold Lewis is Emeritus Professor of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, former Chairman; Former member Defense Science Board, chmn of Technology panel; Chairman DSB study on Nuclear Winter; Former member Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; Former member, President’s Nuclear Safety Oversight Committee; Chairman APS study on Nuclear Reactor Safety Chairman Risk Assessment Review Group; Co-founder and former Chairman of JASON; Former member USAF Scientific Advisory Board; Served in US Navy in WW II; books: Technological Risk (about, surprise, technological risk) and Why Flip a Coin (about decision making)

 

Islamic State Waging War Of Genocide Against Christians

 

 

BREAKING NEWS: ISIS waging war of genocide against Christians in the Mideast. New UN report provides chilling details.

by joelcrosenberg

(Austin, Texas) — The evidence is in, and it’s chilling — the Islamic State is intentionally waging a war of genocide against Christians in Iraq and Syria.

The jihadists are systematically trying to exterminate the Christian population in both countries by forcing followers of Jesus Christ to convert to their brand of Apocalyptic Islam or enslaving them, murdering them, starving them, and/or driving them out of the region.

This is the case I began to lay out during a presentation at Life Austin Church here in the Texas capital on Thursday night. It was part of a series of messages I’m delivering across the U.S. on radio, TV and in churches as part of The First Hostage book tour.

For the moment, ISIS is focusing their genocidal campaign on the populations of Iraq and Syria. But this is only the beginning. According to their Apocalyptic Islamic eschatology, ISIS leaders want expand their genocidal campaign throughout Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt and the rest of the region in order to broaden their Islamic kingdom or caliphate and hasten the coming of the Mahdi, who they believe will then establish a worldwide caliphate.

Consider the trend lines:

• The number of Christians in Syria has dropped from 1.25 million to 500,000 in recent years, according to analyses by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ).
• The number of Christians in Iraq have dropped from 1.4 million to fewer than 275,000 in recent years, which ACLJ notes is “an 80% drop.”

“When hundreds of thousands of Christians – men, women and children – are killed, this isn’t war — this is genocide,” argues World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder. “And we Jews know what happens when the world is silent to genocide.”

Lauder has urged Jews and Christians to join forces against genocide. “Together, we must speak as one and tell the world: no more discrimination, no more terror, no more death, and no more silence!” I absolutely agree.

While ISIS is engaged in the slaughter of Christians because they believe it is fulfilling Islamic End Times prophecy, they actually unknowingly fulfilling Biblical prophecy about the last days.

The Lord Jesus Christ prophesied in John 16:3 that “an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.”

Christ also prophesied that believers will see “wars and rumors of war,” the rise of “lawlessness” and vastly increased persecution in the last days before He returns to set up His Kingdom. The Lord Jesus specifically warned that the enemies of the Cross “will deliver you to tribulation” in the End Times “and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.” (see Matthew 24) These are exactly the trends we’re seeing emerge in the epicenter.

But let’s be clear: it’s not just Christians who are facing the ISIS genocide. Sunni and Shia Muslims who don’t share the ISIS theology and eschatology are also facing this jihadist rampage. So are Yazidis and other minorities. And, of course, ISIS is threatening to exterminate the Jews of Israel soon.

“Palestine will not be your land or your home,” ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi told the Jews of Israel in an audio message in December. “It will be a graveyard for you. Allah has gathered you in Palestine so that the Muslims may kill you.”

In August of 2014, just after I finished writing my first novel about ISIS (The Third Target), I began publicly warning that “we are watching genocidal conditions emerging in the epicenter” as the ISIS jihadist rampage accelerated.

The situation has worsened dramatically since then.

By February of 2015, the government of Iraq had laid out their case to the U.N. Security Council that the Islamic State was not simply committing atrocities but outrightgenocide.

“These terrorist groups have desecrated all human values. They have committed the most heinous criminal terrorist acts against the Iraqi people whether Shi’ite, Sunni, Christians, Turkmen, Shabak or Yazidis,” Iraq’s U.N. Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim said. “These are in fact crimes of genocide committed against humanity that must be held accountable before international justice.”

Now, just this week, the U.N. has issued a report documenting the magnitude of the horror. Consider the numbers just in Iraq:

• 18,802 civilians were killed in Iraq between January 2014 and October 2015
• 36,245 civilians have been wounded during this same period
• some 3,500 have been seized as slaves by ISIS
• 3.2 million civilians have been displaced from their homes and villages, on the run for their very lives

“The violence suffered by civilians in Iraq remains staggering,” the report states. “The so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) continues to commit systematic and widespread violence and abuses of international human rights law and humanitarian law. These acts may, in some instances, amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possibly genocide.”

The U.N. report “details numerous examples of killings by ISIL in gruesome public spectacles, including by shooting, beheading, bulldozing, burning alive and throwing people off the top of buildings. There are also reports of the murder of child soldiers who fled fighting on the frontlines in Anbar. Information received and verified suggests that between 800 and 900 children in Mosul had been abducted by ISIL for religious education and military training….ISIL [also] continued to subject women and children to sexual violence, particularly in the form of sexual slavery.”

Now consider the numbers in Syria, as well. According to the United Nations:

• at least 250,000 people have been killed in Syria
• 6.6 million people in Syria have been displaced from their homes and villages and are on the run for their lives
• 13.5 million need humanitarian assistance,” reported Reuters on January 15, 2016.

What’s worse, new intel reports indicate ISIS appears to be testing chemical weapons for even larger and more lethal attacks. They must be stopped.

First, the President and Congress must publicly acknowledge that the Islamic State is engaged in genocide.

Second, it is time for Congress to formally declare war against ISIS.

And third, we need to elect a new Commander-in-Chief ready, willing and able to neutralize the ISIS threat, as well as the Iranian nuclear threat before it’s too late.

As Jay Sekulow, head of ACLJ, and his team note, “The Holocaust gave rise to the necessity to define what ‘genocide’ is, and Article 2 of the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) did just that,” defining it as:

any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated t…

Sophia Kuby of ADF is urging Members of the European Union “to call the atrocities against Christians and other religious minorities in Syria and Iraq by its name: genocide.”

“Christians in the Middle East urgently need this recognition to wake up the world to what is going on,” Kuby notes. “In contrast to other diplomatic notions such as ‘systematic mass murder,’ ‘genocide’ is an internationally recognized legal term. It is necessary to call for further steps, such as a resolution at the UN Security Council and a referral to the International Criminal Court….All necessary criteria are fulfilled in order to recognize this as genocide. To deny this only adds to the horrendous suffering that people are already experiencing.”

Rebuilding The Jewish Temple On The Horizon?

 

“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes.” (Malachi 4:5)

The world is suddenly awash with talk of rebuilding the Jewish Temple. This is one of the last pieces of the jigsaw that yet needs to fall into place. It is another significant indication that we are right at the gates of the Tribulation period itself.

 

The second Temple of Jesus’ time was constructed over a period of thirty to forty years. If the Temple were to be constructed today, it would be built in a fraction of that time. The Temple Institute in Israel has already made many of the sacred artifacts needed for use in the Temple itself.

The Temple Institute has prefabricated large sections of the Temple structure, as well as having drawn up comprehensive and complete architectural plans, so that when the right time comes these pre-made sections can simply be taken to the site and built into the superstructure of the Temple itself. It is even possible to visit their website and view an in-depth three dimensional computer tour of what the newly-built Temple will look like after its completion.

Other crucial pieces of the Temple, much more difficult to construct than the building itself, has also been completed and are now ready for use. Based in the Old City area of Jerusalem, the Temple Institute has completed the reconstruction of the sacred Temple altar, to the specific and exacting standards prescribed in the Pentateuch.

This absolutely essential piece of the puzzle means that the Jewish nation now has the holy altar necessary once again to begin offering sacrifices. It is the altar itself which would make the sacrifices offered on it holy before God. Aside from the Holy of Holies, it is the lynchpin of the entire Temple. It is now ready for use.

The significance of this development should not be underestimated. Building this altar has been quite an undertaking; approximately 5 meters (16 feet) tall and 16 meters (52.5 feet) wide, with four “horns” or raised corners, and a ramp. It is unique. Nothing like this altar has been seen on this earth in two thousand years.

To complete the preparations, the Temple Institute has also made all the priestly garments necessary for the priesthood to minister, even going so far as to train priestly families in the conduct and expectations of a Priest who ministers inside a newly built Temple.

Passover sacrifices have been reenacted and practiced so that the mechanics of the process are understood and closely adhere to the standards laid out by the Law of Moses. They have, in effect, carried out historically accurate trial runs in preparation for the real thing.

Understanding the various processes is, in itself, is also no small undertaking. The roots of sacrifice are found in the Book of Exodus. In preparation for the 10 plagues on Egypt, the death of the firstborn, God tells Moses to speak to the people of Israel and instruct each household to obtain a lamb on the 10th of Nisan. The lambs should be kept until the 14th, when the people of Israel should slaughter them at dusk.

Next, they should take its blood and put it on the doorposts and on the lintel of the house in which they were eating. The fire-roasted lamb should then all be consumed that night with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. This Feast of Passover has been observed ever since, with one exception.  Ever since Jesus Christ died on Calvary as the spotless Lamb of God, the sacrificial lamb has been missing from the Passover celebration. See also: Revelation 5.6

Pure olive oil, fit for use in the Menorah of the Temple, has been produced in the last few months, the only time this has happened since the fall of the Second Temple. The production of four and a half litres of the precious olive oil this year was an extremely complex process due to the necessity of keeping it pure according to Jewish law.

In addition, ceramic flasks to hold the oil also had to be made to conform to the standards of religious purity required for use in the Temple itself. The production of the olive oil required precise knowledge of an extremely specialized and complex area of Jewish law.

Oil of this quality has not been produced since the beginning of the Diaspora of the Jews in 70AD. Literally nothing like this has been seen in Israel for almost two millennia.

Another significant development is the quest for a perfect Red Heifer or Para Adumah, a three-year-old female cow with totally red hair that is supposed to be able to restore a state of purity after ritual slaughter, something necessary for temple worship. There have been no perfect Red Heifers in Israel for over 2,000 years, however the Temple Institute is trying to change that.

In late 2015 the Temple Institute attempted to raise funds with its “Raise a Red Heifer in Israel” campaign on crowdfunding site Indiegogo.  Earlier in 2015, the Temple Institute’s previous Indiegogo campaign successfully raised over $100,000 which will be used to develop architectural plans for the Holy Temple.

According to the crowdfunding site:

“The Temple Institute has joined forces with experienced cattle ranchers here in Israel. These experts in the science of animal husbandry, under the halachic  supervision and guidance of the rabbis of the Temple Institute, will utilize the technique of implanting the frozen embryos of Red Angus cattle in Israeli domestic cattle.  The end result of this program will be the introduction of the Red Angus breed into Israel. This method, authorized and approved by Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture, has already proven successful with the birth of a number of male Red Angus. The location and other details of the cattle ranch will remain undisclosed to the general public during the initial stages of the project.

Although the campaign fell short of its $125,000 goal the Temple Institute still plans to move forward as funds become available. The Temple Institute is not alone in planning for a red heifer. There have been reports of red heifers several times in the past few years from ranchers in the United States, although all have gone on to later be disqualified.

Many Rabbis within Israel believe that when a perfect red heifer is found it will be a clear indication that the rebuilding of the temple is imminent.

The Temple will ultimately be rebuilt in Jerusalem as it is crucial to the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Beginning with Daniel, who had a vision of the Temple in Daniel 9:27, Jesus Himself echoed Daniels warning about an abomination standing in the holy place in the Last Days in Matthew 24:15. Paul also mentioned it in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4. The Temple Institute is making fulfillment of this Biblical prophecy a near reality through their work and dedication.

The only thing that seems to be missing is the political will, the ‘go ahead’, to move this process forward. All things humanly possible are being done to prepare for the rebuilding of the Third Temple.

However, hugely significant problems remain which must be overcome before even a stone can be put down.

For political and safety reasons, rebuilding a Temple would seem almost an impossibility at present. This is because Islam currently controls the Temple Mount and for Jews to destroy the Dome on the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque so as to build the Jewish Temple would likely provoke an immediate world war.

Amazingly, these political and safety impediments on rebuilding the Temple are not the most significant problems.

The current raging debate within Judaism is exactly who has the authority to begin the rebuilding process of the Temple itself? Is it God, the Messiah or someone else? Nobody really knows and there is no consensus on this absolutely vital issue within Judaism.

Without resolution of who has the authority to rebuild there can be no Temple, and these are the reasons why.

The question of who has the authority to begin the rebuilding process exists because nobody today really knows exactly where the Holy of Holies from the Second Temple was located on the Temple Mount. This is the reason why Jews are forbidden from entering the precise area where the second Temple was built, lest they inadvertently stand on the sacred and consecrated area which housed the Holy of Holies. To do so, even inadvertently, is punishable by death under Mosaic Law.

The second major stumbling block is that all Jews are currently ritually impure, which also prevents any Jews from entering the precise area where the Temple used to stand. In order to become ritually pure Jews would need the ashes of a Red Heifer, administered by a priest who could trace his family and ancestral lineage back far enough to validate his claim to priesthood. No such priest exists who can trace his lineage to this exacting standard. The reason is that when Israel and Judah were dispersed to the four corners of the world, all lineage records were lost.

This therefore means that under Mosaic Law there are no priests eligible to administer the ashes of a Red Heifer and therefore able to make Jews ritually pure enough to enter the Temple complex area. It is a terrible Catch-22 situation.

The next major problem concerns the Altar of the Temple itself, specifically the location of the Altar. The Law of Moses is very precise about exactly where the Altar must be located. It cannot go just anywhere; it needs to be in exactly the right place. When they built the Second Temple the Jews used reliable witnesses who could testify to the correct spot. In fact, the prophets Haggai, Zephaniah and Malachi are believed within Judaism to have been the three witnesses used to verify the Altars correct location.

No such witnesses exist today. Even if a Temple could be built, they could never offer sacrifice as they simply do not know where to locate the Altar. They have absolutely no idea where it should go; no idea whatsoever.

Assuming that they were able to rebuild the Temple in exactly the right spot and then locate the Altar allowing for sacrifice, also in exactly the right spot, the Temple would still need Priests whose genealogy can be absolutely determined and verified. No such verification exists anymore. It would be a Temple with no priests.

The next major issue is the High Priest. There can be no functioning Temple without a functioning High Priest. To appoint a High Priest there needs to be a Sanhedrin, 70 – 71 ordained Rabbis acting as the Supreme Council of all Israel. There can currently be no Sanhedrin that satisfies Mosaic Law because each Rabbi must satisfy Mosaic Ordination, which was transmitted from Rabbi to Rabbi since the time of Moses. Mosaic Ordination ceased in 358 AD because of persecution.

Although a re-established Sanhedrin was set up in 2004 it still lacks the religious and governmental authority needed to take the process forward. There can be no legitimate Sanhedrin and therefore no legitimate High Priest.

[Note: the priesthood was a familial thing, i.e. you were born into it; not ordained to it. All the priests were Levites; of the Tribe (family) of Levi.  This problem of identifying legitimate priests is now being simplified through the use of DNA]

These problems would seem insurmountable. There is no human solution to them.  On the face of things then, there can be no Temple.

Jewish tradition does provide an answer though, as does scripture. Scripture strongly suggests that the person who may well provide the necessary authority to begin the rebuilding process of the Third Temple will be the Prophet Elijah himself.

Jesus, in Matthew’s Gospel revealed that at the end Elijah, “…will restore all things…” (Matthew 17:11). According to Jewish tradition it will be Elijah who will reveal himself to the Jews before the advent of Messiah. He would have the necessary authority to reveal the exact location of the Holy of Holies and the precise location of the Altar.

Elijah would be able to reveal to the Priesthood their exact genealogies and reinstitute Mosaic Ordination for Rabbis, thus finally enabling the reestablishment of a legitimate Sanhedrin and High Priest.

And further to satisfy Mosaic Law, which prescribes the presence of Two Witnesses as being necessary for legal satisfaction (Deuteronomy 19:15) Elijah will also likely return with another great prophet of old, Moses, through whom the Law was delivered.

Increasing Tensions Among Christians Over Israel

 

Calls for sanctions against Israel in support of the Palestinian cause are nothing new or strange rather, they have been the norm for about as long as Israel has existed and have gained a sustained momentum since the historic Arab-Israeli wars. Perhaps what is now stranger is that Israel is also increasingly facing opposition from sections of what was once the unlikeliest of quarters, the Christian Church.

Sharp divisions have arisen within the Christian community over whether to support Israel, pitting the pro-Israel Christian individuals and lobby groups against the anti-Israeli ones. One key battleground between the two opposing camps is whether Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns against Israel are justified or appropriate.

Max Samarov is an ardent supporter of Israel and wrote an account of his efforts mid-last year in the Jerusalem Post.  In his view, a common thread with the pro-BDS group is the notion that Israelis are powerful oppressors who deserve to be pressured and Palestinians are victims whose leaders dont require accountability – even if some of their resistance methods might be disagreeable.

The churches in open support include two major Protestant denominations: the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) and the United Church of Christ (UCC).

In his account, Samarov adds that in June of 2014 PCUSA passed a resolution to boycott and divest from companies deemed “complicit” in Israels alleged misdeeds against Palestinians, and about mid 2015 the UCC passed a similar measure. In Samarovs words :  “I was shocked to see people who should know better buy into BDSs cheap propaganda about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, its blatant misrepresentations of its own agenda and its manipulative tactics”.

BDS proponents have reportedly embraced a wide range of accusations against Israelis, such as claiming that they are subjecting Palestinians to “Biblical scale enslavement” and poisoning Palestinian livestock. Additionally, BDS activists seem not to be bothered with any verification of positions they take in their analyses of the Israeli Palestinian impasse.

“When BDS activists rail against companies involved in Israeli checkpoints, they dont suggest any practical alternatives to protect Israelis from those who seek to harm them. When they condemn settlements and the blockade of Gaza, they dont mention that ultimate goal of the BDS movement is not to change these policies but simply to pressure the Jewish state until it collapses. I expected that many of the highly educated UCC and PCUSA delegates would expose this utter lack of critical thinking, honesty and consideration for Israeli lives. I was wrong”, decried Samarov.

He observed that all was not yet lost though, as the much larger Episcopal Church overwhelmingly rejected multiple BDS resolutions at its General Convention, and the Mennonite Church postponed consideration of similar measures until 2017.

However, indications are that the BDS drive is however still gaining traction. A recent report published in Haaretz.com stated that the pension fund for the United Methodist Church has blocked five Israeli banks from its investment portfolio, in what the report describes as a broad review meant to weed out “companies that profit from abuse of human rights”. The pension board’s decision came at a time when divestment is gaining momentum among liberal Protestants as a tool to pressure Israel over its policies toward Palestinians. Israel is quietly lobbying against the decision.

One the other hand, the pro-Israel group isnt backing down either. One of the most notable ones over the years has been Christians United for Israel (CUFI). CUFI Chairman and renowned Pastor John Hagee,  in a 2012 CUFI conference, stated that “Supporting Israel is not a political issue, it’s a Bible issue… There is only one way to live your life – the Bible way or the wrong way&can we support peace agreement that doesn’t provide Israel with defensible borders? The green line is not a defensible border.”

Many other Evangelical Christians are also openly coming out in support of Israel. Last October, Voice of America reported the gathering of thousands of evangelical Christians from more than 80 countries. They flocked to Jerusalem in late September to show their support for the Jewish state.

Attendees interviewed said their affinity for Israel stems from Christianity’s Jewish roots and an anticipated Messianic Age when all nations of the earth will flock to Jerusalem. Evangelicals at the summit also boasted of their success at lobbying on Israel’s behalf in the halls of parliaments around the world.

There are currently 32 pro-Israeli caucuses in parliaments worldwide, according to the Israel Allies Foundation, a Jewish-Christian pro-Israel political group that brought two dozen lawmakers from 18 countries to Jerusalem that week to meet with Israeli lawmakers and officials.

Pro-Israel initiatives continue into 2016. Last December, Dexter Van Zile for Charisma News reported that in response to the challenge of anti-Zionism in American evangelicalism, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) recenlty hosted a one-day conference in Los Angeles. The conference, that took place on Jan 18th was titled, “Evangelical Christians, Jews and Israel: Looming Threats To A Historic Friendship.”

The goals of the conference were to educate both Christians and Jews about the campaign to divide evangelicals from Israel, promote awareness of the Jewish roots of Christianity, and inform people about the status of Christians in Israel.

One key difference between the pro and anti-Israel Christian groups is that the anti-Israel group does not appear to have any scriptural backing for their views. Yet a key Biblical reason for the widespread support for Israel by evangelicals is that God in the Old Testament chose Israel as His own covenant people, promising to bless those who bless them and curse those who curse them(Genesis 12:1-3). Or as Numbers 24:9 says: “He crouched. He lay down as a lion, and as a great lion. Who shall stir him up? Blessed is he who blesses you, and cursed is he who curses you”.

So there is clearly a Biblical basis by which Christians should support Israel simply because God initiated that support and commands it promising to bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse them. His choice of Israel is on the basis of His love, promises to their forefathers and covenant relationship with Israel (Deuteronomy 7:6-8), not due to their righteousness or lack of it.

Grossly overlooked or ignored by the anti-Israel factions is that Israels perceived weaknesses or alleged misdeeds can have no bearing on Christian support for Israel. Gods sovereign prerogative in His dealings with Israel, both collectively and individually should therefore not be usurped by any mans judgment or opinion especially Christians who have first hand instructions from the Bible on what Gods position is, and the attitude He expects of His children towards the Jews.

This doesn’t mean that one must agree with every decision or action Israel takes but that one’s heart and mind should be looking to bless and not curse.  Clearly many in the Christian BDS community have forgotten this.

German Imam Blames Victims for Provoking Rape with Perfume

“The events of New Year’s Eve were the girls’ own fault, because they were half naked and wearing perfume. It is not surprising the men wanted to attack them.”

Hundreds of women were attacked by gangs of migrant men in cities across Germany and other parts of Europe on New Year’s Eve, with more than 520 sexual assaults, including three rapes, taking place in the city of Cologne.
Imam Sami Abu-Yusuf of the Al Tawheed mosque in Cologne defended the assailants and preached Salafism (an ultra-conservative form of Sunni Islam) in an interview on Russian TV, according to Breitbart.
Sami Abu-Yusuf said that he was not surprised the girls were sexually assaulted, groped and raped, because of the way they dressed.
“The events of New Year’s Eve were the girls’ own fault, because they were half naked and wearing perfume. It is not surprising the men wanted to attack them. (Dressing like that) is like adding fuel to the fire,” he said.
The mosque has previously been investigated by German police, and in 2004 was raided to disintegrate a “secret network of Arab Mujahideen (jihadists),” according to Breitbart.
German Police records from New Year’s night reveal the full horror the women experienced by the wild mob of Muslim men on the steps of the city’s cathedral.
It has since been reported that similar mob sex assaults were carried out in other German cities and other European countries, including Sweden, Finland and Austria.
After news that the attacks were carried out by “mainly Arabic and North African men,” protests have been held all over Europe to limit recently surging migration into the European Union.

 

Courtesy of Israelnn.com

What Must I do to Be Saved?

Is just believing really enough?

By Dr. David R. Reagan.

I don’t usually post links to other sites but this one answers the question so completely. I think it a ‘must read’ for all.

(You may have to click “show all content” to see the link)

What Must I Do to Be Saved?