Tuesday, January 31, 2017

A RADICALLY NEW WAY OF VIEWING CHRISTIANITY

apocalypse


WND EXCLUSIVE

A RADICALLY NEW WAY OF VIEWING CHRISTIANITY

WND founder Joseph Farah on what the Bible really says about our destiny

WND Founder Joseph Farah is no stranger to controversy. But now he’s presenting the most radical – and important – message of his career.
In his newest book, “The Restitution of All Things,” he offers a radical new way of viewing the Christian faith, one which offers a direct challenge to the lukewarm American “church.”
“One of the most astounding things that we see, particularly in the Christian church in America today, is a cheapening of the gift of salvation that Jesus gave us,” Farah said. “And it comes in many forms, but let me give you an example of what I’m talking about. 
There’s an idea called ‘hyper-grace,’ and it’s sort of an extreme position in some of the church today. And it says: ‘You know what? We live in an age of grace, we’ve been given this great gift from Jesus. 
That means we can’t sin anymore. We’re like, immune from sin and the Law. All of that is for another era. We repent once and somehow this forgives any behavior, no matter how egregious, in the future.'”
“I’m summarizing what I consider to be a very dangerous, heretical view but there are shades of grey on this throughout the church,” Farah said. 
“And to sum up what I see as the state of the American church today is the fact that we kind of believe what Jesus came to do was to lower the standards. God the Father, in the Old Testament, they seem to think, imposed these tough laws that were hard to follow and Jesus came along and made it easier. You know there is nothing about that in the New Testament. In fact, just the opposite I would say.
“Jesus raised the bar! He said for instance: ‘You’ve heard it said don’t commit adultery. What I say is when you look at a woman with lust in your eyes and in your heart, you’ve already committed adultery.’ [Paraphrasing Matthew 5:27-28].
“In other words, He’s raising the bar. It’s not just a physical act anymore. It’s actually something we actually lust for and think about, and that’s unholy. That’s what Jesus was saying. So I think we do a disservice to the sacrifice that Jesus gave us when we take that kind of position.
“So when you read ‘The Restitution of All Things,’ there’s going to be a couple things that come into your mind. One of them is going to be, ‘This contradicts so much of what I’ve heard in the church. You talk about the Law still being in effect!’ Well guess what? Read Jesus’s own words throughout the New Testament, throughout the Gospels. Read what the Apostles say. There is still a Law. And if you think the Ten Commandments don’t affect you, don’t hold you into account, you’re making a very big mistake.”
Rethinking the Christian tradition about the supposed “death” of the Law is one of the most important themes of the “The Restitution of All Things.” Farah issues a direct challenge to Christians to rethink the fundamental premises of their faith and what the Bible actually says Jesus did and did not do.
“A lot of people say: ‘Well, wait a minute. I thought that this wage the age of grace, that the Law was dead!'” Farah exclaimed. “I deal with this in great detail using only Sscriptures from the Old and New Testament. And guess what? There’s no disagreement on this. People will point to a couple of letters by the Apostle Paul as if something dramatic happened. Listen – if what Paul is saying, and I believe every word of what Paul writes in those books, if what he is saying is in contradiction to what God the Father, God the Son, and all the other apostles say, then something’s wrong. And it’s the fact that you’re misinterpreting what Paul is saying because Scripture cannot contradict Scripture.”
It’s the book that gives you tomorrow’s news today! Get your autographed copy of “The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians and the End of the Age.”
The veteran newsman, no stranger to analyzing politics and culture, admits his message may be bracing to many Christians. But he argues “The Restitution of All Things” is simply a faithful study of what the Bible actually says, as opposed to what the traditions of men claim it says.
“Yes, I think it’s safe to say that the ‘The Restitution of All Things,’ is a radical view of Christianity if you practice what ‘The Restitution of All Things,’ talks about, which is really what the Bible talks about,” Farah admits. “It’s an empowering thing. It will give new depth to your understanding of Scripture, to what God asks us to do, to what He commands us to do, to how He wants us to live. You know, Jesus didn’t want any mediocre Christians, He didn’t want any lukewarm Christians, he wanted people to follow Him and be on fire for Him. That’s what I’ve been since I embarked on this forty years of prophetic study that led to this book.”
But what led a journalist to write a book which challenges some of the most widely shared assumptions in American Christianity? As Farah put it himself: “‘Well, what do you mean Farah, you’ve been in the news business all that time, I don’t remember you writing any prophecy books before? Where did all this come from?'”
The answer is prophecy, used as a tool of evangelism, was what first led Farah to accept Jesus. And the resulting interest in prophecy and partnership with noted teachers such as Hal Lindsey has stayed with Farah ever since.
“I got to study at his feet for ten years,” Farah said of Lindsey. “That was the beginning of my dive, my deep drive into Bible prophecy. And you know what? The last ten years have been even deeper and more meaningful than the first ten years.”
Ultimately, what Farah wants to impress upon believers is the hopeful, exciting conclusion of God’s plan as laid out in the Bible. Though there have been many books written about prophecy, most focus on the horrible things which will happen to the world. Farah thinks Christians should focus more on the glorious events which come afterward.
“One of the things that amazes me is I’m a big student of prophecy, a fan of all the books that come out about Bible prophecy,” he said. “But one of the things I’ve noticed is that almost all of them dwell on one aspect of prophecy, and that is what comes next. What comes next is all apparently people want to know about. What is the next thing in Bible prophecy that people are going to see unfold? And of course that leads us to the darkest, most violent episode in world history. But it’s very short! It’s very brief. It only lasts seven years according to the Bible…Well, I decided to look beyond that.
“That’s not the seven-year period of Tribulation, that’s the period when Jesus returns to rule and reign over planet Earth. And it’s a fantastic story. There’s so much Bible prophecy – Old Testament, New Testament – about this. It’s what Jesus speaks about. It’s what Jeremiah and Isaiah speak about. And what they’re talking about is a period of 1,000 years of peace, prosperity, justice and so forth. And it’s also a period that believers are going to experience. Not just today’s believers. Not just the believers when Jesus comes back. But all believers from all time.
“You’re going to have King David there living on planet Earth, in a modern planet Earth, with believers from the 21st century. Doesn’t that sound exciting? Don’t you want to know more about that? Well I did. And so I embarked on a Bible study that focused on this period of time and the results are the ‘The Restitution of All Things.'”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2017/01/a-radically-new-way-of-viewing-christianity/#7GYb8icv2XqAeViE.99
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WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT CATASTROPHIC CLIMATE CHANGE

BETWEEN THE LINES

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT CATASTROPHIC CLIMATE CHANGE

Exclusive: Joseph Farah explains what historically caused upheaval -- and it wasn't carbon

Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series on the history of climate change on Earth from a biblical perspective by Joseph Farah, the author of a new book called The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians and the End of the Age.”
I used to be a “denier,” as those who sacrifice their reasoning ability at the altar of Big Government power label skeptics of man-made, catastrophic climate change.
If you asked me, do you believe in it? I would have said no.
But the deeper I get into the study the Scriptures, I have to admit, my opinion has changed. I do believe man’s behavior on the Earth can have catastrophic consequences – and, indeed, has in the past.
However, before the climate-change lobby begins celebrating a convert to the cause, let me say unequivocally that my acceptance of past, current and future changes in the climate – including those with potentially catastrophic results – has nothing whatsoever to do with an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to the activity of mankind.
Instead, I have concluded that previous climate catastrophes have been the result of another activity of man – the commission of sin.
While Al Gore and the carbon-phobes have no evidence to support their dire predictions of imminent doom other than computer modeling, those who take my position actually have more than 6,000 years of biblical and historical patterns along with the inerrant Word of God.
So maybe it’s time for a new bumper sticker – “SIN, NOT CARBON, CAUSES CLIMATE CHANGE.”
I know, it’s probably not going to catch on. … It’s a little long. It’s not intuitive. It needs too much explanation. So, let me make the case.
When did the climate first change dramatically?
We know the Garden of Eden was the perfect climate for mankind because Adam and Eve didn’t even need clothes. There’s really nowhere on the planet today where you would be comfortable 365 days a year without any duds whatsoever – and that’s putting aside the shame factor. Even in Hawaii you have fluctuating temperatures that would make nudists uncomfortable from time to time.
When Adam and Eve committed the first sin by eating of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good an Evil, everything changed – including the climate.
That’s when death first entered the world. Before that, nothing died – not people, not animals, nothing. Immediately, however, that changed. God provided the first animal sacrifice to “cover” the shame Adam and Eve experienced and the sin that separated them from their Creator. The days of Adam and Eve and their descendants were now numbered, and they were banished from the garden. Some animal kinds became predatory. Even the ground was cursed. Thorns and thistles sprung up. People would have to work the land to grow their food. Childbirth would be painful. Life itself became more of a struggle.
Within 2,000 years, the entire human race was characterized by sinful behavior, we’re told in Genesis.
In Genesis 6:5-7, the Bible tells us: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.”
Yet, one man found grace in the Lord’s eyes. His name was Noah.
So God warned Noah He would send a flood to destroy the Earth, instructing Him to build an ark to His specifications – a large ship on which Noah would preserve the animal kingdom and his own family.
The coming climate change would be as radical as the one experienced by Adam and Eve. Apparently, it had never rained on Earth before this time, so it was a true test of Noah’s faith that the whole world would be consumed in a massive global flood. But that wasn’t the only cause of the flood. Not only were the windows of heaven opened for 40 days, but so were the fountains of the great deep.
When the waters receded, there were likely some profound climate changes. People didn’t live as long as the generations before Noah. Perhaps the oxygen content of the atmosphere was reduced.
And that was not the only environmental disaster that would befall man as he fell into sin.
In the time of Abraham, the city-states of Sodom and Gomorrah had tried God’s patience with their grievous sin. He sent two angels to save Abraham’s cousin and his family, sending them out of the plain and into the mountain before destroying the place and all life therein with a hail of fire and brimstone from heaven.
But God made a covenant with Abraham and his wife, Sarah, to create a great nation, through which would come a Messiah who would restore the world to its original purpose and perfection. It would be God’s Kingdom on Earth, ruled and reigned over by this resurrected deliverer who would be known as Jesus or Yeshua, which means “salvation.”
This future period, the Apostle Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, told crowds in Jerusalem, would herald “the restitution of all things,” to which all the prophets from Creation onward had pointed with hope and promise.
But, on the road to that promise, God did not forsake intervening in the climate when sin ran amok.
Tomorrow: Farah addresses the mystery of yet another more recent climate-change disaster and evidence that it is being miraculously reversed, suggesting the world is approaching the time of “the restitution of all things.”
See the book trailer for “The Restitution of All Things”:
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2017/01/what-the-bible-says-about-catastrophic-climate-change/#zdLQj0eYcRMVyYOw.99

 My comments: In the days to come, once the Antichrist is revealed and God's Great Tribulation begins--The Face of the Earth will be Ruined (Isaiah 24:1)--Men will Die like Flies (Isaiah 51:6)--The cities of the Nations will collapse (Revelation 16:19).
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MEXICAN OFFICIAL THREATENS U.S. WITH 'CHAOS'

BorderWall


WND EXCLUSIVE

MEXICAN OFFICIAL THREATENS U.S. WITH 'CHAOS'

Will southern neighbor stop cooperating over drug cartels?

Bob Unruh
A former Mexican government official says that in response to President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, his nation might stop cooperating with the United States in the war against the drug cartels, which would unleash what an analysis has described as “chaos and violence.”
The warning came from Jorge Castaneda Gutman, a former secretary of foreign affairs for Mexico, whose leadership has been in an uproar over Trump’s plan to stop illegal immigration.
Trump’s plan includes enhanced Border Patrol staffing for boundary enforcement and a border wall that he has insisted Mexico will fund in one way or another.
In a recent CNN interview, Gutman claimed that the drugs and associated violence are not Mexico’s problem, even though the drug cartels have murdered tens of thousands of Mexicans, beheading many of their victims.
He told CNN that Mexico “has a lot of negotiating chips in this matter … but it also has measures we could take in other areas.”
“For example, the drugs that come through Mexico from South America, or the drugs that are produced here in Mexico all go to the United States,” he said. “This is not our problem.”
Gutman then boasted of his nation’s work with the U.S. but warned it might not last.
“We have been cooperating with the United States for many years on these issues because they’ve asked us to and because we have a friendly, trustful relationship. If that relationship disappears, the reasons for cooperation also disappear,” he said.
At Intellihub, an independent news outlet whose coverage of the secret 2012 Bilderberg meetings became the source of a movie, writer Mac Slavo spelled out the consequences of ending the cooperation.
“[Gutman] suggested that Mexico’s previous cooperation with the U.S. in curbing the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants could end,” he wrote. “Instead, the cartels could be essentially unleashed upon the U.S. – retribution for tough policies on Mexico and other immigrant-producing countries in the Latin American world.”
He said Gutman’s comments confirm the link between the cartels and the Mexican government.
“These astonishing words could open up an economic gang war against the U.S. – very irresponsible words that reveal just how connected Mexico’s leadership is with the cartels who operate from their territories.
“The implications are astoundingly clear – Mexico would consider exporting chaos and violence into the United States as a form of payback for immigration restrictions and controls against instability that the southern border has brought to the country for decades.”
Pointing out “drug cartels and Mexican gangs have killed an estimated 40,000 people over the past decade in Mexico alone,” he warned things “could get pretty ugly.”
WND reported last week the state of Texas officially warned that ISIS terrorists were operating on its border with Mexico.
Its Texas Public Safety Threat Overview states, “We are especially concerned about the potential for terrorist infiltration across the U.S.-Mexico border, particularly as foreign terrorist fighters depart Syria and Iraq and enter global migration flows.”
And it’s not just those who sneak in that are of concern.
“We are concerned about the challenges associated with the security vetting of Syrian war refugees or asylum seekers who are resettled in Texas – namely, that derogatory security information about individuals is inaccessible or nonexistent. We see a potential that these challenges may leave the state exposed to extremist actors who pose as authentic refugees, and who are determined to later commit violent acts,” the state explains.
A report at the Investigative Project on Terrorism noted an extra level for concern because “at least 13 aspiring terrorists have tried to cross into Mexico, or considered trying, since 2012.”
These are people who have been radicalized and want to travel overseas to join terrorist organizations but cannot travel by air because they are on the no-fly list.
Judicial Watch reported as early as April 2015 that ISIS had established a training camp a few miles from El Paso, Texas, in an area known as “Anapra” just west of Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.
According to the JW report, cartel informants told law enforcement that “they are only waiting for the order and the times to carry out a simultaneous attack in the different ports of entry or cities of the United States of America.”
Drug cartels also have a working “agreement” with Islamic terrorists, according to a high-ranking Mexican police administrator, who told JW that men from the Middle East arrive regularly into the country to train jihadists.
Judicial Watch on Tuesday noted the Texas report and said the southern border “has become a hotbed of Islamic terrorism in recent years and Judicial Watch has exposed the national security disaster as part of an ongoing investigation into the dangerously porous region.”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2017/01/mexican-official-threatens-u-s-with-chaos/#rhCS3ciR5vDoQBRB.99
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WESTERN HERITAGE IN BULL'S-EYE, WARNS AUTHOR

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare



WND EXCLUSIVE

WESTERN HERITAGE IN BULL'S-EYE, WARNS AUTHOR

Agenda has PC campuses destroying classics

Political correctness has only intensified in the years since.
And now, Donna Zuckerberg, sister of Facebook founder and anti-Trump activist Mark Zuckerberg, has identified the next battleground of the culture wars – classical studies.
In a contribution at Eidolon, where she is an editor, Zuckerberg instructs her fellow liberals “How to Be a Good Classicist Under a Bad Emperor.”
Under a picture of the Roman Emperor Augustus with a Hitler mustache, Zuckerberg complains the so-called “alt-right” and related movements “love the classics.”
Defiantly, she insists, “We must not allow the alt-right to define what classics will mean in Trump’s America.”
Zuckerberg says classicists must tell the alt-right “we do not support your myopic vision of ‘Western Civilization,'” noticeably using scare quotes around the term Western Civilization. She also says classicists should not encourage those who want to study Greek and Roman authors to learn about their civilization.
She writes:
When you hear someone – be they a student, a colleague, or an amateur – say that they are interested in classics because of “the Greek miracle” or because classics is “the foundation of Western civilization and culture,” challenge that viewpoint respectfully but forcefully. Engage them on their assumed definitions of “foundation,” “Western,” “civilization,” and “culture. “Point out that such ideas are a slippery slope to white supremacy. Seek better reasons for studying classics.
It’s part of a longtime crusade for Zuckerberg, who received a Ph.D. in classics from Princeton and authored a book on the subject titled “Not All Dead White Men.”
However, as some critics noted, such a strategy seems more likely to drive young white men into the arms of the alt right by confirming that any interest in classics is somehow racist.Zuckerberg also identifies sex and not just race as one of the more problematic elements for men interested in the classics.
As part of her “research for a book about how these men talk about ancient Greece and Rome,” she stalked various websites associated with the alt right and the “manosphere” and “men’s rights” communities.
Scott Greer, deputy editor at the Daily Caller and the author of the upcoming book “No Campus For White Men,” says Zuckerberg’s tirade implies the only people who should be talking about classics are those who “conform to left-wing orthodoxy.”
However, Greer argued in a recent column even the likes of Zuckerberg won’t be able to save the classics.
“No matter how much Zuckerberg professes the field’s new-found interest in identity politics, it’s still pretty much entirely about elite white men, as she herself admits,” Greer wrote. “That makes it ripe for the chopping block by the campus left.
“[I]nvoking identity politics to defend your discipline heavy on dead white men from your political foes is incredibly stupid. The campus left is not going to suddenly take an interest in your subject just because you and your fellow classicists wrote an angry letter to Trump. The subject is still about white men and their history, which is enough of a sin in the eyes of campus leftists who demand diversity above all else.”
Indeed, it’s not just white men, but men in general who are under attack on campus.
A class at Dartmouth College claims “toxic masculinity” was partially responsible for the mass shooting in Orlando last summer by an Islamic terrorist. The University of North Carolina hosts a program that attempts to deconstruct the concept of masculinity. At a mandatory freshman orientation session at Gettysburg College, incoming male students are told “be a man” are the “three most destructive words” a boy can hear. And at Claremont University, a group called “Thrive” hosted an event to discuss how “masculinity can be extremely toxic to our mental health, both to the people who are pressured to perform it and the people who are inevitably influenced by it.”
“Traditional masculinity is hated because it promotes male ‘domination,’ male ‘violence’ and isn’t fit for a social justice warrior world, according to the campus left,” Greer said in an interview with WND. “They want men to be more docile and feminine so the gender dynamic is more ‘equal,’ which is just a euphemism for ensuring the power dynamic favors women. Campuses are prone to this kind of hatred because women are over-represented in higher education and colleges aggressively push these ideas among students.”
Greer condemns what he calls an almost unprecedented campaign of social engineering.
“These kinds of programs are harmful to young men because it teaches them that many of their natural inclinations are wrong and forces them to be people they’re not,” he said. “Moreover, campuses can penalize even such benign behavior as flirting if someone takes it as a sign of ‘horrific male aggression.'”
Recent incidents on also seem to indicate no historically important white man, no matter how great, can be guaranteed a “safe space” on campus.
At the University of Pennsylvania, students recently ripped down a portrait of Williams Shakespeare and replaced him with a picture of a black lesbian author. At the University of Virginia, there is an effort to stop quoting Thomas Jefferson, even though the nation’s third president founded the school. And lest you protest this, even complaining about “political correctness” has been deemed a “microaggression” at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Thus, Greer says it is not surprising many college students and recent graduates are turning to ancient times for role models. And Greer argues no matter what Zuckerberg’s efforts, the classics are likely to be the next discipline entirely purged from Western campuses.
“At the end of the day, you can’t separate the classics from the reality that these were, mostly, white males, who are inherently unwelcome on college campuses,” he said. “Zuckerberg can try to spin it however she wants, but if even William Shakespeare doesn’t have a place on campus anymore, it’s hard to see how Plato will survive.”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2017/01/western-heritage-in-bulls-eye-warns-author/#LiEwuG8kSIzSFFFz.99
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