SIGNS OF THE TIMES: Ephemeral links by their common ancestry!

The CRIB's periodically fugacious concerning church & cultural decay ...

• Getting away with murder in the land of the free and the home of the brave: despite the popularity of TRU TV's Forensic Files and CBS's CSI triumvirate, the homicide clearance rate in the good ole USA has dropped by a third in a third of a century. [Yahoo! News]


• DEEPAK CHOPRA: skillfully debunked by someone who, until recently, didn't even know the nonsense guru existed. Chopra blames his adopted country for the world' problems but makes no mention of Islamic fundamentalist's murderous global Jihad. [Am Spectator]


• SECULAR HUMANISM: Interesting Telegraph UK piece that comes alongside my posted review of Herb London's "America's Secular Challenge" [Telegraph UK; Sheep's Crib]


• SOCIAL ENGINEERING: Explain this to me - it's okay for your adolescent children to have tattoos and body piercings but not our pets / Hello! [Yahoo! News]


• ENDANGERED SPECIES: California Supremes put the Good Samaritan on the list. [LAT]


• 2008 WRAP-UP: Brussels Journal has an excellent wrap-up of "signs" from the UK and the Continent. [TBJ]

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PROPHETIC VOICE: A sinister wind from three perspectives!

A foul and sinister wind blows through our alleys and walkways ... though still in it's infancy, the unseen stench, a specter from ancient times, is biting to the nostrils of our soul and heavy on the beating of our heart.

Like the trade winds and the ocean tides, above and below our individual hardscape, the currents of corporate experience and personal opinion ebb and flow around us all. This wind is being seen from three perspectives.

The first perspective or view is the understandable yet irrational euphoria related to the election of America's first president of color.

The second relates to a genuine fear and foreboding which has descended upon nearly half of our adult neighbors ... this dread has nothing to do with skin color (though most of the other half accuses the other of just such an evil).

The third (my personal perspective), involves about a quarter of our population, authentic Christians who are eschatologically informed (see here for definition) ... sensitive to the signs of the times. [see here also]

If the election of Barrack Hussein Obama is being globally credited as proof of an evil country overcoming its racism, why the overdose on Obama's black roots? And why do we hear so quickly from so many blacks that this proves nothing and doesn't settle any supposed debt?

In a 2004 questionnaire, [Obama] told the NAACP, “I fear that reparations would be an excuse for some to say, ‘We’ve paid our debt,’ and to avoid the much harder work.” [African American History Channel]

In other words, we are being told that the debt will continue to be owed as long as a black fiddler can continue to play the tune.

The euphoria we are witnessing is irrational in that it is not related to issues or context; it is however deeply rooted in emotion, resentment, and duplicity.

This non-specific joy will fade with the advent of reality, but will morph into hate and animas ... whites, especially conservative whites, will become the target of a confused and frustrated black rage.

My head involuntarily recoils at the smell of what is to come, when "African-Americans" finally realize in their desperate search for an enemy that the enemy is them.

But of more immediate and national importance is the burden many of us feel when we realize those radical SOBs from the 60s are now running the country, having finally gathered together the most gullible and easily manipulated majority of voters in history.

A generation of middle aged anarchistic, iconoclastic, anti-establishmentarianists has technologically knit together a non-violent revolutionary army of mush-brained young adults, godless self-absorbed urbanites, entitlement dependent minorities, and gimme ignoramuses to pull off a bloodless coup in the greatest nation on earth and in history.

But I don't despair, for I know in whom I believe and trust. He is faithful to be with me even to the end of time, and has never made a promise He has not or will not keep.

A South African friend delivered a radio message this week in which he tells the story of president-elect Obama's visit to his country two years ago as "Just Another Senator" from America.

He goes on to remind us all that officials of the government refused to meet with him and pawned him off to a low level bureaucrat. They now regret their short-sighted offense since they were told of Obama's aspirations. But it is now too late.

My friend then reminds us of another leader who is coming, who we have been warned is coming, and who, if we snub Him, will ensure our regret for all eternity. That Leader is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the Son of God.

Come Lord Jesus.

Christianity, Jesus, Obama, Politics,
Prophecy, Religion, Second Coming

| | | |

OBAMA: May not be a Muslim but ... !

My Muslim Faith | Snopes
Obama: I have a deep faith | CHICAGO SUN-TIMES | Cathleen Falsani
HT - Obama: Never a Christian | WND
HT - Barack Obama: Never a Christian | BLACK KETTLE

... he is ALSO NOT "a Christian ... in the Christian tradition."

The CRIB is not saying Senator Obama does not have the right to say he is a Christian in the mistaken belief that he is ... as thousands of others do every day ... but that if he does, he should expect those who know differently to call him out on that false claim.

That's where Snopes, Obama, and the MSM apparently fail; they don't adequately understand orthodoxy and so do not discern the difference between those who are saying he is a Muslim and those who are saying he is not a Christian.

The following is the text of my critical email to Snopes' Urban Legends regarding their seemingly deliberate twisting of the context and interpretation of the now infamous Obama misstatement of his faith in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos.

A quick reading of the Snopes piece might help: please go there and read it!

The CRIB welcomes critical comments on our analysis but will delete diatribes and DNC talking points or position paper quotes ...

Thank you for your excellent Internet site and service; I've found it meaningful and useful in my blogging for a number of years now. Your readership numbers are well deserved.

However, your redaction of and spinning of "my Muslim faith" is inconsistent with your usually non-partisan commentary on controversial items.

Also, one can argue about the video and your redaction until hell freezes over and not accomplish anything ... but whether or not Senator Obama is a Christian or not is another question; the question should be left up to those who profess an "orthodox" theology ... as would be true with all faith communities. [NOTE: a fair way to address this would have been to quote from a handful of critics of his theology.]

Certainly the Senator might run down a runway with outstretched arms, making jet noises, but that would not make him a jet airplane.

Here is Obama's Christian testimony as given in a 2004 Chicago Sun-Times interview:

Asked by the reporter what he believes, Obama said: "I am a Christian. I'm rooted in the Christian tradition. I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people. That there are values that transcend race or culture, that move us forward, and there's an obligation for all of us individually as well as collectively to take responsibility to make those values lived."

Herein lies the problem with his claims: all roads, according to "the Christian tradition," DO NOT lead to eternal life!

One must call Jesus a liar in order for this to be true; it's the antithesis of Jesus' own words," [John 14:6 - "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."]

The reporter even commented on this deviation from "the Christian tradition": "It's perhaps an unlikely theological position for someone who places his faith squarely at the feet of Jesus to take, saying essentially that all people of faith -- Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, everyone -- know the same God."

It was clear to Cathleen Falsani, the reporter, what he was saying. Even more condemning is the following:

"'The difficult thing about any religion, including Christianity, is that at some level there is a call to evangelize and proselytize. There's the belief, certainly in some quarters, that if people haven't embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior, they're going to hell.'

"Obama doesn't believe he, or anyone else, will go to hell.

"But he's not sure if he'll be going to heaven, either.

"'I don't presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die," he says. "When I tuck in my daughters at night, and I feel like I've been a good father to them, and I see in them that I am transferring values that I got from my mother and that they're kind people and that they're honest people, and they're curious people, that's a little piece of heaven.'"

Snopes shouldn't presume to report conclusively concerning this issue.

What is true and not "false" is that he DID slip and DID say what he said. Your spin doesn't assist in the search for truth.

SPECIFIC DISTORTIONS IN YOUR REPORT:

"When the subject of the interview turned to Senator Obama's assertion that Republicans were attempting to scare voters by suggesting he is not Christian" -- you offer no evidence to support his claim, nor did you indicate that those who have questioned his faith were doing so on the basis of strong orthodox tenets AND his own testimony.

"... John McCain had not specifically promulgated the false rumor that he (Obama) was a Muslim." -- once again you fail to differentiate between those making the claim he is a stealth Muslim and those who are making the claim that he cannot be a Christian "in the Christian tradition" based on his own testimony.

"... George Stephanopoulos - apparently not understanding the context of Senator Obama's response" -- mistakenly attempted to correct him ... " -- one presuppositional statement ["apparently not understanding"] cannot be used to authenticate another ["mistakenly"]; the whole paragraph is fallacious because of this ethical error. This is not reporting; it is commentary but without the disclaimer.

"This non sequitur briefly threw Senator Obama off track; he repeated the words 'my Christian faith' and then returned to the point he was trying to make." -- this has the forensic smell of a DNC talking points memo and NOT something normally found at Urban Legends. What astounds me is your "non sequitur" above leading into a defense against another which you cannot prove since it is based on a mindset that only Senator Obama can verify.

This email will appear on my blog this morning, you may, if you wish, respond in the comments.

Some of Obama's comments are so unorthodox (e.g., "I don't presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die") that it calls into question the twenty years of teaching and preaching of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Scripture is clear: "And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment ... " [Hebrews 9:27; see also Matthew 25:46]

Remember, the issue is not to prove he is a stealth Muslim, but rather show that he is NOT "a Christian ... in the Christian tradition."

The Bible tells us [those of us who hold to the orthodox doctrine of the inspiration of the Scriptures] "you will know them by their fruits" and that "out of the mouth come the things of the heart."

Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'

Matthew 7:22-23

Christianity, Election 2008,
False religion, Obama, Orthodoxy,
Politics, Religion, Snopes

OBAMA: Is our election of a president a popularity contest or prophetic precursor?

Barack Obama vows to 'change the world' | Telegraph UK
HT - A few Saturday morning links | Maggie's Farm
The Depressed Terrorist and the First Lady | Brussels Journal
NBC: 'If World Had a Vote, Barack Obama Would Win in a Landslide' | NewsBusters

The world is being set up; set up to one day receive the biblical "man of lawlessness." In August I posted ...

The CRIB is NOT saying anything about Obama being the Antichrist, far too many things must come first ... the Temple, the priesthood, the ten nation confederacy, and the return of the Jewish diaspora ... only be aware, be on the alert ... for the days are short.

In that post I quoted 2 Thessalonians 2:3-5, where Scripture warns us of a day when he will be made known ... it's a certainty. The CRIB simply wants to warn its readers to be on the alert ... these are prophetic times.

Some generation will be alive when he is revealed; our generation is being used to set the stage for that revelation. The global community (this generation), because of its godlessness and weariness, is being hypnotized into acting as a precursor for his actual coming.

Three unrelated yet relevant news articles caught my attention ... and they should catch yours.

"I want you to believe," said the candidate, clad in an open-necked shirt and barn jacket. "Not so much believe just in me but believe in yourselves. Believe in the future. Believe in the future we can build together. I'm confident together we can't fail."

There was a carnival atmosphere among the crowd of some 4,000, who almost drowned Mr Obama out as he reached his crescendo and said: "I promise you. We won't just win New Hampshire. We will win this election and, you and I together, we're going to change the country and change the world." [Telegraph UK]

Jesus Himself said, "Apart from me you can do nothing." How is it that this candidate never mentions Jesus if he is such a staunch believer.

The Economist has organized a global consultative participation via the internet in the US‘ election. The available results give “99%” of the countries to Obama. While the sample is not scientific – only those with access to the weekly and the internet could participate – one thing is clear.

Never has anyone in superpower America ascended to power with as much global support as BO is likely to. The disappointment of the sobered at home and abroad will match the present enthusiasm fueled by illusions. [Brussels Journal]

Almost sounds biblical, doesn't it? That's what I thought. We are being used by God to set the stage ... I'm certain of it!

Friday's NBC Nightly News devoted a story to how around the world “people want to turn a page on the Bush years” and, as if it's relevant, “if the world had a vote, Barack Obama would win in a landslide.” A suggestion to viewers on what they must do to restore America's honor?

Reporter Dawna Friesen warned that the next President “faces a grim reality: Much of the world deeply distrusts, even dislikes, the United States” and she rued “much of the sympathy and solidarity that existed after 9/11 evaporated during the Bush years.” [News Busters]

I too want to turn a page on the Bush years, but I don't want the world to have anything to do with selecting our president. In fact, I only cede that to God.

Here in Turkey, as in much of the world, people want to turn a page on the Bush years. In fact, polls show the image of the U.S. has improved slightly this year simply because President Bush is leaving. And, that if the world had a vote, Barack Obama would win in a landslide. Regardless of who wins, the world is clamoring for a new America in 2009. [Friesen - NBC Nightly News via News Busters]

Clearly, in my opinion, this generation is being used to precursor the coming of the Antichrist. Not a generation which follows this one will be immune from the subtle pull of Satan's grip and Antichrist's power sapping undercurrent.

God have mercy on me a sinner, and show us your Light, your True Light.

Antichrist, Change, Election 2008, Globalism,
Man of lawlessness, Messiah, Obama, One world, Politics,
Prophecy, Revelation, Scripture, Religion

ISLAM: Call me an Islamophobe but ... !

Black Racists Recruited to Guide the Jihad | FrontPage
HT - The Iconoclast - New English Review

Some day, perhaps not in my lifetime, WWIII will commence. A war of the west against the evil empire of the east - Islam. Not everyone on either side will be in favor of this conflict but its commencement and conduct are not in the range of their control.

The North American theatre is well under way, with Canada going as Europe goes. The USA front has a unique character to ti ...

Many black racists ... are key figures in [a] “stealth” jihad, whose prime recruiting grounds are the U.S. prisons and mosques where inmates and worshippers alike are taught to embrace a radical Islam engaged in an apocalyptic battle against America.

The European theatre of this Third Jihad has almost resulted in a Eurabia, a union of the EU (not with popular support either) and the Arabian states of the Middle East (Israel was not invited ... go figure).

Our ally, Saudi Arabia, W's close desert friends, is footing the bill for the Jihad's foot soldiers in the land of the free ...

... Saudis ... have spent many millions of dollars funding a majority of America’s mosques, and have dispatched Imams from a number of Middle Eastern nations to settle in the U.S. as missionaries.

Faheem Shuaibe, an Imam at a predominately black mosque in California, says that Saudi Arabia has set up “a very deliberate recruitment process … trying to find black Muslims who had a real potential for Islamic learning and also for submission to their agenda” of Wahhabi extremism.

Some might say these clandestine enemies don't stand a chance against our intel services, but need I remind you of the 9/11, Iraq, and Taliban failures of recent years? I would suggest my fellow Americans not put much faith in either ourdomestic or our international operations.

Pakistani religious leaders Sami ul-Haq and Fazrul Rehman predict that “in the next 10 years, Americans will wake up to the existence of an Islamic army in their midst—an army of jihadis who will force America to abandon imperialism and listen to the voice of Allah.”

The belief among Muslims worldwide is that America is the new Crusader. The belief among black American racists is that all whiteys are still fundamentally non-reformable slavers.

Other black racist Islamists play less glamorous but equally significant roles as Imams at major mosques in the U.S.; as chaplains in prisons and jails; and as radical figures who haunt American higher education by advising and speaking for organizations such as the Muslim Students Association (MSA) on campuses across the nation.

Whatever audience they target, they speak a lingua franca of anti-white, anti-Semitic, anti-American hatred—all in the name of Allah.

The Judeo-Christian focus on the next life as opposed to the Muslim focus on this life is a powerful and dividing force; one that allows the former to coexist in this world, but forces the other to conquest of this world.

WWIII is coming, as sure as the sun will rise in the morning ... unless the sun that rises tomorrow is the Son that has risen.

End times, Eurabia, Europe,
Geopolitics, Islam, Jihad, Last days,
Muslims, Religion, Wahhabism, WWIII

EUROPEAN CONNECTION: Don't fence me in ... I'm religious and political?

Europe's first revolution | New Statesman
HT - Cranmer: MEPs: ‘The EU is of a secular and neutral nature’
We Are Losing Europe to Islam | Diana West : Townhall

America is going the way of Europe ... unbeknown to the majority of her citizens!

John Steinbeck's novella was titled - Of Mice and Men; but God said - of neither mice nor men ...

Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation." For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water.

But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

2 Peter 3:3-10

But first a metaphorical interlude ...

Farmer Jones was content with his life's work: his terraced fields were solid and easily maintained; his dual-source irrigation system was state of the art; his stock fine and deep in DNA; his bio-seed stores unrivaled; and his children and grandchildren legally provided for ... a century at least if the wisdom they were taught ruled their lives.

But his neighbor was not so content, nor so wise: when the 100 year flood came, it took his poorly built terraces, polluted his wells, killed his stock, saturated his seed stores, and took the house and barns as a final thought. On their way to removing the new county road, the waters and the flotsam and jetsam undermined Jones' terraces and took his farm too!

Though the global financial crisis is the easiest correlation here, the demise of Europe as a viable Western ally will cascade across the sea and destroy all that is not destroyed by the fiduciary failure of our financial community.

So how is it that I see America following Europe's lead in to oblivion?

First, Europe's new leaders believe they can correct "mistakes" of the past (Crusades, wars, poverty, inhumanity, etc.) by ignoring almost 1,500 years of Christian influence.

Papal mutterings about this perceived "apostasy" have been increasing in volume for some time now - but what really infuriated the Vatican was the presentation, back in 2003, of the first draft of the ill-fated European constitution.

In its preamble, the authors had indulged themselves in a spot of root-tracing. Europe's debt to ancient Greece and Rome was solemnly acknowledged. So, too, were the achievements of the Enlightenment. About the Christian roots of European civilisation, however, there was nothing.

The implication was obvious: everything between Marcus Aurelius and Voltaire was to be reckoned mere backwardness and superstition. [...]

Today's secular Europe may well pride itself on having arrived at a post-religious state of moral and intellectual superiority - but it is no less Christendom's heir for that.

In the USA it is a popular recreation, and Starbucks' moment, to wax on about our evil and religious past, while revealing a severe case of anti-religious ignorance marinated in an unhealthy canister of secular arrogance; in so doing the secular humanist, not seeing the baby in the dirty water, throws it out.

What they conveniently forget in their snobbery is the existence of such grand institutions as Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, Notre Dame, Loyola; the multiple and nationwide hospitals of the Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Catholics, the benevolent work of the Amish, Mennonites, the Salvation Army, the Knights of Columbus, and the senior care and retirement facilities of manifold others, etc. and etc.

All undeniable foundational and historically relevant religious entities.

Second, Europe's new leaders believe they can get away with the former if they "ring-fence" all religions and politics.

... the con viction [sic] that the religious and political spheres should be rigorously ring-fenced - and even more rigorously patrolled - has widespread support in Brussels. As one group of MEPs protested, in an official letter of complaint to the president of the European Parliament: "The EU is of a secular and neutral nature."

Almost daily, in America, someone (usually a politician but also an entertainer or academician), somewhere stands to condemn all things religious, throwing the baby, the water, and the clean out together.

A good example of this attitude of the left is the fairness doctrine (it's believed by some that this abomination will be reinstated in the event of an Obama victory); this is nothing more than cristophobia in drag.

Third, Europe's new leaders believe there are no absolutes and are willing to institute a broad set of absolutes to stop belief in them.

Pope Benedict asked last year: ‘Is it not surprising that today's Europe, while hoping to be seen as a community of values, more and more seems to contest that universal and absolute values exist?’

Yet he ought to have made it clear that the EU has developed its own universal and absolute articles of faith which are not neutral, but decidedly anti.

If a state seeks to be neutral in the effect of its policies then it requires a greater level of state intervention to ensure that inequalities are negated. [Cranmer]

A refreshing wind in all of this elitist duplicity and stupidity is Benedict XVI's adamant stand against the EU Parliament's efforts to bury their heads in the sand.

Most of our (America's) cultural war has been fought on this battlefield ... sanctity of human life, separation of church and state, Constitutional law and legislating from the bench, capital punishment, free speech, etc.

Cranmer is with Pope Benedict XVI in his opposition to the EU’s militant secularism.

One cannot be ‘neutral’ in matters of religion - pretending to broker between ‘equal’ faiths and impartial in arbitration between competing worldviews - for that neutrality presupposes a higher level of knowledge and constitutes itself an article of faith. There is no neutrality to be had because neutrality needs as much justification as any other position.

Secular humanism has progressively become more absolutist in its quest to silence conservatives and people of faith by ridiculing the belief in absolutes ... and the irony seems to be lost on them.

Fourth, multiculturalism has been the weapon of choice for Europe and the European Union ... a weapon incapable of aiding in a suicide ... for combating the Third Jihad.

With Wall Street convulsing, and the White House race intensifying, the question "Who lost Europe" is on no one's lips, let alone minds. Indeed, the question begs another: "Is Europe lost?"

The answer to the second question is, "No, not yet." And losing Europe, I would add, is by no means inevitable. But that doesn't mean the continent isn't currently hell-bent to accommodate the dictates of Islamic law, bit by increasingly larger bit. Such a course of accommodation, barring reversal, will only hasten Bernard Lewis' famous prediction that Europe will be Islamic by century's end. [Diana West]

The USA has been duped into a multicultural stupor by leftists and special interest groups; Islamic groups have used this stupor to their advantage. If America doesn't wake up, it will have more than an illegal immigration problem.

The west faces increasing tension with the Muslim world. [...]

As the first decade of the third Christian millennium draws to an increasingly troubled close, the verdict of historians on its significance can already be anticipated. Two themes will predominate. The first, exemplified by the present carnage in the financial markets, will be the quickening of the west's decline relative to China and India; the second, not entirely coincidentally, will be the tensions in the relationship between the west and the Muslim world.

A bleak picture indeed ... for a nation so self-absorbed and carnal that it might well face a day not too distant when it cannot defend itself. A nation's military security is intrinsically tied to its economic security ... and as we found when Russia invaded Georgia, we're lacking in both areas.

Christianity, Europe, Faith,
Geopolitics, History, Multiculturalism,
Muslims, Politics, Religion

WEALTH: A prelude to the Last Days!

Stocks and shares and the Golden Calf | Cranmer

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:19-21

Scripture warns of days like these ... man, vested in this world and not the next, is surprised by the loss of all his wealth, having come to trust in it.

Who is there to blame ... point the finger of blame anywhere but in a mirror! Whose watch is it? Blame him! Or, though they know not God, they blame God!

I have come to believe this financial crisis is being allowed by God, much as He allowed the Tower of Babel to be built. When He tired of man's efforts to reach Him He threw them into global confusion, much like the global confusion we witness today.

And the fact that neither of the two candidates for POTUS are truly acceptable candidates, that neither is qualified to lead in these days of trial and tribulation; neither is like David, a man after God's own heart.

It is so like God to humble the wisdom of man by His ignorance, man's power by His weakness, and man's message by the message!

Wars are being fought that cannot be won (and here); nonsensical ideologies are waxing strong (Soviet resurgence; Amadinajab's nuclear & Israeli foreign policy), while the wisdom of the ages gathers dust on the book shelf; and public ignorance grows like mold under a leaky sink.

Yet still the panic continues, still the stock markets suffer record-breaking falls, still the finance ministers and central bank governors scratch their heads to cobble together yet another initiative to avert financial cataclysm.

And millions of helpless people are left to wander aimlessly in a valley of darkness and insecurity, because they followed their leaders without discernment; they trusted their teachings and respected their learning; they affirmed their experience and submitted to their authority.

Yet all the time those leaders were leading the people astray, for they were placating them with falsehood and lies, leading them to the false god of riches and avarice. They fixed their eyes on the Gold Calf, in worship, love and adoration. And the people mistook this idol for the God of their forefathers, for it brought happiness, material wealth, security, and the people had never had it so good.

But all good things must come to an end, especially those good things which were not actually good, but merely seemed so.

Or so says His Grace, the Archbishop Cranmer. Here, here! Or is it, "Hear, hear"?

Christianity, End Times, Election 2008,
Financial crisis, McCain,
Obama, Politics, Religion, Wealth

PROPHETIC VOICE: Newsweek and Sam Harris gang up on Sarah, reveal end-time roll!

Sam Harris on Sarah Palin and Elitism | Politics | Newsweek
HT - Newsweek on Palin: A 'Pet Pony' and 'Rapture-Ready Extremist' | NewsBusters

Sam Harris is a self-promoting, nobody atheist who has been blessed by the Peter Principle ... raised up to "his level of incompetence," only his benefactors have no idea he has been!

Writing in what used to be a worthy magazine, Harris declares John McCain's pick for Vice President a figment of imagination, a religious zealot of the first order, someone of such dysfunction that she is not worthy of our time, let alone our support.

So, I ask, why are Newsweek and the soon to be forgotten Sam Harris taking the time to mock her? The answer to that question is found in another Peter principle ...

Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming?

For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation."

For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

2 Peter 3:3-10

One of the dangers of keeping Sarah Palin under wraps is that it allows this kind of hyperbolic diatribe to reproduce! (see here also) Where is the danger for Harris' and his crapola, if he knows she won't be allowed to respond?

I can't agree with all of Tim Graham's take on Harris' opinion of Palin because I don't see it in the same light ... with the same worldview!

Harris has a right to his opinion; it's the subtle and quasi-intellectual fear mongering (see cristophobia) which really bothers me (CRIB emphasis). Notice ...

Her relative ignorance is guaranteed on these fronts and most others, not because she was put on the spot, or got nervous, or just happened to miss the newspaper on any given morning. Sarah Palin's ignorance is guaranteed because of how she has spent the past 44 years on earth.

I care even more about the many things Palin thinks she knows but doesn't: like her conviction that the Biblical God consciously directs world events. Needless to say, she shares this belief with millions of Americans -- but we shouldn't be eager to give these people our nuclear codes, either.

Excuse me? Who has Sam spent any quality time with regarding the "the past 44 years" of her life" Seriously, how does he know how she spent the past 44 years?

Then there is this little slip: "her conviction that ... God ... directs world events." Add Harris' own admission "millions of Americans" share "this belief" with poor Sarah!

First, this has been shown and re-shown to have taken out of context. And, second, she never said or even implied anything near to this. But will Harris' hubris allow him to discuss it reasonably and rationally? No! It won't!

And "we" shouldn't? This wee slip of the tongue tells me that he believes he, the Newsweek shakers, and their mover-readers are all of one mind. Such arrogance!

And "these people"? What smug contempt for "millions of Americans"?

Harris and Newsweek are not just mocking Sarah Palin, they've called out, by Harris' own figures, millions of Americans. But they have no fear, not of Sarah's fellow Christians (recent history shows we don't fight back against this crapola) and not of the likes of Sam Harris or the editors of Newsweek (Romans 3:18).

Most reasonable people know intuitively what this means to the intelligentsia. And most public speakers/writers avoid it when speaking to or about any minority group: women, blacks, Jews, Muslims, etc. But not to Christians, especially Christian women.

Harris and Newsweek are both guilty of what they accuse Palin - of ignorance and of spending their lives in the wrong way, without God, and therefore not knowing him or what He has said!

CROSS POSTED: Cristophobia Watch

2 Peter 3, Christianity, Cristophobia, Election 2008, Harris, McCain,
Newsweek, Religion, Palin, Politics

BAILOUT: Be afraid, be very afraid!

McCain: Bailout CEOs Should Get Pay Cuts - Live Coverage | WaPo
Gingrich on the Bailout: Before D.C. Gets Our Money, It Owes Us Some Answers | Political Punch- ABC News
Wall Street Bailout Prevents Deeper Crisis | American Power Blog

John McCain has been reminding me of why he didn't have my pre-Palin vote; at times, unlike Obama, I can't see whose side he's on.

In Disney's entertaining cartoon movie "Finding Nemo," and when thinking of Washington DC, one can never forget the greedy cry of the seagulls: "Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine ... "!

This plan reminds me of the scene where seagulls perforated a sailboat's canvas in pursuit of a pelican with Nemo in his gullet: the seagulls are our politicians, the sail is this bailout, while you and I are still looking for our national pelican. So far Newt Gingrich and Neil Cavuto are the only two making any sense to this taxpayer.

Like FDR's new deal, recent federal economic actions reek of short-term wisdom and long-term debt, bureaucratic bungling and fiduciary failure, with a healthy portion of capitol capital and dirty dealing on top.

If I were writing a conspiracy novel about a global design to bring down the greatest nation to have ever existed, I couldn't conceive of a more convoluted plot line than the one that has been working its way through the media since our introduction to "the Bush Doctrine" ... the financial bailout of Wall Street portends nothing good for Main Street.

Bailout, Election 2008, McCain,
Obama, Politics, Wall Street, Wall Street

OBAMA: The Muslim Factor!

GOP loses Arab-Americans, but support for Obama is soft | Detroit News
HT - The Iconoclast - New English Review

Perceptions mean a lot in national elections. Here are more reasons why you should think very carefully about voting for the suave and debonier Senator from Illinois.

Sons of Thunder, James and John Zogby, collaborated on an Election 2008 survey of Arab-Americans.

Arab-American voters also appear consistent with the rest of the population in that Arab Catholics -- including Chaldeans, Malachites and Maronites -- favor McCain, 53-31. Muslim Arab-Americans favor Obama 84-4.

The issue here has to do with the last sentence. "Muslim Arab-Americans" perceive Obama as favorable for a reason. Such a wide margin between Muslim and non-Muslim voters should give every voter pause.

Consider Rebecca Bynum's cautious innuendos in today's New English Review ...

It may be the standard liberal line that anyone who isn't for Obama is a racist, but James Zogby also went to bat for Mazen Asbahi, the Muslim Brotherhood linked adviser to the Obama campaign and it seems pretty clear he uses the Arab-American Institute to advance Muslim causes. John J. Miller says he keeps a signed picture of Yasser Arafat in his office.

Reader beware; look at Eurabia to see what happens to a people asleep at the wheel.

Election 2008, Eurabia, McCain,
Muslims, Obama, Politics, Religion, Zogby

HOMOSEXUALS: California's queer industry continues its "in your face" campaign!

Harvey Milk Day | Snopes
ALSO - Legislators tell school kids to celebrate homosexuality | WND

A bill passed by the California legislature (now sitting on Governor Schwarzenegger's desk) seeks to designate May 22 as Harvey Milk Day; AB 2567 states ...

"On Harvey Milk Day, exercises remembering the life of Harvey Milk and recognizing his accomplishments as well as the contributions he made to this state" should be conducted; specifically, "all public schools and educational institutions are encouraged to observe ... and conduct suitable commemorative exercises."

That's K-12 "and beyond" [Buzz Lightyear].

Notice that Milk was a San Francisco county supervisor with a "special interest" agenda: why should the entire state school system celebrate the life and work of a San Francisco pervert?

I can understand Cesar Chavez or William Mulholland, at least their lives and works affected the lives and works of all Californians, and those somewhat positively. But Milk's resume has had nothing but a deleterious affect on the people of California.

This kind of legislation is one of very many reasons we left California.

Soon teachers with a Judeo-Christian worldview will be nudged out of the profession and new teachers with a similar worldview will emigrate to other states (one of our daughters), or into private education, depriving the kids of California some of the best in the business.

Woe to California and Californians.

AB 2567, California, Harvey Milk,
Homosexuals, Judeo-Christian, Palin, Politics

MEDIA BIAS: Don't give me facts, I'm content with my ignorance!

FRC Action Summit: Newt Gingrich | Hot Air
HT - Gingrich Criticizes Media for Anti-Religion Elitism; Chastises ABC's Gibson | NewsBusters

Newt Gingrich, former Republican Speaker of the House, blasted the media for its religious intolerance and historical ignorance at the Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C.

"And I want to take a minute or two because I want to put in context how bad things have gotten in the elite media and how utterly alien from historic traditional American culture some elements of the elite media are and I'll let you decide for yourself as you watch them which people accurately fit this," Gingrich added. "But there's a secular, at a minimum skeptical to religion, at a maximum overtly hostile to religion bias in the mainstream media."

I'd vote for overtly hostile.

Much more ...

CROSS POSTED: Cristophobia Watch

Christianity, Cristophobia, Gingrich, Media bias,
Palin, Religion, Religious Intolerance

PROPHETIC VOICE: Believers be aware!

Obama's speech seen by 38 million-plus viewers | Yahoo! News

Be aware my friends of the faith; do not be deceived by the false light of man, look for the True Light. Obama may be as far from being the man of lawlessness as you are from being Christ Jesus but we must be wary.

Let no one in any way deceive you, for [the end] will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

The gushing and ebullience of the MSM continues unabated ... MSM (99 and 44/100% pure liberal) newscasters and talking-heads put aside their professionalism and spoke openly of their thoroughly enraptured support of the messianic-like Barack Obama.

Some day, some generation will be alive when the man of lawlessness is revealed; we don't know who or when ... we are simply warned to be on the alert.

The CRIB is NOT saying anything about Obama being the Antichrist, far too many things must come first ... the Temple, the priesthood, the ten nation confederacy, and the return of the Jewish diaspora ... only be aware, be on the alert ... for the days are short.

Christianity, End Times, Religion

PENTECOSTALISM: Some needed questions are asked about Todd Bentley!

Life After Lakeland: Sorting Out the Confusion - Fire In My Bones

In his latest "Fire In My Bones" column, J. Lee Grady asks some needed questions of his faith family ... but I've grown weary of reporting on the embarrassing lives of the Pentecostals and the Episcopalians, so go to Grady's column and read it for yourselves.

I will, however, post the questions so you'll have them in your mind before you get there.

1. Why did so many people flock to Lakeland from around the world to rally behind an evangelist who had serious credibility issues from the beginning?

2. Why didn’t anyone in Lakeland denounce the favorable comments Bentley made about William Branham?

3. Why did God TV tell people that “any criticism of Todd Bentley is demonic”?

4. Why did a group of respected ministers lay hands on Bentley on June 23 and publicly ordain him? Did they know of his personal problems?

5. Can anything good come out of this?

Grady answers his own questions but they leave me as repulsed as did Bentley's original snake oil pitch.

The answers to these questions won't be found in Grady's article, they are simple answers and are found elsewhere! Do you know where?

Christianity, Heresy, Hubris,
Pentecostalism, Religion

CHURCH DECAY: Leave the ruins to the Muslims!

CHURCH DECAY: Leave the ruins to the Muslims!

LORD TEBBIT: If the head of our church can't uphold the standards that shaped us, what hope is there? | Daily Mail Online

A British Lord takes issue with the Church of England's main man, who happens to be Anglicanism's main man as well. He says,

Who am I to criticise the Archbishop of Canterbury on the matters of theology, doctrine or what the scriptures mean? [...]

I am, however, a 'fellow traveller' and it is fellow travellers, whether of political parties or churches, whose opinions should be listened to most carefully by the powers that be. If the politicians or bishops offer confident, reasonable leadership, we follow them. If they look lost, confused and out of touch, we leave in droves.

And oh how they have been leaving. The issue of ordaining non-celibate gay & lesbian priests has fractured the Worldwide Communion of the Anglican body ...

There is, of course, nothing new about homosexuality or homosexual priests and I suspect that most people these days will say 'so what?'

But the Church of England still has a role to play in upholding the standards and beliefs which have shaped the society in which we live. And for the leader of that institution to appear confused by his moral standpoint is surely disastrous.

I'll not waste your time with theological nit-picking here, but our "fellow traveler" does go on to make several excellent points.

I fear that the leaking of Dr Williams' letters [revealing a bifurcated theology on the issue], even if they are from eight years ago, will give more comfort to those who see the church as a leftover from the past than to those who would like to see it stand up boldly for the values on which it was built. For a while, the traditionalists will rally ... but the fellow travellers will drift away leaderless, with neither a church nor a political party prepared to champion their views and beliefs.

And we see it in the visible church everywhere; the Emergents and the Seekers being two not so wonderful examples.

So who is left? Watch out for the challenge from the mosques. An Islam with a modern face will soon begin to present itself as the natural home for those who long for moral certainty and a new sense of discipline within society. [...]

The task for the imams will be to exploit the fatal weakness of the multicultural society and replace a Christian church that has lost its sense of history and direction with a Mosque that has a strong, ingrained sense of both.

Once again I am led to prophetic implications ... what about you?

Anglicanism, Christianity,
Homosexuality, Islam, Religion

PROPHETIC VOICE: WW III is well under way; the mindless masses haven't noticed!

War in the Caucasus | Brussels Journal

France: Can a Wounded Nation Heal Itself? | Brussels Journal

War in Georgia: It’s the 3 a.m. Call in the White House | Brussels Journal

These three articles and recent geopolitical events made me realize - it may become necessary to admit that I'm an alarmist! Not yet but soon ... if I am wrong!

I believe the greatly maligned and feared Third World War has already begun; it will not be a conventional war but one of stealth, yet every bit as dangerous as a shooting war.

I believe it began during the infamous protest movements of the 60s [HT: Black Kettle] and the 70s; the failed presidency of Jimmie Carter only accelerated its arrival.

I believe the presidency of Ronald Reagan only served to delay the inevitable.

I believe those world leaders and geopolitical groups, that long to unseat Western Civilization from its global throne, have discovered our leaders are fools and dupes (also here, here, and here).

I believe the bravado behind Russia's revanchist invasion of Georgia to be clear evidence of Russia's opinion of Western leaders, especially American leaders.

I also believe the world's iconification of Jimmie Carter, Yaser Arafat, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and Barack Obama (also here) is evidence of this.

I believe our diplomatic failures (here and here also), since 9/11, reveal American and European leaders for what they are: duplicitous - absent vision and backbone, with a yellow stripe up their backs as wide as an Interstate; for the most part they are self-obsessed, greedy, historically out of touch with reality, and incapable of speaking truth!

I believe Muslims are right when they say Western leaders have no will for the long fight; the high price is no longer exacted from totalitarian states or their leaders.

I believe an omnipotent force, far outside any and all natural forces, is at work to orchestrate a global conflict that will make the first two World Wars look like a sandbox fight between two year-olds.

I believe the world is slouching towards Gomorrah faster than Robert Bork could have ever grasped.

I believe liberalism, that pernicious and omnipresent evil and constant antagonist for common sense, is nothing more than socialism in drag.

The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.

NormanThomas

HT: Brain Terminal

I believe there may be a supernatural power simultaneously weakening the EU and strengthening Muslim hegonomy in Europe.

I believe the real child molesters and pedophiles are here and here; and this only plays into the hands of sycophantish globalists who use these social issues to confuse and obfuscate.

I believe the erosion of common sense and free speech in the West, in parallel with the global ascendancy of hate crimes legislation and political correctness, is evidence of a worldview so pervasive, so dysfunctional, and so corrosive most elitists ridicule its existence.

I believe an incomplete and incorrect eschatology is responsible for much of the sin in and the impotence of the contemporary Judeo-Christian worldview.

I believe events are cascading so rapidly that there may be no time left to save our way of life and the liberties we so dearly cherish.

I believe we must wake up and smell the cordite.

Geopolitics, Third World War, WWIII

SOTERIOLOGY: Did anyone catch Obama's heretical statement!

Obama's German presidential speech | American Thinker Blog

It is so hard to be perfect in our speech in this fallen world but leaders (sectarian or otherwise) who profess a religious element in their worldviews must be doubly vigilant with their words. Obama blew this one ...

The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.

That's the key paragraph in BO's tear down those walls comment ... now answer these basic questions:

1. How will the Jews tear down the Mosaic Law wall - salvation by works? They rejected the One who offered to tear it down; what makes Obama supporters believe he can do what Christ alone can do?
   
2. How will the Mohammedans tear down their own peculiar salvation by works wall? War, deprivation, oppression, and the Crusaders couldn't get it torn down; so now a young American politician from Chicago has the answer?
   
3. And, how will we Christians tear down the wall of the blood of Jesus Christ? [Luke 22:20] No flesh has the power to do that; yet does Obama have the temerity to tell us all to tear it down?
   

These simple questions are only three of many that come to mind. Then consider this ...

"Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN'S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD." [Matthew 10:34-36]

That sounds like a pretty indestructible wall to me!

What arrogant carelessness is it to treat profound articles of religious conviction as mere human constructs.

What simple-minded foolishness to assume religious doctrines, established by centuries of faithful adherents, are common religious conventions ... created by human will, ergo eradicated by human will!

Name one individual mentioned in Scripture capable of deceiving the masses all at once?

Christianity, German speech,
Obama, Religion, Soteriology