The following articles are compiled by:

Leo Wong

Leo@WatchmenWatching.com

 

 

Quartet of Middle East peace brokers begins meeting in the U.S.

Source: haaretz.com

 

February 2, 2007 -- The Quartet of Middle East peace brokers began a meeting on Friday that the United States hopes will endorse its push to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks despite violence raging between Palestinian factions.

 

The U.S. State Department said it expected the talks among the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union to reaffirm efforts to isolate the Hamas-led Palestinian government through a year-old international aid embargo.

 

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to outline U.S. plans to other Quartet members for a proposed meeting later this month among herself, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

 

Speaking before the Quartet talks, Rice told reporters they would cover "how to make progress toward the establishment of a Palestinian state."

 

Comments:  Quartet means “four” and four is the number of the world.  This world is determined to forge peace between Israel and her surrounding Arab neighbors.  Why?  So the Middle East conflict will finally come to an end and trade, commerce and prosperity will blossom like a rose in the springtime.  An underlying reason that no Satanically possessed politicians will publicly admit is “we want Israel to be lulled into a false sense of security so she can be defeated and annihilated by our future Antichrist (AC).”  Israel cannot be beaten in the battlefield, but only through a false peace.  Can that be any clearer than a Windex cleaned pane of glass?  Daniel 8:[25] And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.

 

I know there are cynics out there who say that the Middle East situation is so complicated that it will take a miracle like the parting of the Red Sea for the Quartet to get Israel and her enemies to set aside their decades old animosities.  Well, the miracle producing Antichrist to come is like a Kentucky Derby thoroughbred champing at the bit to unveil his supernatural peace proposal.  He could be at this meeting that began today in Washington and will be in attendance in subsequent talks.

 

The hour is indeed very late.  Middle East peace prospect has a short shelf life and if the window of opportunity should pass once again, an all out war could ensue.  Just when we watchmen think the negotiations will drag on for years and years, kaboom, we’re forcibly taken out of this world via the Rapture and we’re all looking down from Heaven with consternation as the Israeli prime minister (be it Ehud Olmert or his replacement because Olmert happens to be standing next to us) takes his gold plated fountain pen, smiles to the press media, and affixes his John Henry signature on the lambskin peace accord documents.  His Arab co‑signers and the Antichrist sport a devilish grin as they watch the foolish Jew just signing Israel’s death warrant.  Isaiah 28:[18] And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.

 

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Al Gore nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize

Source: Associated Press

 

February 2, 2007 -- Former Vice President Al Gore was nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his wide-reaching efforts to draw the world's attention to the dangers of global warming, a Norwegian lawmaker said Thursday.

 

"A prerequisite for winning the Nobel Peace Prize is making a difference, and Al Gore has made a difference," Conservative Member of Parliament Boerge Brende, a former minister of environment and then of trade, told The Associated Press

 

Comments:  Al Gore is owed one.  Why?  Wasn’t he the Year 2000 U.S. Democrat presidential candidate who garnered the majority of the votes yet lost to George W. Bush in the January 2001 vote recount in Florida?  Was he also the gracious loser who phoned Mr. Bush to congratulate him on being the winner rather than prolong the election (and dividing the already fractured nation) by taking his case to the U.S. Supreme Court?  Yes, it’s that senator from his adopted state of Tennessee.

 

Al Gore should have been U.S. president, but instead swallowed his pride and went into teaching at an obscure university.  But he was never far out of the public limelight.  His penchant for tree hugging never dissipated.  He’s been a tenacious crusader for saving Mother Earth from the dirty polluters of this world, you, me and 6.5 billion others.  Mr. Gore’s presidential defeat didn’t cause the man to take Paxil for severe depression.  He knew his station in life and that’s to do the bidding of his globalist masters.  His performance reviews are excellent.

 

Global warming has been blamed primarily on man.  Man must do all he can to reverse the damage.  It’s not too late if every Earth citizen does his/her part and Mr. Gore is championing the cause.  For that, he might just collect a cool $250,000 or so for winning the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace.  His future boss, the Antichrist, has to have a presentable (not pristine of course) Earth to rule over.  Anything less would be an insult.

 

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A Calvinist faced death and survived

Source: TIME Magazine

 

February 3, 2007 -- After roughly 200 years of decline, Calvinism, the faith of the Puritans, has made a modest comeback among younger Evangelical Christians. One of the movement's potent mentors is Albert Mohler, the influential, telegenic head of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who made waves last June when he critiqued the religious claims of Presidential contender Barak Obama in an essay called Secularism With A Smile.

 

Mohler, a Calvinist, went into the hospital in December for a fairly routine stomach operation and suddenly developed pulmonary embolisms, a frequently fatal form of clotting, in both lungs. After emergency surgery and four days in the Intensive Care unit, he made a complete recovery. David Van Biema asked him whether his crisis could illuminate his brand of faith.

 

Comments:  Will Calvinism make a comeback like Michael Jordan did with the Chicago Bulls?  Reformed Christianity has been regarded as being too strict and legal in its doctrines and walk.  Its famous T.U.L.I.P. statement of faith has rankled many Christians who believe that man has a free will to accept or reject God’s offer of salvation through His Son Jesus.  Calvinists assert that only the elect (chosen before the foundation of the world) will be saved and the rest will be damned because God has ordained it.  The lack of zeal for Gospel preaching by Calvinists attests to their belief that such preaching is only to the “choir” since those who are not of the elect are going to Hell.

 

The fact that Mr. Mohler, a Calvinist, heads the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary speaks volumes of the Board of Directors wanting their school to churn out Calvinist graduates.  There’s a dearth of Gospel preaching already and such graduates will exacerbate the dire situation.  Calvinism may see a speed bump in the pavement in terms of an increase of adherents but God in His infinite wisdom will ensure that the free will message reaches the lost and perishing.  John 3:16 will never be suppressed.  You wonder if you’re one of the elect of God.  Just accept Jesus as your Savior and you’re one of the elect.

 

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Evangelical college moves dancing off 'sin list'

Source: nytimes.com

 

February 3, 2007 -- Taking the Sin out of Swing Students at John Brown University in Arkansas high-stepped into the school’s first dance ever last month. As if to make up for 90 essentially dance-free years on campus, the 14-piece Jack Mitchell Big Band began playing early, shortly before 8, and from the first note of “In the Mood” the best dancers clustered up front, where they performed aerial lifts, between-the-leg slides and precarious dips, looking like a reasonably good audition for “So You Think You Can Dance” or the great “khakis swing” Gap ad from 1998. These joyful, loose-limbed performances concealed a rather startling truth. The young men and women of this 1,200-person college were dancing alongside, and in some cases bumping smack into, their president, dean and chaplain — the men who only six months ago could have expelled them for doing so. From the school’s founding in 1919 by John Brown Sr. — not the abolitionist but a Salvation Army itinerant turned preacher — until last October, dancing had been seen at J.B.U. as a gateway to sin. Students danced, but in private.

 

The school’s “community covenant” had prohibited, in addition to smoking, sex outside of marriage, drinking and gambling, all on-campus dancing except “folk or square dancing and choreography as part of a dramatic production.” Distinctions were not made — the Viennese waltz was as forbidden as the electric slide, the achy-breaky as taboo as the lambada. The week before J.B.U.’s first dance, Tracie Faust, a senior, told me about one night her sophomore year when a popular song came on the radio. “And before you knew it,” she said, “there were 10 of us dancing, and the R.A. came out of her room and told us to stop.” The offending song? “Breakaway,” by the adult-lite American Idol Kelly Clarkson.

 

J.B.U.’s about-face, while abrupt, was not totally unexpected. In the past 10 years, several of America’s most established evangelical schools, including Baylor University in Texas, Wheaton College in Illinois and Cornerstone University in Michigan, have lifted restrictions on dancing, even as they have kept various rules against activities like drinking, gambling, smoking and, of course, premarital sex. They are opting to allow formal dances, like swing or ballroom. Of course, it’s unlikely there will be hip-hop or bump-and-grind at J.B.U. They will not be krumping. But for millions of evangelical Protestants, dancing has become increasingly acceptable. There are still conservative Christians, particularly in Baptist, Pentecostal and independent Bible-church traditions, who don’t dance, but they are growing scarce.

 

When Jennifer raised the issue of dancing with Steven Beers, the dean of students, he was surprisingly receptive to a change. “The subculture had shifted,” Beers, a quiet man who avoids seeming like the campus disciplinarian he is, told me. Beers, who is 47, knows the subculture well: his father was a dean at Taylor University, a Christian college in Indiana that still forbids most dancing on campus. “Christian junior highs or high schools, even churches, were allowing swing dancing on their property,” Beers said. “The evangelical subculture is no longer seeing all forms of social dancing as evil.”

 

Comments:  Romans 13:[14] But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.  2 Timothy 2:[22] Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.  1 John 2:[16] For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

 

Dancing before the Lord is described in Psalm 149:[3] Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp. Dancing to the Lord is not found anywhere in the New Testament so does that make it wrong?  In the secular world, young people bump and grind their hips, pelvis and derriere with a partner which is meant to elicit sexual desires leading to a night of drunken lustful stupor.  To get the dancers “into the mood” are background carnal music and lyrics.  Some young female Christians who have been to clubs have been “hit on” and have had unwanted pregnancies and abortions.  In the 1960s and 1970s, believers unwittingly grooved to songs such as “My Sweet Lord” and “You Light Up My Life” mistakenly thinking that they were Christian songs and therefore were alright to dance to when they were in fact the Beatles’ worship of Lord Krishna and Debby Boone’s love song for a special man (not the Lord Jesus) in her life.  Author David Wheaton (a Christian who used to be an international tennis pro and a university graduate) warned college and university Christians about Satan’s University of Destruction which promotes sex, drugs/rock and roll music/dance, and liberal humanism.  His warning is applicable to secular and religious institutions of higher learning.

 

Dancing isn’t frowned upon by the Lord provided it’s a spiritual dance done in good taste that doesn’t grieve the Holy Spirit.  It’s when the flesh is stirred up and lust gets into the equation that trouble beings to brew.  If the physical movements and the mind get to think about connecting with your dance partner in a sexual way, then you’ve reached the Condition Red stage. Mark 6:[22] And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee.

 

Our forefathers and foremothers were looking out for us when they banned us young folks from all types of social dancing.  Yes, they may have been too strict, but their wisdom and experience told them that the flesh is weak and will easily give in to temptations.  In today’s society, Christian young people really believe they are powerful enough to resist the Devil’s temptations.  It just shows the pride of youth.

 

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The Ratzinger Code? Pope Benedict uses Dan Brown's publisher

Source: Reuters 

 

February 4, 2007 -- If Pope Benedict hopes his first book will sell like Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code," he wound up with the right U.S. publisher.

 

Doubleday, the company that sold Brown's book about Jesus fathering children -- which the Vatican branded as blasphemous -- is also handling the American market for Benedict's book about the life of Christ.

 

The Vatican's publisher distanced itself from the decision-making process in a statement on Tuesday, but Italian media still poked fun at the choice of Doubleday.

 

Only last year, a Vatican cardinal threatened legal action as the book was turned into a Hollywood blockbuster, staring Tom Hanks. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, now Vatican secretary of state, called it a "sack full of lies" and called for a boycott.

 

Comments:  For Doubleday, it’s “forgive and forget” it seems.  Perhaps, the Vatican gave it a substantial retainer (gold bullions from its treasure vault) to cover the loss of sales of Brown’s book and more.  Or Doubleday was salivating over the millions of books it will sell to faithful Catholics worldwide that would dwarf The Da Vinci Code.  It matters not that the Pope’s doublespeak (it’s called hypocrisy) draws chuckles from atheists.  It’s all about profits.  Whether The Da Vinci Code advanced blasphemous lies about Jesus or the Pope’s flawed Christianity will be in print, Doubleday only dreams about the mountain of money that will make their stakeholders super happy campers.  Money and profits do not make moral judgments.

 

The Pope is like the neighborhood bully who bullies the smaller bully and then takes over his territory.  It’s the survival of the fittest.  The Vatican has bottomless financial resources and it can outlast any plaintiff in civil court.  If Dan Brown or anyone does file suit against the Roman Catholic Church, the church’s legal beagles will dream of castles in Spain after their fees and disbursements have been received after a decade old fight through the court system.  The Devil wins either way: His lies about Jesus having natural children and his Vicar of Christ, the Pope, espousing pagan thoughts and viewpoints about Roman Catholicism will have done incalculable damage to millions of souls.

 

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Global warming: Bleak picture of the future for planet Earth

Source: Winnipeg Free Online

 

February 4, 2007 -- The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released Friday proved to be both more and less than expected.

 

It delivered in terms of painting a bleak picture of the future for planet Earth and life on it, saying that global warming is an "unequivocal" fact that temperatures are going to continue to climb for at least a century, that sea levels will rise and that catastrophic storms will become more catastrophic. The bombshell was that even if mankind stabilizes its production of greenhouse gases, the warming and all the rest will continue for centuries.

 

On the less-than-expected side, the report admits that many of its findings are more informed opinion than science. It finds, for example, that it is only "very likely" that man's use of fossil fuels and agricultural practices are responsible for the global warming. As well, for all the anticipation that preceded its release, the report, in fact, is preliminary, the product of a consensus of government representatives, not scientists; certainly not the 500 scientists that make up the panel.

 

Nevertheless, the release of the 21-page document likely amounts to a watershed moment that will spur efforts, at least in the developed world, to ratchet up efforts to address a global problem.

 

At this moment, however, we should do nothing but brace to withstand the tsunami of hot air the report unleashed. French President Jacques Chirac, for example, wants to lead a "revolution" that will overnight accomplish nothing, something he should know from reading the report. Other leaders called for "drastic steps" -- an empty phrase -- that must be taken quickly "or risk a disaster" as opposed to avert one. Much attention was focused on what the United States must do immediately, but few fingers pointed at China, which contributes as much to the problem as the Americans.

 

Comments:  Global warming are the buzz words these days and you can’t turn the on your TV or surf the Internet and not be bombarded with “Save the Planet” articles deploring everyone to do his/her share in arresting the dire situation.  We know that the globalists are behind this scare campaign.  One of their agenda is a New World Order leading to a global government to be headed by the Antichrist.  Even now, the spirit of antichrist (see 1 John 4:3) pervades throughout the globe.  By galvanizing Earth citizens to get on the global warming bandwagon, this is a preparatory exercise for eventually corralling them into a global acceptance of the One World Government.

 

Yes, there’s no denying that the sea level is rising and severe storms (see Europe’s wintry blasts and the recent devastating tornadoes in Florida) have lashed out at continents.  But throughout Earth’s history, such natural occurrences have been commonplace and have come and gone in cycles.  It’s not Mother Nature, but God who controls the environment.  The burning of fossil fuels has contributed to the greenhouse effect which traps the sun’s rays thus heating up the surface, but some scientists have even found evidence of global cooling.  Global warming therefore depends on whom you’re interviewing.  The politicians are quick to grab this opportunity to spread fear and grave concerns among their citizens.  It’s all about the hidden agenda of their globalist masters.

 

The ironic thing is that all the projected doom and gloom predictions will come to past during the upcoming 7‑year Tribulation Period when a wrathful God will pour out His anger against this Christ rejecting world.  Earth will be ablaze as the sun heats up like never before, the waterways will be turned into blood as aquatic life is destroyed, and the seas and oceans generate gigantic tidal waves.  Luke 21:[25] And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring.

 

 

 

 

 

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Keep watching (Matt 24:42)!

 

Until next time,

Shalom!

 

 

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