A Doctor’s Prescription for Risky World Views and What Some Think is Christianity

/in , , /by

Don’t let what you think you know prevent an honest look at a broader picture.

A PhD in math acknowledged that even the smartest person cannot know even 1% of all knowledge, so what’s the possibility that God could exist in the other 99%? And some things don’t fit into words—we can know the flavor of chocolate, but we can’t explain it to someone who never tasted it.

The Bible says, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” The parallel to chocolate suggests it is impossible for someone to know if this is so without an honest (even scientifically fair) trial. In science, there is talk of a controlled experiment where you test something in one group compared to another group without it.

The wonderful thing about life is that we are not like animals, but have highly developed powers of reason. We can think it through and choose which side of belief we are on. We can say “No” to Intelligent Design and the Designer who gifted us the computer between our ears and our marvelous bodies that repair the wear and tear and even reverse diseases that we brought on ourselves by what we put in our mouths, if we repent—a good example that also applies to the spiritual dimension.

Gandhi said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians.” It was hard for Gandhi to sort the claims of “Christian” political powers from the claims of Christ who said His kingdom was not of this world. Muslims see a similar problem with the Great Satan that brought alcohol, tobacco, drugs, crime, sex, violence, Hollywood, TV, perversions and rock music to their lands. They think this is Christianity.

Nevertheless, the ‘controlled experiment’ to discern the difference between faith in God and none might be seen in the huge social experiment called America. When a medieval church proved Gandhi right and controlled governments in the Dark Ages, people hid Bibles in their homes at the risk of being tortured or burned at the stake. No wonder thousands braved death at sea or from Indians or starvation for freedom.

Founding fathers gave America a Constitution that was second only to the Ten Commandments as a basis for self-government. And if we governed ourselves wisely, there is NO need for government to tell us what to do. Lincoln said the Bible is the greatest gift that God has given to man. Without it, we would not know right from wrong.  He liberated the slaves. The US also gave women the right to vote.  Christianity has elevated women and we rose to greatness as we defeated Hitler and Japan in WW II.

But since the United Nations began in 1945, the world has turned against Gandhi and Christ with a fabrication of Catholic and Communist countries to strategize for global government by men who can’t govern themselves as the billions spent on lawsuits to defend against pedophilia suggest—never mind homosexuality that’s said to be rampant in the priesthood.

Instead of America being a shining light on the hill, the truth of God and His goodness can only be seen when the judgments He pronounced against sin will fall on America for killing millions of infants and the redefining of marriage. God (not the priest) can forgive any sin, but He cannot look the other way on it. Calvary was too costly and our forgiveness must include a desire for a clean heart that even King David prayed for in Psalm 51.

Saying no to this, is like accepting the 99% of consequences that we don’t understand when those who have tasted of God’s goodness will say it is far better than chocolate.

RELATED ARTICLES:

The Suicide of Germany

Islamists Attack Christmas, but Europeans Abolish It

CHRISTIAN WORSHIP IS ‘WORSE THAN MURDER AND BLOODSHED’: Another Islamic teaching behind the slaughter of Christians

EDITORS NOTE: For readers who may be interested, Dr. Ruhling recommends a short book, translated into 125+ languages, and can be read online here. For those who aren’t ready to go there, how about another look at some scientific questions, here.

Of Santa, Soccer, and Savior: Wishing Readers a Merry Christmas 2016

/in , /by

For my 2016 Christmas post, I feature two entries from the Ligonier Ministries blog. The posts concern two real individuals: Santa Claus and Jesus Christ.

Both entries are written by president of Reformation Bible College Dr. Stephen J. Nichols.

In the first post, Nichols offers some intriguing history about Saint Nick:

Saint Nicholas and the Origins of Santa Claus

It might surprise many today to find out that Saint Nicholas (spoiler alert) is a real person after all. Is he the white-bearded man with a red suit, a cap, and a sleigh?

Not quite, but he probably was bearded, did wear a hat, and did travel in horse-drawn, not reindeer-drawn, transportation. The legend behind Santa Claus is Saint Nicholas, the fourth-century bishop of Myra. His hat was the bishop’s mitre.

Nicholas was born in modern day Turkey to a rather wealthy family. Losing his parents at a young age, Nicholas dedicated both his fortune and his life to the Christian church. Very quickly he was appointed the bishop of Myra, on the southern coast of modern day Turkey.

These were days of persecution for Christians. Roman Emperor Diocletian, who reigned from 284–305, hated Christians and stuffed Roman jails full of them. Bishop Nicholas spent the first few years of the fourth century in jail and faced routine beatings. In the next decade, Constantine legalized Christianity and Nicholas was set free.

As the legend goes, Bishop Nicholas was present at the Church’s First Ecumenical Council at Constantine’s summer palace in Nicea in 325. Hundreds of Bishops gathered there to refute the false views of Arius, a presbyter from Alexandria. Arius denied Christ’s deity. At one point while Arius was addressing the council, Nicholas’s rage got the better of him. According to some of his biographers, Nicholas stood up, crossed the floor to Arius, and promptly punched him in the face.

For the assault, Nicholas found himself back in jail again. The bishops deliberated his fate. Nicholas was repentant and sought forgiveness. After the Council, Constantine granted clemency and restored Bishop Nicholas to his post.

And at his post Bishop Nicholas diligently served. Over the course of his entire life he was known for being extremely generous. He was especially generous to children, regularly giving them gifts. Myra was a busy port city with ships and sailors coming and going. The ships went out of Myra’s port loaded with gifts and goods for the needy, all provided and packed on by Bishop Nicholas. His gifts went all around the Mediterranean world. As sailors went around the world, they took with them the stories of the generosity of Bishop Nicholas.

The year of Bishop Nicholas’s death is uncertain, but the month is firmly believed to be December. As the story of his generosity spread, the stories of his life grew and grew. He was becoming legendary. In the sixth century, a church was dedicated to him and named for him in Constantinople. His image was depicted more in the Middle Ages than any other except those of Christ and of Mary. No longer Bishop Nicholas, now he became Saint Nicholas, and his Feast Day would be December 6.

One of the legends around Nicholas concerned his giving dowries to young poor girls so they would be able to marry. To reflect that legend, images of him carrying bags bulging with gold coins began to appear.

As his legend moved northward, the story takes an even more interesting turn. In Germany, the tradition arose of giving gifts to each other in the name of Saint Nicholas. So, too, in the Netherlands. The Dutch word for him became Sinterklaas. The German word eventually became Santa Claus. These celebrations of gift-giving occurred on December 6, the anniversary of his death. The gift of a gold coin was highly prized and showed great favor.

Even Martin Luther would come to play a role in the legend. Luther wanted a Protestant alternative to the Roman Catholic practice of celebrating the Feast of Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus). Instead of giving gifts in the name of Santa Claus on December 6, Luther started the tradition of giving gifts in the name of the Christ child, Christkindl, on Christmas Eve. Perhaps in this we have an argument for Protestant kids everywhere as to why they should be allowed to open at least one present on Christmas Eve.

Luther loved Christmas. He wanted it to be a celebration of giving around the supreme gift of the babe born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem. As he preached in 1530, “He who lies in the virgin’s lap is our Savior … give thanks to God, who so loved you that he gave you a Savior.”

Christmas evolved from the word Christ Mass, the celebration of the incarnation of Christ, fixed by tradition as being on December 25. The word Luther coined, Christkindl, also evolved over the centuries. It would become Santa Claus’ other name, Kris Kringle. This effort of Luther’s to move away from the Santa Claus tradition inadvertently veered right toward it.

So we have the story of Santa Claus. Interestingly enough, Saint Nicholas and his legend began in the early church. The stories wove their way through the Middle Ages, and they even made an appearance at the Reformation. Those stories still live with us today.

My favorite tidbit: Santa Claus spent time in jail for belting a church official as he defended Christ’s deity.

Go, Santa.

saint-nicholas

Saint Nicholas, via facial reconstruction.

In the next post, Nichols takes readers into a moment of peace during war, and beyond:

The Real Meaning of Christmas

One of the most remarkable stories of Christmas comes from one of the darkest moments of modern history. World War I ravaged a continent, leaving destruction and debris in its wake. The human cost, well in the millions, staggers us. But from the midst of this dark conflict comes the story of the Christmas Truce of 1914. The Western Front, only a few months into the war, was a deplorable scene of devastation. Perhaps as if to give the combatants one day to breathe again, a truce was called from Christmas Eve through Christmas Day.

As darkness settled over the front like a blanket, the sound of exploding shells and the rat-tat-tat of gunfire faded. Faint carols, in French or English voices on one side and in German voices on the other, rose to fill the silence of the night.

By morning, soldiers, at first hesitantly, began filing out of the maze of trenches into the dreaded and parched soil of No Man’s Land. There was more singing. Gifts of rations and cigarettes were exchanged. Family photos were passed around. Soccer balls appeared. Up and down the Western Front, soldiers, who only hours before had been locked in deathly combat, now faced off in soccer games.

christmas-truce-1914 Soccer game during Christmas Truce 1914

For one brief but entirely remarkable day, there was peace on earth. Some have called the Christmas Truce of 1914 “the Miracle on the Western Front.”

Anxious to print some good news, The Times of London reported on the events of the Christmas Truce. Soldiers recorded the day in letters home and in diaries. Some of those lines made it to newspapers, while others remained unknown until later brought to light. Here’s one such line from the diary of a German infantryman:

The English brought a soccer ball from the trenches, and pretty soon a lively game ensued. How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was. The English officers felt the same way about it. Thus Christmas, the celebration of Love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as friends for a time.

“Friends for a time,” “the celebration of love,” “peace on earth”—this is the meaning of Christmas. But these celebrations, these truces, don’t last. After Christmas Day, the soccer balls and the soldiers went back into the trenches. The Christmas carols subsided and the war carried on. And even though World War I eventually ended, a few decades later, Europe’s countryside and cities became the field of battle once again, as did Africa and the Pacific, during World War II.

Events like the Christmas Truce are worth celebrating. But they lack something. They lack permanence. Such impermanent peace is what we often find in our quest for the real meaning of Christmas. If we are looking for permanent and ultimate goodwill, love, and peace, we must look beyond our gift-giving, get-togethers, and office parties. We must look to no other place than to a manger.

We must look to a baby born not with fanfare, pomp, and circumstance, but to poor parents in desperate times. Joseph and Mary, and the Baby Jesus for that matter, were real historical figures. But in a way, Joseph and Mary extend beyond themselves, beyond their particular place and time. They represent all of us. We are all poor and living in desperate times. Some of us are better than others at camouflaging it. Nevertheless, we are all poor and desperate, so we all need the promise bound up in that baby.

We are in need of a way out of our poverty of soul and the desperate state of our human condition. We find it in this child lying in a manger, who was and is Jesus Christ, the long-promised Messiah, Seed, Redeemer, and King.

The birth of Jesus so many centuries ago might have been a slightly-out-of-the-ordinary birth. Even in ancient times, stalls didn’t typically double as birthing rooms and mangers didn’t typically double as cribs for new-born babies. And that newborn baby was very much out of the ordinary. Of course, in some respects, He was perfectly ordinary. He was a human being, a baby. He got hungry. He got thirsty. He got tired. When He was born, He was wrapped in swaddling clothes—the ancient equivalent of Pampers.

An infant. Helpless, hungry, cold, and tired.

Yet, this child was the Son of God incarnate. He was Immanuel, which translated means “God with us.” According to the Apostle Paul’s account, this infant created all things. This infant created His own manger. And this infant, this King, brings peace on earth, ultimate and permanent peace.

May the peace othree-wise-menf Christ find permanent residence in your hearts.

Merry Christmas to all.

 

Democrats Abandoned Isreal on December 23, 2016: A date that will live in Infamy

/in , , , , /by

The leader of the Democratic Party has decided to abandon Israel on December 23rd, 2016 and Democrats knew full well that he would. To understand why this happened one must read President Obama’s 2012 speech to the United Nations.

Barack Obama said in a speech before the United Nations on September 25th, 2012 that, “The future must not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam.”

Democrats stood by the President, knowing that he was speaking directly to the Arab world, Israel, and those in the United States and beyond, who did not fully embrace the “religion of peace.”

Democrats knew their President stood squarely on the side of Islam and Islamists and they did nothing.

President Obama commented on Benghazi stating:

That is what we saw play out in the last two weeks, as a crude and disgusting video sparked outrage throughout the Muslim world.  Now, I have made it clear that the United States government had nothing to do with this video, and I believe its message must be rejected by all who respect our common humanity.

It is an insult not only to Muslims, but to America as well — for as the city outside these walls makes clear, we are a country that has welcomed people of every race and every faith.  We are home to Muslims who worship across our country.  We not only respect the freedom of religion, we have laws that protect individuals from being harmed because of how they look or what they believe.  We understand why people take offense to this video because millions of our citizens are among them.

I know there are some who ask why we don’t just ban such a video.  And the answer is enshrined in our laws:  Our Constitution protects the right to practice free speech.

This about Tunisia, now a hot bed of terrorism and the home of the Berlin Christmas market slaughter:

It has been less than two years since a vendor in Tunisia set himself on fire to protest the oppressive corruption in his country, and sparked what became known as the Arab Spring.  And since then, the world has been captivated by the transformation that’s taken place, and the United States has supported the forces of change.

We were inspired by the Tunisian protests that toppled a dictator, because we recognized our own beliefs in the aspiration of men and women who took to the streets.

This about the Muslim Brotherhood takeover of Egypt:

We insisted on change in Egypt, because our support for democracy ultimately put us on the side of the people.

This about Yemen:

We supported a transition of leadership in Yemen, because the interests of the people were no longer being served by a corrupt status quo.

This about Libya:

We intervened in Libya alongside a broad coalition, and with the mandate of the United Nations Security Council, because we had the ability to stop the slaughter of innocents, and because we believed that the aspirations of the people were more powerful than a tyrant.

And this about Syria:

And as we meet here, we again declare that the regime of Bashar al-Assad must come to an end so that the suffering of the Syrian people can stop and a new dawn can begin.

Each of these statements were honey to the ears of Democrats and the Arab world and the Muslim community.  But for those who understood his real message, knew it was a death knell for the Israelis, Syrians, Libyans, Egyptians, Yemenis, Europeans and Americans.

Obama was saying that the future belongs to Islam. History will call December 23rd, 2016 a date that will live in infamy but the foundation of the betrayal of the Christian world was laid on September 25th, 2012.

And Democrats were silent.

RELATED ARTICLE: Obama’s malice, May’s shame. Drain the UN swamp by Melanie Phillips

President Obama’s act of folly and betrayal of Israel

/in , , , , /by

President Obama yours was the unkindest abstention in the history of the U.S. actions as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Yesterday, in a deliberate act of retribution and in consort with four council members, two imperialist Islamic member states of the Organization of Islamic States, Malaysia and Senegal, New Zealand  and Venezuela, an ally of Iran, you abandoned the Jewish nation of Israel; this country’s only democratic ally in the Middle East, Israel.

This act of infamy was given a standing ovation by all 14 members of the Security Council. The Palestinian representative declared it a “day of victory.”

Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon demurred, calling it a “victory for terrorism.”

History will mark your action as an ignominious faithless act of betrayal of your oath of office and long-standing friendship of America towards the Jewish nation of Israel. A nation that shares the foundational values of our country.

Your abstention and the vote of UN Security Council approving Resolution 2334 dismembers Israel’s eternal capital of Jerusalem violating its existing right to negotiate just and secure borders.

Your act and that of the Security Council will not bring peace. Instead it will inflame Islamic terrorism against our ally Israel.

You have brought shame and dishonor on your office and reputation of this country and its people you were elected to faithfully serve.Your legacy following the end of your final term in office is forever tarnished by this act of folly.

The irony of your misguided conduct comes on the eve of the Jewish Festival of Hanukkah, meaning ‘consecration’, celebrating the victory two millenia ago by the Maccabees, the few against the many, blessed by Ha Shem. These warrior priests rose up with the cry of the High Priest Mattisyahu, “whoever is for for God, follow me.” Their mortal combat achieved a victory over the foreign tyrannyof Syrian-Greek despot, Antiochus, occupying ancient Judea. It was a victory in furtherance of the inalienable right of freedom to worship emblazoned in the First Amendment of our Constitution. An ancient victory that also affirmed the State of Israel’s right to the land of its Jewish fore-bearers and descendants.

Your action Friday , December 23, 2016 suborned that ancient legacy that this country was founded on to uphold 234 years ago with fight for Independence from another occupying tyranny.

It will now be left to a new Congress and your successor as President to redress your betrayal of our country and ally Israel.

Full text of UNSC resolution, approved Dec. 23, demanding Israel stop all settlement activity

The Times of Israel

Approved by 14-0, with US abstaining, text seeks action ‘to reverse the negative trends on the ground that are imperiling the two-state solution’

Text of Egyptian-drafted resolution 2334 on settlements, approved by the UN Security Council, on December 23, 2016.

The Security Council,

Reaffirming its relevant resolutions, including resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973), 446 (1979), 452 (1979), 465 (1980), 476 (1980), 478 (1980), 1397 (2002), 1515 (2003), and 1850 (2008),

Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and reaffirming, inter alia, the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force,

Reaffirming the obligation of Israel, the occupying Power, to abide scrupulously by its legal obligations and responsibilities under the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 12 August 1949, and recalling the advisory opinion rendered on 9 July 2004 by the International Court of Justice,

Condemning all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, including, inter alia, the construction and expansion of settlements, transfer of Israeli settlers, confiscation of land, demolition of homes and displacement of Palestinian civilians, in violation of international humanitarian law and relevant resolutions,

Expressing grave concern that continuing Israeli settlement activities are dangerously imperilling the viability of the two-State solution based on the 1967 lines,

Recalling the obligation under the Quartet Roadmap, endorsed by its resolution 1515 (2003), for a freeze by Israel of all settlement activity, including “natural growth”, and the dismantlement of all settlement outposts erected since March 2001,

Recalling also the obligation under the Quartet roadmap for the Palestinian Authority Security Forces to maintain effective operations aimed at confronting all those engaged in terror and dismantling terrorist capabilities, including the confiscation of illegal weapons,

Condemning all acts of violence against civilians, including acts of terror, as well as all acts of provocation, incitement and destruction,

Reiterating its vision of a region where two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders,

Israel's UN ambassador Danny Danon addresses the Security Council on October 19, 2016. (UN Photo)

Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon addresses the Security Council on October 19, 2016. (UN Photo)

Stressing that the status quo is not sustainable and that significant steps, consistent with the transition contemplated by prior agreements, are urgently needed in order to (i) stabilize the situation and to reverse negative trends on the ground, which are steadily eroding the two-State solution and entrenching a one-State reality, and (ii) to create the conditions for successful final status negotiations and for advancing the two-State solution through those negotiations and on the ground,

1. Reaffirms that the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace;

2. Reiterates its demand that Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and that it fully respect all of its legal obligations in this regard;

3. Underlines that it will not recognize any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties through negotiations;

4. Stresses that the cessation of all Israeli settlement activities is essential for salvaging the two-State solution, and calls for affirmative steps to be taken immediately to reverse the negative trends on the ground that are imperilling the two-State solution;

5. Calls upon all States, bearing in mind paragraph 1 of this resolution, to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967;

6. Calls for immediate steps to prevent all acts of violence against civilians, including acts of terror, as well as all acts of provocation and destruction, calls for accountability in this regard, and calls for compliance with obligations under international law for the strengthening of ongoing efforts to combat terrorism, including through existing security coordination, and to clearly condemn all acts of terrorism;

7. Calls upon both parties to act on the basis of international law, including international humanitarian law, and their previous agreements and obligations, to observe calm and restraint, and to refrain from provocative actions, incitement and inflammatory rhetoric, with the aim, inter alia, of de-escalating the situation on the ground, rebuilding trust and confidence, demonstrating through policies and actions a genuine commitment to the two-State solution, and creating the conditions necessary for promoting peace;

8. Calls upon all parties to continue, in the interest of the promotion of peace and security, to exert collective efforts to launch credible negotiations on all final status issues in the Middle East peace process and within the time frame specified by the Quartet in its statement of 21 September 2010;

9. Urges in this regard the intensification and acceleration of international and regional diplomatic efforts and support aimed at achieving, without delay a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East on the basis of the relevant United Nations resolutions, the Madrid terms of reference, including the principle of land for peace, the Arab Peace Initiative and the Quartet Roadmap and an end to the Israeli occupation that began in 1967; and underscores in this regard the importance of the ongoing efforts to advance the Arab Peace Initiative, the initiative of France for the convening of an international peace conference, the recent efforts of the Quartet, as well as the efforts of Egypt and the Russian Federation;

10. Confirms its determination to support the parties throughout the negotiations and in the implementation of an agreement;

11. Reaffirms its determination to examine practical ways and means to secure the full implementation of its relevant resolutions;

12. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Council every three months on the implementation of the provisions of the present resolution;

13. Decides to remain seized of the matter.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Obama’s malice, May’s shame. Drain the UN swamp by Melanie Phillips

‘The Crescent Must be Above the Cross’: Muslim Persecution of Christians 2016

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review.

Berlin Islamic killer came through Italian island of Lampedusa in 2011

/in , , , , , /by

Two years later, in 2013, the Pope went to Lampedusa to welcome the African migrants to Italy!

pope-on-lampedusa

Pope Francis welcoming Muslim migrants to Lampedusa.

The Pope welcomes the African migrants to Lampedusa, Italy in 2013. See our post where he lectured Italians to be more welcoming, and to “cry” for the migrants. 

From The UK Sun (see the pictures):

The ISIS extremist ploughed a lorry into festive shoppers at a Berlin Christmas market on Monday night.

[….]

Rewind five years, and just days after arriving on Lampedusa trouble-maker Amri was involved in the burning down of a migrant shelter.

We have the Pope and Mama Merkel to blame for the invasion of Europe.

See all of our ‘Invasion of Europe’ news by clicking here.

RELATED ARTICLES: 

Obama State Department approves 100 Syrian Muslims for West Virginia state capitol

New Mexico: Lutheran resettlement contractor puts brakes on new Sante Fe refugee program

Texas AG makes stupid, uninformed comments about refugee program!

Asheville, NC still under consideration for new refugee site

Refugee controversy hot in Hudson, Wisconsin; Congressman wants answers

What the hell! Somali American goes HOME for visit to Somalia!

The ruling elites happy face on Islamic terror

/in , , , , /by

By the time you read this article, there may well have been yet more Islamic vehicular terror attacks throughout the world similar to the carnage wrought in Nice, France and Berlin, Germany.

This will be even as Germany’s Chancellor Merkel, President Obama and the ruling elites in too many western nations – along with their morally compromised media – continue putting a happy face on uncontrolled mass-migration from Arab and Muslim lands.

berlin-truck-attack

The hi-jacked removal truck used to kill and maim innocent Christians.

According to German police, the atrocity in Berlin was committed by a Muslim suspect from Tunisia who took control of a Polish moving company’s truck after murdering the driver and then deliberately plowing it into civilians, killing twelve people and maiming scores more; mere days before both the Christian Christmas and Jewish Hanukkah festivals are celebrated.

This is now a weapon of choice by the legions of Muslim terrorists who hate Judeo-Christian civilization and are urged on to commit their grisly deeds by the unholy trinity of al-Qaeda, ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood, along with its demons, the Palestinian Authority, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Fatah, PLO, Al Shabab, Boko Haram, ad nauseam.

The writer, Bat Ye’or, penned these words many years ago when she was an almost lone voice warning of what was to come from resurgent and totalitarian Islam – long before ISIS and the destruction of Christianity in the Middle East:

  • Where are the great Catholic or Protestant voices protesting against this Islamization of Christianity? This passivity, this indifference makes you think that Europe will soon look more like Lebanon.
  • This has ruined Europe – because the enemies of Israel are also enemies of Christianity and of Europe. How can you ally yourself with those who want to destroy you, without in fact dying yourself?
  • The same obsessive hatred Hitler had for the Jewish people, which led to the ruin of Europe, has persisted today in the European Union’s animus against the Jewish State. The great irony is that in trying to destroy Israel, Europe is destroying itself.

Most people in the West now have seen on their TV screens the horrific vehicular terrorism in Nice, France which killed 84 people and left 300 more horribly maimed and scarred for life. More and more places around the world have already become victim to this barbarism or are likely to endure it in the coming year.

Remember, too, the recent vehicular attack on Ohio students who were mown down by a Somali refugee and student who then jumped out of his car and began stabbing fellow students?

But one embattled nation, Israel, has been mourning hundreds of such victims of Muslim Arab knife, gun and bomb horror, as well as car and truck terror for years – although the benighted mainstream media (MSM) has mostly ignored what Israelis have been enduring.

Since September 2015 there have been some 50 vehicular terror attacks by Muslims upon Israeli civilians with trucks and cars plowing into people standing at bus stops or out shopping in busy streets. But the ever biased MSM has rarely reported these cruel barbarities perpetrated by those Arabs who call themselves Palestinians because the victims were Israelis.

The liberal, progressive and left leaning media folks nearly always refrain from condemning the Palestinian miscreants or, if they do, they usually make an equally deplorable moral equivalence between the Arab victimizers and the Israeli victims.

Instead of condemning and highlighting the 50 or more vehicular terror attacks against Israeli civilians spawned by the Palestinian junior partners of ISIS, al Qaida and the Muslim Brotherhood, namely the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, Fatah or the PLO, the MSM’s cynical silence has allowed this Muslim pestilence to spread to all corners of the world and especially to Europe, which opened its arms to well over a million and a quarter Muslim “refugees.”

It is instructive to report that the police union in the German state of Thuringia was forced to issue an open letter to the state’s Interior Minister describing the crumbling law and order situation amid rising immigrant crime and terror. The letter reads:

“You are abandoning us completely to a superior force … but what changes? Nothing. One instead gets a sense of deep apathy and disinterest.”

That superior force is the tip of the Islamic spear.

Meanwhile, representatives of the Arab and Muslim community were telling the police in the Ruhr: “Your police will not win a war with us because we are too many.”

According to Giulio Meotti who writes for the Italian newspaper, Il Foglio:

“It is no secret that Islamic fundamentalists consider the Germans and so many in the West as a bunch of cowards and wherever they look they see people and governments only too ready to capitulate.

We could have hailed a meaningful change in the German policy toward Islamic terrorism if the day after the carnage at the Christmas market in Berlin, a couple of German war planes had bombed the Islamists’ bases in the Middle East and pulverized a few dozen of them. Nothing happened. Nothing will happen.”

Each time the mainstream media (the deplorable MSM) insists in knee jerk fashion that the atrocities have nothing to do with Islam, they then proceed to enter yet further into the realms of fantasy by showering Europe’s growing Muslim population with inane, unmerited praise.

Too few in the world understand the terrifying fact that Islam cannot tolerate a world that does not share its beliefs or that Islam has chosen to impose its “ideology wrapped in a religion” (as Winston Churchill himself once described it) by force and has done so since the 7th century. The MSM and elitist politicians have deliberately turned a blind eye to Islam.

As the great Dutch politician, Geert Wilders, has recently written: “They refuse to acknowledge what is written in the Koran, namely permission by Muslims to kill Jews and Christians (Surah 9:29), to terrorize non-Muslims (8:12), to rape young girls (65:4), to enslave people for sex (4:3), to lie about true goals (3:54), to make war on ‘infidels’ (9:123), and to subjugate the entire world to Allah (9:33).

President Barack Hussein Obama has himself brought untold thousands of Muslims into the United States, very often in great secrecy. The result has been a grim succession of Islamic terror atrocities and a commensurate curb on our cherished American freedoms.

In Germany, various intelligence agencies have warned that Muslim terrorists would attempt to carry out attacks during the holiday season. The British Foreign Office warned its citizens traveling to Germany to “remain vigilant.”

But how people are expected to do so is not explained when, at any minute, a fanatical terrorist screaming in Arabic the Islamic supremacist war cry, Allahu Akbar (meaning Allah is Greater – not God is Great) will plow a huge truck or even a smaller automobile into innocent shoppers.

Now Europeans, and our fellow Americans, are beginning to feel what embattled Israeli civilians have been forced to live with day in and day out.

RELATED ARTICLES:

CHRISTIAN WORSHIP IS ‘WORSE THAN MURDER AND BLOODSHED’: Another Islamic teaching behind the slaughter of Christians

Obama’s malice, May’s shame. Drain the UN swamp by Melanie Phillips

Italian girl converts to Islam, joins the Islamic State: “I can’t wait to die as a martyr”

Germany: Police chiefs warn of “further significant attacks”

Trump Influenced Egypt to Delay a U.N. Resolution that would have irreparably harmed Israel

/in , , , /by

A vote was scheduled by the U.N.for this past Thursday concerning Israeli settlements which would have irreparably harmed Israel. In the past the U.S. would have vetoed such a resolution. However it is now reported Obama wasn’t going to veto it.

Fortunately for Israel Donald Trump in an unusual move for a President Elect publicly called for Obama to veto the resolution sending Egypt a clear message of Trump’s position. As a result Egypt has postponed a vote on the resolution. This will give President Trump the opportunity to veto it when it is rescheduled.

From all of us who support Israel, thank-you President Elect Trump.

Trump influenced Egypt’s decision to postpone anti-Israel UN vote, diplomats say

Egypt postponed a vote on an anti-Israel UN resolution it had sponsored shortly after US President-elect Donald Trump called for a veto of the measure, which would have condemned Israeli building in Judea and Samaria.

US President-elect Donald J. Trump has implicitly called for outgoing US President Barack Obama to veto a UN Security Council resolution scheduled for Thursday afternoon, which would have condemned Israeli construction in all areas gained by the Jewish state during the Six-Day War in 1967, when it was threatened with extinction by the surrounding Arab countries.

“The resolution being considered at the United Nations Security Council regarding Israel should be vetoed,” Trump wrote on his Facebook page. “This puts Israel in a very poor negotiating position and is extremely unfair to all Israelis.”

“As the United States has long maintained, peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians will only come through direct negotiations between the parties, and not through the imposition of terms by the United Nations,” Trump added.

Read more…

RELATED ARTICLES:

Israel and the rising new West by Caroline B. Glick

Security Council likely to vote on settlements Friday despite Egyptian reversal

Trump must trash Obama CVE policy on day one, or we will be Berlin

/in , , , /by

That is the key takeaway from Leo Hohmann’s (WND) report on the Berlin terror attack and his interview with Homeland Security whistleblower Phil Haney. See a previous post here at RRW about Obama’s misguided Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) policy.

Here is Hohmann overnight:

obama-cve

President Obama speaking at the White House CVE summit.

What appears from the outside to be a bungling of basic law-enforcement operations in Germany – allowing a known illegal alien with a criminal and terrorist past to move about freely in German society for more than a year – may not be a bungling at all.

Rather, it’s part of a coordinated strategy also being used by open-borders globalists in the Obama administration, says a retired Homeland Security officer.

Philip Haney, co-author of the whistleblower book “See Something Say Nothing,” explains how a Muslim migrant was able to stay in the country long enough to plan an attack that killed 12 and injured nearly 50 at a Berlin Christmas market Monday.

Anis Amri, a Tunisian national, was allowed to float about undetected by German authorities for more than a year, even though he was a known terror threat who had his asylum bid rejected and had spent four years in an Italian prison for burning down a school. [How many rejected asylum seekers, fake refugees, are floating around your towns and cities?—ed]

The policy that treats Islamic radicals with the soft touch of a preschool teacher, making sure not to violate their “civil rights and civil liberties,” is called “countering violent extremism,” or CVE.

It’s the same policy that governs the Obama administration’s actions in fighting terrorism in the homeland.

The CVE program is rooted in United Nations Agenda 2030 principles on migrant rights, which are adopted by sanctuary cities throughout the world. The principles of CVE are being implemented in city police departments worldwide through the U.N.’s Strong Cities Network, as well as through the U.N. New Urban Agenda.

As previously reported by WND, the Rockefeller Foundation is promoting the New Urban Agenda as the means to transform cities into multi-cultural havens for migrants.

[….]

Haney said President-elect Donald Trump must do away with the suicidal CVE policies installed by Obama, because these policies are more concerned with violating the civil rights and civil liberties of Islamic radicals than they are with protecting America.

Germany is reaping the bitter fruit of this same policy. Twelve Germans, including several women and children, are dead, and more than a dozen more are seriously wounded by a terrorist who should never have been let in the country. And even after he was allowed in, the government had multiple opportunities to arrest and deport him but failed to do so.

German political correctness is directly responsible for those deaths!

To follow links and continue reading, click here.

Muslim illegal migrant wanted for Berlin slaughter was jailed 4 years in Italy; police lost him

/in , , , , , , , /by

Why was he allowed into Germany at all? Because it would have been “Islamophobic” to keep him out. Why did police lose him after he was arrested three times? Because there are so many young Muslim men like Anis Amri, young men who could be jihad threats, that German authorities simply can’t keep up with them all. Thus it is madness for them to admit even more, but Merkel seems hell-bent on doing so anyway.

“Revealed: Tunisian asylum seeker wanted for Berlin massacre was jailed for four years in Italy for burning down a school and arrested three times in Germany before police lost him,” by Allan Hall, Martin Robinson and Julian Robinson, MailOnline, December 21, 2016 (thanks to Mike):

The Tunisian terror suspect wanted in connection with the Berlin Christmas market atrocity spent four years in an Italian jail before moving to Germany, his father revealed today.

Anis Amri settled in Italy after leaving his hometown of Tataouine, Tunisia seven years ago to travel to Europe as an illegal immigrant, his father claimed in a radio interview.

Amri, who has a €100,000 reward on his head, spent four years in an Italian jail after burning down a school before leaving the country for Germany last year.

Since then the 23-year-old has been arrested at least three times but German authorities have allowed the him to slip through their clutches time after time – even though Amri has been identified as an ISIS supporter known to have received weapons training.

He had been under covert for much of the time since his arrival in Germany last year.

Security forces exchanged information as recently as last month that allegedly tied Amri to Islamic extremists, Fox News reported.

And in June German authorities reportedly tried to deport Amri after learning he was plotting a ‘serious act of violent subversion’, a source told the Washington Post.

Amri even tried to recruit an accomplice for a terror plot – and again the authorities knew about it – but still he remained at large, it has emerged.

It is understood, Amri has used at least six different names under three different nationalities.

Berlin prosecutors announced they had launched an investigation into Amri on March 14 after receiving a tip-off from federal security agencies.

It was claimed, Amri was planning a string of break-ins or robberies to purchase automatic weapons for use in a terror attack.

Surveillance showed that Amri was involved in drug dealing in a Berlin park and involved in a bar brawl, but no evidence to substantiate the original warning. The observation was called off in September.

He arrived in Germany in July 2015 and was given a hearing by immigration authorities in April this year. He was denied the right to asylum and was due to be deported before the end of the year.

But under a peculiarity of the German asylum system he was granted a ‘Duldung’ or toleration papers allowing him to stay for unknown reasons.

According to BILD newspaper the German authorities were in touch with their Tunisian counterparts to get him a passport so he could be kicked out. But Tunis said it had no record of him being a citizen.

Tunisia has now been accused of delaying his extradition as it emerged that new ID papers had only just arrived in Germany today – two days after the carnage.

Amri was put on a danger list shortly after arriving – a move which meant authorities considered him prone to extreme violence. Yet just how much surveillance he was under remains unclear.

In July this year he got into a knife fight over drugs and was charged with GBH. But he went underground before getting to court.

Yet he surfaced again in August in Ludwigsburg when he was arrested for possessing a fake Italian document. Again, why he was allowed to slip through the fingers of the security services, given his known affiliation to hate preachers, is unclear.

Before his vanishing act he had contact with Salafist preachers who promoted Jihad among German young men who converted to Islam….

RELATED ARTICLES:

Italian girl converts to Islam, joins the Islamic State: “I can’t wait to die as a martyr”

Germany: Police chiefs warn of “further significant attacks”

German Police: ‘Helpless Feeling against Arab Gangs’ an ‘Unstoppable Migrant Crime Wave’

/in , , , , , , , /by

Angela Merkel has blood on her hands.

Geert Wilders, Dutch MP and Freedom Party leader who on Monday was named Dutch Politician of the Year, Tweeted the image above of German Chancellor Angela Merkel stating, “They hate and kill us. And nobody protects us. Our leaders betray us. We need a political revolution. And defend our people. #BerlinAttack.”

We learn from Daniel Greenfield that the suspect in the Berlin attack is a Tunisian migrant who should have been deported. In an article titled “Christmas Market Massacre Muslim Refugee killer couldn’t be deported” Greenfield reports:

24-year-old Anis Amri, the latest suspect in the Muslim massacre at the Christmas Market is a Tunisian Muslim refugee who should have been deported. The notion of a Tunisian refugee is already absurd. And we have a Muslim refugee terrorist who should have been deported carrying out a massacre.

Detectives in NRW had already investigated Anis A, on suspicion of preparing an act of terrorism, the state interior minister Ralf Jäger has confirmed.

The interior minister in NRW, Ralf Jäger, has confirmed that the suspect was supposed to be deported back to Tunisia. However the case was held up because Tunisian authorities at first refuted that he was a citizen of their country.

“The necessary papers arrived from Tunisia today,” SZ reports Jäger saying.

The SZ also reports that the suspect spent a day in detention but was freed again after authorities were not able to ascertain completely his actual identity.

Read more…

To make matters worse we learn about a letter from a German police union about the “unstoppable Muslim migrant crime wave.” Legal Insurrection reports:

Despite Merkel government’s all-out effort to prevent the breakdown of law and order in German cites ahead of the New Year’s Eve, wide cracks are appearing in country’s police preparedness.

What reads much like a dispatch from a lost battlefront, the union of police officers in the eastern German state of Thuringa has penned an open letter describing the dire state of affairs amid an unstoppable migrant crime wave. “[You] are abandoning us to a superior force,” says the desperate note addressed to Interior Minister of Thuringa.

Does this sound familiar? Are the police in the United States facing a superior force with their hands tied? Sanctuary cities, sanctuary college campuses and in Florida sanctuary counties are nests where Muslim gangs grow.

It’s not the radicalization for if you are a true believer and follower of Mohammed it is your duty to kill non-Muslims.

Calling Islam the religion of peace given all of those things people see from San Bernardino to Berlin, that is the ultimate political correctness.

RELATED ARTICLES:

New Suspect In Berlin Terror Attack: German Police Hunt For Tunisian Islamist Man

Tunisian Man Who Had Been Under Terrorism Investigation Sought Over Berlin Truck Attack – WSJ

Florida Middle School Teacher promotes Satan — parents outraged

/in , , , , , /by

President-elect Donald J. Trump wishes those attending his thank you tour a Merry Christmas. The birthday of Jesus Christ is recognized throughout Western cultures and is the foundation of our Constitutional Republican form of government. In God We Trust appears on our currency and is on many public buildings.

Even in a secular France there is a movement to have a Nativity Scene in each city and town square.

However in Boca Raton, Florida there is one man, Preston Smith, who has erected a Satanic display in in the name of freedom of religion.

In a column “Man behind Satanic pentagram in Boca Raton is a middle school teacher Boca Middle School PTSA wants teacher removed” Charlie Keegan from WPTV Channel 5 reports:

The man who installed a satanic pentagram in Boca Raton is a public school teacher, the Palm Beach County superintendent of schools confirmed today.

The school district did not answer a previous attempt by NewsChannel 5 to confirm.

Parents said Preston Smith teaches language arts at Boca Raton Community Middle School. The president of the school’s parent teacher association said she doesn’t want Smith to continue teaching at the school, but added she can’t speak on behalf of all parents.

“A teacher we entrust our children with should not be putting a sign like this anywhere,” explained Kim Bremer.

Earlier this month, the city of Boca Raton gave Smith permission to install a Satanic display at Sanborn Square downtown. That is the same park where other religious organizations install a nativity scene and menorah during the holiday season.

Smith is a known activist for separating religion from government. He argued if the city allows one religious display on public property, it has to allow them all, even if they are offensive.

Read more…

‘Behold Your King Comes’ by Randall Smith

/in , /by

“The Catholic Thing is a kind of little miracle that ripples out to touch lives in powerful ways.”  – Archbishop Charles Chaput

Behold Your King Comes

by 

In his advent sermon Ecce rex tuus venit tibi (“Behold your king comes to you”), Thomas Aquinas distinguishes four ways Christ “comes” to us: the first “advent” is the one in which He came in the flesh; the second, when He comes into our souls; the third, when He comes to us at death; and the fourth is His Second Coming at the final judgment. During Advent, we are preparing ourselves for all four.

A friend reports that his priest told the congregation that Advent isn’t a penitential season, but a time for joy. My friend’s immediate thought was: “If it’s not a penitential season, Father, then why are you wearing purple?” He might as well have been doing a funeral mass in black and said: “This isn’t a mournful time. It’s a time for joy.”

Actually, it could be both: a time to mourn the loss of a loved one and joy at the promise of the resurrection: mourning because of our very real human experience of loss, and joy because of a faith in the reality of a promise that exceeds the grasp of human reason. They can co-exist. We know by reason we have lost something dear to us, and yet, deep down, in a center of ourselves we barely know ourselves, we know by faith that our loved ones are alive with God in Christ and therefore still present with us, in us, and all around us in the communion of saints.

Similarly, Advent is both a penitential season and time for joy. Christ is coming; this is good news. We prepare ourselves by keeping “sober” and “awake.” A penitential season in expectation of Christ’s coming can be a very joyful thing. A season lost to drunkenness and dissipation usually is not.

Read more…

EDITORS NOTE: This article first appeared in The Catholic Thing.

In these last days before Christmas and the New Year, The Catholic Thing is very close to its fundraising goal now for the end of 2016, which will be the basis of their support for the first half of 2017. In this special season, we ask readers to do what they can to support The Catholic Thing. To donate to The Catholic Thing please click here.

A Lovely Christmas Encounter

/in , /by

I don’t care what progressives say, men and women are different. Upon entering a store, I have witnessed my wife Mary shift into a “shopping zone”, picking up, studying and reading items (after finding English) at a leisurely pace. I just want to find what I need as quickly as possible and get out of the store. Therefore, I dropped Mary off at Big Lots! I thought I would kill time strolling through the Heart and Home Resale Store a few doors away.

Two unique reindeer Christmas baskets caught my eye. I got in line as the elderly store clerk was checking out a 30 something year old mom. The mom apologized to me for her large pile of toddler toys and clothing. I replied, “No problem. I am fine.”

The elderly clerk glanced at my baskets and said, “They are beautiful.” I said the last thing I need is more Christmas stuff, but I really like these baskets.

The elderly clerk said she did a major scale down of her Christmas decorations last year. She said it brought a tear to her eye. She enjoyed Christmases with her family and before she knew it, everyone was gone. He husband passed and her daughter never married. She has no grand kids. She now sets up a 12 inch table top Christmas tree.

I told the young mom that what the clerk was telling her is to enjoy these years with her husband and kids to the max. With a smile the young mom replied, “I know.” The elderly clerk said, “Yes, that is exactly what I am saying.”

After the young mom left, I told the elderly clerk, “I am sure God will provide kids for you to be a grand-mom.” She said, “He has. My neighbors have two beautiful children.” Our pleasant exchange ended with the elderly clerk wishing me a Merry Christmas. I wished her the same.

Folks, the older I get, the more I realize how important it is to be thankful to God and truly enjoy every good thing in your life; a great meal with friends and loved ones, good health, relationships and so on

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Happy Birthday Jesus!

Somalis pouring in to U.S., could be biggest year ever for Muslim migrants

/in , , , , , , /by

I told you about the astronomically high numbers of Somalis being admitted to the U.S. here recently, but since I was working on data for the first ten weeks (here for overall numbers and here for Syrians), I figured I would put the Somali numbers in the same format.

So according to data at Wrapsnet.org we have admitted 2,959 Somalis to the U.S. in the first ten weeks of FY2017, that is highest rate in the over 30 years we have been admitting them, see here. This also would result in a higher resettlement rate than the one for Syrians right now.

Bush’s 2004 number of 12,814 will be dwarfed if Donald Trump doesn’t follow through on his campaign promise to halt the flow of refugees from terror-producing parts of the world.

Virtually all Somalis are Muslims and very few come in to U.S. outside of the Refugee Admissions Program. Although some do come illegally across our borders and then apply for asylum.

Here is the map of where they went (again these are the numbers for October 1, 2016 to December 10, 2016). This is the number for resettled refugees only:

screenshot-96
Sorry again, the map does not fit my page! Florida is 37, Alaska is 6 and Hawaii is 0.

Here are the top ten states in which they were placed. Large numbers will move on to Minnesota or Ohio after initial resettlement.

screenshot-97If as time goes on and you know I wrote about refugee numbers, but can’t find the post, you can always go to the category here at RRW called ‘refugee statistics’ or the one called ‘where to find information.‘

RELATED ARTICLES:

Terror Attack in Germany Puts Spotlight on Refugee Policy

Portland, OR: Somali Christmas tree bomber’s conviction upheld

Unaccompanied refugee minors program, small but could grow

Terror around the world yesterday (thanks to these three ‘leaders’)

Berlin truck attack: Merkel was warned weeks ago by U.S. State Department

/in , , , /by

“I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieved, so strike upon the necks and strike from them every fingertip.” (Quran 8:12)

It sure is working. Terror has gripped Westerners, who have taken their freedom for granted and appear more concerned with “Islamophobia ” than with taking serious steps to deal with the jihad terror threat: Angela Merkel, with her “we can do this” narrative that all Germans must accept or be charged with “bigotry” and “neo-Nazism,” was forewarned by the US State Department which said that it had “credible information” that the Islamic State (ISIS) and al-Qaeda were planning jihad attacks and focusing on the “upcoming holiday season.” Both the Islamic State and al-Qaeda have been plotting Christmas market jihad massacres.

“BERLIN TERROR ATTACK: Angela Merkel was WARNED of Christmas massacre just WEEKS ago”, By Tom Parfitt, UK Express, December 19, 2016:

At least nine people have been killed after a lorry ploughed into a festive market in the German capital – with more than 50 others injured.

But in late November, the US State Department warned of a “heightened risk of terror attacks” at events marking the Christian holiday across Europe.

It said it had “credible information” that Islamic State (ISIS) and al-Qaeda were planning attacks and focusing on the “upcoming holiday season”.

The department specifically warned American travellers to exercise caution at “holiday festivals, events and outdoor markets”.

European intelligence services were also aware of the threat of possible attacks across the continent in the run-up to Christmas.

The Foreign Office told British travellers to Germany to “remain vigilant” at “Christmas markets and other major events that might attract large crowds”.

A UK security source recently told the Mirror that festive markets and shopping centres could be in ISIS’ sights.

They said: “The entire continent is vulnerable to attack as we have seen in France, Germany and Belgium but particularly in the run-up to Christmas.

“It is a Christian period of festivities, bring together large crowds of soft target civilians and will attract attention from those who wish to inflict harm.”

It is understood tonight’s incident took place at a market outside the landmark Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

Police spokesman Winfried Wenzel told ZDF public television that a man believed to be the driver of the truck had been arrested near the scene.

Briton Emma Rushton, who was in the market, saw the lorry rush past her at speed and said it could not have been an accident.

The tourist said she only missed being caught in the chaos because she had climbed up some steps to take a seat.

She added: “It was not an accident. It was going 40mph, it was in the middle of the market.

“There was no way that it could have come off the road and it showed no signs of slowing down.”

Police tweeted to urge people to stay at home and refrain from spreading rumours, adding that officers were working at full speed….

RELATED ARTICLES:

After murder of ambassador, Putin vows to obliterate the Islamic State

Jihadist gunman who shot Russian ambassador identified, member of “special ops unit”