Wednesday, March 31, 2010

What Was the Purpose of Christ's Death?


An interesting article from http://www.ucg.org/ about the Purpose of Christ's death. This follows this post about the validity of the Bible. For more interesting stories like this click here to follow this blog.

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What Was the Purpose of Christ's Death?
Millions of Christians believe that Jesus Christ died for them. But do they really know why? Why was Jesus Christ's death really necessary?
by Jerold Aust
Most Christians, if asked what makes them a Christian, would respond something like this:"I know that Jesus is the Son of God who died for my sins, and I accept His shed blood for my sins."
While Jesus did die for us, is that all there is to this belief? Does the Bible tell us that there's more to the story?
A sacrifice for humanity's sins
Many Bible passages show why Jesus died for humankind. Let's look at a few.
The apostle Paul wrote that we are to"walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma" (Ephesians 5:2, emphasis added throughout).
To the Christians in Rome, Paul explained:"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation [atoning sacrifice] by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed" (Romans 3:23-25).
Later in the same letter, Paul wrote:"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us . Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him" (Romans 5:8-9).
To the Corinthian church Paul explained that God the Father "made Him who knew no sin [Jesus Christ] to be sin for us" (2 Corinthians 5:21). Here the clear implication is that Jesus took our guilt on Himself and paid the penalty for us by His death.
The book of Revelation opens by describing Jesus Christ as the One "who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood" (Revelation 1:5).
The apostle John also explained the reason for Jesus' death:"If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:1-2, New Revised Standard Version).
A little later he explained:"God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:9-10, NRSV).
And also:"We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world" (verse 14).
The apostle Peter confirmed this great truth, that Jesus Christ "bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness" (1 Peter 2:24).
The prophet Isaiah wrote of the purpose of Jesus' death centuries before it actually took place:"He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5).
Scripture is very clear about the fact that Jesus had to die for all people of all time and for crucial reasons. He had to die because of human sin—yours, mine and everyone else's.
Sin brought on Jesus' death
The scriptures quoted above show the necessity of Jesus' death—that it was required because of sin. Without sin, there would be no need for Jesus' death, the shedding of His sinless blood.
Sin is the violation of God's law (1 John 3:4). It requires a price to be paid because, as Romans 6:23 tells us,"The wages of sin is death." Without some payment for that awful penalty, human beings would face oblivion through death with no hope beyond the grave .
The New Testament letter to the Hebrews states plainly that"without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins" (9:22, NRSV). One purpose for this letter was to explain that Jesus Christ was the very Son of God and that He gave His life's blood for the remission—the forgiveness, the pardon, the penalty removal—of humankind's sins.
The recipients of this letter were quite familiar with the Old Testament sacrifices that, as the epistle explains, foreshadowed the one holy sacrifice of mankind's Savior:"He has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself" (Hebrews 9:26, NRSV).
Human beings must have their sins washed away, pardoned and forgiven, to be reconciled to God."For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life" (Romans 5:10, NRSV). Without reconciliation to God the Father, there could be no forgiveness of sins.
Hebrews 9:28 further explains that"Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him" (New International Version). A sinless Jesus became sin for us as we've seen (2 Corinthians 5:21). He took on the sins of humankind to save us from everlasting death.
How sin began
Considering that sin is so terrible and destructive that we need a Savior to atone for us, just how did sin begin?
The archangel Lucifer, since known as Satan, was the first to sin against God, the first to break His laws (see Ezekiel 28:15-16). Ironically, Satan has since influenced the world to think that mankind was the first to sin. Adam and Eve did sin, but they weren't the first to sin. Satan had already rebelled against God and was waiting there in the Garden of Eden to plant his lies in their thinking (John 8:42-44).
Eve and Adam were the first human beings to sin against God, and since then all human beings have sinned in like manner (Romans 5:12). Most people find it difficult to acknowledge sin; they simply act as if it didn't exist. But sin is destructive. If God had not provided us with a solution, eventually it would destroy all mankind.
Today, God"commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30)—to stop sinning, to cease from breaking His laws.
Since no human being can obey God's laws perfectly without sinning, God extends grace to the repentant, pardoning them for their sins.
Law and grace go together
Most Christians today find it difficult to understand the relationship between God's grace and God's laws. The view most commonly held is,"If there's something we must actually do to be forgiven, then grace is meaningless because grace implies that God demands nothing in return."
There is some truth in this. Grace, God's favor or good will toward us, is undeserved. It includes unmerited pardon or forgiveness of sins. That cannot be earned.
But God's forgiving grace was never intended as a license to continue sinning. Paul makes this truth very plain:"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" (Romans 6:1-2).
Grace and law are inseparable, as the Bible clearly teaches. Since sin—the breaking of God's law (1 John 3:4)—is to be removed, what would be the point of pardoning people from it just to allow them to continue to violate God's law? This clearly makes no sense.
This also would be an utter contradiction of Paul's teaching that Jesus Christ"gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works" (Titus 2:14).
Grace, made possible through Christ's sacrifice of Himself, allows us to be"redeemed"—to be bought back by God through Christ paying the price for our sins. But God's grace (His free gift ) encompasses much more. It includes our being purified as God's"own special people" through the gift of His Holy Spirit, making us"zealous for good works."
Yes, grace, through Christ's sacrifice, supplies the forgiveness that the law can't give. But grace does not replace the laws of God, as Scripture clearly shows. Rather, grace gives us a new beginning, a chance to start life over in harmony with God's teachings—which include the great spiritual principles embodied in His law. Indeed, grace includes God giving us the needed spiritual help to obey.
Who can receive salvation?
Many misunderstand grace. To think that God requires nothing from us except to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died for our sins would deprive us of salvation—would leave us still in our sins!
Don't take my word for it! See what your Bible has to say:"Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
"For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law [that is, under its punitive judgment for violating it, as they had been before they repented] but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?" (Romans 6:11-16).
Remarkably, many sincere people still believe that no changes are required of them to receive God's gift of grace other than to believe on the name of Jesus and accept His shed blood for their sins. Paul's words above show that is simply not true.
Perhaps the most popular and misunderstood scripture that focuses on the importance of Jesus' death is found in John 3:16:"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
The last part of this verse,"that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life," has been only partially understood by millions of people. Many mistakenly assume that believing in Jesus means only believing in His identity and promises and that it does not include any reciprocal action on their part. Yet truly believing in Jesus is demonstrated by one's actions. (See"What Does It Mean to Believe in Jesus?".)
But the Bible tells us emphatically that to be saved we must repent of our selfish ways, turn to God in faith and believe what Christ tells us to do (Acts 2:38). Many professing Christians who believe on Jesus still don't demonstrate their belief by living as Jesus instructs. As the Bible reveals, this initial, minimal level of belief isn't what Jesus desires (Luke 6:46).
When a rich young man asked Jesus what it would take for him to enter eternal life, he got an answer that would surprise many today:"If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments" (Matthew 19:17).
Jesus also warned that"whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:19).
Paul knew this truth, explaining that "the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good" (Romans 7:12). Therefore, God wants us to keep His laws in the spirit as well as in the letter—to genuinely grasp and apply their full intent. Salvation is only offered to those who are willing to strive to keep God's commandments from the heart.
If you need further proof as to whether there's anything more we must do than what is traditionally taught, go to the very end of your Bible. There it states,"Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life [for the gift of eternal life], and may enter through the gates into the city [the new Jerusalem, our ultimate destiny]" (Revelation 22:14).
The Bible shows that there is much more for you and me to do than simply accept the name of Jesus, call ourselves Christians and accept the shed blood of our Savior. God wants to transform our lives, to build in us His righteous character.
To be accepted by God, to receive that great blessing, which is a gift and can't be earned, you and I must want to keep God's laws because we respect and love them and have repented of breaking them. Then we must accept God's grace for forgiveness of our past failure to keep His laws properly. And we must strive with His help to start obeying His laws, always repenting and asking for forgiveness when we fall short.
When Jesus' death applies to you
The death of Jesus Christ applies to you and me personally when we are drawn by God to understand His truths and we respond. If you've been called by God (see John 6:44), then you already recognize how Jesus' death applies to you.
Accepting the death of Jesus must be accompanied by repentance—a change of direction from our old habitual sins. It also requires that we exercise faith (sincere belief) in what Christ has taught us. This means we will begin obeying God's laws that can liberate us from our captivity to sin (Romans 6:11-23).
Yes, John 3:16 is true—we must believe in Jesus. But we need to fully understand what that means. The truth is that there is something for us to do, once we are drawn to God to understand His truth. We must know that our sins—yours, mine and everyone else's—have necessitated the death of Jesus Christ, without which we would die permanently and be forever forgotten.
Jesus died in our place. We deserve death; Jesus didn't. Anyone who sins deserves death (Romans 6:23). But God is merciful to us and has given us His Son to willingly take that penalty on Himself and die in our stead.
In response, He expects us to listen to His instruction, to obey His commands. This is what Jesus died for.
There's more to the greatest story ever told! So be sure to read the following article,"Jesus Christ's Resurrection: Leading the Way for Others," to discover the rest of the story of His involvement in your salvation. GN

Related Resources
Jesus Christ: The Real StoryThis booklet seeks to address and answer the major questions that people naturally ask in trying to understand Jesus Christ—the real story.
Whatever Happened to Sin? It used to be common to hear messages condemning sin and warning of its consequences. Now most religious messages pass over the uncomfortable reality of sin to focus on "feel-good" themes. What is happening to Christianity—and is it missing a crucial part of Christ's message?
How To Overcome Sin You need to understand this vital biblical formula for overcoming sin.
Why Do We Sin? All of us have to deal with sin and its tragic consequences in our lives. Understanding why we sin is a first step in overcoming and avoiding sin.
Grace, Works and Obedience Through God's grace, the gift of eternal life is given to those who demonstrate their faith in God by their obedience and repentance
The Road to Eternal Life What is the purpose of human life? Are we here for a reason? Does the Bible provide answers for these questions? What does the Bible mean when it talks about repentence and conversion?
Transforming Your Life: The Process of Conversion We will examine the Bible's teaching on conversion. Contrary to what many think, it is not just a one-time event. Instead the Scriptures reveal that it is a process.The process begins with God's calling, followed by the key steps of repentance, baptism and the receiving of the Holy Spirit—finally climaxing with the return of Jesus Christ, when the dead in Christ are resurrected to immortality and given eternal life. That is the ultimate transformation, being changed from a mortal to an immortal being!

Russia looking for 21 members of "black widow" jihadist cell trained in Turkey

This is an timely article from www.jihadwatch.org about Russia's hunt for the Moscow terror cell..This follows this post Barack Obama snubbing Israel's president. Another issue is Barack Obama's failure to dry up money rogue states by allowinng domestic offshore oil drilling instead of sending oil revenues to nations like Iran and Venezuela and everybody concerned about anti-Americanism should support this. For more posts like this click here.


Russia looking for 21 members of "black widow" jihadist cell trained in Turkey
According to this story, one of the bombers in yesterday's attack in Moscow may also have been mentally retarded. Such gallant mujahedin, pressing the most vulnerable members of society into the business of mass murder. And it would not be the first time we have seen this tactic employed. "Russia hunts 21-strong 'Black Widow' cell as first images of suicide bombers are released," by Will Stewart for the Daily Mail, March 30:
The first images of the 'Black Widow' suicide bombers were released today as Vladimir Putin vowed to 'scrape out the attackers from the bottom of the sewers'.
As Russia held a day of mourning for the 39 people killed in the underground terror attack, the country's prime minister vowed vengeance on those who had helped mount the attack.
The police and security services now believe there are in a desperate race against time to find the gang with fears they could be plotting another outrage.
It was suggested today that some 21 more 'widows' are at large following reports that the women were part of a 30-strong band of suicide bombers trained at a Muslim school in Turkey. Nine have already perished in earlier attacks, Russian media said.
The dead women in Monday's attack are both believed to be aged between 18 and 25 and to have carried the explosives - packed with nails and metal fragments to maximise death and destruction - in shahid belts or handbags.
According to police who have viewed CCTV which has not yet been released, one was said to be mentally retarded.
A source close to the investigators said that the women suicide bombers travelled to Moscow early on Monday by coach from a unnamed Caucasus town, prompting the belief that the attack was by militants from volatile Chechnya.
The women were accompanied by a tall man with Caucasus appearance, dressed in dark blue coat with white marks. He had five days growth of beard. Both women were identified by the driver of the coach.
'One was dressed in black trousers, another in black skirt, black tights and spangled black shoes,' said the Kommersant newspaper. Their appearance indicated they were from the Caucasus region.
The newspaper said the women had been taught by an Islamic militant who had himself being killed last month in an operation by the FSB, which replaced the KGB. 'Around 30 of them were taught in Madrasah (Muslim school) in Turkey and then came back to perform their tasks,' said Kommersant.
'Nine of them have already blown themselves up, the others are being checked now.'...
Posted by Marisol

Lawsuit and Repeal Efforts Move Forward After Pro-Abortion Health Care Passes

An interesting story from http://www.lifenews.com about attempts to do away with the pro-abortion health care bill. This follows this post about Bart Stupak and the real pro-life Democrats. For more interesting stories like this click here to follow this blog.

Lawsuit and Repeal Efforts Move Forward After Pro-Abortion Health Care PassesWashington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- With the House passing the pro-abortion health care bill Sunday night and President Barack Obama pledging to sign it into law on Tuesday, pro-life groups, state attorneys general and Republican lawmakers are moving forward with plans to file lawsuits against the bill and repeal it in the next Congress.
Once Obama signs the bill into law, the lawsuits will begin from all corners.
Attorneys General from Florida, South Carolina, Nebraska, Texas, Utah, Pennsylvania, Washington, North Dakota, South Dakota and several other states have already announced plans to file suits against the health care law.
"The health care reform legislation passed by the U. S. House of Representatives this evening clearly violates the U.S. Constitution and infringes on each state's sovereignty," Florida's Attorney General Bill McCollum announced. "If the President signs this bill into law, we will file a lawsuit to protect the rights and the interests of American citizens."
Leading pro-life groups will join them as officials from the American Center for Law and Justice are already preparing suit.
“This health care package fails the American people and does not provide permanent protections for the life of the unborn,” Jay Sekulow, the ACLJ chief counsel, told LifeNews.com today.
“This flawed health care package may have passed - but it is far from being implemented," Sekulow explained. Full story at LifeNews.com

The Five Craziest Attacks on Tea Parties

This is an interesting post from http://newsbusters.org about attacks on the Tea Party movement. This follows this post from Michelle Malkin about fake hate crimes.For more interesting stories like this click here to follow this blog.



The Five Craziest Attacks on Tea Parties

By Dan Gainor (Bio Archive)

In case there are any residual doubts about how bad the tea partiers have been treated, here are the Top Five ways the left and the media have abused a grassroots movement. The coverage has been so hateful and so biased, it was almost impossible to narrow the list. Here they are in reverse order, just in time for the big tea party events April 15:
5) Protesters are Anti-Government
The media and the left portray tea parties as "anti-government" because it undermines a patriotic grassroots movement. Tea partiers aren't anti-government, they are anti-big government. That's just not the story journalists tell. The "anti-government" theme is strong, cropping up in more than two dozen stories in The Washington Post and New York Times combined. Very few of them mentioned the word "big" in reference to government.
Instead, it's NPR's Liz Halloran claiming tea parties have been boosted by "restive Republicans who have found refuge in the year-old anti-tax, anti-government uprising." Or Frank Rich of The New York Times who compared tea partiers with Andrew Joseph Stack, the man who flew a plane into an IRS building. "Stack was a lone madman, and it would be both glib and inaccurate to call him a card-carrying Tea Partier or a ‘Tea Party terrorist.' But he did leave behind a manifesto whose frothing anti-government, anti-tax rage overlaps with some of those marching under the Tea Party banner."
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Then there's former CNN correspondent Susan Roesgen, who became the story when she reported from the Chicago tea party on April 15 last year. Roesgen rudely interrupted one of the protesters and slammed the event for being "anti-government." After she bullied her interview subject, Roesgen concluded that "you get the general tenor of this," tea party. "Anti-government, anti-CNN since this is highly promoted by the right-wing conservative network Fox and since I can't really hear much more and I think this is not really family viewing."
CNN is more family friendly now. Roesgen no longer works at the network.
4) Tea Partiers Are Stupid
Calling conservatives stupid is typical left-wing strategy. The left labeled Reagan stupid or senile. George W. Bush was consistently portrayed as stupid by detractors in the left and the media. It only makes sense that tea partiers get the same treatment.
In the case of the tea parties, some of the biggest offenders were also some of the biggest mouths on the left. Last August, former Air America host MSNBC regular Janeane Garofalo let the venom fly during an appearance at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 21. Garofalo called tea partiers "functionally retarded adults."
Bill Maher deployed the same strategy in February of this year during HBO's "Real Time" calling tea partiers "cultists. "The teabaggers, they're not a movement. They're a cult, and I'm going to prove it. You know someone has fallen into a cult if you see these signs: One. Cults have their own vocabulary. Now, I don't speak sh**kicker, but I know that in their world, freedom means guns, diplomacy means weakness, elitist means reader, and socialist means black." In Maher's world, stupid means anyone who is conservative.
3) Protesters are Nazis
Nazis are the ultimate villains both for the horror they brought to the world through conquest and their use of industrialized genocide. But while the left went crazy when Lyndon LaRouche fans carried Obama/Hitler posters to protests, they were quick to use the slander for their own devices.
Take MSNBC's relatively obscure host Dylan Ratigan. In February, the host of "The Dylan Ratigan Show" began the program by doing what his network always does - attacking conservatives. "The tea party has a bit of an integrity problem, as everybody from birthers, to open racists, to outright Nazis are actually on the team. And no one involved, including its leadership, seems to mind that fact."
Ratigan learned from the best, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who called the tea parties "Astroturf" before she went on to link them to Nazis. "They're carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare." Later she backed off her complete attack and tried to latch onto tea party popularity claiming, "but, you know, we share some of the views of the Tea Partiers." Sure...
2) Homophobic Slurs
To most ordinary Americans in early 2009, the term "teabagging" meant using a tea bag to make actual tea. Then entire world learned the term had an overt, oral sex connotation, thanks to the media and left-wing pundits.
Nowhere was the use of the term more pronounced than MSNBC. The day before the big tea party event last April, MSNBC's David Shuster made numerous sexual puns during a "Countdown" appearance. "It's going to be teabagging day for the right-wing and they're going nuts for it. Thousands of them whipped out the festivities early this past weekend, and while the parties are officially toothless, the teabaggers are full-throated about their goals," he told viewers. He later used his Twitter account to attack "teabaggers" and their "teabag leader."
Shuster lost out to fellow MSNBC host Rachel Maddow for most adolescent behavior. Maddow's and then Air America radio contributor Ana Marie Cox used the word "teabag" at least 51 times in a in a 13-minute long segment of bad "teabag" puns.
It wasn't just MSNBC. Journalists at numerous outlets used the derisive term. But CNN anchor Anderson Cooper went even farther during the April 15 "Anderson Cooper 360" program. CNN's senior political analyst David Gergen said Republicans were "searching for their voice" after two electoral losses, Cooper followed up by saying, "It's hard to talk when you're tea-bagging." The irony of this attack is that it allows lefties and the media to feel smart and act juvenile at the same time.
1) Calling them "racist"
Playing the race card has become the left's favorite move. It trumps everything else and is virtually impossible to defend against. Naturally, with an African-American president, crying "racism" has become a routine occurrence. MSNBC's Chris Matthews is just one of the milder examples of someone who injects race into everything except commercials.
Whether it's Colbert King of The Washington Post or loose cannon former comedienne Garofalo, racism is the left's preference in attempts to undermine the tea parties.
Former funny lady Garofalo bashed the attendees at last year's tax day tea parties by using several different attacks. The "Countdown" guest called party-goers "a bunch of teabagging rednecks," adding "this is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up."
At least she didn't invoke the KKK or talk about tea partiers wearing sheets. But she didn't have to because Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., did it for her. Clyburn showed up in a column by The Post's Colbert King that claimed "Today's Tea Party adherents are George Wallace legacies." "It reminds me of that period in our history right after Reconstruction," Clyburn said, "when South Carolina had a black governor and the political gains were lost because of vigilantism, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan."
He wasn't alone. In February, "Countdown" host Keith Olbermann focused on suggestions there should be civics literacy testing for registered voters made at the recent Tea Party convention, which Olbermann referred to as the "Tea Klux Klan."
Maddow attacked the same suggestion with her own Klan spin. "And as you could hear, the tea party convention crowd erupted in cheers at the suggestion, although, to be fair, it was sort of hard to tell exactly what the sounds coming from the crowd meant. They were sort of a little bit muffled by, you know, the white hoods," she mocked.
Dan Gainor is The Boone Pickens Fellow and the Media Research Center's Vice President for Business and Culture. His column appears each week on The Fox Forum. He can also be contacted on FaceBook and Twitter as dangainor.
—Dan Gainor is vice president for Business and Culture at the Media Research Center.Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/dan-gainor/2010/03/31/5-craziest-attacks-tea-parties#ixzz0jlyPPXyh

Reward being offered after AZ rancher slain

A timely post from www.alipac.us about a slain Arizona rancher.This follows this article from about the Census which was previously commented on here and this post which shows that there are 30,000 openly illegal immigrants in the border town of El Paso across from the recent Juarez shooting. For more interesting stories like this click here to follow this blog.


Reward being offered after AZ rancher slain
Posted on Wednesday, March 31
PHOENIX - The Arizona Cattle Growers' Association is offering a $15,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person who fatally shot a prominent southeast Arizona rancher. The body of 58-year-old Robert Krentz was located before midnight Saturday on his 35,000-acre ranch about 35 miles northeast of Douglas. He was out checking water line and fencing on the land Krentz's family has ranched since 1907.
Topics: Illegal immigration, reward, Robert Krentz murder, illegal immigrant, Mexico border, Cattle Growers' AssociationMarch, 30, 2010KTAR.comAssociated PressBonneville InternationalCochise County authorities believe Krentz was killed by an illegal immigrant who then fled to Mexico. Foot tracks were identified and followed approximately 20 miles south to the Mexico border by county, state and federal authorities. In addition to announcing the reward money Tuesday, Cattle Growers' Association officials say a memorial fund has been set up at Wells Fargo Bank to help Krentz's family. DISCUSS THIS ARTICLE WITH OUR ONLINE ACTIVISTS AT...

Friday, March 26, 2010

Can You Believe the Bible?


An interesting article from http://www.ucg.org/ about the truth of the Bible. This follows this post about Mass Media and Prophecy. For more interesting stories like this click here to follow this blog.
Click here to get this free book.


Can You Believe the Bible?
Both God and the Bible have long been under attack. What are some of the motives of critics? And, far more important, what does the evidence dug from the dust of the Middle East reveal?
by Scott Ashley
Beyond Today Web TV
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A crucial battle is taking place in Western culture—a battle over God and the Bible. To boil that conflict down to its essence, many people don't like the idea of having someone tell them what to do, so they reject the idea of a God who has any say in how they are to live.
Some famous evolutionists have openly admitted as much. The well-known author and evolution proponent Aldous Huxley, for example, wrote: "I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption . . .
"Those who detect no meaning in the world generally do so because, for one reason or another, it suits their [purpose] that the world should be meaningless" (Ends and Means, 1938, p. 270).
"For myself, as, no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was . . . liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom . . ." (ibid., p. 273).
Julian Huxley, brother of Aldous Huxley and also a leading proponent of evolution, later wrote: "The sense of spiritual relief which comes from rejecting the idea of God as a super-human being is enormous" (Essays of a Humanist, 1964, p. 219).
Of course, those who reject the idea of God also have to reject the idea that the Bible is true and could be His inspired Word. It's no coincidence that the Bible has been essentially banned from U.S. classrooms.
What does the evidence reveal?
But what do the facts show? Can we believe the Bible? What does the evidence—the historical facts dug up from the dirt of the Middle East—reveal? For those willing to examine it objectively, the evidence is quite clear that the Bible is accurate and true.
The books of the Bible have existed for millennia—the youngest around 1,900 years and the oldest around 3,500. In recording events of the time, they mention many specific details—people, places, cities, towns, customs and events. When the Bible began to be translated into more modern languages in recent centuries, virtually no independent evidence had been found to support the biblical story.
Yes, historians knew of the empires of Greece and Rome and of their rulers as mentioned in the Bible, but little else was known. Even as late as the 19th century, when criticism of and disbelief in the Bible began to take hold, it was easy to dismiss the Bible because scant supporting evidence had been found.
But with the emergence of the science of archaeology, that soon changed. As scholars and archaeologists explored and excavated ancient sites, they began to uncover abundant evidence that supported the accuracy of the Bible.
Since then entire empires that were unknown outside the Bible have been brought to light. Inscriptions or other artifacts mentioning specific people in the Bible, ranging from kings to court officials to common people, have been uncovered.
Cities and strongholds mentioned in Scripture have risen from the dust. Many events recorded in the Bible, and even minor details such as customs mentioned in passing, have been confirmed by independent discoveries. Even specific buildings and structures mentioned in Scripture have been identified!
In late 2006 I was privileged to visit one of the world's great historical treasure-houses, the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. From the 16th century until the end of World War I, the Ottoman Empire ruled much of the Middle East from its capital in present-day Turkey. During that period many priceless archaeological pieces made their way from the far reaches of the empire to the Ottoman rulers in Istanbul. Eventually more than a million artifacts were gathered in the museum.
Several items on display confirm people, customs and events mentioned in the Bible. Although we don't have space to cover all of them, we'll discuss some of the most notable.
Did the Hittites really exist?
For centuries the only known references to Hittites were those found in the Bible. Because of this, some Bible critics assumed they were simply invented, just one of many myths in the Bible. After all, they reasoned, how could an entire culture and people have existed and not left any physical evidence behind?
The Hittites are mentioned in connection with the patriarch Abraham in Genesis 23 where he purchased a cave from Ephron the Hittite to use as a burial place for his beloved wife Sarah. (Abraham himself would later be buried there.)
Later Abraham's grandson Esau married two Hittite women (Genesis 26:34), and still later the Hittites were among the peoples God promised to drive out so the Israelites could inherit the Promised Land (Exodus 23:28; 33:2; 34:11). King Solomon later married Hittite women (1 Kings 11:1), probably as part of political alliances with Hittite rulers. The Hittites were still an influential power in the time of Elisha around 840 B.C. (see 2 Kings 7:6). But did they really exist?
As the lands of the Middle East were later explored, particularly in what is today central Turkey where the Hittite empire was centered, archaeologists found abundant evidence of the existence of the Hittites. Their findings correlated with the mentions of the Hittites in the Bible.
Their empire had existed for centuries alongside the other peoples mentioned in the Scriptures—at times waxing and at other times waning alongside other kingdoms and empires such as Syria, Egypt and Assyria before diminishing and eventually disappearing not long after their last mention in the Bible.
Ashtoreth (Astarte), goddess of fertility
A major sin mentioned again and again in the Old Testament was idolatry and the worship of foreign gods. God repeatedly condemned the worship of Baal and Ashtoreth, the primary male and female deities of the Canaanites and other surrounding peoples.
Baal and Ashtoreth were the primary god and goddess of fertility. As such, their worship typically involved ritual sex with a priest or priestess, for which an offering was given. This essentially amounted to sex for pay, which is why the Bible often equates worship of these gods and goddesses with prostitution.
The common name of the goddess in Babylonia and Mesopotamia was Ishtar, which survives today in the name of the holiday Easter. Her name among the nations around Israel was Astarte, but the biblical writers apparently deliberately distorted the name to Ashtoreth to make it sound like the Hebrew word for "shame"—as indeed the way she was worshipped, involving sex with her priests and priestesses, was degrading and shameful.
Small figurines of this and other fertility goddesses are commonly found in Israel and the surrounding countries, clear evidence of the popularity of such worship. Worship of this goddess is mentioned from soon after the death of Joshua in Judges 2:13 (ca. 1210 B.C.) until the reign of King Josiah in 2 Kings 23:13 (ca. 640 B.C.).
Assyria devastates the kingdom of Israel
As a result of the sins of idolatry and rejecting God's laws over several centuries, and their absolute refusal to repent, God warned the Israelites that since they refused to serve Him in their own land, they would serve other gods in foreign lands. He began to punish them through the Assyrian Empire, a new superpower emerging in what is today the country of Iraq.
The Bible records a whole series of Assyrian kings who made war on Israel, and archaeologists have uncovered abundant evidence testifying to the existence of these same kings. Their capital cities, palaces, archives and in some cases even their portraits and statues have been found. Much of this material is in the great museums of Europe, but evidence of these kings is also displayed in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum.
Tiglath-Pileser III
We find the names of the first two Assyrian kings mentioned in the Bible inscribed on a stone stele commemorating the achievements of a high Assyrian official named Bel-harran-beli-usur. He served in the royal court of Tiglath-Pileser III (745-727 B.C.) and Shalmaneser V (727-722 B.C.). The inscription describes how he served in the court of these two Assyrian kings and founded a city he named after himself.
This same Tiglath-Pileser is referred to by a shortened form of his name, Pul, in 2 Kings 15:19-20, which states that he received tribute money from the Israelite King Menahem (ca. 743 B.C.). Exacting tribute was a common practice at the time. It amounted to extortion on a national scale since the Assyrians would invade and plunder the land, destroying its cities and enslaving its inhabitants, if the Israelites didn't pay this protection money.
Around 734 B.C., as recorded in verse 29, the Israelite King Pekah rebelled against Tiglath-Pileser, who invaded Israel and took thousands of its people captive to other faraway territories. At the same time Ahaz, king of Judah, stripped the temple of its gold and silver and emptied the national treasury to enlist the Assyrian king's help in fighting against Pekah and the king of Syria (2 Kings 16:5-9). Syria, like Israel, was devastated by the Assyrian invasion.
Shalmaneser V
Tiglath-Pileser died in 727 B.C. and was succeeded by Shalmaneser V. Picking up the story in 2 Kings 17:3, we learn that Shalmaneser marched against the Israelite King Hoshea, who paid him off with tribute. A few years later Shalmaneser returned and besieged Israel's capital, Samaria, for three years before its fall in 722 B.C., then exiled the remaining Israelites to other Assyrian-controlled territories (verses 5-6).
This marked the end of the kingdom of Israel; its exiled people would then lose their identity and become known in history as "the lost 10 tribes."
Sargon II
The next Assyrian monarch mentioned in Scripture is Shalmaneser's successor, Sargon II (722-705 B.C.), who had been Shalmaneser's field commander in the conquest of Samaria. Sargon is mentioned in Isaiah 20:1, which refers to him sending one of his generals in 712 B.C. to capture the Philistine city of Ashdod on the Mediterranean coast west of Jerusalem.
Sargon, while marching against other kingdoms around Judah, did not attack Judah itself—apparently honoring the alliance the Judean king Ahaz had forged with Tiglath-Pileser several years earlier.
Sennacherib
After Sargon died in 705 B.C., Sennacherib (705-682 B.C.) followed him on the throne. Sennacherib is mentioned prominently in Scripture, chiefly for his invasion of the kingdom of Judah in 701 B.C. during the reign of Hezekiah. The Bible records this invasion in 2 Kings 18:13–19:37, 2 Chronicles 32:1-22 and Isaiah 36–37.
Hezekiah refused to pay the oppressive tribute his father Ahaz had paid, prompting Sennacherib's campaign against Judah. Both the Bible and Sennacherib's archives record that the Assyrians captured virtually all of the Judean kingdom save its capital, Jerusalem. Hezekiah initially paid off the Assyrian king with tribute, but was only delivered by a great miracle—the divine destruction of the Assyrian army outside the walls of Jerusalem (2 Kings 19:35).
Sennacherib, defeated and humiliated, returned to his capital where he was later assassinated by his own sons.
Hezekiah's tunnel inscription
While it is fairly common to find inscriptions or other evidence of specific individuals and places mentioned in the Bible, it's much rarer to find archaeological verification of specific events recorded in Scripture. Events by their nature are transitory and seldom recorded in ways that can survive the ravages of time. Yet proof of an event from the reign of Hezekiah is on display in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum.
In 2 Kings 20:20 we read the following about King Hezekiah: "Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah—all his might, and how he made a pool and a tunnel and brought water into the city—are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?"
Today visitors to Jerusalem can walk through this very tunnel by which Hezekiah's engineers managed to divert the normal flow of the Gihon Spring, which normally flowed outside the city, by carving a tunnel under the city so the water would flow to a pool inside the city walls.
The 1,750-foot tunnel, constructed in or about the year 701 B.C., is one of the great engineering marvels of the ancient world. Discovered by the famed American archaeologist Edward Robinson in 1838, the tunnel yielded up a secret to its method of construction in 1880 when an Arab boy found an ancient Hebrew inscription carved on the tunnel wall describing how two teams of men, working from opposite ends, tunneled toward each other to meet in the middle. The inscription was later removed to Istanbul by order of the Ottoman rulers of the city.
Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon
After the miraculous destruction of Sennacherib's army during Hezekiah's reign, Assyria never again invaded Judah. Assyria, from that point forward, was on the wane as a new empire rose to become the superpower in the Middle East—Babylon.
The greatest ruler of the Babylonian Empire is a figure well known to Bible readers, King Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled from 605 to 562 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar is mentioned 88 times in the Bible, in the books of 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel.
Nebuchadnezzar marched on the kingdom of Judah multiple times. The first was in 605 B.C. when he drove an Egyptian army out of Syria back to Egypt as part of his overthrow of the Assyrian Empire. The next was when Judah's King Jehoiakim refused to pay tribute to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar stripped the Jerusalem temple of many of its valuables and took them back to Babylon.
After subsequent rebellions, Nebuchadnezzar resolved to put a permanent end to the problem. After a siege of about two years, Jerusalem fell in 586 B.C. and the city, including its walls and temple, were utterly destroyed. Nearly all the remaining Jews in the land were then taken away captive to Babylon where they would stay until the fall of Babylon decades later.
Many Babylonian records have been found detailing Nebuchadnezzar's reign. Many of the Bible's mentions of him are found in the book of Daniel, as Daniel interacted with Nebuchadnezzar as a high-ranking official in the king's government.
Daniel 4:30 records how at one point Nebuchadnezzar boasted, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?" And Babylon truly was magnificent, one of the major cities of the ancient world for many centuries.
One of its most notable features was the Ishtar Gate, named for the goddess Ishtar discussed earlier, and the processional way leading up to it. The actual gate itself has been reconstructed in Berlin, where the German archaeologists who excavated it rebuilt it using the original brightly colored glazed bricks.
However, parts of the processional way leading up to the gate can be seen today in the Istanbul Museum. It's truly an amazing experience to see parts of the elaborate decorations of ancient Babylon that Nebuchadnezzar and the prophet Daniel had no doubt walked past many times.
Bel/Marduk, chief god of Babylon
The primary god of Babylon, Marduk, also called Bel, was represented by a dragon prominently displayed in the processional way. The prophet Jeremiah, in foretelling the downfall of Babylon, twice mentions this particular Babylonian god:
"The word that the Lord spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet. "Declare among the nations . . . " Babylon is taken, Bel is shamed. Merodach [Marduk] is broken in pieces; her [ Babylon's] idols are humiliated, her images are broken in pieces"'" (Jeremiah 50:1-2).
"I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed; and the nations shall not stream to him anymore. Yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall" (Jeremiah 51:44).
Indeed Babylon did fall in 539 B.C., 47 years after Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed Jerusalem. The Babylonian Empire was succeeded by the Medo-Persian Empire, which in turn was followed by the Greco-Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great and his successors, and then by the Roman Empire—all as foretold in the book of Daniel.
"To the unknown god"
From New Testament times we find two items in particular that relate to the apostle Paul and events from his life. Acts 17:22-23 tells us that when Paul visited Athens, he "stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you . . .'"
This particular area of Athens was surrounded by temples and shrines to the various gods and goddesses the Greeks and Romans worshipped. Major temples to Zeus and Athena stood there, as well as altars and shrines to various lesser deities. To be sure that they had all their bases covered, the Athenians also had an altar inscribed, "to the Unknown God" for any they may have inadvertently left out.
Several such inscriptions and shrines have been found among ruins of the ancient Roman Empire. Three are on display in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, all dedicated "to the nameless god"—i.e., a god whose name they did not know. These came from other cities in the Roman Empire, so it wasn't just Athens that had an altar and inscription like this.
Warning sign from the temple
Acts 21 records an event from Paul's life that set in motion the chain of events that would lead to his arrest, his appearances before two Roman governors, his fateful journey to Rome and his confinement there.
Paul and several companions were in Jerusalem at the temple when a tumult broke out that almost cost Paul his life. Verses 27-32 vividly capture the events:
"The Jews from Asia [the Roman province in what is now western Turkey], seeing him [Paul] in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, crying out, "Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, the law, and this place; and furthermore he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.' (For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.)
"And all the city was disturbed; and the people ran together, seized Paul, and dragged him out of the temple; and immediately the doors were shut. Now as they were seeking to kill him, news came to the commander of the garrison that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. He immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down to them. And when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul."
Paul barely escaped with his life, and likely would've been killed had the Roman military commander nearby not intervened and rescued him.
So what was this uproar about? As we read here, they wanted to kill Paul because they thought he had defiled the temple by bringing gentiles into a part of the temple complex where only Israelites were allowed to go. This was something the Jews had originated, going far beyond anything God had instructed.
We see stark evidence of this attitude in a carved warning sign from the temple, one of many that were erected at regular intervals along a five-foot-high barrier wall in the temple area in the time of Jesus and the apostles. Two of these have been found, a partial one on display in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and a complete one discovered in Jerusalem under Ottoman rule and shipped to Istanbul.
Originally these were white with the inscribed letters painted in red to make them stand out. The sign warns: "No gentile is allowed beyond this barrier in the plaza of the temple zone. Whoever enters will have himself to blame for his ensuing death."
Gentiles were allowed in the outer courtyard of the temple, but the area beyond that was restricted to Israelites only. If you were a gentile, to go beyond that was considered defiling the temple, an offense punishable by death. In Paul's case, His Jewish religious opponents thought he had brought a gentile beyond that barrier, thus defiling the temple, and were about to kill him when the Roman military force intervened and rescued him.
Later, when Paul was under house arrest in Rome awaiting trial, he was likely reflecting back on this event when he wrote to the church in Ephesus that Jesus Christ "has broken down the middle wall of separation" between Jews and gentiles, "reconcil[ing] them both to God in one body," the Church, through His sacrificial death (Ephesians 2:14-16).
The term "middle wall of separation," most commentators agree, refers to the barrier in the temple complex beyond which gentiles could not go, the same one in which these warning signs were imbedded.
More evidence available for viewing
A battle is indeed being waged in Western culture over God and the Bible. This article covers some of the evidence from one museum in Turkey. You could visit several others around the world displaying similar finds that verify many other parts of the Bible—the British Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris, the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, among others.
Oddly enough, those who argue against the Bible typically say that those of us who believe in it base our beliefs in ignorance and superstition. But in reality, once one seriously examines the evidence, the truth is the opposite. It's those who don't believe the Bible who show that their beliefs are based in superstition and ignorance.
Often they've simply never seriously looked at the evidence and in many cases seem unaware that such things as those described in this article even exist. But you need not be ignorant. You certainly can believe the Bible. Its accuracy has been proven time and time again, and continues to be proven year after year as archaeologists and scholars continue their work digging up history in the lands of the Bible. GN
Recommended Reading

The Good News published a 24-part series of articles titled "The Bible and Archaeology" that goes through the Bible book by book, showing how archaeological finds confirm and illuminate the biblical record. While not in print, this series can be downloaded at www.gnmagazine.org/archaeology/ . Be sure to also download or request our free booklet Is the Bible True?, which examines other scientific evidence showing that the Bible truly is the inspired Word of God

Stupak Weirdness, Pro-Life Dems

An interesting story from http://www.lifesitenews.com about Bart Stupak being contrasted with genuine pro-life Democrats. MAYBE you can go to www.house.gov and send the pro-life Democrates a kudos? This follows this post about a protest against Russ Carnahan. For more interesting stories like this click here to follow this blog.



Stupak Weirdness, Pro-Life Dems

My goodness, the Bart Stupak situation is getting weirder every day. How could someone turn so radically from one side to another? The death movement is insidious in how it undermines the reason and the personal dignity of those who cooperate with it. First it was Ben Nelson and now Bart Stupak.
However, there were pro-life Democrats who did vote against the health care bill. They should not be left swinging in the wind and deserve praise and support.
Thomas Peters of CatholicVoteAction.org writes, "at least eight pro-life Democrats bucked the enormous forces brought to bear on them and voted against the health care bill this weekend: Gene Taylor (MS), Ike Skelton (MO), Bobby Bright (AL), Dan Lipinisky (IL), Travis Childers (MS), Lincoln Davis (TN), Chet Edwards (TX), and Heath Schuler (NC)."

How the Left Fakes the Hate: A Primer

This is an interesting post from Michelle Malkin of www.VDARE.com about fake hate crimes.This follows this post about a so-called "Tea Party threat" which you are hearing more and more BIASED stories about. This follows Planned Parenthood declaring victory in the health care bill and this post about the slander against the Tea Party Protesters against Obamacare on Sunday March 21 in Washington D.C. For more interesting stories like this click here to follow this blog.

How the Left Fakes the Hate: A Primer
By Michelle Malkin
If you can't stand the heat, manufacture a hate-crime epidemic.
After years of covering racial hoaxes on college campuses and victim sob stories in the public arena, I've encountered countless opportunists who live by that demented mindset. At best, the fakers are desperately seeking 15 minutes of infamy. At worst, their aim is the criminalization of political dissent.
Upon decimating the deliberative process to hand President Obama a health care "reform" victory, unpopular Beltway Democrats and their media water-carriers now claim there's a Tea Party epidemic of racism, harassment and violence against them.
On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a tepid, obligatory statement against smearing all conservatives as national security threats. But her lieutenants had already emptied their tar buckets. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Chris Van Hollen accused Republican leaders of "stoking the flames." Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn accused the GOP of "aiding and abetting" what he called "terrorism."
Yet, the claims that Tea Party activists shouted "nigger" at black House Democrats remain uncorroborated. The coffin reportedly left outside Missouri Democratic Rep. Russ Carnahan's home was used in a prayer vigil by pro-life activists in St. Louis protesting the phony Demcare abortion-funding ban in Obama's deal-cutting executive order. Videotape of a supposed intentional spitting incident targeting Missouri Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver at the Capitol shows no such thing. Cleaver himself backed off the claim a few days later. He described his heckler to The Washington Post in more passive terms as "the man who allowed his saliva to hit my face." Slovenliness equals terrorism!
The FBI is now investigating the most serious allegation—that Tea Party activists in Virginia are somehow responsible for a cut gas line at the home of Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello's brother. But instead of waiting for the outcome of that probe, liberal pundits have enshrined the claim as conclusive evidence of the Tea Party reign of terror.
Need more reasons to treat the latest Democratic hysteria with a grain of salt the size of their gargantuan health care bill? Remember:
In November 2009, Kentucky census worker Bill Sparkman was found dead in a secluded rural cemetery with the word "Fed" scrawled on his chest and a rope around his neck. The Atlantic Monthly, Huffington Post and liberal media hosts stampeded over themselves to blame Fox News, conservative blogs, Republicans and right-wing radio. Federal, state and local authorities discovered that Sparkman had killed himself and deliberately concocted a hate-crime hoax as part of an insurance scam to benefit his surviving son.
In mid-October 2008, news outlets from Scranton, Pa., to ABC News to the Associated Press and MSNBC reported that someone at a Sarah Palin rally shouted "kill him" when Obama's name was mentioned. In fact, the Secret Service (which was at the event in full force) couldn't find a single person to corroborate the story—other than the local reporter for the Scranton Times-Tribune who made an international incident out of the claim. Agent Bill Slavoski "said he was in the audience, along with an undisclosed number of additional secret service agents and other law enforcement officers, and not one heard the comment," the paper reported in a red-faced follow-up. Maybe the shouter is hiding with Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman's real killer.
In late October 2008, a gaggle of liberal blogs spread the rumor that a Republican supporter of vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's had shouted that Obama was "a nigger" during a campaign rally in Iowa. Video and firsthand accounts showed that the protester did not shout "he's a nigger," but "he's a redistributor." A lefty activist at the "progressive" Daily Kos blog confirmed the truth—but to this day, the crisis-manufacturing smear stands uncorrected and unretracted across the Internet.
In September 2009, supporters of Colorado Democratic Rep. John Salazar falsely accused a town hall protester of hurling a death threat at the congressman. Liberal blogs again disseminated the angry Tea Party mob narrative. A week later, the local press quietly reported that Grand Junction police had investigated the incident—and determined the claim was "unfounded." A police spokeswoman revealed that "(p)eople who witnessed the interaction between the man who made the complaint and the suspect confirmed they never heard any direct threats made regarding Congressman Salazar." Witnesses included a Grand Junction cop "in close proximity when the interaction took place."
In late August 2009, as lawmakers faced citizen revolts at health care town halls nationwide, the Colorado Democratic Party decried a vandalism attack at its Denver headquarters. A hammer-wielding thug smashed 11 windows and caused $11,000 in property damage. The perpetrator, Maurice Schwenkler, turned out to be a far-left nutball/transgender activist/single-payer anarchist who had worked for an SEIU-tied 527 group and canvassed for a Democratic candidate. Nevertheless, Colorado Democratic Party Chair Pat Waak continued to blame "people opposed to health care" for the attack.
Then, as now, being a Democratic Party official means never having to say you're sorry for smearing conservative dissent.
Michelle Malkin [email her] is the author of Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores. Click here for Peter Brimelow’s review. Click here for Michelle Malkin's website. Michelle Malkin is also author of Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild and the just-released Culture of Corruption: Obama and his Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks & Cronies.

Binyamin Netanyahu humiliated after Barack Obama 'dumped him for dinner'

This is an interesting article from www.hughhewitt.com about a meeting between Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu.This follows this post about a Hamas fake hate crime which is similar to what Tea Party activists are being accused of! Another issue is Barack Obama's failure to dry up money rogue states by allowinng domestic offshore oil drilling instead of sending oil revenues to nations like Iran and Venezuela and everybody concerned about anti-Americanism should support this. For more posts like this click here.


Binyamin Netanyahu humiliated after Barack Obama 'dumped him for dinner'


The President was said to have walked out of the meeting, saying to Mr Netanyahu: 'Let me know if there is anything new' to not show

Giles Whittell, Washington, and James Hider, Jerusalem
For a head of government to visit the White House and not pose for photographers is rare. For a key ally to be left to his own devices while the President withdraws to have dinner in private was, until this week, unheard of. Yet that is how Binyamin Netanyahu was treated by President Obama on Tuesday night, according to Israeli reports on a trip viewed in Jerusalem as a humiliation.
After failing to extract a written promise of concessions on settlements, Mr Obama walked out of his meeting with Mr Netanyahu but invited him to stay at the White House, consult with advisers and “let me know if there is anything new”, a US congressman, who spoke to the Prime Minister, said.
“It was awful,” the congressman said. One Israeli newspaper called the meeting “a hazing in stages”, poisoned by such mistrust that the Israeli delegation eventually left rather than risk being eavesdropped on a White House telephone line. Another said that the Prime Minister had received “the treatment reserved for the President of Equatorial Guinea”.
Left to talk among themselves Mr Netanyahu and his aides retreated to the Roosevelt Room. He spent a further half-hour with Mr Obama and extended his stay for a day of emergency talks to try to restart peace negotiations. However, he left last night with no official statement from either side. He returned to Israel yesterday isolated after what Israeli media have called a White House ambush for which he is largely to blame.
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Sources said that Mr Netanyahu failed to impress Mr Obama with a flow chart purporting to show that he was not responsible for the timing of announcements of new settlement projects in east Jerusalem. Mr Obama was said to be livid when such an announcement derailed the visit to Israel by Joe Biden, the Vice-President, this month and his anger towards Israel does not appear to have cooled.
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, cast doubt on minor details in Israeli accounts of the meeting but did not deny claims that it amounted to a dressing down for the Prime Minister, whose refusal to freeze settlements is seen in Washington as the main barrier to resuming peace talks.
The Likud leader has to try to square the rigorous demands of the Obama Administration with his nationalist, ultra-Orthodox coalition partners, who want him to stand up to Washington even though Israel needs US backing in confronting the threat of a nuclear Iran.
“The Prime Minister leaves America disgraced, isolated and altogether weaker than when he came,” the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz said.
In their meeting Mr Obama set out expectations that Israel was to satisfy if it wanted to end the crisis, Israeli sources said. These included an extension of the freeze on Jewish settlement growth beyond the ten-month deadline next September, an end to building projects in east Jerusalem and a withdrawal of Israeli forces to positions held before the second intifada in September 2000.
Newspaper reports recounted how Mr Netanyahu looked “excessively concerned and upset” when he pulled out a flow chart to show Mr Obama how Jerusalem planning permission worked and how he could not have known that the announcement that hundreds more homes were to be built would be made when Mr Biden arrived in Jerusalem.
Mr Obama then suggested that Mr Netanyahu and his staff stay at the White House to consider his proposals so that if he changed his mind he could inform the President right away. “I’m still around,” the daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot quoted Mr Obama as saying. “Let me know if there is anything new.”
With the atmosphere so soured by the end of the evening, the Israelis decided that they could not trust the telephone line they had been lent for their consultations. Mr Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, his Defence Minister, went to the Israeli Embassy to ensure that the Americans were not listening in.
The meeting came barely a day after Mr Obama’s health reform victory. Israel had calculated that he would be too tied up with domestic issues to focus seriously on the Middle East.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Can you game the Census form? PLEASE READ THIS!!

A very, very important article from http://isteve.blogspot.com about the Census which was previously commented on here. This follows this post about American's opinion on Obamacare and Amnesty on the heels of the recent BIASed attacks on Tea Party members. This follows this post the open flaunting of the lack of immigration enforcement and this post which shows that there are 30,000 openly illegal immigrants in the border town of El Paso across from the recent Juarez shooting. For more interesting stories like this click here to follow this blog.



Can you game the Census form?
Of the eight questions on the typical 2010 Census form, two are about ethnicity and race:
NOTE: Please answer BOTH Questions 7 and 8.7.
Is Person 1 Spanish/Hispanic/Latino?
Mark the "No" box if not Spanish/Hispanic/Latino.
_ No, not Spanish /Hispanic / Latino
_ Yes, Mexican, Mexican Am., Chicano
_ Yes, Puerto Rican_ Yes, Cuban
_ Yes, other Spanish /Hispanic / Latino
— Print group.________________________
The Census Bureau's website helpfully explains:
Asked since 1970. The data collected in this question are needed by federal agencies to monitor compliance with anti-discrimination provisions, such as under the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. State and local governments may use the data to help plan and administer bilingual programs for people of Hispanic origin.The next question is:
8. What is Person 1’s race?
Mark one or more races to indicate what this person considers himself/herself to be.
_ White
_ Black, African Am., or Negro
_ American Indian or Alaska Native — Print name of enrolled or principal tribe._________________________________
Asian Indian
_ Chinese
_ Filipino
_ Other Asian — Print race._________________________________
Japanese
_ Korean
_ Vietnamese
_ Native Hawaiian
_ Guamanian or Chamorro
_ Samoan
_ Other Pacific Islander — Print race._________________________________
Some other race — Print race.________________________________

The Census Bureau explains:
Asked since 1970. Race is key to implementing many federal laws and is needed to monitor compliance with the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. State governments use the data to determine congressional, state and local voting districts. Race data are also used to assess fairness of employment practices, to monitor racial disparities in characteristics such as health and education and to plan and obtain funds for public services.Two general forms of resistance to these questions have been advocated:
1. Idealistic -- Answer "Human Race" or "American Race" or leave the questions blank.
2. Cynical -- Identify yourself as a member of a legally protected minority even if you are not, or your claim is far-fetched (e.g., "I'm African-American because my ancestors left Africa around 50,000 years ago") in the hopes of legally entitling you to affirmative action benefits.Please correct me if I'm wrong, but both attempts are likely to be counterproductive. In general, the people who benefit from disparate impact / affirmative action have spent a lot more time thinking about how to rig the system in their favor than you have about how to game it in yours. They've anticipated your every move.For example, during the 1990s, some individuals with parents of different races began a successful campaign to be allowed to check more than one race box on the Census form so that they wouldn't be forced to choose between their parents. The Census Bureau said okay to that, at which point, the race lobbies such as the NAACP went nuts because if the data was interpreted in a reasonable matter (e.g., assigning fractions based on how many boxes checked), then their quotas would be smaller. So, just before the 2000 Census, Bill Clinton announced that people could check more than one box, but only the non-white boxes would count for calculating the size of quotas and doing disparate impact calculations.
So, the organized pressure groups have thought about this a lot harder than you have.For example, if you are a non-Hispanic white person who fills in his race as "Human" or "American," you have merely made the burden the government imposes on your family members via disparate impact lawsuits worse.
My understanding is that Census-like numbers are sometimes used to calculate the denominators in the EEOC's Four-Fifths Rule calculations, but not the numerators.Just because you put down on the Census form that you are, say, "Guamanian or Chamorro" doesn't mean you will personally get the benefit of the "Guamanian or Chamorro" quota. There's no cybernetic connection between what you put down on the Census form and what shows up on your job application.If you put down "Guamanian or Chamorro" on your job application, eventually some bureaucrat will take a look at you and say, "No, you are not." It doesn't do you any good to whine, "Yes, but I put down Guamanian or Chamorro on my 2010 Census form, and if I got away with it there, why can't I get away with it here?"

However, because you checked "Guamanian or Chamorro" on your Census form, many "Guamanian or Chamorro" quotas will be larger. So, you and your relatives (assuming they are not Guamanian or Chamorro) lose.As far as I can tell, the best thing you can do for yourself and your loved ones is to answer these questions honestly.

If you are white and non-Hispanic, and you put that down on the Census form, then the quotas for protected groups will be smaller than if you try to be clever and put down something else.In a world of official and de facto disparate impact quotas, numbers count. And by diminishing the size of your group, you just make things worse for everybody in your group.
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

Mass Media and Bible Prophecy


An interesting story from http://www.ucg.org/ about mass media and prophecy. This follows this post about future changes in government. For more interesting stories like this click here to follow this blog.

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Mass Media and Bible Prophecy
Several amazing biblical passages foretell the shaping of the world at the time of the end by a powerful web of global media.
by Howard Davis
Some of the Bible's most astounding prophecies concern where global media are taking the world.
Though thousands of years old, the Bible has much to say about the "last days" and "time of the end." Some biblical visions and prophecies are descriptions of events, situations and technologies that did not apply to the ancient world and make sense only in a modern context.
Thousands of years ago the Bible foretold a massive revolution in information and communications technology like that we've witnessed in recent years. But it also prophesied a globally pervasive culture of violence and self-absorbed, pleasure - seeking indulgence in sex and greed.
Further, it forewarned us of worldwide manipulation of public opinion through economic forces and political gamesmanship that will culminate in the rise of a world dictatorship and massive religious deception so powerful that true Christians will be silenced, persecuted and even murdered- while the world celebrates their demise.
Shocking? Yes, but read on.
Daniel and the information explosion
Two prophecies lay the groundwork for many others when it comes to the role modern entertainment and news media are to play in end-time events.
First, God foretold through the prophet Daniel the development of the kind of technology and entertainment media that permeate our world. Yet Daniel lived 600 years before Christ. Through Daniel, God also foretold four mighty empires, the first and second comings of the Messiah and the final subjugation of much of the world by a charismatic dictator who will fight Jesus at His second coming (Daniel 2, 7, 8-9, 11-12).
Although God used him to record these prophecies, Daniel himself admitted that he didn't completely understand them. An angel told Daniel that some aspects of these prophecies would not be understood in his lifetime: "Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end" (Daniel 12:9). Their full meaning as they pertain to world events would not be known until the last days, yet even then "none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand" (verse 10).
But God did tell Daniel-and, through Daniel's writings, He tells us-two characteristics of the end-time age, when Bible prophecies would open up to human understanding, to the "wise" who would listen to God.
". . . Shut up the words," God said to Daniel, "and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro [a reference to the availability of rapid mass transportation] and knowledge shall increase" (verse 4, emphasis added throughout). This last phrase is the key: The time of the end is the time of the "increase" of "knowledge."
Daniel's prophecy of a time when "many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase" certainly fits our time. Our age is rightly called the information age. By some estimates the accumulation of knowledge doubles every 18 months. Anyone with a connection to the Internet has vast libraries of information at his fingertips. Encyclopedias of knowledge can be reproduced on CDs for pennies apiece.
But what does the knowledge explosion have to do with modern global media?
This is where the second trend fits in. Behind the knowledge explosion is the development of mass media and the technological transformation that made them possible. Without the means to rapidly spread information abroad to many people, no knowledge explosion would have occurred. In other words, if we have no means to disseminate information, we have no information.
The invention of the printing press brought the proliferation of books, the primary medium for disseminating knowledge in the 18th century's "age of enlightenment." Along with the advent of largecirculation newspapers, public education in the 19th century brought widespread literacy, which made further technological progress possible. Technological development in electronic communications exploded in the 20th century with radio, television, computers, satellites and finally the Internet, which brings these technologies together in one worldwide web.
"At the heart of globalization," writes Thomas Friedman in his best-selling book The Lexus and the Olive Tree, are "recent advances in technology-from the Internet to satellite telecommunications" (2000, p. 22). Indeed, these two factors allow virtually anyone to instantly see and hear events and other people anywhere on the planet.
Instant international availability
Such developments are foundational to understanding two ancient prophecies that deal with the way people see and hear a final warning from two servants of God- called in Scripture the "two witnesses"- just before the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, to rule the world.
Although these men are public witnesses to God's existence and the world's need to heed the warnings of the Bible to avoid even more disasters, most people will not believe them. But Scripture indicates they will be seen and heard- throughout the entire world.
A remarkable prophecy in the book of Revelation tells us that people of every nation will simultaneously see the murder in Jerusalem of these two prophets of God by the dictator mentioned earlier, called the "beast":
". . . I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days [3 1/2 years] . . . These have the power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy . . . When they finish their testimony, the beast . . . will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them" (Revelation 11:3-7).
This prophecy deals with a time of worldwide conflict in which the dictator known as the Beast will rise to power through manipulation of public opinion and religious deceptions, no doubt using the powerful tool of mass media.
But note the indications of the kind of information technology available at the time of these events:
"And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city . . . where also our Lord was crucified. Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.
"Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, 'Come up here.' And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them" (verses 8-12).
These astounding prophecies indicate that television or similar electronic media will broadcast the murder of these two prophets-probably linked by satellite and the Internet or even more-advanced technologies. Live views of the events will be available instantly and simultaneously throughout the world. These two men will be the ultimate witnesses as nations of every language behold these startling events while commentators report on them live from Jerusalem.
Signs and wonders
Before the arrival of the two witnesses, however, their two satanic counterparts- the Beast and a religious leader the Bible calls "the false prophet"-will apparently powerfully manipulate the news media to dazzle the world with supernatural acts most people will think are divine but will really be satanic in origin.
Notice Paul's prophecy of the religious leader. Writing of the time of "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," Paul tells us this man "will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God" (2 Thessalonians 2:1, 4, New International Version).
Paul continues: "The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness" (verses 9-12, NIV).
Revelation 13:13-14 further explains that he "performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast . . ."
Such passages tell us that these evil leaders will cunningly and massively deceive virtually the entire world. Most people will assume these two represent God and will readily follow them-not realizing they are really tools of Satan. (To learn more about these end-time events, be sure to request your free copy of the booklets The Book of Revelation Unveiled and You Can Understand Bible Prophecy.)
Self-absorbed entertainment
Paul wrote of yet another trend in the last days in which mass media even now play a major role.
"But mark this," Paul wrote shortly before his death, around A.D. 67: "There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God" (2 Timothy 3:1-4, NIV).
Does this sound familiar? Each of these abysmal traits can be found in the daily menu of American entertainment devoured by two billion minds on televisions around the world. Welcome to the age of crude amusements and pandering to lust-24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Lust for violence, self-glorification, sex without the commitment of marriage, vicarious indulgence in forbidden fruit without the consequences-these are the themes of the comedies, soap operas, dramas and talk shows that constitute the moral equivalent of a sewer flooding human minds. It's the sated ancient Roman crowds all over again watching the doomed die in the Colosseum.
The motive for so much filth is simple -money. Delivering eyes to advertisers is the primary objective of network executives. Programming that most effectively hooks the largest audience features fastpaced content centered on a mesmerizing diet of sex, lust, greed and irreverent and profane humor. It's a sure bet to keep an audience glued to the tube. Produce such material and you make money.
If you own the movie and TV production rights to sex, lust and greed, you make more money. If you own book publishers, magazines, cable and satellite systems and video-rental stores, you make even more money-lots and lots of money. It's no wonder we've seen so many massive media mergers in recent years.
The implications are sobering. Children increasingly think, say and do what they see on commercial and "public" programming. More and more people cannot discriminate between Hollywood-produced drivel and real life. Their lives become almost surreal.
The consequences, according to the Bible, will be devastating. God's Word indicates these trends will play a major role in the downfall and destruction of the United States and other major Englishspeaking nations (be sure to request your free copy of the booklet The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy).
Research shows that children's antisocial behavior in schools directly relates to the amount and content of the television they watch. In one survey 35 percent of imprisoned violent criminals said they got the ideas to carry out their crimes from watching television.
The last days and you
Ninety percent of Americans claim they believe in God. But they don't know who He is. They can't recite the Ten Commandments, name the four Gospels (much less the books of the Old or New Testament) or explain the difference between Abraham and Muhammad. As Paul predicted, the motivation of people in the last days will not be personal achievement, noble character or love of neighbor. Men, women and young people will be "lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God."
So what about you?
God says to any who are caught up in the end-time materialistic system, mindset and culture that pervades the world, "Come out of her,My people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues" (Revelation 18:4).
The way to come out is to recognize where our materialistic, self-obsessed entertainment and media are leading us. Turn off the consumption; turn away from the self-obsessed way of life promoted by our global media system. Instead, turn to God and His Word, the Bible. Remember, God recorded these warnings to us for a reason. GN