Signs of the Times

[HisDaughter]

Signs Of The Times

The bible gives us many "signs of the times" to show us of the coming age of the end times. Jesus tels us in Matthew 24 that many will come in His name claiming to be Christ, that there will be wars and rumors of wars, yet even though these things happen it still is not yet the end. He continues to tell us that nations and kingdoms will rise against each other, that there will be famines, pestilences (diseases and an abundance of insects), and earthquakes. and that these are just the beginning of sorrows. These sorrows will include worldwide persecution of Christians with many false prophets, sin will be widespread and that any semblance of true love for others will diminish. We see many of these things just now starting to take place. Yet it is still not full blown. When it does come it will be like no other time in the history of the earth. Remember this as we continue on in this subject ... it will be a time unlike any "since the beginning of the world".

Also take note here that there is no mention of anything that resembles global warming or the hype that is associated with it such as more hurricanes or extensive flooding.


Global Warming Is Not Biblical

I am really surprised as to how many Christians have jumped on the global warming bandwagon. Global warming is a complete myth that was started by pagan environmentalists. This is a group that actually worships "mother earth" and sometimes is even called Gaia, which is a Greek mythological character that is the mother and gaurdian of the earth. Al Gore even mentions this Gaia in his book "Earth in the Balance".

Now how can I say it is not Biblical? If we but do a little looking we can see that we have God's word on this. All the way back to Genesis He tells us that we will continue to have seasons both hot and cold as long as the earth remains.

Gen 8:22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Going back to Matthew 24 Jesus tells us that there will be winter even after the appearance of "the abomination of desolation".

Mat 24:20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:

There are so many end times scenarios that are preached that add in this global warming hype as though it were a Biblical fact when in truth it is not there at all. In doing so they are actually hurting their ministry, they are helping lead many astray by aiding in the pagan beliefs and even the worship of Gaia.

Let's make sure that we keep that which is committed to our trust, to avoid the profane and vain babblings of these false prophets and to insure that we oppose science that is so falsely called science.

Excellent PR!  Thank you!

[Shammu]

LIBYA: GADDAFI APPOINTED "KING OF KINGS" BY TRIBE LEADERS

Uhhhhhhhhh brother, look back a page, Post 58 - Africa's 'king of kings' Gaddafi

My comments remain the same................

Gaddafi is such a DOOFUS!!

If he doesn't repent and confess to Christ as Savior and Lord, he's going to be in for a shock one day. In fact, I believe that there's going to be alot of people in for a shock one day.

A meeting of more than 200 African kings and traditional rulers has bestowed the title "king of kings" on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

There is only one KING of KINGS!! That is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!!

[HisDaughter]

Is the era of mass immigration to Israel over?

Prophecy News Watch

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The last great immigration wave — Ethiopian Christians of Jewish ancestry who convert back to Judaism for resettlement in Israel — has just ended, and with it an iconic chapter in Israeli history.

The persecuted and the poor of world Jewry are for the most part already here. So most future immigrants will be people like Schwab, making a private, individual choice.

Israel's appeal to the Jewish Diaspora used to be as a small feisty nation fighting for its survival, or as a socialist alternative to the capitalist rat race. There were kibbutzim to farm and deserts to make bloom.

But today the Jewish state is in many ways a normal industrialized democracy. Its immigrants today are as likely to be job-hunting non-Jews from Africa and Asia, many of them here illegally, as Zionists in search of spiritual fulfillment.

Diaspora Jews are also less likely to leave everything behind for Israel. It's much easier today to be a dual national, living part-time in both worlds. Meanwhile, Israelis have also become frequent fliers. The tech-savvy nouveaux-riches of Tel Aviv joke that a visit to New York is more common than a 40-mile pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Schwab arrived a year ago from Maui, where she practiced Judaism in an informal "Aloha-style kind of way." She is fluent in Hebrew and studies at an Israeli university. Her boyfriend is a "Sabra" — a native-born Israeli. She lives in Tel Aviv, which next year celebrates its centennial as the world's first purpose-built Jewish city.

She's part of an old ideal, "the ingathering of the exiles" — the raison d'etre of the Zionist movement from its beginnings more than a century ago.

Even before Israel became a state, the Jewish population grew to 600,000 in five great waves of immigration as European Jews beset by pogroms and then the Holocaust realized an age-old Jewish dream of returning to Zion after 2,000 years in exile.

More than 3 million more have followed, and Israel's Jewish population now stands at 5.5 million, plus 1.4 million Arab citizens. Of the world's population of just over 13 million Jews, Israel's is the biggest portion, having surpassed America's in 2006.

"There is no place in the world where the number of immigrants is five times the number of the people who were there. It is unprecedented," said Sergio DellaPergola, a prominent demographer at the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, a Jerusalem think tank.

The 1950s, according to the Jewish Agency which handles immigration, saw the arrival of 765,000 Jews from North Africa and the Middle East, driven out by the Arab backlash that followed Israel's creation. Next came tens of thousands from the European communist bloc, and then another million from the collapsing Soviet Union.

Starting in the early 1980s, Israel clandestinely airlifted 80,000 members of Ethiopia's ancient Jewish community, nearly 15,000 of them in just two days in 1991.

Today, with no immediate threat to world Jewry, and with the most endangered communities already in Israel, such drama is a thing of the past.

Jews in America and other prosperous Western countries have no pressing motivation to leave everything for Israel, a country founded to provide a safe haven for Jews but which has become one of the most dangerous places for a Jew to live, because of war and terrorism.

Indeed, while the U.S. Jewish community is one of Israel's most important backers, only 120,000 American Jews have immigrated here.

"I am going to destroy a myth here," said Ori Konforti, the Ethiopia envoy for the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency. "Waves of immigration have never been because of the pulling power of Israel but rather because of the pushing power of where those people came from."

Most Jews in poor countries have already left, and for the first time, Israel is nearing zero growth from immigration, with the number of those leaving closing in on the number of those coming, DellaPergola said.

"We have brought all the needy and the situation of the rest of the Jews is pretty well off," he said. "There is not a lot of distress in the Diaspora today so the question is what kind of quality of life Israel can offer these people."

For Israelis, "aliyah," is a revered term symbolizing the hope of a persecuted nation returning to its ancient homeland. Conversely, leaving the country is known as "yeridah," meaning "going down."

But these distinctions have lost their emotional charge. Israelis who leave to further their education or to earn more money are no longer pariahs.

The end of mass immigration comes as Israelis have lost some of their self-confidence, bogged down in their 41-year occupation of the Palestinian territories, perceiving their country to be under weak, corrupt leadership, nostalgic for the frugal socialist era.

But Israel isn't giving up. Ingrained in Israelis' consciousness is the conviction that their country is the world's only guaranteed escape hatch for Jews in peril. They are steeped in the memory of boatloads of Jews fleeing the Nazis, only to be turned away at every port and ending up in gas chambers.

Since France suffered a wave of anti-Semitic violence a few years ago, widely attributed to rising passions over Israeli-Palestinian fighting, Israeli real estate agents have reported a sharp increase in house-buying by French Jews.

Last month, when war broke out in the Caucasus, some 40 Georgian Jews fled to Israel, and another 120 have applied to immigrate, according to the Jewish Agency.

So while it may no longer dream of mass immigration, Israel feels an imperative to keep in touch with the Diaspora.

Birthright Israel offers a free trip to Israel for young Diaspora Jews who have never been here. Another nonprofit, Nefesh B'Nefesh, offers economic incentives and helps immigrants navigate Israel's notorious bureaucracy.

Birthright estimates that some 8 percent of its participants return to Israel within two years, and 5 percent eventually immigrate.

Schwab came with Nefesh B'Nefesh, sensed an idealism she needed in her life, and decided to make it permanent.

"Israel is a lot like the U.S. but there is something a bit more meaningful," Schwab said. "There is a kind of mission for some higher ideal."

Due in part to such projects, immigration from North America has picked up in recent years, with 3,200 arriving in 2006 — a tiny number by past standards, but the highest in 23 years.

Natan Sharansky, the Soviet Jewish dissident who spent more than a decade in prison, immigrated to Israel and become a Cabinet minister, said people like Schwab are proof that Israel's ideology is still alive and well.

"These people decided that Israel is a place that they want to live their life," he said. "That is a victory of Zionism."

[Shammu]

According to this documentary, Iran has the most number of Jews after Israel in the Middle East.

This is a video, and what I got off it. The video is 13:10 minutes long. I only watched a few minutes of it.

'Jews Undercover - Iran'

Despite suffering discrimination and facing a harsh financial situation, Jews from Iran are immigrating to Israel in smaller numbers each year. Between the years 2000 and 2007–approximately 1,200 Jews arrived from Iran. In 2000: 384, 2001: 207, and year by year the numbers have diminished. However, while 65 Jews arrived from Iran in 2006, thus far this year 77 have arrived.

This is despite The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, of which Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein is president, which guarantees a grant of $10,000 to each Iranian Jew who comes to Israel. Efforts are being made to put together a package of incentives to entice them further.

Yossi Shraga, Director of Middle East immigration at the Jewish Agency, there are between 25,000 and 28,000 Jews now living in Iran–though the Iranians themselves put the number much higher: 100,000. Either way, averaging 100 Jews from Iran per year is a minuscule amount.

[Soldier4Christ]

The coming 1-world currency
Some set 2010 as date for monetary union

On Wednesday, finance chiefs of five of the six-member, oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council approved a proposal to create a monetary union as a move toward adopting a single currency, according to the AFP.

The six Islamic states constituting the Gulf Cooperation Council are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Oman pulled out of the agreement last year.

Five states in the compact have agreed to set 2010 as the target date for the creation of a monetary union and the adoption of common currency.

The emergence of an Islamic single currency among these oil-rich Middle Eastern countries marks a significant step in the emerging worldwide movement to abandon national currencies in favor of regional currencies, along the model where the EU states have abandoned their national currencies in favor of the European Central Bank and the euro.

In 2002, the finance ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council states sought out the assistance of the European Central Bank, as the model for their single currency, according to BBC reports.

The council was created in 1981 to promote the development of the member countries.

The monetary union will entail the creation of a central bank to issue the single currency.

At the Wednesday meeting in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah, the finance and economy ministers reviewed the European Union's response to the council's view on eliminating obstacles that have blocked a long-stalled free trade agreement with the EU.

Progress was also made on key convergence factors required to underpin the common currency, including setting the ratio of budget deficit and public debt to the gross domestic product, target interest rates and reserve requirements. Progress yet remains in reaching a consensus on inflation, the last remaining stumbling block to creating the common currency.

International Monetary Fund Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who met with the Gulf Cooperation Council finance ministers in Jeddah, hailed the move by the Gulf states toward economic integration, though he continued to express doubts the single currency would be adopted within two years.

"Achieving monetary union by 2010 will be a major challenge, as much remains to be done to enable the creation of a single currency within two years," Straus-Kahn. "Overcoming the current inflationary pressures, developing a clear vision of the powers of the future common central bank, choosing an exchange regime of the common currency, and harmonizing financial regulations and structures will be critical in this process."

One factor easing the transition toward a single currency is that the six Gulf Cooperation Council member states all currently peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar.

[Shammu]

Small Asteroid Entered Atmosphere Monday Night
Tuesday , October 07, 2008

A very small asteroid was to streak into the skies over Sudan Monday night, astronomers announced. It was expected to burn up in the atmosphere, creating a show.

It was not expected to strike Earth.

It would have been the first time an asteroid "impact" has been predicted with near certainty, astronomers said.

The space rock is only about 6 feet in diameter (3 meters) and poses "no risk to those on the ground," said David Morrison of NASA's Ames Research Center. A similar-sized object during the day would likely go unnoticed, he said.

The fiery entry likely appeared to be a very bright shooting star known as a fireball, or what astronomers call a bolide.

"A typical meteor comes from an object the size of a grain of sand," explained Gareth Williams of the Minor Planet Center. "This meteor will be a real humdinger in comparison!"

The object, named 8TA9D69, was discovered by an ongoing survey at Mt. Lemon run by the University of Arizona.

The entry occurred at 10:46 p.m. EDT (0246 UT) on Oct. 7 over northern Sudan, according to Steve Chesley of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

It was expected to be visible from eastern Africa traveling rapidly across the sky from northeast to southwest.

"We're eager for observations from astronomers near the asteroid's approach path. We really hope that someone will manage to photograph it," Williams said.

Based on 26 optical observations, "the probability of impact is between 99.8 percent and 100 percent," said Andrea Milani of the University of Pisa. "In practice the impact can be considered sure and is for tonight."

Milani continued: "The effect of this atmospheric impact will be the release, in either a single shot or maybe a sequence of explosions, of about 1 kiloton of energy. This means that the damage on the ground is expected to be zero."

Small Asteroid Entered Atmosphere Monday Night

[Shammu]

Huge New Planet Defies Explanation

Tuesday , October 07, 2008

Astronomers have sighted a very dense planet-sized object that orbits its parent star in just four days and six hours.

The object, COROT-exo-3b, fits into the category of a failed star known as a brown dwarf, but the team that made the discovery has not ruled out the possibility that it is a planet.

Brown dwarfs are failed stars. They burn lithium but are not massive enough to generate the thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen and helium that powers real stars. Planets do none of that.

"It has puzzled us; we're not sure where to draw the boundary between planets and brown dwarfs," said Hans Deeg, an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) in the Canary Islands, Spain.

The object has a mass 20 times greater than that of Jupiter, but is roughly the same size. It falls outside the range of planets and stars discovered to date, with the largest planets having 12-Jupiter-mass and the smallest stars 70-Jupiter-mass.

If astronomers confirm the object as a planet, it would weigh in as the most massive and densest planet found so far. A full study will be detailed in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

"COROT-exo-3b might turn out to be a rare object found by sheer luck", said Francois Bouchy, an astronomer at the Institut d'Astrophysique in Paris. "But it might just be a member of a new-found family of very massive planets that encircle stars more massive than our sun. We're now beginning to think that the more massive the star, the more massive the planet."

Ground-based telescopes around the world helped pinpoint the object, including observatories in France, Chile, Germany, Hawaii, Israel and Spain's Canary Islands.

The hunt for exoplanets has intensified over recent years, with astronomers usually finding such objects indirectly by observing their gravitational influence on parent stars.

Another team showcased what might be the first direct image of an exoplanet around a sun-like star in September.

Huge New Planet Defies Explanation

[HisDaughter]

 Preparing for a Charismatic Meltdown

fireinmybones.com

Foreclosure. Eviction. Bailouts. We’re hearing those terms a lot these days, and not just in the newspaper’s business section. In the last two weeks three charismatic churches that once enjoyed huge popularity have fallen on hard times.

In Tampa, Florida, Without Walls International Church is facing foreclosure. The megachurch, which once attracted 23,000 worshipers and was heralded as one of the nation’s fastest-growing congregations, shrunk drastically after co-pastors Randy and Paula White announced in 2007 that they were divorcing. On Nov. 4 their bank filed foreclosure proceedings and demanded immediate repayment of a $12 million loan on the property.

In Duluth, Georgia—northeast of Atlanta—sheriff’s deputies arrived at Global Destiny Ministries and ordered Bishop Thomas Weeks II to leave the property. According to documents filed in state court, Weeks—who divorced popular preacher Juanita Bynum in June—owed more than $511,000 in back rent to the building’s owners. He was escorted out of the building on Nov. 14 while a church service was in progress.

In the case of the Cathedral at Chapel Hill, many parishioners walked out 16 years ago when it became known that Earl Paulk and other staff members were involved in wife-swapping. Paulk created a bizarre culture of secrecy to cover the immorality, which included his affair with a sister-in-law—and resulted in the birth of Donnie Earl (who thought he was Earl Paulk’s nephew until last year). The church has only had a few hundred members in recent years.

Today, Donnie Earl has embraced the inclusionist doctrines of Oklahoma pastor Carlton Pearson, who left the faith in 2003 and was labeled a heretic by a group of African-American bishops the following year. The younger Paulk now preaches that all people, not just Christians, are saved. He told Charisma last week that the Cathedral “has expanded to include all of God’s creation—Christian, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, gay, straight, etc.” And this distorted message is broadcast from a pulpit that hosted the premier leaders of the charismatic movement during the 1970s and 1980s.

Even before Weeks was charged with assaulting Bynum in a hotel parking lot in August 2007, the pastor of Global Destiny Ministries defiled his pulpit during a “Teach Me to Love You” marriage conference. He told married men they should use profanity during sex to heighten their experience, and he brought couples on stage to play a game in which men were asked to name their favorite female body parts.

Lord, help us.

Was it supposed to end like this? How did a movement that was at one time focused on winning people to Christ and introducing them to the power of the Holy Spirit end in such disgrace?

I hear the sound of bricks and steel beams crashing to the ground. The wrecking ball of heaven is swinging. It has come to demolish any work that has not been built on the integrity of God’s Word.

All of us should be trembling. God requires holiness in His house and truth in the mouths of His servants. He is loving and patient with our mistakes and weaknesses, but eventually, if there is no repentance after continual correction, His discipline is severe. He will not be mocked.

Romans 11:22 says: “Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off” (NASB).

God is not married to our buildings. If He allowed foreign armies to burn Jerusalem and its glorious temple, He will also write “Ichabod” on the doors of churches where there is no repentance for compromise.

I pray the fear of God will grip our hearts until we cleanse our defiled pulpits. Let’s examine our hearts and our ministries. Let’s throw out the wood, hay and stubble and build on a sure and tested foundation. It is the only way to survive the meltdown.

[Shammu]

British government's identity card plan begins
By GREGORY KATZ, Associated Press Writer Gregory Katz, Associated Press Writer Tue Nov 25, 5:08 pm ET

LONDON – The British government began its identity card program for foreign nationals Tuesday — six years after heated debate over whether the costly plan is an effective tool against terrorism, identity theft and welfare fraud.

The last time Britain had ID cards was at the end of World War II.

The program will start with roughly 50,000 foreign students and spouses of permanent residents who will receive cards if they qualify for visa extensions.

Other foreign nationals living and working in Britain will not be immediately affected, but they will eventually need cards as the program is expanded. Officials have not provided details about the national plan, although airport workers are expected to need cards next year out of security concerns.

Government officials say the cards, expected to be used by about 90 percent of Britain's foreign nationals within seven years, should provide a tamperproof way to determine a person's true identity and whether they are eligible to work in Britain. They say they will be more accurate and harder to forge than passports.

"This will give employers a safe and secure way of checking a migrant's right to work and study in the UK," said Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who estimates the cost of the program at 5.1 billion pounds ($7.8 billion).

The plan has drawn fire from opposition lawmakers who say it will be costly and unproductive and from privacy advocates who complain that the British government is compiling an unprecedented database on British residents.

"This is a huge infringement of our privacy," said Mairi Clare Rogers, a spokeswoman for the Liberty group. "As they extend it to more and more people, we will keep repeating our objections. But the government seems to be plowing ahead, even though the timetable has slowed down a bit."

She said there is no evidence the cards will be a useful tool against terrorists.

Chris Huhne, a spokesman for the opposition Liberal Democrats, said the "hugely expensive" plan would have no impact on crime, terrorism, or illegal immigration. He called it an unneeded intrusion on British liberties.

The opposition to the concept has forced the government to slow implementation of the program and scale back some of its more ambitious aspects.

The cards will contain a computer chip with fingerprint information and other data, including date of birth and nationality, but will not contain religious or ethnic data.

They will cost 30 pounds ($45).

National ID cards are widely used for identification purposes in many European countries, although they are not used in the Nordic countries. Many people are able to cross Europe's inner borders without passports, if they have valid national ID cards.

There have been few problems associated with card use, although there were protests in Greece after European Union officials forced Greeks to drop the religious classification that was part of the ID card system.

The situation is very different from that in Latin America, where people have become accustomed to carrying identification papers with them and are less worried about privacy issues.

Brazil's card includes a photo, fingerprint, bar-code, both parents' full names, nationality, country of birth and date of birth.

These cards are necessary to for almost any economic transaction — Brazil's stores ask for it when consumers make purchases, even when they pay cash.

In Argentina, police can hassle anyone who hasn't kept their National Identity Document in perfect condition in their billfolds or purses.

Britain's two prior experiences with national cards have not ended well.

Cards were used in World War I in large part to establish the number of young men available for military service, but they were not well liked and were dropped in 1918, said Jon Agar, a science and technology professor at University College London.

They were reintroduced in World War II and kept in place until 1952, when a court challenge spurred harsh judicial criticism of the use of the cards in peacetime.

That led Prime Minister Winston Churchill's government to scrap the system.

The court challenge stemmed from a routine traffic stop in which a policeman asked the motorist to produce his ID card, Agar said.

"That was not the intent of the card," he said. "It was originally for national security and food rationing, not for police using it as a routine form of identification."

He predicted Britons will generally accept the new cards until their use becomes compulsory for everyone. That will spur resentment, he said.

The current push for reintroducing the system developed in the nervous months after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington when British officials decided they needed a better way to monitor people coming into Britain.

Opponents' argument that the government cannot be trusted with sensitive personal information was buttressed by several recent instances when the government misplaced computers disks — or actual laptops — containing data on British citizens.

Last November, two non-encrypted computer disks containing the addresses and bank account numbers of 25 million Britons was placed in the government's internal mail system but never delivered, leaving officials unsure about its whereabouts.

British government's identity card plan begins

[Shammu]

Pope to make rare visit to Israel in May, following months of Jewish-Catholic tension
By Anshel Pfeffer
27/11/2008

Pope Benedict XVI is set to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories in May 2009 after accepting an invitation by President Shimon Peres. The Vatican and Israel are said, thus, to hopefully end the high tension of recent months between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people over the initiative of canonizing Pope Pius XII.

This visit, which would be the third visit of a pope to Israel since the establishment of the state, has not yet been officially confirmed.

Peres met about two weeks ago with Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Antonio Franco, the pope's envoy to Israel. Franco told the president that Benedict would respond positively to an invitation from Israel. The president sent the invitation, and a positive response was indeed reportedly received.

Since the visit has not yet been publicly confirmed, no preparations are underway in the Foreign Ministry or the Vatican. However, the Pope's arrival is apparently planned for the second week of May.

The tension began after calls came by ultra-conservatives at the Vatican to expedite canonization on the 50th anniversary of Pius' death. The process began during the time of the previous pope, John Paul II, but both he and the present pope were aware of the harsh criticism such a move could engender in the Jewish world, which accuses Pius XII of remaining silent and not protesting the extermination of European Jewry during the Holocaust.

The debate was fanned by the Jesuit Father Peter Gumpel, who said a month ago that the pope would not visit Israel until a change was made in the caption to two pictures of Pius XII in the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, which state that Pius' response to the murder of Jews during the Holocaust is controversial. The captions also state that when Jews were deported from Rome to Auschwitz, Pius did not intervene. (This is true, Pius XII could have said something. DW)

The caption caused a diplomatic storm in the past when the papal nuncio threatened to boycott the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem in protest over the caption, although he did attend the ceremony.

The Vatican has since distanced itself from Gumpel's statements. Pope Benedict's spokesman said the caption is not a factor in his decision on whether to visit Israel or not. Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog also contributed to the dispute when he told Haaretz a month ago that Pius' canonization was "unacceptable." The Vatican demanded that Herzog apologize for the statement.

However, Benedict praised Pius' actions during the Holocaust and criticized historians who said he did not help to save Jews. In a meeting a few weeks ago with Jewish leaders, Benedict was asked to delay the canonization process until all the documents in the Vatican archives involving the period of the Holocaust were released, a process that is expected to take about another seven years. The pope told the delegation he was "seriously considering" the matter.

In other meetings at the Vatican, understandings were obtained that the canonization process would not be rushed.

Another source of tension between Jews and the Vatican was Benedict' decision to bring back the ancient Latin mass which calls for the Jews to recognize Jesus. Following Jewish protests and the announcement by Italy's Jewish community that they were severing ties with the Vatican, a representative of the pope said the verse in question was a wish, and not a call on Catholics to missionize among Jews.

The pope is also expected to visit the Palestinian Authority, apparently in Bethlehem. This could be one of the diplomatic obstacles of the visit because of the legal ambiguity of the PA's presidency in light of the struggle between Fatah and Hamas.

Another stumbling block could be a papal visit to Yad Vashem because of the controversial captions. This matter might be resolved by having Benedict visit only the monuments at Yad Vashem, not the museum.

Rabbi David Rosen, head of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations said of the expected visit: "If the information is correct, I am sure the pope will be warmly received by Israel's leaders and its people."

The President's Residence declined to comment on the report. The secretary of the Apostolic Nuncio's office in Israel said he could neither confirm nor deny the report.

Pope Paul VI visited Israel in 1964, even before the Vatican recognized the state. In 2000, Pope John Paul II visited the country.

Pope to make rare visit to Israel in May, following months of Jewish-Catholic tension

[nChrist]

Brothers and Sisters,

As Christians, we should know that tensions between Israel and the rest of the world is going to get increasingly worse, and that will include harsh thoughts against Christians. This is Bible Prophecy, and it's nothing for us to feel offended about. It's simply another matter of prayer. In fact, our work as Christians won't change, regardless of what happens in this sick, evil, and dying world. We will simply continue to march until CHRIST takes us HOME. If we watch and listen, we might rightfully think that time is growing near.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Philippians 2:1-2  If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,  2  Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

[HisDaughter]

Poll Finds No Boost in Church Attendance during Economic Crisis      

christianpost.com

While tens of thousands of Americans have been laid off in recent months and religious leaders have blamed corporate greed for the economic crisis, churches have not seen a jump in attendance numbers as many might have expected, according to a new poll.

Over the last three months, about 42 percent of Americans reported that they attended church, synagogue, or mosque weekly or almost every week, which the Gallup Poll found to be the same percentage reported earlier in the year.

History has shown that a significant crisis usually results in fuller pews, as was seen after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. During this latest crisis of economic challenges, some reports have indicated that houses of worship have drawn larger crowds.

But while some churches have seen higher numbers, the recent Gallup Poll found "absolutely no change" in church attendance after reviewing almost 300,000 interviews Gallup conducted throughout this year.

Since mid-February, the percentage for church attendance has remained the same – around 42 percent. And the latest poll, conducted Dec. 4-7, showed that only 39 percent said they attended church or synagogue in the last seven days.

"It is also possible that certain specific churches or even types of churches ... have seen an increase in attendance but that on a percentage basis, these represent such a tiny part of the universe of all churches that this increase is not reflected in broad, national church attendance percentages," the Gallup report stated.

The report speculated that the magnitude of the economic crisis might not have been big enough to alter church attendance patterns across the country.

At the same time, Gallup pointed out that church attendance within any given week may be different from the self-reports it collected in 2008 since the Gallup Poll does not ask respondents to specify attendance in a recent period or for a generalized average.

And while it is possible that short-term worship service attendance could increase while Gallup's self-reports of attendance remain constant, the Gallup report stressed that "if real-world church attendance had gone up this fall in some type of meaningful way, this increase would be reflected in the response patterns to the church attendance question."

Gallup has been interviewing no fewer than 1,000 U.S. adults nationwide each day during 2008 on how often they attend church for its Daily tracking survey.

[Shammu]

Pope says humanity needs 'saving' from homosexuality

The Pope has said that "saving" humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour is just as important as saving the rainforests.

By Nick Allen
Last Updated: 7:31PM GMT 23 Dec 2008

Pope Benedict XVI sparked a furious reaction from other Christian groups as he also suggested that a blurring of the distinction between male and female could lead to the "self-destruction" of the human race.

The pontiff was delivering his end-of-year address to senior Vatican staff and his words were later released to the media.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that, while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are.

It opposes gay marriage and, in October, one leading Vatican official described homosexuality as "a deviation, an irregularity, a wound".

In his address to the Curia, the Vatican's central administration, the Pope himself described behaviour beyond traditional heterosexual relations as "a destruction of God's work".

He said the Roman Catholic Church had a duty to "protect man from the destruction of himself" and urged respect for the "nature of the human being as man and woman."

The pontiff added: "The tropical forests do deserve our protection. But man, as a creature, does not deserve any less."

His remarks were immediately denounced as "totally irresponsible and unacceptable in any shape or form" by the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement.

Its chief executive, the Rev Sharon Ferguson, said: "It is more the case that we need to be saved from his comments. It is comments like this that justify homophobic bullying that goes on in schools and it is comments like this that justify gay bashing.

"There are still so many instances of people being killed around the world, including in western society, purely and simply because of their sexual orientation or their gender identity.

"When you have religious leaders like that making that sort of statement then followers feel they are justified in behaving in an aggressive and violent way because they feel that they are doing God's work in ridding the world of these people."

The Rev Dr Giles Fraser, Vicar of Putney and president of Inclusive Church, the pro-gay Anglican movement, said: "I thought the Christmas angels said 'Fear not'.

"Instead, the Pope is spreading fear that gay people somehow threaten the planet. And that's just absurd.

"As always, this sort of religious homophobia will be an alibi for all those who would do gay people harm. Can't he think of something better to say at Christmas?"

Pope says humanity needs 'saving' from homosexuality

[Shammu]

German leader calls for "global economic charter"
By Carter Dougherty
Published: January 30, 2009

DAVOS, Switzerland: Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany called Friday for the creation of an international economic body, similar to the United Nations Security Council, to help avert the kind of wrenching financial crisis currently engulfing the world.

Economic principles need to be enshrined in "a new charter for a global economic order," Merkel told the business and political leaders gathered at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

A meeting of the Group of 20, an organization of industrialized nations and emerging markets, could begin laying the groundwork for change at a meeting in London in early April, Merkel said. From there, she said, the matter could go to the UN.

"This may even lead to a UN Economic Council, just as the Security Council was created after the Second World War," Merkel said.

She acknowledged that the UN might be an unpopular choice because of its deliberate pace. "We all know it is a fairly slow, a fairly cumbersome body, " she said. "But it is the only one of its kind."

Striking a contrast to the gloomy atmosphere this year at a meeting that usually brims with optimism, Merkel argued that the economic crisis had laid bare serious weaknesses in financial regulation, but that the world had to look beyond the immediate.

"Incredible opportunities are opening up," Merkel said. "We are now seeing only the crisis."

Merkel urged world financial leaders to implement the points that the G-20 leaders had agreed on in November in Washington. A major theme of that meeting was the need for more information on the complex financial constructs that lie at the heart of the crisis.

In her speech Friday, Merkel took a dig at the United States and Britain, which blocked German calls for greater openness by hedge funds when it headed the Group of 8 industrialized nations in 2007.

"I don't want to cast my gaze back," Merkel said. "But I would like to remind people that in vain did Germany in the G-8 presidency try to inject transparency" into financial markets.

Merkel also explained the backdrop to Germany's initial reluctance to embrace government spending to stimulate slowing and contracting economies.

Her government has approved two packages, the second worth €50 billion, or $64 billion, after a "lively debate" that reflected the painful steps the country took to curtail borrowing before the crisis began in 2007, she said.

Eventually, Germany will have to return to more austere ways, she added.

"We have won ourselves a little freedom of maneuver," Merkel said. "But we are also saying we need limitations on public borrowing." She called for an "automatic brake" on public indebtedness that could be incorporated into the Basic Law, Germany's constitution.

She emphasized that "the forces of free market economy" had to underpin the rules that emerge from the crisis. She lauded the German system, which mixes capitalism with a strong social safety net and potent regulators, but said she had no interest in "socialist command economies" and alluded to her own past as a child of the communist system.

"I grew up in what was East Germany," Merkel said. "Today I am chancellor of a united Germany. This shows me that nothing is impossible."

German leader calls for "global economic charter"

MORE:

Merkel suggests world economic council

Merkel calls for establishment of UN Economic Council

Merkel proposes UN economic body

[Shammu]

Italy: Global Action Needed To Fight Recession
Thursday February 19th, 2009

ROME -(Dow Jones)- The Italian and U.K. prime ministers Thursday said global action is needed to fight the recession, but Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi admitted that no concrete measures had yet been reached.

Berlusconi, who criticized some U.S. and French measures to fight the global slump as protectionist, said one of the steps being looked at is nationalization of banks.

"It's still something we're pondering," Berlusconi told a news conference after a working lunch with U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown focusing on preparations for the meeting of leaders from the Group of 20 industrial and developing nations in London April 2.

Italy holds the presidency of the Group of Eight leading nations this year, while the U.K. is heading the G20, a group that includes emerging economies like China and India. Both groups are struggling to come up with global measures to counter the recession.

The world will see "unprecedented cooperation" in addressing the global financial crisis, Brown said, urging the G20 to find a "global deal in which each continent will make a contribution to the recovery of the world economy."

Brown called for greater international financial supervision to close national gaps, singling out hedge funds as needing "proper disclosure and transparency." But he didn't provide specific details ahead of the London G20.
"There still isn't agreement on what concretely must be done," Berlusconi said.

The two leaders vowed to fight protectionism, with Berlusconi singling out France and the U.S. for taking measures that "have a flavor of protectionism."

France last week came under fire from other European countries for an auto-sector bailout that is part of President Nicolas Sarkozy's effort to protect jobs in his country as the economic downturn deepens.

A "Buy American" clause in the U.S. stimulus package approved last week - which requires that virtually all goods used in public works projects funded by the stimulus plan come from U.S. companies - has also raised concerns about protectionism.

Berlusconi emphasized that no shared view has emerged on a solution for banks' troubled assets, which have frozen credit markets and represent a major concern for investors worldwide.

The nationalization of banks "is for now just a hypothesis that was brought forward by someone," the Italian premier said.

Bank of England Deputy Governor John Gieve Thursday said the nationalization of banks should only be a last resort.
So far, the U.K has nationalized one of the country's fastest growing lenders, Northern Rock, and brought the smaller Bradford & Bingley under its wing. As part of October's rescue plan, the government injected GBP37 billion into three U.K. banks, taking what has now grown to a 70% stake in Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS) and a 43% stake in the newly merged Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.LN).

Berlusconi said no Italian bank had asked for help to boost its capital, although he added that some lenders may request help in the future.

The Italian government is finalizing a plan that may be worth up to EUR20 billion to buy bank bonds for those lenders wanting to strengthen their capital.

The G8 comprises the U.S., Japan, Germany, the U.K., France, Italy, Canada and Russia.

Italy: Global Action Needed To Fight Recession