PROPHETIC SIGNS THAT WE ARE IN THE END TIMES [A good summary of SOME key evidences--QX]

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The Bible gives many examples of signs that should warn us of the coming end of the age. Six such signs are given by Jesus, two characteristics are given by Paul, and eleven other occurrences are given by the prophets to occur prior to or soon after the end of the age. While we are also told we will not know the time of the End, God obviously wanted us to know when that time was getting closer. As the Christian church is increasingly drawn into the interfaith movement, and as more and more churches go into isolation, preparing to sleep through the growing attacks on their faith, perhaps God knew it would take a few signs to wake us up and remind us that we have work to do.

Unfortunately, many Christians take the verses that tell us we won't know the time of His coming to mean they should ignore any and all scripture that might warn us of this time of tribulation. Others have fallen into the trap of fearing being labeled a "conspiracy theorist" should they display an interest in the Biblical prophecies about our future on Earth. My philosophy is simple. God included it in the Bible and, since God is all knowing, we should trust that it is something we should know and study along with the rest of His Word.

It is increasingly obvious that the time of our Lord's coming is drawing near. Prophecy is being fulfilled daily, and at a faster pace than ever before. Whether you believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, or believe Christians will be witness to the full tribulation, wrath, and final judgments, matters not. The beginning of birth pains and the signs of the times should have the same effect on all of us. It should motivate us to save as many souls as we can in the time that we have left. The Great Commission tells us to be disciples to all nations, bringing the message of salvation through Christ to all people. If the Church is raptured before the tribulation, it is important that we leave behind an explanation for the trials and judgments those left behind will face. How else will they recognize the deception of the anti-Christ and seek instead the truth of the Bible? If we are to endure the tribulation along side them, we will need to be prepared to not only share the message of salvation, but share with them the reasons for God's judgment and hold it up as further proof of their need to be saved.

Below is a study of the prophetic signs God gave us as a warning of the approaching end of the age. Many of them are being fulfilled now and many will be fulfilled in the near future. I would encourage you to study prophecy, know what is coming and be prepared to share it with others.

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In Matthew24:3 Jesus was asked, "Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?" Jesus told his apostles to look for the following signs prior to his second coming and the end of the age.

Matthew 24:5 "For many will come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and will mislead many."

In the last several years many have claimed to be the Messiah. Jim Jones and David Koresh are examples of these false christs as well as countless others who are not as newsworthy. These false prophets are a prelude to the ultimate false christ, the antichrist. Many New Age groups, some even NGO's working for the United Nations, are anxiously awaiting the antichrist, preparing the way for his acceptance as the head of the hierarchy of gods and the one who will usher in world peace.

Matthew 24:6 "And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end."

Rumors of wars in all areas of the world now occur frequently thanks to instant media coverage and the availability of a multitude of 24-hour news sources.

Matthew 24:7 "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes."

More people have been killed in warfare in this century than at any other time in history. As the death toll rises in the Middle East, more and more countries work feverishly to develop devastating weapons of mass destruction. Add to that the expanding threat of terrorism and unpredictable dictators such as Saddam Hussein, and the potential for the outbreak of war exists in nations, kingdoms and places across the globe.

Matthew 24:7 "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes."

As white, Christian farmers are driven out of Africa in increasing numbers, and foreigners move in to replace life-sustaining crops with poppies that now supply 25% of the worlds drugs, famine spreads across the African continent. The undernourished are not limited to Africa, however. A large portion of the worlds 5 billion people suffers from a shortage of food.

Matthew 24:7 "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes."

The number and intensity of earthquakes this century is at a level higher than any other time in history. A staggering number of seismic events occur around the world daily. The earthquake seismic monitor IRIS shows all major earthquakes for the last year. Indicated by yellow and red circles, the seismic events of the last 15 days provides strong evidence of the fulfillment of Matthew 24:7 in our day. By contrast, in the years from 1890 to 1900 there was only one major earthquake in the world.

Matthew 24:8-9 "But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations on account of my name."

Christians are under attack throughout the world today. In the United States Christians still enjoy freedom to worship God without suffering much more than ridicule, hatred, or discrimination at work and school. However in many other countries such as China, Sudan, Africa, Saudi Arabia, Korea, Russia, and many Muslim nations, Christian suffer much greater persecution and often times death for their faith. During the tribulation this suffering will be worldwide and will continue even to the point of martyrdom. These first 5 signs will increase in intensity and severity as the tribulation approaches, much like the birth pangs or contractions of a pregnant woman worsen as the delivery time approaches.

Matthew 24:14 "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come."

This prophecy has already been fulfilled through television, radio, missionaries, the translation of the Bible into many languages, and the internet. People all over the world now hear the message of Christ from missionaries who have the means to travel the globe, and via technology that allows us to communicate with people on the other side of the world right from our own homes, churches and offices.

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II Timothy 3:1-5,7 "But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of god; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."

For anyone who has watched television, read a newspaper, lost a retirement to corporate greed and corruption, or just walked outside their front door, it is obvious this prophecy has been fulfilled by our generation. Our leaders are often corrupt; our cities are filled with crime, brutality, and neon signs proclaiming our sinful, godless nature. The New Age Movement brings in increasing numbers of mystics who claim to be the enlightened ones. They are some of the most educated and influential people in our societies, and yet the most lacking in real truth.

I Timothy 4:1-3 "But the spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. By means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth."

Churches today are becoming more and more ecumenical, embracing the New Age interfaith agenda, and denying Christ as the only way to salvation. Giving in to the politically correct media and a corrupt society, they have embrace homosexuality as an acceptable alternate lifestyle and preach tolerance and compromise in place of God's truth for the salvation of the world. The environmentalist movement within the New Age movement lures them into a worship of mother earth, belief in past lives, reincarnation, and Karma while demonizing all those who would eat the meat God gave us as nourishment for our bodies.

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Revelation 9:16 "And the number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them."

An army of that size had never existed until China's army reached that number in the 1960's.

Daniel 2:32-33 "The head of the statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay."

Daniel 2:40-43 "Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces. And in that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have the toughness of iron, and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle. And in that you saw the iron mixed with clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not adhere to one another, even as iron does not combine with pottery."

The fourth kingdom of iron is the Roman empire according to Daniel's interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar's dream. The two legs are the division of the Roman empire into an eastern portion called the Byzantine empire which ended in the 1400's and a western portion based in Rome which ended in the 400's. The nations of Europe since the Roman empire dissolved have never adhered or formed one empire but continue as separate nations, however, the European Union now has 15 Member States and is preparing for the accession of 13 eastern and southern European countries.

Zephaniah 3:9 "For then I will return to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent."

Prior to the restoration of Israel in 1948, Hebrew was a dead language. Now Hebrew is spoken throughout Israel.

4. REBUILDING OF THE TEMPLE, RESTORATION OF TEMPLE WORSHIP AND ANIMAL SACRIFICES IN JERUSALEM

For several end time prophecies to be fulfilled, the temple will have to be rebuilt.

Revelation 11:2 "Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the oly city for forty-two months."

Daniel 9:27 "And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolation, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate."

Daniel 9:26 "Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary."

Some archeologists believe that the temple mount is actually 340 feet south of the Dome of the Rock site, putting the Dome of the Rock within the Court of the Gentiles. This may be the court outside the temple that is left out.

There are many groups already working on preparations for the new temple. The blueprints are already done, the temple garments have been made, and there have already been attempts to lay the cornerstone of the temple. The only thing standing in the way of the construction of the new temple is Islam's third holiest site, the Dome of the Rock and government support for such an undertaking. Some possible scenarios for the rebuilding of the temple are as follows:

1. The persuasion and performing of miracles by the Antichrist and False Prophet convinces the Islamic world to approve the rebuilding.

2. The United Nations will negotiate the rebuilding of the temple following a war with the armies from the North (Russia and Islamic forces). This assumes that the war with the armies from the North is not the battle of Armageddon as some feel and that this attack occurs before the rapture or tribulation period begins. The supernatural destruction of the Russian army and Islamic forces will cause an outpouring of Christian worship and zeal amongst the Jewish people who will reconstruct the temple.

3. It is determined that the site of the first two temples is actually south of the Dome of the Rock, and the court of the gentiles (Dome of the Rock) will be left out of the 3rd temple.

A group in Israel called the Temple Mount Faithful have obtained most of the clothing, instruments and other equipment required for temple worship and are actively preparing for the laying of the third temple's cornerstone.

Numbers 19:2-7 "This is the statute of the law which the Lord has commanded, saying, "Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an unblemished red heifer in which is no defect and on which a yoke has never been placed. "You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence. Next Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. "Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; its hide and its flesh and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned. "The priest shall then wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward come into the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening."

A red heifer will be required to be used in the process of purification described in the book of Numbers. In May 1997 the first Red Heifer was born in 2000 years. Another red Heifer was born in Israel in March of 2002.

Daniel 12:4 "But as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase."

Billy Graham was quoted as saying, "ninety percent of all the engineers and scientists who have ever lived are alive today." Air travel, space travel, DNA research and human cloning are all examples of the rapid increase in knowledge in our generation.

Zephaniah 3:10-11 "From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia My worshipers, My dispersed ones, will bring My offerings. In that day you will feel no shame because of all your deeds by which you have rebelled against Me; For then I will remove from your midst your proud, exulting ones, and you will never again be haughty on My holy mountain."

In 1984, Operation Moses saw the airlift of 15,000 Jews who had already fled to refugee camps in Sudan to escape starvation. In 1991, Operation Solomon flew 20,000 Jews to Israel from Ethiopia itself. A further airlift began in June of 1999, aimed at transporting the last 3,000 members of the Quara Jewish community from northeastern Ethiopia to Israel.

Ezekiel 38:2,4,8 "Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him. I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them splendidly attired, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them wielding swords. After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel which had been a continual waste; but its people were brought out from the nations, and they are living securely, all of them."

In order for some end time events to occur Russia will have to be a strong nation with a strong military.

Jeremiah 23:7-8 "Therefore behold, the days are coming declares the Lord, when they will no longer say, as the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt, but as the Lord lives, who brought up and led back the descendants of the household of Israel from the north land and from all the countries where I have driven them. Then they will live on their own soil."

In the 1970's and 1980's there was a mass exodus of Russian Jews out of Communist Russia. In 1999 the Associated Press reported a dramatic increase in the number of Jewish immigrants from Russia, bringing the largest number of Russian Jews to Israel since the early 1990's.

Revelation 13:16-17 "And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name."

On May 10, three members of a family in Florida became the first people to receive the biochip implant. Each device, made of silicon and called a VeriChip, is a small radio transmitter about the size of a piece of rice that is injected under a person's skin. It transmits a unique personal ID number whenever it is within a few feet of a special receiver unit. VeriChip's maker describes it as "a miniaturized, implantable, radio frequency identification device (RFID) that can be used in a variety of security, emergency and healthcare applications."

Is the biochip the mark of the beast to be used by the antichrist? We can't really know. What is significant is that people are being softened to the idea of a mark or an implant as a means of maintaining security, providing medical information, and regulating a more interdependent world. As attitudes change, fears subside, and people are convinced of the need for such a mark, the true mark of the beast will be easily introduced to the world by the antichrist.

The United Nations, World Trade Organization, International Criminal Court, UN peacekeeping/police force, numerous UN NGO's, and other agencies are preliminary steps to the formation of a one world government. We now have the communications technology, transportation, and the pro-globalization media necessary to usher in the one world government headed by the antichrist. The increasing terrorist threat and the middle east conflict will only speed up the formation of this governing body as fear and promises of better security make more people willing to give up their national sovereignty for global governance.

Revelation 11:3, 7-10 "And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophecy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth. When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. Those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate; and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth."

Television and the 24-hour news networks make it possible for people around the world to see the dead prophets and rejoice at their deaths.

Luke 21:28 "But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

Luke 21:32 "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all things take place."

QUIX NOTE: I have come to believe that the 10 regions that the puppet masters have divided the world up into and are planning concurrently with the world government . . . will turn out to be the 10 nation confederacy. But I could certainly be wrong. Just a cognition; a guess.

Nevertheless, this doc is an interesting read. Blessings,

From:

Gladrags2@webtv.net (Anita Bush)

To:

end-times_news@associate.com

Subject: In the Days of These Kings

Special Report: ''In The Days of These Kings'' Jack Kinsella
Prophecy - Signs
Friday, December 10, 2004
Jack Kinsella - Omega Letter Editor

"If the formation of the European Common Market were an isolated development in the line of Bible prophecy, then it would have no significance for our study."

"However, combined with the other pieces of the prophetic puzzle which we are attempting to develop for you, it takes on immense importance. We believe that the Common Market and the trend toward the unification of Europe may well be the beginning of the ten-nation confederacy predicted by Daniel and the Book of Revelation." -- (The Late Great Planet Earth, Hal Lindsey, 1969)

Thirty-six years ago, when Hal confidently named an as-yet non-existent ten-nation confederation arising out of the heart of the old Roman Empire, Europe's unification was still only a dream.

It had only been some twenty-one years before that the fledgling Brussels Treaty that created the Benelux Customs Union had been signed on March 17th, 1948.

At the time Hal was writing the Late, Great Planet Earth, the ten nations of Western Europe that form the core of the WEU (and who remain the only nations to hold full membership status) had not yet reached their full number.

The Western European Council was still debating applications for membership from the United Kingdom, Denmark, Ireland and Norway. It wasn't until 1995 that the Western European Union's roster of ten full members was filled when Greece was accepted into the fold.

The European Union is NOT the Western European Union, but the Western European Union IS the EU. That sounds confusing -- I'm not even sure I can explain it coherently, but I'll try.

Modern Europe was born OUT of the Western European Union, but the WEU itself continued on as a separate organization. The requirement for full membership in the Western European Union is membership in both the greater European Union and NATO. The modern European Union was born out of the 1957 Treaty of Rome.

The Western European Union was born out of the 1948 Brussels Treaty as a replacement to the failed European Security and Defense Assembly under the terms of the 'Modified Brussels Treaty' signed in 1954. (NATO was created in 1949)

The EU and WEU formed a partial merger in areas of defense and security. A full merger had been planned by 2000, but as of 2004, the WEU is still very much alive and most European military planning takes place within its constituent cells.

A book published recently by New York University entitled, "Defending Europe" argues that events of the first four years of this century point more toward a revival of the WEU than its absorption into the greater EU.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the WEU is composed of the delegations of the member states to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which, fearful for its future existence with the winding up of the WEU, has been lobbying for itself to be recognized as the "European Security and Defense Assembly".

In a speech delivered to the WEU Assembly gathered in London in February, 1996, by NATO'S Deputy Secretary General, he told the WEU delegates; "First, the question of NATO's European component. That function is currently fulfilled by the WEU. The WEU, of course, performs a dual role. The Treaty on European Union refers to the WEU as an integral part of the development of the EU and requests the WEU to elaborate and implement decisions and actions of the EU which have defense implications."

Javier Solana's deputy went on to exhort the WEU delegates; "So let us remind ourselves of one central fact: NATO, the WEU and the EU have the same strategic interests - shaping the security environment of the future for the better and enhancing stability and security throughout the wider Europe."

Hmmm. Sounds almost Biblical -- 'these three are one'. The fact that the WEU is taking steps to strengthen its existence and power within the framework of the greater EU, instead of allowing itself to be absorbed, is of great significance when trying to understand the whole 'ten toes' of Daniel prophecy.

Simply put, the greater EU, now consisting of 28 member states, needs the WEU to ensure its security. And since the ten core nations of the WEU are simultaneously the most powerful states in Old Europe, the EU is really an extension of the WEU -- and not the other way around.

The European Union is the administrative and economic arm, but the WEU is the hand that holds the hammer.

King Nebuchadnezzar summoned the prophet Daniel to interpret a dream he had that had baffled all his counselors and sorcerers. The king couldn't even remember the dream, only that it greatly troubled him.

Daniel was tasked with both telling the king what his dream was, and interpreting its meaning. Daniel told the king that he saw, in his dream, a great image of a man, with a head of fine gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, with two legs of iron and his feet part of iron and part of clay. (Daniel 2:28-33)

Daniel went on to describe what troubled the king the most, even though he couldn't recall the details:

"Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." (Daniel 2:34-35)

The image, as you undoubtedly know, described four successive world empires; the head was Babylon, chest and arms was the Medo-Persian Empire, belly and thighs was Alexander's Greek Empire and the two legs of iron represented Rome, which eventually divided itself into an eastern and western empire.

The Western Empire was ruled from Rome, the Eastern Empire from Constantinople, until both finally collapsed under their own weight.

Insofar as the feet of iron and clay, Daniel told the king:
"And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay." (2:41)

Iron mixed with clay is partly strong and partly weak. So is the revived Roman Empire partly strong, and partly weak.

Without the strength of the member states of the WEU, the greater EU would soon collapse. Without the economic power, infrastructure and participation of the greater EU, the WEU would be just another military alliance.

Donald Rumsfeld divided Europe into two categories; "Old Europe" and "New Europe". So did the prophet Daniel. "And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay." (2:42-43)

Daniel's description could not be more specific. And, as a side observation, its fulfillment is dripping with symbolism. 'Old Europe' came to the foreground as a consequence of its opposition to a war to invade Iraq (ancient Babylon) for the purpose of removing Saddam Hussein, a dictator who claimed to be the reincarnation of Nebuchadnezzar.

When he was restoring the old city of Babylon during the 1980's, Saddam had bricks struck that superimposed his profile beside that of Nebuchadnezzar. In 1988, he commissioned a coin celebrating himself as the second Nebuchadnezzar.

The removal of the 'second Nebuchadnezzar' split both NATO and Europe down the middle, with most of the newly admitted member states to the East siding with Washington, and the majority of Western Europe opposed. 'Partly strong, and partly weak, but they shall not cleave together' is the way Daniel described it.

The WEU is, as of 2004, a ten-nation core of powerful European states in charge of maintaining Europe's military security. It controls NATO, the world's most powerful military alliance and it insists on retaining a separate identity to keep its voice from being diluted by that of the greater EU.

Often at odds with its own members (as in the Iraq War), it remains, nonetheless, the heart and soul of greater Europe. And it is committed to replacing the United States as the world's only superpower.

And, according to the prophet Daniel, it will be the world's last superpower.

"And in the DAYS OF THESE KINGS shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." (2:44)

Another SIGN OF THE TIMES . . . incrementally marching toward the Mark of The Beast . . . FROG IN THE WATER data point . . .

From:

Gladrags2@webtv.net (Anita Bush)
To:

end-times_news@associate.com

Subject: TSA Widens Test of Biometric IDs

TSA widens test of biometric IDs
Privacy experts worry about precedents
By Brock N. Meeks Chief Washington correspondent MSNBC

The U.S. government is spending $25 million this fiscal year to road test a universal secure identity card loaded with biometric and personal data and tied to government "watch lists." Though the program is aimed at simplifying the security checks that airport personnel and other transportation workers must go through, privacy experts are warning of unintended consequences.

The card, known as the Transportation Worker Identity Credential (TWIC), will allow workers at the nation's railways, ports, mass transit agencies and airports to carry a single card to access secure areas within these facilities. Currently, many of these workers have to carry several individual cards.

"Anyone who needs unescorted access to secure areas of [a transporation facility] would need a TWIC card," a TSA spokesman said.

The credit-card sized device will contain fingerprints, an iris scan, palm geometry and a digital photo. It will have microchip and magnetic strip technology, along with holographic images and ultraviolet printing for added security. Think of it as a kind of universal remote of secure IDs or, if you're more inclined to a Middle Earth meme, this is the "one card to rule them all."

The biometric and personal data will be tied to various government "watch lists" that contain the names and data of known or suspected terrorists, according to the Transportation Security Administration, which is overseeing the testing.

"The TWIC will be issued to transportation workers after thorough screening for ties to terrorism and will utilize a biometric to eliminate the use of fraudulent credentials," said TSA chief David Stone. A key factor of the card is improved "resource management," TSA said in a statement about the card's rollout. "By positively identifying 'known' transportation workers, the TWIC allows TSA to focus resources on 'unknown' individuals who present a greater threat risk," TSA said.

The rollout of the card for real world use marks the third phase of testing for TWIC. The card was put into use recently at the Port of Long Beach, Calif. Over the next seven months, the card's use will be expanded to 34 sites in Florida, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

By the end of the phase III testing, TSA hopes to have enrolled some 200,000 transportation workers in the program. Participation is voluntary, a TSA spokesman said.

But just because a worker holds a TWIC doesn't automatically grant him or her access to secure areas.

"Local facilities are responsible for granting or denying access to their facilities," Stone told Congress in his response questions during his June confirmation hearings.

Card faces hurdles Although the card is being narrowly targeted for use by transportation workers, privacy groups are closely watching its implementation. One concern is that the card may be the victim of "mission creep" and turned into something outside the scope of its original intent, such as becoming the forerunner of a national ID card.

Although the use of TWIC has been "narrowly drawn to transportation security, some provisions require close attention" to ensure that the card doesn't fall "in the traps of unintended uses," said the Electronic Privacy Information Center, in formal comments filed to the TSA in October.

And because the TSA intends to hold all the data collected for administering the TWIC in a centralized database, privacy groups caution that such a system could be vulnerable to compromise and mismanagement.

For its part, TSA acknowledges that rolling out the card is a tricky process.

"TWIC is a complex project that needs to balance three key goals: improving security, enhancing commerce, and protecting personal privacy," Stone told a congressional panel during his confirmation hearings. "Similar to other large integrated projects, TWIC has inherent management and technology challenges as well as program-specific challenges in the fields of identity management systems, information technology, information security, advance credential technology, biometrics, encryption, and physical and logical access control technologies."

It's just that laundry list of potential hurdles that worries privacy groups. Because such a large amount of personal information is gathered and made accessible to a large number of people, the potential for compromise is high.

"The information TSA gathers ... has the potential to pose a serious threat to personal privacy and the stated goals of the programs if it is used in ways unrelated to transportation security," EPIC said in its comments to TSA. "The inclusion of the Social Security Number is especially problematic because it was never intended to be used as an identifier, and its disclosure gives rise to the risk of identity theft," the center said.

After the prototype phase is complete, a full review of the card's use under real world circumstances will be done, TSA said. Recommendations for rolling out the card nationwide --or killing the program altogether-- will then be made to the Homeland Security secretary.

© 2004 MSNBC Interactive

The following is taken from pp 197-198 of YOUR SONS & DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHECY: Prophetic Gifts in Ministry Today.

The source: David E Schoch, who knew Tom personally:

Following all quoted except when noted in [brackets]. All bold and color emphases are by Quix.

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Genesis 11 recounts that God cursed the sinful society of the day by using different languages to confuse and scatter the people. Now, in Acts 2, this alienation of nations is being reversed through Christ [welll, somewhat, as suits Holy Spirit's goals and purposes--Qx]. God shows His concern for the nations and sets the course for the era of the Spirit by having the first prophecies of the new age come forth in Gentile tongues, not Hebrew.

Do such literal languages ever occur in our day? A most interesting story from this century involves an early Pentecostal evangelist and missionary named Thomas Hezmalhalch (1948-1934). "Although he was not considered a great preacher by some contemporaries," writes W.E. Warner, "Hezmalhalch's name is legendary in both the U.S. and South Africa as a man who walked in the Spirit and who had great influence in the early Pentecostal movement." ⁶ He is best known for his ministry in South Africa beginning in 1908 (after he had reached sixty years of age!).

Brother Tom felt God wanted him to preach to the Zulu people. To reach their country he had to cross a river, so he acquired a boat and rowed across. Then he beached the craft, looked up and found himself facing a group of Zulu warriors. Because he did not speak their language, he addressed them as best he could in what he thought was English. But something other than English was coming out of his mouth, and they seemed to understand what he was saying.

Taken captive to their village, Hezmalhalch continued to communicate with the people in Zulu, much to the consternation of the witch doctors, who were apparently planning to kill and cook him. For three days and nights Tom was kept in a hut near the place of assembly. Each night at midnight the drums throbbed as the witch doctors practiced their incantations in preparation for the feast, and Tom prepared to die. But for three days and nights he was left in the hut in safety.

Finally the tribal leadership confronted him.

"Who are those tall men with you?"

"No one is with me," Tom answered in amazement.

"Oh, yes, there are. Each night when we've come to kill you, you're surrounded by tall, white-robed figures with flaming swords!"

Brother Tom's amazing ministry continued to the Zulu people. Until his death he was able to communicate with them in their own language with no accent, formulating English words in his mind and finding Zulu words coming spontaneously from his mouth. Thomas Hezmalhalch's was the primary effort that opened that tribe to the Gospel of Jesus Christ [footnote is at the beginning of this post about his friend].

-----------------------------------

PRAISE GOD FOR HIS FAITHFULNESS!

PRAISE GOD FOR FOLKS WILLING TO APPLY THE ACTS 2 MANUAL FOR CHRISTIAN LIFE!

Some seem to miss the CONTEXT of ACTS 2 entirely. Am chewing on writing an article about that this coming week. Those of like mind might pray accordingly.

LUB,

Here's a great article on power evangelism and related issues:

by John Piper

from:

http://www.desiringgod.org/library/sermons/90/010790.html

Compassion, Power, and the Kingdom of God
An Introduction
January 7, 1990

1 Corinthians 4:15-21

For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. Therefore I sent to you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?
We begin a series of messages this morning that will probably take us all the way to the middle of April. It's called "Compassion, Power and the Kingdom of God." The series is unusual in at least two ways.

First, it is directly related to remarkable things that are happening in the world today and in our own experience; our aim will be to search the Scriptures concerning the rising worldwide tide of activity in gifts of healing, the gifts of prophecy, signs and wonders, personal spiritual warfare, territorial spiritual warfare and power evangelism. Are these things of God? Are they Biblical? Has God begun to draw us into the warfare in a way that demands greater discernment and zeal for spiritual power?

The other thing that makes the series unusual is that it will be coordinated with the Plenary Session of the BITC on Wednesday evenings. Wednesdays will take us deeper and give a chance for discussion and application. This series has been a kind of staff decision. We have been studying and discussing these things for a some time. Tom Steller and I will team teach the course.

Today's message is an introduction to the series as a whole. What I want to do is show how the questions have been raised in our experience and then close with just a brief look at the text and how the New Testament itself raises the issues we will be looking at.

First, then, what is happening in the world that prompts this series?

The first Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization took place in 1974 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Until now the most remarkable upshot of that congress was the new focus of mission agencies on unreached peoples. Ralph Winter sounded a startling cry that about 90% of the missionaries of the world were working with already reached peoples, while only 10% were working with people groups with no church at all. He pointed out that the completion of the Great Commission should not be understood as reaching all the individuals in the world, but all the peoples of the world. He showed that there are (today) some 12,000 of these unreached groups, and that this should be top priority for the mission agencies of the world. This new understanding of the missionary task has gripped almost all evangelical mission agencies and denominations today.

I say this has been the most remarkable upshot of Lausanne until now. But now something else is happening in the world, especially in missions and evangelism, that may owe its strength to Lausanne and may prove just as significant as the concept of unreached peoples. Peter Wagner, of the Fuller School of World Mission, pointed this out to those of us who were at the second Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Manila last July.

He said that history may show that the most significant influence of Lausanne I was tucked away in two sentences of Article 14 of the Lausanne Covenant—the document that John Stott and Francis Schaeffer helped put together and which Billy Graham and thousands of others signed. Article 14 is entitled The Power of the Holy Spirit. The last two sentences go like this:

"We therefore call upon all Christians to pray for such a visitation of the sovereign Spirit of God that all his fruit may appear in all his people and that all his gifts may enrich the body of Christ. Only then will the whole church become a fit instrument in his hands, that the whole earth may hear his voice."

Many Christians today believe that some of the spiritual gifts that were manifest in the New Testament have no place in the church or in missions today—like gifts of healing and miracles and prophecy. But that was not the position of the Lausanne Covenant. The Covenant calls all Christians to pray that all the gifts of the Spirit may enrich the body of Christ. And it specifically connects this prayer with the success of world missions. "Only then will the whole church become a fit instrument in his hands, that the whole earth may hear his voice."

Peter Wagner pointed out that this last sentence may prove prophetic because it seems that most of the remarkable breakthroughs in world missions and in church growth around the world today are happening among those groups that pray the way Lausanne urges us to pray, namely, for all the gifts of the Holy Spirit—groups that deal forthrightly in the supernatural realm and take evil spirits and power encounters seriously.

This movement can hardly be labeled anymore. It's not merely Pentecostal; it's not merely charismatic; it's no one denomination or group of denominations; it is theologically diverse and includes Wesleyans and Calvinists. It is a worldwide movement with no organization, but a common zeal to seek all the gifts and the power of God described in the early church. Whatever we think of it, this movement cannot be ignored. According to Wagner in 1945 there were 16,000,000; 1955 - 27 million; 1965 - 50 million; 1975 - 97 million; 1980 268 million; 1989 - 351,000,000. Thus about one in every five professing Christians in the world today is in this group.

Three weeks ago I was invited by Peter Wagner to a one day POST-LAUSANNE II CONSULTATION ON COSMIC-LEVEL SPIRITUAL WARFARE which is supposed to take place Monday, February 11 in Pasadena. Let me give you an example of the kind of thing that is happening today which we will be discussing.

More and more people today are taking seriously the tremendous reality of Satan and evil spirits in the work of evangelism and world missions. People are asking whether the demonic effect of Satan in blinding unbelievers1 calls for some kind of special power encounter. And the reference in Ephesians 6:12 to "principalities and powers and world rulers of this present darkness and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places," has raised the question whether there is a hierarchy of evil spirits with some assigned by Satan over whole territories with the responsibility to keep them darkened and blinded from the gospel.2 So increasingly efforts are being made to identify territorial spirits and combat them in a direct way by prayer and spiritual authority, to prepare an area for more effective evangelism.

For example, in the fall of 1984 a group of pastors and leaders for the San Nicolas/Rosario area of Argentina gathered to discuss and pray about Spiritual Warfare. The gathering was prompted by the realization that 109 towns within 100 miles of their training center had no Christian witness. They did some preliminary studies and discovered that the town of Arroyo Seco appeared to be the seat of satanic activity in the region.

Years before a well known warlock (wizard or sorcerer) by the name of Mr. Meregildo operated out of that town. He was so famous and his cures so dramatic that people would trek to Arroyo Seco from overseas for his services. Before he died he evidently passed his powers on to 12 disciples. Three times a church was established in Arroyo Seco and three times it closed down in the face of severe spiritual opposition.

After several days of Bible study and prayer, the pastors and leaders came together in one accord and placed the entire area under spiritual authority. A few of them traveled to Arroyo Seco. Positioning themselves across the street from the headquarters of Mr. Meregildo's followers they served an eviction notice on the forces of evil. They announced to them that they were defeated and that Jesus Christ would attract many to himself now that the church was united and pledged to proclaim Him. Less than three years later 82 of those towns had evangelical churches in them. An unverified report indicates that as of today, all of them may have a church or a Christian witness.3 Unusual breakthroughs in world missions are increasingly being associated with spiritual warfare.

Another example of this movement and the kind of thing we will examine is what is called "power evangelism". The term has been popularized by John Wimber, the pastor of a church called the Vineyard in Anaheim, California (that has grown from one congregation to 270+ congregations in the last 10 years). He has drawn attention to the fact that almost every instance of successful evangelism in the New Testament involves some demonstration of supernatural power alongside the preaching of the word—a healing,4 an exorcism,5 a prophecy,6 a resurrection from the dead,7 speaking of foreign tongues.8

His point is that this part of New Testament evangelism is missing in the western church for no good Biblical reason and that this accounts for some of our weakness and ineffectiveness. These confirming miracles (called "signs and wonders") have a valuable function, Wimber says, namely, not to replace the verbal gospel but to win a more open hearing for it and confirm it. That's the pattern in Acts 14:3, "So [Paul and Barnabas] remained for a long time [at Iconium], speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands." The "signs and wonders' were the Lord's direct miraculous witness to his word.

Another example of the kind of thing we will be talking about is the increasing use of the gift of prophecy. Wayne Grudem is a good friend of mine. I taught with him at Bethel for several years before he became a professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and I came to Bethlehem. Wayne an ordained Baptist minister, grew up in the BGC, has the highest view of the inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture of anyone I know and is a thoroughgoing Calvinist. But he has also written a very influential book on The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today (Crossway Books, 1988).

His position is that prophecy in the New Testament is not the same as the infallible prophecies of the Old Testament prophets or the words of the apostles. The prophecy practiced by the New Testament church was simply "telling something that God has spontaneously brought to mind." The telling is not infallible, but as 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21 says, is to be tested: "Do not despise prophesying, but test everything; hold fast what is good." The purpose is not mainly to give details about the future but, as 1 Corinthians 14:3 says, to "speak to people for their upbuilding, encouragement and consolation." J.I. Packer calls the book "careful, thorough and . . . convincing." We have to come to terms with this if we are to be like the Bereans in Acts 17 and test all things by the Scriptures and be obedient to the Scriptures.

These then are some of the ways that our contemporary experience is raising for us the cluster of issues which we are summing up with the phrase "Compassion, Power and the Kingdom of God." Now we turn briefly to our Biblical text to see how Scripture itself poses these questions.

Paul had some very puffed up opponents at Corinth. But he was confident that there was no kingdom power in their puff. So he says in 1 Corinthians 4:20, "The kingdom does not consist in talk but in power." This raises two questions we will need to consider.

First, what is the nature of the kingdom of God? Here it seems to be a present demonstration of power. But two chapters later in 1 Corinthians 6:9 it seems like a future realm: "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?" Is it future or is it present? Is it a power to be exerted in the world by Christians or is it a realm that we will one day enter in the age to come? Is it both? How do these fit together? And how does this Kingdom relate today to what Jesus calls the kingdom of Satan (Matt. 12:26)?

Second, what is this "power" that the kingdom exerts now in the church? Paul said the same thing back in 1 Corinthians 2:4-5, "My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." What is this power? Is it the power of 1 Corinthians 5:4 that the people use to deliver a member to Satan for the destruction of the flesh? Is it the power of Romans 15:19, "the power of signs and wonders"? Is it the power of Colossians 1:11, the power "for endurance and patience with joy"? And is this kingdom and this power for us today?

Finally, notice that Paul wants to come with this power in love and a spirit of gentleness. Verse 21: "What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?" I don't think he means that the rod of rebuke and discipline would be unloving. He simply means, Shall I come with disciplinary love or gentle affirming love?

But the important point for us is simply the connection between love, power and the kingdom of God. The power of the kingdom is going to issue in love. This is what we want to stress in this series: love is our aim. Our interest in these things is very practical: How shall we love unbelievers to Christ with greatest effectiveness in the 1990's? How shall we love our way into the unreached peoples with most effectiveness in the 1990's? How shall we most effectively love demonized, addicted, enslaved, broken people to the freedom of Christ in the 1990's? How can love most effectively break the power of entrenched institutional evil, like abortion in the 1990's?

Love and compassion are the summation of all practical Christian living. When you love you "fulfill the whole law" (Romans 13:10). "Faith, hope and love abide, but the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor. 13:13). "Faith working through love" is the only thing that avails with God (Gal. 5:6). "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). Love is the test of whether spiritual gifts and power amount to anything: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love I am nothing" (1 Cor. 13:1-2).

Our goal is to learn how to love with the greatest power and effect that the kingdom of God will grant in this evil age. May the Lord give us a deep Biblical faithfulness as we search the Scriptures together.

1 2 Corinthians 4:4, "The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers." Matthew 13:19 shows the Satanic work against the gospel: "When any one hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in his heart; this is what was sown along the path." Acts 13:7-10 shows how Paul struck back with spiritual power when Elymas the magician tried to turn the Proconsul from the faith during Paul's preaching.

2 An example of this is often found in Daniel 10. Daniel begins to pray and prays for three weeks. An angel is dispatched to help him but does not arrive for three weeks. He explains his delay like this: "Fear not , Daniel, for from the first day that you set your mind to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help, so I left him there with the prince of the kingdom of Persia, and came to make you understand what is to befall your people." This "prince of the kingdom of Persia" is taken to be some kind of demonic power assigned some special evil responsibility over Persia.

3 Account taken from report of the Spiritual Warfare Track Workshop at Lausanne II, by Edgardo Silvoso in a paper entitled "Spiritual Warfare in Argentina and the `Plan Resistencia'" Harvest Evangelism, Inc. P.O. Box 9039 San Jose, CA 95157.

4 Acts 9:34f, "And Peter said to him, `Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed.' And immediately he rose. And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord."

5 For example, Acts 8:6-7, "And the multitudes with one accord gave heed to what was said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs which he did. For unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed, crying with a loud voice."

6 For example the effect on the woman at the well in John 4:17-18 when Jesus told her the secrets of her heart. Her evangelism was, "Come see a man who told me all that I ever did" (John 4:29).

7 For example, consider the effect of the raising of Tabitha in Acts 9:42, "And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord."

8 This was the thing at Pentecost that caused the crowds at first to gather and be amazed (Acts 2:12). "`We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.' And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ` What does this mean?'"

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