The WeekEnder
for Bible Prophecy Today
January 4-9 2010
B
Israel Honors the Man Who Revived the Hebrew Language, a Language that Disappeared 2000 Years Ago ~ Bible Prophecy Today
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the father of modern-day Hebrew, has been honored by Israel as the leaders of the Jewish state declared Ben-Yehuda's birthday as Hebrew Day, a day when the Jewish people reflect on how one man could almost single-handedly revive the language of the ancient Jewish people. Ben-Yehuda, in the late 1800's and early 1900's, was one Jewish man living in Israel that believed the chosen people living in God's chosen land should speak God's chosen language and he developed the method of teaching Hebrew to all new immigrants arriving in Israel.
Hebrew, a dead language, is now spoken daily by the Jewish people in the Jewish state of Israel, a fact that has an interesting connection to Bible prophecy.
The fact that Hebrew, the national language of the state of Israel, is the spoken language of the Jewish people today, is in line with what Bible prophecy calls for in the last days.
As the Jewish people celebrate Hebrew Day in Israel, every Jewish person has thought through the process that brought about the revival of what was considered a dead language. For almost 2000 years, the Hebrew language was not used for daily conversation, commerce, or education. As a young married man living in Israel, in the Biblical city of Beersheva, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda first taught his young family to speak Hebrew, then the neighbors, and finally all of the Jews living in Israel. Ben-Yehuda developed a dictionary of the new Hebrew words that he would have to create and even set in place the "Ulpan" which is the training center to help Jewish people learn to speak their mother tongue. The Jewish people speaking Hebrew today in Israel is an evidence that Bible prophecy is in the process of being fulfilled.
Jeremiah, the ancient Jewish prophet, wrote that God would give the Jewish people their language again when the Lord brought them back home to Israel (Jeremiah 31:23). Zephaniah, another Jewish prophet, also wrote of the Jews speaking a pure Hebrew language in the days of the end times (Zephaniah 3:9).
Jewish people celebrating Hebrew Day in Israel is indeed evidence that Bible prophecy has and will be fulfilled.
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Iran's Ayatollah Storing up His Treasures ~ Bible Prophecy Today
The Ayatollah Khamenei is not an especially revered person in Iranian politics these days. The controversial reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June began a wave of protest and unrest that never really went away, and the government responded harshly to recent demonstrations on the Shia Muslim festival of Ashura. Hundreds of demonstrators remain detained, and even university professors are criticizing the current government for its violence and weakness.
The supreme leader of Iran, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is supposed to be the holy spiritual leader of a devout Islamic nation. Regardless of the man's private or public devotional life, we do know that he lives in opulence with the ridiculous amount of wealth he's siphoned off the Iranian people. According to Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, not only does Khamenei own eight planes, five helicopters and over 1200 cars and $40 million in horses, but the supreme leader has built up million-dollar collections of odd things like tobacco pipes and antique jewel-encrusted walking canes.
"After Ashura, anyone who takes part in riots will be considered as 'mohareb' (waging war on God) and an opponent of national security," Najjar said, according the IRNA news agency.
The Iranian establishment has accused foreign enemies of stirring up unrest and supporting troublemakers in their country. Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi accused the foreigners of "leading a psychological war against the system."
Protests have continued despite the threats, however, demonstrating the depth of the unrest within the Iranian populace. Even university professors – men of position (or in exposed positions) – have openly criticized the supreme leader for the government's recent violence. A group of 88 Teheran University professors signed a letter calling the government's harsh response a sign of weakness. The letter read:
"Nighttime attacks on defenseless student dormitories and daytime assaults on students at university campuses, venues of education and learning, is not a sign of strength. ... Nor is beating up students and their mass imprisonment."
Students have been a major source of support for reform candidates and ideas. In the late 1990s students provided a major push for greater freedoms. "The universities are the little engines that make the big engine work," said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, an Iranian affairs expert at Syracuse University. "The students are the brains and the body of the opposition movement."
Whether Iran is in the middle of another revolution is uncertain. Even if it is, Khamenei hasn't got all his walking canes in one basket. He's apparently spread around a significant portion of his $billions in banks far outside of Persia.
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The Westergaard Attack: It's All the Same Jihad ~ Bible Prophecy Today
Despite the mainstream media’s best efforts to cover up the jihadist elements in both attacks, informed Americans know that Major Nidal Hasan murdered thirteen Americans in a jihad attack at Fort Hood in November, and that another Muslim, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, tried to explode Northwest Flight 253 as it landed in Detroit in another jihad attack on Christmas Day. But another major recent jihad assault has not been understood as such – although it was a manifestation of exactly the same deadly belief system that motivated Hasan and Abdulmutallab.
Both Hasan and Abdulmutallab were linked to the New Mexico-born, Yemen-based Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who boasted in October 2009 that Yemen would soon become a center of the global jihad – and has been doing his best to bring that about by preaching violence and hatred against Jews and Christians for years.
Al-Awlaki has also recently decried the cartoons of Muhammad that caused worldwide riots after being published in a Danish newspaper in late 2005. He characterized the cartoons as “one of the worst events or incidents of cursing Muhammad. In fact it might be the worst in our history.” He warned that the cartoonists, “by committing blasphemy against our beloved Muhammad have actually walked straight into a hornet’s nest, and that the dust of this will never settle down.”
While few Western analysts realized it, in fact the attack on Westergaard was part of the same jihad as that of Hasan and Abdulmutallab. The latter two hoped to gain a place in the Paradise of heavenly virgins that the Koran guarantees to those who “kill and are killed” for Allah (9:111). But insofar as they saw themselves as mujahedin in the classic Islamic mold, they hoped also to weaken and demoralize the Infidel enemy, with an eye toward the ultimate goal of compelling the Infidels to accept the hegemony of Islamic law.
The attack on Westergaard was in service of the same goal. Westergaard’s attacker was outraged that the cartoonist had transgressed the bounds of Islamic law by (as he saw it) mocking Muhammad. Islamic law stipulates that non-Muslims forfeit their lives when they dare to criticize Islam, Allah, or Muhammad. When he swung his axe at Westergaard’s door, this jihadist was doing his part to compel Europe and the West to accept Islamic norms for speech - or else.
The cartoon controversy thus illustrates the gulf between the Islamic world and the post-Christian West in matters of freedom of speech and expression. Yet as Obama’s America and an equally politically correct Europe continue to pay homage to the idols of tolerance, multiculturalism, and pluralism, they may give up those hard-won freedoms voluntarily. The Flight 253 incident has led to attempts (of widely varying effectiveness) to stiffen airport security and shore up our national defense against violent jihad attacks. In the same way, the axe in Westergaard’s front door ought to lead to robust affirmations of the importance of the freedom of speech as a safeguard against tyranny, and concrete steps to defend and protect that freedom.
Freedom of speech encompasses precisely the freedom to annoy, to ridicule, to offend. If it doesn’t, it is hollow. The instant that any person or ideology is considered off-limits for critical examination and even ridicule, freedom of speech has been replaced by an ideological straitjacket. Westerners seem to grasp this easily when it comes to affronts to Christianity, but the same clarity of thought doesn’t seem to carry over to an Islamic context.
Yet such clarity is needed more than ever. Jihad attacks of all kinds have sharply increased since Barack Obama became President. Obviously his outreach to the Islamic world is taken as weakness and responded to accordingly. It is long past time for him to reverse course – and above all, to see the jihad threat in its totality.
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Brit Hume's Firestorm with American Pastors ~ Bible Prophecy Today
On the January 3rd edition of Fox News Sunday, retiring news correspondent and political analyst Brit Hume commented on the tragic story of the adultery of Tiger Woods. His surprising comments resulted in a firestorm. For example, Baptist pastor Welton Gaddy wrote in the Washington Post,
"Having served as a Christian minister for 50 years, I am delighted to see my faith discussed in public. However, I am not pleased to see my faith used in a utilitarian manner whether the issue is personal forgiveness or national politics."
Gaddy parroted almost every national newsman and religious commentator on staff at newspapers, radio and television stations - that Hume should not have evangelized on a TV news program.
"Tiger Woods will recover as a golfer. Whether he can recover as a person, I think is a very open question. Its a tragic situation with him. I think he has lost his family. Its not clear to me whether he will be able to have a relationship with his children. But the Tiger Woods that emerges once the news value dies out of this scandal; the extent to which he can recover, it seems to me, depends on his faith. He's said to be a Buddhist. I don't think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So my message to Tiger would be: Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world."
On Monday, Hume was interviewed by Bill O'Reilly. Here is what Hume told O'Reilly:
"My sense about Tiger is, is that he needs something that Christianity especially provides and gives and offers. And that is redemption and forgiveness...I think that Jesus Christ offers Tiger Woods something that Tiger Woods badly needs...If Tiger Woods would make a true conversion, we would know it. It would show through in his being. And he would know it above all, and he would feel the extraordinary blessing that that would be. And it would shine because he is so prominent. It would be a shining light and I think it would be a magnificent thing to witness."
Given the state of our nation and the condition of organized religion in America, it is no surprise that Hume is being attacked by many Christian pastors and religious commentators - people who, against the very word of God, do not recognize that every Christian is called as Mark 16:15 says,
"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."
Jesus didn't say preach it except when you are working or are a government employee. There were no exceptions. In fact, the Apostle Paul prayed in Ephesians 6:19-20,
"...that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel...that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak."
Hats off to Brit Hume for his obedience!
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A personal thanks to Mr. Hume - World Magazine (Andrée Seu)
Forecast for Hamas: Assault with a Chance of War ~ Bible Prophecy Today
'There are preparations to seriously and dramatically weaken' the terrorist group.
TEL AVIV – Hamas in the Gaza Strip will likely find itself increasingly under assault in the coming months both politically and militarily, including the possibility of another large-scale Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to informed Middle East security officials.
Egypt, the U.S., Israel and the Palestinian Authority all believe that to achieve a PA-led Palestinian state, Hamas' power must be greatly reduced in the near future, the security officials said.
"There are preparations to seriously and dramatically weaken Hamas," a Middle East security official told WND.
Actions apparently are already being taken to isolate Hamas both politically and militarily. Egypt, aided by the U.S., began constructing a steel wall beneath its border with Gaza with the goal of isolating the territory's Hamas rulers while also working to stem the underground smuggling of weapons from Egypt into Gaza.
WND has learned Egyptian forces have encircled the Egyptian Rafah border village, where they have been carrying out raids against militant strongholds associated with Hamas.
