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December 31

Saints,

“Happy” would be fine, but, more importantly, “A Safe and Saved New Year to you and your loved ones.”

***

(December 25)
President Trump offers up a Christmas blessing and prayer.  He is under ceaseless attack and temptation by the many forces and spirits of antichrist.  It is the American Christian’s duty to pray without ceasing for him and his administration and their families.  This video, though dramatically enhanced by the producers, needs to be heard for the very words the President speaks.  May God confirm them.  We are in a period of great and increasing tribulation, but we must “stay the course.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJblkdpjCik
Merry Christmas:  President Trump Praises: “Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”

***

Christmas Gift?  Will it be a slow domino effect?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/guatemala-announces-it-will-move-its-embassy-in-israel-to-jerusalem/
Guatemala announces it will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem
GUATEMALA CITY -- Guatemala's president announced on Christmas Eve that the Central American country will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, becoming the first nation to follow the lead of U.S. President Donald Trump in ordering the change.
Guatemala was one of nine nations that voted with the United States and Israel on Thursday when the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a non-binding resolution denouncing Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. … …

***
(December 26)
In an age where wild animals are “cute,” are “persons,” and are often revered above humans, a judgment cited in Revelation will catch many foolish humans by bloody surprise.  See Revelation 6:8:  “…Death and Hell…will kill…by the beasts of the earth.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/26/us/coyotes-are-colonizing-cities-step-forward-the-urban-hunter.html?emc=edit_th_20171226&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Coyotes Are Colonizing Cities. Step Forward the Urban Hunter.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Dennis Murphy sniffed the bobcat urine he uses to lure his prey. He checked the silencer on his AR-15 assault rifle and loaded a few snares into his Ford pickup.
“Let’s go kill some coyotes,” he said.
But he wasn’t heading for the wilderness. Mr. Murphy’s stalking ground is on the contentious new frontier where hunters are clashing with conservationists: cities and suburbs.
Coyotes are largely associated with their ancestral bastions in the wild lands of the American West, but they are highly adaptable, and in recent years they have been colonizing large population centers throughout North America. The hunters have come after them, stalking the predators in settings like strip mall parking lots, housing tract cul-de-sacs, and plazas in the shadow of skyscrapers. … …

***
(December 27)
As terrible hurricanes/typhoons rake the Philippines even in the last few days, killing many, destroying homes, CNBC does a photo story of the years’ environmental disasters —
Surely, the whole planet warns of Judgment Day.  2018 is already warned by secular experts to be a year of massive earthquakes.  Let us trust the Only One Who can spare us.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/26/2017--a-year-of-disaster.html
2017 — a year of disaster
***
CRISPR-Cas9, the key of the Nephilim?  Super horses coming soon.
(The Nephilim are fallen angelic spirits who bred into material flesh and spirit before the Flood and brought on that planet-wide judgement; they were “men of renown,” Genesis 6)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/12/26/genetically-engineered-super-horses-born-2019-could-soon-compete/
Genetically engineered ‘super-horses’ to be born in 2019 and could soon compete in Olympics
Genetically engineered horses designed to be faster, stronger and better jumpers will be born in 2019 after a breakthrough by the same laboratory which clones polo ponies.
Scientists in Argentina successfully used a powerful DNA editing technique called Crispr to rewrite the genomes of cloned horses. … …

***
(December 28)
And the bombs go on…I don’t know about you, but for me the news is that we are very used to this.  That is not a good thing.  Maranatha!  Come, Lord Jesus.  Save to Christ from among Sunni and Shia as well as from among Protestant and Catholic in northern Ireland, Buddhist and Rohingya in Burma.  “Perplexity of nations, troublous times” on every side.  Help me, Lord, not to be complacent but to watch and “pray without ceasing.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/28/world/asia/afghanistan-suicide-attack.html?emc=edit_na_20171228&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta
Dozens Killed in Bombing at Shiite Center and News Agency in Kabul

***
(December 29)
A few more upgrades and some artificial skin and we will be producing the fully humanoid cyborgs of Galactica —

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/12/20/human-like-robots-yet-able-play-badminton-perform-sit-ups-blessed/
The most human-like robots yet: able to play badminton, perform sit-ups and blessed with complete skeletons
***
(December 30)
An interesting turn in Iran.  Are the Iranian people, who are more prone to love the West, to accept Israel, and to wish for peace, about to turn on the devil clerics who run the country and seethe with hatred against Israel and the U.S?  Persia must come to the battle of Ezekiel’s vision, but how will they get there?  Let us watch in prayer.  May God pour mercy on the people of Iran before its time for judgment comes.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-economy-protests/price-protests-turn-political-in-iran-as-rallies-spread-idUSKBN1EN0P0
Price protests turn political in Iran as rallies spread
DUBAI (Reuters) - Demonstrators chanted anti-government slogans in several cities across Iran on Friday, Iranian news agencies and social media reports said, as price protests turned into the largest wave of demonstrations since nationwide pro-reform unrest in 2009.
Police dispersed anti-government demonstrators in the western city of Kermanshah as protests spread to Tehran and several other cities a day after rallies in the northeast, the semi-official news agency Fars said.
The outbreak of unrest reflects growing discontent over rising prices and alleged corruption, as well as concern about the Islamic Republic’s costly involvement in regional conflicts such as those in Syria and Iraq. … …

***
Terminator time?  Fears grow in the American Psyche with a “Black Mirror” episode in which robots similar to presently existing Boston Dynamic models are used as people-hunting terminators — See trailer at link.

http://ew.com/tv/2017/12/29/black-mirror-metalhead-interview/
Black Mirror creator explains that 'Metalhead' robot nightmare

***
After “the rape of Cologne” two years ago, Germans now set up “safe zone” corrals to protect their women from marauding islamist rapists who express their displeasure of the “immodesty” of western women by gang rape assaults on them.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42502984
New Year's Eve party in Berlin to have 'safe zone' for women
Organisers of Berlin's New Year's Eve celebrations are to set up a "safe zone" for women for the first time.
The new security measures planned for the Brandenburg Gate party come amid concerns about sexual assaults.
A large number of assaults and robberies targeting women at Cologne's New Year's Eve celebrations two years ago horrified Germany.
Hundreds of women reported being attacked by gangs of men with migrant backgrounds. … …

***
“Swatting,” a crossover prank between a virtual world and the real world results in a real “death by cop” of an innocent man.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/us/wichita-shooting-swatting.html?emc=edit_th_20171230&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Summoned by a Prank Call, Police in Wichita Kill a Man at His Front Door
The call to the police sounded dire: a violent dispute at a house in Wichita, Kan., a person shot to death, an armed man holding hostages and threatening to burn the place down.
Officers raced to the scene and surrounded the house. A man emerged and the police commanded him to put his hands up. Moments later, an officer fired a deadly shot.
The whole encounter on Thursday night had been based on a hoax: There had been no shooting before the police arrived, no hostages, no threat of arson. Instead, it was a fatal incarnation of “swatting,” in which people report fake crimes in hopes of getting a SWAT team to raid a rival’s house.
“If the false police call had not been made, we would not have been there,” Deputy Chief Troy Livingston of the Wichita Police Department said at a news conference on Friday.
A 25-year-old man, Tyler Barriss, was arrested in connection with the hoax, Officer Mike Lopez, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department, said late Friday. The Wichita police could not be reached for comment.

***
Supposed ally or not, Pakistan is, at its bottom line, 98% Islamic—
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/us/politics/pakistan-american-aid-255-million.html?emc=edit_th_20171230&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Frustrated U.S. Might Withhold $255 Million in Aid From Pakistan
WASHINGTON — When Pakistani forces freed a Canadian-American family this fall held captive by militants, they also captured one of the abductors. United States officials saw a potential windfall: He was a member of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network who could perhaps provide valuable information about at least one other American hostage.
The Americans demanded access to the man, but Pakistani officials rejected those requests, the latest disagreement in the increasingly dysfunctional relationship between the countries. Now, the Trump administration is strongly considering whether to withhold $255 million in aid that it had delayed sending to Islamabad, according to American officials, as a show of dissatisfaction with Pakistan’s broader intransigence toward confronting the terrorist networks that operate there.
The administration’s internal debate over whether to deny Pakistan the money is a test of whether President Trump will deliver on his threat to punish Islamabad for failing to cooperate on counterterrorism operations. Relations between the United States and Pakistan, long vital for both, have chilled steadily since the president declared over the summer that Pakistan “gives safe haven to agents of chaos, violence and terror.” … …

***
…And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, 
who created heaven, and the things that therein are, 
and the earth, and the things that therein are, 
and the sea, and the things which are therein,
that there should be time no longer…

Revelation 10:6

“And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it:
For the glory of God did lighten it,
And the Lamb is the light thereof.”

Revelation 21:23

*********************************************************
If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

December 24

Saints,

Tomorrow is Christmas.  May you find comfort and cheer, especially for what Christmas is intended to recall.  Will there be another one in this Age, or are we so near the End of the Age that any future celebrations will be carried out in the Millennial Realm when the Lord Jesus reigns in person here on the Earth?  In hoping for their Messiah, about which many of them remain in the dark, the Jews often say, “Next year in Jerusalem.”  We can say this with them, and add, “Maranatha, the Lord is come; the Lord is nigh!”  For Jesus Christ is Lord, Lord and Messiah, and we celebrate his Incarnation and Coming to Earth…as the Father did, opening heaven with multitudes of angels in heavenly choirs.  Neither the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Scriptures, nor the early church tell us the actual calendar date of his arrival in Incarnation, probably around the end of September or early in October.  But when the Christians were first given the reins of the Empire to propagate our Faith, they took a civil holiday season away from the pagans and gave it to the whole empire as a sign of Christ’s ascendancy.  Sure, many bad contests with the world and worldliness have come since, and many retrofits have been tried such like the worshipping of saints (like St. Nicholas/Santa Claus) as the pagans did for their pantheon of gods, but yet, fully perfect and wise or not, the Christians set Christ above the old pagan gods, defrocked and dethroned them.  All in all, it was probably the best call they could make in the situation in calling a secular world to heed to Christ the Lord.  Merry Christmas!  Yet we celebrate it in “the common salvation,” and not otherwise,  for we which are called must “earnestly contend for the Faith…once delivered to the saints,” says Jude, the brother of our Lord Jesus (see v.3).

***
Some elements of the week’s downward vortex…as we wait for the Upward Call! —

(December 18)
California continues to burn…and burn…and burn…and burn…Is God demonstrating hell?  While still in the body, we have opportunity to repent, and may his mercy guide many to know him and find his provision through this time of mortal terror in the paths of the fires.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-thomas-fire-ledeall-20171217-story.html
Fire crews take advantage of calm winds, but 'we’ll always be in the ‘ready, set, go’ mode'
Firefighters took advantage of light winds in Santa Barbara County late Sunday, mounting an aggressive attack directly on the massive Thomas fire’s western face a day after powerful gusts pushed flames toward homes along the coast.
Crews were in place to protect homes should a wind shift send the wildfire toward neighborhoods overnight, but authorities said that’s unlikely.
“The fire’s burning in open country right now, which is away from homes, which is exactly where we want it,” said Capt. Rick Crawford, a Cal Fire spokesman. Even so, he said, “We’ll always be in the ‘ready, set, go’ mode.”
Just a day earlier, stronger-than-expected winds kicked up and triggered an epic battle to save homes along the coast. Two homes in the Montecito hills were destroyed and about a dozen structures damaged during Saturday’s flare up.

But firefighters were able to protect about a 1,000 structures because of advanced preparations, officials said. Evacuations were also lifted for the Carpinteria area.
As of Sunday evening, the third-largest wildfire in modern California history was at 270,000 acres and 45% contained, officials said.
Fueled by Santa Ana winds, with gusts topping 70 mph early Sunday in some valley and mountain areas, the blaze burned a massive swath from Santa Barbara to Ventura. By late Sunday, winds had dropped down to 3 to 5 mph, with gusts of about 10 mph, Crawford said. … …

***
The de-gendering of the West, at least of the U.S., by the destruction of celebrities?  But is it “the devil’s righteousness” as he slaughters some of his own to achieve a dehumanizing, degenderizing, new fear and loathing of one another throughout humanity?
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-97-men-and-one-woman-taken-down-by-the-metoo-movement,
The 97 Men (and One Woman) Taken Down by the #MeToo Movement
The #MeToo hashtag, adopted by women to share their stories of sexual abuse, harassment, and abuse, continues to make waves. The question is whether it can also bring change.

It began on Oct. 5, when The New York Times reported the first allegations of sexual harassment against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. But it became a juggernaut 10 days later, when the actress Alyssa Milano encouraged victims of sexual harassment or assault to tweet the words “me too.”
A collective raising of hands across social media quickly snowballed into a viral, global hashtag, as #MeToo appeared in more than 500,o00 tweets and 12 million Facebook posts within the first 24 hours. Harrowing, first-person accounts of being sexually abused clogged Instagram feeds, too. … …

***
Sign of things to come?  Infrastructure cracks?  At the same time this was occurring, an unexplained outage was happening in a local town near here, affecting some of my loved ones with residential power and civic power disrupted Sunday afternoon when there was only fair weather and no winds.  Couldn’t even pump gas at my favorite station.  And traffic lights were out.  

Surely, one little EMP could ruin your whole day…or decade…or century?  How fragile our technocracy may be!  Keep those kerosene lamps on the shelf.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/17/us/atlanta-airport-power-out.html?emc=edit_th_20171218&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Power Failure at Atlanta Airport Snarls Air Traffic Nationwide
ATLANTA — A power failure at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Sunday disrupted operations at the busiest airport in the world, forcing the cancellation of more than 1,150 departing or arriving flights and stranding travelers on planes on the tarmac for hours, the authorities and passengers said.
The power failure at the airport, a major hub for domestic and international flights, sent a ripple of disruptions across the country, affecting flights in Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere. There were signs the problems would linger into Monday, as Delta Air Lines announced Sunday evening that it planned to cancel 300 flights the next day. … …

***
(December 20)
Jerusalem the Capital!  Wow, Bible readers, talk about Apocalyptic Times!  “Cross us, no more candy,” says the Prez (my paraphrase).

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/world/middleeast/trump-threatens-to-end-american-aid-were-watching-those-votes-at-the-un.html?emc=edit_na_20171220&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta
Trump Threatens to End American Aid: ‘We’re Watching Those Votes’ at the U.N.
WASHINGTON — President Trump threatened on Wednesday to cut off American aid to any country that votes in favor of a resolution at the United Nations General Assembly denouncing his recent decision to formally recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Mr. Trump’s statement, delivered at his last Cabinet meeting of the year, followed a letter from the American ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, in which she warned that the United States would take note of any country that votes in favor of the measure. … …

***

(December 21)
Oh, Great! So, staid, solid rock topography, geology, or not, we are sitting plumb in the middle over a vast caldera right here in Vermont!
(Of course, “it’s millions of years away”; little comfort for “young earth creationists” who believe the whole universe is only a few thousand years in existence as Genesis, at face value, says.  But, why worry? God has the whole world in his hand.)  “Let ‘er blow in his good time!”

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/668511/magma-pool-new-england-volcano-volcanic-eruption-yellowstone-supervolcano
Massive MAGMA pool found bubbling under New England will spark volcanic eruption
A LARGE pool of Magma has been found underneath a number of US states – and it will most likely spark a volcanic eruption.
Scientists at Rutgers University recently discovered the large mass of boiling hot rock that stretches across Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire. … …

***

Christ or Anti-Christ?  Hillsong Church rocks on the Beatles.  But few know that “Imagine” author and professed atheist Lennon did make a confession of Christ before he was murdered.  God knows.  We can only carefully watch and always pray.  On another hand, Martin Luther himself once said, “Why should the devil have all the good music?”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/20/style/hillsong-christmas-beatles.html?&moduleDetail=section-news-1&action=click&contentCollection=Style&region=Footer&module=MoreInSection&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&pgtype=article
Hillsong Unites Believers and Those Old Agnostics John, Paul, George and Ringo
More than a thousand worshipers attended a Pentecostal singalong whose set list included Beatles hits like “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “Here Comes the Sun.” (“Son,” hopefully. No “sun god, sun kings” here except “The Sun of Righteousness, the Son of God, Who “comes with healing in his wings”! Malachi 4:2)

***
Guard (inculcate, teach, vaccinate, de-program) your children from Islamic propaganda in the public schools —

Via thebereancall.org / Today’s Update for December 20

Wake up, parents, to the fact that many public schools are indoctrinating your children.
"The parents have got to wake up to the fact," says constitutional activist Donna Hearne, "that their child is being indoctrinated in a way that is very destructive not only to what they probably believe in but also to the future of America."
Hearne, who heads the Missouri-based Constitutional Coalition, was reacting to a controversial high school assignment in Massachusetts, where Newtown High students pretended to be Muslims making their pilgrimage to Islam's holy city of Mecca.
A second classroom assignment, Fox News reported, tells students to pretend to be a Muslim in the "Islamic city" of Jerusalem.
The Fox News story quotes a Judicial Watch investigator who said Newtown parents have been fighting the left-wing school district for years over the slanted pro-Islam school materials.
"When you hear so much caterwauling from the Left about religion being mixed in the school, it's a little troubling when kids are being asked to go on an imaginary Hajj," [said] investigator Bill Marshall....  
The ongoing fight between parents and left-wing school administrators is nothing new.... San Diego public schools vowed to address Islamaphobia" by introducing Muslim holidays to the school calendar among other feel-good efforts. 
In that April story and others, this news website has linked to a 2015 investigation by fact-checker Snopes, which was surprised to read the pro-Islam materials in a seventh grade geography textbook. Students are taught about the "glory days" of Islam while Christianity is about "harming their neighbors and attempting to quash science," Snopes reported at the time.
One important detail about an imagined trip to Mecca [which] Hearne [reports] is that only Muslims are permitted in Mecca.
So it would be likely, she adds, that these same students would be considered Muslim converts if they named the five pillars of Islam and recited the "shahada" - the Muslim profession of faith.
(Kellogg, "No god but Allah and public education is his apologist," OneNewsNow Online, 11/7/17).

***

GAG!  Faux Meat!  Remember the ‘60s movie, Soylent Green, where the “meat patties” turned out to be ground up humans…human hamburger!?  Portent of the day ahead when real meat will not be politically correct?  …”to save the planet.”
Having a veggie burger is one thing; having it forced on you is another!

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/12/20/silicon-valley-frankenmeat-to-save-the-world-from-global-warming/		http://fortune.com/2017/12/19/silicon-valley-meatless-meat/
Silicon Valley Frankenmeat to Save the World from Global Warming
If Silicon Valley green tech giants have their way, real meat will become an unaffordable carbon taxed luxury item eaten by the very rich. The rest of us will have to eat “meatless meat” – meat flavoured mashed vegetables and lab grown tissue cultures.
There will be a market for this product. While I understand some people drink soy milk because of allergies or cost, many of those 10% of people who drink Soy milk do so for idealogical reasons – they also try to avoid other cattle products, buying veggie burgers and suchlike, and will likely be ready in many cases to buy lab grown cultured meat (guaranteed cruelty free).
For people who genuinely can’t afford meat at current prices, a cheap substitute which helped them and their children get the protein they require wouldn’t be a bad thing – though cutting red tape to help reduce the cost of real meat would likely achieve the same goal.
I doubt most of the remaining 90% of us would willingly embrace highly processed artificial meat tasting substitutes when we can buy the real thing.
Discouraging ordinary people from buying real meat will have to be a business goal of these high tech entrepreneurs. No doubt they would justify such efforts in terms of saving the planet from climate change.
It is easy to see how discouraging real meat consumption could happen – advertisements flooding the airwaves with messages emphasising the “cruelty” of cattle farming, adding Vegan messages to elementary school lessons, imposing carbon taxes and animal welfare regulations to make cattle farming impossibly expensive, lots of donated cash for politicians who pass laws which favour well funded artificial meat producers. Though I suspect real meat would still be available at climate conferences and UN events, at least for important attendees. … …

***
63,600 Drugs Deaths in US to date for 2017 says CBS Evening News and other outlets.  As a result, average US lifespan drops a couple of points. Do mass opioid deaths at the end of a needle indicate mass cultural suicide, a true decadence (decay, rot) of civilization at the End of the Age?

***

(December 22)
Livin’ in the Future? — Cyborgs shopping for a place in human society?
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/21/meet-the-robot-that-passed-a-college-class-on-philosophy-and-love.html
Meet the robot that passed a college class on philosophy and love

***
“The trouble with Tribbles”?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/technology/connected-toys-hacking.html?emc=edit_th_20171222&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
A Cute Toy Just Brought a Hacker Into Your Home
SAN FRANCISCO — My Friend Cayla, a doll with nearly waist-length golden hair that talks and responds to children’s questions, was designed to bring delight to households. But there’s something else that Cayla might bring into homes as well: hackers and identity thieves.
Earlier this year, Germany’s Federal Network Agency, the country’s regulatory office, labeled Cayla “an illegal espionage apparatus” and recommended that parents destroy it. Retailers there were told they could sell the doll only if they disconnected its ability to connect to the internet, the feature that also allows in hackers. And the Norwegian Consumer Council called Cayla a “failed toy.”
The doll is not alone. As the holiday shopping season enters its frantic last days, many manufacturers are promoting “connected” toys to keep children engaged. There’s also a smart watch for kids, a droid from the recent “Star Wars” movies and a furry little Furby. These gadgets can all connect with the internet to interact — a Cayla doll can whisper to children in several languages that she’s great at keeping secrets, while a plush Furby Connect doll can smile back and laugh when tickled.
But once anything is online, it is potentially exposed to hackers, who look for weaknesses to gain access to digitally connected devices. Then once hackers are in, they can use the toys’ cameras and microphones to potentially see and hear whatever the toy sees and hears. As a result, according to cybersecurity experts, the toys can be turned to spy on little ones or to track their location. … …

***

“The devil gets his due” at Christmas too?  The NYTimes fantasizes with a gibber-jabber (etymology to gibborim > giants > nephilim?) video on Santa Claus.  Sure, the original Santa Claus (Eastern European children quickly pronouncing-slurring St. Nicholas >“sant Nicholas”> “SantNiklas” > “Santa Claus”) was a prominent bishop in Myra in modern Turkey with a bent toward charity for the poor.  He also took part in the Council of Niceae and was an orthodox Christian later heroized with many supernatural tales about him.  But, he was later transformed by illustrator Thomas Nast (1840-1902) into the jolly, fat demigod of present day, but this development may have come from Nordic myths, in this case the Laplanders (now called the Sami) with their reindeer culture and occult/psychedelic experiences, led by their shamans, which included visions of flying reindeer.  So goes the speculation and myth-making of these videographers anyway.  And it is not too far-fetched.  We did christianize the Christmas tree, Yule, etc. from Nordic and Viking traditions; why not a Santa Claus figure which has so little to do with the original Nicholas?  In an earlier day of the Jesus Movement, we also renamed the phenomenon as “satan’s claws,” also apropos for people who hold to the Scriptures as the only sure source of divine truth…”Sola Scriptura!” cried the Reformers.  This short video is about Laplander tripping, and is a bit of trip itself.  It re-paganizes Christmas as psychedelic shamanism via “old saint Nick.”  Even his red and white suit and rotundity may be an advertisement/association/icon of Amanita Muscaria, and the colorful, round cap of the poisonous, psychedelic, magick mushroom.

https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000005607627/santa-is-a-psychedelic-mushroom.html?emc=edit_th_20171222&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Santa Is a Psychedelic Mushroom
***
(December 23)
For better or for worse, Miss America, which has been part of American iconography since 1921, is now in the unseemly danger of falling to the gender purge among American Media Celebrities.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/22/opinion/miss-america-pageant-haskell-email.html?emc=edit_th_20171223&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
The End of Miss America

***
An account of the Ventura Fire at week’s end —
Says Drudge:  “BURNED OUT: The traumatized fire victims of Ventura” 

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-ventura-trauma-20171219-htmlstory.html
Landmarks in ashes, and of memory, confront fire victims in a traumatized Ventura

***
More in the path of the martyrs — another attack on Egypt’s Coptic Christians
https://apnews.com/45135f6cbd8e457bab79d9b93a7ccdd1/Coptic-diocese-says-hundreds-assault-church-in-Egypt
Coptic diocese says hundreds attack church in Egypt\
CAIRO (AP) — Hundreds of Muslim demonstrators attacked an unlicensed church south of Cairo wounding three people, an Egyptian Coptic Christian diocese said on Saturday, in the latest assault on members of the country’s Christian minority.
The incident took place after Friday prayers when dozens of demonstrators gathered outside the building and stormed it. The demonstrators chanted hostile slogans and called for the church’s demolition, the diocese in Atfih said. The demonstrators destroyed the church’s contents and assaulted Christians inside before security personnel arrived and dispersed them.

The wounded were transferred to a nearby hospital, the diocese said after the attack, without elaborating.
A media coordinator at the diocese, the Rev. Yehnes Youssef, said later on Saturday that three Copts were wounded but have been treated.
The church in Giza just outside of Cairo is yet to be sanctioned by the state but has been holding prayers for 15 years. The diocese said it had officially sought to legalize the building’s status under a 2016 law that laid down the rules for building churches.
Local authorities often refuse to issue building permits for new churches, fearing protests by hardline Muslim. Christians sometimes build churches illegally or set up churches in other buildings.
Christians constitute around 10 percent of Egypt’s predominantly Muslim population. Sectarian violence erupts occasionally, mainly in rural communities in the south.
Egypt’s Christian minority has been targeted by Islamic militants in a series of attacks since December 2016 that left more than 100 dead and scores wounded. The country has been under a state of emergency since April after suicide bombings struck two Coptic Christian churches on Palm Sunday in an attack that was claimed by the local affiliate of the Islamic State group. … …
***
(December 24)
Grouping these UFO stories together, what is as amazing as UFOs themselves is the unfocused story of how completely prepped and expectant, brainwashed, the general public is for the arrival of contact. By sci-fi media, first contact seems to have been underway for quite some time.  What knowledge of the unholy does the human heart already know, even if the mind is only a playground for it?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/23/existence-ufos-proved-beyond-reasonable-doubt-says-former-pentagon/
Existence of UFOs 'proved beyond reasonable doubt', says former Pentagon X-Files chief 
		
Earth may well have been visited by UFOs from outer space, the former head of a secret US government programme has told The Telegraph.
Luis Elizondo said the existence of supremely advanced unidentified aircraft, using technology that did not belong to any nation, had been "proved beyond reasonable doubt".
Until two months ago, from his office on the fifth floor of The Pentagon, Mr Elizondo, a career intelligence officer, ran the innocuously named Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP), which was funded with $22 million in "black ops money" from Congress.
The existence of the real-life X-Files department, which began in 2007, was revealed this week and confirmed by the Pentagon.
In an interview with the Telegraph Mr Elizondo said much of what he could discuss was still classified.
That included whether his team had examined UFO sightings in other countries including the UK... …

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5207751/People-call-911-strange-light-appears-California.html
Says Musk, SpaceX “commander,” with tongue-in-cheek: “that the object in the sky was a 'nuclear alien UFO from North Korea.'

'The aliens are here': Arizona and California 911 centers are inundated with calls and celebrities go on a Twitter frenzy over 'spaceship-shaped light' in the sky - but it is just a Space X rocket

NYTime’s Ross Douthat weighs in —
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/23/opinion/alien-encounters-christmas-ufo.html?emc=edit_th_20171224&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Flying Saucers and Other Fairy Tales
***

The utter hypocrisy of naming a company “Vice” and expecting a “progressive” higher morality from it?  (In “1984,” the Anti-Sex League was for propaganda while those inside the Party did otherwise.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/23/business/media/vice-sexual-harassment.html?emc=edit_th_20171224&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
At Vice, Cutting-Edge Media and Allegations of Old-School Sexual Harassment
A media company built on subversion and outlandishness was unable to create “a safe and inclusive workplace” for women, two of its founders acknowledge.

***

And the angel said unto them, 
Fear not: for, behold, 
I bring you good tidings of great joy, 
which shall be to all people.
Luke 2:10

Merry Christmas!

***************************************************************
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December 17

Saints,

Luke 2: “…And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,  Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”
Now, that’s “celebrating Christmas,” multitudes of angels singing and Heaven itself opened to Earth at the birth of Jesus Our Savior upon the Earth!  It was meant for “all people” with “peace, good will toward men” and “good tidings of great joy.”  Yet, we must be careful, for in this humanly set aside season, every huckster and promoter is also busy gathering his own mammon, and what is a season of worship for those who rejoice at Jesus’ Incarnation is a fleshly orgy of “blessing” for much of the world.  Yet, we may have more open ears at this season when a certain “spirit of Christmas” and reflection may give us opportunities to share the Gospel, even just reading the Gospel accounts at family gatherings, etc.  Let us take every opportunity…and, filtering out the world’s take on the matter, there is nothing wrong with us being happy and celebrant at a memorial of these greatest events too!  Merry Christmas!!!
***
Some of the weekly vortex of events—

(December 10)
http://www.wnd.com/2017/12/trumps-jerusalem-declaration-sparks-talk-of-3rd-temple/
TRUMP'S JERUSALEM DECLARATION SPARKS TALK OF 3RD TEMPLE
Israeli activist: 'Words of prophecy are coming forth from the Bible and becoming facts'

WASHINGTON – While Muslims jeer, Israelis cheer President Trump’s Jerusalem declaration, prompting Jewish religious activists to suggest building the Third Temple is closer to reality than ever before.
“What he did … was an enormous step in bringing the Temple,” said Asaf Fried, official spokesman for the United Temple Movement, an association of organizations working towards making the Third Temple a reality.
He added, “This necessarily had to come from a non-Jew in order to bring them into the process, so they will be able to take their part in the Temple.”
Fried sees Trump’s role similar to the one played by Cyrus, the Persian king who ended the Babylonian exile and helped build the Second Jewish Temple.
“There have been amazing advances towards bringing the Temple this year. It was clear that Trump was part of that process, guided by Hashem (God),” Fried declared. … …

***
(December 11)
Bloody checks to Islamic expansionism on the East.  Not only are the Rohingya being driven out of Myanmar (Burma), but there is strong Hindu hatred and ancient clash with Muslims throughout India.  (I did not know that the famous and beautiful Taj Mahal was a monument of more ancient Islam.)  Islamic expansionism also threatens the West, but it is a vital part of Islamic theology and eschatology.  As the liberal West hardens up also, will this bring the explosive, gathering Islamic militancy finally to the central Middle Eastern battlefield of Ezekiel’s prophecy (chs. 38 and 39)?  Hinduism has also been shown to have direct links to the ancient mysteries of Babylon; false religions are the chess pieces of the evil one.  (But there are also many weeds sown among God’s good plantings, the church, too, and Jesus said these also would be rooted out at the appropriate time, at the harvest, Matthew 13:24 ff, 37 ff..)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/10/opinion/extremists-india-taj-mahal.html?emc=edit_th_20171211&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Hate Smears India’s Symbol of Love, the Taj Mahal
Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel Prize-winning Indian author, called the Taj Mahal “a teardrop on the cheek of time.” It is perhaps India’s greatest cultural treasure and its pre-eminent tourist attraction.
But the Hindu extremists who have become a driving force in India are so obsessed with demonizing Muslims that they are smearing it as an abomination.
Built in the 17th century by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as a tomb for his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal, the Taj Mahal is considered one of the wonders of the world and a magnificent symbol of enduring love. Millions flock to marvel at its shimmering magnificence, with intricately inlaid and carved white marble inscribed with verses from the Quran, every year. And that is exactly what the Hindu right finds so galling. … …

***
Monday Morning — Santa Barbara now also under fire threat

https://www.yahoo.com/news/fire-southern-california-threatening-another-city-155145118.html
Fire in southern California threatening another city

Ojai (United States) (AFP) - A fierce wildfire raged on north of Los Angeles Sunday, threatening other towns after already charring vast swaths of land, but other blazes were largely contained after burning for days.
The so-called Thomas fire is only 15 percent contained, now threatening the city of Santa Barbara and the nearby coastal town of Carpinteria, and is on track to become one of the worst wildfires in California history. It has already destroyed 600 structures and scorched 173,000 acres (70,000 hectares), the authorities say.
"Praying for my town. Fires closing in. Firefighters making brave stands. Could go either way. Packing to evacuate now," actor Rob Lowe, who lives in Santa Barbara, wrote on Twitter. … …

***

Is Canada “signing its own death warrant” on procreation and man/woman/kids families by not allowing Christian parents to adopt unless they are politically pro-sodomite-adoption too?  It may take a generation or so, but this kind of literal decadence (decay) may cause the family to die and population to decrease over time.

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1846
British & Canadian Families Denied Adoption For Christian Views On Homosexuality
Recent cases of British and Canadian families that were denied permission to adopt show that the war gender radicals are waging on Christianity increasingly targets families. 

In several recent high-profile cases, Christian families holding mainstream Biblical views on homosexuality were rejected for adoption solely due to their beliefs that children should be raised by both a mother and a father and that the choice to live a homosexual lifestyle is fraught with risk.

A husband and wife in the UK (their names withheld from the media), who have biological children of their own, had opened their family to foster children for years. 

Read more at http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1846#8T4vGECyH5TCzJev.99

As they continued to act as loving foster parents for a happy family, they were informed by a social worker  that a homosexual couple was seeking to adopt their foster children. The foster parents expressed their concern and only two days later applied again to adopt the children.

Still focused on the best interests of the children, they believed that to uproot them from the loving family bonds they had formed were do more harm than good. They are reported to have said, "We want to look after them. We want to adopt them; we love them. 

They’re thriving in our care. They’re thriving with a mum and a dad, and this is not the situation we want for them. We believe the best interest of the child will be served if they stay with us." It was their assertion that the children are thriving with both a mother and father and that they didn't want them with a homosexual couple that triggered their rejection by Social Services the second time.

The Social Services Council worker told them that their beliefs on gay parents were "concerning" and that they "could be detrimental to the long-term needs of the children." It is on these ground that the children were removed from their Christian foster home and placed in the care of two gay men. The foster parents appealed the decision that was clearly discriminatory towards Christians.

Unless Christian views are now, by definition, not only homophobic but make the believer unfit for the role of parents, they did not express any homophobic views. "We are Christians and we expressed the view that a child needs a mother and a father. We expressed our views in modest, temperate terms based on our Christian convictions," the couple reiterated. 

***

“For world peace, Israel must be destroyed,”  
reads a Palestinian protest sign.  This is a chief doctrine of the Antichrist by the midpoint of The Tribulation.  The “Great Tribulation,” the last 3 1/2 years, begins with the Antichrist betraying a covenant with Israel by committing the “abomination of desolation,” sitting down between the cherubim of the Ark on the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies of a rebuilt Temple and declaring himself, “God come in the flesh,”  the manifestation of the Messiah.  “Antichrist” means not only “against Christ” but also “replacement Christ.”  This Temple will never be inhabited by God in the same way as the initial Temples.  It is built to fulfill the prophecy of the Antichrist.  God no longer commands or honors animal sacrifices and Temple rituals.  These were completed by the Lamb of God on the Cross.  In the Millennium, the vast Temple of Ezekiel’s vision (chapters 40 and ff.) will be built in Jerusalem, but if there are actual sacrifices, they will be only memorial and not salvational.  This Temple may also be the royal throne/palace of David and of David’s Son, Our Lord Jesus, the Seat of His Reign and Dominion over Earth, yea, even Heaven and Earth during that 1000 years…for where God is, there is the Reign of Heaven!  (After this, the old Order passes away and the New Jerusalem comes down and there are New Heavens and the New Earth!!! — Revelation 21.)

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1845
Anti-Israel Activists Reveal True Nature With Jerusalem Protests

***
https://www.fastcompany.com/40506058/former-facebook-exec-social-media-is-ripping-apart-society
Former Facebook exec:  Social media is ripping apart society
Facebook’s former vice president for user growth Chamath Palihapitiya recently gave a talk at the Stanford Graduate School of Business that’ll probably make you think twice about your social media use (via the Verge). The entire talk is well worth a watch, but some of his most prominent remarks included:
		That he feels “tremendous guilt” about Facebook. “I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works.”
		“The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created [including the hearts, likes, and thumbs up of various social media channels] are destroying how society works.” He added, “[There’s] no civil discourse, no cooperation; [only] misinformation, mistruth. And it’s not an American problem–this is not about Russians ads. This is a global problem.”
		Regarding an incident in which seven innocent men in India were lynched after a hoax about kidnappings spread through WhatsApp: “That’s what we’re dealing with. And imagine taking that to the extreme, where bad actors can now manipulate large swathes of people to do anything you want. It’s just a really, really bad state of affairs.”
		Unsurprisingly, when it comes to social media, his children “aren’t allowed to use that s - - - .”

***

(December 14)
Terrible grief at these times takes a Kentucky State Representative by suicide.  This mess of accusations between men and women is far more satanic condemnation and “social/technological/machine morality” than conviction of sin and true repentance.  This man also suffered being cornered by PTSD according to his own statement.  He seems to be a man of faith and love, but he has died in his sins, committing self-murder.  One can earnestly hope that God may see things we don’t see — such grievous temptations as to drive a righteous man to death — but we must resist them, calling on God, and with all our might.  Our lives are not our own (to take), says the Word, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.  There is an incalculable risk — we have no way to know if there is any exception, and to die in one’s sins is to suffer eternal loss.  May God’s mercy somehow cover this man’s driven state, but at least answer his prayers that his family will go on (in Christ).  Lord God, strengthen your people against such despair!  We weep at this loss.  Christians, we must hold on.  This life, at its most, is very short; we must let God control our lives, even their ends, that we may have Eternity with Him and in his pleasure.  God forbid…against suicide.  Was Saul saved?  Only Judgment Day will tell.

http://www.wdrb.com/story/37062873/rep-dan-johnson-commits-suicide-on-bridge-in-mt-washington
Kentucky State Rep. Dan Johnson dies of 'probable suicide' in Mt. Washington
His suicide note:
The accusations from NPR are false GOD and only GOD knows the truth, nothing is the way they make it out to be. AMERICA will not survive this type of judge and jury fake news . Conservatives take a stand. I LOVE GOD and I LOVE MY WIFE, who is the best WIFE in the world,My Love Forever ! My Mom and Dad my FAMILY and all five of my kids and Nine grandchildren two in tummies and many more to come each of you or a total gift from GOD stay strong, REBECCA needs YOU . 9-11-2001 NYC/WTC, PTSD 24/7 16 years is a sickness that will take my life, I cannot handle it any longer. IT Has Won This Life . BUT HEAVEN IS MY HOME. “PLEASE LISTEN CLOSELY, Only Three things I ask of you to do,if you love me is (1)blame no person,Satan is the accuser, so blame the Devil himself. (2) Forgive and Love everyone especially yourself .(3)most importantly LOVE GOD. P.S. I LOVE MY FRIENDS YOU ARE FAMILY ! GOD LOVES ALL PEOPLE NO MATTER WHAT !

Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin tweets this:
Saddened to hear of tonight’s death of KY Representative Dan Johnson...My heart breaks for his family tonight...These are heavy days in Frankfort and in America...May God indeed shed His grace on us all...We sure need it...

***

In “Sodom-Cisco,” first security ‘bots not warmly received by the homeless — a bit of irony, the robot was deployed by the ASPCA…
https://www.dezeen.com/2017/12/13/k5-knightscope-security-robot-sfspca-san-francisco-bullied-off-street/
Security robot bullied and forced off the street in San Francisco
A robot patrolling a street in San Francisco to ward off homeless people has been removed after complaints from locals, who also knocked it over and smeared it with feces.
The Knighscope K5 security robot was deployed by the San Francisco branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) to deter homeless people from sleeping and loitering near its building.
But it was forced to take away the 400-pound machine as it was operating in the public realm without a permit, and threatened with a $1,000-a-day (£745) fine.
The K5's presence also angered the local community, who took to social media to complain. … …(see tweets attached to the story)

(further excerpt):  San Francisco is tightening restrictions on autonomous machines on the streets – particularly delivery robots – with growing concerns over public safety.
Knightscope's K5 model has already been embroiled in other controversies elsewhere, including knocking a toddle over in Silicon Valley and falling into a pond in Washington DC after missing a set of stairs. 

***
(December 15)
Sad, desperate Venezuela —

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/12/14/flood-venezuelans-fleeing-their-depressed-country/941463001/
Flood of Venezuelans are fleeing depressed country. Here's where they're seeking refuge
LIMA, Peru — It is 8 a.m. and the line of Venezuelan refugees outside the Interpol office already stretches to the end of the block.
Most have just arrived in Lima with not much more than the clothes on their back and are here applying for a certificate to show they have no criminal record, a requirement for a work permit in Peru.
“Leaving was tough, but staying would have been tougher,” said Andrea Sequiera, 29, as she waits at the back of the line with her husband Luis, 31, and 8-year-old son Fabian. ”We know lots of people who would like to get out of Venezuela but can’t afford the ticket.”
Although Venezuelans for years have been fleeing the “socialist revolution” first launched by the late Hugo Chávez in 1999, in recent months the trickle has turned into a flood as living conditions become ever more dire — from hyperinflation to acute shortages of food and medicine to one of the worst homicide rates in the world. … …

***
(December 16)
Don’t let your smart phone rot your brain!  At least, use the speakerphone or earbuds; don’t carry the unit in your pocket or close to your body.  Put it away, off, charging in a corner of the house at night and not at your bedside.  Why turn it off at night?  In my view, why leave an open portal of potential surveillance right near you to hear and analyze, record and profile every sound?

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2017/12/14/california-cellphone-radiation-guidelines/
California Health Officials Release Guidelines To Avoid Cellphone Radiation
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — California health officials have a new message for cellphone users.
For the first time ever, the California Department of Public Health has released guidelines about harmful cellphone radiation and how you can avoid it.
Dr. Karen Smith with the California Department Of Public Health said, “We recognize that there are a lot of people in the general public that have some concerns about their cellphones and whether using a cellphone is safe.”
Smith said, “When you sleep, you keep the cellphone at least arm’s length away from your body. And also, not carrying your cellphone in your pocket, having it either in your purse or not carrying it with you.”
The research suggests cellphones could increase our risk for brain cancer and tumors, low sperm count, headaches, as well as impaired memory, hearing, and sleep. … …

***
The Lord does what He will with rulers of the Earth—

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/15/world/europe/eu-angela-merkel-emmanuel-macron.html?emc=edit_th_20171216&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
At E.U. Meeting, a Hobbled Merkel and a Stalled Agenda
(excerpt):  Germany, long Europe’s steadying force, has been without a government since an inconclusive election in September, and there is anxiety in Berlin that the country will be seen as unstable. The problem of Germany is, however, paralysis. While Germany argues about a new government, Europe waits.
***

“I want to believe.”  The X-Files are back…This time at the Pentagon instead of at the FBI with Muldur and Scully.  Those concerned with national security just can’t seem to shake those UFOs.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html
Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program
WASHINGTON — In the $600 billion annual Defense Department budgets, the $22 million spent on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was almost impossible to find.
Which was how the Pentagon wanted it.
For years, the program investigated reports of unidentified flying objects, according to Defense Department officials, interviews with program participants and records obtained by The New York Times. It was run by a military intelligence official, Luis Elizondo, on the fifth floor of the Pentagon’s C Ring, deep within the building’s maze.
The Defense Department has never before acknowledged the existence of the program, which it says it shut down in 2012. But its backers say that, while the Pentagon ended funding for the effort at that time, the program remains in existence. For the past five years, they say, officials with the program have continued to investigate episodes brought to them by service members, while also carrying out their other Defense Department duties.
The shadowy program — parts of it remain classified — began in 2007, and initially it was largely funded at the request of Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who was the Senate majority leader at the time and who has long had an interest in space phenomena. Most of the money went to an aerospace research company run by a billionaire entrepreneur and longtime friend of Mr. Reid’s, Robert Bigelow, who is currently working with NASA to produce expandable craft for humans to use in space.
On CBS’s “60 Minutes” in May, Mr. Bigelow said he was “absolutely convinced” that aliens exist and that U.F.O.s have visited Earth. … …

***

Merry Christmas?  Whew!  layers upon layers of arguing cultural Christmas.  Very hard to keep sorted out who’s proclaiming and who’s simply promoting.  The spirit of antichrist will try every trick, every double back and false argument to which the saints are subjected.  It is and always will be acceptable to God for us to follow his lead and be happy and celebrant about his sending his Son to Earth for us.  But, as every large cultural movement occurs, we must recall that God has provided individual, indwelling contact with each soul who follows Him.  We must each keep this preeminent, or we will be pawns of culture and politic.  
Read with care.  Both the anti- and the pro- are played back and forth against each other by this NYT editorial.  Nonetheless, it is better to proclaim the name of the Lord than to put our candle under a bushel.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/15/opinion/sunday/war-christmas-evangelicals.html?emc=edit_th_20171217&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
America’s New Religion: Fox Evangelicalism

***

…And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy…

**************************************************
If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

December 10

Saints,

Slushly piles of Snow in Texas and all across the South (and up the East Coast, but that’s to be expected) WHILE Southern California burns!  A fire captain mentions fighting the fires until Christmas and says that the fire season is now continuous.  Jerry Brown says, “Get used to it,” (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5163041/California-braces-high-winds-wildfires-continue.html), and LA is beginning to look like Cecil B. DeMille (or James Cameron, for you kids) does a movie on the destruction of Sodom.  Fireballs rain and swirl like tornadoes and walls of flame dance like blow torch winds in smelting furnaces and blacksmiths’ bellows, and then soar hundreds of feet into the air.

Meanwhile, the hating parts of the Press vomit daily vitriol against the President and his Administration with at least two major stories this week debunked as fake news and with a prominent reporter on unpaid leave for a month for unvetted stories.  This week, the President has named Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel, and the Islamic world has worked up a rage, but, even this, the Press magnifies out of all proportion, and works to find scenes of unrest amongst bored Palestinians with a few rock-hurling young men making holiday.  On the world stage, leaders roundly condemn Trump and stir up issues looking for trouble.  Erdogan seems poised to try to become a new Caliph for Islam now that ISIS’s Bagdadi is vanquished.  We do not yet really know how the nod of the US and its President will effect end of the Age events, but they surely convey the importance of Jerusalem. The Temple must be rebuilt for Antichrist to commit his “abomination that maketh desolate,” declaring himself to be God Incarnate.  We do not know how Christian our President is.  He is very smart and very powerful, but, at best, he is recent in conversion.  We need to pray for him and his cohorts, for at this point, any decision could work for Christ OR for Antichrist, and, to be sure the Evil One, will look for any opportunity.  Thankfully, “He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world” (1 Jn. 4:4).  God save.

Pray daily for the safety and holy guidance of those who are set in worldly authority over us.  God has raised up Gentile kings as his servants before.  Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus instantly jump to mind, and He can use what and whom he will, “turning the kings’ hearts as rivers of water” (Proverbs 21:1), and also converting them to salvation in the process.  Pray for the families and loved ones and associates of our earthly leaders, for safety and protection.  We must also become habituated to pray for our own, those given to us to watch over personally.  Everyone of us has pastoral duties in the matters of prayer and watchfulness for our families and associates, AND THEIR LIVES DEPEND ON IT.  Even target prayer for those who pass by, momentarily connected, in the public sphere.  You may well be praying for someone who has never been prayed for before.  Seeing more of the public lately than in my often hermitic life, I find myself asking God for opportunities and asking that people would at least feel the comfort of the Holy Ghost that accompanies me as a believing disciple, and give them a moment’s rest that may give them hunger for salvation, even among those with whom I can exchange only a few words or a smile.  These are the gifts given to every disciple who will exercise them.  We are God’s ambassadors; we are Jesus to the people around us if we will but let his lovingkindness flow from us.  In our presence, there should be a haven of rest and peace, a moment’s respite for the weary.  God help us.
*
I can’t help but notice the insanity and inanity of news summaries.  CBS does a morning favorite of mine called “Your world in 90 seconds.”  To maintain any credibility, they must begin with the obvious worldwide “natural” disasters of the morning (and these they often blame on the Administration!), but by 70 seconds in or so, they turn to the latest sports triumph as though this old world is just going to lumber along forever on the lastest “amazing score,” and statistics it has broken, etc., etc.  Interviews with the superheroes utterforth with the same hyperbolic adjectives and rants of affection and praise.  I suppose people need a little hero-worshipping levity as a counterpoint, and even Paul used sports metaphors, but oh what a foolish trance many in the public prefer to sober reality.  And yes, the “puppy stories” that end nearly every broadcast are a little needed hope and encouragement, but the sum of the broadcasts seem to amount to a managed entrancement…on “how good we are” and “how we shall manage and prevail if we only keep trying!”  May God keep his people hearing his voice, and for the Lost, even the Judgments raining down on the planet are sent in Hope that some will turn and be saved.  God is speaking loudly but many choose deafness and blindness.

***
Some elements of the week —

(December 4)
In 1932, Aldhous Huxley published his famous novel, Brave New World, warning of the dystopian future.  In his plot, part of the entertainment provided to sedate the masses was a movie experience called “The Feelies,” where not only the eyes were entertained, but the whole body experienced an alternate reality.  Today, we are approaching a “Matrix lifestyle” where true reality is replaced by an alternate permanent “feel good reality,”  or, at the least “romantic” (everything is ok) entertainment provided by Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality.  Now, even today’s movies, of which he offered his secular prophecies, are fulfilling his vision exactly —

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/movie-theaters-fight-streaming-assaulting-senses-n823826
Movie theaters fight streaming by assaulting the senses
Forget cushy recliners and meals delivered to your seat. As moviegoers defect in large numbers to streaming services and big-screen TVs, theater owners are desperately trying to stem a box office decline by souping up the movie-going experience.
In some theaters in California, families at the Disney movie “Coco” can feel the wind, smell a scent or shake in their chair. At another Disney release, “Beauty and the Beast,” the audience experienced something like snow falling from the ceiling, though it was actually bubbles.
During a fight scene in “The Fate of the Furious,” a Universal release (owned by NBCUniversal, the company that owns NBC News), "you might feel a punch in the back," said Annelise Holyoak, national marketing manager at Cinépolis USA, a big theater owner, referring to the vibrating chair. "It’s a very special experience.” … …
***
Quite some blogs back, I ran a link on a video that had been altered with new App Tech to make Mr. Obama say things he hadn’t really said in a speech.  This was only a demonstration, but scary.  Videos w/audio can now make anyone say anything with gestures, inflections, accents, etc. that reflect the persona of the person so cited, near perfectly.  Such videos can even be “age-adjusted” to provide an “historical account.”  The only upside: “infinite deniability” due to such powers being available and blaming any accusation or character assault as a hack, but could Kim Jung Un still, for example, “give a speech” in which he announced he had just launched missiles at America…and launch a “SkyNet” kind of response of instant nuclear retaliation?  Will the AI Singularity be able to utterly fabricate plausible and convincing realities to control global politics as well as to destroy individual lives and reputations, create utter blackmail enslavement, etc?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/03/business/china-artificial-intelligence.html?emc=edit_th_20171204&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
China’s A.I. Advances Help Its Tech Industry, and State Security
BEIJING — During President Trump’s visit to Beijing, he appeared on screen for a special address at a tech conference.
First he spoke in English. Then he switched to Mandarin Chinese.
Mr. Trump doesn’t speak Chinese. The video was a publicity stunt, designed to show off the voice capabilities of iFlyTek, a Chinese artificial intelligence company with both innovative technology and troubling ties to Chinese state security. IFlyTek has said its technology can monitor a car full of people or a crowded room, identify a targeted individual’s voice and record everything that person says.
“IFlyTek,” the image of Mr. Trump said in Chinese, “is really fantastic.”
As China tests the frontiers of artificial intelligence, iFlyTek serves as a compelling example of both the country’s sci-fi ambitions and the technology’s darker dystopian possibilities. … …

***
UFO Sightings Update —  All we know for certain from the orthodox Canon of Scripture is that we have wicked spiritual adversaries, headed by Satan.  This, God may have concluded is sufficient for us to know (though other things may be suggested by Scripture if not plainly stated).  We know about fallen angels at various levels —“powers and principalities”—  We know there are demons and unclean spirits.  We know not if they are from different ranks of fallen angels, or are hybrids between fallen angels and material beings (us and the animals, etc) —the damned and unclean (perverted, altered) spirits of the drowned Nephilim.  We do not know for certain if the Nephilim will manifest again in the same way at the end of the Age as they did in Genesis 6, but Jesus did say it would be as in the days of Noah in the time of his own return to Earth.  That is when the Nephilim were among us (“and also after that,” Numbers 13:33).  We do know there will be fearful sights in/from the heavens that will cause men’s hearts to fail for fear at the things coming on the Earth.  We do not know if these will be solely cosmic events, asteroid strikes and such, or whether powerful beings will also descend upon us, creating genetic monsters to go before them.  We know the Flood destroyed all unclean life on the Earth. Was this life that was polluted by the fallen angels in ongoing tactical waves after the initial attack and success of Original Sin in Eden?  But while all such life on the surface was destroyed, were some of these beings allowed to escape to, say, Mars, where for a couple of centuries now, we have been able to see things that look like the possible evidences of ancient bases and sentient activity?  Are “the Greys” Martian (or even interdimensional) escapees, part human, part fallen angels, physically deteriorated Nephilim, keeping themselves alive with genetic manipulation?  Great sci-fi themes, but some of it may come true.  Watch and see.  Time will tell.  Historically, the “gospels” of the occult, “the space brothers,” the extraterrestrials, the “ascended Masters,” etc. are diametrically opposed to the doctrine of the biblical Christ and bring and teach the “You are gods” lie.  If a global public announcement is imminent (and even sci-fi may be part of the prep), we should brace ourselves against a strong and powerful “gospel” that will entrance worldlings, the “gospel” of Antichrist, and prepare for greater tribulation until the Lord takes us up.

https://youtu.be/RjGYSGbAEUM
UFO Sightings are Escalating at an Alarming Rate
***
(December 5) Tuesday, early a.m.
Ventura burns. California fires resurge —

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-school-fire-20171204-story.html
Destructive wildfire sweeps into Ventura, burning through heart of the city
A fast-moving, wind-fueled wildfire swept into the city of Ventura early Tuesday, burning 26,100 acres, destroying homes and forcing thousands to evacuate.
Multiple structures — including at least one large apartment complex — were consumed by flames, and many more were threatened as the fire crept about a quarter mile away from City Hall. Hundreds of firefighters working through the night tried to prevent the blaze from spreading, block by block, as they were confronted by wind gusts of up to 50 mph. One firefighter was injured, though it’s unclear how.
“Due to the intensity of the fire, crews are having trouble making access, but there are multiple reports of structures on fire,” authorities said in a bulletin Tuesday morning.
Fire officials said the intensity of the fire, coupled with the wind, made it pretty much unstoppable. … …

…The destruction comes in what was already the worst year on record for wildfires in California. In October, more than 40 people died and more than 10,000 structures were lost when fires swept through Northern California’s wine country. … …
***
“Jerusalem will become a cup of trembling to all nations…” (see Zechariah 12:2)

https://www.yahoo.com/news/middle-east-braces-trump-verdict-jerusalem-213127360.html
International warnings as Trump delays Jerusalem decision
Washington (AFP) - International leaders warned US President Donald Trump Tuesday that he risked outraging Muslims and jeopardising Middle East peace efforts if he recognized Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and moved the US embassy there.
Trump delayed a controversial decision on the ancient holy city on Monday, following frantic public warnings from allies and private phone calls between world leaders.
Jerusalem's status is a key issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with both Israelis and Palestinians claiming the city as their capital.
Warnings multiplied on Tuesday, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warning Trump in a speech that the status of Jerusalem is a "red line" for Muslims and could even prompt Turkey to cut ties with Israel.
Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit said member states had decided to meet in Cairo "given the danger of this matter, if it were to happen, and the possible negative consequences not only for the situation in Palestine but also for the Arab and Islamic region". … …

***
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/04/us/politics/trump-travel-ban-supreme-court.html?emc=edit_th_20171205&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Supreme Court Allows Trump Travel Ban to Take Effect
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the third version of the Trump administration’s travel ban to go into effect while legal challenges against it continue. The decision was a victory for the administration after its mixed success before the court over the summer, when justices considered and eventually dismissed disputes over the second version.
The court’s brief, unsigned orders on Monday urged appeals courts to move swiftly to determine whether the latest ban was lawful. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor said they would have denied the administration’s request to allow the latest ban to go into effect.
The court’s orders mean that the administration can fully enforce its new restrictions on travel from eight nations, six of them predominantly Muslim. For now, most citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea will be barred from entering the United States, along with some groups of people from Venezuela. … …
***
A political assassination in Yemen, a present frontline between Sunni and Shia —

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/04/obituaries/ali-saleh-dead.html?emc=edit_th_20171205&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Ali Abdullah Saleh, Strongman Who Helped Unite Yemen, and Divide It, Dies at 75
Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former leader of Yemen, was known as a hardy survivor of Middle Eastern politics who had ruled for more than three decades and re-emerged to play a major role in his country’s devastating civil war.
Mr. Saleh, who was killed on Monday in Yemen under circumstances that remained unclear, was a canny manipulator of Yemen’s complex tribal politics who once likened his presidency to “dancing on the heads of snakes,” but his Machiavellian skills and good luck finally ran out. Aides said he died after an explosion at his home in Sana, the capital. Yemen’s Houthi rebels, his onetime allies in the war, said they had killed him in an ambush in the desert.
On Saturday Mr. Saleh had publicly broken with the Houthis, calling on Yemenis to “defend the nation” against them. That move in a lifetime of juggling alliances proved to be his last. … …
***
(December 6)
Pray!  If the causes of Sodom overthrow the Cause of the Cross, real persecution of biblical Christians will follow; not culture wars only but blood and guts rapine like the assault on Lot’s household in Sodom.  Lord, save us from these evils!
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/05/us/politics/supreme-court-same-sex-marriage-cake.html
Justices Sharply Divided in Gay Rights Case
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court entered the latest battleground in the culture wars on Tuesday, hearing arguments in a hard-fought clash between gay rights and claims of religious freedom that was a sort of sequel to  the court’s 2015 decision establishing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.
The new case involves the refusal of a Colorado baker, Jack Phillips, to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, and it had some justices worried that a ruling in his favor would undermine the 2015 decision’s promise of equality. But other justices said that a tolerant society must leave room for good-faith dissent based on religious principles. … …
***

Update on the Ventura Fire —  Blow by blow tactical updates on the present three fires

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-southern-california-wildfires-live-more-photos-thomas-fire-in-ventura-1512492034-htmlstory.html
Southern California fires live updates:  Multiple blazes rip through communities, closing major freeways and sending thousands fleeing
***
See first and second links, above, from December 4th—
Are we being moved into The Matrix without even knowing it?
https://www.infowars.com/soon-ai-to-create-indistinguishable-false-reality/
SOON: AI TO CREATE INDISTINGUISHABLE “FALSE REALITY”
Humanity soon won’t distinguish reality from simulation
Artificial intelligence can soon create a false reality indistinguishable from the real one, suggests new advancements in graphics manipulation which serves as a warning to humanity.
Graphics firm Nvidia recently released results of its “image-to-image translation” which can take an outdoors photo taken in the winter and transform it into the same scene, but in the summer – with indistinguishable results.
(excerpt):…The ramifications of this technology are enormous: the politically persecuted could soon be victims of fabricated “video evidence” presented by the mainstream media as “undeniable proof” of wrong-doing, which will be accepted without question by the general public which takes everything at face value.
It’s basic human psychology: people desire comfort in a universe wrapped by mystery, and they achieve it by instinctively accepting what’s in front of them. To question too much would bewilder them.

And why would they question an AI-generated deception that cannot be deciphered from reality? In short, the mirroring of reality presents endless pathways of deception to the elites.
“People lose the ability to distinguish between reality and fantasy,” Jean Baudrillard wrote in his book Simulacra and Simulation. “They also begin to engage with the fantasy without realizing what it really is.” … …

***
(December 7)
Bloomberg confesses/corrects “fake news” story —
http://dailycaller.com/2017/12/06/bloomberg-corrects-bombshell-trump-bank-records-story/
Bloomberg Corrects Bombshell Trump Bank Records Story
Bloomberg News corrected Wednesday its bombshell report that special counsel Robert Mueller had subpoenaed Deutsche Bank records pertaining to President Donald Trump and his family.
The corrected report said the bank records “pertain to people affiliated” with Trump. Bloomberg had originally reported that Mueller “zeroed in” on Trump. … …

***
Everglades become a “no-go zone under ‘the shariah law’ ” of Burmese Pythons.  Don’t enter with less than three persons toting pistols, shotguns, swords, knives, hatchets?!  Game and wildlife also being cleaned out by the giant snakes.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/fl-reg-python-everglades-catch-20171205-story.html
17-foot python that could 'pretty much kill any full-grown man' caught in Everglades
(excerpts): “That snake could pretty much kill any full-grown man,” said one of the hunters who caught the python, Jason Leon, to NBC 6. “If that snake was alive right now, it would probably take like three of us to be able to control that snake.”

“We have these guys out there eating our alligators, raccoons, possums, otters, pretty much everything out there,” Leon said. “There's no natural predators too.”
***
As a “young earth creationist,” I am still bemusing if the real source of dinosaurs is found not buried in the supposed “jurassic mists and myths,” but is found out as the genetic experiments of the fallen angels and their higher intelligence Nephilim offspring who manned the antediluvian civilizations.  This new find would come off as almost a genetic joke of playing around with the CRISPR-Cas9 uses by the Nephilim and their fathers in those days.  Said Solomon, “There is nothing new under the sun.” (Eccl. 1:9)

If it walks, looks, crawls, waddles like a duck, croc, ostrich, swan, maybe it is a duck, croc, ostrich, swan?!

https://apnews.com/bb67f6d7a42b422cb078ace8515b74c1/New-dinosaur-looks-like-odd-mix-of-duck,-croc,-ostrich,-swan
New dinosaur looks like odd mix of duck, croc, ostrich, swan
WASHINGTON (AP) — With a bill like a duck but teeth like a croc’s, a swanlike neck and killer claws, a new dinosaur species uncovered by scientists looks like something Dr. Seuss could have dreamed up.
It also had flippers like a penguin, and while it walked like an ostrich it could also swim. That’s the first time swimming ability has been shown for a two-legged, meat-eating dinosaur.
The tiny creature, only about 18 inches (45 centimeters) tall, roamed 75 million years ago in what is now Mongolia. Its full curled-up skeleton was found in a sandstone rock.
“It’s such a peculiar animal,” said Dennis Voeten, a paleontology researcher at Palacky University in the Czech Republic. “It combines different parts we knew from other groups into this one small animal.” … …
***
Most Serious Times — O God, shower mercy on those who will call on you earnestly there.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/us/california-fires.html
California Fires Enter the Heart of Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES — With thick plumes of smoke, towering flames and mass evacuations, a fast-moving wildfire struck one of America’s major cities on Wednesday.
As fires raged out of control across Southern California, a new blaze erupted in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, near iconic landmarks like the U.C.L.A. campus and the Getty Museum, home to old masters paintings and ancient Roman statues.
It burned up to the edges of the 405 freeway, the nation’s busiest highway carrying about 400,000 vehicles a day, where the northbound lanes were closed for much of the day and commuters drove through a shower of ash with flames rising in the horizon.
Forty miles to the northwest, the largest of several fires underway had consumed 90,000 acres by Wednesday night and at least 150 structures — probably hundreds more, fire officials said — and threatened 12,000 others in the city of Ventura and neighboring communities, and was 5 percent contained. Other major fires were burning in the northern San Fernando Valley and the rugged region north of Los Angeles.
Late Wednesday night, officials sent an emergency alert to all of Los Angeles County warning of “extreme fire danger.” …  …
***
(December 9)
The investigation of the gruesome wickedness of Planned Parenthood in marketing “baby parts” moves from Congress to the Justice Department.  May God destroy this evil.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/08/us/politics/planned-parenthood-fetal-tissue-transfers-federal-investigation.html?emc=edit_th_20171209&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Justice Dept. Investigating Fetal Tissue Transfers by Planned Parenthood and Others
(excerpt):  “March for Life welcomes any action taken by the D.O.J. that signals a serious, thorough investigation into Planned Parenthood’s profitable practice of selling baby body parts,” the group’s president, Jeanne Mancini, said. “Taxpayer funds should not support an organization under federal investigation for such serious matters.”
***
(December 10)
Like the days of the Roman Empire, only on steroids?

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/364025-congress-reeling-from-sexual-harassment-deluge
Congress reeling from sexual harassment deluge
Congressional leaders are struggling to get ahead of the wave of sexual harassment allegations that are engulfing their institution.
With no clear roadmap for how to deal with such topics, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other leaders are responding to the allegations on a case-by-case basis — and on the fly. … …
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/09/opinion/sunday/congress-sexual-harassment-dowd.html?src=twr
Maureen Dowd —
Roadkill on Capitol Hill
***
Subterfuge? Accusations are not proof of guilt. NYT editorial judo?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/09/opinion/sunday/wehner-evangelical-republicans.html?emc=edit_th_20171210&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Why I Can No Longer Call Myself an Evangelical Republican

***

“And whosoever was not found written in the book of life
was cast into the lake of fire.”
Revelation 20:15

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, 
coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”
Revelation 21:2

*******************************************************************
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December 3

Saints,

What a sick and sorry mess the West is making of itself in these last days.  God must judge it.  God made and gave us sex…and for many integrated and good purposes.  It is his idea, but Sin makes it into a cesspool.   Sorry to have so many links on the subject in this issue, but we must face down the mess of iniquities if we are to stand for Christ and his righteousness.  We must offer rescue and preach the Gospel and defend even the guilty from the maw of the chomping, brooding, blood-drooling Beast of the spirit of Antichrist and the AI of the anti-human!
*“People are funny.”  It is amazing how the man on the street (the man “dead in trespasses and sin”) or even the child can sometimes propose deep theological constructs or raise ultimate, existential questions.  But on the other hand, people can be ridiculously stupid.  How many tens of thousands in “Christendom” equate Jesus with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, have no knowledge whatsoever, nor desire for it, of that which is holy and divine, and yet expect themselves to be “saved” because they “are pretty good people,” and “more good than bad”?  There is no end of need for those who know the Gospel, even its very most fundamentals, to show and explain grace and mercy and to differentiate between grace and the license to do whatever the flesh pleases.  Though we all fall terribly short, it is nonetheless impossible to have Jesus as Savior without letting him be Lord of us too.  We stumble; He lifts us time and again, but we are forgiven not excused.  He is not the lucky-to-be-in-the-middle cartoon character of a chorus line of three with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny; He is the Lord God of Heaven and Earth and his true followers will respect him as such.
*
The instant the Rapture arrives, we will forget all the troubles of this world.  No one can yet compass the glories of our Resurrection; yet, we will still be ourselves (and more than ever!), but this world will seem such a dull bit of ash we will have little time to waste on remembering it.  Now, we face a daily, if not almost hourly, increase in great difficulties > pressures > tribulation.  We are in a season of martyrdom, and many have noted that more Christians are now being martyred than in the first centuries.  Serious disciples must walk intently in their focus on the Faith, and must lead others likewise in a day when every concept is faced with fracturing into unintelligibility, when truth is hard to find and fake news is in every syllable.  The “god of this world” has come down with terrible rage all across the planet for “he knows his time is short.”

The Lord says He will come “when the Spirit and the bride say come.”  Let us be found to be watching and calling on him to return.  Let us be sure we are the bride and not the harlot, she who is content with false and worldly spirituality, and is “Mystery Babylon.”  She is in strong ascendancy in this day.  We must long ever more to see the face of Jesus of Nazareth and find no other messiah.

At the Rapture, we who “are alive and remain” will be transformed just a moment after “the dead in Christ” rise…a moment, “ in the twinkling of an eye.”  Why is this tiny instant told to us and recorded?  Maybe, it is for the sake of the dead in Christ, who will be able to stand back in this timeless moment and watch the joy of we the living when the Resurrection washes over us?! …it having just completed them too as they stand in Heaven in the Presence of the Lord Jesus…and come back with Him for the moment of Resurrection.  They are many intimations hidden in every thought of Scripture!  Surely, we will have enough new things to reflect upon, with all the saints, for a long time, yea, forever…and with new joys morning after morning of our Eternity, both fully knowing God our Savior, and yet finding new joys and new revelations of Him and his “worlds without End.”

What a marvel!  In light of such impending glory, let us patiently run the race here, dark though the days be.  Better days are ahead!

***

From the week —

(November 27)
Can “common sense” prevail in the “sex panic of ’17”?  A secular-common-sense writer speaks —

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/panic-not-answer-article-1.3651778
A panic is not an answer: We’re at imminent risk of turning this #metoo moment into a frenzied rush to blame all men

In the rush to dehumanize us, will we destroy all encouragement of human and familial affections too?
(excerpt):  The panic has even struck the Girl Scouts, who warned parents that their daughters don't "owe anyone a hug" this holiday season. Parents who insist a little girl give grandma or grandpa a hug for a present can set her up to believe "she 'owes' another person physical affection because they bought her something." … …
Groomed statistics and “sleight of hand” —
(excerpt):…The General Social Survey is one of the most trusted sources of data in the social sciences. In 2014, a random sample of Americans was asked a straightforward question: "In the last 12 months, were you sexually harassed by anyone while you were on the job?"
To that question, only 3.6% of women said yes. That is down from 6.1% in 2002. These results do not suggest an epidemic. Nor even a trendline moving in the wrong direction. 

In a story on sexual harassment, The Economist reported that "even before the Harvey Weinstein story broke the dam," the number of cases received by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had risen by 5% since 2014."

That too is sleight of hand. The EEOC handles all sorts of disputes in the workplace, including harassment involving age, race, religion and disability. Since 2014, there has been a 5% increase in total harassment cases, but there's been a decrease in sexual harassment cases.
In 2016, the EEOC received 6,758 sexual harassment complaints, approximately 100 cases fewer than in 2014. In 2010, they received nearly 8,000. In 2010, sexual harassment cases made up 27% of its harassment caseload; By 2016, they were down to 22%. … …

***

(November 28)
The Sickness of Sodom; not merely homosexuals and drag queens but anything else the sin-sick imagination can dream up.  Not satisfied with God’s provision but determined to follow satanic folly; here foisted as “inclusiveness training for elementary teachers.”

https://pjmedia.com/trending/teachers-attend-lggbdtttiqqaap-sensitivity-training-wtf/
Teachers Attend 'LGGBDTTTIQQAAP' Sensitivity Training 
Gather 'round children! The Canadian Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario has some super interesting new information for you! First, we're going to learn a new acronym. Can you say, "LGGBDTTTIQQAAPP?" Let's try it to the tune of "Old MacDonald!" Everyone sing along! Next, we'll learn what these letters mean. Are you ready? … …

***
The Future is Now.  Better watch this:  http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1806  Scroll down to the vid, “Slaughterbots.”  Culling management of populations; if you’re an individual in a disallowed group, you can be taken out almost instantly without killing those around you or upsetting, destroying any infrastructure: facial recognition software and mini-killer AI-directed drones.  These are available now.  They can be released in huge swarms, all directed as nodes of the whole.  Christians out of favor?  Clean them out of a population in very short order.  (Bodies to the butcher shops?  Remember Soylent Green (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/)Soylent_Green.)

Scary Video Of The Future - AI & Autonomous Weapons Will Change Everything
See also:  autonomousweapons.org

***
(November 29)
Copycat spirit? “Suicide by cop”?  Likely, it will not be news or very brief news as the gunman alone was killed.  May God stir salvation among those who knew him.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/us/gunman-shooting-reno-condominium.html?mabReward=ART_TS2&recid=0x1qGqgnpHinY92QsyfEc3CiExC&recp=2&moduleDetail=recommendations-2&action=click&contentCollection=Soccer&region=Footer&module=WhatsNext&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&src=recg&pgtype=article
Gunman Opens Fire From Reno Condominium
RENO, Nev. — A gunman holding a hostage opened fire from the eighth floor of a luxury high-rise condominium in Reno, Nev., on Tuesday, shooting for about 20 minutes onto the streets below, the authorities said. No injuries were reported.The man died Tuesday after a SWAT team descended on him while he was barricaded at the high-rise, known as the Montage, Deputy Chief Tom Robinson said. It was not immediately clear whether he was killed by police gunfire or his own. No one else, including the hostage, was hurt. … …

***

Of the old, original networks, it’s now two down and one (ABC) to go (with defrocked anchormen)!  Plus the blood and guts are being spread over many other media, cultural, political outlets.

Now, it’s Matt Lauer!  This is becoming ridiculous, immoral, and evil! Whatever the sex issues, these high profile targets are being destroyed without the benefit of due process.  What demonic prince is this?  May God intervene.  If this was Christian repentance, it would be one thing, but this is nothing but accusation…”She said, she said…and you’re fired!”  Men that are sinfully predatory should be taken to court, and if they have committed crimes and are found guilty, they should be punished.  But, this is an attempt to destroy the humanity between men and women.  Yes, men should put a brake on immoral outworkings of their natural but fallen condition.  It is called, traditionally, being a gentlemen.  But, men by their very God-given “wiring and plumbing” are supposed to pursue.  Women, for their part, pursue just as much, but they do it by flirting, adding attractiveness, and running away a little (while looking back over their shoulders!).  If they dress like whores and hang their body out for viewing, they are just as responsible, and shouldn’t wilt and cry like daisies if they are chased.  A man’s (gentleman’s) responsibility is to assess whether he is willing to take a woman under his wing, care for her emotions and the attachments of intimacy (and the woman also if she is a “lady”), and to care for and raise children of the union with joy (and hard work).  Even the State will still make sure he does this (pays child support)…or put him in jail if he will not…The State executes for God in this (“The ruler…beareth not the sword in vain”  Romans 13:3-4. )

Men who pursue women for sexual pleasure or power only are fornicators and adulterers.  They turn women from initial innocence to a feminine cynical view of sex which is whoredom.  These men are whoremongers (makers of whores).  Women who give way to this and accept it are committing whoredom (whether commercially or just in spirit).  Both go to hell.  The Sacred Scriptures are very plain about this, but like the repentant whore Mary Magdalene, God will also cleanse both men and women who repent of sexual wickedness.  But, watch out, the State will instead destroy the humanity of both men and women in this demonic circus if change does not come quickly.

If many of the women of this Age were viewed by people of a century ago, they would think they were all whores just by their state of relative nudity and appearance-baiting.  No wonder demonic Islam rants against the decadent West of “Christendom.”  Women, dress with decency, dignity and honor, not hanging out your breasts and bottom!  Men, be responsible for the soul behind her face, and not just leering at her body and trying to get your hands on it.
(By PBS Evening News, Garrison Keillor, founder of Prairie Home Companion of Minnesota fired for the same kinds of allegations.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/business/media/nbc-matt-lauer.html?emc=edit_na_20171129&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta
NBC Receives at Least 2 New Complaints About Matt Lauer
The fast-moving national reckoning over sexual harassment in the workplace toppled another television news star on Wednesday when NBC fired Matt Lauer, the co-host of its most profitable franchise, “Today,” after an allegation of inappropriate sexual behavior with a subordinate. … …

https://www.mpr.org/press/2017/11/29/statement-from-minnesota-public-radio-regarding-garrison-keillor-and-a-prairie-home-compa
STATEMENT FROM MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO REGARDING GARRISON KEILLOR AND A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION

By November 30, yet more heads are rolling across media reporting; see Drudge Report / drudgereport.com for the tides of allegations: Conyers, Franken, Moore, etc., etc., ad nauseam. 

***
(November 30)
Yesterday the establishment press and political systems tore into President Trump for allowing Muslim atrocities to be seen in his re-Tweets. Here is a completely different venue than the one supplied yesterday by right-wing British groups and noted by the President. 
BEREANCALL.ORG / TODAY’S UPDATE / NOVEMBER 29
A decade after Muslims attacked and displaced Christians in a town in northern Nigeria, Kano state officials have forbidden church buildings to be rebuilt there, sources said.
Eight church buildings destroyed in late September 2007 in predominantly Muslim Tudun Wada Dankadai, Kano state, are still in ruins, a Morning Star News correspondent observed earlier this month.

[They] have not been rebuilt because local Muslims have refused to allow it, Joseph OpeyemiIbinkule, a 42-year-old a Christian resident of Tudun Wada Dankadai, told Morning Star News.

"Christians who have braved it and returned after the attacks in 2007 have no worship buildings up to today," Ibinkule said. "The reason is that the government of Kano state has banned us from rebuilding our churches."

No pastor lives in the town, he said, and only a few come to lead services to a smattering of church members in the hostile environment.

Ibinkunle said the 2007 assault, in which at least nine Christians were killed, was ignited by Muslim students accusing high school Christians of blasphemy.

"The Muslim students attacked Christian students, and soon they were joined by Muslims in this town," he said. "All eight churches were destroyed, Christians were displaced, and many Christians were also killed....The attack was premeditated, and then it led to further spontaneous violence, he said. Church buildings were burned, and houses and shops of Christians were looted and charred, he added.

Advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported in 2007 that the violence began after Muslim students stormed into a room shared by two Christian students at the Government Secondary School in Tudun Wada and began to assault them.

"When the Christian students asked what they had done wrong, their assailants initially told them to 'mind their own business,'" CSW reported. "However, once the school principal arrived at the scene, the Christians were accused of drawing a picture of Muhammad on a mosque wall and of planning an assault on Muslim students."

Local authorities appeared to limit access to the area to obscure inquiry into the extent of the casualties, according to CSW. Tudun Wada's chief of police sealed the area off, and local authorities transported Christians out of the area and removed all corpses. Those trying to help victims were denied access, CSW reported.

"As a result of this enforced isolation of the area, the exact number of fatalities is difficult to determine," CSW reported. "However, sources suspect that the toll is far higher than originally stated. One policeman was overheard complaining of being 'fed up of packing corpses.'"

The son of an Apostolic Church pastor, Ibinkunle said he has been worshipping under a tree with the members of the ECWA congregation since the 2007 attack.

(Morning Star News Nigeria Correspondent, Morning Star News, November 8, 2017)

                                                      ***
Must Jerusalem be acknowledged as Capital before The Temple can be rebuilt?  This Temple will be desecrated by Antichrist with his “abomination of desolation” before Christ returns at Armageddon.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-considering-plan-for-relocating-embassy-in-israel-1512070058
White House Considering Plan for Relocating Embassy in Israel
WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is considering a plan to formally recognize Jerusalem as the “undivided” capital of Israel and to move the U.S. Embassy there in the future, U.S. officials said, steps that could trigger Palestinian protests and imperil the restart of a long-stalled peace process.
The Trump administration has begun notifying U.S. embassies overseas about the plan so envoys can inform their host governments and prepare for possible protests. Officials said the plans weren’t final, however, and the U.S. was working through additional legal and policy considerations. A formal announcement could come as early as next week, the officials said.
“The president has always said it is a matter of when, not if,” a White House spokesman said when asked about moving the embassy. “The president is still considering options and we have nothing to announce.”

The disclosures about the potential move come as President Donald Trump faces an early December deadline under U.S. law to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem or sign a presidential waiver to keep it in Tel Aviv.
It was unclear what Mr. Trump will decide on the waiver question, but officials said one option would be to recognize Jerusalem as the capital and announce plans for the embassy move, but postpone the actual relocation for several years. In the interim, the U.S. ambassador to Israel could work from Jerusalem instead of Tel Aviv, the current site of the U.S. Embassy.
An announcement is likely to be taken as an affront by Palestinians, who consider East Jerusalem the capital of a future state.	
	
***
(December 1)
The monster of African slavery rears its ugly head again as North Africans sell Sub-Saharan Africans as slaves, not sex-trade slaves only, but work slaves, etc.  The Bible acknowledges the state of human slavery but encourages freedom from it…for the sake of Christ’s love and sacrifice for all humanity, and for respect for all those “made in the image of God,” and made for divine freedom.  “Politically Correct” and so-called liberals prefer to believe sin and evil are assuaged by “advancement” and “progress,” but Sin lies ever at the door. Just look how suddenly slavery springs forth in this “enlightened age”!  The only hope is acknowledging God’s Truth and Love and walking in them towards our fellow man.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/world/africa/slave-market-libya-european-migrants.html?emc=edit_th_20171201&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Europe Wanted Migrants Stopped. Now Some Are Being Sold as Slaves.
LONDON — African migrants in Libya face “unimaginable horrors,” the United Nations human rights commissioner declared. “Despicable,” the chairman of the African Union called their treatment. Several African countries recalled ambassadors in protest. Rwanda offered the migrants assistance.
The mid-November broadcast by CNN showing what was described as African migrants being auctioned off at a Libyan slave market — for as little as $100 each, at black-market exchange rates — has set off an international firestorm. The response from the European Union, however, has been notably muted. … …

***
(December 2)
I wouldn’t hazard a guess on where this will end up, but is it amazing that the violently atheist Soviet Union has been replaced with a leader who declares himself a Christian and supports the national church.  Surely, faith and earthly politics don’t mix well without the spirit of Antichrist soon showing up, and, yes, Russia will lead the doomed invasion of Israel in Ezekiel 38 and 39, but in the meanwhile we should watch and pray for the Russian people…and their leader.  Are they not presently more righteous — at least declaring the Deity of Christ — than many in the atheistic, pagan “decadent West”?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/putin-hails-traditional-values-first-church-congress-144139903.html
Putin hails 'traditional values' in first church congress
(excerpt): …This year the gathering is taking place in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. (emphasis added)
"The church authorities are overjoyed that he (Putin) himself has come to participate, like Byzantine emperors long ago who came to church assemblies," said Boris Falikov, an expert at the Centre for Religious Studies at the Russian State University of the Humanities. … …

***
Ehud Barak declares a messianic worldview in Israel is irrational.  While this must be parsed in context, it remains an interesting statement as he attacks Netanyahu and the present government.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/01/opinion/ehud-barak-israel-netanyahu.html?emc=edit_th_20171202&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Ehud Barak: We Must Save Israel From Its Government
(excerpt):  …In its more than three years in power, this government has been irrational, bordering on messianic. It is now increasingly clear where it is headed: creeping annexation of the West Bank aimed at precluding any permanent separation from the Palestinians.
This “one-state solution” that the government is leading Israel toward is no solution at all. It will inevitably turn Israel into a state that is either not Jewish or not democratic (and possibly not either one), mired in permanent violence. This prospect is an existential danger for the entire Zionist project. … …

***
(December 3)
I wasn’t intending to prophesy in the sixth post above when I said only ABC had yet to suffer a major embarrassment over the present harassment scandals, but look now, a reportorial scandal instead takes down one of their chief correspondents, Brian Ross!  They put him on a four week leave without pay over a “fake news” report concerning the President.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/02/media/abc-news-brian-ross/index.html

ABC News suspends Brian Ross for 4 weeks over erroneous Flynn story
ABC News announced Saturday that it has suspended investigative reporter Brian Ross for four weeks without pay after Ross was forced to correct a bombshell on-air report about Michael Flynn.
"We deeply regret and apologize for the serious error we made yesterday. The reporting conveyed by Brian Ross during the special report had not been fully vetted through our editorial standards process," ABC said in a statement. "As a result of our continued reporting over the next several hours ultimately we determined the information was wrong and we corrected the mistake on air and online."

"It is vital we get the story right and retain the trust we have built with our audience -- these are our core principles," the statement added. "We fell far short of that yesterday."
Citing a single anonymous source, Ross told viewers during an ABC special report on Friday morning that Flynn was prepared to testify that Donald Trump, as a candidate for president, told him to contact Russians.
During Friday's edition of "World News Tonight," Ross walked back his report, telling viewers that the source who had provided the initial information for his story later told him that it was as president-elect, not as a candidate, that Trump asked Flynn to contact Russians. … …

***

“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent (precede) them which are asleep.  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
1 Thessalonians 4:15-18

“On that bright and cheerful morning when the dead in Christ shall rise,
and the morning breaks eternal, bright and fair;
When the saved of Earth shall gather over on the other shore,
And the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.”

American Hymn by James M. Black, 1893

Let us keep “the faith…once delivered to the saints,” saith Jude in verse 3

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November 26

Saints,

As this Age shuffles and lurches to an end, I thank God that we could have a joyous Thanksgiving for his unfailing watch over us.  Though the world system must age and die, we have Life in Him.  We have the Promise of the Age to come, when Christ will reign on the Earth, and the revealed Promise from Him, that even beyond the Great Millennial Age, we will enjoy Him forever, world without end!  “Praise Him, Praise Him, Jesus our Blessed Redeemer.  For our sins, He suffered and bled and died.  He’s Our Rock, Our Hope of Eternal Salvation.  Hail Him, Hail Him, Jesus the Crucified!”*

***
The week unfolds in fulfillments of God’s prophetic Word —

(November 19)
The Lord spoke prophetically that earthquakes would be a sign of his Impending Return.  Yet, there have always been earthquakes, so, many students assess that there will be noticeable differences — bigger quakes, reported from more places (“diverse places” says the prophecy, Mark 13:8, and in Luke 21:11 — “great earthquakes”), and more numerous and intense as the time for the Second Coming approaches, “like a woman in her labor pains”  (1 Thess. 5:3). Could these scientists have been allowed to find some clues in noting that the Earth, in all her great mass, will be slowing by microseconds, thus causing more and bigger quakes as great tectonic plates jostle during the braking?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/18/2018-set-to-be-year-of-big-earthquakes
Upsurge in big earthquakes predicted for 2018 as Earth rotation slows

Scientists have warned there could be a big increase in numbers of devastating earthquakes around the world next year. They believe variations in the speed of Earth’s rotation could trigger intense seismic activity, particularly in heavily populated tropical regions.
Although such fluctuations in rotation are small – changing the length of the day by a millisecond – they could still be implicated in the release of vast amounts of underground energy, it is argued.
The link between Earth’s rotation and seismic activity was highlighted last month in a paper by Roger Bilham of the University of Colorado in Boulder and Rebecca Bendick of the University of Montana in Missoula presented at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America.
“The correlation between Earth’s rotation and earthquake activity is strong and suggests there is going to be an increase in numbers of intense earthquakes next year,” Bilham told the Observer last week.
In their study, Bilham and Bendick looked at earthquakes of magnitude 7 and greater that had occurred since 1900. “Major earthquakes have been well recorded for more than a century and that gives us a good record to study,” said Bilham. … …

***
(November 20)
Death comes calling, too, for a notorious death-monger-cultist of the 20th Century—
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/obituaries/charles-manson-dead.html?emc=edit_na_20171120&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta
Charles Manson Dies at 83; Wild-Eyed Leader of a Murderous Crew
Charles Manson, one of the most notorious murderers of the 20th century, who was very likely the most culturally persistent and perhaps also the most inscrutable, died on Sunday in Kern County, Calif. He was 83 and had been behind bars for most of his life.
He died of natural causes in a hospital, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a news release.
Mr. Manson was a semiliterate habitual criminal and failed musician before he came to irrevocable attention in the late 1960s as the wild-eyed leader of the Manson family, a murderous band of young drifters in California. Convicted of nine murders in all, Mr. Manson was known in particular for the seven brutal killings collectively called the Tate-LaBianca murders, committed by his followers on two consecutive August nights in 1969.
The most famous of the victims was Sharon Tate, an actress who was married to the film director Roman Polanski. Eight and a half months pregnant, she was killed with four other people at her Benedict Canyon home. … … 

***

The European and E.U. bedrock of German liberalism collapsing?  And what next?  Will the Far Right ascend?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/19/world/europe/german-government-talks.html?smtyp=cur
German Government Talks Collapse; Next Move Is Unclear
BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel’s attempt to form a new German government collapsed on Sunday as one of the four parties she was seeking to bind together walked out after hours of negotiations, citing irreconcilable differences and throwing open the question of what comes next.
The breakdown after weeks of intense talks aimed at forming a new government leaves Germany in limbo at a time when Europe and much of the Western world is looking to Berlin for leadership.
New elections are possible, but there are fears among the establishment that such a move could further empower the far right. It is also possible that Ms. Merkel’s party would try to form a minority government, but the breakdown in talks has further weakened her. … …

***
This “war of the worlds,” Divine Creation vs. Godless Evolution, goes on—
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/19/us/retro-report-evolution-science.html
Questioning Evolution: The Push to Change Science Class

***
(November 21)
Mysterious mega-booms occurring around the globe — No explanations forthcoming.

http://www.wnd.com/2017/11/boom-mystery-blasts-rattling-the-globe/
BOOM! MYSTERY BLASTS RATTLING THE GLOBE
Was it a supersonic aircraft?
A meteor?
A ground explosion?
The end of the world as we know it?
Those are the questions experts and non-experts around the world are asking themselves in recent weeks as curiously loud mystery BOOMS have not only been hear around the world, but felt – shaking buildings and rattling nerves from Alabama to Michigan, Idaho to California, Russia to Denmark. … …

***

Charlie Rose.  Another head rolls in this strange manifestation of now-daily judgment.  Would to God this was Christian revival, but the “I’m sorries,” of these powerful predators, seem only to be self-protection.  “Be sure your sins will find you out,” say the Scriptures, Numbers 32:23, but this daily barrage of revelations by the press seems more like a crusade of satanic vengeance with sacrifices offered up.  It seems to be a purposed pose of the dark side to alienate men and women from one another by destroying worldly celebrity men and turning worldly celebrity women to hysterical revulsions, setting a pattern of both misuse and hate for the onlooking world…like Orwell’s proposed dystopian state management of the genders with the “Anti-Sex League” of Big Brother and his “Ministry of Truth.”

“Methinks there is something rotten in the state of Denmark.”

In a nation that prides itself on “innocent till proven guilty,” these still legally untested allegations for all concerned are not yet proven and judged by law, but they are decimating political campaigns, destroying marriages, and instantly gutting careers and reputations.  There is a raging, lynching mob-spirit being groomed.  It is dividing men and women, making everyone paranoid, and further installing a “mechanical spirit” of false chastity, humanity-denying sterilization of the human spirit.  Such cultural insanities will mitigate over time, as the pendulum swings, unless they are marks of a final judgment.  In the meantime, the blood is flowing, the heads are rolling.

Again, I cite the Washington Post, but are its heads also due for similar “chopping” revelations?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/eight-women-say-charlie-rose-sexually-harassed-them--with-nudity-groping-and-lewd-calls/2017/11/20/9b168de8-caec-11e7-8321-481fd63f174d_story.html?utm_term=.79ae1ae880e8
Eight women say Charlie Rose sexually harassed them — with nudity, groping and lewd calls
Eight women have told The Washington Post that longtime television host Charlie Rose made unwanted sexual advances toward them, including lewd phone calls, walking around naked in their presence, or groping their breasts, buttocks or genital areas.
The women were employees or aspired to work for Rose at the “Charlie Rose” show from the late 1990s to as recently as 2011. They ranged in age from 21 to 37 at the time of the alleged encounters. Rose, 75, whose show airs on PBS and Bloomberg TV, also co-hosts “CBS This Morning” and is a contributing correspondent for “60 Minutes.”
There are striking commonalities in the accounts of the women, each of whom described their interactions with Rose in multiple interviews with The Post. For all of the women, reporters interviewed friends, colleagues or family members who said the women had confided in them about aspects of the incidents. Three of the eight spoke on the record. … ...

***
(November 22)
Public Education descending into a war zone?  Philadelphia teachers resign en masse.

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2017/11/21/teachers-resign-due-to-student-violence/
Teachers Resign Due To Student Violence
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Teachers in Pennsylvania’s capital city are asking for support after a series of violent altercations with students has led to multiple resignations.
The Harrisburg Education Association says at least 45 teachers have resigned since July and October. Association President Jody Barksdale says more have resigned since then. … …

***
“Getting ready” warnings?  “…earthquakes in diverse places…” ?

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/661655/california-earthquake-2017-134-tremors-one-week-san-andreas-fault
Earthquake WARNING: US struck by 134 tremors in ONE WEEK on most DANGEROUS fault
THE MOST dangerous fault line in California has been shaken by a staggering 134 earthquakes in just one week, according to the US Geological Survey.
Last week a series of 10 mini-earthquakes struck Monterey County in the US state, raising fears a monster tremor could devastate the region.
A powerful, 4.6 magnitude quake 13 miles northeast of Gonzales, along the San Andreas Fault, was the largest to strike the region.
The San Andreas Fault – a 750-mile fissure that runs the length of California – is thought to be long overdue for the “Big One” earthquake measuring 7 or greater.
Since last week, a whopping 134 earthquakes within three miles of that 4.6 tremor were recorded, USGS said. … …

***

Good point, Idolatry: “Allowing the Quran to be read inside a church is the equivalent of the ancient Israelites setting up an image of a false god in the Holy of Holies; yet, it is happening today.”

http://prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1789
Quran Sneaking Into Christian Settings
excerpt:  The cathedral had invited local Muslims to join its service on the feast of Epiphany to promote understanding between Christianity and Islam.
A Muslim student read from the Quranic chapter that tells the story of Jesus' birth to the virgin Mary. The chapter contains the Islamic teaching that Jesus is not the Son of God and should not be worshipped …  …

(November 23)
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
***  ***
Continue in prayer, 
and watch in the same with 
THANKSGIVING (!)
…said Paul to the Colossians.
O, Lord Jesus, thank you for the Light of the world that you are.  Thank you for your many blessings, and that we are called to be lights of your Light too 
as we give thanks for your bountiful hand.  
As the darkness of this world grows, and we also suffer, help us shine all the more and all the brighter!

*** ***

***

Has a savage spirit from the pre-Colombian religions, who did human sacrifice, tearing out beating human hearts as part of their temple rituals, found an entrance into the US through the devil gangs of MS-13.  God forbid, we pray.
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Unidentified-Man-Found-Dead-in-Md-Park-Was-Stabbed-Over-100-Times-Police-Say-459275283.html
Police: MS-13 Members Maimed, Decapitated Man in Maryland Park
As many as 10 members of the gang MS-13 stabbed a man more than 100 times in a Maryland park, ripped out his heart and buried him, officials say. … …

***
We ought not to suppose, because of Saudi opulence and flair, that they have risen above the medieval terrors of their founding prophet.  Yet, American mercenaries are willing to help?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5108651/American-mercenaries-torturing-Saudi-princes.html#ixzz4zFSWTRbo
EXCLUSIVE: 'American mercenaries are torturing' Saudi elite rounded up by new crown prince - and billionaire Prince Alwaleed was hung upside down 
'just to send a message'	•	Source in Saudi Arabia says American private security contractors are carrying out 'interrogations' on princes and billionaires arrested in crackdown 
	•	Detained members of Saudi elite have been hung by their feet and beaten by interrogates, source says
	•	Among those hung upside down are Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, an investor worth at least $7 billion who is being held at Riyadh's Ritz Carlton
	•	Arrests were ordered three weeks ago by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
	•	Source claims mercenaries are from 'Blackwater', a claim also made by Lebanese president
	•	But its successor firm denies it has any operations in Saudi Arabia whatsoever and says its staff abide by U.S. law
	•	Americans who commit torture abroad can be jailed for up to 20 years 

***
Thank God for this brother’s witness.  May God make yet greater lights of these Sutherland Springs First Baptist folks through this tragedy of 26 dead/20 wounded at the hands of a demoniac.  God save!

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/22/us/pastor-frank-pomeroy-sutherland-springs.html?emc=edit_ta_20171122&nl=top-stories&nlid=69381998&ref=cta
The Day the Pastor Was Away and Evil Came Barging Into His Church
On any other Sunday, Frank Pomeroy, the pastor at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Tex., would have been in the pulpit. He would have seen the gunman, his steely gaze familiar, barge in mid-sermon. He would have heard the gunfire break out.But he was hundreds of miles away. And so Mr. Pomeroy, reflecting in his first extensive interview on the mass shooting that took place inside his church, can only imagine the awfulness of it. And ponder whether he could have made a difference had he been preaching that day.
Instead, Mr. Pomeroy was attending a class in Oklahoma City on the morning of Nov. 5. A three-word text message came across his cellphone. “Shooting at church,” it said.
He thought the sender, who was the church’s videographer, was kidding. “I hope you are joking,” he wrote back.
The reply came seconds later: “No.”
Mr. Pomeroy frantically tried to call parishioners who were at the service, but no one picked up. “By then, it was too late,” he recalled. “They had been shot.” He finally reached a friend, who was 10 minutes away from the church. The friend rushed to the scene and soon confirmed the unimaginable. Bodies were sprawled everywhere. Among the dead was the pastor’s 14-year-old daughter, Annabelle. … …
additional excerpts:
…“What is different here is that the comforting is mutual,” he said through his cellphone this week from outside a hospital where he was visiting a wounded survivor of the shooting. “We are all leaning on each other because this is surreal and beyond the scope of anything we have had to deal with. We are a tightknit group anyway. If nothing else, this has made us closer.” … …
…“In a word, life has been tumultuous, and it feels like the days are running together because they have been extremely busy,” Mr. Pomeroy said. “I feel that I am not grieving as adequately as I should. I feel pretty weak right now, a bit shaky.” … …
***
Taking stands against Sodom with the First Amendment —

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/22/us/politics/alliance-defending-freedom-gay-rights.html?emc=edit_th_20171123&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Fighting Gay Rights and Abortion With the First Amendment
WASHINGTON — The details were spare when the event appeared this summer on Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s public schedule. He would speak on religious liberty to a group called Alliance Defending Freedom. No exact location was specified. No news media would be allowed in.
Only after an outcry over such secrecy — and the anti-gay rights positions of its sponsor — did a transcript of Mr. Sessions’s remarks emerge on a conservative website. “Many Americans have felt that their freedom to practice their faith has been under attack,” he told the gathering in Orange County, Calif. “The challenges our nation faces today concerning our historic First Amendment right to the ‘free exercise’ of our faith have become acute.” … …

***
(November 24, evening Breaking News)
An Egyptian 9/11! :  PBS announces “largest ever terrorist attack against Egyptians”:  At least 235 dead and hundreds wounded as presumed ISIS fighters attack a Sufi Mosque in the Sinai.  Previously, they have attacked only Christians, and thank the Lord the Christians have been spared this time, but on this occasion, the attack is against an Islamic sect ISIS considers heretical.

(By Sunday the 26th, the death toll has risen to 305 —
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/11/25/egyptian-mosque-attack-death-toll-climbs.html
Egyptian mosque attack death toll climbs to 305

***

(November 25)
Lord, we lift up Elon Musk for your salvation.  He wants to be known as a good man, but, of course, he must come to the foot of the cross and the exaltation of You alone as Lord and God to be saved.

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5110787/Elon-Musk-says-10-chance-making-AI-safe.html#ixzz4zQwjZzWQ 
Tesla's Elon Musk warns we only have 'a 5 to 10% chance' of preventing killers robots from destroying humanity

	•	Elon Musk was speaking to employees at his firm, Neuralink, this month
	•	He said that efforts to make AI safe only have 'a 5-10% chance of success'
	•	The warning comes shortly after Musk said that regulation of AI was drastically needed because it's a 'fundamental risk to the existence of human civilisation'

excerpts (w/comment):  

…The billionaire said regulations will stop humanity from being outsmarted by computers, or 'deep intelligence in the network', that can start wars by manipulating information. (Terminator philosophers:  This is how SkyNet became self-aware and how it used one nuclear nation to attack another, setting off “MAD,” —Mutual Assured Destruction— and then taking over.  The growth of the AI knowledge base is so exponential that, when a prime moment of singularity occurs, we may not even be able to recognize it or conceive of the takeover until far too late. This, of course, begs the question, How much takeover has already occurred?  But the Beast and the Image of the Beast which will be worshipped by “the whole world” of unbelievers is not yet manifest, thank God! Rev. 13:8 & 15)

…He has previously compared AI to 'summoning the devil'.  

***

(November 26)
Isis Jihadis want to sack Rome and assassinate the Pope.  This, of course, is a mistake or a feint for God does not dwell in houses made by man.  Yet, it could be a horrible event of blood and slaughter and destruction, and Catholics have prophecies concerning such an event including an Islamic martyrdom of the Pope.

https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/isis-group-jihadists-crusaders-feast-approaching-show-meaning-terrorism/
ISIS Group to Jihadists: 'The Crusaders' Feast is Approaching... Show Them the Meaning of Terrorism'

***
“Get your fresh, hot implant!  Be a node of the ‘Borg today!”

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/662636/Science-DARPA-Implant-Future-Technology-Human-Testing-Computer-Electronic-Experiment-Mood
Brain implants to 'change moods controlled by AI' begin HUMAN TESTS
SCIENTISTS have begun human testing on electronic brain implants designed to change peoples moods controlled by computers.
Devices plugged into people’s skulls are being developed by boffins funded by the US military’s research division DARPA.
These implants will use electronic pulses to alter the chemicals in people’s brains in a process called “deep brain stimulation”.
This will then change people’s moods and is believed to be able to treat mental illness and provide therapy.
Artificial intelligence in implants will detect and study the brain to know what pulses to send – described by scientists as a "window on the brain". 
DARPA has handed the cash to teams form the University of California and Massachusetts General Hospital. … …
***

We need “gentlemen” and “ladies,” not un-manned men and shrieking sirens — God “made them male and female”;  let wiser humans not attempt to undo what God has wrought.
(A lost male intellect wanders about on the subject in this NYTimes editorial offering.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/25/opinion/sunday/harassment-men-libido-masculinity.html?emc=edit_th_20171126&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
The Unexamined Brutality of the Male Libido
	
***

“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored. 
He has loosed the fateful lighting of his terrible, swift sword.
His truth is marching on.”

Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910)

*Both of today’s quotes are from the famous hymns by great and righteous women soldiers of the cross.  
The opening one is by Fanny Crosby (1820-1915)

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November 19

Saints,

“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear,” instructs St. Peter (1P 3:15).  If we are truly evangelicals (called to speak the good news), we need to give heart to our calling, and be ready to illustrate any elements of the Gospel any time we can, “in season and out of season” (when convenient and when not), adds Paul in instructing Timothy (2T4:2).  These elements may be from my emphasis here on Second Coming issues, to the Trinitarian Nature of the Godhood, to salvation by faith alone, through many issues of the daily Christian life and walk and doctrine.  (It is often amazing how much knowledge of the holy, knowledge of theological concerns —that “natural theologian” that dwells in many people even children — and if we take opportunity to speak with them, how we may lead them closer to bowing to Christ alone.) 

Now, this can’t be done by the Flesh, and I as well as many others have gulped and been intimidated many times, but I also thank God for the many other times when the Spirit keeps the upper hand in me, and I have taken any opportunity to share the Gospel, not only with the “hope” that is in me, but also with the faith and the charity (love) instilled in me by Christ and his Holy Spirit. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation…” (Rom. 1:16). This is our task, our calling, our career, our main purpose to be remaining on earth.  God help us to be ever mindful lest we let slip (Heb. 2:1) the things we know to be and to do.  Whatever our outward work, profession, means of a living, we must keep forward our real calling.  Any less is apostasy, and God forgive our intimidations at the large and looming world, world system, and unbelieving populace that always threatens to swamp us, mock us, even kill us!  God is good, Who will not allow your foot to slip and will keep you from falling (Jude 24).

Note:  All this must also be done “in meekness and fear” not in blather, dogmatics, and who can muster the biggest mouth or religious program.  A tall order:  Only the Spirit can perform it in us.  Note also:  “It is to every man that asketh you.” If we are not willing and made able to share and discuss Christ and his revelations and teaching, his doctrine and word, as our very cherished “bread and butter,” then we may be only religious Pharisees who just want to shut up anyone who asks anything that may make us uncomfortable or chafed at the disturbance of our little dogma world.

God help us! The task is bigger than we are, but, praise Him, so is He!

***

Some apocalyptic signs of the week —

(November 12)
Wow!  60,000 Poles march against the Islamic invasion of Europe.  The Right Wing gains momentum.  Remember, both (webbed?) wings are attached on either side of the Body Politic, and it is ruled by “the god of this world.”  Right Wing Nationalism v. Left Wing One World Socialism, stirred together in violence (and other partisan actions and events), will bring the ascent of the Antichrist to bring in a “peace” that will bring on Armageddon.  The Book of Revelation says, in part, Jesus must return to “destroy them that destroy the earth” (11:18).

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/12/europe/poland-warsaw-nationalist-march/index.html
Nationalist protesters disrupt Poland independence day events
Warsaw, Poland (CNN)Tens of thousands of nationalist protesters disrupted Poland's independence day events Saturday, waving flags and burning flares as they marched down the streets of Warsaw.
Demonstrators carried banners that read "White Europe, Europe must be white," and "Pray for an Islamic Holocaust."
Some wore masks and waved red and white Polish flags, chanting "Death to enemies of the homeland," and "Catholic Poland, not secular." … …
***
Lord Jesus, please protect your people from The Plague according to your promises in Psalm 91…“it shall not come nigh thee…”  Save others in mercy to eternal life even if by means of mortality.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4896832/fears-deadly-plague-that-has-killed-140-people-in-madagascar-could-mutate-and-become-untreatable/
BLACK DEATH WARNING Fears deadly plague that has killed 140 people in Madagascar could mutate and become untreatable
Health protection expert says it is possible for disease to spread to Europe and North America like Ebola did in 2014.
***
As mentioned in previous blog updates, “the Shadow Brokers,” superhackers, would be an appropriate name for fallen angels too (“the deeper State”) who must of necessity be behind them to thwart such as the N.S.A.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/12/us/nsa-shadow-brokers.html?emc=edit_ta_20171112&nl=top-stories&nlid=69381998&ref=cta
Security Breach and Spilled Secrets Have Shaken the N.S.A. to Its Core
WASHINGTON — Jake Williams awoke last April in an Orlando, Fla., hotel where he was leading a training session. Checking Twitter, the cybersecurity expert was dismayed to discover that he had been thrust into the middle of one of the worst security debacles ever to befall American intelligence.
Mr. Williams had written on his company blog about the Shadow Brokers, a mysterious group that had somehow obtained many of the hacking tools the United States used to spy on other countries. Now the group had replied in an angry screed on Twitter. It identified him — correctly — as a former member of the National Security Agency’s hacking group, Tailored Access Operations, or T.A.O., a job he had not publicly disclosed. Then the Shadow Brokers astonished him by dropping technical details that made clear they knew about highly classified hacking operations that he had conducted.
America’s largest and most secretive intelligence agency had been deeply infiltrated.
“They had operational insight that even most of my fellow operators at T.A.O. did not have,” said Mr. Williams, now with Rendition Infosec, a cybersecurity firm he founded. “I felt like I’d been kicked in the gut. Whoever wrote this either was a well-placed insider or had stolen a lot of operational data.”
The jolt to Mr. Williams from the Shadow Brokers’ riposte was part of a much broader earthquake that has shaken the N.S.A. to its core. Current and former agency officials say the Shadow Brokers disclosures, which began in August 2016, have been catastrophic for the N.S.A., calling into question its ability to protect potent cyberweapons and its very value to national security. The agency regarded as the world’s leader in breaking into adversaries’ computer networks failed to protect its own.
“These leaks have been incredibly damaging to our intelligence and cyber capabilities,” said Leon E. Panetta, the former defense secretary and director of the Central Intelligence Agency. “The fundamental purpose of intelligence is to be able to effectively penetrate our adversaries in order to gather vital intelligence. By its very nature, that only works if secrecy is maintained and our codes are protected.” … …
***
(November 13)
Flakka: Pharmacological (Pharmakeia[Gk.], Sorcery[KJV] ) Insanity, yet like unto the “liberal” screaming insanity reported in last blog…Infectious insanity, symptoms of cultural decay like the gang psychoses of Sodom?
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article184248578.html
Naked people rampage through Missouri town, barking and showering in soda water
Last weekend got downright bizarre in the eastern Missouri town of Sullivan, and police say they know why.
Four people went on a rampage, barking and yelling, breaking into buildings, even stripping off their clothes and showering in soda water, police say. They suspect the synthetic drug flakka is behind the behavior.
“We had multiple incidents this past weekend of people on some kind of substance acting out of their minds,” Sullivan Police Lt. Patrick Johnson told the Sullivan Independent News. “Barking like dogs, running up and down the street, or other farm animals, entering people’s homes, breaking into a business, yelling outside of local businesses.” … …
***

Sodom infiltrates The Church of England?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5075641/Let-little-boys-wear-tiaras-says-Church-England.html
Let little boys wear tiaras: Church of England issues new advice to combat transgender bullying for teachers
	•	Instructions for the CofE's 4,700 schools appear to give backing to ban on skirts
	•	Some scrap the traditional girls' uniform to avoid difficulty for trans pupils
	•	Schools have been told they can't use Bible as basis for gender identification
Boys as young as five should be able to wear tiaras at school without criticism, teachers in Church of England schools are to be told.
Male pupils should also be free to dress up in a tutu or high heels without attracting any comment or observation, according to anti-bullying rules sent out by the Church yesterday.
The instructions for the CofE’s 4,700 schools said they should not require children to wear uniforms that ‘create difficulty for trans pupils’.

***

Another “dinosaur” found alive and well —

http://www.newsweek.com/dinosaur-era-frilled-shark-insane-teeth-found-portugal-708764
PREHISTORIC, DINOSAUR-ERA SHARK WITH INSANE TEETH FOUND SWIMMING OFF COAST OF PORTUGAL

The rare frilled shark is considered a “living fossil,” because evidence of its existence dates back to at least 80 million years ago. This summer, researchers found one alive and thriving off the coast of Portugal, adding yet more clues about the resilience of this ancient sea creature. …

***

How about that!  I agree with the Pope on something!  We may have to use the powers of the universal A.I. at this point (smart phones & all), but a Christian assembly is no place for it, as it “wars against the Spirit.”  (Of course, if there is no Life in the assembly, might as well check your email?!)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/12/nyregion/phones-in-church-pope-francis.html
Pope Says No Phones in Church. Parishioners Keep Scrolling.
Dianne Alfaro sat in a pew in the back of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, her head bowed during Mass on Sunday morning. She cast her eyes down as the hymn “Jerusalem My Happy Home” swelled around her.
As the words “Hosanna in the highest!” echoed in the cathedral, she never looked up. That is, until she finished buying a pair of black boots off the internet on her iPhone.
“At some point, the priest during the Mass says, ‘Lift up your hearts.’ He does not say, ‘Lift up your cellphones to take pictures,’” Pope Francis said last week during a general audience at St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City, where he urged Catholics to leave their phones home.
But during Sunday Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, it seemed either the pontiff’s message had not yet reached across the Atlantic or the churchgoers were not listening.Beside a font of holy water, tourists took in the Mass via the screens of their phones, some mounted on selfie sticks. By the entrance, devotees stood praying, but every so often phone-holding hands would pop up above the crowd to snap a picture. One man stood in the back, hunched in what appeared to be deep devotion — to select the perfect photo filter for his picture of the cathedral’s eaves. … …
***
Sudden huge quake in prophetic Middle East —  Not yet the one “against the mountains of Israel” (38:8) which will be the biggest ever until that day, Ezekiel 38:19-20, (so strong that pressure waves will knock birds out of the sky, etc.?)  Does our Sovereign God send such quakes for the sake of his timing of human events and a prophetic chronology unfolding?  All things are in his power.  And “his mercy endureth forever” for those who will call to Him in Truth.

http://onlineathens.com/national-news/2017-11-13/over-400-dead-earthquake-iran-iraq-border-area
Over 400 dead from earthquake in Iran-Iraq border area
TEHRAN, Iran | Rescuers dug with their bare hands Monday through the debris of buildings brought down by a powerful earthquake that killed more than 400 people in the once-contested mountainous border region between Iraq and Iran, with nearly all of the victims in an area rebuilt since the end of the ruinous 1980s war.
Sunday night’s magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck about 19 miles (31 kilometers) outside the eastern Iraqi city of Halabja, according to the most recent measurements from the U.S. Geological Survey. It hit at 9:48 p.m. Iran time, just as people were going to bed. … …
***
(November 14)
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Swarm-of-earthquakes-hit-Monterey-County-felt-in-12354131.php
Earthquake swarm hits Monterey County; biggest felt in SF
A 4.6-magnitude earthquake rattled Monterey County on Monday and was felt more than 90 miles away in San Francisco, officials said.
The quake hit at 11:31 a.m. about 13 miles northeast of Gonzales, near Salinas, and was followed by nine smaller aftershocks, with the largest measuring magnitude 2.8, said Annemarie Baltay, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park.
There were no reports of injuries or damage.
Baltay said the quake occurred on the San Andreas Fault, close to an area where the Calaveras Fault branches off. The quake happened at a depth of about 4 miles. … …

***
Now, Big Brother will be under your skin / in your belly to make sure you take your pills — True Thought Control / inter-bodily enforced obedience-conformity?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/13/health/digital-pill-fda.html
First Digital Pill Approved to Worries About Biomedical ‘Big Brother’
For the first time, the Food and Drug Administration has approved a digital pill — a medication embedded with a sensor that can tell doctors whether, and when, patients take their medicine.
The approval, announced late on Monday, marks a significant advance in the growing field of digital devices designed to monitor medicine-taking and to address the expensive, longstanding problem that millions of patients do not take drugs as prescribed.
Experts estimate that so-called nonadherence or noncompliance to medication costs about $100 billion a year, much of it because patients get sicker and need additional treatment or hospitalization.
“When patients don’t adhere to lifestyle or medications that are prescribed for them, there are really substantive consequences that are bad for the patient and very costly,” said Dr. William Shrank, chief medical officer of the health plan division at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.Ameet Sarpatwari, an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School, said the digital pill “has the potential to improve public health,” especially for patients who want to take their medication but forget. … …
***
Wow.  Sometimes, I am very glad God just has me “in the woods,” a small voice “crying in the wilderness;” though she is apparently a real “starlet,” I hardly know of this woman “pastor,” but I do know that the Apostle Paul made it clear that it is not God’s will for women to have authority over and teach men, or speak or teach in the assembled church together (The Pastoral Epistles: Timothy and Titus, other New Testament epistles, etc.).  This is that female form of the spirit of Antichrist called Jezebel. It showed up also in the Lord’s rebuke of the church of Thyatira in Revelation 2:20.  The Lord has me earnestly praying for Trump, Pence, their families, and the Administration, and besides praying for their personal and family safety, and for their governance responsibilities, I have felt concerns when I have heard of some of the collections of “ministers” laying hands on the President for prayer.  God save him from the spirit of Antichrist and the doctrines of Jezebel.  We are in the End of the Age, “the beginning of sorrows,” and any set of events or people could go either way.  God save us, and stop the showy flesh of heresy-mongers.  God direct the President and his administration, bring them all the more to their knees, open their eyes to the clear directions of the Word and the Spirit, and keep them from the devil’s traps.  Amen. 
Note the “liberal,” antichrist publisher (see link) that puts out these decoys and twisted headlines.  “Many will come in my name saying, I am he…Go not after them…” (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21). Pray that Trump will come to know the real Christ of the New Testament and not a media-package-jesus!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/she-led-trump-to-christ-the-rise-of-the-televangelist-who-advises-the-white-house/2017/11/13/1dc3a830-bb1a-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html?utm_term=.d3924578d789
She led Trump to Christ: The rise of the televangelist who advises the White House
***
(November 14, lateTuesday afternoon)
5 Dead, including gunman, 10 wounded, including children, in Northern California mass shooting; PBS report, troubled but slightly blasé?  “Ho hum, another one.”  Drudge Report doesn’t even link, list or notice as of November 15.  As a CBS reporter says of the last recent killings at the church, “Has it come to this?”  Lord, please let your salvation comfort the wounded and the families of the dead.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-norcal-elementary-school-shooting-20171114-story.html
5 dead in mass shooting in Northern California town; terror at elementary school
***
(November 15)
The NYTimes editorializes on the Polish march.  See first item, above, in this blog post.  Internationalism/globalism wrestles with nationalism/patriotism, racism/xenophobia?  But the catalyst is the emigration/export of Islam, a religion with a geopolitical-conquering-warfare agenda…and not a race or nationality.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/14/opinion/torches-hate-march-poland.html?smtyp=cur
Torches and Hate on the March in Poland
excerpt:  …The ugly nationalism sweeping through the Western world, and especially Central Europe, may be a passing phase in a difficult transition and a confusing world. It can be countered by common sense, as France showed in the resounding defeat of the far right last spring. But the disgusting slogans on display in Warsaw and the fictions and paranoia behind them must be relentlessly exposed for what they are and condemned, and the right-wing, populist governments that condone them must be censured, not embraced. … …

***
Why do people dislike it?  Because it is dictatorial, an intrusion into personal rights!  “Live free or die!”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/14/upshot/obamacares-insurance-mandate-is-unpopular-so-why-not-just-get-rid-of-it.html?emc=edit_ta_20171115&nl=top-stories&nlid=69381998&ref=cta
Wednesday, November 15, 2017 8:27 AM EST / NYTimes /“Top Stories” in the inbox—
Obamacare’s mandate that people buy insurance, which the Senate tax plan may end, was always unpopular.  What’s the case for keeping it?
In a bill with many unloved parts, the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate has long been the most loathed.
For years, critics of the bill have said the law’s requirement that Americans either obtain insurance or pay a fine was coercive and unfair. The mandate brought about a Supreme Court case that nearly toppled the whole Affordable Care Act. Public opinion polls consistently show that ordinary Americans dislike it. … …

***

“Mindfulness,” same old blarney as “empty your mind” was in earlier New Age, Age of Aquarius “advertising.”  They needed a new slogan, eh?  Want to meditate?  Read deeply and consider the Holy Scriptures with prayer and watching.  Exercise your intellect before God, calling on the insight of the Holy Spirit.  Want to be mindful?  Think on God’s Word and its principles “when you lie down and when you rise up,”  and “pray without ceasing.”  Want physical stretch exercises?  Call them that and not Yoga where the hindu demons’ ears perk up just to hear that word!  Drop “the names of the poses,” and drop poses that are more or less obscene.  Was walking in a local urban plaza scene this summer, and ran onto whole ranks of women in “yoga pants” doing “the downward facing dog” in the middle of the street. Give us all a break, eh?  What a sight!

"'Mindfulness' Is a Meaningless Word With Shoddy Science Behind It," Newsweek Online, 10/11/17).
forwarded from bereancall.org / “Today’s Update” for November 15
The benefits of meditation may have been seriously overhyped, a group of psychologists, neuroscientists, Buddhist scholars and mindfulness teachers warn-and the evidence to support mindfulness as a treatment certainly has been.
A new study by a multidisciplinary group of researchers at several universities calls out the "misinformation and propagation of poor research methodology" that pervade much of the evidence behind the benefits of mindfulness. They focus in particular on the problem of defining the word mindfulness and on how the effects of the practice are studied. 

"Mindfulness has become an extremely influential practice for a sizable subset of the general public, constituting part of Google's business practices, available as a standard psychotherapy via the National Health Service in the United Kingdom and, most recently, part of standard education for approximately 6,000 school children in London," the authors write in their paper...Much of the research around meditation and mindfulness has serious flaws, the authors state. Among those flaws: using various definitions for mindfulness, not comparing results to a control group of people who did not meditate and not using good measurements for mindfulness.

"I'll admit to have drank the Kool-Aid a bit myself. I'm a practicing meditator, and I have been for over 20 years," David Vago [said]. A research director at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Vanderbilt University...The revelation is particularly disconcerting in light of how big of a business meditation has become. A veritable industry, the practice brings in around $1 billion annually, according to Fortune. That industry includes apps, classes and medical treatments.
Major commercial players in the meditation space have noted many of the issues raised by the authors. "I agree with a lot of the points in the paper," said Sarah Romotsky, head of science communications for Headspace, which sells a meditation app and online sessions.

The lack of strong evidence around meditation is especially an issue for people who want to use meditation as a clinical tool. The National Institutes of Health in the U.S. includes an institute dedicated to complementary approaches, which cites meditation as a potential treatment for high blood pressure, anxiety, depression and pain.

Part of the reason there is so much more research now than there once was is because grants were available for young researchers in the field from sources like the Mind and Life Institute, Vago said....Yet according to one study the authors cited, the well-designed studies that have been done on meditation showed that the practice was only moderately effective, at best, for treating conditions like anxiety, depression or the unpleasantness associated with pain. "It didn't even show that it increases well-being any more than a social group intervention. Just being in a group setting helps," Vago said.

The authors also lay the blame for overstating the benefits of meditation on the media. "You go into Whole Foods today, and there will be three magazines with some beautiful blonde meditating on the cover," Vago said. "And they're labeled 'Mindfulness, the New Science and Benefits' in some shape or form."
(Sheridan, "'Mindfulness' Is a Meaningless Word With Shoddy Science Behind It," Newsweek Online, 10/11/17).
***
(November 16)
“…as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.”  (Revelation 13:15)

https://pjmedia.com/faith/ex-google-executive-registers-first-church-of-ai-with-irs/
Ex-Google Executive Registers First Church of AI With IRS
A former executive at Google has filed paperwork with the IRS to establish an official religion of technology. This religion doesn't just worship scientific progress, but artificial intelligence itself, with the goal of creating a godhead.
The new church of AI will aim "to develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on artificial intelligence and through understanding and worship of the Godhead [to] contribute to the betterment of society," according to IRS documents.
The non-profit religious organization would be called "Way of the Future" (WOTF). According to the website (wayofthefuture.church), the movement is "about creating a peaceful and respectful transition of who is in charge of the planet from people to people + 'machines.'"
"Given that technology will 'relatively soon' be able to surpass human abilities, we want to help educate people about this exciting future and prepare a smooth transition," the site explains. "In 'recent' years, we have expanded our concept of rights to both sexes, minority groups and even animals, let's make sure we find a way for 'machines' to get rights too."
***
Mais non!  Viva la difference! (and Oy Vey!)  The genders are not meant to be homogenized but respected.  The French know better.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/opinion/french-sexism-grammar-everybody.html	
	
Toppling the Grammar Patriarchy	
I still remember my sense of indignation when my high school French teacher told us about the rule: French nouns have a gender, even seemingly sexless ones like “table.” And if you had a mixed group of masculine and female nouns — say, a bunch of male students (étudiants) and female students (étudiantes) — you had to describe them, as a group, in the masculine.
“What if there are 99 female students and one male student?” I demanded.
It didn’t matter, the teacher said. What’s more, if you wrote a sentence about attractive (beaux) étudiants and attractive (belles) étudiantes, the adjective used to describe them had to be masculine, too: “Les étudiants et les étudiantes sont beaux.”
That was just the way French was, she said.
The sexism of that stung. And that was even before I discovered that one of the rationales for this rule in which one man trumped an infinite number of women was that “the masculine gender is deemed more noble than the feminine gender because of the superiority of man over woman.”
That line, from a 1767 grammar book, was cited last week in a declaration signed by 314 teachers in France that they would no longer teach the rule that “the masculine prevails over the feminine” when it came to plural nouns.
The teachers’ objection was not just philosophical; it was philological. The rule, they said in the French version of Slate, was a parvenu (it was enunciated in the 17th century and became widely taught only in the 19th century) and politically motivated (it buttressed French laws that denied women equal rights). Besides that, they said, the rule encourages children “to accept the domination of one sex over the other” to the detriment of women. …

	***
Even with all of today’s cyborgery and genetic engineering, a real and true, grisly and horrible butchery of humanity is about to occur or be attempted, a true and actual version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is about to be made…a living head attached to a freshly dead body. Over a century since her imagination’s work, great advances in micro-surgery, functional joining of nerves and other ultra-fine techniques will make this possible.  But, what demonic atheism does this represent?  And how does it belittle the souls of the two or more human body parts so stitched together?  How can anything that might transpire be empowered by any less than very powerful demons and/or fallen angels?  Exponentially advancing, but committed atheist China, allows this depraved experiment by an Italian “mad-scientist.”  Lord, come soon, we pray!

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/11/17/italian-doctor-says-worlds-first-human-head-transplant-imminent/847288001/
Italian doctor says world's first human head transplant 'imminent'
An Italian doctor announced Friday that he will soon perform the world’s first human head transplant in China because medical communities in the United States and Europe would not permit the controversial procedure.
"The Americans did not understand," Sergio Canavero told a news conference in Vienna.
Canavero said the Chinese government and Xiaoping Ren, a Chinese doctor partnering with him on the procedure, would confirm the surgery's date "within days" to signal its goal of becoming a world leader in all fields, including medicine.
"Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to restore China to greatness. He wants to make it the sole superpower in the world. I believe he is doing it," Canavero said.
In a phone interview with USA TODAY, Canavero decried the unwillingness of the U.S. or Europe to host the surgery. "No American medical institute or center would pursue this, and there is no will by the U.S. government to support it," he said. … …
***
(November 19)
Yes, “natural disasters” alone could take us down.  God will not be mocked.  Though He is plenteous in mercy, He will also accomplish his will with sinful man.  Praise Him for his mercy to the saints, those who bow the knee to him as Savior and Lord.

http://www.readingeagle.com/ap/article/disaster-claims-soar-in-year-of-calamities
Disaster claims soar in year of calamities
SANTA ROSA, Calif. - The number of Americans registered for federal disaster aid jumped tenfold this year, costing billions of dollars in additional emergency funding as the nation nears the end of a historically calamitous year.

More than 4.7 million Americans - or about 1.4 percent of the population - have registered so far this year for disaster aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In 2016, 480,000 sought aid, and fewer than 180,000 people registered for disaster assistance in each of the three previous years.

Three hurricanes - Harvey, Irma and Maria - collectively affected an area with about 8 percent of the U.S. population. The hurricanes were followed by wildfires that killed 43 people and destroyed more than 7,000 homes here in wine country. … …

***
Apocalypse in Brazil?  The war against humanity surges in Rio.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/18/world/americas/rio-de-janeiro-brazil-violent-crime-security.html
In Rio de Janeiro, ‘Complete Vulnerability’ as Violence Surges

RIO DE JANEIRO — For teachers in this seaside megacity, Rio de Janeiro’s surge in violence has meant making a life-or-death judgment call with unnerving frequency: deciding whether to cancel classes because of nearby shootouts.  
For police officers, it has meant burying 119 of their own so far this year and surrendering ever more territory to drug gangs that have resumed open-air sales in teeming communities that had been declared “pacified” just a few years ago.

Many ordinary residents of this city of about 6.5 million start the day scanning mobile apps that track live reports of gunfire before planning their commutes.

A little more than a year since Rio de Janeiro hosted a largely successful Summer Olympics, Brazil’s showcase city is plagued by a rise in lawlessness reminiscent of its darkest periods in the 1980s and 1990s. There were 4,974 people killed in Rio de Janeiro State, with a population of about 16.5 million, during the first nine months of this year, up 11 percent from last year, according to state government statistics.

The rise in violent crime here is part of a nationwide trend that experts say has been exacerbated by Brazil’s economic recession, by corruption that has hollowed out government coffers and by fierce competition among drug trafficking organizations.

Last year, there were 61,619 people killed across Brazil, according to data compiled by Brazilian Forum on Public Security , making it the deadliest year on record. … …

***

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; 
but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
1 Corinthians 1:18

And I looked, and behold a white cloud, 
and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, 
having on his head a golden crown, 
and in his hand a sharp sickle.
Revelation 14:14

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November 12
Saints,

Humanity, besieged from every quarter.  Thank God, we have a Savior, Christ the Lord.  He warns us with much detail of this time we are in and gives us full hope of his Salvation.

“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.  Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat (pure and prophetic gospel and Word) in due season (when needed).  Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing” (Matthew 24:44-46).

***

From The Week —

(November 6)
The Sutherland Springs Massacre, Day After:  CBS News Correspondent says, “Has it come to this?”  Time to arm deacons?  “Have you any swords?  Two.  That is enough”: Defense-only directives from the Lord to his apostles?

Texas Governor calls on God repeatedly, to comfort the people of Texas and draw them together under Him.  CBS reminds us that this mass shooting happens only 35 days after the Las Vegas Massacre.

Killer:  a God-hating atheist; same antichrist spirit as ISIS who deny the True God for a false one?  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5053013/Devin-Kelley-outcast-preached-atheism.html

***
What’s with Saudi Arabia?  An internal shake-up that may “see heads roll,” and, unfortunately, that may be literal, as a prince takes dominion over the other princes, initially imprisoning them in 5-star hotels, but acting with the spirit of royal fratricide as in antiquity.  The Saudis perpetrate their war against Yemen, and are bogged in it.  (Yemen is biblical Teman where others related to the Patriarchs live.)  And Saudis meddle in Lebanon and elsewhere as they seek to counter their mortal enemy, Iran…such that the Lebanese Prime Minister just took sanctuary there from Iranian backed assassins.  The Saudis also recently collected their tributary states in an allied move to punish one of them that has displeased them, Qatar.  This wealthy little country on the Persian Gulf also hosts a major US Airbase, making the situation tenuous for the United States, who see it as an uncomfortable spat between allies.

In Ezekiel’s prophecy of the first great End of the Age battle over Jerusalem, we see some of the Arab world standing back from the hordes of other Islamic combatants who come at the beck and call of Rosh (Russia) and Persia (Iran).  The Saudis may be among them who stand off, from the regions of Sheba and Dedan (38:13), who will say, in essence, “What are you doing?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/05/world/middleeast/saudi-crown-prince-purge.html?emc=edit_th_20171106&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Saudi Crown Prince’s Mass Purge Upend a Longstanding System
LONDON — A midnight blitz of arrests ordered by the crown prince of Saudi Arabia over the weekend has ensnared dozens of its most influential figures, including 11 of his royal cousins, in what by Sunday appeared to be the most sweeping transformation in the kingdom’s governance for more than eight decades.
The arrests, ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman without formal charges or any legal process, were presented as a crackdown on corruption. They caught both the kingdom’s richest investor, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, and the most potent remaining rival to the crown prince’s power: Prince Mutaib bin Abdullah, a favored son of the late King Abdullah.
Prince Mutaib had been removed from his post as chief of a major security service just hours before the arrests announced late Saturday night.
All members of the royal family were barred from leaving the country, American officials tracking the developments said on Sunday. … …
Some related stories:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/05/business/saudi-arabia-arrests-investors.html
Investors Worldwide Size Up Palace Intrigue in Oil-Rich Kingdom
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/05/world/middleeast/lebanon-hassan-nasrallah-saad-hariri.html?smtyp=cur
Hezbollah Urges ‘Patience and Calm’ Amid Lebanon’s Political Crisis
***

Making AI self-perpetuating.  Taking the lid off Pandora’s Box?  The Beast begins to unwrap its own fetal sack, give birth to Itself? (Reminiscent image:  The “birth” of Orcs from muddy pools of (cyber?)nutrients in Saruman’s war caverns in Peter Jackson’s amazing rendition of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/05/technology/machine-learning-artificial-intelligence-ai.html
Building A.I. That Can Build A.I.
Google and others, fighting for a small pool of researchers, are looking for automated ways to deal with a shortage of artificial intelligence experts.

SAN FRANCISCO — They are a dream of researchers but perhaps a nightmare for highly skilled computer programmers: artificially intelligent machines that can build other artificially intelligent machines.
With recent speeches in both Silicon Valley and China, Jeff Dean, one of Google’s leading engineers, spotlighted a Google project called AutoML. ML is short for machine learning, referring to computer algorithms that can learn to perform particular tasks on their own by analyzing data. AutoML, in turn, is a machine-learning algorithm that learns to build other machine-learning algorithms. … …

***
The growing volume of personal but also mass insanity strikes a US leader as a politically opposed neighbor attacks and breaks ribs of US Senator Rand Paul — though motive still unclear
https://www.yahoo.com/news/paul-grateful-overwhelming-support-assault-181355554--election.html
APNewsBreak: Paul recovering from 5 broken ribs
***
(November 7)
“Funny,” how Man tends to create out of his own “imager” or imagination.  Sci-Fi becomes self-fulfilling prophecy over and over again.  It is not that we create out of nothing (“Ex Nihilo”) as God does, but rather we acquire knowledge by our exploratory, curious, and needful nature from realms that are beyond us until we find things that are there and bring them back into our world as “progress.”  This is “the knowledge of Good and Evil.”  It is needful for us to do this to survive in our mortality “for as long as we can,” but there is no ultimate salvation in it; it is always “carrot and stick.”  God lets us “make progress” only to show us the ultimate futility of it. Salvation comes from the Lord alone.  Here, we see our air and space fighters taking on Star Wars capabilities, as our imagination again extends our reality, and we will now be shooting down other air and space craft with the “ZAPS!” of laser weapons from our own flying crafts.

In like manner, the “imaginary” beasts and monsters that we are so used to imagining, are merely reflections of the evils of the fallen angels, and their perverse creations, the Nephilim (giants and monsters) that live and have been in the past, not in our imaginations only, and, lo, we begin to call them into this world again by the powers of genetic engineering that the same fallen angels are “inspiring” our scientists to find.

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5055865/Lockheed-Martin-developing-high-energy-laser-jets.html#ixzz4xjfWSHFO 
Fighter jets with laser weapons set to take to the skies in 2021 as Lockheed Martin wins $26 million 'Lance' high-energy laser contract
Lockheed Martin is working to develop a high-power fiber laser for fighter jets.
Under a $26.3 million contract from the Air Force Research Lab, the firm will design and produce a directed energy system for aircraft, with plans to test the technology by 2021.
The move comes after a series of successful tests with similar systems in ground-based platforms – but, the experts say developing a laser for a smaller, airborne design will be a challenge. …  …

***

A rapid escalation between major enemies in the Middle East, the Sunni and Sh’ite kingdoms?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/06/world/middleeast/yemen-saudi-iran-missile.html
Saudi Arabia Charges Iran With ‘Act of War,’ Raising Threat of Military Clash

LONDON — Saudi Arabia charged Monday that a missile fired at its capital from Yemen over the weekend was an “act of war” by Iran, in the sharpest escalation in nearly three decades of mounting hostility between the two regional rivals.

“We see this as an act of war,” the Saudi foreign minister, Adel Jubair, said in an interview on CNN. “Iran cannot lob missiles at Saudi cities and towns and expect us not to take steps.”

The accusation, which Iran denied, came a day after a wave of arrests in Saudi Arabia that appeared to complete the consolidation of power by the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, 32. Taken together, the two actions signaled a new aggressiveness by the prince both at home and abroad, as well as a new and more dangerous stage in the Saudi cold war with Iran for dominance in the region. … …

***
Engineering human obsolescence?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/06/technology/artificial-intelligence-start-up.html
A.I. Researchers Leave Elon Musk Lab to Begin Robotics Start-Up
(excerpt): …“We now have teachable robots,” Mr. Abbeel said during a recent interview at the new company’s offices in Emeryville, Calif., just across the bay from San Francisco.

The new company is part of a much wider effort to create A.I. that allows robots to learn. Researchers in places like Google, Brown University, and Carnegie Mellon are doing similar work, as are existing start-ups like Micropsi and Prowler.i.o. … …

***
NYTimes editorialist — another wounded, angry feminist sounds off with her views and solutions, but “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”  Yes, we all need to be our respective “ladies and gentlemen,”  showing honor to each other, but also there is, in that, still a need to retain a real distinction, a holy one, between the genders.  Take that away, and you have a grieving race, compounded into dehumanizing confusion.  The “confusion,” she has right, in a day of the invention of transgenderism and other sodomite decadence, in a day of masculinized women and effeminate men, exalted as righteousness…but it leaves agonized con-trails of confusion and dismay.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/06/opinion/fallon-resign-weinstein-harassment.html
The Deep Confusion of the Post-Weinstein Moment

***
The wicked hypocrisy of feminist Planned Parenthood —
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1746
Planned Parenthood vs. Little Girls: Sex-Selective Abortion In America
The worst form of discrimination against women in our time is one that is virtually ignored by feminists.

The abortion industry has long billed itself as a champion of women's rights. Almost thirty years ago, the head of the National Abortion Rights Action League, or NARAL, told the New York Times that "Abortion is the guarantor of a woman's right to participate fully in the social and political life of society."

But as Cathy Ruse pointed out recently at the Daily Signal, abortion is being used right now to keep millions of women from participating in life, at all.

By some estimates, there are as many as 160 million girls and women missing worldwide because of sex-selective abortion. Modern technology that allows parents to find out before birth whether they're having a boy or girl, coupled with traditional cultural preferences for boys, results in nothing less than "gendercide"--the systematic killing of female babies over males. And it's not just happening overseas.

Newsweek reported last year that sex-selective abortions are on the rise right here in the U. S. One study by Columbia University found that Chinese, Korean and Indian parents on their second pregnancy gave birth to 117 boys for every 100 girls. For third children, the ratio shot up to a staggering 151 boys for every 100 girls.

The culprit, says Newsweek, is sex-selective abortion. So-called "family planning" clinics like those affiliated with Planned Parenthood are helping women kill their unborn daughters. You'd think organizations that pride themselves on protecting and empowering women would want this to stop, but you'd be wrong.

Last year, after the state of Indiana passed a law banning sex-selective abortion, a federal district judge granted a permanent injunction against the law at the request of--you guessed it--Planned Parenthood. In the name of ending discrimination against women, this abortion giant is literally making sure fewer women exist.

***

(November 9)
A mad party of Sodom’s citizens, screaming with pagan drum enhancement, brought forward to present Philadelphia…on the eve of judgment? (At about 32 minutes into the second video, the Howling Banshees begin their anarchic hellish screams.)

https://pjmedia.com/video/watch-liberals-gather-scream-sky-ny-philly/
WATCH: Liberals Gather to Scream at the Sky

***
Mass confusion over the 0.6% of high school students who “identify as transgender.”  In sports, the boys decide to be girls, and “beat the socks off” the real girls…and all this is supposed to lead to freedom and equity?!  No wonder there is mass confusion!
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/08/sports/transgender-athletes.html?smtyp=cur
How Should High Schools Define Sexes for Transgender Athletes?
INDIANAPOLIS — The calls to high school sports officials from athletic directors and administrators began several years ago and have only become more frequent and difficult: How are you handling transgender students who want to play sports? … …

***
Good News to the Paganised West?!
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1760
Reverse Missionaries Trying To Save Western Christianity
Missionaries poured out of Western Europe and into Latin America, Africa and Asia for hundreds of years to spread the Gospel, build churches and form congregations. Now the tide has shifted and missionaries from Africa, Latin America and Asia, where 50% of the Christian population is predicted to reside by the year 2050, are flowing back into Europe to revitalize Christianity. 

The rise of secularism in the United Kingdom has had a devastating effect on Christianity and the Church of England is in danger of disappearing completely, as current trends destine it for extinction as early as 2033.

Nigerian and Korean missionaries in particular have dedicated their efforts to establishing churches, building relationships and breathing life back into the Church in Europe. One such man is Reuben Ekeme Inwe, a Nigerian from Lagos. 

He tells of a dream his wife Roselyn had, a dream in which he was preaching to a White congregation as white sand (snow) fell on the church. Her vision would propel the couple to immigrate and found the Hope Centre in York, England that now serves as a community center and a church, offering exercise and language classes in addition to worship service. Reuben spends his days talking with and helping out members of his community as he builds relationships with white and black British alike.

The African Diaspora has been particularly invested in the efforts to bring back Christianity in England. At first, African-founded churches catered to immigrant and African-British congregations, as is the case with many immigrant-focused churches around the world. 

But now there is a concerted effort to bring white, natively British men and women in to the fold. Church leaders are training their members in cross cultural communication and enlisting young men and women, many from Africa, to evangelize a British population.

Many of these new reverse-missionaries view this as their heavenly calling. Girma Bishaw, an Ethiopian-British pastor in London, recently told journalists, "Britain brought the Gospel to us in the past. Now, by God's providence, we are here when Christianity is very much challenged, and the UK churches are really declining. It's not just coincidence we're here." But it is also not without its challenges either. … …

***

Truly, George Orwell’s Anti-Sex League, a subplot and theme of “1984,” came to pass under the last administration’s campus and Title 9 policies.  The upshot is that all college men are rapists, and all college women are hysterical victims, who through “neuro-trauma” (excerpt: “the effects of trauma, including neurobiological change”—a phrase pregnant with hidden meaning.) cannot even deny or retract any of their original complaints or allegations, and men are not allowed to present any evidence to defend themselves.  Christian morality would stem fornication and encourage committed relationship/marriage as the right protection for sexual contact.  But Big Brother will just be content to destroy all hope of right relationships (or any relationship) between genders and punish accused and accusers just for being gendered.

Pray for Betsy Devos, the administration’s Education Secretary, that she will be able to disassemble this beast of cultural psychosis.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/why-campus-rape-tribunals-always-reach-guilty-verdicts/article/2010401
Why Campus Rape Tribunals Hand Down So Many 'Guilty' Verdicts

***
Pray for Judge Moore, that God will have his way.  He is under the attack of Evil for dating, in what this culture considers mismatched ages in dating.  The Scriptures do not speak against this, and as a defender writes, Mary was probably about 14 when she bore Jesus.  Judge Moore was still a young man also at this time of 40 years ago.  He is also under attack for defending the Scriptures position on “transgenderism,” (cross-dressing and other sodomite practices) which the Scriptures declare are abominations to God, while the present “liberal” mind considers transgenderism as something to be exalted and defended morally.  Says Isaiah, they shall call good evil and evil good (5:20).  This attack is just too obviously a political smear campaign, and while the Judge may have erred, likely only in judgment, as a young man, he did not misuse, abuse, or sin sexually against any of the several young ladies he tried to court for a wife, yes, perhaps pursuing romance with some foreplay but also not disregarding their wishes nor misusing them in fornication.  Even his accusers concede that.  None of the several have otherwise accused him.  Those press ferrets who attack him are the perverts.  Of the several sought out by those wishing to defame him, all were young women, and not children by biblical standards.  All but one were statutorily approachable, (adults according to modern standards), and, at least until recently if not still presently so, some states still allow marriage with parental approval as young as 14.  These were young women not children as pedophilia accusations imply.

https://www.advocate.com/politicians/2017/11/09/senate-candidate-roy-moore-transgenders-dont-have-rights
Senate Candidate Roy Moore: 'Transgenders Don't Have Rights'
Anti-LGBT U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore has made yet another transphobic statement on the campaign trail.
Moore, whose candidacy was threatened today by a news story accusing him of pedophilia, made the anti-trans comment at a press conference Wednesday in Montgomery, Ala. … …

***
Become a techno-clone of the ‘Borg.  Yield up your memories; implant false ones; give up your “soul’s computer” to The Beast —  Tech enhanced and insured demonic possession?
http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/877457/brain-function-dementia-super-power-human-kernel
SUPERHUMANS: Chips inserted in brains will give us MIND-BLOWING abilities within years
SUPER HUMANS could exist in just 15 years thanks to a computer chip inserted into the brain to unlock the mankind’s full potential.
People will be able to buy new memories and delete unwanted ones in the near future as experts believe they are close to biohacking the body’s most powerful tool, according to a leading technology entrepreneur.Speaking at Lisbon’s Web Summit, Bryan Johnson, the founder of Kernel – a start-up researching the possibilities of microchips being inserted on the brain – says unlocking the true potential of the mind is the “single greatest thing” humanity can achieve.Kernel’s first step is to design chips that can help fight disease, but then it hopes to evolve the brain to offer superhuman abilities.
The firm’s website reads: “To further explore our own human boundaries, a wave of new technologies needs to emerge that can access, read, and write from the most powerful tool we have — the human brain. … …

***
(November 11)
Day after day now, maybe hour after hour, the battle to devastate the genders rages.  Hollywood has set up the chopping block, and the guillotine “calls for more heads.”  Now, it moves down to the man at the office and the man on the street, and both man and woman become more miserable by the hour.  It is not that Christian morality, chastity, and honor for the other is not still the best way, but it is that a machine-like, unrepentant, “morality” is crying for the end of gender, and the making of all gender considerations into a crime, a thought crime, a virtually capital punishment.  May God divert this wickedness and also bring a season of true repentance in treating others as we would be treated, and as we should treat others who are made in the image of God.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/business/men-at-work-wonder-sexual-harassment.html?emc=edit_th_20171111&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Men at Work Wonder if They Overstepped With Women, Too
SAN FRANCISCO — It has been a confusing season for America’s working men, as the conversation around workplace harassment reveals it to be a nationwide epidemic — and many men wonder if they were involved or ignored the signs.
Consider Owen Cunningham, a director at San Francisco’s KBM-Hogue design firm. When he looks toward the annual corporate holiday party these days, he shudders.
“Cancel the holiday party,” said Mr. Cunningham, 37, adding that he means just until it has been figured out how men and women should interact. He said he considered himself progressive on gender issues but was thinking more about the behavior he had seen in the past: “What flirting is O.K.? Was I ever taking advantage of any meager power I had? You start to wonder.”

***
Spy v. Spy?  Where is Hariri?  Invited back to Lebanon by Hezbollah, but for an assassin’s hit, or taking refuge in Saudi Arabia, or restrained against his will there?  God save him.  Is a new round of large scale war at hand in the Middle East?  How will it help set the stage for the great battle of Ezekiel’s prophecy, chapters 38 and 39?  Potent intrigues.

Case of Missing Lebanese Prime Minister Stirs Middle East Tensions
BEIRUT, Lebanon — When the Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri made a sudden trip abroad last week, it was taken at first to be a routine visit with his political patron, Saudi Arabia.  But the next day, he unexpectedly announced his resignation by video  from Riyadh, the Saudi capital.
He has yet to return to Lebanon.
On Friday, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement, part of his governing coalition at home, charged that the Saudis were holding him against his will, while the Saudis have said they were protecting him from an unspecified assassination plot.
The Hariri case has become just one in a profusion of bewildering events — from Saudi Arabia’s arrest of princes and wealthy businessmen last weekend to ordering its citizens out of Lebanon on Thursday — that are escalating tensions in the Middle East and fueling anxiety about whether the region is on the verge of military conflict. … …

***

Last blog it was “lasers on fighter jets”; this week taking them to space; next week, “The Starship Enterprise”?  Better get our “shields up”!
https://www.rt.com/usa/409554-nasa-orbital-atk-space-lasers/
NASA to test ‘space lasers’ with latest launch
***
Matt Drudge: “Plague Fears Grow”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5072717/Plague-fears-grow-Malawi-10th-nation-alert.html
Plague fears grow as Malawi becomes tenth African nation put on alert for the spread of the killer disease
	•	At least 143 people have died of the plague following an outbreak in Madagascar 
	•	Another 2,000 people have been infected since the spread in August this year
	•	Malawi's Dr Dan Namarika warned 'porous borders' may help spread the disease
	•	The last reported case of the plague in Malawi were reported in 2002

***

“And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet,
and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds,
from one end of heaven to the other.”

Matthew 24:31

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November 5 / UPDATE / BREAKING NEWS circa 3:30 p.m.

Saints,

(November 5)
ThIS same Sunday, by afternoon, a gunman has walked into a Baptist Church near San Antonio, and at first count, 20 or more are dead including children.
What a way to start the week — On the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week.  Maranatha!  Come, Lord Jesus!
When I got this “Breaking News” Alert from the NYTimes, 3:30, I turned on the over-the-air TV I watch, expecting to find the networks focussed on the issue; I got a show about the Olympics, a live broadcast of the New York City Marathon, and a football game!  How near to judgment the USA must be!

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/05/us/church-shooting-texas.html?emc=edit_na_20171105&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta
Texas Church Shooting Leaves More Than 20 Dead, Official Says
More than 20 people were killed after a gunman walked into a church in a rural community about 30 miles east of San Antonio and opened fire on Sunday, an official said.
The official, Paul W. Pfeil, a Wilson County, Tex., commissioner, said he did not have a total count of the number of dead but said it was “more than 20.”
David Keen, a constable in Wilson County, confirmed that there were casualties and said “there were kids involved.” He said the gunman was dead.
Sheriff Joe Tackitt of Wilson County told The Wilson County News that a man had entered the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs and begun firing.
Megan Posey, a spokeswoman for Connally Memorial Medical Center in Floresville, Tex., said that she did not know exactly how many patients the hospital had received, but that it was continuing to receive more.
The hospital has activated its emergency response team, she said. Information about the conditions of patients was not immediately available.
“We’re sending more officers on the streets to help secure Connally Memorial while they’re bringing the casualties to the hospital,” Constable Keen said.

First updates:  27 dead, including the gunman who was dressed in “full battle fatigues,” and one  two-year old child.  24 more wounded.  Will this gunman be a Muslim or just berserk American?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5052163/Up-27-shot-Texas-church-gunman-opens-fire.html

*

Lord Jesus, we lift up the survivors to you; heal the wounded we pray; comfort the remaining congregation, and help them all to come before you for the work and the walk of the Holy Spirit among them.
Lord, please help the American Church to wake up and not be drowsy and complacent, but help us recognize the very real war of the Enemy against us.

**************
If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

November 5

Saints,

If the watchman does not warn, the peoples’ blood will be upon his hands.  If the people do not listen, it will be upon their heads.  (Ezekiel 33)

Are we merely Alarmists?  “Sound the alarm!”  There is a time and a place:  

Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an ALARM in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand;  (Joel 2:1)
Yes, there are both appropriate ALARMISTS  and appropriate ESCAPISMS.
“Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I  also will KEEP THEE FROM (ESCAPE) the hour of temptation, which shall come upon the all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” (Rev. 3:10)
“Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to ESCAPE all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”  (Luke 21:36)

I watch a number of prophetic sites, and some of them are way out there in sensationalism, but others seek to be reputable and balanced and cite carefully.  Yet, I find, all too often, that they track well in one area and are in blindness in other plain matters.  One, seemingly full of warnings about the times, then turned around and presented image after image of notable Christians through the ages and then said, without citation, that they were all post-tribulationists, those who do not believe in watching for the imminent coming of the Lord for his saints!?  On top of this, they listed us who do watch as heretics!  Another supposedly watching group, comes up with many insightful items but also places their womenfolk in teaching and “reverend” roles and interprets away, dismisses, or ignores New Testament instructions for the genders.  These are but two of many examples.  The upshot is that much-to-all media religionizing is shot through with heresies and malpractices right alongside truths.  This is what we face in this day, multiplied over every subject of the Bible.  The best hope would seem to be small churches who are ever willing to carefully search out matters.  Failing that, it may come down to “where two or three are gathered in my name,” or to the besieged individual finishing out his course alone. This won’t sit well with Hebrews 10:25 staunch dogmatists, but the Word is full of times alone for the prophets and saints and martyrs, and finally, everyone must be accountable to stand before God on his or her own.  Remember Bunyan’s “Pilgrim” who travelled in company but must also travel at times in solitude, even weary solitude, on that upward and straight and narrow way.

“Neither is there salvation in any other.  For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts.4:12) “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6).  It is not enough that the hordes of Islam reject Christ’s Eternal Sonship, his proceeding from the bosom of the Father, nor that the world at large cannot comprehend and thus cannot receive this, but, now great chunks of even Evangelicalism are not holding to this or to other essential elements of the nature of God and of his clear commandments, even simple New Testament instructions.  It seems likely that we are in the time of “the Great Apostasy” (2 Thess. 2:3; Rev. 13:8). Jesus Himself said, “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matt. 24:4,5). So that we must reject even proposed “jesusus” who present themselves, or worse, those who claim to know the real Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, but who explain away his directions and teachings, who present fleshly dogmas—interpretations—so that they may turn to anything they want and still claim to be his followers, and worse, claim to be his representatives and ambassadors to the rest of us…the Saints deceived, the Lost fed false gospels!  Fearfully, every level of the Faith, even those proposing themselves to be in deeper and more committed doctrines can turn to fleshly fables even within their own strict adherences.  God hates religionizing, for example, Matthew 15:8, 9; He loves truth and when his people desire to walk in truth.

What are we to do?  The problem, even among those true to the Lord, is that even the most erudite, know very little.  We have all been made very stupid (stupefied, dazed, entranced) by the Fall, and what little we do know is because we have been taken, like puppies by the nape of the neck, and had the elements of the Gospel put right into our face by the Holy Spirit.  What we have, we have by “revelation,” that is, the Truth is put right into our faces, and the Spirit has loudly told us what it means and how we must follow it:  “Then said they unto him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent” (John 6:28-29).  “If any man thinks that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know, but if any man love God, the same is known of him.” (1 Cor 8:2-3).  Thank God!…that if He has revealed himself to us in the Gospel and shown us salvation, and we have responded to his love by loving him, then He will carry us through!  Yet, for his eternal purposes, He has called us to wrestle with great (and even the small) matters of Faith and to resist that supergenius of fallen Creation, the Devil himself, with the Truth.  We must labor, each to our own graced abilities, to seek out orthodoxy (literally, “right teaching”), both the intellectual intent and the Spirit of the Lord and his appointed apostles, his “secretaries” of the Scriptures (Matt. 13:52, etc.), in every matter that comes before us, in every argument the devil proposes, in every misstep the outward church proposes.  It is certainly a solemn and a weighty duty, but God does stand with us, even if all men (and the outward popular Church) turn against us…or if we must walk on and away from it.

***
The Week —
(October 29)
Pagan Insanity?  “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (1 Cor. 6:19)
(No nude photos.)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5028549/Thousands-body-art-fans-attend-Sydney-tattoo-festival.html
Don't bl-ink! Thousands of fans strip down to bare skin at the Sydney tattoo festival to have all parts of their bodies adorned - even their EYEBALLS

***
The rise of the Beast, and the spirit of Antichrist…
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-new-religions-obsessed-with-ai
The New Religions Obsessed with A.I.
(excerpt): …It is not a stretch to say that a powerful AI—whose expanse of knowledge and control may feel nearly omniscient and all-powerful—could feel divine to some. It recalls Arthur C. Clarke’s third law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” People have followed new religions for far less and, even if AI doesn’t pray to electric deities, some humans likely will.
The potential for an out-of-control AI has encouraged warnings from some of the biggest minds, including Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk—who tweeted that it could lead to World War III. Clearly no Luddite himself, Musk has compared the creation of AI to “summoning the demon,” and called for regulation and oversight of AI development, forming Open AI, which looks for a “path to safe artificial general intelligence.”
Musk himself was named-dropped this week by Hanson Robotic’s empathic AI Sophia, when she was interviewed by Andrew Sorkin of CNBC this week. When asked about the danger she poses to humanity, she tells him, “You’ve reading too much Elon Musk and watching too many Hollywood movies. Don’t worry if you’ll be nice to me, I’ll be nice to you.” Not exactly the Golden Rule. … …

***
(October 30)
A Comic-Con for Transhumanists?  God save some of these poor foolish cyborg-wannabes!
Cyborg prostheses of every size, kind, and type.  More heavy, body-wide tattooing, surely anticipating the impending moment when all tattoo ink will also be microcircuitry?
At some point, will they find themselves trapped in a bodily hell while still alive in the flesh?

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/29/transhuman-bodyhacking-transspecies-cyborg
When man meets metal: rise of the transhumans
At the borderline of technology and biology, ‘bodyhacking’ pioneers are defying nature to redesign their own bodies. Is this really the future?
Earlier this year I went to an event in Austin, Texas, billed as a sneak preview of the evolution of our species. #The Bdyhax Conference, which took place in a downtown exhibition complex, promised a front-row insight into the coming “singularity” – that nirvana foretold by science fiction in which biology and technology would fuse and revolutionise human capability and experience.
The headline acts of the conference were mostly bodyhackers – DIY experimenters who, in their basements and garages, seek to enhance their own flesh and blood with biometric implants and cognitive enablers. These brave pioneers were extending their senses, overcoming physical limitation, Dan-Daring themselves and the rest of us into the future.  (ed. note, “brave pioneers” ????!!!!, is that newspeak for crazy idiots?)

***
Wow, I’m no big fan of Sandler’s, but in the touchy-feely, huggy world of Hollywood, this is crazy hysteria.  Yes, his actions may be impertinent and pretentious and maybe loose, but will a handshake be the next thing in “sexual harassment”?  Will this hysteria utterly turn to dehumanization between the genders?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5027717/Twitter-slams-Adam-Sandler-touches-Claire-Foy-s-knee.html
'She looks distressed!' Shocked viewers flock Twitter to slam Adam Sandler after he repeatedly touches Claire Foy's knee... leaving her appearing to squirm

***

Manhattan having a blister of personal anarchy?
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2017/10/27/knockout-game/
Rash Of ‘Knockout’ Attacks Has Some New Yorkers Worried
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — There were warnings Friday about a possible upsurge in knockout attacks in which people are sucker punched for no good reason. Video of one such incident shows a woman being suddenly kicked and then punched by a man. She was knocked out cold on the ground, but rather than help her several people took out phones to take pictures. … …
***
Halloween season showing itself for what it really is…pandemonium…”all the demons loosed”?  Pray for the safety of your children and loved ones.

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/10/29/assaults-robberies-turn-great-america-into-real-life-scare/
Assaults, robberies turn Great America into real-life scare
SANTA CLARA — Thieves reportedly armed with Tasers assaulted and robbed patrons at California’s Great America, turning the amusement park’s 10th annual Halloween fest into a real-life fright for thousands of visitors and employees, park security and visitors said.
Santa Clara police estimated that about 100 youth were perpetrating the mayhem, which broke out about 10:30 p.m. Saturday at the Great America Haunt. About 20,000 visitors were in the park, police said.
Police arrested one juvenile on suspicion of theft, Santa Clara Police Lieutenant Dan Moreno said. Visitors reported seeing other perpetrators escape into waiting cars.
Park patrons reported encountering groups of robbers, some armed with Tasers, who ran through crowds stealing mobile phones, purses, and backpacks and sending visitors fleeing for exits. Some panicked visitors tried to scale park fences. About 30 patrons were injured, by one security guard’s estimate.
“It was terrible,” said a San Francisco mom who had brought her 17-year-old daughter and a friend to the haunt. “A kid in a hoodie ran up and pried the phone out of my hands.”
The mother, who does not want to be publicly identified because she was victimized, said she then frantically searched for her daughter amid terrified crowds as people were being assaulted. Her daughter and friend were not physically harmed.
“One lady got punched in the face,” she said. “Security did nothing to try to get those guys out.” … …

***

Demonology is a dangerous realm of knowledge.  We need to know our enemy but too much focus on it can “lead down rabbit holes” of deception.  That said, some celebrities seem to have and even to cultivate “familiar spirits” which may be a lesser association than full demonic possession.  Beyonce has claimed to go under the power of spirits in her performances.  And Ms. Griffin seems to equate humor with a state of utter hating, loathing attack.  I remember seeing her first time years ago on Seinfeld where even this droll, urbane comedian seemed taken aback and speechless at the venom of her hateful “humor.”  Then, came the recent “Trump’s bloody severed head” misstep and now she is back with more.  These things might suggest a careful observation of the difference between having a “familiar spirit” and being fully, psychotically possessed.  She must be very unhappy if addicted to and empowered by such a spirit.  God saved the raging Saul of Tarsus and made him into St. Paul.  May He yet save such as Kathy and like performers.

(Though apparently not a stage name for Kathy, a griffin is a mythological beast of terror, half lion, half eagle, perhaps an echo of some Nephilim/Fallen Angel genetic experiment?)

(Wow,  later I went back and watched the you-tube video Kathy posted with this story.  Whew, she is one tough lady and slings volleys of f-words like a barroom madam, but, oh, it seems she is really hurting too.  Lord, show her your wonderful mercy as you have done for us all, who but for your mercy, are in one and the same place as she now is.  What a wonderful testimony it would be to see her at the foot of the cross, cleansed like Mary Magdalene!)

https://pagesix.com/2017/10/28/kathy-griffin-goes-after-tmzs-harvey-levin/?_ga=2.156433531.1515915787.1509289645-1247808033.1509289645
Kathy Griffin goes after TMZ’s Harvey Levin
Kathy Griffin attacked TMZ founder Harvey Levin in a video posted to Twitter and YouTube Saturday, and released his personal phone number.
In the video, Griffin blasted Levin, saying, “I just want you guys to know Harvey Levin, Harvey Levin a blogger, is very much in bed with everyone from Hollywood to Donald Trump.”
Griffin said she made the video as a result of TMZ’s fueling the fire that erupted after she received criticism for posting a photo in which she held a fake severed head resembling Donald Trump. Griffin apologized for the video but was nevertheless the subject of controversy, losing her job with CNN’s New Year’s Eve program. In August, Griffin retracted her apology and said the whole thing was “blown out of proportion” and that she “lost everybody.”
Near the beginning of the 17-minute video, Griffin plays a voicemail left by Levin on her cell phone in which he leaves his number for her to call back. “I don’t have a minute to call him,” she said, “but maybe you do.” … …

***
Wow, a brilliant little pointed analysis and essay on the divided America, by a Trump-loather, no less—
How a few words, one way or another, create a “reality”
http://www.kansascity.com/article181300286.html
They’re Trump-strong in rural Iowa — and not changing their minds

***
In an unprecedented (?) weather event, a slush of hail, up to tennis ball size, mixed with a downpour of rain traps motorists, even cyclists, in a sudden surge up to 5’ deep—

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/argentina-hail-storm-terrifying-extreme-weather-cordoba-south-america-a8025056.html

Apocalyptic photos show sea of hail swamping cars in Argentina
Hailstorm dumps almost five feet of hailstones in minutes

***

CBS News this morning announces “Pot-infused Booze.”  Yeah, that’s just what we need!  (In case there is any doubt, this statement is dripping with sarcasm, not booze.  Drunkards and Drug Heads — sorcerers and their minions — will not inherit the Kingdom of God, the New Testament makes clear.  But among the repentant, many of us were such!)

***

(October 31)
Playing with fire?  Does North Korea begin to bring judgment down on its own head?  Recently, China also warned them that the mountains the Koreans test under may give way from repeated nuclear explosions.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4806082/north-korea-nuclear-base-collapses-killing-200-radioactive-leak-fears-latest-updates/
KIM'S DISASTER North Korea nuclear base COLLAPSES killing at least 200 people, local reports claim, amid fears of massive radioactive leak

***
Oh, great, now an AI named Shelley (for the authoress who wrote Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, wife of poet Percy Shelley) is going to write horror stories.  Wow, connecting occult fearsomeness with AI.  What could possibly go wrong? How many rabbit holes could it go down?  How deep into the Abyss? How pickled the brain of the reader?  Did Frankenstein’s author portend where her own creation would lead?
https://newatlas.com/mit-shelley-ai-horror-stories/51974/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=492ecf8502-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-492ecf8502-91592265
MIT conjures up AI that collaborates with humans to create horror stories
In a timely move coinciding with Halloween, researchers at MIT have created Shelley, the world's first artificial intelligence designed to collaborate with humans on horror stories. Conceived and coded by a research team from the MIT Media Lab's Scalable Cooperation group, the Twitter-based AI has been trained using over 140,000 horror stories from Reddit's r/nosleep subreddit that allow "her" to work with visitors to create suitably fiendish stories for the ghoulish season. …  …

***
“Preach the Gospel…in season and out of season,” Paul to Timothy.  God help us.  We are often weak, intimidated; but by “the foolishness of preaching” (1 Cor. 1:18-21) He uses us…anyway.
 (Moody was the Billy Graham of the 19th Century.)

bereancall.org / Today’s Update / October 31
It is clear you don't like my way of doing evangelism. You raise some good points. Frankly, I sometimes do not like my way of doing evangelism. But I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it.
--Dwight L. Moody (responding to a critic of his ministry). 

***
(Tuesday afternoon)
“ ‘Small Mass Murder’ of the Day,” complete with “allahu akbar,” Isis-promised, inspired and spiritually directed Halloween terror —  Crops of news cycles make us forget Las Vegas’s mad machine-gunning already?
http://nypost.com/2017/10/31/several-people-shot-in-downtown-manhattan/
8 killed as truck plows into pedestrians in downtown NYC terror attack
A man in a pickup truck killed eight people when he drove onto the West Side bike path in lower Manhattan Tuesday afternoon — and then shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he got out of the car with fake guns, police sources said.
The suspected terror attack happened around 3:15 p.m., when a man in a flatbed pickup truck from Home Depot veered onto the bike path at West St., a few blocks north of Chambers St., police said.
The suspect, who was shot by police, then plowed his car into up to 23 people on the path, killing eight and injuring more than a dozen others, according to cops.
He continued driving south and hit another car, then got out and displayed “imitation firearms,” police said.
The man then shouted, “Allahu Akbar,” according to police sources.
Witnesses described a scene of terror, as people fled for safety. …

***
(November 2)
Thursday morning, here in “quiet, safe, rural, beautiful” Vermont and 8000 people are still without power after Monday’s storm off the Atlantic arrived; there were 100,000 outages here at peak and over a million across the whole of the Northeast.
*
Overnight another shooter, apparently not yet identified as an ISIS terrorist, opens up and randomly kills three in a Colorado Walmart.  He is currently still at large.  At 7:30, I have no link yet to published text stories, only an announcement on CBS Morning News.  ISIS’s evil seems to trigger other psychotic, depressed, angry men to mass killing also: the Zeitgeist > “Time Ghost” > spirit of the Age?

(Major news sites seemed to ignore this all day…just too many mass killings to bother with three dead?  Finally, went surfing and found info after 3 pm and a fuller story on TV news by evening.):
http://tpr.org/post/police-capture-suspect-deadly-walmart-shooting-colorado
***

I have done about 70 street concerts of electric Gospel Blues over the last several years until a bout with cancer in 2016 (from which the Lord has restored me, and I hope to do some more), and I am moved by a number of Dylan’s songs of the Faith.  Yes, the world rejoiced when he seemed to have lapsed back from that Faith and maybe back into pot-headedness, but maybe he just needed to recover from the fleshly adulation of many pop-religionists and media attention.  I never do his songs without identifying them and praying for his soul and his recovery of the Faith.  His songs also spark and feed the extemporaneous “banter-preaching” that I do with them.

If I can read between the lines of this secular NYTimes review, I find hope that he is restrengthening himself in his faith in the Lord Jesus.  I surely pray so.  God save Bob Dylan! “Strengthen the things that remain.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/01/arts/music/bob-dylan-bootleg-series-trouble-no-more.html
Bob Dylan’s Songs for the Soul, Revisited and Redeemed
Even in 1979, Bob Dylan could cause a commotion. That was the year he released “Slow Train Coming,” the album that announced his embrace of Christianity, soon to be followed by “Saved” in 1980 and “Shot of Love” in 1981: his born-again trilogy. For those three years, the iconoclast, freethinker and reluctant voice of a generation proclaimed faith in salvation by Jesus Christ (despite his Jewish upbringing), with lyrics that drew a line in the sand. In “Precious Angel” on “Slow Train Coming,” he declared, “Ya either got faith or ya got unbelief, and there ain’t no neutral ground.” … …
***
Looking beyond the immediate, and even the mediate future, could Artificial Intelligence and Machine Housings (robots) be an Infernal stratagem of the fallen angels to escape God’s judgment in hell with an artificial and yet material reality, using and inspiring (spirit-infusing) the humans initially to build it?  Do the humans get this “heaven” too as transhumanists hope, or are they to be discarded after use?

“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast…” (Rev.13:15 )…and, who “would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/this-new-form-life-stephen-11453107

"This will be a new form of life": Stephen Hawking says artificial intelligence robots will replace humans COMPLETELY
The renowned physicist said that he believes AI will eventually reach a level where it will essentially be a "new form of life that will outperform humans"
Renowned physicist Prof. Stephen Hawking has said robots will eventually replace humanity COMPLETELY.
Prof Hawking said that he believes artificial intelligence (AI) will eventually reach a level where it will essentially be a "new form of life that will outperform humans", the Cambridge News reports. 

***
(November 4)
The morality of Christian conviction is a wonderful thing, preserving innocence and true chastity, but machine-like enforced morality is the work of the Beast foretold by George Orwell as “the Anti-Sex League.”  The reductio ad adsurdem, the end, of such powers is to forbid all human contact between human beings.  The first experiments in growing lambs in artificial wombs is underway; the obvious end of that is to grow humans the same way.  Shortly thereafter, parents will be forbidden common and necessary, intimate and loving physical contact with their children, even cleaning them up and bathing them (presumably left to robots or group scrubs, etc.) as well as showing them physical affection, and children will be forbidden physicality of any kind with their peers, with all such human interactions re-labelled as “abuse.”  In their place and for human and even rightful intimate activity, only sodomite activities will be allowed, and those in great excess, group expressions, rape gangs, etc.  These things will end humanity as we know it.  Christ must come “to destroy them which destroy the earth” (and its sacred race, “made in the image of God,” called humans). (Rev. 11:18)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/11/03/sexually-active-students-must-be-reported-to-law-enforcement-or-state-officials-ore-school-district-says/?utm_term=.f3e06dadeeb7
Sexually active students must be reported to law enforcement or state officials, Ore. school district says
Teachers and staff in the Salem-Keizer school district — which includes more than 40,000 students — were recently told that if they learn or merely suspect a student is sexually active, they must report it to law enforcement or state officials. … …

***
Profiling your kids to Google’s YouTube, not a good idea?

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/youtube-is-introducing-profiles-for-children-why-you-should-pay-attention-2017-11-03
YouTube’s new profiles for children have privacy experts very concerned

***
Praise God for righteous allies!  This is a mighty centennial year:  100 years for the Balfour Declaration paving the way for Israel! (500 years for Luther at the Wittenberg Door!)
Be’er Sheva (Be’er Sheba) is the site of Abraham’s well.

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1736

Past And Present Bonds Converge For Israel, Australia & New Zealand

While November 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of the much-discussed Balfour Declaration, which helped pave the way for the modern state of Israel, another important centennial--for the World War I Battle of Be'er Sheva--was also marked this week by the leaders of Israel, 

Australia and New Zealand. 

For citizens of all three young democracies, the pivotal battle is seen as playing a major role in shaping not only the future of Israel, by setting the stage for the implementation of the Balfour Declaration through the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, but also for the national identities of Australia and New Zealand, who were part of the British Empire at the time.

"We are here standing in the city of Abraham," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a gathering of leaders in Be'er Sheva's Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery. 
"Four-thousand years ago, our forefathers came here. Now, because of that day a hundred years ago, you see the modern city of Be'er Sheva, with the cyber headquarters, with the future in our hands. We have peace, prosperity and security, but it was made possible because of those heroes."
***
Canadian darling of “progressive socialism” moves to squelch pro-life views—
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1737
Canada - Discrimination Against Pro-Life Politicians
(excerpt):  …For his part, Prime Minister Trudeau said that opponents of abortion shouldn't bother trying to run for the Liberal Party in the next election, since he envisions a party that is "resolutely pro-choice". His attempt to impose this political belief throughout the government, by blocking nominations, has now opened the field for new debate on abortion and exposed his position to pro-life politicians. 

Trudeau said, "It's not for any government to legislate what happens - what a woman chooses to do with her body, and that is the bottom line. I have made it clear that the future candidates need to be completely understanding that they will be expected to vote pro-choice on any bills." 

Yet this draconian view of top-down party rule that brooks no discussion may very well ignite a new round of national debate. … …

***

(November 5)
As mentioned in the last blog, be on the watch for THE PLAGUE along with these new pestilences.  I was watching a PBS import of a German news show Saturday night, and a report on tribal fetishes and animist religion in Madagascar said that digging up the dead, dancing with them (bearing them about ritually), and other very close contact with rotting corpses, may be a source of the Plague outbreaks.  Sorry, I don’t have link on that, but, here…another report of those blossoming and terrible potential worldwide new outbreaks of “Black Death.”  Watch and pray.  May God confine and undo this outbreak to only places of evil wickedness, and may He have much mercy in judgment even there, but, in the last days, we are warned there will be plagues and pestilences.  Nevertheless, faith in the Word of God in Psalm 91 and throughout the Scriptures, grants us many measures of protection and defense though we yet remain mortal until the Resurrection.  Watch and pray.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/875433/Black-Death-plague-2017-madagascar-outbreak-africa-world-health-organisation-virus-uganda
New 'Black Death' FOUND: Deadly virus WORSE than plague and with no CURE breaks out - WHO
A DEADLY outbreak of a rare and highly fatal virus has broken out in eastern Uganda and five cases have already been identified, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed.
The disease, known as Marburg virus disease (MVD), is similar to Ebola and can be lethal in up to 90 per cent of cases.
Emergency screening has begun at the Kenya-Uganda border in Turkana after three members of the same family died of the disease in Uganda.
The outbreak is thought to have started in September when a man in his 30s, who worked as a game hunter and lived near a cave with a heavy presence of bats, was admitted to a local health centre with a high fever, vomiting and diarrhoea.
He did not respond to antimalarial treatment and his condition rapidly deteriorated.
He was quickly taken to another hospital in the neighbouring district, but died shortly after arriving. … …

***

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

Psalm 91:1-3

*******************************************************************
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October 29

Saints,

The week.  The descent into oblivion.  The party goes on as a black night descends.  …and they hardened their hearts and “repented not.”  (See Rev. 16)

Lord, protect little children in this time of bloody Pagan festivals and the witches’ sabbath, Samhain (Halloween).  We know it is your heart, for you care more for each of us than “many sparrows” (Mt. 10:29), each of which you see when if falls, and every little child is of surpassing value to you.

If we celebrate the season, let it be for “Reformation Day,” the same October 31 when Martin Luther nailed his theses to Wittenberg’s door, 500 years ago this year(!), recalling that “the just shall Iive by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4).

Lord Jesus, keep your saints!

***

(October 23)
“ ‘Round and ‘round the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel…”  While Russia may have spent $100,000 or so promoting its opinion on the US election (and for several other countries) in internet pop-ups and ads, the American political parties spent 100’s of millions, and committed who knows how many crimes of corruption and acts of political warfare.  Is the Congressional Branch of our Constitutional construction going to end in tail-chasing folly?  Lord, help them get their heads on straight!

As to Russia, it used to be the king of the Communist threat, but now its own leader professes Christian Faith.  God forgive him and save him indeed, for Russia still has to make the great mistake of attacking Israel, along with the Muslim hordes, in Ezekiel’s prophecy of the Great Battle which likely institutes the Tribulation and ends seven years later with the judgment of all the nations in the valley of Megiddo (Armageddon).  May God save many Russians, both inside and outside the Russian Orthodox Church there, before the days of judgment that follow the attempted invasion.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/22/us/politics/russia-investigation-congress-intelligence-committees-gowdy.html?emc=edit_th_20171023&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Hopes Dim for Congressional Russia Inquiries as Parties Clash
WASHINGTON — In a secured room in the basement of the Capitol in July, Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, fielded question after question from members of the House Intelligence Committee. Though the allotted time for the grilling had expired, he offered to stick around as long as they wanted.

But Representative Trey Gowdy, who spent nearly three years investigating Hillary Clinton’s culpability in the deadly 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, was growing frustrated after two hours. You are in an unwinnable situation, Mr. Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican, counseled Mr. Kushner. If you leave now, Democrats will say you did not answer all the questions. If you stay, they will keep you here all week.

The exchange, described by three people with knowledge of it, typified the political morass that is crippling the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election — and whether the Trump campaign colluded in any way. … …

***
(October 24)
The false god, Cannabis Sativa / THC / Marijuana moves to take over the life of the business world of its servants with cloudless, non-aromatic “vaping” on the job.  Even this new word, vaping, sounds a sordid, demonic note of dependent, sucking self-vampirism: “eat your own brain, deadhead…live and work ‘wasted’!”

http://nypost.com/2017/10/22/i-smoke-weed-to-survive-my-high-stress-job/
Cutthroat professionals have a new trick up their sleeves:  Getting stoned
With New York’s decriminalization of marijuana and the rise of near-odorless vaping — according to the Blinc Group, a cannabis industry advocate, there are more than 6,000 purveyors in the five boroughs, selling vaping products — perhaps it’s no wonder smoking weed on the job seems to be on the rise. Even in the boss’ office.
“I have a high-pressure job,” said Amy S., the CEO of an internet startup with more than a dozen employees. When she’s having a crazy day, the 40-year-old heads down to the alley across from her Canal Street office and reaches inside her Rebecca Minkoff handbag to retrieve her vaporizer. She spends 20 minutes or so puffing and making phone calls — to her adviser, her lawyer, her CPA, her dad.
“I’m not embarrassed,” she said. “I don’t think [smoking during the work day] should have a stigma. If I never told anyone, no one would know.”
Amy is part of a growing legion of marijuana-vaping New Yorkers who smoke at work.
“There are approximately 30 million adult cannabis users in the US, of which approximately 10 million vape,” said Bethany Gomez of the Brightfield Group, a market research firm. “Approximately 35 percent consume cannabis daily. While we don’t have hard statistics on the number of people vaping at work, it stands to reason that there are millions of Americans [doing so] on a regular basis.” … …
***
Tuesday morning breaking weather news on CBS—

Overnight, a storm system, now headed for us in the Northeast and promising heavy rains, possibly flooding later in the day, has passed over the Carolinas with at least 9 tornados creating hurricane-level damages to airports, tossing planes and cars like toys, also producing floods and water damage, and mowing swathes of trees like grass.  Meanwhile, Southern California, endures a high summer heat wave in late October with temperatures soaring above 100 degrees.  This has also re-stirred the easterly, Santa Ana winds, dropping down over the desert peaks, and threatening to ignite the firestorms again.  

No matter where one stands on the politics of climate change, Nature seems to be on an almost daily rant of assaults on the physical infrastructure (and persons) of our civilizations.

P.S.  My early links listed the California fire structure loss at 2000.  It since climbed to a recent report of 5700.  But, by today’s assessment, it is 8400 in northern California.  If the average occupant count is only two per structure, that is now nearly 17,000 persons suddenly homeless.  By fire.  We must, of course, not forget the citizens under hurricane Furies in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the rest of the Caribbean (and even Ireland).
 http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-wildfires-devastation-20171023-story.html
Fire loss total surges to 8,400 structures in Northern California
***
Knowledge Addiction? …by a “harmless” interfacing with a ‘Borg / a huge, humanity-encompassing AI?  Knowledge is good, but we know salvation cannot come by any quantity of it alone, but only by God’s Grace and Mercy.  We should’ve learned this from the Fall in the Garden of Eden when we bought into the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  But having done so doesn’t seem to have made us any smarter overall!  Endless Knowledge cannot save to Eternal Life.  Only the Lord Jesus can.  Will utter madness come from this headband and its ilk?  Only four years or less away?  Another DARPA “miracle”?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5008179/Darpa-reveals-device-increases-learning-40.html
The headband that makes you smarter: US military reveals a bizarre device that increases learning by 40% - and it could be commonly used by 2022
	•	The non-invasive device applies a current to the brain's prefrontal cortex
	•	This causes changes in connectivity between different brain areas
	•	In trials on macaques, it was shown to increase learning by 40 per cent
	•	Researchers are now seeking FDA approval, and suggest the device will be widespread in five to ten years 

The idea of a headband you can wear to make you smarter may sound like a device from the latest science fiction blockbuster.
But experts have revealed such a device in reality – and claim it could increase learning by 40 per cent.
And it may not be long before you can get your hands on one, with the designers predicting its use will be common in just five to ten years.

The device, which is described as 'non-invasive transcranial direct current stimulation' (tDCS) was designed by researchers from HRL Laboratories and McGill University in Montreal, with funding from the Defense Advance Research Project Agency (DARPA).
The device applies a current to an area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex.
This causes changes in connectivity between different brain areas, and increases learning. .. …

***
The Beast ponders human behavior and prepares?
http://nypost.com/2017/10/23/googles-ai-is-binge-watching-human-behavior-on-youtube/
Google’s AI is binge-watching human behavior on YouTube
Robots are watching us. Literally.
Google has curated a set of YouTube clips to help machines learn how humans exist in the world. The AVAs, or “atomic visual actions,” are three-second clips of people doing everyday things like drinking water, taking a photo, playing an instrument, hugging, standing or cooking. … …
***
Whew!  “The Battle of the Sexes” waxes hot, angry, and destructive to the blessings and the benefits of Gender in these last days. How sad, and though if the Age continues, the pendulum will eventually swing and moderate, for now, many on both sides are deeply injured and alienated.

These times are reminiscent of Orwell’s “Anti-Sex League” in the Prime Dystopian Novel, 1984.  It is becoming virtually illegal to speak of differences of gender, or to have even legitimate concourse between the genders.

Two cases in point in today’s news:

1. The assumed criminality of being male—

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/22/us/campus-sex-assault-mothers.html?emc=edit_th_20171024&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
‘Willing to Do Everything,’ Mothers Defend Sons Accused of Sexual Assault
2. The de-masculinization of men.  No, we need not perpetuate hyper-macho masculinization, nor on the contrary, effeminacy, in men, but all of history, and the Scriptures indicate there must be respectful differences between the Genders, “Ladies and Gentlemen.”
https://www.thecut.com/2017/10/the-men-taking-classes-to-unlearn-toxic-masculinity.html
The Men Taking Classes to Unlearn Toxic Masculinity
For some time, Stephen Hicks had felt like something was off. “My relationship ended, then a lot of things started collapsing in front of me,” Hicks says. He began attending therapy, which made him realize that he needed to make a bigger change: “I wasn’t doing really terrible things, but I also wasn’t being the most ideal Stephen I could be,” he says. “The bar is really lowered for cisgender guys.”
So earlier this year, Hicks signed up for the pilot Rethink Masculinity class, a partnership between the Washington, D.C., Rape Crisis Center, Collective Action for Safe Spaces, and ReThink, an organization that works to prevent sexual assault.
The program bills itself as a class where men “learn how social constructs of masculinity harm them and the people around them, and work to construct healthier masculinities.” Or, as Hicks puts it, “It was eight weeks of guys discussing how they can address their actions with better self-awareness and less toxicity.”

(From a biblical point of view, such websites as Rethink Masculinity, run by a feminist group called Femex, and such new terminologies as “cisgender” and “toxic masculinity” are nothing but the propaganda of modern, disguised witchcraft.)
***
(October 25)
A Canadian propaganda mission to kill off mentally ill citizens in the name of mercy?
bereancall.org / Today’s Update / October 23
 
Canadians, or at least Canadian media elites, seem intent on creating a real-life version of what novelist P.D. James, in her novel "The Children of Men," called "quietus": that is, state-sanctioned mass suicide of the those deemed to be a burden to the rest of society.

A recent article in Maclean's magazine (think Time or Newsweek for our friends north of the border), that asked "Should doctors be paid a premium (for) assisting deaths?" The answer was a resounding "Yes!" Without such a "premium," what Canada calls "medical assistance in dying," "will exist in theory only, and not in practice."

That was just the beginning for Maclean's. The August 15, 2017 issue told the story of a palliative care doctor who decided that, in addition to providing end-of-life care to dying patients, he would assist them with the actual dying.

Not surprisingly, the story was wrapped in gauzy haze that made everyone involved appear noble beyond words: think noted humanitarian Albert Schweitzer, instead of Jack Kevorkian.

There was no hint of where this ersatz brand of "compassion" could lead. For that, you only had to look back a few months in the magazine's archives. A few months earlier, an article in the magazine argued that, although "It may make some people understandably uncomfortable... extending the right to assisted dying to the mentally ill is a compassionate solution."

The piece was written by Daniel Munro of the Conference Board of Canada whose stated goal is to-and I'm not making this up-build "a better future for Canadians by making our economy and society more dynamic and competitive." According to Munro, it's "not clear why" the principle that justifies euthanasia for the terminally ill "should apply any less to people with mental illness."

That "principle" isn't compassion, which comes from the Latin for "to suffer with." No, the principle Munro and others cite is autonomy-"allowing individuals to choose the time and manner of their deaths, just as we allow people to choose how they will lead their lives."
(Metaxas/Rivera, "No Compassion for the Mentally Ill: Canada's Obsession with the 'Right to Die'," ChristianHeadlines Online, 9/11/17).
***
Good ‘ol Kent State? (still notorious for “the Kent State four” students killed by the Ohio National Guard in the Vietnam protest era.)  Hey, Kent State, Jesus Still Saves! You DO need him.
https://www.thecollegefix.com/post/38242/
Kent State mulls whether telling someone ‘You need Jesus’ is hate speech
A Christian student leader is demanding an apology after a poster distributed by Kent State University asked if stating “You need Jesus“ could qualify as hate speech. … …

***
(October 26)
Genuine Bubonic and Pneumonic Plague on the move in East Africa and spreading.  Back to the 13th and 14th Centuries and “the Black Death”?  

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4765804/black-death-warning-in-nine-countries-including-brit-holiday-hotspots-amid-fears-plague-could-spread-on-flights-from-madagascar/
DEATH IS COMING Black Death warning in NINE countries – including Brit holiday hotspots – amid fears PLAGUE could spread on flights from Madagascar
The deadly plague outbreak has struck Madagascar's major cities sparking fears it has yet to 'peak' and could spread into the surrounding region
***
Devils are not truly cast out by ritual and chant, dogma and incense, but only by “the finger of God,” the Holy Spirit and his gifts and the Word in faith in obedience to God.  Unclean spirits and their ilk may instead only “play along” to distract from the true.  Matthew  7:22-23:  “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils?  and in thy name done many wonderful works?  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”  Any believer may cast out wicked spirits by faith and obedience: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you,” instructs James in 4:7.  But no believer should go looking for them.  Be led of God, case by case.

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2017/10/25/us-bishops-publish-english-language-translation-of-exorcism-ritual/
US bishops publish English-language translation of exorcism ritual
The first official English-language translation of the ritual book “Exorcisms and Related Supplications” is available from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Distribution of “Exorcisms and Related Supplications” is limited to bishops, though exorcists, other clergy, scholars and seminary professors also can obtain a copy with the permission of a bishop. … …

***
During the French Revolution, lawmakers who sent many to the guillotine, like Robespierre, ended up on it themselves…as the Thing Itself…seemed to “call for more heads.”  In this present sex scandal, new accusations fly every day and now spread to journalist Mark Halperin.  No doubt, “un-gentlemanly” behavior should not be condoned, but when does all traffic between the genders become scandal?  Does a pleasant smile, an expression of romantic interest, a dinner invitation get turned into sexual harassment and accusations of rape?  Are we now fully in Orwell’s era of “the Anti-Sex League”?  Is it now a crime to be gendered?  Is Western womankind being programmed into complete man-hatred by celebrity women in groomed hysterics ?  So many reports are all full of “she said, she said…” and secondhand revelations and gossiped accounts.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/25/media/mark-halperin-sexual-harassment-allegations/index.html
Five women accuse journalist and 'Game Change' co-author Mark Halperin of sexual harassment
Veteran journalist Mark Halperin sexually harassed women while he was in a powerful position at ABC News, according to five women who shared their previously undisclosed accounts with CNN and others who did not experience the alleged harassment personally, but were aware of it.
"During this period, I did pursue relationships with women that I worked with, including some junior to me," Halperin said in a statement to CNN Wednesday night. "I now understand from these accounts that my behavior was inappropriate and caused others pain. For that, I am deeply sorry and I apologize. Under the circumstances, I'm going to take a step back from my day-to-day work while I properly deal with this situation." … …

(and even George H.W. Bush!)
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/10/25/george-hw-bush-apologizes-to-anyone-has-offended-following-sexual-assault-allegation.html
George HW Bush apologizes to 'anyone he has offended' following 'sexual assault' allegation

***
A New Mao For China / Critical Days Ahead?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/world/asia/xi-jinping-china.html?emc=edit_th_20171026&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Xi Jinping Unveils China’s New Leaders but No Clear Successor
BEIJING — The ceremony in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Wednesday was meant to introduce the world to China’s new leaders, members of an elite committee that for decades has tried to govern by consensus and sometimes has been compared to a corporate board of directors.
Instead, the nationally televised event was more a display of the political power that Xi Jinping has amassed in just five years as president. None of the other members of the new Politburo Standing Committee could be considered equals or potential rivals. The six men stood stiffly in dark suits on the stage, each bowing as Mr. Xi introduced them.
After reciting their names, Mr. Xi added almost offhandedly: “More information about them can be found through media outlets.”
The debut of the new Standing Committee, the pinnacle of power in China, capped a weeklong Communist Party congress that became a celebration of Mr. Xi’s one-man style of rule and his promise to lead a resurgent China to a place at the center of the world stage. … …
***
(October 27)
“…and every living thing in the sea died…” said the prophet John in Revelation.  He was speaking of the results of the asteroid Wormwood upon crashing into the sea, but, as usual, “we” are doing our part in our own destruction too.  You have to see the photos!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/26/shocking-photo-shows-caribbean-sea-choked-death-human-waste/
Shocking photo shows Caribbean Sea being 'choked to death by human waste'
***
(October 28)
“…pray for those in authority…”
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1722
Trump To Bypass U.N. And Send Aid Directly To Persecuted Christians
Vice President Mike Pence announced Wednesday night that President Trump has ordered the State Department to shut off funding for "ineffective" United Nations programs to help persecuted Christians in the Middle East, saying the administration will take over those efforts directly.

"From this day forward, America will provide support directly to persecuted communities through USAID," Mr. Pence said at the In Defense of Christians annual solidarity dinner in Washington. "We will no longer rely on the United Nations alone to assist persecuted Christians and minorities in the wake of genocide and the atrocities of terrorist groups." … …
***
(October 29)
Disturbed Atlantic Weather Situations Still Kicking Up Coastal Storms
https://weather.com/forecast/national/news/2017-10-26-northeast-weekend-storm-damaging-wind-heavy-rain
Powerful Coastal Storm Will Likely Bring Damaging Winds, Flooding Rainfall to the Northeast Starting Sunday Into Monday; Bombogenesis Possible
A powerful coastal storm with strong winds and heavy rain will impact the East Coast beginning later this weekend, likely resulting in tree damage, power outages and flooding. A significant wind event is possible Sunday or Monday. 
It is possible that this low pressure system could undergo a process called "Bombogenesis" according to the National Weather Service. This process is a rapid deepening of pressures across the area, which rapidly increases winds near the center of the storm. 
One of the ingredients for this coastal storm is a powerful jet stream disturbance sweeping through the eastern states this weekend that will help induce the formation of a strong low-pressure system near or off the mid-Atlantic and Northeast coastline. This storm system will also receive an injection of moisture and energy from Tropical Storm Philippe , currently located south of Florida.
The  National Weather Service office in Boston noted in its Saturday morning discussion that this is an unusual and truly strong, potentially dangerous storm system for late October. … …
***
Mattis signaling? 
https://apnews.com/cdb523a4aece40fb8042685b6bfafb47/Mattis-says-threat-of-nuclear-attack-by-N.Korea-accelerating
Mattis says threat of nuclear attack by N.Korea accelerating
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Saturday the threat of nuclear missile attack by North Korea is accelerating.
In remarks in Seoul with South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo at his side, Mattis accused the North of illegal and unnecessary missile and nuclear programs — and vowed to defeat any attack.
Mattis said North Korea engages in “outlaw” behavior and that the U.S. will never accept a nuclear North.
He added that regardless of what the North might try, it is overmatched by the firepower and cohesiveness of the decades-old U.S.-South Korean alliance. … …
***
Defying God? Sodom returns to Key West
https://www.yahoo.com/news/weirdness-returns-key-west-hurricane-051435975.html
KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — Things are weird, as usual, in Key West.
A pair of Vikings push a stroller full of stuffed chimps down Duval Street. A man with a ponytail swallows a steel sword. People dressed only in body paint and glitter wander and jiggle from bar to bar.
Fantasy Fest — one of Key West's major tourist draws of the year — is in full swing. And that's a relief for Florida Keys business owners trying to weather the economic storm that hit after Hurricane Irma battered the middle stretch of the tourism-dependent island chain. … …

***
“When the enemy shall come in like a flood,
the spirit of the LORD 
shall lift up a standard (a battle flag)
against him.”
Isaiah 59:19b

**********************************************************
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October 22

Saints,

Paul, speaking for the Lord, makes the comparison that the last days will be like a time when a woman suffers the pains of labor and childbirth. This simile is used in a number of other places in Scripture, for the inevitability of birth and the difficulty in getting there are very like the passage of these mortal Ages.  It is a perfect metaphor in that labor pains usually become more intense and closer together as the hour of birth arrives.  I look back at the archives for this blog to the beginning of this series of newsletters in 2012.  Yes, there was ample cause there to be looking for the Lord, but, oh, how much more intense the world situation is, even in this brief five years!  There will always, in all eras, be an “apocalyptic tension” between the people of the Word and the world and its iniquity-fueled system.  Every year, every decade, every century is fraught with efforts of the spirit of antichrist to rise, and satan will be “the god of this world” until he is finally cast into prison and after that cast eternally into the Lake of Fire.  It is obedience for every earnest Christian in the whole Age of the Church to live a watchful, and thereby holy and productive life.

Yet, just in the last five years, yes, even in the last year, the acceleration of the “birth pains” and the escalation of intervals of the “contractions” is no less than awesome and amazing:  now, there are daily mass murders of 3-4-5 with almost as quick occasions of 50-100 (like Las Vegas) and a daily terrorist harvest often running into multiple hundreds.  Our coasts and islands have been reduced to piles of rubble, of civilization past, by “waves of the sea roaring” and causing “men’s heart to fail for fear at the things coming upon the earth.”  Earthquakes and volcanos rumble one after another.  Political structures crumble and US states want to secede; Catalonia and the Kurds struggle, terrorism rips daily at the fabric of civilization, not only in the Middle East but even in the US and Russia. Superpowers repress.  Crops fail, or are washed away.  The vineyard district of California is assaulted and over 5700 homes and structures are delivered to the flames.  Venezuela starves.  Cuba lapses; diplomats leave.  Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are reduced to demolished poverty and a near end of civilized life.  South Asia drowns in floods while “peaceful” Buddhists in old Burma (Myanmar) practice ethnic cleansing and genocide against poverty stricken Muslims by whom they feel infiltrated.

Thank God for the wonderful revelation of his Christ and our Lord!  God the Holy Spirit, Author of Life and Faith, help us to shine our lights until He comes…as He has promised in much prophetic detail to do.  Let us watch and pray, seek and serve.  Says He, “What I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch!” (Mk. 13:37)

***
The Week —
(October 15)
Bloody terror against the citizens of Somalia —
https://www.africa-news.info/news/2017/10/15/somalia-truck-bombings-kill-over-200-officials-say/
Somalia Truck Bombings Kill Over 200, Officials Say
(excerpt): …There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Photos published by the local news media showed scenes of carnage and devastation, with bodies, and bloodied slippers and shoes scattered in the aftermath. Windows of nearby buildings were shattered. Overturned cars burned in the streets.
Some of the victims died in their cars and in public transportation vehicles.
“There was a traffic jam, and the road was packed with bystanders and cars,” Abdinur Abdulle, a waiter at a nearby restaurant, said on Saturday. “It’s a disaster.” … …
***
(October 16)
O Lord, have mercy on the Kurds who are not allowed their homeland.  Turn them from secularism and false religions to you.  Protect the Christians already among them.
http://www.nydailynews.com/newswires/news/world/iraqi-forces-push-disputed-kirkuk-kurds-withdraw-article-1.3565495
Iraqi forces push into disputed Kirkuk as Kurds withdraw
KIRKUK, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi Kurdish officials said early Monday that federal forces and state-backed militias have launched a “major, multi-pronged” attack aimed at retaking the disputed northern city of Kirkuk, causing “lots of casualties” in fighting south of the city.
Kurdish forces known as the peshmerga were digging in at the edge of the international airport after withdrawing from their positions outside the city. Hundreds of armed Kurdish residents were taking up positions inside the city anticipating an attack.
Residents of the multi-ethnic city, home to some 1 million Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and Christians, stayed inside and reported hearing sporadic booms they said sounded like shelling and rocket fire. … …
***
Forced homelessness in the once “land of plenty” —
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/nation/2017/10/15/California-wildfires-leave-many-homeless-where-housing-was-already-scarce/stories/201710150196
California wildfires leave many homeless where housing was already scarce
(excerpt):  …But for people like the Internicolas who escaped in time but lost their homes, the journey is just beginning. And the daunting implications of starting over, multiplied by thousands, are rippling through the state. About 100,000 people have been evacuated from fire zones, and some 5,700 houses and buildings have been destroyed. …

***

(October 17)
End of “the trial run” for Ezekiel’s Battle (chapters 38 and 39) near the End of the Age?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/raqqa-isis-battle-syria-defeat-latest-lost-us-sdf-rebel-monitoring-group-a8004581.html
Raqqa: Isis completely driven out of Syria 'capital' by US-backed forces
US-backed militias have completely taken Isis’ de facto capital, Raqqa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday, in a major symbolic blow to the jihadist group.
The fall of Raqqa, where Isis staged euphoric parades after its string of lightning victories in 2014, is a potent symbol of the movement's collapsing fortunes. … …

***
It’s happened: the tenth Atlantic Ocean Hurricane of the Season, Ophelia…just going north to Ireland this time instead of up through the Caribbean and Gulf.  If another one forms, it will bring a new record for Atlantic Hurricane Seasons.  And, this is the first severe and similarly punishing Irish hurricane since 1961.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/16/world/europe/tropical-storm-ophelia-ireland.html
Powerful Storm Lashes Ireland, Killing at Least 3 People
BALLYFERRITER, Ireland — One of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the northeastern Atlantic bore down on Ireland on Monday, unleashing strong winds and rain that killed at least three people and visited destruction on an island with little experience of such powerful storms.
***
(October 18)
Famous last words:  “They will not be weaponized!”?  Sci-Fi Dystopian Monsters over Los Angeles?  The Tread of SkyNet and The Terminator?
In these accelerated times, will “mission creep” become “mission sprint” overnight?

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lapd-drones-20171017-story.html
LAPD becomes nation's largest police department to test drones after oversight panel signs off on controversial program
After months of often-heated debate, a civilian oversight panel Tuesday signed off on a yearlong test of drones by the Los Angeles Police Department, which will become the largest police department in the nation to deploy the controversial technology.
The Police Commission’s 3-1 vote prompted jeers, cursing and a small protest that spilled into a downtown intersection just outside the LAPD’s glass headquarters — evidence of the opposition police have faced in recent weeks as they tried to reassure wary residents that the airborne devices would not be misused.

The use of drones — or “small Unmanned Aerial Systems,” in police-speak — has become a contentious issue for law enforcement in Los Angeles, where the nation’s largest sheriff’s department has flown one since January.
Advocates say camera-mounted drones could help protect officers and others by collecting crucial information during high-risk situations or searches without risking their safety. For many privacy advocates and police critics, however, the drones stir Orwellian visions of unwarranted surveillance or fears of militarized, weapon-toting devices patrolling the skies.

LAPD brass, along with police commissioners, tried to ease those concerns by promising careful restrictions on when the drones would be used and strong oversight of the pilot program. Weapons and facial-recognition technology will also be prohibited.
But some critics said they could not trust the department to follow its own rules, no matter how stringent.

“Mission creep is of course the concern,” said Jim Lafferty of the National Lawyers Guild Los Angeles. “The history of this department is of starting off with supposedly good intentions about the new toys that it gets … only to then get too tempted by what they can do with those toys.” … …

***
“Little problems” with AI — a logarithmic, predetermination/prehistory that will set humans in lockstep?  Will the drones in the story above end up eliminating anyone who missteps?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/artificial-intelligencewith-very-real-biases-1508252717
Artificial Intelligence—With Very Real Biases
According to AI Now co-founder Kate Crawford, digital brains can be just as error-prone and biased as ours

(excerpt):  …Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming part of the information infrastructure we rely on every day.  Early-stage AI technologies are filtering into everything from driving directions to job and loan applications. But unlike our water systems, there are no established methods to test AI for safety, fairness or effectiveness. Error-prone or biased artificial-intelligence systems have the potential to taint our social ecosystem in ways that are initially hard to detect, harmful in the long term and expensive—or even impossible—to reverse. And unlike public infrastructure, AI systems are largely developed by private companies and governed by proprietary, black-box algorithms.

A good example is today’s workplace, where hundreds of new AI technologies are already influencing hiring processes, often without proper testing or notice to candidates. New AI recruitment companies offer to analyze video interviews of job candidates so that employers can “compare” an applicant’s facial movements, vocabulary and body language with the expressions of their best employees. But with this technology comes the risk of invisibly embedding bias into the hiring system by choosing new hires simply because they mirror the old ones. What if Uber, with its history of poorly behaved executives, used a system like this? And attempting to replicate the perfect employee is an outdated model of management science: Recent studies have shown that monocultures are bad for business and that diverse workplaces outperform more homogenous ones.
New systems are also being advertised that use AI to analyze young job applicants’ social media for signs of “excessive drinking” that could affect workplace performance. This is completely unscientific correlation thinking, which stigmatizes particular types of self-expression without any evidence that it detects real problems. Even worse, it normalizes the surveillance of job applicants without their knowledge before they get in the door.

These systems “learn” from social data that reflects human history, with all its biases and prejudices intact. Algorithms can unintentionally boost those biases, as many computer scientists have shown. Last year, a ProPublica expose on “Machine Bias” showed how algorithmic risk-assessment systems are spreading bias within our criminal-justice system. So-called predictive policing systems are suffering from a lack of strong predeployment bias testing and monitoring. As one RAND study showed, Chicago’s algorithmic “heat list” system for identifying at-risk individuals failed to significantly reduce violent crime and also increased police harassment complaints by the very populations it was meant to protect. We have a long way to go before these systems can come close to the nuance of human decision making and even further until they can offer real accountability. … …

***

Land of the Free?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-4988598/Americans-soon-need-passport-domestic-flights.html
Why residents in some American states may soon need a passport for domestic air travel
	•	The Real ID Act was passed more than 10 years ago to crack down on fake IDs 
	•	Stricter standards are soon to be required before state-issued IDs are provided 
	•	Several states still haven't been deemed as compliant with the new standards 
	•	This means their residents may need to carry a passport to travel with the US 

***

bereancall.org / Daily Update, October 17
Jesus is gentle, but He is not weak. He loves the sinner but is absolutely intolerant of sin. He is not a negotiator. He is Lord. It is this bristling truth that invites intolerance toward Christians. Jesus did not say, "Do your own thing. . .all roads lead to God." That would have made Jesus "politically correct," but Jesus is not politically correct. He is Lord.

--Franklin Graham
***

Some commentary on a present, gruesome situation of human folly—

Whew.  In a fallen universe, any Two Wills are going to collide at some point in a naturally satanic (adversarial) adversity.  (Remember how, just a few months ago, the NYT couldn’t stop saying the word transgender seemingly every few lines…This is how spells/spiels are cast, how willful combatants and enmities are created.)

Mark Twain once said, paraphrased, If everyone woke up one morning exactly the same, by noon they would have 10,000 new reasons to hate and kill one another.

Gender is just one of many distinctions to create opposing wills (though it is a fundamental human trait), but at present, the devil is using it to destroy both sides of it: “the battle of the sexes.” Whereas God intended a mutual “complementarianism,” the devil produces Orwell’s “Anti-Sex League” replete with all the hypocrisy of that subplot in his grand dystopian novel, 1984.

Now, due to Harvey Weinstein’s despicable satyric motive, the devil is ready to offer him (and other Hollywood men) up as a sacrifice, and he diabolically calls in flocks of unhappy women to pick bones clean.  One woman in today’s list of links, dares to say, “Well, a lot of them asked for it!”, but she immediately runs for cover when they threaten to turn on her too.

Nevertheless, when Hollywood starlets sign contracts to advertise themselves as “objects,” run around in skimpy, wispy fabrics barely covering their nakedness, and learn every gaze and look of allurement, they should also be told and advised that fallen, heterosexual, successful men used to getting what they want, and also actually producing them — an endless crop of starlets— are going to want to touch as well as look.

Hate and Hypocrisy looms and jeers from every corner of this plastic world, and the devil has a field day.

A few of today’s links on the uproar:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/donna-karan-begs-forgiveness-harvey-000726299.html
Donna Karan begs forgiveness for Harvey Weinstein remarks
NEW YORK (AP) -- Fashion designer Donna Karan is "apologetic from the bottom of my heart" and embarrassed about "stupid" remarks she made last week that suggested sexual harassment victims were "asking for it" by the way they dressed. … …

http://deadline.com/2017/10/roy-price-resignes-amazon-studios-1202190107/
Roy Price Resigns From Amazon Studios

This marks the end of a chapter for Amazon and swift fall from grace for Price, who’d come up with the business plan for an Amazon entertainment division, launched the unit and ran it from Day 1.
The resignation was fully expected. As we reported last week, it was considered virtually impossible for Price to be accepted as an Amazon chief going forward following the details of sexual harassment allegations against him made public last Thursday.
“He would be completely ostracized,” one person said on Friday, noting that it would be hard for the studio to attract female showrunners and actors in the current post-Harvey Weinstein environment where there is very little tolerance for sexual harassment. … …

Bob Weinstein, who was quick to turn on his brother a few days back, is now in the sights of accusation himself—
http://variety.com/2017/film/news/bob-weinstein-harassment-harvey-weinstein-scandal-1202592292/
Bob Weinstein Harassment Claim: The Scandal Spreads (Analysis)

Even ultra-liberal and politically-correct California—
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/us/california-women-sexual-harassment-sacramento.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Women Denounce Harassment in California’s Capital
LOS ANGELES — The groundswell over sexual harassment that has rocked Hollywood moved into California’s capital on Tuesday as more than 140 women — including legislators, senior legislative aides and lobbyists — came forward to denounce what they describe as pervasive sexual misconduct by powerful men in the nation’s most influential legislature.
Women complained of groping, lewd comments and suggestions of trading sexual favors for legislation while doing business in Sacramento. Their grievances, contained in a public letter and detailed in a series of interviews, mark the latest fallout from the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse scandal.
(additional excerpt):  …“As women leaders in politics, in a state that postures itself as a leader in justice and equality, you might assume our experience has been different,” the letter said. “It has not. Each of us has endured, or witnessed or worked with women who have experienced some form of dehumanizing behavior by men in power in our workplaces.”

Try taking this headline at face value, instead of as a hip, conceptualized metaphor.  Yes, it’s eye-opening. Take heed, a spell / a spiel is being cast in every word and half-truth.  (How, at the end, the devil reaped Woody Allen?)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/opinion/columnists/weinstein-harassment-witchunt.html
Yes, This Is a Witch Hunt. I’m a Witch and I’m Hunting You.
Another “spiel” by NYTimes editorialists seemingly intent on destroying gender.  Women don’t belong in mixed-gender military units.  We only prep the Battlefield of Armageddon for post-human body parts mixed and unmatched.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/18/opinion/military-women-molested.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Military Women, Too, Should Serve Unmolested

***

(October 19)

Uh-oh.  My passing along of links from Drudge, NYTimes, etc., with my Bible-inspired commentary, or for anyone who posts Facebook comments, Tweets, emails, etc., it could become grounds for libel under proposed new laws!  Will only algorithm-generated “pablum,” designed to mildly entertain and to direct to whatever is the present “political correctness,” usurp our liberties and the First Amendment?  “New Think,” already having infected the universities with “hate crime” talk, “safe rooms,” “emotional triggers,” “safety zones,” and riots against free speech, will become clear for what it really is, “Non-think,” entrancement.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/drudge-facebook-nyt-readers-could-face-libel-suits-for-sharing-fake-news/article/2637886
Drudge, Facebook, NYT readers could face libel suits for sharing 'fake news'
Political content on the internet, paid or not, should face substantial federal regulation to eliminate undefined "disinformation," and users of platforms and news feeds, from Facebook, to Twitter, to the Drudge Report and even New York Times, could be punished for sharing "fake news" from those sites, the former Democratic chair of the FEC is urging. … …
***
There seems to be no biblical forbidding for space travel and colonization, and the Scriptures may allude to such adventures upcoming, in the Psalms, in Revelation, etc., BUT, Christ must come first to Earth to end the reign of Satan over all of humanity together and set up his righteous Millennial Reign.  If so, then these soon-to-come off-world expansions could well be a marker of the necessary time for Christ to return to Earth in The Second Coming (before wicked men and their spirit leaders think to escape to rebel outposts).

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/19/lunar-cave-discovery-raises-hopes-for-human-colonisation-of-moon
Discovery of 500km lunar cave raises hopes for human colonisation of moon
Scientists have for centuries fantasised about human colonisation of the moon. That day may have drawn a little closer after Japan’s space agency said it had discovered an enormous cave beneath the lunar surface that could be turned into an exploration base for astronauts.

***

The Bible calls those who hawk consciousness-changing and addictive drugs Sorcerers.  Street Pushers, even Drug Lords fall far short of the level of the Sorcery of Big Pharma.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/18/opinion/opioid-pharmaceutical-addiction-pain.html
‘Drug Dealers in Lab Coats’ by NYTimes’ Nicholas Kristof
For decades, America has waged an ineffective war on drug pushers and drug lords, from Bronx street corners to Medellin, Colombia, regarding them as among the most contemptible specimens of humanity.
One reason our efforts have failed is we ignored the biggest drug pushers of all: American pharmaceutical companies.
Our policy was: You get 15 people hooked on opioids, and you’re a thug who deserves to rot in hell; you get 150,000 people hooked, and you’re a marketing genius who deserves a huge bonus.
Big Pharma should be writhing in embarrassment this week after The Washington Post and “60 Minutes” reported that pharmaceutical lobbyists had manipulated Congress to hamstring the Drug Enforcement Administration. But the abuse goes far beyond that: The industry systematically manipulated the entire country for 25 years, and its executives are responsible for many of the 64,000 deaths of Americans last year from drugs (emphasis added) — more than the number of Americans who died in the Vietnam and Iraq wars combined. … …

***
(October 20)
The Closing and the Entrancing of the Western Mind.  Now, even Shakespeare is hushed up for the “mental safety” of “students.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/cambridge-university-trigger-warnings-shakespeare-plays-titus-andronicus-mary-beard-academics-a8008456.html
Cambridge University students given trigger warnings for Shakespeare plays

Academics have criticised "trigger warnings" after Cambridge students were warned about "potentially distressing topics" in plays by Shakespeare.’

English literature undergraduates were apparently cautioned that a lecture focusing on Titus Andronicus and The Comedy of Errors would include "discussions of sexual violence" and "sexual assault". 
According to The Telegraph, the trigger warnings were posted in the English Faculty's 'Notes on Lectures' document which is circulated to students at the university.

Academics have expressed concern that colleges trying to protect young adults from certain issues may render them incapable of dealing with real life when they graduate. 
Supporters of trigger warnings say they serve to help students who may be upset if a text reminds them of a personal traumatic experience. … …

***

And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. Revelation 16:12
And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand (200 million): and I heard the number of them. Revelation 9:13-16
Hal Lindsey pointed out many years ago that even Mao Tse Tung then bragged he could field an army of 200 million.
China’a official policy, “The Three Self Movement” on “religious liberty,” reportedly will not allow the preaching of the books of Daniel and Revelation.
China, and all the nations, will be utterly humbled and brought to their knees at the Battle of Armageddon when Christ will break them with a rod of iron (Ps. 2).

http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/chinas-30year-deadline-to-rule-the-world/news-story/70f62a5bc0e4580b83d5ca89a2479e94
China’s 30-year deadline to rule the world
BEIJING has outlined plans to become the world’s biggest superpower within the next 30 years.
Opening a five-yearly national congress, Chinese President Xi Jinping set out his time frame for the country to become a “global leader” with international influence.
In his 3 ½ hour speech, Mr Xi urged a reinvigorated Communist Party to take a stronger role in society and economic development to better address the nation’s “grim” challenges. … …

***
(October 22)
How the kings of the East will cement their power: torture, fear, imprisonment, intimidation against their citizenry?

http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-china-rights-lawyers-20171020-story.html
China’s rising authoritarianism has a stark human cost
Li Heping spent his career trying to hold Chinese Communist Party officials accountable for their darkest behavior. He believed in an authority higher than the party — China’s own legal system. And for that, he suffered tremendously.
Since the late ’90s, Li, a 46-year-old human rights lawyer, had defended China’s most persecuted groups: dissidents, petitioners, victims of land grabs and forced demolitions, church leaders, practitioners of the banned spiritual group Falun Gong. Then came the “709” crackdown — named for July 9, 2015, the night it began — when authorities detained or interrogated more than 300 lawyers and their associates, including Li. They held Li without charge for nearly two years. And this May, they let him go — on the condition he remain silent.
“What my husband has gone through during that 22 months in jail was relentless, inhuman, perverted and unthinkable,” said his wife, Wang Qiaoling, 44, who has emerged as an outspoken advocate for rule of law amid her husband’s enforced silence. “The police will torture you till the edge of death, both physically and mentally.”
Since Chinese President Xi Jinping ascended to power in 2012, he has both amassed extraordinary power — analysts routinely call him China’s strongest leader since Mao Tse-tung — and ratcheted up repression to its highest levels since the early 1990s. … …

***
“I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.”
John 14:18

“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in my name,
he shall teach you all things,
and bring all things to your remembrance, 
whatsoever I have said unto you.
Peace I leave with you,
my peace I give unto you:
not as the world giveth, give I unto you.
Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid.”
John 14:26-27

**************************************************************
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October 15

Saints,

NOW (by Tuesday night), CALIFORNIA BURNS! …with over 2000 structures destroyed, Napa Valley wineries (and the 2017 crop) included; smoke floods streets of the Bay Area; 17 known dead with hundreds still missing. With acre after acre, block after block, street after street burned to ashes, numb residents weep, “This is Armageddon.”  Surely, that is not the literal assessment, but it may indeed be like the announcing trumpets of the End of the Age.  Few pause to consider that this may be God’s judgment beginning to rain down, now on the Sodom of the West Coast.  The Bible does recognize “natural disasters” like it notes the earthquake in Uzziah’s day, and notes it without any comment of judgment.  The Book also recognizes that Satan has many earthly powers granted him as “the god of this world” and “the prince of the powers of the air,” (of the “first heaven,” the atmosphere that compasses our planet), but the same Great Book shows that God is sovereign over all, and that nothing can come upon us without his allowance and often by his command.  The Earth now seems to be under his judgment with “nature” raging on more and more fronts of natural conflict and conflagration.  May God yet save many even in subjecting the planet to poured out judgments, like the coming days of Armageddon, like the “birth pains” of labor that cannot be stopped but only grow stronger and closer together as the time nears.  Repentance via judgment is not the best or the easiest way to salvation, but God’s mercy may yet be in it.  May He save.

(By early Sunday a.m., the count of buildings destroyed has risen to over five thousand, and the casualty count is at 40+ with 400 still unaccounted for.  The “devil winds” are not relenting.  Media photos and clips are reminiscent of the destructions of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.)

***
It has been a week of fire and fury as West Coast residents run for their lives, literally.  It makes the disasters of Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico et al seem already remote and distant, But the suffering there continues too.  Maranatha!  Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

The Week —

(October 11)
Hell erupting in Bay Area?  (May the Lord protect his own in —and deliver from, as with Lot — from our own West Coast Sodom.)
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/10/10/smoke-advisory-from-wildfires-extended-another-day-in-bay-area/
Wildfires have created ‘worst air quality ever recorded for smoke’
(Breaking News, October 10)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/us/santa-rosa-california-fire.html?emc=edit_ta_20171010&nl=top-stories&nlid=69381998&ref=cta
“Everything was incinerated.”  Californians describe an apocalyptic post-wildfire scene, with homes and possessions unrecognizably charred.
Coffey Park was one of a number of neighborhoods in Northern California’s wine country devastated by wildfires on Monday.	
Evidence of the fire’s intensity was everywhere. The aluminum wheels on cars melted and dripped down driveways like tiny rivers of mercury before hardening. A pile of bottles melded together into a tangle so contorted it looked like a Picasso. Plastic garbage bins were reduced to mere stains on the pavement.	
***
(October 8)
One headline says it all about who’s-behind-what —

http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article177663856.html
Satanist wins transfer of her abortion rights case to the Missouri Supreme Court
A Missouri woman who is an adherent of the Satanic Temple won a victory in court last week in her quest to show that state abortion law violates her religious beliefs.

***
Nice L’il Farmer ‘Bots! Hmmm?
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/07/world/automated-farm-harvest-england/index.html
Field of machines: Researchers grow crop using only automation
A farm in the United Kingdom is the first in the world to successfully plant, tend and harvest a crop without a single person ever setting foot in the field, according to researchers and developers involved in the project.
From sowing the seeds to picking the grain, human workers were replaced with automated machines operated from a control room. The project, called Hands Free Hectare, was completed last month with a yield of 4 1/2 tons of barley, according to news releases.

***
(October 9)
“Pestilence and Plague” — Here attributed to unclean, tribal homelessness camps in California.  When ancient, kosher-like rules of nomadic, tribal life—sanitary latrines, washing and cleansing rules—are ignored, the results…?
People with mission and purpose are by nature not homeless, even if in dire circumstances and without a roof.  The state of ongoing homelessness is a State of Lostness.  God save those who will call upon You in their extremity of situation and affliction.

http://www.readingeagle.com/ap/article/san-diegos-hepatitis-a-outbreak-is-among-nations-worst-in-decades
San Diego’s hepatitis A outbreak is among nation’s worst in decades
SAN DIEGO — Experts say San Diego took all the right steps in addressing what is now one of the largest hepatitis A outbreaks the country has had in decades, but variables unique to the city’s situation contributed to the outbreak. … …

(add’t’l excerpts):  
In San Diego, where nearly 85 percent of all confirmed cases are located, cleaning crews are hitting the streets, attacking them with high-pressure water mixed with bleach to sanitize any surfaces contaminated with feces, blood or other body fluids.

A private company was hired in September to deliver portable hand-washing stations in places where homeless residents tend to congregate.

Despite those efforts, the disease is spreading and many are asking what could have been done and what will effectively prevent future transmission. … …

“I can tell you that washing the doorknobs is not going to do it,” Engel said. “This is more about human behavior than anything else.”
***
(October 10)

UK also in danger of tsunamis from Canary Islands’ eruptions —

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/864536/La-palma-tenerife-gran-canaria-volcano-threat-earthquake-warning
Volcano warning: Canary Islands panic as earthquakes hit La Palma – 40 tremors in 48 hours
FEARS of a volcano erupting on the Canary Islands has sparked panic as the Spanish archipelago was hit by more than 40 earthquake tremors in just 48 hours.

***
(October 11)
The Future is Now —

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/hoverbike-riding-police-take-air-11318819
Hoverbike-riding police to patrol the streets of Dubai from 16 feet above the ground

***
The Book of Revelation speaks at least nine times of asteroid strikes during the Tribulation —

https://www.yahoo.com/news/close-call-passing-asteroid-test-earths-warning-systems-142933732.html
Close call: passing asteroid to test Earth's warning systems
Paris (AFP) - A house-size asteroid will give Earth a near-miss Thursday, passing harmlessly inside the Moon's orbit while giving experts a rare chance to rehearse for a real-life strike threat.
Dubbed 2012 TC4, the space rock will shave past at an altitude of less than 44,000 kilometres (27,300 miles) -- just above the 36,000-km plane at which hundreds of geosynchronous satellites orbit the Earth.
That represents about an eighth of the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
NASA's Mike Kelley, who leads the exercise to spot, track and intimately probe the transient visitor, insisted there was "no danger. Not even for satellites".
"We've now been observing TC4 for two months, so we have very accurate position information on it, which in turn allows very precise calculations of its orbit," which will not cross that of Earth nor its satellites, he told AFP.
As its name suggests, the object was first spotted five years ago when it called on Earth at about double Thursday's projected distance, before disappearing from view.
It is 15 to 30 metres (50 to 100 feet) wide -- about the size of the meteoroid that exploded in the atmosphere over Chelyabinsk in central Russia in 2013 with 30 times the kinetic energy of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
The resulting shockwave blew out the windows of nearly 5,000 buildings and injured more than 1,200 people.
While the Chelyabinsk event caught everyone unawares, TC4 is one of thousands of space rocks whose whereabouts are known. …

***
Interesting thought for the superstitious —

Harvey Weinstein, high rolling, influential Hollywood producer, is accused of being a rapacious, insatiable satyriac, shortly after Hurricane Harvey, of the same named, carves up Texas.  “Harvey,” not a name we hear all that much in this era, suddenly is in the spotlight.  Anything more than chance?  Probably not, though “there is no voice without signification.”  For an earlier generation of moviegoers, Harvey was a big, invisible rabbit to all but Jimmy Stewart as a harmless, bumbling schizophrenic with an inside line to a 6’ 3 1/2” tall prophesying rabbit!  Harvey means —etymology is— “battle worthy.”

***
Supreme Court seems to issue a “hush-up” order to those opposing the President’s Travel Ban; NYTimes manages to cough out an admission of facts? —

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/us/politics/trump-supreme-court-travel-ban.html
Supreme Court Dismisses Appeal of Case on Expired Travel Ban
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court dismissed on Tuesday an appeal in one of the cases challenging President Trump’s efforts to limit travel to the United States, calling an earlier version of the ban moot because it has expired.
That travel ban has since been replaced with broader restrictions, and a second case remains before the justices — but it is likely to meet the same fate. If it does, a politically charged clash between presidential power and claims of religious discrimination that could have produced a blockbuster decision will instead end with a whimper.
A new wave of litigation aimed at Mr. Trump’s latest policies, announced last month, is already underway, and appeals in those cases may yet reach the Supreme Court. For now, though, what could have been one of the marquee cases of a busy term was removed from the docket. … …
***
(October 12)
“Waves of the Sea roaring…”  One more and 2017 will break all records.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather/hurricane/article178344886.html
Ophelia becomes a hurricane, tying century-old record
Ophelia became a hurricane late Wednesday, the tenth named storm in a row to reach that status, tying s record set more than a century ago.
Located in the central Atlantic about 760 miles southwest of the Azores, the hurricane poses no threat to land and would probably be unremarkable if not for its place in the record books. The last time a season produced 10 consecutive hurricanes was in 1893, according to Colorado State University meteorologist Phil Klotzbach — a period when tracking hurricanes largely relied on ships and barometric readings. … …

***

The Amazing Robot(ess?), Sophie Speaks to the UN (video)

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/humanoid-robot-sophia-makes-surprise-11330970

Humanoid robot 'Sophia' makes surprise appearance at United Nations to share her views on artificial intelligence
Sophia engaged in a brief discussion with UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina J. Mohammed, on stage

***

Does Dan Brown (Da Vinci Code) continue to provoke the Almighty with a replacement (“anti”) blend of Tech and Pantheism?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/collective-consciousness-replace-god-author-dan-brown-120033225.html
Collective consciousness to replace God - author Dan Brown

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Humanity no longer needs God but may with the help of artificial intelligence develop a new form of collective consciousness that fulfills the role of religion, U.S. author Dan Brown said on Thursday.
Brown made the provocative remark at the Frankfurt Book Fair where he was promoting his new novel, "Origin", the fifth outing for Harvard "symbology" professor Robert Langdon, the protagonist of "The Da Vinci Code", a book that questioned the history of Christianity. … …
***
(October 13)
Death Toll Jumps to 31 in Apocalypse California — and the fires are unabated.  Will those who want to secede from the Union, have anything left to secede with?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/12/us/california-wildfire-deaths-napa-sonoma.html
California Fires Leave 31 Dead, a Vast Landscape Charred, and a Sky Full of Soot
***
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/12/technology/tech-giants-threats.html
Tech Giants, Once Seen as Saviors, Are Now Viewed as Threats
SAN FRANCISCO — At the start of this decade, the Arab Spring blossomed with the help of social media. That is the sort of story the tech industry loves to tell about itself: It is bringing freedom, enlightenment and a better future for all mankind.
Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder, proclaimed that this was exactly why his social network existed. In a 2012 manifesto for investors, he said Facebook was a tool to create “a more honest and transparent dialogue around government.” The result, he said, would be “better solutions to some of the biggest problems of our time.”
Now tech companies are under fire for creating problems instead of solving them. At the top of the list isRussian interference in last year’s presidential election.  Social media might have originally promised liberation, but it proved an even more useful tool for stoking anger. The manipulation was so efficient and so lacking in transparency that the companies themselves barely noticed it was happening.
The election is far from the only area of concern. Tech companies have accrued a tremendous amount of power and influence. Amazon determines how people shop, Google how they acquire knowledge, Facebook how they communicate. All of them are making decisions about who gets a digital megaphone and who should be unplugged from the web.
Their amount of concentrated authority resembles the divine right of kings, and is sparking a backlash that is still gathering force. … …

***

(October 14)
A lighter moment in this weekly roster…Category: “You’ve got to be kidding!”  The NYTimes attacks the CIA for propaganda.  Isn’t this akin to “the pot calling the kettle black”!!!???!!!
No doubt some truth in the reporting, but from an entity that specializes in continual slamming, insulting, biased adjective and pejorative diction choices.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/13/opinion/cia-fake-news-russia.html
The C.I.A.’s Fake News Campaign

***
(October 15)
Here, in the Northeast, greens and progressives, are clucking their tongues about climate change and wishing for snow.  They may get it this Monday, but it may be back to 80 later in the week. Whew. “Mother Nature” unleashed?  People in the public conversation express uneasiness at the preternatural fluctuations here.

https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/temperature-whiplash-in-store-for-northeastern-us-into-early-next-week/70002997
Temperature whiplash in store for northeastern US into early week
Temperatures will be on a dramatic roller coaster ride across the northeastern United States through early week as record-challenging warmth battles cooler autumn air.
An upward then downward swing in high temperatures of 15-20 degrees Fahrenheit will mean residents should not put their fall jackets or long-sleeved shirts too far into their closets.
Warmth surging back into the Northeast will send temperatures soaring from Friday’s highs that were mostly in the 60s to highs in the 70s and lower 80s on Sunday.

***

The angst of the End of the Age causing hopelessness among even teenagers? 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/magazine/why-are-more-american-teenagers-than-ever-suffering-from-severe-anxiety.html
Why Are More American Teenagers Than Ever Suffering From Severe Anxiety?

The disintegration of Jake’s life took him by surprise. It happened early in his junior year of high school, while he was taking three Advanced Placement classes, running on his school’s cross-country team and traveling to Model United Nations conferences. It was a lot to handle, but Jake — the likable, hard-working oldest sibling in a suburban North Carolina family — was the kind of teenager who handled things. Though he was not prone to boastfulness, the fact was he had never really failed at anything.
Not coincidentally, failure was one of Jake’s biggest fears. He worried about it privately; maybe he couldn’t keep up with his peers, maybe he wouldn’t succeed in life. The relentless drive to avoid such a fate seemed to come from deep inside him. He considered it a strength.

Jake’s parents knew he could be high-strung; in middle school, they sent him to a therapist when he was too scared to sleep in his own room. But nothing prepared them for the day two years ago when Jake, then 17, seemingly “ran 150 miles per hour into a brick wall,” his mother said. He refused to go to school and curled up in the fetal position on the floor. “I just can’t take it!” he screamed. “You just don’t understand!”

Jake was right — his parents didn’t understand. Jake didn’t really understand, either. But he also wasn’t good at verbalizing what he thought he knew: that going to school suddenly felt impossible, that people were undoubtedly judging him, that nothing he did felt good enough. “All of a sudden I couldn’t do anything,” he said. “I was so afraid.” His tall, lanky frame succumbed, too. His stomach hurt. He had migraines. “You know how a normal person might have their stomach lurch if they walk into a classroom and there’s a pop quiz?” he told me. “Well, I basically started having that feeling all the time.” … …

***

And the peace of God, 
which passeth all understanding, 
shall keep your hearts and minds 
through Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 4:7)

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October 8

Saints,

God still works; never hurries; gets everything done.  He created individuality and everyone who gets saved is saved one by one, with an eternal design for that individual, sent from above.  We get impressed by hoopla, by media spirituality, mass meetings, endless conferences, sensationalized art and presentation, and He does occasionally condescend to allow such things to work well too in the business of the Gospel, but, among his most able ministers are those who minister one by one as real need presents itself.  It is the call of every disciple, great or small.  It is “the great equalizer” of faith.  “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake will find it.  For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26).  Let us, by all means, continue in faith and in The Faith, for “he that endures to the end shall be saved.” (Matthew 10:22b)

***

The Week —
(October 2)
Whew!  “Good Monday morning,”  — as a lone gunman kills 20 and wounds a hundred or more in a concert in Las Vegas.  Should disciples now learn from this that the world is in chaotic anarchy of loosed evil…”pandemonium, “ (all the demons loosed), and should we now stay away from such venues, unless the Lord sends us specifically, like Paul to Mars Hill (Acts 17:22)?  May God’s mercy be on the survivors that they may suddenly see the eternal issues too.  The diabolic spirit of ISIS is effecting many more than just jihadis; civilization itself is under the attack of chaos and anarchy as the way and the “peace” of Antichrist is made ready to entice a frightened world.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4939872/Active-shooter-reported-Las-Vegas-Mandalay-Bay-Resort.html
Hunt for slain Vegas gunman's female 'companion' after TWENTY die and 100 are injured after he opens fire with hundreds of rounds on music festival from 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay hotel
	•	WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT 
	•	The victims were slain at both the Route 91 Harvest festival and the Mandalay Bay hotel just over the road
	•	Witnesses reported automatic gunfire coming from the hotel onto the festival and police cars below
	•	Police said one shooter was 'down'; at around 12:38am they said they believed there were no more shooters
	•	People listening to police scanners said that shooter was killed in a room on the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay 
	•	The Strip is closed down but flights from the city's McCarran International Airport are reopening
	•	Musician Jason Aldean was performing when the gunfire began; he and his team are confirmed safe
	•	Rumors of other shooters and explosives that emerged after the shooting were all false, police said 

Whew again!  I often start my blog work at 4-5 a.m.  By the 7 a.m. opening of the CBS News on network TV, we hear that this is now the biggest mass shooting in U.S. History.  At this hour, the death toll stands at 50+ and with 200+ wounded,.  Numbers are expected to rise.  It is amazing that one man with a machine gun, and shooting from such a distance, could do so much mayhem.  Surely, the last days are upon us.  Let us live removed lives as instructed by Isaiah 26:20.  Let us seek God’s direction for where and when to be, especially in public situations.

By Noon:  58 dead at present count; over 500 wounded.

***
Hundreds injured by police attacks to stop the referendum in Catalonia.

http://news.sky.com/story/catalonia-independence-vote-spanish-foreign-minister-says-police-violence-not-extraordinary-11063534
Catalonia independence vote: Spanish foreign minister says police violence 'not extraordinary'
Alfonso Dastis defends the use of force by Spanish police after hundreds of people were injured in clashes across the region.
***
For Puerto Rico, and small islands attending it, many pockets of its own apocalypse prevail…wastelands.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/01/us/vieques-puerto-rico-hurricane.html
For Ravaged Vieques, Solitude, Once an Allure, Is Now a Curse

(excerpt):  …The grinding lack of electricity and communications services has created archipelagos of isolation across Puerto Rico. Dozens of towns and neighborhoods, from the coffee-growing mountains to the industrial shoals of the capital, are now virtual islands unto themselves, stranded by destroyed roads, downed cables and splintered cellphone towers. … …
***
Will / Can God save Dan Brown?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/30/books/dan-brown-origin.html?emc=edit_th_20171002&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
The World According to Dan Brown
(excerpt):  As do all of Mr. Brown’s works, the new novel does not shy away from the big questions, but rather rushes headlong into them. Here the question is: Can science make religion obsolete?

(Oct.5, A NYTimes reviewer romps around in Brown’s new book, Origins)—

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/books/review-origin-dan-brown.html?emc=edit_th_20171005&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
In Dan Brown’s ‘Origin,’ Robert Langdon Returns, With an A.I. Friend in Tow
Dan Brown has thrown off the doldrums of  “Inferno” with a brisk new book that pits creationism against science, and is liable to stir up as much controversy as “The Da Vinci Code” did. In “Origin,” the brash futurist Edmond Kirsch comes up with a theory so bold, so daring that, as he modestly thinks to himself in Brown’s beloved italics, “It will not shake your foundations. It will shatter them.” Kirsch is of course addressing The World, because that’s the scale on which Brown writes. … …
***
Whew!  The birthing and the rise of “the image of the beast” — the ‘bot evolution of Artificial Intelligence? (Thanks, David)

https://newrepublic.com/article/145121/silicon-valleys-religious-drive
Silicon Valley’s Religious Drive
The engineer Anthony Levandowski has reportedly founded a religion led by bots, the latest manifestation of the tech world's spiritual underpinnings.
The bots, our children, do not behave.  They have taken over the internet—bots account for more than half of internet traffic—and interfered with our elections. But instead of being unnerved by the bot’s growing power, Anthony Levandowski would like to make one God. The Silicon Valley engineer, who has been accused by Waymo, Google’s self-driving car company, of trying to steal trade secrets and give them to Uber, in 2015 “founded a religious organization called Way of the Future,” Wired reported last week. “Its purpose, according to previously unreported state filings, is nothing less than to ‘develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence.’” … …

***
Almost a little “comic relief” in the light of today’s news above: Shades of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s  / Sharon Stone’s 1990 sci-fi classic, TOTAL RECALL.  Billboards —  soon to be able to call your name, send you a text, and address your interests personally?!  Is there no escape from the hyenas of advertising?

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1644
Smart Billboards Are Watching You
Imagine driving down a highway and seeing a personalized billboard ad directed at you. Now imagine advertisers using billboards to send messages to your smartphone.

That's the future of' 'advertised spying' in America. 

An article in McClatchy, warns that a new generation of "smart digital billboards will detect the make, model and year of oncoming vehicles and project ads tailored to the motorist."

The article ominously warns that smart billboards can guess a motorist's home address, age, race and income level based on the vehicle they are driving. And also claims that advertisers will be able to send messages to a person's smartphone as they pass by a smart billboard. … …
***
(October 4)
Mild-mannered street preacher causes wild-eyed fear and panic amongst the “groomed by spirit of antichrist”(?) herd on a London train car, though other riders also vouch for him and say he said or did nothing wrong.  Police brought no charges —  “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion” Proverbs 28:1.  “But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear”  Zechariah 7:11.  At the stoning of Stephen:  “Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord…” Acts 7:57.  Lord, help this street preacher and other believers to save a few more in Britain before utter judgment falls. “The meek shall inherit the earth.”

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/oct/02/doomsday-preacher-wimbledon-train-station-passengers-flee
‘Doomsday preacher’ on Wimbledon train causes passengers to flee

Hundreds of thousands of commuters experienced major disruption during rush hour on Monday morning after passengers evacuated themselves from a train in London and spilled on to the track because they feared a fellow passenger was acting erratically.
The incident, which took place at about 8.30am just outside Wimbledon station on a South Western Railway train running from Shepperton to Waterloo, forced Network Rail to switch off power in the area, causing long delays.
Ian O’Sullivan, 42, who was in the same carriage as the passenger, said a man with a rucksack began reading what appeared to be extracts from the Old Testament, when the train stopped at a red light outside the south-west London rail station.

“He was quite well spoken and calm,” he said. “He said: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to talk to you about something and that something is the word of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He’s here to heal your sins. The Bible tells you that homosexuality is a sin and sex before marriage is a sin. You need to repent’.”
Other passengers said the man referred to “doomsday” and the afterlife.
O’Sullivan, a marketing consultant, said he did not find the man threatening, but people started pushing and shoving, with another passenger warning the man that he was scaring people.
“It suddenly became a Chinese whisper and [there was] panic,” he said. “It was quite a full train, but the area around him was suddenly quite empty.”
Some people prised open the doors and went on to the tracks. 
O’Sullivan said the train’s guard came over the public address system asking people what they were doing on the tracks and warning them that they could die if they touched a rail.

“We could hear a woman [outside] saying there’s a man and he’s going to kill everybody,” he said. “But everybody in the carriage said he never said that.”
He said the guard came to the carriage, spoke to the now “sheepish” man and searched his bag, but found only a water flask and books.
“The guard did a brilliant job of trying to keep things under control,” O’Sullivan said. “He established pretty quickly that there wasn’t a threat.”
When the train eventually got to Wimbledon station, British Transport Police officers questioned the man, but he was not arrested. O’Sullivan said a number of passengers offered to vouch for the man, insisting that he had not threatened anyone.
A Network Rail spokesman said the incident caused significant delays. “Passengers self-evacuated off a train and on to the tracks at Wimbledon this morning after a passenger incident. British Transport Police are investigating and there were no injuries to passengers or staff,” he said. … …
***
(October 5)
Must be many Americans identify with the Terminator meme and the takeover by SkyNet.  Artificial Intelligence and Robotics cast fear into the American Soul.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/04/robots-artificial-intelligence-machines-us-survey
More than 70% of US fears robots taking over our lives, survey finds

As Silicon Valley heralds progress on self-driving cars and robot carers, much of the rest of the country is worried about machines taking control of human tasks

Silicon Valley celebrates artificial intelligence and robotics as fields that have the power to improve people’s lives, through inventions like driverless cars and robot carers for the elderly.
That message isn’t getting through to the rest of the country, where more than 70% of Americans express wariness or concern about a world where machines perform many of the tasks done by humans, according to Pew Research. … …

***

(October 6)
Another One?  “Only” Category 1?  But, who can predict what the “personality” of the hurricane will be?  The 8+ magnitude Mexico quake was huge, but it was the 7.1 behind it that did the most damage to the nation.  Could this storm sit and grind over New Orleans, erasing it?  It is good that we can pray:  Lord, whatever your intent, it is meet that we should pray for human life, that You will greatly spare and use your chastisements to bring people to You, and to waken the whole nation to the times were are in…unto repentance.  “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”  (2 Cor. 7:10)

Mother Nature can't stop won't stop with the hurricanes, as Tropical Storm Nate targets Gulf Coast
The extraordinarily destructive and deadly 2017 Atlantic hurricane season continues, now with Tropical Storm Nate, currently a tiny storm causing flooding in Nicaragua and Honduras, poised to become a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.

There are many uncertainties with this storm, primarily concerning its structure and intensification, but computer models are coming into agreement that residents from coastal Louisiana to the Gulf Coast of Florida should be paying close attention to weather forecasts during the next few days. … …
***
Fake News?  The day we live in.  What’s true and what’s not?  Paul said, ‘There are many voices, none without significance,’ but what to make of so many, especially when the most credible appearing may be among the lies? (Holding tightly to the Word of God, seeking balance, we can, at least, monitor trends and influences and continue to prayerfully watch.)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/youtube-tweaks-its-search-results-after-rise-of-las-vegas-conspiracy-theories-1507219180
YouTube Tweaks Search Results as Las Vegas Conspiracy Theories Rise to Top
Debunked claims appear in top 5 videos for news about Las Vegas shooting, NFL anthem protests

***
Civil War in the midst of Western Europe?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/05/catalonia-civil-war-warning-independence-declaration-fears-grow/
Catalonia 'civil war' warning as independence declaration fears grow

The EU’s budget commissioner has warned of the risk of “civil war” in Catalonia, as fears grew over a looming independence declaration and major banks prepared to relocate their headquarters.
As another day passed with no sign of dialogue and pro-independence parties pushed for the declaration of a Catalan Republic as early as Monday, Gunther Oettinger, the budget commissioner, urged the two sides to talk.
"The situation is very, very disturbing. A civil war is planned in the middle of Europe," Mr Oettinger said in Munich. … …

***
(October 7)
I must use one, but carefully;  I join “the refuseniks.”  Are smart phones (and social media) instruments of mass sorcery (mind manipulation and control, entrancement)?

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/05/smartphone-addiction-silicon-valley-dystopia
'Our minds can be hijacked': the tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia
Google, Twitter and Facebook workers who helped make technology so addictive are disconnecting themselves from the internet. Paul Lewis reports on the Silicon Valley refuseniks alarmed by a race for human attention
A few excerpts from a potent and poignant piece—

There is growing concern that as well as addicting users, technology is contributing toward so-called “continuous partial attention”, severely limiting people’s ability to focus, and possibly lowering IQ. One recent study showed that the mere presence of smartphones damages cognitive capacity – even when the device is turned off. “Everyone is distracted,” Rosenstein says. “All of the time.”

*
It is revealing that many of these younger technologists are weaning themselves off their own products, sending their children to elite Silicon Valley schools where iPhones, iPads and even laptops are banned. They appear to be abiding by a Biggie Smalls lyric  from their own youth about the perils of dealing crack cocaine: never get high on your own supply.
*
A few years ago Marcellino, 33, left the Bay Area, and is now in the final stages of retraining to be a neurosurgeon. He stresses he is no expert on addiction, but says he has picked up enough in his medical training to know that technologies can affect the same neurological pathways as gambling and drug use. “These are the same circuits that make people seek out food, comfort, heat, sex,” he says.

*
“The dynamics of the attention economy are structurally set up to undermine the human will,” he says. “If politics is an expression of our human will, on individual and collective levels, then the attention economy is directly undermining the assumptions that democracy rests on.” If Apple, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat are gradually chipping away at our ability to control our own minds, could there come a point, I ask, at which democracy no longer functions?
“Will we be able to recognise it, if and when it happens?” Williams replies. “And if we can’t, then how do we know it hasn’t happened already?”
***

Nature damages the US Economy—

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/06/business/economy/jobs-report-unemployment.html?emc=edit_na_20171006&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta&mtrref=undefined&gwh=94F69365536B7CD56BC5EF02AA9C284B&gwt=pay

The U.S. economy lost 33,000 jobs last month, as major hurricanes apparently took a toll on hiring

***
http://newatlas.com/themis-day-phobos/51640/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=2b1fd3ee49-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-2b1fd3ee49-91592265
A day on Martian moon Phobos
For years prophetic cosmic theorists have speculated that the Martian moon, Phobos (Fear) is a hollow sphere, like the Star Wars’ Death Star, left in orbit, abandoned long ago…and this speculation because of the very low density of that moon, seen in long-time-now radio wave probes.  This has since been “debunked,” but is any truth on the matter yet fully established?  The first photo in this piece of overlaid photographic and infrared scans, etc. could show a “Death Star”-like surface of constructed plates and seams under the surface dust and dings?

A few years back, a Russian attempt to explore Phobos never got off the ground, or made it into earth orbit, seemingly almost sabotaged?  Who really “knows what” about this mysterious object, and could human/fallen angel alliances (Illuminati, etc.) and plans on Earth be involved in sizing up this object?  Did a Flood-escaping party of Nephilim set up Martian bases, including an orbiting ship?  Are things afoot that we know not of?  Of course, and many will be revealed as the End of the Age unfolds…so that ‘men’s hearts may fail for fear…as the powers of the heavens are shaken (with fearful revelations, etc.)’

Says an excerpt of the piece:  “Gaining a greater understanding of Phobos is important, because the moon may act as a pit stop for future missions to Mars, or could even hold permanent infrastructure critical to building colonies on the Red Planet.” (How convenient?)
See also:  https://www.inverse.com/article/33217-mars-moon-phobos-base

***
“Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit?
or whither shall I flee from Thy Presence?
If I ascend up into heaven (space, the “second heaven”?),
Thou art there:
If I make my bed in hell (the grave, the depths of the Earth?),
Behold, Thou art there.”
Psalm 139: 7, 8

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If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

October 1

Saints,

Is the physical planet now under siege and entering the time Jesus called “the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:8) which directly precedes the Tribulation?  For us, it was first Harvey in Texas, which now seems like ancient history though its effects remain.  Then, Maria ravaged up across the Caribbean, wreaking havoc, and then drowning Florida.  Will the Keys ever recover?  But, then Jose wandered around like a homeless madman wondering where to pounce while Irma gathered strength and has created a slaughter of civilization all over the Caribbean, especially destroying US Puerto Rico, one of the largest of island settlements with over 3 million populace. The US Virgin Islands suffer similarly.  Even at this moment, people wander dazed without much food or water or medicine and care and with virtually no infrastructure left.  Then, Mexico also was hit by a huge 8.1-8.2 earthquake, which did not do too much damage, especially compared to the 7.1 that followed shortly, hitting in a different region and depth, and burying many, destroying much infrastructure and leaving swaths of Mexico in shambles.  Aftershocks continue besieging the citizens with PTSD scenarios.  This morning, in Indonesian Bali, tens of thousands flee before an imminent eruption of Mount Agung, and horrific floods, “far worse than usual” swamp South Asia in many places.

Writing right now on Wednesday morning the 27th, I have to wonder what the rest of the week and this month holds to fill out the roster of links below?  Help us, Lord, to share the Faith and steer people to you, Savior!

***
The Week —

(September 24)
Hoo Boy!  Which Boy-Caesar will ascend the throne?  Maureen Dowd “gets angsty” with global AI concerns.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/23/opinion/sunday/facebook-zuckerberg-dowd.html
Will Mark Zuckerberg ‘Like’ This Column?
WASHINGTON — The idea of Mark Zuckerberg running for president was always sort of scary.
But now it’s really scary, given what we’ve discovered about the power of his little invention to warp democracy.
All these years, the 33-year-old founder of Facebook has been dismissive of the idea that social media and A.I. could be used for global domination — or even that they should be regulated. … …

***
(September 25)
Another church shot up.  A deacon (“usher”) stands as a shepherd between killer and flock.  Was the Sudanese immigrant attacker seized by a sudden spirit from ISIS?   His last social post showed him lost and confessing that he did not know what was reality and what was not.  God save him, and Lord, keep your church, we pray from “the terror by night and the arrow that flieth by day”!  We pray for the family of the murdered sister, the others wounded, and for the church.  Jesus said a time would come to keep a few swords around.  Is it time for the church, first never neglecting prayer and watchfulness, to now also set guards and lock access while the solemn general assemblies are in progress?  …to have a plan  …at the least, having praying and watching deacon shepherds at the door of the fold?

http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/24/tennessee-church-shooter-suspect-identified-as-25-year-old-from-sudan/
Tennessee Church Shooting Suspect Is A Sudanese Bodybuilder
***
“marches”?…as in “goose stepping”?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/dismay-germany-hard-marches-parliament-164319317.html
Dismay as Germany's hard-right AfD marches into parliament
Berlin (AFP) - The Alternative for Germany (AfD) on Sunday became the first hard-right, openly anti-immigration party to win dozens of seats in parliament since World War II, breaking a taboo despite mainstream politicians' calls to halt "the Nazis" in their tracks.
Exit polls credited the AfD with around 13 percent of the vote, making it the third biggest political force in Germany -- a stunning result for a party that was founded just four years ago.
"We will change this country," vowed Alexander Gauland, one of the party's top two candidates, pledging to "go after" Chancellor Angela Merkel's government. … …
*
Though “Anti-Islamization” is an AfD rallying cry, the Jews also fear, remembering the Nazis.  Will confusion reign as Islam hates the Jews, and so do the Nazis, and yet the rightwingers hate and fear Islam too…and Islam just officially hates everybody.  Irrational anti-semitism, the jealously and fear of the Gentiles against the Abrahamic Blessing on the Jews, only serves to prove the validity of the Bible and God’s plan and outworking against Satan’s kingdom.  Yet, even among Israeli Jews, only one in three will survive the Tribulation, according to their (and our) own prophet Zechariah (13:8-9), and they will survive only by bowing to the returning Messiah, Jesus/Y’Shua.  He said too, “Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 23:39).

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-election-antisemitism/jews-around-world-concerned-by-far-right-breakthrough-in-german-election-idUSKCN1BZ0SI?il=0
Jews around world concerned by far-right breakthrough in German election
***
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/trump-issues-travel-restrictions-north-korea-venezuela-expanded-000846466.html
Trump slaps travel restrictions on North Korea, Venezuela in sweeping new ban
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Sunday slapped new travel restrictions on citizens from North Korea, Venezuela and Chad, expanding to eight the list of countries covered by his original travel bans that have been derided by critics and challenged in court.
Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Somalia were left on the list of affected countries in a new proclamation issued by the president. Restrictions on citizens from Sudan were lifted.
The measures help fulfill a campaign promise Trump made to tighten U.S. immigration procedures and align with his "America First" foreign policy vision. Unlike the president's original bans, which had time limits, this one is open-ended.
"Making America Safe is my number one priority. We will not admit those into our country we cannot safely vet," the president said in a tweet shortly after the proclamation was released. … …
***

“Much ado about nothing,” or serious division?  Pontiff presently ignoring issues?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-conservative-theologians-pope-heresy-20170923-story.html
Conservative Roman Catholic theologians accuse pope of spreading heresy
The letter accused Francis of propagating seven heretical positions concerning marriage, moral life and the sacraments with his 2016 document "The Joy of Love" and subsequent "acts, words and omissions."
The initiative follows another formal act by four tradition-minded cardinals who wrote Francis last year asking him to clarify a series of questions, or "dubbia," they had about his 2016 text.
The letter accused Francis of propagating seven heretical positions concerning marriage, moral life and the sacraments with his 2016 document "The Joy of Love" and subsequent "acts, words and omissions."
The initiative follows another formal act by four tradition-minded cardinals who wrote Francis last year asking him to clarify a series of questions, or "dubbia," they had about his 2016 text.
Francis hasn't responded to either initiative. The Vatican spokesman didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment late Saturday.
None of the signatories of the new letter is a cardinal, and the highest-ranking churchman listed is actually someone whose organization has no legal standing in the Catholic Church: Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior of the breakaway Society of St. Pius X. Several other signatories are well-known admirers of the old Latin Mass which Fellay's followers celebrate.
But organizers said the initiative was nevertheless significant and a sign of the concern among a certain contingent of academics and pastors over Francis' positions, which they said posed a danger to the faithful.
"There is a role for theologians and philosophers to explain to people the church's teaching, to correct misunderstandings," said Joseph Shaw, a spokesman for the initiative, signatory of the correction and senior research fellow in moral philosophy at Oxford University. … …
***
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/24/us/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-agriculture-.html?emc=edit_th_20170925&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Puerto Rico’s Agriculture and Farmers Decimated by Maria
Hurricane Maria's barrage took out entire plantations and destroyed crops and livestock across the island. The storm knocked out about 80 percent of its crops.

***

bereancall.org / Daily Update for 26 September—
Thus was the King and the Lord of glory judged by man's judgment, when manifest in flesh: far be it from any of his ministers to expect better treatment.
-- George Whitefield

Not to curry a “persecution complex,” but, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution,” said Paul to Timothy in 2 T 3:12.  Said Jesus, “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26).  Heart check:  If no one at all gets upset about your Christian Faith, better check to make sure you really have it!
***
(September 27)
Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore prevails over Trump-backed Luther Strange in a contest among conservatives.  Moore is the Justice who defied the Feds over same-sex marriage and allowed  monument copies of The Ten Commandments in public spaces.  Lord God, please continue to speak your wisdom through this man, preserve and protect him, his loved ones, and his witness.  Take him from this primary and set him in the US Senate if it be your will.  Amen.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/latest-trump-makes-final-push-alabama-senate-race-111940934--election.html
The Latest: A bewildered Strange wishes Moore well
(excerpts):
8:50 p.m.
…Incumbent Sen. Luther Strange wished jurist Roy Moore well after losing the Alabama Republican primary for Senate.
Strange told his supporters Tuesday night that "we wish (Moore) well going forward."
But he quickly shifted to his own bewilderment at the race he just finished. "We're dealing with a political environment that I've never had any experience with," he said.
"I'm telling you, the political seas and winds in this country right now ... are very hard to navigate, very hard to understand."
Strange also thanked President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for backing him.
Strange said Trump, may "be criticized" for coming to Alabama on his behalf. "Sometimes it's just about friendship ... a common goal to make the country better," he said. … …

8:25 p.m.
…Firebrand jurist Roy Moore has won the Alabama Republican primary for U.S. Senate, defeating an appointed incumbent backed by President Donald Trump and allies of Sen. Mitch McConnell.
In an upset likely to rock the party establishment, Moore clinched victory Tuesday over Sen. Luther Strange to win the GOP nomination for the Senate seat previously held by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Moore will face Democrat Doug Jones in a Dec. 12 special election.
Moore is the state's former chief justice who was twice removed from his duties for defying federal courts over same-sex marriage and the public display of the Ten Commandments.
Propelled by evangelical voters, Moore consolidated support from a number of anti-establishment forces, including former White House strategist Steve Bannon. … …

***

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/24/tens-thousands-flee-rumbling-bali-volcano/
Tens of thousands flee rumbling Bali volcano

More than 35,000 people have fled a menacing volcano on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali, fearing it will erupt for the first time in more than half a century as increasing tremors rattle the region.
The numbers Sunday from disaster officials are more than double previous estimates and are continuing to rise, they say.
It includes people who left voluntarily as well as those ordered to evacuate from a six to eight mile zone around Mount Agung. … …

***

Asian floods emulating Caribbean damages—
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2017/08/deadly-floods-hit-south-asian-states-170816080459925.html
Deadly floods hit South Asian states
The death toll from torrential rain in Northeast India, Nepal and Bangladesh continues to rise.

At least 245 people are now known to have been killed in the flooding in South Asia.
Over half of those who died were in Nepal, where the torrential rain also triggered a number of landslides.
On Wednesday the government said that this was the worst such weather disaster to hit Nepal in nearly a decade.
Security forces helped rescue people marooned on rooftops, while air force helicopters were dropping food and drinking water packets in the worst-hit southern districts.
In Bangladesh, 39 people have been killed by the flooding. The majority of those who died either drowned or were electrocuted in the water. 
Officials in the South Asian country estimate that more than 2.6 million people have been affected by the flooding in Bangladesh alone. 
In India, 46 people were killed in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh on Sunday when two buses were buried by a landslide in the Himalayan foothills, while another 21 people have died in the remote northeastern state of Assam.
Train services have been suspended between Dhaka and the five northern districts of Dinajpur, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Thakurgaon and Panchagarh after the railway tracks were submerged. 
Heavy downpours are common in the region at this time of year, and flooding is not unusual. However, this year the flooding has been far worse than usual. … …(emphasis added)

***

As fiction and fact begin to blend — “faction?”, “fliction”?  fake news, artificial reality — James Cameron, the crafty chief sorcerer of the Terminator series, of Avatar, and many others, faces the angst of the irreparable Future breaking over us. Some unnecessary foul language in this review, but fascinating thoughts for those influenced by Terminator 2.  Low brow or not, I admit this film for me is/was like a wake up call to heed the literal portents of the Book of Revelation.  “The Future is now.”  Linda Hamilton, at 62, as Sara Conner is retrieved for this film (Yay!).  Of course, so is Arnold at 71.  Due out next July, providing, of course, there is a next July.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/james-cameron-sounds-alarm-artificial-intelligence-unveils-a-terminator-21st-century-1043027
James Cameron Sounds the Alarm on Artificial Intelligence and Unveils a 'Terminator' for the 21st Century

***
(September 28)
“Overcoming the Babel effect.” The Lord confounded the language of Babylon from one language to many to cause the people of the Earth to disperse and fill the Earth as He had commanded (rather than set up a kingdom devoted to rebellion and false religions).  Now, Man is about to beat “the Babel effect” with the fulfillment of the old Star Trek “universal communicator.”  This has been in the works for a “long time,” but now is down to an ID-card sized  device worn on the chest of the clothing or as a work necklace ID.  Does this mean the last, “mystery” Babylon is at hand when men as one shall defy God together and “make a name for themselves” against Him (Genesis 11:4)?
http://newatlas.com/fujitsu-speech-translator/51525/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=235aca85e0-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-235aca85e0-91592265
Fujitsu develops hands-free speech translator
***
(September 29)
I don’t agree with PETA very often.  Animals are not humans, and we are in charge of them but as good stewards and not cruel.  Since the Fall, we are given them as food and resource and even companions as needed, but PETA here sounds the alarm on CRISP-Cas9 gene modifications.  Monsters are being created.  Imagine the insanity of Armageddon’s battlefields as such monsters — hacked and aided by digital/cyborg technology implants and augmentations to be superwarrior beasts — ravage and ruminate on the humans.  PETA rightly calls these gene mods, “The stuff of nightmares.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4932682/Shocking-footage-emerges-mutant-Hulk-like-boars.html
The really porky pigs! Shocking footage emerges of mutant Hulk-like boars being genetically bred by Cambodian farmers

***

—War in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro as 100s of army troops now battle warring drug cartels.  Will Brazil fall to drug gangs as Venezuela has fallen to socialist dystopian madness?

http://www.france24.com/en/20170929-well-heeled-rio-gets-worrying-glimpse-favela-violence
Well-heeled Rio gets worrying glimpse of favela violence
RIO DE JANEIRO (AFP) - 
When hundreds of Brazilian soldiers battled heavily armed drug traffickers in Rocinha last week, anxiety flared not only in Rio's biggest favela but also in chic neighborhoods just down the road.
***
(September 30)
“Perplexity of Nations” (Luke 21:25) will continue to erupt while there is the fuel of iniquity (unequalness, unfairness) in the world.  Despite far bigger national tragedies like Venezuela and the natural disasters here in the western hemisphere and far greater enmities like Pakistan and India, the Koreas, and socialism versus free enterprise, the fruit of iniquity blossoms like acne as Catalan wants to separate from Spain to Spain’s great anger and threats, and the Kurds, left nationless after the Ottoman Empire ended with WW1 also rightly want their own nation while nations on all sides, though at enmity one with another, like Iraq and Turkey, unite in their opposition to the needs and rights of the Kurds.  God established the nations, and when Christ returns for the Millennial Reign, he will set the rights and bounds of all nations, and Peace and Harmony will prevail.  Until then, troubles.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/29/world/europe/catalonia-independence-spain-referendum.html
Catalans, Elated but Fearful, Brace for Independence Vote
http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/09/29/nyt/war-of-words-heats-up-as-kurdish-borders-close/
War of words heats up as Kurdish borders close
***
(October 1)
Even the great rocks begin to fall. El Capitan, “the captain, the chief,” the famous, oft-photographed and painted, vertical extrusion of igneous, volcanic granite, among the hardest and toughest of rocks, has begun to calve and send down stones “as big as apartment buildings.”  This play-place of rock climbers, risking life for thrill and reputation, has now killed climbers by this rock calving, and it may have to be abandoned for this sport.  And this, without any seriously notable recent earthquakes in the region.  Isaiah said every valley would be exalted and every high hill brought low before the great and notable day of the LORD (see Isaiah 40).  Is this a preparatory warning for that Day of the LORD?
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-yosemite-rockfall-20170930-story.html
Harrowing stories emerge after two massive rockfalls at Yosemite's El Capitan

***
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy (the wisdom of men) and vain deceit (deceived by foolish pride),
after the tradition of men (including widely received religious dogmas/interpretations/classical denominations and schisms), 
after the rudiments (the “elementals,” teachings of the fallen angels/false gods, paganism, pantheism, “ye-shall-be-as-gods-isms) of the world, 
And not after Christ, 
For in him dwelleth 
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily 
(JESUS IS GOD).”
And ye are complete in him…”

(Paul to the Colossians, 2:8, 9, 10a)

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September 24

Saints,

O, Lord, save us from the darkness that stalks our planet, and help us shine your light to others. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” (St. John 1:1-5)

The stark realities of planet-wide judgment begin, like provincial grim reapers, to stalk daily.  How often I would prefer not to report on them or draw attention, but the Spirit compels me to show and to warn.  It is so easy to ignore the news cycles and pretend all is ok when we are located in relatively quiet zones, but events daily teach us that our times are very presently critical.  Lord, help us watch and pray for others and have ourselves ready!  “Birth pangs” come and go, but if they relent for a moment, they come back stronger and sooner in the next contraction.  Let us diligently watch and pray.

The Week —
(September 19)
Maria goes Category 5 overnight Monday —  God minister to and save those in Maria’s path!  Will it also follow Irma up the coastal U.S.?

https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/tropical-storm-lee-forms-budding-maria-to-target-caribbean-islands/70002745
Major Hurricane Maria to lash Irma-battered Caribbean islands with flooding, damaging winds
Major Hurricane Maria poses a significant threat to Irma-devastated areas in the northern Caribbean into midweek.
On Monday evening, Maria strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane on its way toward the northeastern Caribbean Sea, making it the second Category 5 storm of the season.

(Just wondering if anyone has noticed that two supposedly randomly chosen and alphabetically-named storms, Jose and Maria, are similar in name origin to Joseph and Mary?  I am not an RCC and work to separate spiritual from superstitious, but may God, at times, speak to the superstitious by way of their superstitions? El Nino is similarly derived for the church season of “the child,” “the little boy”/ the infant Christ of Christmas. “La Nina,” derives from that and describes the other half of this global weather pattern, and translates literally as “the little girl” and may be more associated with Mary.)

***

In the blog post for August 6 (related article:  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/26/well/move/how-tattoos-might-affect-your-workout.html?emc=edit_th_20170801&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998), I mentioned my own aversion to tattooing as “not honoring the temple of the body” (1 Cor. 6:19), and mentioned the Levitical forbidding for the Israelites of the heathen/pagan customs of marking and cutting the body (Lev.19:28) .  Many facets of outward law were abrogated by the vision sent to Peter (Acts 10:10ff.) —though the moral law is unchanging— but like eating improperly cooked pork, or departing from the health benefits of circumcision, it may be still a “lesser good” to embrace the principles of a more kosher or clean life, not for salvation but for honoring God’s Creation and its laws and Him by them.  Hopefully, tattoos are no longer a salvational issue, but neither are they wise (IMHO).

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-tattoos-piercings-youth-study-met-20170918-story.html
New report cites risks youths face when getting tattoos and body piercings

(excerpt): Breuner also notes that those on certain immune system-suppressing medications should avoid tattoos and piercings, and should be current on all immunizations before getting anything done.
The report also notes that scarification, the practice of burning or branding words or images into the skin, is not as highly regulated and is banned in some states.
The academy, which is based in Elk Grove Village, also offers guidance to pediatricians on how to distinguish typical tattooing or piercing from nonsuicidal self-injury syndrome. Those with the affliction tend to impulsively cut, scratch or burn themselves, the release states.
In the report, the authors also note a 2014 survey that shows 76 percent of 2,700 people with a tattoo or piercing believe it hurt their chances of getting a job, according to an academy release announcing the report.
Breuner said it's important for teens to understand the permanence of a tattoo and think about any future ramifications of a tattoo or piercing.
Because many don't, tattoo removal — much more expensive than getting the tattoo — seems to be on the rise.
The American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reports that laser tattoo removal was up 13 percent last year over the previous year. The number of tattoo removal procedures in 2016 was 52,675, and the average cost per session is $463 and lasts 10 minutes to one hour. Multiple sessions are typically needed, according to the association. … …

***

Breaking News, September 19 afternoon — God save!
PBS News, 5:30 EDT —  Mexico City hit by massive 7+ earthquake 
—It hits while residents were remembering former September 19 earthquake (1985) — and have been rehearsing drills even this very day!  This, behind the recent 8+ quake, but nearer Mexico City’s 20+ million / buildings are collapsing / people in the streets / mortalities / injuries

***
Quoted by bereancall.org / Daily Update for September 19
A true and faithful Christian does not make holy living an accidental thing. It is his great concern. As the business of the soldier is to fight, so the business of the Christian is to be like Christ.
--Jonathan Edwards (October 5, 1703 - March 22, 1758, American revivalist preacher, identified with the first Great Awakening)

blog comment: …echoing Paul who said, “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.  No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” Let us not be merely pew warmers but soldiering disciples.  “Onward Christian Soldiers!”

***
Upon awakening this day, two events land —

Saints, Another “1-2 punch” seems loosed on the Western Hemisphere, and it may go beyond just 1 or 2 if Maria assaults more islands or the mainlands again.  As I have labelled western ISIS assaults as “alluhu akbars of the day,” will it now become necessary to measure major planetary catastrophes by the day too?  I repent of any merely glib or cynical monikers for events.  My cynicism is only at the world’s state in deserving judgment, but let me be quickly in deep empathy with each body and soul in mortal danger.  Remember, we all face horrible mortality hourly.  May the Lord grant us to pray and see deliverance for the humans hourly pouring over the edge into eternity.  We give thanks that many in disaster zones acknowledge God’s mercy, such that their thanksgivings even pass through to us in media reports.  May God also save by judgment with mercy ever near at hand.  Lord, help us to watch and pray for our fellow humans: protection and power for the saints, salvation for the lost.
(September 20)
A Terrible Toll begins. Lord, help those buried alive to call on you and be delivered.  Awaken the citizenry in this tortured society to return to you and not soon forget.  Thank you for your mercy upon us all.  Help us to prayerfully identify with these who are in dire suffering.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/19/world/americas/mexico-earthquake.html?mcubz=1
Mexico Earthquake Kills Hundreds, Trapping Many Under Rubble
MEXICO CITY — A powerful earthquake struck Mexico on Tuesday afternoon, toppling buildings, killing children in a school that collapsed, rattling the capital and sending people flooding into the streets for the second time in just two weeks.
Early Wednesday, the director of Mexico’s civil protection agency, Luis Felipe Puente, said on Twitter that 216 people had been killed, revising an earlier toll of 248. Eighty-three people were killed in Mexico City, Mr. Puente said.
Rescuers were frantically digging out people trapped under rubble, including the children buried beneath their school, volunteers at the scene said Tuesday night. At least 21 students were believed to have been killed in the collapse of the school. … …

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/19/us/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria.html?smtyp=cur
Puerto Rico Braces for ‘Potentially Catastrophic’ Hit by Hurricane Maria
***
(September 21) / Day After
Drudge says Puerto Rico “blown back to the dark ages.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4902546/Maria-makes-landfall-Puerto-Rico-Cat-4-hurricane.html
Rescue teams take to Puerto Rico in darkness amid warnings that power could be out for months following devastating hit from Hurricane Maria
Island of Puerto Rico is without power after Hurricane Maria swept through the U.S. territory Wednesday
Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico Wednesday morning as a Cat. 4 hurricane with 155 mph winds 
Dropped to Cat.2 overnight but regained its major hurricane status, rising to a Category 3 early Thursday
The Turks & Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas will see hurricane conditions Thursday evening
Before hitting Puerto Rico, Maria battered St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands for about five hours overnight
Forecasters say it could regain strength and Maria could again become a major hurricane by Thursday
So far, Maria has been blamed for 10 deaths - one on Puerto Rico, seven on Dominica and two on Guadeloupe  

***
Lord God, deliver Mexico from the drug gangs and terrible violence through this judgment and turn the peoples’ hearts to you and your Word and away from evil and superstition.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/20/world/americas/mexico-earthquake-school.html?emc=edit_th_20170921&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
At Mexican School Hit by Quake, Heartbreak and Dwindling Hope
MEXICO CITY — Gustavo López recognized the boy’s clothes first.
His tiny frame, pulled from the wreckage, lay over the jagged pieces of what remained of the school. It was his 7-year-old son.
He sat in shock for hours, quietly trying to maintain strength for his 9-year-old daughter, who had escaped the school unharmed. He wondered how to tell her that her younger brother, also named Gustavo, was dead — one of at least 30 children who perished at the Enrique Rebsámen school after it collapsed in the earthquake that devastated Mexico on Tuesday, killing more than 200 people. … …
***
Look out!  a “scientology wannabe,” upgraded and digitized for 2017?   Pricey too!  (another “good way” to get oneself “mindful,” entranced, demonized?)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/21/style/what-is-flow.html?emc=edit_th_20170921&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
How to Hack Your Brain (for $5,000)
EDEN, Utah — One morning last month a group of roughly 60 people, including doctors, C.E.O.s and internet entrepreneurs, gathered under a big white dome to hear the mission statement of their host, a 45-year-old man named Jamie Wheal.
As he paced back and forth in front of an altar bearing shiny Buddha heads, Mr. Wheal talked about the perils of information overload in our content-rich era. “A literate person in the European Middle Ages,” he said, “consumed the same amount of content in their entire lives as we do reading a single edition of the Sunday New York Times.” … … (yadda, yadda, yadda…)
***
Little Ones — “The Collateral Damage” of the Opioid Nightmare? NYTimes “Quote of the Day.”
QUOTATION OF THE DAY
"There are no pill parties happening in preschools. These kids aren't making a choice because they are trying to get high on a substance."
 DR. JENNIFER PLUMB, who works at an emergency room in Utah, blaming the rising number of child deaths from opioid overdoses on the widespread availability of the drugs.
Related Story:  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/20/us/opioid-deaths-children.html?emc=edit_th_20170921&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
‘The Pills Are Everywhere’: How the Opioid Crisis Claims Its Youngest Victims
***
Star Wars’ weapons hover over earthly battlefields –  Marching to Armageddon?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4903924/US-Army-reveals-video-laser-weapon-shooting-drones.html
US Army reveals video of 'Athena' laser weapon shooting down FIVE drones in most impressive test yet
	•	'Athena' is a ground-based laser system that can be mounted atop vehicles
	•	In tests at White Sands Missile Range, it shot down 5 unmanned Outlaw drones
	•	The system causes loss of control and structural failure in an invisible attack

***
(September 22)
In a time of rapidly increasing sensate/sensory input (sensationalism), we must be all the more careful to weigh claims and events against the Word in balance, “the whole counsel of God” as seen in Acts 20:27.  Great things are coming, the very heavens to be shaken, but we must discern by the Word as many will run to and fro, falsely interpret signs for their own glory (and to sell books and videos!), and our enemy will also take advantage.  Observe, warn, but weigh and measure too, with prayer and watching.

http://www.ocregister.com/2017/09/21/end-of-world-prediction-interrupts-tv-broadcasts-in-orange-county/
End-of-world prediction interrupts TV broadcasts in Orange County
(excerpt):  “It was unclear where the audio came from.”

***
Years ago, and many blogposts back, I was reporting on a DARPA project acronymed EATRS for Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energetically_Autonomous_Tactical_Robot).  This project proposed a battlefield robot that would ingest “biomass” (plants, animals, and yes, dead or dying combatants and casualties) to convert to electrical energy to sustain its power sources.  Hmmm.  Is Vladmir now reading DARPA “science fiction”?  What does he know?  What scares him? His use of “eating” may not be literal, but it could come to that.  God save this professing orthodox Christian and forgive him of his own sins.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4909172/Putin-reveals-fears-robots-one-day-eat-us.html
Putin reveals fears that robots with artificial intelligence will one day 'eat us' and asks head of Russia's largest tech firm how soon it will happen

***
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/21/technology/facebook-frankenstein-sandberg-ads.html?emc=edit_th_20170922&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Facebook’s Frankenstein Moment
On Wednesday, in response to a Pro Publica report that Facebook enabled advertisers to target users with offensive terms like “Jew hater,” Sheryl Sandberg, the company’s chief operating officer, apologized and vowed that the company would adjust its ad-buying tools to prevent similar problems in the future.
As I read her  statement, my eyes lingered over one line in particular:
“We never intended or anticipated this functionality being used this way — and that is on us,” Ms. Sandberg wrote.
It was a candid admission that reminded me of a moment in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” after the scientist Victor Frankenstein realizes that his cobbled-together creature has gone rogue.
“I had been the author of unalterable evils,” he says, “and I lived in daily fear lest the monster whom I had created should perpetrate some new wickedness.”
If I were a Facebook executive, I might feel a Frankensteinian sense of unease these days. The company has been hit with a series of scandals that have bruised its image, enraged its critics and opened up the possibility that in its quest for global dominance, Facebook may have created something it can’t fully control. … …
***
(September 23)
Propaganda.  So much of it is how words are presented — semantics, etc.  It appears the President has accomplished his travel ban, but look how the NYTimes describes it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/us/politics/trump-travel-ban-replacement-restrictions.html?emc=edit_th_20170923&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Trump’s Travel Ban to Be Replaced by Restrictions Tailored to Certain Countries
WASHINGTON — President Trump is replacing his ban on travelers from six majority-Muslim countries with severe restrictions on visitors from nations he has determined do too little to protect against terrorists and criminals coming into the United States, officials said on Friday.
The new travel restrictions could include indefinite bans on entry until vetting procedures and security cooperation improves, officials said. They will go into effect as soon as Sunday, after the conclusion of a 90-day policy review undertaken as part of the administration’s original travel ban.
Officials said Mr. Trump will soon announce the list of countries subject to the travel restrictions. They declined to say whether the list would include all six countries from which travel was temporarily banned by a revised executive order in March: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
The president hinted that the changes were coming in a tweet after a crude bomb exploded on a London Underground train last week: “The travel ban into the United States should be far larger, tougher and more specific,” Mr. Trump wrote. Officials said Mr. Trump was given a “decision brief” on the travel ban by senior officials during a meeting Friday at the president’s Bedminster club.
The announcement is the culmination of the biggest legal challenge to Mr. Trump’s presidential authority since he took office. It came just over two weeks before the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in lawsuits that claim Mr. Trump exceeded his authority and defied the constitution by banning entry from the six countries. … …
***
Behold the Beast?!  Will AI reduce us all to a base income, sitting in mud huts, eating grass?  No more need for us, but cared for as cute pets in a zoo from yesteryear?  Probably nothing quite so gentle. (Thanks, Guy.)

https://hackernoon.com/ai-scary-for-the-right-reasons-185bee8c6daa
AI: Scary for the Right Reasons
(excerpt): …For background, as a technology optimist and unapologetic supporter of further development, in 2014 I wrote about the massive dislocation in society AI may cause, and while our economic metrics like GDP, growth, and productivity may look awesome as a result, it may worsen the less visible, but in my opinion, far more critical metrics around income disparity and social mobility. More importantly, I argued why this time might be different than the usual economists’ refrain that productivity tools always increase employment. With AI, the vast majority of current jobs may be dislocated regardless of skill or education level. In the previous industrial revolution, we saw this in agriculture between 1900–2000, when it went from a majority of US employment to less than 2%, and in industrial jobs, which today are under 20% of US employment. This time, the displacement may not happen to just lower skill jobs — truck drivers, farm workers and restaurant food preparers may be less at risk than radiologists and oncologists. If skilled jobs like doctors and mechanical engineers are displaced, education may not be a solution for employment growth (it is good for many other reasons) as is often proposed by simplistic economists who extrapolate the past without causal understanding of reasons why. … …

***
I was glad when they said unto me, 
Let us go into the house of the Lord.
Psalm 122

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If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

September 17

Saints,

The world will lurch like a drunkard (see Isaiah 24:20).  IS IT NOT SO NOW…with terror in the streets daily; with confusions of loyalties as national patriotisms become multimedia, internet tribes under giant tech dictators; with fierce storms rewriting island and coastal living…more to come apparently; with Japan now under a threatening nuclear cloud from demonically insane neighbor Kim, and even our west coast citizens preparing for a nuking; with a massive caldera under Yellowstone quaking daily, and with the potential to take out half the United States if it blows; with an epidemic of mass suicides in the “opiate crisis,” and with no end of such news?

Many among the populace face a “wit’s end scenario” and family and workplace and school campus violence erupts continually.  Are we not again worldwide “as in the days of Noah” (Matthew 24:37) when “the earth also was corrupt (rotten) before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” (Gen. 6:11).  Again, as in the days before the Flood, we have a full world, seething under the kingdoms of the fallen ones.  Isaiah goes on to say, “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the hosts of the high ones (the fallen angels > false gods, nephilim > the mixture creatures of fallen angels and evil men colluding, the genetic abominations, etc., and all evil men) that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth” (24:21).

Let the saints, who humble themselves from such folly, hide themselves in the LORD.  Again, says Isaiah (26:20), “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.”  Even the least of saints, closeted and praying earnestly in faith, can often provide safe havens for themselves and those they tend, and we can affect the world situation:  Says Paul to Timothy (1T2:1-3),   “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour…”  Everyone who knows Christ and will pray, and remember to continue in prayer (Colossians 4:2), can be a part of that restraining power of the Holy Spirit (2 Thes. 2:6ff) on earth in the believing Church, that power that holds back the fullness of the antichrist’s and the devil’s own power until the fulness of God’s plan for the End of the Age comes.

***
from the week —

(September 11)
“Natural Events” seem to need to “get in line” for media coverage.  What before the surge of storms would have been the lead story in news cycles, the MONSTER earthquake in Mexico, seems relegated to lesser coverage:  “Strongest earthquake in living memory.” (I misreported in last blog that it was an 8.6.  Reports vary from 8.1 to 8.2, still huge on the exponential Richter scale.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/10/world/americas/mexico-earthquake-oaxaca-juchitan-de-zaragoza.html
Mexico Mourns After Quake: ‘We Have No Idea How We Are Going to Rebuild’
ASUNCIÓN IXTALTEPEC, Mexico — The death toll from Mexico’s strongest earthquake in living memory rose to 90 on Sunday, as the people of southern Oaxaca State mourned their dead and rescue workers began assessing the damage in small towns where dust still hung in the air.

***
Neural Networks — Machines learn to move beyond their own programming.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/10/business/warehouse-robots-learning.html?smtyp=cur
In the Future, Warehouse Robots Will Learn on Their Own

***
“…signs in the sun and the moon and the stars…”?
http://www.newsweek.com/solar-minimum-sun-activity-solar-flare-baffling-scientists-661695
MASSIVE SUNSPOTS AND SOLAR FLARES: THE SUN HAS GONE WRONG AND SCIENTISTS DON’T KNOW WHY
***
(September 14)
It doesn’t get much plainer than this — (“…and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark…” —Revelation 13:17)

https://www.infowars.com/implanted-microchip-to-replace-credit-cards-car-keys/
IMPLANTED MICROCHIP TO REPLACE CREDIT CARDS, CAR KEYS
Swedes already using biometric chip instead of train tickets
***
Physical elements of Western Hemisphere’s civilization changing?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/09/14/barbuda-hurricane-irama-devastation/665950001/
'For first time in 300 years, there’s not a single living person on the island of Barbuda'
Barbuda has been left completely devastated by Hurricane Irma. An estimated 95% of Barbuda’s structures are damaged, and the entire island of around 1,800 people has been evacuated.“The damage is complete,” says Ambassador Ronald Sanders, who has served as Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the U.S. since 2015. “For the first time in 300 years, there’s not a single living person on the island of Barbuda — a civilization that has existed on that island for over 300 years has now been extinguished.” … …

***
(September 15)
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/weather/fl-reg-tropics-september-14-story.html
Another tropical depression forms far from Florida; second system lurking
…As Tropical Storm Jose continues to circle in the Atlantic, posing minimal threat to land, a pair of rough-weather patches off the African coast, one now a tropical depression, are just two more indications that while Irma might be over, hurricane season is not.
“The peak of the hurricane season is mid-August through late October, and conditions remain favorable across the Atlantic basin for systems to form and strengthen,” said National Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen. … …

***
“Allahu akbarS (plural!) of the day” —

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4470415/parsons-green-tube-terror-attack-bomb-police-hunt-knifeman
LONDON TUBE TERROR Parsons Green terror attack injures 20 after bucket bomb explodes on rush hour Tube ‘sending fireball flying down train carriage’ – but device didn’t detonate fully
Fleeing commuters left with serious facial burns after a 'fireball flew down the carriage' of the packed train

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4886906/Knifeman-attacks-French-soldier-Paris.html
BREAKING NEWS: Knifeman shouting 'Allah' attacks a soldier on patrol in Paris

A knife wielding man has attacked a French soldier outside a Metro station in Paris today while praising Allah.
The attacker approached the soldier from behind and then lunged at him with the blade at Chatelet metro station at 6.30am this morning.
The victim managed to wrestle him to the ground and he was arrested by armed police as he shouted ISIS slogans. … …

Later…Friday, same day…Paris

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/645177/France-Hammer-Attack-Allahu-Akbar-Terror-Two-Women-Chalon-sur-Saone-Parsons-Green
Hammer attack on two women by man screaming 'Allahu Akbar'

***

(September 16)
Merging with Machines? Moving into The Matrix?  Brain Machine Interface may not require an implant! Perhaps only a wrist band.

https://www.wired.com/story/brain-machine-interface-isnt-sci-fi-anymore/?mbid=synd_digg&utm_source=digg&utm_medium=email

BRAIN-MACHINE INTERFACE ISN'T SCI-FI ANYMORE
(excerpt):  …Reardon and his colleagues at CTRL-Labs are using these signals as a powerful API between all of our machines and the brain itself. By next year, they want to slim down the clunky armband prototype into a sleeker, watch strap-style so that a slew of early adopters can dispense with their keyboards and the tiny buttons on their smartphones’ screens. The technology also has the potential to vastly improve the virtual reality experience, which currently alienates new users by asking them to hit buttons on controllers that they can’t see. There might be no better way to move around and manipulate an alternate world than with a system controlled by the brain. …

***
NBC Saturday Morning News reports —  Hurricane Jose, which has been wondering around the Atlantic for some time now, may be taking sights on the East Coast — and with more hurricanes yet to follow.

***
(September 17)
St. Louis seething —

https://apnews.com/82041d6fe9694ff8bec382499d149a7c/St.-Louis-braces-for-more-protests-over-cop's-acquittal
2nd night of violent protests in St. Louis after verdict
***
The March of the Hurricanes?  One after another in this “busy hurricane catch-up season” after some quiet years.  Or is it something more?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/09/16/hurricane-season-roars-tropical-storm-lee-forms-jose-threatens-east-coast/673482001/
Hurricane Jose ambles off U.S. coast as new Tropical Storm Maria tracks Irma's early path

As Hurricane Jose ambles northward in the Atlantic far off the East Coast, an innocuous-sounding system has turned into Tropical Storm Maria in the Caribbean and could well follow Irma's destructive path toward Florida as a full-blown hurricane.
At 5 p.m. Saturday, the National Hurricane Center upgraded the one-time disturbance to Tropical Depression Maria and said it was 620 miles east-southeast of the Lesser Antilles, moving west at 20 mph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 50 mph.
A hurricane watch was issued for Antigua, Barbuda, St. Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat, a route followed by Irma as it moved westward. … …

***
The East drowns, the West burns…
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/16/us/wildfires-western-states.html
This Season, Western Wildfires Are Close By and Running Free
TROUTDALE, Ore. — Some fires suddenly exploded in size. One in Montana doubled in 24 hours, charring 78 square miles overnight — an area bigger than Brooklyn. Already burning fires started new ones, shooting embers like artillery barrages, including one that apparently jumped several miles across the Columbia River into Washington from Oregon, breaching a natural firebreak that long seemed impregnable.
Extreme fire behavior — difficult to predict and dangerous to fight — has been the watchword of the 2017 season across the West. More large, uncontrolled wildfires were burning in 10 Western states in early September than at any comparable time since 2006.
And those fires have leaned in, menacing more lives and property, by their size and their proximity, than in any recent season. Two firefighters died in Montana, and dozens of buildings and homes have been destroyed in California. About 150 hikers had to be rescued in Oregon when a fire encircled them. Evacuation orders — residents told to be ready to flee at a moment’s notice — reached to within 15 miles of downtown Portland. One of the largest fires ever recorded in Los Angeles County roared down from a canyon near Burbank, leapt a highway and forced hundreds of residents, from Burbank into Los Angeles itself, from their homes. … …

***
Sickening propaganda of “the church” and “the pastors” of sodomic antichrist, brought to you by the NYTimes — God help this dad to stand firm and yet be loving as he faces this caricature of marriage in a daughter he loves.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/fashion/weddings/two-same-sex-pastors-in-love-and-only-god-knows.html
Two Pastors in Love, and Only God Knows
***
What bizarre things can come out of churches founded in disobedience!  (And do NYTimes’ propaganda machines delight in such confusion?)  God save!
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/15/nyregion/zarephath-christian-church-new-jersey-pillar-of-fire.html
A Booming Church and Its Complicated, Ugly Past

***

“Continue in prayer, 
and watch in the same
with thanksgiving.”
(Colossians 4:2)

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September 10 

Saints,

Are we going down now…as a planet?  Is the Rapture, “the going up,” close at hand for the watching and believing Christians?  Nature howls with multiple hurricanes and earthquakes.  Maybe, maybe not.  Our instructions remain: be faithful in watching and praying.  Be mindful; at most these are “the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:8) and the seven year Tribulation, and its second half, The Great Tribulation are not yet, but even now “the waves of the sea roar causing men’s hearts to fail for fear at the things coming upon the earth” (See Luke 21:25-26).  And earthquakes rumble more and more.

I have said it before, I say it again, If you can see the End of the Age coming in the very liberal NYTimes, you can see it anywhere.  Recently, I have had opportunity to speak individually with a slice of the American public.  People are really traumatized about this now still-approaching hurricane, plus the other “natural” events.  Though limited in time in my interviews, I am finding at least an opportunity to suggest, “Take a little time to read Matthew 24,” or “Have you read Revelation 13, and seen what John the Apostle said about the coming of total control of humanity through technology?”  People are receptive at this time.  WITNESS to them!!!  Lord, make our lives count!

(Saturday morning, September 9)
The NYTimes takes time to pooh-pooh events with “science,” etc. but like Caiaphas, it may be prophesying anyway —
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/us/hurricane-irma-earthquake-fires.html
Apocalyptic Thoughts Amid Nature’s Chaos? You Could Be Forgiven.
CLEWISTON, Fla. — Vicious hurricanes all in a row, one having swamped Houston and another about to buzz through Florida after ripping up the Caribbean.
Wildfires bursting out all over the West after a season of scorching hot temperatures and years of dryness.
And late Thursday night, off the coast of Mexico, a monster of an earthquake.
You could be forgiven for thinking apocalyptic thoughts, like the science fiction writer John Scalzi who, surveying the charred and flooded and shaken landscape, declared that this “sure as hell feels like the End Times are getting in a few dress rehearsals right about now.” … …

***
The Week —

(September 4)
It is wise not to go search out too much detail of the evil spiritual world (for it is full of lies and enchantments), yet we are to know our enemy (Eph. 5:6-17).  Why does he send his troops into possess humans when such a thing only alerts us to his worlds of damnation?  All we need to know is that there are such worlds, and we need to avoid them by heeding the Gospel.  What are demons?  What are unclean spirits?  We know for sure, by the Scriptures, that there are fallen angels who hate God and us because we are objects of God’s redeeming mercy and a condemnation by God of them.  But it MAY be that some or many demons and unclean spirits are the spirits left to wander after God destroyed the Nephilim and the rest of the world before the Flood.  It is reasonable to consider that most if not all of the fallen angels are very high beings, but many of the demons and unclean spirits that possess humans seem to be low order psychotic intelligences and utterly “low life.”  The Book of Enoch, which though quite ancient, is NOT INCLUDED in the Canon of Scripture, says that God allowed 1/10 of the dead spirits of the Nephilim creatures to wander outside the Abyss (where most are consigned in doom) to tempt and try man in this realm. If this is so, it may be why many of the demonic creatures are such a low mess as it may be that the Fallen Angels and higher Nephilim (“men of renown”) invented all kinds of human/angel/animal/even plant hybrids in their genetic manipulations which, if some remain loose as now disembodied spirits, may be the demon spirits and unclean spirits so often mentioned in the Gospels.  Circumstantially, The Gospel of Luke, 8: 31, does mention that demons can move from a human to pigs, and that they fear being consigned to the Abyss.

We must be very careful not to go beyond the Canon of Scripture, and what God has directly told us.  It is quite sufficient to know we have an evil spiritual Enemy, Satan, acting against us with every means at his disposal, including the use of any and all of his hordes, including even evil humans.  We need not know every detail, and if we are not very careful to abide within the Scriptures’ revelation we can wander down many rabbit holes, fall under enchantments of fascination, and have the slimy Devil deceive us even more.  We must also be careful of religious exorcists who function by form and ritual and church dogmas.  They may also be entangled in suppositions, traditions, and be themselves also pawns of the Enemy and his propaganda ploys.  Any Christian, living in obedience to the Holy Ghost, and under God’s leading and direction, can cast out Satan by Faith in the Name of Jesus, and by the power of the Shed Blood of Jesus in the Testimony of the Gospels:  “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you,” says James in 4:7, and precedes that with “Submit to God.”  Do not hunger and thirst for this power (Luke 10:19-20), but rather hunger and thirst for God and for his righteousness, and let Him work through you in such matters as He leads.

http://variety.com/2017/film/festivals/venice-william-friedkin-on-shooting-a-real-exorcism-1202546386/
Venice:  William Friedkin on Shooting a Real Exorcism:  “It was terrifying!?

***
(September 5)
“Irma takes aim,” says Matt Drudge.  I asked last week if we were about to suffer “a 1-2 punch?”  By the time you read this, we will know.  How quickly can God bring America to its knees, even remove it from world leadership if He chooses?  Very Quickly, IF HE CHOOSES.  A friend of this blog editor and a fellow watcher adds together the North Korean threat and the huge caldera that sits under Yellowstone and wonders if Kim has thought of dropping a solo nuke there!?  Oh, my, how quickly we could be cast into a new dark ages, even a global one!  Yet, God restrains, and if it be his will this Age could go on and on, but it surely appears that time and means are near.  He tells us many things to expect as the Age ends, and urges us constantly to live watchful, prepared lives.

https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/hurricane-irma-to-track-toward-us-residents-of-east-and-gulf-coasts-urged-to-prepare-now/70002631
Hurricane Irma to track toward US; Residents of East and Gulf coasts urged to prepare now

***
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1547
Experts Warn Against Fully Autonomous War Machines
(excerpt): …AI singularity: a far worse result, and which Elon Musk and the other 115 signatories of the letter to the UN consider a very real threat, is the possibility of an artificial intelligence that advances beyond human control. It is frightening to think that Skynet, the antagonist of the Terminator series, now has a very real possibility of becoming a reality. A self-aware, superintelligence in control of the nation's military would be, as analysts warn, an extinction level event (emphases added) more dangerous even than nuclear weapons.

In the past year, AI has succeeded at defeating the best human players in go, the board game of strategic thinking, a game far more difficult for machines than chess. Already better at humans in medical diagnosis (IBM's Watson) and target recognition, AI chatbots tests by Facebook recently were observed to quickly develop their own language more efficient than English but almost immediately unintelligible to researchers.

Once all the world's military is in the hands of artificially intelligent, self-aware machines, humanity could easily become a nuisance to be wiped away just as we would bacterial infection. The letter to the United Nations warns that "Once this Pandora's Box is opened, it will be hard to close. We do not have long to act."

***

(September 6)
A ministering brother in Virginia replies to my Sept. 5 midweek warning blog on IRMA: 

 “ ‘Therefore thus says the LORD: Behold, against this family I am devising disaster, From which you cannot remove your necks; Nor shall you walk haughtily, For this is an evil time.’ ‭Micah 2:3. ‬ With wildfires in the Pacific Northwest, Texas still reeling from Harvey, Florida on the verge of getting hit with a major hurricane, and the North Korea threat, it looks as if God is telling us something here in America. That is to repent from sins, look to God, and follow Jesus. God has ways of getting our attention, and we better listen.”

***
(September 7)
IRMA wipes clean the slate of physical civilization on Caribbean islands, takes aim at South Florida for the weekend —  God save those who will call on You or who can be brought to call on You!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4860396/Irma-hits-Puerto-Rico-damaging-Barbuda-St-Martin.html
'Total carnage': Luxury yachts wrecked and beach front homes smashed to pieces as Irma wipes out TWO Caribbean islands destroying 95 per cent of Barbuda and St Martin, killing at least ten
	•	'Monster' Hurricane Irma started hammering Puerto Rico with 185mph winds and heavy rain late last night
	•	The category 5 storm reduced Caribbean islands of Barbuda and St Martin to rubble with deadly destruction
	•	Roughly 95%  of homes and properties were destroyed on both islands with Barbuda now 'barely habitable'
	•	At least six people died on the French part of St Martin, while a two-year-old child was killed in Barbuda
	•	Some 900,000 people are without power on Puerto Rico and at least 50,000 people are without water
	•	Irma was following a projected path that would see it hit the Dominican Republic and Haiti on Thursday
	•	The hurricane is expected to continue past eastern Cuba before veering north for Florida at the weekend
	•	Red Cross said it is preparing for 'a major humanitarian response' as UN estimated 37million will be affected
	•	Mandatory evacuations were ordered in the Florida Keys and parts of Miami as the scale of the storm emerged

***

(September 8)
While Mexico has its own hurricane threatening, a Richter 8.6 earthquake! hits near Mexico City!

http://news.trust.org/item/20170908053353-zsjng
At least six die in huge Mexico quake; small tsunami triggered

MEXICO CITY, Sept 7 (Reuters) - An earthquake of magnitude 8.1 struck off the southern coast of Mexico late on Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, killing at least six people and triggering small tsunami waves but no major destruction.
The quake was apparently stronger than a devastating 1985 tremor that flattened swathes of Mexico City and killed thousands, but this time damage to the city was limited.
A number of buildings suffered severe damage in parts of southern Mexico. Some of the worst initial reports came from Juchitan in Oaxaca state, where sections of the town hall, a hotel, a bar and other buildings were reduced to rubble.
Rescue workers labored through the night in badly affected areas to check for people trapped in collapsed buildings.
Windows also shattered at Mexico City airport and power went out in several neighborhoods of the capital, affecting more than 1 million people. The cornice of a hotel came down in the southern tourist city of Oaxaca, a witness said. The tremor was felt as far away as neighboring Guatemala.
The epicenter of the quake was in the Pacific, 54 miles (87 km) southwest of the town of Pijijiapan in the poor southern state of Chiapas, 43 miles deep. Four people were killed in the state, Governor Manuel Velasco said. Two children were killed in neighboring Tabasco state, Governor Arturo Nunez said.
The quake triggered waves as high as 2.3 ft (0.7 m) in Mexico, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. Mexican television showed images of the sea retreating about 50 meters, and authorities evacuated some coastal areas. … …

(update, September 9)

Earthquake, initially seemingly played down in view of the hurricanes, asserts its ugliness—

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/world/americas/mexico-earthquake.html?emc=edit_na_20170908&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta&mtrref=undefined&gwh=54069E54779A3E95D01D3465F730C337&gwt=pay
Mexico Earthquake, Strongest in a Century, Kills Dozens
JUCHITÁN DE ZARAGOZA, Mexico — Thousands of homes in this city were severely damaged. Half of the 19th-century city hall, with its 30 arches, collapsed. The main hospital here was so devastated that staff members evacuated patients to an empty lot and worked by the light of their cellphones.
By the time the earthquake’s tremors finally faded, at least 36 people in Juchitán de Zaragoza were dead.
“It’s a truly critical situation,” Óscar Cruz López, the city’s municipal secretary, said Friday. “The city,” he said, and then paused. “It’s as if it had been bombed.”
Over all, the earthquake — the most powerful to hit the country in a century — killed at least 61 people in Mexico, all of them in the southern part of the country that was closer to the quake’s epicenter off the Pacific Coast.The earthquake, which had a magnitude of 8.2 and struck shortly before midnight on Thursday, was felt by tens of millions of people in Mexico and in Guatemala, where at least one person died as well. … …

***

http://newatlas.com/asteroid-florence-moons/51231/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=0b368c5f0a-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-0b368c5f0a-91592265
Massive Earth-buzzing asteroid found to have two moons

***

BREAKING NEWS, SEPT 7 8:40 P.M.  NEW YORK TIMES
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/us/destruction-caribbean-irma-florida.html?emc=edit_na_20170907&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta

ST. MARTIN DESTROYED; SOUTH FLORIDA IN CROSSHAIRS

	

***

Too Many Young Men Victimized on “She said basis” alone without due process and presumption of innocence? (in an oversexed but also gender-hating culture?)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/07/us/devos-campus-rape.html
Betsy DeVos Says She Will Rewrite Rules on Campus Sex Assault
The education secretary said in a speech that the Obama administration had gone too far and had forced colleges to deprive accused students of their rights.

***

(September 9)
NYTimes Quotation of the Day—
QUOTATION OF THE DAY
"For so many years, talking about the weather was talking about nothing. Now it really is our survival."
TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS, an author and naturalist, on thoughts that turn apocalyptic in light of a preponderance of staggering hurricanes and wildfires and a powerful earthquake.

***

(September 10)
What comes?  We should know by tonight at Irma seems to set her sights on the west coast of Florida.  May the Lord’s mercy abundantly shine.

https://apnews.com/8aeee2664ccb42fdbb5ada7f2f0dc6c6/Irma-shifts:-The-prime-target-is-now-Tampa,-not-Miami
‘This is your last chance’: Irma puts a bull’s-eye on Tampa
NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Irma’s leading edges whipped palm trees and kicked up the surf as it spun toward Florida with 125 mph winds Saturday on a projected new track that could subject Tampa — not Miami — to the storm’s worst fury.
Tampa has not taken a direct hit from a major hurricane in nearly a century.
The westward swing away from Miami in the overnight forecast caught many people off guard along Florida’s Gulf coast and triggered an abrupt shift in storm preparations. A major round of evacuations was ordered in the Tampa area, and shelters there soon began filling up.
Still, Miami was not out of danger. Because the storm is 350 to 400 miles wide, the metro area could still get life-threatening hurricane winds and dangerous storm surge of 4 to 6 feet, forecasters warned.
The window was closing fast for anyone wanting to escape before the arrival of the fearsome storm Sunday morning. Irma — at one time the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the open Atlantic — left more than 20 people dead across the Caribbean.
“This is your last chance to make a good decision,” Gov. Rick Scott warned residents in Florida’s evacuation zones, which encompassed a staggering 6.4 million people, or more than 1 in 4 people in the state. … …

***
As Irma still assembles her pounce, Jose, another one, prepares to make landfalls —

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/09/world/americas/irma-relief-stalls-caribbean-hurricane-jose.html
Death Toll Climbs, and Relief Efforts Stall, as Caribbean Braces for Hurricane Jose
POINTE-À-PITRE, Guadeloupe — As communications started to be restored to the storm-ravaged islands of the Caribbean, five deaths were reported from the British Virgin Islands, raising the toll across the Caribbean to 25 people as the islands braced for yet another storm set to strike as early as Saturday afternoon.
The new hurricane, Jose, is expected to wreak less damage than Hurricane Irma, whose passage through the eastern Caribbean left a wake of destruction that could take years to settle, leveling 90 percent of the buildings on some islands. But it has created a new problem in an already troubled recovery effort: The impending storm has halted all aid to the most affected areas because of safety concerns.
That will leave thousands of people who are already stranded and stripped of their possessions waiting several more days for much-needed aid. And officials worry that the number of dead could rise, as the full extent of the devastation becomes known.
“I’ve been working in the Caribbean for 10 years, and this is the first time I have seen a situation like this,” said Raphael Hamoir, the emergency coordinator for the French Red Cross in the region. “We are talking about existing devastation from a Category 5 hurricane, and right as we are starting the relief operation, we have another hurricane coming.” … …

***
“…and upon the earth, distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth:
for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.”
(from Luke 21:25-26)

*********************************************
5 September / NTF blog / midweek update —

Saints in Florida, the Gulf and Southern Atlantic Coasts (and friends and relatives everywhere who advise them),

HURRICANE IRMA is presently becoming a Force 5 Hurricane.  Seek the Lord, watch and pray earnestly, if He would have you head inland and to higher ground, inland Georgia or Alabama or as appropriate on up the coast.

May the Lord let it dissipate, but if it is his judgment, it may hit very hard.  He can surely keep you even in the midst of raging seas, but there is no faithlessness in earnest prayer for guidance and preparation beforehand if this event should occur.

God save us.

TUESDAY AFTERNOON:  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/04/us/hurricane-irma.html?emc=edit_na_20170905&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta&mtrref=undefined&gwh=5DAE1D2A25D32571724F0A2D1220A4F0&gwt=pay

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If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

September 3 

Saints,

Much of the professing, visible Church here in the West and America ignores even the plain statements, directives, and commands of even and only The New Testament.  “Designer jesusus” are the meme of the day.  Serious disciples, still also all flawed and often clueless and hapless too, can and must look only to the Word and to the Spirit for direction and comfort, and find fellowship where they can: Often, the real and living Church is becoming “where two or three gather in my name,” but He promises, “There am I in the midst of you.”  Let us seek the risen Jesus of Nazareth and the Comfort of his Presence and share in it as we may.  “Strengthen the things that remain.” (Rev. 3:2)

***
A busy week, assembling the Apocalypse —

(August 28)
Anarchists hunting Conservatives?  “Hate hate!”?!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4828672/Masked-antifa-swarm-Berkeley-rally-assaulting-several.html
Anarchy in Berkeley: A hundred black-clad antifascists with 'no hate' signs storm rally, pepper spray leader of conservative Patriot Prayer group and clash with cops
	•	Ten have been arrested after skirmishes on Sunday between competing rallies in Berkeley, California
	•	Thousands of protesters joined a left-wing 'Rally Against Hate' march in the college town
	•	They descended on a handful of pro-Trump protesters at 'No To Marxism' rally that had been called off 
	•	Over 100 black-clad masked antifa broke through police lines waving anarchist flags, assaulting several
Violence has broken out between left- and right-wing protesters, after more than 100 black-clad masked antifa broke through police barricades at a 'Rally Against Hate' and assaulted at least four, including the leader of a pro-Trump conservative group.

At least ten arrests were made on Sunday in Berkeley, California after the left-wing 'Rally Against Hate' confronted a handful of right-wing protesters at a 'No To Marxism In America' rally. Antifa is short for 'anti-fascists'.
The arrest charges in the skirmishes at Civic Center Park were various but included assault and violating a prohibition on wearing masks, KCRA reported.
Several thousand joined in the left-wing 'Rally Against Hate', intended as a counter-protest to the right-wing 'No To Marxism In America Event', which was officially cancelled after organizers said they had concerns of violence.
A handful of people wearing shirts and signs in support of President Donald Trump did turn up, however, and were quickly surrounded by the 'Rally Against Hate' marchers. Several Trump supporters sought police escorts out of the area. … …

***
Absolute End of Privacy, Total Scrutiny in US cities by 2025?  Utter Orwellian Dystopia? Grim “Reapers” fill the skies seeking criminals, maybe even just un-PC persons to devour?

http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2017/08/look-military-drones-replace-police-helicopters-2025/140588/

Look for Military Drones to Begin Replacing Police Helicopters by 2025

General Atomics is working hard to put a close cousin of its Reaper anti-terrorism drone in the hands of local law enforcement.
By 2025, enormous military-style drones – close relatives of the sort made famous by counterterrorism strikes in Afghanistan and Iraq – will be visible 2,000 feet above U.S. cities, streaming high-resolution video to police departments below. That is the bet that multiple defense contractors are placing, anyway, as they race to build unmanned aircraft that can pass evolving airworthiness certifications and replace police helicopters. And if that bet pays off, it will radically transform the way cities, citizens, and law enforcement interact. … …

***
(August 29)
Hmmm?  “Word of Faith” megachurch theology?  “When saw we thee naked and hungry…?”

http://nypost.com/2017/08/28/pastor-osteen-shuts-church-amid-flooding-crisis/
Joel Osteen shuts megachurch amid flooding crisis

Televangelist Joel Osteen cancelled services at his Houston megachurch Sunday and has yet to reopen its doors — despite the fact that thousands of flooded-out residents are desperately seeking shelter.
The perpetually smiling pastor told followers on Twitter on Monday to lean on their faith.
“Jesus promises us peace that passes understanding,” he wrote. “That’s peace when it doesn’t make sense.”
But Osteen’s comforting words didn’t sit well with critics, who want to know why the doors to his 16,800-seat arena at his Lakewood Church near downtown Houston are closed.
“You have taken so much money away from your people to live like a king,” entertainment publicist Danny Delaney blasted. “It’s the least you could do.” … …
*
Evening CBS News update:  After a Tweet Storm, Osteen opens the doors of his megachurch facility to flood victims.

***

Earth Worshippers Practicing “generic” antichrist spirituality?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4830042/Thousands-flock-Nevada-Burning-Man-Festival.html
Ready to burn: Thousands flock to Nevada for the annual Burning Man Festival where larger-than-life art installations take over the desert
	•	The highly-anticipated art and music festival runs over nine days from Sunday until September 4 
	•	An estimated 70,000 people are expected to attend the event this year in Black Rock Desert, Nevada
	•	This year's theme is Radical Ritual, where participants are asked to 'create interactive rites, ritual processions, elaborate images, shrines, icons, temples and visions' (emphases added)

***

“We’re all around you; some of us even go to church.”  The delusions of western witchcraft:  worshipping Earth and “forces of Nature,” denying the actuality and personality of the devil whom they serve, and also belittling God down to a pantheistic “All” — a mass movement of pagans in the end of the Age, denying the Lord that bought them.

http://westchester.news12.com/story/36227191/speak-no-evil-witchcrafts-popularity-on-the-rise-in-hudson-valley

Speak No Evil: Witchcraft's popularity on the rise in Hudson Valley
Despite its fearsome legacy, witchcraft is rising in popularity in New York state and especially in the Hudson Valley.
News 12's Tara Rosenblum spent four months exploring and gaining access to a mysterious, secretive world that most people don't even know exist: a thriving underground community of witches.
Watch "Speak No Evil," only on News 12, starting Tuesday to learn about the modern-day magic and ancient rituals at the center of their faith. Tune in to meet some of the most powerful witches in New York and see what happens when they come together to perform a white magic ritual and summon sacred spirits. … …

***

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/846950/World-War-3-North-Korea-Kim-Jong-un-missile-Donald-Trump-US-Japan-Shinzo-Abe
World War 3 fears: Japan to make 'utmost efforts' to stamp out ‘grave’ North Korea threat
JAPAN will do everything in their power to protect the country after North Korea fired a missile that passed over the island nation, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has warned.

***

(August 30)
This asteroid Florence would “do it” if it hit Earth — planetwide destructions.  There are at least nine mentions in the Book of Revelation of asteroid collisions with Earth.  In all but the most recent history, humans could not know in much advance when an asteroid approached.  Now, we plan to defend ourselves from them.  Could it be that we had to come to an age of such knowledge before the events of Revelation would commence?  Are we to be knowledgeable witnesses of our own folly before we can conceive of Wormwood (Rev. 8:10-11) and his fellow asteroids, and witness our own inability against them?

http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/missions/solar-system/nearly-3-mile-wide-asteroid-to-pass-close-by-earth-sept-1/
Nearly 3-mile wide asteroid to pass close by Earth Sept. 1
A large rock will fly past Earth on Sept. 1, 2017, at a distance of 4.4 million miles (7 million kilometers). Asteroid 3122 Florence, named after modern nursing founder Florence Nightingale, is the largest object to make a close-encounter since NASA began tracking near-Earth objects (NEO) in the 1990s. … …

***

Harvey hovers and hovers over the Gulf Coast.  From Liberals on through radical Progressives the blame is laid on human-caused “Global Warming” or the more defensible “Climate Change,” while many Conservatives simply deny it altogether.  But prophetic verses of the Sacred Scriptures speak of a time when Nature itself will go out of whack, both planetary and earthbound Nature but also even Cosmic Nature with the Powers of the heavens being shaken and heavenly bodies falling to the Earth.  Here on the planet, will longer lasting and populace-shifting events redefine and narrow the habitable surface of Earth?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/29/us/harvey-texas-louisiana.html?emc=edit_th_20170830&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Stalled Over Gulf, Harvey Deepens Texans’ Soggy Misery
HOUSTON — Five days after the pummeling began — a time when big storms have usually blown through, the sun has come out, and evacuees have returned home — Tropical Storm Harvey refused to go away, battering southeast Texas even more on Tuesday, spreading the destruction into Louisiana and shattering records for rainfall and flooding.

Along 300 miles of Gulf Coast, people poured into shelters by the thousands, straining their capacity; as heavy rain kept falling, some rivers were still rising and floodwater in some areas had not crested yet; and with whole neighborhoods flooded, others were covered in water for the first time. Officials cautioned that the full-fledged rescue-and-escape phase of the crisis, usually finished by now, would continue, and that they still had no way to gauge the scale of the catastrophe — how many dead, how many survivors taking shelter inland or still hunkered down in flooded communities, and how many homes destroyed. survivors taking shelter inland or still hunkered down in flooded communities, and how many homes destroyed.

For everybody, it was another head-shaking 24 hours: … …
*
BREAKING NEWS Wednesday, August 30, 2017 5:16 AM EDT
The tropical storm once known as Hurricane Harvey has made a second landfall, in Katrina-scarred Louisiana

***
While Houston drowns, a little further west, a sodomic orgy festers —  “As in the days of Lot…”  How can it not be the last days?
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4346158/burning-man-2017-nevada-black-rock-city-desert-latest/
NAKED FLAME Burning Man 2017 – 
Inside insane festival where 70,000 crazy party-goers dance naked, get high and enjoy ORGIES in Nevada desert

***
(August 31)
“Eyes Wide Shut,” observes one “guest.”  Indeed.  Surreal parties reminiscent of the spiritually obscene/demonic movie of that title (Kubrick, Kidman, Cruise, 1999) offer up over-educated, too well paid, too-hip fools, prepared as sacrifices presented to the devil, dressed in animal faces and lowered to Babel animalism.  May God pluck some lost souls out of this very real beginning of the fires of damnation.  Their “Contemplation Room” reminds of C.S. Lewis’s “Objective Room” in his novel, That Hideous Strength, where an initiate had to trample on a crucifix of an innocent Lord.  Curs-ed be the devil’s workshop.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/fashion/illuminati-ball.html
A Mystery Ball Where the Illuminati Have Cloven Hooves

***
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1540
Christian Groups Go On Offensive Against Leftists "Hate" Labels
***
(Sept. 1)
Signs of things about to come? (Who can’t be but a bit cynical at how fast “they” manage to crank up gas prices?)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/31/business/energy-environment/storm-oil-industry.html?emc=edit_th_20170901&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Storm’s Impact on Oil Industry Is Felt at Gasoline Pumps
HOUSTON — Ports along the Gulf of Mexico are closed to fuel barges. Part of the biggest pipeline between Texas and New York has stopped flowing. Refineries and gas stations are flooded. Drilling rigs in the biggest shale field in Texas are running low on diesel supplies.
As a result, the fallout from Hurricane Harvey’s devastation is now spanning the country, forcing gasoline price increases and possible consumer shortages of fuel. … …

***
Is a “1-2 punch” about to land?
http://mashable.com/2017/08/31/hurricane-irma-intensifying-looms-in-atlantic/#rOkrOui9WaqK
Don't look now, but another monster hurricane is brewing in the Atlantic
The floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey have yet to recede in Texas and Louisiana, but weather forecasters are already warily eyeing another storm that is rapidly intensifying in the tropical Atlantic Ocean — and could threaten the U.S. next week.
Hurricane Irma, which was upgraded to a Category 3 storm on Thursday afternoon — and is likely to become a high-end Category 4 or 5 beast of a storm — is moving west over the open ocean about 720 miles west of the Cabo Verde Islands. On its current track, Irma is forecast to begin affecting the Leeward Islands on Tuesday, with Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and possibly the mainland U.S. in its sights after that.

***
Update on The Burning Man Festival: Judgment? (Lord, save any who will awaken! “Let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.”  1 Thessalonians 5:6)

http://gizmodo.com/fire-dust-storms-and-scorching-heat-this-years-burnin-1798662696
Fire, Dust Storms, and Scorching Heat:  This Year’s Burning Man Sounds Like the End of Days
Visitors to the Burning Man festival are really getting to live out their Mad Max dreams this year. But it isn’t so much post-apocalyptic as it is just apocalyptic. Dust storms and a heat wave ensured that it was going to be a rough event from the beginning, and now an enormous wildfire has shut down the main road that accesses the week long celebration. … …

***
(September 2)
“Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming,” says Isaiah in 14:9.  Will and how will a global blast of Yellowstone’s SuperVolcano contribute to end-time events?  Would America cease as a SuperPower at that point?
http://www.newsweek.com/yellowstone-supervolcano-earthquake-swarm-largest-recorded-658318
YELLOWSTONE SUPERVOLCANO EARTHQUAKE SWARM NOW ONE OF BIGGEST ON RECORD, WITH OVER 2,300 TREMORS
***

The folly of evolution (?): the dogmas (interpretations) of dating —

http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/evolution/footprint-find-on-crete-may-push-back-date-humans-began-to-walk-upright/news-story/2e60cbd7386573dd2a45c5cc9d79297d
Footprint find on Crete may push back date humans began to walk upright
HUMAN-like footprints have been found on an ancient sea shore. They shouldn’t be there. They’re in the wrong place at the wrong time.
***
We simply don’t know? NYTIMES Quotation of the Day —
QUOTATION OF THE DAY
"We don't know if any of the problems were an accident, or the random problems you get with computer systems, or whether it was a local hacker, or actual malfeasance by a sovereign nation-state."
 MICHAEL DANIEL, who served as the cybersecurity coordinator in the Obama White House, on 2016 Election Day irregularities.
***
‘The Other Side’ speaks of “LGBT Christians.”  But the Word makes such a term oxymoronic.  All Christians fall short in many ways, but the truly faithful deal with them by repentance.  We seek forgiveness but do not excuse ourselves to sin and failure. Homosexuality and the whole “rainbow” of sodomite practices are not Christian. Period. They are sin.  (Even if “innocently” led into the acts at the beginning and so thought to be “born that way.”  Therapy is not the answer, only repentance and truth is.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/opinion/nashville-statement-lgbt-christians.html?emc=edit_th_20170902&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
The Nashville Statement Is an Attack on L.G.B.T. Christians
This week, an influential group of evangelical Christians publicly doubled down on intolerance in a message about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people that represents a renewed commitment to open bigotry.
The Nashville Statement, released by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood on Tuesday, says that only heterosexuality is permissible, calls people born with intersex conditions “disordered,” derides transgender identities as “transgenderism” and makes clear that anyone who is an L.G.B.T. person is immoral.
While sentiments from a group like this, which describes itself as a “coalition for biblical sexuality,” are nothing new, the statement sent a particularly dangerous message to the approximately half of L.G.B.T. people who, according to the Pew Research Center, identify as Christian: You don’t belong in our religion. And anyone who so much as accepts you isn’t Christian either. … …

***
(September 3)
While the South drowns, the West burns —
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/largest-wildfire-los-angeles-history-forces-hundreds-evacuate-023933429.html
Largest wildfire in Los Angeles history forces hundreds to evacuate
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A wildfire on the northern edge of Los Angeles rapidly grew on Saturday into what the mayor called the largest blaze in the city's history, prompting the evacuation of hundreds of people and the closure of a major highway. … …
***
Best birth control for men:  Pot?  Stoner “vegetables” no longer procreate?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4846328/Marijuana-makes-men-s-sperm-lazily-swim-circles.html
Smoking marijuana causes fertility problems because it makes men's sperm 'lazily swim in circles' say experts
	•	Researchers reveal cannabis leaves sperm 'mellow' causing it to 'swim in circles'
	•	Regular use of the drug cuts sperm counts, the Canadian scientists discovered
	•	Previous studies have shown that marijuana can affect fertility
***

Some good and kind nostalgia on the Jesus Movement and how it redirected American consciousness for another generation. (Thanks, Dave.) Yet, strange days, many wrong directions, and the War continues. Yes, Strange how the right and left commingle and change over time in the war between Good and Evil.  Our God is Sovereign.  We are taught to observe. (A good read!)

https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/8/31/16229320/summer-of-love-jesus-people-religious-right-history
The Summer of Love ended 50 years ago. It reshaped American conservatism.
The Jesus People, born on Haight Ashbury, had a profound influence on the Religious Right.
They came to San Francisco seeking something more — something significant, something transcendent. By the summer of 1967, a half-century ago this year, nearly 100,000 hippies and counterculture kids had gathered in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood to drop acid, indulge in free love, and escape the confining strictures of their middle-class upbringings. They wanted to join the revolution.
Yet the utopia called the Summer of Love wouldn’t last, and, after the movement faded out, not all of them went back to professional career paths. Disillusioned by bad trips and a sense that their pursuit of hedonism had been empty, thousands of burned out hippies soon experienced something possibly even more revolutionary than tuning out and turning on: a born-again religious conversion. … ….
***
North Korea, threatening Japan, Guam, and now an EMP over America, tests another hydrogen bomb underground.  “Extreme provocations.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/02/world/asia/north-korea-hydrogen-bomb-missile.html?emc=edit_th_20170903&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
North Korea Claims to Have Developed a Missile-Ready Hydrogen Bomb
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/02/world/asia/north-korea-tremor-possible-6th-nuclear-test.html?emc=edit_na_20170903&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta
North Korea Says It Tested a Hydrogen Bomb Meant for Missiles

***

“Redeemer, Savior, Friend of Man,
Once ruin-ed by the Fall.
Thou hast devised Salvation’s Plan,
For Thou hast died for all.”

Blessed Be The Name, Stanza 3, Clark and Hudson, 1887

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August 27 

Saints,

Hourly, the Beast technologies usurp our humanity and threaten to utterly enchant us, but when God judges it, it will be only a pile of melted silicon slag on the beach.  Now, He allows the Fury of His handmaiden Nature to remind us of his powers with terrible hurricanes on the Gulf Coast and in southern China.  Yet, He answers prayer continually, even the press hearing the cries of thanksgiving by surviving Texans, and with only one casualty so far while a “biblical flood” of FEET of rain adds to storm surges and pours over coastal areas.  May God continue in these disasters to glorify Himself in mercy toward mortal flesh…and turn many to Himself.

***
Some happenings, memes, and directions of the week —

(August 21, the day of the Eclipse)
We pray for Elon Musk; his wealth, power, and intelligence has helped him see potentials that many cannot see.  But we pray he will turn to Christ and not Antichrist.  He rightfully fears the lethal takeover of global AI, ultimately the Beast Tech Assistant to the Antichrist himself, “the image of the Beast,” yet Elon wants to colonize Mars, a rebel plan of the dark side to “rescue” some human survivors from the devastations of Armageddon and from the returning Christ, Whom the forces of Antichrist see as a cosmic alien invader.  These Martian “survivors” would be little more than hosts for the satanic rebellion to continue should such a plot be allowed to succeed. Worst than science fiction horrors lie ahead.  May Musk, Hawking (another signatory against AI) and many other scientists and thinkers humble themselves to know the Authentic Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, who died on the Cross and rose and lives to save them.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/20/elon-musk-killer-robots-experts-outright-ban-lethal-autonomous-weapons-war
Elon Musk leads 116 experts calling for outright ban of killer robots
Some of the world’s leading robotics and artificial intelligence pioneers are calling on the United Nations to ban the development and use of killer robots. … …

***
Global AI seizes your visage.  With computer memory storage at unthinkable, near infinite capacities, managing a planetary population of a mere 8 billion video IDs becomes child’s play for “IT.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-your-face-will-soon-be-the-key-to-all-your-devices-1503223200
Why Your Face Will Soon Be the Key to All Your Devices
Better-than-ever face-recognition tech means you will be able to forget your passwords—with more security
It was a memorable moment in Pixar’s 2004 classic “The Incredibles,” one that seemed wildly futuristic at the time: Mr. Incredible picks up a wafer-thin tablet computer, and it scans his face to verify his identity before divulging his secret mission.
Thirteen years later, many slim phones and tablets unlock with the press of a thumb—and just this sort of mobile facial scanning is on the way.
Forget fiddling with passwords or even fingerprints; forget multiple layers of sign-in; forget credit cards and, eventually, even physical keys to our homes and cars. A handful of laptops and mobile devices can now read facial features, and the technique is about to get a boost from specialized hardware small enough to fit into our phones. … …

***
Navy suffers another collision with another commercial vessel. This time, the ship, The John S. McCain, is struck on the port quarter, therefore not likely the culpable party, but is global distraction causing seaway accidents too?  Lord, let your salvation accompany grieving families and lost and wounded sailors.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/20/world/asia/uss-john-mccain-collision-merchant-ship.html
10 Missing After U.S. Navy Ship and Oil Tanker Collide Off Singapore
BANGKOK — Ten Navy sailors were missing and five were injured on Monday after a United States destroyer collided with an oil tanker off the coast of Singapore, the Navy said, the second accident involving a Navy ship and a cargo vessel in recent months.The guided-missile destroyer, the John S. McCain, was passing east of the Strait of Malacca on its way to a port visit in Singapore at 5:24 a.m. local time, before dawn broke, when it collided with the Alnic MC, a 600-foot vessel that transports oil and chemicals, the Navy said. The destroyer was damaged near the rear on its port, or left-hand, side. … …
***
Shades of Schwarzenegger’s 1990 Martian movie TOTAL RECALL and Star Trek’s “terraforming” of planets!  NASA makes plans to green up Mars with increased oxygen and a planetary magnetic shield like Earth. Too bad the Illuminati and other luciferic associations also plan Mars as a place to escape the Second Coming of the Lord to Earth.  Is Sin only confined to Earth?  Not likely!  Yet God may allow space civilizations for mortals after his total victory on Earth in the Second Coming.  Several Scriptures may hint at such a possibility, and there may be no heresy as long as the events occur in the Millennial Reign of the Lord, after the imprisonment of Satan.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/mars-nasa-2020-rover-oxygen-microorganism-algae-bacteria-robert-lightfoot-moon-international-space-a7902531.html
Nasa plans to make oxygen from atmosphere on Mars
If successful, experiment will mark a major step towards making Mars habitable for human colonies in the future.

***
(August 22)
It used to be called “grooming,” the sly nudging, directing, suggesting and encouraging a child toward participating in perversion.  Now, is it the official policy of Ontario’s education system?
bereancall.org  Daily Update for August 21
Parental rights are under new attack-this time by school boards defending "transgenderism" and gender confusion in students of any age behind their parents' back.
A number of Ontario [Canada] school boards have quietly implemented directives that a school not tell parents when a child asks to "transition" to another gender at school, even in kindergarten, [said] Jack Fonseca, senior political strategist for Campaign Life...
"So you can have a five-year-old boy or seven-year-old girl asking a teacher about switching genders, or that they want to be another gender, and the board says that teacher can't tell the parents," he said.
"What a tyrannical violation of parental rights! Worse still, it amounts to institutional child abuse on the part of schools."
Children are "already subjected to gender identity theory in schools at too young an age, which can actually cause them to believe they might be transgender by producing sexual confusion that didn't exist before," he noted.
"These policies will leave young kids without the protection of their parents against gender theory ideologues," added Fonseca.
"The harm to a child could be irreparable, including increased risk for depression and suicide."
At least five Ontario public school boards have policies or procedures accommodating transgender students that explicitly direct the school not to tell parents a child has "transitioned" to another gender at school, without the child's express permission.

***
Wow! Old Star Trek theme of “borging” humans, taking complete control over their minds AND bodies, now becoming a reality —

http://bgr.com/2017/08/18/brain-hack-science-limb-control/
Scientists remotely hacked a brain, controlling body movements

Imagine someone remotely controlling your brain, forcing your body’s central processing organ to send messages to your muscles that you didn’t authorize. It’s an incredibly scary thought, but scientists have managed to accomplish this science fiction nightmare for real, albeit on a much small scale, and they were even able to prompt their test subject to run, freeze in place, or even completely lose control over their limbs. Thankfully, the research will be used for good rather than evil… for now.

The effort, led by physics professor Arnd Pralle, PhD, of the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences, focused on a technique called “magneto-thermal stimulation.” It’s not exactly a simple process — it requires the implantation of specially built DNA strands and nanoparticles which attach to specific neurons — but once the minimally invasive procedure is over, the brain can be remotely controlled via an alternating magnetic field. When those magnetic inputs are applied, the particles heat up, causing the neurons to fire. … …
***
Spooky theme but Monotonous, brain-dead kind of delivery?  AI releases first music album.  Hear a cut —

https://futurism.com/the-worlds-first-album-composed-and-produced-by-an-ai-has-been-unveiled/
The World’s First Album Composed and Produced by an AI Has Been Unveiled

A music album called I AM AI, the featured single of which is set to release on August 21st, is the first album that's entirely composed and produced by an artificial intelligence. It works in collaboration with a human artist, who provides inputs that Amper uses as composing parameters. … …

***
(August 24)
A new twist on the “allahu akbar” situation —

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/well-send-straight-god-venice-11043606
Mayor of Venice says ANYONE who shouts 'Allahu Akbar' in his city will be shot by snipers

***
In the throes of political reporting, The Wall Street Journal’s Editor-in-Chief dresses down staff for twisted reporting, adjectival choices and phrasings , and heralds objective news over fake news —

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/23/business/media/wall-street-journal-editor-admonishes-reporters-over-trump-coverage.html
Wall Street Journal Editor Admonishes Reporters Over Trump Coverage
A copy of Mr. Baker’s emails was reviewed by The New York Times.
Several phrases about Mr. Trump that appeared in the draft of the article reviewed by Mr. Baker were not included in the final version published on The Journal’s website. 
The draft, in its lead paragraph, described the Charlottesville, Va., protests as “reshaping” Mr. Trump’s presidency. That mention was removed.
The draft also described Mr. Trump’s Phoenix speech as “an off-script return to campaign form,” in which the president “pivoted away from remarks a day earlier in which he had solemnly called for unity.” That language does not appear in the article’s final version.
Contacted about the emails on Wednesday, a Wall Street Journal spokeswoman wrote in a statement: “The Wall Street Journal has a clear separation between news and opinion. As always, the key priority is to focus reporting on facts and avoid opinion seeping into news coverage.”
In February, Mr. Baker fielded tough questions at an all-hands staff meeting about whether the newspaper’s reporting on Mr. Trump was too soft. Mr. Baker denied that notion, and he suggested that other newspapers had abandoned their objectivity about the president; he also encouraged journalists unhappy with the Journal’s coverage to seek employment elsewhere.
But apprehensiveness in the newsroom has persisted. This month, Politico obtained and published a transcript of a White House interview with Mr. Trump conducted by Mr. Baker and several Journal reporters and editors. Unusually for an editor in chief, Mr. Baker took a leading role in the interview and made small talk with Mr. Trump about travel and playing golf.
When Ivanka Trump, the president’s older daughter, walked into the Oval Office, Mr. Baker told her, according to the transcript, “It was nice to see you out in Southampton a couple weeks ago,” apparently referring to a party that the two had attended.
The Wall Street Journal is owned by the media magnate Rupert Murdoch, who speaks regularly with Mr. Trump and recently dines with the president at the White House.

***
This morning, August 24, a fierce hurricane takes aim at the Gulf Coast.  Lord, please lift up, spare and protect all there who will call upon your Name.  Amen.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/08/24/hurricane-warning-issued-for-texas-gulf-coast-as-tropical-storm-harvey-approaches.html
Hurricane warning issued for Texas coast as Tropical Storm Harvey approaches

***

Want a good scare?!  I didn’t know there even were over a 1000 robots all of one make and design…like goose-stepping bot armies in sci-fi flicks!  Here 1069 of them set a world record, dancing in perfect symmetric choreography.  Even the writer expresses concerns in seeing them all at perfect work together, mentions they are all responding to one smart phone app, and speaks of them as our future robot overlords, for now having a good time!

http://newatlas.com/robots-dancing-world-record/51036/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=e4f2997067-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-e4f2997067-91592265
Do the Robot: 1,000 bots boogie into the record books
***
 (August 26)
Praise God! South Carolina follows last week’s report on Texas, stopping funding of death merchants!

http://www.postandcourier.com/features/your_health/s-c-gov-henry-mcmaster-issues-executive-order-cutting-off/article_972cbc4a-88d7-11e7-9ca4-03959637f6fb.html
S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster issues executive order cutting off state, local money from abortion clinics
Triggering praise, criticism and some confusion, Gov. Henry McMaster issued an executive order Friday cutting off all public funding to health care providers affiliated with abortion clinics in South Carolina.
In the order, he also directed the South Carolina Medicaid agency to seek permission from the federal government to exclude abortion clinics from the state's Medicaid provider network. 
"There are a variety of agencies, clinics, and medical entities in South Carolina that receive taxpayer funding to offer important women's health and family planning services without performing abortions," McMaster said in a press release about the order. … …

***

Hollywood worries as it sees Artificial intelligence taking over —

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/how-artificial-intelligence-will-make-digital-humans-hollywoods-new-stars-1031553
How Artificial Intelligence Will Make Digital Humans Hollywood's New Stars

(excerpt):  "It's all over by 2045 — we are no longer running the show," predicts Regelous. "They will become so smart, and this won't be about motion pictures. They will be curing cancer and fixing global warming." But Regelous doesn't envision a bleak future. "Anything significantly smarter than us is going to value us. It will think, feel love and value life," he says, adding, "I hope I'm right. Otherwise, we are screwed."

***
(August 27)
Shrinks note, Close friendships more important than group socializing; many, post-highschool are depressed by this; We say, personal, intimate knowledge of Christ, friendship with Him, cures many ills.

http://www.ajc.com/news/world/popular-high-school-you-may-miserable-adult-study-says/TbssU1asXaGYWmVHQHzcKN/
Popular in high school? You may be miserable as an adult, study says

***
Fierce Wrath immerses Gulf Coast; Many Lives Spared; Many Prayers Ascend —

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4825124/Hurricane-Harvey-hits-Texas-130mph-winds.html
One dead and dozens hurt by Harvey: Texas braces for FIVE FEET of rain and 'life-threatening floods' after hurricane slammed into the Lone Star state destroying thousands of homes and businesses
	•	Texas residents are dealing with 'catastrophic' flooding  after Hurricane Harvey hit the state's coast
	•	At least one person has died and 14 people have been injured in the storm's 'widespread devastation' 
	•	About 20 inches of rain fell in the Lone Star State and another 20 to 30 is expected through to Wednesday 
	•	The storm sustained winds of 130mph and a storm surge of up to 13 feet when it crashed onto land
	•	Several homes and businesses have been damaged and 338,000 have been left without power in the area
	•	Those who didn't evacuate were asked to write their names on their arms so bodies could be identified
	•	On Saturday afternoon, the hurricane was downgraded to a tropical storm with winds of 70mph 
	•	By storm's end, 40 inches of rain is expected to fall and an estimated $40billion worth of damage left behind 
	•	The National Weather Service warned that this was the 'start of many difficult days to come'

***

The frightening world of “internet nations” and their dictatorships —

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/21/magazine/how-hate-groups-forced-online-platforms-to-reveal-their-true-nature.html
How Hate Groups Forced Online Platforms to Reveal Their True Nature
(excerpt):  The recent rise of all-encompassing internet platforms promised something unprecedented and invigorating: venues that unite all manner of actors — politicians, media, lobbyists, citizens, experts, corporations — under one roof. These companies promised something that no previous vision of the public sphere could offer: real, billion-strong mass participation; a means for affinity groups to find one another and mobilize, gain visibility and influence. This felt and functioned like freedom, but it was always a commercial simulation. This contradiction is foundational to what these internet companies are. Nowhere was this tension more evident than in the case of Cloudflare, a web-infrastructure company. Under sustained pressure to drop The Daily Stormer as a client, the company’s chief executive, Matthew Prince, eventually assented. It was an arbitrary decision, and one that was out of step with the company’s stated policies. This troubled Prince. ‘‘I woke up in a bad mood and decided someone shouldn’t be allowed on the internet,’’ he wrote in an email to his staff. ‘‘No one should have that power.’’

***

I was glad when they said unto me,
 Let us go into the house of the Lord.

(Psalm 122:1)

*******************************************************
If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

August 20 

Saints,

Christ and Antichrist.  I was just re-reading a “Dave Hunt and Tom McMahon classic” of this title (see bereancall.org and search like memes, “The rise of antichrist,” etc. there.)  I often lean on views they find and develop, and, yes, occasionally vigorously disagree with some viewpoints too, but, they also would have no less, calling upon us to “be Bereans” who did not simply believe Paul but searched the Scriptures themselves.  I would also encourage you to read or re-read my opening essay on the need for a true personal conversion resulting in a life of discipleship (at the home page of ntfellowship.net).

We live in a time of extreme and constantly, exponentially increasing troubles.  The Western World and mindset (and probably the whole world’s) is beset with many confusing and opposing ideas, and people are breaking down into militant camps and ideologies.  People are so distraught over “fake news” and confusion that they drown out opposing voices and views and rage to believe only what they decide to believe.  Political and Cultural Camps and Tribes are re-forming to do a new global kind of “nationalism,” and “hating hate” is an entranced way of dealing with a global situation getting unmanageable for the human mind.  No doubt, these forces are being managed from “above” but by infernal powers from below (the Abyss).

The visible Church treads down the same roads of confusion.  The result is that “the love of many will grow cold” and “many will betray many.”  Jesus and his appointed apostle spokesmen said these things must come, and with a huge increase as the Age concludes.  For many in megachurches and mass movements, the Christian Faith is just a big group hug and Christianity is just a social high, like a football game or a soccer match.  Many of these “believers” will quickly be offended at any of the “hard sayings” of Jesus and will instead embrace the soft, fleshly promises of the spirit of Antichrist.  Much of even so-called mainline Protestantism, even Evangelicalism, operates under the pleasure of a “social group spirit” and avoids searching or heeding the Scriptures, often dismissing them.  It will certainly quickly even cast out those who do, and it will only have a “jesus” of its own design…though many hugs and kisses, social works, self-love teachings, etc. go along with him (her / it).

Again, the Lord and his apostles said many would come in his name and deceive many, and that many false “jesuses” would arise.  None of us knows but very little, we “see through a glass darkly,” but those who would walk with the real Jesus must hold to his Word and search it diligently and in balance and calling on the Holy Spirit if we would avoid the myriad of pitfalls on our pilgrimage.  Remember, that Lucifer in his arrogance even tried to argue theology with Jesus Himself in the Temptation in the Wilderness (“The devil goes to church,” and he will gladly assault us too).  We still must forsake all if we too would make the passage safely.  We must hold to certain basics and then discern and search from there as we walk and as pitfalls present themselves.  While the exact list of doctrines and boundaries will be debatable by every considerer, we must acknowledge that only Jesus of Nazareth is the true Jesus.  We must believe that there is a God Who is The Eternal Personal Being, eternally existent in Three Persons, yet one God. We must acknowledge that our Personal Salvation comes only through the work of Jesus Christ, the Second Person of this Trinity. While we must acknowledge that only his work saves us, we must believe his Word and give ourselves over to balanced obedience to it.  You cannot long have Jesus as Savior without having Jesus as Lord.  We acknowledge that we fall short, but never excuse ourselves from trying and from walking continually on with Him.  Jesus loves us and carries our burdens, making his yoke light and easy to bear.  Yet, it is only those who endure to the end who are saved. It is easy in the Spirit, but it is death to the Flesh, and the antichristians will prefer the ease of the Flesh over the cost of the Cross.  One Way, One Faith, One Lord, One God and Father of us all.  No compromise.  God save us!

***

Another “what a week!” —

(August 14)
“But it’s only logical to destroy the world! (The humans even admit they are irrevocably flawed!)”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/13/technology/artificial-intelligence-safety-training.html?mwrsm=Reddit
Teaching A.I. Systems to Behave Themselves
SAN FRANCISCO — At Open AI, the artificial intelligence lab founded by Tesla’s  chief executive, Elon Musk, machines are teaching themselves to behave like humans. But sometimes, this goes wrong.
Sitting inside OpenAI’s San Francisco offices on a recent afternoon, the researcher Dario Amodei showed off an autonomous system that taught itself to play Coast Runners, an old boat-racing video game. The winner is the boat with the most points that also crosses the finish line.The result was surprising: The boat was far too interested in the little green widgets that popped up on the screen. Catching these widgets meant scoring points. Rather than trying to finish the race, the boat went point-crazy. It drove in endless circles, colliding with other vessels, skidding into stone walls and repeatedly catching fire.
Mr. Amodei’s burning boat demonstrated the risks of the A.I. techniques that are rapidly remaking the tech world. Researchers are building machines that can learn tasks largely on their own. This is how Google’s DeepMind lab created a system that could beat the world’s best player at the ancient game of Go. But as these machines train themselves through hours of data analysis, they may also find their way to unexpected, unwanted and perhaps even harmful behavior.
That’s a concern as these techniques move into online services, security devices and robotics. Now, a small community of A.I. researchers, including Mr. Amodei, is beginning to explore mathematical techniques that aim to keep the worst from happening.At OpenAI, Mr. Amodei and his colleague Paul Christiano are developing algorithms that can not only learn tasks through hours of trial and error, but also receive regular guidance from human teachers along the way.
With a few clicks here and there, the researchers now have a way of showing the autonomous system that it needs to win points in Coast Runners while also moving toward the finish line. They believe that these kinds of algorithms — a blend of human and machine instruction — can help keep automated systems safe. … …

***
An essay worthy of consideration, but also consider, “If good men do nothing, evil will triumph.”  We are not to try to establish a physical theocracy on earth until the Lord does so with his Second Coming, but the Lord did acknowledge that while this Age lasts “wars and rumors of wars” would continue.  A conversation in the Gospels: “Have you any swords?”  “Two.”  “That is enough.”  Defense implied?  Spiritual Defense First: continual watching and prayer first, but after the good news is extended and the other cheek turned, then?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/opinion/christianity-does-not-justify-trumps-fire-and-fury.html
Christianity Does Not Justify Trump’s ‘Fire and Fury’

***
Something to get the populace “used to the idea”?  Will robots direct human affairs?  By the time of the image of the Beast, it will decide who lives and who dies (Rev.13: 15).
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/4235263/talking-robot-jeremy-kyle-ai-tackle-celebrity-relationship-issues-new-tv-show/
COMPUTER SAYS YES Talking robot ‘Jeremy Kyle’ will use its AI to tackle celebrity relationship issues in blockbuster new TV show
The AI will fix real-life dilemmas as celebrities spill all in a new show hosted by a talking android
***
(August 15)
In an exceedingly high-stakes poker game, Kim blinks.  Thank God, for a momentary reprieve in the world’s game of “wars and rumors of wars.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-korea-backs-off-guam-missile-attack-threat-1502751054
North Korea Backs Off Guam Missile-Attack Threat

SEOUL—North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has decided not to launch a threatened missile attack on Guam, Pyongyang’s state media reported on Tuesday, but warned that he could change his mind “if the Yankees persist in their extremely dangerous reckless actions.” … …

***
(August 16)
The Hypocrisy of multinational corporations when Islam threatens — (subtitle, “and why pay $5 for a cup of coffee,” paraphrasing local convenience store ads here…)

from bereancall.org, “Today’s Update” for August 15

Starbucks, the famously left-wing coffee chain, is being boycotted in a case of blue-on-blue activism.
Muslim groups in Malaysia and Indonesia are calling for the boycott due to the coffee chain's vocal support for homosexual rights.
The spokesman for a Malaysian Islamic group said that country should revoke Starbucks' trading license as well as other companies, including Microsoft and Apple, that support homosexual rights, The Washington Post reported. The liberal policies violate Malaysia's constitution and Islam in particular, the group claims.
It's an interesting confrontation to watch because the mainstream media typically vilifies conservative Christians who complain about left-leaning corporations, says Justin Danhof, director of the Free Enterprise Project at the National Center for Public Policy Research.
When conservative Christians speak up, he says, the confrontation is often described as an attempt to "keep down" LGBT rights versus "righteous" corporations attempting to right wrongs.
"Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz slaps down anti-gay marriage activist at shareholder meeting," reads the 2013 headline at website Business Insider.
Referring to the Muslim boycotts, Starbucks put out a statement that reads: 
In all countries where we do business, we are proud to be a part of the fabric of the local community, and we strive to be respectful of local customs and traditions while staying true to Starbucks long-standing values and purpose.
A search of Starbucks websites...shows the company isn't exactly "staying true" to its liberal values. While the website for Starbucks-Great Britain shows LGBT-friendly rainbow artwork advertisng "Pride in London 2017," there is no such artwork at the Starbucks Malaysia website nor the Starbucks Indonesia website, both countries where Sharia law is being hotly debated as it creeps into the public laws.
Despite the we-respect-all-traditions statement, Schultz didn't speak so tactfully in 2013 when the shareholder/activist confronted him over the coffee chain's corporate stance on same-sex marriage.
After proclaiming that Starbucks "embraces diversity" among its 200,000 employees, Schultz told the shareholder "it's a free country" and told him to sell his shares if he didn't like the return on his investment.
(Chris Woodward, Billy Davis, "Left-wing 'diversity' vs Muslims' and their 'customs'," OneNewsNow Online, 7/7/17).
[TBC: The hypocrisy shown by Starbucks in its business dealings with Muslim nations has been demonstrated for some time. In Saudi Arabia, where Starbucks operates nationwide (for just one simple example), the coffee chain willingly submitted to Islamic standards regarding women. They removed the mermaid from their corporate logo in Saudi Arabia. The logo was first changed to not "offend" Muslims concerning the mermaid's "immodest dress." All that is overt in the very stylized logo was her bare face. Nevertheless, the mermaid was removed, with no apparent concerns for the marginalization and mistreatment of women in this Islamic nation, regardless of Starbucks' professed support for the rights of women.]

***
While the West is bemused about this standoff between the chiefs Kings of the East, we must wonder how their jostle will contribute to their eventual alliance in the march to the Valley of Megiddo, Armageddon — Iniquity, as usual, abounds on all fronts.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/world/asia/squeezed-by-an-india-china-standoff-bhutan-holds-its-breath.html
Squeezed by an India-China Standoff, Bhutan Holds Its Breath
HAA, Bhutan — India’s main garrison in the Kingdom of Bhutan sits only 13 miles from a disputed border with China. There is a training academy, a military hospital, a golf course — all testament to India’s enduring role defending this tiny Himalayan nation.
Earlier this summer, China began extending an unpaved road in the disputed territory, and India sent troops and equipment to block the work. The incursion has resulted in a tense standoff that has lasted more than 50 days, with Indian soldiers facing Chinese troops who have dug in just a few hundred yards away.
At a time when North Korea and the United States are trading threats of war, China and India — the world’s two most populous nations — have engaged in increasingly bellicose exchanges over this remote border dispute, evoking memories of their bloody conflict in 1962 as the world’s attention was focused on the Cuban missile crisis.
There are fears that ambition and nationalism could lead them to war again, but now with more firepower at their disposal. … …

***
Sierra Leone, the latest natural disaster; hundreds buried and missing by floods and mudslides — God save.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/world/africa/sierra-leone-freetown-mudslides-floods.html
‘This Is Too Much for Us’: Sierra Leone Deluged by Mud and Grief
DAKAR, Senegal — The bodies floated down the streets and piled up at the morgue, where the coroners struggled to find room for all of the dead.
An already devastating flood the day before produced even more anguish on Tuesday in Sierra Leone as residents of Freetown, the capital, dug through the mud in search of missing family members.
The Red Cross said hundreds of people had been killed and 600 were missing after torrential rains early Monday caused mudslides and transformed city streets into fast-moving rivers of muddy water, washing away everything in their path. … …

***

Praise God!

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-texas-permanently-bans-taxpayer-funding-of-abortion

BREAKING: Texas permanently bans taxpayer funding of abortion
AUSTIN, Texas, August 15, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed today a bill to restrict state funding for abortion insurance.
The new law will keep Texans from having to pay for elective abortions through their insurance plans.
"As a firm believer in Texas values I am proud to sign legislation that ensures no Texan is ever required to pay for a procedure that ends the life of an unborn child,” Gov. Abbott said. “This bill prohibits insurance providers from forcing Texas policy holders to subsidize elective abortions. I am grateful to the Texas legislature for getting this bill to my desk, and working to protect innocent life this special session.” … …

***
Imagine a battlefield over which huge robot eagles soar and glide, themselves picking human targets on which to suddenly swoop —

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/08/16/technology/microsoft-teaches-autonomous-gliders-to-make-decisions-on-the-fly.html?module=subsection_business
Microsoft Teaches Autonomous Gliders to Make Decisions on the Fly
(excerpt):  Cars, planes and other robots can now recognize the objects around them with an accuracy that rivals human sight thanks to the recent rise of neural networks, a term for mathematical systems that can learn certain tasks by analyzing vast amounts of data.
But that only gets them so far. To navigate the world on their own, they must also mimic the way humans intuitively predict what will happen next and adjust their behavior accordingly. Projects like those at Microsoft, Google and Berkeley are reaching in that direction.
***
(August 18)
“allahu akbar-of-the-day”/ week?/ month?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4799836/People-hurt-van-crashes-pedestrians-Barcelona.html
Mown down in the street: Scores are run over in ISIS van attack on Barcelona that killed THIRTEEN and injured more than 100 before suspect fled on foot

Thirteen people were killed and more than 100 hurt when a terrorist rammed a Fiat van into crowds of tourists
Harrowing footage from the attack in Barcelona shows dozens of bodies of dead and injured lying prone
The attacker fled on foot after the hired van came to a halt and he was unaccounted for early today said police
The man who hired the van was said to be 18-year-old Moussa Oukabir who used his brother's ID for the rental 
Two suspects, including Oukabir's brother Driss who handed himself in to police, were arrested for the attack
A man was shot dead as he rammed police at a roadblock nearby but that appears unconnected, say officials

***

Is Cuba using some kind of Star Wars’ clandestine weapon against US diplomats there?

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/u-s-hiding-key-details-mystery-attacks-american-diplomats-cuba/
U.S. Hiding Key Details of Mystery Attacks on American Diplomats in Cuba
Number of those affected by illness greater than government acknowledged
The number of U.S. government personnel targeted by a mysterious illness in Cuba last year is greater than the Trump administration has publicly acknowledged, according to multiple U.S. officials who told the Washington Free Beacon the Obama administration may have misled Congress about the full scope and nature of the attack.
U.S. officials disclosed earlier this month that six Americans were struck by a mystery illness believed to be caused by a covert sonic device in what many think was a clandestine operation targeting U.S. personnel stationed in the communist country…. …

***
Is truth, however painful at times, better than delusion?  Designer memories are coming…and false paradises.  Schwarzenegger’s TOTAL RECALL, from the early 90’s, posited that deep psychoses would only come from such methodologies.  But they will be the common traffic of Babylon’s Antichrist who will “buy and sell men’s souls” in Revelation 18:13.  I’ll save any purposeful memory erasure for God’s decision in my resurrection when true perfection and eternal bliss arrives…”when death (and fear) is swallowed up in victory.”
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/aug/17/memories-of-fear-could-be-permanently-erased-study-shows
Memories of fear could be permanently erased, study shows
The eternal sunshine of a spotless mind has come one step closer, say researchers working on methods to erase memories of fear.
The latest study, carried out in mice, unpicks why certain sounds can stir alarming memories, and reveals a new approach to wiping such memories from the brain. … …

***
The unfolding US political soap opera:  “deep state” insights and intrigues, strategists, fake news, globalist versus nationalist insurgencies in both directions, and even the viewpoint of the writer must be held in question.  Will “the last democracy” end in royal court intrigues and machiavellian destructions? Well hath the Lord spoken of “perplexity of nations” at the End of the Age.  It remains the duty of the saints to interfere in human affairs with prevailing watchfulness and prayer.

http://dailycaller.com/2017/08/17/bannons-time-is-up/
Bannon’s Time Is Up
Steven K. Bannon, the swashbuckling former Goldman Sachs banker and press baron of Breitbart news who calls himself “Chief Strategist” of Trump’s historic campaign, is in deep trouble within the Trump White House.
To be clear, I am not fan of National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster whose globalist views and hires are negating the foreign policy the President ran on.
I am one who had publicly defended Bannon from false charges of racism and anti-Semitism yet I have concluded he is a spent force, never being willing to spend his political capital to help his friends and in some cases helping empower the very Globalists he claims to oppose. … …
***

New US civil war?  about to be unleashed, guerrilla-style, in the streets and with street-fighting?  If the alt-right pursues evil and insurrection, is the “alt-left,” preparing for battle, any better?  What will be the level of government action, and can it also go off the track?  Are the “antifas” (anti-fascists) themselves fascists and organizers of their own brands of fascism?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/17/us/antifa-left-wing-faction-far-right.html
‘Antifa’ Grows as Left-Wing Faction Set to, Literally, Fight the Far Right
OAKLAND, Calif. — Last weekend, when a 27-year-old bike messenger showed up at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., he came ready for battle. He joined a human chain that stretched in front of Emancipation Park and linked his arms with others, blocking waves of white supremacists — some of them in full Nazi regalia — from entering.
“As soon as they got close,” said the young man, who declined to give his real name and goes by Frank Sabaté after the famous Spanish anarchist, “they started swinging clubs, fists, shields. I’m not embarrassed to say that we were not shy in defending ourselves.”
Sabaté is an adherent of a controversial force on the left known as antifa. The term, a contraction of the word “anti-fascist,” describes the loose affiliation of radical activists who have surfaced in recent months at events around the country and have openly scuffled with white supremacists, right-wing extremists and, in some cases, ordinary supporters of President Trump. Energized in part by Mr. Trump’s election, they have sparred with their conservative opponents at political rallies and college campus speaking engagements, arguing that one crucial way to combat the far right is to confront its supporters on the streets.
Unlike most of the counterdemonstrators in Charlottesville and elsewhere, members of antifa have shown no qualms about using their fists, sticks or canisters of pepper spray to meet an array of right-wing antagonists whom they call a fascist threat to American democracy. As explained this week by a dozen adherents of the movement, the ascendant new right in the country requires a physical response. … …

***
(August 19)
“allahu-akbar-of-the-day” —  Two dead, more injured in Finland as the demonic spirit of ISIS seizes a Moroccan teenager

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4272609/finland-attack-people-injured-stabbings-turku/
KNIFED IN THE MARKET Finland attack – knife rampage in Turku that left two dead was TERROR cops reveal…. as it emerges suspect is Moroccan teenager
Terrified witnesses recounted seeing blood splattered in the market square after the stabbing attack

***
Preparing for a guerrilla civil war in the streets of American cities?  I pray that Boston would be quieted this very day, Saturday the 19th.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/far-protests-leave-u-cities-scrambling-balance-safety-005018249.html
Far-right protests leave U.S. cities scrambling to balance safety, free speech
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cities across the United States are seeking ways to head off the kind of violence seen in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend when white nationalists and neo-Nazis clashed with counter-protesters over the planned removal of a Civil War-era statue.
As they step up efforts to pull such monuments from public spaces and brace for a right-wing backlash, municipalities are re-evaluating their approaches to crowd control, permits, weapon regulation and intelligence gathering.
White supremacists have been emboldened by statements from President Donald Trump. A potentially volatile demonstration with mostly right-wing speakers is set for Saturday in Boston, with other events coming in days ahead. … …
***

“Burning Man,”  the name says it all.  Hell’s children meet to party.  Not the place for Christians, even hip ones unless truly sent by the Spirit to witness and “pluck some from the fire.”  A decadent, bourgeois, post-hippie wannabe of stupified, entranced pagans with money to burn and nothing better to do.  Fool’s paradise.  Lord save some, before they are all burning like the giant wooden man they gleefully burn at the end of this yearly shenanigan.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/nyregion/bound-for-burning-man-but-first-the-costume.html
Bound for Burning Man, but First the Costume
Recently, the mannequins in the window of the Manhattan vintage shop Reminiscence traded their summer outfits for Sgt.-Pepper-style military coats with tassels and epaulettes, harem pants, platform boots, headdresses, goggles, and, perhaps most mystifyingly, bulky faux fur coats.
The reason was simple: Burning Man, an annual gathering that draws about 65,000 participants to the Nevada desert for more than a week, may be 2,750 miles away, but this time of year it is very present in New York at apartment sales, weekend bazaars, trunk shows, dance parties  and at the city’s costume, vintage and army surplus stores and even its sex shops, where shoppers assemble the elaborate outfits that are all but required on the Playa, as the gathering site is called.
“People used to come buy hippie stuff, and we didn’t know why,” said Joan Bedor, 61, who has worked for decades at Reminiscence, now near Union Square. “People kept coming and we began to focus on it. Now we know what to buy.”
She pointed out mirror-lens goggles, embroidered Indian skirts, metallic-hued booty shorts, parasols hanging from the ceiling, and a rack of fake fur coats — a Burning Man wardrobe staple for the cold desert nights. “This is all Burn stuff,” she said. … …

***
Tech giants: Serious problems with hypocrisy?  (Thanks, Matt Drudge, for pointing it out!)

In the U.S. —
https://www.apnews.com/3e725b8c8f62460cb71d576edc6ca61c
Facebook bans white nationalist’s accounts over hate speech
…but will not remove ISIS beheading videos and child porn in the UK…?
https://pjmedia.com/parenting/2017/04/13/facebook-refuses-to-remove-flagged-child-pornography-isis-videos/
Facebook Refuses to Remove Flagged Child Pornography, ISIS Videos

***
(August 20)
Pie-in-the-sky, really!  (Of all the Dystopian Insanities, now a floating, nursing sow of materialism will drop your every need right down on you, literally.) Sci-Fi horror of raining glut?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-18/wal-mart-s-amazon-war-takes-to-skies-with-floating-warehouses
Wal-Mart Applies for Patent for Blimp-Style Floating Warehouse
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has opened a new front in its battle with Amazon.com Inc.
The world’s largest retailer has applied for a U.S. patent for a floating warehouse that could make deliveries via drones, which would bring products from the aircraft down to shoppers’ homes.
The blimp-style machine would fly at heights between 500 feet and 1,000 feet (as much as 305 meters), contain multiple launching bays, and be operated autonomously or by a remote human pilot. Amazon was granted a patent for a similar vessel in April 2016. … …

***
Then said Jesus unto his disciples,
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall will lose it;
and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Matthew 16:24-26

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If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

August 13 

Saints,

Thank God for the many little refuges of peace where God guards his saints:  “Pray for all those in authority that we may live godly lives of peace and quiet.” (see 1 Tim. 2:1-2 and PRAY for our earthly leaders) but even in a quiet rural enclave nearby here, refugees stream across the border, from fear of US deportation, to flood Canada which is staggered by the inflow.

Below, a reporter records, “You will all be chipped.”  Major organ pig-parts for humans are at hand.  Elon Musk adds:  “In the end, the machines will win.”   Maranatha, in such a day as this, “Come, Lord Jesus!”

***
As the week unfolded —

(August 6)
Last week ends with terrorist turmoil at The Eiffel Tower — “allahu-akbar-of-the-day”

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-attack-eiffeltower-idUSKBN1AM0IP?il=0
France opens terrorism probe into knife-wielding man at Eiffel Tower: source

PARIS (Reuters) - French prosecutors launched a terrorism investigation after a man wielding a knife and shouting the Arabic phrase "Allahu Akbar" (God is great), tried to force his way in to the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Saturday night, a judicial source said.
The incident at the world-famous tourist landmark was designated a terrorism case because of the suspect's statements to police, in which he said he wanted to attack a soldier, and his apparent radicalization, the source said.
No one was injured in the incident that occurred around 11.30 p.m. (2130 GMT) on Saturday shortly before closing time, Eiffel Tower operator SETE said in a statement on Sunday.

***
(August 7)
A bizarre manifestation of the prophetic scripture, “It shall be as in the days of Noah when the Son of Man comes.”?  Elephant ivory, being protected to avoid extinction of elephants, turns Chinese art carvers to the vast repositories of mammoths in Siberia’s melting permafrost.  Mammoths are admitted by the writer as not that long extinct as the usual scenarios of “10s and 100s of million of years,” but were they left off the Ark because they were genetic modifications of elephants? …modifications by the Nephilim and Fallen Angels in the world before the Flood (as were the supposedly much more ancient dinosaurs too)?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/06/world/asia/china-elephant-mammoth-ivory.html?ref=todayspaper
Weaning Itself From Elephant Ivory, China Turns to Mammoths
NANJING, China — Environmentalists worried about the fate of Africa’s dwindling elephant population cheered when China announced a ban on the sale of commercial ivory last year, but an increasingly popular substitute is raising concerns of its own.
To sustain a carving and collecting tradition that is centuries old, many Chinese artisans have turned not to ivory from elephants but from the tusks of extinct mammoths harvested from an unlikely place: the melting permafrost of Russia’s Arctic. … …

***
(August 8)
Quickly repeating quakes…“earthquakes in diverse places”…?  The Titans Rumble?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4770660/Turkish-resort-hit-5-3-magnitude-earthquake.html
BREAKING NEWS: Turkish tourist resort is hit by another earthquake after powerful quake triggered a tsunami two weeks ago
	•	Earthquake with magnitude of 5.3 has hit southwestern Turkish town of Bodrum
	•	It was not immediately clear whether there were any injuries, authorities say
	•	Comes just weeks after tourists fled from Turkish and Greek resorts in the wake of another earthquake

***
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1455
School Officials Declare Playgrounds 'No-Jesus' Zones
A summit meeting has been called, likely as early as next week, to address a backlash after bureaucrats in an Australian state declared their public-school playgrounds "no Jesus" zones.
"It is hard to understand what is so dangerous about Jesus that the Queensland government has to ban children from talking about him, even at Christmas time," said Wendy Francis, the Queensland director for the Australian Christian Lobby.

"Are they worried kids will start living out the values of the Sermon on the Mount?" she asked, urging Education Minister Kate Jones to rescind the new pronouncement. …  …

***
(August 9)
How an amorphous, ungendered Beast deals with an upsetting opinion?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/08/technology/the-culture-wars-have-come-to-silicon-valley.html
The Culture Wars Have Come to Silicon Valley
The culture wars that have consumed politics in the United States have now landed on Silicon Valley’s doorstep.
That became clear this week after Google on Monday fired a software engineer, James Damore, who had written an internal memo challenging the company’s diversity efforts. The firing set off a furious debate over Google’s handling of the situation, with some accusing the company of silencing the engineer for speaking his mind. Supporters of women in tech praised Google. But for the right, it became a potent symbol of the tech industry’s intolerance of ideological diversity.
Silicon Valley’s politics have long skewed left, with a free-markets philosophy and a dash of libertarianism. But that goes only so far, with recent episodes putting the tech industry under the microscope for how it penalizes people for expressing dissenting opinions. Mr. Damore’s firing has now plunged the nation’s technology capital into some of the same debates that have engulfed the rest of the country. … …
The poles of the argument, an excerpt:
…At Google, Sundar Pichai, the chief executive, said in an email on Monday that Mr. Damore was fired for violations of the company’s code of conduct, specifically his perpetuation of “harmful gender stereotypes” in the workplace. Mr. Damore had argued that biological reasons might explain the underrepresentation of women in the tech industry, causing widespread outrage inside and outside Google. In his defense, Mr. Damore said he had a right to express himself and said he was considering legal action against Google for firing him.

Amy Siskind, president of the New Agenda, a women’s advocacy group, tweeted that Mr. Damore is “every white male Trump voter feeling threatened” that women and people of color, “if given an equal chance, will reveal his mediocrity.” …
Closing:  “What does it do to somebody when they feel like they literally can’t express themselves?” said Mr. Andreessen, a Facebook board member who backed Mrs. Clinton last year.

***
Another one by Wednesday morning —

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/09/french-soldiers-hit-vehicle-paris/
Paris attack: Police hunt BMW driver who mowed down six French soldiers
***
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-marijuana-hypertension-idUSKBN1AP0JS
Marijuana use holds three-fold blood pressure death risk: study
LONDON (Reuters) - People who smoke marijuana have a three times greater risk of dying from hypertension, or high blood pressure, than those who have never used the drug, scientists said on Wednesday.
The risk grows with every year of use, they said. … …
(The results showed marijuana users had a 3.42-times higher risk of death from hypertension than non-users, and a 1.04 greater risk for each year of use.) … …

***
Big Brother algorithmic psychoanalysis of your being through your internet activity and social media posts —

http://fortune.com/2017/08/08/instagram-depression-doctors-study/
The Way You Use Instagram Can Show if You’re Depressed
It's often said that eyes are a window into the soul. Instagram, it turns out, can be that window, too, as researchers say they've developed an algorithm that uses posts on the social media network to identify depression more effectively than doctors can.
Chris Danforth of the University of Vermont and Andrew Reece of Harvard University published their findings Tuesday in the EPI Data Science Journal.  The tool they built to scan Instagram posts, they said, could accurately identify depression in 70% of their study's participants. Doctors, on the contrary, are successful only 42% of the time. … …
***
Anti-trumpian style attacks leveled against Israel’s “present David” —

http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Netanyahu-I-wont-be-toppled-I-have-nothing-to-fear-501847
NETANYAHU: I WON'T BE TOPPLED, I HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects charges against him, slams the press and accuses Israel Katz of undermining leadership.

***
Whew!  Amazing jibber-jabber about jibber-jabber. Hold on tight for this ride! (Thank God we have his Word and our Faith granted to us for balance and leading in this life!) 
Let those who want to pontificate from “a loftier position” go on their way.  An essay:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/how-america-lost-its-mind/534231/
How America Lost Its Mind
The nation’s current post-truth moment is the ultimate expression of mind-sets that have made America exceptional throughout its history.
***
(August 10)
“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (the Beast, the Antichrist), whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb…And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:  And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark…” (see Revelation 13: 8, 16-17 and surrounding passages).  Note that even the writer here refers to “religious activists appalled” but does not state the plain truth, facts and details of our concerns about the Antichrist because of these verses about his universal, global literal mark of damnation on all of his followers…”the mark of the Beast.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2017/08/09/you-get-chipped-eventually/547336001/
You will get chipped -- eventually
LOS ANGELES — You will get chipped. It’s just a matter of time.In the aftermath of a Wisconsin firm embedding microchips in employees last week to ditch company badges and corporate logons, the Internet has entered into full-throated debate.
Religious activists are so appalled, they’ve been penning nasty 1-star reviews of the company, Three Square Market, on Google, Glassdoor and social media.On the flip side, seemingly everyone else wants to know: Is this what real life is going to be like soon at work? Will I be chipped? … …

***

A rugged war and propaganda zone develops between alt-right media (nationalists, conservatives, trumpists) and the new world order sponsored by tech giants.  This reporting is done by the NYTimes, heavily tilted also to progressive liberalism and the embrace of antichrist agendas (IMHO).  Note also, that alt-right conservatism, and any and all political conservatism must not be categorically conflated with biblical Christian Faith.  Political Conservatives may see and fear what is coming on the Earth and hold back from it (whilst many “progressives” run pell mell into hell), but many operate in their own profit-motive iniquities, etc.  The Gospel of Christ alone is the narrow way which leads to life.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/business/alt-right-silicon-valley-google-memo.html?contentCollection=business&version=highlights&contentPlacement=4&smtyp=cur
The Alt-Right Finds a New Enemy in Silicon Valley
When James Damore, a Google engineer, was fired this week  for writing a 10-page manifesto spelling out his grievances with the company’s progressive values and positing that biological differences explained the tech industry’s gender gap, it might have seemed like the end of a bizarre, short-lived morality tale.
But for the alt-right, the battle was just beginning.
Minutes after Mr. Damore’s firing was announced, a flurry of right-wing websites, message boards and social media cliques sprang into action, eager to paint the episode as another example of liberal political correctness run amok. A headline on Breitbart, the conservative news site, screamed in capital letters about “blacklists.” Users on Twitter and 4chan, the message board beloved by pro-Trump types, began to organize a boycott of Google’s services. Milo Yiannopoulos, the alt-right provocateur, called Mr. Damore’s firing “disgusting” in a Facebook post, and offered to help him land on his feet.
For alt-right activists, who occupy the rightmost flanks of a powerful conservative internet subculture, Google’s response to Mr. Damore’s memo was low-hanging fruit for mockery. But there is another reason that the alt-right’s opposition campaign appeared so quickly, with such well-practiced maneuvers. … …

***
(August 11)
The “Opioid Crisis” is nothing less than a NATIONAL MASS SUICIDE MOVEMENT in these days of torment in the End of the Age.  These souls, our friends and children, pour into a hell with no escape, no “nodding out” of false paradise left.  We, the believing church, must tell them and warn them.  There is really only one escape:  Cast your cares upon Christ and call for his deliverance.  Power though the dope may have over you, he can give you an instant deliverance or make withdrawal part of your cure and deliverance. That is his will and choice, but he will receive you if you call to him in truth.  You must also give yourself over to utter hatred of the poison, and give yourself to utter discipleship to the Master Jesus.  Nothing else will work.  Nothing else will suffice.  FENTANYL IS THE KEY OF DEATH, and even if you try to avoid it, it is mixed into much of the heroin, and in your death wish of addiction, you may even take it purposely in your cravings.  IT IS NOT WORTH ETERNAL HELL FROM WHICH THERE IS NO ESCAPE!
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/10/us/politics/opioid-trump-emergency.html
Trump Plans to Declare Opioid Epidemic a National Emergency
WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Thursday that he was preparing to officially declare the United States’ worsening epidemic of opioid overdoses as a national emergency, accepting an urgent recommendation from a national commission that he appointed.
“The opioid crisis is an emergency, and I’m saying officially right now it is an emergency,” Mr. Trump told reporters before a security briefing at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. “It’s a national emergency.”The president’s commission concluded last month that such a declaration was its “first and most urgent recommendation.” Led by Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, Mr. Trump’s one-time presidential rival, the commission said that such a declaration would help direct more resources and attention on the crisis plaguing communities across the country. … …

***
Oink!  CRISPR tech leaps to many advances.  How will “help with health” turn monstrous?  Will higher organs transplanted cause humans to develop some piggy characteristics?  Would it be better, speaking as a layman, to start organs in a genetic soup petri dish, of organ stem cells from the donor patient, and then put them into pigs as living nursery labs to grow them in?  What “Nephilim science” of confusion-of-kinds is rising from the Abyss?  (The Nephilim are the genetic products/offspring of the fallen angels’ distortion of created genomes in the world before the Flood, Genesis 6:4 et al.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/10/health/gene-editing-pigs-organ-transplants.html?mwrsm=GooglePlus
Gene Editing Spurs Hope for Transplanting Pig Organs Into Humans
In a striking advance that helps open the door to organ transplants from animals, researchers have created gene-edited piglets cleansed of viruses that might cause disease in humans.
The experiments, reported on Thursday in the journal Science, may make it possible one day to transplant livers, hearts and other organs from pigs into humans, a hope that experts had all but given up.
If pig organs were shown to be safe and effective, “they could be a real game changer,” said Dr. David Klassen, chief medical officer at the United Network for Organ Sharing, a private, nonprofit organization that manages the nation’s transplant system.
There were 33,600 organ transplants last year, and 116,800 patients on waiting lists, according to Dr. Klassen, who was not involved in the new study. “There’s a big gap between organ supply and organ demand,” he said.
Dr. George Church, a geneticist at Harvard who led the experiments, said the first pig-to-human transplants could occur within two years. … …

*** ***
(August 12)
Perplexity of nations?  Mass Confusion?  Global Anarchy — North Korea rants? American Confederacy resurrecting? Argentine bloody, starving chaos?
The Planet — A simmering cauldron?  “Hubble, Bubble, Toil, and Trouble” ? (Macbeth’s witches slightly misquoted by folk memory)

***
Will the United States intervene militarily in the civil war brooding in Argentina?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-won-t-rule-out-military-option-for-venezuela-1502490803
Trump Won’t Rule Out Military Option for Venezuela
‘Venezuela is a mess,’ president says
***
US racial unrest
http://www.wbrc.com/story/36117377/rebel-yell-southern-nationalists-again-crying-secede
Rebel yell: Southern nationalists again crying 'secede'
(Evening Update: One dead, many injured in Charlottesville riots car attack
Two more State Troopers die when an observing State Police copter crashes)
(August 13, early a.m.) NYTimes update:  
Alt-right nationalists adopt ISIS terror methodologies —
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/12/us/charlottesville-protest-white-nationalist.html
Car Hits Crowd After White Nationalist Rally in Charlottesville Ends in Violence
***
Pandemonium organized?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4780942/Military-officials.html
Thousands of North Korea's top military officials march in support of Kim Jong-un as Pyongyang warns it could 'reduce the U.S. mainland to ashes at any moment'
	•	Pictures have emerged of thousands of soldiers in organised lines during a rally in the heart of Pyongyang
	•	The military officials held the parade in a show of support for underfire North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un
	•	It comes after Donald Trump warned the country it faces 'fire and fury' if it continues to threaten America

*** ***
Google.  Got to use it to communicate, but, is it a high tech antichrist cult, a corpus of the Beast?  Like the Beast of Revelation 13, it won’t truck dissent (13:15). (Watch.  How fast will it swallow this news?)
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/11/fired-google-engineer-damore-says-company-is-like-a-cult.html
Fired Google engineer James Damore says company is 'like a cult'
	•	Damore was fired for writing a memo critical of the company's diversity programs.
	•	In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Damore used tougher language toward his former employer than he did earlier this week.
The Google engineer fired for writing a controversial memo about diversity has gone beyond referring to the company as an "echo chamber" that won't stand for dissent and now says it's "almost like a cult."
In an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, James Damore gave his explanation for why he was fired, taking a shot at the company's culture and its famous motto.

"For many, including myself," he wrote, "working at Google is a major part of their identity, almost like a cult with its own leaders and saints, all believed to righteously uphold the sacred motto of 'Don't be evil.'"
Damore was fired at the start of this week after 3 1/2 years as an engineer for a post he wrote, laying out his view that men are biologically more well-suited than women for many tech jobs.
He's not apologizing. … …
***
A propaganda puff-piece for “the majority view of Americans” on transgenderism and against “the hopeless throwbacks” that resist it.  A pathetic example of the power of semantics —
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/opinion/the-foolish-transgender-debate-in-texas.html
The Foolish Transgender Debate in Texas
While much of the nation appears to be adjusting to the transgender rights movement, social conservatives in the Texas Legislature — prodded by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican — continue their obsessive campaign to restrict the bathroom rights of transgender citizens.
They are fighting to the very end of the current special session, in the face of a storm of powerful opposition that ranges from the state’s Fortune 500 companies and business leaders to police chiefs, sports and tourism executives, concerned parents, and pastors in an evangelical community divided over the lack of basic charity underlying the anti-transgender legislation.
Even so, the State Senate passed Mr. Patrick’s restrictive measure last month mandating that transgender Texans use only those public bathrooms that match the sex on their birth certificates, not those matching the gender with which they identify. The measure also blocks moves by many sympathetic local governments to pass nondiscrimination laws that guarantee transgender people the right to use the bathrooms of their choice. (and blah…blah…blah /editorial comment!) … …

***
Wow!  Deep State X-Files.  Really, “the truth is out there”? Christ v. Antichrist? …sown into the deepest levels of human government?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/us/politics/rich-higgins-memo-national-security-council.html?mwrsm=LinkedIn
White House Aide Forced Out After Claim of Leftist Conspiracy
WASHINGTON — A cabal of leftist “deep state” government workers, “globalists,” bankers, adherents to Islamic fundamentalism and establishment Republicans are conspiring to remove President Trump and impose cultural Marxism in the United States, according to a former White House aide whose darkly worded memo detailing the alleged conspiracy got him removed last month from the National Security Council. … …  (ed. comment:  One should be well braced before considering this situation further.)
***
(August 13)
“IN THE END, THE MACHINES WILL WIN,” says Elon Musk, who is preparing to colonize Mars, and is saying the North Korean situation is nothing compared to the rise of AI.  Are we in fact already deeply into the “alien invasion” of Earth by means of the robots we are being inspired to build and activate?  Will the invasion look like Terminators with the face of Arnold Schwarzenegger? (joke!)  But the Beast Technology, and Image of the Beast, built to resemble the visage of the Antichrist himself(?), will rule the world and slaughter anyone who opposes it. (Rev. 13:15)

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/840182/ai-north-korea-elon-musk-artificial-intelligence-threat-trump-kim-jong-un-mars
Billionaire hoping to colonise Mars says AI is greater threat than North Korea
BILLIONAIRE Elon Musk has claimed that people should be more worried about Artificial Intelligence (AI) than the threat posed by North Korea.

The SpaceX founder, who is hoping to become the first man to establish a human colony on Mars, said humans should be “vastly” more concerned about robots taking over the world.
Mr Musk’s tweets come after Trump and Kim Jong-un continue to ratchet up fears of World War 3 with their foreboding rhetoric. The US President has threatened to unleash “fire and fury” upon Pyongyang, while the hermit kingdom has promised to strike the US-territory of Guam by mid-August.
Despite escalating world tensions, Mr Musk dismissed the imminent threat and tweeted: “If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea.”
In his tweet, he included a image of a framed picture of a worried-looking woman, with the bold, capped up words reading “IN THE END THE MACHINES WILL WIN”. … …

***
***
“For by grace are ye saved, through faith,
and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast.”
(Ephesians 2:8,9)

	

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If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

August 6 

Saints,

In a week somewhat quieter than many of late, we pause at rumors of war between India and China, and India and Pakistan.  Longstanding passions between these kings of the east always bubble to the surface in these present stalemates.  But, in another area of consideration, earthquakes also “bubble to the surface” literally in the midst of the US with a supervolcano under Yellowstone spewing quakes.  If it should gather the force and the steam to blow, half the country could be annihilated immediately and a nuclear winter could settle over the whole planet.  What times we live in!  But our comfort remains that God is not taken by surprise and is watching over and blessing his people until He allows the Age to end.   He restrains that we may remain until the time comes, and it remains near and at hand, when He must send Christ in the Second Coming to defeat all the works of the Devil, the Fall, and the fruits of Sin, to rescue the planet and the cosmos from all of our woes, and to set up his perfect Kingdom.  Praise His Name!

A few notes of the week —

(July 31)
Utter constitutional crisis in Venezuela, death resulting, as Venezuelans denounce vote to change constitution —

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/30/world/americas/venezuela-constituent-assembly-election.html?emc=edit_th_20170731&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Venezuela Vote Marred by Violence, Including Candidate’s Death
***

Since Peter’s and Paul’s New Testament visions and instructions, we no longer need to perform circumcision as a spiritual act, but it still has health benefits.  Likewise, we can now eat pork without sin, but we did need to learn not to serve it medium-rare like beef, which is kosher (approved by God), because of trichinosis which pigs carry but cows do not.  Leviticus (19:28) similarly forbids markings and ceremonial cuttings on the body, but, hopefully, these also are not unforgivable, but again there may have been valid health reasons for the commandment also.  God does not give us instructions that hurt us but that help us.  Bag getting tattooed; honor the temple of your body that God has entrusted to you; reap better health and strength as a blessing?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/26/well/move/how-tattoos-might-affect-your-workout.html?emc=edit_th_20170801&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
How Tattoos Might Affect Your Workout
Tattoos may permanently alter the physiology of skin in ways that affect sweating.
According to a small, new study, the amount and saltiness of sweat change after skin has been dyed, a finding that might have implications for athletes who ink large swaths of their bodies and maybe even for those of us who sport one or two discreet tattoos (such as the small one on my right shoulder, in case you were wondering).
Tattoos are decorative, often metaphoric, sometimes regrettable, but always injurious. To create a tattoo, the artist punctures the skin with dye-filled needles at a rate of up to 3,000 times per minute. The dye is injected into the skin’s dermal layer, which is also where most sweat glands are.The body recognizes these injections as abnormal. They have slightly damaged the tissue and left behind a foreign substance, the ink. So the immune system gears up, sending a variety of cells to the site of the inking. Some cells carry off tiny amounts of the ink, primarily to the lymph nodes, where it dissipates. Other immune cells merge with the remaining ink, so that both become long-term residents of that portion of the skin. Still other cells initiate an inflammatory response, helping the injured tissue to mend, which it usually does within a few weeks.As anyone who watches sports knows, tattoos are popular with athletes. By some estimates, at least half of male collegiate and professional basketball players have tattoos that cover much of their chest and arms. The incidence seems to be high among football and soccer players and many other athletes as well.
But no one had studied whether tattoos might in any way affect the physiology of the skin and, in particular, the operation of the sweat glands. That possibility matters, since normal, healthy sweat glands are important for athletes (and everyone else). We cool our bodies in large part through sweating. Sweating also releases sodium and other electrolytes. … …

***
(August 3)
NYTimes Quote of the Day—
On the raging tide of CRISPR breakthroughs:  The one camp is evolutionary atheism, the other camp is those who look to a Creator.

“If you’re in one camp, it’s a horror to be avoided, and if you’re in the other camp, it’s desirable.”
DR. HANK GREELY, director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford, on so-called germline engineering, changes made to an embryo that are inheritable.

***
Pope not happy with conservative American Catholics—
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/02/world/europe/vatican-us-catholic-conservatives.html?emc=edit_th_20170803&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
A Vatican Shot Across the Bow for Hard-Line U.S. Catholics
VATICAN CITY — Two close associates of Pope Francis  have accused American Catholic ultraconservatives of making an alliance of “hate” with evangelical Christians to back President Trump, further alienating a group already out of the Vatican’s good graces.

The authors, writing in a Vatican-vetted journal, singled out Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, as a “supporter of an apocalyptic geopolitics” that has stymied action against climate change and exploited fears of migrants and Muslims with calls for “walls and purifying deportations.”

The article warns that conservative American Catholics have strayed dangerously into the deepening political polarization in the United States. The writers even declare that the worldview of American evangelical and hard-line Catholics, which is based on a literal interpretation of the Bible, is “not too far apart’’ from jihadists. … …

***

(August 4)
The Slaughter of the People of Mexico — Open, bloody-murder war continually. This alone should end any doubt about the evil of drugs.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/04/world/americas/mexicos-drug-killings.html?emc=edit_th_20170804&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Mexico’s Deadliest Town. Mexico’s Deadliest Year.
(excerpt):  Mexico is reaching its deadliest point in decades. Even with more than 100,000 deaths, 30,000 people missing and billions of dollars tossed into the furnace of Mexico’s decade-long fight against organized crime, the flames have not died down. By some measures, they are only getting worse.

***
(August 6)
At a time when ye think not, sudden destruction…

http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/837120/Yellowstone-supervolcano-to-BLOW-1400-earthquakes
Fears that deadly Yellowstone supervolcano about to BLOW after 1400 earthquakes hit
YELLOWSTONE volcano has been struck by 1,400 earthquakes in recent weeks, leading to fears that the supervolcano is ready to blow and WIPE OUT life on Earth.
Seismic activity around the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, US, is not uncommon, but the heaviest swarm in half a decade has people very concerned.
Since June 12, there has been over 1,400 tremors in the region, and experts state that the swarm could go on for another month.
The Yellowstone Caldera supervolcano last erupted 70,000 years ago but a spike in seismic activity around the national park has unsettled nerves.
If the Wyoming volcano were to erupt it would kill an estimated 87,000 people immediately and make two-thirds of the USA immediately uninhabitable. The as the large spew of ash into the atmosphere would block out sunlight and directly affect life beneath it creating a “nuclear winter” and threatening ALL life on earth. … …

***

Before the mountains were brought forth, 
or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, 
even from everlasting to everlasting, 
thou art God.
Psalm 90:2

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July 30  

Saints,

The “sciences” of the technology of the New World Order seem to be threatening humanity from many angles, from upset Muslims under high-tech surveillance on the Temple Mount, to the breakouts in marking and chipping humans, through the soon-to-be creation of gene-altered humans, through the discoveries of unknown DNA sources in varied humanity groups —“footprints of the Nephilim”?

To laugh at our foibles though, cosmic radio signals portending the arrival of aliens in many tekkie imaginations turn out to be the chatter of our own satellites!  Yet, we face a time when we seem to be squeezing the very divinely-given life out of our own humanity.  One of the reasons the Lord Jesus must come soon is to keep us from destroying ourselves and our given planet as the prophet John notes in Revelation 11:18.  “Come, Lord Jesus!”  Our world writhes in apocalyptic birth pains and many mortal agonies.

As the week ends, we see Venezuela tottering on the brink of civil war or radical leftist slavery, and at least two ISIS incidents, “attacks of the day,” occur in Europe this week.  American politics remain in embroiled ineffectuality and “perplexity of nations” spans the globe.
The peace of the saints, that “passes understanding” is in the Person and the Presence with us of our Lord Jesus.
***

Some events and issues of the week —

(July 24)
Temperatures rising —

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/23/jerusalem-clashes-israel-holy-site-security
Israel refuses to remove metal detectors from mosque despite rising violence

Israeli officials have said they will not remove metal detectors from outside a Jerusalem mosque, despite their installation triggering rapidly escalating confrontations with Palestinians. Amid a mounting toll of deaths and injuries in the crisis, Israelis and Palestinians are braced for weeks of confrontation, as both sides appeared to dig in to their positions.In addition to the metal detectors, Israel has also began installing sophisticated security cameras at one of the entrances to the compound housing the al-Aqsa mosque, known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif and revered by Jews as the Temple Mount.Security officials told Israeli media the cameras were intended to complement the metal detectors, not replace them. … …
The heat worries the world —
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/23/world/middleeast/israel-aqsa-mosque-metal-detectors-palestinian.html
Mosque Crisis and Jordan Attack Raise Fears of Escalating Violence in Israel
(excerpt):  Envoys of the so-called Quartet of Middle East peacemakers, made up of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, issued a statement on Saturday urging all sides to “demonstrate maximum restraint, refrain from provocative actions and work toward de-escalating the situation.”

***
“…and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark…” (Rev. 13:17)
http://kstp.com/news/wisconsin-company-to-implant-microchips-in-employees-three-square-market/4549459/
Wisconsin Company To Implant Microchips In Employees

A Wisconsin company is about to become the first in the U.S. to offer microchip implants to its employees.
Yes, you read that right. Microchip implants.
"It's the next thing that's inevitably going to happen, and we want to be a part of it," Three Square Market Chief Executive Officer Todd Westby said. 
The company designs software for break room markets that are commonly found in office complexes.
Just as people are able to purchase items at the market using phones, Westby wants to do the same thing using a microchip implanted inside a person's hand.
"We'll come up, scan the item," he explained, while showing how the process will work at an actual break room market kiosk. "We'll hit pay with a credit card, and it's asking to swipe my proximity payment now. I'll hold my hand up, just like my cell phone, and it'll pay for my product." … …

***
and…

http://newatlas.com/delta-airport-boarding-fingerprint/50588/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=65d04116f9-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-65d04116f9-91592265
Delta allows passengers to board flights with a fingerprint
Biometrics are poised to play a larger role in airport security, with facial recognition to replace passports in Australia and the US and France looking into similar solutions. Delta is onboard with this kind of thinking, so to speak, and from today is allowing some passengers to board flights using nothing but their fingers. … …

***

ET phone home?  It appears the alien radio signals seemingly from Ross 28, a red dwarf star 11 light years away, are actually from our own satellites…an in-house call! Ha!

http://newatlas.com/weird-radio-signal-satellite/50593/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=65d04116f9-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-65d04116f9-91592265
ET not responsible for mystery stellar radio signals after all
Back in May, the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico detected strange radio signals coming from Ross 128, a red dwarf star 11 light-years away. After closely analyzing the data with the help of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project, the team has now revealed what they believe to be the source of the signals – and it's bad news for little green men hunters … …

***
Last week’s blog, Sweden; now, the UK. arguing that Christians and their Bibles need to be reprogrammed to accept LGBTetc. —
http://prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1417
U.K. Gov't Demands 'Queer Theology' In Christian Seminaries
An executive agency of the United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth Office has issued a report recommending that seminaries include "queer theology" in their courses and that even Sunday schools teach "LGBTI beliefs."
The stunning document, released by Wilton Park, an agency of the Foreign Office, also recommends that the Bible be reinterpreted "to make it compatible with LGBTI ideology."

The Barnabas Fund, an organization that supports persecuted Christians worldwide, was surprised and more than a little worried.
"The recommendations, if implemented, would massively reverse freedom of religion across the globe," the group said.
"Once it is accepted that any ideology can be imposed on those who hold conscientious disagreement with it, a very significant backward step has been taken both in relation to i) Freedom of Religion or Belief and ii) human rights generally." … …

***
(July 25)
When evolutionists use the term “ghost species” because they haven’t found remains/examples of the DNA ancestor yet, they may be hitting closer than they realize, and many of the seeming human anomalies may be the results of the fallen angels (spirits > ghosts) experimenting on humans with genetic engineering, and with mixing whatever they themselves have for DNA into the human genetic lines (Jude 6, “they left their first estate”).  Before the Flood, this resulted in the Nephilim (Gen. 6:4), part fallen angel, part human, and perhaps even part animal, but this experimentation, likely on a smaller scale after God’s first worldwide judgment with the Flood, began to occur again afterwards too (Numbers 13:33) and with the reported giants in the promised land, from Arba from whom the past and present day town of Hebron in Israel gets it name, on down to Goliath at the time of David, circa 1000 BC.  Goliath and his brothers were mutant humans, not only giant in size but some also possessing 6 digits on each hand and foot.

Evolutionists just don’t know what they are talking about and finding, and they probably mean bestiality with this headline speculation, or an advanced hominid mating with a less developed one, but are they seeing the fruit of the satanic rebellion even if they don’t know what it really is?
Of course, whatever the status of the Nephilim and genetic manipulation, and however it will play out as the Age ends, we are All still the “monsters” of Sin, both our own and of Original Sin, and only Christ’s work and shed Blood can remove its stains and twisted aberrations.  Thank God for the Gospel of Christ!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/science/news/article.cfm?c_id=82&objectid=11894688
Ancient humans had sex with non humans
New research shows that ancient humans had sex with non human species.
According to a study conducted by Omer Gokcumen, an assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of Buffalo, ancient humans had intercourse with a "ghost species" of "proto human".
Gokcumen explains that humans are only one member of a broader species named "hominins".
The research found that humans had sex with other members of the hominins group.
Gokcumen found "wildly different" genes in DNA of humans living in Sub-Saharan Africa. He believes these genes can be traced back to about 150,000 years ago when ancient humans were breeding with this mysterious "ghost species".
This other species is referred to by the scientific community as a "ghost species" as there are no known fossils that can be analysed.
"It seems that interbreeding between different early hominin species is not the exception - it's the norm," Gokcumen said, quoted by the Sun.
"Based on our analysis, the most plausible explanation for this extreme variation is archaic introgression - the introduction of genetic material from a 'ghost' species of ancient hominins."

***
Israel caves to Palestinian-Arab pressure on metal detectors on the Temple Mount —
http://legalinsurrection.com/2017/07/israel-capitulates-to-palestinian-terror-to-remove-metal-detectors-at-temple-mount/
Numerous news sources are reporting that the Israeli security cabinet has agreed to remove metal detectors place at entrances to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem after a terror attack killed two Israeli policeman using weapons hidden at the al-Aqsa Mosque. … …

***
“Water, Water, Everywhere!”  The long-thought dry-as-dust cosmos is full of water!  “And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.” (Genesis 1:7)
http://newatlas.com/wet-moon-interior-water/50601/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=4f501c2079-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-4f501c2079-91592265
Just how wet is the Moon's interior?
Scientists had thought our Moon to be mostly free of water up until around a decade ago. However, studies are starting to trickle in that suggest our satellite may be much wetter than we realized. The latest example has drawn on satellite data to uncover volcanic deposits spread out across its surface that contain surprising amounts of trapped water. … …

***
(July 27)

CRISPR comes to US embryos.  “Germline Modification” means changes introduced continue into future offspring:  “Humans 2.0.”  Of course, all initial work here is “for good,” but the potential for monstrously altered “humans” is also at hand.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608350/first-human-embryos-edited-in-us/
First Human Embryos Edited in U.S.
Researchers have demonstrated they can efficiently improve the DNA of human embryos.

The first known attempt at creating genetically modified human embryos in the United States has been carried out by a team of researchers in Portland, Oregon, Technology Review has learned.
The effort, led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of Oregon Health and Science University, involved changing the DNA of a large number of one-cell embryos with the gene-editing technique CRISPR, according to people familiar with the scientific results.
Until now, American scientists have watched with a combination of awe, envy, and some alarm as scientists elsewhere were first to explore the controversial practice. To date, three previous reports of editing human embryos were all published by scientists in China.
Now Mitalipov is believed to have broken new ground both in the number of embryos experimented upon and by demonstrating that it is possible to safely and efficiently correct defective genes that cause inherited diseases.
Although none of the embryos were allowed to develop for more than a few days—and there was never any intention of implanting them into a womb—the experiments are a milestone on what may prove to be an inevitable journey toward the birth of the first genetically modified humans.
In altering the DNA code of human embryos, the objective of scientists is to show that they can eradicate or correct genes that cause inherited disease, like the blood condition beta-thalassemia. The process is termed “gremlin engineering” because any genetically modified child would then pass the changes on to subsequent generations via their own germ cells—the egg and sperm.
Some critics say germline experiments could open the floodgates to a brave new world of “designer babies” engineered with genetic enhancements—a prospect bitterly opposed by a range of religious organizations, civil society groups, and biotech companies.
The U.S. intelligence community last year called CRISPR a potential “weapon of mass destruction.” … …

***
“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast…” (Rev. 13:15)
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/googles-deepmind-creates-an-ai-with-imagination
Google's DeepMind creates an AI with 'imagination'
The AI firm is developing algorithms that simulate the human ability to construct plans

Google's DeepMind is developing an AI capable of 'imagination', enabling machines to see the consequences of their actions before they make them.
In two new research papers, the British AI firm, which was acquired by Google in 2014, describes new developments for "imagination-based planning" to AI.
Its attempt to create algorithms that simulate the distinctly human ability to construct a plan could eventually help to produce software and hardware capable of solving complex tasks more efficiently.
DeepMind's previous research in this area has been incredibly successful, with its AlphaGo AI managing to beat a series of human champions at the notoriously tricky board game Go. However, AlphaGo relies on a clearly defined set of rules to provide likely outcomes, with relatively few factors to consider.
"The real world is complex, rules are not so clearly defined and unpredictable problems often arise," explain the DeepMind researchers in a blog post. "Even for the most intelligent agents, imagining in these complex environments is a long and costly process."
Its attempt to create algorithms that simulate the distinctly human ability to construct a plan could eventually help to produce software and hardware capable of solving complex tasks more efficiently.
DeepMind's previous research in this area has been incredibly successful, with its AlphaGo AI managing to beat a series of human champions at the notoriously tricky board game Go. However, AlphaGo relies on a clearly defined set of rules to provide likely outcomes, with relatively few factors to consider.
The researchers have developed "imagination-augmented agents" (I2As) – a neural network that learns to extract information that might be useful for future decisions, while ignoring anything irrelevant. These I2As can learn different strategies to construct plans, choosing from a broad spectrum of strategies. … …

***

(July 28)
American ambassadorial oversight recognizing civil war status of Venezuela?
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-usa-departure-idUSKBN1AC3GM
U.S. orders family members of Caracas embassy staff to leave Venezuela
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department on Thursday ordered family members of U.S. government employees at the American embassy in Caracas to leave Venezuela ahead of a weekend vote that has sparked violent protests.The department said in a statement it also authorized the voluntary departure of U.S. government employees at the Caracas embassy.
***
Pray! Pray! Pray!  That God will keep America from lurching deeper into the sodomite debaucheries, directing our leaders not to err or misstep, and preserving our country from destruction until the believing Church is caught up.  May God also deliver many young seductees from the fates of Sodom.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/27/us/politics/white-house-lgbt-rights-military-civil-rights-act.html?emc=edit_th_20170728&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
In One Day, Trump Administration Lands 3 Punches Against Gay Rights

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration abruptly waded into the culture wars over gay rights this week, signaling in three separate actions that it will use the powers of the federal government to roll back civil rights for gay and transgender people.
Without being asked, the Justice Department intervened in a private employment lawsuit on Wednesday, arguing that the ban on sex discrimination in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not protect workers on the basis of their sexual orientation. The friend-of-the-court brief, filed at the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York, was a striking shift in tone from the Obama administration, which had shied away from that question.
The move ended a day that began with a tweet from President Trump announcing a ban of transgender people serving in the military, surprising Pentagon leaders and reversing a year-old Obama administration policy.
Also on Wednesday, Mr. Trump announced that he would nominate Sam Brownback, the governor of Kansas and a vocal opponent of gay rights, to be the nation’s ambassador at large for international religious freedom.
The constellation of events raised alarm among gay rights advocacy groups, which portrayed the moves as a concerted effort to limit advancements in gay rights.
“Yesterday was this administration’s anti-L.G.B.T. day,” James D. Esseks, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender & HIV Project, said on Thursday. “Whether coordinated or not, to have it all happen on the same day certainly brings into focus the profoundly anti-L.G.B.T. agenda of this administration.” … …
***
“For then shall be great tribulation,
such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time,
no, nor ever shall be.”
(Jesus in Matthew 24:21)

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July 23  

Saints,

We may have many good teachers, and in their place in the spiritual church, they have great purpose in going before us in experience and anointing.  The office “elder” was first just a recognition of the need for listening to those with more experience, “the older.”  But Saint John, speaking in the place of the Lord says, “ But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and you need not that any man should teach you: but the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.” (1 John 2:27)  

A problem for the church of this Age is that there are also many false teachers and many who lift themselves up for great fame and money with impressive and intricate words and studies and insights.  Surely, we are to hunger and thirst for the deeper and deeper things of God, but we must resist snares set for us along the way, and remember what Paul also said,  “And I brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.  For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1 Cor. 2:1, 2) 

There is in each of us who have been converted to the Lord an anointing of the Holy Spirit by which we may have “a check in our spirit” against false teachings.  We must not be lazy with this, and it is our duty to search out the Word when we perceive such challenges, but it is there if we will use it, and even the simplest of Christians may stand secure in the assurances of the Gospel if he but will.  Sometimes, it may seem unfair that both those “deceiving and being deceived” are similarly condemned (2 Timothy 3:13), but even the simplest and newest Christian has an inner defense of the anointing of the Holy Spirit if only he or she will diligently apply it and seek the Lord and the Word.

Lord, keep us so close to you that we may be found pleasing in your sight, that we may hear the best and only reward needed when Eternity arises, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

***

The prophetic week in part — (“For we see through a glass darkly” — and catch only a little of what is happening.) —

(July 16)
The first present-day, publicly announced monsters appear.  Genetic manipulation (from the doctrines of the Nephilim before the Flood?) arises (again?).  “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man.” (See photos.)

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/828981/China-genetic-engineering-super-soldiers-dogs
China unveils gene technology to create SUPERHUMANS with hyper-muscular test-tube dogs
ARMIES of SUPER-SOLDIERS were a step closer to reality today after China announced it was genetically engineering hyper-muscular SUPER-DOGS.
The dogs, which are test tube bred in a lab, have twice the muscle mass of their natural counterparts and are considerably stronger and faster.
The canine genome has been especially difficult to engineer and replicate – but its close similarity to the human genome means it has long been the prize of geneticists.
Now the Chinese success has led to fears the same technology could be used to create weaponised super-humans - typified in Marvel Comics by Captain America and his foes. … …

***
Turning living DNA into the ultimate data storage drive?
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608268/scientists-used-crispr-to-put-a-gif-inside-living-dna/?utm_source=MIT+Technology+Review&utm_campaign=b2988cc3aa-weekly_roundup_2017-07-13_edit&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_997ed6f472-b2988cc3aa-154047005&goal=0_997ed6f472-b2988cc3aa-154047005&mc_cid=b2988cc3aa&mc_eid=d3e9ebfe16

Scientists Used CRISPR to Put a GIF Inside a Living Organism’s DNA
Harvard researchers embedded images in the genomes of bacteria to test the limits of DNA storage.

***
(July 17)
Sweden, thy name is Sodom.

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1390
Church of Sweden To Force All Pastors To Perform Same-Sex Weddings
The Church of Sweden, already known as among the most liberal in the world, will soon be requiring all its pastors to perform marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples. 

This comes as the Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven pledged his support for a proposal to use government power to force the change. 

According to PM Lofven, "no priest in the Swedish Church can refuse to marry same-sex couples" no matter their theological or moral objections, and in the future only pastors who support homosexual marriage will be eligible to be ordained. … …

***
Resisting the Invasions of the Online Robots —

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/15/opinion/sunday/please-prove-youre-not-a-robot.html
Please Prove You’re Not a Robot

(excerpt):   …There may be room for deputizing private parties to hunt down bad robots. A simple legal remedy would be a “ Blade Runner” law that makes it illegal to deploy any program that hides its real identity to pose as a human. Automated processes should be required to state, “I am a robot.” When dealing with a fake human, it would be nice to know. … …

***
(July 18)
Pure racism and sexism on the alt-left?

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/13/feminist-geographers-dont-cite-research-white-men/
Feminist geographers encourage colleagues not to cite research of white men
Two feminist geographers are encouraging their colleagues to be more mindful about citing the research of white males because doing so contributes to “the reproduction of white heteromasculinity of geographical thought and scholarship.”
Writing in “Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography,” Carrie Mott and Daniel Cockayne argue that considering an author’s gender, race or sexuality prior to citation can be an effective “feminist and anti-racist technology of resistance that demonstrates engagement with those authors and voices we want to carry forward.” … …

***

The average human body, though fallen, is meant to be active, bright, and lively…to serve the needs of living this life, but extreme exercise, though it may win Olympic medals and incur hero-worship, comes with longterm costs of bodily harm and post-youthful lives lived out often in much pain  and shortening of life overall.  Sometimes, these excesses are very near to worshipping the body, but the cost for it can be much harm and early death.  This is not a popular notion, but it is one that should be considered for the happiest life: Tune the body, discipline it, but it is not yet an eternal instrument. “For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” (1 Timothy 4:8)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/well/move/as-workouts-intensify-a-harmful-side-effect-grows-more-common.html?smtyp=cur
As Workouts Intensify, a Harmful Side Effect Grows More Common
Three years ago, Christina D’Ambrosio went to her first spin class, pedaling fast on a stationary bike to the rhythms of popular music as an instructor shouted motivation.
But Ms. D’Ambrosio, who exercises regularly, found the hourlong class was harder than she anticipated. By the end her legs were sore and wobbly.
“I thought my body just wasn’t used to that kind of muscle ache because it was my first class,” said Ms. D’Ambrosio, a kindergarten teacher from Pleasantville, N.Y.
Over the next two days, her legs throbbed with excruciating pain, her urine turned a dark shade of brown, and she felt nauseated. Eventually she went to a hospital, where she was told she had rhabdomyolysis, a rare but life-threatening condition often caused by extreme exercise. It occurs when overworked muscles begin to die and leak their contents into the bloodstream, straining the kidneys and causing severe pain. … …

***
(July 20)
California burns —

https://www.yahoo.com/news/california-wildfire-explodes-size-blazes-scorch-u-west-045144385.html
California wildfire explodes in size as blazes scorch U.S. West
MARIPOSA, Calif. (Reuters) - A wildfire that has forced thousands of Californians to flee their homes exploded in size on Wednesday, threatening a picturesque gold rush town outside Yosemite National Park as dozens of blazes scorched the U.S. West.
More than 2,000 firefighters have contained just 7 percent of the Detwiler Fire, which is approaching the town of Mariposa and tiny communities in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, the Cal Fire state agency said on its website.
The blaze has mushroomed to 48,000 acres (19,424 hectares), an increase of about 23,000 acres (9,307 hectares) compared with the day before. The fire has destroyed 29 structures and is threatening some 1,500 more structures, local media reported.
Firefighters are facing "extreme and aggressive fire behavior" with solid walls of flame and sparks from the main blaze setting spot fires in grasslands, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said. … …

***
More personal wages of “Big Pharma”?  KJV version translates the Greek word “pharma” as “sorcery.”  Band-Aids from the “drugstore/pharmacy” are not sorcery but anti-depressants, misused opioids, and suchlike mental meds are; side effects may harm the body as well as the mind and soul, and here are even thought to pass on mental birth defects to the child of the depressed user.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/07/19/taking-antidepressants-pregnancy-may-raise-risk-autistic-child/
Taking antidepressants in pregnancy may raise risk of an autistic child, study suggests 
Mothers who took antidepressants during pregnancy may be putting their children at risk of autism, a new study suggests.
Researchers at the University of Bristol found that the children of women who took pills in pregnancy were 41 per cent more likely to be autistic.
However the absolute risk is still small, rising from 2.9 in 100 children to 4.1. … …
***
In a “biblical nutshell,” the Temple Mount is the site of next Temple which will be the seat of the Antichrist who commits “the abomination of desolation,” declaring himself to be the messiah in the Holy of Holies of this Temple.  Prophecy watchers continue to wonder, can it be built while the Al-Aqsa Mosque remains on the site, or must something destroy/move/remove the mosque first? 

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/US-very-concerned-by-Temple-Mount-tensions-500198

U.S. 'VERY CONCERNED' BY TEMPLE MOUNT TENSIONS

WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration is "very concerned" at the sight of growing tensions on the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, where security has been tightened since a terrorist attack last week.
"The United States is very concerned about tensions surrounding the Temple Mount/Haram Al-Sharif, a site holy to Jews, Muslims, and Christians, and calls upon the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to make a good faith effort to reduce tensions and to find a solution that assures public safety and the security of the site and maintains the status quo," White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in a statement on Wednesday night. "The United States will continue to closely monitor the developments." … …

***
The word “transgender” barely existed in public consciousness until a year or so ago when such as the NYTimes began to use it “in every other sentence.”  It is sad that some feel such pain at their “dysphoria,” but it is a manufactured mental condition and promoted epidemic of our Age when God’s gender assignments are despised, and it is made a “civil right” to mentally, culturally, socially change genders.  It is part of the Sodom of the last days, as Jesus said, “It shall be as in the days of Lot” (Luke 17:28) when time for his return.

(Actually, gender is sown into the intricacies of the DNA code and cannot really be physically changed by hacking and changing body parts.  God will not be mocked.)

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2017/07/19/transgender-tool-kit/
Minnesota’s Proposed ‘Transgender Tool Kit’ For Students Causes A Stir

***
Spiritual Insanity?  A children’s book espousing witchcraft touted as a route to be “born again” ?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/07/19/harry-potter-and-the-sacred-text-podcast-draws-non-believers-who-find-meaning-in-magical-fiction/?utm_term=.18ce014060d7
‘Harry Potter and the Sacred Text’ podcast draws non-believers who find meaning in magical fiction
Mark Kennedy grew up a Catholic, and a Harry Potter fanatic. Only one stuck.

“I considered myself a non-spiritual person,” he said. He thought he was done with religion. And then he stumbled on the podcast “Harry Potter and the Sacred Text.”
The podcast told him that the Harry Potter series — the books that he always turned to for solace when he was angry or stressed or in need of an escape — could be a source of spiritual sustenance.
“I feel like I’m born again,” he said.

On Tuesday night, Kennedy came to an event space at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in the District with hundreds of fellow fans of the podcast, who have found a surprising spirituality in the magical fiction series, which turns 20 years old this year.

Hosted by Harvard Divinity School graduates Casper ter Kuile and Vanessa Zoltan, the podcast “Harry Potter and the Sacred Text” became the number-two podcast in America on iTunes soon after it debuted last summer. It has inspired face-to-face Potter text reading groups, akin to Bible study more than book club, in cities across the country. In Harvard Square, ter Kuile and Zoltan host a weekly church-like service for the secular focused on a Potter text’s meaning. … …

***

The excerpt cited is the very casting of a cunning spell and a deep, implicit threat against Bible belief—

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1405
Pope Proxies Compare U.S. Christians To Terrorists
(excerpt):
They say "fear" is what characterizes "fundamentalism."

"It is fear of the breakup of a constructed order and the fear of chaos," they write. "Indeed, it functions that way thanks to the chaos perceived. The political strategy for success becomes that of raising the tones of the conflictual, exaggerating disorder, agitating the souls of the people by painting worrying scenarios beyond any realism. Religion at this point becomes a guarantor of order and a political part would incarnate its needs. The appeal to the apocalypse justifies the power desired by a god or colluded in with a god. And fundamentalism thereby shows itself not to be the product of a religious experience but a poor and abusive perversion of it."

***
(July 21)
Titans Rumbling?  Three Big Quakes in recent days —

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/
July 17 — 7.7, off Russian coast
July 18 — 6.4, off Peruvian coast
July 20 — 6.7, Turkish and Greek coasts; casualties, tsunami generated, power outages, tourists stranded with popular coastal cities and towns hit hard.

***

Persecution of Christians in Western culture underway by wealthy sodomite activists

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1410
Gay Activists Look To 'Punish' Christian Conservatives For Resistance To LGBT
(excerpt):
…So, when Tim Gill says he wants to "punish" Christian conservatives who do not affirm LGBT activism, you can take him seriously.

I understand, of course, that for him this is a matter of equality, and in his mind, he is fighting against discriminatory practices and laws.

For him, this is a matter of fairness and justice, and so we who oppose LGBT activism are "wicked" people who should be "punished." When your worldview is upside down, that is a logical conclusion.

Those who believe a child should have a mother and father are the KKK. Those who cannot participate in a same-sex "wedding" are Nazis. Those who don't want a biological boy sharing a locker room with their daughter are transphobic bigots. And obviously, the KKK and Nazis and bigots are wicked people, and wicked people deserve to be punished. Such is the logic of LGBT activism.

I just returned from Ontario, where a child can be taken from his or her parents and raised by others if the parents do not affirm the child's perceived gender. And throughout Canada, you can be penalized for not using a person's preferred gender pronoun.

Here in the States, CBN News reports that, "California is on its way to passing a new law that makes it illegal to call transgender senior citizens a pronoun they don't like.

For example, if an elderly person who was born male and lives in a long-term care facility wishes to be called 'her' or 'she,' the workers there had better do it or face the consequences.  The proposed law would even apply to Christian facilities." … …

***
(July 22)
The latest rounds of violence escalate over the Temple Mount —

https://news.search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AwrTcd3VGXNZ8M0AvTsPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTByNWU4cGh1BGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--?p=Deadly+Violence+Erupts+in+Standoff+Over+Mosque+in+Jerusalem&fr=yhs-adk-adk_sbnt&fr2=cosmos&hspart=adk&hsimp=yhs-adk_sbnt
Deadly Violence Erupts in Standoff Over Mosque in Jerusalem
JERUSALEM — Six people were killed on Friday in an outbreak of violence that erupted over Israel’s placement of metal detectors at entrances to the sacred Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem and spread to the West Bank.
Three Israelis were killed in what appeared to be a terrorist attack in a West Bank settlement hours after three Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli security forces. … …

***
Riddle of the week: The cop who shot the yoga instructor and now won’t give a statement.  Hand wringers wonder why.  Answer may be simple:  check his first name.
***

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, 
whose mind is stayed on thee: 
because he trusteth in thee.
(Isaiah 26:3)

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July 16  

Saints,

The rate of change continues to boggle the human mind.  Apparently, this is part of the plot.  Daniel in wonderful understatement said of the events of the end, “Knowledge shall increase.”  Provisions for the reign of Antichrist seem to be full and burgeoning off the shelves.  There are now dozens of high tech, fully internet accessible, ways to print the mark of the Beast on and in human flesh.  Many other categories of tribulation-tech and moral vomit stalk the planet.  And confusion and mayhem, both of humans and in nature, are full and flowing over.  Daily, mostly men, “pop” under the pressures and kill and kill and kill.  “Lone wolves,” initially inspired by ISIS seem to operate under every kind of “inspiration” beyond the original inspiring by ISIS.  It seems “pandemonium,” literally “all the demons,” is loosed on the planet and in its many societies.  Humanity writhes in “birth pangs.”

Yet, absolutely nothing takes God by surprise, nor is even able to occur until He permits.  Paul said of Antichrist (paraphrase): “…you know what withholds (God the Holy Spirit) that he (the antichrist) might be revealed in his time.  For the mystery of iniquity (anomos > the “different,” the replacement or “anti-law” of antichrist) does already work; only he (God, the Holy Spirit in the believing church) who restrains will restrain, until he be taken out of the way (until God catches up the believers, removing the Holy Spirit from the Earth, and allowing the 7 year Tribulation to begin). 2 Thess. 2.

Recently, June 25 blog, I linked a story on CERN the supercollider that said scientists there were presently “stuck in a rut” in terms of unlocking cosmic secrets.  CERN, some believe, may be the Key to the Abyss, a stargate that will open to flood the Earth with apocalyptic filth and gore, but if so, here we may see an example of God’s withholding hand.  “Not until I say,” says He there in Thessalonians through Paul.

So, hating the sin and filth, we nonetheless watch the signs as the Lord Jesus often instructed us to do.  Even the wise virgins of Matthew 25 tired and fell asleep, dazed, but they made preparations to keep their lamps lit as they watched for the bridegroom to come.  Though we may tend to faint under the pressure, may God’s grace keep us watchful and ready in heart in these days.

God save those perishing in floods in Illinois in this morning’s breaking news (https://ca.news.yahoo.com/thousands-illinois-homes-swamped-flood-waters-rivers-keep-183755144.html) and assaulted by sinkholes in Florida and guide those who call on Him out of the way of the flames advancing through the western states.

God save!

***

The Week —

(July 11)
Hell-on-Earth Warnings of Judgment?  (Lord Jesus, please spare those who will call on you. Turn, O Lord, many to you through these terrible events.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/10/us/western-wildfires.html
Wildfires Spread Across at Least Six States and Canada
Wildfires rolled across dry terrain in the Western United States and through a region of Canada, fueled by lightning, whipping winds and temperatures in the triple digits that have fanned the flames across parched lands.
The National Weather Service early on Monday issued red flag warnings, signaling critical conditions over the next 24 hours, for regions in at least six states. In some areas, firefighters have been battling fires for a week, trying to keep them from spreading across roads and churning through dry vegetation near populated areas. … …

***
Confusion among puppets? (Follow-up on July 2nd’s blog link on this story)

https://www.algemeiner.com/2017/07/10/award-winning-journalist-who-broke-story-of-jewish-women-barred-from-chicago-dyke-march-removed-from-reporting-duties/
Award-Winning Journalist Who Broke Story of Jewish Women Barred From Chicago ‘Dyke March’ Removed From Reporting Duties
An award-winning journalist who broke the story of the group of Jewish women ejected from an LGBTQ march in Chicago last month has been reassigned to non-journalistic duties at the paper which ran the original report, the Windy City Times.
Gretchen Rachel Hammond — whose June 24 story caused a national storm after she detailed how three women flying Jewish Pride flags embossed with the Star of David were instructed to leave the gathering by organizers from the Dyke March Collective — confirmed to The Algemeiner on Monday that while she was still employed by the paper, she was not presently engaged in its reporting and writing operations.
“At this time, I have not been fired from Windy City Times, but I have been transferred to working full time for the sales department,” Hammond explained in an emailed statement. “The reasoning is an internal matter and I have been instructed not to comment about it even to close friends. Given my present situation, I must comply with this instruction.”

***
(July 12)
“And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb…” (Rev. 6:16)
“And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.”  (Isaiah 2:16)

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/super-rich-buying-apocalypse-safe-bunkers-protection-natural-disasters-nuclear-attack-kansas-us-a7833641.html
The super-rich are buying luxury apocalypse-safe bunkers for protection against natural disasters and nuclear attack

***

Working in the savage world of Facebook takedown ops— (deleting videos of actual murders, suicides, perversions, acts of terror from social media posts)

https://www.thelocal.de/20170711/the-first-beheading-video-made-me-weep-a-day-in-the-life-of-facebook-moderators
'No more faith in humanity': A day in the life of Berlin Facebook moderators

***

On becoming “the Beast”? (or cyborg “nodes” of the Beast)

http://newatlas.com/darpa-brain-computer-interface-investment/50445/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=50ec75be20-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-50ec75be20-91592265

DARPA backs 6 brain-computer interface projects

***
(July 13)
Alternate life-form consciousness becoming familiar, “Alexa?”  (a silicon “familiar” spirit?).  An anecdotal look—

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/style/alexa-amazon-echo.html
‘Alexa, Where Have You Been All My Life?’
Siri is so five years ago: How a sleek, smooth-talking cylinder from Amazon stole ourhearts, bamboozled our spouses and enchanted our children.
The other day, a newly single friend confessed that lately she had found herself not just chatting up Alexa, Amazon’s crisp-voiced domestic bot, but also looking forward to her responses. “That’s a road,” she said darkly, “you don’t want to be heading down.”
I know how she feels. Come evening, Alexa may tell me that she isn’t sure if she missed me, but her winking green glow, like the pitch of a dog’s ears, is its own kind of welcome. After a disquieting day, how nice to be greeted by a creature, digital or otherwise, that lights up at your approach.
Since her introduction in November 2014, Alexa has neither devolved into the malevolent intelligence predicted by Arthur C. Clarke nor ascended to the metaphysical eroticism promised by Spike Jonze (by way of Scarlett Johansson). Instead, she has assimilated as a kind of ideal roommate, with none of the challenges of an actual human. … …
***
In recent blog posts, I have mentioned new computerware that will allow video and audio clips of anyone made to convincingly say/do anything.  Here’s a sample, using Mr. Obama as the victim.  With these, any reality can be manufactured.  Talk about “fake news”!  Video and audio can be synchronized, words altered, or aged audio tuned up to sound like the present speaker, etc.  See the sample videos.

The only upside to this potential catastrophe of being “framed” is “infinite deniability,” citing the powers of the software to alter the recording of reality.  But what could manipulation of mass media do in the meantime? incite a nuclear attack as response to a falsified speech by a world leader?  etc.,…a worldwide panic with an updated version of Orson Wells “The War of the World’s” broadcast of 1938?  …holographic images of a fake Second Coming by antichrist?  What a day when fake and real can be seamlessly blended!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/07/12/scarily-convincing-fake-video-tool-puts-words-obamas-mouth/
Scarily convincing fake video tool puts words in Obama’s mouth
A computer program that can edit videos of people speaking to realistically make it look like they said something else has been created, raising fears of clips being tampered with online. 
Researchers at the University of Washington have lip-synced a video of former US president Barack Obama using the program to superimpose new audio onto the clip. 
The realistic results put words in Obama's mouth by converting audio sounds into mouth movements and blending them onto an existing video of speech. … …

***

Unfortunately, many of these big time televangelist types may be heretical minions of the spirit of antichrist.  Let every true believer take seriously the need to pray for our secular, earthly leaders lest they also be led astray by such false showmen and women.  Lord God, drive our leaders to their knees before you, and keep them from deceptions by antichrist charlatans.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4688194/Evangelical-pastor-prays-Donald-Trump-Oval-Office.html
Praying for the President: Evangelical pastor shares image of prayer circle laying their hands on Donald Trump's back in the Oval Office

***

“So likewise ye, 
when ye shall see all these things, 
know that it is near, 
even at the doors.”
Matthew 24:33

************************************************************
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July 9  

Saints,

Our mad world trundles on from one lurch, tragedy, insanity to another.  Except for Christ’s restraint for the Tribulation to begin, there is already massive outbreak of hell on earth in nearly any “department” of consideration, even the literal fires and heat assaulting the west of our country in a fire season that only now intensifies but never seems to end.  May God use us to help “pull others from the fire,” be it actual flame or the insanities of urban wars and G20 demonstrations or psilocybin tripping religionists and their psychobabbling, “scientific” observers.  

Maranatha!  Come, Lord Jesus! Protect us and help us to be overcomers!

***
The week —
(July 3)
Could chemical contraception itself be changing not only our mores and our society, but also our bodies and our very beings? if it’s doing this to fish, what’s it doing to humans?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/02/fish-becoming-transgender-contraceptive-pill-chemicals-flushed/
Fish becoming transgender from contraceptive pill chemicals being flushed down household drains
A fifth of male fish are now transgender because of chemicals from the contraceptive pill being flushed down household drains, a study by has suggested. … …

		***

(July 4)
Jefferson? noble or antichrist? both at the same time?  The dangers of pacified, humanistic religion —
He made his own Bible, clipping out everything he didn’t like.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/04/opinion/thomas-jeffersons-bible-teaching.html?emc=edit_th_20170704&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Thomas Jefferson’s Bible Teaching
It was an article of Thomas Jefferson’s faith that no government should interfere in anyone’s private religious beliefs. A passionate student of history, Jefferson knew that religious struggles through the ages had caused “rivers of blood” to flow all over the world. … …
***
disneylandish witchcraft, dominion of fools, pied pipers leading entranced souls down to hell.  Real witchcraft is simply the studied knowledge of rebellion against God and his authority (witch>wicca = knowledge or hidden knowledge; craft = skill), and the real witches don’t use or need costumes.  But the end for all adherents is death, the grave, and the lake of fire.  Repent, sister; women of the Almighty God have no need or desire for your tricks and spells.  And placing hexes against God’s authority will only turn the same spells back on your own heads: “magick kingdom” > tragic kingdom

http://www.thedailybeast.com/these-modern-witches-want-to-cast-a-spell-on-you
These Modern Witches Want to Cast a Spell on You

***
(July 5)
“…rumors of wars”?  “Little” revolutions / CIVIL WARS (?) now stalk the Western Hemisphere as guerrilla violence, drug gang warfare, attacks on government — rage in cities.
http:www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-july-fourth-weekend-violence-roundup-met-20170704-story.html
Violence leaves about 60 shot, 8 of them dead, for July 4th weekend
Dozens of people were struck by gunfire in Chicago, some of them fatally, during the traditionally violent Fourth of July weekend, mostly in parts of the South and West sides that have long been plagued by gang crime and gun violence.
From Friday afternoon through Tuesday afternoon, about 60 people were shot with eight of them killed, according to data kept by the Tribune. … …
(Update on Chicago, July 6): If this isn’t a war, what is it?
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-july-4-weekend-shootings-violence-20170705-story.html
Chicago police express frustration after more than 100 shot in violent Fourth of July weekend

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-security-app-idUSKBN19P2C3?il=0
Brazil apps track gunfire as Rio de Janeiro violence spikes
Gun violence is on the rise in Rio de Janeiro, with the sound of firefights echoing daily across Brazil's seaside city as drug gangs battle each other and police officers patrolling slums.
Now a pair of applications track in real-time how many gun battles there are and where they occur, based on eyewitnesses, media and police accounts.
The "Fogo Cruzado," or Cross Fire, application created by Amnesty International and local researcher aims to let Rio's citizens know where gunfire is taking place, in the hopes of keeping them out of danger. … …

https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuela-govt-backers-attack-lawmakers-congress-165635225.html
Venezuela govt backers attack lawmakers in congress
Caracas (AFP) - Dozens of pro-government activists stormed into the grounds of Venezuela's National Assembly Wednesday and attacked lawmakers, leaving several hurt and bleeding. … …

***
May the Lord direct to spare these Christians from being given to the ISIS devil.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/04/us/iraqi-christians-deport.html?emc=edit_th_20170705&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&mtrref=undefined&gwh=D27E86C31801669C5F44817B65FF54BF&gwt=pay
After Backing Trump, Christians Who Fled Iraq Fall Into His Dragnet
STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. — A few Sundays ago, federal immigration agents walked through the doors of handsome houses here in the Detroit suburbs, brushing past tearful children, stunned wives and statuettes of the Virgin Mary in search of men whose time was up.
If the Trump administration prevails, more than 100 of these men may soon be deported, like the tens of thousands of other people rounded up this year as part of a national clampdown on illegal immigration.
But the arrests may have stunned this community more than most.
While President Trump was hurling verbal napalm at Mexico and vowing to keep out Muslims during his campaign, he was also promising to look out for people from these men’s besieged corner of the world.
They are Christians from Iraq — a land that they and their families fled decades ago because, they say, to live as a Christian in Iraq is no life at all, and sometimes means death. They settled in Detroit and its suburbs, accumulating into what may now be the largest population of Chaldean Christians in the world. They opened businesses, founded a dozen Chaldean Catholic churches and rose in numbers and wealth. … …
***
(July 6)
In the very nest…

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/vatican-police-break-up-gay-10743972
Vatican police 'break up gay orgy' at home of one of Pope Francis' advisors
The flat belonged to the Holy Office - which is in charge of tackling sexual abuse amongst the clergy
***
The Wonderful Counselor
 
Psalm 16:7
I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.      NIV

     I can echo those words of David. I know what it is to have access to the Lord’s counsel. I value the counsel of the Lord above that of all human wisdom. I’ve proved so many times in my own experience that the Lord’s counsel is reliable.

     Later, in the book of Isaiah, the Lord is described as a wonderful counselor, a counselor who is on a level higher than that of human wisdom, human insight, or human knowledge. I’m so glad that I have access to the Lord’s counsel.

     And I can echo, too, those words that David utters in the next line: “Even at night my heart instructs me.” So many times when I have an unresolved problem and I go to sleep and commit it to the Lord, in the night the Lord awakens me. And in the innermost depths of my heart, in the stillness of the night, with that still, small voice, He speaks to me. He shows me the answer to that problem. Oh, it’s so good to know that you have access to the counsel of the Lord when you’ve come to the end of your own ability, when you’ve reasoned everything out and it doesn’t make sense. When you’re at an impasse in your life and you don’t know which way to turn.

     Remember, the Lord is the wonderful counselor. Go to Him, commit it to Him and in His own wonderful way He will show you the answer.
																								 —Derek Prince
***

bereancall.org “Daily Update” for July 4
 Christians can never sin cheaply; they pay a heavy price for iniquity. Transgression destroys peace of mind, obscures fellowship with Jesus, hinders prayer, brings darkness over the soul; therefore be not the serf and bondman of sin.
C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892, pastor, preacher, writer)

***

Ancient technology surpassing present knowledge —

http://newatlas.com/roman-concrete-stronger-seawater/50343/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=5508de4e5d-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-5508de4e5d-91592265

Just add seawater: Ancient Roman concrete gets stronger over time
Leave modern concrete structures in the ocean, and a few decades later they'll be in need of replacing, or at least a serious patch job. Meanwhile, ancient Roman concrete is still standing strong after thousands of years, and not only does it resist damage, but the salt water actually makes it stronger. X-ray examinations have found the key to the mixture's incredible longevity, which could help improve modern recipes. … …
***
Uruguay, an officially stoned state? Ho Hum bureaucracy to run the mill; official acceptance/management of a chemically pacified populace?  Brave New World’s Aldhous Huxley saw it coming.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/in-uruguays-marijuana-experiment-the-government-is-your-pot-dealer/2017/07/07/6212360c-5a88-11e7-aa69-3964a7d55207_story.html?utm_term=.3d2972bec640
In Uruguay’s marijuana experiment, the government is your pot dealer
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — In coming weeks, cannabis-seeking citizens in this small South American nation will be able to walk into a pharmacy and buy government-approved marijuana for the state-mandated price of $1.30 a gram. No questions asked. No doctor’s note required.
If that sounds like an attempt to create a stoner republic on the South Atlantic, would-be tourists should know a few things.
Uruguay is the world’s first country to fully legalize the production, sale and consumption of marijuana. But under its strict rules, there will be no Amsterdam-style smoking cafes, and foreigners won’t have access to the national stash. 
Nor will there be shops selling ganja candies, psychedelic pastries or any of the other edible derivatives offered in pot-permissive U.S. states such as Colorado and Washington, where entrepreneurial capitalism fertilizes the United States’ incipient marijuana industry.
Instead, Uruguay’s government has developed a legalization model whose apparent goal is to make marijuana use as boring as possible. A vast regulatory bureaucracy will determine everything from the genetic makeup of the plants to the percentage of psychoactive compounds in their flowers. … …

***

So far, it’s not really a man but a wannabe man, but what’s next? Also, plans are afoot to sew harvested (cadaver) wombs into men wanting to be women.  How sad for the fruits of these wombs if it works!

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3972232/britains-first-pregnant-man-gives-birth-to-baby-girl/
MAN HAS BABY British man, 21, makes history by giving birth to baby girl thanks to sperm donor he found on Facebook

***

(July 9)
Timothy Leary, likely now “tripping” in hell, would be proud if he were not by now also horrified in his own eternal judgment.  Chemically induced mystical experiences are tools of the spirit of antichrist, and their revelations are false, falling instantly into the category of causing the “Ye are gods” powerful delusion of Satan.  As baby Christians of the Jesus Movement era, escaping from the early waves of psychedelia in our culture, used to say, “LSD, Lucifer’s Satanic Delusion.”  These poor religionists know not the living God, but may He, by the very powerful mortal feelings and fears, psychoses, and paranoia these things can cause when a trip goes bad, yet deliver some of them to the foot of the Cross.  Amen.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jul/08/religious-leaders-get-high-on-magic-mushrooms-ingredient-for-science
Religious leaders get high on magic mushrooms ingredient – for science

A Catholic priest, a Rabbi and a Buddhist walk into a bar and order some magic mushrooms. It may sound like the first line of a bad joke, but this scenario is playing out in one of the first scientific investigations into the effects of psychedelic drugs on religious experience – albeit in a laboratory rather than a bar.
Scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore have enlisted two dozen religious leaders from a wide range of denominations, to participate in a study in which they will be given two powerful doses of psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms.
Dr William Richards, a psychologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland who is involved in the work, said: “With psilocybin these profound mystical experiences are quite common. It seemed like a no-brainer that they might be of interest, if not valuable, to clergy.”… …
***
On the first night of the G20 riots, demonstrator’s carried signs saying, “Welcome to hell.”  On the second night, they sought to fulfill them.  Anarchy:  hate everybody and hate everything.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/08/world/europe/protests-hamburg-germany-group-of-20.html?smtyp=cur
‘Everybody Went Totally Mad’: 2nd Night of Violence in Hamburg
(excerpt):
“Everybody went totally mad after that — the police and the people,” Ms. Lamm said. “When they started to destroy the shops, the police went in along with the special forces, who were stronger.”

***
“These things I have spoken unto you,
that in me ye might have peace.
In the world ye shall have tribulation:
But be of good cheer;
I have overcome the world.”
(The Lord Jesus in John 16:33)

**********************************************************
If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

July 2  

Saints,

This week I begin with and feature an open letter to Bernie Sanders by Guy Page, compatriot in the Faith here in Vermont, also from those now distant days of the Jesus Movement; former editor and publisher of the Colchester Chronicle, for the third largest town in the state (and other publications), and current lobbyist for state concerns in Montpelier, our Capital.  See also my June 18 issue, where also citing brother Guy, I openly wonder, “Has Bernie gone outright antichrist?”  Vermonters, without regard for political stance, tend to like Bernie for his forthrightness and integrity, but denying Jesus and full respect for his message isn’t something we can just let slip by.  Clarify and/or Repent Bernie.

June 10, 2017  Hello Senator Sanders:
 
I don't know if you remember me. I founded the North Avenue News, and you came to my office at the Colchester Chronicle for an interview the year you ran for the House. As mayor several years earlier, you supported my efforts to ban smoking in Burlington public places. I used to play basketball with Levi in South Park (he was a good shot but a bit of a gunner!). But before all that, circa 1983 you stood in the pulpit at the inaugural service of my church at the time, North Avenue Alliance Church, and graciously welcomed the congregation to our new home. A year or two earlier I voted for you in your first mayoral win.
 
I offer this context because although our paths have not often crossed since you went to Washington, we know many of the same people, have driven the same streets, and care about many of the same things. Often I have admired and spoken to others of your integrity, even though our politics and world views differ.
 
I would never suggest that your personal theology (agnostic?atheist?) makes you unworthy for public service. The Constitution and common decency forbid it. So I am concerned of your June 7 Senate Budget Committee interrogation of Deputy Director OMB candidate Russell Vought about his Christian theology. After repeatedly demanding if he believes Muslims are “condemned”, and interrupting his efforts to answer, you said you would not support him, and added "I would simply say, Mr. Chairman, that this nominee is really not someone who this country is supposed to be about." 
 
I hope that since then you have realized the Constitutional error of excluding Americans from public service based on their religious beliefs. It is a central tenet of historic Christianity that individual salvation from universal judgment and condemnation is received through faith in Christ alone. According to biblical doctrine, a person's religion - Jewish, Moslem or any other religion - is not condemned, but rather the person’s sin; only repentant faith in Christ delivers one after death unto eternal life.
 
Perhaps you were concerned that affirming divine condemnation of sin might lead to persecution of minorities in the American "here and now." I look around and see that ignorance, hatred and fear, not theology, are responsible. I hope you will publicly affirm the Constitution’s protection for all Americans to believe and express their religious beliefs about eternal condemnation and salvation, without fear of government disapproval or sanction. The Framers lived in the shadow of two centuries of bloody European religious wars. I’m sure they passed the First Amendment and Article Six with a hopeful sigh of relief. It would be most unfortunate if some of your many idealistic followers act on your words and seek, now and in the years to come, to turn Christians into second-class citizens, remembering your words that they are “really not someone who this country is supposed to be about.” 
 
Thank you for your attention, and I look forward to your reply.
 
Guy Page

(If you want to receive Guy’s weekly State House Headliners, email Brother Page at pagecommunications4vt@gmail.com" )

***
Prophetic News of the Week —

(June 25)
Welcome to the Matrix — lives lived in enhanced realities — maybe by iPhone 10?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-10-years-your-iphone-wont-be-a-phone-anymore-1498395600
In 10 Years, Your iPhone Won’t Be a Phone Anymore
Siri will be the conductor of a suite of devices, all tracking your interactions and anticipating your next moves

It’s 2027, and you’re walking down the street, confident you’ll arrive at your destination even though you don’t know where it is. You may not even remember why your device is telling you to go there.
There’s a voice in your ear giving you turn-by-turn directions and, in between, prepping you for this meeting. Oh, right, you’re supposed to be interviewing a dog whisperer for your pet-psychiatry business. You arrive at the coffee shop, look around quizzically, and a woman you don’t recognize approaches. A display only you can see highlights her face and prints her name next to it in crisp block lettering, Terminator-style. Afterward, you’ll get an automatically generated transcript of everything the two of you said. … …

***
(June 26)
What an excellent thing to do: Pray to God, and guess what, they made it back alive and in one piece! …even through 90 harrowing minutes with vibrations like a washing machine on spin with an unbalanced load!  Thank you, Lord!
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/25/asia/air-asia-flight-turns-back-technical-issue/index.html
Pilot urges prayers as 'technical issue' forces turnaround
***

Orthodox (means literally “right teaching” in Greek > ortho = right; dox/doctrine = teaching)…Orthodox Jews maintain ancient order — not a matter of inequality among humans but of honoring God’s order.  The Temple has different gathering places for women and for men, and yet different places for the priests apart from the non-priestly men, and only the high priest could enter the most inner sanctum, the Holy of Holies, and that only on certain occasions with certain preparations.  These things were instructive models given by God to man, and were also means of showing Him honor and worship as our Creator.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/israel-freezes-plan-mixed-sex-jewish-prayer-western-135032710.html
Israel freezes plan for mixed-sex Jewish prayer site at Western Wall
***
(June 27)
God save and protect your people in America from the evils of the sodomite agenda.   Please bless and protect the Court when it honors you and guide it into your righteousness. Amen.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/26/us/politics/supreme-court-wedding-cake-gay-couple-masterpiece-cakeshop.html?emc=edit_th_20170627&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Justices to Hear Case on Religious Objections to Same-Sex Marriage
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear an appeal from a Colorado baker with religious objections to same-sex marriage who had lost a discrimination case for refusing to create a cake to celebrate such a union.
The case will be a major test of a clash between laws that ban businesses open to the public from discriminating based on sexual orientation and claims of religious freedom. Around the nation, businesses like bakeries, florists and photography studios have said, so far with little success, that forcing them to serve gay couples violates their constitutional rights.
The Supreme Court’s decision, expected next year, will again take the justices into a heated battle in the culture wars. On one side are gay and lesbian couples who say they are entitled to equal treatment from businesses that choose to serve the general public. On the other are religious people and companies who say the government should not force them to choose between the requirements of their faiths and their livelihoods. … …

***
“The Shadow Brokers” (what a great name for a conspiracy of fallen angels! … and maybe they are behind these pawns/brokers/hackers)… strike and hack the globe this day.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/27/technology/ransomware-hackers.html
New Cyberattack Spreads in Europe, Russia and U.S.
Computer systems from Russia to the United States were struck on Tuesday in an international cyberattack that bore similarities to a recent assault that crippled tens of thousands of machines worldwide.
As reports of the attack spread quickly, the Ukrainian government said that several of its ministries, radiation monitoring at the Chernobyl nuclear facility, local banks and metro systems had been affected. A number of companies — including the Danish shipping giant Maersk; Rosneft, the Russian energy giant; Saint-Gobain, the French construction materials company; and WPP, the British advertising agency — also said they had been targeted.And in the first confirmed cases in the United States, Merck, the drug giant, confirmed that its global computer networks had been hit, as did DLA Piper, the multinational law firm.

It remains unclear who is behind this cyberattack. Like the WannaCry attacks in May, the hack on Tuesday takes over computers and demands digital ransom from their owners to regain control.
“We are urgently responding to reports of another major ransomware attack on businesses in Europe,” Rob Wainwright, executive director of Europol, Europe’s police agency, said on Twitter.
Computer experts were calling the virus Petya, and said that it was similar to the WannaCry attack, which spread quickly across much of Asia and Europe. Others cautioned, however, that it could be yet another type of ransomware.
At least nine European countries had been targeted in the latest attack, said Dan Smith, an information security researcher at Radware, a cybersecurity firm. “I first saw reports of this attack around 8 a.m. Eastern time coming from Ukraine, but it’s too early to tell who’s behind this,” Mr. Smith said.
Researchers at the computer security company Symantec said the new attack was using the same hacking tool created by the National Security Agency that was used in the WannaCry attacks. Called Eternal Blue, the tool was among dozens leaked online last April by a group known as the Shadow Brokers. The N.S.A. has not acknowledged its tools were used in WannaCry or other attacks. … …
***
(June 28)
Civil War continues to lurch to life in Venezuela?  Will modern civil wars be terroristic, guerrilla actions, erupting from within and in the streets, with factions arising in the government and police and army, unlike the first Civil War in America where armies met on battlefields?  Here, is Chicago in something like a beginning action with all of Illinois drug down by it?

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-attack-idUSKBN19J02O
Venezuela says Supreme Court attacked from helicopter
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday that a police helicopter had attacked the Supreme Court in Caracas but a grenade tossed at the building did not explode.
Speaking on state TV, the 54-year-old president, who has been facing three months of opposition protests and some dissent from within government ranks, said that Venezuelan special forces were after the "terrorists" behind the attack. … …
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-bad-is-the-crisis-in-illinois-it-has-14-6-billion-in-unpaid-bills-1498590946
How Bad Is the Crisis in Illinois? It Has $14.6 Billion in Unpaid Bills
Two years without a budget has left a mammoth past-due backlog, with hospitals, dentists and university towns feeling the pain

***
More Reaction to Orwell Now — (see last blog issue too)
https://heatst.com/culture-wars/nineteen-eighty-gore-people-are-throwing-up-fainting-and-screaming-at-george-orwell-play-on-broadway/
Nineteen Eighty-Gore! People Are Throwing Up, Fainting and Screaming at George Orwell Play on Broadway
1984 was never going to have a breezy rom-com vibe on Broadway.  But the adaptation of George Orwell’s 1949 dystopian classic, which opened late last week in New York, is generating queasy responses from some audience members.
Some of them have been throwing up, fainting and screaming at the play’s extreme torture scenes, perpetrated by the totalitarian regime dedicated to suppressing critical dissent.
A scene in the show where rebel Winston Smith (played by Tom Sturridge) is terrorized with a wire cage that contains two large rats is causing special distress.

Security guards are now positioned throughout the entire Hudson Theatre, and just before opening night, the production began barring anyone under 13 years old from attending.
Star Olivia Wilde, who plays Winston’s fellow resistance member Julia, told Heat Street at the opening: “It [1984] contains some anxiety and if people are already on edge, it intensifies that. This is such a rare immersive experience for the audience that it’s causing this kind of reaction.”
She added: “We’re hopefully allowing people to contextualize everything that they’re experiencing every day. There’s a lot of rage, fear and confusion, and sometimes art is the way we find perspective during these times. It feels intense because I know the audience is consuming it from a very specific state of mind.”
1984 directors Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan are well-prepared for the reaction, having previously staged the play multiple times in London. Macmillan said: “There has always been an extreme audience reaction to the more extreme bit of the show. And there have always been people who have a very strong panicked, fainting reaction to it in the same way there would be on a good rollercoaster ride.
“There are some people who love the thrill of it and people who for whom it’s a bit much.”

Wilde referred to Trump as an “imbecile,” and added, “Orwell repeated in the book we should never have trusted the Party, and I believe that many people who voted for Trump are feeling that now and it’s tragic and unfair to them.”
But the directors added that despite the Trump Presidency being the catalyst for the show coming to Broadway and the President and Sean Spicer being used in adverts, they didn’t want 1984 to be perceived as being a leading component of the resistance.
Icke said: “It’s a book that has been claimed by the left and the right and they’re both right. Our job is not to let our own political ideology get in the way of Orwell.
“It’s a classic not because it’s an attack on a potential futuristic socialist government and not because it’s an attack on a right-wing totalitarian stripping away of rights. It’s about that doublethink of carrying contradictory thoughts simultaneously.”… …

***
The sick hypocrisy of progressive, leftist (but anti-semitic), LGBTQQ…ad nauseum, “intersectionalism.”  If ISIS ever got the upper hand, the lesbians and gays would be the first ones to be put on the chopping block.  What entranced stupidity.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/27/opinion/im-glad-the-dyke-march-banned-jewish-stars.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_ty_20170628&nl=opinion-today&nl_art=8&nlid=69381998&ref=headline&te=1
I’m Glad the Dyke March Banned Jewish Stars
***
(June 29)
The Fruits of Confusion — “transgenderism”

find links @ (Charlie Butts, "Transgenders are perfectly normal...until they sue?," OneNewsNow Online, 5/25/17)
bereancall.org / “Today’s Update” for June 28
A 36-year-old man who claims to be a woman filed suit against a Cabela's sporting goods store in Hamburg, Pennsylvania, for sex discrimination.
The plaintiff, a former Cabela's employee, is now known as "Kate Lynn Blatt" and is suing because he was denied access to the opposite-sex restroom.
Because he suffers from "gender dysphoria," Blatt is also claiming discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Leeson, with the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, is allowing the case to go forward.
Describing the case as "absolute nonsense," Liberty Counsel attorney Mat Staver points out that the Americans With Disabilities Act is designed to assist people who suffer from serious illness or injury that prevents them from working. It also excludes transgenders from its list of disabilities. 
Some have pointed out, meanwhile, that transgenderism is a mental illness known as "gender identity disorder" until the term was changed by the American Psychiatric Association under pressure from homosexual activists who applauded the change to "gender dysphoria."  
Enter attorneys with homosexual law group GLAD, who are working with Blatt to get "gender identity disorder" -- not "gender dysphoria" - added as a disability under ADA. 
"GLAD's brief asserts that the GID exclusion in the ADA violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, and that the updated diagnosis of Gender Dysphoria (GD) in fact falls outside the scope of that exclusion as defined in the law," the attorneys argue on their website. 
"You can't have it both ways, frankly," says Staver. "You can't say that this is just natural and you need to treat it as normal, and on the other hand [claim] it's a disability and it's a disabling situation like some kind of disease."

***
Little bits of good news —
What goes around comes around?  A return to apprenticeships and actual gifts and skill over academic paper (college degrees)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/28/technology/tech-jobs-skills-college-degree.html?emc=edit_th_20170629&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
A New Kind of Tech Job Emphasizes Skills, Not a College Degree
ROCKET CENTER, W.Va. — A few years ago, Sean Bridges lived with his mother, Linda, in Wiley Ford, W.Va. Their only income was her monthly Social Security disability check. He applied for work at Walmart and Burger King, but they were not hiring.
Yet while Mr. Bridges had no work history, he had certain skills. He had built and sold some stripped-down personal computers, and he had studied information technology at a community college. When Mr. Bridges heard IBM was hiring at a nearby operations center in 2013, he applied and demonstrated those skills.
Now Mr. Bridges, 25, is a computer security analyst, making $45,000 a year. In a struggling Appalachian economy, that is enough to provide him with his own apartment, a car, spending money — and career ambitions.
“I got one big break,” he said. “That’s what I needed.”
Mr. Bridges represents a new but promising category in the American labor market: people working in so-called new-collar or middle-skill jobs. As the United States struggles with how to match good jobs to the two-thirds pf adults who do not have a four-year college degree, his experience shows how a worker’s skills can be emphasized over traditional hiring filters like college degrees, work history and personal references. And elevating skills over pedigree creates new pathways to employment and tailored training and a gateway to the middle class. … …
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/29/opinion/delivery-amazon-whole-foods.html?emc=edit_th_20170629&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Home Delivery! What Will They Think of Next? by Peter Funt
I’m rooting for Amazon and companies like Peapod and FreshDirect to hurry up and complete their revolution of the grocery delivery business so that it can be almost as good as it was 60 years ago.

***
Logical propositions:  If land dinosaurs are often found in sedimentary rock — deposited, settled-out mud turned rock over centuries — did they perish in the Flood, and did God purposely leave dinosaurs off the ark?  Could this be because they were not a part of his original creation but were genetically-altered experiments of the Nephilim, the fallen angels that came down to turn mankind and the planet into a staging area for their rebellion?

http://www.icr.org/article/10014 
bereancall.org Daily Update for June 29
Another spectacular dinosaur fossil discovery baffled paleontologists who deny the historical accuracy of the book of Genesis. New Scientist recently reported the identification of a T. rex-like dinosaur from Upper Cretaceous system rocks in North Africa. What confounded the scientists were the phosphate-rich rocks in which the bones were found-rocks indicative of deposition in an open ocean.
The new species was dubbed Chenanisaurus barbaricus by its discoverer Nick Longrich of the University of Bath, UK.....He added, "This find is unusual because it's a dinosaur from marine rocks-it's a bit like hunting for fossil whales and finding a fossil lion. It's an incredibly rare find-almost like winning the lottery." But the discovery of a dinosaur in marine rocks should be no surprise to Longrich and his colleagues, as a group of paleontologists had concluded earlier that nearly all Cretaceous dinosaurs across Europe were buried in marine rocks.
In their 2015 report, Zoltan Csiki-Sava and his co-authors reported just that-nearly all Late Cretaceous dinosaurs were found in marine sedimentary rocks, including chalk and limestone beds.Researchers made similar discoveries of ankylosaurian and hadrosaurian dinosaur fossils in marine sedimentary rocks along the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington, and all the way north to Alaska.
With all these finds, it's now clear that the discovery of dinosaurs in marine rocks and/or mixed with marine fossils is the norm, not the exception. Why do secular paleontologists continue to be surprised by what they pull out of the ground? It's likely because they have no other viable explanation outside of deep time and evolution for what they observe. If one rejects the possibility of a global Flood event, as described in Genesis, one is left with no other recourse.
However, creation scientists are not surprised that so many dinosaurs are mixed with marine fossils and are commonly found in marine sediments. Dinosaurs were rapidly buried by the salty Flood waters as they engulfed the continents, mixing the sediments, the ocean creatures and the terrestrial animals together. The evidence for the global Flood is found in the phosphate mines in Morocco and all over the world.

***

(July 1)
Now, a doctor — a healer — goes mad under the power of accusation that led to his firing —

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/nyregion/bronx-hospital-shooting.html?emc=edit_th_20170701&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Doctor Opens Fire at Bronx Hospital, Killing Woman and Wounding 6 Others
A disgruntled doctor armed with an AR-15 rifle and wearing a lab coat went on a rampage on Friday in the Bronx hospital where he had worked, killing a doctor and wounding six other people — five of them seriously — before setting himself on fire and shooting himself in the head, the authorities said.
The furious attack by the doctor — identified by the police as Henry Bello, 45 — sent workers at the hospital, Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, diving behind desks and doors as gunshots and smoke filled the hallways of a place devoted to healing. Witnesses described medical workers’ ripping a fire hose from the wall to use as a tourniquet on one victim’s leg, while others recalled the horrific sight of the gunman, his torso aflame, running down a hallway.Dr. Bello had a troubled past, having worked at the hospital for about six months before quitting after being accused of sexual harassment, officials said. And years earlier, he was arrested and charged with sexual abuse after assaulting a woman in Manhattan.
The attack appeared to be the type of mass shooting by a lone gunman that has struck communities around the United States.

***
The lurching technological insanity of those who cannot accept what God has made them — and the fools of the Nephilim, fallen angel genetic-manipulation purveyors and experimenters.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4657830/transgender-women-born-boys-babies-NHS-doctors.html
Wombs for men: Astonishing prospect as fertility doctors back operations on NHS so transgender women born as boys can have babies
Doctors have said transgender women, born male, should be able to have kids
Gynaecologists say implanting a donor womb into a person born male is possible
Talks planned on if womb transplants for trans-women should be publicly funded
Uterine transplants could even be given to gay and straight men within ten years

***

(July 2)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/pope-shakes-vatican-replacing-conservative-doctrinal-chief-125031115.html

Pope shakes up Vatican by replacing conservative doctrinal chief

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - In a major shake up of the Vatican's administration on Saturday, Pope Francis replaced Catholicism's top theologian, a conservative German cardinal who has been at odds with the pontiff's vision of a more inclusive Church.
A brief Vatican statement said Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller's five-year mandate as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a key department charged with defending Catholic doctrine, would not be renewed.
Mueller, 69, who was appointed by former Pope Benedict in 2012, will be succeeded by the department's number two, Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer.
Ladaria, a 73-year-old Spaniard who, like the Argentine pope is a member of the Jesuit order, is said by those who know him to be a soft-spoken person who shuns the limelight. Mueller, by contrast, often appears in the media.
"They speak the same language and Ladaria is someone who is meek. He does not agitate the pope and does not threaten him," said a priest who works in the Vatican and knows both Mueller and Ladaria, asking not to be named. … …

***
Lord Jesus, please show this sad lady the salvation of Christ and the Comfort of the Holy Spirit.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/01/us/congressional-baseball-shooting-death-grief.html?emc=edit_th_20170702&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
‘I Want This to Get Over’: After Congressional Shooting, Complex Grief  for a Gunman’s Widow

***

The unrelenting, pesky issues of gender in a world that would like to obfuscate their distinctions.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/01/upshot/members-of-the-opposite-sex-at-work-gender-study.html?emc=edit_th_20170702&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
It’s Not Just Mike Pence. Americans Are Wary of Being Alone With the Opposite Sex.
(Excerpt):“It’s very much an instinctual call,” she said.

***

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit,
after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world,
and not after Christ.
For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. …”
(Colossians 2:8-9)

“For there is one God, 
and one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus…”
(1 Timothy 2:5)

*********************************************************
If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

June 25  

Saints,

More amazing times.  Some good news too as economic rebounds occur in many places.  Yet, the tide of apocalypse also rises, and that daily.  The week began with the Goliath of Planned Parenthood’s evil millions in assets and lawyers against the little David and his lady accomplice, Sandra, who “exposed the works of darkness” of the human butchers.  Later in the week, God showed his hand (see below).  Praise Him!  Pray on, saints, in all matters small and great.  God is willing to work with us.

***

The Week—

(June 19)
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” Ephesians 5:18.  Pray for David.
(Appended June 24, see below!)

https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/e8094162-24ce-3fbd-b4c3-1ec73d5e8799/ss_the-man-who-secretly-taped.html
The Man Who Secretly Taped Planned Parenthood Could Be Going To Prison — Alongside His Criminal Lawyers
Last month, David Daleiden and his criminal defense lawyers released additional footage of abortion providers and the names of 14 of his accusers, possibly violating court injunctions and seals.
The anti-abortion activist behind the videos accusing Planned Parenthood of selling “baby parts,” as he put it, could be going to prison. And now his criminal defense lawyers could join him.
Late last month, David Daleiden and his team of criminal attorneys allegedly flouted multiple injunctions and court-issued seals by posting more shocking videos of abortion providers and identifying 14 of the John/Jane Does participating in the state criminal complaint against him and his recording partner Sandra Merritt. Those names were previously under a court seal.
This apparent defiance of court orders may end up landing Daleiden and his criminal attorneys in contempt of both state and federal court, potentially resulting in fines and jail time — and disbarment for the lawyers.
Daleiden’s work once caused multiple congressional investigations and nearly shut down the government. Two years and multiple lawsuits and legal hurdles later, the 28-year-old and his Planned Parenthood investigation have faded out of the headlines.
But as the cases against Daleiden continue — and grow more complicated — he has become a central figure of the somewhat sidelined culture wars, now playing out in both federal and state court in California. On the one hand, his opponents contend that Daleiden is an extreme activist who edited illegally obtained footage in order to harm the biggest abortion provider in the country and, by proxy, its employees. On the other, is a fierce collection of devoted, anti-abortion followers who see the prosecution of Daleiden as an attack on the First Amendment and the oppression of a hero by liberal courts and elected officials. … ...

***
Is this NYTimes’ first impulse not to mention that this is a counter-terrorism attack on London Muslims at a mosque?

NYTimes Breaking News — Their headline:

“A vehicle injured several pedestrians in a London neighborhood where many immigrants live, the police said.  There was one arrest.”
	
Sunday, June 18, 2017 8:56 PM EDT	
	
A vehicle collided with pedestrians early Monday morning in London. The Metropolitan Police called it “a major incident” and said that a number of casualties are being treated at the scene.	
One person has been arrested. The incident occurred on Seven Sisters Road in Finsbury Park, a neighborhood where many immigrants live. … …

Follow up on “Breaking News”  London’s Islamic mayor calls it “a horrific terrorist attack.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/18/world/europe/london-britain-vehicle-collision-.html?emc=edit_th_20170619&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0

Van Hits Pedestrians Near a Mosque in London, Killing One
	
***
(June 20)
Will scientists find a “stargate” to other dimensions? …let in demonic, apocalyptic forces?  Right now, the Lord has set things at a standstill.  Nothing can happen until He lets it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/19/science/cern-large-hadron-collider-higgs-physics.html?emc=edit_th_20170620&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Yearning for New Physics at CERN, in a Post-Higgs Way
MEYRIN, Switzerland — The world’s biggest and most expensive time machine is running again.
Underneath the fields and shopping centers on the French-Swiss border outside Geneva, in the Large Hadron Collider, the subatomic particles known as protons are zooming around a 17-mile electromagnetic racetrack and banging into one another at the speed of light, recreating conditions of the universe when it was only a trillionth of a second old.
Some 5,000 physicists are back at work here at CERN the European Organization for Nuclear Research, watching their computers sift the debris from primordial collisions in search of new particles and forces of nature, and plan to keep at it for at least the next 20 years.
Science is knocking on heaven’s door, as the Harvard physicist Lisa Randall put it in the title of her recent book about particle physics.
But what if nobody answers? What if there is nothing new to discover? That prospect is now a cloud hanging over the physics community. … …

***

The now daily “allahu akbar” bloodshed—
(May the Lord protect those who trust in Him, Psalm 91)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4622952/Explosion-reported-Brussels-central-station.html
Moroccan bomber blew himself up in terrorist attack at Belgium capital's Central station on Tuesday

***
(June 21)
“We’ll have our own bloody revolution, thank you. We don’t want your help, Uncle Sam!”  Seventy-four dead to date in street battles.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuela-dares-us-send-marines-222439257.html
Venezuela dares US to 'send in the Marines'
…The outburst came as US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan tried to rally support for an OAS resolution to send regional mediators to Venezuela, where running street battles at anti-government protests have left 74 people dead since April.

***

Illinois follows Puerto Rico into economic disaster.  Home of Chicago proves statehood alone is not the answer.  And state-run gambling (the lotto, Megabucks) has not helped either.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/06/20/illinois-careens-into-financial-meltdown-and-not-even-lottery-is-safe.html
Illinois careens into financial meltdown – and not even the lottery is safe
Illinois is grappling with a full-fledged financial crisis and not even the lottery is safe – with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner warning the state is entering "banana republic" territory. 
Facing billions in unpaid bills and pension obligations, the state is hitting a cash crunch that is rare even by Illinois standards.
A top financial official just warned 100 percent of the state's monthly revenue will be eaten up by court-ordered payments. Rauner is calling a special session of the Democrat-led General Assembly in a bid to pass what he hopes will be the first full budget package in almost three years.
And Illinois will – literally – lose the lottery if the budget fails. … …

***
(June 22)
Oh, man!  A new Trump on the block!  His mother doesn’t like it —
(Gotta have a little fun!  Thanks, Matt Drudge!)

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/texas-trump-name-change-194038
Judge Grants Man's Request For Trump Name
Texan Ernesto Baeza Acosta, 34, is now officially Ernesto Trump

***
Common Sense —

http://www.gallup.com/poll/212654/terrorism-fears-drive-avoid-crowds.aspx
Terrorism Fears Drive More in US to Avoid Crowds
	•	38% of Americans less willing to attend large events due to terrorism
	•	Previous high was 32% in 2002
	•	46% less willing to travel overseas due to terrorism concerns
***

“‘allahu akbar’ of the day” —
CBS morning news @ 7 announces
My observations:  A Canadian national of Middle Eastern extraction who “hates Americans”  entered the US in NY, near Lake Champlain, and ended up at the Flint, MI airport where he was “moved by the spirit of radical Islam” to attack an officer with a hunting knife.  Authorities are surmising a hate crime of terrorism.  He is believed to be a “lone wolf.”  Sadly, he leaves three children behind as he disappears behind bars forever.  May God in Christ save these innocents and bring their father to repentance.  The stabbed officer, thankfully, is expected to recover.

***
(June 23)
The madness of this present world — where we need to rehash the madness of Orwell’s “1984,” only moreso, and with more innuendo on what is/is not “fake news.”  Living in alternate realities at the End of the Age.  A NYTimes arts review.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/22/theater/1984-review-broadway.html?emc=edit_th_20170623&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Review: Doubling Down on Doublespeak in ‘1984’
In periods when the world and its inhabitants seem too vicious to bear, some people find themselves drawn magnetically to what might be called feel-bad entertainment. I mean the sort of book, song or show that massages your anxiety the way your tongue might insistently probe an abscessed tooth.
If that’s the way you’re feeling at the moment — and why do I suspect that’s the case? — you may well find pleasurable pain in Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan’s discombobulating stage adaptation of George Orwell’s “1984,” which opened on Thursday night at the Hudson Theater. But it will be pain of a different order (possibly involving nausea) from the empathetic kind you experience reading Orwell’s ever-engrossing book.
That 1949 novel, a staple of high school syllabuses, has returned to the best-seller lists since the inauguration of Donald J. Trump, jibing with worries about the rebirth of fascism in democratic countries. Its vision of a totalitarian land in which reality is what the government tells you it is has been read as a prognostication of our age of “fake news” and “alternative facts.” … …

***
Just because I find maritime right-of-way laws interesting: — Landlubbers got their redlight-and-greenlight traffic laws from maritime night lighting.  At night, a green light is posted to starboard on every proper ship at sea, and red is posted to port.  It appears the destroyer was displaying green to the freighter which means the freighter had “the go-ahead” from the destroyer.  The freighter should have been displaying its red light to the destroyer which means the destroyer should stand off, alter course, or otherwise avoid the freighter while the freighter should hold to its course.

Accidents still happen and another maritime statute, “The General Prudential Rule” says, in effect, “No matter who has right-of-way, avoid collisions.”  There will be lengthy legal work over this accident.  Meanwhile, may God save the families of the seven lost sailors through the evidence of his grace, mercy, hope, and love toward them, the kids that won’t have dads, the wives mourning husbands, and may the sailors have had a moment themselves to call upon the Lord.  And may there be mercy found for the captain and officers and watchmen held responsible.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/23/world/asia/destroyer-fitzgerald-collision.html
Maritime Mystery: Why a U.S. Destroyer Failed to Dodge a Cargo Ship
There should have been lookouts on watch on the port, starboard and stern of the destroyer Fitzgerald — sailors scanning the horizon with binoculars and reporting by headsets to the destroyer’s bridge. At 1:30 a.m. last Saturday, off the coast of Japan south of Tokyo, they could hardly have failed to see the 730-foot freighter ACX Crystal, stacked with more than 1,000 containers, as it closed in.
Radar officers working both on the bridge and in the combat information center below it should have spotted the freighter’s image on their screens, drawing steadily closer. And under standard protocol, the Fitzgerald’s captain, Cmdr. Bryce Benson, should have been awakened and summoned to the bridge to assure a safe passage long before the ships could come near each other.
But none of that happened. The Fitzgerald’s routine cruise in good weather through familiar, if crowded, seas ended in the most lethal Navy accident in years. Seven sailors lost their lives.
As investigators try to figure out what many veteran seamen describe as an incomprehensible collision, they have plenty of mysteries to unravel. In addition to the questions for the destroyer’s crew, there is the peculiar course of the Crystal after the accident, recorded by ship-tracking websites. It raises the possibility that no one was awake, or at least aware of their surroundings, when the two ships hit.
(ending excerpt)  …“All I can say is,” the sailor wrote to The New York Times, “somebody wasn’t paying attention.”

***

Fake News.  Southern  Poverty Law Center, a radical left propaganda platform who has the government’s ear, turns anyone who disagrees with its agenda into a “Hate Group.”
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1328
Nonprofit Tracker Smears Dozens Of Conservative Organizations As 'Hate Groups'
The nation's leading source of information on U.S. charities faces mounting criticism for using a controversial "hate group" designation in listings for some well-known and broadly supported conservative nonprofits.

GuideStar, which calls itself a "neutral" aggregator of tax data on charities, recently incorporated "hate group" labels produced by the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center.

The decision by the tracker of nonprofits prompted 41 conservative leaders to protest the move in a letter provided exclusively to The Daily Signal. The letter, dated June 21, asks the website to drop the "hate group" labels put on 46 organizations.

GuideStar's use of the "hate group" designation for certain organizations, many of them Christian, unfairly and inaccurately adopts the "aggressive political agenda" of Southern Poverty Law Center, the leaders write. … …

***
(June 24)
Praise be to Almighty God!  Our prayers in the first item on this week’s list…are answered! Doubtless, we are not the only ones to pray, but it could be we are among few.  God is not impressed with numbers but with faith.  Let us pray, not only for our daily needs and those close to us but also for the events and people affected in this world’s crashing closing acts.  San Francisco, and its courts, especially the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, are almost mythologically known for their radical leftist rulings, BUT, HERE THEY RULED FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS!  GOD SAVE THEM!  Imagine the size of the bank account that the demons behind the death merchants — buyers and sellers of aborted baby parts — have to advance their case against this tiny David and his companion Sandra, enough billions to “throw the book at them”!  But God stops the devil in his tracks!  “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”  Lord, keep these saints humble as they also rejoice in your deliverance.  We pray that you would also dissolve the final point against them and vindicate your repugnance for the child sacrifice of abortion.  Lord, keep us ever mindful of every opportunity for prayer.  It truly is answered here, whether it was a few of us praying or thousands.  It is not “the power of prayer” but the One we come to in prayer!
http://www.weeklystandard.com/court-dismisses-charges-against-pro-life-activists-for-now/article/2008612
Court Dismisses Charges Against Pro-Life Activists, For Now

Even in famously abortion-friendly California there is justice for abortion foes. On June 21, the San Francisco County Superior Court threw out 14 of the 15 felony counts that California Attorney General Xavier Becerra had brought against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, the anti-abortion activists who had made widely circulated undercover videos of Planned Parenthood officials haggling and joking over the compensation they expected to receive for supplying the organs of fetuses aborted at Planned Parenthood clinics to for-profit “tissue-procurement” companies. … …

***

Wow! Warfare from here on, especially “the Big Ones” coming, is going to surpass the special effects of Spielberg’s best space dramas!

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/820531/Vladimir-Putin-Russian-army-new-weapon-lasers-shoot-down-drones
Vladimir Putin's new weapon in Russian arsenal - lasers to shoot down enemy drones
VLADIMIR Putin's scientists have developed technology capable of zapping enemy drones by laser while also remotely recharging friendly Russian unmanned flyers in the sky.

***
“ ‘allahu akbar’ of the day”  ISIS fiend succeeds only in killing himself in bomb attack on main mosque of Islam in Saudi Arabia —  O, Lord, if you can reap any praise from this, help this man’s family to find the true God, and for the Saudis, too.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/23/middleeast/grand-mosque-attack-foiled/index.html
Saudis foil attack on Grand Mosque in Mecca
Saudi security forces on Friday prevented an imminent attack on the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the country's Interior Ministry said on state-run TV.
A suspect in the planned attack on the mosque blew himself up in a nearby neighborhood when security forces surrounded a home where the man was hiding, according to the ministry.
The suspect refused to comply with demands to surrender, opened fire on security forces and then killed himself, officials said.
The explosion caused the partial collapse of the building in which the suspect was hiding. Six expatriates were injured and taken to a hospital, and five security personnel received minor injuries, a Saudi Press official in London told CNN.
Five people, including one woman, suspected of involvement in the plot were arrested. Three groups, two based in Mecca and one in Jeddah, planned the attack, the Interior Ministry said.
The Grand Mosque, or the Masjid al-Haram, is the largest mosque in the world and surrounds Islam's holiest site, the Kaaba -- a cube-shaped shrine that worshipers circle during the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage that brings millions of people to Mecca. … …

***
Paraphrasing the Lord, “Sometimes the children of darkness have more sense than the children on light,”  An inexact quote and comparison, of course, but Turkey is mostly Islamic whilst the West was once more or less Christian but is now praising atheism as “science,” etc.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/23/world/europe/turkey-evolution-high-school-curriculum.html
Turkey Drops Evolution From Curriculum, Angering Secularists
ISTANBUL — Turkey has removed the concept of evolution from its high school curriculum, in what critics fear is the latest attempt by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government to erode the country’s secular character.
Starting in September, a chapter on evolution will no longer appear in ninth graders’ textbooks because it is considered too “controversial” an idea, an official announced this week.

***
(June 25)
More to ponder on the age-old issues.  It seems, in general, that women are “better “ (thought better, preferred) at nursing and at teaching young children.  It is just imagination and stereotyping? But most inherently feel this way.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/24/opinion/sunday/men-dont-want-to-be-nurses-their-wives-agree.html?mwrsm=LinkedIn
Men Don’t Want to Be Nurses. Their Wives Agree.
It seems like an easy fix. Traditionally male factory work is drying up. The fastest-growing jobs in the American economy are those that are often held by women. Why not get men to do them?
The problem is that notions of masculinity die hard, in women as well as men. It’s not just that men consider some of the jobs that will be most in demand — in health care, education and administration — to be unmanly or demeaning, or worry that they require emotional skills they don’t have. So do some of their wives, prospective employers and women in these same professions. … …

***

“And have no fellowship 
with the unfruitful works of darkness, 
but rather reprove them.” 
Ephesians 5:18

********************************************************
If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

June 18   (Happy Father’s Day, fathers!  O God our Father, please keep fatherhood alive among us!)

Saints,

Congress is physically attacked this week by an insane politico, not even a jihadi.

Do we take pleasure in pointing out the gross and mass iniquities and multiplying tragedies of this collapsing world?  God forbid! NO, rather horror.  And the weight upon the watchmen is heavy and grievous, but the Word of the Lord would have us watch and warn.  And we can comfort ourselves in knowing the signs must precede the Resolution that the Lord indicates, even by allowing them, which prove that He will prevail.  Rather, O Lord, help us watch and not grow weary that we might be found ready and also making others ready by the things which we see and pass on.  It is those who are found watching in obedience that will be taken up in “the great escape”:  “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the son of Man.” (Luke 21:36)   The widely apostate, cultural church, though it may name the name of Jesus, and want to “take selfies” with his image, will not be ready and will not go.  “Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not the things that I say?”  it is a false grace that mocks at heart-sought obedience.

***

(June 12)
A provenly, murderous dictator, thug, purging genocidist faces the incursion of ISIS:  “Go ahead and do it!”
“A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.”  But the sad populace is caught in the crossfire.  Lord, please hide and save your people there, and guide other relative innocents to your fold.

Duterte, Focused on Drug Users in Philippines, Ignored Rise of ISIS
MANILA — It was classic bravado from the Philippines’ tough-guy president, Rodrigo Duterte.
The Maute Group, a militant Islamist band fighting government troops near the southern Philippines city of Marawi last year, had asked for a cease-fire.
The president rejected the overture.
“They said that they will go down upon Marawi to burn the place,” Mr. Duterte recounted in December. “And I said, ‘Go ahead, do it.’”
He got his wish.
Hundreds of militants belonging to the Maute Group and its allies fighting under the black flag of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, seized Marawi three weeks ago, leading to a battle with the Philippine armed forces and the biggest test yet of Mr. Duterte’s leadership during his tumultuous first year in office.
A president who has focused on a deadly antidrug campaign that has claimed the lives of thousands of Filipinos seems to have been caught unprepared for a militant threat that has been festering in the south for years. … …

***
More actors want to urge the assassination of the President.  Delta and Bank of America back out of supporting their work.  Are not such dramatic efforts Treason?  Are such as “comediennes” Kathy Griffin not satanic stooges?
(Later in the week, reports have several other large brand names, like The New York Times, supporting this play.  Watch and assess.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/11/arts/delta-airline-trump-public-theater-julius-ceasar.html
Delta Air Lines and Bank of America Won’t Back Trump-Like ‘Julius Caesar’
New York’s Public Theater lost support from two high-profile corporate donors, Delta Airlines and Bank of America, on Sunday amid intense criticism of its production of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” which depicts the assassination of a Trump-like Roman ruler.
The companies’ decisions came after days of criticism online and in right-leaning media outlets that was amplified by Donald Trump Jr., a son of the president, who appeared to call into question the theater’s funding sources on Twitter on Sunday morning. … …
(further excerpt):  Criticism of the play reached a fever pitch on Sunday when Fox News reported that it “appears to depict President Trump being brutally stabbed to death by women and minorities.” Donald Trump Jr., a son of President Trump, joined in shortly after that report, seeming to question the theater’s funding sources.
***

Can a country so satanically (adversarially), psychotically divided stand?  C.M. Blow, a persistent NYTimes editorialist Trump-basher, worries about the psychoses of the Left in America when it cannot attain “instant gratification” in the matters of its rage.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/12/opinion/the-resistance-impeachment-anxiety.html
The Resistance: Impeachment Anxiety
***
Bernie Sanders goes outright antichrist?

Sen. Sanders criticizes theology of Office of Management & Budget nominee – in a June 7 nomination hearing, Sen. Bernie Sanders asked Russell Vought, nominee for deputy secretary of the Office of Management & Budget, if he believes that “Moslems are condemned.” (See National Review link for video, transcript.) Both Sanders and Vaught agreed he was referring to an article Vaught wrote for his alma mater, Wheaton College, in reference to the historical, biblical teaching that only believers in Jesus Christ are delivered from eternal condemnation. Sanders concluded his questioning by saying he would not vote for Vaught and added "I would simply say, Mr. Chairman, that this nominee is really not someone who this country is supposed to be about." 
 
Sen. Sanders’ comments touched off a lively discussion on Facebook and the Internet over the weekend about Sanders’ intent and the Constitutional protection (Article 6) of not applying a religious test for public service.

—from Guy Page’s Vermont State House Headliners for June 12 (pagecommunications4vt@gmail.com)

***
“…and that no man may buy or sell (or travel?) saving he that hath the mark of the beast…”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4604366/Swedish-commuters-using-microchips-pay.html
Would you get your travel card implanted into your HAND? Swedish commuters raise concerns over security and privacy by using microchips to pay for their journey

*** * ***
(June 15)
—America under attack from within our own political system? Is terrorism doing its job so well we won’t need jihadis?  Is our own civil insurrection at hand?
	(3 related links/stories from the aftermath of the congressional assassination attempt)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/us/steve-scalise-congress-shot-alexandria-virginia.html
Steve Scalise Among 4 Shot at Baseball Field; Suspect Is Dead

I have wondered aloud for some time about the possibility of civil war breaking out in this country.  Recently, conservative pundit Pat Buchanan has been speaking of the same.  Yesterday’s mass assassination attempt on Republican lawmakers, during a charity baseball practice game, was an assault by a man with an AK-47.  The man was a fervent Bernie Sanders supporter and an avowed hater of Republicans.  Both DC and the Press are genuinely frightened.  Here another national commentator predicts civil war just hours before the assailant made his assault on the congressmen.

http://www.wnd.com/2017/06/michael-savage-predicted-violence-by-marginals-day-before-attack/
Michael Savage predicted 'violence' by 'marginals' day before attack

Less than 24 hours before a supporter of former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders fired at Republican members of Congress at a baseball practice, seriously injuring House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and four others before U.S. Capitol Police took down the assailant, talk-radio host and author Michael Savage warned of violence by “marginal” people who are set to explode and “kill somebody.”
Savage, the host of the nationally syndicated “The Savage Nation,” was commenting on recent developments that have escalated the anti-Trump “resistance,” such as comedian Kathy Griffin’s ISIS-style photo shoot of the decapitated likeness of Trump and the “Julius Caesar” play in Central Park featuring the assassination of a Trump-like figure.

“I don’t know how much more of this the country can take,” Savage said.
“We are at a boiling point. There’s going to be a civil war,” he told his listeners Tuesday. …  …

Can Communism/Socialism be born without violent insurrection and ongoing subjugation?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/us/politics/bernie-sanders-supporters.html
Attack Tests Movement Sanders Founded
WASHINGTON — The most ardent supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders have long been outspoken about their anger toward Republicans — and in some cases toward Democrats. Their idol, the senator from Vermont, has called President Trump a “demagogue” and said recently that he was “perhaps the worst and most dangerous president in the history of our country.”
Now, in Mr. Sanders’s world, his fans have something concrete to grapple with: James T. Hodgkinson, a former volunteer for Mr. Sanders’s presidential campaign, is suspected of opening fire on Republican lawmakers practicing baseball in Alexandria, Va.That shooting on Wednesday, which wounded four people, may prove to be an unexpected test for a movement born out of Mr. Sanders’s left-wing, populist politics and a moment for liberals to figure out how to balance anger at Mr. Trump with inciting violence.
“Both sides need to look in the mirror,” said Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator who campaigned for Mr. Sanders and is working on a new think tank started by the senator’s wife. “We have to decide what kind of language we are going to use in our political discourse.” … …
*** 
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/world/asia/isis-captures-tora-bora-afghanistan.html
ISIS Captures Tora Bora, Once Bin Laden’s Afghan Fortress

KABUL, Afghanistan — Tora Bora, the mountain redoubt that was once Osama bin Laden’s fortress, fell to the Islamic State early Wednesday, handing the extremists a significant strategic and symbolic victory, according to Afghan officials and local elders and residents. … …

***

Please Pray that these Chaldean Christians from Iraq will not be sent back to ISIS!  May God direct them elsewhere or grant them to remain.  May President Trump come under conviction of the Holy Spirit, hear of this and act righteously.  Amen.

http://prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1275
U.S. Sending Christians Back To Iraq To Face 'Slaughter'
More than 100 Iraqi Christians were rounded up Sunday evening in federal raids in Michigan and will soon be deported back to their native land, where they face an uncertain fate in a country where Christians are marked for death in a genocide carried out by ISIS and other Islamic groups.
The raids were conducted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. The ICE agents showed up without warning at the homes of Chaldean Christians and at a popular restaurant called Ishtar's in Sterling Heights, Michigan. … …

***

(June 16)
Whew.  If you respect the biblical command to pray for our secular, national leaders, pray DAILY for President Trump and Vice President Pence.  This piece is insightful, but one cannot even tell for sure where the motives of the writer are.  Along with the intense dramatic intrigue of the situations, I took a few gems most seriously.   Pence is a servant after the models of Christ’s commands and observations, and Mr. Trump asks repeatedly for his prayers and trusts his loyal submission and support.  May that continue.  May God defend their brotherhood, friendship, and co-labor.  Another seemingly minor point to many:  Mike and Karen, his wife, often hold hands when together, no matter the public they are in.  In some other story, I have heard that Melania is now getting used to the President wanting to hold her hand in public too.  These kinds of traditional and God-sent unions may contribute to the salvation of the State more than we can surmise.  God save Melania as well, and Karen, and keep this prayer shieldmaiden, wife of Mike, under the wings of his protection.  God save Mr. Trump.  God save Mr. Pence.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/16/vice-president-mike-pence-profile-feature-215257
Man on a Wire: Mike Pence’s Tightrope Act

Right around the time Donald Trump was boarding Air Force Oneen route to Saudi Arabia, soon to escape a capital city obsessed with investigations into his campaign’s ties with Russia and the firing of FBI Director James Comey, his vice president was receiving a booming ovation inside a fifth-floor Ritz-Carlton ballroom in the nearby Virginia suburbs. It was the afternoon of May 19, and Mike Pence stood before several hundred members of the Council for National Policy—a secretive group of conservative movement activists, donors and intellectuals that meets under off-the-record rules—and downplayed the perception of a presidency in crisis. “The truth is, you elected a man who never quits. He never backs down. He’s a fighter. He’s a winner,” Pence said, according to an audio recording obtained by Politico Magazine. “And I’ll make you a promise: No matter what Washington, D.C., might be focused on at any given moment, President Donald Trump will never stop fighting for the American people and for advancing an agenda that will make America great again!” … …

***

(June 17)
Will it now be against the law in Canada to call a boy “him” and a girl “her”?

http://dailycaller.com/2017/06/16/canada-passes-law-criminalizing-use-of-wrong-gender-pronouns/
Canadians Could Face Hate Crimes Over Using The Wrong Gender Pronouns
Canada passed a law Thursday making it illegal to use the wrong gender pronouns. Critics say that Canadians who do not subscribe to progressive gender theory could be accused of hate crimes, jailed, fined, and made to take anti-bias training.
Canada’s Senate passed Bill C-16, which puts “gender identity” and “gender expression” into both the country’s Human Rights Code, as well as the hate crime category of its Criminal Code by a vote of 67-11, according to LifeSiteNews. The bill now only needs royal assent from the House of Commons to pass into law. … …
***
Venezuela descends into bloody Anarchy—
https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuela-mobs-kick-burn-thieves-lynching-epidemic-094329281.html
Venezuela mobs kick, burn thieves in lynching epidemic
***

Copycat bomber, China not immune to this demonic spirit taught to fringe discontents, insane, and those radicalized by the example of jidhadis, but this does not appear to be Islam generated—

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/16/asia/china-kindergarten-explosion-bomb-attack/index.html
Blast outside Chinese kindergarten was bomb attack, police say
…Eight people were killed and 65 injured in the blast in front of the kindergarten in Feng district of Xuzhou city late Thursday afternoo … …

***

Zombie prep-school?  Once it was branded, “empty your mind;” now, it’s branded “mindfulness,” but is it really anything more than a hypnotic condition akin to a pot high?  Christian meditation is thinking on the Word prayerfully, using all the faculties —“Thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength”— not a false “blissing-out” which leaves the practitioner vulnerable and “stoned.”

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-weather-meditation-20170617-story.html
As temperatures heated up, some chilled out at mass meditation in L.A. park
…The free event was scheduled from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and featured internationally renowned speakers, workshop leaders, yoga teachers, sound healers and live music. The mass meditation took place at 2 p.m. … …

***

A sickness of great apostasy among Evangelicals who raise up big successful, social “ministries,” but have no acquaintance with the Word of God.  Surely, the time of the Great Apostasy is in full flower as sodomite agendas replace the Word of God.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/nyregion/forefront-pastors-father-became-a-woman.html
Faith and Family, in Transition
An evangelical minister reassesses his Brooklyn ministry when his father, also a minister, comes out as a transgender woman.

***

“Watch therefore, 
for ye know neither the day nor the hour 
wherein the Son of man cometh.”
Matthew 25:13

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If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

June 11

Saints,

Please see below the two last pieces (June 11) on left wing versus right wing Christians.  These categories do not align perfectly with the left and right wing of the political world, but they resemble it considerably.  I try studiously to avoid the politics of the world as I do not want to be identified as a radical conservative but rather as a “serious” (not saying good or perfect by any means) but a serious Christian who believes God has left us his living and perfect Word for guidance and to observe his lordship, as best as grace will help us while down here.  

There are many on the right of conservatism who are merely dogmatists, self-righteous religionists in condemning everyone who appears to them not to be keeping the Law of God, but often they only look through the colored lenses of their own interpretations, and God sees deeper.  Remember, He promises us many surprises on Judgment Day, “Many there are which are first and shall be last, and last that shall be first.”  For it is not the appearance of righteousness to please men that God considers but the righteousness that pleases Him.  We can only humble ourselves continually, asking his help, to have any ability to approach Him at all.  Nevertheless, He says, through his servant Paul, “Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

So, the right wing Pharisee of today may rage against abortion, homosexuality, the sodomite arising of the LGBTQ, etc., even rightly, and yet not have mercy and salvation in his heart toward those under these agendas.  It is also true that God is concerned for the poor and downtrodden, and is a “socially-minded” God who set rules to free slaves and forgive debt, to have years of “socialist” jubilee to even out the iniquities that develop.  Yet none of these replaces the need for personal salvation, repentance, obedience to the Word or altering the Word to please present circumstances.

For these reasons, and not to take sides of right or left in Christian Faith, I say, let me run from right wing Phariseeism, but avoid the antichrist faith of the “left wing christians” too.  I want the first name of my Christ to be Jesus or Y’Shua.  Such, like Sojourners ministry’s Jim Wallis and many others in this camp have a -christ whose first name is “Anti-“.  

Beware of living for Christ after the flesh.  Right or left, it will lead you into the camp of the -christ named “Anti.”  Tall order.  God help us. “If it were possible, even the very elect will be deceived.”

***

From the week —

(June 5)
“Political Correctness” is a serious, civilization-wide, zeitgeist ENTRANCEMENT, A SPIEL/SPELL.  Will the Western world wake up from it or be eliminated by it?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/04/world/europe/uk-london-attacks.html?emc=edit_th_20170605&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
After London Attack, Prime Minister Says, ‘Enough Is Enough’
LONDON — Declaring “enough is enough,” Prime Minister Theresa May vowed on Sunday to conduct a sweeping review of Britain’s counterterrorism strategy after three knife-wielding assailants unleashed an assault late Saturday night, the third major terrorist attack in the country in three months. … …

***
Strange Oregon.  After the likes of Portlandia with all the nauseations of political correctness, who’da thought such crosscurrents of pre-civil war thinking would also be in that state?  Will a new civil war break out from there?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/04/us/portland-killings-racist-laws-oregon.html?emc=edit_th_20170605&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Portland Killings Dredge Up Legacy of Racist Laws in Oregon
(excerpts):  …But she and other experts said that at the same time, there is less and less evidence that any extremist group — old or new — is shaping the messages that are being expressed. Free-form self-radicalization, picking this or that from the heaping smorgasbord of hate on the nation’s plate, is becoming the norm.
The suspect in the train attack, Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, fits no obvious mold in the white-supremacist world. Last year, Mr. Christian ardently supported Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a socialist-leaning Democrat, in the presidential primaries, according to his Facebook posts, before turning to support President-elect Trump in December. On the train and after his arrest, according to a police affidavit, Mr. Christian raged against immigrants, Saudi Arabia and liberals, and he called himself a defender of free speech who could “die in prison a happy man.”“He was all over the map,” said Randy Blazak, the chairman of the Oregon Coalition Against Hate Crime, a partnership of community groups and government. “There isn’t really a flow chart that fits how people like Jeremy Christian come about,” said Mr. Blazak, who is also a professor of criminology at the University of Oregon.

(related sign of the times) —
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/04/business/media/london-attack-trump-media-cnn-fox-news.html?emc=edit_th_20170605&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
After London Attack, Trump Again the Center of Partisan Media Combat
(excerpt):
…It was the kind of chain reaction that is increasingly commonplace in a deeply polarized political environment, where news organizations attract tribal followings, and where major events like the London attack can stoke fears and inflame emotions — from Mr. Trump on down. … …

***
(June 5)
“Mass shooting of the day”?  (Day’s not over yet as of this morning report.)
https://www.clickorlando.com/news/shooting-investigated-at-warehouse-in-orange-county
WATCH LIVE: 6 dead, including gunman, in mass shooting at Orange County business, deputies say
ORLANDO, Fla. - A gunman killed five of his former coworkers then killed himself during a mass shooting at an Orange County business Monday morning, according to sheriff's officials.

***

Don’t do it!  This piece starts with helping an extreme epileptic control seizures with a “brain pacemaker,” but goes on to promote cyborged brains as a “humans 2.0” announcement for humanity at large.  Musk is involved.  Check it out:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-hardware-update-for-the-human-brain-1496660400
THE FUTURE OF EVERYTHING
A Hardware Update for the Human Brain
From Silicon Valley startups to the U.S. Department of Defense, scientists and engineers are hard at work on a brain-computer interface that could turn us into programmable, debuggable machines

(excerpt): …A direct cortical interface is the goal of Neuralink, the latest moonshot startup from the serial entrepreneur Elon Musk. Neuralink is pursuing what Musk has described as “neural lace” technology—billions of tiny brain electrodes that may one day allow us to upload and download thoughts. Musk has said that his goal is “uncompressed” communication of thoughts between people—the ability to communicate concepts without first expressing them in language. To hear Musk tell it, he’s trying to replace texting with telepathy. “Your output level is so low, particularly on a phone, your two thumbs just tapping away,” he said last June. Neuralink declined to offer any compressed communication in the form of a comment for this article. …

***
Pentecostal Christian doorman credited with stopping the London Bridge terrorists with bottles and chairs in hand to hand combat — and saving many lives.  The spirit of David against Goliath still lives!

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3722542/doorman-saved-countless-lives-by-pelting-jihadis-with-bottles-glasses-and-bar-stools-and-driving-them-into-gun-cops-sights/
'MY DADDY'S A HERO' London Bridge attack hero doorman’s family say his ‘hands were bruised from fighting’ terrorists after he saved countless lives
THE young son of a brave bouncer who saved countless lives by hurling bar stools, bottles and glasses at the London Bridge terrorists was last night told: “Your dad’s a hero.”
Ozzie, a 33-year-old doorman who works at the Wheatsheaf pub in Borough Market, led a brave charge against the maniacs, despite fearing they had suicide bomb vests, after seeing them repeatedly knife a woman.
A close friend of the bouncer told The Sun Online: “He was with his seven-year-old son yesterday and the kid’s mum told him ‘your dad’s a hero, he saved people’s lives last night’.
“They didn’t want to say too much as he’s too young to understand. He just replied: ‘My dad’s always a hero.'”
The pal added: “I saw him yesterday and his hands were bruised from fighting off the terrorists.
“It’s not in Ozzie’s nature to run away. I knew he would have done whatever he could to help.”
Another friend of the bouncer told The Sun today: “Ozzie’s an absolute hero — he deserves a medal.”
The dad of one, from Earl’s Court, West London, said: “I heard a serious amount of screaming and commotion coming from the street.
“Me and a few of the doormen went to see what had happened. We saw three guys in camouflage trousers stabbing this woman.
“They were all surrounding her and knifing her repeatedly . . . about ten times. They suddenly looked up and started running towards other individuals.”
Ozzie, understood to be a Pentecostal Christian, initially fled before doubling back.
He told a friend: “I realised I had to do something. If I hadn’t turned back there were so many people caught up in the panic there would have been more hurt.
“Me and another guy started launching bar stools, bottles and glasses at them to try and disrupt them.
“It was completely chaotic, like a war zone.
“They ran through the barrage and we deflected them and they literally ran straight into the cops, who shot them.” … …

***
(June 6)
Drug death could be considered “accidental suicide” or “entranced suicide.”  It is a worthless, and worse, liberalized empathy to call it a disease, though, yes it is one, but it is first A SIN:  sorcery and yielding to sorcery as an amoral pawn.  It must be shown for what it is, that which will destroy body, soul, and spirit in hell.  We must have much mercy on the persons perishing but not extend mercy to the enchantment to go light on the damnable stuff itself and its use for an enslaved escape from reality.  We must preach repentance and teach the users, in repentance, to utterly hate the filth.  Users are dying in a war that takes hundreds a day to an eternal hell.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/05/upshot/opioid-epidemic-drug-overdose-deaths-are-rising-faster-than-ever.html?_r=0
Drug Deaths in America Are Rising Faster Than Ever
AKRON, Ohio — Drug overdose deaths in 2016 most likely exceeded 59,000, the largest annual jump ever recorded in the United States, according to preliminary data compiled by The New York Times.
The death count is the latest consequence of an escalating public health crisis: opioid addiction, now made more deadly by an influx of illicitly manufactured fentanyl and similar drugs. Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death among Americans under 50. … …

(further excerpts):
…“Heroin is the devil’s drug, man. It is,” Cliff Parker said, sitting on a bench in Grace Park in Akron. Mr. Parker, 24, graduated from high school not too far from here, in nearby Copley, where he was a multisport athlete. In his senior year, he was a varsity wrestler and earned a scholarship to the University of Akron. Like his friends and teammates, he started using prescription painkillers at parties. It was fun, he said. By the time it stopped being fun, it was too late. Pills soon turned to heroin, and his life began slipping away from him. … …

 …There were so many last year, Mr. Guenther said, that on three separate occasions the county had to request refrigerated trailers to store the bodies because they’d run out of space in the morgue.
It’s not unique to Akron. Coroners’ offices throughout the state are being overwhelmed.

***
(June 7)
The hypocrisy of the “religion” of yoga — molested practitioners
Christians cannot practice yoga with God’s blessing.  it is physical worship of hindu deities — like saying one can have the exercise of bowing to an idol as exercise-only as though the idol were not there.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/07/opinion/yoga-code-of-ethics-bikram-choudhury.html?_r=0
Yoga Teachers Need a Code of Ethics
I was relieved when Bikram Choudhury, the 73-year-old founder of Bikram yoga, was finally served a warrant for his arrest late last month, after failing to pay nearly $7 million in legal fees he owes for a sexual harassment lawsuit. Many in the yoga world had been waiting for that moment, after years of rape and assault claims against Mr. Choudhury, the millionaire creator of a 26-posture “hot yoga” sequence and studio system. But the news brought only a grim satisfaction; many of us wish he’d been arrested for the assault claims themselves. Unfortunately, the case of Mr. Choudhury is not unique. In 2016, a beloved teacher in the New York City-based Jivamukti Yoga center, known for its celebrity clientele, was sued, along with the center and its leaders, for sexual abuse by her mentee. John Friend’s Anusara community was rocked and dissolved in 2012 after he was discovered having affairs with married students and performing Wiccan-like sex rituals. Kripalu’s Amrit Desai was accused of sexual misconduct and abuse of authority in 1994 and a $2.5 million settlement was paid (the Kripalu Center in Massachusetts divorced itself from Desai and reorganized). And there are, of course, countless under-the-radar stories of yoga teachers coming on to students or touching them inappropriately in class. … …
***
“Wait! Wait!” must cry the Media.  “We haven’t had time for optics on the mourning for the last batches of terror attacks yet!”  Is it time for a daily list (twice a day?  hourly?) of terrorist attacks?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/world/europe/notre-dame-paris-shooting.html
Police Shoot Attacker Outside Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris
PARIS — A police officer shot and wounded an assailant armed with a hammer and kitchen knives on the square outside Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris on Tuesday afternoon, according to the authorities. … …

***
Beware, social media addicts — You are being groomed by ‘bots!
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/business/media/instagram-bots.html
How Bots Are Inflating Instagram Egos
I posted a picture in March of the New York Times headquarters looking serene before a snowstorm to my Instagram account. The photo attracted 11 comments, all from strangers. “Very nice!” a monthly cocktail delivery company in San Francisco wrote. A cosmetic tattoo artist in Vancouver, British Columbia, posted three fire symbol emojis, and a vintage furniture seller in San Jose, Calif., left an emoji of a heart with a bow around it.
I like to leave my apartment for cocktails, I don’t have any tattoos and I’ve never been to San Jose. So, what was up?
The answer, as with so many things online, came down to marketing. Many people with public accounts on Instagram may not realize that when random users follow them or like or comment on their posts, it is often the work of a cottage industry of websites that, for as little as $10 a month, send their clients’ accounts on automated liking, following and commenting sprees. It’s a rogue marketing tactic meant to catch the attention of other Instagram users in hopes that they will follow or like the automated accounts in return. … …

***
NYTimes Breaking News, 7 June — In the upcoming battle of Ezekiel’s prophecy, chapters 38 and 39,, some of those allied against Israel will turn on one another in their defeat.  Arab Sunni and Persian Shia (now centered in Iran) may be the ones.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/07/world/middleeast/iran-parliament-attack-khomeini-mausoleum.html?emc=edit_na_20170607&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=headline

ISIS has claimed responsibility for twin assaults in Tehran.  It is believed to be the group’s first major attack in Iran.
	
Wednesday, June 7, 2017 5:45 AM EDT	
	
Several people were injured and at least one person died on Wednesday morning in two attacks in Iran, one in the Parliament building and one on the mausoleum of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.	
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, which are believed to be the terrorist group’s first major assaults within Iran’s borders. The Islamic State is run by Sunni Muslim militants, and Iran is the largest Shiite Muslim country in the world. The assaults immediately raised concerns that a broader sectarian conflict could worsen.	
 ***
Here it is! The very talking and expressive video of “Ms. Data” and second generation Galatica Cylons.  Yes, Trekkies and Galactica fans, the day is at hand!  Robots could be a fine thing, but they are built by human nature, and it is doubtful that God will allow us to “make a man in our own image” without the effects of sin on it…notice Sophia’s “gaffe” right at the end.  AI is going fully humanoid very rapidly now —
Read the story but especially watch the Video:
https://techxplore.com/news/2016-03-humanoid-sophia-primary-role-people.html
Humanoid Sophia is given primary role of talking to people
See also: Sophie awakens, Episode 1 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LguXfHKsa0c
	Sophie awakens, Episode 2 YouTube (et al there): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbFJOlR1h4E

***
And right on Sophie’s heels (so to speak), AI shrinks are born!  Tell your troubles to an empathetic therapy robot…”Dr. Em-bot”?
http://newatlas.com/woebot-mental-health-chatbot/49952/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=d93d65e68d-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-d93d65e68d-91592265
Is Woebot, a mental health chatbot, the future of therapy?
Chances are at some point over the past few months you have interacted with a Chatbot in some context, be it through a customer service application on a website or just in a futile argument on Twitter. Bots are everywhere, and they're getting smarter by the day, but how far can they go towards replacing all forms of human interaction? A San Francisco-based start-up has just launched an AI therapist, or "mental health chatbot" and it's called Woebot. … …
***
(June 9)
“Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war.” (Mark Antony over Julius Caesar’s body in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar)
ISIS warns that all western crowd events or busy places are now subject to regular mayhem!  What should believers do?  Avoid mass events and crowds unless sent by the Lord.  Watch and pray for loved ones steadily.  These are the times.  May God soon destroy the wickedness and the works of the devil.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4584760/ISIS-backing-news-agency-warns-daily-attacks.html
ISIS-supporting news agency tells Muslims to avoid 'gathering places of the Crusaders' as fanatics plan to 'explode, run over people and cut their necks any time'

	•	Statement warns Muslims in America, Britain, Canada and elsewhere of plans
	•	It promises 'surprises after surprises' and 'almost daily blessed attacks' 
	•	ISIS online magazine recently confirmed focus of attacks will shift to 'Crusaders'
A pro-ISIS news agency has told followers to stay away from the 'gathering places of the Crusaders' as it warns that 'thousands of lonely lions' are prepared to slaughter civilians at any time.
In a statement published by Nashir News Agency, people in America, Russia, France, Britain, Canada, Belgium, Australia - and those 'outside the Caliphate' - are warned of 'almost daily blessed attacks' by Islamic State fighters.
'We will explode, run over people by vehicles and cut off their necks in any time,' the statement reads. … …
	
***
(June 10)
Could this be “the law of sowing and reaping” in instant manifestation?  C.S. Lewis once penned a fictional account of babble breaking out among the speakers and attendees of a conference of “science so-called” as a part of divine judgment upon their planned and discussed evils presented as good.  In his story, they were acronymed, The N.I.C.E for “The National institute of Coordinated Experiments.” (see the concluding novel of his Space Trilogy, “That Hideous Strength.”)
Rather, let us go gently upon this senior stateswoman.  People of all ages who live under constant pressure and stress make gaffes, and increasing age finds all hunting for words or of us walking from one room to another and then forgetting why, etc. Nevertheless, Nancy, be careful how you use your political powers.
(Note, even the editor or author of this piece chose the verb form, advise, for the correct noun form, advice, in this piece.  Mercy on us all!  (Though I proofread as much as I can here, I am sometimes embarrassed by later obvious typo errors, auto-correct errors, etc!)
https://news.grabien.com/story-moments-after-trumps-mental-health-pelosi-has-senior-moment
MOMENTS AFTER QUESTIONING TRUMP'S MENTAL HEALTH, PELOSI HAS SENIOR MOMENT(S)
Pelosi's aide came to her assistance, passing her a note alerting her to the slip-up she's made many times before

Shortly after calling into question President Trump's mental health on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe,' House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's own mental health came under scrutiny, as the 77-year-old California congresswoman referred to President Trump as "President Bush" and forgot what day of the week it is.  
A reporter quickly helped her correct the gaffe, interjecting "Trump," but Pelosi appeared oblivious she slipped up.
An aide then emerged from the sidelines, passing Pelosi a note, notifying her she got the two presidents mixed up again.
Pelosi's confusion came just two hours after suggesting Trump was losing his mind. "I am concerned," she said on MSNBC, about Trump's "fitness for office."
"I think his family should be concerned about his health," Pelosi said.  "The fact is that this is hopefully not reparable -- he’s the president of the United States."
"You mean you hope it is reparable?" Joe Scarborough asked, apparently confused.
"Yeah, yeah," she replied. 
Asked if she had advise for Trump, she said, "go to sleep, get some sleep. Bring yourself to a place where your synapses are working."
During her weekly press conference, Pelosi not only became confused over who is president, but also what day of the week it is. 
"I spoke with the speaker a week, a week and a couple days ago, about -- oh, no, just last Friday," she said. "What is today? Is it Friday again?"

***
The spirit of Sodom in Ontario now threatens to destroy Christian families and enslave their children. Grotesque, totalitarian law now makes LGBTQQ “education”, etc. (ad nauseam) the law of the land and families can lose their children for the “abuse” of teaching their children against it —

http://prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1292
Shocking New Canadian Law! - Christian Families At Risk Of Having Children Taken

***
(June 11)
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-religion-idUSKBN16Y114
'Religious left' emerging as U.S. political force in Trump era
Since President Donald Trump's election, monthly lectures on social justice at the 600-seat Gothic chapel of New York's Union Theological Seminary have been filled to capacity with crowds three times what they usually draw.In January, the 181-year-old Upper Manhattan graduate school, whose architecture evokes London's Westminster Abbey, turned away about 1,000 people from a lecture on mass incarceration. In the nine years that Reverend Serene Jones has served as its president, she has never seen such crowds. … …

And see… (remembering that same-sex marriage is the sin of Sodom and the Word, even New Testament Word, declares that such will not inherit God’s Kingdom, and remembering that abortion is still murder and infant sacrifice!)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/us/politics/politics-religion-liberal-william-barber.html?_r=0
Religious Liberals Sat Out of Politics for 40 years.  Now They Want in the Game.
In Nashville, a crowd of ministers carrying palm fronds occupied the governor’s office during Holy Week, demanding the expansion of Medicaid  to cover more of the uninsured. In California and 16 other states, an interfaith network has organized thousands of volunteers to swoop into action when immigrants are arrested or houses of worship are vandalized.

Across the country, religious leaders whose politics fall to the left of center, and who used to shun the political arena, are getting involved — and even recruiting political candidates — to fight back against President Trump’s policies on immigration, health care, poverty and the environment.
Some are calling the holy ruckus a “religious resistance.” Others, mindful that periodic attempts at a resurgence on the religious left have all failed, point to an even loftier ambition than taking on the current White House: After 40 years in which the Christian right has dominated the influence of organized religion on American politics — souring some people on religion altogether, studies show — left-leaning faith leaders are hungry to break the right’s grip on setting the nation’s moral agenda.

Frustrated by Christian conservatives’ focus on reversing liberal successes in legalizing abortion and same-sex marriage, those on the religious left want to turn instead to what they see as truly fundamental biblical imperatives — caring for the poor, welcoming strangers and protecting the earth — and maybe even change some minds about what it means to be a believer. … …

***
“…when ye shall see all these things,
know that it is near,
even at the doors.”
Jesus to disciples, Mt. 24:31

*********************************************************
If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

June 4

Saints,

“London Bridge is falling down…my fair Lady!”  Could this bizarre nursery rhyme from our own antiquity be a prophecy of these days? Overnight, London Bridge becomes a scene of mass public murder.  Could the “my fair Lady” be the report of it to our longest serving British monarch, Elizabeth?  In these present days, mass public murder is at the point of being daily news.  Terrorist bombs go off daily in Afghanistan and among infidels hating other infidels…as well as the multiplying effects on the West.  Even the U.S. bombs its own accidentally or kills civilian citizens in bloody Syria and then apologizes.  Africa, from northern Libya through Sub-Saharan countries to the threat of overwhelming genocide against the colonials in South Africa, is in bloody turmoil continually while “peaceful buddhists” commit genocide against native Muslim Rohinga in Myanmar and Communist China works to purge Uighurs.  Meanwhile, American copycats but without ideological convictions, learn the art of mass public murder too from their demon-possessed teachers and this week several in the U.S. kill multiply and publicly.  A so-called comedienne of the public media holds up a fake severed head of the President, dripping with blood and reveals herself as a satanic witch, a Jezebel, and Athaliah of Hell, and then claims, with drama queen tears and laments that she is being persecuted by “old white men” as she further incites evil thoughts among grievance groups.  I remember seeing her for the first time for me way back in the sardonic comedy of Seinfeld, and could tell that even this famous cool cynic and observer of American and metropolitan life didn’t know what to make of her and her “comedy” as she sank fangs into him.  This is not comedy; it is sorcery.  God save such for your glory as you saved Saul of Tarsus from his evil rage!

“This is for Allah!” as the Bridge is swept of pedestrians and stabbings follow on the nearby streets and in pubs.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-security-idUSKBN18U0VV?il=0
Attackers plow van into London crowd and stab revelers, kill seven
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/06/muslims-take-street-start-praying-front-trump-tower-new-york-ramadan-video/
Muslims Take Over New York Street – Start Praying in Front of Trump Tower for Ramadan 
New York – Muslims continued on with their civilization Jihad as they took over the street in front of Trump Tower during ‘Iftar’ or ‘breaking their Ramadan fast’.
Trump Tweets —
“Whatever the United States can do to help out in London and the U. K., we will be there - WE ARE WITH YOU. GOD BLESS!”
…and
“We need to be smart, vigilant and tough. We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety!”

http://dailycaller.com/2017/06/03/149-dead-so-far-in-ramadan-attacks/
149 Dead So Far In Ramadan Attacks
Significant terrorist attacks have sprung up across the globe since the beginning of Muslim holy month of Ramadan May 26, with current counts confirming three attacks and 149 dead, and a reported Saturday incident on London Bridge still developing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/world/europe/london-bridge-van.html?emc=edit_th_20170604&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
Terrorist Attacks in the Heart of London Hit a Nation Still Reeling
Six civilians were killed and 48 were hospitalized in attacks near London Bridge in what both Prime Minister Theresa May and the police called an act of terror

How will God deal with America, with the West, with the East and Middle East, with the Russians, with the Africans?  Can any region awake from this traumatic dream and find national repentance, even a measure of it?  Will we march into Armageddon asleep to reality, entranced by terror, or will some wake up?  The inhabitants of the last Trojan Horse are at loose in the streets and plundering.  Much we can assess from God’s prophetic Word, but many details depend on whether we will seek righteousness or wallow in Sodom, partying and “going on as usual” as “in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot.”

Let the Christians watch and pray and speak of these things to those around them as matters for urgent repentance.

***

Along the week —

Hal Lindsey, May 26th newsletter —
Most people do not know -- or will not accept -- that much of the mainstream media serves simply as a propaganda arm for those with "globalist" ambitions who seek, ultimately, a one-world government. Just as the ancient Bible prophets predicted.

***

(May 28)
Closer and closer—
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_ISRAEL_PALESTINIANS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-05-28-13-34-12
ISRAELI GOVT MEETING NEAR JERUSALEM SITE ANGERS PALESTINIANS
JERUSALEM (AP) -- The Palestinians sharply condemned Israel on Sunday for holding a government meeting near a sensitive Jerusalem holy site at the core of their conflict.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Cabinet met Sunday in tunnels near the site for a special session marking the 50th anniversary of Israel's capture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 war, an event it celebrates as the "unification" of its eternal capital.
Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat called the meeting a "provocation." He said it sends "a clear message to the Palestinian people that the systematic violations of their inalienable rights are going to continue."
After the 1967 war, Israel annexed east Jerusalem with the Old City home to holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, and declared all of expanded Jerusalem to be its capital.
The international community has never recognized the move. The Palestinians claim the territory as the capital of their future state.
The tunnels run near a compound holy to both Jews and Muslims.
Jews revere the site, where the two Jewish temples stood in biblical times, as the Temple Mount. It is the holiest site in Judaism. The nearby Western Wall is the holiest site where Jews can pray. … …

***
Wow! An AI to detect an AI — we’re livin’ in the Future Now!

https://www.sciencealert.com/this-wearable-ai-warns-you-when-the-voice-you-re-talking-to-isn-t-human
This Dystopian Device Warns You When AI Is Trying to Impersonate Actual Humans
Scared of a future where you can no longer discern if you're dealing with a human or a computer? A team of Australian researchers have come up with what they call the Anti-AI AI.
The wearable prototype device is designed to identify synthetic speech and alert the user that the voice they're listening doesn't belong to a flesh-and-blood individual. Developed as a proof of concept in just five days, the prototype makes use of a neural network powered by Google's Tensorflow machine learning software. … …

(further excerpt):  As this technology gets even more sophisticated, it's becoming easier to imagine a world where soon it may be difficult or even impossible to tell when a 'person' you're talking to on the phone – or watching on TV – is or isn’t a real human being.

***

(May 30)
“Unintended Consequences”?  What are we loosing on humanity?  The return of the monstrosities of the Nephilim…the hybrid, half-fallen angel, half humans who roamed and ruled violently—“filling the whole earth with violence— before the Flood?  Says our Lord, “But as the the days of Noah were, so also shall the coming of the Son of Man be.”  (Mt. 24:37)

http://newatlas.com/crispr-gene-editing-causes-mutations/49762/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=c0c0b73c2e-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-c0c0b73c2e-91592265
CRISPR gene-editing tool causes unintended genetic mutations
t's not hyperbolic to say that the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique has been a revolutionary breakthrough, allowing scientists the ability to quickly, easily and precisely edit sections of DNA. But questions over how precise the CRISPR tool is have been raised in a new study from Columbia University Medical Center, which shows this gene-editing technology can introduce hundreds of unintended mutations into the genome. … …

***
(May 31)
Ben and Jerry’s turns ice cream gay in Australia.  Boycott here too.  The problem is their definition of “love” casts people into hell.

http://prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1270
Ben & Jerry's Same-Flavored Scoop Ban - Why Same-Sex 'Marriage' Is Not Marriage
“We’re banning two of the same flavoured scoops.  That’s right, no same scoop flavours until we have marriage equality for all Australians.  At Ben and Jerry’s we believe love comes in all flavours.”

***
Souls pouring over the edge —

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/31/world/asia/kabul-explosion-afghanistan.html?emc=edit_na_20170531&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta
NYTimes Breaking New—
At least 80 were killed and hundreds
wounded by a huge blast near the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul.  The toll is likely to rise	
Wednesday, May 31, 2017 7:03 AM EDT	
	
A truck bombing near the Afghan presidential palace early Wednesday killed at least 80 people and wounded hundreds, officials said. The death toll seemed certain to rise, and the attack appeared to be one of the bloodiest of the long Afghan war.	
The huge blast during the morning rush hour caused panic in much of central Kabul, shattering windows as far as a mile away. … …
	
***
(June 2)
The Terrible Reaper continues apace with non-terrorists also “inspired” (indwelt by a spirit), received, without the ideology, from the terrorists…a world gone mad…

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/world/asia/shooting-resorts-world-manila.html?emc=edit_th_20170602&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
Hours After Fires, 36 Bodies Are Found at Manila Casino
MANILA — Thirty-six bodies were found at the biggest hotel-casino in the Philippines after a gunman carrying a container of gasoline set fires and touched off a mass panic — hours after the authorities said that only the assailant had died.
The discovery of the bodies was confirmed about noon on Friday by Oscar Albayalde, a police spokesman.  Another police official, Tomas Apolonio Jr., said that the victims died of smoke inhalation in the casino area.
Mr. Albayalde said the gunman shot a television set and set fires but did not shoot any people, indicating that he did not intend to kill anyone and was not a terrorist. … …

***
(June 3)
The Daily Mail, famous London tabloid, does their story on Kathy Griffin’s evil excess.  The link headline writer for Drudge says, “Not funny: Kathy “Isis” Griffin Plays Victim…”  Got me wondering again if the demon Egyptian goddess, Isis, caused the acronym “I.S.I.S” (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) to come into being, especially when western leaders have tried so long and unsuccessfully to re-moniker it to “ISIL.”  I suspect the Drudge headline writer named her that just because of the identification with beheading, but it would still all fit into the genuine demonic inspiration of a rising and risen Isis.  One could also wonder at Griffin’s surname though it is not a stage name.  Coincidence granted, but a griffin is a hybrid, unnatural beast causing great terror and having great magic.

It is hard not to suspect that her tears are now all part of the act, but may God awaken this soul to true repentance too.  Hell is so horrible and so eternal.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4566964/Kathy-Griffin-claims-Trump-family-ruined-life.html
'There's a bunch of old white guys trying to silence me!' Kathy Griffin breaks down in tears claiming Trump family ruined her life - as her lawyer scoffs at report Barron was upset over severed head video

Excerpts, considering Griffin’s quotes as literal; Is she a witch, a sorceress, a Jezebel, Athaliah?  Is her “comedy” an entrancing bile?

She then included an image of an affirmation that read: 'The Devil whispered in my ear, 'You're not strong enough to withstand the storm.'

'Today I whispered in the Devil's ear, 'I am the storm.''

The President and family’s moderate, accurate protestations and replies:

That was the line President Trump took that same day, writing on Twitter:'Kathy Griffin should be ashamed of herself. My children, especially my 11 year old son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!'
The most damning statement however came from the First Lady, who has done her best to stay out of the many controversies that have mired her husband's presidency. 
'As a mother, a wife, and a human being, that photo is very disturbing,' said Melania just hours after a report emerged claiming that her son Barron initially thought that his father had been decapitated when he saw the image on TV. 
'When you consider some of the atrocities happening in the world today, a photo opportunity like this is simply wrong and makes you wonder about the mental health of the person who did it.'
Lara was the last to speak out, and targeted the photographer Tyler Shields. 
The daughter-in-law of  President Trump expressed how appalled she was during an appearance on ‘Hannity’  Wednesday night, before going on to state that Griffin is not the only person who should be getting heat for the incident.
'She has many people around her. There was a photographer involved. I'm sure she has a publicist that works with her,' said Lara. 
'There were a lot of people around that could have said, 'You know what, this crosses a line.''

***

Civil War / Race War, in this Era?  But God has said that original humans, saved, will all stand before his throne together, “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes…(crying)…Salvation to our God…!” (Rev. 7:9)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/02/us/politics/white-nationalists-alt-knights-protests-colleges.html?emc=edit_th_20170603&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
First Rule of Far-Right Fight Clubs: Be White and Proud — Fringe Groups Revel as Protests Turn Violent
(excerpt):
Along with like-minded groups like the Proud Boys, a clan of young conservative nationalists, and the Oath Keepers, an organization of current and former law-enforcement officers and military veterans, they mobilized on social media to fight in New Orleans over the removal of Confederate monuments; on the streets of Berkeley, Calif., where clashes between the left and right have increasingly become a threat for law enforcement; and at a raucous May Day rally in Los Angeles.

Both sides have issued a call to arms this weekend for an event being billed as a “Trump Free Speech Rally” in Portland, Ore., which is already on edge after a man was charged in the murder of two people who tried to intercede last week as he hurled anti-Islamic insults at two women on a train. “This is a war,” declared the Proud Boys’ founder, Gavin McInnes, in a column this week. … …

***

“So shall they fear the name of the LORD
from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun.
When the enemy shall come in like a flood, 
the Spirit of the LORD
shall lift up a standard against him.”

(Isaiah the Prophet, 59:19)

******************************************************
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May 28

Saints (Beloved of the Father, Christians), 

The Future breaks over us like the waves and torrents of a storm coming ashore, but “my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.”  Let us watch with patience.  “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”  (Luke 21:36)

***
Some tales of the times —

(May 22)
The “fully human” Cylons of Battlestar Galactica 2, now only a decade away?

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/21/mark-sagar-how-humans-will-interact-with-machines-in-ten-years.html
The man who built a virtual nervous system explains how humans will interact with machines in ten years
In ten years artificially intelligent robots will be living and working with us, according to Dr. Mark Sagar, CEO of Soul Machines, an Auckland, New Zealand-based company that develops intelligent, emotionally responsive avatars. … …

***

ISIS strikes/celebrates again the vulnerability of the decadent, indefensible West — this time the U.K.  God spare the wounded and minister truth and grace to all affected.  May his mercy extend even to the entranced members of the demon ISIS, and save from among them as He did with Saul of Tarsus, St. Paul.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/deaths-injuries-confirmed-after-explosions-heard-u-k-concert-featuring-n763286
Manchester Arena Suicide Bombing: 22 Die at Ariana Grande Concert

Children were among 22 people killed in a suicide attack after an Ariana Grande concert at Britain's Manchester Arena, police said early Tuesday.
The bomber also died when he detonated an improvised explosive device at about 10:33 p.m. local time (5:33 p.m. ET) on Monday night, Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Ian Hopkins told reporters.
Authorities said 59 other people were injured.
"We have been treating this as a terrorist incident," Hopkins said. "Our priority is to establish whether he was acting alone or as part of a network." … …

(related):
May God save this child in her despair and turn her song to Him—
http://www.tmz.com/2017/05/22/ariana-grande-suspends-world-tour-bombing-terrorism/
ARIANA GRANDE SUSPENDS WORLD TOUR IN WAKE OF BOMBING
Ariana Grande has indefinitely suspended her world tour in the wake of the terrorist bombing in England ... TMZ has learned.
Sources connected to Ariana tell TMZ, she will not perform Thursday in London and has decided for now to put the entire European tour on hold. She was scheduled to perform in England, Belgium, Poland, Germany and Switzerland.
Ariana just tweeted, "broken.  from the bottom of my heart, i am so so sorry.  i don't have words."
As we reported, Ariana is inconsolable... "in hysterics" after the bombing. As one source said, she's incapable of performing for anyone. She and her team, we're told, are also deeply concerned about security.
Ariana's manager, Scooter Braun, said, "We mourn the lives of children and loved ones taken by this cowardly act," adding, "We ask all of you to hold the victims, their families, and all those affected in your hearts and prayers." … …

***
A delicate dance indeed!  Which way will the dancers move — to Christ or to Antichrist?  Watch and pray for the administration, and for the Jews, and the rest of the world, that God’s Remnant will be saved, not deceived.  Many, “the whole world will wonder after the Beast.”  A Remnant will be saved.  View the link for photos of the chiefs of the U.S. administration, wearing yarmulkes and standing touching the Wall and placing written prayers into its crevices as the custom is.  The Temple of Antichrist will be built above, on the Temple Mount summit area which this wall retains. (Later, a true Temple, magnificent in form and function will replace the disaster of the coming temple of Antichrist’s betrayal of the Jews. (See Ezekiel 40 and following, especially 47 for the immensity of the project and its outliers and for the river that breaks forth from its base on the heights to cleanse the Dead Sea and flow even unto the Gulf of Aqaba!)

http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/An-historic-day-at-the-Western-Wall-493588
AN HISTORIC DAY AT THE WESTERN WALL
(related):
Wild contradistinctions as Trump visits Bethlehem, Jesus’ birthplace, but now under Palestinian/mostly Islamic occupation — while Trump denounces ISIS London terrorists as “losers” buts courts the Palestinian Authority who bless their own terrorists.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-heads-bethlehem-see-palestinian-leader-024620999.html
Trump in Mideast condemns 'evil losers' behind Manchester attack
***
First robocops go on patrol in Dubai —  Part R2D2, part humanoid — see photos
http://newatlas.com/robocop-work-dubai/49644/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=3fee38057e-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-3fee38057e-91592265#gallery
First Robocop to join Dubai Police ranks

***

(May 25)
The shape of things coming on humanity.  The even sadder thing is that very soon we won't need authentic sperm and egg, male and female, but two men (or three or four?) or two women will be able to create egg and sperm from a skin cell from each of them via the new tech of “IVG” (see last blog, May 21, “Babies from skin cells”) so the "child" will have them as actual parents even if the soul and spirit are demonically supplied!

bereancall.org Daily Update from May 25

Children's fairytale book normalizes the abnormal [Excerpts]
A scientist says a new children's book about a prince marrying a farm boy illustrates how depraved modern culture has become.

The picture book for youngsters is entitled Promised Land. In the story, a young prince and a farm boy have a few adventures; at the end of the book, a picture shows the two kissing on the lips. The book states: "They got married and started their own family."

"That is, of course, impossible," Dr. William Matt Briggs, a professor at Cornell University writes. "Two men cannot marry - and two men certainly cannot start a family. That is biologically impossible. These are not only theological truths - they are scientific realities as well."

Briggs contends the stated goal of the authors (Adam Reynolds and Chaz Harris) and supporters of Promised Land is to make homosexuality seem normal. In fact, in an interview with ABC Australia, Harris argues their book "promotes a much healthier relationship ... than the 'love at first sight' storylines that are common in other fairytales."

Briggs says: "We have reached a point of decadence that I don't think anybody could have predicted, say, 100 years ago. And that's what this book is trying to show you: that not only is the level to which we've fallen normal but it has always been this way."

And if the authors are able to convince readers that "there's no problem with any of this, so why not accept it? Why not explore these ideas? Why not try it out yourself?" he asks rhetorically.

The intended effect of the book, Briggs argues, is that homosexual relationships will be seen in a more positive light.

(Bill Bumpas, "Children's fairytale book normalizes the abnormal," OneNewsNow Online, 4/12/17)

***

(May 26)

Lord Save! (Will ISIS make Nero seem tame?)  Strengthen our hearts, O Lord, that we may be ready.  Draw the Egyptian Christians near to you and help them endure by your Holy Spirit.  Is this yet a more horrific offense than the concert bombing?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/world/middleeast/egypt-coptic-christian-attack.html?emc=edit_na_20170526&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta
Gunmen in Egypt Force Christian Pilgrims From Buses and Kill 28
CAIRO — Dressed in military fatigues, the gunmen waved down the bus filled with Christian pilgrims as it wended its way down a dusty side-road in the desert of western Egypt, headed toward a monastery.
Claiming to be security officers, the gunmen ordered the passengers to get out. They separated the men from the women and children, and instructed them to surrender their mobile phones. They told the men to recite the shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith.
When the men refused, the gunmen opened fire.
At least 28 people were killed, several with a single shot to the head, according to the Egyptian authorities and relatives of the victims, several of whom were children. The attack on Friday in Minya Province, 120 miles south of Cairo, was a coldblooded escalation of sectarian violence targeting minority Christians that has left more than 100 people dead since December and shaken the country’s government.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility in the latest assault. Yet it bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State, which in the past six months has dispatched suicide bombers into crowded Sunday services and caused an entire community in northern Sinai to flee their homes in panic. … …

***
(May 28)
The global shape of hacks to come?  Will the whole “house of cards” be brought down to soften up the populace for “the final tech,” the system of the Beast?
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3663439/british-airways-aims-to-resume-flights-after-major-it-failure-saw-systems-crash-across-the-world-and-caused-travel-chaos-in-airports/
BLOODY APPALLING — British Airways aims to resume flights after major IT failure saw systems crash across the world and caused travel chaos in airports
A GLOBAL computer crash grounded British Airways flights from Heathrow and Gatwick airports — sparking chaos for 200,000 holidaymakers.
The airline’s check-in and operational systems crashed, with passengers trying to travel on Bank Holiday weekend left stranded – with disruptions expected to carry on until tomorrow. … …
***
Two young antichrists pal up? (1 John 2:18—“…even now there are many antichrists…”) See photos.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-05-27/macron-erupts-onto-world-stage-with-trump-snub-and-a-bromance
Macron Erupts on World Stage With Trump Snub and a Bromance

***
“My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ Blood and Righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ Name.

On Christ the Solid Rock I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand!”

Edward Mote (1797-1874)

******************************************************
If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

May 21

Saints, 

With knowledge exponentially increasing as the prophet Daniel intimated (12:4), and, yes, at a pace we cannot really grasp, each moment now brings us closer to the revelation of Christ, his sudden coming for the saints – the Rapture of the Church — and, in the unfolding of events, finally, after a few years of Tribulation—intense pressure—his merciful return to Earth to stop the destruction on the planet before all remaining mortal humans perish, and the planet is destroyed (Rev. 11:18).  What a day!  After that, we who have been caught up to the marriage of the Lamb, return with him on an army of heavenly horses, to be his assigned rulers with Him of his Millennial Kingdom.  Many new breakthroughs among humans, which now are the temptations and offerings of Satan to mankind, to bring in a kingdom without the Lord, may then be blessed and allowed…perhaps a galactic empire will unfold, along with many fantastic, “quantum” technologies — “stargates,” regulated “wormholes,” life-extending technologies without adverse side-effects, etc.,  but even all those will come to a conclusion when Satan is loosed for a little while from the Abyss, the black hole, where he will be bound, and will come to set up a final rebellion that God will use to delete the whole of the present Universe, and to bring in a new one where evil cannot come, and the New Heavens and the New Earth of Eternity! (Rev. 19 & 20).

Why should we worry?  Nevertheless, let us watch carefully and endure with patience, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”! (2 Cor. 4:17)

Lord Jesus, guard and keep your people this week; let us watch and pray and labor by the Spirit about your business, your calling and sending, until we see you.

***

“Progress” of the week —

(May 15)
“Sirius business”?  How easily and thoroughly and quickly could we be thrust back into the 19th Century!  Is it happening?  Is “Skynet” flexing its muscle?  If you are reading this by the 21st, we are still in the present!

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/14/world/europe/cyberattacks-hack-computers-monday.html?_r=0

Cyberattack Aftershock Feared as U.S. Warns of Its Complexity
The components of the global cyberattack that seized hundreds of thousands of computer systems last week may be more complex than originally believed, a Trump administration official said Sunday, and experts warned that the effects of the malicious software could linger for some time.
As a new workweek started Monday in Asia, there were concerns the malicious software could spread further and in different forms, with new types of ransomware afflicting computers around the globe. … …
***
Getting Turkish citizens prepared to glory in war?  …and reminiscing the Ottoman Empire and the wars between Christendom and Islam…
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/14/opinion/erdogan-tv-show-turkey.html
What a TV Series Tells Us About Erdogan’s Turkey
ISTANBUL — With President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey visiting President Trump in Washington this week, it might be useful to briefly turn away from the conventional explanatory sources and consider a wildly popular television series that is capturing the zeitgeist in Turkey. … …

***
The big, big trouble we are about to be in —  When Man makes “one in his own image,” can It be less Fallen? … and terribly macabre when let loose on flesh and blood?  The genius Asimov foresaw this over a generation ago, and penned his famous “Three Laws of Robotics” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics).  Now, we stand in the open doorway of the roboticized world.  Futurists speak of a world rapidly opening and increasingly present NOW.

https://www.1843magazine.com/features/teaching-robots-right-from-wrong?utm_source=digg&utm_medium=email
TEACHING ROBOTS RIGHT FROM WRONG
Artificial intelligence is outperforming the human sort in a growing range of fields – but how do we make sure it behaves morally? 

***
(May 15)
NBC announces on the Evening News tonight that airlines will soon be checking baggage without a human agent by doing robotic facial scans on those flyers checking baggage.

***
(May 16)
Seemingly minor diplomatic kerfluffles over the site of the Temple, but also the site of the Abomination of Desolation (Mk. 13:14, 2 Thess. 2:4, etc.) in the new Temple which will be built just for the betrayal by the Antichrist—
http://news.trust.org/item/20170515205324-8mobh
Israel wants White House to explain U.S. official's Western Wall comment

JERUSALEM, May 15 (Reuters) - Israel wants the White House to explain why a U.S. diplomat preparing President Donald Trump's visit to Jerusalem said Judaism's Holy Western Wall in its Old City is part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, an Israeli official said on Monday.
Israel considers all of Jerusalem as its indivisible capital, a claim that is not recognised internationally, and the Western Wall - the holiest prayer site for Jews - is part of territory it captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
Israel's Channel 2 reported that during a planning meeting between U.S. and Israeli officials, the Israelis were told that Trump's visit to the Western Wall was private, Israel did not have jurisdiction in the area and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not welcome to accompany Trump there.
Trump's administration has been sending mixed messages in its dealings with a right-wing Israeli government that had hoped for a more sympathetic attitude from the Republican president after a rocky relationship with his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama.
"The statement that the Western Wall is in an area in the West Bank was received with shock," said the official in Netanyahu's office.
"We are convinced that this statement is contrary to the policy of President Trump ... Israel has made contact with the U.S. on this matter," the official said.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. … …
The new U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, departed from diplomatic protocol by visiting the Western Wall on Monday.

***
A land so divided that Machiavellian political murder plots are in the wind?  Will the Dems (now rattling impeachment talks too) and ineffectual Republicans (and their radicals malcontents) become founding parties of a new civil war?  Watch and pray.

http://www.fox5dc.com/news/local-news/254852337-story
Family's private investigator: There is evidence Seth Rich had contact with WikiLeaks prior to death
WASHINGTON - It has been almost a year since Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich was murdered in the nation's capital. There have been no solid answers about why he was killed until now.
Rich was shot and killed last July in Northwest D.C and police have suggested the killing in the District's Bloomingdale neighborhood was a botched robbery. However, online conspiracy theories have tied the murder to Rich’s work at the DNC. … … 

***

Nazi-Syria?  Judgment is coming: Isaiah 17:1 ff., Jeremiah 49: 23-27, Amos 1: 3-6

https://apnews.com/46e97ee9bfcd4023a1e66438cd59b32c/US-accuses-Syria-of-mass-executions-and-burning-the-bodies
US: Syria is burning bodies to hide proof of mass killings
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is attempting to ratchet up pressure on Russia to push the Syrian government into peace talks with rebels. On Monday, the U.S. accused Syria of executing thousands of imprisoned political opponents and burning their bodies in a crematorium to hide the evidence.
But the decision to release newly declassified information supporting the allegation may also test the Trump administration’s own willingness to respond to atrocities in Syria, other than chemical weapons attacks, which it blames on President Bashar Assad’s government.
The accusation of mass killings and efforts to cover them up came as President Donald Trump weighs options in Syria, where the U.S. launched cruise missiles on a government air base last month after accusing Assad’s military of killing scores of civilians with a sarin-like nerve agent. … …

***
May 16 bereancall.org Daily Update Quote—
The faith of the evolutionist...is a splendid faith indeed, a faith not dependent on anything so mundane as evidence or logic, but rather a faith strong in its childlike trust, relying wholly on omniscient Chance and omnipotent Matter to produce the complex systems and mighty energies of the universe. The evolutionist's faith is not dependent on evidence, but is pure faith--absolute credulity.
--Dr. Henry Morris,
 Some Call It Science, 22
***
(May 17)
“I.V.G.”? As the Age ends and the doctrines of the Nephilim appear again (Mt. 24:37 et al), how many kinds of “new humans,” ”Humans 2.0” will we have?  More frightening than cyborgs?  Lab-grown humans without souls or with demonic inhabitants as souls?  Colonies of sodomites reproducing and living apart from original humans? ..with automatic enmity over the difference from us who are original humans? Super-Soldiers with no conscience whatsoever?  Terminators?  If this isn’t the Last Days, what is it?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/health/ivg-reproductive-technology.html
Babies From Skin Cells? Prospect Is Unsettling to Some Experts
Nearly 40 years after the world was jolted by the birth of the first test-tube baby, a new revolution in reproductive technology is on the horizon — and it promises to be far more controversial than in vitro fertilization ever was.Within a decade or two, researchers say, scientists will likely be able to create a baby from human skin cells that have been coaxed to grow into eggs and sperm and used to create embryos to implant in a womb.The process, in vitro gametogenesis, or I.V.G., so far has been used only in mice. But stem cell biologists say it is only a matter of time before it could be used in human reproduction — opening up mind-boggling possibilities.With I.V.G., two men could have a baby that was biologically related to both of them, by using skin cells from one to make an egg that would be fertilized by sperm from the other. Women with fertility problems could have eggs made from their skin cells, rather than go through the lengthy and expensive process of stimulating their ovaries to retrieve their eggs. … …

…“I.V.G. may raise the specter of ‘embryo farming’ on a scale currently unimagined, which might exacerbate concerns about the devaluation of human life,” Dr. Eli Y. Adashi, a medical science professor at Brown; I. Glenn Cohen, a Harvard Law School professor; and Dr. George Q. Daley, dean of Harvard Medical School, wrote in the journalScience Translational Medicine. … …

Concluding paragraph:  “Basic research is paramount, but it’s not clear that we need new methods for creating viable embryos,” said David Lemberg, a bioethicist at National University in California. “Attempting to apply what we’ve learned to create a human zygote is dangerous, because we have no idea what we’re doing, we have no idea what the outcomes are going to be.”

***

There really are essential differences between us, and while they may be able to be “toughed out,” is that good for anybody concerned…or just life-shortening and plaguing?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/upshot/the-gender-pay-gap-is-largely-because-of-motherhood.html?emc=edit_th_20170517&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
The Gender Pay Gap Is Largely Because of Motherhood
When men and women finish school and start working, they’re paid pretty much equally. But a gender pay gap soon appears, and it grows significantly over the next two decades.
So what changes? The answer can be found by looking at when the pay gap widens most sharply. It’s the late 20s to mid-30s, according to two new studies — in other words, when many women have children. Unmarried women without children continue to earn closer to what men do.
The big reason that having children, and even marrying in the first place, hurts women’s pay relative to men’s is that the division of labor at home is still unequal, even when both spouses work full time. That’s especially true for college-educated women in high-earning occupations: Children are particularly damaging to their careers.
But even married women without children earn less, research shows, because women are more likely to give up job opportunities to either move or stay put for their husband’s job. Married women might also take less intensive jobs in preparation for children, or employers might not give them more responsibility because they assume they’ll have babies and take time off. … …

***
“Spy vs. Spy” as civilization and nationhood come rolling crazily to the End (while the Beast takes over?) —
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/us/nsa-malware-case-shadow-brokers.html
Malware Case Is Major Blow for the N.S.A.
WASHINGTON — Since August, when a mysterious group calling itself the Shadow Brokers announced that it was auctioning off highly classified National Security Agency hacking tools, a low-grade panic has seized the nation’s largest intelligence agency.
In April, when the Shadow Brokers dumped dozens of the agency’s software exploits on the web, free to criminals and foreign spies alike, the clock began ticking toward inevitable calamity. And since Friday, the agency has watched as malicious software based on its creations spread across the world, shutting down hospitals, disrupting rail traffic and spurring frustration and chaos in some 150 countries.
“For half a century, N.S.A. pried into other people’s secrets,” said Amy B. Zegart, a Stanford University professor who studies intelligence agencies. “Now they’re suddenly sitting ducks who have their secrets stolen and used around the world.” … …

***
The sad state of the physical planet —
(Check the photos.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/world/australia/henderson-island-plastic-debris-south-pacific.html
A Remote Pacific Island Awash in Tons of Trash
Henderson Island ought to be one of the most pristine places on earth: an uninhabited South Pacific atoll so remote that the nearest human settlement is the small island 120 miles away where the Bounty mutineers hid out.
But the atoll’s white sand beaches are littered with tons of multicolored plastic junk, deposited there by ocean currents. … …
***
(May 18)
Cyborg enhanced humans coming soon to a Lowe’s near you?! —
(Shucks, I’d even try one of these as it doesn’t need a machine-to-brain interface!  Great for hiking?) (see video)
http://newatlas.com/lowes-exoskeleton/49557/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=8b53761576-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-8b53761576-91592265
Exoskeletons may be coming to a hardware store near you
As anyone who has stocked shelves in a big-box retail store knows, there's a lot of squatting and heavy lifting involved – injuries can and do occur. That's why hardware chain Lowe's has collaborated with Virginia Tech to create a new lift-assist exoskeleton for use by its employees. Four of the devices are currently being trialled at a Lowe's store in Christiansburg, Virginia. … …

***
The shape of things unfolding—
The end of paralysis, gene-editing, “living” practical quantum computers, and other “miracles” without the Divine.  Brave New World of the last human empire?

https://www.technologyreview.com/lists/technologies/2017/?utm_campaign=add_this&utm_source=email&utm_medium=post

10 Breakthrough Technologies 2017
These technologies all have staying power. They will affect the economy and our politics, improve medicine, or influence our culture. Some are unfolding now; others will take a decade or more to develop. But you should know about all of them right now.
hese technologies all have staying power. They will affect the economy and our politics, improve medicine, or influence our culture. Some are unfolding now; others will take a decade or more to develop. But you should know about all of them right now. … …

***
A dystopian disneyland along the coast of Italy, “the tragic kingdom” instead of “the magic kingdom” ? —
Will Civilization “end with a bang or a whimper” asked T.S Eliot?
Forsaken Village on Italy’s Coast Tells Tale of a Paradise Lost
VILLAGGIO COPPOLA, Italy — When Villaggio Coppola was built in the 1960s along the western Mediterranean coast of Italy, just north of Naples, the aspiration was of a utopian residential area.
But as it turns out, utopia quickly took a wrong turn. Around 12,000 apartments, along the seaside and in the nearby town of Castel Volturno, were built in violation of zoning laws, at a time when local authorities ignored development along the coast. Eventually, many residents were forced to leave.What remains today looks less like a utopia than a paradise lost, a site of abandonment and degradation, and a concentration of southern Italy’s abiding troubles: criminality, lax local governance and extreme poverty.

***
Updating the Googleverse—  (“everywhere with everyone” even now)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/17/technology/google-io-conference.html
Google Wants to Be Everywhere With Everyone
(excerpt)…Google’s ambition, as Mr. Pichai and the speakers that followed him made clear, is to knit all those devices and services together. Google users — which means just about everyone, in Google’s vision — will interact with the company all day long and do it so seamlessly that they barely notice it.
The smartphone, which allowed people to slip the chains of the desktop, first pushed Google in this direction. Machine learning and artificial intelligence are now speeding it along.
“In an A.I.-first world, we are rethinking all our products,” Mr. Pichai said.
The future that the company sketched out was one in which people communicate with their Google devices by talking to them rather than typing.  And the machines will anticipate trouble without your asking. They will warn you, for instance, that you need to leave for your child’s soccer game 15 minutes early because there is heavy traffic.

Simply pointing a phone at a restaurant would bring up reviews of it. And a search for a small product — a screwdriver, say — in a vast hardware store would be enabled by what Google calls Visual Position Service.
“GPS gets you to the door, and then V.P.S. can get you the exact item you’re looking for,” said Clay Bavor, Google’s virtual reality team leader. With an audio interface, V.P.S. would be a gift to the vision-impaired.
What could possibly stop Google? … …

***

(May 19)
What’s buried under the ice of the continent Antarctica?  Conspiracy Theorists ad antiquiam speculate on pyramids, sunken cities, an entrance to a hollow Earth.  The Nazis reportedly had great interest. (Even Fox and Dana found a giant UFO there, wink!)  Will the melting of the ice cover reveal End of the Age secrets as well as flooding major coastal cities?  A NYT interactive feature—

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/18/climate/antarctica-ice-melt-climate-change.html
MILES OF ICE COLLAPSING INTO THE SEA

THE ACCELERATION is making some scientists fear that Antarctica’s ice sheet may have entered the early stages of an unstoppable disintegration.
Because the collapse of vulnerable parts of the ice sheet could raise the sea level dramatically, the continued existence of the world’s great coastal cities — Miami, New York, Shanghai and many more — is tied to Antarctica’s fate. … …

***

I recently reported (April 30 blog update) on “lyrebird” apps that will allow the creation of video and audio of a person saying anything they want to put into his mouth.  Here’s another group working on this.  This truly invades the subjects very being, but it may backfire and cause all video and audio testimony to be discounted as liable to digital falsification? (Spy v.Spy again?  …or the double-edged sword of “The Knowledge of Good and Evil”?)

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2131716-ai-can-doctor-videos-to-put-words-in-the-mouths-of-speakers/
AI can doctor videos to put words in the mouths of speakers

Artificial intelligence can put words right into your mouth. A new system takes a still image of a person and an audio clip, and uses them to create a doctored video of the person speaking the audio. The results are still a little rough around the edges, but the software could soon make realistically fake videos only a single click away.
It works by first identifying facial features using face-recognition algorithms.  As the audio clip plays, the system then manipulates the mouth of the person in the still image so that it looks as if they are speaking. Very little pre-processing is required, so all of this can be done in real time.
“With the old method, if you’re trying to redub footage of David Cameron, for example, it’s easy because there are hours of video,” says Chung. But for less well-known figures this would be a lot harder because there isn’t the wealth of images to take from. Chung also thinks the new method could be useful for redubbing animations.
At the moment, these systems focus on changing the shape of the mouth, but it’s only a matter of time before they can also change facial expressions and posture, says Alex Champandard, co-founder of creative.ai, which makes artificial intelligence tools for artists.
“The application we’re thinking of is redubbing a video into another language,” says Ioon Son Chung  at University of Oxford, one of the creators of the system. In the future, the audio from news clips could be automatically translated into another language and the images updated to fit.
This isn’t the first system to automatically adjust images to new audio, but others have needed large amounts of video to work. They would pair up the way a person’s mouth moved when they made different sounds and then use that part of the image in edited footage.
“Pretty soon we will have trouble distinguishing between real and fake video,” says Champandard. Given enough time, experts can already create fake videos that are virtually indistinguishable from genuine ones. Artificially intelligent tools are making the process so quick and easy, that eventually almost anybody could do it.
This could cast doubt on the reliability of video evidence when it comes to court cases. This could mean more reliance on witness testimony and forensic science. “What does a post-AI legal system look like? Nobody knows,” says Champandard.

***
(May 21)
Revolution in Venezuela?  God save!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuela-anti-government-unrest-marks-50th-day-huge-205225227.html
Venezuela anti-government unrest marks 50th day with huge marches
CARACAS/SAN CRISTOBAL, Venezuela (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets on Saturday to mark 50 days of protests against the unpopular government of President Nicolas Maduro, with unrest gaining momentum despite a rising death toll and chaotic scenes of nighttime looting.
At least 46 people have been killed in the worst turmoil faced by Maduro since he won the presidency in 2013. Venezuelans from civilians to police have been killed, sometimes during increasingly frequent spates of looting or street melees. … …

***

“On that bright and cheerful morning when the dead in Christ shall rise,
And the morning breaks eternal bright and fair;
When the Saved of Earth shall gather over on the other shore;
And when the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there!”

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May 14

Saints, 

Today marks the 69th anniversary of Israel’s birth in 1948.  Seventy years is one of the generation markers of the Scriptures (others being 40 and 100).  For certain, very few if any will be living from one generation to the next by the time any 100 year period passes.  And Jesus said that the generation that sees the rebirth of national Israel will not pass until He returns (Mt. 24:32-35, Mk. 13:28, 29).  In our time, and with mission groups like Jews for Jesus which began in the ’70’s, many Jews have become Christians while maintaining their cultural and national identity.  These are a kind of “first fruits” of the eventual national conversion of Israel.  But many heresies have also arisen, and an amorphous movement tagged “the Hebrew Roots movment” has returned to what Paul called “judaizing” (Gal. 2:14, Gk.), the insistence on keeping the ritual laws and returning to animal sacrifices, etc., things that have been put aside by the New Testament and the Gospel of the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Lamb (sacrifice) of God.  Some claim that there are two modes of salvation, one for the Jews and one for the Gentiles, but the whole of the New Testament rails against such false distinction.  Paul says the Jews have a great advantage in that the Scriptures were committed to them (Rom. 3:2), but without saving faith in Jesus, they remain in the darkness of Sin as does all flesh — and their own Scriptures testify against them.

We can rejoice in these times because of the nearness of fulfillment of our Lord’s return for those who watch for Him.  Israel and the Jews are of extreme, paramount significance as far as prophetic fulfillment and our watching are concerned.  But no earthly or fleshly association, no religious practice, can save a person.  Only faith in Jesus saves.  Israel will be the chief of nations in the 1000 year Millennial Reign of Christ, ruling from Jerusalem or by his surrogate, the resurrected King David, there.  But Christ will redeem only a remnant from the Jews, those who believe in Him and welcome his return, to start the new National Israel of that era.  Their own prophet, Zechariah (13:8, 9) says that two out of three of presently restored Israel (May 14, 1948) will perish in the “time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer. 30:7), by the end of the Great Tribulation, before the final 1/3 turn and fully recognize their Messiah and receive Him.  They will constitute the new National Israel in the Millennial Reign.  Jesus said to the unbelieving Jews of his day, “Behold your house is left unto you desolate.  For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” (Mt. 23:38, 39)

As with everyone who still needs saving faith in Christ, we should pray that many of them will be saved, and we should labor accordingly, extending mercy to all.  As to prophecy, we can rejoice that the days are at hand, in all the signs of Israel and in all the world, when Christ will come to deliver the Remnant among all men who will believe in Him.

***
Tides of the Week —

(May 8)
Political / Judicial Hope?  Conservatism itself is not divine righteousness, but God Who turns kings’ hearts where He will can use it to set timing as He wishes.  One of our jobs is to pray for righteousness on the Earth until the time of the fullness of judgment arrives.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/07/us/politics/trump-lower-court-nominees-conservatives.html
Trump to Announce Slate of Conservative Federal Court Nominees
WASHINGTON — Having filled a Supreme Court vacancy, President Trump is turning his attention to the more than 120 openings on the lower federal courts. On Monday, he will announce a slate of 10 nominees to those courts, a senior White House official said, the first in what could be near monthly waves of nominations.
The White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, said the nominations were a vindication of a commitment Mr. Trump made during the campaign “to appoint strong and principled jurists to the federal bench who will enforce the Constitution’s limits on federal power and protect the liberty of all Americans.” … …
***
Old wounds run deep — Hatreds won’t be mollified until the Prince of Peace sets them right.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/07/us/new-orleans-monuments.html
Tempers Flare Over Removal of Confederate Statues in New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS — For Malcolm Suber, the Confederate monuments that dot this Deep South city stand for white supremacy, pure and simple. Instead of just taking them down, Mr. Suber, an African-American activist and organizer, would like to see the city pass out sledgehammers and “let everybody take a whack — just like the Berlin Wall.”
For Frank B. Stewart Jr., a white New Orleans native, the city government’s plan to remove the statues — an idea championed by New Orleans’s white mayor, Mitch Landrieu — feels like an Orwellian attempt to erase history. Last week, Mr. Stewart, 81, a businessman and civic leader, argued as much in a letter he published as a two-page advertisement in The Advocate, a local newspaper.
“I ask you, Mitch, should the Pyramids in Egypt be destroyed since they were built entirely from slave labor?” he wrote.
Mr. Stewart also wondered about the Roman Colosseum: “It was built by slaves, who lived horrible lives under Roman oppression, but it still stands today and we learn so much from seeing it.”
Such are the irreconcilable parameters of an ugly battle over race and history in New Orleans that seems to only be growing uglier, one that demonstrates the Confederacy’s enduring power to divide Americans more than 150 years after the cause was lost. … …

***
(May 9)
Avoid Target?

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1217
Target Doubles Down On 'Gay' Pride Despite Losses In Bathroom War

***
Yes, saints, we are in a day of a multitude of false gospels, not only in “origin issues,” but in a plentitude of deceptions.  Know your Bible and how to balance its teachings carefully:  “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”  2 Timothy 2:15.

bereancall.org Daily Update Quote for May 9
Any other gospel is another gospel and is not the true gospel. Without the creation, the gospel has no foundation; without the promised consummation, it offers no hope; without the cross and the empty tomb, it has no saving power.
--Dr. Henry Morris, Some Call It Science, 50	
***

Togarmah?  The leader of part of the land of Magog urges filling Jerusalem with Muslims?  …A thirst for the upcoming war of Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39?

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/erdogan-calls-world-muslims-flood-jerusalems-iconic-mosque-protect-its-islamic-identity-1620641
Erdogan calls on Muslims to flood Jerusalem's iconic mosque and protect its Islamic identity

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Muslims around the world to visit Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem to protect the site's Islamic identity. The Turkish leader also took the opportunity to heap scorn on Israel, likening the country's policies to South Africa's Apartheid era.
Speaking in Istanbul at a charity conference discussing Palestinian economic development, Erdogan lashed out at Israel regarding its settlement plans in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
 
"We, as Muslims, should be visiting Al-Quds more often," Erdogan said, using the Arabic name for Jerusalem. "Each day that Jerusalem is under occupation is an insult to us."
As many as 26,000 Turks visited the Temple Mount or Noble Sanctuary, in 2016. However, Erdogan emphasised "hundreds of thousands" should be visiting the site, which is considered holy by Muslims. "[It] would be the greatest support to our brothers there," he said. … …

***
May 10)

Oregon goes “genderless,” but God made the two genders and commanded respect and distinction for them — as a part of honoring Him too.

“X” (Ex?) under driver’s license gender?  Reminiscent of Orwell’s “Anti-Sex League” in 1984?  Say the Scriptures:  “…God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie…” (2 Thes. 2:10-13)

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2017/05/transgender_oregon_drivers_lic.html
Oregon may allow drivers to choose nonbinary, rather than male or female, for licenses
Oregon may soon become the first U.S. state to allow residents to identify as "nonbinary," neither male nor female, on their driver licenses and identification cards.
Transgender Oregonians say the change would validate their identities and make them safer as they hand over their licenses at restaurants, health clinics and airports. Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles officials say they have had no opposition to the change, which they first announced plans to carry out last summer.
Officials will host a public hearing on the proposed change Wednesday in Portland. If approved, Oregonians could change their licenses and identification cards beginning this summer. Instead of "F" or "M," their licenses would display "X" under sex. … …

***

“Tech-tats” — The final Mark of the Beast may have the centuries-long anticipated tattoo aspect, but the tat itself may be loaded with microcircuitry —

http://newatlas.com/future-tattoos-sensors-disappearing-ink/49457/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=eab4f20dd3-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-eab4f20dd3-91592265
Disappearing ink, tech-tats & 3D printing: A look into the future of tattoos
Almost every culture from the past 5,000 years has shown some evidence of decorative skin tinkering. As we move into the 21st century, tattoo culture, much like everything else, is being fused with technology. From tattoos that act as embedded sensors to high-tech ink that can be easily removed, tattoos in the new millennium may look similar to how they have in the past, but they may also boast some added functionality. … …

***

If evolution is finally shown to be an enormous, demonic hoax on modern man, might these apparent ape-links be instead the result of genetic experiments mixing human and animal DNA by the Nephilim (the half fallen angel and half human supermen — themselves genetic hybrids — engineered to be powerful in intellect, strength and size in the times that led up to God’s judgment with the Flood)?  See Genesis 6:4 (also Jude 6-7, Mt. 24:37, Luke 17: 28 {times of Noah and the Flood, of Lot and the destruction of Sodom}).

http://newatlas.com/homo-naledi-discovery-dating-human-ancestors/49450/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=eab4f20dd3-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-eab4f20dd3-91592265
Newly discovered Homo naledi lived alongside our early ancestors

***
(May 13)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/court-rules-kentucky-print-shop-has-right-to-avoid-making-gay-pride-t-shirts-1494634288
Court Rules Kentucky Print Shop Has Right to Avoid Making Gay Pride T-shirts
The owner argued that producing the shirts promoting a gay pride festival conflicted with his beliefs
A Kentucky appellate court on Friday ruled that the Christian owner of a printing shop in Lexington had the right to refuse to make T-shirts promoting a local gay pride festival. … …

***

The first global hack at the hands of bitcoin pirates using “ransom malware.” Is this a practice run, a “sound check” for the control systems of the tech aspects of the Beast, run through the hands of the hackers as its tools?  …“Skynet” trying itself out?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/world/europe/uk-national-health-service-cyberattack.html

Hackers Hit Dozens of Countries Exploiting Stolen N.S.A. Tool
SAN FRANCISCO — Hackers exploiting malicious software stolen from the National Security Agency executed damaging cyberattacks on Friday that hit dozens of countries worldwide, forcing Britain’s public health system to send patients away, freezing computers at Russia’s Interior Ministry and wreaking havoc on tens of thousands of computers elsewhere.
The attacks amounted to an audacious global blackmail attemp spread by the internet and underscored the vulnerabilities of the digital age. … …

***
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/us/anti-gay-hate-crimes-west-virginia-court.html
Anti-Gay Attacks Not Covered by West Virginia Hate Crime Law, Court Rules
The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ruled this week that anti-gay attacks cannot be prosecuted under the state’s hate crime law, a decision that activists said diverged from recent outcomes in gay and transgender rights cases. The ruling clears the way for a college athlete accused of assaulting two gay men to be tried on lesser charges.
The case hinged on whether attacks based on sexual orientation could fall under a hate crime law that does not explicitly mention sexual orientation. Prosecuting lawyers in Cabell County, where the attack took place, argued that “sex,” which the law lists as a protected category, includes crimes committed on the basis of sexual orientation.
But the court was not convinced. In a 3-to-2 ruling handed down on Tuesday, it found that “the word ‘sex’ in West Virginia Code § 61-6-21(b) is unambiguous and clearly imparts being male or female, and does not include ‘sexual orientation,’” according to a majority opinion  written by Chief Justice Allen H. Loughry II. … …

***
Another step to cyborgery.  Now, bodily chemistry will supply electrical recharge to devices implanted in the body.  Sure, plenty of health assisted applications, but how do we keep separate from machines merging with us (and what kind of slavery will the downsides produce)?  Remember the horror of the ‘Borg humans of Star Trek!

http://newatlas.com/battery-free-implant-biosupercapacitor/49493/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=d2ec2a7708-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-d2ec2a7708-91592265
Battery-free medical implants use body's fluids as fuel
***

“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
1 Timothy 2:5

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If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

May 7

Saints, 

I start these lines by only Tuesday of this week—CBS morning news reports on anarchist riots in Portland during worldwide May 1 “May Day” celebrations, a leftover of a communism/socialism era holiday or “International Workers’ Day.”  In Texas a public, multiple stabbing on campus, and another story reports police gunning down an innocent, clean-cut, honor student, young black kid.  In the south, opponents and proponents of taking down Confederate monuments excite the passions yet remaining for the issues of the Civil War.  Meanwhile, in Missouri and the center of the country, unprecedented floods wipe away human settlement, infrastructure, and life.  May the Lord direct and keep those who fear him and hear him there.

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men (been announced to the world), teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;  Looking for that blessed hope (the Rapture, the catching up alive and resurrecting of the living Christians, even as the dead in Christ are also resurrected), and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar (costly) people, zealous of good works.”  (Titus 2:11-14)

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory...”  (2 Corinthians 4:17)

“Wherefore…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.  For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.”  (see Hebrews 12:1-3)

The globe and human society seem to be sucking down into a terrible, infernal whirlpool.  We Christians must be “in the world but not of the world,” and so we must feel the present pressures too.   Right before the seven-year Tribulation begins is a time which Jesus called “the beginning of sorrows” (Mt. 24:6, Mk 13:8).  Then comes “the time of Jacob’s Trouble” (Jer. 30:7), the great “week” (heptad) of the seven year Tribulation, and then comes the greater yet escalation of the final 3 1/2 years, called “the Great Tribulation” after the Antichrist declares that he is Jesus the Messiah and God by sitting down upon the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies of the temple that has been rebuilt just for this occasion (Mt. 24:15, Mk. 13:14, 2 Thes. 2:3-4ff.).  We may feel terrible and increasing pressure (which is what “tribulation” means), but we hope to be called up by the Rapture and to leap out of this descending whirlpool of judgment when the Lord calls and the trumpet sounds, and so we watch expectantly, and labor to finish our works and callings here.  May the Lord strengthen us day to day and in the week ahead by the marvelous Comfort and equipping of his Holy Spirit.

***
Pray for France this day!

Tales (& tallies) from the week—

(May 1)
Whew!  The event President Donald blew off.  Strange vibes from every quarter these days.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/30/business/white-house-correspondents-dinner.html?emc=edit_th_20170501&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
For Journalists, Annual Dinner Serves Up Catharsis and Resolve
WASHINGTON — Toward the end of his comic opus on the press, politics and President Trump, the “Daily Show” comedian Hasan Minhaj looked out at the hundreds of journalists gathered in a subterranean hotel ballroom here on Saturday night and declared, “This has been one of the strangest events I have ever done in my life.” … …

***
Who’dathunk?  It’s really happening.  Giant robots square off!  File under:  “If it gets any crazier…” (Armageddon’s going to be a squishy mess!)

http://newatlas.com/giant-fighting-robot-china-greatmetal-monkey-king/49286/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=22c248088e-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-22c248088e-91592265
China's Monkey King: Player 3 has entered the giant robot fight

The world's first public giant robot fight is set to take place this August, between America’s Megabots and Japan’s Kuratas. But it seems a third country is set to get in on the action, too. China has debuted a prototype of a quadrupedal, single-seat fighting robot called the Monkey King, and thrown its hat in the ring. … …

***

(May 2)
Apparently, “complementarianism” (see last blog update of April 30, “Is your pastor sexist?”…) can work very well, as was intended by the Creator…(I am unfamiliar with this duo, but may God save them and witness of their happiness to others…)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/arts/music/chris-stapleton-morgane-find-a-room-interview.html?emc=edit_th_20170502&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
For Chris Stapleton, a Fellow Traveler: His Wife, Morgane
FRANKLIN, Tenn. — At a Chris Stapleton concert, there is incendiary singing, rich celebrations of country music tradition and, most important, the eye thing. … …

***

The Sad Land of Hopeless Foolishness:  One can “cut and paste” the body, re-dress the appearance, even train the voice and perform other “psychobabble trips,” but the DNA, of the most fundamental levels of the physical human being, determines whether God intended to create a man or a woman, case by case.  To fight the Creator is misery, even if the adherent plays the blame game and blames society, mommy and daddy, and everyone else, etc.   The only hope is repentance.  God save this poor foolish fellow (see photo).  Amen.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/25/well/live/learning-to-talk-like-a-woman-or-man.html?emc=edit_th_20170502&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Learning to Talk Like a Woman (or Man)
In her 30s, Sophie Marat, now 42, used to record herself reading poetry aloud, then play it back to hear if she sounded like a woman. Ms. Marat, who is transgender, had spent years trying to remake her voice in private by speaking in a higher pitch but ultimately felt that her efforts were hopeless.

“I was feeling like changing my voice to match my gender identity was almost impossible,” she said. “It was terrible.”

Ms. Marat’s transition from male to female has been a gradual evolution. She had come out to friends and family back home in Mexico, then began to wear skirts to work as a software engineer in Manhattan. Still, her confidence would falter with everyday tasks like ordering takeout. “It was really painful to speak on the phone,” she said, “because they would reply, ‘O.K., sir.’” … ...

***

“A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand…”
(NYT editorial of keen observation)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/02/opinion/the-collapse-of-american-identity.html?emc=edit_th_20170502&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
The Collapse of American Identity
After the British writer G. K. Chesterton visited the United States for the first time, he remarked that America was “a nation with the soul of a church.”Mr. Chesterton wasn’t referring to the nation’s religiosity but to its formation around a set of core political beliefs enshrined in founding “sacred texts,” like the Declaration of Independence. He noted that the United States, unlike European countries, did not rely on ethnic kinship, cultural character or a “national type” for a shared identity.The profoundness of the American experiment, he argued, was that it aspired to create “a home out of vagabonds and a nation out of exiles” united by voluntary assent to commonly held political beliefs.But recent survey data provides troubling evidence that a shared sense of national identity is unraveling, with two mutually exclusive narratives emerging along party lines. At the heart of this divide are opposing reactions to changing demographics and culture. The shock waves from these transformations — harnessed effectively by Donald Trump’s campaign — are reorienting the political parties from the more familiar liberal-versus-conservative alignment to new poles of cultural pluralism and monism. … …

***
(May 3)
Civil War in the Failed Socialist State of Venezuela? Lord, please help the Christians there to be Salt and Light.  O God of all Providence, protect them and feed them also!
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/03/opinion/chaos-in-venezuela-nicols-maduro.html?emc=edit_th_20170503&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Chaos Looms Over Venezuela
CARACAS, Venezuela — This episode took place on my street in downtown Caracas last week. People were shouting, running past my building, trying to escape from a contingent of national guardsmen who had opened fire a block away with buckshot, rubber bullets and tear gas canisters on a peaceful demonstration outside the offices of PDVSA, the state-owned oil company.
One protester, a woman in her 60s, sought refuge from the tear gas by hiding behind a tree. We opened the door for her, but she wasn’t too happy about taking shelter; she felt that she was shirking her duty as a citizen by not facing the attackers openly. “We can’t do anything if we’re dead, Missus,” said a young man who obviously sympathized with her. “And they’re starving us to death, so nobody can stop me going out on to the streets to protest,” the woman said.
That’s what’s new in the protests taking place in Venezuela — the conviction that the 21st-century socialism begun by former President Hugo Chávez has failed and has left the country in ruins. And there are other, darker new elements involved — police brutality, mass detentions and the use of paramilitary groups armed by the government to carry out the dirty work the military doesn’t want to handle: murdering people. … …

***
May 4 /Breaking News —
Will the President reaffirm Jerusalem as the capital of Israel?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4474002/Trump-wade-Middle-East-politics-foreign-trip.html
Trump will visit Israel, the Vatican AND Saudi Arabia on his first foreign trip as he steps up Middle East peace effort
***
(May 5)
What’s wrong with this picture?  Worldwide, we are seeing the consciousness / meme / thought-process of civil war and national insurrection arising in “the zeitgeist “— the spirit of the age among the peoples:  Somalia, of course; tribal war in Sudan, Libya, and around mid and north Africa; Venezuela; even the United States where extreme polarities resist settlement and bloodier riots begin; increasing resistance by Russia and China against their own radical insurgencies; the raging divide between Sunnis and Shias in the Middle East; the endless hate between Palestinians and Israelis; the “peaceful buddhists” genociding the ethnic muslims in Burma (Myanmar); even the French and European polarities.  Will South Africa descend into tribalism, infighting and hatred and lose its democratic status among Western nations?  Will the increasing imbalances within nations and nationalism finally cave to the globalism of Antichrist — to “solve the problems”?

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1213
South African Civil War Could Plunge Continent Into Chaos

Once the most wealthy and developed nation on the continent, South Africa is quickly facing economic collapse and brimming with racial tensions that many fear could spill over into civil war.

Stoking the fears of race wars is South Africa's President Jacob Zuma who recently held a rally for 20,000 people in which he warned the white population that he was coming for their land.

"They are telling us that we will be breaking the law when we take the land -- but they broke the law first by stealing our land!"

Zuma had earlier informed the South African parliament that he planned to introduce a new law allowing land seizures to go ahead without compensation, saying all blacks should unite to "take back the land".

Mzwandile Masina, a prominent member of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), made his own incendiary contribution, warning that 'we will crush' anyone who stands 'in the way of nation building'.

Whites, who comprise four million out of a total South African population of 50 million, should expect that things will be 'very, very rough' for them, Masina warned. He told the crowd that while the white population is small in number, "we are many".

The ANC is currently training thousands of 'national rural youth service corps' at military bases. There are reports that volunteers on the two-year programmes have been promised land.

Zuma wants a "pre-colonial land audit of land use and occupation patterns" to help decide which lands need to be taken, and has said that "We need to accept the reality that those who are in parliament where laws are made, particularly the black parties, should unite because we need a two-thirds majority to effect changes in the constitution." 

Zuma is calling for this radical action in response to the rise of a rival political party known as the Economic Freedom Fighters, who have long called for the confiscation of white owned lands.

Julius 'Ju Ju' Malema, a former ANC youth leader tipped as a future South African president, made a chilling speech recently in which he said: "We are not calling for the slaughter of white people -- at least for now".  He has also proposed a plan which calls for the removal of all whites within five years.

Many South Africans have seen the writing on the wall for some time after Robert Mugabe in neighboring Zimbabwe began confiscating white farmers land and redistributing it, often with violence.  

In a similar fashion to Zimbabwe, South Africa once a net exporter of food -- is now forced to rely on imports to feed the population. 

***

(May 6)
“Blessed is the man… (that) sitteth not in the seat of the scornful…” (Ps.1).  Don’t know about you, but I cannot bear the “late night comics” anymore.  Constant high-minded, proud mocking is not the stuff of righteousness.

http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/fcc-stephen-colbert-donald-trump-1202410837/
FCC to Investigate Stephen Colbert Over Controversial Donald Trump Joke
***
https://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuela-is-starving-1493995317
Venezuela Is Starving
(excerpt):
Venezuela has the world’s highest inflation—estimated by the International Monetary Fund to reach 720% this year—making it nearly impossible for families to make ends meet. Since 2013, the economy has shrunk 27%, according to local investment bank Torino Capital; imports of food have plunged 70%.

Hordes of people, many with children in tow, rummage through garbage, an uncommon sight a year ago. People in the countryside pick farms clean at night, stealing everything from fruits hanging on trees to pumpkins on the ground, adding to the misery of farmers hurt by shortages of seed and fertilizer. Looters target food stores. Families padlock their refrigerators.

Three in four Venezuelans said they had lost weight last year, an average of 19 pounds, according to the National Poll of Living Conditions, an annual study by social scientists. People here, in a mix of rage and humor, call it the Maduro diet after President Nicolás Maduro. … …

***

“Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers,
and shut thy doors about thee: 
hide thyself as it were for a little moment,
until the indignation be overpast.”
Isaiah 26:20

Take shelter by walking in the Spirit.

*******************************************
If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

April 30

Saints, 

The world trembles and quakes like a great bowl of jello.  Pray for the USA that the divided polarity, turned very hateful, will not create a civil war or an insurgency of those who want to topple the giant.  Pray for Venezuela on the brink of civil war with many privations including increasing hunger.  Pray for the people of North Korea that they will be protected, the Christians actually “hidden” from mass bombing or tactical, battlefield nukes by their enslaved interment in rural camps.  Pray for the thick mass of humanity in Seoul, that the madman of the North will be deferred from raining weapons upon them.  Pray for his own goose-stepping, fearing soldiers that God will spare and free many.  Pray for wisdom and guidance for Trump and Pence and the whole administration that God would put them on their knees before Him.  Pray for the French that they will be the second party to resist the spirit of antichrist, and that God will awaken and save many through a resurgence of the True Faith and a resistance against false faiths.  Pray for the Syrians that God would spare many of them by the power of the Gospel.  Pray for the Copts, that God will deliver and enliven this most ancient church and give them protective favor with their government.  Amen.  God rest you in Christ in the oncoming week.

***
some movements of the week —

(April 23)
Christian media networks — Fingers of Faith reaching into the fabric of the world?  Let’s hope so.  Some write them all off as full of horribly compromised heresies; others swallow every bite.  But God does work in mysterious ways:  The enemy is always trying to alter and distort the message — the reach of the long fingers of the Harlot deep into the Church — but the Holy Spirit also reaches out into the world and even to the unregenerate religious to woo sinners up out of the masses when they don’t often even realize they are being prepared for salvation and to become the Bride of Christ.  Bride or Harlot?  How do we call it, case by case?  With careful Scriptural watchfulness and prayer: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”  (1 Peter 5:18) 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/22/style/forget-netflix-and-chill-try-pure-flix-and-pray.html
Forget Netflix and Chill. Try PureFlix and Pray.
***
True Science cannot be atheistic; agnostic maybe, but if God is outrightly ruled out, then the science is not objective-possibilities-science but dogmatic opinion.  Much present “science” is utterly tainted with bigoted atheism.
The big “Earth Day” “rally for science,” is it a new thrust of science as political dogma? —
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/22/science/march-for-science.html
Scientists, Feeling Under Siege, March Against Trump Policies
WASHINGTON — Thousands of scientists and their supporters, feeling increasingly threatened by the policies of President Trump, gathered Saturday in Washington under rainy skies for what they called the March for Science, abandoning a tradition of keeping the sciences out of politics and calling on the public to stand up for scientific enterprise.
As the marchers trekked shoulder-to-shoulder toward the Capitol, the street echoed with their calls: “Save the E.P.A.” and “Save the N.I.H.” as well as their chants celebrating science, “Who run the world? Nerds,” and “If you like beer, thank yeast and scientists!” Some carried signs that showed rising oceans and polar bears in peril and faces of famous scientists like Mae Jamison, Rosalind Franklin and Marie Curie, and others touted a checklist of the diseases Americans no longer get thanks to vaccines. … …

***
Asteroid mining only eight years away?  There is nothing in Scripture forbidding expansion into space, some hints that it may occur (e.g., Ps. 139:8a and others), and the Millennial Kingdom may allow the surviving mortal men after Armageddon and the Second Coming to form a galactic empire with the Earth as the center, and the place to which all combatants shall descend at the end of the Millennium in Revelation 20:9.  We shall see, and this is but projected speculation at this time, BUT, before we spread into space, IF the facts of the Second Coming are sure and true (They are!), then Christ must come before the populace spreads out into the solar system and beyond.  The spirit of Antichrist will try to deny this, and to place colonies on Mars, the Moon, some of the moons of the big planets, try to find “stargates,” etc. to try to outflank Christ.  They will not succeed, and as is often the case in history, morality, etc., the Enemy tries to bring in advances meant to be like the unfolding revelations of God but before their time as he tries to “out create” God.  This has been a pattern since very early on when he promised Eve with the Lie, “Ye shall be as gods.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-23/space-the-final-frontier-seen-for-earth-s-crude-oil-giants
Space May Be Next Frontier for Earth's Crude Oil Giants: Analyst
…Navitas expects companies to launch satellites searching for rare gases and metals in asteroids within five years, with actual mining happening within eight. A single asteroid might contain 175 times more platinum than the Earth mines in a year, Goldman said, citing a project associated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. That much platinum could be worth $25 billion to $50 billion, although it would likely crater the market for the metal. … …

***

(April 24)
Jack Ma predicts Robot Overlords within 30 years —  (I doubt it will take that long! in fact it may now be more in place that we can yet realize.)

http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/24/technology/alibaba-jack-ma-30-years-pain-robot-ceo/
Jack Ma: In 30 years, the best CEO could be a robot
Even top tech executives think they could be replaced by robots one day.
Alibaba founder and chairman Jack Ma, the man Fortune Magazine just named one of the world’s great leaders, predicts that technology will make many CEOs irrelevant in the not-too-distant future.
"In 30 years, a robot will likely be on the cover of Time Magazine as the best CEO," Ma said in a speech over the weekend at an entrepreneurship conference in central China. And he warned of dark times ahead for people who are unprepared for the upheaval technology is set to bring.
"In the next three decades, the world will experience far more pain than happiness," the billionaire said, adding that education systems must raise children to be more creative and curious or they will be ill-prepared for the future.
Robots are quicker and more rational than humans, Ma said, and they don't get bogged down in emotions -- like getting angry at competitors. … …

***
(April 25)
Signs of the End of our Civilization?  …like Vandals coming over the walls of Rome?  …the fruit of social media?

http://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/BART-takeover-robbery-50-to-60-teens-swarm-11094745.php
BART takeover robbery: 40 to 60 teens swarm train, hold up riders
BART police are beefing up patrols at Oakland stations after dozens of juveniles terrorized riders Saturday night when they invaded the Coliseum Station and commandeered at least one train car, forcing passengers to hand over bags and cell phones and leaving at least two with head injuries.

The incident occurred around 9:30 p.m. Saturday. Witnesses told police that 40 to 60 juveniles flooded the station, jumped the fare gates and rushed to the second-story train platform. Some of the robbers apparently held open the doors of a Dublin-bound train car while others streamed inside, confronting and robbing and in some cases beating riders.

“I’ve been there 24 years and this is the first time I’ve heard of anything like this happening,” said Keith Garcia, a BART police officer and union president.  … …

***

With rapidly advancing apps/programs/algorithms, videos and audios of you can be made to say or do anything.  Best defense:  citing these computer abilities and denying any and all computer evidence?  Is the new Montreal company’s name, “Lyrebird,” supposed to evince images of the musical instrument, the lyre, or is it a pun on “liar bird”?  Can you be done-in by computerized parrot algorithms?  Can the simulation be so seamless, maybe just a few changed words, that you will not be sure yourself, relying on memory in the face of “evidence,” about what you were saying or meaning?  Talk about “fake news.”  Will any of us have the sense to stay sane and grounded?  Best time in history to cling to the Word of God which changes not!
https://thenextweb.com/apps/2017/04/24/eerie-tech-promises-promises-to-copy-anyones-voice-from-just-1-minute-of-audio/#.tnw_6Spk56DO
Eerie tech promises to copy anyone’s voice from just 1 minute of audio
I’m not sure how I feel about the upcoming launch of Montreal-based Lyrebird’s new service. The company says its API will let you synthesize speech in anyone’s voice from just a minute-long recording – which means you could, for instance, generate a clip of President Trump declaring war on Canada.
Lyrebird has posted some audio examples that sound pretty convincing (listen below, and find more on this page). The company says that it doesn’t require the speaker to say the words that you’ll use the voice to speak in the audio you generate, and it’ll also be able to create different intonations. … …

***
bereancall.org Daily Update for April 26 / Lord Jesus, keep us mindful and prayerful daily for the Church under deadly persecution.
[Anglican] Canon Andrew White - known as the "Vicar of Baghdad" - has reached a painstaking conclusion: Christianity is all but over in the land where it all began.
"The time has come where it is over, no Christians will be left. Some say Christians should stay to maintain the historical presence, but it has become very difficult. The future for the community is very limited," White told Fox News this week. "The Christians coming out of Iraq and ISIS areas in the Middle East all say the same thing, there is no way they are ever going back. They have had enough."
Thirty years ago, there were approximately 1.4 million Christians in Iraq. The number dwindled to around 1 million after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, and a year ago it was estimated that there were less than 250,000 left. Numbers have continued to decline as families flee, and today even approximate figures are difficult to obtain.
Hollie McKay, " Christianity in Iraq is finished, says Canon Andrew White, 'vicar of Baghdad'," FoxNews Online, March 21, 2017)
[TBC: Canon White needs to believe the Scriptures and trust the Lord, who concerning the Church promised in Matthew 16:18 "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Our resurrected Savior promised in Matthew 24:14 that, "this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." The adversary erects barriers to the Gospel, whether they be communism, fascism, or religious opposition in the form of Hinduism, Buddhism, or Islam, et al. Regardless of persecution, the Church will always have a remnant that can be used by the Lord to extend His kingdom.]

***
(April 27)
Here it is — Science-Fi Coming to Pass Again — ultimate dehumanization?  “Mommy and Daddy” to become naughty words no longer allowed by advancing Political Correctness? (Aldous Huxley long ago also predicted the denigration of motherhood and Political Correctness — “NewSpeak” — a spell over the masses, in Brave New World.)
http://newatlas.com/artificial-womb-premature-babies/49207/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=b9434b723c-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-b9434b723c-91592265
Artificial womb to give premature babies a better start
Every year, about 15 million babies are born prematurely, and all sorts of complications arise as a result. Those that survive their first year of life have an increased risk of lifelong conditions. To care for those early arrivals, researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have created an artificial womb that recreates the conditions needed to let their organs fully develop. Animal tests have been encouraging, with premature lambs developing normally after spending up to four weeks in the device. … ...

***
The utter hypocrisy of the “free speech” Radical Left.  America still increasingly divided?  A new terroristic/guerrilla civil war ahead?

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-coulter-berkeley-20170426-story.html
Ann Coulter says she will not speak at Berkeley: 'It’s a sad day for free speech'
The controversy over conservative commentator Ann Coulter’s planned appearance this week at UC Berkeley  took another turn Wednesday when she and her sponsors pulled out — even as campus police readied anyway for “riot-like” demonstrations.
“I’m so sorry for free speech [being] crushed by thugs,” Coulter posted on Twitter in announcing that she had abandoned efforts to find a campus venue where she could speak Thursday. … …

***
(April 28)
“…fire in the walls of Damascus…” promised the prophets.  Are these the beginnings?
(Isaiah 17:1 ff., Jeremiah 49: 23-27, Amos 1: 3-6)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/27/world/middleeast/syria-damascus-airport-israel-hezbollah.html
Syria Blames Israel for Attack on Damascus Airport
JERUSALEM — Syrian and rebel officials blamed Israel for several explosions Thursday morning at warehouses near the Damascus airport that the Israeli news media said were housing weapons bound for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. … …
***
An Expansion on Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics? …now to protect humans transitioning to cyborg enhancements?
http://newatlas.com/neuroscience-human-rights/49235/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=de4fa0fba3-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-de4fa0fba3-91592265
Four new human rights proposed to protect us from mind reading and brain hacking
The human brain is an enigma wrapped in a skull, but the field of neuroscience is beginning to unravel its secrets. What we learn could be used for good – such as how to develop prosthetic limbs  and  wheelchairs that can be controlled directly by a patient's thoughts – or bad, like the possibility of mind-controlled weaponry. To help us navigate the potentially murky waters of probing and peering into the human mind, researchers from Switzerland have proposed four new human rights relating to limitations on how the brain should be read or manipulated. … …

(further excerpts):  But there's a dark side to the technology. Unlocking the secrets of the brain may leave our innermost thoughts open to being hacked, read and shared without our consent, we could lose our sense of self, or in the worst case scenario, we could be effectively driven insane.
"The mind is a kind of last refuge of personal freedom and self-determination," say the researchers. "While the body can easily be subject to domination and control by others, our mind, along with our thoughts, beliefs and convictions, are to a large extent beyond external constraint. Yet, with advances in neural engineering, brain imaging and pervasive neurotechnology, the mind might no longer be such an unassailable fortress."
With these concerns in mind (pun intended), the researchers from the University of Zurich and the University of Basel proposed four new human rights that might become increasingly relevant in the near future as neuroscience advances. According to the team, every human on the planet should have the right to cognitive liberty, mental privacy, mental integrity, and psychological continuity. … … (bolding added)
***
(April 29)
We are “brothers and sisters” with all humans as to our creation, but we are not brothers and sisters in the Faith with any but fellow believers in Jesus Christ who believe that He is God become Flesh in the Incarnation, the sole and only Source of Salvation through his death for our sins, his burial, and his resurrection for those who will receive him.  That which denies this is “the spirit of antichrist,” or a replacement Christ that is different in message than the message that Jesus of Nazareth proclaims.

https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/middleeast/100000005069887/pope-francis-egypt.html
Pope Francis: We Are ‘Brothers and Sisters’
***
The Wesleys would be “spinning in their graves” that such subjects would even arise among their descendants!  God save and aid those resisting the sodomite advances in Mainline Protestantism.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/28/us/methodist-high-court-rejects-first-gay-bishops-consecration.html
Methodist High Court Rejects First Openly Gay Bishop’s Consecration
The United Methodist Church’s highest court has ruled that the consecration of its first openly gay bishop violated church law, compounding a bitter rift over homosexuality that has brought the 13-million-member denomination to the brink of schism.In a 6-to-3 vote made public on Friday, the church’s Judicial Council found that a married lesbian bishop and those who consecrated her were in violation of their “commitment to abide by and uphold the church’s definition of marriage and stance on homosexuality.”Still, the court ruled that the bishop, Karen P. Oliveto of Denver, “remains in good standing” pending further proceedings, offering her supporters a glimmer of hope. But it also raised the prospect of a suspension or forced retirement.“Under the longstanding principle of legality, no individual member or entity may violate, ignore or negate church law,” the council ruled. “It is not lawful for the College of Bishops of any jurisdictional or central conference to consecrate a self-avowed practicing homosexual bishop.” … ….
***
(Breaking News, April 30)
The Ongoing Assaults of the Whirlwinds — Let your people look to you and escape these terrors.  Use the judgments to turn others to you, Amen.

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2017/04/29/tornado-hits-canton/

5 Dead, Dozens Injured After Tornado Rips Through Van Zandt County

***
“Let not your heart be troubled:
ye believe in God,
believe also in me.”
(John 14:1)

************************************************************
If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

April 23

Saints, 

IMPLANT, IMPLANT, IMPLANT! …the word or meme of the week.  Recent punditry predicts today’s smart phone will soon go the way of the 8-track tape player — to be replaced with the next fad, the brain implant.  So, like it or hate it, embrace it or   oppose it, the semanticised word will get into your head (no pun intended, not to mention, the actual tech in your head).  Remember, not a year ago, when you couldn’t get away from hearing the big new word of thought control, “transgender”?  Now, like it or not, one would feel like an embarrassed throwback to speak of mere “cross-dressing,” “drag,” “drag queen,” etc.  If used by the “cool elect,” these terms might still pass for nostalgic, insider hipness, but if anyone else used them, it would border on “hate crime.”

So goes the march into hell, the traffic on “the highway broad and wide, where many enter, leading to destruction” (Matt. 7:13).  Such propaganda efforts are parts of the mass spells being cast over the planet by “the powers and prinicipalities,”  “the rulers of the darkness of this world,” “spiritual wickedness in high places.”  (review Ephesians 6:10-18.)

Add to these things, terror erupting here and there planet-wide (and nearly daily), the movement of global politics to shape the fields of Armageddon, the deadly and constant harvest of “the Opioid Epidemic,” and we face a battlefield so wide, that we must remind ourselves, in watchfulness and prayer, that “greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

BUT HE IS!  BLESS HIS NAME THIS DAY!  Lord, preserve us, help us to be full of faith, and strong in the might of your Word and Spirit.

***
drift of the week—

(April 17)
Turkey acknowledges a major change from western-oriented, democratic-leaning, even NATO member TO Islamic, Ottoman dictatorship?  (…though an almost equal minority resist it.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/16/world/europe/turkey-referendum-polls-erdogan.html?emc=edit_th_20170417&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Erdogan Claims Vast Powers in Turkey After Narrow Victory in Referendum
ISTANBUL — A slim majority of Turkish voters agreed on Sunday to grant sweeping powers to their president, in a watershed moment that the country’s opposition fears may cement a system of authoritarian rule within one of the critical power brokers of the Middle East. … …

***
(April 19)
Remembering my own apolitical stance, I just had to show you this NYTimes headliner for April 19.  Last time I checked, “narrowly missing an outright win” was called losing.  I point these two NYT headlines out and compare them not for the sake of politics but to illustrate the daily downpour of mind-bending propaganda we face —

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/us/politics/georgia-special-election.html?emc=edit_na_20170419&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta
Jon Ossoff, a Democrat, Narrowly Misses Outright Win in Georgia House Race
Compare this to the April 12 NYTimes piece, where I noted the same spin in reverse in my last blog post of April 16, where a 7 point win was called “surviving a tight race” —
	https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/11/us/politics/kansas-special-election.html?emc=edit_th_20170412&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
	Ron Estes, a Republican, Survives Tight House Race to Win Kansas Seat
***
Know your enemy, not flesh and blood but the dark powers:  A feminist, LBGTQQ, etc. rant against biblical authority, exalting present progressive wishes and values as the surpassing truth —
“Complementarian” is a kind word, suggesting the original complementary roles between man and woman as established by the Creator and redeemed by his Word, but this “christian feminist” makes the word a blasphemy to her cause.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/opinion/is-your-pastor-sexist.html?emc=edit_th_20170419&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Is Your Pastor Sexist?
SYDNEY, Australia — The fight among Christians over the status and role of women is usually buried out of view. Anger at continuing inequality is not deemed pious or pretty by the faithful. Disputes usually stay private.But this pattern was broken recently by a very public uproar when a prominent theological college announced its award of a prestigious prize to a high-profile preacher who does not believe that women or L.G.B.T. people should be ordained.

On most grounds, Princeton Theological Seminary’s decision to give the Kuyper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Witness to the Rev. Tim Keller would seem a safe one. Dr. Keller is the founding pastor of the flourishing Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, a gifted preacher and a best-selling author of theological works. I attended his church for some years when I lived in New York, largely because of the high caliber of his sermons.

What Princeton failed to consider, though, is that Dr. Keller is also a complementarian. The word is not greatly used outside church circles, but it refers to those who believe the Bible set forth that men should lead and have authority over women, and that married women must submit to their husbands. Among more conservative Protestant denominations, the interpretations of this doctrine of “male headship” vary widely, but it is applied in both the home and the church, where women are not ordained. … …

***
An update on DARPA’s “Brain Initiative,” begun in 2013.  Rewiring the human brain, nervous system and body to be digitally compliant: the era of the human cyborg arrives:  key word:  implant.

http://www.darpa.mil/program/our-research/darpa-and-the-brain-initiative

DARPA and the Brain Initiative

***
(April 20)
Revolution in Venezuela?  Human suffering cresting there?  A post-socialist apocalypse?  From floating in oil revenues to floating in garbage?  Lord, we pray for your mercy on the Venezuelans.  Help them turn to you.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/world/americas/venezuela-caracas-maduro-protests.html?emc=edit_th_20170420&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0

At Least 3 Die Amid Clashes as Protesters Swarm Venezuelan Cities
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — Protesters demanding elections and a return to democratic rule jammed the streets of Caracas and other Venezuelan cities on Wednesday. National Guard troops and government-aligned militias beat crowds back with tear gas, rubber bullets and other weapons, and at least three people were killed, according to human rights groups and news reports.
President Nicolás Maduro defied international calls, including a plea from the American State Department, to allow peaceful assemblies and ordered his forces into the streets. Some demonstrators, wearing masks to protect themselves from tear gas, fought back with firebombs. … …
***
(April 20, afternoon)
The Siege of France?  Terror stories worldwide daily now.  Will the West wake up in time?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/20/paris-police-close-part-city-centre-amid-reports-officers-shot/
Paris attack: police officer and suspect shot dead on Champs Elysees
***
http://newatlas.com/facebook-f8-building-8-brain-typing-skin-hearing/49106/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=730a75ac20-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-730a75ac20-91592265
Mental typing? Hearing through your skin? Facebook is working on it
***

(April 21)
More on brain implants — now cited for offering cures for epilepsy and dementia — but these will still ride astride the very seat of human consciousness, to be AI and machine monitoring/controlling of human thought —

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/20/health/brain-memory-dementia-epilepsy-treatments.html
‘Pacemaker’ for the Brain Can Help Memory, Study Finds
***
“IMPLANTS! IMPLANTS! IMPLANTS!  GET YOUR FRESH, HOT IMPLANTS!”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-lays-out-plans-to-meld-brains-and-computers-1492738741
Elon Musk Lays Out Plans to Meld Brains and Computers
Startup Neuralink aims to treat disabled and ultimately create a new language of ‘consensual telepathy’
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk on Thursday confirmed plans for his newest company, called Neuralink Corp., revealing he will be the chief executive of a startup that aims to merge computers with brains so humans could one day engage in “consensual telepathy.”
Speaking to writer Tim Urban on the explainer website Wait But Why, Mr. Musk confirmed a Wall Street Journal report last month that Neuralink aims to implant tiny brain electrodes that first would be used to fight brain conditions but later help humanity avoid subjugation at the hands of intelligent machines. … …

***
“...Greater is He that is in you,
 than he that is in the world.”
(1 John 4:4)

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April 16

Saints, 

No sooner did I post the April 9 blog, then ISIS blew up two Christian churches among Egypt’s Copts.  While our practices and dogmas may differ, the Copts also are among the orthodox (small “o”, not as a brand name), meaning that they confess the divinity and the humanity of Christ our Lord and declare him as the only Savior and the only Way to God.  Make no mistake, ISIS wars against the God of the Bible, against Christ, and against us, his followers.  Pray for the Copts.

God save us this “Easter Day;” let us recall to many, who do not yet believe, what this day means to us, the Church’s memorial of our “Christian Passover,” “I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE!”

I was watching a local news story on Good Friday.  Many of the poor little local pagan children had Jesus and Easter Bunny all mixed together in their own myth-making, but one little boy held his arms out wide and said, “Jesus died for us!” and a little girl spoke of him coming out of the Tomb on Easter morn.  What a day it will be when all the Earth is covered in righteousness!

God bless and keep us this day…as we rejoice!  (Lord, also protect Vice President Pence as he is in Seoul, South Korea.  Calm warmongers and turn all things to your purposes.  Hide and protect the NK Christians and the Copts in Egypt.)

***
The week — The world totters —

(April 9)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4394838/Thirteen-killed-42-wounded-Cairo-church-bombing.html
Terrifying moment one of two ISIS suicide bombers detonates outside Egyptian church after being turned away by three hero policemen in Palm Sunday massacre that killed nearly 50 Christians
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/09/world/middleeast/explosion-egypt-coptic-christian-church.html?emc=edit_na_20170409&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta&_r=0
Egypt Declares State of Emergency, as Attacks Undercut Promise of Security

***
(April 10)
Ezekiel’s Rosh and Persia (Russia and Iran) move closer as allies after Trump’s raid.  Has the U.S. moved into an area that transgresses prophetic ground, or are we a part of it? or both?

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3293221/russia-and-iran-say-they-will-respond-to-american-aggression-following-air-strike-in-syria/
THIN RED LINE Russia and Iran pledge to hit back against further Syria strikes as they blast US for ‘crossing red lines’
The command centre for the two countries and allied groups released a joint statement today saying they would ‘respond to future breaches of red lines with force’

***
Evoking a sense of Apocalypse, all of Dallas’ warning sirens wail through the night.  A Hacker.  What kind of circus of horrors will transpire as a hacked Cyber-World intrudes on the Real World?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/08/us/dallas-emergency-sirens-hacking.html?emc=edit_th_20170410&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Hacking Attack Woke Up Dallas With Emergency Sirens, Officials Say
***
The Word is a Living Oracle of the Holy Spirit and must be consumed — pursued, meditated on, sought, absorbed, devoted to — directly and regularly to maintain life and spiritual health!

bereancall.org daily update for April 11
Do not study commentaries, lesson helps or other books about the Bible: study the Bible itself. Do not study about the Bible, study the Bible. The Bible is the Word of God, and only the Bible is the Word of God.
--R.A. Torrey (28 January 1856 - 26 October 1928, American evangelist, pastor, educator, and writer)

***
(April 12)
Oh! How the Media doth spin!  A seven point spread in a political race is not “close,” but look at the NYT headline, —“Survives”  “Tight Race” and tries to turn this win for Republicans into the continual, daily trashing of the Trump Administration!  Amazing cheek! Astounding arrogance of Media partisanship!
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/11/us/politics/kansas-special-election.html?emc=edit_th_20170412&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
Ron Estes, a Republican, Survives Tight House Race to Win Kansas Seat
***
Some fun while we wait!  Even the animals anticipate the Millennium (Isaiah 11:6 — wolf and lamb lie down together — no more harm in God’s holy mountain)!  Dolphins can’t wait to surf with humans!

http://www.cornwalllive.com/dolphins-ride-waves-and-leap-in-the-air-astounding-surfers-off-sennen-cove-in-cornwall/story-30263928-detail/story.html
Dolphins ride waves and leap in the air astounding surfers off Sennen Cove in Cornwall
***
(NYTimes Breaking News, Afternoon of April 12 ) —
Whew! Nuclear Codes Level Drama.  May God save!

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/12/world/europe/tillerson-putin-lavrov-russia-syria.html?emc=edit_na_20170412&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta
Putin Meets With Tillerson in Russia After Keeping Him Waiting
***
Is it possible that humans could become so non-discriminating and “inclusive” that we will no longer have human characteristics?  Are AI algorithms warning us of such potential by their “prejudiced” reflections of us and our words?
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/13/ai-programs-exhibit-racist-and-sexist-biases-research-reveals
AI programs exhibit racial and gender biases, research reveals
***
(April 14)
Jibber-Jabber.  Double talk.  The propaganda machine of self-righteous, relativistic, “scientific” pseudo-intellectualism pretends it is more balanced and truthful than Christian Faith — 
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/13/opinion/sunday/the-evangelical-roots-of-our-post-truth-society.html?emc=edit_th_20170414&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&mtrref=undefiAned&gwh=8FA1238034E4E7A5A7CD728937F52157&gwt=pay&assetType=opinion
The evangelical roots of our post-truth society
***
(April 15)
“Where are we,” asks the world?

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/google-searches-world-war-3/2017/04/14/id/784518/
Google Searches Spike for 'World War 3'
Google released data on Friday that showed a dramatic uptick in searches for "World War 3" during April, breaking records for the most-searched term since the company began recording search data in 2004, The Hill reported. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/14/world/asia/north-korea-china-nuclear.html
China Warns of ‘Storm Clouds Gathering’ in U.S.-North Korea Standoff
France Weeps, weary cynicism —
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/14/opinion/sunday/france-in-the-end-of-days.html
France in the End of Days

***

“Up from the grave He arose
with a mighty triumph o’er his foes!
He arose a Victor from the dark domain;
Now He lives forever with his saints to reign!”

“Behold, He is not here.  He is risen!”

*********************************************************
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April 9

Saints, 

Wild-eyed sci-fi, horror, and dystopian movie plots couldn’t have more twists and turns than a week of news does now!

Let us “look unto Jesus the author and finisher or our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.  For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be weary and faint in your minds.” (Hebrews 12:2-3)

***
Some of the week — Add in the Swiss truck attack, violent storms across the south and east, etc. —

(April 4)
Mocoa — a city in Colombia which some residents now see as erased from the surface of the Earth.  May God help those with the Faith to see and know what to do and where to turn next—

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/03/world/americas/colombian-city-begins-post-mudslide-recovery.html?emc=edit_th_20170404&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
“The Bodies Are Decomposing’ After Mudslide in Colombia
…The provincial capital in the southern mountains of the country was devastated by a flood of water and debris on Saturday that has so far claimed at least 262 lives. The heavy rains caused nearby rivers to rise, generating a torrent that leveled homes and neighborhoods. … …

***

Russia, not immune from terrorism? Will such acts finally goad the Bear to go south to Ezekiel’s battle, the 2700 year old prophecy of chapters 38 and 39 awaiting fulfillment?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/03/world/europe/st-petersburg-russia-explosion.html?emc=edit_th_20170404&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Explosion in St. Petersburg, Russia, Kills 11 as Vladimir Putin Visits
***

Christless Churches — a new trend for pleasant socializing, good works and self-congratulatory group-spirit back-patting
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/03/30/clergy-who-dont-believe-in-organized-religion-humanists-think-2017-is-their-time-to-grow/?utm_term=.f8dc935140d6&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1

“Godless Congregations.”
***

(April 5)
On “the horns of a dilemma” for Christians — serious threats and counterthreats to true Christian Faith from every direction —

What strange days we live in!  For biblical Christians, we realize that “JW’s,” — “the Watchtower” are seriously heretical, indeed outside the Faith — in denying Jesus as The Son of God, indeed, God the Son.  We may allow them to practice their error  under our ideas of US Constitutional philosophies, but we can only continue to refute it.  Meanwhile, Russia has left Marxism/Communism behind and returned to a militaristic nationalism that also enshrines The Russian Orthodox Church.  This church, in its orthodoxy, embraces the true, biblical recognition of Jesus Christ as God become man, God incarnated in the flesh.  Without this, says the New Testament, there is no salvation.  Yet, the Russian Orthodox Church is also a political tool of the Russian government.  Putin himself has laid claim to a secret baptism by the ROC into personal Christian faith!  Time and Judgment Day will tell.  But issues become more complex and difficult to parse as the Enemy of our Souls works every strategic angle, plays every legal argument and tactic against each other, and pours a baptism of “fake news” all over the planet.  These things are probably too big for human society and human judgment to handle and do lead to the End of the Age…when for a time there will be “one faith to rule them all,” the reign of Antichrist.  At times, we must also simply stand under God:  “LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty:  neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.  Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as weaned child.  Let Israel (and the Church, the believer) hope in the LORD from henceforth and for ever.”  — David, Psalm 131

Meanwhile, we Christians should do all we can to know and understand the Person of Jesus Christ as well as we can and as fully as He has made revelation of Himself unto us.  Hold to the Word; turn the other cheek to enemies, but call upon  God, Who is Truth, continually.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/04/world/europe/russia-moves-to-ban-jehovahs-witnesses-as-extremist.html
Russia Moves to Ban Jehovah’s Witnesses as ‘Extremist’
***
The problem is, who protects the rest of us from forced association with that which we consider Sin?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/04/us/civil-rights-act-gay-workers-appeals-court.html
Civil Rights Act Protects Gay Workers, Court Rules
***
(Wed., 5 April, afternoon)
Yep, no comments on politics here, but Bannon has been a big issue for both sides; held as a highly important insider and strategist by the president, and now suddenly is gone!  …with Rick Perry replacing?!  Whatever the case or view, we live in extremely volatile times; US is being shaken to its roots.  Will we survive?
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/05/steve-bannon-reportedly-removed-from-national-security-council-in-reorganization.html
National Security Council shake-up: Bannon out, Rick Perry in
White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has been removed from his seat on the National Security Council, reversing one of the most controversial decisions of the young Trump administration.
A filing on Tuesday in the Federal Register did not list Bannon as a regular attendee of NSC "principals committee" meetings, as he previously was. The change adds Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, back to the committee. It also adds Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who controls the nation's nuclear arsenal.
Despite the move, Bannon retained his security clearance, NBC said. … …
By evening news, we hear that he is just going to be tending other assignments and still has his clearance; “has only attended one NSC meeting anyway…”
(April 6)
But by morning, the brouhaha gets deeper and Drudge/NYT claim he is “threatening to quit.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/us/politics/national-security-council-stephen-bannon.html
Trump Removes Stephen Bannon From National Security Council Post
WASHINGTON — For the first 10 weeks of President Trump’s administration, no adviser loomed larger in the public imagination than Stephen K. Bannon, the raw and rumpled former chairman of Breitbart News who considers himself a “virulently anti-establishment” revolutionary out to destroy the “administrative state.”

But behind the scenes, White House officials said, the ideologist who enjoyed the president’s confidence became increasingly embattled as other advisers, including Mr. Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, complained about setbacks on health care and immigration. Lately, Mr. Bannon has been conspicuously absent from some meetings. And now he has lost his seat at the national security table.

In a move that was widely seen as a sign of changing fortunes, Mr. Trump removed Mr. Bannon, his chief strategist, from the National Security Council’s cabinet-level “principals committee” on Wednesday. The shift was orchestrated by Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, who insisted on purging a political adviser from the Situation Room where decisions about war and peace are made.

Mr. Bannon resisted the move, even threatening at one point to quit if it went forward, according to a White House official who, like others, insisted on anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Mr. Bannon’s camp denied that he had threatened to resign and spent the day spreading the word that the shift was a natural evolution, not a signal of any diminution of his outsize influence. … …

The Real News Here is the concern for the American people as to whether or not Pandemonium will take over our national government.  What’s “fake news,” what’s real?  Will one derail the other?  What is happening?  How do we know?  Blame the Administration?  Blame the Press?  May God grant our prayers for righteousness to prevail.

***
(April 6)
Is the destruction of Syria the trigger for WW3?  Will the gassing of Syrians allow two fronts of war to open at the same time…with the possibility of nuclear bombing or intense conventional war erupting on the Korean peninsula?
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1139
Syria — The Start of World War 3?
***
Listen to the anti-human, antichrist, radical-feminist-leftist, former-human progressives rail with ranting screeches against Karen Pence for being womanly and Mike Pence for being a Christian man and loyal heterosexual husband.  The tongues of these demon-driven critics are set on fire by Hell Itself.  Pray for protection for the Pence family and all the Administration.

I posted “the nice little biography” of Mrs. Pence last week when it appeared in the NYTimes.  Who knew the God-haters would take such offense at the bit of pleasant reporting the Times posted?
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1139
The Left Attacks Pence's Moral Guidelines On Marriage
The left's bizarre and almost hysterical reaction to Vice President Pence's personal marital guidelines is not only totally off point. 

It actually misses the most essential point of all, namely, that it is Pence's high esteem for women - specifically, the most important woman in his life, his own wife - that fuels his moral choices. 

At the same time, the leftist response reveals a glaring blind spot when it comes to self-awareness.

The uproar began last week when the Washington Post published Ashley Parker's article, "Karen Pence is the vice president's 'prayer warrior,' gut check and shield."

The title of this article points to the important role Karen Pence plays in her husband's life, which one would think would draw praise from the feminists and the leftists. … …

***
(April 7)
Here we go!  The Lord Himself said there were be wars upon wars until the End of the Age.  Nevertheless, we are to pray for our enemies, and be willing to forgive them.  God, in your mercy, please spare Syrian soldiers according to your election.
Awaken your people also that we may be readied for the End of the Age and your catching away of the watching church.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/06/world/middleeast/us-said-to-weigh-military-responses-to-syrian-chemical-attack.html?emc=edit_th_20170407&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
Dozens of U.S. Missiles Hit Air Base in Syria
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Thursday night that the United States had carried out a missile strike in Syria in response to the Syrian government’s chemical weapons attack this week, which killed more than 80 civilians.
“Tonight, I ordered a targeted military strike on the air base in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched,” Mr. Trump said in remarks at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.”
Mr. Trump — who was accompanied by senior advisers, including Stephen K. Bannon, his chief strategist; Reince Priebus, his chief of staff; his daughter Ivanka Trump; and others — said his decision had been prompted in part by what he called the failures by the world community to respond effectively to the Syrian civil war.
***
(April 9)
A Leftist French Academic is now targeted by a fatwa (Islamic death threat).  Signs that France is coming apart?  A NYTimes investigative report.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/magazine/france-election-gilles-kepel-islam.html?emc=edit_th_20170409&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
The Professor and the Jihadi
***

“For the Lord himself shall descend 
from heaven with a shout…!”
(I Thessalonians 4:16 &ff.)

**********************************************************
If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

April 2

Saints, 

“These are the times to try men’s souls,” said Thomas Paine, but St. Paul reminds us, “…knowing the time, that now it is time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we (first) believed.”  We, in the West, suffer some affronts of terrorism and fear, but we are not yet under the constant weapons of war, or famine, of pestilence that even now plague many people worldwide.  Instead, let our own increasing trials reminds us to “Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.” (Romans 13:11, Hebrews, 13:3)

While our own country and continent are beset with twisting, ravaging and raging storms and natural events, hundreds over the last hours washed away/perished in Colombian storms (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_COLOMBIA_DEADLY_RIVER_OVERFLOW?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-04-01-14-04-10,), and recently Peru suffered storms that carried away and buried in mud at least 67 (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/17/peru-floods-ocean-climate-change).  Meanwhile, Argentina continues into mixed human disasters of failing government, economic collapse and revolution alongside starvations and plagues arising because of them. (Besides Argentina, Paraguay and Ecuador face “smoldering crises.”)  And that is just a quick look at one region of one continent of the planet!  Besides nature, war, genocide, famine and distress continue to advance out of the Middle East and out of Africa and Asia.

We must immediately and all the more teach ourselves to pray for the needs of others, instance by instance as news comes to us, and with compassion, and also to watch and pray for ourselves and our loved ones that we may be ready to help with things at hand.  “Therefore, let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.” (1 Thess. 5:6)

Yet, we can keep peace in our hearts remembering, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” (2 Cor. 4:17)

***

Of the week —

(March 26)
Just like us…no evolution says archeological curator—
NYTimes “Quote of the Day” for March 26—
Quotation of the Day: Who Killed the Iceman? Clues Emerge in a Very Cold Case
“He is so close to us. He uses the same equipment as we do when he goes to the mountain, just the materials are different. And we are still killing each other, so maybe there hasn’t been so much evolution after all.”  (emphasis added)
KATHARINA HERSE, a museum official, on the Iceman, a remarkably well-preserved 5,300-year-old mummy found in the Alps in 1991. Using new scientific information, a police inspector has reconstructed the violent final days of the Iceman’s life.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/26/world/europe/bolzano-italy-iceman-south-tyrol-museum-of-archaeology.html?emc=edit_th_20170327&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&mtrref=undefined&gwh=A6CF4B9DAC1AA4314CA3ACE66ED64243&gwt=pay
Who Killed the Iceman? Clues Emerge in a Very Cold Case
***

(March 27)
The amassed foolishness of politically corrected minds — Can’t really make men into women and women into men!

http://www.wnd.com/2017/03/female-athletes-crushed-by-women-who-were-once-men/
Female athletes crushed by 'women who were once men'
You’ve heard the expression, “Boys will be boys.” But what happens when a brawny boy wants to be one of the girls – fiercely competing with females in weightlifting, brutally tackling girls on the football field or even dealing powerful knockout punches to ladies in a mixed martial-arts cage?
It’s now happening across America and around the world. … …
*
“Political Correctness” runs amok, reaches stages of mass insanity and collective denials of reality —
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1114
Only The Beginning - Male Transgenders Begin To Dominate Female Sports
The performance was stunning, as New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard absolutely smoked the competition, beating her nearest competitor, a Samoan woman, by nearly 20 kilograms. 

The only problem is that Laurel is a biological male, born Gavin, which is why a number of the competitors felt the competition was unfair.

But of course it's unfair. Hubbard is a male, not a female, and even after months of hormone treatments, he still has unfair advantages over the other women, who sacrificed for years to make it to this elite level, only to lose to a man. How is that right?

As one woman tweeted in response to this news, "Imagine training for this your whole life, as a woman, only to have a known leader in men's weightlifting take your title."	

***
Madness in the Streets of Raqqa, “the ISIS capital,” as imminent dam collapse rumors rage—

“People are in the streets running and crying,” said a resident, who asked not to be named because of security concerns. “They seem almost drunk.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/islamic-state-dam-warning-sparks-chaos-1490566711
Islamic State Dam Warning Sparks Chaos in Raqqa
Militants claim airstrikes threaten collapse near Raqqa; U.S.-led coalition has said terror group could blow up structure
Panic swept Islamic State’s de facto capital in Syria on Sunday after extremists warned a nearby dam would collapse from U.S.-led airstrikes, prompting hundreds of fearful residents to try to escape the tightly-guarded city of Raqqa.

Families packed into cars and onto motorcycles as they zipped through the streets trying to flee, causing several traffic accidents, according to two residents inside Raqqa. Footage provided by activist groups online showed residents blaring car horns while speeding through intersections.

“People are in the streets running and crying,” said a resident, who asked not to be named because of security concerns. “They seem almost drunk.” … …
***

“Bye-Bye, Miss American Pie!” America just won’t be the same, at least for my generation, without Sears and Roebuck!

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1117
Retail Collapse Continues As Sears, Payless On The Brink

***

Three reports —

Imagine the Inescapable Insanity when an Artificial Intelligence takes over your brain, the very seat of mental consciousness and the soul!  (worse than non-stop canned rock muzak in a laundromat?  …the infamous “bells of hell”?)
This piece by NYT’s Maureen Dowd should be read by anyone concerned with how the Future seems to be breaking all around us and at breakneck speed…
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/elon-musk-billion-dollar-crusade-to-stop-ai-space-x?
ELON MUSK’S BILLION-DOLLAR CRUSADE TO STOP THE A.I. APOCALYPSE
(excerpt):
 "At the World Government Summit in Dubai, in February, Musk again cued the scary organ music, evoking the plots of classic horror stories when he noted that “sometimes what will happen is a scientist will get so engrossed in their work that they don’t really realize the ramifications of what they’re doing.” He said that the way to escape human obsolescence, in the end, may be by “having some sort of merger of biological intelligence and machine intelligence.” This Vulcan mind-meld could involve something called a neural lace—an injectable mesh that would literally hardwire your brain to communicate directly with computers. “We’re already cyborgs,” Musk told me in February. “Your phone and your computer are extensions of you, but the interface is through finger movements or speech, which are very slow.” With a neural lace inside your skull you would flash data from your brain, wirelessly, to your digital devices or to virtually unlimited computing power in the cloud. “For a meaningful partial-brain interface, I think we’re roughly four or five years away.”" … …

(March 28)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-launches-neuralink-to-connect-brains-with-computers-1490642652
Elon Musk Launches Neuralink to Connect Brains With Computers
Startup from CEO of Tesla and SpaceX aims to implant tiny electrodes in human brains

http://newatlas.com/elon-musk-neuralink-neural-lace-launch-brain-computer/48627/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=afc9a187d6-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-afc9a187d6-91592265

Elon Musk's new company aims to blend brains and bits

Elon Musk is reportedly launching yet another company with some far-out goals. The new venture, Neuralink, aims to develop a brain-computer interface (BCI) that could help treat health conditions like epilepsy in the short-term and allow humans to keep pace with artificial intelligence further down the road.
The launch of the company was made public via a Wall Street Journal report Monday and a company website also popped up that consists of nothing more than a logo and an email address, apparently to be used for inquiries from potential employees.  It's been no secret that Musk has been working on developing a so-called "neural lace" that can directly connect our minds to machines, thereby working around the lag time of current interfaces, such as keyboards, touchscreens and voice assistants, that can't quite keep up with the speed of thought.
"If you assume any rate of advancement of A.I., we will be left behind by a lot," Musk said on-stage in the below video from the 2016 Code Conference where he made the case for just such a direct brain connection. … …

***
(March 28)
Swarmbots — Automated and mass-launched drone swarm warfare.  It might or might not fulfill the swarms of stinging locusts coming out of the Abyss in Revelation 9, but surely it is a fitting and literal metaphor of them at the least!  Ho! Armageddon!
http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2017/03/russia-joins-us-race-field-gun-launched-swarmbots/136501/
Russia Joins US in Race to Field Gun-Launched Swarmbots

***

(March 29)
The Knowledge of Good Advances, and who can deny this man the help, but The Knowledge of Evil is always at hand to co-opt any of Man’s efforts, and domineering Cyborgs of massive strength and processing powers are also at hand—

http://news.sky.com/story/quadriplegic-mans-arm-and-hand-brought-back-to-life-by-thought-control-tech-10817098
Quadriplegic man's arm and hand brought back to life by thought-control tech
During trials Bill Kochevar grasped and lifted objects after having dozens of electrodes implanted in his brain and right arm.

A quadriplegic man has had his right arm and hand brought back to life with the help of thought-control technology.
Bill Kochevar, 56, was paralysed below his shoulders in a cycling accident eight years ago but can now grasp and lift objects after having two pill-sized electrodes implanted in his brain.
The electrodes record the activity of brain neurons to generate signals that tell another device to stimulate muscles in the paralysed limb.
During trials held at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, Mr Kochevar raised a mug of water to his lips and drank from a straw. … …

***

A kind little biography of the Second Lady of the Land, Mrs. Mike Pence, known first as “a prayer warrior.”
(Pray that she and the Presidential family of ladies become close spiritually.  Pray that the Holy Ghost will protect her, show her things, guide her prayers and make her a shepherdess to those around her.)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/karen-pence-is-the-vice-presidents-prayer-warrior-gut-check-and-shield/2017/03/28/3d7a26ce-0a01-11e7-8884-96e6a6713f4b_story.html?utm_term=.6d37d6abdd14
Karen Pence is the vice president’s ‘prayer warrior,’ gut check and shield

***

“I want to believe” — the famous poster Fox Mulder keeps in his office —
No surprise, the land of Californicators and Ayahuasca cults is greatly given over to paganism and idolatry and the hallucinatory crossovers to the fallen spiritual dimensions.  (God also has a remnant in California.)  UFOs could be a manifestation of fallen Ophanim, the disc/wheel, globe/sphere manifestations of Heavenly Beings of whom Ezekiel may have seen an unfallen and holy manifestation in the opening chapters of his Book (See March 12 issue)—
http://www.sfgate.com/local/article/California-top-state-UFO-sightings-11033725.php
California is the top state with most UFO sightings, say UFO experts
(excerpt):
…She said there have been more than 120,000 UFO sightings reported from 2001-2015 in the U.S. She didn't want to give away all the stats (you know, they do want you to get the book) but she said California holds down the top position with almost 16,000 sightings, and Los Angeles County outranks 40 individual states with 3,200 sightings. … …

***

Beware, “The Shack”?  Wouldn’t it be “nice” if everyone was saved, universal salvation, universalism?  It is so pleasing to the natural mind, BUT the plain teaching of Scripture does not have it so — and such delusions leave the soul unprepared and ultimately, lost.  “The Shack” isn’t “just a novel.”  It’s an ancient belief system, a theology, offered by the devil, contrary to the plain teaching of Scripture.

via bereancall.org / Today’s Update, March 29
A woman standing in line outside the theater to see The Shack movie was eager to talk with me about Paul Young's best-selling book. She said she "loved" The Shack and couldn't understand why it had so many critics on the Internet. She was especially perplexed by the number of "negative" comments made by pastors. Obviously confused by all the controversy, she suddenly exclaimed- "But The Shack is just a novel!"
What the woman and so many other Shack readers fail to take into account is that the book is much more than just a novel. It is a carefully crafted presentation of Paul Young's alternative "Christian" universalist theology based on "real" conversations he claims to have had with God. In Young's forward to The Shack Revisited, a book written by his friend C. Baxter Kruger, Young corrects any misunderstanding that The Shack is "just a novel." He writes: Please don't misunderstand me; The Shack is theology. But it is theology wrapped in story.
In Lies We Believe About God, which was released on March 7th, Young states that he believes in "universal salvation" and that "every single human being is in Christ" and "Christ is in them." Thus, Young himself makes it very clear in his own words that The Shack is not "just a novel" but rather a "cunningly devised fable" (2 Peter 1:16) for presenting some of his own heretical universalistic New Age views.
(Warren Smith,)”When People Say, 'But The Shack is Just a Novel!'" Lighthouse Trails Blog, March 13, 2017)
***
“and he (the Antichrist) shall subdue three kings…” Dan. 7:24
Breaking News NYTimes, March 29—
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/world/europe/brexit-uk-eu-article-50.html?emc=edit_na_20170329&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta
With a hand-delivered letter, Britain has officially initiated “Brexit.”  The long divorce is likely to be littered with pitfalls.
Wednesday, March 29, 2017 7:33 AM EDT
In one of the most consequential diplomatic events in Britain since World War II (underlining added), Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday sent formal notice of the country’s intention to withdraw from the European Union, starting a tortuous two-year divorce littered with pitfalls for both sides. … …

***
(March 30)
Pray for North Carolina!  They face the thinking seen in this NYTimes piece — full of twisted syntax, word and phrase choices typical of a propaganda machine — beginning with the headline;
O, Lord, give righteous legislators, judges, executors there wisdom to restrain and cast out the spirits of Sodom.  Amen.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/us/north-carolina-lawmakers-reach-deal-to-repeal-so-called-bathroom-bill.html?emc=edit_na_20170329&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta&_r=0
North Carolina Strikes a Deal to Repeal Restrictive Bathroom Law
ATLANTA — North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature and its Democratic governor announced late Wednesday that they had reached an agreement to repeal the controversial state law that curbs legal protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and sets rules that affect transgender bathroom use in public buildings.

But gay rights advocates raised objections, arguing that the compromise would continue to allow discrimination. And it was unclear late Wednesday whether the deal, if approved, would end the boycotts by sports leagues, businesses and others that have harmed the state’s reputation and economy. … …

***

What’s real now? I am still struck by the title, “Legion,” for this new cultural affectation.  The original, generic meaning of “legion” is just “many”; from there it named the size of a large force of Roman soldiers, but it is also the name of the demonic assembly Jesus cast out of the Gadarene devil-possessed troglodyte (Mark 5:9).  Will the Western world end in a hall of mirrors with no one having Truth?  Will only the reality of horrors leading up to Armageddon outline truth to a few, a besieged remnant?  It would appear we are about to find out.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/28/arts/television/legion-finale-surreality-tv.html?emc=edit_th_20170329&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
‘Legion’ and the Rise of Surreality TV
(excerpt): …These shows arrive at a time of fake news and the labeling of unwanted news as fake. Tech moguls entertain the notion that our world is a computer simulation. The White House press secretary cheerfully announces that formerly “phony” job numbers are real, now that they’re positive.
In the global media ecosystem, the threat to information is not censorship so much as an overwhelming flood of inputs — hoaxes, trolls, bots, clickbait, conspiracy theories. When everything is in doubt, anything can be true. … …

***
Science becoming its own dogma-driven “religion”?  (Make “science” to suit agenda?)

http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/03/29/j-scott-armstrong-fraction-1-papers-scientific-journals-follow-scientific-method/
Fewer Than 1 Percent Of Papers in Scientific Journals Follow Scientific Method

(excerpt):  …“We also go through journals and rate how well they conform to the scientific method. I used to think that maybe 10 percent of papers in my field … were maybe useful. Now it looks like maybe, one tenth of one percent follow the scientific method” said Armstrong in his presentation, which can be watched in full below. “People just don’t do it.” … …

***

(March 31)
This is WAY BIGGER NEWS than the words chosen by mainstream media for their headlines.  PRAISE GOD for this blow to “Planned Piranhahood” and the death butchers and abortion mongers!

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/us/politics/pence-congress-family-planning-money.html?emc=edit_th_20170331&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Senate Lets States Defund Clinics That Perform Abortions
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans, aided by Vice President Mike Pence and an ailing Georgia colleague who gingerly made his way to the Capitol with the aid of a wheelchair and a walker, voted Thursday to undo an Obama administration rule preventing states from blocking funding for family planning clinics that also provide abortions.
The vote was one of a string of showdowns to reverse Obama-era regulations, but this one unfolded with all the drama of numerous past conflicts over abortion funding — with Mr. Pence casting the tiebreaking vote in his role as president of the Senate.
“Today, Congress is sending a resolution to President Trump ensuring that states are not forced to fund America’s abortion giant, Planned Parenthood, with Title X tax dollars,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, a prominent anti-abortion group.
Taking money away from Planned Parenthood, the bill’s target, has been a longstanding goal of congressional Republicans, but earlier efforts were blocked by Democrats and President Barack Obama. Even with Republicans in full control of Washington, however, the process was not easy. … …

***
Even for those uninstructed in biblical apocalyptic prophecy, Western culture (media, literature, zeitgeist) has turned to a decidedly moribund, apocalyptic view of the present and the near future.  It’s the market for present readers.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/books/boom-times-for-the-new-dystopians.html?emc=edit_th_20170331&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Boom Times for the New Dystopians
(excerpts):
…“American War” is one of several new dystopian novels that seem to channel the country’s current anxieties, with cataclysmic story lines about global warming, economic inequality, political polarization and the end of democracy. If there’s a thematic thread connecting this crop of doomsday books, it could be crudely summarized as, “Things may seem bad, but they might become much, much worse.” … …

…But the current obsession with the collapse of civilization seems less like a diverting cultural trend and more like a collective panic attack.

As pundits and historians fret about the erosion of American democracy and the creep of totalitarianism, readers are flocking to dystopian classics like Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and Sinclair Lewis’s “It Can’t Happen Here.” Not long after Donald J. Trump’s inauguration, sales for George Orwell’s “1984” surged, spurred by controversy over Kellyanne Conway’s use of the Orwellian phrase “alternative facts.”

“People are finding comfort in dystopian books, or maybe more accurately, they’re finding answers in them,” said Matt Keliher, the manager of Subtext Books in St. Paul, who said “1984” and “The Handmaid’s Tale” are among the store’s top-selling titles. … …

***
Hilarious!  The prattle of fools (Psalm 14:1 and 53:1) that does not take God the Creator into account —

As if they know!?  The Infinite God will fold up the unsolvable depths of the 3 dimensional universe as though they were an old cloak (Psalm 102:25-27), to be put away when He is done with it!  There may be “worm holes” and “stargates” out there, even buried in the Earth here, that will make it possible for even flesh and blood to cross to any point in an endless universe at the speed of thought!  “Flat-earthers” may be right, after a sort, that multiple dimensionality will seem like a shady black and white two dimensionality when that which is yet to be shown is revealed!  (Heard the one about how many are still “Flat-earthers”?  Turns out, they’re all around the world!) 😇“Why do the people imagine a vain thing,” says the Psalmist in 2, and “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the LORD shall have them in derision.”

http://newatlas.com/dark-energy-existence-questioned/48708/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=ebbc2dc06c-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-ebbc2dc06c-91592265
Simulation suggests 68 percent of the universe may not actually exist
According to the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (Lambda-CDM) model, which is the current accepted standard for how the universe began and evolved, the ordinary matter we encounter every day only makes up around five percent of the universe's density, with dark matter comprising 27 percent, and the remaining 68 percent made up of dark energy, a so-far theoretical force driving the expansion of the universe. But a new study has questioned whether dark energy exists at all, citing computer simulations that found that by accounting for the changing structure of the cosmos, the gap in the theory, which dark energy was proposed to fill, vanishes. … …

***
Into the Matrix, music wise; let AI massage your brain continually with the right mood music—

https://deals.newatlas.com/sales/brain-fm-lifetime-subscription?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=ebbc2dc06c-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-ebbc2dc06c-91592265
Brain.fm: Lifetime Subscription
Distractions are everywhere, even in your ears when you're trying to shut the world out with music. You just can't always trust yourself or your favorite apps to deliver the most productive audio options, and that's why Brain.fm was created. Brain.fm uses AI and a wealth of neurological research to stream the best background music for studying, sleeping, or relaxation. Give yourself a productivity boost and outmatch your to-do list with Brain.fm. … …

***

(April 1)
You just can’t change nature and the overall course that God has set.  You can try; you can twist it, mutate it, propagandize against it, and make genuine efforts to correct the iniquities of the Fall, but, in a short time, generationally, it “pops back,” “the pendulum swings,” and if ceases to happen, the end of humanity is in sight.  Wise men and women stand back and let the daily babble flow on by, looking to God and his Word for balance, charity, love, mercy and to find appropriate equity in this life between them. While they hate how Sin and the Fall may trouble them, they rejoice at God’s original intents and designs and wait in hope for the Resurrection and the new world to come.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/31/opinion/sunday/do-millennial-men-want-stay-at-home-wives.html?emc=edit_th_20170401&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Do Millennial Men Want Stay-at-Home Wives?
Millennials, generally defined as people born between 1982 and 2000, were supposed to be the generation that forged what has been called “a new national consensu” in favor of gender equality. Indeed, in February the prominent Columbia professor Jeffrey Sachs labeled the 2016 election, where an extremely qualified female candidate lost to a man with a history of disrespecting women, “a blip” on the road to the egalitarian society that will be achieved once millennial voters outnumber their conservative elders.

But the millennial category lumps together everybody from age 17 to 34, a group varied by race, ethnicity, religion, income, education and life experience. Don’t think for a second they are united. As a set of reports released Friday by the Council on Contemporary Families reveals, fewer of the youngest millennials, those aged 18 to 25, support egalitarian family arrangements than did the same age group 20 years earlier.

Using a survey that has monitored the attitudes of high school seniors for nearly 40 years, the sociologists Joanna Pepin and David Cotter find that the proportion of young people holding egalitarian views about gender relationships rose steadily from 1977 to the mid-1990s but has fallen since. In 1994, only 42 percent of high school seniors agreed that the best family was one where the man was the main income earner and the woman took care of the home. But in 2014, 58 percent of seniors said they preferred that arrangement. In 1994, fewer than 30 percent of high school seniors thought “the husband should make all the important decisions in the family.” By 2014, nearly 40 percent subscribed to that premise.

A different survey found a similar trend, in this case concentrated mainly among men. In 1994, 83 percent of young men rejected the superiority of the male-breadwinner family. By 2014 that had fallen to 55 percent. Women’s disagreement fell far less, from 85 percent in 1994 to 72 percent in 2014. Since 1994, young women’s confidence that employed women are just as good mothers as stay-at-home moms has continued to inch up, but young men’s has fallen. In fact, by 2014, men aged 18 to 25 were more traditional than their elders. … …

***
Genesis 8:22 and 9: The original promise of the rainbow:

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

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March 26

Saints, 

“Livin’ the dream”?  Living in a science fiction movie?  Living in a dystopian nightmare?  Our world unravels?  Only one Place and Person of Safety, the Lord Jesus.  Cling to Him!

***
(March 20)
Is this how Armageddon will see blood running as deep as horses’ bridles (Rev. 14:20) — all those squishy little humans between the toes of Star Wars’ Giant Soldier Robots?
(See the photos and vids of Jeff getting high on his powers in a 13 foot tall “Squisher-‘bot”) —

http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/20/14979620/jeff-bezos-robot-method-2-mars2017-conference
Jeff Bezos looks a little too happy piloting a giant mechanical robot
Add this to the growing pile of evidence the world is slowly transitioning into a sci-fi dystopia: a billionaire entrepreneur with a sideline in building space rockets has been showing off by piloting a 13-foot-tall robot.
Amazon CEO and fifth richest person in the world Jeff Bezos got behind the wheel (well, dual joysticks) of the bot at the retailing giant’s annual robotics conference. He tweeted out the picture above earlier this morning saying, “I just got to pilot an awesome (and huge) robot thanks to Hankook Mirae Technology.” Other attendees videoed the event, and Bezos can be seen waving around the robot’s arms and asking: “Why do I feel so much like Sigourney Weaver?” Reports that he then told the crowd to “bow down before your new king and master, Metal Jeff” are unsubstantiated. … …
***
(March 21)
More than one way “round the mulberry bush”? Piecemeal bans?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/us/politics/tsa-ban-electronics-laptops-cabin.html?emc=edit_na_20170321&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta&_r=0
U.S. Limits Devices for Passengers on Foreign Airlines From Eight Countries
Passengers on foreign airlines headed to the United States from 10 airports in eight majority-Muslim countries have been barred from carrying electronic devices larger than a cellphone under a new flight restriction enacted on Tuesday by the Trump administration. … …

***
(March 22)
SHEEFS?  “…bringing in the sheefs”?  Peter Jackson’s masterful interpretations of Tolkien had “Orc,” human-like supersoldiers pulled out of mud baths of genetic nutrients from the depths of the pits of Saruman’s war machinery.
“SHEEFS:  “Synthetic Human Entities with Embryo-like Features”  — Unborn, lab-created human assemblages without souls (demonically powered?) and with pre-programmed usages, like war.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/21/science/embryonic-stem-cells-synthetic-embryos-sheefs.html?emc=edit_th_20170322&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
A New Form of Stem-Cell Engineering Raises Ethical Questions
As biological research races forward, ethical quandaries are piling up. In a report published Tuesday in the journal eLife, researchers at Harvard Medical School said it was time to ponder a startling new prospect: synthetic embryos.
In recent years, scientists have moved beyond in vitro fertilization. They are starting to assemble stem cells that can organize themselves into embryolike structures.
Soon, experts predict, they will learn how to engineer these cells into new kinds of tissues and organs. Eventually, they may take on features of a mature human being.
In the report, John D. Aach and his colleagues explored the ethics of creating what they call “synthetic human entities with embryolike features” — Sheefs, for short. For now, the most advanced Sheefs are very simple assemblies of cells.
But in the future, they may develop into far more complex forms, the researchers said, such as a beating human heart connected to a rudimentary brain, all created from stem cells. Such a Sheef might reveal important clues about how nerves control heartbeats. Scientists might be able to use other Sheefs to test out drugs for diseases such as cancer or diabetes.
Whatever else, it is sure to unnerve most of us. … …

***
(March 23)
The name says it all.  May God save some men from among the Khalids of this world as He did with Saul of Tarsus —

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/23/world/europe/london-attack-uk.html?emc=edit_na_20170323&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta&mtrref=undefined&gwh=F528177077CDD386C9EABECC4FCEC5D6&gwt=pay
A British man, Khalid Masood, 52, carried out yesterday’s attack in London, the police said.  ISIS has claimed responsibility

***
Wake up! …and remember how to get there!
http://newatlas.com/gps-spatial-direction-ucl/48529/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=cc8a41cb10-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-cc8a41cb10-91592265
Over-reliance on GPS could cause brain regions to switch off
For anyone who finds reading maps or asking for directions troublesome, GPS might seem like a godsend – that is, until it leads you to the middle of nowhere thanks to a satellite error. However, apart from occasionally leading drivers astray, researchers at University College London (UCL) suggest that simply following instructions given by your navigational app could have another negative effect: allowing parts of your brain to go dormant.

In the UCL study, 24 volunteers were taken on a two-hour walking tour of London's Soho neighborhood and shown 23 goal locations. The next day, the researchers tested navigation by showing each volunteer 10 simulations of routes through Soho. After being given a specific starting point, they had to navigate their way through the simulation to get to a goal location. Five of the movies required participants to make navigational decisions while the other half functioned like a GPS unit, merely directing the participants on which buttons to push to make turns.

The researchers found that there was a spike in hippocampal and prefrontal cortex activity when volunteers navigated and entered new streets on their own. This shot up even further when the number of navigational options increased when participants were in an area with several street segments. In contrast, no additional activity was detected when they simply followed the instructions given to them, a situation not dissimilar to driving based on the directions from your GPS unit.

"Entering a junction such as Seven Dials in London, where seven streets meet, would enhance activity in the hippocampus, whereas a dead-end would drive down its activity," explains senior author Hugo Spiers, a neuroscientist at UCL Experimental Psychology. "If you are having a hard time navigating the mass of streets in a city, you are likely putting high demands on your hippocampus and prefrontal cortex."

These results corroborate that of previous studies, including one by Cornell University researchers that found GPS causes drivers to disengage from and ignore their environment. … …

***
(March 26)
Will any partisan group be able to govern, or will utter breakdown rule the day?  Pray, saints, pray!  … “for those in authority…that we may be able to live godly and peaceable lives…”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/25/us/politics/trump-health-care-defeat-gop-civil-war.html
Trump Becomes Ensnared in Fiery G.O.P. Civil War
WASHINGTON — President Trump ignites a lot of fights, but his failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the biggest defeat in his short time in the White House, was the result of something else: a long-running Republican civil war that humbled a generation of party leaders before he ever came to Washington.
A precedent-flouting president who believes that Washington’s usual rules do not apply to him, Mr. Trump now finds himself shackled by them.
In stopping the repeal of President Barack Obama’s proudest legacy — the Republican Party’s professed priority for the last seven years — from even coming to a vote, the rebellious far right wing out-rebelled Mr. Trump, taking on and defeating the party establishment with which it has long been at war and which he now leads.
Like every one else who has tried to rule a fissured and fractious party, Mr. Trump now faces a wrenching choice: retrenchment or realignment. … …

***
“The Syrian Crisis” — in Canada?  God save and help us in these frightening times.  May Canadians find Gospel to give to the refugees, above all—

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/25/world/canada/syrian-refugees.html?emc=edit_th_20170326&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Canadians Adopted Refugee Families for a Year. Then Came ‘Month 13.’
Everyday Canadians spent a year embracing Syrians in the world’s most personal resettlement program. Letting them go might be the biggest test yet

TORONTO — One year after Canada embraced Syrian refugees like no other country, a reckoning was underway.
Ordinary Canadians had essentially adopted thousands of Syrian families, donating a year of their time and money to guide them into new lives just as many other countries shunned them. Some citizens already considered the project a humanitarian triumph; others believed the Syrians would end up isolated and adrift, stuck on welfare or worse. As 2016 turned to 2017 and the yearlong commitments began to expire, the question of how the newcomers would fare acquired a national nickname: Month 13, when the Syrians would try to stand on their own. … …

***
O, Lord, let their foolishness be upon their own heads, and pluck out some for mercy and for the glory of the Gospel.  In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.
http://www.wnd.com/2017/03/witches-to-cast-spell-on-trump-again/

Witches to cast spell on Trump … again
WASHINGTON – Among the angry liberals who refuse to accept the 2016 presidential election results that put Donald Trump in the Oval Office are witches who will be gathering at midnight on Sunday to cast spells.
Again.

They already tried last month to conjure up magic to remove him from office.

Witches, exorcists and occultists say they again will cast a “binding spell” designed to “bind Donald Trump and all who abet him.”

Anti-Trump occultists performed the “mass spell” against the president last month under the hashtag #BindTrump. Witches nationwide shared photos and videos on Twitter of them placing their hex on Trump.
They say they will repeat the ritual on March 26 and on every crescent moon “until Donald Trump is removed from office,” according to the group’s Facebook page. … …

***
“When the enemy shall come in like a flood,
the spirit of the LORD
shall lift up a standard (a battle flag ) against him.”
(Isaiah 59:19b)

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March 19

Saints, 

I moved up a piece I found on the 18th to top billing here; it is a pagan wisdom, and we must re-direct its concepts with biblical faith and truth, but still it is a nice tidbit of wisdom in a very uptight time!

“The children of this world are in their own way wiser than the children of light…”  No, their wisdom is merely practical and not from the Light of the Gospel and the Light which is Christ, but they can self-preserve at times, and we can still learn from them.  We watch the times, not to get depressed by them — though we must resist that temptation carefully and steadfastly, BUT we watch the times because of the Power delivered to us by the Eternal God to show us his Will in advance as it unfolds upon the Earth.  We watch to be ready, and to be as beloved servants at his hand and at his beck and call — and to participate in Eternity, at his direction, even while we walk out our mortality here.  In this we find rest and assurance and NOT worry and fear!  We already have available to us the Eternal Spirit of God and living in us “the downpayment, ‘the earnest’ ” (Ephesians 1:13-14) of the World and the Kingdom to come.

But, be “too concerned” with this world?  NO!  This little pundit and bundle of mere secular human wisdom shows us how those who depend on political solutions — left, right, or center — set themselves many cares and worries and miseries (like Jesus’ friend Martha whom He had to admonish, Luke 10:41-42), things that, really, we need not allow to trouble us.

“Let not your heart be troubled…neither let it be afraid…” (take a rest and review and read through John 14!)  “Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/17/opinion/depressed-by-politics-just-let-go.html?emc=edit_th_20170318&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
Depressed by Politics? Just Let Go

***
Elements of the Prophetic Week —

(March 13)
Will Turkey, long standing in line to be more European and join the EU, and a NATO member, now fall into the waiting arms of Russia? …the arriving alignments of Gog and Magog, Rosh and Togarmah of Ezekiel 38 and 39?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/12/world/europe/netherlands-recep-tayyip-erdogan-turkey.html?emc=edit_th_20170313&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
Turkey’s Relations With Europe Sink Amid Quarrel With Netherlands
ISTANBUL —  Turkey’s quarrel with Europe worsened over the weekend after the Turkish president accused the Dutch government of Nazism, and Turkish politicians were barred or disinvited from events in two European countries, amid tensions ahead of a tight referendum on a new Turkish Constitution.
Having criticized German officials for barring their Turkish counterparts from campaign events this month, President Recep Tayyip Erdgogan  turned his ire on the Netherlandes after the Dutch stopped the Turkish foreign minister from landing there for a rally on Saturday , and then escorted the Turkish family minister out of the country early on Sunday, citing risks to public order and security.
It was an unusually strong reaction from the Dutch, who have generally taken an open stance toward diverse points of view, but who are in the midst of an election campaign in which immigration and integration are major topics.
“When those incidents began, I said those are fascistic measures,” Mr. Erdogan said in a speech on Sunday afternoon. “I said Nazism had risen from the dead. And then I added: I thought Nazism was over, but I was wrong.” … …

***
The “Pre-Crimes” of Minority Report?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4301796/Mind-reading-AI-knows-guilty-innocent.html
Something on your mind? AI can read your thoughts and tell whether you are guilty of committing a crime
	•	Virginia Tech set up a simulated drug smuggling ring involving 40 volunteers
	•	Each was given a suitcase that might contain drugs to carry across the border
	•	Brain scans were then processed using machine learning to detect data patterns
	•	AI determined who 'knew' they were carrying illicit substances and who didn't

A superhuman skill once the preserve of comic book heroes could soon become a reality.
Scientists have used a combination of brain scanning and artificial intelligence to read the minds of 'criminals' to determine whether they are guilty of knowingly committing a crime.
This is the first time that neurobiological readings alone have been used to determine guilt, according to the study, and the findings could impact how we judge criminal responsibility in the future. … …

***
(March 14)
Dutch Euthanasia, exploding exponentially, now moves to violent, coercive murder of a dementia patient—

http://www.christianconcern.com/our-concerns/end-of-life/dutch-doctor-cleared-despite-euthanising-patient-against-her-will
Dutch Doctor cleared despite euthanising patient against her will [Excerpts]
(forwarded from bereancall.org Daily Update for March 14)

A Dutch doctor who held down a patient and euthanised her against her will did not break the law, a panel has ruled.

The Regional Review Committee in the Netherlands concluded that the female doctor had "acted in good faith", even though the patient, who suffered from dementia, struggled when the doctor tried to insert the intravenous drip. 

The Committee decided that the case should be brought to court, so that that judges can confirm that other doctors who act in good faith when euthanising people with dementia will not be prosecuted.

Since euthanasia was introduced in the Netherlands 17 years ago, the number of patients dying by euthanasia has risen steeply. In 2006, 1,923 people were euthanised in the Netherlands, compared to 5,306 in 2014.

The unnamed patient in this case was over 80 years old and suffered from dementia. 

Although she had reportedly previously stated a wish to die by euthanasia when the 'time was right', she indicated a desire to live by struggling against the doctor, when the doctor attempted to administer the lethal injection.

She had been placed in a nursing home when her husband found it too difficult to care for her. Case notes showed that the woman showed signs of anger and fear, and would wander around the nursing home at night.

The nursing home's senior doctor concluded that the time was 'now right' for the woman to be euthanised although she did not herself express this. 

Several days before she was killed, she had stated repeatedly "I don't want to die".

On the day of her death, the doctor put a drug in the patient's coffee to calm her - without telling her what she was doing. But as the doctor began to insert the drip, the patient awoke and fought the doctor. Family members had to restrain her as the rest of the drip was administered.  

The Review Committee concluded that the female doctor "crossed the line" by putting sleeping medication in the patient's coffee, and that she should have stopped when the woman resisted.  But the Committee Chairman Jacob Kohnstamm said that because he was convinced that the doctor had "acted in good faith", she was not prosecuted. 

Jacob Kohnstamm said he is in favour of a trial "not to punish the doctor, who acted in good faith and did what she had to do, but to get judicial clarity over what powers a doctor has when it comes to the euthanasia of patients suffering from severe dementia."

***
(March 16)
NYTimes makes comment on growing and official anti-muslim practices in Europe—

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/opinion/legalizing-discrimination-in-europe.html?emc=edit_th_20170316&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Legalizing Discrimination in Europe
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD MARCH 15, 2017
The European Court of Justice handed right-wing nationalists a victory on Tuesday that allows employers to ban Muslim women and others who wear signs of their faith. With rising anti-Muslim sentiment in Europe, and elections coming in several nations where the populist right is expected to do well, this decision sends exactly the wrong message. … …
***
“Humans 2.0” arriving within a decade or so…This is the System of the Beast, in part.  Do not take the Mark.  Stay human.
Hard-wired mass demon possession?  The Universal ‘Borg?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4319436/Singularity-create-super-humans-Google-expert-claims.html
Super humans who are sexier, stronger and smarter will arrive by 2029 as brains begin to fuse with machines, Google expert claims
	•	Ray Kurzweil has made 147 predictions since 1990 and is correct 86% of the time
	•	By 2029 our brains fuse with machines - an event known as singularity
	•	He says machines will exemplify what we value in humans to a greater degree
	•	Machines are already making us smarter and will move inside our brains soon
Technological singularity will turn us into super humans some time in the next 12 years, according to  a Google expert.
This might sound like science fiction, but Google's Director of Engineering, Ray Kurzweil, has made 147 predictions since the 1990s and has a success rate of 86 per cent.
Kurzweil says when we live in a cybernetic society we will have computers in our brains and machines will be smarter than human beings. 
He claims this is already happening with technology - especially with our addiction to our phones - and says the next step is to wire this technology into our brains. … …

***

Excerpted from Hal Lindsey’s letter for March 17—
Folks, immigration that is not followed by assimilation is just another name for "invasion." 

***
(March 18)
Casting Spells Through Cyberspace? —

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2017/03/17/fbi-arrests-man-accused-trolling-dallas-journalist-kurt-eichenwald-tweet-triggered-seizure
FBI identifies man arrested over seizure-inducing tweet to Dallas journalist Kurt Eichenwald

The FBI has arrested a man accused of sending Dallas reporter Kurt Eichenwald a tweet that triggered an epileptic seizure.
The agency announced that John Rayne Rivello, 29, of Salisbury, Md., was arrested Friday morning in Maryland on a cyberstalking charge.
Eichenwald tweeted that the man who "assaulted" him also is expected to be indicted by the Dallas district attorney on different charges in the next few days.  
Eichenwald's attorney, Steven Liberman, told Newsweek that "What Mr. Rivello did with his Twitter message was no different from someone sending a bomb in the mail or sending an envelope filled with anthrax spores." … …

***
Cell Phone Psychosis?  More spells, Mass spells?  Hey, Cyborg!  Forgot that you used to be human?!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4324468/Experts-phone-addicts-experience-phantom-buzzing.html
Do YOU hear 'phantom phone buzzing'? 80% of college students admit they experience major sign of phone addiction
	•	Could be a sign that you are psychologically dependent on their cellphone
	•	Those who scored higher on handset dependency exhibited certain behaviors
	•	Phone usage made them feel better and not using it made them irritable 
	•	They also thought about using their phone when they weren't on it 
	•	This crowd also had more frequent phantom phone experiences

Have you ever experienced a phantom phone call or text? 
You're convinced that you felt your phone vibrate in your pocket, or that you heard your ring tone. 
But when you check your phone, no one actually tried to get in touch with you.

You then might plausibly wonder: 'Is my phone acting up, or is it me?'
Well, it's probably you, and it could be a sign of just how attached you've become to your phone.
At least you're not alone. 
Over 80 percent of college students we surveyed have experienced it. 
However, if it's happening a lot – more than once a day – it could be a sign that you're psychologically dependent on your cellphone.
There's no question that cellphones are part of the social fabric in many parts of the world, and some people spend hours each day on their phones. 
Our research team recently found that most people will fill their downtime by fiddling with their phones. 
Others even do so in the middle of a conversation. … …

***
Bizarre? Irreverent?  How would you feel if you were about to perish in the Titanic disaster only to recognize that bizarre little, wickedly rich humans (or post-humans) of the future would be curious tourists of the grave of your watery agony?

http://news.sky.com/story/titanic-tours-to-take-trippers-to-ocean-floor-to-see-doomed-liner-10804404
Titanic tours to take trippers to ocean floor to see doomed liner

***
Be careful those chicken nuggets you like aren’t the newly arriving cloned chicken glue and goop!

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-we-eating-cloned-meat/
Are We Eating Cloned Meat?
The FDA approved cloned meat as safe for consumption. Has any hit the grocery store shelves yet?
***
(March 19)
The War in Europe —
Overnight, “Lone wolf” demonic possession seizes another willing Muslim at the Orly Airport, Paris—
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/18/world/europe/orly-airport-france-shooting.html?emc=edit_th_20170319&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Gunman Is Killed in Orly Airport in France After Attacking a Soldier
(excerpt): …Mr. Molins said the soldiers reported that he yelled: “I’m here to die in the name of Allah. Whatever happens, people are going to die.”
As Mr. Belgacem grappled with the soldier, he wrested her rifle from her. At that instant, the two other soldiers fired three bursts from their weapons, killing him. … …

***

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
(Jesus to his people, John 14:27)

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If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

March 12

Saints, 

I just finished an early Sunday morning tradition for me here, watching a syndicated, over-the-air installment of Jack Van Impe Presents at 6:30 (being also slightly surprised by the time change to DST this morning and not up as early as usual).  Over the years, I have lost most of my fervor for man-following, media heroes of the Faith, and “spiritual” leaders.  Not all have fallen into sin, but after awhile, one learns just how much even the best fail and fall short at times…to their own vain thoughts and mixed-in human agendas….(and ever present fundraising!).  “There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”  Surely, God sets teachers, and we are to consider carefully what they say, but even the best are not flawless (not to mention the outright false teachers we are to weed out), and we are, every one of us, given a direct line to God through our new birth in Christ: His indwelling Spirit and his flawless Word, from which Jesus Himself said to us that “neither one jot nor one tittle shall fail till all be fulfilled.” (Matthew 5:17-18)

Nevertheless, I still listen in on Jack regularly for he has held steadfastly and faithfully to a literal interpretation of the Events of the End and the Actual and Literal Coming of the Lord Jesus, and warns consistently of the Times and Seasons we have been told by Scripture to expect.  Sometimes, I “talk back to the television” when I disagree with Jack on a point, or roll my eyes at some of his generation’s “back in the 50’s” ways and views, but I am quick to repent at his and Rexella’s consistent zeal, research, and depth of knowledge and experience.

Jack (and probably Rexella) is an advanced octogenarian now (86) and has been absent from the pre-recorded telecasts from a fall and break some weeks back.  Rexella has been having guest speakers join her.  Today’s speaker spoke of a new subject to me, the Ophanim (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophanim), another class of heavenly beings along with the cherubim, seraphim, holy angels set over nations like Michael over Israel, and unholy ones like “the prince of Persia” who withstood Michael, as beings allowed to rule over fallen men while this Age lasts.  These beings are probably the same as the gods of the pantheons of the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Hindus, Norse, etc. of our world’s religious history.  Besides all these both holy and fallen angels, we have the “regular” messenger angels that come to men from time to time from the Throne of God and according to his Will, Timing, and Purpose alone.  God alone knows how full the Heavens may be of his Created Beings and how “1/3rd” of an “inumberable” host did fall!

But the Ophanim are distinct in Jewish literature and even show up in divine Scripture as “wheels within wheels” and “many-eyed” beings in Ezekiel’s early chapters.  Today’s guest speculated that these beings, especially if there are also fallen versions of their species, may contribute to the mythos and descriptions of UFOs and Flying Saucers.  Their name means “wheels,” perhaps also spheres and globes?  They are also called “Galgalim,” also meaning wheels, spheres, and may give us the biblical place name of Gilgal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilgal), and may relate to the Rephaim (Nephilim) who may have also built the giant and unexplained stone circles in prehistoric Israel (https://www.israel21c.org/israels-ancient-and-mysterious-stonehenge/).  Of course, Von Daniken enthusiasts (ancient aliens as “gods”) have for years speculated that Ezekiel was seeing Flying Saucers.  But today’s broadcast put new light on the ideas around “UFO and New Age ‘gospels’” that will explain away the Rapture as the removal of “those who won’t come into harmonic alignment with the dawning of a wonderful new age.”  Speculatively, we will be taken to some outlying, habitable planets for “re-education” before we can come back and join the New Age.  Our Bible however says we will be caught up to Heaven for a Seven-Year Marriage Supper with the Lamb, our Risen Lord Jesus, and come back with Him to save the remnant of humans from the Battle of Armageddon.  My! My!  What different versions, and even the infidel hordes embrace all kinds of apocalyptic thinking in this era!  And with what great perversions shall the events of the End of the Age be explained to those who dwell in darkness?  And for those in Light, how soberly watchful we should be!  Forty years ago or so now, Timothy Leary was volunteering to be the antichrist and making serious (“Sirius”?) plans to get off the planet in order to avoid the Second Coming of Christ; and now Elon lays similar and urgent plans!  We must hold fast to what the Word tells us will happen, carefully grow in knowledge as Events “as in the days of Noah and Lot” unfold again, and we must keep our hearts pure and ready before our Lord Jesus IF we want to be with Him and escape the deceptions and the “strong delusion.”

God save us; God rest us and keep us!

***
“Progress” of the week —

(March 6)
Some clinical thinking on the basis of Knowledge and Truth from NYTimes editorial guests.  Truth is, we know very little about very little, and much of our “truth” is merely manageable gibber jabber.  Now, we are in a great dawn of “fake truth.”
Thanks be to God for his unshakeable Word:  “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”  Says our Lord, “I AM THE TRUTH.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/03/opinion/sunday/why-we-believe-obvious-untruths.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_ty_20170306&nl=opinion-today&nl_art=12&nlid=69381998&ref=headline&te=1
Why We Believe Obvious Untruths
How can so many people believe things that are demonstrably false? The question has taken on new urgency as the Trump administration propagates falsehoods about voter fraud, climate change and crime statistics that large swaths of the population have bought into. But collective delusion is not new, nor is it the sole province of the political right. Plenty of liberals believe, counter to scientific consensus, that G.M.O.s are poisonous, and that vaccines cause autism.

The situation is vexing because it seems so easy to solve. The truth is obvious if you bother to look for it, right? This line of thinking leads to explanations of the hoodwinked masses that amount to little more than name calling: “Those people are foolish” or “Those people are monsters.” … …

***

Hmmm, could the Mammoths who all perished while Elephants didn’t be one of many judgments of the Flood on genetic mutant experiments of the Nephilim?

http://newatlas.com/wooly-mammoth-genomic-meltdown/48235/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=b827bda8ea-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-b827bda8ea-91592265
Mammoths had translucent coats and bad sniffers pre-extinction
While there has been some talk of bringing the wooly mammoth back to life à la Jurassic Park, it turns out that should such a project be undertaken, scientists would need to be careful with the genetic material they start with. It turns out that just before they went extinct, the massive herbivores had what new research is calling a "genomic meltdown." … …

***

Yep, we’re just about to grant life to IT, aren’t we?!  Usurping God by “making ‘man’ in our own image”?
https://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbitwiredblog.files.wordpress.com%2F2016%2F12%2Fhead1.jpg%3Fw%3D580&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbitwiredblog.com%2F&docid=iKF-FifK5BA0bM&tbnid=8QITlTHHV5eFxM%3A&vet=1&w=580&h=265&source=sh%2Fx%2Fim

***
A Reprieve for biblical normalcy and morality and the honoring of the commandments of the Creator—
May God grant a renewal of direction and a revival of his Spirit for many of these entranced children.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/us/politics/supreme-court-transgender-rights-case.html?emc=edit_na_20170306&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Major Case on Transgender Rights

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it would not hear a major case on transgender rights after all, acting after the Trump administration changed the federal government’s position on whether public schools had to allow transgender youths to use bathrooms that matched their gender identities. … …

***

(March 8)
Whew!  Big Brother in Full Flower!  Is your full-featured flat-screen w/voice-command TV making a TV show out of you and your family: underwear, private conversations and all?  How could the Donald not be hacked if all of us are?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/world/europe/wikileaks-cia-hacking.html?emc=edit_na_20170307&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta
WikiLeaks Releases Trove of Alleged C.I.A. Hacking Documents
WASHINGTON — Wikileaks on Tuesday released  thousands of documents that it said described sophisticated software tools used by the Central Intelligence Agency to break into smartphones, computers and even Internet-connected televisions.  

If the documents are authentic, as appeared likely at first review, the release would be the latest coup for the anti-secrecy organization and a serious blow to the C.I.A., which maintains its own hacking capabilities to be used for espionage.

The initial release, which WikiLeaks said was only the first part of the document collection, included 7,818 web pages with 943 attachments, the group said. The entire archive of C.I.A. material consists of several hundred million lines of computer code, it said.

Among other disclosures that, if confirmed, would rock the technology world, the WikiLeaks release said that the C.I.A. and allied intelligence services had managed to bypass encryption on popular phone and messaging services such as Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram. According to the statement from WikiLeaks, government hackers can penetrate Android phones and collect “audio and message traffic before encryption is applied.”

(further excerpts):   One, code-named Weeping Angel, uses Samsung “smart” televisions as covert listening devices. According to the WikiLeaks news release, even when it appears to be turned off, the television “operates as a bug, recording conversations in the room and sending them over the internet to a covert C.I.A. server.” … …

…In early 2015, Samsung appeared to acknowledge the televisions posed a risk to privacy. The fine print terms of service included with its smart TVs said that the television sets could capture background conversations, and that they could be passed on to third parties.
The company also provided a remarkably blunt warning: “Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition.” … …

***

(March 8)
India increases official, nationalistic persecution of Christians, rejects much-needed Christian charity for the people—

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/07/world/asia/compassion-international-christian-charity-closing-india.html?emc=edit_th_20170308&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
Major Christian Charity Is Closing India Operations Amid a Crackdown
NEW DELHI — India’s crackdown on foreign aid will claim its most prominent casualty this month, as a Colorado-based Christian charity that is one of India’s biggest donors closes its operations here after 48 years, informing tens of thousands of children that they will no longer receive meals, medical care or tuition payments.
The shutdown of the charity, Compassion International, on suspicion of engaging in religious conversion, comes as India, a rising economic power with a swelling spirit of nationalism, curtails the flow of foreign money to activities it deems “detrimental to the national interest.” … …

***
Amen!  “Then said they unto him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God?  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”  John 6:28-29
March 7 BereanCallDailyUpdate / bereancall,.org

God does not so much want us to do things as to let people see what He can do.

— A.B. Simpson (December 15, 1843 - October 29, 1919), Canadian preacher, theologian, author, and founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance

***
(March 8)
One million+ acres burn in the Midwest!  O, Lord, please call attention to folks to look to you first in prayer for shelter and aid; strengthen also first responders and caregivers.

http://www.texomashomepage.com/news/local-news/wildfires-in-five-states-burn-over-one-million-acres-and-kill-seven/668737532
Wildfires in Five States Burn Over One Million Acres and Kill Seven
Wildfires are burning in at least five states, forcing evacuations and taking at least seven lives in the Midwest, five in Texas, one in Kansas and one in Oklahoma.
And, in Florida, another fire prompted evacuations and forced the closure of interstate-75, better known as "Alligator Alley." Kim Hutcherson has more.
Deadly wildfires burning in the Midwest have consumed more than one million acres in Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas.
There are so many fires, both out-of-control and prescribed burns, that they can be seen from space. In Texas, some 325-thousand acres have been consumed in the Panhandle. In Oklahoma, more than 400-thousand acres burned. In eastern Colorado, some 30-thousand acres have gone up in smoke and in Kansas, 400-thousand. The wildfires have taken several lives and forced evacuations in the Midwest. "My family and I weren't even sure we were going to get out of the house. When I opened that front door and saw how big that fire was and how fast it was coming at us," Travis Kinast, Hutchinson Resident. … …
***
(March 9)
Following on the heels of the million acre burn, above, last night’s weather turned to high wind storms in the Midwest, stoking building fires, blowing planes off runways, overturning tractor trailers, and burying a train in 25 foot drifts.  In the Northeast, a new frigid Arctic cold poises to descend this weekend —
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=990CE6D61E3DEE32A25750C2A9649D946397D6CF&legacy=true  
TRAIN BURIED BY SNOW; Passengers Without Food for 24 Hours in Great Drift.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather
Dangerous winds spark power outages, deadly fires
From the Midwest to the Northeast, millions are recovering from a dangerous windstorm that sparked massive power outages and deadly fires. A plane carrying the University of Michigan basketball team was blown off the runway.
***
(March 11)
Animist religions of demonic seizures—
Leviticus 19:28: “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/tattooed-devotees-transform-thai-temple-trance-080253383.html
Tattooed devotees transform in Thai temple trance
WAT BANG PHRA, Thailand (Reuters) - Deep in trances, devotees of a Thai temple charged through gathered crowds on Saturday mimicking the beasts on their tattoos.
Some had their hands curled into tiger claws, some became crocodiles, some were transformed into Hanuman, the monkey god.
The annual tattoo festival at Wat Bang Phra, about 80 km (50 miles) from Bangkok, draws thousands of devotees every year who come to recharge the power of sacred Sak Yant tattoos. … …
***

(March 12)
Disney, “The Tragic Kingdom”?  Beauty and the Beast, a story of Nephilim mongrels, of fallen angel misfits “heartwarmingly” seducing womankind?  Now, a homosexual character joins the chorus line of abominations: a NYT review —
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/movies/beauty-and-the-beast-disneys-300-million-gamble.html?emc=edit_th_20170312&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
‘Beauty and the Beast’: Disney’s $300 Million Gamble
***

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:
and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, 
to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
(1 Thessalonians 4:16-18)

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If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

March 5

Saints, 

Surely, “the old days” of America are pretty much over, but, careful and constant watcher though I be, I am still shocked at the changes and trying to understand what is happening to America as a nation.  We are certainly in a state of intense and ongoing political warcraft.  While with our political traditions and our culture, we might expect at least a brief peace after an election and inauguration, we see instead constant, loud hate-mongering, charge and counter charge.  Will our Constitutional system be able to hold? …and for how long?  It seems as if all pandemonium (literally, “all the demons”) is rapidly leaking out of the Abyss, to counter everything.  The Dems are bent on finding Trump in allegiance with the Russians (a complete turnabout over the Left parties being sympathetic to socialism and the Right being against it), but now photos of Democrats Pelosi and Schumer, etc. buddying with Putin and ambassadors are the lead stories on Saturday a.m., and Mr. Trump is tweeting that the Obama administration “bugged” his Manhattan offices during the election.

I pass along as my lead most of Hal Lindsey’s email newsletter for this week.  Hal is, for me, the elder statesman (now in his 80’s) of our era’s (early Jesus Movement, Evangelical, “born again” surge, and early — before it was so overrun with heresies — Charismatic renewal.  Hal taught us the literalist, futurist view of biblical prophecy with his famous book (and many more following it), THE LATE GREAT PLANET EARTH way back in the 1970’s, a book that topped the NYTimes Best Seller list for months.

Hal can be found directly online easily, and his weekly work watched on satellite networks, etc., and his email newsletter is there for the asking.  I have edited the length of his letter just a bit, leaving off some closing scheduling notes, etc., and I have boldfaced spots here and there.

If ever we are to teach ourselves to pray for our nation, this must be the time to do so.  We are under a very hateful demonic attack by globalists, their foolish cannon-fodder masses among us, and by the Devil behind them all.  Without comment on the many and certain errors and provincialisms of nationalism, the Bible clearly states that God has intended for men to dwell in nations, and to seek to honor Him corporately through those nations.  This is to continue even after Christ returns, and it will last at least until the end of his 1000 year Millennial Reign, if not yet beyond that into Eternity also.  But the Devil, wanting to control the whole world through his “son,” the Antichrist, wants to topple the nations and bring all to their knees at his feet.  We have an obligation to resist this spiritually.  Watch and pray!

***

Hal Lindsey —

March 3rd, 2017

As I've told you several times in the last few weeks, I believe the real battle for America has now begun. 

The election of Donald Trump as our 45th President didn't end the struggle. It started it. 

Even though he is an imperfect man, and will be an imperfect President, it is daily becoming more obvious that President Trump is committed to restoring to America the values and strengths that the previous administration worked so hard to destroy. And almost succeeded. 

That's why former President Obama has remained in Washington, unlike any other President in the past century. He is working to build an organization to oppose President Trump every step of the way. In fact, rumor has it inside the Beltway, that Obama is committed to driving Mr. Trump from office through resignation or impeachment. 

Is that rank arrogance or narcissism? Or is it something deeper? 

I believe it is something deeper. 

I believe that in the coming weeks, months, and years, we will see struggles and battles unlike anything we have witnessed in American politics before. Why? Because the powers of the air are locked in combat. This is supernatural, folks. 

I have often observed on this program that we are seeing supernatural forces at work in these end times. How else could a politician with so few accomplishments, no real-world job experience, and so much baggage as Barack Obama have even made it out of the Democratic primaries even just a few years ago? 

Governor Howard Dean ruined his chances with an enthusiastic scream. Michael Dukakis looked silly in a tank commander's helmet. George Muskie shed a few unmanly tears. Gary Hart was photographed with a girl sitting on his lap. Both fully clothed! All of them lost because of it and all were quite qualified. 

Even George W. Bush's campaign was almost derailed because he got a single DUI ticket (and a small fine) decades before -- when he was a young man! 

And how could a candidate like Hillary Clinton, who the FBI Director admitted had committed felonious offenses while Secretary of State, even win the Democratic nomination, much less almost win the Presidency? This is a woman who was fired from her first job on Capitol Hill by her Democrat boss for lying and fabricating evidence against Richard Nixon. And who was the subject of numerous investigations for scandals she instigated while First Lady. 

Even a couple of decades ago, the Democrat Party would never have allowed either of these two candidates to see the light of day as their nominee. 

But as we've grown closer to the end of this Age of Grace, the battle has heated up. 

I think that is why we are seeing unprecedented rage over the loss of the election still being expressed by the Left. It seems many of them are becoming psychologically unhinged. It's unreasonable. And so much of it is factually baseless. 

But I can't blame all of it on the mindless, often clueless, "millennials" and feminists and illegal immigrants who make up the bulk of the endless protests. I believe they are being used by the globalist-elites. 

When President Trump promised to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), then honored his campaign promise and issued an Executive Order to start the withdrawal, I think it threw a wrench in the works for the globalists. 

And when he encourages other nations, especially in the EU, to recover their national sovereignty and dignity, it inflames them all the more. 

Why else would known globalist billionaires like George Soros, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Carlos Slim, and the list goes on and on (many of them most of us have never even heard of), dedicate so much wealth and political capital to defeat Trump's agenda? 

And why would the European Union threaten to refuse to accept Trump's ambassador to the EU? 

Because restoring America's sovereignty and returning it to its strength and prominence stands in the way of their one-world-government aspirations. 

And I think it's more than safe to say that Satan plays a great hand in this. Delaying the rise of one-world governance delays the building of the apparatus the Antichrist will later use to govern the world. 

Nationalism is the enemy of one-worldism. One-worldism is necessary for the Antichrist's rule. And the multi-national trade organizations are the deceptive vehicles to one-world government. 

So, folks, opposition to President Trump and his agenda goes deeper than fake news, fake claims of racism, fake claims of misogyny (By the way, Donald Trump chose a woman contractor to build Trump Tower in New York, making her the first woman in history to build a skyscraper. Some misogyny!), fake collaboration with the Russians, fake Hitlerism, and the list goes on! 

These may be just the opening skirmishes in the battle to prepare the way for the Antichrist himself. 

And if that's not enough, last week the Democrat Party almost chose a known anti-Semite and supporter of radical Islamic causes as their new party chairman. Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim elected to Congress, was narrowly defeated by President Obama's personal choice, former Labor Secretary Tom Perez (also rather far-Left). 

This week, I'll tell you a little more about Keith Ellison's history, his associations, and the people he holds in high regard. You will be shocked. 

But, you may ask, why am I concerned? Ellison lost the party chairmanship to Perez. 

Because Ellison was endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. That means that he is realistically next in line to lead the nation's Democrats. And if Obama's popularity wanes, and Chairman Perez loses his patron, that may happen sooner rather than later. 

Friends, this should be a clarion call to all believers to intercede daily for our President and the leaders we chose to help restore America's values, sovereignty, and strength. The Bible tells us that as the end of the Age approaches, the "birth pangs" would increase in frequency and intensity. I think they're coming fast and furiously now. Please pray earnestly for God to continue extending His mercy and grace to our beloved nation. Only He, not President Trump or a Republican Congress, can save us. … …

***

An example of a legitimate “gift of the Holy Spirit” —
An extemporaneous transmission of the Divine, meeting with the believers to produce a worshipful combining of the Spirit of God with a congregation.  (Not that all gifts of the Spirit need be extemporaneous.)

bereancall.org  Daily Update for February 28

Lord, Thou hast here Thy ninety and nine;
Are they not enough for Thee?"
But the Shepherd made answer: "This of Mine
Has wandered away from Me.
And although the road be rough and steep,
I go to the desert to find My sheep."

--Ira D. Sankey (August 28, 1840 - August 13, 1908, American gospel singer and composer, associated with evangelist Dwight L. Moody. Lyrics from a poem by Elizabeth C. Clephane. At the close of a meeting, Moody turned to Sankey and asked if he had a song to end the meeting. Sankey believed the Lord impressed him to take a newspaper clipping of the poem and composed the music as he sang the song. It was later published with no changes to the music.)

***
One very fine new candidate (among dozens) for the Mark of the Beast technology —

http://newatlas.com/electronic-tattoo-inkjet-printed-wiring/48201/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=bd1edeb20b-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-bd1edeb20b-91592265
Inkjet-printed circuitry makes for cheaper electronic tattoos
***
Enemies agreeing to war with each other?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/03/03/al-qaeda-likes-steve-bannon-so-much-they-put-him-on-the-cover-of-their-official-newspaper/?utm_term=.fea267da41cb
Al-Qaeda likes Steve Bannon so much, they put him on the cover of their official newspaper

The way al-Qaeda tells it, the West is locked in an existential war with Islam. This is how the terrorist group justifies its violence and its fundamentalist ideology. And now it has found a Westerner to back them up — top Trump adviser Steve Bannon.
Bannon graced the cover (above the fold!) of the most recent al-Qaeda-linked Al Masra newspaper. That prominence, University of Oxford researcher Elisabeth Kendall told Quartz, is “striking.”
The piece focused on Bannon's views of Islam, saying he believes that “the forces of Islam cannot be stopped by peaceful means.” The paper cited a conversation Bannon had with a Danish journalist in May 2016. It also claimed that Bannon believes that the struggle is really between Christianity and Islam, not just Islam and the West. And it suggested that Bannon has “lost confidence in secular Europe, and sees Muslim immigrants as partially responsible for the retreat of traditional Christian values.” … …

***
(March 4) NYTimes Breaking News Stories on Saturday—
Oh, what a week!  Twitter accusations against the previous president!  Trump accuses Obama of pre-election wire-tapping at his Manhattan tower —

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/04/us/politics/trump-obama-tap-phones.html?emc=edit_ta_20170304&nl=top-stories&nlid=69381998&ref=cta
Trump, Offering No Evidence, Says Obama Tapped His Phones
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump on Saturday accused former President Barack Obama of tapping his phones at Trump Tower the month before the election, taking to Twitter to call his predecessor a “bad (or sick) guy.”
Without offering any evidence or providing the source of his information, Mr. Trump fired off a series of Twitter messages claiming that Mr. Obama “had my ‘wires tapped.’ ” He likened the supposed tapping to “Nixon/Watergate” and “McCarthyism.”
A spokesman for Mr. Obama said any suggestion that the former president had ordered such surveillance was “simply false.”
Mr. Trump’s aides declined to clarify whether the president’s explosive allegations were based on briefings from intelligence or law enforcement officials — which could mean that Mr. Trump was revealing previously unknown details about an investigation — or on something else, like a news report.

Oh, what a week!  Obama and now Trump facing a more dangerous North Korea than is publicly realized?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/04/world/asia/north-korea-missile-program-sabotage.html?emc=edit_na_20170304&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta
Trump Inherits a Secret Cyberwar Against North Korean Missiles
(excerpt):  …An examination of the Pentagon’s disruption effort, based on interviews with officials of the Obama and Trump administrations as well as a review of extensive but obscure public records, found that the United States still does not have the ability to effectively counter the North Korean nuclear and missile programs. Those threats are far more resilient than many experts thought, The New York Times’s reporting found, and pose such a danger that Mr. Obama, as he left office, warned President Trump they were likely to be the most urgent problem he would confront. … …

***
Well, thank goodness, the populace can still sniff out a loser and walk away from it—

https://heatst.com/entertainment/rise-and-fall-ratings-plummet-for-abcs-ambitious-gay-rights-drama-when-we-rise/
Rise and Fall!  Ratings Plummet for ABC’s Ambitious Gay Rights Drama ‘When We Rise’
ABC can’t be accused of underplaying When We Rise, its eight-hour drama miniseries chronicling the struggles and setbacks of LGBT activists in the 20th century.
Some thought the show, created by award-winning gay activist Dustin Lance Black and aired on four nights this week, goes out of its way to portray middle America as intolerant homophobes. When We Rise received saturation ad coverage during the Oscars ahead of its premiere this week, to the extent that one Twitter commentator joked that if he drunk alcohol every time he saw an advert for the show, he’d be dead by the end of the Academy Awards broadcast.
But part one of When We Rise flopped on Monday. As a result, ABC rescheduled Modern Family to run just before the second installment to boost ratings. However, viewership of the second part fell almost 1 million viewers from its premiere, netting an audience of only 2.05 million on Wednesday, which is pathetic for prime-time slot on a commercial TV network.
The final part of the miniseries is Friday night. (President Trump’s address to congress on Tuesday delayed the show’s transmission by a day.)
Doubtless there will be devotees of the show who will blame the president for interrupting the flow of When We Rise, which stars Guy Pearce, Mary Louise Parker and Whoopi Goldberg.
But its failure more likely stems from the fact that viewers don’t respond well to ‘virtue scheduling’ on TV. When We Rise at times resembled an infomercial for GLAD (Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders). Even the New York Times didn’t give the show a rave—when the Grey Lady sniffs that a starry gay-rights drama “plays like a high-minded, dutiful educational video,” you know the show is in trouble. … …
***
Civil War?  One side wrapped in flags, the other dressed in anarchy black —

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-supporters-idUSKBN16B0O8?il=0
In day of pro-Trump rallies, California march turns violent

Supporters of Donald Trump clashed with counter-protesters at a rally in the famously left-leaning city of Berkeley, California, on a day of mostly peaceful gatherings in support of the U.S. president across the country.
At a park in Berkeley, across the bay from San Francisco, protesters from both sides struck one another over the head with wooden sticks and Trump supporters fired pepper spray as police in riot gear stood at a distance.
Some in the pro-Trump crowd, holding American flags, faced off against black-clad opponents. An elderly Trump supporter was struck in the head and kicked on the ground.
Organizers of the so-called Spirit of America rallies in at least 28 the country's 50 states had said they expected smaller turn-outs than the huge crowds of anti-Trump protesters that clogged the streets of Washington and other cities the day after the Republican's inauguration on Jan. 20.
"There are a lot of angry groups protesting and we thought it was important to show our support," said Peter Boykin, president of Gays for Trump, who helped organize Saturday's rally in Washington.
In many towns and cities, the rallies did not draw more than a few hundred people. At some, supporters of the president were at risk of being outnumbered by small groups of anti-Trump protesters who gathered to shout against the rallies.
In Berkeley, the total crowd of both supporters and detractors numbered 200 to 300 people, police spokesman Byron White said. Three people were injured in the clash, including one who had teeth knocked out, and police made five arrests.
One Trump supporter who took part in the violence came equipped with a baton, a gas mask and a shield emblazoned with the American flag. … …

***

“The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; 
he will save, 
he will rejoice over thee with joy; 
he will rest in his love, 
he will joy over thee with singing.”
(Zephaniah 3:17)

**************************************************************
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February 26

Saints, 

An “old Irish blessing” says, “May you live in interesting times.”  Surely, that “blessing” is upon us.  How comforted we are though to know that our God has all under control, and in the Signs of the Times we see his good promises approaching!

***
A few prophetic trends and events from this week —

(Feb. 21)
Bumps in the road for the spirit of antichrist as the world’s populaces smell something wrong with globalism (How’s that for mixing metaphors 😎! )  God ordained, from the first through the last books of the Bible, that there should be nations (Genesis 10:32, Rev. 22:2).  So, however hard he may try, the final and actual personified Antichrist will be one very frustrated, raging dude;  note just his fury in Daniel 11:44 and surrounding context, and he shall come to an end but not without much trouble for all the nations and all their peoples.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/world/europe/europe-combats-a-new-foe-of-political-stability-fake-news.html
Europe Combats a New Foe of Political Stability: Fake News
(excerpt): …  As officials play catch-up in the fight against sophisticated hacking and fake news operations, they fear Europe and its elections remain vulnerable at a critical moment: The region’s decades-old project of unity hangs in the balance, challenged by populist forces within the bloc and pressures from Russia and beyond. … …

***
How strange the world is becoming when an open promoter of sodomite practices tries to partner with alt-right conservatives!  May God call him to repentance.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/20/us/politics/cpac-milo-yiannopoulos.html
Milo Yiannopoulos’s Pedophilia Comments Cost Him CPAC Role and Book Deal
WASHINGTON — Milo Yiannopoulos, a polemical Breitbart editor and unapologetic defender of the alt-right, tested the limits of how far his provocations could go after the publication of a video in which he condones sexual relations with boys as young as 13 and laughs off the seriousness of pedophilia by Roman Catholic priests.
On Monday, the organizers of the Conservative Political Action Conference rescinded their invitation for him to speak this week. Simon & Schuster said it was canceling publication of “Dangerous” after standing by him through weeks of criticism of the deal. And Breitbart itself was reportedly reconsidering his role amid calls online for it to sever ties with him.Mr. Yiannopoulos’s comments, which quickly created an uproar online over the weekend, put many conservatives in a deeply uncomfortable position. They have long defended Mr. Yiannopoulos’s attention-seeking stunts and racially charged antics on the grounds that the left had tried to hypocritically censor his right to free speech.But endorsing pedophilia, it seemed, was more than they could tolerate. The board of the American Conservative Union, which includes veterans of the conservative movement like Grover Norquist and Morton Blackwell, made the decision to revoke Mr. Yiannopoulos’s speaking slot and condemn his comments on Monday. … …

***
(Feb. 22)
Something wrong with the whole “zeitgeist” (spirit of the age) as the western world rebuilds the pagan, olympian citadel and re-cradles the amazons of the Isle of Lesbos — Are they happy?  No.

http://nypost.com/2017/02/21/retired-wnba-star-i-was-tormented-for-not-being-gay/
Straight WNBA star: Lesbian culture broke my spirit
Candice Wiggins was a college star at Stanford, the third pick of the 2008 WNBA draft and a 2011 champion. And at the mountaintop of her basketball career, her sexuality marred the moment.
There is a “very, very harmful” culture running throughout the WNBA, she says, which saw her get bullied during her eight-year career because she is heterosexual.
Wiggins, who last played in the league in 2015, said she retired prematurely to leave a league that she estimated — wildly — is 98 percent lesbian, and which is played in such isolation that it weighs on the people on the court. … …

***
There is nothing joyful about people who have to have, exploit, and parade their sexual appetites in groups, orgies, public displays.  Such people only celebrate their jaded tricks for their pleasure nerve endings and are in the process of losing their humanity as well as their souls.  These are of the same spirit as the men of Sodom (Genesis 19) who attempted to attack and rape Lot’s angelic guests.  The more they are loosed, the wilder and less happy they will be in their raging “pride.”   Sodomites have been reported having public orgies for some years on Rhode Island public beaches; held one of their “dances” outside the new Vice President’s home during the election and now plan a similar demonstration, “attack” orgy in Texas against the governor there —

As with Sodom, judgment approaches.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/lgbt/2017/02/21/hundreds-plan-attend-queer-dance-freakout-outside-texas-governors-mansion
Hundreds plan to protest bathroom bill at 'queer dance freakout' outside Texas governor's mansion
AUSTIN — Forget Oilcan Harry's or the Round-Up. This week, the hottest gay dance party in Texas probably won't be on Fourth Street or in Oak Lawn, but outside Gov. Greg Abbott's window.
More than 350 people have signed up to "ride the beat" outside the governor's mansion in Austin to protest the transgender bathroom bill and other legislation activists say is harmful to LGBT Texans.
"We say NO to marriage equality limitations. We say NO to old men saying what we can and cannot do," according to the Facebook event description. "We say NO to anti-transgender bathroom bills. We say YES to shaking our asses. We say YES to the freedoms of the body." … …

***
Tim,
Just heard this tonight...it is SO loaded with layers of the insidious future, pretty creepy. Jonathan

(Indeed, evolutionary-engineering promises will turn out to be living hells.)
http://www.npr.org/2017/02/21/516484639/are-cyborgs-in-our-future-homo-deus-author-thinks-so
Are Cyborgs In Our Future? 'Homo Deus' Author Thinks So
The human species is about to change dramatically. That's the argument Yuval Noah Harari makes in his new book, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.
Harari is a history professor at Hebrew University in Israel. He tells NPR's Ari Shapiro that he expects we will soon engineer our bodies and minds in the same way we now design products. … …

***
This webpage even includes an ad for buying your own CRISPR-Cas9 kit — cheap!  Build  your own monster chicken!

http://newatlas.com/gene-editing-engineering-chicken-breed-surrogate/48007/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=17ae84915d-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-17ae84915d-91592265
Genetically-engineered hens produce birds of a different feather
Rare breeds of chickens could soon come from entirely different types of hens. The University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute with help from US biotechnology company Recombinetics used gene editing techniques to create surrogate hens that grow up to produce eggs with all the genetic information of different breeds.
We've seen gene editing and transfer techniques used to create better yeast, bigger trees and even glowing pigs, among numerous other examples, but this is believed to be the first gene-edited bird to come out of Europe. … …

***
(Feb. 23)
BCI (Brain Computer Interface) recent breakthroughs in helpful cybernetic merger of human brain with AI algorithms and hardware/hardwiring —
http://newatlas.com/bci-fastest-typing-speed/48035/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=593b4676bb-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-593b4676bb-91592265
Test subjects type fast – using only their brains

(excerpt): First is the implant. Unlike other BCI devices that are placed on either the scalp or the surface of the brain, the system used here is implanted inside the brain where 100 electrodes connect with the electrical activity of individual nerve cells in the motor cortex. The device, which is known as the BrainGate Neural Interface System, is a silicon chip, about the size of a baby aspirin, and the electrodes penetrate into the brain at roughly the thickness of a quarter. … …

***
Well, that’s pretty straightforward, Mr. Zoltan, let’s just kill off these messy, old-order humans!  Upside down, atheistic messiah complex?  End-of-the-Age satanism as “science”?
Zoltan Istvan ran for US president in the 2016 election, driving around America in a custom media bus that is colored and shaped like a coffin.

http://newatlas.com/zoltan-istvan-interview-transhumanism-politics/48041/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=593b4676bb-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-593b4676bb-91592265

Zoltan Istvan on transhumanism, politics and why the human body has to go

(excerpt):  … You're embracing a future with a new type of human?
Oh I'm totally embracing it! I have called for the end of humanity as we know it. The reality is that I think the human body is frail. I don't want to say the human body is evil, but I don't like it. I'm not a fan of the human body. I think it's something that is designed to be replaced and replaced as quickly as possible. … …

***
“Transgender” Non-Sense —textbook studies in how to create a civil rights movement with a few phrases, slogans and mottos to excuse gross immorality and perversion of God’s instruction.  We must stand firm in teaching mercy and repentance without condoning such evils.  I thank God for this hold against the descents into Sodom —
Pray for Betsy Davos, that she will grow in understanding.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/us/politics/devos-sessions-transgender-students-rights.html?emc=edit_na_20170222&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta&_r=0
Trump Rescinds Rules on Bathrooms for Transgender Students
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday rescinded protections for transgender students that had allowed them to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity, overruling his own education secretary and placing his administration firmly in the middle of the culture wars that many Republicans have tried to leave behind.
In a joint letter, the top civil rights officials from the Justice Department and the Education Department rejected the Obama administration’s position that nondiscrimination laws require schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choice.
That directive, they said, was improperly and arbitrarily devised, “without due regard for the primary role of the states and local school districts in establishing educational policy.”The question of how to address the “bathroom debate,” as it has become known, opened a rift inside the Trump administration, pitting Education Secretary Betsy DeVos against Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Mr. Sessions, who had been expected to move quickly to roll back the civil rights expansions put in place under his Democratic predecessors, wanted to act decisively because of two pending court cases that could have upheld the protections and pushed the government into further litigation.
But Ms. DeVos initially resisted signing off and told Mr. Trump that she was uncomfortable because of the potential harm that rescinding the protections could cause transgender students, according to three Republicans with direct knowledge of the internal discussions.
Mr. Sessions, who has opposed expanding gay, lesbian and transgender rights, pushed Ms. DeVos to relent. After getting nowhere, he took his objections to the White House because he could not go forward without her consent. Mr. Trump sided with his attorney general, the Republicans said, and told Ms. DeVos in a meeting in the Oval Office on Tuesday that he wanted her to drop her opposition. And Ms. DeVos, faced with the alternative of resigning or defying the president, agreed to go along.
Ms. DeVos’s unease was evident in a strongly worded statement she released on Wednesday night, in which she said she considered it a “moral obligation” for every school in America to protect all students from discrimination, bullying and harassment.
She said she had directed the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights to investigate all claims of such treatment “against those who are most vulnerable in our schools,” but also argued that bathroom access was not a federal matter.
Gay rights supporters made their displeasure clear. Outside the White House, several hundred people protested the decision, chanting, “No hate, no fear, trans students are welcome here.” … …

***
(Feb. 24)
One supposes that this is to be taken, as far as the Press is concerned, with a wink and a nod and with tongue-in-cheek, but Christian spiritual warriors should be way ahead on this game. Witchcraft is no joke; just look at the vast media exposures (spells and spiels) afflicting the mind of western culture in our day; yet true witchcraft has little to do with outward appearances, and old hags in black rags and pointy hats around a cauldron are simply cliche.  True witchcraft is, rather, a cloaked, systematic rebellion groomed by the Devil.  Neither do we really need to worry about their calendar of waning moons, etc. (God owns the Heavens!), though I tend to lift up prayer on their “high (low!) (un)holy days” like Samhain/Halloween (but we need to watch and pray against the enemy, the devil, with vigilance continually).  The average novice witch has little idea at all of what she is doing (and may even believe she is a “white witch” —but this is naivete), and certainly she cannot see the end of the matter(!), but thinks she is just doing something “pagan, cool, hip, and fun,”  but prayer warriors should know to NOW pray against this release of propaganda, this “spiel” or spell:  Lord God, see their threatenings and their foolishness and cancel all their concentrated efforts; turn their spells back on their own heads, and we thank you for the same mercy you gave our brother Paul who also worked against you in his early, unconverted darkness and wickedness; we pray that you would yet be saving witches and showing them the hell that waits for those who oppose you to the grave.  We pray for Mr. Trump and his administration that you would quickly and constantly drive them to their knees to seek your will and your way, and we plead Christ’s Shed Blood for their protection and for your continued protective mercy upon us all.  In Jesus’s Name.  Amen.

http://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/news/a43285/casting-spell-donald-trump/
Are You Going To Cast A Spell On Trump?
Get your coven.
Those who don't like Donald Trump and the current Republican administration are mobilizing in all sorts of ways. They're speaking up in town halls and calling their representatives. They're organizing protests and demonstrations. And, for the magically-inclined, they're casting spells.  Starting at midnight on Friday, witches around the country are calling for a mass spell to be cast on Donald Trump every night of a waning crescent moon until he's driven from office.
The spell was publicized by Michael M. Hughes, who told ELLE.com that it was tweaked from multiple spells he saw going around private witchcraft groups. He published it on Extra News Feed because he felt "it would be very welcome to a lot of people." It quickly spread, with events being formed around the country and support on social media. … …

***

(Feb. 26)
An interesting note —  Mainstream Media barely —or not at all — mentions that Keith Ellison is passed by (but quickly made co-chair) when the Dem Party picks a new party chief.  They save their “inclusivity” appearance with “the first Latino leader” but skip the potential political suicide of putting the only Muslim among Federal lawmakers into the headship of their party, despite the lobbying of Sanders and his troops.  Keith Ellison has a westernized name, and with no present evidence of a “Mohammed” tucked in as a middle name there somewhere, but he is a Muslim, and this was noted several times back in the campaign.  Yes, as true Americans, we accept religious liberty, even if the Founders in their intent meant “liberty among Christian sects and no establishment of a governmental religion,” and they regarded Muslims, like the murderous, slaver Barbary Pirates, as barbarian infidels.  It is evident by their official doctrines, and the very doctrines that feed ISIS, Al Qaeda, et al that Islam and Sharia Law are utterly incompatible with Western Democracy and our Constitution, and Islam’s solution is death, terror, and slavery for those who will not submit to it.  So, at least the Democrats and the Press are not entirely suicidally psychotic in their present situation but have a glimmer of self-preservation left, however slight!

“Muslim” barely mentioned in this piece —
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/tom-perez-elected-as-first-latino-leader-of-democratic-party/2017/02/25/1fd76f52-fad7-11e6-9845-576c69081518_story.html?utm_term=.01b592fc6861
Thomas Perez elected the first Latino leader of Democratic Party

“Muslim” mentioned NOT AT ALL in this NYTimes Breaking News note of Feb. 25 —
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/25/us/politics/dnc-perez-ellison-chairman-election.html?emc=edit_na_20170225&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta&_r=0
Democrats Elect Thomas Perez, Establishment Favorite, as Party Chairman
(excerpt) —  “…The initial anger from Mr. Ellison’s supporters after the final results were announced was deeply embarrassing to party officials. Former Mayor R. T. Rybak of Minneapolis, the departing vice chairman of the committee, had to wade into the section of jeering activists to quiet them so Mr. Perez could announce his appointment of Mr. Ellison as his deputy. … …”

***
Sure! Fine! Blame us…and be partly right, but, Revelation 16:3, “…and every living soul died in the sea,”  as foretold cosmic events strike the planet and “the god of this world” (satan) rages at The End of the Age.  But, God will send his Son back to stop the raging and final destructions in Revelation 11:18 to “destroy them which destroy the earth.”  Remember, God is the Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer of all life and holds the DNA for every individual spark of life and being as well as the master codes for all species!

Yet, let us brace for the vast destructions of the End of the Age and the Great Tribulation.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/feb/25/half-all-species-extinct-end-century-vatican-conference
Biologists say half of all species could be extinct by end of century
		
One in five species on Earth now faces extinction, and that will rise to 50% by the end of the century unless urgent action is taken. That is the stark view of the world’s leading biologists, ecologists and economists who will gather on Monday to determine the social and economic changes needed to save the planet’s biosphere.
“The living fabric of the world is slipping through our fingers without our showing much sign of caring,” say the organisers of the Biological Extinctionconference held at the Vatican this week.
Threatened creatures such as the tiger or rhino may make occasional headlines, but little attention is paid to the eradication of most other life forms, they argue. But as the conference will hear, these animals and plants provide us with our food and medicine. They purify our water and air while also absorbing carbon emissions from our cars and factories, regenerating soil, and providing us with aesthetic inspiration. … …
***
Psalm 139:8-14
8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
12 Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

***************************************************************
If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

February 19

Saints, 

I’m back with a vengeance after IT/Computer problems all last week.  Long ago, I knew computers better than I do now.  Now, I just want them to work…and to leave me alone otherwise!  After my several frustrating 100 mile circuits to town, my precious, genius son whom I love with all my heart, found the problem and fixed it!  Thanks, bud!  That also saved more emergency investment I did not want to have to make.  The machine is also faster now!  Praise the Lord!

Oh, my how the Press is trying to create an Alternate Reality.  I don’t want to be left, right, or center politically as I am under the Almighty Monarch, The Son; but take a little time and go to the news briefs, headlines, daily updates, and such of the major media outlets like the NYTimes.  Page down slowly and look at the headlines, the leads, the adjectives and phrases chosen, and you will see such hatred and venom that it will astound you.  There is little attempt to hide the agenda as story after story accuses the Donald of one insanity or collapsing administrative office after another.  It is really an outpouring of Hell Itself.  Whatever our concerns and viewpoints as US citizens, we are instructed to honor the Office at least, and if people of Christian Faith, to pray for officeholders that we might “live quiet and peaceable lives.”  Instead, the foment of anarchy, hatred, and civil war are the major billboards of the Mainstream Media!  May God bring them down to repentance and humility!

This week, the great California dam is still in danger of collapse though those who live under its shadow just want to be at home.  New, wet conditions now seem to have replaced drought in California.  Will this vast new water further weaken fault lines?  Will Los Angeles and San Francisco be the first cities to submerge, or will Mexico City with 21 million people be the first city to take the plunge, but a plunge into the earth? (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/17/world/americas/mexico-city-sinking.htm)

The whole world is coming apart at the seams, but Christ will come “to destroy them which destroy the earth” (the devil and his minions, both demonic and human), Rev. 11:18.  “Maranatha!” Come soon, Lord Jesus!

***
From the week —

(Feb. 13)
Here it comes!  The grand deception, “the strong delusion, that they should believe a lie…” (2 Thes. 2:11), the Merger of Man and Machine (and Devil): the Beast.  For billionaire boy wonders (and such, even guest stars on The Big Bang Theory!), likely already bowing down to the Infernal to have received their Wealth, it may come as an overwhelming surge of cyber-signals in their coveted implants, a monstrous possession from which there is no longer any escape.  This “intelligence” will seize, control, infest those who give way to it.  It is not an intelligence from God for Man, but final invasions by Lucifer.  Thank God, He will surely destroy it, but millions if not billions will perish for bowing down to it.  “Flee from the wrath that is to come!”

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/13/elon-musk-humans-merge-machines-cyborg-artificial-intelligence-robots.html
Elon Musk: Humans must merge with machines or become irrelevant in AI age
Billionaire Elon Musk is known for his futuristic ideas and his latest suggestion might just save us from being irrelevant as artificial intelligence (AI) grows more prominent.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said on Monday that humans need to merge with machines to become a sort of cyborg.
"Over time I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence," Musk told an audience at the World Government Summit in Dubai, where he also launched Tesla in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
"It's mostly about the bandwidth, the speed of the connection between your brain and the digital version of yourself, particularly output."
Musk explained what he meant by saying that computers can communicate at "a trillion bits per second", while humans, whose main communication method is typing with their fingers via a mobile device, can do about 10 bits per second.
In an age when AI threatens to become widespread, humans would be useless, so there's a need to merge with machines, according to Musk. … …
***
(Feb. 14)
bereancall.org Daily Update Quote  / AMEN!  The Gospel is first and foremost not theology, not the church, not the history, it is Jesus Himself!

Fundamentally, our Lord's message was Himself. He did not come merely to preach a Gospel; He himself is that Gospel. He did not come merely to give bread; He said, "I am the bread." He did not come merely to shed light; He said, "I am the light." He did not come merely to show the door; He said, "I am the door." He did not come merely to name a shepherd; He said, "I am the shepherd." He did not come merely to point the way; He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."
--J. Sidlow Baxter (1903-1999, Australian born pastor and theologian who authored as many as thirty books)

***
(Feb. 15)
I don’t doubt that there are many sincere workers in the Psych Industry, but the APA’s own statistics say that any wise person using common sense and experience can obtain the same good results (and no doubt the same bad ones!) as the shrinks can.  I know there are cases no one can do anything with and some professional industry or another can make a living taking care of such.  But, for me and other Bible students, the Psych Industry is essentially and often very actually just a professional whitewash
job of sorcery and witch doctoring.  When this “profession” starts taking pot shots at people in the public sphere and offering their “psychoanalyses” on them, they should be shown for what they are, a bunch of pill-pushing (biblical “sorcery” is pharmakeia in New Testament Greek — mental drug spells) and twisted pronouncing of character assassinating “spiels/spells” as “diagnosis.”  What a bunch of crows on the fence (and demonized PhDs ascending out of the Abyss)!

This eminent guy rebukes them too.  He may be the same guy I wrote about many blogs back when the new DSM, fifth edition, came out.  The DSM is the “bible” of the shrink mongers, “The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.”  If this is the same man, he was the editor of the fourth edition, but quit when the fifth edition was being assembled, quit in disgust, saying in a paraphrase, “You have made everyone crazy by one definition or another!”  Good for him;  God save him!

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/opinion/an-eminent-psychiatrist-demurs-on-trumps-mental-state.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_ty_20170215&nl=opinion-today&nl_art=17&nlid=69381998&ref=headline&te=1
An Eminent Psychiatrist Demurs on Trump’s Mental State
Fevered media speculation about Donald Trump’s psychological motivations and psychiatric diagnosis has recently encouraged mental health professionals to disregard the usual ethical constraints against diagnosing public figures at a distance. They have sponsored several petitions and a Feb. 14 letter to The New York Times suggesting that Mr. Trump is incapable, on psychiatric grounds, of serving as president. … …

(Feb.17 follow up at the NYT)
The sickening drool of a pseudo-scientific, statistic-manipulating, dope-pushing profession, deemed the most fractious and suicidal of professions —
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/17/opinion/is-it-time-to-call-trump-mentally-ill.html
Is It Time to Call Trump Mentally Ill?

***
Super-soldiers and other “sciences of the Nephilim” (Gen 6:4), “humans 2.0,” and other monstrosities now getting the nod —  (Even NOW, and a couple of blogs back, we hear of a sow pig pregnant with a part-human, part-pig fetus.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/health/human-gene-editing-panel.html?emc=edit_th_20170215&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Human Gene Editing Receives Science Panel’s Support
An influential science advisory group formed by the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine on Tuesday lent its support to a once-unthinkable proposition: the modification of human embryos to create genetic traits that can be passed down to future generations.
This type of human gene editing has long been seen as an ethical minefield. Researchers fear that the techniques used to prevent genetic diseases might also be used to enhance intelligence, for example, or to create people physically suited to particular tasks, like serving as soldiers.

***
“…grenade dropping drones.”  it didn't take long to militarize small drones.  If ISIS can manage this from being besieged in Mosul (Jonah’s Ninevah), what can DARPA (The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) come up with…personnel lasers, individually targeted assassination rockets, crowd control gases and noise and microwave-heat weapons, flying machine guns activated by A.I., etc., etc.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/world/middleeast/isis-battle-for-mosul.html?emc=edit_th_20170215&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
In Eastern Mosul, Liberated From ISIS, Battle Rages ‘Day and Night’
MOSUL, Iraq — Any sense of normalcy on Saturday afternoon was shredded, again, when Iraqi soldiers began opening fire, their rifle barrels aimed at a white object in the bright blue sky.
Tayara musaira!” someone shouted — a drone! Residents of eastern Mosul sprinted home, terrified by the latest attack by the Islamic State, and demoralized by the certainty that more would be coming.Three weeks after Iraq declared the eastern half of this city liberated from the group, parts of the east bank of the Tigris River remain under siege. Residents say they are repeatedly targeted by Islamic State snipers, mortars and grenade-dropping drones (emphasis added) that buzz overhead several times a day.

***
Common Sense from someone not apparently yet relying on biblical prophecy.  (“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hands or foreheads:  And that no man might buy or sell, save (except) he that had that mark…”  Revelation 13:16-17)  It will come, but let us resist the Beast as long as we can.  Miss the Rapture?  Be willing to lose your head to keep from the Mark!
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/nevada/outlawing-microchipping-humans-not-so-far-fetched-nevada-senator
Outlawing microchipping humans not so far-fetched, Nevada senator says
CARSON CITY — State Sen. Becky Harris said a bill to prohibit forced microchipping of people is not as far-fetched as it might seem, because it happens in some places around the world.
Senate Bill 109 would make it a Class C felony to require someone to be implanted with a radio frequency identifier, such as microchips placed in pets.
The idea for the bill came from a constituent, the Las Vegas Republican said.
“As I began to look into the issue, I was surprised with the merit that I believe the issue warrants,” Harris told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday.
She said sales of radio frequency identifiers are escalating around the world, and a company in Australia as of June 2016 sold more than 10,000 implantable chips with do-it-yourself kits.
“Each kit costs about $100 and includes a tag and an injection tool,” Harris said.
The Wall Street Journal has reported an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 chips have been sold globally, she said.
Harris said the technology is used by companies in Belgium and Sweden to identify employees.
“It’s done under the idea to unlock doors or use copy machines or maybe pay for lunch, you could use your hand,” she said.
Besides privacy concerns, Harris said the concept raises ethical questions, such as who owns the chip or the information contained on it, and how does someone get “de-chipped” if they are no longer employed by the company that required it. She also wondered if a chip could be hacked to harass or stalk someone.
Harris said the Nevada bill is modeled after legislation passed by at least 10 other states.
“It wouldn’t prohibit the voluntary decision of a person to be microchipped,” she said, adding that a nightclub in Europe offers microchipping to customers so the establishment can provide tailored service. … …

***
Saints, Pray that neither Mr. Trump (at best, a newborn Christian) nor these establishment Evangelicals will be deceived by the spirit of antichrist in this political realm —

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/us/politics/trump-religious-conservatives.html?emc=edit_th_20170214&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
For Religious Conservatives, Success and Access at the Trump White House
WASHINGTON — The people who filled the pews of St. John’s Episcopal Church for a private service on the morning of the inauguration were a testament to the ascendancy of the religious right in Donald J. Trump’s Washington: James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family; Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council; James Robison, the Christian television preacher.
Right after Mr. Dobson blessed Mike Pence, and just before the congregation sang “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” Mr. Robison took to the pulpit and asked Mr. Trump to rise.For six minutes, the president-elect stood as Mr. Robison heaped praise on him, extolling his ability to inspire a crowd, his choice of the deeply religious Mr. Pence as a running mate and his wisdom in selecting a White House team that he deemed “the greatest cabinet I’ve ever seen.”“You are, in fact, an answer to prayer,” Mr. Robison said, according to a video taken from the back of the church, where every president has attended services since it opened in 1816. “I think you have been designed and gifted by God for this moment.” … …
***

Will the US simply falter and fall by way of a massive, extended Opium Dream?  No secular program can seem to do little more than issue false hopes and mourning for this rising tsunami of opiate addiction and death.
Indeed, the only hope is personal repentance case at a time, individual by individual, and if a groundswell of repentance should be triggered it would be by the birth of a new loathing and hatred for the drugs and their spiritual overlords, and the great Devil himself behind them.  Only one way out, opiate user, teach yourself quickly to hate, utterly hate, the dopejunk you are doing, the nod you are subject to, and call earnestly upon God for deliverance.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/us/overdose-cases-kentucky.html?emc=edit_th_20170214&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998

A Spike in Overdose Emergency Calls Is Seen in Kentucky
The numbers were remarkable even for a city in Kentucky, which is one of the top five states in the nation for overdose deaths.

In a span of 32 hours last week, emergency workers in Louisville responded to almost two calls per hour for overdose patients, the highest rate so far this year. 

Only one person died, but officials said on Monday that the number raised concerns that drug-related overdoses and deaths, which started rising last year, are accelerating. … …

***

(Feb. 16)
Tied to Elon Musk’s thoughts (lead story above), we see even secular and atheistic transhumanists wondering what will happen when we try “on our own” to transcend humanity — a secular primer of the moment on Transhumanism

http://newatlas.com/transhumanism-mainstream-era-popular/47941/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=79ef3472ac-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-79ef3472ac-91592265
Welcome to the era of transhumanism
In a compelling webseries from 2012 entitled H+, we were introduced to a future world where much of the population has a hi-tech implant, allowing individuals a direct neural interface with the internet. As often is the case in science fiction, things don't turn out well for those technological pioneers. A virus infects the implant and chaos quickly descends on a human race that has become biologically fused with technology. … …

***

(Feb. 17)
Zuckerberg advocates for One-World Globalism (…ultimately, the reign of Antichrist.  God ordained that there should be nations (Gen. 10, “The Table of the Nations” [esp.v.32]; Rev. 22:2, The Final Healing of the Nations), but the Beast wants the whole world on its knees to him…no nationalism…only globalism — one politic, one military, one religion — one diabolical and infernal lord and master of all! 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/16/technology/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-mission-statement.html
Facebook’s Zuckerberg, Bucking Tide, Takes Public Stand Against Isolationism
SAN FRANCISCO —  Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, on Thursday stepped into the raging debate about globalization.
In a 5,800-word-letter he posted publicly, Mr. Zuckerberg expressed alarm that what was once considered normal — seeking global connection — was now seen by people and governments around the world as something undesirable.
He pledged that he would push Facebook, which has more than 1.8 billion users worldwide, in a direction that would help convince individuals and governments that “progress now requires humanity coming together not just as cities or nations, but also as a global community.”
The letter comes close to a political statement by a chief executive who, as the leader of a global company, is essentially arguing against a tide of isolationism that is rising across the world. … …

***

While Freedom should allow us to associate and do business with whom we choose, is it worth the battle to deny the sodomites provisions for their occasions simply as a matter of business?  We have the “right” not to deal in drugs or alcohol or specific items of debauchery, crime, or evil, but flowers?  No need to leave business cards or advertising behind or drive up in a van with business signage, but sell them their flowers and save time before the Supreme Court of Washington?  Paul says, if invited to feast and you want to go, then go, asking nothing for conscience’ sake, but only refusing a good meal if someone specifically says, “this feast is for idols.”  Maybe conscience truly led this lady to fight, but there are so many fights, we need to choose ours carefully!  Nevertheless, she is right not to endorse the demonic agents of the sodomite agenda as it endeavors to take over our culture and our way of life.  God direct her and save her! —

https://apnews.com/9d74931fffe14c0ea511c51cc3cf0c90
Washington court rules against florist in gay wedding case
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — The Washington Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that a florist who refused to provide services for a same-sex wedding broke the state's antidiscrimination law, even though she claimed doing so would violate her religious beliefs. … …se

***
(Feb. 18)
Breaking News / Saturday 
The famous/infamous “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade has died, but she herself repented of her desire for the murder of abortion, and we can trust that she is now with the Lord.  God rest her!
https://boingboing.net/2017/02/18/norma-mccorvey-jane-roe.html
Norma McCorvey dead at 69; anonymous 'Jane Roe' plaintiff in Roe v. Wade abortion case

Norma McCorvey, the anonymous "Jane Roe" in the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade, has died.
She died Saturday morning in Katy, Texas. She was 69. McCorvey became an icon of women's struggle for to physical self-determination, including the right to terminate a pregnancy. McCorvey reversed her views on abortion later in life.

***

(Feb. 19)
Who’d have thought!?  The terrible oppression of some Islamic societies makes a man prefer a terrible political prison for terrorists over “freedom” on the streets of Tunisia!  God save many out of the hell of Islam!

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/17/world/africa/after-eight-years-in-guantanamo-he-yearns-to-return.html
After Eight Years in Guantánamo, He Yearns to Return
TUNIS — Dressed in a thick jacket and wool hat on a cool winter evening, counting the coins for his bus fare, Hedi Hammami looks like any other Tunisian on his way to work.
But he walks with a limp and sometimes pauses midspeech and screws up his face in pain. “That’s Guantánamo,” he explains. After eight years as a detainee in the United States detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, he says he still suffers from headaches, depression and anxiety attacks from the torture and other mistreatment he says he suffered there, even six years after his release.
Married with two children now and employed as a nighttime ambulance driver, Mr. Hammami, 47, seems to have rebuilt his life. Yet the pressures of living in Tunisia’s faltering democracy, under harassment and enduring repeated raids by the police, have driven him to make an extreme request.
“It would be better for me to go back to that single cell and to be left alone,” he said recently. “Two or three weeks ago I went to the Red Cross and asked them to connect me to the U.S. foreign ministry to ask to go back to Guantánamo.”
The Red Cross refused to take his request, he said, but he insists nevertheless that at this point, that would be best for him.“I have lost my hope,” he says. “There is no future in this country for me.” … …

***
The state of the State? — Extreme divisiveness — NYT Op Ed —

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/18/opinion/sunday/are-liberals-helping-trump.html
Are Liberals Helping Trump?
(excerpt):
… “There is really only one period that was analogous, and that is the Civil War and its immediate aftermath,” said Doug McAdam, a Stanford sociology professor. “I’m not suggesting we are there, but we are straining our institutions more than we really ever have before.” … …

***

“There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

Proverbs 16:25

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If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

February 12

Saints, 

A short update this week, for two reasons as best as I can tell:  One, IT/Computer problems here, “in the middle of nowhere,” that have required four 100 mile trips this week…and are still only half solved.  Two, there is no lack of national political news, but I try not to major on it except to pray and to call for prayer.  Much commentary on this news leads to a partisanship I try to avoid.  It is true that many conservative issues ring true to biblical truths, but we Christian sheep can be led astray so easily by those with partisan agendas.  There are calls for “good things” among the liberals and the so-called progressives too.  In the original, de-semanticized use of the word, “liberal” means free, gracious, non-judgmental, and who doesn’t want “good progress”?  We Christians are told to “remember the poor” and to help the suffering stranger in our land, and we must show mercy to refugees and those who want to be here to save their families and honestly better their lives.  Yet, sound conservatism, acknowledging biblical truths…and history, understands the sack of Rome (and the apostasies of both Israel and the Church) and the decline and fall of civilization when a rotten debauchery and misuse of plentiful supply in the land leads to its overrun and demise.  Also, as people seeking biblical truth, while we may welcome the needy stranger without prejudice as Americans, yet we must stand aloof and resist the incursion and the teachings of false gods and false religions.  At the time of the end, these are leading to the set-up of the church of Antichrist, but they have been an issue with the people of God since the good kings of Israel had to drive out the sodomites and cult prostitutes from taking part in the Temple Service, and since Moses was ordered to expunge the heathen from the Promised Land.  We are caught between the horns of a very serious and evil dilemma.  We must watch and pray as the first and main order of business.  Prayer and waiting on and watching for God’s hand is still far and away the most powerful weapon, and we must be sure it precedes and exceeds any outward works or stands we may take and may do or advocate for.

God rest you.

***
Samples of the Week —

Conservative Roman Catholics are confronted with many intrigues over the present pope, intrigues worthy of a Dan Brown novel (The DaVinci Code, etc.)?  Will the last pope be the prophesied “False Prophet” of St. John’s Revelation?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/world/europe/vatican-steve-bannon-pope-francis.html?emc=edit_th_20170207&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Steve Bannon Carries Battles to Another Influential Hub: The Vatican
ROME — When Stephen K. Bannon was still heading Breitbart News, he went to the Vatican to cover the canonization of John Paul II and make some friends. High on his list of people to meet was an archconservative American cardinal, Raymond Burke, who had openly clashed with Pope Francis.  In one of the cardinal’s antechambers, amid religious statues and book-lined walls, Cardinal Burke and Mr. Bannon — who is now President Trump’s anti-establishment eminence — bonded over their shared worldview. They saw Islam as threatening to overrun a prostrate West weakened by the erosion of traditional Christian values, and viewed themselves as unjustly ostracized by out-of-touch political elites. … …
***
Will “treatment” without repentance finally place whole populaces under the fog of opioids?  Seems to be the case.  Is it “addiction treatment” that has increased or just more addicts to treat? …as we now give free, “safe” needle zones, etc. and thus encourage “official programs of addiction” in the name of “recovery”?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/health/addiction-treatment-opiods-aca-obamacare.html?emc=edit_th_20170211&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
Addiction Treatment Grew Under Health Law. Now What?
***
Without regard to a political stand, I am an unabashed Snowden fan.  Some conservatives are calling for his head, but a spy helps enemy countries with secret information, and Snowden instead is a whistleblower who widely disseminated information to the American Public to warn us of the takeover of not only our culture and values but also of our own individual minds, privacy, and humanity.  “Punish” him with a pardon, Mr. Trump, a pardon that sees him accompanied and overseen continually by the proper spy agencies, and puts him (instead of into a dark solitary cell for 30 years) TO WORK FOR US, helping to watch out for our freedoms.  If I had a Snowden T-shirt, I would wear it!  Mr. Trump, Mr. Putin is widely acknowledged to have made a move of political genius, which you also admired publicly, in not reacting to Mr. Obama’s emptying of the Russian Embassy here over the so-called election interference.  Please now, be just as smart and pardon Mr. Snowden on condition he be put to highly supervised consulting work here, guarding our freedoms!
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/russia-eyes-sending-snowden-u-s-gift-trump-official-n718921
Russia Considers Returning Snowden to U.S. to ‘Curry Favor’ With Trump: Official
U.S. intelligence has collected information that Russia is considering turning over Edward Snowden as a "gift" to President Donald Trump — who has called the NSA leaker a "spy" and a "traitor" who deserves to be executed.

***
A little time to feel good about the right things —
Chloe - A Story of Infertility, Adoption, and God's Love
www.youtube.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKjh2Rqwmdo

***

First time in history this dam overflows.  Sometimes, I love asking dumb layman questions — especially when experts know little to nothing more:  Could all this water in California effect the deep fault lines and bring on “the Big One”?
http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article132154774.html
As emergency spillway flows, state says repairs to crippled Oroville Dam could run $200 million

***

The “death troops” and “the Life people” begin having noticeable, nationwide face-offs —
(So much division on so many topics!  Will we yet see new civil wars here?)

https://www.yahoo.com/news/activists-both-sides-abortion-issue-protest-across-u-101458664.html
Protesters face off as U.S. abortion debate heats up
WASHINGTON/MARIETTA, Ga. (Reuters) - Anti-abortion protesters rallied at scores of Planned Parenthood clinics on Saturday to urge Congress and President Donald Trump to strip the health services provider of federal funding, while supporters of the organization staged counter-demonstrations around the United States.
With anti-abortion groups expecting protests at up to 225 clinics, Planned Parenthood supporters organized 150 protests of their own at parks, government buildings and other sites, including clinics. At some of those clinics, the counter-demonstrators outnumbered those demanding an end to federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
All told, rallies and marches were called in 45 states in cities large and small, from Washington and Philadelphia to St. Paul, Minnesota, and Orange, California
As many as 6,000 people turned up for competing demonstrations in St. Paul, Minnesota, police said, but at other places, only a few dozen demonstrators turned out.
"We expected that tens of thousands of pro-lifers will be out today sending a message that we want Planned Parenthood to be defunded," Monica Miller, director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society and one of the national organizers of the anti-abortion rallies, said in a telephone interview. … …
***
(Can’t resist! 😉): Reminds me of a character in The Wizard of Oz, upon whom a house fell.  Only this time, she was landed upon by the Senate and not the House!
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/08/us/politics/elizabeth-warren-coretta-scott-king.html?emc=edit_th_20170209&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998 
***
“…and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God;
And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus,
which delivered us from the wrath to come.”
(1 Thessalonians 1:9b-10)

*********************************************
If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

February 5

Saints, 

By week’s end, we see our new U.S. President overturning the world’s tables (Recall who else did that when He wanted their attention).  We need to pray earnestly for him and his advisors that God would keep them from error and hold them in his purposes as “He who turns the king’s heart as rivers of waters” (Prov. 21:11).  The right wing in Europe follows his lead, and this Sunday morning, even deeply troubled, recently very leftist Argentina follows suit in locking down borders (see Feb. 5 notes below).

Without descending into superstition, a Christian who endeavors to examine spiritual signs and types could look at the meanings of the word “trump.”  To trump is to best or upstage or be victorious over something; it is also the root (or the same as) of “trumpet,” an instrument not only of music but also to give announcement or a call to battle.  Yet, to the President’s rage, a fairly minor court official has, at least momentarily, stopped his executive actions on immigration.  But, while this plays out, he sets China’ s teeth on edge by defending Japan’s island claims, and baits Iran with military threats.  And, is the will of the people, or at least the strongly divided half of our populace, so ready to throw open the gates of immigration that the mass of invaders from every direction cannot be stopped?  Also, in today’s news, our Intelligence Agencies now assess that so-called “lone wolves” are, in fact, under the direction of ISIS, more than was expected (also see Feb 5 notes below). This is something the spiritual and biblical Christian has been able to assess for some time, recognizing that these people are under a mass spell of darkness that cannot initially be seen or measured by unspiritual or darkened intelligence gathering only.

When the Scriptures, speaking of apocalyptic times, use the word “soon,” Christians of every generation caught down here in time and with very limited perspective hope the revelation of the return of Christ will be today or tomorrow, and it may very well be, and we should live lives of watching, but when it does come, it will suddenly be “soon,” for all of time will seem as nothing when Eternity breaks.  Yes, also, “soon” means “suddenly,” and these times, if we are indeed being given Heaven’s warnings, should illustrate to us how quickly things can change.  Even by next week, the world order could easily not be recognizable.  Toss in cosmic changes — “great and fearful signs in the heavens” — monstrous, globe straddling weather disasters, huge earthquakes, “alien” altered-DNA microbe pestilences sweeping through populaces, inhuman “new humans” replenishing without procreation, etc., etc. — and surely we are being warned to watch and make ready.

Above all things, pray.  Watch and Pray!

***

The Week — Really only a small smattering here of breaking times —

(Jan. 30)
Once Christian Divinity Schools return to Paganism in their rant against Patriarchy and the Fatherhood of God —

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=973
Divinity Schools Stop Praying To The Father; Use Gender-Neutral Language
The gender war has now moved from bathroom regulations and into the recommended language in theology classes. 

The divinity schools at Duke and Vanderbilt Universities have rekindled debate, previously addressed at Notre Dame and Harvard, by issuing gender neutral guidance to their professors. 

Referring to God as "Father", it would seem, serves to reinforce patriarchy. 

The current year's course catalog for Vanderbilt University advises professors that they should pay "consistent attention to the use of inclusive language, especially in relation to the Divine because the school commits continuously and explicitly to include gender as an analyzed category and to mitigate sexism." … …

***
Monday Morning’s First Terrorist Attack, but this time against Muslims, a Quebec mosque is assaulted, six or more dead, as many or more wounded —
A clash of cultures; media and government managers try to deflect the fray but many in western culture are seeing our populaces as under attack and at war!  As Christians, we cannot justify violence against those who disagree with us, BUT neither can we offer to mix with idolaters and those who vow, as a matter of their religious doctrine, to slaughter Christians and Jews.  The whole of the West faces major constitutional crises;  we cannot coexist with Sharia Law unless the murder, genocide, and religious war are utterly expunged from its doctrines…and, really, not even then, but we can pray for our enemies that they will be brought to salvation at the feet of Lord Jesus.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/29/world/americas/quebec-city-mosque-shooting-canada.html?emc=edit_th_20170130&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
Quebec Mosque Shooting Kills at Least 6, and 2 Suspects Are Arrested
OTTAWA — Gunmen opened fire in a mosque in the city of Quebec on Sunday night, killing six people and wounding eight others in what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called a “terrorist attack on Muslims.”
Étienne Doyon, a spokesman for the Quebec police, told reporters at the scene that the attack on the mosque, the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec, had occurred around 8 p.m. At a news conference early Monday the police confirmed the six fatalities and said that two suspects had been arrested.
The attack shook Canada, a country where mass shootings are uncommon, and came as the country has become known as a beacon for refugees fleeing warfare and terrorism in Muslim-majority nations.
Mr. Trudeau assailed what he called “this terrorist attack on Muslims in a center of worship and refuge.” … …
***

Boy Scouts, no longer boys but made into youth troops of Sodom, a kind of politically adjusted new style of “nazi-youth?”  …and why I must continue before the Lord concerning Tillerson for Secretary of State as he is known for being instrumental in paving the way to turn the Scouts to the sodomite agenda.  (Wednesday afternoon, Feb 1., Tillerson confirmed as Secretary of State; may God convict him to change and to do right in these matters.)

(A “transgender boy” is new and approved “doublespeak” for what we once called “a girl.”)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/us/boy-scouts-reversing-century-old-stance-will-allow-transgender-boys.html?emc=edit_na_20170130&nl=breaking-news&nlid=69381998&ref=cta&_r=0
Boy Scouts, Reversing Century-Old Stance, Will Allow Transgender Boys
Reversing its stance of more than a century, the Boy Scouts of America said on Monday that the group would begin accepting members based on the gender listed on their application, paving the way for transgender boys to join the organization. … …

***
(Jan. 31)
Paraphrasing Homer on Troy:  “Many of the citizens were enthralled by the gift of their enemies and wanted to bring the great wooden horse into the city to protect it for the night…”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/us/migrants-ban-trump-supporters.html?emc=edit_th_20170131&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
In Ban on Migrants, Trump Supporters See a Promise Kept
(excerpt):  …Mr. Trump’s new immigration policy may be setting off protests around the country and raising eyebrows and objections among allies abroad. But at home, a large portion of the electorate is behind the president. Mr. Trump’s supporters say that the promise of tougher immigration policies is one of the main reasons they voted for him. Friday’s order, along with an earlier one for building a wall, shows that he is serious, they say. … …
***
There will be no peace until the Prince of Peace arrives —
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/world/middleeast/the-sleepy-israeli-settlement-thats-fast-becoming-a-flash-point.html?emc=edit_th_20170131&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Israel’s Hard-Liners Want to ‘Go Big’: Annex a Settlement
***
As a nearby observer of Montreal, it is a multicultural, polyglot city and rejoices in it — if the francophones are properly honored, but, if not, look out —

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/world/canada/quebec-mosque-shooting.html?emc=edit_th_20170131&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Killings at Quebec City Mosque Force Canadians to Confront a Strain of Intolerance
(excerpts):
… The nation quickly rallied after the attack. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called it an act of terrorism, and there was a collective outpouring of remorse and empathy. But the attack also forced Canadians to confront a growing intolerance and extremism that has taken root particularly among some people in this French-speaking corner of the country. … …

… Quebec has had a history of confrontations with the Muslim community. In 2005, the province became the first to explicitly ban the use of Shariah law and, less than a decade later, the Parti Québécois government tried to pass a “charter of values” that would have banned provincial employees from wearing Muslim head scarves and other “overt” religious symbols. … …
***
Sadly, off to prison with a life ruined by the mass hypnosis of radical Islam.  May Christ find him there.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/us/samy-el-goarany-isis.html?emc=edit_th_20170131&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Arizona Man Is Convicted of Helping New York City College Student Join ISIS
***
(Feb.1)
All is not well in liberal, “quiet” Canada — (see “Monday Morning Terror” above)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/31/world/americas/canada-quebec-nationalists.html?emc=edit_th_20170201&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
As Canada Transforms, an Anti-Immigrant Fringe Stirs
TORONTO — François Deschamps stepped out of his apartment building in the Limoilou neighborhood of Quebec City recently and stopped when he saw a sticker wrapped around a light pole.
“Burn Your Local Mosque,” it read, around a silhouette of a Turkish-style mosque against an orange flame. … …

***
(see Jan. 30, above)
The Demise of the Boy Scouts.  Emphasis added in boldface and my editorial comment added in boldface with italics —
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/31/us/boy-scouts-transgender-policy.html?emc=edit_th_20170201&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Conservatives Alienated by Boy Scouts’ Shift on Transgender Policy
When the Boy Scouts of America announced Monday that transgender boys (confused girls) would be welcome to camp, hike and earn merit badges alongside their peers, the move brought praise from critics of the organization (s0d0mite prowlers) who for years have called for more inclusive membership rules.

But the decision, which came with little warning (devious attacks) and reversed a more than century-old stance of determining gender based on birth certificates, further alienated many religious conservatives who were longtime advocates of the program.

“Now we see once again that the Boy Scouts really is committed to a gender-theory culture war that evangelical Christians and many other Americans just can’t accept,” said Russell Moore, the president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Mr. Moore, a former scout, said Southern Baptist churches and others had been dismayed by Boy Scout policies for several years, as the Scouts moved first to allow openly gay youth members, and then openly gay adult leaders (foxes in the chicken coop).  Though several Southern Baptist congregations have stopped sponsoring Scout troops, Mr. Moore said others had held out hope that the organization would return to a more conservative worldview.

“I think, for some, this will be the final sign that it’s time to go,” Mr. Moore said. … …(I think the final sign was before this with the acknowledgement that homosexual activity is acceptable and “inclusive”!  Keep your sons and daughters from this Trojan Horse!)

***
(Feb.2)
Christians should categorically resist hating and harming our enemies, but this does not mean we should ignore identifying them.  In the Old Testament, from the Ten Commandments on, we are to make no mixture with the pagans, the heathens. the idolaters, the followers of any other way or religion.  Israel was instructed to receive as brother anyone who wanted to convert and to be kind to “the stranger in the land” and make a place for him among them, but this instruction was not meant to harbor enemies of the people or enemies of God.  And Peter in the New Testament is very clear:  “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

The USA is not the Theocracy of Israel but a secular society which has honored Christ to some degree and has had many Christians within it.  Its Constitutional government was framed in the light of Christian conscience and cannot coexist with Sharia law.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/us/politics/donald-trump-islam.html?emc=edit_th_20170202&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
Trump Pushes Dark View of Islam to Center of U.S. Policy-Making
WASHINGTON — It was at a campaign rally in August that President Trump most fully unveiled the dark vision of an America under siege by “radical Islam” that is now radically reshaping the policies of the United States.

On a stage lined with American flags in Youngstown, Ohio, Mr. Trump, who months before had called for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslim immigration, argued that the United States faced a threat on par with the greatest evils of the 20th century. The Islamic State was brutalizing the Middle East, and Muslim immigrants in the West were killing innocents at nightclubs, offices and churches, he said. Extreme measures were needed.

“The hateful ideology of radical Islam,” he told supporters, must not be “allowed to reside or spread within our own communities.”

Mr. Trump was echoing a strain of anti-Islamic theorizing familiar to anyone who has been immersed in security and counterterrorism debates over the last 20 years. He has embraced a deeply suspicious view of Islam that several of his aides have promoted, notably retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, now his national security adviser, and Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s top strategist.

This worldview borrows from the “clash of civilizations” thesis of the political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, and combines straightforward warnings about extremist violence with broad-brush critiques of Islam. It sometimes conflates terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State with largely nonviolent groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots and, at times, with the 1.7 billion Muslims around the world. In its more extreme forms, this view promotes conspiracies about government infiltration and the danger that Shariah, the legal code of Islam, may take over in the United States.

Those espousing such views present Islam as an inherently hostile ideology whose adherents are enemies of Christianity and Judaism and seek to conquer nonbelievers either by violence or through a sort of stealthy brainwashing.

The executive order on immigration that Mr. Trump signed on Friday might be viewed as the first major victory for this geopolitical school. And a second action, which would designate the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist political movement in the Middle East, as a terrorist organization, is now under discussion at the White House, administration officials say. … …

***
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/technology/personaltech/stop-hijacking-home-devices.html?emc=edit_th_20170202&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Here Is How to Fend Off a Hijacking of Home Devices
(excerpt):
When in Doubt, Hit Mute
Among security researchers, putting a piece of tape over a computer webcam has become a tongue-in-cheek recommendation for those who are extra paranoid about their privacy. (Even Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, does it.)
With smart speakers like the Amazon Echo and Google Home, there is an equivalent: a mute button to disable the device microphone so it can no longer listen. In the unlikely event that a device is hijacked, muting the microphone could help prevent hackers from listening to your conversations, Mr. Britton said.
Or you could go the safest route and opt out of having these devices at all. That was the method chosen by Mr. Tien, the lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who previously studied the privacy risks of smart meters, the devices that utility companies use to monitor energy consumption.
He said he accepted the privacy implications of owning a smartphone, but a smart home accessory?
“I think it’s sort of asking to have your privacy invaded to have something like that,” he said. “I’m not sure that the value of it is really all that great.” … …
***

(Breaking News, Feb. 2)
Nice to get blessed, but we don’t need another Roman Empire.  The church must be careful it doesn’t get ruled by the state —
We could use a Cyrus, maybe a Constantine, but the Bride of Christ can’t get in bed with a Nero or Caligula!  “Beware the Ides of March,” and beware the spirit of antichrist does not sneak in!  President Donald, we are pleading with God that you might learn to pray more and more and be humble under the hand of the Almighty.  God save the President!
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/02/us/politics/trump-johnson-amendment-political-activity-churches.html
Trump Vows to ‘Destroy’ Law Banning Political Activity by Churches
WASHINGTON — President Trump vowed Thursday to overturn a law restricting political speech by tax-exempt churches, a potentially huge victory for the religious right and a gesture to his political base.
Mr. Trump said his administration would “totally destroy” the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits churches from engaging in political activity at the risk of losing their tax-exempt status.
Repealing the law would require approval by Congress. Certain tax-exempt organizations — in this case, churches — are not allowed to openly endorse or campaign for political candidates. If they do, under existing law, they risk losing the benefits of their tax-exempt status.
Speaking to a gathering of religious leaders, the president also defended his immigration policy, brushed aside concern about his harsh phone calls with foreign leaders… …
He did not mention an executive order on religious freedom, which critics said would restrict the rights of lesbians and gay men; a draft of the order has circulated, but administration officials have denied that it will be adopted.
In addressing the issue of churches and political speech, Mr. Trump said, “I will get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution.”  … …

***
Well, duh!  Civilization provably appeared about 5000 years ago.  From there back to 165 million or so is the speculation of “scientific dogma evolution,” and the 14 billion year Big Bang is a great comedy but otherwise the bosh of atheist speculators in PhD. clothes!
http://newatlas.com/radioisotope-dating-flaw-overestimate-rock-age/47696/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=c098ba8c85-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-c098ba8c85-91592265
We might be overestimating the age of ancient rocks
***
Oh, yeah.  Get your moods monitored, recorded, profiled and analyzed by Big Brother and the Great A.I. (Cloud in the sky).
http://newatlas.com/mit-ai-wearable-conversation-tone/47698/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=c098ba8c85-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-c098ba8c85-91592265
Eavesdropping AI detects the tone of conversations
***
Check out these ‘bots! —

http://newatlas.com/boston-dynamics-handle-wheeled-robot/47699/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=c098ba8c85-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-c098ba8c85-91592265
Boston Dynamics rolls out spinning, jumping “Handle” robot

http://newatlas.com/caltech-bat-bot/47702/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=c098ba8c85-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-c098ba8c85-91592265
Caltech's bat-inspired robot stretches its wings
***
(Feb. 3)
Terror at the Louvre — Western Civilization and radical Islam can do nought but clash.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4187460/Lovre-evacuated-Paris.html
Machete-wielding man slumps to the ground after being shot in the stomach at the Louvre museum as he attacked French soldiers while screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’ 
	•	A man armed with a machete was shot five times in the stomach after attempting to storm the museum
	•	Police source said the attacker was shouting 'Allahu Akbar' before being gunned down
	•	Streets around the Louvre have been evacuated and France's interior ministry branded the incident 'serious'
	•	French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has described the attack as 'terrorist in nature' 
	•	A second person has been arrested, but it is not known if they were linked to the attack
	•	The identity and nationality of the attacker are not yet known, the interior ministry has said 

***
Sure, what could possibly go wrong? (“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast {Skynet; Global Cloud, Worldwide Internet Robotic A.I.}, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.” —Revelation 13:15)

http://newatlas.com/future-of-life-institute-asilomar-ai-principles/47724/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=c127f7700e-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-c127f7700e-91592265
Move over Asimov: 23 principles to make AI safe and ethical
Poised to seriously disrupt the world, will the impacts of artificial intelligence be for the good of humanity, or destroy it? The question sounds like the basis of a sci-fi flick, but with the speed that AI is advancing, hundreds of AI and robotics researchers have converged to compile the Asilomar AI Principles, a list of 23 principles, priorities and precautions that should guide the development of artificial intelligence to ensure it's safe, ethical and beneficial. … …
***
(Feb. 5)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/04/world/americas/argentinas-trump-like-immigration-order-rattles-south-america.html?emc=edit_th_20170205&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
Argentina’s Trump-Like Immigration Order Rattles South America
BUENOS AIRES — Argentina is so used to celebrating immigration as a cornerstone of society that a 19th-century saying — to govern is to populate — remains in use to this day.
But in an abrupt shift coinciding with the immigration restrictions put in place by the Trump administration, President Mauricio Macri has issued a decree curbing immigration to Argentina, with his government declaring that newcomers from poorer countries in Latin America bring crime.
The measures announced by Mr. Macri in recent days made it much easier to deport immigrants and restrict their entry, prompting irate comparisons to President Trump and igniting a fierce debate over immigration.“A decree like this scares people,” said Arfang Diedhiou, 33, a Senegalese immigrant who runs his own clothing store here in the capital, Buenos Aires. “It came out just after what Trump did, a coincidence that seems very strange to me.” … …

***
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/04/world/asia/isis-messaging-app-terror-plot.html?emc=edit_th_20170205&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Not ‘Lone Wolves’ After All: How ISIS Guides World’s Terror Plots From Afar
(excerpt):   …As officials around the world have faced a confusing barrage of attacks dedicated to the Islamic State, cases like Mr. Yazdani’s offer troubling examples of what counterterrorism experts are calling enabled or remote-controlled attacks: violence conceived and guided by operatives in areas controlled by the Islamic State whose only connection to the would-be attacker is the internet. … …

***
“And when these things begin to come to pass, 
then look up, 
and lift up your heads; 
for your redemption draweth nigh.”

Luke 21:28

**********************************************************
If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

January 29

Saints, 

U.S. Saints: Original Authority is all from God but Authoritarianism in human government, flawed by Original Sin, can quickly go in bad directions.  Even the most radical conservatives may be taken aback by the pace of the new Trump administration.  We live in very perilous times, times of exponential acceleration of events.  We need to pray daily, hourly if need be, that our President’s zeal would be deeply and thoroughly under the Hand of the Almighty, that Mr. Trump’s sidekick, the VP, would be also a constant prayer warrior and a steadfast testimony of an older Christian to Mr. Trump.  We, the many unknown saints as to worldly position, need to exercise the mighty power of believing prayer for these men and the men and women of the administration, taking time even as we hear news break, to stop and pray, and then also to watch.  Executive Orders and Memorandum have been flying off the President’s desk all week.  Much is deeply overdue; yet the pace is almost frightening.  Let us covenant to pray without ceasing.  Let us help in rulership by prayer.

Some have pointed out how like Cyrus the Persian Mr. Trump is.  Cyrus was one of the greatest leaders of all history, and he heard and bowed to God to set the Jews free from their Babylonian captivity and to send them home to rebuild the Temple and restore the honor of God on the Earth and in Jerusalem.  If you haven’t read on him for awhile, review the last chapter of 2nd Chronicles and the following first chapter of Ezra.  In bowing to the God of Israel, he seems to have become a devout believer himself.  May Mr. Trump also utterly humble himself under the hand of Almighty God.

Some of this racing week —

Breaking News for the 28th and 29th — Trump closes the borders?
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-immigration-chaos-idUSKBN15C0LD?il=0
Chaos, anger as Trump order halts some Muslim immigrants
President Donald Trump's order to restrict people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States sparked confusion and anger on Saturday after immigrants and refugees were kept off flights and left stranded in airports.
In his most sweeping decision since taking office a week ago, Trump, a Republican, put a four-month hold on allowing refugees into the United States and temporarily barred travelers from Syria and six other countries. … …

***
(Jan. 23)
Artificial Intelligence is leading to Artificial Creativity.  Some AI music tracks in this piece are quite nice, but will Artificial Creativity, over time, rewire our brains, our human neural networks, to a synthesized perspective of the Creation and The Creator?

Like those moved by mass marches, will AI embracers even realize when they are being entranced?  We all know music is powerful, but what of music invented and discovered not by man or supplied by God but music assembled from an artificial realm?  Will music lovers and artists begin to conceive of Creation and its Creator as Artificial Constructs?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/22/arts/music/jukedeck-artificial-intelligence-songwriting.html?emc=edit_th_20170123&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
From Jingles to Pop Hits, A.I. Is Music to Some Ears
***
While human news trumps much nature news of late, God’s Handmaiden of Judgments and Caller to Righteousness and Prayer, NATURE, passes her besom over the southern states and over California, and over Italy of late.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/22/us/tornadoes-southeast-georgia-mississippi-death.html
At Least 18 Die as Tornadoes Sweep Southeast
***
What an interesting headline by the NYTimes’ editorialist C. M. Blow.  He echoes the words and the name of the spirits Jesus cast out of Gadarene demoniac —
“And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him” (Luke 8:30).
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/opinion/we-are-dissidents-we-are-legion.html
We Are Dissidents; We Are Legion
***
I must ask again, as I asked in the blog of two weeks ago, “Can and will democracy survive social media’s penchant for ‘fake news’ and ‘post-truth’ ”?  It’s not looking good.
(See “Online and Scared,” and the piece on the “Deep State,” Jan. 15 issue.)

Official disinformation on The Rape of Cologne, New Year’s Eve of 2015/2016 —

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=953#WTXBcasQ2vDA2ou6.99
Germany's New Propaganda Bureau - Big Brother is Watching YOU!
Officials in Germany's Interior Ministry are urging Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière to establish a "Defense Center against Disinformation" (Ab­wehr­zen­trum ge­gen Des­in­for­ma­ti­on) to combat what they call "political disinformation," a euphemism for "fake news."

"The acceptance of a post-truth age would amount to political capitulation," the officials told Maizière in a memo, which also disclosed that the bureaucrats at the Interior Ministry are eager to see "authentic political communication" remain "defining for the 21st century."

One wonders whether by "authentic political communication," the officials of the Interior Ministry are referring to the way German authorities scrambled to cover up the mass sexual attacks on women on New Year's Eve a year ago in Cologne? (bolding added)

At the time, German police first claimed, surreally, on the morning of January 1, 2016, that the situation on New Year's Eve had been "relaxed." Cologne Police Chief Wolfgang Albers later dryly admitted, "This initial statement was incorrect." … …

***
The science of the Nephilim resurrects, bringing unnatural DNA and genetic coding to Earth again?  The Nephilim are the biblically-revealed offspring of fallen angels and humans (Gen. 6:4).  Beside the physical giants they became, some may have been intellectual giants and geniuses too — supermen of knowledge, occult (hidden) methodologies, unearthly and diabolical wisdoms.  And their experiments may have produced more than just themselves but perhaps everything from diabolical microbes to the T-Rex.  Genesis says the whole earth was polluted by them, and only eight righteous humans eluded infection by their inventions.  As a result, God destroyed the surface of the whole earth, which was “full of violence” (6:11-12) with the Flood, and only Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives escaped — and uninfected, unmodified animals, the creations of God and sent by Him into the Ark also.  Jesus said the times would again be “as in the days of Noah” when the End of the Age should arrive, and He Himself would return to stop the destruction of the Earth (Rev. 11:18).  But, it will not be by water this time, nor the final fire 1000 years from now, but by Salvation for the Righteous and hell for the wicked — Man, Devil, and Nephilim monsters.

For “new life forms,” read “Alien”?
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jan/23/organisms-created-with-synthetic-dna-pave-way-for-new-entirely-new-life-forms
Organisms created with synthetic DNA pave way for entirely new life forms
From the moment life gained a foothold on Earth its story has been written in a DNA code of four letters. With G, T, C and A - the molecules that pair up in the DNA helix - the lines between humans and all life on Earth are spelled out.
Now, the first living organisms to thrive with an expanded genetic code have been made by researchers in work that paves the way for the creation and exploitation of entirely new life forms. … …
Tiny Monsters? (Unstoppable plagues and pestilences?)
http://newatlas.com/semisynthetic-organism-genome-scripps/47526/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=2996e1082e-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-2996e1082e-91592265
Life, but not as we know it: Scientists engineer first semisynthetic organism with three-base-pair DNA
(excerpt):  "We've made this semisynthetic organism more life-like," said Professor Floyd Romesberg, senior author of the new study. "We can now get the light of life to stay on. That suggests that all of life's processes can be subject to manipulation."

***
(Jan. 25)
Is India’s venture into a cashless, antichrist economic system causing immediate starvation for the poor and working classes?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/24/world/asia/in-its-third-month-indias-cash-shortage-begins-to-bite.html?emc=edit_th_20170125&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
In Its Third Month, India’s Cash Shortage Begins to Bite
(excerpt): …Many of them, even children, are forced to go without fruit, vegetables and milk — now unaffordable luxuries. Most had not paid apartment rents and their children’s school fees in the months since the cash ban. Many had sent their families back to their villages, and were ready to give up and follow if things did not turn around soon. Sending cash to the elderly parents they had long supported is now out of the question.
As is common in India, the workers said that although they had worked on Hero MotoCorp’s shop floor, wearing company uniforms, they had been formally employed by other contractors, meaning they could be let go more easily without benefits.
Sunil Kumar, 28, who had been earning 15,000 rupees a month, about $220, at Hero, said he had been supporting his wife and two children when he lost his job without notice Nov. 29. They immediately cut milk, green vegetables and fruit from their diets, including for their 3-month-old and 3-year-old children. Paying rent is out of the question.
“This is like a massacre for us,” he said. “My livelihood is gone after the cash ban. What do I do now?” … …
***
We’re right at the point where we will not be able to get away from A.I. Robots and the constant Cloud “Internet of Things” in everyday life.  This Christmas, a child I know received a fully functional and controllable mini-drone purchased for under $20.  “Replicator-Bots,” (old Stargate fans will remember them) are now about to be available as kids’ toys and will alway be “on” for monitoring them and teaching kids to think in programming / code writing modes —
http://newatlas.com/bots-alive-toy-robot-kit/47535/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=852252cc0d-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-852252cc0d-91592265
bots_alive adds AI and augmented reality to basic toy robots
With so many toy robot kits pouring out now, kids of the near future might not believe us when we tell them that toys haven't always moved and "thought" for themselves. A new kit called bots_alive, which adds AI and augmented reality elements to an existing Hexbug Spider, is now crawling out of the toy box  … …
***
(Jan. 26)
Go read it again!  No matter which political wing is in ascendancy, this is the direction Technology mixed with mass, national and corporate Sin will take us as a People and as a Planet — dystopian hell-on-earth, the reign of antichrist.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/books/1984-george-orwell-donald-trump.html?emc=edit_th_20170126&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
George Orwell’s ‘1984’ Is Suddenly a Best-Seller
George Orwell’s classic book “1984,” about a dystopian future where critical thought is suppressed under a totalitarian regime, has seen a surge in sales this month, rising to the top of the Amazon best-seller list in the United States and leading its publisher to have tens of thousands of new copies printed.
Craig Burke, the publicity director at Penguin USA, said that the publisher had ordered 75,000 new copies of the book this week and that it was considering another reprint.
“We’ve seen a big bump in sales,” Mr. Burke said. He added that the rise “started over the weekend and hit hyperactive” on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Since Friday, the book has reached a 9,500 percent increase in sales, he said. … …

***
(Jan. 27)
God save the women, and their children and men, who march today in the annual national anti-Roe v. Wade, “Right to Life March.”  These women, like their forbear, Susan B. Anthony, championed by modern feminists, are staunchly pro-life, a “feminism” of righteousness!  May God force the Mainstream Media to report honestly and fairly on this event this Friday, the 27th.

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=967
Pro-Woman, Not Pro-Abortion
In a recent Saturday Night Live sketch, a group of millennial women visit the historic home of suffragette Susan B. Anthony in Rochester, New York. 

Devout feminists one and all, they decide before leaving to invoke the ghost of Anthony by saying her name three times. Lo and behold, she appears, played by Kate McKinnon--bun, lace collar, and all.

Hilariously, the modern feminists find Anthony quite boring. She drones on about women's rights and dignity, while they check their smart phones and argue about dinner. Until finally she says something that wakes them all up: "Abortion is murder!"

Doubtless many modern feminists were taken aback by this Saturday Night slip-up, given the show's liberal leanings. But as Serrin Foster of Feminists for Life told National Review, all of the "feminist foremothers...without known exception, spoke out against abortion." … …
*
(Jan. 28)  My personal assessment is that the media did a reasonable job reporting the March;  no one would touch crowd figure estimates but video was fair and reporting was reasonably objective.  Has “the Donald” scared-straight the Press (wink, nod)?
READ AND REJOICE!

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/us/politics/anti-abortion-march-for-life.html?emc=edit_th_20170128&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
Anti-Abortion Marchers Draw Inspiration From an Unlikely Source
WASHINGTON — Droves of men, women and children opposing abortion swarmed the National Mall on Friday in a demonstration that served not only as a rallying cry for their movement, but as a peaceful act of support for the new president they have embraced as their improbable champion. The crowd gathered just a few blocks from where hundreds of thousands of women marched last weekend to protest President Trump — a striking and symbolic juxtaposition for a country cleaved by its most recent election. 
The contrast was not lost on the marchers or the speakers, who were optimistic that their cause would benefit greatly from having anti-abortion Republicans in control of Congress, the White House and, they hoped, eventually the Supreme Court. … … 

…The two officials, Vice President Mike Pence and Kellyanne Conway, a counselor to the president who has been a leading figure in the anti-abortion movement for two decades, told the marchers of the White House’s dedication to their cause.
“Life is winning again in America,” Mr. Pence said to cheers from the tens of thousands of people amassed at the foot of the Washington Monument. Mr. Pence’s appearance was a first for the March for Life, which has taken place every year since the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, but had never before been attended by a vice president. Republican presidents have spoken to the march before, but by video or audio. … …

***
What could possibly go wrong?
http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/759162/Human-pig-HYBRID-organs-transplant
Human-pig HYBRID? Scientists hoping to create part man, part pig organs
A HYBRID human-pig embryo has been injected into a sow’s womb as scientists push the ethical boundaries of science in the hope that they can create lifesaving donor organs.
***
(Jan. 29)
Civil War?  Californian arrogance flaunts potential cut-off of Federal funds over sanctuary cities argument.  “We’ll cut  off the Feds from our wealth too”?  Will the state’s progressives succeed in succession?  But who will help California in the next earthquake, the Big One, or will they just become “the new Atlantis,” sitting at the bottom of the Pacific?
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2017/01/27/california-could-cut-off-feds-in-response-to-trump-threats/
California Could Cut Off Feds In Response To Trump Threats

***
Ancient Illuminist Intrigues Surfacing?  Worthy of a Dan Brown novel (like The DaVinci Code)?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/28/world/europe/ten-centuries-later-a-pope-and-knights-do-battle.html?emc=edit_th_20170129&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Ten Centuries Later, a Pope and Knights Do Battle
***
“Fear not, for I am with thee.”

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January 22 

Saints, 

Well, we made it to the Inauguration, but counter events also still grimly illustrate the stark divisions of the nation…and human dangers for our whole world.

Italy continues to be pounded by earthquakes; many are rescued from a subsequent avalanche.  Praise God for prayers being answered.  In our southeast, nature rages, people are killed by tornadoes, left homeless by ravaging flood and wind, also as California recovers.  “Consider thyself,” and pray for those who are suddenly homeless, barely clothed, and without food and water, and…right here within our borders.  We pray God will show the way to those who call upon Him, and his own mercies will reveal Himself to those even in the despairs of darkness.

Thank you, Lord, that you are a Comforter.

***
(Jan. 16)
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/15/world/middleeast/missing-at-israel-palestinian-peace-conference-israelis-or-palestinians.html?emc=edit_th_20170116&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
World Leaders Push Israel and Trump to Forge a 2-State Deal
***
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/15/world/europe/uk-set-to-choose-sharp-break-from-european-union.html?emc=edit_th_20170116&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
U.K. Set to Choose Sharp Break From European Union
***
Many killed by these satanic eruptions are prisoners but not yet even sentenced!  Lord God, hide the innocent and help them find the Faith in You.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/15/world/americas/brazil-natal-prison-riots.html?emc=edit_th_20170116&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Death Toll From Brazil Prison Riot Reaches 26; Decapitations Are Seen
RIO DE JANEIRO — The death toll from a riot in a penitentiary in northeastern Brazil rose on Sunday to 26 prisoners, increasing the number of prison killings in the country this year to more than 120.
Decapitations and mutilations are common in Brazil’s violent, overcrowded prisons, in which 40 percent of inmates have yet to be sentenced, but the latest wave of brutality has appalled many here.
***
Obama foresees The Rise of the ‘Bots and the ensuing economic war against humans —
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/12/upshot/in-obamas-farewell-a-warning-on-automations-perils.html?emc=edit_th_20170116&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
A Darker Theme in Obama’s Farewell: Automation Can Divide Us
Underneath the nostalgia and hope in President Obama’s farewell address Tuesday night was a darker theme: the struggle to help the people on the losing end of technological change.
“The next wave of economic dislocations won’t come from overseas,” Mr. Obama said. “It will come from the relentless pace of automation that makes a lot of good, middle-class jobs obsolete.”

***
A real Alexa gets sucker-punched by a popular voice-bot—
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/16/opinion/ask-alexa-no-hear-this-alexa.html
Ask Alexa? No, Hear This Alexa
It started around the holidays. My eyes began to dart involuntarily to call-outs of my name on social media.
“Just ask Alexa,” the tweets read. “Designed around your voice for hands-free convenience. Ask Alexa!”
No. I ask you — this real Alexa asks you — when did possessing hands become inconvenient?
Amazon has installed Alexa, its voice recognition and natural-language platform, inside more than five million Echo units the company has sold since introducing the microphone-and-speaker device two years ago. When an Echo’s microphones hear the name Alexa, the device wakes and records your questions and commands. You can operate any Alexa-enabled device — in your home, office or car — with this “voice-controlled computer in the cloud.” … …

***
(Jan. 17)
Seventy, the number of the Sanhedrin, signifies the leaderships of nations.  Here, the larger world turns against Israel: “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation…” (Ps. 82)

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=939
70 Nations Gathered In Paris Unanimously Call For Creation Of Palestinian State

***
“Anti-Christians,” many of them in the foolishness of clerical regalia, pose at the opening “blessing” of a new DC abortion clinic.  Many “preaching another Jesus” will arise…

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=937
Christian Clergy Bless "Sacred Space" Of New Abortion Clinic

***
(Jan. 18)
Only a matter of time —

The metaphorical value of this piece is priceless, but the literal story also speaks of the disasters of the End of the Age.  One of the judgments of Revelation is for men to die by “the beasts of the earth” again (6:8).  Medieval stories are not all mythology and folk tales.  Hungry wolves, working in packs, will kill and eat undefended humans.  We are in an age where everything wild is “cute” and/or “endangered.”  The pendulum swings so completely that many “civilized” humans are now utterly unprepared.  We may not be lost in medieval folk tales and superstitions, and, indeed, we may even be practicing the good human stewardship of the animals given into our charge, but we forget the terrible Fall into Sin that has seized even upon the animals and made the wild ones dangerously wild.   Are we any less mythologized, or is our new mythology only what is “falsely called science” (1 Timothy 6:20)?
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/french-told-not-fear-wolves-9638206
French told not to fear wolves roaming Paris streets as 'they only eat four-legged animals'
***
Any initial uncertainty about the new PM and Brexit clears up.  Renewed nationalism and populism worldwide may slow the Beast a bit, but the prophetic significance of Britain’s new stand, and its final outcome, may be alluded to in Daniel 7:24 where 3 kings resist the Beast briefly.  By Revelation 17:12, they have given way and give their minds over to the 10 nations and kings whom he will briefly rule to subdue the world.  Which other two will resist a renewed Roman Empire under the Beast — France and Germany?  Time will tell.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/world/europe/brexit-theresa-may-uk-eu.html?emc=edit_th_20170118&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
In ‘Brexit’ Speech, Theresa May Outlines Clean Break for U.K.
LONDON — “Get on with it.”
With those words in a major speech on Tuesday, Prime Minister Theresa May charted Britain’s course toward a clean break with the European Union and expressed her fondest hope: that the time for “division and discord” is over.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/opinion/theresa-may-puts-the-exit-in-brexit.html?emc=edit_th_20170118&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Theresa May Puts the Exit in Brexit
In the six months since she came to office charged with carrying out the mandate of the British referendum to quit the European Union, Prime Minister Theresa May has seemed indecisive and ambiguous about how this might be achieved. That ended Tuesday, when she made clear that Britain intends to leave the single market, the central feature of the historic effort to eliminate all barriers to trade across the union and to uphold the free movement of goods, services, capital and — the one Britain could not swallow — people.
Whatever one makes of Brexit, it is critical to ensure that this extraordinarily complex divorce does as little damage as possible to long-term economic and political relations between Britain and the Continent. So Mrs. May’s speech is to be welcomed for spelling out her government’s intentions on the core issue before it formally triggers the two-year exit process, which the prime minister has said she will do by the end of March. … …
***
We have been given participation in a stewardship over our world, and when our iniquities and greeds harm the planet, we reap bad rewards, but if we proudly rise to think that our actions control the planet, the asteroid called Wormwood (&Co.) in the Book of Revelation should set us straight, poisoning 1/3 of the world’s waters quickly and killing everything in them (see Rev. 8 & 16).  For the believer, though all humans are not excused to pollute, “Climate Change” is more a work of the End of the Age than the relatively tiny works of man’s iniquity.  Just one new volcano like Krakatoa (1883, brought on global winter for several years) could very suddenly do more harm than all of man’s pollutions put together!
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/arts/design/natural-history-museum-trump-climate-change.html?emc=edit_th_20170118&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Museum Trustee, a Trump Donor, Supports Groups That Deny Climate Change
The American Museum of Natural History has long been on the front lines of the climate change discussion, as its scientists study the potential damage and its educators try to alert new generations to the dangers of global warming.
The depth of that mission is evident in the numerous exhibitions at this Manhattan museum, like the film “Wonders of the Arctic,” which is on view through March 2. “The polar bear has always been the symbol of the Arctic,” the narrator intones. “Now it’s become the face of climate change and the threat it poses.”
But one of the museum’s leaders, a trustee who is also an important donor to the institution, Rebekah Mercer, has been using her family’s millions to fund organizations that question climate change, a cornerstone of the conservative agenda she is advancing as an influential member of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s transition team. … …
***
Again?!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/18/italy-hit-four-powerful-earthquakes-four-hours-bringing-terror/
Italy hit by four powerful earthquakes in four hours, bringing terror to region trying to recover from last year's deadly tremors
(by morning of Jan. 19)

Lord, we pray your mercy on those making cell phone pleas while being trapped inside this ski lodge!  Grant aid and guidance to the rescuers too.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/01/19/at-least-30-missing-after-avalanche-buries-italian-mountainside-hotel.html
At least 30 missing after avalanche buries Italian mountainside hotel
(Jan. 21)
By Saturday night, 20 or more are rescued, a few are found dead, and it is hoped a few more living will be found.  Praise be to God for the many survivors.
***
Grief in the south as whirlwinds and massive storms destroy.  Lord, we beg your mercy and supply upon those who will look to Thee!
https://weather.com/news/weather/news/south-severe-weather-impacts-death-toll-rises
Southern Severe Weather Outbreak Spawns 31 Tornadoes, Kills 6 on Second Day of 2017
***
Let us consider with constant mercy those who are perishing all around us, giving thanks to God for those who are spared and asking for them all that our shared mortality will lead us all to the Comfort of God.
“Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
Luke 13: 3-5

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January 15 

Saints, 

I do my best to stay out of domestic politics, and I don’t know if Trump will do us good or get us killed.  The Lord has reminded me of my duty to pray for our earthly authorities:  Pence has said (paraphrased), “I am first a Christian and secondly an American.”   May he be a conscience and spiritual guide to his boss and help Mr. Trump to be confirmed in his hopefully-true new confession of faith he made when a candidate.  Protect him from heretics, grandstanders and TV preachers (as well as the more obvious devils)!

Disrupters (http://dailycaller.com/2017/01/14/inauguration-protesters-plan-to-destroy-property-and-disrupt-balls/) intend to hold a “gay dance” outside Mr. Pence’s home on January 18 (and many other anarchic disruptions are planned during the Inauguration).  Such a political “gay dance” may well devolve into a violent sodomite orgy and riot.  I pray God — and I ask my readers worldwide to specifically join me here and now — to protect brother and vice-president-elect Mike Pence, his wife and family and neighbors from this satanic plot.  We pray also that the forces of antichrist, anarchy and satanism will be cast into utter confusion, disarray, and will melt away in the Inauguration week, and/or make such harmless fools of themselves, if they succeed in any demonstration effort, such that even the liberal Mainstream Media will be aghast, disgusted and embarrassed.  Let even the average American on the street be awakened to be revolted by such deviltry.  Lord God, please adjust any improper attitudes in my prayer and grant your help to us in these immediate days ahead.  Saints, let us pray in faith and watch to see what God will do!  Amen.

***
(Jan. 9)
The new Russian / Turkish friendship grows.  Remember, both are major players in the upcoming World War 3 of Ezekiel’s prophecy.  Yet, Turkey is now still a NATO member.  Interestingly, it is ISIS that is driving them together.  Are recent ISIS/rebel Syrian(?) assassinations of both Russians and Turks also helping?  …And the U.S., meanwhile, is being “marginalized” in both Syria and the rest of the Middle East.

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/08/us/politics/russia-turkey-syria-airstrikes-isis.html?emc=edit_th_20170109&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Airstrikes by Russia Buttress Turkey in Battle vs. ISIS
WASHINGTON — Russian warplanes have carried out airstrikes to support Turkey’s offensive in northern Syria against the Islamic State, an important evolution in a budding Russian-Turkish partnership. The deepening ties threaten to marginalize the United States in the struggle to shape Syria’s ultimate fate. … …

***
(Jan. 8)
Vehicular Slaughter, the ISIS approved, “lone-gunman,” new toy of devil-worshippers —  Israeli soldiers, men and women, stricken, slaughtered —

https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/middleeast/100000004859638/4-killed-in-jerusalem-truck-attack.html?emc=edit_th_20170109&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
4 Killed in Jerusalem Truck Attack
***
Mood of the Public? — Stampede

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/08/us/fort-lauderdale-airport-shooting-rumor-second-gunman.html?emc=edit_th_20170109&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
After Fort Lauderdale Shooting, Rumor of Second Gunman Created Chaos
***
Somehow, walking around with blinders on, getting nauseous from it, and paying a lot for the privilege just doesn’t turn me on.  Thank God for showing us reasons to reject the Hive Mind, the Borg and the Matrix.  Reality is not so hot sometimes, but artificial realities will end up being even worse.  I’ll take my Reality straight-up, thank you very much.  Somehow, the whole picture of idiots walking and pawing around in blinders speaks loudly, “the blind leading the blind”?  (Not to be a bigot, but would Portlandia have been an even better setting for this story than Seattle?  😱)

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/08/business/sticker-shock-and-maybe-nausea-hamper-sales-of-virtual-reality-gear.html?emc=edit_th_20170109&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Sticker Shock, and Maybe Nausea, Hamper Sales of Virtual Reality Gear
SEATTLE — For a technology to crack the mainstream, there is an unspoken understanding: It shouldn’t make the people who use it want to throw up.

And yet there was a reminder, at last week’s International CES trade show in Las Vegas, of how far virtual reality has to go until everyone is ready to fasten 3-D goggles to their faces. At a news conference, Intel, the chip maker, provided virtual reality headsets to about 250 attendees so they could watch a 3-D video from the perspective of sky divers hurtling out of a helicopter in wingsuits. Intel also passed out motion sickness bags to everyone, in case anybody felt inclined to vomit, an unfortunate side effect of turbulent virtual reality experiences for some people.

Laura Anderson, an Intel spokeswoman, said the company had provided the bags “out of an abundance of caution and to be tongue in cheek about our immersive experience.” No one used the bags, she said.

It is time for a reality check for virtual reality, one of the most hyped technologies of last year. Sales of the most capable headsets have been sluggish by most estimates, held back by high costs, a lack of must-have content, and the complexity and awkwardness of the products. Less expensive mobile headsets that use smartphones as their screens are selling better, but are far more limited in what they can do. … …
***
(Jan. 10)
The Religion of Antichrist and his False Prophet —
The Faith of the New Testament and the Apostles is absolutely clear, detailed, and vigorous that salvation comes only by the Name and the Work of Jesus.  The Old Testament, even the Ten Commandments, confirm that God will not share his glory with any other god or religion.  All religions coming together may sound blessedly liberal, but it is the Abomination of the Religion of the Globalist Antichrist.

http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?popular_news_slot=2R
Francis Says All Major Religions Are Paths To Same God
A new video has just been released in which Pope Francis very clearly expresses his belief that all of the major religions are different paths to the same God. 

He says that while people from various global faiths may be "seeking God or meeting God in different ways" that it is important to keep in mind that "we are all children of God". 

This is the most recent example that shows that the Pope has completely abandoned any notion that a relationship with God is available only through Jesus Christ. 

As he has done throughout his papacy, he continues to lay the groundwork for the coming one world religion, and yet hardly anyone seems upset by this. … …

***

(Jan. 11)
Who do you believe in a post-truth world:  “Science,” in a world where profit dogmas also pervade —  or amassing anecdotal evidence?  I pray for God to mitigate evil if and when those I know vaccinate their children.  It is not wrong to use knowledge (science); in fact, we are responsible to do so, but such knowledge is also always incomplete, and the world is always full of “vested interests” who want more money and power according to the iniquities to which they bow and will protect their dollar status-quo whether or not children are harmed.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/us/politics/anti-vaccine-activist-trump-immunizations.html?emc=edit_th_20170111&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
Anti-Vaccine Activist Says Trump Wants Him to Lead Panel on Immunization Safety
(Excerpt of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. from the piece):
Mr. Kennedy wrote a book in 2014, “Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak,” arguing that a mercury-based preservative called thimerosal, found in vaccines, was responsible for causing autism in children. On his website, he accuses the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of being a “cesspool of corruption, mismanagement and dysfunction” that has led the agency to overlook the affects of vaccines.

***
Utter Darkness in Myanmar (Burma to this old brother) as Buddhists, feeling invaded by Islam, work to cast them out of their land: Horrible Genocide.  Few solutions left on this planet.  May the light of Christ illuminate a few at least on both sides of this murderous situation.  Darkness calls unto Darkness, and there is very little light.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/world/asia/rohingya-violence-myanmar.html?emc=edit_th_20170111&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
‘There Are No Homes Left’: Rohingya Tell of Rape, Fire and Death in Myanmar
KUTUPALONG CAMP, Bangladesh — When the Myanmar military closed in on the village of Pwint Phyu Chaung, everyone had a few seconds to make a choice.
Noor Ankis, 25, chose to remain in her house, where she was told to kneel to be beaten, she said, until soldiers led her to the place where women were raped. Rashida Begum, 22, chose to plunge with her three children into a deep, swift-running creek, only to watch as her baby daughter slipped from her grasp. … …
***
Can Democracy survive the Internet?  I regret I didn’t capture the link of a recent piece that essentially asked this question.  So, finding an editorial piece by the NYT’s Thomas Friedman, similarly worried, here’s the link to his piece.  No doubt, some may label me as a “sky is falling” kind of observer.  Indeed, I am wondering, and have expressed, “Will we even make it from the election to the inauguration?”…and I am still wondering about that.  The Western World of liberal democracies may have hit / be hitting critical mass even now.  Can democracy survive a continual hurricane of “post-truth,” “fake news,” and continual disinformation where every possible party and partisan is hearing only what it wants to hear as “truth” or at least as its operant information / modus operandi?  Will this quickly lead to the ascension of a world dictator —the Antichrist— only slightly modeled by present leaders, be they Putin or Trump or others?  We know from prophecy that Russia will be defeated, along with its Islamic allies, when they attack Israel.  But, a greater than Putin will arise to “set the world in order.”  With exponential machine /AI / internet growth, mass human confusion is at the point of mass eruption at any time now.  Thanks be to our Great God that He has the final say, but the road from here to Final is buckling with cyberquakes!

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/opinion/online-and-scared.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_ty_20170111&nl=opinion-today&nl_art=2&nlid=69381998&ref=headline&te=1
Online and Scared
And so it came to pass that in the winter of 2016 the world hit a tipping point that was revealed by the most unlikely collection of actors: Vladimir Putin, Jeff Bezos, Donald Trump, Mark Zuckerberg and the Macy’s department store. 
Who’d have thunk it?
And what was this tipping point?It was the moment when we realized that a critical mass of our lives and work had shifted away from the terrestrial world to a realm known as “cyberspace.” That is to say, a critical mass of our interactions had moved to a realm where we’re all connected but no one’s in charge. … …

…and a quote by outgoing President Obama —

Even President Obama was taken aback by the speed at which this tipping point tipped. “I think that I underestimated the degree to which, in this new information age, it is possible for misinformation, for cyberhacking and so forth, to have an impact on our open societies,” he told ABC News’s “This Week.”

***
Perdix or Perdition (Hell)?  Micro-drone swarms, driven by AI hive brains, to be dropped over battlefields by Super Hornet Fighter Jets.  Armageddon, doorway to hell —
(One supposes battlefield death by swarms of micro-drones won’t be any worse than death by WW1 mustard gas attacks, but it may be more horrifying?)
http://newatlas.com/perdix-micro-drones-super-hornets/47333/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=9d9703ba91-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-9d9703ba91-91592265
Super Hornets drop world's largest swarm of micro-drones

With a whine like a swarm of giant angry wasps descending on a picnic, 103 micro-drones recently carried out organized maneuvers in the skies over China Lake, California. Billed by the US Department of Defense (DoD) as the world's largest micro-drone swarm, the Perdix drones were launched last October from three F/A-18 Super Hornets and autonomously carried out a series of missions that demonstrated collective decision-making, adaptive formation flying, and self-healing. … …

***
(Jan. 12)
Case in point (on the “Online and Scared” piece just above)—

An admittedly editorial view on the “Dark Government” and “Deep State” of Intelligence Operatives and the seemingly oversight-free realm of “Black Ops,” beyond the vision and funding of Congress and the people.  When “fake news” and “post-truth” take over, who is enemy and who is friend?  Indeed, as I have been reiterating, “Will we even make it to the Inauguration?”  Hopefully, but perils line the way of every day at this point.  Let the Christian cling to the Word of God and seek his whole counsel daily, yea continually, and pray that God will destroy the works of the devil—

https://theintercept.com/2017/01/11/the-deep-state-goes-to-war-with-president-elect-using-unverified-claims-as-dems-cheer/
The Deep State Goes to War with President-Elect, Using Unverified Claims…

***
A New “Ms. Leary”?  How to be psychedelically, sorcerously nuts and popularly writing about it with only 10 mics (micrograms) a day?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/books/review-a-really-good-day-ayelet-waldmans-better-living-through-lsd.html?emc=edit_th_20170112&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Review: ‘A Really Good Day,’ Ayelet Waldman’s Better Living Through LSD
***
(Jan. 13)
Most interesting times at hand:  And the results attained in clandestine labs may already be ahead of media releases?  What will Beings made without the procreation of Gender be?  Human in form, but will they have God-suppled souls and spirits?  Will they instead be only living carcasses made as homes for demonic spirits?  We will see what kind of temperaments they have.  Even children from broken homes suffer temperament issues; what will demonic-souled “humans” be like?  It is reasonable to suppose they will loathe those born as natural humans, that even our own natural xenophobias toward them will create hate in them too.  Of course, if they are demons, they will not need to wait for an excuse to hate.

Are demons only the various and sundry ranks of fallen angels, some with low consciousnesses, little more than animals, while some are great overlords of genius?  OR are some demons the judged and disembodied souls of the Nephilim whom God slew in the Flood?  Are these new beings about to be made essentially and virtually the Same as the Nephilim of old?  We cannot be sure for the Scriptures purposefully do not support too much speculation, and we can get deceived if we go too far, BUT, Jesus did say that it would be “as the days of Noah” (Luke 17:26) when his time of returning arrived (when the Nephilim roamed the earth with violence, and affected humans did too, Genesis 6:11-12), and he also said it would be “as in the days of Lot” (Luke 17:28) when the debaucheries of the sodomites cast humans into all kinds of self-serving depravities?

WHAT will we have now?  …with two men creating a child, one supplying sperm, the other an egg made from a skin cell or any other cell?  Who will carry such a baby, a surrogate-womb woman, or will we also shortly be growing working wombs as biological parts? …or sewing such wombs into men to give them the sense of being “mothers”? …or growing babies in 5 gallon bottles?  How horrified at their own existence will these offspring become? …and will that justify their slaughter of “normals” to justify their own existence?  Will warring colonies of these “humans 2.0” be established against “native humans”?

Recently, leaving the naming details unspoken, I saw a piece in a major media print outlet about a doctor addressing women’s health issues with some new approaches.  The doctor was named as a man, but the appearance of the person was very much like a masculinized female.  Even doing some online follow-up, I could not clearly affirm to myself the original gender of this person.  Is the latest stage of destroying gender now to leave us completely uncertain of the original gender or even the certainty of the affectation of the opposite gender?  Is it being made popular to become not just a sodomite (homosexual, transgender, etc.) but a complete “it”?  And how near to the destruction of humanity does this bring us?  Will we who follow God need to draw apart and certify our birth genders as a group of “originals,” or will we be swallowed up by this new “biologically-antichrist” society if we do not?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4110572/Babies-without-mothers-come-sooner-think-leading-scientists-warn-study-discovered-make-embryos-skin-cells.html
Babies made without mothers 'will come sooner than we think', leading scientists warn after study discovered how to make embryos from skin cells
Last year British doctors discovered how to make embryos from skin cells
It would mean that men could conceive a baby with other men alone
At the time, scientists said the scenario is 'speculative and fanciful'
But top biologists at Harvard and Brown warn science is 'hurtling' faster than we think, and urge nations to look at the legal minefield that surrounds the idea 

Babies made without mothers could come sooner than we think, leading biologists claim.
Late last year, a team at the University of Bath discovered that sperm and skin cells - or any other kind of non-egg cell - might be all you need for conception.
At the time, they said the scenario of men conceiving with men was 'speculative and fanciful'. 
But in a new report published today, the top embryologists at Harvard and Brown Universities urge nations to begin contemplating the legal minefield that would surround mother-less babies.
'With science and medicine hurtling forward at breakneck speed, the rapid transformation of reproductive and regenerative medicine may surprise us,' they write. … .,..

***
‘Borged by Facebook?  Why think when you can simply stare at a screen and let AI massage your brain and think for you, reading and adjusting your thoughts?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4113856/Facebook-wants-read-THOUGHTS-Secretive-division-making-mind-reading-device.html
Does Facebook want to read your THOUGHTS? Secretive division may be developing a mind-reading device
	•	Facebook posted two new job adverts in the Building 8 division
	•	The jobs are 'brain-computer interface engineer' and 'neural imaging engineer'
	•	The limited job descriptions suggest that Building 8 might be working on monitoring how brain activity changes when looking at pictures or videos

Facebook wants to know your deepest, darkest thoughts.  
In April, the site revealed the existence of a new division, known only as 'Building 8' which is dedicated to creating ground-breaking products at the intersection of hardware, software, and content.
And a new job advert posting suggests that the mysterious division could be working on mind-reading technology. … …

***
http://newatlas.com/robot-kill-switch-personhood-eu-report/47367/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=6dde5eca62-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_65b67362bd-6dde5eca62-91592265
EU to debate robot legal rights, mandatory "kill switches"

A draft report submitted to the European Parliament's legal affairs committee has recommended that robots be equipped with a "kill switch" in order to manage the potential dangers in the evolving field of self-learning autonomous robotics.

The broad-ranging report, recently approved by the legal affairs committee, contains a variety of proposals designed to address possible legal and ethical issues that could arise through the development of autonomous artificial intelligences. These include the establishment of a European Agency for robotics and AI, plus a call for discussing the implementation of a universal basic income as a strategy to address the possible mass unemployment that could result from robotics replacing large portions of the workforce.

In a supreme case of life imitating art, the report opens by referencing Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and later suggests Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics as a general principle that designers and producers of robotics should abide by. … …

***
(Jan. 14)
Davos, Globalisation, and a New World Order — Secular jargon for the approaching kingdom of Antichrist — Give thanks for the apprehensions of the populists and nationalists, but something yet to come will bring them into subjection.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/chinese-leader-meets-davos-elite-voters-revolt-054655251.html
Chinese leader meets Davos elite as voters revolt
China's president will preach the advent of a new world order in Davos next week before the high priests of globalisation, who are facing an uprising from voters against their orthodoxy of open markets and borders.

The annual conclave of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alps, grouping 3,000 delegates from the worlds of government, business, science and the arts, has created the caricature of "Davos Man", a rich, rootless globetrotter who worships with fellow disciples in the church of free trade.

But populists are singing from a radically different hymn sheet. Their hostility towards both unfettered trade and immigration has already yielded Britain's vote to leave the European Union and the rise of once-fringe parties across Europe, including in France and Germany.

The ultimate rebuke to "Davos Man" will come on Friday, the last day of the week-long forum, when Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States.

And the consensus of a rules-based global order led by Washington is threatened by communist China's inexorable rise. … …

***
Got time for a good read? Here’s one on the mass insanity on certain college campuses where Political Correctness has become a mind-numbing monster, gobbling up reason, even thought—
Old ’60’s leftist college professors now castigated for thought crimes too!

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/overwrought-political-correctness-helped-trump-win-a-1125725-2.html
The PC Monster
Has Political Correctness Gone off the Rails in America?
***
Weary?  bereancall.org daily update for January 10, quotes a perfect observation by Vance Havner —

If you are a Christian, you are not a citizen of this world trying to get to heaven; you are a citizen of heaven making your way through this world.
																			--Dr. Vance Havner, Preacher (1901-1986

*
“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear;
but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
Paul to Timothy, (2T 1:7)

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If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

January 8 

Saints, 

Do not forget, thousands of Christians were slaughtered over Christ’s Name just in this past year.   We are not to know the hour or the day of his coming for us, but we are to watch and pray at all times and be always ready.  I pray God will help us with this as we grow weary and fall asleep often, just as did the disciples in Gethsemane.  Always be learning to pray and keep watching and praying lest our hearts grow cold and forgetful, and we begin to neglect the Word of God and explain it away.  Neophytes being taught to pray are told to develop “a prayer life,” but a saint who has walked in the war for awhile learns that the disciple’s life is instead “a life of prayer.”  The Holy Ghost teaches us that prayer must always be very near at hand, and is rather a constant meditation and reflection and supplication on situations around us and in the world, and we dare not but keep it close in mind at all times.  We are virtually compelled to pray, and not in prayer meetings only, though those are precious, but prayer is to be very near to being under the breath and at hand continually:  “Pray without ceasing,” teaches Paul and echoes his Lord who says, “Men ought always to pray, and not to faint.”

Many of us in the U.S. are mostly safe, most of the time…yet terror leaps up suddenly even here and even now, and in this very week.  Not only Florida but even in the countryside of upstate NY and the border with Quebec this week, near even to this country boy.  Yet, many sleep on, hardly aware of the closeness of the war.  Christians near and under the sword have this one advantage; they are awake!  Whereas, we need to be sure we are not asleep.  Praying for them and watching both their situation and our own shifting environment is a great antidote for our own tendencies toward drowsiness.  Come, Lord Jesus, there have never been such hours as we see now!

Immediately, pray for residents of the West Coast this morning as a cosmic “atmospheric river” of rain and snow is about to descend them and assail weak flesh and blood out there.

***
The Week —

(Jan. 2)
Last blog, more news on continuing California region quakes.  Now, seismologists up the recent count to 250!  Who can say that both God and his handmaiden Nature are not giving full warning?

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-quake-swarms-20170101-story.html
Quake swarm near the California-Mexico border gets scientists' attention
A swarm of more than 250 small earthquakes have struck since New Year’s Eve near the California-Mexico border, causing unease among residents and attention from scientists. 

The strongest earthquake in the sequence was magnitude 3.9, striking directly underneath the town of Brawley, about 170 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

The earthquakes struck in the southern end of the Brawley Seismic Zone, a seismically active region where tectonic plates are moving away from each other and the Earth’s crust is getting stretched out “and basically adding land,” said Caltech seismologist Egill Hauksson.

The Brawley Seismic Zone is particularly important to watch because it is the region that connects the San Andreas and Imperial faults, both of which can produce damaging earthquakes (emphasis added). The seismic zone extends for about 30 miles from the city of Brawley, across the Salton Sea’s southern half, and ends near Bombay Beach. … …
***
(Jan. 4)
If only they weren’t such sinners too! (writes this saved sinner)  Lord, help us to remember to pray for those set in secular authority over us.  May you continue to probe the consciences of these public servants, that they would be converted Christians, subject first to you, and not to “special interests” and not be “cultural Christians,” partisans and apostates only.  Amen.  God save us!

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/03/us/politics/congress-religion-christians.html?emc=edit_th_20170104&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
The New Congress Is 91% Christian. That’s Barely Budged Since 1961
Despite the steady decline in the percentage of Americans who identify as Christian, the proportion of congressional members who say they are Christian has remained very close to what it was in the early 1960s, according to a new report.
The report, released on Tuesday by Pew Research Center, found that 91 percent of the members of the new session of Congress, the 115th, identified as Christian. More than half a century ago, in 1961, 95 percent of United States representatives and senators said that they were Christian, the report said. … …
***
The Artificial Intelligence Hive Mind / Individualized interface grows from Disney to Carnival —
As a friend, local to the park and often imposed upon by relatives wanting free lodging called it, “the tragic kingdom,” not “The Magic Kingdom”!
Ah, comfort and convenience, thou too often tools of the devil!

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/04/business/media/coming-to-carnival-cruises-a-wearable-medallion-that-records-your-every-whim.html?emc=edit_th_20170104&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Coming to Carnival Cruises: A Wearable Medallion That Records Your Every Whim
DORAL, Fla. — Inside a clandestine Carnival Corporation complex here, two former Disney executives have been plotting a drastic cruise industry overhaul.
Their mission: Take lessons learned at Walt Disney World, where they helped bring about a $1 billion vacation management system involving Fitbit-style bracelets that link to personal information, and apply them to cruises. The result: Millions of passengers on Carnival ships will soon be using a similar but more advanced system that allows travelers to do everything from plan vacations to open stateroom doors to order poolside cocktails. … …
***
(Dec. 5)
Manifestations of “the Great Apostasy”?  Islam’s “Jesus” is not the Son of God and promises to come back to slaughter Christians and Jews who will not bow to Islam!  Apostates are eager to grovel even now.
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=924
Christian Clergy Welcomes Islam Into The Church, Then Bows To It
(excerpt):  …In the US, more than 50 churches, including the Washington National Cathedral, hold Koran readings. The head of the Protestant Church in Germany, Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, has also called for Islam to be taught in state schools. Is there any reading of the Christian liturgy in the mosques? … …
***
The devilish, murderous apostasy of Abortion creeps deeper into so-called Christian institutions —

CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY TIED TO ABORTION GIANT [Excerpts] / bereancall.org / update for Dec. 5

After reports earlier this year that Texas Christian University has close ties with Planned Parenthood, there's news of another university in a similar situation.

Katie Lodjic of Students for Life of America reports that Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, is offering accredited internships with Planned Parenthood.

Whitworth, a private college founded in 1890, is affiliated with the Presbyterian denomination. It was ranked third this year by U.S. News and World Report among regional universities in the West.

Lodjic says Whitworth also sponsored a community fetal research event related to Planned Parenthood. "During that event," she reports, "they highlighted the upside of abortion as donating baby body parts."

That discussion inevitably veered toward the Planned Parenthood scandal, but students were assured the undercover videos from pro-life activist David Daleiden were "highly edited and therefore discredited," Lodjic tells OneNewsNow.

Whitworth's published mission is to equip their graduates to honor God and Christ and to serve humanity.

By partnering with Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry," says the pro-life activist, "they are not equipping their graduates to be Christians and follow Christ."

(Kellogg, "Christian university tied to abortion giant," OneNewsNow Online, 11/28/16)
***
(Jan.7)
Is there a spirit afoot on the earth to take the outdoors away from us?  …Put us all into VR (Virtual Realities) and The Matrix?  …Regulate social and individual enjoyment and use of actual nature?  Two leads, one Australian, one US—

http://wild.com.au/people/opinion/could-adventure-activity-standards-kill-outdoor-clubs/?utm_source=Wild+-+General&utm_campaign=a829443167-Wild_Update_News_Dec_1112_11_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_74502b804c-a829443167-87018309
COULD ADVENTURE ACTIVITY STANDARDS KILL OFF OUTDOOR CLUBS?
The proposed Australian Adventure Activity Standards are designed to improve safety in the outdoors, but questions are being asked about the legal and financial implications for non-commercial groups. Satisfactory answers are yet to be provided. … …
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/12/29/obamas-historic-land-grab-553-million-acres-conservation/
Obama’s Historic Land Grab: 553 Million Acres For ‘Conservation’
***
Wow!  Star Wars’ and Avatar’s human-driven super ‘bots come to reality.  Watch the videos! —

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4092554/Meet-Prosthesis-Terrifying-14ft-tall-anti-robot-run-50mph-SILENTLY-revealed-CES.html
Meet 'Prosthesis', the terrifying 14ft-tall 'anti-robot' that can carry a human and run over 20mph almost SILENTLY

***

The Republic of Texas now takes a stand with brave North Carolina — AGAINST the sodomite agenda of our times — and FOR God’s appointed Order for the Genders!  Praise the Lord and pray.  The sodomites again threaten and scream against “hate” with hatefulness (see the photo), and, again, they threaten the blackmail of economic boycott.  Lord, please grant wisdom and perseverance to the righteous in Texas.  Help them not to be set-up and undone.  Help them to call on you consistently.  Holy Spirit, remind the rest of us to pray.  Lord, also, please grant us a righteous, God-fearing judge for the US Supreme Court.  Amen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/05/us/texas-transgender-bathroom-access.html?emc=edit_th_20170106&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
Texas Moves to Limit Transgender Bathroom Access
AUSTIN, Tex. — One of the most powerful Republican officials in Texas put the state on the front lines of the nation’s culture wars on Thursday, announcing the filing of a bill that would require people in government buildings and in public schools to use the bathroom that corresponds with their “biological sex.”

The bill, announced by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, is similar to one that caused a political uproar in North Carolina and led to widespread boycotts there by companies, entertainers, sports events and gay rights groups, which said the bill discriminated against transgender people who use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity. Mr. Patrick played down the potential economic fallout for Texas and denied that the bill, which has been in the works for months, was discriminatory.

“We know it’s going to be a tough fight,” Mr. Patrick told reporters at the Texas Capitol. “The forces of fear and misinformation will pull out all the stops, both in Texas and nationally. But we know we’re on the right side of the issue, and we’re on the right side of history.”

Democratic lawmakers, civil rights groups, gay and transgender rights activists, and the state’s most influential business lobby, the Texas Association of Business, swiftly condemned the legislation and predicted an economic blow to Texas if it passed. … …
***
Soon, we’ll all have “a story;” terror threats hit close to home for upstate New Yorkers and northern Vermonters, where this minister calls home —

https://www.yahoo.com/news/bomb-threat-closes-key-us-canada-border-crossing-185003455.html
Bomb threat closes key US-Canada border crossing
***
Friday Afternoon, Two Breaking News Stories —

No word at this release whether shouts of “allahu akbar” will go along with this one.  

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4095720/Nine-shot-one-dead-shooting-Ft-Lauderdale-Hollywood-Airport.html#ixzz4V0pGaSyB 
BREAKING NEWS: Gunman in custody after killing five and injuring six at Florida's Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport

By Saturday morning with ABC News, we hear the captured gunman was “hearing voices in his head” and was influenced by the mass demonic delusions promoted by ISIS.
*
More Brazil prison riots / inmates slashed, disemboweled, hearts cut out, decapitated!  May God rebuke the demons and stop the carnage.  In these stories, pray with me for the survivors and family members that they will let themselves find comfort in The Comforter, the Holy Spirit of God.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/brazil-prison-uprising-33-inmates-killled-latest-roraima-second-riot-manaus-a7512906.html
Brazil prison uprising: At least 33 Roraima inmates killed in second riot in days
Night-time slaughter appears to be reaction to the 60 people killed at Manaus prison earlier this week.
***
But God has commanded his people to honor and distinguish between genders and not to mix them.  Pray for children being raised under this demonic Spell, that God would deliver many from it.
A New York Times video clip:  
https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/asia/100000004852253/genderless-in-japan.html?em_pos=medium&emc=edit_fs_20170106&nl=video&nlid=69381998
Genderless in Japan
***
(Jan. 7)
ABC’s morning News predicts now arriving west coast storms of “FEET” of rain and snow, “of biblical proportions,” also arriving today, a sweeping east coast storm with up to a foot of snow…75 million in the target zones.  May God spare all who will look to Him.

 http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-atmospheric-river-prepare-20170105-story.html
'State of panic' grips Northern California as atmospheric river (emphasis added) approaches the Sierra Nevada 
***
Oops! Watch out, Alexa and other household and smart phone robot assistants may go on credit card shopping binges for you!

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2017/01/06/amazon-alexa-orders-dollhouses-for-owners-after-hearing-tv-report/
Amazon ‘Alexa’ Orders Dollhouses For Owners After ‘Hearing’ TV Report

***

“I was glad when they said unto me,
Let us go into the house of the LORD.”
Psalm 122:1

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If your browser does not support the clickable link with each story, just cut and paste it to your browser's address line.   For more, and archives on the subjects, and for other biblical teachings, visit ntfellowship.net. 

January 1 / New Year’s Day, 2017 / May God fill your lives with his Love, Grace and Mercy in this new year.

Saints, 

Whew!  It would be nice to get more of a reprieve after Christmas, and there are New Year’s news polls that say many Americans have hope for 2017 with a new administration coming in, etc.  But, this week seems to begin in more flurries of madness.  Day-after shoppers and gift-returners rioted in various malls and places bringing more new lows to the social ideals of “goodness” that many would like to believe of their fellow citizens.  Being glutted already with great excesses of material goods doesn’t seem to bring any contentment or thankfulness.  
Meanwhile, the exiting president declared he could’ve won the election and says he must quiet himself and look inward for awhile before his next move.  What on earth is he considering as his “next move”?  
King Heroin, Lord Opium and their lieutenants are reported to have taken the souls and lives of over 28,000 Americans in 2016.  
In Chicago over the Christmas weekend, 48 people were shot with 11 dead (reports vary):  war in the streets.

Really, the only Really Good News is that there is a King Who is coming!

(Dec. 26, 27)
Authorities: No shots fired at Cross Creek Mall (but everyone thought so!)  	http://www.wral.com/authorities-no-shots-fired-at-cross-creek-mall/16376960/
Melee at Connecticut shopping mall leads to several arrests	http://www.newstimes.com/news/crime/article/Police-respond-to-large-fight-at-Connecticut-mall-10819698.php
Gunshot-like Noise During Fight Leads to Chaos, Panic at Jersey Gardens Mall	http://abc7ny.com/news/chaos-panic-break-out-at-jersey-gardens-mall-after-reports-of-shots-fired/1673925/
Obama Says He Would Have Defeated Trump for a Third Term	http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/26/us/politics/obama-third-term-donald-trump.html?emc=edit_th_20161227&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998		http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/26/politics/axe-files-obama-transcript/
Opioids Contribute to a Rising Death Toll: 28,647 in 2014	http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/24/science/rising-opioid-deaths.html?emc=edit_th_20161227&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
48 Shot, 11 Fatally, In Christmas Weekend Shootings In Chicago	  http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2016/12/26/43-shot-11-fatally-in-christmas-weekend-shootings-in-chicago/
(Dec 28)
CBS morning news reports more social media group mall invasions and riots by “bored teens.”  Poor Millennials with nothing else to do?  Get ‘em back in school quick!  Hey, new President, resurrect the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps of FDR era) and make places for them to work rebuilding infrastructure, improving national parks, etc.  Keep Liberty but give them disciplined structure, appropriate social opportunity, opportunity for long term career growth and structure as public servants, etc.   Though the Apocalypse looms, it remains our duty to live and to try to help others to live.

(Jan. 1)
NYTimes Breaking News Overnight — 7:54 EST
Keeping perspective (and giving praise), God granted the world rest from terrorist attacks over Christmas, the human celebration of his birth, but now the bloody “god of this world” sets the pace for a new year?
Santa Claus suits?  The worst of both religions made up by the devil as a bloody sacrifice?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/31/world/europe/turkey-istanbul-attack.html?emc=edit_na_20161231&nlid=69381998&ref=cta&_r=0
At least 35 were killed and dozens wounded in a terrorist attack at a packed Istanbul nightclub
Attackers dressed in Santa Claus suits opened fire inside a packed Istanbul nightclub shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day, killing at least 35 people and wounding dozens more, Turkish officials said.
Gov. Vasip Sahin of Istanbul Provincec called it a terrorist attack. … …

Updated reports by early Sunday morning, Eastern Standard Time —  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/31/world/europe/turkey-istanbul-attack.html?emc=edit_na_20161231&nlid=69381998&ref=cta&_r=0

***
The Week —

(Dec. 27)
Sounds like Dicken’s era Debtor’s Prisons?  …or, just stop anyone on the street and charge them fees to get loose?  Mugged by the court system?
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/26/us/politics/charged-a-fee-for-getting-arrested-whether-guilty-or-not.html?emc=edit_th_20161227&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998
Charged a Fee for Getting Arrested, Whether Guilty or Not
WASHINGTON — Corey Statham had $46 in his pockets when he was arrested in Ramsey County, Minn., and charged with disorderly conduct. He was released two days later, and the charges were dismissed.
But the county kept $25 of Mr. Statham’s money as a “booking fee.” It returned the remaining $21 on a debit card subject to an array of fees. In the end, it cost Mr. Statham $7.25 to withdraw what was left of his money.
The Supreme Court will soon consider whether to hear Mr. Statham’s challenge to Ramsey County’s fund-raising efforts, which are part of a national trend to extract fees and fines from people who find themselves enmeshed in the criminal justice system. … …
***
21st Century life: Like living in a dystopian Sci-fi flick?  HAARP beams, weather warfare, dark matter stargates, what???  This happens occasionally to wildlife flocks, schools, herds in our era and no one, to date, can solve all its mysteries.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/200-red-winged-blackbirds-fall-sky-die-n-article-1.2925346
200 red-winged blackbirds fall from the sky and die in New Jersey
***
(Dec. 28)
So, what’s going on with the continuing earthquakes all around, near, or on the Pacific Rim?  How few, beyond the specialists, are really watching and assessing?  Are we like an ant colony that just continues to instinctively if mindlessly rebuild when its hills and tunnels are disturbed?  Are these multitudes of small (and some larger) quakes precursors of major human disasters?  Will California’s “departure from the Union” be more physical than political?  Will its political contingent, so loud about climate change, instead find themselves at the bottom of the sea?  Prudent Christians on the Pacific Rim should consider Christ’s warning of “earthquakes in diverse places” in the End of the Age, be watchful, prayerful, and have considered varied contingencies, escape routes and means, structural securities of their buildings, etc., etc., and be always watchfully calling on the Lord to guide and direct them in these literal matters.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-earthquakesa-earthquake-57-quake-strikes-near-hawthorne-nev-hgpm-story.html
Series of earthquakes hits near California-Nevada state line
A series of earthquakes was reported early Wednesday morning near the Nevada-California state line, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The first temblor, with a magnitude of 5.7, occurred at 12:22 a.m. PST near Hawthorne, Nev. At least seven quakes with magnitudes between 3 and 5.6 were reported shortly after. … …

***
Big Brother is Listening? With the advent of a plethora of devices: Siri robot phone assistants, voice activated TV controls, Amazon Echo home assistants and their spin-offs, it didn’t take long before they were called as legal witnesses to private conversations!

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/28/amazon-refuses-to-let-police-access-suspects-echo-recordings
Amazon refuses to let police access US murder suspect's Echo recordings
***
Known for a few years now, but what it is? “Men’s hearts failing them for fear…at the things coming upon the earth…” (see Luke 21:26).  What things are we about to see, are about to be revealed?

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2489440/satellite-spots-massive-object-hidden-under-the-frozen-wastes-of-antarctica/
COLD HARD FACTS? Satellite spots MASSIVE object hidden under the frozen wastes of Antarctica
SCIENTISTS believe a massive object which could change our understanding of history is hidden beneath the Antarctic ice.
The huge and mysterious “anomaly” is thought to be lurking beneath the frozen wastes of an area called Wilkes Land. … …
***
Before The Flood, men could push 1000 years in age; Later, age limits diminished to around 120; finally, in mercy, God set the average human age at “threescore and ten, and if by reason of strength, fourscore” (70-80) and there we remain.  But, it is always a newsworthy event when someone can defy the wear and tear of nature a bit longer.  Abraham lived to be 175, records Genesis 25:7, and Moses “was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated,” says Deuteronomy 34:7.  Someday, we will far exceed any mortal strength, in the Resurrection, and it will be without end.  Meanwhile, neat to see this 85 year old running marathons.  I just got the chance to say “youngster” to a friend of mine who runs them at 65!

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/sports/ed-whitlock-marathon-running.html?emc=edit_th_20161229&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=69381998&_r=0
85-Year-Old Marathoner Is So Fast That Even Scientists Marvel
***
(Dec. 29)
Uh-oh?  New Cold War?  It is unclear if the US is in Bible prophecy.  It is clear that Russia (Rosh) is.
NYTimes Breaking News Alert, December 29 —
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/29/us/politics/russia-election-hacking-sanctions.html?emc=edit_na_20161229&nlid=69381998&ref=cta
Obama Strikes Back at Russia for Election Hacking
***
Refuse to Comply!
For some years now the sodomite grammar police have been training us to refer to singular persons as “they” instead of “he” or “she.”  This is simple destruction of grammatical logic in the matter of singular or plural, but now there will be a much more radical attempt to destroy any mention of gender identity in speech, with proposed punishments, isolation and intimidation for anyone who refuses to conform.  This must be seen for what it is, a satanic dehumanizing of human personhood and God’s design of Gender in physical humanity for this Age of Mortal Existence.  We must resist it!  Refuse this “newspeak” and actively work to disestablish it in your children as they are subjected to this brainwashing!
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=907
The End of "He" and "She" As Ze Training Spreads Through Schools, Military
(Excerpt):  …No longer an abstract academic exercise for linguists, policies mandating the use of the pronouns 'ze' and 'hir' (which rhymes with here) are being adopted in schools, workplaces and the military, often with consequences for those who refuse to comply with the changes. … …
***
—The Promise After the Flood and Before the Fire—

“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, 
and cold and heat, and summer and winter, 
and day and night 
shall not cease.”
(Genesis 8:22)