Putin lays out his demands in Turkish phone call

Posted on 2022/03/23 by Christadelphians

Turkey has positioned itself with great care to be the go-between with Russia and Ukraine – and this seems to be paying off.

On Thursday afternoon, President Vladimir Putin rang the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and told him what Russia’s precise demands were for a peace deal with Ukraine. The Russian demands fall into two categories. Chief among them is an acceptance by Ukraine that it should be neutral and should not apply to join Nato. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has already conceded this. Ukraine would have to undergo a disarmament process to ensure it wasn’t a threat to Russia. There would have to be protection for the Russian language in Ukraine. And there is something called de-Nazification. Russia will demand that the Ukrainian government should give up territory in eastern Ukraine. That will be deeply contentious. Russia will also demand that Ukraine should formally accept that Crimea.

Turkey is allied to Russia when Russia descends into Israel at some point in the future. But Turkey and Ukraine have a long chronology of historical, geographic, and cultural contact. Turkey became one of the first states in the world to announce officially about recognition of sovereign Ukraine in the early 90’s. Turkey’s relations with Russia are more cyclical. But overall they have improved significantly in recent years.

Russia became Turkey’s largest provider of energy, while many Turkish companies began to operate in Russia.

The Bible says that Turkey will be allied to Russia when it invades Israel. So it is interesting to see them playing the role of “go-between” at this time. Putin’s end game is to take east Ukraine – the final part of ancient Magog….

Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee. Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard [protection] unto them. (Ezekiel 38:4)

Gomer and Togarmah are both areas of modern Turkey.

Andy Walton

Find this week’s: Weekly World Watch

Additional reading

U.S. Mideast naval exercise and fighter jets in the Gulf region

Posted on 2022/02/11 by Christadelphians

US warship and fighter jets sent to UAE after Houthi missile attacks

The Biden administration is sending an additional warship and more fighter jets to the Gulf to help defend the United Arab Emirates in the face of missile attacks from Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
The UAE shot down three hostile drones that penetrated UAE airspace yesterday, the UAE’s ministry of defence announced February the 2nd, in the fourth attack since January 17. The interception was “away from populated areas” and happened at dawn, according to Emirati officials. The USS Cole, a guided missile destroyer, would be sent to “partner with the UAE navy”, the American defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, said. He also announced “fifth generation” fighter jets, a category that includes the latest F-22 and F-35 models, would be deployed to the Gulf state, most likely at Abu Dhabi’s Al Dhafra airbase.

There are a number of interesting things happening here.
First of all the US is militarily supporting the UAE. The UAE is one of the small Gulf Arab states on the Arabian peninsula. This is the exact area of Sheba and Dedan in the Bible. Sheba and Dedan we are told are allied to Tarshish and the young lions. Tarshish is Britain (the old lion) and the young lions are offspring of Britain – i.e. other English speaking nations. The reason they are not named in Ezekiel 38 is simply because these nations had not been developed at the time Ezekiel wrote. So the US supporting the UAE is part of Ezekiel 38:13 being fulfilled
The Houthi’s (attacking the UAE) are one of Iran’s proxy armies. Iran is attacking the UAE through its proxy army the Houthis to warn the US that it can destabilise the region if it doesn’t get its way over the nuclear deal….See Isaiah 21.

A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease. (Isaiah 21:2)

Elam / Media are areas of Iran. Iran will rise up and besiege.

Israel participates in huge U.S. Mideast naval exercise alongside Saudi, Oman

Israel is taking part in a huge U.S.-led naval exercise in the Middle East, for the first time publicly joining Saudi Arabia and Oman, two counties it has no diplomatic relations with despite its normalisation of ties with some Gulf states. The International Maritime Exercise 2022 (IMX 22) includes around 60 countries and comes amid heightened Gulf tensions after missile attacks on the United Arab Emirates by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement, including a foiled attack aimed at a base hosting U.S. forces.
Israel normalised relations with Gulf states the UAE and Bahrain in 2020, brought together by shared worries about Iran, and first held a joint naval drill with those two countries in November. But this is the first time Israel has participated in an IMX exercise, and publicly alongside Saudi Arabia with which it has no diplomatic ties. Bahrain hosts the U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet’s headquarters as well as some operations for CENTCOM.

Israel has become increasingly close with the Gulf Arab states. In 2020, Israel and the UAE and Bahrain signed the Abraham Accords. These agreements were to normallise relations between these nations. One might ask why Arab nations are signing normalisation agreements with Israel – surely they are enemies?
The reason is this – they all have one greater shared enemy – Iran. They realise they have to come together to counter Iran’s growing malign influence in the region. On Thursday February the 3rd, the Israeli defence minister visited the kingdom of Bahrain to sign a security cooperation agreement, the first between Israel and a Gulf nation. This defence agreement enhances the Abraham Accords signed in 2020.

The Bible says that Dedan (the exact area of Bahrain) will be onside with Israel when Russia and Iran invade Israel…

Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil? (Ezekiel 38:13)

Andy Walton

Find this week’s Weekly World Watch

Israel weighing options amid deepening Russia-Ukraine crisis

Posted on 2022/01/31 by Christadelphians

Israel is considering its position as tensions rise on the Russia-Ukraine border, and the Foreign Ministry plans to deliberate the matter on Monday. Jerusalem has generally maintained a position of neutrality between the countries since their 2014 war.

Maintaining good relations with Moscow is a strategic interest for Israel in light of Russia’s significant military presence in Syria. Israel also has strong ties with Ukraine in a variety of areas, and Kyiv has the support of Israel’s most important ally, the US, in the current crisis. Another major concern for Israel is how the Ukraine-Russia crisis will impact the Iran nuclear talks. The US and Russia sit around the same table, and their delegations met in Vienna over the weekend. Mikhail Ulynanov, head of the Russian delegation to the Iran talks, on Saturday 22 tweeted:

“Russia-US relations are in extremely bad shape. However, on Iran we managed to work productively so far.”

Israel is very concerned about how a Ukraine / Russian war could play out as far as they are concerned. According to analysts the moment of truth is coming if war begins. There would be pressure on Israel to take a side. The US would pressure to condemn Russian action as well as pressure from Ukraine itself. There is a very large Ukrainian community in Israel who will want Israel to back Ukraine. There is also the concern over how the war in Ukraine could impact the delicate Iranian talks. Russia and the US are working together on Iran at the moment. But conflict in Ukraine could throw a major spanner in the works. This could lead to Iran breaking out for a nuclear weapon with Moscow’s blessing as a punishment to the West. We are on the brink of major events…

The Lord, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares:. “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. (Zechariah 12:1-2 NIV)

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Israel featured twice on list of potential 2022 conflicts

Posted on 2022/01/12 by Christadelphians

A think tank and research institute on global crises released a list of ten international conflicts to anticipate in 2022, with potential wars involving Israel featured twice. The compilation, released by the International Crisis Group, said the world could witness possible conflicts between Israel and the Palestinian territories this year, as well as a war involving Israel, the United States, and Iran.

If nuclear negotiations in Vienna with Iran fail, “which now seems probable,” then either Israel or the US may attempt to demolish Iran’s nuclear program by striking facilities across the country – prompting a war – the International Crisis Group predicted. The think tank also forecasted an additional conflict between Israel and the Palestinian territories, noting that Palestinians within Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and east Jerusalem presented a more unified front during the 2021 outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence than in previous wars.

The annual report by the “International Crisis Group” looks at potential conflicts for the coming year. In its opening statement it says

“it is easy to see a world careering off the tracks.”

It quotes the triumph of the Taliban as the US withdrew coupled with a

“dwindling US ambition on the global stage.”

It also sees the “power showdown over Ukraine and Taiwan” as causes for conflict.

All this analysis fits into Bible prophecy. But the other one they mention is Israel. They see Israel potential being drawn into conflict with Iran and with their surrounding neighbours in 2022. This is exactly what we have been saying the WWW for 20 years. There is great trouble and conflict coming with Iran – Isaiah 21 tells us that. We know Iran will be behind the activation of its proxy armies around Israel when the inner ring war starts. Eg Hamas, Hezbollah and even Syria. For the first time all these conflicts look like they could happen at anytime…..in 2022….

Andy Walton

Come to read the Weekly World Watch

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We are living in a time of “universal deceit”

Posted on 2021/07/06 by Guestspeaker

From Bible in the news

Honest Reporting recently rounded off an examination of instances of YouTube banning content by saying:

“To paraphrase a quote wrongly attributed to Orwell but which resonates strongly today as we seemingly edge towards the dystopian society that he predicted: ‘In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.’”

We are living in a time of “universal deceit”, this is exactly what the Lord Jesus said it would be in Revelation 16. Jesus specifically warned his servants who would be living just before his coming, that it would be a time of deceit and falsehood.

Media Bias and against Israel

The staged protest at Nablus The protest staged for the media near Nablus.

An image of the staged protest available on Getty Images.

During the recent war when Israel was attacked by Hamas in Gaza, there were many examples of deceit in the media. The mainstream media as usual, emphasized Israel’s operations in Gaza against the terrorist organization Hamas, over the 4300 + rockets fired by Hamas at Israeli civilian centres. Here are some examples of deceptive media reports during the conflict.

A CNN analysis was entitled

“Hell has been unleashed in Gaza”

and is typical of the type of the reporting on Israel in the mainstream media. Reading the analysis any logical person would think that Israel had unleashed hell on Gaza. However, Hamas had started the war and by the time of the “analysis” had fired well over 1000 missiles targeting Israeli civilian centres. In order to find this out, you have to read to about halfway through. Seeing that on average only 16% of people read a webpage word for word and seeing that readers will on average only read 20% of the text on a page, most CNN readers will never know this. The analysis does state near the beginning that,

“Since Monday evening, Israel’s aerial operation has left more than 60 Gazans dead, militants among them, but more civilians, according to figures from the Gaza-based Palestinian health ministry. More than a dozen of them were children.”

A few crucial pieces of information are missing from this sentence. First the “Gaza-based Palestinian health ministry” is operated by the terrorist group Hamas — their numbers simply cannot be trusted. Secondly at least half of the quoted number of casualties of children were killed by a rocket fired by Hamas that didn’t reach its target. The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza documented a Hamas rocket that fell short of its target and killed 8 civilians including 6 children.

Another one of the images from the staged protest on Getty, notice the ambulance in the background taking away the “wounded”.

Seeing that the terror organizations fire their rockets from civilian areas away from the periphery of the region, the rockets have to travel over civilian areas in Gaza before reaching Israel. During the war in Gaza, Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired, as already stated, 4,300+ rockets, targeting Israeli civilian centres. 680 of these misfired and exploded inside Gaza, killing and injuring the civilian population of Gaza.

The analysis also misrepresents the blockade of Gaza, stating,

“Cut off from the rest of the world by an Israeli blockade of Gaza’s land, air and sea dating back to 2007, many of Gaza’s inhabitants are dependent on foreign aid to survive.”

It is true that Israel blockades Gaza to stop them acquiring arms, and the tools and materials to manufacture rockets. However, Gaza borders not only Israel but also Egypt. Egypt imposes the same blockade on Gaza. Israel lets a constant stream of aid material into the strip.

The New York Times is an influential newspaper with a circulation of about 375,000. On May 28 the cover of the New York Times featured pictures of children that were killed in the Gaza conflict. The headline was “They Were Just Children”. The introductory text reads,

“At least 67 people under age 18 in Gaza and two in Israel were killed during this months conflict according to initial reports. They had wanted to be doctors, artists and leaders. Read their stories.”

How much information the New York Times had unearthed to report on their stories is doubtful. The third picture on the top row featured a picture of a little 6 year old girl. However, doing a search by image on Google of her returned results back in 2018 when she had apparently been killed also. The anonymous girl has been used countless times to falsely accuse Israel of killing children. Again one of the main sources for the article was the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. One of the “children” was a 17 year old fighter in the Hamas terror organization. Not readily apparent, but once again, a number of the victims were killed by Hamas terror rockets that did not make it. There is only one answer for such shoddy biased reporting and that is that it is not shoddy, but carefully crafted in a way to make Israel into the aggressor.

During the recent Gaza conflict there were demonstrations elsewhere in Israel in support of Gaza. Two Christians who do a podcast called the Joshua and Caleb report came across and documented a staged demonstration near the large Palestinian city of Nablus. There were a couple of Israeli soldiers quite far away casually watching, but otherwise there was no Israeli presence. Only a number of the press and many protesters throwing rocks at no one except an empty road. Yet there were constant “protesters” being taken away in Ambulances. The pictures from this staged protest are now available for sale on Getty Images, one of the largest suppliers of news images in the world. The Getty caption says,

“Palestinian protesters confront Israeli troops at the Hawara checkpoint south of Nablus city in the occupied West Bank on May 18, 2021, during a demonstration in support of those under bombardment in Gaza.”

This is a total fraud. There were no Israeli troops being confronted. There were no Israel defence forces or riot police to hurt protesters, yet the “wounded” were being taken away in ambulances. The press knew this was the case, but reported a complete fraud.

At the root of this bias is a believe that the Palestinian Arabs have a moral right to the land of Israel. That justice is on their side. It is believed that the Jewish state is a result of “colonialism” and that the Jewish people have no right to the land. Any historical connection of the Jewish Hebrew people to the land is denied. This is in effect calling the God of Israel unjust, unjust for bringing the Jewish people back to their ancient land. This is the spirit will bring the nations to Armageddon.

The trending hashtag on social media during the conflict was #freepalestine. What this means as seen on placards at demonstrations all over the world, is to “free Palestine from the river to the sea”. This is a call for the total destruction of the state of Israel. It is in effect a call for another Holocaust of the Jewish people. It is the hashtag of Armageddon.

This has been David Billington with you for this week’s Bible in the News. Come back again next week God willing to www.bibleinthenews.com

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Uit de Oude Doos: Israël versus Hamas

Posted on 2021/06/19 by Christadelphians

Uit de Oude doos: 2008

Er was een tijd dat Israël zich moeiteloos staande kon houden tegenover de omringende Arabische wereld. De oorlogen die het moest voeren om te overleven in 1948, 1967 en 1973 werden betrekkelijk gemakkelijk gewonnen, ondanks de numerieke overmacht van hun vijanden. Dat werd in de daarop volgende conflicten geleidelijk moeilijker, maar in de strijd tegen terroristische aanvallen wist het land toch steeds de overhand te behouden. Ook dat is nu echter aan het veranderen.

Een berichtje van een Midden-Oosten correspondent enige tijd geleden, meldde dat het Israëlische leger ‘respect’ begint te krijgen voor Hamas. Een karakteristieke uitspraak van een Israëlische soldaat was:

we hebben nu een leger tegenover ons, en niet meer een
criminele bende,

en van een ander:

dit lijkt niet op de doorsnee Palestijnse krijger die we vroeger tegenover ons hadden; de vingerafdrukken van Iran en Hezbollah zitten overal.

De berichten zijn dat veel Hezbollah strijders die bij de laatste Libanon-oorlog betrokken waren, nu in de Gazastrook zitten en daar de lokale strijders opleiden. De aanvallen op de Israëlische troepen zijn inmiddels veel professioneler gepland.
Net als eerder vanuit Libanon, vinden er nu vanuit de Gazastrook dagelijks raketbeschietingen plaats op Israëlische doelen. Israëlische invallen in de Gazastrook stuiten echter op steeds meer internationale tegenstand, maar ook op steeds professioneler militair verzet. De recente afgrendeling en boycot van de Gazastrook, bedoeld als alternatieve vorm van reactie, wordt fel veroordeeld: Israël zou ‘onschuldige’ burgers straffen voor het geweld van een groep waar die burgers niets mee van doen hadden, hoewel diezelfde burgers dat Hamas wel zelf aan de macht hebben geholpen.

Het patroon is bekend van Libanon. Raketbeschietingen vanaf ‘eigen’ grondgebied op Israël, waarmee je de afgrendeling omzeilt. De lanceerpunten ‘verstopt’ in volkswijken bewoond door een bevolking die dat gewillig toestaat. En bij elke tegenactie luid klagen, dat Israël alleen maar ‘onschuldige’ burgers treft.

De echte oorlog is uiteraard die propagandaoorlog. En de Arabische wereld, maar
vooral Iran, speelt dat spel intussen beter dan Israël. En niets of niemand kan dat tegenhouden, want we weten uit de profetieën dat Israël steeds meer alleen zal komen te staan, totdat het noodgedwongen zal moeten erkennen dat alleen bij hun God redding is te vinden.

De Laatste Strijd — Volgens Zacharia

Er komt een dag, Jeruzalem, dat de buit binnen je muren wordt verdeeld.
Ik zal alle volken samenbrengen –

zegt Jehovah de Heer der heerscharen –
om tegen Jeruzalem ten strijde te trekken.
De stad zal worden ingenomen,
de huizen zullen

worden geplunderd en de vrouwen verkracht.
De helft van de inwoners wordt in ballingschap weggevoerd,

maar het deel dat overblijft zal niet worden uitgeroeid.

Dan zal Jehovah

Zelf uittrekken en de strijd tegen die volken aanbinden,
net als weleer. (Zacharia 14:1-3)

Voorgaand

Koran tegenover veel oudere Heilige Geschriften

Aanvullend

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Gerelateerd

Trump Dragging the Jews and Israel into the scrum, using both as one more weapon in his racist rants.

Posted on 2019/08/21 by Immanuel Verbondskind

President Trump, long a trafficker in anti-Semitic stereotypes, treated American Jews to a classic anti-Semitic canard Tuesday afternoon. When asked about two Congresswomen, Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, who had been barred from Israel at Trump’s own behest, he broke out an oldie but a goodie from the closet of anti-Semitic tropes.

“Any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty,” President Trump told reporters.

Per Trump, Jews are and should be loyal to Israel rather the United States; to show their loyalty, they should vote for a Republican.

As there is a lot of division in Christendom there is too in Judaism

Posted on 2017/07/31 by Immanuel Verbondskind

After a three week period of mourning during which the Jews remembered the series of events that led to the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem and the destruction of God’s people’s first Temple on that date in the year 586 BCE. we still do not have any reason to be very happy.

The last few days we could take some time to remember also the year 70 CE when the Roman legions pushed through the crumbling defences of Jerusalem to desecrated and destroy the rebuilt second Temple, as they crushed a rebellion that shook the heart of the Empire and drove the Chosen people of God into exile, but also to remember many of the most painful moments Jews had to undergo in camps and pogroms.

Many lovers of God showed their faithfulness to the Most High Elohim. They did everything to join with brethren and sisters and feel united in the family of the Patriarch Abraham.

On Tisha b’Av, many Jews felt most keenly their sense of powerlessness and their feeling of separation from their spiritual centre in their ancestral homeland. It was the day on which we acknowledged the emotional and spiritual pain of God’s people‘s exile.

Today, no longer in exile, when there is such an opening to see the Holy Land becoming a reality, so many Jews having returned to the Eretz Ysrael or Land of Israel, it looks like there is even more division than in the previous times of worries.

There are some groups who consider it not necessary any more to remember all the evil that has happened to the Jewish people. Even in the light that many may see a brighter future we should know and keep remembering what happened in the past. Jews and real lovers of God should understand that despite the many setbacks the Chosen People underwent, their struggles, their real loses and deep suffering, the Jewish people, have overcome the obstacles fate has set before them.

The Fast of the Ninth of Av should in a way stay a day of mourning to commemorate the many tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people, many of which have occurred on the ninth of Av. But in these times we also should open our eyes and receive a ‘slap in our face’ because there is something going on in this world by those who call themselves Jew. As in this world where we see many who call themselves ‘Christian‘ calling themselves names and fighting against each other, we can find also persons who call themselves Jew doing things against the Will of God, like creating hate between people or excluding people as if they are the pest.

Rabbi Ruth Adar, or the Coffee Shop Rabbi, has her eyes also open, seeing the division in the Jewish communities she also felt sick at heart this Tisha B’Av.

The people’s spirit might have gone in so many varied directions whereby some of them might have us wonder if they are not going away from the path laid in front of them by the Most High Elohim.

The Coffee Shop Rabbi writes

” The Jewish community is horribly divided. We are divided in many ways, and we poke many fingers at one another, scolding.

Some Haredim see the Kotel as their synagogue. From their point of view, whatever they need to do to maintain the sanctity of that place as they define sanctity is justified.

Some other Jews believe that the Kotel belongs to all Jews everywhere and because the Haredim have said and done ugly things, whatever they say about the Haredim is justified. {Sick and Tired}

The world has come to know so many different Judaic groups and various movements with very different ideas. Years ago between Jews there was a feeling, a sense, a rich swirl of emotion, a deep notion of Jewish communality. This is what the Talmud means when it says,

“all Jews are responsible one for the other” (Shavuot 39a).

But today it looks more that there is egotism and greed that has darkened the hearts of many Jews, not willing to be open for others. Perhaps today only a few (or more?) Jews are swimming upstream and striving for peace between all people living around Jerusalem, which in the end shall have to become the capital of the Holy Land, for all those who love and go for the Divine Creator. It was the wish of the Bore and it shall become so, whatever man wants to go against it.

In Israel there are Jews living who have put aside their faith in God and have become atheists calling other Jews to fight against the enemies of their state. In Israel as well as in other places around the world we also, strangely enough can find Jews who have taken a three-headed god as their god. Though they take Jesus (Jeshua) as their god, they clearly do not follow the teachings of that Nazarene rebbe who taught peace and tolerance. We can wonder if one may call such ‘Messianic Jews‘ really Jews. Opposite to them are real Messianic Jews, who stay faithful to the Jewish belief in One True God, the God of Israel, Jacob, Isaac, Jesus and his disciples, but have taken Jesus as the Messiah. But they are ‘shredded’ and hated by the trinitarian ‘Jews’ and ‘Christians’. By other Jews they are spoken of as traitors to the faith. Others speak about the Conservative Jews as the wrong believers, whilst others talk about the Reform, the Orthodox, Ultra-Orthodox Jews, the Liberal or other sorts of Jews, as if they are “monsters”.

Some Jews act as if Jews of color don’t even exist.

Some Jews think other Jews don’t “look Jewish enough.”

Some Jews say Jews who became Jewish as adults aren’t really Jews. {Sick and Tired}

We can see that Judaism has become sick in the same bed as Christendom. There too has come such a shims that several groups claim the other group may not call themselves Jew. It has even come so far that Israel’s rabbinical authorities have compiled a blacklist of overseas rabbis whose authority they refuse to recognize when it comes to certifying the Jewishness of someone who wants to get married in Israel.

Israel’s Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef (L) and Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau. Moti Milrod – The Chief Rabbinate having released a list of foreign “kosher” rabbis whose conversions it recognizes and whose signatures it accepts on documents attesting to various aspects of personal status.

The Christian community and the Jewish community should remember

However, considering that the people during the Second Temple period were engaged in Torah study, observance of mitzvot, and acts of kindness, why was the Second Temple destroyed?

It was destroyed due to the fact that there was baseless hatred during that period. This comes to teach you that the sin of baseless hatred is equivalent to the three transgressions: Idol worship, forbidden sexual relations and bloodshed. – Yoma 9b {Sick and Tired}

Preceding article

Women their education and chances to become a parliamentary

Additional reading

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Niet de hemel maar de aarde

Posted on 2016/06/23 by Guestspeaker

“De gemiddelde tachtigjarige kerkganger verlangt niet naar de hemel. Die zegt niet ‘gelukkig, ik ben er bijna’, nee, die zit er helemaal niet op te wachten. En terecht, hoe mooi de hemel ook zal zijn, wij zijn niet geschapen voor leven in de hemel – maar voor de aarde. De nieuwe aarde! Ik merk als ik dat preek, dat mensen helemaal blij worden”,

vertelt dominee Henk Poot, van Christenen voor Israël. Hij vindt dat kerken te weinig oog hebben voor de heilsgeschiedenis en de komst van een nieuw Jeruzalem. Want uiteindelijk zal de nieuwe hemel en aarde uit de hemel neerdalen op aarde en zal er een nieuw Jeruzalem – niet Rome of Washington – komen.

“Ik preekte laatst in een Baptistengemeente en ik zag mensen helemaal blij worden van het toekomstperspectief dat God de aarde nieuw gaat maken. Ons huis staat vlak bij een klein kerkhofje. Het lijkt me een schitterend idee dat op de grote dag ineens iemand aanklopt en zegt: ‘Goedendag, ik ben Mathilde en ik ben in 1726 gestorven’, waarop ik zal antwoorden: ‘Goedendag, zeg dat wel, ik heb inderdaad je naam wel eens op een van de grafstenen zien staan.’ Verder zal God de stammen van Israël gaan herstellen.”

Eenzijdig en egocentrisch

Henk Poot wil dat er meer kennis in de kerk komt over de betekenis van het Oude Testament – die in de eerste instantie bedoeld was voor Israël – en de inhoud van de profeten. Want Jezus kwam namelijk om deze profeten te vervullen. En zo ook de Joodse wet. Hij was namelijk een Jood. Vaak is dat nog onvoldoende doorgedrongen tot mensen.

“Dat zie je bij de EO ook, die brengen The Passion naar Groningen.”

Daar wordt Jezus neergezet als een “Westerse man met blond haar.”

“Het is slecht dat Jezus niet gepresenteerd wordt als de Messias van de profeten en alleen als de Jezus die míjn zonden vergeeft zodat ík naar de hemel kan. Dan is dat een heel eenzijdig en egocentrisch beeld en ben ik er tegen!”

Het is volgens Poot meer.

“De apostelen preekten de komst van het koninkrijk en wilden mensen erop voorbereiden. Natuurlijk waren er de gaven van de Geest in de gemeenten – omdat het koninkrijk was doorgebroken, ging het ook om geloofsopbouw en leven met God. Maar de apostelen hielden wel de grote lijnen in het oog. Als je ‘Jezus’ niet naar Groningen brengt als degene die Israël herstelt of de stammen terug brengt, doe je Hem tekort. Je kunt geen relatie hebben met Jezus buiten Israël om.”

“In Jesaja 49 staan vier dingen die Jezus doet. Hij is een scherpsnijdend zwaard om de wereld te oordelen, Hij gaat de stammen herstellen, Hij herstelt het land Israël én Hij is een Licht voor de volkeren. We hebben het alleen over vers 6b, dat Hij een Licht is voor de volkeren. Maar het wordt tijd dat we de rest ook eens benoemen.”

Te vaak wordt het Jood-zijn van Jezus vergeten of gaan christenen hier aan voorbij.

Heilsgeschiedenis

In evangelische kringen is er meer openheid voor de visie van Poot, die hij zelf als de Bijbelse visie ziet. Maar er zijn uitzonderingen.

“Veel evangelische kerken die zich niet met Israël bezig houden, zijn eigenlijk gewoon vrolijke gereformeerden geworden. Ze zijn zo erg met zichzelf bezig dat ze aan de heilsgeschiedenis niet toekomen. God heeft Israël uitgekozen om via dit volk zich bekend te maken aan de wereld en uiteindelijk zal Jezus als Messias terugkomen in Jeruzalem.”

Zowel binnen als buiten de kerk levert het onderwerp Israël altijd veel beladen discussies op. Poot herkent dit en doet een oproep om inhoudelijk in debat te gaan.

“We moeten de discussie hierover niet uit de weg gaan. Daar is het té belangrijk voor. Want in essentie gaat het met die discussie over Israël, over het wezen van de Bijbel, over God, over Christus en over de toekomst. Dit is essentieel. Maar laten we de discussie gezond houden en niet gaan schelden!”

– Martin Rozestraten

Not having Jesus’ skull

Posted on 2015/12/25 by Bijbelvorsers

The problem for us about the figure of Jesus is that we only have secular, civilians and clergy their writings about the man who live about two thousand years ago and walked many miles telling about his heavenly Father, the God of Abraham.

Many people would like to put a face on that man born in Bethlehem, who was brought up in Nazareth in a family of the tribe of king David. We do not have any particular elements of his body which creates for any forensic reconstruction of his face.

Now, what about Jesus? Without a skull, what could they discern what he looked like? Well, they did something dumb, but it’s the best a believer can do. Christianity Today reports excitedly:

With this in mind, the research team acquired three well-preserved skulls from Jerusalem in Israel, where Jesus lived and preached.

Medical artist Richard Neave from The University of Manchester in England then took charge of evaluating the skulls. Using special computer programmes, his team was able to re-create the muscles and skins overlaying the skulls.

The skulls, however, did not provide two key pieces of information about Jesus’ appearance: his hair and his skin colour. To be able to determine these, the researchers analysed drawings found in various archaeological sites in Israel.

The research team ultimately concluded that Jesus had dark eyes, and was bearded following Jewish tradition.

As regards the length of Jesus’ hair, the researchers deviated from the common belief that Christ had long, straight hair. Instead, they assumed that Jesus Christ had short hair with tight curls, based on their analysis of the Holy Bible. [JAC: I don’t think the Holy Bible tells us anything about how Jesus’s hair looked!]

Well that’s certainly convincing, isn’t it? The chance that Jesus, if he really existed, looked like an amalgam of three random skulls dug up in Jerusalem (dates not given), is about nil. Nevertheless, they produced the image given below, which links to the AOL video. >

Forensic science reveals how Jesus really looked

British scientists have stitched together (in 2015) what they say is probably most accurate image of Jesus Christ’s real face.

Please also find:

+++

Could This Be The Real Face Of Jesus Christ? (viralnova.com)
SCIENCE tells us what Jesus looked like! (whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com)
The ‘real’ face of Jesus revealed (news.com.au)
Forensic Artist Creates a New Image of Jesus Christ (chinatopix.com)
Science Is Still Trying To Figure Out If Was Really White (biospace.com)
Was Jesus White? Forensic Facial Reconstruction Allegedly Shows What Jesus Really Looked Like (medicaldaily.com)
Forensic Scientist Reveals What Jesus Christ ACTUALLY Looked Like [SEE PHOTO] (peacebenwilliams.com)
This Science-Based Face Of Jesus Will Make Conservative Heads Explode (IMAGE) (addictinginfo.org)
This is How Jesus Looked, Reveals Forensics (counselheal.com)
Scientists Create Model Of What Jesus Looked Like (radio.foxnews.com)

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Not having Jesus’ skull

Forensic science reveals how Jesus really looked

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