The Beautiful Side of Evil - Johanna Michaelsen

Dennis Edwards: Have you ever been attacked spiritually by evil forces? Have you ever felt evil forces surround you, engulf you, sadden you, frighten you? In The Beautiful Side of Evil Johanna Michaelsen shares her personal story with the dark-side. It's a compelling story and worth a read and could be especially helpful to open the eyes of those doubtful that such powers exist. God's word tells us, "that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils."[1] Paul also warns that in the last days "evil men shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived."[2] Jesus when answering his disciples concerning the end times and His return warned three times that deception would be rampant. He said, "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many."[3] "And many false prophets would arise and deceive many."[4] "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."[5] Johanna believes deception is not isolated to her unusual experience but is alive and well in many aspects of our lives.

Listen to her speak here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU9A0ddzkeo
Watch her speak here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsev0CrPwqU

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Want to stay strong as you age? Find a purpose.

By Judith Graham, Washington Post, September 24, 2017

After making it through the maelstrom of middle age, many adults find themselves approaching older age wondering, “What will give purpose to my life” now that the kids have flown the nest and retirement is in the cards?

How they answer can have significant implications for their health.

Over the past two decades, dozens of studies have shown that seniors with a sense of purpose in life are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment, disabilities, heart attacks or strokes, and more likely to live longer than people without this kind of underlying motivation.

Now, a report in JAMA Psychiatry adds to this body of evidence by showing that older adults with a solid sense of purpose tend to retain strong hand grips and walking speeds–key indicators of how rapidly people are aging.

Why would a psychological construct (“I feel that I have goals and something to live for”) have this kind of impact? Seniors with a sense of purpose may be more physically active and take better care of their health, some research suggests. Also, they may be less susceptible to stress, which can fuel dangerous inflammation.

“Purposeful individuals tend to be less reactive to stressors and more engaged, generally, in their daily lives, which can promote cognitive and physical health,” said Patrick Hill, an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, who wasn’t associated with the latest study.

But what is purpose, really? And how can it be cultivated?

Anne Newman, a 69-year-old who splits her time between Hartsdale, north of New York City, and Delray Beach, Fla., said she’s been asking herself this “on a minute-by-minute basis” since closing her psychotherapy practice late last year.

Building and maintaining a career became a primary driver in her life after Newman raised two daughters and went back to work at age 48. As a therapist, “I really loved helping people make changes in their lives that put them in a different, better position,” she said.

Things became difficult when Newman’s husband, Joseph, moved to Florida and she started commuting back and forth from New York. Over time, the travel took a toll, and Newman decided she didn’t want a long-distance marriage. So she began winding down her practice and thinking about her next chapter.

Experts advise that people seeking a sense of purpose consider spending more time on activities they enjoy or using work skills in a new way. Newman loves drawing and photography. She has investigated work and volunteer opportunities in Florida, but nothing has grabbed her just yet.

“Not knowing what’s going to take the place of work in my life–it feels horrible, like I’m floundering,” she admitted in a phone interview.

Many people go through a period of trial and error after retirement and don’t find what they’re looking for right away, said Dilip Jeste, senior associate dean for healthy aging and senior care at the University of California at San Diego. “This doesn’t happen overnight.”

“People don’t like to talk about their discomfort because they think it’s unusual. And yet everybody thinks about this existential question at this time of life: ‘What are we here for?’” he noted.

Newman’s focus has been on getting “involved in something other than personal satisfaction–something larger than myself.”

“I think people can get a sense of purpose from very simple things: from taking care of a pet, working in the garden or being kind to a neighbor,” said Patricia Boyle, a leading researcher in this field and a professor of behavioral sciences at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

“Even small goals can help motivate someone to keep going,” she continued. “Purpose can involve a larger goal, but it’s not a requirement.”

Older adults often discover a sense of purpose from taking care of grandchildren, volunteering or becoming involved in community service work or religion, she said. “A purpose in life can arise from learning a new thing, accomplishing a new goal, working together with other people or making new social connections when others are lost,” she said.

Tara Gruenewald’s research highlights how important it is for older adults to feel they play a valuable role in the lives of others.

“I think what we often lose as we age into older adulthood is not a desire to contribute meaningfully to others but the opportunity to do so,” said Gruenewald, chair of the department of psychology at California’s Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences at Chapman University. Her research has found that people who perceive themselves as being useful had a stronger feeling of well-being and were less likely to become disabled or to die during a seven-year follow-up period than those who didn’t see themselves this way.

“In midlife, we contribute to others partly because it’s demanded of us in work and in our social relationships,” Gruenewald said. “As we grow older, we have to seek out opportunities to contribute and give to others.”

After Barry Dym, 75, retired a year ago from a long career as an organizational consultant and a marriage and family therapist, he said, “I didn’t ask myself, ‘Did I have a larger purpose in life?’ I asked myself, ‘What gives meaning to my life?’”

Answering that question wasn’t difficult: Certain themes had defined choices he’d made throughout his life. “What gives meaning to me is helping people. Trying to have an impact. Working with people very closely and helping them become much better at what they do,” Dym said in a phone conversation from his home in Lexington, Mass.

In retirement, he’s carrying that forward by mentoring several people with whom he has a professional and personal relationship, bringing together groups of people to talk about aging, and starting a blog. Recently, he said, he wrote about discovering that he feels freer now to “explore who I am, where I came from and what meaning things have to me than at any other point of my life.”

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Charles Spurgeon on the true Israel of God!

Dennis Edwards

Charles Spurgeon wrote on the “Israel of God.” Spurgeon was very critical of Darby and the Dispensationalist’s view that there were two peoples of God. C.I. Scofield incorporated Darby’s view into his Biblical concordance, which became the reference Bible for nearly all seminary schools in America in the beginning of the 20th century. Scofield’s theology therefore became one of the most influential in the USA and later through Protestantism in the world as foreign Protestants followed American theology. However, let us read what Spurgeon wrote.

“Distinctions have been drawn by certain exceeding wise men (measured by their own estimate of themselves), between the people of God who lived before the coming of Christ, and those who lived afterwards. We have even heard it asserted that those who lived before the coming of Christ [the Fathers of Faith of Hebrews 11] do not belong to the church of God!"

Spurgeon is referring to Darby, or others like Darby of that day, who were coming in with new eschatology teaching. Spurgeon was a good friend of Benjamin W. Newton and George Muller. Muller and Newton were also good friends. Newton had had a falling out with Darby and the Plymouth Brethren over Darby's incorporating Pre-Tribulation doctrine into his eschatology. Newton had read the Church Fathers diligently and believed the Pre-Tribulation idea was contrary to Scripture and the understanding of the Church Fathers. Darby later became friends with Scofield who incorporated the Pre-Tribulation doctrine into his Reference Bible. Scofield's work was financed by his Jewish friends in America. His interpretation of Scripture divided some reference for the church and some for the Jewish people. Scofield's Bible which after 1909 began to be used throughout American seminary schools is the reason why American Evangelicals vehemently support Israel and believe that Israel in rebellion are still the people of God.

Spurgeon went to say, “We never know what we shall hear next, and perhaps it is a mercy that these absurdities are revealed at one time, in order that we may be able to endure their stupidity without dying of amazement. Why, every child of God in every place stands on the same footing; the Lord has not some children best beloved, some second-rate offspring, and others whom he hardly cares about."

Spurgeon is saying that all shall be saved by faith in Christ. Some looked forward, others look back. All must believe on the only begotten Son of the Father. The Jewish people are not worthy of God's blessings while still denying Christ the Messiah.

Spurgeon continues, “These who saw Christ’s day before it came, had a great difference as to what they knew, and perhaps in the same measure a difference as to what they enjoyed while on earth meditating upon Christ; but they were all washed in the same blood, all redeemed with the same ransom price, and made members of the same body.

“Israel in the covenant of grace is not natural Israel [not the nation of flesh and blood Israel], but all believers in all ages. Before the first advent, all the types and shadows all pointed one way – they pointed to Christ, and to him all the saints looked with hope. Those who lived before Christ were not saved with a different salvation to that which shall come to us. They exercised faith as we must; that faith struggled as ours struggles, and that faith obtained its reward as ours shall.”[1]

[1] Charles Spurgeon, Devotional Classics of C.H. Spurgeon,p.122 

Be careful of the Bible scholars that say that one prophecy is for the Jewish people and another one is for the Christians. Some prophecies may be specific to the flesh and blood nation of Israel, like those in Ezekiel 38-39 and Zechariah 12-14. Some prophecies are hard to decipher as some pertain to both believing Israel and the church. However, unrepented flesh and blood Israel have forfeited their right to the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant. They have broken their part of the agreement over and over again. God had said, "If you do such and such, I will do such and such." But they obeyed not.

Spiritual Israel, those who has come to faith in Jesus as the Messiah are the inheritors of God's promises through Jesus blood. A remnant of Jewish brethren will come to faith in Christ in the last days. Zechariah 13;8-9, 12:10-14. Until that time, Israel has lost her covenant position and can only gain it through repentance and turning to Jesus with all her heart and soul. Scriptures seem to indicate that Israel's repentance will not take place until the Rapture after the seven trumpet of tribulation and just prior to the vials or bowels of the Wrath of God.

A related article on Scofield can be found https://fightforyourfaith.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-little-history-cyrus-i-scofield-and.html

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Nabeel Qureshi passed away, be in peace.

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Start an orphanage in the Philippines at age 80? Of course!

When a man offered to sell Lois Prater his child, her shock turned to action. Refusing to let her age stop her, she founded King's Garden Children's Home.  LINK

By Gail Wood, Contributor APRIL 10, 2013


Courtesy of King's Garden Children's Home

It was the last place Lois Prater's children expected her to go – overseas to become a missionary.

At age 80, Ms. Prater, who had been a stay-at-home housewife all her married life, sold her Seattle-area home, her car, and other belongings to build an orphanage in the Philippines. She became the unlikely helping hand for hundreds of orphaned children over the years, many of whom were abused or abandoned.

“She sold everything,” says Bonnie Swinney, one of Prater's three daughters. “The only things she kept were the things she could use in the orphanage.”

In 1991, Prater, with her own money, bought 12 acres of land covered with mango and coconut trees near Orion, a small town in the Philippines. Three years later, the doors would open to King's Garden Children's Home, a 2,000-square-foot, white stucco building, giving orphaned children from infants to teens new hope.

“I can't imagine at my age going over there now,” says Ms. Swinney, who is 73. “What she did was amazing.”

For 13 years, Prater lived in the Philippines, enduring both physical and financial hardships. She had to overcome a number of challenging physical ailments along the way. And there was the difficult task of living in a foreign country, far from her family. Yet she refused to come home.

Finally, with a new manager in place, Prater retired and returned home to live with her daughter near Seattle just before her 90th birthday. She died in January at age 100.

“I didn't know anything about business, about building an orphanage,” Prater said several years ago when talking about her decision to open King's Garden. “All along, I've just trusted in God, and He's answered my prayers. I did what I could do, and God did the rest.”

Just a few years after King's Garden Children's Home opened, Prater invested in expansion. King's Garden tripled in size and started a school. Over the years, an average of about 60 children at a time have lived at the orphanage.

Prater's unlikely journey began six months after her husband, Galon Prater, died in 1988. While Lois Prater was watching a Christian TV program, Lora Lam, a missionary on the program, asked for people to join her on a three-week outreach trip to China. Prater, who had attended Bible school as a teenager and had earned her ministerial license, felt her childhood desire to become a missionary rising again.

“I said, 'Lord, I'm too old to go now,' ” Prater said.

But she went, making three trips, one to China and two to the Philippines, taking part in open-tent meetings. Inspired by her trip with Ms. Lam to China, Prater returned for a second trip several weeks later with 11 other women for a month-long stay in the Philippines. She later made a third visit to the Philippines alone and was speaking at a church when a poorly dressed man came up to her after the service and offered to sell his baby to her for 1,000 pesos, or about $40 at that time.

“That impacted my soul so deeply I knew I had to do something,” Prater said.

So, in 1990 she returned to the United States and sold her home for $65,000. She sold everything she had, determined to build an orphanage.

“It was a strange feeling to see her selling everything: her couches, her chairs, her China hutch, her washer and dryer, everything,” says Swinney, who made several visits to her mom's orphanage over the years. “But I had heard her stories about her wanting to build an orphanage all my life. This is something she had always wanted to do.”

Prater admitted selling her home wasn't easy.

"I struggled, but I knew that what I was trying to do was something much more important than hanging onto my faded couch," Prater said.

At 89, Prater had a physical setback and was forced to step down as the orphanage's director. She returned home, this time for good. But she made several short visits to her orphanage over the next few years.

The orphanage and school continues to do well today. Monica Jarvis assumed directorship of King's Garden Children's Home in 2005 and remains in that position with the support of the Assemblies of God World Missions.

“To think that my mom opened the orphanage at 80 and worked there until she was 89 absolutely blows me away,” says Swinney, who has adopted several children from King's Garden Children's Home. “My mom has the biggest heart.”

Each of the children brought to King's Garden Children's Home has a heartbreaking story. One of the first children, who had no name, was brought to Prater when he was just nine days old. Prater named him Albert. His alcoholic father was in jail and his mother moved into the jail with him because she had no other place to stay.

One-by-one, Prater took in each of that mother's four children, keeping them out of jail.

Another child, who Prater named Tommy, was brought to King's Garden Children's Home by the police when he was just one year old. Tommy's ear had been cut off by his father. Heidi, another child brought to Prater by the police, came to King's Garden with stomach worms and head lice. Many of the children who come to King's Garden are in need of medical treatment.

The mother and father of a girl named Jennifer died, and she moved into King's Garden when she was 10. Her step brother brought her to the orphanage because she had no other place to live.

“I feel I'm not talented enough to do any of this,” Prater said while she was still overseeing King's Garden. “But God enables me. My responsibility is to do what I can. He does the rest. My only regret is I didn't start when I was younger.”

Prater's story has been an inspiration to others, including her daughter, showing how it's never too late to live a life of serving others.

“My mom was such an amazing person,” Swinney says. “She had tremendous faith in God.”

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The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

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What you learn about the United States after you leave it

By Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, September 11, 2017

In a recent excerpt from her new book, American journalist Suzy Hansen described her bemusement when a friend in Istanbul suggested to her that the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, had been somehow planned by the U.S. government.

“Come on, you don’t believe that,” said Hansen.

“Why not?” snapped back her friend, identified as Emre. “I do.”

“But it’s a conspiracy theory.”

Emre laughed and said: “Americans always dismiss these things as conspiracy theories. It’s the rest of the world who have had to deal with your conspiracies.”

This pronouncement prompted Hansen, an accomplished storyteller and reporter who has written powerfully about recent political events in Turkey, to reflect on what may underlie her friend’s animus. Her much-acclaimed new book, “Notes from a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World,” is a memoir of a young American who moves abroad and slowly grapples with how the rest of the world sees her nation–and how little her nation really sees the world.

She looks in particular at the extent to which U.S. foreign policy has shaped politics, societies and the fates of ordinary people elsewhere. In one anecdote, when Hansen asks an Iraqi man what his country “was like in the 1980s and 1990s, when he was growing up,” he replies: “I am always amazed when Americans ask me this. How is it that you know nothing about us when you had so much to do with what became of our lives?”

Sixteen years after al-Qaeda terrorists attacked the United States, we’re still living with the awful repercussions of that assault. American troops are still locked in battles in Afghanistan, where Islamist extremist groups still exist. American forces are still waging military campaigns in Iraq, where a 2003 U.S. invasion in the wake of 9/11 became one of the most destabilizing events in the Middle East for a generation.

“I began to wonder whether there was much difference between a foreigner’s paranoia that the Americans planned September 11,” Hansen mused, “and the Americans’ paranoia that the whole world should pay for September 11 with an endless global war on terror.”

The impact of American power on the global stage is, of course, complex and uneven. For all the profound harm the United States has caused over a century of military interventions and coup plots around the world, there is also the considerable prosperity guaranteed by decades of a de facto Pax Americana in East Asia and Western Europe.

But Hansen is more focused on the almost unthinking belief in American “exceptionalism” that she and myriad other Americans grew up with in the 1990s, an era of post-Cold War optimism and confidence in the superiority of the American project and in American identity itself.

“This was a kind of nationalism so insidious that I had not known to call it nationalism; this was a self-delusion so complete that I could not see where it began and ended, could not root it out, could not destroy it,” she wrote.

In an essay that ran in The Washington Post over the weekend, Hansen hones in on the depth of this “self-delusion”:

“Are ordinary people responsible for their governments’ foreign policy? It’s hard to blame the millions of Americans living in poverty, who have been just as victimized by the injustices of the 20th century as those abroad. But many other average Americans with dangerously naive ideas about themselves and their country grow up to become teachers, foreign correspondents, presidents. What they did not learn as children will not be cured by what they learn at elite universities, in self-regarding metropolitan centers or in graduate schools that for the most part tell them that the United States is the center of the planet and that they are the smartest on it,” she wrote. “This kind of American exceptionalism is a product of 200 years of disconnection from our country’s acts around the world–a geographic, intellectual and emotional isolation.”

The shortcomings of blind American self-belief, Hansen argues, have been brought into stark relief by the ascendance of President Trump. The current occupant of the White House, Hansen wrote in The Post, is “the crudest manifestation of some very American traits: recklessness, nationalism, contempt for history, an inability (if not utter disinclination) to inhabit a foreigner’s experience. Never before has it been so clear that Americans’ identities–their confidence and happiness–are tied to the supposedly exalted status of their nation, and of the man or woman who leads it.”

Of course, this comes at a time when the rest of the world is, more than ever, questioning the American commitment to the ideals and virtues Americans have long professed. “If only America were like Hansen: disquieted, self-analytic and imaginative,” wrote Libyan American author Hisham Matar. The vast majority, though, are not.

Hansen takes as her inspiration the Istanbul years of James Baldwin, the African American man of letters who spent about a decade living in Turkey in the 1960s. As my colleague Kareem Fahim wrote in February, Baldwin’s “overlooked sojourn was a period of prodigious creative production and collaboration with Turkish artists, in a place he came to regard as a sanctuary–despite Turkey’s own political turbulence–from the racism, homophobia and scarring civil rights struggle back home.”

Fahim goes on: “He could no longer work in the United States, he told his friend, the drama critic Zeynep Oral. ‘I can’t breathe,’ she quoted him as saying. ‘I have to look from outside.’”

“One sees it better, from a distance,” Baldwin said about the United States in a voice-over of a 1970 film about his time in Istanbul. “And you can make comparisons. From another place, from another country.” Hansen’s own work renews that call half a century later.

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9/11 first responders face illness, uncertain future

By Chau Lam, Newsday, September 10, 2017

The day after terrorists attacked the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, then-New York City police officer Tom Wilson joined thousands of first responders and rescue workers at the Lower Manhattan site searching for survivors.

He spent weeks digging through the ruins at Ground Zero and sorting debris at the Fresh Kill landfill on Staten Island. Now he’s sick, diagnosed with cancer in 2008.

“I had half my tongue cut out,” Wilson said in a recent interview.

The 48-year-old from Bellport is one of thousands of first responders and rescue workers who, a decade and half after the Twin Towers fell, are battling diseases that doctors with the World Trade Center Health Program have associated with exposure to toxic fumes and dust at Ground Zero.

Many are living lives of disability and facing an uncertain future. Others know their fate all too well. Soon, they will join a burgeoning roll call of those whose dedicated service in the days after the nation’s worst terror attacks will likely cost them their lives.

This week, 156 names will be added to the memorial walls in a Nesconset park, bringing the total number of first responders who died from illnesses linked to their work at Ground Zero to more than 850, according to John Feal, a 9/11 first responder and president of the FealGood Foundation.

The three walls inside the 9/11 Responders Remembered Park were erected to honor their service.

“I find solace that those names are etched and they’ll be there forever,” Wilson said. “But at the same time, I find it disturbing that it’s just growing and growing.”

Here are the stories of two of the first responders from Long Island whose lives and the lives of their loved ones have been forever altered by their work in the days after 9/11.

Robert Tilearcio. These days, Tina Tilearcio rarely leaves her husband’s bedside. She times her errands and breaks to coincide with his naps.

“I ran to the beach twice when I knew he was sleeping and he wasn’t going to get up,” said Tilearcio, of Massapequa Park.

In the finite amount of time she has remaining with her husband Robert Tilearcio–be it a day, a week, or a month–Tina Tilearcio wants to spend every minute of it with the man she fell in love with more than three decades ago.

Robert Tilearcio, 58, a New York City firefighter, is dying of brain cancer, a disease connected to his work turning over debris searching for survivors and remains in the days and weeks after the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Rounds of radiation and chemotherapy after surgery to remove the tumor kept the disease at bay for more than two years. But on July 11, doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Institute in Manhattan told Robert Tilearcio there was nothing else they could do to treat his cancer–glioblastoma, a fast-spreading malignancy.

“We started crying,” said Tina Tilearcio, 53.

On the Tuesday when terrorists crashed two commercial planes into the Twin Towers, Robert Tilearcio and fellow firefighters at Engine 266 in Far Rockaway drove toward the Lower Manhattan site. He spent two days looking for survivors and searching for remains of fellow firefighters and the men and women who perished when the buildings collapsed.

“He didn’t have any masks, nothing,” said Tina Tilearcio.

For at least a month after that, Tina Tilearcio said her husband worked 24-hour shifts, came home for about eight hours, and returned to Ground Zero.

“Just enough time to sleep, shower, and go back,” she said.

For more than a decade, Robert Tilearcio continued to work, switching to light duty whenever symptoms of his growing list of ailments, including gastroesophageal acid reflux, or GERD, and difficulty breathing, prevented him from fighting fires.

Then, on April 29, 2015, Robert Tilearcio came home from work, mowed the lawn and showered. He and his wife, a real-estate agent, were about to leave to show houses to prospective buyers.

“And, all of a sudden he screamed from the top of his lungs, and threw his hands up in the air, ‘Oh my God. Oh my God’, as loud as he could,” Tina Tilearcio recalled. “He did like a ballerina turn. I managed to grab him by his pants and eased him down so his head wouldn’t hit the ceramic tiles.”

At St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bethpage, doctors found a tumor the size of a chestnut on his brain. The official diagnosis came on May 8, 2015.

“They said he had 18 months,” Tina Tilearcio said.

“I wish that somebody out there could find a cure, and a miracle could happen,” Tina Tilearcio said.

Tom Wilson. When Tom Wilson learned he had cancer in 2008, the father of four young boys had just welcomed a newborn daughter into the world.

He was only 39.

“I said I could die from this,” said Wilson, a former New York City Police officer who is now working for the Suffolk County Police Department.

Although currently cancer-free, Wilson continues to struggle with the side effects of the radiation used to treat his cancer and the occasional scare that the disease might return.

“One year, my tongue blew up to the size of a lemon. I couldn’t breathe,” Wilson said. “Over the years, I get these flare-ups. I can’t swallow.”

One such episode in December 2016 was so bad he couldn’t open his mouth or move his jaw, Wilson said.

Less than six months later, doctors at the Stony Brook WTC Wellness Program diagnosed Wilson with osteoradionecrosis or dead bone.

“Radiation not only kills the cancer cells, but it kills the good stuff around it,” said Wilson. “Basically, certain areas of my jaw [are] turning into sawdust.”

Wilson is taking medication that helps change the viscosity of his blood.

“Hopefully that slows it down,” Wilson said. “But I got to be careful with the jaw. It’s very fragile.”

So, wrestling with his four rambunctious sons and daughter, which he used to love to do, is out of the question.

“I got to limit my physical activity. That takes a toll,” said Wilson. “I try to put up a front because you don’t want to bring your kids down.”

Wilson’s teeth are beginning to fall out, but implants are not possible because he said the blood vessels in the jawbone don’t regenerate. His fear, Wilson said, is the day when the jawbone cracks.

“So, when my jaw does fracture, I’d have to take a piece of (bone from) my leg area and rebuild it,” he said.

For right now, Wilson is thankful to be alive and around to watch his children, ages 9 to 16, grow up.

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Israel Endorses Independent Kurdish State

(Reuters) Israel supports the establishment of a Kurdish state, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday, as Kurds in Iraq gear up for a referendum on independence that lawmakers in Baghdad oppose.

Here's an excerpt from the Wikipedia article about Oden Yinon's plan for greater Israel.

Oded Yinon's 1982 "Zionist Plan for the Middle East"

The term Yinon Plan refers to an article published in February 1982 in the Hebrew journal Kivunim ("Directions") entitled 'A Strategy for Israel in the 1980s'.[1] Kivunim was a quarterly periodical[2] dedicated to the study of Judaism and Zionism which appeared between 1978 and 1987,[3] and was published by the World Zionist Organization's department of Information in Jerusalem.[4] The article was penned by Oded Yinon, reputedly a former advisor to Ariel Sharon,[5], a former senior official with the Israeli Foreign Ministry[6][7][8][9] and journalist for the Jerusalem Post.[10]It is cited as an early example of characterizing political projects in the Middle East in terms of a logic of sectarian divisions.[11] Otherwise, it was mentioned in conspiracy theories according to which the article either predicted or planned major political events in the Middle East since the 1980s, including the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the overthrowing of Saddam Hussein, the Syrian Civil War and the rise of the Islamic State. Some conspiracy theories claim the article was adopted by members of the Institute for Zionist Strategies in the American administration until it was adopted by the Bush administration as a way to further American interests in the Middle East, as well as achieving the Jewish dream of a state "from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates", encompassing the majority of the Middle East, as written in the Hebrew Bible.[12]

In his article Yinon proceeds to analyze the weaknesses of Arab countries, by citing what he perceives to be flaws in their national and social structures, concluding that Israel should aim to bring about the fragmentation of the Arab world into a mosaic of ethnic and confessional groupings.[8] 'Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation,' he argued, would prove to be advantageous to Israel in the short term.

[18]Iraq

Yinon considered Iraq, with its oil wealth, to be Israel's greatest threat. He believed that the Iran-Iraq war would split up Iraq, whose dissolution should be a strategic Israeli aim, and he envisaged the emergence of three ethnic centres, of Shiites governing from Basra, the Sunni from Baghdad, and the Kurds with a capital in Mosul, each area run along the lines of the administrative divisions of the former Ottoman Empire.[18]

Linda S. Heard, writing for CounterPunch in 2006, reviewed recent policies under George W. Bush such as the war on terror, and events in the Middle East from the Iran-Iraq war to the Invasion of Iraq in 2003, and concluded:

There is one thing that we do know. Oded Yinon's 1982 "Zionist Plan for the Middle East" is in large part taking shape. Is this pure coincidence? Was Yinon a gifted psychic? Perhaps! Alternatively, we in the West are victims of a long-held agenda not of our making and without doubt not in our interests.[18] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yinon_Plan

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The BRICS Summit: What You Need to Know

by James Corbett
corbettreport.com
September 9, 2017

The leaders of the so-called "BRICS" nations converged on Xiamen in Southeast China this week to convene the Ninth BRICS Summit, the annual get-together for the association. And to the surprise of absolutely no one, the event kicked off with a joint declaration full of the usual mealymouthed dipolomatic gobbledygook that was immediately hailed by the members' state-run media mouthpieces as the start of the group's second "golden decade" and (say it with me) "paving the way for a new world order."

Yay.

But, buried in among all the feelgood diplobabble were a few nuggets of significance, as predictably undigestible as those nuggets may be.

Like the BRICS' reaffirmation of commitment to the UN and their "sustainable development" scam, Agenda 21/2030:

And their resolve to foster a "global economic governance architecture," complete with an obligatory curtsy and ring-kissing of their IMF/World Bank masters:

And their genuflection to the World Trade Organization:

Barf.

But, like it or not, the summit did generate some actual news worthy of some scrutiny, so in the interest of keeping you informed, here are the most important stories to emerge from this year's BRICS Summit.

Beijing Betrays Belt-and-Road Buddies?

One item from the joint declaration of actual news significance was buried halfway through the lengthy document, right after a discussion of the (in)security situation in Afghanistan. Blink and you'd miss it, but there in paragraph 48 is a little diplomatic bombshell alternately described as a "breakthrough" and a "betrayal."

"We, in this regard, express concern on the security situation in the region and violence caused by the Taliban, ISIL/DAISH, Al-Qaida and its affiliates including Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, TTP and Hizb ut-Tahrir."

For those unfamiliar with the groups named in this sentence and their affiliations, this otherwise innocuous clause condemning terrorism is a "breakthrough" for India, because they have tried (and failed) to get the BRICS to condemn Pakistani terror groups like the Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) for some time now. Just the naming of these names as threats to the security of the region is a huge boost for India's position relative to its arch-nemesis, Pakistan, and is widely seen as diplomatic coup for New Delhi.

The sentence is seen as a "betrayal" by Pakistan, however, because that country had every reason to believe until now that it was in a blossoming relationship with China. They are partners in the highly lucrative China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), after all, and Islamabad has been using Beijing as a diplomatic shield against Washington as Trump does his Obama Surge 2.0.

Indeed, it's hard not to see this clause as a clear win for India. Just a few months ago India was boycotting the Belt and Road Forum in protest of the CPEC and coming close to military confrontation with China over a seemingly insignificant mountain pass in Doklam, and now China has publicly chewed out their arch-rivals on the global stage. Don't expect China to completely abandon Pakistan politically, but this does indicate that Beijing is willing to use the stick as well as the carrot in their international dealings.

The Sidelines At Center Stage

At any major international summit, the bilateral meetings taking place on the sidelines of the main conference are where a lot of the real action can be found.

Once again the big winner of the sideline events appears to be Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian people he claims to represent. After much "will they, won't they?" speculation it was finally confirmed that, yes, indeed, Chinese President Xi Jinping would meet with Modi for the two leaders' first substantive bilateral talks. Details of the deliberations were, as always, maddeningly vague, but at the very least indicated that the two powers are not on the edge of all-out warfare, as seemed possible during the Doklam standoff mere weeks ago.

One non-BRICS member getting in on the action was Egypt, with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the summit on Monday. The two discussed "boosting bilateral cooperation and other issues of mutual interest," including, understandably, the security situation at Cairo airport, scene of the October 2015 Russian plane crash that killed over 200 people, mostly Russians. Sisi also got to burnish his diplomatic credentials with a sideline meeting with Modi where the two, predictably, vowed to "strengthen ties."

BRICS Plus?

So what was Egypt doing at the BRICS Summit anyway? Or Mexico, Guinea, Thailand and Tajikistan, for that matter? Well, it's called "BRICS Plus," and it's a concept put forward by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last March. Employing the universal language of diplospeak, Wang explained that China wanted to "explore modalities" of an expanded BRICS grouping, adding: "We hope to establish extensive partnerships and widen our circle of friends to turn it into the most impactful platform for South-South cooperation."

That vision took shape at the Xiamen summit with China's invitation for "dialogue" with Mexico, Egypt, Guinea, Thailand and Tajikistan. The idea is to expand the BRICS' reach and bring more of the developing world into the fold.

The plan may have already hit a road bump, however. The idea has been heavily criticized by "existing members" (read: India) and China has reportedly backed off the idea to make these dialogue partnerships an ongoing part of the BRICS Summit. Of course, this by no means signals an end to China's interest in expanding the global reach of its diplomatic and economic ties, and India should tread carefully on ideas that expand the scope (and thus the relevance) of the BRICS. If the BRICS becomes an impediment to China's global ambitions it may just be left to wither on the vine.

No Nuking NK!

The real determinants of what happens on the Korean peninsula remain (much to the detriment of the Korean people) powers other than North or South Korea. Namely China and the US (and to some extent Russia and Japan). Given the Russian and Chinese backbone of the BRICS, it's no surprise, then, that the North Korean situation was one of the topics that was front and center at the shindig.

As the joint declaration put it:

"We strongly deplore the nuclear test conducted by the DPRK. We express deep concern over the ongoing tension and prolonged nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, and emphasize that it should only be settled through peaceful means and direct dialogue of all the parties concerned."

This remains the line in the sand for both Russia and China: There is no military solution to the Korean crisis.

Putin has floated an idea for a gas pipeline to Korea and the connection of the North and South Korean energy grid and railway systems (an idea that, incidentally, was first floated by Maurice Strong over a decade ago). Meanwhile, Xi is calling on France to get involved and give the whole situation a diplomatic restart. But both Xi and Putin are adamant: no military solution.

As Pepe Escobar puts it in his article on "The real BRICS bombshell:"

"Beijing has imposed a definitive veto on war – of which the Pentagon is very much aware.

"Pyongyang’s sixth nuclear test, although planned way in advance, happened only three days after two nuclear-capable US B-1B strategic bombers conducted their own 'test' alongside four F-35Bs and a few Japanese F-15s.

"Everyone familiar with the Korean peninsula chessboard knew there would be a DPRK response to these barely disguised 'decapitation' tests.

"So it’s back to the only sound proposition on the table: the RC 'double freeze.' Freeze on US/Japan/South Korea military drills; freeze on North Korea’s nuclear program; diplomacy takes over."

And Last but not Least...

The biggest news to emerge during the summit was not directly part of the summit at all, but in some way is a reflection of the topsy-turvy period of global geo-economic reorientation we are living through. I am referring, of course, to the yuan/oil/gold earthquake that is about to shake the monetary world.

If you saw my recent video on the subject you already know the story, but in a nutshell China is about to ring in a (say it with me) "new world order" with their Shanghai International Energy Exchange. The exchange will offer crude oil contracts denominated in yuan, which "will be fully convertible into gold on exchanges in Shanghai and Hong Kong." As Grant Williams points out in his important overview of the story (h/t Corbett Report user Ukdavec), the ability for a country like, oh, let's say, Russia, to sell oil to China directly for yuan (no dollars involved) and convert that yuan to gold effectively completely severs all the links to the US government, US banking system, US treasuries and US dollar that has underpinned the unipolar world of the post-Bretton petrodollar. It is difficult to overstate the significance of this event...

But, having said that, this story is beyond the bounds of this BRICS update. Suffice it to say, if the BRICS want to become the real beginning of an actually multipolar alternative to the US hegemony, something like the yuan/oil/gold triangle would have to be in place. And here it is. Fancy that.

Now, as always, I have to re-re-restate the ground level truth: The BRICS are a phoney opposition literally created by Goldman Sachs whose pseudo-alternative institutions are run by the very same bankers and bureaucrats they pretend to oppose. The cold war of the 21st century is being engineered in the exact same way that the cold war of the 20th was. And, as always, whichever "side" wins this "fight," the oligarchs and their systems of control will come out on top.

But make no mistake: the cold war, engineered as it is, is here. And meetings like the BRICS Summit are where we catch the first glimpses of it.

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Albert Einstein's belief in Intelligent Design!

Dennis Edwards

Albert Einstein rejected Judaism and traditional Christian churchianity, but he was serious scientist willing to accept where the evidence led and change his mind when he was wrong. At one point, he was a believer in the "Steady State Universe" developed by Fredrick Hoyle the British mathematician and astronomer. This idea started with the assumption that the universe was static and had always existed, that it had no beginning. However, after a famous solar eclipse in the beginning of the 20th century, scientists were able to prove through observation that light was effected by gravity. This fact led to the development of the "Big Bang" theory, so named by Fred Hoyle whose theory it overthrew. Einstein stated that it would have been a bigger error to cling to an idea that was shown to be wrong, than to have believed the idea in the first place. 

However, Einstein's work in the mathematics and physics led him to a deep conviction that the universe was not the result of random processes. He said, "We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages. [Here he is alluding to the different scientific equations that we use to describe the various forces of nature that we find, such as: gravity, the strong and weak nuclear forces, the speed of light, the chemical equations of the elements, etc. Einstein continues.] The child knows someone must have written these books. It does not know how. [In other words, Someone must have written the various laws of science - which, following his line of thought, should have led him to a personal Divine Being. But his prejudice against Judaism and organised Churchianity, led him to reject that hypothesis and procure belief in a type of impersonal universal force. He goes on to continue his thought.] It (the child) does not understand the languages in which they (the books) are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books, but doesn't know what it is. That it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent being toward God. We see a universe marvellously arranged and obeying certain laws, but only dimly understand those laws. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations."[1]

Werner Von Braun, the German Aerospace Engineer which helped the USA develop the rockets that enabled the launching of America into space, said something very similar to Einstein. He said, "For me, the idea of a creation is not conceivable without invoking the necessity of design. One cannot be exposed to the law and order of the universe without concluding that there must be design and purpose behind it all...My experience with science led me to God. They challenge science to prove the existence of God. But must we light a candle to see the sun?"[2]

Of course these men were not the first to come to this conclusion. Isaac Newton who discovered the law of gravity and is considered by many as the greatest of the early scientists said, "This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being. [Here we see Newton coming to the conclusion of a personal God. However, he did not embrace churchianity of his day.] This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world,[Here we see Newton refuting the Greek and Eastern concept of "God" being the impersonal force of the natural world.], but as Lord over all; and on account of His dominion He is wont to be called Lord God, or Universal Ruler."[3]

Following Newton, we can read from the writings of Thomas Jefferson on his thoughts relating to this topic. Again, Jefferson was not a traditional believer in the "God" of the Bible and rejected the miracles recorded therein. However, he comes to the same conclusion as Newton. He wrote, "So irresistible are these evidences of an intelligent and powerful Agent [He could have been reading Newton.] that, of the infinite numbers of men who have existed through all time, they have believed, in the proportion of a million to one, in the hypothesis of an eternal pre-existence of a Creator, rather than in that of a self-existent universe."[4]

Sometime later, Abraham Lincoln made the following declaration: "I can see how it is possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heaven and say, 'There is no God.'"[5]

Some 2,800 earlier than Lincoln, in the Book of Psalms found in the Hebrew Bible, we find these words in a Jewish hymn. "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day they speak, night unto night they reveal knowledge. There is no land or language where their voice is not heard."[6] The psalmist is eluding to the magnificent celestial bodies that cause us to stand in awe and ponder our significance in lieu of their awesomeness.

Einstein would draw the same conclusion. He wrote, "Scientist's religious feelings take the form of rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with all systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection."[7] He also said,"Everyone who is seriously interested in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe - a spirit vastly superior to man, and one in the face of which our modest powers must feel humble."[8] 

Have you come to the right conclusions? Are your biases against the organised religious system of today causing you to reject the intelligent and powerful Being who created the universe? Maybe you need to have another think. When asked to criticize the validity of the New Testament and agree with the conclusions of a skeptic regarding Christianity, Einstein surprisingly responded: "I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene....No one can read the Gospels [found in the New Testament] without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life."[9]

Have you given the real Jesus, found in the pages of the Gospels a fair chance? Or have you rejected him because of the religious system of today and of the past? Please, take another look. Put aside your prejudice against Christianity and read Jesus for himself. Read his own words found in the writings of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I assure you, if you take the time to investigate Jesus with an open and honest heart, you will be surprised at what you find.

Notes

[1] Einstein, Albert; 

[2] Von Braun, Werner; 

[3] Newton, Isaac; The Principles; 

[4] Jefferson, Thomas;
[5] Lincoln, Abraham;
[6] Psalm 19, Hebrew and Christian Bible
[7] Einstein, Albert; The World as I See It.
[8] Einstein, Albert;                                                            [9] Einstein, Albert;

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"The heart cannot rejoice in what the mind rejects as false."

Dennis Edwards

C.S. Lewis said, "The heart cannot rejoice in what the mind rejects as false." The disciple Thomas could not accept the resurrection of Christ because it was out side his personal experience and contrary to the normal limits of reason. He thought his friends were delusional. But Christ gave him the proof he needed with a physical appearance. Thomas' response was pure and simple as he fell at Jesus' feet imploring, "My Lord and my God."[1] Today we use the phrase "Doubting Thomas" to characterise someone prone to doubting. Yet after that experience Thomas never doubted Christ's Messiahship again, and went on to be a disciple to India where he met a cruel death for his faith. 

If your reasoning mind has been entertaining doubts about Jesus' Messiahship seek Him desperately and He promises to reveal Himself to you. "Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh to you."[2] "Ye shall seek Me and find Me when ye shall search for Me will all your heart!"[3] "Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you."[4] God loves you and wants to reveal Himself to you, but He leaves a lot up to you. 

Blaise Pascal had a thought similar to Lewis's. He wrote, "Willing to appear to those who seek Him with all their heart, and to be hidden from those who flee from Him with all their heart. God so regulates the knowledge of Himself that He has given indications of Himself, which are visible to those that seek Him and not to those who do not seek Him. There is enough light for those to see who only desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition."

Pascal is saying that God will reveal Himself to those that seek Him and will stay hidden from those who don't seek Him or flee from Him.

In a similar train of thought, Apostle Paul also said that God was not far from us if we would just seek for Him. In a speech to the learned Athenians he said,

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’[5]

Paul is saying that God is not far from any of us if we will just seek for Him.

However, later in his letter to the new disciples in Corinth, Paul used a bit stronger language. In discussing the choice we make when we choose not to believe. Paul says that the Devil has blinded the minds of those that don't want to believe, and therefore the glorious gospel of Christ does not illuminate them.[6] They choose darkness over light, they choose to walk in darkness separated from God. Jesus had said the same thing about the unbeliever. 

"And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."[7] "I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."[8]

In clarifying what Jesus meant, Paul, in his letter to the new disciples in Rome writes that all men actually know the truth, because it is obvious to everyone through God's creation which we see all around us. But ungodly men suppress the truth, God's revelation through His creation, because they want their freedom to act and behave as they will. Paul says,

"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened."[9]

Again we see that man’s mind becomes darkened because he does not want the truth. Paul continues,

“Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”[10]

Not only is much of the world not rejoicing in God, but they are being affected by those who are in rebellion to God. The acceptance of abortion, gay-marriage, gender change for children, and other beliefs have invaded the world culture though many people are naturally opposed to these views. But these are the views espoused in our learned universities and "enlightened" nations.

The Apostle Peter, also weighed in on the question of those that do not want to accept the proof of the invisible God seen through His visible creation. In Peter's second espistle we read,

“Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.”[11]

Peter is saying that unbelievers will scoff at "the promise of His coming" or, in other words at the truth of Bible prophecy. They will also result to believing the uniforitarian idea that the way we see things today, is generally they way they were in the past. They believe that the natural forces that we see today changing the environment, their rates and methods, have been the same since the dawn of time. The acknowledgement of the universal flood, to the unbeliever, is not part of real history. We see that the scoffer has rejected both the creation event by God and the Flood event, God’s judgment on the wicked.

Apostle Peter predicted that in the future, in the last days, men will willingly refuse to believe God created the world and that God judged the world at the time of the Noah's Flood. In the above translation it says "they deliberatedly forget." In another translation it says men were "willingly ignorant," or in other words, ignorant on purpose, or as Apostle Paul said in Romans, "they did not like to retain God in their knowledge." 

Much of today's scientific community have followed the naturalistic reasoning of the scoffer. When they investigate and do research, they willingly ignore belief in God, that God created the universe, that God created life, and that 3,500 years ago a worldwide flood destroyed the pre-Flood civilization. Much of science rejects the physical evidence that is best explained by a supernatural God and scoff at their creationist colleagues. We see today scientists, thinkers, public figures, who "flee from Him with all their heart" and are "willingly ignorant," but others that "seek for Him with all their heart" coming to totally different conclusions. 

But thank God, we that believe can rejoice in His creation and His promised Coming, and His word of prophecy that gives us faith and hope. Our minds do not reject the truth and therefore our heart rejoices. “This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it”[12]

If you would like to read my online book Where is America in Bible Prophecy? click on the title.

Notes:

[1] John 21:28
[2] James 4:8
[3] Jeremish 29:13
[4] Acts 7:7
[5] Acts 17:24-28
[6] 2 Corinthians 4:4
[7] John 3:19
[8] John 8:12
[9] Romans 1:18-21 NIV
[10] Romans 1:24-25, 28-32 NIV
[11] 2 Peter 3:3-6 NIV
[12] Psalm 119:24

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