Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The Railroading of Geert Wilders

Robert SpencerBy Robert Spencer

The Stalinist-show-trial aspect of the Geert Wilders “hate speech” trial in the Netherlands was thrown into sharp relief last week when the Amsterdam District Court refused to allow Wilders to call fifteen of the eighteen witnesses he had hoped to bring forward in his defense. Wilders in response was characteristically direct:

“This Court is not interested in the truth. This Court doesn’t want me to have a fair trial. I can’t have any respect for this. This Court would not be out of place in a dictatorship.”
The three witnesses the court allowed Wilders are the Dutch Islamic scholars Hans Jansen and Simon Admiraal, along with the Wafa Sultan. Hans Jansen’s work on Islam is superb and groundbreaking, and he will be an excellent witness, as will Admiraal and the exemplary freedom fighter Wafa Sultan.

Nonetheless, this decision indicates the hollowness of Dutch justice and the court’s bias against Wilders. For some who would have been Wilders’s most effective witnesses were disallowed. He had wanted to call Mohammed Bouyeri, the murderer of Theo Van Gogh.

Why Bouyeri? Wilders, in the bizarre inquisition that has replaced justice in the Dutch courts, is accused of offending Muslims by pointing out that Muslims invoke the Qur’an and Muhammad’s example to justify violence. However, Bouyeri quoted the Qur’an in the note threatening Wilders and others that he stabbed into Van Gogh’s body, and invoked the Qur’an repeatedly during his trial as well. “Kill them, and Allah will help you and guide your hand,” he said. “There’s no room there for doubt or interpretation there.”

Bouyeri would have proven Wilders’ point immediately: he is simply telling the truth about how Islamic teachings incite all too many Muslims to violence – and if telling the truth is now illegal in the Netherlands, so much the worse for the Netherlands. By disallowing Wilders from calling Bouyeri and others, the court has hindered Wilders’ ability to make this case – suggesting (and by no means for the first time) that the Dutch authorities are determined to convict Wilders, and are not going to let any inconvenient facts get in the way of their doing so.

It is not exaggerating to say that the Geert Wilders trial is a defining moment in the history of Western civilization. One would have to go back centuries to find a court case with as much significance for the future course of the free world. If the farrago of “hate” charges against Wilders stick, and he is convicted, it will herald the end of the freedom of speech in the West, as a precedent will have been set that other Western nations (urged on by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which is the organization most responsible for the global assault on free speech) will be certain to follow. The era of enlightenment and the understanding that all human beings are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights will be definitively drawing to a close, and a new darkness will descend over Europe and the free world in general. For once the precedent is established that a man can be jailed and destroyed for offending a privileged class, the idea that every human being has rights that cannot be infringed will be damaged beyond repair.

And even if Wilders prevails, enough damage has been done already. The Dutch law (and there are others like it in other Western countries) that stipulates that someone can actually be tried and jailed for offending another person will remain on the books. Other trials will follow. The law will be used by the governing elites who developed it in order to maintain their power and silence independent and dissenting voices.

For that is, of course, the point of all this. The Dutch authorities stand arrayed on one side, with Wilders standing alone on the other. Yet despite the fact that he has nothing like their numbers, wealth, or resources, he threatens to topple their entire multicultural house of cards – for he has on his side a weapon that all of their power cannot defeat, the weapon of truth. And so they are desperate to silence him, and end forever his truth-telling about jihad and Islamic supremacism.

Yet even if they do silence him, the truth will still be the truth. They will not be able to obliterate it forever. But will they be able to help initiate a long, perhaps centuries long, period of darkness and oppression in Europe and its civilizational children?

Certainly.

Related Links

Dutch MP to screen anti-Koran movie in the Lords - The Christian Messenger
The Complete Infidel's Guide to the Koran - Robert Spencer (Book)
Muslim Questions - GotQuestions.org
Geert Wilders to INN: "Traditional European Freedom at Stake" - Arutz Sheva
Western Civilization on Trial: Why We Should Be Watching Geert Wilders - Right Side News

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Psalms 83 Revisited?

Jack KinsellaBy Jack Kinsella

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday that Iran is set to deliver a "punch" that will stun world powers during this week's 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

"The Iranian nation, with its unity and God's grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned," Khamenei, who is also Iran's commander-in-chief, told a gathering of air force personnel.

There's something strange taking place in the Middle East. All the signs appear to be pointing toward an imminent outbreak of hostilities against Israel.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted on Sunday as saying that Iran will "deliver a harsh blow to global arrogance" on February 11.

It is not clear whether he's referring to the ongoing demonstrations in Tehran.

Iran's opposition group, called the "Green Way", has also designated February 11 as "the day Iranians demand their rights back" as citizens. February 11 is also the date set aside to commemorate Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Whatever else the February 11 date signifies, it is worth noting that the US has just ordered Patriot missiles dispatched to the area. Four countries, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait will be receiving the missiles.

Washington also has two ships in the Gulf capable of shooting down Iranian missiles. US officials say the move is aimed at deterring attacks by Iran and at reassuring Gulf states that the US will protect them against Iranian missiles.

In addition, US intelligence has gathered detailed war plans drawn up by Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas that the US has already shared with Israel.

The plan calls for five Hezbollah brigades to sweep down into northern Israel and sweep five sectors in the Galilee as part of a general Israeli-Arab uprising against the Jewish state.

Debka reports that Iranian Revolutionary Guard instructors at specially established training facilities near Tehran are already well advanced in training those Hezbollah fighters.

Debka-File has even published a battle map showing the objective of each brigade complete with detailed topographical and demographic studies.

The first objective is the coastal city of Nahariya, near the UN peacekeeper headquarters in Naqura. This battalion has orders to capture large numbers of Israeli hostages for use as human shields against an Israeli counterattack.

Syria's initial involvement will be limited to offering artillery and air cover for Hezbollah, but, Debka says, could be invited to join in the fighting in the event the battle turns against Hezbollah.

In the Debka scenario, Damascus could open up a fourth front against Israel, invading via the Golan Heights.

Debka gets high marks for courage in its reporting - not so high for accuracy. Sometimes they get it spectacularly right. Sometimes they get it spectacularly wrong.

But reports of two explosives-packed containers that washed up onto beaches in Ashdod and Ashkelon just north of Gaza tend to lend confirmation to Debka's analysis.

Iran had previously used floating barrels drop by merchant vessels at prearranged locations to deliver explosives to their Palestinian surrogates in Gaza.

These containers may well have washed up on the beaches as a result of miscalculation of the current, but that's doubtful, given Hamas' claim of responsibility.

One thing is certain - something is up. But what?

Each of the parties involved here are part of the overall alliance that is forecast in Psalms 83 to come against Israel in the last days.

"They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:"
Many thought that the Hezbollah/Lebanon War was a fulfillment of Psalms 83, mainly because of the players in the drama.
". . . Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot."
Let's first identify the various players (with a hat tip to Bill Salus for much of the research)

Ishmael was the eponymous father of the Arabs, his brother Isaac being the father of the Jews. The Ishmaelites most probably refers to the Saudis, but that identification is admittedly speculative.

The Tents of Edom refers to the Palestinians of the West Bank and southern Jordan. The Moabites refers to the Palestinians and central Jordanians.

The Hagarites corresponds with Egypt, Gebal with Hezbollah and the Lebanese. Ammon includes the Palestinians and northern Jordanians, Phillistia corresponds with Hamas and the Gaza Strip.

Last but not least are Assyria (Syria and Kurdish Iraq) and Tyre, (Hezbollah and South Lebanon).

Persia - modern Iran - doesn't make the list. Iran's fingerprints are all over the battle plan, but the combatants are all Arabs. Iranians are Persians, not Arabs.

The Gog-Magog Alliance does not include Syria or the rest of the Psalms 83 nations, and the Psalms 83 nations does not include any of the protagonists from Gog-Magog Alliance. The obvious conclusion is that this battle plan is NOT Gog-Magog.

And since Iran is listed first among the Islamic nations of Gog-Magog, it obviously survives the Psalms 83 confederacy.

But Egypt is not listed on Ezekiel's Roster. Neither is Syria - or any of the other nations of Psalms 83, for that matter. Indeed, according to Ezekiel 38, the Gog-Magog invasion takes place at a time when Israel is dwelling in peace and safety.

Ezekiel is even inspired to include a reference to Israel as a "land of unwalled villages" currently, Israel is building a wall - against the Psalms 83 nations.

I note with interest that Iran's battle plan does NOT include Iran directly - it is a proxy war. I also note with interest the Patriot missile batteries are in place to protect the Arabs, not the Israelis.

Finally, compare Debka's battle map to the Psalms 83 battle map above. Look closely and you will see it is essentially the same map.

The Psalms 83 war won't end as did the 2006 Hezbollah, with a whimper from Hezbollah and an immediate UN intervention. It marks both Egypt's and Syria's final appearance in end times prophecy.

When it is over, it will be over, the Scriptures say.
"As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire, so persecute them with Thy tempest and make them with Thy storm." (Psalms 83:15)

"And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh." (Luke 21:28)

Related Links

Isralestine: The Ancient Blueprints of the Future Middle East - Bill Salus (Book)
Iranian militia attacks French, Italian, possibly Dutch embassies - DEBKAfile
Tensions worsen between Israel and Syria - World Socialist Web Site
A devastating war between Israel & Hezbollah is on the horizon - International Analyst Network
US pushes Israelis and Palestinians to 'proximity' peace talks - Christian Science Monitor

A Call to Pastors: This "Purim," Please Consider Preaching on the Modern-Day Lessons of the Book of Esther

Joel RosenbergBy Joel Rosenberg

This is not the first time in history when the Jewish people have been threatened with annihilation from Persian/Iranian leaders who hated them without cause. The Book of Esther tells the story of how two heroic believers — Mordechai and Esther — prayed and fasted and encouraged others to do the same.

In response to those faithful prayers, the Lord intervened in a dramatic and powerful way. The evil Prime Minister of Iran (Haman) was removed from power and hanged. The heart of the Supreme Leader of Iran (King Ahausuerus) was miraculously changed. The Jews did have to fight. But they were saved from destruction and scores of Iranians converted and became true followers of the God of Israel.

This year, the holiday of “Purim” commemorating these events falls on Sunday, February 28th.

If you are a pastor or Bible teacher, may I ask you to prayerfully consider preaching and teaching on the Book of Esther that Sunday? May I ask you to help followers of Jesus Christ remember how the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob saved the Jewish people from Iran once in history, and how He will do so again if His people will pray and fast as never before?

I am not speaking in a church that particular Sunday morning. But the next day, March 1st, God has opened a door for me to speak at the National Religious Broadcasters conference in Nashville. I have entitled that address, “Israel, The Iran Threat and Lessons From The Book of Esther.”

Wouldn’t it be powerful if thousands of pastors all over North America and all over the world would call the Church to prayer and fasting for God to save both Israel and Iran (and our own countries, too)?

The situation is urgent. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this morning called on the U.N. Security Council immediately to impose on Iran “crippling sanctions” of the kind U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has previously suggested. His remarks come as the Iranian regime is significantly ratcheting up its threats against Israel.

“In the last two days the brutal regime in Teheran has made more outrageous statements, including the implicit call for the extermination of my country,” Netanyahu told the envoys at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, reported the Jerusalem Post.

“Israel expects all responsible governments, including all those represented here, to forcefully condemn these outrageous statements….

But I think what is required is a lot more than words,. Iran is racing forward to produce nuclear weapons in brazen defiance of the international community. And the international community must decide if it is serious about neutralizing this threat to Israel, the region and the entire word. I believe that what is required right now is tough action from the international community.

This means not moderate sanctions or watered down sanctions, this means crippling sanctions, and these sanctions must be applied right now.”
Meanwhile, a new AP story suggests Iran’s capacity to build nuclear warheads is accelerating.

Excerpts from the article:
  • Iran pressed ahead Monday with plans that will increase its ability to make nuclear weapons as it formally informed the U.N. nuclear agency of its intention to enrich uranium to higher levels….
  • Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad…announced Sunday that his country would significantly enrich at least some of the country’s stockpile of uranium to 20 percent….
  • Although material for the fissile core of a nuclear warhead must be enriched to a level of 90 percent or more, just getting its stockpile to the 20 percent mark would be a major step for Iran’s nuclear program. While enriching to 20 percent would take about one year, using up to 2,000 centrifuges at Tehran’s underground Natanz facility, any next step – moving from 20 to 90 percent – would take only half a year and between 500-1,000 centrifuges.
  • Achieving the 20-percent level “would be going most of the rest of the way to weapon-grade uranium,” said David Albright, whose Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security tracks suspected proliferators.
Now is the time for the Church to get on our faces and seek the Lord’s grace and mercy for Israel, Iran and the people of the epicenter.

Related Links

Nuke fears rise as Iran ramps up uranium enrichment - CNN
Inside the Revolution: How the Followers of Jihad, Jefferson & Jesus Are Battling to Dominate the Middle East... - Joel C. Rosenberg (Book)
Does Israel Invade Iran in Bible Prophecy? - Prophecy Update (Radio)
Obama's Outreach to Iran Unprecedented, Gates Says - FOX News
Northern Storm Rising: Russia, Iran, and the Emerging End-Times Military Coalition Against Israel - Ron Rhodes (Book)

Israel and Ezekiel 37-38

Mark HitchcockBy Mark Hitchcock

Two recent news stories bear a remarkable correspondence to the biblical prophecies concerning Isreael in Ezekiel 37 and 38. First, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking on the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, cited the fulfillment of Ezekiel 37. Netanyahu believes that the rise of the modern nation of Israel fulfills Ezekiel’s famous prophecy of the dry bones. He said,

“The Jewish people rose from ashes and destruction, from a terrible pain that can never be healed. Armed with the Jewish spirit, the justice of man, and the vision of the prophets, we sprouted new branches and grew deep roots. Dry bones became covered with flesh, a spirit filled them, and they lived and stood on their own feet, as Ezekiel prophesied:
“Then He said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’ Therefore prophesy and say to them, thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves and bring you into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves.”
While I agree with Netanyahu’s statement that Ezekiel 37 is being fulfilled in the regathering of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland, I don’t believe that prophecy has been completely fulfilled. Ezekiel 37 predicts a physical return of the people first to the land and then then a spiritual return of the people to the Lord (37:9-10). The Jewish people have returned to their land, but their spiritual return to the Lord is still future (Zech 12:10). Their regathering to the land, however, is the first phase, and we are seeing it fulfilled before our eyes.

The second recent headline is related to the first one. On a recent trip to Israel, Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconia, one of Israel’s stongest allies in Europe, made this startling statement. “My greatest desire, as long as I am a protagonist in politics, is to bring Israel into membership of the European Union.” This is the first I have heard of any desire for Israel to be part of the EU. Of course, no one knows if or when this will ever happen, but the Bible does predict a reuniting of the Roman Empire in the end times in Daniel 2 and 7, and the EU appears to foreshadow that revival. The Holy Land was part of the ancient Roman Empire and could be a part of its end time reconstitution. It would be natural for the reunited Roman Empire to include Israel. If this were to occur, one could easily see how Israel would be under the protection of the Antichrist (the leader of the final Roman Empire) and how he could make a covenant with Israel that brings peace as predicted in Daniel 9:27.

After the Jewish people are regathered to their land in Ezekiel 37, the next chapter predicts an all-out invasion of Israel by a horde of nations including Russia, Iran, Central Asia, Libya, Turkey and Sudan. This invasion occurs while Israel is at peace and living securely in her land (Ezek 38 8, 11). If Israel were to be admitted to the EU at some point in the future, the peace they will experience in the end times with the help of the Antichrist is easy to envision. It’s even possible that the signing of such a treaty could be part of Israel’s requirements for admisson to the EU. No one knows for sure, but we do know that the event that commences the final seven years of this age is a treaty or covenant between the leader of the reunited Roman Empire and Israel. Berlusconi’s desire could be an initial step in that direction.

These recent headlines that point toward the fulfillment of Ezekiel 37 and 38 are further striking examples of how the world stage is taking shape for the coming of Christ.

Related Links

Polls show Israel's Netanyahu gaining popularity - Reuters
Abbas under ‘intense’ pressure from EU to return to talks - Jerusalem Post
Psalm 83 or Ezekiel 38, "Which is the Next Middle East News Headline?" - Bible Prophecy Today (Bill Salus)
The Complete Book of Bible Prophecy - Mark Hitchcock (Book)
Netanyahu: Ezekiel 37 Fulfilled in Israel - CBN News
As the Middle East Peace Talks Hit Deadlock, Talk of Israel Joining the European Union Increases - Jutia Group

Hitchcock Discusses the US in Revelation 18

Nathan JonesBy Nathan Jones

Can the United States of America be found in Revelation 18?

Dr. David Reagan and I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Mark Hitchcock on the show Christ in Prophecy. Mark is a leading Bible prophecy expert, prolific author who has penned over 20 books on the end times, senior pastor of Faith Bible Church located in Oklahoma, and adjunct faculty member of the Dallas Theological Seminary. He is also a much in demand speaker at Bible prophecy conferences all over the nation.

Dr. Hitchcock was invited to answer questions based on his book The Late Great United States. The subtitle of Mark's fascinating book — What Bible Prophecy Reveals About America's Last Days — states the purpose. The book digs deep into the Bible, mining for any textual nugget that might reveal some value as to the United States' future as an end time player.

The US in Revelation 18?

Nathan Jones: What about Revelation 18? Some people when they read "Babylon" they'll say that it is New York City, or it the United States as a whole. Is Babylon, which will be destroyed in an hour, be the nation of the United States?

Dr. Hitchcock: I would say this is the most popular claim that the Bible is talking about the United States today.

Dr. Reagan: It is. Almost every day I get a message from somebody saying it's got to be the United States because this chapter talks about a nation that controls the world and economy and everything, and so it has got to be the U.S.

Dr. Hitchcock: That's right. This view became even more popular after the events of 9/11 took place.

There are several clues in the book of Revelation as to what this means. Revelation 17:18 tells us that Babylon is "the great city that rules over the kings of the earth." The verse tells us very clearly that it is a city. Now, what city is it? When you go back to the beginning of the passage it says that whatever this Babylon is, it is the mother of all harlotry and spiritual rebellion against God. Well, there is only one city that I know of that qualifies as the fountainhead of all of this, and it was Ancient Babylon.

The book of Revelation is called the "Apocalypse" because it is the unveiling. It is not a hiding of truth.

The word "Babylon" occurs about 300 times in the Bible. All the other times that Babylon occurs, with maybe one exception in 1 Peter 5, it refers to Ancient Babylon. It would seem very strange to me for the Bible to refer to Babylon over and over and over again as the literal Babylon and then we come to the very end of the Bible and all of a sudden it would change. Babylon is the most talked about topic in the book of Revelation. There are 44 of the 404 verses in the book of Revelation concerning Babylon, and so 11% of the book of Revelation is about Babylon.

Whatever Babylon is, it is very important to see Babylon as the literal city over in Iraq, but also the false system the Antichrist will develop around that city that will exist in the end times.

Dr. Reagan: That is the point I would make whether it would be Babylon, Rome or whatever — Babylon is going to be the empire of the Antichrist, and that empire is not going to be the United States of America. It is going to arise out of the European Union — the Revived Roman Empire. And so, whether it is Rome, Babylon, or whatever it is going to be, Revelation 18 is talking about the worldwide kingdom of the Antichrist which is going to be a much greater kingdom than the United States of America because it is going to include the whole world.

Dr. Hitchcock: Right, and Bible prophecy focuses on that part of the world as well. I take it as literal Babylon and others take it as Rome, but it is not going to be New York City or the United States. It just simply doesn't fit.

Related Links


The Late Great United States: What Bible Prophecy Reveals about America's Last Days - Mark Hitchcock (Book)
What is the whore of Babylon / mystery Babylon? - GotQuestions.org
Lukoil eyes profit in Iraq - RT
Iraq plans to become OPEC's top oil producer - World Tribune
New oil boards to form across Iraq - Iraq Oil Report