“Hezbollah has between 60 and 70 thousand rockets aimed at Israel, Defense Ministry Diplomatic-Security chief Amos Gilad said Monday.
Speaking at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism's World Summit, Gilad said the Lebanese terrorist organization has stockpiled rockets of various types, and its arsenal is far more robust than the one it had prior to the Second Lebanon War. ‘The next war will be aimed against the home front,’ Gilad warned.
Gilad also blamed Hezbollah for a number of successful and unsuccessful terrorist attacks abroad. Though admitting that the threat from Lebanon is growing, Gilad was largely optimistic about Israel's security situation, citing positive developments in Syria, Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
‘In Syria, there is good news,’ Gilad said. ‘The Golan Heights remains the quietest region in the entire Middle East. Our deterrence capabilities are sufficiently, for the time being, keeping out warring parties in Syria.’ Gilad also warned that al-Qaida is starting to rear its head in Syria, with a view that the fall of Assad will allow it to open a new terror front against Israel…”
Story continued in The Jerusalem Post
Monday, September 10, 2012
The Guns of October’: Report Forecasts Gulf War By Late 2012
WASHINGTON — The United States could become involved in a major war in the Gulf in 2012, a report said.
The Lexington Institute said Washington and other NATO states could be swept into a war with Iran over the next few months. The Washington-based institute said the military buildup throughout the Gulf lacked only a trigger for the eruption of fighting.
“Teheran is expanding, dispersing and hardening its nuclear enrichment program and trying to find a way around sanctions before its domestic economy is crippled,” the report, titled “The Guns of October — in the Persian Gulf,” said.
Dated Aug. 24, the report cited the eve of World War I in 1914 when the European powers undertook a massive military buildup. Lexington said Iran, determined to advance its nuclear program, and much of the Gulf, fueled by the high price of energy, were conducting similar activities in preparation of war.
“For many of the parties to this crisis, the future looks decidedly
bleak, increasing the incentive to choose a course of action which while not necessarily a good option, is better than doing nothing,” the report said.
“Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies have undertaken major military
modernization programs involving, among other things, advanced fighters and theater missile defenses. For virtually all sides, a war now may be a better option than any in the future.”
Another factor was Israel, which has warned that it would not tolerate
Iranian nuclear weapons. The report said Israel was also facing increasing uncertainty over the situation of Islamist Egypt and the Sunni revolt in Syria.
“Israel is deploying additional missile defense units, conducting
long-range air operations drills and preparing its population for possible war,” the report said.
At the same time, the United States has been expanding its military
presence in the Gulf. The report cited an increase in U.S. Navy aircraft
carriers, minesweepers and the establishment of a floating base.
“There are very real political, strategic, operational and economic
reasons to consider the possibility that as in 1914, the guns of war may
sound later this year,” the report said. [ Full Story from here.]
The Lexington Institute said Washington and other NATO states could be swept into a war with Iran over the next few months. The Washington-based institute said the military buildup throughout the Gulf lacked only a trigger for the eruption of fighting.
Iran in July test-fired a ballistic missile capable of striking Israel as part of war games designed to show its ability to retaliate if attacked.
“Teheran is expanding, dispersing and hardening its nuclear enrichment program and trying to find a way around sanctions before its domestic economy is crippled,” the report, titled “The Guns of October — in the Persian Gulf,” said.
Dated Aug. 24, the report cited the eve of World War I in 1914 when the European powers undertook a massive military buildup. Lexington said Iran, determined to advance its nuclear program, and much of the Gulf, fueled by the high price of energy, were conducting similar activities in preparation of war.
“For many of the parties to this crisis, the future looks decidedly
bleak, increasing the incentive to choose a course of action which while not necessarily a good option, is better than doing nothing,” the report said.
“Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies have undertaken major military
modernization programs involving, among other things, advanced fighters and theater missile defenses. For virtually all sides, a war now may be a better option than any in the future.”
Another factor was Israel, which has warned that it would not tolerate
Iranian nuclear weapons. The report said Israel was also facing increasing uncertainty over the situation of Islamist Egypt and the Sunni revolt in Syria.
“Israel is deploying additional missile defense units, conducting
long-range air operations drills and preparing its population for possible war,” the report said.
At the same time, the United States has been expanding its military
presence in the Gulf. The report cited an increase in U.S. Navy aircraft
carriers, minesweepers and the establishment of a floating base.
“There are very real political, strategic, operational and economic
reasons to consider the possibility that as in 1914, the guns of war may
sound later this year,” the report said. [ Full Story from here.]
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Northern Irish Catholics and Protestants Cycling Across America Showing The Love of Christ
New Life City Church is often referred to as “The Church on the Wall” as it is located on the main Dividing Wall in Belfast; it's a church that not only reaches out to both sides of the wall, but to the entire City of Belfast and beyond.
And now Jack McKee, the senior pastor of the church, is planning an extraordinary marathon cycling and cross-carrying peace trip across America, to show how Catholics and Protestants can work together under the shadow of the cross of Christ. “New Life City Church is a large warehouse that literally straddles the 20 foot concrete dividing wall in Belfast, with the building on one side and half on the other side,” McKee explained.
“We have people coming to church from both sides. “My life has been threatened several times and I've been shot at numerous times. I've even had my car bombed and destroyed. Our home has been attacked at 3.30 in the morning while my wife and I were in bed.”
Yet despite all of this, Pastor McKee, who has many times risked his life as has a peacemaker during the “troubles” in Northern Ireland that claimed so many lives from both sides of the divide, has told the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net) that he is bringing four cyclists to the US; two from the Catholic side of the wall and two from the Protestant side.
“We have people coming to church from both sides. “My life has been threatened several times and I've been shot at numerous times. I've even had my car bombed and destroyed. Our home has been attacked at 3.30 in the morning while my wife and I were in bed.”
Yet despite all of this, Pastor McKee, who has many times risked his life as has a peacemaker during the “troubles” in Northern Ireland that claimed so many lives from both sides of the divide, has told the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net) that he is bringing four cyclists to the US; two from the Catholic side of the wall and two from the Protestant side.
“We will be doing a venture called Cycle CROSS America from Santa Monica, CA, to Jacksonville, FL, ending with an event called CU @ the CROSS in Washington DC on Thursday October 25, 2012. I will be bringing a 7 foot cross with me that I carried for 40 Days and at other times around the Dividing Wall in Belfast.
“We will launch the cycle part of the trip from Santa Monica Beach in Southern California on Saturday, September 22 at 11 am. At 2 pm I will do a Cross Walk along most of Sunset Blvd where Arthur Blessitt started out in the 1960's (I brought Arthur to Belfast in June 2011 and walked with him through Belfast). I will do several Cross Walks in cities across America while the lads are cycling.” Continued
Shamed Ministry Leader Finds Forgiveness
By Tom Buehring
The 700 Club
CBN.com -It was a hot summer day and 12-year old Jonathan Daugherty was playing outside with a friend. The boy wanted to show him a secret. “Now, you have to understand, in my 12-year-old mind, I was thinking, ‘We’re going to see something dead.’ But when we got out in this field there was this tree stump. He reached his arm down into this hollowed out portion and I’m still thinking,
‘He’s grabbing the raccoon or whatever’, and he pulled out this rolled-up magazine. And then he opened it up and everything changed. It was porn. I’d never seen pornography. I didn’t know why there were pictures of naked people and what they were doing. I didn’t do anything about it.”
Pornography became Jonathan’s secret too. At first he was confused by what he felt, but his awakened appetite wanted to be satisfied. “It was almost immediate that I started searching for more material. (It was) sheer curiosity. I still didn’t know what sex was. All I knew was there was something that reacted in me when I initially saw that porn.”
His obsession with pornography grew. Jonathan eagerly searched for magazines and images to feed his craving. “All through junior high and high school I was developing this secret addiction. The foundation of my ultimate addiction was learning to have a fantasy life that placed me in the center and had everything in my life revolve around me. All these women are wanting to do whatever I want them to do.”
Despite fueling his fantasies through porn and promiscuity, Jonathan struggled privately with shame and self-worth. “Especially for a kid like me who grew up in the church there’s an additional sense of shame. Every time I’d want to really try to go deeper in an authentic way with God, it’s like my lust would take me on a detour. If you’ve failed for years and years and years in managing your sexuality, it’s not a long trip to then think you are a despicable, horrible, perverted person and you have no value.”
Jonathan met Elaine while attending college. They began dating and eventually married. “What I saw in her was just this authentic person.” Jonathan remembers, “I wanted more of that. I wanted more of her in my life because I thought, ‘This is a good thing to have somebody with that much faith and purity and authenticity can be good.’ Marriage cured me - for about five weeks. It really wasn’t until I was married and had this other person that sort of acted as a mirror to me, that I saw just the depths to which I was really trapped in this.”
Story continued , here.
Iran Acquits Christian Pastor Charged With Apostasy
An Iranian pastor sentenced to death for his Christian beliefs was released from custody during a Saturday court proceeding, according to an international religious freedom organization.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide reports that a court acquitted Yousef Nadarkhani of the Church of Iran of apostasy charges: According to reliable sources, during court proceedings that took place today, Pastor Nadarkhani was acquitted of apostasy, but found guilty of evangelizing Muslims. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment for the latter charge, but released because he had already served this time.
This development, if confirmed, will be a miraculous turn in a story of religious oppression under fundamentalist Islamic law. Nadarkhani was sentenced to death in 2010, and Iran's own Supreme Court upheld the verdict in 2011.
Story from Breitbart.com via JVIM.org
Saturday, September 8, 2012
The International Isolation of Israel
I couldn't have said it better myself!
One of the recurring themes of the last days, as foretold by the Hebrew prophets and confirmed by the Book of Revelation, is the international isolation of Israel. From a Bavarian court to the U.S. State Department, South Africa to Charlotte, North Carolina, we are seeing evidence of this in this week's headlines. (Well, actually, that's not exactly true. We don't read about Israel's growing isolation in the headlines because the Mainstream Media refuses to report it.)
In fact, the prophet Zechariah says that, eventually, all of the nations of the world will gather together against Israel. They'll do so over the issue of who controls Jerusalem.
In its 3,000 year history, Jerusalem, which, ironically, means "City of Peace," has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, and attacked 52 times. Just since the nation's rebirth in 1948, Jerusalem has felt the impact of four major wars. Why? It has none of the usual assets that cause great cities to rise. It has no seaport, no natural wealth, no particular strategic military value. The ancient trade routes from Egypt to Assyria, Babylon, and Persia ran north and south along the plateau of Jordan, bypassing Jerusalem to the east.
During centuries of occupation by the Muslims, Jerusalem was a dusty, backwater city so unimportant that it never even achieved the status of a regional or provincial capital. Yet, despite 2,000 years of mediocrity and desolation, Jerusalem is now the most contended-for city on the face of the earth.
In fact, the prophet Zechariah says that, eventually, all of the nations of the world will gather together against Israel. They'll do so over the issue of who controls Jerusalem.
In its 3,000 year history, Jerusalem, which, ironically, means "City of Peace," has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, and attacked 52 times. Just since the nation's rebirth in 1948, Jerusalem has felt the impact of four major wars. Why? It has none of the usual assets that cause great cities to rise. It has no seaport, no natural wealth, no particular strategic military value. The ancient trade routes from Egypt to Assyria, Babylon, and Persia ran north and south along the plateau of Jordan, bypassing Jerusalem to the east.
During centuries of occupation by the Muslims, Jerusalem was a dusty, backwater city so unimportant that it never even achieved the status of a regional or provincial capital. Yet, despite 2,000 years of mediocrity and desolation, Jerusalem is now the most contended-for city on the face of the earth.
Ominously, Zechariah predicted that the thought of possessing Jerusalem would so "intoxicate" the nations of the world, that in the last days they would go to war over it. He also described the city as such a "burdensome stone," that any nation that tried to solve the dilemma would be "cut in pieces."
The British found themselves charged with settling the Jerusalem question in 1917. Thirty years later, the British Empire fell apart. Jimmy Carter and Anwar Sadat took on the challenge of Jerusalem. One lost his presidency, the other his life. Bill Clinton led the United States into the fray with the Oslo Accords in 1993.
George W. Bush and Barack Obama stuck to the plan. Nearly twenty years later, the U.S. economy is in shambles, our military is worn and tattered, our people exhausted and divided, and our foreign policy is in absolute disarray. And Israel, which did not even exist from Zechariah's day until 64 years ago, is more isolated and hated than ever.
(Don't believe me? The issue of Jerusalem put the Democrats into such a publicly embarrassing position at their convention this week, that they had to break their own rules to insert a "mention" of Jerusalem into their platform. They then broke their own rules again by ignoring three obviously insufficient voice votes to the contrary to add the word "Jerusalem" by arbitrary decree of the flummoxed convention chairman.)
South Africa's Trade Ministry recently announced that it will not allow goods manufactured in Judea and Samaria and labeled "Made in Israel," to be sold in South Africa. Why? Because its leaders say that Judea and Samaria are "occupied" by Israel. They only recognize the "1948 borders as delineated by the United Nations." Never mind that there are no such thing as "1948 borders... delineated by the United Nations."
The United States and its 29 partners recently conducted its second "Global Counterterrorism Forum." It was held in Istanbul, Turkey, and co-chaired by Turkey's Foreign Minister.
George W. Bush and Barack Obama stuck to the plan. Nearly twenty years later, the U.S. economy is in shambles, our military is worn and tattered, our people exhausted and divided, and our foreign policy is in absolute disarray. And Israel, which did not even exist from Zechariah's day until 64 years ago, is more isolated and hated than ever.
(Don't believe me? The issue of Jerusalem put the Democrats into such a publicly embarrassing position at their convention this week, that they had to break their own rules to insert a "mention" of Jerusalem into their platform. They then broke their own rules again by ignoring three obviously insufficient voice votes to the contrary to add the word "Jerusalem" by arbitrary decree of the flummoxed convention chairman.)
South Africa's Trade Ministry recently announced that it will not allow goods manufactured in Judea and Samaria and labeled "Made in Israel," to be sold in South Africa. Why? Because its leaders say that Judea and Samaria are "occupied" by Israel. They only recognize the "1948 borders as delineated by the United Nations." Never mind that there are no such thing as "1948 borders... delineated by the United Nations."
The United States and its 29 partners recently conducted its second "Global Counterterrorism Forum." It was held in Istanbul, Turkey, and co-chaired by Turkey's Foreign Minister.
Israel was conspicuously absent. Why? Because it wasn't invited. Again. It's curious that the nation most targeted by the world's terrorists -- and the one most experienced at combatting that terrorism -- is deliberately left out of a forum dealing with terrorism and counterterrorism. Sort of like not inviting the Vatican to a world conference on "How to be a Good Catholic."
Not to say there was no expertise there, however. All of the major nations who are considered state sponsors of terrorism attended. I suppose they want to learn how their potential victims are planning to deal with them.
By Hal Lindsey...Continued
Tebow Exposes How Shallow Christianity Has Become
In case you have not noticed, sleeve-wearing Christian Tim Tebow has been causing quite a stir across the football world with his unashamed living out of the Gospel. His I-love-Jesus-more-than-anything approach to life has proved to be quite unsettling to those who are uncomfortable with his bold proclamation of Romans 1:16.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”
In my lifetime I cannot name a single public figure, apart from those who make a living off of the Gospel, who has been as bold of a witness as Number 15 for the Denver Broncos.
He is not the only Christian in the NFL. The past two Super Bowl Champions had Christians under center, Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints, Aaron Rodgers of the Packers, yet one would have to dig to find stories of their witness to their Faith.
Former Super Bowl QB Kurt Warner of the St. Louis Rams claims Christ, yet he recently advised Tebow that he would be better off if he removed Jesus from his sleeve…or at least put a sweatshirt over the top of his arms.
“But I’d tell him, ‘Put down the boldness in regards to the words, and keep living the way you’re living. Let your teammates do the talking for you. Let them cheer on your testimony.’ Kurt Warner
Yeah right Kurt. Hide that light under a bushel. That I’ll-show-them-Christ-by-the-way-I-live approach hasn’t gotten us very far in spreading the Gospel. America is a vast moral wasteland because we have hidden the light.
In this country we no longer “crown the good.” Because of our silence our culture has evolved to the point where we “crown the bad.” Tim Tebow is bad. Lady Gaga is good. Tim Tebow won’t be at the Super Bowl, but Madonna will.
In the NFL the Material Girl trumps the Spiritual Guy. (I wonder if Kurt Warner would ask Madonna to tone it down a bit.) It seems to me that the wrong folks are ashamed.
“The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.” Proverbs 28:1
Nine Turkish Soldiers Dead In Clashes With PKK
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Nine Turkish security officials including soldiers and policemen have been killed during clashes with Kurdish militants near the southeastern border with Syria and Iraq, security sources said on Monday.
At least eight other members of the security services were wounded in the fighting in the province of Sirnak, and the clashes were continuing, the sources said.
Fighting between the Turkish army and rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has intensified in recent months, a development which some Turkish officials and analysts have linked to the chaos in Syria.
The militants killed five soldiers in a bomb attack on a military convoy two weeks ago. The Turkish military retaliated quickly, killing 21 rebels in an operation involving helicopter gunships.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict between the PKK and Turkish forces since the militants launched their insurgency 28 years ago with the aim of carving out a separate state in mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. Some Turkish officials have said the group is getting direct support from Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and Kurdish groups in Syria.
Assad, who is battling a 17-month-old uprising against his rule in which the United Nations estimates 20,000 people have been killed, has denied that Syria had allowed the PKK to operate on Syrian territory near the Turkish border.
Since June last year, nearly 800 people have died in the conflict in Turkey, including about 500 PKK fighters, more than 200 security personnel and about 85 civilians, according to estimates by think-tank International Crisis Group.
The fighting is focused in the mountainous region bordering Iraq and Iran, but the PKK has also carried out attacks in Turkish cities. Officials blamed it for a car bombing last month which killed nine people in the city of Gaziantep, near Turkey's southeastern border with Syria.
Story from here.
The Siege of Vienna: Islam Defeated
By Erin Zimmerman
The 700 Club
“In the year of our Lord 1529, Sultan Suleiman, the sworn enemy of the Christian faith, set out for Vienna with all his forces in order to defeat Christianity and subjugate it.”
-- Peter Stern, Chronicle of 1529
In the spring of 1529, an army of 75,000 men left the Ottoman capital of Istanbul and headed for the heart of the Holy Roman Empire: the city of Vienna.
“To conquer Vienna was sort of the gateway into Western Europe,” says Raymond Ibrahim, the author of The Al Qaeda Reader. “If you were able to take Vienna, likely other areas would fall quickly.”
The Ottoman leader, Suleiman the Magnificent, had already conquered much of Eastern Europe, and now his army marched, undefeated, toward the West, to claim it in the name of Islam.
Austrian writer Peter Stern described the Muslims’ march of terror through Europe:
“Many thousands of people were murdered or dragged into slavery. Children were cut out of their mothers’ wombs and stuck on pikes; young women abused to death, and their corpses left on the highway.”
“The atrocities will blow your mind, like putting children on pikes,” says Ibrahim. “Oftentimes, they would take Christians that they liked and force them to become Muslims. If they didn’t, they would be tortured, which included gouging their eyes, chopping their appendages off and throwing them in the fire. Anything that your mind can envision went on then.”
The Austrians pleaded for help from Europe’s Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, but Charles, already at war with France, dismissed the danger in Vienna. As a courtesy, he sent a few German and Spanish troops to protect the city: just 1,700 soldiers to fight an army of 75,000.
In late September, the Turks arrived in Vienna and set up camp outside the city. It wasn’t long before they realized that their biggest challenge wasn’t the European army; it was the weather. That autumn was unusually cold and rainy. Suleiman’s secretary described the miserable conditions in his diary:
“It rained so heavily that some of the horses and camels were swept away by the water. Men climbed up trees and spent two days and nights there.”
The rain soaked the Turks’ gunpowder, making it useless, and the floods forced them to leave most of their heavy cannons behind, a decision they would later regret.
On September 28, the Ottoman troops surrounded the city, and the sultan issued an ultimatum to the people of Vienna:
“Let it be known that if you become Muslims, nothing will happen to you. But if you offer resistance, then by Allah the most sublime, your city will be reduced to ashes, and young and old slaughtered.”
“That was the traditional ‘invitation,’ as it was called, preceding the warfare,” says Ibrahim. “’Join us and become Muslims and renounce your Christ, or we’re going to start attacking you.’”
Suleiman warned that in less than two weeks, he would celebrate his victory with breakfast inside Vienna’s largest church, St. Stephen’s cathedral, after he had turned it into a mosque.
The people of Vienna stood their ground and refused to surrender. Abandoned by the rest of Europe and ignored by their own emperor, they realized that no more help was coming… and they were the only thing that stood between Europe and the armies of Islam.
Inside St. Stephen’s, the European soldiers gathered to plan and to pray. They also took an oath of loyalty, which Peter Stern described in his Chronicle:
“Noble and common companions at arms swore to remain in the city as long as there was still life in their bodies… and to die alongside one another for the Christian faith.”
After a few days, Suleiman gave the order to attack. Twice, the Ottomans advanced toward Vienna… and twice, the Austrians turned them back. With no heavy artillery, the Turks had to find a different way into the city, so they started a whole new war… underground.
Hundreds of Turks tunneled under the city and planted explosives to blow up the gates of Vienna, but the Europeans came up with a creative way to find the bombs. They placed barrels of water in the cellars along the city walls, and watched the vibrations in the water to see where the Turks were tunneling. This way, they found most of the mines before they exploded.
The Europeans were outnumbered, but what they lacked in manpower, they made up for in creativity. From inside the cathedral they waged a psychological war against the Turks, and their most powerful weapon was disinformation.
The Austrians planted spies who led the Turks to believe they had reinforcements on the way. Throughout the day and night, they shouted and blew their trumpets to confuse the Turks. According to the Sultan’s diary, their plan was working. Suleiman believed the Holy Roman Emperor himself was behind the city walls, with an army of thousands.
St. Michael’s Day arrived with another heavy rainstorm. This was the day Suleiman had boasted that he would be eating breakfast inside the cathedral. In reality, the Turks were no closer to capturing the city, and as the rain poured down on the Ottoman tents, the Austrians sent the sultan a message from inside the church: “Your breakfast is getting cold.”
Two weeks into the siege, the Ottoman army was in disarray. The soldiers were tired, sick, and running out of food. By now, their commanders had to beat them with sticks just to keep them on the battlefield. The Ottomans decided to launch one final attack, this time using the sultan’s elite troops, the janissaries.
Two days later, the Turks stormed the city, but they were no match for the fierce German pikemen at the gates, and the final battle lasted just two hours.
“Suleiman basically decided that he’s going to leave and save face,” says Ibrahim. “The janissaries got very angry because this is unprecedented. These Ottomans who’ve been taking everything in their path – this was a new blow to them. It was humiliating.”
The next morning, a freak snowstorm swept through Austria, making the Turkish retreat even more difficult. In less than a month, a small group of farmers, peasants, and hired soldiers had defeated the most powerful army in the world. They not only saved the city of Vienna; they singlehandedly stopped the march of Islam through Europe.
“The onslaught of the Ottoman Turkish Empire had stopped; it was an example to them that they could be beat,” says Ibrahim. “From the European perspective… ‘now we know these wild people can be stopped and we know we can do it, and that God is on our side,’ and of course, that became a pivotal part of the narrative.”
The bells of St. Stephen’s, silent throughout the siege, now rang in celebration, and the church, which had served as the military headquarters, became a house of worship once more as the people of Vienna gathered to thank God for their victory. A special hymn was written for the occasion, based on Psalm 127:1:
“Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.”
The 700 Club
“In the year of our Lord 1529, Sultan Suleiman, the sworn enemy of the Christian faith, set out for Vienna with all his forces in order to defeat Christianity and subjugate it.”
-- Peter Stern, Chronicle of 1529
In the spring of 1529, an army of 75,000 men left the Ottoman capital of Istanbul and headed for the heart of the Holy Roman Empire: the city of Vienna.
“To conquer Vienna was sort of the gateway into Western Europe,” says Raymond Ibrahim, the author of The Al Qaeda Reader. “If you were able to take Vienna, likely other areas would fall quickly.”
The Ottoman leader, Suleiman the Magnificent, had already conquered much of Eastern Europe, and now his army marched, undefeated, toward the West, to claim it in the name of Islam.
Austrian writer Peter Stern described the Muslims’ march of terror through Europe:
“Many thousands of people were murdered or dragged into slavery. Children were cut out of their mothers’ wombs and stuck on pikes; young women abused to death, and their corpses left on the highway.”
“The atrocities will blow your mind, like putting children on pikes,” says Ibrahim. “Oftentimes, they would take Christians that they liked and force them to become Muslims. If they didn’t, they would be tortured, which included gouging their eyes, chopping their appendages off and throwing them in the fire. Anything that your mind can envision went on then.”
The Austrians pleaded for help from Europe’s Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, but Charles, already at war with France, dismissed the danger in Vienna. As a courtesy, he sent a few German and Spanish troops to protect the city: just 1,700 soldiers to fight an army of 75,000.
In late September, the Turks arrived in Vienna and set up camp outside the city. It wasn’t long before they realized that their biggest challenge wasn’t the European army; it was the weather. That autumn was unusually cold and rainy. Suleiman’s secretary described the miserable conditions in his diary:
“It rained so heavily that some of the horses and camels were swept away by the water. Men climbed up trees and spent two days and nights there.”
The rain soaked the Turks’ gunpowder, making it useless, and the floods forced them to leave most of their heavy cannons behind, a decision they would later regret.
On September 28, the Ottoman troops surrounded the city, and the sultan issued an ultimatum to the people of Vienna:
“Let it be known that if you become Muslims, nothing will happen to you. But if you offer resistance, then by Allah the most sublime, your city will be reduced to ashes, and young and old slaughtered.”
“That was the traditional ‘invitation,’ as it was called, preceding the warfare,” says Ibrahim. “’Join us and become Muslims and renounce your Christ, or we’re going to start attacking you.’”
Suleiman warned that in less than two weeks, he would celebrate his victory with breakfast inside Vienna’s largest church, St. Stephen’s cathedral, after he had turned it into a mosque.
The people of Vienna stood their ground and refused to surrender. Abandoned by the rest of Europe and ignored by their own emperor, they realized that no more help was coming… and they were the only thing that stood between Europe and the armies of Islam.
Inside St. Stephen’s, the European soldiers gathered to plan and to pray. They also took an oath of loyalty, which Peter Stern described in his Chronicle:
“Noble and common companions at arms swore to remain in the city as long as there was still life in their bodies… and to die alongside one another for the Christian faith.”
After a few days, Suleiman gave the order to attack. Twice, the Ottomans advanced toward Vienna… and twice, the Austrians turned them back. With no heavy artillery, the Turks had to find a different way into the city, so they started a whole new war… underground.
Hundreds of Turks tunneled under the city and planted explosives to blow up the gates of Vienna, but the Europeans came up with a creative way to find the bombs. They placed barrels of water in the cellars along the city walls, and watched the vibrations in the water to see where the Turks were tunneling. This way, they found most of the mines before they exploded.
The Europeans were outnumbered, but what they lacked in manpower, they made up for in creativity. From inside the cathedral they waged a psychological war against the Turks, and their most powerful weapon was disinformation.
The Austrians planted spies who led the Turks to believe they had reinforcements on the way. Throughout the day and night, they shouted and blew their trumpets to confuse the Turks. According to the Sultan’s diary, their plan was working. Suleiman believed the Holy Roman Emperor himself was behind the city walls, with an army of thousands.
St. Michael’s Day arrived with another heavy rainstorm. This was the day Suleiman had boasted that he would be eating breakfast inside the cathedral. In reality, the Turks were no closer to capturing the city, and as the rain poured down on the Ottoman tents, the Austrians sent the sultan a message from inside the church: “Your breakfast is getting cold.”
Two weeks into the siege, the Ottoman army was in disarray. The soldiers were tired, sick, and running out of food. By now, their commanders had to beat them with sticks just to keep them on the battlefield. The Ottomans decided to launch one final attack, this time using the sultan’s elite troops, the janissaries.
Two days later, the Turks stormed the city, but they were no match for the fierce German pikemen at the gates, and the final battle lasted just two hours.
“Suleiman basically decided that he’s going to leave and save face,” says Ibrahim. “The janissaries got very angry because this is unprecedented. These Ottomans who’ve been taking everything in their path – this was a new blow to them. It was humiliating.”
The next morning, a freak snowstorm swept through Austria, making the Turkish retreat even more difficult. In less than a month, a small group of farmers, peasants, and hired soldiers had defeated the most powerful army in the world. They not only saved the city of Vienna; they singlehandedly stopped the march of Islam through Europe.
“The onslaught of the Ottoman Turkish Empire had stopped; it was an example to them that they could be beat,” says Ibrahim. “From the European perspective… ‘now we know these wild people can be stopped and we know we can do it, and that God is on our side,’ and of course, that became a pivotal part of the narrative.”
The bells of St. Stephen’s, silent throughout the siege, now rang in celebration, and the church, which had served as the military headquarters, became a house of worship once more as the people of Vienna gathered to thank God for their victory. A special hymn was written for the occasion, based on Psalm 127:1:
“Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.”
Friday, September 7, 2012
God Gave Them Up: The Days of Noah, Lot, Romney, and Obama
Guest writer:
Jack D Hook
In Revelation 11:8 the city of
The prophecies are clear that Jerusalem will become the world’s capitol (even America ’s) towards the mid-point of this seven year period as the Antichrist President will come from Washington D.C. to stand in the newly rebuilt Jewish Temple declaring himself to be the Messiah of the nations, including Israel Temple
All of this comes from the teachings of Jesus who also said at his first coming that the last days leading up to his triumphant return would resemble the days of Noah and Lot where homosexual behavior had become acceptable and tolerated among the people. And Jerusalem
President Obama’s now public approval of gay marriage will only increase the rate of decline in this wicked generation, as we know for certain from the prophetic teachings that sexual deviance of all kinds is one of major signs of coming divine intervention. America
Whoever is elected this November will not slow or stop the race towards judgment, for both Obama and Romney are not true followers of Jesus Christ as they claim to be. For Obama, who calls the evil of homosexual marriage a good thing, has also mingled his childhood Islamic faith with Christianity; while Romney is a devout and faithful member of the Mormon Church, long established as a cult according to men who understand the true gospel and person of Jesus Christ proclaimed in the Bible. One of the core doctrines of Mormonism is that “men can become gods”, the defining characteristic of the coming Antichrist.
Those Christians, many of them my friends, who entangle themselves in conservative Republican politics hoping Romney can stop Obama must come to their spiritual senses and understand there is no way to remove God’s declaration to “give them up”. This whole American religious-political system, both the left and right wing, stands condemned but individuals (including homosexuals and abortionists) can be saved if they come out of it by turning to the Lord Jesus Christ and his coming Kingdom.
Just know this my friends, when the social order deteriorates to the point where homosexual behavior and killing unborn babies in their mother’s womb becomes acceptable, let alone legalized, only proves that the cup of sin is full to overflowing. This means that all other sins the human sin nature is capable of have been or are being lived out to their fullest.
Homosexuality and abortion are the foam on top of this cup of evil being drunk around the nations. Jerusalem , the great city of David , will come under this coming wrath of God, as gay marches and parades have now been regular occurrences in Israel
The apostle Paul built upon the Lord’s teaching about Noah and Lot as he warned the believers in
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1Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, 2(Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) 3Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; 4And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: 5By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: 6Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:
7To all that be in Rome
13Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. 14I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. 15So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome
16For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
18For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
21Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.
24Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: 25Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompensence of their error which was fitting.
28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31Without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
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Are Paul’s words of warning then addressed to the Roman Empire, now describing the spiritual condition of
Is our Lord Jesus Christ now drawing a line between professing Christians who are ashamed of the teachings of Jesus, and those like Paul who are not ashamed of standing up for the Lord and his teachings before the nations, and who diligently seek the truth and remain in a spirit of Godly sorrow and repentance when confronted with the truth of their own sin? Yes! Where do you stand and with whom? Is it with Obama, with Romney, or with the God of Israel, our Lord Jesus?
Remember this in closing my friends. The combined power of the precious blood and second coming of Jesus Christ is the “only” permanent solution to the death and destruction that men inflict upon one another to the hideous delight of Satan and his fallen angels, the masters of human manipulation. The triune God who created and loves mankind wants us to experience sorrow of a Godly kind that works repentance unto the salvation of our heart, mind, and body, 2 Corinthians 7:10. He will replace our genuine sorrow with his joy through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit surrounding our newly created and circumcised heart! Then we will desire to obey the God of Israel because we love him, knowing that he first loved us and sent his Son to save us from our sin nature and the bondage of the fallen angel masters.
Jack D. Hook
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