“I
also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon
them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did
not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose [that] in
which I delighted not.”
(Isaiah
66:4)
I
Also Will Choose Their Delusions
Dear Friends,
If you are anything like us, you may at times find the news and current events grating to say the very least crossing into insanity. You see and hear things today that just a few short years ago would have been deemed mental illness at best.
You think, how could they possibility believe that, and be sincere in that belief. And they are sincere in their positions which makes it all the more unbelievable.
Well, the Lord brought a few particular Bible verses to mind, which many of you may be familiar with, that helped us focus more on the God factor concerning these issues.
Simply put...When people reject the truth of God the Word says they are sent strong delusions.
In Isaiah 66:4 God says:
“I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose [that] in which I delighted not.”
God Himself has chosen their delusion. God is the one behind their madness because of their rejection of Him. Does this mean they are beyond redemption? No, in reading just one example of the testimony of Paul the apostle in the book of Acts we find he was a great persecutor and killer of early Christians and deluded in believing he was doing a good thing. Yet he became a great follower of Jesus.
Has God used the method of delusion at other times in the Bible?
Look at 2 Chronicles chapter 18.
“I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven stood by on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who will deceive Achaab king of Israel, that he may go up, and fall in Ramoth Galaad? And one spoke this way, and another spoke that way. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will deceive him. And the Lord said, Whereby? And he said, I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said, Thou shalt deceive him, and shalt prevail: go forth, and do so. And now, behold, the Lord has put a false spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the Lord has spoken evil against thee.”
The dictionary definition of the word “delusion” is:
“Delusion an idiosyncratic belief or impression maintained despite being contradicted by reality or rational argument, typically as a symptom of mental disorder.”
And here are a few more verses on this subject.
“And 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.” Romans 1:28
Once again God is the one who gave them over to a reprobate mind, because of their rejection of the truth of God.
And a quote most of you may be familiar with:
“And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” 2Thessalonians 2:10-12
God sends strong delusions, so obviously it is a very serious matter to reject any truth God has given to us.
Let us end on a beautiful promise.
2 Timothy 1:7:
“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
Have a great week ahead.
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THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Zehut’s Feiglin says he wants to build Third Temple right away
Chairman of far-right party, which is enjoying growing popularity, is a longtime advocate of Jews’ rights on Temple Mount and has called for increased Israeli control over site
By Toi Staff
April 3, 2019
Zehut party chairman Moshe Feiglin speaks during a Maariv/Jerusalem Post Conference, in Tel Aviv on April 3, 2019. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)
The head of the far-right quasi-libertarian Zehut party said Wednesday that he wants to rebuild the Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem immediately.
“I don’t want to build a (Third) Temple in one or two years, I want to build it now,” Moshe Feiglin said at a Maariv/Jerusalem Post conference in Tel Aviv, referring to the site that currently houses the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque and where both Jewish Temples stood in the past.
Such a move would be unrealistic in the extreme; suggestions of even small changes to the status quo on the tinderbox holy site, where Jews can currently visit but not pray, have met with vociferous and often violent protests.
Feiglin is a major supporter of building in Jewish settlements and Jews praying on the Temple Mount, and during his tenure as a Likud lawmaker repeatedly visited the contested compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, which is the holiest site in Judaism as well as the third-holiest spot in Islam.
“To build the Temple I need support, I can’t do it alone,” he said at the end of his speech.
Zehut’s 344-page manifesto calls for measures to move government facilities to the Temple Mount and give the Chief Rabbinate authority over the site.
It also advocates annexing the entire West Bank, encouraging Palestinians to leave the territories, and curtailing the authority of the Supreme Court and the attorney general.
Zehut, which wasn’t initially predicted in opinion polls to clear the electoral threshold for entry to the Knesset in the April 9 elections, has surged in popularity in recent weeks and is currently polling at four to seven seats.
Feiglin has downplayed his past as an ultra-nationalist activist and insists he is currently focused on civic issues alone.
He is running on a pro-cannabis platform, and is also pushing a radical quasi-libertarian policy package with a religious and nationalist twist.
Pushed out of the ruling Likud party four years ago for his maverick attitude and extreme positions, Feiglin has taken the campaign by storm, putting cannabis high on the national agenda and forcing the frontrunners to take a stand on the issue.
With Feiglin insisting he does not have a preference between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and main rival Benny Gantz as Israel’s next premier, the party could emerge as a kingmaker in a tightly contested race.
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GOD TV
March 18
God is constantly weaving through history more than we will ever realize. When legend, Billy Graham, walked those stages and held his famous revival meetings, there was no way to know who would be impacted at that moment, or how it would spill into the generations that followed.
Made famous for his role in Wolverine, within the X-Menfranchise and one of his biggest roles in Les Miserables, Hugh Jackman has a strong reputation as a Christian man. He has opened up about his faith in the past but in this interview with CBS and another with Parade Magazine, he talks about his experience at a revival meeting when he was 13-years-old.
Hugh’s father was saved in a Billy Graham crusade before he was born. Because of his father’s conversion, Hugh grew up going to church and attending revival meetings.
Hugh grew up in a Christian household and married his wife Deborra-Lee Furness almost 20 years ago. They seem to have a very strong marriage and have adopted two children along the way.
The Australian actor also spoke to Parade Magazine this past October and told them, “I’m a Christian. I was brought up very religious. I used to go to different evangelists’ tents all the time. When I was about 13, I had a weird premonitionthat I was going to be onstage, like the preachers I saw.”
That “premonition” in the Christian world is what we would call a prophetic word, a gift of the Holy Spirit– when God speaks to you about something either in the past, present or future that you wouldn’t have known otherwise.
A gift of the Holy Spirit
The Parade interviewer added, “The Australian actor is also very active in various philanthropic endeavors, and he credits that to his religious background.”
In this same interview with Parade, Hugh gives this analogy to speak about his faith in tandem with his acting career, “I’m a religious person. This is going to sound weird to you. In Chariots of Fire the runner Eric Liddell says, “When I run, I feel His pleasure.” I feel that pleasure when I act and it’s going well, particularly onstage,” he said. I feel what everyone’s searching for, the feeling that unites us all. Call it “God.” Before I go onstage every night, I pause and dedicate the performance to God, in the sense of “Allow me to surrender.”
Hugh Jackman is a perfect example of both being a bright light in the world, but also bringing excellence into his craft. – We celebrate such pursuits!
CP
Godlessness is reaching epidemic proportions
By Howard Green
March 20, 2019
Imagine the world with no rules, accountability, or consequences for evil actions. This image is one where people take a life with no remorse. It is a place where life savings are greedily stolen, women and children are abandoned, and even basic respect that was afforded to a mother and father is absent. This place of our worst imaginings is one fraught with lawless, heartless, and treacherous people who are concerned with no one but themselves. That would be a world where the concept of love is foreign, while brutality, slander, and darkness become the norm. This is not a description of total societal, economic, or geopolitical breakdown sometime in the distant future. It is an accurate analysis of the condition of our world at this very moment. This is how the majority of people are living in life. These are the direct results of one fact: Godlessness is reaching epidemic proportions in our day. 2 Timothy 3:1
I want to break down a few of these godless conditions and shed light on the cause. These are times of great difficulty because people will become lovers of self and lovers of money. We live in a world where everyone wants the latest gadgets and toys, but there are people all around us who are in desperate spiritual and physical need. It’s a sad day when having the latest electronic or entertainment at all costs consumes our attention, while people suffer from exposure, sickness, and hunger. God help us make helping the ‘least of these’ a priority.
Babies are aborted, children are discarded, and women are abused. Marriages are crumbling in record numbers and families are disintegrating because of sin and selfishness. All of these conditions have skyrocketed in just one generation. People are all about being free, self-made, and autonomous. This is indicative of our generation of godlessness.
The Bible also describes the last days as a period when people will be proud, arrogant, disobedient to parents, and slanderous. We have all seen this ugliness of heart play out on every stage in life, work, home, and even church. Unfortunately, our day is full of this evil and nowhere is it on display more than the internet.
The internet and social media have done much to unearth some of the most wretched corners of the human heart. Can you imagine a time when you could walk up to a complete stranger on the street and call him or her every vile name in the book? Can you imagine gossiping, spreading lies, and slandering someone’s good name right in front of them? Of course not, but that is exactly what millions of people are doing to one another on the most visible of all places, their computer!
This is so sad because now we have family members slandering one another, Children showing blatant disregard for parents, and strangers talking to others with the vilest speech imaginable. Even with all of our technology, we cannot mask the level of depravity the human heart is capable of. These are hearts swollen with conceit and a total lack of self-control. The Bible gives insight regarding our tongue and the heart behind it: James 3:5
Self-absorption and narcissism is the rule, not the exception today. This world, it’s system, and people are looking out for number one. This self-focus is the epitome of idolatry. People are lovers of pleasure and God doesn’t even factor into their existence. If he does, it’s simply to keep up an appearance of godliness.
People don’t just kill for cars, now they kill for parking spaces. People will walk up to complete strangers and knock them out for the “fun of it.” Law enforcement officers pull over to help a stranded motorist change a tire or repair only to be gunned down by yet another depraved evil person. People hate and even kill others because of an insatiable appetite for violence.
There are many signs pointing to the close proximity of the last days and this rapid spike in godlessness that Paul described so vividly is one of the clearest signs. Any person who reads the Bible and has a realistic view of how quickly the world is descending into rampant godlessness can see these days mirror exactly the conditions of the world Paul was describing. That is why dominion theology and wearing rose-colored glasses to view what lies ahead is troubling to me. If we think this world is just fine, we won’t be concerned about matters of eternity, heaven, hell, and lost souls. Matthew 24:12
Here’s the bottom line:
We have an opportunity to shine like a bright light for the Lord in a world that’s completely mired in evil. When the majority of the people in society trade punches on social media, be salt and light by taking the high road and writing something kind or resist the urge to fire back at gossip or slander. Instead of counting the days until the launch of the newest phone or gadget that will probably be antiquated in a few months, we should get excited about any opportunity that exists to spread the gospel and show compassion to those who desperately need it. This is the time to let our light shine before other people so that God will receive the glory.
Noah was a standout in his generation, Job was a standout in his day, Daniel was also, so were the early church believers, and now it’s our turn to stand for the Lord as strangers and aliens in our world. Some will revile our God and our faith, many will not care and ignore us, but some people will be watching carefully. Let’s live to hear, “Well done” from Jesus to the glory of the Father even as godlessness is reaching epidemic proportions in our day.
MIT Technology Review
CRISPR experts are calling for a global moratorium on heritable gene editing
Some of the biggest names in gene editing want to stop anyone from playing around with cells that pass on changes to the next generation.
By Niall Firth
March 13, 2019
After the first International Summit on Human Gene Editing in December 2015, a statement was released. The organizers were unanimous in agreeing that the creation of genetically modified children was “irresponsible” unless we knew for sure it was
Well, a fat lot of good that did. As was revealed in November last year, Chinese scientist He Jiankui edited embryos to create two genetically engineered babies. Other groups are now actively looking to use the technology to enhance humans.
This has prompted some of the biggest names in gene editing (some of whom signed the 2015 statement) to call for a global moratorium on all human germline editing—editing sperm or egg cells so that the changes are hereditary.
In an open letter in Nature this week, major players in CRISPR’s development, including Emmanuelle Charpentier, Eric Lander, and Feng Zhang, have been joined by colleagues from seven different countries to call for a total ban on human germline editing until an international framework has been agreed on how it should be treated. They suggest five years "might be appropriate." The US National Institutes of Health has also backed the call.
The signatories hope a voluntary global moratorium will stop the next He Jiankui from suddenly springing another unwelcome surprise.
The group says that this moratorium period will allow time to discuss the “technical, scientific, medical, societal, ethical, and moral issues that must be considered” before the technique can be used. Countries that decide to go ahead and allow germline editing should do so only after notifying the public of the plan, engaging in international consultation “about the wisdom of doing so,” and making sure that there is a “broad societal consensus” in the country for starting on that path, they say.
“The world might conclude that the clinical use of germline editing is a line that should not be crossed for any purpose whatsoever,” the group says. “Alternatively, some societies might support genetic correction for couples with no other way to have biologically related children, but draw a line at all forms of genetic enhancement. Or, societies could one day endorse limited or widespread use of enhancement.”
The letter’s signatories suggest that germline research should be allowed so long as there is no intention to implant embryos and produce children. Using CRISPR to treat diseases in non-reproductive somatic cells (where the changes would not be heritable) should also be fine so long as any adults participating have given their informed consent. Genetic enhancement should not be allowed at this time, and no clinical application carried out unless its “long-term biological consequences are sufficiently understood—both for individuals and for the human species,” they write.
We still don’t know what the majority of our genes do, so the risks of unintended consequences or so-called off-target effects—good or bad—are huge. The loss of the CCR5 gene that He was targeting to protect children from HIV, for example, has been implicated in increased complications and death from some viral infections.
Changes in a genome might have unforeseen outcomes in future generations as well. “Attempting to reshape the species on the basis of our current state of knowledge would be hubris,” the letter reads.
The proposed moratorium and global framework are only voluntary— and unlikely to stop rogue scientists. But the signatories feel an outright ban and regulation would be too “rigid.” Instead, they hope their proposal will “place major speed bumps in front of the most adventurous plans to reengineer the human species.”
Indeed, chastened by the He experience, China’s health ministry is already creating some speed bumps of its own. Last week it drafted guidelines that will force the nation’s scientists to seek approval from authorities before carrying out any risky procedures such as germline editing.
(“There shall be a confusion also in many places, and the fire shall be oft sent out again, and the wild beasts shall change their places, and menstruous women shall bring forth monsters.” 2 Esdras 5:8)
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REALFARMACY.com
Big Pharma Bought Access to Your DNA From Genealogy Company and What They’re Using It for Should Concern Everyone
By Joshua Greenberg, REALfarmacy.com
Have you paid for an ancestry report? Perhaps someone gave it to you as a gift. Either way, pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline now owns your genetic fingerprint.
In a paradigm shift that is making some people uneasy, human DNA has been dubbed a commodity. The company 23andMe boasts the world’s largest database of genetic code. This extensive library of DNA has been acquired by offering the public a genealogy report in exchange for a fee.
Many people excitedly paid to hand over their DNA to the company not realizing it would become the “new frontier” for pioneering drugmakers. Pharmaceutical companies now stand to profit greatly from the DNA people paid to send in.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) purchased a $300 million share in the genlogy company 23 and me, which provides ancestry reports to those who submit their DNA. GSK’s CEO stated that this “merger” will accelerate the development of “novel treatments and cures.”
Now that GSK has access to customers’ genetic blueprints, the company says it can use this DNA in studies in order to fast track new drugs for approval, according to the press release.
Reports indicate that 80% of 23andMe customers opt-in to share their genetic fingerprint along with information about their health and lifestyle through a survey. This survey is simply framed to be for research purposes.
More than 5 million people have willingly submitted their DNA to 23andMe in exchange for a chance to access details about their ancestry.
Privacy Concerns
“If people are concerned about their social security numbers being stolen, they should be concerned about their genetic information being misused,” says Peter Pitts, president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest.
“This information is never 100% safe. The risk is magnified when one organization shares it with a second organization. When information moves from one place to another, there’s always a chance for it to be intercepted by unintended third parties.”
What is Pitts talking about when he says third parties? Health insurance companies is a big one. Here’s an alarming quote straight from the 23andMe website:
“Your genetic data, survey responses, and/or personally identifying information may be stolen in the event of a security breach. In the event of such a breach, if your data are associated with your identity, they may be made public or released to insurance companies, which could have a negative effect on your ability to obtain insurance coverage.” [emphasis mine]
Big pharma is laughing all the way to the bank seeing as how pharmaceutical companies can now use this DNA data to create experimental drugs. These experimental drugs can then be marketed to consumers based merely on their genetic profiles which may or may not be very accurate in the first place.
Even the FDA has pointed out that false positives or false negatives for certain genetic traits do occur. Of course this won’t stop them from approving fast-tracked experimental drugs based on genetic data.
If you want to close your account at 23andMe you can, however, the company outright states,
“Any research involving your data that has already been performed or published prior to our receipt of your request will not be reversed, undone, or withdrawn.”
Tough luck for those who have willingly paid to hand over their DNA.
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RT
Saudi Arabia ready to ditch petrodollar as ‘nuclear option’ to stop NOPEC bill – reports
April 5, 2019
Saudi Aramco's Ras Tanura oil refinery and terminal © Reuters / Ahmed Jadallah
Saudi Arabia is reportedly threatening to sell its oil in other currencies if the US passes a bill permitting antitrust lawsuits to be filed against OPEC members in US courts, a move which would decimate the tottering petrodollar.
If the US infringes on OPEC states' sovereign immunity and greenlights lawsuits for antitrust violations, energy officials in Riyadh are prepared to sell their oil in other currencies, according to multiple sources familiar with Saudi energy policy, one of whom told Reuters the threat has already been communicated to high-ranking US energy officials.
“The Saudis know they have the dollar as the nuclear option,” one of the sources reportedly said, while another cited Saudis as saying “let the Americans pass NOPEC and it would be the US economy that would fall apart.”
Such a move has the potential to topple the US dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency, particularly since other OPEC members –namely Iran and Venezuela– have their own reasons to ditch the petrodollar, under US sanctions as they are, and non-OPEC oil producers like Russia also mulling such a measure.
The bill in question, called the No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act (NOPEC), was first introduced in 2000, and would potentially give Washington ability to control global oil output and prices through threats of lawsuits against OPEC members
However, it never gained significant traction until the current administration took over. Trump himself has not come out in favor of the bill, preferring to back Saudi Arabia’s political objectives in return for good behavior in the oil market, though he did speak out in favor of NOPEC in a 2011 book. Qatar, a former member of OPEC, felt threatened enough by the distant possibility of the bill’s passage to leave the oil cartel in December, however.
The Saudi riyal is pegged to the dollar, and the kingdom has nearly $1 trillion invested in the US, investments it has also mulled liquidating should NOPEC pass, according to the Saudi sources cited by Reuters. Saudi Aramco is the world’s largest oil exporter, with sales of $356 billion in 2018, and trading in oil derivatives is also largely dollar-denominated, with trade volume reaching $5 trillion on the top two global energy exchanges last year.
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BREITBART
Rutgers Professor Brittany Cooper: Concept of ‘Time’ Is Racist
By Tom Ciccotta
April 3, 2019
A professor at Rutgers University who previously argued that Jesus was “queer” stated on NPR last week that the concept of time is owned by white people.
Rutgers University Professor Brittany Cooper is back with another hot take. This time, she’s arguing that the modern conceptualization of time is racist.
According to a report from The College Fix, Cooper, who once argued that Jesus was “queer,” spoke with NPR last week about how white people “own time.” In the interview, Cooper made the case that white Americans have solely been responsible for conceptualizing the notion of “time.”
“If time had a race, it would be white,” Cooper said. “White people own time.”
After the NPR host asked her to explain that statement, Cooper offered a vague answer. She argued that Europeans developed the modern attitude about time which is characterized by the amount of time that is spent in leisure.
Yes. So when I say time has a race, I’m saying that the way that we position ourselves in relationship to time comes out of histories of European and Western thought. And a lot of the way that we talk about time really finds its roots in the Industrial Revolution. So prior to that, we would talk about time as merely passing the time. After the Industrial Revolution, suddenly, we begin to talk about time as spending time. It becomes something that is tethered to monetary value. So when we think about hourly wage, we now talk about time in terms of wasting time or spending time. And that’s a really different understanding of time than, you know, like seasonal time or time that is sort of merely passing.
Cooper went on to argue that white people “own” time in a second way. According to Cooper, European philosophers have refused to recognize African history as part of the global historical timeline.
Time has a history, and so do black people. But we treat time as though it is timeless, as though it has always been this way, as though it doesn’t have a political history bound up with the plunder of indigenous lands, the genocide of indigenous people and the stealing of Africans from their homeland. When white, male European philosophers first thought to conceptualize time and history, one famously declared, Africa is no historical part of the world. He was, essentially, saying that Africans were people outside of history who had had no impact on time or the march of progress.
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Until next week...keep on believing.
Almondtree Productions