People of the Keys!

“For this cause we also, since the day we heard [it,] do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.”
(Colossians 1:9)
Spiritual Understanding

Greetings! It would seem to even begin to comprehend what is happening in the world today one would have to have some understanding and concept in the principal put forth in Ephesians 6:12.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places.”

Many people today look at the effects, the confusion, the insanity, etc. going on in the world without either discerning the cause or believing the cause. They are baffled and confused, unable to grasp why “man” can not fix the problems we are facing. Hoping some elected official, science, economist, etc. will appear on the scene to bring order out of chaos. And he will appear. The man of sin. 2 Thessalonians 2:3

“Cause and effect is a type of relationship between events whereby a cause creates an effect.” Simplicable

Of course the rulers of the darkness of this world do everything within their power to try to obscure the underlying cause of the problems, although recently some have been very overt in their display of spiritual warfare as observed in the article below from The Guardian, “Monsters, men and magic”.

“This is the word of the Lord to Zorobabel, saying, Not by mighty power, nor by strength, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord Almighty.” Zechariah 4:6

The introductory video below is from Israeli News Live presented by Steven Ben-Nun a Messianic Jew. It is the longest video, one hour, that we have ever published but he has done, in our opinion, an outstanding job in presenting the difference between the grace of Jesus Christ and the keeping of the Old Testament law. Hope you find it an inspiration.

"It’s time to vote with our feet and send a clear message to the world that we truly believe that the Temple Mount is ours and we truly hope and pray for the rebuilding of the Third Temple."

A model of the Temple is lowered by crane onto the roof of the Aish HaTorah Yeshiva in the Jewish Quarter in 2009. (photo credit: GALI TIBBON)

The Temple Institute has released a new video encouraging Jews to hope for the building of the Third Temple in Jerusalem. The video comes as religious Jews around the world observe the traditional "Nine Days" mourning period leading up to the ninth of the Hebrew month of Av, Tisha Be'Av, when the two Jewish Temples were destroyed.

In the video, entitled – "Tisha b'Av: People Get Ready!" – pictures of dozens of people form a collage as an announcer reads the second verse of chapter 2 of the biblical book of Isaiah, which reads, "It will happen in the end of days: The mountain of the Temple of Hashem will be firmly established as the head of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills, and the nations will stream to it."

As the collage becomes fully formed, the images fade into a rendering of the Temple set in modern day Jerusalem, followed by the words, "People get ready."

The video is the seventh in a series which began with "The Children are Ready" video. The series aims to challenge "the viewers’ preconceptions of Tisha B’Av as a day of eternal mourning, evoking Isaiah’s promise that the Third Temple is the secret of world peace and harmony and the hope of all mankind," according to a statement by the Temple Institute.

Rabbi Chaim Richman, international director of the Temple Institute, stressed that the goal is to get people to focus on "the true meaning of Tisha Be'Av."

"Tisha B'Av is not about just mourning, it is about acting to bring the Holy Temple back to the world – a ‘House of prayer for all nations,'" said Richman. "Every year, millions of Jews worldwide robotically observe the mourning rituals of the three weeks, nine days and Tisha B’Av as if nothing has changed in the last century. Meanwhile we are losing our connection to the Temple Mount because most of Orthodox Jewry have ignored the fact that it has been in Jewish hands for five decades."

The Nine Days begin on the first day of the Hebrew month of Av, nine days before the fast of Tisha Be'av (the ninth of Av).

Traditionally, Orthodox Jews avoid joyous and/or risky practices, including listening to music, getting haircuts, attending or holding weddings, eating meat and drinking wine, swimming, traveling for pleasure and buying new clothes, to mark the time of year during which many tragedies occurred throughout Jewish history.

"It’s time to vote with our feet and send a clear message to the world that we truly believe that the Temple Mount is ours and we truly hope and pray for a time of unparalleled world peace and harmony with the re-building of the Third Temple," added Richman. "This new video is an emotional and visual tool to awaken world Jewry this Tisha B’Av and have them internalize the message that the dream of 2000 years is finally within our reach."

Soon after Israel took over eastern Jerusalem from Jordanian control in 1967, Moshe Dayan returned the Temple Mount to Jordanian control and forbade Jewish worship on the mount, according to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Dayan decided that since the site is a "Muslim prayer mosque," but is no more than "a historical site of commemoration of the past" for Jews, then "one should not hinder the Arabs from behaving there as they now do," wrote the former chief of staff in his autobiography Story of My Life.

The restrictions on Jewish worship still hold today, and non-Muslims are only allowed to ascend to the Temple Mount through one gate, while Muslims may enter the site from any gate. The Waqf, an arm of the Jordanian Ministry of Sacred Properties, administers the site.

Visits by religious Jews are monitored by Waqf guards and Israeli police – and all Jewish prayer, including silent prayer, is forbidden, according to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. No sacred Jewish objects, such as prayer books or prayer shawls, may be brought onto the mount, according to tourism website Tourist Israel.

While the Supreme Court has ruled that "every Jew has the right to ascend the Temple Mount, to pray on it, and to commune with his Creator," they also decided that "this right, like other basic rights, is not an absolute right, and in a place at which the likelihood of damage to the public peace and even to human life is almost certain – this can justify limiting the freedom of religious worship and also limiting the freedom of expression."

Many Jewish religious authorities avoid going onto the Temple Mount for various halachic (religious law) or political concerns, including uncertainties about the exact location of the ancient Temple Mount, according to the Orthodox Union. Jews who are impure in certain ways, including impurity received from contact with the dead – which all Jews are assumed to have today – are forbidden from walking on certain parts of the Temple Mount. It is also debated by religious authorities if the Temple Mount maintains its religious sanctity when there is no Temple standing there.

Much of the platform which is called the Temple Mount was not considered part of the Temple complex by Jewish law and was instead a platform built by King Herod meant to expand the available space around the actual Temple complex. The platform was built during renovations initiated by Herod on the Temple and the area around it.

The Temple Mount itself was about 62,500 square meters. The area now referred to as the Temple Mount covers about 145,000 square meters.

The Israeli Rabbinate forbids Jews from ascending to the Temple Mount. Some sources indicate that under Muslim control about a thousand years ago, Jews were permitted to build a synagogue on the mount, according to the Orthodox Union.

On Tisha Be'av, which falls on Saturday night, August 10, Jews mark the day that the two Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed by fasting for 25 hours and abiding by other mourning practices, including sitting on the floor or low chairs and reciting the Book of Lamentations (Megillat Eicha), in which the prophet Jeremiah laments the destruction of Jerusalem and the subsequent exile.

Some 55% of Israeli Jews claim that as far as they are concerned, Tisha Be’av is just a regular day. For other national days of mourning like Holocaust Remembrance Day or Remembrance Day for the Fallen of Israel’s Wars, only a small percentage of Jews (9% and 5% percent respectively, most of them haredi) claim they are just regular days.

Israeli professor involved in test of the Red Heifer ritual calls it an “historical moment” on the road to purity and redemption.

The requirement of a Red Heifer is probably the most enigmatic biblical commandment, and one that continues to capture the imaginations of Jews and Christians alike. The preparation and purpose of the Red Heifer as described in Numbers 19 indicates that the entire Temple service depends on the presence of water mixed with Red Heifer ash, the one and only means of purifying one who has come in contact with a corpse.

Since ascending the Temple Mount required purity, and it is assumed that everybody has either knowingly or unknowingly been made impure by coming in contact with death, no one can enter the Temple court until a Red Heifer is found and properly prepared.

It is for this reason that to this day, Jews are religiously forbidden from entering the area that was once the inner court of the Temple. Religious Jews who do ascend the Temple Mount first immerse themselves in a ritual bath, but that’s only good enough to get them into what was the outer courts, not to be confused with the Temple itself. This is the reason why until today Jews are not allowed to enter the Temple parameters. Those who do ascend, immerse themselves first in ritual bath, that only allows entering the Mount, that is not to be confused with the Temple itself.

The absence of the Temple, in turn, means that the full redemption of Israel is impossible, since according to Ezekiel 36, only the sprinkling of the Red Heifer water allows for the complete change of heart and spirit (“then I shall sprinkle pure waters upon you, and you shall be clean, from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. I will also give you a new heart, and I will place within you a new spirit”).

The reason why so many Christians are enamored with the Red Heifer is because they, too, understand that the Third Temple means not only redemption for Jews, but also redemption of the world. Likewise, both Jews and Christians share the belief that when Messiah will arrive, he will enter the Temple. So, for him to come, there must be a Temple.

Though in contemporary Israeli society the Red Heifer is relegated to the realm of the delusional, there are still enough who are doing everything they can to make all the necessary preparations for the building of the Third Temple, and that includes breeding red heifers and practicing the ceremonial burning of the calf.

The Temple Institute has recently done just that: Experimenting with the meticulous rabbinic rituals surrounding the red heifer. The effort includes burning a dead cow on a kind of a wooden altar. Into the burning fire were also thrown cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet-dyed wool. The experiment was designed to check the amount of ash produced, and whether it would be enough to purify every Israelite living today.

According to the Jewish Voice news portal, Prof. Zohar Amar of the Department of Land of Israel Studies at Bar-Ilan University took part in the experiment and described it as an historical moment. “For 2000 years we have been waiting for this moment,” said Prof. Amar, “when Jews will look into and experiment realistic possibilities for the renewal of purity in Israel.”

JERUSALEM (AP) — It wasn’t inevitable that the overlap of Jewish and Muslim holidays would lead to clashes at a Jerusalem site deeply revered by both faiths.

But when rumors circulated that Israeli police would allow Jews to visit the hilltop compound during Muslim prayers, it appeared to many Palestinians that Israel was further chipping away at their claims to the site.

As demonstrators massed at the gates and began throwing stones at the police, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. After an outcry by right-wing Israeli leaders, the police reversed an earlier decision to bar the Jewish visitors and let them in, as stun grenades echoed and tear gas filled the air.

The holy site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, has long been a flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian violence. But sensitivities are especially high at the moment, with the peace process a distant memory and Israel heading to elections next month.

In the current atmosphere, even the smallest perceived changes to the status of the site — the emotional and symbolic center of the decades-old conflict — can spark violence.

The compound is the holiest site to the Jewish people and the third holiest in Islam, after Mecca and Medina. It was the site of two Jewish temples in antiquity and is the home of the iconic gold Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque.

(We do not believe this was the location of either the first or second temple. For the true location of the temples click the link to view “The Coming Temple”.)

On Sunday morning, tens of thousands of Muslims flocked to the site to mark the start of Eid al-Adha, a Muslim holiday honoring the time God stayed Abraham’s hand after asking him to sacrifice his son. Hundreds of Israeli religious nationalists also showed up in observance of Ninth of Av, when Jews mourn the destruction of the temples and other historical calamities.

The site is located in east Jerusalem, which Israel seized along with the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want those territories to form their future state, with east Jerusalem as their capital. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally, and views the whole city as its capital.

The hilltop shrine is managed by an Islamic trust under Jordanian stewardship, and day-to-day affairs are governed by informal understandings with Israel known as the “status quo.” The Palestinians fear any erosion of the status quo could lead to an Israeli takeover or partition of the site.

According to those rules, Jews are allowed to visit the compound during certain times but are forbidden to pray there. The Islamic trust overseeing the site, known as the Waqf, said it was unprecedented and unacceptable to allow Jews to visit during a major Muslim holiday.

“It has been customary that on Muslim holidays, the site would be closed to non-Muslims in respect for the special sanctity of the days,” said Daniel Seidemann, founder of Terrestrial Jerusalem, a group that tracks developments in the holy city.

“That basically was violated for the first time when Jerusalem Day and the final days of Ramadan overlapped (in June), and it happened again yesterday,” he said.

In response, the Waqf said it took the “exceptional decision” to delay morning prayers, typically held at 6:30 a.m., by an hour so that they would conflict with normal visiting hours. Soon thereafter the clashes erupted, wounding at least 14 Palestinians and four Israeli police.

For decades, most rabbis forbade Jews from visiting the site altogether, but a growing cadre of religious nationalist rabbis have endorsed visiting the holy site and their adherents have flocked there in increasing numbers in recent years.

The number of Jewish visitors to the shrine stood at around 5,800 in 2010, but by 2018 had grown to 35,600, according to statistics released by Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan.

He said 1,729 Jews visited the site on Sunday, compared to 1,440 on the Ninth of Av in 2018, adding that he would “continue to work to strengthen Israeli sovereignty on the Mount.”

Jerusalem District police chief Doron Yedid said it was the Waqf that violated the status quo by delaying the prayers. Police said the site would remain closed to non-Muslim visitors until Thursday, following the end of the Muslim holiday.

“The message sent to the Palestinians and to the Muslim worshippers is: ‘This is a shared site. Get used to it,’” Seidemann said. “And that is a significant erosion of the traditional understandings of the status quo.”

Azzam Khateeb, the Waqf’s director, said Sunday’s altercation proved that “Israeli ambitions in the mosque are not limited to the extreme right-wing groups, but also to the Israeli government.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said he has no intention of changing the status quo, despite calls from his right-wing allies for expanded access.

That has left him vulnerable on the issue as he seeks to secure an unprecedented fourth consecutive term in office in elections next month, which were called after he failed to form a coalition government following a vote in April.

“It’s very difficult for Netanyahu right now,” as he competes for votes with other right-wing parties, said Lior Lehrs, director of the Program on Israeli-Palestinian Peacemaking at Mitvim, an Israeli think-tank.

That may encourage Netanyahu to adopt a tougher stance, especially after he was widely criticized by right-wing leaders in the wake of Sunday’s clashes.

Assaf Fried, a spokesman for a group calling for the construction of a third temple on the site, expressed pride in the visit in a Facebook post.

“You need to remember,” he wrote, “that since the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem (in 637 A.D.), not a single Jewish foot stood on the Temple Mount on a Muslim holiday.”

Evidence of the conquest of Jerusalem Found in Mount Zion Excavation

Sunday, August 11, 2019
Researchers digging at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte's ongoing archaeological excavation on Mount Zion in Jerusalem have announced a second significant discovery from the 2019 season - clear evidence of the Babylonian conquest of the city from 587/586 BCE.
The discovery is of a deposit including layers of ash, arrowheads dating from the period, as well as Iron Age potsherds, lamps and a significant piece of period jewelry - a gold and silver tassel or earring. There are also signs of a significant Iron Age structure in the associated area, but the building, beneath layers from later periods, has yet to be excavated.

This is one of the Scythian type arrowheads found in the destruction layer from 587/586 BCE.

This is an earring or tassle ornament made of gold and silver from the destruction layer of 587/586 BCE.

Because of the site's location, various alternative explanations for the artifacts can be eliminated, the researchers argue. "We know where the ancient fortification line ran," noted Gibson, "so we know we are within the city. We know that this is not some dumping area, but the south-western neighborhood of the Iron Age city - during the 8th century BCE the urban area extended from the "City of David" area to the south-east and as far as the Western Hill where we are digging."
The ash deposits, similarly, are not conclusive evidence of the Babylonian attack in themselves, but are much more so in the context of other materials.
"For archaeologists, an ashen layer can mean a number of different things," Gibson said. "It could be ashy deposits removed from ovens; or it could be localized burning of garbage. However, in this case, the combination of an ashy layer full of artifacts, mixed with arrowheads, and a very special ornament indicates some kind of devastation and destruction. Nobody abandons golden jewelry and nobody has arrowheads in their domestic refuse."
"The arrowheads are known as 'Scythian arrowheads' and have been found at other archaeological conflict sites from the 7th and 6th centuries BCE. They are known at sites outside of Israel as well. They were fairly commonplace in this period and are known to be used by the Babylonian warriors. Together, this evidence points to the historical conquest of the city by Babylon because the only major destruction we have in Jerusalem for this period is the conquest of 587/586 BCE," he said.
The clay artifacts also help date the discovery. The lamps, Gibson notes, are the typical high-based pinched lamps of the period.

This is one of the students of UNC Charlotte's Levine Program, Miles Shen, holding in his hands a lamp dating from the Iron Age.

"It's the kind of jumble that you would expect to find in a ruined household following a raid or battle," Gibson said. "Household objects, lamps, broken bits from pottery which had been overturned and shattered... and arrowheads and a piece of jewelry which might have been lost and buried in the destruction."
"Frankly, jewelry is a rare find at conflict sites, because this is exactly the sort of thing that attackers will loot and later melt down."
"I like to think that we are excavating inside one of the 'Great Man's houses' mentioned in the second book of Kings 25:9," Gibson speculated. "This spot would have been at an ideal location, situated as it is close to the western summit of the city with a good view overlooking Solomon's Temple and Mount Moriah to the north-east. We have high expectations of finding much more of the Iron Age city in future seasons of work. "
The building that is apparently part of the layer remains unexcavated. "One might ask why haven't we excavated the whole building?" Gibson said. "The reason is that we are slowly taking the site down, level by level, period by period, and at the end of this last digging season two meters of domestic structures from later Byzantine and Roman periods have still to be dug above the Iron Age level below. We plan to get down to it in the 2020 season."
The unexpected and rare piece of jewelry found is apparently a tassel or earring, with a bell-shaped gold upper part. Clasped beneath is a silver part made in the shape of a cluster of grapes. Gibson noted that this discovery of jewelry "is a unique find and it is a clear indication of the wealth of the inhabitants of the city at the time of the siege." The only other discovery of jewelry in Jerusalem from this period was made many years ago in 1979 in an Iron Age tomb at Ketef Hinnom outside the city.
The researchers say that finding evidence of a critical historical event is what makes the discovery particularly exciting. Lewis, another co-director of the project, explained that "It is very exciting to be able to excavate the material signature of any given historical event, and even more so regarding an important historical event such as the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem."
By all accounts the Babylonian conquest of the city by the Neo-Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar was ferocious and resulted in a great loss of life, with the razing of the city and the burning of houses, and the plundering and dismantling of King Solomon's Temple to God. The local ruler of the Kingdom of Judah, King Zedekiah, made an attempt to flee the city with his retinue, but was eventually caught and taken captive to Babylon.
The Hebrew Bible relates the famine and suffering that the inhabitants of Jerusalem suffered during the lengthy Babylonian siege of the city: "So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. On the ninth day of the [fourth] month the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war [fled] by night by the way of the gate between the two walls.... And he [Nebuzaradan, the Babylonian captain of the guard] burnt the house of the Lord, and the King's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great man's house, burnt he with fire." (2 Kings 25: 1-9).
The Babylonian siege of Jerusalem lasted for quite a while even though many of the inhabitants wanted to give up. "King Zedekiah simply was not willing to pay tribute to Nebuchadnezzar and the direct result of this was the destruction of the city and the Temple", said Gibson.
Every year religious Jews in Jerusalem and across the world pray and fast in remembrance of the destruction of the Jewish Temple to God in Jerusalem, first by the Babylonians in 587/586 BCE, resulting in the exile of the inhabitants of the city to Babylon, and yet again in 70 CE at the hands of the Roman legions led by Titus. To remember the devastating destruction of the Temple, Jews gather in synagogues around the world and at the Western Wall plaza in Jerusalem, to pray and mourn on Tisha B' Av (the ninth day in the Hebrew month of Av) according to the Jewish calendar, which falls this year on August 11th.
The Mount Zion archaeological project is directed by Shimon Gibson and James Tabor from the College of Liberal and Arts Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, in conjunction with Rafi Lewis of Ashkelon Academic College and Haifa University, and with sponsorship from Aron Levy, John Hoffmann, Cherylee and Ron Vanderham, and Patty and David Tyler and others, and facilitated by Sheila Bishop for The Foundation for Biblical Archaeology.
The dig is also staffed by a host of volunteers, including UNC Charlotte students. The project has been a favorite summer activity of for many of UNC Charlotte's Levine Scholars Program, the university's highly selective national program for undergraduate scholars.
"Participating in the Mount Zion dig has been an amazing opportunity for the Levine Scholars," said Diane Zablotsky, director of UNC Charlotte's Levine Scholars Program. "Although they are from different backgrounds and study in different majors, they shared a unique experience that left them with a deep appreciation of archaeology, the history of Jerusalem, and broadened worldview."
The site is within the "Sovev Homot" park administered by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Other substantial remains of the multi-period ancient city were uncovered during the 2019 season, including vaulted basements from the time of Herod the Great, a Byzantine street which was the south-westerly continuation of the main city street known as the Cardo Maximus, and a sunken defense ditch that ran in front of the fortifications which greeted the Crusader's when they attacked Jerusalem in 1099 and hindered their assault on the city.
The complex architectural sequence of superimposed structures dating back 3000 years or so is being carefully mapped by a team of recorders and draftsmen headed by Steve Patterson. The University of North Carolina at Charlotte has been conducting archaeological excavations in Jerusalem since 2006 and much vital historical and archaeological information has been steadily extracted from the digging operations.
Contacts and sources:
Rafi Lewis, Shimon Gibson
University of North Carolina at Charlotte

When people think of Jesus, perhaps they think of a gentle man who barely spoke above a whisper. But Hal Donaldson says that image isn't quite accurate.

Instead, Donaldson—founder and CEO of Convoy of Hope—says Jesus was the "greatest revolutionary" and the "greatest protester" of all time.

"He looked down on earth, and He was displeased by what He saw," Donaldson says. "He said, 'It doesn't have to be that way,' so He came to earth to give us life. When He came to earth, He did not boycott, He did not go on protest marches. But He disrupted the status quo, disrupted culture, through kindness. And He brought to the culture a level of kindness that I believe we need today."

Donaldson says some people are uncomfortable with applying the term "revolutionary" to Jesus because it makes them think of rebels marching in the streets. But if Christians don't see themselves as countercultural, they will never truly walk in Jesus' footsteps.

For that reason, Donaldson and his ministry reach out with boldness to help feed over 200,000 kids a day and put the Word of God in as many hands as possible.

"It's really about mobilizing and resourcing the church to make a lasting difference in the world," he says.

A historic vote for Donna Barrett as general secretary “has been meaningful for many women who feel God’s calling on their lives.”

For the first time in its 105-year history, the Assemblies of God (AG) General Council has elected a woman to its executive leadership. Ohio minister Donna Barrett was voted in as AG general secretary during its biennial gathering last Friday.

Barrett had been appointed to the post last year—the third-highest position in the denomination—after her predecessor resigned in the middle of his term. She is now both the first woman to fill a seat on the AG’s six-person executive leadership team and the first woman elected by its ministers to such a position for a four-year term.

As general secretary for a denomination that claims 3.2 million adherents and over 13,000 churches in the US, Barrett oversees the credentialing of ministers, church chartering, church statistics, and the world’s largest Pentecostal archive, located at AG national headquarters in Springfield, Missouri.

Her nomination at age 59 comes as the denomination grows younger and more ethnically diverse. According to its own statistics, over half of AG adherents are under 35, and more than 43 percent ethnic minority.

“The gifts God gives sometimes end up in a container [that looks] different from what people are used to seeing and different than history,” Barrett said in her acceptance speech. “And the gifts that I have seem to be aligned with this position greater than any other ministry assignment I’ve had from the Lord in my past.”

Barrett’s nomination came from Doug Clay, who holds the AG’s top leadership position as general superintendent. In a statement emailed to CT, Clay said, “Through her service as a church planter, district leader, and general presbyter, Donna Barrett has shown humility paired with a special gifting for leadership.”

“The Assemblies of God affirms women at every level of leadership,” he said. “While Donna was not selected on the basis of her gender, I know her executive leadership has been meaningful for many women who feel God’s calling on their lives.”

Since its founding in 1914, the AG has endorsed women preaching and leading in ministry, and 24 percent of AG ministers in the US are women, compared to fewer than 9 percentamong Protestant pastors overall.

In 2010, the Pentecostal body officially opened its top leadership spots to women, with a position paper stating, “We conclude that we cannot find convincing evidence that the ministry of women is restricted according to some sacred or immutable principle.”

The AG’s position on women in ministry has not historically resulted in women rising to the top levels of the denomination, and fellow Pentecostal bodies like the Foursquare Church have seen a similar struggle.

Last May, Foursquare voted on a historic female presidential candidate, the only woman in its executive leadership, Tammy Dunahoo. Theologian Leah Payne suggested that because women have far more models of female pastors and congregational leaders than regional and national leaders, it can be harder for them to see themselves in bigger roles and advance in their denomination.

In the Assemblies of God, it was only after the General Council mandated that a woman be included among its executive presbyters that Beth Grant became the first woman to fill the spot in 2009, joining the group of 21 leaders who function as the AG’s board of directors. It took another decade before the AG elected a woman to serve on the executive leadership team.

Grant was just reelected for another term, now one of three female executive presbyters. “I see God doing a new thing among women,” Grant said at the General Council, with more than 22,000 people in attendance. “It’s a great day. Ladies, step up, step in, step out.”

Fellow female AG members in particular celebrated Barrett’s historic election.

“Could not be more thrilled to witness the election of this called, highly qualified, godly woman as the General Secretary of the Assemblies of God!” wrote Jodi Detrick. “You have both my deep admiration and my prayers.”

Since becoming an AG minister in 1988, Barrett, who is single, has served as a church planter, associate pastor, and youth pastor at churches in Ohio.

She has also served in leadership at the state level as an Ohio Ministry Network executive presbyter and is the author of Leveling the Prayer Field: Helping Every Person Talk to God and Hear from God. She founded and pastored Rockside Church in Independence, Ohio, for 16 years before her general secretary appointment.

“I hope the model that has been set at the national level will drizzle down throughout our districts with the message that men and women can work shoulder to shoulder as ministerial colleagues much like we see from our church members in the professional world,” Barrett said last year. “I hope young girls will be able to look up on the platform and see someone they can identify with. Many of our churches still have an all-male board.”

The AG’s position in favor of female leadership in the church puts the denomination in the minority among fellow evangelicals. Just 39 percent of evangelical Protestants say they are comfortable with a female pastor, according to a Barna Research survey.

The Assemblies of God has been seen as an exception to the denominational decline experienced by other Protestant groups in the US over the past couple decades; the AG continues to grow in number of churches and average attendance, John Davidson, director of discovery and development for the General Council of the Assemblies of God, reported.

Baptist, Presbyterian Pastors Claim Christians Can Support Killing Babies in Abortions

A small group of Kentucky religious leaders held a press conference this week to insist that they can both be Christians and support the killing of unborn babies in abortions.

Forward Kentucky, a progressive political blog, reported about the press conference, which abortion activists held in reaction to pro-life Gov. Matt Bevin’s comments about his pro-abortion political opponent’s faith. The conference was held at Douglas Boulevard Christian Church in Louisville.

“I support reproductive rights because I am a person of faith, not in spite of my faith,” said Lauren Jones Mayfield of Highland Baptist Church.

However, she contradicted herself when she claimed that Baptists respect the dignity of all people because they are created in the image of God.

“The Baptists I know respect the dignity of all people, which includes the dignity of women who are entitled to safe, legal abortions …” Jones Mayfield said. “The Baptists I know cherish the priesthood of all believers, an idea that each individual is connected to the Divine through their very personhood, which is created in a holy image.”

But unborn babies are people, too. From the moment of conception, they are unique, living human beings who are created in God’s image and deserve protection.

Dr. Derrick Penwell, of Douglas Boulevard Christian Church, argued that Jesus “had nothing to say” about unborn babies, and there is no “consensus on when life begins.”

On the contrary, it is well accepted science that human life begins at conception. Several well-known abortionists, including Willie Parker and LeRoy Carhart, openly admit that they are killing babies.

And while Jesus did not specifically mention babies in the womb, several passages in the Bible do. Scripture also widely condemns the killing of innocent human beings – which is what abortion does.

Sharon Hordes, of Keneseth Israel, referred to Proverbs 31 to try to justify her abortion beliefs.

“In this poem, the ideal woman is portrayed as strong and capable, not weak, subservient, or incapable of making decisions for herself,” Hordes said. “Rather, she is described as the personification of wisdom, with a great deal of responsibility, both within and outside of her household. I ask you, is this an individual who should not be entrusted with the important choices regarding her reproductive rights?”

Hordes neglected to mention that the Bible clearly condemns certain choices. It does not give Jewish and Christian adherents free reign to make choices without consequences.

The Bible recognizes the value of children, born and unborn, and condemns killing and other violence against the innocent. Even in ancient times, babies in the womb were viewed as valuable, as is evident in Luke 1:41. Jesus placed great value on children when others in society did not in Matthew 19:14, and Proverbs 6:16-17 states that one of the things God hates most is the shedding of innocent blood. One of the ten commandments prohibits murder.

Yet, some faith leaders ignore these passages and deceive their congregations into thinking it is ok – moral, even – to kill a child in the womb.

Others who spoke at the press conference included Tamarra Wieder, public affairs and policy director for Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky Advocates; Wayne Gnatuk, retired Presbyterian minister and chair of KY Coalition for Reproductive Choice; and Dr. Jason Crosby, Crescent Hill Baptist, according to the report.

(“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;” “Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron.” 1 Timothy 4:1-2
Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth from the womb, I sanctified thee.” Jeremiah 1:5)

We have discarded social institutions that have helped people understand their value and place in the world for thousands of years. And their decline is not just mirrored in the rise of mass shootings.

Once upon a time, you had meaning. You knew you had meaning because you had a mom and a dad who told you so, a God who loved you, and a community that needed you.

Once upon a time, if something happened to you, a significant number of people would mourn your death — not only because you were a good person and a good friend, but also because the community would suffer without your presence and skills. Now, the vast majority of people can barely count on one hand the number of people whose life would be truly altered by their passing.

For the most part, it can easily feel like no one cares about you anymore. Your skills are ubiquitous, you have no true community, and God doesn’t exist. So what, you may ask, is exactly the point?

We have created a society that now offers almost none of the things that make people truly happy. Family, community, spiritual belonging — these are the foundational and primal building blocks of human happiness, and they are rapidly disappearing.

With the destruction of the family, the church, and the community, the reasons people have traditionally had for their very existence are in danger of receding into the past. And the outcome is predictable: isolation, depression, anxiety, despondency, drug abuse, and death.

When we talk about gun violence, just about no one talks about these root causes. It is not as if we haven’t had large numbers of powerful semi-automatic weapons in this country for many decades. In fact, when I was in high school, my classmates regularly kept rifles in their truck gun racks in the school parking lot.

In light of these facts, the only sensible question to ask is, what has changed? Instead, politicians and pundits ask all the wrong questions. Do we have too many guns? (We always have.) Are video games and movies too violent? (They always have been.) Do we need more laws? (We have more than we can keep track of.)

No, the thing that has fundamentally changed is that we have discarded those regulating social institutions that have helped people understand their value and place in this world for thousands of years. Their decline is not just mirrored in the rise of mass shootings, but more broadly in a host of statistics that reveal an epidemic of despair.

For example, between 2000 and 2017, the rate of deaths due to drug overdose increased 400 percent, from 3 per 100,000 to 15 per 100,000. The suicide rate has increased from 10.4 per 100,000 in 2000 to 14 per 100,000 in 2017. These horrific increases have literally reduced the life expectancy in the United States from 78.9 in 2014 to 78.6 in 2017.

These statistics mirror the death of the family and the decline of faith. Children born out of wedlock increased from 20 percent in 1985 to more than 40 percent in 2013, with crime statistics tracking this trend almost exactly. Church membership declined from 70 percent in 1998 to 50 percent today. Taken together, these statistics of despair demonstrate what happens when people feel they have no place, no purpose, and no value in our world.

Technology exacerbates this phenomenon by allowing and encouraging us to isolate ourselves. Technology allows people to live their lives completely alone. People can sit in front of video games and indulge in violent fantasies. They can view endless pornography or isolate themselves into ideological bubbles that reinforce their desperate ideas.

The only antidote to this toxic brew is to engage with other people in ways that are beneficial for human flourishing. The only remedies are the institutions that have satisfied the human condition over millennia: family, community, and faith. And we are losing them. In fact, we are killing them.

Human beings are not designed for isolation. We require deep and meaningful connection. We need family and community. We are desperate for life and the love of others. We need people and institutions to help us navigate the world, to help us see that we have purpose, to help us understand right from wrong, and to imbue us with a sense of moral clarity that will hold us up during the desperate times we will all face.

Why would anyone be surprised that when we take away the foundational social structures that have allowed for the flourishing of humanity, bad things will happen? We all know very well what happens when more and more children grow up in single-parent homes. Increased suicide, drug use, drop out, teen pregnancy, and mental disorders.

We know what happens when communities deteriorate. Isolation, loneliness, and a decline in social norms. And when we destroy the church, the very institution that has been our bedrock of values, morality, and redemption for thousands of years? Despair, immorality, desperation, and evil.

Combine all three, and we know exactly what happens. An opioid epidemic so severe that it has literally reduced our average life expectancy. A suicide rate that continues to climb for almost all demographic groups. Mass shootings.

Destroy the family, abandon the community, raze the church to the ground. What could go wrong? Everything.

Season of the witch (from left): Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Hillary Clinton, Tilda Swinton in Suspiria and Kiernan Shipka in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Composite: Rex/AP/Reuters

Whether it’s hexing the president, chatting in WhatsApp covens or featuring in TV reboots, radicalised women have been finding strength in the ancient pagan arts

‘This is the time for getting scary,” the writer Andi Zeisler told Elle magazine on the eve of the 2017 Women’s March. “We need to go full witch.”

At the dawn of the Trump administration, witches were suddenly everywhere in the US. Neo-pagans used blogs and social media to circulate popular rituals for hexing Brock Turner (who served less than three months in jail after he was convicted of sexual assualt), the supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh (accused of sexual assault, which he denies), and Donald Trump himself. The Trump curse was enacted by thousands of people, including the singer Lana Del Rey. “I’m a witch and I’m hunting you,” declared Lindy West in the New York Times; Jess Zimmerman and Jaya Saxena wrote a self-help book, Basic Witches, in which they explained: “If you speak when you’re told to be quiet, take pride when you’re told to feel shame, love what and who you love whether or not others approve, you’re practising witchcraft.” Half the women I know called their group chats “covens”. Trump developed a penchant for tweeting the phrase “WITCH HUNT” in caps whenever he felt persecuted, which the conservative political cartoonist AF Branco dramatised exactly the wrong way around, with the Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi depicted as gun-toting witches on the hunt for a helpless mortal man.

Pop culture exhumed every witch it could find: in 2018 alone, there were high-profile reboots of Charmed, Sabrina the Teenage Witch (Sabrina worships the Devil now; it is very confusing), and Dario Argento’s Suspiria. In the final days of her 2016 campaign, Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton – the first female Democratic nominee – had been accused of participating in ritual sex magic and attending a “witch’s church” with her female friends. By early 2019, rightwing religious groups were accusing Democratic congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of belonging to “a coven of witches that casts spells on Trump 24 hours a day”.

In a way, this was tradition. The witch has always been the feminist monster of choice. In 1968, the group WITCH descended upon Wall Street in black pointy hats and cloaks, semi-seriously intending to hex it. They also released hundreds of live mice into Madison Square Garden during a bridal fair. Marriage was a recurring target of ire; the leaflet announcing the action chummily invited women everywhere to “confront the whoremakers”.

“Witches have always been women who dared to be: groovy, courageous, aggressive, intelligent, nonconformist, explorative, curious, independent, sexually liberated, revolutionary,” read the manifesto. “You are a witch by being female, untamed, angry, joyous and immortal.”

All that, and you didn’t even have to eat a baby. “Because WITCH actions could be done with a small group and were both fun and political, they quickly spread around the country. Boston women hexed bars. [Washington] DC women hexed the presidential inauguration. Chicago women zapped everything,” Jo Freeman wrote in her reckoning of the movement. The subversive idea that powered both the witch-hunts and the 1990s wave of teen witches – the idea that, by gathering together and hatching plots, women might obtain heretofore unthinkable power – has also fuelled much feminist organising throughout history. Men were right to be worried. Feminists weren’t literally going to steal their dicks and hide them in trees, as medieval witches were said to do, but that did turn out to be a surprisingly apt metaphor for their work.

And, although the WITCHes were joking, the witches weren’t. Witchcraft and occultism really were heavily associated with a certain kind of mid-20th-century cool. The Beatles put Aleister Crowley on the cover of Sgt Pepper; David Bowie studied ceremonial magic and Kabbalah; Led Zeppelin incorporated tarot cards into their album artwork; Stevie Nicks sang about ancient Welsh fairy-brides and posed with a seemingly endless array of scrying crystals. Most people’s interest was merely aesthetic (and still is) but, then as now, some found that witchcraft resonated on a much deeper level. The San Francisco Bay area – the centre of boomer youth culture in the US – saw an explosion of neo-pagan traditions, including the witches’ coven that initiated Miriam Simos, or, as she soon came to be known, Starhawk.

Starhawk’s 1979 book The Spiral Dance quickly became the premier text for self-taught witches. As seen through Starhawk’s anarchist, ecofeminist lens, witchcraft was not just a way to acquire magical powers, but was a deeply political act. “The word witch carries so many negative connotations that people wonder why we use it at all,” she wrote. “Yet to reclaim the word witch is to reclaim our right, as women, to be powerful; as men, to know the feminine within as divine.” Some trashed The Spiral Dance for being a new age self-help manual disguised as a radical manifesto; others complained that it smeared its far-left feminist agenda all over what was supposed to be a spiritual text. Either way, The Spiral Dance sold vastly more copies than your average book on feminism, and had a far greater impact. There is no way to know how many women stumbled across sentences such as, “Women are not encouraged to explore their own strengths and realisations; they are taught to submit to male authority, to identify masculine perceptions as their spiritual ideals, to deny their bodies and sexuality, to fit a male mould”, and emerged radicalised on the other end, but I do know one who did. The Spiral Dance was the book my friends and I moved on to when The Wicca Spellbooklost its allure, making it, by my count, the first book of feminist theory that I ever owned.

When the witch emerged as a contemporary figure of resistance, it was hard to tell where she came from; Hollywood iconography, feminist history, the coming of age of the Craft generation or just the optics of the 2016 election, in which a presumed-to-be-monstrous woman was ritually castigated by a man who led crowds in chants of “lock her up”. Watching the chants take over the floor at the Republican national convention, Rebecca Traister wrote: “I was not the only person in the room to be reminded of 17th-century witch trials, the blustering magistrate and rowdy crowd condemning a woman to death for her crimes.” The new feminist identification with witches seemed to draw from every version of the myth at once: mystical and monstrous, feminist academia and horrorcore aesthetics, drawing them together in one angry, intentionally ugly repudiation of American patriarchy.

This is not to suggest that witch fever was always admirable or never silly. Witchcraft, like feminism itself, went mainstream, and in doing so, lost some of its vital power to shock and disturb oppressors. The “spirituality” tag of Gwyneth Paltrow’s online shop Goop contained articles on tarot. Urban Outfitters stocked spell books. The makeup brand Urban Decay released an “Elements” eye-shadow palette decorated with alchemical sigils; Sephora briefly offered “witch kits” with tarot cards and bundles of sage inside, which were pulled due to public outcry. Pagans accused Sephora of trivialising their beliefs, but Native American protesters also pointed out that smudging with sage – a practice that comes attached to its own long history of religious persecution – wasn’t for witches or luxury beauty retailers to claim. At its lowest points, witchcraft stopped being subversive or frightening and became just another costume.

But the old, dark power – the choice to worship something other than patriarchy’s gods, to reject and read backward the narratives of the dominant culture – was still there. The Trump administration represented a breaking point for many women. After decades in which sophisticated thinkers dismissed patriarchy as simplistic or irrelevant, it was revealed to be alive, well and out for blood – the ethos which still ruled the US government and defined, or ended, countless women’s lives.

The resurgence of patriarchy was partly embodied by Trump himself, whose fear of women, and embrace of sexual violence as a means of correcting them, was never less than 100% obvious; Trump was not only repeatedly accused of sexual assault, he boasted about “pussy grabbing” on tape. But, partly, this political awakening was just a matter of stripping back our denial to realise how we had always been living: yes, Trump was accused of sexual misconduct, but so were several previous presidents. Yes, supreme court justice Kavanaugh was confirmed over reports of sexual assault, but the same thing had happened 30 years ago with Clarence Thomas. Yes, Roe v Wade was going to fall, but in most parts of the US, abortion access had been stripped so far down that it might as well be illegal. Patriarchy had been the truth all along. It was progress that was the phantom.

The witch lives between dark and daylight, the safely settled village and the wild unknown of the woods beyond. The backlash years of the early 21st century revealed to many women something we had always suspected: we had never belonged to that daylight world. We had tried; we had worked; we had been loyal to the rules and values of society as we knew it. But, no matter how far we thought we had come, or how often our mothers told us we could do anything, we still lived within a system that used female bodies as grist to maintain male rule. In the story that patriarchy told about itself, we were always going to be the villains. And if that was the case, we might as well make some magic out of it.

There is a fire on the horizon. You can see it burning, out on the edges of the world. The violence we have survived can be our guide to what needs to change. The fire that burned the witches can be the fire that lights our way. Our power is waiting for us, out in forbidden spaces, beyond the world of men. Step forward and claim it. Step forward into the boundless and female dark.

For the past few decades, technology has been evolving at a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it rate. In this biweekly column, Insights Staff Writer Kristin Manganello will be peeling back the curtain of the present and exploring the developing technologies that may soon become standard in the not-so-distant future.

In the not-too-distant past, computers were massive machines that could fill an entire room. Today, they fit in the palm of our hands.

For some, the next step in this ever-shrinking and evolving system is a microchip – no bigger than a grain of rice – implanted directly into the body. While this may sound like the beginning of a dystopian sci-fi novel, it’s actually a growing trend amongst a few technologically-savvy individuals.

The use of embedded body microchips is categorized under the spectrum of biohacking, which is basically an umbrella term that covers a wide range of DIY practices, most of which involve the application of a systems-thinking mindset to the human body.

Imagine being able to do everything you do with your smartphone now, but even faster. Imagine being able to enter your home, workplace, or car with just the slightest hand gesture. Imagine sending someone your information just by pointing your finger at their phone.

That’s exactly what these biometric chip implants are currently being designed to do. It serves as a way to connect people to IoT in a much more physical way – by integrating it the Internet of Things with the internet of your own body.

These microchips utilize radiofrequency identification (RFID) and near-field communication (NFC). RFID microchips can be used as passwords or keys, while NFC chips can be used to store electronic credit cards or cryptocurrencies.

The implants themselves are shaped like cylinders, which contain a biologically safe epoxy resin, the microchip, and a copper antenna coil. Designed without a battery or power source, they remain inactive until they come within the field range of a reader device, which communicates with the device through a magnetic field.

According to some in the biohacking community, as many as 100,000 people worldwide have willingly hacked their own bodies with microchip implants.

The trend is particularly popular in Sweden – in 2018, it was reported that, since 2015, over 4,000 Swedes had opted to have these tiny microchips implanted in them under their skin. So far, these tiny chips are mostly used to open doors and send digital business cards. However, don’t expect things to stop there – for example, in 2017, a Swedish rail line added microchip scanning as a payment option for train service.

While it may be all the rage in Sweden, the microchip trend hasn’t gained much traction in the U.S.

In 2017, a Wisconsin-based company called Three Squared Marketing made headlines when they gave their employees the choice to get microchipped. The chips for the company were designed to let the employees in the building, use the copier, and even pay for snacks. The public reaction to the controversial story was mostly negative.

The main concerns that people have about microchip implants are primarily focused on privacy and cybersecurity issues. However, with the ubiquitous – and sometimes careless – usage of smartphones and wearables, the vast majority of users are already pretty vulnerable in both those areas.

The implantable microchip does present some interesting, practical applications, which is why some are enthusiastically embracing the idea of incorporating this kind of technology into their bodies. Still, with so many people against it, it’s really too soon to tell which direction this trend will go in.

(With the people claiming to be transgender it makes you wonder if incubi and succubi may be involved, or even demonic possession.

Welcome to the real world! Berlin’s oldest boys’ choir sued by 9yo girl for gender discrimination

A five-century-old boys’ choir has been accused of gender discrimination for not accepting a nine-year-old girl. Her woke mother is suing Berlin’s oldest musical institution for not embracing modern world realities.

The State and Cathedral Choir Berlin’s gender-based admissions criteria violate Germany’s constitution, the girl’s mother has declared, hauling the boys-only choir into court on charges that it violates her daughter’s right to equal opportunities in state support.

The internationally famous choir has never admitted any females in its 554-year history, although it has a girls-only partner choir that her daughter is welcome to join. However, the mother insists that this group is not of the same caliber as the historic boys’ institution, which was made famous by Romantic composer Felix Mendelssohn, and she says the state must step in to make things right. The family’s names have not been made public.

The choir’s directors claim the decision to reject the girl was “not predominantly” about her gender, adding that she would have been accepted had she displayed “extraordinary talent and motivation.” In a statement to the court, they explained that girls’ and boys’ choirs sound different for anatomical reasons, and maintained they were permitted to reject whom they wished on grounds of artistic freedom.

Lawyer Susann Bracklein called the rejection and the reasoning behind it “very strange” – what is this freedom you speak of? – given that the Berlin University of the Arts, which operates the choir, had recommended the girl to another elite school for young musicians. Gender bias, she declared, was the only explanation for the girl’s rejection from the historic choir.

China releases video showing troop carriers moving to Hong Kong border – video

State media outlets videos with a rousing choral soundtrack show armoured troop carriers purportedly driving to Shenzhen, the south-eastern state that borders Hong Kong. Chinese officials have released a series of threatening statements about Hong Kong's protesters, with one claiming 'terrorism' was emerging in the city on Monday after flights were cancelled.

Floods and landslides across southern and western Indian states have killed nearly 200 people over the past week as the Indian Army intensifies its relief operations to help thousands stranded in desperate need of rescue.

Extreme weather conditions that have been battering the Indian states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Gujarat since last week forced hundreds of thousands of people to seek temporary shelters. The heavy rains also impacted travel in the region, disrupting train and airport connections.

To deal with the ongoing calamity, which by Sunday claimed at least 178 lives, the Indian armed forces deployed around 3,000 personnel and units of various hardware, including helicopters, to help with flood relief and rescue operations in the four affected states.

The surge in water level caused all the rivers in the state of Karnataka to overflow. At least 40 people were confirmed dead in Karnataka, and at least 400,000 were displaced. The state disaster management agency tried to reassure locals on Sunday, announcing that “the water has started receding in many districts and flood situation has improved.”

In the southern state of Kerala, at least 67 people were killed in rain-related incidents, while 227,000 people were moved to some 1,551 relief camps. Water levels have been falling on Sunday, but authorities say it’s too early to be optimistic. “We need to be cautious. It’s not easy to escape from landslides,” Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.

Floods also hit Maharashtra state, where at least 40 deaths were reported, while an estimated 400,000 people were forced to leave their homes. Another 31 deaths were reported in Gujarat state, which was also hit by the monsoon and landslides.

Japan hit with Biblical amounts of rain! Total rainfall could surpass 1200 mm (47 inches) in 24 hours which is more than 10 times their August average

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