..In Afghanistan, three American soldiers were disposing of various damaged and unusable religious materials at NATO’S Bagram Air Force Base north of Kabul. Included in the items they were burning in the base’s burn pit, were several copies of the Koran. These were Korans that the American government had purchased to provide free of charge to the jihadist prisoners held on the base. However, several of these books were damaged and some had been used by prisoners to pass messages and information, so the authorities decided to discard them.

When some Afghans who are employed by the U.S. government as workers on the base discovered that copies of the Koran were being burned, they pulled some of the unburned pages from the ashes and made a beeline for their friends. From there, word quickly spread that the Americans were desecrating the Holy Koran. Of course, the Taliban and al-Qaeda were only too happy to help spread the word and fan the flames, so to speak.

Before long, rioting spread across Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf region. Over the next several days, supposedly “loyal” Afghans turned on their American counterparts and killed them. As of today, six American soldiers are dead. The overall death toll now stands at about 40.

So the Obama Administration quickly got its act together and issued an… apology. In fact, several apologies. The President, the Defense Secretary, the American general leading the coalition forces all apologized. Obama by letter to the treacherous Afghan president Hamid Karzai, the others by television. The President even promised to “hold accountable those responsible.”

So, how is that going to work? Unless something is buried deep in the Obamacare bill that former Speaker Pelosi hasn’t discovered yet, I don’t believe U.S. law forbids the burning of a Koran. On the other hand, some observers say that Afghan law may require the death penalty for desecration by a non-Muslim. American service members are governed by the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), which is predicated on U.S. laws. Afghan law in this case could be translated “Sharia” law.

One can guess that this is going to be quite a headache for President Obama. Should he hand our soldiers over to the Afghanis to be tried in a Sharia court? That would be a sticky wicket for a government that screams about the “wall of separation” between church and state at every opportunity. That would also imply that he honors Sharia law above our own. Or, should he insist on whatever “discipline” — if any — that might be called for under the UCMJ. Keeping in mind, of course, that in America you can burn a Bible, a stack of Bibles, a cross, a flag, even a bra!

However, the thing that I find interesting is that the President can dash off a personal apology to an entire country and require his top military people to do the same over the proper (by the way) disposal of some already-desecrated Korans. Yet, all he and the State Department can manage are tepid press statements scolding Iran for sentencing a Christian to die for choosing, as a teenager, Jesus Christ over Mohammed. We should not be apologizing to Afghanistan and Karzai. We should be demanding that Karzai bring to justice those who have taken the lives of six Americans and dozens of Afghans. And, we should be demanding that Iran release Pastor Nadarkhani or suffer the outrage of America and the West.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas wants the United Nations to formally recognize Palestine as an independent state with borders based on a UN resolution passed 64 years ago! It’s a resolution the Jews accepted back in 1947, but the Arabs rejected!

Abbas has been adamant in his determination to submit a formal request to the Security Council. The PA says it will also ask the General Assembly to extend recognition. That will be a slam dunk there, since the majority of nations are Muslim or Muslim-sympathetic. Observers expect about 130 of the 191 members will vote in favor of the Palestinian state.

Of course, the GA carries no legal weight. Only Security Council votes bear the authority of international law. But recognition by the General Assembly will still complicate things immeasurably for Israel. The US has announced it will veto the request at the Security Council and President Obama essentially confirmed that in his speech to the UN on Wednesday.

But whether or not the Palestinian Authority actually carries through with its threat at this session, all of this just goes to show that the world is growing ever closer to forcing Israel to accept a failed terrorist state within its borders. The events of the last few weeks illustrate perfectly what the ancient prophets predicted: in the last days the entire world will line up against Israel.

Israel’s legitimacy as a modern nation is rooted in the same League of Nations actions, taken decades earlier, that provide legitimacy for Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Kuwait, and other Arab nations in the Middle East…. The bottom line is if those nations are legitimate, then so is Israel. If Israel has no legitimacy as a nation, then neither do the other nations of the Middle East. You can’t have it both ways.

Some experts predict that Israel may possess enough natural gas that it could relieve Europe of its dependence on Russia as its major gas supplier. In fact, Greece is already proposing an agreement to make it the hub through which those supplies will flow to Europe.

Other knowledgeable sources speculate that Israel possesses the third largest reserve of oil shale deposits in the world, behind only America and China. They say it will rival Saudi Arabia’s reserves. Up to now, though, oil obtained from shale rock has been expensive to recover and the whole process considered ecologically dirty. What’s more, the recovery consumes vast amounts of water, an expensive and increasingly rare commodity. However, the Israelis are developing a new process to recover shale oil that is neither dirty nor as expensive as current methods. It takes place a thousand feet underground and actually produces water rather than consumes it!

If they’re successful, not only can they mine their own vast reserves, but they can make the technology available for Western nations to use. This would break the back of the Arab nations’ stranglehold on the world oil market. Dore Gold, former Israeli Ambassador to the UN, said that the effect of the spread of this technology would be to “shift the center of gravity of world oil away from Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Persian Gulf to more stable states that have no history of backing terrorism or radical Islamic causes.”

The last 90 days have made painfully clear to the West that the Muslim oil-supplier states that were previously volatile and undependable (and didn’t hesitate to commit extortion with their oil), are now even more so. You can bet that if a Western-oriented, stable nation were to suddenly be able to supply those same energy products, the West, particularly Europe, would be knocking on their door tomorrow.

All of a sudden, Ezekiel’s description of Israel in the last days as a people who “have acquired land and wealth and who live at the center of the world” takes on new meaning! Isn’t it exciting to see prophecy unfolding before us at breakneck speed?

(This article is in the last half of the Hal Lindsey Report dated April 15, 2011)

~President Barack Obama    READ ENTIRE TEXT

By now, most of you know that National Public Radio (NPR) news analyst Juan Williams, who is also a contributor to Fox News, was abruptly fired by NPR. He was apparently dismissed by the taxpayer-supported radio network because he expressed an “opinion” (which, oddly enough, is precisely the job of a ‘news analyst,’ isn’t it?) on “The O’Reilly Factor” on the Fox News Network.

In the video below, see the ‘opinions’ some other NPR personalities have expressed about Christians in the past — opinions that are authentically disgusting and outrageous.  Yet they weren’t fired.  So what made Mr. Williams’ ‘opinion’ so much worse that he merited dismissal?  One word: Islam.

…

The trademarked slogan for Las Vegas is “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” I’ll bet you probably feel a little like that about your church. You may feel like you can let your guard down a little when you’re there since you’re among friends and others who believe like you and live their lives like you.

Well, I’m sure that’s how a young, single Christian lady from Grand Rapids, Michigan, felt, too. In fact, she felt so comfortable in her church that when she decided she wanted to find a roommate to share her house, her church is where she looked. She posted a notice on the church bulletin board that she was searching for a Christian roommate. Mistake. Especially in Michigan where the government dictates tolerance.

You guessed it. Someone from this young woman’s church took down the notice and turned it in to the Fair Housing Center of West Michigan. They passed it on to the Michigan Department of Civil Rights and now this woman is facing the possibility of fines and ‘re-education’ at a government-mandated ‘fair housing training seminar.’ Her crime? She advertised for a “Christian” roommate.

Frankly, I’m furious at the ignorant stupidity of imbecilic laws (and legislators) like this. But, folks, this is not “The Twilight Zone.” This is reality. This is happening in America. And it may have already happened in your state and you just have not run afoul of that law yet. Trust me, it won’t get any better unless we citizens do something about it. More in the video…

Iran went on the offensive after its industrial infrastructure was infected by the ‘Stuxnet’ computer worm. Though the Iranian government accused “the enemy,” it did not name any specific nation or nationalities. Instead, Iran’s security services arrested dozens of ‘cyberspies’ at the Bushehr, Natanz, Isfahan nuclear facilities and also in Tehran.

Particular attention has been paid to the many Russian scientists, technicians, and engineers who are in Iran building the nuclear plants and putting them on-line.

However, many assume that Israel is responsible for creating the worm and planting it. Independent computer security experts think they may have found further proof of that involvement. An interesting file labeled “Myrtus” has been found in the Stuxnet code. Many are speculating that the label is an obscure reference to the Biblical Book of Esther. That book details the story of how the Jews foiled a Persian plot against them.

As a clue, it’s too obvious. As a taunt, it’s priceless.

Lord Monckton also addresses the underlying issue of the UNCC treaty, which makes the assumption that man can change the global climate.  The question “Can he?” is answered in the presentation.

Here is an excerpt from Lord Monckton’s Presentation..

“Here is why the truth matters. It was all very well for jesting Pilate to ask that question and then not to tarry for an answer. But that question that he asked, “what is the truth?” is the question which underlies every question and in the end it is the only question that really matters. When you ask that question what you are really asking is “what is the truth about the matter?” And we are now going to see why it matters morally, socially, and politically, as well as economically and scientifically. That the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth should inform public policy on this question.”

Hal Lindsey says this (Dec. 11, 2009)..

“I believe that what we are now witnessing in “Hopenhagen” is perhaps the most concrete step toward a one-world bureaucratic regime in recent history. And it could reduce some of the world’s most prosperous nations to the level of third world countries.

To give our President some bargaining clout in Copenhagen, the Environmental Protection Agency this week declared ‘greenhouse gases,’ most notably carbon dioxide, a public health hazard. This allows the EPA to regulate it — read that ‘tax it’ and ‘outlaw it’ — under the Clean Air Act. The Supreme Court had ruled that the Administration had to go back to Congress for that authority. No longer. This declaration by the EPA, just in time for Copenhagen, is almost a criminal circumvention of the Constitution.

Lord Monckton’s complete presentation (1-hr, 35-min)

The Conclusion of Lord Monkton’s Presentation (under 4-min, 10-sec)

The Presentation Slides (7.32 MB)

– Article by Neil Earle –

An Episcopalian, Buzz Aldrin had somehow wedged into his stowage pouch a plastic bag. In it were a small flask of wine, a chalice and some wafers. About 5:57 p.m. Houston time, he set the elements on the fold-down guidance-computer table. He spoke into his microphone: “This is the LM [Lunar Module] pilot speaking. I’d like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours, and to give thanks in his or her own way.”

Aldrin’s way of giving thanks was to gently pour the wine into the chalice. He then recited—silently, as NASA had requested—John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches…. Without me you can do nothing.”

Taking Communion on the moon!

Back to God

This remarkable story is relayed in Andrew Chaikin’s history, A Man on the Moon: The Voyage of the Apollo Astronauts. Back on earth, Aldrin’s wife Joan marveled—Buzz had not forgotten the deeper significance of what was happening on July 20, 1969. On his return to earth, Aldrin reflected aloud on the meaning of Psalm 8:3-4, words written some 2,800 years earlier by another gazer into the starry night: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, what you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?”

Ironically, humanity’s most stunning technological feat took some of its key participants back—if only for a few moments—to their own humble place in the cosmos. As the apostle Paul told a group of advanced thinkers back in Athens, Greece, in the first century, God is not far from every one of us (Acts 17:27).

The world has all but forgotten Buzz Aldrin’s call to thanksgiving and his Communion service, standing as they do in the shadow of Neil Armstrong’s famous words, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” But that humble acknowledgment from space of our dependence on the Creator of all things and our union with Jesus Christ speaks to the quality of human life in ways that will forever transcend even our most amazing technological achievements.

Copyright 2009 – Christian Odyssey

–>  Have a look at his thoughtful commentary here.