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New: Update on Ford Boycott
Loses sales ... begins supporting another homosexual magazine ... refuses to stay neutral ... sponsors 'Two and a Half Men' ... urges support of homosexual marriage, stem cell research, and abortion
The boycott of Ford Motor Company is beginning to take effect. In November, Ford sales were down 9.7%. General Motors showed a 6.1% increase during the same month while Chrysler sales were up 4.7%. In seven of the nine months since AFA began the boycott, because of the motor company's support for the homosexual agenda - including homosexual marriage, Ford's sales have gone down compared to a year ago.
Ford has long supported the homosexual magazine, The Advocate. Now, Ford has expanded their promotion of homosexual publications by supporting the homosexual publication Out through advertising.
Wal-Mart recently announced they would no longer support or oppose controversial issues. Ford originally made a similar pledge to AFA but reneged when a small group of homosexual leaders demanded retraction, despite the fact that not a single homosexual group has publicly supported Ford.
Ford was a sponsor of a recent episode of CBS's program "Two and a Half Men" in which actor Charlie Sheen's character mocked Christ, Christmas and Christians by singing a sordid sex song to the tune of "Joy To The World."
During the recent elections, Ford pointed their employees to a radical left wing online voter guide for information on how to vote. The website that contained the guide urged votes against constitutional amendments banning homosexual marriage, for stem cell research in Missouri and against an amendment banning abortion in South Dakota.
Take Action
1. If you have not already done so, click here to sign the Boycott Ford Pledge. More than 625,000 have already signed the pledge. For a history of the boycott, visit www.BoycottFord.com.
2. Click here to send an email to new Ford CEO Alan R. Mulally letting him know you are participating in the boycott.
3. Forward this email to your friends and family who may not be aware of Ford's support for the homosexual agenda.
4. Click here to print and distribute the Boycott Ford Petition.
Sincerely,
Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman
American Family Association
P.S. Please forward this e-mail message to your family and friends!
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Muslim sensitivity training for 45,000 airport workers
Muslim sensitivity training for 45,000 airport workers
Security officials told 'to be aware that they may also be praying'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: December 28, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
The Transportation Security Administration – created after 9/11 to safeguard America's airports – is providing Islamic sensitivity training to 45,000 airport security officers so they'll know what to expect when Muslims fly from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia to participate in the annual "hajj," or pilgrimage to Mecca.
"We put out information telling everyone that hajj is coming; this is the time frame; individuals are going to be traveling with these types of items," TSA spokesman Darrin Kayser told the State Department's USINFO Web site Tuesday. Calling it "cultural sensitivity training," Kayser added that airport security officials need "just to be aware that they may also be praying."
Ironically, just last month six Muslim imams were ejected by federal authorities from a US Airways flight in Minneapolis because they were deemed a potential security threat. Among the various behaviors that unnerved fellow passengers was the group's prayers in the airport prior to their flight.
Welcoming TSA's Islamic sensitivity training is the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, which describes itself as "America's largest Islamic civil liberties group." In a press release praising the program yesterday, CAIR noted that it distributes a pocket guide titled "Your Rights and Responsibilities as an American Muslim."
"As an airline passenger," the CAIR guide states, "you are entitled to courteous, respectful and non-stigmatizing treatment by airline and security personnel. You have the right to complain about treatment that you believe is discriminatory."
The press release also quoted the group's communications director, Ibrahim Hooper, as saying CAIR representatives nationwide have met with not only the TSA, but also from Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection officials on "issues related to cultural sensitivity and national security."
Indeed, CAIR has developed a wide-ranging advisory and teaching relationship with government on the subject of protecting Muslim interests.
As WND reported previously, last June a senior Department of Homeland Security official from Washington personally guided CAIR officials on a behind-the-scenes tour of Customs screening operations at O'Hare International Airport in response to CAIR complaints that Muslim travelers were being unfairly delayed as they entered the U.S. from abroad.
However, CAIR itself is a controversial organization. It is a spin-off of the Islamic Association for Palestine, identified by two former FBI counterterrorism chiefs as a "front group" for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Moreover, several CAIR leaders have been convicted on terror-related charges.
During the June airport tour, CAIR was taken on a walk through the point-of-entry, Customs stations, secondary screening and interview rooms. In addition, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents were asked to describe for CAIR representatives various features of the high-risk passenger lookout system. Brian Humphrey, Customs and Border Patrol's executive director of field operations, assured CAIR officials that agents do not single out Muslim passengers for special screening and that they must undergo a mandatory course in Muslim sensitivity training. The course teaches agents that Muslims believe jihad is an "internal struggle against sin" and not holy warfare.
Customs agents involved in the CAIR tour at O'Hare told WorldNetDaily they were outraged that headquarters would reveal sensitive counterterrorism procedures to an organization that has seen several of its own officials convicted of terror-related charges since 9-11.
CAIR says the June tour allayed its concerns about profiling and that it "looks forward to continuing the relationship with U.S. Customs and Border Protection offices in the region, and to furthering understanding between the organizations as well as facilitating future communication in order to eliminate problems for Muslim travelers before they even arise."
As WND reported, the Department of Homeland Security invites CAIR itself to conduct sensitivity training for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and supervisors (CBP's counterparts) in Chicago. The course is taught by local CAIR officials Christina Abraham and Mariyam Hussain. More than 30 ICE staffers have gone through the CAIR awareness program so far.
CAIR – which is bankrolled by the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates, two countries that formally recognized the Taliban – also offers religious and cultural sensitivity training about Islam and Muslims to the military. In June, for example, CAIR trained more than 300 military personnel at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Ariz.
Also in June, CAIR was invited by the Pentagon to a ceremony dedicating the first Islamic center in Marine Corps history at Quantico headquarters outside of Washington.
Washington-based CAIR also has regular meetings with the FBI and Justice Department. In fact, FBI case agents complain the bureau rarely can make a move in the Muslim community without first consulting with CAIR, which sits on its advisory board. CAIR in the past has cried racism and bigotry when the bureau has moved unilaterally with investigations and raids in the community.
CAIR has also been dogged by the statements of Omar Ahmad, as reported by a California newspaper, that "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant," and, "The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth." Although the newspaper's publisher and the reporter stand by the quotes, Ahmad and CAIR dispute their accuracy.
The pilgrimage to Mecca is a religious duty for Muslims, which attracts about 2.5 million Muslim pilgrims very year, according to Saudi officials.
The Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C., reports that about 15,000 American Muslims made the pilgrimage in 2005.
Security officials told 'to be aware that they may also be praying'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: December 28, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
The Transportation Security Administration – created after 9/11 to safeguard America's airports – is providing Islamic sensitivity training to 45,000 airport security officers so they'll know what to expect when Muslims fly from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia to participate in the annual "hajj," or pilgrimage to Mecca.
"We put out information telling everyone that hajj is coming; this is the time frame; individuals are going to be traveling with these types of items," TSA spokesman Darrin Kayser told the State Department's USINFO Web site Tuesday. Calling it "cultural sensitivity training," Kayser added that airport security officials need "just to be aware that they may also be praying."
Ironically, just last month six Muslim imams were ejected by federal authorities from a US Airways flight in Minneapolis because they were deemed a potential security threat. Among the various behaviors that unnerved fellow passengers was the group's prayers in the airport prior to their flight.
Welcoming TSA's Islamic sensitivity training is the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, which describes itself as "America's largest Islamic civil liberties group." In a press release praising the program yesterday, CAIR noted that it distributes a pocket guide titled "Your Rights and Responsibilities as an American Muslim."
"As an airline passenger," the CAIR guide states, "you are entitled to courteous, respectful and non-stigmatizing treatment by airline and security personnel. You have the right to complain about treatment that you believe is discriminatory."
The press release also quoted the group's communications director, Ibrahim Hooper, as saying CAIR representatives nationwide have met with not only the TSA, but also from Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection officials on "issues related to cultural sensitivity and national security."
Indeed, CAIR has developed a wide-ranging advisory and teaching relationship with government on the subject of protecting Muslim interests.
As WND reported previously, last June a senior Department of Homeland Security official from Washington personally guided CAIR officials on a behind-the-scenes tour of Customs screening operations at O'Hare International Airport in response to CAIR complaints that Muslim travelers were being unfairly delayed as they entered the U.S. from abroad.
However, CAIR itself is a controversial organization. It is a spin-off of the Islamic Association for Palestine, identified by two former FBI counterterrorism chiefs as a "front group" for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Moreover, several CAIR leaders have been convicted on terror-related charges.
During the June airport tour, CAIR was taken on a walk through the point-of-entry, Customs stations, secondary screening and interview rooms. In addition, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents were asked to describe for CAIR representatives various features of the high-risk passenger lookout system. Brian Humphrey, Customs and Border Patrol's executive director of field operations, assured CAIR officials that agents do not single out Muslim passengers for special screening and that they must undergo a mandatory course in Muslim sensitivity training. The course teaches agents that Muslims believe jihad is an "internal struggle against sin" and not holy warfare.
Customs agents involved in the CAIR tour at O'Hare told WorldNetDaily they were outraged that headquarters would reveal sensitive counterterrorism procedures to an organization that has seen several of its own officials convicted of terror-related charges since 9-11.
CAIR says the June tour allayed its concerns about profiling and that it "looks forward to continuing the relationship with U.S. Customs and Border Protection offices in the region, and to furthering understanding between the organizations as well as facilitating future communication in order to eliminate problems for Muslim travelers before they even arise."
As WND reported, the Department of Homeland Security invites CAIR itself to conduct sensitivity training for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and supervisors (CBP's counterparts) in Chicago. The course is taught by local CAIR officials Christina Abraham and Mariyam Hussain. More than 30 ICE staffers have gone through the CAIR awareness program so far.
CAIR – which is bankrolled by the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates, two countries that formally recognized the Taliban – also offers religious and cultural sensitivity training about Islam and Muslims to the military. In June, for example, CAIR trained more than 300 military personnel at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Ariz.
Also in June, CAIR was invited by the Pentagon to a ceremony dedicating the first Islamic center in Marine Corps history at Quantico headquarters outside of Washington.
Washington-based CAIR also has regular meetings with the FBI and Justice Department. In fact, FBI case agents complain the bureau rarely can make a move in the Muslim community without first consulting with CAIR, which sits on its advisory board. CAIR in the past has cried racism and bigotry when the bureau has moved unilaterally with investigations and raids in the community.
CAIR has also been dogged by the statements of Omar Ahmad, as reported by a California newspaper, that "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant," and, "The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth." Although the newspaper's publisher and the reporter stand by the quotes, Ahmad and CAIR dispute their accuracy.
The pilgrimage to Mecca is a religious duty for Muslims, which attracts about 2.5 million Muslim pilgrims very year, according to Saudi officials.
The Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C., reports that about 15,000 American Muslims made the pilgrimage in 2005.
Reprobation – Proof that God’s Judgment is Near
Reprobation – Proof that God’s Judgment is Near
By Rev Michael Bresciani
-- WDC Media News --
All people Christian or not are becoming aware of the changing patterns of weather and an increase in tsunamis, volcanic activity, hurricanes and natural disasters. World unrest and terrorism and the threat of world war are also on every mind. Many are asking if these are the signs of Christ’s return and the coming judgments of God.
The most avowed atheist it is said has a moment in time when doubt assails their conscience. That split second of doubt is what separates hope from the dismal condition described in the bible as being given over to a reprobate mind. Reprobation is several notches below hopelessness because for anyone whose conscience has sunk to this level, there is no chance of recovery. Reprobation of the mind comes by the edict and pronouncement of God and nothing on earth can reverse it. Let’s see what this is.
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
Reprobation is a state of mind that at first simply ignores the truth. As it progresses it begins to suppress the truth. When in full bloom the resistance to truth becomes active, militant and even violent. (2Tim 3:8) It becomes a state that not only will not do anything good but those who have sunken to this condition no longer know what good is. Remember Germany didn’t start killing Jews when Nazism came in, they were glad to kill them when their brand of fascism was about to go out. It’s much like the analogy of the ships captain who announces that everything in the ships store is free and it’s OK to play football or basketball in the grand ballroom. Why, because he has just discovered the ship is sinking and will be under in less than fifteen minutes.
Are there people in the world today that have come to this most hopeless state of affairs? You can bet the farm on it. Let’s look at just a few of these developments. No mere article could cover the emerging world wide insanity that now sweeps the globe and is reported along with every new twist and nuance daily in newscasts, blogs and papers throughout the earth.
Recently Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran met with others in that country including Louisiana ’s own former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke to reinforce their assertion that the entire holocaust was a myth. Eye witnesses, written records and film files notwithstanding, this group does not care what their eyes behold but only what their little darkened hearts have devised.
The New York Times published a piece on December 12, 2006 about Mr. Justin Lee who provides a website for gay Christians. Of course most Christians see Mr. Lee as walking contradiction. In reality Lee is actually living a life that contradicts the bible he says he believes in. Did God change his mind about homosexuality or did Mr. Lee change his mind about God’s truth? That answer is understood by even children who know their bibles.
In this country a year or so of debating on whether there really were any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq finished up with a whopping sock in the eye to the republican majority in both houses of congress. Yet not one moment of time was spent on debating on Hollywood ’s new offering of everything rotten, raunchy and reprobate. All of media from games to children’s shows has dropped below the decency line so far as to make rock bottom look like a high rise by comparison. But who has eyes to see or the mouth to speak against Hollywood ’s millions of hours of “weapons of mass distraction” being hurled at America at every minute of the day and night.
Gone is the time when presidents, world leaders and dignitaries checked with Billy Graham to see if God really wants us to be saved. Now is a time when we have Time magazine and Barbara Walters checking with Pastor Joel Osteen about whether God wants us to be rich. The three R-s have changed to raunchy, rich and reprobate.
How far will these trends go? Although it may seem hard to believe they will go all the way to mass murder. Jesus said there will come a day shortly before he returns when unbelievers held in the sway of the Antichrist will kill Christians and Jews and think they are doing God a service. (John 16:2)
The apostle Paul said that near the end of time the darkness that men suffer by Satan’s design will become pervasive and they will not be able to see the truth if it bounced off their heads like a brick. (Eph 4:18) This in itself is one of the signs of the approaching judgment and the second coming of Christ. Wholesale blindness will sweep the earth and men and women won’t be able to discern any truth at all. Has it begun? There are at least two ways to answer that question.
First, turn on the television and watch the news for a week or more, second, pick up the bible and read the New Testament from cover to cover. If you haven’t become reprobate you will end up on your knees and thank God that you haven’t fallen that far yet. If you still think its all bunk, beware, you may have already passed the point of no return.
By Rev Michael Bresciani
-- WDC Media News --
All people Christian or not are becoming aware of the changing patterns of weather and an increase in tsunamis, volcanic activity, hurricanes and natural disasters. World unrest and terrorism and the threat of world war are also on every mind. Many are asking if these are the signs of Christ’s return and the coming judgments of God.
The most avowed atheist it is said has a moment in time when doubt assails their conscience. That split second of doubt is what separates hope from the dismal condition described in the bible as being given over to a reprobate mind. Reprobation is several notches below hopelessness because for anyone whose conscience has sunk to this level, there is no chance of recovery. Reprobation of the mind comes by the edict and pronouncement of God and nothing on earth can reverse it. Let’s see what this is.
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
Reprobation is a state of mind that at first simply ignores the truth. As it progresses it begins to suppress the truth. When in full bloom the resistance to truth becomes active, militant and even violent. (2Tim 3:8) It becomes a state that not only will not do anything good but those who have sunken to this condition no longer know what good is. Remember Germany didn’t start killing Jews when Nazism came in, they were glad to kill them when their brand of fascism was about to go out. It’s much like the analogy of the ships captain who announces that everything in the ships store is free and it’s OK to play football or basketball in the grand ballroom. Why, because he has just discovered the ship is sinking and will be under in less than fifteen minutes.
Are there people in the world today that have come to this most hopeless state of affairs? You can bet the farm on it. Let’s look at just a few of these developments. No mere article could cover the emerging world wide insanity that now sweeps the globe and is reported along with every new twist and nuance daily in newscasts, blogs and papers throughout the earth.
Recently Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran met with others in that country including Louisiana ’s own former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke to reinforce their assertion that the entire holocaust was a myth. Eye witnesses, written records and film files notwithstanding, this group does not care what their eyes behold but only what their little darkened hearts have devised.
The New York Times published a piece on December 12, 2006 about Mr. Justin Lee who provides a website for gay Christians. Of course most Christians see Mr. Lee as walking contradiction. In reality Lee is actually living a life that contradicts the bible he says he believes in. Did God change his mind about homosexuality or did Mr. Lee change his mind about God’s truth? That answer is understood by even children who know their bibles.
In this country a year or so of debating on whether there really were any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq finished up with a whopping sock in the eye to the republican majority in both houses of congress. Yet not one moment of time was spent on debating on Hollywood ’s new offering of everything rotten, raunchy and reprobate. All of media from games to children’s shows has dropped below the decency line so far as to make rock bottom look like a high rise by comparison. But who has eyes to see or the mouth to speak against Hollywood ’s millions of hours of “weapons of mass distraction” being hurled at America at every minute of the day and night.
Gone is the time when presidents, world leaders and dignitaries checked with Billy Graham to see if God really wants us to be saved. Now is a time when we have Time magazine and Barbara Walters checking with Pastor Joel Osteen about whether God wants us to be rich. The three R-s have changed to raunchy, rich and reprobate.
How far will these trends go? Although it may seem hard to believe they will go all the way to mass murder. Jesus said there will come a day shortly before he returns when unbelievers held in the sway of the Antichrist will kill Christians and Jews and think they are doing God a service. (John 16:2)
The apostle Paul said that near the end of time the darkness that men suffer by Satan’s design will become pervasive and they will not be able to see the truth if it bounced off their heads like a brick. (Eph 4:18) This in itself is one of the signs of the approaching judgment and the second coming of Christ. Wholesale blindness will sweep the earth and men and women won’t be able to discern any truth at all. Has it begun? There are at least two ways to answer that question.
First, turn on the television and watch the news for a week or more, second, pick up the bible and read the New Testament from cover to cover. If you haven’t become reprobate you will end up on your knees and thank God that you haven’t fallen that far yet. If you still think its all bunk, beware, you may have already passed the point of no return.
Saddam 'Offers Soul to God as Sacrifice'
Saddam 'Offers Soul to God as Sacrifice'
Associated Press
December 28, 2006
CBNNews.com - BAGHDAD, Iraq -- In a farewell letter to the Iraqi people, Saddam Hussein urged his countrymen not to hate the people of the nations that toppled his regime nearly four years ago and said he was offering "my soul to God as a sacrifice."
The letter was posted on a Web site Wednesday, a day after Iraq's highest court upheld his death sentence and ordered him hanged within 30 days.
A top government official, meanwhile, said Saddam's execution could proceed without the approval of Iraq's president, meaning there were no more legal obstacles to sending the deposed dictator to the gallows.
One of Saddam's attorneys, Issam Ghazzawi, confirmed to "The Associated Press" in Jordan that the Internet letter was authentic, saying it was written by Saddam on Nov. 5 - the day he was convicted by an Iraqi tribunal for ordering the 1982 killings of 148 Shiite Muslims in Dujail.
"I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking," said the letter, which was written in Arabic and translated by the AP.
"I also call on you not to hate the people of the other countries that attacked us," it added, referring to the invasion that toppled his regime.
Despite his calls for conciliation among Iraqis, Saddam's legacy is brutal. He put suspected foes to death without trial, oppressed Kurds and Shiites, waged war on Iran and twice fought U.S.-led armies. He left an impoverished nation now gripped by sectarian bloodshed and an insurgency against the U.S. presence.
On Thursday, three bombs killed 23 Iraqis in Baghdad, and the U.S. military announced the deaths of three American soldiers.
Against the backdrop of sectarian killings that have dragged Sunni Arabs and Shiite Muslims into civil warfare over the past year, Saddam urged his countrymen to "remember that God has enabled you to become an example of love, forgiveness, and brotherly coexistence."
But he also voiced support for the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency, saying: "Long live jihad and the mujahedeen." He urged Iraqis to be patient and rely on God's help in fighting "against the unjust nations."
Saddam said he was giving his life for his country as part of that struggle. "Here, I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice, and if he wants, he will send it to heaven with the martyrs," he said.
An official from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa Party, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said that "the government wants Saddam executed as soon as possible."
Another official close to al-Maliki, who also refused to be quoted by name, said the execution would take place before the end of the 30-day period.
Ghazzawi, the defense lawyer, said the letter by Saddam was released Tuesday and published Wednesday on the Web site of Saddam's former Baath Party.
Some Saddam loyalists threatened to retaliate if he is executed, warning in a posting on the same Web site that they would target U.S. interests.
"The Baath and the resistance are determined to retaliate, with all means and everywhere, to harm America and its interests if it commits this crime," the statement said, referring to Baath fighters as "the resistance."
The Baath Party was disbanded after U.S.-led forces overthrew Saddam in 2003. The Web site is believed to be run from Yemen, where a number of exiled members of the party are based.
Some Iraqis said Saddam should be hanged immediately, but others feared Iraq's bloodletting could escalate if the former dictator is executed at a time when sectarian attacks are already on the rise.
"Executing him now is dangerous. The situation is very bad. Things need to be calmer," said Saadia Mohamed Majed, a 60-year-old Shiite in Baghdad who wants the penalty to be postponed for at least three years.
Saddam is in the midst of another trial, charged with genocide and other crimes during a 1987-88 military crackdown on Kurds in northern Iraq. An estimated 180,000 Kurds died during the operation. That trial was adjourned until Jan. 8, but experts have said the trial of Saddam's co-defendants is likely to continue even if he is executed.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
The Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc. © 2006
Associated Press
December 28, 2006
CBNNews.com - BAGHDAD, Iraq -- In a farewell letter to the Iraqi people, Saddam Hussein urged his countrymen not to hate the people of the nations that toppled his regime nearly four years ago and said he was offering "my soul to God as a sacrifice."
The letter was posted on a Web site Wednesday, a day after Iraq's highest court upheld his death sentence and ordered him hanged within 30 days.
A top government official, meanwhile, said Saddam's execution could proceed without the approval of Iraq's president, meaning there were no more legal obstacles to sending the deposed dictator to the gallows.
One of Saddam's attorneys, Issam Ghazzawi, confirmed to "The Associated Press" in Jordan that the Internet letter was authentic, saying it was written by Saddam on Nov. 5 - the day he was convicted by an Iraqi tribunal for ordering the 1982 killings of 148 Shiite Muslims in Dujail.
"I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking," said the letter, which was written in Arabic and translated by the AP.
"I also call on you not to hate the people of the other countries that attacked us," it added, referring to the invasion that toppled his regime.
Despite his calls for conciliation among Iraqis, Saddam's legacy is brutal. He put suspected foes to death without trial, oppressed Kurds and Shiites, waged war on Iran and twice fought U.S.-led armies. He left an impoverished nation now gripped by sectarian bloodshed and an insurgency against the U.S. presence.
On Thursday, three bombs killed 23 Iraqis in Baghdad, and the U.S. military announced the deaths of three American soldiers.
Against the backdrop of sectarian killings that have dragged Sunni Arabs and Shiite Muslims into civil warfare over the past year, Saddam urged his countrymen to "remember that God has enabled you to become an example of love, forgiveness, and brotherly coexistence."
But he also voiced support for the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency, saying: "Long live jihad and the mujahedeen." He urged Iraqis to be patient and rely on God's help in fighting "against the unjust nations."
Saddam said he was giving his life for his country as part of that struggle. "Here, I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice, and if he wants, he will send it to heaven with the martyrs," he said.
An official from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Dawa Party, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said that "the government wants Saddam executed as soon as possible."
Another official close to al-Maliki, who also refused to be quoted by name, said the execution would take place before the end of the 30-day period.
Ghazzawi, the defense lawyer, said the letter by Saddam was released Tuesday and published Wednesday on the Web site of Saddam's former Baath Party.
Some Saddam loyalists threatened to retaliate if he is executed, warning in a posting on the same Web site that they would target U.S. interests.
"The Baath and the resistance are determined to retaliate, with all means and everywhere, to harm America and its interests if it commits this crime," the statement said, referring to Baath fighters as "the resistance."
The Baath Party was disbanded after U.S.-led forces overthrew Saddam in 2003. The Web site is believed to be run from Yemen, where a number of exiled members of the party are based.
Some Iraqis said Saddam should be hanged immediately, but others feared Iraq's bloodletting could escalate if the former dictator is executed at a time when sectarian attacks are already on the rise.
"Executing him now is dangerous. The situation is very bad. Things need to be calmer," said Saadia Mohamed Majed, a 60-year-old Shiite in Baghdad who wants the penalty to be postponed for at least three years.
Saddam is in the midst of another trial, charged with genocide and other crimes during a 1987-88 military crackdown on Kurds in northern Iraq. An estimated 180,000 Kurds died during the operation. That trial was adjourned until Jan. 8, but experts have said the trial of Saddam's co-defendants is likely to continue even if he is executed.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
The Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc. © 2006
Librarian guides underground worship movement in Africa
Librarian guides underground worship movement in Africa
By Emily Peters
Baptist Press
WEST AFRICA (BP)--It’s the stuff superheroes are made of.
Clark Kent wasn’t just a reporter. Peter Parker didn’t just deliver pizzas. Mary Malone* isn’t just a librarian.
For more than 20 years, Malone has been sorting books and helping the students at a seminary in West Africa research their assignments. But her after-hours gig involves a bit more risk.
That’s when Fulani believers come to her house seeking guidance for their underground worship communities, which are popping up everywhere despite harsh new Muslim laws assigning the death penalty to Christian converts.
The Fulani people are traditionally quiet, nomadic cattle herders known for producing beef and milk and for spreading Islam throughout the region. Most live in isolated cattle camps deep in the bush. Few attend school. Even fewer are Christians.
“Most churches here have little interest in ministering to the Fulani because they see them as just too resistant to the Gospel,” Malone explained. She invited the Fulani pastors-in-training to her home for an informal support group.
The Fulani have no word for “librarian” in their native language of Fulfulde, but Malone quickly earned a more fitting title. She became their “madujo,” which means mother.
“In the whole nation I don’t think we could find a mother like her,” said Abdul*, one of the first Fulani pastors Malone mentored. “She prays for us seriously. She can joke and play with us. She can advise us spiritually with family. She knows how to settle us. She always wants our ministries progressing.”
With Malone’s guidance, those few Fulani started taking the Gospel to their own people. A few converts became a few more.
Then the region erupted in riots. People of different religions and ethnic groups clashed over the government's installation of Islamic regulations, called Shari’ah law. Many were slain. Rioters burned the pastor school to the ground, along with churches and many homes of the Fulani converts.
Malone remembers her thoughts as she returned to her library to find all the books still smoldering, charred beyond use.
“I used to feel guilty about doing this ministry when my job was to be a librarian,” she said. “After that, I changed my way of thinking. I realized books are temporary. It’s the people that last.”
But the new religious tension forced some changes in the Fulani ministry.
“We’ve had to go more undercover,” Malone said.
She can’t visit the new Fulani believers at their homes anymore. Some of them lost children when their grass and stick homes were torched. Others have been detained without reason.
“If she visits them, they are going to have more problems with their neighbors and the Muslim brothers,” Abdul said.
So Abdul and his Fulani brothers launched their own evangelism plan, forming a structure for their worship communities. Small groups gather in homes for worship and Bible study. Sometimes larger groups assemble, but spontaneously, and not in the same place twice.
Two hundred believers before the riots multiplied to 3,000, and now the network has swelled so large Malone can’t keep count.
“It’s very rare that a Fulani becomes a Christian and then within a week or two doesn’t bring someone else,” she said.
These days, Malone focuses her ministry on about 10 core leaders. Nearly every day when she finishes at the library, she counsels them and trains them in new ways to minister to their worship groups -- not officially called churches to avoid persecution.
Each of the leaders then imparts that training to fellowship leaders, who pass it on to their sub-leaders.
“We now have worship communities spread over 70,000 square miles,” Malone said.
She admits that sometimes she asks God why He brought all this to a librarian, but she has realized God can use any job for His glory.
“God has gifted each of us with interests, skills and abilities that He expects us to use creatively for His purposes,” she said.
--30--
*Names changed for security reasons. To learn more about missions in West Africa, visit GoWestAfrica.org.
Copyright © 2001 - 2006 Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press
By Emily Peters
Baptist Press
WEST AFRICA (BP)--It’s the stuff superheroes are made of.
Clark Kent wasn’t just a reporter. Peter Parker didn’t just deliver pizzas. Mary Malone* isn’t just a librarian.
For more than 20 years, Malone has been sorting books and helping the students at a seminary in West Africa research their assignments. But her after-hours gig involves a bit more risk.
That’s when Fulani believers come to her house seeking guidance for their underground worship communities, which are popping up everywhere despite harsh new Muslim laws assigning the death penalty to Christian converts.
The Fulani people are traditionally quiet, nomadic cattle herders known for producing beef and milk and for spreading Islam throughout the region. Most live in isolated cattle camps deep in the bush. Few attend school. Even fewer are Christians.
“Most churches here have little interest in ministering to the Fulani because they see them as just too resistant to the Gospel,” Malone explained. She invited the Fulani pastors-in-training to her home for an informal support group.
The Fulani have no word for “librarian” in their native language of Fulfulde, but Malone quickly earned a more fitting title. She became their “madujo,” which means mother.
“In the whole nation I don’t think we could find a mother like her,” said Abdul*, one of the first Fulani pastors Malone mentored. “She prays for us seriously. She can joke and play with us. She can advise us spiritually with family. She knows how to settle us. She always wants our ministries progressing.”
With Malone’s guidance, those few Fulani started taking the Gospel to their own people. A few converts became a few more.
Then the region erupted in riots. People of different religions and ethnic groups clashed over the government's installation of Islamic regulations, called Shari’ah law. Many were slain. Rioters burned the pastor school to the ground, along with churches and many homes of the Fulani converts.
Malone remembers her thoughts as she returned to her library to find all the books still smoldering, charred beyond use.
“I used to feel guilty about doing this ministry when my job was to be a librarian,” she said. “After that, I changed my way of thinking. I realized books are temporary. It’s the people that last.”
But the new religious tension forced some changes in the Fulani ministry.
“We’ve had to go more undercover,” Malone said.
She can’t visit the new Fulani believers at their homes anymore. Some of them lost children when their grass and stick homes were torched. Others have been detained without reason.
“If she visits them, they are going to have more problems with their neighbors and the Muslim brothers,” Abdul said.
So Abdul and his Fulani brothers launched their own evangelism plan, forming a structure for their worship communities. Small groups gather in homes for worship and Bible study. Sometimes larger groups assemble, but spontaneously, and not in the same place twice.
Two hundred believers before the riots multiplied to 3,000, and now the network has swelled so large Malone can’t keep count.
“It’s very rare that a Fulani becomes a Christian and then within a week or two doesn’t bring someone else,” she said.
These days, Malone focuses her ministry on about 10 core leaders. Nearly every day when she finishes at the library, she counsels them and trains them in new ways to minister to their worship groups -- not officially called churches to avoid persecution.
Each of the leaders then imparts that training to fellowship leaders, who pass it on to their sub-leaders.
“We now have worship communities spread over 70,000 square miles,” Malone said.
She admits that sometimes she asks God why He brought all this to a librarian, but she has realized God can use any job for His glory.
“God has gifted each of us with interests, skills and abilities that He expects us to use creatively for His purposes,” she said.
--30--
*Names changed for security reasons. To learn more about missions in West Africa, visit GoWestAfrica.org.
Copyright © 2001 - 2006 Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press
CULTURE DIGEST: Congressional investigation finds Smithsonian guilty of discrimination in ID incident; ...
CULTURE DIGEST: Congressional investigation finds Smithsonian guilty of discrimination in ID incident; ...
By Erin Roach
Baptist Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--A Congressional investigation has revealed that the Smithsonian’s top officials permitted the demotion and harassment of a research associate at the National Museum of Natural History for allowing an article supporting Intelligent Design to appear in the institution's peer-reviewed scientific journal.
The article by Stephen Meyer, a fellow at the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, laid out the evidential case for Intelligent Design by citing mainstream scientists from schools like the University of Chicago, Yale, Cambridge and Oxford. A rift over the article first surfaced in national media reports in January 2005.
The House committee on government reform released a report on the investigation Dec. 11, concluding that “Congress should consider statutory language that would protect the free speech rights regarding evolution of scientists in the Smithsonian and other federally-funded institutions.”
Among the findings of the committee is that officials at the Smithsonian created a hostile work environment intended to force Richard Sternberg to resign his position as a research associate in violation of his free speech and civil rights.
“Clearly, the NMNH management was trying to make Dr. Sternberg’s life at the Museum as difficult as possible and encourage him to leave, since they knew they had no legal grounds to dismiss him,” the report said.
Also, the committee analyzed e-mail exchanges among Smithsonian officials to determine that “scientists who are known to be skeptical of Darwinian theory, whatever their qualifications or research record, cannot expect to receive equal treatment or consideration by NMNH officials.”
The committee further concluded there was a strong religious and political component to the actions taken by officials, including questioning whether Sternberg “was religious,” “was a Republican,” “was a fundamentalist,” and whether “he was a conservative.”
“Would similar expressions of disparagement have been tolerated by Smithsonian officials if directed at a racial minority?” the committee asked.
NMNH officials “conspired with a special interest group on government time and using government emails to publicly smear Dr. Sternberg,” the committee said, referring to collaboration with the National Center for Science Education, a pro-evolution group.
“Since the treatment of Dr. Sternberg came to light in early 2005, evidence has accumulated of widespread discrimination against other qualified scientists who dissent from Darwinian theory, making further violations by federal agencies likely,” the report said. “While the majority of scientists embrace Darwinian theory, it is important that neither federal funds nor federal power be used to punish or retaliate against otherwise qualified scientists merely because they dissent from the majority view.”
‘LEFT BEHIND’ VIDEO GAME CAUSES STIR -- It has been endorsed by Focus on the Family and other conservative groups, but liberal Christian organizations are calling “Left Behind: Eternal Forces” a video game that is too violent, intolerant and divisive to be called Christian, the Los Angeles Times reported Dec. 17.
“It’s essentially a training video for faith-based killing, marketed to children,” Tim Simpson, a Presbyterian pastor in Florida and interim president of Christian Alliance for Progress, told the Times.
An offshoot of the popular novel series dealing with the end times, the video game released in November challenges players to evangelize and care for the people of New York City while the enemy attempts to gain control.
“You start out with a few people (units) in your control, send them out to gather resources (money and real estate) and train them up to become musicians, builders, nurses, pastors, disciples and soldiers, each with his or her own function for the community and impact on the world,” Bob Hoose explains in a review for Focus on the Family’s Plugged In Online.
“I can’t think of anything more antithetical to the Gospel of Christ,” Simpson said. “The message is that God intends for everyone who doesn’t share your faith to be whacked.”
Hoose, though, said players are offered sniper rifles, gun turrets, tanks and helicopters to destroy the enemy, but there is no gore because people who are killed simply fade away. The player soon learns violence isn’t the way to win.
“It quickly becomes clear that the strongest weapons in your arsenal are your top-level missionaries and worship leaders,” Hoose wrote. “It's easier to convert a group of enemies than it is to shoot them.”
Eternal Forces is a game parents can play with their kids, Hoose said, and the production company behind it is pushing it as an evangelism tool for teens. The game raises questions about the end of the world that can lead to theological discussions, but its approach doesn’t require a seminary education, he added.
“I want to show that thinking about what may happen when you die can be as fun as being in an Indiana Jones film,” Troy Lyndon, the game’s creator, told the Times. “It’s an adventure.”
'CHURCH ATM' FOR TITHING -- In an effort to keep up with the culture, a church in Georgia has developed a type of ATM, which it calls an “automatic tithe machine,” to facilitate monetary donations each week through the use of a credit or debit card.
“We’re just trying to connect with the culture,” Marty Baker, pastor of Stevens Creek Community Church in Martinez, told the Associated Press. “And that’s how the culture does business. It’s more than an ATM for Jesus. It’s about erasing barriers.”
People can swipe a card, choose a fund in which to deposit their donation, enter an amount and get a receipt.
Baker told AP he developed the idea when he realized that so many people these days rarely carry cash in their wallets and rely on plastic cards instead. Since installing the machines in his 1,100-member church, he has seen an 18 percent increase in giving and the average gift through the machines exceeds $100, AP said.
Even so, the ATMs account for only one-fifth of the church’s income.
Amy Forrest, a 31-year-old churchgoer at Stevens Creek, said the ATMs make it much easier for her to give her $40 donation each week.
“This church gets how I live,” she told AP.
Some, though, say the machine leads people to ignore the principal of sacrificial giving from the heart as a form of worship.
Copyright © 2001 - 2006 Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press
By Erin Roach
Baptist Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--A Congressional investigation has revealed that the Smithsonian’s top officials permitted the demotion and harassment of a research associate at the National Museum of Natural History for allowing an article supporting Intelligent Design to appear in the institution's peer-reviewed scientific journal.
The article by Stephen Meyer, a fellow at the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, laid out the evidential case for Intelligent Design by citing mainstream scientists from schools like the University of Chicago, Yale, Cambridge and Oxford. A rift over the article first surfaced in national media reports in January 2005.
The House committee on government reform released a report on the investigation Dec. 11, concluding that “Congress should consider statutory language that would protect the free speech rights regarding evolution of scientists in the Smithsonian and other federally-funded institutions.”
Among the findings of the committee is that officials at the Smithsonian created a hostile work environment intended to force Richard Sternberg to resign his position as a research associate in violation of his free speech and civil rights.
“Clearly, the NMNH management was trying to make Dr. Sternberg’s life at the Museum as difficult as possible and encourage him to leave, since they knew they had no legal grounds to dismiss him,” the report said.
Also, the committee analyzed e-mail exchanges among Smithsonian officials to determine that “scientists who are known to be skeptical of Darwinian theory, whatever their qualifications or research record, cannot expect to receive equal treatment or consideration by NMNH officials.”
The committee further concluded there was a strong religious and political component to the actions taken by officials, including questioning whether Sternberg “was religious,” “was a Republican,” “was a fundamentalist,” and whether “he was a conservative.”
“Would similar expressions of disparagement have been tolerated by Smithsonian officials if directed at a racial minority?” the committee asked.
NMNH officials “conspired with a special interest group on government time and using government emails to publicly smear Dr. Sternberg,” the committee said, referring to collaboration with the National Center for Science Education, a pro-evolution group.
“Since the treatment of Dr. Sternberg came to light in early 2005, evidence has accumulated of widespread discrimination against other qualified scientists who dissent from Darwinian theory, making further violations by federal agencies likely,” the report said. “While the majority of scientists embrace Darwinian theory, it is important that neither federal funds nor federal power be used to punish or retaliate against otherwise qualified scientists merely because they dissent from the majority view.”
‘LEFT BEHIND’ VIDEO GAME CAUSES STIR -- It has been endorsed by Focus on the Family and other conservative groups, but liberal Christian organizations are calling “Left Behind: Eternal Forces” a video game that is too violent, intolerant and divisive to be called Christian, the Los Angeles Times reported Dec. 17.
“It’s essentially a training video for faith-based killing, marketed to children,” Tim Simpson, a Presbyterian pastor in Florida and interim president of Christian Alliance for Progress, told the Times.
An offshoot of the popular novel series dealing with the end times, the video game released in November challenges players to evangelize and care for the people of New York City while the enemy attempts to gain control.
“You start out with a few people (units) in your control, send them out to gather resources (money and real estate) and train them up to become musicians, builders, nurses, pastors, disciples and soldiers, each with his or her own function for the community and impact on the world,” Bob Hoose explains in a review for Focus on the Family’s Plugged In Online.
“I can’t think of anything more antithetical to the Gospel of Christ,” Simpson said. “The message is that God intends for everyone who doesn’t share your faith to be whacked.”
Hoose, though, said players are offered sniper rifles, gun turrets, tanks and helicopters to destroy the enemy, but there is no gore because people who are killed simply fade away. The player soon learns violence isn’t the way to win.
“It quickly becomes clear that the strongest weapons in your arsenal are your top-level missionaries and worship leaders,” Hoose wrote. “It's easier to convert a group of enemies than it is to shoot them.”
Eternal Forces is a game parents can play with their kids, Hoose said, and the production company behind it is pushing it as an evangelism tool for teens. The game raises questions about the end of the world that can lead to theological discussions, but its approach doesn’t require a seminary education, he added.
“I want to show that thinking about what may happen when you die can be as fun as being in an Indiana Jones film,” Troy Lyndon, the game’s creator, told the Times. “It’s an adventure.”
'CHURCH ATM' FOR TITHING -- In an effort to keep up with the culture, a church in Georgia has developed a type of ATM, which it calls an “automatic tithe machine,” to facilitate monetary donations each week through the use of a credit or debit card.
“We’re just trying to connect with the culture,” Marty Baker, pastor of Stevens Creek Community Church in Martinez, told the Associated Press. “And that’s how the culture does business. It’s more than an ATM for Jesus. It’s about erasing barriers.”
People can swipe a card, choose a fund in which to deposit their donation, enter an amount and get a receipt.
Baker told AP he developed the idea when he realized that so many people these days rarely carry cash in their wallets and rely on plastic cards instead. Since installing the machines in his 1,100-member church, he has seen an 18 percent increase in giving and the average gift through the machines exceeds $100, AP said.
Even so, the ATMs account for only one-fifth of the church’s income.
Amy Forrest, a 31-year-old churchgoer at Stevens Creek, said the ATMs make it much easier for her to give her $40 donation each week.
“This church gets how I live,” she told AP.
Some, though, say the machine leads people to ignore the principal of sacrificial giving from the heart as a form of worship.
Copyright © 2001 - 2006 Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press
Pastors' convictions for quoting Quran overturned
Pastors' convictions for quoting Quran overturned
Case was brought under version of 'hate crimes' legislation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: December 28, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
.jpg)
Two Australian pastors who were convicted of "vilifying" Muslims when they quoted from the Quran during a seminar on jihad have had their appeals upheld by the Victorian Supreme Court.
And while that means they will return to a lower court for another trial, that actually is a good result, according to a new report from Voice of the Martyrs.
"In a sense we are happy with this decision… It means this case will be kept alive in the public consciousness," Pastor Danny Nalliah said in a VOM report. "There's a need to keep these vilification laws in sharp focus to reveal the problems this law is creating."
The Australian law was imposed in order to prevent the denigration of people based on their race or religion, and similar laws also have been approved in Canada, where critics of the law say they include sexual orientation and forbid pastors from condemning homosexuality as a sin.
Many of the "hate crimes" proposals in the United States are based on a similar concept: designating as "crimes" the statements people make about their own beliefs or convictions.
In a statement released through Catch the Fire Ministries, where Nalliah serves as president, he thanked his friends for their moral, prayer and financial support during the trial and appeal process to date.
"The battle for Freedom to express Truth is far from over, as a retrial at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (with a different Judge) is expected sometime next year… I believe the Lord will continue to use this case to further awaken His Church, our nation of Australia, the nations of the world, and to discredit the vilification laws in Victoria," he wrote.
Nalliah and Pastor Daniel Scot were charged following a complaint filed by The Islamic Council of Victoria, and were the first people found guilty of religious vilification under the Victorian Religious and Racial Tolerance Act of 2002. They were accused of vilifying Muslims at a seminar on jihad on March 9, 2002.
VOM said the two were lecturing on the differences between Christianity and Islam, and quoted directly from the Quran.
After his conviction, Nalliah had refused to apologize.
"Right from the inception, we have said that this law is a foul law, this law is not a law that brings unity. It causes disunity and as far as we are concerned right from the beginning we have stated that we will not apologize. We will go to prison for standing for the truth and not sacrifice our freedom and freedom to speak," he told VOM.
In a commentary in the Herald Sun, Andrew Bolt noted the travesty of the case, and that besides the death threats to the pastors and their families, they still must pay an estimated $150,000 for the court proceedings against them.
"Some victory. Some justice. These exhausted pastors have been harassed, threatened, denounced as bigots and flayed in the papers and on the ABC, and are now deep in debt. And why? Because they quoted the Quran to their congregation. Because in that congregation were Muslim activists, sent by a discrimination commissar hired from a Muslim lobby group," Bolt wrote.
He wrote that much of the evidence against the pastors was that they, in fact, quoted the Quran accurately. "Yes, the Quran did tell men they could beat their wives. Yes, it did have verses calling on Muslims to fight infidels until they submitted."
"The pastors were found guilty of vilifying Muslims even though the judge identified only one thing Scot had said that was factually wrong: he'd given the wrong birthrate for Muslims here. And, the judge, added, he'd failed to quote a verse that showed Allah was merciful," Bolt wrote.
VOM is a non-profit, interdenominational ministry working worldwide to help Christians who are persecuted for their faith, and to educate the world about that persecution. Its headquarters are in Bartlesville, Okla., and it has 30 affiliated international offices.
It was launched by the late Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, who started smuggling Russian Gospels into Russia in 1947, just months before Richard was abducted and imprisoned in Romania where he was tortured for his refusal to recant Christianity.
He eventually was released in 1964 and the next year he testified about the persecution of Christians before the U.S. Senate's Internal Security Subcommittee, stripping to the waist to show the deep torture wound scars on his body.
The group that later was renamed The Voice of the Martyrs was organized in 1967, when his book, "Tortured for Christ," was released.
Case was brought under version of 'hate crimes' legislation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: December 28, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
.jpg)
Two Australian pastors who were convicted of "vilifying" Muslims when they quoted from the Quran during a seminar on jihad have had their appeals upheld by the Victorian Supreme Court.And while that means they will return to a lower court for another trial, that actually is a good result, according to a new report from Voice of the Martyrs.
"In a sense we are happy with this decision… It means this case will be kept alive in the public consciousness," Pastor Danny Nalliah said in a VOM report. "There's a need to keep these vilification laws in sharp focus to reveal the problems this law is creating."
The Australian law was imposed in order to prevent the denigration of people based on their race or religion, and similar laws also have been approved in Canada, where critics of the law say they include sexual orientation and forbid pastors from condemning homosexuality as a sin.
Many of the "hate crimes" proposals in the United States are based on a similar concept: designating as "crimes" the statements people make about their own beliefs or convictions.
In a statement released through Catch the Fire Ministries, where Nalliah serves as president, he thanked his friends for their moral, prayer and financial support during the trial and appeal process to date.
"The battle for Freedom to express Truth is far from over, as a retrial at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (with a different Judge) is expected sometime next year… I believe the Lord will continue to use this case to further awaken His Church, our nation of Australia, the nations of the world, and to discredit the vilification laws in Victoria," he wrote.
Nalliah and Pastor Daniel Scot were charged following a complaint filed by The Islamic Council of Victoria, and were the first people found guilty of religious vilification under the Victorian Religious and Racial Tolerance Act of 2002. They were accused of vilifying Muslims at a seminar on jihad on March 9, 2002.
VOM said the two were lecturing on the differences between Christianity and Islam, and quoted directly from the Quran.
After his conviction, Nalliah had refused to apologize.
"Right from the inception, we have said that this law is a foul law, this law is not a law that brings unity. It causes disunity and as far as we are concerned right from the beginning we have stated that we will not apologize. We will go to prison for standing for the truth and not sacrifice our freedom and freedom to speak," he told VOM.
In a commentary in the Herald Sun, Andrew Bolt noted the travesty of the case, and that besides the death threats to the pastors and their families, they still must pay an estimated $150,000 for the court proceedings against them.
"Some victory. Some justice. These exhausted pastors have been harassed, threatened, denounced as bigots and flayed in the papers and on the ABC, and are now deep in debt. And why? Because they quoted the Quran to their congregation. Because in that congregation were Muslim activists, sent by a discrimination commissar hired from a Muslim lobby group," Bolt wrote.
He wrote that much of the evidence against the pastors was that they, in fact, quoted the Quran accurately. "Yes, the Quran did tell men they could beat their wives. Yes, it did have verses calling on Muslims to fight infidels until they submitted."
"The pastors were found guilty of vilifying Muslims even though the judge identified only one thing Scot had said that was factually wrong: he'd given the wrong birthrate for Muslims here. And, the judge, added, he'd failed to quote a verse that showed Allah was merciful," Bolt wrote.
VOM is a non-profit, interdenominational ministry working worldwide to help Christians who are persecuted for their faith, and to educate the world about that persecution. Its headquarters are in Bartlesville, Okla., and it has 30 affiliated international offices.
It was launched by the late Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, who started smuggling Russian Gospels into Russia in 1947, just months before Richard was abducted and imprisoned in Romania where he was tortured for his refusal to recant Christianity.
He eventually was released in 1964 and the next year he testified about the persecution of Christians before the U.S. Senate's Internal Security Subcommittee, stripping to the waist to show the deep torture wound scars on his body.
The group that later was renamed The Voice of the Martyrs was organized in 1967, when his book, "Tortured for Christ," was released.
Evolution's instability highlighted by new study
Evolution's instability highlighted by new study
Expert says without reliable foundation, assumptions get wacky
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: December 28, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
A new report by "Geology" magazine that a newspaper cited as linking humans to the die-off of Australia's "prehistoric" animals really doesn't advance knowledge, either in advocacy of or opposition to evolution, according to an expert in the field and president of a Christian apologetics ministry.
That's because without a firm foundation, the rafters always are always shaky, according to Ken Ham, the president of Answers in Genesis, which advocates for the truth and integrity of the Bible, starting from the first verse beginning: "In the beginning, God…"
The report comes from The Australian, which said the new article in the January 2007 edition of "Geology" says 90 percent of Australia's "megafauna – prehistoric animals such as giant goannas, three-metre tall kangaroos and rhino-sized marsupials – died out within 20,000 years of human arrival."
The newspaper report notes that while data still is lacking, a variety of animals had flourished under changing climatic conditions, but then disappeared with the advent of man.
The report said, "An analysis of fossils found in south-eastern Australia found they became extinct during environmental conditions similar to those under which they thrived," thus man was implicated.
"Although populations fluctuated locally in concert with cyclical climatic changes, with larger species favored in wetter times, most if not all of them survived even the driest times - then humans arrived.'' said Gavin Prideaux, a paleontologist from the Western Australian Museum and Flinders University.
But Ham, an Australian who is in demand as a Christian conference speaker on topics including the reliability of the Bible, said such reports never add substantively to the sum of knowledge.
"It's a good example of the fact that evolutionary ideas change all the time. They are reinterpreting their ideas as they look at the evidence," he told WND. "The result is that there's no real knowledge there."
He said such articles base their many assumptions on such concepts as the fossil layers that are discovered.
"If they find animals and plants in the fossil record together, they assume they were living together," he told WND. "That's not necessarily so. They could have been transported and dumped together."
Just because they were buried together, doesn't mean they lived together, he noted. "You didn't see them moving together," he said.
From a biblical perspective, such issues are more logical, he said. Such fossil circumstances could have happened during the worldwide flood described in Genesis at the time of Noah. And after the flood either climate changes or people could have had an impact on various species.
"This is the interpretation they've now come up with," he said. "It can change."
"When you're in the present trying to understand the past, you don't have the past, so you try to reconstruct it. You have to have certain assumptions to try to re-create it. If one assumption is that the Bible is not true, and your dating methods are absolute, (you get one result)."
"If you change those assumptions, you get a whole different interpretation of the past."
WND was unable to obtain a response from scientists who are involved in the field through the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Ham, who has written "The Lie: Evolution" as well as several children's books, is founder and president of the organization, whose introduction notes that "facts" don't speak for themselves, and must be interpreted.
"There aren't separate sets of 'evidences' for evolution and creation – we all deal with the same evidence (we all live on the same earth, have the same fossils, observe the same animals, etc.). The difference lies in how we interpret what we study.
"The Bible – the 'history book of the universe' – provides a reliable, eye-witness account of the beginning of all things, and can be trusted to tell the truth in all areas it touches. Therefore, we are able to use it to help us make sense of this present world."
Expert says without reliable foundation, assumptions get wacky
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: December 28, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
A new report by "Geology" magazine that a newspaper cited as linking humans to the die-off of Australia's "prehistoric" animals really doesn't advance knowledge, either in advocacy of or opposition to evolution, according to an expert in the field and president of a Christian apologetics ministry.That's because without a firm foundation, the rafters always are always shaky, according to Ken Ham, the president of Answers in Genesis, which advocates for the truth and integrity of the Bible, starting from the first verse beginning: "In the beginning, God…"
The report comes from The Australian, which said the new article in the January 2007 edition of "Geology" says 90 percent of Australia's "megafauna – prehistoric animals such as giant goannas, three-metre tall kangaroos and rhino-sized marsupials – died out within 20,000 years of human arrival."
The newspaper report notes that while data still is lacking, a variety of animals had flourished under changing climatic conditions, but then disappeared with the advent of man.
The report said, "An analysis of fossils found in south-eastern Australia found they became extinct during environmental conditions similar to those under which they thrived," thus man was implicated.
"Although populations fluctuated locally in concert with cyclical climatic changes, with larger species favored in wetter times, most if not all of them survived even the driest times - then humans arrived.'' said Gavin Prideaux, a paleontologist from the Western Australian Museum and Flinders University.
But Ham, an Australian who is in demand as a Christian conference speaker on topics including the reliability of the Bible, said such reports never add substantively to the sum of knowledge.
"It's a good example of the fact that evolutionary ideas change all the time. They are reinterpreting their ideas as they look at the evidence," he told WND. "The result is that there's no real knowledge there."
He said such articles base their many assumptions on such concepts as the fossil layers that are discovered.
"If they find animals and plants in the fossil record together, they assume they were living together," he told WND. "That's not necessarily so. They could have been transported and dumped together."
Just because they were buried together, doesn't mean they lived together, he noted. "You didn't see them moving together," he said.
From a biblical perspective, such issues are more logical, he said. Such fossil circumstances could have happened during the worldwide flood described in Genesis at the time of Noah. And after the flood either climate changes or people could have had an impact on various species.
"This is the interpretation they've now come up with," he said. "It can change."
"When you're in the present trying to understand the past, you don't have the past, so you try to reconstruct it. You have to have certain assumptions to try to re-create it. If one assumption is that the Bible is not true, and your dating methods are absolute, (you get one result)."
"If you change those assumptions, you get a whole different interpretation of the past."
WND was unable to obtain a response from scientists who are involved in the field through the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Ham, who has written "The Lie: Evolution" as well as several children's books, is founder and president of the organization, whose introduction notes that "facts" don't speak for themselves, and must be interpreted.
"There aren't separate sets of 'evidences' for evolution and creation – we all deal with the same evidence (we all live on the same earth, have the same fossils, observe the same animals, etc.). The difference lies in how we interpret what we study.
"The Bible – the 'history book of the universe' – provides a reliable, eye-witness account of the beginning of all things, and can be trusted to tell the truth in all areas it touches. Therefore, we are able to use it to help us make sense of this present world."
Judge: AG can't prosecute Tiller for abortions
Judge: AG can't prosecute Tiller for abortions
Kline says ruling may be appealed, and child rape cases developing
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: December 28, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
A special prosecutor is being appointed to take over the case against an influential abortionist in Wichita, according to state Attorney General Phill Kline, who also confirmed that documentation in support of more than two dozen cases of child rape is being turned over to various local prosecutors around the state.
The announcement came just as a state judge ruled Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston refused to "acquiesce" to a case involving 30 criminal counts that was investigated and documented by Kline, so it must be dismissed.
Judge Paul W. Clark had dismissed charges against abortionist George Tiller, who specializes in late-term procedures, last week without hearing any arguments but those of Foulston, and then held a hearing yesterday on the issue of whether those counts even could be filed by the state.
He said no, after listening to Foulston's opinion that she was the only person authorized to file counts in her judicial district. That despite arguments from Assistant Attorney General Steven Maxwell that Kansas law does allow the attorney general, the state's top law enforcement officer, to file counts in any county in the state.
"I control the prosecution of cases in this jurisdiction!" Foulston said in a voice witnesses described as loud and angry. 'The district attorney is being usurped by some out-of-towner on his way out as Attorney General."
Maxwell noted that wasn't Kansas law, and in fact, the state attorney general had filed hundreds of cases in various Kansas judicial districts in recent years, including several cases with district attorneys as defendants, but never had been required to obtain permission from the DAs.
Staff member Cheryl Sullenger, of the pro-life advocacy and action organization Operation Rescue, said it appeared that Foulston was taking the case against Tiller as a personal affront to her.
"It was very clear that Nola rules the roost in Sedgwick County and even the judges are afraid to oppose her," she said.
Foulston also asserted that the statute of limitations had expired on each of the 30 counts filed last week by Attorney General Phill Kline, but Maxwell corrected her, noting the legislature had extended that limit from three to five years.
Maxwell also told the judge Kline is appointing Wichita attorney Don McKinney as special prosecutor in the Tiller case, and the office was reserving the right to appeal Clark's conclusion.
Kline, who wasn't in the hearing but came to the courthouse later, announced on his website that two independent judges had found probable cause to believe crimes had been committed in the case, and the latest review "resulted in a finding of probable cause to believe that Mr. Tiller committed those crimes."
"Furthermore, the Kansas Supreme Court reviewed this investigation for over one year and has now twice ruled that the investigation may go forward," Kline noted.
"I was stunned that the District Attorney, after meeting with me prior to the filing of charges and pledging not to stand in the way, later reversed course and without any effort to notify myself or my office went to a different judge who had not reviewed the evidence and obtained a dismissal ex parte contrary to law and contrary to the facts," Kline said.
.jpg)
He told reporters at the hearing Foulston also cited no relevant case law in support of her position.
Clark's decision was delivered immediately from the bench, and apparently was based on the "he said-she said" dispute over whether Foulston agreed to the case.
"This case is far from over," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "We strongly believe that once an appeals court hears the arguments, the charges will be reinstated."
"KSA 22-3103 states '(i)f the testimony taken at an inquisition discloses probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed … the attorney general … may file such testimony, together with his complaint … against the person or persons alleged to have committed the crime … and a warrant shall there upon be issued for the arrest of such person…as in other criminal cases,'" said Kline. "Also, the Kansas Supreme Court has stated that once the Attorney General commences a prosecution, the Attorney General may not be removed from the case but for cause."
The case against Tiller resulted from an investigation of more than two years, as Tiller and another abortion provider in Kansas, Planned Parenthood, battled unsuccessfully all the way through the state Supreme Court against providing any medical documentation to the state's chief law enforcement officer.
The counts cite a number of abortions, such as the July 22, 2003, abortion on a 14-year-old child, patient "072203LM," where Tiller "wrongfully relied on a diagnosis of Anxiety Disorder … or Adjustment Disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood to determine that a continuation of the pregnancy will cause a substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman when such diagnoses do not establish that a continuation of the pregnancy will cause a substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman, in violation of [Kansas law.]"
The local prosecutor's earlier filing in support of dismissing the counts had cited two state laws "which require the Attorney General to initiate actions in certain circumstances," Kline said. However, they "do not contain a prohibition from filing actions."
Kline, who lost his re-election bid on the strength of strong pro-abortion support for his opponent, Democrat Paul Morrison, will be moving into a post as a district attorney in Kansas after he leaves state office, and still will have the authority to continue investigating some allegations of abortion business misconduct.
The charges include claims that Tiller provided abortions to the mothers after the statutory age limit of 22 weeks for the unborn babies. There also are allegations that the "medical reasons" listed in the abortion businesses' documents for the abortions were insufficient.
Kline said the 30 counts relate to 15 different abortions, provided to mothers ranging in age from 10-22, with the babies aged 25-31 weeks. They allege that Tiller "induced or performed an illegal late term abortion contrary to Kansas statute 30-6537-03" and that he "failed to report the reason and basis for performing that abortion on a viable child as required by that statute."
Operation Rescue officials, who earlier shut down one Wichita abortion business by purchasing the building it was in, said they weren't surprised much. "Foulston has come under criticism by pro-life supporters for refusing to prosecute accusations against Tiller because of her personal friendship with him. It is alleged that she adopted her only son through Tiller, who has stated publicly that he has arranged adoptions in return for political favors," a statement on the organization's website said.
Morrison had promised to begin a domestic violence unit, without any additional expense to the state. "Some of the money that's been used on misplaced priorities could easily fund" the plans, he had told the Lawrence Journal-World. He cited Kline's investigation of the abortion businesses run by Tiller in Wichita and Planned Parenthood as an example.
Morrison also got a huge boost in his campaign when a non-profit organization that the newspaper linked to Tiller mailed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of mailings critical of Kline.
The mailings called Kline "Snoop Dog" and were mailed by Kansans for Consumer Privacy Protection, said the newspaper, which noted that group had the same office address as ProKanDo, a political action committee Tiller started and is funding to elect pro-abortion candidates.
Kline also earlier had raised the issue of state statistics that showed in 2003, for example, there were 78 abortions provided to underage girls, including some as young as 10, without a single case of child rape being reported.
He said there now are 25 cases pending, and his work on those cases is continuing.
Kline says ruling may be appealed, and child rape cases developing
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: December 28, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
A special prosecutor is being appointed to take over the case against an influential abortionist in Wichita, according to state Attorney General Phill Kline, who also confirmed that documentation in support of more than two dozen cases of child rape is being turned over to various local prosecutors around the state.
The announcement came just as a state judge ruled Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston refused to "acquiesce" to a case involving 30 criminal counts that was investigated and documented by Kline, so it must be dismissed.
Judge Paul W. Clark had dismissed charges against abortionist George Tiller, who specializes in late-term procedures, last week without hearing any arguments but those of Foulston, and then held a hearing yesterday on the issue of whether those counts even could be filed by the state.
He said no, after listening to Foulston's opinion that she was the only person authorized to file counts in her judicial district. That despite arguments from Assistant Attorney General Steven Maxwell that Kansas law does allow the attorney general, the state's top law enforcement officer, to file counts in any county in the state.
"I control the prosecution of cases in this jurisdiction!" Foulston said in a voice witnesses described as loud and angry. 'The district attorney is being usurped by some out-of-towner on his way out as Attorney General."
Maxwell noted that wasn't Kansas law, and in fact, the state attorney general had filed hundreds of cases in various Kansas judicial districts in recent years, including several cases with district attorneys as defendants, but never had been required to obtain permission from the DAs.
Staff member Cheryl Sullenger, of the pro-life advocacy and action organization Operation Rescue, said it appeared that Foulston was taking the case against Tiller as a personal affront to her.
"It was very clear that Nola rules the roost in Sedgwick County and even the judges are afraid to oppose her," she said.
Foulston also asserted that the statute of limitations had expired on each of the 30 counts filed last week by Attorney General Phill Kline, but Maxwell corrected her, noting the legislature had extended that limit from three to five years.
Maxwell also told the judge Kline is appointing Wichita attorney Don McKinney as special prosecutor in the Tiller case, and the office was reserving the right to appeal Clark's conclusion.
Kline, who wasn't in the hearing but came to the courthouse later, announced on his website that two independent judges had found probable cause to believe crimes had been committed in the case, and the latest review "resulted in a finding of probable cause to believe that Mr. Tiller committed those crimes."
"Furthermore, the Kansas Supreme Court reviewed this investigation for over one year and has now twice ruled that the investigation may go forward," Kline noted.
"I was stunned that the District Attorney, after meeting with me prior to the filing of charges and pledging not to stand in the way, later reversed course and without any effort to notify myself or my office went to a different judge who had not reviewed the evidence and obtained a dismissal ex parte contrary to law and contrary to the facts," Kline said.
.jpg)
He told reporters at the hearing Foulston also cited no relevant case law in support of her position.Clark's decision was delivered immediately from the bench, and apparently was based on the "he said-she said" dispute over whether Foulston agreed to the case.
"This case is far from over," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "We strongly believe that once an appeals court hears the arguments, the charges will be reinstated."
"KSA 22-3103 states '(i)f the testimony taken at an inquisition discloses probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed … the attorney general … may file such testimony, together with his complaint … against the person or persons alleged to have committed the crime … and a warrant shall there upon be issued for the arrest of such person…as in other criminal cases,'" said Kline. "Also, the Kansas Supreme Court has stated that once the Attorney General commences a prosecution, the Attorney General may not be removed from the case but for cause."
The case against Tiller resulted from an investigation of more than two years, as Tiller and another abortion provider in Kansas, Planned Parenthood, battled unsuccessfully all the way through the state Supreme Court against providing any medical documentation to the state's chief law enforcement officer.
The counts cite a number of abortions, such as the July 22, 2003, abortion on a 14-year-old child, patient "072203LM," where Tiller "wrongfully relied on a diagnosis of Anxiety Disorder … or Adjustment Disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood to determine that a continuation of the pregnancy will cause a substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman when such diagnoses do not establish that a continuation of the pregnancy will cause a substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman, in violation of [Kansas law.]"
The local prosecutor's earlier filing in support of dismissing the counts had cited two state laws "which require the Attorney General to initiate actions in certain circumstances," Kline said. However, they "do not contain a prohibition from filing actions."
Kline, who lost his re-election bid on the strength of strong pro-abortion support for his opponent, Democrat Paul Morrison, will be moving into a post as a district attorney in Kansas after he leaves state office, and still will have the authority to continue investigating some allegations of abortion business misconduct.
The charges include claims that Tiller provided abortions to the mothers after the statutory age limit of 22 weeks for the unborn babies. There also are allegations that the "medical reasons" listed in the abortion businesses' documents for the abortions were insufficient.
Kline said the 30 counts relate to 15 different abortions, provided to mothers ranging in age from 10-22, with the babies aged 25-31 weeks. They allege that Tiller "induced or performed an illegal late term abortion contrary to Kansas statute 30-6537-03" and that he "failed to report the reason and basis for performing that abortion on a viable child as required by that statute."
Operation Rescue officials, who earlier shut down one Wichita abortion business by purchasing the building it was in, said they weren't surprised much. "Foulston has come under criticism by pro-life supporters for refusing to prosecute accusations against Tiller because of her personal friendship with him. It is alleged that she adopted her only son through Tiller, who has stated publicly that he has arranged adoptions in return for political favors," a statement on the organization's website said.
Morrison had promised to begin a domestic violence unit, without any additional expense to the state. "Some of the money that's been used on misplaced priorities could easily fund" the plans, he had told the Lawrence Journal-World. He cited Kline's investigation of the abortion businesses run by Tiller in Wichita and Planned Parenthood as an example.
Morrison also got a huge boost in his campaign when a non-profit organization that the newspaper linked to Tiller mailed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of mailings critical of Kline.
The mailings called Kline "Snoop Dog" and were mailed by Kansans for Consumer Privacy Protection, said the newspaper, which noted that group had the same office address as ProKanDo, a political action committee Tiller started and is funding to elect pro-abortion candidates.
Kline also earlier had raised the issue of state statistics that showed in 2003, for example, there were 78 abortions provided to underage girls, including some as young as 10, without a single case of child rape being reported.
He said there now are 25 cases pending, and his work on those cases is continuing.
Muslims begin the Hajj pilgrimage
Muslims begin the Hajj pilgrimage
An estimated three million Muslims are beginning the Hajj pilgrimage rituals in the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca, amid enhanced security.
The authorities say they have implemented new safety measures to prevent stampedes that have killed hundreds of people previously.
In January, almost 400 people were killed and some 300 injured in a stampede during one of the rituals.
The Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, is due to end on Monday.
It is an obligation for all Muslims to undertake the pilgrimage at least once in a lifetime, if they are physically and financially able.
Emotional day
A massive convoy of pilgrims, that will continue well into the evening, is making its way to the nearby tented city of Mina, the pilgrims' home over the next few days.
They are following the route of the first Hajj performed by the Prophet Muhammad some 1400 years ago.
The BBC's Aleem Maqbool says the day has been emotional, with many beginning the pilgrimage in tears.
Before the pilgrims leave Mecca, and when they complete the Hajj, they must walk seven times round the Kaaba (a cube-like building in the centre of the city's Great Mosque) in an anti-clockwise direction.
The Saudi authorities are imposing a strict quota system to try to keep the number of foreign visitors to a manageable level.
At the last Hajj, earlier this year, at least 345 pilgrims died in a crush during the stone-throwing ritual of the pilgrimage.
The stampede took place at the foot of the bridge of Jamarat, in Mina, where pilgrims hurl stones at three pillars representing the spot where the devil is said to have appeared to Abraham, and which creates a dangerous bottleneck.
Since then a major rebuilding project has been undertaken and 50,000 security personnel have been mobilised.
The ritual has seen many lethal stampedes, but the number of dead in January was the highest in 16 years.
BBC NEWS
© MMVI
An estimated three million Muslims are beginning the Hajj pilgrimage rituals in the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca, amid enhanced security.
The authorities say they have implemented new safety measures to prevent stampedes that have killed hundreds of people previously.
In January, almost 400 people were killed and some 300 injured in a stampede during one of the rituals.
The Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, is due to end on Monday.
It is an obligation for all Muslims to undertake the pilgrimage at least once in a lifetime, if they are physically and financially able.
Emotional day
A massive convoy of pilgrims, that will continue well into the evening, is making its way to the nearby tented city of Mina, the pilgrims' home over the next few days.
They are following the route of the first Hajj performed by the Prophet Muhammad some 1400 years ago.
The BBC's Aleem Maqbool says the day has been emotional, with many beginning the pilgrimage in tears.
Before the pilgrims leave Mecca, and when they complete the Hajj, they must walk seven times round the Kaaba (a cube-like building in the centre of the city's Great Mosque) in an anti-clockwise direction.
The Saudi authorities are imposing a strict quota system to try to keep the number of foreign visitors to a manageable level.
At the last Hajj, earlier this year, at least 345 pilgrims died in a crush during the stone-throwing ritual of the pilgrimage.
The stampede took place at the foot of the bridge of Jamarat, in Mina, where pilgrims hurl stones at three pillars representing the spot where the devil is said to have appeared to Abraham, and which creates a dangerous bottleneck.
Since then a major rebuilding project has been undertaken and 50,000 security personnel have been mobilised.
The ritual has seen many lethal stampedes, but the number of dead in January was the highest in 16 years.
BBC NEWS
© MMVI
Homeland Security apologizes for strip-search of Muslim woman stopped at Tampa airport
Homeland Security apologizes for strip-search of Muslim woman stopped at Tampa airport
By Sheela Raman
St. Petersburg Times
Posted December 28 2006, 9:02 AM EST
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has apologized to a Muslim traveler strip-searched at the Pinellas County Jail after being detained at Tampa International Airport in April.
Federal agents said they denied Spanish citizen Safana Jawad entry to the United States on April 11 because she was suspected of being associated with someone they view as suspicious.
Jawad, 45, was taken to the jail, strip-searched according to protocol and held in a maximum security cell for two days. She was never told the identity of the suspicious person.
Jawad, who was born in Iraq, had flown to the United States to visit her son, Hany Kubba, 16, who then lived in Clearwater with her ex-husband, Ahmad Maki Kubba.
Jawad was deported to England on April 13 and has since filed a complaint with the Homeland Security Department about being mistreated by customs officials as well as staff at the Pinellas County Jail. In a letter dated Dec. 8, the Homeland Security Department apologized only for the strip search.
``On behalf of the Department of Homeland Security, I offer you my sincere apology for having to undergo a strip search,'' wrote Timothy J. Keefer, deputy officer and acting chief counsel for the department's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which handles complaints.
The department would not release the name of the suspicious person Jawad was suspected of being associated with and would not comment on whether it believes she was rightfully detained.
Attached to the letter with no explanation was a photocopy of a notice that tells Transportation Security Administration officials about Muslim head coverings and how to treat Muslim travellers respectfully when searching them.
Everyone who files a complaint with the Homeland Security Department receives a response letter. Department spokeswoman Joanna Gonzalez said she could not say how many responses include apologies because the agency keeps no statistics on the outcomes of investigations.
And the Homeland Security Department could not provide any information about how many complaints the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties receives.
After being jailed, Jawad said she was subjected not only to a strip search but to a full body cavity search. Pinellas County sheriff's Sgt. Jim Bordner said only a regular strip search was performed, and there was no body cavity search. The strip search is part of normal procedure for booking and processing inmates, he said.
``We followed the same protocol with her as with any inmate,'' he said.
The jail conducted its own internal investigation after Jawad filed a complaint with the Sheriff's Office on June 9 and cleared the jail staff of any wrongdoing, Bordner said.
Ahmad Kubba, an American citizen for 27 years who now works as a real estate agent, said that the Homeland Security Department's apology means nothing to him, because the damage is already done. Hany had to move to Spain with his mother after the incident because he was so shaken by it, Kubba said.
Jawad had planned to visit her son, who was having disciplinary problems, in April as a surprise. Instead, Hany was shocked to learn that his mother was in jail. He subsequently had to be hospitalized twice for out-of-control behavior, his father said. Now in Spain, Hany has calmed down a lot, although he has taken leave from school, his father said.
``I lost my son because of what happened,'' said Kubba, who was lauded last year by Gov. Jeb Bush after organizing a trip where about a dozen friends went to Nashville to vote in the Iraqi election.
``I have been in this country for 27 years. I am American,'' said Kubba, 49, who spent 40 days in an Iraqi prison for speaking out against Saddam Hussein. He left Iraq in 1979 after being sentenced to death, and his father was beaten to death by Hussein's agents.
``My son wanted to be in the U.S. Navy, and he speaks both English and Arabic,'' Kubba said. ``He would have been just what they are looking for. What they did to (Jawad) was unfair and is hurting America.''
Kubba said he was recently profiled at Tampa International Airport when returning from Spain after visiting his son, and said his brother was detained there for two hours when he visited.
Kubba, who speaks to Jawad occasionally, said she told him she would never set foot in the United States again after what happened to her.
Ahmad Bedier, director of the Tampa branch of the Council for American-Islamic Relations, spoke with Jawad at the jail after the arrest. He has kept in touch with the family since then.
Bedier said the apology from the Homeland Security Department is a step in the right direction, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions.
In the next two weeks, Bedier said thousands of Muslims will be returning to central Florida from their annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
Bedier plans to meet at Tampa International Airport with officials from the FBI, airport, Customs and Border Protection, and the Transportation Security Administration to discuss measures to prevent unnecessary profiling of Muslim travelers as they return from Saudi Arabia.
``I am concerned about their treatment when they return,'' Bedier said.
Copyright © 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
By Sheela Raman
St. Petersburg Times
Posted December 28 2006, 9:02 AM EST
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has apologized to a Muslim traveler strip-searched at the Pinellas County Jail after being detained at Tampa International Airport in April.
Federal agents said they denied Spanish citizen Safana Jawad entry to the United States on April 11 because she was suspected of being associated with someone they view as suspicious.
Jawad, 45, was taken to the jail, strip-searched according to protocol and held in a maximum security cell for two days. She was never told the identity of the suspicious person.
Jawad, who was born in Iraq, had flown to the United States to visit her son, Hany Kubba, 16, who then lived in Clearwater with her ex-husband, Ahmad Maki Kubba.
Jawad was deported to England on April 13 and has since filed a complaint with the Homeland Security Department about being mistreated by customs officials as well as staff at the Pinellas County Jail. In a letter dated Dec. 8, the Homeland Security Department apologized only for the strip search.
``On behalf of the Department of Homeland Security, I offer you my sincere apology for having to undergo a strip search,'' wrote Timothy J. Keefer, deputy officer and acting chief counsel for the department's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which handles complaints.
The department would not release the name of the suspicious person Jawad was suspected of being associated with and would not comment on whether it believes she was rightfully detained.
Attached to the letter with no explanation was a photocopy of a notice that tells Transportation Security Administration officials about Muslim head coverings and how to treat Muslim travellers respectfully when searching them.
Everyone who files a complaint with the Homeland Security Department receives a response letter. Department spokeswoman Joanna Gonzalez said she could not say how many responses include apologies because the agency keeps no statistics on the outcomes of investigations.
And the Homeland Security Department could not provide any information about how many complaints the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties receives.
After being jailed, Jawad said she was subjected not only to a strip search but to a full body cavity search. Pinellas County sheriff's Sgt. Jim Bordner said only a regular strip search was performed, and there was no body cavity search. The strip search is part of normal procedure for booking and processing inmates, he said.
``We followed the same protocol with her as with any inmate,'' he said.
The jail conducted its own internal investigation after Jawad filed a complaint with the Sheriff's Office on June 9 and cleared the jail staff of any wrongdoing, Bordner said.
Ahmad Kubba, an American citizen for 27 years who now works as a real estate agent, said that the Homeland Security Department's apology means nothing to him, because the damage is already done. Hany had to move to Spain with his mother after the incident because he was so shaken by it, Kubba said.
Jawad had planned to visit her son, who was having disciplinary problems, in April as a surprise. Instead, Hany was shocked to learn that his mother was in jail. He subsequently had to be hospitalized twice for out-of-control behavior, his father said. Now in Spain, Hany has calmed down a lot, although he has taken leave from school, his father said.
``I lost my son because of what happened,'' said Kubba, who was lauded last year by Gov. Jeb Bush after organizing a trip where about a dozen friends went to Nashville to vote in the Iraqi election.
``I have been in this country for 27 years. I am American,'' said Kubba, 49, who spent 40 days in an Iraqi prison for speaking out against Saddam Hussein. He left Iraq in 1979 after being sentenced to death, and his father was beaten to death by Hussein's agents.
``My son wanted to be in the U.S. Navy, and he speaks both English and Arabic,'' Kubba said. ``He would have been just what they are looking for. What they did to (Jawad) was unfair and is hurting America.''
Kubba said he was recently profiled at Tampa International Airport when returning from Spain after visiting his son, and said his brother was detained there for two hours when he visited.
Kubba, who speaks to Jawad occasionally, said she told him she would never set foot in the United States again after what happened to her.
Ahmad Bedier, director of the Tampa branch of the Council for American-Islamic Relations, spoke with Jawad at the jail after the arrest. He has kept in touch with the family since then.
Bedier said the apology from the Homeland Security Department is a step in the right direction, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions.
In the next two weeks, Bedier said thousands of Muslims will be returning to central Florida from their annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
Bedier plans to meet at Tampa International Airport with officials from the FBI, airport, Customs and Border Protection, and the Transportation Security Administration to discuss measures to prevent unnecessary profiling of Muslim travelers as they return from Saudi Arabia.
``I am concerned about their treatment when they return,'' Bedier said.
Copyright © 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
In Touch Daily Devotional by Dr. Charles Stanley: Meditation in Relationship
Meditation in Relationship
2 Samuel 7:8-22
Many people ask, “What can I do to really grow in my Christian life?” They are usually looking for a secret path to maturity— something to do, some specific type of service, gift, or talent. And yet, the true key to growing in your relationship with Christ isn’t found in any of these things. In fact, Dr. Stanley firmly believes the most important thing you can do to mature in your faith is simply to focus on your relationship with our heavenly Father.
We need to realize that genuine maturity and effectiveness are tied to our relationship with the Lord. When we take our focus off of what we can do for Him, our entire thought process will start to shift. This truth puts all believers on the same level, from the high-profile preacher to the quietest, most humble member of the church. Talents, gifts, and personalities do not matter anywhere near as much as the commitment to simply know God.
1 Samuel 13:14 tells us King David was “a man after own heart.” And yet, in 2 Samuel 7:18 , David himself asked, “Who am I... that You have brought me this far?” Why was God so gracious to him? What was it about him that God valued so highly? It was that David knew God. He spent time with the Lord. He poured his heart out to his heavenly Father. In psalm after psalm, we see him laying everything out before the Lord and seeking His perfect will. David’s strength was in his relationship with God.
Do you want to grow in the Lord? Perhaps you need to stop asking, “What can I do?” Or, “How can I serve?” Instead, say, “Here I am, Father. Let’s talk.”
2 Samuel 7:8-22
Many people ask, “What can I do to really grow in my Christian life?” They are usually looking for a secret path to maturity— something to do, some specific type of service, gift, or talent. And yet, the true key to growing in your relationship with Christ isn’t found in any of these things. In fact, Dr. Stanley firmly believes the most important thing you can do to mature in your faith is simply to focus on your relationship with our heavenly Father.
We need to realize that genuine maturity and effectiveness are tied to our relationship with the Lord. When we take our focus off of what we can do for Him, our entire thought process will start to shift. This truth puts all believers on the same level, from the high-profile preacher to the quietest, most humble member of the church. Talents, gifts, and personalities do not matter anywhere near as much as the commitment to simply know God.
1 Samuel 13:14 tells us King David was “a man after own heart.” And yet, in 2 Samuel 7:18 , David himself asked, “Who am I... that You have brought me this far?” Why was God so gracious to him? What was it about him that God valued so highly? It was that David knew God. He spent time with the Lord. He poured his heart out to his heavenly Father. In psalm after psalm, we see him laying everything out before the Lord and seeking His perfect will. David’s strength was in his relationship with God.
Do you want to grow in the Lord? Perhaps you need to stop asking, “What can I do?” Or, “How can I serve?” Instead, say, “Here I am, Father. Let’s talk.”
3 home intruders shot dead in Albuquerque
3 home intruders shot dead in Albuquerque
'Hopefully this is going to send a message,' says police spokeswoman
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: December 28, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
Three men who broke into homes in the Albuquerque, N.M., area in the last month were shot dead by homeowners, and police say they hope would-be robbers take the hint.
The latest incident involved Raymond Gabaldon, 40, a repeat offender, who, police say, stole a car and then tried to break into a home in southwest Albuquerque.
"Hopefully this is going to send a message to people who are breaking into homes," Albuquerque police spokeswoman Trish Hoffman told the Albuquerque Tribune. "They're engaging in very dangerous behavior, not only to the people they're robbing, but to themselves."
None of the three homeowners involved in the shootings have been charged, though the cases are still under review by law enforcement.
Homeowners around the country were also dealing directly with those breaking into their homes and businesses.
An armed homeowner in Charlotte, N.C., also foiled a break-in Tuesday, police there report.
A man told police he was preparing to take out the trash at his home when he realized an intruder was in his house.
The resident told police he went to get a handgun and as he turned around, the attacker struck him in the back of the head. That triggered a fight between the attacker and the resident of the house. During the scuffle, the victim said, he fired his gun once, with the bullet striking the refrigerator.
The assailant then fled on foot.
In Kingsport, Tenn., an armed convenience store clerk yesterday pulled a handgun on a knife-wielding robber, fired once and drove him off with one shot.
And, in Seattle, an armed homeowner fatally shot an intruder Tuesday, according to a police report.
The homeowner was roused from sleep by an intruder. The 31-year-old homeowner grabbed his shotgun and killed Justin Hercyk. That case is still under investigation.
'Hopefully this is going to send a message,' says police spokeswoman
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: December 28, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
Three men who broke into homes in the Albuquerque, N.M., area in the last month were shot dead by homeowners, and police say they hope would-be robbers take the hint.
The latest incident involved Raymond Gabaldon, 40, a repeat offender, who, police say, stole a car and then tried to break into a home in southwest Albuquerque.
"Hopefully this is going to send a message to people who are breaking into homes," Albuquerque police spokeswoman Trish Hoffman told the Albuquerque Tribune. "They're engaging in very dangerous behavior, not only to the people they're robbing, but to themselves."
None of the three homeowners involved in the shootings have been charged, though the cases are still under review by law enforcement.
Homeowners around the country were also dealing directly with those breaking into their homes and businesses.
An armed homeowner in Charlotte, N.C., also foiled a break-in Tuesday, police there report.
A man told police he was preparing to take out the trash at his home when he realized an intruder was in his house.
The resident told police he went to get a handgun and as he turned around, the attacker struck him in the back of the head. That triggered a fight between the attacker and the resident of the house. During the scuffle, the victim said, he fired his gun once, with the bullet striking the refrigerator.
The assailant then fled on foot.
In Kingsport, Tenn., an armed convenience store clerk yesterday pulled a handgun on a knife-wielding robber, fired once and drove him off with one shot.
And, in Seattle, an armed homeowner fatally shot an intruder Tuesday, according to a police report.
The homeowner was roused from sleep by an intruder. The 31-year-old homeowner grabbed his shotgun and killed Justin Hercyk. That case is still under investigation.
Taiwan quake brings bank operations to halt
Internet Services in Asia May Take 2 Weeks to Return (Update7)
By Tim Culpan and Andrea Tan
Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Internet and phone companies in Asia may take at least two weeks to restore services as they struggle to fix undersea cables damaged by earthquakes off Taiwan.
Chunghwa Telecom Co., the island's biggest phone company, said four ships are heading to the damage site off Taiwan's south coast for repairs starting Jan. 2 that may take two to three weeks. China Network Communications Group Corp. said two boats have started to fix the fiber-optic lines.
Companies from Kuwait Finance House, the Persian Gulf's largest Islamic investment bank, to Nippon Yusen K.K., Japan's biggest shipping line, are suffering from the loss of online services after a 7.1 magnitude quake struck southern Taiwan on Dec. 26. Cable operators are using other lines or satellites to help alleviate the bottleneck as parts of Hong Kong, China, Singapore and India remain without access.
``In terms of lost business, that amount will exceed the amount for repairs,'' Rob Enderle, an analyst with the research firm Enderle Group in San Jose, California. ``Think of the trading organizations that exist in these geographies that trade in world markets that can't trade right now.''
The cable-repair ships will cost $25,000 per boat per day, which only covers vessel rental fees, and will depart from Yokohama in Japan, Busan in South Korea as well as Manila and Singapore, according to Chunghwa. The company is working with other operators to fix four broken cables.
`Not Happened Before'
At least six undersea cables which pass through Taiwan are broken and a seventh is damaged, said Au Man-ho, director general of Hong Kong's Office of Telecommunications Authority. Six of 10 international cables connecting Korea were affected, according to KT Corp., South Korea's largest phone company.
``If only one cable is damaged, the impact will be insignificant,'' Au said. ``All seven cables are damaged. That has not happened before.''
KDDI Corp., Japan's second-biggest carrier, said cable repairs can take ``several weeks to months.''
Undersea cables which connect North Asian countries such as Japan and Korea to Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore and Malaysia pass close to Taiwan's south coast because the alternative route through the Taiwan Strait is too shallow and not suitable for cables, said Wu Chih-ming, managing director of international networking at Chunghwa.
The repair ships will drag a large grappling hook across the ocean floor to find the broken cable before pulling it to the surface for inspection, according to Chunghwa. Cables will be repaired by cutting out damaged sections and rejoining with new pieces, with the ships equipped to conduct all necessary work.
Largest in 100 Years
``It's very difficult, technical and slow work to repair these fiber-optic cables,'' said Chunghwa's Wu. The company is turning to backup cables and may use its ST-1 satellite to provide data bandwidth, he said.
The quake which shook Taiwan Dec. 26 was the largest in the area for 100 years, and was one of 11 temblors in that area over a 24-hour period, according to Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau.
Chunghwa said today it could increase services to the U.S., Japan and China by rerouting connections. Voice traffic from Taiwan to the U.S. is up to 60 percent capacity from 40 percent yesterday, while those to Japan are at 70 percent from 11 percent. Voice capacity to China rose to 55 percent from 10 percent.
``Eighty percent of our Internet bandwidth has been successfully diverted,'' said Michael Sim, spokesman for StarHub Ltd., Singapore's second-largest phone company.
Services Return
China Network, parent of China's second-largest fixed-line carrier, said international voice services were ``mostly restored,'' while its bigger rival China Telecommunications Corp. reported voice services to Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan were ``basically'' restored.
PCCW, Hong Kong's largest telephone company, said the damage cut its normal telecommunication capacity by as much as half yesterday.
KT Corp. of South Korea said it restored services on 33 of its 92 leased lines by rerouting connections. The company said it plans to redirect another 17 lines through satellites.
``We have received more enquiries from telecom operators about short-term leases for transponder capacity,'' Alvin Chong, a marketing executive at Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings Ltd. in Hong Kong, said today, without providing more details. ``We usually see a jump in demand following events such as earthquakes, and the tsunami two years ago.''
Traffic Redirected
PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, the nation's biggest phone company, said it directed much of its Internet traffic through the Singtel Internet Exchange (STEX) gateway. Yesterday it began to switch part of the traffic to Dubai Malaysia Cable System.
``Impact on Telkom's earnings is likely minimal,'' said Harsya Denny Suryo, the corporate secretary at Bandung, Indonesia-based Telekomunkasi. ``The problem is with customers who don't have Internet access.''
AT&T Inc., the biggest U.S. phone company, said in a statement that it's experiencing Internet delays, most notably on traffic between Singapore and Tokyo and between Hong Kong and Tokyo. Voice traffic from the U.S. to countries including Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Brunei is also affected, the San Antonio-based company said.
Both AT&T and Verizon Communications Inc., the second- biggest U.S. phone company, said they are working with partners to restore services. Some Verizon business clients may encounter disruptions, the New York-based company said.
Phones, Faxes
``It is slowing things a bit but we have to manage,'' said Salman Younis, managing director of Kuwait Finance in Kuala Lumpur. ``I'm quite used to disaster, having worked in the Middle East for 18 years.'' The company is using phones and faxes, he said.
Nippon Yusen, which normally uses e-mail between Tokyo headquarters and its regional branch in South Korea to set shipping prices, is also using phone calls and faxes, said spokesman Atsushi Matsumoto.
Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., France Telecom SA and Pakistan Telecommunication Co. are in a group that owns the Sea- Me-We3 cables linking Europe to Asia. Operators in the APCN2 cable network that connects Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore include StarHub, China Unicom Ltd., Telekom Malaysia Bhd. and Telstra Corp.
Asia had the slowest Web connection with response time at 450 millseconds, more than double the average 200 milliseconds, according to the latest figures from Internet Traffic Report's site, which monitors the flow of global Internet data.
The tremors came on the second anniversary of the 2004 Asian tsunami, when a magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra unleashed waves that destroyed coastal villages from Indonesia to Sri Lanka, killing more than 220,000 people.
``This has really turned into a global event,'' said Enderle in San Jose. It ``showcases how much consolidation has gone on in terms of putting so much traffic through so few massive lines.''
By Tim Culpan and Andrea Tan
Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Internet and phone companies in Asia may take at least two weeks to restore services as they struggle to fix undersea cables damaged by earthquakes off Taiwan.
Chunghwa Telecom Co., the island's biggest phone company, said four ships are heading to the damage site off Taiwan's south coast for repairs starting Jan. 2 that may take two to three weeks. China Network Communications Group Corp. said two boats have started to fix the fiber-optic lines.
Companies from Kuwait Finance House, the Persian Gulf's largest Islamic investment bank, to Nippon Yusen K.K., Japan's biggest shipping line, are suffering from the loss of online services after a 7.1 magnitude quake struck southern Taiwan on Dec. 26. Cable operators are using other lines or satellites to help alleviate the bottleneck as parts of Hong Kong, China, Singapore and India remain without access.
``In terms of lost business, that amount will exceed the amount for repairs,'' Rob Enderle, an analyst with the research firm Enderle Group in San Jose, California. ``Think of the trading organizations that exist in these geographies that trade in world markets that can't trade right now.''
The cable-repair ships will cost $25,000 per boat per day, which only covers vessel rental fees, and will depart from Yokohama in Japan, Busan in South Korea as well as Manila and Singapore, according to Chunghwa. The company is working with other operators to fix four broken cables.
`Not Happened Before'
At least six undersea cables which pass through Taiwan are broken and a seventh is damaged, said Au Man-ho, director general of Hong Kong's Office of Telecommunications Authority. Six of 10 international cables connecting Korea were affected, according to KT Corp., South Korea's largest phone company.
``If only one cable is damaged, the impact will be insignificant,'' Au said. ``All seven cables are damaged. That has not happened before.''
KDDI Corp., Japan's second-biggest carrier, said cable repairs can take ``several weeks to months.''
Undersea cables which connect North Asian countries such as Japan and Korea to Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore and Malaysia pass close to Taiwan's south coast because the alternative route through the Taiwan Strait is too shallow and not suitable for cables, said Wu Chih-ming, managing director of international networking at Chunghwa.
The repair ships will drag a large grappling hook across the ocean floor to find the broken cable before pulling it to the surface for inspection, according to Chunghwa. Cables will be repaired by cutting out damaged sections and rejoining with new pieces, with the ships equipped to conduct all necessary work.
Largest in 100 Years
``It's very difficult, technical and slow work to repair these fiber-optic cables,'' said Chunghwa's Wu. The company is turning to backup cables and may use its ST-1 satellite to provide data bandwidth, he said.
The quake which shook Taiwan Dec. 26 was the largest in the area for 100 years, and was one of 11 temblors in that area over a 24-hour period, according to Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau.
Chunghwa said today it could increase services to the U.S., Japan and China by rerouting connections. Voice traffic from Taiwan to the U.S. is up to 60 percent capacity from 40 percent yesterday, while those to Japan are at 70 percent from 11 percent. Voice capacity to China rose to 55 percent from 10 percent.
``Eighty percent of our Internet bandwidth has been successfully diverted,'' said Michael Sim, spokesman for StarHub Ltd., Singapore's second-largest phone company.
Services Return
China Network, parent of China's second-largest fixed-line carrier, said international voice services were ``mostly restored,'' while its bigger rival China Telecommunications Corp. reported voice services to Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan were ``basically'' restored.
PCCW, Hong Kong's largest telephone company, said the damage cut its normal telecommunication capacity by as much as half yesterday.
KT Corp. of South Korea said it restored services on 33 of its 92 leased lines by rerouting connections. The company said it plans to redirect another 17 lines through satellites.
``We have received more enquiries from telecom operators about short-term leases for transponder capacity,'' Alvin Chong, a marketing executive at Asia Satellite Telecommunications Holdings Ltd. in Hong Kong, said today, without providing more details. ``We usually see a jump in demand following events such as earthquakes, and the tsunami two years ago.''
Traffic Redirected
PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, the nation's biggest phone company, said it directed much of its Internet traffic through the Singtel Internet Exchange (STEX) gateway. Yesterday it began to switch part of the traffic to Dubai Malaysia Cable System.
``Impact on Telkom's earnings is likely minimal,'' said Harsya Denny Suryo, the corporate secretary at Bandung, Indonesia-based Telekomunkasi. ``The problem is with customers who don't have Internet access.''
AT&T Inc., the biggest U.S. phone company, said in a statement that it's experiencing Internet delays, most notably on traffic between Singapore and Tokyo and between Hong Kong and Tokyo. Voice traffic from the U.S. to countries including Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Brunei is also affected, the San Antonio-based company said.
Both AT&T and Verizon Communications Inc., the second- biggest U.S. phone company, said they are working with partners to restore services. Some Verizon business clients may encounter disruptions, the New York-based company said.
Phones, Faxes
``It is slowing things a bit but we have to manage,'' said Salman Younis, managing director of Kuwait Finance in Kuala Lumpur. ``I'm quite used to disaster, having worked in the Middle East for 18 years.'' The company is using phones and faxes, he said.
Nippon Yusen, which normally uses e-mail between Tokyo headquarters and its regional branch in South Korea to set shipping prices, is also using phone calls and faxes, said spokesman Atsushi Matsumoto.
Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., France Telecom SA and Pakistan Telecommunication Co. are in a group that owns the Sea- Me-We3 cables linking Europe to Asia. Operators in the APCN2 cable network that connects Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore include StarHub, China Unicom Ltd., Telekom Malaysia Bhd. and Telstra Corp.
Asia had the slowest Web connection with response time at 450 millseconds, more than double the average 200 milliseconds, according to the latest figures from Internet Traffic Report's site, which monitors the flow of global Internet data.
The tremors came on the second anniversary of the 2004 Asian tsunami, when a magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra unleashed waves that destroyed coastal villages from Indonesia to Sri Lanka, killing more than 220,000 people.
``This has really turned into a global event,'' said Enderle in San Jose. It ``showcases how much consolidation has gone on in terms of putting so much traffic through so few massive lines.''
Sunday, December 24, 2006
A message from the publisher...Today is Christian Article day...
Merry Christmas Everyone! Today is Christian Article day... There will be a two day retreat from our daily News, unless a major news event occurs, in which case it will be posted. If you want the latest news articles up till now, just click on yesterdays date, or prior to see them. May God continue to bless you this year, and may you turn to Him in everything you do! Have a Merry Christmas and a Christ Centered Joyful New Year!
In Christ,
Publisher: Lighthouse
In Christ,
Publisher: Lighthouse
"I know I’m a sinner, but I confess my sins to God daily. I tell Him that I’m sorry and I won’t sin again."
"I know I’m a sinner, but I confess my sins to God daily. I tell Him that I’m sorry and I won’t sin again."
If you find yourself in court with a $50,000 fine, will a judge let you go simply because you say you’re sorry and you won’t commit the crime again? Of course not. You should be sorry for breaking the law and, of course, you shouldn’t commit the crime again. But only when someone pays your $50,000 fine will you be free from the demands of the law. God will not forgive a sinner on the basis that he is sorry. Of course we should be sorry for sin—we have a conscience to tell us that adultery, rape, lust, murder, hatred, lying, stealing, etc., are wrong. And of course we shouldn’t sin again.
However, God will only release us from the demands for eternal justice on the basis that someone else paid our fine. Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for the sins of the world. His words on the cross were, "It is finished!" In other words, the debt has been paid in full. All who repent and trust in Him receive forgiveness of sins. Their case is dismissed on the basis of His suffering death.
...:: WayOfTheMaster.com ::... ...:: LivingWaters.com ::...
If you find yourself in court with a $50,000 fine, will a judge let you go simply because you say you’re sorry and you won’t commit the crime again? Of course not. You should be sorry for breaking the law and, of course, you shouldn’t commit the crime again. But only when someone pays your $50,000 fine will you be free from the demands of the law. God will not forgive a sinner on the basis that he is sorry. Of course we should be sorry for sin—we have a conscience to tell us that adultery, rape, lust, murder, hatred, lying, stealing, etc., are wrong. And of course we shouldn’t sin again.
However, God will only release us from the demands for eternal justice on the basis that someone else paid our fine. Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for the sins of the world. His words on the cross were, "It is finished!" In other words, the debt has been paid in full. All who repent and trust in Him receive forgiveness of sins. Their case is dismissed on the basis of His suffering death.
...:: WayOfTheMaster.com ::... ...:: LivingWaters.com ::...
The Great Commission
The Great Commission
"Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."
- Mark 16:15
"Have you no wish for others to be saved?
Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that."
- Charles Spurgeon
"If you do not make it a matter of study, how you may successfully act in building up the kingdom of Christ, you are acting a very wicked and absurd part as a Christian."
- Charles Finney
"The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest"
- Matthew 9:37,38
"Oh my friends,
we are loaded down with countless church activities,
while the real work of the church,
that of evangelizing the world and winning the lost,
is almost entirely neglected!"
- Oswald J. Smith
"Why call you me, Lord, Lord,
and do not the things which I say?"
- Luke 6:46
...:: WayOfTheMaster.com ::... ...:: LivingWaters.com ::...
"Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."
- Mark 16:15
"Have you no wish for others to be saved?
Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that."
- Charles Spurgeon
"If you do not make it a matter of study, how you may successfully act in building up the kingdom of Christ, you are acting a very wicked and absurd part as a Christian."
- Charles Finney
"The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest"
- Matthew 9:37,38
"Oh my friends,
we are loaded down with countless church activities,
while the real work of the church,
that of evangelizing the world and winning the lost,
is almost entirely neglected!"
- Oswald J. Smith
"Why call you me, Lord, Lord,
and do not the things which I say?"
- Luke 6:46
...:: WayOfTheMaster.com ::... ...:: LivingWaters.com ::...
"Will people who have never heard the gospel all go to hell because they haven’t heard about Jesus Christ?"
"Will people who have never heard the gospel all go to hell because they haven’t heard about Jesus Christ?"
No one will go to hell because they haven’t heard of Jesus Christ. The heathen will go to hell for murder, rape, adultery, lust, theft, lying, etc. Sin is not failing to hear the gospel. Rather, "sin is the transgression of the Law" (1 John 3:4). If we really care about the lost, we will become missionaries and take the good news of God’s forgiveness in Christ to them. See John 16:9 footnote.
...:: WayOfTheMaster.com ::... ...:: LivingWaters.com ::...
P.S. I do have to mention that Jesus Himself said in John 14:6: Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Also Acts 4:10-12:
It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is "the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the capstone. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
Also 1 Timothy 2:5:
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,...
Also Romans 10:9-10:
That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
So, Jesus is the only exclusive way to everlasting life with God (Heaven), and yes, if you don't accept Him as your Savior, your sins, or, the law of God that you broke, will cause you to go to Hell as eternal punishment for the crime you committed. You can not do enough good to make the Judge ignore your crimes...the crime has to be paid for. If you do not accept the only One who was able to pay your fine for you (Jesus), (because He Himself did not break God's Law...He being the only spotless sacrifice that God could accept in your place)...if you do not accept that free gift, then you yourself will have to pay for your crimes you committed, which the punishment is eternity in Hell. Seek to learn more about Jesus, the Bible, and what He did for you, because He loves you! Call out to Him to open your eyes into trusting and finding Truth, before it's too late!
Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.
No one will go to hell because they haven’t heard of Jesus Christ. The heathen will go to hell for murder, rape, adultery, lust, theft, lying, etc. Sin is not failing to hear the gospel. Rather, "sin is the transgression of the Law" (1 John 3:4). If we really care about the lost, we will become missionaries and take the good news of God’s forgiveness in Christ to them. See John 16:9 footnote.
...:: WayOfTheMaster.com ::... ...:: LivingWaters.com ::...
P.S. I do have to mention that Jesus Himself said in John 14:6: Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Also Acts 4:10-12:
It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is "the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the capstone. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
Also 1 Timothy 2:5:
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,...
Also Romans 10:9-10:
That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
So, Jesus is the only exclusive way to everlasting life with God (Heaven), and yes, if you don't accept Him as your Savior, your sins, or, the law of God that you broke, will cause you to go to Hell as eternal punishment for the crime you committed. You can not do enough good to make the Judge ignore your crimes...the crime has to be paid for. If you do not accept the only One who was able to pay your fine for you (Jesus), (because He Himself did not break God's Law...He being the only spotless sacrifice that God could accept in your place)...if you do not accept that free gift, then you yourself will have to pay for your crimes you committed, which the punishment is eternity in Hell. Seek to learn more about Jesus, the Bible, and what He did for you, because He loves you! Call out to Him to open your eyes into trusting and finding Truth, before it's too late!
Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.
Personal Witnessing—How Jesus Did It
Personal Witnessing—How Jesus Did It
How to address the sinner’s conscience and speak with someone who doesn’t believe in hell John chapter 4, verses 7–26 give us the Master’s example of how to share our faith. Notice that Jesus spoke to the woman at the well when she was alone. We will often find that people are more open and honest when they are alone. So, if possible, pick a person who is sitting by himself. From there, we can see four clear principles to follow:
First: Jesus began in the natural realm (v. 7). This woman was unregenerate, and the Bible tells us "the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God" (1 Corinthians 2:14). He therefore spoke of something she could relate to—water. Most of us can strike up a conversation with a stranger in the natural realm. It may be a friendly "How are you doing?" or a warm "Good morning!" If the person responds with a sense of warmth, we may then ask, "Do you live around here?" and from there develop a conversation.
Second: Jesus swung the conversation to the spiritual realm (v. 10). He simply mentioned the things of God. This will take courage. We may say something like, "Did you go to church on Sunday?" or "Did you see that Christian TV program last week?" If the person responds positively, the question "Do you have a Christian background?" will probe his background. He may answer, "I went to church when I was a child, but I drifted away from it." Another simple way to swing to the spiritual is to offer the person a gospel tract and ask, "Did you get one of these?" When he takes it, simply say, "It’s a gospel tract. Do you come from a Christian background?"
Third: Jesus brought conviction using the Law of God (vv. 16–18). Jesus gently spoke to her conscience by alluding to the fact that she had transgressed the Seventh of the Ten Commandments. He used the Law to bring "the knowledge of sin" (see Romans 3:19,20). We can do the same by asking, "Do you think that you have kept the Ten Commandments?" Most people think they have, so quickly follow with, "Have you ever told a lie?" This is confrontational, but if it’s asked in a spirit of love and gentleness, there won’t be any offense. Remember that the "work of the Law [is] written in their hearts" and that the conscience will bear "witness" (Romans 2:15). Jesus confronted the rich young ruler in Luke 18:18–21 with five of the Ten Commandments and there was no offense. Have confidence that the conscience will do its work and affirm the truth of each Commandment. Don’t be afraid to gently ask, "Have you ever stolen something, even if it’s small?" Learn how to open up the spirituality of the Law and show how God considers lust to be the same as adultery (Matthew 5:27,28) and hatred the same as murder (1 John 3:15). Make sure you get an admission of guilt. Ask the person, "If God judges you by the Ten Commandments on Judgment Day, do you think you will be innocent or guilty?" If he says he will be innocent, ask, "Why is that?" If he admits his guilt, ask, "Do you think you will go to heaven or hell?" From there the conversation may go one of three ways: 1. He may confidently say, "I don’t believe in hell." Gently respond, "That doesn’t matter. You still have to face God on Judgment Day whether you believe in it or not. If I step onto the freeway when a massive truck is heading for me and I say, ‘I don’t believe in trucks,’ my lack of belief isn’t going to change reality." Then tenderly tell him he has already admitted to you that he has lied, stolen, and committed adultery in his heart, and that God gave him a conscience so that he would know right from wrong. His conscience and the conviction of the Holy Spirit will do the rest. That’s why it is essential to draw out an admission of guilt before you mention Judgment Day or the existence of hell. 2. He may say that he’s guilty, but that he will go to heaven. This is usually because he thinks that God is "good," and that He will, therefore, overlook sin in his case. Point out that if a judge in a criminal case has a guilty murderer standing before him, the judge, if he is a good man, can’t just let him go. He must ensure that the guilty man is punished. If God is good, He must (by nature) punish murderers, rapists, thieves, liars, adulterers, fornicators, and those who have lived in rebellion to the inner light that God has given to every man. 3. He may admit that he is guilty and therefore going to hell. Ask him if that concerns him. Speak to him about how much he values his eyes and how much more therefore he should value the salvation of his soul. (For the biblical description of hell, see Revelation 1:18 footnote.) If possible, take the person through the linked verses in this Bible, beginning at the Matthew 5:21,22 footnote.
Fourth: Jesus revealed Himself to her (v. 26). Once the Law has humbled the person, he is ready for grace. Remember, the Bible says that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). The gospel is for the humble (see Luke 4:18 footnote). Only the sick need a physician, and only those who will admit that they have the disease of sin will truly embrace the cure of the gospel. Learn how to present the work of the cross —that God sent His Son to suffer and die in our place. Tell the sinner of the love of God in Christ; that Jesus rose from the dead and defeated death. Take him back to civil law and say, "It’s as simple as this: We broke God’s Law, and Jesus paid our fine. If you will repent and trust in the Savior, God will forgive your sins and dismiss your case." Ask him if he understands what you have told him. If he is willing to confess and forsake his sins, and trust the Savior with his eternal salvation, have him pray and ask God to forgive him. Then pray for him. Get him a Bible. Instruct him to read it daily and obey what he reads, and encourage him to get into a Bible-believing, Christ preaching church.
...:: WayOfTheMaster.com ::... ...:: LivingWaters.com ::...
How to address the sinner’s conscience and speak with someone who doesn’t believe in hell John chapter 4, verses 7–26 give us the Master’s example of how to share our faith. Notice that Jesus spoke to the woman at the well when she was alone. We will often find that people are more open and honest when they are alone. So, if possible, pick a person who is sitting by himself. From there, we can see four clear principles to follow:
First: Jesus began in the natural realm (v. 7). This woman was unregenerate, and the Bible tells us "the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God" (1 Corinthians 2:14). He therefore spoke of something she could relate to—water. Most of us can strike up a conversation with a stranger in the natural realm. It may be a friendly "How are you doing?" or a warm "Good morning!" If the person responds with a sense of warmth, we may then ask, "Do you live around here?" and from there develop a conversation.
Second: Jesus swung the conversation to the spiritual realm (v. 10). He simply mentioned the things of God. This will take courage. We may say something like, "Did you go to church on Sunday?" or "Did you see that Christian TV program last week?" If the person responds positively, the question "Do you have a Christian background?" will probe his background. He may answer, "I went to church when I was a child, but I drifted away from it." Another simple way to swing to the spiritual is to offer the person a gospel tract and ask, "Did you get one of these?" When he takes it, simply say, "It’s a gospel tract. Do you come from a Christian background?"
Third: Jesus brought conviction using the Law of God (vv. 16–18). Jesus gently spoke to her conscience by alluding to the fact that she had transgressed the Seventh of the Ten Commandments. He used the Law to bring "the knowledge of sin" (see Romans 3:19,20). We can do the same by asking, "Do you think that you have kept the Ten Commandments?" Most people think they have, so quickly follow with, "Have you ever told a lie?" This is confrontational, but if it’s asked in a spirit of love and gentleness, there won’t be any offense. Remember that the "work of the Law [is] written in their hearts" and that the conscience will bear "witness" (Romans 2:15). Jesus confronted the rich young ruler in Luke 18:18–21 with five of the Ten Commandments and there was no offense. Have confidence that the conscience will do its work and affirm the truth of each Commandment. Don’t be afraid to gently ask, "Have you ever stolen something, even if it’s small?" Learn how to open up the spirituality of the Law and show how God considers lust to be the same as adultery (Matthew 5:27,28) and hatred the same as murder (1 John 3:15). Make sure you get an admission of guilt. Ask the person, "If God judges you by the Ten Commandments on Judgment Day, do you think you will be innocent or guilty?" If he says he will be innocent, ask, "Why is that?" If he admits his guilt, ask, "Do you think you will go to heaven or hell?" From there the conversation may go one of three ways: 1. He may confidently say, "I don’t believe in hell." Gently respond, "That doesn’t matter. You still have to face God on Judgment Day whether you believe in it or not. If I step onto the freeway when a massive truck is heading for me and I say, ‘I don’t believe in trucks,’ my lack of belief isn’t going to change reality." Then tenderly tell him he has already admitted to you that he has lied, stolen, and committed adultery in his heart, and that God gave him a conscience so that he would know right from wrong. His conscience and the conviction of the Holy Spirit will do the rest. That’s why it is essential to draw out an admission of guilt before you mention Judgment Day or the existence of hell. 2. He may say that he’s guilty, but that he will go to heaven. This is usually because he thinks that God is "good," and that He will, therefore, overlook sin in his case. Point out that if a judge in a criminal case has a guilty murderer standing before him, the judge, if he is a good man, can’t just let him go. He must ensure that the guilty man is punished. If God is good, He must (by nature) punish murderers, rapists, thieves, liars, adulterers, fornicators, and those who have lived in rebellion to the inner light that God has given to every man. 3. He may admit that he is guilty and therefore going to hell. Ask him if that concerns him. Speak to him about how much he values his eyes and how much more therefore he should value the salvation of his soul. (For the biblical description of hell, see Revelation 1:18 footnote.) If possible, take the person through the linked verses in this Bible, beginning at the Matthew 5:21,22 footnote.
Fourth: Jesus revealed Himself to her (v. 26). Once the Law has humbled the person, he is ready for grace. Remember, the Bible says that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). The gospel is for the humble (see Luke 4:18 footnote). Only the sick need a physician, and only those who will admit that they have the disease of sin will truly embrace the cure of the gospel. Learn how to present the work of the cross —that God sent His Son to suffer and die in our place. Tell the sinner of the love of God in Christ; that Jesus rose from the dead and defeated death. Take him back to civil law and say, "It’s as simple as this: We broke God’s Law, and Jesus paid our fine. If you will repent and trust in the Savior, God will forgive your sins and dismiss your case." Ask him if he understands what you have told him. If he is willing to confess and forsake his sins, and trust the Savior with his eternal salvation, have him pray and ask God to forgive him. Then pray for him. Get him a Bible. Instruct him to read it daily and obey what he reads, and encourage him to get into a Bible-believing, Christ preaching church.
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God’s Love: The Biblical Presentation
God’s Love: The Biblical Presentation
The modern message of the gospel is "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." However, our idea of "wonderful" and the world’s may be a little different. Take a sinner through the pages of the Book of Acts and show him the terrifying scene of boulders breaking the bones of Stephen. Then smile and whisper, "Wonderful..." Listen together to the sound of a cat-o’-nine-tails as it rips the flesh off the back of the apostle Paul. Follow together the word "suffering" through the Epistles, and see if you can get the world to whisper, "Wonderful!"
After such a ride down Honesty Road, they may think the pleasures of sin are a little more attractive than the call to "suffer affliction with the people of God." John MacArthur said, "We need to adjust our presentation of the gospel. We cannot dismiss the fact that God hates sin and punishes sinners with eternal torment. How can we begin a gospel presentation by telling people on their way to hell that God has a wonderful plan for their lives?"
Who in the world is going to listen if we are so blatantly honest about the Christian life? Perhaps not as many as are attracted by the talk of a wonderful plan. However, the answer to our dilemma is to make the issue one of righteousness, rather than happiness. This is what Jesus did. He used the Ten Commandments to show sinners the righteous standard of God (Luke 10:25,26; 18:18– 0). Once the world sees the perfect standard by which they will be judged, they will begin to fear God, and through the fear of the Lord, men depart from sin (Proverbs 16:6). They will begin to hunger and thirst after the righteousness that is in Jesus Christ alone.
If you study the New Testament you will see that God’s love is almost always given in direct correlation to the cross: herein is love, for God so loved, God commended His love, etc. (See John 3:16; Romans 5:5,6,8; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 2:4,5; 5:2,25; 1 John 3:16; 4:10; and Revelation 1:5, among others.) The cross is the focal point of God’s love for the world. How can we point to the cross without making reference to sin? How can we refer to sin without the Law (Romans 7:7)?
The biblical way to express God’s love to a sinner is to show him how great his sin is (using the Law—see Romans 7:13; Galatians 3:24), and then give him the incredible grace of God in Christ. This was the key to reaching so many on the Day of Pentecost. They were "devout" Jews who knew the Law and its holy demands, and therefore readily accepted the mercy of God in Christ to escape its fearful wrath. When you use the Law to show the world their true state, get ready for sinners to thank you. For the first time in their lives, they will see the Christian message as an expression of love and concern for their eternal welfare, rather than of merely proselytizing for a better lifestyle while on this earth.
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The modern message of the gospel is "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." However, our idea of "wonderful" and the world’s may be a little different. Take a sinner through the pages of the Book of Acts and show him the terrifying scene of boulders breaking the bones of Stephen. Then smile and whisper, "Wonderful..." Listen together to the sound of a cat-o’-nine-tails as it rips the flesh off the back of the apostle Paul. Follow together the word "suffering" through the Epistles, and see if you can get the world to whisper, "Wonderful!"
After such a ride down Honesty Road, they may think the pleasures of sin are a little more attractive than the call to "suffer affliction with the people of God." John MacArthur said, "We need to adjust our presentation of the gospel. We cannot dismiss the fact that God hates sin and punishes sinners with eternal torment. How can we begin a gospel presentation by telling people on their way to hell that God has a wonderful plan for their lives?"
Who in the world is going to listen if we are so blatantly honest about the Christian life? Perhaps not as many as are attracted by the talk of a wonderful plan. However, the answer to our dilemma is to make the issue one of righteousness, rather than happiness. This is what Jesus did. He used the Ten Commandments to show sinners the righteous standard of God (Luke 10:25,26; 18:18– 0). Once the world sees the perfect standard by which they will be judged, they will begin to fear God, and through the fear of the Lord, men depart from sin (Proverbs 16:6). They will begin to hunger and thirst after the righteousness that is in Jesus Christ alone.
If you study the New Testament you will see that God’s love is almost always given in direct correlation to the cross: herein is love, for God so loved, God commended His love, etc. (See John 3:16; Romans 5:5,6,8; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 2:4,5; 5:2,25; 1 John 3:16; 4:10; and Revelation 1:5, among others.) The cross is the focal point of God’s love for the world. How can we point to the cross without making reference to sin? How can we refer to sin without the Law (Romans 7:7)?
The biblical way to express God’s love to a sinner is to show him how great his sin is (using the Law—see Romans 7:13; Galatians 3:24), and then give him the incredible grace of God in Christ. This was the key to reaching so many on the Day of Pentecost. They were "devout" Jews who knew the Law and its holy demands, and therefore readily accepted the mercy of God in Christ to escape its fearful wrath. When you use the Law to show the world their true state, get ready for sinners to thank you. For the first time in their lives, they will see the Christian message as an expression of love and concern for their eternal welfare, rather than of merely proselytizing for a better lifestyle while on this earth.
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The Key to Reaching the Lost
The Key to Reaching the Lost
Have you ever thought, "There must be a key to reaching the lost"? There is—and it’s rusty through lack of use. The Bible does actually all it "the key," and its purpose is to bring us to Christ, to unlock the Door of the Savior (John 10:9). Much of the Church still doesn’t even know it exists. Not only is it biblical, but it can be shown through history that the Church used it to unlock the doors of revival. The problem is that it was lost around the turn of the twentieth century. Keys have a way of getting lost.
Jesus used it. So did Paul (Romans 3:19,20), Timothy (1 Timothy 1:8–11), and James (James 2:10). Stephen used it when he preached (Acts 7:53). Peter found that it had been used to open the door to release 3,000 imprisoned souls on the Day of Pentecost. Jesus said that the lawyers had "taken away" the key, and even refused to use it to let people enter into the kingdom of God. The Pharisees didn’t take it away. Instead, they bent it out of shape so that it wouldn’t do its work (Mark 7:8). Jesus returned it to its true shape, just as the Scriptures prophesied that He would do (Isaiah 42:21). Satan has tried to prejudice the modern Church against the key. He has maligned it, misused it, twisted it, and, of course, hidden it—he hates it because of what it does. Perhaps you are wondering what this key is. I will tell you. All I ask is that you set aside your traditions and prejudices and look at what God’s Word says on the subject.
In Acts 28:23 the Bible tells us that Paul sought to persuade his hearers "concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets." Here we have two effective means of persuading the unsaved "concerning Jesus." Let’s first look at how the prophets can help persuade sinners concerning Jesus.
Fulfilled prophecy proves the inspiration of Scripture. The predictions of the prophets present a powerful case for the inspiration of the Bible. Any skeptic who reads the prophetic words of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, etc., or the words of Jesus in Matthew 24 cannot but be challenged that this is no ordinary book.
The other means by which Paul persuaded sinners concerning Jesus was "out of the law of Moses." The Bible tells us that the Law of Moses is good if it is used lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8). It was given by God as a "schoolmaster" to bring us to Christ (Galatians 3:24). Paul wrote that he "had not known sin, but by the law" (Romans 7:7). The Law of God (the Ten commandments) is evidently the "key of knowledge" Jesus spoke of in Luke 11:52. He was speaking to "lawyers"—those who should have been teaching God’s Law so that sinners would receive the "knowledge of sin," and thus recognize their need of the Savior.
Prophecy speaks to the intellect of the sinner, while the Law speaks to his conscience. One produces faith in the Word of God; the other brings knowledge of sin in the heart of the sinner. The Law is the God-given "key" to unlock the Door of salvation. See Matthew 19:17–22 footnote and Romans 3:19,20. "I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the Law. The Law is the needle, and you cannot draw the silken thread of the gospel through a man’s heart unless you first send the needle of the Law to make way for it." Charles Spurgeon
After they have been given the law, and realize that they have broken God's law, and are humbled, realizing that they are guilty before God Almighty on Judgment Day, then they are ready to be given the Good News (Grace) of what Jesus did for them on the cross...
The formula to always follow, is what Jesus always did:
Law to the proud; Grace to the humble
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Have you ever thought, "There must be a key to reaching the lost"? There is—and it’s rusty through lack of use. The Bible does actually all it "the key," and its purpose is to bring us to Christ, to unlock the Door of the Savior (John 10:9). Much of the Church still doesn’t even know it exists. Not only is it biblical, but it can be shown through history that the Church used it to unlock the doors of revival. The problem is that it was lost around the turn of the twentieth century. Keys have a way of getting lost.
Jesus used it. So did Paul (Romans 3:19,20), Timothy (1 Timothy 1:8–11), and James (James 2:10). Stephen used it when he preached (Acts 7:53). Peter found that it had been used to open the door to release 3,000 imprisoned souls on the Day of Pentecost. Jesus said that the lawyers had "taken away" the key, and even refused to use it to let people enter into the kingdom of God. The Pharisees didn’t take it away. Instead, they bent it out of shape so that it wouldn’t do its work (Mark 7:8). Jesus returned it to its true shape, just as the Scriptures prophesied that He would do (Isaiah 42:21). Satan has tried to prejudice the modern Church against the key. He has maligned it, misused it, twisted it, and, of course, hidden it—he hates it because of what it does. Perhaps you are wondering what this key is. I will tell you. All I ask is that you set aside your traditions and prejudices and look at what God’s Word says on the subject.
In Acts 28:23 the Bible tells us that Paul sought to persuade his hearers "concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets." Here we have two effective means of persuading the unsaved "concerning Jesus." Let’s first look at how the prophets can help persuade sinners concerning Jesus.
Fulfilled prophecy proves the inspiration of Scripture. The predictions of the prophets present a powerful case for the inspiration of the Bible. Any skeptic who reads the prophetic words of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, etc., or the words of Jesus in Matthew 24 cannot but be challenged that this is no ordinary book.
The other means by which Paul persuaded sinners concerning Jesus was "out of the law of Moses." The Bible tells us that the Law of Moses is good if it is used lawfully (1 Timothy 1:8). It was given by God as a "schoolmaster" to bring us to Christ (Galatians 3:24). Paul wrote that he "had not known sin, but by the law" (Romans 7:7). The Law of God (the Ten commandments) is evidently the "key of knowledge" Jesus spoke of in Luke 11:52. He was speaking to "lawyers"—those who should have been teaching God’s Law so that sinners would receive the "knowledge of sin," and thus recognize their need of the Savior.
Prophecy speaks to the intellect of the sinner, while the Law speaks to his conscience. One produces faith in the Word of God; the other brings knowledge of sin in the heart of the sinner. The Law is the God-given "key" to unlock the Door of salvation. See Matthew 19:17–22 footnote and Romans 3:19,20. "I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the Law. The Law is the needle, and you cannot draw the silken thread of the gospel through a man’s heart unless you first send the needle of the Law to make way for it." Charles Spurgeon
After they have been given the law, and realize that they have broken God's law, and are humbled, realizing that they are guilty before God Almighty on Judgment Day, then they are ready to be given the Good News (Grace) of what Jesus did for them on the cross...
The formula to always follow, is what Jesus always did:
Law to the proud; Grace to the humble
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The Gospel: Why not preach that Jesus gives happiness, peace, and joy?
The Gospel: Why not preach that Jesus gives happiness, peace, and joy?
Two men are seated on a plane. The first is given a parachute and told to put it on as it would improve his flight. He’s a little skeptical at first, since he can’t see how wearing a parachute on a plane could possibly improve his flight. He decides to experiment and see if the claims are true. As he puts it on, he notices the weight of it upon his shoulders and he finds he has difficulty in sitting upright. However, he consoles himself with the fact he was told that the parachute would improve his flight. So he decides to give it a little time.
As he waits he notices that some of the other passengers are laughing at him for wearing a parachute on a plane. He begins to feel somewhat humiliated. As they continue to point and laugh at him, he can stand it no longer. He slinks in his seat, unstraps the parachute and throws it to the floor. Disillusionment and bitterness fill his heart, because as far as he was concerned he was told an outright lie.
The second man is given a parachute, but listen to what he is told. He’s told to put it on because at any moment he’ll be jumping 25,000 feet out of the plane. He gratefully puts the parachute on. He doesn’t notice the weight of it upon his shoulders, nor that he can’t sit upright. His mind is consumed with the thought of what would happen to him if he jumped without the parachute.
Let’s now analyze the motive and the result of each passenger’s experience. The first man’s motive for putting the parachute on was solely to improve his flight. The result of his experience was that he was humiliated by the passengers, disillusioned, and somewhat embittered against those who gave him the parachute. As far as he’s concerned, it will be a long time before anyone gets one of those things on his back again.
The second man put the parachute on solely to escape the jump to come. And because of his knowledge of what would happen to him if he jumped without it, he has a deep-rooted joy and peace in his heart knowing that he’s saved from sure death. This knowledge gives him the ability to withstand the mockery of the other passengers. His attitude toward those who gave him the parachute is one of heartfelt gratitude.
Now listen to what the modern gospel says: "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. He’ll give you love, joy, peace, fulfillment, and lasting happiness." In other words, Jesus will improve your flight. The sinner responds, and in an experimental fashion puts on the Savior to see if the claims are true. And what does he get? The promised temptation, tribulation, and persecution—the other "passengers" mock him. So what does he do? He takes off the Lord Jesus Christ; he’s offended for the Word’s sake; he’s disillusioned and somewhat embittered...and quite rightly so. He was promised peace, joy, love, and fulfillment, and all he got were trials and humiliation. His bitterness is directed at those who gave him the so-called "good news." His latter end becomes worse than the first, and he’s another inoculated and bitter "backslider."
Instead of preaching that Jesus improves the flight, we should be warning sinners that they have to jump out of a plane. That it’s appointed for man to die once and then face judgment (Hebrews 9:27). When a sinner understands the horrific consequences of breaking the Law of God, he will flee to the Savior, solely to escape the wrath that’s to come. If we are true and faithful witnesses, that’s what we’ll be preaching—that there is wrath to come—that God "commands all men every where to repent: because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness" (Acts 17:30,31).
The issue isn’t one of happiness, but one of righteousness. It doesn’t matter how happy a sinner is, or how much he is enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season, without the righteousness of Christ, he will perish on the day of wrath. Proverbs 11:4 says, "Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivers from death."
Peace and joy are legitimate fruits of salvation, but it’s not legitimate to use these fruits as a drawing card for salvation. If we continue to do so, the sinner will respond with an impure motive, lacking repentance. Can you remember why the second passenger had joy and peace in his heart? It was because he knew that the parachute was going to save him from sure death. In the same way, as believers we have joy and peace in believing because we know that the righteousness of Christ is going to deliver us from the wrath that is to come.
With that thought in mind, let’s take a close look at an incident aboard the plane. We have a brand-new flight attendant. It’s her first day. She’s carrying a tray of boiling hot coffee. She wants to leave an impression upon the passengers and she certainly does! As she’s walking down the aisle she trips over someone’s foot and slops the hot coffee all over the lap of our second passenger. What’s his reaction as that boiling liquid hits his tender flesh? Does he go, "Man that hurt!"? Yes, he does. But then does he rip the parachute from his shoulders, throw it to the floor, and say, "The stupid parachute!"? No, why should he? He didn’t put the parachute on for a better flight. He put it on to save him from the jump to come. If anything, the hot coffee incident causes him to cling tighter to the parachute and even look forward to the jump.
If we have put on the Lord Jesus Christ for the right motive—to flee from the wrath that’s to come—when tribulation strikes, when the flight gets bumpy, we won’t get angry at God, and we won’t lose our joy and peace. Why should we? We didn’t come to Christ for a better lifestyle, but to flee from the wrath. to come If anything, tribulation drives the true believer closer to the Savior.
Sadly, we have multitudes of professing Christians who lose their joy and peace when the flight gets bumpy. Why? They are the product of a man- entered gospel. They came lacking repentance, without which they cannot be saved.
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Two men are seated on a plane. The first is given a parachute and told to put it on as it would improve his flight. He’s a little skeptical at first, since he can’t see how wearing a parachute on a plane could possibly improve his flight. He decides to experiment and see if the claims are true. As he puts it on, he notices the weight of it upon his shoulders and he finds he has difficulty in sitting upright. However, he consoles himself with the fact he was told that the parachute would improve his flight. So he decides to give it a little time.
As he waits he notices that some of the other passengers are laughing at him for wearing a parachute on a plane. He begins to feel somewhat humiliated. As they continue to point and laugh at him, he can stand it no longer. He slinks in his seat, unstraps the parachute and throws it to the floor. Disillusionment and bitterness fill his heart, because as far as he was concerned he was told an outright lie.
The second man is given a parachute, but listen to what he is told. He’s told to put it on because at any moment he’ll be jumping 25,000 feet out of the plane. He gratefully puts the parachute on. He doesn’t notice the weight of it upon his shoulders, nor that he can’t sit upright. His mind is consumed with the thought of what would happen to him if he jumped without the parachute.
Let’s now analyze the motive and the result of each passenger’s experience. The first man’s motive for putting the parachute on was solely to improve his flight. The result of his experience was that he was humiliated by the passengers, disillusioned, and somewhat embittered against those who gave him the parachute. As far as he’s concerned, it will be a long time before anyone gets one of those things on his back again.
The second man put the parachute on solely to escape the jump to come. And because of his knowledge of what would happen to him if he jumped without it, he has a deep-rooted joy and peace in his heart knowing that he’s saved from sure death. This knowledge gives him the ability to withstand the mockery of the other passengers. His attitude toward those who gave him the parachute is one of heartfelt gratitude.
Now listen to what the modern gospel says: "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. He’ll give you love, joy, peace, fulfillment, and lasting happiness." In other words, Jesus will improve your flight. The sinner responds, and in an experimental fashion puts on the Savior to see if the claims are true. And what does he get? The promised temptation, tribulation, and persecution—the other "passengers" mock him. So what does he do? He takes off the Lord Jesus Christ; he’s offended for the Word’s sake; he’s disillusioned and somewhat embittered...and quite rightly so. He was promised peace, joy, love, and fulfillment, and all he got were trials and humiliation. His bitterness is directed at those who gave him the so-called "good news." His latter end becomes worse than the first, and he’s another inoculated and bitter "backslider."
Instead of preaching that Jesus improves the flight, we should be warning sinners that they have to jump out of a plane. That it’s appointed for man to die once and then face judgment (Hebrews 9:27). When a sinner understands the horrific consequences of breaking the Law of God, he will flee to the Savior, solely to escape the wrath that’s to come. If we are true and faithful witnesses, that’s what we’ll be preaching—that there is wrath to come—that God "commands all men every where to repent: because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness" (Acts 17:30,31).
The issue isn’t one of happiness, but one of righteousness. It doesn’t matter how happy a sinner is, or how much he is enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season, without the righteousness of Christ, he will perish on the day of wrath. Proverbs 11:4 says, "Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivers from death."
Peace and joy are legitimate fruits of salvation, but it’s not legitimate to use these fruits as a drawing card for salvation. If we continue to do so, the sinner will respond with an impure motive, lacking repentance. Can you remember why the second passenger had joy and peace in his heart? It was because he knew that the parachute was going to save him from sure death. In the same way, as believers we have joy and peace in believing because we know that the righteousness of Christ is going to deliver us from the wrath that is to come.
With that thought in mind, let’s take a close look at an incident aboard the plane. We have a brand-new flight attendant. It’s her first day. She’s carrying a tray of boiling hot coffee. She wants to leave an impression upon the passengers and she certainly does! As she’s walking down the aisle she trips over someone’s foot and slops the hot coffee all over the lap of our second passenger. What’s his reaction as that boiling liquid hits his tender flesh? Does he go, "Man that hurt!"? Yes, he does. But then does he rip the parachute from his shoulders, throw it to the floor, and say, "The stupid parachute!"? No, why should he? He didn’t put the parachute on for a better flight. He put it on to save him from the jump to come. If anything, the hot coffee incident causes him to cling tighter to the parachute and even look forward to the jump.
If we have put on the Lord Jesus Christ for the right motive—to flee from the wrath that’s to come—when tribulation strikes, when the flight gets bumpy, we won’t get angry at God, and we won’t lose our joy and peace. Why should we? We didn’t come to Christ for a better lifestyle, but to flee from the wrath. to come If anything, tribulation drives the true believer closer to the Savior.
Sadly, we have multitudes of professing Christians who lose their joy and peace when the flight gets bumpy. Why? They are the product of a man- entered gospel. They came lacking repentance, without which they cannot be saved.
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How to Witness to Muslims
How to Witness to Muslims
In Acts 17:22–31 the apostle Paul built on areas of "common ground" as he prepared his listeners for the good news of the gospel. Even though he was addressing Gentiles whose beliefs were erroneous, he didn’t rebuke them for having a doctrine of devils— "The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God" (1 Corinthians 10:20). Neither did he present the great truth that Jesus of Nazareth was Almighty God manifest in human form. This may have initially offended his hearers and closed the door to the particular knowledge he wanted to convey. Instead, he built on what they already knew. He first established that there is a Creator who made all things. He then exposed their sin of transgression of the First and Second of the Ten Commandments. Then he preached future punishment for sin.
There are three main areas of common ground upon which Christians may stand with Muslims. First, that there is one God—the Creator of all things. The second area is the fact that Jesus of Nazareth was a prophet of God. The Bible makes this clear: "And He shall send Jesus Christ,…For Moses truly said to the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up to you of your brethren, like to me; him shall you hear in all things whatsoever he shall say to you" (Acts 3:20–22). The Qur’an (Koran) says: "Behold! The angel said ‘O Mary! Allah giveth you Glad Tidings of a word from Him. His name will be (Christ Jesus) the son of Mary, held in honor in this world and the hereafter and of (the company of) those nearest to Allah’" (Surah 3:45). In Surah 19:19, the angel said to Mary, "I am only a messenger of thy Lord to announce to you a gift of a holy son." Surah 3:55 says, "Allah said: ‘O Jesus! I will take you and raise you to Myself." It is because of these and other references to Jesus in the Qur’an that a Muslim will not object when you establish that Jesus was a prophet from God.
This brings us to the third area of common ground. Muslims also respect Moses as a prophet of God. Therefore, there should be little contention when Christians speak of God (as Creator), Jesus the prophet, and the Law of the prophet Moses. Most Muslims do have some knowledge of their sinfulness, but few see sin in its true light. It is therefore essential to take them through the spiritual nature of the Ten Commandments. While it is true that the Law of Moses begins with, "I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before Me," it may be unwise to tell a Muslim, at that point, that Allah is a false god. Such talk may close the door before you are able to speak to his conscience. It is wise rather to present the Law in a similar order in which Jesus gave it in Luke 18:20. He addressed the man’s sins of the flesh. He spoke directly to sins that have to do with his fellow man.
Therefore, ask your hearer if he has ever told a lie. When (if) he admits that he has, ask him what that makes him. Don’t call him a liar. Instead, gently press him to tell you what someone is called who has lied. Try to get him to say that he is a "liar." Then ask him if he has ever stolen something, even if it’s small. If he has, ask what that makes him (a thief). Then quote from the Prophet Jesus: "Whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matthew 5:27). Ask if he has ever looked at a woman with lust. If he is reasonable, he will admit that he has sinned in that area. Then gently tell him that, by his own admission, he is a "lying, thieving adulterer-at-heart." Say, "If God judges you by the Law of Moses on Judgment Day, will you be innocent or guilty?"
At this point, he will more than likely say that he will be innocent, because he confesses his sins to God. However, the Qur’an says: "Every soul that has sinned, if it possessed all that is on earth, would fain give it in ransom" (Surah 10:54). In other words, if he possessed the whole world and offered it to God as a sacrifice for his sins, it wouldn’t be enough to provide atonement for his sins. Imagine that a criminal is facing a 50,000 fine. He is penniless, so he sincerely tells the judge that he is sorry for a crime and vows never to do it again. The judge won’t let him go on the basis of his sorrow, or his vow never to commit the crime again. Of course, he should be sorry for what he has done, and of course, he shouldn’t break the law again. The judge will, however, let him go if someone else pays the fine for him.
Now tell him that Moses gave instructions to Israel to shed the blood of a spotless lamb to provide a temporary atonement for their sin; and that Jesus was the Lamb that God provided to make atonement for the sins of the world. Through faith in Jesus, he can have atonement with God. All his sin can be washed away—once and for all. God can grant him the gift of everlasting life through faith in Jesus Christ on the basis of His death and resurrection.
The uniqueness of Jesus of Nazareth was that He claimed He had power on earth to forgive sins (Matthew 9:2–6). No other prophet of any of the great religions made this claim. Only Jesus can provide peace with God. This is why He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me" (John 14:6).
God commands sinners to repent and trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior, or they will perish. To try to justify himself, your listener may say something like, "The Bible has changed. It has been altered. There are many different versions, but the Koran has never changed." Explain to him that there are many different versions, printed in different languages and in modern English, to help people understand the Bible, but the content of the Scriptures remains the same. The Dead Sea Scrolls prove that God has preserved the Scriptures.
Tell him that the 100% accurate prophecies of Matthew 24, Luke 21, and 2 Timothy 3 prove that this is the Book of the Creator. Your task is to present the truth of the gospel. It is God who makes it come alive (1 Corinthians 3:6,7). It is God who brings conviction of sin (John 16:7,8). It is God who reveals who Jesus is (Matthew 16:16,17). All God requires is your faithful presentation of the truth (Matthew 25:21).
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In Acts 17:22–31 the apostle Paul built on areas of "common ground" as he prepared his listeners for the good news of the gospel. Even though he was addressing Gentiles whose beliefs were erroneous, he didn’t rebuke them for having a doctrine of devils— "The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God" (1 Corinthians 10:20). Neither did he present the great truth that Jesus of Nazareth was Almighty God manifest in human form. This may have initially offended his hearers and closed the door to the particular knowledge he wanted to convey. Instead, he built on what they already knew. He first established that there is a Creator who made all things. He then exposed their sin of transgression of the First and Second of the Ten Commandments. Then he preached future punishment for sin.
There are three main areas of common ground upon which Christians may stand with Muslims. First, that there is one God—the Creator of all things. The second area is the fact that Jesus of Nazareth was a prophet of God. The Bible makes this clear: "And He shall send Jesus Christ,…For Moses truly said to the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up to you of your brethren, like to me; him shall you hear in all things whatsoever he shall say to you" (Acts 3:20–22). The Qur’an (Koran) says: "Behold! The angel said ‘O Mary! Allah giveth you Glad Tidings of a word from Him. His name will be (Christ Jesus) the son of Mary, held in honor in this world and the hereafter and of (the company of) those nearest to Allah’" (Surah 3:45). In Surah 19:19, the angel said to Mary, "I am only a messenger of thy Lord to announce to you a gift of a holy son." Surah 3:55 says, "Allah said: ‘O Jesus! I will take you and raise you to Myself." It is because of these and other references to Jesus in the Qur’an that a Muslim will not object when you establish that Jesus was a prophet from God.
This brings us to the third area of common ground. Muslims also respect Moses as a prophet of God. Therefore, there should be little contention when Christians speak of God (as Creator), Jesus the prophet, and the Law of the prophet Moses. Most Muslims do have some knowledge of their sinfulness, but few see sin in its true light. It is therefore essential to take them through the spiritual nature of the Ten Commandments. While it is true that the Law of Moses begins with, "I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before Me," it may be unwise to tell a Muslim, at that point, that Allah is a false god. Such talk may close the door before you are able to speak to his conscience. It is wise rather to present the Law in a similar order in which Jesus gave it in Luke 18:20. He addressed the man’s sins of the flesh. He spoke directly to sins that have to do with his fellow man.
Therefore, ask your hearer if he has ever told a lie. When (if) he admits that he has, ask him what that makes him. Don’t call him a liar. Instead, gently press him to tell you what someone is called who has lied. Try to get him to say that he is a "liar." Then ask him if he has ever stolen something, even if it’s small. If he has, ask what that makes him (a thief). Then quote from the Prophet Jesus: "Whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matthew 5:27). Ask if he has ever looked at a woman with lust. If he is reasonable, he will admit that he has sinned in that area. Then gently tell him that, by his own admission, he is a "lying, thieving adulterer-at-heart." Say, "If God judges you by the Law of Moses on Judgment Day, will you be innocent or guilty?"
At this point, he will more than likely say that he will be innocent, because he confesses his sins to God. However, the Qur’an says: "Every soul that has sinned, if it possessed all that is on earth, would fain give it in ransom" (Surah 10:54). In other words, if he possessed the whole world and offered it to God as a sacrifice for his sins, it wouldn’t be enough to provide atonement for his sins. Imagine that a criminal is facing a 50,000 fine. He is penniless, so he sincerely tells the judge that he is sorry for a crime and vows never to do it again. The judge won’t let him go on the basis of his sorrow, or his vow never to commit the crime again. Of course, he should be sorry for what he has done, and of course, he shouldn’t break the law again. The judge will, however, let him go if someone else pays the fine for him.
Now tell him that Moses gave instructions to Israel to shed the blood of a spotless lamb to provide a temporary atonement for their sin; and that Jesus was the Lamb that God provided to make atonement for the sins of the world. Through faith in Jesus, he can have atonement with God. All his sin can be washed away—once and for all. God can grant him the gift of everlasting life through faith in Jesus Christ on the basis of His death and resurrection.
The uniqueness of Jesus of Nazareth was that He claimed He had power on earth to forgive sins (Matthew 9:2–6). No other prophet of any of the great religions made this claim. Only Jesus can provide peace with God. This is why He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me" (John 14:6).
God commands sinners to repent and trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior, or they will perish. To try to justify himself, your listener may say something like, "The Bible has changed. It has been altered. There are many different versions, but the Koran has never changed." Explain to him that there are many different versions, printed in different languages and in modern English, to help people understand the Bible, but the content of the Scriptures remains the same. The Dead Sea Scrolls prove that God has preserved the Scriptures.
Tell him that the 100% accurate prophecies of Matthew 24, Luke 21, and 2 Timothy 3 prove that this is the Book of the Creator. Your task is to present the truth of the gospel. It is God who makes it come alive (1 Corinthians 3:6,7). It is God who brings conviction of sin (John 16:7,8). It is God who reveals who Jesus is (Matthew 16:16,17). All God requires is your faithful presentation of the truth (Matthew 25:21).
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