“Palestinian” spokesmen have denounced as lies and deception Israeli claims that remains had been uncovered on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount dating back to the period of Solomon’s Temple.

According to the Associated Press, the Israel Antiquities Authority Sunday announced it had discovered fragments of ceramic table wares and animal bones dating back to the first Jewish temple – from the 6th to the 10th centuries BC. The finds also included fragments of bowl rims, bases and body sherds, the base and handle of a small jug and the rim of a storage jar.

But the Islamic Trust denied that any discovery was made, AP said.

AP got it right when it stated that “the site [Temple Mount] represents the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

For Muslims everywhere, and especially for the Arab nationalists out to appropriate part of the 3000-year-old City of David and turn it into the capital of a Palestinian state, denying any Jewish link to the most coveted sites has long been a central component of their strategy.

Now-deceased arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat and his Palestine Liberation Organization have spent a fortune in financial and political capital trying to “sever” the Jews’ claim to the Temple Mount.

Down the decades since 1967, Palestinian Arab academics, archeological “experts” and popular television and radio talk-show hosts have all collaborated to “prove” that there is no physical evidence to support the Jews’ claim to having had a homeland in “Palestine” two millennia ago.

At Camp David in 2001, while participating in negotiations with Prime Minister Ehud Barak under the auspices of US President Bill Clinton, Arafat shamelessly stated as “fact” that the Jews had never had a temple in Jerusalem, and that King Solomon had built his house of worship not far from Jericho.

Arafat in fact sought to be buried on the Temple Mount – a site the Islamic world calls its “third holiest” – and to which Muslims turn their backs when praying towards Mecca and Medina five times a day.

The mass-murderer of Jews and others believed that interring his corpse at the site would help strengthen the Arab claim to sovereignty over it.

Bible-believing Christians and Jews understand why the Temple Mount is so sought after by the PLO and in fact by the entire Muslim world.

According to both the Hebrew Scriptures (”Old” Testament) and the New Testament, Israel’s Messiah will establish His kingdom in Jerusalem, taking His place on the Throne of David that will be erected on the Temple Mount, and from there ruling over the nations of the world.

God’s mortal enemy has long sought to wrest the hilltop from Jewish control, hoping thereby to prevent this foretold messianic event from coming to pass.

The outburst of anger in response to the Israeli archeologists’ find should be seen in this context.

© Jerusalem Newswire 2002-2006
http://www.jnewswire.com/article/2206

Tax his pants, tax his coat,

Tax his crops, tax his work,

Tax his tie, tax his shirt,

Tax his chew, tax his smoke;

Teach him taxes are no joke.

Tax his tractor, tax his mule,

Teach him taxes are a rule,

Tax his oil, tax his gas,

Tax his notes, tax his cash;

Tax him good and let him know—

After taxes he has no dough.

If he hollers, tax him more;

Tax him ‘til he’s good and sore.

Tax his coffin, tax his grave,

Tax the sod in which he lays.

Put these words upon his tomb:

“Taxes drove me to my doom.”

And after he’s gone, he can’t relax;

They’ll still be after Inheritance Tax

“Mom and Dad” as well as “husband and wife” have been banned from California schools under a bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who with his signature also ordered public schools to allow boys to use girls restrooms and locker rooms, and vice versa, if they choose.

“We are shocked and appalled that the governor has blatantly attacked traditional family values in California,” said Karen England, executive director of Capitol Resource Institute.

“With this decision, Gov. Schwarzenegger has told parents that their values are irrelevant. Many parents will have no choice but to pull their children out of the public schools that have now become sexualized indoctrination centers.”

“Arnold Schwarzenegger has delivered young children into the hands of those who will introduce them to alternative sexual lifestyles,” said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, which worked to defeat the plans. “This means children as young as five years old will be mentally molested in school classrooms.

“Shame on Schwarzenegger and the Democrat politicians for ensuring that every California school becomes a homosexual-bisexual-transsexual indoctrination center,” he said.

(Story continues below)

Analysts have warned that schools across the nation will be impacted by the decision, since textbook publishers must cater to their largest purchaser, which often is California, and they will be unlikely to go to the expense of having a separate edition for other states.

The bills signed by Schwarzenegger include SB777, which bans anything in public schools that could be interpreted as negative toward homosexuality, bisexuality and other alternative lifestyle choices.

There are no similar protections for students with traditional or conservative lifestyles and beliefs, however.

“SB 777 will result in reverse discrimination against students with religious and traditional family values,” said Meredith Turney, legislative liaison for Capitol Resource Institute. “These students have lost their voice as the direct result of Gov. Schwarzenegger’s unbelievable decision. The terms ‘mom and dad’ or ‘husband and wife’ could promote discrimination against homosexuals if a same-sex couple is not also featured.

“Parents want the assurance that when their children go to school they will learn the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic – not social indoctrination regarding alternative sexual lifestyles. Now that SB777 is law, schools will in fact become indoctrination centers for sexual experimentation,” she said.

Also signed was AB394, which targets parents and teachers for such indoctrination through “anti-harassment” training, CCF said.

Schwarzenegger had vetoed almost identical provisions a year ago, saying existing state law already provided for penalties for discrimination.

“We had hoped that the governor would once again veto this outrageous legislation but he obviously decided to side with the out-of-touch extremists that control the legislature. This law does not reflect the true values of the average Californian,” said England. “True leadership means standing up for what is true and right.”

Thomasson said SB777 prohibits any “instruction” or school-sponsored “activity” that “promotes a discriminatory bias” against “gender” – the bill’s definition includes cross-dressing and sex changes – as well as “sexual orientation.”

“Because no textbook or instruction in California public schools currently disparages transsexuality, bisexuality, or homosexuality, the practical effect of SB777 will be to require positive portrayals of these sexual lifestyles at every government-operated school,” CCF noted.

Offenders will face the wrath of the state Department of Education, up to and including lawsuits.

CCF noted that now on a banned list will be any text, reference or teaching aid that portrays marriage as only between a man and woman, materials that say people are born male or female (and not in between), sources that fail to include a variety of transsexual, bisexual and homosexual historical figures, and sex education materials that fail to offer the option of sex changes.

Further, homecoming kings now can be either male or female – as can homecoming queens, and students, whether male or female, must be allowed to use the restroom and locker room corresponding to the sex with which they choose to identify.

AB394 promotes the same issues through state-funded publications, postings, curricula and handouts to students, parents and teachers.

It also creates the circumstances where a parent who says marriage is only for a man and a woman in the presence of a lesbian teacher could be convicted of “harassment,” and a student who believes people are born either male or female could be reported as a “harasser” by a male teacher who wears women’s clothes, CCF said.

Thomasson said Schwarzenegger also signed AB14, which prohibits state funding for any program that does not support a range of alternative sexual practices, including state-funded social services run by churches.

Affected will be day cares, preschool or after-school programs, food and housing programs, senior services, anti-gang efforts, jobs programs and others.

Thomasson said it also forces every hospital in California – even private, religious hospitals – to adopt policies in support of transsexuality, bisexuality, and homosexuality and opens up nonprofit organizations to lawsuits if they exclude members that engage in homosexual, bisexual, or transsexual conduct.

“It’s the height of intolerance to punish individuals, organizations, businesses, and churches that have moral standards on sexual conduct and sexual lifestyles,” said Thomasson, in response to the signing of AB14. “This is another insensitive law that violates people’s moral boundaries.”

The vitriol over the issue rose to new levels in its latest campaign.

As WND reported, a board member for the homosexual advocacy group Equality California verbally attacked and threatened CRI for its opposition to the bill earlier.

The board member sent an e-mail and video to CRI threatening the group would be buried if it continued efforts opposing the homosexual advocacy.

“The shocking hate mail we received shows that those behind this legislation do not promote true tolerance,” said England. “Only politically correct speech will be tolerated. Those with religious or traditional moral beliefs will not be allowed to express their opinions in public schools.”

She also cited an informational document published by the Gay-Straight Alliance Network and the Transgender Law Center that already is lobbying for special treatment in the school system.

“If you want to use a restroom that matches your gender identity … you should be allowed to do so,” it advises. “Whenever students are divided up into boys and girls, you should be allowed to join the group or participate in the program that matches your gender identity as much as possible.”

Further, the groups advise, “If you change your name to one that better matches your gender identity, a school needs to use that name to refer to you.” The advocacy group also warns schools against bringing parents into any such discussion with students.

WND has documented a number of earlier cases in which educators, including leaders in California, have taken it upon themselves to promote a homosexual lifestyle to children under their charge.

WND reported California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell, under whose supervision hundreds of thousands of children are being educated, has used his state position and taxpayer-funded stationery to praise a “gay” pride event used in the past to expose children to sexually explicit activities.

That drew vehement objections from several educators, including Priscilla Schreiber, the president of the Grossmont Unified High School District governing board.

“I am outraged that a person in this high-ranking elected position would advocate an event where diversity is not just being celebrated but where pornography and indecent exposure is being perpetrated on the young and innocent children of our communities,” she said.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58130

Posted: October 18, 2007

The Palestinians and Israelis are scheduled to meet at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., this November. This major “peace summit” is the brainchild of the Bush administration and is under the supervision of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Though most of the world – especially the Arab world – seems dubious about the summit’s prospects for success, the United States appears bent on forcing some sort of “peace” upon that troubled region. To do so, Secretary Rice is pressuring Israel to drop all of its redline demands. Redlines are the points that cannot be conceded.

Both sides have redlines. Both sides have points they will not give up, boundaries they will not cross. But the State Department is pressuring Israel to drop all of its redline conditions. For the first time, the division of Jerusalem is on the table. Since 1967, Israel had steadfastly claimed a united Jerusalem as “its eternal capital, never to be divided again.”

I will never forget when Gen. Moshe Dayan first stood before the Western Wall after the amazing six-day victory in June of 1967. He dramatically declared, “We have returned to all that is holy in our land. We have returned never to be parted from it again.”

Evidently, to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, “eternal” and “never” means about 40 years. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the Palestinians are pressuring Secretary Rice to guarantee that Israel will relinquish sovereignty over the Temple Mount.

What’s more, they’re making this guarantee a pre-condition before they’ll even show up at the conference! According to a senior Palestinian official quoted by Haaretz, “No Arab country would agree for a final-status arrangement in which the Temple Mount was not in Muslim hands, particularly not Saudi Arabia.”

So, while Israel is not permitted any redline issues, the Palestinian redlines are not only permitted, but Secretary Rice is seeking guarantees of Israeli acceptance of them. And their No. 1 redline demand is that Israel must surrender the very heart and soul of Judaism as the price of admission to even start discussing peace.

Just suppose for a moment that Israel and the Muslims were in reverse circumstances. Can you imagine the reaction to Israel demanding that the Muslims guarantee the surrender of Mecca as a precondition to “discussing” peace? The world would consider such a demand unthinkable.

Yet, according to a report in WorldNetDaily, Secretary Rice singled out areas of Jerusalem that will become part of a future Palestinian state. She reportedly told Palestinian negotiators that she would publicly blame Israel for the failure of next month’s summit if the Jewish state didn’t agree to evacuate east Jerusalem neighborhoods.

Rice traveled to the Middle East this week to help the Israelis and Palestinians formulate a joint statement ahead of November’s conference. The Palestinians want the statement to outline specifically a Palestinian state including the Gaza Strip, West Bank and essentially all of east Jerusalem, which includes not only the Muslim holy places, but those of the Jews and Christians as well. They are ostensibly to be put under Jordanian supervision.

But I remember what that was like before June 1967. There were walls and barbed wire separating East Jerusalem from Israel. Christian pilgrims had to carry their own luggage across an intimidating no man’s land of about 40 meters while unfriendly Jordanian soldiers looked on.

I am stunned the Bush administration is pressuring Israel to agree to all of the Palestinian demands in advance, with the threat that they’ll be blamed for the summit’s failure if they don’t.

In view of this, my question is, “What’s the point of the conference?” “What’s left to negotiate?” President Bush and Secretary Rice have already done the Palestinians’ negotiating for them. And all of this despite the fact that the Palestinians have not lived up to one prerequisite condition outlined in Bush’s own “Road Map for Peace.”

You know, I fear for both President Bush and Secretary Rice. I also fear for my beloved country. They must be ignorant of a prophecy God made 2,500 years ago through the Hebrew prophet Zechariah. It applies to this precise time and situation in history. God said, “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples. .” The people surrounding Jerusalem are all the current Muslim nations.

As predicted, they have become intoxicated over possessing Jerusalem. Like drunken people, their emotions, inflamed with religious zeal, are causing them to do unwise, reckless and violent things.

The truth is hardly any Muslims traveled to visit Jerusalem before the Jews returned to it. Now you would think there is no other holy place on earth as important to them.

These are the exact conditions Zechariah predicted would be part of the last stages of this age. He continues, “And it shall happen in that day that I WILL make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for ALL PEOPLES. .” – meaning the entire world. Now here’s the punch line: “ALL who would seek to heave it away will surely be cut in pieces.” The original Hebrew makes the meaning of this even clearer. It reveals that everyone who tries to remove the heavy burden of the Jerusalem crisis will be utterly destroyed for getting involved with it. Isaac and Ishmael’s fight over possession of Jerusalem has drawn the whole world into it – just as the prophets predicted. It is the culmination of Ishmael’s 4,000-year-old hatred of his half-brother Isaac, the forefather of the Israelites.

I pray that somehow this message will get through to President Bush and Secretary Rice. This prophecy applies to this very moment in which we live. And in light of what they are forcing on Israel, it applies to them personally.

While Bush and Rice strive to create legacies for themselves – just as most presidents have tried to do with the Middle East conflict for the last 40 years – they not only endanger themselves, but also endanger this nation with the divine curse promised above. Mr. President, there is nothing on this earth worth what you are doing. In the power of God’s Spirit, I warn them both, “Stop, before it’s too late!”

To view the entire article, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58215

Uncle Sam has spent how much on New Orleans and the Gulf since Katrina hit?!?!!#!!

By Larry Kudlow

So, the president and Mrs. Bush went down to New Orleans to commemorate the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Who knows? Maybe over a latté with leading Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards they discussed spending even more money down there. After all, everyone seems to be saying New Orleans needs more cash.

Here’s a pop quiz: How much money has Uncle Sam spent on New Orleans and the Gulf region since Hurricane Katrina ripped the place apart?

I’ll give you the answer because you’ll never guess it. The grand total is $127 billion (including tax relief).

That’s right: a monstrous $127 billion. Of course, not a single media story has highlighted this gargantuan government-spending figure. But that number came straight from the White House in a fact sheet subtitled, “The Federal Government Is Fulfilling Its Commitment to Help the People of the Gulf Coast Rebuild.”

Huh?

This is an outrage. The entire GDP of the state of Louisiana is only $141 billion, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. So the cash spent there nearly matches the entire state gross GDP. That’s simply unbelievable. And to make matters worse, by all accounts New Orleans ain’t even fixed!

You might be asking, Where in the hell did all this money go? Well, the White House fact sheet says $24 billion has been used to build houses and schools, repair damaged infrastructure, and provide victims with a place to live. But isn’t everyone complaining about the lack of housing?

Perhaps all this money should’ve been directly deposited in the bank accounts of the 300,000 people living in New Orleans. All divvied up, that $127 billion would come to $425,000 per person! After thanking Uncle Sam for their sudden windfall, residents could head to Southern California and buy homes that are now on sale thanks to the sub-prime mortgage crisis and bid up the sagging house prices in the state.

The fact sheet goes on to say that $7.1 billion went to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to rebuild the levees; that the U.S. Department of Education spent $2 billion on local schools; and that the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries has awarded more than $2.5 million (the pikers). The administration also provided $16.7 billion as part of the largest housing-recovery program in U.S. history.

So the billion-dollar question becomes: Where did the rest of that money go?

Meanwhile, according to an article by Nicole Gelinas at the Manhattan Institute, New Orleans has earned the distinct honor of becoming the murder capital of the world. The murder rate is 40 percent higher than before Katrina, and twice as high as other dangerous cities like Detroit, Newark, and Washington, D.C.

Think of this: The idea of using federal money to rebuild cities is the quintessential liberal vision. And given the dreadful results in New Orleans, we can say that the government’s $127 billion check represents the quintessential failure of that liberal vision. Hillary Clinton calls this sort of reckless spending “government investment.” And that’s just what’s in store for America if she wins the White House next year.

Remember President Reagan’s line during the 1980 campaign about how LBJ fought a big-government spending war against poverty, and poverty won? Well think of all this Katrina spending as the Great Society Redux. And it failed. I suppose the current Bush administration would like to label this “compassionate conservatism.” But guess what? That failed, too.

Right from the start, New Orleans should have been turned into a tax-free enterprise zone. No income taxes, no corporate taxes, no capital-gains taxes. The only tax would have been a sales tax paid on direct transactions. A tax-free New Orleans would have attracted tens of billions of dollars in business and real-estate investment. This in turn would have helped rebuild the cities, schools, and hospitals. Private-sector entrepreneurs would have succeeded where big-government bureaucrats and regulators have so abysmally failed.

This is the real New Orleans Katrina story. It’s a pity that the mainstream media isn’t writing about it. Call it one of the greatest stories never told.

— Larry Kudlow, NRO’s Economics Editor, is host of CNBC’s Kudlow & Company and author of the daily web blog, Kudlow’s Money Politic$.

A new directive has been issued by the government in Cambodia that essentially eliminates Christian evangelism, according to a new report from Voice of the Martyrs.

Sources told the Christian ministry that works to serve members of the persecuted church worldwide that the new directive from the state Ministry of Cults and Religions ordered that Christian groups no longer are allowed to visit door-to-door in Cambodia.

That, the government concluded, “disrupts society.”

The directive also said the distribution of religious literature should be confined to church buildings, VOM said. And those church buildings, of course, can only be built with government approval.

Government officials told VOM sources that the ruling was aimed at reducing Christian evangelism throughout Cambodia, a primarily Buddhist nation.

“They can do any activity inside their institutions, but are not allowed to go door-to-door,” Sun Kim Hun, a deputy minister of cult and religion, was quoted as saying.

Authorities said the limit will be applied to all non-Buddhist groups, but its target is the Christian community, which the government accused of participating in campaigns such as offering clothing, food or language lessons, and then introducing people to Christianity.

Reports said in addition to disrupting peoples’ lives, such activities also “cause other insecurities.”

Reports estimate that more than 80 percent of Cambodia’s 14 million people are Buddhist, and only about 1 percent are Christian. Mission outreaches estimate only about 2,000 of the 12,000 Christians in Cambodia during the Killing Fields slaughters of the 1970s survived.

But the Evangelical Fellowship of Cambodia now estimates there are 130,000 Christians meeting in several thousand small churches around the country.

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.

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56932
 

According to reports carried in the Arab media Friday, the Assad government has already ordered, and carried out, the removal of the Government Archives and State Archives from Damascus to other locations.

Reports have circulated during the past two months that Syria is preparing its SCUD missile arsenal for war, including the VX gas warheads it has been working on producing for several years.

It is widely believed that any attempt by Syria to introduce non-conventional warheads into a conflict with Israel will be met by an Israeli response that will destroy Damascus.

http://www.jnewswire.com/article/1969

Source URL:
http://www.thebereancall.org/node/5520

]]> http://hbcdelivers.s439.sureserver.com/bill-in-congress-makes-it-a-crime-for-pastors-christians-to-speak-out-against-homosexuality/feed 0 http://hbcdelivers.s439.sureserver.com/north-nigerian-christians-wary-of-new-president http://hbcdelivers.s439.sureserver.com/north-nigerian-christians-wary-of-new-president#comments Mon, 18 Jun 2007 04:33:29 +0000 mike http://hbcdelivers.s439.sureserver.com/north-nigerian-christians-wary-of-new-president  

Christians fear that persecution especially in predominantly Islamic northern Nigeria will increase following the election April 21st of Muslim Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as president. As governor of Katsina State in northern Nigeria, Yar’Ardua had imposed sharia (Islamic law) and presided over a system of deliberate denial of land for building churches, as well as government agencies that arbitrarily closed some churches, Christian leaders told Compass Direct News. Major political parties in Nigeria nominated only Muslims from the north as part of an unwritten agreement among leaders that the presidency would alternate between north and south. Bulus Polit of the Evangelical Church of West Africa in Jos told Compass that between the two Muslim presidential candidates, Yar’Adua’s opponent was the more hard-line Muslim who would have presented greater problems to Christians in the country.

Religion Today Summaries

Iraqi Christians fled their homes in mid-April, after armed Sunni extremists threatened to kill them if they refused to convert to Islam within 24 hours. Six Christian families from the Mualimien neighborhood of Baghdad’s Dora District have relocated to a church elsewhere in the city, said a Baghdad source who requested that the families’ location and identity remain anonymous. Armed Sunnis told the families that an amir (independent Muslim prince or ruler) had issued a fatwa, or judgment based on Islamic law, against Dora’s Christians. “They called the Christians infidels and told them, ‘If you don’t convert to Islam or leave your homes in 24 hours, we will kill you,’” the source said after speaking with a member of the church helping the displaced Christians. A pastor who recently moved away from Dora to escape the daily violence said there were no injuries. He also confirmed reports that militants had removed the cross from the top of St. John the Baptist Chaldean Church in Dora.

Compass Direct News via MissionNet