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Conflict in the Middle East: More Signs of the End Times? Explosive tension in the Middle East is fueling speculation throughout the media and political world that perhaps we are living in what the Bible calls the last days. Are we approaching the return of Jesus Christ? When we read the list of events Jesus tells His disciples in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 to be watching for, we can see each of them coming to pass: wars and rumors of wars, revolutions, the rise of false messiahs, earthquakes, famines, persecution of the believers, the spread of the gospel around the world, the rebirth of the State of Israel, Jerusalem back under Jewish control, and Jews preparing to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus wants us to know the season of His return, and He is quite clear: "When you see all these things, recognize that My return is near, that I'm right at the door." (see Matthew 24:33) Based on current tensions, here are three End Times Biblical prophecies worth watching for: 1. Apocalyptic battles for control of Jerusalem: Next year will mark the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War and Israel's reunification of Jerusalem under Jewish control. Numerous radical Islamic leaders have vowed to "liberate" Jerusalem and liquidate the Jews. Among them: Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the leaders of Hamas, and Osama bin Laden, to name just a few. 2. The war in the Middle East is merely the opening skirmish in a new bid for Islamic control of the Holy City. This is in keeping with the Hebrew prophets who warned that the violent struggle for Jerusalem would continue until the physical return of Jesus to the earth. 3. The Prophet Ezekiel, for example, foresaw a multinational force led by Russia and Iran will seek to capture Israel and Jerusalem (the "War of Gog and Magog," see Ezekiel 38-39)..."  Search & U will find me hidden in your heart [bling3519] |
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We cannot disregard the biblical importance of Israel ... it exists so that the prophecy may be fulfilled. What is written is what will be done ... "So it is written, and so it shall be done." 
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No one knows if the end of times is near. What we know is that it may come at any time like a thief in the night and we have to be ready for that coming.
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We cannot disregard the biblical importance of Israel ... it exists so that the prophecy may be fulfilled. What is written is what will be done ... "So it is written, and so it shall be done." Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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No one knows if the end of times is near. What we know is that it may come at any time like a thief in the night and we have to be ready for that coming. Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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No one knows if the end of times is near. What we know is that it may come at any time like a thief in the night and we have to be ready for that coming. Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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God's Chosen People Jostein Gaarder, Aftenposten There is no turning back. It is time to learn a new lesson: We do no longer recognize the state of Israel. We could not recognize the South African apartheid regime, nor did we recognize the Afghan Taliban regime. Then there were many who did not recognize Saddam Hussein's Iraq or the Serbs' ethnic cleansing. We must now get used to the idea: The state of Israel in its current form is history. Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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God's Chosen People Jostein Gaarder, Aftenposten There is no turning back. It is time to learn a new lesson: We do no longer recognize the state of Israel. We could not recognize the South African apartheid regime, nor did we recognize the Afghan Taliban regime. Then there were many who did not recognize Saddam Hussein's Iraq or the Serbs' ethnic cleansing. We must now get used to the idea: The state of Israel in its current form is history. Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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God's Chosen People Jostein Gaarder, Aftenposten There is no turning back. It is time to learn a new lesson: We do no longer recognize the state of Israel. We could not recognize the South African apartheid regime, nor did we recognize the Afghan Taliban regime. Then there were many who did not recognize Saddam Hussein's Iraq or the Serbs' ethnic cleansing. We must now get used to the idea: The state of Israel in its current form is history. There are limits to our patience, and there are limits to our tolerance. We do not believe in divine promises as justification for occupation and apartheid. We have left the Middle Ages behind. We laugh uneasily at those who still believe that the God of flora, fauna, and galaxies has selected one people in particular as his favorite and given it funny stone tablets, burning bushes, and a license to kill. Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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God's Chosen People Jostein Gaarder, Aftenposten There is no turning back. It is time to learn a new lesson: We do no longer recognize the state of Israel. We could not recognize the South African apartheid regime, nor did we recognize the Afghan Taliban regime. Then there were many who did not recognize Saddam Hussein's Iraq or the Serbs' ethnic cleansing. We must now get used to the idea: The state of Israel in its current form is history. Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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God's Chosen People Jostein Gaarder, Aftenposten There is no turning back. It is time to learn a new lesson: We do no longer recognize the state of Israel. We could not recognize the South African apartheid regime, nor did we recognize the Afghan Taliban regime. Then there were many who did not recognize Saddam Hussein's Iraq or the Serbs' ethnic cleansing. We must now get used to the idea: The state of Israel in its current form is history. We acknowledge and pay heed to Europe's deep responsibility for the plight of the Jews, for the disgraceful harassment, the pogroms, and the Holocaust. It was historically and morally necessary for Jews to get their own home. However, the state of Israel, with its unscrupulous art of war and its disgusting weapons, has massacred its own legitimacy Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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God's Chosen People Jostein Gaarder, Aftenposten There is no turning back. It is time to learn a new lesson: We do no longer recognize the state of Israel. We could not recognize the South African apartheid regime, nor did we recognize the Afghan Taliban regime. Then there were many who did not recognize Saddam Hussein's Iraq or the Serbs' ethnic cleansing. We must now get used to the idea: The state of Israel in its current form is history. Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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God's Chosen People Jostein Gaarder, Aftenposten There is no turning back. It is time to learn a new lesson: We do no longer recognize the state of Israel. We could not recognize the South African apartheid regime, nor did we recognize the Afghan Taliban regime. Then there were many who did not recognize Saddam Hussein's Iraq or the Serbs' ethnic cleansing. We must now get used to the idea: The state of Israel in its current form is history. Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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God's Chosen People Jostein Gaarder, Aftenposten There is no turning back. It is time to learn a new lesson: We do no longer recognize the state of Israel. We could not recognize the South African apartheid regime, nor did we recognize the Afghan Taliban regime. Then there were many who did not recognize Saddam Hussein's Iraq or the Serbs' ethnic cleansing. We must now get used to the idea: The state of Israel in its current form is history. May spirit and word sweep away the apartheid walls of Israel. The state of Israel does not exist. It is now without defense, without skin. May the world therefore have mercy on the civilian population. For it is not civilian individuals at whom our doomsaying is directed. Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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God's Chosen People Jostein Gaarder, Aftenposten There is no turning back. It is time to learn a new lesson: We do no longer recognize the state of Israel. We could not recognize the South African apartheid regime, nor did we recognize the Afghan Taliban regime. Then there were many who did not recognize Saddam Hussein's Iraq or the Serbs' ethnic cleansing. We must now get used to the idea: The state of Israel in its current form is history. Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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God's Chosen People Jostein Gaarder, Aftenposten There is no turning back. It is time to learn a new lesson: We do no longer recognize the state of Israel. We could not recognize the South African apartheid regime, nor did we recognize the Afghan Taliban regime. Then there were many who did not recognize Saddam Hussein's Iraq or the Serbs' ethnic cleansing. We must now get used to the idea: The state of Israel in its current form is history. We do not believe that Israel mourns forty killed Lebanese children more than it for over three thousand years has lamented forty years in the desert. We note that many Israelis celebrate such triumphs like they once cheered the scourges of the Lord as "fitting punishment" for the people of Egypt. (In that tale, the Lord, God of Israel, appears as an insatiable sadist.) We query whether most Israelis think that one Israeli life is worth more than forty Palestinian or Lebanese lives. Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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For we have seen pictures of little Israeli girls writing hateful greetings on the bombs to be dropped on the civilian population of Lebanon and Palestine. Little Israeli girls are not cute when they strut with glee at death and torment across the fronts. Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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The Retribution of Blood Vengeance We do not recognize the rhetoric of the state of Israel. We do not recognize the spiral of retribution of the blood vengeance with "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." We do not recognize the principle of one or a thousand Arab eyes for one Israeli eye. Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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We do not recognize collective punishment or population-wide diets as political weapons. Two thousand years have passed since a Jewish rabbi criticized the ancient doctrine of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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He said: "Do to others as you would have them do to you." We do not recognize a state founded on antihumanistic principles and on the ruins of an archaic national and war religion. Or as Albert Schweitzer expressed it: "Humanitarianism consists in never sacrificing a human being to a purpose." Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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Compassion and Forgiveness We do not recognize the old Kingdom of David as a model for the 21st century map of the Middle East. The Jewish rabbi claimed two thousand years ago that the Kingdom of God is not a martial restoration of the Kingdom of David, but that the Kingdom of God is within us and among us. The Kingdom of God is compassion and forgiveness. Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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Two thousand years have passed since the Jewish rabbi disarmed and humanized the old rhetoric of war. Even in his time, the first Zionist terrorists were operating Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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Israel Does Not Listen For two thousand years, we have rehearsed the syllabus of humanism, but Israel does not listen. It was not the Pharisee that helped the man who lay by the wayside, having fallen prey to robbers. It was a Samaritan; today we would say, a Palestinian. Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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For we are human first of all -- then Christian, Muslim, or Jewish. Or as the Jewish rabbi said: "And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?" We do not accept the abduction of soldiers. But nor do we accept the deportation of whole populations or the abduction of legally elected parliamentarians and government ministers. Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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We recognize the state of Israel of 1948, but not the one of 1967. It is the state of Israel that fails to recognize, respect, or defer to the internationally lawful Israeli state of 1948. Israel wants more; more water and more villages. Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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To obtain this, there are those who want, with God's assistance, a final solution to the Palestinian problem. The Palestinians have so many other countries, certain Israeli politicians have argued; we have only one. Everybody needs a hand 2hold,its a long trip alone
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