Prophecy: I Am Setting My Eagles Free

The Lord has been speaking to me over the course of a years' time about this word in many different states and also abroad and I knew it came from His very heart. Many prophetic voices in the body of Christ have been receiving similar words at this time, so I felt it necessary to release this word to a broader audience as I know it is for the universal ecclesia, the world-wide church, for this time.

The Lord began to sing a new song over His people in a reality of Zephaniah 3:17: "The Lord your God is in your midst, a Might One, who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will renew you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing."

"You and me and I in you. That's the way that it's got to be. You and me and I in you. Let the trumpets arise. Let the trumpets sound. It's a new day. It's a new dawn. I'm making everything new. Wave goodbye to yesterday, for new things I declare for you today. I'm making all things new. I'm making all things new. Just now, fill in the blank. All means all. All means all. Everything means everything! Everything means everything for you! Today! Today! Not tomorrow! It starts today! Oh it starts right now! You don't have to wait for a new day tomorrow; it starts today! Oh, it's starting for you right now. It's starting now! Hey, I'll have my now. It's starting now. I'll have mine now. It's a new day! It's the dawn of a new day!"

The Lord continued to speak:

"You've got to step into your new. Take your step of faith right now. Nothing is going to hold you back anymore from this day forward! I'm breaking every chain off your life. Every hindrance has to go ... every rope, every fetter."

"I'm setting you free today. I am breaking off every chain, every rope, every hindrance that would keep you tied down to this old world. My eagles are soaring in this time. Eagles are not meant to be kept in a cage. Eagles are not meant to be tied down, or kept in a zoo so that those passing by would say, 'What a beautiful eagle that is! What beautiful wings you have.' But an eagle steps into its calling when it begins to function as God has created it to function. Today, on this very day, in this very moment, (for all reading this word) every chain is being broken—every fetter of iron—in Jesus' name. Man has tried to keep you down; man and his religion have tried to keep you grounded. And they said, "Oh, you look pretty good in this zoo. You've got some nice wings there. Do you think you'll ever get to use them?" You thought, Well, I can't use them in this cage.

"God, by his holy presence, in this very moment, is setting you free to fly into new dimensions that you have not yet known, and some will soar with new wings! These wings, you haven't tried before. You will move in ways and dimensions of my spirit that you have never known before, and it's going to be easy! An eagle soars above the storms. You're going to catch the wind of God's presence, and He will lift you higher and higher and higher. It'll be easy! So new! So refreshing! Catch the winds of my spirit. You'll catch the draft—the wind—the ruach—the breath of God blowing upon your life in this very now moment. You will soar! This is not just for one day. This is for next week, next month and next year! You will be caught up in a perpetual, never ending state of soaring on wings like eagles in a reality of Isaiah 40!"

"But those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint."

They who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They will mount up with wings as eagles! Oh, I said mount up! Mount up! Mount up! Get ready. Get ready! Be ready to soar like you've never soared before. You have to hear and receive this word. We are going somewhere today. You will never, ever be tied down again! You will soar on wings like eagles!

Eagles are meant to fly. They are not meant to be grounded. And I know that there are a lot of beautiful eagles in the body of Christ, and some have been kept in the zoo and kept in the cage for far too long.

"Today, you are going to fly! Some for the first time. For many, your old wings were just getting tired. I'm giving you new wings to fly and move in ways of My Spirit that you've never moved in before. The eagle anointing goes hand-in-hand with the prophetic calling. There are many eagles now that must hear these words!"

"You'll see with great eyesight. You'll see with more clarity. You'll get a new perspective—a new vision. When you're on the ground, you can't see things quite so clearly. But my people perish for lack of knowledge. My eagles have been kept down. They were meant to fly to see from a great distance. They're not able to see when they are kept on the ground. The eyes of the church have been cut off. The eyes of the church have been kept closed. Why? Because, the prophetic people have not been truly released into their callings! The church is in need of you! The church is in need of her eyesight back! The church is in need of her eyes back. You will see with a great vision from a great distance! Watchman on the walls: You will bring warning when it is due. You will bring blessing when it is due. You will bring reproof and correction when it is due! The church needs her eagles in this hour.

God has given me a personal mandate; not only for me, but I believe for many apostolic leaders in this time. The Lord gave me Psalm 91:3 (ESV): "Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence."

He said, "The fetters of iron are being broken off!. I will free My eagles from every fetter of iron ... the fowler's snare." We've been snared up. We've been trapped. We've been chained up, locked up. God said to me, "Dave, you have to go! Free my eagles! Free them into who they were called to be and into who they were created to be. Set them free to fly in the freedom of my Spirit, moving, soaring, as the breath and the ruach of God will blow upon them." But he said, "My son, I need you to set them free. I need you to break the chain. I need you to cut the rope—to open the cage door. Honor them, respect them, appreciate them and value them! They are the reason the church is blind, for the eyes of my church have been closed; but they are opening in this time on this day."

"You will move in new ways of my spirit—new varieties and new diversities. Not everyone flows the same. No one will flow like you. Your anointing will be one-of-a-kind, and you are going to learn how to use your new wings. And, it's going to be the greatest adventure! You'll say, "Wow, I really like these new things! I'm liking how they feel. Man, I'm going to stretch them out. I'm going to see what these babies will do. I'm going to see how high I can really fly. Somebody's coming up higher, today! Hallelujah!"

No more eagles in the chicken coop. The chicken wire is being shredded and cut to pieces. The eagles have been in the chicken coop for way too long. There is a breakout happening right now all over the entire globe, where many have not belonged, or did not fit in, made to be fearful and scared to step out. Chickens usually stay on the ground in tight quarters and are afraid to step out. They stay in their own small little places. But, eagles soar and fly high all over the world. So we are declaring a breakout today. You need to speak this over yourself today: "It's a breakout of the eagles. No more chicken coops for me." I declare freedom for you today in Jesus' name! Hallelujah!

God says to you, "Arise, oh My eagles. Do not fear the places that I want to take you. Do not fear the storms in your life. You will rise above the storms and welcome them, for a heavy rain of my glory will fall in your life. The storm clouds are now forming. I am bringing My heavy rain, for I see the cloud the size of a man's hand. Fivefold ministries are rising in this hour: apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors and evangelists who will all work together for My glory. You will not fear the storms in your life. There will be an excitement that arises within you when you see the storm clouds begin to form. You'll say, "That's where the heavy rain will fall. That's where the heavy winds, the ruach of God—the breath of God—will blow in my life."

This old world can't keep you down. This old world has nothing for you. The things we try to hold onto are just the chains and the ropes that keep the eagles on the ground. Today, God is setting some people free to step into a new day. Wave goodbye to your yesterdays! Say hello to all your tomorrows; God is already there!

David Lebo of Tidal Wave Ministries, has a passion for awakening among the nations, boldly proclaiming the word of the Lord as a voice of "one crying in the wilderness". He ministers in freedom to release the fullness of God's kingdom. He is the author of the book Abiding Under The Shadow.

10-Foot-Tall Stone Jars 'Made by Giants' Stored Human Bodies in Ancient Laos

By Tom Metcalfe, Live Science Contributor 


Local legends say the carved stone jars were created by a race of giants to brew rice beer, but archaeologists think they were used in burial rituals.
Credit: Plain of Jars Archaeological Project

More than 100 giant stone jars, thought to have been used in burial rituals thousands of years ago, have been rediscovered at ancient sites in forests, on hillsides and along mountain ridges in remote central Laos.

The carved stone jars are scattered across miles of the rugged, tiger-haunted Xiang khouang province, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Laos' capital, Vientiane, in South Asia. They have been dubbed "jars of the dead" by researchers.

Several human burials, thought to be around 2,500 years old, have been found at some of these sites in Laos, but nothing is known about the people who originally made the jars. [In Photos: Exploring the Mysterious Plain of Jars Site]

An expedition of archaeologists from Laos and Australia visited the Xiang khouang region in February and March this year to document known jar sites and to search for new jars-of-the-dead sites and stone quarries.

The new finds show that the mysterious culture that made the stone jars was geographically more widespread than previously thought, said Louise Shewan, an archaeologist at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and one of the expedition leaders.



The largest and best-known jar site is the famous Plain of Jars, located in relatively open country near the town of Phonsavan. That site contains around 400 carved stone jars, some as tall as 10 feet (3 m) and weighing more than 10 tons (9,000 kilograms), and the first archaeological investigation of it was made in the 1930s.

But Shewan said that the majority of the jar sites usually contained fewer than 60 carved stone jars, and were found in forested and mountainous terrain surrounding the Plain of Jars, spread over thousands of square miles.

Ancient stone jars

Shewan told Live Science that the search for new jar sites took the expedition into "extremely rugged, forested terrain," as the researchers looked for ancient relics reported by local people.

Relying on local knowledge meant the archaeologists could avoid the ever-present danger of unexploded Vietnam War-era bombs, she said. U.S. warplanes dropped an estimated 270 million cluster bombs on Laos during the war. The Laos government agency that oversees clearance efforts reports that more than 80 million unexploded bombs are scattered around the country.



The latest expedition, in addition to accurately mapping many of the reported sites in the Xiangkhouang region, found 15 new jar sites, containing a total of 137 ancient stone jars.

Shewan said that the newly discovered jars were similar to those found on the Plain of Jars, but some varied in the types of stone that they were made from, their shapes and the way the rims of the jars were formed.

Burial rituals

Local legends include a story that the enormous stone jars were made by giants, who used the vessels to brew rice beer to celebrate a victory in war.

But archaeologists think that at least some of the carved stone jars were used to hold dead bodies for a time, before their bones would be cleaned and buried. [Top 10 Weird Ways We Deal with the Dead]

Although the remains of elaborate human burials have been found at some of the jar sites, archaeologists aren't sure if the jars were made for the purpose of the burials or if the burials were performed later.

Excavations in 2016 revealed that some of the stone jars were surrounded by pits filled with human bones and by graves covered by large carved disks of stone. These appear to have been used to mark the grave locations.

The latest expedition also found buried disks and other artifacts. Those included several beautifully carved stone disks, decorated on one side with concentric circles, human figures and animals. Curiously, the stone discs were always buried with the carved side face down.

"Decorative carving is relatively rare at the jar sites, and we don't know why some disks have animal imagery and others have geometric designs," expedition co-leader Dougald O'Reilly, an archaeologist at Australian National University in Canberra, said in a statement.

The excavations around some of the stone jars also revealed decorative ceramics, glass beads, iron tools, decorative disks that were worn in the ears and spindle whorls for cloth making. Researchers also discovered several miniature clay jars that looked just like the giant stone jars and that were buried with the dead.

The scientists will now use the data and photographs from the new jar finds to reconstruct the sites in virtual reality at Monash University; then, archaeologists across the globe can use the VR to examine the sites in detail.

Originally published on LIVE SCIENCE

In 1954, Evangelist A.A. Allen Was Given A Vision Of America Being Destroyed By Missiles Out Of The Ocean

By Michael T. Snyder -  May 21, 2019



On July 4th, 1954 evangelist A.A. Allen had an extraordinary vision which we are still talking about to this day.  The vision is quite long, but near the end of the vision he was shown that one day America would be destroyed by missiles coming out of the ocean.  It is important to note that the very first submarine capable of carrying nuclear missiles was not even built until 1959.  So what A.A. Allen saw had not even been invented yet when he saw it. The following is the full text of his vision…

(Harvest NETwork) As I stood atop the Empire State Building, I could see the Statue of Liberty, illuminating the gateway to the new world.  Here, spread before me like an animated map, is an area sixty or eighty miles in diameter. I was amazed that the Spirit of the Lord should so move me, there atop the Empire State Building.  Why should I feel such a surge of His Spirit and power there?

Suddenly I heard the voice of the Lord.  It was as clear and as distinct as a voice could be. It seemed to come from the very midst of the giant telescope.  But when I looked at the telescope, I knew it hadn’t come from there, but directly from heaven.  The voice said, “The eyes of the lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.  Herein you have done foolishly. Therefore, from henceforth, you shall have wars.”

Immediately when I heard the voice of God, I knew this was a quotation of Scripture.  But never before had a thing come to me so forcibly by the power of the Spirit. The ticking of the telescope stopped. The man before me had used up his dimes worth.  As he stepped away I knew that I was next.  As I stepped to the telescope and dropped in my dime, immediately the ticking started again.  This ticking was an automatic clock which would allow me to use the telescope for a definitely limited time only.

As I swung the telescope to the North, suddenly the Spirit of God came upon me in a way that I had never thought of before.  Seemingly in the spirit I was entirely caught away.  I knew that the telescope itself had nothing to do with the distance which I was suddenly enabled to see, for I seemed to see things far beyond the range of the telescope, even on a bright clear day.  It was simply that God had chosen this time to reveal these things to me, for as I looked through the telescope, it was not Manhattan Island that I saw, but a far larger view. That morning, much of the view was impaired by fog. But suddenly as the Spirit of the Lord came upon me the fog seemed to clear, until it seemed that I could see for thousands of miles.

But that which I was looking upon was not Manhattan island, it was all of the North American Continent spread out before me as a map is spread upon a table, it was not the East River and the Hudson River that I saw on either side, but the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans.And instead of the Statue of Liberty standing there in the bay on her small island I saw her standing far out in the Gulf of Mexico. She was between me and the United States.

I suddenly realized that the telescope had nothing to do with what I was seeing, but that it was a vision coming directly from God. And to prove this to myself I took my eyes away from the telescope, so that I was no longer looking through the lens, but the same scene remained before me.

There, clear and distinct, lay all the North American Continent, with all it’s great cities. To the North lay the Great Lakes. Far to the Northeast was New York City. I could see Seattle and Portland far to the Northwest. Down the West Coast, there were San Francisco and Los Angeles. Closer in the foreground, there lay New Orleans, at the center of the Gulf Coast area. I could see the great towering ranges of the Rocky Mountains, and trace with my eye the Continental Divide. All this and more, I could see spread out before me as a great map upon a table.

And as l looked, suddenly from the sky I saw a giant hand reach down. That gigantic hand was reaching out toward the Statue of Liberty. In a moment her gleaming torch was torn from her hand, and in it instead was placed a cup. And I saw protruding from that great cup, a giant sword, shining as if a great light had been turned upon its glistening edge. Never before had I seen such a sharp, glistening, dangerous sword. lt seemed to threaten all the world. As the great cup was placed in the hand of the Statue of Liberty, I heard these words, “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Drink ye and be drunken, spue and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send”  As I heard these words, I recognized them as a quotation from Jeremiah 25:7.

I was amazed to hear the Statue of Liberty speak out in reply, “I WILL NOT DRINK!” Then as the voice of the thunder, I heard again the voice of the Lord, saying, “Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, YE SHALL CERTAINLY DRINK.” (Jer.25:28)  Then suddenly the giant hand forced the cup to the lips of the Statue of Liberty, and she became powerless to defend herself.  The mighty hand of God forced her to drink every drop from the cup.  As she drank the bitter dregs, these were the words that I heard, “Should you be utterly unpunished?  You shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the Lord of Hosts.” (Jer.25:29)  When the cup was withdrawn from the lips of the Statue of Liberty, I noticed the sword was missing from the cup, which could mean but one thing.  THE CONTENTS OF THE CUP HAD BEEN COMPLETELY CONSUMED! I knew that the sword merely typified war, death, and destruction, which is no doubt on the way.

Then as one drunken on too much wine, I saw the Statue of Liberty become unsteady on her feet and begin to stagger, and to lose her balance.  I saw her splashing in the Gulf, trying to regain her balance.  I saw her stagger again and again, and fall to her knees. As I saw  her desperate attempts to regain her balance, and rise to her feet again, my heart was moved as never before with compassion for her struggles. But as she staggered there in the gulf, once again I heard these words, “Ye shall drink and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more because of the sword that I shall send among you.”

As I watched, I wondered if the Statue of Liberty would ever be able to regain her feet – if she would ever stand again.  And as I watched, it seemed that with all her power she struggled to rise, and finally staggered to her feet again, and stood there swaying drunkenly.  I felt sure that at any moment she would fall again – possibly never to rise. I seemed overwhelmed with a desire to reach out my hand to keep her head above water, for I knew that if she ever fell again she would drown there in the Gulf.

“Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday.” Psalms 91:5,6.

Then as I watched, another amazing thing was taking place.  Far to the Northwest, just out over Alaska, a huge, black cloud was arising. As it rose, it was as black as night.  It seemed to be in the shape of a man’s head.  As it continued to arise, I observed two light spots in the black cloud.  It rose further, and a gaping hole appeared.  I could see that the black cloud was taking the shape of a skull, for now the huge, white, gaping mouth was plainly visible.  Finally the head was complete.  Then the shoulders began to appear and on either side long, black arms. It seemed that what I saw was the entire North American Continent, spread out like a map upon a table with this terrible skeleton-formed cloud arising from behind the table.  It rose steadily until the form was visible down to the waist.  At the waist, the skeleton seemed to bend towards the United States, stretching forth a hand toward the East and one toward the West – one toward New York and one toward Seattle. As the awful form stretched forward,  I could see that the entire attention seemed to be focused upon the U.S., overlooking Canada at least for the time being.  As I saw the horrible black cloud in the form of a skeleton bending towards America, bending from the waist over, reaching down toward Chicago and out towards both coasts, I knew it’s one interest was to destroy the multitudes.

As I watched in horror, the great black cloud stopped just above the great lakes region, and turned it’s face towards New York City. Then out of the horrible, great gaping mouth began to appear wisps of white vapor which looked like smoke, as a cigarette smoker would blow puffs of smoke from his mouth.  These whitish vapors were being blown toward New York City.  The smoke began to spread, until it had covered all the eastern part of the United States.

Then the skeleton turned to the West, and out of the horrible mouth and nostrils came another great puff of white smoke.   This time it was blown in the direction of the West Coast.  In a few moments time,the entire West Coast and L.A. area was covered with it’s vapors

Then towards the center came  a third great puff.  As I watched, St. Louis and Kansas City were enveloped in its white vapors.  Then on it came towards New Orleans.  Then on they swept until they reached the Statue of Liberty where she stood staggering drunkenly in The blue waters of The Gulf.  As the white vapors began to spread around The head of the statue, she took in but one gasping breath, and then began to cough as though to rid her lungs of the horrible vapors she had inhaled.  One could readily discern by the coughing that those white vapors had seared her lungs.

What were these white vapors?  Could they signify bacteriological warfare or nerve gas that could destroy multitudes of people in a few moments time? Then I heard the voice of God, as He spoke again: “Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof,.  And it shall be, as with the people. so with The priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the buyer, so with the seller, as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.  The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled : for The Lord has spoken this word.  The earth mourneth and fadeth away,The world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish . The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.  Therefore has the curse devoured the earth and they that dwell therein are desolate; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned and few men are left.” (Isa.24:1-6)

As I watched, the coughing grew worse.  It sounded like a person was about to cough out his lungs.  The Statue was moaning and groaning. She was in mortal agony.  The pain must have been terrific, as again and again, she tried to clear her lungs of those horrible white vapors. I watched her there in the Gulf, as she staggered, clutching her lungs and her breast with her hands. Then she fell to her knees. In a moment, she gave one final cough, and made a last desperateeffort to rise from her knees, and then fell face forward into the waters of The Gulf and lay still as death.  Tears ran down my face as I realized that she was dead!  Only The lapping of The waves, splashing over her body, which was partly under the water, and partly out of water, broke the silence.

“A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth; the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them, a desolate wilderness.” Joel 2:3

Suddenly the silence was shattered by the screaming of sirens. The sirens seemed to scream, “RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!” Never before had I heard such shrill, screaming sirens. They seemed to be everywhere – to the North, South, the East and the West.  There seemed to be multitudes of sirens.  And as I looked, I saw people everywhere running.  But it seemed none of them ran more than a few paces, and then they fell.  And even as I had seen the Statue struggling to regain her poise and balance, and finally falling to die on her face, I now saw millions of people falling in the streets, on the sidewalks, struggling.  I heard their screams for mercy and help. I heard their horrible coughing as though their lungs had been seared with fire.  I heard the moanings and groanings of the doomed and the dying.  As I watched, a few finally reached shelters, and above the moaning and groanings, I heard these words: “A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth for the Lord has a controversy with the nations.  He will plead with all flesh; He will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord. Behold evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of The earth. And The slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even onto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented neither gathered nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground. (Jer. 25:31-33)

Then suddenly I saw from the Atlantic and from the Pacific, and out of the Gulf, rocket-like objects that seemed to come up like fish leaping out of the water .  High into the air they leaped, each headed in a different direction, but every one towards The U.S.  On the ground, the sirens screamed louder.  And up from the ground I saw similar rockets begin to ascend.  To me, these appeared to be interceptor rockets although they arose from different points all over the U.S. However, none of them seemed to be successful in intercepting the rockets that had risen from the ocean on every side.  These rockets finally reached their maximum height, slowly turned over, and fell back toward the earth in defeat.  Them suddenly, the rockets which had leaped out of the ocean like fish all exploded at once.  The explosion was ear- splitting.  The next thing which I saw was a huge ball of fire.   The only thing I have ever seen which resembled the thing I saw in my vision was the picture of the explosion of the H-bomb in the South Pacific.  In my vision, it was so real I seemed to fell a searing heat from it.

As the vision spread before my eyes, and I viewed the widespread desolation brought about by the terrific explosions, I could not help thinking, ” While the defenders of our nation have quibbled over what means of defense to use, and neglected the only true means of defense, faith and dependence upon the true and living God, the thing which she greatly feared has come unto her!  How true it has proven that “Except the Lord keep The city, The watchman watches but in vain.”

Then as the noise of the battle subsided, to my ears cam this quotation from Joel, the second chapter, “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand; A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run…” (Joel 2:4).

The Equality Act of America - A Dark-Day for American Christian

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Democrats in the House are celebrating Friday’s passage of the Equality Act, a misnamed legal jackhammer that would add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to federal civil rights law.

It goes far beyond allowing men into women’s sports and locker rooms, as bad as that is. It provides the state with the power to persecute anyone who won’t celebrate any aspect of the LGBTQ agenda.

Far from merely expanding civil rights categories, it turns any recognition of the differences between the sexes or any preference for traditional sexual morality into actionable “hate,” creating fertile grounds for lawsuits.

“It is the most dangerous bill to freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion that has ever been proposed on a national level,” says Houston Baptist University Prof. Robert Gagnon, an expert in biblical sexual morality. “It will codify into law that you are a bigot, the moral equivalent of a racist, tantamount to being a member of the Klu Klux Klan, who must be shut out of society and, wherever possible, harassed and persecuted for your beliefs.”

In other words, it will criminalize Christianity, an ongoing process that got a big boost from the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling on same-sex “marriage.”

This draconian bill passed by a vote of 236-173, with 8 Republicans joining 228 Democrats. Another 16 Republicans and 7 Democrats did not vote.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has actually endorsed it. When did destroying the moral order and paving the way for more lawsuits against businesses become part of the chamber’s mission? Pouring legal acid on a marriage-and-family-based culture will not lead to a more stable society of upwardly mobile consumers. America is only as prosperous as its families are strong.

Many people are complacent because Republicans control the Senate and won’t allow it to become law — this time. Also, the Trump administration has announced its opposition.

But some weasel GOPers suggest a “carveout” for churches, leaving everyone else — tens of millions of Christians and observant Jews — at the mercy of a government run by LGBTQ activists who have no patience for resistance of any kind. In any case, the bill specifically rules out religion-based defenses.

And what if the GOP loses the Senate or the White House in 2020?

It’s time to educate the public about this bill’s toxic blend of mad science and totalitarian intent, and it won’t be easy.

“All the principalities and powers will cooperate in giving this cudgel to Leviathan,” writes John Smirak at thestream.org. “And to litigious thugs like [Pennsylvania state] Rep. Brian Sims. Guys who hike their testosterone count by bullying women and kids. Ask [Masterpiece Cakeshop owner] Jack Phillips and other victims of Gay Sharia how it feels. That will be the fate of every faithful Christian if this unjust bill becomes law.”

Unless we reassert the primacy of natural marriage and natural sexuality, “our battle will be a losing one,” Mr. Smirak writes. “Our churches will end up essentially illegal. Sooner or later.”

Mass Resistance, a parents-rights group, has compiled a list of likely outcomes. Here’s a tweaked version:

1. It will undermine the civil rights movement that black Americans fought for.

2. Churches will be sued or lose tax-exempt status if they don’t accept LGBTQ behaviors.

3. Schoolchildren will be forced to learn how to engage in destructive LGBTQ behaviors [in California, it begins in kindergarten].

4. Parents who oppose this will be charged with discrimination.

5. Private colleges will lose funding, grants and scholarships.

6. Public accommodations and small businesses will be forced to allow men into women’s bathrooms and vice versa.

7. Business owners will be forced to violate their freedom of conscience.

8. Hospitals, clinics and the armed forces will be forced to offer experimental and harmful transgender treatments — including surgeries.

9. Foster and adoption agencies will be forced to close, as has already happened to Catholic Charities in several liberal cities.

10. Men will displace women in sports events (already happening).

Scenarios like the following case would become common: A Texas father has been charged in a divorce proceeding with child abuse for not “affirming” his 6-year-old son as female. The mother renamed James as “Luna” and makes him wear dresses to school. The father says James is all boy when he visits him, and goes by “James.” The Equality Act would greatly enhance the mother’s insane quest to turn their son into a girl.

The mother also seeks to terminate the father’s visitations and to “require him to pay for the child’s visits to a transgender-affirming therapist and transgender medical alterations, which may include hormonal sterilization starting at age eight,” writes Walt Heyer, a former transsexual, in the Federalist.

Michelle Cretella, executive director of the American College of Pediatricians, describes the pediatric community’s encouragement of sex change and hormones for children as “institutionalized child abuse.”

The Equality Act would federalize such abuse, and religious faith won’t be a shield. Judges will see to that.

The bill is far more dangerous than most people know. It’s about time they knew — and told everyone they can, especially lawmakers.

• Robert Knight is a contributor to The Washington Times.

The Washington Times

An American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughout the District of Columbia and in parts of Maryland and Virginia.

Trump vows to ‘end’ Iran if it threatens US again

By Mark Moore

President Trump threatened to destroy Iran in a tweet sent in the wake of reports that a rocket was fired into Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone less than a mile away from the US Embassy.

“If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!,” Trump tweeted Sunday afternoon.

It’s unclear exactly what promoted Trump’s posting, but news outlets reported explosions in Iraq’s capital and that a rocket launcher was discovered in eastern Baghdad, an area that is home to Iranian-backed Shiite militias.

Roads leading into the Green Zone were briefly closed and no casualties were reported.

Amid escalating tensions between the US and Iran there have been concerns that Iraq, where Iranian forces and about 5,000 American troops are stationed, could become entangled in the standoff.

A Saudi Arabian diplomat said his country doesn’t want to go to war with Iran but but will defend itself after two Saudi oil tankers were targeted by acts of sabotage off the coast of the United Arab Emirates last week.

No group has claimed responsibility for the sabotage but US officials in reports signaled that Iran encouraged Iraq-based Iranian militants to carry it out.

Riyadh also accused Tehran of being behind a drone attack on two oil pumping stations in the Kingdom, which Yemen’s Iranian-aligned Houthi group claimed responsibility for.

“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not want war in the region and does not strive for that… but at the same time, if the other side chooses war, the kingdom will fight this with all force and determination and it will defend itself, its citizens and its interests,” Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Abel al-Jubeir told reporters.

The top commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s elite fighting force, echoed the same sentiments through state media on Sunday.

“Iran is not looking for any type of war, but it is fully prepared to defend itself,” said Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami.

Tensions have been heightened between Washington and Tehran after reports said Iran was planning to carry out attacks on American troops and ships in the region.

Earlier this month, the White House sent warships and bombers into the Persian Gulf to counter any threats from Iran and evacuated non-emergency personnel from Iraq.

The US Navy said the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group conducted exercises in the Arabian Sea over the weekend in a show the US military’s “lethality and agility to respond to threat” and to protect US interests.

Trump has employed such bluster before including when he was negotiating with North Korea to ditch its nuclear weapons program.

Responding to reports that North Korea had succeeded in attaching nuclear warheads to ballistic missiles, Trump warned leader Kim Jong-un not to threaten the US.

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” Trump told reporters in August 2017. “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

With Post wire services

Rabbi: Earthquake in Israel is Birthpang of Messiah

By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz May 16, 2019 , 1:42 pm

Who removeth the mountains, and they know it not, when He overturneth them in His anger. Who shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.” Job 9:5 (The Israel Bible™)



A minor earthquake in Israel on Wednesday went largely unnoticed, but a rabbi who is an expert in end-of-days clues hidden in numerology re-interpreted the data, noting they indicate a truly earthshaking change is about to be revealed: the birth of the Messiah.

An earthquake measuring 4.4 on the Richter Scale gently shook the country. At around 8:00 pm, the earthquake began, with its epicenter approximately 150 miles off the Mediterranean coast between the northern cities of Haifa and Hadera, according to the Geophysical Institute.

This was the first serious earthquake felt in the Holy Land since January when a 3.6 magnitude tremor was felt in the north of the country. Israel is seismically active, located along the Syrian-African fault line, which runs along the Israel-Jordan border, part of the Great Rift Valley that runs from eastern Lebanon to Mozambique.

Experts estimate that a major earthquake is statistically due to strike Israel every 80-100 years. The last major earthquake to hit the region was in July 1927; with the epicenter in the northern part of the Dead Sea. Several cities were severely damaged and close to 300 people were killed.

In recorded history, the Jordan Valley experienced major earthquakes in the years 746 and 1033. Scientists are more concerned about southern Israel which they estimate gets hit by a significant earthquake greater than magnitude 6 every 500 years, with a wide margin of error. The southern section hasn’t been active since 1212, over 800 years ago.

An article in Haaretz in February gave the following estimates:

“Once every 1,000 years, Israel is shaken by a quake bad enough to leave 70,000 people homeless and could kill several thousand. And once every 2,500 years, we can expect a quake that leaves 200,000 homeless and could kill at least 7,000 people, estimate the statisticians.”

Similarly, a 2016 report by the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s Home-Front Readiness Subcommittee found that if Israel were to be struck by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake, an estimated 7,000 people would be killed, another 8,600 injured and 377,000 left homeless. In addition, the country could face damage of up to NIS 200 billion.

Though clearly traumatic, Massive earthquakes in Israel are prophesied to accompany the multinational Gog and Magog conflict that will signal the end of times.

On that day, when Gog sets foot on the soil of Yisrael—declares Hashem—My raging anger shall flare up.For I have decreed in My indignation and in My blazing wrath: On that day, a terrible earthquake shall befall the land of Yisrael. The fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the beasts of the field, all creeping things that move on the ground, and every human being on earth shall quake before Me. Mountains shall be overthrown, cliffs shall topple, and every wall shall crumble to the ground. Ezekiel 38:18-20

Rabbi Yekutiel Fish, an expert in Jewish mysticism who blogs in Hebrew under the title ‘Sod Chashmal,’ pointed to several details in yesterday’s quake that indicated it had end-of-days significance.

“The epicenter was almost 250 kilometers off the Israeli coast,” Rabbi Fish said to Breaking Israel News. The rabbi noted that as the Mediterranean tremors continue, they may move out to sea. “This distance hints at the 270 days of gestation before birth. The gematria (Hebrew numerology) of הריון (pregnancy) is 271, the completion of the 270 days of gestation and the beginning of the birth process. It was located off the coast of Hadera, which is Heder (the room) of ‘Yah’ (God). The sages refer to the womb as the ‘room of God.’ The quake measured 4.4 on the Richter scale which is equal to the gematria of ‘dam’ (blood), which is 44.”

Rabbi Fish explained the meaning behind these mystic connections.

“The blood begins when the pregnancy ends and the birth begins,” Rabbi Fish said. “The quake was in the ocean which symbolizes the womb.”

“The earthquake on Wednesday marked the end of the waiting period,” Rabbi Fish said. “It was the official day of the beginning of the birth of the Messiah.”

The rabbi noted that the word for mercy is ‘rachamim,’ derived from the word ‘rechem’ (womb).

“This is the final period in which people can do t’shuvah (repentance, literally ‘return,’”) Rabbi Fish said. After this, there will be no mercy because it is the end of the time in the womb, the time we live in rachamim.”

Rabbi Fish noted nature is the aspect of God reflected in His name ‘Elohim’, which refers to God’s attribute of judgment. Natural catastrophes are to appear in the end-of-days to display this aspect of judgment in order that people will repent and return to God.

“The entire world will be judged before the Moshiach (Messiah),” Rabbi Fish told Breaking Israel News. “Nature will change, be less normal, because God will be guiding it in a more direct manner.”

“This will be especially true during the War of Gog and Magog,” he said. “The war will be unique in that it won’t be simply a war between countries. God will play a major role via nature, through natural disasters.”

Rabbi Fish stated that the natural disasters preceding the Messiah will be universal but Israel will be spared the more destructive aspects.

“Even now, we see hugely catastrophic earthquakes, volcanoes, and hurricanes around the world,” Rabbi Fish said. “Here in Israel, the earthquakes are very mild. That is because Israel has the protection of the tzaddikim (righteous), living and dead, revealed and hidden.”

The Catholic Church is headed for another sex abuse scandal as #NunsToo speak up

Updated February 16, 2019 8.49pm AEDT



All eyes will turn to Rome between 21-24 February, when senior church clerics across the world meet to discuss how to handle the widening sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. Until recently, this has been focused on the abuse of children. But now Pope Francis has admitted – for the first time – sexual abuse by priests against religious women exists and must be acknowledged.

And Catholic women are speaking out, under the #NunsToo hashtag.

Twenty-five years ago, Irish nun, Maura O'Donohue prepared an extensive report for the Vatican on the abuse of nuns internationally by priests. Her report was based on information supplied by priests, doctors and others, and she had been assured records existed for several of the incidents. But the report was covered up.

In late November, influenced by the success of the #MeToo movement, a group of women theologians convened a meeting – called Voices of Faith – in Rome to share their stories of sexual harassment and abuse at the hands of male clerics, and decry the patriarchy of the Catholic hierarchy.

Doris Wagner, a German theologian, recalled her terror as a young woman in a mixed-gender religious order. A superior of the order entered her room one night and raped her. She knew if she were to report this, she would be told it was her fault, so she kept quiet. Years later, she did tell her superior, who did exactly as she feared – she blamed her, and asked if she had used contraceptives.

Wagner said she was later groomed by priest Hermann Geissler. He worked in the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, the Vatican organisation that deals with complaints of child sexual abuse. This led to a series of sexual assaults in the confessional, which she reported.

Geissler was found to have acted inappropriately but was not removed from his job, despite working on child sex abuse cases. He was publicly outed and resigned only after Wagner disclosed the story at the meeting in Rome last year. But the priest who committed the rape is still ordained and living in a religious community with young women.

Wagner also read from a report that estimated up to 30% of Catholic sisters had been sexually abused and many more are at risk of clerical sexual abuse.



In Australia, reports suggest the number of Catholic women abused by priests vastly outnumber the survivors of child sexual abuse uncovered by the royal commission into the issue. These women and men often came from strict religious families, and had little experience of the world or sexual matters.

As this group finds its voice and begins to speak out, the leadership of the Church will face another crisis of legitimacy and round of public inquiries.

It is clear the sexual abuse of women, children and vulnerable adults has been normalised in Catholic clerical culture. Abuse is exercised at every level of ministry, from parish priest to the most senior clerics. Perpetrators are protected and victims silenced. This is aided by a culture of clerical entitlement and opportunity.

The child sex abuse royal commission’s final report provided ample evidence of this. It states:

Few survivors of child sexual abuse that occurred before the 1990s described receiving any formal response from the relevant Catholic Church authority when they reported the abuse. Instead, they were often disbelieved, ignored or punished, and in some cases were further abused.

Recently, a number of international cases have seen very senior Catholic clerics accused of protecting perpetrators of child sexual abuse. A Philadelphia Grand Jury recently found Church leaders protected more than 300 priest perpetrators. Australia’s royal commission also noted:

… the avoidance of public scandal, the maintenance of the reputation of the Catholic Church and loyalty to priests… largely determined the responses of Catholic Church authorities when allegations of child sexual abuse arose… Complaints of child sexual abuse were not reported to police or other civil authorities…

There are also cases of high-level clerical sexual abusers, including serial offender US Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who is now being defrocked, and Argentian bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, who has been accused of sexual misconduct with young seminarians. Pope Francis’ response was to remove Zanchetta from Argentina and promote him to a position of power in the Vatican’s finance office.

Francis has not adequately handled a number of crises. This includes last year, when he defended a Chilean bishop who had covered up cases of child sexual abuse. As US feminist theologian Mary Hunt says, “you can’t make this stuff up”.

Little information has been provided about the agenda for the upcoming, so-called “protection of minors in the Church” meeting in late February. But it’s clear there will be no survivors, lay women or men in attendance – just the bishops, senior Vatican officials and Pope Francis.

This is the cohort who has protected priest perpetrators, covered up hundreds of cases, failed to report criminal activity to the police, blamed victims and promoted the guilty to positions of power. It is clear the answers to this catastrophic problem will not come from Church leaders. Instead, it is victims, survivors, lay people and experts in institutional change that need to be leading the dialogue, and enacting change. And one such group may be the Voices of Faith.

This article previously referred to the group “Voices of Faith” as “Voices of Change”. This has now been fixed.

Christ-like figure appears in clouds over Argentina sparking religious frenzy

THIS amateur photographer’s prayers were answered when she snapped this perfectly-timed picture of what appears to be Jesus Christ with his arms out.

Monica Aramayo was in San Salvador de Jujuy in Argentina when she noticed the holy figure shining through the thick clouds.

The picture which has since gone viral also appeared to show “Jesus” wearing a crown.

Social media user Mariela Romano said: “The Lord will soon come for us all and we should be ready.

While another said: “Thanks for the image that allows us to keep on our path and have a better hope for tomorrow.”

But others were not able to see the illusion in the clouds.

The image has since viral and some have compared it to the Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil overlooking the city.

Romina Salinas said: “I personally only see the sun coming through the clouds, but people see what they want to see."

It comes after we revealed a bloke from Kent claims to have seen the face of Jesus in his CURTAINS.


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China’s nuclear option of dumping US bonds would cause absolute chaos in global markets – expert

The ongoing tit-for-tat tariff exchange between China and the US could push Beijing to strike back with the so-called ‘nuclear option’ – dumping its vast holdings of US Treasury bonds.
While the move would be partly self-defeating for China, it would also have devastating consequences for global financial markets, Sourabh Gupta, a senior fellow at the Institute for China-America Studies in Washington told RT.

“In that case, there would be absolute chaos in global currency markets, and thereafter in global equity markets,” he said, adding that with regards to interest rates “after significant initial volatility, the effects would be somewhat muted.” The concern though is with financial market sentiment, not specifically interest rates, Gupta said.

China currently owns $1.13 trillion in US Treasuries. That’s a fraction of the total $22 trillion in US debt outstanding but 17.7 percent of the various securities held by foreign governments, according to data from the Treasury and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. Beijing has been pulling back from its role in the US bond market, having cut holdings nearly four percent over the past 12 months, but it still takes the top spot among America’s foreign creditors.

Gupta said that even if the trade conflict worsens abysmally, he doesn’t think Beijing will completely stop buying US debt. “There are better avenues for retaliation, such as government-juiced consumer boycotts of US goods. Until China fully internationalizes and hardens its currency, it simply cannot walk away from US debt markets… and doing so would be self-damaging,” he said.

Meanwhile, William L. Anderson, a professor from the College of Business at Frostburg State University believes that “if the anti-Chinese rhetoric from the White House continues, then the Chinese would purchase less US debt, at least in the short run.”

He told RT that American consumers would certainly feel the pinch, noting: “We also have seen a serious crash in the US stock market in large part because of this unnecessary and destructive trade war that has its roots in the Donald Trump administration.”

According to Gupta, foreign purchasers of US debt, including China notably, are important players in the market at a time when “US debt as a percentage of GDP is gradually creeping towards triple digits.”

If China partially exits the US bond market, Washington will have to find new buyers for its debt. That will require higher interest rates, which in turn will have negative implications for the US economy, said Gupta, adding however that “one must also maintain perspective.”

He explained that US Treasury markets are deep and liquid, and China’s exit, at a time when interest rates are already near decades-long lows, will only cause a modest spike in rates. “As the primary reserve currency issuer in the international monetary system, the US government will be able to finance its medium-term borrowing needs without significantly hurting the domestic economy. But it would certainly not be painless.”

For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section

White House Reviews Military Plans Against Iran, in Echoes of Iraq War

The aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln last week in the Persian Gulf. As a precaution, the Pentagon has moved an aircraft carrier and more naval firepower to the gulf region. Credit Credit U.S. Navy, via Associated Press

By Eric Schmitt and Julian E. Barnes
May 13, 2019

WASHINGTON — At a meeting of President Trump’s top national security aides last Thursday, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan presented an updated military plan that envisions sending as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East should Iran attack American forces or accelerate work on nuclear weapons, administration officials said.

The revisions were ordered by hard-liners led by John R. Bolton, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser. They do not call for a land invasion of Iran, which would require vastly more troops, officials said.

The development reflects the influence of Mr. Bolton, one of the administration’s most virulent Iran hawks, whose push for confrontation with Tehran was ignored more than a decade ago by President George W. Bush.

It is highly uncertain whether Mr. Trump, who has sought to disentangle the United States from Afghanistan and Syria, ultimately would send so many American forces back to the Middle East.

It is also unclear whether the president has been briefed on the number of troops or other details in the plans. On Monday, asked about if he was seeking regime change in Iran, Mr. Trump said: “We’ll see what happens with Iran. If they do anything, it would be a very bad mistake.”

There are sharp divisions in the administration over how to respond to Iran at a time when tensions are rising about Iran’s nuclear policy and its intentions in the Middle East.

Some senior American officials said the plans, even at a very preliminary stage, show how dangerous the threat from Iran has become. Others, who are urging a diplomatic resolution to the current tensions, said it amounts to a scare tactic to warn Iran against new aggressions.

European allies who met with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday said that they worry that tensions between Washington and Tehran could boil over, possibly inadvertently.

More than a half-dozen American national security officials who have been briefed on details of the updated plans agreed to discuss them with The New York Times on the condition of anonymity. Spokesmen for Mr. Shanahan and Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declined to comment.

The size of the force involved has shocked some who have been briefed on them. The 120,000 troops would approach the size of the American force that invaded Iraq in 2003.

Deploying such a robust air, land and naval force would give Tehran more targets to strike, and potentially more reason to do so, risking entangling the United States in a drawn out conflict. It also would reverse years of retrenching by the American military in the Middle East that began with President Barack Obama’s withdrawal of troops from Iraq in 2011.

But two of the American national security officials said Mr. Trump’s announced draw down in December of American forces in Syria, and the diminished naval presence in the region, appear to have emboldened some leaders in Tehran and convinced the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps that the United States has no appetite for a fight with Iran.

Several oil tankers were reportedly attacked or sabotaged off the coast of the United Arab Emirates over the weekend, raising fears that shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf could become flash points. “It’s going to be a bad problem for Iran if something happens,” Mr. Trump said on Monday, asked about the episode.

Emirati officials are investigating the apparent sabotage, and American officials suspect that Iran was involved. Several officials cautioned, however, that there is not yet any definitive evidence linking Iran or its proxies to the reported attacks. An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman called it a “regretful incident,” according to a state news agency.

In Brussels, Mr. Pompeo met with the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany, cosignatories of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, as well as with the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini. He did not speak to the media, but the European officials said they had urged restraint upon Washington, fearing accidental escalation that could lead to conflict with Iran.

“We are very worried about the risk of a conflict happening by accident, with an escalation that is unintended really on either side,” said Jeremy Hunt, the British foreign secretary.

The Iranian government has not threatened violence recently, but last week, President Hassan Rouhani said Iran would walk away from parts of the 2015 nuclear deal it reached with world powers. Mr. Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement a year ago, but European nations have urged Iran to stick with the deal and ignore Mr. Trump’s provocations.

The high-level review of the Pentagon’s plans was presented during a meeting about broader Iran policy. It was held days after what the Trump administration described, without evidence, as new intelligence indicating that Iran was mobilizing proxy groups in Iraq and Syria to attack American forces.

As a precaution, the Pentagon has moved an aircraft carrier, B-52 bombers, a Patriot missile interceptor battery and more naval firepower to the gulf region.

At last week’s meeting, Mr. Shanahan gave an overview of the Pentagon’s planning, then turned to General Dunford to detail various force options, officials said. The uppermost option called for deploying 120,000 troops, which would take weeks or months to complete.

Among those attending Thursday’s meeting were Mr. Shanahan; Mr. Bolton; General Dunford; Gina Haspel, the C.I.A. director; and Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence.

“The president has been clear, the United States does not seek military conflict with Iran, and he is open to talks with Iranian leadership,” Garrett Marquis, a National Security Council spokesman, said Monday in an email. “However, Iran’s default option for 40 years has been violence, and we are ready to defend U.S. personnel and interests in the region.”

The reduction of forces in the Middle East in recent years has been propelled by a new focus on China, Russia and a so-called Great Powers competition. The most recent National Defense Strategy — released before Mr. Bolton joined the Trump administration — concluded that while the Middle East remains important, and Iran is a threat to American allies, the United States must do more to ensure a rising China does not upend the world order.

As recently as late April, an American intelligence analysis indicated that Iran had no short-term desire to provoke a conflict. But new intelligence reports, including intercepts, imagery and other information, have since indicated that Iran was building up its proxy forces’ readiness to fight and was preparing them to attack American forces in the region.

The new intelligence reports surfaced on the afternoon of May 3, Mr. Shanahan told Congress last week. On May 5, Mr. Bolton announced the first of new deployments to the Persian Gulf, including bombers and an aircraft carrier.

It is not clear to American intelligence officials what changed Iran’s posture. But intelligence and Defense Department officials said American sanctions have been working better than originally expected, proving far more crippling to the Iranian economy — especially after a clampdown on all oil exports that was announced last month.

Also in April, the State Department designated the Revolutionary Guards a foreign terrorist organization over objections from Pentagon and intelligence officials who feared reprisals from the Iranian military.

While much of the new intelligence appears to have focused on Iran readying its proxy forces, officials said they believed the most likely cause of a conflict will follow a provocative act, or outright attack, by the Revolutionary Guards’ navy. The Guards’ fleet of small boats has a history of approaching American Navy ships at high speed. Revolutionary Guards commanders have precarious control over their ill-disciplined naval forces.

Part of the updated planning appears to focus on what military action the United States might take if Iran resumes its nuclear fuel production, which has been frozen under the 2015 agreement. It would be difficult for the Trump administration to make a case that the United States was under imminent nuclear peril; Iran shipped 97 percent of its fuel out of the country in 2016, and currently does not have enough to make a bomb.

That could change if Iran resumes enriching uranium. But it would take a year or more to build up a significant quantity of material, and longer to fashion it into a weapon. That would allow, at least in theory, plenty of time for the United States to develop a response — like a further cutoff of oil revenues, covert action or military strikes.

The previous version of the Pentagon’s war plan included a classified subset code-named Nitro Zeus, a cyberoperation that called for unplugging Iran’s major cities, it power grid and its military.

The idea was to use cyberweapons to paralyze Iran in the opening hours of any conflict, in hopes that it would obviate the need to drop any bombs or conduct a traditional attack. That plan required extensive presence inside Iran’s networks — called “implants” or “beacons” — that would pave the way for injecting destabilizing malware into Iranian systems.

Two officials said those plans have been constantly updated in recent years.

But even a cyberattack, without dropping bombs, carries significant risk. Iran has built up a major corps of its own, one that successfully attacked financial markets in 2012, a casino in Las Vegas and a range of military targets. American intelligence officials told Congress in January that Iranian hackers are now considered sophisticated operators who are increasingly capable of striking United States targets.

Since Mr. Bolton became national security adviser in April 2018, he has intensified the Trump administration’s policy of isolating and pressuring Iran. The animus against Iran’s leaders dates back at least to his days as an official in the George W. Bush administration. Later, as a private citizen, Mr. Bolton called for military strikes on Iran, as well as regime change.

The newly updated plans were not the first time during the Trump administration that Mr. Bolton has sought military options to strike Iran.

This year, Defense Department and senior American officials said Mr. Bolton sought similar guidance from the Pentagon last year, after Iranian-backed militants fired three mortars or rockets into an empty lot on the grounds of the United States Embassy in Baghdad in September.

In response to Mr. Bolton’s request, which alarmed Jim Mattis, then the defense secretary, the Pentagon offered some general options, including a cross-border airstrike on an Iranian military facility that would have been mostly symbolic.

But Mr. Mattis and other military leaders adamantly opposed retaliation for the Baghdad attack, successfully arguing that it was insignificant.

Edward Wong and David E. Sanger contributed reporting from Washington, and Steven Erlanger from Brussels.

Raise A Hallelujah - Bethel Music

Lyrics:

Verse 1
I raise a hallelujah, in the presence of my enemies
I raise a hallelujah, louder than the unbelief
I raise a hallelujah, my weapon is a melody
I raise a hallelujah, Heaven comes to fight for me

Chorus
I’m gonna sing, in the middle of the storm
Louder and louder, you’re gonna hear my praises roar
Up from the ashes, hope will arise
Death is defeated, the King is alive

Verse 2
I raise a hallelujah, with everything inside of me
I raise a hallelujah, I will watch the darkness flee
I raise a hallelujah, in the middle of the mystery
I raise a hallelujah, fear you lost your hold on me

Bridge
Sing a little louder
In the presence of my enemies
Sing a little louder
Louder than the unbelief
Sing a little louder
My weapon is a melody
Sing a little louder
Heaven comes to fight for me

Russian Evangelicals Penalized Most Under Anti-Evangelism Law

The tight restrictions on minority faiths have increasingly gotten Protestants in trouble and continue to raise concerns over religious freedom.

KATE SHELLNUTT MAY 07, 2019 9:28 AM



Following Russia’s ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses, evangelical Protestants have become the most-punished group under the country’s controversial “anti-missionary” laws.

More than half of all cases of alleged violations last year were against evangelicals. Of the 159 individuals and organizations prosecuted for demonstrating their faith in public, 50 were Pentecostals and 39 were Baptists, according to analysis by Forum 18, a news service covering religious freedom issues in Russia and surrounding countries.

So far this year, Russian authorities interrupted a Baptist worship service in April and charged its 71-year-old pastor with illegal missionary activity. In January, two Baptists were punished for discussing their faith at a bus stop.

The 2016 Yarovaya laws ban Russians from inviting outsiders to join their faith, even online or in their own homes, unless they have a government permit through a registered religious organization, and even then they can only evangelize in designated churches and religious sites.

Evangelicals in the former Soviet country say that even as many Christians outside the state-affiliated Russian Orthodox Church heed the restrictions, violators are more likely to face punishment when charged by authorities. The fines start at 5,000 rubles for individuals (~$75) and at least 50,000 rubles ($750) for organizations.

“Believers are afraid to carry the Word of God to the masses, because they fear fines,” Pentecostal Union lawyer Vladimir Ozolin told Forum 18. “As ever, law enforcement agencies assume that any church activity is missionary activity, which is certainly not true.”

For some Protestant Christians, the rules have turned into a no-win situation: Even displaying the full name of their organization to comply with one provision of the law has been interpreted as a violation of another. Last year, a Baptist pastor in the Perm region was found guilty for hanging a sign reading, “House of Prayer of the International Council of Churches of Evangelical Christian-Baptists, worship service every Sunday from 10am,” Forum 18 wrote.

“The placement … suggests that [the defendant] carries out missionary activity aimed at disseminating information about the beliefs of [the church] among other persons who are not members,” the verdict concluded. (The vast majority of Protestant congregations worship on property designated for residential use since laws restrict churches’ ability to lease or buy land for themselves.)

Russia ended up issuing a clarifying ruling last March after churches were being penalized for distributing basic information to their own flocks. The Constitutional Court decided that notices about services, ceremonies, or events only violate the anti-missionary laws if they indicate missionary activity will be a “defining feature” of the gathering.

But evangelicals still haven’t been able to avoid the penalties. Last month, authorities appeared in the middle of a Sunday worship service near Novorossiisk, along the coast of the Black Sea. According to reports, the choir stopped singing “Jesus Is My Lighthouse” as the pastor, Yury Korniyenko, disputed with officials. Two days later, he received a summons alleging illegal missionary activity.

Yevgeny Kokora, an elder in the 50-person congregation, told Radio Free Europe that they had started receiving weekly calls from investigators demanding summaries of Korniyenko’s sermons and reports of attendance. Meanwhile, their neighbors in Novorossiisk also suffered under the recent crackdown. In March, authorities tore down an “unauthorized” Pentecostal meeting house, banned the Seventh-day Adventists gathering, and deported two Mormon missionaries back to the US.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) annual report, released last week, also called out Russia’s continued violations, writing, “Religious and other communities can be financially blacklisted or liquidated, and individuals can be subjected to criminal prosecution for social media posts that are arbitrarily determined to offend the religious sensibilities of others.”

Russia made its way onto the USCIRF list for the first time in 2017, largely due to the evangelism restrictions enacted the year before.

US ambassador to Russia John Huntsman referred to the state of religious freedom in Russia as “very difficult and very troubling.”

“We’re not only seeing religious organizations shut down, we’re seeing individual members punished for their religious beliefs, which goes against everything we in the United States and a whole lot of other countries in this world stand for,” he said in a recent interview.

Earlier in the year in Ryazan, southeast of Moscow, a pair of Baptists were punished for sharing Christian materials at a bus stop. Sergei Roshchin and Valery Turkin were charged in January for not having authorization from a religious group to conduct missionary activity, but they insisted that they were merely sharing their personal beliefs. Their case failed in court and on appeal, with the judge ruling that they had invited others to a service.

According to Forum 18, Russia is increasingly prosecuting individuals for not having religious authorization, even if they do belong to an official religious group to begin with. “This is a particular problem for both independent Baptists and Council of Churches Baptists. The latter refuse on principle to seek any kind of state registration,” the site reported.

Overall, more than 56 organizations and 103 individuals were prosecuted for violations of Russia’s anti-missionary laws last year, fewer than the year before only because Jehovah’s Witnesses had been banned as an “extremist group” and are no longer publicly active in the country.

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Japan earthquake: Scientists warn of an IMMINENT megaquake to strike Hokkaido

JAPAN’S second-largest island is seeing terrifying levels of seismological activity identical to those monitored before the devastating 2011 earthquake struck which claimed 18,000 lives, an expert on tsunamis has warned.

By ALICE SCARSI
PUBLISHED: 13:48, Thu, May 9, 2019 | UPDATED: 14:01, Thu, May 9, 2019



A megaquake in the eastern side of Hokkaido island is overdue and could strike at any time, a series of studies have shown. Masanobu Shishikura, an expert on so-called tsunami deposits who heads a group of researchers at the Government-affiliated National Institute of Advanced Industrial Service and Technology, said: “Eastern Hokkaido is in a situation resembling the Tohoku region before the Great East Japan Earthquake. We should be fully prepared.” The Great East Japan Earthquake is the name Japanese people often use to refer to the earthquake which struck off the Pacific coast of Tohoku in 2011, killing approximately 18,000 people.

The tsunami which followed the quake also triggered the failure of the cooling system at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which raised the radiation inside the plants to up to 1,000 times normal levels and the ones outside the plant to up to 8 times normal levels.

Mr Shushikura’s warning comes after experts in the country gathered data indicating a powerful earthquake could happen soon near Hokkaido.

Japan’s Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion, an expert panel within the science ministry, noted in December 2017 the Kuril Trench was experiencing a series of activities similar to the one seen in 2011.

The trench is a topographic depression of the sea floor running northeast of Hokkaido to the south of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia.

Experts have cited movements of the earth’s crust on the coast of Hokkaido among the signs that the next big earthquake is on the way.

Scientists say this signals a high likelihood of a magnitude 8.8 or larger earthquake striking in the near future.

The last big tremor in the area struck in the first half of the 17th century.

The average interval between megaquakes has been estimated to be between 340 and 380 years, according to a study of tsunami deposits - making the trench overdue for a huge quake.

The central Government’s Central Disaster Management Council is now reviewing its projected damage assessments for powerful earthquakes along the Kuril Trench and the Japan Trench to the south.

The Hokkaido local Government will then be expected to update its anti-disaster measures according to the actions taken by the Council.

Kazuro Hirahara, professor emeritus at Kyoto University, said that while it’s still very difficult to know when and if an unusually big earthquake will strike, it is much better for experts to voice their worries to allow people and Governments taking actions before it’s too late.



He said: “We should convey to the public our sense of alarm.”

Ritsuko Matsuura, who heads the analysis division of the public-interest entity Association for the Development of Earthquake Prediction, expressed a similar opinion during a meeting of the Government’s Coordinating Committee for Earthquake Prediction.

She said: “You should go as far as possible to do thorough research.

“You cannot say that you have actually identified signs only after the event occurs.” 


Express
The Daily Express is a daily national middle-market tabloid newspaper in the United Kingdom. It is the flagship of Express Newspapers, a subsidiary of Northern & Shell. It was first published as a broadsheet in 1900 by Sir Arthur Pearson. Its sister paper, the Sunday Express, was launched in 1918.

Vatican Will Open Secret Archives of Nazi-Era Pope Accused of Ignoring Holocaust

03-05-2019 Emily Jones

Pope Pius XII on balcony at St Peter's Basilica in April 1955 (AP video screenshot)

Pope Francis announced on Monday that he will open up the Vatican archives on Pope Pius XII, a World-War-II-era pope who has been criticized for allegedly staying silent while the Nazi's executed millions of Jews.

Declaring that "the church isn't afraid of history," Francis said Pope Pius' records will be open to researchers beginning March 2, 2020. The Vatican usually waits 70 years after a pope dies to open up their archives, but the church has been under pressure to open Pius' while Holocaust survivors are still alive.

Francis defended Pius' legacy, saying it has been treated with "some prejudice and exaggeration" but also included "moments of grave difficulties, tormented decisions of human and Christian prudence, that to some could appear as reticence."

Jewish groups have been calling for full access to the archives for decades and welcomed the move.

The Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem supported the decision to open the archives and said it expects "researchers will be granted full access to all the documents stored in the archives."

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) also commended the decision.

"It is particularly important that experts from the leading Holocaust memorial institutes in Israel and the US objectively evaluate as best as possible the historical record of that most terrible of times, to acknowledge both the failures as well as the valiant efforts made during the period of the Shoah [Holocaust] ," said Rabbi David Rosen, the AJC's International Director of Interreligious Affairs.

The Rabbi also called Francis' decision "enormously important to Catholic-Jewish relations."

Israel's ministry of foreign affairs expressed hope that the Vatican would truly grant "free access to all relevant archives."

The opening of the archives is interpreted as part of the effort to decide if Pius should be declared a saint, a decision that is undoubtedly controversial.

His critics accuse him of not doing enough to combat the Nazi regime. Pius did not publicly speak out against the deportation of Roman Jews to Auschwitz and did not sign a declaration in December 1942 condemning Nazi Germany’s murder of European Jews.

Pius' defenders argue that some convents and other religious institutes in Italy hid Jews from the Nazis.

Many hope the opening of Pius' archives will settle the debate on his Legacy.

Monsignor Sergio Pagano, who is in charge of the Vatican Secret Archive, said on Monday that thousands of files, letters, and other material will be made available.

Pagano wrote in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano Monday that the archives "spoke, speak, and, I hope, will speak to researchers and to historians of an almost superhuman work of Christian humanism" amid mid-20th-century events "that seemed determine to annihilate the very notion of human civilization."

Pope Rejects 'Excessive Demand for Sovereignty', Pushes Idea of Global Authority

05-06-2019 Benjamin Gill and Steve Warren



Pope Francis is pushing for steps toward global authority that supersedes the rights of individual countries, all with the goal of pursuing "the common good" on issues like climate change and immigration.

"When a supranational common good is clearly identified, it is necessary to have a special authority legally and concordantly constituted capable of facilitating its implementation. We think of the great contemporary challenges of climate change, new forms of slavery and peace," he told members of the Pontifical Academy.

They met last week at the Vatican to discuss the topic of: "Nation, State, Nation-State."

While addressing the conference, Francis rebuked the trend of nationalism among individual countries and the many tensions that "come from an excessive demand for sovereignty on the part of States."

However, the pope defended patriotism as a good thing. But he warned it can become perverted when "it involves the exclusion and hatred of others when it becomes a conflictual nationalism that builds walls, indeed even racism or anti-Semitism,"  according to Breitbart.com.

Francis also implied national sovereignty becomes twisted when countries do not have a welcoming attitude toward migrants.

"The Church observes with concern the reemergence, in many parts of the world, of currents that are aggressive towards foreigners, especially immigrants, as well as a growing nationalism that neglects the common good," he told the conference.

This, in turn, "threatens to jeopardize consolidated forms of international cooperation, undermines the aims of international organizations as a space for dialogue and meeting for all countries in a spirit of mutual respect, and hinders the attainment of the sustainable development goals approved unanimously by the United Nations," the Pope said.

The Pope also said individual countries can no longer look out for their own people by themselves due to globalization.

"The nation-state is no longer able to procure the common good of its populations alone. The common good has become global and nations must associate for their own benefit," Francis said.

The Pope also pushed the idea of supranational entities to the conference.  A supranational union is defined as a type of multinational political union where negotiated power is delegated to an authority by governments of member states.  The term is sometimes used to describe the European Union, according to Wikipedia.

For instance, a group of nations could "strengthen their cooperation by connecting certain functions and services to intergovernmental institutions that manage their common interests," he said.

"When a supranational common good is clearly identified, it is necessary to have a special authority that is legally and concordantly constituted and capable of facilitating its implementation," the Pope concluded.

Never Build a Ministry on One Man's Swag

J. Lee Grady



John the Baptist said he was not worthy to untie Jesus' lowly sandals. But in today's hyper-cool, megachurch culture, a preacher's footwear has become very pricey.

So pricey, in fact, that a new Instagram account called preachersnsneakers went viral last month and now has 154,000 followers. The social media account does nothing except offer photos of famous preachers' expensive and colorful footwear—including a pair of red Air Yeezy 2s worn by South Carolina pastor John Gray. His shoes retail for $5,611.

Some people have complained about the Instagram site, claiming that its founder, an anonymous guy named "Tyler," is hurting the church. But he says he's simply holding up a mirror and asking Christians if our leaders should be known for their lavish tastes in clothes.

There's really nothing new about this. In the 1980s, televangelists were criticized for their three-piece suits and pricey Italian leather dress shoes—yet we know their followers gave them enough money to buy them private jets. Today, the suits and leather shoes are out of date, but the price tag on the designer sneakers is the same.

In today's vocabulary, it's called swag. It basically means stylish confidence, and it comes from the word "swagger."

Like the televangelist of the old days, the celebrity preacher of today may still be on television—or he may have his own YouTube channel. But his look has been totally updated. His hairstyle is hip, he has a few days' stubble on his face and his ministry has an app for your smartphone.

And apparently his on-stage wardrobe must now include a pair of $1,000 Air Jordans.

I'm not against hair gel, stubble or the latest designer athletic shoes. I enjoy some of these preachers' podcasts. And, in their defense, some of these men received their fancy footwear as gifts from wealthy donors.

But I am concerned about the swag factor. Technology and youthful trendiness can breed pride if we're not careful. And pride is still pride, whether it is clothed in yesterday's neon polyester or today's jeans.

As ministry platforms grow larger, the potential for bigger egos grows more dangerous. Let's all take the humility test. We need less swag and more brokenness in the pulpit. Let's remember these basic biblical principles as we choose who to follow:

Christians should never worship preachers. Paul rebuked the people of Lystra when they called him and his companion Barnabas gods. Paul told the people: "We are also men of the same nature as you" (Acts 14:15b, NASB). True ministers of God will not allow their followers to place them on pedestals. Paul knew his proper role was to take the lowest seat, as a bondservant of Christ Jesus (see Phil. 1:1). He also knew that ministers must never allow flattery or adoration to inflate their egos.
Preachers must know who they are and who they aren't. When people spread a rumor that John the Baptist was the Messiah, he corrected them and said: "I am not the Christ. ... He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:28, 30, MEV). Even some of the most gifted Christian communicators can be seduced by the power of technology—and by the roar of a crowd—so that they actually believe they are in an elite category. No! We are nothing and He is everything. We must get out of the way so people can see Jesus!

Leaders who have not crucified the lust for self-promotion can become infatuated with the big and the sensational. They can build big churches with bigger projection screens, yet their character cannot sustain the pressure of spiritual warfare that inevitably comes. An out-of-control ego becomes a monster.

Author Henry Blackaby said it this way: "Nothing is more pathetic than having a small character in a big assignment. Many of us don't want to give attention to our character; we just want the big assignment from God."

Ministry is best accomplished with a team, not a celebrity. Paul laid the foundations of the church in the Gentile world, but he always shared the spotlight with Timothy, Silas, Barnabas, Titus, Phoebe, Priscilla and other co-workers—who suffered in prison with him and faithfully preached alongside him. He didn't try to be five places at once; he trained people to take his place. And nobody on the team had swag!
It is becoming popular for large churches to open satellite campuses that offer video sermons from the same preacher. If this strategy is effectively reaching more converts, that's great. If preachers can do that and stay humble, keep it up. But let's be careful that we are not building ministry on one man's charisma.

Our ultimate goal should be for a whole new generation of people to be trained and empowered to serve, not for one man to build a show around his gift. And certainly not around his expensive Air Jordans.