The ‘Arab Spring’ is Frightening Christians in the Middle East, ‘There Is a Risk of the Christian Community Becoming Extinct’

Matthew 24:22, “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”

Colossians 3:12, “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering …”

Acts 14:22b, “… we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”

To understand the spiritual underpinnings that may explain what is happening right now throughout the Muslim world, consider these two articles here and here …

“First, the Maronite Patriarch, Béchara Raï, in Lebanon, and now, the Chaldean Archbishop in Kirkuk, Louis Sako, in Iraq. The development of the Arab spring are causing concern to leaders of Eastern Christian communities, who have by now started to openly express their fears with regard to an rise in Islamic radicalism in the New Middle East. ‘The Arab Spring has created more Muslim militants,’ the Iraqi Archbishop, Sako complained, pointing out the risk of the thousand year old Middle Eastern culture of pluralism, crumbling. But the West too has made a mistake: ‘Instead of trying to impose the western model of democracy, they need to invest in youngsters’ education,’ Kirkuk’s Chaldean spiritual leader commented.

Archbishop Sako has, already, on several occasions, made lively appeals to the International community, asking it to protect Christians in Iraq who ‘risk extinction’. Indeed, ‘in Iraq, the number of Christians continues to drop. They could disappear altogether as a result of continuous persecution, threats and violence.’ Between America’s invasion of Iraq in 2003 and today, there have been attacks on about sixty Churches; one bishop and three priests have been kidnapped and killed; approximately a thousand innocent Christians have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced to abandon their homes in search of safety. This is why, ‘in Iraq and in other Countries, there is a risk of the Christian community becoming extinct.’

What is worrying the prelate the most is ‘the lack of a plan’, when Christians in Iraq and the Middle East have two options: ‘They can either emigrate or accept life as second rate citizens amidst numerous difficulties and fears.’ Hence the appeal: ‘We are in need of stronger support from everyone, with a clear political vision and clearly set out plans, not just to protect and encourage Christians to stay in their country, but also to promote reconciliation among the Iraqis, and human rights,’ as well as to ‘ensure governments respect the rules.’ According to Monsignor Sako, ‘the international community needs to assume responsibility’ and ‘come to a mutual agreement with local authorities’ in order to guarantee equal protection and equality between all citizens. The international community must also ‘help emigrants to return’ or, if this is not possible, they should help them remain settled wherever they have found shelter.” Read more.

Abbas to Seek Full UN Recognition September 23rd Despite Western Pressure, Maybe

By Natasha Mozgovaya and Barak Ravidu – “NEW YORK – Despite heavy pressure from the West, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas remains determined to formally apply for UN recognition of a Palestinian state today.

U.S. President Barack Obama met with Abbas last night in an effort to convince him not to seek Security Council recognition, warning that the U.S. would use its veto power to block it. Lower-level American officials also met with Abbas several times, but to no avail.

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, reiterated yesterday that Abbas’ statehood bid will not contribute to the peace process and will merely delay the start of negotiations – which, she added, are the only way the Palestinians can actually achieve independence.

American officials also continued their effort to mobilize enough Security Council votes to defeat the statehood bid without a U.S. veto. Germany has already announced it won’t vote yes, and Rice said she is convinced other countries will do the same. America, she said, is not the only country to realize that the UN gambit is unproductive.” Read more.

Day before Abbas speech, still unclear where PA is headed – “Fierce US resistance, as well as even some European opposition, may force Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to jettison plans to bring his statehood bid either to the UN Security Council or the General Assembly anytime soon, Israeli diplomatic officials said on Thursday. The comments came some 24 hours before Abbas was finally expected to reveal his hand during a much-anticipated speech to the General Assembly. During that speech he is expected to say whether he is going forward with a request to the Security Council for full UN membership, as he has said he would do; whether he would be satisfied with an upgrade for ‘Palestine’ from observer to nonmember-state observer in the General Assembly; or whether he will pursue both initiatives.” Read more.

Magnitude 3.6 Earthquake Jostles Southeastern Missouri

Richter Magnitude 3.6 – SOUTHEASTERN MISSOURI
Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 06:32:09 PM
36.799°N, 90.781°W
Depth: 16.5 km (10.3 miles)

 

WARP Speed Ahead: Have CERN Scientists Managed to Exceed the Speed of Light?

“An international team of scientists has recorded neutrino particles travelling faster than the speed of light, a spokesman for the researchers said on Thursday — in what could be a challenge to one of the fundamental rules of physics.

Antonio Ereditato, who works at the CERN particle physics center on the Franco-Swiss border, told Reuters that measurements over three years showed the neutrinos moving 60 nanoseconds quicker than light over a distance of 730 km between Geneva and Gran Sasso, Italy.

‘We have high confidence in our results. But we need other colleagues to do their tests and confirm them,’ he said.

Dr. Ereditato conducted the research with his colleagues by preparing beams of just one type, muon neutrinos, sending them from Cern to an underground laboratory at Gran Sasso in Italy. They then checked how many of the beams showed up as tau neutrinos, the BBC reported.

While conducting experiment, the researchers noticed that the particles showed up 60 billionths of a second sooner than light would have over the same distance, the BBC report said.

The team then measured the travel times of neutrino bunches roughly 15,000 times, reportedly reaching a level of statistical significance that in scientific circles would be considered a formal discovery.

If confirmed, the discovery would overturn a key part of Albert Einstein’s 1905 theory of special relativity, which says that nothing in the universe can travel faster than light.” Source.

The Universe Confirms the Bible – “In this chapter, we will explore some passages of Scripture which touch upon the topics of astronomy and astrophysics. It is interesting that many of the Bible’s statements about astronomy went against the generally accepted teachings of the time. Undoubtedly, many of these verses would have seemed counterintuitive, and may have been difficult to believe when they were first written. However, modern science has confirmed what the Bible has taught. As in all things, the Bible is absolutely correct when it teaches about the universe.” Read more.

Distant Starlight and the Speed of Light – “The stars created on the fourth day were created for man – as ‘signs and seasons.’ There is no reason to believe that Adam and Eve had to wait four years for the first stars to ‘switch on’ (the nearest star is about four light-years away). Similarly, we do not see new stars ‘blinking on,’ as if their light had finally reached the earth. The model mentioned earlier by Dr. Humphreys may give us a way of better understanding how light was originally created ‘on its way’ and yet not have this problem of ‘built-in information.’ In a sense, it may also effectively involve a change in (apparent) c (since as the stars recede rapidly, the lightbeam remains intact), though it would not predict that this would be detectable in historical measurements. We hope that sufficient discussion has already taken place to enable the reader to see that the apparent problem of having young age and great size of the universe has a number of possible solutions. Did light speed change?” Read more.

Palestinian Authority to Give UNSC ‘Some Time’ to Mull Statehood Bid Before Heading to the General Assembly

No word on how long ‘some time’ might be.  A few days?  Weeks?  A month? … or maybe just a few minutes …

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH AND REUTERS – “The Palestinians will give the UN Security Council ‘some time’ to study their application for full membership in the United Nations, a senior Palestinian official said on Wednesday.

‘We will give some time to the Security Council to consider first our full membership request before heading to the General Assembly,’ Nabil Shaath, a senior official in Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party, told reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

At the same time, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Wednesday evening before a meeting with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in New York that negotiations with the Palestinians are needed in order to reach a peace agreement.

When asked about the settlements in a joint press conference, Netanyahu said ‘I did something that no previous Israeli government did. I actually froze any construction for ten months, waited nine months and one week.’ He went on to say that ‘the Palestinians finally came and said, well, keep on freezing.’

The prime minister said that Israel concluded with the United States that the real issues must be addressed in order to get peace. ‘We have to negotiate the issues to resolve them. We can’t just negotiate about the negotiations,’ he added.

Earlier on Wednesday, Obama told the UN General Assembly that there could be ‘no shortcuts’ to peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, and that negotiations between the two parties would be the only means to achieving a true and lasting peace.

In his 20-minute speech before the international body, Obama devoted significant time to discussing the Israeli- Palestinian conflict.

Obama alluded to his remarks before the General Assembly in 2010. In that speech, he had expressed his hope that there would be a Palestinian state requesting membership in 2011 – remarks that could be seen as prescient in light of Abbas’s plans to petition the Security Council to recognize Palestine as a state.

However, Obama distinguished between what he had said last year and the situation before the international body today.” Read more.

In UN, PA Maps Erase All of Israel – “Palestinian Authority representatives in the United Nations are handing out maps of ‘Palestine’ that show it in place of all of Israel, including Tel Aviv, reports David Bedein of the Israel Resource Review. Bedein, who is currently in the United States, told Arutz Sheva: ‘They do not want a Palestinian state, but all of Palestine. The maps they hand out in their offices include all of ‘Palestine.’ They erase Israel completely in their maps.'” Read more.