World

Faithful Unto Death

Jerry Newcombe
3 Mar 2015
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faithful unto death

The Associated Press reports that 21 Coptic Christians were beheaded in Libya. They were faithful unto death. Their murderers were Islamic State (IS) members, in affiliation with the main body of IS, which is in Syria and in Iraq. The video shows 21 captives in orange jumpsuits with each captive being led by an IS member at the Libyan shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The Christians are forced to get down on their knees and are then beheaded. All of the captors had their faces covered to hide their identities. I suppose you could say this was IS’s version of […]

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How God Saved the Jewish People

Dr. Susan Michael
2 Mar 2015
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The Jewish people have at times faced threats so serious they were considered “existential” — a threat to their very existence. For example, the Jews of Europe are now questioning their future on the continent due to rising anti-Semitism, and many scholars are proclaiming there is no future for Jews there anymore. They are now joining a long list of persecuted Jewish communities who, over the last 150 years, have been forced to abandon centuries of historic ties in other lands and return to their ancient homeland where they could at least defend themselves and secure their own future. As […]

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jewish people

This Generation’s Battle

Dr. Susan Michael
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this generation's battle

Exodus 17 tells how Amalekites, descendants of Esau’s grandson, attacked the children of Israel in the desert of Sinai during their exodus from Egypt. This unprovoked attack was especially serious and the Israelites battled all day, only achieving victory at nightfall. In response to this demonstration of cruelty, the Lord told Moses that he would blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. Moses later recounted: “the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation” (Exodus 17:16). Amalek’s attack on the children of Israel was now a perpetual war between him and the God of Israel. Amalek […]

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Five Years after Haiti’s Earthquake Need Remains Despite Progress

Bob Woods
1 Mar 2015
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Five years after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook Haiti and the hearts of its people on January 12, 2010, much has been done to rebuild and aid the people there, yet there is still much work to do in this neighboring third world nation. The earthquake, which struck at 4:50 p.m., was centered just 15 miles southwest of the capitol city of Port au Prince, a sprawling city with a population of just under one million prior to the earthquake that killed an estimated 230,000 people, mostly in the Port au Prince urban area, and left over 1,300,000 homeless. Although […]

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Hope in the Land of Giants!

Dr. Susan Michael
2 Feb 2015
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hope in

“There is hope in your future,’ says the Lord, ‘That your children shall come back to their own border’” (Jeremiah 31:17). The story of the Jewish people is unlike any other history of a people group known on the earth. First, their very birth was a miracle because Sarah was well past child-bearing years when the promised son, Isaac, was conceived. Their survival through 4,000 years of enslavement, wanderings, exiles and attempts at annihilation is also miraculous. None of the other small people groups from the Genesis story exist today because one exile alone is enough to wipe out a […]

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Year in Review: 2014

Mindy Belz
31 Dec 2014
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Now 14 years into a new millennium, the year jerked us back to a past we thought we’d left behind: Beheadings, race riots, Soviet-style conflict, and runaway epidemics. In the subterranean reaches of ancient churches in Mosul, Iraq — turned suddenly and in broad daylight to ISIS shrines — the captives of the 21st century met an abyss of medieval-minded militants and the unenlightened dawn of a new dark age.  The year turned on regifting. Like the stiff-necked aunt who keeps handing out fruitcake after all the relatives say, “Enough!” 2014 gave us ample taste of old and familiar history […]

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Sunday in the Middle East

Dr. Susan Michael
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“When Saturday is gone, one will find Sunday,” is an old, Christian Arab proverb that expresses their fear of sharing the terrible fate that has befallen the Jews. In other words, “When the Jews are persecuted, it is as inevitable that the Christians’ turn will come next, as it is that Sunday will follow Saturday.” This proverb has also been used to threaten both Jews and Christians, such as on the eve of the 1967 Six Day War with Israel when Muslims chanted “First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.” A prophecy fulfilled There is no longer a need […]

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Understanding the Chaotic Middle East

Dr. Susan Michael
5 Nov 2014
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If you thought the Middle East was confusing before, it just got a whole lot worse. Alliances are changing daily, borders are being redrawn, and countries thought to be allies of one side are becoming allies of the other. ISIS or ISIL Just figuring out the real name of the bad guys is confusing. There has been a lot of speculation on whether the correct name to use is ISIS or ISIL, and what the difference is between the two. There is an easy explanation because both are translations of the original Arabic title of which the first three words […]

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When Will Gaza Learn Terrorism Doesn’t Pay?

Dr. Susan Michael
10 Sep 2014
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The 25-mile strip of land between the Mediterranean Sea and Israel’s southwest border known as the Gaza Strip, has been home to over ten thousand rockets launched at Israel since 2006 and in return has suffered billions of dollars of damage. As a result of the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords, the territory was designated to be a part of a Palestinian State under the same Palestinian Authority that governs the West Bank. Hamas, however, won local elections in 2006, and subsequently kicked the PA out of Gaza in 2007. Hamas has been ruling the area since. Who is Hamas? Hamas […]

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Three Ways You Can Transform Iraq

Jim Denison
1 Sep 2014
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The world is watching with horror as Islamic State jihadists in Iraq crucify Christians, behead children and bury victims alive. When Christians flee ahead of their advance, the terrorists then steal their homes and businesses. They mark them with a red, painted U-shaped symbol with a dot above the center. This is the 14th letter of the Arabic alphabet (pronounced “noon”), equivalent to the Roman letter N. The letter stands for Nazarenes, a pejorative Arabic word for Christians. As Jews were forced by Nazis to wear the Star of David, so the homes of Christians are being painted with an […]

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