Swine flu 'shows drug resistance'

Experts have reported the first case of swine flu that is resistant to tamiflu - the main drug being used to fight the pandemic.

Roche Holding AG confirmed a patient with H1N1 influenza in Denmark showed resistance to the antiviral drug.

David Reddy, company executive, said it was not unexpected given that common seasonal flu could do the same.

The news comes as a nine-year-old girl has become the third to die in the UK with swine flu.

It is understood from her doctors at Birmingham Children's Hospital that she had underlying health conditions. It is not yet known whether swine flu contributed to her death.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health has announced a big jump in the number of patients in England confirmed with swine flu - up 1,604 since Friday, taking the UK total so far to 5,937.

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Obama tells Jews to stop building homes – in Israel!

The Obama administration told the Palestinian Authority the "golden era" of Israeli construction
in sections of Jerusalem and the strategic West Bank will soon come to an end, a top PA negotiator told WND.

"The U.S. assured us that for the first time since 1967, we are going into a period where there will not be allowed a single construction effort on the part of the Israelis in the settlements, including in Gush Etzion, Maale Adumum and eastern Jerusalem," said the negotiator, speaking from Ramallah on condition his name be withheld.

Maale Adumim is located in eastern Jerusalem. Israel reunited the eastern and western sections of Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Six Day War. Eastern Jerusalem, claimed by the PA for a future state, includes the Temple Mount.

The negotiator told WND the positions of the PA and U.S. regarding ongoing Jewish construction in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem "are closer than ever."

"The U.S. used to differentiate between natural grown and adding new communities. Not anymore. No construction will be allowed, not even natural growth," the PA negotiator said.

"Natural growth" means adding additional housing to existing communities to accommodate the needs of a growing population.

 




The negotiator spoke yesterday just before Defense Minister Ehud Barak took off for Washington, D.C., for meetings with the Obama administration.

The negotiator claimed that while Barak might reach an understanding with the U.S. regarding possible West Bank movements, such a deal would be for Israeli political purposes and wouldn't translate into actual Jewish construction on the ground.

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The Globalization of Tolerance

The Globalization of Tolerance

By Tony Blair

Faith matters. Even if you are not of religious faith yourself. Over 4 billion people world-wide recognize themselves as religious. They may not attend an organized place of worship. But Faith plays a part in their lives. A recent poll found that religion is important for around 30-35% of people in Europe, 65% of Americans and for about 90% of people in most Muslim-majority countries.

I started the Tony Blair Faith Foundation because I believe the modern world cannot work unless people from different faiths and cultures learn to live in peaceful co-existence with each other. Understanding increases the possibility of peace. Ignorance increases the potential for division.

The reason this is so important today is that globalization is shrinking the space we live in, making us share it, pushing people together in a way that is unique in human history. Some dislike this process. Some, like me, are content and even welcome it. But, for sure, it is a fact.

In this world, if religious faith becomes a counter force to this process, one which pulls people apart, then it becomes reactionary and divisive. So if I define myself as a Christian in opposition to you as a Muslim, then just as we are forced to live together by globalization, so we are forced apart by a view of religious faith that is exclusionary and hostile to those of a different faith to our own.

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation works in a number of ways to prevent this happening. One way is an inter-faith encounter through action, which is why we are supporting the UN anti-malaria campaign, to mobilize the faith communities to become centres of distribution for bed nets and medicines in Africa. We work also for reconciliation where religion is a dimension in political conflict, as in the Middle East. A key part of our work is education. In partnership with Yale University in the United States we now have a "Faith and Globalization" course which began last year. This is now being extended to four other universities world-wide.

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China argues to replace US dollar

China's central bank has reiterated its call for a new reserve currency to replace the US dollar.

The report from the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said a "super-sovereign" currency should take its place.

Central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan has loudly led calls for the dollar to be replaced during the financial crisis.

The bank report called for more regulation of the countries that issue currencies that underpin the global financial system.

"An international monetary system dominated by a single sovereign currency has intensified the concentration of risk and the spread of the crisis," the Chinese central bank said.

The dollar fell after the report was released. The US currency dropped 1% against the euro to $1.4088, and declined 0.8% versus the British pound to $1.6848.

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Billy Graham's Prayer For Our Nation

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics.. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free. Amen!'

'Ark of the Covenant' about to be unveiled?

The patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia says he will announce to the world Friday the unveiling of the Ark of the Covenant, perhaps the world's most prized archaeological and spiritual artifact, which he says has been hidden away in a church in his country for millennia, according to the Italian news agency Adnkronos.

Abuna Pauolos, in Italy for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI this week, told the news agency, "Soon the world will be able to admire the Ark of the Covenant described in the Bible as the container of the tablets of the law that God delivered to Moses and the center of searches and studies for centuries."

The announcement is expected to be made at 2 p.m. Italian time from the Hotel Aldrovandi in Rome. Pauolos will reportedly be accompanied by Prince Aklile Berhan Makonnen Haile Sellassie and Duke Amedeo D'Acosta.

"The Ark of the Covenant is in Ethiopia for many centuries," said Pauolos. "As a patriarch I have seen it with my own eyes and only few highly qualified persons could do the same, until now."

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Many die in acute Indian heatwave

A severe heatwave has claimed the lives of nearly 100 people across India, reports say.

The eastern Indian state of Orissa appears to be the worst affected with 58 people dying from heat stroke, according to local officials.

Unofficial figures in the Orissa media put the number of dead closer to 200.

Many parts of India have recorded temperatures of over 40C as weather officials say the monsoon, expected at this time of the year, has been patchy.

Orissa disaster management minister Surjya Narayan Patro has said that the federal government should declare the heat wave as a "national calamity" so that the relatives of the dead are compensated better.

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Jesus is Coming Soon! - We are living on borrowed time

by Dr. David R. Reagan



Many people believe there is nothing that can be known about the timing of the Lord's return because Jesus said He would return like a "thief in the night" (Matthew 24:42-44).

But Paul makes it clear in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6 that Jesus' statement does not apply to believers: "But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief..." He then proceeds to explain why: "for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober." Paul is referring, of course, to the light of the Holy Spirit who indwells all true believers and who can enlighten us through our study of Scripture to know the season of the Lord's return (1 John 2:27).

God's Attitude

As a matter of fact, God is obligated by His character to warn the world of the imminent return of His Son. The reason is that Jesus is returning in great wrath to "judge and wage war" (Revelation 19:11), and God never pours out His wrath without warning.

God does not wish that any should perish, but that all should be brought to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). Therefore, God always warns before He executes His wrath. He warned the world through Noah for 120 years. He warned Sodom and Gomorrah through Abraham. He sent Jonah to warn the pagan city of Ninevah, and He sent Nahum to the same city 150 years later.

Likewise, God is warning the world today that His Son is about to return. He is calling the world to repentance. The message of the hour to unbelievers can be summed up in these words: "Flee from the wrath that is to come by fleeing into the loving arms of Jesus now." Jesus came the first time as an expression of God's love; He came to die for the sins of Mankind. But when He returns, He will come in vengeance to pour out the wrath of God on those who have rejected God's love and grace.

The soon return of Jesus also carries with it a message for believers. Lukewarm Christians and carnal Christians are being called to commit their lives to holiness: "The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts" (Romans 13:12-14).

God's Method of Warning

God is alerting believers of the soon return of His Son through what are called "signs of the times." These are prophecies concerning world events that we are told to watch for, prophecies that will identify the season of the Lord's return.

The Bible is full of these signs. There are about 500 prophecies in the Old Testament that relate to the Second Coming of the Messiah. In the New Testament, one out of every 25 verses is concerned with the return of Jesus.

Rest of article here

N. Korea's Strong New Threat

North Korea accused Washington of seeking to "provoke a second Korean War" as the regime prepared to hold maritime military exercises off the eastern coast.



U.S. and regional authorities were watching closely for signs that North Korea might fire short- or mid-range missiles during the June 25 to July 10 timeframe cited in a no-sail ban for military drills sent to Japan's Coast Guard.

North Korea had warned previously it would fire a long-range missile as a response to U.N. Security Council condemnation of an April rocket launch seen as a cover for its ballistic missile technology.

An underground nuclear test last month drew more Security Council action: a resolution seeking to clamp down on North Korea's trading of banned arms and weapons-related material by requiring U.N. member states to request inspections of ships carrying suspected cargo.

In a first test of the new resolution, a North Korean ship suspected of transporting illicit weapons was sailing off China's coast with a U.S. destroyer close behind.

The Kang Nam, which left the North Korean port of Nampo a week ago, is believed bound for Myanmar, South Korean and U.S. officials said.

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Locusts swoop down on Ethiopia

Crops in large swathes of Ethiopia risk being destroyed by swarms of locusts coming from northern Somalia, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Tuesday.



The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) "reports that locust swarms have been confirmed in seven regions in the country, including in areas where there is no previous record of infestation," a statement said.

"The government is expected to present a response plan specifying immediate and medium-term actions to be taken during the week," OCHA said.

It added that 1,390 hectares of land in several regions, mainly in southeastern Ethiopia had been sprayed in ground and air operations.

The vast majority of Ethiopia's 77 million inhabitants depend on subsistence agriculture and have been badly hit by successive infestations of voracious locusts that destroy every plant in their path.

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Iran expels 2 British diplomats, refuses new vote

Iran expelled two British diplomats Tuesday after bitterly accusing Britain of meddling and spying. The government also dealt a fresh blow to the opposition by making clear it will not hold a new vote despite charges of fraud.

State TV said hard-line students protested outside the British Embassy in Tehran, where they burned U.S., British and Israeli flags, pelted the building with tomatoes and chanted: "Down with Britain!" and "Down with USA!" Witnesses said about 100 people took part.

Iran's Foreign Ministry said it expelled the two Britons for "unconventional behavior," state television reported, and Britain announced it was sending two Iranian diplomats home in retaliation.

Tensions between Iran and Britain, which has urged the Islamic regime to respect human rights, have soared in recent days.

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Can Third Temple be built without destroying Dome of the Rock?

A new Jewish interfaith initiative launched last week argues building the Third Jewish Temple in Jerusalem would not necessitate the destruction of the Dome of the Rock.

"God's Holy Mountain Vision" project hopes to defuse religious strife by showing that Jews' end-of-days vision could harmoniously accommodate Islam's present architectural hegemony on the Temple Mount.

"This vision of religious shrines in peaceful proximity can transform the Temple Mount from a place of contention to its original sacred role as a place of worship shared by Jews, Muslims and Christians," said Yoav Frankel, director of the initiative.

The Interfaith Encounter Association at the Mishkenot Sha'ananim's Konrad Adenauer Conference Center in Jerusalem is sponsoring the program, which includes interfaith study and other educational projects.

According to Islamic tradition, the Dome of the Rock, built in 691, marks the spot where Muhammed ascended to Heaven.

But according to Jewish tradition, Mount Moriah, now under the Dome of the Rock, is where the Temple's Holy of Holies was situated.

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Ancient Holy Land quarry uncovered, team says

Israeli archaeologists said on Sunday they had discovered the largest underground quarry in the Holy Land, dating back to the time of Jesus and containing Christian symbols etched into the walls.

The 4,000-square-meter (yard) cavern, buried 10 meters beneath the desert near the ancient West Bank city of Jericho, was dug about 2,000 years ago and was in use for about half a millennium, archaeologist Adam Zertal said.

The cave's main hall, about three meters tall, is supported by some 20 stone pillars and has a variety of symbols etched into the walls, including crosses dating back to about AD 350 and Roman legionary emblems.

Zertal said his team from Haifa University first discovered the site three months ago while they were putting together a detailed archaeological map of the area.

"We saw a hole in the ground ... and went down and discovered this giant cavern, originally a quarry, built uniquely with hall after hall," Zertal told Reuters.

The team believes the stones were used in buildings and churches in the region, but Zertal said further research was necessary.

The site may eventually be turned into one of the largest underground tourist sites in the Holy Land, he said.

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Planned N.Korea Missile Launch Worries Hawaii Residents

Comforted by the U.S. military's missile defense systems, Hawaii residents doubt a NK missile would light up the clear island sky. But that doesn't mean they aren't worried that a long-range missile could be launched in their direction. Japanese media have reported the NKoreans appear to be preparing for a long-range test near July 4-U.S. Independence Day. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered additional protections for Hawaii in case a missile is launched over the Pacific Ocean. "The NKoreans are unbalanced and could try anything," said Dan Gleason while walking his dog in downtown Honolulu. "If they do hit Honolulu, I hope it's a good shot, because I don't want to go through the aftermath."

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Crop scientists fear the Ug99 fungus could wipe out more than 80 percent of worldwide wheat crops as it spreads from its home base in eastern Africa.

Crop scientists fear the Ug99 fungus could wipe out more than 80 percent of worldwide wheat crops as it spreads from its home base in eastern Africa. It has jumped the Red Sea and traveled as far as Iran. Experts say it is poised to enter the breadbasket of northern India and Pakistan, and the wind inevitably will carry it to Russia, China and even North America - if it doesn't hitch a ride with people first. "It's a time bomb," said Jim Peterson, a professor of wheat breeding and genetics at Oregon State University in Corvallis. "It moves in the air. It can move in clothing on an airplane. We know it's going to be here. It's a matter of how long it's going to take." -It is the No. 1 threat to the world's most widely grown crop.

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Defiance: Protesters clash with Iranian police

Clashes between protesters and Iranian security forces heightened today as police reportedly beat protesters and fired tear gas and water cannons at thousands who rallied in defiance of Iran's Islamist government.

Unconfirmed reports put the death toll as high as 150 on the seventh day of post-election protests. Sources at one Tehran hospital confirmed 19 deaths Saturday, according to CNN.

Foreign journalists in Tehran, meanwhile, have been banned from reporting from the streets or attending mass rallies the past few days, prompting news agencies to appeal to Iranians to pass on information.

"Some reports could not be independently confirmed. Foreign news organizations – including the BBC – have been subjected to strict controls which prevent reporters from leaving their offices," read an online news report from the BBC.

The British network, along with other agencies like the Associated Press and the AFP, appealed to those on the streets in Tehran to pass along information and documentation, like photos and video.

The restrictions on the press have been in place since violent protests erupted following the announcement eight days ago of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election.

"If three days from now no journalists are able to testify on what is happening in Iran, it will pave the way for all sorts of abuses," warned Jean-Francois Julliard, secretary general of the Reporters Without Borders organization.

Julliard's group confirming at least 12 journalists have been arrested since last week. His organization staged a rally last week outside the Iranian embassy in France to demand and end to all media clampdowns in Iran. 

Cash to become extinct as chips take off

CASH is accelerating down the path to extinction as new technologies threaten to mark the end of loose change within a decade.

Bank and credit union bosses say cash won't be alone, with wallets and credit cards also likely to disappear too.

They told The Advertiser's round table forum that cash and cards will be replaced by computer chips embedded in mobile phones, watches or other portable devices. 

Australian Central chief executive Peter Evers believes cash will be replaced for most transactions in five-to-seven years.

"Cash will disappear as there will be other forms of carrying cash, stored value in your phone or whatever it might be. It will transfer automatically," he said. 

We're very close in countries around the world. If you go in to Hong Kong or Singapore, the low-value transactions have already disappeared. You can't go anywhere, like on public transport, without pre-purchasing a card.

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Jerusalem launches debate on sharing holiest site

 Espousing a dream of harmony that may stretch credibility among even the most fervent believers in dialogue among the great religions, clerics in Jerusalem launched a project on Thursday aimed at finding a way to share the city's holiest, and most fought over, site.

Even the Jewish religious scholar promoting it acknowledges it might need divine intervention before a peaceful remapping of the area where Muslims built the 7th century Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque on the site of the biblical Jewish Temple.

"We offer this vision for a long and deep discussion, and of course want to continue with a parallel research from other religions," said Yoav Frankel, director of the project promoting a vision of "God's Holy Mountain" 

Invitations to Thursday's launch conference depict a sunlit imagined future for the area Jews call Temple Mount. Happy Muslims and harp-playing Jews mingle between the Dome of the Rock and a new Temple, as Christians walk over from the nearby Sepulchre Church, traditional site of Jesus's resurrection.

The project, headed by Jewish members of the Interfaith Encounter Association (www.interfaith-encounter.org) encourages all three faiths to re-examine the complex and perhaps foster a new theological outlook, making room for all to worship there.

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Hal Lindsey: The Damascus Threat

Tony Blair says there could be Middle East peace within the year

The Middle East Peace Envoy for the Quartet (United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia) Tony Blair, says an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement could be reached within the year but only if all sides agree to peaceful negotiations. The former British Prime Minister said there is a great sense of hope and expectation in the Middle East after United States President Obama's recent outreach to the Islamic world, and if everyone would commit themselves to a two state solution, this peace deal could be in place within the year.

Jimmy's Prophetic Prospective on the News

The fact that the Middle East Peace Envoy, Tony Blair, says there could be peace in the Middle East within the year is a page out of Bible prophecy for the end times.

Following the recent speech by United States President Obama to the Moslem world, there has been expectation that there is indeed hope for some kind of peace in the Middle East. The fact that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said he and Israel would accept a Palestinian state howbeit a demilitarized state has also given hope to those working for a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Now, with Tony Blair's comments that there could be a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians within the year, the peace process seems to be moving towards a deal.

This scenario is really a page out of Bible prophecy. The ancient Jewish prophet Daniel wrote of the revival of the Old Roman Empire which would be led by a world leader powerful enough to put this peace deal together. The prophecy of the Revived Roman Empire (Daniel 7:7,24) could well be fulfilled in the near future. The infrastructure is actually is in place - that is the European Union. The world leader that comes from that political powerhouse (Daniel 7:8,24) could be the permanent president that is called for in the European Union's Lisbon Treaty. Daniel 9:27 does reveal this world leader will bring peace to the Middle East.

Tony Blair's declaration of a Middle East peace within the year does indeed set the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.

http://prophecytoday.com/news/

Japan warns that North Korea may fire missile at U.S. on Independence Day

North Korea may launch a long-range ballistic missile towards Hawaii on American Independence Day, according to Japanese intelligence officials.

The missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles, would be launched in early July from the Dongchang-ni site on the north-western coast of the secretive country.

Intelligence analysts do not believe the device would be capable of hitting Hawaii's main islands, which are 4,500 miles from North Korea.

It was announced today that the U.S. has deployed anti-missile defences around Hawaii in response to the threat.

North Korea test-fired a similar long-range missile on July 4 three years ago, but it failed seconds after liftoff.

U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the additional defences around Hawaii consist of a ground-based mobile missile system and a radar system nearby.

Together they could shoot an incoming missile in mid air.

'Without telegraphing what we will do, I would just say... we are in a good position, should it become necessary, to protect Americans and American territory,' Gates said today.

A new missile launch - though not expected to reach U.S. territory - would be a brazen slap in the face of the international community, which punished North Korea with new U.N. sanctions for conducting a second nuclear test on May 25 in defiance of a U.N. ban.

North Korea spurned the U.N. Security Council resolution with threats of war and pledges to expand its nuclear bomb-making program.

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UN: World hunger reaches 1 billion mark

The global financial meltdown has pushed the ranks of the world's hungry to a record 1 billion, a grim milestone that poses a threat to peace and security, U.N. food officials said Friday.

Because of war, drought, political instability, high food prices and poverty, hunger now affects one in six people, by the United Nations' estimate.

The financial meltdown has compounded the crisis in what the head of the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization called a "devastating combination for the world's most vulnerable."

Compared with last year, there are 100 million more people who are hungry, meaning they consume fewer than 1,800 calories a day, the agency said.

"No part of the world is immune," FAO's Director-General Jacques Diouf said. "All world regions have been affected by the rise of food insecurity."

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Parental rights increasingly under attack

A proposed parental rights amendment has been introduced in Congress.

Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), who is sponsoring the bill in the Senate, notes that it has not been too many years since prayer was challenged in public schools.

"Now we're finding that parental rights are being attacked by courts all over the country," he contends. "And as we look at where this country is going, particularly more association with the United Nations and the U.N. Convention on the rights of the Child, these treaties would supercede all the laws in 50 states."

And it would challenge parental rights in different ways, he argues.

"[It would] outlaw spanking and prohibit parents from raising children in the family religion, negates legal assumptions that parents act in the best interest of their kids," he points out. "Things [like these] that are inconceivable in America are now being contemplated and planned by a number of people."

Those results have already occurred in nations that have signed on to the treaty, and DeMint says it would happen in the United States as well. More than 60 members of Congress have endorsed the amendment, but DeMint believes it will take a grassroots effort to get it passed.

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2012: TEOTWAWKI

There has been a lot of hype in the media lately about the year 2012. There's even a movie set to be released this year. Got this in my email today and thought it was good about Christians, Bible prophecy and even 2012.

Jack Kinsella - Omega Letter Editor

If you are a Christian, and you believe that Bible prophecy is being fulfilled in this generation, then you are probably the oddball in your church.

In fact, scratch 'probably'. It is pretty much a dead-bang certainty that you are. It is fascinating to me that a person can be pro-choice, anti-Israel, pro-gay marriage, and be labeled a 'Christian progressive'.

But if you believe that God not only knows the future, but recorded it for us in advance, well, then you're a nut.

Most Christians are ok with the idea that God created the universe. Whether or not they accept it as a literal 'creation' or some kind of modified evolutionary scheme notwithstanding, few Christians would argue that creation is beyond God's power.

For reasons nobody has ever been able to logically articulate to me, Christians have no problem agreeing that the First Advent of Jesus Christ was prophesied.

But prophecies pointing to His Second Advent are merely symbolic and not to be taken literally. If YOU do, then you are a nut.

There are some churches, on the other hand, that are wholly given over to the study of Bible prophecy for the last days. If you are a member of a church like that, not only are YOU a nut, but you probably belong to a cult.

If you wanted to draw a cartoon in which you wanted one of the characters to be instantly recognized as being a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic, the most recognizable way would be to draw a guy with a long beard wearing a burnoose and brandishing a sign saying, "Repent! The end is near!"

And that's just the way the subject is treated by other Christians. To the world, if you study Bible prophecy, you are probably not just crazy, but dangerous.

If you believe Nostradamus knew the future, you're a harmless eccentric, if you believe the Mayans calculated The End of The World As We Know It (TEOTWAWKI) you are an historian. If you believe St Malachy, you are a Catholic theologian.

But if you believe that the God of the Universe has a Divine Plan that culminates with the judgment of mankind during the Tribulation Period, based entirely on a literal reading of His Word, then there's something wrong with you.

The Mayan Indians, whose culture died out 1400 years ago, developed a complex calendar system that continues to fascinate scientists to this day.

The Mayan Calendar divides the history of man into five distinct 'ages' and this present age is scheduled to end exactly at 11:11 am (Greenwich Mean Time), on 24 December, 2012. The Mayans believed that on that date and time, the world as we know it will end with the final destruction of mankind on the earth.

Nostradamus is credited with having predicted the 9/11 attacks as kicking off the end of days. According to one celebrated 'quatrain' a King of Terror wearing a blue turban will attack 'the "Great City", etc., etc.

Although his most famous quatrain makes reference to the 'King of Terror' "in the seventh month of 1999" and the 9/11 attacks took place in the 9th month of 2000, for Nostradamus fans, that was close enough.

An 12th-century Irish priest recorded a prophecy in which he allegedly named the rest of the Popes in human history, from Celestine II (1143-1144) to the last pope at the end of the world.

According to St. Malachy, there would be exactly 112 Popes. Malachy predicted the second last Pope would be called 'a Benedictine.' I wrote about St Malachy's 'Benedictine prophecy' in April, 2005, as the new Pope was being selected.

Cardinal Ratzinger chose, as his papal name, "Pope Benedict the XVI". According to St Malachy, the Benedictine's reign will be short, (Ratzinger is in his 80's) and he will be succeeded by the last Pope, "Peter the Great."

The various adherents of the Mayans, Nostradamus, St Malachy (and there are others) all share the same basic worldview that could be paraphrased thusly: let every man be true and God a liar.

All the various secular 'prophets' prove is that Satan knows his time is short. There is a singular difference between secular prophecies and Bible prophecy that reveals the source of the information.

Secular prophecies can only 'predict' events, not outcomes. Bible prophecy tells how they turn out. "I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done." (Isaiah 46:9b-10a)

Satan is the universe's master deceiver. His ultimate goal is to be received as God. Only God is capable of prophecy.

But Satan has a counterfeit plan of his own, and he has had six thousand years to develop it. Since he knows what he has planned, it is no trick to reveal the plan to some secular 'prophet'. Satan doesn't know how his plan will turn out, any more than any other created being, but he DOES know what he has in mind.

From our dimension of time, it seems like prophecy. Remove the element of time, and what seem now to be prophecy would no more than the outline of a plan.

Extra-Biblical prophecies, are part of that overall plan to counterfeit the miracles of God, so that, one day, " he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." (2nd Thessalonians 2:4)

If one examines the extra-Biblical prophecies for the truth they contain, rather than looking for the sensational, what what learns is that it isn't just prophecy nuts who believe in Bible prophecy. Satan believes it, too, or he wouldn't be trying to counterfeit it.

What it DOES establish is that even Satan has an idea of the time of the end -- and Satan thinks it will be some time around 2012.

We know that, of the day and hour, no man knoweth, but we are told we WILL know that it is 'near, even at the doors.' And from that time, Jesus tells us,

"Verily I say unto thee, this generation shall not pass, until ALL these things be fulfilled." (Matthew 24:34)

TEOTWAWKI on December 24, 2012? I don't think so. But soon?

No doubt about it.

Scientists Say 'Super Volcano' May Be Brewing Beneath Mount St. Helens

A team of scientists say they have evidence that a "super volcano" may be brewing underneath Mount St. Helens, NewScientist.com reports.

Researchers say indicators suggest Mount St. Helens and other northwest volcanoes are plugged into a huge subterranean pool of magma that could one day burst to the surface in a "super" eruption.

If what they believe is true, the structure beneath the mountain would be comparable in size to the biggest magma chambers ever discovered, such as the one below Yellowstone National Park.

Scientist Graham Hill led a team of researchers that set up magnetotelluric sensors around Mount St Helens. The measurements revealed a column of conductive material that extends downward from the volcano which they found to connect to a much bigger zone of conductive material.

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