Israel and American Christians

I picked this WND article up via a link at CUANAS, and think it really covers the reasons American Christians support Israel:


Why do American Christians support Israel so loyally and enthusiastically?
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1. The strong evangelical church in America can read the Bible and see that the Jews' only historic home is in Israel.

2. Most Christians understand that Jesus was a Jew who lived in a Jewish state, albeit one under the colonial rule of the Roman Empire.

3. They understand that God chose to reveal Himself to the Jewish people and the nation of Israel.
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4. They don't see a nation of Palestine mentioned in the Old Testament or New – with good reason: It never existed before or since, except in the imaginations of people like Yasser Arafat.
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5. They believe God made certain promises to the nation of Israel and that today's Jewish state is a manifestation of those promises.
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6. They understand that their Holy Scriptures indicate God will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse it. They don't want to be on the wrong side of that spiritual equation.
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7. They understand their own salvation, in the person of Jesus, chose to come through the House of David and minister principally to the Jews.
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8. They grasp that the Jews alone – with the help of God, of course – have made the deserts bloom in that Holy land, just as the prophets predicted.
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9. They comprehend that the Jews alone formed a free society in the Middle East.
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10. They can see that Israel has been an ally to the United States and a friend to the free world throughout its 50-year history of rebirth.
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http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30690

Someone also said once that they vote with the US at the UN 91% of the time. The next closest country is Australia, at 58%. Obviously #9 and #10 can be grasped by even the simplest fool, and are not based on theology, so I usually use them when debating non-Christians (especially #10 because of the tons of examples to prove that particular point).

Comet Over Krakow

Credit & Copyright: Andrzej Sawow

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Explanation: Bright Comet McNaught (C/2006 P1) graced the twilight this week, seen by many and often described with superlatives. Watching the skies over Krakow, Poland, Andrzej Sawow recorded this view on Wednesday - with an ordinary handheld digital camera. He notes that "... astronomy is really for everyone who loves to look at the night sky. And fortunately (sometimes) the sky generously rewards its observer". Now very close to the Sun, Comet McNaught (along with Mercury) is visible in realtime images from the SOHO spacecraft. Otherwise, skywatchers will find the comet hard to see this weekend. But southern hemisphere observers could be rewarded next week as Comet McNaught begins to climb higher in southern skies.

Mo Science

This is too funny! Unfortunately,,,, real. So, say "Goodby" to NASA in the utopian caliphate.

Hat tip: LGF

"
Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyid: When British colonialism or the British kingdom were in control, and it was “an empire on which the sun never sets,” it imposed Greenwich Mean Time. This creates two problems for the world. The first problem is that in Greenwich, the magnetic field of Earth is 8.5 degrees, whereas in Mecca the magnetic field is zero.
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Interviewer: Before the break, we talked to Dr. Abd Al-Baset about the centrality of Mecca, and about the importance of measuring time according to the latitude of Mecca, and not according to the latitude of Greenwich... Why is it?
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Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyid: It has been proven that there is a certain discrepancy if we calculate it according to Greenwich. This discrepancy has been estimated as 8.5 minutes between the northern and southern hemispheres.
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Interviewer: How much?
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Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyid: 8.5 minutes. Air traffice cannot be organized this way. They are aware of this, and so they try to change it.
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Interviewer: Really?
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Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyid: Yes. If they calculated time according to Mecca, it would be the same in the northern and southern hemispheres.
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Interviewer: Surely they know this...
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Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyid: Yes, but we have to work on these things. We must declare this, and we must convene a large conference with them, and tell them that time must be calculated according to Mecca.
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Interviewer: What other benefits are there to calculating time according to Mecca?
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Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyid: If you calculate time according to Mecca, those 8.5 minutes... The magnetic field of Earth, for example... What I say is that there are people at the North Pole and the South Pole who cannot come here in multitudes.
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Interviewer: Really?
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Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyid: This is because the magnetic force is concentrated there, which affects people’s blood and the biological movement of life. It has been proven that if magnetism, anywhere, exceeds 1,000 gauss, which equals one tenth of a tesla, it affects the ability of the hemoglobin in the blood to carry oxygen to the body’s tissues, the ability of the blood to carry oxygen to the tissues.
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Interviewer: In other words, the ability to live...
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Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyid: Yes, to live... This means is that when you are in Mecca, the ability of the blood to carry oxygen to the tissues is greater than anywhere else in the world.
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Interviewer: That’s why, when people travel to Mecca, they return full of energy.
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Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyid: In Mecca, you don’t exert any effort. That’s why you may see an old man, who cannot walk, or who walks with crutches, and even though it gets very crowded around the Ka’ba, he is filled with great strength, and he circles the Ka’ba. You do not exert any effort, and you are filled with energy, because you are in a place in which there is no magnetic force.
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Anybody who studies human chemistry knows that all circulation in the human body is to the right. All the components are called “dextro-rotatary,” which means circulating to the right. They call it dextro-rotatory, which means circulating to the right. When I’m circulating [the Ka’ba] from right to left, anti-clockwise, I increase my body’s circulation, and consequently I am filled with energy.
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Interviewer: I get filled with energy too?
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Abd Al-Baset Al-Sayyid: Yes, because the right-to-left circulation in my body increases."

More from "Why I left Jihad" - Walid Shoebat

This is such a good book. I HIGHLY recommend it. He delves into theology, history and prophecy. His "take" on prophecy makes so much sense, you really do have to read it. OT, here is a tidbit from "With Lawrence of Arabia" by Lowell Thomas (1925), regarding muslims respect for their holy sites (not):

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"Hussein supervised the attack on Mecca, and while Faisel and Ali were in command of the force directed against Medina, the Grand Shereef was successful at Mecca. The forts on the three hills overlooking that forbidden and sacred city were garrisoned by the sultan's most faithful Circassian mercenaries and by picked Turkish troops. On the day of the attack, the Arabs swept through the gates and captured the main bazaar, the residential section, the administration buildings, and the sacred mosque of the Holy Kaaba. For a fortnight the battle raged around the two smaller forts, which were finally taken.

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During all this fighting the aged Shereef remained in his palace directing operations in spite of scores of Turkish three inch shells that riddeled his residence. The Turks might have been able to hang on for many months had it not been for their own folly.

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The Ottoman seems to be a Muhammadan in theory only, occasionally adhering to the ritual and even less frequently adhering to the spirit of the Koran. Heedless of the deep set religious feelings of their enemies and co-religionists, they suddenly began to bombard the mosque of the Kaaba, the most sacred shrine of all Islam. One shell actually hit the black stone burning a hole in the holy carpet and killing nine Arabs who were kneeling in prayer. Hussein's followers were so enraged by this impious act that they swarmed over the walls of the great fort and captured it after desperate hand-to-hand fighting with knives and daggers."

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I guess that would be a holey holy carpet....

The Eagle Nebula in Infrared

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/N. Flagey (IAS/SSC) & A. Noriega-Crespo (SSC/Caltech)
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Explanation: In visible light, the whole thing looks like an eagle. The region was captured recently in unprecedented detail in infrared light by the robotic orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope (SSC). Shown above, the infrared image allows observers to peer through normally opaque dust and so better capture the full complexity of the Eagle Nebula star forming region. In particular, the three famous pillars near the image center are seen bathed in dust likely warmed by a supernova explosion. The warm dust is digitally assigned the false color of red. Also visible, near the bottom of the image, is ten light-year long pillar sometimes dubbed the Fairy of Eagle Nebula. The greater Eagle emission nebula, tagged M16, lies about 6500 light years away, spans about 20 light-years, and is visible with binoculars toward the constellation of Serpens.

Our BSF leader said this yesterday, speaking of when we encounter troubles in this life, but somehow this picture makes me think of it:

The "Go To" Principle: "When my life is out of focus, I remind myself that I am not a body with a soul, but a soul with a body."

I also liked this one: "When we encounter trouble, we can break down, break out, or break through."

NGC 602 and Beyond

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI / AURA) - ESA/Hubble Collaboration

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Explanation: Near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy some 200 thousand light-years distant, lies 5 million year young star cluster NGC 602. Surrounded by natal gas and dust, NGC 602 is featured in this stunning Hubble image of the region. Fantastic ridges and swept back shapes strongly suggest that energetic radiation and shock waves from NGC 602's massive young stars have eroded the dusty material and triggered a progression of star formation moving away from the cluster's center. At the estimated distance of the Small Magellanic Cloud, the picture spans about 200 light-years, but a tantalizing assortment of background galaxies are also visible in the sharp Hubble view. The background galaxies are hundreds of millions of light-years or more beyond NGC 602.

Moon God Allah

Hadrian Crescent and Star

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Okay, this is really interesting, from “Why I left Jihad” by Walid Shoebat (I highly recommend this book):

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"Revelation 17 presents a snapshot of the entire Babylonian influence and of human sin, stretching over time to encompass the empires of Daniel with their false religions. Islam's crescent moon, in reality, stems from Babylonia, modern day Iraq. In 217 AD, Emperor Caracala was killed after he was returning from visiting the Temple of the Moon God in Harran, Iraq. In 363 AD, Emperor Julian paid his respects to the temple of Sin. The Moon God, in fact, was the most worshiped god in Roman times. It is reasonable to connect the Roman Empire's religious worship from Babylon to Islam, which adopted this symbol. "

.................. Flag of Pakistan

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“Islam is simply a revival of a Babylonian religion. The Moon god with the crescent moon and star symbol originated in Babylon (Iraq) and was one of the 360 idols in the Kaaba (Mecca) before Muhammad destroyed them. In Babylon, the Moon god was called “Sin”. Caton Thompson’s book, “The Tombs and Moon Temple of Hureidha, discusses the uncovering of a temple of the Moon-god in southern Arabia. The symbols of the crescent moon and no less than 21 inscriptions with the name “Sin” were found in this temple. An idol, which may be the Moon god himself, was also discovered. The Arabic word for “god” is ‘Ilah” and the Moon god became synonymous with ‘al-Ilah’, meaning ‘the god;” pagan Arabia believed that the Moon god was the greatest of all the gods, hence the phrase “Allahu Akbar,” meaning “Allah is greater.”
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Revelation 17:8 (~90AD): "The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come."