An International Missionary Outreach Dedicated to Evangelizing the Lost and Equipping the Church for Discernment

Weekly News In Review

September 3 - 10, 2005
To view all archives articles, please click here

Your comments regarding this service are welcome!

The following articles were posted at www.understandthetimes.org this past week:

Abbas Encourages Students to be Martyrs
Iran’s leader calls for greater “jihad” against Israel
 John Paul II's Secret Was Eucharist, Says Benedict XVI
 Nuclear stockpiles could create 300,bombs
 ‘Southern Decadence’ Gay Fest Rescheduled for Wednesday Despite Katrina Devastation

Article: Israel and the Last Days

September 4, 2005 - Abbas Encourages Students to be Martyrs
Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) spoke to Gaza students and praised martyrs, including suicide terrorists, who die "according to a national order."
"They receive their reward in the Garden Of Eden," Abbas told the students returning to school. He reminded them that martyrs and suicide terrorists "brought about the withdrawal from Gaza." His comments came only three months after he told the American ABC television network that suicide bombings are a matter of the past.

Entire Article              Back to top

Article: Israel and the Last Days

Iran’s leader calls for greater “jihad” against Israel

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the jihad against Israel must continue and be strengthened, Iran’s semi-official daily Jomhouri Islami reported on Sunday.

“The only way to fight the Zionist enemy is to continue and increase resistance and jihad”, Ayatollah Khamenei said at a meeting on Saturday with secretary general of the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, Ramadan Abdullah, the hard-line daily Jomhouri Islami wrote.

Iran’s official policy is to call for the annihilation of the Jewish state. The country’s clerical rulers have been strongly opposed to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ attempts to reach a comprehensive peace settlement with Israel. In August, Israel removed Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip after decades of occupation.

Khamenei said that the Israeli withdrawal was “the valuable victory” of jihadist groups, whom he urged to continue their struggle.
Entire Article              Back to top

Article: Catholicism - Eucharist

John Paul II's Secret Was Eucharist, Says Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI says that the secret of Pope John Paul II's spiritual life was his relationship with Jesus in the Eucharist.

When praying the Angelus with the crowds gathered in the courtyard of the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, Benedict XVI noted that the Year of the Eucharist, called by his predecessor, will close in October.

"This year especially dedicated to the Eucharistic mystery was called by Pope John Paul II to reawaken in Christian people faith, wonder and love for this sacrament which is the authentic treasure of the Church," Benedict XVI asserted.

"With how much devotion he celebrated Holy Mass, the center of each one of his days! How much time he spent in adoring and silent prayer before the tabernacle!" the Pope exclaimed...

Benedict XVI noted that John Paul II's "earthly existence closed in the Easter octave, precisely in the heart of this Eucharistic Year, in which the passing of his great pontificate to mine took place." "With joy, therefore, from the beginning of this service that the Lord has asked of me, I reaffirm the central character of the sacrament of the real presence of Christ in the life of the Church and of every Christian," said Benedict XVI.

Entire Article              Back to top

Article: Signs of the Times

Nuclear stockpiles could create 300,bombs

The world has made enough explosives for more than 300,000 nuclear bombs, according to the latest scientific assessment of countries' nuclear stockpiles.

Stores of plutonium are growing, and there are new dangers from two lesser-known nuclear explosives, neptunium-237 and americium. Experts are worried that terrorists could steal enough to trigger a nuclear catastrophe.

"Our first concern is the risk of nuclear terrorism," says David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a think tank in Washington, DC, US. "We worry about what could happen in Russia, Pakistan, India and China."
Entire Article              Back to top

Atricle: Signs of the Times

‘Southern Decadence’ Gay Fest Rescheduled for Wednesday Despite Katrina Devastation
Homosexuals, a few of whom already marched Sunday, have rescheduled their planned Southern Decadence homosexual festival for tomorrow, despite the death and destruction left behind by hurricane Katrina last week. The event draws 125,000 homosexual revelers to New Orleans annually.
The festival, a six-day festival highlighted by a parade on the Sunday before Labor Day, is a yearly event that “earned its reputation by being one of the most unapologetically racy exhibitions of gay life, where outlandish costumes and outdoor sex were the norm,” according to a sovo.com report.

“The shocking callousness of New Orleans’ gay activists towards the severe suffering of its fellow citizens cannot be adequately articulated in a news report,” said ex-homosexual James Hartline, who depicted the Southern Decadence festival to WorldNetDaily as “replete with tens of thousands of men and women engaged in public nudity, prostitution, illegal drug use and destructive public S & M sex.”

“The idea that human beings are continuing to party while hundreds of thousands of fellow citizens are starving, dying and suffering from a multitude of sicknesses brings into focus the real lack of judgment that these constant advocates of special gay rights demonstrate in a time of crisis,” Hartline added.

Entire Article              Back to top