An International Missionary Outr

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

Weekly News In Review

April 10 - 16, 2006

Other items of interest

Roger's Blogs
"Personal Update From Roger Oakland"
"Exposing The Emerging Church"

Your comments regarding this service are welcome!

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

Is Bible Prophecy Important?
Egypt penetrates Israeli air space for first time since 1967 War
Iranian missiles can carry nukes
The gospel according to U2 and Bono
Airline passengers face lie detector tests
Big Brother cleans up crime in New Jersey town
Wolfowitz looks at opening World Bank Iraq office
French Bishops Open to Lefebvre's Followers
Tornadoes Sweep Through Tennessee, Kill 10
Seventh planet has a blue ring
Lesbian Sues Pro-Family Activists for Exposing Truth About Pro-Homosexual Event
Stampede in Pakistan Leaves 26 Dead
Professor Predicts Human Time Travel This Century
US eBay's PayPal lets mobile phones act as debit cards
'Missing link' claim for fossils debunked by creationist group
Million Leaders Mandate: To Another Million and Beyond
Iran President: Israel Will Be Annihilated
Bible Answer Man Golf Classic
Non-Christians in church flock
Dalai Lama seeks to improve image of Islam in U.S.
Emerging Church trend expands, diversifies

Commentary: One World Religion

April 17, 2006 - Is Bible Prophecy Important?

The Bible states that someday in the future a man will stand up in a temple in Jerusalem and claim he is king of the world. Before this happens this man will have implemented a world peace plan.

Did you know that current events indicate this scenario may be just ahead?

A headline I saw recently caught my attention. This is what I read: “Chief Rabbi Asks Dalai Lama to Help Set up Religious UN in Jerusalem.” The article itself was brief, but very interesting. Quoting from the article:

Israel's Ashkenazi chief rabbi, Yonah Metzger, meeting with the Dalai Lama, a Buddhist monk who is the leader of Tibet, suggested that representatives of the world's religions establish a United Nations in Jerusalem, representing religions instead of nations, like the UN currently based in New York.

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Article: Wars and Rumors of Wars

April 7, 2006 - Egypt penetrates Israeli air space for first time since 1967 War

TEL AVIV - Egyptian military aircraft have overflown Israel territory for the first time since the 1967 war, Israeli military sources said.

The sources said over the last few months Egyptian military helicopters have entered Israeli air space several times. They said the Egyptian flights sparked an alert of the Israel Air Force, which sent fighter-jets to intercept the Egyptian aircraft.

In one case, the sources said, an Egyptian military French-origin Gazelle helicopter crossed the Israeli border and appeared headed toward the nuclear reactor at Dimona. Israeli aircraft and ground units responded quickly and the helicopter returned to Egypt.

..."We have never seen such behavior before," a military source said of the penetrations. "This is extremely disturbing."

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Article: Wars and Rumors of Wars

April 7, 2006 - Iranian missiles can carry nukes

U.S. official says 'breakthrough' a 'very disturbing development'

Iran now has ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, according to military experts.

While Tehran denies it is trying to develop a nuclear arsenal, ballistic missile experts advising the United States say it has succeeded in reconfiguring the Shahab-3 ballistic missile to carry nuclear weapons, the London Telegraph reports.

"This is a major breakthrough for the Iranians," said a senior U.S. official, according to the London paper. "They have been trying to do this for years and now they have succeeded. It is a very disturbing development."

Recent test firings of the Shahab-3 by military experts show Iran has been able to modify the nose cone to carry a basic nuclear bomb, the experts conclude.

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Article: Social Gospel

April 3, 2006 - The gospel according to U2 and Bono

THE SCOTSMAN - By STEPHEN MCGINTY - April 3, 2006 - BONO has declared that he is not a man of the cloth, "unless that cloth is leather". But the words of the charismatic U2 front man are nevertheless ringing out from pulpits across the United States.

The Irish rock band's songs and lyrics are being used by the Episcopal Church in so-called "U2 Eucharists" as a means of attracting young people who relate to the group's social activism.

Earlier attempts by churches to connect to youth culture have usually involved ministers in open-toed sandals strumming acoustic guitars and singing Kumbaya to the general embarrassment of all. Yet, in parishes from California to Maine, worshippers are flocking to hear U2 classics such as Beautiful Day, Pride and Peace on Earth rolled into a service of prayer.

However, ear plugs are passed out with the Bibles and hymn sheets for those who prefer organ music.

As an opening hymn, the service played one of the U2's earliest hits, Pride (In the Name of Love).

On a screen behind the altar, pictures of famous believers such as the Rev Martin Luther King Jr. were flashed up as the music played.

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Article: One World Government

April 6, 2006 - Airline passengers face lie detector tests

LONDON DAILY TELEGRAPH - By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow - April 6, 2006 - Millions of airline passengers travelling through Russia will soon have to take a lie detector test as part of new security measures.

The technology, to be introduced at Moscow's Domodedovo airport as early as July, is intended to identify terrorists and drug smugglers. If successful, it could revolutionise check-ins.

Passengers will pick up the handset of a "truth verifier" machine while they are asked questions. Apparently the machine, developed by an Israeli company, can even establish whether answers come from the memory or the imagination.

The technology is being used by some insurance companies in Britain to screen telephone claims for fraud.

"We know that this could be uncomfortable for some passengers but it is a necessary step," said Vladimir Kornilov, the IT director for East Line, which operates the airport.

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Article: One World Government

April 3, 2006 - Big Brother cleans up crime in New Jersey town

REUTERS - By Mark Egan - April 3, 2006 - Lenox Avenue in suburban East Orange was long a hotbed of drugs and gun mayhem and one of New Jersey's toughest streets. But Big Brother has cleaned it up.

...Now high-tech cameras and gunshot sensors are mounted at each end of Lenox Avenue, and on many other East Orange streets. The residential avenue of mainly multifamily homes is blocked from traffic and, with the exception of the 24-hour police presence, it looks as tranquil as most New Jersey suburbs.

"There's no drug dealers or nothing here. They all left," said Andre Davis, 15, riding his scooter on Lenox.

...Last summer, police installed cameras in crime-ridden neighborhoods and on the city's commercial center, each equipped with sensors that can detect the sound of gunfire. Police use the cameras to zoom in on certain streets and virtually "walk" down the pavements looking for crime...

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Article: One World Government

April 2, 2006 - Wolfowitz looks at opening World Bank Iraq office

REUTERS - By Lesley Wroughton - April 2, 2006 - World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz is considering expanding bank operations in Iraq, which would put his agency at the center of rebuilding from a war he helped plan as the Pentagon's former No. 2 official.

Senior bank officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no final decision had been made, said key donor countries including Britain, Japan, Germany and Denmark are pressuring Wolfowitz to establish a Baghdad office.

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Article: Roman Catholic Church and the Last Days

April 7, 2006 - French Bishops Open to Lefebvre's Followers Will Do "Everything Possible" to Achieve Full Communion

LOURDES, France, APRIL 7, 2006 (ZENIT.org).- The bishops of France expressed their willingness to receive Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre's followers, once they are reconciled with the Holy See.

In a note issued today, at the end of their four-day plenary assembly, members of the French episcopal conference said: "We know that Benedict XVI is concerned about" relations with the Society of St. Pius X, founded by Archbishop Lefebvre.

"In the forthcoming weeks or months, he should give directives to facilitate the way towards a possible return to full communion," they said.

"We will received them in faith and apply them with fidelity. Evangelically, everything possible must be done so that the Lord's word -- 'That they be one' -- is fulfilled," the bishops continued.
...Truth "implies being clear on our points of dissension. In fact, the latter affect acceptance of the magisterium more than questions of liturgy, in particular, that of the Second Vatican Council and of Popes of the last decades," they emphasized.

"Communion may be accompanied by questions, requests for precision or further reflection," they indicated. "It cannot tolerate a systematic rejection of the council, criticism of its teaching, or denigration of the liturgical reform decreed by the council."

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Article: Signs of the Times

April 7, 2006 - Tornadoes Sweep Through Tennessee, Kill 10

ASSOCIATED PRESS - By ERIK SCHELZIG - April 7, 2006 - NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A line of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes marched across the South on Friday, peeling away roofs, overturning cars and killing at least 10 people in Tennessee, officials said.

...The number of tornadoes in the United States has jumped dramatically through the first part of 2006 compared with the past few years, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center.

Through the end of March, an estimated 286 tornadoes had hit the United States, compared with an average of 70 for the same three-month period in each of the past three years.

The number of tornado-related deaths was 38 before Friday's storms. The average number of deaths from 2003 to 2005 was 45 a year, the prediction center said.

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Article: Signs of the Times

April 7, 2006 - Seventh planet has a blue ring

BBC NEWS - By Helen Briggs, BBC News science reporter - April 7, 2006 - Astronomers have discovered that the planet Uranus has a blue ring - only the second found in the Solar System.

Like the blue ring of Saturn, it probably owes its existence to an accompanying small moon.

Scientists suspect subtle forces acting on dust in the rings allow smaller particles to persist while larger ones are recaptured by the moon.

Smaller particles reflect blue light, giving the ring its distinctive colour, the US team reports in Science.

All other rings - those around Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - are made up of both large and small particles, making the rings reddish in appearance.

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Article: Perilous Times

April 7, 2006 - Lesbian Sues Pro-Family Activists for Exposing Truth About Pro-Homosexual Event

(AgapePress) - A lesbian who was fired for her role in the notorious "Fistgate" conference at Tufts University has brought a civil suit against two Massachusetts pro-family activists who attended the 2000 conference and then proceeded to expose what went on at the pro-homosexual event.

The statewide conference that took place March 25 of that year was actually called "Teach-Out," and was sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Education, the Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. The event's scandalous nickname comes from one of the many sexually explicit topics discussed at the conference before audiences that included children and teens.

Several presenters tried to foster "open discussion" by familiarizing their listeners with graphic details about homosexual sex and sexuality. At one point in the conference, "fisting" was discussed by one Teach-Out presenter, who described the practice as "an experience of letting somebody into your body that you want to be that close and intimate with ... [and] to put you into an exploratory mode."

Many concerned parents learned about "Fistgate" and its sexually graphic content through the efforts of Massachusetts pro-family activists Brian Camenker and Scott Whiteman, who attended the "Teach-Out" specifically to bear witness to and gather evidence of what went on there. That is why the two men are now facing legal action, along with the Parents Rights Coalition, which is also named in the civil suit.

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Article: Islam

April 9, 2006 - Stampede in Pakistan Leaves 26 Dead

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) - Thousands of women stampeded as they left a religious gathering in southern Pakistan on Sunday, and at least 29 people, including children, were killed, police and doctors said.

More than 70 other people were injured.

...Witnesses said the fatal crush happened inside the center's compound, when a woman bent down to pick up a young girl who had fallen, causing other people behind her to trip.

..."When the woman stopped there was a wave of people who stepped over us. Someone pulled me to the side and after I gained consciousness, I was in the hospital," she said from her hospital bed, where she was being treated for a broken arm.

Most deaths were caused by internal injuries and suffocation, said Simi Jamali, a doctor at the state-run Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Center, which received seven bodies and more than 30 injured people.

The bodies of 18 women and four children were taken to Liaqat National Hospital, said Ali Azmat Abdi, director of the privately run facility. The hospital was treating more than 40 people injured in the stampede, "some of them are in very serious condition," he said.

Dozens of unconscious women and children were sent to hospitals, said Zahid Hussain, a Karachi police official.

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Article: Signs of the Times

April 4, 2006 - Professor Predicts Human Time Travel This Century

With a brilliant idea and equations based on Einstein's relativity theories, Ronald Mallett from the University of Connecticut has devised an experiment to observe a time traveling neutron in a circulating light beam. While his team still needs funding for the project, Mallett calculates that the possibility of time travel using this method could be verified within a decade.

Black holes, wormholes, and cosmic strings - each of these phenomena has been proposed as a method for time travel, but none seem feasible, for (at least) one major reason. Although theoretically they could distort space-time, they all require an unthinkably gigantic amount of mass.

..."Einstein showed that mass and energy are the same thing," said Mallett, who published his first research on time travel in 2000 in Physics Letters. "The time machine we've designed uses light in the form of circulating lasers to warp or loop time instead of using massive objects."

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Article: Technology For a Global Monetary System

April 8, 2006 - US eBay's PayPal lets mobile phones act as debit cards

EBay's online money transfer service PayPal launched a system enabling people to use their mobile telephones as debit cards, the US company's website revealed.

The new "PayPal Mobile" payment system was available in Canada, Britain and the United States, according to the company.

People who registered their telephones in PayPal accounts could use text messages or calls to safely make purchases, donations or other transactions, PayPal said.

...The introduction of PayPal Mobile was part of a trend toward cramming more capabilities into handheld devices.

Obopay of Palo Alto, California, and TextPayMe of Redmond, Washington, already offer services allowing people to spend money from their mobile telephones.
Obopay, founded in 2005, derived its name from the Greek word for coin. TextPayMe was created by former Microsoft and Lockheed Martin employees, according to its website.

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Article: Creation / Evolution - Evolutionary Assumptions Exposed

April 10, 2006 - 'Missing link' claim for fossils debunked by creationist group

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Not missing a beat, a leading creation science organization responded quickly to the latest well-publicized "missing link" claim by evolutionary researchers.

This time, The New York Times, USA Today and other media outlets trumpeted the discovery of fossils near the North Pole said to belong to a 375-million-year-old fish. The finding by a team of researchers, led by Neil H. Shurbin of the University of Chicago, initially was reported in Nature magazine April 6.

...The fish, known as "Tiktaalik," "is a long-sought missing link in the evolution of some fishes from water to a life walking on four limbs on land," as described by The New York Times. The Times also described the fossils as being "widely seen by scientists as a powerful rebuttal to religious creationists, who hold a literal biblical view on the origins and development of life."

David Menton, an Answers in Genesis lecturer who served as a biomedical research technician at the Mayo Clinic, helped craft the creationist rebuttal.

..."[Tiktaalik] is not an amphibian or a reptile," said Menton, who holds a Ph.D. in cell biology from Brown University. "It belongs to a group of fish called lobe-fin fish."

The lobe-fin fish have bones similar to other vertebrates. Tiktaalik, Menton said, is not unique in having these bones because other lobe-fish, such as "coelacanth" fish, also have them. Evolutionists say the lobe-fin fish became extinct millions of years ago.

Coelacanth, in particular, supposedly vanished 135 million years ago before its hyped 1938 discovery in waters near Madagascar, Menton noted...

...None of the lobe-fin fish, including Tiktaalik, have bones attaching their fins to the axial skeleton, Menton said.

"This means that these limbs would not be weight bearing," he said. "I don't believe the fish walked because the fins that are attached to these bones are delicate."

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Article: Social Gospel

April 12, 2006 - Million Leaders Mandate: To Another Million and Beyond

It has been four years since the launch of EQUIP's worldwide leadership training. Already passed its one million leaders mark - in 80 countries and way ahead of schedule - the Duluth, Ga.-based organization is planning on another million by the end of 2007.
"Leadership is a process. And a part of the process is multiplication," EQUIP's vice president of strategic partnerships, Tom Atema, told The Christian Post. With two million leaders and 107 countries to be trained and reached by the end of next year, the leaders mandate sees no brakes in the near future.

..."We're about the only ones who do process leadership training," he said. "You have to continually study it, develop skills and develop others."

"It's about what leadership training can do," Atema added, saying they don't make evangelists but can make better evangelists. "We're helping these church planters plant better churches and be more effective in their ministry because they're getting their leadership piece right."
Good leadership and therefore effective ministry is nothing new. Atema pointed to the Old and New Testaments that show models of prosperity that go hand in hand with good leadership.

EQUIP has been working with such Christian groups as Walk Through the Bible, Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., and Rick Warren's Purpose Driven ministry - catering to the megachurch pastor's PEACE plan.

And things are moving "must faster than we ever anticipated," commented Atema.

"What happens in leadership is it takes a life of its own. You got to be careful you don't get overextended."

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Article: Israel and the Last Days

April 14, 2006 - Iran President: Israel Will Be Annihilated

TEHRAN, Iran - The president of Iran again lashed out at Israel on Friday and said it was "heading toward annihilation," just days after Tehran raised fears about its nuclear activities by saying it successfully enriched uranium for the first time.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel a "permanent threat" to the Middle East that will "soon" be liberated. He also appeared to again question whether the Holocaust really happened.

"Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation," Ahmadinejad said at the opening of a conference in support of the Palestinians. "The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm."

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Article: Misc.

April 14, 2006 - Bible Answer Man Golf Classic

Championship Sponsor - $15,000.00

Number of Sponsorship packages remaining: 1

Company name & logo to appear on the on line registration website
1 year graphical advertisement on website with link to your website
Company promotion on the Bible Answer Man nationally syndicated radio broadcast & on the www.equip.org website
Company name & logo on player gift
Company name & logo to appear on press releases & programs
Company marketing materials placed in each golfer gift packet
Company supplied banner at registration area
Company signage at hole
Corporate introduction at awards banquet
Includes six entries into the event valued at $6,000.00
Receive Hank's entire autographed collection of award winning books/audios, Bible on CD & iLuminaTM software valued at $600.00

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Article: Roman Catholic Church and the Last Days

April 15, 2006 - Non-Christians in church flock

Like every year, hundreds of people from across the city converged on a 199-year-old church off Baithakkhana market, near Sealdah station, to observe Good Friday.

Interestingly, a sizeable number among the devout at the Church of Our Lady of Dolours were non-Christians.

And, to retain this unique character of the church "participation of non-Christians in church activities" the authorities have taken a novel decision: to involve non-Christians in the year-long 200th anniversary celebrations, beginning next year.

"Ours is, perhaps, the only church where large numbers of non-Christians come every day, sit with folded hands in front of the idols and pray," beamed Father Peter Arulraj, priest of the church.

The main attraction, however, is a statue of "Our Lady", known as "Mother of Mercy" and believed to be the city's oldest marine shrine.

"The statue was gifted to the church by a pious lady some time in the beginning of the 20th Century. It was probably washed ashore from a shipwreck and found by the lady on the riverbank. The statue has driven a large number of people to visit the church regularly," Fr Arulraj said.

He cited a number of other examples to prove the popularity of the church among non-Christians. "You will never find the candlesticks of this church unlit. Someone or the other comes in every moment and lights a candle."

According to him, the church was built at a time when Sealdah had a dense Catholic population. "Now, the count has dwindled to less than 250 families in the entire Sealdah-Baithakkhana belt. But one can find people praying here all day, and many of them are non-Christians. That"s what makes our church unique," he said.

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Article: One World Religion

April 16, 2006 - Dalai Lama seeks to improve image of Islam in U.S.

The Dalai Lama, a powerful icon for peace worldwide, will gather with influential American Muslim leaders in San Francisco today to help refashion Islam's image in the United States.

Concerned that Muslims are unfairly demonized in American popular consciousness, the world-renowned Buddhist leader hopes to help show Islam in what he sees as its truest form, one of peace.

"The enemy is not out there,'' said Tenzin Dhonden, the Dalai Lama's emissary for peace. "The enemy is within you. ... How we see religion is in our mind. But religion itself is the truth: peace and harmony."

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Article: Bridges to Rome

April 10, 2006 - Emerging Church trend expands, diversifies

Propelled by the Internet, the "emerging church" is gaining followers among Protestants of all stripes who want more community in their Christianity. What they share is youth, a drive to make Christianity relevant, a preference for small communities, frustration with traditional church structures, and an embrace of culture.

As the emerging church " also known as the postmodern church or "po mo" -- evolves, it's also diversifying. Some want to transcend boundaries between conservative evangelicals and liberal mainline churches. Others are seeking more leadership opportunities for women and non-Anglos. And many churches, though they're not all about youth or culture, are borrowing ideas from the emerging church trend, available through the Internet, conferences, books and CDs. Jewish leaders hoping to engage more youth have even consulted with emerging church groups.

Another hallmark of the scene is a strong anti-church sentiment. Few of these young congregations call themselves churches. Leaders say they turned to emerging ideas out of frustration with churches' lack of emphasis on evangelism, lack of outreach to society's poor and neglected, and divisive denominational politics. Among emerging churches, many hold fast to conservative roots while others are willing to question traditional Christian teachings.

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