Combating ISIS Terrorists may empower Iran

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Combating ISIS Terrorists may empower Iran

JERUSALEM, Israel — It seems the military might of the world is focused on the Islamic State and that is worrying some in the Middle East who believe an even greater danger is lurking in the region.

For the first time in years, much of the world and many Arab countries appear unified — this time against ISIS terrorists. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, however, continues to sound the alarm over the danger of a nuclear-armed Iran.

“Make no mistake, ISIS must be defeated. But to defeat ISIS and leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power is to win the battle and lose the war,” he said at the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Netanyahu and other Israeli officials warn that Iran’s nuclear program is what keeps them up at night. One official said ISIS is a five-year problem, but Iran is a 50-year problem.

“I’m here to tell you that Israel is deeply concerned,” Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Yuval Steinitz said.

That concern, according to Israel’s intelligence minister, is about negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.

“The Iranians have shown no real flexibility on the two main issues: the issue of the centrifuge facilities — centrifuges for the enrichment of uranium — and the heavy water facility in Arak,” he explained.

Steinitz also said Israel worries negotiators will end up with a bad deal. He says no deal is better than a bad deal.

“No deal means that you stand by your principle, that you are not giving up, that you are not sacrificing the future of the world, that you are not sacrificing global security, that you are not ready to [and] that what happened with North Korea will repeat itself after one, two or three years with Iran,” he continued.

And Middle East analyst Jonathan Spyer comes back to the fight against ISIS and how it could ironically help Iran.

“So if it becomes the paramount or the sole goal of Western policy to destroy Sunni Islamism and Sunni jihadism in these areas, the effective result of this would be by default to strengthen the enemies of those forces, which are not democratic forces, their pro-Iranian forces,” said Spyer, a senior research fellow at the Global Research in International Affairs Center in Herzliya and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.

“They’re Shia Islamists allied with Iran. So it’s crucial to keep that bigger picture in mind if we are to avoid to effectively strengthening or absurdly acting in cooperation with our most dangerous enemies in the region,” he said.

Source: CBN News

Blood Moon: Biblical Prophecy or Lunar Event

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Blood Moon: Biblical Prophecy or Lunar Event

The first Blood Moon eclipse in a series of four happened on the night of April 14-15, 2014. The next one will be on the night of October 7-8, 2014. At that October Blood Moon, there will be a lunar eclipse. We in astronomy had not heard the term Blood Moon used in quite this way before this year, but now the term has become widespread in the media. The origin of the term is religious, at least according to Christian pastor John Hagee, who wrote a 2013 book about Blood Moons.

Meanwhile, both astronomers and some proponents of Christian prophesy are talking about the ongoing lunar tetrad – the series of four total lunar eclipses – which began with the last lunar eclipse on the night of April 14-15.

Pastor John Hagee — The Book of Genesis says God uses the sun, moon, and stars for signs and seasons. Examples can be found throughout the Bible.

Think of how a star led the wise men to Jesus or how the sun stood still as Joshua led Israel to victory over its enemies.

According to Pastor John Hagee, God is getting ready to speak this way once again.

“There’s a sense in the world that things are changing and God is trying to communicate with us in a supernatural way,” Hagee told CBN News.

“I believe that in these next two years, we’re going to see something dramatic happen in the Middle East involving Israel that will change the course of history in the Middle East and impact the whole world,” he predicted.

Four Blood Moons

In his latest book, Four Blood Moons: Something Is About to Change, Hagee lays out what he calls celestial signals. He describes how a series of blood moons in 2014 and 2015 will have great significance for Israel.

Although single blood moons happen fairly regularly, four appearing so closely together is extremely rare. There have only been a series of blood moons a handful of times over the past 500 years.

So what exactly is a blood moon and what is the biblical significance?

“A blood moon is when the Earth comes between the sun and the moon,” Hagee explained. “And the sun is shining through the atmosphere of the Earth and casts up on the moon a red shadow. And so the moon appears to be red.”

Such moons appear several times in scripture.

In the book of Joel, God says there will be “wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire…the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”

In Acts, the Apostle Peter repeats that verse from Joel. And the book of Revelation says that during the Great Tribulation, “the moon will become like blood.”

Blood moons are set to appear in April 2014, on Passover, and then again in October 2014 during the Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot.

The timing is the same for 2015 — a total of four blood moons, all appearing on Jewish feast days.

“The sun and the moon and the Earth are controlled by God almighty,” Hagee said. “He is the one that is getting them in a direct alignment on a certain day at a certain time — but each time, it’s a Passover or Sukkot.

Historic Significance

In the past, the rare appearance of four blood moons on these feast days has coincided with major events for Israel and the Jewish people.

In 1492, Spain expelled the Jews. Columbus also discovered America, which became a safe haven for the Jewish people.

“In each of these blood moons, you have something that begins in tragedy and ends in triumph,” Hagee explained.

For instance, in 1948, Israel was reborn as a nation.

“After 2,000 years, God supernaturally brought them from 66 nations and a nation was born in a day,” Hagee noted. “That again was a supernatural something that happened following the tragedy of the Holocaust.”

In 1967, Israel won the Six-Day War and recaptured Jerusalem.

“For the first time in 2,000 years, Jerusalem and the State of Israel were together again,” Hagee said.

Nuclear Threat

The blood moons of 2014 and 2015 are poised to appear as Iran works toward nuclear weapons and Israel’s neighbors, Egypt and Syria, are in chaos.

“The only reason that Iran will not acquire a nuclear bomb will be that Israel chooses a military solution to that crisis,” Hagee told CBN News.

“I believe that if that happens, it will start a series of events that will change the course of world history,” he said. “If Israel does not, then it will still change the course of world history.”

Hagee has been warning of the Iranian nuclear threat through his work with Christians United for Israel, which he founded in 2006. It is now the largest pro-Israel organization in America, with some 1.3 million members.

He holds nights to honor Israel across the country and at San Antonio’s Cornerstone Church, where he serves as senior pastor. The first event, in 1981, drew bomb threats and vandalism from anti-Semites.

Yet Hagee continues his mission.

“If there was ever a time for the Christians of America to stiffen their spine and stand up and speak up, it’s now,” Hagee admonished. “To see evil and not call it evil is evil. Not to speak is to speak. We cannot be silent and receive God’s approval at a time like this.”

He said it’s still unclear what the coming blood moons will bring, but he is certain of one thing.

“When all is said and done, the flag of Israel will be flying over the walls of the city of Jerusalem when Messiah comes, and it’s going to be forever,” he said. “And every nation that rises up in judgment against Israel God will punish and punish severely.”

Source: Cbn News ,Earthsky

Christian Rapper,Lecrae Speaks on Christianity

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Christian Rapper,Lecrae Speaks on Christianity

Christian rapper Lecrae is one of the few to cross the great divide between ‘Christian’ and ‘secular’ music – and part of an even smaller group to do so without a guitar in sight.

In September his seventh album, Anomaly, was the first ever to appear at the top of the Billboard 200 chart and the gospel charts simultaneously.

And from this unique position, he has developed some strong views on where Christian culture has gone astray.

“We’ve limited Christianity to salvation and sanctification,” he said in an interview with the Atlantic. “Christianity is the truth about everything. If you say you have a Christian worldview, that means you see the world through that lens – not just how people get saved and what to stay away from.”

Lecrae is especially critical of the way that the Christian music industry has at times limited artists’ creativity as an expression of their faith, and instead become a routine reproduction of biblical messages.

“The exploitation of believers just to turn a profit – so you care less about making a quality product – so you care less about making a quality product, you just want to keep telling the same stories and repackaging them over and over just to exploit people – I have a problem with that,” he said.

He said his job was less a vocation to redeem the rap industry, known for its preoccupation with sex, drugs and violence, and more an opportunity to use his gifts.

“Everyone’s job, everyone’s vocation, is an extension of their faith and how they see the world. Every job is an act of service,” he said.

And it is because of this calling – to do our jobs well in order to serve God – that he believes there needs to be more emphasis on creating good music.

“In the same way that Jesus was a carpenter, I don’t know if he put his message into all the things he built with his hands – I think he wanted to make good quality craftsmanship,” he said.

Rather than just looking to biblical stories for source material, Lecrae feels Christians should be using their creative gifts to pose questions and challenge social norms.

“Many times, that’s how people see Christian art, or Christians making art: They see the art as having an agenda,” Lecrae said. “Christians have really used and almost in some senses prostituted art in order to give answers instead of telling great stories and raising great questions.”

Source: Christian Today

Politicians applaud Pastor Adeboye for dissociating self, Church from ‘offensive’ audio CD

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Politicians applaud Pastor Adeboye for dissociating self, Church from ‘offensive’ audio CD

The All Progressives Congress, APC, has commended the General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Enoch Adeboye, for dissociating himself and the church from a certain “offensive and divisive” audio CD circulated by some political pastors.

In a statement issued in Lagos on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, the party said by his action, Mr. Adeboye had exhibited his characteristic exceptional leadership and shown what religion should be about – love, rather than hate and incendiary statements.

It particularly expressed satisfaction that the General Overseer specifically asked the RCCG Pastors to ignore the contents of the audio CD, especially all the references to political parties, including the APC.

”The GO’s statement, in his response to the APC which had written to protest the divisive and corrosive statements contained in the audio CD, which has been smuggled into some RCCG parishes, made it clear that the RCCG is neutral and apolitical, and that it prays for all irrespective of political persuasion or creed.

”We in the APC are delighted at the GO’s prompt action and statement that the RCCG did not endorse divisive comments in any form or shape, that it has sons and daughters in all political parties, and that the allegations contained in the audio CD are wickedly false, unsubstantiated, ill-conceived and mischievous.

”Equally satisfying is the GO’s directive asking everyone in possession of the audio CDs to return them, and the directive to the Church’s Pastors to communicate such to their respective congregations immediately,” the APC said.

On the “obviously-sponsored” audio CD, produced by one Bosun Emmanuel, a pastor, the party wondered why a man of God will engage in outright lies to propagate hatred, incite Christians against Muslims so brazenly, as if the adherents of both religions were not children of the same God, and then use the platform of the church to campaign for the PDP while seeking to destroy the APC.

”In a country where the citizenry, whether Christians or Muslims, have been shortchanged by greedy, selfish and clueless political leadership, a Pastor went on record as saying President Goodluck Jonathan has performed 100 per cent, while at the same time demonising and denigrating the APC as an ‘Islamic Party’ without a scintilla of proof. Much as he struggled to couch his inflammatory and discordant message in flowery lies, it is clear that he was sponsored to inseminate lies to shore up the dwindling fortunes of the ruling party

”Where in the world has an Islamic party been led by a Christian? Where in the world has the membership of an Islamic party been populated by Christians and Muslims? Why would a Pastor whose primary purpose is to preach the gospel (good news) now make himself available, for whatever reason, as a tool to disseminate lies and bad news?

”Had this pastor any sense of history, he would have realised how the propagation of hatred, as he is currently doing, led to the killing of over 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu in Rwanda in 1994. This pastor made it seem as if the terrorists called Boko Haram are fighting the cause of Nigerian Muslims, when he knows deep down that this evil group has not spared Muslims either.

”We have said it repeatedly: Boko Haram is a clear and present danger to Christians as it is to Muslims. Boko Haram is as dangerous to the rich as it is to the poor, it is as dangerous to the North as it is to the South. Simply put, Boko Haram is an enemy of Nigeria and all Nigerians, irrespective of their religion or ethnicity, must unite to defeat the terrorists,” it said.

The APC appealed to Nigerians of all creed and ethnicity to repudiate politicians or politicians in religious garb who may be seeking to divide them on primordial basis, especially as the general elections are fast approaching.

Source: Premium Times

Scientific Research verifies possibility of Life after Death

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Scientific Research verifies possibility of Life after Death

A new medical study has concluded that it is possible for an individual to have ‘awareness’, even after the brain has shut down, the Telegraph reports.

The latest evidence suggests that some kind of consciousness can continue for minutes after a person is clinically dead, which was previously thought impossible.

In the biggest ever scientific study into near-death and out-of-body experiences, researchers at the University of Southampton spent four years examining more than 2,000 patients who suffered cardiac arrest in hospital.

Almost 40 per cent of those who survived – 140 out of 330 cases – said they experienced some kind of ‘awareness’ before they were resuscitated – during a time when their hearts weren’t beating and they were clinically dead.

“The evidence thus far suggests that in the first few minutes after death, consciousness is not annihilated. Whether it fades away afterwards, we do not know, but right after death, consciousness is not lost,” said Dr Sam Parnia, who led the study.

One 57-year-old man who took part in the research described the noises made by medical equipment and the actions of hospital staff in detail, all of which took place during a three minute period in which he was technically dead.

He said he was able to watch his own resuscitation from the corner of the room, having ‘left’ his body, and his description of what took place matched up with the reality.

“We know the brain can’t function when the heart has stopped beating, but in this case, conscious awareness appears to have continued for up to three minutes into the period when the heart wasn’t beating, even though the brain typically shuts down within 20-30 seconds after the heart has stopped,” Dr Parnia told the Telegraph.

“The man described everything that had happened in the room, but importantly, he heard two bleeps from a machine that makes a noise at three minute intervals. So we could time how long the experienced lasted for.

“He seemed very credible and everything that he said had happened to him had actually happened.”

Not all of the experiences patients shared were positive, however. While 20 per cent described a peaceful sensation and others remembered seeing a bright light, some recalled a sense of fear, persecution, or feeling like they were being submerged in water.

According to Dr Parnia, it’s likely that many more people have “vivid” near-death experiences than are able to recall them after the event.

“Estimates have suggested that millions of people have had vivid experiences in relation to death but the scientific evidence has been ambiguous at best,” he explained.

“Many people have assumed that these were hallucinations or illusions but they do seem to corresponded to actual events. And a higher proportion of people may have vivid death experiences, but do not recall them due to the effects of brain injury or sedative drugs on memory circuits.”

Dr Parnia added: “Contrary to perception, death is not a specific moment but a potentially reversible process that occurs after any severe illness or accident causes the heart, lungs and brain to cease functioning.

“Clearly, the recalled experience surrounding death now merits further genuine investigation without prejudice.”

Source: Christian Today

Gospel Acts VIRTUE Return with New Style and Music

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Gospel Acts VIRTUE Return with New Style and Music

Dove award winning, Grammy-nominated veteran Urban Contemporary Gospel female trio VIRTUE returns with new look and music after an eight year recording hiatus. Comprised of sisters Ebony Holland, Karima Kibble, and Heather Martin – the dynamic trio will release their long-awaited first single “You Deserve” written and produced by Grammy® Award winner Fred Jerkins (Beyoncé , Destiny’s Child, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson) and Grammy® – nominated Alvin Garrett (Joe, Deitrick Haddon, Ruben Studdard) to gospel radio in September 2014.

The trio is slated to release their full length album in 2015 on their new record label home Mixed Bag Entertainment (founded by Christian Hip Hop artist Da Truth).

“We are so excited and blessed to be able to have another opportunity to share our ministry with the world.” [states Heather]

“We’ve grown tremendously and God has shown us so many different things during the time we were away. We’ve missed performing together, our friends in the industry and especially all of our fans, so it’s long overdue and we are ecstatic about this new season for Virtue!”

VIRTUE are widely known for their inimitable vocal hits like “Get Ready,” “Put Your War Clothes On,” “Til’ You Believe,” “Lord, I Lift My Hands,” and more. Their discography shines on the hems of five studio albums – VIRTUE (1997), GET READY (1999), VIRTUOSITY (2001), FREE (2003), and TESTIMONY (2006) that brought with them no shortage of critical and commercial acclaim with career sales exceeding well over 400,000.

After a successful career and countless achievements, VIRTUE returns as pre-distinguished figures in Urban Contemporary Gospel music. Undoubtedly inking yet another page to their illustrious story – A journey that saw its humble beginnings in New Orleans the trio thrilled audiences with airtight harmonies and heartfelt deliveries of praise-and-worship numbers.

Now, with nearly a decade separating them from their last studio release, the ladies are ready to carve a new path along the trail of Urban Contemporary Gospel. Having supplemented their time away from the genre’s spotlight to tend to family matters, the trio is now preparing a project to not only showcase their maturity as women, but as artists as well.

Label co-founder Gary Crockett explains, “We are beyond excited to have a group like Virtue signed to Mixed Bag Entertainment as one of our marquee artists. They are one of the original Gospel girl groups in the industry and to be able to work with a group that left such an impact in Gospel music is a blessing! It has been almost 10 years since the world has heard new music from them, so not only are we excited as a label, but we know Virtue fans are going to love what they have been working on this past year!”

Source: PraiseWorld Radio

African Religious Leaders Unite for Climate Change

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African Religious Leaders Unite for Climate Change

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) As climate change devastates communities in Kenya, church leaders are helping to address the crisis locally while also calling on industrialized nations to own up to their responsibilities for spewing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

I think they (industrialized nations) are responsible for most of the emissions,” said Peter Solomon Gichira, the climate change program officer at the All Africa Conference of Churches. “They have responsibility to support climate change adaptation and mitigation as a moral obligation.”

“But we (in Africa) also have a role to play because we have not been very good stewards of the environment,” added Gichira, a poverty and development expert.

People living in the Global South such as Kenya are suffering the worst consequences, climate experts say.

Droughts have become more severe and recurrent and are frequently followed by excessive rains or floods. Temperatures are much higher and weather patterns are now unpredictable.

In conferences, church leaders and officials have heard from experts that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide from industrial plants trap heat, slowing or preventing it from being lost in space.

“We need enhanced adaptive capacity in partnership with the nations,” said the Rev. Patrick Maina, a conservationist with the Presbyterian Church of East Africa.

Maina runs a massive tree planting project on church compounds and members’ farms in his presbytery in the Great Rift Valley area. He also gives talks on climate change.

Recently, Maina and other church leaders have stepped up efforts to help communities cope with the crisis.

In eastern Kenya, villagers are constructing structures known as sand dams with support from the Mennonite Central Committee. Working through the Utooni Development Organization, a self-help group, villagers in the largely Christian Utooni area are building large concrete walls across a dry riverbed, stopping or slowing down the rapid flow of rainwater to the Indian Ocean.

The simple structures — 231 have been built since 2009 — store water under the riverbed, so it can be used for irrigation, tree planting and domestic consumption throughout the year. With 50 sand dams constructed each year, the area is much cooler and better to live in, according to Esther Mbolu, a resident of Utooni.

Selena McCoy Carpenter, Kenya representative with the Mennonite Central Committee, said some people who did not have water can now access it and others who could not grow food are now capable of farming.

“By providing basic needs, we are showing God’s compassion,” she said.

On the slopes of Mount Kenya, Trade Craft East Africa, a nongovernmental organization and the Christian Community Services of Mount Kenya East, a development agency in five Anglican dioceses, are helping small-scale farmers adapt to climate change through use of both modern and traditional weather forecasting methods.

Farmers predict weather by using indigenous practices such as watching flying dragonflies, low-swooping swallows or flowering acacia trees.

But with weather patterns becoming unpredictable, farmers have been adding scientific forecasts delivered by meteorologists to determine when or what crops to plant.

“This is resulting in good harvest,” said Eston Njuki, a program officer at British-based Christian Aid, which funded the project with the Anglican Diocese of Mbeere. “The farmers are able to beat or reduce the threat of climate change.”

Source: RNS

Spanish Nurse Contracts Dreaded Ebola

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Spanish Nurse Contracts Dreaded Ebola

A Spanish nurse has contracted Ebola after treating two patients who died from the disease at a Madrid hospital, the government said Monday, in the first known case of transmission outside of Africa.

The 40-year-old began to feel ill on September 30 but did not go to hospital until Sunday, complaining of a fever.

Two tests have now confirmed that she has been infected with the deadly virus that has killed more than 3,400 people in west Africa.

Spanish health officials are scrambling to find out who she may have come into contact with, and are monitoring 30 people — including her co-workers and husband — closely for symptoms of the deadly disease.

The woman was part of a medical team at Madrid’s La Paz-Carlos III hospital that treated two elderly Spanish missionaries who died of Ebola shortly after they were repatriated from Africa.

She had gone on holiday the day after the second patient died on September 25, Madrid’s primary healthcare director, Antonio Alemany, said at a news conference, without specifying where she had travelled to.

The nurse, who is married without children, is now being treated in isolation at a hospital in Alcorcon, a southern Madrid suburb.

She is in a stable condition although still running a fever, Alemany added.

– Repatriation deemed risky –

News of the nurse’s infection has sparked renewed questions about the Spanish government’s decision to repatriate infected missionaries from Africa, with critics saying that the nation’s hospitals were not adequately equipped to deal with Ebola cases.

The nurse had treated Spanish priest Miguel Pajares, 75, who was infected with Ebola in Liberia and died on August 12, as well as Manuel Garcia Viejo, 69, who was repatriated from Sierra Leone and died on September 25.

Pajares was the first patient in the fast-spreading Ebola outbreak to be evacuated to Europe for treatment.

Both missionaries were treated in isolation at La Paz-Carlos III hospital, and the medical team that cared for them were closely monitored.

But a union that represents Spanish doctors, Amyts, had called the repatriation “risky”.

“We are working to see if all the protocols which were established were strictly followed,” Health Minister Ana Mato told the news conference.

“Spain follows all the recommendations of the World Health Organization,” she added.

The Ebola virus causes fever, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and sometimes internal and external bleeding.

It spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of someone who has the virus, and the only way to stop an outbreak is to isolate those who are infected.

There is no market-approved drug for treating Ebola yet, and no vaccine to prevent it.

Of several prototype treatments in the pipeline, one dubbed ZMapp has been fast-tracked for use, developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical in California in conjunction with the US Army.

Ebola has caused 3,439 deaths out of 7,478 cases across five west African nations — Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal, according to the latest tally from the World Health Organisation.

Europe and the United States have also been touched by the disease, but until now all the cases stemmed from people who caught the virus in west Africa.

– ‘Extraordinarily low’ chance of US outbreak –

Seeking to allay fears about contagion in the United States, President Barack Obama said the chances of an outbreak in his country were “extraordinarily low”.

He vowed however to press world leaders to step up the global fight against the deadly epidemic in west Africa.

US health officials said a Liberian man diagnosed with Ebola in Texas had received an experimental drug called brincidofovir, the first time the medicine has been used to fight the virus.

The man’s condition worsened from serious to critical over the weekend.

Also on Monday, the charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced that a Norwegian employee had contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone and would be repatriated shortly.

Another MSF worker, a French nurse, caught the virus while volunteering in neighbouring Liberia but has been cured, according to the French government.

French President Francois Hollande said before the Spanish case was revealed that France was ready to deal with any outbreak of Ebola on its soil.

“We would be capable of providing treatment if any cases occur in France,” he said.

Source: BCNN 1

US Supreme Court to Decide location of Jerusalem

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US Supreme Court to Decide location of Jerusalem

(Washington, DC)—It all started when the American parents of Menachem Zivotofsky—in Jerusalem in 2002—wanted to add “Israel” to their son’s passport which now simply says “born in Jerusalem.” (Photo: Jerusalem/Wikipedia Commons)

Such small requests can produce B-I-G consequences, as is the case starting this week when Supreme Court justices begin deliberations to determine the outcome of the request.

According to an earlier report on Virtual Jerusalem, in 2002, President George W. Bush signed a bill declaring Israel as Jerusalemites’ nationality into law, but added a signed statement condemning it as unacceptable interference in the president’s powers to conduct foreign policy.

Breaking Israel News (BIN) notes that the case, Zivotofsky v. Kerry, “highlights a major dispute between the US Congress and the US president with complex Middle Eastern politics serving as a background.”

That is because the high court judges will not be ruling as to whether or not the US will recognize Jerusalem as being located in the country of Israel, but whether or not the President of the United States alone has the authority to say who Jerusalem belongs to.

BIN also noted that The Obama administration maintains that the law would be viewed as a US endorsement of Israeli control over Jerusalem. The executive branch says that the Congressional law interferes with the president’s right to recognize a foreign country.

Source: Christian Breaking News

Preacher Charged With ‘Religious Aggravation’

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Preacher Charged With ‘Religious Aggravation’

Street evangelist Mike Overd, a client of the Christian Legal Centre, is being prosecuted in the United Kingdom for an alleged religious aggravation public order offense.

The charges follow a complaint to police in Taunton, that Overd made a comparison between the perfect life of Jesus and the life of Islam’s prophet, Muhammad.

Police have informed the former paratrooper that the Crown Prosecution Service wishes to bring three charges against him under Section 5 of the Public Order Act.

A Taunton police sergeant recently gave an interview to BBC television and a newspaper locally, urging residents to film the evangelist’s preaching as it was alleged that Overd’s preaching was “causing offense.”

The officer has also asked local traders to film Overd if they believed he was preaching “offensively.”

Overd insists that when he made a comparison between the perfect life of Jesus and the life led by Muhammad, he did not speak in a hateful way.

“It was a simple comparison and it was factual. Muhammad did marry a 9-year-old girl. I have no hatred of Muslims in me at all and only preach the truth of the gospel. Recently a Muslim man came to my defense when I was preaching and a local shopkeeper started to shout at me.

“The Muslim gentleman didn’t take offense because he said he knew I was simply preaching what I believed and agreed there was no hatred in me. I’ve got this incident on video, and I also have video evidence of the incidents which have led to this forthcoming prosecution.”

Overd has been told his case will come to court before the end of this year.

Source: Charisma News

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