Christian post report– In an interview about the latest global developments in light of End Times prophecies, apologist Don Stewart told evangelist Greg Laurie that the Bible points to Iran as a major threat not only to Israel but also to the United States.

Iran, formerly known as Persia, is mentioned along with Rosh in Ezekiel 38 in relation to a prophecy about a coalition having a military alliance in the last days, Stewart said in a Q&A with Pastor Laurie at the Harvest church in Irvine, California, this past week.

Rosh seems to refer to the modern day Russia, Stewart explained, saying we can see that the two countries are signing military pacts, which had never happened earlier. What seemed impossible in the past “is now falling in place,” he said.

Iran’s Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Minister Brigadier General Hosein Dehqan last month met with his Russian counterpart, General Sergei Shoigu, for a mutual defense pact to prevent “foreign meddling” led by the U.S., according to The Jerusalem Post.

People in Iran are Shia and they have a prophetic view of the last days that a final Imam, the 12th one, will come, and they will know who he is by the fact that he kills Christians and Jews to make this world a Caliphate, said Stewart, who has authored several books, including Living in the Light of Eternity, his latest, and The Rapture.

“They [the Shias in Iran] think they are divinely ordained to do this,” which explains their determination to have nuclear weapons, Stewart added.

About 10 percent of the Muslims in the world are Shia. Sunnis have a different view of the last days.

“We [the U.S.] are the big Satan; Israel is a little Satan,” for them, Stewart said, after he mentioned a 90-feet high inter-continental ballistic missile Iran has made “to hit us.”

The Jerusalem Post reported last month that Iran has a missile measuring 88.5 feet in length placed on a launch pad just outside the capital city of Tehran. The missile had never before been seen in public.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham last week warned that President Obama will soon “unleash hell” on the Middle East if he carries on with his plans on striking a nuclear deal with Iran without listening to Congress and his critics.

Critics say that Obama is allowing the negotiation process to divert, from its original objective of removing that Iran’s potential to make nuclear weapons, to tolerating and only temporarily restricting Tehran’s nuke capability.

“Iran controls, or heavily influences, four Arab capitals without a nuclear weapon. They have great influence in Iraq with Shi’a militias, the Houthis in Yemen have now taken down the government. They’re Iranian-backed. You’ve got Assad in Syria who’s a puppet of Iran, and you’ve got Hezbollah,” Graham said, highlighting Iran’s increasing clout.

Asked why America is not mentioned in the Bible in the End Times prophecies, Stewart said it is indeed true that the U.S. is not shown as playing any role at all.

Ezekiel 38 and 39 say that when a coalition of eight nations comes down to invade Israel, there won’t be any nation they will be afraid of, Stewart said. “So we assume there’s no superpower in the world at all… We’re predicting the United States goes down the drain.”

Stewart said his guess as to why the U.S. will not remain a superpower is that “partly [because we’re] having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof.”

The world looks at us as a Christian nation, but when they come here they realize we have nothing Christian about us, he said.

About his discussions on the End Times, Pastor Laurie earlier told The Christian Post, “It shows how fragile things are in our world and how quickly things can change. It’s like we are seeing foreshocks of a powerful earthquake that is ready to happen. The prophetic events are like dominoes closely stacked together. When the first domino falls, the others will fall in short order.”

Source: Christian Post

Catholic Herald report– Pope Francis has called for a more widespread and incisive female presence in the Church.

In an address to members of the Pontifical Council for Culture on Saturday he said that a “more widespread and incisive female presence” in the Church “is desirable, so that we can see many women involved in pastoral responsibilities, in the accompaniment of persons, families and groups, as well as in theological reflection.”

According to Vatican Radio, the Pope said he is “convinced of the urgency of offering spaces to women in the life of the Church… taking into account the specific and changing cultural and social sensitivities.”

The members of the Pontifical Council for Culture met from February 4 to 7, for their plenary assembly. The focus of the annual plenary was ‘Women’s Cultures: Equality and Difference’.

The Pope went on to emphasise the “irreplaceable role of women in the family” and that while they should be enouraged to work, their “presence and preferential attention for the family” must also be upheld.

Women must not be left alone to carry the burden of deciding between the family and an effective presence in public life, he said.

“Rather,” he continued, “all institutions, including the ecclesial community, are called to ensure freedom of choice for women, so that they have the possibility to take on social and ecclesial responsibilities in a way that is in harmony with family life.”

The Pope also condemned the mistreatment of the female body in the form of domestic violence and human trafficking.

He said: “The female body is unfortunately, not infrequently, attacked and disfigured, even by those who should be guardians and companions in life.”

“The many forms of slavery, of commodification, of mutilation of women’s bodies, oblige us therefore to work to defeat this form of degradation, which reduces (a woman’s body) to a mere object to sell on various markets.”

Source: Catholic Herald

Christian Today report– The future of religion in Britain is in black majority churches and Islam, according to a leading expert in religious trends.

For white British people, it is particularly bleak. Leaders who can inspire and build congregations are few and far between.

“Most ordained ministers are good, well meaning people with the leadership ability of bank managers,” says Professor David Voas, who specialises in population studies at Essex University.

Statistics show that Islam and newer forms of Christianity are overhauling the Church of England as white Britons lose their taste for worship.

He says: “The future of religion in Britain is to be found in Islam and the black majority churches. Muslims already contribute ten per cent of British births; within several decades people of Muslim heritage will form ten percent of the population, even if immigration came to an abrupt halt tomorrow.

“If even half are observant, they will form a substantial proportion of the religiously active population. Ethnic minority Christians will have another large share.”

Professor Voas reveals the latest trends in a blog for the thinktank Theos which is published as the Church of England prepares to debate reforms to structure, training and mission at the General Synod which meets tomorrow in Church House, Westminster.

“While the secularisation of consciousness in the West is an ongoing process, the secularisation of behaviour has reached the point of no return,” he writes.

He says the leaders of the major Christian denominations are asking the wrong question. The issue is not why people are staying away from church but why anyone would go to church.

“The onus is on churches to offer something that people want and would have difficulty finding anywhere else.”

He says it is more about community than religion, and the problem is that local churches “are not especially attractive”.

“The elderly may need people, but for the young there are simply too many alternative ways of spending time.”

While about half of English people born early in the 20th century still declare their affiliation to the Church of England, just one in 20 of those born at the end of the century do so. All Protestant denominations are similarly affected.

In addition, belief in God has taken a battering, he writes.

In another blog for the same Theos series, David Goodhew, director of ministerial practice at Cranmer Hall, Durham, says the new “atheist church” in north London illustrates the secularisation of Britain. But the picture is more complex than that, he continues, with a proliferation of new and growing churches in parts of the country.

He argues that while it is often assumed that as Britain gets more ethnically diverse, it gets less Christian in fact the reverse is the case and that Roman Catholicism is being significantly boosted due to migration. In addition, at least 5,000 new congregations have started in Britain since the 1980s, mostly from new churches.

“Looking forward, evidence suggests that, alongside considerable potential for death, Christianity in Britain also has considerable potential for resurrection in the coming decades.”

Nick Spencer of Theos writes that a new edition of Professor Grace Davie’s influential book on Religion in Britain since 1945 is shortly to be published under a new title, Religion in Britain: A Persistent Paradox. Theos is hosting a debate on the subject next week with Prof Davie.

Source: Christian Today