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

Weekly News In Review

August 14 - 19, 2005
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The following articles were posted at www.understandthetimes.org this past week:

It's Getting Really Weird Out There
Climate change could spread plague: scientists
The Pink City (Tel Aviv to become Gay capital of the World?)
Islamic Radicals Plan World Revolution from Temple Mount
The Virgin Mary gaining admirers
Pope Benedict meets with Israeli president, renews call for peaceful coexistence with Palestinians
Vatican official refutes intelligent design

Article: Apostasy

November 11, 2005 - It's Getting Really Weird Out There

Something has gone terribly wrong in our movement. Everywhere I turn I find that leaders of so-called Spirit-filled churches are making bizarre choices that compromise basic Christian integrity. Some examples:

At one charismatic megachurch, staff pastors successfully convinced all their wives and female staff members to get breast implants. (I wonder: Was this discussed at a staff meeting?)
A church in California (known for its revival meetings and prophetic ministry) recently imploded after members learned that several men in the church had been having homosexual affairs with the pastor, who was married.
A leader with an international following (who wears the label of â€oeapostleâ€) recently informed his leaders that men of God who reach his level of anointing are allowed to have more than one sexual partner. Then his own son offered his wife to his father out of a sense of spiritual obligation.

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Article: Signs of the Times

November 14, 2005 - Climate change could spread plague: scientists

Warmer, wetter weather brought on by global warming could increase outbreaks of the plague, which has killed millions down the ages and wiped out one third of Europe's population in the 14th century, academics said.

Migratory birds spreading avian flu from Asia today could also carry the plague bacteria westward from their source in Central Asia, Nils Stenseth, head of a three-day conference on the plague and how it spreads, told Reuters on Monday.

"Wetter, warmer weather conditions mean there are likely to be more of the bacteria around than normal and the chance of it spreading to humans is higher," he said.

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Article: Perilous Times

November 15, 2005 - The Pink City (Tel Aviv to become Gay capital of the World?)

Tel Aviv is known throughout the world as "The White City" due to the many Bauhaus-style structures that adorn its streets, but the city may soon be called "The Pink City," as tourism industry heads are planning on transforming the city into the gay capital of the world, Israel's leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

"Tel Aviv and gay people are a perfect fit," an Israel Hotel Association (IHA) official said.

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Article: Islam

November 14, 2005 - Islamic Radicals Plan World Revolution from Temple Mount

Islamic radicals have been using the Temple Mount as a focal point for planning and preaching the establishment of a world Islamic state with Jerusalem as its capital.

One of the radical groups operating on the Temple Mount is Hizab Altahrir (The Islamic Liberation Party), which espouses an ideology similar to Al Qaeda. Hizab Altahrirâ€(tm)s network spans most Western European countries. The party puts Islamic revolution and an uncompromising form of Jihad (holly war) at the top of its political agenda.

The group advocates subjecting the entire world to Islamic law (Shariya), and destroying non-believing nations and religions.

The party has targeted Europe, specifically Denmark, for spreading its ideology, and providing a springboard for renewing Islamic conquests in Europe. A senior party activist in Jerusalem, Sheikh Issam Amira, expressed this philosophy in a recent speech which he made on the Temple Mount:

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Article: Roman Catholicism and the Last Days

November 16, 2005 - The Virgin Mary gaining admirers

They're wearing "Mary Is My Homegirl" T-shirts and bracelets, and not all of them are Roman Catholic. Once mainly a devotional figure for Catholics, Mary and her role as a woman of God now are studied by Anglicans and other Christian denominations. "Mary is my friend ... for me, she's the ultimate example of a woman who said yes to God," said Betsy Biega, parish administrator at St. Martin's in the Fields Episcopal Church off Clemson Avenue in Columbia, S.C.

In May, leaders of the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches released a study that encouraged members of both churches to regard Mary as a figure of devotion, even though there remains some theological disagreement about aspects of Mary and her role in the church.

"In the past, there have been reservations about what some people see as `Mary-olatry,' or seeming to worship Mary," said the Rev. James Lyon, pastor of Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in downtown Columbia. "The new position is that there's nothing wrong with appropriate devotion. The key is to keep in mind that Mary can be seen as someone who points the way toward her son, Jesus Christ."

None of this surprises members of the Protestant and Catholic communities who see Mary as an important spiritual figure for today's Christians. "Mary is an intercessor for the people of God, a model of submission and obedience to the will of God for the whole Christian church," Lyon said.

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Article: Israel and the Last Days

November 17, 2005 - Pope Benedict meets with Israeli president, renews call for peaceful coexistence with Palestinians

Vatican City, Nov. 17, 2005 (CNA) - In a meeting with Israeli President Moshe Katsay earlier today, Pope Benedict stressed his continued desire for the peaceful co-existence and collaboration of Israel and Palestine, two independent states within the violence-wracked Holy Land.

... He said that during the papal meeting, special "attention was given to the relations that have developed between Israel and the Holy See, since the start of diplomatic ties between the two parties in 1994."

"Particular consideration", he noted, "was reserved for the implementation of the agreements thus-far signed between Israel and the Holy See: the Fundamental Agreement of 1993, and the Legal Personality Agreement of 1997."

Moving on to the tense situation in the Holy Land, the Pope reiterated the Holy See's position favoring of the existence of and collaboration between the Israeli and Palestinian States.

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Article: Creation - Evolution

November 18, 2005 - Vatican official refutes intelligent design

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican's chief astronomer said Friday that "intelligent design" isn't science and doesn't belong in science classrooms, the latest high-ranking Roman Catholic official to enter the evolution debate in the United States.

The Rev. George Coyne, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, said placing intelligent design theory alongside that of evolution in school programs was "wrong" and was akin to mixing apples with oranges.

"Intelligent design isn't science even though it pretends to be," the ANSA news agency quoted Coyne as saying on the sidelines of a conference in Florence. "If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science."

His comments were in line with his previous statements on "intelligent design" - whose supporters hold that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power.

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