$Account.OrganizationName
June 13, 2011- June 19, 2011 
 News In Review
 Vol 6, Issue 23
In This Issue
Links Of Further Interest
Quick Links


Join our mailing list!

Dear Ron,

This newsletter is available online by clicking here. The archived newsletter are also available by clicking here.

The News In Review newsletter is a service provided by Understand The Times that is a compilation of the news articles previously posted on our site . Understand The Times does not endorse these events but rather is showing the church the current events.  The purpose of posting these articles is to warn the church of deception from a Biblical perspective.

 May 22 - Icelandic volcano flings up ash, shuts airport
 Article: Signs Of The Last Times

Comment from Understand the Times:
 
Are we seeing the signs of what the Bible calls the Great Tribulation? Of course, we are not setting dates. Christians should never set dates regarding the End Times. However, it is correct to see when the season changes and the signs are apparent, isn't it?
 
Iceland closed its main international airport and canceled all domestic flights Sunday as a powerful volcanic eruption sent a plume of ash, smoke and steam 12 miles (20 kilometers) into the air.

The eruption of the Grimsvotn volcano was far larger than one a year ago at another Icelandic volcano that upended travel plans for 10 million people around the world, but scientists said it was unlikely to have the same widespread effect.

University of Iceland geophysicist Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson said this eruption, which began Saturday, was Grimsvotn's largest eruption for 100 years.  "(It was) much bigger and more intensive than Eyjafjallajokull," the volcano whose April 2010 eruption shut down airspace across Europe for five days, he said.

The ash plunged areas near the volcano in southeast Iceland into darkness Sunday and covered buildings, cars and fields in a thick layer of gray soot. Civil protection workers urged residents to wear masks and stay indoors.

Gudmundsson said the new eruption was 10 times as powerful as the one in 2004, which lasted for several days and briefly disrupted international flights. Grimsvotn also exploded in 1998, 1996 and 1993, eruptions that lasted between a day and several weeks.



Read Full Article .... 


 May 27 - Rick Warren Addresses Critics on Doctrine, Purpose Driven Life
 Article: Emerging Church

John Piper, an influential Reformed theologian, took the unusual step of interviewing famed pastor Rick Warren and giving him a chance to address the countless criticisms he has received since the publication of The Purpose Driven Life.
The entire 98-minute talk was centered on doctrine, which Warren admitted he was rarely asked of in interviews.

With some 30 million copies sold and available in over 50 languages, The Purpose Driven Life is the bestselling nonfiction book in history. Instant fame, however, came with a slew of naysayers. Critics have mainly hit at Warren's doctrine as presented in his book.

But during the interview with Piper, Warren revealed that the book was not intended for nonbelievers. It was written as a workbook to accompany Saddleback Church's 40 days of purpose - an annual spiritual growth campaign. It was only at the end of writing it that he realized a nonbeliever may come across the book and read it. So he added a few things about salvation.

Piper had drawn some flak last year when he invited Warren to speak alongside some theological heavyweights including R. Albert Mohler and R.C. Sproul. Some supporters of Desiring God complained, arguing that Warren was not on the same page with them theologically or doctrinally. They felt he relied more on pragmatism than biblical doctrine.

While Warren is not known for being a doctrinal preacher, Piper noted that one reason for this "is his intention to be theologically sound and practically helpful without using doctrinal or theological terms in his public ministry."

"I would take the doctrinal knowledge of any 500 Saddleback members and compare it to any 500 members of any other church and we'd beat them," he said.



Read Full Article.... 


 May 30 - Israel Minister: Strike on Iran Could Be Necessary
 Article: Israel And The Last Days

An Israeli Cabinet minister said the civilized world must take joint action to avert the Iranian nuclear threat, including a pre-emptive strike if necessary.

Moshe Yaalon - the minister for strategic affairs - made the statement in an interview with Russia's Interfax news agency released Monday ahead of a visit to Moscow. 

"We strongly hope that the entire civilized world will come to realize what threat this regime is posing and take joint action to avert the nuclear threat posed by Iran, even if it would be necessary to conduct a pre-emptive strike," Yaalon was quoted by Interfax as saying.

Yaalon wouldn't discuss who might deal the strike, saying the entire world, not just Israel, must be concerned about the danger posed by a nuclear-armed Iran.

"An Iran possessing nuclear weapons would be a threat to the entire civilized world," he was reported as saying.

Yaalon's spokesman Ofer Harel told The Associated Press later Monday that the minister was repeating Israel's position that all options are on the table and not calling for anybody to attack Iran.

Iran has insisted its nuclear program is peaceful, but the U.S., Israel and many others believe it is cover for developing atomic weapons.



Read Full Article .... 


 May 31 - Iran cleric: Killing Israeli children OK
 Article: Israel And The Last Days

A senior Iranian cleric, who is known as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor, urged followers to continue suicide attacks against Israelis, including children.  

Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah, considered one of the Islamic Republic's most radical clerics, issued a religious edict on his website whereby suicide attacks are not only legitimate but are a must for every Muslim, a special paper by the Middle East Media Research Institute shows.

The senior cleric was responding to a question from a follower regarding the difference between "martyr's death" and "suicide." The man, who wrote anonymously, noted that "some people say that martyrdom operations are considered suicide and that they are haram (forbidden) because they contradict Islam."

"When protecting Islam, the Muslim people depend on martyrdom operations. It not only is allowed, but even is an obligation," Mesbah wrote.  

The follower presented another question regarding Islam's position on harming Israelis, wondering whether Hamas and Jihad actions against Israeli civilians are forbidden. He also asked: "How about the Israeli children killed in such attacks?"

The Iranian Ayatollah did not see fit to forbid the killing of children, only noting that Israelis can be harmed unless they openly express their objection to their government's position. He added that even in such cases, harming civilians is permissible if "they are used as human shield and fighting the aggressors depends on attacking those civilians."  Beyond these insights, the cleric did not offer further instructions and failed to censure the killing of children.

Notably, for the followers of Mesbah, his words are considered as a binding religious edict. On several occasions in the past, Iranian President Ahmadinejad also spoke in favor of "martyrdom acts."



Read Full Article .... 


 June 3 - 'Jesus: Prophet of Islam' - New Muslim Bus Ads to Debut in Australia
 Artcle: Miscellaneous

If you ask the organization Mypeace in Australia, Jesus wasn't God, but he was a good prophet of Islam. That's just one of the messages the group is set to debut on Australian buses in September. And it's just one of the messages already plastered on billboards around Sydney.

"Mypeace.com.au a Muslim Organisation based in Sydney is launching a bold venture and the first of its kind in its public awareness campaign by placing ads about Islam on Sydney buses," the group's site explains. "Starting on September 27th of May 2011, for four weeks, several buses in Sydney will start carrying messages on the religion of Islam. Each ad will invite interested individuals to call MyPeace's toll free number    and converse live with a Muslims to ask questions about Islam; request a free copy of the Quran and Islamic literature."

But the ads are causing quite a stir. One billboard claiming Jesus is a prophet of Islam has already been vandalized, and now an Australian bishop is speaking out.

CNS News reports:

"In Australia with its Christian heritage a billboard carrying the statement 'Jesus A prophet of Islam' is provocative and offensive to Christians," Julian Porteous, auxiliary bishop at the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, responded in an article.

Porteous said religions should not "set out to antagonize those with differing beliefs." "Dialogue between the religions can only take place when it is founded in mutual respect. It is not fostered by provocative statements."

Considering the tenants of the Christian faith, and what Islam believes about Jesus, the group's claims are not in line with Christianity's understanding of Jesus. For example, as CNS points out, Islam denies Christ's "divinity, crucifixion, and resurrection."

Still, in a video posted on Mypeace's website, it claims that Islam is the "religion of Jesus and Moses



Read Full Article .... 


 May 25 - U.S. dollar could 'collapse': UN
 Article: One World Government

The United Nations warned on Wednesday of a possible crisis of confidence in, and even a "collapse" of, the U.S. dollar if its value against other currencies continued to decline.

In a mid-year review of the world economy, the UN economic division said such a development, stemming from the falling value of foreign dollar holdings, would imperil the global financial system.

The report, an update of the UN "World Economic Situation and Prospects 2011" report first issued in December, noted that the dollar exchange rate against a basket of other key currencies had reached its lowest level since the 1970s.

"As a result, further (expected) losses of the book value of the vast foreign reserve holdings could trigger a crisis of confidence in the reserve currency, which would put the entire global financial system at risk," it said.

The 17-page report referred at another point to the "still looming risk of a collapse of the United States dollar." Rob Vos, a senior UN economist involved with the report, said if emerging markets "massively start selling off dollars, then you can have this risk of a slide in the dollar.

UN economists have for some time queried whether the dollar should continue to be the world's sole reserve currency. Others have also expressed concerns about U.S. finances.

A downgrade would erode the status of the United States as the world's most powerful economy and the dollar's role as the dominant global currency.



Read Full Article .... 


 June 1 - Obama Signs Proclamation Recognizing June as LGBT Pride Month
 Article: Perlous Times

On Tuesday, President Obama declared June as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) month. Obama has issued similar proclamations in prior years by issuing the proclamation each year he has been in office. Obama wasn't the first president to issue a proclamation recognizing the LGBT community. Former President Bill Clinton issued the first one in June of 1999.

The proclamation reads in part, "The story of America's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community is the story of our fathers and sons, our mothers and daughters, and our friends and neighbors who continue the task of making our country a more perfect Union. It is a story about the struggle to realize the great American promise that all people can live with dignity and fairness under the law."

According to a recent study released in April of this year by Dr. Gary Gates and The Williams Institute, an arm of the UCLA School of Law, "An estimated 3.5 percent of adults in the United States identify themselves as lesbian, gay, or bisexual and an estimated 0.3 percent of adults as transgender."

Obama also mentioned his repeal of the "don ask, don't tell" policy by saying, "With this repeal, gay and lesbian Americans will be able to serve openly in our Armed Forces for he first time in our Nation's history. Our national security will be strengthened and the heroic contributions these Americans make to our military, and have made throughout our history, will be fully recognized."

Ashley Horne, federal policy analyst for Focus on the family expressed the group's frustration with the president's actions, saying, "To the detriment of the family, President Obama continues to affirm the homosexual lifestyle by issuing this proclamation each year."

Horne went on to say, "It's clear the president's goal of wanting to affirm homosexuality in our culture is a top priority for the administration. While we're not surprised by his actions, we simply see it as another reminder of his commitment to redefine marriage outside of one man and one woman."

According to recent Gallup polls, more than half (56 percent) of Americans say gay or lesbian relations is morally acceptable and 40 percent believe being gay is "something a person is born with." Support for homosexuality has also hit a record high this year with 64 percent of Americans saying gay or lesbian relations between consenting adults should be legal.



Read Full Aritcle .... 


 May 25 - Jet delay adds to China threat
 Article: Wars And Rumors Of Wars

The threat from Chinese advanced weapons, including new stealth fighters and ballistic missiles, dominated concerns expressed by senior military officers at a Senate hearing this week on the military impact of delays and problems with the new fifth-generation F-35 jet.

Two senior officers in charge of U.S. air power voiced increasing worries that U.S. forces will not be prepared for a future conflict with China, during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services airland subcommittee on Tuesday.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Herbert J. Carlisle, deputy chief of staff for operations, said China's rollout earlier this year of a new J-20 stealth fighter, which has made two or three test flights, is very troubling, along with another joint Russian-Indian stealth jet.  Both aircraft could be sold to Iran and affect a future U.S. intervention there against Tehran's nuclear program.

The three-star general's comments echoed earlier comments by Navy Vice Adm. David J. Dorsett, a senior intelligence official, who said of the J-20 in January that "we have been pretty consistent in underestimating the delivery of Chinese technology and weapons systems."

"All of those things are incredibly disturbing to us for the future,"  Gen. Carlisle said. "And again,     we not only have to be able to defeat those, we have to hold those targets at risk, and that's where these fifth-generation aircraft come in."

Asked during the hearing what "keeps you up at night," Rear Adm. David L. Philman, Navy director of warfare integration, said: "Well, the China scenario is first and foremost, I believe, because they seem to be more advanced and they have the capability out there right now, and their ships at sea and their other anti-access capabilities."



Read Full Aritcle .... 


 May 26 - 32 Signs That The Entire World Is Being Transformed Into A Futuristic Big Brother Prison Grid
 Article: One World Government

Do you want your children and grandchildren to live in a futuristic "big brother" control grid where everything they do is watched, recorded, tracked and tightly controlled?  Well, that is exactly where things are headed. 
 
When you read the list below, each of the 32 signs may not seem to be all that significant individually. However, when they are all taken together, they paint a truly frightening picture....

#1 The days of the free and open Internet are slowly coming to an end. Many nations around the world have implemented strict Internet censorship and many other nations are moving in that direction. With each passing year the level of freedom on the Internet diminishes.

Regulation of the Internet has even become a primary topic of discussion at G-8 meetings. According to The New York Times, French President Nicolas Sarkozy is leading the charge for a more "civilized Internet"....Leaders of the Group of 8 industrialized countries are set to issue a provocative call for stronger Internet regulation, a cause championed by the host of the meeting, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, but fiercely opposed by some Internet companies and free-speech groups.Why are free speech groups strongly opposing what Sarkozy is trying to do? It is because western governments want to kill liberty and freedom on the Internet just like China is doing. The Internet has been a great tool for waking people up and distributing information, and the control freaks that want to run all of our lives do not like that one bit.

#2 Internet censorship in China, the largest nation on earth, is absolutely brutal. The Chinese government blocks any websites that talk about such topics as the Dalai Lama, the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters and Falun Gong. Even web searches for the English word "freedom" are blocked.

#3 Starting next year, all new cellphones will be required to contain a chip that will allow the president to broadcast "emergency alerts" to the cellphones whenever the president wants. Cellphone users will not be allowed to opt out of the presidential messages.  The following is how a CBS news report describes the new system....

A new national alert system is set to begin in New York City that will alert the public to emergencies via cell phones. It's called the Personal Localized Alert Network or PLAN. Presidential and local emergency messages as well as Amber Alerts would appear on cell phones equipped with special chips and software.

#4 The U.K. has more surveillance cameras per citizen than anywhere else in the world. In fact, according to one estimate, there are 4.8 million video cameras constantly watching every move citizens make.

#5 A "certified TSA official" was brought in to oversee student searches at the Santa Fe High School prom last weekend. Will this kind of thing soon be happening at every high school in America?

#6 The U.S. Department of Agriculture is spending huge amounts of money to install surveillance cameras in the cafeterias of public schools so that government control freaks can closely monitor what our children are eating.  The following is how a recent article posted on Infowars.com describes this new program....

Billed as part of an effort to reduce obesity and improve eating habits, small cameras are programmed to take snapshots of lunch trays before and after each student eats. Each child is uniquely identifiable via a barcode attached to the tray. The amount of calories and nutrients that each child has consumed is then calculated via a database containing 7,500 different varieties of food.

#7 The EU is spending hundreds of millions of euros on propaganda campaigns in an attempt to convince the citizens of Europe that the EU is good for them.

#8 Today, FBI surveillance teams regularly employ warrantless GPS tracking to monitor the movements of peaceful activists - even if they are not suspected of ever committing a crime. The Obama administration is fighting in court to keep this practice legal.

#9 According to FBI Director Robert Mueller, "homegrown terrorists" represent as big a threat to American national security as al-Qaeda does.

#10 Federal VIPR teams are establishing a series of "internal checkpoints" all across the United States. The following is how a recent article by Paul Joseph Watson described these VIPR team activities....

The TSA has announced its intention to expand the VIPR program to include roadside inspections of commercial vehicles, setting up a network of internal checkpoints and rolling out security procedures already active in airports, bus terminals and subway stations to roads and highways across the United States.

#11 Thousands of "dysfunctional" families in the U.K. are being subjected to intensive 24-hour surveillance to make sure that their children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals.

#12 U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer says that Amtrak should have a "no ride list" similar to the "no fly list" used at U.S. airports. Before you can get on an airplane today, your name is checked to make sure that it is not on any international watch lists. So what do you have to do to get on an international watch list? Nobody really knows.

#13 U.K. authorities are now admitting that every phone call, text message, email and website visit made by private citizens will be stored for one year and will be available for monitoring by government agencies.

#14 The amount of cell phone surveillance that goes on is absolutely staggering. For example, one German politician named Malte Spitz recently went to court to force Deutsche Telekom to reveal how often his cell phone was being tracked. What he found out was absolutely amazing. It turns out that in just one 6 month period, Deutsche Telekom recorded the longitude and latitude coordinates of his cell phone 35,000 times.

#15 DARPA has now developed new video surveillance technology that many are warning will bring about the end of public anonymity. The following is how the ExtremeTech blog is describing this new technology....

To be in public is to be on camera, but most video footage is discarded, as only so much can be sorted and analyzed -- until now. DARPA has created a technology that can index and analyze video in real-time, marking the end of anonymity in public places.

#16 In the U.K., it is now illegal to photograph the police for any reason whatsoever.

#17 Police in the U.K. have purchased software that will enable them to easily follow the "digital footprints" of virtually anyone. The following is how one recent news report in the U.K. described this new software....

The Metropolitan Police has bought Geotime, a security programme used by the U.S. military which tracks suspects' movements and communications and displays them on a three-dimensional graphic.  The software aggregates information gathered from social networking sites, GPS devices like the iPhone, mobile phones, financial transactions and IP network logs to build a detailed picture of an individual's movements.

#18 In Tacoma, Washington a seventh grade student was recently questioned by the Secret Service about a message that he posted on his Facebook page. Be very careful about what you put up on Facebook or Twitter. The entire world can see it.

#19 According to the ACLU, state police in Michigan are using "extraction devices" to download data from the cellphones of motorists that they pull over. This is taking place even if those pulled over are not accused of doing anything wrong.  The following is how an article on CNET News describes the capabilities of these "extraction devices"....

The devices, sold by a company called Cellebrite, can download text messages, photos, video, and even GPS data from most brands of cell phones. The handheld machines have various interfaces to work with different models and can even bypass security passwords and access some information.

#20 Last year, one shocking poll found that 51 percent of Americans agree with this statement: "It is necessary to give up some civil liberties in order to make the country safe from terrorism."

#21 The MPAA and RIAA have submitted their master plan for enforcing copyright rights to the new Office of Intellectual Property Enforcement and it includes installing spyware on everyone's computers that would detect and delete any infringing materials.

#22 The U.K.'s new Internet law includes a "three strikes" rule that allows your entire family to be cut off from the Internet if anyone who lives in your house is accused of copyright infringement - without proof or evidence or trial.

#23 Would you like to have your face scanned and your ID recorded every time you attend a public event? Don't laugh. The San Francisco Entertainment Commission is actually proposing a new rule which "would require all venues with an occupancy of over 100 people to record the faces of all patrons and employees and scan their ID's for storage in a database which they must hand over to law enforcement on request."

#24 Today, the U.S. government and governments all over the industrialized world have become so obsessed with reducing carbon emissions that now they even tell us what kinds of light bulbs we are allowed to buy.

#25 The Obama administration is developing a universal "Internet ID" program that would watch, track, monitor and potentially control your activity on the Internet. These "trusted identities" are being touted as a way to increase safety and security on the Internet and as a way to eliminate the need for dozens of different usernames and passwords.

#26 As I have written about previously, the "Internet kill switch" is rapidly becoming one of the favorite new tools of tyrannical governments all over the globe....

Once upon a time, the Internet was a bastion of liberty and freedom, but now nation after nation is cracking down on it. In fact, legislation has been introduced once again in Congress that would give the president of the United States an "Internet kill switch" that he would be able to use in the event of war or emergency. Of course there would be a whole lot of wiggle room in determining what actually constitutes a true "emergency". The members of Congress that are pushing this "Internet kill switch" bill want the U.S. to become more like China in this regard.

#27 A shocking document released by Wikileaks proves that high level U.S. government officials have been pushing for North American integration. According to the document, some of the goals of this integration would be to turn North America into an economic zone similar to the EU, to have one common currency for the entire continent and to have one common "security perimeter" for the entire continent.

#28 One of the most liberty-killing pieces of legislation in recent years was the Patriot Act. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Republicans and the vast majority of Democrats will never vote against the renewal of the Patriot Act because they don't want to look "soft" on terrorism.

#29 If you display the wrong political message on your car, you may find law enforcement officials cracking down on you.  A 73-year-old Virginia resident was recently kicked out of a national park for displaying a sticker promoting "Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty" on his car.  The following is an excerpt from a recent Rutherford Institute report about this incident....

The Rutherford Institute has come to the defense of a 73-year-old Virginia resident who was allegedly ordered by a park ranger to remove his car from a national military park in South Carolina because of political messages attached to his vehicle. Jack Faw, whose ancestors fought in the historic battle memorialized at Kings Mountain National Military Park, contacted The Rutherford Institute after being told by a park ranger that the decal promoting a political organization associated with Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), which was displayed on the back window of Faw's car, was not allowed in the park.

#30 Brutal crowd control techniques are not just for major events anymore. Recently, riot police in Illinois used tear gas, LRAD sound weapons and crowd suppression tactics against a bunch of college students that were just blowing off some steam at a year-end block party at Western Illinois University.

#31 The U.S. government is gathering more information on all of us than ever before. According to a recent article in the Baltimore Sun, every six hours the volume of information that the NSA gathers is equivalent to the entire Library of Congress.  Nobody is anonymous anymore. The truth is that the U.S. government, governments across the globe and major international corporations have more information about you than you probably ever dared to imagine.

#32 If you think things are bad now, just wait until you see what global authorities have planned for the future.


Read Full Aritcle .... 


 May 26 - Google Wallet turns phones into credit cards
 Article: Technology For Global Monetary System

On Thursday, at a press event in New York, Google unveiled a new mobile payments system called Google Wallet, which will let users swipe their handsets the same way they swipe their credit cards. Details are still coming in, but it appears Google Wallet will launch first on the Sprint edition of the Nexus S 4G smartphone, before eventually being rolled out to other devices. 

"At first, Google Wallet will support both Citi MasterCard and a Google Prepaid Card, which you'll be able to fund with almost any payment card," Google engineers Rob von Behren and Jonathan Wall wrote on the Google blog. "From the outset, you'll be able to tap your phone to pay wherever MasterCard PayPass is accepted."

So what else does Google have in store? (Ahem.) "Loyalty schemes and coupons will obviously play a big part in Google Wallet," writes Bill Ray of the Register. Ray expects that Google will keep electronic wallets "stuffed with tokens and offers as well as payment applications"; he also believes it's "likely that Google will take this opportunity to launch a payment platform for use both offline and online."

"We're about to embark on a new era of commerce where we bring online and offline together," Google exec Stephanie Tilenius said at the press event, according to CNN. "We believe the shopping experience has not yet been transformed by technology or by magical experiences. Now, your phone can be your wallet -- you just tap, pay, and save."


Read Full Aritcle .... 


 May 24 - A New Global Financial System
 Article: One World Government

The European Union is set to issue a very special bond this week. It is special because it is practically unprecedented. Just twice before has the EU borrowed money with the promise that all member nations would be responsible for paying it back.

If the eurobonds become a permanent part of the European Union, the implications are global. A United European bond market could save the eurozone's struggling economies.

But that is not the biggest implication. For the first time, the U.S. treasury market will have a real and potentially lethal competitor, and the world will finally have a true alternative to the dollar for reserve currency.

According to the Financial Times, the first bond auction in January led to "overwhelming demand" for the paper from investors around the world. The second issuance in March was equally successful, as investors in Asia and the Middle East snapped up the bonds. The success of the eurobond sales contrasts sharply with the rising cost of raising money in most European countries.

A European-wide debt crisis may be looming. And that means a European-wide solution is needed. But if investors start holding out for eurobonds instead of buying bonds directly from individual nations, it could become even more difficult for troubled countries to borrow money. Weak countries could, in effect, be crowded out of the debt market. Investors love the eurobonds, said one banker quoted by the Irish Times. But if you buy a eurobond, "why on earth would you buy Spain?" he asked. "The risk is just too great."

If the current round of eurobond auctions proceed as expected, or are expanded, this could in time force troubled nations into giving up national budget sovereignty in return for Germany backing the creation of a permanent eurobond market. As analyst John Mauldin writes, it wouldn't end with Germany controlling Greece's budget and in charge of collecting Greece's taxes. If Europe goes down that route, he says, it may be Greece today, but it will be Portugal tomorrow. And which nation will be next after that?  American officials should be watching closely.

On the global stage, U.S. treasuries are the unrivaled debt marketplace in terms of volume and liquidity. Consequently, the dollar is used as the world's reserve currency. But America's hold on reserve status is precarious. It maintains it mostly by default. China, Russia, Germany, Brazil and other nations have publicly stated that they want a new global reserve currency not linked to a dollar that constantly devalues. The problem is that up until possibly now, there just hasn't been a credible alternative. There has been no other big market in which to park their money. That may be about to change.   A full-fledged European Union bond market may be about to be born from Europe's economic crisis. If it is, the dollar's days as reserve currency are about to end.

America is no longer a safe place and the world may soon have an alternative place for all its money. A new global financial system is about to emerge.



Read Full Aritcle .... 


 May 30 - Many interconnected pieces of evidence support the Book of Mormon
 Article: Miscellaneous

Comment from Understand the Times:
 
It will be interesting to see the facts that are supposed to be soon exposed to prove that Mormonism and the history behind the story are true. UTT will be the first to admit that the Mormon faith is true when the facts are presented showing conclusively that Smith's stories were revelations from God.
 
So far, the best evidence that we have heard when speaking with a Mormon is that they say they have had "the burning in the bosom" when they asked if Mormonism was true. A dose of hot sauce or eating too late in the evening will do the same thing.
 
We need solid evidence. We need to know what sources Joe Smith used to fabricate his wild ideas. What connections did he have with the Masons? Why are Mormonism and Masonic beliefs so similar? Where are the golden plates that he said he used to transcribe the Book of Mormon? If Mormonism is truly the truth, why does the Book of Mormon contradict the Bible? Could this whole belief system be a plan of deception to dupe as many as possible?
 
For the past few weeks I've addressed the current limitations of New World archaeology and the naïve claims of some critics regarding the relationship between the Book of Mormon and archaeological discoveries. I readily acknowledge (and have done so repeatedly in this series) that there is no overwhelming persuasive secular evidence that would convince non-believers that the Book of Mormon is true (I've shared some of my reasons why this is so in a past installment). I also readily acknowledge that, thus far, I have not addressed all of the archaeological "problems" that seem to conflict with the belief in a historic Book of Mormon. For those who want answers to all the questions, I can only say, "patience."

In the next installments, I plan to discuss some of the fascinating ways in which the Book of Mormon correctly converges with what we now know about the ancient cultures from which it claims to have been written and derived. In other words, I plan on discussing some of the evidences that support the ancient historicity of the Book of Mormon.

In past issues, I pointed out that Joseph Smith got the details right regarding ancient Arabia in a time when there was a lack of information or out-right misconceptions about the land through which the Lehites traveled. I showed that several Book of Mormon names were very much at home in the ancient Near East, and that Lehi's vision to flee Jerusalem (and the subsequent exodus) fit ancient patterns that were unknown to scholars in Joseph's day.

Several of my articles showed that the landscape - as described in the Book of Mormon - accurately depicts the geography and climate of the lands through which they would have traveled, and that contrary to descriptions of the Arabian Peninsula in Joseph's day, there really is an area on the Dhofar region that matches the Bountiful described in Lehi's journey.

I showed that the story of Nephi's bow, the construction of their ship, the Liahona, the slaying of Laban and Lehi's dream of the Tree of Life, all have fascinating ancient Old World parallels that closely match the descriptions and contexts given in Book of Mormon.

I noted the discovery of an actual place known as "NHM" - a striking parallel to the Book of Mormon "Nahom" - that fits the Nephite scripture like a glove in regards to location, era, resource as a burial spot, as well as it's juxtaposition to an eastward turn in the Lehite's journey which, in turn, lead to another amazing parallel to the location and description of Bountiful. As noted in the past few weeks, an inscription, text or icon of a place name is a coveted find for an archaeologist who is attempting to identify the designation of an ancient site. The discovery of "NHM" is nearly as close as it gets. While critics attempt to brush this find aside, it neatly fits the very type of discovery upon which archaeologists rely for toponym (place name) identification.



Read Full Aritcle .... 


We hope the Weekly News In Review has been a blessing to you.

Sincerely,
Roger Oakland


Forward email

This email was sent to ronpierotti@volcano.net by understandthetimes@cox.net |  

Understand The Times, International | P.O. Box 27239 | Santa Ana | CA | 92799