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This is the fourth in a short series of guest blogs from my friend, Gaby Phillips. I find her perspective extremely helpful in wrestling through the issues of how Adventists can and should relate to Islam. It is tempting to buy into morbidly negative views of Islam, on the one hand, and overly positive ones, […] The post What about Mohammad and the Qur’an? appeared first on Jon Paulien's Blog. View the full article

It is much more easy to hang on to our fears rather than to trust in God. That often carries over into other areas of our lives as well. Our preconceived thoughts/ideas become more important than the actual proof. We have a person here who has not attended any OP meeting or gathering, relies on a particular person/s for all their info. When those who are actively involved/attend give them information to the opposite, they cling to the preconceived beliefs. Never let the truth get in ones way of their own reality.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/video/newspolitics/can-you-find-the-t-in-this-image/vi-BBqdfRa Does that image have a T? Can you find it?

To clarify, I am not a proponent of a pre-trib rapture. Both Daniel and Revelation are clear that the church is still around and will almost be conquered during the Tribulation. I am a proponent of a pre-wrath rapture (i.e., Christ will appear in the sky; the dead in Christ will awaken and together with the living saved will be taken off of the earth. At this time, probation is closed; because there are no more "saveable" people on the planet. The seven bowls of wrath fall, wiping out almost all life on earth. Then Christ and the saints come back to the surface of the earth to establish the millennial reign. Another thing that I believe is that sin will not be absent during the millennium. Obviously, it still exists when satan is set free to gather forces for the attack on the New Jerusalem. I reserve the right to be wrong; and/or to change my mind at any time. I am open to alternative scenarios. Just because I have an opinion doesn't mean I'm right and you're wrong. It simple means we currently believe differently.

Isn't Heidi Cruz an SDA? Why would her husband ring in the Sunday law?

At least for some the closed door is inferred here. 28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. 30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed......Luke 17 For those faithful to the King there is never any long enduring tribulation period beyond this before being cut off. 10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life......Revelation 2 God is Love!~Jesus saves!

I don't look at these verses as pointing to some sort of "closed door". JoeMo The Scriptures cited are from the Bible not EGW. 22:11 no change from here on out 22:12 I come quickly 22:13 Who it is that is speaking Do you really see wiggle room?

Another great article!!!

I'm thinking your picking Trump?? I have been debating in my head about this. I'm thinking more of a party instead of a person! At first I was thinking the repubs, but after reading an article a few weeks ago, it was mentioning that many of the religious right are starting to abandon the republican party and moving to the democrat party. So still mulling this around in my mind, but at the moment I'm leaning towards Cruz, should he come on strong and take the election in November!!

Kevin H, Ignoring the Biblical Explanation in Rev. 17 I’m not sure if you’re gauging my actual points, because it does seem that you’re side-stepping them. You refer to “The Role of Israel in Old Testament Prophecy” as if that somehow proves a case for a Papal Seventh Head. But I simply refer to the Bible’s own explanation given in the text itself. So far you’ve decided to ignore the Biblical explanation in Rev. 17. I’m not sure why. Why ignore the angel who gives the message? He says “I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her” (Rev. 17.7). Surely he knows better than we do? Would you presume to know more? That surely is a precarious path to walk on. We are not wiser than God, so why search for another explanation other than the one he gives? Its quite a straightforward proposition really – accept his explanation. In His Own Words: God’s Explanation of the Seven Heads So I’ll just repeat it since it bears emphasising. In Rev. 17.10 the angel tells us when explaining the seven heads that “they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen.” Five have fallen is pretty clear to me. That means five empires no longer exist. “One is,” he says. That seems pretty clear too. It means one is presently in existence. Simple enough. The Roman Empire exists at this point in time. So number 6 is the Roman Empire. And here’s the next key phrase: “The other has not yet come.” Obviously the empire to come after the Roman Empire is to be the 7th. Clear as day! Given the very obvious nature of successive empires conquering preceding ones (for example, Babylon was conquered by Cyrus the Great of Persia, Persia was conquered by Alexander the Great of Macedon, the Hellenistic Empires of the Seleucids and Ptolemies were conquered by Rome), it is very obvious that we must look for the one that conquered the Roman Empire to identify who the 7th head is. Pretty straightforward I would have thought. The Seventh Head is the Islamic Ottoman Empire And it turns out, based on actual historical testimony, that the Roman Empire was conquered in 1453 finally and completely by the Islamic Ottoman Empire, as I presented out earlier (see my first post). None of the points I raised there were refuted. This is not speculation my friend. This is actual reality, by actual historians. I would be sorry to see you reject actual historical reality in favour of fiction. If you don’t think what I’ve presented is reality then I would challenge you to put a single quote down to verify what you believe reality to be. If you cannot, then your assertion will have no factual grounding. It will remain just that – an assertion, but a highly fictional one. Of course, it would better that you’d embrace reality. But that remains a choice for you. I’ve already embraced it and therefore stand by the facts. I hope you would too. Alexander the Great and Mehmed II: Alleging that the 5th and 7th Heads Would Be Christian As to your assertions that “the 5th head and 7th head will look very Christian” I find this very… strange. Where in any text does it say that they will be Christian? This habit of making strange statements and somehow believing that by simply iterating them makes them true and factual is not a good habit. If you would read God’s actual explanation in Rev. 17.10 he says that “five have fallen.” That would include the 5th head. And obviously the 5th head must be before the 6th head of the Roman Empire. Therefore the 5th head must be the Hellenist/Greek Empire of Alexander the Great. Why would Alexander be Christian? And why would the 7th be Christian? These are simple questions that I hope you would answer by quoting something to “prove” (1 Th. 5.21) your case, not simply repeat it. How else can your case be established? Six Previous Fallacies And remember, this is on top of the many earlier speculative false claims that you have already made. Allow me to remind you of them (for detailed evidence of quotes please look back at the response above): God would have Returned in the Time of Emperor Domitian, or the Time of the Flavians, or the Time of the Fall of the Temple (1st century): this is totally speculative, presumptuous and simply unprovable. But more importantly it is contradicted by your own assertion that “Jesus could not yet come back because he is doing a heavenly ministry.” Ten Emperors in 68-69 AD: there were actually only 4 in rapid succession. Emperor Vespasian (The First Flavian) Uprooted Three Emperors: he only uprooted one. The Mark of the Beast at the time of Emperor Domitian, Being Adjusting Shoes When Bowing Down: Emperor Domitian is a 1st century power whereas the Mark of the Beast is given in the 8th End of Time Empire. Not to mention the fact that this interpretation is totally bizarre. Paul Believed Only in Preaching the Gospel to the Jewish World: Rom. 11.13 and 1.16 totally contradict that, revealing that he saw himself as “apostle to the Gentiles” and believing that the Gospel was “to the Jew first and also to the Greek”. Political Leaders are Not Economic Powers: this is simply a confused understanding of empires – empires are called empires because they have control over vast swathes of territory and thus resources, and hence they by default have aggrandised their economic power on top of already being military and political powers. Banks and Corporations as the Antichrist? Regarding the controlling of finances, do you really believe that the corporations and banks are going to fulfil the prophecies regarding the Antichrist? Are you saying that the Antichrist will come from the banks? I’m not sure where you want to go with this. The Banks Running Islamists Stating that “the banks and corporations run them [the radical Islamists] too and will get them to start dancing to their tune” is, I regret to say, quite ignorant of what actually is going on, and, to put it mildly, quite laughable. ISIS, who cares for no one else, neither the superpowers of USA nor Russia nor France, who chops heads off at will, who blows up Russian planes out of the sky, who attacks cities like Paris, who runs their own state with their own oil, their own banks, their own ransom money and the illegal selling of precious archaeological artefacts, are run or will be run by the banks? Saudi Arabia who actually runs the life-blood of the world economy – oil – is run or will be run by the banks? Iran? Boko Haram in Africa? Hezbollah in Lebanon? Hamas in Gaza? Al-Qaeda? Kevin, you need to really come out of fantasy land. This is simply not reality. If you continue to believe this then please provide some evidence to prove it. I haven’t seen any evidence yet, just assertions. The Eighth Beast is Middle Eastern and Persecutes Christians JoeMo’s response hit the nail on the head when talking about who has the present control of the Middle East. This is actually a key factor of the Beast’s Empire composition in Rev. 13.2 – Babylonian (Lion), Persian (Bear) and Alexandrian (Leopard) territories, which are all Middle Eastern (see empire maps below). And Radical Islam is pervasive throughout the Middle East, in particular the biggest Sunni and Shia blocks, Saudi Arabia and Iran respectively, as well as Islamic State in Syria-Iraq-Libya, and endless number of terrorist groups in the region and beyond. What I would like to know is what is your case for fulfilling the Middle Eastern criterion in Rev. 13.2? A second criterion is that this Beast persecutes believers in Jesus (Rev. 13.7). The actual reality is that Islam is the single force biggest force monstrously persecuting Christians throughout the world today. This persecution is of Biblical epic proportions. · Relevant Magazine calls it the “highest level of global persecution of Christians in the modern era” (23 February 2015). · Conservative news outlet World Net Daily rightly titled their magazine article “Christian Martyrdom is Back - with a Vengeance” (3 April 2015) · British newspaper The Independent decried “Christians: The world’s most persecuted people - The former Chief Rabbi is appalled at the lack of protest about the treatment of Christians round the globe, and so should we be” (26 July 2014) citing several non-religious statistical organisations that agree with this, such as the International Society of Human Rights and the Pew Research Center. · Newsweek magazine aptly described it on its front page as “The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World” (2 June 2012). · The oldest news magazine in the English-speaking world, Spectator, had emblazoned on its front page “The War on Christians: The global persecution of churchgoers is the unreported catastrophe of our time.” (5 October 2015). · The Wall Street Journal published several ominously titled articles: “Saving Christians from ISIS Persecution” (1 Oct 2015); “The Religious Silence on Christian Persecution” (20 July 2012); “The Plight of the Middle East’s Christians: Ancient communities in Syria and Iraq are in mortal peril. Can the West find a way to preserve the Christian presence in the Middle East” (15 May 2015); “Exterminating Christians in the Middle East: Islamic State marks the houses of Christians with the Arabic letter ‘N’ for Nazarene” (20 August 2015) – this one chillingly reminded me the Passover in Egypt but in inverse. · I watched a House of Commons debate in 2013 titled “Persecution of Christians in the 21st Century” (another debate was also titled “Persecutions of Christians in the Middle East”). Several memorable and poignant statements were made during the debate. The opening statement set the tone: “there are reports that one Christian is killed every 11 minutes somewhere on earth for their faith... Christianity is the most persecuted religion globally… I believe that the persecution of Christians is the biggest story in the world that has never been told…” Member of Parliament, Andrew Selous, called it “comparable to the holocaust.” · Numerous books are continually being published given the urgent concern on a subject that is almost taboo. Please watch the excellent video report by CBN titled “Islam’s War on Christians” (8 January 2015) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQUXFzaBLzY) that emphatically points this out. All that this goes to prove is that Islam is the only power today that can fulfil this Biblical criterion for the 8th Beast. No other. These are just two criteria out of many more. Yet I would still be bold to ask: is there anything comparable to Islam’s fulfilment of even just these two? Black Gold: The West’s Oil Addiction Joe hit the nail on the head again when talking about oil. This is massive. But you simply brushed it aside and ignored it. I think this is unwise. The addiction of the West to oil and its utter dependence on it is a well-documented reality. The London Telegraph gives a succinct overview of the history of Western oil dependency (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pfSREZBqAk). A more extensive look at oil is brilliantly documented in a BBC Documentary released just last year in fact called Planet Oil: The Treasure That Conquered The World (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02gzf5l, downloadable videos found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02gzf5l/episodes/guide). That’s how real and contemporary this issue is. It revealed how addicted and dependent the West was to oil given that it not only supplies fuel, but its by-products are used to create all kinds of consumer products that we all live on. Another interesting video that explains this is one based on influential American economist and advisor to the European Union, Jeremy Rifkin (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyqprG1pDzE). Such dependence on oil is what blackmails Western nations from tackling the source of Radical Islam namely Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabism (see Sarah Stern, Saudi Arabia and the Global Islamic Terrorist Network: America and the West’s Fatal Embrace, and former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., Dore Gold, Hatred’s Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism). Banks don’t control the oil. The oil is the life-blood of the banks, and the world economy. They need oil to simply run their organisations. Take that life-blood away from them and they are permanently crippled. And like I said, this has actually happened in the past in the 1973 Yom Kippur War where OPEC imposed an oil embargo on the West resulting in total shutdown. An example of how a crash in oil supplies could affect world economies has been already imagined in History Channel’s, Mega Disasters, episode “Oil Apocalypse” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYb73iiTBEA). Right now, if you follow the financial situation, OPEC led by Saudi Arabia is decreasing the price of oil globally, hitting big powers like Russia and others hard (see a brief video by the Discovery Channel video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ijfbnoc74E), and many economic commentators are assessing the grave concern this poses. By the way, you see your credit card (to use your analogy)? That’s powered by oil. How do you think it arrived at your house? There would be no money in the banks if oil didn’t power the vehicles to provide the cash. You see your local supermarket? That’s powered by oil too – there would be no products on the shelves if there weren’t any oil. You check your car lately? That’s also powered by oil (unless of course you don’t have a car, like in my case, or you have an electric powered car). The list is endless of how oil affects not just the global financial market but the very individual lives of ordinary citizens. What more could cause the “merchants of the earth to mourn” as you say than if they ran out of oil? They simply couldn’t sell because they would have no supplies to sell. And by the way, ISIS now has oil too, as well as a huge arsenal of artillery and weapons, a huge army that is attracting Muslims all over the show including young westerners, and actually is effectively a full fledged terrorist state. It also has a religious mandate to conquer the planet. Does this sound like a situation that the banks are or can control? In the words of the British historian of Middle Eastern history, Bernard Lewis, when asked about what was at stake when it came to Islam, replied very solemnly “the survival of our civilisation.” Sir Hew Strachan, another prestigious British historian ominously remarked “In my moments of gloom, if I want to think where a Third World War would break out, it would be in the Middle East.” Sounds pretty serious to me. An Ominous Turn: The United States President and the Muslim Brotherhood Joe hit the nail on the head again with the Muslim Brotherhood and the current president. President Obama has revealed his true colours by massively boosting the agenda of Radical Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood in the world. It is simply too broad to go into detail, but in summary: He has advisors who are Muslim Brotherhood (CBN, WND, WND; background to the Muslim Brotherhood Clarion Project PDF Factsheet, Stand with Us Summary (Cached)). He invites Muslim Brotherhood affiliates/operatives into the White House (Robert Spencer Clarion Project, Breitbart News, The Washington Free Beacon, Newsmax). He has suppressed many official documents from the Holy Land Foundation Trial that indicted a Muslim Brotherhood charity operative in the United States that could help tackle more groups (The Project Documentary, The Blaze News). He has removed all references to Islam in national security and law enforcement training manuals (Middle East and Islam Specialist Raymond Ibrahim). He has supported the building of the Ground Zero Mosque in New York (Fox News, Fox News Poll, Politico, ABC News) which is being led by Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Feisal Abdul Rauf (Robert Spencer, ISNA, AMA). He has revised American history by saying that Muslims have always been part of its beginnings in attempt to aggrandise Muslim prestige in America – this interestingly parallels how the Qur’an and Islamists revise history (Breitbart News, Real Clear Politics, read an excellent rebuttal of Obama’s claims by Joseph Klein on Counter Jihad Report and Front Page Mag). He protects Islam from criticism by blaming the Benghazi incident on some insignificant film (Fox News), whilst knowing that it was nothing to do with this but instead part of a Al-Qaeda/Ansar Al-Sharia assassination (Newsweek, Fox News, Fox News, Newsmax), as well as refusing protection to the Ambassador (Examiner). His administration has been foremost in supporting the OIC to institute sharia protection of criticism of the Qur’an and Islam at the U.N. (Clare Lopez, Nina Shea, CNS News, Reuters). He, along with U.S. General John Allen (NPR) (perhaps at Obama’s behest), apologised to Muslims in Afghanistan for the disposal of unused Qur’ans by the military, despite Afghans murdering and injuring U.S. soldiers in response with no apology (Fox News, CNN, NBC News, Newsmax). He has pressured Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu to apologise to Turkey’s dictatorial, Islamist and Neo-Ottoman ambition-driven premier, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for the Flotilla incident in which Turkish terrorists were targeted and killed caught smuggling weapons into Gaza (Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, Ynet News). He bows to the Wahhabi terrorist state Saudi King as if acknowledging fealty to him (WND, Telegraph), but rubs the shoulders of the Queen of England like pals showing no respect. He helped initiate the Arab Spring in his famous Cairo speech and has supported, funded and armed so-called “rebels” (who are in reality terrorist groups) in taking down dictators like Muammer Gaddafi (Libya) and Hosni Mubarak (Egypt). He is the first president since 1979 to have brought the pariah state of Iran back to the table of the civilised world, alleviating it from sanctions (Clarion Project) and thus boosting their nuclear program (Newsmax, Clarion Project) He was the principle backer of the revolution to oust Mubarak and thoroughly endorsed the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist (the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt are listed as a terrorist group – Clare Lopez, Clarion Project) Mohamed Morsi (Israel National News, WND). He was the first leader to congratulate Morsi (New York Times), welcome him into the White House (Clarion Project), and financially and militarily boost his government (National Review) to which no other Western state leader has as far as I’m aware. Now why would anyone go that far out of their way for a terrorist group? When Mohamed Morsi wanted to impose Sharia law into the constitution but was subsequently ousted by popular demand, Obama sent two senators to his aid in an attempt to get him released (Fox News). When Morsi was sentenced to death, Obama condemned it (USA Today) But he continually goes out of his way to snub, even publicly, Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S.’s long time ally wherever and whenever he can (Politico, The Telegraph, The Guardian, Reuters, Tea Party), although the Saudi Minister gets a open door hearing when the Boston Bombings happened (The Blaze); he was noted even by the media to be ashamedly absent in Paris when the attacks happened, when 40 other state leaders stood in solidarity with France in a time of the worst terrorist crisis it has seen in a generation (CNN, The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC News); and even spies and taps phones of Western allies like German Chancellor Angela Merkel! (The Telegraph, Der Spiegel, The Guardian) I mean what on earth is going on! He finally chooses to visit a Mosque in the States, but tellingly he chooses one that has Hamas terrorist ties (Fox News, Robert Spencer, The Daily Caller). It is now revealed through a secret directive called the Presidential Study Directive 11, that as a policy Obama actively supports the Muslim Brotherhood (The Washington Times, WND) And finally, and most disturbingly (as if all of that was not disturbing enough already), not only does he sound like an Islamist by his words and actions, he was raised as a Muslim in the past (Daniel Pipes Middle East Expert), and (here’s the kicker), his brother is the Executive Secretary for the Muslim Brotherhood affiliated-Hamas sponsoring Islamic Dawa Organization in Sudan (Front Page Mag, The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Watch, World Net Daily, WND, Raymond Ibrahim, The New American, Walid Shoebat, Counter Jihad Report), and one member of the Egyptian judiciary along with an Al Jazeera report alleges that Obama is even a secret Muslim Brotherhood member! (The Blaze, Raymond Ibrahim/CBN) The list is endless and disturbing. And this is only to do with what I can remember from the top of my head. If he walks like the Muslim Brotherhood, talks like the Muslim Brotherhood, acts like the Muslim Brotherhood, is advised by the Muslim Brotherhood, invites the Muslim Brotherhood, protects the Muslim Brotherhood, funds the Muslim Brotherhood, has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, then he probably is Muslim Brotherhood. It’s terribly disturbing that there aren’t more Americans waking up to the fact that they have a Radical Islamist infiltrated into the presidential office. There is a whole lot more in the book Impeachable Offenses: The Case for Removing Barack Obama from Office, by New York Times bestselling authors Aaron Klein and Brenda Elliott, which I’m reading right now. So to say that you can’t see Radical Islam taking over. My friend, they already are taking over.

she'll be missed by *more* than just family and friends... As with most all First Ladies of the US, she was highly respected by the American people, including children who were (and continue to be) delighted in meeting American "royalty"...

I totally agree with hch, Thomas. If hch comes back and agrees with you, feel honored and respected. I sure respect you. You are such a great researcher and writer, you should write a book. I'll buy the first copy.

And aside from not assuming everyone with the SDA moniker means "safe": 1) never EVER post online when you will be away from your home 2) do not post your date of birth, where you were born, or where you live 3) if you post obituaries, always edit out the names of children and where they live 4) do not post photos of your children with their names 5) do not post the name(s) of your parents or siblings