Two Christians Murdered for Witnessing in Florida

Two men have been killed for sharing their Christian faith. This is something you might expect in Pakistan or Iran, but it happened here in the good ol' USA -- in Boynton Beach, Florida to be exact. If it was 2 Muslims or 2 Jews you would have heard a lot about it. But they are 2 Christians, so the media just yawns.

Sadly, as anti-Christian sentiment continues to increase in this country, I expect to see this happen more and more. Christians had better be cautious out there, since the spiritual climate in our nation, and our world, is definitely changing.

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Why the National Media Blackout?
Contact: Dr. Gary Cass, Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, 866-508-2232, 954-551-9770

VISTA, Calif., Feb. 5 /Christian Newswire/ -- "Anti-Christian hostility is getting increasingly deadly as this week's tragic events demonstrate," said Dr. Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission. "The increasing demonization of Christians in our culture makes some feel its open season on Christians."

According to the Boynton Beach police, simply sharing the word of God on the street is what brought two ministers to the man who killed them. Tite Sufra, 24, and Stephen Ocean, 23, were shot and killed Saturday night after meeting Jeriah Woody, 18. They witnessed to Woody for fifteen minutes when he got a phone call and told the preachers he 'had to go.' As they walked away, Woody suddenly started walking back toward them. Sufra walked up to greet him and was killed with a shot gun blast at point blank range. When Ocean ran, he was shot in the back. After he fell, Woody shot him in the head execution style. Woody was arrested Wednesday and is charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

"As of today, there are no national news organizations reporting this vicious murder of two innocent Christian men. Why?" Cass said, "I'll ask this: If two Muslims, or two feminists or two homosexuals were murdered, wouldn't the media be all over it? These were two fine young black Christian men shot by another black man for their Christian faith, yet the media does not seem to care."

Cass continued: "It is an ominous sign of our times that Christians are being shot on the streets and in our churches. Last year Jim Pullion was killed while holding pro-life signs in front of his granddaughter's Owasso Michigan high school. Rev. Fred Winters was murdered while preaching in his pulpit in Maryville, Illinois. Increasingly we see Christian ministers threatened and churches terrorized and vandalized for their stand on marriage. Now when Christians gather for worship they must have armed security. Anti-Christian defamation and bigotry has helped to create this violent climate and it must stop."

About the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission - The Christian Anti-Defamation Commission (CADC) is a national, not-for-profit 501(c) (3) Education Corporation whose purpose it is to champion Christian religious liberty, domestically and internationally, by standing against anti-Christian defamation, bigotry, and discrimination.

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See related article for more info, including photos:
Two men preaching religion shot to death in Boynton Beach

The Reluctant [False] Messiah

Well, the craziness never ends. And among a group of and unstable New Age types, they've found themselves in a bit of a conundrum. In short, they've found their [false] messiah. and they're quite happy about it... but the problem is that he steadfastly denies he's the messiah they say he is.

Readers of this blog may remember that recently, Share International, a group led by New Age prophet Benjamin Creme, announced that the messiah (they like to call him "Maitreya, The World Teacher") had finally stepped forward into the public eye, even though they declined to give his name.

See my Jan 20th post for more details on that.

So this set off a wave of speculation among followers, some of whom have been waiting literally decades for this long promised [false] Christ. Finally, much of the focus and speculation settled on 27 year old Indian born author Raj Patel, causing believers to send him congratulatory messages, and even travel great distances to see him. But...long story short, the guy seems quite bewildered by this all, leading to a bit of confusion among those who so badly wanted him to be the long awaited One.

The New York times has three stories dealing with this. (See links below).

In the end, to me this is both absurd and sad. "The One" has already come -- that being Jesus Christ -- but these people are looking for another instead.

Jesus warned that in the last days false prophets and false Christs would come, and would deceive many.

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. (Matt 24:24).

This Maitreya, whoever he turns out to be, will be just one of many who will lead many astray. Also on the scene we already have Sun Myung Moon, Jose Luis De Jesus, and many other lesser known fake messiahs who are already at work.

Somehow I get the feeling this upcoming decade will be a busy one for those who are in the Fake Messiah business.

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NY Times Article: In Internet Era, An Unwilling Lord For New Age Followers

Excerpt:

Ben Shoucair, 24, a college student from Detroit, does not need more convincing. He said he saw Mr. Patel in a dream, and then was stunned to find a YouTube video and discover his vision was real. Last week, Mr. Shoucair and his father spent $990 on last-minute tickets to fly to San Francisco to be in Mr. Patel’s presence at a book promotion.

Reached by phone this week, Mr. Shoucair said meeting Mr. Patel had made him “happy.” He said the Maitreya evidence was irrefutable. “It puts it all on Raj Patel at this time in history.”

Mr. Shoucair seemed amazed when told that Mr. Patel did not believe he was the messiah and had never heard of Mr. Creme. “See how deep the spiritual world is,” Mr. Shoucair said.

Mr. Patel said of their pilgrimage: “It broke my heart. They’d flown all the way from Detroit.”

Share International’s beliefs are rooted in the Theosophical movement popular in Britain in the late-19th century; it later evolved into New Age beliefs, said Ted F. Peters of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Messiahs have been declared before, only to disappoint.

“It’s incredibly flattering, just for an instant,” Mr. Patel said of his unwanted status. “And then you realize what it means. People are looking for better times. Almost anything now will qualify as a portent of different times.”

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See also:
NY Times Article: Are You There, God? It's Me, Scott
NY Times Article: Is He Or Isn't He The Messiah?

Christian Apologists: Be Careful of Oprah's Spiritual Teachings

For over two decades now, one of the most insidiously harmful spiritual infulences in America has been the Oprah Winfrey Show. With her soothing voice and disarming smile, she has been quietly injecting her spritual poison into the minds of millions of American -- many of them professing Christians.

Thankfully, apologists Josh McDowell and Dave Starrett are sounding the alarm regarding what might be called "the gospel according to Oprah Winfrey".



From ChristianPost.com:

Vienna, VA. – She is persuasive, influential and does a lot of good, but Christians should be careful when Oprah speaks about spirituality, warned two apologists who recently co-authored a book on the subject.

To a crowd of more than 1,500 people at McLean Bible Church outside of Washington, D.C,. on Friday evening, renowned apologist Josh McDowell and up-and-coming apologist Dave Sterrett explained the danger of adopting Oprah’s spiritual teachings from a Christian perspective.

They pointed out that the talk show queen and the spiritual teachers she promotes teach pantheism – God is all and all is God – and that there are multiple paths to reach God. She also emphasizes that people should carry out their inner longings instead of restraining themselves if the act is said to be a sin by the Bible.

“Here is where you got to be careful,” emphasized McDowell. “Not only Oprah but others use Christian or religious terminologies that Christians would accept as Christian."

The Christian God is a personal creator God which all truth resides, who is totally outside of ourselves and outside of our universe,” explained the best-selling author of More Than a Carpenter. “When Oprah and others refer to God, it is an impersonal force. And I think one way that comes out is that they will say, ‘Look within you and find yourself from within. Find that God-consciousness. That is God.’”

In their book, “O” God: A Dialogue on Truth and Oprah’s Spirituality, the apologists warn that Oprah “uses the language of the Bible and Christian traditions” but mixes that with other traditions to “create a hodgepodge of personalized faith.”

They point out in their book that Oprah, during her first A New Earth Web seminar on March 3, 2008, told participants that Christ came to show people that they can discover their own “Christ-consciousness.”

Full article here:

A Mathematician Looks at Darwin’s Theory and Discovers It Doesn’t Add Up

The blog Evolution News and Views takes a look at a new book which exposes the fallacy of the theory of evolution:

SEATTLE – "Darwin’s attempt to explain the origins of all the magnificent species in the living world in terms of the struggle for survival is easily the dumbest idea ever taken seriously by science," writes Dr. Granville Sewell in his new book In the Beginning and Other Essays on Intelligent Design published by Discovery Institute Press.

What do you get when you add together the big bang, the fine-tuning of the laws of physics and the evolution of life? Definitely not a materialistic theory of origins, answers Sewell, a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Texas El Paso.

In this wide-ranging collection of essays, Sewell concludes that while there is much in the history of life that seems to suggest natural causes, there is little evidence to support Charles Darwin’s idea that natural selection of random variations can explain major evolutionary advances.

In the book, he explains why evolution is a fundamentally different and much more difficult problem than others solved by science and why increasing numbers of scientists are now recognizing what has long been obvious to the layman: there is no explanation possible without design. This book summarizes many of the traditional arguments for intelligent design and presents some powerful and unique arguments as well.

False Messiah Watch: Maitreya Steps Forward

In February 2009 called Preparations Continue for Maitreya, The False Christ I posted an article about how the New Age group Share International (led by Benjamin Creme -- on the left in the photo above) was preparing to unveil their false Christ known as Maitreya, The World Teacher.

Well, after years hiding behind promises and press releases, it seems that this false prophet might be finally stepping forward. Posted below is a press release Share International issued yesterday stating that Maitreya has made his first public appearance.

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Maitreya Steps Forward

LONDON, January 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Share International Foundation announces that Maitreya, the World Teacher, has given His first interview on American television. Millions have heard Him speak both on TV and the internet. His open mission has begun.

He was introduced not as Maitreya, the World Teacher and Head of our Spiritual Hierarchy, but simply as a man, one of us. In this way He "ensures that men follow and support Him for the truth and sanity of His ideas rather than for His status."

He spoke earnestly of the need for peace, achievable only through the creation of justice and the sharing of the world's resources.

This is the first of many such interviews which will be given in the USA, Japan, Europe and elsewhere, bringing His message of hope to the world.

Background information

For over 30 years artist, author, and lecturer Benjamin Creme has been preparing the way for the biggest event in history - the emergence of Maitreya the World Teacher and His group, the Masters of Wisdom. Millions of people around the world have heard his information and wait expectantly for this momentous event.

See YouTube video 'Maitreya, the World Teacher, steps forward':    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHqncRa4fcA    For more information: http://www.share-international.org    Benjamin Creme, tel: +44(0)207-482-1113, mail@shareinternationaluk.org

SOURCE Share International Foundation

[end]

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In light of such developments, let's all keep Jesus' words in mind here:

"...Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. (Matt 24:4-5)

"And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many." (Matt 24:11)

"For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." (Matt 24:24)

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"And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh" (Luke 21:28)

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Related link:

Preparations Continue for Maitreya, The False Christ

See also:A False Messiah In Miami

(Article on Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, another self-proclaimed Christ)

Is America's financial collapse inevitable?

Greetings, and a belated Happy New Year to all.

Okay. It's 15 days into the month and I'm now doing my first post of the new year. There are a few reasons for that, but in a nutshell, I'll put it like this: I'm working on a few projects in 2010 that will cause me to probably post significantly less articles on this blog this year than I did last year or in previous years.

One of those projects is a separate website that I'm looking to set up, which I'm currently writing content for. I'd like that site to be completed, or at least almost completed, by the end of 2010. Please bear with me during this time, and feel free to check back for updates to this site, as I expect to still post several times a month here, especially with commentary on the major stories of the day.


Thanks to all of you for visiting, and thank you for your continued support.

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That being said, my first post of the year is not a particularly cheery one.

Pat Buchanan examines the sobering question that every American should consider: "Is America's financial collapse inevitable?"

Personally I'm 150% sure that such a collapse is not a matter of if, but when. However, let the reader check out Robertson's article and form his/her own opinion:

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January 14, 2010
8:10 pm Eastern

© 2010

We were blindsided. We never saw it coming.

So said Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein of the fiancial crisis of 2008. He likened its probability to four hurricanes hitting the East Coast in a single season.

Blankfein was reminded by the chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Committee, Phil Angelides, that hurricanes are "acts of God." Financial crises are manmade. Yet Blankfein was backed up by Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan, who said, "Somehow, we just missed ... that home prices don't go up forever."

The Wall Street titans thus conceded they did not foresee the housing bubble ever bursting and they did not consider the possibility of a collapse in value of the sub-prime mortgage securities piled up on their books.

Backing up Blankfein's plea of ignorance and incomprehension is this: The crisis killed Lehman Brothers and would have killed every one of them had not the Treasury and Fed, neither of which saw it coming, either, intervened with hundreds of billions in bailout cash.

Yet there were those who warned a housing bubble was being created like the dot-com bubble; others who predicted the Empire of Debt was coming down – as, today, there are those warning that the United States, with consecutive deficits running 10 percent of gross domestic product, is risking an eventual default on its national debt.

The warnings come from the Committee on the Fiscal Future of the United States, chaired by Rudolph Penner, former head of the Congressional Budget Office, and David Walker, former head of the Government Accountability Office and author of "Comeback America: Turning the Country Around and Restoring Fiscal Responsibility."

With that share of the U.S. national debt held by individuals, corporations, pension funds and foreign governments having risen in 2009 from 41 percent to 53 percent of GDP, Penner and Walker believe it imperative to get the deficit under control. Unfortunately, it is not possible to see how, politically, this can be done.

Full article here from WorldNetDaily.

Islamic plan to criminalize Gospel message crumbling

We do have some good news to report. A sneaky plan to criminalize the Gospel message looks like it's losing support in the United Nation.

WorldNetDaiily reports on this important, but woefully underreported, story:

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Islamic plan to criminalize Gospel message crumbling 

U.N. vote shows 'continuing pattern of growing opposition' to proposal

By Bob Unruh

The latest vote on the nonbinding proposal came as the U.N. headed into the weekend, with 80 votes in favor of the proposal, 61 against and 42 abstentions. The results show support declining from the 86 yes votes a year ago and the 108 yes votes from two years ago.

Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, has been working to raise the world's awareness of the implications of the plan for several years. He's especially concerned that the ultimate goal appears to be a binding action by the U.N.
© 2009 WorldNetDaily


Support for a United Nations proposal that critics contend would be used to ban criticism of Islam, censor the message of Jesus Christ and attack and kill Christians and members of other faiths is plunging, according to the newest vote totals.

A resolution has been pending in one form or another since 1999 and originally was called "Defamation of Islam." The name later was changed to "Defamation of Religions," but Islam remains the only faith protected by name in the proposal.

It is being sought by the 57 members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to "protect" Islam from what OIC members perceive as "criticism," which could include anything referencing Christianity since that could be considered a challenge to the beliefs of Muslims.
"For several years now, we have been working to oppose this resolution and this afront to religious freedom," he said in a blog posting shortly after the vote. 'During that time, we have seen a dramatic decline in support for this resolution.

He saw today's vote as "a very encouraging sign."

"What this tells us is that our message is getting through," he said. "A growing number of nations around the world understand that this resolution is unacceptable – that it is harmful, not helpful, to preserving religious liberty and freedom. We will continue to work on this issue and to educate more nations about the dangers of this resolution and encourage them to vote against it."

Lindsay Vessey, advocacy director for Open Doors USA, an international Christian ministry operating in many Islamic states, previously told WND that U.N. human rights provisions always have focused on individuals, but the concept of protecting a religion would give authoritarian governments virtually unrestrained power to attack individuals whose message they don't like.

"It would legitimize national blasphemy laws in countries that are actually going to persecute religious minorities, such as Pakistan and Afghanistan," she said.

Full article here.

Oral Roberts Dies at 91

From Charisma News Service.

Veteran evangelist Oral Robert died Tuesday in Newport Beach, Calif., due to complications from pneumonia. His son, Richard, and daughter, Roberta, were at his side. The founder of Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association and Oral Roberts University was 91.

There will be a private family internment. Arrangements for a public memorial service in Tulsa are pending and will be announced soon.

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Some of his teachings were controversial, to say the least. But Roberts was undeniably a giant figure in the world of Christendom.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Roberts family at this difficult time.