Navigating The Politically Correct

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Firemenphoto9-11Events in 2002 that surrounded the reinterpretation of a controversial New York City 9-11 memorial captured the true essence of the modern day propaganda movement of political correctness (PC). Can you remember that? If you read or watched television that year you were aware of the memorial in question. The famous photo of three New York fireman raising the colors in the Twin Towers rubble was recast in bronze to reflect an ethnic diversity within the context of the tragedy. A white, black, and hispanic fireman were cast to recapture the event.

The issue that finally stifled the memorial through public outrage was the three firemen photographed in the famous picture were all white. Nothing wrong with a hispanic, black, and white fireman working together at the sight of the Trade Center carnage. In fact they did. But the history of the actual photo disputes the revision.

Why a different project depicting every American ethnic group that served at Ground Zero wasn’t originally developed lies at the core of PC. The true danger of its agenda is its design to fabricate truth through misinformation. Current events and history are cast in its PC image, and the politically incorrect positions of others are forbidden in the process.

Academic revisionism, media gatekeeping, and political posturing provide its formidable platforms, and personal “rights” are its overarching issue. Right to be white; right to be black; right to be right; right to be wrong. And whatever it takes to make its point is fair and open game. Misinformation or no-information have proven to be equally effective when the information gatekeeper seeks to popularize a view.
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/In the case of our New York tragedy, the PC gatekeepers were simply wanting to make a lasting case for New York’s ethnic diversity. In other cases PC revisionists have launched more damaging assaults on truth, and for the most part have sped away safely from the scene of the crime.
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/Photo-ops and spin cycles have always proven effective at cultivating public opinion. So our daily doses of PC cultivation have continued over the last 11 years. But if you think their jaded world view is most pervasive in the secular marketplace, think again Christian, and take a look around the church.
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/Since the politically correct mindset of “meism” was popularized fifty years ago, church divorce rates have equaled secular society.
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/Church kids grow up on a steady diet of MTV and melt into the culture’s dilemmas as if Jesus never died.
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/And we keep our “religion in check” in the public market place like the PC pundits preach, lifting up the inactivity of “moderation” as some sort of noble, golden rule.Eyeontruth
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/Shame on us all for taking this stuff in.
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/Addressing the PC agenda of His day, Jesus said”
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/Matthew 11:16-19
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16 “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places, who call out to the other children,
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/17 and say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.
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/18 ‘For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’
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/19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”
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/A more contemporary rendering of Jesus’ statement could couch His words like this: “When the cultural elite tell you to be happy, you put on a PC ribbon and go to their dance! When they say it’s time to mourn, you buy into their fears, cancel your flights, and sell your stocks.
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/”You see no problem in adopting the ideas of the world’s trend-setting figures when they conflict with mine. So you allow their televised rantings into your home nine hours a day.
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/”Network pundits say John and I are outdated myths and hold us responsible for Christian nonsense.
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/”Progressive politicians smear us because we pose an ideological threat to their humanistic system.
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/”But wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”
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/Navigating the Politically Correct in Jerusalem Again
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/jerusalemToday as Israel is once again making front page headline news, the politically correct are preaching a message of “land rights” and “mutual peace.” And no one (Jew or Gentile) is taking into account God’s covenant promise to Abraham or citing biblical history, because today in the world’s public forums, the Bible is politically incorrect.
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/Nevertheless, the Bible addresses the land rights and history surrounding the Mideast crisis today, and this commentary is going to give it a public hearing.
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/Politically Incorrect Bible 101
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/The Old Testament reveals God’s emphatic intent to make Israel the national inhabitants of the land the Jews and Palestinians are contesting so hotly today. The birth of the Arab’s forefather Ishmael is also a biblical fact, including God’s promise to bless him. But his blessing did not include the land. Abraham’s son Isaac was given that promise, and for ONE purpose, to bring forth God’s Messiah, another key issue PC pundits aren’t adequately addressing. (Genesis 17:20,21; Isaiah 11:1-4; Micah 5:2; Zechariah 9:9.)
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/Genesis 15 reveals Abraham’s 2000 BC Divine land grant of Canaan that encompasses the tiny plot Israel today is established on, and a promised son to inherit it. Coming from Sarah’s barren womb twenty-five years later, Isaac fathered Jacob (later renamed Israel) who fathered the twelve Jewish tribes that eventually possessed it. Moses led Israel out of the Abrahamic covenant’s forewarned Egyptian bondage. Joshua led the military campaigns God empowered to possess it. A series of defeats by surrounding nations soon followed because of Israel’s disobedience. The nation finally entered their glory years under David and Solomon. But that ended after a short 120 years, this time through infighting and personal lust for power, leaving Israel open to Assyria’s conquering and dispersion in 721, and Judah’s conquering by Babylon in 606. This is all a matter of historic record contained in the Old Testament books of Genesis through Malachi, and in the pages of world history.
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/A Biblical Remnant
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/But Israel was also preserved as a remnant. The books of Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Ester, in particular, tell the story of God’s preservation of Jacob’s seed to repopulate the land and fulfill Abraham’s international accountability to be a blessing:
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/Genesis 12:2
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/2 And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a lessing.                        
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/Abraham’s blessing would eventually translate into mankind’s redemption through the promise of God’s Messiah, Jesus Christ.
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Galatians 3:14
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/…in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

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/Mary and Joseph of the tribes of Judah and Aaron were among the restored first-century remnant in Israel to participate in the fulfillment of the Old Testament’s Messianic prophecies (Genesis 3:15; Is. 7:14; 9:6,7; 11:1-5; 53:1-ff; Micah 5:2-5; Zechariah 13:7). Seventy years later, Rome drove Israel out. Six hundred years after that, the Arabs planted their flags and built their domed sanctuary and Al Asqua Mosque.
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/A Biblical Regathering
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/Nevertheless, according to Scripture, the land, though dispossessed, was still Israel’s by promise, a promise perpetuated by many other Old Testament prophecies guaranteeing an Israeli regathering in their Promised Land.
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/Ezekiel 28:25,26
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/25 ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and shall manifest My holiness in them in the sight of the nations, then they will live in their land which I gave to My servant Jacob.
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/26 “And they will live in it securely; and they will build houses, plant vineyards, and live securely, when I execute judgments upon all who scorn them round about them. Then they will know that I am the LORD their God.'”
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/This prophecy began its national fulfillment in 1948, and will continue to unfold its verse 26 proclamations because the Mesopotamian Abraham was the man God chose to bring forth His Son the Messiah in the land named after Isaac’s second-born son.
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/Questions the Pundits Aren’t Asking
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/_world-blue-glow-christian-news-serviceIn light of this impacting spiritual and geographical truth, here are some politically incorrect questions the pundits aren’t asking or addressing as they fill the airwaves today.
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/”What do you believe the Bible has to say about who really owns the land, Mr. Palestinian, Egyptian, Jordanian, spokesman? According to its pages, the seed of Abraham from Isaac’s lineage were given God’s promise of the land. Do you have any comment on that?”
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/”What did Mohammed have to say about the authority of the Hebrew Scriptures?”
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/”Do you believe Moses was God’s prophet?”
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/”Do you believe the Hebrew Scriptures are authoritative?”
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/Politically incorrect questions the Israelis aren’t being asked involve the nation’s promised Messiah.
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/”How do you believe, Mr. Prime Minister, Mr. Kennesset member, the New Testament connects to the Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures?”
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/”Why do you believe so many of your Christian friends around the world believe Jesus fulfilled the Hebrew prophets’ many prophecies predicting the Messiah’s coming?” “Why don’t you believe it?” (Christian tourist flow can pull in $2.5 billion a year [says Eretz Weekly], so this question would be both spiritually and economically practical.)
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/”Are you expecting the Messiah in Israel?”
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/”Do you believe the Old Testament prophets’ claims of the Battle of Armageddon and a coming era of peace?”
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/Holy Land 101
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/Without factoring Jesus into the equation of what’s transpiring in Israel today, all you have are confusing land disputes. American culture refers to it as the Holy Land because of Judaism and Christianity’s moorings in it, the Islamic implications only becoming popular recently in perspective. These truths should be media hot button topics. So here is some politically incorrect catch-up on Holy Land 101.
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/Genesis 15:18
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/18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.”
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/The priestly lineage of Moses was given no land when Joshua finally parceled it out because of their call to represent God to the world, as priests of His redemption (Numbers 18:23,24).
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/The land was located in the center of every major commerce route that joined the European and African continents to accommodate God’s will of redemption to every nation (Ezekiel 38:12).
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/The Hebrew Jerusalem temple was to be geocentric, open to all peoples, as the Queen of Sheba in Solomon’s day and the Ethiopian Eunuch led to Jesus by Phillip near Gaza both experienced (2 Chronicles 9:3-6; Acts 8:26-39).
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/Every Old Testament blood and meal sacrifice spoke of the coming of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 9:8-15).
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/The proselytized Jews from differing nations gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Hebrew feast of Pentecost were there to hear Peter’s church planting sermon preached from several Old Testament texts (Acts 2:5-ff).
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/It is there that the two witnesses of Revelation 11 will rivet the world in their season (Revelation 11:8).
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/And it is there, in Jerusalem that Jesus will return (Zechariah 14:4).
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/No Jesus, No Peace
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/The Jews didn’t reject Jesus as Messiah when He first appeared in Israel. It was Jerusalem’s hypocritical PC religious system_Scroll (earning Jesus’ rebukes as “white washed tombs and hypocrites” [Matthew 22:23-33]) that smeared His character and had Him executed. Read Acts chapter 10 and you realize the exclusive Jewish New Testament Church leader Peter had to receive a prejudice-shattering revelation to plant the first Gentile church.
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/But today, neither Kennesset, world news correspondent, nor U.S. political envoy are openly discussing the Bible’s truths in relation to the Holy Land’s current conundrum, because the Old and New Testaments are politically incorrect.
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/Genesis 21:10
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/10 Therefore she said to Abraham, “Drive out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be an heir with my son Isaac.”
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/While the politically correct are shouting, “Peace! Peace!” they don’t understand why faithless Sarah, who talked Abraham into impregnating her maid to compromise God’s promise, saw the need to finally send the boy given birth, Ishmael, out of the camp. They don’t understand the significance of Jerusalem in the biblical history and consider holy land repossessed at the expense of thousands of Israeli lives since 1948 a negotiating issue. This is what instigated the latest hostilities, and only Jesus can heal the spreading, bloody breach.
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/Rehashed Arab Council peace initiatives calling for the “giving back” of war-won land when Arab armies attempted to annihilate Israel in 1967 are touted as the only way to peace.
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/Growing numbers of journalists are adopting Palestinian claims of illegal Israeli occupation.
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/Many International news services are advocating Palestinian claims of brutal West Bank massacres, while the story of eight Israeli troops ambushed by a ten year old suicide bomber and window snipers went barely reported.
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/A recent AP report said, “It seems that at no time since the establishment of the state has the gap between what Israelis think about themselves and what the world says about them has been so wide.”
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/And all of this, including growing United Nations criticism, despite the heinous attacks of Palestinian suicide bombers, Yasser Arafat’s historic rejection of proposal after proposal, and Hamas recent election victory that replaced Fatah as the ruling Palestinianl power.
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/In the meantime, Arab oil provides the political leverage with US foreign policy it always has, suicide bombers are considered freedom fighters in Arab countries, and the most we can naturally hope for in the near future is a perimeter wall that separates the two peoples. And so it historically goes.
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/Know Jesus, Know Peace
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/30 Great White ThroneMicah 5:2
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/2 “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.”                     
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/You can’t believe the Bible’s revelation of Jesus Christ’s first coming without believing in His Second. Since its 30 A.D. promise given Christ’s earliest followers the day He ascended, the church has anticipated it faithfully (Acts 1:1-11). And one day soon, the Hebrew prophecies that foretell of Christ’s second coming will come to pass as surely as the Hebrew prophecies that foretold of His first.
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/Revelation 1:7
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/7 Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. Even so. Amen.                             
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/This is where front page events in the Middle East are leading the world today, and everyone, the politically correct especially, need to hear it.
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/In that day, the fifth century BC prophet Zechariah writes, the Jewish remnant in Israel who have not yet received God’s Messiah will be favored with one last invitation just prior to Bible prophecy’s infamous Battle of Armageddon.
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/Zechariah 12:9-11
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/9 “And it will come about in that day that I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
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/10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a first-born.
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/11 “In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo.
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/The Hebrew prophet continues in chapters 13 and 14 to give a brief glimpse of the first-century crucifixion of Israel’s Messiah and the remnant who would return to their land.
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/Zechariah 13:7,8
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/7 “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the man, My Associate,” declares the LORD of hosts. “Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; and I will turn My hand against the little ones
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/8 “And it will come about in all the land,” declares the LORD, “That two parts in it will be cut off and perish; but the third will be left in it.
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/He then reveals the Messiah’s coming as the reason for the event.
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/Zechariah 14:3,4,9
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/3 Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle.
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/4 And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south.
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/9 And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one.
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/Zechariah also discloses how the warring armies of the governments that will be gathered on that day to face Christ’s Second Coming will be instantly judged.
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/Zechariah 14:12,13
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/12 Now this will be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth.
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/13 And it will come about in that day that a great panic from the LORD will fall on them; and they will seize one another’s hand, and the hand of one will be lifted against the hand of another.
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/So does the Hebrew New Testament prophet John:
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/Revelation 16:16-19
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/16 And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon.
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/17 And the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air; and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, “It is done.”
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/18 And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty.
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/19 And the great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath.
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/Some of these eschatological nations are rattling their sabers in the news now. Others are watching quietly, awaiting their place in history. Until that time, God is calling all men, Jew and Gentile, to receive Jesus Christ’s blood redeeming sacrifice.
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/One day soon, the issue will be settled. Until then, Isaac and Ishmael’s ancient struggle will continue everywhere they meet. And it is up to us who are politically incorrect enough to believe the Bible to interpret world events, because only we understand mankind’s biblical moorings. We have Jehovah’s word on it, with the weight of history, scholarship, and archaeology to support our claims.
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/So, Christian, pray for the peace of Jerusalem and ALL who live in and near it. God loves Isaac and Ishmael.
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/Pray for Godly rule in America and around the world.
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/Continue to work in God’s harvest fields of salvation doing your part to fulfill Jesus’ great commission to preach the gospel in the “whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come” (Matthew 24:14).
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/Because one day soon…every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. Even so. Amen.. (Revelation 1:7).
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/This is God’s wisdom, politically incorrect, though it is.
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/Zechariah 14:9
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/9 And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one.
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/Mark Norris (BA theology; MA journalism) is publisher of Apocalypse (and other stuff) Now! and founder of Covenant Library Ministries.

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