Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 31, 2014
When the famous ball drops on New Year’s Eve in New York City’s Times Square, a message will be there to remind “our intolerant liberal friends” about the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
Answers in Genesis, the Christian ministry best known for operating the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, announced it is purchasing a recurring, 15-second spot on a video billboard at 46th and Broadway to publicly “thank God for freedom.”
“The :15 digital board will remind Americans of the religious freedoms they enjoy – whether they hold to the worldviews of Christianity, atheism, Judaism [or] other belief systems – and must be defended,” the ministry stated. “In addition, the Cross of Christ will be prominently displayed.”
The 15-second ad states, “To all our intolerant liberal friends: Thank God for freedom. Brought to you by AnswersInGenesis.org and the First Amendment.”
Answers in Genesis, or AiG, explains the digital ad will air for seven minutes per hour each day, Dec. 30-Jan. 1, including during the final minutes of 2014. The ministry expects about three million impressions will be totaled at Times Square over the three days, with millions more potentially spotting the advertisement when the famous ball-drop ceremony is televised New Year’s Eve.
Stated Ken Ham, AiG president, “I am thrilled that the Cross of Christ will be seen in the most-watched place in the world on this day.”
“The latest billboard campaign by AiG is helping draw attention to religious liberties under assault in America,” the organization asserts. “The efforts by secularist groups to remove Crosses, Nativity scenes and Ten Commandments displays from public places –and attacks on AiG’s Ark Encounter project – are intensifying. The need for Christian groups and churches to preserve their First Amendment rights has never been greater.”
“The nation’s Founding Founders predicted that a future government would be tempted to infringe on religious liberties,” Ham stated. “That’s why their very first amendment was to establish a safeguard for religious expression, as they inserted the ‘free exercise clause’ for religion for the new nation. Sadly, that freedom is being chipped away today by atheists and other secularists.”
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 29, 2014
The Nativity of Christ
[Luke 2:4 – 11]
“So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.“
Though sparsely populated in Jesus’ day, Bethlehem now has a population of 22,000, with Christians constituting 18% of the population. In the early 1900s, it was 90% Christian. In 1990, Christians were still in the majority, representing 60% of Bethlehem’s population, but the Christian population dropped down to 40% by 2000.
Today Bethlehem is controlled by the Palestinian Authority. During the first several hundred years of rule by Muslims, Christians eventually became a minority in the Holy Land. Christians in Bethlehem have been suffering from human rights abuses and economic hardships for years.
It could be described as a modern day exodus: Christians are leaving Palestinian Arab-controlled areas like Bethlehem in great numbers. If the needs of the remaining Christians in the West Bank and Gaza — Gaza only has maybe a thousand, two thousand Christians – is not addressed in 10 or 15 or at most 20 years, there won’t be any Christians in the cradle of Christianity.
The threat of persecution, including beatings and forced marriages between Christian women and Muslim men, are some of the reasons Christians have left.
The Ethio-Jewish Baby Jesus would be crucified was He born today in the following places:
After the Flood the city state of Babylon became the center of Satan’s great attack on human history. After the destruction of the Tower of Babel, Babylon remained in hidden mystery form in Satan’s Cosmic System. The world counterattack of Mystery Babylon continued through the ages. The power of the great evil in the world today is defined through the symbolism of the Evil King and the Prostitute of Babylon in Revelation.
Foreword
Mystery Babylon, which is taught from Genesis to Revelation, is one of the major doctrines in the Bible and one of the major themes of human history. Yet, this strategically important doctrine lies beyond the grasp of most people. So well-hidden is the mystery, right under the nose, that the symptoms are seen but not the cause. The reason lies in the power that Satan has over this world through fundamental values like the love of money and honey (sexuality). Satan controls the pastors as well as the congregations. He controls the parents as well as the children. So, each generation is doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The Light is available for those who want it. However, the Light to see Mystery Babylon will only be revealed to those whom the Lord chooses. Only true believers can see the Light, and the Lord decides who those true believers are. Many of the best and brightest students of Bible Doctrine are totally oblivious to the paradigm of Mystery Babylon. They talk a good fight, but they are not genuine. The power of Christianity seems to have eluded too many of the so-called doctrinal believers, who are so busy conforming to Mystery Babylon that the power of God has departed. These people can’t make a decision by themselves. The Holy Spirit is a mystery to them, whereas, they accept Satan’s Mystery Babylon as the gospel.
Mystery Babylon is a doctrine for Christians who have reached Spiritual Maturity and are advancing to Spiritual Rapport. It is not meant for arrogant theologians who are educated beyond their intelligence. Yet, even though the doctrine may only be mastered in Spiritual Rapport, it should be heard even by school children, who are bombarded with human viewpoint from Satan’s factory of lies and deception. Christian schools are blind to Mystery Babylon the same as their secular counterparts. And no Christian teacher should teach without studying this all-important doctrine of our Christian heritage.
The exposure of Mystery Babylon, which is Satan’s Cosmic System, is not meant to be an academic exercise. It has far-reaching practical value. It doesn’t take a professor to recognize daylight from dark. When Marriages don’t click, there must be a reason. There is. The Prostitute of Babylon, who represents Satan, has infiltrated every institution of society, especially the Church. She is out to destroy Marriage; yet, most Christians are oblivious to her. Satan is much more brilliant and much more active than most people think. He has a master plan in place to destroy every divine institution and every Christian life. But genuine Christians who Love the Lord Jesus Christ and obey the Holy Spirit can see through Satan’s ploy. They can grasp his master plan of Mystery Babylon because it is written in the Bible. And they can see Spiritually what is happening in the world around them.
There are many practical applications to be gained from mastering the doctrine of Mystery Babylon. Some value could be gained from simply looking at the pictures in this document. The pictures of Light and darkness in the human body can be applied to breast cancer as well as other diseases and maladies. The source of marital problems and lack of harmony can be understood. The true course of history is explained. Social relationships and relationships with animals are cast in a new light. The love of money and honey are exposed. Two of the most wonderful Christians in history, Patrick and Brigid, from Ireland, are introduced. And Bible prophecy is accurately interpreted. The attacks on Client Nation Israel are explained. And the attacks on the Church in light of the seven churches of Revelation has application throughout the Church Age. For those who will master the doctrine, the application will come.
Seeing the faithfulness of God in light of the Satanic counterattack of Mystery Babylon will challenge the Christian to operate inside the Integrity Envelope. The impact of genuine Christian Integrity on human history will be seen. And Satan’s counterattack to prevent the Christian from achieving Spiritual Rapport with God and harmonious rapport with the spouse and all mankind will be exposed.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 22, 2014
In this video, Mr. Fouad Hashem also says: “in my view, on judgment Day, 90% on inhabitants will be Arabs and people who pretend to be pious Muslims.”
Why Have The Islamic Countries Failed To Develop Even With Resources Like Oil, While Countries With No Resources Like Switzerland Have Flourished?
Answer by Ryan Lackey, Technology Entrepreneur,
It’s true. Outside of oil and gas projects and a few specific infrastructure projects (ports like Jebel Ali and airports like Dubai), far less real economic development has happened in the oil-rich parts of the Arab world than would be expected based on their great endowment of human and natural resources. The Islamic world isn’t monolithic, and it’s probably worthwhile to address relatively stable oil-rich states separately from Iraq, Iran, and Libya, again separately from other Islamic states without much oil separately from Asian Islamic countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. Let’s look specifically at the stable oil rich Arab Islamic states for now. I’m not an academic economist, political scientist, or cultural expert, but I lived in the region from 2004-2010, ran several businesses there, and have experience as a tech entrepreneur in the US and Europe, so I can comment directly on some of the challenges.
(There are some really interesting aspects of Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Malaysia, and Indonesia which would be interesting to address separately — they demonstrate what happens when some of these trends are reversed and taken too far the other way. Those countries deserve another question.)
Overall, the local standard of living has improved dramatically — walking around Dubai or even a moderately sized city anywhere in the region shows a reasonable standard of living, especially compared to a few decades ago. All those shiny new condo buildings, huge hypermarkets, highways, etc.
However, it’s all consumption of energy wealth, not evidence of other productive economic activity. While the economic theory of comparative advantage says you maximize efficiency by going all-in on areas where you have the greatest comparative advantage, economic efficiency isn’t the ultimate goal of life, and there are serious consequences to blindly maximizing current economic efficiency to the exclusion of all else. There is a huge qualitative difference between an economy built on natural resource extraction, where the populace is a cost center, and an economy built on productive labor by the population, where increasing capabilities of the society leads to more wealth. If you look at western countries, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and increasingly, China, they largely developed through manufacturing, initially low cost, low value add manufacturing, moving up the chain, and ended up with vibrant, well-educated, and diverse economies (even though Japan has demographic challenges, it will still be the #3 economy in the world in 2030). The alternative is an extractive economy like Argentina, which went from 10th in the world in 1930 to a basketcase for the past 80 years. That’s not to say that natural resource endowment hasn’t helped some countries (like the US), but natural resource economies in the absence of local value creation don’t tend to lead to well developed societies.
Wealth in a resource-based economy is distributed much more unequally and more inefficiently. It goes to a small number of people at the top, and they’re at the top due to tribal, family, or political connections, not due to skill or productivity. In a vibrant, competitive manufacturing economy, wealth tends to accrue to innovators and efficient operators, and someone with a new idea or better way of doing things has a chance to get to the top. Admittedly, this is imperfect even in the US, but it’s a better system than political patronage.
And, someday, the oil will run out (or won’t be burned because of global warming).
Outside simple products and services for local consumption (consumers spending income directly from energy related jobs, or from government redistribution of energy wealth), and development, funded by energy wealth, of local transportation, power, and water infrastructure (starting from a very low base), what local development there has happened has been economically inefficient — building empty skyscrapers in the desert. This has been largely directed by government, or influential families affiliated with government, and financed by huge capital flows from oil/gas and foreign investment from Russia, South Asia, and other parts of the Arab or Muslim world, and not the product of real free enterprise. Essentially, these investments don’t produce wealth; they’re just a way to store wealth generated elsewhere, as a form of regulatory arbitrage. Even crazier, most of the labor, including skilled labor, to build buildings and operate companies is imported, too — labor from China and Pakistan, accountants from the Philippines, advertising executives from the Levant, and engineers and architects from the UK and US.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 21, 2014
A hair-raising video has emerged that a car full of masked robbers exploding moments after they raided a church in Russia – and witnesses insist they were hit by lightning.
The dash cam footage uploaded by YouTube user World News TV, shows a vehicle speeding along with a police siren sounding in the background.
All of a sudden the car bursts into flames and explodes, sending debris all over the road.
The vehicle filming the incident immediately slows down and pulls over.
According to a caption accompanying the video, everyone in the runaway car died as a result of the electrical bolt.
The thieves had reportedly robbed a church in the city of St Petersburg.
To date the video has been watched more than 90,000 times. So even though it may not be real, it certainly has legs.
Many viewers though have deemed it an example of ‘divine intervention’.
According to experts, the chances of getting killed by lightning are around 300,000 to one.
Posted by addisethiopia / አዲስ ኢትዮጵያ on December 16, 2014
My note: Not a single day goes by without hearing/witnessing about the horror massacre by Islamists of innocent men, women and children who do not even carry guns and bombs. The demonic heartlessness is characteristic of all the Jihadi zombies all over the globe. It’s amazing, this typical character of Islam / the Arab Muslim was predicted before the birth of Ishmael 4000 years ago, and it remains true of him today. His mother, Hagar was told of her son, Ishmael:
“He will be a wild-ass man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren“ (Genesis 16:12)
Ethiopia’s ‘Islam Lesson’ for the West
Yet another Christian church was destroyed by Muslims in Ethiopia—this time by local authorities.
Heaven’s Light Church, which served some 100 evangelical Christians, was demolished last November 28. The church had stood and functioned in the Muslim-majority city of Harar for five years. In the days preceding the destruction, officials forcibly removed the church’s exterior sign and warned believers not to worship there, citing complaints by a local Muslim. Officials further told church members who had previously congregated at the church “not to gather under what remains of the church building.” Accordingly, Christians are now meeting in homes of individual believers.
Prior to the demolition of the church, when some Christian leaders protested, they were illegally detained, released only after community members, “outraged by the wrongful detentions,” called “for their immediate release,” reported International Christian Concern, a rights advocacy group supporting the Christians:
These are no isolated incidents, explained ICC, adding that it had documented “numerous ongoing land rights battles between churches and their local governments across Ethiopia.”
In many cases, ICC said, “churches have been operating peacefully for decades on land given to them by now-deceased former congregants.”
However efforts by local majority Muslim populations to “eliminate the public presence” of churches resulted in the forceful closure, destruction and demolition of several church buildings in recent years, according to ICC investigators.
ICC’s Regional Manager for Africa, Cameron Thomas, accused Ethiopia of violating the rights of devoted Christians. “Corrupt officials willing to defend their religion [Islam] rather than the laws they’ve sworn to uphold, are violating Christians’ rights by forcibly closing, destroying and demolishing churches across Ethiopia,” the official said.
If this is the treatment Christian churches receive by Muslim officials and politicians—”sworn to uphold” the rights of every citizen, not just Muslims—one can imagine the treatment churches receive by Muslim mobs. One example suffices:
In 2011, after a Christian was accused of desecrating a Koran, thousands of Christians were forced to flee their homes when “Muslim extremists set fire to roughly 50 churches and dozens of Christian homes” in a Muslim-majority region in western Ethiopia. At least one Christian was killed, many injured, and anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 displaced. Around the same time, in another area that is 90% Muslim, “all the Christians in the city woke up to find notes on their doors warning them to convert to Islam, leave the city or face death.”
For those few Western observers who live beyond the moment and have an interest in the “big picture”—the world bequeathed to future generations—it is well to reflect on the question of numbers in the context of Ethiopia. As Jonathan Racho, another official at ICC, earlier said, “It’s extremely disconcerting that in Ethiopia, where Christians are the majority, they are also the victims of persecution.”
That Muslims are an otherwise peaceable minority group in Ethiopia, but in enclaves where they represent the majority, they attack their outnumbered Christian countrymen, suggests that Muslim aggression and passivity are very much rooted in numbers. This reflects what I call “Islam’s Rule of Numbers,” which holds that, wherever and whenever Muslims grow in number—and thus in strength and confidence—so too does Muslim intolerance for “the other” grow (video explanation here).
This naturally has lessons for the West, especially European nations like Britain and France that have a significant and ever-growing Muslim population—and where church attacks and even beheadings are now taking place.
By way of final illustration, the reader is left with the story of Islam’s entry into Ethiopia, one of the oldest Christian civilizations. According to Islamic tradition, in 615, when the pagan Quraysh were persecuting Muhammad’s outnumbered followers and disciples in Arabia, some fled to Ethiopia seeking sanctuary. The Christian king, or “Negus” of Ethiopia, welcomed and protected these Muslim fugitives, ignoring Quraysh demands to return them—and thus reportedly winning Muhammad’s gratitude.
Today, 14 centuries later, when Islam has carved itself a solid niche in Ethiopia, accounting for 1/3 of the population, Muslim gratitude has turned into Muslim aggression—not least a warning to Western states.
Addis Ethiopia Weblog 