by Jack Kinsella

The Catholic church was thrown into turmoil [Monday] after Pope Benedict XVI made the shock decision to quit the papacy because of his deteriorating health. The decision, delivered in Latin and in unemotional tones by Pope Benedict XVI to a gathering of cardinals on Monday, came ”like a bolt out of the blue”, one of the participants said, and it soon ricocheted around the world.

In a decision that surprised even his closest aides, the 85-year-old Pontiff said his strength was ‘no longer adequate to continue in office due to his advanced age’.  He announced his resignation in Latin to a meeting of Vatican cardinals this morning, saying he did not have the ‘strength of mind and body’ to continue leading more than a billion Roman Catholics worldwide.

He is the first Pope to resign since Gregory XII in 1415 and no Pontiff in history has stepped down on health grounds. Shortly after making his announcement, the statue of Peter’s horse atop St Peter’s Basilica was struck by lightning not once but TWICE.

Which brings us full circle to when Pope Benedict was elected in 2005 to replace the late John Paul II bringing an obscure 10th century Irish priest back to the center square.

According to legend, Irish Bishop Malachy O’Morgair had a strange vision during a trip to Rome to report to Pope Innocent II.

In his vision, Malachy was given a list of all the Popes who would rule over the Catholic Church from his day until the Second Coming.  Malachy put the list together using short announcements that indicated some noticeable trait from each Pope, beginning with Pope Celestine II, who was elected in 1130. Read the rest of this entry »

“And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring;  men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” Luke 21:25-26

From RT.com

Russia’s Urals region has been rocked by a meteorite explosion in the stratosphere. The impact wave damaged several buildings, and blew out thousands of windows amid frigid winter weather. Hundreds are seeking medical attention for minor injuries.

According to unconfirmed reports, the meteorite was intercepted by an air defense unit at the Urzhumka settlement near Chelyabinsk. A missile salvo blew the meteorite to pieces at an altitude of 20 kilometers, local newspaper Znak reports quoting a source in the military.

Regnum news agency quoted a military source who claimed that the vapor condensation trail of the meteorite speaks to the fact that the meteorite was intercepted by air defenses.

Army units found three meteorite debris impact sites, two of which are in an area near Chebarkul Lake, west of Chelyabinsk. The third site was found some 80 kilometers further to the northwest, near the town of Zlatoust. One of the fragments that struck near Chebarkul left a crater six meters in diameter.

Russian space agency Roskosmos has confirmed the object that crashed in the Chelyabinsk region is a meteorite: “According to preliminary estimates, this space object is of non-technogenic origin and qualifies as a meteorite. It was moving at a low trajectory with a speed of about 30 km/s.”

According to estimates by the Russian Academy of Sciences, the space object weighed about 10 tons before entering Earth’s atmosphere.

As of 15:00 Moscow time, 725 people have sought medical attention in Chelyabinsk alone because of the disaster, 112 of whom have been hospitalized .Among the injured there are 84 children, Emergency ministry reported.

A bright flash was seen in the Chelyabinsk, Tyumen and Sverdlovsk regions, Russia’s Republic of Bashkiria and in northern Kazakhstan.

The Russian army has joined the rescue operation. Army units are searching for meteorite debris in several places in Chelyabinsk region and in the neighboring Tyumen region.

Radiation, chemical and biological protection units have been put on high alert. Since the explosion occurred several kilometers above the Earth, a large ground area must be thoroughly checked for radiation and other threats.

At least one piece of the fallen object caused damage on the ground in Chelyabinsk. According to preliminary reports, it crashed into a wall near a zinc factory, disrupting the city’s Internet and mobile service.

The Emergency Ministry reported that 20,000 rescue workers are operating in the region. Three aircraft were deployed to survey the area and locate other possible impact locations.

Witnesses said the explosion was so loud that it seemed like an earthquake and thunder had struck at the same time, and that there were huge trails of smoke across the sky. Others reported seeing burning objects fall to earth.

The Urals regional center of the Emergency Ministry claimed it sent out a mass SMS warning residents about a possible meteorite shower. However, eyewitnesses said they either never received it, or got the message after the explosion had already occurred.

Classes for all Chelyabinsk schools have been canceled, mostly due to broken windows. Institute students have been dismissed until next Monday. Authorities also ordered all kindergartens with broken windows to return children to their families.

By Liz Klimas at The Blaze

A top government defense contractor revealed it created software that can sift through social media sites to collect information from “trillions of entities” in order to reasonably predict a person’s next move.

The spokesperson for the Massachusetts-based company Raytheon, Jared Adams, told The Guardian in an email that it developed RIOT (Rapid Information Overlay Technology), which is “a big data analytics system design we are working on with industry, national labs and commercial partners to help turn massive amounts of data into usable information to help meet our nation’s rapidly changing security needs.”

The Guardian obtained a video showing Raytheon’s Brian Urch explaining the RIOT software and how it uses photographs that are embedded with location data (generally they’re taken by smartphones) to conduct analysis about where the person was and where they might be going next.

Urch explains in the video that the software uses Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. He tracks one of Raytheon’s own employees as an example. He shows all the places the employee — Nick — checked in with his smartphone. Then Urch goes to look for photos.

“One of the things we’ve noticed is that when people take pictures and post them on the Internet using their smartphones that the phone will actually embed the latitude and longitude using the exif header data,” Urch said. “Now we know where Nick’s going, what he looks like, now we want to predict where he may be in the future.”

Click here to read this important article and see the pictures and video demo.

by Heidi Swander

Headline: U.S. Pastor to Spend 8 Years in Iran Prison. Here’s the back story: Saeed Abedini, who became a U.S. citizen in 2010 and resides in Boise, Idaho, returns regularly to his native country, Iran. On his last trip in September 2012, Pastor Saeed was arrested while visiting family, and he has since been charged with attempting to undermine state security by creating a network of Christian churches in private homes.

According to the cited article, “The Iranians have lied about all aspects of the case, abused their own laws, and trampled the fundamentals of human rights.” None of these charges against the Iranians surprise me, but I am sorry for Pastor Saeed and his family who are suffering terribly through this ordeal. I suspect Pastor Saeed knew the risk he was taking every time he entered his home country. I guarantee he’s done it with eternal goals in mind.

In a preamble to the most recent edition of his book, Safely Home, author Randy Alcorn speaks to the persecution that is still prevalent in China.

“Many readers ask me whether Christians in China continue to suffer persecution. Often they’ve been told it’s a thing of the past.” Not so, Randy says. And he confirms his statement by relating a number of harrowing stories. Here’s one:

“Even as the government attempted to create a better public image for China in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, they continued to persecute believers. Asia News reported that in December 2007, officials arrested 270 Christian pastors in a quick and brutal raid, accusing them of holding an illegal Bible meeting and fining 120 of them with an ‘interrogation tax.’

According to the China Aid Association, earlier that year a Beijing house-church leader, Hua Huiqi, served six months in prison. Hua and his seventy-six-year-old mother were arrested after being attacked by seven police officers. While walking on a public street they were kicked to the ground and taken to the Olympic police station for questioning. Hua’s mother, Shuang Shuying, had turned her residence into a boarding house for believers. When authorities began planning the Olympic games, they dismantled the home and her family was detained, supervised twenty-four hours a day, and frequently beaten. Imprisoned for two years, Shuang was tortured, lost her vision, and dwindled to a mere seventy-three pounds.”

Safely Home is a novel about persecution of Christians in China. As a novel, it is not necessarily “fun” reading. But it is inspirational and it is life-changing.

But practically speaking, why read it? Perhaps, you say, you aren’t into fictional stories. You want the low-down on end-time prophecy or on prophecy in light of current events. Why should you take your time to read such a book?

Because it will prepare you, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, for what could surely be coming down the pike on American soil if God tarries in sending our Bridegroom to get us. In fact, it isn’t “coming down the pike.” Persecution of American Christians has already begun.

Read the rest of this entry »

by Todd Strandberg

For a long time, I have been mindful of how the age factor plays a role in the ongoing culture war. Conservative Christians have been losing battles simply because our numbers are rapidly dwindling away.

This past weekend, conservative pundit George Will was very blunt about why he believes the gay marriage forces are on a winning streak. He said there is no need for the Supreme Court to stick its nose into the issue because, “Quite literally, the opposition to gay marriage is dying. It’s old people.”

Opinion polls paint a very dark picture for our nation’s future. People over age 65 oppose gay marriage by 70 percent. People who are under 45 support gay marriage by the same percentage.

These figures show that time is on the side of the gay lobby. If they wait long enough, same-sex unions will become the normal in all 50 states. Since they only need a simple majority to pass a measure, we are already at the tipping point.

The responsibility for this slow-motion train wreck rests at the feet of the church leadership. We have had the opportunity to instill biblical moral values into the minds of two generations, and we squandered our chance. Now that we have millions of adults with no parent or grandparent to act as role models, it will very hard to get people back into the church.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Sandy Howard, Rapture Ready

Thank you for your email.

I am sorry that I am unable to respond to your email right now. I am currently out of my office without access to email, cell phone, landline phone, U.S. mail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Post- It note, smoke signal, or personal contact of any kind. I have been: Raptured!

I do not have an exact date of return at this point. However, I will be returning in approximately seven years. I’ll be the one riding on a (I hope) paint horse (I used to own a paint horse whom I loved with all my heart). So, who knows, maybe he will be allowed to give me one last ride! I will be following behind the Savior Jesus, whom you can’t miss (seriously, EVERY eye will see Him). He will be riding on a white horse, bigger than life, and will be entering from above like a LION!

Ok, back to reality today. I sure wish I could put the above auto-reply in my email today, but alas, I have not heard the trumpet yet. I’m going to have to check into it and see if there is a way to have the above auto-reply put in my email and prompted to begin auto-replying in the event that my email is idle for over a week, let’s say. I am not able to take more than a week at a time for vacation usually so I think this would be a safe time lapse. I really want to figure this out because I don’t want there to be any doubt about where I am after the Rapture.

So, if I do get this figured out and if you happen to get the above auto- reply from my email…first I want to say how sorry I am that you are here and not with me in heaven. Regardless of whatever wild and crazy (or even plausible and acceptable) story you have heard on the news or rumored around town, I have not run off, been abducted by aliens, in hiding, chemically evaporated or anything of the sort. So, don’t believe any of that stuff.

Here’s what happened: I was going about my business as usual…and then suddenly I heard a trumpet sound. It was loud and it was beautiful and it was coming from the sky! Then I heard (although I have never physically heard His voice before, but I just KNEW it was Him) the voice of Jesus saying, “Sandy come up here!” WOWIE…KABAM…as they used to say on the old Batman shows when I was a kid, I was instantly lifted up into the air and met a bunch of other people there, some who had already died on this earth and we all got brand new bodies. No more dry skin, no more hard of hearing, no more heartburn…I mean PERFECT eternal bodies. Amazing! And I saw Jesus and I promise you that I am having WAY more fun than you are. I don’t say that to gloat AT ALL! I really don’t!

But I am SO happy that I cannot stop myself from sharing with you what I am doing right now. I am meeting my paternal grandpa (who died before I was born) for the first time! We are laughing and hugging and touching each other’s faces. And, I am reuniting with tons of other loved ones that I have not seen in years! And others that I loved on earth but never got the chance to meet face to face. But…better than all that…I have seen the face of Jesus, my Savior! Wow!

Back to my auto-reply:

Read the rest of this entry »

From Israel National News

Boeing has successfully tested an EMP missile that could be doomsday for Iran; media have largely ignored the development.

Boeing has successful tested an electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) missile that turns “science fiction into science fact” and could be the doomsday weapon against Iran, but media have largely ignored the development.

The U.S. Air Force and Boeing demonstrated the device more than two months ago over a military site in the Utah desert, reported the VR-Zone technology website.

Boeing did not keep the test a secret, but most mainstream media and technology sites overlooked the report.

The test was codenamed CHAMP — Counter-Electronics High Power Advanced Missile Project and was the first time a real EMP missile has been tested with positive real world results.

One of the most startling developments in the research and test is that the missile system does not use any explosives, thereby limiting damage to its intended goal of directing microwave energy that can cause instant blackouts.

Keith Coleman, who serves as Boeing’s CHAMP program manager in their Phantom Works division, stated that video camera showed “images of numerous desktop computers running, and then suddenly all of them go out quickly followed by the camera going to black,” VR-Zone reported.

“We hit every target we wanted to…  Today we made science fiction, science fact,” said Coleman.

An Arutz Sheva opinion article in August mentioned Israel’s possible use of an EMP bomb against Iran. The report triggered a chain reaction, allegedly influencing U.S. intelligence sources who have since been quoted in several publications with doubtful assumptions that the article reflected Israel government thinking.

The London Times subsequently reported that an EMP bomb could cripple Iran by shutting down its electronics and sending the Islamic Republic “back to the Stone Age.”

EMP causes non-lethal gamma energy to react with the magnetic field and produces a powerful electromagnetic shock wave that can destroy electronic devices, especially those used in Iran’s nuclear plants.

The shock wave would knock out Iran’s power grid and communications systems for transport and financial services, leading to economic collapse.

by Heidi Swander

What is your motivation for living your life? What drives you? Wait. Before you answer, I don’t want you to give me the answer you think I want to hear. I want you to give me the answer that is true of you as best you know yourself today. Examine yourself and be perfectly honest. I’ll never know the answer. But Jesus already knows it.

If you have your answer in mind, let me now share with you what Paul wrote to the Corinthians about his motivation for living: “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again,” (II Cor. 5:14-15). Paul said that our Lord’s love for him compelled him — drove him — to live for the Savior rather than for himself.

The Bible speaks of a day when each of us will stand before Jesus Christ and be judged not for our sin — because a Christian has already been completely forgiven of his or her sin — but for how we lived in light of our relationship with Jesus Christ. The event of this judgment is known in Scripture as the Judgment Seat of Christ (Rom. 14:12; II Cor. 5:9-10).

In his new book, The End Times in Chronological Order, Dr. Ron Rhodes contemplates the fire that Paul says will test the quality of the life we’ve lived for our Savior and the service we’ve rendered to Him: “Fire in Scripture often symbolizes the holiness of God and His judgment upon that which His holiness has condemned . . . Perhaps the figure [of fire] is intended to communicate that those works performed with a view to glorifying God are the works that will stand. Those works performed with a view to glorifying self, performed in the flesh, are those that will be burned up.”

Dr. John MacArthur explains that, “In that day, the full truth about their lives, character, and deeds will be made clear to each believer. Each will discover the real verdict on his or her ministry, service, and motives. All hypocrisy and pretense will be stripped away; all temporal matters with no eternal significance will vanish like wood, hay, and stubble, and only what is to be rewarded as eternally valuable will be left.”

It is easy for us to begin to think of the Judgment Seat of Christ as a place of punishment. We’re conditioned to think like that. If we’ve done a good job, we expect a reward or commendation; if we’ve done a poor job, we expect to be chastised for it. So when Paul tells the Corinthians that we will each receive what we are due for what we have done here on Earth, whether it be good or bad, it is easy for us to drift back into the thought that we are being judged and punished for wrong behavior. Not so.

Read the rest of this entry »

This answers a few questions I’ve had.  Now, if only it’s true and there is follow-thru.  This is yet to be seen.  –Heidi

An exclusive report from Debkafile

Binyamin Netanyahu agreed to a ceasefire for halting the eight-day Israeli Gaza operation Wednesday night, Nov. 21, after President Barack Obama personally pledged to start deploying US troops in Egyptian Sinai next week, debkafile reports. The conversation, which finally tipped the scales for a ceasefire, took place on a secure line Wednesday morning, just hours before it was announced in Cairo. The US and Israeli leaders spoke at around the time that a terrorist was blowing up a Tel Aviv bus, injuring 27 people.

Obama’s pledge addressed Israel’s most pressing demand in every negotiating forum on Gaza: Operation Pillar of Cloud’s main goal was a total stoppage of the flow of Iranian arms and missiles to the Gaza Strip. They were smuggled in from Sudan and Libya through southern Egypt and Sinai. Hostilities would continue, said the prime minister, until this object was achieved.

Earlier, US officials tried unsuccessfully to persuade Israel to accept Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s personal guarantee to start launching effective operations against the smugglers before the end of the month. The trio running Israel’s Gaza campaign, Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, were willing to take Morsi at his word, except that Israeli security and intelligence chiefs assured them that Egypt has nothing near the security and intelligence capabilities necessary for conducting such operations.

When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Jerusalem from Bangkok Tuesday, she tried assuring Netanyahu that President Obama had decided to accelerate the construction of an elaborate US system of electronic security fences along the Suez Canal and northern Sinai. It would also cork up the Philadelphi route through which arms are smuggled into the Gaza Strip. (The US Sinai fence project was first disclosed exclusively by DEBKA-Net-Weekly 564 on Nov. 9).

Read the rest of this entry »

Note from Heidi: This is vital information for every American.  This video is 1 hour, 23 minutes long.  Please take the time to watch it.

In January 2010, I wrote a short article about Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development.  I regret having to say that to the average American these are foreign terms.  They must not continue to be. A worldwide plan is well into implementation, and it has reached to the local level in many communities across our country.  As you will see, anything that the powers-that-be consider “unsustainable” must go.  That includes skiing, a pasture with sweet grass for your horse, your family, your private property — including your home. Got your attention yet?

I have NEVER seen such a clear and exemplary explanation of the United Nations’ Agenda 21 program, otherwise known as Sustainable Development.  This WILL affect you and your family at some point, if it has not already.  DO NOT MISS THIS VIDEO. And pass it on!