We Best Become Prepared For The Judgment That Is Coming.

JUDGMENT, NOT JUSTICE, COMES LIKE THUNDERBOLT

Exclusive: Joseph Farah interprets Obama 'victory' on marriage through Romans 1 lens

Published: 16 hours ago

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 JOSEPH FARAH 

Barack Obama pondered the Supreme Court edict pronouncing as discriminatory the institution of marriage, as it has been known for 6,000 years of human history – with men and women joined together in sacred unions.

From the White House Rose Garden he spoke in slow, deliberate, carefully chosen words suggesting America had just triumphed over an enemy of unimaginable evil and ignorance – that right had won over wrong, that justice had prevailed over oppression.

“Progress on this journey often comes in small increments, sometimes two steps forward, one step back, propelled by the persistent effort of dedicated citizens,” Obama said. “And then sometimes there are days like this, when that slow, steady effort is rewarded with justice that arrives like a thunderbolt.”

I found that last line to be revealing.

In the Bible, justice indeed can come swiftly as an act of God. But the only time the word “thunderbolt” is used in Scripture, in Psalm 78:48, is to describe judgment on the land of Egypt during the Exodus.

That’s what I believe hit America like a thunderbolt Friday – not justice, but judgment.

God is giving America over to her lusts and pride because, like ancient Israel, she has turned away her heart from Him, though He was like a faithful husband to them both.

America is, indeed, getting justice, but not the way Obama and the moral anarchists think of it. They are getting their just deserts, as are the rest of us who have not been the salt and light needed to hold back judgment.

Judgment isn’t just coming. It is here. This is it. It could get worse, but the Supreme Court ruling on marriage was, in fact, itself a form of divine judgment on America.

Let me risk prosecution for “hate thoughts” by raising what the Bible says about homosexuality, the behavior that opened this spiritual Pandora’s box.

Paul wrote in Romans 1:17 that “the just shall live by faith.” That suggests that justice can only be reckoned through the prism of faith in the One True God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – the God of the Bible.

He continues in the Romans 1:18-22: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. …”

That’s what we saw last Friday in the hallowed chambers of the Supreme Court.

But there’s more.

You see, judgment doesn’t always come with a thunderbolt. It sometimes comes when God simply allows people to have the desires of their heart.

As Paul continues in Romans 1:24-32 – which is like a word-picture of what is happening within American society today: “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”

Reject God and you will accept anything. That’s the message here. And that is precisely what America has done, as have so many nations and empires before her.

It’s not about justice, which is defined only by God. It’s about judgment. God will accept you just the way you are should you reject Him. But you won’t like what that means, because it means living apart from truth and justice. It means existence in a living hell. That’s what it means to be apart from God.

There are two important lessons to be drawn:

• Obama and those rebelling against God and His ways will have their moment of celebration over their “victory.” But it will be short-lived. They will not be satisfied. Look what comes next for them in Romans 1. They will not be joyous for long. They will turn fierce – especially against their “enemies,” the people of God.
• For the people of God, don’t think your hands are clean. Had we been following the 2 Chronicles 7:14 prescription for revival and restoration, America could never have reached this breaking point. And until and unless we, “His people,” do humble ourselves and pray and seek His face and turn from our wicked ways, judgment will increase.

There were no thunderbolts last week. But, rest assured, they are coming.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/06/judgment-not-justice-comes-like-thunderbolt/#Rl54Fxt5wsihHSZF.99

Pope Francis Is NOT A Friend Of Israel And He Proves It.

Pope Francis is Aligning Himself Against Israel

By Michael Freund May 21, 2015 , 11:30 am

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In a treaty that was finalized in Rome last week, the Catholic Church fired the latest salvo in its 2,000-year-old struggle to disenfranchise the Jewish people. Meeting with Palestinian officials at the Vatican, church officials agreed to formally recognize the “State of Palestine” as part of a deal concerning Catholic activities in the Palestinian-controlled areas.

And just in case anyone failed to get the memo, Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi went to the trouble of going on record as saying, “Yes, it’s a recognition that the state exists.”

This outrageous step is a severe blow to Catholic- Jewish relations and it cannot go unanswered.

Israel and the Jewish people should protest this measure in the strongest possible terms and make sure that Pope Francis realizes the damage he has done.

In biblical terms, by recognizing a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria, the Vatican is effectively seeking to deny the eternal covenant between God and the Jewish people, to whom this land was promised long ago. This is not only offensive and disrespectful, but disingenuous too. Indeed, one cannot help but wonder: what Bible is the Vatican reading? Whichever one it is, it must be missing some pages, as even a cursory glance at the Scriptures makes clear that God promised to give the Land of Israel to the Jewish people and nobody else. In fact, there are over 150 biblical verses ranging from Genesis to Joshua to Chronicles which state this and reaffirm that Israel would return from Exile to this holy soil.

Take, for example, Isaiah 14:1-2: “The Lord will have compassion on Jacob; once again He will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land.” Or how about Jeremiah 31:4, where God says: “You shall again plant vineyards upon the mountains of Samaria.” And there’s Genesis 48:3-4. And Judges 2:1, and Ezekiel 34: 11-13. And Hosea 3:4-5. And Amos 9:14-15. And Obadiah 1:17, Zephaniah 3:19-20 and Zechariah 8:7-8.

Moreover, the Bible stresses that these were not merely assurances, but a Divine oath, one that would never be broken.

“He remembers His covenant forever,” says 1 Chronicles 16:15-18, “the word He commanded for a thousand generations, the covenant He made with Abraham, the oath He swore to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant: ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit.’” You get the point. But it seems that the Vatican does not.

In fact, my Christian friends tell me that the words “Palestine” and “Palestinians” do not appear anywhere in the New Testament. Hence, one could argue that Jesus himself would be mystified by the pope’s position.

After all, according to Christian belief, Jesus the Jew was born and raised in Bethlehem, which means there was a Jewish community there, with synagogues, ritual baths, rabbis and perhaps a kosher deli too, centuries before Islam was even founded.

So would the Catholic Church now deem Jesus to have been a “settler” or “occupier” of Palestinian land? For an institution that bills itself as “the Holy See” and which claims to uphold sacred values, the Vatican’s profane involvement in Middle Eastern politics is simply unbecoming.

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And given its sordid history of anti-Semitism, book-burnings, forced conversions and Inquisitions, the Catholic Church should think a hundred times over before daring to step on Israel’s toes.

If anything, the pope should be down on his knees pleading for forgiveness from the Jewish people and atonement from the Creator for what the Vatican has wrought over the centuries.

The current attempt to undermine and deny Israel’s right to Judea and Samaria by recognizing Palestinian statehood smacks of “supersessionism,” or replacement theology, a doctrine according to which the Church replaced Israel as God’s chosen instrument nearly two millennia ago.

Over the past 50 years, since the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church had slowly begun to acknowledge that the Jewish people are “a covenanted people,” thereby shifting away ever slightly from supersessionism.

But conferring legitimacy on a Palestinian state is akin to suggesting that the Palestinians have replaced Israel as the rightful owners of the land, a position that flies in the face of history, theology and common sense.

It is nothing less than supersessionism via diplomatic means, and a cruel insult to the generations of Jews who longed for Zion while enduring Catholic oppression and persecution.

Israel needs to respond to this affront forcefully. We cannot stand by and watch as our national integrity is called into question. A good place to start would be to withdraw our ambassador to the Holy See, curtail the number of visas granted to Vatican officials, and rule out any possibility of giving the Church the foothold it so sorely wants at the Tomb of King David on Mount Zion.

What a shame it is that after so much progress in Catholic- Jewish relations over the past few decades the Vatican would now betray all the headway that has been made.

But Pope Francis needs to realize that by recognizing the fictitious “State of Palestine” he is aligning himself against Israel, the Jewish people and the bible itself.

And that is something we cannot forgive, nor soon forget.

Reprinted with author’s permission from The Jerusalem Post

Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/40827/pope-francis-is-aligning-himself-against-israel-opinion/#4WMJm1mCG0F2xuye.99