Rape and Murder on a Delhi Bus

I can't decide whether this story, covered well by BBC, borders on madness or outright evil incarnate. The furor it has caused in India and elsewhere is certainly fitting and the sub-continent needs to deal dramatically with those involved in order to make a statement that such incredible cruelty is not acceptable in Indian society. The 6 men involved include the bus driver and his assistant - the very people you would expect to come to your rescue. 

Here is the story.

"Police said she was raped for nearly an hour, and both she and her companion were beaten with iron bars, then thrown out of the moving bus into the street." 

The poor young woman died of her many severe injuries. Some of the things they did to her are too gruesome and disgusting to repeat here. Perhaps it is merciful that she died for how could she live with such horror haunting her the rest of her life? 


My prayer is that regardless of her religion, she is being comforted in the arms of He Who also suffered and died. God have mercy on this young woman and all women and children who are victims of madness and evil.

Bus in which 23 year old was gang-raped and murdered

Changing Climate

Norwegian scientists have documented a rapid melting of Arctic sea ice http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19508906. If it continues, it is liable to affect global weather patterns, and may already have. What might it mean for western Canada?

Researchers have determined that more and more sea ice is melting in the Arctic every summer, and some of the ice that is not melting is thinner than in decades past. Thinner ice – once the snow has melted – allows sunlight to get through to the water below where some of the energy is absorbed resulting in warming. That warming results in more thinning of the ice, which results in more warming, which results in… well, you get it.

Between the thinner ice and the ever increasing amount of open water, the Arctic waters are warming and are likely to continue warming at an accelerating pace. The consequence of this is that the temperature differential between the Arctic and the equatorial region is decreasing, at least during late summer and fall before the Arctic sea ice reforms.

Why is that important? Well, that difference in temperature is what produces the major jet streams of the northern hemisphere. Jet streams determine where weather systems travel and how fast, and they affect the development of storm systems. They also affect where a ridge of high pressure may form, how intense it may become, and how long it may last.

So what about western Canada’s climate? I’m very reluctant to hazard a guess as to the effects on high pressure ridges over western Canada although I suspect that we will see more ridges meaning warmer and drier weather in late summer and fall. Also, the decreasing temperature differential from the Arctic to the equator will mean weakening jet streams. Weakening jet streams should result in fewer and weaker storm hitting the coast of BC in the fall months.

While it is not unusual for storms to hit the BC coast every 24-36 hours in the fall (often with little or no break between), this frequency should slow down, as should the intensities, meaning less rain and longer breaks between storm systems.

For Alberta and the prairies it may mean a reduction in precipitation in the fall months. Since not a lot of precipitation falls on the prairies during the fall, it should not have a major effect.

These effects, however, are only for the months when the sea ice has melted or is thin. Consequently, by late fall or early winter conditions should return to normal.

In my observances of the climatology of BC, it appears that this effect has already been felt for some time. September and October have become warmer and drier than in decades past, and while November used to be the wettest month in southwest BC, in recent decades that has moved to December. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it move to January in the next few decades.

The Adventures of an Intrepid Guitar Student

July 30^th - In the midst of unprecedented straining of my guitar strings, I was interrupted by my beautiful wife who wanted me to bring a box in from the garage and then peel a pot of potatoes. No problem; 10 – 15 minutes and I’ll be back to my stringed rhapsody; or not!

I picked up some garbage on the way to the garage and dropped it into one of the two garbage cans beside the garage. Then I noticed that the cans were almost half full of water from the heavy rain showers over the past few days. Obviously, I had to dump them out. Along with the water came stuff that had been sitting in the water for days, including a bag of dog droppings; all landing on the alley.

Unfortunately, there was a hole in the bag that allowed lots of water to seep in. I had forgotten about the dog poop, and so picked up the bag to throw it back in the can when liquid manure began pouring out all over the alley. I quickly put it down and found another bag to put it in before sealing it and depositing it back in the can.

Fortunately, the other can was empty except for the water, so I used it for washing the poop down the alley to the storm sewer. I washed my hands and took the box into the house then went upstairs to peel potatoes.

However, Pat had noticed something had leaked out of the garbage bag by the sink and spread a sticky mess over the floor. I quickly looked for another garbage bag under the sink to put the first one into but couldn’t find one. In process of looking, I knocked over a full bottle of dish-washer liquid and cracked the bottle which proceeded to leak all over the floor.

“Great” I thought, “it’s just what I need to help clean up the sticky stuff.” (Note: this is absurdly positive for the glass half empty kind of guy.) So I cleaned up both messes together, found another bag to put the leaky garbage in and finally went to the fridge to get the potatoes out. However, when I pulled out the crisper I smelled and saw something that shouldn’t be there; another sticky mess. On Pat’s advice I sprayed it with a cleanser, left it while I peeled potatoes, then cleaned it out.

More than an hour, and several hand-washings later, I finally got back to my guitar practice. Just another day in the life of the intrepid guitar student.

July 28th - The intrepid (and somewhat beleaguered) guitar student on the back deck braving mosquitoes. Is it just me, or do the neighbours really wait for me to start practicing before starting their lawn mowers?



July 25th - The intrepid guitar student on a very blustery back deck. But I'm used to blustery; I have been married for 32 years.

Charlie Chaplin or is it?

Pastor Bob Jones, NorthPointe Church, Edmonton, Canada, told this remarkable story this morning to lead off his sermon. He researched it to ensure that it was in fact a true story as hard as it is to believe.

In 1915, silent movies were playing in theaters and Charlie Chaplin was already a star. His “tramp” character may be the most enduring icon from the silent movie era, and one of the most imitated characters still.

Chaplin - The Tramp

In 1915, there were contests held in theaters for Charlie Chaplin look-a-likes; one of them was held in San Francisco. There were many entrants all dressed up with the baggy pants, clown shoes, one-button jacket and boler hat. Each paraded across the stage in that well-known wobbly waddle. After some deliberation three finalists emerged and eventually the winner was announced; his name was Bob Hope. Yes, the Bob Hope; a very young and aspiring Bob Hope.

But that is not the best part of this story. Charlie Chaplin himself heard of this contest and, without telling anyone, dressed up as himself and entered the contest. He waddled across the stage with the others probably expecting to be picked out of the crowd; but he wasn't. In fact, he didn't even make the final three! Later, the he asked the judges why they didn't pick him and they told him that he just didn't look like Charlie Chaplin!

The point of the story was to question whether we would recognize Christ if He were standing among us? Do we, like the judges at the Charlie Chaplin look-a-like contest, have an image of Christ that is not at all Who He really is? Do we really believe in the God of the Bible? Do we dismiss some portions of the Bible because they don’t fit our image of Who Jesus really is?

We need to study the whole Bible to determine Who He really is, otherwise, how can we possibly be ready to face Him on that great and terrible day?

Elections

Elections in a democratic society are supposed to select the best candidates to run the city, province or state, or country. In recent years it has become about who is the least scary or the least dirty candidate. Mud-slinging and scaremongering bemoan a ‘win at all costs’ mentality that in the US is fuelled by racism. In the US, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent just to determine who will run against the President. People will kill for that kind of money. Candidates throw mud at each other until all are buried except one. (He then chooses a vice-presidential candidate who could become President without anyone ever having necessarily voted for him).

 Here in Alberta we see the possible end of a 40 year PC dynasty, and they don’t like the idea one bit. Consequently, they are launching accusations of homophobia and racism that boils down to political correctness (that’s what PC stands for today). And they are attempting to stir the electorate up to near hysteria to save the life-long jobs they feel entitled to. 

While it is easy to criticize the absurdity of the American primary system there is considerable absurdity in what the left leaning government and other PC organizations are doing here in Alberta. A former pastor, now candidate for the Wildrose party, wrote on his blog, while a pastor, that practicing gays will go to Hell, and now people are running around in circles with their hair on fire calling him homophobic along with everyone who fails to denounce what he wrote.

Is the leader of a party going to denounce a candidate for practicing free speech before he was even a candidate? Some would, I’m sure, just for the optics but not someone principled. But what about the long-term effects of such a campaign? This over-the-top reaction will ensure that politicians with half a brain (and that obviously includes no small number) keep such beliefs carefully hidden from the electorate from now on. Is it wise to stifle such talk? Doing so will make it impossible to know what a candidate really thinks before he/she is elected.

How can that be better than free speech? Remember this is an election. Shouldn’t the people decide who is acceptable rather than the hair-razing circle runners, after all, what’s an election for? If someone says things that you disagree with, then don’t vote for him/her. If they have truly said something hateful, then have them charged with hate crimes, but don’t shut them up; you’ll never know what they stand for until it’s too late.

The other point I want to make is that the former pastor truly believes that practicing gays will go to Hell if the don’t repent. This has been the understanding of Christians for thousands of years and for many other religions as well. In fact, nearly the whole world since the beginning of history has declared gay sex to be unnatural, immoral, and in most countries, illegal, until just a few decades ago. Here in Canada it was so until Pierre Trudeau decided to change Canada to a ‘just society’. Change it from what you might ask? From a moral society – a society based on Biblical values! Trudeau closed the bedroom doors and opened the closets of Canada making sex nobody’s business but that of the participants. God, history, and more intelligent people than I, will judge him on that issue.

Meanwhile, is it hateful for a pastor to write that practicing gays are destined for Hell? For he who believes that it is true, it would be hateful for him to not share it and warn people. Admittedly, some Christians state such things in a manner that is far from reflecting the love and character of Jesus Christ. Such people are a disappointment to me and to God, and their very Christianity is questionable. But don’t condemn someone for speaking what he believes to be true; he is not judging you, just telling you what the word of God says.

Look at it this way. If you were walking down a railroad track and someone yelled at you from a nearby building to get off the track, what would you do? Would you get off the track or would you yell back at him that he’s mean and hateful and just wants to ruin all your fun? Of course, you would consider whether or not he was telling the truth. You might consider that he can see a train coming from his window, or that he knows the train schedule. If you don’t know the train schedule, wouldn’t it be wise to defer to someone who might?

My point is many people reject Christian beliefs because it doesn’t fit their lifestyle. A wise man once said that morality dictates theology. The misfortune of this is that it is true and so many make decisions about Christianity without doing any real research. Meanwhile, they accuse believers of hatemongering while their very accusations are hatemongering.

Amazing Theories about the Biblical Flood

This paper (OK, so it’s digital; I’m old school) may well startle you in the ideas it presents. Most certainly, you have probably never heard some of them before. My career in meteorology has contributed at least in part to some of these ideas, otherwise they are a result of just studying the Bible with an open mind and spirit. Nothing here contradicts the Apostle’s Creed or the Nicene Creed.

The Book of Genesis describes a global flood that can hardly be interpreted any other way. Gen 7:19  The water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered. Bible literalists have no doubt that it occurred. Flood stories exist in ancient cultures all over the world. A global flood may explain a large part of the fossil record as well as the production of oil.

There are problems with the flood theory though; ice core samples from Antarctica reveal annual rings that go back tens of thousands of years without any break in the pattern. Does this mean that the global flood didn’t happen, or that it was regional not global? Not necessarily. A global flood could have melted many years or decades of record in the ice core and we might never know.

For the purpose of this paper we will assume that the flood did occur and that it was global in extent – pretty easy to do since that’s what the Bible says. Why it occurred is explained clearly in Genesis; man’s ways were evil only and God decided to destroy mankind and remake it through Noah and his family. Also, there were angels who were abandoning their stations and somehow having sexual relations with the daughters of men.

In this paper we are going to look at how the flood came about, that is, the mechanics involved. How and why those mechanics came about is what is so fascinating. Did God employ some natural mechanics? He usually does. During the parting of the Red Sea, He created a strong wind all night. When He fed the Israelites quail in the desert, He brought them with a strong wind.

As children it becomes obvious to us that the geographic features of the earth seem to fit together like a puzzle. Remove the oceans, do a little twisting and shuffling and presto, it’s one big continent. Most everyone is familiar with the theory of plate tectonics – that’s science’s answer to the obvious geographic puzzle. Trouble is they believe that continental drift has occurred over millions of years; I think it happened in 40 days and 40 nights, or, at most, one year.

It rained upon the earth 40 days and nights to produce the flood that covered even the tallest mountains. The Bible says that it did not rain upon the earth prior to the flood. The flora was watered from springs, rivers and dew. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve wore no clothes until after they sinned and then only to cover their shame. Consequently, there were no diurnal temperature extremes – not too hot in the day or too cold at night. We can then conjecture that there were no weather systems of any consequence.

So, how did it rain for 40 days and 40 nights without weather systems? The very stable temperature pattern could only have happened if there had been something in the atmosphere to prevent the heat from the earth from escaping. Cloudy nights are warmer than clear nights. The creation story in Genesis tells us that God separated the waters above the earth from the waters below the earth. This seems to imply that there were waters in the atmosphere. Of course, there is lots of water in the atmosphere which exists in the form of vapour. Sometimes it is visible as clouds, sometimes it is not. Even if it was not dense enough to be visible, it may have been thick enough to form the thermal canopy needed to keep the temperature comfortable.

Now we have a water source but in order to have clouds and rain we need a lifting mechanism. Air that is lifted cools and condenses forming clouds and eventually rain. Without frontal weather systems we have to look elsewhere for a lifting mechanism. This is where it starts to get really surprising.

I believe that the lifting occurred by the literal expansion of the earth. I believe that God expanded the earth as if He were blowing up a balloon. This would result in the tearing apart of the mega-continent into the current continents and their rapid movement into roughly their current positions. It also created the space for the great oceans to develop. All of that water had to go somewhere; much of it ended up in the oceans and much of it evaporated and returned to the skies but not nearly enough to produce the pleasant temperature patterns of pre-flood years.

Why would God do that? Are you ready for this? God destroyed all the people on the earth except Noah and his family, and since souls are not destroyed with our bodies, God needed somewhere to put what was probably a few million souls – He created Hell.

There is no mention of Hell in Genesis anywhere before the flood. There is a good question as to where the souls of lost people were kept before the creation of Hell; I don’t have an answer for that. But it is clear from many scriptures that lost souls go to Hell and that Hell is located deep in the earth.***

*** Matt 5:22,29,30; Luke 16:23; Eze 31:16

Eze 32:24; Num 16:30,33; Job 17:16; Job 24:19; Psalm 9:17

                                                            

What Happened to La Nina?

Last fall I predicted a cold and snowy winter for western Canada and then promptly left for Palm Springs. Before the end of February 2012, I was back in Edmonton, Alberta approximately one hour before winter started. But for a week in January Edmonton has had no real winter, and most of Canada has had a better than normal season. Why?

It was, and still is a La Nina winter. It should be cold and snowy and has been anything but. That cold air that builds up over the arctic has to go somewhere. Like a dam bursting it often floods southward over Siberia or northwestern Canada, but not this winter. This winter it flooded southward over eastern Europe. Why?

A recent study by a US/China team of researchers determined that it was the result of diminishing ice coverage in the arctic. Open water in the arctic during fall and early winter means that the surface temperature from the Arctic to the north Atlantic differs much less than normal – a weak thermal gradient. That results in a weak jet stream across the north Atlantic.

A strong jet stream across the north Atlantic is believed to help keep the arctic air from flooding southward into eastern Europe except briefly and occasionally. This winter they have been devastated with dreadfully cold and snowy conditions. There was even snow in the Sahara last month.

I suspect that the flooding of arctic air over Europe actually reduces the pressure to flood southward over Siberia or western Canada. Also, the weakening of the north Atlantic jet stream may alter the jet stream over the north Pacific. It became apparent this winter that the jet stream was not about to let the cold air from Siberia or arctic Canada flow southward as it normally would.

As it is now late winter and the Arctic is freezing again, we may be seeing a strengthening of the north Atlantic jet and a return to normal La Nina conditions. That would mean a cold and snowy end to winter and probably a late spring. However, La Nina is now expected to fade to neutral conditions by early spring and so we can hope for normal weather patterns to return for the first time in a few years.

Does God Go Before You?

One of the most profound pieces of scripture can be found in Joshua’s final address to his people shortly before his death. That’s where you will find the infamous line, “But me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” However, there is so much more in the passage.

Johsua had led the people into the Promised Land, and after several years of war had rid the land of its original inhabitants, but not completely. They had left some alive including the entire Gibeonite tribe which tricked Joshua and the elders in making a treaty with them. Joshua and the elders neglected to consult God regarding the matter and it would eventually cost them dearly in future generations.

We New Testament Christians enter the Promised Land when we surrender ourselves completely to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Until then we just wander through the wilderness where our ‘old man’ must die and all things become new. What the Hebrews did in the flesh corresponds well to modern Christians in the spiritual.

The Gibeonites and otherites who were left alive against God’s commands represent serving foreign gods to us Christians. They are the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. They are ambition, riches, pride, sensuality – any thing that pulls us away from single-minded obedience to God and causes us to set our own course.

For the Lord has driven out before you great and strong nations; but as for you, no-one has been able to stand against you to this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand, for the Lord your God is He who fights for you, as He promised you. Therefore, take careful heed to yourselves, that you love the Lord your God. Or else, if indeed you do go back and cling to the remnant of these nations – these that remain among you – and make marriages with them, and go into them, and they to you, know for certain that the Lord your God will no longer drive out these nations from before you. But they will be snares and traps to you, and scourges on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the Lord your God has given you. Joshua 24:9-13 NKJ.

This amazing passage reminds us that the Lord goes before us to lead us into the Promised Land. However, our lack of faith and our disobedience get in His way. Remember Jesus said, in John 14 and 15, that if we love Him we will keep his commandments, and if we don’t keep His commandments it is because we don’t love Him. So Joshua’s admonition that you love the Lord your God, calls us to obedience. Furthermore, God, by his permissive providence will test both our faith and our obedience, so failure in one will lead to failure in the other.

The Hebrews had to turn back into the desert – for 40 years – because of their lack of faith. Despite all the incredible miracles God had so recently performed in their midst, they didn’t trust Him to go before them and deliver the giants and walled cities into their hands. They returned to the desert until every last male over the age of 20, at the time of their rebellion, had died, but for Joshua and Caleb.

Heb 3:18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?

Heb 4:9-11 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.

Rest, ie peace, is what the Hebrews received after they had rid the land of most of the foreign peoples. To do that they had to be willing to go to war and they had to go to war. They had to fight, but their victory was assured because God went before them, except when they disobeyed God as Achan did (see Joshua 7).

Similarly, we have to fight to rid ourselves of those lusts and temptations that pull us toward worldly desires and away from God. We do that by ‘knowing’ God. Love is often a function of communication; loving God requires our communicating with Him. We communicate with God by reading about Him, by meditating on Him (Be still and know that I am God), by worshipping Him, by praying and by just walking with Him and listening. As we get to know Him better and better, we love Him more and more and obedience becomes easier than we can imagine. Then we can enter God’s rest on earth.

It’s when our hearts and minds are so busy with the ‘cares of the world’ that we become like the disobedient Hebrews. The Lord no longer goes before us and we are soon plagued by snares, traps, scourges and thorns until there is no place found for us in God’s rest. God’s rest is not only here on earth, but in Heaven and probably also in the Millennial Reign. God’s rest ends when He returns to earth and sets up the New Jerusalem. Then, I believe, it’s back to work for us, but in a far, far better world.

Give Newt the Boot, Again

A funny thing happened on the way to the primaries; a man who once held the second most powerful position in the land and was forced to resign from it, is, if the people of South Carolina have their way, going to be rewarded by being given the most powerful job in the world; he was voted to be the Republican candidate for the next President of the United States. He couldn’t do the job of Speaker of the House, so let’s make him President. It’s the Peter Principal on crack.

If that doesn’t have you scratching your head, try this: Newt, who accepted millions of dollars from Fanny Mae for ‘nothing’, who is known to have committed chronic adultery over two marriages, was selected in the most evangelical Christian state in America. What? What’s more, they voted for Callista, his third wife and former mistress for many years while he was married to his second wife, to be the potential first lady.

That tells us more about post-modern, western Christians than it does about Newt Gingrich. What would the founding fathers of the republic think? Did they not lay out principals for keeping the republic strong and free? They did! And some of those principals are:

Principle 2 - A free people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong.

In other words, a morally bankrupt society cannot survive as a republic. Does that scare the daylights out of you? It should! We’ve seen that morality has given way to unbridled greed in the marketplace and unbridled ambition in our politicians over the past several years. How’s that working for us?

Principle 3 - The most promising method of securing a virtuous people is to elect virtuous leaders.

It’s strange that a country so fixated on freedom is so willing to risk it all by putting two people with known moral issues in the most powerful office in the world. What will that say to our children? Certainly, there can be nothing wrong with cheating on your wife or sleeping with someone else’s spouse if Newt and Callista can do it and still get elected to the Whitehouse.

Evangelical Christians are supposed to be family oriented, protective of the nuclear family; indeed, Newt is campaigning on family values – go figure. Meanwhile, they would seem to be fine with marital infidelity having no serious consequence. They want to replace a virtuous, family man with a man who claims to be a Christian, but has been a chronic adulterer, and they want to do it for the sake of family values? And they think this is God’s will? They think this will bring God’s blessing back on the good ol’ USA. Surely this will lead to society hemorrhaging virtue and becoming even more morally bankrupt. Indeed, perhaps this primary is an indication that it already is.

Numerous polls from numerous pollsters reveal that 89% of Americans, who say they are ‘born-again’, are statistically indistinguishable from the rest of society on a moral basis. 89% have just as high a rate of adultery, abuse, racism, divorce, pornography use, etc., etc., as the rest of the country. Didn’t God call us to come out of that muck and be separate? Is there no ‘fear’ of God in America? Oh yes, our seminaries changed that to ‘reverence’; terrifying fear has no place in our feel-good, romantic, post-modern aberration of Christianity. But it is still in the Bible for anyone who cares to look.

Principle 4 - Without religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained.

This kind of contradicts the ‘separation of church and state’ theory. By saying that the ‘government cannot be maintained without religion’ the fathers suggest that religion must be an integral part of the government, that is, the people who make up the government. But that would mean true religion, not the hypocritical nonsense of politicians trying to get elected. They will say whatever the herds want to hear to get elected. Their real attitude toward God must be determined by their lives. Are they virtuous, or even close? No-one is perfect; people make mistakes, make bad decisions and often regret them, learn from them and grow in character. Others, those who are hypocritical, continue in their mistakes and repeat them without any fear of God or man.

 We Christians have been listening to too much hatred from the greatly over-heated right-wing media commentators. Too many talk show hosts are there just to make money, to sell you a product. They are verbal prostitutes. They claim to be Christian but what comes out of their mouths is hatred, pride, and evil. There is nothing of Christ in them. The Bible tells us to dwell on things that are lovely, not things that are putrid. I am convinced that much of the vicious rhetoric in the media today is racism disguised a political comment. Christians listen to this crap because they talk Christian values, and some may indeed be good Christian people, but in among them are those who sow only hatred because they can't stand the fact that a black man is the President of the United States. Turn them off until they can learn to talk with respect and dignity about the President, until they learn to speak the truth, and until they develop humility and a real fear of God - for our God is a consuming fire.

People realize that you cannot be a bastion of freedom and yet legislate morality. Outlawing gay marriage and abortion has not happened under several Christian Presidents, and, if it did it will not make America a moral country again. We’ve gone too far down that road. We should be witnessing to Americans not trying to legislate morality; but we’ve completely destroyed our witness to those in need of Christ. We’ve alienated those to whom we are called to witness, to glorify God. How do we glorify God? By revealing His character through our own character. I have a hard time seeing the character of Jesus Christ in most prominent Christians in this country, indeed, most non-Christians see only hatred, greed, intolerance, egotism, and anger.

God forgive me, but I am getting more and more embarrassed at being a Christian in this country; for while the leaders of the Evangelical church endorsed Rick Santorum, if Newt wins the nomination, they will vote for him. In South Carolina they already voted for him who appears the least moral because he seems to have a better chance than the more moral candidates to replace the moral family man in the Whitehouse. Should Newt win the nomination many Christians will vote for him and they’ll do it in the Name of God to save America. If that’s what it takes to save America, I think it’s already too late.

Iran and the Bomb

Click! Another minute goes by in the countdown to the Russian/Islamic war against Israel. But this is a big minute. It was revealed today on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16470100 that Iran has begun enriching uranium to 20%. While not weapons-grade, 20% is a big step in that direction and is considered a major provocation by the UN.

James Reynolds BBC Iran correspondent reported: “It has been built underground and it is heavily fortified. In particular, Iran appears to want to guard against potential air strikes. Military experts suggest that the facility may be able to survive attack from all but the most powerful bombs.” If it’s for peaceful purposes why the great expense of building it under a mountain and the excessive military protection?

The problem here is that if Israeli’s Mossad cannot find a way to destroy the facility from within, Israel may have to blow it to hell with ‘the most powerful bombs’. Being very near the Muslim ‘holy city’ of Qom, this could result in provoking all Islam to rise against Israel.

Will Israel wait until they start producing weapons-grade plutonium? It may depend on how good their intelligence is. They may be able to hold out until sanctions cause the Iranian people to turn on their fanatic Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and his equally fanatical President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iranians are technologically savvy and the Arab Spring could blossom very quickly there.

Turkey, key to a Russian/Islamic invasion of Israel

The Ottoman Empire came to an abrupt end during WW1, when they chose to align themselves with the losing side. The allies occupied the Empire until 1922 When Mustafa Kemal Pasha (later called Attaturk – Father of Turks) led an uprising and chased them all out of what is now modern day Turkey. He then set about building a one-party democracy that was thoroughly secular.

Ever since then, the military has stepped in whenever the country was poorly run or in danger of Islamic takeover, as in 1971. Four military coups occurred between 1960 and 1997. Along the way, they abandoned the one-party system and became a real democracy.

The majority of Turks are Islamic by faith but largely secular in public. Headscarves are banned in universities and an attempt to end that law in 2007 nearly toppled the government. Even so, Turkey’s human rights violations have been the main obstacle to it joining the European Union. They might consider that a blessing right now.

So what is happening in Turkey now? They have a devout Muslim as Prime Minister, elected to a second term with a large majority.  However, over the past few years, a plot, whether real or imaginary, has been uncovered implicating top military officials in planning to overthrow the elected government again.

The evidence is sketchy at best, and may simply involve some thinking out loud by some people in the military. Nevertheless, hundreds of former and active military officials, prominent academics, journalists and lawyers have been detained. Many are still awaiting trial and some have not even been charged. Included is the recently retired General in charge of all the Turkish Armed Forces.

Is the conspiracy real or imagined? Or, was it possibly contrived by the government in order to place leaders at the top of the military who are more faithful to the vision of Islam than to a secular state? They still have to replace a number of Supreme Court judges with like-minded Muslims which could happen so quietly as to not be noticed. If it does happen or is happening, there will be little stopping Turkey from becoming a total Islamic republic.

Turkey has, under the current Prime Minister, started out with excellent relations with Israel, however those relations have dramatically cooled since the Israeli commando raid on the Mavi Marmara in May 2010, when it tried to breach the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Eight Turkish nationals were killed as well as an American of Turkish descent.

Whether intentional or not, Turkey is preparing itself to be involved in the Russian/Islamic invasion of Israel prophesied in Ezekiel 37 and 38.

Facts: Turkey may be the cradle of civilization as the Biblical Garden of Eden may well have been in or partly in that country.  

In WW2, Turkey wisely stayed neutral until February 1945 when it chose the winning side.