This Day in History > The Last Day of the World - Constantinople overrun by evil - The Great Tribulation

 

May 29: The Last Day of the World

Robert Spencer  | 2:21 PM on May 29, 2025

    

Burhan Ozbilici

“On May 29, 1453,” the state-run Turkish broadcaster TRT World reported happily on Thursday, the 572nd anniversary of the fateful day, “a 21-year-old Sultan Mehmed II led the Ottoman army to a decisive victory over the Byzantine Empire. The conquest of Istanbul remains a shining jewel in the crown of the Ottoman Empire.” 

But for the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Satan's proudest moment since the Garden of Eden was when he stood in the Hagia Sophia on the great and terrible day. The day began with the breach of Constantinople's walls, whereupon lights were seen emanating upward from the Hagia Sophia, the largest church in Christendom for nearly a thousand years. 

Were the angels of God evacuating the lost church before the angels of Satan invaded and polluted it with their evil and the blood of saints? 

Recep Tayyip Erdogan stood in the Hagia Sophia and  recited verses from the Quran and other Islamic texts on 3 occasions since 2018. The last occasion was on May 29, 2023, after the Hagia Sophia was declared to be an Islamic mosque. 

Was this the "Holy Place" Jesus was referring to in Matthew 24? Was this the signal of the beginning of the Great Tribulation? It was followed within a few months by the massacre of 1200 Jews by the worst evil since the Holocaust.

Ancient map of Judea

Matthew 24:15,16 - 15 “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains."

Are we in the second year of the Great Tribulation? Will Jesus return in 2030 or thereabouts?  Will all Hell break loose in 2027 or so?

(Search this blog for 'Hagia Sophia' for a number of stories on this.)

Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s desire to restore the lost glory of that empire is well known, but those who are the children and heirs of the victims of its bloody expansion look on this anniversary with somewhat less enthusiasm than TRT World displayed. 

Some Greek Orthodox Christians to this day refer to May 29, 1453, as “the last day of the world.” In a very real sense, that is exactly what it was: the end of over two thousand years of the Roman Empire, the end of what had for centuries been the world’s foremost power and leading Christian state. The conquest of Constantinople meant the eclipse of Christianity in Asia Minor, which had been such an important center of the faith that three of Paul’s New Testament epistles — Galatians, Ephesians, and Colossians — were addressed to Christian congregations there. 

Constantinople had been the center of Christianity in the eastern part of the Roman Empire, and the second see in the Church, after only Rome. After the East/West schism of 1054, Constantinople was the heart of Orthodox Christianity. As “The History of Jihad” recounts in detail, however, on Tuesday, May 29, 1453, the armies of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II finally broke through Constantinople’s defenses after a long siege, marking the end of the great Christian Roman Empire.

The conquerors were extraordinarily brutal, raiding monasteries and convents, emptying them of their inhabitants, and plundering private houses. They entered Hagia Sophia, which for nearly a thousand years had been the grandest church in Christendom. The faithful had gathered within its hallowed walls to pray during the city’s last agony. The Muslims halted the celebration of Orthros (morning prayer), while the priests, according to legend, took the sacred vessels and disappeared into the cathedral’s eastern wall, through which they shall return to complete the divine service one day. Muslim men then killed the elderly and weak and led the rest off into slavery.

The Byzantine scholar Bessarion wrote to the Doge of Venice in July 1453, saying that Constantinople had been “sacked by the most inhuman barbarians and the most savage enemies of the Christian faith, by the fiercest of wild beasts. The public treasure has been consumed, private wealth has been destroyed, the temples have been stripped of gold, silver, jewels, the relics of the saints, and other most precious ornaments. Men have been butchered like cattle, women abducted, virgins ravished, and children snatched from the arms of their parents.” 

When the slaughter and pillage were finished, Mehmed II ordered an Islamic scholar to mount the high pulpit of the Hagia Sophia and declare that there was no God but Allah, and Muhammad was his prophet. The magnificent old church was turned into a mosque; hundreds of other churches in Constantinople and elsewhere suffered the same fate. Millions of Christians joined the ranks of the dhimmis; others were enslaved, and many were killed.

Once the Muslims had thoroughly subdued Constantinople, they set out to Islamize it. According to the Muslim chronicler Hoca Sa’deddin, tutor of the sixteenth-century Sultans Murad III and Mehmed III, “churches which were within the city were emptied of their vile idols and cleansed from the filthy and idolatrous impurities and by the defacement of their images and the erection of Islamic prayer niches and pulpits many monasteries and chapels became the envy of the gardens of Paradise.”

It has come to be known as Black Tuesday, the Last Day of the World. Ever since, many Greek Christians regard Tuesday as unlucky. The world has forgotten what happened on Black Tuesday and on so many other days like it from India to Spain, and today persists in the fantasy that Islam does not contain an imperialist impulse and that Muslims can be admitted without limit into Western countries without any attempt to determine how many would like ultimately to subjugate and Islamize their new countries, the way their forefathers did to Constantinople so long ago.

Related: Is the West Suffering From an Absence of Islam?

There are, however, some people who remember — and they want to do it again. Back in 2008, Sheik Ali Al-Faqir, former Jordanian minister of religious endowment, said this on Al-Aqsa TV: “We proclaim that we will conquer Rome, like Constantinople was conquered once…” Hamas MP and Islamic cleric Yunis Al-Astal said this, also on Al-Aqsa TV several years ago: “Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our Prophet Muhammad.”

The man who was the most popular Islamic TV preacher until his death several years ago, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, also remembered. In writing about “signs of the victory of Islam,” he referred to a hadith: “The Prophet Muhammad was asked: ‘What city will be conquered first, Constantinople or Romiyya?’ He answered: ‘The city of Hirqil [that is, the Roman emperor Heraclius] will be conquered first’ – that is, Constantinople… Romiyya is the city called today ‘Rome,’ the capital of Italy. The city of Hirqil [that is, Constantinople] was conquered by the young 23-year-old Ottoman Muhammad bin Morad, known in history as Muhammad the Conqueror, in 1453. The other city, Romiyya, remains, and we hope and believe [that it too will be conquered].”

Mehmed the Conqueror was motivated by exactly the same religious ideology that motivates the Islamic warriors of the contemporary era. They remember, and still celebrate, what happened in Constantinople on May 29, 1453. For free people in the West and elsewhere, May 29 should be a day for all those threatened by Islamic jihad and Sharia oppression to redouble our efforts to resist, so that more such catastrophes may never again destroy the lives of free people.

The left doesn't just manipulate today's news. It manipulates history as well, in its efforts to control the minds of the American people. Free your mind: become a VIP member today — use the code FIGHT for 60% off and start seeing the world as it is, instead of as the left wants it to be!

The Abomination of Desolation > Is he here yet, has he spoken in the Holy Place?

 

Matthew 24:15,16 - 15 “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains."

This prophecy of Daniel was repeated in two of the Gospels which indicates that it has yet to be fulfilled even though some attribute the fulfilling of the prophecy to Antiochus IV. Antiochus IV Epiphanes lived and died before Christ was born.

So, we must assume there is another fulfilling of this prophecy. But, who, when, and where?

The Abomination of Desolation has yet to reveal himself, or has he?

Does the Holy Place necessarily have to be in Jerusalem? Does it necessarily have to be a synogogue. Most commenters lean that way but would Jesus call the sudden erection of a synogogue a Holy Place when it's likely that Christians will not be allowed to enter?

Think through history and consider what Christian church was the greatest church, the most holy church in the 2000 years of Christendom. No, the Vatican is not a church, it is a throneroom for the Pope, a palace for his bishops, and has nothing to do with anything Jesus experience when He walked on the earth.

There is really only one place that qualifies, and that is the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (Constantinople). The Hagia Sophia was the center of Christianity for about 1000 years. It was the largest building in the world for that same period. 

On the morning of the day that Mehmed II finally conquered Constantinople for Islam, streams of light were seen rising from the Hagia Sophia. It was later turned into a mosque, then to a museum by Mustafa Ataturk after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Recently Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey, turned it back into a mosque and he, himself stood in the altar and preached Islam. Is Erdogan the Abomination of Desolation? He is a radicalized Muslim with ambitions of reviving the Ottoman Empire. 

Last July he spoke from the altar of the Hagia Sophia. In October, Jews were running for their lives from Muslim madmen. 

Is this the beginning of the Great Tribulation? What do you think? Are we 'in it' already? If we are, things will happen this very year that will astonish us and fill us with terror. Is your faith ready for that?

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Approaching Midnight > Iran Determined to Obliterate Israel - Will That Kick-Off The Great Tribulation

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Israel warns the world: Threat is ready to take it into 'dark abyss'

12 Nov, 2021 10:15 

FILE PHOTO. Syria. © Reuters / Rodi Said

Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has accused Iran of wanting to wipe out Tel Aviv and of seeking world domination via "radical militant Islam." The warning comes after Tehran once-again threatened to destroy Israel.

In a pre-recorded message delivered during the Government Press Organization's annual Christian Media Summit on Thursday, the PM remarked that "Here in Israel, we are fighting a very visible enemy, radical militant Islam that is sweeping across the Middle East."

The terror that begins in Tehran seeks to destroy Israel,

dominate the world, and drive it into a dark abyss.

The premier's remarks coincide with threats issued by the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh. He warned that any mistake made by Israel in its dealings with Tehran will only accelerate Iran's eradication of the Jewish state.

In his address, however, Bennett also noted positive developments in regional relations for Tel Aviv, claiming that Israel was "facing a new dawn" after creating ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain under the Abraham Accords, inked last year. The agreement saw Israel normalize relations with the two nations.

Israel's navy publicly participated in joint exercises with the UAE and Bahrain in a first-of-its-kind operation, which started on Wednesday. While it was not clearly declared anywhere, Tel Aviv's media has surmised that the drills were also to send a warning to Iran.

Tensions between Tehran and Tel Aviv have simmered dangerously close to boiling point in recent months, with the latter expressing grievances over Iran's nuclear program.

In October, Israel's foreign minister proclaimed that the nation "reserves the right to act at any given moment and in any way" and insisted the Islamic republic must not get hold of an atomic bomb.

Iranian government and military have a hatred for Israel that the average Iranian does not have. Their hatred is Satanic and there can be no doubt that when the Great Tribulation breaks out, it will break out of Iran. Their Mahdi, or 11th Imam, will be the anti-Christ described in the Bible. I fully expect him to appear in this decade.

Actually, I expect the Great Tribulation to end at about the end of this decade. The end of tis decade will also be the end of the 2nd millennium. Unfortunately, Cesar and Pope Gregory both erred when they zeroed the calendar on Christ's birth. They should have been zeroed on His Resurrection. It they had been, then this year would be 1991 and the millennium would end in just over 9 years - 2000 being the last year of the millennium.

Is it a bit silly to assume Christ will return 2000 years after He left? Maybe. But unfortunately, there are so many other signs arising that our year 2030 sounds just about right.

If you are a Christian and you think Jesus will come and take you home before things get really bad, you need to know that you will be tested and you must be prepared to die for God.

European Nation Microchips National ID Cards For Banking, Voting, Insurance

Revelations 13:16-18 - And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.

By RYAN SAAVEDRA

The small European nation of Estonia has started embedding microchips into their citizens' national ID cards for the purpose of giving their citizens a "digital identity."

"Since the turn of the 21st century, Estonia has offered each citizen a government-issued 'digital identity' — including a chip-embedded national ID card that can be used for social security, health insurance, voter registration, banking and much more," the Los Angeles Times reported. "It also now offers 'e-residency' for people around the world who want to be part of its digital revolution, allowing them to register a business in Estonia, which is part of the European Union."

Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid told the Times last week that Estonia is "the first digital society that has its own state," meaning that "all Estonian digital developments operate as a single society."

"We have a single backbone, based on which everybody builds their services," Kaljulaid said. "And this applies for the public sector and the private sector equally. Because of course all of us globally use very many online services, digital services, but they come on platforms without any security, simply because you don’t have a digital identity to verify who is doing what to whom on the internet."

"We do have it, and we’ve had it since the turn of the century, which means we now have one generation which has grown up knowing that the government is at their fingertips," Kaljulaid continued. "And all the banking services like you have here are at our fingertips as well. But what they also have, as an additional asset, is the security of an internet passport, a digital identity, which makes provision and use of these services safe and secure."

Kaljulaid claimed that the system has never been hacked but added that Estonia is under the same threat from Russia that other nations are in terms of being a target for cyber hackers.

‘Female Jesus’ Cult Smashed in Police Raid, 18 Arrested

This is a real cult and it is exploding in popularity all over the world.

It is not true Christianity; it has many similarities, but many great differences.

They infect my Twitter feed from time to time with their propaganda

and I have to remove them.

Please familiarize yourself with these people so that you know

how to answer someone who becomes interested in them.

When Jesus returns to Earth, everyone will know.

It will not be as a little Chinese woman in New York who wants your money.

Chinese police detained 18 members of a banned religious cult which believes Jesus has returned to grace the earth in the form of a woman.

The Church of Almighty God, or Quannengshen, believes Jesus was resurrected as a woman in China, and that she will wreak the apocalypse.

Zhao Weishan founded the cult in the 1990s and his wife, Yang Xiangbin is believed to be the ‘female Jesus.’ 

They both fled China in 2000 and claimed political asylum in the US.  

The arrests were made in Zhejiang Province on Wednesday following an investigation into the cult, Xinhua reports.

"The cult's 'leaders' imposed spiritual control over the members," Changxing County police officer Dong Jianfeng said. "They were told that as long as they gave donations, the Almighty God would keep their illness at bay."

"Every member was willing to donate their money, and the amounts ranged from 10,000 yuan (US$1,481) to tens of thousands of yuan," he added.

Police seized computers, hard drives, 150 books and 460 pamphlets used by the cult, China News reports. They said eight of the suspects have been “re-educated” and denounced their cult beliefs.

That's a frightening term, 're-educated'. Many good people have been 're-educated' in China and have become little more than vegetables. I hope this is not the kind of 're-education' they are referring to.

The group came under fire in 2014, when its members were caught beating a woman to death in a McDonald’s when she refused to give them her phone number as they attempted to recruit her. 

One of the murderers Zhang Lidong said in an interview: 'I beat her with all my might and stamped on her too. She was a demon. We had to destroy her.' 

Two members, Zhang and his daughter, were executed for the murder in 2015.

The Church of Almighty God is accused of isolating members from family and friends and pressuring followers to give money to get salvation. Like Scientology, the more members donate, the higher they progress in the cult’s ranks.

The cult’s headquarters are now in the US.

Channel 4 news spoke with a member just after the McDonalds attack and claimed that there were at least a million members in the country.  

The Church of Almighty God refers to the ruling Communist Party as the 'great red dragon'.  

On its website, where one section is headed 'The Maturer the People Become, the Sooner the Great Red Dragon Will Collapse', the group describes the authorities as 'the persecutor of God and the enemy of God'.  

China has previously cracked down harshly on groups it labels 'cults', most notably the Falun Gong spiritual movement, which was banned in the late 1990s.  

Mark of the Beast - End Times Prophecy Can Now Be Fulfilled

Revelation 13:16-18

16 And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads,

17 that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name.

18 Here is wisdom: Let him that has understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred, sixty six.

We have the technology!

Swedish company implants microchips in employees

About 150 employees have thus far had microchips implanted in their hands.

By Ed Adamczyk  

A demonstration of implanting a radio frequency identification microchip. The Swedish company Epicenter has about 150 employees with RFID chips implanted. Photo by Paul Hughes/Wikipedia

UPI -- About 150 employees the Swedish technology firm Epicenter agreed to have a microchip inserted in their hands, the company said.

The RFID, or radio frequency identification chip, is about the size of a grain of rice and will allow workers at the company to open doors automatically and use electronic devices more efficiently. The chip is implanted in an employee's hand.

"You can do airline fares with it, you can also go to your local gym, so it basically replaces a lot of things you have other communication devices for, whether it be credit cards, or keys, or things like that. It's an implant in the hand that enables them to digitize professional information and communicate with devices both personal and within Epicenter. Once 'chipped' with this technology, members can interact with the building with a simple swipe of the hand. Chips can also be programmed to hold contact information and talk to smartphone apps," Epicenter co-founder Patrick Mesterton told the Australian Broadcasting Company.

It can also count bathroom breaks, identify an employee's location and track cafeteria purchases, leading to invasion of privacy incidents and data collections.

Sandra Hoglof, employed by Epicenter subsidiary Eventomatic, said he had the chip inserted to be "part of the future,' adding, "I usually use a lot of things, like my keys, so this will give me access and help me a lot more."

There is no reason why these data cannot be directly linked to the internet, or to a database somewhere, which can be altered by someone with authority or the ability to hack. A person could instantly lose his ability to access the various things listed above. He could also lose the right to purchase the necessities of life once those stores have installed the recognition system. It will be no more difficult than installing debit or credit card readers, and much easier to use.

The Bible suggests that the Antichrist will use such technology to gain control of Christians and to coerce them into surrendering their physical selves and their very souls if they want to feed their families. 

I contend that hundreds of millions of Christians will suffer and die in the 7 years of the Great Tribulation during which the Antichrist takes control of much of the world. 

This story means that we now have the technology and will have the capability within about ten years for that to happen.

2 Leading Rabbis Agree - Messiah Coming Very Soon

Major Rabbi Predicts Christians Will Be Source of Torah in Coming Days of Messiah

By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz 

“For then will I turn to the peoples a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the LORD to serve Him with one consent. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia shall they bring My suppliants even the daughter of My dispersed as Mine offering.” Zephaniah 3:9-10 (The Israel Bible™)


(BreakingIsraelNews)

On Wednesday afternoon, two of the greatest rabbis of the generation met and discussed how very close the Messiah is, and how Christians and Muslims have an important role to play in that process.

Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch
(Photo: Flash90)

Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch,Vice-President of the Rabbinical Court and the Head of the Edah HaChareidis in Jerusalem, paid a rare visit to Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky at his home in Bnei Barak. They are two of the most prominent Torah figures alive today. Conversations between such great men have enormous significance and the Hebrew-language website Kikar Shabbat recorded the dialogue between these two great rabbis.

After warm greetings, the rabbis began to discuss the problems facing the Jews in this generation. Rabbi Kanievsky said that troubles were to be expected. “It is the days before Messiah,” he explained.

Rabbi Sternbuch agreed. “In the End of Days, those who fear God will despair and their hands will loosen from fighting God’s war against the sinners, and there will be no one to rely upon except God,” he said, adding, “We have to bring the Messiah.”

Rabbi Kanievsky answered that the Messiah should be arriving in the very near future. He quoted the Talmud (Megillah 17b) again, saying, “In the year after shmittah the Son of David will come.”

Rabbi Kanievsky was referring to a prediction he had made earlier in the year based on the Talmud. The shmittah (sabbatical) year comes once every seven years and ended this year on the holiday of Rosh Hashanah. The year in which Rabbi Kanievsky predicted the Messiah would come, according to the Talmud, will end next Rosh Hashana, in September.

“The year after the Shemitta isn’t over,” he added.

Rabbi Sternbuch answered by quoting Jeremiah 8:2, which reads, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved” – implying that according to the Talmud, the Messiah should have already arrived if it was truly coming in this year.

Rabbi Kanievsky insisted that the Messiah was indeed coming in this year. He opened the Talmud folio (Ketubot 112b) that contained the prediction and began to read out loud to Rabbi Sternbuch.

Father Gabriel Clean
(Wikimedia Commons)

Rabbi Sternbuch considered this and responded with a different source.

“We have an ancient authenticated hand-written manuscript from the Rambam (a Spanish Torah authority from the twelfth century), in which he says that before the coming of the Messiah, the Christians and the Ishmaelites (Arabs) will come to Israel,” he pointed out.

The manuscript the rabbi referred to is a recent version of the Rambam’s Mishnah Torah, recently published with restored sections censored by medieval Christian authorities.

Rabbi Sternbuch’s interpretation of the Rambam does seem to happening today. The creation of the State of Israel was a miraculous fulfillment of God’s covenant with Abraham, restoring the land of Israel to the Jewish people, but it also benefitted Christians, establishing a bubble of religious freedom in a region of the world that does not tolerate pluralism. Almost three million Christians come to Israel every year to visit their holy sites in a way that is not permitted in regions under Muslim rule, and the Jewish state is home to a considerable Christian population as well.

Gabriel Naddaf,  an Israeli priest of the Greek Orthodox Church, said in an interview with the Algemeiner that “the Jewish state is the only country in the Middle East where Christians can practice their faith free from persecution”, noting, “The Christian community in Israel has more than quadrupled since independence in 1948, from 34,000 to 158,000 in 2012.”

Though not as positive or as beneficial as the Christian connection, the Arabs have also multiplied in the Land of Israel as the Messiah approaches. Before the British Mandate, Palestine, a neglected corner of the Ottoman Empire, had barely 700,000 people living in the country. As the Jewish population increased between World War One and World War Two, the Arab population also increased by 120 percent.

Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky
Photo: Yaakov Naumi/Flash90

Rabbi Kanievsky continued reading in the Talmud, which described yet another aspect of the days preceding the Messiah.

“In the days to come, all the non-fruit bearing trees in israel will bear fruit.” Rabbi Kanievsky explained, “When the Messiah comes, everyone will repent, and the people that ‘didn’t bear fruit’ will bear fruit and learn Torah.”

Rabbi Kanievsky seemed to be saying that in the Messianic era, Christians and Muslims will be a source of Torah learning – and this phenomenon is appearing as well. Many movements in Christianity are beginning to seek  out their roots in Torah and Judaism. Hebrew Roots and Bnai Yosef are growing movements that advocate doing Mitzvot and Torah study.

Both Rabbi Kanievsky and Rabbi Sternbuch are brilliant Torah scholars whose decisions regarding Torah law are unquestionably authoritative. When rabbis of this stature agree that the Messiah is imminent, it is clearly a sign to sit up and take notice.

Isn't it interesting that these Torah scholars include Christians in the equation leading up to the coming of the Messiah - even quoting scripture. What is interesting about it is that Jews don't believe that Jesus is the Messiah, yet the Torah seems to recognize Christianity as a bonafide religion. 

It appears the Rabbis don't necessarily believe in the Great Tribulation - 7 years of Hell on earth, revealed by the New Testament as coming before Christ returns. As part of that, the Antichrist will also appear before Christ's return. 

How do they reconcile that Christianity is mentioned in the Torah, but they don't believe in Christ as the Messiah? How do you explain Christianity without Christ? There's a disconnect there unless the Torah refers only to Christians after the Messiah appears.

2 Cor 3:
13.  We.... are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. (glory)
14.  But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.
15.  But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart;

16.  but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

Biometrics - Paving the Way for the Mark of the Beast?

When you believe, as I do, that we are within 10 years of the beginning of the Great Tribulation, the advent of biometrics is just about perfect timing for the Mark of the Beast.

Man sues after being fired for refusing microchip in his hand

A man who believed his company's time-keeping scanners were the Mark of the Beast has won a lawsuit for forced early retirement.

In a hearing this week, the jury in Clarksburg, West Virginia, awarded Beverly Butcher $150,000 in compensatory damages, ruling he was forced to retire for his religious beliefs.

Butcher worked at Consol Energy in West Virginia until he complained Consul's biometric scans for time and attendance violated his Christian beliefs, according to the Associated Press.

The Exponent Telegram reports Butcher wrote to his employers, asking to be exempt from scanning his left hand.

Rev 13:15-18 And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead; and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.

A letter in the lawsuit "discussed the vendor's interpretation of Chapter 13, Verse 16 of the Book of Revelation contained in the Bible; pointed out that the text of that verse references the Mark of the Beast only on the right hand and forehead; and suggests that persons with concerns about taking the Mark of the Beast 'be enrolled' (meaning, use the hand scanner) with their left hand and palm facing up. The letter concludes by assuring the reader that the vendor's scanner product does not, in fact, assign the Mark of the Beast," according to The Exponent Telegram.

When the company refused to compromise with Butcher, he was forced into early retirement.

The jury found Butcher had sincere religious beliefs and had properly informed his employer.

The $150,000 is for salary, pension and court costs.

Company in Sweden preparing to microchip everyone

The chip allows employees to open doors and use the photocopier
without a traditional pass card

Want to gain entry to your office, get on a bus, or perhaps buy a sandwich? We're all getting used to swiping a card to do all these things. But at Epicenter, a new hi-tech office block in Sweden, they are trying a different approach - a chip under the skin.

Felicio de Costa, whose company is one of the tenants, arrives at the front door and holds his hand against it to gain entry. Inside he does the same thing to get into the office space he rents, and he can also wave his hand to operate the photocopier.

That's all because he has a tiny RFID (radio-frequency identification) chip, about the size of a grain of rice, implanted in his hand. Soon, others among the 700 people expected to occupy the complex will also be offered the chance to be chipped. Along with access to doors and photocopiers, they're promised further services in the longer run, including the ability to pay in the cafe with a touch of a hand.

On the day of the building's official opening, the developer's chief executive was, himself, chipped live on stage. And I decided that if was to get to grips with this technology, I had to bite the bullet - and get chipped too.

The whole process is being organised by a Swedish bio-hacking group which was profiled by my colleague Jane Wakefield recently. One of its members, a rather fearsome looking tattooist, inserted my chip.

First, he massaged the skin between my thumb and index finger and rubbed in some disinfectant. The he told me to take a deep breath while he inserted the chip. There was a moment of pain - not much worse than any injection - and then he stuck a plaster over my hand.

Before trying my chip out, I wanted to know more about the thinking behind it. Hannes Sjoblad, whose electronic business card is on his own chip and can be accessed with a swipe of a smartphone, has the title chief disruption officer at the development. I asked him whether people really wanted to get this intimate with technology.

"We already interact with technology all the time," he told me. "Today it's a bit messy - we need pin codes and passwords. Wouldn't it be easy to just touch with your hand? That's really intuitive."

When I tested my chip, I found that it was not all that intuitive - I had to twist my hand into an unnatural position to make the photocopier work. And while some of the people around the building were looking forward to being chipped, others were distinctly dubious. "Absolutely not," said one young man when I asked him if he'd sign up. An older woman was more positive about the potential of the technology but saw little point in being chipped just to get through a door.

But Hannes Sjoblad says he and the Swedish Biohacking Group have another objective - preparing us all for the day when others want to chip us. "We want to be able to understand this technology before big corporates and big government come to us and say everyone should get chipped - the tax authority chip, the Google or Facebook chip." Then, he says, we'll all be able to question the way the technology is implemented from a position of much greater knowledge.

I've returned to Britain with a slightly sore hand - and a chip still under my skin which has my contact details on it. Not that useful, but no doubt more sophisticated chips will soon replace wearable technology like fitness bands or payment devices, and we will get used to being augmented. All sorts of things are possible - whether it becomes culturally acceptable to insert technology beneath our skin is another matter.

Welcome to Nazi Islam. Please be Seated, the Show is About to Begin (Updated)

Below is a link to one of the most shocking videos I have seen in a while, and I am not easily shocked.

Shocking video

The video discusses the similarities between modern militant Islam and Hitler's Nazis. They are striking, but that is not what's shocking. 

Nazi Islam

It also shows how Muslims teach their children to hate Jews enough to aspire to be suicide bombers. They teach the children that it is their duty to kill Jews. This is clearly a crime against humanity, though no-one is considering prosecuting anyone for it. As horrible as that is, it is not the most shocking aspect of this video.

The most shocking part of the video is the video within the video. A television presentation of a show that is watched by hundreds of millions of Arabs and Muslims - Al-Shatat. The show purports that Jews require the blood of Christians to make matzos (cookies).

This was a malicious rumor that was spread in the middle ages to demonize the Jews. It was subsequently proven completely untrue, and yet, Islam raises it again in a most emotional way, as though it were true. No wonder Muslims are so screwed up. But then, what should we expect; Islam has had no ties to truth from its very beginning.

The first speaker, a German, uses the term demons to describe Nazis and what Muslims are turning into. I don't know if he is using the term metaphorically or not; but, in reality, he is very precise in his terminology. 

There is no doubt in my mind that Hitler was a very powerful demon. So powerful that he infected most of the country with his evil, particularly the Hitler Youth. Satan was behind Hitler and the Nazis and, again, there is no doubt in my mind that he is behind Islamic jihad. The pure evil that it generates cannot come from any other source.

There are so many similarities, some of which are mentioned in the video. But the most striking is the psychotic hatred of Jews, and the extraordinary determination to eliminate them all. Satan has been trying to destroy the Jews for thousands of years. Of course, he's failed every time. This time though, he has almost all of Islam - 1.6 billion people, with a majority in 57 countries, to go against the 6 million Jews in Israel. 

Although they have tried several times in the past 66 years, they have not only failed completely, but they have lost territory in most of the actions. In fact, Israeli tanks were in the suburbs of Cairo during one conflict before Golda Meier pulled them back. Future attacks will also fail although they may be more successful than the previous ones.

The Old Testament book of Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39 explain with some detail what will happen in the next attack. The book makes it clear who's side God is on as He Himself destroys the hordes of soldiers attacking from the north. It should be obvious from history both old and recent that God is protecting the Jews. That Islam can't see it is simply because their god, Satan, has blinded their eyes and filled them with rage. It will end in their destruction.

I believe that overcoming jihad would require the prayers of millions of people, however, I'm pretty sure that is not going to happen. I'm having a hard enough time trying to get a few dozen people to pray about the other scourge of the century - child sex abuse. We need millions praying to stop both evils, but I seriously doubt that it will happen before Jesus comes back.

When will that happen? After the world goes through the Great Tribulation, during which the AntiChrist will take control of the whole earth. That AntiChrist might well be Al-Baghdadi, the leader of IS, or one of his followers. 

"For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will." - Jesus. Matthew 24:21

Is it possible that North and South America could be run by Islam? I believe it is and I believe we are currently helping it to happen through very generous immigration policies, resistance to racial profiling, and over-tolerance.

The majority of Muslims may be peaceful now, but, like Germany, they can turn on a dime and take on the characteristics of IS or Boko Haram. President Obama may yet be proved right that America will be a Muslim country. God help us.

ISIS Identifies Christianity as Its Number One Enemy

Iraq’s Christians have been forced to flee or
face certain death in the path of ISIS terrorists

In an updated version of its propaganda booklet, “Dabiq,” ISIS clearly identifies its No. 1 enemy – Christianity.

The cover photo shows a black ISIS flag flying over the Vatican. The booklet describes the terrorist army’s desires to conquer Rome and “break the cross,” according to Arutz Sheva, an independent Israeli news network.

According to some Islamic traditions, the Islamic prophet Muhammad predicted that the occupation of Istanbul, Jerusalem and Rome would pave the way for the Islamic messiah or mahdi.

The declaration surfaces amid growing concern over the widespread persecution of Christians in the Middle East. ISIS has executed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Christians throughout Iraq and forced many to flee the country. Up to 100,000 Christians remain in the capital of Baghdad, as ISIS is now within eight miles of the city.

A joint conference between the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem and the World Jewish Congress in Jerusalem was held earlier this week to discuss the dire situation for Christians.

“Across the Middle East, in the last 10 years, 100,000 Christians have been murdered each year. That means every five minutes a Christian is killed because of his faith,” Father Gabriel Nadaf, who has campaigned for Christian Arab rights and for local Christians to support Israel, told the United Nations Human Rights Council in September. “Those who can escape persecution at the hands of Muslim extremists have fled. … Those who remain, exist as second if not third-class citizens to their Muslim rulers.”

An estimated 12 million Christians lived in the Middle East, according to a July estimate in the London Guardian. But that number has been thought to have decreased drastically since the ISIS summer takeover of nearly half of Iraq, including the city of Mosul, which had been home to Christians for 2,000 years.

As Islam jihadists have gained ground throughout the Middle East over the past three years, the Christian community has faced persecution in a number countries, including Egypt, Iraq, Libya and Syria.

In Egypt, Coptic Christians have been targeted by violence from the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi groups. There have been reports of church burnings and killings of Christians.

In Syria, al-Qaida-linked rebels have threatened to kill Christians who do not join the fight against President Bashar Al-Assad.

Iran has persecuted Christians relentlessly as well, recently making headlines for burning the lips of a Christian man caught eating during the Ramadan fast.

No Place for Christian Ethics in Quebec

A group of Christian doctors opposing Quebec’s proposed euthanasia legislation, denied permission to present its views to the committee studying the bill, is warning the bill could require physicians to act against their religious principles.

Quebec Minister for Social Services and Youth Protection Veronique Hivon

The Christian Medical and Dental Society of Canada was only told last Thursday morning — the final day of consultations — that its request had been denied.

The Quebec bill controversially proposes “terminal palliative sedation and medical aid in dying” as part of a new set of rules for Quebec healthcare professionals and institutions.

The rejection of the Christian doctors’ bid to join the euthanasia debate comes amid the Quebec government’s aggressive secularism agenda, embodied by its proposed charter of values.

The Christian medical group — which represents 1,500 doctors across Canada and 50 in Quebec — is alarmed that the bill could require physicians in Quebec to betray their principles. The proposed law would force all doctors in the province to refer any patient who wants to end his or her life to a medical board, which the group said is ethically problematic for its members.

Christian ethics, or any religious ethics, are of no importance to the current government of Quebec. The 'Charter of Values' referred to above is proposed legislation that would forbid the wearing of any visible religious symbols by anyone who works for the Province of Quebec. That includes large crosses, hijabs, turbans, etc., etc.

What also strikes me from the statement above is that there are only 50 Christian doctors registered in the Christian Medical and Dental Society of Canada. 1500 across Canada - 50 in Quebec, the second most populous province in the country. One would expect, based on population, there to be 250 - 300 Christian doctors registered there. Are they afraid to register, or is the number representative of the actual Christian population of Quebec?

Quebec used to be utterly dominated by the Catholic Church until the middle of the last century when people began abandoning the church and rebelling against it's self-proclaimed authority. There is still, I suspect, a lot of anti-religious sentiment in Quebec, and with the frequent revelations of sexual abuse by priests, it's not likely to improve any time soon.

We should be praying for spiritual revival in Quebec and literally sending missionaries to the spiritually third world province.

“We are disappointed that we were not told until the last day of hearings that we were unable to present,” said Larry Worthen, executive director of the group. “We are concerned about the bill’s lack of explicit conscience protection for physicians, pharmacists, and nurses.”

Furthermore, he says rejection by the committee fuels fears held by Christian doctors working in Quebec that their faith-based opinions on medical issues will not be taken seriously. Some doctors are even afraid of identifying themselves as Christian, said Mr. Worthen.

Dr. Liette Pilon, representative for the group’s doctors in Quebec said, “we cannot impose our values on a non-Christian society, but we hope the committee considers very carefully … the universal value of human life.”

Special consultations on the bill began Sept. 17, by invitation only. Groups not invited by the committee were required to submit an invitation request to committee secretary Anik Laplante, who passed requests along to leaders of the committee.

Fifteen uninvited groups submitted requests to present during the consultations, two of which were faith-based, said Ms. Laplante.

Ms. Laplante said information on the denied requests is “not available to the public.”

Briefs submitted to the committee, including those by groups unable to present, can be found on the bill’s webpage, said Laurie Comtois, a government spokesperson.

The National Assembly is “confident to get through the process before Christmas or … the beginning of the next year,” said Ms. Comtois.

National Post