THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF BROTHER YUN - THE HEAVENLY MAN

IRVINE, CA (ANS) -- I wasn’t sure what to expect when I agreed to interview Brother Yun, the Chinese Christian whose book, The Heavenly Man, has been a worldwide bestseller.

Dan Wooding with Bishara Awad, president of the Bethlehem Bible College and Brother Yun at the studios of Safe Worlds IPTV
I have to say that, as a former critic of Brother Yun, a.k.a. Liu Zhenying (born 1958), an exiled Chinese Christian house church leader, evangelist, and proponent of the Back To Jerusalem movement, I was more than a little concerned that he might be upset at me for my previous comments about him.
But that was soon allayed when he arrived at the studios of Safe Worlds IPTV in Irvine, California, for the interview. A huge smile on his face, he came bounding in and threw his arms around me and hugged me like a long-lost brother.
I immediately warmed to Brother Yun and his loving personality as I launched into the interview, conducted via a translator from Finland called Brother Ren.
I began by thanking him for coming to the studios and his face again lit up like a lamp and he shouted, “Praise the Lord.”
Brother Yun began to sharing about his early life in the Southern part of Henan Province among the simple farmers and pheasants of Liu Lao Zhuang, Nanyang County.
“The reason I became a believer in Jesus Christ was because the western missionaries were obedient and they brought the gospel of Jesus to my home area,” he said. “My mother received the Gospel through the western missionaries in the nineteen-forties, but then the communists took power in China and they expelled all the missionaries.
“During the early years of the revolution, all the pastors were thrown to prison, all the Bibles were burned and all the church buildings everything was destroyed. But there was no way that they could bind and stop the Word of God to work in the hearts of my people.
“In 1978, the leader Mao Zedong, very boldly proclaimed that ‘we have moved Christianity to the history museums.’ But Mao Zedong and his wife were wrong. They were mistaken. When you go to China today you will find Mao Zedong in the history museum, but Jesus is working in the hearts of millions of people in China.”
I then asked Brother Yun how he became a Christian.
“I became as a believer in Jesus Christ during the last years of revolution at that time when Mao Zedong said he had ‘moved Christianity to the history museums.’ It was because of a miracle that I came to faith in Jesus.
“At that time, my mother did not dare to confess to anymore that she was a believer in Jesus, but in the middle of all this, God suddenly allowed my father to become sick and he contracted terminal cancer. One night, my mother was so upset that she decided to commit suicide by hanging herself and just when she was about to do that, she suddenly heard the voice of the Holy Spirit calling to her, ‘Come back home. Come back home. Jesus loves you.’ My mother pulled down the rope that was hanging from the ceiling and then she kneeled by the chair and reconciled her life with Jesus.
“After that, for the first time, she came to us children after midnight and said, ‘There is hope for my family. We have to call upon the name of Jesus.’ That was the first time in my life I heard the name of Jesus. My mother had never told us anything about Jesus before this. And so, with this simple understanding, we started to call upon the name of Jesus, a name that is above all the other names. It has greater power than cancer and within one week my father was completely healed and restored from terminal cancer.”

Dan Wooding with Brother Yun and his translator, Brother RenBrother Yun went on to say through his translator, “My salvation was very simple. My mother could not teach us a lot about the Christian faith, but she said that Jesus had come with ‘grace and truth’ and these were two things she was teaching us. Because of this great miracle that occurred in my family, we all became believers in Jesus. Our relatives came to visit our home after about a week and one after another, they also knelt and said that Jesus was alive and they also became believers in Jesus.
“The Bible says that ‘the ways of the Lord and the thoughts of the Lord are so much higher than our ways’ and less than a year later, when I was seventeen years old, late one evening I heard Jesus calling me and saying, ‘Brother, stand up and be my witness to the west and the south.’ That was my first meeting with Jesus. The amazing thing is the first one who opposed my idea to become a witness for Jesus was my own mother.
“In tears, I talked to my mother and told her, ‘Jesus has called me tonight to be his witness.’ I was sharing this with my mother and she told me that reason she was opposing me was, ‘I'm an old believer. If Jesus wanted to speak to somebody in this house, He would first speak to me.’ But I could not be disobedient to this heavenly calling and so from this time until today, I have tried to be obedient to witness to Jesus in west and south.”
I then asked Brother Yun what were the circumstances of his first arrest.
“Less than a year after I started to preach the Gospel and many miracles started to happen, hundreds of people came to faith and, of course, the authorities began to recognize that something is going on, and they posted a reward for my capture as a contra-revolutionary,” he said. “Once a person starts to proclaim that Jesus is alive and that He's the Son of God in atheistic, communist China during those years just after the revolution, you became immediately a threat to the leadership.
“The first time I was arrested was when I was seventeen years old and together with my mother, we were bound together and led around the village in a procession. Still, I was able for almost ten years, to share the gospel but then, in early nineteen-eighties, there was a tremendous hunting going on in China and they wanted to catch the Christians and I was caught. But I have my own interpretation about this I had been almost ten years in fulltime ministry I was exhausted and worn out burnt out. So God prepared me a Chinese style vacation to go and rest.
“I didn't end up in a prison because I had committed any crime; it was just my faithfulness to the Gospel and He gave me the mercy and the grace to endure it. I spent four years in the prison the first time. That first imprisonment became very important for my life. During a period I was going through a torture in prison, I heard a voice. As a contra-revolutionary, you only had two options; you were either sentenced to life imprisonment or to be executed. That was a totally impossible situation. Can you imagine in that situation? I had lost my hope for survival, but then Jesus came to me and He said, ‘My child, I know everything you are going through right now. See I'm going to open a door for you that no man is able to shut.’ Just the fact that I'm sitting here today is proof that Jesus is real and He is alive.”
I then asked Brother Yun, whose new book, Living Water, edited by Paul Hattaway, how he got his name.
“In China, I've always been called Brother Yun,” he explained. “This name, Brother Yun in Chinese, means ‘a cloud’ and it comes from book of Hebrews chapter twelve and verse one where it talks about the ‘cloud of witnesses surrounding us.’ But I received the name, the Heavenly Man, from the Holy Spirit and this happened in a situation when I'd started a discipleship training seminar and, in the middle of that seminar, the Holy Spirit spoke to me about sharing with the people how important it is to be always ready to die for Jesus. I really saw a vision with my inner eyes that one day China's name is going to be changed. It's going to be called the ‘Village of the Gospel.’ He told me in order to achieve this in China; he wanted to send messengers of the gospel to every village, town and city in China.
“We were coming to the close of this training session and were commissioning these young evangelists and pioneer workers and missionaries to go to different parts of China, when suddenly the authorities surrounded the farm house where we were meeting and I and my team were captured. I had been training these people like I always do about five important points of the life of a disciple, a true follower of Jesus. I said that ‘if you want to be a truly disciple of Jesus you have to be a person of prayer.’ And then, ‘always to be ready, no matter what the circumstances, to witness about Jesus.’ And, number three, ‘always be ready to be thrown to prison and suffer for the name of Jesus and if needs be, be ready to die for the cause of the Gospel.’ And number five, because of the special situations in China, I also taught that you have to ‘train up yourself to escape for the Gospel so you can continue your ministry.’”
Brother Yun said that the arrest took place in the middle of winter and the police captain began beating him and ripping off his clothes.
“He started to question me, asking, ‘Who are you and what are you

Cover of Living Waterdoing here? Where do you live?’ I was on my own and I had prepared what I should say, but then the Holy Spirit gave me the words and I proclaimed boldly, ‘I'm the Heavenly Man and I live in the Village of Gospel.’”
Brother Yun then said that the bemused police officer couldn’t understand what he was saying and asked him, “Where in China is the Village of the Gospel?” and so Brother Yun said he boldly told him that one day every village in China would carry that name.”
The policeman then asked for the name of his father and he replied, “Filled with Grace” and he then said his mother’s name was “Faith, Hope and Love.” He went on to say that his older brother’s name was “He’s coming back.”
Not surprisingly, the police officer decided that Brother Yun had lost his mind, was dangerous for society, and so he threw him in jail.
I was startled when Brother Yun then began singing a song that he had in prison.
He then told me, “Just because they said that I was a ‘crazy man,’ I really started to behave like one, but I was being crazy for Jesus. I didn’t care about what they thought, and I continued singing, praising God and praying aloud. You know, you have two possibilities when you are in that situation: you have to make up your mind about whether you are going to complain or feel sorry about being in prison, or you can say, ‘I'm going to praise Jesus from morning to evening when I am in a prison. I'm going to thank him for this grace that He's giving to me.’
“It took several weeks before they could put my face to the wanted poster that had been appearing in all the police station across the country. One of the policemen told him, ‘You aren't any Heavenly Man, you are that preacher we've been looking for many years and now we've finally got you.”
Brother Yun went on to say, “As a pastor, when you are captured in China even today, one of the first decisions you have to do is to decide whether you are going to betray anybody or not because that's what they want you to do to. They want you to become a Judas who will give names and locations to them. I decided that I'd rather die for Jesus than give them even one name which they were asking.
“I then decided that I was going to face this storm by not eating of drinking. It was quite strange because actually the Holy Spirit, when I was fasting in prison reminded me how much Jesus was willing to pay a price for our deliverance and how much the disciples suffered and how most of them died for the Gospel.
“I remember once, when they came with all these torture instruments, they said, ‘Today, you have to decide whether you want to remain alive or you are going to die in our hands today.’ And then they started to torture me by taking hold of my hands and they pushed them on the floor. Then they started to squeeze, one after the other, extremely thick needles under each one of my fingers. After few minutes of this terrible pain, my spirit left my body. Then I returned back and I was in the middle of this horrible pain and I could not take it any more, so I prayed, ‘Jesus, I cannot take this pain any more. Give me a possibility to die for you I want to come home and leave behind this pain.’
“I came to learn a very important lesson at that point because, if God has a purpose and plan for your life, you can not easily die away from it. And again Jesus came to me at that lowest point of my life when I thought I was going to die and he said, ‘My child, I know everything you are going through right now.’ And in a fraction of a second, my eyes were opened and I saw how the gates of the prison were opened for me and one after another, I walked out to freedom.
“I had Bible in my hands and soon I was witnessing about Jesus to thousands of people in meetings outside of prison. Eventually, I was standing up in front of white people and black people and different colors of people, and witnessing about how great Jesus is.”
Sadly, we ran out of time for this interview, and so if you want to know more about the story of Brother Yun, you will have to read his two books, The Heavenly Man and Living Water.
I have to say that my opinion of Brother Yun has changed completely after meeting with him and I pray that God will continue to use him as he traverses the world sharing his story and bringing attention to the plight of China’s Christians.
All I can do is echo what Brother Yun said at the end of the interview: “Hallelujah!”

Stark Truths Of Hinduism: The Hindu Right Fears not Conversions, but Equitable Society

NEW DELHI, INDIA (ANS) -- Right-wing Hindus never had any issue with Christians or with conversion when it came to using -- and exploiting -- Christian institutions, says Udit Raj, a leading Dalit (Untouchable) activist and Chairman of All India Confederation of SC/ST Organizations.
Writing in Tehelka, India's first independent weekly news magazine, (Vol 5, Issue 42, dated Oct 25, 2008) at:www.tehelka.com/story_main40.asp?filename=Ne251008proscons.asp , Raj says Hindus, "(They) have had no problem in availing Christian medical facilities. No abhorrence has been evinced toward convent schools, where the so-called upper castes were taught the English that got them jobs abroad and enabled them to articulate their views at global forums."
Raj says that changed around 1998, when the BJP came to power.
"Targeting Christians became politically useful. A massive campaign was launched against Sonia Gandhi, making an issue of a person of foreign and Christian origin wielding power over a Hindu majority country. It culminated in the hatred for Christians, who are now seen as villains instead of the gentle community they had hitherto been known as."
Raj writes that wisdom lies in understanding the causes which escalate the processes of hatred.
"So it becomes our responsibility to fathom the mystery of conversion, usually assigned as the basis for attacks on Christians. The RSS, Bajrang Dal and VHP blame those said to offer inducements to convert; they also accuse the global Church of pumping money into India to influence the country’s have-nots.
"In such a context, the word ‘conversion’ becomes synonymous with ‘terrorism,' a connotation that could not be further from the truth. What does conversion mean except the choice of another faith or ideology? Laws against conversion are in operation in several states and, to date, not one case has been reported where a conversion was made in the greed for inducements."
Raj says that what worries the Sangh Parivar is not the welfare of Dalits, but a possible reduction in upper-caste Hindu numbers.
"Their prejudice is so entrenched that they are not in a position to sense the agony of those who suffer under the caste-based system. In general, Hindu believers treat the disadvantaged as sinners reaping the fruits of a past life. Thus, a leper is to be shunned; the exploitation of Dalits is justified. On the contrary, a Christian finds an opportunity for spiritual fulfillment in serving the leper and healing the sick. Before they build churches, Christians normally build schools and hospitals. Why do major Hindu religious establishments involve themselves only in collecting donations and not in performing such community services?"
Let us examine the few hopes still left for Hinduism, says Raj.
"Are Dalits, tribals and members of backward groups allowed to become priests? Tall claims are made of Dalits being trained to become priests or being welcomed to take up Hindu rituals. But, on the ground, the traditional situation has not changed. Though physical untouchability receded in the 20th century, the mental block remains.
"The Hindu Right and the so-called upper castes see ‘saving’ Hinduism as their mission. But, in this competition with Islam, Christianity and Buddhism, the superficial brotherhood shown by right-wing Hindu organizations toward tribals and Dalits does not ultimately win their hearts."
Unless the problems inherent to Hinduism are addressed, conversion can never be stopped, he says.
Raj concludes: "A Christian marries his or her co-religionist; a Muslim does the same. Is that possible for Hindus across caste? Are the upper castes ready to welcome reservation for their Hindu brothers? Is their society ready for inter-dining and for inter-caste marriages?
"Without these conditions being fulfilled, no one on earth can stop the rejection of Hinduism by the so-called lower castes. The so-called upper castes can only stop conversion if they introspect, eradicate the evil in the caste system, and visualize themselves in a situation where they and their families are carrying human excreta on their heads. Then, they will feel the suffering of those condemned to do so for life."

Africa Sends Out Missionaries by the Thousands in New Wave of Missions Activity

ETHIOPIA (ANS) -- An Ethiopian tells how when he landed on Indian soil as a missionary in 1998 it surprised him as much as anyone else, according to an article from Joel News International (JNI) by Sheryl Montgomery Wingerd, in JNI's Great Commission Update.
"Could this be possible?" the East African asked himself. "We always thought only white people could be missionaries."
Wingerd writes that more than a step of faith, this venture created a worldview change for the new missionary. After all, he had gone out from Africa, the continent that for generations has been known as the mission field, the place where missionaries go.
But God had prepared the way. Soon after arriving, one of his team members shared the gospel with a woman. She stopped him. "I had a dream last week," she said.
"Fire was consuming the village and people were running. Two people were praying with arms outstretched. Then something like a cross came between the fire and the village."
The woman concluded, "You were the people."
Wingerd reports that in the following three months 1,357 people gave their lives to Christ. After their initial success, the home church in Ethiopia sent 20 more missionaries to India and Pakistan.
"In Nigeria, missions have been gaining momentum since the mid-70s. Now 5,200 missionaries are serving around the world," the Ethiopian missionary says.
In her article, Wingerd explains that in the same way, thousands of Africans from across the continent are defying old stereotypes and embarking on the cross-cultural missionary adventure.
In some areas, she says, the church has been doing it for awhile; in other places it's just getting started.
In Nigeria, missions have been gaining momentum since the mid-70s. NEMA, the Nigerian Evangelical Mission Agency, now has 5,200 missionaries serving in Africa and around the world.
Wingerd says that a church in one of South Africa's townships has been sending out short-term missionaries for seven years, according to a report at a recent MANISA conference. Just two years ago they sent their first long-termers. Church members are enthusiastic about their missionaries who are working in three other countries, and are committed to support them.
Africans are still mindful of what foreign missionaries have done in their continent, Wingerd states.
"We appreciate you, and what the Lord has done through you for us," said Nigerian Dr. Rev. Nicholas Asamayan, who mobilizes black churches for missions. "And to those who died, thank you for your sacrifice and your love. But in God's prophetic timetable, the time has come for us," he said. He explained that it is time for an Afro-centric approach to missions, for defining mission in the African context, for writing materials and coming up with creative ideas.
"They are moving into the earth's difficult un-reached communities. Professionals back home, such as engineers and doctors, raise money to support them."
The JNI article says that God's new company of African missionaries is moving into some of earth's difficult un-reached communities. What motivates them to go into lowly villages with bad water, disease and a fearful relationship with local gods? Or to venture out into Europe, Asia and South America? Each country has its own story.
In Nigeria, it began with students, JNI reports.
As they went out to the villages for their year of national service, they saw parts of their nation they hadn't seen before, and were moved to action. They began planting churches, but they also caught a vision for missions, leading eventually to the birth of three mission agencies, Calvary Ministries, Christian Mission Foundation, and EMS, the missions branch of the Evangelical Church of West Africa. Then, in the early 80s, NEMA was born -- the Nigerian Evangelical Mission Agency, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in October, 2007. They have an exciting support group -- the Mission Supporters League (MSL), an innovation rarely found even in more prosperous countries. It includes 100 chapters of professionals, such as engineers and doctors, who raise money for supporting and sponsoring missionaries.
In Zimbabwe 10,000 churches were planted in the '90s. As persecution came, they went abroad preaching the gospel.
Then there is Zimbabwe. "Our church planting model," says Dr. Shana, "is described in Acts 8 and 9: 'When they were persecuted, they went abroad preaching the gospel.'"
Shana's congregation, the mushrooming Word of Life Church in Bulawayo, has planted 3,500 churches all over the world, instilled with the missional vision to affect the community around them in every sphere of life.
But Zimbabwe's missionary movement, according to Dr. Shana, came out of troubled times. It started with a movement in the '90's where 10,000 churches were planted. Soon after, the country dove into economic and political turmoil.
Unexpectedly, those 10,000 churches became the seedling bed for a new missions thrust. As Zimbabweans left the country to settle in new places, they took their faith with them.
"We've been following our diasporic sheep," explains Dr. Shana. "In their new homes, they miss the church they've had in Zimbabwe, so they begin to meet in groups, and talk to their communities. A little group starts, which we support and we watch over for a period of time. And we start a church."
"In Ethiopia over 3,000 missionaries have moved from one culture to the other to share Jesus Christ."
"The gospel has been in Ethiopia for 1,670 years," said Pastor Langana at MANI SA '08, "first brought here by the eunuch in Acts 8.
"But I'm sorry to say that, even though we were a Christian nation, we never reached the rest of Africa."
Things changed in 1990. "God brought a missionary," said Langana, "and used him as a key person. He told us, 'It is time for Ethiopia to see the people who are unreached.' We had never been thinking of going outside Ethiopia."
Now, more than 3,000 missionaries in the North African country of Ethiopia have moved from one culture to another in order to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The missions-minded country of Ghana, which has sent people to such far-reaching places as China, Ukraine, Brazil and India, was inspired by the Nigerian missions movement, and continues to be motivated by the Acts 1:8 strategy.
It's simple, the JNI article says. Every church has four realms to influence: 'Jerusalem', your own home town, 'Judea', the next closest region, 'Samaria', even farther out, and then 'the ends of the earth.'
The Church of Pentecost is a good example, which opened Pakistan as its 70th mission field this year.
Ross Campbell, MANI's Information Coordinator, observes that "from the day of conversion, believers are commissioned, equipped and engaged in Kingdom advance."
And this is only one of Ghana's major denominations which all have international mission boards. Others include the Presbyterians and Methodists. GEMA, the Ghana Evangelical Missions Association is a connecting point for them all.
Wingert concludes that, in these and other countries, Africans are a key part of today's missionary task force, digging into the hard work left to finish the job of fulfilling the Great Commission.

NUN GANGRAPED IN ORISSA BY EXTREMISTS TELLS HER STORY

ORISSA STATE, INDIA (ANS) -- On the same day that a Roman Catholic nun was burned alive by a group of Hindu fundamentalists who stormed the orphanage she ran in the district of Bargarh (Orissa), a priest who was at the orphanage was also badly hurt, and another nun from Bubaneshwar’s Social Center was gang-raped by groups of Hindu extremists before the building housing the facility was set on fire.
The attacks followed two days of anti-Christian violence in the state of Orissa (north-east India) following the assassination of radical Hindu leader Swami Laxanananda Saraswati.
While the Catholic nun who was gang-raped in the violence in Kandhamal, Orissa on August 25, 2008 has signed a statement, which she read at a Press Conference in New Delhi, on October 24, 2008, her name is being withheld in this article to respect the Indian Supreme Court Advisory on the use of names of victims of gender violence.
In her statement to the media, the nun says that on August 24, around 4:30pm, hearing the shouting of a large crowd at the gate of Divyajyoti Pastoral Center, she ran out through the backdoor and escaped to the forest along with others.
"We saw our house going up in flames. Around 8:30 pm we came out of the forest and went to the house of a Hindu gentleman who gave us shelter."
The nun says that on August 25, around 1:30 pm, the mob entered the room where she was staying in that house, one of them stopped her, caught her hair and pulled her out of the house.
"Two of them were holding my neck to cut off my head with an axe. Others told them to take me out to the road; I saw Fr. Chellan also being taken out and being beaten. The mob consisting of 40-50 men was armed with lathis, axes, spades, crowbars, iron-rods, sickles etc. They took both of us to the main road. Then they led us to the burned down Janavikas building saying that they were going to throw us into the smoldering fire."
The nun stated that when they reached the Janavikas building, they threw her to the verandah on the way to the dining room, which was full of ashes and broken glass pieces.
"One of them tore my blouse and others my undergarments. Father Chellan protested and they beat him and pulled him out from there. They pulled out my saree and one of the stepped on my right hand and another on my left hand and then a third person raped me on the verandah mentioned above. When it was over, I managed to get up and put my petticoat and saree. Then another young man caught me and took me to a room near the staircase. He opened his pants and was attempting to rape me when they reached there."
The nun says she hid under the staircase.
"The crowd was shouting 'where is that sister, come let us rape her, at least 100 people should rape.' They found me under the staircase and took me out to the road. There I saw Fr. Chellan was kneeling down and the crowd was beating him. They were searching for a rope to tie us both of us together to burn us in fire. Someone suggested to make us parade naked. They made us walk on the road till Nuagoan market, which was half a kilometer from there. They made us fold our hands and walk. I was with petticoat and saree as they had already torn away my blouse and undergarments. They tried to strip even there and I resisted and they went on beating me with hands on my cheeks and head and with sticks on my back several times."
When they reached the market the market place about a dozen of OSAP policemen were there.
"I went to them asking to protect me and I sat in between two policemen but they did not move. One from the crowd again pulled out from there and they wanted to lock us in their temple mandap. The crowd led me and Fr. Chellan to the Nuagaon block building saying that they will hand us over to BDO. From there along with the block officer the mob took us to police outpost Nuagaon, other policemen remained far (away)."
The mob said that they will come back after eating and one of them who attacked her remained back in the police outpost, the nun said.
"Policemen then came to police outpost. They were talking very friendly with the man who had attacked me and stayed back. In the police outpost we remained until the inspector in charge of Balliguda with his police team came and took us to Balliguda. They were afraid to take us straight to the police station and they kept us sometimes in jeep. In the garage, from there, they brought us to the station.
"The inspector in charge and other government officers took me privately and asked whatever happened to me. I narrated everything in detail to the police, how I was attacked, raped, taken away from policemen paraded half naked and how the policemen did not help me when I asked for help while weeping bitterly. I saw the inspector writing (this) down. The inspector asked me 'are you interested in filing FIR? Do you know what will be the consequence?' At about 10:00 pm I was taken for medical check-up accompanied by a lady police officer to Balliguda Hospital. They were afraid to keep us in police station, saying the mob may attack police station. So the police took us to the IB (Inspection Bungalow) where CRP men were camping."
On August 26 around 9:00 am, the two Catholics were taken to Balliguda police station.
"When I was writing the FIR, the I I C asked me to hurry up and not to write in detail. When I started writing about the police, the I I C told me 'this is not the way to write FIR, make it short.' So I re-wrote it for the third time in one and half pages. I filed the FIR, but I was not given a copy of it," the nun explained.
At around 4:00 pm the inspector in charge of Balliguda police station along with some other government officers put the two Catholics in the OSRTC bus to Bhubaneswar along with other stranded passengers. Police were there till Rangamati where all passengers had their supper.
"After that I did not see the police. We got down near Nayagarh and traveled in a private vehicle and reached Bhubaneswar around 2:00 am on August 27," she said.
The nun concluded: "State Police failed to stop the crimes, failed to protect me from the attackers, they were friendly with the attackers."
She said the police tried their best to say that it was best that she did not register an FIR, and not make complaints against police. She added that the police did not take down her statement as she narrated in detail and they abandoned her half of the way."I was raped and now I don’t want to be victimized by the Orissa police. I want a CBI enquiry."

CHRISTIAN AID WORKER IN SOMALIA BEHEADED BY EXTREMISTS

NAIROBI, KENYA (ANS) -- Among at least 24 aid workers killed in Somalia this year was one who was beheaded last month specifically for converting from Islam to Christianity, among other charges, according to an eyewitness.
According to a story by Compass Direct News, Muslim extremists from the al Shabab group fighting the transitional government on Sept. 23 sliced the head off of Mansuur Mohammed, 25, a World Food Program (WFP) worker, before horrified onlookers of Manyafulka village, 10 kilometers (six miles) from Baidoa.
The militants had intercepted Mohammed and a WFP driver, who managed to escape, earlier in the morning. Sources close to Mohammed’s family said he converted from Islam to Christianity in 2005.
Compass Direct reported that the eyewitness, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said the militants gathered the villagers of Manyafulka that afternoon, telling them that they would prepare a feast for them. The people gathered anticipating the slaughter of a sheep, goat or camel according to local custom.
According to Compass Direct, the five masked men emerged carrying guns, carrying Somali swords and dragging the handcuffed Mohammed. One pulled back Mohammed’s head, exposing his face as he scraped his sword against his short hair as if to sharpen it. Another recited the Quran as he proclaimed that Mohammed was a “murtid,” an Arabic term for one who converts from Islam to Christianity.
The Muslim militant proclaimed that Mohammed was an infidel and a spy for occupying Ethiopian soldiers.
Compass Direct reported that eyewitnesses said Mohammed remained calm with an expressionless face, not even saying anything. As the chanting of “Allah Akubar [God is greater]” rose to a crescendo, one of the militiamen twisted his head, allowing the other to slit his neck. When the head was finally severed from the torso, the killers cheered as they displayed it to the petrified crowd.
The militants allowed one of their accomplices to take a video of the slaughter using a mobile phone. The video was later circulated secretly and sold in Somalia and in neighboring countries, in what Compass Direct said many see as a strategy to instill fear among those considering converting from Islam to Christianity.
Compass Direct said unconfirmed reports indicated that a similar incident took place in Lower Juba province of Somalia in July, when Christians found with Bibles were publicly executed. Their families fled to Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya, and such killings are forcing other Christians to flee to neighboring Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti.
Somalis Attacking Somalis
Compass Direct said Somali refugees to Kenya include Nur Mohammed Hassan, in Nairobi under U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees asylum. In spite of the protection, two weeks ago five Somali Muslims broke into Mohammed Hassan’s house and beat him and his family, he told Compass.
“On Oct. 14 five Muslims entered my house around 10 o’clock in the night and forced us out after beating us indiscriminately,” Compass Direct reported Mohammed Hassan said, adding that the youngest of his eight children suffers from a liver disease.
He added, “Thank God the police arrived immediately and saved our lives. For two days now we have been sleeping outside in the cold. We have been receiving police security, but for how long will this continue?”
Mohammed Hassan now lives in Eastliegh, Nairobi with his wife and children. He had fled Mogadishu after Muslims murdered his sister, Mariam Mohammed Hassan, in April 2005, allegedly for distributing Bibles in the capital.
“We are nowadays no better than our fellow Somali Christians inside Somalia who are killed like dogs when discovered to be Christians,” Compass Direct reported Mohammed Hassan said. “We are not safe living here in Eastleigh. The Muslims killed my sister in Mogadishu, and now they are planning to kill me and my family.”
The last three years in Nairobi, he said, he has suffered many setbacks at the hands of other Somali immigrants.
“Indeed the situation for the Muslim Christians in Kenya and Somalia is disastrous and horrifying – we are risking our lives for choosing to follow Christ,” he told Compass Direct. “My family is in danger. No peace, no security. We are lacking the basic necessities of life.”
Compass Direct said Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries in the world, and subject to suicide bombings, sea piracy and routine human rights violations. Islamic militants object to foreign troop intervention, especially those from neighboring Ethiopia. Christians and anyone sympathetic to Western ideals are targeted, with foreign aid workers especially vulnerable in the past year.
Compass Direct reported that aid groups have counted 24 aid workers, 20 of them Somalis, who have been killed this year in Somalia, with more than 100 attacks on aid agencies reported. In their strategy to destabilize the government, the Islamic militants target relief groups as the U.N. estimates 3.2 million Somalis (nearly a third of the population) depend on such aid.
Somali Islamic clerics such as Ahlsunna Waljamea have condemned the killing of aid workers in Somalia.

BILLY GRAHAM TURNS 90

SCOTT DEPOT, WV (ANS) -- On November 4, millions of honest and concerned citizens will go to the polls, to make their prayerful, thoughtful and secret choice for the nation’s next President and Commander-in-Chief. It may be the most important and decisive vote any of us will ever cast.
Since the days of President Truman, Presidents have sought out the counsel, advice, wisdom, spiritual insights and prayers of Billy Graham.
Three days after the coming election, Billy Graham, will celebrate his 90th birthday with family members. He was born November 7, 1918 in a frame farmhouse on a dairy farm, where he milked cows twice a day in Charlotte, NC.
The evangelist’s international headquarters office is now located on Charlotte’s most famous street, 1 Billy Graham Parkway. My wife Kitty and I were present for the dedication of both the new office complex and later the Billy Graham Library on May 31, 2007.
My first time to be close to Billy Graham was during his crusade in Indianapolis, IN, in 1959. Doug Oldham, the famous Gospel singer who often sang in Billy Graham meetings, and I drove to the meeting one night from Anderson, IN. Our friend, Billy Zeoli, invited us to sit on the platform with Dr. Graham. “Z”, as good friends call him, had been a leader with Youth for Christ International for many years, the same organization for which Billy Graham served as their first full time evangelist. I was then serving as an evangelist on the Youth Crusade Staff of Youth for Christ.
My first real introduction to Billy Graham was during his 1967 crusade in Kansas City, Missouri. We met as he arrived to speak to those attending the School of Evangelism. Gil Stricklin, a friend since those days and a crusade staff leader, arranged for me to sit in special areas of the stadium during the five days I was there, including two nights on the platform where various leaders of the crusade were sitting, including Cliff Barrows, George Beverly Shea, John Wesley White, George Wilson, Grady Wilson and T. W. Wilson.
Billy Graham made a tremendous difference in the lives of millions around the world. For 50 years he has been named by the Gallup Poll among the 10 most admired men in the world. He has influenced my life immeasurably and been an invaluable mentor.
You may send him a special birthday greeting or tell him how much God has blessed you through his ministry at http://www.billygraham90.com/ or mail your message to: Billy Graham’s 90th Birthday, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1 Billy Graham Parkway, Charlotte, NC 28201. You may also include a special birthday gift check, for as much as you choose, for his continuing worldwide work to bring others to faith in Jesus Christ.
Our nation needs to follow the counsel and teaching of our national pastor and his beloved wife, Ruth, who went to heaven from her home on Thursday, June 14, 2007, at the age of 87. He said of this talented and beautiful lady, “Ruth was my life partner, and we were called by God as a team.” The message of their lives has been: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Wycliffe celebrates as all Bible translations reach completion

International (MNN) -- Wycliffe Bible Translators is nearing the goal of translating the Bible into every language on earth. Wycliffe's Ruth Hubbard says they're pushing to get the last 2200 languages translated, with the final one started by 2025. "We're working to raise awareness and mobilize resources for Bible translation movements worldwide, believing that we can see the translation work of Scripture in those last languages in this generation." Completion of the project will take several willing missionaries, billions of dollars, and a great deal of prayer. Hubbard asks believers to praise God for His faithfulness and to pray for the necessary servants and funding. "In essence, we're asking God to act according to His character, to fulfill the promises He has made--to do what it is we believe He wants us to do. The second part of the prayer is that God would do the work in us organizationally and individually so that we'd be the men and women that He can use to do this work."

AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION COULD AFFECT RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

USA (MNN) -- Tomorrow, Americans will choose their next president and legislative leaders. The National Religious Broadcasters Association says the winner will have an impact on religious freedom. NRB's Craig Parshall says the democrats support re-instituting the Fairness Doctrine. "We think it would be a real travesty to Christian broadcasters because it would convert Christian broadcasting into anti-Christian broadcasting. Christian broadcasters would be required to air the opinions of atheists, members of major world religions, pro-abortion proponents, pro-homosexual activists and so forth." Democratic Presidential candidate Barak Obama supports hate crimes legislation, which Parshall says would make it illegal to criticize other religions and social behaviors like homosexuality. "In every country in the world where hate crimes have been instituted, it has migrated very quickly into hate speech, suppression of speech, and the targets have usually been Christian evangelists and Christian preachers."

STARTLING ARCHEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES - THAT PROVES WE CAN TRUST BIBLE

Startling Archeological DiscoveriesFrom Grant R. Jeffrey's new bookThe Signature of God
Can we trust the Bible? The answer is an overwhelming YES! The reason for this confident statement is that for the past one hundred and fifty years many brilliant scholars have conducted detailed archeological examinations at thousands of sites throughout the Middle East. The results of their discoveries have proven that the Bible is reliable and accurate in every single area where its statements could be tested. In the balance of this chapter I will share some of the wonderful archeological discoveries that provide tremendous proof that the Bible is a true and accurate record of past events in ancient Israel.Throughout most of the last two thousand years, the majority of men living in the western world have accepted the statements of the Scriptures as genuine. However, beginning with the higher critical school of biblical critics in Germany and England in the nineteenth century we have witnessed a progressive abandonment of the historic faith in the Word of God. While European seminaries gradually abandoned the authority of the Scriptures, North American seminaries and Bible colleges still upheld the accuracy of the Bible to some degree. In the 1960s most North American seminaries still accepted the basic records of the Old and New Testaments as being historically true. However, in the following decades there occurred a wholesale abandonment of belief in the historical accuracy of the Bible. The attitudes behind these attacks on biblical accuracy and authority were those of complete rejection of God's inspiration of the Scriptures. In addition, many critics approach the Bible with an attitude of outright denial of supernatural events, such as miracles, and biblical prophecy. To these unbelieving critics, the presence of a miracle or prophecy in a biblical text was absolute proof that it was not genuine. Critics rejected the possibility of inspiration, miracles, and prophecy before they began their examination of the evidence.Despite the overwhelming success unbelieving critics have had in establishing their unbelieving attitudes within the seminaries, textbooks, and popular media, something strange began to occur. The new discoveries by archeologists digging at sites in the Middle East continued to produce fascinating finds that contradicted their attitudes. Every new discovery in Israel and the surrounding nations provided tremendous confirmation of the accuracy of the Word of God in incredible ways. As a result of these continuing discoveries, Dr. Nelson Glueck, the most outstanding Jewish archeologist of this century, wrote in his book, Rivers in the Desert, this fascinating statement. "It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or in exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries. They form tesserae in the vast mosaic of the Bible's almost incredibly correct historical memory" (Dr. Nelson Glueck, Rivers in the Desert [New York, Grove, 1960], p. 31).In confirmation of Dr. Glueck's statement, another respected scholar, Dr. J. O. Kinnaman, declared: "Of the hundreds of thousands of artifacts found by the archeologists, not one has ever been discovered that contradicts or denies one word, phrase, clause, or sentence of the Bible, but always confirms and verifies the facts of the biblical record." The well-known language scholar, Dr. Robert Dick Wilson, formerly professor of Semitic philology at Princeton Theological Seminary, made the following comment, "After forty-five years of scholarly research in biblical textual studies and in language study, I have come now to the conviction that no man knows enough to assail the truthfulness of the Old Testament. When there is sufficient documentary evidence to make an investigation, the statement of the Bible, in the original text, has stood the test" (Dr. Robert Dick Wilson, Speaker's Source Book, p. 391).The Bible claims that it is the inspired and accurate Word of God. Therefore, it is vital that we compare the Scriptural records against the archeological discoveries uncovered at actual sites where many of the thrilling events of the Bible actually occurred. The results of these detailed investigations are available for anyone to examine. The archeological record provides overwhelming confirmation of thousands of detailed statements and facts recorded in the sacred Scriptures. Scholars have not found one single confirmed archeological discovery that absolutely disproves a statement of the Scriptures. To the contrary, as the evidence in The Signature of God reveals, the scholars have discovered literally hundreds of objects, inscriptions, and sites that confirm the accuracy of biblical statements in even unimportant areas. The most important thing for believers in God is that these archeological proofs of scriptural accuracy confirm the accuracy, the inspiration, and the authority of the Word of God. No one should expect that archeology will be able to provide detailed proof of such personal events like the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. By their nature, it is unlikely that such events in the lives of private individuals would ever leave any archeological evidence. Most personal events recorded in the Bible would never have left evidence that could be discovered thousands of years later. However, whenever the Bible dealt with the rise and fall of kingdoms, cities, buildings, etc., the spade of the archeologist has been able to discover wonderful confirmation of the truth of Holy Scripture.Only fifty years ago many disbelieving scholars totally rejected the historical accuracy of the Bible because they claimed that the Scriptures talked about numerous kings and individuals that could not be confirmed from any other historical or archeological records. Recent discoveries, however, have shown that they should not have abandoned their faith in the Word of God so easily. If they had only trusted in the truthfulness of the Bible or waited a little longer they would have been rewarded with the recent archeological discoveries that confirm many biblical details, events, and personalities. For example, many scholars contemptuously reject the Bible's statements about King David. Many textbooks used in universities and seminaries openly reject any historical statements in the Scriptures about King David or Solomon. They believe that David is a myth or literary fiction. Examples of this approach include the books In Search of Ancient Israel, by Philip R. Davis, and the Early History of the Israelite People, by Thomas L. Thompson. He wrote, "The existence of the Bible's 'United Monarchy' during the tenth-century [B.C.] is . . . impossible"ÿ(Thomas L. Thompson, Early History of the Israelite People, [Brill: 1992]). These so-called "minimalist" scholars accept only the minimum about the Bible, rejecting every biblical statement unless it can be established by other non-biblical evidence.This is a totally biased position and would be ridiculed in any other area of study. Imagine a student of Plato's Greek philosophy that rejected outright any statement by Plato himself, his followers, or any Greek philosophical writer in later years who quoted him favorably. This is an absurd way to approach the study of any subject. Yet many biblical scholars in the secular universities take this "minimalist" approach today. The rational way to study ancient history is to carefully examine every bit of evidence regarding a personality or event from both those who support and those who oppose the particular subject. The true scholar will then carefully weigh the evidence of all sources and come to a balanced conclusion based on the facts.
The House of David
Recent archeological investigations have demolished the position of those who rejected the biblical account of Israel's kings such as King David. In 1993, archeologists digging at Tel Dan in the Galilee in northern Israel found a fragment of a stone inscription that clearly refers to the "house of David"ÿand identifies David as the "king of Israel." This is the first inscription outside the Bible that confirms the Bible's statement that David was the king of Israel in the ninth century before Christ. Many Bible critics who had rejected King David as a myth were upset to discover their position could no longer be defended. Some critics suggested that the fragment was a "fake." The following summer, two additional fragments of the original inscription were found that provided scholars with the whole inscription, confirming that it referred to David as king of Israel. Furthermore, another scholar, Andre Lemaire from the College de France, discovered another ninth century B.C. stone inscription created by King Mesha of Moab that also referred to "the House of David." These incredible inscriptions, recorded a century after David's death, confirm that David was king of Israel at the time the Bible stated and that he established a dynasty, the "House of David"ÿas the Scriptures said.A stone inscription from Egypt confirms that Israel was established as a nation in Canaan centuries before the reign of King David, just as the Bible claims. The Merneptah Stela is a seven-and-a-half-foot-high stone inscription discovered in the temple of Pharaoh Merneptah at Thebes in Egypt. Scholars determined that Pharaoh Merneptah ruled Egypt from 1213 to 1203 B.C. and confirmed that he launched an invasion into the area of the modern-day West Bank in Canaan, defeating the Jewish inhabitants of the land. The second line from the bottom of this inscriptions boasts, "Israel is laid waste; his seed is not."Critics of the Bible have claimed for decades that the Bible's statements in Joshua about the conquest of the Promised Land in the centuries before the monarchy of King David were pure fiction. Obviously, the king of Egypt would not need to invade Canaan with an army unless the Jews had established a significant presence on the frontiers of the Egyptian Empire. In light of this new archeological evidence critics will be forced to relinquish their rejection of the Bible's record of Israel's conquest as stated by Joshua. Critics claimed that the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles were recorded by Jews living in Persia centuries after the events occurred. They suggest that such records contain numerous errors and myths. However, the Bible claims these books were written at the time of the events and that God's Holy Spirit inspired the writers to correctly record the events. When you compare the Word of God to the accuracy of the ancient historians such as Herodotus, you can quickly see that most ancient histories were nothing more than creative fiction and records of hearsay evidence without careful research or checking of facts. In stark contrast, the Bible is extremely careful and accurate as to events, chronology, sequence, and personalities.In addition to the archeological evidence for King David, we now have confirmation of other kings of Israel. The name of Omri, king of Israel, is recorded on an inscription known as the Stela of King Mesha of Moab. In addition, Omri's name appears on the rock inscriptions of three kings of Assyria, the annals of both Tiglath-Pileser III and Sargon II, and the Black Obelisk of King Shalmaneser III, who wrote, "I conquered . . . all of the Land of Omri (Israel)." Other Assyrian inscriptions found in Nineveh confirm the Bible's records about these kings of Israel: Ahab, Jehu, Joash, Menehem, Pekah, and Hoshea. In addition, the names of many of the kings of the southern kingdom of Judah are also recorded on inscriptions of the nations that fought against the Jews. The inscriptions found by archeologists also confirm the names of these kings of Judah: Ahaziah, Uzziah, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, and Jehoiachin. Scholars found ration records of the army of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (606 to 562 B.C.) that state, "ten sila of oil to Jehoiachin, king of Judah. . . ." Obviously, the fact that these foreign nations listed the kings of Israel and Judah provides the strongest evidence confirming the accuracy of the Word of God.In 1846, the explorer Austen Henry Layard discovered an incredible Black Obelisk in the ruins of Nimrud (present-day Iraq), the ancient capital of the great Assyrian Empire that conquered the northern kingdom of Israel. This six-and-a-half-feet-high Black Obelisk, a four-sided stone inscription, recorded the conquest of the Assyrian King Shalmaneser II over numerous foreign kingdoms including King Jehu of Israel (approximately 841 to 814 B.C.). A detailed examination of the obelisk reveals King Jehu bowing down in obedience to the Assyrian king. The obelisk refers to Jehu as the "son of Omri" indicating their awareness that his dynasty traced back to Omri in confirmation of the Book of Kings.
The Walls of Jericho
During excavations of Jericho between 1930 and 1936, Professor John Garstang found one of the most incredible confirmations of the biblical record about the conquest of the Promised Land. The results were so amazing that he took the precaution of preparing a written declaration of the archeological discovery, signed by himself and two other members of his team. "As to the main fact, then, there remains no doubt: the walls fell outwards so completely that the attackers would be able to clamber up and over their ruins into the city." This fact is important because the evidence from all other archeological digs around ancient cities in the Middle East reveal that walls of cities always fall inwards as invading armies push their way into a city. However, in the account in Joshua 6:20, we read, "the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city every man straight ahead, and they took the city." Only the supernatural power of God could have caused the walls to fall outward as described in Joshua's account of the conquest of Jericho (John Garstang, Joshua Judges, [London: Constable, 1931]).Following the fall of East Jerusalem to the Jordanians in the 1948 War of Independence, the Jordanian army dynamited Jewish synagogues and other buildings in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem in the years following their conquering of the Old City. Nevertheless, this wanton destruction over a twenty-year period, until Jerusalem was liberated during the 1967 Six Day War, created a unique archeological opportunity. When the Jews recaptured the Jewish Quarter in 1967 they had to rebuild every building because of the Jordanian destruction. However, this made it possible for Israeli archeologists to remove the rubble built up over the last two thousand years and explore the bedrock of this fascinating biblical city. This was a unique opportunity because the existing modern buildings in most ancient cities prevent large archeological exploration. In addition to numerous discoveries confirming the accuracy of many passages in the Bible, the scholars, under the leadership of the archeologist Nahman Avigad of Hebrew University, found the remains of the wall of King Hezekiah built when the Assyrian army attacked Israel in 701 B.C. The Bible tells us that King Hezekiah built the walls of Jerusalem to resist the Assyrian armies: "And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem, He took counsel with his princes . . . they did help him. Also he strengthened himself, and built up all the wall that was broken, and raised it up to the towers, and another wall without" (2 Chronicles 32:2-5). The archeologists found that portions of the wall actually cut through walls of recently built houses, indicating the urgency of the defensive actions and the authority of the king. This is confirmed in the Bible's own account, "And ye have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses have ye broken down to fortify the wall" (Isaiah 22:10).Dr. Millar Burrows, a professor at Yale University, studied the evidence that indicates the historicity of Abraham and the other patriarchs of Israel as recorded in Genesis. "Everything indicates that here we have an historical individual. As noted above, he is not mentioned in any known archaeological source, but his name appears in Babylonia as a personal name in the very period to which he belongs" (Millar Burrows, What Mean These Stones?, [New York: Meridian Books, 1956], pp. 258-259). Burrows wrote about the underlying reason most scholars reject the authority of the Bible, "The excessive skepticism of many liberal theologians stems not from a careful evaluation of the available data, but from an enormous predisposition against the supernatural. . . . On the whole, however, archaeological work has unquestionably strengthened confidence in the reliability of the scriptural record."
The Discovery of the Seals of Biblical Personalities
One of the most interesting discoveries in recent years was the finding of two bull', or clay seals, that bear the impression of the actual seal used by Baruch, the scribe of Jeremiah the prophet who transcribed the Book of Jeremiah. Both bull' bear the inscription, "Belonging to Berekhyahu, son of Neriyahu, the Scribe." One of these clay seals is on view in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. However, the second bull' was found in Jerusalem earlier in this century and purchased by collector Shlomo Moussaieff of London who owns the greatest private collection of ancient Jewish inscriptions in the world. This second clay seal, bearing the same inscription, also reveals a fingerprint that probably belonged to Baruch.At the beginning of this century a fascinating seal was discovered in Israel that bore an inscription of a beautiful lion and the words, "Belonging to Shema servant of Jeroboam." This amazing find indicates that it belonged to an official of King Jeroboam of Israel. Other seals have been discovered confirming the biblical records about King Uzziah (777 to 736 B.C.) and King Hezekiah (726 to 697 B.C.).Another important seal found in Jerusalem dates from the seventh century before Christ and is inscribed as follows: "Belonging to Abdi Servant of Hoshea." This seal made of orange chalcedony, used to authenticate royal documents for security, belonged to Abdi, a high official of King Hosea, the last king of the northern kingdom of Israel before it was conquered by the Assyrian Empire in 721 B.C. Another large seal on red limestone was found bearing the inscription "Belonging to Asayahu, servant of the king"ÿtogether with a galloping horse. The name "Asaiah" is a short form of the name "Asayahu."ÿThis name occurs twice in the Old Testament in connection with the title "servant of the king." In 2 Chronicles 34:20 we find the name, "Asaiah a servant of the king's" and again in 2 Kings 22:12, "Asahiah a servant of the king's." It is possible that this seal was owned by "Asaiah, the servant of the king" a high court official who was sent by King Josiah to carefully examine the scroll of the lost Book of Deuteronomy that was found in the Temple by the High Priest Hilkiah in approximately 622 B.C.Dr. Henry M. Morris concluded his in-depth study of the archeological evidence concerning the Bible with these words. "Problems still exist, of course, in the complete harmonization of archaeological material with the Bible, but none so serious as not to bear real promise of imminent solution through further investigation. It must be extremely significant that, in view of the great mass of corroborative evidence regarding the Biblical history of these periods, there exists today not one unquestionable find of archaeology that proves the Bible to be in error at any point" (Henry M. Morris, The Bible and Modern Science, [Chicago:ÿMoody Press, 1956]).Explorers in Iraq in the last century found the ancient inscribed clay cylinder bearing the actual decree of King Cyrus of Persia allowing the various captured natives of many different nations to return freely to their ancient homelands. It was the government policy of the preceding Babylonian Empire of King Nebuchadnezzar to displace whole peoples such as the Jews and resettle them in the far reaches of their empire. However, King Cyrus of Persia, a moderate and God-fearing monarch, reversed the cruel Babylonian policy. Immediately after conquering the Babylonian Empire, King Cyrus issued a decree allowing the Jews to freely return to their homeland in Israel ending the seventy-year-long captivity. The decree of King Cyrus began with these words, "I am Cyrus, king of the world, great king." After describing his conquests and deeds, the cylinder inscription reads, "I gathered all their former inhabitants and returned to them their habitations." In this incredible discovery we find the confirmation of one of the most astonishing events in the pages of Scripture. "Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel, he is the God, which is in Jerusalem" (Ezra 1:1-3).
The Archeological Evidence of the New Testament
Obviously, the entire basis for the faith and hope of Christians depends on the truthfulness of the historical records of the New Testament. Our hope for heaven and salvation itself depends on the accuracy of the words of Jesus of Nazareth and the apostles as recorded in the pages of the New Testament manuscripts. It is significant that there is a relentless attack on the reliability of the Gospels and the Epistles because those who hate the Bible understand that if they can cause men to doubt the New Testament, then their faith will be immeasurably weakened. Fortunately, the continued archeological discoveries during the last century have provided an awesome amount of further evidence that confirms the total reliability of the written documents that form the foundation of the Christian faith.The English scholar, William Ramsay, traveled as a young man to Asia Minor over a century ago for the sole purpose of disproving the Bible's history as described by Luke in his Gospel and in the Book of Acts. Ramsay and his professors were convinced that the New Testament record must be terribly inaccurate. He believed that Luke could not be correct in his history of Christ or in his account about the growth of the Church during the first decades following Christ. Dr. Ramsay began to dig in the ancient ruins of sites throughout Greece and Asia Minor, searching for ancient names, boundary markers, and other archeological finds that would conclusively prove that Luke had invented his history of Christ and His Church. To his amazement and dismay, William Ramsay discovered that the statements of the New Testament Scriptures were accurate in the smallest detail. Finally, Dr. Ramsay was convinced by the overwhelming evidence proving the Bible's accuracy. As a result, he accepted Jesus Christ as His personal Savior. He became both a Christian and a great biblical scholar. As a result of his conversion to belief in Jesus Christ, Sir William Ramsay's books became classics in the study of the history of the New Testament. Another great scholar, A. N. Sherwin-White, was a great classical historical scholar at Oxford University who studied the extensive evidence for and against the historical accuracy of the Book of Acts. Sherwin-White wrote his conclusion after studying the evidence, "For Acts the confirmation of historicity is overwhelming . . . any attempt to reject its basic historicity even in matters of detail must now appear absurd" (Quoted by Rubel Shelley, Prepare To Answer [Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1990]).Dr. William F. Albright was unquestionably one of the world's most brilliant biblical archeologists. In 1955 he wrote: "We can already say emphatically that there is no longer any solid basis for dating any book of the New Testament after circa A.D. 80." However, additional discoveries over the next decade convinced him that all the books in the New Testament were written "probably sometime between circa A.D. 50 and 75." Significantly, Albright concluded that the writing of the New Testament within a few years of the events it described made it almost impossible that errors or exaggeration could have entered the text. He wrote that the duration between the events of Christ's life and the writing was "too slight to permit any appreciable corruption of the essential center and even of the specific wording of the sayings of Jesus." In other words, Professor Albright, one of the greatest minds in the field of archeology and ancient texts, concluded that the New Testament records the truth about Jesus Christ and his statements.Dr. John A. T. Robinson was a distinguished lecturer at Trinity College, Cambridge and developed a reputation as a great scholar. Naturally, he accepted the academic consensus universally held since 1900, that denied the disciples and Paul wrote the New Testament and concluded that it was written up to a hundred years after Christ. However, an article in Time magazine, March 21, 1977, reported that Robinson decided to personally investigate for himself the arguments behind this scholarly consensus against the New Testament's reliability because he realized that very little original research had been completed in this field in this century. He was shocked to discover that much of past scholarship against the New Testament was untenable because it was based on a "tyranny of unexamined assumptions" and what he felt must have been an "almost willful blindness." To the amazement of his university colleagues, Robinson concluded that the apostles must have been the genuine writers of the New Testament books in the years prior to A.D. 64. He challenged other scholars to complete original research necessary to truly examine the question fairly. As a result of such a new analysis Robinson believed that it would necessitate "the rewriting of many introductions to-and ultimately, theologies of-the New Testament." Robinson's book, Redating the New Testament, published in 1976, suggests that Matthew's Gospel was written as early as A.D. 40, within eight years of Christ.

RUSSIAS DAY OF DESTRUCTION IN ISRAEL - A BIBLICAL PROPHECY

Russia's Day of Destruction in Israel
From Grant R. Jeffrey's Armageddon - Appointment With Destiny
And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal and prophesy against him, and say, Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: and I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armor, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.(Ezekiel 38:1­6)
God is in control of history. As the earlier chapters of this book demonstrate, some of God's appointments with destiny for Israel and the nations have already occurred. Several additional appointments remain to be fulfilled in the future. Russia and her allies (the former republics of the USSR, Eastern Europe, and the Arabs) still await their appointment with destiny.
The Lord gave the prophet Ezekiel a prophetic warning directed to the nations of the "far north." Ezekiel was raised near the Temple in Jerusalem and had studied to be a priest. He was among those Jewish captives from Jerusalem who were taken to Babylon when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Israel. It was he who wrote "among the captives by the river of Chebar, . . . the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God" (Ezekiel 1:1). These prophecies written in Babylon from about 593 b.c. to 570 b.c. were directed to Ezekiel's fellow captives and to those Jews still living in Jerusalem, as well as to the generations that would follow.
Ezekiel was given an astonishingly accurate prophetic vision about the rebirth of the nation of Israel that would occur in the spring of 1948, as detailed in chapter 3. He foretold that Israel would arise miraculously from the graveyard of the nations, where she was buried with the ruins of Jerusalem in a.d. 70 by the Roman army led by Titus. Incredibly, God promised that the Jews, after almost two thousand years of exile, would return to the Promised Land. The ancient prophets also foretold that the Jewish exiles would become "a mighty army" in her ancient homeland. In 1948, Israel triumphed against an invasion by six well-armed Arab armies. Israel's military forces consisted of a small, voluntary citizen army composed of unskilled farmers and scholars who were equipped with inadequate weapons, a few jeeps, and two small airplanes. Israel's armored force consisted of several vehicles captured from her enemies, including trucks with improvised steel plates. Yet, like David's miraculous victory over Goliath, God supernaturally intervened to allow a weak Israel to survive and prosper, defeating her Arab enemies against incredible odds.
Ezekiel's amazing vision depicted the Jewish people as a "valley which was full of dry bones." This certainly described the fate of Israel after it's destruction by Rome in 70 a.d. and the centuries of persecution that followed. Israel was buried in the graveyard of the ancient nations. Anyone who has seen the sickening scenes of the huge pits full of emaciated, skeletal remains of victims from Nazi death camps can imagine that this might have formed part of the vision that the prophet saw twenty-five centuries ago. The Lord asked him, "'Can these bones live?' and I answered, 'O Lord God, thou knowest"' (Ezekiel 37:3). Yet God told Ezekiel to watch a miraculous resurrection of these "dry bones." "So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army" (Ezekiel 37:10). Today, Israel has the world's third most powerful air force and possesses more tanks than any other nation except the United States and Russia. The Israeli Defense Forces have rewritten the military manuals of the world with their audacious and brilliant tactics. Today (according to many military analysts), the small nation of Israel has the fourth most powerful armed forces on earth after America, Russia, and China.
Geographically, Israel occupies an area of land smaller than the state of New Jersey - only one-half the size of tiny Switzerland. Yet, despite its insignificant size and a population of only five million, Israel has attained a position of prime importance in the global struggle between nations. For the last several years, almost half of all of the resolutions of the General Assembly of the United Nations have concerned Israel. Newspapers throughout the world carry front-page stories about Israel several times a week. This astonishing fact can be explained only by prophecy and the deep hatred for Israel expressed by Russia, the former republics of the USSR, Iran, the Arab nations, and many Third World nations.
The prophet Zechariah prophesied twenty-five hundred years ago, "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it" (Zechariah 12:2­3). Ironically, the first nation to formally recognize the state of Israel was Russia. In 1948, Joseph Stalin hoped that Israel would become a socialist nation and help offset the growing influence that the Western powers exercised in the Middle East. However, as Stalin soon came to realize, Israel would not become a Russian pawn, so Russia quickly turned to the Arabs and encouraged their hatred toward the Jewish state.
More than twenty-five hundred years ago, Ezekiel prophesied about an invasion by Russia (called "Magog") and her allies that would occur during the last days, "after many days." He said that after Israel was reborn as a nation, Russia and her allies would attack her in a violent attempt to completely annihilate the Jewish state. Naturally, Ezekiel did not describe the present nations of Russia, Germany, Syria, and Iraq by their modern names. Rather, he referred to them by the names of the ancient tribes that occupied the geographical territories of the present nations at the time of his writing. The prophecies found in Ezekiel, chapter 38 and 39, describe this massive, future Russian-Arab invasion of Israel and the spectacular defeat of the enemies of the Jews by the supernatural act of God.
The Lord warned the leader of Russia in these words addressed to Gog, the ruler of Magog (Russia):
Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them. After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. (Ezekiel 38:7­9)
Many of the tribal names in Ezekiel 38 are recorded in the book of Genesis. Following the Flood, Noah's sons and grandsons dispersed to various parts of Asia, Europe, and Africa. Genesis 10 records the ancient genealogy of the nations, naming the tribes descended from Noah's children, later referred to by Ezekiel. Ancient historians, including Herodotus and Flavius Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews, tell us where most of these tribes ultimately settled. Many Jewish and Christians scholars conclude that the tribes referred to by Ezekiel are those listed in figure 1 and figure 2, which show the ancient name of each tribe and the modern nation that now occupies that particular territory.
Figure 1
The Nations of Ezekiel 38: 1­ 6
The Ancient Nations
The Modern Nations
The land of Magog Meshech and Tubal Persia Ethiopia LibyaAshkenazGomerTogarmah "Many peoples with thee"
Russia Somewhere in Russia Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan Ethiopia and Sudan Libya Austria and Germany Eastern Europe Southeastern Europe - TurkeyVarious other nations allied to Russia
The Identification of "Gog and Magog" as Russia
The names "Gog and Magog" are famous in biblical prophetic literature and in Jewish rabbinical writings because of their future role in the great War of Gog and Magog predicted by the prophet Ezekiel (chap. 38 and 39). The book of Revelation (chap. 20) also records that an army of millions will once again join with the nations represented by "Gog and Magog" in a final attack, led by Satan, against the "beloved city" and the "camp of the saints" at the end of the Millennium. This final war will be the last battle in human history. Biblical prophecies indicate that three enormous wars will convulse the planet during the apocalyptic period known as "the last days."
The first war, as described by Ezekiel, is the War of Gog and Magog (a Russian-Arab invasion against Israel), the subject of this chapter. The second war, known as the Battle of Armageddon, will occur a minimum of seven years later. Armageddon is described in the prophecies of Joel, Zechariah, and especially the book of Revelation (16:16). This cataclysmic conflict will involve nations across the entire world as the significant armies of the East battle against the armies of the West under the Antichrist. These titanic armies will be pitted against each other and Israel. During the conclusion of this struggle, Jesus Christ will descend from heaven with His army of angels and heavenly saints (the resurrected Church). Both armies will then turn their fury against Jesus and His saints. The returning King of Kings will utterly defeat them and inaugurate the Millennium of peace under the Kingdom of God. Finally, Revelation 20:8 tells us about a third war, the final battle in human history. This will occur one thousand years after Armageddon, at the end of the Millennium. Millions of people born during the Millennium to those who survive the tribulation period will choose to join Satan in his attack against the future City of God. The prophet John foretold that his army would include the nations of "Gog and Magog," referring to Russia and other nations to the extreme north of the Holy Land.
The question of the proper identification of the nation of "Magog" is of great interest to serious Bible students who wish to clearly understand these great biblical prophecies. "Magog" is a real nation occupying a territory that was known to Ezekiel and his Jewish readers in the fifth century before Christ. I believe the evidence supports the conclusion that Magog refers to the territory that is currently occupied by the present nation of Russia, including several of the southern republics of the Commonwealth of Independent States (formerly the USSR). The majority of prophecy teachers agree with this conclusion. However, a number of biblical scholars have challenged this identification of Magog with the Russian nation. Some scholars suggest that Magog was connected with some small tribal groups in ancient Mesopotamia in the area presently occupied by Iran. Others suggest Magog is connected with the tribes led by an ancient king known as Gyges in the area of ancient Lydia (present-day Turkey) to the south of Russia. The ancient historian Pliny claimed the Syrians thought the name Gog was the same as Gyges, a king of Lydia whose country was named from him - Gygea, or Gog's land. King Gyges was the grandfather of King Croesus (Natural History l. 5.c.23).
In 1986 my wife, Kaye, and I were standing with our guide on the Great Wall of China. He told us that enemy armies from Mongolia and Siberia have attacked China at that very spot numerous times throughout Chinese history. The Chinese guide pointed out that due to the geography of this rugged terrain, this location would be the logical place for the next Russian-Mongol attack on China. Arab writers confirm that in the Arabic language their name for the Great Wall of China is called "the wall of Al Magog" because the Great Wall was built to keep out the invading armies from Magog (Russia).
Many liberal scholars reject Ezekiel's literal interpretation of prophecy, including the identification of Russia. These academics often interpret his prophecy merely as a symbol of the apocalyptic war between good and evil. However, precise descriptions in this prophecy of specific nations, weapons, places, and actions during the war strongly suggest that this is not a symbolic war. If we want to understand this prophetic message of Ezekiel, we must examine its literal implications and determine the correct identification of Gog and Magog. A summary of the research material I have collected on the identification of Magog follows.

Jewish Scholarship and Magog
The passages in Ezekiel 38 and 39 were studied in minute detail for thousands of years by Jewish sages. Consequently, the conclusions drawn by these scholars should illuminate the true meaning of the Hebrew words "Gog and Magog." Genesis 10 lists Magog as a literal grandson of Noah who ultimately gave birth to a nation. This name, "Magog," was well known to every Jew who studied this Genesis passage every year as part of the annual Sabbath reading of the Torah. In his prophecy about the future war, the prophet Ezekiel named "Magog," along with other specific nations such as Libya, Persia, and Ethiopia. This strongly suggests that Ezekiel expected the name "Magog" would be understood by his Jewish readers as a real nation, not as an abstract symbol of evil.
A recent commentary on Genesis, Bereishis Genesis: A New Translation With a Commentary Anthologized from Talmudic, Midrashic, and Rabbinic Sources, includes this commentary on Genesis 10:2. "Magog is mentioned several times in Scripture, e.g. Ezekiel 38:2; 39:6 as the name of the land of Gog. Kesses HaSofer identified them with the Mongols who lived near China, for in fact the very name Mongol is a corruption of Magog." The commentary also cites Arab writers who refer to the Great Wall of China as the wall of Al Magog. A 1961 biblical commentary by Dr. J. H. Hertz, the late chief rabbi of the British Empire, called The Pentateuch and Haftorahs identifies the Magog of the famous Genesis 10 passage: "Magog - The Scythians, whose territory lay on the borders of the Caucasus." The Jewish-Christian scholar Dr. Alfred Edersheim in his book, Bible History, Old Testament, also identifies Magog as the Scythians.
A fascinating 1980 Jewish commentary, Daniel, published by The ArtScroll Tanach Series, makes the following comments on the identity of Magog:
The various traditions concerning the identity of Magog, who in Genesis 10:2 is listed among the sons of Noah's son Japheth, tend to place the land of Magog in what today is southwest Russia­The Caucasian region, which lies between the Black and Caspian Seas . . . This is in agreement with Yerushalmi Megillah 3:9 which renders Magog as "the Goths," a group of nomadic tribes who destroyed the Scythians and made their homes in Scythian territory. . . . Our identification of Magog as Caucasia, which was at one time inhabited by the Goths, is based on the assumption that the land of Magog is named after Japheth's son. . . .
Rabbi Chisdai Ibn Shaprut wrote to the king of Khazaria (a Caucasian kingdom in southern Russia which converted to Judaism in the eighth century after Christ) in which he addresses the king as 'prince, leader of Meshech and Tubal.' This salutation, drawn from our verse, indicates that the Gaonim had a tradition that these countries were indeed located in Russia.
This acclaimed commentary concludes this section with a fascinating comment:
In this light one may understand an oral tradition passed down from the Vilna Gaon (see Chevlei Mashaiach BiZemaneinu, p. 134), that when the Russian navy passes through the Bosporus it will be time to put on Sabbath clothes (in anticipation of the coming Mashiach.)
The Bosporus is the narrow strait in Turkey that links the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea through the Dardanelles strait. The Jewish sages warned that the generation who witnessed the Russian preparation to invade Israel should prepare their hearts because the coming of the Messiah was at hand. The famous Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who lived at the time of Saint Paul, wrote a definitive history of the Jewish people called the Antiquities of the Jews. Josephus identified Magog as follows. "Magog founded those that from him were named Magogites, but who are by the Greeks called Scythians" (pp. 30­31).

Christian Scholarship Identifying Magog as Russia
The section of Dr. R. Young's book, Young's Analytical Concordance of the Holy Bible, dealing with Magog speaks of ancient Scythia or Tartary, a name used to describe southern Russia in past centuries. Professor Young said that the name "Gog" was derived from a phrase that meant a "high mountain" and that the name "Gog" in Ezekiel 38 referred to "A prince of Rosh, Mesheck, Tubal, and Tiras, in ancient Scythia or Tartary." Young also refers to "the descendents of Magog and their land, called Scythia, in the N. of Asia and Europe." The authoritative 1973 reference work, Eerdman's Handbook to the Bible, came to the same conclusion, "Magog, Meshech, Tubal and Gomer were all sons of Japheth (Noah's son). They gave their names to Indo-European peoples living in the Black Sea/Caucasus region, on the northern fringe of the then-known world."
The Comprehensive Commentary of the Holy Bible, edited by Dr. William Jenks, provides some fascinating information regarding the identity of Magog.
Magog was the son of Japheth (Genesis 10:2), from whence the Scythians are generally supposed to be derived. The Mogul Tartars, a people of the Scythian race, are still called so by the Arabian writers . . . the Jews of his day thought 'Magog to be the Scythian nations, vast and innumerable, who are beyond Mount Caucasus and the Palus Mæotis, and near the Caspian Sea, stretching even to India.
The same commentary, quoting Professor William Bochart, gives the following information.
The Koran, and a Christian poet of Syria (Ephraem the Syrian - see chapter 9) before the Koran was published, both allude to a fable of Alexander's shutting up the barbarous and troublesome nations, Gog and Magog, near the N. Pole by an iron and brasen wall. The mountain Scythians extended hence (from the river Araxes) to the Caucasus, and those of the plain to the Don, the sea of Azof, and the N. Ocean. It is credible, that from the Rosh and Meshech nations dwelling about the Araxes, are descended the Russians and Moscovites.
Dr. Dwight C. Pentecost is the author of an excellent study of the major themes of Bible prophecy entitled Things to Come. During the last few years I have discussed a number of prophetic issues with him and have a great appreciation for his superb book. Dr. Pentecost quotes Professor Bauman on the identification of Magog as follows:
Magog's land was located in, what is called today, the Caucasus and the adjoining steppes. And the three, Rosh, Meshech and Tubal were called by the ancients, Scythians. They roamed as nomads in the country around and north of the Black and the Caspian Seas, and were known as the wildest barbarians.
One of the most important scholarly tools employed in the exegesis of Scripture is Gesenius' Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon. Numerous scholars utilize this book as an authority on the precise meaning of Hebrew and Chaldee words found in the original languages of the Old Testament. In the section of his definitive work dealing with this identification, Gesenius wrote the following:
Magog - PR. N. of a son of Japheth, Genesis 10:2; also of a region, and a great and powerful people of the same name, inhabiting the recesses of the north, who are at some time to invade the Holy Land Ezekiel 38, 39. We are to understand just the same nations as the Greeks comprised, under the name of Scythian (Josephus Antiquites of the Jews 1.6.1.)
It is important to note that Professor Gesenius referred to "Magog" as a real nation that will invade the Holy Land in the future. Gesenius' concluded that "Gog" was a
prince of the land of Magog . . . also of Rossi, Moschi, and Tibareni, who are to come with great forces from the extreme north (38:15; 39:2), after the Exile (38:8,12) to invade the holy land, and to perish there, as prophesied by Ezekiel.
In addition, Gesenius described the Revelation 20:8 passage as a reference to a final war involving "Gog and Magog" at the end of the Millennium. However, he correctly concludes this final war will be a totally separate event: "Gog and Magog in the Apocalypse belong to a different time to those spoken of in Ezekiel, so it is in vain to point out a discrepancy."
The literal interpretation of "Magog" by Gesenius and other biblical scholars stands in marked contrast to the allegorical interpretation of many modern scholars who treat Ezekiel 38­39 as "apocalyptic literature" (referring only to a symbolic war between good and evil). Gesenius identified Magog as a real country, which exists to the extreme north of the Holy Land that will invade Israel in the future. He also identified Magog with the "same nations as the Greeks comprised under the name of Scythians." In light of the many scholastic sources that identify Magog with Scythia, we must answer a critical question: Who were the Scythians and what geographical area did they occupy?

The Scythians
Professor G. Rawlinson wrote a definitive study of the ancient tribes and empires that ruled the Middle East called Five Great Monarchies. Chapter 9 of that work, dealing with Assyria, includes the following footnote: "The Scythians proper of Herodotus and Hippocrates extended from the Danube and the Carpathians on the one side, to the Tanais or Don upon the other." The geographic territories described by Professor G. Rawlinson that were ruled by the Scythians are clearly located in the south of Russia and include the Ukraine, Georgia, and Armenia (see figure 3 for the location of the Scythians).
In Ezekiel 38:7 the prophet foretells that in this future conflict Russia (Magog) will also be the arm's supplier for all of these nations. God says, "Be thou a guard unto them." It is fascinating to observe that the armories of these nations (as listed by Ezekiel), without exception, are filled with Russian AK-47 assault rifles, SAM missiles, RPG7 anti-tank weapons and various other Russian-manufactured arms, exactly as the Bible foretold thousands of years ago. The prophet described an invasion that would come without warning in which the enemy invaded like a "storm" or "cloud to cover the land." It is possible that the prophet saw in vision an airborne invasion force, like D day, and used the best language he had available to describe such an event.

The Coming Russian-Arab Invasion of Israel
Bible prophecy also provides some insight into the ongoing peace negotiations between Israel and its Arab neighbours. Thousands of years ago the prophet Ezekiel (chaps. 38­39) predicted that a huge confederacy of Arab nations under Russian leadership would join together to attack Israel in the generation after the Jewish exiles returned to their homeland. Despite massive changes in Russia, the hard-liners in the KGB, the army, and military-industrial complex maintain their solid grip on the levers of power. A recent study of the role of the military in Russia revealed that President Boris Yeltsin secretly appointed over 14,000 senior military generals to assume command of every single department of the Russian government in the spring of 1996. These departments included the health, agricultural, transportation, and mining ministries. Until the recent political changes in Russia, no men could rise above the rank of major in Russia's army unless they were an approved member of the Russian Communist Party. Therefore, the military officers controlling the "democratic" government of Russia are virtually all Communists. By this action Yeltsin has allowed the Communist Party and their military allies to secretly assume control over all major decisions in his government. Although Yeltsin won the June 1996 elections, the Communists hold a clear majority in the Duma (Parliament). Despite all the media hype about Russian democracy, the real leadership of Russia remains firmly in the hands of the resurrected Communist Party, the renamed KGB (now called the Foreign Intelligence Service), and the powerful army generals.
Twenty-six centuries ago the prophet Ezekiel prophesied that a military leader would arise in the land of Magog to lead a Russian-Arab alliance of nations to attack Israel. Ezekiel predicted that this leader would say, "I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates" (Ezekiel 38:11). It is interesting to note that, during the lifetime of Ezekiel and throughout history up until 1900, virtually all of the villages and cities in the Middle East had strong walls for defense. Ezekiel had never seen a village or city without defensive walls. Yet, in our day, Israel is truly a "land of unwalled villages" for the simple reason that modern techniques of warfare (bombs, tanks, and missiles) make city walls irrelevant for defense. This is one more indication that his prophecy refers to our modern generation.
Since 1948 Israel has been forced to live as an armed camp while surrounded by twenty-one nations with two hundred million Arabs that are publicly committed to her destruction. The Jewish state has not been able to "dwell safely." This threatening situation compels Israel to spend more of its budget on defense than any other country in the world. However, the present peace negotiations between the PLO and Israel may create a false sense of security during the next few years. The Jewish state will relax its defenses as a result of the misconception that she can "dwell safely." This present peace process may set the stage for the fulfillment of the great War of Gog and Magog prophesied by the prophet Ezekiel.
When this Russian-Arab alliance attacks Israel, the prophet declared that God will intervene with supernatural earthquakes, hail, and pestilence to defeat the combined forces of Russian and Arab armies. This miraculous deliverance by the hand of God may set the stage for Israel to build the Third Temple as described in Daniel 9:24­27. These awesome prophetic events concerning the defeat of Russia will prepare the way for the fulfillment of the prophecies of the rise of Antichrist to rule the earth and his seven-year treaty with Israel. This treaty with the Antichrist will commence a seven-year countdown to the return of the Messiah at the Battle of Armageddon to establish His eternal Kingdom on earth.
These critical developments in the Middle East encourage believers to live in constant expectation of the glorious return of our Messiah. Jesus said, "When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh"(Luke 21:28). Yet we, as Christians, must live in a spiritual balance during these last days. Although our Messiah may return soon, He may also delay His return for a generation or more because our Lord "is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance"(2 Peter 3:9). We must live each day watching for His return. We must faithfully witness to those around us as though His return will occur immediately. Yet we must also plan and work as though we still have a hundred years. Our Lord commanded, "Occupy till I come"(Luke 19:13).

The Strategic Importance of the West Bank and the Golan Heights
If Israel's present government under Prime Minister Netanyahu continues the disastrous policies of former prime ministers Rabin and Peres and surrenders the vital strategic territory in the West Bank and the Golan Heights in its "Land for Peace" negotiations with the PLO and its Arab neighbours, Israel will face military disaster in the next war. The tragic four-thousand-year history of the Middle East indicates clearly that another Arab-Israeli war will occur. It is only a question of timing. Israel requires military control of the land on the Golan Heights, Gaza, and the West Bank in order to provide the strategic depth to defend itself against the overwhelming military force of twenty-one enemy Arab nations. The Arab nations possess territory that is five hundred times the size of tiny Israel. Why do the Arabs need the small strategic territory of the Golan Heights and the West Bank? The real reason that the Arabs need this territory is so they can destroy the Jewish state of Israel. Every single European or American military study in the last thirty years has concluded that Israel cannot be defended by conventional weapons if it surrenders military control over these vital strategic territories. The 1992 study by the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed that Israel can not surrender the Golan, Gaza, or the West Bank and expect to survive the next Arab invasion.
History shows that victorious nations have never returned land captured from their enemies following a defensive war in which they were forced to defend themselves against their attackers. The Golan Heights represents less than 1 percent of the territory of the large nation of Syria. The Golan Heights was only controlled by Syria for a few decades after World War I. They lost it to Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967. The only reason Syria needs this small territory is to use it to attack Israel. However, Israel desperately needs the Golan Heights to resist Syria's tanks. Moreover, 30 percent of Israel's water comes from the Golan Heights. If they surrender control of the West Bank territory, Israel will be less than nine miles wide at its center near Tel Aviv, where almost 80 percent of its population lives. In a future conflict Arab armies could easily cut Israel in two by attacking from the PLO-controlled high ground of Judea and Samaria (West Bank). The Jewish state could then be overrun in a matter of days. Unlike other conflicts in which defeat leads to a loss of territory and political freedom, an Arab conquest of Israel would lead to a massive slaughter of the Jewish population.
In a future war Israel may be quickly forced to resort to nuclear weapons when they find their small diminished territory about to be overcome by Arab armies. The Israeli army describes this desperate scenario as "the Samson Option" because it would lead to the destruction of the whole Middle East; Samson, too, brought down the temple on his enemies and on himself. Despite this grim reality, the Israeli government has agreed to relinquish much of the strategic area of the West Bank and all of Gaza while continuing negotiations with Syria about the Golan Heights. Military and intelligence sources have informed me that if this "Oslo II" peace process continues, for the first time since its creation in 1948, Israel's conventional army and air force will soon be unable to successfully defend its vital territory and population from an overwhelming Arab armed invasion.
The Lord commands all believers to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee" (Psalms 122:6). However, the current peace process between the PLO and Israel may set the stage for the fulfillment of these tremendous prophecies about the War of Gog and Magog and how they lead to the Messiah's return in our generation. While we long for true peace in the Middle East, we must recognize that the ancient prophets warned that a false peace in the last days would precede the final conflict that would conclude with the Battle of Armageddon. The prophet Jeremiah warned that in the last days men would say, "Peace, peace! When there is no peace" (Jeremiah 6:14). Our world will not know true peace until Jesus the Messiah, the Prince of Peace returns. Scriptures reveal that real peace will only come to the Middle East when the Arabs and the Jews finally dwell as brothers in true peace under the rule of their Messiah, who alone can heal the ancient hatred between them.

The Proposal That Israel Surrender Land for Peace
For fifty years, the United Nations and the Arab states have continually demanded that the tiny nation of Israel surrender its vital land to "buy" peace with its Arab neighbours. However, we should consider some questions. How large is Israel compared to her Islamic neighbours? The state of Israel is less than one-tenth of 1 percent as large as the thirty-five Islamic states surrounding her throughout the Middle East. These thirty-five Islamic states possess 8,879,548 square miles of territory and a combined population of 804,500,000. To put this in perspective, the tiny nation of Israel is only 8,020 square miles in size with a population of less than five million people. This means that the surrounding Islamic nations are 1,107 times larger than the Jewish state of Israel. The state of Texas alone is over thirty-two times the size of Israel. The Islamic state of Saudi Arabia is over one hundred and seven times the size of Israel. Islam is the major religion in thirty-five nations, or 22 percent of the 159 member-states of the United Nations. Judaism is the major religion in only one nation on earth, the state of Israel.
In addition, these Arab and Islamic nations are incredibly wealthy as a result of their oil resources. They are also naturally related to the Arab Palestinians by both race and religion. In addition, most of the Palestinian Arabs were born in Arab states surrounding Israel. Why should Israel surrender its incredibly small and strategically vital territory to her Arab enemies when the Islamic states have more than a thousand times the land and their vast oil wealth that can be utilized to absorb the Palestinian Arabs?

Israel's Covenant with Death
The world was astonished to witness the leader of Israel and its deadly enemy, the Arab PLO, sign an agreement on September 13, 1993, promising to end the brutal warfare that has characterized the Middle East for the last fifty years. PLO leader Yasser Arafat and the late Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin took the first tentative steps towards a possible peace treaty in the Middle East. Does this mean true peace is at hand? Or, will a false peace set the stage for the War of Gog and Magog prophesied by the ancient prophets of Israel?
The Arab governments and the PLO now claim that they are offering Israel "peace for land." But what kind of "peace" are they offering? There are two concepts or terms for "peace" in the Arab language. One represents true peace such as the peace between Canada and the United States, where we genuinely wish our neighbours well. The other refers to something more like "an armed truce." During the Crusades, the leader of the defeated Muslim armies, Saladin, offered the English general, Richard the Lion Heart, a peace treaty. However, two years later, after rebuilding his Arab armies, Saladin suddenly broke his agreement and defeated the English armies in Israel. In Yasser Arafat's speeches to Arab audiences, he boasts that he will offer Israel "the peace of Saladin." This proves that he is offering Israel "an armed truce" rather than "true peace." The PLO have not relinquished their commitment to conquer all of the land of Israel, or to destroy the Jewish population. All Arab Palestinian groups use emblems, flags, letterhead symbols, and maps that deny acknowledgement of the existence of the Jewish state.
The PLO have repeatedly declared to Arab audiences that their long-term strategy is to eliminate Israel in a plan called "Liberation in Phases." Since 1974 Yasser Arafat decreed that during the first phase of his "Liberation in Phases" plan, the PLO would seek to establish a beachhead in Gaza and the West Bank. In the second phase their armies will take over Jerusalem. In the final phase, they will build up their strength in Gaza and the West Bank to join their Arab-nation allies in an invasion to finally conquer all of Israel. On September 1, 1993, Arafat confirmed to an Arab audience that his peace accord was part of his previous "Phases" plan. During interviews, many Arab leaders, as well as individual Palestinians, have declared that they would never be content until they recovered the entire land of Israel from the Jews. In 1980 Yasser Arafat clearly stated, "Peace for us means the destruction of Israel." One of the problems for Israel is that the Koran teaches that if a land was ever occupied in the past by Muslims, then it must be recovered by Jihad, or holy war. Although Yasser Arafat has pledged to eliminate the references in the PLO Charter of the Palestine Liberation Organization that call for the destruction of Israel and the Jews, he has consistently refused to fulfill this pledge. Furthermore, most of his Arab allies refuse to relinquish their goals to destroy the Jewish state. The Arab states continue to arm for war against Israel.

The PLO Charter
Excerpts from the PLO Charter, including the revisions made in 1968 and 1974, still include the following language calling for the destruction of Israel. Article 1 declares that "Palestine is the homeland of the Palestinian Arab people and an integral part of the great Arab homeland, and the people of Palestine is a part of the Arab Nation." Significantly Article 2 of the Charter affirms that "Palestine with its boundaries that existed at the time of the British Mandate is an integral regional unit." This means that the PLO not only claims the West Bank and Gaza plus Jerusalem, but they still demand that the Jews surrender every single inch of Israel also. Article 3 declares, "The Palestinian Arab people possesses the legal right to its homeland, and when the liberation of its homeland is completed it will exercise self-determination solely according to its own will and choice." This means that the Jews will have no rights, no will, and no choice if the Palestinians succeed. Articles 7, 8, and 9 confirm that "armed struggle is the only way to liberate Palestine." Lest anyone misunderstand their intent regarding the Jews who have lived in Israel all their lives, the PLO Charter declares the following in Article 15: "The liberation of Palestine, from an Arab viewpoint, is a national duty to repulse the Zionist, imperialist invasion from the great Arab homeland and to purge the Zionist presence from Palestine . . . until the liberation of its homeland." Finally, the Charter's articles reflect the Arabs' fundamental rejection of any truly peaceful cooperation with the Jewish people to share any portion of the Holy Land. Article 19 states, "The establishment of Israel is fundamentally null and void . . ." In case any reader still wonders if the PLO intends to live in peace with the Jews they should carefully consider the words of Article 22: "The liberation of Palestine will liquidate the Zionist and imperialist presence. . . ."
The prospects for lasting peace in the Middle East are remote. Even if Israel recklessly surrenders military control of the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights, this will still not satisfy the ultimate goals of the Arab nations nor the PLO. Since the Arab's true stated goal as revealed in countless speeches and the PLO Charter is the annihilation of Israel, this preliminary surrender of land simply alters the strategic balance massively and irreversibly in favor of the Arabs. However, the implacable hatred of the Arabs is the true cause of the last four wars against Israel. The Arab nations tried to annihilate the Jewish state in three wars (1948, 1956, and 1967) long before the Jews had occupied the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights. Obviously, Arab hatred against the Jews will never be satisfied by simply surrendering these territories to the PLO and Syria. These surrenders will simply allow the Arabs to be in a much improved strategic position to launch a final annihilating war against Israel. Despite the current euphoria, Israel's Arab neighbors will continue to harbor thoughts and plans of launching a future war against the Jewish people. Far from leading to a real peace, if Israel does surrender these vital territories, it will make a future war more certain.

Setting the Stage for a Seven-Year Treaty with Antichrist
The United Nations and the Arab states continue to demand the elimination of Israel's nuclear weapons. The introduction of Iranian nuclear weapons and the growing possibility of Libya, Syria, and Iraq joining the nuclear club has seriously altered the strategic balance of the Middle East. It is difficult to see how a balance of nuclear terror could continue for very long between Israel and the Islamic states who remain dedicated to Israel's destruction. United Nations' resolutions to ban nuclear weapons from the Middle East may tempt a future Israeli government to recklessly agree to relinquish their nuclear option. The present leaders of Israel realize that an unstable Arab regime, such as Iraq or Libya, might be tempted to use their nuclear, biological, or chemical warheads even though they know it would result in mutual destruction. In Islamic religious philosophy Muslims believe they will gain paradise if they die in a devastating war to cleanse the "infidels" from Jerusalem. In a few years following the War of Gog and Magog, the defeat of the Arab armies will pave the way for a European superpower to come forward to guarantee Israel's security and borders. Several prophecies describe the revival of the Roman Empire in the end times to dominate Europe and the rest of the world, as it did thousands of years ago in the days of Christ. The rise of the European Union is creating an economic and political superpower that is increasing its involvement in the Middle East peace process. The prophet Daniel wrote that a future Antichrist would arise in the last days to take over the revived Roman Empire (Daniel 7). Daniel predicted that "He shall confirm a covenant with many for one week." The word "many" means the Jews, and the word "week" is commonly used symbolically in Hebrew to refer to a period of seven years. This verse indicates that this future European dictator would confirm a treaty to defend Israel for seven years. The signing of this future treaty will start the final seven-year countdown to Armageddon, the climactic battle when Jesus Christ will defeat the armies of the world and establish His kingdom forever. This interim peace agreement between the PLO and Israel may set the stage for the fulfillment of these tremendous prophecies that lead to Christ's return in our generation.
The prophet Isaiah also spoke of this final seven-year peace treaty based on Israel's false confidence in the Antichrist: "You have said, 'We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we are in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves'" (Isaiah 28:15). The leaders of Israel will cynically make this seven-year treaty with the powerful dictator of the European superstate believing that he will protect Israel from the overwhelming military force of her enemies during that terrible time. However, the treaty will fail to protect them. In Isaiah 28:18 the prophet reveals God's judgment on Israel's treaty with the Antichrist: "Your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it." After three and one half years the Antichrist will betray Israel and break the treaty. He will enter the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem and claim to be god. When he demands that Israel worships him, most of the Jews will rebel against him. The book of Revelation describes the righteous Jews fleeing into the wilderness for 1260 days (three and one half years) after this betrayal.
When the "Gog and Magog" invasion occurs (see figure 4), it appears that the only response from the Western democracies will be a diplomatic protest. Ezekiel 38:13 says that "Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish" and "the young lions thereof, [probably the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Commonwealth nations] shall say unto thee, "Art thou come to take a spoil?" Tarshish, Sheba, and Dedan were ancient trading nations and are believed by many Bible scholars to refer to Spain or Britain and their former colonies ("the young lions thereof"). It will not be the Western democracies that respond to this attack. The superpower who intervenes to save Israel in its greatest hour of need will be their great defender, the God of Abraham.
God declares through His prophet Ezekiel that He will defeat Russia and its Arab allies in the greatest military disaster in history. According to Ezekiel 39:2, five-sixth's of the Russian-Arab armies (85 percent) will be annihilated by God upon the mountains of Israel. The Lord will trigger the greatest earthquake experienced thus far in history, centered in the mountains of Israel, but affecting the cities around the globe. In addition, the supernatural destruction will be accompanied by God's additional judgments, including "pestilence, overflowing rain, great hailstones, fire, brimstone" (38:22). The Lord will send such confusion and chaos upon the enemy that "every man's sword shall be against his brother" (verse 21). The devastation and loss of human life will be so great that "seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them" (Ezekiel 39:12). The captured weapons and fuel supplies will provide fuel for the towns and villages of Israel for seven years following the supernatural victory (verse 9).
In my research, I have found that some new Russian weapons have been produced. These weapons are manufactured using a new material known as lignostone. Prepared from compressed wood-product, this material was developed in Holland to be used as fuel. However, the Soviet weapons laboratories discovered that this unique substance, called lignostone, is as strong as steel, light, pliable, and almost invisible to radar. These unique characteristics encouraged the Russian military to utilize this material in many military vehicles and weapons. One of the characteristics of lignostone is that it burns at very high temperatures and can be readily used as an alternative fuel. The use of lignostone, and the fact that mobile Russian military units can carry large amounts of fuel (in containers 100 yards across) for their tanks and helicopters, may explain the prophecy that the defeat of this army will provide ample fuel for Israel for a period of seven years.
The prophecy recorded in Ezekiel 38:21 and 39:21­22 indicates that God's purpose in this extraordinary intervention in history is to glorify and sanctify His Holy Name in the sight of Israel and the Gentile nations. The awesome destruction associated with this victory over the Russian-Arab armies will not be confined solely to the invading armies. God declared, "And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the Lord" (Ezekiel 39:6). Russia (Magog) will be devastated by the wrath of God, as well as those nations "dwelling carelessly in the isles" which may refer to Europe and America.
Russia has prepositioned enormous military supplies in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Egypt in preparation for the coming Russian-Arab invasion of Israel. It is both easier and more efficient for Russia to airlift huge numbers of lightly armed men into Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon to pick up previously positioned weapons, than to airlift the military supplies for them. Military equipment often weighs five to ten times the weight of the soldier who will use that equipment. The same logic motivates the United States military to preposition enormous amounts of military supplies in Europe to be available for American and Canadian troops who would be flown into France and Germany in the event of a Russian invasion of Western Europe. The PLO, Iraq, Jordan, Lybia, and Syria are themselves already so heavily armed that they have little practical use for this additional equipment.
God set an appointment more than twenty-five hundred years ago to destroy Gog and Magog on the mountains of Israel: "Thus saith the Lord God; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?" (Ezekiel 38:17). As I mentioned earlier, it is fascinating to read the Jewish commentaries on Ezekiel 38 and 39 that describe an oral tradition recorded from the Vilna Gaon that advises Jews to observe carefully when the Russian fleet (Magog) passes from the Black Sea through the Bosporus to the Mediterranean. "It is now the time to put on your Sabbath clothes because the Messiah is coming." For the first time in history, the Russian Navy has surpassed all other navies in the world in size. Russia has moved many of its ships from the Black Sea into the Mediterranean Sea opposite Israel to challenge the former U.S. naval supremacy in that strategic area.
Although Scripture does not indicate the year in which this future invasion and defeat of Russia will occur, the prophet Haggai gives us a strong indication of what the actual day may be. Haggai reveals that on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month (Chisleu) of the Jewish calendar, the day before Hanukkah, God will deliver Israel as He did twice before on this day: (1) the defeat of the Syrian army and recapture of the Temple in 165 b.c. and (2) the British capture of Jerusalem from the Turks in 1917 during the closing battles of WWI.
The prophet Haggai declares: "The Word of the Lord came unto Haggai in the four and twentieth day of the month [Chisleu], saying, Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth; and I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother" (Haggai 2:20­22).
This description by Haggai, and the exact language of his prophecy, is uncannily like the language of Ezekiel 38 and 39 that describes Russia's defeat. The interesting point is that Haggai names the exact day of the year on which this will occur. Since so many other prophecies have been so precisely fulfilled to the day, there is a strong probability that this prophetic event will also occur on its appointed anniversary date of the biblical calendar. "Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord God; this is the day whereof I have spoken" (Ezekiel 39:8). God's appointment with Russia is set; it will not be postponed.