Just WHO might the 10 nations be that plot against Israel, for her destruction?? They are mentioned by name in Psalms 83, however, some of the names are not ones that are commonly in use today.
A song. A Psalm by Asaph. 83 1 God, don’t keep silent. Don’t keep silent, and don’t be still, God. 2 For, behold, your enemies are stirred up. Those who hate you have lifted up their heads. 3 They conspire with cunning against your people. They plot against your cherished ones. 4 “Come,” they say, “let’s destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.” 5 For they have conspired together with one mind. They form an alliance against you. 6 The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab, and the Hagrites; 7 Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; 8 Assyria also is joined with them. They have helped the children of Lot. Selah. 9 Do to them as you did to Midian, as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the river Kishon; 10 who perished at Endor, who became as dung for the earth. 11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb; yes, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna; 12 who said, “Let us take possession of God’s pasture lands.” The coalition nations listed in Psalm 83 and their likely modern identities (based on work by authors Bill Salus and Joel Richardson) are the following:
The purpose of the plotting of these nations is to wipe out Israel as a nation “so that Israel’s name is remembered no more”. It is likely that the battle foretold in Psalm 83 will occur before the end-time invasion against Jerusalem described in Ezekiel 38. That battle involves the following nations: "Persia [Iran], Cush [the upper Nile region] and Put [Libya, some of Egypt and north Africa] will be with them, all with shields and helmets, also Gomer [Ukraine] with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah [Turkey, Turkomen, Turkestan and Armenia] from the far north with all its troops—the many nations with you." (Ezekiel 38:5–6) HOWEVER we know from scripture that this will not and cannot happen. For YHWH says that he will destroy them all! michael servetus, john calvin & martin luther -- old buddies whose history we should all know!5/9/2015 Back in February, I was doing a little reading up on church fathers. You know, those guys the western church holds in high esteem and with high, almost god-like regard. I already knew some less-than-savory things about Martin Luther, the [supposed] father of the reformation that, frankly, made my stomach turn, but thought I had better follow a few rabbit trails that kept coming up and see if I was able to find anything new, anything interesting.
Boy, did I find interesting. Wow! Enter John Calvin and Martin Luther and their bff Michael Servetus. I obviously knew about Calvin and Luther -- I grew up in the Christian church, but the other guy was a no-name in my world. Wikipedia often comes in quite handy -- and if you don't trust them, they (usually) are well-sourced so that you are better able to do a little (or a lot) more research yourself. On the surface Servetus is just a slightly-above-average guy of the mid-1500's ... but that is the end of the simplicity. The more intimate details of his life are like a Russian spy novel. Whether you love or hate him depends on whose version of the story you're reading. Servetus was most likely born in Spain, and is probably the namesake of the Catholic Saint Michael's Day (which is celebrated on his birthday), but that hasn't been substantiated (and frankly, doesn't really matter to me at all). More importantly, he was an early follower of the reformation, as well as a contemporary of John Calvin and Martin Luther, having worked, studied and written with them. Furthermore historically, he was a theologian, physician, cartographer, and Renaissance humanist, as well as the first European to correctly describe the function of pulmonary circulation, as discussed in his book Christianismi Restitutio (published in 1533). Even though I indicated that Calvin, Luther and Servetus were best buddies, I confess that was a poor attempt at sarcasm on my part. The three men did know each other, well, and they worked, at first - in cooperation. Later, that all changed when Servetus' views on certain accepted church doctrine began to evolve somewhat. From that point on they began to work against each other. In the end, two of them had a rather far-reaching hand in the third one's death, more specifically, his murder. I won't spoil all the details for you. It's a tangled web of inquisition, aliases, travel and intrigue, prison escapes, stealth, as well as back-stabbing accusations and lying, religious intolerance, hatred, domination and shocking evil, all in the name of Christ -- just like any modern-day Hollywood thriller and too many true-to-life stories. And sadly, like most "entertainment" coming out of Hollywood, someone "gets dead" while others walk away free and unburdened by their own choice to do evil, and even attain great infamy and the worship and admiration of millions of unsuspecting followers. I'll let you figure out the who's who in this page-turner. Oh! those rascally reformation church fathers. What paragons of divine sanction they were! Read about all the intrigue and subterfuge for yourself -- and then do some follow-up research using some of the links at the end. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Servetus Gena Turgel, Auschwitz Survivor, Author: I Light a Candle
Krakow-born Gena Turgel was 21 years old when she and her mother were told to strip naked and wait in an Auschwitz gas chamber. "We walked into that room—stone floors, openings in the ceiling which I can still see in front of me—and we were trembling," Turgel said in a video interview posted by The Israel Project. "It was bitter cold—waiting, waiting." Turgel said she did not know to expect a shower of Zyklon B—the hydrogen cyanide that would suffocate multitudes of prisoners, pushing them to claw at the walls and one another, to try reach for clean air near the ceiling. As they waited, Turgel saw "walking skeletons in every sense of the word—heaps of bodies lying everywhere; you could not distinguish whether they were men or women." After waiting, no poison fell. (TIP) "As we came outside, the women there said how wonderful it was to see us. They screamed with happiness," Turgel told the Associated Press in 2005, suggesting the gassing system must have been broken. "They said, 'Don't you know? You were in the gas chamber.' I lost my voice. I couldn't produce any saliva." "I have two daughters and a son, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. It's a wonderful feeling to have family and to see it all—I was so thankful to God for that," Turgel added. "Comfort, comfort My people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins." Isaiah 40:1–2 For the sake of this generation and the generations to come, may each of us, whether Jew or Gentile, take it upon ourselves to actively keep the memory of the Holocaust alive. On Yom HaShoah and every other day, we must not be silent, but vigilant, understanding that there are a growing number on the international scene who do not share the sentiment "Never Again." While there are no easy answers for why the world allowed the Holocaust to happen, let us diligently ensure that it does not happen again. This scene used to mean something wholly different to me.
Here we are right in the middle of the Christmas season again. I see the decorations and trees and hearing the carols and I sigh a sad sigh filled with pain. Instead of smiles and merriment like so many who have bought into the this world's rabble, I am sad when I think about all of the things we have been told that are not true-- but more so, all of the things we BELIEVE that are not true. Or are half true. Or outright lies. How long, YHWH, until we can all know the Truth and see you? After the events of the last several weeks, my heart knows, without a doubt, that this world is not my home. I long to be in Your Presence, Sweet Savior. I long to rest at your feet and serve and worship you with whole being. I long to see the new heavens and the new earth and to see your feet standing on Mt. Zion, all things made new and right and just and whole on that great and terrible day of judgement. I praise you, YHWH. Blessed are you, oh YHWH our GOD, King of the universe, who has made us holy in Yahshua the Messiah, the Light of this world. Baruch atah YHWH, Elohenu Melech ha olam, asher kidshanu b'Yah'shua ha Mashiach, or ha olam. |
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