Are the Palestinians going to unilaterally declare independence and ask the UN to formally recognize an independent Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders this September?  That is what many in the Israeli government now fear.  At this point the Palestinians have pretty much given up on negotiations with Israel and they have initiated an all-out effort to get the international community behind their effort to achieve statehood in 2011.  The Scriptures warn over and over again about dividing the land of Israel, and many believe that those warnings were put into the Bible for the last days.  So could we actually see the UN establish a formal Palestinian state without the approval of Israel by the end of 2011?  Unfortunately, a whole lot of signs are pointing in that direction.

A recent article in The New York Times noted the intense pressure that Israel is under right now.  Basically the global community is telling them to give away the farm to the Palestinians or else the UN is just going to go ahead and do it anyway....

With revolutionary fervor sweeping the Middle East, Israel is under mounting pressure to make a far-reaching offer to the Palestinians or face a United Nations vote welcoming the State of Palestine as a member whose territory includes all of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.

So where is the incentive for the Palestinians to negotiate in all of this?  If the Israelis don't give them a Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital they will just wait for the UN to hand it to them.

Yes, it could really happen.

The following are 10 alarming signs that momentum is building for the UN to formally recognize an independent Palestinian state in 2011....

#1 The World Bank has publicly endorsed the formation of an independent Palestinian state.

#2 The IMF is formally backing the establishment of a Palestinian state in the near future.

#3 A recent United Nations report made the following statement about the Palestinian Authority: "In six areas where the UN is most engaged, governmental functions are now sufficient for a functioning government of a state."

#4 The Ad-hoc Liaison Committee on Palestine, composed of the EU, the United States, Canada, Norway, Russia, four Arab countries, the UN, the World Bank and the IMF, has endorsed the UN report and says that the Palestinians are ready for an independent state.

#5 U.S. and EU officials are warning that if Israel does not agree to a Palestinian state within the next few months, "the Quartet may be compelled to recognize a Palestinian State in the 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital".

#6 It is being reported in the international media that the following 4 points form the core of Obama's strategy for bringing about a Palestinian state: "Israel's acceptance of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders; Palestinian acceptance that there would be no right to return to Israeli land; Jerusalem as the capital of both states; and the protection of Israel's security needs."

#7 Earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the following statement about the situation in Israel: "The status quo between Palestinians and Israelis is no more sustainable than the political systems that have crumbled in recent months."

#8 New Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi is now asking the United States to formally recognize a Palestinian state.

#9 The Palestinian Authority has set September 2011 as the deadline to be ready for statehood.

#10 Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sounds convinced that Barack Obama is going to make good on his promise to deliver an independent state into the hands of the Palestinians by the end of the year: "We are counting on the words of U.S. President Barack Obama who said his vision is to see a Palestinian state this coming September according to a deadline set by the Quartet."

Sadly, an independent Palestinian state would probably only make war more likely.

The following is how author Joel C. Rosenberg recently explained it....

If the Palestinians make a unilateral declaration of what they want, what will stop Israel from unilaterally declaring what they want? What if the Palestinians try to forcibly evict the Jews living in the West Bank? Those Jews would certainly fight back. Would the Israeli military move to defend the Jewish settlers? Would Palestinian security forces then fire upon the Israeli forces? Would the U.N. move into to condemn and isolate Israel, and even impose draconian economic sanctions on the Jewish state? Events could spiral out of control. Indeed, the likelihood is that far more violence — not peace — would result by such a Palestinian declaration of statehood outside the context of negotiations with Israel.

Unfortunately, even if the Palestinians get a state, there is going to be a massive war in the Middle East.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah is arming to the teeth and they are absolutely obsessed with driving Israel into the sea.

Syria had been getting ready for war for decades, and it is almost certainly just a matter of time before Israel and Syria go head to head.

Iran continues to develop their nuclear program and it is seemingly inevitable that at some point the Israelis will strike them in order to stop that.

Egypt has just taken a hard turn towards radical Islam and a recent poll found that the majority of the Egyptian people are in favor of ending the peace treaty with Israel.

So, no, the Middle East is not getting closer to peace.

In fact, it is getting much closer to war.

We live in very unstable times.  Please pray for peace in the Middle East.

So exactly just who is NATO "helping" in Libya?  Are we actually making it possible for radical Islamic jihadists to take control of Libya?  Are we now providing air cover for some of the exact same terrorists that were shooting at our soldiers in Iraq?  You might not like the answers to those questions.  Nobody is claiming that Gadhafi is not a horrible dictator and tyrant.  However, is it really in our interest to have al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood replace him?  The Scriptures tell us in the book of Ezekiel that in the last days the nation of Libya will come against Israel.  Are we making this possible by injecting ourselves into the middle of this civil war?

The mainstream media has been pushing this war really hard, and it is really easy for most Americans to simply trust the judgment of the news channels, but there are some really hard questions that we need to ask about our involvement in Libya.

For example, what in the world is Libya going to look like after all this is over?

Is it going to take a hard turn towards radical Islam and end up being ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood and/or al-Qaeda?

According to The Telegraph, the leader of the Libyan rebels is even admitting that his "troops" include jihadists that were firing bullets at U.S. troops in Iraq....

Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi, the Libyan rebel leader, has said jihadists who fought against allied troops in Iraq are on the front lines of the battle against Muammar Gaddafi's regime.

What type of government do you think they are going to set up once this is over?

The American people need to start demanding some answers.

Why are we on the side of al-Qaeda in Libya but against them in Iraq and Afghanistan?

CBS News recently quoted former CIA officer Bruce Riedel as saying the following....

"There is no question that al Qaeda's Libyan franchise, Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, is a part of the opposition. It has always been Qaddafi's biggest enemy and its stronghold is Benghazi. What is unclear is how much of the opposition is al Qaeda/Libyan Islamic Fighting Group - 2 percent or 80 percent."

Shouldn't we have learned more about who we are supporting before we jumped in?

Are we actually using our military to support the spread of radical Islam in north Africa?

According to Webster Tarpley, a study conducted at West Point found that Libya has one of the highest concentrations of jihadists on the planet....

The most striking finding which emerges from the West Point study is that the corridor which goes from Benghazi to Tobruk, passing through the city of Darnah (also transliterated as Derna) them represents one of the greatest concentrations of jihadi terrorists to be found anywhere in the world, and by some measures can be regarded as the leading source of suicide bombers anywhere on the planet. Darnah, with one terrorist fighter sent into Iraq to kill Americans for every 1,000 to 1,500 persons of population, emerges as suicide bomber heaven, easily surpassing the closest competitor, which was Riyad, Saudi Arabia.

The more one examines the situation in Libya, the better Gadhafi looks.  The truth is that these "rebels" are not fighting Gadhafi because they want a western-style democracy.  Rather, they are fighting him because they want to set up a radical Islamic jihadist state.

The truth is that NATO knows precisely who they are arming and who they are helping take power in Libya.  As Steve Watson recently noted, there are reports that there are 1000 (or more) al-Qaeda fighters among the rebels in Libya....

A former leader of an al Qaeda linked group in Libya claims that there are around 1000 fundamentalist Islamic fighters in the country that have joined the uprising against Col. Moammar Gaddafi’s forces, a number that jives with intelligence reports and independent estimates.

How in the world is America going to be better off with al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood in control of Libya?

None of this makes any sense.

We are told that we have to have our soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq for years and years in order to "fight al-Qaeda" and then we are helping them take power in Libya?

What in the world is going on out there?

We are living in the last days and weird things are going to happen.

So what do all of you think about what is happening in Libya?  Please feel free to leave a comment with your opinion below....

So much for Muslims and Christians coming together in brotherly love in Egypt.  In the aftermath of the revolution in Egypt, the persecution of Christians in that nation has escalated dramatically.  In our last post, we warned that Egypt was about to take a hard turn toward radical Islam, and we were right.  Churches are being bombed, Christians are being attacked and there have even been reports of government forces opening fire on church buildings.  As radical Islam gets an even stronger hold on Egyptian society, the horrific persecution of Christians in Egypt is only going to increase.  Let us pray for our brothers and sisters in Egypt because they are living in the middle of a nightmare right now.  Unfortunately, the Scriptures tell us that in the last days persecution is going to increase for all Christians.

At this point there are almost daily stories in the international news about the persecution of Christians in Egypt.

For example, check out the following excerpt from a story today in the Jerusalem Post....

The Health Ministry said the 13 people were killed and 140 wounded in violence on Tuesday night ignited by tensions built up since an arson attack on a church south of Cairo on Saturday.

This recent violence was sparked by an attack over the weekend during which an estimated 4,000 Muslims violently assaulted Christian homes and burned a church in the Egyptian town of Soul which is about 18 miles from Cairo.

The Assyrian International News Agency noted that witnesses of the church burning said that the radical Muslims involved were chanting "Allahu Akbar" as they destroyed the church....

Witnesses said the mob chanted "Allahu Akbar" and vowed to conduct their morning prayers on the church plot after razing it.

Unfortunately, violence against Christians in Egypt is not new.  Back on New Year's Eve 21 people were killed and 43 people were injured when a massive bomb went off outside a Coptic church in the city Alexandria, Egypt.

Another example of the persecution of Christians in Egypt prior to the recent revolution was recently noted by Family Security Matters....

Despite wallowing in money from America, Mubarak had made no attempt to improve the plight of Egypt’s Christians. As noted by Raymond Ibrahim, in November 2010, Egyptian security forces opened fire upon Christians who had not followed discriminatory building regulations. The Copts had constructed the St. Mary and St. Michael churches in the district of Giza. Three unarmed Christians died from gunfire, and a small girl was suffocated by tear gas. Wounded demonstrators were handcuffed to hospital beds before being sent to detention camps.

Many of our political leaders and many in the mainstream media have been praising the recent Egyptian revolution, but the truth is that it was not about freedom and liberty.

Instead, what the Egyptian revolution really represented was a hard turn toward radical Islam.

Egypt is becoming a radical Islamist state.  10 percent of the population of Egypt is Christian, and they are no longer going to be able to feel safe.  More churches are likely to be burned and more Christians are likely to die.

Please pray for the Christians in Egypt.  Someday we all may be facing the kind of persecution that they are going through right now.

Many Christians have believed for a long time that Egypt would take a hard turn towards radical Islam in the last days.  Well, it looks like that might be starting to happen.  This week tens of thousands of radical Islamic protesters have been violently clashing with police and security forces in some of Egypt's biggest cities.  So far, at least 4 people have died and dozens have been injured during the Egypt protests.  The level of violence that we are witnessing during these protests is absolutely stunning.  One of America's biggest allies in the Middle East is rapidly becoming destabilized.

There are reports that police have been forced to use water cannons and tear gas on the protesters.  But this has just seemed to make the Islamic radicals even more determined.

So what are they protesting about?

Well, supposedly this is all about "economic conditions" and the rising cost of living, but the protesters are also demanding the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Mubarak has been in power for three decades, and hardline Muslims in Egypt see him as way too friendly with Israel and the United States.

So while most mainstream media news reports will continue to characterize these as "economic protests", let there be no mistake - the vast majority of these protesters desire to see radical Islam take power in Egypt.

If that happens, it will be extremely bad news for the United States and Israel.

Organizers are promising that even bigger protests are planned.  It does not look like things are going to cool down in Egypt any time soon.

So could this be the beginning of an Islamic revolution in Egypt?

Let's pray that it is not.

The following is incredibly shocking raw video from the recent protest in Egypt.  As you can see, things are rapidly becoming very, very serious....

An umbrella organization in Pakistan that includes more that two dozen fundamentalist Islamic groups plans to formally ask the United Nations to enact a global law against blasphemy that would include the death penalty for anyone who blasphemes the Prophet Muhammad.   Yes, unfortunately this is actually true.  The formal name of the umbrella organization is Jama'at-ud-Dawa (JuD) and according to IndianExpress.com, the leadership of the JuD has decided to contact the UN and ask them to implement a global law "against blasphemy of prophets and awarding death penalty to violators." 

So what types of things would be considered blasphemy?

Well, according to Wikipedia, the following are just some of the things that are considered blasphemy in Islam....

-to speak ill of Allah.
-to find fault with Prophet Muhammad.
-to slight any prophet who is mentioned in the Quran, any member of Prophet Muhammad's family, or any cleric.
-to speculate about how Prophet Muhammad would behave if he were alive.
-to draw a picture to represent Prophet Muhammad or any other prophet, or to make a film which features a prophet.
-to write Prophet Muhammad's name on the walls of a toilet.
-to name a teddy bear Muhammad.
-to state facts such as: Prophet Muhammad's parents were not Muslims.

So is there any chance that the UN will grant their request?

Well, there are over 40 Islamic countries in the UN, but there is no chance at all that the other members of the United Nations are going to go for something like this.

But what this does demonstrate is the dangerous mindset of radical Islamic organizations around the globe.  They are determined to impose their radical agenda on us however they can.

In this case, these radical Muslims in Pakistan are trying to make it sound like it is all about their hurt feelings....

The following is an official statement from the JuD that followed the meeting where it was decided to go to the UN on this issue....

"The ambassadors of Muslim and non-Muslim states will be told that blasphemy against prophets not only hurts the feelings of one religion but also sows a seed of hatred against the people of other religions."

So because someone hurt their feelings that person deserves the death penalty?

No, this is not about hurt feelings.

This is about the desire to use force and violence to advance the cause of radical Islam.

But we have seen this pattern repeated over and over for centuries.

The followers of radical Islam are just not pulling this stuff out of thin air.  They are getting it right out of the Quran.  In Sura 9:29-31 it says the following....

"Fight those who believe not in God nor the last day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by God and His Apostle, nor acknowledge the religion of truth, (even if they are) of the people of the Book, until they pay the jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued."

The reality is that the vast majority of radical Muslims have no problem using violence to get their way.  Just check out a few examples of violence commited by radical Muslims recently all over the globe....

*A Christian man in Pakistan's Punjab province was literally fighting for his life after radical Muslim leaders, backed by police, burned him alive for refusing to convert to Islam while his wife was raped by police officers.

*A horde of radical Muslims recently stormed into a central Nigerian town and slaughtered about 500 Christian villagers - most of which were women and children.

*A World Vision mission office in Pakistan was recently assaulted by Islamic gunmen, leaving at least five of the staff members dead.

*In broad daylight and in full view of witnesses, a group of 4 Islamic radicals in the southern Egyptian city of Attaleen fired 31 bullets into the head of a Coptic Christian before beheading him.  The dead body was then dragged through the streets accompanied by shouts of victory.  Later, an Egyptian court acquitted the four Muslim men accused of committing the crime.

*Two Islamic suicide bombers in Lahore, Pakistan killed at least 43 people and injured at least 100 others in a high-security area with a dense military presence.

The truth is that wherever radical Islam encounters any other kind of culture all over the world there is violence.

But it is not going to just be Islam that becomes very violent in the last days.

In Matthew 24:9, Yahshua (Jesus) told us that the entire world will hate Christians and will want to kill them in the last days....

Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.

So the truth is that hate is going to continue to grow and massive persecution of Christians is coming.

The world is rapidly changing, and we are all going to have to get much closer to God in order to be able to handle the days that are ahead.

Much of western civilization is still in complete denial about how incredibly dangerous radical Islam is.  The truth is that those who are committed to "jihad" have a mindset that is totally and completely different from you and I.  There is no compromise, no negotiating and no lasting peace with radical Islam.  Yes, radical Muslims may make a temporary treaty in order to improve their strategic position, but it will never result in lasting peace.  To them, there are really only two alternatives for "infidels" like us - either submission to Islam or death. 

Another huge misconception about radical Islam is that it is a "Middle Eastern" thing.  As we have seen in Africa, Indonesia, the Phillipines and India, wherever radical Islam encounters modern civilization violence is likely to erupt.  This violence against Christians is likely only going to get worse as we get even deeper into the last days.

The truth is that radical Islam would be more than glad to take over the entire world.  Christians are regularly being tortured and killed by Islamic militants all over the globe, and yet these incidents get very little attention in the U.S. media.  The following are ten examples from just this past week that show how dangerous radical Islam truly is....   

#1) Thousands of Nigerian Christian women dressed in black and carrying Bibles, wooden crosses and pictures of victims marched in a central Nigerian state on Thursday to protest the slaughter of about 500 Christian villagers (mostly women and children) by Islamic radicals.

#2) A World Vision office in Pakistan was attacked by Islamic gunmen on Wednesday, leaving at least five staff members dead.

#3) Two Muslim suicide bombers in Lahore, Pakistan killed at least 43 people and injured at least 100 others on Friday in a high-security area with a dense military presence.

#4) Some time ago there was an incident in Egypt that was extremely disturbing.  In broad daylight and in full view of witnesses, a group of 4 Islamic radicals in the southern Egyptian city of Attaleen fired 31 bullets into the head of a Coptic Christian before beheading him.  The dead body was then dragged through the streets accompanied by shouts of victory.  But now an Egyptian court has acquitted the four Muslim men accused of committing the crime.

#5) The government of Morocco is attempting to fend off criticism regarding its decision to expel 20 foreign Christian aid workers it accuses of trying to convert Muslims.

#6) A Pennsylvania woman known as "Jihad Jane" has been indicted for conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and of attempting to kill a person in a foreign country.

#7) On Thursday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised that the state of Israel "will be annihilated" before too much longer.

#8) It is being reported that Iran is constructing a new rocket launch facility that could eventually accommodate an intercontinental ballistic missile carrying a nuclear warhead.

#9) In an almost unbelievable story, the opening prayer at the opening session of the Virginia General Assembly was delivered by a radical imam.

#10) A Christian couple in Pakistan has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for touching the Quran without properly washing their hands first.

The story of Mosab Hassan Yousef has been making headlines all over the world in recent weeks.  He was literally born into the deadly terrorist group Hamas.  His father is Sheikh Hassan Yousef - a founding member of Hamas and one of its most prominent leaders.  Mosab was raised to hate Israel and everything that it stands for.  He was groomed to become his father's successor from an early age.  He was deeply trusted by the Hamas hierarchy and participated in the Intifada.  He was even held captive deep inside Israel's most feared prison facility.  But something happened.

God got a hold of Mosab Hassan Yousef.

Mosab became one of the most important spies that Israel ever had.  For years he risked his life by spying for the Israelis while pretending to be on the side of the Palestinians.  If he had been caught he would have surely been killed.

But that is only part of his extraordinary story.

You see, Mosab eventually found the true meaning and purpose that he had been searching for all of his life.

He found Jesus Christ.

So how does a son of one of the key leaders of one of the most radical Islamic terror groups of all time become a Christian?

We encourage you to get Mosab's new book and read all the details.  His story is truly amazing: Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices

Meanwhile, check out the recent video interview with Mosab posted below....