Giving the Palestinians a state is a really, really bad idea.  But the world seems obsessed with giving them one anyway.  The sad truth is that a Palestinian state is not going to bring peace to the region.  It is not going to bring an end to the conflict between the Jewish people and the Palestinians.  Rather, it is just going to embolden those that desire to see Israel wiped off the map.  As you will see below, poll after poll has demonstrated that the Palestinians overwhelmingly believe that a "two state solution" is only an intermediate step toward the eventual goal of taking all of the land away from Israel, and the vast majority of Palestinians still support committing terrorist acts against the Jewish people.  You cannot pacify radical jihadists that are obsessed with genocide by giving them land.  In addition, if global leaders do try to carve up the land of Israel, that is going to very much upset the Lord God Almighty.  But we live in the last days, and we know that these kinds of things are going to happen.

The Palestinians have now submitted their formal request for statehood to the United Nations.  The U.S. and the EU are blocking that bid at the moment and they are trying to encourage the Palestinians to renew negotiations with Israel, but that does not mean that they don't want to give the Palestinians a state.

In fact, the U.S. and the EU have both publicly stated that the Palestinians should be given a state based on pre-1967 borders.

It is just that the U.S. and the EU want a Palestinian state to come about through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

But what kind of negotiating position does that put Israel in?  The U.S. and the EU have already basically promised the Palestinians a state based on pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital.

Unless Israel plans to give up East Jerusalem, negotiations are never going to work.  The Palestinians will just keep insisting on East Jerusalem until the rest of the world finally gives it to them.

Not that the Palestinians should ever be given one inch of land.  God gave all of that land to the people of Israel forever.

But unfortunately, most of the politicians around the world think that they know better than God does.

The following are 10 reasons why a Palestinian state is a really, really bad idea....

#1 The "Palestinian territories" are currently ruled by two separate governments.  One of them is a terrorist organization.  Right now, Hamas rules Gaza and Fatah rules the West Bank.  So how can Mahmoud Abbas speak for all of them?  And how will they suddenly become "one people" once they have been given a state?

#2 A large number of Palestinians do not agree with the statehood request that Abbas has submitted.  You would think that this fact would be reported by the mainstream media, but they have been largely silent about this.

The reality, however, is that a number of key Palestinian organizations are very much against what Abbas is doing.  For example, WorldNetDaily recently reported that Hamas has loudly denounced this statehood request....

Major Palestinian factions, including terrorist organizations, reject Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' United Nations statehood request, arguing Abbas does not represent the Palestinian people.

Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said Abbas' U.N. petition "lacks any legitimacy."

#3 The vast majority of Palestinians do not believe that creating a Palestinian state will resolve the conflict with Israel.

So if that is the case, then what in the world is creating a Palestinian state actually going to accomplish?

According to one recent survey, only 34 percent of Palestinians consider the
"two state solution" to be the answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But you don't hear numbers like that in the mainstream media, do you?

#4 Giving the Palestinians a state would create a brand new state sponsor of terror in the heart of the Middle East.

Right now, the Palestinians continually commit acts of terrorism against the Jewish people.  The Palestinian Authority is either unwilling or unable to stop this violence.

So why would giving the Palestinians a state change anything?

The truth is that the poll numbers reveal what is really going on....

*According to one recent poll, 58 percent of all Palestinians prefer “armed struggle” over “engagement with Israel”.

*According to another recent poll, 73 percent of all Palestinians agree with the hadith quoted in the Hamas Charter that talks about killing Jews.

*The same poll found that 62 percent of all Palestinians support kidnapping Israeli soldiers and holding them hostage.

Why in the world would the U.S. and the EU support the creation of another terrorist state?

#5 The Palestinians still refuse to recognize that Israel has the right to exist.

The Palestinians want the rest of the world to give them huge chunks of the land of Israel without the Palestinians having to give up anything in return.  In fact, they don't even plan to recognize that the nation of Israel has a right to exist.

So what kind of neighbor do you think they will be for Israel?

This refusal to recognize Israel is deeply rooted in the Palestinian psyche.  For example, one recent poll found that only 12 percent of all Palestinians agree that official maps, documents and school textbooks should show the name "Israel".

#6 The Palestinian people are still very much dedicated to the destruction of Israel.

According to one recent poll, two-thirds of all Palestinians believe that the eventual goal of the Palestinians must be "to get back all the land for a Palestinian state."

The primary goal of the Palestinians has never changed.  For example, Abu Mujaheed, a spokesperson for the Popular Resistance Committees, recently told WorldNetDaily the following....

"For Palestinians, the borders are based on 1948 (all of Israel) and this is not negotiable."

So how are you supposed to "negotiate" with someone like that?

If the world wants to give big chunks of land to the Palestinians for free, they will gladly take it.

But it will do nothing to dissuade them from their ultimate goal.

In fact, the Hamas charter still calls for the destruction of Israel.  That has not changed.

So why should the rest of the world reward such behavior?

#7 You cannot pacify people that are committed to genocide by giving them land.

It did not work with Hitler and it will not work with the Palestinians.

Hatred for the Jews is growing to a fever pitch all over the Middle East.  Just check out the following example from a recent article in The Blaze....

While perhaps not shocking, it is profoundly disturbing that in the purportedly more “moderate” Egypt of 2011, demonstrators took to the streets outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo with signs bearing swastikas and a message that read: “the gas chambers are ready.”

How in the world are you going to make "peace" with people who think like that?

#8 The pre-1967 borders would make Israel indefensible.

At the narrowest point, Israel would only be 8 miles wide if they were forced to go back to those borders.

The nation would basically become impossible to defend.

In fact, former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Abba Eban referred to them as “Auschwitz borders”.

#9 In the Bible, the Lord God Almighty warns against dividing the land of Israel.

The book of Joel is all about the return of Jesus Christ to this earth at the end of the Great Tribulation.  In Joel 3:2 it tells us that one of the things that Jesus will judge the nations for is dividing up the land of Israel....

"...There I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel, because they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land."

In case you haven't noticed, whenever the United States gets involved in trying to divide up the land of Israel we seem to get hit by a major disaster of some sort.

In a previous article, I detailed some of the disasters that have happened when the U.S. government has tried to mess around with the land of Israel....

#1) On April 30, 2003, America was positioned to be the catalyst for the so-called "solution" to the Middle East crisis. As Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas was sworn in, the "Road Map" peace plan was set in motion.

The very next day began the worst month of tornadoes in United States history - more than 500 in a single month. Under normal conditions, 1,000 tornadoes hit the United States each year, but in just eight days that May, 375 twisters ripped across the heartland of America.

#2) May 9, 2003, President Bush addressed students at the University of South Carolina. Bush called on the Palestinians to embrace the roadmap to peace, and Bush expressed his desire to see the flag of Palestine raised over a free nation.

Hours later, tornadoes returned and Oklahoma City again became the target for deadly twisters, reducing many businesses and homes to splinters and bricks. The tornadoes of May devastated the Midwest with the third worst property damage in American history.

#3) On October 30, 1991, in a meeting scheduled by George H.W. Bush, Israelis and Palestinians discussed ways to achieve peace in the Middle East. Opening talks focused on trading parts of Israel for a peace agreement.

That same day, thousands of miles away, a powerful storm was brewing off of the coast of Nova Scotia. On October 31st, what would be known as "The Perfect Storm" smashed into New England, pummeling the President's Kennebunkport, Maine home with waves 30 feet high. It was a storm so rare that the weather patterns required to create it only happen about once every 100 years.

#4) On August 23rd, 1992, Middle East peace talks resumed in Washington, D.C. with hope that there would be a great breakthrough. These talks focused on surrendering the biblical lands of Judea and Samaria in exchange for peace. Hundreds of miles south of there at the same time, Florida was the target for one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history. Hurricane Andrew ripped through the state with an eye more than 30 miles wide and winds up to 178 miles per hour leaving behind a 32 billion dollar disaster.

#5) Between August 16th and 30th, 2005, Ariel Sharon expelled 9,480 Jewish settlers from 21 settlements in Gaza and four settlements in the northern West Bank.

On January 4th, 2006, Sharon had a stroke, and he fell into a coma and is now in a persistent vegetative state.

#6) The U.S. had strongly pressured Sharon to evacuate those settlers from Gaza.

On August 29th, 2005 the storm that would become Hurricane Katrina formed, and it devastated New Orleans and the surrounding areas to such an extent that they still have not recovered. That devastating storm caused at least 200 billion dollars in damage.

#7) In June of 2001, George W. Bush sent CIA director George Tenet to Israel in an attempt to implement the Mitchell Plan. The Mitchell plan called for, among other things, the cessation of new building in the Jewish settlements.

On the same day that Tenet met with Israeli and Palestinian officials, tropical storm Allison formed in the Gulf of Mexico and moved over Texas, the President's home state, and dropped over 28 inches of rain over the Houston area alone, causing over $4 billion dollars in damage. The storm then moved to Florida and up the east coast causing damage as far as Pennsylvania. The meteorologists called Allison the "worst tropical storm in history".

There are many more examples of this phenomenon right here.

Could many of the bizarre natural disasters that we have seen this year also be linked to what Obama has been trying to do to the land of Israel?

In the Scriptures, it tells us that God gave the land to the people of Israel.  We should not be trying to mess around with that.  Psalm 105:8-11 says the following....

He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance

#10 The Palestinians are going to insist on East Jerusalem as their capital, but that city belongs to the Lord.

In Zechariah 12:3, we are warned that the city of Jerusalem will one day become a huge stumbling stone for the nations....

"On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves."

Is that not what has happened?

Jerusalem seems to be the "problem" that has no answer.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to never, ever let Jerusalem become divided.

But the Palestinians have said that they will never accept a state that does not include East Jerusalem.

The Palestinian people are incredibly united on this issue.  One recent survey found that 92 percent of Palestinians believe that Jerusalem should be the capital of the future Palestinian state.

So will they get East Jerusalem?

Well, it certainly does not help when United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is running around saying stuff like this....

"...a way must be found for Jerusalem to emerge as a capital of two States, Israel and Palestine, with arrangements for holy sites acceptable for all."

Not only that, but Barack Obama and many top EU leaders have already essentially promised East Jerusalem to the Palestinians.

So what we have is a huge mess.

Eventually we are probably going to see a Palestinian state.

And then after that we are probably going to see a major war.

A Palestinian state is not going to bring peace.

Instead, it is just going to make war much more likely.

These are the last days, and Bible prophecy is going to be fulfilled.

Let us pray for the peace of Israel and let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

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....

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....

There has been a major discovery of natural gas just off the coast of Israel.  At this point it has now been officially confirmed that one gigantic offshore gas field alone contains 16 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.  That is the largest deepwater natural gas find in a decade, and it is being projected that it could supply Israel's gas needs for 100 years.

Wow!

God provides, eh?

The following is an excerpt from a recent Wall Street Journal article about this amazing discovery....

On Wednesday, the frenzy got fresh fuel: Noble confirmed its earlier estimates that the field contains 16 trillion cubic feet of gas—making it the world's biggest deepwater gas find in a decade, with enough reserves to supply Israel's gas needs for 100 years.

Getting all of that natural gas out of the ground is not going to be easy, but there is already talk that Israel could actually become a net exporter of energy.

Wouldn't that be something?

But the truth is that we all knew that Israel would be abundantly blessed in the last days, didn't we?

The other nations in the region are already expressing envy.  Lebanon has announced that it wants to start looking for gas off its own shores, and the Palestinians are less than pleased that Israel has found all this gas and they are not going to get any of it.

But it isn't just natural gas that has been found by Israel.

As I have written about previously, one Israeli oil prospecting and production firm has formally announced the discovery of a "commercially sized" oil field in central Israel.

A recent article in Haaretz provided some intriguing details on this new discovery....

Givot Olam Oil Ltd notified the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange of the find in its "Megev Five" drill near the town of Rosh Ha’ayin, saying it can produce 470 barrels of oil a day.

Isn't all of this exciting?

God is doing something amazing in the land of Israel.

For years, there have been some Bible teachers that have pointed to scriptures such as Deuteronomy 33:24 as evidence that Israel would someday be blessed with oil....

"And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil."

Well, we have witnessed some incredible oil and natural gas discoveries in Israel this year and many believe that there will be even larger discoveries of oil in Israel over the next several years.

But as Israel keep making these discoveries the Palestinians are going to get jealous and it is going to change the political equation in the Middle East.

Even as you read this, Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria are feverishly preparing for war.  The next war in the Middle East could break out at any time.

So all of this oil and natural gas is not going to provide Israel with any kind of lasting peace and security.  In fact, Israel will not truly experience lasting peace and security until Yahshua the Messiah returns.

On Monday night, a "mystery missile" streaked across the sky just off the Southern California coast, and at this point the U.S. military still has no official explanation for it.  The "mystery missile" was caught on video by a local television station's helicopter camera, and the images are absolutely stunning.  The trail left behind by the missile was visible from the city of Los Angeles, and the helicopter crew that took the video estimated that the missile's location was approximately 35 miles out to sea north of Catalina Island.  So where in the world did this mystery missile off the Southern California coast come from?

At this point, nobody seems to know.  The Pentagon says that the U.S. military did not have any missile tests planned and that they do not know who fired the missile at this point.  Some are speculating that it could be the work of an amateur.  Others are claiming that it could just be an optical illusion.

Still others think that it might have been the work of a foreign nation.  For example, Robert Ellsworth, a former deputy secretary of defense and ambassador to NATO, is speculating that perhaps an Asian power is responsible....

"It could be a test firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile from a submarine to demonstrate, mainly to Asia, that we can do that."

A video news report about this mystery missile is posted below....

Eventually, the U.S. military will either tell us what this mystery missile over Southern California really was or they will make up a really good cover story.

In any event, all of this is rather unsettling.

The truth is that many believe that this is exactly the type of attack that is going to take down the United States in the last days.

Many, many, many people have had visions of Russian subs just off the coast striking U.S. cities with nuclear missiles in the future.

So is such a thing possible?

Yes, very much so.

Once Russia and/or China decide that war with the United States is inevitable, they will want to get in as devastating a first strike as possible before we can respond.

The very best way to do this is with submarines.

The reality is that Russia's next generation subs are so incredibly quiet that they can creep all the way up to U.S. coastlines without even being detected most of the time.

For example, the U.S. military was very surprised a while back to learn that two Russian nuclear submarines had been patrolling off the east coast of the United States.  According to news reports, two Akula class nuclear-powered submarines were lurking in international waters just 200 miles of the U.S. coast.

So did a sub from a foreign power test how close it could get to the coast of California and fire off a missile without being detected?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

In any event, this is something that a lot of people are convinced is coming in the future.

If Russian subs did sneak up to 30 miles off the California coast, they could literally be raining down nuclear missiles on U.S. cities in as little as five minutes.

That would not leave us a whole lot of time to respond at all.

So what do you think about this "mystery missile" off the California coast?

Do you think that this type of thing is a real danger?

Do you think that someday submarines could pop up off the coast and rain down nukes on all of us?

Please feel free to leave a comment with your opinion....

Many times Christians in America speak of the persecution that is coming someday.  But the truth is that intense persecution of Christians is already here.  According to a new report from the Pew Research Center, two out of every three people in the world now live in countries where religion is highly restricted.  Governments around the globe are regularly killing Christians, torturing Christians and imprisoning Christians in absolutely horrific conditions.  But it isn't just governments that are persecuting Christians.  Jihadist groups throughout the Islamic world have taken it upon themselves to slaughter those who commit "blasphemy" by preaching the gospel.  The truth is that it is a very dangerous time to be a Christian, and things are only going to get even more intense as we get deeper into the last days.

Things are really getting frightening out there.  Just consider a few of the recent reports of Christian persecution from around the globe....

*Christian organizations around the world are expressing outrage over the killing of ten Christian medical workers who were serving the poor in the northeastern province of Badakhshan in Afghanistan.  According to reports, the Christian medical workers were killed by jihadists for "spying for the Americans" and for "preaching Christianity".

*An out of control Muslim mob in Jhelum, Pakistan slaughtered the wife and four children of a prominent Christian a number of weeks ago, but local authorities were too intimidated by the local Muslim leader to file charges.

*Two brothers were recently shot dead by Islamic extremists outside a courtroom in the Pakistani's Punjab province.  The brothers were facing blasphemy charges after allegedly distributing gospel pamphlets.

*Jihadist organizations in Indonesia have declared their intention to establish paramilitary units in local mosques to fight "ongoing attempts to convert people to Christianity".

*A Christian pastor in the Russian republic of Dagestan known for founding the biggest Protestant church in the region and for successfully sharing the gospel with Muslims was recently shot and killed by unidentified gunmen.

*Christians in Bhutan were disheartened to learn that the government there has proposed the kind of "anti-conversion law" that other nations have used as a pretext for persecuting Christians and shutting down the sharing of the gospel.

*In North Korea, you are likely to get thrown into prison for the rest of your life or tortured to death just for trying to bring a Bible into the country.

But it just isn't in other areas of the world where Christianity is being persecuted.  The truth is that Christians are now being heavily persecuted inside the United States itself.... 

*A federal judge recently recently ruled in favor of a counseling program at Eastern Michigan University that kicked out a master's student who refused to affirm the morality of homosexuality.

*A newly filed lawsuit against Augusta State University in Georgia alleges that university officials essentially gave a graduate student in counseling the choice of either giving up her Christian beliefs or being expelled from the program.

*Pastor Ronnie Wallace was recently placed under arrest in Charlotte, North Carolina for preaching the gospel in front of an abortion clinic.

*Two other Christians were arrested recently for sharing the gospel and singing hymns on a public sidewalk outside an Islamic mosque in the city of Philadelphia.

*One North Carolina pastor is demanding an apology from lawmakers in his state after he was dismissed from his chaplain duties for praying in the name of Jesus.

*Four Christians face fines of up to $500 each and up to 93 days in jail for sharing the gospel with Muslims on a public sidewalk outside of an Islamic street festival in Dearborn, Michigan.

So would you continue preaching the gospel if it meant that you would be put in jail?

That is something to think about.

The sad thing is that most American Christians don't preach the gospel anyway.

In fact, for most Americans, God is not a very important part of their lives at all.  According to a brand new study by the Barna Group, only 12 percent of American adults say that faith is a top priority in their lives.

Only 12 percent?

Unfortunately, even many of those Americans that do consider faith to be important have been completely lulled to sleep by their "shepherds".

All over the United States, Christians are being taught by their "life coaches" to "live their best lives now" while millions of other Christians throughout the world are literally risking their lives to advance the gospel.

Christians across America better start waking up.  The last days are upon us and a time is coming when Christians are going to be killed in staggering numbers.  We all need to decide right now what we are willing to give up for the sake of Christ. 

You better get ready.

Hard times are coming.

As the Obama administration continues to stumble about as if they have absolutely no idea how to conduct foreign policy, Russia and China are busy running around making deals and treaties with the rest of the world.  The United States is becoming increasingly isolated as nations around the world seem more eager than ever to reach out and deal with other major powers rather than with America.  Most serious students of Bible prophecy realize that the U.S. will experience a rapid decline in the last days, but there are times when watching it happen seems almost surreal.  Russia and China are rising.  They are quickly making friends and the influence of both superpowers is dramatically expanding.  Meanwhile, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the other dunces in charge of U.S. foreign policy insist on pushing friends like Israel around while showing no ability to make friends or protect U.S. interests around the globe whatsoever.

The sad thing is that the United States is heading for a very serious confrontation with Russia and China, and the Obama administration (along with the vast majority of the American people) has absolutely no idea what is coming.

Geopolitics is not checkers. 

It is chess.

And right now, Russia and China are wiping the floor with the United States.

Just consider a few of the recent deals that Russia and China have been busy making....

*Russia has signed major arms deals with Syria under which it will sell it warplanes, anti-tank weapons and air defense systems.

*After Russian President Medvedev's historic visit in Damascus, Russia's energy minister says that his country is "studying the question" of building a nuclear power plant in Syria.

*The U.S. government says that it is carefully reviewing a Chinese decision to build two nuclear power plants in Pakistan.

*Nigeria and China have signed a tentative deal to build three oil refineries in the West African state at a cost of 23 billion dollars.

*Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says that Russia and Turkey are becoming key strategic partners.

*According to a new report, China, Iran and North Korea have established a strategic alliance that focuses on missile and nuclear technology development.

*The Russian government has agreed to a raft of new accords with the new government in Ukraine.

*South Africa’s second-biggest lender, has completed its first transactions in Africa with China Construction Bank Corporation after the two agreed to cooperate last July.

*Russia had been busy selling high tech weapons to Iran.  Gary Samore, the White House coordinator for arms control, weapons of mass destruction proliferation and terrorism, says that he would be surprised if Moscow shipped the S-300 anti-aircraft system that Iran has ordered.  But that just shows how clueless the Obama administration actually is.

*A China-led consortium has sealed a deal with the Iraqi government to develop a prized cluster of three oil fields in the country's south, bringing China closer to becoming the dominant foreign player in Iraq's recovering oil sector.

Now wait a second.

I thought it was the U.S. and the U.K. that liberated Iraq.

So the Iraqi people are so grateful that they are letting China come in and be the dominant player in the Iraqi oil industry?

What in the world?

We are spending hundreds of billions of dollars to keep Iraq secure so that China can swoop in and get all the oil?

Does anyone else see something wrong here?

U.S. foreign policy is a mess.

The Obama administration is beyond clueless, and Russia and China are rapidly getting their chess pieces into position.

In a few years when things with Russia and China take an ugly turn and the U.S. is facing a major crisis with them, remember where you heard it first.

The United States should not be taking their eyes off of Russia and China.

But as long as we have complete incompetents running U.S. foreign policy things are going to continue to deteriorate.  Russia and China are more powerful than they ever have been before, and they aren't going anywhere.  It is a whole new ballgame, and the U.S. is losing.

Let us pray for our leaders, because they sure need it.

We truly live in extraordinary times.  Bible prophecy is being fulfilled at a pace that is absolutely mind blowing.  There were so many news stories related to the last days this week that it was literally very difficult to try to keep up with them all.  In fact, there are so many events happening out there right now related to the last days that it is hard to know where to begin.  So today we thought that we would highlight a bunch of the key news stories from this past week....

*Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon is warning that Israel might soon have to use military force to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

*The Iranian ambassador in Moscow stated on Thursday that Russia has assured Iran that it still intends to deliver long-range air-defense missiles.

*A large shipment of North Korean weapons recently intercepted in Thailand was bound for an airport in Iran.

*One new report claims that Egyptian military sources have put out information outlining Israel's plans for a military strike on Iran.

*On Wednesday, Syrian President Bashar Assad directly accused Israel of "pushing the region towards war".

*Syria's foreign minister is warning that a future war between Israel and Syria would be a "comprehensive" clash that would "come to your cities".

*Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said this week that he hopes someday to see Israel as a member of the European Union.

*U.S. relations with China are quickly taking a big turn for the worse.

*On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly approved a record $1.9 trillion increase in the cap on how much the U.S. government can borrow.

*One newly released poll says that 86 percent of Americans are worried or angry about the growing U.S. budget deficit.

*Is "Housing Crash Part 2" on the way?  A massive "second wave" of home mortgages is scheduled to reset beginning in 2010.

*Some analysts are projecting that Social Security is going to be the next federal program in need of a massive bailout.

*The death toll for the earthquake in Haiti has swelled to approximately 200,000.

*Is California next?  Northern California was rocked by a magnitude-6.0 earthquake on Thursday, but officials said there were no immediate reports of major injuries or damage.

*Over the last two weeks, more than 100 earthquakes a day, on average, have rattled Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

*The CIA is telling Congress that "homegrown extremists" working for Al-Qaeda will strike the U.S. in the next three to six months.

*Pressure from radical Muslims has forced the closure of two Christian churches on Indonesia’s Java island.

*Turkish police have recovered the body of a 16-year-old girl that was apparently buried alive by Islamic relatives in an "honor" killing carried out as punishment for talking to boys.

*Barack Obama used the "National Prayer Breakfast" as an opportunity to promote his "gay" and "green" agendas.

*U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen told Congress on Tuesday that overturning the ban on gays in the military is the "right thing" for them to do.

*The Archbishop of York is warning that traditional Christianity in the U.K. is being wiped out from public life in the name of equality.

*There are concerns that the U.S. military is going way too far in attempting to create "super soldiers".

*Hasbro and Toys-R-Us are actually marketing a new pink Ouija board for girls ages eight and up.

*Last of all, a U.S. Tax Court has ruled that a Massachusetts woman should be allowed to deduct the costs of her sex-change operation.