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.

What in the world has happened to the church in America?  Today most "Christians" do not still even hold to the most basic Christian beliefs.  For example, some new data has come out that reveals that the majority of evangelicals do not believe that Jesus is the only way to God anymore.  Yes, you read that correctly.  David Campbell, the author of the new book American Grace, How Religion Divides and Unites Us, surveyed 3,000 Americans and he found that 54 percent of "evangelical Protestants" said that people from religions other than Christianity can get into heaven.

Unfortunately, this is not the only survey in recent years that has shown that a majority of evangelical Christians now believe that "Jesus is not required" to get to heaven.

For example, last year USA Today reported on a stunning survey that found that 52 percent of Christians in the United States believe that eternal life is not exclusively for those who accept Jesus Christ as their savior.

Another example of this phenomenon is a poll that was conducted by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life that found that 57 percent of evangelical Christians in America believe that "many religions can lead to eternal life".

So what in the world is going on here?

There seems to be a growing consensus among evangelical Christians that all "good people" will go to heaven.

Unfortunately, this directly contradicts the Scriptures.

The Bible tells us that all have sinned and that all of us stand guilty before God.

The Bible tells us that none of us are "good" enough to make it into heaven on our own.

That is why Jesus had to come and die on the cross.

If we could just be "good people" and there were lots of ways to get to heaven, then Jesus did not need to die.  Jesus could have just pointed out a bunch of other ways to be "good enough" and then could have gone back to heaven.

But that is not what happened.

Jesus died on the cross for our sins because that was the only way our sins were going to be forgiven.

There is no way that any of us can ever be "good" enough to make it on our own.

As I wrote about in an article on another website entitled "What Does The Bible Say About Judgment?", we will all face the judgment of God one day....

The truth is that God is a God of perfect love AND of perfect justice, and according to the Bible the judgment of God is very real.

In 2 Timothy 4:1, the apostle Paul tells us that God will indeed judge us all....

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead

In 1 Peter 4:5, the apostle Peter also tells us that we will have to give an account of what we have done to God....

But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

Romans 14:10 tells us that we will all stand before the judgment seat of God one day....

You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat.

Hebrews 13:4 explains that God will judge all those who have sinned sexually....

Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.

In Revelation 11:18 we are told that God will judge and destroy those who destroy the earth....

The nations were angry; and your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great— and for destroying those who destroy the earth.

In Hebrews 9:27 we are instructed that we only get one life (no reincarnation) and after this life we will face the judgment of God....

Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment

But perhaps you think you are "good" enough to get into heaven on your own.

Perhaps you think that God would never send you to hell.

Well, the truth is that if any of us took an honest look at how guilty we truly are we would be horrified.

Take a moment and imagine this - one of the biggest television networks wants to do a huge 2 hour prime time special starring you.

Doesn't that sound great?

But instead of a two hour documentary about how wonderful you are, the network has discovered all of the most evil and horrible things that you have ever thought, said or did and they are going to broadcast them to millions of people all over the world for two hours during prime time.

What would you do if that happened?

That reality is that whoever that happened to would want to run away and never show their face to anyone ever again.

Why?

Because we have all done, said and thought things that are unspeakably evil.

We are sinners in the eyes of God, just as the Scriptures tell us.....

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

Are you ready for the day when you will stand before God and be held accountable for your sins?

In John 3:36 it tells us this....

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.

Without Jesus, you will be facing the judgment of God by yourself.

In 1 John 5:11-13, we read that whoever receives Jesus as Savior and Lord will not face an eternity away from God.  God wants to give us eternal life, and it is free for whoever has the Son....

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.  I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, but now the majority of Christian evangelicals believe that the death of Jesus on the cross was not even necessary.

So where did all of this nonsense come from?

Well, all over the media Christians are told to be "tolerant" of other religions and that it is "bigotry" to say that your religion is the only way to God.

For example, Oprah Winfrey is teaching her millions of viewers that Jesus did not come to earth to die on the cross and that Jesus could not possibly be the only way to a relationship with God....

For much more on the emerging "Church of Oprah", please see this article: "Is Oprah A Christian?"

Any Christian that doubts that a relationship with God is only possible through Jesus should read John 14:6 where Jesus says the following....

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

But not only are Christians denying salvation through Jesus Christ, they are also denying creation in record numbers.

A new Gallup poll has found that only 40 percent of Americans believe in creationism.  Gallup says that number is the lowest it has ever been since they began asking that question back in 1982.

Sadly, the truth is that America as a whole is becoming less Christian.

According to the American Religious Identification Survey by the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society & Culture at Trinity College, the number of Americans that have "no religion" is exploding.

According to that survey, 15% of Americans now say they have "no religion" which is up from just 8% in 1990.

That would be bad enough news for evangelical Christianity.

But there is some more news from that survey that is much worse.

In that same survey, 46% of Americans between the ages of 18 to 34 indicated that they had no religion.

Just think about that.

46 percent of our young adults now say that they have no religion.

The church in America is not just in a little bit of trouble.  The truth is that the church in America is coming apart at the seams.

Those under 40 years of age are leaving the established church in droves.  The younger generations are looking for something "real" and they are not finding it in our houses of worship.  They are not finding real love, they are not finding real holiness, they are not finding real integrity, they are not finding real passion, they are not finding the power of God and they are not finding people who really live out what they believe.

The watered-down, lukewarm nonsense that passes for "evangelical Christianity" in most of our churches today is not going to get it done.  We are losing an entire generation and those running our churches are asleep at the switch.

We would all do well to heed the words of Jesus to the church of Laodicea in Revelation chapter 3....

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.

The politicians that are working so hard toward a "two state solution" are completely and totally deluded if they actually believe that it will bring lasting peace to the region.  The truth is that according to Islamic law, any lands that have once belonged to Muslims belong to them forever.  Radical Muslims will never recognize the right of the Jews to live on even one inch of the land of Israel.  It simply is not going to happen.  Any "peace agreement" that gives the Palestinians control over more land is only going to be viewed as an "intermediate step" toward the eventual goal of completely eliminating the nation of Israel.  Anyone who doubts this should check out the results of a recent poll by The Israel Project.

The poll asked Palestinians living in Judea, Samaria and Gaza a variety of questions about Israel and about the peace process.  The following are some of the results.....

*60 percent were in favor of direct negotiations with Israel that would result in a "two state" solution.

*Approximately two-thirds of the respondents agreed that "over time, Palestinians must work to get back all the land for a Palestinian state."

*Only 23 percent of the respondents believed that  "Israel has a permanent right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people."

*58 percent of those surveyed preferred "armed struggle" over "engagement with Israel."

*Just 12 percent of the respondents said that official maps, documents and school textbooks should show the name "Israel".

Are you starting to get the message?

In Islam, it is taught that you can negotiate with an enemy, lie to an enemy and even make peace agreements with an enemy if it will put you in a better position to achieve eventual victory.

That is what the Palestinians are doing.  They have no intention of living peacefully alongside Israel forever.  Instead, they are just going to grab land however they can grab it.

If Israel will give them some of the land now peacefully, then so be it.  Later on they will take the rest by force if necessary.

Any attempt at a "two state solution" is absolutely foolish and just puts Israel in even more danger.

Radical Islam does not compromise.  Radical Islam does not forget what the eventual goal is.  Radical Islam will not honor any peace treaty for long.

For years, the top Palestinian leaders have said "peace, peace" to the rest of the world and then have turned right around and have told their constituents that of course they would never give up the eternal struggle to take back "the land of Palestine" for the Palestinians.

But world politicians have been totally fooled.  They keep wanting to believe that if the Palestinians are given more land and more control that they will eventually be satisfied.

But they will never, ever be satisfied.  Not until the entire state of Israel has been wiped off the map.

There will never be lasting peace in the Middle East until Yeshua the Messiah (the Lord Jesus Christ) returns to this earth.  Unfortunately, our politicians are never going to understand that.

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....

Has the Israeli government already decided that they will be giving away East Jerusalem to the Palestinians in peace talks? Unfortunately, there is every indication that is exactly what is going to happen and that Israel plans to give up control over the holy sites in Jerusalem as well.

In an absolutely shocking interview with Israel's Haaretz newspaper on the eve of the peace talks in Washington, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak made the following statement....

"West Jerusalem and 12 Jewish neighborhoods that are home to 200,000 residents will be ours. The Arab neighborhoods in which close to a quarter million Palestinians live will be theirs. There will be a special regime in place along with agreed upon arrangements in the Old City, the Mount of Olives and the City of David."

It is important to note that this is not some minor official in the Israeli government talking here.  This is Ehud Barak - the Israeli Defense Minister.

He seems to have a very clear understanding that the Israeli government is fully prepared to give up East Jerusalem.

And the truth is that the Palestinians will absolutely not accept a "peace agreement" that does not include East Jerusalem, and both the EU and the United States both assume that a peace agreement will include handing over East Jerusalem to the Palestinians.

Not only that, but Barak said that he believes that the holy sites in Jerusalem will be administered by a "special regime" after a peace agreement is reached.

Now what in the world does that mean?  There have been rumors for quite some time that the holy sites would be turned over to international control of some sort or another, and it now seems that the Israeli government is more than willing to give them away.

And for what?

A promise of peace by the Palestinians?

When have they ever kept their promises before?

The stunning concessions that Barak believes the Israeli government is prepared to agree to are absolutely mind blowing.  The following is a brief excerpt from the interview with Barak in Haaretz....

What are the principles of a peace deal that you believe can be agreed upon by the conclusion of the talks?

"Two states for two nations; an end to the conflict and the end of all future demands; the demarcation of a border that will run inside the Land of Israel, and within that border will lie a solid Jewish majority for generations and on the other side will be a demilitarized Palestinian state but one that will be viable politically, economically, and territorially; keeping the settlement blocs in our hands; retrieving and relocating the isolated settlements into the settlement blocs or within Israel; a solution to the refugee problem [whereby refugees return to] the Palestinian state or are rehabilitated by international aid; comprehensive security arrangements and a solution to the Jerusalem problem."

So that's it?

The Palestinians get a Palestinian state?

The Palestinians get East Jerusalem?

Israel gives up control of the holy sites?

And Israel gets a promise of peace that is not worth the paper it is written on?

Already it seems as though progress is being made in the negotiations that are taking place in Washington.  The Israelis and Palestinians have agreed to work towards a "framework agreement" over the next few months as a "first step" to a full peace treaty.

According to U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell, the purpose of the framework is to establish the compromises which will be made by both sides....

"The purpose of a framework agreement will be to establish the fundamental compromises necessary to enable them to flesh out and complete a comprehensive treaty that will end the conflict and establish a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians."

Or in other words, the "framework agreement" will set forth the very deep concessions that Israel is making and only require the Palestinians to offer a vague promise of peace.

At this point, Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas have agreed to hold another round of meetings on September 14th and 15th.  It is believed that these meetings will be held in Egypt.

Isn't that fitting?

Israel always seems to want to go back to Egypt.

Israel always seems to want to give away parts of the promised land.

The upcoming September talks are also going to include U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell.  The United States is playing a central role in this "peace process" and that is a very bad thing.

For example, has anyone noticed that Hurricane Earl has been raging just off the east coast of the United States as these negotiations have been taking place?

Oh, you think that this is just a coincidence?

Well, the reality is that whenever the U.S. government has been involved in negotiations to carve up the land of Israel bad things have happened.  If you doubt this, just please see all of the other examples of this phenomenon that we detailed in a previous article entitled "Did The Oil Spill In The Gulf Of Mexico Happen Because Barack Obama Is Trying To Divide The Land Of Israel?"

The truth is that God gave the land of Israel to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob forever.

No man has the right to ever give it away.

Anyone who tries to give it away is coming directly against God.

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

The land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel.

Any effort to give it away is foolish and will only bring the wrath of God.

In the end, the people of Israel will have all of the land that God has promised.

But in the meanwhile, Jerusalem will continue to be a "burdensome stone" and the land of Israel will continue to be carved up by world leaders.

Please pray for the land of Israel and for the peace of Jerusalem in these last days.

"For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.  All these are the beginning of sorrows."
-Matthew 24:7-8

What in the world is going on with the earth?  The number of major earthquakes that we are experiencing is absolutely unprecedented.  So just what in blazes is going on?

Well, the reality is that Yahshua (Jesus) told us that there would be earthquakes in the last days.  He told us that this would be a sign that His return was getting closer.  In fact, the earthquakes and the other signs of His coming are supposed to be like birth pains - getting stronger and more intense as we get closer to the day.

And the truth is that earthquakes certainly are getting stronger and more intense.  Just consider the following examples from just this year....

*On January 12th, Haiti was devastated by a magnitude-7.0 earthquake that claimed the lives of over 200,000 people.

*On February 27th, Chile was rocked by a magnitude-8.8 earthquake that was one of the largest in recorded history.

*A pre-dawn 5.9-magnitude earthquake collapsed homes and killed more than 50 people in a mountainous region of southeastern Turkey on Monday.

*Seven intense aftershocks hit Chile on Friday morning, including one that measured 6.6 on the Richter scale.

*The city of Taiwan experienced a 6.4 magnitude earthquake on Thursday.

*Japan is bracing for the worst after dozens of rare giant oarfish - traditionally the harbinger of a powerful earthquake- have been washed ashore or caught in fishermen's nets.

*The Irazú volcano in Costa Rica sent panic through neighboring communities recently, as residents reported at least 9 tremors from the volcano during one 30 minute period.

*The U.S. has not even been exempt from the recent spate of earthquakes either.  A 4.6-magnitude earthquake early Saturday morning off the northern California coast rattled residents in that region.

Things are getting crazy out there.  In fact, I would not want to be living in California right about now.  Scientists tell us that they are way overdue for a major earthquake.

But the truth is that there will be very few places that are totally safe before this is all over.  People who think that they are safe because they live in the middle of the United States might want to check to make sure that they don't live in the New Madrid fault zone.  There are many scientists who believe that an absolutely massive earthquake will completely rip up that region one day.

Plus, anyone who lives on any coast in these days and times is at risk for a tsunami.  The reality is that the earth is packed with major fault lines and volcanos and so the areas that are "completely safe" are very few and far between.

Unfortunately, it is likely that geological activity will continue to only get worse as we get even closer to the return of Yahshua. 

But for those of us who know the Lord, this world is not our home.  We belong to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and it is in Him that we will find our refuge.