One of the things that we love about running a website is all of the great comments that we get from our readers.  Even if we don’t always respond to each one, please be assured that we do read each and every one of them.  Today there were several comments that we wanted to respond to, so we thought that we would make a post out of our responses.  The readers below have brought up some controversial issues, and that is perfectly okay.  As we follow the Lord God and look forward to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, the truth is that we are not going to always agree on everything.  And that is okay.  If we let divisions over debatable issues divide us, then we are not going to be able to stand together when it really counts.  So let the major things be major and the minor things be minor.  There never will be a time when all of us agree 100 percent on every single detail in Scripture.  But we all should be able to agree on the major things such as who God is, what God’s Word is and what the plan of salvation is (hopefully). 

In any event, we have posted some reader comments and our responses to them below.  If you find something that you don’t agree with us about, that is okay.  In fact, we would love for you to send us your thoughts.  Hopefully we can all learn from each other.

So here we go…. 

A reader named Nuncio recently commented on our article entitled “The Equality Bill: Will A New Law Essentially Outlaw Evangelical Christianity And Roman Catholicism In The U.K.?” 

His comments about this article are posted below….

This is absolutely ridiculous, I have no problem with homosexuals but when did the minority get to speak for the majority? The same applies for the new smoking regulations, is the british government hell bent on waging war agaist those who do not agree with them. I was never a tory but I am now willing to change my mind.

Can you imagine the reprocussions in Northern Ireland? Unionists are mostly members of ProtestanT churches which condemn the act of homosexuality and the Nationalist/Republicans are mostly Roman Catholic, if the government think any laws which persecute the churches right to preach and follow the laws of JESUS CHRIST, they are in for a rude awakening.

This all stinks of aethiest militancy.

Anglicans as a majority do not agree with homosexual clergy and they are meant to be the state religion in the UK.

It all appears that Labour are trying to save their necks by appealing to the minorities.

God help us all, I will not remain in this country if the state decide they can control the churches.

Any act against God is an act of war against the Lord of All Authority, yes I will willingly join all the sons and daughters of Christ in jail when they speak out against what is unnatural.

In our opinion, Nuncio is absolutely right.  This new “Equality Bill” threatens to systematically destroy traditional Christianity in the United Kingdom.  Political correctness is completely out of control over there right now, and this new law would open the door for a flood of discrimination lawsuits against churches and Christian organizations.  It would force churches and Christian organizations to hire gays, transvestites, porn addicts, swingers and every other kind of deviant that you can possibly imagine.

The dangers of this bill should not be underestimated.  In fact, this bill is so incredibly bad that even the Pope spoke out about it recently.  Now, we don’t put much stock in what the Pope has to say, but the fact that even he is speaking out about it shows just how alarming this piece of legislation is.

Moving on, a reader named Michael was thankful for our use of the name “Yahshua” but was concerned about our use of other English names for God….

I couldn’t agree more. Very insightful. I am so glad to see you use The Name of our Savior (Yahsuah). It would be equally respectful to do the same for our Creator (Yahweh) as well. Thank You. In His Name.

The truth is that this is a very controversial area.  When Yahshua (Jesus) was on this earth, His disciples did not call him “Jesus”.  In fact, the letter “J” was not even in the Hebrew alphabet.  Neither was it in the English alphabet until the Middle Ages.  So what did His disciples call Him?  Well, they called him “Yahshua” which means “God saves” or “God is our salvation”. 

However, there is much disagreement over the exact spelling and exact pronunciation of that name.  Some people believe it should be “Yeshua”.  Others believe that it should be “Yahushua”. 

Well, we believe that “Yahshua” is the correct rendering, but we certainly respect people who feel differently.  In addition, the reality is that sometimes we use the name of “Jesus” as well. 

You see, the truth is that God does miracles in the name of “Yahshua” and in the name of “Jesus”.  People have been raised from the dead in various areas of the world in recent years in the name of “Jesus”. 

So we do realize that this is a complicated issue, and we do try to use the proper Hebrew names, but there are times when we also use the English version of the names.  We hope that this will not cause too much confusion, and if you disagree with us on this point we certainly do understand.   

A reader named Terri was excited to see our support for the nation of Israel….

At last!!!! Someone who knows the truth and is happy to declare it for others to also read.

Thanks to folk like you who can see EXACTLY what is going on and how it relates to Biblical prophecies.

At last someone is speaking out to put the real picture of God’s heart and intentions for Israel into focus. God loves the Palestinians but the land of Israel was for Israel and is for Israel and always will be for Israel – for the Jews – His chosen ones. This means it can never be divided up or given away to anyone else for ANY REASON no matter how WE humans may look at it with our extremely limited understanding!! God will seriously judge anyone and any nation who will try to tamper with His plan. God’s ways are not our ways. When will people realise and respect this!!

If Christians read and BELIEVED their bibles they would start to defend the rights of the Jews to their own land – Israel belongs to God’s chosen people – the Jews. Let’s do things GOD’s way instead of getting caught up in the world’s ignorant, unbelieving ways!! There is a BIG difference. The truth sets you free.

Bless ya and keep up the great work!

Thank you Terri – we definitely stand with the state of Israel and we try to highlight the fact that God has a big plan for the land of Israel in the last days. 

Giving away the land of Israel (and especially the city of Jerusalem) is something that is very displeasing to God, and yet politicians all over the world seem determined to do it.

But not all readers agree with our views on the land of Israel.

For example, Gamla recently shared a unique perspective about the Palestinians….

“Israel should not be giving away one square inch of the land that God gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

I agree…but the Jews who are occupying the land currently are descendants of only 2 (mostly) 3 tribes of the old nation of Israel which comprised of 12 tribes. The Jews have been named after the House of Judah (Judah, Benjamin, Levi) who ruled the southern kingdom after the split of the Combined Kingdom (ie 12 tribes) from the northern kingdom which included 10 tribes. The northern kingdom was actually called House of Israel because Jacob(Israel) has given the “birthright” of the kingdom to his son Joseph through his sons Ephraim and Manasseh (2 of the 10 northern tribes). See Genesis for a detailed explanation of the blessings Jacob/Israel gave his sons (the patriachs of 12 tribes of Israel) before his death.

Some of the people of the southern kindom of Judah returned to Palestine after their Babylonian exile but the 10 northern tribes NEVER returned after being taken captive by the Assyrians…we read in the Bible that these tribes were “lost” into the nations of the world.

so, to make a long story short…Biblically speaking, the house of Judah can never claim the whole of Israel as their land, for they would need to be re-united with the House of Israel (the 10 lost tribes of the north) for it to be accepted before God.

Further, through DNA evidence it has been shown that the current day palestinians are direct blood relatives of the northern kingdom…

the only solution in the eyes of God which would be just, would be for the Jews and Palestinians to live in ONE land…diverse in culture and language but united as a nation (see South Africa as reference on how divided “tribes” became one nation)

We agree with Gamla that the Jews living in the land of Israel today are descended primarily from the Southern Kingdom that returned from exile in Babylon, but we fundamentally disagree with the notion that the ten lost tribes are the Palestinians.  The truth is that much of the Northern Kingdom escaped the invading Assyrian armies by fleeing by sea to other points throughout the Mediterranean.  In fact, colonists from the Northern Kingdom (often in conjunction with their northern neighbors the Phoenicians) had been settling in areas around the Mediterranean Sea for centuries even before the Assyrian invasion.  Other groups from the Northern Kingdom were able to travel by land into Europe.  A large group was taken into exile when Assyria did finally conquer the Northern Kingdom, but they never came back. 

So while there may be a few Palestinians that are related by blood to the Northern Kingdom, the truth is that it is probably very, very few.  As far as “DNA tests” go, where did they find a descendant of the ten lost tribes to test to compare with the Palestinians?  We believe that it is a fundamental error to try to connect the Palestinians with the ten lost tribes of Israel.  They are primarily Muslims of Arabic descent and they have no claim on the land that God gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

If you have other comments or questions for us we would love to hear them.  We will try to do a better job of answering them as we move forward.  We thank all of you for being readers of our site, and we hope that you will help us by spreading the word about our site to as many people as you can.

Michael & Meranda

Did that headline get your attention?  It should.  A new law is dangerously close to becoming law in the U.K. that would essentially outlaw evangelical Christianity and Roman Catholicism.  Not that “The Equality Bill” specifically designates those faiths as illegal in the legislation itself.  Rather, the bill outlaws specific beliefs and practices that are fundamental to both evangelical Christianity and Roman Catholicism.  In fact, experts are saying that “The Equality Bill” would create a volcanic eruption of litigation in U.K. courts and would ultimately force those who wish to continue to practice anything that even looks like traditional Christianity to go underground.

So just what is the Equality Bill? 

The Equality Bill allegedly aims to consolidate all existing anti-discrimination laws into a single legal framework.  However, it actually goes much farther than any “anti-discrimination” laws in the U.K. have ever gone before.

On the surface, this legislation seems like a good idea.  After all, who wants to discriminate against old people or people of other races?  You can read a summary of this legislation put out by backers of the bill right here.  It actually contains a few good proposals. 

But it is also a vicious attack on traditional Christianity.

The Telegraph quotes a top level official from the “Ministry for Equality” as saying the following when he was asked whether the Equality Bill would lead to legal action between churches and atheists….

“Both need to be lining up [their lawyers],” he said. “The secularists should have the right to challenge the church.”

Secularists should have the right to challenge the beliefs and practices of the church?

What in the world?

So exactly what would the Equality Bill mean for churches in the U.K.?

Evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics would be wide open not only to lawsuits but also to unlimited government fines and even criminal prosecution if….

*They are found to discriminate against homosexuals or transsexuals in any area of employment – including the hiring of pastors and priests.

*They are found to discriminate against homosexuals or transsexuals in any preaching or teaching. 

*They are found to discriminate against hiring married men or women as priests as the Roman Catholics have done for centuries.

*They are found to insist that pastors or priests remain celibate (as in the case of Catholics) or only have sex within marriage (as in the case of evangelicals).

*They are found trying to prevent any of their clergy from entering into same-sex civil partnerships.

*They are found to be trying to prevent their pastors or priests from having sex change operations, living openly promiscuous lifestyles or engaging in any other form of sexual expression.

So essentially, if the Equality Bill is fully implemented, no religious organization is the U.K. will be able to preach or teach against sexual immorality, will be able to discriminate against the sexually immoral when hiring clergy or will be able to take a formal moral stand against sexually immorality in any way whatsoever.

Some analysts are even claiming that if the Equality Bill is adopted, all hiring for church positions that do not spend at least 51 percent of their time leading worship and preaching would be subject to regulations that would ban discrimination against those from other religions.  So, for example, a Baptist church would be forced to consider an Islamic candidate for a position that ministers to the youth but that also performs other non-teaching functions much of the time as well.

Basically the Equality Bill would be a total nightmare for both evangelical Christians and Roman Catholics in the U.K.  The fact that the law is written in such vague terms would open up the floodgates for all kinds of endless litigation.  If the Equality Bill becomes law, free speech and free expression in churches in the U.K. would be deeply chilled as church leaders struggle with the never ending threat of lawsuits, fines and criminal prosecution.

The days when churches in the U.K. could openly preach against sexual sin would be over.

The days when churches in the U.K. could openly have any say over the sexual behavior of their clergy would be over.

The days when churches in the U.K. could openly discuss what the Bible says about “right” and “wrong” would be over.

Thus this would essentially mean that end of legal evangelical Christianity and legal Roman Catholicism in the U.K.

That sounds quite dramatic, but that is the truth of the matter.

In fact, Baroness O’Cathain, a Tory lawmaker and an evangelical Christian, said last week that the Equality Bill is the “single most damaging Bill to come before the House in my 18 years as a Member”.

Are you starting to get the idea?

We are living in the last days, and the truth is that Christian persecution is exploding all over the world.  Christians in western nations have always thought that it was something that happened “over there”, but now Christian persecution is moving forward with blinding speed in places such as the U.K.

Ultimately, there will be no escaping persecution.  If you plan to be a Christian in the last days you will face persecution as long as you are on this earth.

You better get ready for it.

If you are a Christian and you are not already being persecuted, you will be soon.

While the church is asleep, Christian persecution is exploding around the globe.  Even in the western world, freedom for Christians to practice and express their faith is being curtailed as never before.  Today even we were shocked when we read about how two Christian hotel owners in the U.K. are being charged with a crime for witnessing to some Muslim guests.

Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang were arrested and charged with using “threatening, abusive or insulting words” that were “religiously aggravated” after a Muslim woman complained to local police in the U.K. that she had been “offended” by their comments.

So what was so offensive?

Apparently the couple believes that Christianity and that Islam is wrong.

It is alleged that they told the woman that Mohammed was a warlord and that traditional Islamic dress for women is a form of bondage.  However, the couple is insisting that they did not threaten the woman and that they have every right to explain and defend their own beliefs.

So what will happen to this couple if they are convicted of this hate crime?

Well, they could face a fine of up to £5,000 and they will have a permanent criminal record.

It would be nice if this was just an isolated incident, but the reality is that freedom of religion simply does not exist in the U.K. any longer.

For example, recently we reported on a couple of street preachers in the U.K. that were confronted by police and told that preaching the gospel and passing out tracts is not only offensive but also against the law…..

http://signsofthelastdays.com/archives/u-k-police-it-is-against-the-law-to-preach-and-hand-out-tracts

True Christianity is now considered to be “offensive” in the U.K., and if you seek to promote the Christian faith there you are apparently now in danger of being arrested.

Hopefully the hotel owners will win their case, but there is a bigger issue than that at stake here.  The reality is that millions of Christians in the U.K. will hear of this case, and they may become very hesitant to ever speak out about their faith for fear that they could be arrested and hauled into court.

The persecution of Christians is increasing not only in the U.K., but also in places such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and even in the United States.  Those of us who study the signs of the last days knew that such times would come, but to see it actually happening can be stunning at times.

The Scriptures tell us that one day there will be no place on earth where it is legal to preach the truth about Christianity. 

Are you prepared for that day?

Will you continue to stand for the truth when it may cost you your freedom or even worse?

It is something to think about.

The persecution of Christians in the U.K. and the United States is heating up like never before. Street preachers are being told it is against the law to hand out tracts and read the Bible in public, school officials are threatened with prison for praying over a meal and prison officials even cut Bible verses out of the mail sent to prisoners.

Yes, all of those examples are true.

We will deal with them one at a time.

Firstly, let’s examine the story of 29 year old Miguel Hayworth and his father. Hayworth has been a street preacher in the city of Manchester area for five years and he is often accompanied by his father when he does his street preaching.

Recently they were preaching at St. Ann’s Square in Manchester when they were approached by several police officers who accused them of inciting hatred by making homophobic and racial comments.

According to the Telegraph, one plain-clothed police officer made this statement to them:

It is against the law to preach and hand out tracts: preaching causes offence and handing out tracts is harassment and could result in an arrest.

So what Bible passages were they reading.  Well, according to reports, one of the passages they were reading from was Romans 1:27 which says this : “And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly…”

But apparently reading the Bible in public is no longer acceptable in the U.K. 

In fact, it can get you arrested.

Not that the United States is any better.

A principal and an athletic director down in Florida are likely headed to prison for saying a lunch-time prayer.

Yes, this is actually happening in the United States of America.

You see, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Pace High School in Santa Rosa County, Florida last year accusing them of allowing teachers to endorse religion.  The school quickly agreed to a settlement whereby all school employees were banned from engaging in prayer or religious activities before, during, or after school hours.

Of course the settlement was blatantly unconstitutional, but very few people in the United States seem to care about the Constitution anymore.

Now a principal and an athletic director face the prospect of going to prison for offering meal-time prayers at an appreciation dinner for adults who had helped with a school field house project.

Seriously.

With all of the other massive problems that America is facing, why does the ACLU have to go after meal-time prayers like a rabid dog?

Why?

It is because they hate God.

Now even prisons are censoring Christian material.

One prison in Virginia is actually cutting Bible verses out of the letters that inmates receive from their relatives.

Seriously.

What in the world have we become?

Anna Williams, whose son was held in that prison for several months says that prison officials cut out entire sections of several letters that she sent to her son.

The section that they cut out contained Bible verses or other Christian material.

When she asked the prison about this, they said that they were following prohibitions on religious material sent from home.

What in the world is going on?

The truth is that the U.K. and the United States have rejected God.

We have removed Him from our schools, our courthouses, our government buildings and just about every other public place.  We have pushed Him and His followers deep into the corners and we have made it very clearly that we don’t want anything to do with Him.

So why in the world should God protect us and bless our nations?

The truth is that when nations willingly reject God, then God will reject them.

The judgment of God is coming, and when it does come, nobody should be surprised.