As if California didn’t have enough problems, a 26 foot tall Buddha weighing almost fifteen tons has been installed across the street from the city hall of San Francisco and will remain there through 2011.  This piece of “art” is a sculpture by Zhang Huan entitled “Three Heads Six Arms”.  This piece is Zhang’s largest sculpture to date, and the San Francisco art community is extremely excited that this piece is going to be displayed in their city.

In fact, on the website that has the official announcement about the dedication of this “sculpture”, San Francisco May Gavin Newsom sounded absolutely thrilled to have this idol sitting directly across from city hall….

“The installation of Zhang Huan’s spectacular sculpture in the Civic Center marks a high point in the Shanghai-San Francisco Sister City 30th Anniversary Celebration and a milestone for the San Francisco Arts Commission,” said Mayor Gavin Newsom. “By bringing this incredible work of art to the City, we underscore Shanghai and San Francisco’s bond as two of the world’s most important centers for arts and culture.”

Hopefully at this point alarm bells are going off for you.

Is there a problem when a city puts up a 15 ton Buddha right across from city hall?

Yes, of course there is a problem.

But shouldn’t we appreciate art?

Isn’t a statue okay as long as we don’t worship it ourselves?

Well, no.

Absolutely not.

So what does God think about San Francisco putting up a 26 foot tall Buddha in the center of the city?

In the Scriptures, we find that God severely denounces idols all the way from Genesis to Revelation.

It doesn’t matter if you worship the giant Buddha or not.  Any idol is an abomination in the eyes of God.

In fact, we are told in Revelation 9:20 that there will still be widespread idolatry in the last days….

The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk.

But today, it has become so “fashionable” to put up little buddhas in your home.

In fact, you can find little buddha statues in stores all across America.

And Christians act as if they could care less about all these idols.

But God cares.

What in the world is happening to this nation?

It seems like California almost revels in the fact that they are leading the way into moral depravity.

For example, the San Francisco Chronicle the other day ran an article about what a great thing it is that more lesbian couples are choosing to become “moms”.

Not only that, but Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (from California) is now claiming that it is cheaper to treat teens for drug use than it is to interdict drugs being smuggled across the border.

What?

Seriously?

But this is what we have come to expect from the state of California.

Hollywood is a cesspool of godlessness and sin.  The television shows and movies that are being produced there are leading the whole world into wickedness.  In addition, California has produced more pornography than anywhere else in the world for decades.

California just keeps piling up sin after sin after sin after sin as if none of it will ever catch up with them.

But perhaps someday it all will. 

The number of earthquakes greater than magnitude 4.0 in Southern California has increased significantly in 2010.  In fact, there have been 70 earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 or greater in the region so far in 2010.

That is extremely troubling, because there were only 30 such earthquakes in all of 2009 and only 29 such earthquakes in all of 2008.

So considering the fact that we have already had 70 this year and it is only April is a really troubling sign.

California should be repenting for their sins, but instead they are setting up a 26 foot tall statue of Buddha and they are pumping out record setting amounts of pornography.

We will all just have to wait and see how all that ends up turning out.

Recently, Comedy Central started censoring episodes of South Park after the network and the producers of the series received a large number of violent threats from radical Muslims.  In fact, in one recent episode every instance of the words “Prophet Muhammad” was bleeped out by the network, and whenever the character of Muhammad appeared in the episode it was covered by a large block labeled “censored”.  The producers of South Park were upset about this censorship, but apparently Comedy Central is taking no chances when it comes to dealing with Islamic extremists.  However, apparently making fun of Jesus is still fair game on Comedy Central.  In fact, Comedy Central is developing an entire animated series that mocks Jesus Christ.

Yes, that is right.

An entire animated series that does nothing but mock and degrade and make fun of Jesus Christ.

The working name of the show is  “JC”, and it is scheduled to be a half-hour show about Jesus wanting to escape the shadow of his “powerful but apathetic father” and live a “normal” life in New York City.

What in the world?

It is being reported that the show will depict God as being preoccupied with playing video games while Jesus tries to adjust to life in the big city.

How disgusting is that?

How dare they openly mock the God of the universe?

But that is exactly what they plan to do.

They are scared to death to make fun of Muhammed, but Comedy Central’s head of original programming Kent Alterman considers making fun of Christianity to be “comedy in purist form”….

“In general, comedy in purist form always makes some people uncomfortable.”

Yes, I am uncomfortable with someone mocking my God. 

But this is not new for Comedy Central.

Jesus has been openly mocked on South Park and on other Comedy Central shows for years and years.

But still millions of Christians have no problem watching that filth.

But we should expect that the mocking of Christianity will get even worse.

In Matthew 24, Jesus told us that in the last days “you will be hated by all nations because of me” and that “the love of most will grow cold”, so we should not be surprised when these things happen.

By the time all of this is over, Christians and Christianity are going to be greatly hated around the world.

If you watch carefully, you can see the persecution starting to grow around the world.  You can see hearts growing cold from the hardness of sin. 

God is being pushed out of all aspects of public life in the United States, just like He is in most other nations around the globe.

In fact, Franklin Graham recently said that he believes that Christians in America may lose the right to preach the gospel outside of the walls of a church during his lifetime….

“I think its coming to this country where we (will) have the freedom to preach inside a church wall, but we will lose the freedom to do it outside. That day will probably come – maybe in my lifetime.”

The truth is that things are going to get a whole lot worse than even Franklin Graham is imagining.  Those who follow Jesus Christ and stand up for righteousness are now commonly depicted as “evil” or “deluded” or “morally wrong” on television, in movies, in our popular music and all over the Internet.  Standing up against abortion and homosexuality and sex before marriage will now get you labeled as being part of a “hate” group.

The sad thing is that Christians have participated in constructing this godless society, and now we are so amazed when our children grow up completely godless.

But we should not be surprised that record numbers of  young people are turning away from the Christian faith.  We recently examined how young people are dramatically leaving Christianity and are rapidly being secularized on our sister site…. 

Our public schools teach our children day after day after day that they evolved from monkeys, that abortion, sex before marriage and homosexuality are perfectly moral and that anyone who disagrees is a bigot.  Then they go home and they are surrounded by entertainment for the rest of the day (television, radio, video games, Internet, movies) and the overwhelming message regarding the Christian faith in these forms of entertainment is that either Christianity is irrelevant, not true or should be openly mocked.

The tide of public opinion is radically shifting against the Christian faith.  Those who still hold to Biblical Christianity should expect that persecution will only get a lot worse as time rolls forward. 

It is time that we started learning from the great martyrs of the past in order to start preparing ourselves for what is coming.  One great book that we recommend is Extreme Devotion by The Voice Of The Martyrs.  That book contains a ton of amazing testimonies from persecuted Christians that have gone before us.  There is a lot that we can learn from them. 

Since the first century, millions upon millions of Christians have been slaughtered for their faith, and Christians all over the world are being killed for their faith today.

While persecution in the United States is not that bad yet, the truth is that the Scriptures promise us that the persecution of Christians will be absolutely horrific in the last days.  Now is the time for all of us to start preparing ourselves mentally to be able to endure whatever persecution we are to face while we are still on this earth.

Barack Obama has reportedly decided that if Israel and the Palestinians have not agreed to a peace agreement in the next few months, the Middle East peace process will be handed over to the international community for a resolution.  So what would be the result of handing over the peace process to the international community?  Well, the international community would almost certainly come up with the solution that the UN, the EU and Barack Obama have been seeking all along – a Palestinian state along pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. 

According to Haaretz, Obama has agreed with leading European allies on a secret plan to convene an “international peace conference” by the end of the year if Israel and the Palestinians are not able to work out an agreement.

This “international peace conference” would be convened under the auspices of the Quartet for Middle East peace.  The membership of the “Quartet” currently includes the United States, the EU, the UN and Russia.

So if Israel does not act quickly they could very well soon find the rest of the world imposing a Palestinian state on them.

What in the world is Barack Obama thinking?

Well, apparently he wants to be the “great Middle East peacemaker” and he is willing to throw his weight around in order to get it done.

But the truth is that this could end up being one gigantic mess. 

The Telegraph recently quoted Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat close to the Obama administration, regarding his opinion on what an “international peace conference” would mean….

“An international conference involving the EU, China and Russia is more of a recipe for chaos than a practical political blueprint,” he said. “But anything is better than the status quo.”

No, anything is not better than the status quo.

The truth is that the Palestinians now have no incentive to negotiate with Israel.  They can just sit back, allow the negotiations to fail, and still get a Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem just like they always wanted anyway.

The reality is that this whole plan by Obama undermines the entire peace process as one Israeli official recently explained….

“If you enforce a time limit and then introduce an imposed solution if they don’t succeed after a period, then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: you’re going to guarantee the talks won’t succeed.”

Not that Israel should be considering giving away one single inch of the Promised Land anyway.

But now the Palestinians will just sit back and wait for the international community to give them the state that they have been promised along with a capital in East Jerusalem.

The reality is that Barack Obama has been promising them a Palestinian state for a long time.  According to WorldNetDaily, Barack Obama told the Palestinian leadership all the way back in 2008 that he supports a Palestinian state and a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem.

So why in the world would the Palestinians be willing to accept anything less from Israel?

By doing his best to divide the land of Israel, Barack Obama is directly coming against the Word of God.

In a previous article, we explained why this is a very, very bad idea for any U.S. administration to do….

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In Genesis 12:3, God warns that those who curse Israel will be cursed when he promised this to Abraham:

“I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

In the book of Joel, God warns specifically against dividing the land of Israel.

Joel 3:1-2 states, “…I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of my people and my inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; and they have divided up my land.”

Bill Koenig, the author of “Israel: The Blessing or the Curse”, has said this:

“We know for a fact that God gave this land, through the Abrahamic covenant, He gave the land of Israel to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants, and this land is God’s land.”

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

“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?

The truth is that God gave that land to Israel long ago, and now that He has started to bring His people back to the land, anyone who tries to give it away is going to be under a curse.

So is there any evidence of a curse on those who try to divide the land of Israel today?

Yes.

Consider these examples…..

#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 here:

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1055/1055_01.asp?wpc=1055_01.asp&wpp=b

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But America never seems to learn, eh?

Barack Obama is absolutely determined to divide up the land of Israel.

Let’s just hope that it does not happen.

Did the headline above get your attention?  It should.  The truth is that approximately 400,000 U.S. nonprofit organizations, including thousands of Christian ministries, are just weeks away from losing their tax exemptions.  Why?  Well, a very sneaky provision buried in a 2006 pension reform bill required all nonprofit organizations to file tax forms the following year.  Prior to that, only nonprofit organizations that had revenues of $25,000 or more had to file tax returns.  The problem is that hundreds of thousands of nonprofit organizations did not realize this.  This new provision, which was deeply embedded in the 393 pages of the Pension Protection Act of 2006, also instructed the IRS to revoke the tax exemptions of all nonprofit organizations that failed to file tax returns for 3 consecutive years.

Well guess what?

The three years are just about up and hundreds of thousands of nonprofit organizations are about to experience a financial doomsday.

The New York Times recently quoted Diana Aviv, the president of the nonprofit trade group Independent Sector, as saying the following about the impact that this deadline is going to have….

“It’s going to be an unholy mess once these organizations realize what’s happened to them.”

And that is what this is.

A gigantic mess.

Have the Christian ministries and organizations that you are affiliated with been filing tax returns with the IRS?

Are you sure?

If not, they may be about to lose their tax exemptions.

The reality is that many politicians in Washington have been trying to figure out for a long time how to start sucking some revenue out of the nonprofit world.  In particular, many liberals have long resented the tax exemptions that churches and other religious organizations have enjoyed.

But coming out and openly proposing a repeal of the tax exemptions for churches and religious organizations would not be popular at all.

So they have to find backdoor ways to do it.

The truth is that it would be really easy for Congress to repeal this stupid provision so that hundreds of thousands of nonprofit organizations do not suddenly lose their tax exemptions.

But they aren’t going to do it.

They have got thousands upon thousands of unsuspecting victims in their legislative trap and that is just where many of the folks in Washington want them.

The reality is that we have become a nation that has so many thousands upon thousands of laws that it is literally impossible to comply with them all.

Trust me on this – I went to law school. 

So what should a ministry do that finds itself trapped by this situation?

Well, you need to contact the IRS immediately and try to get this straightened out.

For those individuals who are very upset about this, you can try contacting your representatives in Congress, but with Barack Obama and the Democrats in control, the odds that this provision will be repealed are somewhere between very slim and none.

The truth is that this is yet another example of how the U.S. government is literally getting their fingers into every aspect of our daily lives.  But as we move into the last days things are going to get far worse.  Right now in America we are only facing “soft” persecution.  In other areas of the world they are already facing torture and death for the cross, and that will happen in this country some day as well.  But in the midst of the persecution millions will turn to Yahshua (Jesus) and be saved.  This is going to be one of the most exciting times in all of history to be alive, so let us be thankful and let us take the gospel forward no matter what the opposition is.

Israel is making it very clear that the next war with Hezbollah will also be a war against Syria.  For years it has been an open secret that Syria was funneling arms and sophistical weapons systems to Hezbollah in Lebanon, but now Israel is on the record as saying that they consider Hezbollah to be a division of the Syrian army.  So what does this mean?  It means that war between Israel and Syria is now closer than it has been in decades.  Just recently, Israel delivered a secret warning to Syrian President Bashar Assad that it will respond to missile attacks from Hezbollah by launching immediate retaliation against Syria itself.

No longer will Syria be able to use Hezbollah to fight proxy wars against Israel.  If a repeat of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah happens, this time Israel says that it will directly strike Damascus. 

In fact, a major U.K. newspaper recently published the following “off-the-record” comment from an Israeli minister….

“We’ll return Syria to the Stone Age by crippling its power stations, ports, fuel storage and every bit of strategic infrastructure if Hezbollah dare to launch ballistic missiles against us.”

What is raising tensions even further in the region are reports that Syria has been arming Hezbollah to the teeth in preparation for the coming war.

Just consider the following description by Debka of the kinds of advanced weaponry that Syria has been supplying to the terrorist organization….

“Surface-to-surface missiles able to reach as far as the Dimona reactor in southern Israel: They include Fajr-5, which has a range of 33 km, and the M-600, developed by Syria from the Fateh-110, whose range is 250 km. Both are precise, propelled by solid fuel and carry 500-kilo warheads of conventional explosives, as well as being able to deliver chemical, biological and radioactive materials.  This dangerous new arsenal which tops up the 40,000 rockets Hizballah was allowed to pile up since the 2006 Lebanon war.”

The reality is that Syria and Hezbollah between them now have the capability of striking every single inch of Israeli territory with missiles.

No target is out of range anymore.

With all sides on edge in the region, even King Abdullah of Jordan is warning that the next war in the Middle East could break out as soon as this summer.

Meanwhile, there are increasing calls from world leaders for Israel to join the NPT and quit producing nuclear weapons.  In fact, Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid Al-Muallem is calling on all NPT member countries to sever their diplomatic relations with Israel unless it joins the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Of course Syria would love not to have to worry about Israel’s nukes during the coming war, but that is not going to happen.

But even Barack Obama is pushing Israel on this issue.  Last week Barack Obama publicly declared that he is calling upon all the nations of the world to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, including Israel.

But what Barack Obama should be really concerned about is trying to figure out what to do about Iran.

It is being reported that Robert Gates, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, warned President Barack Obama in a secret “wake-up call” memo that the White House has no effective policy for dealing with a nuclear Iran.

But at the same time, the Pentagon itself does not seem to have a sense of urgency when it comes to Iran’s nuclear program.  Top U.S. military officials told Congress last week that it would take Iran at least a year to produce enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb.  Not only that, but Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently said that that a U.S. strike against Iran would go “a long way” to delaying its nuclear program but that he considered doing so his “last option” right now.

Meanwhile, top Iranian officials are running around making declarations about how advanced Iran’s nuclear program is.

Needless to say, Israel is not going to let Iran go down this path indefinitely.

But even before things with Iran come to a crisis point, war could break out between Israel and Syria.

Is the time soon coming when “Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins” (Isaiah 17:1)?

We will just have to wait and see.  Certainly all sides are preparing for a devastating regional war.  So let us pray for the peace of Israel and let us trust that God knows what He is doing.

For years there has been a raging debate among Christians who study Bible prophecy.  Many have believed that the coming Mark of the Beast will be an implantable microchip that is inserted into the right hand or the forehead.  Many others insist that the coming Mark of the Beast will be a tattoo of some sort.  Well, perhaps it may be a tattoo that utilizes RFID technology.  A start-up company developing “chipless RFID ink” has already tested its product on cattle and laboratory rats.

Now, it is important to state at the outset that this is NOT the Mark of the Beast.  However, this may represent yet another step towards the technology that someday will be used in the Mark of the Beast.

The name of the company developing this process is Somark.  The RFID tattoo is applied using a geometric array of micro-needles and a reusable applicator with a one-time-use ink capsule.

It takes approximately five to 10 seconds to tattoo an animal (or a human), and there is no need to remove any fur or hair from the recipient of the tattoo.  Once it is applied, an RFID reader can detect the tattoo from up to four feet away.

Somark co-founder Mark Pydynowski says that the ink does not contain any metals and that it is 100% bio-compatible and chemically inert.

He also claims that is is 100% safe for animals and for people. 

Initially, the executives of Somark hope to market this technology to those who wish to track cattle.

However, it does not take a lot of imagination to think up many other applications for this technology.

Once again, it must be stressed that this is NOT the Mark of the Beast.

However, this is a disturbing development.

The Scriptures tell us in Revelation 13 that someday all of humanity will be forced to take a “Mark” on the right hand or on the forehead by the Antichrist.  Nobody will be allowed to buy or sell without it.

So could this “Mark” end up using RFID tattoo technology?

Perhaps.

We will just have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, for those who want to learn much more about the Mark of the Beast, we encourage you to check out this article: “What Is The Mark Of The Beast?”

More than ever, the word “nuclear” is on the lips of world leaders around the globe.  It seems like everyone is either “going nuclear” or is talking about nuclear weapons.  The truth is that the world has been extremely fortunate that nuclear weapons have not been used to destroy an entire city since the end of World War 2.  But with tensions escalating dangerously in the Middle East and around the world, how much longer will it be before nuclear weapons are used by someone to wipe out large numbers of people? 

In fact, for many terrorist organizations around the globe, the thought of going nuclear is the ultimate dream.  A handful of terrorists really can’t do that much damage on their own, but one terrorist with a nuke can take out an entire major city in the blink of an eye.

Many jihadists speak openly of nuclear weapons as being the means by which they will take down the United States and Israel.  There are many jihadists who would set off a nuke in a major city today if they were able to.

And with nuclear weapons technology spreading to places such as North Korea, Iran and Syria, how much longer do you think it will be before a terrorist organization is able to get their hands on a nuclear weapon?

The truth is that nuclear weapons will almost certainly be used in the last days.  Entire cities will probably be destroyed.  Whether it is terrorists or governments who use them, the reality is that when they are used it will change the world forever. 

Leaders around the globe know how dangerous these weapons are.  Many of them understand that once Iran gets their hands on nukes it will be extremely hard to ever put the “nuclear genie” back in the bottle.  If radical Islamic terrorists are able to acquire nuclear weapons through Iran (or by any other source), all of our lives are going to change permanently.   

The threat of rogue nations and terrorist organizations going nuclear has made a lot of headlines just this past week.  Just check out some of them….

*Barack Obama said that the possibility of terrorists getting a nuclear device is the “single biggest threat” to U.S. security as he opened the international nuclear summit that included 46 world leaders from around the globe.

*Hillary Clinton said that she fears al-Qaeda is gathering material for nuclear weapons.

*According to a top Iranian nuclear official, Iran will join the “nuclear club” within a month.

*Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled a new generation of domestically made nucelar centrifuges in a ceremony in Tehran marking national nuclear day.

*It is being reported by international news sources that Iran’s bomb-making plutonium facilities are close to completion.

*French President Nicolas Sarkozy is warning global leaders that if the world doesn’t act to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear arms, it could be responsible for a war between Israel and the Islamic republic.

*An Iranian who once worked as a spy for the CIA is saying that the only way to avoid a nuclear war with Iran is to attack them now.

*Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is warning Israel against a military strike on Iran, saying that it might lead to a global nuclear war.

*The Turkish Prime Minister is urging other world leaders to start criticizing the Israeli nuclear arsenal.

*Hillary Clinton claims that North Korea now has as many as six nuclear weapons.

We live in very dangerous times.  We all take the peace and safety we are enjoying right now for granted.  But a time is coming when that will fundamentally change.

Nations that absolutely hate the United States and Israel are arming to the teeth and are developing nuclear weapons.  Just one suitcase nuke could decimate an entire city.  We often forget about how blessed and how protected we have been, but someday that could all change in the blink of an eye.

Let us pray for peace and hope that somehow nuclear weapons can be kept out of the hands of radicals and lunatics.

Have you ever heard of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child?  If you are an American parent, it could soon dramatically affect your parental rights.  A new optional protocol has been approved that will create an international tribunal that will receive complaints from individual children.  Parental rights under the U.S. Constitution will not trump the ruling of this tribunal.  The implications of this are staggering.  For example, if a “children’s rights” group finds out that you are spanking your child, they can file a complaint with this U.N. tribunal on your child’s behalf, and before you know it your child could be taken away from you forever. 

The ironic thing is that negotiations for this new protocol were spearheaded by the nation of Maldives, which has a horrific record of human rights.  When Maldives signed and ratified the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child back in the early nineties, it specifically rejected the religious freedom section found in the CRC.  You see, the constitution of the Maldives requires that all citizens be Muslims.  So when they “opted out” of the religious freedom portion of the document, they explained themselves this way: “The Government of the Republic of Maldives expresses its reservation to paragraph 1 of article 14 of the said Convention on the Rights of the Child, since the Constitution and the Laws of the Republic of Maldives stipulate that all Maldivians should be Muslims.”

Regardless, due to the efforts of the Maldives and others, this new protocol has been approved.

So exactly what will this new protocol do? 

Well, according to one Maldivian news agency, the “protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), will create a procedure whereby children who are being abused or their representatives (such as national child protection NGOS, lawyers, and doctors) could seek assistance from international human rights protection mechanisms when domestic institutions are failing to offer protection.”

These words are chilling.

Can you imagine some radical leftists coming in to your home and dragging your kid before an international tribunal just because you were trying to raise your child in a Biblical manner?

Don’t laugh.

It could happen.

We didn’t think our health care system would ever be socialized either.

The good news is that this new protocol is optional.

The bad news is that Barack Obama is in the White House and the Democrats control Congress.

The Obama administration has publicly announced its desire to see the U.S. ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

In addition, those spearheading the push for the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child to be adopted in the United States have announced their support for this new optional protocol.

So the threat to parental rights is real.

Please share this information with as many Christian parents as you can.

The world is dramatically changing and international institutions are taking over.

Now is the time to stand up and say something about it.  Later will be too late.