Prophetic Times

Weekly World News Briefs                                        December 2, 2017

U.S. threatens to ‘utterly destroy’ North Korea regime

November 30, 2017  SpaceDaily.com reports: “The United States on Wednesday warned that North Korea’s leadership will be ‘utterly destroyed’ if war breaks out as it called on countries to cut all diplomatic and trade ties with North Korea — including Chinese oil shipments to Pyongyang.

Washington urged tough action at an emergency meeting of the Security Council called to respond to North Korea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

‘The dictator of North Korea made a choice yesterday that brings the world closer to war, not farther from it,’ US Ambassador Nikki Haley told the council ‘If war comes, make no mistake: The North Korean regime will be utterly destroyed.’…”

North Korea’s latest missile test puts more of U.S. in range                                                                              

November 29, 2017 Asia Times Online reported: “North Korea fired a ballistic missile early Wednesday, the first such launch in two months and one that based on preliminary projections shows Pyongyang is edging closer to possessing a weapon that can hit Washington D.C.

The launch reported by South Korea and the US came just a week after US President Donald Trump reinstated North Korea on a list of state sponsors of terrorism, allowing for fresh sanctions on the country in addition to those already in force under UN mandates.

A report on North Korea television said the intercontinental ballistic missile can reach all areas of the US mainland and that the country under leader Kim Jong Un had achieved its goal of becoming a nuclear power. In September, it conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test.

‘Kim Jong Un declared with pride that now we have finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force,’ according to a statement read by a television presenter…”

US vows to help Europe repel Russian aggression 

November 28, 2017 spacedaily.com reported:  “Secretary of State Rex Tillerson re-committed the United States to opposing Moscow's "aggression" against its neighbors Tuesday and vowed to help Europe wean itself off Russian oil and gas.

Next week Washington's top diplomat will attend ministerial meetings of the NATO alliance in Brussels and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna.  At both sets of talks Russia's intervention in Ukraine will top the agenda and US allies in Europe will be looking for reassurance that President Donald Trump's administration has their back.

Trump came to office this year seeking warmer ties with Moscow and has sometimes called into question the value of US alliances, but relations with President Vladimir Putin's Kremlin quickly soured.  Now, Tillerson is heading to Europe with a tough message that the Western allies stand shoulder to shoulder to oppose "the enemies that threaten our security and oppose our way of life."

In a major speech on US relations with Europe under Trump's "America First" foreign policy, Tillerson pledged that sanctions against Russia will remain in place until it helps restore peace in Ukraine.  And he argued that attempts by two previous US administrations to thaw ties with Moscow had only led to Putin seizing the opportunity to invade Georgia in August 2008 and Ukraine in 2014.

"Any resolution to the war that does not entail a fully independent, sovereign territorially whole Ukraine is unacceptable," Tillerson told an audience of policy-makers, scholars and reporters.  "Russia chose to violate the sovereignty of the largest country in Europe... Our trans-Atlantic unity is meant to convey to the Russian government that we will not stand by this flagrant violation of international norms," he said.

And Tillerson warned that the US and European Union economic sanctions which Moscow has lobbied so hard to overturn "will remain in place until Russia reverses the actions that triggered them."

Before coming to office as Trump's secretary of state, Tillerson was chairman of US oil giant ExxonMobil, pursuing major investments in Russia, and an influential opponent of economic sanctions.  But once in government he was confronted by Putin's intransigence over Ukraine and the Kremlin's determined military support for Syria's brutal strongman Bashar al-Assad and his Iranian allies.”...”

Christians now seen as ‘dangerous’, says Tim Farron warning of ‘threat to liberalism’

November 28, 2017  ChristianToday.com reports: “Tim Farron is warning Christianity is seen as ‘dangerous’ and ‘offensive’ after the former Liberal Democrat leader quit in July saying it was impossible to be an evangelical Christian and head of his party.

Warning of a ‘threat to liberalism’ Farron will say the UK is descending into ‘groupthink, pack mentality and depressing conformity’ in a lecture tonight.

‘If you actively hold a faith that is more than an expression of cultural identity, a faith that forms the centre of your world view, you are deemed to be far worse than eccentric. You are dangerous. You are offensive,’ he will say.

It comes after Farron faced repeated questioning about his faith during the 2017 general election campaign, particularly around whether he thought gay sex was a sin. He ducked the question on multiple occasions, saying his personal view didn’t matter and pointing to his voting record which is largely in favour in increasingly gay rights.

But after intense pressure Farron eventually resigned as leader, issuing an extraordinary resignation statement saying: ‘To be a political leader and to live as a committed Christian, to hold faithfully to the Bible’s teaching, has felt impossible to me.’…”

‘Next war will be particularly violent’

November 28, 2017  Arutz Sheva 7 reported: “Roni Daniel, a military correspondent for News 2, stated during the panel ‘Coverage of the Next War’ at the annual media conference in Eilat that: ‘The next war will be particularly violent.’

‘I see the arena of the next war as being in Israel’s cities,’ Daniel said. ‘This will be the first war in which there will be more casualties on the home front than on the front lines, and small communities will be hit dramatically.’

‘We must coordinate expectations for the citizens of the state. The Iron Dome cannot provide complete protection. The IDF spokesman will not succeed in conducting the discourse on the social networks, but we have to live with it. The army will have to take [these] recommendations and explain the current situation,’ he added.

Daniel continued: ‘In wartime, it will be necessary [for the IDF] to be in all the Whatsapp groups in order to calm the public, and the next war will be particularly violent. During the Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah was on the verge of collapse, but we did not know it then. It is impossible to return to a situation in which the Lebanese state and its forces threaten Israel.’…”

From Myanmar to Zimbabwe, China’s global footprint grows

November 27, 2017 SpaceDaily.com reported: “China has traditionally rejected US-style interventionism, but its deepening economic involvement in volatile countries like Myanmar and Zimbabwe is thrusting Beijing towards a more assertive global role, analysts say.  China’s foreign policy has been guided by its principle of ‘non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs’, which emerged in 1954 when it was a much weaker nation.

While Beijing remains rhetorically committed to the stance, it is now a very different power, boasting the world’s largest standing army and the second biggest economy.  This change has coincided with a shift in diplomatic engagement that most recently saw Beijing take the unusual step of proposing a strategy to resolve the crisis over Muslim refugees flooding over the border from Myanmar to Bangladesh.  It has also stepped up its role in the Middle East — on which it depends for oil — after having long taken a backseat in the powder-keg region, offering to host talks on the Syrian and the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.

China is now expected to take greater responsibility in world affairs as ‘it’s no longer the little underdog,’ said Kerry Brown, director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London.”...”

‘Ignorant infidels’ in U.S. may have to be ‘forced’ to accept Islam

November 26, 2017 WND.com reported: “Radical imams from Virginia, Maryland and Texas attended a fund-raising event organized by an Islamist charity on Saturday, Nov. 18, in which they were treated to a smorgasbord of teachings from foreign-based Islamic thinkers.  The prime delicacy was offered up by keynote speaker Habib-ur-Rehman Ludhianvi, a visiting Islamic cleric from Pakistan.

Ludhiavi believes America is a ‘land of infidels,’ whom he described as ‘ignorant.’ His comments are a ringing example of what Muslim leaders say when they are behind closed doors and in the company of other Muslims, as opposed to the public comments meant for gullible infidel ears, security experts tell WND…

At the Virginia conference, Ludhianvi advised a sort of carrot and stick approach to conquering American minds for Islam, starting with heretical Muslims who don’t believe in jihad. He said:  They are ignorant and there is no need for dialogue with them, God has given them two options, one is the holy book and one is the stick and if one does not accept the holy book they have to be forced…”

Iran’s Syria bases near Israel have apocalyptic intent

November 24, 2017 WND.com reported: “The locations of some of Iran’s military installations in Syria, including some within 30 miles of Israeli territory in the Golan Heights, may be motivated more by Tehran’s desire to provoke an Islamic end-of-the-world cataclysm than for strategic value, contends an expert on Shiite religious dogma.

Ryan Mauro of the Clarion Project argues the bases near Israel don’t pose an imminent threat of a conventional military strike or even an asymmetrical attack. But he said the motivation is rather a desire to fulfill Shia prophecy of a showdown with the Jewish state that Iran’s religious leadership believes will prompt the coming of a messianic figure, or ‘Mahdi.’

Iran has frequently stated its desire to destroy Israel, claiming the Jewish state is the focus of its nuclear and long-range missile program. Iran has also funneled millions of dollars into proxy enemies of Israel.  There are now some 13 Iranian military installations in Syria – some manned by Hezbollah terrorists and others by Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces.

‘This isn’t normal competition between hostile powers; this isn’t even the normal Iranian sponsorship of terrorism or attempts to expand their military presence,’ Mauro said in a recent television interview. ‘To the Iranian regime this is the fulfillment of prophecy.’…”

Church of Sweden to stop clergy calling God ‘he’ or ‘the Lord’ in bid to crack down on gendered language

November 24, 2017  The Telegraph.co.uk reported: “The Church of Sweden is urging its clergy to use gender-neutral language when referring to the supreme deity, refraining from using terms like ‘Lord’ and ‘He’ in favor of the less specific ‘God.’

The move is one of several taken by the national Evangelical Lutheran church in updating a 31-year-old handbook setting out how services should be conducted in terms of language, liturgy, hymns and other aspects.  The decision was taken Thursday at the end of an eight-day meeting of the church’s 251-member decision-making body, and takes effect May 20 on the Christian holiday of Pentecost.

A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, some 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of the capital, the church has 6.1 million baptized members in a country of 10 million. It is headed by a woman, Archbishop Antje Jackelen.  Jackelen told Sweden’s TT news agency a more inclusive language had already been discussed at the 1986 conference.”...”

Compiled by L. Jim Tuck, Pastor

UCGIA Phoenix, Northern AZ, Show Low & Hawaii

ljt5053@sbcglobal.net

PT120217