Tag: religion

Stamp and Seal Impression Found in Jerusalem Point to Restoration of City During Times of Ezra, Nehemiah

– July 15, 2020

JERUSALEM — An excavation in Jerusalem Walls National Park that yielded a rare stamp and seal impression dating back to the Persian era is stated to provide evidence for the restoration of Jerusalem during the times of Ezra and Nehemiah, as chronicled in the Scriptures.

“The finding of the stamp and seal impression in the City of David indicates that despite the city’s dire situation after the destruction, efforts were made to restore the administrative authorities to normal, and its residents continued to use the structures that were destroyed partly,” stated Prof. Yuval Gadot of the Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University, and Dr. Yiftah Shalev, of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The Antiquities Authority recently announced the discovery, which was uncovered in the Givati parking lot area of the National Park next to rubble from a structure razed during the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem.

Gadot and Shalev state that it is rare to find artifacts from the Persian Period, and few of this type have been found in Israel.

The impression was found on what is known as a bulla, a clay seal used by administrative authorities to sign documents and to keep them sealed until they reach their destination. They were also sometimes used as seals on storage jugs for food received as a tax.

https://christiannews.net

City of Boston, Which Rejected Group’s Request to Fly Christian Flag, Holds Homosexual Pride Flag Raising

– June 16, 2020

BOSTON — The City of Boston held a virtual flag-raising ceremony on June 5 to commence the 50th annual Boston Pride Week, celebrating the sins of homosexuality and bisexuality. Boston remains embroiled in a federal lawsuit after it denied a private group’s request to fly the Christian flag over City Hall during their temporary event recognizing Constitution Day.

“In Boston, we’re very proud of how far we’ve come,” Mayor Ben Walsh said during the recorded event, which was posted to the Boston Pride YouTube page with the hashtag #wickedproud. “We’re proud of the trailblazers and activists who’ve changed the world, and we’re proud that many of them call our city home.”

“We’re going to keep fighting for greater visibility and representation for people of all sexualities and gender identities,” he stated. “We won’t let anyone take us backward.”

Walsh advised that since the in-person Pride event had to be canceled this year, the City looked for other ways to observe the occasion. He said that part of the plan includes lighting City Hall in rainbow colors.

Republican Gov. Charlie Baker also spoke to viewers, thanking those involved with Boston Pride.

“You’ve made an enormous difference for the people in the Commonwealth and in the city of Boston, and you really have changed the world over the course of the past 50 years,” he stated. “God bless and good luck in the next 50.”

Davron Monroe, an award-winning singer who performs opera, theater, gospel and jazz, sang the national anthem for the virtual event, and the song “Raise You Up” from the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus played as footage showed the rainbow flag being run up the pole at City Hall.

As previously reported, the City of Boston was sued in 2018 after it rejected a group’s application to fly the Christian flag outside City Hall during an event celebrating the religious history of the city and the contributions made by Christians.

https://christiannews.net

Anti-Semitic crime in Germany hits highest level in nearly two decades

Kaelan Deese – May 27, 2020

Germany’s interior secretary on Wednesday said anti-Semitic crimes in the country are increasing and reached their highest levels in 2019 since the country began recording them in 2001.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer called the rise in anti-Semitic crimes a “great concern,” according to a report by ABC.

Data collected by the government shows that politically-motivated crimes overall were up 14.2 percent last year compared to data from 2018, which is the second-highest level on record.

Crimes committed by the extreme left increased 23.7 percent to 9,849 cases, but the extreme right did the most politically motivated crimes, totaling 22,342 cases and an increase of 9.4 percent last year.

“The largest threat, as in the past, is the threat from the right,” Seehofer said. “Extreme-right politically motivated cases make up more than half of all of such recorded crimes — it is an order of magnitude that causes us concern, great concern.”

Anti-Semitic crimes were reportedly up 13 percent last year to 2,032 cases, with more than 93 percent of perpetrators associated with the far right. Crimes against Muslims rose 4.4 percent to 950 cases, and over 90 percent of those perpetrators also had extreme right ties.

Seehofer said far-right extremists left a “trail of blood” throughout Germany in more recent years, referencing the synagogue attack in Halle last year that resulted in two people killed in the street, along with a more recent attack in February which ended in nine people of foreign backgrounds killed in the Frankfurt suburb of Hanau.

https://thehill.com

Pope Francis, Not Content to Falsely Accuse Christians of Fictional Atrocity, Celebrates Jihadis’ Favorite Holiday

Robert Spencer – May 02, 2020

The Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue on Friday informed its “dear Muslim brothers and sisters” that the month of Ramadan is “a time for spiritual healing and growth, of sharing with the poor, of strengthening bonds with relatives and friends,” as well as an opportunity for “your Christian friends” to “further strengthen our relationships with you.

The message, which was published in Arabic, Italian, French, and English, added: “It is in this spirit that the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue offers its prayerful best wishes and hearty congratulations to you all.” And that’s wonderful, but just what was the Vatican congratulating?

Vatican officials are without any doubt unaware of the fact that because Ramadan is the month in which Muslims redouble their efforts to obey Allah, Ramadan is also quintessentially the month of jihad. Fighting and killing infidels is, after all, commanded in the Qur’an (cf. 2:191. 4:89, 9:5, 9:289, 47:4, etc.). A hadith has a Muslim asking Muhammad: “Instruct me as to such a deed as equals Jihad (in reward).” Muhammad replied, “I do not find such a deed.” (Bukhari 4.52.44)

Thus killing infidels during Ramadan is, for the killers, a holy and sacred act. A jihadi group explained it back in 2012:

The month of Ramadan is a month of holy war and death for Allah. It is a month for fighting the enemies of Allah and God’s messenger, the Jews and their American facilitators.

https://pjmedia.com

German Catholic Church Confesses it ‘Was Complicit’ in WWII by Not Opposing Nazi Regime

Sputnik News – May 2, 3030

The news comes two months after the Vatican opened its archives on Pope Pius XII, who led the Catholic Church from 1939 to 1958 and has been subject to harsh criticism due to his stance on the Holocaust and the Nazi regime in general.

The council of Catholic bishops in Germany has confessed that the church was “complicit in the war” by not opposing the Nazis during World War II, according to The Times.

“Inasmuch as the bishops did not oppose the war with a clear ‘no’, and most of them bolstered the [German nation’s] will to endure, they made themselves complicit in the war… The bishops may not have shared the Nazis’ justification for the war on the grounds of racial ideology, but their words and their images gave succour both to soldiers and the regime prosecuting the war, as they lent the war an additional sense of purpose”, the document said.

It also says that the leaders of German Catholics did not support Nazi ideas, but still helped the government and the military by organizing hospitals and providing spiritual guidance to the soldiers during the war.

According to the Daily Mail, the new report, released one week before the 75th anniversary of Victory Day, was described by one prelate as a “confession of guilt”.

https://sputniknews.com

The Roman Globalist Church

Joseph Hippolito – May 1, 2020

As Christians worldwide celebrated their most significant holiday, their most recognizable figure delivered a distinctly secular message.

On Easter Sunday, the Vatican released a letter Pope Francis wrote to Catholic organizations in South America. Francis wrote that the coronavirus pandemic “might be a good time to consider a universal basic wage” that would enable the poor to enjoy “the benefits of globalism.”

Such a measure, Francis wrote, “would ensure and concretely achieve the ideal, at once so human and so Christian, of no worker without rights.”

Toward the end of his letter, Francis hoped the pandemic would generate “a humanist and ecological conversion that puts an end to the idolatry of money, and places human life and dignity at the center.”

Nowhere in his letter did Francis mention Jesus Christ.

The letter conclusively proves that Francis is transforming the Catholic Church into another non-governmental organization. In the process, he is destroying the church’s identity and credibility.

Francis’ activism reflects and culminates the Vatican’s embrace of humanist utopianism, which Front Page Magazine briefly addressed last year in “They Died For ‘Dialogue’?” That article traced the Holy See’s policy of appeasing Islam and China to the radical globalism adopted at the Second Vatican Council, which met from 1962 to 1965.

A pastoral document written on politics and economics during the council stated that “there must be made available to all men everything necessary for leading a life truly human, such as food, clothing, and shelter. … Hence, the social order and its development must invariably work to the benefit of the human person.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com

Chattanooga Mayor Reverses Course, Allows Drive-In Church Services Following Lawsuit

– April 21, 2020

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — The mayor of Chattanooga, Tennessee has agreed to allow drive-in church services after being assured by area pastors that the meetings will be conducted with appropriate social distancing measures in place. The about-face from his initial prohibition comes two days after a lawsuit was filed against the City by a local church that asserted the restriction violated its freedom of religion and assembly.

“Every week I sign a new executive order. I have spoken to pastors who assured me they could operate drive in church safely, with spaces between the cars and no collection plates. This week’s order therefore permits drive-in church. Please observe safely,” Andy Berke posted to Twitter on Saturday.

According to reports, on April 9, Berke had outlined on social media that “drive-in services, … even in their cars with the windows rolled up, for any length of time will be considered a violation of our shelter-in-place directive.” The post is no longer available as of press time.

The following day, the City of Chattanooga shared a statement from local faith leaders that “[a]lthough coronavirus will prevent us from worshiping in the same buildings this weekend, it will not prevent us from celebrating and observing these enduring [Easter and Passover] traditions together.” It encouraged residents to check with area religious groups about plans for online services.

On April 11, attorneys for Metropolitan Tabernacle Church sent an email to the city attorney to contend that the prohibition on drive-in services violates the U.S. Constitution. Steve Ball, the pastor, had previously inquired of local police whether it would be permissible to hold drive in services and was told yes by a lieutenant.

https://christiannews.net

Churches ordered ‘no singing’ during livestream services unless they’re in homes, California county COVID-19 restrictions say

Dave Urbanski – April 16, 2020

A northern California county issued revised shelter-in-place orders on Good Friday that outlaw singing during livestream church services unless the services take place in residences.

The specifics within Mendocino County’s 13-page document are found on page 8 under “Minimum Basic Operations” for “venues, such as concert halls, auditoriums, churches, temples, and playhouses, to enable a recorded and/or live-streamed event to be shared virtually with the public” — and then come the “limitations.”

First off, the order states that “only four individuals may be present for the live event. All others must participate remotely,” the document states.

Secondly, “Social Distancing Requirements must be maintained, include maintaining at least six feet of physical distancing from other individuals (physical distancing not required for members of the same household), frequently washing hands with soap and water for at least twenty seconds as frequently as possible or using hand sanitizer that is recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as effective in combatting COVID-19, covering coughs or sneezes (into the sleeve or elbow, not hands), regularly cleaning high-touch surfaces, not shaking hands, and, for those who are not on camera, to wear facial coverings as much as possible,” the document notes.

And then the powers that be get into specific activities not allowed during livestream events: “No singing or use of wind instruments, harmonicas, or other instruments that could spread COVID-19 through projected droplets shall be permitted unless the recording of the event is done at one’s residence, and involving only the members of one’s household or living unit, because of the increased risk of transmission of COVID-19.”The order is in effect until May 10 and “violation of or failure to comply with this Order is a misdemeanor punishable by fine, imprisonment, or both,” the document reads.

https://www.theblaze.com

Report: Israel’s Top Rabbi Orders Ceremonial White Robe to Greet Messiah

Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz – March 31, 2020

On Saturday night, Yonatan Dadon of Radio 2000, an Orthodox Hebrew language broadcaster, interviewed Rabbi Yaakov Zissholtz on his weekly Melaveh Malkah program.

In the Hebrew language video, Rabbi Zitsholtz gave the following disclaimer:

“I don’t promise anything and anything can change at any moment but I heard the following statements.”

Rabbi Zissholtz then explained several recent statements made by Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, one of the most prominent rabbis of this generation, concerning the Messiah.

“Rabbi kanievsky requested that his people prepare for him a glima (a ceremonial white robe). Since when does the Minister of Torah (Rabbi Kanievsky) wear such a thing? Some Jews wear a similar thing called a kittel for the Passover seder but you don’t order a kittel especially made. It can be bought anywhere for one hundred shekels. But an entire suit made of rich white material? In whose honor will Rabbi Kanievsky wear it?”

It is known that many Jewish sages throughout the ages have set aside special clothes to be worn only to greet the Messiah.

“I am not promising anything,” Rabbi Zissholtz said. “There are other tzaddikim (righteous men) who see it differently and are working to delay the Messiah in order to save more Jews.”

https://www.breakingisraelnews.com

Pope Francis Says His Words ‘Overrule The Bible’

Truth Unsealed – March 18, 2020

Pope Francis has responded to claims that many of his teachings “contradict Bible teachings” by saying that his words “overrule” anything written in the Bible.

The pope has further angered traditional Christians in recent weeks by developing the habit of hiding the crucifix that is worn around his neck when speaking in public, causing many Christians to believe the pontiff is ashamed to display the powerful Christian symbol.

Jorgé Bergoglio, whose job title is Pope Francis, has been re-writing major Christian doctrine, completely ignoring Biblical teachings.

As reported by NBC News, the Vatican’s Commission for Religious Relations with Jews issued a major new document pronouncing that God had never annulled his covenant with the Jewish people, and so Catholics should not try to convert Jews: “The Church is therefore obliged to view evangelization to Jews, who believe in the one God, in a different manner from that to people of other religions and world views.”

God never annulled his covenant with the Jewish people.

https://truthunsealed.com