According to Gallup, Four in ten Americans—and 52 percent of Republicans—believe "God created humans in present form within the last 10,000 years." Ah, the Enlightenment! The age of science and rationality! It was fun while it lasted.
[via Doug Mataconis]
Send an email to Max Read, the author of this post, at max@gawker.com.
The Great Deception of Christmas and Santa Claus
"And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him (Rev 12:9)
Listen to a Bible study regarding The Great Deception of Christmas and Santa Claus
The Christmas season is marked with terms of charity, yet it is often an experience of forthcoming sorrow for many that estimate and predict forthcoming DEBT AND DISPARITY. Such disparity is related to OVERSPENDING AND WORLDLY MATERIALISM (1John 2:15-17). Manhattan's varied seasonal events within the Soho area revealed a wide array of well decorated store-fronts with expensive ornaments, targeting a competitive, commercial goal of meeting certain sales' quotas. How does this relate to spirituality as we are most definitely living in serious end-times, and how can we remain fixed on Christ who, as a perfect Vine, provides "Everlasting Righteousness" (Psalms 103:17, 119:142-144, Daniel 9:24, John 15:1-7).
December 25th is clearly a pagan festivity, honoring the "eastern star", TAMMUZ, a sun-god (Ezekiel 8:14). The infamous "Eastern stars" is a secret antiChristian organization. The twelve days of Christmas is pagan, the CHRISTMAS TREE is PAGAN, and when you place gifts underneath the tree you are bowing to SATAN. When you put a star at the top of the XMAS TREE you are honoring Satan through Pantheism. "Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not" (Jeremiah 10:1-4).
Santa's name unscrambled can spell SATAN. The following proves Satan's deceptive counterfeit of the so-called INNOCENT SANTA CHARACTER that parents and children adore; and sadly many are still fooled:
1. Worldly children are instructed by worldly parents to make a list for their gift requests for (Santa). Christ instructs us to ask and "it shall be done unto you" (John 15:7).
2. Worldly families focus on a man that comes from the North Pole in a sleigh pulled by eight "magical reindeer". The Bible described the NORTH or Mount Zion, a sacred place, many times in the bible (Psalms 48:2). Also Christ's hair is described as snow (Rev 1:14). The list goes on and on with many being deceived by the reindeer, which are a counterfeit of Christ's transport cherubs (merciful angels).
3. Santa sits and talks to worldly children about gift requests. Christ directs the little children to approach Him and encourages "faith and prayer" (Matt 19:14, Mark 10:14, Luke 18:16).
4. And lastly, Santa "sees you when you are sleeping and knows when you're awake, he knows if you have been bad or good...". Herein lies yet another counterfeit that the Deceptive foe has concealed. Yeshua, Christ Jesus, is all knowing and all seeing (Psalms 139:2, Hebrews 4:13,).
THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING, DO NOT BE DECEIVED, COME OUT OF BABYLON! BE SEPARATE FROM THE WORLD (1John 2:15-17).
"And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities" (Rev 18:4-5).
Read more at www.examiner.com
Heavy snow hits air travel, roads across Europe
Airports in Britain, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark reported cancelations or delays to flights.
London's Gatwick airport reopened late afternoon after 150 employees using dozens of plows worked to clear the runway of 10 centimeters (four inches) of snow, though officials warned flights would be limited and cancelations likely.
Heathrow Airport will remain shut until Sunday after snow and ice forced the closure of runways, according to a statement on its website.
"There are likely to be significant knock-on
Conditions on British roads were treacherous, Automobile Association official Darron Burness said. "One of the biggest problems is that large amounts of snow are falling very quickly on to frozen surfaces, making driving hazardous," he said.
Hundreds of motorists were left stranded on a major road in northwestern England following a deluge, prompting police patrols to offer food and water to drivers.
Jeremy Clarkson, host of BBC motoring program "Top Gear" said he was among drivers forced to abandon their vehicles close to Oxford, west of London. "It was very bad out there," he said.
In Italy, the Autostrada of the Sun—the country's main north-south highway—was jammed with hundreds of vehicles, whose chilly occupants slept in their cars, vans or trucks. Though snow had mainly cleared or melted early Saturday, the highway was still closed in one direction, with traffic backed up for nearly 25 miles (40 kilometers).
The snowfall also forced high-speed trains to bypass Florence's central Santa Maria Novella station, stopping in suburban stations instead.
Paris was
sprinkled with a light coat of snow overnight, as many people prepared to set off on their Christmas vacations. More snow was predicted Saturday, leading civil aviation authorities to cancel 15 percent of flights at Charles de Gaulle airport between 4 p.m. (1500 GMT, 10 a.m. EST) and 11 p.m. (2200 GMT, 5 p.m. EST).A horse walks in a snow-covered field in Knowsley, near Liverpool, England, Saturday, Dec. 18, 2010. Plunging temperatures and heavy snow saw large swathes of the country grind to a standstill, as London's Gatwick Airport closed its runway and British Airways cancelled flights at Heathrow. UNITED KINGDOM OUT, NO SALES, NO ARCHIVE (AP Photo/PA, Peter Byrne)Many flights were also canceled in northeastern France, where snow already blanketed the ground, and services were also canceled at the airports in the cities of Nantes and Rennes.
Significant numbers of domestic and European flights were canceled at Germany's Frankfurt airport as it dealt with the disruption. Germany's railway operator Deutsche Bahn said it was pressing into service all the trains it could—though some journeys were subject to delays. "Everything that can roll is rolling," spokesman Holger Auferkamp told the German news agency DAPD.
The icy weather also swept over large parts of Scandinavia, causing problems particularly in Denmark, where dozens of flights were canceled at the airport in Copenhagen. According to Danish news agency Ritzau, train traffic between Denmark and southern Sweden was also disrupted because of track problems, partly due to the snow, forcing passengers to instead take buses between the two countries.
In Sweden, where media reports suggest the country is experiencing the coldest winter weather this early on in the season since the mid-1800's, several road accidents were reported, with more than 20 in the Stockholm area alone.
Retailers said the poor weather would likely dent sales on what it traditionally the busiest shopping weekend before Christmas. London's Brent Cross indoor shopping mall closed its doors early Saturday afternoon.
Elsewhere, a snowman greeted tourists at London's Camden Market, while traders broke up ice and snow with shovels on the cobblestone paths. Two groups of tourists hurled snowballs at each other across the canal on the edge of the market.
Britain may experience its coldest December on record, weather service forecaster Mark Seltzer said.
"Temperatures will struggle to get over freezing and although the snow should ease off tonight, it will return to eastern areas on Sunday,"
he said.People enjoy curling on the frozen canal in front of the Baroque castle Nymphenburg in Munich, southern Germany, Saturday, Dec. 18, 2010. Heavy overnight snowfall disrupted air travel across western Europe Friday, forcing more than 800 flight cancellations and leading to major delays in Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)Police in Leicester, central England, said the snowy weather had helped uncover a cannabis factory in the city. Officers raided the premises after spotting that snow had melted on the building's roof as a result of heat from industrial-strength lights used in the cultivation of the drug.
Horse racing meetings and dozens of soccer games in England and Scotland were called off as a result of the conditions, including a high profile match scheduled for Sunday in London between Chelsea and Manchester United.
———
Angela Doland in Paris, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Frances D'Emilio in Rome, Frank Griffiths in London and Louise Nordstrom in Stockholm contributed to this report.
Israeli woman wounded in stabbing near Jerusalem; police suspect her friend was kidnapped
Woman in her 40s says she was attacked by two Arab men while hiking in a valley with her friend; police search after missing companion.
By
Anshel Pfeffer,
Jonathan Lis and
Haaretz Service
An Israeli woman in her 40s was stabbed Saturday while she was hiking in a mountainous area in the outskirts of Jerusalem.
The woman arrived in a nearby town, Moshav Mata, with her hands tied and bleeding from her chest and back. She told security forces that arrived to the scene that she had been stabbed by two Arab men while she was hiking in a valley nearby with her friend, who was missing.
Magen David Adom ambulance services arrived at the scene and transferred her to Jerusalem's Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in serious condition, where her condition improved later to moderate and stable.
A large security force was sent to the area in attempt to locate the missing woman as well as the stabbers.
Photo by: Emil Salman
Security forces search for missing woman near Moshav Mata in the Jerusalem area, December 18, 2010.
The Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet are investigating whether the act was sparked by nationalist motives and whether the perpetrators came from the West Bank area. In any case, security forces are mainly working to prevent the stabbers from returning to the West Bank.
Moreover, IDF forces increased their alert level and increased security checks in the area of Tzur Hadassah and the West Bank settlements of Beitar Illit and Gush Etzion in an attempt to catch the stabbers who may have escaped to villages beyond the Green Line.
Jerusalem District Police Chief Aharon Franco said Saturday that he is investigating the possibility that the woman has been kidnapped and is no longer in the area.
"We are conducting intense searches for the stabbed woman's friend. We do not know anything about her other than the woman's description," he said. "Currently we have two missions: to find the missing woman and to investigate."
Slain American tourist had deep spiritual ties to Israel through church
Luken was involved with the "Church's Ministry among Jewish people," first in the U.S., then in England, where she became a ministry staffer. The church is active in Israel.
On the CMJ American web site, Luken quoted inspirational poet Minnie Louise Haskins' words, "Go into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way."
A 2007 study tour in Israel, "Walking with Jesus in his Jewish world," brought Luken to the church, she wrote on the site.
She and Kaye Susan Wilson, a naturalized Israeli from the U.K., became friends on a study tour to Poland earlier this year, the Rev. David Pileggi of CMJ's Christ Church in Jerusalem said Monday. Luken, an avid hiker, and Wilson, a professional tour guide, decided to go hiking together in Israel during Luken's Christmas holiday, he said.
On Saturday, the two headed for the wooded hills. Wilson told Israeli reporters from her hospital bed Sunday that she and Luken were attacked by two Arab men with what looked like a bread knife.
She said she escaped to a nearby road after pretending to be dead. Luken's body, hands bound and bearing multiple stab wounds, was discovered Sunday in the forest.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said authorities were treating the attack as politically motivated, while not ruling out that it could have been criminal.
The forest is inside Israel but close to the border with the West Bank and the Palestinian villages of Husan and Wadi Fukin.
No suspects have been taken into custody. There was no claim of responsibility, which suggests that the assault, even if politically motivated, was likely the work of individuals and not a militant group.
Don Stanley of the church's head office in Israel said he would put out a statement on behalf of the Luken family later in the day. He said the family did not want Luken's hometown disclosed.
