ISIS, Mosul Dam and threatening lives of those who want to live in freedom

Flag of islamic state of iraq (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The day before Yesterday the National Flemish Television (VRT) did not want to show the video of Islamic State (IS) [formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS] with the terrible beheading of the American journalist James Foley. The commercial television programs showed some parts of it, but not the beheading itself.
Hearing the voice of the hangman we could notice his English accent which would not be found by a real Arabic. This could give us the impression that the American white man was killed by an European (white) man. For a second time James Folley had been abducted in 2012, this time by the extremist group ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State. We can imagine which torture he had to endure and may wonder why he agreed to tell the world it is all the fault of the Americans, when he did, not the IS terrorist were going to kill him anyway. The executioner stayed standing straight and wanted to prove it is serious business with IS going for America and its allies. By threatening to do the same to another American journalist in Syria, identified as Steven Sotloff, the 50,000-strong Islamic militant group wants the Obama administration to meet its demands. The extremists want to intimidate the Obama administration into halting U.S. airstrikes on ISIS strongholds in Iraq. These airstrikes seem to be impeding ISIS’ultimate objective: to maintain and expand its self-declared caliphate.

The extremists have already seized large parts of Iraq and Syria, taking control of several of the towns’ main resources, like wheat and oil fields. Having those bases or strongholds of water and fuel provision in their hands will give them enough power to prove to the world they are a real state to be taken serious. Previously having seized the largest dam in Iraq, controlling the water supplies over a very big area, made them a feared competitor for the regional politicians. Already some governments gave already in and did not mid buying water and fuel supplies from IS. But by having the U.S. and Iraqi forces successfully regaining control of the Mosul dam, IS felt weakened again.

Kurdish forces claim they have recaptured the Mosul Dam on Monday. - Reuters

Iraq's largest dam (fourth-largest dam in the Middle East), built in the 1980s not being any more in the hands of IS they can not use it as a weapon to hold back electricity or water, or can not destroy it to flood lots of land and wreaking havoc. According to the BBC the United States recently spent $27 million to shore up the dam.

If ISIS breached the dam, or if it somehow failed, it could send a 65-foot wave of water crashing into Mosul and floodwaters could reach as far as Baghdad. "A catastrophic failure of the Mosul Dam would result in flooding along the Tigris River all the way to Baghdad," a 2006 report from the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction warns. A failure of the Mosul Dam could kill 500,000 people. {International Business Times: Mosul Dam: Why The US Aided Kurdish Forces To Recapture Strategic Structure From ISIS}

I did not see the video, because I did not watch television companies which do not take notice of 'decency'. There has to be a certain decorum for bringing news. Respectability and 'dignity' should be on the agenda. I also have no urge to be presented with images of grotesque violence on a daily basis. Since the wars in Syria and Gaza this seems to be daily food.
Do the newspapers and television-stations remember that when they bring a portrait in view, the death person or the broken body of a child was someone’s son, someone’s brother, someone’s friend? Are they aware that in this world of modern technology, were so many people can be easily connected, there can be a high chance some family member may be confronted with a family member, even before he or she got the news from official sources?
Also Foley’s parents saw the latest awful images of their loved one. They were courageous to tell the world about their children, having had more worries about their two sons fighting as a soldier, than fearing for the one who was trying to bring news from both sites so that the world could get to know what really happened.

In a way IS cuts down the possibility to have her voice in the free world, because they themselves cut down the strings of free speech and make it that other journalists would not be eager to come to tell ISIS their story. IS also makes it that more and more they, but also the Islam, comes in a bad footlights.

At last in the UK some imams and the spokesman of the Islamic Woman Rights spoke out yesterday on the Breakfast show, telling the world that IS does everything against Islam and misuses the name of Allah. In many more countries Muslims should come to defend their faith. The imam also asked faithful Muslims to be aware that they could do much more for their faith in their own democratic counties where they also could vote for the right persons and have their voice heard much more than by going to fight in Syria. The IS militants and all Muslims should wonder what good it would do by threatening people with murder and rape to get them converting to the Muslim faith. Are they not aware that doing conversions under threat, like happened already in the past with Catholicism and Islam, got those religions infected with false teachings and pagan actions or heathen rites. In case they would like to have a pure faith they better would live according to their Holy Scriptures and try to convince others by their good example. violence is and always has been the wrong way to get somewhere and had always turn the ball against themselves like the boomerang always returns.

The hydroelectric power plant at Mosul Dam with four surge tanks in background (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By its actions IS also pushes the west in providing the Kurds with food and water-supplies but also with weapons. These weapons later can be used to make the Kurds stronger in getting their rights and invading Turkey and Syria to get their own state Kurdistan which they already should have had. At the moment the moment the Kurds are one of those people who are still not recognised in their own rights. They still are the largest ethnic group without a country of their own. When IS tries to put them in such corner that they shall have no other way to come out fighting their way to freedom, they shall see in that the opportunity to make an end to them having to live across the borders of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey and parts of the former Soviet Union. Their culture and identity have been oppressed by the regimes of the nations within which they live. Religion, language, culture and perhaps, most importantly, a common history of persecution tie together the more than 20 million Kurds worldwide. Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani of the Kurdistan Regional Government says:

"I offer my condolences to Mr Foley’s family and the American people. They have lost a brave son who wanted to document the horrible aspects of war and conflict and shed light on their human costs."

The Prime Minister Barzani told yesterday (21 August 2014) the Christian leaders that international coalition is needed to defeat ISIS and made a plight of internally displaced people. Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi arrived in the Kurdistan Region to express his country’s support for the KRG and its fight against the terrorists.

 

The Kurdistan Regional Government would like to express its gratitude, appreciation, and indebtedness to President Barack Obama for taking the timely decision to provide airstrikes against the forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) terrorist group that was killing, hunting, and terrifying innocent people in Kurdistan as well as Iraq's ancient minorities

  Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani yesterday welcomed Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, the European Union’s Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid Kristalina Georgieva, and a number of European Union officials to Kurdistan to review the current crisis. On Monday, President Barack Obama said the American operation has helped drive ISIS from strategic cities and infrastructure in northern Iraq, which apparently angered the Muslim militants. Today we see journalists trying to cover conflicts, having to face they being silenced by the ones who create the conflicts. The man in black, wielding a knife, on the video, asked God to cross the “cosmic reach of the universe” and soothe his family. The ISIS militant said:

“Any attempt by you, Obama, to deny Muslims liberty and safety under the Islamic caliphate will result in the bloodshed of your people.”

Lots of Islam fundamentalists do not seem to see that in many Western countries lots of freedom is given to Muslims and other religious people, but that in those countries where there is worked on democracy, they try to have all people getting the free choice to have whatever religion they want to keep unto, or if they want to be an atheist to give them that freedom not to worship any god. In the war which is going on around the borders of Syria and Iraq it is clearly not about religion, because even brothers and sisters who have faith in Allah and use the Koran, are often not considered to be of the right faith. Like Obama points out:

“Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents. No just God would stand for what they did yesterday, and for what they do every single day.”

At last we can hear some more Muslim voices condemning what IS does. Muslims were among the first to lament Foley’s killing and have repeatedly condemned ISIS’ reign of terror in Iraq and Syria. They are victims, too, of the crimes committed in the name of Islam. Many have worked tirelessly to combat them. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, said in a video released in June:

“Do jihad in the cause of God, incite the believers and be patient in the face of this hardship.”

As Kurdish forces, called Peshmerga, were succeeding in halting ISIL’s advance through Kurdistan as well as in the Diyala province to the south, the ISIL commander Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, from the al-Bu Badri tribe, left his headquarters in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul around Aug. 10 and fled from Iraq to neighbouring Syria as Iraq and the United States intensified air strikes on IS positions. This leader indoctrinates the people telling them he is the wali (leader) who presides over them and who will bring the best of things to their life. “Caliph Ibrahim,” the name Baghdadi took when the group declared on June 29 a “caliphate,” a pan-Islamic state last seen in Ottoman times in which the leader is both political and religious, asks the people to let him know when he is doing wrong. But nobody would dare to being afraid to be killed. According to the Guardian, of all the prominent jihadi leaders, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, head of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis), is among the most mysterious and described by some as "the new Osama bin Laden". And his mystique – for now at least – has only been burnished by his group's capture of the city of Mosul. His words:

“If you see that I am wrong, advise me and put me on the right track, and obey me as long as I obey God.”

are just hollow phrases, because I would think he should have heard already enough from real honest Muslims who tried to show the world the truth of Islam. There is at least no mystery about what Baghdadi wants concerning an Islamic State. the way he wants to get those believes reality are going totally against Koranic believes.

It may be a good idea for many Muslims to be able to live in one state where they are free to do all that their belief demands. He therefore wants to bring the world's Muslims living under one Islamic state ruled by sharia law, the first step of which is establishing a caliphate spanning Syria and Iraq. After Al-Qaeda the western world may see again an Islamic warrior threatening free democratic principles. After the French military delivered heavy weapons, Kurdish Security Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Halgurd Hikmat said:

“We are still waiting for more weapons from our allies.”

As the west shall feel the need to provide such weapons to halt IS, they shall have to be aware they also give the opportunity of the Kurds to go on to fight for getting recognition and having their own state. A danger looming.

For sure the West certainly has to take care that Islamic youngsters may come to see and understand that in the West they also shall find enough chances to liberally fulfil their duties like Allah asks from them. A democratic system may give more equal rights to all sorts of people and all sorts of religions. In case their religion is the right one and other religious people would not be able to live under Allah, they should not fear if they keep to the Laws of Allah, because than they would be able to be safe. But when they are going to do things which endanger their acceptance for Allah they should be more careful, because they could be worse off than the irreligious. The religious leaders of the Islamic world should come out and let the world see their true face. If their will is to follow Allah the world should have nothing to fear and they will recognise the faithful by their words and deeds. But the unfaithful to God shall be unmasked. The imposters hall soon be imposed.

In the meantime the European Union is very clear: In the Statement by the Spokesperson on the murder of US journalist James Foley is said:

"We strongly condemn the outrageous murder of the US journalist James Foley by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. We express our sincere condolences to the family of this distinguished journalist, to his friends and colleagues. This brutal act, like the many other human rights violations which are perpetrated by the Islamic State, denies universally recognized values and rights, including the freedom of press for which Mr Foley had risked his life on several occasions. The EU will continue to promote the safety of journalists in the Middle-East and worldwide. Such forms of terrorism constitute one of the most serious threats to international peace and security. The EU is more committed than ever to support international efforts to fight terrorism, to combat human rights violations and to restore the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq and Syria. The EU will use all means at its disposal to contribute to this endeavour."

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The Kurdistan regional government emblems

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Note:The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI)—also known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq or AQI—was the Iraqi division of the international Islamist militant organization al-Qaeda. Al-Baghdadi was announced as leader of the ISI on 16 May 2010, following the death of his predecessor Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in a raid the month before.

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 Please find also to read:

1. Religions and Mainliners
2. Patriarch Abraham, Muslims, Christians and the son of God
3. Built on or Belonging to Jewish tradition #3 Of the earth or of God
4. Built on or Belonging to Jewish tradition #4 Mozaic and Noachide laws
5. Mocking, Agitation and Religious Persecution
6. Christian fundamentalism as dangerous as Muslim fundamentalism
7. Turkey a wolf in the sheep house of the European Union
8. Migrants to the West #1
9. Migrants to the West #2
10. Migrants to the West #3
11. Migrants to the West #4
12. Migrants to the West #5
13. Migrants to the West #6
14. Catherine Ashton on the EU annual report on human rights
15. Palestine, Israel, God’s people and democracy
16. Gaza in Bible Prophecy
17. Syrian capital facing total destruction in the coming months
18. Brunei introducing a raft of tough sharia punishments
19. Female Imams Blaze Trail Amid China's Muslims
20. Religion, fundamentalism and murder
21. Will Islam conquer europe
22. Consequences of Breivik's mass murder
23. Falling figures for identifying Christians
24. American atheists most religiously literate Americans
25. Muslim Grooming (Rape) Gangs and Sharia
26. Forced marriage and Islam
27. Abu Hamza is gone, but Britain is still a hotbed of radical hatred
28. Zionism occupierAn Ex-Muslim’s Open Letter
29. Facing disaster fatigue
30. Fear of God reason to return to Holy Scriptures

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Other websites to look at:

1. Akakurdistan
2. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: Islamic State's driving force
3. Tag Archives: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
4. ISIS Leader Calls For War
5. ISIS Leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi Trained by Israeli Mossad, NSA Documents Reveal
6. The Biography Of Sheikh Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi
7. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: The Isis chief with the ambition to overtake al-Qaida
8. James Foley 'beheaded': Isis video shows militant with British accent 'execute US journalist' – as hunt begins for killer
9. James Foley and the daily horrors of the internet: think hard before clicking

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Related articles

• ISIS Watch ( August 21 , 2014 ) - Certainly seems as if ISIS is being hyped as the latest danger to the Globe ! If an attack occurs here in the US , the stage has been set for ISIS to be the villian..... (fredw-catharsisours.blogspot.com)
  ISIS was trained by the best – the United States military. Hagel, as Secretary of Defense, should certainly be privy to this.
  Its military hardware, as well, is courtesy of the Pentagon.

  “They marry ideology and a sophistication of strategic and tactical military prowess. They are tremendously well funded. This is beyond anything we have seen,” Hagel told reporters.

  ISIS is funded by America’s supposed “allies” – Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
• Iraq: Kurdish forces retake parts of largest dam (dailystar.com.lb)
  Militants told residents of the dam area to leave, an engineer who works at the site and often comes into contact with the Sunni insurgents.
  The engineer at Mosul Dam, Iraq's biggest, said Islamic State militants told him they were planting roadside bombs along roads leading in and out of the facility, possibly in fear of an attack by Kurdish fighters who have been bolstered by U.S. airstrikes.
  Peshmerga spokesman Halgurd Hikmat said U.S. planes - deployed over Iraq for the first time since the U.S. troop withdrawal in 2011 because of the Islamic State's alarming advances - had been striking targets near Mosul Dam over the last 24 hours.
  "God willing we will regain control of the dam today," he said.
  Witnesses said Kurdish forces have recaptured the mainly Christian towns of Batmaiya and Telasqaf, 30 km (18 miles) from Mosul, the closest they have come to the city since Islamic State fighters drove government forces out in June.
  
• U.S. warplanes, Kurdish forces strike ISIS targets (edition.cnn.com)
  U.S. military forces used "a mix of fighter, bomber, attack and remotely piloted aircraft to successfully conduct airstrikes near the Mosul Dam" on Sunday, according to U.S. Central Command.
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  "The failure of the Mosul Dam could threaten the lives of large numbers of civilians, endanger U.S. personnel and facilities, including the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, and prevent the Iraqi government from providing critical services to the Iraqi populace," it continued.
• Iraq says Kurds advance in retaking Mosul dam - CBS News (cbsnews.com)
  Officials told CBS News correspondent Charlie D'Agata that the peshmerga have not only started closing in on the dam already, but it appears ISIS fighters have begun withdrawing from some surrounding villages.
  Their withdrawal has not been simple, however. Officials tell D'Agata ISIS fighters are believed to have booby-trapped the road leading to the dam with explosives, slowing the peshmerga fighters' advance.
  
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  "If that dam was breached it could have proven catastrophic, with floods that would have threatened the lives of thousands of civilians and endangered our embassy compound in Baghdad," the President said.
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  "This operation demonstrates that Iraqi and Kurdish forces are capable of working together and taking the fight to ISIS," Obama said. "If they continue to do so, they will have the strong support of the United States of America."
• Terror Spree: Who Are the Extremists That Killed Foley? (nbcnews.com)
  . Foley’s execution, now confirmed by the U.S. government, gives ISIS the exposure it craves while inciting jihadists with its bloodthirsty campaign of destruction.
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  Some were forced to flee to Mount Sinjar, where the U.S. earlier this month dropped food and water to the stranded. Those in refugee camps told NBC News that they witnessed the shootings and beheadings of innocent people — including children — and the rape and capture of women. Other reports have victims being buried alive.
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  The execution of Foley, who went missing in Syria in November 2012 and who the U.S. tried but failed to rescue, appears to be in retaliation for the latest wave of American airstrikes targeting ISIS in Iraq. But the dissemination of the video falls in line with a larger public-relations campaign. ISIS has previously posted recruitment videos featuring its fighters — some claiming to be citizens of Western countries such as the United States, Britain and Australia — urging others to join the group’s ranks.
  ISIS has been successful at using online platforms, including Twitter and YouTube, to draw attention and encourage others to join the group's cause. At one point, the ISIS hashtag jumped from about 1,000 hits before its Iraq invasion to between 30,000 and 40,000 hits on some days, a researcher with the International Center for the Study of Radicalization in London told NBC News.
  
  
• Obama: 'No Just God Would Stand For What' ISIS Did To James Foley (washington.cbslocal.com)
  President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the entire world is “appalled” by the brutal death of American journalist James Foley, who was shown in a video released by the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq being beheaded.
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  “We will be vigilant and we will be relentless,” adding that “justice will be done” to those that captured and killed Foley.
  Foley’s Family: ‘We Implore The Kidnappers To Spare The Lives Of The Remaining Hostages’
  “People like this ultimately fail because the future is won by those who build and not destroy,” Obama said.
  
• U.S. hits ISIS; Foley captors asked millions (wdsu.com)
  Foley's captors demanded 100 million euros ($132.5 million) in exchange for his release, according to an official with GlobalPost, the U.S.-based online publication the freelance journalist was working for at the time of his abduction in Syria in 2012.
  GlobalPost "never took the 100 million seriously" because ransoms paid for other hostages being held by ISIS, which refers to itself as the Islamic State, were "dramatically less," Philip Balboni, president and chief executive of the news agency, told CNN.
  Balboni said the amounts paid previously for hostages released was between 2 and 4 million euros. "So we thought that something in the range of $5 million was probably the right amount to pay for the ransom," he said.
  
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  The Islamic extremist group ISIS is killing, raping, and brutalizing its way through vast swaths of Iraq, Syria, and the Middle East at large.  The group’s recent beheading of American journalist James Foley not only demonstrated ISIS’s appalling disregard for human life, it also reveals to the world their biggest hostage of all — Islam itself.  With no central Pope-like authority to control any divergent interpretations of its belief system, Islam can be taken to extremes with no one around to ostracize the fanatics.  Nowhere is the danger of this scenario more self evident than the growing threat of ISIS.  Even Al Qaeda has disowned ISIS, believing the group’s behavior and tactics to be far too brutal.  In the ruins of Osama bin Laden’s Pakistan compound, a 21-page letter was discovered which carefully worded Al Qaeda’s concern about ISIS.  The Independent reports: “Lying among a pile of papers at the hideout in Pakistan where Osama Bin Laden was shot dead was a carefully worded 21-page letter. It warned of the rise of a new and ruthless group of Islamic extremists capable of such extreme brutality that Al Qaeda should sever all links with them. In fact, it claimed the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (or ISIS) had such complete disregard for civilian life that it could damage the reputation of Al Qaeda – if such a thing were possible for an organization that has long traded in murderous terrorism.”
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  Propaganda films from ISIS -- the Sunni militant group that has seized large tracts of land in Syria and Iraq in recent months -- regularly feature British recruits to demonstrate the group's capacity to influence young Muslims living in Europe. Earlier this week another threatening video from ISIS featured a group of jihadists speaking with British accents as they interrogated a Japanese hostage. Some of them weren't even hiding their faces.
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  The beheading of Foley was staged as a "Message to America," but it constituted a direct warning to Britain. It served as a reminder that the killing of a young English soldier Lee Rigby on the streets of south London by two home-grown jihadists last year was not an isolated event.

Faith because of the questions

With so much going wrong in this world, and recently so many religious wars, lots of people say the world would be better of without religion and without any god.
Lots of people do have lots of questions. The politicians nor the teachers are providing all the answers. Is it not because we do have so many questions that we do need faith in something or some one? Is it not we need faith when the way ahead seems unclear or intimidating, when answers are hard to find?

Faith is trusting in someone who has the answers we lack. Faith is trusting in what is there but which we can not see, cannot feel, cannot touch. Many things in this world may be hidden but come into light one day. Time revealed a lot of things to humankind. Though still a lot of things we do not know nor do we understand. We believe there might be such and such thing happened in the past or happening in the future. We may believe thta something works this way or an other, but often we do not know exactly how it functions.

In this world we are tested many times, and that is where faith comes in and shall proof its importance.

A lot of things may be not clear for us, but we do believe we can trust what is written in the Holy Scriptures. We do not keep our ears shut nor our eyes closed. We want to see what the blind cannot see. We do believe the Word of the Almighty God is the Word of Truth, explaining everything what we should have to know at the moment. Those things which are not clear for us (yet), shall perhaps clearer at the time when God thinks we shall be ready for it. Until then we shall have to wait.

Those who think the Christian faith is a blind faith are mistaken. When we do not want to see what is really in God's Word, we shall not be able to see it. The Christian faith is not a blind faith but has to be a seeing faith. In His Word we should find God. In our heart we should find His Treasure and in our ears we should hear His Call. In the surroundings and in what happens in the world we can see the Works of God. Those who want to follow the son of the Creator shall be able to feel His love. They shall find all the more reason to trust V more than any human being.

Trusting God we do not need to find all answers to our questions now. We trust Him to such a degree that we do not need or demand all the answers. We trust and obey, even when we do not understand and even when we cannot see the finish line.

> Please do find also to read: It's Not a Blind Faith

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  Mere trust in a person or thing, may result from confidence in the word of another, or in the actions of others, or from something in our experience teaching us that we may venture, though we know no reason why we should thus trust. Thus some one tells us that this is the train we wish to take–or we go over a bridge over which others have gone–or we ford a stream through which we see by tracks that others have driven. Here our trust is much more, if not altogether, in the testimony of others than in any knowledge of, or confidence in that to which we commit ourselves. It is only through the combination of the two that we have faith, which must be an intelligent trust. By it we believe not only in him upon whom we trust, but we do so because we believe the facts which make him trustworthy.
  
• Faithfulness to God (catholicdevotionalforyouth.wordpress.com)
  We only need to honestly take a look at our lives to realize that God is faithful. Over and over again, Scripture recounts the faithfulness of God and if we take time to look back on our lives and those of those close to us, we will find life situations in which God simply demonstrated His faithfulness.
• But I am Trusting You, O Lord! (1safeharborisjesus.wordpress.com)
  God governs the universe, and He takes time for those who come to Him. Trust in Him is a ticket to a personal relationship with Him. It is when we trust Him that we are positioned to know Him. Relationship without trust is incapable of intimacy and the feeling of closeness. 
• Strength and Shield (girlfriendscoffeehour.com)
  Sometimes it is stepping out in faith when we feel that we are called to fulfill a calling on our lives. God will honor our choice to be obedient and reward us. We will be laying up our treasure in heaven by submitting to His will. I hope to see my ‘mansion’ in heaven. I do not think I would mind a small one, but then, I am not sure I would stay in that building because I would want to be in His presence all day.
• Choosing Faith (encourageandteach.wordpress.com)
  As believers, we know that God can and will make all things for the Good, because His plan is the ultimate good. We know that despite tragedy, pain, and suffering, there is the promise of His Presence, love, and Heaven to lift us out of the darkness in this world.
• The Problem With Faith Schools (csgroome.wordpress.com)
  Some would have you believe that faith schools are the indispensable cornerstone of the British education system. Said to bring an ethos of care and nurturing to school life, it is generally accepted, particularly by pandering politicians, that a school with a religious denomination at its core will provide children with superior education. This is meant not only in the academic sense but in how to be a functioning, moral and caring member of society in a way that is somehow missing in secular schools. This is often felt to such a degree that non-religious parents will struggle and even convert to a new religion to get their children in to a faith school, so not to deprive their children of this wholesome, inclusive and welcoming environment.
• Religious mentality (thelivingmessage.com)
  Being religious can be done with anything, it doesn’t have to be a belief or a denomination or even an accepted religion. You can be religious about your life, your job or even your hobby. This is exactly what Satan wants. He wants most of the world to be religious about their particular religion, whatever it may be, and to be so zealous that you persecute anyone who doesn’t believe as you do. Which causes more trouble in the world, more wars, more killing, more hatred between people and cultures. This is the kind of ruler that Earth has at this time, one who is bent on destroying as much of God’s creation as possible while he still has time.
• Spiritual Growth: What Holds Us Back & What Sets Us Free (924jeremiah.wordpress.com)
  Spiritual maturity comes down to a war of wills: yours versus God’s. The more you try to protect your right to disobey, the more trouble you’re going to run into. Satan (and a lot of teachers in the Church) want you to think that it’s your actions that will lead you astray. And there are plenty of handy verses in the Bible that they can throw at you to try and back this up. Because our brother James was so spiritually young at the time he dashed off his epistle, we can always count on his book to be good ammo for guilt.
• Trusting God is what God wants us to do! No matter what!!! (1safeharborisjesus.wordpress.com)
  Do you feel that God has delayed your deliverance from a situation for too long? Remember that God is never late, he is always on time and he puts you through the test in order to give us a testimony.
• Jeremiah 5-13 (jasondrenning.wordpress.com)
  Modern people are not the first to read God’s Word selectively. Today’s passage records Jeremiah’s famous sermon against those who trusted in the words “this is the temple of the Lord” (Jer. 7:3–4). The threefold repetition of this phrase could indicate the ultimate confidence the Judahites placed in possessing the temple. Or, it could mean the words formed a mantra the people spoke whenever Jeremiah warned them of divine wrath. Either way, the Judahites thought God’s choice of the nation and His placement of the temple in Jerusalem meant He would never allow the city to fall. This selective reading of Scripture, however, ignored the Lord’s purpose in choosing Judah.

A rebellious movement founded on a fake?

English: Icon of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There is no doubt that all mainline denominations, but particularly those that embrace a so-called liberal orthodoxy, are in decline.

There are many people who want others to believe that Jesus Christ did not exist and that Christianity is build upon a fake.

It might be strange that those people who wants us to believe jesus from Nazareth (Jeshua from the tribe of David) did not exist are running high with other historical figrures where less writings and information can be found  than the one they scorn.

Many also consider early Christianity as a rebellious underground movement until Roman Emperor Constantine made it his religious practice in A.D. 312. We do agree that Constantine's conversion, based on what he viewed as a victorious sign from God prior to going into battle, and his demand to the preachers of Christ that they would agree with the empire its system of worshipping, made that the movement became more attractive because lots of attitudes could be continued and worship became no different than they knew already from the Roman and Greek worshipping, having now a three-une god to their liberty.

Having Christendom made in an official religion of Rome in A.D. 380 did more for the spread of Christianity than any proselytizing efforts conducted by the Apostle Paul. Though the religion that was subservient to the Roman Empire, beard little resemblance to the radical teachings of Jesus.

The first-century Gospels did not want to give a correct historical day to day overview, but presented those teachings of the man the writers considered to be the Messiah.
 The gospels indicate that Jesus was a historical figure.

Myths and even legends normally involved characters placed centuries in the distant past. People wrote novels, but not novels claiming that a fictitious character actually lived a generation or two before they wrote. Ancient readers would most likely approach the Gospels as biographies, as a majority of scholars today suggest. Biographies of recent figures were not only about real figures, but they typically preserved much information. One can demonstrate this preservation by simply comparing the works of biographers and historians about then-recent figures, say Tacitus and Suetonius writing about Otho.

 writes Professor Craig S. Keener in the Huffington Post.

Contrary to some circles on the Internet, very few scholars doubt that Jesus existed, preached and led a movement. Scholars' confidence has nothing to do with theology but much to do with historiographic common sense. What movement would make up a recent leader, executed by a Roman governor for treason, and then declare, "We're his followers"? If they wanted to commit suicide, there were simpler ways to do it.

One popular objection is that only Christians wrote anything about Jesus. This objection is neither entirely true nor does it reckon with the nature of ancient sources. It usually comes from people who have not worked much with ancient history. Only a small proportion of information from antiquity survives, yet it is often sufficient.

Those who want to find more about the existence of this cult figure may look further at the new series Why think that (1) … Jesus existed? 
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Jesus Existed 

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• Wikipedia Does Jesus
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• "Is This Not the Carpenter?" - References to Jesus outside the Christian Sources
• Suetonius : Witness to Jesus?
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2014 August 17-23, 25th Anniversary Ontario Christadelphian Bible School

Ontario Christadelphian Bible School encourages a spirit of family unity for parents, teens, young children, and elders alike. The natural and peaceful setting serves as an inspirational backdrop as members of the school enjoy family fellowship in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The theme verse for this year's Bible School is Psalm 121:1-2

 "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth."

Lord willing you will be able to attend OCBC 2014 this year and help us celebrate our 25th Anniversary! Our heavenly Father has blessed OCBC with a fantastic venue: Camp Starlight, Starlight, PA. The 385 acre campus includes its own private lake, many recreational facilities and is surrounded by the beautiful Pennsylvania Pocono Mountains. Lord willing, check-in will begin at 3:00 pm on Sunday, August 17 and the school will end on Saturday, August 23.  


Adult Teachers:
Bro. Bill Yake
Bro. Matt Swift
Bro. Josh Lindeblad
Young Adult Teachers:
Bro. Scott Wentworth
Bro. Colton Walker
Bro. Mike Robinson

We're pleased to have a good sized group already registered for the 25th anniversary and we want to make sure everyone knows there is plenty of space at this facility and we want you to be there, too!
Please go to the OCBC website to register - OCBCBibleSchool.com  

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• Lord, Thank You for Helping Me in the Valleys - Psalm 121:2
• Psalm 121
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• Going UP
• Sunday, 20 July 2014 : 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Bible Sunday (Psalm)

Fear of failure, and fear of the unknown

Fear of failure, and fear of the unknown

              are always defeated by faith.  

-Georgette Mosbacher

Dutch version / Nederlandse versie > Faalangst, en angst voor het onbekende 

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Faalangst, en angst voor het onbekende

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Faalangst, en angst voor het onbekende

               worden altijd verslagen door het geloof.

- Georgette Mosbacher

English version version / Engelse versie > Fear of failure, and fear of the unknown

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Believing what Jesus says

How many people are really willing to believe what Jesus says. In Christendom we do find many Christians who prefer to keep to the traditional doctrines of the doctrinal churches, instead of willing to take the words of the Bible like they are written there.

Evangelistar von Speyer, um 1220 Manuscript in the Badische Landesbibliothek, Karlsruhe, Germany Cod. Bruchsal 1, Bl. 1v Shows Christ in vesica shape surrounded by the "animal" symbols of the four evangelists. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The barrier to fully accepting Jesus’ words is the cost involved in following him and his teachings. To follow his teachings, and the teaching of the Bible at large, requires a different type of focus. That is, one not focussed upon material or present benefits, but rather upon following the truths of God no matter what the present cost, because something far greater has been purposed and promised by God.

You as a Christian or as a unbeliever, what do you want to come to believe? Where do you want to put your focus?

What does it mean to you when Jesus says God is greater than him? What does it mean when he says we do have to pray to God his Father and do not may worship him, but should give all honour to the Only One Divine God, Creator of heaven and earth?

Jesus concentrated himself on the words and works of his heavenly Father and asked others not to focus on his (Jesus) works, because he (Jesus) could do nothing without his Father. Jesus his focus was on his heavenly Father who had appeared above him and had spoken "This is my beloved son." How many Christians are willing to accept those words of God Who spoke about His only begotten son?

Do you want to focus on the doctrines of the many churches, or are you willing to focus on the Word of God as it is presented to the world in the Bible?

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Please read also:  A Different Life Focus

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Related articles

• God is not a Trinity (vanguardngr.com)
  The word “Trinity” can be found nowhere in the Bible. It is completely incongruous with scriptural understanding of God. God is not three persons. There is only one God and it is the Father. Jesus says: “salvation is of the Jews.” (John 4:22). Salvation is neither of the Romans nor of the Italians. The Trinity is an unscriptural concept, smuggled into Christendom under Roman Constantine by cloak-and-dagger means.
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  Jesus never says God is a Trinity. Instead, he reveals God is a family. The head of this family is the Father. God’s household include Jesus; God’s sons and servants; and angels. That is more than a trinity. The man-made concept of the Trinity makes God an exclusive triumvirate, limited to “the Godhead. ”
• The Grid: 3 (endtimesprophecyreport.wordpress.com)
  We will always have false brethren and false teachers within the church until Jesus Christ returns and sets up His visible kingdom upon this earth.  Knowing this truth, what should our response be to those who are false?  First we must recognize that false brethren are dangerous to our well-being.
• Was Jesus a Christian? (thelifeofshawn1.wordpress.com)
  did Jesus abide by the rules, teachings, and doctrines that we Christians do today? If you are wondering the answer is NO!! Jesus was NOT a Christian. He also didn’t work to establish Christianity as a religion. However, my brother (who is on a spiritual journey of his own) sent me a post on Facebook that I found intriguing that I thought I would share with you.
• A Religion of Relationship (seekingtofindhim.wordpress.com)
  “Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship.” This one sentence accurately sums up the popular theological viewpoint of an increasing number of people in this generation who profess faith in Jesus Christ. The sentiment expressed here is most commonly found amongst nondenominational evangelicals, but many mainline Protestant believers also subscribe to it. (I’m not sure, but I assume a fair amount of Catholics do as well, at least in our country). There seems to be a growing aversion to the terms “religious” and “religion,” and many people take special care to define Christianity in such a way as to deliberately exclude this language.
• The Problem With God (new.exchristian.net)
  If god can do anything, can he be bad? If he can’t be bad, he is limited and not all-powerful. If he can be bad, we can not trust him. What is Free Will? Biblical Free will is not “free”. If someone holds a gun to your head, but tells you that you are free to go, do you really feel free in that choice? What is the biblical definition of unconditional love? Telling someone to love you “or else” is not unconditional love. It is, in fact, the very definition of conditional love. Threatening someone with eternal torture if they will not stay with you and worship you is maniacal and abusive.
• Cult Leader Jesus (acquiescere9.wordpress.com)
  what is ignored by Christians is that their Lord and Savior, Jesus, exhibited exactly the same traits that zealous cult leaders do. Christians will close their eyes to the same things they find so disturbing in other cult leaders.
  This is understandable to some extent because Christianity is above all else, a religion that promotes itself through aggressive advertising and the unquestioning submission to a superficial God, a God of shine and little substance.
  Believers are told to do the “will of God” and serve him totally.
  After all, Jesus himself gave Christians their marching orders in the Gospel of Matthew.
• Is Jesus a fundamentalist? (weoccupyjesus.org)
  I’ve come to realise that every single Christian (or person) has his/her own individual idea of who Jesus is. And it’s not just about the theology we’ve been taught or the denomination we belong to. Our concept of Jesus is influenced by our whole life experience, our personality, and our experience of church and of other Christians. It’s dawned on me that, often, the Christians I disagree with theologically also differ widely from me in their personality, whereas Christians who are similar to me in nature are more likely to be like-minded in their view of Jesus and of the various thorny issues that we grapple with. Personality may play a bigger part than we realise in our theology and our view of Jesus.
  
• The new Reformation (theway21stcentury.wordpress.com)
  I remember about 40 years ago coming to the conclusion that the church in the western world was, in the next few decades, going to go through changes as significant as the Reformation. I felt we had got away from the truth in several important areas – introspective & hierarchical churches, dead orthodoxy in many christians’ lives (including me), and failing to heed Jesus’ teachings on non-violence, acceptance and the perils of wealth – and God surely wouldn’t allow this to continue unchecked.
  I think we are now in the middle of a new reformation, and here are some of the signs I see.
  
• A Sunday Message (thoughtprovokingperspectives.wordpress.com)
  I started with the Council of Nicea that took place more than three hundred years after Jesus lived in 325 A.D. This historic meeting, by order of the Roman Emperor Caesar Flavius Constantine, who by the way was a murder, defined or created Christianity as we know it.  Nicea was located in Asia Minor, east of Constantinople. At the Council of Nicea, Emperor Constantine presided over a group of church bishops and leaders with the purpose of defining the true God for all Christians and eliminating all the confusion, controversy, and contention within Christ’s church.
  The Council of Nicea affirmed the deity of Jesus Christ, painted by a European around the same time, and removed his blackness from the consciousness of the faith. There is no need to debate Jesus’ completion because, at that point in time, there were only two people in the region – Romans and Jews to which it is a fact that black people was the original Jew. At that conference, Constantine established an official definition of the Trinity – the deity of The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit under one God head, in three co-equal and co-eternal Persons.
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  The main theological issue and focus had always been about Christ or so His-Story tells us. Since the end of the Apostolic Age and beginning of the Church Age, saints began questioning, debating, fighting, and separating over the question, “Who is the Christ?” Is He more divine than human or more human than divine? Was Jesus created / made or begotten? Being the Son of God, is He co-equal and co-eternal with Father God, or less and lower in status than the Father? Is the Father the One and only True God, or are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit the One true God? “True God of True God,” “One Being, Three Persons”, a tri-unity called “Trinity”? Jesus said, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15).
  
• Ye Must Be Born Again! The Doctrine of Regeneration by Timothy A. Williams (ilyston.wordpress.com)
  The beginning of Christianity consists in this, that we know ourselves not only to be corrupt in part, but to be wholly dead in sin: so that our nature has need to be created anew, with regard to its qualities, which can be done by no other power, but by the divine and heavenly, by which we were first created.

Flowing out from a genuine spiritual “heart”

True religion must flow out from a genuine spiritual “heart”.

Illumination of Christ before Pilate Deutsch: Jesus vor Pilatus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Much of the New Testament illustrates the endeavour of Christ and the Apostles to make this happen. Yet in the centuries that followed the purity of the “new wine” has so often been diluted and polluted. We must recapture the purity of the “new wine” if we are to be wondrously blessed in participating at the return of Jesus in “the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9)

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Looking for something or for the Truth and what it might be and self-awareness

What can be the truth and what do we understand under ‘the truth’? Are we speaking of man made sets of concepts and beliefs, or the accumulation of scientific knowledge, or mathematical certainties?

How can we find the truth and do we need to examine only all the NT writings or do we have to look at the OT writings also?

How can we get the full story of early Christianity and how much interest do we have to have for theological writings or to church letters and books written after the gospels and epistles?

Are you not curious what those Christians in the Old Times believed and how believes changed and churches found ways to grow? But those growing churches did they keep to the Truth? Did they not bring in teachings to become more popular and to have more people who could find their traditional events integrated in the church?

With education, we are able to discern between right and wrong, good and evil, and make what we might term moral choices. The human being is privileged that it has a brain which can be used to get such an insight. We as human beings can have a level of awareness and with it an ability to come to a natural expression of our physical organisation or being, and that it is an innate capacity or potential that we are uniquely born with.

The 21st century has brought us to an age of increasing complexity and sophistication, which is being driven by scientific advancements on a scale never seen before. These advancements are coupled in a strange way with a veneer of rationality that is difficult to reconcile with the advances in science. As science seeks to explain and explore every detail of the material world, the media and entertainment industries bombard us with increasingly puerile levels of information, often delivered in oversimplified sound-bites backed by expertly crafted graphic imagery for easy acceptance. The outcome is a society which has generally lost the ability to think and reason critically on the deeper questions of life.

On the net you shall be able to find a new website which shall look at the way how we can look and interpret the Bible. There are numerous teachings in the Bible, but it can be good to now and then just to look at some basic elements which are not so hidden in that book that it would be to difficult to find.

In any case are there 5 teachings in the Bible which stand out and upon which all the others are based. Each of these are intimately connected, and none stands fully alone or independent. Other important teachings such as Law, sin, righteousness, faith, grace and salvation are all connected to these central themes and in some measure they are built upon them. These core teachings stand therefore in some measure as a foundation, and upon them and around them can be built a fuller understanding of the ways of God.

At the new website you may find core concepts for your investigation.

1. God’s revealed purpose with both mankind and with the earth: God's Plan
2. The revealed Creator of heaven and earth: the Elohim Allah God: Jehovah
3. God His Revelation – God has spoken and revealed Himself and His ways. This is in His Word, in the book we commonly call the Bible.
4. Human being, animals and plants, the elements in the universe.
5. Jesus Christ – God’s son, whom God raised up to be a saviour. He is the completion of God’s purpose, the very image of the invisible God.  The Nazarene man whom was called Jeshua, but of whom people changed his name in Jesus 'Hail Zeus' and made him a god of a threesome.
6. Self-Awareness – and the Choices this Awareness Brings?

 Most of us don’t really seek for answers but are somewhat satisfied by the consensus of opinions advanced by the experts and thought leaders we follow, whether consciously or subconsciously. The added complexity to the question of existence is the self-evident fact that total objectivity is rarely possible, since every one of us has prejudices that colour our reasoning and conclusions. This often works in ways that we are not even aware of. This is a peculiar quirk of the human condition. Our ability to be totally objective is often challenged by our education, culture, peer group or simply our preferred group’s prejudices. Most of us have an innate bias or need to conform to the consensus position of the particular group that we most closely identify with. This causes most people to rely upon the conclusions of those they respect and identify with, and who are often experts at articulating their positions. We rationalise, that if they cannot get it right and tell us the answers, who really can? 

Many may be looking for a long time in their life for true knowledge and wisdom. Do you have any idea where you or others can find it?
Where is the source of true meaning? Is it found in the world; in its philosophy, science, education, religions, or worldly wisdom?

While all of these fields are capable of helping us in our day to day struggles, they are not able to give us an answer to the larger question of purpose. They certainly may be treasured, but they are not that which really counts, which is more valuable than the sum total of all else. The Bible informs us many times that this treasure can only come from above, i.e. from God.  

 

Find more about it in:

1. Chapter 1 - General Introduction to the Blog Basic Bible Teaching: The Core Teachings of the Bible.
2. 1.The Core Teachings of the Bible 1.      TheCore Teachings of the Bible
3. The Core Teachings of the Bible Chapter 2 - Self-Awareness – and the Choices this Awareness Brings?
4. The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth
5. The Core Teachings of the Bible Chapter 2 - The Common Human Experience: 1.      The Common Human Experience
6. Is There a Greater Purpose to Life?
7. Yes – Purpose and Wisdom can be found.
   
   
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The Christadelphian magazine 150th anniversary

This month is the 150th anniversary of The Christadelphian magazine.


It began life in July 1864 as The Ambassador of the Coming Age, changing its name in
1869 to The Christadelphian, and under seven different editors a total of 1,800 continuous monthly issues have been published to date.



 To mark the occasion a special 16-page centre section has been added to the July 2014 issue, reflecting briefly on the history of our community as seen through the pages of the magazine. For those who do not subscribe, individual copies are available from the Office and online. http://buff.ly/1oABJer