Kamis, 29 April 2010

Sharp or Dull Blades?



Sharp or Dull Blades?

by Vince Gibson



Spring is quickly approaching, so I have begun to do some mower maintenance this week. I visited the local John Deere store and picked up a new filter and some oil, while there I decided to check on a couple of new blades. The blades turned out to be well priced so I bought them.



I changed the oil and filter and decided to go to work pulling off the old blades. I was a little nervous, as I am not very mechanically inclined, but much to my surprise I got them changed out quickly. As I looked closely at the old blades I realized that for all of last summer I was literally beating the grass into submission. Both of the old blades I removed were less sharp than a butter knife! The edges were literally rounded on each end!



I cranked up the mower and took it for a quick test over some grass and I could tell immediately that the mower was cutting the grass so much easier than before.



A little later in the yard, as I was picking up sticks and branches, the Lord began to speak to me about my own sharpness. I began to examine my own life and how many times I am "beating" the air out of my own dullness! We get so familiar with our own gifting and talent that we go into auto pilot and "beat" at the air because it's what we "know how to do." Just like the mower we get results but have to work double hard and don't get the most complete results intended.



So what keeps our blades sharpened? Intimacy! Not intimacy to gain anointing, intimacy to move in close to Father out of a pure heart of love, to seek Him, to know Him! Then He can sharpen us and use us to the "best" of His ability! True ministry comes from overflow, and you only receive overflow after you've been on the grinder for a while.



Gifting and talent can only "beat" the atmosphere into submission for so long, we must learn how to sharpen ourselves so God can cut through, down, and around anything he chooses, in us, and through us.



I don't want to operate out of inner knowledge, I want to operate in the anointing, in the sharpness of Father. Many people can craft words and actions and things may appear sharp, but when you get close the blades are dull!



Lord we repent for leaning on our gifting and our talents to get us through, we draw close again as laid down lovers! Use your tools to sharpen dull edges till every word and every action is coming straight from Heaven and landing here on earth!



I am looking forward to new mowing experience here in the next couple of weeks, both in my natural and supernatural yard!



Vince Gibson
www.abidingglory.com

Selasa, 27 April 2010

CONTAGION - What CONTAGION??


CONTAGION - What CONTAGION??
-by Andrew Strom.

The US Stockmarket was down over 200 points today. Why?
Because of the "contagion" occurring in Europe. Most of you will
have heard in the last two weeks of the Greek Debt crisis. Well -
it is spreading. Even though there is claimed to be a "bailout"
for Greece in the works, the markets are taking their own action,
and seemingly mass 'contagion' into other nations is underway.
The nations most at risk are Portugal - then Spain - then Ireland,
Italy and maybe U.K. Nobody knows how bad it will get. But it
is already pretty bad.

For months we have stated that "another wave down" is coming
in the economy. Could this be the cause? Clearly - yes. Or perhaps
it is something else. Certainly, this one is big enough to do it.

Today, S & P cut Greece's debt ratings to "junk" status and also
downgraded its rating on Portugal's debt by two notches. This
makes it much harder for them to borrow. Already this crisis grows
worse every day. Some analysts even say it could break up the
Eurozone. Certainly, "contagion" from country to country to
country is already underway.

As one equity strategist told MarketWatch today, "This is a
Western European country that has the euro imploding before our
eyes. If you don't think that has a ripple effect, you belong in the
summer of '07 again."

The Telegraph's International Business Editor wrote today: "The
European Central Bank may soon have to invoke emergency
powers to prevent the disintegration of Southern European bond
markets, with ominous signs of investor flight from Spain and Italy."

Today, yields on 10-year Greek bonds spiked up to a record 9.73pc.
Yields on 10-year Portuguese bonds spiked 48 basis points to
5.67pc, replicating the pattern seen in the onset of the Greek crisis.

Jacques Cailloux, chief Europe economist at the Royal bank of
Scotland told the Telegraph: “We have gone past the point of no
return: there is a complete loss of confidence. The bond markets
are in disintegration and it is getting worse every day."

“They may have to act as contagion spreads to larger countries
such as Italy, and we started to see the first glimpse of that today,”
he said. The interest rate on a €9.5bn (£8,2bn) issue of Italian
notes jumped to 0.814pc, up from 0.568pc in March. Italy has the
world’s third biggest debt in absolute terms.' [- www.telegraph.co.uk ]

Greece is one thing, but once the crisis reaches big countries like
Spain and Italy - which it already seems to be starting to do - then
it could easily become a global Tsunami. I have heard that David
Wilkerson prophesied years ago about a coming "Debt default" by
a nation causing a huge financial storm. It is still too early to
tell if this is it. But certainly the "Great Recession" is not over yet.
A time to pray and prepare, my friends.

This topic is being discussed at the following website-

http://www.JohntheBaptistTV.com/

We have also added our "14 Predictions" there for discussion too.

God bless you all.

Andrew Strom.

Minggu, 11 April 2010

Prophetic Perfect



Prophetic Perfect
By Bob Mumford www.lifechangers.org

Even as [in His love] He chose us [actually picked us out for Himself as His own] in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy (consecrated and set apart for Him) and blameless in His sight, even above reproach, before Him in love.”

Only the eternal, uncreated, omnipotent and omniscient God has the capacity and willingness to declare a thing to be what it is years before it has even come into being. The Seed is God’s inheritance in the form of the prophetic perfect. God speaks of the future as if it were already in the present and declares something complete because it is anchored in the certainty of God’s intention to bring it to fulfillment.

Results are well over the horizon, so we cannot see them yet. This is another way of saying, “bringing many sons to glory.” There are many prophetic perfect statements in Scripture such as, “For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth.” God’s confidence is in His ability to bring His Own purpose into being. Because He knows the end from the beginning, He calls that which is naught as though it is. We can better understand the coming of the Kingdom as seen in Matthew 5 - 7 in this light. These chapters describe what we will be like when the Kingdom Seed has been cultivated and is fruitful in our own lives. Often travail is necessary to bring forth God’s purposes. He knows what we will look like when He is done with us and He speaks the prophetic perfect into each of us. We may not be able to see it yet, but we do see Him. Living in the prophetic perfect requires us to see through rather than look at circumstances. In the prophetic perfect, whatever God wants to do in us is already achieved.

The Eternal Seed falls into this prophetic perfect category. God’s confidence is in His ability to bring His own purposes into being. Jesus told us that if we followed Him into His Kingdom, we would look like Him when we got there. We cannot make ourselves loving, but He can. He does so by means of imparting to us His nature in the form of Agape as the Eternal Seed.

Success is in generational transfer; it is not just what you can do, but what you can get others to accomplish. We are to cultivate the Agape Seed in our own backyard and in the nations of the world. Jesus said He accomplished the work that the Father gave Him to do. I always thought that was the crucifixion, but it primarily had to do with delivering the eleven disciples from their own selfish darkness and bringing them into the governing principles of the Kingdom. The entire chapter of John 17 is Jesus praying for the eleven disciples. Jesus was going away and everything depended on them. The disciples were His success or His generational transfer and He spoke the prophetic perfect into their lives. The Eternal Seed is destined to bring forth a disciple, not a convert. Conformity to the image of God’s Son is not inevitable—it takes cultivation in us and in others. Even when we can’t see it, God is faithful to fulfill His Word.

Learning to cultivate, nourish, and prophetically speak to the Seed and call it forth into all God intended is what makes us farmers.

THOUGHTS & QUESTIONS
• Explain how living in the prophetic perfect requires us to see through rather than look at.
• Why does it take cultivation to be conformed into the image of God’s Son?
• How does the prophetic perfect result in generational transfer?

Minggu, 04 April 2010

Is Allah the God of the Bible?



Is Allah the God of the Bible?
By (Former Congressman) Mark Siljander www.adeadlymisunderstanding.com

I wanted to preface this as I have had conversations around this topic before which created some misunderstandings that had to be worked through. I believe it is important to know about the author, former Congressman Mark Siljander. God has used Mark to create meaningful and life changing dialogue between leaders and communities that include Christians, Muslims and Jews. My prayer is that you see the importance of communication and seeing what Father will do, when we engage in love and understanding. I also recognized that even mong Christianity, our individual views of who One God is, covers a wide spectrum. I recommend the book Mark wrote, and it can be found along with other great resouces on His website www.adeadlymisunderstanding.com.





Second Bridge to the Common Ground

Is Allah the God of the Bible?©

(Taken from Chapter 9 of a manuscript dealing with the “Seven Bridges to the Common Ground”

written by Mark Siljander)

This is one of the most painful misunderstandings among Christians. Most laymen and leaders feel that Allah is not the same God as the God of the Hebrews, or Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Ishmael. In fact, they argue Allah is a moon-god. Televangelist Benny Hinn has commented, “This is not a war between Arabs and Jews. It's a war between God and the devil."

It would be wonderful if Christians and Muslims could get beyond the basics of respecting another’s name for God and reach a consensus. It would open doors to desperately needed dialogue and communication, allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal common ground as to the nature of God. Let us make sure this “feeling” towards Allah is not merely a trained cultural response and/or an emotional one, but instead cultivate a view founded on fact and linguistics, seated in an understanding of the history and culture surrounding the origins of the names for God. Let us also approach this issue asking God to reveal the truth to us, as much as we are able to understand.

Seminary Students Finally Accept It, But Not Without a Fight!

I recall speaking to an assembly of seminary students in Lancaster, PA a few years ago. When questioned, their view was unanimous that Allah was a false god and in fact, derived from a moon-god of ancient times. They were ready and had a prepared statement to read:

During the nineteenth century[1], then later in the 1940’s[2], and finally during the 1950's[3], archeologists’ digs gathered from both North and South Arabia depict evidence of a moon-god (called Hubal[4] during pre-Islamic times). This deity was worshiped even in the Prophet Muhammad's day. According to inscriptions, while the name of the moon-god was not Allah, his title was al-ilah, i.e. "the deity," meaning that he was the chief or high god among the gods.

The moon-god was called al-ilah, “the god.” However, this name (Arabic: Il or Ilah) did not originate as a title for the moon-god. Thousands of years before that, Semites used variations of Il/El and Alah to refer to their high gods.

Noted Christian historian Philip Hitti also feels the designation of Allah as a moon-god is not correct. [5][6] The Islamic symbol of the crescent moon is often raised as evidence reflecting a moon god. However, history reveals that the Ottoman invaders of the Byzantine Empire simply adopted their defeated Christian foe’s symbol of the crescent moon and continued using it.[7]

Muhammad viewed monotheists in history such as Abraham and those in his time as haneef, believers in the One Supreme God, creator of the heavens and universe, inspirer of the prophets through the Rouh Qudus, the “Holy Spirit.”

I shared with the seminary students,

“If Allah was indeed one of the 360 gods represented in the Kabba in Mecca prior to Muhammad, it does not preclude one of them being the One True God of the Old and New Testament. It could be considered similar to Paul on Mars Hill in Acts 17, identifying the true God from all the false idols. Muhammad did the same by destroying all the other idols in the Kabba, leaving the one ilah. The Apostle Paul faced similar push back with the Greek pagans as Muhammad did with the Arab pagans. After gaining their attention by quoting various Greek philosophers, Paul announced that he knew the name of this ‘unknown god’ and proceeded to teach of the one true God. The scripture says that while ‘some mocked…many followed and surrendered’ to God. The point being, that the origins of a name do not always reflect on the later application.”

The seminary students were listening, but I could tell they were not with me yet.

To emphasize the point, I delved further into the origins of the name “God” from a linguistic viewpoint.

Is the English “God” Pagan?

If one argues the name “Allah” is pagan-based, what about the origins of the English word “God?” I personally was stunned to learn that it actually has more historic baggage than Semitic words such as Allah. “God” is derived from a proto-Germanic pagan word (possibly Zoroastrian) for a water god, water spirit, or idol (pronounced “gut”). It held no gender until the Germanic tribes adopted Christianity, when the male gender was later included.

Is the Greek and Latin for “God” also Pagan?

Next we reviewed the history of our theologically favored Greek and Latin words for “God.” The Greek Theos (from whence we derive “theology,” “theologian,” etc.) has a heathen Greek origin, from the Indo-European root dhes. The popular Latin word deus –along with the Spanish dios and French dieu–is also pagan-based. The Greek god Zeus has the root dyeu and is the origin of the word for God used in the early Latin Vulgate version of the Bible.

So, let's say that thousands of years ago, the ancient word Allah may have been based on a moon-god (which as we have seen is itself an open question). Perhaps the more relevant question is: what meaning does the present use of the word evoke for people today and to which god is it referring? Would any English speaking person think when they say “God” that they are referring to a Germanic water-spirit? Of course not! The English word is commonly used by Christians for false gods, simply inserting a capital “G” when referring to the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Ishmael. When Latino believers speak of Dios, are they referencing the origin of the name, and speaking of the Greek god Zeus? Certainly not!

For over 500 years before the Muslim Prophet Mohammed, Arab Christians and even some Jews in the Arabian Peninsula used the Arabic word Allah for God. 10-12 million Christian Arabs currently use Allah every day as their Arabic word for God. Are they praying to a moon-god? What of the five million Assyrian and Chaldean Christians who pray to Alaha, a derivative of Allah?[8] Rev. John Booko, one of the officiating pastors at my wife’s and my wedding, who is an Assyrian Evangelical Christian, always prays “in the Aramaic/Syriac name of Alaha.”

The Hebrew Name for “God”

Are the Jews who pray to the Old Testament’s Elohim praying to the same God as all the rest? Is it, or is it not, the same God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Ishmael, whether spoken in any language?

An Israeli Semitic language scholar once told me:

In Canaan El was the chief deity of the Canaanite pantheon and was worshipped as a bull deity (which is where the whole idea of the golden calf in Exodus came from). The Israelites were worshipping the true God in a proscribed form. The Aramaic form of this was Alah, which under the influence of a linguistic shift known as the “Canaanite Shift” in Hebrew became Eloah. The plural form of the latter, which is also used in the Hebrew Bible, is Elohim. But the Aramaic Alah was how one said “God” in that language, even in Jesus’ day. Thus if Jesus spoke Aramaic, then he also called God Alah; Arabic came up with nothing new when it referred to the one true God as Alah. In fact, Arabic-speaking Christians would have used this word for God long before Mohammed was born.[9]

The general Hebrew term for God is El. The Israeli airline is named El Al, where El also means “up” in the air. El is a shortened version of Elohim,[10] which is the plural of Eloah, as we touched on before. It is used throughout the Old Testament over 2,300 times. Ironically, even Elohim has pagan roots. Elohim as well as El were ancient Canaanite, Phoenician and Amharic/Ethiopian names for deity.[11]

Perhaps the most specific Hebrew name for God is YHWH, also mistakenly referred to as Yehovah, meaning self-existent and eternal. YHWH is rooted from ‘Hayah’, the to be verb, which is from ‘Hava’, to breathe, or to be, which connects to ‘Ayil’. Finally ‘Ayil’ leads us back to ‘El’, which is the root of all the Semitic names for God. YHWH is spoken aloud on rare Jewish celebrations as just “Ya.” Jews often replaced the actual name of God for Adonay (Lord) orally and in their written scripts.

The Arabic Name for “God”

As we have discussed, the Arabic word for God is Allah. It also is derived from the Aramaic Hebrew word, El. It is a contraction of Al and Ilahi, which literally means “the God.” (Al is Arabic for “the” as in Isa al-Mesiah “Jesus the Christ.”) The Arab “Ilahi” is the same word for God as used in the Hebrew and Aramaic.[12] In fact, if one were to remove all the vowel markings (Semitic languages are all consonants and use markings to make vowels) from the Arabic Al-Ilahi and Hebrew El-Elohim (both meaning “the God”), remove the plural of the words and they are transliterated nearly identically as Al-Alh and A-Alh. Both words correspond back to the Aramaic Alah and the Syriac Alaha.

The definition afforded by The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia is as follows:

“Allah (ăl'ə, ä'lə), [Arab.=the God]. Derived from an old Semitic root referring to the Divine and used in the Canaanite El, the Mesopotamian ilu, and the biblical Elohim, the word Allah is used by all Arabic-speaking Muslims, Christians, Jews, and others. Allah, as a deity, was probably known in pre-Islamic Arabia. Arabic chronicles suggest a pre-Islamic recognition of Allah as a supreme God, with the three goddesses al-Lat, al-Uzza, and Manat as his “daughters.” The Prophet Muhammad, declaring Allah the God of Abraham, demanded a return to a strict monotheism.”[13]

Aramaic: Could Jesus Have Used the Same Word for “God” as the Muslims?

The Aramaic word for God is Elah, or Alaha,[14] also derived from El.[15] The ancient Hebrew word Elah, means “something strong,” like trees of the oak, rooted in Elijah, meaning God of YHWH, which again leads us to its root, El.[16]

Elah[17] is used about 70 times in the Old Testament. When combined with other words, we see different attributes of God. Some examples: Elah Yerush'lem - God of Jerusalem: (Ezra 7:19); Elah Yisrael - God of Israel: (Ezra 5:1); Elah Sh'maya - God of Heaven: (Ezra 7:23); Elah Sh'maya V'Arah - God of Heaven and Earth: (Ezra 5:11).[18]

There are also several verses in the Qur’an using Elah and its derivatives, Il or El. These words are specifically referred to in the Qur’an (see Sura 9:8 and 10). While some Islamic scholars understand it to mean blood ties, most others take it as short for the Arabic word Ilah, meaning “Lord.” It could also be the Arabicized Aramaic Hebrew for EL as in Ismael (Ishmael), which means "God listens" and/or Elah, or Deity, from its original Aramaic or Syriac. It may surprise some people to know that even Jesus used this form for God in Matt. 24:47 when he cried out in the Aramaic language, “Eli, Eli”, meaning “my God, my God.”

Jesus, an Aramaic speaker, would naturally use Alaha just as Aramaic speakers do today. It is simply the Aramaic version of the identical Arabic word Allah. “The cognate Aramaic term appears in the Aramaic version of the New Testament, called the Peshitta, as one of the words Jesus used to refer to God, e.g., in the sixth Beatitude, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see Alaha.’ The Arabic Bible uses the same word in Matt. 5:8, for instance, translated Allah.”[19]

While all this may seem confusing, simply stated and confirmed by Brown, Driver, and Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, El is the root word for God in Hebrew, Elohim; in Aramaic, Alaha; and in Arabic, Allah. Furthermore, they connote the same God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Ishmael. In addition, the prophesied Messiah in Isaiah 9:6 of the Tenach is referred to as El.

After speaking at a peace conference in Egypt, I approached the heads of the Lutheran and Coptic (Egyptian) Churches who were in attendance. I asked these two Christian leaders what name they used for “God” in their churches. They looked at me very puzzled and responded “Allah, of course!” They would be shaken to know that probably 99 percent of Western Christians do not think Allah is the same God as the Christian God. Their response to my seemingly stupid question is a microcosm of the answer; it is simply the Arabic word for “God.”

The “Correct” Name of God

Eventually the seminary students clearly understood the different forms of “the name of God” used in the Holy Books. Hebrew El, Aramaic Alaha and Arabic Allah are identical words derived from the same linguistic root, using the Semitic letters Alef-Lamed-He, pronounced ila. Such names should not be the focus of scorn, or the cause of division and war. The slight modifications among each of the language groupings simply reflect different pronunciations conforming to the historical pattern of cognate shifts in each tongue, not different words. To put it simply, the Latin, Spanish, and Italian words for God (Deus, Dios, and Dio) and the English and German words (God and Gott) all mean the same as do the Semitic Allah, Alaha and Elohim.

Islam and Judaism do not have a problem seeing the God of each tradition as the God of Abraham, so why should we? The students lined up after the presentation to express their shock and excitement.

Christian vs Islamic View of God

One student, in a last effort to refute the presentation, conceded “Islam may be referring to the same God as the Jews and Christians linguistically, but Islam sees God very differently than Christianity.” I responded that while this may be true to a degree; in my work I have found that those differences are much narrower than we might first suppose.

There are indeed differences of perception about God, just as there are many views people may have of you! Some view you as a friend, others as an enemy. Some may look at you as someone who is fair, others as a scoundrel. My wife views me as a partner, lover, etc, much differently than my children; they in turn see me differently than my siblings. Moreover, each of them has their individual understanding of me, my character, nature and directives. But I am the same person, viewed differently by different people.

Christians demand that Muslims view God in the context of our particular doctrine alone as evidence of following the “true” God. One needs to be careful as this premise negates Jews of the Torah as believing in the same God. After all, Jews do not accept Jesus as Messiah, let alone see Him as God’s Word, Spirit and supernaturally conceived like the Muslims do. Perhaps enforcing our respective dogma on others is why Christians are themselves so divided into 33,000 sects and denominations. Do any of the 147 varieties of Baptists view God exactly the same? What about Pentecostals, Catholics, Methodists, or Quakers?

From another standpoint we cannot assume that current struggles with extremism within Islam represent the whole of its history or its future. Who did the Christian church claim as God when engaged for centuries in Crusades, enforcing the Inquisition or rising up in violence against each other, Protestant and Catholic? That behavior was unconscionable, but do we say that those being misled at that time did not pray to the same God as we do now? Clearly, the performance of the human family does not define who God is.

However unlikely it seems, a careful review of the Muslim Holy Book reveals Christians share much more with Muslims in our concept of who God is than we might think. After reading the Qur’an, most would agree we are all referring to the one God: magnificent and omnipresent, omnipotent creator of heaven and earth, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Ishmael. He is the God of the prophets, such as Abraham, Moses, Daniel, Noah and John the Baptist.

He is the same God who sent the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, who birthed a sinless Messiah named Jesus through the Holy Spirit. The same Jesus, who could heal the sick, raise the dead, was taken up to God and is coming back on Judgment Day. There is of course much more to discuss, but what other God could all this be referring to?

In the end, the seminary students were nearly unanimous, agreeing that the three major faiths do pray and refer to a monotheistic god, and that linguistically they are the same “God.” While many left changed in attitude, most confessed discomfort using Allah in place of “God.” Western bias against it is difficult to break.

I must confess that after extensive Western/Christian training myself, it has taken time for me to feel comfortable using the Arabic term, Allah, for God in conversations. My mentor, who has been a pastor for 50 years, helps me break my dogmatically negative feeling about Allah when he prays in the name of Alaha in his Aramaic language.

Do we not all fancy ourselves on a path seeking revelation of the “true” God? None of us has to scratch very deeply to find out that our concept of God is different from another’s concept of God. My concept of God is not the same as when I first believed. Some days it is not even the same as it was the day before. God is revealing himself from day to day through dialogue, reading of the Scriptures and through experiences. Because some have not arrived at what each of us might believe is His true nature, let us not condemn another, and cut ourselves off from others in the process of their search.

What I have hoped to outline here is evidence that the Abrahamic faith traditions share the same linguistic name for God and describe God’s character similarly, despite each of our defined differences. When Muslims open a door to explore common ground we should not slam it in their face.

I have run out of space, but allow me to share one last thought. In interfaith relations, the nature, person and mission of Jesus of Nazareth is often seen as the crux of the problem, when ironically, he is in fact the extraordinary solution. These “differences” are explored further in the other six “Bridges to the Common Ground” chapters.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face.
1 Cor. 13:12

[1] Amaud, Halevy and Glaser went to Southern Arabia and dug up thousands of Sabean, Minaean, and Qatabanian documents that depict Allah as a moon god. Robert Morey, The Islamic Invasion: Confronting The World’s Fastest-Growing Religion (Harvest House Publishers, 1992)

[2] Archeologists G. Caton Thompson and Carleton S. Coon made discoveries in Arabia. Morey.

[3] Wendell Phillips, W.F. Albright, Richard Bower made similar discoveries as they excavated sites at Qataban, Timna, and Marib. Morey.

[4] Tracing the origins of ancient gods is often tenuous. If the name Hubal is related to an Aramaic word for spirit, as suggested by Hitti, then Hubal may have come from the north of Arabia. Philip K. Hitti, History Of The Arabs (1937), 96-101.

[5] Welllhausen indicates that Hubal was regarded as the son of al-Lat and the brother of Wadd. Wellhausen (1926), 717, as quoted by Hans Krause, Hans Krause’s Research Reports, http://hanskrause.de/HKHPE/hkhpe_32_01.htm.

[6] Attempts to identify Hubal with Allah have been notably popular among evangelical Christians, but even they acknowledge that this hypothesis is speculative, and it is contradicted by the Islamic-period texts from which most knowledge of pre-Islamic Arab religion derives. Answering Islam, Moon God, http://www.answering-islam.org/Index/M/moongod.html (Jul. 29, 2009).

[7] Rick Brown, “Who is ‘Allah’?” International Journal of Frontier Missions, 23:2 (Summer 2006), 80 (http://www.commonpathalliance.org).

[8] The Aramaic word Alaha is also spelled Elaha. “The –'a' at the end is the determined form, which originally meant 'the' in regular Aramaic. By the time the Syriac language was in its heyday, the determined forms were otiose, as occurred in the East Aramaic dialects in general, including Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and Mandaic.” Dr. Eldon Clem, private communication to author.

[9] Dr. Eldon Clem, Syriac scholar of Jerusalem, Israel, Quote from a private conversation, February 2006.

[10] The Hebrew word translated "God" ('elohim) is a plural noun denoting majesty, and the writers of Scripture used it as an honorific title. Though it is plural in form, it is singular in meaning when referring to the true God. This name represents the Creator's transcendent relationship to His creation. Dr. Thomas L. Constable, “Notes on Genesis” Dr. Constable’s Expository Notes, 2009 Ed., http://www.soniclight.com/constable/notes.htm (Jul. 29, 2009).

[11] M. James Sawyer , Th.M., Ph.D., Lecture Notes on The Names Of God, Bible.org, http://bible.org/article/lecture-notes-names-god (Jul 29, 2009).

[12] “Jewish Arabic translation of the Torah was translated by the Jewish scholar Saadia Gaon before 1000 AD and has been used by Middle Eastern Jews until the present time…There were other Jewish Arabic translations as well, notably the one made by the Karaites at the same time as Saadia. All of these Jewish translations use Allah as the name of God, using it to translate both Elohim and YHWH. There are multitudes of ancient Christian Arabic translations of Scripture, from the seventh century until now, and they all without exception use Allah.” Brown, 80-81.

[13] "Allah," The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. (Columbia University Press, 2003), Dec. 9, 2005 (http://www.answers.com/topic/allah).

[14] The determined form, meaning “the God,” although in later Syriac when the determined forms lose their force, “Alaha” becomes the normal way of saying “God.”

[15] Dr. Imad Nicola Shehadeh, President and Professor of Theology, Jordan Evangelical Theological Seminary, private communication to author, Feb. 2006: “I agree with you that the term ‘Allah’ comes from the Aramaic/Syriac ‘Allaha’ (from now on, when I say Aramaic, I mean Aramaic/Syriac). The evidence is overwhelming. I have published an article on this in order to show that Allah was not originally a moon-god as some have suggested, but came from the Aramaic Allaha used by Jews and Christians of Muhammad's day. (If interested, please see Bibliotheca Sacra journal, volume 161, issue 641, 2004).”

[16] Associated with this name in the OT (Old Testament) is the idea of power, “The Strong One.” http://bible.org/article/lecture-notes-names-god.

[17] “Elah” is Aramaic, corresponding to the Aramaic sections of Ezra.

[18] Tracey R. Rich, The Name of G-d, Judaism 101, http://www.jewfaq.org/name.htm (Jul. 29, 2009).

[19] "Allah," Wikipedia, 2005, http://www.answers.com/topic/allah, Dec. 9, 2005.

Jumat, 02 April 2010

The 14 PREDICTIONS - ARE they STILL ON TRACK??


The 14 PREDICTIONS - ARE they STILL ON TRACK??
-by Andrew Strom.

As many of you know, from 2001 onwards I issued a number of
prophetic warnings about the U.S (and world) economy. And from
2006 I became more and more specific that it was the HOUSING
crisis that was about to turn into a Great Depression. Many of
these predictions came true. But what about now that there seems
to be a bit of a "recovery"? Could it be only temporary? Do I still
stand by my predictions?

Well, first let us take a look. (By the way, I do not see my myself
as a "prognosticator" and personally I hardly ever publish predictions
like this. But the economy is one thing I feel God has certainly
spoken to me about). Below is a timeline of these specific warnings -
from 2001 to 2009:

SEPT 11, 2001: "The HORNS of American financial power have
fallen, have fallen..." [-About the Twin Towers].

JUNE 2003: "Revival is going to come in the midst of judgments
the like of which you've never seen, and God is going to touch
your economy..." (-'Thundering in Nashville').

14 DEC 2006: "Let me make some predictions at this point, so
I can be clear about what this country is facing:
(1) Firstly, I believe it is IMPOSSIBLE to avoid Judgment...
(2) Expect a great economic crash - and expect it SOON.

MARCH 14, 2007: "Eight months ago we began to publish warnings
about the bursting of this Housing bubble, and the likely impact it
would have... I began to refer to this coming financial judgment in
my sermons, saying that in many ways it would be God's MERCY -
to shock us out of our complacency and apathy - and to cause us
to desperately seek His face..."

NOV 8, 2007: "I continue to stand by my statement of many
months ago that within 3 years this nation will be in a terrible
financial depression - possibly the worst that it has ever seen.
Right now, things are right on track to see this fulfilled."

NOV 2007, Wisconsin USA: "This is the last good Christmas
America will have for years....
"Here's my scenario. You can test me. You can remember what
I'm saying right now.... See if it plays out how I say. In six months
time I expect Recession in the United States. In 12 months time
I expect the beginning of a Depression..." (-AUDIO - 'Survive the
Coming Depression - Nov 07' on Sermonindex.net).

10 MONTHS LATER - Sept/Oct 2008 - The two largest Mortgage
giants in the world (Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac) fail, the largest
Insurance Company and the largest thrift bank in the USA both
collapse, Lehman Brothers goes bankrupt (almost taking the entire
financial system with it), Money Markets reel, the Investment
banking industry crumbles, and the stock market suffers its
worst-ever one-day loss, plunging 777 points in a single day.

24 SEPT 2008: "The DEPRESSION HAS BEGUN".

BACK-TRACK - 31 JAN 2008: "My strong belief is that, particularly
in America, this crisis is going to be WORSE than the GREAT
DEPRESSION. And it is going to last for YEARS. Other developed
nations, such as England, Ireland, Spain, Canada, Germany and
even Australasia, are going to be very hard-hit also. China, India
and much of Asia will be pounded at first, but I believe will recover
faster.... I believe that Christians in America need to face the fact
that they are about to live through one of the WORST 5 - 7 year
periods that this country has ever seen by far. And they need to
be preparing NOW."

OCT 2008: "I am convinced this ‘breaking’ is not merely financial
in nature. It is also aimed at the church, the media and the culture...
We are about to see another “Great Reformation” of the church. In
fact, it has already begun." (-From Andrew's book, 'SURVIVE the
DEPRESSION', Oct 2008).

OCT 2008: "When I was down in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina
there was one Spirit-filled Fellowship that was “thriving” in the midst
of the chaos. They had filled their sanctuary with food, clothes, and
emergency supplies of all kinds – and they were ministering to
hundreds... I cannot tell you how important this is, if we want to
“thrive” – not just ‘survive’ - through this current crisis. This is one
of the absolute keys... So will you be a “light shining in the
darkness” during this present crisis, my friends?" (-From Andrew's
book, 'SURVIVE the DEPRESSION', Oct 2008).

20 DEC 2008: "The WORST of the slump is set to last for... 7 years."

10 APRIL 2009: "A "DOUBLE DIP" DEPRESSION .. The phrase
"A Double-Dip Depression" has been on my heart for many months,
so it is no surprise to see a temporary respite. But we need to be
aware that it is simply an illusion - so we don't get lulled back to
sleep and cease to prepare for what lies ahead.

18 JUNE 2009: "We stated not long ago our belief that we are
headed for a "Double-Dip" Depression... I do believe there will be
a further 'wave' downwards, and we need to keep preparing - both
physically and spiritually."

31st Dec 2009: "I expect renewed hardship in the months ahead..."

ANDREW AGAIN: Obviously about half of the above predictions
have already come true. The rest would seemingly require "another
wave down" to occur. Do I still expect this? Yes, I do. And if I am
correct, I would expect to see this sometime in 2010 or (at the
latest) in 2011. Please continue to prepare spiritually and practically
for this eventuality, my friends. And I am very happy to be taken
to task if this does not take place.

If this "second wave down" has not occurred by the end of 2011
then I will need to issue a public apology to the Body of Christ.
Please hold me to this. I am happy to be held accountable for
the things I have prophesied.

God bless you all.

Andrew Strom.