13 November 2015

Strategic Mindset - 2015

Friday, November 13, 2015

Earth Changes Accelerating, Doomsday Nuclear Torpedo Leak Gives Insight To Russian Strategic Mindset





Something strange is happening to our planet.  Over the past 30 days, there seems to have been much more “shaking” than normal, and this is particularly true along the Ring of Fire.  This afternoon I visited the official website of the U.S. Geological Survey, and I discovered that Chile had been hit with 12 major earthquakes within the last 24 hours alone.  

The smallest was of magnitude 4.4, and the two largest both measured magnitude 6.9.  We have also seen dozens of volcanoes erupt recently, including the incredibly dangerous Mt. Popocatepetl in Mexico.  Fortunately we have not seen a major disaster that kills thousands of people yet, but many believe that all of this shaking is leading up to one.  In addition, the weather all over the world continues to get freakier and freakier.  Just today, Yemen was hit by a second major tropical cyclone in less than a week.  Any one of these strange disasters in isolation may not seem like that big of a deal, but when you start putting all of the pieces together it starts to become clear that something really significant is taking place.

So why are all of these things happening?  Well, some experts point to the sun.  In recent years there has been a tremendous amount of hype about “global warming”, but the truth is that evidence is starting to emerge that indicates that our sun might be heading into a period of “hibernation”

The sun will go into “hibernation” mode around 2030, and it has already started to get sleepy. At the Royal Astronomical Society’s annual meeting in July, Professor Valentina Zharkova of Northumbria University in the UK confirmed it – the sun will begin its Maunder Minimum (Grand Solar Minimum) in 15 years. Other scientists had suggested years ago that this change was imminent, but Zharkova’s model is said to have near-perfect accuracy.

And what did we see last winter?  It was a very cold, bitter winter that set new all-time records all over the planet.  Here is more from that same article


Solar cycle 24 – two cycles prior the cycle that’s expected to bottom out into a Maunder Minimum – was weak. In 2013-14 it reached its maximum far below average. Meanwhile extreme cold-weather anomalies have occurred around the world. Last year “polar vortices” slammed into the central US and Siberia as a third hovered over the Atlantic. All 50 US states, including Hawaii, had temperatures below freezing for the first time in recorded history. Snowfall records were broken in cities in the US, Canada, Italy, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and elsewhere. Southern American states and central Mexico, where snow is rare, got heavy snow, as did the Middle East.
This past summer the cold didn’t let up, with more temperature records across the US and rare summer snows seen in Canada, the US and China. Birds have migrated early in the last two years. Antarctic sea ice set a new record in 2013 and it was broken again in 2014.

 Our sun has begun to behave very erratically, and yet very few people are paying attention.  But without the sun, life on earth would not be possible.  So the fact that the giant ball of fire that we revolve around is starting to act very strangely should be a huge news story.

And this is not something that scientists have just started noticing.  This has been going on for quite some time.  For example, the following is from a BBC article that was published last year


I’ve been a solar physicist for 30 years, and I’ve never seen anything quite like this,” says Richard Harrison, head of space physics at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire.
He shows me recent footage captured by spacecraft that have their sights trained on our star. The Sun is revealed in exquisite detail, but its face is strangely featureless.
If you want to go back to see when the Sun was this inactive… you’ve got to go back about 100 years,” he says.
This solar lull is baffling scientists, because right now the Sun should be awash with activity.

Another thing that many scientists are watching closely is the possibility of a magnetic pole shift.  This has become such a concern that even scientists at NASA are talking about it.  A major news source in the UK recently published an article entitled “NASA: Earth’s magnetic poles are ‘switching’ with catastrophic consequences for humanity

Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said when the switch does take place, the Earth’s magnetic field which prevents the Sun’s dangerous radiation getting through, would be neutralised for around 200 years.
He said: “When the polar shift happens the Earth will have no magnetic field for about 200 years.”
During that time the Sun’s solar blasts are expected to strip away at our atmosphere as they did on Mars billions of years ago.


A proposed Russian submarine launched doomsday weapon — the existence of which was almost certainly leaked by the Kremlin — gives clues to the Russian mindset for the development of new strategic weapons in the face of the West’s increasing ballistic missile defense capability and Russia’s shrinking national assets, a naval analyst told USNI News on Thursday.

The Status-6 weapon was revealed on Wednesday during a Russian broadcast of a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and military leaders in Sochi and a screengrab of the weapon was widely circulated following the broadcast.

The weapon is allegedly a robotic mini-submarine” capable of speeds 100 knots with a range of 6,200 miles, according to state controlled press and designed to “destroy important economic installations of the enemy in coastal areas and cause guaranteed devastating damage to the country’s territory by creating wide areas of radioactive contamination, rendering them unusable for military, economic or other activity for a long time,” according to a translation of the document by the BBC.

Immediately before the reveal of the weapon Putin was discussing how the emerging U.S. ballistic missile defense (BMD) network in Europe was “an attempt to undermine the existing parity in strategic nuclear weapons and essentially to upset the whole system of global and regional stability,” according to the BBC.
Eric Wertheim — naval analyst and author of U.S. Naval Institute’s Combat Fleets of the World — told USNI News on Thursday the reveal of Status-6 was telling as to the current Russian arms development mindset.
“It shows that they’re thinking about non-conventional weapons in line with Cold War era thinking,” he said.
“The West is developing weapons — like the Small Diameter Bomb — that create a smaller more targeted effect. This type of weapon is exactly the opposite.”
A weapon like Status-6 would play into Russia’s current military strengths and provide the Kremlin with a strategic deterrent that would bypass the growing American acumen at BMD, he said.

The weapon also comes with the benefit of being relatively inexpensive. While Putin has pledged to boost military spending, the last year has seen a massive drop in the value of Russian currency and decline in revenues from oil.






The target of Israel's alleged airstrikes in Syria on Wednesday evening were Hezbollah weapons warehouses, Arab media affiliated with the opposition to Syrian Preisdent Basher Assad reported Thursday.

Pro-Assad operatives on Facebook said that the strikes, adjacent to Damascus airport, struck "military outposts near the airport, and there is a high probability that it was IDF warplanes that struck."
New portal 'Damascus Alan,' which is affiliated with the Assad regime, reported that heavy damage was caused to army outposts around the airport, all of which went up in flames. The site did not specify what damage was caused to the outposts, but they said that nobody was hurt. 





Israeli officials believe that the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah has amassed around 150,000 rockets, including a number of long range Iranian-made missiles capable of striking Israeli cities from north to south.

The estimates represent a 50 percent increase in the group’s weapons stockpiles since May, when a senior Israeli intelligence official put the number at 100,000.

The revised valuation on rockets suggests Hezbollah is ramping up efforts to acquire weapons whose purpose is to attack Israel, despite its deep involvement in the Syrian civil war.

Hezbollah forces have been operating in Syrian territory for over three and a half years. Thousands of the organization’s fighters are thought to be on Syrian soil and hundreds, some say thousands, have been killed there, including at least one senior officer.

The organization has simultaneously continued to amass short- and medium-range rockets from Syria while also increasing its cache of Iranian-made long-range missiles.

Hezbollah has also established a fleet of unmanned combat drones, designed for more than simple intelligence gathering.
The group is continuing its efforts to acquire SA-17 and SA-22 ground-to-air missiles as well as P-800 Oniks air-to-sea missiles. In light of the events in Syria and and the ongoing civil war, as well as the Israeli attacks on weapons convoys en route to Hezbollah, the organization has upped its efforts to bring in more Iranian weapons.


# 1 of 100 BIBLE LESSONS

# 1 of 100 BIBLE LESSONS
These lessons were originally given at Manila, Philippines, in 1958 and 1959 by former missionary to China, Alban Douglas. Give these lessons to people you visit, youth groups, hospital patients, church visitors and new members.
You may use them in Sunday School, bus ministry, jail services, nursing homes, Christian schools, small discussion groups and many other places of worship and Christian education.
God’s Word will answer your questions and help solve your problems.

LESSON 1 – JUSTIFICATION

One of the modern errors of today is to identify justification with pardon. Justification is more than pardon; to justify means to declare righteous.
God’s problem in redeeming mankind was to justify the sinner without condoning or justifying their sin. God could not compromise in judgment and treat sin lightly.

Law and justice demanded the death penalty for every sin.
Ezek. 18:20 - The soul that sins, shall surely die.
The mercy of God yearned to rescue the offender in the interests of love.
 In a human court the Judge justifies the righteous and condemns the wicked.
Dt. 25:1 - Then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked.
God refuses to justify the guilty.
Ex. 23:7 - For I will not justify the wicked.
God pronounces judgment on human judges that pervert judgment.
Isa. 5:22, 23 - Woe to those … who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.
Luke 16:15, Jesus condemns the Pharisees for justifying themselves before God.
The law, Romans 2:13, said, But the doers of the law shall be justified.
But the question facing God was: “What man could keep the law perfectly?”
Romans 3:23, For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
The problem was so perplexing that only Infinite Wisdom and the Grace of God were equal to the task of solving it.
God’s solution: Jesus volunteered to be the man to live the perfect life according to the law, gain the righteousness and then give it as a gift to the believing.
Romans 5:17 - … Much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.
Romans 3:22 - This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all
who believe.

I. DEFINITION What is Justification?
Justification is being accounted righteous before God; the sinner puts on the
righteousness of Jesus Christ and God sees him perfect in the righteousness of Christ.
Henceforth God sees the sinner righteous in the Savior – hidden in His wonderful
Person.
Justification is the judicial act of God whereby those who put faith in Christ are declared
righteous in His eyes, and free from guilt and punishment.
Romans 4:3 - What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was
credited to him as righteousness."
Romans 4:5 - To the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked,
his faith is credited as righteousness.

II. THE CONTENTS OF JUSTIFICATION
1. The forgiveness of sin and the removal of its guilt and punishment. For a holy and
righteous God to forgive sin is not a small matter; the truth is that God actually delights
in forgiving and cleansing iniquity.
Micah 7:18, 19 - Who is a God like unto thee, that pardons iniquity, and passes by
the transgression of the remnant of his heritage?  He retains not his anger forever,
because He delights in mercy…He will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all
their sins into the depths of the sea.
In justification all our sins are forgiven and the guilt and punishment thereof removed.
Acts 13:38,39 - Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the
forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified
from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.

2. The imputation of Christ’s righteousness.
The forgiven sinner is not like a discharged prisoner who has served his term and is
discharged from further punishment, but with no rights of citizenship. In Christ Jesus
the sinner receives the full rights of citizenship.
Romans 3:22 - This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all
who believe. 
The perfect, holy righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed to the sinner.

III. THE CONDITION OF FORGIVENESS – Faith
The sinner calls out, “How can I receive this gift of righteousness?”
The answer is, “By believing” on the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
Gal. 2:16 - know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
Romans 3:26 - To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justified of him which believes in Jesus.
Romans 4:5 - But to him that works not, but believes on him that justified the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
The best of men need to be saved by faith in Jesus Christ and wicked sinners can also be justified in the same way.

IV. THE MEANS OF JUSTIFICATION
1. By God. He is the author or donor of justification.
Romans 8:33 - Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justified.
Justification is a judicial act performed by God, the Father Almighty.
2. By grace. Grace is the foundation or source of justification.
Romans 3:24 - Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Titus 3:7 - so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
3. By blood. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is the foundation or ground of justification.
Romans 5:9 - Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
4. By resurrection. Resurrection is the acknowledgment or proclamation of justification.
Romans 4:25 - Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.

V. THE EVIDENCE OF JUSTIFICATION - Works
The one who is truly justified will manifest this fact in good works.
James 2:21-23 - Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?
You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God's friend.

VI. THE RESULTS OF JUSTIFICATION
1. Peace. Romans 5:1 - Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
2. Access into the presence of God for worship, praise and petition.
Romans 5:2 - By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand…
3. Tribulation. Rev. Samuel Matthew of Madras, India, very carefully pointed out what he considered the two great results of justification: peace with God and tribulation in this world, Rom. 5:3 cf. 2 Tim. 3:12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

CONCLUSION
We are justified judicially by God. Rom. 8:33, “It is God that justifies.” We are justified meritoriously by Christ. Isa. 53:11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
We are justified meditatively by faith. Rom. 5:1 – “Therefore being justified by faith.”
We are justified evidentially by works. Jas. 2:14 – “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works?”
In Luke 8:13-14, the sinner that prayed, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” went home justified, said the Lord Jesus Christ.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What is the difference between justification and pardon?
2. Define justification.
3. State the two items contained in justification with a Scripture for each.
4. How can you reconcile Exodus 23:7 and 1 Cor. 6:11?
5. What is the condition of justification? (3 Scriptures)
6. List the 3 means of justification (one Scripture for each).
7. What is the connection between resurrection and justification?
8. How can you reconcile James 2:21-23 and Romans 4:3-5?
9. List 5 results of justification from Romans 5:1-3.
10. How is Romans 5:1 a fulfillment of Isaiah 53:11?