This week on 'The Hal Lindsey Report'

[Heaven soon]

This week on 'The Hal Lindsey Report'
On this week's edition of "The Hal Lindsey Report": Can things get any worse for BP? Not only is the company now reviled by the world (though Great Britain's government hasn't abandoned it -- yet), but we are learning that its greed and skulduggery extend far deeper than the 5,000 feet to its broken Gulf oil well!

Apparently, BP wanted the right to drill for oil in Libya. Libya's dictator, Muammar Gadaffi, set a condition: release the Lockerbie bomber. At the time, this Libyan man was serving a life sentence for planting the bomb that blew Pan Am flight 103 out of the night sky and onto the village of Lockerbie, Scotland. He killed 270 people, including 190 Americans.

Did BP say, "No," and walk away from the negotiation? Not hardly. Instead, the company cajoled (or threatened?) then-Prime Minister Tony Blair into going along with the idea. So Blair apparently worked out a deal with Gadaffi. Then the UK got a team of Scottish doctors to certify that the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali al Megrahi, had prostate cancer and was only good for another three months. So, on the flimsy excuse of "compassion," (which, by the way, al Megrahi didn't show for the 270 families he devastated), Scotland released the bomber to return to Libya to die.

Which he promptly didn't do. In fact, the doctors now admit that maybe they missed the diagnosis. Hmmm. Al Megrahi will be living the hero's life of relative luxury in Libya for the next 10 to 20 years. I wonder if BP actually got the rights to drill. Even if they did, the company probably won't survive long enough to actually enjoy the fruits of their disgusting shenanigans in the Libyan desert.

This whole "government doing the bidding of the corporation" thing really gets peoples' ire up. And it should. However, I'm still waiting for the press to fully explore the 20 year 'relationship' Barack Obama has had with BP (he's the greatest beneficiary of their prodigious political contributions) as lustily as they explored George W. Bush's 'relationship' with Enron or Dick Cheney's 'relationship' with Halliburton. Then there's the fact that quite of a few of the President's appointments in the former Minerals Management Service spent their years between the Clinton and Obama administrations working for -- you guessed it -- BP.

At one time, BP stood for British Petroleum, but in 2001, the company changed its name to simply BP. Its advertising tagline is: "Beyond Petroleum." Maybe it should be: "Buying Politicians."

Speaking of buying and politicians. Cities and towns across America are scrambling to come up with enough money to keep City Hall's doors open. Their revenues are falling because of declining property values, unemployed citizens, and business failures. Their expenses are rising due to inflation, increased financial responsibility for new federal demands, and, most importantly, skyrocketing union labor costs. As a result, many of them are starting to fire their own staffs and outsource much of the municipal business to the private sector or even other towns and counties. Maywood, California, has fired its entire staff, including firemen and police officers. It has outsourced everything but the city manager's office and the offices of the elected officials. San Jose, California, fired its entire unionized custodial staff.

The National League of Cities says that municipalities across the country will face shortfalls of $56 billion to $86 billion over the next two years. Almost uniformly, the cities in the worst fiscal shape are the ones with long traditions of liberal social programs, policies, and spending practices. I'm sure you've noticed by now, but the same sort of social and fiscal liberals now control both houses of Congress and the White House. So if American cities and towns can't stay solvent in the face of declining revenues and increased spending demands, how can we expect our states and our nation to do it? Just saying.

Sometimes I have to stop and remember that the name, "The Supreme Court," refers to the fact that it's the Court of last resort, the top of the heap, the last station on the route. The word "Supreme" does not necessarily indicate the quality of its Justices' thinking. Witness the Court's recent decision regarding the University of California's Hastings College of the Law and the student organization, The Christian Legal Society (CLS). The Court decided that it was okay for the University to deny funding and recognition to the Christian Legal Society because the Society would not accept members who were engaged in homosexual relationships.

In short, the majority of Justices decided that the campus organizations who wish to be officially recognized and receive funding from the university cannot bar ANY student who wishes to join the group and/or move into a leadership position, even if that person does not agree with the group's beliefs.

As the Alliance Defense Fund put it, "The Hastings policy actually requires CLS to allow atheists to lead its Bible studies and the College Democrats to accept the election of Republican officers in order for the groups to be recognized on campus." It will be interesting to see what the Court decides when an Islamic student group wants to bar Mohammed-bashers from membership in their organization!

And in another incident, a small group of ten students and four adults from Wickenburg Christian Academy in Wickenburg, Arizona, were on a study tour of the nation's capital. When they visited the Supreme Court building, they paused to have quiet prayer to one side of the plaza at the base of the steps leading up to the Court. The group was hurriedly approached by a Supreme Court security officer and told that they could not pray there. He said they could pray, but they would have to do it somewhere else. So they moved off the grounds, stood in the street gutter, and prayed.

The Court later clarified that the officer had acted to uphold a statute that bars parades and processions on the Supreme Court grounds. In other words, the police deemed the ten kids and four adults standing in a circle and praying as a "parade." This is beginning to sound suspiciously like the restrictions placed on Jews and Christians by the Muslims who control the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

The Washington Post recently did an 'expose' of the tremendous growth of the intelligence community and counterterrorism organizations since 9/11. They called the series, "Top Secret America." The Post estimates that more than 850,000 people in America today hold top-secret security clearances. They say that there are 1,200 government agencies and 1,900 private companies working on counterterrorism, intelligence, and homeland security in more than 10,000 locations inside the United States. If this is true, and I've no doubt that it is, it indicates something very disturbing to me. It means that we live in such a state of fear -- fear of terrorism, fear of poverty, fear of offense -- that we have become willing to trade our freedom for some mystical form of security.

I believe the U.S. is in a meltdown. The Bible says that a culture's rejection of God will result in the following judgment: "...since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done." (Romans 1:28) A depraved mind is one that cannot think in its own best interest. Sound familiar?

Friends, our culture, our institutions, our citizens are increasingly rejecting God and the values represented by Judeo-Christianity. We are growing ever more accepting of atheism, paganism, and false religions like Islam. In fact, to be blunt, our government's leaders and our courts seem to blatantly PREFER Islam above Christianity. Trust me. This is not pleasing to Jehovah God.

Attempts are already in progress to pass 'hate speech' laws that will soon remake our nation into a mirror image of Europe. It's already illegal to preach or teach certain tenets of Christianity in public in Canada and in much of Europe. In England, the practical policy is: "You can be a Christian at home, but not in public. Keep it to yourself."

I believe physical persecution of Christians is on its way to America. Now is the time for all believers to prepare spiritually for the tests ahead. Study the example of Stephen in Acts 6 and 7 . He is God's example to us of how to stand for the Truth no matter what the cost -- and how greatly God's Spirit will inspire and use us when we do. Our reward is ahead. Let's not faint in our minds at this critical time of the Church's last days on this earth.

Don't miss this week's Report on TBN, Daystar, Inspiration, CPM Network, various local stations, www.hallindsey.com or www.hischannel.com. Check your local listings.

God Bless,

Hal Lindsey





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[Heaven soon]

This week on 'The Hal Lindsey Report'

On this week's edition of "The Hal Lindsey Report": Under the leadership of President Obama, Israeli-US relations have taken quite a beating. His 'popularity' ratings in Israel are in the single digits. The Israeli public simply does not trust him and they feel like America has thrown Israel under the bus.

Apparently, that didn't bother the Administration and it was "full speed ahead" in the drive to cozy up to the Arab-Muslim world. It seemed that no cost was too great -- even abandoning Israel -- if it accomplished the President's goal of American-Muslim affinity.

But now we know that there really was a point at which the cost became too great. The Democrat National Committee recently realized that it was many millions of dollars down in its fundraising for the upcoming mid-term elections. And it was glaringly apparent that the constituency from which the giving had dried up was the American Jewish community. So, as I reported a couple of weeks ago, the White House went into damage control mode and started a charm offensive toward Israel and the Jewish community.

White House operatives fanned out and began to sweet talk the Jewish organizations here in the States. President Obama invited Prime Minister Netanyahu back to the White House and, evidently, promised that he'd be a better host this time than he was last March. He might even allow himself to be seen in public with the Prime Minister and certainly wouldn't stomp out of any meetings and leave the PM sitting, staring at the walls.

So Netanyahu returned and everyone made nice before the cameras. Obama even walked Netanyahu out to his car and added some extra pumps to his farewell handshake!

This past week, an Assistant Secretary of State appeared before a Jewish audience and confirmed that, indeed, "Israel is a vital ally and cornerstone of our regional security commitments." Now, that sounds pretty good at first, but I think it woefully understates the case. Israel is not just a "vital ally" in that region. Israel is our ONLY ally in the Middle East.

What's more, unlike our other friends in the area who are simply 'allies of convenience,' Israel and the United States are natural allies because we share common values, freedoms, ideals, goals, ideologies, and respect for human rights and the law. We even share a common Bible. Many Israeli citizens were born and reared in the US. The Mosaic Law is the foundation of our own law. And our rule of law is a big part of what makes America so successful. To say Israel is anything less than our greatest ally -- especially in the Middle East -- is to be less than clear-eyed or honest.

Yet, despite all this, the Bible says that eventually Israel will stand completely alone and friendless against the entire world.

Where's America?

I believe these are dangerous days for the United States. Paul predicts that, in the last days, "perilous times" will come. He also describes what I believe will be the condition of the world's most Christian nation in those days. Here is his portrait: "...men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving (one translation says 'without natural affection'), unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power...."

If I didn't know better, I would say Paul had just spent the evening watching network television (and flipping over occasionally to MSNBC). Could you paint a better picture of America at this very moment?

Jesus even described the Western church in these days. He said, "Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing' -- and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked...." He also declared that since we were so self-absorbed and influenced by the world's decadence that we would be neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm. And that made Jesus nauseous.

So, now I can see why Israel will be completely alone in the future. America won't matter anymore.

However, though God's People will face terrible times in the future, they will not be completely abandoned. Jesus Himself will return to fight for them. And for those of us who have accepted the pardon He died to purchase? The news is even better. We won't be here for those terrible times. You see, we will be where Jesus is because He will snatch us away before those troubles begin.

As we say in Texas, if that ain't Good News, I don't know what is!