This Week's 66/40 Radio Broadcast

Articles and Commentary

• Tisha B'Av and Sovereignty On The Temple Mount - (Read)
• The Expertise of the NOC Heads - (Read)
• How Can We Prove that God Loves Us? Part 1 - (Read)

Important News Headlines

TISHA B'AV AND SOVEREIGNTY ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT - (Print)

All public transportation silenced, all restaurants closed in Jerusalem on Monday evening as the sun set. The Hebrew day of great tragedies, Tisha b'Av, fell at sundown. In remembrance, tens of thousands of Jews gathered at the Western Wall to pray and petition the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.

Tisha b'Av is simply Hebrew for the 9th day of the month of Av, and it completes the Three Weeks of mourning that began with the Fast of Tammuz. Many disasters have befallen the Jews on the 9th of Av throughout history. According to Jewish tradition, this was the day that God told the Children of Israel they were prohibited from entering the Promised Land because of disbelief. They were forced to wander in the desert forty more years until that adult generation had died out. That tragic day was just the beginning…

On the 9th of Av in:

• 586 BC, Solomon's Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and the Babylonian captivity began;
• AD 70, the Second Temple, which stood during Christ's ministry, was destroyed by the Romans precisely as Jesus predicted in Luke 19;
• AD 135, the famous Bar Kokhba revolt was squelched when Bethar, the last Jewish stronghold, fell to the Romans;
• AD 136, the Roman Emperor Hadrian established a heathen temple to Jupiter on the site of the Jewish Temple. Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem as a pagan city, and renamed the land as Palestina, to distance its Jewish heritage. The date when the Temple area was plowed under by the Romans was the 9th of Av.

The day has continued to be associated with grief for the Jewish people throughout history. For example, Pope Urban II declared the Crusades on the 9th of Av in 1242. The Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 on this day, and in 1942, the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto were mass deported to the Treblinka extermination camp in Poland. Thus the 9th of Av, Tisha B'Av, has become a symbol of all the persecutions and misfortunes of the Jewish people, for the loss of their national independence and their sufferings in exile. Above all, it is a day of intense mourning for the destruction of the Temple.

The Temple Mount:
This week, Jews look toward the Temple Mount with even more longing than normal. Israel has technically controlled the Temple Mount since the Six-Day War in 1967, but the Waqf, a Muslim council, manages the site, which is noticeably dominated by the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.   Israeli law is supposed to protect free access to the site, but the Israeli government enforces a ban on any non-Muslim prayer on the Temple Mount in order to avoid Muslim riots.   Tuesday morning three Jews were removed from the area after allegedly "trying to cause a provocation" (which could have just included praying there), and the Temple Mount was closed to visitors at 11am.

But while Israel enforces the prayer ban and the Waqf's oversight, there is still a deeply felt belief in the Knesset that Israel has greater legitimate rights to the Temple Mount than do the Muslims. In the Knesset on the 9th of Av a year ago, Dr. Mordechai Keidar commented on the lack of a Palestinian connection to the Temple Mount, saying:

"Jerusalem does not appear in the Koran, not even once, not even in any one of the four different names the city has in Arabic. The struggle for Jerusalem is not territorial, it's theological. Is Judaism still a relevant religion, or do we give in to the Muslim claim that Judaism is no longer relevant? And that's why we heard from PA official Saeb Erekat not long ago that they will not recognize the State of Israel as a Jewish state even in 1000 years. Why is this? Because Judaism in their eyes is irrelevant, so how could a Jewish state be founded?"

Keidar also noted that the Palestinians are not moderate on the issue of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, but claim it as their own. He held up a PLO traditional garment, which bore the words, "Jerusalem is ours."

Tuesday, Likud party lawmaker Danny Danon toured the Temple Mount with an armed police escort. "There is full religious freedom for Jews and Muslims on the Temple Mount," Danon said. "But it is more difficult for the Jew than the Muslim to go and pray on the Temple Mount. This is a distortion that must be corrected."   He added, "If Jews want to go and pray on the Temple Mount then they should be allowed to do it."

Not all Jews want people flooding the Temple Mount, however.  Nobody is certain exactly where the Holy of Holies was located, and these faithful Jews do not want the unwitting visitor to tread on that spot.  Worshipers must first be cleansed with the ashes of the red heifer, as required in Numbers 19, before Jews can worship freely in the Temple area.

East Jerusalem and the Temple Mount have been points of major contention in past efforts to negotiate a two-state agreement. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem, and the Jews do not want to give up this location that is so precious to Judaism.  The world would never expect the Muslims to hand over control of the Kaaba in Mecca in order to keep peace, but the Jews are not free to worship on their holiest site because they fear Muslim violence.

A Day of Mourning.... And Future Joy
Tisha b'Av is indeed a day of mourning. It is marked with sadness and fasting from food and drink.  Observant Jews avoid bathing or washing clothes or enjoying entertainment like music or movies, and the Book of Lamentations is traditionally read both in the evening and during the day.   On this day the Jews are reminded of their tragic history. 

Yet, this day is also expressly linked with Israel's glorious destiny.  The Jews also look forward to the ultimate rebuilding of the Temple, to a time when Tisha b'Av will become a day of joy and gladness (as it was foretold in Zechariah 8:19).

We do know that the Temple will be rebuilt because Jesus, John, and Paul all make reference to it (Matt 24:15; Rev 11:1, 2; 2 Thess 2:4). But we also know that this Temple will be desecrated by the Coming World Leader when he sets himself up to be worshiped (2 Thess 2:3-4). It is possible this prophetic event will also take place on Tisha b'Av - and may happen in the not-too-distant future.

Related Links:

THE EXPERTISE OF THE NOC HEADS - (Print)

On May 22, President Obama signed an executive order approving the assembly of a seven-member team, the National Oil Commission (NOC), to investigate and make recommendations regarding the BP Horizon/Gulf Oil Spill disaster that began with an oil rig explosion in April. According to the NY Daily News, Barack Obama declared, "Because there has never been a leak this size at this depth, stopping it has tested the limits of human technology. That's why just after the rig sank, I assembled a team of our nation's best scientists and engineers to tackle this challenge."

Oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico from April 20 to July 15, 2010.  Perhaps the NOC team members could have been sent in scuba gear down to the wellhead with a two ton egg of silly putty.   Perhaps Obama should have accepted the help of at least some of the 13 nations who offered immediate cleanup assistance so that oil would not ooze onto the shores of Louisiana. (The countries were Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom). Now that the well is capped, however, the NOC team members want to do their part for America's future.

The National Oil Commission, co-chaired by former chief of the EPA William K. Reilly and former Florida Senator Bob Graham, follows the examples set by similar federal-appointed committees of the past, such as those assigned to report on the 9/11 and Challenger Space Shuttle tragedies. On July 12th and 13th, the commission held their first public meeting in New Orleans to discuss their objectives and to allow a public forum for business owners and concerned residents. The same week, the Obama administration offered a revised moratorium on deep oil drilling meant to replace earlier moratoriums that have been turned down by court rulings in the past six months. The current ban would lift November 30th of this year.

Media coverage and the public have voiced the same questions to the National Oil Commission: Do the Commission members have any qualifications for inspecting oil well operations? Do they have any expertise in the oil industry? And what will become of the unemployed workers and decimated industries of the Gulf?

The NOC Mission:
The NOC is charged with a three-fold mission, according to CNN, to: "determine why the oil rig exploded; make recommendations about preventing similar disasters; and determine whether offshore oil and gas drilling should continue." With this intelligentsia team's starting line-up, however, they seem much more qualified to analyze the impact of the leak rather than its causes, and are likely to heartily recommend shutting down the wells.

Andrea Tanteros of the New York Daily News expressed a common criticism of Obama's oil-spill panel in her June 17th article, "Obama's bogus blue-ribbon panel" when she wrote, "Relevant experience aside, how can we expect a fair reading of the facts when the seven wiseheads have a predetermined negative opinion on big oil - and will likely try to assign blanket wrong across the industry for the actions of one bad actor, BP?"

So, who made it onto the team?

The NOC Members:
The seven people appointed to the Oil Commission are definitely smart people with excellent credentials in a variety of areas.

William K. Reilly was Chief of the Environmental Protection Agency under George H. W. Bush and helped investigate and comment on the Exxon-Valdez oil spill. He has a BA in History from Yale, a law degree from Harvard, and a Master's in urban planning from Columbia University. Among other accomplishments, he has served as the President of the Conservation Foundation and President of the World Wildlife Fund (both now merged under the WWF).

Bob Graham, Democrat from Florida, retired from the Senate in 2005 with an 83% approval rating. He has a Bachelor of Law from Harvard, and he was a finalist for running mate for John Kerry during the 2004 race. He is also current Chairman of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism. While on the Senate, he established the government-funded Save the Everglades program and helped the state to purchase thousands of acres of land for environmental protection purposes.

That's all great stuff, but what does any of it have to do with stopping future oil spills?

Frances Beinecke of New York is president of the Natural Resources Defense Council. She earned a Master's from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Frances Ulmer was the first female Lieutenant Governer of Alaska and served as a Democratic governor for 18 years, and is now chancellor of the University of Alaska-Anchorage. She holds a JD from the University of Wisconsin Law School and has been a member of the North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission, the Federal Communications Commission's State and Local Advisory Committee, and the Federal Elections Commissions Committee. (Let's repeat... commissions committees.)

Donald Boesch is a professor of Marine Science,Vice-Chancellor for Environmental Sustainability at the University of Maryland, and president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences, which advises public agencies and more on environmental matters.

Cherry Murray is Dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and in 2002 made Discover Magazine's "50 Most Important Women in Science." She earned a PhD in physics from MIT. Among her specialties are experimentation with light scattering and photonic behavior.

Terry Garcia of Washington, DC, is the executive vice president for mission programs for the National Geographic Society. His father emigrated from Spain, and Garcia was raised in Florida. He helped to carry out the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Restoration Plan for Prince William Sound and Gulf of Alaska while with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (Finally, a bit of relevant experience!)

As NPR's Greg Allen reported on July 13th, "[Louisiana Senator] Landrieu had been skeptical of the commission's make up, because it included no one with hands-on oil and gas industry experience. Yesterday she said she was encouraged by the fact that it hired a former Shell VP as a key commission advisor."

Richard Sears:
That former Shell VP is Richard Sears, a highly-revered geophysicist who for years was an offshore drilling expert and engineer for Royal Dutch Shell and has written and spoken widely on the subject of ultra-deepwater offshore drilling. He is now a visiting scientist at MIT and is affiliated with MIT Energy Initiative, the goal of which is to "help transform the global energy system to meet the needs of the future and to help build a bridge to that future by improving today's energy systems."

Still, Sears may not be the oil company's best friend. His current area of interest is to focus on finding alternative, carbon-free energy sources. He says that oil's use as an energy source peaked in 2007 and is now on a much-needed decline. He's referred to as a "gamechanger" at LeadingEnergyNow, which helps businesses to retrofit fixtures to be more energy efficient and thus more eco-friendly.  He's spoken on "Planning for the End of Oil."

Media critics underline that this exploratory and advisory committee seemingly contains no members who have expertise in building or operating oil rigs. President Obama claims that the purpose of the commission is to discover the cause of the leak and to stop and prevent such leaks in future; and therefore - it would seem - should have employed oil rig engineers and those who specialize in the actual physical construction of the rigs. His appointees are intelligent, well-qualified folks for environmental study.  But,  we already know the effect of spilled oil on the environment: disastrous and deadly. What we need to know is how it happened and how it could have been prevented.

Apparently President Obama wants to stop future leaks through the Richard Sears method, by de-carbonizing our energy systems and looking to alternative energy sources altogether.

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HOW CAN WE PROVE THAT GOD LOVES US? PART 1 - (Print)

[This article has been excerpted from Nancy Missler's book The Way Of Agape, which explores the love that God has for us and the love that God can give us for each other.]

It is critical to know God loves us, not just in our heads, but in our every day life experience. We need to know God loves us "experientially" so that no matter what happens to us circumstantially, emotionally or physically, the security of His Love is always there.

We also need to have the assurance of His Love in order to move ahead in our Christian walk. Not knowing if He loves us or not, will hinder our being able to-moment-by-moment-surrender our wills and our lives to Him and love others as He desires.

"Okay, Nancy," you might say, "Prove it to me that God loves me personally. I don't feel it. I don't see it. I don't hear Him. So, how can I know and believe it's true? What proof do I have?" One person even said to me years ago, "Nancy, God's Love is a gift that only some people receive, not all of us are that lucky." Well, I believe she's wrong. I believe we are all that lucky, and I believe, with the Holy Spirit's help, I can prove it! In this short article, I would like to focus on four major reasons why we can "know" that God loves us personally:

God's Word:
1) The first reason we can know that God loves us individually, is because He says so in His Word. Listen:

"Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness I have drawn thee." - Jeremiah 31:3

"Since you are precious in my sight...and I have loved thee...Fear not: for I am with you."  - Isaiah 43:4-5

"As the Father has loved Me [Jesus], so have I loved you."  - John 15:9

"Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God."  -1 John 3:1

These are just a few of the many Scriptures that tells us that God loves us personally. At the end of this article, I have listed some further Scriptures on His Love. Since God's Word is the Truth, we need to believe and trust in what He says .

An Example: Discovering God's Love:
Let me share a beautiful example of someone who learned not only how much God loved her, but also went on to experiencing God loving others through her.

Linda was brought up in a church that taught that God was a God of Righteousness, Justice and Judgment - not a God of Love, but One to be feared. (The truth is, of course, that God is a God not only of Righteousness, Justice and Judgment, but also of Love, Mercy and Compassion.)

Therefore, when Linda's personal life began to fall apart, she found no consolation from a God of Justice and Holiness. She needed Someone who personally loved her and cared for her. Finally, one of her friends (from another church) showed her from Scripture, that God is a God not only of Holiness, Justice and Righteousness, but also a God of Love, Compassion, Forgiveness and Mercy. He told her that God not only loved her and would forgive her for all her transgressions, but that He also wanted to heal her and fill her with His Love so that she could pass it on to others.

Linda could hardly believe what she was hearing; it was too wonderful to even comprehend. Was God really like this? Did He really love her like that? Could she really learn to love others with His Love?

The first few weeks after that conversation, Linda tried to believe in a God who unconditionally loved her. Each time she chose to step out in faith, however, the old nagging doubts came rushing back in and the overwhelming fear of condemnation and guilt consumed her.

She finally ended up - out of pure desperation - writing down all of God's promises of Love in the Bible (like the list at the end of this article) on 3x5 index cards, and carrying these cards with her wherever she went (in her pocket, in her purse or in her car).

When the doubts, unbelief, and the enemy's taunts came in, she quickly confessed and repented of them, whipped out those cards, and read out loud how much God loved her. Finally, she chose to step out in faith and believe what God's Word said. Even though she didn't "feel" anything yet, she persevered by faith and God honored her obedience by eventually aligning her feelings with her choice.

In His timing and way, she began to have "living experience" that God did, indeed, love her. And, upon that solid foundation, she was able to continue her walk with God and learn to love others.

Linda, to me, is a perfect example of a Christian who believed in God, but didn't have living experience that He loved her. Therefore, she was not able to move forward in her Christian walk.

The Christian walk is a faith walk, not a feeling walk.

Can't Move Forward:
It doesn't matter how long you have been a Christian, how many people you have led to the Lord, how many Scriptures you have memorized, or how many Bible studies you have taught. If you don't know that God loves you personally, you're not going to be able to grow.

If you have difficulty really believing and intimately experiencing this in your own life (just like Linda did), then see the Scriptures on Knowing God Loves Me at the end of this article. Make up 3x5 cards, just like Linda did. Keep these cards with you at all times-in your car, in your purse, on the mirror in the bathroom, etc. Then, when doubts, fears, unbelief, insecurities, etc., come over you, whip out those cards, confess and repent of the things that are not of faith and give them to God. Then choose by faith - not by feelings - to believe what God says and in His timing, He will align your feelings to match your choices.

Additional Scriptures on God's Love:
He loves us so much that, "He bowed the heavens also, and came down." (Psalm 18:9)

And, "He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters." (Psalm 18:16)

He loves us so much that, He has engraved us upon the palms of His hand. (Isaiah 49:16)

He loves us so much that, He will never leave us or forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5)

"For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed; but my [Love]* shall not depart from thee, neither shall my covenant of peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee." (Isaiah 54:10)

"As the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His [Love]* towards them that fear Him." (Psalm 103:11)

"Many are the afflictions of the righteous. But the Lord delivers them out of them all. He keepeth all his bones; not a one of them is broken." (Psalm 34:19-20)

"When you pass through the waters (trouble) I will be with you; and through the rivers, they won't overflow you; when you walk through the fire, you won't be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord...You are precious in My sight and I LOVE YOU..." (Isaiah 43:2-4)

"God commendeth His Love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son." (John 3:16)

"...having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end." (John 13:1)

"What shall separate us from the Love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord." (Romans 8:35, 38-39)


[Tune in next week for Part 2 in "How Can We Prove that God Loves Us?"...]

* The Hebrew word here is chesed which can be translated, "mercy", "kindness", "lovingkindness", "goodness", and "favor".

Related Links:

S. Korea and US Exercise Meant To Discourage Pyongyang - July 20, 2010
The four-day exercise, in the Sea of Japan (East Sea), will involve 20 ships, 200 planes and 8,000 personnel. The announcement came as defence chief Robert Gates visited South Korea in a show of support for the US ally. On Wednesday he and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit the demilitarised zone dividing the Koreas. Ties between the two Koreas have deteriorated significantly following the 26 March sinking of a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, with the loss of 46 sailors. BBC News

Dreaming of the Third Temple - July 20, 2010
On Tisha B'Av, Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau speaks to Haaretz about the Temple Mount, the Gaza disengagement and secularism, saying: "It says in a Mishnah in the fifth chapter of 'Pirkei Avot': 'May the temple be rebuilt soon and in our days.' That's one thing. The second thing is that all the Prophets spoke about the fact that [the Temple] had been destroyed by fire and would be rebuilt in fire in the future. Of all the prophecies of calamity that took place and everything [the Prophets] said, none of their words fell to the ground. That's also the way to understand their prophesies about consolation..." Haaretz

Israeli Missile Defense System Passes Tests - July 19, 2010
The Iron Dome defense system provides a complete solution to all rocket threats to Israel from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, Yossi Drucker, director of Rafael's Iron Dome project, told Israel Radio on Tuesday. Drucker said that Iron Dome had exceeded the defense establishment's original expectations for the anti-missile system. He also specifically stated that Iron Dome could be used to protect Sderot from incoming Palestinian rocket attacks. The Jerusalem Post and AP

Positive ID Axes the Verichip That Nobody Wanted - July 15, 2010
PositiveID (PSID) CEO Scott Silverman says his company has stopped marketing its medical records microchip implant for humans. The reason: No one wants it. The news came not in an investor relations press release or an 8-K filing with the SEC, but in a Florida Trend magazine feature on the company formerly known as VeriChip. BNet

Eugenics And Darwinism's Dark Side - July 02, 2010
Between 1934 and 1939, in the interests of evolutionary hygiene, the eugenic program in Nazi Germany forcibly sterilized about 400,000 people. At the time, another government was also busy sterilizing citizens it deemed racially unhygienic. In the first half of the 20th century, the US sterilized 60,000 Americans, to which California contributed a very robust 20,000. One of the more haunting features of an excellent new cable documentary coming out this summer, 'What Hath Darwin Wrought?', is the setting where many of its interviews with scholars were conducted: the grounds of the old Stockton State Hospital in Stockton, California. Documentary Website: http://www.whathathdarwinwrought.com/ The Huffington Post

Jesus Didn't Tap - June 24, 2010
"Jesus is the only one that truly didn't tap. They say, 'Oh, he was nailed to the cross so he couldn't tap.' Well, you can verbally tap, you can verbally cry, 'I quit! I give up!' That's not what he did. He got crucified for all our sins," said Frank, a sixth-degree black belt and rising mixed-martial-arts star. After several years portraying Tommy Oliver in the Power Ranger series and movies, Frank was hit with tragedy in 2001, when his older brother Eric died. People told him to find comfort in God, and he did, joining a church in Van Nuys, Calif. "To me, he's the true champion, he's the only champion," Frank said. "So when you're in there and you're holding a UFC belt or whatever championship belt you hold in your state, there's really only one true champion whose been through like enduring pain, and that's Jesus." The Houston Chronicle

"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32

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