As Israel strikes back, fake Gaza images dominate social media

A BBC report has found that many of the photographs used to illustrate the situation in Gaza are from years ago, and even from the conflicts in Iraq and Syria.

Aryeh Savir, Tazpit News Agency

Latest Update:  07.08.14, 21:10 / Israel News

Reposted via http://servehiminthewaiting.com/

A significant part of any battle nowadays is waged in the media, as each sides tries to garner public support through the exploit of images and footage used to influence popular opinion.

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A report by the BBC shows that Palestinian supporters are using fake images to illustrate the suffering in Gaza.

"Graphic images are being shared on social media to show how people have been affected by the renewed tensions between Israel and the Palestinians," the BBC reported.

"Over the past week the hashtag #GazaUnderAttack has been used hundreds of thousands of times, often to distribute pictures claiming to show the effects of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza."

The hashtag has received 375,000 retweets in eight days.

The network found that several graphic photos, that spread through social media proporting to show killed Gazans and destruction caused by IAF strikes in recent days, were actually photos taken several years ago, some of which in other war areas like Syria and Iraq.

"BBC Trending," a show that examines trends in social media, checked the veracity of widely spread photos on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram with the hashtag #GazaUnderAttack.


Over 300,000 posts were made under that hashtag. In one case, a picture of a neighborhood being bombarded was posted with the caption "This happened today in gaza while ramadhan.Our prayers always be w you. Israel is the real terrorist! (sic)"

But a BBC investigation found that the photo was taken during an IAF strike in 2009 in Beit Lahia during Operation Cast Lead.

In another instance, a photo of blooding children was posted with the caption "This is not a matter of religion. This is a matter of humanity."

According to the BBC, the photo was taken in Aleppo in Syria and not in Gaza. Another photo in the same post was taken in Iraq in 2007.

The British broadcaster also spoke to one of the posters who shared a photo under the #GazaUnderAttack, even though the photo was taken in Syria. "I deleted one of my posts that has the image in there," she said. "It's disappointing that images get shared quite quickly. I guess that's the different between the internet and credible newspaper publisher where pictures are from a source."

A Ynet examination found that photos that are not from the IDF's current Gaza operation are still being shared on Twitter.

A search of the hashtag found a photo of two men rescuring a boy severely wounded in IAF bombings with the caption "The world is silent as Israel wipes out Gaza with airstrikes. Another kid, one of many, says goodbye." with the #GazaUnderAttack hashtag.

But a search of Google Images found the photo was taken in 2012 during Operation Pillar of Defense. The boy in the photo was killed along with his family in an Air Force attack.

Hamas has used this tactic in the past too. Tazpit's Anav Silverman reported in 2012 that during Operation Pillar of Defense, the militant organization used fake images of Gaza with false headlines, inciting a flurry of comments on Facebook against Israel.

The photos were of massacres that occurred in Syria the previous month, but were depicted as massacres of Gazan families by the IDF. Other such incidents reoccur persistently.

Ynet contributed to this report.

The Glazov Gang - Jamie Glazov Interview

The mega church culture: A toxic export

Reposted from http://www.wnd.com/ 

Published: 12 hours ago

Joshua Charles 

 I’m in the home stretch of my nearly month-long trip to the Middle East, and my heart is heavy and my mind contemplative. To say that this research expedition has been life-changing would be an understatement, and it still isn’t over.
One of the greatest privileges I have had here is to meet with local Christians. The Middle Eastern church has its own issues, just like we in America do, but actually meeting and fellowshiping with them has been extremely enlightening.

The greatest question that comes to mind (at least at the moment) after these meetings is “what kind of ‘church’ is America exporting?” The church in the Middle East (speaking specifically of Jordan) is heavily influenced by the Western church, particularly the American church, far more than I realized. For instance, ministries receive millions of dollars despite the relative lack of growth. According to some local Christians we met with, those ministries spend millions, send back reports, use anything they can to show how “effective” they are, and use local Christians as, in their word, “trophies” to testify to their supposed effectiveness, and thus justifying why they should continue to receive millions more. 

According to them, ministries such as these, despite the best of intentions, have transformed the Church into a corporation, an organization, rather than the Body of Christ made up of the people of God bound together by familial ties.
Additionally, these same Christians are very concerned that these ministries bring a particularly American brand of Christianity. What does that mean? In addition to a more corporatized vision of what “church” is, they bring with them several other things (according to them): theological superficiality, an inability to speak honestly about sin (better not to bring it up) and naiveté about both the region and the culture. One of them called this the “mega church culture.”

Does any of this sound familiar?
They should, for these are, unfortunately, many of the defining characteristics of a large and growing portion of the “church” in America: a corporation based on an organizational structure that does not survive without lots of money, and at the same oftentimes lack precisely what Christians should excel at – being the FAMILY of God!
Many of these Jordanian Christians had visited the United States and preached there. They have a deep love for the United States and the American people. According to them, “Americans are the nicest people in the world.” But that does not allay their grave concerns both for the American church, as well as the vision of “church” it exports around the world.

According to one pastor who was incredibly gracious and hospitable in welcoming us into his home, a man of great wisdom and love, “In American you can’t talk about sin! What is the gospel even for if there is no sin?” This came from a man in a Muslim country, in which Christians and Muslims live relatively peacefully, but on the condition that Christians don’t share the Gospel. The question struck deep. He then followed it up with his own opinion of what the corporatized, organization-centric vision of “church” in America has done to us. The words that followed eerily reverberated with a palpable sense of undeniable truth: “In the United States, the church is very busy doing activities. LOTS of activities, people going here and there and everywhere. But where is the presence of God?”

I could not answer him, and I literally had tears well up in my eyes, because I knew what he was saying was true. Was he saying every American church? No. Was he saying every self-described American Christian? Of course not. He even emphasized that the Jordanian church had its own problems, and they were by no means perfect. But his words were true, and they reminded me of a story a mentor once told me. He used to work at a huge ministry most would instantly recognize. When he visited the corporate offices of this ministry, he saw something in the lobby that shocked him: They had come up with a formula by which they determined that by donating a certain amount of money, someone could literally “save” a particular number of people. 

 And I think that is precisely what our Jordanian brothers and sisters were trying to warn us about – we have made ministry, “church” and evangelization into a formula – something ultimately independent of God and whose success is based entirely on whether we execute the right methods, the right tools of manipulation and marketing, rather than whether God is with us or not. In the meantime, we lose perhaps the most precious aspect of daily Christian life: the sense of family with other Christians. We replace family with organizational membership. And to this, the Jordanian pastor asked us perhaps the most ominous question of all: “And what will happen when persecution comes? What will happen when your organizations come crashing down under the brunt of persecution? Will you have true Christian family to turn to?”

This sense of family has not been forgotten by our Jordanian brethren. In praying for us as we left an amazing night of fellowship, they prayed: “Dear dad, we love you so much. And we thank you for this precious gift of new family from the other side of the world now brought near to us.” Organizations change, corporations come and go, but family is forever. No wonder Jesus and all the Apostles referred to the people of God in familial terms.

Meeting with our Jordanian brethren also brought home both how many myths there are about this part of the world, but also how truly dangerous it is at the same time. There are lots of concerning things taking place, but there are also many good, loving and generous people as well. God has planted his seeds even in the darkest of places, and for this reason we still can and must hope. One young man I met, a brilliant apologist with a premier apologetics ministry, left me with this exhortation for American Christians, particularly the young: “Research. Don’t fall for the headlines. Ponder, meditate and think. It is your Christian duty to be knowledgeable and wise about the world around you. Don’t forget that.”
Amen.

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D.L. Moody on "Stony Ground Hearers"

By STLloyd July 4, 2014 D.L. Moody

Posted via  servehiminthewaiting.com 

“When a man is not deeply convicted of sin, it is a pretty sure sign that he has not truly repented. Experience has taught me that men who have very slight conviction of sin, sooner or later lapse back into their old life. For the last few years I have been a good deal more anxious for a deep and true work in professing converts than I have for great numbers. If a man professes to be converted without realizing the heinousness of his sins, he is likely to be one of those stony ground hearers who don’t amount to anything. … I believe we are making a woeful mistake in taking so many people into the Church who have never been truly convicted of sin. Sin is just as black in a man’s heart today as it ever was” 

–D.L. Moody, “Results of True Repentance,” from The Overcoming Life and Other Sermons, 1896. (From F.B.I.S. Friday Church News Notes, volume 15, Issue 27)

Mid-East Prophecy Update

Jesus Calling Inspired by a Channeled New Age Book!

January 14th, 2014 | Author: Lighthouse Trails Editors

 

 

God Calling is a book of messages reputedly delivered by Jesus Christ to two women in England in the 1930s.(1) The women referred to themselves as “The Two Listeners,” and the messages they received from “Jesus” were conveyed through an occult process known as spiritual dictation. This is when a spiritual entity conveys information from the spirit world to willing people who act as “channels.”

The Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs published by Harvest House Christian Publishers describes God Calling as a channeled New Age book. It explains that channeling is a form of mediumship and that this practice is expressly forbidden in the Bible (Deuteronomy 18: 9-12).

In the Encyclopedia chapter on channeling, in a section titled “Impersonations and Denials of Christianity,” the reader is warned that God Calling is “replete with denials of biblical teaching.”(2)
Numerous examples are cited. However, in an interview with the the Christian Broadcasting Network, Sarah Young clearly states that her journey into receiving messages from “Jesus” began with her reading of God Calling:

My journey began with a book (God Calling) written in the 1930s by two women who practiced waiting in God’s Presence, writing the messages they received as they “listened.”(3) (parenthesis in original)

In her Introduction to the original 2004 copyrighted edition of Jesus Calling [still on the market today], Sarah Young writes that she was inspired to receive personal messages from “Jesus” after reading God Calling. She describes God Calling as “a treasure to me” and emphasizes that her journey began with this channeled New Age book:

During that same year [1992], I began reading God Calling, a devotional book written by two anonymous “listeners.” These women practiced waiting quietly in God’s Presence, pencils and paper in hand, recording the messages they received from Him . . . [T]his little paperback became a treasure to me. It dove-tailed remarkably well with my longing to live in Jesus’ Presence.
The following year I began to wonder if I, too, could receive messages during my times of communing with God . . . I knew that God communicated with me through the Bible, but I yearned for more. Increasingly,  I wanted to hear what God had to say to me personally on a given day. I decided to listen to God with pen in hand, writing down whatever I believed He was saying.(4) (emphasis added)

Because of Sarah Young’s endorsement, God Calling has resurfaced in Christian bookstores and is now a popular “Christian” book in its own right. It is grievous that as a longstanding Christian, Sarah Young did not discern God Calling for what it is—an occult/metaphysical book filled with false teachings and advocating a number of spiritually dangerous New Age practices like channeling and spiritual dictation. Instead, she began to channel her own messages from “Jesus”—many of them with serious New Age implications. Now Jesus Calling and God Calling—often sitting side by side in Christian bookstores and other retail outlets—are bringing meditation, channeling, spiritual dictation, and New Age terminology into the church. Both of them with messages similarly arranged as a Christian devotional.  
           

Notes:
1. Two Listeners; Edited by A.J. Russell, God Calling (Grand Rapids, MI: A Spire Book published by Jove Publications Inc., for Fleming H. Revell, 2005), p. 5.
2.  John Ankerberg & John Weldon, Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1996), pp. 80, 103-104.
3. Q&A with Sarah Young, Author Profile, The Christian Broadcasting Network (http:www.cbn.com/entertainment/books/JesusCallingQA.aspx).
4. Sarah Young, Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2004), pp. Xl-Xll
To understand more about Jesus Calling and God Calling, read “Another Jesus” Calling by Warren S. Smith.

Posted in Book/Film Reviews, Book/Music Excerpts, Contemplative Practices, Contemplative Spirituality, New Age movement, Spiritual Deception, The New (False) Spirituality | Tags: "another jesus" calling, channeling, deception, emerging church, god calling, jesus calling, mysticism, New Age, sarah young, thomas nelson, Warren B. Smith

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Spurgeon, Faith's Checkbook, "It Will Not Be Long"

Reblogged from The end Time
"Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." (James 5:8)

Spurgeon: "The last word in the Canticle of love is, "Make haste, my beloved," and among the last words of the Apocalypse we read, "The Spirit and the Bride say, Come"; to which the heavenly Bridegroom answers, "Surely I come quickly." Love longs for the glorious appearing of the Lord and enjoys this sweet promise - "The coming of the Lord draweth nigh." This stays our minds as to the future. We look out with hope through this window."

"This sacred "window of agate" lets in a flood of light upon the present and puts us into fine condition for immediate work or suffering. Are we tired? Then the nearness of our joy whispers patience. Are we growing weary because we do not see the harvest of our seed-sowing? Again this glorious truth cries to us, "Be patient." Do our multiplied temptations cause us in the least to waver? Then the assurance that before long the Lord will be here preaches to us from this text, "Stablish your hearts." Be firm, be stable, be constant, "stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." Soon will you hear the silver trumpet which announces the coming of your King. Be not in the least afraid. Hold the fort, for He is coming; yea, He may appear this very day."

Can The Elect Be Deceived?

Reblogged from Grace Thru Faith  

A. Let’s clarify that Matt. 24:24 describes the time of the Great Tribulation after the Church is gone, so the”very elect” the Lord was referring to are Tribulation believers, not the Church.

But since you asked, I believe the history of the Church reveals a pretty dismal record of falling for the various false doctrines that come along.  Right from the beginning the heresy called Gnosticism threatened the Church’s very existence.  Then came the Roman Church with its post-millennial and a-millennial eschatology, its grace plus works plan of salvation, the sale of indulgences, purgatory, etc.  After that we had the mainline denominations who bought into the Documentary Hypothesis, the Theory of Evolution, and Modern Rationalism.  Now there’s Replacement Theology, Dominion Theology, the Prosperity Gospel, the Emerging Church and the heresy filled circuses we call revival. And don’t get me started on Christian TV.

I could go on and on but you get the idea. These were all introduced by the church’s leaders, the men entrusted with the care of the flock.  So I’d say large components of the Church have been and are being deceived on a pretty regular basis.

I think the Lord was saying that the purveyors of religion during Daniel’s 70th week will be so slick they’ll put all who came before them to shame, and if the Church was still on Earth, many of us would be deceived.  The reason it’s not possible is that we won’t be here.

We all have a pulpit. How do we use it?

Reblogged from The End Time

---

I read an interesting list of points an author made about John Bunyan's conversion. John Bunyan was the writer of Pilgrim's Progress, a book many say is the greatest book ever written, apart from the bible. It is without doubt a literary masterpiece. It has stood the test of time since its publication in 1678. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of religious English literature in history. And the man who wrote it was raised as an atheist.

In Geoff Thomas' essay titled "John Bunyan," Mr Thomas wrote,

"John Bunyan had no family influences encouraging him to become a Christian. ... In June 1644 when he was 16 his mother passed away and four weeks later his sister died. Eight weeks after his mother’s death his father remarried and in 8 months his wife gave birth to a boy whom his Royalist father named ‘Charles’. Four months earlier John had left home and had joined the Parliamentary Army fighting against King Charles. There was little affection between son and father. How then did John Bunyan become a Christian? There were ten factors which all played their part, great and small:"

One of these factors caught my attention-

Bunyan was stirred by the godly conversation of Christians.
He would work in Bedford and eat his bread with some Christian women who tailored their conversation for his ears. They talked of their own sin, the new birth, and the love of Christ. Bunyan listened intently and later wrote, ‘They spoke as if joy was making them speak. They were to me as if they had found a new world,’ and he often sought them out and sat with them.

'they tailored their conversation for his ears.' How important it is, to speak of Jesus in truth for known hearers and unknown hearers! The women must have seen the Spirit working in Bunyan, and they made a choice to and selflessly not speak of the carnal or mundane or the personal, but of the joy of His grace!

They were living this:

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (Colossians 4:6)

Gill's Exposition says,

"let grace be the subject matter of your speech and conversation. When saints meet together they should converse with each other about the work of grace upon their souls, how it was begun, and how it has been carried on, and in what case it now is; they should talk of the great things and wonders of grace, which God has done for them, which would be both comfortable and edifying to them, and make for the glory of the grace of God"

Jason L. Sanders wrote this week,

Preachers Aren’t The Only Ones With Pulpits

Parents carry a pulpit with them. And from it, thousands of times a day, we preach a sermon to our kids. Whether the sermon is a good one or a bad one, we can be sure of this one thing.

Whether we are preachers exhorting in church, parents teaching our children, or two simple Puritan Christian ladies serving lunch to an obviously tortured soul, we have the privilege and the responsibility to speak 'as if joy was making us speak.'

What glory it brings the Lord when we intentionally speak of the riches of His grace. Hearers known and unknown to us, Christian and perishing, listen to us and our Spirit-carried words,

For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. (2 Corinthians 2:16)

For John Bunyan, the ladies' words were the aroma of life to life ('he often sought them out and sat with them'). Therefore season your conversation with love, joy, and salt, and watch with admiration and joy where He carries your words. For we all have a pulpit.

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:36)

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