Archaeologists Discover Ancient Biblical City of Ziklag

The Israeli Antiquities Authority, Hebrew University in Jerusalem and Macquarie University of Sydney, Australia, have announced the discovery of what they believe is the biblical city of Ziklag, the Philistine city in which according to the Bible the young David took refuge from King Saul.

Ziklag is mentioned in the Bible multiple times in relationship to David, who the Bible states received sanctuary in the city along with his army, with the permission of Achish, King of Gat. The site is also believed to be the place from which David left to journey to Hebron, where he was anointed King of Israel and ruled for seven years before ascending to Jerusalem. Later on, Ziklag is mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah as a center for Jews returning from the Babylonian exile.

Over the years of archaeological searches for the city, numerous alternative locations were proposed but none met all the required criteria. The excavations at the current site, called Khirbet a-Ra'i, began in 2015 and uncovered some 10,700 square feet in the Judean foothills between Kiryat Gat and Lachish, according to the press release put out by the IAA and the Hebrew University.

Researchers say the location is unique because it contains evidence of continuous settlement, including signs of a Philistine community and King David-era Jewish settlement, in keeping with the required criteria for Ziklag. Moreover, the site shows evidence of having been destroyed by a massive fire, which is how Jewish Ziklag was brought down at the hands of the Amalekites.

Findings at the site include massive stone structures with bowl- and oil-lamp offerings beneath the floors, consistent with Philistine civilization. Nearly 100 pottery vessels for storing oil and wine, identical to those found in the fortified Judean city of Khirbet Qeiyafa, which has been identified as the biblical city of Sha'arayim, were also located amid evidence of the ancient fire at the site and carbon-dated to the time of King David.

Christian Doctor Could Lose Job for Praying with Patient

A Christian doctor in the United Kingdom who often prayed with his patients is under investigation and could lose his job for the spiritual practice. 

Richard Scott, a 58-year-old general practitioner, often prays with patients who suffer from depression, anxiety or addiction, The Sunday Times reported. 

But the General Medical Council (GMC), an organization that oversees and licenses doctors, is now investigating Scott based on a complaint from a patient who reportedly felt uncomfortable and vulnerable by his praying. NHS England, which leads the National Health Service system, also is investigating him.

“They are kowtowing to aggressive secularism,” he told the newspaper. “Public safety is what they are there for [but] they are suddenly turned it into a big case.” 

Scott serves at Bethesda Medical Centre in the town of Margate, about 80 miles east of London.

The U.K.-based National Secular Society (NSS) had told the General Medical Council in May that a “highly vulnerable” patient felt “discomfort at the use of prayer,” The Telegraph newspaper reported. The NSS complaint said Scott was warned previously about “expressing his religious beliefs in a way that distressed a ‘psychologically troubled’ patient.”

Scott maintains that his actions benefit patients. 

“The NSS is obviously gunning for me – and would like me to lose my job because they don't like me,” he said. “... They think I am irresponsible and dangerous and I would say the same about them.”

A GMC spokesperson said the body has a “duty to investigate.” 

It’s not the first time Scott has made the news for his spiritual practices. The Telegraph, in a 2011 editorial, defended Scott.

“No one maintains that he ever forced religion on anyone, or that his faith ever impeded his ability to dispense medical care,” the editorial said. “... [The Christian faith is central to our country's history and our traditions. Its legacy is visible everywhere. It is right that today, no one expects a person who holds positions of power and responsibility to be a practising Christian. But we appear to be heading towards an alarming situation in which the profession of faith becomes an active disqualification.”

Merging Of Commerce, Religion, Politics - Stepping Stone To Mark Of The Beast?

Every few years attempts are made at removing "In God We Trust" from US currency but, as in other years, the Supreme Court has rejected the most recent case attempting to prove the entanglement of state and religion with currency. In a previous ruling, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Establishment Clause of the Constitution doesn't force the government to purge itself from all religious reflection.

"Precluding general references to God would do exactly that," the federal appeals court ruled.

In Canada, the government has been more than willing to communicate politically correct progressive messages by means of what is being called the "Gay Loonie". Canada's gold-colored $1 coin is affectionately called the "Loonie" from the Loon bird that adorns its cover design.  However, the Canadian mint has now released a commemorative Loonie to mark the 50th anniversary of the decriminalization of gay sex in Canada.

Perhaps recognizing the challenge of how to memorialize legal sodomy on a coin, the Mint opted to celebrate this milestone with a more coy "stylized rendering of two overlapping human faces . . . the two faces will form one whole face in front view composed of two eyes with eyebrows, a nose, a mouth and two ears with a small hoop earring on the left ear."  There are also rays emanating from the men that give the image a "holy aura". No doubt, we are to assume they are rainbow rays.

Conservative Canadian Christians have called the new coin a highly offensive attack against God, and protests were previously set up at the Canadian Mint in Ottawa to try to stop its introduction.  The protesters argue "the politicization of our coinage and the aggressive push of the LGBT agenda on all Canadians needs to stop".

Such political messages on currency remind us of the passages in Revelation 13 which warn us that one day currency and the ability to conduct commerce will be directly related to both religion and politics. Whereas there is a lot of debate about the technology that will be behind the "mark of the beast" such as digital currency, microchip implants, etc., the clear message of Revelation is that this mark is a merging of commerce, religion, and politics.  Only those who worship the Antichrist will get the mark and only those with the mark will be able to buy or sell.

There has been growing concern in the Conservative and Christian community over the potential for blacklisting by the financial community.  Similar to how Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have taken to banning organizations that disagree with their left-leaning policies, we now have credit card services, banks and other financial services under pressure to do the same.  Although MasterCard's board says it is committed to the principle of allowing "all lawful purchases," online payments platform Patreon says that MasterCard asked it to withdraw service from Islam critic Robert Spencer, founder of JihadWatch.org, in August 2018. 

Mastercard also pressured a payment processor to cut off service to the conservative activist and think tank founder/author David Horowitz.  Although this action took place last year, the processor later reinstated service following pressure from Breitbart News and other conservative media. Imagine that you are a store merchant who relies on credit card processing but MasterCard and Visa decline your account for promoting "hate".  Without the ability to process credit cards, you would be out of business overnight. Or your personal PayPal account is shut down for doing business with organizations that PayPal rules to be "extremist".  Realize that the CEO of PayPal has revealed the multi-billion dollar service partners with the leftist organization Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to decide who should be blacklisted from their company. Using "company corporate values" as their defense, PayPal has taken intentional steps to deny access to conservatives.

This is a big concern for Christians because the SPLC has taken an anti-Christian slant in recent years, targeting groups like James Kennedy Ministries and the Family Research Council just because they hold Biblical views about sexuality and life. Such irony! They argue "values" as their defense, all the while denying conservative Christians the same "values" argument.  Crowdfunding services such as GoFundMe have already shown how easy it is to shut down those they disagree with when they closed the account of Christian Rugby player Israel Folau who was raising funds to fight his legal battle with Rugby Australia, having been fired for criticizing homosexuality on Instagram.  Folau's campaign had raised more than $750,000 from several thousand donors before the site closed the account and refunded all donations.

With Facebook now looking at introducing its own digital currency, the Libra... Imagine if the use of such currency were directly linked to your Facebook profile.  If Facebook will ban your posts critical of homosexuality or abortion, will they also ban your ability to use their instrument of commerce?  In other words, you could be restricted in your ability to use this currency based on your religious or political views.   The interesting thing about Facebook's new currency is that unlike Bitcoin, which is an open system, Libra is closed and will be highly gate-kept. Facebook announced the currency in partnership with 27 other major corporations, firms, and non-profits, including Visa, MasterCard, Spotify, Lyft, Uber and eBay.

These Founding Members make up the Libra Association, which will be in charge of processing transactions for the network and maintaining its version of the blockchain. By the coin's tentative launch in 2020, the project hopes to expand to roughly 100 members.  

So, bear in mind: this is not just Facebook but a conglomerate of some of the biggest players in the world, essentially launching its own entirely new monetary system controlled by corporations instead of the government.  This is a very significant development, not unlike China's Social Credit System that monitors and punishes citizens who do not 'toe the line'. 

A centralized network like Libra loses all of the features we associate with cryptocurrencies. The Association will be able to blacklist users they don't want to serve, they will be able to rollback transactions they don't like, and like a bank, they will have total access to all your financial information: who you paid, when you paid, why you paid, and how much you paid.  Given Facebook's reputation for mismanaging user data and its flippant approach to privacy, an understandable concern from the community and even lawmakers has been, "Can we trust Facebook with our money and its related data?"

Many of us can live without Facebook but few of us could live without our credit cards for a week.  Thus far, Mastercard, Visa and most banks have not given into the blacklist pressure, but it is just getting started. An extreme event may be just the catalyst needed to move them to take more drastic action. In fact, following the Hegelian dialectic, they just might provoke that 'extreme event' themselves.

With respect to world religions, only Christianity is being challenged legally. Only Christians and the one true God are being marginalized. Only Christians and the one true God are being isolated. We should expect to see a 'change-up' in these legal challenges in the not-too-distant future as Satan inspires the next step in his tripartite assault: elimination. The elimination of God will effectively be accomplished simply by changing the definition of God, followed by changing His identity. Bible believers know this to be the case as we are plainly forewarned: "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there shall come an apostasy first, and that man of lawlessness be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he, as God, sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." (II Thessalonians 2.3, 4)

Psalm 2 anticipates our present circumstances: "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers (of industry?) take counsel together, against the LORD, and against His Anointed (His Christ) saying, 'Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from  us'." (Psalm 2.2, 3)

So long as it is in the world, the Church is a restraining force in society. It is these "bonds and cords" that provoke the antagonism of the world, not simply because of their restraint, but because of He Who has ordained them, "the Lord's Anointed". For those lacking discernment, those who fail to see the 'change-up' that is to come, they're going to be 'fanned'; their reaction will be a 'swing and a miss'. 

The prophetic merging of commerce, religion and politics is happening slowly and subtly, but surely.  The prophet Habakkuk states it like this: "For still the vision awaits its appointed time; but at the end it shall speak and not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come and will not delay." (Habakkuk 2.3) These societal changes could prove to be some of the most dangerous and prophetic developments of 2019.